#[ sorry ichika this one sucks ]

[adrinennn]

if pjsk characters played overwatch

disclaimer overwatch is the only fps game ive rlly played and i dont like it very much but its the only one i know a little bit about so this can go for any fps game or fighting game in general i guess?? idk man i suck at overwatch and havent played in several months

ichika: plays like once in a blue moon, likes to play support (ana mostly) kinda mid at it, shes better at other games

saki: plays with wxs and especially with tsukasa and toya, mains kiriko, pretty good at it but not as good as toya

honami: doesn't play, watches sometimes, but doesnt like fighter games or really any video games in general

shiho: says she thinks video games are boring, but in actuality she just prefers team fortress 2

minori: doesnt play, but she's seen a few characters but doesnt know anything about them

haruka: plays against an from time to time, they play on different teams, and they don't play as much as they used to. mains ashe, very good at the game

airi: plays only with ena and akito, just picks a new character each time and isn't very good at adapting to it but is very competitive and stubborn about sticking to one character

shizuku: "that little hamster is so cute!" (doesnt play)

kohane: an convinced her to play so she could play with the rest of vbs, suprisingly good for a beginner, "can you PLEASE be the hamster!!!! he has such cool gameplay and hes so cute!" -an (silly)

an: very good at the game but pretty sloppy at it, plays with vbs and haruka, mains sombra bcause she likes the hacking part

akito: used to be really interested in the game, now only plays when hes with his friends, above-average at the game, mains genji "because he's cool"

toya: VERY good at the game, plays with vbs and nene and tsukasa/saki, hanzo main since day 1, very exact

tsukasa: plays with wxs, saki, and toya, says he's good but he sucks and blames it on literally everything else. mains lucio just bevause he thinks he's cool.

emu: suprisingly good even though she only plays with wxs, mains winston because she thinks hes silly

nene: VERY good, equally matched with toya, mainly plays with toya and wxs, mains reaper because hes just like her frfr

rui: pretty good, doesn't play video games that often because he has too much to do, mains junkrat because hes just like him frfr

kanade: prefers to watch

mafuyu: no way she'd be allowed

ena: a little less than average at the game, plays mainly with mizuki, airi, and akito, mains junker queen and widowmaker "because they're good characters" (she thinks theyre hot)

mizuki: plays overwatch A LOT because she thinks its funny to pretend to be an egirl, so she mains mercy and sometimes d.va, and she's pretty good at the game normally.

the end sorry

[ticklish-n-stuff]

(*･ω･)ﾉ hello! I was wondering if I could request lee Leo Need Kaito and ler Leo Need Len? I don’t have anything specific in mind but maybe teasing

Tickletober day 21: Teasing

Short comic by @anonyamogus (LOOK AT IT!!!)

OMG YES! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS DAY MY WHOLE LIFE!

Lol but fr I've been wanting to write for L/N Kaito for a while so this is perfect~!

Anyone who requests Kaito is automatically my friend, now you're stuck with me forever/j :3

Btw, idk what L/N Len's personality is like so sorry if this isn't accurate. But I hope you enjoy it nonetheless! :D

___________________________________________

Kaito x Len L/N sekai (platonic)

Lee: Kaito

Ler: Len

Warning: Tickles!

___________________________________________

Len was skipping through the hallways of the school sekai when he suddenly stopped in front of one of the classrooms. The rhythmic tune of a guitar echoed from the inside, he peaked his head in only to find Kaito practicing all by his lonesome. He went inside to get a closer look, maybe they could practice together. Although Kaito seemed to be sucked in his own little world as he didn't even acknowledge Len's presence.

"Hey, Kaito!" Len tried calling out to him but the blue haired vocaloid was too focused on his music to notice. "Oi, Kaito!!" the blonde gripped his hands onto Kaito's sides as he lightly shook him to get his attention, what he wasn't expecting was the ear-shattering shriek that came out of him.

"EEK!!" Kaito almost dropped his guitar as his cheeks quickly turned cherry red. He whipped his head over at Len, both silently starring at each other for a moment before Len spoke up again.

"What was that??" the smaller of the two asked in pure confusion.

"I-It was nothing..." Kaito tried adverting his gaze, his blush only growing stronger, but of course Len wasn't convinced.

"So you're telling me that this..." he gave Kaito's sides another squeeze, earning another shriek "is nothing??". Kaito only looked at him in fear as a teasy grin made it's way onto Len's lips...

.

.

.

How did Kaito get into this situation? One moment he was practicing his guitar calmly and now he was on the ground with a teasy Len on top of him tickling him to pieces.

"Why didn't you tell me that you're ticklish?! It's so cute~!" said the blonde as he scribbled all over the blue vocaloid's stomach.

"N-noho it's naHAHAT!!" poor Kaito would squeal and thrash around at each ticklish touch, and the teasing just made it ten times worse for him.

"But just look at that smile! You should really smile more, it suits you~" Len walked his fingers up Kaito's sides, enjoying the softer snickers that came out of the latter.

"Pfft! Ehehehehe!" Kaito instantly went to cover his flushed face behind his hands at the comment.

"Eyy, don't hide from mehe!" Len giggled along as he tried to pry Kaito's hands away from his face, but he was just oh so stubborn. The blonde then got the grand idea of tickling under his arms and as he expected it did the trick.

"GYAH! WAHAHAIT! NAHAHAT THEHEHERE!" Kaito squealed in laughter as his arms came crashing down. His fully red face and teary eyes in full display. And who could forget that smile that was more blinding than any star.

Len smiled in victory as he kept tormenting the overly ticklish spot "Wow, look at how ticklish you are here! You might be more ticklish than Rin~".

"ST-STAHAHAP SAHAHAYING THAHAT!!".

"Saying what? Ticklish~?" Len chuckled when a flustered squeal came out of Kaito. Who knew it would be so much fun to tease the poor blue vocaloid.

Kaito though that he was a goner, but his saving grace soon walked through the door.

"Is Kaito-san here-" it was none other than Ichika, who stopped dead in her tracks at the scene in front of her. The three of them just starred at each other for a while in silence until Ichika cleared her throat. "I didn't know Kaito-san could sound so loud" she said with a smile of her own before walking away, leaving the boys alone once more.

"That was embarrassing..." Kaito whined out as he once again covered his red face.

"Awe don't be like that" Len gave him a final poke to his tummy before getting off of him, earning a cute squeak "I think your laugh is pretty adorable~" the blonde smiled down at him before walking away, leaving a panting, flustered Kaito dead on the floor.

___________________________________________

I feel like this fic is all over the place, but I hope you still like it :3

Lee Kaito supremacy!!!

[eir-parade]

🌸 making a pinned 🌸 @paradeform -> @eir-parade

I have been on and off active on this blog but recently have tried to become more active with it.

Parade (subject to change - being nameless sucks)

21+

Bri'ish 😔

They/Them Non-binary. Panro Ace. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Yes, my interests will change on a whim. No, I don't know when they will. And yes, you are forced to indulge in it with me whether you like it or not. 💜

Project Sekai Enjoyer 🎶 - Niigo + Leo/Need - Ichika, Haruka, Kohane, An, Emu, Rui, and all of Niigo :) - Poly/Need real - EN and JP -> mainly EN - Top 100 Guiding a Lost Child | Top 300 Dark Festa - Saving for Persona Top 50 hopefully Honkai lover 🦋 - Veliona solos your faves - So does Seele - Yes I whaled for E3 Seele. - (EU) Captain level 80 | Trailblazer level 64 FFXIV player ✨ - Primal Lamia - Maybe one day I will talk about my WoL RWBY Watcher 🌹 - Xiao Long-Rose Sisters also solo your faves - This show is much more enjoyable when you don't have a bitch yapping in your ear about how "bad" it is or how it "fell off" after Monty passed. Genshin is... here I guess. 😐 - Yanfei honey, this has nothing to do with you - (EU) Adventure Level 56 Various TV shows, movies, and games will make their occasional guest appearance.

i have a lot of thoughts that go through my head all the time about my interests. i'm not very good at interacting with people but regardless i would love to spew about shared interests when possible!!!

my current main interest is Project Sekai so if you wish to talk to me about your aus, hcs, theories or ideas, or wish to hear about mine, i would gladly !! :D i will try to keep equal enthusiasm and im sorry if it appears that i lack so !!! sometimes i dont know how to react or respond to some things.

im still trying to work on my unit shuffle au but i also have thoughts about like 2 other fantasy aus (someone please force me to work on my shuffle au)

🚧-----------🚧

I will tag as appropriate as I can, however I do have a tendency to overlook or not think, so please tell me if I miss something. This includes triggers and spoilers.

I do not reblog anything that is explicitly NSFW BUT I do sometimes reblog stuff with suggestive themes/texts. They will be tagged as appropriate as possible but please do be advised.

🛑 Do Not Interact:

TERFs

SWERFs

Generally if you are phobic towards anyone part of the LGBTQ+ (transphobic, homophobic, biphobic, aphobic, etc.)

Generally if you are offensive to people on their race, gender, sexuality, and religion.

MAPs

Pro-shippers

🚧-----------🚧

🔥last updated 17/10/2023

[rosenlied]

Ranking every single fes card in Project Sekai

(This is just my opinion so do not get mad)

27. Tsukasa: I’m sorry Tsukasa I love you but what even is that card? If it was an untrained then it would be whatever but as a Fes card it’s very underwhelming if not straight up disappointing. The outfit looks plain and that’s not even getting into how dull the lighting is. I wasn’t expecting the best card in the game but for a Fes card it sucks so hard. I've seen some people say that it's supposed to show him in a more casual light but even then D4DJ's X-Cross Beat and Side Nova cards exist. There was no reason for it to look that bad when D4DJ has shown how good cards showing characters in a more casual light can be.

26. Saki: I’m sorry Saki I do like you but that card really isn’t anything special. It’s just a generic by the pool card to the point where I thought it was an edit when I first saw it. It’s not as bad as Tsukasa’s card but to say I’m not a fan is an understatement. 

25. Emu: Man they really blew it with the last trio of Fes cards huh? This card isn’t bad per se but it just looks and feels bland, which is not what you want from an Emu card. Its cool to see a more mature side of her but it’s just overall very bland all things considered. Love the hairstyle though, especially as a Kamisato Ayaka and Kirari Momobami fan.

23-24. Rin/Len: Look these two are more or less the same card so I’m treating them as such. They aren’t bad but I really don’t care for how bright they are, it just feels blinding and not in a good way. Sorry Kagamines fans. 

22. Miku 2: This card is cool but it doesn’t really stand out, especially among the other darkness festa cards. I love the drills though and I really hope they were referencing Teto with that. 

21. Luka: See what I said for Miku. It’s a cool card but for as much as I love Luka it just doesn’t hit as hard as the other Darkness Festa cards. 

20. Honami: She looks gorgeous here but there’s unfortunately really not much going on. It’s not a bad card, it’s just not really my cup of tea. 

19. Airi: I get what they wanted to go for here but it just kinda falls a bit flat for me. Sekai sadly took a while to find its footing with colorful cards (though I may be comparing them to much to Bandori’s) and this one is nothing special. The untrained on the other hand is fantastic. 

18. An: I love the concept for this card a lot, I just think they could’ve done way more with it in terms of colors and what not. Still it’s not bad, and I love how her hair references Nagi’s.

17. Mafuyu: I can’t be biased here I’m sorry. I adore Mafuyu and the sinking effect is cool but it’s not anything to write home about. She has way better cards even if I do love the idea of an underwater library. 

16. Minori: This card is super cute but I’d hesitate to call it anything special. Her smile is precious though. 

15. Rui: love the concept for this one but I feel like it’s greatly overshadowed by other Rui cards. It’s a nice card don’t get me wrong but it just doesn’t hit as hard as his Yokai card or his cyberpunk card. 

14. Mizuki: See what I said for their boyfriend. I like this card but it’s very overshadowed by other better Mizuki cards and overall isn’t anything special outside of the Niigo plushies.

13. Ichika: I actually like this card quite a bit. I thought it was bland at first until I took another look and realized that it symbolized her learning to express herself. The main thing that sadly holds it back for me is the existence of Rainbow Canvas Emu and the Nomad cards which all do the paint concept so much better. 

12. Kanade: For being an earlier Fes card this really holds up. The background was gorgeous, I just feel like my only problem is that you can barely see Kanade. Granted Haruka’s Hopeful Show card is worse in this regard but still. 

11. Akito: He looks cool here. Not much else to say. I actually prefer the untrained, he looks so happy.

10. Miku (1): I love seeing Miku look like the goddess she is, and seeing her soar through the sky is very cool. For being an early Fes card I’m shocked that it holds up this well.

9. Ena: I love the use of browns in this card and it’s really nice to see her look like an actual professional artist. She’s just in her own little world doing what she loves and I love that for her. 

8. Kaito: Holy shit this card. He looks so cool, so badass. Also the basketballs are a nice touch. 

7. Kohane: As someone who does photography as a hobby I love this card. It’s so cool, and I love the kaleidoscope aesthetic. Between this and Take the Best Shot they’ve been focusing more on Kohane’s photography skills and I’m so glad. 

6. Meiko: I don’t know what I can say here, she just ate this up. I love how cool and mature she looks, it’s just a great card overall. 

5. Shizuku: Dear god where do I even begin? The puzzle pieces? The butterflies? She just looks stunning and I love how mature she looks here. Goofy Shizuku is great don’t get me wrong but her mature serious side rocks as well. 

4. Nene: As a former theatre kid I’ll never not eat this card up, she looks so cool! I love the Broadway inspirations as well it makes perfect sense for her character. Bonus points for the untrained implying that Hamilton is canon in the Sekai universe, that’ll never not be funny.

3. Shiho: I love how stylized this card is, to this day it really feels like we haven’t seen a single other Sekai card try that kind of style. She just looks so cool and determined and oh my god the bright lights with the signs make this. 

2. Haruka: ok I may be a little biased but can you blame me? She looks ethereal here. I love the use of blues and her the birds flying. 

1. Toya: This is both me being biased and loving the symbolism. I love how this card shows Toya’s growth with the piano and how he’s beginning to face it. Also the sad yet slightly thankful expression he has kills me every time.

[hpd--ena]

Sorry, pookie for the late response. I was at skool... Anyway um ima start with leo/need (least favorite to favorite)

15. Peaky Peaky

I'm so sorry it feels like it lacks something?? Maybe a bit more power in vocals would have done it justice but Shiho's alt saved it

14: Hoshi wo tsunagu

YAWWWWNNN

13: Needle

I like the lyrics they're cute, but like I hardly hear the other members despite this being an untitled, but I like Ichikas voice, so idk...

12: From Tokyo

It's cute, and I like cute

11: Aioi

Same reason as 'From Tokyo'

10: The WALL

I WUB IT

9: Stage of Sekai

TURN THIS SHIT UPPP!!!🔥🔥🔥

8: Hare wo matsu

I LOOOOVVVVVEEE Honami focus songs. This shit has been stuck in my head for a while now ever since it released

7: Flyway

UNDERRATED I LOVE IT

6: Made to order

I love it, it feels magical

5: Pulse of the meteor

I fucking love this one

4: TeraTera

Never misses 🔥🔥

3: Hurray (it counts. I guess it was in the l/n commissioned section)

It's sounds good and it keeps playing in my head

2: Voices

VERY CLOSE BEHIND TO MY FAVS

1: Stella and 1

HELLLL YEAHHHH, TURN THIS SHIT UPPP🔥🔥🔥🗣🗣🗣I COULDN'T CHOOSEE WHICH ONE SO I CHOOSED BOTH!!

aight my opinions on your opinion:

15. ITS CALLED PEAKY PEAKY FOR A REASON 🔥🔥🔥 THIS PEAK FR YOUR OPINION SUCKS ASS /lh

14. Didn't listen to that 💀

13. Completely agree lol, they could've done better 💀💀💀

12. FROM TOKYO MY BELOVED 💖💖💖

11. Didn't listen to that either

10. Third song i haven't listened to...

9. THIS SHIT FIRE WE STAN HONAMI 🔥

8. WAHH THIS SONG IS CUTE HONAMI FTW 🦅🦅🦅

7. 4th song i haven't listened to ☹

6. YES THIS SONG IS SO NICE AHEBWBDBWBWWB

5. Not my fav tbh, but ok

4. Teratera is so good saki comm songs are 🔛🔝

3. Omg the chorus loops in my head sometimes, really catchy

2. Aahhhh this song is so cute! Shiho did so good fr

YES YES YES ESPECIALLY STELLA I LOVE STELLA SO MUCH AND 1 IS ALSO FIRE THIS IS A W TAKE ABGBQBDNWBW

[ramblingsekai]

You know what’s been bouncing around my head the last few days. Also, sorry for how unorganized this is and how weird the grammar is. But let’s goooo.

Ken (An’s cool dad) adopting more groups as his children. Like let’s face it, he pretty much adopted Akito &Toya, and Kohane is practically his daughter in law now, so him adopting more children isn’t out of the book.

Ichika asking for vocal tips from Ken. Honami getting advice about helping others from him (since he’s shown to know when to actively help and leave to let VBS work it out). Saki just having a blast talking to all of the patrons and Ken since they’re bound to have some good stories. Shiho maybe even looking up to Ken for advice from a former-pro’s perspective. Ken also just giving them tips about live performances and shows.

