#this is a long post btw. LMFAO

[ayatoscupid]

holy shit that new trailer made me so fucking sad i have to adopt xiao as a sibling figure now. lore rant under cut

its just. the "fighting hard to not become the very thing they swore to destroy" trope always HITS and xiao is such a tragic character through and through that i think itd be hard for anyone to not feel sorry for him, once they have a deeper look into his story. it can be easy to dismiss him as the growling edgelord character but really just a deeper look in and u can see just how...... sad he is

ive said before that i hold a soft spot for adepti lore- after developing lore for xue yin ive come to rly appreciate what the adepti symbolise n common themes that they have, and how it connects to the overarching themes of genshin as a whole.

idk if ive said this before? i forget what i say in my (few) lore rants here LMFAO but i feel that genshin is, to me, a story about grief. about loss. how it happens, how people cope with it, and how they ultimately move on. a more obvious theme in the narrative is ushering in a new era- mond and inazuma having already done this imo by thriving without their archon's guidance, liyue moving on from the loss of rex lapis, and sumeru finally reuniting with their archon. but in order to welcome a new era you have to say goodbye to the old one- you have to lose the old one and move on. such as the archons have to cherish but move on from old friends and old memories, the people have to as well

adepti are sort of deital beings who served the same purpose for thousands of years and now have to learn to adjust to a liyue thats rapidly changed before their very eyes- and they deal with this change. some of them have already started (ganyu, madame ping), and it comes easier for them

but not for xiao.

im very much not qualified or informed enough to make an in-depth analysis on this specifically but ill say that xiao's current story focuses on his recovery from his ptsd. and i dont think im informed enough to talk about ptsd so i wont- but his recovery is so very carefully written in that its so slow. he's not quick to accept these things and can even be harsh about them. not only is his duty ingrained in his brain from years and years of war, but he is physically unable to stop, lest he succumbs to his karmic debt.

(at least. thats how i remember it. cries if im wrong)

i love how we got an update on him during lantern rite actually (i mean, lantern rite is always xiao time but yk), bc ive been dying to know how hes been since we last saw him in the chasm. and it looks like hes been doing the same old things he usually does- but hes making an active decision in getting better, and that makes me proud of him!!!

he interacts with baizhu and qiqi now (though he leaves right away lol, but from their interactions this isnt the first time theyve taken care of him. cute!!) and he even walks around liyue harbour instead of just leaving, even letting a little girl interact with him and letting her grandpa give him some rice wine (from venti noticing that he's already drank, by the time they see each other)

of course, it's hard- hes constantly haunted by his debt. by the demons he's slayed. by the evil he's purged. by himself. he has nightmares about himself- about his fear of one day becoming the very evil he swore to purge. that's why we get those nightmares of the two xiaos- in it, hes the one with the mask on. hes succumbed to the darkness, and he cant take it off- hes become the very thing he swore to destroy.

(AAAAAAAAAAAAA ANAK NG PUTA ANG SAKIT)

hes still haunted by his nightmares, his secret fears- but hes getting better now. though its slow, and he may not see it, his development is there and its incredibly meaningful. and i Cannot Wait to see more of him, and his journey in learning that: "It's good to take the mask off once in a while... even just for one night."

[its-tea-time-darling]

nothing good is about to go down here babes...

part 2/? of babyboy's descent into madness (1, 3)

[gomacave]

Draw req..... seph braiding her hair like aeriths.......

(she has too much hair to put in one braid) what a good request my god anyways. time to feel unwell about sephagain.

THANKS 4 DA ASK!

[cxtangerina]

k2 is such a funny ship to me, like it's just plausible enough to be kinda sorta realistic if you squint and pray and look at it sideways, not quite a crackship but not able to get off the ground as more than a particularly popular rarepair either. they had, like, one big episode together back in season 3, a handful of major moments over the years that people hold onto with an iron grip, and basically nothing else outside of a plethora of fantastic fancontent and dreams.

i think i like it for the exact opposite reasons that i like kyman, actually, they sorta stand as complementary ships in my mind. where k2 barely has any actual basis in canon & comes heavily from fanworks and speculation about how well the characters would match each other, kyman is practically canonical, at least when it comes to cartman's feelings, and is at least regularly joked about and referenced in-show. personally, i also tend to see k2 as a ship that is kinda miraculously requited, whereas kyman is usually stuck in unrequited hell, which...

