#eden once again asking the real questions

[rist-ix]

Rist!! Question again! I’m tryna sleep and then this thought came to me.

In Tbhtbh, is Kiko still alive??? If so, (pls let it be so) is he with one of the other Winx girls or with Bloom’s parents?

If you tell me that sweet baby isn’t alive anymore, I swear I will cry! Crying rn just at the thought of it 🥺😢

He's not dead!! Granted, I don’t know where he is either, but I’m sure he's doing great :’)

[astoldbylanii]

Ignorance

dealers!shuriri x black!reader

warnings: smut, cursing, reader has a kid

-------------- "Is everyone clear on instructions?" Your professor asked from the front of the classroom. There were whispers among the class but ultimately everyone answered yes. Prof. Diggs nodded, giving permission to start the project before he took a seat at his desk. He was your art teacher, as calm and chill as they come. He was one of your favorites considering he wasn't always jumping down his students throats.

As you finally started to get into the flow of your sketch, his phone rang. He picked it up, muttering a few words before he stood from his desk, clearing his throat.

"I have to run down to the front office real quick. Best behavior please, lord knows I don't need miss Mulligan asking about my teaching capabilities. Again." He said, throwing on his suits jacket and tightening his tie. "Until I come back, ask your neighbor for help and if they can't I'll answer your questions when I get back." He instructed, saluting goodbye before he left the room. 

Immediately, the room was filled with chatter. You sighed, throwing down your pencil, your thought process now thrown off.

"What's wrong?" Your friend, Eden asked from beside you. She was already well along with her drawing. It looked like it was going to be of her late brother.

"This finna be hard as hell. You know I don't mess with that hyperrealism shit." You said, rolling your eyes as you picked up your pencil, twirling it around your fingers.

"Well, just draw someone but like, abstract. We're in the second semester, by now Diggs knows your style." She suggested, starting to blend her own piece at some points. You shook your head at her idea.

"Nah, he specifically said he wants it to look like he can touch the person. I don't know, I think I might just settle for a nice D at this point." You shrugged, staring at the circle on your page. You took the paper off, crumbling it in your hands and replaced it with a fresh one. After that you didn't pay any more attention to it, pulling out your own sketchbook instead.

"Shii, I could settle for some good D too." Eden joked, smacking your hand down when you playfully shoved her, laughing too. "I'm not kidding!" She said, glaring at you with an offended look when you continued laughing. She rolled her eyes, going back to her drawing as you went back to your sketch.

Some minutes passed by and you two sat there in silence, surrounded by chatter. You were looking for inspiration in your old works while she was focusing on her new one. You were confused when out the corner of your eye you saw her put down her pencil too. Thinking she might've been done already, you looked over to see it unfinished. But maybe that was the look she was going for. You went to ask about it when she spoke up first.

"Girl, who is that fine ass specimen walking towards us." She asked, gawking over whoever it was. You were sure they couldn't have been that good looking that she had to stop drawing, but you stood corrected when your gaze met Riri's. She had been surveying the room for you, and once the two of you made eye contact she started making her way up the stairs to you. "Wait why she coming up here? And why y'all staring at each other like y'all know each other? Wait, bitch, you know her?"

"Shhh!" You hushed, staring at Riri in shock as start to get closer to where you were seated. Why in the hell why she in your class? Much less in your building? You quickly fixed your shocked face when she stood in front of you, her hands in the pockets of her plain grey nike sweatsuit as she stared down at you. "The fuck is you doing here?" You whispered, looking around for any watching eyes.

"Since when you think it's ok to curse at me?" She asked, cocking her head to the side. You stayed silent, leaning back in your seat as you mugged her instead of apologizing. She chuckled down at you, obviously a little surprised at your attitude but she didn't mind it, knowing it'd be fixed in no time. "You haven't been answering our texts, mama."

"Yeah, I know." You said, rolling your eyes and going back to your sketchbook. Duh, why tf she staring the obvious like you don't know what you've been doing. You knew exactly what you were doing. Being petty. But ain't no way you was gon watch them sit there and talk to that girl and not react. This was you reacting, and they caused it so they can fix it.

Now you were starting to tick her off. You could tell you were. The way she rolled her tongue against her cheek as she looked down at you. The way her hand clenched up inside of her pocket. The way she softly scoffed under breath when your attention went back to your book. You could tell. It was because you knew how to piss her off. No eye contact, attitude, basically just being disrespectful. She was big on respect.

A hand came between you and your book and before you could stop it, it was snatched from your grasp. Your gaze snapped to her as you stood, trying to reach over the desk to grab the book but to no avail. She kept it out of your reach, using her free hand to grab your own, keeping you in place just from that grip. She leaned her head over your shoulder so her mouth was right by your ear.

"I don't know what you're trying to pull, but you're lucky your in class right now. When this class is over you're coming to The Palace. By then I want what ever you got going on fixed." She leaned away from your ear so you were face to face, looking you in the eye. "Or, I will fix it for you. Ok?" She warned, waiting for an answer. You nodded, though you changed to a verbal yes quick after you saw the look on her face. She smirked, pecking your lips before she pulled away. She caught sight of Eden, who's jaw had dropped at the affectionate action. Riri waved, knowing who she was to you before she took her exit, taking the sketchbook with her.

You assumed she took that for assurance that you'd actually show up at The Palace. She knew you rarely went anywhere without it. 

Finally relaxing again with her gone, you slumped in your chair. You groaned, dragging a hand down your face as you thought about how the rest of your day was going to go. If God was on your side today, you'd still be able to crawl come tomorrow. But it was Friday. Meaning you didn't have class for the next couple of days meaning both Riri and Shuri were less likely to take pity on you. Damn you fucked up. Why couldn't Riri have came on a Teusday?

"Bitch, you know Riri? Wait never mind, you fuck Riri? I couldn't tell that was her at first but you're with Riri? Wait a minute don't she got a girlfriend? And you bottom too? I knew you was just shit talking all them times you-"

"Eden!" You interrupted her, not enjoying the rant that was soon to come. "Yes, I'm with Riri. Yes she has a girlfriend, I'm with her too. Also no one needs to know about the whole bottom shit, you know? We can just...keep it to ourselves." You admitted, looking around the room for anyone that might've been watching the whole interaction. Why did she have to pull that in front everyone? She could've pulled you outside, texted you. You know what, maybe she did text, you had been ignoring her to be fair.

"We gon circle back to the bottom thing but girl you're with two fuckin drug dealers?!" Eden whisper-shouted but still you shushed her, not exactly fond of the idea of them getting caught. "I am shushing! How did you even manage to- wait how the fuck did she get in here?" She asked, looking around like she felt unsafe now.

"Girl first of all calm down. Acting like someone coming to kidnap your ass. They don't do that type of shit anyway. And that front office call was more than likely her so she could make her way up here. I also heard there was a tour or something today? She proli pretended to be apart of it." You answered, still stressed about what you were going to do after this class. You hoped it felt as long as English usually did, the longer you have to form a plan the better.

"Don't she go to MIT? The hell is she doing on Harvard campus?" Eden asked, but more to herself. For the first time since Riri left, she turned to look at you, seeing the nervous look on your face. "Girl why you shaking in your boots for? You bout to get your doonies beat down goodt. By two people! I'd be clacking my heels."

"I'm not even sure that's what's gon happen for real. That's what's making me nervous." You replied, taking your nail into your mouth to bite. Your best friend shrugged, going back to her painting.

"Well either way if you're not here next week I'll tell your teachers you had some sort of accident. Maybe one about your legs not working." She said, giggling to herself. You looked at her with a fake annoyed face, holding in the smile that threatened to show itself.

"You think you funny, huh?" ---------------- Finally, your last class was over. Usually you'd be happy but unfortunately it did not go by as slow as you had hoped. You had no plan. You'd have to go to The Palace.

"I still can't believe you ain't tell me." Eden said, packing up her bag. You rolled your eyes at her dramatics, hearing her sniff like she was crying. You swung your own bag over your shoulder, waiting for her to be finished.

"Girl please. Like you be telling me every person that be dicking you down every two to five business days." You scoffed. Eden paused her actions, lifting her eyes to stare at me.

"You ain't een had to do that." She shook her head, finally fitting that fat ass computer into that small ass bag. She threw her bag on and we started to head to the door. As soon as we turned into the hallway we were face to face with Riri. She had been posted up on the wall checking her watch. Eden looked between the two of us, quickly dismissing herself while wishing me good luck. 

Ri watched her leave before turning back to me, pushing herself off the wall. She was in the same outfit from before, except now her gold chain was untucked, and you could see what shoes she was wearing. They were just some dunks, ones Shuri bought all three of y'all so we could be matching. Coincidently, you happened to be wearing yours too. Riri leaned in closer to me, You thought she was going to greet you with a kiss. At the last minute, she swerved her head, reaching out and pulling my book bag from off your shoulder.

Yeah. Deserved that one.

She pulled your bag over her own shoulder, reaching her hand out to grab yours and smiling when you took it.

"I see ya attitude fixed." She said, using my hand to pull me so I was walking in front of her, then dropping it. "For now anyways."

"How you even here? I'm sure you got classes or something." You asked, wrapping your arms around yourself when you made it outside. It had gotten colder since morning. You'd forgotten to check the weather again and were wearing a short sleeve shirt. It was a little big too, which made it easier for the win to blow through.

"I got my ways. You of all people should know that by now." She answered shortly, giving you just enough for it to pass as an answer. You felt a soft fabric touch your shoulders and looked behind you to see Riri now in a grey shirt, continuing to make sure her hoodie was covering your shoulders.

"Thank you." You smiled, sticking your arms through the sleeves of the sweater. You zipped up the hoodie, leaning into the girl as she wrapped her arm around your shoulder, now next to you. She leaned down to press a kiss to your temple.

"'Course, ma." She muttered, using her free hand to take her phone out. You sunk into her some more. As petty as you had been, you'd miss her. You'd miss them. Of course you did, but you still weren't happy about the girl. You knew, however, there was no competition. Riri and Shuri would never do that to you. It was just the mere fact that they had entertained her. That's the part that bothered you.

You went to turn into the parking lot, only to be pulled in another direction by Riri. You looked up at her confused, but followed her nonetheless. She led you to some field on campus where a group of white guys were hanging. Some throwing a football, others just sitting and talking. She went up to one of the ones that were sitting, snatching the phone out of his hand. Your eyes widened, stepping behind her a little as she dropped her arm from around you, using both hands to type on his phone.

"Yo! What the fuck?" He yelled, standing up so his height difference was apparent. Riri was unfazed, continuing to type something on his phone. You looked over her shoulder, only to see her stuck on his cashapp, he was signed out. Obviously she didn't know the boy's password.

"You owe me." She told him, muttering something else under her breath as she turned the phone to him. "5k."

"5- what?!" He gritted his teeth, glancing around to make sure no one heard what they were talking about.

"I supplied your entire party white boy. That's how much you and your frat bros snorted. Pay up." Riri demanded. One thing you were quick to learn about her, there were three things she didn't play about. One of those being her money. She was gonna get it one way or another and when the boy didn't move you had learned that today it was going to be another. 

You could see Riri getting even more irritated than she already was about the payment being late in the first place. You saw her survey the place one last time before lifting her shirt just little, flashing something. You couldn't see it from behind her but the look on the boy's face told you what it was.

"Ok, damn." The boy agreed, snatching the phone. Riri dropped the end of her shirt, watching as he typed in the information. Soon he turned around the screen to face the two of you, showing that it was sent.

"Good, next time you do a deal with me again, have your money with you. I'm not doing no more after pay with you." She said, not waiting for a reply before she grabbed your hand again and started walking away. 

She led you to a familiar foreign and flashy car, opening the door for you to get in and crawling in after you. You could see Okoye, their right hand women, in the driver's seat through the divider of the front and back of the car. You waved shyly and she smiled at you through the rear view mirror.

"I thought you wanted me to meet you at the club, not pick me up." You expressed with slight confusion in your voice. Riri finished typing some things on her phone, sliding it back into her pocket to give you her undivided attention.

"So now you wanna listen?" She questioned, doing the same tilt with her head that she always did when she was mad. So she was definitely still mad. Okoye voided her eyes of the situation after hearing Riri's words, sliding the divider closed. You looked down at your hands, picking at the fresh polish on your nails. Only looking up when you heard Riri snickering. "Clearly I had some business to handle, figured I'd might as well pick you up too. That way I knew you couldn't avoid us. Not that you could even if I didn't."

You rolled your eyes at her cocky behavior, pulling out your own phone from your pocket. You typed in some things, noticing Riri looking at your screen from her position. Dialing your sister's number, you put it up to your ear waiting for her to pick up. "Hey Bianca!" You greeted once it finally did.

"Hey y/n, what's up?"

"Do you have any plans for this weekend? I'm gonna be running a little late tomorrow night, but I don't want you to be staying up late if you do have something to do." You questioned, feeling slightly guilty to be asking this of her.

"No no, it's fine! He can stay longer, it's no problem." Kylie answered, you could practically hear the smile in her voice. Man she must love kids. Asante had been staying there for a week now. Bianca had practically begged for him to come over and spend some time with his cousins, of course you said yes. She didn't live far from you so it wasn't like he couldn't attend school, and you could seen him whenever you liked. He'd been staying there since Wednesday now.

"Ok, thank you so much! I'll send you guys more money for some food and stuff. Could you please put Asante on the phone?" You asked, deciding against ending this call just to call the 6 year old's iPad. The babysitter agreed, and soon you heard your son's voice.

"Hi mommy!" His preppy voice blared through the phone, making you slightly pull the phone away from your ear in surprise.

"Hey baby." You giggled out, putting the phone against your ear. "Mommy's gonna be a little late coming home tomorrow. Do you think you'll be ok? Bianca's gonna stay with you a little longer."

"Yes! I love Aunty Bey, she bought me a new toy car! Does this mean we can have pizza for dinner?"

"Yes, you can have pizza for dinner." You agreed, laughing at his celebrations over the phone. "Okay, when I take you home you can tell me all about school today. Call me if anything happens, okay? I love you."

"You can tell me about yours too! Love you mommy, bye bye."

"Bye, 'Sante." You sighed, hanging up the phone. You put your phone away, looking at Riri after feeling her eyes on you the whole time. "What?"

"Asante could always come to the house, if you want." She offered, not trying to pressure you. You shook your head, laughing at the suggestion.

"No, thank you. The boy hasn't even met you yet, love." You denied, rubbing your hand over her knee. Riri shrugged, throwing her arm to rest on the back of the seats.

"Who's fault is that?" She taunted, watching as you turned your head away from her. She used her hand to turn your head back to her, wanting you to see that she was serious. "Me and Shuri plan on making you a wife. We aren't going anywhere, y/n. We care about you, which means we care about Asante. But, he's your son, we're not going to pressure you into meeting him. Just know that we want to." She assured. You smiled, pulling her in for a hug which she graciously accepted, wrapping her arms around your waist and resting her head on your chest.

"Thank you."

It's not that you didn't want them to meet Asante, your feelings were growing stronger by the day. You didn't stop they'd ever stop growing, really. You were just worried. You didn't want your son hurt. Emotionally, you didn't want him to get attach only for them to not come home one day, a job gone wrong. Physically, they protected you already, and you knew they would protect him even more. But still, there was always room for human error, and you didn't know if that was a chance you were willing to take. 

You loved them, but you would always love your son more. Who would you be to purposely put him in harms way for your own gain and comfort? Sacrifice was something you were used to when it came to Asante. But isn't that what mothers do? Then again, maybe there was supposed to be a certain balance. One that you didn't have. --------------- The Palace. It was their club, also their headquarters. It was protected and secured by all women bodyguards, Okoye being one of them. It was also where you met them for the first time, but that's neither here nor there.

You, Okoye, and Riri made your way through the entrance, the metal detector going off as you walked through, but no one said anything. Once you were inside, Riri pressed a small kiss to your head, making you turn to look at her questioningly.

"Go find Shuri, baby. I got something to handle real quick but I'll meet with y'all as soon as I'm done." She stated, signaling Okoye to follow her. You pressed a short kiss to her lips, wishing her luck with whatever she had to do. Then, both her and Okoye left your side.

You never felt scared to be alone in their club. You knew for a fact more than half of the guards were watching your every move, knowing they'd probably suffer consequences if anything happened to you under the roof of The Palace. 

Anyway, back to the problem at hand.

You did not want to find Shuri. She was more than likely pissed. Just like you knew what made Riri mad, you knew what made Shuri mad. And one thing she hated was being ignored by anyone, and you were no exception.

There was also that fact that she was the harsher one out of the two. Usually, you could always pull one over with Riri. Talking back, rolling your eyes, smacking your lips, the whole nine yards. At least, for a while. After a certain amount of times she'd get mad too. But with Shuri, she'd be mad if she even heard you thinking about talking back.

You weren't scared of her by any means, you knew she wouldn't do anything to hurt you purposefully. Intimidated though? Oh yeah, 100 percent you were shitting your pants. 

But their was no doubt Shuri had been alerted of your arrival and was keeping and eye out for you. So either she knew where your were and was on her way, or she was already here.

You sighed, excepting your fate as you made your way over to the stairs. She usually stayed on the upper two levels as they were more secluded and had some VIP sections. You climbed all the way up to the third level, hoping for some time to prepare yourself before she caught you.

Your hope was crushed when a hand wrapped around your throat, your back being pressed up against the wall behind you harshly. You were going to let out a panicked scream when your eyes met her familiar chocolate ones, a cocky smirk that her and Riri shared spreading across her face.

"My y/n." She greeted with a light smile, letting you catch a glimpse of the gold grills she wore today. You reached up to grab the wrist of the hang currently around your throat. Shuri noticed, loosening her grip just a little with caution. "What a surprise it is to see you here after what I think was-" She pretended to count on her free hand. "Right. Three weeks."

"It was actually two and a half weeks. Unless you rounded-" Your sentence was cut off when she tightened her grip once again, a silent warning that she was not in the mood for your slick comments today.

"Still a smart aleck." She observed. Her eyes trailed down your figure to take in your outfit, Riri's hoodie that was now open had fallen to an off the shoulder look, showcasing the cropped short sleeve you had on. Other than that, you just had on some simple ripped jeans with writing on them. 

Her eyes returned to yours, a certain glint in her eye that made you nervous. Just like Riri had, she leaned in closer so that her lips were right next to your ear as she spoke, her tone sending shivers down your spine. "I want you to tell me why you think it is ok to ignore me. To ignore Ri."

Keeping your act up, your turned you head away so she wasn't right next to your ear. Shuri only chuckled at your defiance, taking the opportunity to mark up the now open side of your neck. The hand that was once around your throat moved down so it was on you hip, keeping you pinned against the wall as her lips trailed down, pressing light kisses to your neck that you knew would get harsher soon.

Shuri moved her head so she was in your line of sight again.

"Things haven't changed since you were gone. When I ask you something, you answer." She said, watching as you turned away from her again, crossing your arms. She took your chin in between her thumb and finger, forcing you to look at her. "What happened to my good girl, baby?" She asked, swiping her thumb over your bottom lip. For a second, you almost fell for it. But you snapped yourself out of it, ripping yourself from her grasp and quickly walking away from her before she could react.

You were confused when you didn't hear her footsteps following after you. She could easily catch up as you were still very in her line of sight. But soon your question was answered when Riri appeared out of nowhere, turning a corner and backing into the same position you were just in. Pressed against a wall.

"Such a fucking brat. Walking away when we're talking to you, talking back. What are we gonna do with you?" She asked rhetorically. She gave you a smile, letting her hand come up to pull at one of your hairs that had fallen out of the bun you made. Shuri came to stand next to her and you pressed yourself further into the wall, if that was even possible. Separately, you were willing to pull almost everything. But when the two were finally together, you knew better than to try anything.

Unfortunately, it was too late for anything else. You had to continue. Gots to see it through my boy.

You were gonna 'see it through' alright. ---------------- "Please, I came already." You whined, trying to push Shuri's head away as you came down from your high for the umpteenth time. Riri's hand grabbed yours, pulling them away while she kissed on your neck, trying to calm you down.

"Cum again." Shuri muttered, pressing a wet kiss to your overstimulated clit, chuckling when you jumped from how sensitive you were.

You three had been going at it for what felt like forever. After the whole confrontation, they drove you to their house, teasing you the whole way. Once you did get there, they spared no time getting you to the bed. Since then, it felt like you had done everything under the sun but stop.

Literally, everything. You'd lost count of how many times you'd came, but you knew for a fact it had to be in double digits. You could only imagine how you looked.

Hair frizzy, sweaty, tear stains running down your cheeks, cum around your lips that you were unable to wipe yourself. Riri and Shuri didn't bother to either, quite liking the look on you. You were exhausted, overstimulated, and clinging on to consciousness by a pinky toenail. But they never stopped. There hasn't been a break since you walked through the door. 

At first, you were conflicted. You couldn't tell if you even wanted them to stop. It hurt so bad that it started to feel good. The pain blended in with the pleasure and you couldn't help but ask for more. But when you felt another one of Shuri's digits dip in for another round you knew something had to give.

"Okayyy, I'm sorry. Please." You begged, seeing your vision get cloudy as more tears appeared. Riri's voice came from behind you, you could feel her warm breath on your neck though you could barely make out what she was saying.

"Sorry for what, mama?" She pressed. All that came from you were mumbles of an apology as you still tried to break your hands from her grasp. 

In the moment you weren't in a good position to realize it, but the fact that she could keep you pinned down with just her own strength was making you even more wet than you already were. Shuri realized though, smirking between your legs as she slowed down her pace.

Shuri used her free hand to push herself up from the bed, kissing up your body and over fresh marks until she met your tired eyes. "What are you sorry for?" She repeated, looking down at you with lidded eyes of her own. 

You began to reply but only a groan left you when you felt her purposely angle her fingers at your favorite spot. "Hm?" She mocked, still waiting for an answer.

"M'm sorry for- fuck, sorry for ignoring you." You apologized, your head falling back onto Riri's shoulder as your eyes rolled behind your lids, feeling Shuri speed up once again, targeting that same spot. "Shit, Shuri please."

"Please what, baby?" She teased, tilting her head with a mock of confusion. You whined again, frustrated with her taunting.  

She shared a look over your shoulder with Riri, who released your hands and started to pin down you hips instead. Your hands immediately flew out for something to ground you. The first things you could get your hands on being Shuri's wrist and Riri's hand.

"Do you want her stop or do you want more? You're confusing her baby." Riri added, watching closely at how your brows furrowed and your back arched when she applied the slightest amount of pressure to your abused clit, practically shoving you over the edge.

"Stop! I want her to stop." You mumbled, finally able to get your thoughts together enough to make a complete sentence. Having some pity, Shuri slowly dragged her fingers against your walls while she pulled out, curling them one last time just to see you squirm. 

Just as slow, she brought them to her lips. Feeling both your and Riri's eyes watching her carefully, she decided at the last second that she wanted you to take them instead. She tapped them on your close lips, watching as you opened them to take in her coated digits.

Taking the sight in, she hums, obviously please with your obedience (as it did take a long time to get back). That was all the acknowledgement she gave you before she and Riri made eye contact over your shoulder again, and Riri's hand began to circle your bud again. 

You whimpered, trying to back yourself into the girl to get away from her touch. They both ignored you in their own conversation about what to do with you, Riri keeping you in place while Shuri forced her fingers further down your throat, making you gag.

Suddenly, the feeling of Shuri was ripped from your mouth and replaced with Riri's tongue as they tried to distract you from the feeling of Shuri's slender fingers dipping back into your already sensitive hole. You immediately pulled away, already feeling yourself starting to ache.

"Shuriii." You dragged, watching as the girl lowered between your thighs again. She shushed you, placing a delicate kiss to your thigh, though dangerously close with your entrance.

"Just one more baby, I promise." She soothed, caressing the same thigh she had kissed with her free hand. "Can you do that for us, love?" She spoke softly, taking one of your hands in hers to kiss.

"You've been doing so good for us tonight, pretty girl. We just wanna make you feel good one last time, can you let us do that mama?" Riri coaxed from behind you, rubbing soothing circles on your stomach to calm you. Debating, you took Riri's hand in your other one, trying to relax yourself into her. "One more, we promise." She whispered, pressing a sweet kiss right under your ear.

"Okay." You agreed. Your words came out mumbled but they both understood you. Shuri smiled up at you, pressing another kiss to your thigh as a thanks before she joined her fingers that had never stopped moving.

The second her tongue makes contact with your clit your hands are fisting through her hair, pulling around the tight coils on her head.

There are a few more strokes of her tongue before she wraps her lips around your awaiting clit, your slick coating her tongue as she swirls it around your clit just before wrapping her lips around the bud.

Her fingers are buried deep inside of your cunt as she sucks your pulsing bundle of nerves into her mouth. There's a second where she sucks just hard enough to make your vision go white at the same time Riri decides to pinch and rub on the sensitive buds on your chest.

Feeling the coil in your stomach tighten, you let out a load moan when Shuri curls her fingers against your g spot one more time before you let go, clenching the sheets in your hand. Riri whispers sweet praises in your ear, rubbing soothing circles on your hips to calm you down while Shuri fingers you through your high, waiting for your legs to stop shaking before she pulls away, your essence coating both her fingers and lips.

She slipped the drenched fingers between her lips, licking your cum from between her fingers before leaning over your frame to trap Riri's lips in her own, who moaned at the familiar taste of you. Though you were drained, you still manage to keep your hooded eyes open long enough to watch them swapping your cum with each others tongues, eventually swallowing when they had enough.

"Are you ok baby?" Shuri checked, rubbing your side comfortingly. You nodded, sinking into Riri more as she rubbed your thighs. Shuri leaned down, pressing multiple kisses to your forehead, cheeks, and nose, making you laugh tiredly, pushing her away. She smiled, leaving you to go get some new sheets, clothes and something to clean you up.

"It wasn't too much, right?" Riri asked softly. Confused by the question, you craned your head to look up at her, not even wanting to attempt to move your bottom half. Riri had already been looking down at you. "I mean, you didn't pass out this time, but still, we didn't overdo it too much?"

"No, Ri," You answered, reaching up with one of your hands to smooth over her cheek. "It felt good, I promise. Even though there was one point where I was fighting for consciousness." You joked and she smiled, leaning down to press a kiss to the crown of your head. "To be fair though, it was supposed to be a punishment so I figured it wouldn't be all love making and soft caressing."

"Yeah, why were you ignoring us in the first place?" She questioned. You shrugged distractedly, running your thumb over her furrowed brow. "y/n, I'm serious." She said, taking your hand from her face and holding it in her's. You let out a dramatic groan. She was ruining the vibes.

"I got mad because y'all were talking to that bitch Ashley." You mumbled, playing with the hand that had took yours. Before she could even respond you continued on, defending your actions. "But I had a right to be mad, I mean y'all went into a whole ass private room with that chick. Without me!"

"Ok, first off, Okoye was in there so we couldn't have done anything, not like we would want to. We only talk to Ashley about business, that conversation wasn't any different. But, if it helps whenever we talk to her again, we'll make sure you're there too." She compromised and you agreed, thanking her. You two continued talking until Shuri returned with a wet cloth, some sheets, and new clothes.

And the night ended with a nice warm bath. Which you fell asleep in. ----------------

You groaned waking up to the sound of your ringtone. You stretched, feeling a certain weight on your chest. Looking down you saw Riri sleeping soundly with one hand up your shirt and on your boob, Shuri spooning her. You smiled at the sight, reaching over to your nightstand for your phone. You wondered how two supposedly high alert dealers hadn't woken up from the sound, but no matter.

"Bianca?" You mumbled, messing with the features on Riri's face. Two big and bag drug lords and yet they looked like puppies in their sleep.

"y/n, when are you coming to get Asante? No rush, because I'd keep him around forever if you'd let me, I just wanna have him packed up and ready to go." Your sister asked, you could hear your nieces and nephews running around in the background. You pulled the phone away from your ear, checking your phone and groaning once you saw how close it was to noon.

"I'll be there at like, one. I still have to shower and everything." You said, rubbing your hand down your face. You and Bianca chatted about some smaller things before she finally hung up, giving you time to get ready. You smiled at the two next to you, leaning down to press a kiss onto both of their lips, even though they weren't awake to respond to it.

You pulled Riri's strong grip off your titty. She was holding on it like a hungry newborn. You replaced yourself with the pillow behind you, slipping out of the bed, only for you to stumble into the nightstand when you did, startling both of them awake. 

The two sprung up from their place as if they weren't just knocked with drool in the corner of their mouths, searching the room frantically until their eyes settled on you, who was currently using the nightstand to stand. They turned to look at each other, holding in their laughs. You glared at them, trying to keep yourself upright so they took your next words serious.

"Both of y'all shut the fuck up and come help me to the bathroom."

"We ain't een say nothing." Riri protested, though she swung her legs to the side, getting up to come help you.

"You ain't need to, your face said enough." You said, holding your hand up for her to help you. Riri disregarded your hand, her small frame bending down to toss you over her shoulder. "Riri!"

"You told me to help you, now you mad I'm helping you. You just acting like this cause we fucked ya lace front off and now you walking like there's an earthquake." 

"Shut the hell up and take me to the damn bathroom, Riri!" You demanded, smacking her back and flipping off Shuri who watched on from her position in the bed, clearly amused. ----------------

BRING BACK SHURI AND RIRI X READER ALL 2024!! I'm jumping into the writing scene because i honestly miss the era where everything was about them, and i miss some of my fav writers😔✊🏾

anyways hope yall enjoyed

thank you guys for the inspiration, whether old fics or new @shinsousliya @inmyheadimobsessed @quintessencewrites @saintwrld @marsolgy @pinkwright @vixentheplanet

[lilsmv1]

august - MV1 (1/?)

- you're on your own kid [pt1]

Pairing: Max Verstappen x Juliette Durand

This is a story for the Max (and Taylor Swift) girlies. 

masterlist

Summary: They were doomed from the start. Two completely different worlds colliding, there was no way this could work. But what happens when they keep running into each other, as if gravity was pulling them together. 

Trope: slow-burn af

(*dialogues in italic are meant to be in French, I’m just too lazy sksksks)

Word count: 1,1k

A/N: This is the first chapter guys! I'd love some feedback :) Enjoy !

Having recently graduated meant finding a job and getting your life together.

But Juliette was only 25, how was she supposed to know for sure what she wanted at this point in her life? 

Juliette was completely lost. She wanted to do everything and nothing at the same time. Everyone expected her to know everything, especially her parents.

Instead of facing their incessant questions on the matter, she ran away, in hopes of overcoming her current situation.

Hence why Juliette booked her tickets for Italy, and found herself wandering the streets of Orta San Giulio.

Juliette felt at peace here, the sound of the water banging against the boats, the cool breeze gently brushing her cheek, the smell of sea water. She didn't know anyone, and no one knew her. No one to expect her to be anything.

She was strolling through a bookshop, her fingers brushing the edges of the books as she went. Her eyes lit up as her hand touched her favorite book. She couldn't even tell how many times she'd read it, but it always had the same gut-wrenching effect on her. She took one last glance at the book before leaving, Martin Eden, by Jack London, a fan favorite, or at least hers.

As she left the store, Juliette’s phone rang. It was Pierre. 

“Ju?”

“Yes Pierre?”

“Did you arrive safely? You were supposed to text me once you get there.”

“Sorry dad!” She laughed. Pierre was her best friend and he could be a tad bit overprotective sometimes. 

“You know I worry about you. How are you feeling?”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine, I just need time to figure things out for myself” Juliette was lying. She wasn’t fine. Her anxiety was really getting the best of her lately.

“I know, and you’ll figure it out. You’re the clever one, you’ll find your path” Replied Pierre, trying to reassure her.

“Easy for you to say, “Mister I always wanted to be a Formula One Driver”” .

Juliette and Pierre met when she was in middle school. They actually met in detention. Pierre was there after talking back to a teacher and Juliette was there after throwing her eraser on a friend. He was three years older than her and immediately saw her as the sister he never had. Since then, she has been cheering for him throughout his entire career, being there for each milestone. She was very proud of him.

“What can I say, I have always dreamt big” laughed Pierre “By the way” he added “Kika is coming to spend a couple days with my family next week, will you be there?”  Pierre asked.

“Of course! I can’t wait to see her again!” Juliette was so happy to see Kika again, she was a real sweetheart. She was glad Pierre had found her. 

“Well I gotta go Pierre, I’ll call you back during the week, alright?”

“Ok, take care Ju, love ya!”

"Love you, see you soon!" replied Juliette.