But omg 25-ji. This group needs like a stable parental figure the most. Like there’s so much I could ramble about. Kanade actually having an adult figure in her life. Ken making Kanade actual food and making sure she is getting rest. And he could provide some musical advice too. (I’m not well versed with music so I’m not 100% sure about that but still he has experience). I feel like Ken would also just provide some contrast too when compared to Kanade’s dad. VBS is constantly talking about surpassing RAD WEEKEND and Ken doesn’t seem to have a problem with that, even encouraging them so just having someone to encourage Kanade to surpass them could help her a little. Even if Kanade isn’t necessarily trying to surpass anyone and is just trying to save people (or more specifically Mafuyu) with her music, seeing a former-pro being so encouraging of growth would probably be unknown to her. And then Ena. God knows Ena also needs a better dad figure. What’s that, but her dad was only trying to make help Ena in his own rough manner. Yeah don’t care, Ena and Akito’s dad sucks. There are way better ways to talk to your child than saying you’re talentless. So we have Ken adopting the Shinonome siblings. Like Ken being supportive of Ena’s dream and encouraging her to keep going bc she has the same look in her eyes as Akito. And I also just like imaging Ken convincing some of the street artists in the area to let Ena try out graffiti art or just local art shows for fun. Also, can you imagine Ken giving Ena the same seafood curry that he gave to VBS in that one card story and Ena just debating whether to eat the carrots or not too and just dumps it onto Akito’s plate when he’s not looking. And then Mizuki. Honestly if Ken can be chill and supportive of An and Kohane (come on they’re pretty much dating and that one card story where An says she has a date and he just knew it was Kohane), he wouldn’t bat an eye at Mizuki’s secret. And even if Mizuki doesn’t tell Ken, Ken would probably still notice Mizuki’s trust issues and try to give advice for them. But god here comes the giant elephant in the room. Mafuyu. Ken would probably immediately know something is off about Mafuyu and just try to encourage her to have more fun. I feel like Weekend Garage and just seeing a supportive dad would fascinate Mafuyu and she’d just mindlessly wander to the cafe every once in awhile. Observing the other people and events and seeing how full of life everything is. Gah, honestly there’s so much here but I’m running out of steam.

I’m honestly not sure with MMJ. Maybe just as a place to chill out at. I feel like Weekend Garage is a place where musicians who are locally famous hang out at often so MMJ could just hang out or strategize there without worrying about being mobbed by idol fans. And the other patrons are just sorta use to semi-famous ppl and wouldn’t be weirded out by seeing idols.

I’m also not really sure with WxS too honestly.

Sorry for the long rambles, but honestly I never expected Project Sekai to have so many fascinating family dynamics. At the end of the day, out of all of the parents to get sprites, An’s dad is the only stable/emotionally supportive parent. Like Toya’s dad sucks, Ena and Akito’s dad also sucks, Kanade’s dad is in a coma and her mom passed away, and special mention to Mafuyu’s parents (mainly her mom) for being all sorts of overbearing. Saki and Tsukasa’s parents also seem cool but they don’t have sprites. So An’s dad wins the award for best dad in the game. He also plays such a huge part of VBS’s story and consistently shows up. I kinda hope we’ll see other groups pop up at Weekend Garage one day, but who knows. I know Haruka has visited once and that Ena’s expressed interest before (but Akito denied her lol). Anyways, lemme know what you guys think too. None of my friends play Project Sekai so I gotta get all my thoughts out here.

[valeriwa]

kiss me baby

two: objectively speaking

summary: as the head of the very popular newspaper club, you have decided to heed the advice of the miya twins' fanclub and make a volleyball column. however, your club mutually agreed you'd be the one to gather content and coverage. something that started out as professional and friendly spiral out of hand as blushes rise and hearts race and a bunch of volleyball crazed doofuses think it's time you and mr-i-need-memories get together.

warnings: none

suna rintaro x fem!reader

masterlist || one || two || three

"and i'm l/n y/n, nice to meet you." you awkwardly bow, your lack of experience in socializing showing. the situation wasn't exactly comfortable either, the volleyball team had stopped mid-practice since the coach insisted you introduce yourselves right now.

ichika was almost hiding behind you, who could blame her? she was in a room with tall, intimidating athletes. her low energy rubbing off on you, you decide to turn to the coach to say it was okay to return to practice.

"coach, we'll be-"

"oh, you both should stay and start on your column and stuff. i was going to cut practice short anyway; the other coach didn't come," he said, shoving his things into a bag.

you stood there, and nodded after realizing that the prolonged silence could be taken as disrespectful.

and he just disappeared, leaving you, ichika and the vbc staring at each other. clearing you throat, you clapped your hands together.

"wanna head to a diner?"

"thanks sato," you said the waiter who brought your plate of fries and milkshake. he winked at you and mouthed a no problem.

"oh you two know each other?" osamu asked, catching onto the silent gestures.

"not really. staff's happy i brought a bunch of hot, athletic dudes to the diner." you groaned slightly that sato would blow up your phone later.

"oh we're hot?" atsumu smirked, but you didn't miss the dusting of pink on most of the boys. you groaned, hunching over.

"yeah, yeah, objectively speaking. you're not my type miya." you dipped a french fry into the special sauce before eating it, not bothering to look at atsumu's hurt face.

"excuse you, but i'm everyone's type." he puffed out his chest as he said so. you quirk an eyebrow and ignored him.

"kita-san, you have a surprisingly big fanbase. anything you want to say to them?" you asked, taking a sip of the milkshake. at your question, ichika frantically opens her notepad.

"calm down ichika, i'm sure kita-san will wait for you to get ready."

"oh- uh right, sorry," she mumbled, placing the pad and pen on the table for immediate use.

"oh, i didn't know i had a fanbase. but i'd thank them for supporting me?" he answers, obvious surprise on his face. huh he really didn't know.

"dry. moving on, suna, who forced you to cut your bangs like that?" a few people choked, you're not exactly sure who. but now that you look at him, he's kind of cute. objectively speaking, of course.

"myself." despite the indifferent exterior, you could tell he didn't expect your question. good.

"confident, that's nice-" your phone started ringing, and you looked at the contact name and sighed.

"ichika, take over, will you?" she nodded, a little nervous excitement bubbling in her and you took the phone and walked away from the table.

ichika had turned to the libero to make her question who listened intently before answering.

"now's really not a good time," you groaned into the phone, a little conscious of the stare you could feel on your back.

"oh yeah? where are you?" the familiar raspy voice spoke back, you could tell he just woke up.

"out with some people from school- that's not the point, did you call for a reason?"

"he kind of hurt his knee again-"

"that ugly ass piece of shit," you mumbled. however, you were close enough to the table for the team and ichika to hear you.

"oh god- i have to go, see you." and you hung up the phone and trudged back to the table.

"sorry about that, please continue," you gestured to ichika and osamu who was answering whatever her curiosity had urged her to ask.

"you sure?" it was suna. his question didn't really hold any care or concern, rather it was teasing.

"i'll just probably have to go to miyagi," you muttered, taking a way too long sip of your milkshake.

"what?" ichika asked, dropping her notepad and turning to face you. "we can't go on without you." a bit dramatic if you ask me. you took another sip, faced her and grabbed her shoulders.

"itsuki and yuki will be doing most of the work, you don't get to hear me saying you can do better and," you pause and gesture to the table of boys, "you can be the most envied girl in school, interview hot volleyball players even if one does have weird bangs." you swore atsumu snorted at that.

"if i knew any better, i'd say you have a crush on me," suna teased, looking at you with those same sleepy eyes. kind of hot. what- no, he's not hot. okay maybe just a little, objectively speaking.

you rolled your eyes at his comment and gestured towards ichika to continue with questioning right as sato brought another plate of fries. considerably larger this time.

"it's on the house, babe," he looked at you as he said it. oh he wanted to know if anyone here swung the other way. you would've laughed if the tiredness hadn't gotten the best of you.

"uh senpai, do you want to ask anything? i'm done." you sighed and nodded, straightening.

"anybody here gay?"

(sadly they weren't. sato's going to cry.)

a/n: i'm so sorry! exams suck ass and hopefully i'll be able to give y'all regular updates starting tmr!

taglist: @zeyyackerman @deathfreak45 @lilith412426 @meri-soni-meri-tamanna

(bolded ones i'm unable to tag)

[epicofevil]

Character Popularity Poll

Epic of Evil page 40-62

After the conclusion of the “Daughter of Evil” novels and the announcement of this fanbook, we opened up a character popularity poll! It was held on Twitter between June 16th and June 30th, and we received a ton of votes. Here we’ll tell you the order, as well as share some of the red hot comments they got!

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1st place with 89 votes

Allen Avadonia (Prince Alexiel)

(Kagamine Len)

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Profile

Age: 14 at death (485-500)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: Orthodox Lucifenian

Religion: Levin, Levia sect

Relatives: Father; Arth I (deceased), Mother; Anne (deceased), Sister; Riliane, Adoptive Father; Leonhart (deceased), Adoptive Sister; Germaine

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He’s a servant who works in the Lucifenian royal palace, but in truth he is Riliane’s twin brother, Prince Alexiel. During the revolution he is executed in Riliane’s stead.

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-Due to an event that occurred when he was young, Allen as a prince was publicly declared dead. He works as a servant surrounded by his friends.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 02 Kagamine Len of “Kagamine Rin/Len” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

“The Servant of Evil” is the reason I got sucked into AkunoP-sama’s music in the first place.

Allen-kun is the best!

I was really moved by Allen’s kindness at prioritizing Riliane over himself. I think there are probably some people who don’t think he’s kind because he betrayed so many people, but I think “doing it all for the person you want to protect” is itself a different sort of kindness.

Obviously it’s Allen. His words and deeds made me cry my eyes out.

I love how brave he is, and that he was willing to do anything for Riliane’s sake.

He really struck me with how he protected Riliane to the end. I was also about the same age as Allen when I first bought the book, so I was kinda taken in by him being such a naïve young man.

He’s really cool looking!!!

His level of kindness that he devoted himself to his sole blood relative Riliane and ultimately took her place is really amazing…!

He was alright with becoming evil if it was for Riliane’s sake. He did all that for his sister; for Riliane he used his sword to kill people, he can ride a horse, he protected his sister—he’s just really cool!!

What an amazing loyalty he has…Allen supports his sister and the rest!! He’s so awesome, I wanna be like him!!

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Artist’s Comments

AkunoP: I rather expected him to be the most popular.

Ichika: Wow, he really was well received.

AkunoP: Unfortunately, he died in the first book, so I wasn’t really able to delve into his character much from the third book onward.

--Rin probably had also moved on from Allen at that point.

AkunoP: I figured things might get pretty dark if I had too many developments that reflected back on the past. I also thought it might not fit with the feel of the third book onwards. However, there’s no way that Rin forgot about Allen, ever. She’s just hesitant to let it show on the outside. And it wouldn’t be all that good for her to show it to anyone, given her position. She’d get found out, lol

--That’s for sure (haha). How about you, Ichika-san?

Ichika: I think he’s sort of like, the most wholehearted character of the main cast. Like coming to help even after he’d already died.

AkunoP: In a certain way, in the latter half he turns into more of a super character than Elluka, lol

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2nd place with 35 votes

Clarith

(Yowane Haku)

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Profile

Age: 21--26 (born 479)

Nationality: Elphegort--Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: Netsuma

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Father (died when she was young), Mother (died in 499)

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She was discriminated against by Elphe people for being a descendant of the Netsuma clan with white hair and red eyes. She had a negative personality, but that changed when she met Michaela.

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--Though she was quite negative, she was able to become a bit more positive through her relationships with Michaela and Rin.

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*This character was based on “Yowane Haku”, a derivative of the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 Hatsune Miku published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

It’s partially because I really like Haku ane-san, but there’s also her earnest devotion to Michaela, her strength for forgiving Riliane despite having every reason to hate her…I’m not Michaela, but you’re the most wonderful person, for me! Especially how cheerful you were after the revolution in “Praefacio of Blue”, Clarith-san!

I want her to be happy

I like seeing her working so hard.

She feels like the only true “everyman”. So I feel like she’s also the character who “grew” the most. Her meeting with Rin at the monastery on the shore was so sad, I was really touched. I think that Riliane was able to reform as Rin because she had Clarith there for her.

Clarith is so precious, being so negative but also caring for her friends!

I wanna try the brioche that Clarith makes!!

I like everything about her!

I admire her for being so strong.

She’s so dedicated and adorable///

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Artist’s Comments

AkunoP: I think she’s the character who grew up the most through the whole series.

Ichika: She grew the most as a person.

AkunoP: I wanted a character who could see the revolution and the events around it from the perspective of the average person. That was how I came up with Clarith. Actually, she’s a character I came up with even earlier than Elluka, around the same time as the early four. So I’ve gotten pretty attached to her.

Ichika: It feels really good to see her progression from a passive personality to someone who takes action for herself. Also, her catchphrase of “I’m sorry for being alive” is way too easy to use. I found myself blurting it out once while I was working.

AkunoP: That was originally inspired by Daizai. So that might be a bit dangerous as a catchphrase, lol

Ichika: I make sure I only say it when I’m alone in my room, so it’s alright, haha.

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3rd place with 32 votes

Riliane Lucifen d’Autriche (Rin)

(Kagamine Rin)

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Profile

Age: 14--19 (Born 485)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: Orthodox Lucifenian

Religion: Levin Levia Sect--Held sect

Relatives: Father; Arth I (deceased), Mother; Anne (deceased), Brother; Alexiel (Allen) (deceased)

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The princess of Lucifenia. For her outrageous policies she is reviled as the “Daughter of Evil”. After the revolution she lives at a monastery, hiding her true identity.

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--Having survived the revolution, she started a new life in a monastery as “Rin”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 02 Kagamine Rin of “Kagamine Rin/Len” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

I really love that scene where she accepts whatever Clarith is going to do to her after Clarith learned the truth, because it shows how much Riliane has grown up over the story.

I want her to live and be strong.

In this story with so many feelings intersecting, she is such a cool and strong fantasy girl who fought without being swept away!

I earnestly love her. Just lots of love. From the heart.

She really is kind! And she has a sense of responsibility! And she’s so so cute!! And she was so cute as a small child too, I love her to bits! She did get possessed by a demon and all, but she’s really a good kid!!

I want her to be happy…

I think she’s a character that I’ve come to like as I’ve read through the “of Evil” series. I want to support Riliane with all my might, surpassing so much grief to grow up like that. I mean, what I’m trying to say is that Riliane is really cute.

She’s the yellow flower of evil in full bloom!

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Artist’s Comments

AkunoP: I was really unsure of her role in this. I think the people who listened to the original song were largely split into two points of view. That she was just bad from the core, or that it was the fault of outside influences... In the end, she wound up how she is now.

Ichika: I think Riliane’s another character whose personality and general air changed completely between the former and latter halves of the story. There is the change in environment from princess to nun, but I think myself that Allen is the biggest influence.

--Riliane is one of the characters who grew up in a big way.

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4th place with 29 votes

Elluka Clockworker

(Megurine Luka)

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Profile

Age: Secret♥

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia--Stateless

Race: Leviantan

Religion: Levin Levia Sect

Relatives: NO DATE

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A sorceress with a mysterious air about her, and one of the Three Heroes of Lucifenia. Under request of the great land god Held, she is on a journey to search for the “Vessels of Deadly Sin”.

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--Are her farsighted values, unwavering strength, and the humanity that she sometimes displays the secret key to her popularity?

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 03 “Megurine Luka” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

She’s so strong and smart, and a beauty on top of that! She might seem irreverent but she pulls through when it counts, and always winds up helping people. I also think it’s adorable how bad she is at being straightforward with what she wants to say. She’s surrounded by so much mystery and I’m just caught up in it! I like her and I can’t help but be curious about her!!

She’s strong, she’s so strong, so strong. And that scene where she fought with Abyss was so cool!

She’s mysterious, and when all is said and done she’ll help you out, so I really like her.

Whether she’s making any S-like scowls or looking like a beauty, I love it all!

She’s got this feeling that she’ll pull through when push comes to shove, which makes her really cool.

I’m really enchanted with how, as irreverent as she is, she gets on task and focused in situations where she needs to toughen up and get focused.

She’s a really amazing woman, with a lot of depth. I kinda like how playful she is.

I love how Elluka’s so suspicious.

She acts happy go lucky, but her past that you can glean from the Leviantan Catastrophe and Recollective Music Box is way too sad.

I love heeeer!

That mysterious feel she’s got really kills me! Though I guess I like how free-spirited she is, lol. I really wanna learn more about Elluka’s circumstances!

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Artist’s Comments

--She finally showed up on the cover this time!!

Ichika: Seriously…!

AkunoP: That’s just ‘cause she’s a character that never showed up in the original song. You could say it was inevitable in a sense that she couldn’t come out before this point, lol, but I think the inverse of that is that it’s because she didn’t show up before that she’s been so easy to work with. She’s such a mature character that through the whole series she’s had a sort of feel to her that she’s always got some leeway.