...well, this gets into more specific character analysis, but a big part of this is that i tend to see cartman as having very fucked up views of both romance & sexuality that have especially interesting implications when you consider him to have a crush on kyle, specifically.

on the one hand, i think his cupid self is evidence enough that he has a very fairytale, idealized view of romance, based more out of the hollywood movie image of what love is supposed to be rather than anything in reality. south park adults being utter fucking idiots 99% of the time means that most, if not all, of the kids don't have a lot of good role models to base their actions off of. i'm not gonna talk out of my ass about childhood development more than i understand it, but i don't think it's too controversial (?) of a take to claim that kids understand & learn about the world through watching it just as much as interacting with it, particularly when it comes to their own parents.

cartman is a piece of shit, and while a lot of that comes from him and his own bigotry, he's still ultimately a kid in show and you can trace where some of his worst traits originate from in the people around him, even if he makes the personal decision to push it as much as humanly possible. i think the trend in recent seasons for many adults to try and at least appear more pc only makes this more obvious, actually (coughcoughrandy), though talking about that is maybe biting off a little more south park politics than i'm willing to chew for this particular post.

point is, cartman as a character in particular does not have a lot, if anything, to base his idea of what a healthy, happy romantic relationship looks like, which isn't only because liane is single though that may be a major contributing factor. love isn't work to cartman, it isn't about the maintenance of a relationship or communication or all the more realistic and slightly less pleasant parts of loving someone that hollywood doesn't find dramatic or interesting enough to show. rather it's a fantasy, something that happens to people that they have no real control over. i wouldn't be surprised if he believes in soulmates or love at first sight, even if the likelihood of him admitting that out loud isn't especially high.

on the other hand, i think his view of sexuality is greatly influenced by not just liane's sex work, but the way she is slut-shamed and treated like garbage by the rest of the town for it. i tend to view cartman as having a very transactional, cynical view of sex and sexuality, where sex is only used for personal gain (whether that be money or power, likely at the expense of someone else/the submissive party), and sexuality is an inherent character flaw, a weakness that must be overcome unless you are able to twist it and use it for your own (material?) benefit- see the streaming wars & cartman wanting his mom to seduce a rich man for money as a recent example of this.

it's a running gag in TFBW that cartman uses douchebag catching their dad fucking their mom as a tragic backstory, and doesn't seem to understand how reproduction actually works even when kyle basically says it straight to his fucking face. even as a joke, there's still a lot of underlying truth behind why he would believe this. cartman is aware of his mom's sex work, even if he may not want to fully admit/believe it, largely because of situations where he's specifically getting shit for it. he knows he has a father, and that he is (in)directly responsible for said father's horrible death & consumption, but he only really cares about that insofar as it means he's half ginger. sex has only ever been presented through its most vicious power dynamics to him- why would he see it as a good thing, as something that could ever be loving, especially when contrasted against such an idealized, purified view of romance?

(you could also extrapolate from this how cartman associates sexuality & romance with femininity & his brand of sexism to get some particularly delectable transfem cartman ideas, but i digress.)

ANYWAYS. this is all to say that cartman having a crush on kyle (or anyone, really, but kyle is obviously the most emotionally volatile example) instantly pits those two conflicting views against one another, like he wants something that he doesn't even think could ever exist: a happy, healthy romantic relationship, where sex is just a normal thing that they can choose to do or not. this is where a lot of kyman angst comes from for me, with cartman either trying to stuff that round desire back into the square hole of how he views the world, or having his ideals fall ever further apart when the feelings are unrequited. and, on top of that, none of this being actually said out loud because communication is impossible.

this is why i always see kyman as making each other worse, especially if they actually manage to make it into a romantic relationship. i simply Do Not see kyle being a patient enough person to help cartman work through the intricacies of all of his expectations and idealized fantasies and internalized fears surrounding such mutually screwed views of romance & sexuality- on the rare occasions that kyle does show some interest in romantic relationships it's usually pretty centered around himself, and to be frank i only see his interest in romance going down as he gets older.

i've heard some people talk about kyle before like he's the "moral compass" of south park or whatever and while that may be true by the end of the episode, one of the things i like most about him is the fact that he struggles so much to get to the best conclusions. this is kind of getting back into the k2 side of this analysis, but where kenny manages a much more effortless selflessness, even pushing it to the point of being both a strength and a flaw when kenny stops caring about himself for the sake of others, kyle is a lot more self-centered than he cares to admit and it influences a lot of his attempts at being a good person.

this is both my favorite aspect of kyle, that he really has to put in the work to be the good person that he wants to be, and also the primary bad trait that i think cartman brings out of kyle. by being such a notoriously horrible shithead, he gives kyle the perfect target to unleash his annoyance on, getting him so caught up in arguing and proving himself to be the better person that kyle forgets to actually listen to the people that he's supposed to be standing up for. cartman is a fantastic troll and, at least in show, kyle definitely has not learned to stop feeding him argument fodder yet.

sidenote: about kyman entering a romantic relationship... wasn't sure where to add this, but it's for this exact reason that i also see kyman (or this version of kyman where cartman gets worse with age, rather than better) only actually happening in the universes where kyle has lost all other meaningful connections, to the point that feeding a troll to get off on an argument is the best possible option, even if he's old enough to know better. especially if he's old enough to know better.

