#stop being a wh*re on main

[lovelyjasmari]

Nobody talk to me right now! DON’T EVEN FUCKING LOOK AT ME!!!

[lovelyjasmari]

OKAY IM AWAKE! IM AWAKE!!! Ahsjsksjdjkskskk 💙💙💙✨✨😍💙😍😍👑👑😭😍👑😍💙😍😭👑👑👑✨✨💙💙💙💙

YOU ENECR. YOU NEVER. YOU NEVER GAVE ME A CHANCE TO BREATHE. NOT EVEN FOR A MONTH. NOT YOU AND ROOK GOING VICE VERSA EVERY DAMN MONTH WHEN I ONLY HAVE ONE TEN PYLL FOR YOUAENKF,BA RKA,BMWMQMRN??14+}918293,5191650=

[moechies]

morning sex w satoru + sugu (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵) cw boys kissing

light peeks through the cracks of the curtains, painting both your skins with gentle streaks of golden yellow.

your boyfriend’s head hovers in the crook of your shoulder, short soft strands of his hair tickling your face and neck;

his thrusts are sloppy, yet deep, brushing over every little crevice of your sweet cunt. a thin layer of slick covers you and himself, low noises of ‘pap pap pap’ that can be heard every time you feel him slide in and out of you.

“satoru.. feels s’good..” you whimper out with a wanton moan, eyes fluttering shut with a weak grasp on his bicep.

he hovers over you, not allowing you to see over his huge body.

“know it does, baby. sweet cunt was made to take me, hm?” his voice rasps next to the shell of your ear; it tickles.

lost in your pleasure, you seem to miss the small noise; a ‘click!’ that comes from opening the front door to your shared home. but even with the sweet moans that spill from your mouth, and the soft creaks of your moving mattress, he seems to hear..

he slows his pace, causing you to elicit a whine with a small scowl,

“huh? wh-what did i do..? why’d you st-stop..?”

“no princess,” he chuckles, “it isn’t you. suguru’s here.”

“w-what? i didn’t hear anything.. s’okay ‘toru.. jus’ keep going.. please.?”

before he can argue back, a creak comes from your doorknob, evident enough to have you both turning your heads to the door,

“mornin’,”

your boyfriend’s best friend stands leniently against the doorframe, left hand holding 2 small bags of a type of pastry. you lay back down below your boyfriend, tugging the thick blanket over your body and over your head in a panic,

“suguru.. what are you doin’ here?” satoru asks, a question with almost no intent of asking him to leave. “brought you two lovebirds some sweets and coffee, but looks like you guys had other plans..”

the room silences, and you pull down the sheets in hopes that suguru has left, fully expecting to re face your boyfriend;

“hey darlin’,” suguru greets above you.

your face has never reddened faster, hands desperately searching for a grip on the blanket before pulling it over your face again; but this time it’s stopped by a big, warm hand.

“don’t be shy.. your boyfriend’s right here, what’s there to be so scared of, hm?” he taunts, a small smile at the way your face flushes in embarrassment, turning your head to shoot another mean scowl at your teasing boyfriend.

“i-i.. s-sorry suguru.. t-this is probably w-weird.. m-m sorry..”

you can’t look him in the eyes, but you feel your body getting warmer whilst being the main attraction of the 2 men above you.

“nothing’s weird, don’t you think?” he teases again, a small pout at your boyfriend’s giggle.

“anyways, i gotta be on my way. let me give you a kiss goodbye, yeah?”

you look at your boyfriend in a panic, eyes pacing back and forth, looking for anything on his face that hints for what you should say.

gojo can’t help but smile at your fawn-like innocence and worried eyes much like a deer in headlights , waiting for you to take initiative.

“n-no.. do-don’t wanna. satoru would never want me to do that.. ‘nd i don’t wanna.” you whimper, hiding in the chest of your boyfriend.

now suguru pouts, an almost comical sight to satoru. he lets out a small chuckle,

“it’s okay princess. give suguru a kiss.”

you look at your boyfriend with a questionable stare, silently questioning the strange approval. his eyes sparkle of nothing but love for you, not a single bit of faux intention, nor jealously.

his best friend wastes no time pressing his soft lips onto yours, eyes agape before slowly melting into the palm of his hand. your boyfriend brings a hand to stroke the soft of your cheek, whispers of ‘good girl,’ as you lose yourself in his best friends mouth.

suguru pulls away with a ‘pop!’ wiping his spit covered mouth with the back of his hand with a laugh,

“desperate little girl.”

satoru only laughs at the comment, turning his head to meet suguru’s, in which they press their lips against each other as well; swapping spit between all three of you guys.

“h-hey.. th-that’s my boyfriend..” you whimper, attempting to claim your boyfriend back. suguru only chuckles before pulling away,

“sorryyy princess, you can have him back.” he says, having you pull him back quickly with a huff, hiding your body against his as you shoot geto a mean glare.

“hey.. ‘s okay if you do it, but not me?” gojo teases, a light flush coming across your face.

geto laughs again, turning himself toward the door, “alright, i’m really off now.” he raises a hand, signaling a goodbye before pulling the door closed with a slight crack,

“and hey, you two need to shut up.. neighbors are complaining to me again.”

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

I have all the time in the world. How about you?

There is a theme to Aylin's threats and vows of vengeance that I've noticed and that I want to share.

Do what you will. I cannot prevent you. But you know as well as I, I will come for you. One day.

That one, for example, is for Balthazar, while she is imprisoned.

I cannot prevent you. But I can advise you. Be careful to whom you yoke your fate. One day, when he is severed from me, Ketheric will die. I will not. And when I am freed, I will remember whose recompense to claim.

Did you expect me to beg? To cry? To plead? For what. I accept my fate - for now. But the life of a divine is longer than you can fathom, Sharran. And this cold chapter will close, one day.

And those are for you, when you've yet to harm her, when she's still only warning you off. But then, if you choose to try to kill her, like so many before you:

Was it everything you hoped for? Was it sweet, Sharran, to murder a paladin of Selûne - her daughter - her sword? Congratulations - your mistress Shar will write your name on her hand. And I? I will come for you. When the time is right.

The next bit depends on your character's gender:

When your sons are grown and your beard is long and wiry; when you cannot hold your nightly water and your nose grows as long as your weary, weary days… When your daughters are grown and your chin sprouts whiskers dark - when your teeth are yellow as corn and your sleep grows short and your days are long and weary, so weary… When your children are grown and your eyes are weak; when your nose grows as long as your weary, weary days…

Ultimately, your fate will be the same:

That is when this immortal will visit you, Sharran. That is when I will show you what it is to be afraid.

All these long-term promises of one day, coupled with inevitability.

I find it so striking that most of Aylin's threats include her flaunting and flexing her immortality (as well as her flawless, long memory) over whoever has wronged her.

Present your weapon, soldier. Plunge it into the Nightsong. I cannot stop you. But know this: I never forget a face. HAH! Are you afraid, Sharran? Do you rattle and jump at the realisation that an immortal has your face emblazoned in her mind forevermore?

Everything is but a passing inconvenience to her, she claims, even a century of imprisonment and torment. Outlasting, outliving - that is simply what she does and what she chooses to intimidate with. Promising to wait until you are old and decrepit, until after you've experienced all the vagaries of age that she never will, leaving her sword hanging over your head throughout the entire miserable lifespan that she has permitted you to have.

Then, if you wrong her in a very heinous way, there's the extreme one of outliving not only you, but killing and extinguishing your entire bloodline in order to obliterate every trace of you from existence:

WHEN I AM FREE, I WILL DESTROY YOU! I WILL MURDER YOU, AND YOUR CHILDREN, AND THEIR CHILDREN BESIDE! I will rip this world apart, plank and beam, until every iota of your being is scalded by my light. This is my promise. This is my vow.

Over and over, Aylin builds her oaths of vengeance on the foundations of an utter, even proud, certainty that she will see her foe end, one way or another, due to her nature and the simple fact of her own endlessness. This is the well she keeps coming back to.

And I find all of this, this consistent insistence on it, so striking and ironic, because one of her other main emotional threads is being thoroughly enraptured by and devoted to and just so completely in love with a mortal. One who will age and die and pass into memory just like all the targets of her rage - if I think of Isobel when I re-read all of that dialogue up there, it seems to cut both ways so deeply. But then there's the extra element that every single one of these is spoken when she either knows or is (incorrectly) convinced that Isobel is dead. Isobel, who didn't get to grow old, and who is both an anchor to humanity and a very painful reminder of the truth of Aylin's situation being twofold.

Aylin will outlast what she hates, yes, but she will outlast what she loves as well.

[inuhalfdemon]

No One Can Know... (12/?)

Word Count: 1,816 Words

Rating: Mature (Sexual Themes + Language)

Chapter 12

"Hear me out, I'm sorry but I'm a little less than sold

I've been around, heard all the stories you said you never told

You're used to speaking in tongues to feel like you're in control

Now you've got nowhere to run, now you've got nowhere to go."

- BAD OMENS

Alastor had already known what the results to Charlie’s meeting with Heaven would be, but it was vitally important that he be present when everyone in the hotel gathered together to hear the re-telling of the events from Vaggie. He had guessed right in that Vaggie’s being-an-angel was what had rocked her and Charlie’s little love boat and he could only imagine how brilliantly that must have come to light for everyone – including the Princess of Hell - amid the meeting. He listened – rather boredly – to the group as they questioned Vaggie, until someone pointed out Charlie’s obvious absence and Vaggie explained that she was currently upstairs, in their room…alone.    

Alastor’s ears perked up at this.

Lilith had instructed him to withhold any information pertaining to a possible defense against Heaven from Charlie until after the meeting. His next move now was: revealing what he knew and helping Charlie formulate a plan in defending the hotel. But, perhaps…there was an opportunity here he hadn’t previously considered.

Shifting to shadow; Alastor silently slipped away from the group – meaning to catch Charlie in her most vulnerable of states.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that night, Alastor was in his main room within the hotel. He had just hung up his jacket and was setting aside his bowtie when a golden-glowing portal formed beside his door, Lucifer stepping out.

Lucifer cleared his throat; his portal snapping closed behind him.

“Hey, Al…sorry for stopping by unannounced.” He paused. “Are those wards of yours still up and working?”

“Yes.” Alastor turned, glaring at him.

“Oh, good.”

“Wh-?”

Lucifer exploded into his winged-devil form; hurling himself at Alastor and painfully pinning him to the wall. Photo frames and a variety of décor fell and crashed to the floor.

“YOU FUCKING MADE A DEAL WITH CHARLIE!?” He roared into Alastor’s face.

“Wait! Just wait! Lucifer, let me explain!” Alastor struggled. Despite his height; Lucifer had leveraged himself at the end of a sofa that Alastor kept against that particular wall and he was finding it hard to find his footing with how high Lucifer had pinned him. His ears laid flat and his eyes were wide.

He hadn’t anticipated Lucifer finding out about his deal with Charlie so quickly nor had he properly considered the King’s response.

“EXPLAIN IT THEN!” Lucifer shoved against him and Alastor thought his chest might just cave in.

Air rushed from Alastor’s lungs and he wheezed; trying to gulp more in.

“I did it- I did it for the power!”

“HOW DOES THAT ANSWER MAKE THIS SITUATION ANY BETTER FOR YOU!?”

Lucifer’s grip on him sharply tightened; his eyes glowing and burning hotter.

“Careful, Luci….please…I’m not Lilith…you could actually kill me!”

“I JUST MIGHT…” Lucifer hissed; spitting into his face. “YOU THINK THAT I’D RAISE A HAND TO LILITH!? YOU THINK THAT SHE’D INVOKE MY WRATH TO SUCH AN EXTENT!?”

“No, no, no –“ Alastor was shaking now. “That’s not why I said it- I-“

“YOU’RE SUCH A FUCKING LITTLE COCK-“

“HEY!” Alastor shouted back at him then in deeply offended resentment.

“-ROACH” Lucifer finished.

“Oh, yeah….okay.”

Lucifer seethed at him and Alastor took a risk at furthering his explanation.

“Look, it was a very simple deal that I made with Charlie. A deal of favors. I made it because I had something to offer and the added power I get from making a deal like that – with someone like Charlie – it’s significant. It could prove to be beneficial to us when it comes time to defend the hotel.” Alastor reasoned. He withheld the points that: he did it as a small backhand at Lucifer - banking on that his continuing deal with Lilith protected him from any real consequential harm; and that it might be a very valuable get-out-jail-free card he could use in breaking one - or even two - of his chains at some point.

“VOID. IT.” Lucifer growled at him, deep and menacingly, emphasizing both words with precision.

“I can’t…you know I can’t!” Alastor told him, honestly. “My part of the deal is complete.”

“THEN ASK HER TO MAKE YOU A FUCKING SANDWICH.”