Juliette cherished her friendship with Pierre more than anything. They couldn't see each other often due to his intense schedule, but he was always there for her and vice versa. To her, he wasn't Pierre Gasly, he was just Pierre, her best friend from middle school. She felt really lucky to have such a friend by her side.

Juliette kept exploring the city for a couple hours. As the evening went on, she decided to grab a bite in the nearest restaurant. Once she settled, she pulled out her film camera, snapping candid shots of the people surrounding her. 

That camera was always in her hand, having thousands of film rolls at home, each capturing snippets of her life.

She watched the people through her lens throughout the whole dinner, until her gaze fell on a pair of piercing bright blue eyes already staring back at her. She slowly lowered her camera, and looked away shyly, embarrassed that she'd been caught red-handed.

She looked back up and that’s when it hit her. She knew those dashing blue eyes. They belonged to none other than Max Verstappen, one of Pierre’s fellow drivers. Except for Charles, she had never met any of them, trying to stay away for the spotlight as much as possible. 

Juliette was completely mortified, and to make matters worse, he was headed in her direction.

“Ciao” he said when he reached her, cringing at his own attempt to speak Italian.

It was all it took to make Juliette burst out laughing, a mixture of surprise and nervousness.

After seeing Max’s defeated look, Juliette pulled herself together.

“I’m sorry”, she said “It’s just, I wasn’t expecting you to speak Italian”. 

This made Max smile. 

“You speak English… then, made a fool out of myself here, didn’t I?” he asked, chuckling.

“Kind of, but it was entertaining” she softly replied with a grin. Realising he had been standing there for five minutes, she invited him to sit with her, which he did.

"I'm Juliette by the way"

"Nice to meet you Juliette, I'm Max"

“So,” he kept going, “did you take any nice pictures, hopefully some with me in them” he said smirking. 

“So you did see... Well, I would’ve but I got a little interrupted” said Juliette.

"Don't worry, I'm flattered" he replied laughing.

"Don't go feeling too special, I take many candid shots of strangers... Although it might sound weird like that" she laughed. "I just find it beautiful to capture snippets of life".

"Well you definitely make it sound beautiful" he replied with a warm smile, making her blush.

They stayed like this for a while, chatting about this and that, although Max failed to mention that he was an F1 driver and Juliette, on her part, failed to mention that she knew who he was and that Pierre was her best friend. They both did not want to make this conversation weird, knowing that were never going to see each other again anyway.

"Well, Max, it was lovely to meet you, but I think I'm gonna head out" said Juliette after a while.

"Yeah me too, have a good night Juliette" replied Max with a smile.

"Good night Max" said Juliette softly before leaving.

They each went their own way, a smile on their face as they though about this one-off encounter.

But after all, Orta San Giulio isn't a big town. Who knows, they might run into each other again.

[makeitmingi]

Cause Baby You’re My Muse [Chapter 2]

Genre: Romance, Idol!AU, Music, Slight angst

Pairing: Mingi x Reader (y/n)

Characters: Producer!Reader, IdolLyricist!Mingi, IdolProducer!Hongjoong, Idol!Seonghwa, Idol!Yunho, Idol!Wooyoung, Idol!San, Idol!Yeosang, Idol!Jongho, cameo(s) by other celebrities

Summary: You always preferred producing underground, having an unknown face and governed by your own rules. But when you start freelancing for idol groups, you say goodbye to your lone wolf lifestyle as you learn to work with idol producers and lyricists.

Word count: 3.1K

“Good morning.” You entered, greeting the same security person. He gave you a small wave. 

“Please hold the lift.” You called out and the lift doors that were closing opened again. You bowed gratefully as you entered, taping a sip of your iced coffee. Luckily you could slip the straw under your mask to drink.

“Ah... If you don’t mind me asking, are you the new producer that joined Edenary?” The guy in the lift asked. You blinked, not expecting him to initiate a conversation. Slowly, you turned around and pointed at yourself but realised there was only two of you in the lift so he must be talking to you. You nodded your head in reply to his question.

“I’m Wooyoung, from Ateez.” He smiled, holding his hand out to you. You stared at his hand for a good few seconds.

“Hi, I’m Indigo.” You were about to shake his hand but the lift stopped at your floor and the door opened. Both you and Wooyoung burst out laughing and stepped off. 

“Now, we can shake hands.” You chuckled and he agreed, slipping his hand into yours. 

“Nice to meet you, Producer Indigo.” He smiled.

“Same here, Wooyoung. I’m not part of Edenary though. Just brought in as a guest to work with your group and Edenary.” You corrected. Wooyoung nodded his head, understanding. 

“I don’t know if I am the first member to meet you but when you do meet the rest of the team, you remind me of our captain.” Wooyoung said.

“Yes, the hair and the piercings. I met Hongjoong yesterday so you’re the second Ateez member I’m meeting.” You laughed.

“Ah, I’m annoyed I’m not the first one you’re meeting. But not just the hair and piercings, the vibe is the same. The cool type.” He was very charming, even a little flirtatious, which was different from Hongjoong. 

“Let me help you carry that. To your studio, right?” Wooyoung offered, taking one of the bags of equipment from you. You nodded, bowing to thank him as you directed him to your studio at the end of the hallway. You keyed in your passcode and opened the door for him.

“Thank you, Wooyoung. You can just put it here.” You instructed, putting your bag aside.

“No worries.” He said. 

“Oh, Indigo. You’re here already.” Eden poked his head in. You nodded your head, waving to him. He noticed Wooyoung in your studio and waved to the male too. 

“Eden hyung!” Wooyoung bounded over to hug Eden, who accepted it with a doting smile and chuckle, patting the younger male’s back. 

“Your new furniture is coming in the afternoon. They had everything you needed except the vinyl shelves you wanted. They’ll come install things after lunch so you should be here to direct them.” He instructed.

“Okay. I’ll be here. Thank you.” You bowed. 

“If you need any help later, you can come find me. I’ll be on the dance studio floor.” Wooyoung offered. 

“Alright, thanks, Wooyoung.” You laughed. He waved with a friendly smile before walking off. Since furniture was going to get moved around, you decided not to set up the equipment you brought yet. 

You realised that while introducing yourself to Wooyoung, he had never once pointed out your mask or ask for your real name. There was no differentiality when addressing you, he spoke to you as if the mask wasn’t even there and like Indigo was your real birth name. You were grateful for that. Although playful and flirty, he seemed genuinely nice. 

“What’s on the agenda today?” You sat down in your seat and turned on your computer to jump right into work. 

While you were working with Edenary under KQ, your contract still allowed you to work with other artists, given that you prioritise KQ’s assignments over the external artists’ requests, which you were fine with. 

‘Congratulations, Prod. Indigo! 

Your track has been chosen to appear on a comeback album for a group under JYP Entertainment. Please reply to us by the end of the week if you would like to discuss. 

- JYP Correspondance’ 

“JYP, huh?” You looked at the details of the email sent to you, including which track they chose. 

“Looks like soft hip hop is back on trend.” You noted to yourself. You needed to think about whether you wanted to give your track. It wasn’t as easy as just clicking accept. Maybe you will see what they want to offer before deciding. 

You played the track that they chose out loud background while you paced around your studio. Your head bopped softly as it played. But after a while, you got bored of your song and played the Ateez playlist you put together last night. They were all categorised by genre.

*DING DONG*

“Coming.” You pulled your mask up and went to the door. 

“Wooyoung?” You didn’t hide your surprise when you saw the male at your door again. You were not expecting to see him again so soon, especially since you just met him this morning. 

“Hi again. Are you busy?” He tilted his head. You shook your head, stepping aside for him to enter your studio.

“Hey! Those are our songs.” He brightened up when he realised the songs you were playing. You nodded your head shyly, rubbing the back of your neck.

“I thought you would be busy moving later so I got you some food and drinks. I hope you like chicken skewers.” Wooyoung shook the plastic bag in his hands with a smile. 

“Thank you so much for the thought.” You bowed.

“Ah, don’t need to be so formal. I’ll go so you can eat comfortably.” He held out the bags to you. 

“You know what, why don’t you join me?” You invited, feeling bad that he bought the food but couldn’t have it with you. 

“Really? It’s fine, you know, Indigo? I respect you privacy.” He shook his hands. You shrugged, going to your desk, back facing him. You removed your mask and put on a cap, keeping it low to try and hide whatever parts of your face you could. Wooyoung took some stools to use as tables. He had one in front of him and placed one in front of you.

“I don’t mean this sarcastically but I can’t see anything with the cap. So you’re good. And even if I did see anything, you can trust I won’t say anything.” He informed. You smiled inwardly, he was very kind. 

“So, do you produce?” You asked him, wanting to get to know him better like how you did with Hongjoong yesterday.

“No. I’m more of a dancer so I participate in the choreographing, performance side of things for the team. I don’t know how producing works.” He explained.

“Actually, Hongjoong hyung told us a bit about you, more like fangirled. You’re a famous underground producer. But I think it’s cool how you keep your face and identity a secret.” He spoke. 

“Why do you think that’s cool?” 

“Because I think it makes you genuine. You do it because you love music and the craft, not doing it just for recognition, fame or praise.” Wooyoung replied.

“That’s very kind of you. People used to think it was because I was a coward, afraid that I wasn’t good enough and didn’t want to put a face to the work. I just appreciate the privacy.” You chuckled. That wasn’t the full truth but you were not going to get into that now. 

“I think that’s fair. Privacy is something you start to miss when you get famous.” Wooyoung hummed. 

“Well, I wanted to say that you’re very talented and cool too, from all the dance videos I’ve come across while researching.” You complimented, remembering him right in front during dances. 

“Ah, thank you. I’m not that good...” You didn’t have to look up to know that he was blushing. His flustered tone was a strong indicator. 

“I beg to differ. Give yourself more credit.” You said, wheeling yourself over to your desk to take out the big pack of paper towels you had brought from home. You placed the stack down for Wooyoung to take if he needed. 

“This is the first time I’ve worked so closely with the idols I’m producing for though.” You laughed.

“What’s it like usually?” He asked.

“If I see a project I want to participate in, I’ll send some material in or if the scouters find my work online, they’ll contact me. The discussions are mostly done online then they’ll send me the contrac to sign.” You explained.

“Oh, wow. Do you prefer to work like that? There’s less human contact in that aspect no?” 

“I guess. Being an ‘unknown entity’ prevents expectations from being set and in turn, there’s a lower chance of me being taken advantage of. I’m still there remotely to be a part of the process, just not there physially. The agencies send me progress updates on the song so I can monitor it when it gets released too. Less chance for additional drama that way.” You said.

“Then why come out to start producing in the open?” Wooyoung asked. You realised this was the question that everyone would ask you since you’ve been underground the entire time.

“Exposure. New experiences. Like I said, this is a new experience.” You shrugged, pointing to this interaction between you and Wooyoung.

“And how has that been?” You could hear the grin in his voice.

“Enjoyable.” You replied with a laugh. Wooyoung burst out laughing, his laugh was very distinct and adorable. Were all the Ateez members like this? Easy to be around and talk to. If so, you were not so nervous to meet them then. 

Even after the food was done, you and Wooyoung continued talking. It was easier to talk after removing your cap and wearing your mask again. He was funny and chill. 

“Hey, Indigo. The people are here.” Eden appeared. 

“Oh, okay. Thank you.” You stood up.

“Let me clear that for you and move out of the way.” Wooyoung gathered all the trash together in a bag, even wiping down the stools that you both used as makeshift tables. 

“Thanks, Wooyoung.” You bowed and went out to greet the movers. Before they brought things in, you kind of gave them a rough idea of where you wanted things to go. While they did that, you went to the convenience store downstairs to get some vitamin drinks for them. 

“Please, help yourselves.” You told them, placing the box of drinks on the floor for them. 

“Thank you, ma’am.” They all bowed and smiled gratefully. Most of the furniture had been set up prior so all they had to do was bring them in and install them if they needed to be installed. You got some floating shelves. 

“Sorry, I think I want those shelves here.” You pointed.

“Let me put down the rug before you put the coffee table.” You unfurled the rug, pressing the edges down as they curled up slightly. 

“Here.” You told them to place the glass table down. Things were starting to come together. Even if the shelves and cabinets were empty, at least you had them to fill and put your things now. 

“What height would you like the shelves?” The lead asked. He proceeded to use a tape measure to mark out where you would like to install the floating shelves.

“Is that too high?” You tilted your head.

“If you are going to display things, then it’s not too high. It is not accessible for daily use.” He advised. You hummed, unsure of what to do. 

“Ah, you know what. Just leave it at that height. I’ll find something to display. I have more than enough storage space already.” You laughed and the male laughed along, nodding his head in agreement. He used a pencil to mark the walls at the height you wanted the floating shelves. After that, you grabbed your computer and left to give them space. 

“Ah, Indigo!” 

“Hongjoong.” You waved to the blue haired male. 

“Got kicked out of your studio?” He asked.

“After one day? You wish. They’re installing the furniture and fixing stuff so I have to find another place to work for the time being.” You explained. He nodded his head. 

“Actually, if you have time, I would like to let you listen to something.” You asked. You wanted him to listen to the remixed beat you made last night.

“Sure. We can use the big studio. And if you’d like, you can meet the rest of my team. They’re coming in later, I think.” He said, a little unsure as he checked his watch for the time. You nodded and went into the studio with him. Luckily, it was not in use.

“Let me set up.” You sat at the big, long table in the middle of the studio and plugged your laptop to the speakers. When you started playing it, Hongjoong recognised it but as he listened on, his face morphed.

“Wait a minute... Is that...?” 

“It was the beat of your fingers drumming against my table top. I thought it would be a good addition.” You informed.

“Wow. I-I’m honoured. Let me hear it again.” He was so shocked and speechless. To listen to the tune more in depth, he changed the audio output to headphones rather than the speakers. 

“There’s still some mixing and balancing to be done before the final product. But when it gets published, I’ll definitely credit you.” You promised.

“It’s okay. I was honestly just mindlessly drumming along... It wasn’t much.” He shyly shook his hands in denial.

“No, giving credit where credit is due is important. It might be mindless drumming to you but it changed the tune for the better.” You insisted. You always hated and despised people that don’t give credit, you had been a victim of that way too many times. So even if it was a small addition or idea, you will make sure that the person gets the credit and recognition. 

“Thank you.” He blushed. 

“Once my studio is done, you should come do the beat on your own with the equipment. I was unsure on some parts so I just freestyled for the time being.” You told him.

“Definitely.” He nodded, excited over the prospect of working together on a project with you. 

“I heard from Wooyoung you fangirled when telling your team about me.” You teased. Hongjoong’s eyes widened like a deer caught in the headlights. His face turned bright red as he leaned down to hide from you.

“W-Wait, you’ve met Wooyoung?” He asked between nervous laughter.

“Yeah. This morning in the lift then he came to have lunch with me. Why, what’s wrong?” You giggled.

“That jerk... I didn’t fangirl, don’t think I’m weird or creepy. And Wooyoung... he’s the most playful out of the kids so if you can bare with him, you’ll be fine with the rest.” Hongjoong covered his face with his hands.

“Not weird or creepy at all, Hongjoong. I’m honoured you think so highly of me. And Wooyoung was very pleasant and helpful.” You smiled behind your mask, showing it through your eyes. It was endearing how Hongjoong referred to Wooyoung and his team as his children. 

“You say that now... Wait until he shows you his true colours.” Hongjoong rolled his eyes with a scoff. 

“If they’re anything like you and Wooyoung, I’m sure they’re delightful.” 

“They have the right intentions, they’re good kids. Just... hyper, playful and loud. You’ll quickly see who the favourites are and for good reason.” Hongjoong sighed, making you laugh again.

“Must not be easy being a father at your age.” You patted his shoulder with false sympathy. He shot you a look, not appreciating your mockery. 

“Oh, speak of the devils.” Hongjoong took his buzzing phone out. He answered it and put it on speaker.

“CAPTAIN!” 

Even you jumped at the sudden loud voices that blasted through the speaker. After that, multiple voices spoke over each other to the point where you couldn’t comprehend what each of them were saying. You snickered as Hongjoong facepalmed, shaking his head. He didn’t even bother to stop them, he was used to this chaos.

“Is that a girl? You’re with a girl?!” 

“Are you with Indigo?” 

“Indigo? Wooyoung, who is Indigo? Do you know something we don’t?!” 

“Idiot, she’s that new producer that joined us. Hyung told us about her! How could you forget so quickly?” 

“And the new producer is here, listening to your conversation. Hi, Ateez. And hi again, Wooyoung.” You chuckled, leaning on your hand as you spoke. Now it was Hongjoong’s turn to laugh.

“Hi, Indigo~” Wooyoung greeted you back but the rest remained silent, not expecting to have been on speaker to listen to them.

“Hyung! You didn’t tell us we were on speaker!”

“Bring her up, hyung! So we can introduce ourselves in person. We’re in the dance studio A.” 

With that, they just hung up. You couldn’t help but laugh while Hongjoong let out another sigh. He helped you carry your stuff as he led you upstairs to the floor where the dance studios were.

“Here we are.” Hongjoong stopped before the frosted door. You could make out faint silhouettes and multiple voices coming from inside.

“All I can say is, brace yourself.” He said firmly. You nodded as he opened the door. All at once, the noise stopped. The only thing that could be heard was the faint hip hop music playing in the background from the stereo. All 7 pairs of eyes were on you, the center of attention.

“Uhh, hi?” You waved uncertainly. 

“Indigo!” Wooyoung bounded up to you first, wrapping your arms around you. You blinked, frozen with shock. Hongjoong grabbed the back of his collar and yanked him back.

“Space, Wooyoung.” He reminded.

“Are they done working on your studio? Sorry I couldn’t be there to help, I had to come up and practice.” He smiled.

“They’re installing the furniture and fixing the stuff now. And don’t apologise, you were more than enough help. Especially since you brought me lunch.” You shook your head. Wooyoung grinned at your words. 

“Well, I guess I should introduce myself to the rest of you. Hi, I am producer Indigo. I’m working with Edenary in the production team. Nice to meet you all, I look forward to working with all of you.” You bowed politely to all of them.

“We should do a group introduction first before individual introductions.” One of them said. Wooyoung and Hongjoon joined their line up.

“8 makes 1 team! Nice to meet you, we are Ateez!” They chanted loudly. 

~

Series Masterlist

[bucketsofmonsters]

The Witch’s Apprentice - Part 2

cw: demon summoning, nightmares, prolonged isolation, bugs, more tags will be added as the story continues

male demon x afab reader

Word count: ~4k

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3  Part 4  Part 5 Part 6  Part 7

He didn’t show up in another dream after that night. 

You kept waiting for it to happen. It felt like an inevitability. No matter how many times you checked your books, you couldn’t find what you’d done wrong in your warding so you most definitely hadn’t fixed the problem.

The only way to properly fix it at this point would be to ask Eden and that was something you weren’t willing to do. Any trust you’d gained with her would be lost. You couldn’t mess it up. Not now, not when she’d just begun involving you in her work. 

The longer you went without hearing from the demon the more nervous you got. Day after day you heard nothing, not even in a summoning with Eden. Even that would be a blessing, at least then you’d be able to get eyes on him, try and get a read on him. 

She refused, insisting she was busy with things she couldn’t tell you about. The newfound openness that had come with you being involved in the summonings fell away and once again you were being excluded from her work entirely. 

Impulsive. That’s what Eden had called each and every one of your attempts to do magic on your own, to figure it out without her guidance. Was she right? Probably.

Did you still wait until she left for a day to snatch the summoning book and face the source of your anxiety head on?

Absolutely. 

You double and triple checked the books before you did anything. That had been driven into you, Eden had made your mistakes clear to you enough times to prove you didn’t have the luxury of confidence. 

Most of it wasn’t even in your hands, the summoning circle left from old visits and most of the materials needed for the summoning still sitting together on the table. You had no idea what Eden was really doing with Lucien, what the trances were for or what deals she’d made, but the summoning part was fairly simple. 

The book sat on the floor in front of you but you didn’t need it, the words long since memorized. 

The second the air shifted it was filled with the demon’s sudden yelling. “One week! One week of not having to incessantly be pulled here and you couldn’t even…” The anger drained from his face the second he saw you. “You’re not your witch.”

“‘She’s not my witch.” You felt more sensitive about his wording while you were sitting here, disobeying her. 

He seemed amused by the rebuttal. “Then who’s witch is she?” 

“Her own, I suppose.”

“You could always tell me her name. Then I wouldn’t have to call her anyone’s witch.”

“Do we have to do this every time?” you asked with a sigh. Surely he must know that you wouldn’t fall for it, although you supposed you couldn’t fault him for trying. 

With the realization that you wouldn’t budge on the name issue, at least for now, he shifted topics. “She doesn’t know you’re here.” It wasn’t a question but an observation, and an apt one at that. 

You’d hoped he wouldn’t realize, would just assume she let you do what you wanted around here. The realization gave him another bargaining chip, a piece of information he could use to hurt you. You’d have to brace yourself for him to reveal it next time Eden summoned him. 

But the damage had already been done, you might as well ask what you were here to ask. 

“Why did you show up in my dream?”

“Aw, are you dreaming about me? I must have left quite the impression. What kind of dream was it? I hope it was a fun one.”

You tried once more, more forceful this time. “You showed up in my dream.”

He rolled his eyes as you refused to play. “I saw a chance and I took it. It’s not my fault you can’t ward yourself.”

You wanted to ask if you’d fixed the problem as you’d redone everything, if your warding was all good and sorted out now despite not finding the real issue but you knew he’d lie about it regardless. There was no point in it. 

As you tried to find something useful to ask him, he helpfully chimed in, “I’m not telling you anything.”

You sighed. This confrontation was going just how you expected it to. “Yeah, I know.”

“Then why am I here?”

You shrugged. 

He wasn’t willing to let go of it that easily. “What do you want from me?”

“Do I have to want something from you?”

“All humans do.”

Oh. You should probably figure that out. You took a mental note to think on it later. 

“I’ll get back to you on that,” you promised him, although you weren’t entirely sure when. You certainly couldn’t say anything in front of Eden and you supposed you had no real reason to summon him again. 

If you were honest with yourself, you had no real reason to summon him the first time. You knew how this would play out. And yet here he was, looming over you whilst being entirely unhelpful. 

His head was tilted as he evaluated you. “If you don’t want anything from me, what should I do? I mean, I’m sure I can come up with something but history indicates you might not follow through on my ideas.”

His assumption was right. Whatever trickery he might be inclined to try would fall on deaf ears. 

The problem was, you didn’t have anything better to say. You probably should have had a game plan for all of this. Maybe ‘impulsive’ wasn’t that far off. 

At a loss for words, you uttered the only ones you had on hand. He rolled his eyes as the words of dismissal started to leave you

“Running away so quickly?”

His attempt to goad you did nothing to stop your momentum, running through the spell that you had memorized front to back. 

When you looked up, he was gone, leaving behind an empty summoning circle on the floor.  

You’d done it on your own and nothing happened. He hadn’t killed you or tricked you or broken free, he’d just stood there and talked to you. 

It felt like a minor miracle. It had taken years to get Eden to let you sit silently in the room while she summoned something and you’d just done it on your own without a hitch. 

You wanted to tell her. Well, to tell someone, but you had no one else to tell. 

Other than Lucien, you supposed, but somehow you imagined that summoning him again just to get excited about how you’d summoned him the first time might not go over well. 

Three days. That’s how long it took you to give in.

You’d done it once, proven to yourself you could summon him safely, and that opened the door to do it again. You no longer had the pretenses of before where you could tell yourself it was just to gather information on how he’d invaded your dreams but that could only stop you for so long. 

You were a lonely person. You’d always been to some extent, but being stuck in this cabin certainly hadn’t helped matters. 

You had Eden. For that you were eternally grateful. And for a long time that had been enough. 

Demons were dangerous. That fact had been drilled into your head. You could never tell them your name or break the summoning circle or trust them with anything, but what you hadn’t anticipated was that they could make for shockingly good company. 

Or maybe any company would feel like good company right about now. You weren’t sure how to tell. 

You supposed you did want something from him, he was right. Companionship, not being alone for a while, call it whatever you wanted. It was disingenuous to claim you were summoning him for no reason and he’d realized it faster than you had.  

Everyone had a reason. Everyone had something they wanted. 

Disobeying Eden was just as difficult the second time around. 

When Lucien arrived this time, he wasn’t angry. His gaze fell immediately to your little spot on the floor, not Eden’s trance circle, and you knew he was coming to expect you. 

“Well, you’re nothing if not persistent.” He spoke with a laugh in his voice, ever amused by your antics. 

“Thank you?”

“You're welcome.”

You had plenty of things that you could have said. You’d prepared a little better this time, with backup ideas to cover you so you wouldn’t have to send him away the second he started to question you. 

Instead, you busied yourself, putting a kettle on the stove and cleaning off the counter in the room as Lucien stared on in bewilderment. 

“Are you alright?” he asked as you rushed about. While it was far from concerned, it was the most genuine you’d heard him be. 

“Do you care?”

“I wouldn’t normally but I can’t help but wonder what you’re up to.”

“I’m making tea.”

His confusion seemed to override the urge to be antagonistic and he quietly watched you rush about. As you brewed two mugs full of tea, you walked back over to the summoning circle and held one out for him. 

He eyed the mug distrustfully. “What is it?”

“It’s for you, it’s tea!”

“I know what tea is, what did you put in it? Is there rosemary in here? Your witch loves the stuff, I can still smell it everywhere.”

Rosemary was toxic to demons. When Eden was between summoning sessions, she'd have you burn some throughout the house to ward off any unwanted entities. In times like these when she was working with the creatures and couldn’t use it without harming them, you tended to it in the garden until she needed it next. 

You shook your head adamantly. “It’s bad etiquette to poison a guest. Besides, if I wanted to, I could just throw some rosemary at you. It’s not like you could go anywhere.”

“Fair enough.” A sly look crossed his face as he incredulously asked, “And you’re just going to hand it to me? Well, I’m not going to stop you.” 

You couldn't help but be a little peeved at the comment. Surely eventually he would stop wildly underestimating you. “You can’t do anything as long as the summoning circle stays intact, which it is. I’m not a complete fool. Now do you want the tea or not?”

You held the mug out, waiting a moment for his response.

He finally took it, the mug looking quite silly as it was dwarfed in his hands.

“Sorry,” you said, scrunching up your nose at the sight. “We don’t have any bigger mugs.”

“I’m sure I’ll survive.”

He took a sip of the tea and you fought back a laugh at the sight of it. 

He looked down at the mug with a furrowed brow. “Odd little concoction you’ve got here. So, as long as you seem averse to asking anything of me, I might as well ask. Why are you working for the witch?”

“Why wouldn’t I? She’s brilliant, she’s my best friend, she saved my life, I owe her everything. I’m just lucky she’s willing to teach me.”

“You owe her something? Has she trapped you here, what do you owe her?” He seemed eager to jump to that conclusion.

Where could he be getting that from? “No, of course not! She wouldn’t do that.”

“She’s done it to me.”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, she must have a reason.”

“I know. Everyone wants something, I told you that already. But I already know what she wants from me, what do you want from her?”

“What?” You’d expected him to prod further for your motivation, maybe ask once more why Eden even kept you around, but not that. “What do you mean?”

“Come on, something’s gotta be keeping you here. I don’t buy that it's you learning magic, you had to sneak off to be allowed to do anything, she isn’t teaching you shit.”

“Hey, she’s a great teacher. And I just want to help as much as I can.”

He shook his head. “I didn’t take you for a liar.”

“I’m not lying! That’s all I want from her, to help, her friendship, some company. I think that’s why I summoned you too, is it really that unbelievable?”

“You summoned me to help me? If so, you're doing a shit job of it.”

“No, for the company.”

He scoffed. “Noone needs company that badly. Try again.”

“How would you know?”

“What?”

“The people who need company have no one to tell about it so how would you know? There are probably plenty of people like me out there who wouldn’t mind a chat with you.”

“They can just go to a bar then, strike up a conversation with someone. The demon summoning seems like overkill to me,” he noted. “You could do the same. I don’t blame you for wanting to talk to someone other than your damn witch but if you want company so badly just go to town, I’m sure someone would be willing to humor you.”

That confused you. “You know I can’t do that. I can’t leave the cabin, the forest won’t let me. You saw, remember? When you broke into my head.”

“That was a nightmare. You can walk through the woods.”

“I told you it wasn’t a nightmare, it’s the woods laying claim to me. They tried to swallow me up before, she saved me. This place is the only place that’s safe from it.”

“I’ve been in these woods, they’re not like that.”

“Maybe not for you.”

“So you are trapped here?”

You couldn’t understand why he didn’t seem to be getting it. “I’m protected here. This is my safe haven.”

“When was the last time you left? Hell, when was the last time you spoke to anyone other than your witch?”

You weren’t entirely certain, trying to quickly count the number of winters you’d seen while you’d been here. “Years ago, definitely. Probably… six or seven by now, I’d wager.”

His eyes lit up as an opportunity presented itself, his voice shifting into the more practiced one you’d heard before, designed to be convincing. “I could get you out of here. Come on, make a deal with me. Don’t you miss society? Miss talking to people?”

You immediately started the banishing spell, not wanting to have this conversation. You knew you wouldn’t be able to make him drop the issue, your talk was over. 

“No, stop it, stop doing that,” he hissed at you. “Shut up!”

You didn’t let his protests deter you, barrelling through the rest of the spell. 

Without so much as a warning he vanished, leaving behind empty air and a mug that promptly smashed into the ground with nothing left to hold it up. 

You rushed to clean up the mess. The shards of ceramic and tea couldn’t break the summoning circle, that couldn’t be done without intention from someone not trapped in it, but they most certainly could alert Eden to your behavioral misstep.  

When Eden got home, you were sweeping the last of the jagged shards into a dustpan. 

“What happened?” she asked. “Are you alright?”

You waved away her concern. “I just dropped a mug, nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing important got damaged?”

“Nope.”

“Good. You should be more careful.”

With a final glance at the mess, she took the basket of things she’d gathered from wherever she’d been. She never told you where she went, it was always just ‘out.’ 

It felt more like a small mercy than anything. You weren’t sure you could stomach hearing about her trips to town. You preferred it this way, she just went out and returned with baskets full of things she’d never tell you about. 

Days passed and she didn’t bring up the incident again. 

You were out in your garden, the little fenced in piece of nature that you could safely access. It wasn’t very big, a slice of land pressed up against the side of the house, but you spent much of your time out there. 

The garden was the only thing you had any real control over. Eden rarely came out here, you kept all the herbs inside well-stocked enough that she never had to. 

It was also a rare subject at which you excelled. Your little sliver of land was thriving, keeping every single plant Eden brought for you to take care of alive and well. 

You were pruning weeds when you found a little praying mantis sitting under some lavender. 

Its hooked arms were raised defensively, clearly positioning to strike if you got any closer. 

“You gotta go bud,” you said, keeping your voice low so as not to spook it any further. “You’re gonna eat all the bees and we can’t have that.”

It seemed unconvinced. 

He seemed perfectly polite but you didn’t have a pest problem in your garden and you knew from experience it would hunt down any pollinators who came nearby. 

“You don’t belong in here, if you don’t leave I’m going to have to evict you and neither of us want that.”

Your attempt at negotiation fell on deaf ears so instead you picked up a watering can, shaking it upside down to make sure it was empty before trying to figure out how best to scoop the aggressive little thing up.

The sound of Eden saying something drifted through the wall of the cabin and your head perked up. 

“You’ve escaped this time, but you better not be here when I get back.”  You gave your newfound enemy one last look and left him to consider your warning as you brushed the dirt off your clothes so you could head inside and see what Eden wanted. 

The second you walked into the room you knew exactly what she’d been saying. That became obvious when you locked eyes with the last person you wanted to see. 

As you stared down Lucien, eyes wide, all those repercussions of summoning him alone felt a lot more threatening than they had when the two of you were chatting over tea. 

Eden was sitting on the floor looking up at him and you winced, cursing the fact that she wasn’t in a trace that would let you slip out of the room unnoticed. 

“Are you even paying attention?” she asked him as he stared right over her head. 

He was entirely ignoring Eden’s question, his gaze locked onto you. “I was wondering where you’d run off to, the witch had lost her shadow.” 

Eden’s head jerked around and you shrunk in on yourself, her eyes burning into your skin worse than Lucien’s did. 

Even with her back to him, he seemed to be able to sense her anger. “What’s wrong,” he prodded. “That’s what you have them do anyways, isn’t it? Quietly observe?”

She muttered the dismissal spell under her breath, forgetting whatever work she’d been up to in favor of glaring daggers at you. 

