#was this the strega reveal???

[elle-p]

Famitsu 916 Persona 3 part pictures and transcription.

期待の新作特搜隊

期待の新作TOP30にランクインしたソフトの最新情報を特捜隊が徹底調查！

2006年も半分を過ぎようとしている今日このごろ。我らが特捜隊は、今週も読者が期待を寄せるビッグタイトルを総力取材！厳選された新作情報を見逃したら、話題に乗り遅れちゃうぞ!！

今週のラインアップ 期待の新作TOP30は44ページ

ペルソナ3 254ページ

うたわれるもの 散りゆく者への子守唄 258ページ

メタルギア ソリッド4 ガンズ・オブ・ザ・パトリオット 260ページ

ファイナルファンタジーⅢ 262ページ

その他の期待作 266ページ

本作の概要はここでCHECK！

人気RPG、『ペルソナ』シリーズの最新作。これまでのシリーズとは異なる世界設定、異なる登場人物による、新たな物語が描かれるのだ。主人公を始めとした"ペルソナ"を召喚する能力を持つ仲間たちが、人間の精神を喰らう"シャドウ"と戦うことになるぞ。こうしたシャドウとの戦いは、午前0時になると訪れる"影時間"に行われる。一般の人間には、その存在を認識することすらできない闇の時間が、人類の存亡を懸けた戦いの舞台となる!！

主人公

私立月光館学園に転入してきた17歳の少年。学園寮への入寮当日にシャドウ襲撃事件に巻き込まれ、その際にペルソナ召喚能力を覚醒。シャドウ討伐部隊、"特別課外活動部"のリーダーとなる。メンバーの中で唯一、複数のぺルソナを自由につけ替える力を持っている。

初期ペルソナ

オルフェウス

P3

Persona3

ペルソナ3

またもや新たな登場人物が判明！でも、なんか怪しい感じ⋯⋯？

ケータイで購入

プレイステーション2

PS2

DVD-ROM

アトラス 7月13日発売予定 7140円[税込]

ドラマ RPG 要67キロバイト

ディレクター:橋野桂、キャラクターデザイン&アートディレクション:副島成記

期待の新作TOP30 ランキングデータ

今週の順位

3位

初登場4月7日号

15位

最高順位6月30日増刊号

1位

"影時間"に行動する者が⋯⋯!？

主人公ら、ペルソナ召喚能力を持つ者たちは、影時間に自由に行動することができる。それ以外の人間は、影時間に迷い込むとシャドウに精神を喰われてしまうのだ。しかし、そんな影時間に行動する、主人公たち以外の人間がいることが判明したぞ！彼らは3人組。いったい何者なのだろうか⋯⋯!？

↑影時間に入り込んでも精神を喰われないのは、主人公たちだけではなかった。彼らはシャドウに襲われないのだろうか⋯⋯？

仲間になることが判明しているペルソナ使い

たけ ば

岳羽ゆかり

声:豊口めぐみ

主人公のクラスメイトで、同じ寮に住んでいる女の子。性格は勝ち気で、明るく前向き。ぺルソナ召喚能力には覚醒したばかりだ。月光館学園に入学したのは、ある事情によるらしいが？

初期ペルソナ イオ

い おり じゅん ぺい

伊織順北

声:鳥海浩輔

主人公のクラスメイト。転校生である主人公にまっさきに話しかけてきた、明るくお調子者の少年だ。主人公の転校直後に影時間への適性＝ペルソナ召喚能力を見出され、仲間に加わる。

初期ペルソナ ヘルメス

はみだし情報

シリーズのクロスレビューは何点？

PS 女神岡聞録 ペルソナ

9887

謎の3人組⋯⋯彼らの目的とは!？

ネットで話題になっている、復讐代行サイト。そこに依頼を書き込むと、復讐がなされるという噂が流れている。この復讐代行屋の正体は、シャドウに精神を喰われることもなく平然と影時間を闊歩する3人組だった。どうやら、影時間に復讐を行っているらしい。彼らがこんなことをしているのは、なぜなのだろうか？

不気味な気配⋯⋯

タカヤ

声:神奈延年

グループのリーダーらしき男。この界隈では有名な、"不気味"で、"イッている"集団をまとめている。ほかのふたりと比べて、不気味さは際立っている。その言動から、何か狂信的な思想を持っているようにも感じられるが、詳細は不明だ。

←↑荒垣と話す3人組。特別課外活動部のことを気にしているようだ。荒垣と彼らの関係性が気になるが、詳細はいまのところ不明。

荒垣と知り合い？

←復讐の代行屋⋯⋯。いかにも危なそうなヤツらだ。

ジン

声:小野坂昌也

タカヤのそばに、いつもつき添っている関西弁の男。情報収集や分析を行う、リーダーのサポート役的な立場らしい。その手に持っているのは手榴弾なのだろうか⋯⋯？何にしろ、危ない人物であることは確か。

チドリ

声:沢城みゆき

タカヤが率いる集団に、つねについて歩いている女の子。不気味な集団の中で、どのような役割を果たしているのかは不明。また、なぜ集団に身を置くのかも謎に包まれている。ゴスロリテイストの服装に、行動とのギャップを感じる。

主人公にとって彼らは敵か味方か⋯⋯？

きり じょう み つる

桐条美鶴

声:田中理恵

月光館学園の経営母体でもある大企業、桐条グループの令嬢で、局等部の生徒会長。幼少時のある事故を契機に、ペルソナ召喚能力に目覚めた。主人公を特別課外活動部に勧誘した張本人。

初期ペルソナ

ペンテシレア

さな だ あき ひこ

真田明彦

声:緑川 光

月光館学園高等部3年生で、ボクシング部主将。ストイックな性格で、シャドウとの戦いも強くなるためのトレーニング的な感覚で行っている。明彦が力を求めるようになった理由とは？

初期ペルソナ

ポリデュークス

さまざまなシステムが一挙に判明!！

ダンジョン探索や戦闘に関するシステムについて、これまで明らかにされていなかった部分が一挙に判明！さっそく、これの要素について紹介していこう。どうやら探索、戦闘の両面で計画性を持った行動が求められるようだ。事前に戦略をしっかり立てよう！

パーティーを編成して突入！

ダンジョン"タルタロス"の探索に入るまえに、パーティーメンバーを編成する。探索に挑めるのは、主人公を含め最大4人。出現する敵の属性や、仲間が持っているスキルなどをよく考えて編成しよう。

会話して

編成に加えるかを選択

誰を連れて行く？

←攻撃、回復という区別だけではなく、所持ペルソナの属性も考慮したパーティー編成を心がけよう。

ダンジョンを手分けして探索

ダンジョン内で"散開"コマン��を選択すると、パーティーが個別行動に移る。主人公以外の仲間は、自動で探索を行ってくれるぞ。ダンジョンの全体像を把握したり、宝箱を捜す際に便利なコマンドだ。

ダンジョン内部を各自単独で探索！

"散開"を指示

宝箱も見つけてくれる

←宝箱を発見したら、各自回収してくれるぞ。散開をうまく使えば探索が楽に！

散開中でも戦闘はアリ！

↑→散開中の戦闘は、それぞれ単独で戦うことになるぞ。強敵に注意すること！

探索を終えたら"集合"！

←↑"集合"を指示すれば、散開中の仲間が主人公のもとに戻ってくる。

やま ぎし ふう か

山岸風花

声:能登麻美子

引っ込み思案で、自分を卑下してしまう傾向がある女の子。戦いには参加せず、情報支援に特化した立場で特別課外活動部に参加する。機械いじりが得意だが、料理にも興味があるようだ。

初期ペルソナ

ルキア

あま だ けん

天田 乾

声:緒方恵美

月光館学園初等科所属。2年まえに事故で母親を失い、親戚からの学費援助のみで寮���まいをしている。初等科5年生という若さながらペルソナ召喚能力を持ち、特別課外活動部に加わる。

初期ペルソナ ネメシス

ピンチのときは"救護要請"

破間中に戦闘になることもある。この場合、当然ながら主人公はひとりで敵と戦うことになるわけだ。もし苦戦を強いられそうなら、迷わず"救援要請"を指示しよう。歌会していた仲間が、続々と駆けつけてくれるぞ。ひとりで無理せず、緊急時には仲間の助けを求めるのも勇気だ。

→危ないと思ったら、迷わず放後要請を出すべき。あとは仲間がやってくるまで、なんとか持ちこたえろ！

仲間が続々と集まってくる

↑←頼れる仲間が集結したら、いざ反撃。目にモノ見せてくれる！

パーティーが全員集合!！

ペルソナが成長していく！

主人公たちだけではなく、ベルソナも敵との戦いで経験値を積み、レベルアップしていく。レベルが上がるとパラメーターが上昇するほか、新たなスキルも覚えるのだ。覚えるスキルの上限まで育てるのもあり。ぺルソナ合体・育成ともに自由度高し!！

これが合図

→こうして地道にペルソナを強化していけば、ペルソナ合体の際に、より強力なぺルソナが生み出せるぞ。

ペルソナのレベルアップ!！

新たなスキルを覚えることも！

←↑新しいスキルを修得！さっそく戦闘で使い、効果のほどを確認してみよう。

所持ペルソナの組み合わせによって発動する"ミックスレイド"

主人公は、複数のペルソナを所持できる。このとき、特定の組み合わせのペルソナがいれば"ミックスレイド"が発動。強力な魔法で戦況を有利にしてくれるのだ！

ミックスレイド発動！

↑ジャックフロストとジャックランタンで発動。ほかにはどんな組み合わせが？

なんだかスゴそう！

→一転して迫力溢れる演出に！ジャックブラザーズが本気になった!？

組み合わせごとに異なる演出が入る

←"ジャックブラザーズ"という組み合わせらしい。漫才コンビのような演出で心も癒される。

そして主人公がスキルをくり出す！その威力は⋯⋯!？

コロマル

声: ? ? ?

以前は神社の神主に飼われていたが、主人を事故で失って以来野良犬として暮らしていた。ペルソナ召喚能力を覚醒させてからは、特別課外活動部の一員としてともに戦うことになる。

初期ペルソナ

ケルベロス

アイギス

声:坂本真綾

シャドウ制圧用として開発された兵器。ペルソナ召喚能力を実装するため、"自我”を与えられている。従順実直で、命令には忠実に従う。戦術面以外の知識は、あまり持ち合わせていない。

初期

ペルソナ

パラディオン

[olderthannetfic]

The Pawn to Queen wank was well known at the time, but it seems to have mostly sunk into obscurity... or maybe I just know too many people who never read het now?

Riley was a BNF on the very large and active When I Kissed the Teacher mailing list, which was for Snape/Hermione in that era when we knew nothing about Snape and people wrote him as a mysterious aristocrat who just needed a better hair care regimen. I remember her wangsting unsubtly every time another author got praise on the list despite being one of the most popular authors at the time and getting frequent asspats from the same posters. It was incredibly tacky and obvious, but we'd all comfort her anyway because she was popular and nobody wanted her to stop writing.

At first, PtQ was your classic Bad Guys Made Them Do It sexy dubcon hurt/comfort nonsense... And then there was the snake on rollerskates, but we ate that kind of thing up back then.

As the story went on, however, her OCs (and "OCs" stolen from Cyteen) started taking over the story with endless nonsense about being ~Strega~ (never "a strega", always "I am Strega"), the witchy Übermensch. The sexy Snape/Hermione stuff went out the window to the annoyance of a lot of the audience.

This was all going on as I was getting to the end of my time in college and getting busier. I eventually left the list and thus tragically missed (most? all?) what I'm told were called the "PtQ Wars". This months-long wank was reportedly about Riley revealing that a lot of the point of PtQ was to enlighten the readers as to the amazingness of objectivism. On one side were a bunch of readers explaining that, yes, really, as people who'd at some point been in proximity to a college campus and/or insufferable twats, they were amply familiar with objectivism and didn't appreciate a bait-and-switch. On the other, Riley, insisting that people Just Didn't Get It.

