#she still erased it but i managed to get a screenshot first

[beneathsilverstars]

my kid drew isabeau btw

[valsverse]

‼️ MY EXPERIENCE WITH @girlkisser13

🚨 HARASSMENT & PLAGIARISM 🚨

i want to address a serious issue that has recently come to light regarding a user in the fanfiction community (@girlkisser13) with a concerning history of plagiarism and ongoing harassment. this situation involves not just the act of stealing someone else's work but also a troubling pattern of aggressive behavior that has surfaced, indicating a lack of accountability and growth. it’s crucial for us writers and fans to stand together against such actions to maintain a supportive and respectful community for all creators. with that being said, read below. transparency is key, so i want to share the full context of this situation, including all relevant screenshots. underlined words/sentences include links to posts that are relevant to the incident, so i encourage you to check them out. (if you've recently received a message from an anonymous user about this situation, click here)

SECTION 1 : The Original Plagiarism Incident + Backstory

on june 3, 2023, i was notified by an anonymous user in my inbox that an account called girlkisser14 (now known as girlkisser13 after deactivating her old account) was plagiarizing my work. she repeatedly lifted sections of my writings and headcanons, merging them into her own posts. (note that i pretty much exclusively write for the percy jackson fandom.) after reaching out to her privately i discovered that i could no longer view her posts. at first, i thought she had taken her account down, but it turned out she had just blocked me. by june 5, 2023, i decided to create a post detailing the situation, which you can read here. shortly after, she contacted me, and we managed to come to a resolution. it seemed like a good opportunity for her to acknowledge her mistakes and learn from them. i updated my original post to reflect that the issue had been resolved. later on, she messaged me saying she couldn’t cope with the backlash. while i’m unsure if she was genuinely receiving hate, i felt sympathy for her situation. she asked me to take down the post, but i declined as accountability is important to me and i didn't feel comfortable with just erasing history. soon after, she deactivated her account.

although she deactivated her original account, she shortly after created a new one. i was notified by a different anon about this because her posts were moved to the new account, and some still included my work—presumably by accident. from that point on, she became known as girlkisser13, which can be confusing given her original username was girlkisser14. initially, she missed a few paragraphs of my work, as mentioned earlier, which prompted me to make a post about it (as seen in screenshot 2). however, she reached out to me, and we clarified everything through direct messages. after that, all seemed well!

however, things would get much worse from here. (this main character ahh dialogue bro.. 💀)

SECTION 2 : Account Tries a New Persona, Still Fails at Not Harassing Me.

(september 21st, 2024) an anonymous account messaged me with the following:

to be honest, i was completely baffled. i had completely forgotten about this issue, and out of nowhere, someone decides to bring it back up. it struck me as strange because… who gets so personal over something like this?

the user, which goes by the handle 'multifandombisexual13' also sent the exact same message directly to me, which made it clear that the anonymous message came from them, as shown.

first of all, the usernames are incredibly similar. both have the number 13, and girlkisser13 is a multifandom account. if you look at their profile, you'll notice they only repost stories from girlkisser13. even on the "check out these accounts" sidebar, there's only one account listed: girlkisser13. this is because they only repost content from that account.

let’s be real—this isn’t the behavior of a genuine fan. who goes through that much trouble? it’s obvious that this is girlkisser13 under an alternate handle.

i raised these concerns with the user, and i made sure to respond in a civil manner.

they didn’t respond to my initial message and only replied after I reached out to girlkisser13. i sent her a message about this situation. (just to be clear, this user and girlkisser13 are the same person.)

the user then responded at 4:38 PM. note that her main account, girlkisser13, replied to my message at 4:42 PM. (less than 5 minutes apart.) classic. (dates and times are included right under the text.)

if it wasn’t obvious by now, this person has been harassing me from their alt while pretending to be an innocent bystander on their main account. it’s like they’re playing both sides—using one account to send nasty messages and the other to act like they have no clue what’s going on. it’s honestly ridiculous and kind of sad at this point. (you will most likely have to zoom in to read the screenshots.)

you get the idea: this account goes off on personal jabs, claiming i have some need for control and a massive ego just because i refused to take the post down. i defended myself (obviously), but then she decided to accuse me of being jealous. (???)

i’ve made it clear SO many times—the post stays up for accountability. but no, she’s built up this entire fictional scenario where i’m obsessed with who’s getting more notes or attention. i promise you, i literally could not care less.

every single message is her droning on about “jealousy” or my supposed "ego and control issues," but never once acknowledging the actual point. it’s about holding people accountable for their actions. this isn’t a competition or a takedown—it's about transparency and honesty in the community. and to try and reduce it to some petty jealousy battle? that’s honestly ridiculous and completely out of touch.

like, she’s sitting there imagining i’m losing sleep over someone’s follower count on tumblr of all places. does she even realize how absurd that sounds? i'm a high school student who posts fanfic maybe once a month in a small fandom. tumblr is not my life, and there's definitely nothing here for me to be jealous of.

i don’t care how well someone is doing, i care about transparency and keeping things honest in the community. now, let’s address the obvious here. it’s super weird for another account to be going so hard defending a situation they supposedly have no part in. like, who does that? no one would go to these lengths unless they were personally connected, right? i brought up this whole issue in these screenshots below:

funny how they only stopped harassing me once i mentioned, at the end of my paragraph, that i’d happily make this public. up until that point, it was nonstop. i kept pressing them on whether they were connected to girlkisser13 (and if you somehow forgot—yes, this account and girlkisser13 are the exact same person). it was obvious, but i just wanted them to admit it.

it was around this time that i decided to message her main account, girlkisser13, to clear things up. i figured it was best to go straight to the source and get some clarification, but of course, things only got more suspicious from there.

SECTION 3: Ongoing harassment just a heads-up to pay attention to the account names at the top so you know who I'm messaging.

i like how i don't even have to comment on this part lmao. i sent the situation to girlkisser13 at 11:01 PM, and then at 11:39 PM, their other account decides to confront me about it.

anyways, i tried to get some honest answers from girlkisser13, but it was all just denial. at the very least, i asked her to reach out to the "other user" to stop the harassment.

at this point, girlkisser13 decided to backtrack and throw in an apology. i mean, i still firmly believed they were the same person, but honestly? i was just so exhausted from the whole ordeal that i thought, “whatever, let’s just agree and move on.”

SECTION 4: The Slip Up: GirlKisser13's Attempt at Damage Control

almost immediately after the conversation shown before, i received 13 messages TOTAL in my inbox, all in rapid succession, so obviously, they were all from the same person. i won't show them all because they're essentially the same. each one harassed me about my plagiarism post still being up, mentioning girlkisser13, and accusing me of jealousy in the same short, lowercase writing style. i brought this issue up to girlkisser13.

the first slip-up happened when I received a message from her alternate account, multifandombisexual13. up until that point, all the messages had come through anonymously, but it seems she forgot to enable the anonymous option this time.

shortly after, i got a message in the same style from her main account, girlkisser13. need i say more?

so, naturally, i sent the screenshot over to her main account, just to see what she'd say. and what did i get in return? excuse after excuse. it was honestly kind of impressive how quickly she could come up with new stories to cover her tracks. each response was more outlandish than the last, trying to justify what was blatantly obvious.

my brother sent that message!" yes—because your brother just happens to have access to your account. yes, because your brother happens to also be on tumblr, spending his time catching up on the latest percy jackson fanfiction drama... 💀 the sheer absurdity of it all. the pathological lying is honestly embarrassing at this point.

and, of course, the apologies only start rolling in after she's been caught—clearly just an attempt to redirect the drama and save face.

embarrassing...

SECTION 5: FINAL THOUGHTS—My Brain Hurts

in conclusion, this user does not deserve a platform on this app. she has failed to learn from her past mistakes and has clung to an incident that happened over FOUR MONTHS AGO. it’s time for accountability in our community.

harassment and deception have no place in spaces dedicated to creativity and expression. when individuals prioritize personal vendettas over respect and integrity, they tarnish the very essence of what fandom is meant to be.

it’s crucial that we foster an environment where originality is celebrated and where creators feel safe to share their work without fear of retaliation or harassment.

i highly encourage you to read everything i’ve shared and form your own opinion on the incident, but now you know my point of view.

ADDRESSING COMMON QUESTIONS

1. Isn’t this just a personal dispute?

while this situation is personal to me, it reflects broader issues within our fandoms. it’s not just about my experience; it’s about creating a community that values respect and integrity. we should all feel safe to share our work without fear of harassment or plagiarism. no one should feel comfortable stealing others' hard work or bullying creators into silence.

2. Why are some of the photos lower quality than others?

tumblr has a 30-photo limit, which meant i had to manually combine certain screenshots in a photo editor to get everything in. i also wanted to save space to make sure the most important screenshots could be posted in their highest quality. this is especially noticeable in the banter between me and her alternate account (see Section 2).

3. Why didn’t you just take down the post like she asked? Are you really jealous of her like she accused you of?

• absolutely not. i kept the post up for accountability. this was never about ego, jealousy, or a desire for control, as she accused me of—it’s about making sure people are aware of what happened and holding someone responsible for their actions. removing the post would allow her to escape the consequences of her behavior, which isn’t fair to me or anyone else she may target in the future. trying to turn this into a jealousy issue is a distraction tactic, and honestly, it’s irrelevant to the conversation. it’s not about followers or popularity—it’s about principles. 4. Why make this public? • because i gave her chances to handle this privately, and she chose to continue the harassment. this could have ended quietly, but she made the decision to escalate it. i’m not going to stay silent about someone who continues to lie, harass, and try to manipulate others.

5. Is it really that big of a deal?

yes. i know this whole situation is a bit silly, but plagiarism and harassment are serious issues, whether they happen online or in real life. it’s not just about fanfiction; it’s about respecting people’s work and holding individuals accountable when they cross boundaries.

to wrap this up, if you have any questions or concerns about the situation, feel free to reach out to me. i’ve tried to lay everything out as clearly as possible while trying to get this information out as quickly as possible, but i’m open to any clarifications or further discussion. i honestly don’t know how far this will reach or how many people will see it, but I think it’s important to at least try. for accountability’s sake, i’m tagging all the fandoms she’s active in, so all people can be aware of what’s been happening. hopefully, this will help set a standard in our community for respecting each other’s work and holding people accountable when they cross the line. i understand that some may want to defend her, but it’s crucial to consider the pattern of behavior exhibited. defending someone who has repeatedly shown disrespect for others’ work can enable harmful actions. i encourage people to look at the evidence and form their own opinions rather than simply siding with someone based on personal feelings.

thank you for your time!! ©valsverse— do not steal, edit, or repost my works. plagiarism is prohibited.

[kyleemm2]

Art Supplies I'd Give to JJK Characters [Protagonist Edition]

My credentials: I make art and I can do what I want.

Yuji Itadori: mechanical pencil- easy to use, easy to manage, forgiving, but he always forgets to bring extra lead and erasers. He'd draw cutesy things and anime characters.

Megumi Fushiguro: charcoal pencils- intense and moody, somewhat forgiving, but you reach the end result faster, less rendering required in comparison to pencil, and much more artistic and professional-looking end piece. He'd make abstract pieces that no one understands but he doesn't care that no one understands.

Choso Kamo: acrylic markers- not always easy to get the hang of, but once you do, you’ll create pieces that are rich in color and texture. I feel like he'd like the big chunky Krink markers. You'd KNOW he'd draw stylized portraits of his brothers!

Nobara Kugisaki: gouache paint- trendy, fun, easy to use, always reliable. Despite their popularity, they're still a viable medium! I feel like she'd paint a lot of Studio Ghibli screenshots.

Satoru Gojo: sumi ink- a classic medium that is always fun to use that yields a classy, minimalistic look. He'd definitely draw Digimon characters in classic Japanese style.

Suguru Geto: willow charcoal- soft and also minimalist, easy to use but can get a little messy when not handled properly. He'd make a lot of soft landscapes and simple still lifes.

Maki Zenin: ink pens- can’t go wrong with ink pens, they’re versatile and deliver beautiful results when used properly. She'd probably draw portraits.

Toge Inumaki: spray paint- unassuming at first, but when in use, they cannot be ignored! He'd do pop art and graffiti-styled works.

Panda: finger paints- do this really need an explanation? Fun, easy to use, and can pack a punch when taken seriously. He'd make self-insert drawings, no matter what the project would be.

Yuta Okkotsu: collage art- when done right, collages can evoke intense visual appeal while also reducing waste. Given that his CT is mimicry, using pieces already produced seems fitting. He'd make abstract stuff that tells a story or expresses his feelings.

Utahime Iori: oil paint- arguably the classiest fine art medium around, requires patience and technique but yields the richest and more alluring end results. Landscapes, portraits, anything beautiful.

Shoko Ieri: photography- why make something out of art supplies when you can capture the beauty of the world in real time? It’s always good to snap a memorable photo before it’s too late. She'd photograph her friends and herself and anything she finds interesting.

Kento Nanami: dry pastels- while they tend to require some skill to produce quality pieces, the technique is worth it. And if you’re a fellow pastel fiend, you know how pricey Sennelier is. Nanami uses the high-quality shit. He'd do still life art of things in his home for the sake of convenience, but he'd probably want to do seascapes if he ever made it to Malaysia :c

lmk if u agree or disagree. i have an antagonist edition coming as well

[mumblesplash]

ok just because this is driving me crazy for context here’s the (very very rough) start of the comic i’m talking about, with a decent chunk edited out for brevity and/or bc it’s still in a state that would literally Only make sense to me

a few notes to anyone actually attempting to read this:

any black and white text screenshots are parts of the script that i hadn’t even turned into thumbnail sketches yet

for my own notes i gave the problem itself the placeholder name ‘trolley’ and the lever man ‘proxy’

it very much is intentional that trolley doesn’t use first person pronouns until after proxy ties her to the tracks, one could even say that detail is indicative of the overarching theme of the whole comic

yes my planning, organizational, and storyboarding skills have improved since i made this, no they have not improved as much as you’d hope

they go back and forth for a WHILE, with proxy eventually managing to deconstruct the problem entirely and escape. (visualized as him getting on the trolley and riding it away)

trolley helps him do this even though she’s fully expecting the process to erase her, but due to the nature of what they are proxy manages to bring her with him. he admits he didn’t say anything because he wasn’t entirely sure he could save her and offers to let her go if she doesn’t want to keep existing as something new, but she’s just happy to still exist at all and decides to stay

(also near the end, right before trolley thinks she’s about to disappear, there’s this little exchange which i laughed at enough going over my notes for this that i figured i might as well leave it in)

only the absolute realest of the real ones will have a clue what i’m talking about here but i just realized the ‘grian argues with the secret keeper’ comic is 100% the spiritual successor to that trolley problem comic i storyboarded back in december 2020 but never finished or posted

[rivalsforlife]

Phoenix Wright: The Truth Reborn: Oh No We’re Doing This Again

hi.

Nearly two months ago, I wrote an essay summarizing and making very wild conclusions about the second Takarazuka Musical. I did this about two and a half years after watching the first Takarazuka musical. As such I did not have the full context for many things from the musical and was relying mostly on my memory, which blocked many things from this musical for my own safety. However, just this week, I decided to rewatch it, because I enjoy tormenting myself. I said I wouldn’t write anything on it. Here I am writing something on it.

Here’s the youtube thumbnail so that you know what you’re getting yourself into. And here, of course, is the link. This is the HD version which may be slightly more pleasant to watch. Maybe.

It was not quite as cringe in a funny way as the second musical to me, and therefore this essay may be less funny, but I feel like I’m doing a disservice to people by providing a summary of the second musical while completely neglecting the first. Quite possibly doing this is even more of a disservice. I just eagerly await the day that the third musical is translated because *that* will be the day that I finally shuffle off this mortal coil. Either way, I want to write this stuff down so that I never have to watch the musical again out of curiosity.

The following essay will contain major spoilers for both the first and second Phoenix Wright Takarazuka musicals, as I will be using many points from this musical to argue my thesis of the second musical. ... like you were going to watch them anyways. 

This one broke 8k. I’m dead inside.

Introducing The Director

Again another disclaimer that I don’t have anything against the actresses or the theatre troupe. I DO have something against Suzuki Kei, who I recently learned is the writer and director of all three of the Ace Attorney Takarazuka musicals, and is quite possibly my mortal nemesis.

This man is the one who brought this monstrosity into the world.

This man, allegedly, cleared the first four ace attorney games *seven times* before sitting down to write these musicals. He played these goddamn games seven times and did not take in a single word. The man clicked through them mindlessly while watching a badly written legal romance drama in the background and got them completely confused. I genuinely have no idea how this man could have played these games more times than even me and yet managed to get so many characters (MAYA!!!!) completely and utterly wrong. This haunts me every day, truly.

This man played Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations, and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney seven times. SEVEN TIMES EACH!! and was told to create a musical based on the series. He played these games seven times each and you know what he said?? You know what he said?? “This sucks, I’m getting rid of all of Phoenix’s backstory, butchering half the characters, and writing Phoenix/Lana fanfiction, but also rewriting all of Lana’s backstory so that she was Phoenix’s childhood friend, and you know what, I’m changing her name for good measure.”

I think this man played the games seven times each and then hated it so much and was so sick of it he tried to write something that destroyed as much of the series as possible while still being vaguely recognizable. And then somehow it became a massive hit because people like me see this and go “what the actual hell” and watch it, or people who haven’t played the games see this and go “wow what a great musical!” and then he wrote TWO MORE, destroying EVEN MORE every time in his wake, until finally, finally, he stopped after making Edgeworth straight and time traveling into the past to face off against a corrupt Gregory. I guess that was the last straw.

I have to issue a disclaimer here that for legal reasons this is a joke. I don’t actually hate this man and would not punch him in the face if I met him because that would be rude, and he is entitled to his wrong interpretation of the games. I don’t know what his thought process was. But allegedly he did play the games seven times according to the wiki. This whole essay here is satire and not slander and I don’t want to offend this guy if he somehow stumbles across my nonsense tumblr post. At the same time: Suzuki Kei blink twice if you need help.

Anyways half the reason that I’m making this essay is because I want to share my fake ao3 page for this musical. The other half will become apparent later.

Sorry if that’s illegible because of tumblr quality it’s not really important. All you really need to know is that it’s a fake ao3 screenshot for the musical. Also in the author’s note I said he played the games four times but it was actually seven I just remembered wrong because I didn’t want to believe it.

at this point you may be like “Grace shut up and get to the actual musical” and okay, fine, let’s start this nonsense. Also note that I may be referencing things from my essay on the second musical very frequently; I’m not going to force you to go read that though because the fact that you’re reading this is enough of a torment already.

The Musical Begins

Unlike the second musical, this one opens with some narration from Phoenix.

Transcript:

Phoenix: I’m reviewing a particular case at the moment. To me, this case... is one I’ll never forget.

Immediately I think this is important because it establishes that this whole musical takes place in a flashback that Phoenix is reflecting on. Why is this important? Because we know, by the time of the second musical which takes place three years later, Leona is dead.

Knowing that Leona is inherently doomed to die of her Sad Woman Disease paints this whole musical in a different light. It’s not Phoenix reflecting on how he got back together with his lover; it’s Phoenix dwelling on their past together, and the opportunities they had, before her life was so cruelly and inexplicably taken away. We don’t know if Phoenix’s reminiscing takes place before or after Leona’s death... but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was after.