“A: That would be rather rude. B: It’s not quite that simple. It has to be a favor that only Charlie could provide for me; something only within her possession, power or ability that I can request from her and her only. She likely doesn’t even have anything like that yet!”

One favor at the time of my choosing where she harms no one…but, Alastor didn’t bother delving into those little details.

“WHAT A FUCKING-“ Lucifer shoved him again and then pushed away; letting him go.

Alastor slid to the floor; his feet catching him but his legs wobbled and buckled and he just went to the ground.

“Ugh! Do you have to have such a hard on right now!?” Lucifer yelled at him, turning away. He was shifting back into his normal form.

He hadn’t noticed it before but Lucifer was right…he was hard.

“The fuck!?” Alastor leaned against the wall and shakily stood up. He tried to re-adjust himself but there was really nothing for it – his man was standing at full-attention.

“God, who knew you were such a fucking submissive.” Lucifer sneered; his back still to Alastor.

“I-I’m not sure that I know what that means.” Alastor was saying, awkwardly moving to reach for his jacket. Sliding it from the hook; he draped it around himself – feeling humiliated.

“You fucking wouldn’t.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t really clear things up for me, but thank you.”

“God, Al…this... This is such a fucking mess.”

Alastor moved himself to the sofa; angling himself against the armrest so that he was less visible now.

“Your fault, really.” Alastor said lowly, looking away.

“My fault!?” Lucifer turned on him and it was made apparent to Alastor that he wasn’t the only one who was getting excited about things. “How is all of this my fault!? You were the fucking one who decided to use me! Who decided to play with my feelings!? You wanna fuck around – even if you’re not in rut!? Well, let’s do it! Let’s fuck around! I’m all for it! I love a good fuck! But, you don’t get to do what you did last night and plan to make for a power grab like that when all I ever did was fucking respect you.”

“IT WASN’T A FUCKING POWER GRAB!!!” Alastor yelled.

“YOU SAID-“

“That the: Thought. Crossed. My. Mind.” Alastor told him darkly, emphasizing each word with coldness. “Ever hear of an intrusive thought, Lucifer? Ever think of something – consider something – so sinisterly tempting and yet, you never act on it? Hm?”

Lucifer stared at him – eyes widening when he realized.

“But, you didn’t say-“

“YOU DIDN’T FUCKING ASK.” Alastor yelled back at him again; standing up now – letting his jacket slide off and no longer caring. “What you did…was force.”

Lucifer didn’t move.

“I asked you to remove the chain and that fucking shackle.” Alastor told him, his voice low and shaking.  “Not because I wanted to lie to you…but, because I wanted you to trust me enough to know that I would have told you the fucking truth.”

Lucifer’s eyes dropped from him in shame.

“I don’t want your power.” Alastor told him. “I never fucking did. Lilith knows that.”

Lucifer’s head jerked up at this.

“So, why didn’t you?”

“Al…I’m-I’m sorry.” Lucifer told him. “I didn’t mean-“

Alastor snorted. “No…you didn’t, did you.” His ears laid flat. “Maybe because the ugly truth of all of this is; last night did mean something to me. But, did it mean anything for you?”

“Yes, Al.” Lucifer was moving toward him now. “Of course, it did.”

“Then, why are you still here?” Alastor asked him. “I already told you, I won’t be the one, the thing that comes between you and Lilith.”

He’s still so worried about that, even now…

“It’s not going to happen, Al. I’ve already told you…” Lucifer paused; reaching out carefully – tentatively - to touch his face.

“That sex means different things to different people.” Alastor surprised him, his face leaning into the King’s touch rather than pulling away from it.

“Yes, but that’s not what I meant.” Lucifer explained. “What I meant was, there is nothing that can come between me and Lilith – not even you.”But, Alastor didn’t want to hear that either – he started to pull away and Lucifer stopped him, pulling him back. “Listen to what I’m trying to tell you, please.”  

Alastor waited; listening.

“You can’t come between us. What Lilith and I have…it’s not the same. It’s…beautiful and amazing, it’s undying, it’s unbreakable and it’s….unconventional. I can’t…explain it without it sounding non-committal or cringey, but I can have Lilith and I can have you.”

“So I’m just your side chic, then?”   

“No, you’re –“ Lucifer saw the small smirk. “Oh, I see, you’re trying to be Mr. Funny now, is that it?” Then, “Well, I mean if you wanted to be.” Lucifer told him, shrugging.

Alastor made a disgusted sound at that.

“Look, can we-“ Lucifer took his face into both hands and Alastor leant further into the touch “Can we just…be for now? No labels. No overthinking it. We don’t even know where this is going or where it will take us… Lilith knows, she has no problems with it –“

“Does Lilith know?” Alastor asked him suddenly. “She knew about you helping with my rut…but, does she know about…the other stuff?” Alastor suddenly looked like he might have a panic attack.

“Lilith knows.” Lucifer told him.

“I  haven’t told her.” Alastor realized, alarmed. “And, you can’t contact her so how does she –“

“Alastor, breathe.” Lucifer pulled him down – pressing his forehead to his. “She knows. I can’t contact her but she’s contacted me.”

“You told her!?” Alastor pulled his head back, somehow, he was even more alarmed now.

Lucifer’s mouth twitched; he was trying not to smile or laugh at Alastor’s complete and utter distress.

“Yes, Al. I told her.” Lucifer assured him. “She knows. She doesn’t mind. If anything, she’s glad that I’ve got you to keep me busy and distracted – I’m less likely to make a mistake with everything she’s got planned, and I’m less lonely. Really, Al, it’s okay.” Lucifer told him; pulling Alastor close, reaching up and sliding a hand into his hair.

“I still can’t say that I’m very happy about the deal you made with Charlie, but…I’m sorry that I let things get so out of hand this morning and I’m sorry that I put you in such an impossible and unfair position. Are we good now?” Lucifer asked him. “If you’d rather I just leave and we talk about this more later, I’ll understand.” Lucifer went to step back; his hand sliding away from Alastor’s hair.

Alastor caught his hand; pulling it back and holding it pressed against his face.

“We’re good.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 13

[marybeatriceofmodena]

A'ight, what is it about Anne Brontë and Tenant of Wildfell Hall? I keep seeing stuff about how Anne is the unproblematic Brontë sister and that's what kept me away from her books lol

*kracks knuckles* All right. So, remember how the Brontë sisters wrote three novels simultaneously? Charlotte wrote The Professor, Emily wrote Wuthering Heights, and Anne wrote Agnes Grey. The two latter got picked up by publishers, but The Professor was rejected, so Charlotte finished up Jane Eyre and sent it to a publisher, who accepted it immediately and had it published before Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey got printed. All three of them wrote under pen names (Charlotte was Currer Bell, Anne was Acton Bell, and Emily was Ellis Bell), because they knew their novels were, say, a little controversial, and that if it was known they were women, their characters would be judged and immediately associated to their works. So needless to say, they were VERY supportive of each other, because they knew no one else would. (Their father was also supportive, but they published their novels without telling him at first but once they did, he was very encouraging, thankfully.)

It's easy to see why Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights would be considered controversial in their day (they still kind of are today given the Discourse(tm), lol). Agnes Grey, while it didn't do as well as JE and WH, was criticized for being a little too... let's say, honest about a governess' day-to-day life, when Anne wrote it drawing from her own experiences as a governess. The thing with Anne is that people find her stuff a little moralizing, but it was in her best interest to present Agnes as virtuous given how she made little secret of how poorly governesses could be treated, since it wasn't that rare they'd be accused of profiting from the families they were employed by, when there were abuse cases more often than not.

Then The Tenant of Wildfell Hall came out, and that's when criticism started to fly. May Sinclair (an early 20th century suffragist) would later write that the scene where Helen (the main character of the novel) slams her door to her husband's face had a reveberation that was heard throughout England. It's the story (in case you don't mind getting spoiled for a 150-year-old book) of a lady who marries a Victorian fuckboy called Huntington, ends up in an abusive household where her only comfort is her son, and once she realizes that her husband is becoming a bad influence on her child, she leaves him and manages to hide in a house that her brother is willing to rent to her, while she tries to earn a small living by painting. And people lost their shit, because according to them, Helen was a bad woman for leaving her husband, even though she did it to, you know, get her son out of a toxic environment. If Charlotte criticized anything about the novel, it's that she thought some aspects of Huntington were depicted too graphically, but they mostly had to do with his alcoholism and his adultery (this is important: those critcisms have nothing to do with Helen, or how Tenant is shade thrown at Charlotte and Emily's works). That might have been because Anne got some inspiration for Huntington from Branwell, their brother, who was also an alcoholic and got fired from his job as a tutor for having an affair with the lady of the house. Charlotte was pretty fed up with Branwell at that point, and while Emily was the one who got along with him best, they had some pretty big fights because she was in no way a pushover (so the belief that Charlotte and Emily idolized Branwell while Anne was the only one who saw through his BS is also, incidentally, BS).

So, why did Charlotte stop Tenant from being re-printed after Anne's death? Simply put, the criticism against it was getting worse, and people were defaming Anne's character because of it. Charlotte had had her own share of troubles with Jane Eyre - she dedicated the second edition to William Makepeace Thackeray (of Vanity Fair and Barry Lyndon fame) because he was her favorite author, without knowing his wife was institutionalized after suffering from severe post-partum depression. And that led, of course, to people speculating that Jane Eyre was semi-autobiographical, and that Charlotte was Thackeray's mistress. (I mean, it *is* semi-autobiographical, but Thackeray had nothing to do with it.) So she was understandably a little on edge, and while she edited Agnes Grey for a reprinting after Anne's death (given there were a lot of spelling mistakes and the like in the first printing), she asked for Tenant to not be reprinted to protect her sister's memory.

So no, Charlotte did not block Tenant from being as well-known as Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre because she was "jealous", or because she was mad that Anne was "throwing shade" at her and at Emily. She was protecting her sister's reputation, because she wasn't even alive anymore to speak for herself and mount any kind of defense, and that was while Charlotte's own reputation was under fire, after she had lost the two people who had supported her the most - Emily died in 1848, and Anne in 1849. To try to pit these sisters against each other, when two of them died far too young and the surviving one had to pick up the pieces and defend them against public opinion - it is simply distasteful, and it needs to stop.

[nonbinaryspy]

Meta: Elincia's Trolley Problems

Elincia's arc comes into sharpest relief when you consider both PoR and RD together. From living a sheltered life as a secret princess, to watching her parents get killed as her country is invaded, to eventually rising to the challenge of her unexpected role as queen, she has to deal with important decisions at every turn. Every action she takes is out of love for Crimea's people and a desire to secure them safe and happy lives. But what happens when she has to choose between the life of a loved one and the future of the overall populace? Both PoR and RD test this with narrative beats that form a perfect mirror, ultimately reflecting Elincia's development.

Path of Radiance

Throughout PoR, Elincia has been separated from her usual support network, particularly her retainers. After returning to Crimea, she finally finds them—however, in chapter 24, before she is able to reunite with Geoffrey, he is left behind to fend off Daein troupes so that Elincia can escape. Elincia is naturally horrified.

Bastian: Geoffrey's acting as a decoy. You must continue on this road to the southwest. Lucia: So the enemy's found us, eh? Lucia: Nothing to do about it but change course. I'll lead you to another hiding place. Elincia: Wh-what are you saying, Lucia? We must help Geoffrey! Bastian? Lucia: Luck was not with us, Princess. We have no choice. We'll have to abandon our companions in Castle Delbray. Elincia: No!! We will not!! Geoffrey and the others have survived so much already... I will not abandon them! Lucia: Princess, please understand. If we could do so without danger to you, we would gladly risk our lives to go back. Elincia: We cannot do this! Please, Lucia! We must go to the castle! ...Bastian! You must not do this thing! Bastian: Geoffrey is a knight. In the name of our friend's honor, Princess, you must escape. Elincia: No... No! They've survived this long! They're alive! NO!!!

When Ike gives her the chance to instead save Geoffrey, she affirms that this is what she wants.

Elincia: Yes. I don't want... I don't want anyone else to be sacrificed.

Lucia and Bastian respect her wishes and agree to help Geoffrey, at which point she is able to get her feelings across.

Elincia: Because the two of you think to put me above all else, you say you will sacrifice your lives for me. Yet... Even if I'm able to borrow of Ike's strength and win back Crimea... If the cost of that victory is the lives of the two of you, I shall never smile again. And joy? Never again would that emotion fill my heart...

Elincia is a leader, but she's also a person—one who never asked for this role. Until recently, she has not had to make decisions that would affect the future of a whole country, as opposed to only living within her personal sphere. In fact, the main political decision made re: her life—the decision to keep her birth secret—was made for her. She has already lost her parents and, as far as she knows, her beloved uncle.