again, k2 is the opposite of this for me in that i see kyle & kenny as having a lot of potential to bring out the best in each other.

if kyle's worst trait is that he gets too caught up in his own feelings & desires to truly be the good, selfless, thoughtful person that he wants to be to actually do genuine good for the sake of others, kenny's problem is that he skews too far in the opposite direction. i kinda already said this, but to state it outright: kenny's biggest strength and his biggest flaw are the exact same, that he is selfless to a fault, to the point of consistently putting other people's safety and happiness above his own when he thinks it would be of help the majority/the people he loves. this was the key kenny trait that was established by the end of BL&U, and it has only gotten more prominent in the years since with his mysterion persona.

it is in this way that kenny both stands as someone that kyle can look up to & admire for how effortlessly he dedicates himself to the people he cares about the most, but also, simultaneously, as someone that kyle can take care of himself and offer the same help back to. and i don't even think kenny needs to say very much out loud to push kyle towards a lot of these conclusions, he kinda just has to exist and be noticed and kyle has the intelligence to figure it out himself, to recognize the shit that kenny puts himself through and his (usually) quite noble reasons for doing so, and want to offer him the same love and care and dedication that kenny never allows himself to have.

really, the difficult part of this is being noticed at all in the first place. again, i said earlier that k2 is kinda "miraculously requited," in my mind, specifically because the aspect that's missing in the show and almost always must be provided by fan content for k2 is that spark/push forward that gets them close enough to start talking and for kyle to notice kenny in the first place. it's just lucky that's one of my favorite things to figure out and write for those two, hehehe.

[danketsuround]

First name basis - regarding Kuwana's one-sided relationship with Mitsuru through a cultural and linguistic lens

I haven't seen anyone else point this out so I wanted to mention it because I think it provides some insight to Kuwana and Mitsuru's relationship to each other despite them never having the opportunity to interact in game.

Has anyone else noticed that Kuwana refers to all of his former students by their last names? (Yui) Mamiya, (Yasushi) Akaike, (Shinya) Kawai, (Yoko) Sawa - then, Mitsuru (Kusumoto).

It could be argued that Kuwana refers to Mitsuru by his first name in order for players to be able to immediately distinguish between "Kusumoto" (Reiko) and "Kusumoto" (Mitsuru), but I also read it as how Kitakata unintentionally ostracized Mitsuru from his peers: how, in turn, Kuwana treats Mitsuru more preciously than others.

Tellingly, Kuwana refers to Mamiya and Sawa with the -kun honorific. Most people who have a rudimentary understanding of Japanese know that -kun is often used for young(er) boys. However, using -kun for adult women is more of a formality. In Sawa's case, I believe -kun is used for her out of mutual respect. -kun can also be used by male teachers to refer to their female students.

Despite never seeing Kitakata interact with any of his students in the past, we can infer from the above information that his way of addressing his former students, at least, has not changed.

Kuwana does not refer to Kawai with any honorifics because he is dead and they clearly do not have a close relationship. He uses -san with Akaike or none at all.

However, Kuwana also occasionally uses -kun with Mitsuru - not out of formality like Mamiya, or respect like Sawa, but rather, because Kuwana still views Mitsuru-kun as a child, or the schoolboy he knew long ago.

**** It's worth noting that Kuwana sometimes does not use honorifics with Mitsuru at all. Similar to Akaike, this is more closely related to how Kuwana used to be his teacher (you may drop honorifics of those who are socially inferior, like teachers with students) and not how Reiko NEVER uses honorifics with Mitsuru because they are family members.

To me, this is why -kun popping up occasionally is rather important. It demonstrates that Kuwana believes in a close relationship or kinship with Mitsuru that he never had.

This presents itself in other ways. Firstly, I'd like to note how he speaks to Kusumoto Reiko. Reiko is the only person Kuwana uses honorific language with (です・ます specifically, keigo, but not full seppuku zarei 許してください type of keigo, just a more formal/distant way of speaking, she mostly returns the formality - Kuwana seems to lower himself when speaking to her. Literally and figuratively, lol).

He also uses the fairly distant-yet-respectful sounding 「あなた」 with her. It's no question that he respects her undyingly ("virtuous and capable"!), yet I believe it is very interesting he refers to Mitsuru using -kun when speaking to her as well! He speaks about Mitsuru with her as if they all know each other well.

Take this line from the finale, while speaking to Reiko on the phone after Ehara's trial ended:

"Enough is enough. You and your son have been through enough hell. I want to protect Mitsuru-kun too. Almost as much as his mother."

(This is my favorite line. It's darling.)

Here, Kuwana is recognizing Reiko's struggles while veeeeeery preciously reminding her that he deeply cares for Mitsuru-kun - comparing himself, almost (and boldly so) to that of a maternal/parental figure.