Phoenix, still in the present, starts to sing. “A wave appears on the horizon like a mirage, it trembles, then vanishes. Your voice, carried upon the waves, fades upon the shore, erasing the splendor of the past.”

This line actually shows up in the second musical, sung by Lucia about her imprisoned fiance quite possibly. It’s kind of hard to tell what the meaning of these songs even are. They’re too abstract for me I think. But this line appears very frequently in the first musical when Phoenix is thinking about Leona.

Then we enter the flashback time.

Phoenix inexplicably yells at a newspaper saleswoman. This is not relevant to anything whatsoever. Then Larry barges in to the office, looking for Maya. Phoenix describes him as “A real trouble maker, but you just can’t hate the guy”, the latter part of which I think many people would disagree with. 

Well, afterwards, Maya comes in. Phoenix describes her like this while making exaggerated “can you believe this shit” gestures.

Transcript:

Phoenix: She’s as ditzy as they come. Oh, and about the outfit... Apparently she comes from a family of spirit mediums. Try not to make fun of her, okay?

Suzuki Kei personally has it out for Maya and I can never forgive him for it. Maya in these musicals is here for pure comedic relief but it’s not even comedic because I just get so angry. How can you play the trilogy seven times and think this about her?? The girl who figured out DL-6?? The girl who told Phoenix to sacrifice her life in order to find the truth?? The girl who put on a brave smile in order to try and cheer up her younger cousin even after she saw her own mother murdered right in front of her eyes?? That Maya Fey?? Ditzy as they come??????

Ugh. Moving on.

Maya and Larry run off, leaving Phoenix to watch the American Broadcast.

Important things to note here are the Godot mug, the little line up of what I think are the messed up little ace attorney figurines beneath the screen, and the fact that while this broadcast is supposedly from and to America the screen is actually not at all showing America. Like literally almost everywhere in the world except North and South America.

The broadcast says that Leona Clyde, age 24, was arrested for murdering the senator Robert Cole! Leona Clyde -- that’s Phoenix’s ex-girlfriend! He runs off to the detention center.

She is not happy to see him.

Leona: Mr. Wright... I’m not the woman you once knew.

Let’s Play A Matching Game

Sorry for the abundance of screenshots that are going to be throughout this section. Phoenix convinces Leona to let him defend her. Some of the conversation seems... familiar.

Leona: No one would defend someone who admits to killing a senator. I’m waiting for a court-appointed attorney.

Edgeworth: Every defense attorney I’ve talked to has turned me down.

Phoenix: In that case, let me defend you.

Game Phoenix: Let me defend you.

Leona: Don’t be ridiculous!

Edgeworth: Don’t be ridiculous.

Phoenix: I’ll never accept that you’re a murderer. Let me prove your innocence!

Game Phoenix: Huh? Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to prove that Miles Edgeworth is innocent.

Leona: I’ve already confessed my guilt.

Gumshoe: He confessed that he did it! In court!

Leona: It’s foolish to think you can win this case.

Edgeworth: My case is near hopeless, Wright.

Leona: (in response to phoenix offering to defend her) No you won’t! Don’t ever come here again.

Edgeworth: Look, just go away, and leave me alone!

Phoenix: You of all people should know. Once I decide to do something, I see it through to the end.

Edgeworth: Once you start on something, you always see it through, don’t you?

Leona: I never thought that you’d be representing me.

Phoenix: Ah, who could have guessed this day would come?

Edgeworth: Not me.

Phoenix: You believed in me. You saved me. And this time, I swear... I swear I’ll save you!

Game Phoenix: Edgeworth believed in me, and I believe in him. I’m the only one who knows the real Edgeworth. I’m the only one who can help him.

I could’ve done a few more, but tumblr is already threatening to murder my laptop.

So long story short, Phoenix manages to convince his lover to let him be the defense on the case. Then immediately after swearing to save Leona, he starts singing a song, which I’m not screencapping because this is enough:

“As long as there are people in this world, there’s only one path I will follow! As long as there is love in this world, there’s only one path I will believe in!”

Edgeworth sings this in the second musical after saying that he returned to California because of Phoenix. Phoenix sings it now after swearing to defend Leona. You draw your own conclusions.

And then we finally get the opening credits. Eleven minutes in.

Just Pretend This Is Narumitsu Fanfiction

Following the credits, we see a beautiful beach. Couples (exclusively heterosexual, of course,) dance and embrace in the background for some time, before revealing Phoenix and Leona, in the Even Further Past, before the LSATs or whatever the ace attorney universe’s excuse for law school exams are.

Phoenix establishes his absolute hatred of change, an important characterization moment.

Phoenix: The view here never changes, huh?

Phoenix reminisces on when they were kids. Leona’s parents were both lawyers (they’re both lawyers) and sometimes they would be like lawyers with her when she was a kid. This inspired her to also become a lawyer after their tragic death of Sickness. They never specify what the sickness is that caused two people who must be relatively young to die while Leona was in her early twenties at the latest. It may be whatever sickness claimed Leona’s life later. Sad Woman Disease. (Sad Man Disease for her father, I guess?)

Phoenix also talks about why he’s becoming a lawyer.

Phoenix: Watching you chase your dream inspired me to become a lawyer too.

So, it’s not “my childhood friend looked sad in a newspaper” because I guess that makes no sense or is too gay or something. But this is another important piece of Phoenix characterization. His entire life so far has been focused around Leona. They’ve been friends since they were kids, and then Phoenix decided to become a lawyer solely because Leona was becoming a lawyer. Not even to try and get back into contact with her after she moved away or anything; just because he’s so obsessed with her that he wants to have the same career as her, then they can run a Mom & Pop Law Firm or something, years in the future, after years of happy marriage and a few children or like whatever the hell.

Well, there’s a few steps they’ll need to get to that. At this point Phoenix still hasn’t confessed his feelings for Leona. He does so here, on this beach.

Leona tries to protest.

Leona: But I’m pushy, selfish, and only care about my goals... You’d get fed up with me.

Phoenix: That’s what I’ve always admired about you. That’s who I’ve been chasing all these years. That’s the only person... I love.

Sooo, Phoenix, your type is pushy selfish people who only care about their goals...? In the first, older lower-quality video translation it was “only care about my work”, too. Hm. Things to think about.

They sing a little duet together. Then we go back to present-day of what’s technically still a flashback. Whatever. Murder is happening.

Back To The Murder

So some plot things to establish: Leona is the legal counsel of Governor Miller, who is running for president in the AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. After the flashback so that Phoenix has some time to change clothes, they show an interview of him talking about the murder.

Governor Miller: I vow to forge a peaceful country with my own two hands, and to prepare myself for whatever may lie ahead.

Reporters: Through thick and thin, he’s a friend of the people!

The Takarazuka musicals are not very good at hiding their killers.

Phoenix: Oh yeah... It’s almost time for the presidential election, isn’t it?

NEVER FORGET, WRIGHT. THIS IS AMERICA. LAND OF THE FREE! god what even was that line.

Anyways, we meet Gumshoe, who is incompetent once again. Maya runs around the crime scene, picks up the murder weapon, puts her fingerprints all over everything, moves things around, all while Phoenix is like “lol get a load of the world’s stupidest girl” or whatever. But who cares about that.

It’s time to get to the only valid part of this musical.

Edgeworth’s Gay Little Villain Solo

You may have seen this one before.

Edgeworth arrives, but not really. It’s like Phoenix heard Edgeworth was prosecuting and immediately entered a dream-like state, where Edgeworth is heralded by the sound of trumpets in Great Revival. He’s played by a different actress than in the other two musicals, since I think she retired in between the six or so months from this musical to the second. She still plays the role well, though, or as well as can be when you’re written in an ace attorney Takarazuka musical.

Shrouded in scarlet solitude... it’s Edgeworth.

Yes, those are six Edgeworths. Yes, they pick Phoenix up and carry him around and dance with him. Yes, it was probably not meant to be at all homoerotic.

He sings a song that’s called “My rule”. I only figured this out later, but it’s loosely based on a “catchphrase” of his in the Japanese version - in game 1 he says something along the lines of “All I can do is get every defendant declared guilty! So I make that my policy.” In DD in his dramatic anime introduction before the trial, he says “I intend to question the defendant with all I have. For that is a part of my creed.” “So I make that my policy” and “For that is a part of my creed”, to my understanding, are both translated from the same line, which I think is like, “sore ga watashi no ruru”, “That is my rule.” (If I’m wrong, please correct me.) In this song he sings about how he’ll reduce all criminals to ash and such, basically talks about his game 1 prosecuting strategy as “my rule”. 

It’s very fun and probably if you want to only watch one number of this musical, it can be this one. It starts about 26:10 in the video I linked.

Once the musical number is done, Phoenix and Edgeworth stare at each other, and the background fades into the courtroom, so court begins. I feel like I should note that Phoenix has not picked up any evidence or talked to any witnesses in this investigation except for Gumshoe, since Maya just moved some things around and then Phoenix had some weird fever dream about Edgeworth which presumably took up the rest of the day.

The Trial, Day 1

Edgeworth: Consider it a prelude to the poignant Greek tragedy that’s about to unfold.

Maya: The real tragedy’s your pompous attitude!

Those are the only screenshots I took of this trial day. Here’s a summary, though:

The trial starts off with Leona confessing, Phoenix says “no I think she’s innocent”, and since ace attorney doesn’t care about the defendant’s wishes he’s allowed to proceed. For some reason Leona lets him do this without complaint. 

Gumshoe is the first witness, he claims to have caught Leona red-handed at the scene of the crime, standing over the corpse. Phoenix tries to claim that since Gumshoe didn’t see Leona committing the crime, he didn’t actually catch her red-handed, to which Edgeworth responds “What do you think being caught red-handed means?” 

Once Gumshoe is dismissed, Lotta takes the stand. She has a photo of the actual moment of the crime, where Leona is holding a knife in the air in front of the victim. 

The Takarazuka musicals like to do this thing where the image is blurry and zoomed out, but then Phoenix will go “I’VE NOTICED A CONTRADICTION” and it zooms in really far as the resolution increases drastically in order to show you the contradiction that is impossible to spot for yourself, because they don’t want people figuring out the mystery in this musical based off of a video game where you have to solve the mystery yourself. Anyways Phoenix zooms in on this photo and sees that there’s blood on Leona’s hand, presumably before she stabbed the victim. How did it get there?

Edgeworth suggests the victim was stabbed multiple times. Phoenix says the autopsy report contradicts that. Edgeworth, uncharacteristically, does not update it to suit his argument. 

Phoenix concludes that this photo is not showing the moment Leona stabbed the victim, but the moment Leona removed the knife! ... Which somehow casts doubt on her having been the one to stab the victim. Because as everyone knows, anyone wanting to kill someone would never remove a knife, it’s not like they’d bleed out faster that way, or anything.

And this whole contradiction is confusing because presumably if the victim was stabbed and then the knife was removed, they’d know that happened, because then the knife would not be found stuck in the victim’s body, since the victim was only stabbed once. So this shouldn’t be news to the prosecution that someone removed the knife after stabbing. But the investigation was headed by the most incompetent version of Gumshoe ever, so. sure. I guess no one knew.

That at least manages to extend the trial another day.

This Totally Has To Be Illegal

After the trial, Phoenix goes to talk to Governor Miller, aka Mr. Totally The Real Killer. Phoenix asks him why he decided to hire Leona as his legal advisor.

Basically, it’s because her parents were both renowned lawyers. Her father was a Chief Prosecutor, and her mother was a defense attorney. ... a prosecutor and a defense attorney couple... who does that remind us of...

Phoenix points out that just because her parents were good lawyers, it doesn’t mean she’d necessarily be one. Miller says that, sure, but she is actually really talented, and her law school marks were spectacular. Phoenix says “WHY WERE YOU LOOKING AT HER LAW SCHOOL MARKS”, like it’s somehow? suspicious? for a government official hiring legal counsel to look at their law school marks?

Apparently it IS suspicious because Governor Miller freaks out and asks if this is an interrogation. Before Phoenix can press much further, he gets a phone call, and leaves Phoenix alone in a big room.

So naturally Phoenix behaves like a fully grown adult running a law firm.

If all he did was sit in the chair, lift up a desk lamp, and poke his finger on a pen, that’s one thing. But then he leans over, OPENS THE GOVERNOR’S DESK DRAWER, and finds a knife that’s just sitting there casually. It looks like a butter knife. It’s not anything major. Maybe the dude just wanted to butter his toast?

I mean I know Phoenix will dig around in stuff whenever in the games, but he has no reason to suspect Governor Miller at all, much less dig through his drawer probably full of confidential government documents to lift up a knife that he thinks is suspicious. It’s not even covered in blood or anything?

Naturally Governor Miller’s assistant comes in just then, and Phoenix puts the knife. in his breast pocket. 

bud. It may look like a butter knife, but putting knives up against your chest is not a great idea. Much less stealing a knife from a governor? 

Well, in his panic, he accidentally knocks over a bunch of books on the desk. The governor’s assistant helps him pick them up, and they find a photo. Look a little familiar?

The photo has the assistant, the victim Robert Cole, Governor Miller, and the victim’s brother who died in an incident two years ago. He’s the “Neil Marshall” of this musical, and he died in what was essentially the SL-9 incident. Same general premise, except it occurred in the courthouse, and the names are different.

AND FINALLY WE REACH THE END OF ACT 1. They do a musical number here which is a weird sort of mashup of the main opening credits song, Edgeworth’s Villain Solo, and the love duet between Phoenix and Leona. They are all such different songs that it sounds a little weird.

ACT 2, FINALLY

The act begins on a sour note with Maya playing with the knife and showing off her characterization, which is one of the most infuriating Maya characterizations you’ll sometimes see around the fandom by people who don’t like Maya.

Maya: Let me whip up my special spirit channeler hamburgers!

sigh.

But then we’re saved (?) by the arrival of EDGEWORTH, who is presumably just here to chat. He asks Phoenix if he’s defending Leona in hopes of winning her back, then says to keep out of it, since it’s a very important case and he can’t understand the gravity of it.

Then Phoenix says this.

Phoenix: Would you be saying that if you were the one on trial? The defendant is in a dark prison, reaching out for hope... Can you imagine the loneliness and sorrow of being ostracized?

CAN YOU IMAGINE IT, EDGEWORTH? CAN YOU IMAGINE IF YOU WERE ON TRIAL AND I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO WOULD DEFEND YOU AND BELIEVED IN YOUR INNOCENCE??

Edgeworth responds to this by essentially rehashing his speech in Turnabout Sisters about how he needs to find all defendants guilty because he can’t guarantee their innocence and all that. Maya gets upset and leaves so that Phoenix and Edgeworth can talk about their childhood in private.

Phoenix once again complains about how people change since nine years old.

Phoenix then says that he has something Edgeworth doesn’t: the POWER TO BELIEVE! Then Maya comes in and tries to spike Edgeworth’s coffee, so he leaves.

The Class Trial

Phoenix explains a bit about Edgeworth and his backstory to Maya. Namely, the class trial. Phoenix was accused of stealing lunch money, Edgeworth stood up for him, but instead of Larry, Leona stood up for him. I guess Suzuki Kei thought “oh the class trial, if Leona stood up for him, it would be so romantic, because she’s a woman, and he’s a man”, or something like that. 

Edgeworth wanted to become a Great Lawyer Like His Father! But then he turned cold as ice.

Phoenix: His father got too deeply involved in a case... and paid for it with his life. Edgeworth saw him murdered. He was never the same again. I bet he couldn’t forgive the criminal.

Yeah I bet he couldn’t ever forgive the person he thought killed his father all these years, Phoenix. I bet he really hates that person, Phoenix. I bet he has nightmares about that person killing his father or something, Phoenix.

Phoenix: He vanished, then returned without his mercy or compassion. He had become a monster. When he lost his father, he also lost the ability to believe in others.

So like... one of the most chilling things about this musical is that they never actually solve DL-6. This probably roughly takes place 15 years after DL-6, since they were about the same age when the class trial started, and at least Leona is 24 now. The next musical takes place three years from now, and in it, Edgeworth refers to von Karma as his mentor, implying he’s still around and doing things.

So, in addition to everything else going wrong with this musical, DL-6 still happens, but von Karma never frames Edgeworth for it fifteen years later. The statute of limitations runs out, and von Karma forever gets away with his crime. And Edgeworth has no idea.

What changes did they make to DL-6, though, you may ask? I’m desperate to know as well. In the third musical, which I’ve watched because I hate myself but am unable to fully understand because I don’t know much Japanese, there is a scene where Miles flashbacks to DL-6. It’s abstract, but he makes gun-throwing motions at Gregory, followed by a gunshot sound.

Therefore, in this musical’s internal canon, either Miles Edgeworth shot his father, or he believes he did for the rest of his life.

... moving on.

Phoenix: But he still has his humanity. It’s still there, deep down inside!

At least, if nothing else, Phoenix still believes in him. Even this Takarazuka Musical couldn’t touch that.

The Feenie Sweater

Right after this, Larry barges in, and Phoenix leaves him alone with Maya. The musical tries teasing Larry/Maya, but fortunately, Maya’s having none of it.

Maya: You’re barking up the wrong tree.

Props to this musical for not being as bad as it could have been.

After this, the two sit down on the couch, and Maya asks for more gossip on Phoenix and Leona. Larry launches into a story, which turns into a flashback that ends up being narrated by Phoenix halfway through. This one’s about Phoenix and Leona’s relationship.

This is an interesting line in here, “I’ll guide you to the future”, for it loosely referencing the sort of love ballad Phoenix sings with Lucia in the second musical which is about “I’ll take you to that radiant future”, and he later sings to the memory of Leona right around the time of his big spiral into despair.

I’m sorry if you haven’t read my other essay and just said “wait what” to what I just typed.

Leona was getting ready to move to New York to defend the weak “in the big city”. This is rather strange wording because it implies that California does not in fact have a big city. She says some things in her conversation with Phoenix that probably plant some of his later issues.

Leona: This is the first time we’ll be apart since we were kids.

Leona: We promised we’d always be together.

Leona: I’ll be waiting. Waiting for you to come to me.

Haha. Sure would be a shame... if something were to happen... and they wouldn’t be able to be together anymore...

So some dancers wearing black come in and take off their outer jackets, to symbolize the passage of time. They circle around Phoenix and Leona. In this, you can just barely see, Phoenix is wearing a pink sweater beneath his jacket.

“Oh,” I think to myself, “Is that the Feenie sweater? Are they including it here as a reference to the games?”

Then the dancers keep moving.

THAT IS NOT THE FEENIE SWEATER. That is a pink sweater with a sexily drawn woman on it.

This is the other half of the reason why I decided to go through with making this essay. 

This is so incredibly funny to me. Suzuki Kei Who Has Played The Games Seven Times has seen the hand-knit bright pink sweater with a giant red heart on it seven times. The sweater Iris, Phoenix’s girlfriend, lovingly knit for him that he wears all the time even though it is one of the tackiest, cheesiest items of clothing to ever exist. And so, when the costume designers were designing the clothes for College Phoenix Wright, they asked themselves: “Should we include the Feenie sweater?”

and “NO,” someone must have shouted, “NO, we can NOT include the Feenie sweater, it is PINK and it has a HEART on it and it’s TOO GIRLY. Phoenix Wright is a MANLY MAN. He would not EVER wear something PINK with a HEART on it.”

“BUT,” someone else said, “it’s a REFERENCE to the original games, where he DID wear a pink sweater with a heart on it! We MUST include it to pander to the fans!”