Since then, her choices have all been for the sake of Crimea. In reality, she has had little choice in how to go about that goal, considering she has been fleeing for her life while at the whims of Begnion politics. Being able to return to Crimea and reunite with her retainers is the first time she has been running toward, rather than away, from something, and still part of that goal is being held from her reach. Nothing will stop her from working hard for Crimea, but individual losses will still give her permanent grief. So here, she finally takes a stand against the choices other people try to make for her, and insists on protecting her loved ones and regaining some of what she lost.

What happens next depends on the player, but considering her retainers are alive in RD, the duology's canon here is that they all survive this fight. Due to Elincia getting her feelings across, her loved ones are saved, and the campaign continues.

After this experience, the cost of individual lives in war is hammered home, and Elincia decides it's not enough to order others to keep her retainers safe. Regaining her inherited pegasus and sword, she takes to the field despite the mixed feelings of her retainers.

Elincia: Even though I'm dressed like this, I have no experience, and do not expect to fight as well as the rest of you. But…this constant waiting behind and doing nothing…it sets my heart beating with such unease I fear it may burst. Even if I cannot fight, I could use a staff to heal the wounded. If I could save just one soldier, it would mean so much to me.

This quote shows her resolve and compassion, but it also shows that she still lacks experience and confidence, especially when it comes to conflict. Despite being trained in swordplay, she instead emphasizes her ability to heal, and sets a fairly low bar for what her contribution will mean. Although, given that this plot demonstrates the importance of saving an individual life, maybe I shouldn't call it a low bar. Either way, at this point, there is still plenty of room for her to grow and change, and RD will challenge her to due so.

Radiant Dawn

Part two of Radiant Dawn focuses on Ludveck attempting to usurp Elincia's throne by stirring up reactionary attitudes toward her policies, specifically with regards to her alliance with Gallia, to threaten civil war and pressure her into giving up her throne. Because she fears the conflict that could come out of taking direct action against a noble, and because his followers are also citizens of Crimea for whom she feels responsible, she approaches the situation carefully. Ludveck takes advantage of this hesitance to eventually kidnap Lucia.

Once again, one of the Delbray siblings is in peril, and this time, as Crimea's queen, Elincia does not need to convince anyone to save her. Instead, she takes to the field herself. As with PoR, she had not immediately done so—in this case, because of the delicacy the situation called for. But with Lucia's life at risk and Ludveck's forces at Elincia's door, she decides the time for delicacy is past.

Elincia: “Lucia… Lucia, I’m sorry. Somehow, I promise you… I will save you!” ... Elincia: “…Very well. I must prepare as well. I had hoped this day would never come… Amiti, the treasured blade of House Crimea, will awaken from its long slumber.”

Unlike in PoR, rather than focusing on her healing ability, she mentions Amiti. She no longer needs to make disclaimers or doubt the importance of her role commanding the field. The wording of "I had hoped this day would never come" and "awaken from its long slumber" emphasize that she has already been through the horrors of war once, and never wanted to again. She despises violence, but she is resigned to doing what she must.

Despite holding out against Ludveck's forces and throwing him in the dungeon, she is not able to do anything about his trump card. With Lucia as hostage, he tries to use her life as a bargaining chip for his release, as well as the country. After the incident in PoR, where her retainers saw their own lives as disposable, she convinced them to realize how valuable they were to her. So with the Delbray siblings' situations reversed, Geoffrey now asks Elincia to save Lucia.

Geoffrey: “…Your Majesty, you can’t… You have to let me do something about this.” Elincia: “…” Geoffrey: “Lucia would willingly die fighting for her country, I know… But you have to help her, Elincia. If you were in her position, she would surely do the same. Please, just give the word.”

Again, Elincia is at the point where she is taking action herself instead of entreating others. Rather than order him to do anything, Elincia visits Ludveck in what is one of the most defining scenes of her arc. The non-extended version is below as I think it gets the point across quite well, but there are more dialogue beats in the extended version.

Ludveck: “Queen Elincia, you’re so naive. Cold and callous decisions are sometimes required of a nation’s ruler. …I was testing you. We all wanted to know if our queen would have the power to stop a civil war.” Ludveck: “But, no, you were too hesitant and too concerned about harming the people… Now look what has happened. The rule of Crimea cannot be kept in your hands! Please, Your Majesty! You must abdicate and cede the crown to me!” Ludveck: “And considering Lady Lucia’s life is on the line, you haven’t much choice. Now, let’s have you free me from this prison cell, and then we can discuss any further details…” Elincia: “I don’t think so.” Ludveck: “What?! Are you truly willing to sacrifice Lady Lucia?!” Elincia: “…Lord Ludveck, all your dissatisfaction and misgivings about me are well founded. However, do you realize how many lives you’ve simply thrown away?! Strength without compassion does not a ruler make. You care nothing for the people, sir. You cloak your desire to rule with pretty speeches, but it is petty avarice nonetheless!” Ludveck: “…So this is how it shall be? Very well… But Lady Lucia cannot be spared without my order.” Elincia: “Allowing you to plant the seeds of rebellion and play havoc with the lives of my people is a failure for which I must answer. But I will see Crimea through this trial. I will give my people the future they deserve, no matter the cost.”

Ludveck patronizes Elincia for her compassion while pretending he has the citizens' best interests at heart, but Elincia doesn't bow to his demands. She maintains her compassion along with her resolve. However, no matter how caring someone is, the fact of the matter is that decisions that help even a great deal of people still come with consequences. Elincia realizes this, and is prepared to make that sacrifice while taking responsibility—even though, as she said in PoR, she "shall never smile again."

In the beginning of PoR, Elincia lost almost everything in one fell swoop. When she was finally reunited with her retainers, the thought of sacrificing even one of them was unbearable, even if it could potentially have derailed her goal to retake her country from an invading tyrant. Now, though, she is in a position of greater power, and she is fully aware of the responsibility that comes with it. Compared to PoR, where she was so often at the mercy of others, the only thing tying her hands now is the threat to Lucia. Of course, Lucia is immensely important to her, but after spending three years working to rebuild Crimea, nothing can convince her to let it again fall to ruin under another power-hungry leader.

Thankfully, Lucia's life and Elincia's smiles are saved, thanks to Bastian secretly calling in the Greil Mercenaries. Despite her resolve, Elincia's conflicting priorities are still apparent, as in the extended version (translation on Serenes Forest provided below) she expresses wonder at her decision. As for her retainers, though their feelings on how she should handle such situations have shifted over time, they don't begrudge her decision.

Elincia: “…When Lucia was captured… It was as if I lost my other half. Even now, seeing her by my side, I feel so strange… Wondering how, at that time, I could make the decision to abandon her…” Lucia: “Lady Elincia…” Elincia: “Still… If the same scenario occurred… I believe I would make the same decision. Lucia’s life is important, but it’s not on the same scale as protecting the country. As the Queen of Crimea, I must accomplish my duty to the country foremost.” Lucia: “Of course. Seeing Lady Elincia being able to make this decision, it truly makes me happy. As if I would hate you.” Geoffrey: “My thoughts exactly.” Elincia: “Lucia, Geoffrey… I value your lives more than even my own. But it’s my duty to protect this country, even if that means losing you. I’ve learned a lot from all of this. I hope to keep them out of harm’s way, and I’ll never make the same mistakes again.”

By the end of this section, the bulk of Elincia's arc is complete. She has decided what matters to her and what she will do as queen when put into high-pressure situations. She resolves the situation by deciding to be openly harsh in punishing Ludveck's followers despite the fact that it will gain ire toward her, as refusing to do so before gave him the opening he needed. She has decided to be uncompromising in the face of reactionary politics. Not everyone in Crimea will agree with her decisions, but those closest to her will never waver in their loyalty, to the extent that they are both willing to live and die for her. It's no wonder that, as her epilogue says, "Her reign was remembered as a golden age."

Conclusion

Because I touched on the topic of Elincia's agency and how she maneuvers within the limits of it, I want to give a brief shout-out to her actions in part three. She is Gallia's ally and does not want any more bloodshed in her lands. However, due to Begnion exercising its imperial power, she cannot fully stop its army from entering her lands in pursuit of the laguz alliance. The action she ultimately takes, dropping her weapon in between the opposing armies and essentially daring them to murder a queen of a country with whom they're both allied, all without betraying her own nonviolent ideals, is an unparalleled power move.

Getting back to Elincia's trolley problems, what I find interesting is that though Elincia's decisions are different in PoR and RD, neither game condemns her for her choices. She cares for both the mass of strangers that comprise her kingdom and the loved ones who she's spent her life beside. Her situation in each game is different, so she handles each situation differently in ways that make sense given her roles, pressures, and motivations.

FE in general, and Tellius in particular, asks the characters and players to care about the fates of individual lives as well as whole worlds. Both PoR and RD present the question of what someone would or should do when these personal and political goals conflict, without giving one black-and-white answer. Elincia's arc is just one impactful example of this.

As for me, I'm not gonna lie—though Elincia doesn't have the option to reset the game whenever someone dies, I probably always will.

[wonysugar]

i hate to be a massive wh*re on main i truly do… but the absurd brain rot i have for sakura it too much so could i pretty please request some dom!sakura 😔

sighhh i understand.. :< sometimes you look at someone and just lose your mind ahem chaewon anyways

like i have said before, she’s more of a lover than a fucker. obviously, she still fucks you very well, but like it’s with such LOVEE?? she’s just sosososo girlfriend to me idk

like i just know she sleeps with her fingers inside you, she finishes fingerfucking you late at night but she’s too lazy to take them out, plus your warmth is comfortable so she just drifts off to sleep being inside you, big spooning you :(

look, hear me out, but her bending you over in front of your room’s mirror… saying smth like “look at how beautiful you look when i fuck you, my love.” while she’s pounding you from the back with her strap, pulling your hair GUYS?? like i know for a fact that she just lovess complimenting you and calling you pet names while she’s eating you out or something similar ugh :(( pulling away from your pussy from time to time, muttering little words about how pretty it is, how perfect she finds it, calling you hers and no one else’s :(!! she would get so pussy drunk,,, even after you cum, she just can’t stop, she needs to make you cum again, and again, just overstimulating you because of how pretty she thinks your sounds are :<

now, you cannot sit here and tell me that she wouldn’t cook up a good meal for you when you come home from work, putting little candles on the table to make it romantic to then just fuck the absolute shit out of you!! she’d make it all cute and enjoyable but then would drag you to the bedroom and just ruin you,,, she’s so gf i can’t breathe

[blackal]

SPRITE FRIGHT AFTERMATH

The poor girl was a nervous wreck as she sat in one of the interrogation rooms at her town's police station. She didn't want to be here, she wanted…she didn't really know exactly WHAT she wanted, maybe to crawl under the covers and never have to come out again. She was still traumatized over everything that had happened. How long had she even been there? It could've been a few hours or less than 1, she honestly wasn't sure.

It had started out so harmless. 4 of her classmates were failing biology, and the teacher gave them an extra credit assignment: go camping in the woods and document what you come across (Latin names giving bonus points). While they had all bemoaned this assignment, they each knew it was do it or have to take summer school.

They should have gone to summer school.

When Victoria, the head cheerleader, pointed out they would be hopelessly lost out there, their teacher offered a suggestion. Thus, he called in his top student to help them out.

Eleanor "Ellie" Chang was top of most of her classes, but ESPECIALLY biology due to her love of nature. Despite being top of the class and thus not NEEDING extra credit, herself, the teacher pointed out that if she took this "tutoring" gig, it would look really good when she was ready to start her college applications. Ellie jumped at the opportunity.

Oh, what a fool she had been.

So that Friday evening she had instructed each of them what to bring, and the following Saturday after breakfast, they had met at the park on the edge of their town, venturing past the general public area and into the woods for their camping trip.

At first things went smoothly, them finding a good section of the forest to set up camp in and getting ready for some fun. Of course, the others were mainly planning on letting Ellie do the majority of the work, but being a go-getter, she was fine with that. To be honest, the main reason she had even agreed to come on this trip wasn't so much the extra credit, but the chance to rekindle an old friendship.

See, back in elementary school, Ellie and Victoria had been best friends, practically sisters. But once Victoria started playing with her mother's make up, things slowly changed. At the start of middle school, Victoria stopped hanging out with Ellie and joined the popular crowd. It had hurt, but it had helped Ellie learn a few life lessons, namely on trust.

Still, Ellie had thought if she had helped Victoria get a passing grade and NOT have to repeat Sophomore year, maybe the duo could become friends again. And even though they may have seemed a bit…crass at times, Ellie thought maybe Victoria would invite her to hang out with them. Truth was Ellie didn't have a lot of friends, mainly acquaintances she sat with at lunch, but nothing really like what Victoria had with her friends. It was mainly due to hurt over Victoria abandoning her that she hadn't formed any other close friendships throughout middle and high school.

