#ynn ray
They really did a great job for the 2nd season. Though, i still prefer the manga (and i recommend it)
• Yakusoku no Neverland
22194
(TPN spoilers)
ray: this is just a little act of childish rebellion
ray: *sets himself on fire*
Stylish guys
i thought that a cold palette would go well with ray but it was pretty difficult to make it work for some reasons so i ended up choosing my second idea, which was chocolate ray!
More angst hours! When Ray and Norman realize Emma sacrificed herself for the promise, their reactions are the very things they used to accuse Emma of. Ray calls himself an “idiot” for blindly trusting her and naive trust is something he often warned Emma against since their time at Gracefield. Norman considers himself “careless” for letting her go, which is the same thing he tells her when she tries to stop him from leaving the House (“This isn’t what you should be doing now!”).
It’s a neat parallel but also it shows how much of Emma’s characteristics Ray and Norman imbibed over the past 3 years. Emma, on the other hand, inherited the worst traits from them (Norman’s habit of smiling despite carrying his burdens alone, and Ray’s perpetual lying to keep his family safe)
Norman: Is everyone here prepared to give up your lives for our cause?
Vincent:Yes.
Barbara:Yes.
Cislo:Yes.
Zazie:Wrah.
Hayato:Yes.
Jin:Yes.
Emma and Ray:Ye-
Norman: Shut the fuck up.
During the first face-off between Krone and Isabella, the theme that plays is a piano version of Ray’s Theme, which plays pretty soon after during Ray and Norman’s standoff
I like that the anime subtly hints at how similar mother and son are just with the musical motifs. No matter how much Ray despised Isabella, ultimately, he is her son, and everything he learnt was at her knee. It’s no wonder that manipulation comes effortlessly to him - it’s what Isabella had been doing to him for years after all.
Yuugo: I’ve only had Emma and Ray for a day and a half.
Yuugo: But if anything happened to them, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself.
AU where instead of only losing her memories, Emma gets reborn/deaged as a baby for the reward, like in the Seven Walls arc and Ray and Norman find her at an orphanage and both become her foster parents. She’s still lost her connections like in the original promise but now we can have some Norman + Ray parenting bonus AND angst
Candy Making at Gracefield
Emma:We made a marshmallow Ray!
Norman:See, his arms are crossed because he’s mad at all the other marshmallows for trying to play with him.
Emma:You like it?
Ray:(choked up) It’s fine.
Or alternatively, with Yuugo and literally any of the other kids
Not sure if someone’s pointed this out already but just realized that during the scene when Ray confronts Norman for wanting to save everyone, it’s Emma’s Theme that plays in the background.
Y’know? This infamous “boat out of mud” bit? Thought it was pretty interesting that even though this seemed like a standoff between Norman and Ray (with Ray leading the conflict) because Emma’s ideals (and her inspiration to Norman) are what drive their conflict, it’s her theme that also moves the scene forward.
I Hate Mars
Ayshe considered herself a patient person.
She knew just how long to wait in hiding before hunting, she didn’t mind watching 25 kids for hours at a time, even when they insisted on braiding her hair (“Anna taught me! Isn’t it pretty Ayshe?” sure.), she lived in the same house as the man who killed her father for years now and still hadn’t lifted a finger to hurt him (setting her dogs to take his dinner didn’t count, and besides, it made Gilda laugh), but really this was too much.
“What.”
“Isn’t Mars sweet, Ayshe?” cooed Sherry, gesturing to the hairy beast in Gilda’s arms.
“Younamed that thing?”
“You name your dogs,” pointed out Don.
She shook her head. Her dogs were useful:they could hunt, scare Norman, keep guard, scare Norman, drag heavyweight, kill (not Norman, not yet). But a cat?
“He won’t get in your way, I promise,” said Gilda, smiling sweetly, and Ayshe couldn’t say much else to that.
***
Gilda stayed true to her word. Every morning, without fail, she brushed that thing’s matted hair, gave it a bow for some reason, fed it something out of a can instead of letting it hunt, cut its nails, and of course, kept it out of Ayshe’s way.
At the end of every week, when the children went on one of their long trips and returned, predictably, empty-handed, Ayshe watched with bemusement as Gilda held that thing close to her for hours at a time.