“WAIT,” a third person interjected. “I have a BRILLIANT IDEA. We can keep the pink... But to make it VERY CLEAR he is a heterosexual, masculine male... we put a sexy woman on it.”

And Person Three Got A Raise.

Thank god we’re finally halfway done this musical.

We Just Have To Go On With Our Lives Now

There’s plot or something happening. Leona breaks up with Phoenix inexplicably over the phone. Probably because of that freaking sweater. Imagine wearing that. God.

Eventually we go back to Phoenix talking to Leona, and he asks about the Jack Lyon case, which is the rip-off version of the Joe Darke case. Leona is pretty cagey about it, but Phoenix proves that she was there in the gallery that day. Leona refuses to answer, claims again that she killed the victim in her case, and leaves.

This makes Phoenix sad, so he starts singing.

Phoenix: I want to bring you back! I believe in you.

If this sounds familiar, it’s the part where I started absolutely losing my mind in the second musical because this line had never shown up before then, I’d forgotten it was in this musical, and Phoenix was screaming it alone in a red room, so I thought he was like desperately resorting to a necromancy ritual in hopes of bringing Leona back to life.

Instead, this line actually has CONTEXT, though it does just end up enforcing my theory. This is Phoenix mourning what he used to have with Leona, wanting to bring the “old her” back, because he’s devastated that people sometimes change. There are several flashbacks of their college days where he’s wearing his Sexy Woman Sweater. He does succeed in winning her back at the end of this musical. Before she dies, of course.

Phoenix in musical 2 still believes that he can bring back what he used to have with Leona... even beyond death. That’s something affirmed by this musical. I’m very grateful to it for somehow managing to enforce my nonsensical theory.

Doctor Ema

After this, Phoenix returns to his office, and meets with someone new.

That’s right! Only now, halfway through the musical, do we actually get to meet the Ema-equivalent to Leona’s Lana-equivalent. Her name is Monica Clyde. She has little rainbow heart stickers on her briefcase, which is the closest thing this musical has to acknowledging that gay people exist.

But what does this little briefcase contain, you may ask? Scientific investigation tools? No.

A full surgical toolset. Because you never know when someone’ll get sick, or when someone will need an entire operation in front of you. I guess.

So yes, Monica Clyde is not a forensic scientist in training, but a doctor! She decided to become a doctor because of her parents, who passed away of The Sickness, and so became a doctor in order to save lives like theirs.

Once more this has much darker and deeper implications than the musical is even aware of, because Monica is so anxious about treating sick people that she carries a full surgical toolset around with her at all times, scared to lose someone like she lost her parents... and then sometime in the next three years, Leona, her big sister, is going to die.

Of what? The strange Sickness that claimed her parents? A car accident? A botched spur-of-the-moment surgery? Whatever it is, Monica was unable to save her, even when she’d been training her entire life for it.

Monica is not mentioned at all throughout the second musical. It’s as if she does not exist.

Because unlike Ema of Rise From The Ashes, Monica is not at the heart of this story. She is, primarily, a plot device here to make Leona not trust Phoenix so that he can angst about their relationship. 

What a mess this world is.

The Trial, Part 2

Rather than try to prove Leona’s innocence, Phoenix wants to link the current case to not-SL-9, the Jack Lyon case. He does this by showing this picture.

Senator Cole, the victim, is in this picture. His younger brother whose name I’ve forgotten, the victim of not-SL-9, is also in this picture. They are brothers. It is apparently novel that they are in the same picture, and somehow makes their cases linked.

As well, Governor Miller is in the picture. I guess you could say like... Governor Miller’s legal counsel is the defendant, so that’s another link? Even though the Governor would presumably know a Senator, so this isn’t an unusual group. Right now Phoenix has absolutely nothing to prove that these two cases are linked other than “hey, these two victims are brothers”, but apparently it works. So they spend a lot of time talking about not-SL-9, since Leona has confessed to the murder on day 1 and there is absolutely nothing indicating that she can’t be immediately declared guilty.

They hid the fact that Monica was a hostage in this not-SL-9, meaning that some of the case records were forged. Here’s Edgeworth’s reaction when this comes out.

Edgeworth: This is an outrage! I’m the most influential prosecutor in America! There’s nothing I don’t know!

In RFTA, when Edgeworth learns he’d been using forged evidence to give a man the death penalty, he is devastated, his entire worldview is shaken, he sees himself as a monster who could end up becoming horribly corrupt if he isn’t stopped.

Musical Edgeworth goes “I DIDN’T KNOW SOMETHING???”

It’s certainly strange characterization, but I guess Edgeworth is further behind in his character arc than in RFTA, so... ugh. Fine. 

Phoenix calls Monica out as a witness to prove she was involved in the case. This causes Leona to panic, and try to dismiss Phoenix as her attorney, like Lana in RFTA, but Edgeworth interjects to call Monica in anyways. He and Phoenix have a little moment.

Edgeworth: You said to believe in others. I suppose I’ll try believing in you. Try to keep up.

Phoenix: Edgeworth!

So Monica comes to the stand to testify. We get to see this picture of Monica being held hostage, and not-Joe-Darke’s incredible eyeliner.

Lots of it is very similar to the actual RFTA, except instead of the victim being stabbed on the knight with the giant knife, he’s instead stabbed with a regular old knife. Leona still refuses to admit to what really happened, until Edgeworth convinces her to believe in Phoenix.

Edgeworth: Your attorney is a runaway train with a one-track mind. Yet he placed all of his faith in you. Believe in him. You owe him that much.

Leona testifies, and says that when she found the victim, he was stabbed with a scalpel.

Here is where things get weird.

Scalpels Can’t Kill People

So basically earlier in this trial, they talk about how Leona knew that the knife that stabbed the victim was double-edged despite being buried in his chest. The judge questions if this means Leona killed him, but Phoenix is quick to say no, she was searched when she entered the courthouse and couldn’t have concealed a knife.

Yet, Monica was able to bring in her surgical toolkit which contains several sharp knives, scalpels, scissors, etc.

This is the first major contradiction.

Leona continues to say that when she found Monica, and the scalpel stabbed in the victim, she also ran into Governor Miller, who if you haven’t been able to tell yet is the Gant-equivalent of this musical. He offered to help her with the cover-up, etc.

The next bit goes a lot like RFTA. Phoenix accuses Governor Miller, who barges in, says Phoenix has the decisive evidence in his pocket. This is the “butter knife” that Phoenix took from his office when he dug around in confidential documents and stole it for no particular reason. It has Monica’s fingerprints on it! ... And Phoenix’s and Maya’s too probably because they were handling it without gloves, but they don’t mention that part.

Leona cries about how she shouldn’t have trusted Phoenix because he was apparently now blaming Monica, Monica looks terrified, she and Leona have some good sister moments but it’s not as good as it could be if the story was actually about Leona and Monica like how RFTA was about Lana and Ema. But Phoenix has the decisive piece of evidence that can turn this around.

It is this:

Phoenix: Scalpels are made for medical incisions, not stabbings. So how did it stab the victim?

...

...

...

... What?

So like. Yes, scalpels are made for medical incisions. Medical incisions often involve cutting through flesh, very easily. As a result, they are sharp. Extremely sharp. As in: their purpose is literally to stab people, very specifically.

Yes, they’re easier to control, so that surgeons don’t regularly stab people how they’re not supposed to be stabbed, but it’s not like, impossible to stab someone in a killing way with a scalpel? Admittedly, I have never tried to kill someone using a scalpel. And I do not have experience using a scalpel for surgeries because I am not a surgeon. But I’m pretty sure, if you take a sharp scalpel, and you stab someone in the chest with it with a reasonable amount of force... they die.

Like, is this a particular kind of scalpel that is not very sharp? Is the problem that the blade doesn’t match up with the initial wound? But even then, we don’t have the original unforged autopsy report or even a picture, so how would Phoenix know what the original wound looked like to say it didn’t match up? And even then why wouldn’t Phoenix say that instead of SCALPELS CAN’T STAB PEOPLE???

This is his decisive contradiction and it makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE TO ME!!!

Well Darn I Guess Scalpels Can’t Kill People

This is such a decisive piece of evidence, that scalpels can’t kill people, coming from the man who thought “caught red-handed” does not involve being caught standing over a corpse with blood on your hands, that it causes Governor Miller to confess.

Unlike Gant, who created the murder with Neil Marshall both to ensure that there was decisive evidence to convict Joe Darke, a serial killer who had not left any decisive evidence behind, and gain control over the prosecutor’s office in order to pull similar stunts to get criminals convicted using false evidence, Governor Miller does not have that as his motive. After all, he’s not a police officer. Instead, he ended up accidentally killing not-Joe-Darke, and then set up the incident in order to get Leona on his side. As her parents were both influential lawyers and very respectable, having her and her parents’ reputation on his side could help him become President of America Where This Takes Place.

So, let’s just take a moment to run over some of the things that made the original Rise From The Ashes great, in my opinion. Just for fun.

1 - The heart of the story between the Skye sisters. Lana closing off to protect Ema, Ema wanting to get through to her sister and get back to the way things used to be. Phoenix, in this story, is more of a bystander to this plotline rather than in the heart of it himself.

2 - Edgeworth’s Character Development. Basically RFTA creates an interesting transition between Turnabout Goodbyes and JFA. It causes Edgeworth to re-evaluate everything he knows about being a prosecutor. So quickly on the heels of Turnabout Goodbyes, it crushes the last bit of hope in him. It compares him to Gant, who also hates criminals, and forces him to wonder if his hatred of crime will one day lead to him being a criminal himself. He’s already convicted one person on forged evidence; how many others could there be?

3 - The Ends Justify The Means. ... wait come back, don’t leave. What I found neat about this case was also Gant’s motive. At one point he was presumably an honest person who hated crime and wanted to stop criminals. But over time in the police force, he became corrupted. He wanted to have all criminals convicted. So what do you do when you don’t have the evidence to convict them? Joe Darke was a serial killer who has killed several people and may have killed more if he’d gone free. The only way to stop and convict him was by using forged evidence. Other criminals could hide evidence to get away with their crimes, so people like Gant would make it up to catch them; but then when do you stop? What happens if there’s no evidence because someone is truly innocent? When does the line between “this person is a criminal and I want to stop them” and “I just want to convict everyone I’m dealing with” become blurred? This is also something he shares with Edgeworth and helps to advance his character.

All three of these things are either lessened or outright ignored in this musical. Leona and Monica’s story takes a backseat to Phoenix and Leona’s Love Story, with Monica only showing up halfway through, and mainly as an excuse as to why Leona is withdrawn. Edgeworth doesn’t seem to blame himself for the forged evidence he used, and doesn’t have a crisis questioning his morality over it. And Governor Miller’s motive is purely power. Unlike Gant, who would have become Chief of Police whether he solved SL-9 or not, Miller needed Leona to win the presidency. And instead of asking her to help him with his campaign like a normal person, he just blackmailed her instead.

... How do you play the games seven times and miss this much?

The Case Finally Ends

god. we’re almost there.

The case ends, Leona is declared not guilty but will still face trial for covering up murders and such. Probably less of a sentence than Lana because she was not involved in ongoing police corruption? Either way she’s dead in three years, so she’s got something a bit more concerning coming up.

She’s led away. Phoenix sings a bit about Leona before being interrupted by Edgeworth... who has something important to tell him.

Edgeworth: You awakened within me those once-cherished emotions I had discarded. I see visions of a distant, nostalgic past.

So basically this is the unnecessary feelings of the musical. Something along the lines of “seeing you again and fighting for my former ideals is making me question many things about myself.”

How does Phoenix respond?

Phoenix: Edgeworth... Try talking normally for a chance.

Sure, we were all thinking it, but that’s a little cold, Phoenix.

Edgeworth tries a smooth recovery.

Edgeworth: I don’t do... idle chit-chat.

This doesn’t accomplish much. So he leaves to allow Leona to visit with Phoenix alone. He’s got to go change for something more important coming up.

Leona and Phoenix decide that they’re going to get back together once Leona is done her sentence! They make a promise that is very funny if you know she’ll be dead in three years.

Phoenix: I’ll be waiting. For you.

There are a lot of hugs here, I’m not screencapping them all. There are also several moments where their faces get very close together and like, their nose brushes the other’s cheek or something, but they never actually kiss. Is it because the actresses weren’t comfortable with it (valid), or they thought kissing would be too much for the musical (sure, whatever), or since both characters are played by women the show staff did not want two women kissing on stage (probably the real answer)? I don’t like watching kisses, but I kept bracing myself for one and then it never happened, so.

Phoenix ends the main part of the musical with one last musical number starring my personal favourite piece:

Phoenix: I want to bring you back! I believe in you.

I like to think that at this point, this is present-day Phoenix, after finishing his reminiscing, still desperately wishing he could bring Leona back from death.

But alas, he cannot. And so, after one last daydream of them dancing together on the beaches of California, singing about their love, the musical ends.

Dance Time!

This starts at exactly the two hour mark, if you’re interested in watching what is, once again, one of the only fun parts of this musical.

Seriously, Edgeworth’s actress kills it here, when I first saw this I went “oh, this is why I saw so many people being gay for her on twitter.”

Edgeworth’s song is an encore of “My Rule”, so it’s lots of fun. Afterwards Phoenix gets another fun piece.

Then we get to the love ballad part, which I can probably overanalyze, I feel like I haven’t done enough ridiculous over-analyzing in this essay in comparison to the other.

Uhhh so the fog represents how Phoenix feels lost in this world without Leona. You can see it in the second screenshot separating the two of them, representing the barrier of death between the two of them. Idk it’s midnight I’m getting worn out from having to think about this musical for so long.

But his mourning over Leona’s death becomes even more apparent in the credits, where Phoenix sings that one line again:

Phoenix: I want to bring you back! I believe in you.

I’m not fixing that screenshot, I think it’s oddly fitting, in a way. That’s me right now.

Then at the very end, he sings this song.

Phoenix: I’ll spend... this eternal life... soaring through... the heavens!

Technically, this refers to his name Phoenix, but let’s dig a little deeper. He spends the rest of his life soaring through the heavens... the heavens that Leona went to after her untimely death, perhaps?

Overall, the musical becomes much more interesting when you just see it as a prequel to the second musical. This musical establishes many core concepts of Phoenix’s character: his refusal to believe in the concept of things changing, for one, and also his extreme dependency on Leona who he was never separated from since they were kids and where he based his entire life around her dreams and ideals. All he can think about is her. And in the end, he promises to wait for her in California.

Yet, to paraphrase Miles Edgeworth, all that is waiting for him is her death. Their dream of opening up a Mom & Pop Law Firm will never come true.

Thanks again for bearing with me even though this wasn’t as funny!

[lightsovermonaco]

His Good Sweater: Chapter 5

Masterlist

Shoutout to @acollectionofficsandshit for being my sounding board and beta reader! She's the absolute best a girl could ask for, thanks my love!

Word Count: 3.0k

Recommended song: "The Heart is a Muscle" by Gang of Youths

You woke before the sun, Pierre's bare chest pressed to your back and an arm slung over your middle. You wiggle in his grasp, trying to be sneaky as you turn to face him but ultimately waking him. You run a finger over his lips as they curve upwards before biting lightly. You draw back and he laughs quietly.

"Morning," You whisper, head throbbing slightly. "I feel like I got hit by a train."

"Knocking back four or five shots in a few hours will do that to you." Pierre stretches, arching his back and exposing his neck. The slight mark you left the night before had darkened into a true, unmissable bruise. The reminder of it sent a thrill down your spine, and you couldn't resist ghosting your lips over the hurt.

He sighs, cupping your chin and bringing your mouth up to his. The kiss is lazy, both of you still too ensnared by sleep to put any heat into it. 

You stayed tangled in him until Yuki called to remind Pierre they had to be at the airport by eight. You helped him pack as slowly as you could manage, a stone settling in your gut. When the time came, Pierre hadn’t wanted to leave, only relenting when Yuki called again to say the jet was waiting on him. 

The longing wasn't something that normally hit you this hard when Pierre left. It was new, the edges raw and unhealed when you poked at it. Everything on campus Tuesday reminded you of him, from the sunlight hitting the lab table to the rare cloudless blue of the London sky. 

Just when you’d gotten over the sting of his absence, the news broke. Charles sent you the link to the article, simply captioned, 'You will want to read this.'

Gasly snogs mystery girl in London bar, the headline read. And fuck, that was a grainy picture of you standing between his legs, fingers tangled in his hair. You scroll through the article, heart in your throat, praying you weren’t called out by name.

By some small miracle, whoever had taken the photos hadn’t gotten one of your face. Against your better judgement, you checked the comments.

That was where your name came up. Fans had connected the dots. Your hair had been up that night, but it was the exact same shade as the picture. Your instagram had been filled with photosets of London for months, and Pierre had flown out early before Silverstone. Clearly he had been meeting someone. Anyone with half a brain could figure out that you were the one in the photos, even if the article didn't mention you directly.

The first DM didn’t come for a few hours. It was nasty, the user hurling cruel words at you that struck your chest like tiny knives. Plenty more followed, threats and names alike. 

Gold digger.

Does she really think she deserves him?

He could do so much better.

You couldn’t bear attending classes. You sent Pierre the link to the damning article and stayed in your apartment and sobbed. The fans- if they could even be called such a thing- pulled no punches. Every DM and comment struck home, until you eventually had to turn your phone off and curl up in bed, defeated.

People are cruel, you thought, wiping the tears that streak down your cheeks. 

You kept your phone off for a few hours before you gathered the courage to check it again. You immediately uninstall any and all social media, unwilling to let it affect you further than it already had. But messages pour in, most from Pierre and a few from your brother.

Hell yeah! Was all your brother sent, along with a screenshot of the article. Your mouth twists, the memory of the comments washing over you again.

Pierre’s messages were the ones that broke you. There were close to a dozen of them, accompanied by missed calls and panicked voicemails. 

“Are you okay? Please pick up the phone, my love, I need to hear that you’re okay. I love you. Please call me back.”

The last message, time stamped from a half hour earlier, simply said, “I’m getting on a plane.”

A fresh sob wracks your body. You press a hand to your mouth, trying to silence it. God, he was so pure hearted. You knew the comments would hurt him just as much as they hurt you, if not more. He would blame himself, when in reality, it had been a mutual mistake. Either one of you should have recognized the risks of your actions. But you couldn't let him risk his career for it. You could make it through… somehow.

I’m okay, you type, hating that you had to lie. You don’t need to come to London.

I’m already in the air, He informs you, and you curse softly. He would have hell to pay upon returning to Austria, even if he had somehow convinced Tost to let him leave at the last minute.

I'll be there soon

The flight from Vienna to Heathrow was about two and a half hours, which meant you had that long to pull yourself together. You didn’t want Pierre to see you broken. You shower and change into slightly less ragged sweatpants and an oversized shirt. You grab your laptop, quickly emailing your professors to apologize for missing lecture unannounced and informing them you wouldn’t be there the rest of the week either. You'd need time to sort out your head before facing your peers.

Pierre’s knock came far too quickly. You’d barely assembled your face into a mask of resolve before the door opened. Whatever semblance of control you'd managed to construct came crashing down at the sight of him. He looks just as distraught as you, eyes red and cheeks flushed.

