#yeah. I think like...funny videos of the cast saying silly things in character voice is one thing

[asharaks]

You don’t have to post this or anything, this is just something I’ve been thinking on and needed to rant about and your blog feels like a safe space for me.

I love Neil, he’s a great voice actor and has been so kind to his fans, but there’s something so hollow (if that’s the right word) about him talking about how good Baldur’s Gate 3 has been for representation when Larian has ignored Wyll to the point we’ve waited over a year for basic fixes meanwhile Astarion (who already has a disproportionate amount of content compared to the other companions) keeps getting new content. This newest trailer for Patch 7 is one of the first we’ve seen of Wyll and it’s him getting murdered. One of the official Larian Discord mods supported the White Wyll mod. The fandom (Astarion fans, in particular) has been so unbelievably racist to black creators and characters that there were whole graph and charts dedicated to how unsafe black people felt in the fandom. Karlach’s features were changed from more black-presenting because people would just kill her without recruiting her. Wyll and Karlach both had rewritten stories, but Wyll’s has been painfully neglected and a majority of it doesn’t even center him so much so that you can barely find any promo material of him without Mizora if he’s included at all. Not only that, but black people are attacked for rightfully criticizing and being uncomfortable with his storyline being a slave to a white woman who’s actions are excused because she’s attractive and he’s “a nice guy who knew what he was getting into.”

I understand a lot of people have felt represented by the game’s depictions of sexual assault victims, queer identities, trauma and healing, etc. but to watch Neil herald it as some kind of game that gives everyone a voice so they can feel represented when that’s only the case for people (and characters) that look like him feels ignorant at best and disingenuous at worst.

iiii do agree for sure - I'm not on twitter and as policy I don't pay attention to what the VAs say to the fans lmao but I definitely think. where the game does do a very good job in a lot of areas, the way it handles race and racism, both in-universe and metatextually, is NAWT one of its strong points (astarion's racism being played for a Bit, among other things), and there's certainly a reluctance to discuss that among the dev team (including the VAs) that feels Intentional at this point. fans have been saying this about wyll since release, and afaik no one on the team has really said anything?? again, not on twitter so I can't be sure but it is a disappointment at best, especially given the racist treatment theo solomon's received in the PR for the game.

obviously I don't know the devs - don't know what they are and aren't allowed to discuss with fans, don't know what oversight they receive or what their contracts are or what their personal opinions are, but I do try pretty hard not to take the things they say on twitter outside of formal press too seriously: I'm not one for parasocialising in that way, and the whole area makes me a but uncomfortable, especially when people take the things they say as canon and use it as an excuse to attack other fans. I know neil's been on the receiving end of some unacceptable behaviour from fans too, and I find it easier to pretend that whole arena just doesn't exist lmfao

[mah-gah-lee]

because i love you too, you dork ! - (charlie gillespie x reader)

                                         GIF by @damnthedark​

Word Count: 2320 words

 Summary: Charlie and you were friends for a year now. When he asked you to come to live with Owen and him, you realized you’re having feeling for him. You try to denied but Owen noticed.

 Warnings: I don’t think there’s tw in this one.

 A/N: So that's it ! My first "x-reader". As some of you already know, I was really scared to post this. Be kind please, my first language is french.

 disclaimer: I don't know Charlie or Owen personally or what their life are like. All you will read in this "x reader" is from my imagination. My point is not to invade Charlie's privacy. I don't want to offend him or offend anybody else in his life.  This is just me, writing innocently about a boy I find totally pure. All this is not reality

 Tagged: @asdfghjkl-allthethings​

 __________________________________________________

Living with Charlie and Owen wasn't that difficult. They were kind, smiling boys, funny, a bit charming. The only thing that really bothered you, other than that tower of recyclable waste in your apartment; that you (or the boys) must to throw away for ages now, were your growing feelings for the blue-eyed brunette. And you weren't ready to admit it out loud. You didn't know how you fell in love with him so quickly but you did and since the day you realized your feelings, things got a little more different at times in the way you both behaved.

Charlie and you met about a year ago at a festival. You went there for your birthday and some of your friends made you wear this giant crown balloon and scarf saying "out of my way. Birthday girl". Charlie didn't follow the instructions, he walked right up to you with his beautiful, chaotic energy, wished you a happy birthday, and gave you a Canada keychain. You didn't know him but you laughed so hard as you thanked him. You both introduced each other and he offered you a drink - for your birthday -. Since that day you have become close friends and next, best friends.

When Charlie offered you to come live with him while he was shooting JATP season 2, you doubted. Your apartment lease was coming to an end and you had just finished your studies. It was not the right time. But Charlie convinced you. Money was no problem; the rent was split between him and Owen. You can easily live in the third bedroom while participating in daily expenses like food, for example or helping with the cleaning thing. And then you accepted his offer and the great adventure began.

…

 "Y / n, have you seen my… oh". At the moment he opened the door, you screamed. Charlie was the clumsiest boy you've ever lived with.

"Boundaries!" you said by putting a towel around you, even if you already worn your underwear.

Your best friend came out of the bathroom without a word or a look to you, heading to the living room where Owen was playing a game.

“You just walked in while she was changing, didn’t you?” the blonde guy said, mocking his friend.

“Yeah, I didn’t know she was so…undressed”

Owen looked at his roommate with a raised eyebrow. “She was in the bathroom you dork!”

Charlie scratched the back of his head, feeling embarrassed

“Yeah, I should have known that.”

You chose that moment to leave the bathroom and run towards the boys, drying your hair with a terry towel.

"I swear to God, Charlie. If you weren't so hot, you would be dead already."

 Charlie looked at you, confused. His cheeks are about to turn crimson. You were dressed but the young man could clearly see a few drops of water running from your neck to the neckline of your tank top. All the things he can thought was damn, when did y/n get hot? While waiting for a response from him, you noticed his eyes sunk deep into your cleavage. It made you blush but you didn’t want he knows about. Flirt was your best respond.

 "Do you like the view, Gillespie?" A smile hanging on your lips.

 If Charlie could be redder than he already was, he would probably look like a giant tomato.

 “I-I-I got to go… Have you seen my jacket? I lost my keys and I think they’re in there…”

 You rolled your eyes and pointed to the coat rack.

 “Where do you think the coats are stored?” you asked him “Thanks God, you both have me in this house." You added, watching your two friends.

 Charlie looked at you with his stupid silly smile and rushed into the lobby, grabbing his jacket before retracing his steps and kissed you on the cheek.

 "Thanks honey, you're the best". He slammed the door, you frosted.

 Now, who's that giant tomato?

 “You can’t be that obvious.” You turned to face Owen, who is sitting on the couch, his arms crossed over the back of the sofa.

 Becoming friends with Owen had been so easy, you really appreciate his humor, he was so kind and caring, it seemed like you were friends from the start. He meant a real close friend to you now as much as your kindergarten friends.

 “What?” you said with a misunderstood look to your friend but the blonde one didn’t say a word and it made you feel so uncomfortable “stop looking at me like that. What’s on your mind?”

 Again, he kept eyes on you, without speaking, just a smirk on his lips

 “Owen!”

 And here we go again, the smirk was bigger than ever. Owen was so proud of himself, getting you out of your hinges. He finally decided to speak, his eyes looking at you playfully

 “When were you going to tell me, you have that crush on Charlie?”  Your cheeks were crimson but you weren't ready to confess your feelings for Charlie. Even though Owen was the nicest man you've ever known, let alone the brown-haired guy who lived with you and you fell in love with, obviously. Owen was Charlie's best friend and if you told him he was right he would probably tell Charlie about it. And you didn't want that.

 “We’re just…friends” you knew that was kind a lie.

 Your feelings for the brunette were so obvious, that wasn’t surprising Owen noticed. Your friend rolled his eyes with another smirk on his mouth. He knew you’ll deny even if he could prove you, he’s right. No need to insist so he gave up.

 “if you say so”

 …

 You were invited by Owen and Charlie to Madison’s birthday party on set. You didn't know the cast so well but your roommates didn't want you to be alone at the apartment tonight while they were having fun. So, you ended up here, holding a non-alcoholic drink in your hand, watching your favorites boys and Jeremy doing that stupid -and dangerous- Dirty Dancing Figure. Figure they also put in the season one of Julie and The Phantoms, this time, it was Charlie on top. Your best friend came right to you, so proud of himself.

 "Did you see that ?!" he said, way too enthusiastic

 “I saw that. And when you’ll crashed your head to the ground, I will NOT be playing nurse for you.”

  Charlie gave you a confused look and you rolled your eyes. Of course, you loved Dirty Dancing so much but you had also watched so many videos of the boys trying to do this lift again and each time your heart skipped a beat seeing them miss something and ALMOST DIE! Every fucking times.

 "Come on, y / n, don't be mad… let's have fun!" Won't you come viiiibing with me?”

 And Charlie did his weird dance moves, your whole face saying that you wanted to laugh so hard. You pursed your lips not to smile but you couldn't suppress it. The song changed and it was like the universe was by Charlie's side. You loved ABBA so much and had watched both films so many times that it was impossible to you to not dance to this song. You sighed, exasperated but amused before putting your drink down and joining him. Your two bodies danced to the music, improvising a kind of choreography. You didn't care if you two looked stupid, you were having so much fun. You felt light, euphoric when you were around Charlie, he made you happy and you knew, you knew that was one of the reasons you were in love with him. Charlie was holding your hands, spinning you, making you dancing and when the song ended you were in his arms with your head back. He got you back on your feet and you bit your lip. Your heart was racing, your breathing was jerky, breathless. God you loved him. Her beautiful blue eyes caught yours and you could swear you saw them ripped from your lips before returning to your eyes. You were both there and for some strange reason you were ready to kiss him. But it did not happen. Your courage flew away and you regained your composure as Charlie acted as if nothing had happened. Madison yelled for Charlie to come over and you walked back to the table where your drink was, Owen now by your side.

  “Just friends, ugh? Say it again without lying now.” Owen told you, with his annoying smirking smile.

 If your eyes could kill, your roommate would be as much of a ghost as his own character was. He knew he was right and it was delicious to see you almost kiss your best friend in front of the whole cast. It was impossible to deny now.

 “Oh, bites me Owen” you just said with a slightly annoyed tone in your voice, making him laugh.

 …

 After that night you did your best to avoid Charlie as much as you could. You can't deny that seeing the sadness in his eyes when you refused to come on set with him was beyond painful. You hated yourself for making him miserable.

 But Charlie was a smart boy, or at least smart enough to trap you in a corner so that you could chat one on one. He asked Owen to convince you to come on set, claiming Charlie wouldn't be there - and you were stupid enough to believe it ... Owen was an actor, and a good one, after all -.

 You were watching Madison perform her scene with Owen when you felt a hand slide lightly across your hips. You held your breath as your best friend's slipped behind your ear in a whisper.

 "Please y / n, can we talk?"

 This was neither the place nor the time to make a scene. Ironic for a tv show set. Defeated, you nodded and Charlie slipped his hand into yours, pulled you off the set. He took you to one of your favorite settings: the garage. So it was away from Julie's bedroom where Owen and Madison were still filming. He didn't bend over backwards to start the discussion as you rubbed your arms, ashamed of the situation.

 "What's going on, you've been avoiding me since Madi's birthday"

You couldn't stop staring at your feet, you had to focus on everything except his beautiful eyes.

 "You wouldn't understand, please Char," let me go. " you mumbled

" No ... Not until you tell me why you are ruining our friendship "

 Hearing this from him was unbearable and it made you lose patience. You wanted the exact opposite of what he was telling you. Your friendship was too important to you, you didn't want to spoil it with your stupid feelings.

 " I'm not! I'm just trying to save it.” You exploded.

“Bullshit. Just for the record, you're not doing so well. So, why are you avoiding me?"

 Tears were about to dropped out of your face. You hated that. You hated the fact you were stuck in this whole situation. Tears were about to dropped out of your face. Two solutions were available to you: to lose him by confessing your feelings to him. Or lose him with the possibility that he hates you, thinking you were just a heartless bitch.

 “So? I am waiting…”

 Although he looked annoyed, Charlie seemed to mellow. His hand released a section of your hair, then his fingers circled your cheek, which instinctively nestled from his touch.

 "You know you can tell me anything"

 You took a deep breath, once again, defeated. Was that the end of your friendship? Should it end like this? Your heart was preparing to be broken.

 "You make me want things that I can't have ..."

 Charlie tilted his head towards you, forcing you to look him in the eye as your tears threatened to fall at any moment.

 "Why do you say that. What did I do?"

 But the words no longer left your throat, you were paralyzed by the fear of finally confessing everything to him.

 “Y/N, please tell me”

 His thumb was drawing circles on your cheek in the hope of comforting you. You gathered for a moment, giving yourself all the courage, you needed before the words left your mouth.

 "I am in love with you."

 Silence fell like a cleaver. And that's it, it was over. Charlie was probably going to tell you that it wasn't reciprocal. But instead, your best friend's laughter echoed through the room, making your eyes widen.

 "Is that all?" he asked. "This is why you're avoiding me?"

 Your forehead creased and the tears that burned your eyes grew angry. You had expected anything but hearing him laugh. Your friendship was shattered and Charlie was laughing. How not to be mad at him after that?

 "Didn't you hear what I said to you? Why are you laughing?"

 And his laughter redoubled before stopping dead. Charlie put a big smile on his lips, happier than ever.

 "Because I love you too, you dork!"

 Your eyes widened and Charlie's laughter redoubled once more. Delicately, he grabbed your face and kissed you. Your heart exploded at his touch. The feel of his lips on yours was divine. Your hands crept through her hair. They were longer for this second season. You deepened the kiss until you had to recatch your breath. Charlie's smile leaving your lips dazzled the room.

 "Can you please stop avoiding me and be my girlfriend?" he asked maliciously.

 You pursed your lips to suppress a smile, but it was a failure. You were unable to hide your feelings now. You nodded and Charlie kissed you again. Your friendship was not ruined. It was just evolving into a love story that you didn't expect.

[rowyn-writes]

Funny Business

Warnings: Angst, fluff, language

Pairings: Gabriel x Winchester!Reader

Characters: Gabriel, Dean, Sam, Castiel, Rowena, Jack (mentioned only)

Word Count: 2.2k

Summary: You’re Dean’s daughter, and you’re all getting ready to go to apocalypse world to rescue Jack, your best friend. When Gabriel sees that you’re upset about Jack’s absence, he tries to cheer you up and confesses that he likes you.

Requested by @daisyelll​

You missed your best friend.

It felt like Jack had been in apocalypse world for centuries. Of course you missed you grandmother, Mary, but you weren't really that close with her.

Yeah, Dean Winchester was you father. He had you at a young age, 22, to be exact. Your 'mother,' wasn't really ready to be a mom yet, so she had given you to Dean in hopes he would be a good father to you. And he was.

Dean didn't want you to grow up the way he did, so he never took you traveling. Most of the times, you would stay at Bobby's house, but your dad called to check in every night and to say 'I love you,' before you would fall asleep. Whenever he was in between hunts, he would always come see you and do a 'Daddy-daughter date,' where he would take you to the movies and go out to eat.

When Sam was stuck in the Cage with Lucifer, Dean came and got you, taking you to live with him, Lisa and Ben. You loved your little dysfunctional family. Lisa was a good female influence in your life, seeing as how your own walked out on you. That's why you were devastated when Castiel wiped Ben and Lisa's memories of the Winchester's.

But that all happened when you were a kid. Now, your 21, and desperately trying to find a way to bring your best friend back from apocalypse world.

You had never connected with someone like you connected with Jack. He was like your brother, and you'd kill to protect him.

"Where is the Witchy Winchester?" A Scottish voice filled the air. That was a nickname that Rowena gave you. A few years ago, you had dabbled a bit in magic, and ever since, she had been adamant on training you.

"Rowena!" You said happily, hugging the woman.

"Y/n Winchester." She smiled as she looked at you with sad eyes. "How are you, deary?"

"I'm powering through." You assured her. "I'm just ready to get my family home." Your father rested a hand on your shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze.

"We'll get them back, sweetheart." He kissed the top of your head.

