Pikatwig: The first collab of 2021. And my first new thing after turning 22.
KKD: Congrats on that, BTW.
Pikatwig: Thank you. Well… I may finally get to playing Three Houses soon. We'll see. School may make that an issue.
KKD: Figures.
Pikatwig: Also, recently found this out, I share my birthday with the guy who voices Claude. We were both born on January 16th.
KKD: Funny how that works, isn't it?
Pikatwig: Yeah. Anyway… let's go ahead and keep going with this AU and see where we end up.
KKD: Yeah.
Pikatwig: And, before we get going, there'll be an additional disclaimer for this chapter inparticular. You'll see why.
KKD: Alright.
Pikatwig: Also, I may have forgotten to make the disclaimers plural since this was originally meant to be something done by myself before I got very stumped.
KKD: Right. Whoops.
Pikatwig: Let's go ahead and get going.
Disclaimers: We don't own the rights to Fire Emblem or anything related within. Those rights belong to Nintendo, Intelligent Systems, and their respective owners.
Additional Disclaimers: This chapter will contain discussions about religion. No actual religions will be used in this story, simply made up ones. If you are not a fan of having religious stuff in your fanfictions, then turn away. Also, there will be a dream sequence with violence that may be sensitive to some readers. Reader discretion advised.
Ryuko slowly began to wake up, her body feeling very groggy and heavy, almost like she was pushing against water. However, as she looked around, she noticed the room was mostly furnished and looked rather lived in. She was about to start walking, when her body seemed to move without her. Ryuko looked almost like a ghost as she saw as she witnessed where her body was going and her eyes widened upon recalling what this was.
"...no… don't…" Ryuko whispered.
However, she soon heard what sounded like a door being smacked down, yelling, and the whole area went dark.
"No… stop haunting me…" the ghost Ryuko muttered.
Past Ryuko was panicking, trying not to move, only to suddenly have a gun aimed at her and a person in an all-black outfit get close to her. Suddenly, past Ryuko was shoved to the ground and the gun went off.
"Go away! Why can't this all go away?!" the ghost Ryuko yelled out, gripping her head.
The past Ryuko opened up her eyes and saw a woman had stopped the bullet… but was bleeding pretty badly. She cried out in fear as ghost Ryuko covered her eyes and began to breathe in a bit of a panic, not able to calm herself.
"Why did it have to be mom?! WHY?! WHY~~?!"
Ryuko soon flung out of bed, breathing like she had been running in a marathon, sweating bullets from her nightmare, and tears were dripping down. She then took out her phone from her nearby nightstand and saw the date.
Sunday. April 10th, 2016. Early Morning.
She was quiet before she ended up unlocking her phone and looking at a picture of herself with her mother. Ryuko had a similar face to her mom's, both having the same tealish hair color, though her mom's was greener, and they seem to both have soft faces with a few smears of ice cream on them, "...mom… I'm so sorry…"
Ryuko ended up walking out of her room and into the somewhat set up kitchen area. There was a table, a light that had a functioning lightbulb, and a functioning fridge. Ryuko exhaled, going into the kitchen and looking around for some food. She soon pulled out some cereal bars that were sitting on an island in the kitchen and exhaled a bit.
"...why won't it stop haunting me…?" Ryuko muttered.
She then heard somebody walking over and completely froze in fear. She paled, looking around to try and find the source before she began to pant in a bit of fear. Whoever was approaching her then stopped and turned on the light.
"...Ryuko?"
"...dad?" Ryuko fearfully managed to speak.
"You having that nightmare again?" he realized as he calmly walked over to her side, earning only a nod from her. He exhaled a bit before he simply took her hand, "It's okay. You don't need to worry about that anymore… I promise I'll keep you safe…"
The two were soon sitting at the table and Ryuko was eating the cereal bar that she had found. She didn't really say anything as she ended up messing around with the wrapper, Jeralt simply looking at her and trying to think of what to say.