All I can find now are a few references to there being a wank and to Riley loving Nietzsche, nothing about Rand, but I definitely remember people saying there was specific discussion of Rand and Riley being mortally offended that others were... not fans.

[krystaldragonart]

wind up toy (based off those P3R rubber keychain revealed recently. Bc ofc they didn't make Strega ones)

[jimi-rawlings]

Fallen angel - Wikipedia

Fallen angels are angels who were expelled from Heaven. The literal term "fallen angel" does not appear in any Abrahamic religious texts, but is used to describe angels who sinned. Such angels often tempt humans to sin.

SIN OF THE ANGELS

Lesson: The sin of the angels has been traditionally spoken of as a sin of rebellion. “I will not serve” is the statement attributed to satan and the other fallen angels. “I will not serve God or obey His will.” Recall also the statement that the serpent spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden when he seduced them to act in disobedience to God by eating the forbidden fruit. The serpent convinced them to eat the forbidden fruit by saying, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5, RSV-CE). This line also reveals the hidden first sin of the angels. They wanted to be gods. They did not want to serve the one God. They did not want to obey. They rebelled. They wanted to be the masters of their own destiny rather than to humbly submit to the plan of God for their lives.

BELMÔNT'S SIN: STREET IDENTITY MURAL CROWN APOTHEOSIS

In religion, apotheosis was a feature of many religions in the ancient world, and some that are active today. It requires a belief that there is a possibility of newly-created gods, so a polytheistic belief system. The major modern religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism do not allow for this. In Hellenistic culture, a mural crown identified tutelary deities such as the goddess Tyche (the embodiment of the fortunes of a city, familiar to Romans as Fortuna), and Hestia (the embodiment of the protection of a city, familiar to Romans as Vesta). The high cylindrical polos of Rhea/Cybele too could be rendered as a mural crown in Hellenistic times, specifically designating the mother goddess as patron of a city. Nightlife entertainment is often more adult-oriented than daytime entertainment. Location theory has become an integral part of economic geography, regional science, and spatial economics.

Example; Mt. Pleasant Road Pluto Effect Invocation Wing Transfer

NOCTU [PLUTO ANGEL/NOCTURNALIS]

(Left-handed Path Apotheosis Pluto-Mural Crown Wing Transfer) Angelology Acrostics Treatise Text: Material World Angels: Spiritual Angelology not Religious (Bible Influence: De Coelesti Hierarchia and Summa Theologica), Left Handed Path Apotheosis, Illusions, Dionysian Mysteries, Black Angel Wings, Sagittarius-Scorpio Sensory Overload Asperger's (Fetus Alcohol Consumption and Prenatal Hormones Vitamin) Birth, Virtue Heavenly Host, Pluto Evening Star Astral Body Planetary Intelligence, Self-Defication Mural Crown Horcrux Oversoul (STREGA), Change Oversoul to New Title (Salesian), Cardinal-Mutable Human Form with Fixed Spirit, Invocation Possession, Angelology Students, and Angel Philosopher), Mural Crown (Tutlery Deity, Civil Heraldy, Heraldy), Salesian Church Enterprises (Real Estate; Liberal Arts Immersion Schools; Gold; Athletics; Fine Arts), Philosophy (CAAB: Culture, Art, Aesthetic, Bohemian; 5 Senses City, Selective Sensory Development, Distorted Sensory Play, Sensory Overload Asperger's, Culture Antagonist Liberal Arts)

RUSSE NOIR (À MA SAUCE) FOOTBALL

À ma sauce Literally: To my sauce, True meaning: Suit my style

VEDETTE: 3-4-1-2 has 4 Pivot Formations so 5 Total: Transition to a 4-4-2 Diamond, Transition to a 4-4-2, Transition to a 4-2-3-1, Transition to a 3-3-1-3

Central African Republic 4-4-2 Diamond Variant: 1-3-4-2 (1) À ma sauce (Sweeper Deep-lying Playmaker Wingback) (4) Diamant (À ma sauce: Counterpressing Pivot Pressing Triggers, Sweeper-Winger Pivots, Overlapping Runs, W; V; I Box Keeping Formations) [Key Stats: Front Foot, Pressing Triggers, Clearance, Aerial Duel, Interceptions, Blocked Shots, Tackles, Final Ball, Key Dribbles, Overlapping Runs, Set Piece Taker] Spacing, Possession, Pass Completion, and Counter Pressing with Pursuit and Ambush Predation One Team Box Touches and Capture the Flag with Analytics-Geometry Total Football Trixie Bet on CNS Drugs (Xanax and Modafinil)

Define a run in one of two ways: (i) as a set of consecutive goals scored by one team, without the other team scoring a goal; (ii) as a set of consecutive scoring events by one team, each event being either a goal or one or more Set Piece. Play aggressive and with counter pressing and run it up on the score board in the first half and after halftime play defense. You get a break at half and it's easier to win when someone plays defense and looks for opportunities instead of Attacking.

Posterior Chain Super Compensation and Speed-Endurance (Elastic-Connective Tissue) Force-Velocity Curve; Crescent Moon Horizontal Plane Vertical Force Sprinting Mechanics.

WM or Diamond Rover Futsal Pivot Formation

Set Piece Stylistic Biomechanics: Shooting Knee at Wall for Curve and Placement Knee for Corner. Follow through with Shot with proper Body Alignment

W, I, M, V; Box Keeping Formation with 3 Centre-Backs

Knee to Feet or Shoulder to Feet Cradling for Touch/Entertainment

UEFA Front Office Curriculum

Museum d'histoire: Broken down into three major section — “A Lineage of Coaches Players and Places,” “Proving Grounds” and “Cultures of Basketball” — City/Game documents how basketball first found its origins in the neighborhoods of NYC and then went on to produce a roster of local legends who played everywhere from Rucker Park and the Cage on West 4th Street to Christ the King High School and St. John’s University.

Agility Ladder Eyes Pocket: Eyes Between Defenders Feet and Ball, Numbered Footwork V-Step (Shifting Defenders with Momentum) et L-Step (Explosive First Step), All moves should form a Triangle or an Incomplete Triangle (Coup de Pied)

*Push-Pull Sprint/Shooting Cycle: Pull Glutes et Hamstring; Push Calf et Quads for Sprints.

Sprint Size Up: A series of feint Karaoké dribble moves with Eye Tricks (Fake Pass) but Sprint Position Finish

Triangle Philosophy: All Dribbling Moves should form a Triangle or an Incomplete Triangle while using V-Step (Shifting Defenders with Momentum) et L-Step (Explosive First Step).

Thé Crescent: In Close Dribbling; Crescent Footwork with L Shapes (Paul Pogba)

On the Run Dribbling Moves: Letters and Shapes; Still Play 1 on 1: Numbered Footwork

Piedi Felici Courts: Drills Side/Box Play with 1 Net; Design Vaporwave Action Painting Angels; Knee for Direction and Sole Drags for Dribbling Touch and Crescent Moon Sprint Mechanics

Gambling Games: 5 Roll (Captain, Ship, Crew); Live-Pool Betting Monopoly

Stylistic Biomechanics: Dribbling Foot To Ball Contact (Balls of Feet and Arch of Feet); Knee for Direction; Foot Drags; & Hip Angle, Crescent Moon Running Mechanics, and Laces Kick.

Diamond Football (15 mins)

Set Up

-Lay out two overlapping sets of 4 flat markers in the positions shown above.

-Ask the players to stand on a flat marker for their teams colour (Red on Red, Yellow on Yellow).

Instruction

-Whenever the ball goes out for a kick in or for the defenders ball, the players must stand on their markers before play begins.

-As soon as the ball has been played in, players are free to move.

-Reset everytime the ball goes out.

Coaching Points, Progressions Ect.

-Ask players to shout out what each position on the park is to devlop understanding of their roles.

-If you decide to go to a normal game , leave the markers out for a visual aid for the players.

-If more than 8 players, Add in Goalkeepers who would then play the ball out to the DF,LM,RM.

-Rotate Positions, Ask Players to stand on a marker they haven't been on before

BELMÔNT'S ACCENT

Full Lips Endings with Vertical Narrow Mouth and Soft Rs

BELMÔNT'S SIN INDEX FUND PORTFOLIO 

Sin stock sectors usually include alcohol, tobacco, gambling, sex-related industries (Cabaret and Burlesque), and weapons manufacturers.

Diageo 

Phillip Morris

Sports Betting Investment Trust

Pharmaceuticals

Business Clusters with Scrum Management and Accelerators to produce Festivals.

Example: Create a Index Fund Portfolio of 15-20 Stocks and using Supply Side Economics to create Decentralized Gambling Economy.

BELMÔNT'S DECENTRALIZED GAMBLING ECONOMY

Corporate-Capital Gains Tax Haven

High Stakes Minimum Buy In

Card Gambling (Signal and President): Top 2 highest bids fight for the Coup d'état and the other two are lesser men, the lesser men are subordinates that aid in playing cards for the warlord, the winning team splits the money, the warlords switches based on the 13 cards dealt and bets placed, the first team to shed all of their cards win.

Domestic Gambling: Boxing

Retirement Gambling: Boat Racing

Residency Program for Tax Benefits

BELMÔNT'S TURF ACCOUNTING MODEL

+EV

Python Programming Gaussian Distribution

Exotic Options Trading Live Betting

Parlays Minimum for Round Robins

Daily Fantasy Sports Rakes

NOUCHI PALACE

Definitions of ballroom. noun. large room used mainly for dancing. synonyms: dance hall, dance palace**. types: disco, discotheque.

Go Go Music Influenced, Eurphoric Trance Chord Progression Melody, Progressive House and Drum n' Bass Percussion-808 Call and Response Staccato Polyrhythm or Layered Kick and Punch 808.

In his 1972 study of French lute music, scholar Wallace Rave compiled a list of features he believed to be characteristic of style brisé. Rave's list included the following: the avoidance of textural pattern and regularity in part writing; arpeggiated chord textures with irregular distribution of individual notes of the chord; ambiguous melodic lines; rhythmic displacement of notes within a melodic line; octave changes within melodic line; irregular phrase lengths.

Have the Snare and Kick say, "Hi, How are you?" And the 808 say, "I am good thanks for asking.”

Use progressive House to push the Drums Conversation to either Fast and Punchy for Happy or Slow and Deep for Sad.

In technical terms, "go-go's essential beat is characterized by a five through four syncopated rhythm that is underscored prominently by the bass drum and snare drum, and the hi-hat... [and] is ornamented by the other percussion instruments, especially by the conga drums, rototoms, and hand-held cowbells."[5]

Polyrhythm: In music, a cross-beat or cross-rhythm is a specific form of polyrhythm. The term cross rhythm was introduced in 1934 by the musicologist Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980). It refers to a situation where the rhythmic conflict found in polyrhythms is the basis of an entire musical piece.[1]

Four-on-the-floor (or four-to-the-floor) is a rhythm used primarily in dance genres such as disco and electronic dance music. It is a steady, uniformly accented beat in 4. 4 time in which the bass drum is hit on every beat (1, 2, 3, 4).[1] This was popularized in the disco music of the 1970s[2] and the term four-on-the-floor was widely used in that era, since the beat was played with the pedal-operated, drum-kit bass drum.[3][4] (Punch 808-Kick)

Polyrhythm 4 on the Floor examples 2:4 or 5:4

Hard trance is often characterized by strong, hard (or even downpitch) kicks, fully resonant basses and an increased amount of reverberation applied to the main beat. Melodies vary from 140 to 180 BPMs and it can feature plain instrumental sound in early compositions, with the latter ones tending to implement side-chaining techniques of progressive on digital synthesizers.