"It would be a lot faster if this dumbass, impotent archangel would grow a pair and lend some grace!" You growled loudly enough for Gabriel to hear from wherever he was in the bunker.

"Oh whatever, Baby Winchester! You try being tortured by a Prince of Hell and see how you feel." He called back.

"I was." You deadpanned. "And do you see me acting like a little bitch? No." Sam and Dean snickered at your comment.

"Alrighty then," Rowena said before your argument could continue. "Let's get started." She set down a large bowl on the table, along with a bunch of other ingredients. "Fruit from the tree of life." You began gathering your things, such as clothes, non perishable foods, water, and of course, weapons. You and your father had argued earlier on in the day about you joining them to go to apocalypse world, which ended in a screaming match that you won. You definitely got your temper from you father. "Blood of a most holy man." Sam tossed over a pack of glow sticks that you put in the bag. "And ah. . ." Rowena reached up and plucked a hair out of Dean's head.

"Ow!" He complained, rubbing the back of his head. You rolled your eyes as you continued to pack.

"Something from the other side." Rowena finished, adding his hair to the mix.

"Hey. How’s Gabriel." Sam asked when Cas entered the room.

"He said he needed a minute alone." He said, his voice a low rumble. "He wanted to extract his grace by himself. In private." You shivered at what the Angel told you. You did not want to imagine what he was doing to extract his grace. Your uncle and father had the same disturbed look on their face as you did. "So I left him alone in Dean’s room."

You bursted out laughing, your eyes crinkling at the edges like your dad's did. "You what? No." Dean seemed very grossed out at the thought of what Gabriel was doing in his room.

"I hate to interrupt, but I can’t be the only one to noticed the rather glaring hole in this plan." No one seemed to pay attention to the witch as you continued packing up for the trip. "We open up the rift, it gives us a day to find and save your Mom and the boy. And it’s a very big world over there, and you’re not even sure where they are, so. . . "

"She's right." Cas spoke up. "The clock may run out on us."

"Yeah. It might." Sam seemed indifferent and unconcerned. You couldn't help but feel the same way. All you wanted was your family back together. You tucked your loaded gun into the waistband of your jeans, covering it with your flannel shirt.

"Yeah, well we don’t have any better ideas." Dean shrugged.

"Mm, that’s inspirational."

"Here it is!" Gabriel exclaimed, walking in with a very dim looking vial of his grace. " The final ingredient - a fresh serving of archangel grace."

You raise your eyebrow, tilting your head to the side. "That's pathetic." You announced, earning a snort from Rowena.  "Dude, I could give more 'grace' than that, and I'm a human. You could do better." Gabriel scoffed at your words.

"That is the jet fuel of divine emissions." He proclaimed. You gave a little gag, as Dean and Sam gave him disgusted looks. "It’ll be more than enough to get the job done."

You, Rowena and Cas gave each other skeptical looks. You all knew that there was no way that was going to work.  You shook your head as Rowena added more ingredients to the spell. You strapped two katana's on your back, adjusting them so they fit comfortably.

"Ya know, we won't judge you if you chose to sit this one out, kiddo." Your dad tried to convince you to stay back once more.

"Dad." You whispered, linking your hand with his. "I want to go. You're my family, and we don't leave family behind. Never." Dean gave you a small smile as he squeezed your hand. You noticed from the corner of your eye that Gabriel was watching you with curious eyes.

Rowena called you over to her, needing assistance with casting the spell. It was a rather powerful one, meaning it might need two witches instead of one. "Ready, deary?" You nodded.

"Koth Munto Nuntox." You both bellowed, motioning your hands towards the place where the rift was supposed to open. It gleamed orange, but you could tell the light was fading. There was no way anyone was going through that rift.

"Okay, everyone ready?" Cas asked the group.

"Yeah, all right." Sam nodded.

"Let’s do this." Dean agreed.

"Let's get our family back."

As you go to step through the rift, just like you expected, it began to fizzle and lean to the side. You all tilted along with it.

"Okay, that was very, very fast." You noted. The group seemed to agree with you.

"One could even say premature." Rowena remarked, making you laugh. Gabriel seemed to be flustered by you laughing at Rowena's joke.

"Um. . . I thought it would be enough." Gabriel coughed.

"All right, great. What do we do now?"

"I think we all know what to do." You said grimly. Rowena sent you and Sam a terrified look. You gripped her hand to give her reassurance. "I don't like this as much as the next person, but we need an Archangels grace. And it seems there's only one left on this god forsaken world that can actually provide his grace."

"No." Sam shook his head.

"We need to get Lucifer."

.

. .

. . .

You had decided to stay back while Sam, Dean, and Cas went to get Lucifer. Gabriel had already offered his assistance before coming back to the bunker. You were holed up in the library, starting at old pictures and videos on your phone. All of them were of you and Jack.

You giggled as you watched a video of Jack trying ice cream for the first time. "Ah!" He exclaimed, rubbing his temples. "Is it supposed to hurt? Is this some kind of torture that humans use on each other?"

The video shook as you began to laugh. "No, silly. You just ate it too fast. It's actually really good if you slow down and savor it!"

You felt a tear roll down your cheek as you scrolled through pictures of the two of you. He was your best friend. Your brother. And it hurt like hell to be so close to getting him, but still not quite there.

"Hey, Baby Winchester!" Gabriel said happily, walking into the room. "Guess who just captured Lucif-" He cut himself off as he saw the state you were in.

You quickly wiped away your tears, exiting out of the video app on your phone. "What do you want, Gabriel?" You sniffed.

"Are you okay?" He asked, seeming genuinely concerned, which shocked you. The Archangel never cared about anyone but himself.

"I-I'm fine." You nodded.

He frowned as he approached you, sitting down in one of the arm chairs. "Hey, what's with the waterworks?"

You bit the inside of your cheek, shaking your head. If you spoke, you were sure to sob. You calmed yourself before you began to speak. "I miss Jack." You confessed. "He could always make me laugh when I needed to. And right now, I really need to laugh." Your voice broke as you talked.

Gabriel's frown deepened. He knew you to be this strong warrior, this tough young woman who feared nothing and no one. And to see you so broken hurt him. He stood up, snapping his fingers as he did so. I Wanna Dance With Somebody began to play.

"Really?" You asked, raising an eyebrow at the man.

"Yes, really. Now get your ass off that chair and come dance with me. You know, many women would kill to be in your position." You glared at him, feeling skeptical. It was known that Gabriel was a huge flirt. Hell, not even two hours earlier, he was flirting with Rowena, who quickly shot him down, clearly not interested.

"If you try anything, I'll kill you faster than you can say uh-oh." Gabriel held his hands up in surrender, silently promising that he wasn't going to pull any funny business. You slowly got up off the couch and walked towards him. He extended his hand, which you hesitantly took. Gabriel spun you around, making you gasp in surprise.

"I'm quite the dancer, if you didn't know." He smirked. You still weren't in the mood to put up with his bull shit. "I'm going to make you laugh, if it's the last think I do." He promised.

"Why do you care so much if I'm unhappy. You barely know me." You mumbled as Gabriel led you around to room.

"Because, from how little I do know about you, I know that seeing you cry is a rarity. You're this badass warrior goddess that supposedly doesn't have any emotion." You were about to question him when Gabriel interrupted you. "You're a legend in the Supernatural World." He explained.

"Yeah, for being Dean Winchester's daughter." You said bitterly.

"Ah, now why is that such a bad thing?"

"Because I want to be known for the people that I've saved and the good that I do. Not for just being my dad's daughter."

"Well, trust me, sweetheart, that's not all you're known for." You looked up at Gabriel as he rocked you back and forth to the music. He clearly wasn't pleased with the fact that you were still frowning, so he picked you up off the ground and twirled you around.

You gave a giggle of excitement as he did so, earning a proud grin from Gabriel. He began hopping around the room, making you laugh harder. "There's that beautiful laugh."

"Beautiful." You scoffed. "Yeah, okay."

"Why do you find it so hard to believe that someone would use that word to describe you?"

You shrugged. "Because no one thinks of me that way."

"Now, that's not true. I'm sure many, many men and women would love to be with you." Gabriel insisted, which made you blush.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" You asked.

"Well, if I told you, I think there would be a multitude of people trying to murder me." He confessed.

You gave him a questioning look, not realizing what he was trying to tell you.

"Jeez, you Winchester's are so oblivious. I like you, Y/n. But I know if I acted on anything, you're family would murder me in a heartbeat."

You looked at him for a moment before grabbing his jacket and pulling him in for a kiss. It took him a moment to kiss you back, but when he did, you were breathless. "Then we don't tell anyone. Not yet at least."

"Ooh, a secret love. I like that sound of that, Winchester." He murmured as he kissed you again.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

I can promise there will be a part two, hehe. 

[aceofspadegrass]

Hey hey!

Can you like make a fic about the cast (plus Mira's actress Riisa)

On a field trip to the hot springs ♨️??

Like just them chilling and chatting telling jokes nd stuff...maybe a bit of chaos sprinkle in there while they are in their cars with their car buddies

And the chaos still continues in the hot springs-

Characters: Kento Yamazaki, Dori Sakurada, Nijiro Murakami, Nobuaki Kaneko, Keita Machida, Tsuchiya Tao, Riisa Naka

Genre: Fluff. Just a little trip to the sauna. :D

1.1k words

Aaaand I finally got around to it! Huzzah! It's not the best, but I sure did try. Sorry I didn't put Riisa in more. :D

The bus rolls up to the street, the doors opening up. Sakurada and Yamazaki both board, greeting the bus driver before taking their seats, the others all waving and greeting the two.

“ Hi Yamazaki!” His friend Tsuchiya greeted as he took a seat next to her. Yamazaki greets her back, smiling. The bus shuts its door as it chugs forwards once more, Tsuchiya watching the outside begin to pass by. “ I’m excited for today, aren’t you?”

“ It’s just a spa day, right?”

Tsuchiya nods. “ Yeah, but they’re going to feed us-“

Yamazaki gives a soft laugh, Tsuchiya giggling a little. “ You’re more excited about the food rather than the hot spring waters.”

Tsuchiya nods again, happily patting her lap. “ It’ll be a good afternoon spent after a nice bath~” She leans against the back of the chair, absolutely vibing. Yamazaki just continues to smile and moves his attention to watching the others chat amongst each other. Sakurada was sitting next to Murakami at the moment, just across the lane from Yamazaki, Murakami excitedly talking about the shirt he was wearing, Sakurada also rather invested in the shirt. Yamazaki had to lean forward a little bit to see the smattering of cats all over the shirt over random splotches of paint. It was incredibly pretty, so he could see why the two were happy to take about it.

Yamazaki turns his attention to the seat right behind Sakurada and Murakami to Nobuaki. The man just had a seat to himself, earbuds likely in his ears as he bopped his head to music with his eyes shut. Yamazaki couldn’t tell what kind of music it could be, possibly his own music, maybe just some other music choices.

Maybe Barbie Girl. It was his life after all, and sometimes life requires a little silly song just because.

Yamazaki waves to Nobuaki anyways, even though it was likely the older gentleman didn’t even notice him waving back. It didn’t matter, he didn’t want to pull him out of his musical bop.

“ There’s just one more stop before we head to the hot springs.” Tsuchiya says, pulling her friend’s attention back to her. “ I hear we’re picking up Naka!”

“ Oh, really? She’s free today?” Tsuchiya nods excitedly. “ Yeah. They thought that we deserved more girls at the place, so….. We got Naka!”

“ Sounds great! How much longer though until we get to her?”

Tsuchiya goes silent, thinking. At that moment, a voice pipes up from behind them. “ It’ll be another 20 minutes to her, then an hour or so until we get to the spa.”

Yamazaki raises his head to look behind him with a grin, Machida waving with a grin. “ Hey!”

“ Hi Machida!”

“ How have you been?” Machida questioned, Yamazaki giving a nod and a thumbs up. “ That’d great! You look healthy.”

“ Thank you, you too!”

Machida’s smile somehow widens even further, Yamazaki sitting down and vibing as he listened to the others chat around him. Occasionally there was a a laugh somewhere in the bus, likely from a funny joke or quote. Tsuchiya didn’t let Yamazaki down with conversation either, the two getting into a light chat about funny dog videos the other has seen.

Well, the conversation spread to Sakurada, who got into it with Murakami, which led to the entire bus getting into a massive conversation about cute dogs. Yamazaki couldn’t help but laugh at how animated everyone got about dogs, some conversation slipping about the pet dogs a few of them owned.

The conversation lasted so long and deeply that they didn’t notice the bus stop, and the bus door his open until a new voice chimes in, everyone’s eyes shooting to the where the door was.

“ Man, am I missing all the fun? And about dogs no less?”

“ Oh, hello Naka!” Nobuaki chirps, waving from his seat. Naka smiles and waves back, walking down the aisle as Nobuaki scooted over so she could have a seat. The other were quick to greet her as well, and just as easily they went back into their conversation about dogs as if she had been there all along. There was laughter as the topic shifted into animals in general, then somehow into what everyone had been up to, each other having a turn to share. Nobody really had anything not to share, even if it was something minimal, the rest willing to somehow stretch it out to a few minutes of conversation.

The time passed by rather quickly, and at some point they ended up playing hand games as the bus chugged onwards to the hot springs as the sun slowly went downwards. At the moment it was a giant game where they went around the bus circle to try to remove everyone else’s fingers through aggressive rock scissors paper.

In the end, Tsuchiya wins, the girl cheering in her seat, Yamazaki clapping for her even though he had to face a bitter loss.

“ Good game! And would you look at that!” Riisa points out the window as the bus pulls into the lot. “ We’re here!”

The bus opens, and everyone files out, heading to the building with excited energy in the air. The staff greets them, and they all head out to their changing rooms so they could have a nice night in the spa areas.

It was truly nice, of course, Yamazaki sinking into the heated waters the moment he was able to, letting out a sigh of relief. The others apparently felt the same, all letting out their stresses.

Nobody talks for a few minutes, basking in the warmth of the water. Yamazaki shuts his eyes and takes a breath of the fog that enveloped the place, quiet chatter occurring between the older men. Nobuaki lets out a chuckle as he started going on about how he accidentally threw a drumstick under a chair and couldn’t find it for ages, although Yamazaki barely takes notice of the actual words as his body slips him into a pure bliss state of zero thought.

The next thing he knows, there is warm water poured over his neck and chest, and he shoots up a little in surprise, Murakami chuckling as Yamazaki opens his eyes and looks at the man, who was standing still waist deep in the spring.

“ Come on, it’s dinner time!” Murakami says, setting the cup down and carefully striding over to the edge, hoisting himself out and grabbing a towel to wrap his waist in as he made his way out. Yamazaki was quick to follow after, and soon they were back in the dressing rooms, outfits prepared for them already. They all get dressed and head to the large room where they would be given their food, all prepaid for them.

Yamazaki takes a seat by Sakurada and Murakami, everyone else still somewhere in post spa happiness. Not even a minute later their food gets brought out to them, everyone thanking for the meal before digging in.

[themockingcrows]

Whisper Just For Me: Ch. 16: Beyond

All good things must come to an end. Sometimes, though, the end is just the beginning. CW: Major character death This chapter is available on AO3!

((The end of the fic! Thank you so much for reading, it’s really meant a lot to me. And I’m so sorry the ending took so long to get out! Between the surgeries, recovery time, mental health and school, things have been hectic to say the least. If you stuck around, you’ve got my love forever. <3 Ryn, over and out.))

     By the time the cast came off and you’d started doing physical therapy at home, you felt it was time to try explaining to Dave all the things you had found. Life had returned to normal more or less, with Jade and her research keeping Dave’s returning strength and habits dialed in to where they could be tracked again. Everything was looking positive, and you couldn’t be happier. Your family was whole again, and life was good.

     Now to rip the bandaid off, you supposed. Now when it was private and quiet, when Jade wasn’t around and it would just be the two of you.

     With Dave zipping around the room rustling papers one day, you decided it was time. If he passed on… well. You had confidence you’d see him again somehow. Your beliefs had expanded over time to well beyond what they were before, and with it came a sense of serenity in things. If you could find Dave again after all that had happened, if fate itself seemed intent on making sure that you could be reunited somehow, then surely it made sense that it would keep going even longer afterwards into the unknown.

