PC: MIZUKI

[frogzoned]

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WEEKEND ZERO - SATURDAY

[frogzoned]

[ from here ]

Yes, the Frog Prince.

[ oh. hrm. he looks down. ]

This really isn't permanent ...

[adorabrawler]

Oh. And here I was thinking you went from a tiny frog to a person shaped frog...

[frogzoned]

Ah.

Well, I didn't. I went from a regular-sized child to regular-sized frog and then to a handsome Prince.

[adorabrawler]

—Catch!

[ throws a tie-dyed t-shirt at him ]

[frogzoned]

[ he catches it





with his tongue. it just shoots out without him thinking much about it. ]

[adorabrawler]

[





!!! ]

Whoa.

W0 - SUNDAY

[frogzoned]

[ well. he doesn't know what to do with all of THAT. happy pride weekend. good lord. but he's going to find somewhere quiet to sit for a while. maybe the ikea? but if he spots her, he'll wander over. ]

Now that I think about it, we probably should not have let children watch that ...

[adorabrawler]

[ ikea it is. perhaps she is on a mission. ]

—Huh? ... Oh, the erasure thing? I'm fine.

[frogzoned]

Are you ... ?

[ why do we have so many pre-traumatized children here. ]

w1; thursday

[adorabrawler]

[ It's a little while after the group of four, bloodied and battered, dragged themselves out from the gates of the (ahem) Jonasseum, but Mizuki is loitering around its outskirts, seemingly in thought. ]

Hm...

[frogzoned]

[ he will also just be wandering. he is carrying ... a wrapped sandwich. ]

Deep in thought?

W1 - SATURDAY

[frogzoned]

I really didn't think ... it could be so simple in the end.

I knew it. I knew it all along and didn't want to believe my own eyes.

[adorabrawler]

You... had suspected them too, huh.

W2 - MONDAY

[frogzoned]

Ah-- just who I was looking for.

I actually need your advice.

[adorabrawler]

—Mine? Uh, sure. What's up?

W3 - MONDAY

[frogzoned]

[ gerard is in the VR place, trying to figure out how you get a VR headset on like. a frog head. do these even work for people with odd shaped heads, such as a frogs. only one way to find out. ]

[adorabrawler]

[ she is. also looking between the headset and his head. ]

Can you get that on, or...

W3, FRIDAY

[frogzoned]

[ hello mizuki. where child. ]

Are you alright?

[adorabrawler]

[ the park?? outer park???? sure. ]

I've been better.

[ literally has only been a few hours and she is beyond exhausted already ]

W4 - MONDAY

[frogzoned]

[ IDK pigs. ]

It’s been a long day of killing spiders. After the battle, you decide. Maybe you should say something. You go to Ylfa, and pull her aside.

“Listen, some of the things that you were saying during the battle and kind of pre-battle, just, you're- during the battle and kind of pre-battle, just, you're-“

“Forgive me. Am I in trouble?”

“No, no no no. You're not... You're not in trouble. You're not a monster.’

“Oh. I very much so appreciate that, Gerard, but I did blow my family away, and in this timeline, I killed a huntsman. And actually, you're right. I mostly took damage down there, so that was not as monstrous.”

“Yes, but I mean, do you…” You gesture over to Little Miss Muffet, picking at some food, her spidery jaws working nervously, small human hands tearing apart a piece of bread. “Do you blame Goldilocks for what happened when she was a spider?”

“No, but I do notice the way that people are scared of her and they treat her differently. I'm aware. I see it. I get it. I mean, you obviously must know. There's a reason that you're trying to still be a prince, right? I mean, you're kind of in a similar situation, right? You were a frog, and then you got to be a prince, and now that you're a frog again, all you want to do is be a prince. And your Elody, if Elody had a spider for a face, would you have fallen in love with her?”

“You know, yes, I think I would have.”

“… I’m sorry, am I talking back too much?”