She didn’t even check to see if he was gone before she stood up and started pacing over to you. 

For a moment, you weren’t even nervous, caught up in Lucien’s words. He hadn’t given you away or gotten you in trouble, instead inexplicably covering for you. You couldn’t make sense of it, practically wouldn’t believe it if it had just happened. 

The lack of nervousness ended the second Eden started talking. 

“You cannot come in unannounced like that,” she snapped. “You’re lucky I had things under control. You could have put us both at risk.”

“I’m so sorry.” You weren’t sure your voice reached her, your words coming out as a squeak more than as an intelligible thought. 

She seemed to understand the gist of it at the very least. 

“You should be!” She rubbed her temples, taking a deep breath as she considered her next words. “I’m just trying to keep you safe. I can’t do that if you don’t listen, you know that.”

“I know, I really am sorry.”

She took your hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Okay. Don’t let it happen again.”

“I won’t.”

She chuckled. “Well, you saw your first demon. Not ideal circumstances but what did you think?”

“Very scary,” you said, hoping that was what she wanted to hear. 

“They certainly are. Unpleasant creatures, through and through.”

You nodded, hoping she couldn’t see the apprehension on your face. If only seeing him was the worst of your transgressions.

[onlyoneofyongsoo]

Why BUB actually fits into OOO's catalogue

Bump Up Business has been criticised for many things, and don’t get me wrong, it’s far from perfect, but there is one question I have heard a lot: “Why did OnlyOneOf of all people choose to do this? Doesn’t this show play exactly into the thing we have been defending them of?”

My own answer to this is yes and no. But let me explain. 

In this I will not be discussing what the writers had in mind, because I don’t know them. But I’ll talk about why I think it makes sense OnlyOneOf would tell this kind of story, whether they actually had any say in choosing this drama or not.

The main argument for most peoples' criticism I’ve seen is “This show is about/glorifying queerbaiting.” But is it really? Both of the characters are already queer. Jihoon has dated at least one man and is very aware of his own sexuality. Eden is quickly established as being very insecure in his own sexuality, not because he’s straight, but because he’s queer and finds that hard to accept. So the show is about queer characters. 

Okay, so how does the queerbaiting fall into this? Obviously there is queerbaiting present. Their company practically forces them to do it. Eden is very reluctant, but agrees after the company gives him an ultimatum. Jihoon is less reluctant, but also in a tight spot. He has fallen off and this is seemingly his last chance to save his career, something he wouldn’t give up even for the man he loved. So the characters take no pleasure in the queerbaiting, but is it a problem to them? Yes, actually. It is made clear that they have trouble telling apart what is real feelings and what’s just work. In episode 4 for example Jihoon asks Eden if he is struggling with their concept after Eden revealed how insecure he is in his sexuality. The question comes from a place of caring and honesty. Eden then answers that he is okay because it’s "just work". Since emotions and their hidden identities are now part of their work it gets all muddled and confusing for them. 

You might say now “But that’s not the problem with queerbaiting! They’re leading their fans on!” And from a fan’s perspective I agree. They are leading them on. But this isn’t about fans, this show is about idols. What would it be like for a queer idol to work in an industry where you are urged to act queer but to never be queer? How would that affect your personal life?

In the drama the queer characters hide their identity. Even after Hyunbin spread these awful rumours about Jihoon, they don’t reveal their relationship. Evidently having rumours about being with women is still better than revealing that you’re gay. The entire time they keep any real relationships under wraps. 

On top of that, in a way Eden has to out himself for his job. Even though he of course isn’t allowed to be actually queer, acting this lovey-dovey with another man in public sure must feel like he’s coming out and he is clearly uncomfortable with that. Interviewers and netizens are constantly questioning their relationship as well. Are they gay? Are they straight? Do they naturally act that way? Is the company forcing them? Having all your actions be scrutinised and dissected like this, especially as a closeted queer person is terrifying. 

Once again I’m not claiming that the writers wanted to represent queer idols’ struggles, but I think you can understand how this might be able to be read that way, especially by idols themselves. 

Now how does this fit in with OnlyOneOf’s usual work, besides the obvious queer element? For that I’d like to remind you of June 2022. That is the month we started off the undergrOund idOl project. If you’re like me, then that name probably made you question it. What does it mean? I remember theories about it being about struggling as a relatively unknown group and things along those lines. Luckily they gave us hints in several articles by letting us know that the series is about “the inner side of idols who shine on stage”. Okay, cool! So is it about struggles with fame? Like a glimpse behind the mask? Let’s look at the videos! Hm… Not much about idol life here actually… They’re all just.. queer? How curious. Almost as if they want to highlight the queerness so many idols or celebrities have to hide?

So OnlyOneOf, a group whose behaviours and sexualities are constantly being dissected and who is famous for telling and highlighting genuine queer stories, even connecting those stories to what idols have to hide, choose a drama that is about queer idols who have to navigate their queerness in an industry that demands “fake queerness” but has no room for real queer people. This doesn’t actually seem that surprising to me. Does it to you?

Last comments:

I don’t think that BUB is a critical masterpiece tastefully portraying the harsh reality of queer celebrities. I think that the producers and writers did not do a good job and that OnlyOneOf’s own work is a lot better. But I can absolutely see how this story fits into the larger picture and why this could be appealing to them. I don’t know if they even had any say in doing the drama to begin with. But I just wanted to provide a different point of view. Maybe someone found this interesting at least <3

[merp-blerp]

A Gaylor interpretation of "The Prophecy" because if Taylor never sleeps why should I?

TW: I tried to keep it mostly light, but ended up veering into brief talk of self-destructive behavior and suicide near the end.

Overblown Analysis Under the Cut ↓

"Hand on the throttle / Thought I caught lightning in a bottle / Oh, but it's gone again"

I think this song is about failed coming outs and closeting. Of course, many in this community know of the Lover failed coming out, but God only knows if that was really the only attempt. I think she tried to at least subtly come out several times. But during Lover, she and many others thought she would finally make it out of the closet, a once-in-a-lifetime chance, fully ready to go and take control, but plans were foiled. If it wasn't the first or last attempt, the chance was gone again.

"And it was written / I got cursed like Eve got bitten / Oh, was it punishment?"

Taylor begins to question if her coming out plan(s?) fell short because she's cursed for being who she is. Was she cursed like Eve was for biting the forbidden fruit? Eve in some interpretations of Christianity is often seen as the blame for all the world's sins, with Mother Mary being seen as God's Eve "do-over", since Mary stayed obedient to God's wishes. Sometimes Eve is even depicted as tempting or tricking Adam into eating the fruit, it being her fault he fell, rather than his own choices ruining him. Whether or not Eve is actually to blame could be debated forever, not unlike how Christians debate similarly about whether the bible is okay with queerness or not. Taylor wonders if never being seen as who she is by the general public is a punishment for her simply being. Interestingly, Taylor changes Eve's story, saying Eve was bitten, rather than the biter, possibly by the serpent/Devil in the garden gate of Eden. Being bitten by a snake actually reminds me more of Cleopatra more than Eve, but I'll elaborate more on that later.

"Pad around when I get home / I guess a lesser woman would've lost hope / A greater woman wouldn't beg / But I looked to the sky and said / Please / I've been on my knees / Change the prophecy / Don't want money / Just someone who wants my company / Let it once be me / Who do I have to speak to / About if they can redo the prophecy?"

Somewhat self-explanatory. Taylor anxiously paces as she asks God if her fate can change. If she can just get free. She doesn't want the money that comes from the beardings and closeting any longer. She just wants to be seen for who she is. She wants someone who wants the real Taylor's company, not the showmanship Taylor. She wonders what God or entity she has to ask to be freed from the cage.

"Cards on the table / Mine play out like fools in a fable"

Taylor has used card games as imagery before, usually in situations where she feels like someone isn't being honest with her, playing her. Most significantly for this reading, in "Foolish One" she speaks about how her cards were on the table, or that she was being open and vulnerable, while that song's muse wasn't showing theirs, as they weren't being clear, leading her on. In this situation, Taylor is once again laying all her cards out for the world to see, but it's foolish because the world never sees it, whether it's from not knowing how to or not wanting to. Fables are very similar to folklore or folktales, characterized as short, clear, fictional stories, often featuring animals. Taylor is saying that while her cards are clear, her stories must be told through vague, or "fool" characters that distance her from them, fictionalized. Both Gaylors and general Swifties seem to currently agree that her album Folklore has truth in it and isn't fully fictionalized, but exactly how much is fiction, and who represents who seems to be where opinions differ. And then there's a lot of infighting between the sides of the fandoms, so Taylor stays mostly unseen and caged.

"Oh, it was sinking in (Sinking in, oh) / Slow is the quicksand / Poison blood from the wound of the pricked hand / Oh, still I dream of him"

The feeling that she'll never be free sinks in, slowly over time, like sinking into quicksand is slow, or poison through your body from a small prick. She dreams of someone. One way to look at this is that she's dreaming of someone she loves, the muse of this album. I, however, for now at least, get this feeling that the dream is actually more of a nightmare. I mentioned in my makeshift theory on "The Manuscript" that I believed "The Professor/He" was a personification of the music industry or an industry boss. Taylor's said before that she's had nightmares about the crummier aspects of the industry, like unwanted photos and videos of herself. Maybe she still does (as a slight sidenote, I feel like this could be connected to Kissgate, as that was filmed without her wishes, and arguably when the closeting and bearding amped up heavily). She even mentions nightmares in "Cassandra".

"And I sound like an infant / Feeling like the very last drops of an ink pen / A greater woman stays cool / But I howl like a wolf at the moon / And I look unstable / Gathered with a coven 'round a sorceress' table / A greater woman has faith / But even statues crumble if they're made to wait"

The ink pen feels like Taylor's saying that she's slowly burning out, down to the last drop in her, tired of writing letters addressed to the fire and sending signals, as she runs out of ways to say her truth just for it to fall upon deaf ears. A more stable woman wouldn't show her pain, but she's so loud about her truth like a wolf, yet soundless. She gets more desperate like a helpless child as she continues to wait, still grappling with the guilt that can come from being queer and a Christian at the same time, like she's a witch with a coven. She knows she's supposed to keep her faith by staying in the unseen shade of the closet, after all, "There's no such thing as bad thoughts / Only your actions talk (from "Guilty as Sin?")". But waiting to be free for however long is taking its toll. At the Spotify TTPD pop-up library, Taylor featured what's seemingly a bust of Artemis/Diana, the Greek/Roman goddess of the, most significant to Taylor, archery. (Yes, the name Diana is very curious for Gaylors, but—unpopular opinion—maybe—I don't think it actually means too much to the song itself) After hearing about an Artemis statue being destroyed in regards to that symbolism, when digging, I found a few stories about Artemis/Diana's statues or temples being destroyed, whether it's half of Diana of the Tower burning and the other half being lost or the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus being the victim of arson in 4th century BCE. Just like Artemis/Diana, Taylor gets destroyed unexpectedly. (I've also heard of an Artemis/Diana statue that was destroyed by time, but I can't find a source for that story that doesn't connect to the Taylor pop-up).

"I'm so afraid I sealed my fate / No sign of soulmates / I'm just a paperweight in shades of greige / Spending my last coin so someone will tell me it'll be okay"

Taylor fears that her fate to never be seen is her fault, as she willingly participated in the closeting and beardings, so she's cursed to stay that way forever, never getting to mingle with other queers as one of them, like a soulmate, but an "ally", as she's too big to hang out with them. In slang, a paperweight is a useless object; Taylor probably knows that her coming out could mean a lot for queer people and the movement, but since she hasn't been able to come out, at least not in a way that is universally recognized, she feels useless compared to what she could be. Greige is a combo of grey and beige, much like the sepia aesthetic of this album. It's almost colorless, as she is forced to be grey rather than a rainbow with all of the colors due to closeting. The use of sepia or greige could symbolize that this album still has a thin coat of bearding and closeting attached to it, even though it could also be seen as a big step into the daylight. She tried to see daylight times before, "but the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light" (from "Peter"), at least for now. After her "postmortem", Taylor spends what I interpret as an obol, a coin a shade, or ghost, given to them before burial, that's paid to Charon, the underworld ferryman in Greek mythology; the fee would let a shade cross the river Styx to get to Hades. But Taylor pays only in the hopes of being comforted by someone after her "death". To be told that everything will be okay after the grey fallout. An obol would be the last thing a person would own from their time on earth, so it's her last coin. Taylor being a shade could call back to lyrics like, "Shade never made anybody less gay", in "YNTCD", having the double meaning of shade as in vitriol and the dark shade of the closet, and "Sit quiet by my side in the shade" in "Paris", where her private lover quietly sits in the closet with her. In "The Archer", Taylor mentions "And all of my heroes die all alone", interpretively due to them being queer and not getting to have a privileged life in that sense. Maybe in the afterlife, Taylor hopes to find and be comforted by one of these heroes.

I mentioned Cleopatra earlier, and while as far as I know Cleopatra wasn't queer, she is treated similarly to Eve, often blamed for the temptation of men; Cleopatra allegedly self-inflicted a snake bite to end her life, like how Taylor's Eve was bitten. Taylor has similarly been treated like Eve and Cleopatra, seen as "going through men like potato chips (a real fucking quote I found while researching for this post)" whether that's the exact case or not. Taylor's also illuded to self-inflicting harmful actions that could kill her in several songs, like "Hoax", and including on TTPD: "Love left me like this and I don't want to exist" from "Florida!!!" Even quicksand and poison mentioned in this song are ways to die. Whatever the reason behind these lines might be, I hate that she may feel that way and I worry that it's a somewhat ignored aspect of her music, brushed off as dramatic. It makes the asylum theme of TTPD much more tragic. I wish nothing but the best for Taylor. 🤍

I make a part 2 part to this

[lucyandthepen]

last eden - iii . | lmh

part i, ii, iii

only one thing has ever mattered to you, in this lifetime, and in all others : mark lee — even if he doesn’t know yet, and even if he may never remember.

pairing: mark x reader verse: canon/idol!verse, soulmates trope rating: T warnings: none, i think! word count: 5.7k tag list: @kikookii

a/n: quite frankly i am having a terrible headache so if you see any bad slip ups once again please feel free to let me know!! literally no mark presence in this chapter (i apologize) however, it's integral to the story, plus you have quite a bit of jaehyun to bridge the gap, so ..................... here we go !!

What’s weird is that he gives you back your album. He casually hands it over alongside the release papers like you’re still in the auditorium and not exiting the police department, with a bunch of officers casting the both of you befuddled looks. Some guy by the water cooler seems to recognize Jaehyun and promptly drops his paper cup. The water stains his pants in a supremely unattractive way, but he just keeps on staring, kind of agape.

Who can blame him, though? You’ve got this tall, handsome guy coming out of the precinct jail all smiles with this really confused girl right behind him; the scene just… it makes no sense. At all. 

When you’re finally past the front doors, you open your mouth to ask him a question — any question — but nothing comes out; you’re not sure which one to prioritize. You just end up scratching your neck and saying “um,” which he responds to with a sincerely interested look, but you have nothing, so you just kind of stare at each other until even he starts looking a bit awkwardly placed.

“I couldn’t get anyone else’s signature on it anymore, but I thought you might at least like to have it back,” he gestures to the album, tucked between your side and your arm. “You know, fond memories.”

You’re sure that’s a joke, but neither of you laugh. He’s looking at you expectantly, like he wants you to have this big revelation, or to, like, start freaking out at least, but all you can do is look down at your release papers with this numbness in your chest. His name is on the signatory line: Jung Yoonoh. Like, you’d always know some of their names were stage names, but it wasn’t like you cared enough to research and memorize everyone else’s names and birthdays and favourite foods. Information on Mark was already too much, anyway. 

Still, seeing his real name also made him more… normal. Even if he is still freakishly tall. You have to crane your neck slightly to maintain eye contact with him, and you can’t be too close, or you’ll just have to bend your neck back to a really bad angle. 

“Your signature… looks different on this paper,” you observe stupidly.

“Yeah, well… I can’t really put a big, obnoxious autograph on a legal document, can I?” he chuckles. 

“Why did you — I mean, you didn’t have to, but thank you, but — why?”

“Why did I bail you out?” He looks away slowly, out towards the busy road. It looks so dramatic that you almost want to look around to see if you’re accidentally trapped in a primetime drama series with him. “Well, for one, I know you’re not crazy.”

That’s good. Not necessarily the NCT member you wanted to convince of your sanity, but it’s some kind of progress.

“But more importantly, I think it’s important that you’re aware that there are always people who are going to help you.”

That was way too much depth considering you’d just formally met each other about an hour or two ago. He turns back to you, a small smile still playing on his lips. You smile back — although it feels more like a grimace. 

“Thank… you?” You let the last syllable of your thanks hang awkwardly, unsure if he wants to just drop the conversation or something, but he looks at you expectantly, so you feel compelled to continue. “I mean… That’s nice of you to say so, and I’m grateful that you think that I’m not crazy — I’m really not — but I just… feel bad.”

“Bad?” It’s his turn to look bemused. 

“Bad, yeah. I mean, you’ve got so much on your plate without having to go through all this trouble just to help a fan you don’t know. I’m not complaining,” you add quickly. “I’m just saying… you… you didn’t have to. I could have called my friend or my mom, or something. The point is, you didn’t have to go out of your way and hassle yourself for a nobody you’ve never met.”

“We’ve met,” he raises his eyebrows.

“Yeah, like two hours ago.” 

“I kind of remember seeing you further back,” he says slowly.

“Okay, but that day doesn’t count,” you say, sounding dismissive, but you’re honestly just embarrassed he remembers you diving at Mark after the M! Countdown stage. “We didn’t even talk. I don’t even know if anyone else apart from Mark and Doyoung got a good look at my face. My point is —”

“I got a pretty good look from the car,” he replies simply, and you can see he’s struggling to keep down a smile. “But I mean—”

“My point is,” you press on. “Thank you. For today — for bailing me out even if I’m just some crazy fan and for, you know, assuring me that you don’t actually think I’m crazy.”

He waits for a second, then a huge, toothy grin spreads across his face. “That’s it?”

“I guess.” It felt kind of anticlimactic. You’re confused, yes, but under that, you’re really just grateful. And confused. But mostly grateful. 

“You’re welcome, then,” he says simply. “But if you’re really thankful, maybe you should take my advice when I say you should think about taking a break.” 

And now you’re stumped again. “What?”

“Take a break,” he repeats himself. “Try not to overexert yourself too much and get into this kind of trouble. Times are hard these days, and they’ll only get harder.”

“Is that your best fortune cookie impression?” 

He laughs again — loudly this time, so much so that the police officers stepping outside of the building shoot him a surprised look. “No, but I think it’s a pretty good one, don’t you?”

“I don’t even know what that means.”

“You will,” he says, and although his words are mysterious, his demeanor is weirdly cavalier; he just shrugs his shoulders. “But it always takes time for it to sink in. When it does, you should call me.”

“I should huh?” 

He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a wrinkled ziplock bag that turns out to contain your phone. The front of the bag has all of your details, and some vindictive police officer had written CONFISCATED on it with a thick red pen. 

“I put my number in there; I hope you don’t mind. I’m not, like, randomly hitting on you, or anything weird like that, in case you were wondering. I just think you might want to keep in touch even after this.” He makes a slightly pained face. “Um, it’s also been ringing a lot. Your friend is probably looking for you, but I didn’t want to invade your privacy and answer it.” 

“I can tell,” you reply, fishing it out of the bag and unlocking it. You have eleven missed calls and a bunch of KakaoTalk messages. “How in the world did you unlock my phone?”

“I guessed your passcode. It wasn’t hard considering how much I already know about you. Call it an educated guess.”

“How much you — okay,” you don’t know if your agitation is a result of feeling slightly violated now or just residual trauma from today’s events as a whole. “You need to be straight with me and tell me what you’re saying, really.” 

“I’m NCT’s Jaehyun, and I just bailed you out of jail. I can be as mysterious as I want.” 

“Those two reasons literally don’t make sense!” you half-shriek. 

“Don’t yell; people might think I’m kidnapping you,” he actually looks around like he’s worried. 

“I’m the one with a criminal record in this conversation.”

“Did they really write you up as a criminal?”

“I’m pretty sure I saw them write that I was charged with viol — that’s besides the point,” you quickly haul the conversation back to the topic. “I don’t understand anything that’s going on here, and you sound like you’re saying something important, but all I hear is some weird guru babble.” 

“If I try to explain everything here, we’re just going to have a hard time. Besides, there’s no real learning if I just tell you everything.” You feel like you’re going to scream again, but you don’t really want to be caught harassing another idol, especially one that’s helped you, so you just bite your tongue. Hard. "You’re tired. I’m tired. People are looking for us. I need to get to practice, and you… need to… um, do stuff. Have dinner. Go see a movie, or something. I’ve got free passes, if you want them; they’re probably in my wallet somewhere —“ 

“Pass on the movie,” you say firmly. “I just… Okay. I’m going home. I’m going to process what just happened, crawl into bed, and then die, maybe.”

“Before you die,” he interrupts. “Call me. After the whole processing thing.”

“Before I die, I will consider calling you. Even though I don’t know why I should, and especially because that’s very weird, considering we’re not even friends.”

“I paid your bail,” he pouts. He pouts? In this day and age? “What else does it take to be your friend, then?”

“Clear responses.”

“Well, if that’s what it takes, we’ll be friends when you process everything that happened today and you inevitably call me.”

You awkwardly see Jung Jaehyun off, waiting for his cab to leave before calling Heehyeon back. Just as the car is about to move forward, the driver presses on the break again, and he rolls his window down. Jaehyun is beside him, craning his neck so you can hear him clearly when he says call me, okay? You make a half-hearted grunt that he takes for assent and finally allows the driver to speed away. 

“What happened to you?” Heehyeon screams into the phone the moment she picks up. “There were tons of policemen outside CGV! One of them said someone got arrested. Did you get arrested? Please give me at least one bit of good news today and tell me you didn’t.”

“I was… hauled away and put in time-out?”

“You’re so — oh my God, tell me which police station.” 

The moment you finish giving the address, she hangs up, and you can only assume she’s on her way. You end up standing outside of the police station for another twenty minutes, alternating between just looking guilty and playing 1010 on your phone. You hear your name being called out by a clearly incensed voice, and you turn to see your roommate charging at you, lips pressed in a tight line. Your palms, admittedly, get just a little sweaty. 

“Don’t start,” Heehyeon raises a hand. Her cheeks are flushed, probably because she’s minutes away from exploding and she’s also been running. Her chest is heaving, probably for similar reasons. “I had to hear from some kids that a crazy fan leapt over the signing table, pushed aside Doyoung and Jaehyun, and kissed Mark full on the mouth! I told you not to do anything crazy, and you had to do the one thing that made you look the craziest!”

“I did no such thing!” You argue, slightly affronted. “Why would you even believe I’d do that?”

“Because you’re not above that when it comes to Mark!” 

“I still have my dignity,” you retort.

“Do you? Do you really?”

“I didn’t do anything. I literally didn’t!” You cut her off before she can start again. “I was just moving along the line, ready to give him the album and the letter, and he and Doyoung recognized me —“ 

“More people recognized you? That’s just great —“

“The point is, I didn’t make any kind of scene!” You huff; despite knowing that this is somehow your fault, you can’t help but feel like people have blown this issue way out of proportion. You had only had a brief, harmless spell of hysteria once, and now you’re crazy? “I was just doing what I had planned to do. It just didn’t go as planned.” 

“I’ll say,” Heehyeon’s face is considerably less red; perhaps she’d come to believe you, or maybe she’d always just been really good at not blowing up at you for all of your strange decisions. She eases herself in front of you, sticking out her arm to call a cab. Her voice becomes muffled as she crawls her way into the far end of the backseat. “The whole first floor was a mess. Other people thought there was a bomb threat. They said a whole bunch of fans got arrested. How the hell did you get out?”

“I got bailed out,” you shift your weight between your feet before you follow suit. You can’t wait until this story gets even weirder, considering that the cab driver is looking at the two of you suspiciously. Heehyeon doesn’t notice, or if she does, she doesn’t mind, so she gives your address to him as he starts moving forward. 

“How — is your mom in town or something?”

“No, it was… you know.”

“I really don’t,” she replies, tiredly. You can’t blame her. Her heart has probably experienced just about the same amount of distress as your own. 

“It was… Jaehyun. You know.”

“Like, your manager?”

“Wh — no, I mean, Jung Jaehyun.” When her face draws a blank, you sigh, turning away. You pass by an Innisfree, and then a Nature Republic. You should really figure out how to make up for all the hours you took off from work. Somehow, you feel embarrassed about a lot of things. “You know. Jaehyun? From NCT?”

“I know of him.”

“Well, he paid my bail.” 

There’s silence in the backseat now. Heehyeon isn’t even making eye contact with you; her face is uncomfortably unreadable. The cab driver makes a turn and ups the volume of the song playing on the radio.

“Okay,” Heehyeon says slowly, after her long and strange pause. “New question. Why?”

“Good question,” you respond, blowing out a bit of air in frustration. “I don’t know.”

“Did he bribe you? To stay away from Mark?”

“No,” that would have made more sense, though. “He said we were friends and demanded that I call him soon.”

“Maybe it’s, like, a cry for help. Maybe SM Entertainment is just holding him hostage and he needs you to bail him out.”

“This isn’t a soap opera, you lunatic.”

“Yeah, you’re right. There would have to be another annoying girl competing for Mark’s affections while the main girl suffers in silence. Or, plot twist, you’re the annoying girl.”

“Well, he seemed like he was being genuine,” you ignore her last comment, although you do meet it with a standard eye roll. “He even broke into my phone and gave me his number.”

“That’s not creepy at all,” she pauses again, this time to snort. “Although anyone can break into your phone, now that I think about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you’ve got a one-track mind. Anyone who can see that knows exactly what your passcode is. And I’m sure he saw that, considering he saw you lunging at Mark.”

“I did not lunge! And my passcode is fairly secure.”

“0802.”

“What?” You say defensively. 

“It’s 0802. Your passcode. It’s Mark’s birthday.”

“Lucky guess,” you mutter, shifting your vision away once again as she snickers behind her hand. 

You and Heehyeon split the cab fare and trudge up to your apartment; both of you look worse for wear, and she flops down onto the couch while you fiddle with the air conditioner’s remote. 

“You think he’s in love with you?”

“Who? Mark? I doubt it.”

“No; I meant Jaehyun.”

“I doubt that even more,” you sigh, pushing her feet off the couch so you can settle on it with a groan. 

“You’ll never know,” she pokes your thigh with her toe, and you swat at her ankles. “Maybe he likes girls that are kind of possessive.”

“I am not possessive!” You want to yell, but your fatigue is catching up to you. Instead, you smack her calf; a satisfying whimper escapes her.

“If you weren’t, you would just let him go.”

“You know why I can’t, you dumbass. He’s my soulmate.”

“What if that’s not a real thing? What if you’ve just been with him all this time because you keep finding a way to track him down?”

“Why would I have the memory to keep finding him if we weren’t meant to be together?” You say exasperatedly.

“All I’m saying is that you should think about taking a break. Go on vacation. Or a blind date.”

“You—“ you turn to her, your brows furrowed. “You sound like Jaehyun.”

“How so?”

“He told me to take a break,” you recall slowly. “Told me not to overexert myself. He said something about times just getting harder.”

Heehyeon sits up and stretches out; you hear her back crack. Her shirt rides up a little when she shrugs. “What does that mean?”

“Beats me. It’s kind of why I thought he was a little out of it.”

“Well, I’m telling you to take a break. If you’re not going to take it from him, take it from me. Knowing you’ve spent all of your lives chasing after Mark is tiring.” 

A strange tingle runs down your spine. “Wait, what did you say?”

“I said you should take a break.”

“No, not that,” you say impatiently. “The other thing.”

“I said knowing you’ve spent all of your lives chasing Mark is tiring, so you should give it a rest for a while.”

“Knowing I’ve spent all of my lives…” you echo. Your fingers curl into your palms, nails digging into your skin. Heehyeon tosses you a slightly confused look. “Do you think —no way. It can’t be, right? Not Jaehyun?”

“What ab —“ she freezes, her jaw suddenly going slack. You lick your lips, waiting for her to say something affirming, like no way, or you’re crazy, but she just meets your eyes with a slightly panicked expression. 

“Jesus Christ. You need to call him now.”

Jaehyun actually sounds really happy when he picks up. There’s music playing in the background, and you can hear voices talking over it. His own voice echoes a little in whatever space he’s in, and his breathing is slightly labored. 

“Did you get home safely? Did your friend come pick you up?” 

“I don’t want to be rude, but since you’re busy and probably have very little time to talk, can I be the one asking the questions this time?” 

“Okay — actually, it really isn’t a good time right now,” he hums. You want to scream with frustration, but you know idol’s lives are just the worst when it comes to having leeway for free time, so you swallow it down. “Are you free later tonight? You can ask whatever you want.”

“Like, 7:30, 8 pm?”

“More like past midnight,” he says, and now he has the audacity to sound a little sheepish. “Sorry. Tight schedule.”

“I have work tomorrow,” you half-whine. 

“I don’t really know when our next off-schedule is. Maybe in a couple of weeks?”

You can’t wait that long. Even the thought of waiting until 8 PM was already a little tortuous. But since he’s giving the answers, you have to play by some of his rules. “Fine. 1 am.”

You make plans to meet at a coffee shop in Garosu-gil, and he’s nice enough to promise you a ride home, even if it’s kind of out of the way for him. You hang up just in time to avoid Heehyeon yelling out I love you, Jaehyun! from the kitchen. She snickers when you throw an oven mitt in her general direction. 

A lot of the boutiques in the area are half-closed already, and there are very few people making their way down the street when you get out of the cab at a quarter to 1. You’re glad the street is fairly narrow, enough for only foot traffic, with all of its shops stuck together, but it’s still a fairly long stretch of road. You take your time strolling down the street, assuming that Jaehyun will be late considering he’s got a pretty tight schedule.

So you’re surprised that you see him by the window of the otherwise empty cafe, playing Gardenscapes on his phone. He notices you walk up, laughing at your alarmed expression as you pick up your pace considerably and enter the cafe.

“I thought you’d be late!” You hiss, using a fierce tone so as not to call attention to the embarrassment that’s probably clear in your overheated face.

“Hey, I can be punctual when I want to be.” He pockets his phone as you sit down across him, slipping your bag off your shoulder and kicking it under the table. “Smooth.”

“I was assuming you’d have some really heavy schedule to attend to, so I took my sweet time walking. You didn’t even text!”

“I didn’t want to hurry you or stress you out. You already kind of look like you stress yourself out.” 

You have no response to this, mostly because it’s true. You just stand up, mutter something unintelligible, and march off to the counter, ordering a cup of iced chocolate before sitting back down.

“So,” he leans forward, lacing his fingers together on the table. “Are you feeling any better?”

“Physically, yes. Mentally? Still pretty confused.”

“You said you had questions.”

“Yeah. First of all, how do you know what my passcode for my phone is?”

“What — Mark’s birthday?” He laughs at your frown. “Educated guess. You should really think about changing it.”

“I don’t think it’s that predictable if you aren’t a fan.”

“Is that really the thing you’re most concerned about right now?” 

“No,” you chew your lip, suddenly nervous. He doesn’t change his position, just kind of… sits there and waits really patiently. Both of your eyes follow the waiter’s hands as he sets down your iced chocolate a few inches away from Jaehyun’s half-finished iced Americano. “I want to know the truth about you.”

“Okay — my name is Jung Jaehyun. I was born on the 14th of February. My mom’s name is —” 

“No, not that stuff,” you wave his oncoming spiel away. He pretends to look affronted, which you also manage to ignore by taking a sip of your drink. “You know what I mean. Why did you bail me out? Why are you so friendly towards me when we’ve never met before? Why are you talking to me like you know so much about me?”

“What do you mean? We’ve met before.”

“How long ago?” 

He twists his cup in its saucer; a little puddle of coffee has formed around the base of the cup. Jaehyun seems really interested in it, suddenly. “Before I answer that, can I ask you something?” 

This conversation really isn’t going as planned. Then again, you had also refused to take Heehyeon’s advice to strap Jaehyun to a chair and tickle the answers out of him. Now you’re not really sure if you regret that decision. “I guess so. What?”

“What do you know about the Battle of Volgograd?”

You make a face that very clearly amuses him. “I only took Korean history in college. Even that was an elective. I know next to nothing about the rest of the world.” 

“Nothing? You don’t remember anything from it?” 

“Why are you asking me for a lecture on European history?”