While I don't think that Kuwana actually views himself as a parental figure to Mitsuru, it is important to note that Mitsuru is quite literally the figurehead and motivation to Kuwana's vigilantism:

"If it means I can prevent another Mitsuru Kusumoto, yes, I will keep killing." (Chapter 10)

"Mitsuru and all those kids... For them to have justice, this is what I had to become!" (Chapter 11)

"The day Mitsuru leapt from the roof, I vowed to atone for the rest of my life." (Chapter 11)

"Do you have any idea what [Mitsuru] was like thirteen years ago? Then you have no right to speak to me that way!" (Chapter 11)

This might be a good place to note that Kitakata's name change is referential to the date Mitsuru attempted suicide (September 17th): Kuwana, Ku (9) + wa (1) + na (7) - it's goroawase! Plus 仁 (Jin) meaning humanity, virtue, goodness.

I'd like to use all of this to talk about a much broader and darker theme. As I wrote in the beginning of this post, I believe Kitakata referring to Mitsuru by his first name - unlike the rest of his classmates - had unforeseen consequences. Being called by your first name by teachers is the choice of that teacher, and it is a very deliberate choice in high school. Kitakata "othered" Mitsuru, unintentionally showing him that he was not deserving of the same respect as his classmates.

Kuwana mentions that he thought he was well-liked by his students, even going as far as to not believe that that level of violence, abuse, and bullying could be happening right under his nose. While I don't believe Kitakata ever willingly participated in bullying Mitsuru, Mitsuru still remained outcasted in his own homeroom until the day he fell into a coma. In part, thanks to the way Kitakata singled him out.

By taking this to heart, Kuwana developed this idea that he and Mitsuru are foiled - that his selfish vigilantism is all for "Mitsuru's sake". In Chapter 11, Kuwana says "Mitsuru and all those kids..." - this shows an inability to recognize Mitsuru as anything other than a victim and a child. Mitsuru is not "Kusumoto-kun" or "Mitsuru-san", he is: Mitsuru-kun. An innocent young boy.

Kitakata may have unintentionally put a target on Mitsuru in class, but Kuwana singles Mitsuru out intentionally - by feeling so indebted to him that Kuwana, frankly, develops a parasocial relationship to Mitsuru's tragedy. And in a way, Mitsuru had become his unintended victim twice.

Moreover, the child he failed to protect, and the one he hurt the most.

[m0e-ru]

i know your blog mainly focuses on more of the “side characters” (?) from p4 but i was curious if you had a favorite member of the investigation team? :3

side characters AHAHAUAHAA i like that theyre to the side because it makes it less pressuring to think about them compared to like an izanagillion piranhas infesting a lake about a more popular character. maybe that's why I'm repellant to them <- ??????

anyway I love risegirl from the bottom of my heart I want to brush her bangs and kiss her exposed forehead and tell her she's doing amazing and we hold hands and run around in a circle lalalalala. I don't have any pictures but shes just so sweet to me.

her idol life and masking 24/7 absolutely crushing her I'm glad she made the decision to bail and actually chill for a while a be herself with people that love her, instead of trucking on and breaking herself like other poor child idols. she has the strength to let people into her life and know that they'll accept her back. it's absolutely astounding to me that she can be so cheerful and hype up others to be their best even after everything she's been through, or maybe that's where she got her willpower in the first place. her ambitions for being an entertainer are genuine as she just wants to make little girls like she once was, and still is, be the best that they can be.

the competition and drama in the entertainment industry is predatory, but I'm also so happy she can bond and be friends with kanami and the rest of the kitchen girls, despite the rivalry being forced on poor middle school scouted idol kids.

it's so fascinating to me how she has a navigator persona, a support persona. along with her endearing and cute nature, she's keen on reading people and reacting accordingly. of course, you can't blame her for her shit reactions, with naoto most notably, because she's literally going through puberty I mean she just turned 16 cmon guys cut her some slack. she can raise people's spirit whether or not she's in her idol persona because that's her power as Rise Kujikawa, that's just the kind of person she is.

she's free to express her feelings, whether her excitement, her playful infatuation with bancho, push her boundaries when shes unsettled and needs space, being angry or annoyed or stressed, and even crying tears nowhere near crocodile tears. she's a very genuine girl and a very genuine teenager of her age. she regulates her emotions accordingly, whether or not she actually does, but it makes her feel real in that regard. there are things she'll regret once she's older but I'm glad she's living and thriving the way she's supposed to: freely—despite her working as an idol.

speaking of genuine, I love her quirks. her laugh is so cute and the way she squeals is adorable, in the english or jp dub, so props to both voice actors. she's pretty athletic, being a great dancer with enough stamina to sing along. but she's kind of shit at songwriting, with that one flavor text I thought was funny. she spends her free time outside her classroom looking at the fire alarm, tempted to ring it. she knows so much about tofu and walks around the shopping district in her apron when business is slow. she goes to remedial with kanji during the summer because their autism lies in doing vocal exercises and crocheting NAWT the pythagorean theorem.