"Sorry if I scared you. I just… heard you walking around and got scared," Jeralt admitted, brushing some of his hair out of his face.
All Ryuko did was nod her head a little, internally wanting to laugh at that, but she couldn't. She was silent, simply continuing to peel the wrapper, then finally spoke up, "...why did it have to be mom? It sh-"
"Don't finish that sentence. No one deserved what happened except for the invaders. Your mother did what she had to to make sure you were safe."
"...I'm scared…" Ryuko eventually admitted, "...if they find us again…"
"Those who slither? Their top dogs are all in jail," Jeralt tried to assure her.
"Somebody had to have told them where we lived!" Ryuko nearly yelled, "They know what you did, and they like want us gone after… after… after..."
Jeralt simply remained silent, just observing Ryuko as she stammered over her words a little. Ryuko ended up becoming quiet, looking at the ground for a bit, then just rubbing tears away.
"...it just keeps haunting me…" Ryuko admitted, "And mom does too. I just… want it to stop."
Jeralt could only sigh, "...memories don't stop so easily, kid. Trust me, I've dealt with that a lot during my time on the force…"
After some silence, Ryuko simply took another bite out of the food she had. Jeralt simply watched her and then his eyes fell at the clock.
"It is late. You should probably get back to bed soon," Jeralt advised.
"...I'll try…" Ryuko nodded.
"Also… are you sure that you don't want to go to church with me and your brother tomorrow? Rhea was all happy about you two being there… and I haven't told her you're not planning on showing…" Jeralt checked.
Ryuko simply looked down at the wrapper for her snack, then she turned away from her father.
"Alright. ...hopefully, I'll still have my head on when me and your brother get back," Jeralt exhaled, proceeding to head off to his room.
The next day, Byleth had gotten up and went into the shower. He simply hummed a little bit, going through the motions, and then getting out, drying off, and dressing. He was in a fairly nice looking outfit that consisted of a black suit with various green and gold highlights that seemed to symbolize various elements of a story so to speak, from flowers growing, angels soaring, different animals roaming and something like a dragon's head in the front.
"Grandma always knows the sizes…" he exhaled.
He headed out of the bathroom and then saw his sister was still asleep in her bed. He quietly closed the door before he headed to the kitchen, "Morning, dad."
"Good morning," Jeralt greeted, simply turning to him. He then turned back to work and packed up some noodles into some plastic containers.
"What's up with the noodles?" Byleth asked.
"Since the service is going to be a while and I have no idea when we're gonna get back, I figured I'd leave your sister some food in case we're not back by lunch," Jeralt explained.
"How's grandma taking the news?" Byleth asked next.
Jeralt didn't really say anything to that, placing the containers in the fridge and then writing down a note for Ryuko. He sighed as he soon got some keys from nearby, "...let's just get going and hope she's not too angry."
"Gotcha," Byleth nodded.
Jeralt and Byleth soon arrived at the church and saw several people heading towards it, many of whom were dressed in similar attire to Byleth before Jeralt ended up letting out an exhale as he saw Rhea was walking over. The older woman stood with a long head of green hair, matching green eyes, and was decorated in a golden and white dress with various ornaments all over and on top of her head was a sort of headdress. There seemed to be a kind of white, flowing, cape that went behind her, and she had her eyes closed at the moment.
"Jeralt, Byleth, Ryuko, it's good to see you three," Rhea smiled, giving a polite bow, "We are honored that you could join us on this momentous occasion. Life may have become a struggle for the three of you with this new situation, but I promise that I will be there to help you, and that the Goddess will guide your way forward. Your life may have problems right now, but your faith will help guide you. May the light of the Goddess bless you, shine upon you and protect you for your ensuing days."
"...so… funny thing, uh… we appreciate the rehearsed greeting and all, but… I-I think you should've stopped sooner when… I mean, it was nice and… um… wh-what I'm trying to say is-is… well..." Byleth stammered before finally sighing and just saying, "Ryuko's not here."
