You can skip ahead to the first image if you don't want to hear me get heated over alcohol.

I just want to say right off the bat, I HATE whenever they depict either one of the twins near alcohol. They do not consume alcohol; they want nothing to do with it. The only time in-game that wine was consumed by one of the twins was in V Route. Saeyoung had a single glass, and I think that has to do with the fact that he hit rock bottom. V let him go on for two years thinking his brother DIED.

Holding the party again was bound to bring up horrible memories for him two and a half years later. He picked up a glass, asked himself why his wicked mother bothered drinking to forget and drown her miserable sorrow, and then spat it out after it tasted like regret. Never again, that is what he tells himself... His curiosity and pain got the better of him in that situation. Saeyoung likely only did that under duress.

Saeran isn't going to pick up a bottle of alcohol like that. The elixir was bad enough; he's not going to drink fermented sour grapes. This isn't a dig at people who love wine, beer, or what have you. Enjoy your grape juice if you like it, people! But it gets really exhausting to see characters who have affirmed their discomfort and disdain for alcohol be depicted around it as if it wouldn't make them uncomfortable.

I wouldn't be as pressed if it were in front of Jumin, mind you. The boys wouldn't ask their friend not to drink. Just... to not try and make them drink it or push a glass near them.

I don't drink myself, for example, so I take this really personally. We live in a world where people try to minimize others' discomfort around this stuff. I'm pushing thirty over here, and I've never had a glass of alcohol in my life, and I don't intend to ever try for personal reasons similar to the twins. I can't tell you how many times I've had people say, "Oh, just a little sip, it won't kill you." It won't kill me; they're right, but no means no.

Saeyoung has affirmed that his only vice is Dr. Pepper more times than I can count... And I don't think I have to explain why Saeran wouldn't be comfortable around a mind-altering drink for more reasons than what he went through as a child at his mother's hands, do I?

My friends and I came up with a few reasonable solutions. It's possible the wine was for Jihyun since he's standing behind them. He's not as much of a heavy drinker as Jumin can be, but it has been noted in the canon that he enjoys a few more glasses when he's with Jumin because he's a social drinker.

It could also be for MC to enjoy! That's reasonable, too. It does seem like it's on the other side of the table! Even so, I don't like it being that close to Saeran or Saeyoung. That's just a me thing! That's a squick for me! It's a comfort for me to have a favorite character who doesn't drink.

I hear you, I hear you, "Hey, Kait, it's not a big deal! You don't have to make a stink." Sigh. It just made my excitement fall flat the moment I saw it is all. The fact that they depicted Zen with beer rather than wine goes to show that there's SOME communication happening between the company (or maybe the artist just noticed he seems like a beer guy) and the artist who did a wonderful job, mind you. This is not me digging at the artist, either.

It's on Cheritz for not pointing out important character traits. We had the same problem last year. Elizabeth was NOWHERE to be seen in the anniversary photo.

Hell, they commissioned Rika artwork for her birthday a few years ago that depicted her with wine, too. She isn't a drinker, either. I don't know if I'd say she's as straight-laced as Saeyoung and Saeran, but I'd put her closer to that than Jumin's wine with dinner every night attitude. I'd say she's a "I had champagne with Jaehee at a girls' night once" type of gal. Blue moon situations.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, let's talk about everything else!

That has to be one of the largest mounds of omurice I've ever seen. Yoosung made one to share with everyone. I appreciate that he's had time to grow his skills, though. It's not easy to make those things! He has the ketchup swirl down pact compared to his last attempt... that we're aware of, anyway. There is charm to his fails, though. I love the droopy face.

Jaehee and Zen get to enjoy their beverage of choice, too. Jaehee has more than earned her coffee break. I love the off-the-shoulder dress on her, too. We don't usually see her in outfits like that, but this is definitely her confidence shining through the roof. I hope she wears tops like that more often! Not so I can oogle her collarbones or anything, but it's cute on her! It's really flattering!

Zen is wearing a corset as far as I'm concerned. Let's think about that and take a long sip of water.