     You knelt down carefully, still babying your formerly broken leg as it got stronger, and rummaged under your bed for the things you’d brought back from Dave’s Bro. The raglan shirt, the different drawings, the picture of the smuppet, the photograph of Dave on the sofa. With a deep sense of inner peace, you set them all out on the floor and sat back on your ass to look them over when you felt the warmth near your shoulder.

     “Do you see all these clearly?” you asked, wanting to be sure.

     … Yes …

     “...Do you want to touch them?” you asked, offering control of your arms again. “I don’t mind. They’re… they’re yours, after all.”

     Did Dave recognize them, or not? He seemed intrigued, if nothing else. He didn’t take control of your arms, but remained near your head and shoulders, hovering and staring intently at the different things as if he were a mongoose staring down a snake. You reached for the picture of him on the couch and smiled.

     “You still look this good, I hope you know. Just more red.”

     Dave was silent, but he smiled. Okay. He could recognize himself at least. Or he couldn’t and he could take a compliment when he heard one. Sometimes it was a little hard to tell how Dave’s brain worked, but it was generally positive so whatever. 

     Setting the picture down, you pulled up the image of the smuppet and ran a thumb over the surface of the polaroid as if imagining the texture of the fabric, trying to pretend you could feel it, could smell it. Trying to practically will it into existing in the same room.

     “Your uh. ...Your brother said this was one of your favorite toys growing up,” you explained, smile faltering a bit. The warmth went chilly for the briefest of seconds, wavering, before it warmed again. Dave was reaching for the picture with his transparent fingers, imitating the stroking motion you’d done right beforehand.

     ...I remember…

     Okay. That was a start. He remembered and was still there. Good.

     You felt a chill in your stomach that made you want to put everything away, suddenly. A deep instinctive urge to hide, to keep things safe, to buckle down and ignore everything around you for a while. To keep Dave safe.

     Safe from what? If he moved on… then it was what he was meant to do. He’d be at peace. You’d meet again. And that was all theoretical anyway, stop panicking! Ease up, Egbert, it’s a picture of a smuppet.

     You reach for the shirt next and hold it after displaying the pattern on the front, grinning at Dave again despite the growing panic in the back of your chest.

     “Your shirt’s kinda dorky, but apparently you liked it a lot? You liked videogames too, and music��� I think Jade has some of the songs you used to like to listen to, we’ll have to ask her to play them later.” You’d been avoiding them for some reason since getting Dave back, just letting things go back to how they’d once been instead of adding even more new things into the mix. Too much too fast was bad, you assumed. ...Yet here you were, discussing an entire short life in one go.

     ...Better than yours…

     “Hey, my clothes are great thank you.”

     As if to make a point, Dave darted away to the drawers and opened them, tossing out socks and shorts left and right while you protested, before rattling things in the closet and darting back in a red haze like a flash. 

     “Okay, okay, geeze. Either way, we’ve got this now. Do you want me to set it out somewhere for you? Or.. like. I don’t know, should I wear it when you’re in charge sometime?”

     Would it be weird to wear your dead boyfriend’s shirt that he used to wear when he was alive if you never knew him when he was alive to begin with? Something in your head said that was probably kind of weird, but then again you’ve been wrong before so… who knew anymore. Things were complicated when you were dating a ghost.

     A lot of societal rules and standards either didn’t apply or needed to be invented on the spot.

     Dave did a lazy turn in the air like an otter before rustling the other items like a breeze to catch your attention once more, apparently enthralled by his own work. You picked up the cartoony image with a smirk, having to hold it sideways at an angle to read it properly as if it were some secret code and not the oldest shitpost you’d ever seen in your fucking life.

     “You made this, huh? What’s it of? Like, who are these guys?”

     ...Sweet Bro… Hella Jeff… Geromy…

     Instinctively, you’re aware of who each of them probably are, and you’re pleased when a quick verification with Dave proved you were correct on the first shot. It was brilliant really. Strange, surreal, silly, and nonsensical in just the right way to make you wish there was an entire book of these drawings. If Dave had lived, maybe there would have been and that’s the only way you’d have known him: as an adoring fan among many to an older man with a talent for drawing funny cartoons. ...If you could even classify these guys as cartoons.

     They kind of defied description in the way a jpeg artifact tended to bounce around on shitty video clips that dropped pixels faster than you could drop yourself down the stairs on roller skates with a running start.

     The more realistic art, the sketches, you hesitated on most. Finally, you picked one up and cleared your throat uncomfortably. 

     “This uh. ...You know who this is, yeah?”

     Dave was quiet again, and you had to look over your shoulder to try judging if this was a bad idea or not. He was still, quiet, staring. His face was hard to decipher, mostly because it seemed to be fading in and out from the red mass to the wispy figure you knew and loved. 

     ...Bro…

     “Right,” you said, clearing your throat again. It felt like you had heartburn, a cold sweat on your brow and acid roiling in your stomach. “We uhm. Jade and I met him. We talked a lot about things. About you. He’s the one who gave us most of these things. We heard about when you were a baby, and when you were a teen.”

     There came the unsteady lump of panic again. Where had the serenity gone? The sense of peace and calm that said this was a good idea earlier? Long gone.

     “We also uhm. ...We learned how you died, Dave. Do.. do you remember?”

     Stupid question. Dave looked tense, uncertain, and even more wavery than before. Of course he didn’t remember, that was one of the main reasons he was still around, wasn’t it?

     “It…”

     Were you ready for this? You could feel tears in your eyes. It was now or never.

     “It was your heart, Dave. You had a heart problem, and passed away really fast outside. Nobody knew it was coming or that anything was wrong. Your… Your Bro’s sorry. He’s eaten alive about it, wishes he’d never pushed you as hard as he did in the heat. He misses you. He-”

     The red light was brilliant to your eyes, bright enough that you needed to shield your vision for a moment with a hand, peeking between your fingers to try finding the source. Dave. It had to be Dave. Where was he? Where was he in this sea of red? The warmth that had been radiating off of him dissipated till it was cool and comforting instead. Soothing as a balm to fevered flesh, soft and gentle as touch.

     When the light faded, Dave was standing to your side. Physically standing, not floating, looking solid as anything. His face was pale with a splash of freckles, hair ruffled as if wind had been playing through it, red eyes bright as rubies. He was wearing the same shirt you’d brought out from under the bed, making you double take back to it to make sure it wasn’t in fact the same shirt. Black jeans smoothed down skinny legs with the baggy ends threadbare in the back where his tennis shoes had been scuffing them to Hell and back. His chest wasn’t rising or falling, but he had color to his cheeks, and a smile on his lips.

     You scrambled to your feet once you registered what the fuck had happened, or… at least were trying to understand what the fuck was happening. 

     “Dave? Dave what’s going on. I don’t like this,” you say, before even registering what came out of your mouth. Your skin felt soothed, your body felt light, even the residual ache in your leg was gone. Peace was in the air, but you felt like you were having trouble breathing, leading to the conclusion that you were, in fact, panicking.

     This was a panic attack.

     “Dave? Say something, Dave, what’s happening.”

     You knew what was happening. You reminded him how he died. He knew now. He remembered. He remembered everything, remembered his former life, remembered himself and his world and time. Remembered his Bro.

     “...John,” Dave said, his voice just as solid as it felt when he talked inside your head, but the rush of blood in your ears was making it harder to hear over the whooshing. You needed air. This wasn’t supposed to be happening, you didn’t want this.

     Except you did. You didn’t want to be selfish and keep Dave in limbo forever. You didn’t want to keep him hidden in your pocket till your own death, leaving him potentially trapped. This was the right thing to do. In your heart of hearts you knew this was the right thing to do.

     “John,” he said again. “Thank you. For everything. For every single second,” Dave said to you. He reached out with his too solid hands and clasped yours with both of his, giving them a squeeze. He was cool to the touch, like weather worn fleshy marble. When you didn’t squeeze back, he released your hands in favor of hugging you tight around the middle, nuzzling his face against the side of your neck like a cat seeking somewhere warm to perch and snuggle.

     “Why are you thanking me for that?” you asked. Fuck, you were crying. You could feel the snot running down your throat already, the tears stinging your eyes. “I love you, Dave. I only did what I’ve done because I love you.”

     “...I love you too, John Egbert” he said, and you knew in your heart of hearts that he meant it.

     Finally remembering that you could lift your arms, you clung tight to him, digging your fingers into the fabric of his shirt as if it would anchor him in place and keep him from going anywhere. You hiccuped for breath, head spinning. Too much was happening at once.

     “Am I going to see you again?” you asked. “You’d know better than me, right? I will, won’t I?”

     “John..” Dave said softly, not answering the question. It wasn’t helping the panic or the sadness ripping your heart in half.

     “Tell me!” you demanded. “This isn’t the end, is it? This isn’t happily ever after, I don’t accept it. We’ll be together again, right?”

     “Wait for me, John,” he said softly against your ear. The panic died as if it had never been there, so suddenly that your knees tried to give way. Dave held you tight and kept you upright, kept you from falling to the ground. In that brief moment, Dave was the rock and tether that you’d been for so long.

     “How long do I have to wait?” you asked, clenching your eyes shut to focus on everything you could while you could. His smell, the way his skin felt under his shirt, the way his hair felt against your neck. Things you had gotten hints of all this time, whispers of, but never anything this solid.

     It wasn’t fair.

     Why were you able to get everything you wanted right as it was leaving?

     “How long,” you croaked again, but Dave either didn’t have an answer or couldn’t answer. Instead, he looked towards the door of your room, watching it open on its own to display the hall to the living room. You could hear music playing distantly, and warmth of a summer that wasn’t there was coming in with the soft afternoon light. “Please. Please tell me. Dave, please, how long…”

     “You’ll know,” Dave finally said, giving another hard squeeze around your middle, hesitating leaving. Did he want to stay? Or was it just a residual tug of want? Who would give up their ever after just to stick around in someone’s necklace in an incorporeal state forever?

     Nobody. Not even you, not even for Dave, and you knew it even if you hated it.

     “When I come for you, I’ll have to whisper so you know it’s me,” he said quietly by your ear again. Only loud enough for you to hear, trying to burn the words into your memory. You’d know his voice when it was softer than when it was louder, it was true. He’d been a ghost so long, that whispery, barely there tone was what you expected every time you woke up or went to sleep.

     How were you could to live without that. 

     “Yeah. I’ll listen for you. I’ll listen for you every day,” you said. You didn’t need to promise. It’d be instinct by now, holding out hope that he’d come back.

     When Dave released your middle, he reached his hands up to clasp either side of your face so he could kiss you properly. Your teeth got in the way briefly, clicking together with his smaller straighter ones, but it didn’t deter him in the slightest from deepening the kiss almost immediately. You held your breath to make it last, taking a deep breath when he finally pulled back and took a step away.

     “I love you, John.” He said it again as if willing you to remember it. “I always will. Listen for me.”

     He turned and walked to the hall, towards the living room. The door suddenly slammed behind him, prompting you to unfreeze from position and rush forwards, yanking it open to the proper season and lighting that was meant to be there again.

     No Dave.

     Dave was gone.

     Your pendant was cool on your neck, the air of peace and nearly Heavenly compassion was in the room. Your house was cleansed and clear of all spirits, and rested empty and lifeless for the first time in decades. Everything was peaceful, except for the storm in your chest. You made your way to bed with the raglan shirt pressed to your chest and cried harder than you thought you ever had in your life. It was the same place Jade found you later. It was the same place you stayed for the better part of a week, grieving what you had.

     Love hurt, and life wasn’t fair, but you knew one thing at least: you loved Dave Strider, and you were waiting to hear his voice again. ...You also knew this wasn’t what he would have wanted.

     Life would have to go on, even if it felt like it shouldn’t.

- - - - - - - - - - - 

      Your name was John Egbert.

     You had been a leader in the field of parapsychology and the paranormal in general. Along with Jade Harley, you had made many advancements in the field of science along with your own research into spirits and their habits. You had worked together to make devices to track spirits voices, making the inaudible audible to the naked ear, you’d helped come up with ideas to further make the invisible visible. 

     You lived a good life. The classes at colleges you taught lectures at were always full to the brim with curious people, and the true believers were always excited to shake your hand. It was charming, really. An honor.

     Every day your routine had been the same, for decades now. Wake up, hold your pendant, and check for a voice. Always before bed, hold your pendant, check for a voice. There had been no voice, and so many times you’d wanted to give up listening, but you couldn’t help yourself.

     New loves had come and gone, nothing staying for very long. You were happy with your life, though. It was a fulfilling life full of good times and smiles and laughter. You hoped Dave could see some of what was happening to you, even if the machinery never picked anything up around you that had the same signature Dave used to have. No red mists, no impish blondes darting around rustling your papers. Just normal poltergeists and spirits stuck in their routines, the rare intelligent haunting that you could help find the light the same way you’d found Dave’s for him.

     You didn’t regret freeing him. 

     ...But fuck did you miss him.

     Your name was John Egbert not long ago.

     You’d gone to bed with an upset stomach and some tingling in your arms, deciding it was a leftover of the flu you’d had recently instead of anything to worry about. Early to bed, early to rise. Jade had a meeting planned in the morning, some new developments were underway to fine tune the audio scanner with some new technology that had recently been invented, something that would halve the size of the current devices and amplify their power by at least twofold. Couldn’t miss that.

     You lay down, clasped your pendant, and said Dave’s name like a prayer to ward away the boogeyman.

     Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray my ghost my soul to keep.

     Your chest felt kind of funny when you lay down and it felt harder to breathe, but nothing too dramatic. More flu shenanigans. Something felt.. ...Something felt... strange though.

     Your name was John Egbert.

     And then it wasn’t.

     You were laying still and watching the ceiling before sitting up, feeling ten times better than how you’d lain down earlier.

     “...John...”

     You froze and looked around.

     “Dave?” It had to be, that voice was familiar to you even after all this time. 

     “...John…”

     You got out of bed at a jump and paused, frowning. When had you last been able to do that? It’d been ages. Slowly, you looked back towards the bed where John Egbert lay still as if sleeping. 

     Your name used to be John Egbert, but you suppose it still is. You’re kind of new to this being dead thing. Were there two John Egbert’s now? The dead one and the more lively dead one? Was the soul still considered the same entity right now? So many questions from your research clouded your mind that your first instinct was to call Jade to discuss it with her, before you felt the touch to your shoulder. Spinning around, startled, you nearly slapped Dave in the face with a flailing arm.

     He smirked a bit.

     “John.”

     “Dave? ...Dave. Dave,” you said, voice breaking briefly before it came out as a croak. Ghosts could cry apparently. You didn’t feel the unpleasant sensation of breathlessness, but you could feel tears on your cheeks before laughing. “You asshole, you made me wait so fucking long.”

     “You were busy, thought I’d come back later when you could use a break,” Dave said, reaching up to grasp either side of your face, kissing you before you could think too hard on it.

     “Dave I’m. I mean I. But I. ….Oh God, Jade’s going to- Oh. ...Dave, oh my God I’m dead. Dave I died,” you said, staggering through the sudden wash of sorrow as it hit you. There was still so much to do, one life wasn’t enough for everything you had planned. “I never finished writing that piano piece, and Jade’s.. Fuck…”

     He held you as you processed things, letting your mind catch up. Letting you calm down. There was nothing but time now, wasn’t there? Or.. wait.

     “Am I… am I going to stay here as a ghost?” you asked, worrying. Were you going to be separated again? Was it your turn to exist in flux?

     “No. You get to come to the chill place, if you want. It’s pretty sweet. Bro was pretty shocked when he turned up too, but he wasn’t as up on shit as you are.”

     “If I want? I get to choose?”

     “For a bit. If you’ve got business left, I mean,” Dave said. “Like with Jade. ...Your Dad’s excited to see you again, too.”

     “Dad,” you said quietly. You’d been so focused on listening for Dave that you hadn’t even considered how big of a family reunion you were in for when you finally met your maker. Your Nana, your Dad, your aunt and uncle, your grandfather you’d never met. Hell, even Sassacre probably. 