Ichika: Elluka’s been such a steady character this whole series. She’s been alive for such a long span of time that she’s gotta be very well-put together mentally. I like characters like that, so I had a lot of fun drawing her.

--There are a lot of opinions up there that they like how she always comes around to helping people, aren’t there.

AkunoP: Well, she is a bit on in years…Er, nevermind.

Ichika: She does seem very helpful.

AkunoP: She’s got a lot of things on the inside that I haven’t written about yet, probably owing to being a character with a lot of leeway, but in her case I do think that she’ll have a lot of opportunities to show up elsewhere, so…That’s in production, lol

--We’ll wait for the Deadly Sins Series with baited breath! Looking forward to it!

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5th place with 26 votes

Kyle Marlon

(KAITO)

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Profile

Age: 26(claims to be 22)--31 (born 474)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Father; Previous king of Marlon (deceased), Mother; Empress Dowager Prim, Sister; Ney (different fathers), half-brother; Arkatoir (different mothers), countless other siblings of different mothers (all dead)

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The young ruler of Marlon. He’s very vexed at being a puppet of his mother, Empress Dowager Prim. He has a very straight-laced personality with a strong sense of justice.

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--Though his status is as a king, he often stands on the front lines and goes out in disguise.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “KAITO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

His bravery when it comes to Michaela is just too cute!

That he was able to overcome the temptations of a demon a second time, despite knowing a demon’s power and having been reliant on them before, and went out to fight with his own power was just so awesome…!

He may be a troublemaker(?) who inadvertently glosses over his age, but Kyle-niisama really pulled through when it came down to it, and I love him for it!

I feel like he’s the character that gets messed with the most, but I really like him a lot (haha).

My vote goes to the young king who experienced love and hatred, came vast to face with his weakness, and in the end majorly grew up.

He’s so pitiful it’s adorable~ And I think he’s a relatively tasty character!!

I wanna shout it out! I frikkin’ love him!

No matter how he’s wavered, no matter how he’s tempted by demons, in the end he stood on his own two feet. I just love him for that!!

I really like his personality. His conversations with Germaine were really funny!

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Artist’s Comments

AkunoP: I’ll say this now that it’s all over, but in the end I did end up liking this character. Only, I didn’t actually want to write him as being that cool.

Ichika: He participated in the revolution, he fell in love, he transformed into a demon…Now that I think on it, he’s a busy guy.

AkunoP: I feel like he’s the character that single-handedly undertakes the idea of “human weakness”. I mean, I don’t think he’s that cool if you look at just his actions, lol.

--The comments calling him “precious” and “incompetent” really stood out.

AkunoP: That’s cause he’s not a hero at all.

Ichika: Looking at him overall I guess he is pretty incompetent...lol

--There was also a comment calling him the “hunky sad king”(haha).

Ichika: lololol

AkunoP: I think that’s perfect lol

--You can’t even get him to follow-up(haha)

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6th place with 25 votes

Gumillia

(Megpoid)

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Profile

Age: 1028--1033 (appears 16--24 on the outside)

Nationality: Elphegort--Kingdom of Lucifenia--Stateless

Race: spirit--Elphe

Religion: Levin Levia sect (publicly)

Relatives: Held (lord), Michaela (same race)

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A sorceress who was a spirit incarnated into a human. She searches for the “Vessels of Deadly Sin” alongside Elluka as her apprentice. She has a very level and calm personality, but she also has a side that’s very caring about her friends.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Megpoid” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

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Fan Comments

I really love the way she talks. And I don’t think I’m the only one who got excited at her wearing glasses in Praeludium. Her and Elluka make a really good duo. I’m really looking forward to seeing their actions in the Pere Noel period in the novels to come. I’m guessing she’s the one who made that handgun.

She’s so cool and awesome! Her glasses really suit her!

She’s very blunt but I really like how that contrasts with how caring she is for her friends.

Her clumsy broken speech is just so incredibly cute!! And she’s so strong!!

I’m just…really interested in Elluka and Gumillia’s journey after this!

The fact that she put on glasses…And I’m very intrigued as to this “important person” that she decided to stay human for!

I wish she could have stayed with Michaela forever.

Obviously it’s Gumillia!

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7th place with 19 votes

Germaine Avadonia

(MEIKO)

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Profile

Age: 20--25 (Born: 480)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia (erased)

Race: Beelzenian

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Adoptive Father; Leonhart (deceased), Adoptive Brother; Allen (deceased)

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The adoptive daughter of one of the Three Heroes of Lucifenia, Leonhart, as well as Allen’s adoptive older sister. She is the “red-armored swordswoman” who garners acclaim as the leader of the Resistance.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “MEIKO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

She’s really stylish. I admire her.

I think it’s so cool that she’s such a gallant woman. I wanted to become someone like her too!!

Those words she said when she came face to face with Rin in the last novel and realized it was Riliane just left me speechless. I really like Germaine’s weak and strong points.

I really love her big-sisterly disposition and compassion. I want her to be happy (。・ω・。)

A woman swordswoman is so cool! She’s so amazing! I feel like she’s the hottest person in all of Daughter of Evil lol. Her line “Just what in the world is evil” in Yellow is my favorite line in all four novels. I want to read how she wound up in Beelzenia after the Revolution.

That line she says during the work about how fast her wounds heal unexpectedly won me over all at once.♪

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8th place with 17 votes

Ney Marlon(Phatipe)

(Akita Neru)

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Profile

Age: 18--23 (age at death) (482--505)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia—Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Behemo sect

Relatives: Mother; Empress Dowager Prim, Older Brother; Kyle, Several other siblings of a different mother, Adoptive mother; Mariam

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Mariam’s adoptive daughter, who takes up a position as head of Marlon’s Special Maneuvers Task Force. From a very young age she was raised by IR as the subject of magical experimentation.

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*This character was based on “Akita Neru”, a derivative of the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 Hatsune Miku published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

Through the work I thought she was a villain the whole time, but after reading Praefacio of Blue I realized that she was actually just a very sad girl. I wish she could have been happy.

The sad end of her life, continuing to be led around by the nose by Prim and a demon, was just tearjerking.

I love her rampaging in the duel scene in Praefacio.

I would be in utter bliss if Ney stabbed me.

I won’t forgive the people who used Ney like that. She’s just too sad. Even though really she was a good kid…

Her crazed expressions, her outfit, I just love everything about her.

She did a lot of horrible things, but Ney was also a victim of the vessels of deadly sin…Also, I absolutely loved Ney wearing Lady Conchita’s dress!

Her crazy face is the best!!!

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9th place with 11 votes

Gast Venom

(Camui Gackpo)

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Profile

Age: 39 at death (461—500)

Nationality: Stateless

Race: Asmodean

Religion: NO DATE

Relatives: Little sister; Sarah (deceased)

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A skilled swordsman who bears the moniker, “Demon of Asmodean”. He is searching for one of the “Vessels of Deadly Sin”, the “Venom Sword”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Gackpoid” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

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Fan Comments

I’m really intrigued by his past. I want to learn more about him, and at the same time I’m hoping we get more info on his excessive sister complex.

You really gotta hurry up with his past mysteries surrounding his sister, Sarah…!! I really like samurai, so I adored the scene where he was fighting with a Japanese sword.

I think he’s really pretty lol. And I liked his how he let Allen hire him because he sympathized with him. During the work I wanted to learn more about the past they alluded to.

It’s too bad he’s only in one book. I wanted to see him do more.

I’m really curious about his sister!

He didn’t show up much but he was really cool!

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10th place with 10 votes

Gallerian Marlon

(KAITO)

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Profile

Nationality: USE

Race: Marlon

Relatives: Wife, daughter

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Kyle Marlon’s descendant. He’s the head judge of the Dark Star Courthouse of the international alliance of USE, founded between the four countries of Marlon, Levianta, Elphegort, and Lucifenia in the year 898. He treasured his daughter, but she passes away in an incident.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “KAITO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

I love the greedy juuudge!! Also the fact that he has a kid. I bet he’s a good cook too. I’m really looking forward to the novel for greed in the new series.

He’s so cool! He’s such a kind father, worrying over his daughter! If you want help, show me the money!!!

I really love the corrupt, miserly judge! The fact that he’s a father who’s caring for his daughter that we learned at the end of Praefacio…Makes me wonder if he’s actually a good guy.

I like Gallerian-san.

First of all, I’m just crazy about the middle-aged, fatherly Galle-sama. I can’t help but be enraptured with him as he persists in pushing his own will even until the very end! I hope he can achieve his utopia!

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11th place with 9 votes (tied)

Yukina Freezis

(Kaai Yuki)

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Profile

Age: 9—14 (Born: 491)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Father; Keel, Mother; Mikina, Little Brother; Shaw, Younger Sister; Aile

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The eldest daughter of the Freezis household. She is an exceedingly popular novelist who made her debut as an author at nine years old. She has created a great many popular works, and her name lives on in posterity.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Vocaloid student “Kaai Yuki” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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Fan Comments

I like how she’s just brimming with curiosity. And that scene where she reunited with Clarith was great.

I love how strong-willed she is!!!

Actually, I was always watching over Yukina’s adventures with my heart racing, like I was her big sis or mother lol

She’s so cute!! I was so excited when I saw that Gallerian-san was reading the books that Yukina-chan wrote in the distant future!!

She’s really grown up… I really wanna read that “Crow” fairytale that got brought up in Praeludium.

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11th place with 9 votes (tied)

Chartette Langley

(Kasane Teto)

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Profile

Age: 26-31 (Born: 474)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia (erased)

Race: NO DATA

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Father, mother

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The head of the Langley unit in the Beelzenian Empire. She is the bearer of extraordinary strength, wielding an enormous sword. She was originally a maid that served in the Lucifenian palace.

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*This character is based on “Kasane Teto”.

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Fan Comments

She has a very lively and simple personality. I think she’d be a fun person to hang out with.

She’s a power fighter who wields a longsword, and I really like her straightforwardness.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I read all four books just because I wanted to read about her gallant figure in it.

She’s one of the few characters in Daughter of Evil to live for the moment rather than being stuck in the past, and it’s really incredible how she’s more about taking action than dwelling on things!

I really love this dummy. Her appearance is adorable but it’s too bad she isn’t at all in how she talks lol

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13th place with 8 votes

Michaela

(Hatsune Miku)

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Profile

Age: 1028—1033 (as a human she dies at 16)

Nationality: Elphegort

Race: Elphe

Religion: Levin Held sect (publicly)

Relatives: Held (lord), Gumillia (same race)

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She was originally a spirit, but she became known as a “diva” when she was reborn into a human. After ending her life as a person, she continued to watch over the world as Held’s successor.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 “Hatsune Miku” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

I want it so she can be happy with Clarith (>_<)

I was really moved by her kindness *

She was so precious, and she was so kind helping out Clarith

I really like her duet with Clarith. I was a little surprised at her being yuri (?)in Wiegenlied, but I think their feelings towards each other, mutually surpassing a friendship, are awesome. I hope she does her best as the new Held god.

I knew she was going to die. I knew it, but, but…I really wish she could have been happy.

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14th place with 7 votes

Riliane (Lily) Mouchet

(Lily)

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Profile

Age: 25 (Born: 480)

Nationality: Marlon (formerly Kingdom of Lucifenia)

Race: Lucifenian

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Father; Gaston (deceased)

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The original commander of Retasan fortress, with a strong-minded personality. She hates the name Riliane, and so goes by “Lily”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Lily” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

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Fan Comments

Gosh I love her ♪(　´０´)ノ

I love her strong-willed personality. The whole time I was reading the book I thought, she’s so cool.

I really love that awesome atmosphere she’s got!

I’m sure I’m not the only one that went all, “It’s Lily!!”. I just love this handsome tomboy general, she’s so awesome. I think it’s her remarks that made it so that Germaine was able to move on ahead. I also love her partnership with Yukina-chan. They’ve got such a great height difference, lol

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15th place with 6 votes (tied)

Keel Freezis

(Hiyama Kiyoteru)

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Profile

Age: 27--32 (Born: 473)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Wife; Mikina, Children; Yukina (eldest daughter) Shaw (eldest son) Aile (youngest daughter)

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A merchant who serves as the head of the merchant trade association. He’s also friends with Marlon’s king Kyle. He’s a doting father, and so when it comes to his children he’s relentless.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Vocaloid teacher “Hiyama Kiyoteru” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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Fan Comments

Love his being a sappy parent and his affection for Yukina. And I’m also intrigued by his conversations with Kyle.

That doting father is just the best!!

The disconnect between his harsh, bad-friend tone towards Kyle and his unending devotion to his daughter is so lovable.

That doting father Keel is adorable lol That scene where he gets furious at Kyle for hugging Yukina was just the best lolol

Him being a loving father is amusing, but his face as a merchant and his friendship (mean friendship?) with King Kyle is also just right on point.

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15th place with 6 votes (tied)

Ayn

(--)

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Profile

Nationality: Elphegort

Race: Elphe

Relatives: Father (deceased), Mother (deceased)

Notes: A boy from Yatski village. Had an unrequited love for Clarith. After Clarith and Michaela fled to Aceid, he enlisted in the Elphegort military. During the Green Hunting he ran to the forest to help save Michaela and Clarith after they were cornered, but he was murdered by the Lucifenian army chasing after them.

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Fan Comments

‘Cause he helped guide Clarith and Michaela until the end. But it was so sad that he couldn’t tell Clarith how he felt about her. I hadn’t been expecting him to write that scene with Yukina and the rest praying before his grave in the third book, so I was really happy for that.

Because even though it was Clarith he really wanted to protect, he protected Michaela, and was so kind.

I wish he could have been happy with Clarith!

He was the hottest guy in the whole work. I wish he could have done more.

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17th place with 5 votes

Leonhart Avadonia

(LEON)

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Profile

Age:  38 at death(462—500)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: NO DATE

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Adoptive children; Germaine, Allen (deceased)

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Allen and Germaine’s adoptive father. He’s one of the Three Heroes, and works as the head of the guard for the Lucifenian royalty. Like Germaine, he likes to drink.

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*This character was independently made based on VOCALOID “LEON” published by ZERO-G.

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Fan Comments

I cried when he died.

His interminably direct personality is so cool.

Those kids have him as a dad, or else this dad has them for kids. They’re a family, even if they’re not related by blood.

I love the older guys ha ha I love him so much, I was so disappointed at how quickly he died in Cloture.

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18th place with 3 votes

Anne Lucifen d’Autriche

(SWEET ANN)

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Profile

Age: Died at 42 (457—499)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: NO DATE

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Husband; Arth I, Daughter; Riliane, Son; Alexiel

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The former queen of the Kingdom of Lucifenia who possessed both strictness and grace, and also Riliane and Allen’s birth mother. She was friends with Empress Dowager Prim of Marlon.

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*This character was independently made based on the VOCALOID 2 “SWEET ANN” published by PowerFX.

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Fan Comments

She didn’t get much screentime, lolol but I think she’s great with her dependability and grace.

I would have liked to see a record of her child-rearing work when Riliane and Alexiel were still little ankle biters. Maybe she was an unexpectedly scary mom (and conversely maybe King Arth spoiled them).

I think she was a fantastic queen. I tear up when I think about how the twins’ fates would have changed if she’d still been alive…Also, I’d be really happy if we could see her again in something set in the past.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Mariam Phatipe

(MIRIAM)

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Profile

Age: Died at 32 (468—500)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: Asmodeanian

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Adoptive child; Ney

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A very skilled secret agent, and one of the Three Heroes. Also a former associate of Gast’s. Her duel with Chartette during the revolution was talked about as the “Battle of the Heavenly Yard”.

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*This character was independently made based on VOCALOID “MIRIAM” published by ZERO-G.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Aile Freezis

(Tsukuyomi Ai)

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Profile

Age: 10 (Born: 495)

Nationality: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Father; Keel, Mother; Mikina, Big Sister; Yukina, Big Brother; Shaw

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The second daughter of the Freezis family. She takes after her mother in appearance and personality, and so has inherited her mature standing. She’s had a weak constitution ever since she was young, and for a time Mikina would be constantly tending to her.

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*This character was based on the VOICEROID character “Tsukuyomi Ai” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Prim Marlon

(PRIMA)

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Profile

Age: 48 at death (457—505)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Lucifenian

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Husband; Previous King Marlon (deceased), Son; Kyle, Daughter; Ney (deceased), Younger brother; Presi (deceased)

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The Empress Dowager of Marlon, and Kyle and Ney’s birth mother. She’s a Lucifenian noble, born from the Rogzé family.

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*This character was independently made based on VOCALOID02 “PRIMA” published by ZERO-G.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Arkatoir Marlon

(?)

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Profile

Nationality: Marlon

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Race: Marlon

Relatives: Father; Previous King Marlon, Mother, Half-brother: Kyle, countless other half-siblings (all dead)

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Banica Conchita

(MEIKO)

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Profile

Age: 29 at death (296—325)

Nationality: Beelzenian Empire

Race: Beelzenian

Relatives: Father; Muzuri, Mother

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The figure who serves as the model for the fairytale “Vampiress Vanika”. She earned great distinction improving on Beelzenia’s food culture.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “MEIKO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Ma

(--)

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Profile

Age: NO DATE

Nationality: NO DATE

Race: Jakokuan

Religion: NO DATE

Relatives: NO DATE

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

The Demon of Gluttony

(MEIKO)

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Profile

Race: Demon of Deadly Sin (takes on the appearance of Banica)

Vessel: Glass of Conchita

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The demon that dwells in the “Vessel of Deadly Sin, Glass of Conchita”. She is trying to become the “Master of the Graveyard”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “MEIKO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Abyss IR

(?)