As she sat there, she glanced at the bandage on her left hand from where one of those THINGS had jumped on her and struck her with that thorny branch. Honestly it was the least serious of her injuries. She had some bruising on her torso, not to mention one on her face, along with a noticeable limp. These were why she had been taken to the police station by the people who found her when she exited the park. She was pretty sure it wasn't even a citizen's arrest, the people who brought her here (a middle-aged couple out for an early morning jog) seemed concerned for her. Plus, she thought she overheard one of them mention Phil. Perhaps they knew him and were aware that he had been with Ellie in the woods?

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of multiple people yelling outside. At first it was hard to determine who all was out there, but then she heard a VERY familiar shrill tone yell out, "WHERE IS MY BABY?! WHAT DID THAT LITTLE WH*RE DO TO HER?!"

Ellie winced, instantly recognizing the voice of Victoria's mother. She had never really liked the woman, and she knew the feeling was mutual. Shaking her head, she realized that along with Victoria's mom, Jay, Phil, and Rex's families were likely outside the room, too, all ready to barge in and demand answers about where their kids were.

Except…Ellie didn't have any solid answers for them. She had a pretty good GUESS as to what had happened to the others, but aside from Phil, she didn't know 100% whether they were alive or…she shuddered at that train of thought. She was aware that due to their city being near the coastline, and the twists and turns of those woods, the area that they had been camping in would be pretty hard to get to due to that log bridge collapsing. Not impossible, but she was aware that that area led out to some steep cliffs over the ocean, and the general terrain all around it was also pretty steep. Hopefully that meant no one would ever go to that area again.

"PEOPLE, PLEASE CALM DOWN!" A commanding voice suddenly cut through Ellie's thoughts and the adults outside arguing. Ellie recognized it as the officer who had greeted her and the couple when they came in. Despite his rough-sounding voice, he had been gentle with Ellie, first taking her to the medical labs to get a quick examination and get bandaged up, before getting her a cup of coffee and leading her to the interrogation room. He didn't try to bait her or force anything out of her, merely asking if she was ok, before asking for her name and who to contact for her.

"CALM DOWN?" A male voice that Ellie didn't recognize shouted, "My neighbors were out for a jog when they spotted that girl come stumbling out of the forest looking like she'd just gotten into a tussle! I know she was one of the ones with my boy on some class project, and I wanna know what happened!"

"And we will get answers," The officer (Officer O'Malley, Ellie remembered him giving his name) told them, "But there is a certain process for this."

"What process?" Victoria's mother snapped, "Is she under arrest? Do we need to be worried? Should we search her room for what she may have used to do horrible things to our kids?!"

This started a bunch of concerned murmuring from the other parents as Officer O'Malley tried to restore order. Before he could, however…

"YOU!" Victoria's mother shouted, "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOUR DAUGHTER DID TO OUR PRECIOUS BABIES?!"

"Oooh," Ellie winced, knowing her mother had likely just arrived. This would be…interesting. Basically, both of Ellie's parents were loving and supporting. But when they got mad and got on the warpath, they were TERRIFYING. She was just glad her dad was out of the country on business, so she would likely only have to deal with ONE angry parent for now. Well, one of HERS, along with the parents of her classmates. And aside from Victoria's mom, Ellie had no idea how the other parents were personally, thought given the situation, she figured they were pretty ticked off.

Sighing, Ellie prayed that Officer O'Malley would hold off everyone for a few more minutes, maybe with the door getting stuck, because she did NOT want to deal with this. After all, what was she supposed to say? Little green Smurfs with mushrooms on their heads had most likely killed all their kids for disrespecting nature? She had no proof. Heck, even if she still had her notepad, they likely wouldn't believe her. Nope, saying that would just getting her a one-way ticket to the nuthouse.

Ellie put her face into her hands and groaned, knowing this wouldn't end well. And even if by some miracle is DID, she would still likely have nightmares for the rest of her life about what had happened. She saw those little green monsters every time she closed her eyes.

As the adults outside continued to argue, the door creaked open. Ellie kept her face buried in her hands, hoping to put this off just a few seconds longer. The door closed, so hopefully it was just one officer. Or a lawyer. Wait, did she need a lawyer? Oh crud, she was going to be blamed for what happened to her classmates, and it'd be either jail or a mental institution. She had escaped the Sprites, but she was still doomed!

As Ellie started hyperventilating as her thoughts ran wild, she felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around her, followed by a soothing, "Hey, hey, it's gonna be ok. Just breath."

Recognizing the voice, Ellie's panicking slowed as her breathing returned to normal. Looking up, Ellie looked into the eyes of her older sister giving her a comforting hug.

"M…Millie?" She asked hesitantly, unsure if her big sister was actually there or if she was just a hallucination brought on by the stress. She looked up at her big sister, who looked just like her, albeit with glasses and a pink streak in her hair.

"It's ok, Lil' Sis, I'm here," Millicent "Millie" Chang, Ellie's older sister who was currently in college, said as she stroked her younger sister's hair, "Mom's out there dealing with all the other parents. Most of them, especially Victoria's mother, are out for blood, but Mom's helping that officer calm them down."

"Oh geez," Ellie moaned. She was still stressed, but she had always felt safe in her sister's arms. Due to their parents often working long hours throughout both their childhoods, Millie had been a fulltime babysitter for Ellie. Needless to say, Ellie looked up to Millie more than she did their parents; she respected and loved her parents, of course, but Millie had just always been there for her whenever she needed her, always ready to lend an ear or give a hug. Even when she went away to college, she called Ellie twice a week and came home whenever she could.

"Don't worry," Millie told her, "It's all gonna be ok. Just…before any of them realize I slipped in here, I gotta ask, what's going on? Apparently, some people found you stumbling out of the forest this morning? And you were…" She paused, looking at Ellie's bandaged hand, before pulling her away and looking at her face, noticing the bruise around her right eye. Frowning, she asked, "What the hell happened? Did one of those punks hurt you?"

"No!" Ellie exclaimed, shaking her head, "They didn't do this. It was…" She paused, unable to think of what to say that wouldn't sound crazy.

Millie looked at her, concerned, but before she could ask Ellie to elaborate, the door was slammed open, Officer O'Malley glaring at the duo as he stated, "Miss, you can't be in here with the suspect."

"SUSPECT?!" Millie asked with rage, getting up and stomping over to the officer as she snapped, "My sister has done NOTHING wrong, nor is there any evidence of any wrongdoing in general, so don't you DARE call her a suspect!"

O'Malley, a man banking on 6feet tall, was clearly not used to being berated like this, and thus was stunned silent as he stared at the furious college girl in front of him.

"Millie, please don't antagonize this officer," A tired sounding voice spoke from behind O'Malley, "He's just doing his job." The girls' mother, Sonya, was standing behind O'Malley, still in her nursing scrubs, having come straight from work due to getting the call about Ellie. One look at her would let anyone instantly know she was the mother of the 2 girls in the room, with her similar facial features and black hair.

"Not to mention he's clearly RIGHT," Victoria's mom piped up from behind Sonya, trying to barge in the room to glare at Ellie as she snapped, "What did you do to my baby, you little monster?"

"I…I didn't do anything," Ellie managed to squeak out, causing the four people in the room, plus the other parents just outside the door, to look at her. Needless to say, the poor girl instantly shrunk down, unsure of what to say next.

Luckily her mother instantly shoved past O'Malley upon getting a look at Ellie, her exhaustion from her double shift at work instantly disappearing as she fretted over her younger daughter, "Oh, baby, what happened?" She turned her head to get a look at the bruise on Ellie's face, before inspecting her hand. She frowned as she asked, "Is there anything else?"

"Um…I have some bruising on my stomach and back," Ellie said, not looking her mother in the eyes, "And a sl…slight limp."

"Clearly got it from my daughter and her friends fighting back!" Victoria's mom snapped, which caused a slight uproar from the other parents behind her.

"Alright, alright!" O'Malley regained his composure and turned around, beginning to push the rest of the group out, "I understand this is a heavy situation, so you are all allowed to watch the interrogation from behind the two-way mirror as long as you are QUIET!" His tone let the others, even Victoria's riled up mom, know that this was their only option if they wanted answers right away. The group slunk away from the door, and O'Malley closed it behind them, turning to look at the trio of women in the room. He took a deep breath before explaining, "Ok, here's how this is going to go: we don't know what's happened here. All we know is that you," He pointed at Ellie, "Went into the forest yesterday around noon with a group of your classmates, and this morning you came out alone, injured, and according to the couple that found you, out of breath, like you'd been running a good distance. Now, I'm going to ask you, Ellie, do I need to call you a lawyer?"

Ellie looked at the floor, wondering what to say here. She wasn't guilty of anything! But she couldn't tell the truth, either, because they'd never believe her. Oh, why did it have to be the Sprites? Ellie almost wished it had been a human who-

"No!" Ellie said, instantly realizing what she could do to get out of this, "I…I'm just still in shock, is all. But I know I need to explain what happened. However, I don't…EXACTLY know what happened to the others."

"Well, let's start small," O'Malley said, sitting across from Ellie. Millie took the seat besides Ellie, and O'Malley let Sonya drag the seat next to him around to sit on the opposite side of Ellie. "What happened to you? Or better yet, what happened in general?"

Taking a deep breath as she went over the story in her head one last time, Ellie began, "Well, the 5 of us ventured into the woods, eventually coming across the log bridge to the more secluded section of the forest, figuring it would be the perfect spot to do our research for our project. As we were setting up camp, we were suddenly greeted with a hello."

"A hello?" O'Malley asked, getting an uneasy feeling. Outside the room, the other parents felt the same.

"A man walked into our campsite, from the opposite direction of the log bridge," Ellie continued, "He appeared to be an older gentleman, as he had a bushy white beard. He was also wearing a red cap that covered almost the entire top half of his head, along with a simple green suit that had some tatters in it. He introduced himself as…" She paused, knowing this would sound weird, but figured she could make it believable, "Mr. Sprite. He said he had lived in the woods for a good long while, and welcomed us. Once…" She hated to throw the others under the bus, but she figured they wouldn't mind, since they were, ya know, dead, "Once Phil told him what we were up to, he offered to help us by offering to take us on a tour of the area. Since I was only helping and didn't HAVE to be there, the others told me to set up camp, so I did." She paused at that, actually shaking a bit, which resulted in Millie rubbing her back.

"And then what happened?" O'Malley asked tenderly, now reminiscent of the kind man he had been when Ellie first arrived.

"The others came back a couple hours later, each with their notebooks full of useful stuff for the project," Ellie continued, "But Mr. Sprite wasn't with them. Jay said he had his own little cave a way off, and he had headed back there, but he wished us well. I didn't think anything of it, and asked for everyone's notes to start getting the report ready. As we had dinner and chatted, I noticed the others were starting to act funny while drinking from their bottles. I asked what was up, and they said Mr. Sprite had shown them his distillery and let them each have some moonshine from it. At that moment I got a bad feeling, and insisted we leave. But by then it had started getting dark, and the others told me everything was fine. I tried insisting, but Rex, clearly drunk off his ass, told me I was being a buzzkill before passing out. Victoria told me not to worry, and we'd leave first thing in the morning. Then she crawled on top of Rex and passed out, too. Then I turned around to see Jay and Phil already out, so I sighed, figuring I was overreacting." At this, she let out a sigh as she exclaimed, "God, what I wouldn't give to go back to that moment and SCREAM at everyone to get up so we could leave." At this, Ellie remembered seeing Phil's already dead body being burned, along with when Elder Sprite showed up right before she was able to escape, and a few tears fell. Her mother and sister reached over and rubbed her back soothingly, and O'Malley looked at the girl with nothing but pity, realizing she was not a suspect, but a victim.

"If you need to stop, I understand. We can wai-" O'Malley began, but Ellie shook her head in defiance.

"No!" She stated, wiping her eyes, "There are people outside that window that deserve to know what happened to their kids." She looked at the window and said, "I'm sorry." She then turned back to O'Malley and continued, "I knew it would be cold at night, so I at least put everyone's sleeping bags over them before gathering everything up and getting it ready so we could leave as soon as we got up. I then did a little more with the notes again before falling asleep, myself. I must've slept for a couple hours before I was awoken by a cry of pain." At this, Ellie allowed a couple more tears to fall, before regaining her composure, "I got up and noticed the others were all gone, so I naturally got nervous, thinking maybe it was a prank. Then I heard some cackling from the direction they had gone in earlier with Mr. Sprite. I nervously headed towards it, and I saw…I saw…" At this, Ellie thought about the horror she had dealt with that night, including the fact that the others, including her former best friend were most likely DEAD, and became a bawling mess. Her mother and sister both wrapped her in a hug, whispering soothing things into her ears.

"You don't have to continue the story," O'Malley said, rubbing his temples as he hadn't really expected things to go THIS far. He didn't believe Ellie had done anything to her classmates, but he figured SOMETHING had happened. But this, this was almost too much, even for a hardened cop like him. He sighed as he watched the sobbing girl in front of him for a few moments before he asked, "I do have to ask, though, are your classmates dead?"