Before he says a word, he gathers you in his arms, tucking your head to his chest. Your lip wobbles, and when he whispers “I’m so sorry,” the tears fall in earnest. For less than a week, you’d been on top of the world with Pierre by your side. You’d gotten to enjoy the idea of being his girlfriend for six days before reality stepped in and ruined it.

You clutch at his shirt, fighting hard to piece yourself back together. Now that he was there, the dam had burst and no amount of willpower could keep the sobs back. 

Pierre sweeps you up, one arm under your knees and the other keeping you tight to him as he carries you to your bedroom. He climbs into bed, shoes and all, and keeps you in his lap as he strokes your hair. He sniffles, softly enough that you know he's trying to be strong for you.  The realization that he's crying too just makes it hurt that much more.

"I'm sorry," He whispers again and again, as if the two syllables were the only ones he remembered. You can't find your voice to tell him you don't blame him or how much his presence means. 

Instead, you press your face into the soft cotton of his sweater. He doesn't move except to stroke a calloused hand over your hair. You let his presence wash over you until your breathing turns more even and your fingers stop trembling. 

"H-how were you able to leave Austria?" Your voice shakes, but you tilt your head up to face him. He quickly wipes away the wetness on his cheeks with a sleeve.

"I just left. The only one I told was Yuki. He said he'd cover for me. I saw the comments and I couldn't think straight. I didn't want you to believe them." The look he turns on you is an apology. "When I called and it didn't even ring, I had to get to you."

"I don't think you'll be welcomed back with open arms," You point out, and he presses a tender kiss to your brow.

"They can be pissed at me all they want. I don't care. I needed to be here." You wouldn't admit it, but he was right. The fact that he'd risked everything to comfort you helped you ignore what those users had said. Nothing could ever erase the words, but Pierre’s presence dulled their impact.

“I already petitioned for the article to be removed,” Pierre says softly. “Don’t know if it’ll amount to anything, but it’s worth a shot.”

You nod and wipe your nose on your sleeve. “It’s so much worse than I imagined.” Pierre’s cheek comes to a rest atop your head, his thumb rubbing soothing circles on your arm. “I get that I’m not the only one that loves you. But it’s like they don’t remember that I’m human.”

“People are bold when they're speaking to a screen instead of another person.” 

"It was so much easier before anyone knew," You say, words dipped in longing. Rumors had never swirled when you had kept your distance, you'd made sure of it. But now that the secret was out… Would your life be spent dodging threats and dealing with negativity?

He pauses, thumb stilling. “Do you… Do you want it to go back to the way things were before? When we were... friends?"

Your head whips around. “What?”

“It isn’t fair that you have to go through this because of me,” He explains. “I hate the fact that I’m the one causing you pain. The way you’re being treated is only because I live in the spotlight.”

“It’s not your fault,” You assert, placing a hand on his stubbled cheek. “Please don’t blame yourself.”

“Maybe it would be easier if we-”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” You say sternly. You force him to look at you, his eyes storming like the sea. “We’ll figure it out. Our emotions got the best of us last week. We just have to be more careful, keep this behind closed doors. We don’t need to flaunt it, right? Just tell the press that you want to keep your private life private, and I’ll take a break from social media. We can figure it out.”

Pierre nodded in agreement. His voice is scratchy, like he had swallowed gravel. “Alright.”

“It’s us against the world,” You tell him, “And I couldn’t ask for a better teammate.” Your lips ghost against his in an attempt to reassure him. He returns the kiss, firmer and more confident. Your hand slips to the nape of his neck, drawing him in as your tongue glides against his lower lip. 

Last week, you’d fucked. But tonight, the sex was something else entirely. It was soft sighs and languid kisses, whispered words of adoration and promises of endless love. Above all, it was an affirmation. Pierre loved you; heart, mind, and soul. In every sense of the word. He would let nothing come between you and himself. Not his career, jealous fans, or the thousands of miles that may sometimes separate you.

Pierre offered you his heart, and you accepted it without question.

**********

The few precious hours Pierre managed to give you were enough to keep you afloat the rest of the week. The break from seemingly endless lectures helped to reset your mind and give you time to focus on yourself.

Pierre called as often as he could, and texted when he couldn’t. You filled him in on the little things you did to keep busy, like how you spent all of Sunday rearranging your tiny apartment so that your bed was as close to his in Austria as you could get it. Monday night, you fell asleep on Facetime with him as you tried and failed to write a term paper for your architectural history class. 

Pierre’s visit and subsequent calls had made you feel invincible. But the moment you walk into the lecture hall on Tuesday, everyone’s eyes are on you: the first test of your newly minted confidence. Chin held high, you meet a few of their stares and take your usual seat at the front. The moment you start to question yourself, if you're ready to face the scrutiny, your phone buzzes with a text from Pierre.

Ignore them. Remember that I love you. I’ll call you tonight.

Once again, he somehow knew exactly what you needed to hear. It amazed you that a handful of carefully selected words could grant you so much strength. But it was proof that Pierre recognized and accepted your fears and was willing to help you work through them. 

You take a breath, letting the whispers of your classmates fade until they were nothing more than a faint hum. You turn your focus on the professor as she enters, falling into your usual cadence. Easy. You could ignore the gossip until they got tired of it and left you alone. Their fascination couldn’t last more than a few days. 

You made it through the rest of your classes and walked home without incident. No one ran up to you and demanded you explain your relationship with Pierre. Your worst fears had been abated. The stress of it rolls off your shoulders when you make it to your apartment. It was already 7 o’clock, but Pierre hadn’t called yet. Seeing as Austria was an hour ahead, you weren’t sure he would hold to his earlier promise.

Your stomach growls, and you leave your bag next to your bed before heading to the kitchen. Dinner was a box of macaroni and cheese, simple but delicious. You couldn’t stop yourself from glancing at your phone every few minutes, hoping to see Pierre’s name on the screen. 

Coming to terms with the fact that you probably wouldn't be getting a call, you settle into your favorite chair and crack open your laptop. Term papers didn't write themselves, and you still had a few thousand words to write. You lost yourself in theories and articles for a few hours before your phone breaks your concentration.

You awake?

A smile splits your face. Yeah. Working on this never ending term paper.

I'll leave you to it. Love you, sleep tight.

You laugh quietly. You agree with his 'school first' mentality most of the time, but there were exceptions to every rule. You call him, heart stuttering when he answers.

"You're supposed to be writing."

"Well, nice to hear your voice too," You say playfully. "It was boring me anyway. Who wants to read twenty pages comparing Roman and Greek columns anyway?"

"I'm pretty sure your professor does," He says with a laugh that warms your bones. If only he were standing in front of you so you could feel his chest rumble beneath your fingertips. Wanting to see his face, you switch to a video call.

"I was wondering how long that would take," He teases, smile wide and welcoming. 

"I miss you," You say softly, padding to your bed. You'd accomplished enough that you could push off writing more until tomorrow. "I wish I could come to Japan this weekend."

"Me too, my love," He responds, voice tinged with longing. "It's one of the more challenging circuits on the calendar. And you've always wanted to visit Tokyo."

You weren't surprised that he remembered that silly dream of yours. "Send me something that reminds me of you." You flick off the lights before climbing under the covers, pulling them up to your chin. "Something cute and sweet."

"I fly out tomorrow night to meet Charles. I should have some extra time to do some window shopping."

"You and Charles going on a date?" You tease, propping your head on a hand. Now that you were cozy, it was hard to keep your eyes open.

He shakes his head. "He's been… helping me with the press. Tackling it all."

"Oh." The mood sours. You decide not to dwell on it, turning to humor instead. "Give him a kiss for me as a thank you."

"He would love that," Pierre laughs. Comfortable silence blankets you, broken only by Pierre humming softly. It was a song you recognize as one of his favorites; it must have been stuck in his head.

"What time do I have to wake up on Sunday?" You mumble, struggling to stay awake while he was unknowingly serenading you.

"Do you want to watch the prerace stuff?" Papers shuffle softly on the other end as he figures it out for you. "If you do, probably like 3:30. If not, the race would be at five your time, so maybe 4:30."

"That's early. You're lucky I love you enough to sacrifice my beauty sleep."

He didn't hesitate before responding. "Luckily you don't need sleep to be beautiful."

Your mouth curls in a sleepy smile. "When you say things like that, I hate the distance between us even more."

Pierre scrubs a hand over his face. "I don't have a break for another month or so."

"I know."

Silence falls again, both of you lost in your own heads.

"You should sleep," He says finally, and you nod. Your first class was only 6 hours from now. "I'll sing to you if you promise to close your eyes and try to sleep."

Despite your best efforts, you yawn. You often called him for a song when you couldn't sleep and the time difference permitted it. Just hearing his voice was soothing enough, but a song? It was heaven. "Shouldn't be hard to do." Sleep came within minutes, Pierre's soft song your lullaby.

Tagging: @flashcal @sunshinesewis

[lady-bugginette]

Rose Painted Glasses (A Lila Exposed Fic)

First Next

Inspired by @chatonbean post. 

The first part is by another lovely user by the name of @time-is-a-pain. This is their original post here.

The part after this one, that I will make sure is indicated, is by another amazing user @lenoreofraven. Their original post is also here. Their entry is after the cut.

I want to quickly thank both of the amazing people above for letting me use their additions for setting up this fic. It is very much a collaborative effort between many talented writers, I cannot take entire credit for this. 😏

time-is-a-pain’s entry:

Nathaniel had noticed lately that a bunch of the art Lila claimed as hers were in wildly different styles. At first he tried to rationalize it, maybe she’d been branching out style-wise? Maybe she hadn’t actually found her own style yet? 

It got much harder to rationalize away the differences when he caught a glimpse of an oddly colored part of a background. Only a shade or two off, but it was there. And it looked like it might cover a signature? Now that he was thinking about it, only a few of the art Lila had shown the class had a signature.

It was harder, but it was Lila. They’d talked a lot about how horrible it felt to have your hard work stolen like that. She wouldn’t steal from anyone. Right?

Nathaniel shuddered, he hated the idea that someone would try claiming his work as their own. He made extra sure that his signature was on the picture, and would be hard to cover when he posted it to insta. H was proud of it, and no art thief would stop that.

And he was right to be proud. It quickly became one of his most popular posts. So when he got to school on Monday. and saw Lila showing off his work, he snapped at her.

Of course, most of the class took Lila’s side. But when Alix and Marinette got there, and saw what was happening, they took his side immediately.

“How can you prove it’s yours?” Kim asked. 

A chorus of agreement swept through the room. Nathaniel took a deep breath, his hands were trembling, and pulled out his sketchbook. Flipping to the right page, he stalked over to Lila’s desk, and slammed the book down in front of her.

There it was. The original sketch. Clear in view of the whole class. Nathaniel’s work.

Lila peeked out from behind her fingers when the class went deathly silent, and Alya pulled away from her. 

“How many others?” Nathaniel asked quietly, watching the panic appear, and get locked behind Lila’s mask. “Were any of them actually yours?” 

lenoreofraven’s entry:

“How could you say that? How could you do this? After all the conversations we had about art theft.” Lila exclaimed back, trying to extinguish the doubt in the eyes of  those that watched her. Not everyone was convinced. Alix stood by Nathaniel, trying her best to offer support. While Adrien gently touched Marinette’s wrist, as if signaling for her to stay back.

It was obvious Lila couldn’t win these artists over, artists who have had their work stolen. Instead her eyes settled to Ivan, Rose and Juleka. After the situation with XY, they were fuming the moment the accusation touched the air. It was their weak spot really. Took any logic they may have away.

“You said you wanted me to do a quick sketch, and lent me your notebook as I had left my tablet at home. Then you do this to me?” 

“Lila just stop it.” Marinette growled, but she wasn’t the audience for this little stunt. Lila could claim they were in France, and Marinette would check google maps to make sure they hadn’t moved. This was about everyone. 

Even Adrien, who glared at her from Marinette’s side, was part of the intended audience. As he could make, or break, her reputation if he so desired. Considering how Ivan responded to the demand. perhaps, just possibly, she could deal with two birds at once. Use this as Marinette was an expert on plagiarism, and if she picked the wrong side it could be ruin for her.

“Stop what? Trying to take credit for my own work? I know you don’t like me much, but do you honestly condone this? I thought you would be the first person to support the victim of art theft.” Marinette just looked back with a blank stare, not even humoring the accusation with a response.

All eyes were still on Lila and Nathaniel. Not ideal, but it could be managed. It was the wrong time for crocodile tears. Her eyes scanned the work again. When she had erased the signature from the upload she had been careful, after this she would start adding her own sign. For now she just needed proof. This was a draft, not the official upload. She just needed something.

“Maybe I have been experimenting with styles a bit, but this is mine. See, there’s an L, as in Lila. I made it subtle so it couldn’t be erased, like how you stitch your name into designs in clever ways, Marinette.” Lila explained, pointing at something that could be an L, but was just as likely to be miscellaneous lines. Alya, Sabrina, and a few others that were still on the fence squinted at it, tilting their heads to try and see it. The members of Kitty Section instantly took it as fact. Max, Alix and a few doubters all shook their heads, realizing the stretch.

Nathaniel glared back at her.

“That’s not an L. That’s just lines. I don’t erase signatures like some people because if you look on my insta it clearly had my signature, matches all my other work, and is clearly mine!”

“Then you must have added it. We all know how disrespectful you can be of other’s art.” Lila remarked, as she flinched away from Nathaniel. She made it as dramatic as possible, acting as if the artist would hit her. 

“LILA!” Snapped Alix, not sparing any notice for Ivan, who now stood as a shield for Lila.

Lila simply sighed with a shake of her head, moving slightly to the side so she could be seen, but Ivan still acted like a bodyguard.

“I know Marc didn’t want to mention it, but that couldn’t have been easy to witness. I don’t know what happened, I wasn’t here for it, but I do know you tore apart someone’s journal. I can’t imagine anyone doing that. It’s cruel. Sure you’re friends and have made up, now working on the comic, but doing that to someone’s notebook? I’d rather eat glass than have my precious sketchpads or notebooks damaged in anyway. I’m just saying, someone who does that may be the type of person to disrespect other people’s art.”

My entry:

Nathaniel flinched back, looking at the others in class. Rose and Juleka glared at him while Ivan stood in front of Lila, unmoving.

“How dare you!” Alix started toward Lila only to be held back by Kim. Max frowned at Lila while adjusting his glasses, he looked at the drawing again, and looked between Lila and Nathaniel.

“Don’t you dare talk about something you have no idea about- You Snake!”

Lila smiled her condescending smile at her opposers.

“It’s not my fault he caused an akuma because of his jealousy. I know he was angry with-”

Alix made another lunge for her, Kim had to quickly catch her body from the air before she could attack the other girl.

Marinette was fuming, she was burning with rage. Her face was slowly turning red, before she suddenly took out her phone. 

Adrien looked concerned. He could feel the heat coming off of her body. He looked to the windows, and the classroom door, fro any akumas. He knew it needed to be resolved, and fast. Rose and Juleka were yelling in defense of Lila, while Alix was screaming in defense of Nathaniel. Lila was still ‘cowering’ behind Ivan, and Nathaniel looked like he was on the verge of becoming another akuma. Adrien was about to speak up when someone else did.

“Actually-” A voice broke through the yells of the classroom. Alya looked uncomfortable, with Nino standing, just as uncomfortable, next to her.

Lila looked triumphant, she knew Alya would be on her side. She sent a smug look at the oposing group, one that earned a glare from Nathaniel, a growl from Marinette, and a lunge from Alix, again. 

Nino stepped forward, his expression placating.

“All we have to do is see where Nathaniel says his signature is, and see if the spot was altered on the photo posted to both accounts.”

The request seemed reasonable, if the nodding heads of the other classmates were anything to go by, if it weren’t all a lie.

Lila started crying her crocodile tears, lip wobbling at the pair closest to the door.

“Y-You don’t believe me?” She sniffed as Rose comforted her, and Juleka glared at them.

“Not at all!” Alya walked up, her hands waving in front of her.

“We’re not accusing anyone.” Nino clarified. 

“We’re just comparing the pictures, that’s all!” Alya hastened to add.

Lila didn’t look happy at all, but Rose was already pulling up the picture on Lila’s instagram. Marinette doing the same on her phone of Nathaniel’s instagram.

They both laid out their phones on a desk for everyone to compare. Max was looking at the two closely, as well as his own phone.

“Oh Marinette, that’s a screenshot.” Max pointed out. 

Lila smiled through her tears, sure that she could convince the class that she edited the photo for Nathaniel, because he accused her that one time too. 

“Oh, my bad” She said in a falsely sweet voice, something was up.

“Here. Oh!” She made it look like she was backing out of her photo gallery, when she just swiped over, and let the class see another piece of art work.

“Hey! That looks like one of Lila’s pictures!” Rose, oh so helpfully, pointed out. And it was, one of the ones she posted to her instagram anyway. 

“Oh but that’s from this artist. See? I screenshoted it when they posted it, two weeks ago. See?”

They looked closer, and sure enough the artist posted it two weeks before, They looked at the same picture on Lila’s instagram that she claimed she finished two days prior. With a suspicious bloch where the other artists signature was was on their post.

Max pulled back, pushed his glasses back up, and nodded.

“Yup. That picture is the original, you can see the watermark. And the convenient spot that covered the watermark from the original picture, right there on Lila’s instagram.” Rose and Juleka looked at her, confused. Ivan turned around, looking for answers as well. Before Lila could get a word in Marinette took that moment to completely pounce.

“Oh, but what about these pictures? Do they also have erased watermarks, because they look an awful like the other artists I follow that have had their work stolen from them too.”

Alya and Max descended on the photos like vultures on a carcass, picking apart every screenshot in Marinette’s phone, and every post Lila had made on her instagram with Rose’s phone.

Rose didn’t protest as the hovered over her phone, she looked at Lila with tears in her eyes.

“Is it true? Did-Did you s-steal them?” Juleka wrapped her arm around her shoulder, but gave a hesitant glance to Lila. Ivan looked lost, Mylene currently being out sick, he didn’t know who to side with.

Kim didn’t have to hold Alix back, she stood back on her won. Her arms crossed, and a smug look on her face, she knew Lila had been caught. She gave a smile to Marinette, who gave a thumbs up in return. Nathaniel looked relieved, he also gave Marinette a grateful smile that she returned.

Lila knew she was losing her hold. She looked to Adrien, but he was busy looking (out for akumas) around the room.

She had to play her ace in the hole.

She burst into tears, sobbing.

“I-I’m so sick of this lying disease!” 

The others looked at her confused.

Alix snorted.

“Yeah, you are lying, and you are a disease.” Kim elbowed her for that, but he didn’t say anything. 

Lila had to move fast.

“I w-was going to take them down. B-But I really do like the pictures. I h-had no idea they had b-been stolen b-by those artists-”

“That doesn’t explain the watermarks!” Alix cut across.

“I didn’t steal them! Someone else did! I-I got permission f-from whoever stole the art f-first. A-and-” She hastened to add when she saw that Alix and Marinette were about to interrupt her.

“A-and I couldn’t help but put that I drew them, because of my lying disease! R-Remember?” Marinette looked enraged, Alix and Nathaniel looked at her in disbelief. Max also looked skeptical. 

“L-lying disease?” Rose asked tentatively. Lila nodded.

“Yes! R-Remember? W-When I accidentally got Marinette expelled.” At the memory being brought up, Marinette’s face darkened further, Adrien looked uncomfortable, and Alix and Nathaniel shared a look of realization.