Rhea opened her eyes to see that, indeed, Ryuko was not there. Her eyes went from confusion to stone cold fury, aimed right at Jeralt. Jeralt didn't really have any kind of response to her fury, before Byleth simply gave a fake cough to indicate he should say something.
"She didn't want to come, and I don't want to force her into anything," Jeralt explained.
"You idiot! You know I wanted to see both of my grandchildren after years of not being allowed to, I was hoping to welcome them BOTH into the church after all these years! Their mother was highly religious and I was hoping that she would impart that to them, and that we would all get to be here! Yet here you are without BOTH OF MY GRANDCHILDREN! Yet here you are with only ONE, and furthermore-!" Rhea began to complain.
"It was her choice! She didn't want to come here, so I left her be!" Jeralt retorted.
Byleth quickly realized this was going to be tense and quietly began to walk away from the two. He walked around a bit, soon finding the entrance, and stepped into the building.
Inside the church were various people and they were all dressed fairly fancily. Byleth simply looked around the entrance hall, a bit impressed by what he saw.
"Hello there," Dimitri called out.
"Oh. Dimitri," Byleth greeted.
"I'm so glad you could join us. Where's your sister? Not feeling well?"
"Yeah…" Byleth nodded, his tone somewhat slowing down as he said it.
"Ok," Dimitri nodded, simply guiding Byleth into the main area, "So what do you think of the church? Is it as majestic and glorious as you thought?"
"...certainly big…" Byleth commented, "Not sure what else to say. Still a lot to take in, you know. Considering we haven't been to the main church in a while…"
"Oh. My apologies. Still, glad to help guide you around," Dimitri smiled.
Byleth nodded, taking a good look at the elaborated designed structure and then simply observing some of the people that were there.
Back over with Ryuko, she simply continued to snooze away, exhausted before hearing her alarm go off and just tapped it to make it stop. The alarm simply kept going, making her get up slowly before she finally hit the button and turned off the alarm.
"...ugh…" Ryuko sighed, slowly stretching as she saw it was closer to 9:40am. She just rubbed her eyes, "Well… that's one good thing about not being in church, I guess…"
She soon got up and headed out of her room. She soon saw the note sitting for her, picked it up, and looked it over.
'Off at church. Left you some food in the fridge since I didn't know when I'd get back. -Jeralt. PS, can you maybe move a few boxes around? Thanks.'
"Well… I got nothing better to do," Ryuko shrugged, proceeding to go into the shower really quickly.
Byleth simply continued to look around the church and then noticed several people who looked to be about the same age as him, or at least in the same age group, and then turned to Dimitri, "So… does the entire student body go here?"
"Mostly everyone. There are a few weirdos and odd ones who don't, but it's not that big of a deal; they'll come around eventually. Everybody eventually comes around," Dimitri casually shrugged.
"...right…" Byleth nodded, '*sighs* Forgot how some people are a bit overly zealous here… oh yeah, dad said that's part of why mom moved out of this town…'
He sighed a bit before he took a seat with his dad, who ended up needing to take a moment to nurse a sore spot, but the two managed to calm down and began to simply await Rhea to begin the speech.
An hour or so had passed and Ryuko had started to move some boxes around in the house. She wiped the sweat from her brow before putting some of the boxes back into place and exhaling a little.
"This is taking a little longer than I thought. I hope that I'm not doing this all day…" she sighed. She then proceeded to walk out of the front door and stood around in the front yard. Not many people were around, making her look toward the church building where most of the noise resonated from, "...yeah. Church is super important to these people. Should've figured that the town would be deserted while it was going on…"
Ryuko just exhaled a little and was about to walk back in, when…
"Ryuko?"
She paused and nervously turned around, but calmed down upon seeing Edelgard standby the house's gate.
"Oh. ...oh, it's just you," Ryuko sighed with relief. She then cleared her throat and smiled, "Hello, Edelgard."
"Is something wrong? You seem a little worried," Edelgard asked.