“I sometimes dream about Russia. Like, really clearly,” he keeps turning his cup in its saucer. “But, like, I know what it looks like now, sort of, but it’s not really that way in my dreams. It’s more of like, a really bad war zone. Everything’s messed up. So many people are dead. Pretty sure I killed some of them? It was just a really bad time. In my dream, I mean.”

“Sure,” you’re turning your own cup, too. You’re not sure if he’s doing the same thing because he’s just as anxious and nervous as you are. It’s like there’s suddenly this blanket of tension over your heads, with a big revelation about to come out, and you just want to will it to be revealed faster. 

You lived through that time in Russia. Except it wasn’t called Volgograd; it was called Stalingrad back then, and it was at the brink of destruction. You later found out that the Soviet Union had won, but it wasn’t like you could be happy about that news, considering what you’d lost.

“What’s so weird is that Mark was in my dream, too,” Jaehyun continues. “Like, I know that it was him, even if he looked kind of different. It’s so weird, but I didn’t call him Mark, obviously. But he talked like him and acted like him, so I knew.” 

“So it was just all nine of you in Russia, or something?”

“Like, in NCT? No, just Mark. It wasn’t an ensemble cast, or anything.”

Your heart is pounding. It’s the kind of proof you need, but you feel like this moment is so tense that you don’t want to interrupt him. You just take a really big gulp of iced chocolate. 

“Mark and I were really close because we were both in the army. Before we slept every night, he’d look at a picture of this girl. He kept saying he wanted to go home to her. Like, he didn’t want to die without ever seeing her again. He’d write her letters, but sending them was too difficult and expensive. He just kept saying the fight wasn’t worth it.”

Jaehyun is looking at you, but you can’t make eye contact. His fingers drum against the surface of the table, more and more agitatedly as the seconds tick by. You actually hear him swallow before he continues. 

“Things got bad. We thought we were going to lose. The commander sent us out on some kind of suicide mission, and it should have gone fine, but you know how things are in war. Something always manages to go wrong, and we were gunned down. I barely made it out alive. Mark was badly wounded, and the medic tried to help, but they couldn’t bec—“

“Stop,” your voice is shaky. “This isn’t what I was asking about, Jaehyun.”

He looks apologetic, but his words are firm. “At least let me finish.” 

“I just need an answer to my questions.”

“These are my answers. They’re convoluted and weird, but it’s the best proof I have.” 

You can’t say anything after that, so you just keep your eyes on the table, your lip trembling a little. He takes this as a cue to keep talking. 

“Anyway, the medics told me that time was running out. If we stayed there for much longer, we’d all die. Mark has always kind of been this weird hero, you know? He makes all these weird sacrifices no one expects him to, and he’s just okay with it. And it was like that in the dream; he told me to leave, and he pulled out that picture he’d always kept in his jacket pocket and gave it to me. He made me promise to get her out of the city and take her somewhere safe so she wouldn’t get hurt if the Soviet lost the war.”

You’re not sure if it’s the lighting or the time, or maybe it’s just the weight of this dream on Jaehyun’s shoulders. Either way, he looks eerily older now, like his face is way tired and a little sunken. The dark circles around his eyes are pretty prominent without make-up, you note. 

“I went AWOL. I was pretty done with the fighting, too. The commander looked surprised that some of us came back alive, like we were just dispensable. That same night, I took Mark’s stuff and left camp. He wrote the girl’s address on all of the envelopes he kept his letters in, so I thought maybe she’d at least like to have them. What was so weird was that when I looked at her picture, I knew her. She was an old schoolmate of mine, and her dad and mine sometimes had drinks together.” He chuckles with little humor. “Kind of weird, isn’t it? You run into people later on in your life when you’ve just nearly forgotten all about them.”

“Did you find her?”

“Yeah, I did. What was so fucked up though was that when I told her, she didn’t even really cry. I was worried she’d gone into shock, or something, but she just took the letters, gave me something to drink, and told me to go back to the front.” 

“I’m guessing you didn’t.”

“No, of course not. I mean, not only did I not want to die, I also didn’t want to not do the last thing Mark asked me to. So we left. I helped her get back to her parents in the province. After that, the dream just kind of skips randomly. I never saw her again, though. She must have gotten married, or something. Who knows?”

“She didn’t.”

“It was just a dream,” he replies carefully. 

“Well, she didn’t.” You frown. “She never married.There was no point. He was supposed to come home and marry her.” 

“That’s not a very happy ending to think about.”

“It’s not, but it’s what happened.” The entire time he’d been telling his story, your stomach had felt hollow; now, it feels heavy with lead, dragging your heart down with it. Jaehyun’s hand reaches out instinctively, but he draws it back, fingers curling into a fist. 

“I wouldn’t know, but I’m sure you would. Considering that was you, and all.”

“How many do you remember?” You ask. 

“Vividly? I’d say maybe five. I’m sure there are others, but it’s kind of hard to keep track. I just know you’re always there. So is Mark.” 

“I don’t remember,” you admit. “I mean, I don’t remember you. When you tell me this story, I can remember it, but I never thought it was you, over and over.” 

“Yeah, well, I’m doing things differently this time around,” he smiles slightly. “I never told you before that I remembered you. Not sure how that’s going to change anything now, but at least I’m trying that.” 

“So, if I asked you if you remember anything about, say, Rome —“ 

“It was your son’s birthday. That day of the… uh —” 

“Right,” you lean back in your chair, shaking your head. “Okay. This is… fine, I guess. Kind of weird, but fine.”

“______________,” him saying your name is shocking, and it throws you off for some reason; your eyes shoot up to meet his. They’re very clearly concerned in a way that makes you feel both vulnerable and exposed. “I’m not acting like I know what you’re going through. But I’ve seen it over and over, from a close distance, at least. You’re more and more unhappy. I can’t begin to understand what kind of connection you have, but is it worth it to suffer this much every time? For one person?” 

“Are you implying that he’s not worth it?”

“Of course not. I’m just trying to wrap my head around why you would keep doing it knowing that something terrible will happen anyway.”

“Why?”

“I mean, you could change course,” he shrugs. “I’m trying it. Who knows? Maybe now that I’ve told you, I can stop remembering everything, and we can meet in the next life as totally new people. That’s why I suggested you take a break; do it for yourself. Why would you repeat the same shitty cycle?”

“Because I love him,” you reply, simply, and more firmly than you had at any other point in this messed up conversation. “Isn’t that enough?” 

Both of your cups are empty, save for the last dregs of your drinks. Jaehyun stares at you, both his hands wrapped around the curve of his mug. It feels like a whole lifetime stretches out before you before he sighs and lifts his cup to his lips, draining the last of his coffee. You watch him, befuddled, as he pats around his pockets and brings out his car key. 

“Okay,” he says, with a weird sort of finality. “Let’s get going, then.”

“What, that’s it?” You can’t even hide the disappointment in your voice. Somehow, you thought you’d be talking a lot more. But, then again, what more was there for you to figure out? “We’re leaving?”

“Yeah; I’m going back to the dorm,” he stands up, pulling a bill out of his other pocket and going over to the counter to place it in the tip jar. You scramble around for your bag, pulling it over your shoulder as you stand up as well.

“Oh,” you feel foolish and a little impertinent for asking, but it is the middle of the night, and you feel like looking slightly demanding is better than hailing a cab at this ungodly hour. “Will… I get to go home first?” 

“Yeah, I’ll drop you off there for sure. But we’ll just stop at the dorm for a bit.”

“Okay,” you don’t really feel like you have a huge say in this, and it’s not like you’re complaining yet, but you’re still slightly confused at the abrupt ending to this conversation. You express this as you try to keep up with Jaehyun’s much longer stride. “Do you gas up at the dorm, or something?”

He laughs. It’s really, really loud, especially for this time of night. “No. I was thinking, tonight, maybe I might talk you out of your bad life habits, but it’s obvious you’ve always been set in your ways. So we’re going with plan B.”

“What the hell is plan B?” When had there been a plan A? Why was this all becoming so weirdly convoluted?

Jaehyun helps you into the car, reminding you about the seatbelt before making his way around the front and climbing into the driver’s seat. 

“Plan B,” he jams the key into the ignition, turning it until the engine purrs to life. “Is getting you and Mark in the same room without him calling the police on you.” 

“I don’t want to be rude, but have you actually thought this plan through? The past couple of encounters didn’t go well. At all.”

He adjusts the rearview mirror before turning to you; his teeth are white, gleaming in the dark as he grins. 

“You know what they say. Third time’s the charm.”

[yumeka-sxf]

A chronological analysis on Twilight and Yor - Part 3

*This is part of an ongoing post series. If you missed the Introduction/Part 1, click here*

----------

There's a lot to unpack in the Eden interview episode. It goes smoothly at first, with Twilight and Yor being able to provide rehearsed answers to the questions. But things start to fall apart when Yor is questioned about her cooking skills, a question she obviously wasn't prepared for. And here we get another instance of Twilight choosing human decency over bettering the mission by sticking up for Yor when Swan starts criticizing her. He could have easily kowtowed by saying something that would make them look better, like agreeing with Swan's remarks and saying that Yor is taking cooking lessons or something. Doing that would have increased their chances of passing the interview, which was the most important thing for the mission at the time. But instead, he drops the fake smile and looks visibly annoyed at Swan while emphasizing Yor's good qualities.

He then catches himself at his sudden emotional instability, internally asking himself why he got so upset when she's not even his real wife. But of course, this was not the last time during the interview where he'd lose his cool.

Things get back on track for a bit when they move on to questioning Anya, and she muddles through with her humorous responses. But when asked what she thinks of her parents, Anya responds with the most competent and articulate answer she'd given yet – saying that she'd score them at 100 percent and wants to be with them forever. Clearly this was not an answer they had rehearsed, as Twilight and Yor look surprised at her response. The three of them had probably not been together very long by that point, and yet Anya already thinks so highly of them. Unlike her (fake) parents who have ulterior motives behind their roles in the family, all Anya wants is to live happily with a family she loves. While she has to hide the fact that she can read minds, she has no reason to hide anything else, like the fact that she loves her parents. She wouldn't want to be with parents she didn't like, so there'd be no reason for her to lie at the interview if she didn't really love them that much…an early sign of what naturally good parents Twilight and Yor are.

When Swan decides to cross the line by asking Anya whether she loves her biological mother or her new mother more, Twilight doesn't hesitate to show disapproval and request another question. Even though he just had to correct himself when he lost his composure during Yor's questioning, once again his compassionate side pushes his "for the mission" reasoning aside.

When Anya starts crying, Yor immediately jumps in to comfort her. Unlike Twilight, she isn't hindered by having to go through all the internal reasoning with herself about whether this would harm her facade. Nor does she seem to care that Anya might actually prefer her real mother, or even give any thought that her actions might ruin the interview, and ultimately her chance at staying Loid's wife – all she cared about at that moment was that this child she was becoming fond of was hurting and she had to do something. This is also the first time we see Yor's scary "mama bear" mode, a rare side of her usually sweet and polite personality…a side that only comes out when someone is threatening Anya or other people she loves.

On the other hand, after slipping up twice, Twilight manages to keep calm for a while, going over and over in his mind how this is all for the mission, and Swan's insults don't matter since they're a fake family. But just as Yor is ready to go full assassin on Swan, Twilight snaps first and launches a punch right at Swan's face, internally yelling at himself to hold back. In the end, he diverts his punch to the table, as well as a deus ex machina mosquito, that allows him to provide an excuse for his unexpected behavior (though I'm still curious what Yor would have done to Swan had Twilight not acted first. Most likely the table would not be the only thing broken).

At this point, Twilight must have known that their chances of passing the interview were shot. His excuse about the mosquito was flimsy, and Swan was obviously angry at them as they started to leave the room. And yet, instead of making an attempt to salvage any chance they might have left of leaving a good impression, Twilight decides to bluntly tell the Eden interviewers exactly what he thought – that they wouldn't want to attend a school that belittles the feelings of children.

I don't think I even need to mention that this is a prime example of how, as much as Twilight insists that everything he does is "for the mission," we as the audience know that this is not the case. Even though, as I mentioned before, sometimes it's ambiguous as to whether he's speaking his true feelings or not, this is one of the times where it's obvious that he is. Even this early in the series, it's clear that his philosophy isn't "for the mission" but more like "for the mission, as long as my morals aren't too compromised." He was willing to toss aside all the work he had done at that point – adopting Anya, marrying Yor, practicing for the interview, keeping up a perfect happy-family facade – because he values his morals more than his mission, even if he himself won't realize it.

When the Forgers dejectedly return home, Twilight shows what a non-judgmental guy he is (something I'll discuss more later) by scolding himself for letting his emotions get the better of him instead of putting any blame on Anya (despite the fact that earlier he said he was nervous because he had to depend on others for the success of the interview). And, when Anya apologizes, he comforts her rather than show any trace of resentment.

Meanwhile, Yor has a bit of a "Twilight moment" where she starts to realize that if they don't pass the interview, the life that they had begun to build would be in jeopardy...but quickly tells herself that she doesn't actually care, only that it could interfere with her work. But as expected, it won't be long before she'll be unable to continue divorcing her own well being from that of Loid and Anya.

On that note, when the Forgers find out that Anya could still get accepted to Eden if another student drops out, Yor fantasizes about killing the father of one of the students so he'd have to relinquish the spot. She of course quickly rejects the idea of killing innocent people, but it's interesting that, as the series goes on, she stops thinking only of her cover up and assassinating as a means to solve her problems. As I mentioned before about her losing her fascination with weapons, as she embraces her mother/wife role, her connection to her Thorn Princess identity slowly starts to fade.

Continue to Part 4 ->

<- Return to Part 2

[esthermitchell-author]

Just had a totally depressing, but potentially accurate, thought while I was making my tea...

What if the reason Crowley doesn't have any friends outside of Azi, and seems to expend so much energy deliberately not remembering people's names or faces is because he's tired of losing friends?

Hear me out...

Aside from Azi, who's been a large part of his life since even before Eden, Crowley doesn't make many close, personal connections. I think that may be a choice, and not the "oh, I'm a big, bad demon" type of choice either... A real fear of letting people get close to him for fear of losing them.

In the minisodes that predate Golgotha, we see a different Crowley. He knows who Shem is, at the Ark, indicating that he might have been friendly with at least one of Noah's sons. As Bildad the Shuite, he not only addressed both Job and Citis by name, but he also referred to Ennon with "he seems nice" and told Jemima "you haven't annoyed me yet" and seemed particularly impressed with Job's younger daughter.

Then Golgotha rolls around, and we encounter a much more somber Crowley, who's so suspicious of Heaven suddenly that he can't even trust Azi to not be there "to gloat." Crowley's hurting. He's watching Romans -- through Heaven's machinations -- kill his closest human friend.

Eight years later, in Rome, Crowley is bitter, and snarky, and easily annoyed. He lashes out at Azi (yes, it was a dumb question, but he'd never lashed out directly at Azi like that, before).

Skip a few hundred years (during which there seems to be no indication he's tried to make friends with anyone except Azi). Edinburgh. Crowley slips up, lets himself care enough about Elspeth and wee Moraig to refer to them by name, and even joke around a bit with Elspeth, at Azi's expense. Then, wee Moraig is killed, and Elspeth tries to take her own life. I maintain that the idea of watching someone else he's come to care about DELIBERATELY take their own life rattled Crowley more than the Laudanum alone. And he realized one way or another, Elspeth would eventually die, so he set out to get her on the "properly good" path, so he could be sure she didn't go to Hell whenever she might die.

But I think the incident with wee Moraig and Elspeth was the end, for Crowley. I think that's when he really started to develop his "alt names" for everyone he met. "Antichrist" (Adam... he only used his actual name I think once), "Book Girl" (Anathema. Admittedly, she never gave them her name, but Crowley never asked, either. Azi didn't either, but I think he was too wound up in the healing and the bike and all that to pay attention at the time)

He doesn't refer to any human by name, again, until Maggie and Nina. I think he kind of adopted them by proxy (Azi adopted them, so Crowley paid attention). But there was still a certain amount of distance, right up until the angels were threatening to turn Maggie and Nina into pillars of salt. Crowley immediately jumps in. These humans are friends, and he refuses to let Heaven or Hell hurt them.

Then AZI, of all people, gets (temporarily, I'm sure) removed from his life. It makes that final glance he gives the cafe and then the record shop, extra meaning. Without Azi, they've now become his only friends in the entire world. And he already knows how fragile human life is.

PS -- I did leave out one connection, with Leonardo da Vinci, whom we know from canon gave Crowley a sketch of the Mona Lisa signed "to my friend Anthony"... I did so deliberately, because while I have lots of headcanon regarding that friendship (get your mind out of the gutter... not THAT kind of headcanon), the truth is, we don't know enough of the REAL canon to know just how well they knew one another.

[voidpacifist]

deepdive: sleep token lore

EDIT: This has now also been cross posted on Reddit :] Just a disclaimer before we begin: these are all purely my own theories, I know there are plenty more of them out there that are probably more cohesive! I don't intend to speculate about the man behind Vessel's mask or any real events in his life, I'm only talking about the character that is Vessel. Okay neat, let's get started

We'll start with our key characters: Vessel (protagonist), Sleep (a deity), and Eden (Vessel's speculated partner/interest). I personally haven't dove deeply enough through the older discography to know why the conclusion is that Eden is a person, but here is where I see it mentioned (Lex does a really good job breaking down the lore via a Reddit thread that ties together all of the albums, including EPs One and Two as well. I recommend giving them a follow!).

I'll only be diving into the main trilogy (Sundowning, This Place Will Become Your Tomb, Take Me Back To Eden), but I may revisit One and Two as well in the future. The Reddit thread that Lex mentions is also not something I've had the chance to read yet, so I'm sort of starting off at square one.

The basic lore that we know right off the bat is that Vessel is seduced by Sleep in a dream, that Sleep is an ancient deity, and that in order to worship Sleep, Vessel offers "tokens" to them. The tokens being the different songs in STs discography, ergo the name Sleep Token.

My theory, to begin, is that not every track is actually an offering or "token" to Sleep, but rather some of the songs are simply about Sleep. Many of the tracks are framed the way contemporary worship music is, hence many of the songs are quite literally the worship of Sleep. But these aren't the tokens or offerings themselves. The tokens themselves are the ones where Vessel is pouring his heart out about Eden and the facets of their relationship - physical, emotional, etc. Sleep consumes these tokens and in return, grants Vessel...rest? Peace of mind? Forgiveness?

We'll get into it.

Let's start with which specific songs are about Eden (the tokens), which ones are about Sleep, and which ones remain more ambiguous to me. If we're sticking to the main trilogy, then there's a total of eleven (11) tracks that I know for certain are referring to Sleep, and a total of nineteen (19) tracks that are without a doubt referring to Eden. There's about six (6) in the trilogy that I haven't narrowed down just yet, though leaving them to interpretation does allow for more fluidity in the story. Those last six in question are Vore, Telomeres, The Summoning, Rain, The Apparition, and High Water.

There are plenty of aspects about The Summoning that would normally lead me to believe that the track is about Eden, but a few things tip me off that it may be speaking to Sleep as well. Namely, "did I mistake you for a sign from God?" as well as the line, "something you say or something you do, the taste of the divine." Whoever Vessel is referring to, he is deifying them. And as we know, Sleep is a deity.

Vore was harder for me to narrow down until I listened to it again, and it definitely is speaking to Eden, simply because the "you" Vessel refers to has some distinctly, for lack of better terminology, mortal traits - "your flesh and bone welcome me in, welcome me in." He also asks, "Will we remain stuck in the throat of the gods?" which doesn't seem like something he would ask of a god themselves. It's also one of the most poignantly written tracks on Take Me Back To Eden, and offers the listener a new look at how desperate Vessel is to get back to Eden. However, from a more literary perspective, looking at it through the lens of the "you" being Sleep, it's where we can also catch a glimpse of Vessel's first misgivings with the deity. "There's always something in the way, I want to have you to myself for once," he says. If the feeling of this line is familiar, see the opening sentences from the track Gods on Sundowning: "I see the gods avert their gaze from me. My fucking form is but a wreck beneath them."

And if, in fact, all of the gods are averting their gazes from Vessel, that makes Sleep's presence all the more elusive. In The Apparition, he says, "I know that you will disappear just as I awake." It would seem fitting for a deity such as Sleep to be referred to this way, but then Vessel goes on to say, "somewhere in the past, something was between you and I, my dear." And if he's trying to return to Eden, then this track being about her would fit especially well.

Telomeres could very well be about either Sleep or Eden. "And I know as you collapse into me this is the start of something." We can either look at this as the start of Vessel's story with Sleep, or as the start of Vessel's story with Eden.

Rain was another one of those tracks that I was pretty sure could go either way, but the line, "you have got your hooks in me" felt distinctly like something he would say about a non-human being. "You get what you give, you reap what you sow and I can see you in my fate." Giving and taking. Transactional. Tug of war. The conversation that occurs between a being of great power and a being of lesser power. A human and a god.

The "sacred vapour" in High Water threw me for a loop at first, but this is what drew it back for me: "I know you still bear the weight of your own existence, and you'll never bear the weight of two." This doesn't sound like something Sleep as a being would struggle with, even as Vessel desperately begs to be "washed clean" time and time again. No, this track, despite having a lot of deifying language, is written to and about Eden.

Now that those have been looked at, let's look at the rest of the tracks. Those eleven that I believe refer to Sleep are The Night Does Not Belong To God (Sundowning), Atlantic (This Place Will Become Your Tomb), Gods (Sund.), Aqua Regia (Take Me Back To Eden), The Offering (Sund.), Higher (Sund.), Chokehold (TMBTE), Descending (TPWBYT), Ascensionism (TMBTE), Take Me Back To Eden (TMBTE), and Euclid (TMBTE).

The nineteen that I believe are written to or about Eden are Sugar (Sund.), Hypnosis (TPWBYT), Drag Me Under (Sund.), Mine (TPWBYT), Like That (TPWBYT), Alkaline (TPWBYT), Distraction (TPWBYT), Fall For Me (TPWBYT), The Love You Want (TPWBYT), Are You Really Okay? (TMBTE), Take Aim (Sund.), Give (Sund.), Say That You Will (Sund.), DYWTYLM (TMBTE), Levitate (Sund.), Granite (TMBTE), Dark Signs (Sund.), Missing Limbs (TPWBYT), and Blood Sport (Sund.).

If they look like they're in an oddly specific order, it's because they are. This brings me to the second part of the lore as I understand it - my theory is that while every song is meant to be listened to in the order that they're in, that doesn't mean they're in chronological order. We as the listeners are meant to consume it out of order so that it comes together from start to finish in the way that Vessel has methodically intended. Starting with The Night Does Not Belong To God and concluding with Euclid. The order in which I have listed them above is what I believe the order is of events between Vessel and Sleep and Eden respectively, minus the more ambiguous tracks.

Let's take a look at the tokens first, the ones where Vessel writes to and about Eden. Off the bat we know that Vessel is a fierce and insatiable lover, and his descriptions of how he desires for Eden are nothing short of that. Particularly in Sugar and Like That, the physicality of their relationship is just a little more than hinted at. Tracks such as Drag Me Under, Mine, Alkaline, and Distraction all further instill in the listener just how gone Vessel is for Eden. He is in pursuit - all he needs is for her to fall for him back.

"Did you not say we were made for each other?" -Mine

Which then brings us to Fall For Me. It's the first traces of vulnerability we see Vessel giving to Eden, as he implores for her to reciprocate the affection he feels.

"My insecurities surround me like lions in the den, and I feel like I'm losing touch with what I am again. And slowly I remember why I cannot pretend that I never think of you and all this screaming silence." -Fall For Me

But evidently, Eden does not reciprocate. In fact, Vessel starts to see a darkness in her that is referenced in The Love You Want, Are You Really Okay?, Give and DYWTYLM. He desires for her and to know her, but the more he knows, the more it seems like she either doesn't want to give love back to him or simply cannot.

"Too many swallowed keys will make you bleed internally someday, but maybe you believe that in the end you will be better off that way." -The Love You Want

"You woke me up one night, dripping crimson on the carpet. I saw it in your eyes, cutting deeper than the scars could run." -Are You Really Okay?

"If you want to give, then give me all that you can give, all your darkest impulses." -Give

"Maybe not that you conceal your feelings, they just don't exist." -DYWTYLM

In fact, in DYWTYLM, we hear Vessel plead in the background, "Smile back at me." It almost seems like we've come to the end of something with him. He's bargaining with her to give love a chance with him, but along with it, he's lost touch of who she is at all. Already, Eden seems like a contradiction in and of herself, as referenced in Alkaline as "perfectly misaligned."

Then, we come to Levitate. This is a track that I'm trying not to tear apart too deeply, both because it references a death, and because it references a lot of hurt was exchanged between Vessel and Eden in their relationship. I'll try to be frank with how I think it fits into the storyline, but I'd rather not be insensitive. I say it references a death due to the nature of how Eden is spoken about in these lines:

"I can tell you won't remember my cracking bones, the trauma we can't regrow just as you leave again. Will you levitate up where the angels inhabit? Will you levitate where I won't reach you?" -Levitate

The way I see it, this is much more than just grievances tearing apart a relationship - this is something that time cannot and will not reverse. Sure, Levitate seems a little more up to interpretation about what happened to divide Vessel and Eden, but there are other little references here and there that seem more final than simply walking out on someone. In the track order of Sundowning, Dark Signs immediately follows, and it weirdly specifically refers to a car.

"And if you saw the marks on my dashboard, the new scars that I didn't ask for, would you call asking for answers?" -Dark Signs

It's an oddly specific thing to write about. And it pops up again in Vessel and Eden's arc in TMBTE:

"I was more than just a body in your passenger seat, and you were more than just somebody I was destined to meet...Between the secondhand smoke and the glass on the street, you gave me nothing whatsoever but a reason to leave...You only drink the water when you think it's holy, so keep an eye on the road or we'll both be here forever." -Granite

As far as "what" happened to them, or more specifically, to Eden, Granite is a quite revealing track. Combine the contents of it with Levitate and Dark Signs, and it becomes much more than just about Eden leaving - Eden is dead. Even outside of the tokens, her death is referenced.

"Why are you never real? Whenever you appear, you leave me with that grace. I am trembling with fear, but I know that you will disappear just as I awake...this could be the last time you turn up in the reveries of my mind." -The Apparition

"Let the tides carry you back to me. The past, the future, through death, my arms are open." -Telomeres

"The whites of your eyes turn black in the lowlight in turning divine." -The Night Does Not Belong To God

But how does one "turn divine"? Simple: they're either chosen by God or they ascend in death. When Vessel asks in Levitate if Eden will levitate, I don't think he fully knows that she's truly going anywhere after death. Vessel isn't just seeking solace for his idiosyncrasies, and he isn't just seeking rest that isn't haunted by Eden, and he isn't just seeking forgiveness - he's seeking Eden, even after death. Even Fall For Me has some eerie foreshadowing about this, as Vessel screams, "Oh god, I wish you were here!" in the background and as he says, "to the rhythm of eternity, won't you fall for me?" in the chorus.

When he says forever, he means forever. But now Eden has gone where Vessel cannot follow. Who better than to seek but gods themselves to get her back? Thus starts Vessel and Sleep's story together.

In Atlantic, he pleads, "anything to get me to sleep." If we think about that by itself, it makes sense to say Eden is appearing to him in his dreams, but if we think about it in terms of The Night Does Not Belong To God coming first, we can also think of that track as the "falling asleep" before Vessel is seduced. He's not just looking for rest anymore in Atlantic - he's looking for a reverse.

But he cannot find anything to help him, and the frustration of that manifests in Gods, where he keeps saying, almost snidely, "It's all so easy for me." He's getting ready to go to war to complete his goal. Then, all of a sudden, he encounters Sleep.

"These days, I'm a circuit board, integrated hardware you cannot afford. The perfect start to a perfect war, putting down the roses, picking up the sword...Between the pain and the way you look, I'm stuck in a time where the mountains shook." -Aqua Regia

"And you are a garden, entwined with all. You are the silence on sacred shores. You've got diamonds for teeth, my love. So take a bite of me just once...This is a giving, an offering." -The Offering

The offering in question is everything Vessel is now as a result of his story with Eden, because he was all consumed with loving and trying to be loved by her. The tokens he gives to Sleep to bring her back to him somehow are deep glimpses into everything he was with her, and offer the briefest glimpse of who she was as well. Telomeres is, in fact, the start of something. It's double-sided. Because the start of something with Sleep mimics the start he had with Eden, playing with two sides of the same coin: seduction and desire. Eden's story begins with desire, and Sleep's begins with seduction.

"Believe that though we never eat, we still know how to feed. We still know how to bleed. Sugar, I've developed a taste for you, now." -Sugar

"These days I'm a picture frame, screaming at the sunshine, singing in the rain. Sugar on the blood cells, carbon on the brain, out of Eden's vices running through my veins." -Aqua Regia

After The Offering, the true tug of war begins with Vessel and Sleep, as he starts feeding them more and more of himself in an attempt to get them to comply with bringing Eden back.

"I am granting you more than the debt that I owe." -Higher

Similar to how it was with Eden, Vessel becomes obsessed with the worship of Sleep, offering token after token. It almost becomes a game between the two of them, and Vessel's insatiability reappears. Chokehold is evidence of his obsession and his desperation, and we can see it beginning to devour him.

"I've seen my days unfold, done the impossible, I'd turn my walls to gold to bring you home again. So show me that which I cannot see, even if it hurts me. Even if I can't sleep." -Chokehold

No longer does Vessel seek sleep as a form of rest. In Atlantic, it was "anything to get me to sleep." And now, it's "even if I can't sleep." He is fully devoted to Sleep the deity now, at his own expense. And, as his devotion is received by Sleep, as the tokens stack and as he grows restless, Vessel is allowed a vision of Eden.

"Raise me up again, take me past the edge. I want to see the other side. Won't you show me what it's like? My love, did I mistake you for a sign from God? Or are you really here to cut me off?" -The Summoning

Then, just as soon as he is allowed a glimpse of Eden, he realizes this Eden isn't the same as his Eden. It's what ultimately begins him on a path of speculation about Sleep's true intentions with him. Descending and Ascensionism, while both being in the same key, are also sister tracks. If Higher takes him closer to Sleep, then Descending takes him further away, while Ascensionism has him finally addressing just how much Sleep has taken from him.

"Just take it all for nothing, again. Create, release. She just don't feel the same. I asked, and you answered. But you eat your words in frame." -Descending

"Well I know what you want from me. You want someone to be. Your reflection, your bitter deception, setting you free. So you take what you want and leave...And I know what you want from me. You want the same as me. My redemption, eternal ascension, setting me free. So I'll take what I want and leave. You make me wish I could disappear." -Ascensionism

Sleep isn't just a deity that can "bring back" Eden - Sleep is a deity that embodies her. They become her, but they can never be her. The illusion of getting Eden back only breaks down until it's beyond "the path of reason." And in the way that Vessel chased after Eden, he chased after Sleep as well. And Sleep can show him no more than a cheap imitation of the one he loves.

"Come now, bite through these wires. I'm a waking hell and the gods grow tired. Reset my patient violence along both sides of a pathway higher. Grow back your sharpest teeth, you know my desire...And I don't know what's got its teeth in me but I'm about to bite back in anger. No amount of self-sought fury will bring back the glory of innocence."

It's an ultimatum with both himself and with Sleep. Sleep's diamond-sharp teeth are now taking pieces of him instead of eating through his "circuit board," the one he talks about in Aqua Regia. Instead of freeing him, Sleep has kept him in their jaws. They're not taking him back to Eden at all - they're merely continuing to seduce him.

And still, even in the end, Vessel petitions Sleep once more as if they are Eden. Because the night does not belong to God...

"...the night belongs to you." -Euclid

As it circles back to the end of Euclid, we are offered the same words from The Night Does Not Belong To God. The night belongs to Sleep, but Vessel stops asking for Sleep themselves, or for Eden. "You will not be mine" is a double entendre - Sleep will not be his, and neither will Eden. This track is the last thing he says to Sleep-as-Eden. It's the final stage of grief, the start of Vessel's redemption arc, giving in either to the throes of the deity Sleep or choosing to walk away. The beauty of it is its open-endedness.

Personally, I like to think Vessel is the one who walks out this time. Before, it was Eden, who left before she could truly walk away from him. This not only makes Eden Vessel's vice, in a way, but also makes them foils to one another. From a literary perspective, it is more satisfying to see Vessel take back the night, to see him seek true rest without needing to give himself to the ancient god. I also like this ending best because he finally is allowed to choose closure, which he hasn't had since Eden's departure.