     “How long do I have?” you ask, giving another look to the John on the bed. He seemed peaceful, relaxed. It’d been quick and painless.

     “Long as you need to finish up business,” Dave said. “...Should I amscray while you take care of shit o-”

     “Dave, if you disappear now of all times I’m going to figure out how to haunt people and haunt you till you die again.”

     “Okay, okay, shit, chill. I was just offerin’.” he said, tucking his hands into his pockets with a smile. “Want some company while you do errands?”

     “Yeah. I’d like that.”

 - - - - - - - - - - - - -

     Your name is Jade Harley, and man do your joints hurt, but the flowers aren’t going to tend themselves are they.

     You heft some of the potting soil into the pot and gently stroke it over the previously exposed roots of the flowering plant as if you were tucking in a baby. Next came the water, a steady shower from above till the soil was damp, and then came the time to heft everything to the other table.

     John’s funeral had been a month ago, and while you were still sad… you also knew better than to fret. For one, your research had calmed your thoughts to the beyond years ago already. Matter can neither be created nor destroyed. For another, getting to know more about Dave had been an adventure in your youth that shaped the entire world from scratch.

     For yet another, you got a personal goodbye from the John you used to know in your younger years, hand in hand with a pretty young blonde man you knew from a photograph and images on screens from early developed machines of your own creation.

     Sometimes, you could swear you still were being watched by the pair of them, but you were too lazy to go find your equipment to double check. What would you even be double checking? If he was having ghost makeouts or something?

     You wipe your brow and look over your work with a smile. The funeral home had given some depressing little potted plant, and a sickly looking tree sapling as a memorial. This was better by miles.

     “You see, John?” you said aloud to your guardian angel. “Perfect.”

     If you were John Egbert, you’d have to agree. It was a handsome plant in a handsome pot, and it would blossom like crazy because Jade was the one who’d tended it.

     But you’re not John Egbert.

     You are Jade Harley, and John Egbert’s story has ended, arm in arm with the spirit he’d been chasing for so long and finally caught.

[thankskenpenders]

So there’s this little cartoon you may have heard of...

As I’ve said on this blog before, I’d never watched all of SatAM. This might be shocking to hear from someone who runs a blog dedicated to Archie Sonic and one of the top twenty Bunnie Rabbot fangirls in the world. But it’s true.

SatAM was very difficult to track down compared to other Sonic cartoons when I was a kid, and I just never got around to watching it as an adult. So for the longest time, I had only ever seen the first episode, which I found uploaded in parts on YouTube in 2007. As the one cartoon featuring the characters I liked from the comics, it became sort of this holy grail of Sonic media for me as a kid, especially with people online always talking it up as the best thing ever and petitioning for a revival. Hell, to this day, a lot of people hold it up as this masterpiece and act like the Archie comics were a complete mockery of it

Anyway so I finally got around to watching the whole series with my boyfriend these past couple weeks, and it was pretty good. So instead of covering a comic today, here are some thoughts on the cartoon that started it all

General Thoughts

SatAM is a pretty good show. It isn’t the greatest piece of Sonic media ever, unlike what some older fans will tell you. It might not even be the best Sonic cartoon (you could easily make a case for the Japanese version of Sonic X, or Sonic Boom if you’re looking for something more comedic). It hasn’t aged the most gracefully, in some ways. The animation’s cheap, the stories sometimes bland. But for a DiC-produced video game cartoon from the early ‘90s, it’s really solid

I think that in many ways, SatAM is carried by the strength of its ideas over its actual execution. The darker, more serious tone is a really cool idea, even if at times it can get a little dull, and even if the show actually gets silly as hell pretty often. (This is a show where Snively literally tortures a captive Antoine by preparing French cuisine improperly.) That opening scene of Robotropolis in the first episode actually sets the mood really well and feels like it came straight out of some cyberpunk anime from the ‘80s or ‘90s. The concept of Robotnik turning people into robot slaves is really cool, even if surprisingly little was done with this aside from Uncle Chuck’s storyline. And I think the Freedom Fighters make a great supporting cast for Sonic, even if the writers didn’t use them to their full potential

Interestingly, I’d often heard from fans that season one was the stronger of the two, when I’d say that the opposite is true. Season one episodes were pretty samey, usually involving low stakes missions to Robotropolis with no real continuity, and Sally ended up being a damsel in distress more than I’d like--hell, so did Bunnie in a few episodes. It wasn’t bad, but it was highly repetitive, and I got a little bored at times. Season two had a few real stinkers (the Antoine episodes) and Dulcy was an unwelcome addition, but I thought the heavier focus on continuity gave the season some real momentum and more emotional weight, which made it way more enjoyable overall

Things I Liked

Sonic. I quite liked this version of Sonic, actually! Jaleel White is a great Sonic, and he was written pretty well. At times the extremely tubular ‘90s lingo was grating (I never wanna hear “Gotta juice!” again), but I was surprised to see that this version of Sonic had a lot of heart. He really cared about the well-being of his friends and Uncle Chuck, and they even let him cry a couple times. I thought they struck a good balance between snark and sincerity with him

Sally. I don’t think SatAM Sally was perfect, but I liked her. I’m still of the opinion that she should have been given more ways to defend herself physically (maybe some kind of power of her own) so that Sonic didn’t have to save her as much, but I liked the banter she and Sonic had. Unlike the early Archie comics, Sally doesn’t come off as the bossy girlfriend who ruins Sonic’s fun. Maybe it’s Jaleel White and Kath Soucie’s performances doing most of the work, but they had a fun back and forth dynamic, with Sally’s sarcasm keeping Sonic’s ego in check, but there still being clear chemistry between the two of them

I also liked the greatly reduced emphasis on her being a princess compared to much of Archie’s material. Like yeah, it’s there. Her dad’s the king, and left her some classified info via Nicole. But her status doesn’t really affect things much. They don’t talk about her having this grand destiny and being the next in line to rule. It’s clear that she’s in charge of the Freedom Fighters not because of her status, but because she’s smart, brave, and gets shit done. That’s the Sally I like.

Plus! In the finale, Sally insisted upon going with Sonic for the final confrontation, and was a crucial part of the climax. Her powering up with Sonic and matching his speed and strength ruled. Compare that to the climactic defeat of Robotnik in Archie, where she was fucking dead

Robotnik. I don’t think much needs to be said here. Jim Cummings rules as Robotnik, like everyone has always said. He’s just so evil and so much fun to watch

Snively??? I’ve never cared for Snively as a character, but Charlie Adler rules and his over-the-top performance made the character way funnier than he should’ve been. Just something about all the little noises he makes, and the way he almost shifts into the Red Guy voice at times

Nicole. It was fun to see Nicole start to get more of a personality in season two, having some banter with Sonic and also picking up some slang from him. It makes the later decision to turn Sally’s computer into a full character (which would have happened in season three, and obviously eventually became a big subplot in the comics) make a lot of sense

King Acorn. While he was only around briefly, I liked that he wasn’t a huge dick, unlike Archie’s King Max

Things I Didn’t Like

The misuse of the other Freedom Fighters. This is, by far, the show’s greatest crime.

I already write approximately 100k words a week on this blog about how I think Bunnie Rabbot is amazing and criminally underused, so I’ll keep this brief, but I was shocked to see how little she was used in this show. People tend to say Dulcy stole her screentime in season two, but she didn’t have much to do in the first season either! We somehow never got a single episode focusing on her. The one where she got temporarily deroboticized focused much more on Uncle Chuck. We never got to learn the story behind her roboticization, or delved into her feelings on the matter much. She mostly just served as a positive, lighthearted supporting member of the team who acts cute and gets some funny lines, but usually stays home

Antoine might have been even worse, honestly. Like, they used him so much! They had multiple episodes focusing entirely on him! And yet I’m not sure he ever really helped. Sonic and Sally kept taking him along, but every single time it felt like it would’ve been a wiser decision to bring Bunnie instead. The jokes about his broken English were just dumb, and god, the way he constantly hits on Sally and starts kissing her hand at the most inappropriate times is just SO fucking creepy. SatAM Antoine is just a horrible, one-dimensional stereotype. There’s a reason why readers of the Archie comics wanted him out of the series until later writers majorly rehabilitated him

Rotor also didn’t get much use, which was a shame, but it at least felt like he was used efficiently. I got the vibe that Rotor was much more bitter about the war with Robotnik than his friends, and it would’ve been interesting to see this explored more. At least we got that one fun episode where he went to space with Sonic

Dulcy. Oh my fucking god. I wanted to like Dulcy! I really did! But most of the time she was just a clutz used for comic relief, and they kept reusing the same joke where she crashed, bumped her head, got dizzy, and thought she was talking to her mom. This happened in almost every episode she was in.

The other miscellaneous Freedom Fighters. Like in the early Archie comics, none of the other miscellaneous Mobians they meet were as interesting as the core cast. They just always felt very bland and I was never as invested in them as the writers wanted me to be. Ari was boring, and that episode where they found the underground city and this other dude started hitting on Sally was a drag. Lupe’s cute though

Rings. This is a common problem in Sonic adaptations, but the fact that rings always serve as Sonic’s instant win button kind of sucks. Basically any time Sonic’s in a pinch, he pulls a ring out of his backpack, powers up, and wins. Not exactly a recipe for suspenseful action

Oh, also, I did kinda find it weird how much Sonic and Sally kissed? Like, all the time? Often while their friends just stand there and stare at them? Not something I’d expect from a Sonic cartoon

Things Archie Did Better

I’ll limit this to the first 50 issues or so, since I don’t think it would be fair to compare two short seasons of SatAM to the highlights of nearly 500 issues of comics

Tails. Tails is okay in SatAM, Archie just used him as Sonic’s sidekick way more. He was barely even in the show. Poor little guy only gets to play dirt hockey all day

Bunnie. Again, Bunnie was underutilized in both series, but the Archie comics did her better. They actually showed the story of how she got roboticized (even if it was a silly story), and they got to flesh her out a bit more. Gallagher showing that she was a carrot farmer before her roboticization and saying she wanted to be a hairdresser was at least something. And as I keep harping on, Rich Koslowski’s backup story in #37 where we find out Bunnie has recurring nightmares about her robot parts taking over and making her a threat to her friends? This single backup story did more to flesh her out than all 26 episodes of SatAM combined

Antoine. Not hard to do better than SatAM here, really. He was really bad early on, serving as little more than Sonic’s punching bag, but eventually they started to set up a romance between him and Bunnie and explored his past a bit, saying that Antoine’s father (his personal role model) was a member of the royal guard who was roboticized in the war. While he still had a long way to go, these were important first steps towards him being a decent character. Hell, these days, being Bunnie’s love interest is one of Antoine’s defining characteristics! And it doesn’t come from the cartoon at all

Roboticization in general. I was surprised how little this came up in the cartoon! In the comics, it’s such a central element. We see more of the heroes’ loved ones turned into robots, and we even got some fun stories where characters like Sonic and Sally were roboticized temporarily. The Freedom Fighters’ efforts to reverse the process was a major part of the plot for quite a while. Bunnie’s fear of losing control is a pretty important part of her character (even if it was only touched on briefly), and after they’re rescued, the rest of the Mobians fear that the “Robians” (including Sonic’s entire family) will turn evil again. It comes up a lot! There are interesting things to discuss here! But SatAM only really talks about Uncle Chuck. We never even see what happened to everyone else

Closing Thoughts

SatAM is not the best show in the world, but it is a solid and enjoyable one. It’s easy to see why people who grew up with it are fond of it, even if I think that it’s long past time certain fans quit acting like it’s the only valid take on the Sonic source material and petitioning for a third season. At the very least, the concepts and characters introduced here are strong ones, and it’s easy to see how they spawned over 20 years of comics exploring said ideas in greater detail. While I’m not sure I could recommend it to non-fans, I think it’s definitely worth checking out for Sonic fans who missed out on it (especially fans of the Archie comics)

Anyway I got to see Bunnie dropkick some Swatbots twice her height so I had fun

[haliora]

Why Do I Like You Again?

Rating: T

Characters: CorvinxNora; brief appearances/mentions of Spencer, Danny, William, Marc, Ally and Ewan

Word Count: 1179

Summary: Sometimes, Corvin does things that makes Nora exasperated. But at least they love each other, right?

Author’s Note: My brother was the inspiration for the things Corvin did in this fic. I’m not proud of this piece at all, but the premise is too good not to write. Is this crack fanfic? Because it feels like it.

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16603871

This was Nora’s fifth time watching the Snapchat that Corvin had sent her and she still was at a loss for words. The little video looped again, and she spent yet another five seconds staring at the shiny toaster and the scoop plate with a crow design on the Beltrans’ kitchen counter. She listened to the faint ticking noise and then the loud ding as the toaster spat out a piece of bread onto the plate.

This time, she noticed how the one of the corners of the toast hit the raised rim of the plate and then cartwheeled clumsily out of the plate completely. The camera quickly panned down to the floor, catching the trajectory of the toast as it landed squarely onto another identical crow design plate. Corvin’s hand entered the frame – Nora recognized it as his because of the blue scarf that dipped a little into view – and he grabbed the toast off the plate before angling the camera at his cheeky face as he winked and took a huge bite out of the toast.

And not a bite at the corner like a normal person. No, he took a chunk out of the side and sent crumbs everywhere.

She stared at the video some more before she tapped at the screen to clear away the video and then shoot him a quick reply: This is dumb. What was she supposed to even say? It was so random.

A few minutes later, he replied: Hehe! I got my first reply from you! It took about 20 minutes to set it up.

Nora facepalmed at her boyfriend’s antics and tried to suppress the smile threatening to take her face before pocketing the phone and heading downstairs to help with dinner duty.

That night, she received several text notifications from Corvin. The first text was a single line: A story in many parts. Below that message was a picture of a tray of cookies decorated to look like their friends and other members of the Paranormal Mysteries club. The next several pictures were those same cookies with huge bites taken out of the arms and legs. She noticed that not even Cookie Nora was spared from this fate.

The last attachment was a video where he staged little scenes of the ‘surviving’ cookie-versions of the club members mourning the ones that were ‘dead’. It was obvious Corvin found all of this very funny because underneath all the remarkably, uncanny voice acting – he was suppressing giggling fits based on how his shoulders were shaking.

There was only one appropriate response here.

She responded back: I’m going to throw you into a wall tomorrow.

Okay, he didn’t deserve to be thrown into a wall. Corvin just…needed to be…lightly smacked for being so silly…and morbid. Who would make cookies in the shape of friends and eat them?!

Seconds later, Nora had a reply from him: Ehhh?? But why?? ;A;

Well, he was just going to have to wait in suspense now, won’t he.

The next morning at school, Nora found out really fast that Corvin had sent the same messages to the other club members. Her first tip-off was when she caught sight of Spencer’s back just a few minutes before first period began. He was holding Corvin in a headlock. That was kind of impressive for Spencer considering his beanpole status. As she was about to make good on her own threat, he managed to squirm out of Spencer’s grasp and sped down the hall.

The rest of the day was chaotic. She would catch glimpses of the other club members cornering Corvin and thwacking him between classes, but he always got away before she could approach. Of course, there were also plenty of people, such as Danny and William, that were much too nice and polite to join in this weird, intense tag-combined-Whack-A-Mole. Some, such as Marc, were above such tomfoolery, ignored everyone and continued to sip at his fancy tea made of fancy water.

Ally was not above this game though, because she casted a reverse-movement hex on Corvin that lasted for thirty seconds. Apparently, left became right and forward became backward. In that span of time, he punched himself on accident. Nora was greatly disappointed that she was not around for this, but Ally promised her that the whole thing was very funny.

Once the last bell rang, the chase had died down significantly. No sign of Corvin though.

She rounded the corner just in time to see Ewan shoved her boyfriend into a locker and slam it shut. Ewan turned the other way, not noticing her at all, and stalked away. Nora approached the locker and noted that it wasn’t locked before opening the door.

“Nora!” he said excitedly. His arms twitched, and she stepped aside just in time as he fell out of the locker ungracefully. “Oofff!”

She rolled her eyes and offered him her hand. “What were you even thinking when you sent that message?”  