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Profile

Age: NO DATE

Nationality: Marlon--Stateless

Race: NO DATE

Religion: NO DATE

Relatives: NO DATE

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A sorceress secretly working in the shadow of history. She’s the one who taught Prim about the “Vessels of Deadly Sin”, and always carries around a red cat. What is her true identity--?

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Shaw Freezis

(Tsukuyomi Shouta)

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Profile

Age: 12 (Born: 493)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Father; Keel, Mother; Mikina, Big Sister; Yukina, Little sister; Aile

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The eldest son of the Freezis family, and Yukina’s younger brother. He’s cheeky, but he’s also a young boy who puts his family first. He’s studying know-how on modern commerce as Keel’s heir.

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*This character was based on the VOICEROID character “Tsukuyomi Shouta” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Mikina Freezis

(miki)

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Profile

Age: 32 (Born: 473)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Husband; Keel, Children; Yukina (eldest daughter), Shaw (eldest son), Aile (second daughter)

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Keel’s wife, and mother of three. She has a very good eye for people, but when it comes to her children she turns into a bit of a worrywart.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID2 Artist Engine01 character “SF-A2 codename miki” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Eve Moonlit

(Hatsune Miku)

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Profile

Age: NO DATE (~014)

Nationality: Elphegort

Race: Elphe

Relatives: Husband, children (stillbirth), two adoptive children

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The “Original Sinner” who was the impetus for the creation of the “Seven Deadly Sins” and the “Vessels of Deadly Sin”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 “Hatsune Miku” published by Crypton Future Media.

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Sateriasis Venomania

(Camui Gackpo)

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Profile

Age: NO DATE (~137)

Nationality: Beelzenian Empire

Race: Asmodean

Relatives: NO DATE

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The duke of Asmodean in the Beelzenian Empire. He used a “Vessel of Deadly Sin” to cause the “Venomania Incident”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Gackpoid” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Trauben fruit

(--)

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Profile

Producing area: Entire Evillious region

Classification: Flowering vine

Traits: The fruit grows in bunches, and can be made into things like wine.

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We counted 366 votes in all!

Thank you for all the poll responses!!

directory

[tayman001]

GrimmIchi (post epilogue): Includes some Anime characters and an original character of mine also using Anime terms. 3

Ririn and Kurōdo: The fuck you say?

Taylor (uses his spirit energy): I SAID BACK DOWN! Ririn and Kurōdo (scared): OK... Kazui: still sleeping GAY! Koga: Why yes I am thanks for cluing into that little boy. Ichigo: You do realize old man that he is sleeping. Kazui: still sleeping suck... cock... dad... Ichigo: ... Taylor: Don't tell me you let him over hear you and Grimmjow getting intimate, Ichigo. Grimmjow: This is why I've told you to always close the door honey but you never do. Ichigo: EXUSE ME GRIMM BUT ITS YOU WHO DOES MOST OF THE TALKING DURING OUR ROMANTIC INTERCOURSES LIKE YOU ARE BASICALLY TALKING IN 3RD PERSON AND TELLING YOURSELF TO CHOKE ON MY COCK! Kazui: still sleeping choke... on... dad's... cock... Dadjow... Orihime: You aren't being a very good father right now Ichigo. Riruka: In fact I don't think you should even have any children to take care of because you aren't very responsible. Rukia: Neither are me and Renji and you both don't complain about our parenting skills towards Ichika. Renji: Yeah. Chad: ... Noba: ... Koga: ... Ririn and Kurōdo: ... Taylor: Enough! Who gives a fuck if Kazui learns stuff ahead of time... Most people do. Well based on your reactions it would seem like out of everyone here I'm the only adult here that has. Ichigo: See if you wanna blame anyone blame Taylor. Taylor: Ichigo if I were to teach Kazui anything ahead of time I wouldn't do it behind your back. So your statement holds no grounds since its incorrect. Grimmjow: GO TO SLEEP EVERYONE ITS LATE! Everyone (except Grimmjow): Fine! The next morning Kazui: wakes up before anyone else and plays with Ichigo's fatness Ichigo: unaware of what Kazui is doing since he has become a heavy sleeper Kazui (thinking): Maybe if I suck on one of his moobs he will wake up. Kazui: puts his mouth on Ichigo's right moob and starts to suck it Ichigo: wakes up feeling uneasy and sees Kazui sucking his right moob Kazui what the fuck are you doing? Kazui: doesn't stop Ichigo: Kazui get your mouth off my right moob this instance, young man. Kazui: tries but can't pull his mouth off Ichigo's right moob Ichigo: OK what is wrong now... Ichigo tries to pull Kazui off but can't its like his mouth is glued to Ichigo's right moob Ichigo: WTF IS WRONG WHY CAN'T KAZUI RELEASE MY RIGHT MOOB! Everyone (except Ichigo and Kazui): wake up because of Ichigo's shouting Ichigo: Before you say anything, Kazui woke me up by sucking on my right moob so don't blame me for him being stuck here since I've tried getting him off since I woke up. Taylor: I kinda figured that since you don't look like you are enjoying your son's mouth on your right nipple so I can guarantee I never thought anything of the sort. Taylor proceeds to pull out a strange stick out of his pocket and waves it around which sends a light out from the tip and it hits Kazui which pulls his mouth off Ichigo's right moob Taylor (returning the stick into his pocket): There he is free. Ichigo: WTF WAS THAT STICK! Taylor: Oh its my magic wand which I don't use unless to undo someone's glue pranks since glue and skin just means that they are stuck together forever such as if I hadn't used it Kazui would be hanging from his mouth off your right moob for the rest of his life if I hadn't done that and my guess the one who did the glue prank was... starts looking around for something and finds what he was looking for and grabs what it was and holds it so everyone can see it ...Kon. Kon: Please don't hate me for it I wanted to punish Ichigo for being Gay by gluing his right moob since I wanted to make him and Grimmjow stuck like that forever unfortunately Kazui ruined the plan by getting stuck himself. Ichigo: I'm gonna kill him! Kon: NO PLEASE DON'T! Taylor: Ichigo stop... Ichigo: Why? Taylor: ...I have a better idea. Taylor leaves and returns with a special made Gigai that screams "Kon" Kon: Is that for me? Oh WOW! Taylor removes Kon's Mod Soul Candy and places it inside the special made Gigai Ichigo: And how is this better? Kon quickly starts to inflate with pounds of fat

Kon: WTF YOU TRICKED ME YOU ASSHOLE! Ichigo: I never would have thought you'd trick him like that Tay. Taylor: He will remain mobile though. Meanwhile in the Soul Society At Squad 1's Barracks Shunsui: Hey Nanao? Got any word on Squad 13's status? Nanao: FOR THE LAST TIME NO CAPTAIN THEIR CAPTAIN IS STILL IN THE WORLD OF THE LIVING WITH HER FRIENDS. At Squad 2's Barracks Suì-Fēng (on the phone with Yoruichi who stayed in the World of the Living): Oh you are so naughty Lady Yoruichi! Marechiyo: still recovering from his last remark At Squad 3's Barracks Rose: playing his guitar Izuru: dancing At Squad 4's Barracks Isane: gets tripped by a Squad 11 member I'm sorry. Kiyone: ISANE THEY TRIPPED YOU THEY SHOULD BE THE ONE APOLOGIZING! At Squad 5's Barracks Shinji (on the phone with Hiyori): Admit it idiot you aren't returning to the Soul Society because Aizen is still alive but because the memories of the old days are too much for you to deal with. Momo: Captain I'm gonna go to Squad 10's Barracks. Shinji (ignoring Hiyori's yelling): Sure Momo go ahead. At Squad 6's Barracks Rikichi: Captain where is the Lieutenant? Byakuya: ... Rikichi (thinking): Oh great I'm so dead. Byakuya: He is in the World of the Living with his wife. At Squad 7's Barracks Tetsuzaemon: Atau? Atau: does the sign language for yes Tetsuzaemon: Have you seen Sajin? Atau: points to where he last saw Sajin At Squad 8's Barracks Lisa: Hey Yuyu, wanna go to the World of the Living to pester Taylor to get Line? Yuyu: Definitely! At Squad 9's Barracks Mashiro: Hey where is Kensei and Hisagi? Toshimori: They went home already since they said they wanted alone time since Lieutenant Hisagi is due to give birth early next month so they decided to take the last month off so Lieutenant Hisagi can take it easy and the Captain can be at his husband's side. Mashiro: UGH DO THEY NEVER LEARN! At Squad 10's Barracks Momo arrives at the Barracks Momo: Little Shiro where are you? Rangiku: Oh Hey Momo, If you are looking for my Captain he went to the Rukon District. Momo: So he probably went to visit his Grandma, how sweet. At Squad 11's Barracks Fighting can be heard inside At Squad 12's Barracks Mayuri: Akon you still doing ok down there? Akon (still extremely aroused): Yeah Captain in fact I love being trapped under you. At Squad 13's Barracks Sentarō: Its kinda boring here with the Captain out. Meanwhile in the World of the Living Noba (while no one is paying attention to Kon): opens a portal under Kon and it sends Kon into his stomach Kon (inside Noba's stomach): muffed screams Taylor: Noba if you are hungry I can give a bunch of clones to eat clones specifically designed for vore. Noba is thinking Noba: Sure releases Kon Taylor sends in some clones for Noba to do as he pleases with Noba: opens a portal under the group of clones which sends the clones to his stomach There is a knock at the door To Be Continued

[magioftheseas]

Review x Routes

Recently I finished Collar X Malice, an otome that is...really good! And also topical, lmao. Overall I super recommend it. Otomes in general are super underappreciated as a genre and that’s so sad! Especially when you have gems like this! There’s five routes, so I’ll give some (mostly) non-spoilery thoughts now!

General Synopsis

A terrorist organization named Adonis is in the works. After several months of horrific and seemingly random murders done in the name of injustice while counting down to an apparent X-Day at the end of the year, Shinjuku has been placed under severe quarantine, with the gun ban lifted in hopes that civilians can protect themselves where the police have failed. Ichika Hoshino is a young officer in the newly instated Special Regions Crime Prevention Office, which is a glorified customer service job and mostly has Ichika answering concerned calls. During a patrol, Ichika is captured and collared by Adonis, told that if she wishes to survive, she’ll have to investigate the X-Day cases. But she can’t alert her fellow officers. Instead, she has to recruit the help of a shady detective organization, each person with their own reason for investigating...

Mineo Enomoto

A very sweet and wholesome slowburn! Mineo is a himbo with a tragic backstory that relates to the events of the X-Day incident he’s (allegedly) investigating. Very simplistic and upfront about its themes and message, so it’s on the more basic side but I find Mineo’s likeability more than makes up for it. In addition to Mineo, there’s also more focus on Kazuki, Ichika’s rebellious teen bro, who is like...baby. Baby boy. Their previously estranged relationship is the most mended here, so if the romance isn’t enough, at least come for the family fluff! The side-characters are super likeable too, especially Isshiki. That said, while the first culprit is a fun albeit shallow character, I felt second/main villain of this route was more tell than show. That said. This is objectively the best route on a revisit (after completing all the others). 9/10.

Takeru Sasazuka

Maybe you’re a masochist who wants to be talken down to instead. But you don’t want a guy that’s super macho, more...soft and cute...but still with a sharp tongue and a bitchy streak. Takeru’s the guy for you. He’s also anti-guns. What more could you ask for, really? In all seriousness, while I can be fond of these types, I did like this one more for the plot and the understated-ness of the romance. I actually think it would’ve benefitted from more...smut. I think it would’ve benefitted from having smut. Unfortunately (or fortunately???), otomes are sexless (even if they’re not chaste), so while things get suggestive, it stays rated T. Despite the fact that the game is rated M. Anyway, this is a story about revenge without being super edgy and graphic, which I appreciate. Also there’s some stuff about gaming addiction. If not for the ending super dragging, I’d actually think pretty highly of it despite not completely jibing, but yeah. The ending super drags. Still. The culprits are good. 7/10.

Kei Okazaki

He actually doesn’t go here. Kei’s part of the Special Police (which are glorified bodyguards), assigned to look after Yanagi’s “detective agency” for monitoring purposes. Thus, he actually doesn’t know Ichika’s situation, but he’s still very much interested. That can only go well. (Note: It does not.) Anyway, Kei’s my absolute favorite and I think his route is more or less perfect despite Kei’s pushiness as a romantic lead. Said romance ties really well into the plot not by any connections in the backstory but through its themes. It’s so clever! It’s also deeply emotional with some truly astounding voice-acting! So great! Also includes a heartwrenching critique against how violence against women is overlooked and downplayed by police. Definitely one of the most heartbreaking cases in the game, and the main culprit as a villain is also just incredible as not only a tragic (but terrifying) character, but also-also a foil. He’s a vast improvement from the one in Mineo’s route. 10/10!!!

Kageyuki Shiraishi

He’s only avaliable after completing any of the three routes above. Shiraishi is...rather enigmatic and aloof, being someone that Ichika actually hates at first, lmao. He’s apathetic but good at reading people, which makes him uneasy to be around. He gets better. His route is definitely the most about growth, both for him as a character and his relationship with Ichika. It’s definitely impressive and ambitious, I feel, even if I think he’d be better suited for...uh. Like. Dangan Ronpa. Or something. Maybe Ace Attorney. Lmao. That said, he’s a good route...except for the literal last minute. Which sucks. Fucking ass. Holy shit. His route could’ve been a 9/10 or even 10/10 but that ending is so bad. It’s like a 1/10 ending at best. God, poor Shiraishi. Deserved Better/10.

Aiji Yanagi

The true route! The last......and least, imo. Rip. Sorry, Yanagi! As the final route, the romance has to actively compete for focus with the plot revelations and it comes across as not only unbalanced, but underwhelming. Despite Yanagi also being objectively perfect husband material, I personally had a hard time feeling engaged with his relationship with Ichika. Also Ichika isn’t as reliant by necessity on Yanagi as she is on the others. Which *would* be good, except it makes Ichika’s strong attachment to him off the bat feel more sudden and more...forced. I also wasn’t nearly as attached to the main-main villain as I was to the many side-villains we had met until that point. But, it had some interesting elements and I liked how other characters were used and characterized. Yanagi’s relationships to the other male characters are all good. One character, who’s introduced more in Kei’s route but we only get to know here, is actually pretty charismatic and interesting. There are good elements here, but it needed more fleshing out. Rather unfortunately, this *is* the longest route, too. I feel bad. The writers must have seriously struggled. 6/10.

Overall, please play this game. I didn’t even get a chance to talk about how great Ichika herself is. Or the other female characters for that matter.

Ichika more like Ichiban...ka...

[hamliet]

How would you have fixed Tokyo Ghoul (Re)'s ending?

I started answering this with a lot of trepidation and ended answering it extremely enthusiastically. I had a ton of fun writing this. Thank you. 

I would have extended the manga by a few more volumes, and started from chapter 147, which is where I felt things went really off the rails. 

I would have had the basic structure stay the same for a bit, but with a few changes. Kanou would not have committed suicide. Touka’s conversation with Shuu and Nishiki, as well as her conversation with Hide, Akira, and Amon, would have been painful, in which Touka expressed to Akira that she was struggling with her earlier words about how even if her father/someone she loves did something wrong, she would still tell them they were wrong. Akira and Touka bond for real, and Akira is able to help Touka declare, boldly, that Kaneki is worth saving (which Touka believes, but she is scared). Hinami listens, but doesn’t join in on the conversation.

Hide leads Akira and Amon to the CCG, along with Hirako and Yusa. Amon reveals that he is part ghoul, endangering himself, and Akira tells them that if they don’t work with ghouls, they have no chance. Most of the CCG refuses. Saiko, on the other hand, joins Akira, Amon, and Hide as they break away. Hsiao goes with her. Urie is alone and feels lost. 

Saiko, Hsiao, Akira, Amon, Hide et al meet with the ghouls and agree to use the chaos to help search for Kaneki’s body (probably also found via the ring). Touka wants to go, but because she is pregnant, she chooses not to, telling Ayato, Hinami, and Shuu to bring Kaneki back to her. Touka is then left to take care of the kids from underground. 

Since Touka is vulnerable, Mutsuki would appear then to challenge Touka. They fight, and Urie, who has been dealing with the desertion of Saiko and Hsiao, finally goes to find the ghouls. Higemaru joins him. They stumble upon the Mutsutou fight and have a similar confrontation to canon–except it ends with Touka being told to leave by Urie, but returning to tell Mutsuki she understands being abandoned, but hurting others isn’t going to help. Urie comforts Mutsuki in the same way Mucchan once comforted him. Ends with a Mutsurie hug with Mama Touka. 