“I didn’t mean to get her expelled! It was my disease! It acts up during times of stress! And with all of the charities I help with, and my disabilities, I get too stressed out and start lying again!” She looked to Alya, who looked like she was almost convinced. Nino was looking to Alya. Rose, Juleka, and Ivam were firmly back on her side again.

She just needed to convince Alya, and the majority would follow, or join Marinette in exile.

“I-I’ve been getting so stressed out lately! And I can’t control the urge when it happens! I am so sorry you guys! I didn’t mean-”

“That still doesn’t explain why you accused Nathaniel of stealing your supposed artwork.” Marinette pointed out.

“Or the fact that you brought up something that you have no idea about and threw it in his face!” Alix added.

Lila schooled her face to guilt.

“I’m sorry that I offended you Nathaniel. I didn’t mean to.” She let a few tears come to the surface of her eyes, but never let them fall. 

It was all Juleka and Rose needed to flock to her and comfort her. She looked to Alya, who looked on the verge of joining her. She just needed a little more.

“I can understand what made you want to draw that picture you posted, it looks a lot like mine. You drew inspirations from that, I get that!” Nathaniel looked livid, and Alix was ready to blow.

But Lila only worried about the two that were in front of her that weren’t at her side yet. She needed them to keep her hold of the class.

“I can understand drawing inspiration from what’s around you, Marinette does that all the time no?” Said girl glared at her. Adrien had finally stopped his tour of the room with his eyes, and looked at the group. He glared at Lila, but she could deal with that later. As long as he kept his arm out in front of Marinette, and out of her way, she could deal with him later.

She just needed Alya and Nino.

“I don’t blame you for being inspired! Not at all! I just want an apology for accusing me of stealing.” At the start of the protests from Marinette, Alix and Nathaniel, she looked to Nino and Alya.

“Right Alya? Nino?”

Alya hesitantly nodded. Nino didn’t react one way or the other, Hmm...

“See? It;s alright! We just needed to communicate!” Rose cheerfully added.

At that convenient time, Madam Bustier entered the room.

“Alright class! We have a busy day ahead of us! Finish up your chat and get to your seats!”

Lila looked to Nathaniel, an expectant look on her face that made his stomach turn.

Was this how Marinette felt?

Rose, Juleka, and Ivan looked at him expectantly too.

 Madam Bustier looked back at the group, waiting. Kim slapped him on the back.

“Hey! It’s resolved now! Just apologize and it’s all good man!” 

Alix glared at him, but Nathaniel just sighed.

“I’m... Sorry Lila.”

She smiled her condescending smile once again, that Nathaniel was beginning to realize was the one she always gave to Marinette.

“I accept your apology.”

And everyone started to go back to their seats.

Nathaniel didn’t missed the way Marinette opened her mouth again, but stopped when Adrien touched her arm with his hand. He whispered something to her and shook his head. Alix noticed this too.

She looked angry, and gave him a look of disgust before she subtly tore her arm away from his. He looked sad, but retreated back to his seat anyway. Marinette looked back at Nathaniel and Alix, to see them already looking at her.

She gave them a sad smile and looked to her desk, to see Lila already seated there. She let out a quiet sigh, and made her way to the back of the classroom.

“Hey Marinette?” Nathaniel asked quietly. She looked between him and Alix, who was toeing the floor.

“Do you want to sit in the back with us?” She was about to ask why Alix would sit at the back when she saw her bookbag in her hand.

She smiled at them and nodded. They made their way to the back, not noticing Adrien’s frown of sadness or Lila’s frown of annoyance.

She didn’t like reminding them of her ‘lying disease’. It might give them a reason to not totally believe her,though it was a great skeleton key to get her out of any situation because of her lies.

She turned back around in her seat, plotting her next move for the two new people that joined her exiled list.

Oh well, looks like she’d be adjusting her plans to fit two more.

What she didn’t know, was that there was another person that was beginning to catch on to all of her little lies. He just had to catalog them all on his phone first, before bringing the evidence to light.

Tag List:

@bean2342 @chris-pixie @pirats-pizzacanninibles @multifacetedfangirl @might-as-well-happen @legallyspawned @firesong323 @kuroko26 @runestarchild @mariae2900 @laadychat

[fansofvow]

Interview with Eve Golden Woods!

Many of you know who is Eve is. She's a writer and artist, a part of Dreamfeel studios whose beautiful game If Found won Best LGBTQ Narrative and Best LGBTQ Indie game at the first ever Gayming Awards presented by EA games. I am really excited I had the chance to ask Eve some questions about herself, her time at Lovestruck and her creative process.

Congratulations on the two Gayming Awards (Best LGBTQ Narrative, Best LGBTQ Indie Game) for "If Found" from your game studio, Dreamfeel. What was the inspiration behind making the game?

If Found... was a game that emerged out of a collaboration between Llaura McGee, the founder of Dreamfeel, and artist Liadh Young. Liadh's background is as a comic artist, and so when they started working together Llaura had the idea of showing off Liadh's art by making a diary game, and using an erasing mechanic she had previously developed to let the player move through the diary in a fun way. By the time I came on board at the start of 2019, the game had already been in development for a while, so in some ways my work on that game was similar to the work I did for Voltage, because it was taking existing characters and concepts and writing a lot of scripts for them. Unlike Voltage, though, my work for Dreamfeel was a lot more collaborative and I had a lot more creative input. I really enjoy taking something and helping to make it the best version of itself that it can possibly be, but I was also really happy that I got to reflect a lot of my own experiences in If Found. Llaura and I both grew up on the west coast of Ireland, and although If Found... isn't autobiographical for either of us, it was definitely really meaningful to be able to tell a story that reflected our own experiences of growing up as queer teens in a similar kind of environment. Since the game came out we've had fans reach out to us and tell us that they also connected to the experiences of the main characters, and as far as I'm concerned, that makes me feel like I achieved everything I wanted to.

You are a writer and a visual artist. Does one come easier to you than the other?

I used to think of art and writing as talents, and I always felt like my art was at a very mediocre level (that's probably still true, lol). So when I was younger I focused a lot more on writing. It was only later that I started genuinely trying to improve as an artist, but when I did, I think I had a much healthier mindset, and approached it as a skill I could learn with patience and effort. Because of that, even though I still have a lot more confidence in my writing, I find art more fun and relaxing, and I don't stress about it as much.

Did you always know you would follow a creative path?

Kind of? Both my parents are artists, and I grew up surrounded by artists and writers, so it was something that was always very familiar and accessible to me. On the other hand, I didn't exactly have a clear idea of how to make it into a career, or what kind of work would be involved. But there's never been a point in my life where I wasn't doing something creative, even if it was only writing fanfiction.

What did your path to working professionally as a writer/artist look like?

I did a creative writing masters in college, but after that I spent years teaching English as a second language. That was really fun and I got to live abroad, but it was so busy and tiring that I didn't have time to do any writing outside of the occasional fanfic. I only started to take art seriously again when I became interested in games and comics as ways of telling stories. I did some critical writing, which led me to speak at a few local events and get involved in zine fairs. That was how I met Llaura, the director and lead of the Dreamfeel studio, and it's also what gave me the confidence to start applying for actual writing jobs.

Is there any work of art, visual or written, that you look to for inspiration?

So many! I try to read and watch as widely as I can, although there are touchstones I always return to, like the works of Ursula Le Guin and Terry Pratchett. Right now I feel very passionate about the actual play podcast Friends at the Table, which manages to combine really thoughtful worldbuilding and storytelling with cool, fun characters and great action scenes. I'm also reading a book called The Memory Police by Youko Ogawa, which has extremely beautiful prose.

Do you have a favorite piece of your own art, whether it is something you’ve drawn, a screenshot of something you’ve written or something else?

My favourite piece of art is usually whatever I finished most recently (I think that's true for a lot of people). Especially with visual art, once a bit of time has gone by you look back on it and start to notice all your mistakes, which is very annoying. But actually I do still really like the first piece of Fiona fanart I did last year. I managed to use some effects to give it a kind of nineties anime quality that I find really fun, and I think it conveys an emotion pretty effectively. That's always one of the hardest things to predict with visual art, whether the different parts will come together to create the exact mood you're looking for.

I also really like the compass I did for Bycatch. Krissy (@xekstrin) was the one who suggested filling it with fingernails, which was such a good, gross idea! As soon as I heard that I knew it was perfect and that I had to try and draw it.

Many people who read this blog know you as a writer for Lovestruck. When you look back on your time there, what stands out in your mind?

Lovestruck was very important to me when I first started because it was my first ongoing, regular, paid writing work. It gave me a lot of confidence and helped me to get into the habit of writing consistently and rapidly, which is a really useful skill to have. I know I was right to leave when I did, though, because I am just brimming with energy to work on my own projects, and channeling that power into something that you can't control will always end up disappointing you. Also, I made a ton of incredible friends, through Lovestruck itself but then even more so through VOW (@vowtogether), and that is more than worth all the difficult parts.

Is there any character that you would have liked a crack at writing?

Oh gosh, what a fun question! There are so many, but one I do sometimes think about is Axia, just because I know there are a bunch of fans who want her route, and because I had fun writing her as a villain in Zain's route. I can see in my head the shadow of a storyline that takes place after Zain's route is over, where she's in prison and trying to understand how she lost the battle with Zain and MC. I think there's, like, a gap there, where you could see her downfall forcing her to reconsider her assumptions about power, and that could build into a very interesting redemption story. But maybe it's for the best I never got to do that, because I would have wanted full creative control over it, and also I think the story in my head is very different to the sexy, in control, menacing version of Axia that her fans enjoy.

Do you have any upcoming projects you can talk about?

Most of my current work is under NDA, but I will say that I'm doing something very exciting with other VOW members that we should be able to talk about soon(ish). Maybe I can even give a little teaser... It's not a game, but it is something you can read, and my part involves cakes, swamps, and a museum.

Do you have a favorite quote or song lyric?

It's a big long, but there's a section from The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guin that has stayed with me ever since I read it:

"For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no man earns reward. Free your mind of the idea of deserving, the idea of earning, and you will begin to be able to think."

It's such a profoundly radical way of imagining the world, so different to everything I was raised with, but whenever I think about it I feel like I can see something very beautiful and powerful that I hope to come closer to understanding some day.

And of course, "Solidarity forever, the union makes us strong."

I was a big fan of the show Inside the Actor’s Studio. Host James Lipton asked every single guest the same 10 concluding questions. I’ve picked 3 of them:

-What is your favorite word?

My favourite word: for sound, I like words you can really roll around on your tongue. Chthonic, alabaster, insinuation. For meaning, I think simple words that encapsulate big concepts have a kind of power to them. We use them so often we forget how big they are, how much weight they really have, but they give us the space to imagine new possibilities. Love. Freedom. Revolution.

-What is your least favorite word?

I've heard that "moist" is a lot of people's least favourite word but it doesn't actually bother me. My least favourite word is probably one where I feel like the sound doesn't match the meaning. One of the Irish words for rain is báisteach, which I feel has a much weightier and more onomatopoeic sound than rain. Rain is just very flat and uninteresting.

-What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Oh, so many! I love history, and I think being a historian/archaeologist would be fascinating. Or something that had a physical component to it, like being a potter or a carpenter. I don't think I'd be any good, but I'd love to take the time to learn.

What would be your advice to anyone who wants to pursue a creative career?

All the work you do matters. Even the failed experiments, the things you hate when they're finished. It all helps to make you better. Also, creative career paths are often really unexpected, so chase any opportunity that seems remotely interesting. Don't work for free for anyone who can afford to pay, but work for yourself and put it somewhere. On a blog, twitter, whatever. You'd be amazed how many people get noticed and get offered opportunities because of something they made in their spare time. You'll probably have to work another job for a long time, so don't be hard on yourself if you're too tired to devote much energy to creative work. Try to make art consistently, but don't feel like that has to mean every day. Don't chase after celebrities. Make friends with your peers.

[bagadew]

The Great Ace Attorney Playthrough: The Adventure of the Great Departure (Part 2)

Last Time: I (Ryunosuke) was falsely accused of murdering John Watson Wilson, because the government’s trying to avoid an international incident and I am an expendable mug. Fortunately our best friend Kazuma of the fluttering headband stepped in to save us, but unfortunately Ryunosuke is a trusting idiot who decided to take his own defense because he didn’t want to jeopardize Kazuma’s studding abroad. In a breach of conduct for the first case in an Ace Attorney game there were multiple witnesses, none of whom committed the crime. Finally we managed to establish the presence of a woman who’s presence had been erased because she was English and the Japanese government didn’t want to cause an international incident, fortunately everyone decided fuck the government actually, and we’re bringing her in!

(Just a note before we start that because the game’s so new and I’m playing on my switch, my screenshots have really dropped in quality today (and probably for the foreseeable future). That’s also why there are less of them this time round.)

I would like to start off by reminding everyone that Kazuma’s the best.

I’m not exactly sure when I became desperate for Kazuma’s approval, but apparently I am.

If only we had ballistics - the fingerprints of the gun

Professor Mikotoba! The most innocent of men (probably)

Ryunosuke this man views us as chopped liver compared to Kazuma...

... Kazuma, Ryunosuke views himself as chopped liver compared to you...

Ok, so Professor Mikotoba was the one who invited Dr Watson Wilson over from England, and he’s sent Pink Lady to get “something we may need” from the university.

She spoke!

Why do I feel like an absolute shitstorm is heading our way...

‘I’ll save the thank-yous’ for after the trial’ Kazuma for no reason you have to stay handcuffed to me for the rest of this case and the start of the next one. I’m not having another Mia Fey incident.

Is anyone else getting big Dahlia Hawthorne vibes here?

Listen Hosonaga, I understand (from the fact that you look like this as the grand old age of 29) that life has not been kind to you, but you have to understand that Women, even if they are from England, do not naturally come in that shape. There are about 50 different places Jezaille Brett could have hidden a gun in that outfit.

Oh my god!

My favourite thing about Kazuma is how sometimes he pulls this face:

Ok so Jezaille removed one of the glasses of carbonated water from the scene of the crime, hoping to cover up the fact that she’d been there at all. Unfortunately for her I’m pretty sure that I can see the edge of a glass in the photograph of the victim, so something’s not adding up

Also she just admitted to having a handbag on her, so even if there’s not a gun stuffed inside that swan of hers, she had a way of carrying it out the scene that these idiots will recognise!

Hosonaga here, really choosing to threaten the goodwill he picked up at the end of Part 1.

Also, what’s that mark on the victims wrist? It looks like some sort of buffalo?

Also Hosonaga’s coughing feels really familiar, and while this is Ace Attorney (and therefor there could be a whole load of poison related explanations), I’m starting to wonder if he might have TB?

(For people who don’t know (which is most people) Cystic Fibrosis (what I have) and TB behave in an incredibly similar way, to the point where a lot of the people who had ‘TB’ back then might have actually had CF.)

Oh Ryunosuke...

It’s ok buddy, we’ve still got a new mystery mark and a picture glass I’m now only 80% sure I can see...

Kazuma! Not you too!

It’s so sad, he’s not even fluttering anymore

Kazuma’s now threatening the  Ace Attorney games refusal to contain swear words.

OH SWEET JESUS THAT GAVLE’S MASSIVE!!!

We’re on the right track, Miss Brett is not happy about my pointing out the buffalo burn!

Lunch my ass Miss Brett! This is clearly a ploy to escape!

Oh... I was kind of hoping Pink Lady would come back with whatever the Thing was she was sent to get. And that that would help us out of this mess.

But I guess that’s not happening just yet...

(BTW, have I just been out of the game for a long time, or is this getting really challenging for a first case? I thought the buffalo burn would do it, but apparently not)

Ok Ryunosuke, lets fall back on the old tactic of closely examining everything we possess until we find something that sort of looks like what we’re looking for. In this case a buffalo

HOT DAMN!!!

Post-mortem burn! Post-mortem burn!

I’ve just remembered this country doesn’t do autopsies!

They only go by what the body looked like at the time of death!

So when you’re faced with a man who has a bullet wound in his chest, you’d assume that was the cause of death!

And you wouldn’t CHECK FOR POISON!!!

POISON MEDICAL STUDEN JEZAILLE BRETT WOULD HAVE HAD BOTH EASY ACCESS TO AND KNOWLEDGE OF!!!

THATS WHY SHE REMOVED HIS GLASS!!!

Oh no... she’s smiling... why is she smiling...

Yeah, you and me both Hosonaga

I feel like at this point the two of us have a relationship that goes up and down like a sea-saw.

“Why did you need a translator?” Because she’s been playing this court like a dammed fiddle, next question

And just like that I’m ready to kick Miss Brett into the sun.

Yep, that’s the appropriate face.

She says, like the man who hasn’t been needlessly translating her every word, and who jumped through hoops to remove her from a murder investigation isn’t standing right there.

With every word she says I find myself becoming rapidly more convinced that Satoru Hosonaga didn’t bring Miss Brett to us because it was the right thing to do, but rather because he remembered that she was a Massive Bitch, and decided to give her what was coming to her.

LETS TEAR THIS BITCH TO SHREDS!

I’m both terrified and curious to know how they’re going to one up this lady. We’re only on the first case and she is just so deeply unlikable. I haven’t seethed over a villain like this in ages, and she’s only the first one.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to apologies to one Dahlia Hawthorne, you may have been a manipulative, poisoning, monster Dahlia, but at least you had style.

IT’S TIME!!!

I think it was Hosonaga’s spirit finally snapping next to her.

Yeah, bet you wish you’d been less of an asshole now, huh?

GET HER ASS HOSONAGA!!

Fancy a drink Miss Brett?

Kazuma, you need to do something quick, your position as my favourite is being threatened by the coughing detective who has aged like milk!

I just examined the water bottle incase in had any suspicious markings on it, and when I asked Kazuma what the French on the bottle said he told me to ‘go to France and ask’!

Yeah that’ll do it!

You go Kazuma!

GET HER ASS RYUNOSUKE!!!

Ok, Pink Lady, we really need you to come in now!

Given how confident she was about the bottle not having poison in it, and the fact that she and the victim both drank from it, I’m going to guess that it was just put straight into the glass Dr Watson Wilson drank from.     Meaning that it’s probably somewhere around the university, either still     in Miss Brett’s handbag, or in a bin somewhere.

I just want to say again what an intense first case this is!

PINK LADY!!!

[itsclydebitches]

A weird defence I've seen of RWBY's conflicts has been that it's good writing simply by the virtue that people can disagree on what's the right thing to do in said conflict. Which doesn't work when one decision is being presented as the only valid choice while every other option is either not addressed or demonized. This isn't a story leaving a nuanced set of stances to explore, it's a guy on stage signalling the crowd to boo whenever someone goes against the Protag's decision.

Real quick, I want to talk about RWBY by not talking about RWBY. I’ve seen this argument a lot too and the tl;dr is that just because your audience debates the right action in a conflict  — something that is inevitable given how subjective media is  — doesn’t mean the story encouraged that reflection in any way. As you say, RWBY pretends that those disagreements don’t exist and that This Is The One (1) Right Answer... which entirely defeats the purpose of a morally nuanced situation in the first place. That lack is bad writing because it demonstrates the author’s inability to provide an accurate picture of the conflict while still ensuring we come out of it liking the parties involved. The conflict was too complex for them to manage alongside equally complex characterization, so they just pretended it was far simpler than it actually was. That’s not something to praise. 