Singles Only Email Raves Blogger then Multi Market Distribution Deal: A distribution deal is a contract to release the music to platforms, but not own the publishing or exclusively lock the artist in. Record Artist Producer Label: Have Polyrhythm Artist earn Streaming Percentage under a Recording Artist Deal. Label has Distribution Above Me and I have Manufacturing over Polyrhythm Artist. Have a end of the Year Album for New Year's Raves!

"ALWAYS WELCOMED" by POPCAAN

No jezebel can't enter di Heaven gates

Angels only

She wan pull up a long time she ah wait

Guyanese girl dem ah heavyweight

Pretty girl always welcomed (Trouble)

Tight pussy gyal always welcome

Gyal yuh body hotter than Kingston

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

Love when yuh bubble up, mi wan lock you down

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

Bend it over for me slowly

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

Baby yuh thick like phone ah

Wan you sit down pon di throne yah

Love when you bend it over

Jump on the first flight to Arizona

Fuck you pon di dresser top slowly

Get yuh pussy wet rub yuh clit, hold me

Sink it in deep dat mi kno yuh love

Mek yuh draws fly weh like a likkle dove

Tight freaky girl wha me singin bout

Love when you put di cocky inna yuh mouth

Turn yuh back way and fuck it up right

Gyal yuh pussy tight, me will pay down

Mek yuh wine pon di body pon di head pon di pine

Underneath yuh nuh big like stadium

Wine fast a way now

Bite up di K now

Skinout and lay down, yeah

Pretty girl always welcome

Big pussy gyal always welcomed (Woioi)

Gyal yuh body hotter than Kingston

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

Love when yuh bubble up, mi wan lock you down

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

Bend it over for me slowly

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

Cock up yuh pussy mi wan see it

Sit down pon di body like ah issa van seat

Pon yuffi gwarn badder although you conceit

Hot gyal ah George Town, hot gyal a Berbice (Trouble)

Love gyaldem freaky an bad yeah

Wine up and den turn it back weh

Open yuh legs dem fi Poppy

Hammer yuh body like Rodney

I'm giving you a rough ride

Love when you ride on me

I'm giving you a rough ride

Love when you ride on me

Baby

Love when you ride on me

Pretty girl always welcomed (Trouble)

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

Gyal yuh body hotter than Kingston

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

Love when yuh bubble up, mi wan lock you down

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

Bend it over for me slowly

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

Pretty girl always welcomed (Trouble)

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

Gyal yuh body hotter than Kingston

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

Love when yuh bubble up, mi wan lock you down

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

Bend it over for me slowly

Tight pussy gyal always welcomed

BELMÔNT'S SYSTEM: CAPÔI RETAINER AGREEMENT WITH ASSET PROTECTION TRUST

Capo: Describes a ranking made member of a family who leads a crew of soldiers. A capo is similar to a military captain who commands soldiers. Soldier: Also known as a “made man,” soldiers are the lowest members of the crime family but still command respect in the organization.

A capo is a "made member" of an Italian crime family who heads a regime or "crew" of soldiers and has major status and influence in the organization.

Consigliere: Defense and Corporate Lawyers

Head Boss: Ministry of Medicine

Underboss: Pharmaceutical Industry

Capo: CAPÔI RETAINER AGREEMENT

Soliders: Artisans

Commercialism is the application of both manufacturing and consumption towards personal usage, or the practices, methods, aims, and distribution of products in a free market geared toward generating a profit.

Commercial art is art created for advertising or marketing purposes. Commercial artists are hired by clients to create images and logos that sell products. Unlike works of fine art that convey an artist's personal expression, commercial art must address the client's goals.

The word 'Commercial' is defined as follows: Concerned with or engaged in commerce. Commerce is the exchange of goods or services among two or more parties.

Craftsmen are committed to the medium, not to self-expression. Artists are committed to their self-expression, not the medium.

A medium of exchange is an intermediary instrument and system used to facilitate the purchase and sale of goods and services between parties.

Stretch and Micro Goals

Music Medium System: Distribution and Retailers Contract Theory (System) for Music (Instrument)

Football Medium System: Analytics and Geometry for Free Role (System) Trixies (Instrument)

Age 16-19

Bond Funds

Farmland REITS

CFDS

Real Estate Brokerage Trust Account

Age 20-30

Farmland Recession Proof Stocks (Cosmetics, AgTech, Ag ETFS, AgETN)

Incubator and Startup Accelerators

Real Estate Joint Ventures

Age 30-40

Farmland Blue Chip Indexes w/ Credit Spread Options

TUNNEL STRATEGY (OFFSHORE BANKING)

Purpose: Permanent Residency Card

$250k Deposit

$125k: 60/40 portfolio, 60% Fixed Income & REITs and 40% Blue Chip Stocks

$50k: Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs) and term deposits are secured investments. This means that you get back the amount you invest at the end of your term. The key difference between a GIC and a term deposit is the length of the term. Term deposits generally have shorter terms than GICs.

$75k: Spending Cash

SIN STOCKS PORTFOLIO

Sin stock sectors usually include alcohol, tobacco, gambling, sex-related industries, and weapons manufacturers.

Sports Betting Investment Trust

Pharmaceuticals

Example: Create a Index Fund Portfolio of 15-20 Stocks and using Supply Side Economics to create Decentralized Gambling Economy.

FESTIVALS DEAL

Singles Only Email Raves Blogger then Multi Market Distribution Deal: A distribution deal is a contract to release the music to platforms, but not own the publishing or exclusively lock the artist in. Record Artist Producer Label: Have Polyrhythm Artist earn Streaming Percentage under a Recording Artist Deal. Label has Distribution Above Me and I have Manufacturing over Polyrhythm Artist. Have a end of the Year Album for New Year's Raves!

NEUROPLASTICITY DRUG-CRIME NEXUS BASED ON TRAFFICKING

CPP, CNS Depressants, et FENTALOGS: Cul-de-sac

Defensive Penalty Capture The Flag Raiding Warfare

Grey-Decentralized Markets

Bastilles: Cul-de-sac Artist Résidences Penthouse Complexes

Polyrhythm Raves

Acid House Art Gallery

International Film Festival

Hôtel Chefs

Seigneurial System/Tableau Economique Raw Material Économics Production Spot

Surautomatism

Discount Networking Acid House Party

Opium Dens and Fragrance Festivals

Pill Pressers

CNS depressants

Upper-tier County System

Defense Lawyers are Traplords (Trafficking P4P and Malicious Prosecution)

Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC)

Brain Receptor Dealing

Neuroplasticity Drug-Crime Nexus

Religious Ecstasy

Entheogens are psychedelic drugs—and sometimes certain other psychoactive substances—used for engendering spiritual development or otherwise in sacred contexts

Live-Pool Betting Monopoly Board Game

Summary Sentencing

Urban Level: Street Culture Art Gallery (Street culture may refer to: Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities, Street market, Children's street culture, Street carnival, Block party, Street identity, Street food, Café culture, Several youth subculture or counterculture topics pertaining to outdoors of urban centers. These can include: Street art, Street photography, Street racing, Street wear, Hip-hop culture, Urban fiction, Street sports, Streetball, Flatland BMX, Freestyling), Art Pedagogy, Artist Residency, Art Schools, and Art Plugs

Art Pedagogy: Arts-based pedagogy is a teaching methodology in which an art form is integrated with another subject matter to impact student learning. 28-30. Arts-based pedagogy results in arts-based learning (ABL),11 which is when a student learns about a subject through arts processes including creating, responding or performing. Aesthetic Teaching: Seeking a Balance between Teaching Arts and Teaching through the Arts. In aesthetic education, learning must be developed especially with the inclusion of sensations and with the help of feelings. Sensations and feelings should lead to movement, representation, and expression. Aesthetic learning often entails learning to distinguish certain qualities or objects aesthetically in different ways depending on the situation and the purpose. Certain things can be experienced in negative ways in one activity and in positive ways in another.

A designer drug is a structural or functional analog of a controlled substance that has been designed to mimic the pharmacological effects of the original drug, while avoiding classification as illegal and/or detection in standard drug tests

Patchwork tattoos are a collection of tattoos collaged together to create an overall design. Each individual 'patch' of the tattoo can be a different design, symbol or element with a little space in between. Patchwork tattoos are a collection of tattoos collaged together to create an overall design. In short, the gun-toting angel was a multifaceted metaphor. “It undoubtedly also reflected the Catholic Counter-Reformation militaristic rhetoric,” wrote Donahue-Wallace, “which promoted the church as an army and heavenly beings as its soldiers.”

DECADENCE AESTHETICS THEORIES

Slogan

J'Cartier, Je cours après les vœux de champagne,

Subjective

Based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions

Gastronomy

Precarious Balance

Precariously: If something is happening or positioned precariously, it's in danger. A glass could be precariously balanced on the edge of a table. If something is on the verge of danger, then the word precariously fits.

Grey & Decentralized Markets

Tableau Économique

Semblance

Semblance is generally used to suggest a contrast between outward appearance and inner reality.

High Socioeconomic Status & Tattoos

Phantasmagorical

Having a fantastic or deceptive appearance

adjective. having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as something in a dream or created by the imagination. having the appearance of an optical illusion, especially one produced by a magic lantern.

Socioeconomic Status Development Immigration Multilingual Sensory Play

Law of Polarity in Relationships

In any successful relationship that has an intimate connection and sexual attraction, there is polarity. What does this mean exactly? Polarity in relationships is the spark that occurs between two opposing energies: masculine and feminine. Gender does not affect whether you have masculine or feminine energy.

Second Reflection

Burden Aesthetics with Intentions

The Second Reflection lays hold of the Technical Procedures

Tattoos

NOCTU

[historyisgaypodcast]

47. All Your Children's Books Are Belong To Us (Gays), Part 1

This episode marks the return of History is Gay after hiatus, and we're excited to be back in your podfeeds diving into the fascinating world of classic children's literature through the lens of queer authors. Leigh is joined by wonderful guest co-host, Aubree Calvin, to explore the lives and works of several groundbreaking authors, revealing how their sexualities and personal experiences shaped the books we cherished as children. In this first of a multi-part episode, we're focusing on four beloved authors whose works were some of our favorites: Tomie dePaola, most notable for our favorite Italian grandma Strega Nona, Margaret Wise Brown, the bisexual poet behind beloved picture books Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, Ann M. Martin, who introduced us to our friends in The Babysitters Club, and Arnold Lobel, the man behind the cozy shared lives of Frog and Toad.   This conversation doesn't end here; stay tuned as we will continue to explore more queer authors and their impact on the world of children's literature in the next episode, coming soon!

Outline 0:00 – Introduction 4:51 – Socio-Historical Context: History of queer children's literature 10:00 – Who Were They? Bio Time for some of your queer kid lit faves 1:00:15 – Why do we think they're gay? 1:15:57 – 1:16:03 – CONTENT WARNING: Mention of suicidal ideation 1:37:01 – Closing and Where to Find us Online

Want to help us continue to make the show? Support us on Patreon and get awesome goodies, behind-the-scenes access, special minisodes, and more! We have a Discord server for everyone to hang out in, exclusive O.G. Lesbian Sappho t-shirts, Pop-Culture Tie-In movie watches, and some really fun extras coming your way! You can also get merch in our store! Shirts, hoodies, totes, mugs, magnets, and other neat things!

If you’d like to help us transcribe the show for our d/Deaf and hard of hearing fans, please head on over to www.historyisgaypodcast.com/transcribe to join the team of volunteers!

Find our full list of sources and bonus content at www.historyisgaypodcast.com. Find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! Don't forget to rate and review so more folks can see the show!

