Macroich: Okay, let's practice adlibbing! Being adaptable to things changing is important, especially when all your flames turn up in the same place and start fighting each other! Or band together to beat you for jumping into so many beds!
MC: Okay! / Come at me bro! / Can I do this...?
Macroich: That's what practice is for! The theme of the day is Youth™!
Macroich signals the start of things, gets into character, and grabs MC's hand(s).
Macroich: MC, am I not good enough for you!? Did you want to go more than one round a night!?
MC: stop being like this / Uhh... / No, too much!
(AB) Macroich: I swear on my sword you're the only one in my heart! ...my physical attentions? Uh, let's not talk about that.
(C) Macroich: Are other people telling you things? Don't worry, you're the only one I love with my heart.
Macroich: I thought I became the perfect man for you. Was I wrong? I've got strength and experience, and I'm still not number one for you?
Wow he seems legit.
MC: Um, you're still acting right?
Macroich: Yep! I'm always--
Hecate: Oh my god stop flirting you guys and listen!
Barguest: Imix is in the news now!
MC: o-oh no / what? / totally just acting practice okay?
Hecate and Barguest show Macroich and MC a news article on the phone! It says "Imix is Cipactli, the Kaiju that Almost Destroyed a World"!
Elsewhere
Agents: Oh my god is it true Imix really is the monster Cipactli!? Is the theater group deliberately hiding this? Is Tokyo in danger now? The public needs to know!
Oscar comes out of the Yurakucho Opera House.
Oscar: Aww, so many people came to see me today! Let me explain how totally unrelated to all this we are!
Christine: Actually could you not, Guildmaster? You'll just make the internet blow up if you try to explain.
Oscar: But lying is my thing! Wouldn't that make me the most appropriate person to talk to anyone looking for hot scoops and scandals on our actors?
Agents: What's that supposed to mean!?
Christine smiles.
Christine: It is impressive how you always try to stand out the most in times like these with your irony and determination. Barguest, could you shove the guildmaster underground where he can't talk to the press?
Barguest: ...okay. I'll tie him up in chains too. (starts dragging Oscar away)
Oscar: Hello I am supposed to be the boss here. Quick, turn me to the right! ...hello? Hey how about I give you a pay bonus? Hello???
Christine relaxes a little with Oscar gone, then turns to the press.
Christine: Excuse that little moment, I shall explain in his place. Except I can't say very much h--
Agents: Cipactli isn't going to school at the moment, but if he flips out is this theater group going to pay for damages? Is that monster really under control?
Christine: Excuse me I am trying to speak. Also, please stop referring to one of our members as a monster, thank you.
Agents: What are you guys planning to use him for? Do you know that there are tons of rumors about him? Are Imix and Cipactli really the same person? How can a heartless--
Christine: Heartless? How cruel of you...
Christine cries. The agents stop talking and focus the cameras and mics on her. The pen is mightier than the sword, and in this day and age, the video is mightier than the pen. Social engineering! Also Barguest comes back now.
Barguest: Oh my god, Christine! What'd they say to you!?
Christine: ...I just act as an actress, like always. A chandelier should fall on the rude and mannerless, don't you agree?
Barguest: Holy shite calm down, Christine!
Christine: I have my sore spots too, you know.
Barguest: YOU'RE GONNA MAKE THINGS WORSE FOR IMIX
The agents start making noise again. Leib appears and stops Christine.
Leib: Okay, that's enough out of you. I'll handle this.
Christine: ...Leib, why are you here?
Leib hands out posters for Cipactli the Musical to the press. More crowd noises.
Leib: If you people have time for dumb questions, come back in a week to watch this. You'll get your answers there.
Cipactli's Underground Home Area
Macroich and MC watched the live news.
Hecate: Okay Leib made the press go away, but isn't a week too soon?
Boogeyman: Yeah, we're still only partway through rehearsal, and Imix Cipactli isn't showing himself...
Cipactli's been hiding somewhere down here since the media incident.
Macroich: All we can do is believe and wait. If he won't go on stage, we'll just have to do it all and show who he is ourselves!
Hecate and Boogeyman look worried but nod.
Hecate: ...right, I can't let this fail either.
Boogeyman: Me too. I promised the children a show.
Macroich: Let's practice then!
Later MC went to look for Cipactli. He was inside a giant hollow tree in a fetal position, with a net covering the exit. He also saw the news video.