Jumin looks smug for some reason. Is anyone else reading that from his facial expression? I mean, he should be; he's a handsome man, but that's the first time I've seen him make a face like that. Jihyun, too. But I'm staring at him because that huge camera lens probably costs more money than I've seen in months. I do love the fondness on his face here; he's clearly admiring his found family.

I LOVE THAT HE'S PRESENT. Part of his problem is hiding behind the viewfinder instead of being a part of the scene. He deserves to be there with everyone. Jumin thinks so, too. Perhaps that's why he's pleased. It means his friend is doing better emotionally.

Saeyoung, didn't we just talk to your doctor about your habits? Is it silly if I say I love how they rendered the Dr. Pepper can? The lighting on the Honey Butter Chips is great, too. Not too bright, but not too flat, either. The light hits it just right, which isn't an easy thing to do when you want to play with shading and highlights. I can only imagine how many layers they did on those two items alone.

That's a nice apple pie, too! It looks like an apple, anyway. They might elaborate on it tomorrow when they release the new image! I think we might get another anniversary chat or two; I can't say for certain. I am avoiding spoilers like the plague at the moment.

Strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate... the perfect combination. Saeran doesn't have to choose just ONE flavor of ice cream. He can have all of them! It's a nice homage for me, too. I think Ray likes strawberry, Suit Saeran likes chocolate, and GE Saeran likes vanilla bean.

Hey, if nobody else is calling dibs, I want one of the rosettes. They're my favorite part of cakes like this! The texture is so good. Speaking of cute flowers, it's time for me to infodump to all of you about flowers and the importance of floriography. I'm going by image order.

Red Rose: Passionate romance, the symbol of love that is universally shared across borders and seas. Cherry Blossom: The transience of life, the fleeting moment of beauty that impacts your life forever. Camellia: A deep longing for another person, whether it be romantic or otherwise. Begonia: A gentle warning, but more than just that, they are gratitude to move forward knowing you've prepared for storms by embracing your heart. Orange Rose: Enthusiastic passion, oftentimes seen as the bridge between romantic red and platonic yellow. Yellow Rose: Friendship, warmth, and joy. The ultimate token to use when you want to say, "I like you, I appreciate you, and being with you makes me happy like the sun."

Now, I had to rack my brain a little for the flowers with MC, but I want to throw my hat in the ring and suggest amaryllis. To sparkle, to shine, and to know your worth. It is a flower of real pride, and its resilience is worth noting because flowers like these bloom and fight hard to stay alive in the winter.

It's also a good pick if they're trying to convey how our selfless love for the RFA saved them as much as it saved us. Amaryllis bloomed after a young shepherdess fed the earth droplets of her blood for a month to win the heart of the shepherd who wanted nothing more than to find the most beautiful flower.

Let's look at them.

Have you seen them?

Now you have!

My only real note is that the artist forgot to add the ring to Saeran's eyes. Saeyoung has them, so I'm not sure where that got lost in the communication process. Other than that, there are no notes. That's Saeran Choi! That's my honey bunny! I do appreciate that his hair is saturated. Some artwork depicts his hair as washed out, while others have this pink sheen to them that makes it glaringly obvious he did a bad bleach job on his own and couldn't get the red out.

I never thought we'd live to see the day after they gave up on new title artwork for the game (though, as I've said before, I'd rather get nothing if they continued to disrespect us, them, and the characters by using GenAi). When you love something, it's very important to be aware of its flaws and to be honest when stuff like that happens. I love this game, but the company's poor choices have had an impact on its decline over the past six years.

Nobody wants to touch something that wasn't cradled by human hands and treated with compassion. Even the most beloved thing will be left in the dust the moment someone runs it through a data center that is not only destroying the environment, harming communities that are by far and away typically filled with people of color, and... God, I don't need to give you the spiel.

But the thing that I love most, Mystic Messenger, was tainted by this nonsense, and I can't talk about it now without affirming how important it is to stand your ground and not let GenAI become normalized. Even if the company never touches GenAi again, the damage has been done at the end of the day, and it cannot be undone.

I had to say that, so I will apologize for dragging that out before getting to the point!