But to get to the not RWBY part. I’ve mentioned this a couple times before, but one of the scenes that I think manages these sorts of conflicts really well is the funeral fight in The Haunting of Hill House, episodes 6, “Two Storms.” So warning from here on out for spoilers. Sometimes, the best way to see what’s not working well in one show is to look at another show that does (basically) the same thing successfully and compare the two. 

Normally I’d include screenshots, but Netflix doesn’t allow that :/ So I’m forced to rely on bullet points. 

The basic premise is that the Crain family has assembled in daughter Shirley’s funeral home, the night before they bury their sister, Nell. A lot of secrets are about to come to light. 

The scene kicks off when their father, Hugh, relays the call he got from the housekeeper the night of Nell’s death. She had committed suicide in the family’s childhood home. 

Though everyone knew how she’d died, son Steven is distraught at hearing the details and reveals that a few weeks prior Nell crashed a book signing of his. This shocks the others given that this was very unusual behavior for Nell. 

Shirley likewise reveals that she got a call from Nell who’d been worried about their brother, Luke, but hadn’t spoken to her the night of her death. The implication is that no one did. They’ll never know what was going through her head the night she died. 

Hugh reveals that she did call him. “I talked to her.” 

Stunned by this news, his children demand to know what was discussed and Hugh is clearly reluctant to continue. However, he eventually says that Nell wasn’t just worried about Luke, but also the “Bent Neck Lady,” a specter from her childhood.

The viewer knows that ghosts are real in this show. The kids don’t. Or rather, they all experienced supernatural occurrences in their childhood, are still experiencing them now, but only some of them are willing to admit they’re real. Steven is the diehard skeptic of the bunch and starts yelling at his father, accusing him of aiding Nell’s delusions and ignoring a family history of mental illness. In particular, he declares that this “makes you culpable [in her death].” 

Steven continues to accuse Hugh of “holding back information” about Nell and Hugh shoots back that “If I held back anything it was to protect you kids.” The viewer understands Hugh’s dilemma: the only reason he keeps things to himself is because Steven and the others refuse to believe the truth, with an added dose of this supernatural stuff being very dangerous. Steven asks, “Why do I need protection from the truth?” 

Before their fight can go any further, Shirley tells Steven, “You might want to check yourself before you start talking about the truth.” He published an autobiographical book about their childhood trauma and notably capitalized on a supernatural angle he doesn’t believe in. Shirley calls it “blood money.” 

As the argument about the ethics of his book rages, Shirley defends herself primarily with how everyone else thinks this is “blood money” too. No one took a cut when Steven offered one, proving how despicable they all think it is. 

Meanwhile, sister Theo has been getting heat for being drunk (a coping mechanism for her own supernatural troubles) and Shirley eventually pushes her far enough that she admits she did take Steven’s money and used it to get her degree. “It’s good, fucking money.” Suddenly, Steven has someone in his corner and Shirley’s main defense has crumbled. 

Shirley is furious that Theo had this secret income but was still living with her and her husband. Theo reminds her that she offered to pay rent, but Shirley isn’t interested in hearing that. She demands that Theo move out immediately and uses this betrayal as the new way to protect herself. She’s the victim here. 

Steven, sensing another secret in the works, cautions Shirley to “get off your high horse before you fall off.” 

Shirley maintains her position until her husband blurts that they also took Steven’s money. Shirley hasn’t been running the funeral home well and they would have sunk without it. 

Despite being the punching bag for the second half of this fight, Shirley is offered both reassurance and dignity. Her husband emphasizes that the only reason they’re struggling is because Shirley is a good person. She does too much work pro bono. Shirley also delivers the line, “Do you have any idea how much you’ve humiliated me?” calling into question the husband’s choice to admit this now, purely as a way to prove her wrong. 

Shirley leaves to get some distance and discovers that someone — something — has put buttons over Nell’s eyes. The shock of this keeps the fight from continuing and, as plot intervenes, gives the characters the space needed to eventually start healing and forgiving one another, notably by sitting with the various truths they all now have to grapple with. 

Phew! A long summary, but I’ve put this much detail in to highlight the nuance of the scene. Obviously RWBY would differ in many ways  — less cursing, for one  — but the core elements of any morally complex scene should be the same. The important takeaways here are that no one in the Crain family are “pure” or “evil” and everyone gets their chance to be both right and wrong. Hugh is right that Steven won’t listen to him and wrong in that he didn’t do enough to help his kids. We get Steven and Hugh’s frustration, their understanding of the world at odds with one another. Steven is wrong to put everything on his father and justified in starting his writing career with their story. We watch the scene move from “Steven is Wrong and everyone agrees” to “Oh shit nm, more and more of the family are revealing that they benefited from his money, complicating how “wrong” he actually is.” Shirley is right to point out that Theo is getting drunk during their sister’s funeral and Theo is right to point out that being drunk doesn’t erase having a good point. Theo is allowed to scream at the group and then immediately be offered help when she falls. Shirley pretends she’s better than all of them and is slowly, horrifyingly proven wrong, but is then still extended compassion and is allowed to point out how horribly they’ve just treated her. The husband is right about the money, wrong about keeping it a secret/revealing it the way he did, right in how he tries to diffuse the other fights, and VERY wrong by getting caught kissing Theo down in the storeroom! 

The scene twists and turns in a way that highlights everyone’s points and their flaws, the moments when their perspective should be upheld and questioned. The end result is a scene that has space for the audience to debate everyone’s choices without imposing the single view of This Person Is Obviously Wrong/Right and If You Think Otherwise You’re Not Watching The Show Correctly. The show itself acknowledges the complexity and nuance of these problems. It asks, “Hugh should have tried harder, but what more can he do when his kids literally don’t believe this stuff exists? Was Steven really justified in writing a book about their collective experiences? What does it mean that something his family sees as capitalizing on their trauma also helped them keep businesses and schooling afloat? Was it okay for Shirley’s husband to keep that money a secret, even if it helped them? How might he have told her in a less cruel manner? What about Shirley’s life has led to her intense need to be on that ‘high horse’?” 

And of course: “Who is really responsible for Nell’s death?” By this point the viewer already knows that there is no “really” here. This is too complicated a tragedy to lay the blame at any one person’s feet. Everyone in this room has moments of justified accusations and moments of chastisement because they’re well written, well rounded characters who are neither saints nor devils. The length of the scene (done in a single shot!) emphasizes that if you just wait long enough, even the most perfect looking person will eventually have a skeleton pulled from their closet. No one is above mistakes. 

RWBY has NONE of that. Zip. Nada. Nothing. RWBY gave us a scenario with many of the same, core themes  — secret keeping, secrets unwillingly revealed, blaming others for your mistakes, hurtful actions with helpful consequences, questioning who is responsible for a tragic death  — and instead of even attempting to give us some of the above nuance, RWBY said only that Ruby was right, Ozpin was wrong, and demanding that the audience ignore the nuance they could already see in order to accept the canon. 

RWBY’s scene asks the audience to play dumb and look at the world as a Black and White place, despite the show simultaneously insisting that “the world isn’t a fairy tale” and is, in fact, filled with shades of gray. 

Just not any shades of gray that mess with that dichotomy that now drives the story.  

That’s not good writing. It’s oblivious and contradictory writing that makes the audience frustrated. Not satisfied, surprised, contemplative, or curious. Just frustrated. 

[having-a-hyperfixate]

The Final Day’‘

This is absolutely going to be long and rambley af so I’mma just put a cut here. This is just one massive post for the entire rest of the game.

Rindo is back in the RG somehow. Which makes less than no sense. What was that crazy beam. Shibuya is GONE there isn’t an RG to send him back to, even if someone did want to send him back?

That beam reminded me of the Jesus beams not gonna lie.

But… Fret. Presumably Nagi and Beat too. They’re. Gone. Poor Rindo… That’s the worst kind of gaslighting. Reality itself is gaslighting this poor kid. ‘Your best friend in the world is gone, so gone that no one remembers him. You don’t even get to mourn properly because there is no one TO mourn.’  I am also not okay.

I assume this random talking to us at Hachiko is the dude I saw a brief glimpse of in a screenshot from the final trailer. Hazuki Mikagi, okay. Everything about this is supremely weird. 

Leading this weirdo around and he asked how we feel about emotions? Um, what?

Was he responsible for that beam of light?

This whole thing is extremely unsettling, I don’t think I like it. The music is all… serene, this guy keeps asking existential questions, who even comes up to some kid clearly having a bad day and demands a tour of the city.

He knows Rindo’s name even though we never told him. Not sure if that was a slip or an intentional nudge that Something is going on but there we go.

‘I should take this chance to apologize for Kubo. He’s a real piece of work.’ WHAT. YOU SEND HIM TO SHINJUKU?!?! IS THIS KID GOD!? WHAT!??!

‘Exorcised’. Like a demon. Which is a psychic rank you can get in the first game, and probably this game, ergo, a thing that exists in this universe.

Okay. So this Hazuki guy is Something Else. I dunno if he’s an Angel or higher or WHAT. He’s something. And he “exorcised” what Fuckwad had Fallen to when he decided not to stop at Shinjuku and continue on to Shibuya. But he only did this after Rindo faught so hard to stop it. And then he gave Rindo what he thought Rindo wanted. And now he’s here trying to understand why Rindo is miserable. Which to us, as humans, is obvious: the people he loved, the connections and family he had made through the game are all gone and worse, no one remembers they ever existed.

And now he’s being offered the chance to try again. This feels like a double edged sword. And I don’t care.

Okay I actually kind of appreciate the thing Hazuki is pulling here. He knows what it is that Rindo wants, I’m pretty sure he’s listening to his thoughts, actually, and in order to make Rindo own up to it he’s arguing the ‘no’ position. Giving Rindo someone to argue against so he can convince himself.

WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAPPEN AT UDAGAWA.

Bruh some of these clips were in the announcement trailer.

(I can’t wait to read the secret reports. That’s gonna be a wild ride.)

Oooooh that’s what ‘exorcised’ means. That is hardcore. He definitely deserved it but that is uh. Slightly inconvenient.

Can we actually contact Rhyme this time PLEASE. Oooh Rindo worked out Kaie is waiting for Rhyme. :O I’M FINALLY GONNA GET MY MASSIVE COUNTER OFFENSIVE FUCK YES. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I’M PUMPED LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOO!!!!

Who’s gonna protect them. Beat. Really. Just give them the damn pins at this point. They both know their ways around a fight and Kaie might need the backup. If we lose, we’re all toast regardless, and if we win everyone gets put back where they belong.

AAAAAAAAAAAH SHE’S HERE!!! RHYME!!!! Aw… She can’t see Neku and Shoka cuz they’re actually dead. That’s really depressing. Makes sense but like. Oof. Especially for Neku.

I love that Rhyme still has a saying for everything.

This timeline is going to be a mess by the time I get everything positioned correctly lmao

Beat’s ‘How do you know about my sister?! Right, future.’ is never going to NOT be funny. It’s very refreshing to have a time travel plot where people just listen when he tells them shit needs to happen.

Is it acutaly Shiki time ohh my god. I might cry. Please tell me she has a face now. If her face is still illegal I will actually scream.

I’m offended. We didn’t get to go see Shiki. The betrayal. OH but now we might be? Stop playing with me, game. GIVE. ME. SHIKI.

Rindo was freaking out that we weren’t gonna be able to get rid of all the Noise around the café and I definitely threw my hands up and yelled when I saw the word ‘zeptogram’. And I read it before he said it, cuz I read v. fast. Nice to see you again, idiot. Please don’t go berserk again.

I am. Very impressed that Minamimoto managed to work out where the Dissonance Noise are coming from, down to the exact energy source that creates them. He nailed it. Well done sir.

I think… he’s proposing we awaken the city and use the energy generated by the thoughts and emotions of the living people to neutralize some of the Dissonance Noise that are waiting in the pin. Erode some of its power.

“How about this: I’ll talk, you type.” Lmao.

I got denied Shiki again. Part of me is annoyed. The other part of me is like ‘are they saving her entrance for when she can see Neku again properly because I can live with that’.

OH the Hishima cutscene is voiced now OKAY. Guess that means this is the one. Rhyme is voiced too. This is gonna be it.

And she speaks Minamioto. Coo.

Huh. Neku’s power is to sync with people. Which he learned to do in the first game. From Mr H, with the harmonizer pin. (Twister is playing and I have Emotions help) And now he’s gonna do it on an absolutely MASSIVE scale. This is insane. I am 1,000% here for it. Sync, Dive, Remind. And if I had to guess, we’re doing this atop 104.

Alright Shiba. ‘Mere. Tsugumi’s eyes aren’t all freaky anymore yay. Oh snap. He’s gonna unleash the Plague Noise against the Dissonance ones. Nice. Turnabout is fair play. I’m kinda sad Fuckwad isn’t here to witness that.

Alright. Change. Our. Fate.

SHIIIIIIIIIIKKKKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I gave myself a headache ow.

“07734.” “Ew. Hey! Don’t just spout off numbers and walk away, you jerk!” That was amazing.

FUCK ME SIDEWAYS. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. NO. NO WAY. I DIDN’T THINK THERE WAS ANY WAY. OH. MY. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. This is the first time Neku’s seen him since Joshua failed to stop Coco from killing him. I’m. A puddle. Help. Neku looked so happy. My cat is slightly concerned haha.

Neku still holds his hands like he’s got the headphones. The same pose as in the first game when you scan. This gives me all the feels.

“They’re just mindless thoughts” Okay so I’m mentally exhausted at this point and I processed that as ‘thots’ and it was hilarious. BEGONE THOTS.

Okay this thing right here? This is a final boss. And it is cool as fuck. Too bad it’s trying to END ME. So cool. SO. COOL. Here comes phase 2 lol. I died and had to redo it. FML.

That. Was awesome. A worthy successor to the epic final strike of the first game. 999% eh?

I continue to not like Shinjuku rules. Once you’re a Reaper, leaving means you get erased once the game ends? Disrespectfully, fuck that. Oh don’t you dare, Shoka. Don’t. You. Dare.

Oh, Joshua is here. PLEASE. Lmao Shoka’s reaction. I’m sure he appreciates that, the drama queen.

*facepalms* Joshua strikes again. I’ve missed you, you little shit. You are terrible, but I missed you. Rindo, I’m pretty sure she’s fine. I think captain helpful over here reincarnated her for you. Since you saved him and his city. I guess I’ll see though.

Uzuki and Kariya continue to be adorable. I love them. And yeah, good luck calling in that debt from Minamimoto, Coco. Gooooood luck.

I’m having a lot of Joshua centered emotions right now there is too much Joshua all at once help. “I should have known I could trust you.” You are killing me dude. You really, really should have. I’m going to turn that line over in my head for way too long, I just know it, but let’s try to get through this before my brain turns off completely. “Let’s not keep her waiting.” OKAY THANKS I’M GONNA CRY AGAIN.

What Hazuki was saying about ‘purifying’ as opposed to ‘destroying’ Shinjuku makes me think that restarting it in some form was always part of the plan, so hopefully they’ll have luck with that. It’s still profoundly fucked up that any of that happened, and even more so that it was sanctioned. I’m. Going to be hung up on that for a while once it sinks in.

This poor idiot hitting on Rhyme is about to get got oh no XD

Shiki is breaking my heart. Aaaaaaaah!!! Reunioooooon.

Ooof it’s been a month since Rindo saw Shoka. Big oof. Joshuaaaaaa.

And then they almost got hit by a car lmao. OMG HE MISSED HER FRIEND REQUESTS AHAHAHAHAH YOU GOOBER. Neku really should have warned them that Joshua is Like That lol. Even when he’s being helpful it’s in the must backhanded way possible.

I would very much like to know why on earth Shinjuku needed to be obliterated though. Like. Does that… Happen often? Maybe the secret reports say.

Speaking of, time to get those, along with the rest of the trophies.

!!!! The title screen updated, NICE. Can’t let anyone who hasn’t beaten it see that but NICE.

There’s another Another Day. Oh boy. I am not ready for that madness yet.

Random thought as I was moving this from word, where I typed it: I’m really, really fucking glad they didn’t decide to deal with Mr H the way they dealt with sleezy mcfuckwad. That would have been… I don’t have a word.

[epicspheal]

Pokemon Journeys Episode 44

[Image Description: Screenshot of the Pokemon Journeys Anime of Chairman Rose, Ash and Leon looking up at Eternatus who is offscreen]

Oh man this episode was something.

Goh’s first Dynamax battle was pretty neat. I still wish Goh had battled Oleana with G-max garbodor (especially since we see him begin to battle her at the end of this episode). But honestly I’m really glad to see Goh battling more

Also Sonia and Goh’s “F the police” attitude in this episode was amusing and I quite enjoyed it especially the car scene. The music there was amazing.

The scene where Sonia and Goh piece together the darkest day was interesting. I liked the little bit with inscription of the names...it wasn’t there in games I don’t think and it tied things together

That being said (and this is a critique I have in game since I’m a researcher myself) the way the darkest day research is done just wraps itself up too neatly. I appreciated last weeks episode with Magnolia going in on Sonia saying she had more work to be done even though she congratulated her for making important leaps. This is a more minor nitpick just because of my own career and I know research  in real life does not tie itself up that neatly (although it would be so nice if it did)

Speaking of Sonia, I was really disappointed in how much of a Damsel she was in this episode. Like we get it, she’s not as strong as Leon but that doesn’t erase her battle ability...

Leon being so fed up was such a refreshing departure from the games. I mean I loved how in games Leon was very proactive in dealing with threats, but it was nice to see him shed the “smiling, unbeatable champion persona” and just be angry. Leon was on a mission and I like how this ties into the theme in game of him being a protector of Galar

Although the “my father died” backstory addition is an overdone trope, I think it really cleared up Rose as a person versus the confused mess that we get in games. Plus it provides a clearer version of who Rose is in games which is a person who has fair points but continuously fails to communicate and doesn’t think things through. He doesn’t want anyone to feel the pain he felt losing his father in the mines, yet he’s ignoring the fact that his plans are basically causing the same risk.

The “mentor betraying student” touch they added with Rose and Leon was actually pretty nice in my opinion. I know for some it seems simplistic and makes Rose more of a black and white villain (to the understandable dismay of people who are fans of game!Rose), but I personally think it adds a lot to Rose’s antagonism. This is again a moment where Rose is not thinking about the consequences of his plans and words. Like it absolutely makes sense for him to want to have a strong trainer at his side to take care of Eternatus, but Rose once again fails to take into account that telling Leon that was not the best move and would likely not sway him to his side (again this is a prime example of the poor communication skills he has in game).

I must say I do have nitpick with how Eternatus was shown to be roaming free in episode 12, yet apparently revived by Rose in this arc. 

Honestly as much I’ve been annoyed that this arc is being rushed and condensed, I have to say a lot of what they’ve managed to cram in there has been really good. Not perfect, but this simpler yet darker portrayal of the Darkest Day arc is not entirely a bad thing. 

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 7

part 6 here

Hello everyone and welcome back to this quasi-watchalong of Magia Record season 1! Last time, Iroha met a magical girl mercenary called Felicia, and the two ended up caught in the Rumor of the Lucky Owl Water. When our girls went to erase it, a cult group of weirdos called The Wings of the Magius stood in their way and got Felicia to join them promising the extinction of all witches.

Who are these weirdos? What are they up to protecting the Rumors? Is what they promised Felicia true? Et cetera, et cetera. Let's just go to the episode to find out already.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record S1 episode 7

O-oh... what a way to start an episode, huh.

