[ChicletPrime]

Land of Secret Flames: 2

• okay, the seagulls have been released from their duties one supposes, and we've been released from our confinement of 'captive audience'. back to work!
  
• so Maxwell, he of wealth and wedding anniversary, bought some not-great jewelry recently for a super high price, so now we absolutely suspect him of actually purchasing an aether core hiding in, at, or around the jewelry in question.
  
• ooh, undercover mission! ... next screen... a plush bed surrounded by sheer curtains and an ocean breeze.
  
• oh, its THAT kind of mission.
  
• can i invite Rafayel as my spotter?  no wait. this is Rafayel's bedroom! excellent, lets ditch this entire mission and stay here for the next couple of years.
  
• oh, wow. kinky!  (blindfold?!) no, jewelry?
  
• oh. when he leaned in i could get a clear look at the collar clip he has one - a straight pin capped with beautiful silver flowers. lovely touch. oh, hey! the lapel buttons are pink pearls!
  
• this girl is now very aware of the pearl significance.
  
• oh, a mask! for the masquerade ball! hope i get to see myself in a mirror at some point.
  
• and a whole new identity to go with the mask! i am going to be so Cinderella. i wonder if Rafayel is getting all this from Jeremiah The Mystery Florist.
  
• gosh, he's so good looking. five hundred kudos on whichever team was in charge of animating the boys' micro expressions. Rafe is constantly expressing himself.
  
• Rafe: "I am definitely not your manager, bodyguard or assistant. I never accept side gigs."  /facepalm
  
• three days and one ball on a yacht later...
  
• and Rafe's concession to "masked ball" is a half domino.  boy, you are pushing the envelope here.
  
• oh, and i'm standing too far away, which is going to scream 'assassin' to everybody else if i don't immediately plaster myself to your side? really. is that what you think they're gonna think.
  
• yeah, you tell him girl. this is correct amount of distance that says "professional bodyguard." i swear, employers these days.
  
• apropos of an idea that just occurred to me, i wonder if we'll ever see (in the main story i mean) Rafayel assassinating somebody with his voice. that would be STELLAR.
  
• this boy is SO expressive. aww, i'm sorry! you really wanted me to put the 'ass' into the 'assistant', didn't you?
  
• Rafe, i am meticulously keeping my distance from you because other me got to touch your abs while you were feverish and making beautiful little noises of pain and let me tell you, its best if we keep this strictly above board when there's people around.
  
• oh, there's a nice little comment. he's more expressive since he got on this yacht, almost like he's a real opera singer. well, wasn't he? there was a side story where he was singing on stage (and somebody died, naturally). good of me to notice he's really embodying the part.  i like it when main stuff and side stuff curls around itself.
  
• OH EVEN BETTER.  the mask and brooch (he's wearing a brooch?! i don't see it) are apparently a gift from Maxwell to 'Yosef', only Yosef should be a very old man and Rafe.. is very not.  Let's see, what excuse are we going to come up with? estate sale? grave robbing? heir to the family fortune after three brothers and a handful of cousins died in a tragic fire?
  
• the side VAs are so tragic.
  
• i hope somebody somewhere has cosplayed this outfit at a con. its so spectacular.
  
• Rafe: "Leave the dramatic parts to me."  on it, boss. you peacock your heart out while i swipe a look at the jewelry in question. if its an aether core, i'll eat the evidence.
  

Land of Secret Flames: 3

• yeah, something's on all right. its a gift for his wife ostensibly, but he has it trotted and put on display for everybody to gawk at. "the jewelry resembles a solidified, dark blue tranquil ocean."  okay, swiping it as soon as everybody looks away and draping it around Rafayel's neck like a lariat.
  
• aww, they took it away! and i was just about in purloining distance too.
  
• whyyyy does this guy call it "Yosef's brewwch." it's pronounced "br-oh-ch". were you raised by inarticulate wolves?
  
• i am going to put a bullet between this guy's eyes, i swear.
  
• oh, we're claiming nephewship to dear old Yosef it sounds like. nice.
  
• "he's truly an opera star in the making!"  oh wow. is Rafe going to SING at some point? please please please game, please do that.
  
• SO MANY SCREENCAPS
  
• i bet Rafayel actually does have it all legally bound up in paperwork that he's the illegitimate nephew of this old opera star, in case anybody does look into it. Jeremiah, you treasure.
  
• hey, i'll threaten all the 'elders' i like. this guy is rude and i have a gun, probably. i DEFINITELY have a knife courtesy of my time in the N109. (its probably strapped to my thigh under this spangly dress. somewhere off in the distance, Sylus is smirking, and tugging on it every so often from fifty feet away.)
  
• why is this one jester-masked guy all in Rafe's grill anyways? was he like, Yosef's secret lover or something?