zuko catchall

[exercisms]

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week 0

[exercisms]

[Later that evening, after getting settled into his room, Mob is out near the woods, calling out into it.]

Hello? Come on out!

[cuedoves]

[ zuko....... is in the woods. like a weirdo. apparently he still hasn't given up on this barrier. he emerges ]

Who are you talking to?

[ is it the frog... is it zuko? none of the above? ]

[exercisms]

[He kind of hesitates for a long pause, looking a little unsure. He's not really sure of Zuko yet - he was nice to the frog, but also seemed angry?

There are some people in the world, it turns out, who would be cruel to a stray cat.]

Um. Nothing.

week 0, post-trial

[cuedoves]

[ what's up mob zuko's hanging around the kitchen.... finally fuckin eating some tuna or something i don't know. ]

You alright?

[exercisms]

[Wow. Enjoy your tuna, Zuko. He's probably also getting a snack, and it's probably equally sad. But he actually smiles a little, when he sees Zuko.]

Hey. . . you were able to stop him.

week 1; friday

[exercisms]

[Okay so maybe coming back to the docking bay after carrying space suits? Maybe Zuko is helping him with space suit. . . 2? Who knows.

He's just very quiet.]

[cuedoves]

[ mob's training is carrying a corpse and two spacesuits simultaneously. he's gonna get swole. ]

[ but no, zuko's helping. ]

... Two bodies. This is worse than I thought.

[ thanks zuko ]

week 1, post-exec

[cuedoves]

[ hewwo mob... where are you? zuko's coming to find you, after all that. he was definitely there at the execution the whole time. ]

... Hey.

[ zuko, here, ]

[exercisms]

[He is in his room! So it's pretty easy to find him, I guess! He remembers how much Zuko was there and observing everything and reacting to what happened during the execution, so he will immediately let him in.]

Hello.

week 2; post-trial

[exercisms]

[Where's Zuko at. Kissing his boyfriend? But after that, where's he at.

Mob has a habit of just kind of wandering around while he thinks things through, but he's on the lookout for Zuko.]

[cuedoves]

[ zuko's brooding in the void. ]

[ he's pacing back and forth..... ]

[ but he stops when he sees mob. ]

Hey.

week 3; thursday morning

[exercisms]

[Okay, by Thursday morning he's been talked off the worst of his drama by a few people, but he's still in this sort of strange mood that he got in around Wednesday evening.

You know that look when you maybe drank way too much coffee and pulled an all nighter and you're exhausted but haven't come down from it yet? Basically it's that. Zuko can probably find him pacing around town or sitting near the Planetarium with kind of an over-focused look and the sense that he just turned in his essay and isn't sure what to do with himself now.]

[cuedoves]

Shigeo?

[ there's no emotionshare anymore but it doesn't take a super perceptive genius to see something's up. zuko abandons what he was doing to come check on him. ]

What happened?

week 3; friday

[exercisms]

[After trial, he's looking for Yoshizawa. . . in the petting zoo? Yeah, he is. But he doesn't really expect to find her, and he does find Zuko.]

[cuedoves]

[ zuko's made his way over here somehow, still stuck on looking for clues. chickens are following him, but he slams his fist on the closest wall equivalent. ]

Shiro..... Sumire....

[ chickens cluck, ruining his manpain moment. ]

week 3, post-trial

[cuedoves]

[ hello its zuko manpaining again with chickens clucking in the bg. ]

Who saw that outfit?

[exercisms]

It wasn't me!

[Presumably. Though you can never know for sure.]

week 4; monday

[exercisms]

[Have a spooky boy outside the spooky house, looking around. I'm too tired to write a good starter.]

Zuko-san. Good morning!

[cuedoves]

[ so spooky... zuko is in this ridiculous outfit ]

Hey. Checking things out?

week 4; sunday

[exercisms]

[Mob is probably out for a run after the execution, but he runs into and pops a bubble.

Okay have my DUMB LONG MEMORY that you asked for because you were BEING NICE.