Newest episode of History is Gay for your queer ears to enjoy!

[junpeijackflash]

The worst thing a story can do to me, as a Maximum Ride fan, is have fucked-up lab shit that happens offscreen and is barely mentioned.

Like fuck you, Persona 3, you can’t just reveal that Strega were a bunch of lab rat orphans and not expect me to go crazy over it.

[dustedmagazine]

Alessandro Cortini — Nati Infiniti (Mute)

Photo: Emilie Elizabeth

Nati Infiniti is based on an installation that electronic musician and instrument builder Alessandro Cortini created for Sónar Lisboa 2022. Each of the four floors of a huge dwelling — a converted mill — had a different sonic design. Cortini used Strega, an instrument that he co-developed with Make Noise.

Strega

There is no comparison to walking through the actual exhibit, but Marta Salogni’s five-movement mix of the work is about the best substitute I can imagine in two-channel audio. As a bit of a synth head, I’ll admit to Strega avarice: great-sounding machine.

The gradual morphing of sounds that Cortini uses supplies the music with a constant sense of flow. The harmonies too are motile, with some surprising shifts that keep things interesting. The first movement, “I” (each is solely designated with a Roman numeral), begins with a lower and an upper drone softly emerging. These sounds build a gradual crescendo. Other drones are added in resonant stacks and occasional chordal slices drift through. “II” begins with buzzing glissandos. A long major chord is cut off by a sharp eleventh dissonance, a pattern that continues, with various added dissonances distressing otherwise consonant walls of sound. After Cortini focuses for a time on the upper register, the interplay of tenor and bass voices creates a swath of melodies. “III” is filled with multi-octave drones to which various upper partials are added. There is a noteworthy moment where this yields a sumptuous minor chord and in other places a flattened seventh reveals Cortini’s awareness of the microtones in the harmonic series. As the movement progresses, small pitch bends are added. “IV” is the shortest movement, but perhaps the most interesting in terms of design. Cortini begins with an upper register drone that persists, then adds a brassy mid-register and finally uses the Strega for powerful bass punctuations. With the horn sonority, he adds a seventh and then drops away for an octaves and fifths conclusion to the movement. Thirds are stacked in the upper register to begin “V,” and then the lines, moving faster than in previous movements, create overtone-filled verticals in a state of constant change. When the tempo moves at this pace, it is more possible to hear the pile-up of drones as progressing through chord changes, and the ones Cortini selects make an asymmetrical mélange. “V” moves successively faster and in phase, with a denouement that finishes the piece, and the entire installation’s music, with a long soprano note.

Nati Infiniti otherwise has the pervasively slow tempo of much ambient music, but the album is only thirty-seven minutes long. Fits nicely on two sides of an LP, and perhaps it includes the whole installation’s music, but one could imagine stretching out the experience even longer. Perhaps Cortini will make an extended mix for online consumption.

Christian Carey

[aboutzatanna]

Fulcanelli: The Lost Zatara Relative, Could He Be Zachary's Father?

So when I was going through Zatanna's team ups with the many Dr Fate's of the DCU, I stumbled upon a character who probably ought to be a bigger deal than he currently is.

The character debuted in Fate #10 when Zatanna teamed up with the Jared Stevens incarnation of Dr Fate or Fate as he called himself.

The issue was written by Steve Grant and Len Kaminski* with art by Anthony Willams and it takes place sometime after the death of Zatara.

*Kaminski recently had an accident that left him wheelchair with his care completely draining his finances. Consider donating to his GoFundMe and following his FB page for updates.

-

The story begins with Jared on the run after being framed for a plane explosion and finds himself hiding out at one of Zatanna's shows.

Zatanna is trying to get back her groove after being away from the stage show life for a while. Given the number of issues from that time that picks up shortly after Zatara's death, I should probably compile them all into one post.

As is often the case, Zatanna's show is interrupted by the arrival of cult who attempt to kill her and her fans.

She runs into Jared Stevens which also leads to a fight between her and one of the cult members named Strega:

You might have seen some of these scans posted elsewhere. As Zatanna mentions in the comic itself, she may be out of practice but she was never out of the game:

Zee recognizes the cult members and teleports herself and Fate to someone whom she claims is knowledgeable about them:

Though she introduces Fulcanelli as a friend of her father's here, we will soon learn there is more to it than that. But first:

The cult leaders hold Zatanna's fans hostage until she and her allies intervene and the fight leads to this:

Culminating in:

Yes, she calls him uncle while he calls her niece. So he wasn't just a friend of her father's. He was family.

(Pretty cool of her to give her fans a do-over show)

Sadly, Fulcanelli is never seen again. But Strega shows up just fine as part of the Conclave in Book of Fate #6, the other ongoing that Jared led. So hey, I guess that means that they are both no longer statues ? If you don't know, the Conclave is a group of both good and bad magical beings that interestingly enough, Zatanna was in charge of. I really need to read all of Jared Stevens appearances and the Underworld Unleashed cross over to get the full picture on this.

But lets get back to Evan Fulcanelli, named after the French alchemist Fulcanelli , whom we are introduced to as Zatara's friend but later revealed to be her uncle.

Her uncle who isn't flamboyant showman like his brother, someone who dabbled in alchemy instead of backwards magic and who knew the secrets of transmutation that made him the target of a cult thus forced to keep his existence a secret. Someone who didn't like magic and viewed it as the road to ones end.

Now, what if he was Zachary's father?

It would explain so many things. The biggest being why Zachary can't affect organic beings; his power is rooted in alchemy and why he never mentions his parents (because his father had to stay in hiding or is still a gold statue). It also opens up potential sources of conflict with Zachary wanting to follow in his uncle and cousin's footsteps but Fulcanelli not wanting him to go down that path.

I'm sure Len Kraminski and other writers didn't intend for Zachary's father to be Fulcanelli; Fate #10 came out in 1996, Kingdom Come came out in 1996 and Zachary Zatara wouldn't debut until 2006. Yet somehow it all fits. If there ever was a canonical character who just works as Zachary's father, Fulcanelli is the best bet.

Its sad that this is yet another Zatanna loose end but hopefully more people are aware of this character now. No, I'm not expecting DC to read a Tumblr blog and make additions to their canon but I figured this would be of interest to those of you who like writing fanfics and head canons.

As far as team ups go, this issue was a solid one. Zatanna wasn't treated as a damsel, the writer wasn't quick to take her out so the main hero can shine, in fact he does the opposite and gives her her own villain to fight, plus Zatanna and Jared work well together as a team.

As for Jared, he is one of those characters whom you find yourself reflexively rejecting because on the surface he is so emblematic of the 90's excess but so far, from what I have read of his two ongoings, they're both surprisingly descent.

And the writer even avoided the urge to have Zee pine for Jared. They end up sharing a meal, not a date:

[writers-reach]

DAMN I feel like you might be one of the only people who’ll write for Strega LOLLL

can I request my favorite nerd (Jin Shirato) getting his nails painted/done by his S/O? Odd request, but thought it’d be interesting :3 NB or gender neutral S/O is fine!

persona 3: painting his nails (jin shirato)

notes: non-binary reader, short-ish, fluff

"what if i painted your nails?" "h-huh?!"

to say jin was taken aback would be an understatement. why did you want to paint his nails? what????

"i think it'd be cool! you'd look super awesome with like, black or a neon green... ooh, maybe blue? like your hair!"

the more jin listened to you ramble on about nail polish colours, the more he warmed up to the idea of it. maybe... it wouldn't be too bad. it's not like you were going to go all out with extensions and charms and (shudders) glitter

"...alright, fine. you can paint my nails. but only my hands!"

at his concession you were ecstatic! you immediately got your stuff and got to work, trimming and priming his nails before painting them. you two settled on a simple black for now, with the hope that later you'd be able to try more loud colours

jin doesn't show off his nails, but he does try to subtly reveal them more often than he used to :)

[pupmusebox]

Been thinking of a SEES au verse for Ryoji lately and such, although the odd idea of Ryoji being a family friend of Makoto is questionable but having another member to the team is welcome. Although the odd eerie sort of unspoken teamwork between Makoto and Ryoji is quite odd given it supposed to be their first time but it's not quite so due to past experiences before coming to the island.

Especially when seeing Makoto having that brief moment of summoning Orpheus but only for Ryoji to call upon Thanatos when Makoto overdoes it with Orpheus attacking, the rare brief glimpse of Death having lapse of feral protectiveness due to the shared mysterious history they have and yet collapsing along with Makoto. Mainly due to it been a long time since having done that and coming around with said sleepyhead Wildcard about the same time when been out for a long time.

Ryoji's knack for Shadow detection is something as is when having foreboding words before each full moon as well, also being an enigma to Mitsuru and others due to scans being inconclusive of Ryoji which leads to much skepticism of this family friend of Makoto. Though seeing Ryoji's handling of a scythe is a deadly sight in itself when Shadows seem to quiver in fear before him before swept off with scythe attacks and how Ryoji is sad of this but never says why.

Though Ryoji never really does things unless Makoto is there as a silent package deal really and it be annoying at times but Death clings to this Wildcard be it if he knows it or not, not mention the whole thing with Itsuki is a crazy one when mentioned dark royal be spoke about but only making Death chuckle at that for it be a hurdle to overcome when the Fall looms. Also not taking kindly of how the madman has Makoto and others strung up to crosses either while giving the glimpse of an eldritch being to scare the man off the building to their death leaving a shocked impression on many.

Safety of Makoto is priority on Death's mind while compliant to letting others free and reverted back to being human, odd complex mix of humanity and Shadow that be Ryoji when revealing hard truths yet saddened of how this had to be but having Makoto be the only one to make a choice. While the route be shifted compared to canon one it has a similar ending but granting insight of how Shadows be when seeing Ryoji using them in combat like how Makoto uses the vast personas he holds.

Same when dealing with Strega as well which amps up that protective instinct of Ryoji's when they bother the group.

[thelostbaystudio]

The Lost Bay update

Hey folks, sorry I've been away for a while, I've been busy working on The Lost Bay - First Look., and I’ve just dropped the latest update!

I think we’ve reached a milestone here!

What’s new?

1.An Area generation/exploration procedure for the Sleep Country district. You can generate 10 000 000+ different areas with just a few dice rolls!

In the last few weeks I chatted with members of the community asking how they’d want the exploration tables to be designed. Here's the feedback that I got.

Half of the folks said they’d want more lore injected in the tables, to get a better sense of the game world.

The other half asked for modular tables that allowed for maximum replayability.

With this update I think I’ve reached a nice compromise, not going too much into details here, but basically I’ve split where + who + what into separate tables. The procedure is highly reusable, and the what table entries have strong moods that help define the setting. And, you asked for it, the tables are written taking into consideration solo play.

2.A beautiful map designed by Strega Wolf van den Berg, it’s so exciting to see a physical representation of the Bay!

3.Two non-human NPCs: the Dogpack and the Spider Nest. I had fun designing those two, particularly their Moves. Moves are a simple way to give personality to the NPCs you create, and to make combat a surprising and fun experience.

4.I’ve modified combat rules and a few other mechanics, the game engine is more consistent, quicker, simpler. Small tweaks that have great effects. If you are planning to play the game I’d recommend downloading the latest version. You might not notice all the revisions, but trust me, they’ll make the gameplay experience better.

What’s coming up next?

Not 100% sure in what order, but here are the things I’m working on:

A couple more Vibes (playable character classes)

A new Reborn Vibe (post-mortem playable character class)

More NPCs

Exploration tables for the Mall Nation district

Errands prompts (solo and group adventure prompts)

Solo support (oracle, and complications table)

Better online character keeper/sheets

And the Creator Kit

Creator Kit and Third party publisher license

As I’ve mentioned a few times already, the development of the game has been influenced so much by the feedback of the community. And I know that several of you have plans about making supplements/adventures for TLB. The Creator Kit, which will probably drop with the next update, is intended to support the community and the creation of 3RD party modules. It’s a series of guidelines and toolkits to facilitate adventure design, like: take off checklist, tips, designer commentary, and modules you can use to build the next kick ass TLB thing.