“Mars doesn’t have to be useful, you know,” said Ray, who had been watching her eyebrows raise higher and higher after one of those trips.
“It doesn’t do anything.”
“It doesn’t have to. Gilda likes it because it shuts up and follows her around when she’s upset.”
“She has 43 siblings.”
“Yeah, but those don’t ever shut up,” said Ray fondly.
“I have 3 dogs. She didn’t needto get a cat to keep her company.”
“Sounds like you’re jealous.”
Sounds like you need to keep your mouth shut.
Lifting herself off the dogs curled around her, Ayshe manoeuvred herself around the crowded household into Gilda’s room.
As always, she was hunched at a corner of her bed, her arms wrapped around the thing - Mars.
“Oh-hello Ayshe!” she said, startled but not unwelcome.
“Hello.”
Gilda likes it because it shuts up when she’s upset.
Tucking her knees underneath her, Ayshe stared silently at Gilda. 
“Did you…want something from me?”
She shook her head. It works for the beast but not her?
And suddenly, Gilda burst into tears. What the hell, Mars?
“I’m sorry - it’s just Anna wants to go to medical school and money’s still thin and I knowNorman and Ray are working but I want to help out but the only thing I can do is help with searching but we haven’t found a single lead and Alicia, Phil and Yvette are upset and Don’supsetso I can’t be upset in front of them, and it’s Violet’s birthday next week and I haven’t planned anything and Eugene’s allergic to mangoes now,” she sobbed.
“…Staying away from mango peel helps with allergies,” was about the most useful thing Ayshe could come up with.
Gilda stared at her. And without warning, laughed. Had she said something funny?
“You’re right, Ayshe. There’s so much less to worry about in this world and I’m worried about…allergies?” she chuckled, wiping at her eyes.
Ayshe didn’t think she had said anything even remotely related to worrying.
“Would you like to hold Mars?”
No.
“Okay,” said Ayshe, holding out her arms.
It - Mars - began to purr, nuzzling it’s fat, orange head against her shoulder.
“I can…fish for Mars. You’d save money on his food that way,” she offered.
Gilda blinked at her, surprise evident on her face.
“And my dogs don’t forget a single scent. They might help with your search. I don’t know anything about birthdays but - “
Gilda cut her off, wrapping her arms around her shoulders.
“Thank you,” she said, lacing her fingers through Ayshe’s hand.
Ayshe wondered if her chest had stopped working, whether it was normal for her heart to squeeze in on itself this way. She didn’t trust herself to speak, her ears flushing red for some strange reason.
A loud hiss from Mars, from being pressed in on from both sides, broke them apart (what the hell, Mars?) the cat darting out of Ayshe’s arms, out into the hallway.
“Mars!” yelled Gilda, chasing after him, Ayshe on her heels.
They had lost track of him, amidst the clutter of the children-filled household.
A loud meow, a series of loud sneezes, and an even louder laugh from Ray pulled them both into the kitchen.
“Oh hello, Gilda! Ayshe - ” began Norman warily. And then, sneezed.
“Sorry - ach-choo! - I think I’m - ACH-CHOO!” Curled around Norman’s legs, quite unbothered by the sneezing was a very relaxed Mars.
“You’re - ” gasped Ray, clutching at his sides, “you’re allergic to cats?!”his words punctuated with laughter.
Norman didn’t seem to find the situation quite as entertaining. Sniffling, he beckoned for Gilda to take the cat away.
Chuckling herself, Gilda scooped Mars up into her arms again.
“Sorry, Norman! It won’t happen again!” It absolutely will.
Together, Gilda and Ayshe walked out of the kitchen, Ray still laughing, Norman still sneezing.
Ayshe smirked, running her hand along Mars’ back.
Maybe having a cat around wasn’t such a bad idea after all…
The Amnesic Ghost: Part 2 (But the roles are flipped)
If it weren’t for his years of being on the run, Ray wouldn’t have realized he was being watched.
Normally, he wouldn’t be at the woods this late. But Nigel was firm that a forest-side town might be their answer, so here he was, on the eve of her 14th birthday. Instinctively, his hands reached for a rock on the ground. There was not much damage a pebble could do, but it would catch his pursuer off guard. Hearing the tell-tale signs of someone shifting their weight, Ray whirled around and threw the stone - right at a 7-year-old girl’s forehead.
