Do you ever just sit and think about how lucky you are in life to have such an amazing group of friends? I'm so delighted that my cosplay besties and I were all able to come together to make my dream photoshoot a reality last year at MAGFest. Harvest Moon 64 means so much to me as a gamer and is what ignited my passion and love for the farming sim genre!
I'm so very happy that Harvest Moon 64 is finally on Nintendo Switch Online so that the next generation of gamers can enjoy one of the series that is closest to my heart. 💗
Elli by @sunfloradesu!
Ann by @careless-seafoam!
Maria by @grumpsterkitty!
Karen by @trickssi!
My name's Max (she/he) and I'm a disabled and queer millennial cosplayer living in the New York City tri-state area. (I also go by the name Aly!) I love bringing my favourite characters to life through my cosplaying, and have been going to conventions since 2011. I spend my free time editing photos, making .gifs, vlogging, and gaming.
This is my main blog, and you'll be seeing a little bit of everything that I enjoy on here. I'm mostly into anime and video games, but there may be some other series sprinkled in here from time to time. Every post will be tagged with the series name and any relevant warnings.
You'll find me nightblogging about my muses on here most nights. What can I say? I'm just a feral yet sterile fangirl. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 18+ MDNI
I use this blog as a diary of sorts, so you can expect a decent amount of personal posts. I also love liveblogging whatever series I'm currently into. You can find a masterlist of relevant links here.
I stream Pokémon, JRPGs, and farming sims on my Twitch after 11 pm EST on weekday nights. You can see more of my work on my Cosplay Blog. (´｡• ◡ •｡`) ♡
📸 Credits: Photography by Yenra Photography, Anagramma, Tom Wheat Photography, Rmabasa, and Simon Vuong 📸
💖 Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu (Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair) by @zeldamomoe
Team Skull Grunt (Pokémon Sun and Moon) by @porkrindsthinkalike
Ann (Harvest Moon 64) by @careless-seafoam
Elli (Harvest Moon 64) by @sunfloradesu
Maria (Harvest Moon 64) by @grumpsterkitty
Karen (Harvest Moon 64) by @trickssi 💖
Hi @graceisprettygreat I was so excited to fulfill your request this year and I really hope it was what you were looking for. The prompt I chose was “a father’s day for tenmyouji”.
The weather was miserable, so even if Quark hadn’t been feeling well, he probably would have told the boy to stay at home. It was a good day to hit up the old research facility.
The building wasn’t obvious; whatever branding had existed before was long gone, so he wasn’t even sure what it presented itself to the world as. He was pretty certain it had been some sort of secret government facility. On one trip he had been bored and rifled through some documents on Department of Defense letterhead. The front of the building had collapsed, blocking off the entrance, and he was convinced the DoD had probably done it themselves, on purpose. Vegetation was overgrown, the parking lot was a disaster, and it took him a week just to figure out how to get in through some rubble in the east wing.
It was an hour-long trip on the bus, then about another half an hour on foot. He always feared the building might collapse in on him as he wriggled his way in, or his bag might get stuck as he tried to pull it out. But the stuff he found usually ensured he didn’t have to work quite as hard for another few months.
The other downside was the real reason he never brought Quark here. He could possibly make a safer way in, or limit any excursions to areas where the risk of collapse was low. It was the signs sporadically located throughout the building that warned of radiation past that point. He had some radiation detection badges from an abandoned hospital, and he wasn’t even sure if they worked. But he was old as dirt and there was no way he hadn’t been exposed at some point before. He couldn’t risk it with Quark.
The badge didn’t want to stay on his soaked shirt so he just shoved it in his pocket. He’d check it periodically. The building was huge and he never wanted to stay in for too long, so there were still sections that were unexplored. The upper levels of the west wing were a little intimidating, since there was already some structural damage. But he ventured there anyway. No electricity, obviously, so the elevators weren’t an option; it took him another half hour to get to an unexplored level. He pulled a marker out of his pocket and scrawled a big ‘X’ for future endeavors.