MC: ...feeling better? How about...we go back to everyone and rehearse?
Cipactli grabs MC for a big hug. PTSD flashback!
Mobs: MONSTER
Present
Cipactli: They know my kind side, but the terror towards predators...towards kaiju is instinctual. Sure, they'll welcome me back...but if anything happened to them my persona could never take it.
MC: But Leib, Christine, and the Entertainers know you and haven't changed towards you.
Cipactli: ...the Entertainers all have a screw loose at least. Leib...has a philosophical look on things like he's lived a bunch of lives. He's weird. But...I've caused trouble for them and the theater. I've no place in El Dorado or Tokyo.
MC: That's not true. None of us feel that way, and the play is something you've made yourself.
Cipactli: MC...
Cipactli knows that the Entertainers won't sell him out and that Leib spoke up for his sake.
MC: Come on, let's go.
Cipactli has a Quetzalcoatl trying to take Cipactli outside flashback!
Leib: Ugh, THIS was where you were this time? Hardly anyone is more of a shut in than I am. Is MC there too, or are they slacking off on Tamer duty?
Leib acts like MC isn't there.
Leib: Well cool, now I don't have to worry about them hearing something embarrassing. Anyways, I'm not here to tell you to come back. I think it'd be better if you did, but yeah. Show time's in a week, the rest of us will be rehearsing. If you can't get out there yourself, the rest of us can step in and handle it. It's a pain in the ass, but sometimes something big at work comes at you with no one else to pass it to. Just like life. Don't worry about the musical...but it'd REALLY help if you were there. Hecate and Boogeyman are trying out your advice...oops I guess I did just tell you to come back. I tend to nag if I start talking for a while.
Leib takes a puff of his cig.
Leib: Okay I guess I'll dump my backstory here. So I used to be stuck with the role of deciding who lives or dies in the forest. I saved someone once, and they got all pissy asking me why. And then another time I saved someone else and whoops that somehow caused a massive loss of life. I didn't know what to really do anymore, and what I did seemed meaningless.
Cipactli: Leib, did you also come to Tokyo to...?
Leib: I tried living my life out of the spotlight like you're doing now. I finally get out of the woods and then I shut myself up and fall into the same role again. Funny, huh?
Leib thinks about the time he met someone similar to himself in Ueno, sitting in a cage. How would his life be if he didn't meet him then?
Leib: There's only one role of mine in the world, but when I got out there I found out there's people like me. And I found people around me like Cu Sith and MC who jive with me, so that's awesome. Here I was supposed to be a jackass putting up walls, but there's people who'll smash through them to try bringing me out without me saying anything.
Leib sounds happy.
Leib: Thanks to them, I've gotten a little more optimistic and feel like looking out for them. I'm not just a job dumping senpai, I can do another role too. You're lucky like me, and we've got similar people coming together here. So recap: it's true there's a replacement for you, but we want you to come stand up here.
MC: (too much awkward, gotta talk) Love you too Senpai! / We already think that
Leib: Oh god you heard all that!?
Cipactli: We're even now. Always make sure there's no one else listening in!
Leib: MC, get out here so I can kick your ass!
MC: Hey you just started rambling / I couldn't find a place to come out... / I'mma stay in here!
The plant wall breaks apart.
Leib: Oh that was fast. I figured you were gonna pity yourself for a while longer.
Cipactli: Hmph, someone was going to do it anyways eventually like you said.
MC: Okay that's nice and all, but now!? Okay I'm heading off--
Leib: Nope, you don't just get to walk off with that much blackmail on your hands.
Suddenly a text on Leib's phone! He snorts at it and shows it to Cipactli.
Pazuzu: I saw the news. Tell the big lizard I'll help any way I can.
Hastur: Hey, I could destroy Tokyo too if I wanted to! Don't forget that!
Yuma: Cipactli are you okay?
Alp: You're my buddy rival, so you better not let this get you down!
Leib: You see? There's still people out there who aren't afraid of you. Plenty of them were feared in their home worlds. Come on, let's put that show on and shut people up.
MC: If you're afraid to be up there alone, we're with you too.
Cipactli: ...they're strong. Thanks MC, Leib.
Leib: Well we were hired for that to begin with. Go tell them that.
And so the three of them head back to the rest of the party.
End of Episode Part
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