Kanou shows up, having found where Goat is hiding from tailing Kurona, who came back not knowing where else to go. He overhears that Touka is pregnant and gets greedy. Kimi appears and stops Kanou, giving everyone enough time to escape. She takes the ghouls to the CCG with Mutsuki, Aura, and Urie’s help; Yoriko decides to be brave and refuses to allow anyone to hurt them, which means both Mutsuki and Touka. Takeomi would, of course, protect his wife. 

Meanwhile, Ayato, Nishiki, Shuu, et al are searching for Kaneki. Shuu gets increasingly distraught at the destruction Kaneki has wreaked and remembers Karren. Amon is the one who digs Kaneki up, but with help from Takizawa, who returns the cross, and Hakatori. They bring Kaneki to the CCG as well. Nishiki and Kimi reunite. 

At the CCG, Hsiao has had Enough and she tells everyone at the CCG the truth of what happens in the Sunlit Garden. Aura, who went along with Mutsuki but is still nursing a grudge against ghouls, is particularly challenged by this, and Ui is angry and upset. Touka is terrified for Kaneki, and she and Hide talk, as do she and Yoriko in which she worries that Yoriko will blame her, but Yoriko doesn’t. Kaneki has the Torii Gate scene and wakes up, much like canon, and speaks to Hide, who is quiet and unwilling to be forthcoming. Kaneki goes for a walk with the Quinx and finds that people are turning into ghouls, again like canon. Saiko has a similar reaction to canon. 

The kids from underground are the ones who work out a plan to get to dragon!Rize with Kaneki, as he is immune like in canon. Meanwhile, everyone unites to fight V, who appear with Eto-Owl like in canon. Yusa is told to stay behind by Hirako because he’s a kid, and he and Touka stay with an ailing Saiko.

While fighting, Ui encounters a resurrected Hairu, Tsukiyama a resurrected Karren, Arima for Akira, etc. The Quinx encounter revived Shirazu, and it’s traumatic for everyone. Shuu’s father is killed by zombie Karren. Kaneki and Ayato penetrate deeper into the underground with the kids. They’re attacked by clones, and Kaneki protects the underground kids, thereby partially earning his redemption. Meanwhile, Yoriko begins to turn into a ghoul. 

V reveals again that they’ve been eating the corpses of investigators. Akira is using Fueguchi as her quinque and regrets it when she sees Hinami’s face, and they both realize that this is what V wants: to destroy their tenuous alliance.  Akira hesitates using Fueguchi, and Takizawa saves her from the attack she left herself vulnerable to. Kurona appears, telling Takizawa they have to stop Kanou, who shows up with a barely-alive Hajime. Amon is horrified by what’s happened to Hajime and angry at Kaneki, before remembering that he has been willing to do similar things to Hinami. Donato and the clowns appear, and Amon fights Donato in a rage, until he remembers what Akira said earlier about good and bad being a part of parents, and Touka’s words about loving someone yet hating their actions. He tells Donato he loved him. Donato saves Amon from a V agent even though it costs him his own life.

Yomo and Uta fight much like in canon, with the same metaphorical imagery, and Yomo and Uta end it by coming to a genuine understanding and empathy even if they don’t see eye to eye. Kurona, Hakatori, and Takizawa fight Kanou while Amon takes Hajime to safety with Kimi, who redeems herself by helping saving Hajime, and Nishiki helps her. Akira saves Takizawa. Juuzou, terrified by whatever Kanou might have done to Shinohara, stops Kanou in the end, saving Kurona… only to begin to turn into a ghoul himself. His squad stay with him. 

Kaneki finds Furuta. Ayato falls behind again like in canon. Kaneki and Furuta fight. Kaneki says something along the lines of how his life isn’t stylish, how he’s done terrible things and even has the blood of children on him, but he has a child on the way, a child with his blood too, and that he is alive, and he is not going to waste this life no matter how long or short it might be. Furuta reveals again that he wants everything, imagining a good life with Rize. He is defeated, but not killed, and asks if he, who has done so much evil and is dying anyways, has anything good to offer the world. Kaneki thinks of Touka and tells Furuta if he has someone he loves, he does. They then proceed to the Sunlit Garden. 

Touka is terrified for Yoriko and works with Takeomi and Hide to venture into the lab for some kind of cure… where she finds Arata and Yoshimura. Distraught by her two father figures and hearing reports of Eto attacking people out there, she vows to do better for her child, and she and Hide free both Arata and Yoshimura… who recognize them and, without life support, don’t have long to live. Yoshimura leaves with Hide; Arata and Touka have a difficult conversation.

Rize is located in the Sunlit Garden. Kaneki and Rize fight, with the easy answer being killing everyone in the Sunlit Garden–including Rize, but also the children. He refuses. Shirazu and Urie have a particularly brutal fight, in which Urie’s insecurity issues come out and he starts to go kakuja again. Mutsuki kicks his ass and Urie tells Mutsuki that he loves him, and Mutsuki tells Urie he doesn’t need to earn his care, and realizes that all of what Urie has said is because he loves him but sucks at expressing it. They kiss. Meanwhile, Ayato’s fight is not going well, but just when it looks like all is lost, someone else saves him: Arata! Led there by Hinami, who found him with Touka and went to save him. Ayato and Hinami kiss. 

Seeing Kaneki fighting to help save the kids angers Furuta, who shouts at him about hurting the Oggai, remembers his own sins towards children and those against him as a child, and in the end, he gives the last bit he has to give Rize back her consciousness, to heal her (yes she eats part of him). She remembers who she is while he is still alive, and he tells her she has to live, and he makes Kaneki promise to let her live. He dies thinking that, in those moments at least, he lived, and that perhaps if he had been able to think better, he could have lived all along. Kaneki realizes that it doesn’t matter if you have someone you love: either way, your life is valuable. Scarred lives are beautiful, too, and he thinks of Hide. 

Rize getting her consciousness back wakes up all the other puppets of Kanou’s. Yoshimura ventures to the battlefield, led by Hide, and finds Eto, whom Hide had been working for. Yoshimura helps Eto turn on and kill Kaiko before they both die, at peace with one another. Ui assures Hairu that she is loved, kissing her before she dies in his arms. Karren recognizes Shuu and tells him she’s sorry for what happened to his father, but Shuu is the one who apologizes to her. Arima sees Hirako again and apologizes to him and to Ui. Shirazu is able to say a proper goodbye to Mutsuki and Urie, and asks for them to say goodbye to Saiko and Haru. The resurrected die. 

Kaneki gives Rize his shirt to cover her, and they lead the children of the Sunlit Garden out into the light, encountering Ayato and Hinami and leading them (as children) out of the dark too. 

Epilogue: Shikorae is tracked down post-battle, as is canon, but while he thinks of himself as an eldritch horror abomination, Kimi and the rest are able to help him, so that he is able to return to being Rio. Akira gives Hinami Fueguchi to bury. 

Touka gives birth to Ichika, Shinohara wakes up and accepts Juuzou even as a ghoul, the large mass of humanity who are now ghouls provoke change so that the gov’t and CCG are actively working on treatment plans with Kimi leading them. Yoriko is accepted as a ghoul as well.

Edits for clarity: Urie tells Mutsuki he loves him at their first fight; Mutsuki decides to love Urie in the fight with Shirazu. Touka accepting Yoriko as a ghoul and that it’s not something for her to feel terribly about is part of Touka accepting herself as a ghoul. 

Other edits: Oh, and Furuta? Maybe leave it ambiguous as to whether he died or asked Kaneki to let him escape. 

[uraharashouten]

Anonymous said:

What is the long game Urahara aims to play? o:

I’ve been wondering that myself for awhile, Anon. But I think two places we can look to find clues as to his motives and end goals are his research and his chosen champions.

His Research

First, consider where he’s been directing his research efforts over the past century and change: Blurring boundaries. The Hougyoku was an avenue he used to explore erasing the boundaries between Hollow and Shinigami, before he deemed it too dangerous. After that, he turned his attention to blurring the lines between Human and Shinigami. And to that end -- creating artificial life.

Exhibit A: Isshin’s gigai. Isn’t it interesting that, when Isshin wanted to save Masaki, Kisuke already had this human-shell gigai for him to step into? No doubt it was an upgrade from the reiatsu-blocking ones he had designed for himself and the Visored on exile. But this was a new and improved model, capable of all human biological functions including reproduction, so he must have kept working on it.

Exhibit B: Ichigo.  Let’s not forget Kisuke was directly responsible for Ichigo’s conception, the product of a Quincy human and a human-locked shinigami. But that alone wasn’t enough. When events conspired -- or he conspired events -- to land Ichigo in the position of needing to get his shinigami powers back, Kisuke’s solution was to sever his chain of fate. This effectively ended Ichigo’s life as a normal Human, for good. In some sense, being the child of a dead man and now being technically dead himself, Ichigo is a functional prototype of a natural-born Human that is able to fluidly travel between the worlds of the living and the dead. Now we’re definitely blurring lines.

Exhibit C: Rukia’s gigai. It was remarkably well-made, as stated by Twelfth-Division; practically indistinguishable from Human -- and in fact, had the added feature of actively sapping her reiatsu to turn her Human, given enough time. Presumably this would represent a further revision to Isshin’s gigai. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest he might have continued his Human-Shinigami breeding program using her, if things had worked out differently.

Exhibit D: Nemu Kurotsuchi. No, she is not Kisuke’s creation. But since Mayuri is obsessed with surpassing his predecessor, doesn’t it stand to reason that his own research would be along the same lines, no doubt informed by the direction of Kisuke’s research, but striving to one-up him? Mayuri developed an artificial soul, capable of growth. That’s half the battle, right there. Which brings me to...

Exhibit E: Ururu and Jinta. We don’t know exactly what they are when we meet them, but it becomes clear that they have the capabilities of mod souls. Project Spearhead, which was about installing mod souls in recently-deceased human corpses, was retired because (at least according to the party line) it was deemed unethical. But what if you installed an artificial soul, capable of development, in an artificial human body, capable of development? Something like Isshin’s Human shell, only in child form, and with the possibility to grow...  Sorry, Mayuri, he’s still one up on you.

Why, though? Why is he so interested in artificial reproduction? Well, perhaps we can find a clue to his motives by looking at his champions.

His Chosen Champions

Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia are not only the co-protagonists of Bleach, they’re Urahara’s co-champions. This is easier to see with Ichigo -- we get training montages and missions -- but a little harder to see with Rukia. Nevertheless, Rukia is important to Kisuke. At first she seems to be merely his pawn and secure Hougyoku lock-box, but as that fails to work out and both Ichigo’s and her powers develop, he seems to have something different in mind for the team -- as revealed on his ‘deathbed’, when he dramatically states he is leaving everything to those two.

And what do they have in common? Compassion. Ichigo is fiercely protective to those who can’t protect themselves, and even wants to reform Soul Society.* Rukia believes it is a shinigami’s duty to protect every conscious soul.  Now, considering that would include Pluses, recall Mayuri liquidating 28,000 of them in order to maintain the Balance during the Thousand Year Blood War. As one-time captain of Twelfth Division, that would have been Urahara’s responsibility. I have to believe that a man whose bankai is based on a Bodhisattva of Compassion would be looking for a system overhaul that would not necessitate the destruction of conscious souls, wouldn’t you? 

Kisuke wants to disrupt the Soul Economy

If you think about where souls come from and who is capable of producing new ones, you begin to see a problem. It’s apparent from canon that Shinigami reproduction only happens among those with high reiryoku, and most likely the purview of nobles. The human population of earth has grown exponentially in the last century, resulting in a high demand for souls. A number of these can be recycled from Hollows like Menos Grande that are high-capacity soul pinatas, but it still puts a strain on the system. And Quincies present a particular problem and an additional strain in that they destroy souls entirely.

Soul Society as an afterlife is already problematic, forcing Pluses with little reiatsu to live in squalor, basically waiting for their turn to be recycled. It’s not a great time for them. The ruling class actively disrupts any attempt to organize; Souls in Rukongai live in makeshift families because they can’t find their own. Anyone who exhibits any “talent” insofar as exhibiting reiryoku is either recruited to the Academy or, if they refuse to serve the Seretei, considered a dangerous element and sidelined in the Maggot’s Nest. The entire system is in place to serve the Soul aristocracy. 

Urahara was fine with serving the System as long as they left him alone to do Science -- but I believe that being railroaded by the System and sent into wrongful exile came as something of a wake-up call to him. He was always subversive; lately he has channeled his subversion into upsetting the established order in new and creative ways. He had some plan with Ichigo and Rukia that we must presume did not pan out, because -- well look at the Bleach ending. There was no climactic event requiring their cooperation. And in the aftermath, status quo upheld. Ichigo’s dream of reforming Soul Society unrealized. Mission failed, Plan B in place: Human-Shinigami breeding program continues with Kazui; procreation on the part of non-Noble-blooded Rukongai-hailing folks implemented in Ichika. But it’s hardly the best he could do...

So: imagine if, by pioneering research into an alternate means of new soul production, he could eliminate the resource constraints that lead to conflict and aristocratic control? And imagine if all Pluses could have some degree of reiryoku and a little more self-determination, rather than stuck in limbo, at the mercy of the ruling class? Imagine, if you will, that the afterlife didn’t suck so much? Wouldn’t that be nice?

...He’s working on it.

[[ shout-out to @nightbeat-cat​ for helping me hash out my thoughts, and no doubt having significant influence on them! ]]

[nayrael]

My Thoughts on Ch81

- the image above is from the author’s Twitter. Has anyone else noticed that we don’t get Chapter Covers as much as before? I think the last time we got one, it was because the magazine decided to give this Manga the colored treatment

- Ichika: 0, Nino: 2 - I liked both that Nino confronted Ichika on her wicked scehems, and for the perfect reply she gave Ichika when she tried to make herself look same as Nino

- Good Girl Nino, telling her crush to go comfort her love rival. People may call Yotsuba a Saint, but Yotsuba isn’t pursuing Fuutarou so it’s easy for her to take “risks” that may lead to Fuutarou falling for her sister

- and the arc’s biggest twist yet: Fuutarou knew that Miku had a crush on him. He is like Jun from Tomo-chan: he pretends to be dense to keep the relationship(s) simple

- I also liked his conversation with Yotsuba. He didn’t tell her that she did nothing wrong, and they have quite a profound discussion on the topic of happiness (Fuutarou, are you trying to woo Yotsuba as well?)

- but this part of the speech was self-reflectory I think. He understands that he will soon have to choose which Quint’s love he shall accept, and which ones he will have to reject... or which Quint he will make happy, and which Quint’s hearts will have to break

- interestingly, this conversation and the reveal that Fuutarou was aware of Miku’s feelings change the meaning of certain scenes in Chapter 72 as well

- in that chapter he knew Miku loved him, but didn’t think of her when Yotsuba brought the topic of how he felt about love. Cruel man, very cruel. This revelation also explains his strange reaction when Yotsuba brought up Miku in their conversation about love

- back to the newest chapter, it is confirmed that there is a stalker... or someone keeping a surveillance on the Quints. I am in agreement with a friend of mine: I am not sure what is the point of this subplot now. The story already has a lot on the plate. I mean, even if an incriminating photo has to start a new major subplot, is this really necessary? Just some student taking a photo and putting it on the Internet would be good enough

- in a different world, we would have gotten a scene where Fuutarou and Miku got some time alone. Miku would bring out some bread she baked, and we would expect it to be another joke on the fact that it sucked (because in this world, we weren’t told before that Miku successfully baked edible bread). Both we and Fuutarou would be surprised that she did a great work, and then she would take as aback with a confession. Fuutarou would be surprised by the confession, but then tell her that he knew for a long time that she loved him, surprising both us and Miku. It would be a chapter to remember

- but alas, this is a different world and the entire confession had been spoiled. We knew already that Miku made delicious bread. We knew that Miku was about to confess. Fuutarou will not be surprised by the confession because of Yotsuba’s mistake. And we know now that Fuutarou knew about her feelings since the “Scrambled Eggs” arc, so that is another surprise less. I have no doubt that Miku will confess soon, but that scene won’t have much of a bang because everything was spoiled. And it will hardly be able to compete with Nino’s epic confession scene from ch60

- well, unless Fuutarou says that he loves her too, but the fact that Nino had to make him go after Miku, and that he was not at all happy that Nino made him do it, does not make me feel like he is in love. Nino’s and Ichika’s argument seemed more important to him

- as such, I do not know whom to feel sorry for more: for Miku or for her fans, who waited for 70 chapters to get to Miku’s confession. But some of her fans act like sore losers: by reading their posts, you’d think that Nino was the one who dressed as Miku and ruined her romance, not Ichika

- a wishful part of me says that she wants to make up for her mistakes. Another part of me thinks that she is going to abuse that photo of little Fuutarou and the Little Quint, and thus continue to dig her own hole

- 36 chapters ago, Miku helped Nino get over her issues. I guess now it’s time to Nino to pay her sister back?

All in all, I loved this chapter. I loved seeing Nino be great again, and Fuutarou’s conversation with Yotsuba was one of those things that remind me of why this is such a great Harem Manga. The next chapter... ah sorry, the next battle amongst sisters... can’t come soon enough!

[thatsadorbsyo]

Spark - An RP Story

My #ffxivwrite2018 entries spanned a number of my original characters and several of my ongoing roleplay plots, but I also had one self-contained and completed story in the mix, and I wanted to collect all of its parts in one place and set them apart from the broader challenge.