Nothing much of value in the first few rooms. The third office on the right had two corpses in it. Dead bodies didn’t much bother him anymore, especially ones that were so old. But in this case, one of them was lying on a couch, legs crossed at the ankles, hands crossed over the chest, some kind of deteriorated cloth over their face. The other person might have killed themselves, if the gun lying on the table next to their head was any indication.
The gun wasn’t really of much value. Electronics yielded a small amount of useful material. But the real money was in the jewelry. Engagement and wedding rings, a gaudy necklace and a few bracelets. The first time he scavenged from a corpse, he threw up when he got back home. Ended up burying the rings in the backyard of whatever damn place he was holed up in. Had nightmares about being haunted by the dead people who wanted their mementos back.
Today, he brought tools that could snap bone and make his task easier.
The rings scratched the glass, so probably real diamonds. There were still people who cared about these things and would pay good money for it. They might be able to go easy on the work for a couple weeks.
He thought he heard the building groan when he tried to get at some exposed pipes, so he packed up and slipped out, back into the rain. The bus was running late, so he got home a little later than expected, but he knew Megan and Joe wouldn’t mind. They loved the little guy, and the new laws meant they couldn’t keep the bar open after 8pm anyway. When he was about twenty minutes away, he pulled out his phone and messaged them to let them know he was almost home.
The key fob didn’t work. Must be another rolling blackout. They never had them in the old neighborhood, but there were still definite advantages living over a bar. He went around back and used the door with a manual key. No candles downstairs, so he went up to where their personal rooms were.
Then nearly jumped out of his skin when he was met with a round of, “Surprise!”
Joe was lighting candles on a cake that … appeared to have been frosted by Quark. There was a large root beer float sitting next to it, along with a small package tied up with yarn.
“It’s not my birthday,” he muttered as he shrugged of his coat.
“No, it’s Father’s Day! There’s a Grandfather’s Day too, but nobody could remember when it was.”
Oh. Was it? He imagined some people still celebrated it. It was frowned upon to be procreating in this world, and only idiots still raised their kids if they did end up creating one. He saw the looks he got walking around with Quark. And that jackass in their old town who bragged to everyone about having a mother only guaranteed their status as social pariahs.
Quark’s smile faltered a little in response to his silence. He held out a piece of paper, and as Junpei took it, he realized it was a drawing. He didn’t think Quark had any crayons left. It was probably supposed to be the two of them, walking somewhere.
“I made the cake with real eggs, too.”
HIs mind was reeling a little at how much this would have cost, but he ignored it for now.
“Sounds great.” He rubbed his temple to try and stifle the headache building. “Thank you, Quark.”
“Well blow out the damn candles,” Megan nagged him.
He did as instructed, careful to only extinguish the ones on the cake and not the others lighting the room. When Quark insisted on cutting the pieces, Joe asked Junpei to come downstairs with him to grab a knife and some plates. They had one flashlight and fortunately Megan must have made sure the batteries were recharged, as it came to life as Junpei pressed the switch.
“You could try to look a little more enthusiastic,” Joe chided him.
“I’ll pay you back for whatever that all costs.”
“Don’t worry about it. He saved up his allowance for this.”
“I know what he gets for allowance,” Junpei said as Joe handed him a stack of plates. “And I know what eggs and root beer cost.”
“You’re the first boarder in a long time who paid the full rent on time every month. I told Quark his allowance covered it. So don’t worry about it.” He held up a knife and frowned at it, putting it down and picking up another, running his finger over the edge. “This should be dull enough that he can’t cut himself. Now when we get up there, act happier. He put a lot of effort into this.”
The lights came back on while they were going upstairs.
“About damn time,” Joe grumbled. “This is the third one this week. I’m starting to worry about our power grid.”
“Starting?” he muttered under his breath. As they re-entered the room, he made an effort to smile. Quark looked a little apprehensive, and he felt bad for not being more grateful. He was still fixated on the cost, the time Quark must have spent doing this, after lying to him about not feeling well, and how he could have been -
He squeezed his eyes shut in an effort to derail that train of thought. When he re-opened them, he forced the smile on his face to look natural and genuine, not … well … forced.