"I…I don't know for sure," Ellie sobbed, "I saw M…Mr. Sprite burning Phil's body, but I didn't see any of the others." Needless to say, from outside there was a bang on the window with a cry of anguish, along with what sounded like someone dropping to the floor.

"And…did Mr. Sprite hurt you?" O'Malley had to ask.

"When he noticed me, he…said he enjoyed hurting others, but he thought I…thought I…" Ellie hated to make up this lie, but it was the only thing she could think of for why Mr. Sprite hadn't killed her initially, too. She blurted out, "He thought I was really pretty and wanted to have some fun with me before killing me, too."

Millie and Sonya both gasped in shock as they tightened their hug around Ellie. O'Malley seethed with rage, finding THOSE types of people to be the worst.

Through her tears, Ellie finished up, "I ran, but he tackled me, and we rolled down a small hill. That's how I got banged up. I was able to give him a kick to his manhood before stumbling back up the hill. I yelled out for the others, but didn't hear anything, so I hurried back to the campsite. I tried to grab what I could, but I heard him yelling for me, so I just ran. I got to the log bridge and started crossing it, when it started to fall. The end where we had initially come from was sinking into the ground, which almost caused me to fall down that chasm. Luckily, I used my fanny pack as a makeshift grappling hook, snagging a branch and swinging across." At this, Ellie shook with absolute fear as she recounted, "And apparently not a SECOND too soon, as I heard the yell and felt his presence right behind me as I made it across. I looked and saw his red hat fluttering down the chasm."

At this, Ellie finished her tale, and there was silence both inside and outside the room. The air was tense, with Millie almost wishing that this Mr. Sprite fellow hadn't fallen to his death so that she could personally kill him. Sonya was feeling like a failure of a mom, as her always working long hours meant she hadn't been there to protect her baby girl. O'Malley sighed, before calling out, "Bring it in!"

Another officer hurried in, handing O'Malley an envelope before hurrying back out. O'Malley frowned before opening it to reveal a stack of papers. He sighed, feeling utterly ashamed as he admitted, "Over the past few years, we've had SEVERAL missing persons cases around those woods."

"WHAT?!" Sonya asked in rage, glaring daggers at the officer, "And you didn't think to TELL anyone about this, maybe close off those woods?!"

"The mayor didn't want to cause a panic," O'Malley explained, even though he knew it was a pathetic excuse, "But now that we have a NAME, we're gonna go to the press with this." He then looked at Ellie and asked, "Would you be willing to talk to a sketch artist? Even if you're sure this Sprite fellow is dead, it would be good to see if he's a match to any known suspect."

"I…I guess I could," Ellie said, "But between his bushy beard and giant hat, I didn't really get a good look at his face. He had a big nose, and he was white, but other than that, I don't think anything I say would be of much help."

"Anything you can give us will be more than enough," O'Malley said gently, "I'll organize a strike force to head to that section of forest, while I give a statement to the news station. You head home, you can come back later this week to give an official description." At that, he stood up and headed out to console the other families.

The Chang women sat there for a few minutes longer, waiting to make sure that Ellie was doing alright before getting up and making their way outside, Millie allowing Ellie to lean on her to help with her limp. They passed the other families, all of whom were either in tears or had thousand-year stares as they processed what they had heard. Ellie had to look away, ashamed that she hadn't been able to help her classmates.

As they walked, Sonya noticed something else about Ellie and asked, "Did you…cut your hair, sweetie?"

"My ponytail…got tangled in some thorn bushes when he tackled me down that hill," Ellie quickly said, having honestly forgotten about having to cut her ponytail to escape those spiders, "I was panicking, so I just pulled out my pocket knife and used it cut myself loose."

"Ok, we're getting you home, Mom's gonna check you out, while I get a nice hot bath ready for you," Millie said, as they exited the station and headed towards Sonya's car, "Maybe make you some nice soup, too." At that, Millie briefly broke away and headed over to get her bike; due to Sonya having come straight from work, she quickly called Millie at home, and she raced to the police station on her bike, figuring it was close enough and that it would be good for both her and her mom to be in the same car with Ellie on the ride home. Sonya popped the trunk, Millie placing her bike inside before getting into the backseat next to her sister.

Once everyone was strapped in, Sonya pulled out and headed home, keeping an eye on the road yet also checking on her daughters in the rearview mirror when she got a chance. Ellie was curled into a ball while Millie was rubbing her back. Sonya bit her lip, before deciding to ask, "Ellie, sweetie, I think it might be a good idea for you to talk to a therapist about what happened. Even though you told Officer O'Malley everything, I think it's clear you need to talk to a professional about what you've been through, get everything off your chest."

"Ok," Ellie mumbled, only half paying attention. While she wanted to forget everything that had happened, she knew her mom was right, that she needed to talk to someone about this. Even if she had to maintain the lie about a human killer, she had STILL been almost killed after witnessing the death of at least one of her classmates. She shuddered at the thought, suddenly realizing how exhausted she was. Well duh! She had been up over half the previous night running for her life.

"What time is it?" She muttered, looking out the car window and noticing the sun was already starting to set.

"It's about 6:30," Sonya replied, "You were there quite a while before you told the officers your name. They said you were really out of it."

"Of course she was," Millie said, stroking her little sister's hair to keep her calm, "She's lucky to be alive." She then winced as she noticed Ellie start shaking at her blunt choice of words.

"Can…can I stay home from school tomorrow?" Ellie asked timidly. She was certain she wouldn't sleep a wink tonight, and REALLY didn't wanna face any of the other students or her teachers.

"Um, sis," Millie began slowly, "You…do remember why I'm home this week, right?"

Ellie looked at her curiously, only just now seeming to realize her sister wasn't several hundred miles away at college. Then it suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks as she remembered, "Spring Break, forgot. I…. guess that's good."

Sonya shared a look with Millie in the rearview mirror, but didn't say anything. The rest of the car ride was silent.

Thankfully it was only a few minutes before they arrived at their destination. However, when Ellie looked up, she saw they weren't at their house, but rather…

"The hospital?" Ellie asked numbly, "Did you forget something, Mum?"

"No, sweetie," Sonya shook her head, "When your sister mentioned checking you out, I realized it'd be better to get you an official look-over, maybe even an x-ray. I told my bosses that you were at the police station and had some injuries, so they shouldn't be too surprised to see us."

"Ok," Ellie nodded, unbuckling and getting out. Millie again allowed her sister to use her as a crutch as they walked inside.

A couple hours later, Sonya pulled into their driveway. Thankfully Ellie's checkup showed no broken bones, and her bruises and limp would heal up in a few days as long as she took it easy. She had been given a prescription for some painkillers, which her mother would head out to pick up the next morning. Luckily Sonya had been given the rest of the week off to look after Ellie.

As they headed inside, Sonya told her older daughter, "Millie, go draw that bath for your sister. Nice and hot, it'll help with her injuries." Millie nodded and, after getting Ellie seated at the kitchen table, headed off. Sonya headed to the cabinet, stating, "You must be starving after all this, sweetie. I'll fix you some soup."

"Thanks, Mum," Ellie said, looking around her kitchen in an almost wonder-like trance. She honestly thought she would never see her home again, first due to the Sprites killing her, then due to possibly being locked up for murder. It felt so good to be in the safety of her house, miles away from the woods.

Ellie's nostrils alerted her to something wonderful, which caused her stomach to growl. Looking down, she saw that while she had been lost in thought, her mom had placed a bowl of beef stew in front of her, along with some saltines. Ellie looked at the food like a starving dog, recalling the last food she had eaten was the sausage Phil had cooked the previous afternoon.

Ellie dug in like a ravenous dog seeing a T-bone steak, devouring her meal in a matter of minutes.

"Someone was hungry," Sonya said, having sat next to her daughter, "Did the police station offer you anything to eat? Even if you're a suspect, I'm pretty sure they're supposed to offer you at least a snack if you're gonna be there more than a couple hours."

"I…" Ellie paused in thought, "I think one of them brought me a chocolate bar at some point, but I barely registered it."

"Well," Sonya said, caressing her daughter's face, "You're home now, and Momma's gonna take care of you." She then took her daughter's hand in her own as she stated, "I…am SO sorry you went through all that, Sweetie. I can only imagine what's going through your head right now."

"It's…it's a pretty big mess up there," Ellie admitted, before offering her mom a smile, "But I think I'm gonna be ok. It'll take time, but I'll get over it." She frowned before adding, "Hopefully."

"Well, for now," Sonya said, getting up and taking Ellie's dishes to the sink, "Let's get you upstairs. Your sister likely has your bath ready." Ellie nodded, getting up and beginning to head upstairs on her own, before her mother appeared beside her and began helping her.

"Mum," Ellie offered Sonya a smile, "My limp isn't that bad."

"I know, Sweetie," Sonya replied as they headed upstairs, "I just…I wanna make up for not being there for you."

"You couldn't have known," Ellie assured her, "None of us couldn't have known." At this, she frowned as a thought occurred to her, "Well, actually, we SHOULD have known, if those disappearances hadn't been covered up."

"Well," Sonya offered a mischievous smile, "You didn't hear this from me, but you know how one of my bosses is married to the Deputy Mayor?" Ellie nodded, and Sonya chuckled as she stated, "Word around the breakroom is that after Mayor Harper just barely got a second term, city officials are looking for any excuse to get rid of him. Once O'Malley goes to the press with all this, Harper will be lucky to find a janitorial job willing to hire him."

This news, especially being delivered as "gossip" by her own mom, caused Ellie to smile widely, relieved that at least someone would be punished for this negligence.

After stopping by Ellie's room to get her pajamas, Sonya helped her to the bathroom, where a hot bubble bath awaited her.

"Just call if you need anything, Sweetie," Sonya said as she headed back downstairs, "Stay in there for a good half-hour, the hot water will be like Heaven on your bruises."

"Will do, Mum," Ellie replied, shutting the door behind her before stripping down and tossing her clothes into the hamper. She then gently lowered herself into the hot water, instantly feeling relief as it enveloped her body.

Between all the stress and not getting any sleep the night before, Ellie was almost ready to doze off in this nice hot bath…until the door opened and Millie came in, a book in hand.

Shooting awake, Ellie quickly rearranged the foamy bubbles to make sure they covered her up to her neck as she stated, "Um, occupied!"

"I know, Sis," Millie chuckled, putting the lid down on the toilet seat before sitting on it and opening her book, "I made the bath for you, remember?"

"Right," Ellie said, a little red in the face, "But, uh, why are you here?"

"Oh, figured you'd be so exhausted from all the hell you've been through, so I thought I'd do my reading in here," Millie explained, holing up her book, "One of the joys of college: Spring Break homework."

"Millie," Ellie whined, "I'm more than capable of not falling asleep in the tub on my own."

"I know that," Millie replied, "But better safe than sorry. Besides," She chuckled, "Not like I haven't seen ya naked before, little Miss Nudist."

Ellie's blush deepened as she recalled how, when she was a toddler, she apparently did NOT like wearing clothes. Millie and Sonya had had to frequently watch her whenever they went out, due to an instance when they had been at a clothing store and both parents had been distracted, which had allowed Ellie to strip down and hide in the clothing racks, ready to spook people. After an elderly woman had gotten shocked by a naked Ellie yelling a loud, "BOO!" at her, the family had been banned from that particular store. After that, Ellie always had to be holding one of her parents' or her sister's hands when they went out until she grew out of that phase.

"That…that was a LONG time ago," Ellie mumbled in embarrassment.

"Still a funny yet stressful memory," Millie chuckled, reaching forward and tussling her sister's hair. Ellie pouted and pushed her hand away, yet said nothing else, figuring if her sister was just watching out for her, it wasn't so bad. Plus, with the layer of bubble bath on top of the water, she still had some privacy.

At that, Ellie allowed herself to relax again, sinking down into the bath, ready for some good soaking and relaxing…

"Vincent, I promise you, she's ok, just a little banged up," Sonya said, barging in while talking on the phone.

"Mum!" Ellie hissed, blush returning.

Sonya didn't notice, trying to assure her husband that their daughter was fine. "Honey, I promise you, she's relaxing in the tub right now, with Millie watching over her."

Ellie frowned, a bit annoyed that her mother was talking about her as though she wasn't 2 feet away from her. Before she could voice her opinion on that, she felt something brush against her head. Looking up, she saw Millie, currently using one hand to read her book, holding out the towel they set by the sink to dry their hands off.

Realizing what her sister was getting at, Ellie sat up (while still using bubbles to cover her chest) and took the towel, using it to dry her hands off. Once this was done, her mother handed her the phone.

"Pumkin, are you alright?" Came the frantic voice of her father, Vincent Chang.

