Episode 5.5: “Full Dry Moon” Recap
1. Muse House put on a Full Dry Moon festival to honor the patron Daughter of Dry Moon, Iabelia, and Jac was chosen to play that role. Z, who couldn’t resist a party, snuck in despite still being grounded and, alongside Lady Ishe, co-seduced Jac. But their tryst was interrupted by Richard blowing up Jac’s door. He was there to repay Z’s (and by association Jac’s and Ishe’s) disobedience by dragging them to the Arena to watch rebels be executed at the claws of monsters.
2. Belle didn’t let herself worry too much about Jac, Z, and Ishe being around Richard in such a tense atmosphere without her to calm him, and instead took the opportunity of Richard’s distraction to sneak off to the graveyard to try to convince Kitten to behave while she would be gone to Toll.
3. It was definitely not Tobei’s fault that, while boarding the train he was to rob, he accidentally set off a magical alarm that alerted everyone to his presence, nor was it his fault that instead of throwing on the brakes immediately so Lenna and the others could board quickly, the accelerator was hit instead, throwing the plan off. Slightly.
4. Daivad and Pait arrived at Broken Earth and snuck in via the sewers, much to Pait’s disgust.
5. Jac, Z, Ishe, and of course Dickwad got to the Arena in time for the final execution of the night, a single unnamed rebel woman armed only with a short sword versus one or two very large, very hungry monsters. At least, that was the plan until she talked mad shit at Richard (including saying Daivad’s name), and he reacted about how you would expect and demanded they release every monster in the whole Arena onto the sands to rip her apart.
6. Tobei finally found the train’s brakes, and once it had come to a stop he spent his time waiting for the others to catch up by subduing as many of the train crew as he could. Once the others showed up, the whole train crew was subdued quickly and without any major injury, but Tobei realized they had drawn a great amount of attention from the local nightbeasts, and quickly rearmed the train crew in preparation for a big, bloody fight.
7. While Tobei fought beasts in a wild forest, the rebel woman fought beasts in the bloody sands. They tore through all the monsters, and it was epic even if it was sad because we love monsters. As repayment for the rebel’s incredible offering, Iabelia wept and it began to rain.
8. Belle made it to the graveyard and was greeted aggressively by Kitten, but had only just begun to say hello to all her monster friends when she noticed someone else in the magic of the graveyard. Turned out to be Daivad, which bewildered and overwhelmed Belle, but in a good way. Though a dangerous way.
9. Daivad let Belle be Bewildered and Overwhelmed all over his chest while he did his best to remain calm and stay out of horny jail. He did well! When Belle had collected herself, they discussed the trip to Toll. Daivad told Belle that he thought she shouldn’t go and they could find out what Aran had in the mines another way, but when he saw she was determined to go, he didn’t argue. That surprised Belle.
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10. Back at the train, the few monsters left who were not dead quickly retreated, and Tobei called out to make sure no one was terribly injured or dead. Lenna replied, indicating someone was dead, but when Tobei found her she was staring at a beast she had killed that looked to be the same breed of monster as Clarix. Tobei tried to get Lenna to come back to her senses and realize she was alright, but she just freaked out.
11. The rebel in the Arena killed the last of the beasts that had been sent to kill her, but not without ruining her right arm. The crowd was ecstatic at the display, demanding she be allowed to live, which absolutely could not happen because it would be humiliating to the Earthbreakers. Richard gave the order for the rebel to be given a tourniquet for her arm and a new sword.
12. Back in the graveyard, Belle tried to explain to Kitten that she would be gone for a while and he needed to behave, listen to Julius, and stay within the graveyard, but Kitten kept insisting that he wanted to come with her to protect her. Belle was getting Overwhelmed again, panicking at the idea of something happening to Kitten, so Daivad offered to take Kitten with him to Silvax Forest and look after him. Remembering what happened last time Belle brought a monster to Daivad’s camp, she refused, but Daivad promised—pinky promised—he wouldn’t let anything happen to Kitten.
13. As soon as Belle was out of sight, having headed back to the castle, Daivad realized what he had just agreed to and began to Regret. But he couldn’t bring himself to disappoint Belle, so he took Kitten with him.
Meanwhile, Richard had decided to face off against the rebel woman in the Arena himself, despite the fact that literally everyone knew this was a Bad Fucking Idea. He jumped down onto the sands with an explosion.
Daivad and Pait were back in the sewers arguing about the degree to which Daivad had lost his mind when they heard the explosion and Daivad, knowing it was Richard’s magic, handed Kitten off to Pait and went to go … idk do heroic shit? Honestly he didn’t have a plan, he just knew Furious Richard and Belle were both in the outer circle and that was bad.
14. The rebel began to laugh.
15. Daivad climbed to the tallest part of the Arena like the cat he is and realized that Belle was not in danger and he had been silly to think she was.
16. Jac tried to convince Z to do something to defuse the situation since Richard was obviously so ready to blow the whole Arena to the Light Mother, but Z said there was nothing they could do aside from not interfere and make everything worse.
17. Daivad was about to slip away again when the rebel said his name. Once again, she talked mad shit to Richard, and we love her for that, but then he finally, truly blew up, hard enough to crack the foundation of the Arena and destroy all the stands. Daivad had to think fast and used his own Earthbreaking to quickly mend the crack in the Arena’s foundation, but had to leave before he could do any more.
Ladies, Gentlemen, and Gentlethems, Daivad has finally begun to understand the magnitude of the impact his personal little rebellion has had, and that whether he likes it or not, it’s not just his personal little rebellion anymore.
The episode ends with:
What the fuck had he done?