“Let’s crack into that cake, huh? Haven’t had something with real eggs in it in a while.”
“I tried to get all the eggshells out. One of them broke really easily and I wasn’t expecting it. And you have to open your present!”
He held out the box. The “wrapping paper” was clearly a napkin from the bar, complete with stains that just wouldn’t wash out. Rum and some kind of tomato-based sauce, if he had to guess. Junpei undid the yarn that was holding it together let the napkin fall to the table. The box inside was labeled PERISHABLE and smelled like cheese, so he was surprised when there wasn’t food inside, but a small metal trinket. A brooch, actually, shaped like a J. It had seen better times, so it was clearly something Quark had scavenged somewhere. Very girly and ornate, not anything he would actually ever wear, even if donning fancy jewelry wasn’t like putting a target on your back. But he found himself tearing up anyway.
“Do you like it? There was a whole bunch of letters like that in a building me and David were exploring. I wanted a G for Grandpa but they didn’t have one.”
“It’s perfect,” he said, his voice cracking a little. “How long have you been planning this?”
“Since whenever Miss Megan’s birthday was. She told me about it. If you’re crying, does that mean you don’t like it?”
Oh. His face was wet.
“I love it, Quark. It’s the perfect Father’s Day present.”
The worry instantly left Quark’s face, and he held out a sloppily cut piece of cake. Chocolate, from the looks of it. He … was not going to worry about how much that cost.
“I bet it’s delicious. Make sure you and Joe and Megan get pieces, too.”
Quark gave him a huge grin and turned back to the cake, cutting out ridiculously large pieces for everyone. Junpei wiped a bit of schmutz off the fork before digging in. The texture was off, the frosting was grainy, and Quark had definitely not gotten all the eggshells out.
But it had literally been decades since someone had baked a cake just for him. Decades since he felt that someone … cared about him. Loved him.
Who else is excited for multiplayer Story of Seasons? I can't wait to visit my friends' villages!
Here's to hoping that one day we'll get a Harvest Moon 64 remake or remaster. This game means so much to me, and I would absolutely love to see a modern rendition of it!
Here's a flashback to the Harvest Moon 64 bachelorette photoshoot I had at MAGFest 2023! Who is your favourite Flowerbud Village gal? 🌸
Elli by @sunfloradesu!
Ann by @careless-seafoam!
Maria by @grumpsterkitty!
Karen by @trickssi!
Tried to include at least a little bit of all the prompts: Sigma finds a stray kitty / some of the characters playing DND / Luna & Diana’s first meeting / Luna & Lotus discussing computers/AI.
AO3
She smoothed down her skirt again, debated ironing it. Even though they didn’t really have time. She impulsively pulled her hair out of the ponytail, letting the red locks cascade over her shoulders. Except she clearly had that indent one gets from the hair elastic, and if she didn’t have time to iron out the single, barely noticeable wrinkle from her skirt she didn’t have time to break out the straightener or the curling iron to fix that.
So she pulled her hair back up, securing it tightly and re-tying the ribbon around it, making sure the bow was even.
Why am I so nervous?
Staring at herself in the mirror, Diana’s insecurities crept in. Green skirt, ivory shirt and bow, red sweater and shoes – did she look silly? Everyone knew it was Christmas; it wasn’t like she needed to go with a full-blown color scheme. And her brooch, a cat in a stocking, was it too childish?
“I thought you were all set?”
Her heart still skips a beat sometimes when she sees him. Dark green pants with a white sweater, tight enough to show off his physique. Dark hair peeking out from under a Santa hat.
And a silver ring on his finger that matched hers. Why did she feel so unsettled?
“Is the stuffing ready to go?” she deflected.
“Phi has it packed up.” Sigma tilted his head slightly, but didn’t say anything more.
“We should head out then.” Plastering a smile on her face, she went up to him and squeezed his arms gently. He stopped her before she could walk past him, questioning her with his eyes.
“You are anxious about this.”
“I know it’s stupid,” she bristled. “I just … I don’t understand why she’s here.”
“Well, we’ll get to -”
“If you guys don’t get down here right now, I’m leaving.”