Vincent was currently on a business trip. ANOTHER one, to be precise. Growing up, Vincent's family struggled with money. He wanted to make sure his own family never went through what he'd had to as a child, so upon working his way through business school (with scholarships, thankfully), he got a high paying job almost immediately after graduating, and slowly worked his way up over the years. Now, his family was practically upper-middle class. However, this meant a LOT of business trips, usually a dozen or so a year. He hated always being away from his family, but recalling his guilt over how sometimes his parents would go to bed hungry so he and his siblings wouldn't have to, he knew this was the right choice.

"I'm fine, Daddy," Ellie replied, relieved to hear her father's voice. She loved him dearly, and he was yet another part of her life she had briefly believed she would never see again.

"What happened?" Vincent asked worriedly, "Your mother told me…your mum told me that you encountered a serial killer on a class trip and that 4 of your classmates are…are…dead?!"

Ellie took a deep breath, before looking at her mother setting the towel back by the sink, and her sister still reading her book. However, it was obvious they were both listening to her, watching over her. She sighed, and told her father the tale she had spun for Officer O'Malley.

"…and a couple of Phil's neighbors, out for a morning jog, saw me as I stumbled out of the woods," She finished up, "They took me to the police station, where I got a quick checkup. I eventually told my story, Mum took me to the hospital, and now here I am."

"Oh, Pumkin," Vincent sighed forlornly, "I'm so sorry you had to go through that hell. And you're sure you're alright?"

"Physically I'm fine," Ellie replied, "A little banged up, but I'll live."

"And…mentally?" Her father asked after a moment.

Ellie said nothing for a good minute, staring straight ahead, remembering the cries of the Sprites, seeing Phil's body burnt to a crisp, knowing what most likely happened to her classmates…

"Pumkin?" Vincent finally asked after the silence. Shaking out of her stupor, she noticed her mother and sister staring at her in concern.

Taking a deep breath, Ellie replied, "I…may need some therapy, but otherwise I'll be ok."

"Ok, Pumkin," Her dad replied sympathetically, "Please, if you can avoid it, don't be alone. Keep around your mother and sister this week, ok? I've got a couple meetings I have to take care of on this trip, but I'm gonna talk to my boss. He's an understanding guy, so after I explain what's happened, hopefully he'll let me come home early."

"Ok, Daddy," She nodded, "But don't ruin anything at work because of me. I know this trip was supposed to last another week. If you can't come home early, don't just leave to come see me. I'll be fine."

"I know you will," Her father replied, "Could you put your mother back on? There're a couple things I need to talk about with her."

"Sure thing. Love you," Ellie said, as she handed the phone back to her mother, who headed out of the bathroom.

About 20 minutes later, Ellie was ready to get out, due to the bath water starting to cool down. After making sure she'd be ok, Millie headed out, allowing Ellie to get changed into her pajamas. After getting her undies on, she pulled on her grey sweatpants and green t-shirt she wore to bed, before brushing her teeth and making her way back out to the hallway.

The moment she opened the door, Millie was there, allowing her sister to lean on her for the short walk to her bedroom. "Don't worry about setting your alarm," Millie said, as she guided Ellie to her bed, "Sleep in as late as you want. I figure you'll need it."

Ellie nodded, getting situated on her bed before turning off the bedside lamp…and instantly regretting that as, aside from the hallway light, her room was almost completely enveloped in darkness. It made her think of when she had woken up the night before to see her classmates' sleeping bags empty and thinking (honestly hoping) they were playing a prank on her…before discovering the horrible truth about those cute little forest creatures.

Feeling a panic attack coming on, Ellie quickly took some deep breaths before calling out to her sister, who was just about to exit the room. "Wait!" When Millie turned to look back at her, Ellie bit her lip before asking, "Would you…um, if it's not too much trouble…maybe…" She paused, frowning as she looked down, feeling so childish for wanting to ask this, even though she knew she needed it.

Millie picked up on what her sister was getting at and offered her a reassuring smile as she replied, "Give me a sec, ok?" She then hurried off to her own room, returning a moment later in her pajamas, a pair of black gym shorts and a blue tank top. As she entered, she called over her shoulder, "Night, Mom!" She closed the door behind her, yet not all the way, allowing a sliver of light to blanket the room. As she crawled into bed beside her sister, she assured her,

"Don't worry, the moonlight should give us a good nightlight."

"Thanks, sis," Ellie said sincerely, as Millie wrapped her in a hug, "For all of this."

"Anytime, sis, anytime," Millie said, planting a kiss on her sister's cheek. Ellie smiled at this, and felt herself relax as she started to drift off…

Ellie and Victoria were laughing as they hung out at their mall's food court, munching on cheap pizza and sipping fruit smoothies.

"…and then Rex realized he lost his swimsuit," Victoria finished her story, resulting in Ellie laughing so hard some of her smoothie came out of her nose.

"Oh gosh," Ellie laughed, using a napkin to clean herself up, "That must have been hilarious."

"Oh yeah, Jay and Phil didn't let him hear the end of it for the rest of the trip," Victoria laughed, "I wish you could have been there. But at least you've been there for every hangout since then."

"Yeah," Ellie chuckled, before frowning as a thought occurred to her, "When…when did this happen, again?"

"During Spring Break, after that nature assignment," Victoria reminded her, "I don't know why you couldn't come with us, but I'm so glad we were able to reconnect as friends."

"Right," Ellie nodded, before frowning again, "Are you…SURE that's what happened?"

"Of course," Victoria nodded, "We became besties again after you single-handedly fought off those murderous gnomes and saved us." She sighed in bliss at the memory, "It was great how you saved us, and didn't run off to save yourself."

Ellie's frown deepened at this. She was about to retort that that didn't sound like what she remembered, before Victoria started laughing. It started out light and friendly, but grew deeper, turning almost maniacal. Ellie grew uncomfortable and scooted her chair away from her friend.

"Yep, you saved us!" Victoria cackled, "You risked your life to save us and NOT run away like a COWARD!"

At that, a giant flame suddenly appeared behind Victoria, and Ellie gasped in horror as Victoria suddenly went limp, slamming her head on the table. Before Ellie could check up on her, Victoria shot up, her eyes lifeless and a pinecone jammed into her mouth, mush like how Phil had been before the Sprites burned his body.

"VICTORIA!" Ellie screamed in horror, jumping back. Suddenly she heard cackling all around her. She turned and saw all the other people in the mall had turned into Sprites, and were moving menacingly towards her.

"No, s…stay back!" Ellie cried, looking around in a panic as they surrounded her. Unlike last time, however, there were HUNDREDS of them, and no salty snacks anywhere in sight.

"No, no, no!" Ellie cried, turning around in a panic, looking for a way to escape. But there was none. She was doomed. "No, no…"

"No, no," Ellie mumbled, tossing and turning in her bed.

"Ellie, Ellie, wake up," Millie was shaking her sister awake, instantly realizing she was having a nightmare-induced panic attack.

"NO!" Ellie cried, finally jolting up in shock. She was sweating in panic, and as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, she noticed she was…crying? Yeah, she was definitely crying, too.

"Hey, it's ok," Millie said, sitting up and wrapping her arms even tighter around her little sis, "You're safe now."

Ellie turned around and returned the hug, burying her face into her sister's shoulder as she lightly sobbed. Millie continued whispering soothing nothings as she rubbed her little sister's back in comfort. They stayed like that for a good few minutes, Millie giving her sister all the time she needed to cry it out.

"I…I could have saved them," Ellie finally choked out.

"You don't know that," Millie replied, "If you had stayed to try to find them, that psycho would have killed you, too."

"But-" Ellie began, only to be cut off as Millie broke their hug so she could look her sister right in the eyes.

"Ellie, listen to me," She began sternly, yet still with as much compassion as she could manage, "You had no way of knowing that guy was dangerous, and after you found out, there was nothing you could do to save your classmates. It's horrible, and I know you're dealing with survivor's guilt, but you have to understand that running was all you could do."

Ellie frowned at that. She knew her sister was right; ignoring the truth about the killer(s), the fact remained that after freeing her classmates, all they could do was run. And if she just so happened to be the only one who got away, that wasn't her fault. Those little psychos were relentless. She knew she had to accept it. But…

"It's just so hard," She admitted, "I mean, I may not have known the guys all that well, but Victoria was my best friend."

Millie frowned at that, thinking over what to say for a moment before finally stating, "You're right, sis, she WAS your best friend. I know for a fact that you haven't hung out for a good while because she thought was better than you."

Ellie sighed at that, recalling how honestly, Millie had NEVER liked Victoria, even before their friendship fell apart. She could…kind of understand that. Due to being a bit spoiled by her parents, Victoria had always been a little bit of a brat. But Ellie still cared for her, and felt bad that she had failed her and the guys.

Millie shifted them so they were laying back down, still in their hug. She was stroking Ellie's hair as she said, "There was nothing you could have done, so it's best to just accept what happened. You survived, now you need to power forward. And you've got your family here to help you." Millie smiled an encouraging smile.

Ellie was still unsure, but she returned the smile as she tightened her hug. "Thanks, Sis, I really appreciate all this. You're a great sister."

"I try," Millie smiled back at her, before lifting her head and looking at the alarm clock on Ellie's bedside. It was after midnight, meaning they'd been asleep for a couple hours before Ellie's nightmare. "You gonna be able to get back to sleep?" She asked.

Ellie bit her lip, before shaking her head. "I…I don't wanna close my eyes, and I definitely don't wanna have more nightmares."

"Well…" Millie thought for a moment, trying to think of SOMETHING she could say to help her little sister out. Then, it came to her! "How about we just chat instead? You'll likely fall asleep on your own, and whatever we talk about will be the last thing on your mind."

"Ok…" Ellie thought for a moment, before frowning as she admitted, "I…got nothing, honestly."

"Hmmm…" Millie thought for a moment, before smirking, "Ya wanna talk about when Victoria and your friendship ended?"

"Why would I wanna talk about that?" Ellie asked, confused, "That was NOT a good memory."

"Oh, but it was, sis, it really was," Millie chuckled…

Ellie was sniffling as she sat on the couch. She had always tried to be a good little girl, but it was so HARD with Victoria's mommy. The woman was just a big old MEANIE in Ellie's opinion.

Anytime Ellie went to Victoria's house to play, her mommy ALWAYS had to start something, usually by stating that Victoria was "too good" for Ellie, whatever that meant.

At the very least, Victoria's grandpa was always nice to Ellie. He was a kind old man who, even though he had lots of money, never looked down on people. He was also a good father figure to Victoria, as it was just the 3 of them, no daddy anywhere that Ellie had seen.

"I am so sick of that wh*re!" Sonya raged from the other room, "She's practically a bully to Ellie!" She was currently on the phone talking to Vincent, away on a business trip, raging about the latest incident that had sent Ellie home crying after playing at Victoria's.

Ellie frowned, knowing the word her mommy had just said was a bad word. She listened some more, before timidly getting off the couch and making her way upstairs to her sister's room.

Despite it being Saturday, Millie was a bit of an overachiever, and thus was finishing up a book she had to read for a book report that wasn't due for a week. However, having heard her mother on the phone, she knew it was only a matter of time before she heard, "Millie?"

Looking up from her desk, she smiled at seeing her little sister in her doorway, a pout on her face. Setting her book down, Millie got up and opened her arms, silently signaling Ellie to run into them. Luckily it looked like Ellie was all cried out, so, after navigating them so that, while still in their hug, they were sitting on Millie's bed, she began stroking her little sister's head and asked, "What did Mrs. Chance do THIS time?"

"She told Victoria that she shouldn't play with me anymore, because she can make better, prettier friends," Ellie whined, "And Victoria said she understands what her mommy is saying! She's never said that before! She always tells her mommy that we're best friends and that I'm a good girl. But today she actually AGREED with her mommy, saying she knows that one day she'll make better friends than me." At this, the tears started up again.

Millie sighed, hating this, but not surprised it was coming to this. In all honesty, she had hoped that Victoria would have at least been willing to stay friends with Ellie until middle school where popularity and all that nonsense came in, but it looked like her mother had been working on her so that it would be much earlier.

Truthfully, Millie had never even really like Victoria to begin with, and wished that her sister had picked another girl to be her best friend. But alas, in kindergarten, the kids sat at 2-person tables, alphabetically by last name, so of course Victoria Chance and Eleanor Chang ended up sitting together for the whole year, becoming close in the process.

But Victoria was always a bit of a brat, at least in Millie's opinion. Sure, she was nice to Ellie, but now that Millie was in middle school, she had become more aware of things like backhanded compliments and manipulation.

But still, she knew Ellie cared for Victoria, so she instead said, "Maybe we can have Mom sit down and talk to her, explain how the 2 of you really care for each other, and that you're a good influence on her."

Ellie stopped sniffling and brightened up at that, asking, "You think so? Because maybe if I apologize for what I did wrong, Mrs. Chance will offer to help us out."