Below is the story of how K’tara Tyatu, an Ala Mhigan malcontent, came to Kugane with her best friend, a lapsed Qestir named Kimi, to learn how to sell drugs and do arson from a young Hingashi yakuza named Makoto Matsuoka.

It’s a romance. Of sorts.

This story spans multiple character viewpoints and contains themes of violence, sex, drugs, arson, manslaughter, ritual mutilation, and depression. Several parts contain explicit sexual content. The full story is about 10,000 words.

Letter (K’tara)

Serendipity (K’tara)

Glow (K’tara)

Validation (K’tara)

Plateau (Makoto)

Marked (Kimi)

Spark (K’tara)

Undertone (Makoto)

Not A Weapon (Makoto)

Fling (K’tara)

Dote (Makoto)

Close (K’tara)

Click the links above to visit each post in its original place, or click-through below to read the story in full. 

You may also wish to read Ichika Tanaka’s story, which provides some background information on Kiyoshi Matsuoka’s interest in the Star Sapphire Theater.

1. Letter (K’tara)

Somewhere in the stack of mail scattered all over Wyra’to’s floor when he returns from Gyr Abania is tucked a letter.

—

Hey.

Yeah, so, I don’t wanna drag this out or anything. I’m going to Kugane.

Kimi finally got enough gil to pay back that guy she owes (I told you about Kimi, right? I introduced you?) and she wants to stow away on a boat back to Othard and see if she can, I don’t fucking know, beg for forgiveness, suck his dick, whatever she can do to to have him not kill her.

I don’t know why she’s going back. I keep asking her why she doesn’t just stay in Eorzea, but she says she misses home. It almost makes sense to me sometimes, but I still feel like she’d be better off in Ul’dah. And then I spend too much time thinking about Ul’dah and I sorta want to throw up. Did I ever tell you about that dumb cunt who told me that if I never left this city I’d just end up with my thumb elbow-deep in my own ass, helpless, while the Sultana bends my people over just like Garlemald did?

I wanted to kick her teeth in, but part of me thinks she’s right. I can’t do shit here. Nobody wants to give me a chance, they’ve already decided who I am the moment I open my mouth. Maybe I’d do better somewhere else.

Maybe I can’t actually help Ala Mhigans. I’m still gagging on that pill, but it’s starting to go down.

I can help Kimi, though. She needs backup, if she’s going to go into this snake den of whatever the fuck Hingashi is all about. I can help my friend. That ain’t nothing.

Sorry for not mentioning this before you left. You have your own shit to deal with, and I didn’t really wanna pile on. You don’t need to be worried about me while you’re, uh, busting your skull open on rocks and sand worms or whatever you’re doing. I’m glad you have that to focus you, but the monk shit never really worked for me. All that focus, discipline, fuck, dude, that ain’t me. That ain’t me at all. I do wanna honor Ralgr and shit, but I need to find another way.

I wish I could tell you when I’ll be back (I’m pretty sure it’s “when” and not “if”), but to be honest, I haven’t thought that far ahead. Assuming we don’t get arrested for stowing away as soon as we get to port, I planned on winging it from there. But, hey, if you’re ever in Kugane, please come visit. I don’t know where I’ll be sleeping, but chances are good I’ll be in linkpearl range.

[Something is scratched out here.]

Stay safe.

K’tara

2. Serendipity (K’tara)

Makoto ended up being one of those guys who liked to spread out at the table, slumped down in the couch with his knees in different prefectures. Unfortunately, so was K’tara, which made finding space for all three of them around a tea table in the dingy back room of a sushi joint a bit awkward.

Kimi had to perch on the arm of one couch so that K’tara could take over the rest, squatting forward with her arms resting on her knees and fingers dangling toward the floor. She looked over the paraphernalia on the table--tiny bottles, droppers, some stray powder, a deck of cards--and then studied Makoto like she was looking down the barrel of a blasphemously gaudy gun.

One unkempt eyebrow raised in mild disbelief as she appraised the hoard in front of them. "All that gil… for this much?" She jerked her thumb over at Kimi, who was trying her best to look as demure and inoffensive as a Xaela can. "She worked for the better part of a year! For--what--one, two… five bottles? What’s this shit?" K’tara picked up a small packet of powder and flicked it back onto the table with disgust.

Makoto leaned forward, mimicking her posture to pick the packet back up and set it off to the side, leaning it upright against some liquor bottles. He rested his hands on his thighs and stared silently at K’tara for long enough to make her leg start jittering--long enough for the violent shade of yellow on his robe to make her eyes want to water--before finally answering her question.

"Oh, that? You can't have that. That’s Serendipity." He dismissed her with a small smile.

"Uh, no. We want it. We want Serendipity or we're gone tonight."

Kimi shrank into the corner and hissed into both hands, which were cupped around the linkpearl hanging from her horn. "If you’re trying to get us killed, just tell him he has a girly name."

K’tara brushed her off, aiming an elbow in the general direction of Kimi's knee. Her eyes were deadlocked with Makoto's, which was nice because it meant she could focus on his face instead of his clothes. He wasn't a bad looking guy--he had an impressive jaw for a hyur, a tight haircut, a firm build. No wonder Kimi had fucked him with her guard down until he'd fucked her over.

He pointed at Kimi without looking at her. "Your Qestir friend can't help herself around Serendipity. She fucks like a Roegadyn in international waters, did you know that? She tried to put her tongue in my ass. Disgusting." He spat at her. It fell a bit short of hitting her leg, but it's the thought that counts.

"Did you really?" K'tara blurted before she could stop herself, and immediately regretted it. She shook her head, no, focus up. "C'mon, man, give me a shot. I'll keep it away from her."

Makoto dragged his hand over the shadow of stubble around his mouth, deliberating her request for a good few minutes. Chatter from other rooms of the restaurant filtered in, the merry sound of plates and glasses clinking together coming from the basin down the hall. A whole city was bustling around them, and K'tara was stuck here in a tiny little room that stank like fish while this smarmy prick measured her worth. It was like she never fucking left Ul'dah--same jackasses, different smells. Her knee bounced restlessly, making her whole body shake with thinly contained rage.

"Maybe we take it together," he finally grumbled, looking back and forth between K'tara and Kimi. "You. Me. Her. See how well you handle yourself. See if I can trust you with it." His eyes settled on K'tara, lingering over the exposed midriff under her short jacket. Her flat stomach rose and fell with metered breaths as she squashed her initial reaction, which was to flip the table and fight her way out.

This wasn't the place. Even she knew that.

Kimi's carefully blank expression gave no clues as to what K'tara should do. Thanks for the help, whore. She covered her eyes with one hand, resigning herself to a stressful evening. "Yeah, okay. Can we bug out, though? I don't wanna be high here. This place fucking stinks."

3. Glow (K’tara)

Despite his protestations, Makoto ended up also being the kind of guy who liked getting his ass eaten. Who would've thought?

He took K’tara and Kimi up to the balcony of a hostelry on the edge of the city, where the sea air smelled pleasant enough for K’tara to want to get high. Cheerfully colored paper lanterns were strung along the balcony overhang, lining the view of Kugane. Similar lanterns dotted nearby buildings and along the streets, a cacophony of lights unlike anything she’d ever seen. They were bright enough that when K’tara slumped against the railing and looked up at the night sky, she couldn’t see the stars.

Kimi insisted on wearing her mask, only tugging the bandanna down long enough to lean forward in Makoto’s lap and inhale a bit of pale pink powder from the tea table at the back of the deck. The two of them whispered quietly to themselves, passing telling gropes between them as they laughed, and K’tara probably would have just left them alone to their inevitable conclusion if not for the fact that she wanted some of that Serendipity.

She walked up to the table and sprawled out on the floor across from them, legs spread apart and arms draped over her knees. Small piles of powder were scattered across the glass tabletop, with rolled up straws of paper and a few stray bottles of sake. K’tara looked around for some matches. “...I can’t smoke this?”

Makoto regarded her with a lazy glance that soon turned to mirthful derision. “That one asks if she can smoke it,” he rumbled into Kimi’s horn, and her eyes narrowed at K’tara, crinkling with good humor at a friend’s expense.

Frustration bloomed hot in her chest, overpowering the undercurrent of embarrassment. “Yeah, so I’m not a fucking addict, forgive me. What do I do with it?”

Kimi gave a small yelp of protest when Makoto picked her up and planted her on the sofa so that he could join K’tara on the floor. He sprawled out in a similar fashion to her, draping one arm over her shoulders and reaching across her lap to pick up one of the paper straws.

“Here,” he passed it into her hand. K’tara turned it over between her fingers, staring at it like it was some esoteric technology that she had to decipher how to use. “Inhale it through the nose. It will hurt.”

“I’ll show you!” Kimi added helpfully, tugging her mask down again and picking up another straw. She snorted the Serendipity like a professional, closing one nostril with her finger while the other swept up a line of powder through the straw. If it really did hurt, she either hid it well or had gone numb to it already, because she surfaced with a serene, unhidden smile.

K’tara watched this with a steel gaze while Makoto’s hand caressed her shoulder and slid down her side, his fingers brushing over the sideswell of her chest. She didn’t hate how warm his palm felt on her skin, and that was the moment when she decided that if he tried to fuck her, she’d let him do it.

She put the straw to her nose and tried to mimic Kimi, quickly inhaling a small amount of powder from one of the tiny piles. Makoto grabbed both of her shoulders and held her firmly in place while he pain radiated through her sinuses, making her drop the straw and grab her head. “Ohhh gods, what the--you guys do this for fun? This is fun to you?” she moaned.

Kimi gave a breezy shrug, putting her mask back on and leaning back into the couch. She crossed her legs and kicked her foot absently. “It gets easier.”

Makoto slid K’tara’s ponytail over her shoulder while she was slumped over and clutching her face in pain, dragging his finger across the back of her neck just along the neckline of her undershirt. His lips were as warm as his hands when he pressed a kiss under her hair, breathing hot on her skin. “You are going to feel very good. Give it time.” His voice was quiet and not unkind, almost soothing.

She watched Kimi’s face while she waited for the pain to subside, a series of emotions flitting across her friend’s eyes over the mask while she watched them. It looked like she eventually settled on jealousy, but it was hard to tell, because over the next few seconds, Kimi’s limbal rings started to glow. More than usual, bright blue lights leaving motion trails through the darkness when Kimi stood up and walked over to Makoto, resolutely unbuckling his pants.

“What the fuck...?” K’tara whispered softly, her face twisted with confusion. She looked around, and the lanterns were glowing too. Gentle purples and blues leaving trails across the black sky as they rocked back and forth in the light breeze.

“There. You see?” Makoto laughed, untying his robe and letting it slide to the ground so Kimi could pull his dick into her mouth. Underneath was a network of tattoos that covered his entire back and upper arms--dragons, fish, trees, swords, all of them glowing with dazzling color and shifting as his muscles flexed.

K’tara was rooted to the spot, unable to look away. He was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen in her life. Powerful, decorated, well-connected, sexy. She didn’t want to fuck him--she wanted to be him.

Well... okay, she still wanted to fuck him, but suddenly she was a third wheel. His eyes fluttered closed to focus on thrusting up into Kimi’s mouth, one hand on the back of her head, and something about the intimacy of the moment made K’tara feel awkward about watching them. She peeled herself up from the floor and trundled over to the railing, leaning against it to look down at Kugane spreading across the beach below.

What was already a dizzying view before made K’tara have to clutch the banister now, Serendipity amplifying the glow of the city until it was an indecipherable mess of light noise. It almost hurt to look at.

The Ruby Sea glowed turquoise from the edge of the pier, fading to a dark purple at the horizon. Kugane itself was a mess of pink and white, with the pleasure district a notable strip of red down the center of the thickest part of the city. Spires of light rose all around her, the tallest buildings with glowing yellow from every open window, and still more paper lanterns dancing in the sea breeze.

K’tara was so enthralled by the view that she almost didn’t notice him approach her from behind, groping at her waistband. She shifted her stance, wordlessly letting him tug her pants down while Kimi got on her knees behind him. He was either too high to act like he didn’t want her tongue in his ass, or too focused on K’tara to care.

Makoto gripped her chin firmly and held it in place, keeping her senseless gaze locked on the city while he pushed himself between her legs. Each point of bright light got brighter and blurrier as he fucked her against the railing, the glowing auras widening in radius until a formless glow was all that K’tara could see.

4. Validation (K’tara)

Makoto’s boss mostly dealt in fancy powders, so it took K’tara a while to find something she could smoke that wasn’t opium. Fortunately for her, moko grew pretty much everywhere on Hydaelyn, and Hingashi was no exception. About half a bell of scanning people on the street was all it took for K’tara to find a guy selling pre-rolled cigarettes out of a little box at the end of a line of market stalls. She bought half a dozen of them with Makoto’s money and carried them back to the hostelry with a bounce in her heel, hands jammed into her coat pockets.

She lit one up on the walk back, but decided to save the rest for after sex or after a job, whichever came sooner.

And as it turned out, what came soonest was Kimi. That selfish bitch passed out in a sake coma on the floor immediately after she finished, drooling on the floorboards with her panties still looped around her ankles.

K’tara dragged herself over to the side table to grab her packet of cigarettes, staring at her friend with a half-hearted sneer of sympathy. “I love her, but she’s the sloppiest sack of shit I’ve ever known.” Her matches weren’t on the table, so she parked a cigarette between her lips and walked around the room, tugging her shirt on straight and looking for her pants.

Makoto watched her wander from his spot on the bed, where he pulled absently on his dick and followed her ass with narrowed eyes. “Not all cunts can be made of flint like you,” he said when she bent over, leaning to the side on his elbow for a better view.

The comment struck her as uproariously nonsensical. She held the spasms of laughter in her stomach with one arm while she dug through her pants pockets, eventually surfacing triumphantly with a half-wasted pack of matches. “If my cunt was flint I’d be serving up a eulogy for your cock right now,” she mumbled around the joint, cupping a flame in her hand to light it.

“Mmm, come here.” He let go of his dick and spread his arms wide across the bed, inviting her gaze. She crossed one arm over her chest while she smoked, leaning against the wall to partially accept his invitation by openly staring.

A moment passed quietly this way, neither tense nor relaxed as they silently probed each other’s intent from across the room. Late evening light filtered in through the paper windows, diffuse and indirect on the bright white sheets that lay rumpled around Makoto’s naked body. His muscular legs were loosely spread, one leg lazily hooked under the other, and K’tara’s eyes trailed up to the cock standing up straight against his tattooed belly.

She sighed on a resigned exhale, smoke pluming in front of her face as she came to terms with her own desire. “Yeah,” she said shortly, pushing away from the wall and padding the ten fulms over to crawl into the bed.

He put both hands on her waist when she grabbed him, holding him at an angle so she could sit down on his cock, knees spread on either side of his lap. They both felt the fluttering throb when they connected, but at first neither of them moved. She simply sat like this, still smoking her cigarette and blowing the smoke in his face with feigned disinterest. “Okay. I’m here,” she rumbled, voice low and quiet. It could have been a challenge.

Makoto watched her thoughtfully, his chest rising and falling with a relaxed rhythm in the muted sunlight. “You have a neglected little spark to you.” His thumbs trailed back and forth over her hipbones as his eyes searched her face, piercing through the haze of her defiant smoke with a placid confidence that she couldn’t quite meet. “Cultivation. That’s what you need. You like drugs? You like fire? I have so many uses for you.”

K’tara felt painfully seen. She had to look away, at the paper windows glowing orange, but Makoto grabbed her jaw and jerked her face back to him, forcing her to meet his intense gaze. Instead of speaking, he pulled her forward and kissed her, opening wide against her lips to pull the smoke on her breath right out of her mouth.

He blew it back in her face and laughed, and her return laughter made her body squeeze him tight. “Well... fuck, yeah, that’s why I’m here. I can handle myself. Use me.” A feedback loop of nervous chuckles tumbled out of her that made them pulse together until they were both panting with the need to move and feel more of each other, grinding on the bed and passing smoke back and forth between them.

5. Plateau (Makoto)

"You must think I'm real fucking pretty, Makoto. You owe my wife reparations for how much you've been fucking me lately. She likes rubies. Go on, write that down." Matsuoka flung a notebook across the desk at Makoto's chest, the pages fluttering loudly in the small office until the book fell at his feet with a quiet thump.

The desk bench gave a moaning creak each time Matsuoka moved. He was a big guy, liked to say his grandma was half-roegadyn, but everyone knew he was just part highlander. None of the brothers ever said that to his face, and Makoto bit back whatever words came to his mouth as he looked down at the little notebook on the floor.

"I bet if I went down to all your little hidey holes," he mimicked a running motion with his fingers, zooming his hand across the desk, "I'd find half a dozen unconscious darkscale sluts with more of my product coating the phlegm in their lungs than you've sold in the past six months. Have you ever fucked a woman who was awake? You should try it sometime."

Makoto clenched his jaw and suppressed the urge to pick up the book. He stared at a freckle on Matsuoka's cheek, letting the lieutenant talk about whores until he was finished, as if he had any room to talk on that subject. Losing his vice grip on that cold cunt of a dancer had apparently hit Matsuoka hard, right in the pride. This could take a while.