Today, however, the company gets a nod from me because this wasn't disrespectful. It was a love letter to us fans who are still here, the ones who might be new here, or who have decided to come back. There are real, genuine tears in my eyes because THIS is what I've been missing since the release of the RAE in 2020. There's something about being in a chatroom that you don't get with artwork.

You're there.

You're not just the viewer.

You're involved in a way that doesn't ask you to IMAGINE yourself as the MC in the artwork, or to pretend that those outstretched hands are reaching for you. The immersion is what I've been craving for years now and... I was not dissatisfied today. Most of all, I can say that I never ever could've imagined that SE Saeran would be given his dues. But today, it turns out that it was finally his time to be paid. Not as Unknown, but as himself.

He is the one I've loved from the start. Yes, you all know as the RAY fan, but Ray and Unknown are my favorites. By extension, VAE Ray and SE Saeran mean a lot to me as well. They're wonderful vessels for me to let my feelings flow when I need an outlet, and in general, just... make me a happier person. I see them as characters who struggle to find hope and hardly receive it. VAE Ray found his peace, but SE Saeran never did. It's haunted me to this day.

I wanted better for SE Saeran. Today, as I've said, I think he's been given that. The title chatrooms aren't set in any specific timeline, but knowing what I know about him, I can tell you this. His personality fits these new chatrooms way more than GE Saeran. In these new chats, Saeyoung is the focal point, too. In past birthday chatrooms for the twins, when we interacted with Unknown, it was like that, too.

They typically make sure to let the romance be open to interpretation, but in the end, Saeyoung tends to be the one closest to the player and is dear to him. Platonic or otherwise, centralizing things around him is sure to make most people assume this is the Secret Ending, or at the very least, it's trying to be. I say it's "trying" because—V's here.

I will say that Jihyun is alive in these chats as well, and upon seeing him as soon as I realized the Saeran in question was SE—I screamed, much to the chagrin of those closest to me, "A llama? But he's supposed to be dead!" when he showed up. I love him, I'm happy he's here, but it's odd to see Jihyun interact with Unknown or SE Saeran. Cheritz doesn't put Jihyun in most things, so that was an active choice on their part. I hope all the V fans out there smile when they see him.

I did! He talks about how much fun it is to write letters to the people he loves dearly. It helps him get the words out without making a mess of himself in the process. That's healthy for him, actually. He went from being a pretentious asshole as a teenager to a repressed adult with a savior complex. He went from saying everything to saying nothing, for the lack of a better explanation.

His having the avenue to safely say what matters makes me happy. I like it when V gets good stuff! Even if I had to suspend my disbelief to believe he would be there, LOL. I'll share a few images of that in just a second.

The event begins with the RFA planning the twins' birthday. Saeran is caught in the chatroom while they're hard at work planning the event. The surprise is spoiled for him, but he doesn't seem to mind. He thinks it'll be funny to see Saeyoung jump out of his skin. Yeah, that's totally an Unknown thing.

The following chatrooms explore the birthday gifts that the RFA has put together for the guys! They all explain their reasoning and why it matters. Some are sillier than others, but I have to admit that's what makes it so much fun. The RFA cares about each other, and you can feel their love radiating from here all the way to Saeyoung's spaceship.

I can't share every screenshot since Tumblr has an image limit, but I'll do my best to share the highlights. V wrote them letters, as I said. Zen wrote them an eight-minute ballad that he performed for everyone at the party. Yoosung ordered a cake with so many words that it stretched off the edge, and then he piled up enough balloons in the event space that it crashed down on Saeyoung in an avalanche.

Jumin had two life-size plushies made of Elizabeth the 3rd for them, though one is white and the other is grey. It looked similar enough that everyone said it was the same, but I trust him. I know he looked at two swatches and picked accordingly. Jaehee purchased two elegant pens and had them engraved! Practical, but they'll always think of her when they work!

I laughed! I cried! I thrived! Zen and Jumin bickering like old times... Yoosung being a sweetheart but having such a clumsy execution when he's excited. Jaehee thinking of others in small, yet thoughtful ways. V dropping by to confess that he would rather write letters by candelight to communicate. Saeyoung and Saeran... laughing. What more could I want?