“We’re coming,” Diana shouted down to their daughter. She swept through the kitchen before heading to the front door, grabbing a bottle of wine to add to the basket. She tucked it in next to the carefully packaged, ready for the oven, homemade stuffing. Phi was more simply dressed, in jeans, a t-shirt, and a hoodie.
Sigma looked worried as he came down the stairs, but said nothing as he threw on his jacket and grabbed his keys.
“It’s a party, not a funeral, you guys,” Phi chided them. Diana put on her best fake happy face as she hauled the picnic basket out to the car. Once inside, she quickly switched to the Christmas station, humming along as Carol of the Bells came on.
-
“I hope the neighbors are okay with us parking here,” she mused as she got out of the car.
“Should be fine,” Phi said. “They don’t own the street.”
With one last worried glance at the building - the Owens lived there, according to the sign - she turned to walk the few blocks to Lotus’s house. It was just chilly enough to make her sweater comfortable. Sigma took the hand that wasn’t holding the basket and squeezed it gently.
It was so silly.
Mamoru opened the door, looking frustrated for a second before his face burst into a huge grin. Exclaiming her name, he embraced her in a giant bear hug. She felt unbelievably small, even more so than when Sigma held her. When he released her, she awkwardly held out the basket.
“Stuffing is all ready to go; it just needs 30 minutes or so at 375.”
“Uh…” He put his hand on the back of his head. “The mac and cheese is in there now and I think it’s at 425… Nona, I might need some help with the oven!”
“But I’m the dungeon master!”
“It won’t take long. Please?”
There was a heavy sigh and then, “Two minutes or less.”
He shuffled off towards the kitchen, belatedly shouting out behind him, “Oh yeah, coat closet is right there.”
“We’ve been here before,” Phi said, already putting her hoodie away.
“I hope I made enough stuffing.” Diana glanced into the living room, seeing every sitting spot already full. Lotus was on the sofa, talking to a woman with familiar red hair. Her heart caught in her throat. Lotus pointed at her and Diana wanted to just melt into the floor. She heard her husband’s sharp intake of breath behind her as Luna turned to look at them.
My god.
She … she knew that Luna would resemble her. And she wasn’t a perfect match. The nose, the eyes … but …
Luna looked almost as nervous as she felt. The other woman got up off the couch, clasped her hands in front of her and peered out from under fallen bangs. Diana moved across the floor and couldn’t stop herself as she blurted out, “Why are you here?”
“To enjoy Christmas dinner with us,” Lotus said as she stood. “Speaking of, I should make sure my boyfriend isn’t burning everything.”
“That doesn’t count!” Ennea’s voice carried over from the dining room.
She heard Maria pipe up. “What, just because it hit the floor?”
“If it doesn’t stay on the table, it’s not real.”
“If I had rolled a one, I bet you wouldn’t care.”
“It’s the rules!”
“A real rule, or a Kashiwabara rule?”
“I don’t know if it’s a rule rule,” Phi interjected. “But it’s a generally accepted principle.”
“I’m totally getting killed by poison darts, aren’t I?”
“Just re-roll,” Ennea said. “You might get lucky.”
The next thing she heard was dice hitting the table and a set of collective groans.
“Um, Diana?”
Her attention turned back to Luna, who looked even more anxious than before. It should have comforted her, just like her husband’s hand on the small of her back, but it didn’t.
“I’m also curious why you’re here, Luna,” Sigma said. “Did you need to warn us about something?”
“No, that’s not it at all. I was just … I was lonely.”
She blushed. The android actually blushed. Diana frowned at her.
“So you just decided to get in the transporter and come here because you’re lonely? How do we know you’re not a spy? Or assassin?”
Sigma uttered something behind her that sounded like gibberish and Luna went limp immediately. One of the other guests gasped from behind them. He lurched forward to catch her and guide her onto the couch. Lotus must have heard or seen something, as suddenly she was also back in the living room.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“It’s a kill code. ‘Birthday’ in Russian followed by ‘happy’ in Chinese, since I can’t imagine anyone will ever say that normally.” Sigma pressed a spot on the back of Luna’s left ear and a panel opened up on her forehead. He quickly tapped a few buttons and Luna came back to life. Diana found herself breathing a sigh of relief.