Part #1 9:18 - 13:34. It’s also on youtube but cuts out my favorite part at the end. :(

Anyway, here’s the situation if you didn’t get the first part of Mogami arc. Mob is in some kind of junkyard. He’s being punched and kicked and beaten very badly by a group of several middle school boys, while a girl named Minori Asagiri watches and laughs. Another detail - this is hazy, but someone watching the memory would probably understand. This situation is part of an illusion. Mob knows this, too, somewhere, but he’s been trapped here a long time and he’s starting to forget himself. He only recognizes himself as this weak and vulnerable boy, being picked on constantly by bullies without no one to turn to and no ability to defend himself.

And then a nearby caterpillar starts speaking to Mob in a weird, disembodied voice, one that is very familiar to him by now, encouraging to hate them and use his powers to destroy them.

Suddenly, Mob remembers that he has psychic powers. There’s a blast, tossing all of the boys hitting him away. The junk all over the junkyard picks up in the air and floats around him. He walks towards Minori Asagiri, a little terrifying. She cries, claims her father’s bodyguards will beat him up, but when that doesn’t work, start to beg for forgiveness. All Mob is doing is demanding she apologize and never talk to him again, but then one of the boys comes behind him and brains him from behind with a cinderblock, causing him to go completely apeshit. He lifts the boy off the ground with his powers and a hand around his throat and starts force choking him, blood streaming down his face.

The caterpillar is still talking to Mob, encouraging him, glad that he finally changed and stopped letting others use him.

And then out of the boy’s nose pops a hideous green ghost that looks like a snot bubble.

Dimple: Man. You’re pretty far gone, huh? Do you know who I am?

Shigeo: What the heck is this creature?

Dimple: Actually, before that. . .

He flies over and squishes the caterpillar that was talking to Mob. Then, he stores up a ball of psychic energy and punches Mob in the face with it, knocking him to the ground.

Dimple: Time for some shock therapy! Remember, Shigeo! Reigen and I are waiting for you outside!

Shigeo: Rei. . . gen. Who’s that?

Then his cell phone rings, and Reigen’s voice is on the other end, demanding he comes into the office. Mob looks like he’s slowly starting to recognize the voice. In fact, as Dimple keeps speaking, Mob seems to be slowly remembering various people who he’s forgotten.

Shigeo: Master. . .

Dimple: Stop using your powers for dumb things in this dumb world! Don’t you want to be a big brother your little brother can look up to?

Shigeo: (confused) My little brother? Look up to me? (Looking down at his sneakers) Wait, I accidentally wore the wrong shoes today. . . these are Ritsu’s!

Dimple: Don’t let Mogami influence you like that! You even stuck to your values when you fought Hanazawa!

Shigeo: (startled) That’s right! I’m not supposed to use these powers against other people.

Dimple: Not to mention, why are you losing so easily to commoners? You’re bringing shame to the Body Improvement Club! Where did all those muscles you’ve built up go? I don’t know how much time you’ve spent in this dump, but this isn’t like you! Do you want your beloved Tsubomi-chan to hate you?

Mob gasps, and the blood on his face vanishes in a shock. The spurt of blood coming out of his head transforms into a flower. He can remember again all of the wonderful people in his life he somehow forgot. He grows muscles, suddenly extremely tall and buff, but then quickly realizes he got carried away and goes back to his normal, slightly less wimpy after working out for a year, self.

Shigeo: I remember!

Dimple: (excited) Do you remember me, too? I’m your partner!

Shigeo: Eh. . . not really.

Dimple: Seriously?!

Shigeo: (smiling) I’m kidding. Thanks, Dimple.

Mob looks happy again, now, shaken out of whatever depression he’s been in. It has been six months of loneliness and torture, but he remembers now that none of this is real. His real life is so much better than this.

Now, Mogami appears for real in the illusion he’s trapped Mob in - not a caterpillar or any other creature, but the ghost of a dishelved looking adult man standing before them.

Mogami: So what if your memories came back? The six months you spent here are forever etched onto your heart. I know you were hearing my voice subconsciously.

He raises the bodies of the kids who were bullying Mob, but they don’t look human anymore. They look like spirits as well. Dimple braces, defensive of Mob, but Mob seems to be considering what Mogami said rather seriously before speaking.