And after the brainstorming, we're treated to an after-party chatroom!

See? Who wouldn't want to gush about this! I've got tears in my eyes. Most twins hate getting similar things for their birthdays, but because they've never experienced this... It's not so bad. They love it. It's what the two of them have always wanted, and what they deserve. A chance to be normal. They don't want chaos! They want to live like anyone else does.

The RFA is a family to one another, and they're family to me, too. After all these years, I'm grateful. I'm happy I'm still here. I got to see them in a chatroom after thinking it would never happen again. I never thought Saeran would be able to talk to me ever again. Hearing from him, even in this way, made my day. I'm not the same person I was ten years ago, and neither is he. We're all the happier for it. We're not trapped in a loop. We're free.

My little songbird is free from his cage.

SE Saeran is at peace, and I will no longer feel haunted by the thought that he isn't okay on the other side of the universe. He's okay. I really... really needed that. Where we leave him for good in the Secret Ending is so hopeless and abrupt. He's alive, but he's not living. Saeyoung's happy and at peace, but Saeran is haunted by demons that won't go away. He isn't okay.

But, here? Even if it's canon divergence, and even if it's an AU, this is him at his most peaceful. This is him after finding a reason to live and thrive, not just survive. I want that for me, too. I'll get there, though. I will find that same peace, as I'm already on the road to believing it, and part of the healing process is embracing that mentality. You have to let yourself believe it gets better, even if it seems impossible.

I've believed in that for SE Saeran since 2016, too.

It's 2026, and my wish has come to fruition.

"I don't usually say stuff like this, but I mean it. Thank you, really." That isn't GE Saeran. GE Saeran speaks mush as a given, he had the time to learn how to love himself before it felt hopeless. Before Unknown was created and burned with apathy because Rika broke him of everything else. That's how I know, at the very end, it's him. I'm happy for you, my love. In all timelines, and in all lifetimes. I pray, in your 31st year, that it's even more peaceful for you than it was yesterday.

Don't worry, Saeyoung, I love you, too. You're just my best friend and brother-in-law, so I don't get to gush about you as much. I want you to enjoy this peace, too. You deserve it. You both do.

IN CONCLUSION, SE SAERAN SENT ME HEARTS.

It was the very first word that came to mind after you managed to convince Saeran to rest with you. In the past, you would've given him space to breathe. He liked distance because he had been taught to fear kindness. Back then... even if it couldn't last for long, and even if he had a meltdown and stormed off in the middle of the night once he remembered the lingering guards, you were glad for the moments in between.

You wanted to spend time with him without the pretense of the game he played to avoid the savior's wrath. His cruelty, while harsh, wasn't something you were afraid of. You realized long ago that those cruel words... choices... actions... were born of fear. You didn't hate him for it. You couldn't. You just wished you could've been with him without his dread eating away at his peace.

Now, however, you could.

Neither of you had to be afraid.

You didn't have to live on edge, wondering if you performed the scene wrong, and that was a blessing. Your life was no longer a stage play meant to invoke the survival of the fittest. It was a private stage built for two where nobody could be privy to your peace.

"I'm sorry?"

"You heard me," you said.

He huffed. "Clearly. What I don't understand is why you called me a princess. Do I look like a helpless damsel to you?"

"You definitely don't want me to answer that, my sweet," you replied, squeezing your arms around him tighter so he would nuzzle his face against your throat.

"What about me screams pretty princess? Shouldn't you reserve that pet name for someone like Ray? He would eat it up, you know? If it's a fairytale, he'll humor whatever name you call him and bark like a dog. He's already dressed up for you!"

"Ah, but that's where you misunderstand," you said, brushing your lips against the top of his head. "Ray happens to be my prince. You're my pretty princess. The difference is that my kiss saved the frog prince... and my heroics saved the princess from the wicked dragon."

Saeran's grumble didn't sound amused, but he didn't rebuke your careful thought. "Is that the story you've been telling people?"

"Well, no... the princess didn't just let me do all the work. He saved himself, too, but I had a helping hand in helping him realize that the dragon couldn't keep him locked inside the tower forever. He just had to take a chance and climb down... and I'm happy he did."