“I see,” Luna said. “You wanted to see if I had been altered.”
Sigma sat down next to her on the couch. “It’s not perfect, but I thought perhaps it would put my wife at ease.”
Now Diana was surely the one with red cheeks. It wasn’t an unreasonable question. You’re making me sound paranoid.
Lotus placed herself on Luna’s other side, asking permission before touching the panel that was still open on her forehead. “Not like I’ll really understand anything I’m seeing, I’m sure,” she muttered under her breath.
There was a small ruckus from the dining room. Diana couldn’t make out much, but she heard “flame trap” and “third damn time.”
“Why did you decide to come here?” Sigma was asking his creation. “This timeline, I mean.”
Before answering, she carefully closed her head panel; Diana found herself trying to look for the seams in the artificial skin that would show where it was. But her skin was flawless.
“It was a guess.”
“How do you define a ‘guess’ in your mind?” Lotus said.
Luna set her hands in her lap. “The transporter map showed my current location in space time. Using that and Dr. Klim’s data, I made some conjectures on what directed the branches to fork off as they did and attempted to choose one that wasn’t headed down a disastrous path. Obviously, the further away I got from my location, the less certainty I had. I only had about a 15.67% chance that this would be a truly good timeline, but there was a 43.34% chance that it would at least be better than the one I was in. In mine … everyone is gone.”
“In the Rhizome?” Sigma interjected.
“Everywhere. Humanity is extinct.”
They sat in silence for an uncomfortable amount of time, until excited eruptions from the other room broke it.
“Don’t put it on before analyzing it,” Ennea warned.
Maria snorted loudly. “I’m not stupid.” Then, after a moment, “Don’t give me that look. You would have tried to steal that book too.”
“Yeah,” Phi said. “But I’m a thief.”
“How exactly did humanity die out?” Sigma asked, bringing Diana’s attention back to Luna.
“I’m not certain of all the details. There was another outbreak. Something worse this time. Then war broke out. The sky went black. I hadn’t attempted to make much contact with Earth after Dr. Klim …”
Lotus glanced around at the rest of them. “Did you not tell them what year you came from? I think you should have started with that.”
Luna slumped slightly, staring down at her hands. The knot in Diana’s stomach grew.
“2745,” she said finally.
Diana couldn’t quite believe it, and from the expression on Sigma’s face, she could tell he felt the same. That would have been, what, almost seven hundred years without Sigma? Or even Akane. Living alone, not knowing if your body would ever shut down naturally. Not knowing if you could or would ever die.
The silence was broken, this time not by the game, but by Mamoru shouting from the kitchen that dinner was almost ready and they better clear the table. No one in the living room moved, even when the twins brought in the Dungeons & Dragons paraphernalia to place on the coffee table.
“Nobody can possibly understand what she went through,” Lotus said softly as the girls left. “She can’t go talk to a therapist about this and you guys are essentially her only family. I get we’re hypervigilant and the timing seems strange.”
“Come on guys!” Mamoru poked his head out of the hall. “Dinner’s gonna get cold.”
Luna stood up. “I don’t want to ruin your party. We can talk later. I can go back to the facility.”
Sigma opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it as he turned towards Diana. She knew he would defer to her if she protested. And part of her still wanted to. But the part of her that was a mother …
“You should come eat dinner with us - if you eat, I guess - and then come back with us. We have a spare room and I know Sigma has missed you.”
Rather than wait for a response, Diana looped her arm through Luna’s and guided her to the dining room. There were two tables set up, one very neatly done, the other more hastily thrown together, with dice still sitting out by the centerpiece. She sat at the slightly sloppier table, with Luna on one side and her husband joining her on the other. Mamoru and Lotus were hauling food out of the kitchen and placing it anywhere there was room. A giant turkey, stuffing, macaroni and cheese, yams, green beans, with more coming out.