When he took her hand, she was expecting him to let go once he was back on his feet. That was not what happened. Corvin tugged her and she collided into his chest, becoming hyper-aware that his other arm was wrapped around her waist. He always did this when he wanted a kiss.  

“Well,” he began, pressing his forehead to hers, and Nora cursed her traitorous heart for pounding a little at the close-up view of his green eyes. “Everyone’s just been so tense lately from all the final exams. I thought I would cheer everyone up a little!”

She cleared her throat in an attempt to get a hold of herself, because dang it, that was super heartwarming. “And you didn’t think that…maybe not everyone would find mutilated cookie-versions of themselves funny?”

“I thought they would laugh a little at the very least!”

Okay, okay…the skit was kind of amusing. Not that she would admit that. But it was also super strange. And it was definitely stranger than giggle-inducing.

Corvin saw the skepticism on her face and laughed. “Ehehehe…I wasn’t expecting everyone to hit me, but at least they’re not tense anymore?”

“Yeah…” she said dryly and tried to extricate herself from his embrace. “But maybe you should rethink some of these ideas if you don’t want to get hit?”

“Nooooorrraaa!” Corvin angled her face toward his again. “It’s been four days since you kissed me. It’s awfully mean of you –”

She quickly pecked his lips before darting away, laughing loudly. It was done on the spur of the moment, but it was gratifying to take Corvin by surprise for once, judging by his widened eyes.  

“Wah – that’s cheating!” He reached for her again, but she ducked under his arms. Embarrassingly, she almost ran into the lockers on the other side. Good grief, his klutziness better not be contagious.

“I don’t know about this…should I really kiss you after you do something dumb?” She smirked. “That would be a terrible influence on you.”

Without another word, Nora ran down the hall, laughing as he chased after her.

[crazypercheron]

The Haunted Manse

Foreword

I’m restless right now, so I decided I might as well start finally typing up my silly fanfiction that I have been working on since *squints at date on note book* the 24th of May, holy smoke has time gone by fast! And with time, the story actually dramatically changed not even halfway through the beginning so things are a bit off kilter I’ll admit but heck it, buckle up because you are going in for one heck of a dumb ride (just like the manor itself). I’m not a proficient writer I’ll admit and I do not claim to be one, but this fan fiction is only just for fun and for my reading enjoyment so if you find the fiction hard to read or just simply do not like the direction the story is going, sorry but I’m just going to have my fun. Besides, there are other extremely talented people out there who have written Haunted Mansion fan fiction better than I can so please go read and support their works of fiction instead of wasting energy to bash on my fun side project.

Anyways, I am going to base this Mansion off of the Original one at Disneyland with some hints of the other mansions tossed in with it, but appearance wise it is the one in California. Now this is my interpretation of the story with what little information I have, it will be based off the book The Unauthorized Story of Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion by Jeff Baham (Which I thought is a good read if you are interested in the story of the Making of the ride, not actually the story of the ride itself) as well as some information from awesome members of this fandom, I seriously love your guys works and major thanks to especially @asktheghosthost for allowing me to borrow their interpretation of, well, The Ghost Host. 

This is a muse/self insert fan fiction with my interpretation of Foxy the Pirate being an animatronic possessed by the spirit of a child since, well, there’s admittedly not that much information to what kind of character Foxy is -like is he a rival to Freddy or a friend?- and as morbid as it is, I’ve always actually liked the idea of a ghost helping a mortal out and following them around. Back then I use to watch a lot of those Ghost Adventure like shows and thought it’d be cool if like a Victorian era ghost follows and helps ghost hunters communicate with spirits and solve like murder mysteries and such. I should also warn you, the main character does not step foot in the mansion until Part 2, so if you want to get straight to the Mansion stuff, uhh, just wait until then. Anyways, enough with the rambling, I’ll post more later thoughts on future ‘Author’s Notes’, lets get on with the fiction.

Warning: Some strong language ahead

The Haunted Manse Part I

Chapter 1

Her boots pounded hard on the carpeted hallway as she rushed to find a place to hide. Anywhere in this contorted house. Despite a row of doors on either side of her flying past, Wren knew it was much more wise to run than to stop and waste precious time trying to open up one of those doors. Most commonly they were either locked forever to time or if they were left unlocked, they revealed nothing more than another corridor or that blasted wallpaper of the house. Besides, she had a destination in mind and she’d be damned if she allowed it to get any further. 

Finally reaching the door at the end of the corridor, Wren threw herself into the door and fumbled for the key in her pocket, not daring to look back as she could hear the crazed laughter coming for her, literally flying down the hallway. She cursed as the brass key fell from her grasp but snatched it up in her other hand and proceed to shove it back into the key hole.

Rusted with age, or perhaps with the magic of this damn mansion, the key protested with a squeal as she turned to unlock the door. The key was turned, but a lip on the deadbolt caught the door frame, preventing it from opening. Frantic, Wren tried rattling the door, casting a glance over her shoulder to see the eerie blue specter rush in for the kill. His cutlass raised high above his head.

With a crack of distant lightning, the sword swung down at her.

Suddenly her phone rang loudly, rattling the the brunette from her reading. Holding the town magazine in one hand, Wren reached into her bag and dug around until she grabbed her cellphone, answering it. With the blaring J-Pop ringtone silenced, Wren could hear a mechanical whirl over her shoulder, but she ignored it.

“Hello sir?” she answered.

“Songbird,” the gruff voice answered on the other end. “Good morning, just calling to check to see if you have gotten that email about your new job assignment?”

“Is it another pizzaria?” she joked, placing the magazine facedown to ‘bookmark’ her place to free up her hand to grab her cup of coffee.

The man chuckled. “No, at least, not for a while anyways since that Fazbear Pizzeria had closed down for good and no one is looking to hire any more security. So sorry Wren, no free pizza for you.” The voice continued, “Anyways, your new job assignment is at a memorial park. The last guard quit just a few days ago.”

Wren rolled her eyes. “I thought so, though let’s be honest, you sending me into a different county I think is worse than working at a cemetery,” she sighed into her cup. While the email didn’t named the new job location, it did provide an address to which she googled online. “Let me guess, ghosts scared him off?”

“There’s that, and apparently he had discovered that he had a paralyzing fear of dead bodies,” he added.

“What is it with you assigning me to places that are haunted? You think I’m some sort of ghost expert or something?” Wren laughed, “You know I have necrophobia as well, Bob.”

“Don’t worry, you’re not going to be assigned to the morgue if that is what you are afraid of,” Bob assured her, “We just need someone to just drive around the park, you know, make sure all the mausoleums are locked at dusk, and -uh- chase away any hooligans that this it’s funny to drink and drive on -uh- Gravity Hill.”

“So I’m working the night shift? Fun.”

“Someone has to, last month someone tried to steal an urn from the Lilac Mausoleums. They broke the glass to the case but luckily it was cemented to the wall.”

Wren frowned, “Ouch, someone actually tried to do that?”

“Well,” Bob said, “It’s not so much as the cremains they were after, err- rather it was the urn itself. Lilac Mausoleum is one of the oldest crypts, like -uh- a century old or so, I think. Back then, they prided themselves in art so that urn is nothing but pure bronze. Already the crypt vases for the -er- flowers have been taken to be melted down for money by thieves.”

“Oh, that sucks, but it does make sense.” She could picture a cat burglar with a black mask on making off the property with a bag full of loudly clanking brass crypt vases. 

Bob continued, changing his voice tone to change the subject, “But the park has added security cameras to the entrance and finally some bars on top of the display window so you’re just going to be doing patrol duty is all. Mostly at . . . uh,” he paused as Wren could hear him shuffling through paperwork, and shuffle back a few pages when he remarked, “Had the info right here, ah found it. Yes, they are hiring the extra guard to watch over Canson Cemetery. Apparently Floral Estates has noticed that there’s been an increase of trespassers.” 

By now, Wren had the phone on speaker and laid it on the table, picking up her knitting to keep her hands busy. She was used to Bob’s excessive conversation and wondered how the other employees managed to listen to him ramble on for hours. The again, there had always been, without fail, a vacancy or two in the company now that Wren was thinking about it.

“When questioned upon being detained, the security guards noted that they have video cameras and the trespassers -uh- have admitted to trying to film a ghost or some paranormal event for their UView channels,” Bob had said.

“Oh yeah, I was just reading about it just now,” Wren chimed in, picking up the magazine she had forgotten on the table to read the previous article. “Yeah, right here, it says ‘Canson Cemetery rings in another century of Ghost stories.’“

“That’s it, but it seems they want to actually -uh- get into the mansion next door. But the cemetery is much more easier to access since it’s open to the public.”

Wren paused for a moment. “The what now?”

“A mansion. It’s a real nice looking house, too bad it was the scene of an awful murder, but I suppose the long history behind it may be enticing to some paranormal hunters as well. Anyways, we’ll talk more later.” As if he sense that Wren wanted to ask him something, he also added, “And yes, you can bring your robot with you. You will be working at night, so not many people will see him anyways.”

“Alright, thank you, Bob. I’ll make sure to get there on time then since you send me so dang far away. Alright good bye.” The security guard pouted slightly after she hung up, leafing through the pages of the magazine. “Mansion? How rich are these people there?” Not a few pages in, Wren finally found the grand house she assumed her boss was speaking of.

It is indeed a nice house, painted white with beautiful scroll ironwork balconies and at the entrance stood four tall columns that reminded her of a Greek temple. Mechanical servos whirled again lightly behind Wren and she could sense that the robot behind her was trying to look at the magazine as well. “I think this is it, Foxy. It says here . . .” she skimmed the paragraphs briefly, “Yup, ‘Site of unsolved death, but the steward of the home, Eugene Davis, has refused to comment about the story of the house. . . While the home appears immaculately clean on the outside, residents as well as visitors to Canson Cemetery report eerie energy that radiates from the mansion.’” 

The animatronic fox let out a huff. Wren agreed, “Well yeah, no duh, they’re in a graveyard. ‘Some people believe that the murder cursed the house. Jerry, who is a gardener at Canson, said “Yeah, I’ve worked here since ‘94. . . There’s also a private cemetery on that property. I don’t understand how that guy and his coworkers deals with the creeps”. . .’ And just a bunch of dudes talking about hearing screams at night and seeing . . .” Wren had to not only reread the last sentence, but she even held it up to her eyes to make sure she was reading it correctly. “. . . And seeing what appears to be ghosts standing by the road sticking out  thumb as if asking to hitch for a ride?’ OK, that’s a load of bull.”

However, Foxy continued to stare at the photo, as though he vaguely remembered it from somewhere before.

Deciding to arrive early, Wren’s tiny car pulled up into the newer addition of the cemetery. The office building and morgue sat in the same asphalt parking lot she was parked in.

Floral Estates Memorial Park had to be one of the largest cemetery in not only Canson, but rather the entire state of California. While the corporate name is fairly new, there had always been cemetaries that dotted the immediate hill area, with Canson being the oldest. But eventually when Floral Estates was established about 100 years ago, they took in a lot of the older and more historical plots under their care and just expanded their property from there.

The Sun was still hanging over the horizon, but she could see a security truck pull out of the back of the employee lot and start driving towards the park. No doubt they were getting a head start in going to the far back of the cemetery to clear out the visitors before the sunset. Wren sat back in her car, pulling out a burger from a paper fast food bag and took out her phone too.

The large, furry red fox was also sitting in the back of the car, his yellow eye that was not hidden under an eyepatch gazed out the car window to observe the people getting into their cars and leaving the park. Wren paused her internet browsing as she glanced back up at the corporate office as she realized something. She lifted her phone up to take a photo of the Floral Estates building in front of her car then proceed to post the photo on her social media profile, captioning the photo, “That awkward moment you’re eating lunch in front of a building full of dead people.” She smirked to herself. Though who were the dead people? The cadavers or the employees themselves? she thought to herself.

Suddenly, Foxy’s ears perked up and he lifted his head slightly, the movement caught Wren’s attention. An older man had parked his truck the next car over to Wren’s car, but as he got out and walked over to her he waved. “Ey, Wren, good to see you again.”

Aw crap, she thought, I forgot he worked here too. She put on a big smile on her face as she opened the door. “It’s good to see you too, Dale,” Wren answered back, stuffing her unfinished burger into the bag and got out of the car. “So you’re going to be my tour guide for tonight I take it?”  Wren felt slightly embarrassed that she forgot that he still worked for the company. Perhaps she could lie that she lost his contact number if he asked why she didn’t stay in contact with him, though she prayed that he wouldn’t.

“Something like that,” he replied with a shrug, “Hello to you too, Foxy. Say, no Skye?”

“Not tonight,” balancing the drink and bag in one hand, Wren opened the door for Foxy to climb out, then shut and locked the car. “I heard there was coyotes and mountain lions here, so I didn’t want her chasing them thinking she could be friends with them.

The mustached man nodded. “And wolves too, yeah, Foxy could handle them I bet. So you’re going to be with me and I’ll show you the lock up procedures. It’s very simple, just walk through the mausoleums, remind any visitors still hanging about that we are closed, then you lock the doors and that’s it.” Dale continued on as the three climbed into the truck, “And then after that, you just drive around for the rest of the shift and the morning crew will open up. I’ll show you around the park where you will be working at. It’s got a nice view of the valley.”

Some of the polished black headstones that laid on the ground caught a glint of sunlight, making the green hills glitter in gold as they drove by on the winding steep roads of the park. The thicket of trees cast long, dark shadows on the hill as they finally reached the crest and just as Dale said, it was a lovely view of Canson and perhaps all of Secret County below them. 

“Alright, this is your first stop. I like to start here, you get a good view of the lawn to see if there’s any visitors still remaining,” Dale started, getting Wren’s attention. “It’s a big mausoleum, but you just have one hallway you go straight down and that’s it.”

“And if , by the off chance, there’s someone who refuses to leave?”

“Eh, you just call one of us and we’ll come over. Jeff is usually close by. His lawn is Peony Peace lawn. Plus he claims that he has a good view of the lawns,” Dale replied, leading Wren and Foxy up to the entrance of the Mausoleum and held the glass door open for them to enter. 

It was one of the modern mausoleums, with floor to ceiling glass windows at the entrance and surrounding the columbariums. Through the glass windows, Wren could see the urn niches, some of them stuffed with photos of the deceased person inside propped up among stuffed animals, others with marathon or military medals proudly on display, and some with rosaries of their respective religion surrounding the urns. Soft piano music was playing over the speakers, but it wasn’t enough to drown out the sound of Foxy’s mechanical gears grinding and moving his legs forward. 

As the trio passed the first hall though, Wren felt a chilly breeze blew past them. She swore she heard a chuckle, like the voice was . . . . amused at seeing Foxy since it sounded like it was directed towards the robot. “What did you say, Dale?”

“Hmm?” he looked over at Wren, “I didn’t say anything.”

Wren looked up at the speakers; they were still playing soft classical music, so doubtful that they made that strange sound too. “Sorry, must have heard the music.”

Finally securing all the mausoleums, Dal brought Wren back to the Main parking lot where her car was, the Sun had fully set beyond the horizon and was giving way to the silver glow of the moon and the orange lamps of the streetlights. 

“And that’s about it,” he finished, putting the truck in park. “Then sometimes, I sit out here. . . Make sure no one tried to climb over the fence. But you can drive around and I’ll let someone else watch it for you.”

“I’ll do the watch, it gives me time to finish knitting this sweater I’ve been working on,” she offered, getting out of the car. “Thanks for showing me around, Dale. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“No problem! You be careful driving home, say hi to your dad for me!”

“Will do! Come on Foxy.” Foxy, who was now sitting in the bed of the truck, rose up and hopped over the side of the truck, making it rock from the sudden lack of weight as he made his way over to join Wren’s side. “Say, Dale, I forgot to ask,” Wren started when she paused her walk over to her car. “Is it true? I mean, I heard that there’s like this . . . mansion that people have been trying to get into?”

Dale rubbed his chin, “Mansion? Oh yeah, there is this mansion-er I believe it’s called Hightower Manor? Yeah, it’s over there west of this road. . .” He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Say, you’re not trying to get inside too, are ya?”