The last part of the theory I have about the trilogy lore is how it's structured. The way I see it, this is a frame narrative. Vessel has lost Eden, seeks what Sleep offers, then the tokens begin by telling his and Eden's story. It's after their story has concluded that Sleep uses this to construct an illusion or apparition of Eden, and it's both everything Vessel has ever wanted and his downfall, if he goes far enough with it. How his and Sleep's story ends, if it ends, is still up to interpretation, though.

The themes of these three albums all go together quite nicely, with all of them serving to illustrate two separate cycles of grief - the grief Vessel feels with Eden and the grief Vessel feels with Sleep. They are both entwined, but both of them end in acceptance.

"You will not be mine. So give me the night, the night, the night."

[thebadjoe]

BAD JOE'S DRDT CH.2 CRIME SOLVING THEORY PART 5

...It's been a while, hasn't it? I spent time working on a different project and I suppose I needed a break.

I'm here to give you an update regarding my culprit theory in DRDT chapter 2. So of course, SPOILERS WARNING FOR DANGANRONPA DESPAIR TIME CHAPTER 2 in case it wasn't obvious enough. It's also a very long read, so...sorry about that! Before I start, I'd like to say something. This is a message for DRDT-dev.

Not gonna dwelve on the past except for one specific moment : the appeciation/thank you e-mails you've received ever since the start of your hiatus after episode 11 was launched.

I wanted to give you words of appreciation at the time, but it completly slipped my mind because of real life + me working on my crazy theories. I felt bad that I missed it because I seriously wanted to thank you and your team for the amazing work that you've done in this fangan.

I've never been this attached to a fangan before and it's not like I've played/watched through a lot of those eitheir. But this one... it was really enjoyable! I don't think there's a single character that I dislike in this fangan. Like they all got something interesting going on or something interesting that might be bound to unfold. The mystery's also really good. I got really hooked to trying to figure out the truth behind the murder mystery of chapter 2.

I can't do art nor music, but the least I can do to show how much I appreciate the amount of work put into this is by proving it to you. This... is the final time I'm making a theory post for the murder case of chapter 2. After that, I have my own projects to work on.

Of course, I can't ask you to read it all (it's super long anyways), but the post itself is proof that I'm truly passionate about this fangan and that I truly appreciate the amazing work. It's a good source of inspiration. So honestly, thank you! Looking forward to see the future of DRDT!

So... I know I've pretty much covered everything I could explain from part 1 to 4 regarding my Eden Culprit theory. However, I feel like that this is a big confusing mess. After all, I changed a lot of things over the course of these 4 parts and even past that, I updated my culprit theory even further, but didn't provide any updates or edits to my posts.

So I'm gonna go over my whole theory once again, from beginning to the end, in a more logical order. I'll start with the easiest topics being the whodunnit and whydunnit. After that, I'll talk about the rather long howdunnit and give a better and updated explanation as to what I believe happened in each scenario.

I will also have a few texts in bolded blue to represent my evil ego personality trying to take down my whole theory, which really, they're just pretend questions/arguments based on things I believe people will think about or things that's been brought up before in the past.

Then, I'll finish it off with a section to talk about a certain something that may possibly change people's mind about not just mine, but many other theories. Let's do this!

Whodunnit

Of course, if it wasn't obvious enough, I accuse Eden of being the culprit of DRDT Chapter 2. There's a couple reasons why I suspect her, but let's focus on only one for now : the smoking gun evidence.

The decisive evidence lies in this video. Chapter 2, Episode 6 : The "Body Discovery" of Ace in the fitness room.

I skipped it to the proper scene, so no need to worry about that. So there are 4 characters involved in this scene. There's Teruko, Eden, Nico and Ace. At first sight, it really looks like Nico was trying to kill Ace, so Teruko yells at them and then they run away.

So since then, we need to focus on the following three characters : Teruko, Eden and Ace. So judging that Ace is probably dead, Teruko decides to investigate while Eden needed a minute to process this.

Not gonna list everything. For now, let's just focus on what's important to prove that Eden's the culprit : the roll of grippy tape.

This is an important clue because even though it wasn't pointed out by Teruko herself, it was clearly shown in the background (you can see it clearly at 19:55). This clue in question is what the culprit clearly used to set up their murder mechanism for the murder of Arei considering what was found in the playground in episode 8.

At 20:32, Eden decides to give a hand to Teruko with the investigation.

For the following couple seconds, it's a bit hard to see, but behind those speech bubbles, you can still see the roll of tape.

At 20:50, Ace wakes up and shouts that he's not dead. Then at 20:54...

The tape is no longer there, where it's supposed to be.

So what happened there? Was it a creator error? That's actually very unlikely considering how important this clue is. So the only logical explanation to this is that someone took the roll of grippy tape in that moment. Therefore, eitheir Teruko, Eden or Ace took it meaning that eitheir one of them is the true culprit behind the murder of Arei!

It can't be Teruko because she'd literally have no reason to commit murder and we've been under her POV most of the time, so it's very unlikely that there were windows for her to commit murder. Nothing would make sense if she was the culprit, so it's not Teruko.

Ace... there's a slight possibility, but it's still unlikely. I have a couple ideas that could make him seem like he could be the culprit (that I might explain later in the howdunnit), but it's still really difficult because of the fact that Ace is clearly wounded and he probably wouldn't be thinking about killing Arei at some point later. It would be hard to explain certain events, so it's not Ace.

So by process of elimination, that only leaves Eden. She would definitly have a perfect window to grab the roll of tape without being seen. The proof lies in 20:32 in the video. She wanted to help out Teruko in the investigation, which would've been the perfect opportunity to grab it.

This is a very sneaky and demonic trick that the DRDT creator pulled here. Giving us an incriminating evidence that was so hard to spot that they must've been wondering when it'd be found out. It really makes me wonder what would've happened if I was never part of this. Would someone actually discover this damning clue?

Let's move on.

Whydunnit

Man, I came up with plenty wild theories for the motive a while back. It went from "she wants to eliminate bullies" to "she has a dark secret she wants to keep it hidden" to "she misses her beloved dearly".

Eventually, the "she misses her beloved dearly" motive become the official one for my theory and it's not just applied to mine eitheir. There's a few others who seem to approve this motive and use it in their own theories as well.

To give some context as a reminder, Eden Tobisa is a very kind girl. We also know that her secret is "Ever since you kissed her, you were afraid your sexuality would ruin your friendship." This would indicate that she's most potentially in love with someone.

She tries to help whenever she can and tries to organize fun activities with a few, become friends with as many people as possible.

She's basically trying to keep her hopes up. Especially considering her reaction during the prologue...

She appears to be quite a tad desperate in wanting to get out. Anyways, the murder and trial happened in chapter 1. That inflicted quite a mental hit to most of the cast.

Right before the beginning of chapter 2, we get the following quote : "I still miss you. I miss you so much that I wish I you had never been a part of my life. The worst part is, even though you left me like this, there's nothing I can blame you for."

Then in chapter 2, after monoTV reveals the motives, Eden suggests that they should take that opportunity to work together and escape. She's the first person who brings up the escape topic.

Even though she tried to keep her and everyone's spirits up, most of the time, it's been people arguing over everything and nothing. It's mostly a few specific people, but still, it was definitly unpleasant. But the worst part of it all is the event that unfolded in the first 4 minutes of Chapter 2, Episode 5.

That bullying that Eden received was the final straw. She had enough of all of this. That made her realise that there's only one thing that matters to her : getting the heck out of here to meet her beloved, the person she kissed.

This is mostly my logical explanation for the motive based on all the possible clues that were given to be able to find a viable motive for the murder.

For those who believe that it'd be bad writing or whatever, I'm not really gonna delve into this myself, but I'd heavily suggest reading @venus-is-thinking's post here. There's some interesting points related to the narrative possibilities. (Might not fully support my theory, but you get the idea). In any case, whether you believe it or not, the fact remains that this is a possible motive that can be used to explain why Eden commited murder.

Howdunnit

Oh boy, here we go. The most difficult, yet most fun part to explain in this theory. Even though it's only a chapter 2 murder case, there's A LOT that happened that led to the crime. This time around, I'm gonna make sure to list everything in chronological order while also providing the most updated information regarding my theory.

I'll also separate certain events in Acts, to make it easier to comprehend. Let's do this!

Act 1

It all began a few days ago, when monoTV announced the motive reveal. MonoTV gave each participant a troubling secret and told them that if no one commits murder, the secrets would be revealed to the whole world.

MonoTV is a dumb dumb however because it made a mistake and all the secrets have been swapped around, meaning that no one has their own secret. So each participant has a secret that belongs to someone else.

For a few of them, it was pretty much "eh, it's whatever!", but it was especially troubling for David. The reason why is because he knows deep down what his secret is, it's a pretty meaningful one, after all.

We already know by now that his secret is "You exist to manipulate others. Everyone else exists to be taken advantage of." Considering his talent, it would totally ruin his career. So he needed to come up with a plan to not be exposed, and fast.

MonoTV also reveals that the second floor is unlocked and they're free to explore. We're not gonna go over each one of them yet, but I want to talk about this particular scene in the fitness room.

During the investigation of the new rooms, Teruko meets up with Ace and Levi in the gym. There's an argument going on because Levi is trying to apologize to Ace for his behavior in the trial of chapter 1 (when he threatened Ace). Ace is having none of it.

Ace was also arguing with Teruko a bit regarding some comments she made behind his back that he heard, which made him behave like so...

So what is he actually gonna do about it? You'll see shortly in the next coming acts.

Act 2

Teruko spends the rest of the first day secluded in her own room until next morning because girl has to eat, ya know? As soon as she gets out of her dorm, this happens...

Eden sneaks up on Teruko to surprise her, which she didn't see this coming at all. On top of that, she claims that she could hear Teruko clearly in her dorm doing a puppet show with the cactuses. The walls are pretty thin, therefore not really soundproof. This was also shown in Act 1 when Teruko talked behind Ace's back, but could hear that conversation.

Truth bullet acquired : Eden's sneakiness

Truth bullet acquired : Non-soundproof walls

Because of that embarassing reveal, Eden used it to her advantage to blackmail Teruko, forcing her to do friendly activities with her. So Teruko has no choice but to follow her orders and go eat breakfast with Eden.

As they're preparing something in the kitchen, they suddenly hear people arguing in the cafeteria, so they go check it out. It's of course that scene where 3 different pairs fighting against each other.

So first we have J (Julia Rosales) asking Arturo to leave her alone and to stop pestering her with her secret. Nothing too relevant for the murder.

Then we have Ace bullying Nico hardcore all of a sudden. Considering the events that happened in the gym in Act 1 and the purpose of a bully, it's safe to deduce that he's doing this because he's trying to act tough. Ace is trying to display superiority over a targetted victim by bullying them. Ace wasn't really hostile towards Nico before that.

It's also very important to take this into consideration since in chapter 1, most of the time, he was behaving like an absolute coward and that's no pretending. He really has a fear of a lot of things.

Well, actually... Ace bullied Nico once in chapter 1!

Sure, he made a dumb mean comment by calling them losers for liking animals or whatever, but that wasn't just directed at Nico, it was directed at Xander as well. I think he was mostly trying to get attention by being provocative.

Besides, that was only one time compared to the multiple times that Ace bullied Nico throughout the whole chapter 2, so there's clearly a behavior change there.

Truth bullet acquired : Ace's phobias

Truth bullet acquired : Ace acting tough

Moving on... We also have Arei arguing with monoTV about getting rid of the rope. Arei believes that this is a cruel joke of a custom weapon for her since it reminds her a lot of her past. She wants to dispose it, but monoTV refuses.

They eventually come to some kind of agreement and monoTV places that rope in the storage room, so anyone can take it if they wish.

Truth bullet acquired : Easily accessible rope

They arguing kept going for a while until David comes in, telling them to shut up and that he has an announcement to make. He reveals his secret : "My family has a history of depression."

He makes that reveal because he is suggesting that it would be best for everyone to share their secrets before the time is up. That way, once it's already out in the open, no one would have any remaining motive to commit murder according to David.

But as we know already, that was all a lie. He revealed a fake secret and wanted others to share secrets since it would help create even more conflicts which could lead to more dramatic results... like murder.

That was his master plan to instigate a murder. He wanted to have others cause a murder before the deadline, which would keep his secret safe.

Truth bullet acquired : David's plan

Act 3

Eden tells Teruko about her fun activity plan being decorating the clocks in this killing game establishment, but she wanted to invite one more person. She wanted to invite someone who complained that she wasn't invited at the cake decorating activity back in chapter 1 : Arei.

So they both enter the playground, meeting up with David and Arei who were about to have a discussion about secrets. You know the rest of that scene afterwards, I've also brought it up in the whydunnit.

Arei bullies Eden, putting the blame on her for Min's death. Eden gets out of the playground, crying in utter sadness. Then right after that, Arei laughs and...

Truth bullet used : Non-soundproof walls

Even though she got out of the room, it's very possible that Eden heard it which would be the absolute final straw. She had enough of all of this, then her actual motive kicked in : she wanted to get out of her as soon as possible to meet her beloved.

Of course, we know by now that Arei wasn't really that spiteful. She just wanted to give a tough and harsh lesson about this killing. To stop being so nice and naive as that would make Eden the most vulnerable target to any murder cases in the future. But alas, Eden didn't stick long enough to listen to that part, which makes me wonder if it would've made a drastic different in how chapter 2 would play out.

Well, it's possible that Eden actually heard that part of the conversation!

But we don't know that for sure. Considering the smoking gun evidence, it makes more sense to believe that she didn't hear the rest of the conversation happening in the playground.

Anyways, this was the very beginning to Eden's murder scheme. She had a lot of work to do.

Act 4

Teruko proceeds to meet up with Rose in the dress-up room who was currently having a painting session. She had Rose's secret, so she figured she might as well share the secret, which Rose agreed to.

Then they have a chat about various things, then to Teruko's surprise, she realises that Nico was here this whole time, laying down on the ground.

Nico asks Rose if she could teach him how to paint, which Rose said yes.

Let me pause for a bit to mention an important clue : Rose's custom weapon. It's turpentine. It wouldn't be out of the question to think that since this is a painting supply, she would bring it with her during painting sessions and based on what we know in later episodes...

Well, realisticly, that's not how turpentine is supposed to work!

Probably not, but this is made very clear that the author wants us to believe that it works that way in their world. There's no reason for them to make something up about it other than explaining its intended purpose.

This turpentine is meant to be served as a tool/weapon to knock someone out, kind of like chloroform.

Truth bullet acquired : Turpentine

Teruko was already out of that room to head to the cafeteria while the other two were thinking about going there because they were hungry.

Fast forward a bit in the cafeteria, Ace is having another argument with poor Nico.

Truth bullet used : Ace acting tough

He's bullying Nico once again to make himself look tough. He's even ready to threaten Nico that he would reveal their secret (we learned in the trial that Nico and Ace have each other's secret).

This failed however because David managed to snatch it from Ace's hands while he was distracted. Then Ace proceeds to keep on bullying Nico, asking : "What are you gonna do about it?"

This surprised Ace, no doubt. Then afterwards, he gets slapped by Hu. She defends Nico, telling Ace that she's had enough of this.

At the time, I thought that Nico's death threat would've been the main reason why Ace kept suspecting that Nico tried to kill him, but it's actually a lot more simple than that. I'll explain it later...

While I'm at it, let's keep in mind that Hu's custom weapon is wires.

Truth bullet acquired : Nico's motive to kill Ace

Truth bullet acquired : Hu being protective of Nico

Truth bullet acquired : Hu's wires

Then we later have Nico's secret reveal, which is not too relevant to the actual murder. What's important however are two things.

Not everyone was present in the cafeteria at the time

Rose was later sleeping in the cafeteria for an unknown amount of time

Let's go back a little bit and talk about what happened to the few other relevant characters.

Meanwhile...

Eden was working on her murder scheme. Based on a Q&A that the DRDT creator did a while ago, we learned that Eden's not very strong or fit. So if she wanted to pull a good murder, she needed to be really smart about it.

So she needed to come up with a murder mechanism to pull it off. So to make it happen, she needed the right materials.

Truth bullet used : Turpentine

She remembered the list of custom weapons written by Charles that Whit showed during the trial. Considering the hidden purpose of this weapon according to this world, she knew that she could use it to knock someone out.

It would be very easy to get a target unconscious without resorting to physical force. Next up, she needed some kind of murder weapon that would do the deed for her.

Truth bullet used : Hu's wires

Eden probably considered using Hu's custom weapon, but that would've been incredibly risky. Even if she was friends with Hu, how would she be able to get her weapon without seeming suspicious?

She needed to use something else. Something that could work just as well as Hu's wires.

Initially, I was thinking of the analog clocks that could be found in the killing game building, a specific wire within it, but it seems quite convoluted on top of being unsure if that would've been enough wire to pull it off.

So I kept looking into it, and I discovered two interesting facts about this fangan.

During the prologue, we learn a few things about Eden, but most importantly, she loves hand-making antique clocks. Meaning it's not wrong to assume that she loves antique clocks overall.

The other fact is the following...

Whoever made this killing game, everyone's dorm has been customized to fit their needs and style. So if we combine this fact, Eden's talent and her love for antique clocks, then it's safe to deduce that she must have antique clocks in her dorm, don't you think?

Not only that, but it could very well be a grandfather clock! There's a seemingly grand variety of grandfather clocks, but what's important is that you can find clock cables in them. They're usually used to maintain the clock's weights.

This could very well be the weapon that she used for the murder attempt on Ace. Otherwise, it could very well be some kind of material that she already had available considering her talent and her love to craft antique clocks.

Truth bullet created : Eden's cables

Murder attempt on Ace? Isn't it Nico who tried to kill Ace in the gym?

I'll explain that confusion later... For now, let's just say that her initial plan was not killing Arei in particular. At least, not the things we've seen in the playground. Whatever we discovered in the fitness room instead was her initial plan.

Well, there's no way to know for sure that Eden had those wires.

No, but as long as it's a possibility, it can work.

But that's only based on your assumptions, that's just wrong!

It's a logical deduction based on facts about this fangan. But you know what? I refuse to elaborate further on this. I'll explain why in the finale.

Moving on, Eden did something else while there was an argument happening in the cafeteria. She decided to have a meeting with Arturo in the infirmary to share his secret. Eden has Arturo's secret : "Your younger sister killed herself because of you. You should have never left."

This is pretty much the flashback scene that we see in Chapter 2, Episode 10. Eden reveals the secret, Arturo threatens her, Arei comes in to save the day. Arei then apologies for her bullying back in playground. Then Arei and Eden become friends.

There's of course more to it than that, but you get the idea.

Wouldn't your motive become null and void when Eden became friends with Arei?

Not necessarily. Eden probably made up her mind already about leaving this place. Besides, there's no guarantee that she fully believed what Arei said.

I personally think that this was a perfect opportunity for Eden to take advantage of Arei when she would need it most.

But this was supposed to be a meeting with Arturo. How would Eden know that Arei would come to the infirmary?

That's the thing. She didn't know. The fact that Arei came in to save her was an unexpected, yet pleasant event. It was literally a golden opportunity for the culprit.

Then she was only expecting Arturo. What would be the point of that meeting if she intended to murder someone that wasn't necessarily Arei?

Right, cause back in episode 10, we were led to believe for a while that Arturo could've been a suspect of the murder of Arei. It was also because of the fake letter that was adressed to Arei.

Well, we know that Eden knew Arturo's secret and that's no light secret eitheir. It's a pretty bad one. So she must've been expecting a negative reaction out of Arturo.

Truth bullet used : David's plan

I doubt that she was aware of David's intentions, but she could've used David's idea to her advantage. She had a feeling that some of these secrets could cause conflicts. Which is precisely why she decided to share it to Arturo.

She was creating a potential suspect for her plan in the future.

Why would that matter if she was only meeting up with Arturo? She would have no other witnesses if that went according to plan!

Truth bullet used : Non-soundproof walls

She knew that any conversations could be heard from outside of said room, so she made a gamble on it. She was hoping that someone else would hear the conversation happening and they would be the potential witness.

Luckily for her, that worked out a lot better than anticipated when Arei came in to save and befriend her.

Truth bullet acquired : Eden's incident in the infirmary

Before getting her murder scheme in motion, all that was left was grabbing Rose's turpentine.

Wasn't it Nico who stole the turpentine from Rose?

I'll explain the thing about Nico later, but no, it could've been anyone else. Like I said before, she was painting in the dress-up room, her turpentine could've been there.

Also, after the argument between Ace and Nico, Rose fell asleep, so for an unknown period of time, the dress-up room was left unattended, meaning that anyone could've stolen it, not just Nico.

But how would Eden know that the turpentine was there?

Normally, she would think that it's in Rose's dorm, but it's very likely that she saw Rose painting in the distance and spotted the turpentine. It's not because we don't see her since the bullying that we should expect her to be secluded in her room for an unknown amount of time.

But then she would rely on luck yet again to get what she wants!

It's possible that she considered to use something else to knock someone unconscious, but when she came across that turpentine in the dress-up room, she figured it would've been a much better option.

But wouldn't Rose have noticed the turpentine missing during the practice session she was supposed to have with Nico later?

Not necessarily, she tends to be easily distracted and absent-minded. So she might've not noticed until later.

Well, she also has a photographic memory. She can precisely remember things. Wouldn't she remember when it was missing?

Not if she didn't notice it beforehand. Anyways, we're getting nowhere with this, so I refuse to elaborate further. I'll explain why later in the finale.

Act 5

During the evening of DAY 2, a few things happened on the second floor. Ace was working out alone in the gym and a meeting was about to happen between Arei and David in the relaxation room.

Hold up, didn't that happen on the evening of DAY 3?

That's what we're all led to believe, but there are plenty reasons to believe that's not what happened. I'll explain it later when the time comes. For now, whether you believe it or not, let's say that this happened in the evening of DAY 2.

So Ace is working out during that time, most likely doing benchpress. The reason why is somewhat related to this...

Truth bullet used : Ace acting tough

Obviously he's not pretending to work out, he's actually a fairly fit and strong person, which was also shown during the Q&A with DRDT creator. He's also an athlete.

Even since the scene in the fitness room in DAY 1, he's trying to rely on himself alone and doesn't want others to see him as a joke. So he's also working out to stay in shape.

Truth bullet acquired : Ace working out

Isn't that because of his eating disorder that he's working out?

Probably, but I don't think it's just that. I think it also has something to do with trying to get stronger to make sure he can survive the killing game.

He then hears a conversation happening between Arei and David in the relaxation room. Ace got curious, so he stopped training and decided to eavesdrop on them.

This is pretty much the flashback scene that we get in Chapter 2, Episode 11. Of course, the events according to my theory are different compared to what's shown in episode 11. Aside from it happening at a different day, there's a few other details that Ace tricked us into believing that this truly happened on DAY 3.

Truth bullet acquired : Ace's testimony

I'll explain them later once we get to this particular Act. There is one thing that's very important thing to recall right now though.

He said that right after Arei asked David to say something. That was after she revealed David's secret in private because she was seeking an explanation for his actions. Since she knows David's actual secret, it means that she knew that he lied about "family history of depression" secret and that his secret share plan is suspicious.

So Ace claiming that he didn't hear anything else right after that moment is just incredibly suspicious. It just wouldn't make sense! David must have said something to Arei. He couldn't have simply ran away because he would've run into Ace otherwise.

David must have said something afterwards, regardless of what it is.

Then can you explain what happened then? Why didn't Ace hear anything else.

Ace truly didn't hear anything else, but not for the reason that most are led to believe.

What's that supposed to mean?!

Something happened shortly afterwards that made Ace physically unable to hear anything else.

Truth bullet used : Eden's sneakiness

Truth bullet used : Turpentine

In that precise moment, Eden snuck up on Ace and knocked him unconscious with the turpentine that she stole in the dress-up room earlier. Ace became the intended victim target for Eden's murder scheme.

Wouldn't Arei and David hear anything happening?

Probably not. As long as she's stealthy enough and that the turpentine is strong enough, it could knock him out pretty quick with having time to react to it. It's entirely possible to do this quietly.

Alright, but wouldn't they see the unconscious body sometime later after the discussion?

Not if Eden dragged the body to hide it. Initially, I thought she would bring it to the dress-up room and hide it in the changing room, but I think it'd ask too much physically for Eden. So the only option remaining is dragging the body back to the gym. This should work as long as it's not in the hallway and the door is closed.

But earlier, you said that Eden's weak and not fit. How would she be able to drag a body?

In a real life scenario, it would probably be really different and incredibly difficult. But that's the only explanation I can come up with to explain how she was able to do that without getting caught.

It's not like she waited for Ace inside the gym. Otherwise, he would've prolly heard more about the conversation.

Anyways, I refuse to elaborate further on this. I'll explain why later in the finale.

Moving on... After capturing Ace, she had one remaining step to do before preparing the murder mechanism : she needed a scapegoat. Arei was the perfect target for that.

Truth bullet used : Eden's sneakiness

Truth bullet used : Turpentine

So Eden knocked her unconscious at the most appropriate time when no one else was around.

Wasn't David here? Wouldn't he have known?

Obviously, the culprit didn't do that while they were both present. Considering the matter of the discussion, it's probably likely that David got out of the relaxation room first, before Arei. So Eden simply needed to wait for David to use the elevator.

Otherwise, she could've also prepared a fake letter, asking Arei to meet up in the playground so that she could knock her out. This is probably the most logical explanation to this. It would match up the contents of the letter that was revealed in Chapter 2, Episode 10.

Truth bullet created : Eden's letter

Before I proceed with the next Acts, I'd like to pause it to explain every other possible clues that was found on the second floor that could be relevant to the murder mystery.

The 2nd Floor

The dress-up room

A few things to note about this room that even though none of the characters talked about, as long as it's presented, it can be used as a potential clue. We got some wigs on the left and the pink heart shaped case looks most likely to be a makeup-kit. It would make a lot of sense, considering where it is.

Truth bullet acquired : Wigs

Truth bullet acquired : Makeup-kit

Then post Arei's murder, Charles finds a ball of clothes in this room.

Truth bullet acquired : Ball of clothes

The relaxation room

There's a few things I'll list that may seem mundane at first, but they will become important as I explain it later.

First, we got those green mats, they look like light green yoga mats? Let's call em green yoga mats, why not?

Then, we have the incense sticks. They give a pretty good smell inside that room. Burning a whole stick can take up to an hour, but the lingering smell can last for multiple hours. They originally come the incense box that we're seeing to the right.

Truth bullet acquired : Green yoga mats

Truth bullet acquired : Incense sticks

Truth bullet acquired : Box of incense

We also learn about a special feature within this room in Episode 2.

We also learn that the room becomes locked at 10:00 PM up until 8:00 AM because of this misting system that monoTV implemented. He doesn't want anyone to enter that room at night while this is happening since it would leave a mess.

Truth bullet acquired : Relax room's nighttime features

The fitness room

I decided to use the crime scene in Episode 6 since most of the much needed clues are found in here.

Let's start with both the broom and the stepladder. They're not from the gym originally, so someone must have brought them here. They must've played a role in setting up some kind of murder scheme in here. Are they from the storage room, perhaps?

Truth bullet acquired : Broom

Truth bullet acquired : Stepladder

Next up, we have the whole weight rack. It wasn't there originally. Uh... I mean, it came from the gym, but not in this unusual position. So someone moved it. Was it part of the murder scheme?

Truth bullet acquired : Moved weight rack

Then, we have those benches adjacent to Ace that's been moved. We also have the right fan that fell down. It was ripped out according to Teruko. Also, the left side fan isn't working.

This is strange because the first time Teruko explored that room, it was working just fine and even after monoTV finishing cleaning up that failed murder attempt mess, the left side fan was working again. Why would it suddenly stop turning if that fan wasn't ripped out?

We have two weight plates neatly placed next to the threadmills. Why are they here?

Truth bullet acquired : Moved benches

Truth bullet acquired : Ripped out right fan

Truth bullet acquired : Left fan not spinning

Truth bullet acquired : Weight plates next to treadmill

Onto the more important clues.

We have a piece of wire that's attached to a blade of the fan with tape. A part of it has blood on it. The other piece of the wire, which was held by Nico when Teruko and Eden came across this crime scene, but then they dropped it. There's also blood on it, but there's a couple spots where there's no blood somehow. Is it two wires or the same wire snapped in two?

Truth bullet acquired : Piece of wire attached to fan

Truth bullet acquired : Other piece of wire

Speaking of tape, this is the roll of grippy tape that I was talking about in the Whodunnit part of my post. According to Rose in Episode 7, when she failed to do a pull-up, she says that there was originally grippy tape on that bar, which Teruko didn't believe.

But if you rewind back to the previous episodes, you can clearly see that there was something on that pull-up bar, but then during the crime scene of the attempted murder, it's no longer there. It's very safe to presume that the roll of tape and what was on the pull-up bar are the same kind of grippy tape.

Truth bullet acquired : Roll of grippy tape

Truth bullet acquired : Missing tape on pull-up bar

Let's take a closer look at the body.

A couple things to note...

The neck wounds on Ace. We were first led to believe that he died to those wounds, but it turns out, he's still alive. They must still hurt though. Right behind that we can see a glimpse of smeared blood on the wall, behind his neck. Even when Ace wakes up, the blood on the wall is still trying, so it's no magic trick or illusion there. It's very real.

Then, even more subtle than that, there's blood on his Ace's fingers (on his right hand). Because of the way it's positioned and because the other hand is hidden, it's possible that there's more blood on these hands.

And then we have Nico being "caught in the act". Anyone who sees this will immediatly think that Nico tried to kill him, no doubt about it. While I'm at it, let's keep in mind the odd position that Ace's body is found. Another thing even weirder than that is the utter lack of other traces of blood. There's no blood on any of the equipments, other walls and so on. What happened here?

Truth bullet acquired : Neck wounds

Truth bullet acquired : Smeared blood on the wall

Truth bullet acquired : Blood on Ace's fingers

Truth bullet acquired : Nico caught in the act

Truth bullet acquired : Ace's sitting position

Truth bullet acquired : Lack of blood anywhere else

Quite a lot of truth bullets in that room, ain't it?

The playground

(I can't find a good screenshot to take to see the whole crime scene without any distractions, so I'll trust that you have a fairly good idea of what it looked like. Also, I'm getting close to the limit of pictures I can send, so...)

Let's start with the body.

She is seen hanging by a rope on the swing set. Someone tied her up there, but who would be strong enough to pull that off? Then when Arturo inspected the body, he found out that Arei has a broken neck, so something with the rope must caused her neck to snap somehow.

We also find red marks on her wrists, indicating that her wrists must've been tied up with something. Other than that, there's no other visible wounds or details regarding the body. Well, there is one thing... it's not mentioned by the cast, but it's clearly visible : Arei's glove is missing.

Truth bullet acquired : Rope attached to Arei's neck

Truth bullet acquired : Arei's broken neck

Truth bullet acquired : Red marks on Arei's wrists

Truth bullet acquired : Arei's missing glove

Close to the seasaw, which is like in front of the swing set, we can find scuffed marks on the ground, which is caused by something being scraped against it. Seemingly easy to damage the ground.

And there's also the dead fishes found close by. Why are they here? According to Nico, the fishes were fed last evening/night by them, so the fishes were still alive by then.

Truth bullet acquired : Scuffed ground

Truth bullet acquired : Dead fishes

Moving on... to the right, if we look at the carousel aka the spinny thing, there are two clues. First one is the long rope found under the carousel. The bars of the carousel are wrapped with tape. It looks like the very same tape that was found in the fitness room.

Truth bullet acquired : Long rope under carousel

Truth bullet acquired : Carousel wrapped with tape

Oh right, before I forget... according to MonoTV, there was also a broken ceiling light on the ceiling, so they turned it off for now.

Truth bullet acquired : Broken ceiling light

Then in the hallway, Rose knocks over the only trash can available on the second floor and they find a couple clues.

We have the empty water jugs with broken handles. Quite peculiar, don't you think? Then we have a torn-up note which we already what it is by now. It's the letter "signed by Eden" adressing to Arei to ask her to meet in the playground about an issue regarding a secret being exposed.

We also have scrunched up tape, which looks very similar to the tapes we found in both the playground and the gym. Can't be a coincidence!

More subtle and not mentioned by the characters, there's a needle with a black string attached to it.

Truth bullet acquired : Empty jugs with broken handles

Truth bullet acquired : Torn-up note

Truth bullet acquired : Scrunched up tape

Truth bullet acquired : Needle with black string attached

I believe that's all the relevant clues I can find in each of these rooms. Time to get back on track!