While Millie wanted to STRANGLE that woman for making Ellie think she had done something wrong, her curiosity was piqued as she asked, "How could she help us out?"

"Well, you know how Mommy and Daddy ALWAYS have to work?" Ellie asked, and Millie nodded, so she continued, "Well, I heard Mommy say that Victoria's Mommy has a MINE. And if I apologize, maybe she'll let us go in and get some gold."

Millie looked at her for a good moment, before finally bluntly saying, "…you lost me, sis."

"When I heard Mommy yelling to Daddy on the phone," Ellie explained, "She said Victoria's mommy likes to go digging for gold!" She had a giddy smile on her face as she finished, "So maybe if I tell her I'm sorry for not being a good friend to Victoria, she'll let us go into her mine, we can get some gold, become rich, and then Mommy and Daddy won't have to work all the time."

Millie merely smiled sweetly at her innocent little sister. The few times she herself had been to her sister's best friend's house, she had suspected that the old man living there was NOT Victoria's grandpa. The last time she had been there, she had seen Mrs. Chance kiss him on the lips; now that she was old enough to know what a gold digger was, she had no more questions about how amoral Victoria's mom was.

Millie merely remarked that that sounded like a good idea, before rocking her sister in her arms a bit more while their mom ranted downstairs.

"Oh gosh," Ellie laughed, "I had honestly forgotten about that."

"I still get a chuckle every time I remember you wanting to go digging for gold," Millie chuckled. However, she then grimaced as she muttered, "Still can't believe there are actually people like that, marrying someone old enough to be their parents just to get a shot at the good life."

"Maybe that's why Victoria and Rex were so sickeningly sweet with each other," Ellie mused, "Rex was gonna go to college on a Cricket scholarship, probably gonna go pro, same for Victoria with cheerleading. If they stayed together, she would have been able to continue her rich life without having to marry someone 20-40 years older than her."

"Makes sense," Millie replied, "Most people don't actually WANT to be with someone that old if they can help it. Heck, I'm sure Victoria's mom has probably cheated on her husband at least a couple times over the years."

"More than likely," Ellie said, yawning. "I know I'll never do something like that." She shifted a bit in their hug, as her eyes started drooping. "I'll find a nice guy my own age, who likes me for me, not some…some rich old perv…"

Those were the last words out of Ellie's mouth before she nodded off again. Millie was sure they'd probably be up again that night, but for now she'd pray her little sister could have a peaceful sleep.

She reached forward and pecked Ellie's forehead, before closing her eyes and allowing herself to drift off.

It was just before noon the next morning when Millie stumbled into the kitchen. Sonya, who was preparing lunch, frowned at seeing her older daughter still half-asleep at such a late hour; even when she was a kid, Millie RARELY slept in, 10:00 being the absolute latest she'd sleep on weekends.

"How is she?" Sonya asked, pouring the girl some coffee.

"Not too good," Millie sighed, "Ellie woke up several times due to nightmares, and the majority of the time she WAS asleep, she was tossing and turning something fierce."

"My poor baby," Sonya muttered, shaking her head.

"I imagine she'll sleep most of today," Millie said, before chuckling, "Despite everything going on, I know I helped. A bit too much, maybe."

"Oh?" Sonya asked curiously, handing Millie a sandwich, which the girl began eating as she told her story.

"I had to get up to go to the bathroom a couple hours ago, and even though I'm pretty sure she was asleep, she had a death grip on my arm. Took a good couple minutes to get free. Same for just now. If I didn't need something to eat, I would still be up there with her." She sighed as she finished her sandwich, finally stating, "I've got some things to take care of this week. Figure I'll at least do my homework in Ellie's room today, be close by when she wakes up."

"I'll make some food for her in a little bit," Sonya stated, "And I'm already looking up potential therapists for her to talk to. I may call Officer O'Malley and see if he knows of any who specifically deal with this kind of trauma."

"Hopefully he'll suggest someone good," Millie replied, before asking, "Did you see anything on the news?"

"Yup," Sonya replied, "O'Malley did the press conference around 10, and Mayor Harper is TRYING to do damage control, but last I checked the news, there's already an angry mob of protesters on his lawn."

"Good, that man deserves to be fired…" Millie growled, "Out of a canon!"

"Agreed," Sonya nodded, "I'll keep you informed, you call me when Ellie wakes up, and I'll bring her some food."

"Will do," Millie said, turning and heading back upstairs, first stopping in her own room to get the book she was reading for her book report, before heading to Ellie's room. Her sister was sleeping peacefully at the moment, which Millie took as a sign that she'd be ok.

For the rest of the day, Millie stayed in Ellie's room, eventually finishing her book and getting started on her report. Around 3ish, Ellie woke up, groggy and disoriented, but muttering she was hungry. Millie called for their mom, who brought Ellie a sandwich and some juice, which the girl (after waking up some more) again wolfed down.

During this, Sonya explained that things were not looking good for the mayor, and the police had already headed into the woods looking to see if Mr. Sprite was still alive. Ellie, despite not wanting to, felt the need to keep up her obliviousness about certain aspects of the story, and timidly asked, "Did they find any of the others."

"I haven't heard back, Sweetie," Sonya said, stroking her daughter's hair, "But I'll let you know as soon as I either hear back from Officer O'Malley or see anything on the news."

Knowing that was as good an answer as she was gonna get (as despite being pretty sure her classmates didn't make it, Ellie still had a sliver of hope), she finished her sandwich, before her mom and sister insisted she lay back down. Ellie initially resisted, but it was clear she was still very emotionally exhausted, and thus eventually obliged.

She slept for most of the rest of the day, Millie again joining her when night fell. Thankfully Ellie's restlessness seemed to be dissipating. She still had a couple nightmares, but having her sister there comforted her enough to get through them.

On Wednesday afternoon, Ellie was uneasy as her mom pulled up to a local psychiatrist office, having been recommended by Officer O'Malley.

Ellie nervously rubbed her shoulders, unsure of this. Sonya offered her daughter an encouraging smile and gave her hand a squeeze, while Millie, sitting in the backseat, reached forward and squeezed Ellie's shoulder. Though neither said anything, Ellie smiled, grateful for their support and loving comfort.

"We're gonna run a couple errands, then be back in an hour," Sonya told Ellie, as she got out of the car, "Remember, Officer O'Malley said that Dr. Luhn is the best psychiatrist in town, that all the members of the force who deal with PTSD go to him for help. He'll be able to help you, too, Sweetie."

"I know, Mum," Ellie nodded, sighing as she entered the office, turning to wave at Sonya and Millie as they drove away.

Upon telling the receptionist her name, she was informed that Dr. Luhn was running a bit behind and would be a couple minutes. Thus, Ellie took a seat in the waiting room and thought over how this was going to go.

As an apology to Ellie for what she had been through, Mayor Harper promised to pay for as many therapy sessions as she needed to recover from her trauma. Of course, he didn't tell her or her family this directly, instead announcing it on the news, clearly as a way to try to save face for his actions leading to the deaths of her classmates by not closing off the woods long ago. Still, Ellie planned to take full advantage of them, because she was NOT going to spend the rest of her high school life and beyond having sleepless nights filled with restlessness and nightmares.

As Ellie sat there, she took a photo out of her pocket, looking over it with melancholy. It was a photo of her and Victoria in second grade, having just gotten ice cream. Ellie wouldn't say for sure, but she was almost certain this was the last picture taken of her and Victoria before they stopped being friends. She sighed as she looked at it, knowing they'd never have a chance to reconcile now.

"Eleanor Chang," The doctor called her back, catching Ellie's attention. She put the photo back into her pocket before taking a deep breath.

As Ellie stood up and made her way into Dr. Luhn's office, she muttered to herself, "What happened was awful, but you can't undo it. It's best to move ahead, remember Victoria and the guys, pray that the Sprites will be taken care of, and try to stay strong. You've got Mum and Millie to help you, to listen to you, to be there for you. You're Eleanor Chang, you don't back down."

Taking another breath, she entered through the door, still feeling unsure about everything, but certain she would be fine if she just kept her head up.

So, I want to stress that I'm no longer super concerned about perfectionism, as I've realized that will only hold me back in my potential writing career. Thus, I merely had fun with this. I hope you all enjoyed!

The doctor mentioned at the end, Dr. Luhn, is named after the short film's director.

[lovelyjasmari]

YALLLLLL! When April comes around, DO NOT I REPEAT DONT NONE OF YALL EVEN LOOK AT ME!!!!

[glagger-true]

Howdy dear reader! I'm your host Glagger, and today I'm here to bring you the seventh post in my medal analysis series for Password the VN.

As you're aware by now, his post has SPOILERS FOR THE NOVEL. So please, if you haven't read the novel yet, and don't want to be spoiled, leave for now.

Leo, the medal of Expectations, Determination and Futility: 

Leo is found on day 22 of all routes inside a book in the hidden study. Thanatos guides Dave there as a reward, after he proves he's starting to remember past iterations on his own.

The medal is inside a book with a re-interpretation of "the three little pigs", in a hollow space alongside a childhood picture of the Hammond siblings Flora left there. In path A, Dave flips the picture and finds a message in the back written by Flora, telling Oswin to remember what's most important.

Afterwards, Thanatos gives an abridged version of the tale in the book. It has a rabbit as the villain, and the first pig is killed by the rabbit with a piece of chocolate the pig accepts. The second pig turns into a rabbit after rejecting the chocolate offered to them, which, to the author, is the same as death. The third survives by escaping from the rabbit who accidentally cooks himself alive trying to burn down the house with the pig inside.

Once Thanatos is done, Dave says there's no lesson to learn other than to mistrust rabbits in the book, calling the author racist. Thanatos confirms, and says it's the kind of book Regis, Oswin's father, liked to keep and read to his children.

In Astrology, Leo is the positive fixed fire sign of the zodiac. It's an expressive, inflexible and assertive sign marked by its intense willpower, ambition and of course, determination. The most beloved quality of Leo is bravery, which is its main strength and gives Leo physical, mental, and emotional fortitude. The fearless optimism of Leo causes it to never accept failure, and every challenge they face as they mature only multiplies the content in their well of courage.

Much like the lion they are represented by, people born under Leo act like kings and queens full of grace, ego and pride. Leos embrace the concept of royalty by being natural leaders who are theatrical, passionate and full of life, taking the spotlight to celebrate themselves. Since Leos perceive themselves as celebrities, they always search for partners who are artistic and creative, making their friendships and romantic affairs dramatic and explosive.

Leo's planetary ruler is the sun, the representative of creativity, life, vitality and power. The sun never stops burning and glowing, so, much like their ruler, Leo is naturally loyal, stable and consistent, always putting their entire heart in their relationships. In romance, the sun's influence causes them to only love seeing their partners be sucessful until they feel threatened. No sun likes being eclipsed, and as such, jealousy is a very strong trait in Leo thanks to their strong pride and ego. The most important lesson for Leo's maturity is the understanding that the shine of success from other people doesn't diminsh their own.

In Leo's myths, the sign represents the foe Heracles fought against in his first labor. The sign is the Nemean Lion, a giant, sentient lion with an impenetrable pelt that kidnapped beautiful maidens to lure warriors into his cove so he could devour them.

Heracles was tasked with killing him by a king, and in his journey to Nemea, he stays at a man's house to rest before the hunt. The man offers to sacrifice an animal to bless him in his mission but Heracles asks him to wait 30 days after he leaves instead, so that if he dies, the sacrifice can be done in his name as a hero. If Heracles succeeds however, both of them would celebrate together, sacrificing an animal to Zeus instead.

In the battle against the lion, after understanding that his weapons are useless against its pelt, he uses his divine strength and breaks his back with his bare arms, killing it with a headlock when it can't fight anymore. He takes the lion's pelt for himself, and returns to the man's house to celebrate and sacrifice an animal to Zeus, who's so impressed with his son's triumph, he turns the lion into the Leo constellation to eternize Heracles' achievement in the heavens.

Leo is the medal associated with the Hammond family and their tale. Its traits represent the members of the family and their story together, and also how the tale ended. The Hammonds are filled with ambitious and prideful members, Regis and his wife being prime examples of it. This is visible in how they both adopted Flora simply because they were worried her intellect would overshadow their children's, bringing her mind to the family so it could challenge and compete with the intelligence of their sons internally. There's also the fact Regis, much like Zeus, is a demanding and egotistical father that constantly orders his children to accomplish his trials and expectations to earn both their place in his "divine" family, as well as his affection and respect.

The Hammond siblings are expressive, driven and assertive individuals. They lived active lives in pursuit of great goals, being full of willpower and determination. They tried carving their place in the family's history but were ultimately unsuccessful in both acheiving the expectations set for them and changing its dysfunctional nature. Trapped in inflexible ideals and expectations, they only met death, rejection and isolation, much like the three pigs in the book's story.