"I'm fine. Just… little jumpy is all," Ryuko told her. She then walked over, "So… what are you doing here?"
"On a walk. Why are you still home?" Edelgard asked. Her voice then took on a highly sarcastic tone, "The great granddaughter of the head of the church should certainly be there and be a religious nutcase and spreading the gospel everywhere she goes…"
"Edelgard. ...not funny. My mother literally moved away before because of how crazy people got about that. She may have been following the church, but she was not a nutcase, and I'm personally keeping my distance from this stuff," Ryuko informed, almost glaring at the white haired girl.
Edelgard paused a bit, "Oh. ...sorry. I honestly didn't know that. I knew your mom moved, but I didn't know why. ...although, I am honestly wondering why you aren't there."
Ryuko simply turned around, not really keen on talking.
"...if it makes you trust me, I despise the church."
Ryuko stopped and looked at her.
"Yea. Shocker, I know, but it's the truth. I may look like the crazy one to other people, but I do not care for anything involving the church. Plus, I do have friends who follow other things, and I try to do my best to defend them. Otherwise? Church of Serios? No. Absolutely not."
This left Ryuko a little stunned. She simply stared at the white haired girl in surprise, then she walked over towards the gate.
"...sorry if I came off a bit strong. Just…" Edelgard began to speak, only for Ryuko to open up the gate, "Huh?"
"...I really just want to talk to someone," Ryuko admitted, the white haired girl nodding as Ryuko invited her in.
Over at the service, Rhea had finished reading out of a book to the congregation of assembled people, and then began to walk around, "Everybody gathered here, the Goddess thanks you. May she continue to guide you with her light and bless you. Now, if I may take a moment of your time, as the head of this church… I do wish to ask of you to do something. Recently, my beloved daughter had lost her life, and her widow and two children had moved over here. One of them is feeling under the weather and could not join us today, but the other could."
Byleth gave off a small, nearly inaudible, sigh before he walked over to his grandmother's side.
"They are still getting accustomed back into Fódlan, but please. Do make them feel welcome and send them a comforting prayer given their loss," Rhea requested.
"...I just… I don't know what to think," Ryuko admitted as she moved a box off of the couch so that Edelgard could sit, "Like… the idea of there being some… all seeing thing that can watch you, judge you, and stuff… I'm not really sure what to think."
"Lots of people are like that," Edelgard responded, taking the seat offered, "They like to think there is a higher power that watches over them and gives them some hope for what comes after death. Plus, there's the idea of a higher power doing good to good people and bad to bad people."
"...and therein lies my issue…" Ryuko exhaled, "...why did someone so good like my mom die? Why did it have to be her? Why didn't a higher power protect her? She died, yet the jerks who killed her were allowed to live! Why did that have to happen? ...it honestly made me really just… question all this religious stuff…"
Edelgard was quiet, getting an air that Ryuko just needed to get this off of her chest, so she simply remained silent.
"I just… I don't know…" Ryuko sighed, putting a box that had markings that read 'faith objects' down by her father's room, "...so, I just don't want anything to do with religion until I sort my feelings out."
"Be prepared to be ridiculed, though," Edelgard warned, "I only really got to be student body president because the people at the school genuinely like me, but I constantly get glares and snide remarks from other classmates and people outside of the school for not following the Church of Serios. Said I'd burn or some other nonsense…"
"That's a little extreme, honestly," Ryuko remarked.
The white haired girl simply nodded her head in response, "Just my opinion… but religion is just a mess. People go to war over it, people die over it, people are treated differently because of it, needless to say, it is just ridiculous in my mind. Plus, my family had gone through a lot of problems because of the church. Nothing like any of us were killed or the like, but just some problems. So… we're not exactly enthusiastic about it and try to be open minded to people as long as they don't follow this town's mess of an example."
Ryuko gave a small nod, "Well… at least someone won't look at me as strange."
"There are some kids at the school who either don't care as well, or follow other ones. My best friend, Dorothea, follows a different religion. I can't recall the name off the top of my head, but she says she enjoys it," Edelgard informed.