don't get me started with her beef with marie because I think it's the cutest and most hilarious thing ever. imagine you're the labeled tsundere of the cast but your category 9 autism transfers all your tsundereism to the girl behind you. marie is hot and cold about her feelings, just being embarrassed when she puts her guard down in front of bancho usually. but she's a curious and impressionable girl, so when margaret insults the girl on TV, Marie's just going to parrot that and rise starts pouting about it "that's not how the slogan goes!!" But when bancho's out of the picture, they can be normal girl friends, eating desserts and styling outfits for each other and singing duets. hell, in pq, theodore makes a lame haiku and marie and rise giggle in unison. well, maybe rise isn't a tsundere in these cases, but her seiyuu Rie Kugimiya is known for voicing tsundere roles, some I'm already familiar with, so it's funny hearing her in her element.

I could keep going on how I love risegirl but I'm going to sleeo goodnight I love girls

[crimeronan]

youtube shorts is recommending me anti-trans accounts doing street interviews in portland like "omg omg ongggg kitkat look look look we made algyrythm so good. look look ❗️❗️❗️ you live here, yes?? 🥳 we know where you live?? 👉👈 you like local content?? 🥺 you like portland?? 👉👈 you want see portland???? 🥺🥺🥺 HERE PORTLAND POSTER!!! 😄" like. damn dude i actually feel kinda bad that you tried so hard. like you actually did pick up maybe one-half of a topic i like to watch videos about. it's like when a little kid tries to pick flowers for their mom and gives her an allergic reaction instead. i'm sitting here like wow. is this really what portland videos are?? is it seriously all just viral conservative clickbait and longform videos about fake meme polycules???

.....should i have a fucking youtube account where i post about being in an actual portland polycule????

[anotherpapercut]

this was an addition on another post but I thought it deserved its own because I keep seeing posts about marriage that would fit in on right wing conspiracy YouTube

people should be allowed to choose whether or not they want to get married. posting about how people who don't want to get married are idiots and there's no viable reason why a person might choose not to get legally married makes you sound like Jerry Falwell. marriage should be legally accessible by ALL people regardless of disability, gender or sexuality, but basic rights should ALSO be available to all and not, as this person puts it, locked behind dominant cultural institutions

[breezypunk]

Please don't take my blocking as hate, I need to do what I need to do now for my own mental health. I have people here who I care for very much that don't deserve to be ran out and destroyed and part of being an empath is that when you care about someone, their emotions take a huge toll on you as well, you feel it.

Just know, no one here is perfect, just putting that out there. Everyone has done and said messed up shit. That's all, I wont say anymore. I hope everyone is taking it easy and take care of yourselves please, at the end of the day this is just a website where we come to share our love of video games and obsess over our blorbos, it should NEVER be any deeper than that.

[healingheartdogs]

I know it's been a few years since I've run my own dog training business instead of working for someone else for exploitation wages and that previously I was working in the rural south where prices are a bit different in general, but out of curiosity I decided to look at some dog training services in my area in upstate NY today and got hit with sticker shock ngl.

Most places don't post their prices so I could only compare a few (which... I sort of get since they want to avoid competition doing what I'm doing right now lol but as someone who has run a dog training business and had business marketing included in my education it's something I see as an... *interesting* choice, because most clients want to know price up front without having to contact you and wait for a response because they probably already have a budget in mind and just want to be able to quickly see if you fit into it or not, which means not having prices posted will make some potential clients immediately look elsewhere and if you don't even have some sort of price range for services posted somewhere then most of your calls and emails will just be people asking for pricing and a majority of those calls and emails will not lead to services purchased so it ends up wasting a lot of unpaid time on office work BUT THATS AN UNRELATED TOPIC, I DIGRESS) but WOWZA the ones that did have prices posted really made me realize I do NOT live in a low cost of living place anymore.

One of the popular places here that I looked at charges $150+ for ONE training session with one of their APPRENTICE trainers. It's double that price to train with one of their more experienced dog trainers for just one session.

I looked back at some of the trainers I was competing with back in FL and NC to compare as well as the dog training school I went to just to check and see if prices were getting that high in other rural areas, and nope. Most places $300 would still get you at least three - maybe up to six - private lessons spread out over three (or six, or whatever) weeks, which is the pricing range I'm used to seeing dog trainers in the rural south suffer with because of places like Petsmart setting the pricing bar so low.

I'm pretty sure I have more formal dog training education and certification than most of the employees at this place too since even their main "behaviorist" (not a protected title in the USA so anyone can call themselves that) has no certifications listed at all that I can find, so... I guess now that I live here if I ever start training again I'm going to have to rethink my pricing lol even if I don't charge those kinds of prices I clearly still need to bump them up in this area from what I used to charge in order to be competitive with these other training businesses.