She shook her head, “Oh no-no, it’s not that, I heard that is why I was assigned here. To help with the increase of trespassers here trying to get into that manor?”

“Hmm, yeah that's true. But I’ve seen these ‘ghost hunter’ trespassers in all the lawns and even properties I’ve worked at,” he shrugged, “That mansion is no different than the cookie factory I worked at before it got closed down for that shopping mall. Besides, it looks quite nice and there’s people who live there so I don’t think there’s nothing to worry about. Give it a year, people will forget about it and go elsewhere.”

“Right, well, it’s getting very late-I mean, early morning. Thank you again for showing me around,” Wren interrupted as she pulled back her sleeve on her jacket to dramatically look at her watch. It was only 1:30 in the morning, she had gone to bed on work nights way later than that, besides even on days off she would stay up almost all night long. Of course, now she had Foxy to blame, ever since the pizzeria had closed down sooner than scheduled, Wren was allowed to take Foxy’s internal hard drive from his old and heavily rusted animatronic body and replaced into a new animatronic frame. Needless to say, it was not a cheap thing to do and sometimes as Wren could hear him stalking around the house, she wondered if she had made a mistake bringing him home.

“Of course, I’ll get the gate for you.” He pulled away to park next to the gate as Wren helped Foxy get into the car. As she took her seat in the driver’s side, Wren looked over at the huge robot crouched in her backseat.

“What do you think? Should we drive by? Just to take a peek?” Foxy furrowed his brows and frown. Turning the key, Wren tried to convince him, “Oh, come on, I’m not going to stop, we’ll just drive by. Besides, Tasty Burger is in that direction I believe.” If he could sigh, surely he didn’t need to do so audibly as Foxy’s shoulder sloped down as if he did sighed and rolled his eyes in defeat. “Thanks Foxy-Loxy, you’re the best.”

The car puttered off of the cemetery lot and turned left on the road. Streetlights were placed so far apart, most of the road was almost pitch black with trees and bushes heavily lining one side of the road opposite of the cemetery property. No doubt it was to try to block the homeowners’ view of the cemetery and reminder of the inevitable just across the street. Soon the rolling tall hills with glinting flat headstone markers gave way to the taller, much more impressively ornate headstones and monuments that glowed an haunting white aura under the pale light of the moon and streetlamps. 

Finally, a tall brick wall severely cut off the field of tombstones and it was replaced with a huge lawn of grass, pruned shrubbery and trees. Wren slowed her car down to a coast and both she and Foxy craned their heads to get a look. There, sitting atop a hill as it almost on cue sat the mansion.

It appeared to be a fairly large home instead of the much giant castles that Hollywood stars of now live in, but this was surely the same home, Wren recognized the four distinct pillars that marked the entrance of the home. Unable to see much of the home due to how strangely dark the property was, Wren frown. “Hah, well Foxy, that was anticlimactic-”

She gasped as she turned her attention to the road. Wren slammed on the brakes and swerved into the next lane, then fishtailed back into her original lane before, with tires screeching, her car took a skidding slide across the entire road and finally came to a skidding halt in the shoulder of the opposing traffic lane. Thank God she was the only one in the road, she thought to herself, feeling her body running ice cold with the sudden adrenaline spike surging through her, gripping the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip.

Once the car had came to a complete stop, Foxy lift his head from his brace position and leered at Wren. She took noticed in the rear view mirror. “Hey now, don’t give me that look, Foxy! I just saw someone close to the street!”  

The petite woman placed her car in park and staggered out of the vehicle. She cursed under her breath as she walked over to the street, shining her flashlight down the road. “Alright jerk, where the hell. . . are . . . you?” Wren swept the light side to side down the road, but all she saw was the tire marks on the road that emitted the smell of burning rubber still. A glint suddenly flashed in the shadow of the bushes, making her step back. “What the-?”

“Miss! Hey, miss!” a voice called from behind. Wren turned to see she had stopped her car next to the gated entrance of none other than that of the grand house. There on the other side of the gate was an elderly-looking man, white hair stuck out in wild tufts from underneath his cap. He wore a green scarf around his skinny neck and his clothes and jacket just seem to hung off his hunched frame like it was one size too large for the man. “Are you alright? I-I heard the sound so I came over to see if I could help,” he stammered.

“I’m fine, just. . . just almost hit a deer or something,” she lied, looking over her shoulder at where the flashlight had caught that glint. whatever it was, it was gone now. She approached the man at the gate, getting a good look at his appearance and noticed he looked quite unnaturally gaunt. His cheeks sunken in his face and in his right hand, he held aloft an old-fashion oil lantern.

He sighed in relief. “Good, well I’m glad you are OK, miss. The roads are quite dangerous if you are not careful.”

“I now see that they are. Umm, thank you sir for checking on me, I’ll be leaving then.”

“Oh, alright,” the man said, watching her go back to her car. As Wern opened the door, he quickly called out, “You be careful now!” Wren gave him a wave as she reversed her car off the grassy shoulder and, once she was clear that no cars were coming down the road her way, drove back over to her side of the road. The mansion slowly fading from her view and into the darkness.

A few more seconds of feeling Foxy’s gaze of concern on the back of her head got Wren to finally answer him. “Yeah, I’m not really feeling like burgers tonight. Let’s . . .  Let’s just go home, Foxy.”

[iwrotemywayto-revolution]

If you love someone

Request: You’re dating Daveed and playing Eliza, and Lin is pining for you like nobody’s business.

Pairing: Lin-Manuel Miranda x reader, Daveed Diggs x reader

Warnings: piiiiining, drunkenness 

Word count: 2,187

A/N: let’s hear it for day five (sorry it’s published on day six because life got in the way) of the @hamwriters​ writeathon... also known as “reverse pov” day. title from the Sting song “if you love somebody set them free”

@gonnamurderyou​, @pearltheartist​, @whitestorm547​, @pancakebunny

--

Lin didn’t fall in love with you right away. When you auditioned for the ensemble, he was pleased with your skills and your potential. When you became fast friends with everyone and started to turn up in whatever dressing room the cast was crashing in during the afternoon, he laughed and got to know you. When you became the alternate for the Schuyler sisters, he was a little nervous, but you never seemed to be needed on the nights he was there.

When Pippa decided to take a month off, making you the full-time Eliza, he realised he was screwed.

The night of the first performance, Lin was uncharacteristically nervous. Groff sauntered into his room about an hour before places, most of his costume on though his hair was still brown and loose. “Hey,” he grinned and flopped on Lin’s couch, “you look nervous.”

“No more than usual,” Lin insisted, gaze fixed on the video game he was playing. Groff picked up a controller and joined in, a little player two has entered the game notification flashing at the corner of the screen.

Groff smoothly vaulted over an obstacle and grabbed the coins stashed there. “Is it Y/N?” he asked conversationally. Lin promptly dropped his control. He scrambled for it, swearing as his character was killed. Groff laughed, “How apt.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Lin said resolutely, quickly regenerating his character. His slight blush gave him away and Groff smirked triumphantly.

“Someone has a cru-ush,” he said in a sing-song voice. Lin shoved him lightly.

“I do not have a crush,” he said, “Crushes are for high-schoolers.” He just enjoyed your company, had grown used to having you curled up in a corner, reading or chatting. You were kind and funny and of course he liked you. Just not like that, right?

--

It wasn’t until Helpless that Lin realised exactly how wrong he was. You were captivating. He found it difficult to concentrate on Renee at all when you were there, staring back at him with adoration in your eyes. He had to keep reminding himself that he it was just good acting and that needed to concentrate before he found himself messing up Alexander’s smooth flirtations.

You looked at him like he was the sun, and he found himself wishing he could pretend, just for a moment, that you meant it.

“Elizabeth Schuyler,” you curtsied, “It’s a pleasure to meet you?”

“Schuyler?” Lin was supposed to look at Renee but he couldn’t take his eyes off you.

Renee laughed, “My sister!”

He bent to kiss your hand. “Thank you for your service,” you said as he straightened. 

“If it takes fighting a war for us to meet, it will have been worth it.” He extended an arm to you. You took it and the two of you moved into the dance.

The wedding march started playing and Lin’s heart was thumping painfully loudly. Oak walked down the aisle and tossed his flower petals and you sang your final “helpless”. Lin moved forwards and gently kissed you. He felt hyper aware of your hands in his, the slight brush of the veil against his face, and the fireworks display behind his eyes.

He was in love. As the lights dimmed, he decided to ask you out after the show.

The transition to Satisfied started and you moved away. Lin focused on getting into place, one arm around your waist. In a moment he would kiss you again, he realised. Your emotions were so rawly presented in your acting and the kiss- as staged as it was- had felt real. It had felt so natural to cup your cheek, pull you to his side, look down at you as if you were his world.

Rewind, rewind-

The stage started to rotate and Lin readied himself to go through it all again.

--

After the show he changed into a comfy pair of jeans,a t-shirt, and his favourite hoodie. He hurried downstairs, hoping to catch you before you went to the stage door. 

When he arrived, you were talking to Daveed. Swallowing his disappointment, Lin pretended to be looking for his phone until Daveed grinned and left to stage door. “Hey Y/N,” he said, going for a casual tone but knowing he probably sounded anything but, “you doing anything after we stage-door?”

You looked around, checking to see if anyone else had made it downstairs yet. “Lin,” you whispered, unable to contain your excitement, “Daveed just asked me out!”

His heart sank. "That's great!" He managed to say. He should be happy for you, he knew- you looked happy, grinning and all but dancing around the room- but bitterness had settled in his stomach.

He was too late. Daveed had got there first. A small part of him hoped it wouldn't last. The rest of him reminded him to be happy for you and Daveed.

--

Three weeks later, you and Daveed were still dating. Most days, you were Lin's Eliza for a tantalizing two hours. The rest of the time, you were as distant as the stars.

Daveed was affectionate- pulling you to his side, kissing your forehead, your hands, your cheeks, your lips. Even when you weren’t together, he talked about you with a fond smile, writing rap verses about you between shows. 

Lin resigned himself to a broken heart and tried not to dwell on every moment where he got to hold you, kiss you, and pretend you were his and he was yours.

--

In March, the whole cast got together to celebrate Groff’s birthday. Everyone gathered on the roof of the Richard Rogers, thankful that the weather was warm, and ate and drank.

Lin sat with Chris. “You alright, man?” Chris asked, passing him a beer.

“Hmm?” Lin asked, gaze still on where you and Daveed were dancing in the middle of the makeshift dance floor, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Chris followed Lin’s gaze, understanding dawning. “You’ve got to move on,” he said sympathetically, “Y/N and Diggs are happy.”

Lin avoided answering by taking a swig of beer. He knew he had to move on, he had tried- fuck, had he tried. But every time he thought he might be able to move on, he would go onstage as Alexander and fall in love with his Eliza all over again or you would tell him a silly joke or start dancing to your favourite song backstage.

As the evening went on, Lin got progressively drunker. Chris had left at some point- his wife wanted him home a bit earlier- and Lin had been reduced to leaning on Leslie.

“I don’t think you should have any more,” Leslie said firmly, pulling the shot out of Lin’s grip. “Why don’t you go and lie down in your room?”

Lin nodded distractedly but did as Leslie had suggested. He headed down the stairs, pausing in the common room when he saw you. You were sitting on the table, legs swinging, quietly singing Helpless as you typed on your phone.

“S’beautiful,” Lin said and you looked up, pausing your singing.

“Hey Lin,” you smiled and your smile was like the song, “you alright?”

He nodded and walked over to you, leaning against the table beside you. He was drunk, he knew, but the nerves that he usually experienced when talking to you were gone, so it wasn’t so bad, really.

“You’re lovely,” he sighed, leaning his head on your shoulder, “my ‘Liza.” You laughed and Lin sat up. “Do that again?” he asked.

“What?” you asked, confused.

“Your laugh,” Lin gestured vaguely, “it’s nice.”

You hopped down off the table and extended a hand to Lin. “Come on,” you said, “lets get you home.”

Lin took your hand and let you guide him into his jacket and then out to a taxi. He leaned heavily against you. You got into the taxi and gave the driver Lin’s address, helping Lin guide the seatbelt into the buckle. 

--

He must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew you were helping him out of the taxi and into the apartment building. “Where’s your key?” you asked gently. Lin stuck his hand into his pockets and handed you a pencil, a crumpled up piece of paper, his subway pass, and finally his keys. 

“Here,” he said proudly as you set to unlocking the door. His apartment was dark, largely unfurnished because, even after a few months, he was mostly living in the theatre. 

You helped him to bed, finding his pyjamas as Lin kicked off his shoes and threw his coat over a hook by the door. He headed through and flopped on the bed, on top of the covers. You laughed. “Lin,” you complained, “you have to get under the covers.”

Lin’s only response was a groan, but he let you prod him until he got into bed properly. You disappeared into the kitchen before returning with a glass of water and a tylenol. “Take this in the morning,” you advised, “sleep well.”

As you turned to go, Lin reached for you hand. “Stay-” he insisted, tugging you weakly.

“I can’t,” you said, trying to make him let go.

He wasn’t sure what made him say it, but he held on and said “I love you”.

You were silent for a moment, your expression unreadable. “Don’t,” you said quietly, your eyes closed. You pulled out your phone. You typed something out and clicked send, “you don’t mean that.”

“Do,” he insisted stubbornly, “lots. Wish you were my ‘Liza.”

You sat down on the edge of the bed. “Go to sleep, Lin,” you said quietly, “I’ll stay.” He loosened his grip on your hand and closed his eyes. The last thing he felt before he fell asleep was the feeling of your fingers running gently through his hair.

--

When Lin woke up in the morning he had a pounding headache and you were gone. He wandered around the apartment to make sure, mentally berating himself for telling you he loved you. You were happy with Daveed- you didn’t need him getting in the way.

Lin ran a hand through his hair, remembering you doing the same the night before. He was an idiot. A glance at the clock revealed that he needed to get going if he wanted to make it to rehearsal on time.

Andy wanted to run through some changes in the choreography for Yorktown, and it was all hands on deck. You would be there, he realised, and so would Daveed.

--

“Good work,” Andy said approvingly. Everyone grinned and started to put away their bayonets. Andy spotted Lin and called to him, “Hey Lin? Can we run It’s Quiet Uptown while we’re here?”

He nodded distractedly, looking around for you. When he had arrived, anxious to apologise to you, you had been nowhere to be seen. 

“Looking for Y/N?” Renee asked, appearing at his side, one eyebrow raised. Lin nodded, wondering how she was always so good at guessing, “I heard about last night.”

“You did?” his voice seemed higher than usual and, if her smirk was anything to go by, Renee had noticed.

“So you love her,” she said, smirk settling into something more sympathetic. Lin nodded hopelessly. Renee hugged him briefly before heading to places. Lin headed to stand in the centre of the turntable, waiting for you to come and stand beside him.

Renee started to sing “There are moments that the words don’t reach-” and Lin found himself hoping for your forgiveness himself.

When he started to cry at the end and you were to reach for his hand, Lin wondered if you would. But your hand slipped into his and you rested your head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” Lin whispered as Renee finished the song.

You squeezed his hand. Lin hoped that meant he was forgiven. 

--

He was just grabbing a couple of things from his room when you knocked hesitantly on the door and walked in. “Hey Lin?” you asked.

Lin turned his head so quickly he cricked his neck. He winced and rubbed at it. “Yeah?”

“About last night...” your hands were in your pockets and your gaze firmly on the floor.

Lin gulped. “I’m sorry,” he blurted, wanting to hug you in apology but realising that might be a little weird. “I didn’t want to-”

“I know,” you said. You pushed your hair out of your eyes- you had been saying you needed a haircut- and met Lin’s gaze. “Look,” you said firmly, “maybe there was a time where I felt... like that.”

Disappointment settled like a stone in Lin’s stomach. So he had been too late. “You did?” he knew he sounded hopeful. How had he missed any inkling that you might have felt the same?

“I did,” You took a deep breath. “But not any more. I’m with Daveed now and, whatever this is, it needs to stop.”

Lin nodded. “Friends?” he suggested, feeling almost scared. He couldn’t lose you- not now, not ever. Not his Y/N, not his Eliza. Except that you weren’t “his” Y/N.