With another nod, Ryuko then exhaled, "...thanks for listening. ...wanna talk about something else?"
"Sure. Um… what exactly do you want to do with your life following school?" Edelgard asked.
"I do want to travel a bit. Not really sure… where, but I think it might be fun," Ryuko admitted, "How about you?"
"I wanna aim for some kind of position of authority. I don't know what kind, but I just feel like I can help make a bigger difference..."
Meanwhile, the church session was still ongoing, though the teens and the kids in the building were allowed to head out to mingle and relax a little. The worship music was still being played, resonating throughout the town, but the room they were in somewhat muffled it so conversations could be had.
Byleth simply wandered around aimlessly, not really paying much attention to the conversations others were having as he just moved around. Though he did find someone who wasn't really talking to anyone. He stopped and saw it was a girl about the same age, who had light blue hair and a nice dress. She seemed to have finished a prayer and sighed with a smile before turning around to simply explore. Byleth ended up walking over to her and was right next to her before he even realized it.
"Oh. Uh… h-hello…" the light blue haired girl greeted.
"Oh. Sorry," Byleth apologized, "Do you want to be alone?"
"No, it's alright," the girl assured, "I just… I didn't expect anybody to approach me. A-Are you the Archbishop's grandson?"
"Yea. Name's Byleth," he greeted.
"...Marianne."
"Nice to meet you," Byleth nodded.
Marianne ended up getting a bit quiet, the two looking a bit nervously at each-other.
"...sorry to have bothered you," Byleth apologized, "I guess I'll leave you be."
"No, it's just… I-I mean… well…" Marianne began to speak, then she exhaled, "...you don't have to."
Byleth nodded his head, yet neither of them ended up really saying much. Regardless, they both smiled and just remained nearby.
"So… this girl didn't leave her home?" Ryuko asked.
"Yeah. Took a threat of expulsion to finally make her head out, and she still didn't want to participate with her classes. It's still crazy that she ended up finally starting to show up physically in class…" Edelgard admitted, "I do think she could use someone to support her at some point. ...and, any time I try to help, she just runs away from me because she thinks I'm going to hurt her or something. She talks fast."
"...wow…" Ryuko blinked.
"And then there was this one time where that girl ended up in the same room as Claude. It ended with Claude needing to go to the nurse's office and the girl claimed to have no idea what happened."
Ryuko ended up snickering a bit at the story, "Wow…"
"She may be shy, but she has a mean punch. I managed to trick her into punching a punching bag in the gym once and she knocked it pretty far back," Edelgard commented.
Ryuko couldn't help but snicker a little before she heard her stomach grumble. She nervously giggled a bit at that, "Sorry…"
"It's fine."
"I do have some food my dad left…" Ryuko stated, going over to the fridge, "Let's see, he left me with… oh, my favorite kind of noodles!"
Edelgard looked over at the food and saw the smile that Ryuko had. Curiously, she looked at what Ryuko pulled out and couldn't help but look at it.
"Oh. Don't recognize the brand," Edelgard admitted.
"Recipe my dad made. He's a surprisingly great cook," Ryuko informed, going to heat up the noodles in the microwave before she ended up getting out some plastic utensils and offered one to Edelgard, "Want some? He tends to over make food."
"...if you're sure," Edelgard nodded.
Over with Rhea, she was simply observing Byleth from a bit of a distance. She sighed a little bit, but couldn't help but keep an eye on her grandson from a distance.
"Poor Byleth… and poor Ryuko…" she muttered, having a hard time accepting that her daughter was gone, proceeding to turn to a picture she had of the family, which showed herself, Jeralt, her daughter, and both Byleth and Ryuko as young children. Rhea then began to glare at the part of the image that had Jeralt, and covered it up with her finger before her expression returned to one of sadness.
"Lady Rhea?" an attendant spoke up, making Rhea turn around, "The service is about to wrap up for the day."