[holocene-sims]

for better or for worse, i've been bitten by the fallout 76 bug 🫡

[robinmage]

no kind of relationship will ever be as impactful as the slightly toxic slightly homoromantic hyperdependent bestfriendship you had with someone when you were like 12

[thedickcavettshow]

if I may offer a word of advise to any person out there who may be as stupid as me - do not walk through a field of stinging nettles barefoot

[universestreasures]

The Song Of Memory (A Kisara & Ishizu Drabble)

"We've been expecting you, Miss Utahara."

The greeting is given as soon as the singer steps out of the car by the one she had contacted on Yugi Muto's recommendation, the very woman who was claimed to have the answers to all her many questions regarding the strange occurrences that had been going on recently. Kisara had traveled a great distance to meet with Ishizu Ishtar today, and without her sister, no less. While Shiori's company was to be expected and preferred in most situations, she had specifically requested she attend this meeting alone. This meeting was regarding Kisara's own circumstances, ones she didn't want to burden her sister with when she already had so much on her plate.

Upon walking towards the tomb keeper, who herself was accompanied by two bodyguards, the singer bowed her head in respect. This was not only a custom, but also a sign of gratitude. For securing this meeting had been of high importance to her ever since she learned that the answers she was looking for could be found with the elder woman.

"Thank you for taking the time to meet with me, Miss Ishtar. Considering your important position, I imagine you must be very busy. I very much appreciate you being able to fit me into your schedule."

"Of course. Now, will you please follow me? There is much for us to see and discuss." The woman gestures towards the entrance of the tomb, Kisara giving her a nod as she follows her down the dimly lit staircase. The two bodyguards then moved to guard the location's entrance. Seems they would have total privacy for this conversation, thankfully.

"This tomb is the current resting place of some of the relics that were once on display in Domino City's history museum. I originally brought them to Japan in hopes they would inspire the current generation of duelists, but with that task having been completed some time ago, they have been returned to their homeland."

"I see...So, that must be why you said we could not meet in Japan. You wanted to make sure I could see the relics, right?"

"Precisely. I hope these relics can inspire you Miss Utahara in the same way they both inspired Pegasus J. Crawford to create the game of Duel Monsters...and Seto Kaiba to host and battle in the Battle City tournament.

"He...He saw them too?"

Ishizu's words caused Kisara to halt in her tracks; her eyes widened as the flash of that man, of Seto Kaiba, flashed in her mind. Her encounter with him was the starting point of all the strange occurrences that had going on. The dreams. The visions. The strong ache in her heart when she sees him. Some of these she's experienced in the past, but they've only increased in frequency since their initial meeting. And it was the explanation behind these occurrences that she sought to find by coming here.

"Is something wrong, Miss Utahara?"

"N-No. It's...It's nothing." It clearly wasn't, but she couldn't lose focus now. Not when she was so close to the truth. "I was just...surprised. I...I didn't expect anything related to Duel Monsters to have taken inspiration from Egyptian history."

"Despite not being a duelist yourself, I think once you see them , the connection will become clear to you. Come, we're almost there."

She nods as she follows Ishizu deeper and deeper into the tomb, Kisara's heartbeat seeming to rise with each step. Was she getting nervous? Nervous about what she might learn? Or was it the thought of Seto Kaiba that made her heart race? She isn't sure, but regardless of the distraction, she pressed on until she met Ishizu at the bottom of the chamber.

"These two carvings you are about to see are from the 18th dynasty of Egypt that existed over 3,000 years ago. We at the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities have worked carefully to preserve these treasures so the legacy of our history is not lost to the sands of time. Please look at them at your leisure, and I'll be here to answer any questions you may have. Though, I believe the one you must look at is the one on the left."

She gives the other a nod before advancing forward, choosing to look at the tablet she was directing her towards first. Kisara is not sure what to expect when she looks at it. What did Ishizu mean by 'inspired'? What did these relics have to do with her experiences relating to her visions? To her weird connection to Seto Kaiba and the White Dragon? Guess the only way to find out was to see it with her own eyes.

Thus, with a deep breath, Kisara's gaze shifts to look at the stone. And the second she laid her eyes upon it, seeing the image in full, she froze, unable to do anything but look with widened eyes and process the unbelievable imagery before her eyes that seemed to fit the picture perfectly into the missing pieces of the puzzle of this mystery.

"That dragon...That dragon is...!" Flashes of different memories of her dreams and visions are shown before her eyes, and all of the dragons in this carving are seemingly depicted as plain as day. "The White Dragon...Blue-Eyes...White Dragon...The dragon from my dreams...It's...here on this stone, but...how? How could a creature of my dreams be on this stone, and later turned into a Duel Monsters card that is only owned by-"

Kisara pauses, realizing an important detail. Beautiful blue hues then start to shift their gaze from the carving of the beast to what was below. Or rather, who was below it, the very figure depicted as battling side by side with the dragon.