Along with the release of the Creator Kit will come the Third Party Publisher license, I’ll reveal more about it in the next update. 

If you haven't done yet, grab the game! If you're on a limited budget don't worry, Community Copies are regularly available for free https://the-lost-bay.itch.io/thelostbayrpg

Have a great day/week

Iko

[latenitewaffles]

I? What does this mean? Like genuinely is there stuff about Strega we didn't know in the original game? Best I can guess is stuff from the light novel but that would be fleshing out their characters not like "oh the truth about them?"

Baffled. I am baffled

Takaya and Jin on screen kiss /s

But in all seriousness it probably is the light novel stuff or any additional things from any other content? There's a lot about the P3 characters that simply wasn't in the original games that got revealed in the stage plays, the manga, the radio drama, etc, so I'm glad they're putting that stuff into Reload so that people who don't have the time to consume that stuff can learn more about the characters

[ochazos]

Makoto is rarely ever happy. If you see him genuinely happy, then it is literally like the rarest thing. 9/10 times even if he feels some level of happiness, there is an underlying sorrow still beneath it. This isn't ALWAYS true and from like... august in game until like october, he tends to feel happy more often. But after Shinji dies, he does not handle it well. And after the entire thing with Ikutsuki, he falls really deeply into depression again. And this time it's a lot stronger because he can feel the FULL force of emotion. While his issue previously was depression + trauma + death leeching off of his soul, after he is free from death his emotions are a lot more pronounced. So while it was always there, it was overshadowed by his emptiness.

Now he DOES start to improve again before the Ryoji reveal. After that, Makoto genuinely blames himself for the entire thing and until the final moments of his life, he is never genuinely at peace again. There are brief moments, usually when he's with SEES or his other friends, where he will be happy. This is more often if he has an S/O that he feels he can be more vulnerable with. He loves his friends and he loves being around them, but it is all painted in melancholy. Even if Makoto wants to live and wants to see the future, he is genuinely so depressed in the final stretch of the game because he feels so guilty.

In the P4 verse, his memories are... interesting and hazy at points. He is more or less like his old self.

In the P5 verse, he is worse than like ever in terms of his depression considering his entire motivation is to die. And he laments getting to taste life again at all. He is genuinely so sad at the situation all of the time. To the point of genuinely being a danger to himself.

The only concrete verse I have for Makoto where he is MOSTLY happy is the post game verse where he survives albeit in a very not fun state. He is happiest in that verse even if his quality of life is greatly reduced.

AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE STREGA VERSE. It's like him at the early part of the game but 10000x worse in every single way.

[katsona-the-katsequel]

Persona Timeline Pt. 4: 2009-2010

This one covers Persona 3.

[LAST UPDATED: JUNE 2024]

2009

April 7

- Minato arrived at Tatsumi Port Island and met Yukari and Mitsuru (Game: Persona 3).

April 8

- Chihiro began to attend Gekkoukan High School (Game: Persona 3).

- Minato and Bebe transferred to Gekkoukan High School (Game: Persona 3).

April 9

- The Arcana Magician Shadow injured Akihiko (Game: Persona 3).

- Minato awoke to his Persona and passed out after defeating the Arcana Magician Shadow (Game: Persona 3).

April ??

- Saki and Kubo began to attend Yasogami High School (Game: Persona 4).

April 17

- Minato woke up in the hospital (Game: Persona 3).

April 18

- Minato joined SEES (Game: Persona 3).

April 19

- Junpei joined SEES after Akihiko found him crying in a convenience store (Game: Persona 3).

April 20

- Minato, Junpei, and Yukari ventured into Tartarus for the first time (Game: Persona 3).

- Junpei and Yukari awoke to their Personas (Game: Persona 3).

May 1

- The rest of SEES met Shinjiro (Game: Persona 3).

May 9

- SEES defeated the Arcana Priestess Shadow (Game: Persona 3).

May 23

- Akihiko returned to active duty after his injury was healed (Game: Persona 3).

Before June 5

- Natsuki and her friends locked Fuuka in the gym for the night, only to find she'd disappeared by morning (Game: Persona 3).

June 8

- Fuuka awoke to her Persona and became friends with Natsuki (Game: Persona 3).

- SEES defeated the Arcana Emperor and Empress Shadows (Game: Persona 3).

June 11

- Fuuka became a member of SEES (Game: Persona 3).

June 20

- SEES met Koromaru (Game: Persona 3).

June 22

- Strega began to appear during the Dark Hour for their Revenge Request website (Game: Persona 3).

July 7

- SEES defeated the Arcana Hierophant and Lovers Shadows (Game: Persona 3).

July 20

- Takeharu showed SEES the doctored version of Eiichiro's last video, making them believe he was the one responsible for everything and he wanted someone to defeat the Shadows (Game: Persona 3).

- After he comforted her, Yukari fell in love with Minato (Game: Persona 3).

July 21

- Aigis became a member of SEES (Game: Persona 3).

July 29

- Koromaru awoke to his Persona (Game: Persona 3).

August 6

- Strega introduced themselves to SEES (Game: Persona 3).

- SEES defeated the Arcana Justice and Chariot Shadows (Game: Persona 3).

August 20

- Junpei met Chidori (Game: Persona 3).

August 28

- Ken joined SEES (Game: Persona 3).

August 30

- Yoshida lost his fifth elections.

- Owada won his eighth term as a legislator.

September 2

- Shinjiro rejoined SEES (Game: Persona 3).

September 5

- SEES defeated the Arcana Hermit Shadow (Game: Persona 3).

September 6

- Takaya fatally shot Junpei, but Chidori gave her power to save him (Game: Persona 3).

- Chidori was transported to the hospital (Game: Persona 3).

October 4

- SEES defeated the Arcana Fortune and Strenght Shadows (Game: Persona 3).

- Shinjiro sacrificed himself to save Ken from Takaya (Game: Persona 3).

November 3

- SEES defeated the Arcana Hanged Man Shadow (Game: Persona 3).

- Takaya and Jin jumped off the Moonlight Bridge, refusing to surrender, but survived (Game: Persona 3).

November 4

- Ikutsuki revealed the true purpose of SEES and killed Takeharu. Ikutsuki then killed himself (Game: Persona 3).

November 5

- Fuuka discovered Eiichiro's original video, discovering the full truth behind the Dark Hour (Game: Persona 3).

November 9

- Ryoji transferred to Gekkoukan High School (Game: Persona 3).

December 2

- Aigis fought Ryoji as the Nyx Avatar but was heavily injured (Game: Persona 3).

December 3

- Ryoji left school (Game: Persona 3).

December 30

- Aigis returned from repair (Game: Persona 3).

December 31

- Ryoji gave SEES the choice to kill him and forget everything, but they decided to face Nyx and prevent the Fall (Game: Persona 3).

BETWEEN 2009 AND 2011

April ??

- Hanako and Yumi began to attend Yasogami High School (Game: Persona 4).

BEFORE 2010

? ??

- Kou was adopted by the House of Ichijo to serve as a heir (Game: Persona 4).

- Sachiko Ichijo was born soon after Kou's adoption (Game: Persona 4).

- Akechi's mother committed suicide and he was sent to orphanages and foster homes (Game: Persona 5).

2010

January ??

- Strega created the Nyx Cult, claiming the Fall was salvation (Game: Persona 3).

January 21

- Chidori was revived with light amnesia (Game: Persona 3 FES).

January 31

- Jin killed himself, and its presumed Takaya died as well.

- SEES battled against the Nyx Avatar, and Minato began the process of becoming the Great Seal (Game: Persona 3).

Before March

- Akinari passed away.

March 5

- Mitsuru, Akihiko, Nozomi, Keisuke, and Mamoru graduated from Gekkoukan High School.

- Minato fell into a coma and was brought back to the dorms (Game: Persona 3 FES).

March 6

- Minato died in his sleep, fully becoming the Great Seal (Game: Persona 3 FES).

March 31

- Aigis inherited Minato's Wild Card ability, as well as his Persona (Game: Persona 3 FES).

- SEES discovered the Abyss of Time and fought against Erebus, learning to deal with Minato's death in the process (Game: Persona 3 FES).

April 1

- SEES formally disbanded and moved out of the Dorm (Game: Persona 3 FES).

- Aigis became Yukari's roommate (Game: Persona 3 FES).

April ??

- Yosuke and Yu began to attend unnamed high schools.

- Chie, Yukiko, Kou, Daisuke, and Ai began to attend Yasogami High School (Game: Persona 4).

May 2

- Elizabeth won her annual fight against Erebus and left the Velvet Room (Game: Persona 4 Arena).

October 3

- Yosuke moved to Inaba for his father's new job as manager of a new Junes (Manga: Persona 4 The Magician).

October 4

- Yosuke transferred to Yasogami High School (Game: Persona 4).

October ??

- Namatame left Inaba for his work in Tokyo (Game: Persona 4).

October 31

- The local stores in Inaba began to be affected by Junes (Manga: Persona 4 The Magician).

- Yosuke met Saki (Manga: Persona 4 The Magician).

November 10

- Saki began to work part-time at Junes (Manga: Persona 4 The Magician).

December ??

- Sho awoke from his coma, believing that Ikutsuki threw him away since he was no longer useful (Game: Persona 4 Arena Ultimax).

- Sho made his home in one of Ikutsuki's old safe houses in the woods and found out about his death (Game: Persona 4 Arena Ultimax).

? ??

- Akihiko decided to pursue college (Game: Persona 4 Arena).

- Keisuke failed his college exams, but decided to try again next year to become a doctor (Game: Persona 3).

- Mamoru moved away for a factory job to better support his family (Game: Persona 3).

- Nozomi became a food critic (Game: Persona 3).

- Mitsuru found Akinari's book among Minato's things and published it (Book: Persona Club P4).

BEFORE 2011

? ??

- Morooka suspended Kubo for a week, which hurt his pride so much he transferred out of Yasogami High School (Book: Persona Club P4).

[black-mask-babyyy]

Ok I’ve had like 24 hours to digest the ending of P3 so I’m here to dump my thoughts. Full disclosure this is going to have a ton of spoilers for Persona 3 Reload!!

The party members were good, I didn’t like them as much as 5 but I do prefer them over 4.

I was kind of annoyed to learn that Chidori could be saved, because the whole thing is easy to miss. I also think the whole idea of her coming back alive and not remembering anything about the Dark Hour or her persona is kind of… lame. It’s just a very convenient way to wrap up her storyline. I did like Junpei’s growth, though, and she obviously contributes to that. Their personas merging when she dies is really… bittersweet.

Speaking of character deaths… Shinjiro??? Hello??? Absolute shock, I was not expecting to lose a party member. Can’t believe they got me to instantly ship Shinjiro and Akihiko just to have Shinji die in Aki’s arms.

And bringing up both Chidori and Shinjiro’s death, let’s talk about Strega. Jin is overall pretty plain, I don’t have much to say to him either way. Takaya, on the other hand, I have so much to say. Full disclosure, I started calling him “Jesus” as soon as I saw him, which I mean… makes sense with the theme of the game. He’s a good, creepy, culty villain and he does it well. My only issue with him (aside from like, obviously disliking him because he’s the villain and a murderer and stuff), is his design. I absolutely hate that he is always shirtless, it is super uncomfortable and weird (which is presumably the point, but still it gives me the ick).

I enjoyed most of the social links, overall. I didn’t really like Kenji and his whole dating a teacher thing, but his link did get better once he was dumped.