Shigeo: . . . Just like you said, the world can be a cruel and messed up place. You helped me see it in a new light.

Dimple: Huh? Don’t tell me you -

Shigeo: (still smiling) I’m truly blessed. I need to be more thankful to everyone around me once I get back to the real world.

Mogami: (preparing to fight) So that’s how it’s going to be? And here I thought I found a sympathizer. How disappointing.

Shigeo: One other thing. People can change through their interactions with others. I was able to change because of everyone. I was able to become a little stronger than if I had been alone.

If I’m able to change, then everyone else should be able to as well. That means no one is worthless.

Mogami: Don’t say another word, or you’ll have hell to pay.

Shigeo: The Shigeo that you fabricated might have succumbed to you, but I won’t. I’m not going to run. I still have that awful Asagiri-san to save.

The next part is a boss battle. Watch it if you want to, but you don’t have to! Just know that Mob fights a whole bunch of creepy ghosts in Mogami’s world with his dope psychic powers. The world Mogami created is an illusion, but the illusion is made up of thousands and thousands of evil spirits under Mogami’s control. Mob has to fight all of them, but he seems perfectly capable of it, and is instead more focused on finding a presence.

Since these are Mob’s memories, you can feel what he’s looking for, too. Something in this world that isn’t Mogami. A teenage girl, trapped somewhere in here.

(Part #2 14:29 to 17:16 on Crunchyroll, but it’s also on Youtube!!!) And then he gets caught by one of the biggest evil spirits, which talks to him again in Mogami’s voice.

Shigeo: I’m going to defeat you and go back to reality!

Mogami: And what good would that do? The life you lead won’t change, and neither will society. There will be plenty of things that trouble and annoy you.

Shigeo: The outside world. . . is scary?

Mogami: Life is frustrating, devoid of meaning and so, so painful.

These words seems to be getting to Mob. Even though his memories came back, they’re still fuzzy. He can’t seem to recall whether this is true about the world, but he recalls feelings. He remembers times he felt alone, alienated, scared.

And then the spirit holding him swallows him. He falls through a void filled with countless spirits, ghosts Mogami has devoured and controlled, they’re screaming in agony, psychically sharing their pain with Mob. Some reach out to grab him and hurt him, while others just wail or curl up, but whatever they do, Mob is absorbing all of their misery and terror.

Shigeo: The voices of the dead. . . so many screams. . . they died feeling like this? Is this what they felt when they were alive? It’s such a cruel world. Am I really going to be able to. . . !

His own resolve begins to crumble, too, as he gives into the terror, his eyes welling up with helpless tears. But then one of the voices of spirits surrounding him, speaking to him, says something different. It’s far away, and faint, but he can still hear it.

Minori: Help. . . me. . .

He startles, blinking his tears away, suddenly recognizing the voice. One of the thousands of spirits around him is not reaching out to him to hurt him. It’s reaching out a hand. And now that he sees clearly, it’s not a spirit’s hand, exactly. It’s the hand of a young girl. So he reaches out back, and takes it.

Shigeo: Ah. . . that’s right. I came here to save someone.

Holding tightly to the hand, he bursts out of the body of the spirit. The hand vanishes, but it’s no matter - he can feel her now. He’s shining bright with power - his full power. Mob’s power has always been powered with emotions. He’s reached full states of power many times before this, driven to it when his emotions reach a breaking point and explode. He’s experienced this kind of power before with rage, hostility, sadness, shame . . . always a negative emotion pushing him to the edge and transforming him. But this time, it’s different.

Shigeo: I always thought these powers were of no use to anybody. But if I can use them to save people. . . !

He easily blasts Mogami away with bright, glittering light.

Mogami: You’re not that same boy from earlier. Who are you?

Dimple: You finally get how freaky he is? This is the true face of Kageyama Shigeo, that he shows whenever he’s pissed - wait. Actually, yeah, who are you?

Dimple has finally seen what Mob looks like, and he doesn’t look pissed. He’s sparkling a little, because he’s a shoujo now. This is the result of for the first time reaching 100% of his power from a positive emotion, courage.