We get a look into what led to Felicia becoming a magical girl and, like most magical girl backstories, it's tragic. This is the reason why Felicia's obsessed with destroying all witches.

Continuing from the previous episode, Felicia was taken to a subterranean waterway, that might be their hideout. Wait, didn't Kaede say something about a rumor of a giant underground empire some time back? She might've been right after all hahaha

After walking a while, Felicia is met by Tsukasa and Tsukuyo Amane, two of the, uh, generals I guess I could say, of The Wings of the Magius.

The weirdo twins explain that their organization's objective is fulfilling the wishes of the Magius, whose objective is the salvation of all magical girls. See, so they are the ones behind the salvation propaganda.

The twins say their objective cannot be completed without the eradication of witches, which... well, is not a lie. Without the witchfication, there would be no witches. It's all fine until there, but then they're also protecting Rumors, who kidnap people, so... yeah.

...uh, hey, Kyoko? What are you doing here?

Back to Iroha's group, Iroha is worried about just letting Felicia go like that, to which Yachiyo answers it's fine because she planted a GPS on her... sasuga, Yachiyo. Why in the heck did you have that?

"Am I being tracked too...?”

Yachiyo says this much is normal (no it's not), since she didn't trust Felicia to begin with, but Iroha just feels bad knowing Felicia's circumstances.

The trio heads towards Felicia's position and find the entrance to the waterway. Waiting for them there was...

Chibi Kyuubei. For as adorable as he is, he manages to look even more suspicious than the original. And he only shows up when there's a rumor around, too! I don't trust him.

Back at the underground waterway, Kyoko and Felicia are having a little chat. According to her, Kyoko only just ran into them too. She says that as long as she has Grief Seeds, food and a place to sleep, the rest doesn't matter, but she also seems to be aware that the WoM are fishy. Felicia agrees uneasily, but hearing that they might be behind the witches gathering in Kamihama seems to already have put doubts in her mind.

The two have a meeting with the Amane twins inside the Rumor's barrier.

The twins explain the logic behind the Lucky Owl Water once again, and Kyoko says this

There it is! This series' core. Funny hearing that from Kyoko, since I think she doesn't even know how right she is yet.

Kyoko rejects the Water and lays out her terms: as long as she can keep gathering Grief Seeds, she's fine with anything. However, the twins affirm that those are not necessary in Kamihama. Normally, I'd say these two are bonkers, but... well, we saw what happened to Iroha and Kaede. These two must know about that too. At this moment, a black feather comes in and interrupts their little show.

Iroha's group was making their way through the waterway when the Amane twins block their way and, together with them, Kyoko and Felicia.

The Amane twins tell Iroha to do what they say if she doesn't want to be swallowed by bad luck and Iroha asks them why would they create that Rumor, to which the twins once more say it's for the sake of the Magius and their salvation. See, cult.

Yachiyo cuts to the chase and confirms they're here to battle, and the twins pull out something strange on them.

So, yeah. There's pocket monsters, and now we have pocket witches too, apparently.

The twins called a witch upon our girls, which, according to them, they are controlling with magic. As the girls begin fighting against their familiars, Yachiyo asks the twins if they have any idea of what exactly they're doing. Tsukasa apologizes, but affirms that witches will be gone if they can realize their plans. The twins (literally) pull the rug on Yachiyo and Tsuruno and chase after them, leaving the (weak) Iroha to Kyoko and Felicia.

Iroha gets whacked by the familiars and Felicia comes in to help. Iroha then once again dashes in her direction and they do a connect. Upon further thought, I think Iroha's assist is a booster in a more literal sense, since it turned Felicia's hammer into a rocket-hammer. My theory is that it's the same propulsion magic that makes her crossbow work.

Felicia's hammer causes a quake and one of the twins asks what's going on. Well, what did you think would happen if you released a witch in front of someone who notoriously goes berserk when they see witches? The twins might not be very smart.

Damn, I missed a number.

Kyoko bounces too. She wasn't very convinced with the twins' vague talk of "salvation".

After transforming, Kyoko does her good act of the day, busting a hole in the barrier and telling Iroha to go on ahead. Iroha hesitates to leave her friends behind but obeys when Yachiyo tells her to go.

With Kyoko guarding her back Iroha manages to make it out of the witch's p*kéball and into the Rumor's barrier. Like it's said, out of the frying pan into the fire. Oh and there's 7-6. I'm really missing numbers left and right today.

No Iroha, don't go chase the Kyuubei towards the light...! Just kidding. Iroha gets out of the tunnel and finds the Rumor's main body. She confirms with her tutorial mascot if she only has to break that, readies her crossbow and... gets swarmed by owls. C'mon Iroha, did you really think it'd be that easy?

While Iroha's busy sucking at battles, Felicia's not having a better time with her reckless style either. Kyoko saves her ass and tells her she's not winning like that.

This whole sequence is just great in terms of animation, shame I can't really screenshot that T-T

As someone on a similar spot, Kyoko gives Felicia some advice, telling her she's a magical girl for her own sake; that's how it should be when she's betting her own life.

The two cooperate on destroying the witches, with Felicia bonking the whole barrier to smithereens. Nice job, rocket-hammer!

The girls go back to the waterway and the twins' Soul Gem is quite drained. Tsuruno tells them to stop already, but these two weirdos say that's just what they wanted.

Saying that they'll be able to show that Kamihama is a place of salvation, the two do the same thing Iroha and Kaede had done.

Uhhh... if the salvation that the Magius is preaching is spewing out a witch from your body, that's already super fishy. There's no way there's no downside to this. This is Madoka we are talking about... right...?

While Yachiyo's group learns a shocking and disturbing truth, Iroha's busy getting her ass kicked. Poor Iroha

and oh god, I don't think anyone would ever catch this number if they weren't pausing as much as I am to write this.

Iroha keeps getting wrecked by the owls, miraculously escaping unscathed thanks to the Lucky Owl Water. As the numbers keep counting down, Iroha starts questioning what happened to her back in the Seance Shrine. Uh, Iroha, is this really the best time to be introspecting?

No matter how many times I see it, this scene still creeps me out.

While Iroha gets another round of spawning a witch, Yachiyo's group fight the twins', to no avail. Back to Iroha...

Oh no the witch talks now? Eek... oh, wait wait is this still Iroha's voice?

Not that the first thing it said is wrong, but Yachiyo's words really remained in a negative manner, huh? First in the Seance Shrine and now this. Iroha, don't go getting yourself killed trying to become stronger, ok?

A-at least it's a bit cuter now... if you can call a witch that... rather, why did it change?

Iroha's thing makes short work of the Rumor and the Chibi Kyuubei peaces out. As if it wasn't suspicous enough, it turns into freaking water. Goddammit Chibi Kyuubei.

Iroha just lies there tired.

Uhh... yeah, sure, if you count an eldritch abomination coming out of you as part of yourself, then yeah you did.

Like last time, Iroha's Soul Gem is pristine clean now.

Back to the twins, thanks to the floating water falling they realize that the Rumor's been defeated , then start panicking.

"Someone", whose voice we're already familiar with, comes in to check on the situation and the twins apologize for their failure.

Whelp, this is awkward. Hello there, Mifuyu. So you joined a cult.

Tsuruno gets really emotional. She runs up and hugs Mifuyu. who stops the Black Feathers from attacking her. Tsuruno's really glad that she's back and says they'll have to make a "Welcome Back Party" at her family's restaurant, but Mifuyu says she's not going back, because she's part of the cult The Wings of the Magius now. (couldn't they choose a shorter name for their group? Geez)

Mifuyu shifts her attention to Yachiyo and says she's happy that they went even to Seance Shrine to search for her; Yachiyo says it's thanks to the Kamihama Rumor Files (the notebook Yachiyo carries around) that she left behind.

Yachiyo asks but Mifuyu implies she's the one that was left behind.

Mifuyu invites Yachiyo to join the cult but Yachiyo, obviously, can't agree with their methods. She questions if Mifuyu hadn't resolved herself as a magical girl but Mifuyu, like we saw in the flashback, really wants to be saved. Yachiyo's the only one who's strong like that.

Yachiyo says she'll stop her by force if she has to and they prepare to battle again, but Mifuyu uses her magic and has her group leave.

Iroha's group leave the underground waterway (seems Kyoko has gone her way already too). Felicia tries to leave too and says she has nowhere to go back to when Iroha stops her and asks, so Iroha tells her to come over to her place.

Felicia says she doesn't have to do that for her, but Iroha says she's doing this for herself, that she needs Felicia's strenght. Felicia argues that Iroha will get in trouble again if she's around and all the girls chip in saying they'll help her learn to hold herself back. (I'm not sure what this far framing is doing but I do like how it lets us see the body expression of all the girls at once.)

Huh, weird, why is the screen so blurry? I can't type like this...

Iroha apologizes for what they said and insists on having Felicia over, even if just for the day. Yachiyo comes in and tells them to stay over at her place instead.

*sobs* so beautiful ;-; I wish I knew the name of the ost track here it's really pretty too.

It really is Kyoko, it really is.

At Yachiyo's place, Iroha's on the phone with her parents while the others wait for her to eat. It seems like her parents finally decided on where she's going to be moving to, and whatever they said was a surprise.

There goes the last number! The Rumor's gone so this has to be purely for the sake of finishing the countdown, but I have long given up on trying to find the ones I'm missing in this episode.

And there's the title card. Don't leave the episode yet, though, as there's still an after credits scene.

To absolutely no one's surprise besides Iroha's, the place her parents decided on is Mikadzuki Villa, Yachiyo's place. Now, I did say that last number must be purely illustrative, but I'm inclined to agree with Iroha here on it being thanks to the Lucky Owl Water since there is no other way I can rationalize Iroha's parents, from overseas, managing to find the phone number of Mikadzuki Villa, that's not even doing boarding anymore, calling while Yachiyo's around to respond, making an agreement to let Iroha live there, and Yachiyo not even telling Iroha her parents called. So yeah, I say it was the Lucky Owl Water.

Felicia comes with Tsuruno and reveals she's also been living in Yachiyo's place. She's happy she'll be freed from living alone with Yachiyo and her "nagging" and Yachiyo tells her to clean up; Iroha says she's glad to see them getting along.

“When did I turn into a mom?“

That's a new type of bishie sparkles alright. Can all models do this? Is it like some special ability like Gabs' censor light rays? We'll never know.

After the various types of ad, now we have spam too. Magia Record is actually warning us about the dangers of the internet.

...In all seriousness though, that's some mysterious text. How do they, whoever "they" are, know that Iroha's a magical girl? And most of all, how do they have her number? Guess this is going to be the mystery for the next episode. (Also, I never noticed this before but you can hear a veeeery quiet chime when the messages come in. Nice detail!).

- x -

Aaaand with that, we have concluded episode 7! This one also ran on longer than I expected and, surprisingly, managed to surpass the number of screenshots of all others at about 43 images. sugoi

I couldn't catch all the numbers this time, but the ones I did were: 13-12 with Iroha on the bridge; 10-9 when Kyoko "betrays" the WoM; 7-6 when Iroha finds the Rumor; 6 through 1 happen while Iroha's fighting the Rumor and the last 1-0 was in Yachiyo's magazine. With that, I'm missing 12-11; 11-10; 9-8 and 8-7, which I have no idea where they are. Oh well.

I realized partway through that it kinda seems like I'm dissing Iroha every chance I get, but I assure you I don't hate her. In fact, she's my favorite character! This is coming purely from a place of affection, and a bit of frustration at what the anime did to her character, so don't mind me, it's aaall good.

With that out of the way, this was episode 7! We are now over halfway through, with a buckload of mysteries and barely any progress being made towards finding Iroha's younger sister. Poor Ui, if you even existed. Tomorrow, we'll be watching episode 8, so I hope you'll read me again then. Have a great morning/afternoon/evening and see you later!

[babyboy-bangtan]

By Chance Chapters 9-10

A misunderstanding gone viral puts you on BTS’s radar, which leads to a series of events that finally culminate with you meeting them for the first time.

✚ Pairing: Sub!BTS/Female Reader ✚ Word Count: 2.8K ✚ Rating: M ✚ Warnings: None. ✚ A/N: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of my imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Read on AO3 / Chapters 1-4 /  Chapters 5-8

Chapter 9: The Guests

"Do you already know which artist is performing that day?" Your friend asks over the phone while you eat your toast with one hand and hold a script with the other. Reading it doesn't need your full attention, and based on what this movie seems to be about it doesn't look like it deserves it anyway.

"No, not yet." You reply absentmindedly, taking another bite of your toast while seriously contemplating just giving up on this script halfway through reading it. You doubt it's redeemable at this point. "It's in like a month anyway. They said they would tell me first before announcing it, though."

"This is so exciting!" She almost squeals, and you close the script before throwing it in the trash. You lost count of how many times it was written that the male protagonist couldn't keep his eyes from your cleavage. "I can't believe you're hosting again. I've been waiting for this to happen for years!" You can't help but laugh at her dramatics.

"It feels as surreal as the first time, honestly." You eat the last bite of your toast and pour yourself another glass of orange juice. You did enough freaking out to last a lifetime when you hosted the show for the first time a couple years ago, so this time you're excited but definitely not on the verge of a nervous breakdown like last time.

"Who do you think will be performing?" She asks, and you realize that you hadn't thought about that at all. "Oh my god what if it's BEYONCÉ?" She damn near screams that last part, and your brain immediately screams NO at that. You're still embarrassed at what happened last year, and you don't know when you'll be able to face her again without feeling mortified. 

"Who knows?" You quickly reply. "Maybe it'll be like Ed Sheeran or something."

"Maybe." She responds, way less excited than when she thought Beyoncé was a possibility. "Anyways, tell me when you know, okay? My break is almost done so I gotta go."

"Will do. Bye, love you!"

"Love you too, bye!" You hang up and stretch your arms over your head, already feeling stressed.

What if it was Beyoncé? It would be the third time you see her and even though she was incredibly lovely when you apologized and explained what happened the first time you met, that did nothing to erase the embarrassment you still feel today. You don't really think she would perform in a regular episode with you as the guest either, but now you can't help but feel anxious about it.

They said they were going to tell you who the artist was in the next few days, so for now all you can do is wait and try to not overthink too much.

Easier said than done.

Three hours ago, taking a nap because it was raining and the temperature had dropped just enough for it to be perfect for sleeping had seemed like a great idea. It's not the first time you do it, the day called for it, and since you didn't have to work today it was okay to relax and rest for a bit considering that in a couple days you'll start shooting again.

Completely harmless.

Except it wasn't.

You wake up thanks to some very loud thunder, and you snuggle deeper into your covers to continue sleeping. Another thunder disrupts you again, so you decide to look at the time and see if it's even worth it to try and sleep some more. But instead of being greeted with the time once you turn your phone on, you're greeted with 50 missed calls and texts from over 30 conversations.

"What the fuck?" You mumble to yourself, rubbing your eyes to try and see a little better.

Around 30 of the missed calls are from friends, and the rest are from your publicist and agent. You scroll down the conversations until you reach the message you got first, and the name makes you think you might understand what happened.

SNL Producer.

2 hours ago.

Hello [Y/N]! I'm just writing you to let you know before we post it on social media, that the musical guest on your episode will be BTS. See you soon!

Well, now you have no doubt that's definitely it.

You read through the messages as fast as you can and manage to reply to several before you're interrupted by your publicist calling.

"Hi, sorry. I was taking a nap." You quickly say.

"Don't worry, I just wanted to let you know that the internet exploded two hours ago."

"Because of BTS?" You ask, pulling the covers off of you and sitting on the edge of your bed. "That's not news, it happens every other week."

"Well, yes, true—" She agrees. "—but we don't care about those times, we care about this now because it involves you." She pauses for a second. "Check what I just sent you." You remove your phone from your ear and put her on speaker before opening the message notification.

It's the screenshot of an Entertainment Weekly tweet.

Exclusive: @BTS_twt and [Y/N] will finally meet and we couldn't be more excited

4,5K replies, 190K retweets, 380K likes.

"How the fuck did that get so many likes?" You blurt out, eyes wide. Your hear your publicist laugh heartily.

"It's more now, actually. The screenshot is from 10 minutes ago. And it's because BTS retweeted it."

"Oh, right." You say, shaking your head at yourself. You should've known. "That makes sense."

"It would be even better if you had a twitter account yourself so you could retweet and even send them someth—"

"My mental health." You interrupt her, rolling your eyes as you fall back again on the bed. You've lost count of how many times she's tried to have you make new accounts already. "Remember how I had to start taking antidepressants because of social media?"

"Right, yeah. The mental health thing." She sighs. "You could always have someone manage them instead of yourself, you know."

"Yeah, and then I'd be constantly checking what's been posted and what people have replied to every post." You hate talking to her about this, because even though she's great at her job and mostly understanding, she still complains about what a loss it is that you're not on Instagram and Twitter.

"Fine. I'll drop it." She pauses for a second. "Anyway, the reason why I called is to know how much do you know about these guys."

"I know a bunch of their songs. I've been listening to that song they did with Nicki, Idol— it's so catchy and the video is so random but so great." You conveniently leave out the detail that the reason you like the video so much is because they look beautiful in those suits while simultaneously looking like the cutest human beings on Earth with their other colorful outfits— especially in those sweaters with cartoon characters and the ripped jeans. "I actually watched a bunch of their music videos back when the whole behind the scenes stuff happened." Moments from their Blood, Sweat and Tears music video pop into your mind, but you immediately redirect your thoughts elsewhere. That video makes you feel way too many things that you should not be feeling while talking to your publicist. "They're so talented." You quickly add, sincerely. "I was thinking about watching some interviews soon to see what they're like. I haven't really watched any of that."

"Good! I was going to tell you to do that. These guys are like a publicity machine. If they approve of you, their fans will like you."

"Weeell..." You say, grimacing a little. You're not so sure about that. "Either that happens or they see me as a threat to them and decide I'm not good enough to be near them, and get a hashtag calling me a demon trending first worldwide."

"Well, based on the replies to that tweet I think many of them are excited. The international fans at least, I don't know about their Korean fanbase."

"And also, do not call them a publicity machine. They're actual people, you know." You sigh. "And that's not the reason why I will try to know more about them. It would be disrespectful to meet them without knowing anything about them. And please, stop seeing artists as only publicity opportunities. I told you I hate that!"

"That's literally my job, love. And whatever your good person reasoning is, I don't care. Just do that." She pauses. "And now I have to leave you, because unlike you I actually have to work today. See ya." She hangs up before you can say anything, and you take a deep breath.

She can be a goddamn handful, but even when she acts without emotions she always does things the way you want them and is very accommodating. She's good at her job.

You finally get out of bed and walk to the kitchen, where you left your laptop. But before you can do anything, you have an incoming FaceTime call from your best friend. She must've just read your reply to her 50 angry texts because you didn't tell her who the guest artist was going to be on your Saturday Night Live episode before the rest of the world found out.

"Heeeeeeey." You say innocently once her face appears on screen.

"Why didn't you tell me?! I had to find out on Twitter!"

"Okay, to be fair, you found out before I did. I was dead asleep when the producer texted me." You leave the phone standing against a glass of water and open your laptop. "So I had no chance to tell you before they announced it."

"Ugh, fine." She groans, rolling her eyes. "Anyways, are you excited?"

"I haven't had a chance to feel anything. I woke up to a thousand texts and calls and then my publicist called me." You open Youtube and start typing BTS to see what suggestions pop up first.