"It...It's him..." She speaks softly as she approaches the stone, gently touching the face of the figure depicted there for reasons she can't understand. "It's that man from my vision...The one that looks just like...!"

"Seto Kaiba." Ishizu's voice brings Kisara's focus back, her head turning back to face the woman who had approached her. "That is a depiction of a priest known as the 'White Beast Tamer', a loyal and prideful member of the Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, Pharaoh Atem's, court. Despite being in his service, he considered the king both his greatest friend and greatest rival. The battle between these two destined duelists is what is carved here on this stone."

Her eyes then wander to the opposite side of the tablet, the side featuring both the king and the magician carved above him. "That's Pharaoh Atem? But...but he looks just like Yugi Muto! Why...Why do these two figures look like people from the present? And what does all of this have to do with me? I came here looking for answers, but...I'm more confused than ever!"

Her heart was racing. Not only from the anxiety of the situation, but also because of what she saw on the stone and in the flashes of memory. There was clearly a connection between all these things. That was undeniable, and yet the very nature of it was still frustratingly unclear. Luckily for her, she had someone who could elaborate a bit.

"Miss Utahara." Ishizu speaks, gently placing a hand on Kisara's shoulder to try and help ease the obvious panic in her soul. "What does your heart tell you when you gaze upon this tablet? What feelings does it evoke? What words? What sights? It is in them that you may find your answers."

A hand is moved over her heart. The white-haired adult can still feel it racing in her chest, as if threatening to escape. She tries to take deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself enough to focus on the confusing cloud of feelings deep inside, once again her gaze shifting to the stone, specifically its left side. Silence fills the chamber for minutes on end as she continues to look, and it is only broken once an instinct takes hold of her, an instinct that allows her to convey what she is feeling in the only way she knows how...through the expression of her soul.

🎵"Once, like a dream...You looked at me...And everything felt new..."🎵

Her song is accompanied by images, images that were as clear as day to her. She sees herself beaten and stoned by a crowd, only for it to stop once he, the priest, intervenes and saves her life.

🎵"Time slipped away...The past seemed to fade...My hope restored by you..."🎵

She now sees herself looking at the priest from her weakened position on the ground, whose image seemed to glow in the sunlight. He was a beacon of light. The light of hope that she desperately tries to reach for.

🎵 "And I know, for some, it's temporary...Like a shooting star soon out of view..."🎵

Kisara finds her visions to now be of herself behind bars, watching the priest slowly turn and leave towards a darkened hallway. It then shifts to herself in the center of what appeared to be an arena, faced down by horrifying monsters. However, she turns around, now facing the image of the priest staring back at her.

🎵"But this will always be...It's my destiny...To be in love with you..."🎵

The priest in her images then moves in front of her, summoning a creature through his magic to defend her. Circumstances then cause the floor beneath them to fall, leaving them both dangling by a thread. That's when her body emits a bright blue aura, and from within that aura appears...the White Dragon...

🎵"Some people fall in love for life..."🎵

She finds herself behind bars again, her cell now breaking down around her. That's when he appears, like a miracle, to break her free, taking her by the hand as they escape a crumbling palace.

🎵"Others never get it right..."🎵

He then speaks to her. They are words Kisara cannot hear directly in her vision but are ones she can seemingly understand. They tell her to run, run away from this land, and don't look back. Despite her hesitance, she runs away from him, seemingly never to return to his side.

🎵"Love's fickle when it calls..."🎵

But...she ends up turning around, unable to leave him behind. He looks back at her a moment, screaming out her name, before everything is consumed in a dark light that strikes her core.

🎵"One thing that I know for sure..."🎵

Everything slows around her as her body slowly wilts, akin to that of a dying flower. She can see the panic in the priest's eyes as he cries out for her, a sign of his care for her. That...That was enough for her, she feels, to see him be concerned over her well-being, a feeling that can't help but feel a bit distant as these memories replayed.

🎵"Longer than our lives endure..."🎵

The sight before her now is a familiar one. She sees herself in his arms and knelt before a tablet depicting the White Dragon. Even now, seeing this sight fills her soul with an intense sadness, enough to cause tears to flow from her physical eyes and for her to drop to her knees.

🎵"You're my forever fall..."🎵

Kisara's eyes return back to reality, once again facing the stone as her song concludes. She reaches for the depiction of the priest once again, and for a moment, his image flashes in her mind. He smiles at her, reaching out his hand, before the image breaks and her hand finds itself touching the cold gravel of the tablet.

"Lord Seto...That's your name...That's who you are...The man who...saved me...in the past...The man who I wanted to repay...The man that I..." Her hands move to cover her heart, and her tear drops fall on the skin like dew drops. "Loved..."