It's also interesting how Heracles' traits can be broken down and divided amongst the Hammond siblings. Reginald has the blind devotion and loyalty towards a father who only sees him for his accomplishments, learning, studying and doing anything Regis desires of him. Much like Heracles earned his full divinity through his talent and abilities, Florencia caught the attention of Regis and his wife and became a Hammond for the same reasons. Heracles being raised by non-divine foster parents who cared for him most of his life fits perfectly with Oswin, who was raised by Benson because his own parents where either too busy or focused on their other children instead.

Craig says that the medal was left there on purpose by Flora to be found by Roswell to clue him in on the truth about Oswin being his father, but as time passed, it became less and less likely to happen. Thanatos never finding out the truth also prevented things from playing out differently. This fits Leo because, despite Flora's active efforts to assert her own desire of bringing her family together over Oswin's desire to remain distant, Roswell remained ignorant, and the situation stayed inflexibly the same.

Banner made by Xernok on Discord.

Artworks were made by https://twitter.com/butchii123 , https://twitter.com/terrantitanium and https://twitter.com/orbitpaws on twitter respectively.

[millennialdemon]

More thoughts on episode 1 of 18if

First of all, why didn't anyone tell me nearly every episode has a different director?

And moreover, that each one puts their own spin on the visuals, to the point that numerous episodes look like they are from a completely different anime?

That is so based... I love anthologies...

It makes me kind of excited to keep watching it, even with the gripes I have! Speaking of the gripes, a re-review (I did first see premiere this when it aired in 2017) of episode 1 in 2022:

The sound design, in particular the overuse of the too-quiet soundtrack, is really quite bad and very distracting for it. The most egregious example in this premiere occurs when the Witch of Thunder decides to lop off Haruto's arm with a sword when he dismisses her threats because "It's all a dream anyway". In this scene you would expect the whimsical light jazz music that had been playing throughout the conversation to stop dead, signalling: "Oh, this isn't a fun and whimsical scenario anymore, and this witch can hurt me and wants to kill me."

But no, the music doesn't even pause, nor does it change tone or volume at all. It flattens the scene and its aimlessness makes it awkward to watch, as if it is a mistake. I would even say the music should have at least changed before violence even occurred -- when the Witch of Thunder starts to get angry at Haruto earlier in the conversation, it feels noticeably off that nothing in the sound design shifts at all. I don't know what the intention was -- if perhaps it was meant to emulate a dream-like floatiness like many of the visual elements this episode? -- but all the droning consistency of the soundtrack ends up doing is remove all tension from the scenes it is used in.

And I'm not even a sound design girly, so if I'm noticing it, it must be pretty bad!

But back to the dream-like floatiness of the visual elements -- I can see there was a genuine attempt to do some interesting things with a dream setting, direction-wise. Lots of strange shot compositions and split-screens are used and they are admittedly pretty stylish, though I wouldn't say they do much to convey the setting beyond just being a bit abstract. Rather, the feeling of being in a dream is better captured by the almost constantly moving camera. It slowly spins around the characters during conversations, moves back and fourth in space, and changes angles on a whim, often in lieu of just using a cut to get to what looks like a new shot. It must have taken a lot of effort to animate so many of these scenes, and I suppose the actual drawings were sacrificed to accomplish it.

(However, I happily prefer this option -- simpler designs rendered a bit poorly for the sake of animating more difficult shots -- to the over-designed, wildly over-produced, and literally nausea-inducing scenes from the recent works of studio GoHands.)

But despite the efforts put into emulating a dream-like quality, the premiere of 18if never quite hits the mark and only ever really manages to feel a bit stilted and awkward. Which isn't the worst thing I suppose -- at least to me, the person who enjoyed the BangDream anime for its awkwardness.

So the most damning element to me of this premiere is one I have written about years ago -- the main plot. Kind of a big one. Kind of unavoidable as I continue this series. TL;DR: It's not great to watch a boy save girls from their own overwhelming emotions, either by talking them off of the edge with some common sense, or outright concluding their stories for them when they are too compromised to do it themselves.

Though I have only seen 2 episodes (the 2nd of which I liked so much that I literally still think about it 5 years after having seen it!), and so I am willing to hold out hope that maybe there will be a few break-out episodes where this isn't the case, and Haruto's presence will be incidental in the awakening of some of the witches. So despite my reservations about the main concept of the anime thus far, I am still interested in seeing what happens in future episodes, particularly now that I am getting into ones by other directors!

[xo-lynx]

I am on a Tendō and Terushima frenzy, that's all I've been thinking about all day.

TW: I don't think there is any but if you find one lemme know and I'll add it 💖

Sitting on the couch with the two of them trying to watch a movie, but instead Tendō and Teru can't keep their hands off of you. Both of them kneading your thighs, kissing your neck, leaving marks all over your throat. Until Tendō decides to start making out with you, giving you sloppy kisses while Teru continues to kiss your neck his hand slowly creeping up to your pussy moving your skirt up and your panties to the side. Rubbing your puffy cunt, teasing you. While Tendō's tongue is exploring your mouth, his other hand is on your tits, grabbing them.

[catgirlforkaeya]

hi there, you seems like a person who understands kaeya's personality well ;-; its hard when people talk about kaeya and all i see is them saying he's a heartless wh*re who have done that with every single person in mondstadt like umm 😭 but like honestly, do you see him as that type of person?? imo its clear that he's not a virgin but does he really seems like someone who does "that" to everyone?? using their body anytime and however he pleases?? is he a red flag??

im sorry with all the sudden questions but im a kaeya simp and also kin him,, but seeing him being potrayed as that type of person is– idk how to explain it but im afraid if he's a red flag??

i am sososo sorry this took so long anon 😭

before i get into this response i’m just going to say i’m very biased and this is just my own personal opinions/observations so people def will disagree but oh well

the way that the players portray kaeya (along with other characters) is WAYYYYY off from their actual canon personalities. people tend to just see the few voicelines we see in game and roll with that as their personality as a whole. they see a flirty personality and immediately jump to the stereotype of “oh they’re a whore” when the actual character is far off from that. to cut to the point, no i definitely do not think that kaeya is the type of person to go around using people as he pleases 😭. if you simply take a few minutes to read/listen to his voicelines in game and look into the lore you’ll realize very fast that the fandom’s portrayal of him is extremely far off. he definitely has his flaws but those flaws aren’t at all what people usually say, but at the same time every character has their flaws so those small flaws that aren’t all that important shouldn’t stop you from enjoying the character.

to sum it up i personally don’t see him as a red flag but i’m also very biased since he’s been my main and fav character 😭. all in all if you enjoy a character that’s not a totally unforgivable person (not saying you can’t enjoy ones like that but most of the times the red flags are too concerning 😭), don’t let anything stop you from enjoying them :) everyone has their own preferences obviously so there will be conflict anywhere but my best advice is to just ignore it :,)

[wovenstarlight]

#'i can't believe he's just trusting bak hayool like that!' now stop me if you've heard this before but uh #bak hayool can brainwash people into liking and trusting him??? #baffling truly. why are you talking like these are actions yoojin's taking with an unaffected mind #'i hope they make him realize his !!mistake!! soon' wh??? #why are you acting like being brainwashed is something YOOJIN is at fault for and should be punished for????? #brother he was literally just talented and well connected 😭 he didn't even do anything he was just standing there

bringing tags into main body because re: "i hope they make him realize his mistake" i just realized literally yoojin already KNOWS something's wrong about him not trusting shj and hyh and peace and everyone like he literally volunteered to be locked up of his own accord! YOOJIN VOLUNTEERED!!! guy who's been protesting being locked in a room for his own safety since LITERALLY THE FIRST TEN CHAPTERS!!! what the fuck are you TALKING about brother

baffled by person replying to the recent update posts about how yoojin's being SOOO stupid and they can't believe he won't trust shj <- Buddy did you miss the glaring warnings going HIS BRAIN IS FUCKED‼️‼️‼️ at the top of basically every recent chapter or

[reikeip]

Crossroad ♱ Curse 5

Location: Outside the Hasumi Temple

Keito: ♪~♪~♪

Koga: (...!? Woah, what the hell’s this?)

(Comin’ from that little bitty Shamisen is this huge force!)

(If the roar of my guitar was an explosive… I’d call it a bomb, and that right there’s a machine gun! It’s like I’m being shredded by his sound…?!)

(This guy ain’t all talk! He’s top-notch!)

(As expected of Sakuma-senpai, who’s famous for hangin’ out with no one. He’s workin’ with this guy at every given opportunity, and it ain’t for no reason!)

(This guy… He really is Sakuma-san’s partner, or is it more like his right-hand man?)

(His docile looks tricked me, he’s a rock n’ roller too~!)

(I’m surprised, he’s actually pretty cool…☆)

Keito: …What is it, Oogami? Your hands have come to a stop. Perhaps you’ve become charmed listening to me?

Koga: Wh!? No, no, you just startled me ‘cause you started playing outta nowhere!

Oh, yeah, is that all ya got, senpai?! You just caught me off guard with a sneak attack!

Keito: Of course not, I’ve yet to warm up. I haven’t touched the Shamisen in quite some time, so I must re-introduce myself to it.

… I’ll only be raising the tempo from here on out. Try to keep up with me, if you can.

Koga: B-bring it! We’ll use that shamisen and my guitar to make a blend of Japanese and Western styled music!

I’m gettin’ revved up just thinking about what kinda never before seen tunes will be born! Kyahahaha ☆

♪~♪~♪

Keito: ♪~♪~♪

Rei: Ahaha. Things got pretty exciting ‘round here, even while the starrin’ actor was skippin’ out, eh~? Mind if I join in on this session?

Adonis-kun, there should be a Japanese flute ‘round here somewhere, so why don’t ya nab that. Let’s play wind instruments~ and if ya aren’t confident playin’ that, your ocarina should be fine too.

But since ya came all this way to Japan, don’t ya think it’d be nice to get your hands on a local instrument and give it a spin?

Adonis: ……

Koga: …? Woah, Sakuma-senpai… and? Eh, who’s that guy!?

Keito: Oogami, don’t let that stop your hands from moving. Stay focused, please. Your musical performance is all over the place, you novice.

Koga: I’ve been scolded!? Yeah yeah yeah, I’ll play until there’s a good place to stop for the time being

Aah damn it, I wanna give Sakuma-senpai a proper greeting!

Rei: Nah, ain’t no need to greet me. Let’s skip out on the formalities~♪

Adonis: ♪~♪~♪

Rei: Haha. With the ocarina mixin’ in there, it’s starting to sound like somethin’ where I got no clue what direction it’s tryna take.

But it ain’t too shabby, y’know. No matter what country ya were born in, we’re all just fellow dudes livin’ on the same planet.

Hmmm~ If I was in charge of playin’ this flute, the performance would lean too much towards the Japanese style and become unbalanced. So I’ll take a risk an’ sing a Swedish song to further the exotic atmosphere we’re workin’ with.

Everything arises from chaos. Let’s weave a melody of our very own, before some boorish god tries to stop us!

♪~♪~♪

Location: Hasumi Temple, Main Hall

Rei: Whew, Japanese tea is delicious ☆ Did it always taste this good?

I sure do forget easily. Well, my memory resettin’ itself makes things feel all fresh and new, so I think it’s fine! Ahaha ♪

Here, drink Adnois-kun, drink. A parishioner of this temple has gotta great tea field, ya see~ I think the tea from there’s the best in all of Japan.

Adonis: Thank you for this tea.

Keito: Hey. Sakuma-san… I don’t mind if you kick back and make yourself at home here, but the least you could do is explain yourself.

For starters, who is this boy I don’t recognize, and where’d you pick him up from?

Rei: Hmm~ somewhere ‘round Arabia. I got an old teach of mine who lived there, so I stopped by on my way to some work overseas, an’ he was left in my care.

So get this. His country’s always got some sorta quarrel goin’ on, so apparently Adonis-kun goes back and’ forth between Japan and his homeland every time there is a political upheaval or somethin’.

So as far as it goes, he’s a student of Yumenosaki.

Ain't that right, Adonis-kun?

Adonis: Yes… I, too, am a Yumenosaki Academy student. However, I haven’t been able to attend class that much.

Even in the case that I must return to my home country I take classes, they’re given to me as a form of distance learning… I am a special case, so my attendance is counted for like that.

Keito: Hm. I’ve heard of something like that. I see, you’re Otogari…uh, Adonis, I presume? Is that the right name?

Adonis: Yes. I am Otogari Adonis, that is correct.

My Japanese, can it be understood?

Keito: Yes, your pronunciation is clear and easy to comprehend. I take it that you’ve studied Japanese quite a bit.

Adonis: Well… It’s more that I naturally picked it up, since I had to travel between here and my home country from a young age. Though, it seems I speak rather awkwardly.

Being more, informal? Is what Sakuma-senpai taught me is the more desired form of speech.

So, that is what I am practicing. Because I, want to get along with everyone.

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