I was also kind of irked by Nozomi because his character and the writing is… pretty fat-shamey, but my main problem was the way his storyline feels incomplete. We learn he was in a cult but don’t ever really learn directly what they were about.

I maxed out all but two social links. Chihiro was left at rank 9 and Kazushi at rank 6. I consider that a pretty solid attempt at maxing for a first run.

I knew this going in (one of the few things I knew about the game before playing) that the male party members did not have social links. It’s still a bummer though, because I would have liked to spend more time with them and see them developed outside of the main plot.

And speaking of main plot. I did actually like the pseudo-science involved in the Dark Hour’s creation, I thought it was kind of neat to have a sort-of explanation for how the world with shadows came about (at least for this game).

The way I lost my mind when it was revealed that Ryoji was death… damn. It was a little predictable, because something was obviously weird with him but I was not expecting it to be that weird!

The whole end of the world final showdown is pretty standard JRPG stuff, so I don’t really have much to say on that plot point, but I have to admit I don’t really like the ending.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the idea of the protagonist sacrificing themselves is fine, even if it’s emotionally charged, I respect that as an ending. I’m more irked by the idea that the protagonist basically fought to survive a few months in order to fulfill his promise to meet the team on the school roof, just to die right before they all arrive (excluding Aigis). It feels like the ending doesn’t really give closure, to see SEES happy together after their success or alternatively have them grapple with the loss of their leader and friend.

Overall, I thought the gameplay was fun. Theurgy adds an extra little boost to your character’s strengths which was nice and helpful in speeding up some of the full moon boss battles (and cheesing the Reaper). People (and cats) getting lost in Tartarus adds an extra reason to explore Tartarus along with Elizabeth’s requests, making extra trips to Tartarus worth doing.

The music is fantastic, of course. Bangers all around, and I don’t think this needs any additional explanation.

So here’s my final thoughts/stats for the time being—I’ll be back to 100% it soon:

Persona 3 Reload

Achievement Progress: 85%

Play Time: 85:15

Rating: 8/10

Favorite Song(s): Master of Shadow, Mass Destruction, Burn My Dread - Last Battle

Favorite Character(s): Yuko, Ryoji, Mitsuru, Shinjiro, Koromaru

[keepsdeathhiscourt]

Pairing: Elijah Mikaelson x Original Female Character

Rating: Mature (18+ Only)

Story Summary: It's been ten years since Lucie LeMarche last set foot in New Orleans. But when she's forced to return to bury the woman who raised her, she finds herself pulled into the midst of rising supernatural tensions in the city. Entangled in a web of intrigue and seeking answers, Lucie must learn to navigate a powder keg of warring factions, family secrets, and old wounds if she hopes to survive.

Warnings: Canon Typical Violence, Language, Death, Mourning, Mental Health Issues, Family Drama, Gore, Depictions of Violence, Death

Series Masterlist

Read on AO3

Chapter 4: Between the River and the Road

Jane-Anne Deveraux is feather-light in his arms as he transcends the invisible barrier that protects Lafayette Cemetery from unfriendly creatures. 

Elijah is more well-versed than most in the ways of witches. He has faced the Strega of the old world, witnessed the potent magic of the Bennet lineage firsthand, and learned about ancestral magic from an Elder of a proud lineage. A millennium ago, he matured alongside the primal incantations and runic rituals of his druidic kin. The magic of witches had crafted him into an eternal predator and trailed him like a specter across the centuries of his immortal existence. Thus, Elijah understands the significance of his invitation into the sacred sanctum of the New Orleans covens—it reeks of desperation, a last resort in dire times.

He traverses between towering rows of family crypts with as much reverence as he can muster. In the shadows of cracked stones and weathered marble, he senses the spirits of three centuries of dead witches laid to rest here. They watch him with a thousand unseen eyes, suspicious and angry. 

He can feel their accusation even as he passes by the carved names of generations of those come and gone, knowing he has befriended some and killed others. Knowing that as they turned to dust, he would live on. Knowing only a few miles away, in a secret place, the bones of Celeste DuBois rest unconsecrated, depriving them of her magic, her soul. 

He adjusts the bundle in his arms and hopes that this gesture of goodwill, a drop in the bucket against the ocean of wrongs he and his family have brought upon them, would be enough at least to bring about the beginning of an alliance that might spare Hayley and her unborn child from the consequences.

Even this gesture, however minute, is the result of an evening of precarious negotiation with Marcel. Elijah had expected a certain level of vexation at his presence and that was before Niklaus had given into his more dubious urges and, in a fit of temper, bit one of Marcel’s men. That had complicated matters considerably. However, Elijah is a firm believer in finding moments of opportunity within a crisis. He knows that every disaster, every outburst of emotion, offers an advantage. And Marcel Gerard, in his fury and concern, had revealed a glaring vulnerability. One that Elijah exploited to his favor. 

And so, they exchange the body of Jane-Anne Deveraux for the antidote to the venom ravaging Marcel’s man. Bringing him one step ahead in the chess game of New Orleans’ supernatural politics.

Which brings Elijah to the present moment. 

The church clock tolls, brash and baleful, announcing the deadline for their deal. As he rounds the corner, his ears catch the frantic murmur of conversation. 

“His time is up,” says a woman’s muffled voice from somewhere within a grand mausoleum. “What’re you going to do now, Sophie?”

A pause, then another voice he recognizes as belonging to Sophie Deveraux replies, “I’m going to do what I said I was going to do.”

He’s close enough to catch the uptick in Sophie’s heartbeat. If they were paying any attention, they would catch the dark lines of his shadow. But as it is, they are too engrossed in the matter at hand to notice. And so he listens, gathering as much information as possible, and waits for the opportune moment. 

There’s a scoff from a third party. By now, Elijah can make out the silhouette of the woman from his first night in town, Sabine. 

“What, kill the girl? Kill yourself?” she says, and Elijah goes still. The information isn’t surprising. The witches had been implicitly clear from the start about their intentions toward Hayley and the baby, should he or his brother fail to keep up their end of the bargain. The knowledge does nothing, however, to temper the murderous flare that bubbles at the surface.

“Klaus does not care about the child.” Agnes reminds the others. 

The matter of Klaus’ emotional involvement in the survival of his child is a matter of some conjecture, one that’s been plaguing his thoughts since he found out about the werewolf girl and her predicament in this very cemetery only days ago, his position is crystal clear. 

“I do,” he says, stepping into view. All heads turn towards where he stands at the entrance. “And I bring proof of my intent to help you: the body of your fallen friend, which I procured from Marcel himself.”

It was the right thing to do, an inclination only confirmed by the misty look in Sophie’s eyes when they flit from his face and then onto her sister’s body, with a shuddering exhale of her name.

But this was far more than a matter of morality, and Elijah’s intentions were far from selfless. 

“May she be granted peace,” he murmurs, crouching down to shift the dead woman into her sister’s arms. “Klaus will agree to your terms. I just need a little more time.”

“You had your time,” The Elder, Agnes, juts her chin in defiance he would find admirable if they weren’t on the same side. 

He’s not the only one bemused by the outburst, for Sabine snaps, “Shut up, Agnes.”

The older woman’s posture remains ramrod straight, eyes fixed on him, but she steps back. He meets her steady gaze, head tilting in assessment. Perhaps, he thinks, they may be on their way to understanding one another. 

“For now, accept the deal,” he commands in a voice that brooks no argument. “The girl and the child remain unharmed, or Klaus will kill you all.” He turns to leave, then stops. “And I will help him.”

Better to remind them that Marcel Gerard is not the only danger in the city.

____

He feels no sense of relief as he leaves Lafayette Cemetery and makes his way back toward the French Quarter, and any satisfaction he might have gleaned from his success is short-lived. Yes, he has taken a significant stride in stabilizing tensions in the quarter, another small move towards ensuring the safety of his family. But there is nothing so foolish as a premature celebration, not when there is still work to be done. 

The spell linking Hayley to Sophie Deveraux- the one that Jane-Anne sacrificed herself to complete- still stands. With witches dropping like flies, it’s a connection he would prefer to sever as soon as possible.  

There is also still the matter of what had driven the witches to such lengths in the first place; Marcel’s secret weapon. In his long life, he’s encountered a few things that would enable someone to track the use of magic, but none with the magnitude or immediacy to fit with what he had witnessed the other night.

Despite a year in subjugation, the witches seem just as perplexed about the source of Marcel’s power as Elijah. Still, he cannot shake the feeling that they are holding back something critical, some vital piece of information that will solve the puzzle. And while he lacks any leverage that might encourage them to be forthcoming, it does not matter. He’s already found his way in and that is Lucretia LeMarche.

The night he had seen her fleeing the Quarter, he had tasked his contacts with delving into her background. The passage of a few days had yielded little, but what they had unearthed was more than enough to confirm that his suspicions were not unfounded.

The family name alone speaks volumes. He recognizes it as belonging to a magic bloodline that traces back to at least the eighteenth century. He was familiar with a few of their ancestors. 

They were a proud lot, as he remembers them, fiercely loyal to their kind, wary of outsiders, with a zealous devotion to tradition. Yet even upon his departure, as more witches flocked to the cemetery to consecrate Jane-Anne Deveraux, her face had not been among them. For a family and a coven bound at the rootst, he knew there could only be two explanations for her absence; she was either uninterested or unwelcome. Given the report of a heated encounter with a cousin earlier, he would put money on the latter. 

It’s an interesting consideration, especially with the routine isolation he had witnessed in his ventures past her hotel. But for now, Elijah knows there is nothing to do but wait for an opportunity to present itself. 

All that leaves is the problem of Niklaus. 

He does not doubt that getting his willful brother on side will be challenging. Mistrustful and paranoid, he sees everything as a threat, a nudge towards some larger plot to destroy him. Often he is right; never mind that many are traps of his own making. 

He finds Niklaus amidst shuttered stalls and stacked crates in the French Market. The bottle dangles from his hand. He takes a long swig, so drenched with the smell of alcohol that Elijah briefly considers leaving him to his brooding. 

“Have I not made clear my desire to be left alone?” Klaus asks, his back to him.

Elijah steps into the light. “Oh, you demand to be left alone at least once a decade. Your words have ceased to have impact.”

His brother smashes the bottle against the ground, projectiles of glass scattering to every corner. 

“Why must you keep harping on about the baby?” He shouts, cutting to the root of the impending confrontation. “That child will never be born. In fact, Hayley is probably dead already.”

The obstinate self-pity is too much for Elijah, another spark in a long burning fuse. Years spent chasing his brother, cleaning up his mistakes and offering forgiveness, hoping to catch a glimmer of the boy he once knew. But to turn his back on something Elijah knows he wants and endanger his greatest chance at redemption is a step too far. 

He careens into Nikalus at full speed, hand at his throat as a millennium of anger and frustration bubbles to the surface. “You will not walk away from this.”

“Let. Me. Go.” Niklaus warns. The flash of teeth may be enough to frighten lesser vampires, but it does nothing to intimidate Elijah. 

“I WILL NOT!” He roars, throwing his brother to the floor. Before he can launch a counterattack, he heaves him up again with an iron grip.

Niklaus glowers at him. “Don’t make me say it again."

“I will not let go. I will never let go.” his voice cracks even as he shuts over the simple words so loaded with meaning. 

He knows his brother hears it. It’s why he retaliates with heightened fury, grasping Elijah by the lapels of his jacket and hurling him across the floor. The iron rod fence is unforgiving as it cuts through his clothes and his skin. A warm sensation at his back tells him he’s bleeding, but by the time he gets to his feet, any wound sustained has already healed. 

He steels himself, chest heaving. “Even if I have to spend eternity saving you from your own stubborn, petulant, vile self…”

The errant rod he had picked up bites into his fingers as he rushes forward. It reverberates as it crashes against Niklaus’ front.