She takes a few moments to herself to steady her spirit, slowly wiping the tears from her eyes with a handkerchief from her pocket. Kisara then stands up, one movement at a time, and turns back towards Ishizu. The look in her eyes is different than before, both murkier from her tears but almost...clearer somehow, as if some fog had been lifted.

"So...I'm the vessel for the White Dragon, or rather...I was in a previous life. And what I've been seeing...What I've been experiencing...That song I just sung...It was me connecting to that part of myself, wasn't it Miss Ishtar?"

"Yes. Just like the destined duelists the tablet depicts, it seems your journey, too, has not yet reached its final conclusion."

"Does this mean that...I still have the White Dragon inside of me? Could that be why I see it in my dreams?"

"I'm not so certain of that. In ancient times, Egyptian sorcerers trapped creatures, both good and evil, into stone tablets that they could summon at will. Today this practice is represented by the Duel Monsters cards duelists can summon to aid them in battle. If you still had the spirit of the White Dragon within you, then I think there could be no card of it."

"I guess...I guess that makes sense. And those cards...They belong to..." A puzzle piece seemingly clicked in her mind as she was putting things together, things she wanted to confirm with the women first just to be certain. "Miss Ishizu, Does...Does that mean that Seto Kaiba is..."

"He is as you suspect. He is the priest reborn in this new age, and he is fully aware of his ancient heritage."

"Then...Then, does he know about..." Her words die in her throat, and she remembers one crucial detail from the memories of her human life she had just seen. While her past life's feelings for the priest had been clear, they were ones she did not get to express. For her past self passed away before being given the chance to say what she felt to him, of the love she had for him deep inside.

At least...as far as the blue-eyed women knew, anyway. There were more secrets of her past still yet to reveal themselves. The memories of her human life during her time in Egypt had been unlocked to her. However, the secrets housed within the other parts of her soul, the ones tied to the four Blue-Eyes White Dragons, still were out of reach, and until she could reconnect and access them, the full truth would still be just a mystery.

"I do not know what he knows and does not know at this current moment. What I do know is that he has outwardly rejected and denied his claims to the past, to his very destiny on multiple occasions, despite what he has experienced first hand."

"I see...I cannot say I'm surprised. He is...a very mysterious and cold person, with his heart seemingly sealed off from the world..."

It was a stark contrast to what she witnessed from the priest in her visions, who always appealed to her as warm and protective. Then again, she doesn't know Seto Kaiba that well at all. Could he too be hiding a part of himself?

"But honestly, after learning all of this? I...I want to get to know him, more than I did before. I don't know what fate has in store for us, or how I'm going to handle these new...feelings from my past." Contending with a love, a powerful one that seemingly crossed time to the present day, that is hers but also not hers was going to be challenging, after all. "All I do know is that I should at least try. I'd forever regret it if I didn't."

"I wish you the best of luck with your efforts. Now is there anything else I can help you with? You still haven't looked at the second carving."

"I...I think I got more than I could ever ask for just by looking at the first one. If anything, it gives me an excuse to see you again. Thank you, Miss Ishtar. Thank you for everything." Kisara bows her head in gratitude once more, a soft smile characteristic of her gracing her face.

"You can just adress me as Ishizu."

"Only if you address me as Kisara."

"Alright, Kisara. I'm glad I could be of help to you. You are free to contact me anytime should you need it."

"I appreciate it, Ishizu. Thank you again."

With permission to be casual around one another exchanged, the two ladies leave the tomb, and Kisara heads back on her way to her hotel. The singer is sure to call her sister and tell her the meeting was successful and that she will be flying back to Japan in the morning. Seems like she has a busy schedule ahead of her when she gets back. She did take a few days off just for this trip, meaning she'd have to play catch up when she returned home.

As the Blue-Eyed Maiden sat in her room, her hands were busy writing in her songbook. She was writing down the song she had sung in the tomb, a song that she had known how to sing and knew the notes to without needing to think. It was a song that seemingly came from her soul, a song that Kisara...wanted to share with him someday, no matter what his reaction may be. It would not be for herself now, but rather who she used to be, to say what she never got to say before...before her death.

🎵 "Your trust, honesty...Helped me believe...A ray of hope shined through...You set me free...Saw what the world couldn't see...I found my joy in you...

"Every life is filled with passing moments...Like the seasons change, they come and go...But this is infinite...Nothing, even death...Could separate our souls...

'Cause you're my final goal...

Some people fall in love for life...Others never get it right...Love's fickle when it calls...One thing that I know for sure...Longer than our lives endure...

You're my forever fall..."🎵

[fakeosirian]

i told myself (and jayce so someone else knew i did actually predict this) like 6 months ago that if any youtubers in the commentary sphere would be getting into a sticky controversy, my money would be on nickisnotgreen, ethanisonline, and kurtis conner

so anyway i'm a prophet

[pixlpawz]

thank you for the love on my fursona forecast post🩷