"Oh right, cause you went viral again. People on Twitter lost their shit over it."

"Yeah but they always do when BTS does something so it's not like it's new." You reply, a bit distracted.

BTS on crack?

"Okay, yeah. That's true." She agrees. "What are you doing?"

"Homework." You reply, scrolling through the endless results you got after clicking BTS on crack.

"Alright then, keep your secrets." She jokes, shaking her head. "I have to go anyway, I'm going out tonight." You blow a kiss in her direction.

"Have fun!"

"I always do! Bye!" She hangs up as you open a video titled "bts being crackheads for 5 mins straight".

You only need to watch a couple minutes to realize what type of videos these are. You have seen a couple of yourself that are edited similarly, but they were titled "[Y/N] being chaotic in interviews" and another one about you being extra— and you'd thought they were very funny.

A recommended video catches your eye, because it has hundreds of thousands of views.

RUNBTS 1-23 Best Moments

You have no idea what it is, but judging by the amount of views and the tiny amount of dislikes, it must be something good.

Time to start watching.

Chapter 10: The Surprise

"Do you think he will be angry at us for keeping it as a secret?" Hoseok asks, ear pointed at the bathroom door. He's doing his best to listen if the shower is still running, which means that Jungkook is not coming out just yet.

"No, he'll be too excited to be angry." Namjoon replies, waving his hand dismissively. "Jimin, don't blurt it out as soon as he comes here." He warns him, and Jimin looks completely shocked, not to mention offended. He searches for the support of the other guys with his eyes, but he finds that they're all looking at him the same way Namjoon is.

"What? Me?" He asks, pointing at himself. "Why me?"

"You're a terrible liar when you're excited about something." Taehyung says, and Jimin just stares at him with an angry pout. 

"I'm not." He says, crossing his arms.

"You are." Namjoon, Yoongi, Hoseok and Jin say at the same time. Jimin refuses to dignify that with an answer, so he just stays silent with his angry pout still in place.

"The shower stopped." Hoseok says suddenly, craning his neck to listen better— and everyone goes silent. Not too long after, they hear it opening and Jungkook comes out drying his hair already dressed for bed.

"What's going on?" He asks, stopping suddenly when he sees them all standing there in the most suspicious way possible.

"Nothing!" Jimin suddenly says, way more excited than they had told him he was allowed to look.

"Jungkook, when did you say [Y/N] was going to be on SNL?" Hoseok asks, trying to not give himself away with the tone of his voice.

"April 13, why?" He continues to dry his hair, looking at the boys with narrowed eyes. He doesn't know what they're trying to do, but based on that question it seems like it has something to do with you. Maybe they want to watch the episode with him, since they're going to be in America by the time it airs anyway.

"So, we didn't tell you this before it was truly confirmed because we wanted it to be a surprise..." Namjoon starts, and Jungkook stops his movements.

They can't be telling him what he thinks they're telling him, right?

There's no way.

"But we'll be performing on SNL on April 13." He finishes. The towel drops from Jungkook's hands, and he just stares at them with no clear expression in his face.

"I thought he'd be more excited." Taehyung whispers in a confused tone to Namjoon, who lifts up a finger in response, signaling for him to wait.

"Give him a sec—"

"WHAT?!"

After a lot of happy screaming, a half an hour long videocall to his parents and a big glass of warm milk to calm him down, Jungkook is finally sitting down on the couch with the rest of the boys so they can explain how things went down.

"Jimin-Hyung, I can't believe you didn't tell me." Jungkook says, shaking his head with a surprised smile.

"We wanted to keep it from him, too." Yoongi says. "But he listened to us talking about it and we had to let him in."

"It was really hard to keep it a secret!" Jimin complains. "Because I was so excited. But I did so well, didn't I?" The rest don't really pay attention to him, except for Namjoon, who nods and gives him a thumbs up. Jimin isn't pleased with so little praise, but he takes it anyway. It's better than nothing.

"Ah, I'm so nervous." Jungkook says, unable to stop himself from grinning even though his face already hurts from smiling so much. He brings his knees up to his chest so he can hide his face in them, suddenly blushing. Even after he explicitly heard you talking about them, you still feel so far away from them that it almost doesn't feel real that they're going to meet you in a month.

"She already said she wanted to meet us—" Jin adds casually, and Namjoon has to hold back a sigh of relief because he's finally talking about you without getting nervous two seconds later. "—so you've got nothing to worry about."

He's come a long way since his confession a few months ago— even if Namjoon and Yoongi are still the only ones who know about his secret— and that lifts a huge weight from Namjoon's shoulders. It means that it's less likely he'll become instantly flustered the moment they see you for the first time, because if Jin gets nervous because of you in front of the cameras, everyone will notice and then talk about it— and Namjoon is sure that is the last thing Jin wants.

It doesn't take them long to realize it's futile to try and talk about the logistics of their performance with Jungkook right now, because he's barely paying attention to them. His grin has remained steady and unmoving from the moment they told him they would perform on the same day you're hosting, and they know it's going to continue that way for the next few days.

He'll be able to focus again once the initial shock passes and he finally realizes that yes, this is actually happening.

They are going to finally meet you.

Long after everyone has gone to bed, Jungkook lies still awake in bed, fully aware that he's not sleeping any time soon. He's still feeling giddy with happiness; he can't believe that they're going to actually meet you, and in a place where they will actually get to spend time with you, at that. He will get to talk to you, to actually be close to you and maybe, if he's lucky and brave enough, he might even get to hug you.

He'd fantasized about maybe seeing you in an awards show one day, but this is so much better than anything he could've imagined.

April 13 can't come soon enough.

Thank you so much for reading! Comments, asks, whatever you like is more than welcomed!

[yuvon-writes-letters]

Hey Yuvon, Jake.

I am sorry if this letter becomes shorter than the last one, I am on my way to work for..yeah probably the last time for now. At least till it is safe to go.

I am a bit nervous, but I can go through it. Everything is done, my clothes, tickets, motel (for the moment, I have the feeling that staying in one place wouldn't be good. Dangerous.). Only the afternoon has to come...And that means I have to somehow get home without anxiety when I see a guy in mask near the street I live in. But that's fine. I have Jake and Max this time. It won't repeat itself.

As for the deciphering, I would say I'd love to try and help...But if you can't do it then I don't exactly know if I could either.

Yes, I imagine Yuvons behaviour could be because of Jessicas last letter. I really can empathise her actions if it is because of that. I'd love to do that, too, but then everyone who gets a look at my flat thinks I'd be kidnapped. Yah, no thanks.

You're right, I didn't think of that yet.

[A mini paper is taped above that, as if the sentence was just added later] (It seems Jake already did! But didn't get the chance to test it yet.)

No problem about the word association :) Even though I needed to stop, I got a bit dizzy again. Maybe I really need to live a bit healthier in the moment. Cannot say I ate and slept enough in the TSB timeline.

Yeah, I know you understand Yu. If it gets to bad, tell me, yeah? Then we can write a bit 'alone'. Like...Detective Inc. talk, okay? [A small girl giving a hug to another girl is scribbled, but far less detailed and sketchier than normal]

You never mentioned those two words? Are you completely sure, Yuvon?

(Jakes, if anyone except for my counterparts would kindly stop reading here as long as I write in purple)

Yuvon, are you really okay? What do you mean with 'You have no plan'. I am worried about you.

Dang, I don't have much more time. But Jake wanted to adress you again real quick :)

Lis🐾🔥

[Again the screenshot of Jakes message is glued to the back of the letter]

The 'part of who you are since birth' is something I completely understand. Social anxiety made my life much more difficult, but without it I wouldn't be where and who I am today. It is always interesting to figure out things in which we are similar to each other.

I am not overly concerned either, thanks to you I got some advantages. Also that we, thanks to 'Goldie' and the TSB timeline, know that the Man without a Face is possibly a hacker, too.

I am honestly not completely sure what to think of the word association. You also noticed how Liskas writing changed, right? And that she suddenly stopped.

How did you get the idea to give her this word association? And what did you intend on figuring out?

As for your last part...I don't think we should be that surprised about defying the laws of physics anymore. It becomes far too normal.

~ Jake

(There are eraser marks in the margins again.)

Lis,

You'll make it, I know you will. Just one day, and you can get out of there. Stay safe, stay alert, and stick to crowds where possible, and you'll be just fine.

Yeah, I took a glance at the cipher over Jake's shoulder and I've got nothing. It's just scribbles to me. I might get something on a closer look, but I sort of doubt it.

That letter thing would be cool to test sometime, but like Jake said earlier. Priorities.

Make sure you're drinking enough, okay? Especially if you end up going someplace sunny. But I'm sure the dizziness isn't going to be anything too important for the moment. We can address it later, when you're safer.

Thank you, Lis. I might take you up on that offer to talk later. But I can't now. And I never said those two words. Nor do I have a plan. Gur ragvgvrf znl or noyr gb ernq zvaqf, naq gurl qrsvavgryl pna ernq gurfr yrggref.

—Yu

(The handwriting changes to Jake's.) Hello, Lis.

As Yuvon said, exercise caution when returning to your workplace, but if all goes as expected and as planned you should have no issues. Once you are done, if you bring your phone on your vacation, do not answer calls from numbers you do not know, and especially do not answer the kidnapper's calls and messages.

Thank you for the offer of help :) However, I will manage alone eventually. It will simply take time. A lot of time.

At least I know the cause of her behavior now. I am somewhat at a loss for what to do about it, though. I will do my best to lighten her mood, but given that I am a living reminder of the issue, that may prove difficult.

I second Yuvon's suggestion of hydration. Dehydration has been proven to have several negative effects on the body.

That is all for now, Lis. I will speak to you later.

Jake,

As Yuvon was the one to come up with the idea, I will let her explain her thought process behind the word association.

(The handwriting changes to Yuvon's.) Lis said something a bit weird in the last letter. She was talking about how Goldie had likely helped things settle in the TSB timeline and mused that Goldie probably did all they could. Then Lis' writing grew neater (hope Jake showed you the word association thing so you know what I'm talking about) and she wrote "Like they always did..." before mentioning being dizzy, and seemingly forgetting she wrote that entirely.

I've known for a while that Lis had some memories relating to Goldie she couldn't access for one reason or another, but I hadn't seen the block waver until then. I theorized that I might be able to bypass the block at least partially if I approached it indirectly, and it seems I was right to an extent. It's only too bad I can't do anything with scents, scents are heavily tied to memories.

I didn't have anything particular in mind to uncover at the time, but I figured that if Lis let slip characteristics of Goldie or snatches of memories, those could be useful later. I hadn't expected to nearly get a name, though— see how the first letter is capitalized? Definitely a name. I think I have an idea what the name is, but I don't want to say or write it until we want Goldie's attention. It's probably Latin, though, and you might want to check the root of the alchemical symbol for gold on the periodic table.

I think the words we can safely associate with Goldie, however, are: best friend, past, safety, familiarity. Silver is another possibility, but that may just be an association with gold.

...I wonder when Goldie's going to send me the pissed-off letter yelling at me for meddling in the secrecy of their identity XD

Because I have such a good track record for respecting privacy and secret identities.

(The writing changes to Jake's.) I am back.

The similarities and differences are quite fascinating, yes. If only we could conduct some sort of study where we could learn how Jakes differ and how they remain the same from universe to universe. But that would require that they trust we are who we say we are, and that their Detectives actually open the letters we've been sending. So it seems unlikely that will ever happen.

Yes. The news about the kidnapper being a hacker is still troubling to me, even all this time later. He must be quite skilled, for the likes of us to only realize from his own mockery that he is one. We will need to remain on guard. I will also need to begin monitoring the situation in Duskwood again. If the kidnapper has been freed from the stasis, I will need to work rather hard to keep that group safe, especially now that I do not have all my equipment. And very limited Internet access.

I really should not be shocked at this point, especially given the experiences Yuvon has recounted to me and the fact that I have not needed to eat nor drink since coming to this place. I suppose that was simply the first time I directly saw the lack of logic, other than in Yuvon sending the letters.

I have little more to say. Goodbye for now,

Jake

(The letter tucks itself in the paper clip with the others.)

[entamesubs]

Episode 17 - Translation + Screenshots

Unfortunately, as there are no raws for me to sub, the best I can do for people who wish to understand what was happening this episode is to describe it the best I can with my translations.

There is really nothing else I can do about this situation; it’s completely out of my control.

-------

About Why No Full Script Release

I have changed my mind about releasing the full translated script because the document itself is very rough and not really meant to be read by anyone other than me and the proofreader. I also don’t feel comfortable releasing the whole thing without it having gone through the third “check” it usually does when I start timing and subbing.

For context, I usually translate as I watch, and everything is written down quickly as I get through it. This is the first draft, which I call the “rough” of my translation, and contains weird sentence structure + small mistranslations as I am mainly concerned about getting stuff down and less about the fine details. 

At this point the document is sent to my proofreader who then combs over everything and fixes grammar, wording, and translation errors. The second draft after editing is what I call the “raw sub”, as this is the file I take into the subbing program.

The third and final check is during the timing process, as I move these lines from a text document onto the screen, and get to see how they work with the episode itself. Translations may be changed, words removed or redone, etc as I watch a second time and read over the work. This means that the “final” translation that you would normally see in a subbed episode goes through three different checks at different times to make sure it all comes together nicely.

Of course, stuff still slips through the cracks even with these checks, but it is a lot less with them.

For this reason, because the script hasn’t (and can’t) go through its third and final check, I do not want to release the full translation as it is still, in my mind, an incomplete work.

-------

Episode 17

My name is Neil, 11 years old, the person who controls providence. It began when I was 3 years old. My parents, [...], gave me something else to occupy my time with. And that was... duels.

[OP plays here]

Winning as many tournaments as I did came easy to me. Goha came to scout me, and gave me this garden.

A vast underground space that encompassed the entire city, the centre of it being my haven, along with the complete control and regulation of duels around the world That was the beginning of my "providence".

At this point Otis comes in to ruin Neil’s complete control of the duel network. They exchange a few words; Neil recognizes Otis and vice versa. Neil asks if his interruption was his handiwork, and Otis says yes. 

Duels as you know will change. A new King of Duels will be born soon.

Otis does not mean “born” literally, as Neil and Yuuga are the same age.

Neil goes on about how the “deviation” from the norm were Rush Duels and tried his hardest to erase them, but couldn’t. Then he found Yuuga.

Leave everything to providence.

Neil introduces himself as part of Goha Corporation. 

Neil shows the USB stick with Kaizo’s data on it and Yuuga notices the Kaizo-seat react, so he deduces that it is real. Neil says he will only give it back if they win against the duelists that lurk within the Garden of Providence. However, if they lose 6 times overall, then it will be a complete defeat in his eyes, and he will delete their accounts permanently.

Yuuga asks why he doesn’t just delete everyone who has ever played a Rush Duel’s accounts, and Neil says it’s “not his providence”. 

Yuuga: Then you won't cheat? Neil: You're exactly how I imagined you. As expected of someone picked out by Otis. [...] Neil: Well then, have fun in the Garden.

At the end of this scene, Mimi is shocked that the rumored “genius programmer” within the company is just a child, and may be more important than her.

Yuuga and co. run into Nekoyama Schrödinger, who is the first duelist they must face. Luke volunteers to duel.

I'll pound some manners into that guy who wants to do something as ridiculous as permanent account deletion!

Duel proceeds. Nekoyama summons Blue Eyes White Cat and Red Eyes Black Cat, then sets 3 cards face down. Luke summons three monsters then tributes two of them for Rush Dragon Dragears.

He tries to attack but is stopped by Nekoyama’s trap card, which makes him have to guess what type of card is at the top of his deck. 

If you're wrong, [your attack is] nyagated, and you take 300 damage, meow!

Romin says she’s worried, but Gakuto says it will be just alright.

At this point the word “worry” makes Luke finally remember his troubles from two episodes ago, at the start of 15.

That's right, I just remembered. The thing that I'm worried about. When Yuuga becomes the King of Duels, will he really give the throne over to me? Agh, I remembered! What am I doing?! Why am I dueling a cat?!

Luke becomes too pre-occupied with his thoughts and decides to guess “monster” for what’s at the top of his deck. He is wrong and takes 300 damage.

He tries to attack again, but runs into Nekoyama’s trap card again.

Nekoyama: It's said that there are many possibilities that can coexist within this world. Luke: What are you talking about? Nekoyama: You and I, at the same time, can both win and lose this duel. Yuuga: That's Schrödinger's Cat.

Once again Luke chooses poorly and takes 300 damage.

Nekoyama tribute summons Odd Eyes Twin-Tail Cat, then summons another set of BEWC and REBC. Then, activates a spell card that has Luke guess what the top card of his deck is (again). If Luke is wrong, Nekoyama’s monsters can direct attack. 

Luke is still distracted by his thoughts of not becoming King, and chooses wrong. Nekoyama’s monsters direct attack.

Odd Eyes Twin-Tail Cat's effect, Nyanderful Trap, activates!

Nekoyama returns the trap he just used to his hand and sets two cards.

There are countless possibilities in this world. It seems one of them is about to be revealed, meow. That is, meowr utter defeat! Turn ennya~

Luke is still distracted and extremely depressed. Gakuto picks up on what’s going on, but Luke denies it.

Gakuto: Is the thing you're worrying about the King's Throne? [...] Gakuto: Then just listen to what Yuuga-kun has to say!

Luke asks Yuuga if he really will give him the King’s Throne when he becomes the King one day.

Yuuga: Luke is my friend. If a friend asks, then of course! Luke: Of course?! Yuuga: No way. Luke: What?! Yuuga: But, anyone can become King. Countless possibilities exist, you know. There is a possibility that Luke will become the King! Luke: I could... become King...?

Luke finally finds his resolves and says he can envision himself becoming King now. He says he’s found his “daor” (road backwards).

It won't be the same as last time! Because right now, I have decided to become King!

Duel proceeds. Luke tribute summons Thrust Dragon Bunker Strike, complete with a new summoning chant mentioning his new “daor”.

Bunker Strike lets him draw cards from his deck based on the amount of monsters his opponent has on his field. Since Nekoyama has 3, Luke draws 3. Then, he can put the same number of cards in his hand back on top of his deck in any order. This lets him choose the correct card for Nekoyama’s trap.

Foolish! I returned my cards to the top of my deck earlier, so the top card is— The card... uh, the card?

He forgets the order he put them in. The others express disbelief.

Yuuga: That's Luke for you!

He eventually manages to remember and defeats Nekoyama. 

Nekoyama kowtows and begs for Neil-sama’s forgiveness, but instead gets shoved down a chute that then closes after him.

Luke is furious at seeing this.

Let the future King come up and beat you already! Duel me!

Neil says it’s too bad, but the duel has been enough for one day, and to come back another time. He transports them to the exit against their will.

Neil: It's already very late. Dueling is all well and good, but go home and do your homework.

The gang expresses some disbelief as to everything that’s happened, but Yuuga reassures them that they will win for sure. He’s happy that Luke found his own “daor”.

Luke points at a twinkling star in the sky and declares it his “daor”, saying that it is the star of the King of Duels.

It then proceeds to fall and Luke jumps out in disbelief.

Aaah, don't fall already!!

[ED plays here]

And previews for the next episode where Roa duels his drummer, Getta.

--------

Hope this helped a little in at least understanding everything that went on! In lieu of raws, this will just have to work for now.

If you wish to support me, go here: https://ko-fi.com/sakaki