“If I have to beat you as father used to beat you, to remind you of your own humanity–,” Another blow, “–to care about anything…”

He punctuates with another swing, but Klaus is faster. The iron bar stops in midair, snatched in the center by its intended target. It’s out of his hand in an instant, slamming into his back with a force that knocks him to the ground. Chest heaving, he stays there, peering up at his brother with a furrowed brow. The bar hits the concrete with a thud. 

“You’re beyond pathetic, Elijah,” Klaus says, closing some of the distance.

“Well, who is more pathetic? The one who sees hope to make his family whole, or the coward who only sees the world through his own fear?”

“I haven’t cared about anything for centuries.” His gaze is sharp, but Elijah can see the embers of vulnerability. “Why on earth do you?”

“Because I failed you. Because the first time our father laid a hand on you, I should have struck him dead. I made a promise to you: always, forever, family above all.”

Niklaus laughs then and Elijah doesn’t miss the fondness behind it. He knows that all is right between them, at least for now. He confirms the inkling by extending his hand to help him up. 

“You are a sentimental fool,” Niklaus says, hauling him to his feet. 

“Perhaps,” he concedes. “But I’ve lasted this long in spite of it, haven’t I?”

A moment passes between the brothers, for in this moment that’s what they are. Not adversaries, not rivals, just two men bonded by blood and time. He walks away from the market, leaving Niklaus alone to reflect.

Elijah has only gone a block when he hears a commotion upriver.

____

The breezy idyll of the picturesque afternoon yields to an early autumn storm front. As night falls over the Mississippi Delta, the air is thick with the mingled scents of atmosphere and rich earth. The trees shudder, shaking off shriveling leaves that hiss as they settle, discarded, to the ground. And the moon fights a losing battle with the encroaching cloud coverage, its light is wan and thin. 

A cargo ship bellows in the distance. The prow cuts through the silver glass water on its way to the Gulf. Mist closes in on river and city alike like a burial shroud, distorting the steel prow and sharp angles of shipping containers until it’s only a boxy silhouette with yellow fog light eyes on the horizon. The wind picks up, running its fingers through murky waters and churning the placid surface until choppy waves lap at the shoreline in short, staccato bursts before settling into lazy ripples. 

Lucie pitches forward across the railing on the mostly abandoned Riverwalk, her stomach churning like the river as she empties its meager contents into the depths below. She wretches until there’s nothing left and then she wretches some more, until all that’s left in her aching gut is bile and acid. 

Sweat prickles, cold on her brow. She pulls away, wiping her chapped lips with the back of a clammy hand. Blinking, she catches the eyes of a jogger who shoots her a look that’s half sympathy, and half disgust before they disappear into the mist. She should feel mortified. But as it stands, she’s too wound up to care.

The flare of her lighter keeps the fog at bay, a temporary force field against the dark until the cigarette lights. She presses it to her lips and inhales deeply, eager to rid herself of the bitter taste in her mouth. 

Fog mutes and muffles every sign of life. Even the majesty of the cathedral vanishes until all but its highest steeple is swallowed up. And the silence hums. The city rests in a liminal space between evening and the late hours, the street lights straining against the mist. She flicks the ash and watches their orange halos shimmer and distort.

Her stomach settles, the edges of nausea losing their edge until only a vague queasiness remains. That and the anger. 

That part is simple. She leans into it like a crutch, fanning the flames to keep the embers smoldering. Because deep down, she knows that what lies underneath the rage is a mess of emotions she can’t even begin to untangle.

So she sits and seethes and remembers. 

She recalls coming into her magic. It was the same summer she’d gotten her first period, and at fourteen, gawky and awkward, it had been just as mortifying. Fluctuating hormones were hard enough, but paired with burgeoning powers, it made for a rough summer break. But Violette had been over the moon, practically radiating with pride. And so, while Lucie had never particularly dedicated herself to the craft, she threw herself into learning all she could, eager to please. 

It's the reason she now understands why the girls agreed to be part of the Harvest. She knows all too well the blind trust and desire for approval that the Elders could evoke in a teenager. But what’s harder to wrap her head around is the way the coven leaders had taken that trust and twisted it into something so vile. Or why Violette had allowed things to go so far. 

Her temper flares then wavers with doubt and the nagging feeling that she’s missing something important. So much about what Arabella had told her was strange. She couldn’t wrap her head around Violette’s complicity in something so cruel, and then there was Jane-Anne. Every thread she pulled seemed to lead back to her. 

Monique’s death and Jane-Anne’s suicidal gambit were too close for coincidence. And for the first time, Lucie wonders what became of the final Harvest Girl.

She’s thinking about Davina Clare when the man appears, ambling out of the mist as if made from it. 

Dull and hollow, the church bells chime.

She listens to the even gait shuffle in tandem with her thumping heart, so in sync that she can scarcely distinguish one from the other. And then footfalls taper of altogether and she stares at a pair of worn leather workman’s boots. The man clears his throat, hands stuffed into the pockets of his corduroy pants. Her eyes drift to a youthful face that seems out of place alongside the frayed hems of his corduroy pants or the loud pattern of a silk button-down shirt. He tosses the hair out of his eyes, blond, and parted down the middle with long sideburns. Lucie can’t shake the impression that looks more suited to a speed club in a trashy 70s flick than standing like a specter on the Riverwalk. 

He doesn’t move, only lifts the corner of his lips in a crooked smirk. She wonders if he’s going to ask her for a light, or maybe some change. But the possibility withers to dust when she catches his eyes. They’re gray and indecipherable as the river behind her, but it’s the glint in them that makes her hair stand on end. They sparkle with amusement and something she can’t quite name… anticipation ? 

“‘Evenin’,” he drawls with her the honied twang of the bayou counties. “Didn’t think anyone, but myself was crazy enough to venture out in this.”

He casts a sidelong glance over the edge of the walk, where the river is now all but undetectable save for the soft churning of the waves. 

She traces the hard lines of his profile with wary eyes, waiting for his next move. He opens his mouth to speak, then pauses, eyes alight with recognition. 

“There you are! Thought you must’ve gotten yourself lost on Bourbon.” Her head cocks in confusion, toying with the idea that he’s off his rocker when she realizes he’s not looking at her, his gaze fixed just beyond her shoulder. And that is so much worse. 

She smells the second man before she sees him. Mildew and mothballs and something coppery announces his presence. It’s followed by a sharp exhale, so close she feels the balmy heat of his breath. 

With a cry of alarm, she wheels around, scrambling to put as much distance between them as she can before the cold damp metal of the railing halts her retreat.  

Tall and thin, the second man wavers like a cattail in the breeze. The tattered ends of his duster flutter about his long legs, only adding to the inclination that a stronger gale might bowl him over. Older than the other by a decade if she had to guess. His face is gaunt and deep-lined near his eyes. Eyes so fathomlessly dark that they don’t shine, just seem to absorb all the shadows into the void. They leer down at her in a way that can only be described as hungry.

She swallows hard.

She doesn’t need to wait for blackening veins or a flash of fangs. She knows a vampire when she sees one.

But there’s a feverish, feral glint to their eyes, and an agitated jerkiness to their movements so unlike the controlled poise of Marcel Gerard or the polished violence of his crew, so off that it distracts her momentarily from her fear.

Her palms drop to her sides, searching for anything she might use as a weapon, but finds nothing but the chipped guardrail.  She could jump. They likely wouldn’t see it coming and she could vault the rail before either could stop her. But the water is treacherous in its own right and won’t deter them for long enough for it to matter. No, running won’t be an option. 

When the taller one, tired of waiting, lunges at her, he strips the choice from her. 

Lucie only has enough time to squeeze her eyes shut and brace herself for the steel of sharp teeth tearing her flesh. But when a second passes and then another and it still doesn’t come, she opens them again. 

He’s close enough that if he were to reach a willowy arm out, she’s sure the tips of his bony fingers would brush against her jacket. A hand clutches at his shoulder, tethering him to the spot. The other man must have crossed the sidewalk because the hand belongs to him and he’s hovering just behind the towering frame. 

 “Teagan, that’s no way to behave. Look,” he chides, with a nod towards her. For the first time, she notices a strange lilt to his cadence. “You’re frightening the poor lamb.”

‘Teagan’s’ gaze drifts from Lucie to his friend and then back, head tilting to the side. 

The younger man laughs, clapping him on the back like he isn’t a rabid dog on a fraying tether. “Don’t mind my friend here. We’ve been out of the city for a while now and his manners are a little rusty.”

His tone is reassuring, his posture relaxed. Yet she doesn’t miss the way he maneuvers around the larger man, angling himself just slightly ahead. 

“I’m Adam and this is Teagan.” He flashes his teeth, laugh lines creasing at the edges, in what could be called a charming smile, under different circumstances. When he extends a hand, she dodges the touch, steadying herself on heavy limbs. 

“No need to be so shy. We’re all friends here,” Adam says with a sidelong smirk, tucking the hand back into his pocket. “Isn’t the right, Teag?”

The other vampire’s lips contort into a grim facsimile of a smile. 

“It’s a little late to be out here all on your own.” Rocking back on his heels, nonchalant when he asks, “Why don’t you let us take you somewhere warm?”

She doesn’t answer, but it doesn’t matter because it wasn’t a request. 

Apprehension is a viper coiled in her belly, urging her body into high alert. Adrenaline floods her veins. They shimmer, warm and bright, as if full of champagne as magic stirs up her blood. She reaches out, pulling it forward like a rope in a deep well. It surges in veins and then, and suddenly, the rope jerks taut. Like there’s a weight at the end, caught on an edge and preventing her from drawing anymore up, barred from the font of ancestral power. It won’t be enough, but maybe if she can take one of these assholes with her, the next victim might have a fighting chance.

Her right hand curls in on itself and the vampire, Adam, tutts. “I don’t think you want to do that, little witch.”

“You drain me dry now or Marcel kills me later. I’m dead either way.” She dips her head to the side, stretching the straining muscles in her neck. 

“I ain’t talking about Marcel or his rules,” he scoffs, visibly bristling. 

She puzzles at his meaning. There isn’t time to ask. The horn from a passing ship pierces the tension. His head flicks to the side for just a moment and Lucie finds her opening. Her right-hand raises in front of her as the familiar words of the spell follow, spilling from her lips like water. 

Adam turns to her, eyes cold and angry. “I thought I warned you-”

He staggers, the train of thought lost as he clutches at his head. 

She jerks her raised arm to the side, and he crumples to the ground like a rag doll. He howls in pain, the sound garbled in the mist like a soundproof room. It sends a shiver of satisfaction through her, but it’s short-lived. 

She bounds over him and across the sidewalk, desperate to cross the railway tracks and into the more populated refuge of Jackson Square. A few yards away, the green traffic lights glow like a beacon. Her joints ache as her feet jolt against the pavement at a brutal pace. It’s a small price to pay to survive the night. 

She’s close enough now to see the deep parallel grooves of the steel rails. All she needs is to descend the steps down to them, pass over, and -

A gust of wind flutters behind her. She has less than. a second to react before the hair at the base of her neck is pulled taut and then wrenched backward. The force knocks her off balance, boots scrabbling for purchase on the concrete. Her scalp screams as she’s jerked back, fast enough to give her whiplash. 

Then, the hand wrapped around her hair eases, but the change in momentum tells her she’s not free yet. Instead, it urges around and she’s forced to follow until the train tracks are back behind her and the edge of the river some distance ahead. 

The skeletal fingers wind in her hair and she knows it’s the tall vampire, Teagan, that has her. Behind her, he pulls her back until she’s flush against his chest. Her heart pounds in short, stuttering bursts as she feels his nose press against her hair, hand releasing her hair to wind around her throat. 