“No, you're not talking back at all. Listen, you actually are quite different from me, because when I was a kid, I was very, um, I was very selfish and I was very rude, believe it or not, and that's why I was cursed to be a frog in the first place. and that's why I was cursed to be a frog in the first place. And you're... You're very much not that. You take care of these people around you, and when I want to run away, you're always... You stand up to people, and I know that everything that's happening is very scary, but I think that maybe these are the people that we need to be to survive in this world.”

“Don't you just kind of wish that the person that you needed to be to survive in this world was a handsome prince?”

“Yes, very much so.”

There’s a long pause, an awkward silence.

“So, you know, I can, I'm accepting my station, but I'm trying to make peace with it, too. That feels like the next step, right? You got to accept it before you embrace it.”

“Yes, but I will add, Red, that, I don't know, thinking back on it now, when I fell in love with my wife, I was a frog then. She would... She would-“ “She loved you for more than how far you could hop?” - You laugh. “Yes, yes, yes. She... And back then, I didn't have sort of the princely things to rely on and I think maybe, maybe I was a little bit more interesting and thoughtful.”

“Whoa, really? You think that you were more interesting when you weren't a prince? That's crazy. I feel like all the stories are about princes and princesses.”

“Well, they usually stop once the person becomes a prince or a princess, don't they?”

“That's true, I would say what I just saw you do down there with that spider was way more interesting than any story I've read about a prince.”

“Well, thank you. Elody, my wife, did things like that. She's very brave, but … “

“Can I ask you, what did you love about her? You said you'd love her even if she had a spider for a face, so you must have loved something else about her.”

You’d think it’d be harder, to think of the things you loved about her now. You have sets of memories of the wonderful life you lived with the Princess Elody, but this world, the attack from Snowhold was so much more violent, the losses so much greater. You remember seeing Elody astride a blood-soaked horse, her eyes wide with battle rage, huge, golden mace overhead. This is a darker version of your story, and you are most confused about the manner in which you changed, because you thought you remembered receiving a kiss from a princess in the form of a frog as the act of faith and love that transformed you, but you have this strange, surreal memory now of being picked up and thrown into the wall.

“Well, I suppose she was always very adventurous and rebellious, and she would clash with her parents, and she would run off into the woods and talk to me. I just found her fascinating, sort of her rebellious spirit, and then sort of once we got together finally, maybe I got too complacent or comfortable. …. So, I didn't mean for this to turn into you having to... You're not a monster, is what I'm saying.”

“Oh no, I mean, I just was curious, so I asked, 'cause I don't know what makes people fall in love with each other.” She pauses to think. “I’m pretty sure I loved my grandma … ?”

“Yeah.”

“But that's different. Okay, sure. I don't think I'm to that stage of the change yet.”

“But you don't have to make the same mistakes that I did by sort of rejecting the changes that you're making, because then you could end up going back. That's all I wanted to say.”

“Okay. Well, thank you, Gerard.”

“Of course.”

“I’ll think about it. I'll really think about it. I'll give it a good noodle. That's what Grandma used to call it when we have to think about something that we're undecided about.”

“Does anyone have any ale?“

[adorabrawler]

[ me oocly putting my hand over my heart because this was my favorite moment :(

ANYWAY. Unexpectedly—as all of these thus far have been—this plays out within Mizuki's mind, but unlike many, it's actually... a pretty touching moment. An intimate one, between two friends. ]

... Ah. Um—I guess you know I saw that, huh.

w4; saturday

[adorabrawler]

[ idk void. ]

... Hey. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?

[frogzoned]

[ he's just pacing near the warehouses. it's okay. he'll stop when she approaches. ]

No. Not at all.

W7 - MONDAY

[frogzoned]

[ hopefully mizuki is standing around concentrating somewhere ]

Hellooooooo?

[adorabrawler]

[ image if she wasn't. but she is! ]

Whoa. Hellooooo out theeeeeere...