"I literally pulled your frozen body out of a dumpster because your mama mistook you for garbage..." Not true, Makoto's mother had left him in a basket in front of Miyoko's home back when she was still the boss's wife and not the boss herself. The joke had been that she gave Makoto to the lieutenant because there were decent odds that any abandoned orphan was a Matsuoka anyway. "...And this is how you repay me. I didn't raise you to piss away your potential on whores. When did you stop growing, son?"

This seemed to warrant a response. Makoto shifted in his seat, bending down to pick up the notebook and putting it back on the desk. "You ask this like you don't already know, sir."

Matsuoka pursed his lips, staring at Makoto with paternal scrutiny. He rumbled thoughtfully from somewhere deep in his barrel chest. "Losing Nishiki was hard for all of us, but that's the price of doing business. You cry at the funeral, and then you move on. Mmh." He pulled the book toward him and scribbled down an address before shoving it back across the desk and into Makoto's lap. "You've got a week to show me you can actually make us money instead of flushing all my drugs into the sewer. I want to see results, Makoto. Real gil, on my desk. One week."

The address on the paper blurred as Makoto looked down at it, suddenly unable to focus his eyes when Nishiki's name was mentioned. "It will be done. What's this?"

"You're familiar with the Star Sapphire Theater, aren't you...?" Again, Matsuoka was asking questions he already knew the answer to, his voice adopting a breezy quality that belied the tense way his bench began to creak. Makoto nodded to pacify him, and Matsuoka leaned in conspiratorially, resting both hands on the table. "The family isn't in the business of arson, but all our efforts to buy that shithole out have turned up fruitless. We don't like any of our remaining options, so we thank the damn kami that somebody outside the family is gonna take matters into their own hands."

The pointed look Matsuoka passed him didn't require further explanation, which is fortunate because none was going to be given. Makoto nodded tersely, pushing his chair back as he stood. "Yeah, that's awfully accommodating of them. I already have ideas."

"Excellent! Don't tell me any of them. Just get it done and get out of my sight," Matsuoka called at Makoto's back as he left the office, sliding the partition door shut with a deep sigh of restrained frustration.

He left the office and turned down the street toward the hostelry, fingers clenched into fists inside the pockets of his robe. His whole body throbbed with a dull, impotent anger at Matsuoka, at the family, at his inability to perform lately for no good fucking reason. Drugs didn't sate it, sex didn't sate it, but that didn't stop Makoto from trying them over and over again, like he expected new results every time. He needed something new to get him out of this slump.

Some kind of spark.

6. Marked (Kimi)

The Star Sapphire Theater was one of the crown jewels of Kugane’s pleasure district, with a gaudy facade that enticed passers-by with the promise of girls--dancing girls, singing girls, girls who read poetry, girls who did magic tricks--and woodcut posters that teased even rarer delights, assuming you had enough gil to cover the price of admission.

Kimi stood outside the building in the evening darkness, gazing up at the woodcuts and holding an unlit cigarette. Other theater-goers milled about idly during the intermission under the light from the lanterns, chatting among themselves, smoking under the awning to hide from the light drizzle, or going back inside the club to get drinks from the bar. K’tara was in there somewhere, fighting the urge to assault all the rich people in favor of sneaking around and finding her mark--namely, a point of entry for later and anything that looked conspicuously flammable.

K’tara had her mark, and Kimi had hers. She smiled with her eyes over her mask at the roegadyn bouncer, a grim-looking man with thick sideburns and a braided rat tail who was doing his best to ignore all the customers. Kimi held up her cigarette with a self-deprecating little chuckle and spoke in a thick Steppe accent, “No matches. You have, yes?”

The shock of being spoken to by a Qestir was just enough to pull his eyes away from the middle distance and toward her face, which he studied through squinting eyes. She got a rumbling grunt in response, and the spark of a match coming to life in hands that were larger than her head. Kimi tugged the mask down and put the cigarette to her lips, leaning in toward the flame and tilting her cheek slightly into his hand, just enough for him to notice the difference in size.

“How to get a job here?” She pointed up at the woodcuts covering the windows, tilting her head and appraising them with mild disdain. “They have tits? Okay, so I have tits. Better tits than that. You want to see?” Before she could pull her neckline down, the roegadyn was covering her hands with his own, glancing around furtively with an expression that clearly wondered how this had escalated so much in the space of two breaths.

“I’m sure you’ve got specious tits, sweetheart, but you can’t just pull them out on the street. We’ve had enough decency infractions for the week, we don’t need darkscales stripping down on the patio.” He firmly removed her hand from her decolletage and placed it at her side.

“Mm. Okay, yes, that is fair.” Kimi nodded quickly, puffing on her cigarette and staying in the bouncer’s personal space. “I don’t want trouble. I just want a job. I show you later then, yes? Inside?”

He gave a put-upon sigh and scratched his chin through the braided goatee, weighing his options. “Yeah. Yeah, sure, why not. This place clears out after the eleventh bell, why don’t you come by then. You can show me what you’ve got, how about that?”

Kimi beamed up at him and tossed her cigarette on the ground, snuffing it out with her boot heel even though she’d only taken about three drags from the damn thing. “Of course! Kimi will be here. No funny business, yes? I want job, not, what you say, casting couch.” She poked his chest with one claw and walked off before he had an opportunity to react to that, disappearing into the crowd heading back into the theater.

“I’m good here, how ‘bout you?” K’tara chimed in over the linkpearl.

The flow of people swept her through the entrance hall and back toward the stage, where Kimi pulled her mask back up over her mouth and nose, returning to her seat. “I have a date with the bouncer at eleventh bell. You should be fine to poke around while I keep him busy, yes?” Almost every trace of her accent was suddenly gone.

“Take your mask off, I can’t fucking hear you.”

Kimi rolled her eyes and said nothing, folding her hands in her lap and crossing one leg primly over the other. The show was about to start, and she wouldn’t be the one talking rudely through the performance!

7. Spark (K’tara)

The eerie, quiet darkness of the Star Sapphire Theater offered no resistance to K’tara’s intrusion, and she snuck through the vacant hallways without interruption, creeping slowly toward the auditorium. Distant fireworks and other festival noises could be heard from the matsuri downtown, where the occasional cracking flicker lit up the theater windows whenever the night sky bloomed with sparkling color. The theater itself was empty, as was much of the pleasure district. Most of the city’s populace was crowded into Kugane’s main plaza to eat festival food and watch fireworks, including Kimi and Makoto.

But K’tara had a box of matches clutched in one hand, and Kimi’s mask tied over the lower half of her face. She was here and she was ready to do this, for no other reason or excuse than because someone had looked her in the eyes and asked her to.

The massive red curtains that hung over the main stage stood open in a silent yawn, indifferent to K’tara’s approach. These curtains had endured thousands of performances, offering years of service as window dressing to all varieties of titty shows and even a few notable class act performances, but all K’tara could see in them was chaotic potential.

The tail of the curtain left a dusty grime in the palm of her hand when she reached out to touch the fabric. It had a textured, velvety feel to it, and an unsettling stickiness from years of sitting through the elements. Ugh. K’tara wiped her hands on her pants and pulled three matches out of the box, striking them all at once on the rough strip and tossing them at the curtain’s feet.

At first, nothing happened. The matches burned dutifully down their wooden sticks, cradled in the red fabric. K’tara snarled and lit three more matches, holding them under the curtain instead of tossing them on top. Still nothing happened for a long moment, the match burning down until points of pain bloomed on the tips of K’tara’s fingers. She grit her teeth and held still, waiting... until...

It was the dust that caught first, the sticky film lighting up with a sudden flare that burned out quickly, but not before lighting embers in the fabric itself that soon began to spread, bursting the fire to life. K’tara dropped the match tips and darted over to the other side of the stage, sneakers squeaking on the wooden floor as she slid into place and repeated the process on its twin. Soon, both sides had a sluggish flame creeping up the length of the curtain, embers slowly flickering into lively flame that gave off a stinking black smoke.

She was rooted in place, watching from the edge of the stage with wide, rapt eyes as the two flames raced toward the ceiling, turning the yawning mouth into a fiery, crackling maw. Her heart thudded in her chest with a hammering force that she’d never felt in her life until now. Her fingertips felt like lightning and her head buzzed, ears ringing with the scream of warping wood. K’tara put both palms flat on her head, pushing her hair out of her face and staring at what she’d done, raw jubilation taking her over as she summoned a decent approximation of Ifrit’s face.

The yellow tips of the flame tickled the wooden support beams overhead, smoke slowly filling up the whole top half of the room as the curtain withered and snapped. Paper partitions melted away behind the stage, the fire rolling with an angry fervor as it worked through the wooden walls. One of the curtains fell apart under its own weight, dropping like a blanket onto the carpet and setting several tables on fire beneath it.

She should move.

She should get the fuck out of here.

But she couldn’t stop watching.

The fire took over the entire back wall of the auditorium, creeping through the ruined partitions and into the backstage area. The beams that crisscrossed over the seating area began to squeal menacingly as the embers burned away their supportive core, but that wasn’t what finally got K’tara to move.

A sudden wave of hot air rushed through the theater from the backstage area as countless rows and racks of performance outfits--ruffles, crinoline, giant bows, silk dresses, elaborate headpieces, unique items without number or price--sparked to life. As soon as one piece lit up, two more next to it caught and spread, passing the fire through the dressing room not with the sluggish quality of the heavy curtains but with the airy speed of light, breathable fabric. It spread like gossip.

Someone from the depths of the theater started to scream, and K’tara’s heart stopped. The icy pain of fear gripped her chest and forced her into action, sneakers once again squeaking loudly on the floor as she bolted out of the auditorium and into the lobby, arms held out over her face as she darted into the back and ran through the hallways toward the service exit at the rear of the building. Two hallways were filled with flame as she passed, spewing smoke into her face that made her eyes water and lungs ache, even through the protective mask.

Someone else was running, the frantic clack of high heels interspersed with the sloppy stumbling noise of hands and shins hitting the floor somewhere down a fiery hallway to K’tara’s right. “Is anyone here?!” a woman’s voice called, croaking through a mouth full of ash. “Help me, I can’t--”

K’tara didn’t have time to think. She looked down the hallway, squinting through the smoke, but she couldn’t see anyone in the shadows. The exit door stood right in front of her, safety just on the other side, and perhaps a small part of her wished that this was a more difficult choice, that she would struggle with it a bit longer, but she didn’t.

The night air on the other side of the rear door was cold and clear, filling her dry lungs with crisp and overwhelming freshness. K’tara stifled her coughs in her sleeve and strolled with as much calmness as she could muster through the shadows, not looking back until she’d gotten all the way to the end of the street. There was nothing to see but a few thin wisps of black smoke rising against the blacker night sky, only really visible where it blotted out the stars, and there was no sign of the woman who had called for help.

She pulled the mask down from her face and jammed it into her pocket, turning on her heel and walking with purposeful footsteps toward the sounds of the matsuri. Each step took her further from the inferno, and each fulm made it feel less real, her face cooling off and the adrenaline draining away as she descended into the town square. Her heartbeat was almost back to normal by the time she saw Makoto’s face in the crowd.

8. Undertone (Makoto)

K’tara had a new, bitter flavor on her that morning, and even though it had been years since Nishiki, it didn’t take Makoto long to place it. Her hands at the back of his head trapped him between her legs, and despite this novel detail, he wasn’t in a hurry to pull away. The early sun filtered dimly through his apartment window, granting a sleepy warmth to the sheets of his floor futon and his bare legs, making him feel slow, lazy as he lapped away at his companion, cataloging the flavor.

It didn’t bother him, but maybe something else did.

When she finally let him up to breathe, Makoto crawled up K’tara’s body, planting a kiss between her breasts and another in her wild black hair. She looked sleep-stupid and half-awake, her eyes barely opened into slits that focused on his face, with puffy bags resting just under them on her cheekbones.

“Who did you fuck?” he asked, pressing their bellies together and resting the weight of his cock in the crook of her thigh.

“None yer business,” she croaked in reply, pushing her hair out of her face and tying it up in a loose bun at the crown of her head. She left her hands up on the pillow, elbows spread wide on each side of her face as she stared up at him, daring him to ask more questions.

Makoto reached down to line himself up with her and push inside, not giving her any time to savor the sensation before pressing on. “You let him come inside. You don’t let me do that.”

“You’re not my boyfriend.” She lifted her hips to meet him, legs spread just as wide as her elbows, so that her body was completely open to him despite the clipped and closed nature of her words. His face was blank as he scanned her for any sign of weakness or doubt. He wanted to take her at her word, but something just didn’t match up. Something about how she was here with him, waking up in his apartment to find his face between her legs, even though he never brought girls home.

He couldn’t find what he was looking for, so he dropped his head and fucked her, grabbing her ponytail with one fist and snapping his teeth at her throat. K’tara’s deep groans filled the sparse apartment room as she was rocked around the mattress by the force of his jealousy. He raised up on his knees and grabbed her around the throat, watching closely as her face grew red and her eyes finally opened up, wild and angry. “I could be,” he spat at her, letting the undercurrent of his thoughts break through.

K’tara raised her hands between his forearms and spread her elbows, forcing his hold on her throat loose and gasping harshly for air. “No, you couldn’t.” She wrenched him to the side, rolling them over until his back was on the warm floorboards and she was riding his cock, pushing him into the floor with both hands on his chest. The ruined ponytail flopped messily to the side of her head. “...'cause I’m not stayin' in Kugane.”

Before he could talk back, she clamped a hand over his mouth and shoved his head until it clattered against the floor, rattling his teeth. Makoto rolled his eyes with pain, but she only rode him harder, with deeper urgency that left her moaning openly and him struggling to breathe hotly through his nose over her fingers. He tried to speak, to warn her, but all he could manage was a strangled noise in his throat.

“It’s okay,” she panted. “This is what you want, right? It’s fine. Go ahead.” Her words had an uncharacteristic kindness to them, a softness that wasn’t matched by the vicious way she fucked him, unrelenting, until Makoto closed his eyes and chose to let the current take him.

9. Not A Weapon (Makoto)

The knife sitting on Matsuoka’s desk had never seen a fight. It’s purpose was purely ritual, and as such the wooden sheath was still shiny and unblemished, without any dings or scratches marring the painting of a tree that wrapped around one edge, nor the gleaming black lacquer that covered the rest. Matsuoka pulled the blade free and sat it down on a wooden board, sliding them both across the table until they were directly in front of Makoto.

“I used to wipe your ass, you know,” his voice grumbled lowly. “I could do this for you too.” It was both a challenge and a genuine offer, perhaps the closest thing to a kindness that Makoto could expect from the man who raised him.

Makoto splayed his fingers over the pristine wood block, pressing down until the tips of his fingers turned white. Fear sat curdling in the pit of his stomach at the same time that expectation weighted his shoulders into a hunch. Still, he picked up the knife. “I can do it. Just... let me think.”

He was probably supposed to be meditating on why he was in this situation to begin with, something about atoning for K’tara’s mistake, but all he could think about was Nishiki. Dumb shit like going fishing as kids and dangling their dirty feet off the docks, wiggling their toes in the water and scaring away all the fish. Or the first time they had to fight together, because some merchant’s son mistook them for the guys who had been harassing his kid sister in the markets. Nishiki almost got his eye cut out, and Makoto’s jaw had never gone back into its socket correctly, but they made it out alive, drunk on their own stupid luck.

Less dumb shit like getting a little older and sucking each other off under the docks, the scent of zinc and seaweed overwhelming him as he held tightly to Nishiki’s tan hips and tried so carefully not to gag or cough. Then laying around on the beach like bums for the rest of the evening, letting a film of sand cling to their exposed stomachs and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes until the pinks and oranges of sunset turned to indigo and black.

Makoto felt nothing, the fear and pressure evaporating in the face of the depressive void that crept in like vines and pushed everything else out. Now was as good of a time as any. He could delay all he wanted, but there was never a right time for ritual mutilation.

He started screaming a few seconds before it actually happened, working up the nerve to jerk his hand down, slicing the knife’s blade through his little finger just behind the first knuckle. Everything that came after was static.

10. Fling (K’tara)

The script was simple. Every afternoon, K’tara stood a certain distance away from a specific stall in the Rakuza district, dressed in simple Hingashi peasant clothes. She leaned against an adjacent building, feet splayed out in the dirt in front of her, and half-heartedly passed out a pamphlet from a stack in a large basket to anyone who passed by.

The pamphlets were about some guy named Maeda, a vagrant preacher out in Yanxia who was supposedly giving an allied clan some degree of trouble in Doma. Makoto didn’t elaborate, and K’tara didn’t ask. She did flip through the trifold pages whenever she was bored, looking at the colorful woodstamp images and trying to decipher some sort of meaning from the foreign script until her eyes started to cross and the lines blurred, like maybe she thought an answer would pop out of the page if she stared long enough. Were they pro-Maeda? Anti-Maeda? She had no idea.

Mostly all she felt when she gazed at the strange writing was dizzy, but it was almost like meditation. White noise for her restless soul, forced by a combination of ambition and circumstance to stand idly in one spot until somebody said exactly the right phrase when she passed them a pamphlet. Being here, doing a whole lot of fucking nothing and waiting for something to happen, was the negative space on the canvas of her nomadic existence, and it invited questions to fill the void.