She feels more than hears the steady inhale as he breathes in her scent. Fingers press gingerly into the soft flesh of her neck like icicles as he whispers, “I bet you’ll scream so pretty when I drain you dry.” 

It’s the first time she’s heard him speak, and she wishes she hadn’t. The voice is thin and reedy as the rest of him, soft from disuse. If a corpse could talk, she knew it would sound like the vampire in her ear. 

“The others don’t like witch blood. Call it bitter.” The pressure around her throat increases ever so slightly. “I call it an acquired taste.”

His breath is hot on her neck, sickly sweet like dust and death. Her stomach turns. She calls on another burst of magic, but there’s no response besides a faint flickering.

Panic yields to white-hot pain when his fangs pierce the delicate flesh at the base of her neck. It burns like fire, then like ice, the sensation too overwhelming for her to cry out. Her veins are freezing over and then sharp pain relents to a thrumming sort of numbness. She feels the vibration as the vampire moans into her neck, greedy fingers holding her in place by her neck, her hip.

Her fingertips tingle. She thrashes against his grip, but all she can muster is a sluggish lurch from her leaden limbs. The edges of her vision are swimming, blackness creeping in at the corners.

“Teagan!” The voice comes to her from underwater, slow and distorted. “You’re…killing…”

She can’t make out the rest, her eyelids are too heavy and her body is too tired to care. She wants more than anything to let herself slip under, to sleep. 

Blissful oblivion is within reach when she’s cruelly jostled back into reality. It’s a struggle to open her eyes, but when she does, the world is blurry and off-kilter. Emptiness rushes around her and she realizes she’s falling. Pain blossoms in her shoulder, her ribs, her side as collides with the pavement. Hard. 

The worn boots in her direct field of view tell her that Adam has found his feet, now locked in a scuffle with the other vampire. The protective stance strikes her as strange, but her sluggish brain can’t seem to decide why. 

Before she can figure it out, a lean form skids to the ground in a heap nearby and she’s tugged roughly to her feet. 

Her captor spins around to face him, her stomach protesting. Adam’s gray eyes are hard, all pretense of friendliness gone. 

“I ought to make you suffer for that stunt you pulled, witch bitch,” he grits out. He’s close enough that she sees his jaw tick. “But just ‘cause I can’t kill you doesn’t mean I can make you wish you were dead. You understand me?”

His fingers dig into her upper arms hard enough to bruise through her leather jacket, giving her a shake that makes her teeth clatter. She’s sure it’s all that’s keeping her on her feet, but she manages a nod. 

The crumpled heap rustles. Teagan, rising back to his feet, levels his companion with a murderous glare. He wipes at his mouth, the back of his hand coming red. It smears streaks of red around the corners of his lips, on his chin -blood, her blood?

“You just stay out over there,” Adam commands, shuffling her behind him. She wavers, leaning against his back for support. “You hear me, Teag?”

Teagan sneers, lips curling into a snarl, but stays put. “I wasn’t going to kill her. Just wanted a taste.”

“That’s not part of the arrangement.” Adam shifts, boots scraping the concrete. “Unharmed or we get nothing. That was the deal.” 

The words land like a series of blows. Even in her stupor, the renewed threat sets her heart racing once more. 

Teagan looks ready to pounce, and Lucie runs through ways to keep out of a scuffle between the two vampires. But just as violence is about to break out, the atmosphere changes. 

Adam goes rigid, tensing as both he and Teagan angle toward the sound of approaching footsteps. 

It’s hard to make out through the fog and around the solid form in front of her, but she glimpses dress shoes, shiny and black. They click like a metronome, drawing closer to a steady beat. 

“Get lost,” Adam barks at the stranger. He shifts and Lucie spies a dark suit jacket and white cuffs. Her dread rises, leaving a bitter taste in her throat. “Don’t want to get blood on that pretty white shirt.”

The immaculate tips of the shoes stop, pointed towards Adam. 

“I thought Marcel’s nightwalkers were better behaved,” she hears a man’s voice say, even and calm. There’s an edge though, an air of vague disapproval. “It seems someone was let off-leash prematurely.”

She imagines him wrinkling his nose in disgust. 

Adam stiffens. “I don’t answer to Marcel,” he spits, “or any damn Original.”

Original? 

“Spare me the arrogance of young vampires,” he mutters, exasperated. It only confirms her fears, her face hot and her ears ringing with panic. 

He tips his head to the side, a flash of dark hair in her eyeline. “I’ll make this simple for you. Hand over the girl and I’ll give you a head start.”

If squaring off against two nightwalkers was bad, being in the clutches of an Original would be catastrophic for her chances of survival. She doesn’t have any idea how. All she knows is that she needs to get out of here. Now.

The second she jerks to the side, though, arms ensnare her waist in an impossible grip. It tightens like iron bars around her, caging her in. No longer obscured, she finds herself face-to-face with the Original vampire. 

It only takes a cursory glance, a brief survey of his dark eyes, the angles of his jaw for recognition to dawn. The man from the bar, the shadowy figure on the street beneath her window. Not a figment of her imagination, but flesh and blood only a few feet before her. 

A hand curls around her neck, with none of the gentleness of the other vampire. His nails are sharp, grip vice-like. It leaves her vulnerable; his shield before the firing squad. “How about you crawl back to wherever you came from and I don’t snap her neck like a twig?”

Lucie can’t help the little yelp that escapes her throat as his grip tightens. Her arms sweep up, tugging against his forearms in an exercise of futility. 

Something flashes, dark and dangerous in the Original’s eyes, gone as fast as it came. His face is a cool mask, expression indecipherable. 

“Now, why would you go through all the effort of keeping her alive, only to kill her now?” He muses, thumbs hooking in the belt loops of his pressed slacks. 

“You calling my bluff?” 

The Original shrugs. And if Lucie wasn't so frightened, she would be offended by his willingness to gamble with her life. 

She takes a shaky breath, gathering as much focus as she can muster. Her fingernails dig into the flesh of her captor’s forearms, not strong enough to register on his supernatural pain scale. At least, not until the skin beneath her palms starts to smoke and sizzle. 

He drops her, curses pouring from her mouth. She darts forward like a rabbit in a den of foxes, leaving the acrid smell of burning flesh in her wake. 

She’s quick, but not quick enough. Long fingers ensnare her ankle and she topples, chest colliding with the ground. Her jaw clamps shut from the impact, teeth sinking into her tongue. She tastes blood. It doesn’t matter. 

Teagan leverages his grip, flipping her onto her back. She scurries up onto her elbows, kicking wildly as he advances on her. In a flash, he’s bearing down on her. His weight is an anvil on her chest, pressing her into the pavement, pinning her in place. Over his shoulder, she can vaguely make out rapid movements, the sounds of a struggle. 

Lips pulls back, revealing razor-sharp fangs as he forces her flat. His legs hold her in place. He catches both her wrists in one massive palm, holding them in place against her chest. And he speaks, in that horrible ashen voice, “No one to save you now, little lamb.”

He dives forward to meet her neck and her eyes slam shut. Adamant that the void of his black eyes, his greedy face, isn’t the last thing she sees, she conjured up images in her head. Imaginary hands reach for memories, pulling them to the surface. Arabella’s laugh, Vivienne’s freckles, the perfume of wisteria, and the taste of Violette’s sweet tea. She burrows herself in them, waiting for an end that doesn’t come. 

Something hot and wet splatters her skin, bursting into her refuge. There’s a garbled noise in her ears, a heavy choking sound -also wet. Then the weight on her chest increases tenfold. If he’d been an anvil before, he’s a streamliner of dead weight- |

Dead weight. She freezes, gathering the willpower to open her eyes. Black irises reflect her face back at her, empty and glassy as marbles made of pitch. His mouth hangs open at an odd angle as if stuck in a silent scream. 

Dead. He’s dead. The thoughts bounce around her skull, directionless and chaotic even as the weight leaves her chest, even when she stares up into a dark, starless sky instead of lifeless eyes. 

She pushes herself back onto her forearms, propping herself up just in time to see Teagan’s body land off in the grass, to catch the disembodied heart hit the ground with a wet squelch. 

“Now I do hate an unfair fight,” the man in the suit says, turning towards the remaining vampire. “Don’t you?”

Adam doesn’t speak, gaze drifting from the corpse and back to its killer in abject horror. 

“I suggest you run.” 

And he does. In a flash color so fast that her eyes can’t keep up. And for one moment, she thinks he’ll get away. That the Original will let him leave. 

Until the Riverwalk echoes with a sound she doesn’t have a comparison for, like splintering firewood, but…wrong. A blond head hits the ground with a thud, rolling to a stop at the juncture between the grass and the sidewalk. The body wavers, a few feet behind, wobbling in a macabre sort of shuffle before collapsing like a marionette with the strings cut. 

He never stood a chance.  

He makes quick work of the bodies, the Original, handling them with an efficiency only born of practice. Only once their remains have vanished into the black water does he turn his attention towards Lucie. 

The commanding force of his dark eyes roots her to her spot on the ground, all the while the most primal part of her brain screams at her to run. She can’t seem to make her shocked system move, can’t do much of anything but watch as he advances on her with exaggerated slowness, like he’s approaching a wounded animal. There’s no anger in his eyes, but the damning specks of blood on the collar of his pristine dress shirt scream at her. And she notices how his cuffs are now stained a deep, violent red. 

It lights a spark in her, just enough to find her feet, supporting herself on the back of a park bench. 

“It’s alright,” he says in an even tone, stopping an arm’s reach away, clearly for her comfort. She has no illusions about his ability to dispatch her in seconds at any distance. “You’re safe now. I swear I won’t harm you.”

Something akin to concern seems to dance behind his eyes as he gives her a once-over. 

“I..you…you killed them.” It’s all she can muster.

“I did.” His tone is matter-of-fact, eyes drifting down. She follows the trail of his gaze from the ripped shoulder of her jacket, the rust-colored blood drying on her shirt, and back up again until she feels them settle somewhere around her neck. She remembers intruding fangs and imagines the remnants of carnage he must find there because his mouth pulls in a hard line.

He steps forward and a slow steady hand rises to ghost over the junction of her neck. She notices that beneath his spoiled cuffs, his hands are pristine. When had he found time to clean them?

When she winces, the hand drops back down, hovering somewhere near her upper arms. Confusion stirs, then understanding. He’s afraid I’m going to fall. 

She watches his lips move with a fuzzy detachment that probably has a lot to do with all the blood loss. Sees him mouth, “Are you alright?” more than hears it. 

She knows she should respond, but can’t seem to find the right response. “Hmmm?”

There’s a sigh, not quite impatient but certainly long-suffering. Twin pressures register at the tops of her shoulders, holding her in place, keeping her from drifting off into outer space as the adrenaline leaves her exhausted body.

“Look at me,” he prompts. 

And she complies because, despite the gentle delivery, there’s an innate authority to it that her subconscious responds to even in her present state. 

The scene beyond is blurry, but she blinks his serious features into focus. His finger catches her beneath the chin, urging her to look up into his eyes. 

“Are you going to kill me?” she asks, with a dreamy disinterest. 

“No.” 

“Oh,” is all she can manage, and wonders if she imagines the way he winces. The veil is fading fast beneath the warmth of his hands, the steadiness of his gaze. Something warning her she’s still in danger. 

“Who are you?” Suspicion prods at the corners of her tired mind even as the hand at her chin glides down to examine her bleeding neck. His fingers ghost over the wound and she shivers. 

She knows the truth, even as he speaks the words to confirm it. 

“I’m an Original, but I think you already know that. My name is Elijah. I take it you’ve heard of me.”

Klaus. Rebekah. Elijah.

Lucie swallows down her fear and nods. 

“Good, that’ll save us time,” he says. “We have a lot to discuss, Miss LeMarche.”