"Oh, of course," Rhea realized, setting the picture down and walking out to give a closing speech, "Ladies, gentlemen, and anyone in between, thank you for coming today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day and a light filled future. Now receive the benediction. Dear goddess, we look up to you and thank you for giving us this day, our provisions, our health, and our wealth. We continue to seek guidance in you. For your will is almighty, your grace is absolute, and we are ever grateful for you. We thank you for your blessings in your name. Amen."
There was a resounding response from that, and the people began to disperse.
"I forgot how confining some of this fancy dress stuff is…" Byleth admitted, tugging at his collar.
"I always hated the monkey suits, personally speaking," Jeralt agreed.
Byleth couldn't help but chuckle a bit before they started to head out. As they were about to return to the car, they heard somebody walking towards them. Both of them stopped and turned around to see Rhea walking over.
"Byleth, give my regards to Ryuko. I hope you both are still well even in this transitionary period and with you dealing with the loss. And please don't be afraid to reach out to me if you ever need anything. I will move mountains for you two," Rhea told Byleth
"See you later," Jeralt stated.
"...don't talk to me unless I talk to you first…" Rhea added.
Jeralt just nodded and left with Byleth simply exhaling a little.
Over with Ryuko, she and Edelgard were both eating the lunch that Jeralt had left. Ryuko was simply messing around with some chopsticks that she had in her right hand, while eating with a fork with her left.
"Are you not familiar with how to use those?" Edelgard couldn't help but ask.
"It's fine. I'm just a little fidgety at times, so having something in my hand kind of burns off the energy," Ryuko explained.
"I see. Well, as long as it's not too distracting…"
Ryuko then simply continued on, and Edelgard just observed her a bit. Neither really said much as they proceeded on with the meal, simply looking at each other now and then before they both finished the meal. Edelgard ended up putting the paper plates and plastic utensils into the trash bin.
"Hey… thanks for being willing to talk. I appreciate it," Ryuko thanked.
"No problem. I'll get out of your hair now. I got some stuff to do for school tomorrow. Enjoy the week off the principal gave to you and your brother," Edelgard responded.
"I'll be sure to. Take care," Ryuko bid.
Edelgard smiled and quickly headed off. Edelgard made sure to walk at a certain speed in order to make sure she wasn't seen. Once she was a block or so away from the Eisner house, she simply blushed and thought of Ryuko again before heading off with a bit of a skip in her step.
Ryuko simply leaned over on some unpacked chairs, now in fairly short shots that showed off her legs and left her feet bare, and just simply stared at the ceiling.
"Well… I guess this is life in Fódlan for now. Just gotta get used to it…" Ryuko shrugged. She soon flipped around in her seat so that her legs were pointing up at the air as well. The bluenette just continued to stare before she heard somebody walk over.
"Hey, sis," Byleth greeted.
"Hey. How was it?" Ryuko asked.
"Long, stuffy, and a little crazy at points. Nothing out of the ordinary. But Rhea nearly blew a gasket at me for you not being there. I think that is the angriest she has ever been with me…" Jeralt noted with a light chuckle, "But, I told her it was your choice and I won't influence your choices."
"Thanks dad," Ryuko smiled.
"I'm gonna go lay down a moment and rest my head. Long day…" Jeralt told the twins as he headed off to his room.
"...how was it for you?" Ryuko asked.
"Alright. I met this nice girl there," Byleth informed as he took off his dress jacket.
"Neat. Oh, you know that student council girl? She ended up happening to walk by and we started talking," Ryuko added.
"...huh. I noticed she wasn't at the church, but I just assumed it was because I missed her…"
"She's one of the few not big on church, either. We just talked about that and a few other things. She seems nice," Ryuko continued, proceeding to move around so that she was now sitting in the chair, "At least we made some friends here. ...gonna be a boring week with us needing to unpack and stuff…"
"Is what it is," Byleth shrugged, "Gonna head in the shower. This monkey suit is exhausting…"
"Alright."