You nodded, looking relieved. “Yeah,” you grinned, “Friends.” You hugged Lin tightly and Lin closed his eyes and hugged you back.

It would be enough.

[sambart93]

2017.02.14 Messiah: Akatsuki [Review]

Yesterday I spent valentine’s day watching a stage series that I completely fell into last summer! While I was super pissed and skeptical of this installment of the stage - due to favourite characters (Amane, Misu, Shuuto’s) and actors NOT coming back (Takaki, Nakamura, Shuuto, Hirose Daisuke, Naoya) this installment, and also some announcing that the next installment after this one would be their last (Amane/Takaki, Misu/Nakamura) - I went in with an open mind and was ready to accept whatever they were gunna send at me. And I did. Lets see how that went shall we?

Official Site Here Official Twitter Here Dress Rehearsal Video Here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

CAST/CHARACTERS

Akazawa Tomoru as Shirasaki Mamoru Izawa Yuki as Ariga Ryou Sugie Taishi as Kagami Itsuki Nagae Ryouki as Miike Mayo Yamaoki Yuki as Yugi Kotarou Hashimoto Shinichi as Kugure Jun Asato Yuya as Doctor Ten Otsuka Kosuke as Doctor Three Ito Kotaro as Amane Gwen Shougo Yamada James Takeshi as Salut Araki Kentaro as Kumoi Ren / Cheka Kotani Yoshikazu kuroko / Momose Tatara Nakahara Yuya as Ichijima Harumi Osumi Kenya as Shikura Kazuhito

Ensemble: Hosokawa Akihiro, Kitamura Kai, Uraie Kenji, Hisada Yuki, Sugiura Yuichi, Ishigami Ryuya, Sakamoto Kazuki

STORY

Kaito Yuri has gone missing and it seems like he might have not only betrayed Sakura but also Mamoru. But Mamoru stays strong that Kaito isn't a bretrayer and that he's still alive, though many believe he's dead after 6 months with no contact from him have passed. Mamoru is sent on a solo Gradutaion (Sotsugyou) Mission to stop the AI hacker known as 'Necromancer' who had broken into Sakura's security system and caused havock. With the occassional help from Doctor Ten, Doctor Three, and the three new Sakura recruits, Mamoru embarks on his mission, alone.

NON-SPOILER:

Maybe it's because this was my first time seeing Messiah live the flesh but I felt there was a massive step up in production and everything in this stage! The most impressive thing was the choreography for the action. Holy moly, the stunts and the timing was amazing! Also I really enjoyed the projection mapping this time around and how they used it. As usual the music was amazing and also super nostalgic and hearing the bell when the stage began! I cried at the ending to this but for a different meaning than everyone else. I really, really enjoyed this which I didn't expect to and I am definitely looking forward to the next installment. The negatives I have is this story has two plots and one of the plots I absolutely loved and the other plot I absolutely hated and don't want to remember. The second negative is; I really don't like the three new recruits. They're like carbon copies of Messiah character's we've already met and they're boring and I don't really want to get to know them, which is unfortunate because the actors themselves are adorable!

Rating: I don't think I've rated the Messiah series at all up to now... but I'll put it at a safe 8/10 for now.

SPOILERS!

You’ve been warned; all the spoilers ahead!

Strangely enough the spoilers are going to start with my giving a more detailed story plot, which will be ‘colour coded’ due to sections of the story that I personally want to remove from my memory in italics because I hated those parts of the plot. Sound good? Okay!

Kaito Yuri has gone missing and after 6 months have passed everyone believes he's dead while Mamoru stays strong and believes he's alive and that he didn't betray Sakura. Mamoru is sent on a solo Gradutaion (Sotsugyou) Mission to stop the AI hacker known as 'Necromancer' who had broken into Sakura's security system and caused havock such as making satelites fall from the space and hijacking a plane and almost crashing it and in the end it locks onto the nuclear bombs across the world and threatens to set them all off. The rest of the Sakura crew (along with two sciencetists; Doctor Three and Docter Ten, and three new Sakura recruits; Yuge, Kugure and Miike, help Mamoru break into where Necromancer's main source is, but it turns out many people have been implanted with a chip meaning Necromancer can control and use their bodies, even after the person has been killed, which the AI does on several occassions and literally has an army of the undead under it's control. Not only that but turns out the creator of Necromancer is Kumoi Ren; Kagami's supposed-to-be-dead uncle, who long ago had implanted a chip even into Kagami's brain, and Kagami ends up being the HOST and being controlled by Necromancer, thus follows his uncle and leaves Ariga. So now Ariga is desperately trying to save Kagami and trying to find a way to bring him back in control of his body and brain without having to kill him (because we all know he has a streak of killing his Messiahs -__-). SO it turns out Kaito was working with them to help create the AI 'Necromancer' and it ended in them killing him because he protested to officially joining them, and they took and used his brain to fuse with the Necromancer AI software to create the ultimate AI. Meaning Kaito is well and truly dead much to Mamoru's ruined heart and feelings. However, Mamoru learns that because the AI is meshed with Kaito's brain, the AI actually understands emotions, and purposely chose Sakura as the security system to hack, and has a weak spot which is wanting to still protect Mamoru. Mamoru manages to gain control of the Kaito part of Necromancer and it decides to leave Kagami's body and the mission is completed without any nuclear bombs or anything going off. The final scene (as with all Messiah Graduations) is of Mamoru on his solo mission out of Sakura and in his spy uniform when he's surrounded by Necromancer controlled enemies but when one has his gun pointed squarely at Mamoru (who happens to have Kaito’s hairstyle and similar face structure to Hirose), Mamoru says 'let's go Kaito' and again the Kaito part of Necromance takes over that guys body and joins Mamoru's side to fight the rest of the gang. End.

Yeah I ain't even spoiled 80% of the whole story yet! Course I left some things out or else you wouldn't be surprised when you see the stage for yourself.

As you can see, I'm super not happy about the Kaito plot line and I'd like to erase that whole part from the plot. This story work perfectly swell with it just being about a super AI that has taken over Kagami’s body. << also this boy needs more character development so why not let him be the main story?! It really pissed me off how they've dealt Hirose Daisuke's exit from the series. Even just making a silly fucking short VTR of showing him dying would’ve been more satisfactory than a random line he speaks over a computer and better than just a projection mapping of his Sakura profile and at the bottom saying: Dead. and I’m also pissed at Hirose about going to the keikos and seeing the performance AND there’s clearly newly recorded recorded Yuri voice soundbytes for this stage too(!); so he obviously HAD THE TIME to do the fucking stage. Ugh, especially right at the end with the pretty much Hirose student double who LIP SYNCS Kaito’s lines at the end, oh my god I am so pissed about that! lets move on.

---

Now let's get to some specifics in the play that I enjoyed!

I freaking cried! As soon as that bell rang to signal the start of the play an we get Mamoru kicking ass and almost being kicked and it being action packed right from the start? I was like "YES!! THIS IS MESSIAH!!!"

I have such respect in this stage for Tomorun in this. His applause compared to everyone else was so much louder. While the applause at the end was solid anyway (it's the first time I've experienced applause not quieten a little between the bows and the actors getting in position) the sound got like 1000 times louder when Tomorun was stood on his own to bow, and he damn well deserves it! He had a LOT of weight to carry and he had a lot to hold up to in this stage and it really shows through and he was flawless and amazing in his role. He spends 70% of this stage crying his eyes out and/or being beaten to shit. I actually feel sorry for Tomorun for how much pressure he had this time around. We all know who to blame... anyway... One part I really love of Tomorun’s performance is (it’s really small but) when he gets captured and one of the bad guys kicks his leg and Shirasaki falls down on one knee and just the timing and the way he does it is SO good! And I was SUPER lucky the second show! I had a seat for row 13 which is THE row between the two sections which means there's a big enough gap for the actor to go running right past you and even fight in front of you, WHICH Tomorun did at least twice! Each time he stopped EXACTLY in front of me or what fighting RIGHT in front of me and so the wind caused by his punched were right in my face and his coat hits my legs a few times and I was just like 'oooooommmmmmmgggggggggoooooooddd' internally and everytime he exited away it always went quiet but I'm pretty sure people near me always heard me to exhale very deeply as I tried to calm down from the heart racing closeness I was to the action and Tomorun.... holy moly...

Ariga this time... I have a hate relationship with this guy because of what happened with Mamiya but (un)fortunately Izawa Yuki is such a freaking saint. He's so adorable and so nice and he's such an interesting person and this time around Ariga's character was given more room to group and kind of move away slightly from the Mamiya stigma, especially now that Kagami has fully accepted him as his Messiah. And also thanks to Izawa the higawari and improve scenes and lines are gold. He's so funny! So my opinion of Ariga has changed this stage but lets say that's more from Izawa and Kagami's influence rather than Ariga himself. But there's SUCH a good moment at the end when Ariga puts his gun against Shirasaki's chest and says 'See you again' and (I didn't notice the first time so I FREAKED the fuck out and cried hard the second time!) Shirasaki removes his gun and puts it against Ariga's and says 'definitely' SO THEY CHANGED GUNS!! THEY PROMISED TO MEET AGAIN!!! OMG I'M DEAD!! *dead* 

Anyway, I'm glad Ariga's still, in this stage, talking about and facing up and admitting what he did to Mamiya and he still mentions how he regrets it and everything and there's a scene towards the end where I was convinced 'Oh fuck it's Mamiya all over again!' --okay I seriously have to talk about this scene but can we go back a few more steps?

I need to talk about the Ariga x Kagami relationship before I can talk about that scene. 

I am so fucking onboard with this ship now! Holy shit this stage gave me ALL the (what're we calling them?) Karimi? Arimi? KaGa? Basically I am so in love with them as a pair! Holy moly! There's so many juicy scenes with them! Literally after the first mission for Necromancer fails they go on, Ariga and Kagami are talking and Kagami is like 'I'm really glad you accepted me as your Messiah... Mamoru still believes Kaito is alive... and you? ... Do you think Mamiya is alive?' *me with ALL the feels* 'omowanai....kono te de Mamiya wo koroshita. Soshite... ore no Messiah ha Kagami da. // no... I killed him with my own hands. Besides that... you're my Messiah. (I have to put this in the Japanese cos I loved his reply!)' and then the scene Kagami is like 'can you stop that? ... I'm your Messiah... stop calling me Kagami....' 'Then what should I call you?' 'Itsuki'

And we enter the two higawaris from the day where Ariga attempts to call Kagami by his first name:

14:00 Performance

Ariga: 'I....i....iiiii' Sugie: 'Ariga are you okay?' 'I.....iiiiiiiii......iiiii' 'You don't have to force yourself!' 'Iiiiiiiiii!!!!! Renshuu shimasu! / I'll go and practise!' *storms off*

19:00 Performance *Prior to this higawari Sugie actually fucked up his 'I'm your Messiah...' line

Ariga: 'Nnnnnntsuki' Sugie: 'What?' 'Nnnnn...nnnntsuki!' 'Don't push yourself. Lets go slow okay?' 'Okay' 'I' 'I' 'Tsu' 'Tsu' 'Ki' 'Ki' 'Okay! All together' 'NNNNNTSUKI! Renshuu shimasu! / I'll go and practise!' 'Yeah you should,' 'also...don't mess up' / kamu na As Izawa walks off , Sugie yells 'Sumimasen! / I'm sorry' and the whole audience were laughing.

Okay lets get to MORE Ariga x Kagami moments. During their first mission to infiltrate Necromancer they obviously get surrounded and beaten to shit by the bad guys and the choreography is so GOOD. Ariga gets attacked and one of the kicks sends him flying into Mamoru who catchs him in his arms! And THEN Kagami get's attacked and flies into Ariga who catches him and then the guy goes to attack Kagami again and cos Ariga is holding him he turn him around so HE takes the blow instead of Kagami and Kagami is like 'Ariga!!' trying to keep and hold him up!!! Oh my the feels!!!!

Now lets get to the horrible moment... so Ariga finally finds Necromancer infested Kagami and Necromancer is like 'if you shot me hear *points to his head* you'll kill me. But you'll also kill Kagami,' and so the scene unfolds and I ALREADY was convinced someone was going to die this stage(!) before I even knew what the plot was to this stage so I'm watching scene unfold and everyone in the room was already crying and sniffling cos of Mamoru and Kaito's scene just before this one but THIS is where I grab my mouth in shock and I'm like 'oh shit... oh shit it's Mamiya all over again. Oh my god please don't kill Kagami' and I'm sat there and the tears start POURING out and I'm starting to make the most noise cos people haven't already gotten most of their crying out with Mamoru! and then wait for it.... Ariga SHOOTS his gun! BUT it goes PAST Kagami and so Necromancer turns and faces Ariga properly and he's like 'you missed! Right here *points to the center of his forehead' and Ariga SHOOTS again but hits Kagami's shoulder and then shoots another 4 times, three go flying past Kagami as he slowly moves forward towards Ariga and the other hits Kagami's leg, but because he's being controlled by Necromancer, he still keeps moving and ignores the pain and such. And then he TAKES Ariga's gun and SHOOTS him in the stomach and Ariga collaspes and I was FREAKING the fuck out. And of course (because it was so. obviously. set-up.) Ariga yells at him to try and bring Kagami's concious back, 'Kagami.... Kagami! ... KAGAMI!..... ITSUKI!!!!!!' and (I start crying even harder because he's finally called him Itsuki and) for a second Kagami comes back and stops the gun from shooting and killing Ariga. Oh my, I'm dead writing it now!!

The finally amazing shipping moment between these two is after Necromance leaves Kagami's body, Kagami falls unconcious to the floor and Ariga drags himself over to Kagami's side of the stage and sits with one leg under his butt and his other leg is kneeling and he rests Kagami's head on his thigh (almost at his crotch) of his kneed up leg (I hope this names sense) and has his hand on Kagami's shoulder. During this Mamoru is center stage doing the climax of the plot and everything and -- EVERYONE in the room is crying their eyes out at Mamoru and in the first performance I was crying from relief that Kagami didn't die and in second performance I was crying by how beautiful this scene unfolds -- eventually towards the end we see Kagami wake up from conciousness; he stays where he is but he opens his eyes half way and sees Ariga above him and slowly takes his right hand to grab Ariga's shoulder and Ariga sees him and SO STRONGELY grabbed onto Kagami's hand and holds it SO tightly and Kagami smiles and falls back into conciousness as Ariga smiles at him and -- oh my god I'm crying as I freaking right this!! I am so on board with this effing ship now! Oh my god...

Okay I need to go and calm down...

Now to solely talk about Kagami: I freaking LOVE that half of this plot ws HIS story line! I've been dying for MORE Kagaminess because I still think he's very new and underdeveloped, also he's currently my favourite Messiah in the series since Mamiya. BUT to say he was a MAJOR plot in this Sugie defo had LESS stage time than he should've been given. I feel he and James got about the same amount. Just after the higawari with Ariga, Sugie is missing from the stage (but constantly spoken about) for a good 30/40minutes which I think is super weird (and lets blame the writers forcing Kaito into the story again shall we?) so I'm annoyed because Sugie/Kagami really does deserve MORE time on stage. Now that Mamoru has graduated it means Izawa and Sugie's last stage should be next which I fucking hope it isn't because of how UNDER developed both of them I feel still are. They've just got another 2 or 3 installments of development left and needed in my opinion. Especially when Matsuda/Ono did EIGHT stages and movies in Messiah before they graduated, and Kagami's only done 3 installments so far and in such small roles(!). So yeah, Sugie deserved more time on stage as Kagami, especially because he does become a major story plot. Also I freaking LOVE how we got his uncle as the bad guy this time! And seeing the HATE Kagami has for his uncle is wonderful! AND Sugie did these two super cool stunts! One is when two of the guys hold his arms and he does this backwards spin thanks to the momentum and then kicks the crap out of them! Another is the ending credits where a bad guy flips him over before he shoots him and it looked SO freaking cool (and a little dangerous) in the first show but unfortunately they messed up in the second performance but during the curtain call Sugie explained how they have a safe execution if he can't land it properly even though it'll look weird, which it did but good to know they have a back up plan and a safe way to finish it if it doesn't go perfectly ^_^ ALSO a main reason why Kagami is a favourite character of mine (besides his bratty attitude and lollypop eating) is his fighting style. It MUST be something back Sugie because I am in love with both his Kagami and Namazuou (from Touken Ranbu Stage) fighting choreography. He fights so cockily in both roles if I really think about it xD OHHH! Another scene which was SO gun is when he first finds Kumoi and he eventually beats him down and ends up straddling above Kumoi and has a gun to Kumoi's face and Araki's hands (both times) were pretty much AGAINST Sugie's crotch because Sugie sat that far up him! I enjoyed it (a bit too much) even if they're supposed to be uncle and nephew xD

Now lets get to the problem children; the three new Messiah recruits.