Act 6

So to give a tiny recap to where we were last time in Act 5, Eden knocked Ace unconscious, dragged him back to the gym. Then sometime later, she knocked Arei unconscious.

Why would she knock Arei unconscious?! The culprit already found her intended victim for the murder!

There's only one possible explanation for this. Arei was supposed to be the scapegoat for her murder scheme. She was supposed to be the main suspect.

That makes no sense! If it went according to plan, during the trial, Arei would've mentioned that she's been knocked unconscious by Eden.

Not quite!

Truth bullet used : Eden's sneakiness

If she can sneak up on Teruko without her noticing, then she can also sneak up on Ace to knock him unconscious without being noticed. Therefore, if she can do that with Ace, she can do the exact same thing with Arei.

So sure, she would've mentioned that she's been knocked out, but who would believe her? Would they rather believe Eden or Arei? I think the answer is pretty clear.

But she must've been knocked unconscious not too late at night, meaning that she could've woken up sometime later at night and no one would suspect a thing about her!

There's no way to tell if the turpentine's effect would make someone go unconscious for a short or long time. That aside, there's a simple solution to explain how she couldn't escape without being suspected. To make sure that she doesn't go anywhere, you just need to trap Arei somewhere, lock her somewhere.

But there's no such place for that!

Truth bullet used : Relax's room nighttime features

The culprit hid Arei's unconscious body inside the relaxation room. Even if Arei somehow woke up early, she would be unable to get out of here because of the features of that room.

The room closes at 10:00 PM and only reopens at 8:00 AM. It's heavily implied that it would be locked. If someone wouldn't be able to enter that room at night, it's possible that someone wouldn't be able to exit that room eitheir if they were stuck inside.

But according to said features, it's locked because of a misting system that uses an enriched formula for the plants inside. Wouldn't Arei be covered in said enriched formula as well?

She would, unless the culprit used something to cover her body.

Truth bullet used : Ball of clothes

Truth bullet used : Needle with black string attached

The ball of clothes has starch on it and according to some google research, starch is actually very beneficial in plant growth. So it's safe to presume that this enriched formula that monoTV mentioned has something to do with starch. Meaning that the ball of clothes is physical proof that it was used in the relaxation room for the night.

This ball of clothes in question is a bundle of all the old uniforms that Teruko and Hu used to have until monoTV changed their style.

Then, it's possible that the culprit used a needle with string to attach pieces of clothes together to make a custom blanket of sorts.

But the turf in the relaxation room would get wet at night and that would stick to Arei's body!

Truth bullet used : Green yoga mats

The culprit placed the body on top of a yoga mat. That way, it wouldn't leave any traces on the back side of her body. Then add the blanket of clothes as mentioned earlier and she'd be covered from all sides.

To summarize this act, after hiding Ace's body in the gym, she knocked Arei unconscious with the turpentine and made sure that Arei would be locked up inside the relaxation room and covered from the misting system. She did all of that before 10:00 PM.

Act 7

Now that Arei's unconscious body was taken care of, it was now time to set up the murder mechanism!

Truth bullet used : Moved weight rack

Let's get that out of the way right off the bat. We know Eden's weak, so there's no way she could've moved the weight rack, even though it seemed to have been moved to make space for the murder mechanism. I doubt that Eden would put the time and physical efforts to move the weight plates one by one, then the weight rack and then putting back the weight plates.

So if she didn't do it, who did?

Truth bullet used : Ace working out

According to my theory, Ace was working out that evening, so wouldn't it make more sense to believe that he's the one who moved that weight rack? That would also be evidence that he was working out during the evening of DAY 2, not DAY 3 (I know what some of you think about this, but I'll get back to it later, don't worry).

But that doesn't make sense! The way that the weight rack was moved and toppled over, it's facing away from the bench where he would be doing the bench pressing.

Maybe, but we don't quite know what the characters are truly thinking. For all we know, this could be his actual workout preference, as weird as it may seem. With that said, I refuse to elaborate further. I will explain why in the finale.

Besides, we know that Ace is fairly fit, so he could move a bunch of these weight plates easily. Moving on...

Truth bullet used : Missing tape on pull-up bar

Since we know that Eden took the roll of tape with her as shown in the whodunnit, sometime after the failed murder reveal, it's logical to conclude that she's also the person who removed the tape on that bar. She removed all of the available tape on the pull-up bars to make a single roll of grippy tape.

Ha! There's a problem with that! It doesn't seem like there's a lot of tape on that pull-up bar, it's highly doubtful that it would be the same quantity as what's shown on the roll of tape. She must have gotten that tape somewhere else.

There's a very simple explanation for it...

See this on the left? That's also a pull-up bar, but slightly hidden by the weird workout contraption directly in front. But still, there's definitly a pull-up bar there.

So tell me... if there was grippy tape on the pull-up bar to the right, wouldn't there be tape on the pull-up bar to the left as well? There was a reason why I mentioned "available tape on the pull-up bars" and it wasn't a typo.

If you combine the tape from both pull-up bars, there would surely be enough to make a complete roll of tape. Moving on...

Truth bullet used : Eden's cables

Truth bullet used : Piece of wire attached to fan

Truth bullet used : Other piece of wire

Since the culprit didn't use Hu's custom weapon according to my theory, it's safe to presume to the wire that was found in the gym is the exact same as Eden's cables that I came up with. This also means that both pieces of the wire were originally a single, longer piece of wire.

So she used her accessible weapon for the next step...

Truth bullet used : Piece of wire attached to fan

Truth bullet used : Roll of grippy tape

Truth bullet used : Stepladder

She attached one end of the wire to one of the blades of the right fan. The culprit circled the cable around the blade a few times and then did the finishing touches by sticking tape to it to make sure it'll stay there.

Of course, she's not as tall as a giraffe or as tall as Arturo, so she needed something to boost her height. That's where the stepladder comes into play. She placed it below the fan, climbed up and did the thing.

But when Teruko finds the body, you can see that the tape is facing upwards, above the fan. Wouldn't it be much easier to place it under the blade?

Sure, it would make sense, but from a mystery game/novel perspective, what would happen if the tape was placed under? You wouldn't really be able to see it now, would you? Granted, some could easily arrive at the conclusion that the wire was attached with tape since there was a roll of tape found at the scene.

So in that case, there's another simple and logical explanation to it. If you had the option to place tape eitheir above or under the fan, which would be the most efficient?

The right answer would be above the fan! Think about it. The wire is supposed to be holding something, so there would be weight attached to it. If the tape was applied under the blade, it could've easily come off because of the pressure of the weight. If it was taped above the blade instead, even though there would be weight pressure, it wouldn't affect the tape much in that situation.

Therefore, Eden placed the tape above the blade of the fan because that was the most efficient option. While I'm at it...

Truth bullet used : Ripped out right fan

Truth bullet used : Left fan not spinning

Considering what I've said previously regarding the left fan not spinning during the body discovery of Ace, there's a simple solution for this mystery.

The left fan stopped spinning because it was turned off. There is most likely a switch in the gym to turn on and off the fans.

That would easily explain why the left fan started spinning again after monoTV cleaned up the room the following day. That would also easily explain how the culprit managed to place tape on the right fan as well. Even though we have no one mentioning the existence of a switch for the fan, it's very easy to come up with that conclusion.

Truth bullet created : On/Off switch for the fans

Act 8

Now that the cable was set up on one end, it was time to take care of the other hand of the cable. That part would require more steps and efforts than what's shown in Act 7.

First off, to make sure her murder mechanism worked, the end result required Ace's body to be standing up with the wire attached to his neck. So it needed to be just kinda long enough to make it work.

So the body needed to remain in a standing up position while Eden is setting up the other end of the cable to his neck. Of course, she didn't have an accomplice nor would she want to work with one, so she relied on a few materials she planned beforehand to make it work.

Truth bullet used : Moved benches

Truth bullet used : Weight plates next to treadmill

Truth bullet used : Broom

The culprit used the back wall so that Ace's body would rest against it. That way, it wouldn't move backwards. Then, she squeezed the victim's legs with the benches, placing one of them on each side so that the body wouldn't move sideways. She also placed a weight plate on each foot so that his feet wouldn't move around, which could move the body if that were to happen. It would help keep the body stable.

Even with these steps however, it still wouldn't be enough to keep the body still. After all, these steps I mentioned only affect the lower part of the body. So if the culprit let things play out like that, the upper body would simply bend forward which would make all that stability effort go to waste.

Fortunately, the culprit is smart, she thought about that beforehand. That's why she brought the broom to the gym. That was the final step needed to keep the body still.

All Eden had to do next was place the broom through Ace's shirt in the back. As long as the body is standing against the wall, Ace would be unable to bend forward because of the broom. It's physically impossible.

You can even try it out yourself at home if you'd like. Pass a broom (preferably a clean one) through your shirt in the back, stand against a wall and try to bend forward. The broom blocks you from doing that.

Wouldn't the upper body be able to move sideways though?

Maybe, maybe not. It doesn't really matter though because the culprit simply needed to hold the body for a bit and all Eden needed to focus on is making sure that it wouldn't move sideways, everything else was taken care of. Moving on...

Truth bullet used : Eden's cables

Truth bullet used : Neck wounds

Truth bullet used : Smeared blood on the wall

Truth bullet used : Lack of blood anywhere else

Now that the body is stable, she needed to place that wire around Ace's neck, but how? Well, if we look at the neck wounds, you can see multiple slashes across his neck. And judging by the smeared blood on the wall, it seems to heavily imply that the neck wounds also reach the back side of his neck.

Well, actually, there's some incredibly minor pixelly details that seem to indicate that the neck wounds doesn't extend to the back. There's also this and-

Those are incredibly niche and minor details to claim that neck wounds doesn't go around the back of his neck which is still incredibly odd to me that people believe is the case considering the smeared blood. To me, it seems more like the creator added that blood on the wall to indicate that the neck wounds also go around his back even if we can't physically see it. In any case, I refuse to elaborate further on that. I'll explain why in the finale.

Anyways, there's also the lack of blood anywhere else during Teruko's investigation of the attempted murder. It seems really weird that there's not much other signs of blood considering how seemingly complex that mechanism must be. Some claim that some of these bloody spots must've been wiped off somehow, but I think there's a much, much simpler solution to this.

The culprit wrapped the cable around Ace's neck multiple times.

The best part in all this is that the culprit doesn't even need to tie it up. Even though it's simply going around his neck multiple times without a noose, the cable wouldn't come off. Heck, if you were to pull the wire one way, it would just tighten up Ace's neck.

If you're not convinced, you can try wrapping a plastic water bottle with some long wire and then try to pull it. It usually doesn't come off.

Act 9

Now that the cable was properly wrapped around Ace's neck, Eden had a few remaining finishing touches to complete the murder mechanism.

First off, now that Ace is properly tied up with the fan, all the materials that was used to keep the body stable was no longer needed and could be discarded.

Truth bullet used : Moved benches

Truth bullet used : Weight plates next to treadmill

Truth bullet used : Broom

Truth buller used : Stepladder

She removed the broom that was stuck in Ace's shirt. Then, she moved at least the left bench so that she'd have an easier access to drag the unconscious body. After that, she removed the weight plates on his feet and put it next to the treadmills. To finish it off, she moved the stepladder away from the fan since it was in the way.

After doing so, she then dragged Ace's standing body closer to the fan. Or rather, right below it, at the center.

Why didn't she place Ace's body under the fan to begin with? Moving it towards the wall seem unnecessary!

No, it was very much needed. Remember, Eden's not strong and she needed to make sure that the unconscious body wouldn't move while she's setting up the murder mechanism. Even if she were to make the body sit down, she would then need to make him stand up to tighten up the wire, but if there's no way to stabilize the backside, it would just fall backwards. Then if she would try to make sure it wouldn't go backwards, it could bend forward and so on. It wouldn't be practical.

That's precisely why she needed to make his body lean against the wall initially. Anyways, once Eden placed the body under the fan, she readjusted the wire a bit to make sure it would remain tight.

Couldn't she just leave the body standing against the wall for the murder mechanism?

Not really. The way the murder mechanism is supposed is work is like so..

Ace's body would be held by the wire which is attached by a blade of the fan. The fans are currently turned off. The only thing the culprit needed to do to commit murder is turn on the switch. By turning on the switch, the fan would spin along with the wire.

If the body was standing against the wall at the time, the wire would somewhat try to drag the body forward, which could potentially make the body fall, which could potentially break the fan.

If the body is standing right below the fan however, the wire wouldn't really drag his body since it is at the very center of the rotation. Once the fan spins along with the wire, the wire would wrap around his neck further, which tightens it even further, which could be what caused those neck wounds.

And that's what I think is what the murder mechanism is supposed to be.

Why would she go through so much work and efforts to make that kind of mechanism?

There's a couple reasons. Eden's not strong, as stated before, so there's a bunch of murder methods that she couldn't do by herself. Granted, she could easily do something like stabbing, but it's possible that she's the kind of the person who doesn't want to do the actual murder action herself. So the culprit would be more at ease if it was some kind of mechanism that would do the dirty deed for her.

But for a more reasonable explanation, working on a murder mechanism like that reminds her of her time spent working on clocks. Since clocks usually involve mechanisms, Eden would be more at ease working on something that's closer to her talents.

Truth bullet used : Hu's wires

Also, less practical reason, but still a reason nonetheless, since the culprit used some kind of wire as murder weapon, it could've been served as a way to throw in suspicions towards Hu. Even though the plan was meant to have Arei be the main suspect, it doesn't mean she couldn't throw suspicions indirectly on others as well. Besides, the more suspicions that's thrown at others, the less likely she would be caught.

Another good reason to it is because of the BDA rule. The rule states that "The Body Announcement will play when three or more people who did not witness the murder discover the body." She crafted that whole killing machine so that she would be able commit murder without witness the moment of murder.

Truth bullet used : On/Off switch for the fans

Eden simply needed to turn the switch of the fans back on and then exit the gym. She could go back to the dorm, letting the mechanism do its work and then next morning, if she goes with 2 other people to find Ace's dead body in the gym, it would trigger the BDA.

Act 10

That sounds great and all, but the murder plan failed anyways. What is even the point of all this?

Well, if everything went according to plan, it could've been a nearly perfect crime. But that didn't happen, as we all know. So what happened instead? Well, there's a simple reason why I suspect why Eden is the person responsible for the attempted murder on Ace.

Truth bullet used : Nico's motive to kill Ace

Truth bullet used : Nico caught in the act

Consider that Teruko and Eden found Nico next to Ace's that night, they're definitly involved in some shape or form. But since the murder mechanism was all of Eden's work, it would mean that Nico is the third party behind this fiasco.

While Eden was working on her murder mechanism, Nico decided that they wanted to murder Ace. The constant bullying pushed them to the edge. So they were desperatly looking for their target to commit murder.

But wait... if Nico was caught in the gym, how would they know to find Ace in here? Wouldn't they think that Ace would be sleeping at night in his dorm? Why wouldn't they look for him in the evening.

It's hard to say. I think there's honestly a lot of things that we don't know about Nico. They're quite the mystery. What we do know is that they were willing to murder Ace. We don't know their whole thought process, but they probably wanted to kill him at night since they would be less likely to be found out.

They probably tried knocking on Ace's door first, or maybe they kept a close eye to when Ace would come back to his dorm, but it never happened. So they probably eventually decided to go take a look around the building to see where he could be hiding.

But apparently, Nico never really thought about it when Veronika asked about how they envisioned killing Ace.

Maybe, but like I said, there's a lot that we don't know about Nico and from the looks of it, when Ace bullied Nico and they then replied that they would kill him, it seemed like a totally different behavior.

I don't know what's up with that, but that sinister behavior makes me believe that this is like a different form of Nico. Like a split personality, or his true self or something. We don't know for sure what it could be, but that different behavior could be what caused them to want to kill Ace at night.

My point is... because there's so much unknown about Nico, there's a vast amount of possibilities that would explain why they decided to murder Ace then and now. Moving on...

So Nico's looking around for his prey (hehe), they probably look around the first floor, but don't find him anywhere. So the only remaining option is taking the elevator to go on the second floor, he must be there after all.

Truth bullet used : Non-soundproof walls

Meanwhile, Eden suddenly hears the elevator making sounds. She realises that someone is approaching, but who and why this late at night?

Even though she completed the murder mechanism, she still wanted to clean up the crime scene a bit. Like... you know... placing the broom and stepladder back where it came from (storage room maybe), placing the discarded weight plates and moved benches back to their original position.

Unfortunatly, she can't do that, someone's coming, she needs to hide. So what does she do? She turns the switch of the fan back on, exits the gym and then hides in the dress-up room. Now, all she can do is hope and pray that whoever arrived will go back to the first floor.

But how would she not be aware that someone would arrive late at night? Wouldn't she have known that Nico probably wanted to kill Ace?

That's actually impossible. She couldn't have expected this at all.

Truth bullet used : Eden's incident in the infirmary

While the argument between Nico and Ace happened that day, Eden was busy having a private discussion with Arturo in the infirmary. She had a meeting so that she could reveal his secret and cause a potential conflict.

When Ace was threatening Nico that he would reveal their secret, at the time, Arturo, Eden and Arei was nowhere to be seen in the cafeteria, so it matches up perfectly.

So yeah... that was an unpleasant and unexpected surprise for Eden. The worst part in all of this is that when Nico reached the second floor, they actually entered the gym and that's when they discovered Ace about to be murdered by this weird mechanism.

This just became a disaster for Eden, someone found out about it too early and there's nothing she can do about it at the moment except to wait. So what does Nico do next?

Truth bullet used : On/Off switch for the fans

They turn off the fans.

What?! What would be the point of that?! He wants Ace dead, he doesn't want to save him! That doesn't make sense!

This is a golden opportunity for Nico! Think about it. They want to murder Ace, but then they see that potentially someone else already tried to murder him. It's hard to say if they knew what this whole mechanism meant, but they could see that the fan was playing a part to it.

So they probably realised : "Wait, I could turn it off and then kill him myself." That way, if the group somehow figures out the murder mechanism, they might not realise that someone else killed Ace in that moment.

But then Eden would've told the group about it. She would've been a witness and Nico would've been doomed at the trial.

Maybe, but the thing to keep in mind is that at the time, Nico didn't know that the person responsible for the murder mechanism was hiding somewhere on the second floor. After all...

Truth bullet used : Eden's sneakiness

Even though the walls are not soundproof, Eden is really sneaky, so she might've been able to hide without being noticed by Nico.

But like I said before, Nico never really thought about it when Veronika asked about how they envisioned killing Ace.

...Again with this. Like I said before, there's a lot that we don't know about Nico yet. It's precisely because he never thought about it that it makes me think that something's going on with Nico.

If Nico had something like a split personality, similar to Toko Fukawa, it would explain those oddities. Cliché'd or not, this is a fangan. So creators could definitly take inspiration from the original ones without a doubt. It would also explain why they weren't willing to share to Charles what happened there. Whether they was filled with regret or not, it's possible that they don't quite clearly remember how it went.

In any case, I refuse to elaborate further on that. I'll explain why in the finale.

Now that the fan is turned off, there are eitheir two things Nico could do : Kill Ace directly with a slightly different method, like physically strangling him or they simply turn the switch back on.

As long as they get the finishing blow, that should work.

Act 11

It's around this time that someone else joins the murder party on the second floor. We must not forget about Teruko! Based on what we saw on Episode 6, Teruko realises that she forgot her spare uniforms in the dress-up room on the second floor because she didn't want to use the same ol stinky clothes after taking a shower. So she then uses the elevator to go get her clothes on the second floor.

Eden hears footsteps, noticing that someone's approaching the dress-up room. Thinking it's the person who was in the gym, she goes : "W-who's there? I know you've been following me!"

But that was in fact Teruko who entered that room, so she replies : "What? No, I'm not. What are you talking about?"

Then Eden gets embarassed and nervous. She asks : "Oh, it's just you, Teruko. What are you doing here?" At the time, the culprit thought that it was the other person who visited the gym : Nico.

Teruko replies : "I could say the same to you. What are *you* doing here, at a time like this?" She makes a very good point. It's very suspicious of Eden to be present in here this late at night and Eden is aware of that. She's in trouble. If she doesn't come up with a valid excuse quickly, her plan will be completly ruined.

Truth bullet used : Ball of clothes

She then remembered that when she was gathering clothes to make some kind of blanket to cover Arei from the starched water, she noticed spares of Teruko's uniform. So with her quick wit, she came up with this : "Hu told me all about how MonoTV gave you both new outfits. I noticed you didn't take any of your new clothes, so I was going to deliver them to you! But I'm guessing that's also why you're here right now."

That excuse worked like a charm. Teruko believed it, as mistrusting as she may be. She was even nearly about to thank Eden for being so nice, but then remembered she needs to retain a mean and mistrusting persona.

So then they talk for a bit, they're about to go back to the first floor. Or at the very least, Teruko was about to go there first because she doesn't trust anyone else to take the elevator with her. Then all of a sudden, they hear loud noises coming from the gym. They enter the room and then we get to the scene of the attempted murder on Ace with Nico being caught in the act.

Act 12

While this whole scene between both girls happened, something else was happening back in the gym. So according to my theory, Nico turned off the fans. That wasn't just because of malicious intents by the way, there was also a logical reason behind it.

Truth bullet used : Left fan not spinning

Truth bullet used : Nico caught in the act

When Teruko and Eden discovered Ace's body while Nico was holding a piece of the wire, in that moment, the left fan wasn't working. It wouldn't make sense for the left fan to be broken like the one on the right since it was working just fine the next day.

This means that someone must've turned off the fans and the only possibility I can think of is if Nico turned them off for their own personal reasons. It just makes sense.

Anyways, as they were about plotting to murder Ace, something else happened that put a stop to their plan.

Truth bullet used : Non-soundproof walls

They heard someone using the elevator. Not only that, but they could hear Teruko and Eden talking in the dress-up room. They are now aware that there are people close by. They can't afford to do any funny business like murder if there are witnesses close by. They had no choice but to wait for them to go back to the first floor.

To make sure that they were indeed gone, they put their head against the door to listen closely to what's going on outside the fitness room.

While this was happening... yet another unexpected thing happend. Ace came back to consciousness!

That makes no sense! You have no proof of that!

You'll understand why I make that claim shortly. Be quiet and let me continue!

So let's think about Ace's point of view for a minute here. He wakes up in the fitness room. What are some of the things that he notices? Well, he sees Nico in the distance, by the door. Nico doesn't notice Ace who came back to consciousness because they were busy listening to the conversation between Teruko and Eden.

Truth bullet used : Neck wounds

Shortly afterwards, he would notice that his neck hurts. Confused, he's wondering what's going.

Truth bullet used : Eden's cables

Truth bullet used : Blood on Ace's fingers

Truth bullet used : Nico's motive to kill Ace

Truth bullet used : Ace's phobias

So Ace touches his neck and that's when he notices that there's blood. Then upon closer inspection, he realises that he's stuck with a wire wrapped around his neck. The terrifying conclusion comes to him in a flash : "Oh my god! Nico is about to freaking kill me! I don't wanna die!" This is partly why there's blood on Ace's fingers. He's having a moment of panic, but...

Truth bullet used : Non-soundproof walls

He can also hear two girls talking from outside the gym. So Ace knows that there's people around. He probably wanted to scream, but his neck probably hurt so bad that it might've been nearly impossible to speak at the moment.

So he needed to come up with another plan. What could he possibly do to get everyone's attention?

Truth bullet used : Ace working out

Truth bullet used : Piece of wire attached to fan

Truth bullet used : Other piece of wire

Truth bullet used : Blood on Ace's fingers

There's only one possible option he could do in a situation like this : brute force his way out of this death trap. So he grabs the wire from the front of his neck with both hands, tries to break that wire with all his might. While doing that, he's also pulling his body backwards.

That way, it would put stress on both the wires and the fan. So as long as eitheir breaks, that would do the trick. That would certainly explain why there spots on the wire that didn't have blood : Ace wiped them simply with his hands.

HOLD ON JUST A MINUTE! That can't be possible! You can't fully wipe blood on wires with just your hands that way. You'd need something to clean it up. Also, the position of the spots wouldn't quite realisticly match up the positions of where his hands would be and-

.........I refuse to elaborate on that. I'll explain why later in the finale.

Moving on... Fortunately for Ace, when he tried to eitheir break the wire or the fan, both happened at the same time.

Truth bullet used : Moved benches

Truth bullet used : Piece of wire attached to fan

Truth bullet used : Other piece of wire

Truth bullet used : Ripped out right fan

Truth bullet used : Ace's sitting position

Truth bullet used : Smeared blood on the wall

So what exactly happened when he succeeded in brute forcing his way out? Well, the cable break in two, which would explain both pieces of wire found. Then, the right fan would be ripped out of the ceiling, which would perfectly explain why it was found on the ground.

As the fan breaks, Ace's backwards momemtum would make him fall behind. This would result in him having a sitting position with his back against the wall. The impact of his head against the wall, would make his head move a bit, which would perfectly explain the smear on the wall.

Also, while he's falling backwards, he would also hit the right bench, which would make it topple over. That would cleanly explain why Teruko found a toppled bench during Ace's body discovery.

And of course, all of that creates a very loud noise, which got Teruko and Eden curious.

But what about Nico?

Well... they're kinda screwed. But more importantly, they're as confused as the girls outside. After all, they were busy listening to the conversation, so they have no idea what the hell just happened there.

So when they turn around, they just see this mess... They can't help but wonder what in the heavens happened here. So they approach the "crime scene" and get rather curious about the broken wire. So they grab one piece of the wire and...

Act 13

Truth bullet used : Nico caught in the act

Truth bullet used : Nico's motive to kill Ace

Truth bullet used : Hu's wires

Truth bullet used : Hu being protective of Nico

Truth bullet used : Turpentine

That's when we get the scene where Teruko and Eden finds Ace presumably dead. They also find Nico holding a piece of the wire that has blood on it. This, ladies and gentleman, is how the whole attempted murder on Ace went down in my opinion. It would perfectly explain all the clues found here.

Not only that, but that would be perfect to make us believe without a shred of a doubt that it was Nico who truly did all of that.

Why? It's simple! Teruko catches Nico in the act, so that's already very suspicious. We also know that they wanted to have a painting session with Rose, so it's very easy to believe that Nico might've stolen the turpentine to knock Ace unconscious.

Then, we see that the murder weapon looks like some kind of wire. What do we know about wires? According to the list of custom weapons, Hu's weapon are wires.

Add that to the fact that she's trying to protect Nico from all the bullying like an overprotective mother, we get the following result : Nico really wanted to kill Ace and Hu wanted to help, so Hu became the accomplice by giving them wires.

Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to believe that all of this is just a giant red herring?! A devil trick pulled by the DRDT creator themselves! If that's truly what happened, then I can't help but applaud the creator for coming up with such an elaborate mystery.

Another thing to take note : Eden is really surprised and confused upon seeing the chaotic mess. Her whole mechanical creation broken apart. She couldn't but utter those words : "AHHHHHHH! Wh...What?? What is this??"

Also, Eden notices something else that's entirely wrong : she knows that Ace is not dead.

Huh? How come?!

Think about it. The reason why she made this murder mechanism is to be able to count as a person for the BDA rule since she didn't need to be in the gym for the murder to happen. So when they came across this whole mess, there were at least 3 alive people : Teruko, Eden and Nico. If Ace was truly dead, the BDA would've triggered by now, but that's not what happened.

So Eden knew that her whole murder attempt on Ace failed. Her whole plan failed.

Anyways, Teruko shouts at Nico, they run away and leave the crime scene. So what about Ace? Well...

Act 14

Ace is supposed to be back to consciousness, yet at the time, he's presumably. Well... it's more accurate to say that we were led to believe that he's unconscious. So what's up with that?

There's two options. He eitheir hit his head so hard against the wall that he lost consciousness again. It's a funny theory to think about, but I seriously don't think that's what happened.

So that means it's most likely the other option : Ace pretended to be dead/unconscious.

That's just insane! Why would Ace do that?!

Well, initially, I think it was to fool Nico. Since Ace was absolutely that he was the murderer, he didn't know what to expect of them. So by pretending to be unconscious still, Nico would turn around to see the mess and they would probably not immediatly suspect that this was caused by Ace. It would make sense since they were seen holding a piece of wire, probably wondering what the hell happened.

Well, Nico's gone though. Couldn't he have dropped the act?

He probably could've, but there was something that made him not want to reveal it.

Truth bullet used : Ace acting tough

By that, I don't mean that he's pretending to be dead because he wants to act tough. That wouldn't make sense. I'm referring to the argument scene with Levi way back in Episode 2. He had a change of behavior since then and he even stated that he would rely on himself alone.

In simpler terms, he's practically acting like Teruko : not trusting anyone and working on his own. In essence, when Teruko does that, it really does make her look tough. Maybe Ace took a little bit of inspiration from it, who knows?

Wouldn't it make more sense to reveal to the girls what truly happened? That would make him look like a tough badass!

Maybe, but remember, he doesn't trust anyone else anymore and wants to work on his own. So by pretending to be dead at the time, no one would realise what truly transpired in the fitness room. So by doing that, he's hiding secrets from others, kind of like hiding the real strength of his hand in poker by making it look weak. That's also why Ace refuses to share anything to Charles about what happened in the gym. Moving on...

Teruko proceeds with the investigation while Eden is busy crying over this "body discovery".

What is Eden truly plotting here? It's simple. She's trying to think of an plan B and quick. After all, like I mentioned in the whydunnit, she really wants to get out of here, so she needs to murder someone.

On top of that, Arei is still stuck inside the relaxation room. If no murder happens real soon, things would look pretty bad for Eden. But then, she realised something... Arei is still trapped inside the relaxation room. This is the perfect opportunity.

As long as Arei is trapped in here, she could proceed to kill her next morning at the earliest time. She would rather not do it, but she has no choice, especially if she wants to complete her goal of exiting this killing game. This is the only remaining move possible. It's all or nothing!

So by the time Teruko finishes the investigation, Eden finally comes up with a proper plan B for the murder scheme. For that to work, she needed something in that gym.

Truth bullet used : Roll of grippy tape

So Eden tells Teruko : "Okay, I'm ready. I'm okay. Am I needed, Teruko? Let me help investigate." She would then proceed to "investigate" the crime scene when in reality, she's trying to grab the roll of tape while she's distracted.

The distraction happens around the time where Teruko approaches Ace's body to inspect it more closely.

This is bad for Ace for two reasons. One, she would notice that Ace is still alive which we do notice her reaction in Episode 6. Two, she would notice the blood on his fingers/hands. If she were to notice that, it would help her get closer to learning the truth about what happened here and that's not what Ace wants at all.

That's why he comes up with potentially the best bluff I've ever seen.

Act 15

Truth bullet used : Ace acting tough

Truth bullet used : Blood on Ace's fingers

Truth bullet used : Neck wounds

Ace decides that now's the best time to pretend to wake up to consciousness and make this hilariously loud shout to showcase that he's not dead. Here's something really interesting about this pose however.

Look at his hands. He put his left hand on his neck wounds while he's clenching his right hand. What do they both have in common? Well, it's meant to hide the fact that there was blood on his fingers beforehand, of course! The same thing happens later on.

Ace now placed his right hand on his neck wounds, covering his hand with blood to make it look like the blood on his hands originally came from touching his wounds at the moment, not before.

So by putting on this act, Ace was able to disguise his bloody hands which hides the truth behind what may have truly happened while also putting on this tough guy act. Neitheir Teruko or Eden would suspect a thing.

And of course, this would also explain why Ace is so insistent on believing that Nico tried to kill him : He saw them with his own eyes. Anyone in Ace's shoes would believe the same thing.

Truth bullet created : Ace's actions in the gym

So later on, Ace tries to chase after Nico back to their dorm. MonoTV kicks Eden and Teruko out of the gym and locks it. Then they back to the first floor to follow Ace. Then there's the scene with Teruko, Eden, Ace and Levi involved. Ace claims that he doesn't need help because he doesn't trust the others and wants to act tough and on his own.

Ace goes back to his dorm, Levi goes back to his dorm and Teruko doesn't care about Ace's condition, so she goes back to her dorm. What about Eden? Well... it's time for plan B!

Act 16

Now that everyone went back to bed. Eden shouldn't have to worry about any other surprises, so late night of DAY 2 should be the perfect time to set up the second murder mechanism among other things. There was yet again a lot of work to do. But that's fine, she mentioned in the prologue that she can work on something for many hours without taking a break.

She had two main goals in mind to make her whole murder scheme work.

Create a murder mechanism at a different location so that the mechanism would do the dirty deed for her. The best possible location for this would be the playground.