With that, Byleth headed off while stretching his arms, Ryuko sighing before she began to think of the student council trio they had met the other day...
Pikatwig: That took a while longer than I expected, but it is what it is.
KKD: I'm just glad we were able to finish that up, but it was still a nice piece of commentary in a way.
Pikatwig: An idea I was thinking for this story was to have the twins be a bit of opposites, and I think their differing perspectives on religion showcased that. Also, before I get asked why religion is even mentioned in the first place, Three Houses made that a bit of a big deal and I thought it would be a disservice to not at least include some pondering about it. Plus, it is something I myself have had some ponderings about. I find myself sort of in the position Ryuko's in about uncertainty with religion.
KKD: I see. It makes sense to some degree, but each person have their own mindset in terms of religion, speaking as one who follow Christianity as a religion.
Pikatwig: One thing I did tell KKD while we were writing this was to pull it back if something came off wrong or the like. Thankfully, that didn't happen, but I did at least think it would be smart to have had that said.
KKD: I understand that, given religion can be a touchy subject. But the fact we were using a fictional religion, it didn't bother me as much.
Pikatwig: Anyway, I think this was a nice chapter. We got some more details and some insight into the twins, along with a few more characters being introduced and mentioned. I'll admit that I was debating having Dorothea appear at the end of the chapter, but I couldn't think of a good way to have it play out.
KKD: Well not every encounter could be perfectly planned, but it works regardless. I'm sure we'll find better ways to introduce whoever else you want to bring in. As for my thoughts? It was good. It has many different views on religion, the devout, those who are on the edge, and those who don't bother with it. But I like the character interactions the most, mostly for Ryuko's part with Edelgard.
Pikatwig: Considering that's your main Three Houses ship, that's not all that surprising.
KKD: Guilty as charged.
Pikatwig: One small thing I wanna remark on, there was one point where KKD mentioned the word "benediction" to me and I honestly had no idea what that meant.
KKD: It's often translated literally as "good news", and is the last message spoken at the end of a sermon at church. Even if you haven't gone to church, you know it means something good as you can relax knowing the end is coming.
Pikatwig: *nods, then nervously chuckles* ...can you tell I haven't been to a church in a VERY long time?
KKD: Yea, I can tell.
Pikatwig: Anyway… my favorite part is the brief amount of interaction between Marianne and Byleth. While the ships are still undetermined, I thought their interactions were sweet and it's certainly a unique experience to write for characters who are a tiny bit more withdrawn and not very talkative.
KKD: Considering Marianne is your main Three Houses waifu before getting the game, I can see that being the case for you.
Pikatwig: Yeah.
KKD: My favorite part is, as I said, the interactions of Ryuko and Edelgard, especially when the latter at the end reacted after her talk with Ryuko.I realize the shipping isn't finalized, but still…
Pikatwig: And, I will say this as many times as I feel I have to, ships are undetermined. While there may be some stuff you can read into and while there may be some crushes, we're still figuring it out. Although, I will add on this fact… originally, I was writing this by myself before I hit a roadblock and had to ask KKD to help me write it. I gave him the caveat that if he did, he couldn't complain about the ships. We are going to be discussing them long term and gauging audience perception. Just give us some time.
KKD: Yeah. We're still figuring that out on our own time, but again, that's mostly Pika's plans, not mine.
Pikatwig: We'll see where it goes. Let's wrap it up. Just Live More.
KKD: Jaa ne.
*There was a silence for a bit and then the two spoke*
Pikatwig: Also, I'm happy that Marianne was the winner of the female bracket for Choose Your Legends 5. Wohoo!
KKD: ...I'm still confused how the Gatekeeper, of all people, won! Dude's an NPC, how does he get popular enough to get into Heroes?!
Pikatwig: I'm fairly certain he got over double the votes Marianne got.
KKD: Ugh… I'll never understand these guys an-*notices something* Wait, the camera's still rolling?
*The two just waved*