I don't like them... I don't like them IF they're going to be the new MAIN Messiahs. If they stay as SIDE characters then I'm happy with them. They aren't bad characters but they're no where near MAIN character material. When the 2nd gen Messiahs came in, they were instantly developed and very well introduced, unlike these three; they're bland and too boring to become mains. I will give them a little room to grow but just... ugh. No I don't want these three to be 3rd Messiah Mains!

Nagae.... Nagae... I don't like you. I liked you for about 5 seconds in HetaMyu but like... your attitude in both roles is just so bad! Also I really don't like your chin! He was alright during the aftertalk but just... I don't like you and your character, Miike, in Messiah is an insensitive cunt << I've been dying to call him this outloud for a good 24 hours. They have a meeting at Sakura and he's just like 'wonder if you'll just kill your Messiah again. It's easy for you to do right' to Ariga! And I (did?) HATE Ariga but that's going fucking too far. Insensitive, inconsiderate little shit. Kagami is a little shit but at least he's a playful one who actually has a freaking heart and cares about those that matter. Miike on the other hand can seriously go jump off a fucking cliff. And you can TELL they've started setting things up for the three new characters because there's a point after he's killed the bad guys and only he is left on stage with a dead body and he's like 'your face looks relax... was living that hard? ... same as me then' and it's like 'oh bitch please! You're a fucking child, fuck off' I really didn't appreciate this sob story for someone who's as motherfucking rude as him. And breathe...

Next is Yugi... he's... alright. He's sweet and wants to help Sakura and he's strong and he's sensitive and he super nice to everyone but his personality is very weak and very... normal? and .... he's just not got the face to be a MAIN cast. Sorry guy!! But your face is very 'side character' looking. I hate myself for being so judgey about his looks but, overall I don't think he (meaning the character) is main Messiah character material at all. And again they obviously set it up at the end where he yells at Miike 'I'll take anyone as my messiah, so long as it isn't you' ugh...

And the last problem child is Kugure who is a carbon copy of Hamao's character. He's got the glasses, he acts all stoic, he plays by the book and does his job as a Messiah. He only has two tiny parts that make him a little bit different to Hamao's character. The first is a higawari with Izawa so technically it's not even his character!

14:00 Performance:

Kugure: 'I read your file' Ariga: 'What did you see?' 'Ariga Ryou's favourite food is... purin' 'Yes I love it... and?' 'The thing your particuar about... is how you eat it' 'Well... how do you eat it?' 'I just put it in my mouth' '...lets go....'

19:00 Performance:

Kugure: 'I read your file' Ariga: 'What did you see?' 'Ariga Ryou's favourite food is... purin' 'Yes I love it... and?' 'The thing your particuar about... is how you eat it. 'Of course I am! Kugure, do you know the Purin dance?' *audience cracks up, Shinchan was clearly not expecting this answer and just doesn't reply* '.........what?' 'Try and do it' '.....okay' *Shinchan slowly moves into position to dance* 'lets go!' and Izawa walks off as Shinchan is still half amused and half embarrassed.

In the aftertalk Shinchan talks about how usually he and Izawa have set higawaris that they'll do but tonight Izawa just made one up on the spot and it really shocked him, and Sugie was like 'yep that's Izawa. He's very unpredictable' xD And at the end of this stage, Kugure goes to Ichijima's office and says 'I have something I want to talk to you about' and Ichijima removes his glasses and says 'follow me' to which Kugure slightly touches his glasses before following him and thinking about it now, Ichijima and Kugure's actors DO look very similar AND they both have glasses. Are they setting them up to be father and son?! That's the feeling I got! ALSO I didn't realise until the end of the second performance who Shinchan was!! Towards the end, I suddenly shot up in my seat and was like 'SHIT that's the guy I like from Owari no Seraph!!! ... Why did I think it was Hashimoto Shohei who did Owari.... OMG IT'S HIM!!!!! Oh he can sing nice....' so yeah I'm a slow dumbass xD

So you can see how they've started to set them up being the next gen and I'm not happy. The actors themselves are sweet and really nice (more in the aftertalk) but... no thank you!

Is it just me or does Asato have a lisp?! It definitely sounded like he had/has one and I found it so cute!!! I expected his role as Doctor Ten to be pretty small in this but as he ends up betraying Sakura and works with Hopporengo, I'm sure he'll be a bigger role in the future. Because I didn't know the first performance he was an undercover spy for the terrorists, I didn't notice the subtle hints BUT the second time around you can SEE what he gets up. You see he purposely gave Mamoru certain information and we see him mess with the computer system JUST before it gets seriously hacked and we see him whispering stuff to Kumoi when Sakura have him captured and stuff. So kudos to the writers and director for the subtleness of showing the audience through multiple viewings what his true nature is.

Doctor Three had a much smaller role than I thought he would especially when Asato is partnered with him but Asato naturally got more stage time. I’m still not really sure about his character but I did enjoy his personality and I really liked his performance during the hacking scene.

Now we get to a character I have an issue with, only because of his name. His name is Amane... AMANE! I’m sorry but we already HAVE an Amane in Messiah so unless it turns out they’re related then why the hell do we have ANOTHER Amane! It’s just rubbing salt into the wounds because Amane is not in this installment and will be leaving the series! Okay, now for the character and actor himself, Amane was a very, very small role so he didn’t really leave an impression, but his uniform is nice and I assume he’s connected to the group of officers Shuuto’s character was apart of but without rewatching it or reading his bio, I can’t be sure if they’re the same unit (because the uniforms are different yet have the same boss). As for Ito himself, he’s so sweet and funny! During the Evening Performance’s curtain call, Nagae was like ‘please look forward to the AfterTalk because this guy at the back (of the stage) is very interesting’ and Nagae did not lie! More on that later. Main point is though: he acts SO cute and I was shocked to learn (after when I looked at the pamphlet) how old he is and everything! He’s totally adorable and needs to be protected like a son. Then I later learnt he’s gunna be the red haired character in Daiya no A stage and he looks amazing in that role! Almost tempted to go...

James... James.... James, James, James... I’ve been following you on twitter for a good year and know how great you are of a person but this day I FINALLY saw you act in the flesh for the first time and it’s the first time I’ve seen you act in something since 7 Days which I saw over a year ago!! And I was not disappointed. Firstly that hairstyle is freaking gorgeous and looks so good on you. Secondly, you fighting with a knife and in those slightly tight, white pants? Hell yes! ALSO (as I knew) you’re playing a terrorist in this? Hell yes!! I was so happy with James in this!!! I am so ready for him to be our next main Terrorist villain ones the Cats are sorted (in the movie I assume). Also I was super surprised when he first started talking because A. I didn’t realise nor remember his voice being as high as it actually is and B. he sounds SO MUCH like Fujita Rei! (<< who also has done Messiah btw ;) ) so yeah I was little surprised at first but his voice IS nice too ^_^ Also also also also!!!!! We got a James vs Izawa fight which obviously made all the fangirls happy! It was short but satisfying!! I also love how his character betrayed his ‘contractor’ at the end and also how brutal and ruthless his character is. ALSO the fact that he throws his gun away a lot in favour of the thrill and risk of fighting JUST with a knife or two is amazing too! His such a good character! OMG!!! His fight with Kuroko too was amazing!! But I’ll talk about that more with Kotani! So yes... thank you James and cannot wait to see you in the movie (even if it is a prequel to this stage like I assume).

I love Araki okay. I’ve loved him since he did TouMyu and played Yoshitsune(ko)! And his character in this is completely different. He is a cold ass, mean uncle in this! But I was so hyped when we learn he’s Kagami’s uncle and how manipulative he’s been and how much he did nothing but train and manipulate Kagami! Also the fact that he even had him getting captured by Sakurai and Kagami joining Sakurai pre-planned and everything was genius! I really enjoyed his final scene too! << mainly thanks to James’ character’s cruelty xD

And now it's time to talk about the wonderful star of the comedy relief show; Kuroko aka Kotani!!!! He was fucking hilarious! So many funny moments I want to talk about! The first is when Mamoru is trying to look at Kaito's profile so see if he could get any hints as to what his last mission was and such and Kuroko comes bouncing in and lightens the mood and then asks the computer 'When will the perfect boy walk into my life?' '...No data could be found' xD 'Oh what?! I wanted valentine chocolate....' and soon after this he gets all happy about something, pulls out a slipper from under his coat and begins to sing but Shirasaki soon stops him. Another amazing moment is when he and Salut are having a knife fight and Salut cuts Kuroko ONCE and Kuroko goes MURDEROUS and unstopable. He turns into an absolute ANIMALS when he's fighting and thus that's why he's been kept more as a housekeeper than as a spy at Sakura Church. That and also because we learn he in fact (like Ariga) killed his own Messiah. But turns out his Messiah was an undercover spy for (a similar group to) Hopporengo. During the end credit, his hits Ichijima on the bum with his brush xD he's such a cheeky but funny guy who goes batshit crazy in the battlefield! Oh my!! Another batshit crazy is when Sakura infultrate the boat that Kagami and Kumoi and Salut are on and he and Shirasaki come BUSTING in and (jesus chrsit I can't believe it happened, I pissed myself the entire time) Kuroko storms onto the boat with TWO machine guns and laughing like a crazy man and spinning around as he spot all the bad guys. It was such an epic but hilarious scene!! There's another great scene where Ichijima is talking about past graduated Messiahs and as he mentioned Haku's name, Kuroko pulls a Nanny milk carton out of his pocket and tries to give it to Ichijima xD Anytime he hit someone on the head with the slipper, it always such a good sound that you couldn't help laugh xD Kuroko EASILY shot to pretty much the top of my 'Fav Messiah Characters Ever' in this stage. He's absolutely gold; both when he's doing comedy AND being a badass!

Lastly I'm going to put Ichijima and Shikura's actors together here; these two have been actors for a long time; they're pros, they're damn good at their job, they're very well known and this wasn't they first Messiah; they were flawless and performed as they should of. The most interesting parts about the actors were how they behaved in the curtain call. Usually older Japanese actors have this scary and serious aura about them BUT in the first curtain call Nagae was trying to be all cute like 'I'm bad at curtain calls. I'm only 18 tehe' and then Osumi straight away was like 'Oooooh I can't give speech. I'm only 18 tehe' and totally ridiculed Nagae and he got so embarrassed and Osumi got a HUGE applause from the audience and then as soon as it died down we could see Nakahara on the other side of the stage acting all childish and only the audience saw and when the members turned around to him he acted normal again xD They were real sports! xD At first I was upset Ichijima was back rather than Naoya's character (and I still haven't figured out Ichijimia and Naoya's chara's relationship and status balance) but after seeing the stage, Ichijima is actually a MAJOR part of the plot so it made sense for him to be back. ALSO everytime Ichijima gets serious about fighting and clicks his leg back into place and fights is always badass and epic to watch! He did not disappoint this time either! ^_^

Curtain Calls

I've pretty much already spoke about the two major points of the two curtain calls I saw so lets just go to the aftertalk; about Nagae being teased for trying to act cute and when Ito got pointed out as a very interesting person. Oh but there was another point; because Sugie failed his stunt during the end credits, he explained about the backup safety plan he and the student guy has in case it doesn't go well, and mentioned how difficult the amount of action is for everyone, but that Tomorun never complains about it but then Izawa is like 'yeah but he complains to me when no one else is around' xD

19:00 AfterTalk: Sugie, Nagae, Ito, Shinchan (guest starring Izawa and James)

The AfterTalk was an absolutely shambles but it was a hilarious and uncontrollably laughing shambles. All four of the boys are absolutely hopeless! Basically none of them could talk properly and Ito at one point (already mentioned) was asked about what he likes about this stage and he’s stands up and goes ‘look at this uniform’ *points to his sleeves* ‘they’re reversed! I didn’t realise until I put it on for our first day! Isn’t it cool. Also look how cool this front is where it extends!’ and everyone was just like ‘....’ >.<

And there was another point where he wanted to talk about a scene or character he liked and he’s like ‘you know when that happens and you know like it goes like that and’ and everyone looked at him like ‘what the fuck are you going on about?’ ‘you get me right?’ ‘.....’ to which Nagae suddenly yelled to the audience 'you see what I mean by he’s interesting!' xD We were all dying. About 10 or 15 minutes into the non-stop random talking, Nagae looks at Sugie and goes 'don't you have a sheet of paper right there with topics for us to talk about?' and Sugie looks at him and went 'what's the point! None of this is interesting compared to the mess of a conversation we're having!' and threw the paper on the floor, killing the audience once again. Nagae went and picked it up for him, 'well if you don't wanna do those topics then why don't we get questions from the audience then?' the audience got super excited but (as predicted) they started going off on another random conversation between themselves. And then Sugie looks back and is like 'Izawa... why you taking pics of us from there?' and he replied 'you continue. I'll take pics!' and one of the guys was like 'you might as well come out here if you're gunna talk!' and he's like 'nah I'm good!' and then another of them went 'Oh look! It's Ariga and the guy that looks like him' xD to make the audience laugh EVEN more, Nagae commented: 'you know (the scene) when they're fighting? It's like a video where it's the same player (but in different clothes)' xD

The next topic was about what characters or side (Messiah / Police / Terrorist) they'd like to be on and it ended up (thanks to Ito, see above) becoming a 'what clothing do you like' topic and Sugie complained at how he's just all in black and it's boring and he'd like something like James' outfit with a little splash of white clothing. He complimented James' white pants and you just heard this 'thanks!!' from behind the curtain XD Sugie also spoke about when they all first got the script, his name just said ‘Sugie Taishi = Kagami Itsuki / N’ and then when they did the first read through THEN they realised N meant Necromancer and that at first he found it challenging to play N (because you basically how to act like a robot).

EDIT 2017.02.21: Another thing that was mentioned was suddenly Sugie started talking about ‘we didn’t know if this was going to be the last or not. And we didn’t know what was going to happen next’ which means there was a CHANCE Messiah wasn’t going to continue after THIS one or even get this one! But now that they’ve announced a new stage in Autumn and we’ve still got the movie to look forward to. Looks like they might be continuing it after all, especially when (starting with this play) it’s been labelled the New Messiah Series; so clearly they intend to continue the series under this new name.

By the way, Izawa really DID get takes from behind the curtain during the aftertalk:

You're welcome ;)

Extras

I think you're probably going to know all these already but lets have a quick run down of the non-actor things:

- The choreography is absolutely amazing! I've already said this but I really do feel like everything, including the choreography was stepped up massively this time! So many cool stunts and spins and swings and everything! - I really really really really want and need a Messiah OTS seriously. I freaking love all the music!! Even in the new stage!! Seriously, I just want a CD of all the Messiah music they use EVERY stage including the bell at the beginning of EVERY stage! <3 - Linking to the choreography; the stunt men* were phenomenal! - I really liked the staging and the stage design this time. Even with the scary SLOPE right at the front of the stage. But I loved the computer screen-like props they had at the top of the stage. - The projection mapping was used very well! It definitely didn't feel distracting (hell sometimes I hadn't even realise it'd been pulled down because of how well they co-ordinated everything) - The lighting was great too!

*I realise I've called them stunt me the entire review and that I should really call them ensemble but do you realise how long this review has taken me? I ain't going back and correcting it all. You all know who I mean anyway! xD

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Okay I'll stop here! Pretty sure I've spent like 4 hours making this review! I'm done! Hope you enjoyed it!