Create a perfect alibi so that no one would suspect her. For that to work, she would need to disguise the actual time of death so that people would presume the victim died at a later died, which would be a time where the culprit would have an alibi.

So while Arei is still trapped inside the relaxation room, Eden could work on gathering the materials to make a nearly perfect disguise and make the necessary preparations for the murder mechanism in the playground. Let's start with gathering the materials for the disguise.

Why would Eden need to make a disguise?

It's simple. What would be the best way to make it look like Arei was still alive on DAY 3? By having someone disguised practically like her and being present in a place where there's multiple people for a short period of time.

But she looks nothing like Arei! That's impossible!

We have a lot of clues that could make it possible, as unbelievable as it may sound.

Truth bullet used : Wigs

Truth bullet used : Make-up kit

Truth bullet used : Eden's sneakiness

First, she stealthily entered Arei's dorm (she probably had Arei's monopad or whatever it was to unlock that door) to take a look at her spare uniforms. Upon closer inspection, she notices that there's a small problem : there are no spare gloves. It would appear that this is a unique kind of accessory for Arei, so she's gonna have no choice but to take it from Arei's body after killing her.

Truth bullet created : Arei's spare uniform

Next up, she would go to the second floor to grab a certain wig and the make-up kit in the dress-up room. There's this blue wig that looks like Arei's hairstyle, so that should do the trick. Once it's been gathered, she temporarily placed them in Arei's dorm. Most of the disguise materials were collected, time for the next step.

Act 17

It was time to gather the materials for the second murder mechanism.

Truth bullet used : Roll of grippy tape

Truth bullet used : Long rope under carousel

Truth bullet used : Rope attached to Arei's neck

Truth bullet used : Empty jugs with broken handles

Eden already had the roll of grippy tape with her, so we don't have to worry about that. She first grabbed the water jugs that probably came from the fridge. Of course, the handles weren't broken at the time.

And finally, she took the rope that belonged to Arei, but was sent to the storage room. I don't know if there were two ropes or only one very long rope. But if there was only one, then Eden must've used a knife in the kitchen to cut it in two. That was necessary to make her murder mechanism work. That would explain the two ropes found in the playground on Episode 8.

Truth bullet created : Water jugs

Now that this was all gathered, she then needed to move them to the playground to start building that murder machinery.

Truth bullet used : Roll of grippy tape

Truth bullet used : Long rope under carousel

Truth bullet used : Broken ceiling light

Once she arrived at the playground, Eden first needed to throw that rope above this metal railing by the ceiling, whatever it's called. She wanted to create a pulley system, so that step was important.

The culprit picked the longer rope of the two, then she put the rope through the roll of tape, tied it up and then threw it upwards as hard as possible.

It's two floors high, Eden's not strong enough to throw it up there!

She may be weak, but she can definitly pull that task. There's a specific reason why I believe the culprit used the roll of tape. It'd be incredibly light and it has a handle, which makes it really easy to chuck it high up in the air.

Even if she doesn't succeed the first, she had plenty time to keep trying until she succeeded. Eventually, she would succeed, but she would accidently hit the lights which would break it in the process.

The weight of the tape is probably not enough to break it.

We don't know that for sure. Besides, if I recall, MonoTV mentioned that the lights were flickering, which can simply be caused by a misplaced light bulb. So it could very well do the trick with enough speed. But in case you think that's not enough, I'll go ahead and say that I refuse to elaborate further on that matter, I'll explain why in the finale. Moving on...

Truth bullet used : Roll of grippy tape

Truth bullet used : Carousel wrapped with tape

Next up, the culprit wrapped the bars of the spinny thing with tape. The reason why was because the carousel was essential for the pulley system. She needed to spin it to raise the rope among other things

At the moment, the bars are pretty slippery, so she needed something applied to the bars so that she wouldn't the grip. Hence, the grippy tape.

Well, that's impossible! The roll of tape by itself wouldn't be enough to cover all the bars of that carousel. Where would she get more of that tape?!

Eden didn't need more tape, that was all that she needed to wrap all those bars.

Now, you're just being delusional! It can't cover all the bars with that alone!

Heh! Are you sure about that? I know that most of you are under the impression that the bars of the spinny thing must be wrapped up horizontally, kind of like putting tape on a tennis racket's handle.

By thinking outside the box, there's actually a way to explain this issue. It's very simple once you realise it. The culprit wrapped the bars vertically!

By that, I mean that she starts applying the tape from the top of the bar and then drags it straight down. Once it reaches the bottom, she just needs to cut the tape and then the extra width of the tape will go around the carousel bar. That way, Eden can save a lot of tape and would have plenty with that roll of tape.

The bars seem fairly large though. I doubt it would be enough to cover the bar with only one length of tape.

Hard to say. But if that's truly a problem, you can easily fix it by using a second length of tape on that same bar. So each bar would have 2 lengths of tape.

And if that somehow makes you think that there wouldn't be enough tape by doing it that way, then there's nothing else I can do to please you. I refuse to elaborate further on that. I will explain why in the finale. Moving on...

Truth bullet used : Water jugs

Truth bullet used : Long rope under carousel

It's not time to attach that rope to the appropriate items. On one end, she would tie both water jugs together in such a way that it would be hanging from the handles. At the other end of that rope, Eden makes a noose around one of the bars of the carousel.

She then tests out the pulley system to see if it actually works. If the pulley system doesn't properly work from simply tying up the rope to one of the bars, then there's an alternative. As @1moreff-creator suggested in the past, you just weave the rope through some of the handlebars and that should do the trick.

Truth bullet created : Pulley system

And with that, the preparations for the second murder mechanism would be complete at the moment. There are a few remaining steps, but she can't do it without the body, so she'll have to wait next morning.

Act 18

While Eden is waiting for the door of the relaxation room to unlock at 8:00 AM, there were a few things that she could do. Those are not necessarily things that she did, but could've happened to make sure the plan was perfect.

Truth bullet used : Wigs

Truth bullet used : Make-up kit

Truth bullet used : Arei's spare uniform

Truth bullet used : Needle with black string attached

Of course, she didn't put on the disguise at night even though that would technicly save time. The reason why is because if Eden proceeded to disguise herself into Arei at night, waited for the doors to unlock next morning, murder her, then hide back the body, it would take so much physical efforts out of her that she would be sweating. This would ruin the disguise.

So instead, she tested out the products to make sure that they worked perfectly. For the wig, the culprit could try to readjust the hair so that it would look a lot more like Arei's hairstyle.

Then, for the make-up kit, she would find the right materials to change her skin tone so that it would match Arei's. She probably puts it on her hand or wrist and tries out various combinations until she finds the perfect color. Once she's done with that, she can simply wash it away for the time being. Oh, also, she would take the time to find proper contacts to match Arei's eye colors as well.

Next up would be the uniform. She tried it on to make sure it would fit perfectly. Eden probably knows that she's a bit smaller than Arei, so there could be some differences. She cannot recreate Arei's height, that would be impossible. It's not like Arei is wearing high heels anyways.

If the disguise is not quite perfect, she could probably try to readjust it somehow with a needle and a few basic sewing skills. I'm no expert in this, and it's unsure if Eden truly did that anyways. What matters is that there was the option available before her if needed.

Now that she's fully prepared for the murder scheme, it was time for the culprit to wait in front of the relaxation room until the door unlocks.

Act 19

It is now 8:00 AM of DAY 3, it's time to retrieve the body!

As the door of the relax room unlocks, Eden would proceed to grab Arei's body and drag it to the playground. The turf would probably be dry by now. Otherwise, why would MonoTV allow others to enter that room this early and potentially make a mess if the ground happened to still be wet and gross?

There's no way Arei would still be unconscious for such a long time. Ace woke up in fewer hours than the time it took for the culprit to wait for the doors of the relax room to open.

Ace woke up earlier because of the neck wounds, most likely. We don't really know how effective or potent this turpentine actually is. But based on my deductions, it would make a lot more sense to believe that Arei was unconscious this whole time.

Otherwise, she would have starch all over her if she woke up at night and wandered around that room. For all we know, maybe she was about to come back to consciousness very soon that morning. Maybe the culprit brought the turpentine with her just in case to make sure she remains unconscious. With that said, I refuse to elaborate further on that. I'll explain why in the finale.

Anyways, now that the culprit brought the body back to the playground, she now had access to the missing piece to complete the perfect disguise.

Truth bullet used : Arei's missing glove

It appears to be unique. So Eden took it off Arei's hand and stored it somewhere safe... like her pouch that's around her belt. That would perfectly explain why the victim's glove was missing during the investigation in Episode 8.

Act 20

The final preparations are complete, it's now time for murder! Eden needed to place the body at the right position along with a few remaining props.

Truth bullet used : Roll of grippy tape

Truth bullet used : Rope attached to Arei's neck

Truth bullet used : Red marks on Arei's wrists

Truth bullet used : Scrunched up tape

Truth bullet used : Scuffed ground

Considering the red marks on Arei's wrists when she was found dead alongside the scrunched up tape found in the trash, the obvious logical conclusion we can get out of this is that her wrists were tied up with the grippy tape. The real question though is for what purpose did she do that?

According to my theory, the victim would still be unconscious, so there's no point in tying her wrists to make sure she doesn't escape or fight back or whatever. So by thinking outside the box, I've concluded that the culprit did it because it was a necessary step for the murder scheme.

Then you have to consider the scuffed marks that was found on the ground of the playground in a specific location. It couldn't have been from a fight or struggle since Arei should've been unconscious, so something else should've happened. That's when I came up with this brilliant idea.

For reference, the scuffed marks were found a few feet away from the seasaw (Don't mind the drawing). Also, the yellow stickman where we can't see the legs represents the victim : Arei. The green scribbles represent the other piece of rope, the one that's not as long as the one used for the pulley, but still somewhat long. The subtle grey scribbles by the seasaw and the yellow man's hands represents the grippy tape applied to Arei's wrists.

So here's how it's supposed to work. First, Eden brings the body close by the seasaw and then place Arei's arms between both poles (supports) of the seasaw. Next up, she would bind tightly the victim's wrists together with the grippy tape so that the body wouldn't be able to easily move away from the seasaw through a forceful pulling motion.

Then, she would use the other rope to make a noose around Arei's neck. However, she wouldn't tie the other end of the rope to the spinny thing just yet, she will do that later. For now, she placed that end of the rope as close to the carousel as possible.

I still don't see how that would create scuffed marks to the ground...

That's because I haven't shown you the magic trick yet! Let's continue!

Truth bullet used : Pulley system

Now that the other rope was set up, it was now time to use the pulley system she created last night. First, the culprit spins the carousel in the rotation (let's say clockwise) that would pull the water jugs (that are hanging by the other rope of that rope) upwards. She would pull as much as she possibly can. Then once the water jugs reach the maximum height, it was time for the next step.

Truth bullet used : Rope attached to Arei's neck

The culprit needed her hands to tie the other rope that was close by her with the spinny thing's handlebar. Of course, there's a bit of weight from the water jugs, so she couldn't simply let go of the pulley. Therefore, she must've been holding the carousel with one or both legs. If tying the rope with one of the handlebars wasn't enough, Eden could've also weaved through a few of them like before.

Now, here comes to most exciting part, the "tada!" of the murder trick! She takes out her leg(s) from the spinny thing, she holds it again with her hands and then... she spins it counterclockwise as hard and as fast as possible!

That way, the water jugs would fall down pretty fast, especially if the spinny were to cause resistence of friction (making it fall slowly if it was the culprit only released). So they would fall fast, while the other rope would wind up along the carousel up until that rope reaches the limit.

As the rope reaches the limit... SNAP!

Truth bullet used : Arei's broken neck

Truth bullet used : Empty jugs with broken handles

Truth bullet used : Scuffed ground

So what happened in that moment? Well, Arei's dead. It breaks Arei's neck because of the immediate stop of the rope attached to her neck which was also pulled in by spinny thing in a pretty fast rate. This is the mainly reason why her wrists were bound. Otherwise, her whole body would've been dragged towards the carousel, which wouldn't really guarantee a killing blow.

But since the victim's wrists were stuck around the seasaw, it wouldn't move much... except for her lower body. It created a knee jerk movement reaction of her legs because of that violent pulling motion. Because of that, this would scrape the ground, which would cause the scuffed marks on the ground.

Hold on! Would it actually be enough to explain ALL these scuffed marks on the ground?

Maybe, maybe not. At the very least, the culprit could've simply created more marks on the ground to make it look more like it came from a struggle. That wouldn't be a problem at all since it's very easy to do damage the ground purposefully.

Anyways, that wouldn't be the only thing that would break. There's also the water jugs! As the rope holding Arei's neck would come to an abrupt stop, it would also make an abrupt stop to the longer rope used for the pulley system which is also what was holding the jugs by the handles. The violent motion would make the rope cut through these flimsy plastic handles, which the jugs would then fall to the ground and spill all over the playground.

The water spill is no issue at all whatsoever and was already planned by the culprit because she knew beforehand that the wet ground would dry up fairly quickly because of the fans at the ceiling.

And there you go! This... is how the actual murder happened... in my opinion. That would explain a lot of clues found perfectly, wouldn't it?

Anyways, Eden's nowhere done yet. That would only her first goal achieved : create a murder mechanism at a different location so that the mechanism would do the dirty deed for her.

Next up, it was time to create a perfect alibi so that no one would suspect her. There was still a lot of work to do.

Act 21

She had a disguise trick to do, but before doing that, she needed to get rid of a couple pieces of evidence. The main issue however is that because she had no choice but to murder Arei past 8:00 AM, someone could wake up very soon if they haven't done so already. But Eden couldn't leave all that evidence behind, especially the body. So whatever she needed to get rid of or hide, it needed to be done really fast. So anything that wasn't too essential in hiding could help her save time. So here's what she did...

Truth bullet used : Scrunched up tape

Truth bullet used : Red marks on Arei's wrists

Truth bullet used : Long rope under carousel

Truth bullet used : Eden's letter

Truth bullet used : Torn-up note

Truth bullet used : Empty jugs with broken handles

Truth bullet used : Needle with black string attached

Eden took off the tape that kept the victim's wrists bound. Even though it leaves red marks which would make it fairly easy to deduce for the others to figure out that she was bound, she had no choice but to remove that tap if she wanted to move that body and hide it.

She untied both ropes that had a noose on the spinny thing. She then pulled the longer rope used for the pulley system and then put all that rope under the carousel. She left the tape stuck on the handlebars, it would take too long and there was not enough time.

Next up, Eden's letter. It's hard to say if the culprit truly made that letter as a mean to lure Arei into the playground earlier in the evening of DAY 2 and then knock her unconscious or if she simply made up that whole message at nighttime instead for the whole purpose of fabricating a perfect alibi.

Whichever it is, the culprit needed to tear up that note and throw it in the trash can. She didn't want to downright get rid of it. She wanted the others to find out about it sometime during the investigation. It was a necessary step of her plan to both make her alibi look more credible and also make herself look the least suspicious.

She also threw away the tape that was bound to Arei's wrists previously (which would now be scrunched up), the empty jugs and that needle to the trash. She no longer needed them and it wouldn't make it as easy to figure out the crime if the jugs were separated from the playground. Of course, she couldn't bring those jugs with her and get rid of them completly in case that she ends up running into someone back on the first floor.

Truth bullet used : Rope attached to Arei's neck

Truth bullet used : Ball of clothes

Later on, Eden would drag the body away from the playground to then hide it in the relaxation room. She knew a decent spot to hide the body. She didn't undo the rope attached to the victim's neck since it was unnecessary.

People would know that her cause of death has to be related to the rope. It was also a waste of time, so not doing anything about it would save time which is exactly what the culprit needs. Also, she probably put the blanket of old clothes above the dead body to hide it better.

Ridiculous! Where would Eden even hide the body?

Truth bullet used : Box of incense

If I had to guess... probably somewhere behind those blue curtains. Preferably close by the box of incense. This spot appears to be further away from where most of the people would be relaxing. Most people would relax where there's the yoga mats and pillows. So that spot by the box of incense wouldn't be as obvious. Besides, there was another reason behind it.

Considering that the culprit is hiding it to fabricate their alibi, it would mean that the corpse would be here for a full day possibly. Wouldn't it mean that the body would decompose and create a noticeable smell?

It's honestly hard to say. I have sources that tells me that it doesn't go through that stage of body decomposition after 24 hours, it's usually more than that. But it also depends on various conditions. We don't know eitheir if the creator took that into account at all. But whether or not it was intended, I have an idea that would suggest that Eden planned ahead and used something in the relaxation room to make her alibi even stronger.

That's just utter nonsense! There's no such thing!

That's where you're wrong!

Truth bullet used : Incense sticks

The culprit used the incense sticks to create a natural timer mechanism!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!

Do you remember what I've said about these incense sticks before act 6? "Burning a whole stick can take up to an hour, but the lingering smell can last for multiple hours." That wasn't made up. That was something that I found out with a simple google search.

So let's rewind the story back to DAY 1. MonoTV announces that they have access to the 2nd floor. Teruko proceeds to investigate and finds out interesting facts about each room. It's very possible that Eden was also investigating at a different time period that day.

That would explain how she was able to come up with such complex and ingenius murder schemes according to my theory.

Culprit complimentations aside, she learned things about the relaxation room and probably noticed the smell of the incense sticks. Because we had a timeskip due to Teruko isolating herself to her dorm most of DAY 1, it's possible that Eden came back to the relaxation room later in the evening and noticed that the smell of the incense sticks disappeared. She would then have a rough idea of how long this incense smell lasts.

Now fast forward to the night of DAY 2, after the attempted murder on Ace failed. When she was plotting a new murder plan and figured out her only remaining option was killing Arei, she would remember the time of the lingering smell of said incense sticks. She would use that seemingly minor detail to her advantage.

Why does it matter having a timer?! That doesn't make sense!

It all has to do with her second goal : creating the perfect alibi. She didn't just want to hide the body for an unknown period of time, she wanted someone to find the body at some point while she's busy building her alibi with someone else.

So by using the incense sticks as a timer mechanism, she would just need to wait for someone to spend time in the relaxation room sometime in the evening. That person would eitheir notice a weird smell (of the corpse decomposing) or a lack of incense sticks smell and they would approach the box of incense to eitheir burn new sticks or to follow the source of the weird smell.

And that's how it works!

Act 22

Now that Eden cleaned up most of the important clues, she then went back to the first floor, back to Arei's dorm.

Truth bullet used : Eden's sneakiness

As long as she's sneaky enough and waits for the right time, I'm sure she would be able to enter Arei's dorm without being noticed. And then she would spend a couple hours putting on the make up and the disguise. Well actually... maybe she took a shower first.

You don't have a single shred of proof that any of this happened! Your theory just doesn't work!

If that was the case, then why does my theory line up perfectly with most of the clues found. But more importantly, why does it line up perfectly with what happened to Teruko in the morning of DAY 3?

Teruko overslept at the most convenient time for someone like Eden to commit murder around the morning of DAY 3 while also setting up her disguise.

This also lines up perfectly with what's happening afterwards. Teruko wakes, decides to go to the cafeteria during lunchtime. She finds a group of people there. Ace is having an argument with Nico because he's pretty sure that Nico tried to kill him, which is understandable. The others have their eyes on that heated argument and then...

Truth bullet used : Wigs

Truth bullet used : Make-up kit

Truth bullet used : Arei's spare uniform

Truth bullet used : Arei's missing glove

That's all you get from Arei and you don't see her anytime afterwards up until the BDA. Not only that, but she doesn't say a single thing, she's staying quiet. There's no way you can't find that suspicious in any way. Having Eden pull off a disguise trick would explain it perfectly!

Truth bullet created : Eden's disguise trick

This can't work! Teruko was staring at Arei, she would've noticed something strange about her!

Nope, she wouldn't. It's heavily implied that Teruko has prosopagnosia. This defines as having the inability of recognizing faces. She can only recognize people with their hair, eye color, skin tone. At least, that's what it seems to be when she's having a chat with Veronika in the movie screening room in Episode 7, in the evening of DAY 3. Therefore, she couldn't have recognised that something's off about her.

Anyone else who was in the cafeteria would've noticed something strange about her!

Aside from the fact that she's being quiet, not really. Why? It's simple.

Truth bullet used : Ace acting tough

Truth bullet used : Hu being protective of Nico

The constant bullying and arguing that Ace is doing towards Nico is causing a big distraction within the cafeteria. Hu was also busy defending Nico, which also plays a part in the distraction. Also, Ace is doing this because he's trying to show how much of a badass he is, despite being nearly killed. He's not holding back.

Well, Rose would've noticed! She saw her at lunch and she has a photographic memory!

Maybe, maybe not. Granted, she did see her, but we don't know for sure if she truly saw something off. After all, she tends to be absent-minded. It is possible that in future episodes, she will remember something that was a little different about Arei thanks to her photographic memory. We shouldn't fully deny the disguise trick just because of a potential witness.

Even then, it would be ridiculously risky! What if someone wanted to talk to her? The wig's light blue, not blue like Arei's hair! Is Eden even good at using make-up? I don't think she'd be able to replicate a good skin tone. And there's also that bowling pin, it's an accessory, shouldn't it be unique like the glove? What about-

Enough! ...I refuse to elaborate further on that matter. You'll understand why later in the finale. What matters for now is that I found a way to explain how the disguise trick could work and fit in with most of the clues.

Act 23

Now that the disguise trick is completed, what happens next? Well, now that the hardest part of the plan is done, she no longer needs to stick around as Arei, so she probably goes back to her actual dorm when no one's around.

Next up to the plan would be to create her alibi, but she only needs to do that from evening to night. So for the time being, Eden can take a good, hot shower and take a good nap. She did a good job, she deserved it! Let's go Eden! (We're proud of you!)

While it's not evening yet, let's take a look at two other characters who had some pretty big events happening to them yesterday. Let's start with Ace! He... had a very terrifying and traumatic experience last night, that's for sure.

Truth bullet used : Ace's phobias

I mean... He's afraid of a lot of things. Death is especially one of them. So there's no doubt in my mind that this scared the crap out of him. I'd like to believe that when he was arguing with Levi, Teruko and Eden last night sometime after the murder attempt, when he went back to his dorm, he probably shattered.

He was probably shaking at the thought that he honestly seriously died. Not only that, but it was Nico, of all people, who tried to kll him (according to him, of course). Nico, the person that he bullied constantly because they were inferior to him was able to pull that off? He has a weak mental fortitude, so for him to not break down at all anytime we see him after the attempted murder just seems suspicious to me.

Truth bullet used : Ace acting tough

Of course, he's trying to act tough, he doesn't want to show it. Or maybe he wants to be in control of his emotions or whatever. Which, it kinda makes sense, but... there's only so much you can manage mentally. As much as he tries to put on a tough guy act, eventually, the phobias will get to you, the old habits will come back.

Of course, you can improve those kind of issues to the point where it barely becomes a major issue anymore, but these kind of things take time. But of course, that's just my perception and assumption of things. What matters is that there's the possibility that this near death experience affected him a lot more than it seems which will be important later.

As for the other person... let's talk about David for a bit.

Truth bullet used : David's plan

He didn't have an experience as traumatic as Ace, but something happened that messed up with his manipulative plan : Arei knows about his secret and his plan. Well, she doesn't quite know precisely about David's intents regarding the plan of sharing secrets, but she knew something was off and wanted to make sure that there was no ill intent behind it.

Regardless, learning that someone else found out about his secret and their suspicious plan gives a pretty bad taste in his mouth. Not only that, but if his murder instigating plan succeeds, if the victim was someone else than Arei, she could've called him out on it, which would ruin his whole plan.

David is probably constantly thinking about that. He's realising that he's in a very bad spot right now. If no murder happens in the next days, then his secret would be exposed still. So no matter which will it'll go, he's always gonna have his secret exposed. David is literally screwed. That's why he's not in a good mood as shown in the evening of DAY 3.

So what does he do for the afternoon? Nothing much, really. He's probably pondering about a lot of negative things, thinking how miserable he is or something. In any case, he needs some time to be alone.

Act 24

We are now approaching the evening of DAY 3, what happens next?

Let's start with the obvious. Eden wakes up from her nice nap and proceeds to meet up with Hu to spend time with her for the evening. This is pretty much confirmed ever since Chapter 2 Episode 10 when Hu explained her alibi with Eden. According to my theory, that would be part of the culprit's plan to fabricate the perfect alibi.

Next up is Ace. Under normal circumstances, he would've spent the evening working out in the fitness room. However, because of that horrifying near death experience, he didn't want to bother with that at all and he doesn't trust anyone else. So he figured that the best thing to do was isolating himself in his dorm for the night.

But his eating disorder would've compel him to work out in the gym anyways!

Maybe, maybe not. There's no way to tell if the creator really intended for that to happen. So eitheir option would be possible, but the one that would make the most sense is if he stayed in his room. It would match up perfectly with my theory alongside a few other events I haven't explained yet. As long as my method is possible and makes sense, it should do.

And finally, we have David. His plan became a mess, he's in a bad mood. He doesn't know what to do. In any case, he somehow decides to go to the kitchen in the evening.

Why's that? Unsure, there must've been some reason, or maybe there wasn't. Maybe he just wanted to wander in the kitchen. Or maybe he thought he was gonna be able to spend time alone in kitchen, but he didn't think there would be people here at that time. Who knows?

What matters is the following...

Whit suggests to David to chill in the relaxation room, which is exactly what he does. This would conveniently line up well with Eden's plan.

Act 25

At this point during the evening of DAY 3, sometime before 10:00 AM, we only need to focus on David. So upon entering the relaxation room to... you know... relax, David notices at some point something that's off with that room.

Truth bullet used : Incense sticks

There's no longer a lingering smell of a burning incense stick (or maybe it was the weird smell from the corpse).

Truth bullet used : Box of incense

So he approaches the box of incense and then he notices something different about the blue curtains. There's something there! So David removes anything that was in the way and that's when he discovers the dead body of Arei.

David is the first person to discover the victim's corpse.

I object to that! Nico was feeding the fishes earlier that evening. Shouldn't they have noticed something odd about the smell?

Not if the lingering smell of the incense sticks was still there at the time. They wouldn't have noticed if the smell is the same as usual.

The lingering smell of the incense stopped sometime between Nico's visit and David's visit to the relax room. That was a pretty convenient timing, but it makes sense.

Now, we gotta wonder how David reacted to it. He was obviously surprised and shocked. It's hard to say if he felt happy, angry or sad about for one particular reason.

Truth bullet used : David's plan

Earlier, his plan was ruined because Arei knew about most of it. The only way he could make sure that he gets away with his secret hidden would be to have Arei dead. This... is exactly what happened. Arei's been murdered. His secret is now safe again.

Maybe he had a mix of many emotions. His plan was no longer ruined after all. There was a problem however : if he leaves things as is and the group later finds the body, David would become a prime suspect and they would force their way to find out about David's secret.

Not only that, but if they seriously suspect that he's the killer, then he, alongside the others, would lose the class trial and die. David's in big trouble.

Uh... why would David care about the trial? In chapter 1, after the execution, he commented that everyone's gonna die.

Truth bullet used : David's plan

Oh, he does care about death for sure. His whole plan was creating conflicts with others through sharing secrets in the attempt of instigating a murder.

If he didn't care about death or the trial, why wouldn't he simply kill someone instead. There's only one possible explanation : he doesn't want to die. He wanted someone else to do the dirty deed so that he would both have his secret and safe and live to see another day. He tried to kill two birds with one stone.

So anyways, David finds the body, he's shocked and confused. He needs some time to take in what happened. Actually, what happened to the body? He surely doesn't know aside that she's been murdered, of course. Was it a dream? No, it's very real, Arei's dead.

So what did he do afterwards? Well, he probably started doing his own investigation, to try to process how this happened.

Truth bullet used : Rope attached to Arei's neck

Truth bullet used : Arei's broken neck

Truth bullet used : Red marks on Arei's wrists

Truth bullet used : Arei's missing glove

Truth bullet used : Ball of clothes

As far as he's aware, Arei's neck is broken, which must have something to do with the rope, but it doesn't seem like the relaxation room would be the right place to pull that off. Otherwise, it wouldn't be hidden here. Maybe he notices the red marks as well, but doesn't quite know what to make of it. Same thing for the missing glove. It's really hard to say if he actually paid attention to it.

And there's the blanket of Hu and Teruko's old clothes that are used to hide and cover the body. Aside from hiding the body, is there even any other uses for it? He doesn't know the answer to it. Eitheir way, he at least knows that this murder couldn't have happened here, so it was time to look at the other rooms.

He didn't have to look too hard to find out where the crime actually took place. He simply needed to go to the nearest room : the playground.

Truth bullet used : Scuffed ground

Truth bullet used : Carousel wrapped with tape

Truth bullet used : Long rope under carousel

The scuffed ground is the first thing David would probably notice. He's probably wondering if there was a struggle happening here. If so, then whoever killed her must be someone pretty strong. Or maybe it's a trick? After all, he remembers that in the first trial, they've been easily fooled into thinking that Teruko was the murderer. So he can't jump to conclusions just yet.

Next up, he finds something strange with the spinny thing. There's some under there and the handlebars are wrapped up with some kind of tape. What does that even mean? He has frankly no idea.

Also, one thing that I need to point out regarding what David might've done investigation wise... Aside from it being a big assumption, it's possible that he didn't do much of that. At the very least, he was probably trying to figure out where the crime actually took place.

Whether he actually put some kind of efforts into investigating or not, there was still another problem that he needed to deal with quickly...

Act 26

Truth bullet used : Relax room's nighttime features

The relax room is about to close soon. This is bad for David because if he doesn't move the dead body, it will remain locked inside that room for the whole night and early morning. Then someone would definitly discover her corpse next morning, which would get him in big trouble since it would lead to having his secret exposed.

There was no time to waste. He needed to get that corpse out of here and that's what he exactly did. David dragged the corpse back to the playground. Now, he needed to figure out what he could do to indirectly help the group with the investigation.

He must've imagined that her cause of death must be from something like hanging. So he decided to hang her at the swingset. He couldn't quite exactly figure out how it was done, but that's all he could think of. As long as they don't think that it was hidden in the relaxation room to begin with, then he wouldn't be suspected.

But then he realised another problem : How will the others know when she died? If things are left out as is, they might think she was eitheir murdered at night or very early in the morning? There's a lot of possible time of deaths which would stray the group further away from the truth. In David's mind, he's pretty sure she must've been killed sometime in the evening, before he entered that room.

Why would he believe that this was the only possible time of death?

Truth bullet used : Eden's disguise trick

Even though we know, according to my theory, that Eden used a disguise trick to hide Arei's real time of death, the others don't know about it. David saw Arei alive at lunchtime, which means that she was definitly killed sometime after according to his logic. He probably figured it wasn't in the afternoon since it would be much easier for the killer to run into potential witnesses, so the evening was the only option.

Wouldn't David deduce that Nico might be the prime suspect? They were feeding the fishes sometime before David entered that room. Nico saw David use the elevator.

He might've been seen by Nico, but it doesn't mean the opposite applies. It's very likely possible that when David used the elevator, he never saw anyone passing through because Nico had already gone out a while ago. Nico probably noticed David when they were roaming around the first floor.

In any case, he needed to figure what he could do to make the others follow the "right path" into deducing that the crime happened sometime around the evening. David couldn't directly tell them, as ridiculous as it may sound. Remember, he doesn't want his secret to be found out. If he told the group about the actual time of death, they would start questioning him.

They'd be like : "How do you know that she died at that time?" That'd just make him become suspicious no matter what he tries to come up with. Because of that suspicious, they would then press on David which would lead to uncovering his secret.

So what could he possibly do to help them without directly telling them about the "right" time of death? That's when he came up with this crazy idea!

Truth bullet used : Dead fishes

Truth bullet used : Relax room's nighttime features

Truth bullet used : Ball of clothes

He remembered about the fishes in the pond and the nighttime features of the relaxation room. What if he brought those fishes to the playground? It would seem very weird and confusing that there's dead fishes found in the playground, but because of the fact that the relax room closes at 10:00 PM and reopens at 8:00 AM, they would conclude that the fishes were brought to the playground before the relaxation room closes.

Even though the fishes has most likely nothing to do with the whole crime in itself, the others would probably not think too hard about it since it's a seemingly very convoluted crime scene to begin with. He figured that a little "red herring" wouldn't hurt as long as it helps them in knowing the time of death.

That way, he wouldn't need to open up about what he found out, the dead fishes would tell the story for him. Of course, he couldn't simply grab them with his hands. Maybe one by one, but that would be incredibly inefficient.