“Sigma’s getting over his little cat tic,” Diana volunteered to her near-doppelganger. “We found a sweet little stray kitten outside about a month ago. I named her Fluffy.”
She pulled out her phone and opened the cat picture folder.
“You can scroll through if you want.”
“Oh. She’s so small and precious.” For the first time since Diana had met her, Luna was smiling. It … it was silly to be paranoid. Or jealous. Sometimes coincidences are just coincidences. Looking at the way Luna’s face lit up as she swiped through picture after picture of the little hairball, she couldn’t believe she had anything to do with … the incident.
“Dig in everyone,” Lotus said. “If we have leftovers, they’re not staying here.”
“I am designed to be able to consume food,” Luna told her as she handed the phone back. “I can even taste. Or at least I think I can. I’m not really sure what human taste is like.”
Lotus slid into the spot on the other side of Luna. “I would love to have that discussion with you, if you’re okay with that?”
“Of course.”
Sigma placed his hand on her thigh and squeezed gently. She covered his hand with hers and returned the gesture.
I’m fine, she thought in his direction. It’s going to be okay. But … if I keep getting a new child every year for Christmas, our house is going to get crowded.
(fin)
Tried to incorporate two of my giftee’s prompts: Mira AU where she escapes with Sean as the primary piece, with a hint of Clover/Alice.
Waiting for a bus in an unknown timeline, as if words could ever express how sorry she feels that this kid’s stuck with somebody as heartless as her… Ahah, if I had more time, I’d write an accompanying fic for this piece. As it is, this is the longest I’ve spent on art in months, so I really hope you enjoy it!
FIC: Four Times Hazuki Kashiwabara Almost Lost Her Kids (and One Time After They Found Her)
To: @mortellanarts
From: @grumpsterkitty
For mortellanarts for Zecretsanta 2020 – “Lotus and her kids on Christmas”. This story mentions a near miscarriage.
AO3 LINK
(1)
It was an accident.
An honest accident. Not like the ones that would happen at home.
She asked to watch the surveillance tape, after, once she had seen the doctor and she had reassured her that everything was fine. Even in black and white, she could see the horror on Wendy’s face as she tripped over the electrical cord. She replayed the moment when Wendy stumbled into her, knocking her into the copier. Watching as her pregnant belly seemed to compress to an impossibly small size.
If she had lost the girls, she probably wouldn’t have been able to forgive Wendy.
To be honest, she hadn’t forgiven Wendy.
Which wasn’t entirely fair; perhaps the bulk of the blame was on the repair technician, or whoever decided to put the copier against the west wall, which had fewer power outlets, or whoever built and wired the building to begin with.
The blood - her blood - looked dark grey on the video. It looked innocuous, like spilled soda.
She left the job three months after the twins were born, when she was sure they’d all be able to transfer to her husband’s insurance.
(2)
She cursed under her breath as she dropped the first aid kit. The alcohol wasn’t even in here, she remembered, as she saw the band-aids scattered across the ground. A tiny drop of blood slid down her ear and onto the Ace bandage.
The doorbell rang just as she managed to find the alcohol in the clutter under the sink. She sloppily splashed some on a cotton and glanced at herself in the mirror. The blood hadn’t gotten on her outfit, at least. The doorbell rang again, and again, and again, as she barreled down the stairs.
“Dammit, when did you get so impatient? Girls, Liz is early, are you done with -?”
She was cut short when she entered the dining room and saw their dinner plates still on the table, barely touched, and her daughters nowhere to be found.
“Girls?”
The doorbell ringing continued, but she ignored it. She went through the rest of the house, picking up the pace as each one was empty. She was only upstairs for what, ten, fifteen minutes? Just long enough to change and put on her damn earrings. She called out their names as their babysitter kept pressing on the doorbell.
In panic and rage, she stormed to the front door and flung it open, ready to scream. But it wasn’t Liz, just Nona and Ennea standing there with popsicles in their hands.
“We didn’t realize the door would lock behind us,” Ennea explained. The grating music from the ice cream truck got louder as it came down their street.
Hazuki allowed herself a sigh of relief before she chastised them. “You left, without even asking, to get dessert, before you finished dinner?”