Shigeo: (sparkling) Dimple. It’s dangerous, so leave this to me and stay back.

There’s another boss battle, as shoujo Mob defeats Mogami and all of the ghosts left behind with his cool, sparkly courage powers. He’s able to defeat Mogami, but Mogami has devoured thousands and thousands of evil spirits. If he doesn’t defeat them, Asagiri won’t be saved, so Mob fights them until his body has been completely annihilated, leaving behind only the raw power contained inside.

(Part #3: 20:38 - 22:28)

Mob wakes up in the real world. He’s inside the ruins of some kind of mansion, where it looks like there was just a fight - there’s blood and broken glass on the floor. Before he went to sleep, there were also many psychics who’d been injured by the girl Mogami was possessing, but they seem to be gone now. But Reigen and Dimple are both there, hovering over him, worried (but in Reigen’s case, probably not fuckin’ worried enough!)

Reigen: I actually thought you might have died. That took you ages.

Shigeo: Yes. . . a very long time. Master, how’s Asagiri-san?

If he seems kind of shell shocked by the 6 month long CYOA Mogami just took him on, Reigen doesn’t seem to really notice. They go over to check out Asagiri, who has been restrained and looks like kind of a mess. As they approach, Mogami’s spirit - weakened but not dead - flies out of her body, to Mob’s alarm.

Mogami: You’ve made your choice. I’ll keep watching from afar to see if you made the right one.

But instead he’s instantly captured and turned into a Pokemon by some random creepy guy who Mob and Reigen only just realized was there.

Minori wakes up, looking extremely traumatized and shell shocked herself. She blinks, staring.

Minori: Kageyama-kun?

Shigeo: . . . Yeah.

Reigen is still clueless and thinks they know each other from school or something, but Mob and Minori have never met before this. She clearly also remembers what happened inside Mogami’s world. Mob is. . . being nice, but he also seems 100% done with this girl.

Shigeo: . . . Are you really always like that?

Inside Mogami’s world, she bullied him mercilessly for six months, getting all of the other students to bully him, too. That may not have really been her, but Mogami had told him he was showing him what she was really like. This was exactly how she’d treated many others before him, picking out one awkward, outcast kid and getting everyone to go along with her in tormenting him in order to cement her own popularity.

Minori seems to brush off his question, laughing about it like she always laughs off everything as just a joke. She pats him on the shoulder, apologetic but a little dismissive, and then walks away.

Minori: Yeah. . . I guess I am! Sorry about that!

But then as she walks away, patting his shoulder one last time, she starts to break down in tears. Mob turns back to look at her, and she answers again more sincerely through her sobs.

Minori: I’m really. . . I’m really sorry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!

Shigeo: . . . It’s okay. I understand. People can change. Mogami-san and Asagiri-san taught me that. The people around me changed me as well. Now that I know that, I know that I might be able to change others, too. So I’m glad that we were able to meet.

She seems startled by him saying this, but she smiles back at him, still crying, and thanks him. Even though she’s honestly the worst, it’s still kind of precious. The memory ends.]

[cuedoves]

[ zuko watches this play out with a lot of confusion as the pieces start to slot in, and then.... ? ]

[ pride. ]

.... It looks like you already figured out everything I was trying to tell you, before I ever said anything.

[ people can change. and the way mob handled it.... it really did remind him of aang. ]

And you used your powers to save that girl.

[ that horrible girl. ]

[ also, i guess dimple as there?? ]

week 5, thursday

[cuedoves]

[ hewwo mob.... zuko is going to come along to make sure he's resting properly!! and hover like a niichan!! with painkillers. ]

Hey.

[exercisms]

[He's waking up, looking a little out of it and confused, but he smiles when he sees Zuko.]

Zuko-san. . .

week 7; alive day

[exercisms]

[Here's a PC! Mob is probably busy feeding Yuki, but they can talk some more!]

[cuedoves]

[ zuko comes to pet yuki while mob is feeding him. he's a professional animal whisperer. ]

So how was it, over there?