That's why he used the blanket of old clothes instead. He used that to scoop as many fishes as possible and then brought them to the playground. It's confirmed, everyone! David is a mass murderer! He killed all those fishes that we saw in the playground! (Oh nooo!)

Anyways, once that was taken care of, there was one more thing that he needed to do : get rid of these darn clothes. He doesn't want to leave them in the relaxation room, that would obviously indicate that something or someone must've been hidden there. He can't bring it back to the first floor eitheir, that would be incredibly risky since he could run into someone.

So the next best thing he can do is hide them and also hide what they were supposed to be to begin with. David rolled up that blanket of clothes into a perfectly shaped ball and hid it in the changing room inside the dress-up room. This would explain why Charles found a ball of clothes in the dress-up room.

Now that all of that was done, he headed back to the first floor and called it a day. Nothing else significant happened that night.

Act 27

It is now DAY 4, 8:00 in the morning. Everyone gathers up to the movie screening room. Everyone except... well... you obviously know who by now. It's been 4 days already, so it was time for MonoTV to reveal the secrets, but before that happens... David goes : "Wait! Stop!"

So everyone starts counting and they notice that there's indeed someone missing. So David leads them by saying : "Arei isn't here."

So people start to panic and proceed to look for Arei. Teruko picks up Whit and Eden to make a group of 3 people to find her if she's indeed dead. That way, it would definitly trigger the BDA if all three of them are innocent. Otherwise, one of these three would be suspicious.

Of course, Eden expected that to happen, but she was prepared with her whole murder scheme. Someone should've found the dead body first already last night so it shouldn't be an issue.

So Teruko's group investigates the second floor. Teruko looks inside the gym, she's not here. Whit looks inside the dress-up room, she's not here eitheir. Eden looks inside the relaxation room...

Two things of note here...

Eden did not find the dead body in here even though that was the last place she left it. So she knows for sure someone found the body first and moved it somewhere else.

She could've easily lied about claiming that there's no place where she could be hiding. That would make a lot of sense for her to lie if she was indeed the culprit and hid the body there previously.

So everything's going really well for Eden. It's all going according to plan. The last room remaining to explore was the playground. At this point, the culprit knew that it must be hidden there. There's no way someone would drag a dead body back to the first floor.

But then, before they enter, Whit makes this silly comment : "Do you really think that she'd be hanging out in the playground right now?"

It seems absolutely goofy at first since whether the viewers were making the prediction or they already saw how she died, they would find Whit's comment to be pretty unintentionally punny (or perhaps intentionally even).

For Eden however, that was literally the worst case scenario. She took Whit's comment seriously. Or maybe she didn't at first, but then quickly started to doubt that he was joking. At some point, she must've thought : "What if it was Whit that discovered the body first?"

So as Teruko's about to open the door, in a moment of panic, Eden shouts : "Teruko, wait--" And that's when they discover the corpse of Arei hanging by the swing set, which then triggers the BDA later on.

Unfortunatly for Eden, she made a little slip-up there which could be really troublesome if Teruko catches on to this. Fortunately for Eden however, the BDA still happened, so she's still looking innocent there. On top of that, it doesn't seem like eitheir Teruko or Whit noticed her slip-up (...yet).

And that's how this whole murder mystery happened. From DAY 1 to DAY 4. And you know what? I'm not even done yet. I still have a few remaining events to explain after the body discovery announcement. Let's get into it! We're almost there!

Act 28

Everyone gathers at the playground, they find the body and they're all shocked and stuff. It's investigation time! Obviously, I won't talk about the investigation much details since I've already explained all of the evidence that was found there. Instead, I'm gonna talk about a few noteworthy things that happened during the investigation.

Eden's reaction to finding Arei's dead body is kinda suspicious. Naturally, she would act all sad and in grief upon losing dear Arei. The suspicious thing is what happens afterwards.

Not even a minute after finding the body, she quickly recovers and claims that she's ready to investigate. I know this is a class trial and that they need to take it seriously, but wouldn't it be more natural for Eden to need more time to recover from this? Especially when she was supposed to be friends with Arei according to her narrative.

The next thing is the secrets reveal. J was about to ask MonoTV about the secrets reveal since it would probably help in solving the murder. But then David interjects by claiming that MonoTV would only reveal the motive if a murder didn't happen in the allocated time. But since a murder happened, he's not obligated to reveal them.

Then he goes on about if MonoTV were to reveal the secrets based on the deadline (8:00 in the morning on DAY 4), it would mean that she died very recently, which would narrow down the time of death.

Of course, David knew that she didn't die then. He was just practically forcing MonoTV to not reveal the secrets since he knows that Arei died in the evening of DAY 3, according to his deductions. Basically playing with the rules of the motive reveal deadline. He didn't want his secret exposed, after all.

Sadly for him, MonoTV claims that it's based on the time of the body discovery and not the time of death. So if it was found shortly after the deadline, then it's already past the deadline.

This messes up with his plan to keep his secret from being exposed. So he has no choice but to see that list to find out what this is really all about. At the very least, David knows that it won't directly show whose secret it is since MonoTV himself doesn't know who it belonged to (because of the mixed up secrets).

So later on, David goes to the movie screening room to see the list and he sadly sees that his dark secret is actually there. So he's gonna have to do everything he can to make sure it doesn't get exposed. Of course, all of the actions David's done ever since the beginning of Chapter 2 made Teruko grow very suspicious of him. At least a lot more than the Prologue and Chapter 1.

Enough talk about the investigation. Let's talk about the trial!

Act 29

Kinda like the investigation phase, I'm not gonna go too much into details. I'll only reveal parts of the trial that would line up and make sense if it went according to my theory. So there are three characters who play a big role in this trial.

Eden wants to make sure that no suspicions would be thrown at her. She wants to be the most innocent out of everyone in that trial.

Ace wants to keep up the tough guy act, doesn't want to be seen as someone useless in trial and he doesn't want others to find out what really happened during the attempted murder.

David is hoping that the group will figure out the truth of the trial with a narrowed down time of death (dead fishes) while also being able to keep his secret from being exposed.

Let's start with episode 9! Eden doesn't reveal Arturo's secret. She's going to later, but she needs to build up an innocent girl narrative first.

We get a confirm from Nico that they intentionally try to make a serious attempt on Ace's life when Charles asks the question. The important thing to note here is that this could mean a lot of things. Their mind was most likely set on wanting to kill him, but it doesn't mean that they did all the setup required to make that attempt.

But Rose claimed that they lied and stole from her. Nico's response was : "I--! I didn't kill Arei! I swear!". He didn't deny Rose's claim. That's practically a confession!

Not necessarily! Despite the implication, it could also very well be them wanting to deny that claim, but stopped themselves to simply swear that they didn't kill Arei. There could be various reasons for it, but one that could be the most reasonable is if they were having doubts about it. What if they weren't sure if they actually stole from her or not? His mind could've definitly been chaotic ever since they snapped. So they probably were unable to remember it.

But they were able to remember feeding the fishes and seeing David use the elevator during the evening!

Sure, but that was on DAY 3, not DAY 2. Like I said before, there's still a lot that we don't know about Nico during the events the evening/night of DAY 2. And because it's such an unknown variable, it also leads to a massive amount of possibilities.

Besides, remember what I said in Act 12? It could've been a massive red herring by making us easily believe that Nico's the one responsible for everything involved in the attempted murder on Ace. That trial interaction could also be another trick made by the creator to make us further believe that they're indeed respondible for it all.

Anyways, sometime later, Rose believed that Arei's death was an assisted suicide where the victim played a big role into this. Eden goes out of her way to convince everyone that can't be true. There's no way that someone like Arei would commit suicide.

Why would she do that if she was the true culprit? Wouldn't it make sense to let them believe it was suicide to end the trial early?

There's no guarantee that the smarter people out there (especially Teruko) would let it end that soon. She would've figured out by herself that there's no way it could've been a suicide. So Eden went out of her way to deny the suicide claim simply to direct the group into the proper narrative in regards to Arei. It was a necessary step since she wanted to reveal the incident that happened in the infirmary. That would further confirm that this wasn't suicide.

Next up, Teruko manages to narrow down the time of death by bringing up the dead fish. Based on their knowledge that they last saw the victim at 12:00 PM on DAY 3 and the features of the relaxation room. They were able to narrow it down to sometime between 12:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

Not a satisfying time window for what David had in mind when he placed those fishes, but that will do for now. At least, his plan kind of worked. They won't think that it happened during nighttime. Maybe they'll find out a more accurate time later on.

Act 30

On episode 10, before Eden gives the note, she quickly claims that she didn't do it, whoever did it is trying to impersonate her. So we get the reveal of the torn up note which gives us the letter we all know by now.

She would seem a tiny bit suspicious at first, but that was all part of her plan. Most wouldn't think that she'd be the killer if she wanted to help put the note back together. But in fact, she needed to help for both the narrative and making sure that the ripped apart note would be properly put back together.

She needed to play the scene of the revealed note to make sure that it would eventually lead to the reveal of Arturo's secret. When she would feel like that it'd be best for her to tell the truth, she would also explain the incident in the infirmary.

That would explain why she's friends with Arei. That would explain why she was insistent on believing that she wouldn't kill herself. That whole play would make Eden look the least suspicious so far. Everything's going according to her plan.

Fortunately for David, that note helped narrow down the time of death more accurately. Unfortunatly for him however, this is a fake time of death trick pulled by Eden, the real culprit. Until something major happens, no one's going to believe that Arei actually died in the morning of DAY 3, slightly past 8:00 AM.

Moving on... everyone's discussing their alibis now that the suggested time of death is sometime between 7:30 PM and 10:00 PM.

Hu talks about her time spent with Eden in the kitchen during that whole evening. Which further proves her innocence thanks to Eden's carefully crafted alibi plan. A few have alibis, a few don't have one like Nico.

So Ace lashes out at them as usual, nothing new here. Hu gets defensive and asks for his alibi.

Truth bullet used : Ace's actions in the gym

Truth bullet used : Ace acting tough

He thought about it for a little bit, but then he came up with a great idea. He lied about going to the gym that evening. That'd make him look kinda badass going there the day after being nearly killed.

Also, he doesn't want the others to know the truth about what he actually did during the night of DAY 2 as he wants to hide that kind of strength from the others since he doesn't trust them.

That doesn't make sense. Ace is actively trying to act tough according to your theory!

I know, it seems kinda contradictory, but here's the thing. Ace's kind of an idiot. He's trying not to, but you just can't really improve that in an instant as if you drank an intelligence potion or something.

Truth bullet used : Ace's testimony

There's another reason however. He really wants to tell the others about David's secret. About what he saw and heard in the relaxation room. But so far, he only knows that David's been to the second floor that night. He couldn't have known about DAY 3 since according to my theory, he stayed in his dorm.

So if he decided to reveal it at the earliest time of the trial, he would have no choice but to admit that this happened during the night of DAY 2 which would then lead to others asking "wait, isn't that the night where you almost died?"

This would lead to more questions and getting closer to the truth and they'd find about what Ace was hiding from them since then. Ace doesn't want that to happen. So he holds that information for the time being.

But then a golden opportunity arrived! Teruko calls out David that he should've been in the relaxation room during the evening of DAY 3.

At first, David was starting to play dumb, hoping that no one actually saw him so that he could lie about it and pretend that he went somewhere else. That didn't happen however, Nico saw him use the elevator, so David can't lie his way out of this sadly. Luckily for Ace, that was the perfect opportunity to expose David. He was in the same location both nights? Sweet!

So then Teruko asks the two if they saw anything strange going on in the playground. Ace claims he saw nothing. This is technicly the truth, even though he lied about being in the gym during the evening of DAY 3.

David claims that he didn't find anything odd and never looked at the playground. That's obviously a lie. He doesn't want others to suspect him. Otherwise, that would make them start being curious about his secret.

Then he adds that he never saw Ace once, which he finds strange. You could believe that he's just lying to put the suspicion on Ace, but there's a better idea that would make a lot more sense. David is telling the truth about never seeing Ace because Ace never went to the second floor during the evening of DAY 3 to begin with.

Unfortunatly for him, that was the perfect time for Ace to expose David's secret and making his claim of being in the gym on DAY 3 more believable.

Act 31

Almost done! Time to tackle episode 11!

So Ace starts explaining what he saw and heard in the relax room. We get a flashback scene regarding that event and then-

We literally get a flashback scene! There's a few details that would indicate that Ace is telling the whole truth, including the fact that he heard this on DAY 3, not DAY 2!!!

No, that's wrong! You should never take everything from granted once the author starts giving us more than 1 character point of view. Some could easily lie about the events to fit their narrative and fantasy.

I haven't read or played a lot of mystery novels, but there's a certain tactic that's sometimes used by the author, if not often. It's called unreliable narrator. From a google search, it says : "An unreliable narrator can be defined as any narrator who misleads readers, either deliberately or unwittingly."

Ace could've easily been an unreliable narrator. Here are a couple things that he could've lied about.

There's a missing fan on the right side. Could've been an illusion to make us believe it happened on DAY 3.

We see Ace with neck bandages. Could've been an illusion to make us believe it happened on DAY 3.

When Ace was eavesdropping, Arei says : "Nico got super pissy and tried to turn Ace into cat food." Could've been a line of dialogue that Ace made up to make others believe that it happened on DAY 3.

Then Ace claims he didn't catch anything else. Which, once again, would make sense if he's been knocked unconscious right after that. But he doesn't want to admit that since it would reveal the truth on when the meeting actually happened.

As a few others claimed, it's very strange that Ace brings up that important testimony this late into the trial. So it would make sense if he didn't want to expose him just yet because he didn't want the others to know the actual truth in the gym.

In any case, David's plan is ruined. He eventually gives up and confesses that the manipulative liar secret is actually his secret. (pretty amazing reveal, by the way!) His career's officially over.

We get a few interesting lines from David that would match up insanely well with my theory.

"Normally, I would continue to insist that Ace is an unreliable witness, and a worthless lying piece of shit as well... But I know how it is with you people. Once you've reached a conclusion, you'll refuse to believe any evidence that contradicts it. So I'm not going to bother."

Unreliable witness and a liar... interesting. Doesn't that match perfectly with my claim that Ace is lying about being at the gym during the evening of DAY 3 as well as my claim that he is an unreliable narrator?

"But I will admit, I did indeed meet with Arei last night in the relaxation room." He's telling the truth. He met with her alright on DAY 3. Doesn't mean she was alive though.

"As for what I actually talked about... Well, I've already forgotten! She's dead now, so who cares?" He's lying... or to be more accurate, he's hiding the truth. He doesn't want the others to know that he found her dead body.

Why not? Why wouldn't he tell the whole truth?

For a few reasons. First off, everyone just learned he's a liar. So they might simply think that he's lying about it. Secondly, that would make him incredibly suspicious. He wants to avoid being seen as the main suspect if he can avoid it. Not that it matters anyways since most of them think he's the culprit shortly afterwards.

Also, another reason to explain it is because he's probably still angry about the fact that they exposed his secret. He's been letting all out ever since the reveal anyways. So he probably wants to act like a butthole as a mean to vent off.

But still, he tries to convince them that he's not the culprit (in his own way), but quickly realises that this is pointless since most of them are so stupid and quick to draw to conclusions, just like last trial.

So then he got an idea. He gives up and confesses that he's the murderer. He's gonna lie all the way through up until someone calls him out on it. The interesting thing to note here is that as soon as he made that confession, he looked incredibly nervous. It's almost like... he's afraid of something. Something like being afraid of losing the trial if no one realises that he's lying?

By the way, another interesting thing to add here : As soon as David confessed, Eden starting being "emotional" and "seriously believes" that he actually did it. The real culprit figured that she may as well push the direction of that accusation to end the trial and be the sole winner.

Here's another interesting thing about Eden. I think she made another slip-up and created a contradiction. No one seemed to have noticed though, thankfully. She made those comments about David that she couldn't believe that he would mentally push Arei into commiting suicide.

That's strange... because I'm pretty sure that at the beginning of the trial, she was very insistent on claiming that Arei would never commit suicide.

Anyways... Teruko asks David about how he killed Arei into more details, but will later realise that his story doesn't make sense and that he's just lying. Then Teruko and David argues about it back and forth up until Charles stops the argument.

He realised something major and says : "Teruko, we really fucked up." Most of us fans seem to believe that this refers to the time of death being wrong (7:30 PM ish on DAY 3). My theory that the actual time of death was slightly after 8:00 AM on DAY 3 would match that up perfectly.

Time For The Finale

Phew! That was quite the long closing argument! With everything I've written here, hopefully that should explain the whole truth behind that murder mystery and explain most of the clues out there. So... what do you guys think about this theory?

.......NO!! It just doesn't work! It's incredibly CONVOLUTED! Way too convoluted for such a murder mystery! It's also very RISKY! Eden is doing a lot of risks to make her murder scheme work. A single mistake could've ruined it all. There's no way that plan works! It's impossible. Also, there's still a lot of things that wouldn't work. Like the disguise trick, there's just no way! She doesn't look anything like Arei! She doesn't have her physique. You've overthinking this! There are certain things about your theory that wouldn't be able to explain how things actually work in real life, like the blood wipe. It's just not realistic! Your theory doesn't work!

...It's pointless... all of this is just pointless...

...huh?!

You heard me. This is all pointless. All these counterarguments, even those that I refused to elaborate and would talk about it here instead... they're all actually meaningless in DanganRonpa Despair Time.

When it gets to finding errors in a theory by relying on reality or very niche or minute details. Or things like risk factor or things like no one would be able to pull off x trick, unless it's an actual contradiction of the actual facts of the fangan, then all of these arguments are actually pointless!

How dare you?! You can't just simply ignore these arguments because they hurt your theory!

As a matter of fact, I actually can ignore those. After all... most of these arguments fail to follow a certain rule in this murder mystery.

What are you even talking about?!

Alright... let me tell you! THIS IS FICTION, NOT REALITY!!!

!!!

Let me explain. For quite some time, we've been trying to prove/disprove certain theories by claiming that a certain event would be impossible because that's not how it works in real life.

One of the examples in regards to debunking my theory would be that the disguise trick would be impossible because it would've been incredibly risky and the plan could've easily failed if someone decided to speak with her or looked at her closely. Another example would be when Eden knocked out Ace without being noticed by Arei or David, seems incredibly unlikely and really risky.

From a reality perspective, it would be indeed ridiculous of a plan and nearly impossible to pull it off. But that's exactly the problem! Danganronpa Despair Time is a work of fiction, not reality! Anything that seems completly ridiculous or painfully impossible can become a miracle in the world of fiction!

You don't even have any proof that the DRDT creator is using that rule!

I do, actually. Think back on Chapter 1. I don't know if this chapter had weekly releases like Chapter 2 but regardless, let's give ourselves a scenario in regards to what would happen if the latest trial episodes of chapter 1 were not revealed, then the creator takes a break, so the fans have time to investigate and come up with theories to solve the murder mystery. I personally believe that this is made so that you could solve the murder mystery without watching the climax of the trial.

Anyways, let's say there's someone out there who comes up with a theory that's practically the solution of chapter 1. Then, we get to the actual murder method which is from the light switch that's been stripped. So Xander got electrocuted by trying to turn on the lights when he was soaking wet.

Most people who would see this without knowing what the actual solution is would simply believe that this is just impossible. This seems extremely likely. Like even if it was really dark and Xander wanted to turn the lights back on, he should've heard the sound of something being removed. Otherwise, he should've still been able to see light since the door would've been opened anyways.

Or what if the theorist came up with the idea that the culprit lure Xander into the light switch by taunting him or something? What exactly would be the odds that Xander would charge straight towards the light switch?

Yet, Xander truly died from the light switch because he wanted to turn on the lights. Seems really crazy and unbelievable, but when we think about it, the creator made it possible because this is fiction.

So there you have it! I'm sure none of you see it that way (and it's fine!), but to me, this is the perfect solution to the murder case of Chapter 2. I'm running out of lines to write, so there are two things I wanna say before I go.

Feel free to try to debunk my theory or come up with alternatives to this theory or anything else that's related to it. I don't mind. I'm most likely not gonna reply to it however since I have other projects unrelated to tumblr to work on.

I'd like to thank @1moreff-creator, @venus-is-thinking, @accirax and most likely a couple others for trying to find faults in my theories or points that I've made. Even though it may not seem like it, there were some points that helped me get closer to an answer that I would be satisfied with. Also huge thanks for anyone else who's been supporting my theory.

While I'm at it, feel free to disregard some points I've made to debunk certain theories that rely on stuff like reality. As long as you believe that it could work within the world of fiction, then that's good enough! Sorry for the long post! Thank you for everything! Take care!

[visorforavisor]

warning: Good Omens series / season 2 spoilers

you have been warned

final warning okay thank you

(also Pride and Prejudice spoilers I guess if anyone still cares about that 210 years on)

·—·

they’re Pride and Prejudice, people! I’m telling you!

Aziraphale still holds onto his anti-Hell, pro-Heaven, anti-demon, pro-angel bias, his prejudice telling him that there is no “institutional problem”, that Crowley fell because he asked questions rather than because Heaven didn’t want questions asked.

Crowley refuses to let go of his pride in his identity (whether that be as one of the fallen, or as part of a side that is neither Heaven nor Hell), and go back to the Heaven that betrayed him, which he doesn’t trust not to ruin everything.

Aziraphale is Lizzy, Crowley is Darcy.

and, come on, we all know what happens in Chapter 34.

Darcy proposes to her. he talks about having tried to pretend the love is not real (“in vain I have struggled”), and asks Lizzy to marry him despite the fact that they come from two different factions who traditionally wouldn’t marry, and despite the fact that he knows she does not possess the same identity he is proud of in himself.

and Lizzy turns him down, because she’s prejudiced against Darcy’s type and this has influenced how and what she thinks about him specifically.

Darcy leaves this proposal feeling hurt, betrayed, and upset, while Lizzy is too confident that she is right in the core beliefs that influenced her decision. and they go away needing to work on themselves.

(is all of this sounding familiar?)

and then they meet again and fall in love and there’s a successful proposal etc etc.

Crowley’s pride in what he is won’t let him take Aziraphale at half quality, still part of Heaven; Aziraphale must be so exceptional as to transcend that restrictive category. an angel who would buy into that nonsense is not what Crowley stands for. he cares about people in his own, very small category: their side, which he thought included Aziraphale. those outside Crowley’s side are not to be ruining Crowley’s “precious, peaceful, fragile existence”.

meanwhile, Aziraphale’s prejudice presents him two options. either Crowley remains a demon which means he is bad, or Crowley becomes an angel again, which means he can be properly good. in the second case, Aziraphale can have him. Aziraphale can’t have Crowley if he’s bad, which he must be if he’s a demon.

there’s a subtle difference between the two.

Crowley’s tactic is more about self-preservation for his group (which would have included Aziraphale if Aziraphale’d agreed to dump Heaven for their side, just as Darcy’s remaining pride extends to protecting Lizzy when they are married (“Darcy could never receive him [Wickham] at Pemberley”)).

Aziraphale is being self-righteous for the good in the world (which he would have done for Crowley too if Crowley’d agreed to be an angel, just as Lizzy loses her shit at Darcy for not helping Wickham and all of his myriad other moral failings and then turns around and defends him once she’s convinced he’s good (“that [her dislike of him] is all to be forgot”)).

of course, this all might be an accident on the part of the writers, but then again….

Crowley and Aziraphale’s ideas to get Nina and Maggie together were sheltering from the rain, one fabulous kiss, and Pride and Prejudice.

Crowley and Aziraphale have already had their sheltering from the rain — twice, actually (at the end of the creation scene, and the end of the Eden scene). they have also had their kiss — no explanation needed.

this is their Pride and Prejudice, right down to Crowley (Darcy) protesting when a dance with Aziraphale (Lizzy) is suggested.

I could go into how Pride and Prejudice is in and of itself a Much Ado About Nothing retelling, but honestly that’s not particularly relevant, just cool. (do watch the David Tennant and Catherine Tate Much Ado, though.)

so, my hypothesis for the conclusion of a potential series 3 is as follows.

it will involve Crowley’s equivalent of “one word from you will silence me forever”: Aziraphale’s last chance to answer in the affirmative and be with him. Aziraphale will learn that Crowley is not bad simply for being a demon (I hope), and Crowley will realise Aziraphale should be let into his heart even if he wasn’t always on Crowley’s side (I hope).

Darcy / Crowley stops refusing to interact positively with anybody not in the little clique, and Lizzy / Aziraphale stops believing an entire group to be awful.

I don’t know if I have anything else coherent to say on this. something about how they have to accept the things they cannot change about the other and change the things the other cannot accept about them?

(also Gabriel could arguably be Wickham, given that Crowley tries to convince Aziraphale that Gabriel did a nasty thing and should be kept away from those he wants to keep safe but Aziraphale won’t believe Gabriel is a bad person because Gabriel isn’t one of the group he considers to be bad… I mean, it’s just their pride and their prejudice again isn’t it. whether we’re talking about Darcy, Lizzy, and Wickham, or Crowley, Aziraphale, and Gabriel.

I’m not going to follow that extension of the comparison too far, though, because I don’t think I can reasonably claim that Beelzebub is Lydia.)

concluision: I don’t care whether it’s Benedick and Beatrice, or Darcy and Lizzy, or Crowley and Aziraphale. I love all of their dynamics.

and we have amazing things to look forward to if we can convince the company to make series 3.

[spoocys-glade-of-dreams]

more head canons I have for the Laserhawk universe:

When he's helping to rescue kids and they ask him about how badly Eden's treated him, Rayman gives the "Ray of Hope" version of his story. The watered down version. Because what he actually went through, it's not something he wants to dump on a child.

He had it bad. Rayman was manipulated so badly that he genuinely thought he had a good job and that he was making a difference, but it made him blinded to just how abused he was by Eden as well. He's had friends removed from his presence because they were asking too many questions, or trying to get him to quit his job. Once Eden stepped in to remove them, he never saw them again. He became aware that they might've been disposing of his friends and it's one of the reasons he's taken to begging for mercy with the board of directors. He'd beg them for their lives to be spared. He has no idea if they ever listened.

The friends he was allowed to make were nothing more than yes men. They just wanted to keep Rayman appeased. They didn't talk to him like a person. It was always "Yes Mister Rayman!" or "No Mister Rayman!" This was one of his biggest pet peeves and it contributed to just how lonely the guy was.

All he really wanted was someone to accept him for who he was. He wanted a friend. A REAL friend who wouldn't be afraid to tell him their honest opinions about things. Not afraid to speak up about situations.

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

Rayman makes a comment to Bullfrog while they were sipping juice boxes together. "When I was your age..." This implies Bullfrog to be younger than Rayman is. Eden was created from the remains of America. Rayman's backstory put him in college. In America, the age for college is usually around the age of 18 give or take.

Because of this, I head canon Bullfrog to be about the age of 18 or 19.

Rayman looks to Bullfrog not only as a friend, but in a way he latches onto Bullfrog like he was an adoptive parent to Bullfrog.

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

If Dolph and the rest of the crew do get a reset, I can see Rayman and Pey'j working together to be the 2 dad friends/figures of the rest of the group. Like they become a found family to each other.

[lunaetis]

𝐄𝐃𝐄𝐍'𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐄 - 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐓 ( 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝟐.𝟏 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 ) 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏 ( 𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐲 ) | 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟐 ( 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 )

building on the two posts linked above, i want to get into the effect of 2.1 revelations, especially the truth regarding firefly. this is my own interpretation and how i choose to write eden, my trailblazer. it does not reflect canon portrayal of the trailblazer and this is subjected to change as the story progresses. spoilers for 2.1 story update ahead.

while i don't know how hoyo is planning on having the trailblazer react to firefly's revelation as sam, i would like to say that for eden, my trailblazer, she would no longer trust firefly. at all. that connection they had built during the previous story update leading up to her death was, as i mentioned before, something she formed under the impression that firefly did not know about her being the stellaron vessel. eden thought she was finally meeting someone normally, she thought there was no ulterior motive, no script being at play. it was purely chance meeting and for once, she connected with someone as eden, not the stellaron vessel nor the trailblazer.

so the moment it was revealed that everything was planned from the start ? it was over. the moment eden realized that once again, the connection she thought was genuine and unadulterated was in fact a part of the script, she doesn't need to know anything else. she now realized that firefly came to her with hidden agenda and other intention, that she knew from the start who eden was and that was the very reason she befriended her in the first place. much like kafka. much like the events in xianzhou luofu. much like EVERYTHING that happened up to this point.

she is nothing but a pawn.

there never was any decisions she could make purely out of her own free will or without being influenced in some way, shape, or form. they were simply following the script. a pre-determined path she was guided to follow in order to achieve the best possible future ( for who really ? ) and eden viewed what firefly did as an act of betrayal. she is extremely hurt. and while she understands that firefly must have a reason to do what she did, much like all other stellaron hunters following elio, no matter what explanation or reasons firefly would give after this, my eden will not regain that trust in her. she couldn't. and she wouldn't. eden wouldn't question firefly about the past, either. she wouldn't ask if all the time they spent together was real or fake. if the words said to her were simply another section of the script, a facade, or truth. whether all of that was acting or genuine reactions — it didn't matter to her. the truth of the matter was a single question the revelation had left her with;

now ... who can i trust anymore ?

and the answer is no one.

[multi-lefaiye]

this is a bit more suggestive than the writing i usually post to my main, but i wanted to share some writing i did for my ocs as discussed in the previous post. eden and the knight, aka kader.

written in all lowercase bc FUCK capitalization

(cw: yeah this is very suggestive under the cut, please do not interact with this post if you're a minor <3 there is nothing explicit, but still. these two are making out and it's getting heavy.)

the knight has eden pinned to the ground, looming over him in a way that feels both threatening and achingly protective. one of its massive hands cradles eden's head, and the other cups his cheek, stroking his skin lightly with one clawed thumb. eden can feel how much the knight wants him, arousal pouring off the mindflayer in waves that curl red-hot between his legs. but more than that, though, is a deep-seated longing, a desperation to hold and be held, to be close with someone.

the knight leans in to press their foreheads together, amber eyes slipping closed. eden feels something throb inside his chest, and almost without thinking, he leans up and wraps his arms around the knight's shoulders, holding it with the same gentle tenderness. after a moment, he lets out a shaky breath and smiles.

"can i kiss you?" eden asks softly. he hates how unsure he sounds, but he enjoys how he feels the mindflayer shudder in his arms at the question. the knight pulls back, its eyes opening to meet eden's gaze as it strokes its long claws through the tiefling's messy hair.

you might find that difficult, the knight murmurs in his mind. eden, though he does feel quite out of his depth in more ways than one, decides to take this as a challenge, smirking back.

"that hasn't stopped me yet," he says pointedly. then, eden boldly moves a hand to grasp one of the mindflayer's tentacles, stroking his fingers over the smooth, warm skin. the knight shudders once more, and eden feels another wave of arousal pass over them both. clearly, he's on the right track. he leans up again and presses his chapped lips to the knight's prominent cheekbone.

"mind moving those tentacles for me, handsome?" he asks. "bit hard to reach your mouth like this." the knight makes a rumbling sound, almost like a groan, before it speaks again.

i can make it easier for you, it says. i can change my shape to something you're more familiar with. before eden can answer, he feels the knight's skin ripple as its form changes, and then it's kader kneeling over him. kader with his warm brown skin and long, tousled hair, amber eyes shining as he smiles at eden. the sight makes something in eden's heart shatter, and he surges up to press their lips together before he realizes what he's doing.

the knight kisses differently than kader did. much hungrier, tangling its fingers in eden's hair as it firmly presses their bodies together. it feels like it wants to devour eden, to rip him apart and consume him entirely. eden moans, feeling helplessly overwhelmed in the best way possible. the hand that had been cupping eden's cheek moves lower, squeezing his throat momentarily before landing on his chest to firmly knead the soft flesh.

eden whimpers, and soon he has to pull away from the kiss to catch his breath, panting heavily. the knight doesn't stop, instead moving down to bite and nip at his neck, laving kisses and bruises on every inch of lavender skin it can reach.

"fuck," eden whimpers, "oh, gods-" he tangles his hands in kader--the knight's hair and tugs its head back, and the knight goes obediently, lifting its head to look eden in the eye.

"is everything alright?" the knight asks in kader's voice, just as warm and gentle as he remembers. eden wants to cry.

"no," he says, swallowing. "i- no, this is good, but…" he bites his lip. the knight continues to stare, waiting patiently for him to continue. he averts his eyes. "i... if we do this, i'd rather you use your real form. you'd have to guide me, but i'd like that better." it's less painful that way. feels more like a stranger.