Nona just shrugged while Ennea at least had the decency to look embarrassed. “Mom, come on. You know they’re the only one who have the blueberry ones we like. We’ll still eat our dinner. We promise.”
“We promise,” Nona reiterated. “Even the carrots.”
“Maybe half the carrots?” Ennea said, a grimace on her face. “I read if you eat too many, you can turn orange.”
“You eat too many blueberry popsicles, you’re going to turn blue. You have a perfectly reasonable portion of carrots on your plate and I expect them to be all gone when I’m done.”
Her daughter’s expression changed, from disgust to worry. “Mama, what happened to your ear? Daddy … he didn’t come by, did he?”
“No.” Hazuki kneeled in front of them. “Remember that paper I told you about? He can’t come here or he’ll get in a lot of trouble. It’s just been a little while since I wore earrings and my holes must have closed up. I tried to force it through and I shouldn’t have. Now finish up your dessert and eat your dinner.”
Her twins exchanged a glance before heading to the dining room. She took a deep breath and went back upstairs to finish getting ready. As much as she had wanted to wear her new jewelry, she could see the earlobe swelling up.
There would be time for wearing earrings, later. Now that she didn’t have to worry about her husband ripping them out of her ear.
(3)
It started to drizzle, but she stayed on the bench. She could see Deanna about to cross the street into the park. She had her hand on the stack of hundreds in her purse. Deanna waved at her and Hazuki clenched her teeth.
It was silly. Nobody had tailed her, she was certain.
Deanna sat next to her, seemingly uncaring that the bench was wet. Hazuki handed over the envelope of cash without a word.
“It’s definitely done?” Deanna asked.
“I think he could appeal, but he probably won’t. He didn’t actually want the girls. He just wanted to hurt me.”
“I hate men.” Hazuki must have made a face, because Deanna laughed. “I can hate men and still be a hooker.”
“I thought women in your price range called yourselves ‘escorts’.”
“We’re all the same. Just because I don’t stand on a street doesn’t make me better.”
“Well. Thank you.”
The smile faded off Deanna's face. "I've done this before. That wife wanted to get out of a prenup and take his money. Which I could respect. Guy was an asshole. Do you have a picture of your kids?"
The sudden shift in topic left her mental gears spinning for a moment. She supposed there was no danger in it; she had researched Deanna thoroughly before emailing her. She dug into her bag and pulled out her keys, with the keychain the girls made for her last year. The picture inside the heart-shaped frame was of the three of them, the girls flanking her on either side, all of them smiling.
As she handed it to Deanna, the other woman looked like she might cry.
"I see my boy a few times a year, and that's it," she said finally. “My ex didn’t have a problem with what I did when he got to benefit from the money I made. Then I found out he was having an affair and he needed to tell the court I was an unfit mother so I wouldn’t get custody and he wouldn’t have to pay child support.”
“System is biased against women.” She took her keys back and tucked them back into her purse. “I work hard, take belly dancing lessons, and already started dating again. That was enough to make the judge question if I was a good mom. If you hadn’t been willing to –”
“Nobody’s going to protect us. We have to do it ourselves.”
They sat there in silence for a few moments as the rain started to taper off.
“What does your ex do, exactly?”
Deanna snorted. “He works for a health insurance company.”
“Any idea how good their firewall is?”
(4)
“Excuse me? Hello? Does anyone work in this hospital?!”
The nurse who came over looked exhausted, with dark bags under her eyes; any other day, Hazuki would have felt bad being so harsh, but she had been there for almost ten minutes and hadn’t gotten a single answer.
“Which kid is yours?” the nurse asked in a near monotone.
“Nona and Ennea Kashiwabara. I got a call they were brought here.”
“Ah, the twins. Yes. I’ll find their doctor.”
“Wait, are they okay?” The nurse seemed to ignore her as she walked down the hallway. “Can someone just tell me if they’re okay? What the fuck is wrong with you people?”
She felt a hand on her shoulder and almost took the man’s head off when she turned around. He was entirely too tall, with a well-chewed pen stuck behind his ear.