Questions like: What if I stayed in Kugane after all?

The thought bubbled up from nowhere while she focused on indecipherable kanji, tapping her feet without rhythm under the afternoon sun. K’tara blinked with surprise and put the pamphlet back into the stack, withdrawing her arms into her sweeping robe sleeves and hugging her chest tightly.

Okay. So the question was out there. What if she stayed?

Kugane was always meant to be a short stop on a longer journey, but there was nothing that said she had to go back to Eorzea after Kimi moved on to the Steppe. Another two-week boat ride didn’t sound particularly palatable, and besides, Kugane had plenty of work for somebody like her. She couldn’t say as much about Ul’dah, where everyone she met had already made up their minds about who she was the moment they met her and noticed the Ala Mhigan dust on her nose.

“Do you bring tidings from the West, ijin?” A middle-aged man asked her, approaching from the nearby stall with his hand outstretched and an expectant smile on his face, interrupting the tranquility of her uncomfortable navel-gazing.

Oh, fuck. That was her cue. “I bring messages of Serendipity, if you’ll have them,” she recited the line she’d been taught, shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand so she could get a better look at the guy. He was clean, with colorful robes and a funky-looking mustache. Rich, probably. Eccentric.

“I would take them gladly,” he returned crisply with a decisive head nod, exactly on script.

K’tara pulled a pamphlet from a second, smaller stack in her front pocket, one that had a little flat package of Serendipity powder inside it. She passed it to him with a curt bow, which he returned in kind before swiftly moving along down the corridor of stalls, leaving her alone with her thoughts once more.

Her head thunked heavily against the wall behind her, rolling back and forth on her shoulders as she grappled with indecision. There wasn’t much in Eorzea that she’d miss. Not the charity that never actually solved anyone’s problems except for inflating rich people’s egos, letting them believe they’ve made a difference in a small folks’ lives. Not the way the Sultana constantly found ways to funnel money from K’tara’s people into her coffers, no matter how much she deluded herself that she was ‘helping’.

Makoto--

No. Makoto was a fling, and it would be stupid to ever think he was anything other than a fleeting... albeit bright and shining... blip on her life’s radar.

Something in her chest lurched, making her stomach nauseous and her skin tingle. A question dug at her, a sliver of doubt that had taken root in her lungs and blossomed into a garden of uncomfortable choices that she couldn’t ignore forever. But... Makoto had helped her, in a real and active way, instead of just showboating in front of her and telling her pointless platitudes about how pretty she was, as if that was something she cared about. He’d seen potential in her, cultivated it, breathed a spark of life into the clay of her pointless existence.

When was the last time she could say that about anybody?

K’tara wiped angrily at her face with her long sleeve, aggressively shoving an empty pamphlet into the hands of some bewildered passers-by. That ache in her chest felt more and more like an obvious answer that she didn’t want to accept.

She had to stay in Kugane.

No sooner had she had this thought than she heard familiar footsteps, the sharp tap of sharper shoes through the dirt in a specific cadence that could only mean one thing. The vice around her heart loosened as she turned around to see Makoto’s face towering over her, blocking out the Hingashi sun.

She was so glad to see him, so lost in her own thoughts that it took a few beats before she noticed how pale his face was, the olive tones of his skin washed out into a sickly grey. It was another few beats before she noticed the bandage around his hand, carefully wrapped but still seeping blood. Her heart, only just freed, leaped into her throat.

“What the fuck happened to you?” she hissed under her breath, the basket of benign pamphlets completely forgotten.

He stared at her with a stone expression, hard and blank but not cold. His eyes searched her face in that way they always did, scanning the myriad fronts she put up until he found a weakness, and then digging in until he found the spot where she really lived. His hand--the good one, the one not dripping blood--grabbed her shoulder, caressing absently but also pinning her subtly to the wall.

“We have to leave for Eorzea. Tomorrow. Kimi must come too,” he whispered into her ear, which flicked automatically with annoyance.

All she could do was gape at him with disbelief. What rotten fucking timing. “Why?”

“I’ll tell you at the hostelry. Come on, your shift is over.” Makoto slid his arm around her shoulders and guided her toward the edge of the city, a pit of confusion growing harder in her gut with every step.

11. Dote (Makoto)

Makoto couldn't remember the last time he'd cried, but now fresh tears gleamed on his cheeks while K'tara cleaned the mangled stump of his finger. His lips stretched over his teeth in a grimace, and his eyes squinted with sickened disbelief at the crude hackjob that wiggled where the tip of his pinkie finger used to be. He'd actually done it. He really fucking done this to himself. If he hadn't been there, he didn't think he'd believe it.

Yeah, and if he wasn't in so much pain right now, this would be really funny.

K'tara did her best to pull the skin over the stump of bone and sew it shut, a grim determination on her face just like she wore whenever she had a job to do. Her mouth was a thin, dark line, lips pressed together in concentration, head ducked low to the table while she worked so that she could really keep close eye on what she was doing. That girl had an iron fucking stomach--she was ride or die and crazier when sober than a namazu on Matsuoka's finest powder. This was maybe the closest thing she'd ever done to taking care of him like a traditional girlfriend, and here he was crying through the whole fucking thing like a little bitch.

Eventually she sat back, puffing both cheeks in a comically forced exhale, pushing the hair back from her forehead with both hands. "Tha's the best I can do." The needle sat on the table in a pile of bloody bandages, a white thread turned pink with his blood trailing off the end of it. "I'm tryna think of a joke to like, make this less heavy, but all I can come up with is somethin' about how this is gonna make fisting a lot easier for you real soon."

Through the tears, he managed a tight laugh, quickly followed by a pained hiss as his hand throbbed insistently. "Oh, it hurts when I laugh. Why. It's my fucking finger."

She dropped her hands to her knees, spreading them wide under the table and laughing once, deep in her stomach and dark in its fascination. "Laughing puts pressure on everything. Like, uh, like a sneeze. Or like when you cum." Her eyes stayed fixed on her inelegant stitches. "Did I really fuck up that bad?"

"Arson and a murder is a different story than arson alone. Matsuoka says that bouncer knows Kimi's face. They know her name too. If they find her, and she gives me up, that's not just trouble for me. It's trouble for the whole clan." He looked over, and K'tara's eyes were doing that swimmy thing like maybe she wanted to cry but couldn't quite make it happen. Makoto was kinda jealous of her for that. "Is she gonna come easy, or--"

"She'll come," K'tara said firmly, before he could finish. "She's not happy--she really wanted to go to Reunion first, you know? Wanted to see her family, although between you and me, I don't think they'd wanna to talk to her." A moment passed before she realized what she’d said, and when it registered she gave a cruel little chuckle. "I mean, well... you know what I mean."

His finger was throbbing so hard he could feel it in his eyeballs. He could feel it in his fucking teeth. It took everything he had to concentrate on this conversation, so he nodded dumbly without adding anything, simply watching her face.

Silence filled the room like lead, heavy and cold. There wasn't anything to say.

Eventually she picked up his good hand, cradling it in both of her own with her bloody fingertips. She lifted it to her face, turning it over to plant her warm lips right in the center of his palm so that he could feel every hot puff of her breath. He had just enough time to wonder what the fuck she was doing before she curled three of his fingers into his fist and sucked the other two in her mouth, staring at him over his own knuckles. Her eyes were full of deliberate intent, almost defiant, daring him to mention his dumb little finger or the blood that still covered everything.

"You're fucking disgusting." His dick twitched weakly, willing to listen to her argument but struggling to compete with the horror show on his left hand that still firmly demanded his attention. "This isn't the..." He frowned, looking around the room for an excuse not to get turned on with carefully contained desperation, gradually resigning himself to his fate. "Gods, you're a sick bitch," he finally whispered, coming up with nothing to counter her proposal when she slid out of her chair and onto the floor, crawling over to him on her knees.

K'tara dutifully unfastened his pants and pulled him out, taking all of him into her mouth even though he was only half hard. There was a tenderness to this, a naked honesty. She was too polite--or maybe she still felt too guilty--to point out his more reluctant than usual erection. "You wanna slap me?" she asked, and his whole body pulsed with desire. "You wanna punch me? Yeah? Go ahead, this is all my fault anyway, I des--"

The words stopped abruptly when he leaned forward without thinking and dropped his shoulder to aim a short jab at her gut, all the air leaving her body as she gazed dumbly at him with open-mouthed bewilderment. She fell sideways onto the floor, curling up into a little ball until her knees were under her chin and her sneakers were tucked up against her ass. Makoto sagged back in his chair, breathing carefully through a spike of pain in his hand.

"Get up," he growled down at her. When she didn't respond, he shouted it. "Get the fuck up and look at me."

She pulled herself up his legs, gripping his knee with one hand and surfacing slowly while the other arm cradled her guts. Her eyes were sharp steel, and when he opened his mouth to speak, she gave him a return punch to the jaw, hard enough to make him forget whatever he was about to say.

Black blossoms threatened to drown his vision, but he had just enough wits left in the tank to grab her wrist before she could do it again, jerking her forward and into his lap. She kept her momentum until the chair fell backward, sending them both clattering to the floor, panting loudly with pain and fury. Makoto rested his mangled hand up over his head on the floor, out of the path of retribution.

His dick was rock fucking hard now, sitting firm against her belly as they lay sprawled out on the floor, and K'tara spat in his face when she grabbed it and pushed it between her legs. Makoto closed his eyes against the spittle and let her take it out on him, all of her sharp teeth and angry tears on one end, and the squeeze of soft, wet oblivion on the other.

This was how they cared for each other.

This was how they showed it.

12. Close (K’tara)

Their room on the boat from Kugane to Mor Dhona was little more than a broom closet with a mattress on the floor. It had no windows and no ventilation to speak of, which meant that it constantly stank of cum and moko from their desperate attempts to entertain themselves. It was either fuck or go crazy–there was simply nothing else to do during the two week journey, which meant it was torture for K’tara’s stimulation-hungry existence.

She flexed her feet off the edge of the mattress, stretching out her calves and blowing smoke up at the wooden slats on the ceiling. Makoto mirrored her about three fulms away, putting space between them the moment they were finished. K’tara’s hand curled in his direction, trailing after his torso when he slid away, but this was for the best. After six days at sea, everyone was a little bit ripe.

The dim light that permeated everything below deck was just enough to see the blankness on his face as he stared up at nothing, one palm resting lightly above his navel to rise and fall with his breath. Where did Makoto go, after they did this? His expression held no clues, and he never voiced his thoughts.

K’tara curled away from him, leaning to one side to ash her cigarette into an empty cup. More of him slipped out of her as she shifted position, hot and sticky between her legs, clinging to the small hairs on her body. Cleaning that up later with nothing but a sponge bath was going to feel tacky and miserable. “I’m prob’ly gonna be sick of your face by the time we get home,” she offered, spreading her fingers in his direction on the sheet.

He rolled his head to the side, scanning her naked body dispassionately. The wood all around them creaked and moaned in the silence, shifting to keep up with the constant pressure of the ocean’s subtle but forceful turbulence. K’tara felt trapped but not seen, her heart fluttering in her chest like a scared bird.

“I’m already tired of yours.” Makoto sat up with a grunt, resting his elbows on his knees and rolling another cigarette, his back hunched over to focus on his work. Their cigarettes were uneven and shoddy, the result of having to re-learn how to roll with one hand so heavily bandaged as to be functionally useless, but they were getting better.

The tiger on his back watched her with more interest than he did, stalking close to the ground with wide, observant eyes glaring at her through a curtain of bamboo. It’s mouth was closed–no bark, no bite. Not unless it had to. K’tara couldn’t relate. “Yeah. I guess that sucks for you, since I’m the only person you’ll know.”

The careful, deliberate motions in his lap paused. Makoto raised his head and looked over one shoulder at her, the lazy glance not quite making it to her face. “We have other people in Eorzea. I plan to find them.”

Anger flashed hot in her belly when he stepped around her bait, making her nostrils flare and her ears curl back to sit flat on her head. “Oh, okay, sure, fuck me then.” She bit down on her cigarette and sat up, untangling her limbs from the sheets to storm off naked through the underbelly of the ship.

Before she could do that, Makoto grabbed her wrist and held her in place as she moved the other way, his patient eyes piercing up at her with disdain. “Shut up and sit down.” His order was quiet but firm, and when she complied, crossing her arms under her breasts in impotent defiance, he leaned close into her space, bringing with him the stink of old sweat and fresh pussy. “I still need you.” The cigarette bobbed limply between his lips when he spoke, and he held her jaw in place so he could press the tip of his to the cherry of hers.

It awoke briefly in flame between their faces and then cooled to dull embers. Eight more days of this forced, artificial intimacy. They’d be lucky if it didn’t kill them.

[muthaz-rapapa]

Two sides to a macaron.

Is what I’d like to call this episode.

Because on one half, Yukari made Julio feel like the utter fool he is.

By using a soap opera scenario as bait to lure him into her trap (really, it’s fucking hilarious how he ate her story up, never suspecting it was totally bogus, LOL), suddenly flipping the tables just as he was getting high on his arrogant gloating, exposing his identity as Rio and finally, throwing his The Reason Why You Suck speech right back at his face.

All of that in one graceful swoop.

What’s particularly satisfying is that last bit.

It seems Julio craves some sort of validation for reasons they’re not ready to tell us. And he believes he’s going to get it by doing all these evil deeds. Bringing people down gives him the pleasure of feeling superior.

But in truth, that’s why his sense of confidence, that comes from being “perfect”, is much more fragile compared to Yukari’s. Because he needs to constantly prove to himself that he’s above everyone else. That he can get away with the crap he pulls because of that.

It’s also why he fails at subtlety whenever he provokes the Cures under the guise of Rio, “the amazing, handsome transfer student”. He’s way too smug to be convincing or even worth listening to and Yukari figures out from the get-go that the only possible reason Rio has to keep coming back to Kira Pati so often, repeating the same thing in variations with no success, is that he’s got an agenda.

And she knows Julio’s got an agenda with his pattern of attacks against them.

Frankly, it’s so easy to make the connection that all she needed to do was confirm it.

Except she didn’t just confirm who Julio truly was but also shed some light about his character.

Yukari didn’t win against him just because she was clever but because Yukari knows herself really well and accepts her strengths and flaws for what they are. She won’t be easily swayed by what someone else says about her if she’s got that down.

People are so ready to blame others for their own faults and use that to justify the horrible things they do. This implies that Julio is doing exactly that because he likened himself to Yukari’s fake story and tried to get her to join him out of spite for the world. However, that only served to highlight that Julio might be hiding some severe insecurities and that he “ran away into darkness” because he’s the one that’s too weak to confront them.

That’s not Yukari. Yukari acknowledges her own coldness and the consequences of the detachment she maintains. She doesn’t feel ashamed for being who she is. Sometimes it may bring difficulties on her but if that’s the price she has to pay to be true to herself, then so be it. She doesn’t have to resort to stepping on others to ease her troubles.

That’s why Yukari is strong and what sets her “perfection” apart from Julio/Rio’s.

Yukari’s got a firm grip on herself. Julio, however, is a slave to his own emotions and uses his skills to hurt others in order to avoid facing his own issues, whatever they are.

Then there’s the other half. It’s clear that Yukari has changed a lot for the better since we first met her.

Back then, she wouldn’t give people the time of day if they didn’t interest her. She was always troubled by her own problems, of her perfectionism being an obstacle to finding something she can genuinely devote her heart to. Even now, that pain she feels hasn’t completely gone away.

But it has significantly improved because look at how she interacts with her comrades. Look at how she’s more receptive of her fans’ admiration of her and how she’s developed this sense of protectiveness over those prone to having their kira-kiraru stolen.

Yukari is still aloof and fickle but she’s noticeably more open than she was before. She speaks more freely with the girls (especially so in this ep!) and her expressions are warmer and happy. There’s no doubt about it. When she’s with Ichika and others, Yukari is undeniably enjoying herself.

And that’s not only because they’re fun to be around but because they truly accepted Yukari as she is. They never once demanded for her to change or seriously called her out on her whimsical tendencies and even went out of their way to make sure Yukari doesn’t walk out on them because of boredom.

They’ve earned Yukari’s reciprocation.

So Yukari is in a very good, secure place. She’s got friends who appreciate her and want her to be there, she found a meaningful purpose in being Precure, she learned what it meant to truly like something, and she’s long come to terms with herself as a person.

It’s no wonder why Julio didn’t stand a chance of beating her. Yukari is so balanced in all the important aspects that him singling her out like he did in this episode is like trying to crack a mountain in half with a measly pebble.

And that’s why Yukari has such a sad look when he runs off after the battle. That’s why Yukari makes the same expression when she discusses Rio’s tea with her grandmother.

Yukari pities him. She feels sorry for him because he has none of the things she has to keep him stable (and ohh, won’t he be mad when realizes this). That’s why his experiments are always failing and why he keeps losing against the Cures. And he’ll keep coming back, thinking “This time, I’ll win! I’ll prove that I’m right because I’m just better!”

Whereas Yukari’s pain has been lessened by her friendship with the Cures, Julio can only find satisfaction in defeating them. And of course, that’s not going to happen so he’s really just piling more misery onto himself.