“I’m Detective Lynch. Can I help you?”
“I just want to find my damn kids!”
“Kashiwabara, right? The staff here are a little overwhelmed, but your kids are in good hands. And your girls are okay. Nona has a scrape on her knee, but that’s the worst of it.”
“Did you interrogate them? They’re minors. You can’t –”
He held up a hand. “I met the detective who rescued them at the pier. I rode with one of your girls here.”
“Did you say the ‘pier’? The – but – I was told they were found in a building in Nevada. Where – what the hell happened to them? They were missing for days!”
Lynch opened his mouth as if to respond, but suddenly seemed distracted by something just off to her left. She turned to see what he was staring at, but he reached out and took her hand.
“We’re looking into it,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “When the nurse comes back, go be with your daughters. Take them home. I’ll give you my card.”
He barely took his eyes off her as he pulled out a business card and scribbled something on the back. He handed it to her and walked off without another word. His cursive was sloppy, but she could clearly read the message – not safe, text me, I’ll call you.
“Mrs. Kashiwabara? Your girls are in room 407.”
When she turned around, there was no one there but the tired-looking nurse.
“The … the policeman who found the kids, where is he? Is he still here? Can I talk to him?”
“No, ma’am. I think he went back to the station. 407 is this way.”
She realized she was clenching her fists and had crumbled up Lynch’s card. But the writing was still legible.
(+1)
“Are you really sure you’re both okay with this?”
Nona cracked open the oven and clucked her tongue. “Not quite. And yes, mom, although it’s a little late to ask again now. And stop eating all the deviled eggs, or you won’t have room for dinner.”
Hazuki rolled her eyes; before she could grab another egg, Ennea swiped the plate out from under her hand.
“Need me to help with anything?”
“Sure mom, you can make the cranberry sauce.” Nona handed her can and an opener. Hazuki sighed heavily as she cut the lid off and schlorped the dark red jelly tube into the bowl.
“There, sauce is made.”
“It’ll be good to see Mamoru again.” Ennea told her.
“Oh, you’re on a first name basis now?” Nona teased. “What happened to Detective Watanabe?”
“He hates formality and you know it. Did you know he shares a name with a porn director?”
“Seriously?”
“Girls.”
“It’s true, though,” Ennea insisted. “The guy did a film called Virgin Rope Makeover.”
“Did Mamoru tell you that?”
“No, mom, the internet is a thing.” Nona peeked in the oven again. “Ah, finally.”
Hazuki tamped down the urge to remind her daughter that the turkey pan would be hot and heavy and to be careful. She had never been one of those mothers while her girls were growing up, but ever since … ever since, it was hard not to be overprotective. As soon as Nona had the turkey out, Ennea put in the pie. And then the doorbell rang.
“Okay, please no mention of porn directors,” she told her daughters.
Ennea rolled her eyes as she set a timer and followed Nona out to the living room. When Mamoru came in, he had to duck his head to avoid hitting it on the doorjamb. He inexplicably had a large cardboard box in his hands.
“Hey, so, uh, hi. I brought wine, but then I realized I didn’t know if you liked red or white, to I got both, but the girls couldn’t drink it, so I got grape juice, but then I realized I didn’t know if they liked red or white, so I just got both of those, too.”
Nona took the box from him and grimaced as if she hadn’t anticipated how heavy it was. “No worries.”
He shrugged out of his coat and Ennea giggled as she took it from him and put it on herself. It was so big on her it was practically a dress, and when she held up her arms, it was clear her hands were where his forearms were supposed to be.
“I call it … Three and a Half,” she declared. Hazuki smiled and Nona chuckled, but Mamoru looked puzzled.
“Oh,” he said finally. “’Cause I was Seven.” With that, he let loose a loud guffaw.
“Go on,” Ennea told him. “Dinner is basically ready. Do you feel like carving the turkey? Mom and I usually butcher it when we try.”
“Uh, sure.” He followed Nona as she hauled the box of beverages into the dining room.
As Hazuki put her arm around Ennea, she heard Nona ask, “Is it true you share a name with a Japanese porn director?”