The rock passed neatly through her. Standing in front of him, looking more jubilant than fazed, was the very girl they had been looking for - only, she was 7 years younger than she was supposed to be. Also, she wasn’t corporeal.
“Ray!” she exclaimed gleefully, as if young men who looked like older versions of her brother frequently appeared in her backyard. She launched herself at him, and borne of the instinct of having 40-something siblings, he crouched down, arms outstretched just enough to receive her small frame. But the duo clearly hadn’t learned a thing from the slingshot because Emma merely stepped through him, stumbling slightly.
“Why are you glowing? Why can’t I hug you? Why are you so old? You’re even taller than Mama! Are you here for my birthday? Where’s your uniform? Do you want to play tag with us? Everyone’s it except for me but I guess you already found me - do you want to play again?” she said this all in one breath, arms flapping animatedly. For his part, Ray merely gaped, his eyes creating that same prickling sensation he had felt when he first realized she was missing.
I found you, I found you, I found…you!
But his overwhelming relief was momentary. A skeptical voice, which sounded strangely like Isabella, began to whisper in his mind. “Is she really here? Or do you just want her to be?”
His smile slid off his face. His mother always did have a knack for crushing his dreams. How pathetic, he thought wryly, crying in front of a hallucination of your 7-year-old sister. Slowly, he turned away, willing her to disappear. He tried to walk away but found, quickly, that he couldn’t. He was bound here, to a vision of the world he had cursed, bound to her memory.
He felt the ghost of a small hand reach for his own. “Are you okay?” she asked, her voice much quieter, her eyes round. Damn it. Pushing his bangs to the front of his face, he bent slightly. If he was stuck in this world, to her, then it wouldn’t hurt to talk - an artificial consolation for his years of searching.
“I’m fine,” he said gruffly. “How are you?”
She beamed, “I’m seven! Just as old as you! But not right now - why are you so old?” she asked again, quite unwilling to give up. Typical.
“I don’t know, how did you get so young?”
“I’mseven,”she repeated. “Did you get adopted? Is that why you’re a geezer?” Ouch.
“I didn’t get adopted. But I’m with our family.”
“Is everyone happy? Is Mamahappy?”
“Everyone’s happy. We’re all missing…someone though.”
“Are they from our family?”
“Yes.”
“Do you miss them?”
“Every day.”
“Are they okay?”
“I really hope so.”
“Is that why you’re here? Were you looking for them?”
You always were perceptive. If I had been more like you, would I have known you were lying to us then?
“Yes.”
“Well…” began Emma, “I think they’ll be okay!”
“You think so?”, he asked, feeling the corners of his mouth begin to twitch.
“I know so. Everyone in our family’s smart, right? They’re probably…playing a game of tag! And we’re all great at tag - you’ll find them, for sure.”
Against himself, a laugh bubbled from his throat. Maybe it was her childish, almost obstinate confidence. Or maybe, he was just hysterical. Somehow, I always feel like there’s hope when Emma says it, Norman had once said to him. Wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, he grinned broadly, “Yeah, you’re right, we’ll find them, for sure,” echoing her words.
“You know, you’re a lot more cheerful than myRay.”
“I don’t doubt it,” he said, smiling. “Am I giving you a hard time there?”
“You never give me a hard time,” she said sincerely.
Idon’t believe that.
Frowning, he crouched, until her eyes were slightly higher than her own. “Yeah, well, if I do, give him - me - a kick from me, won’t you?”
Laughing, she nodded, allowing his hand to gently brush (or ghost, really) over her head, as he had done in their youth.
Suddenly, her already-spirit-looking figure became almost blindingly illuminated, and he knew he would leave her world soon.
Perhaps she realized it too, because she immediately reached for him, “Do you think you can visit me again next year? I’ll bring Norman, and you and Mama and - you look sad,” she remarked, her face falling.
Fighting to swallow the lump in his throat, he placed his hand on her translucent shoulder, “Can you forgive me” he whispered, “for being away so long?” I’m sorry. We were supposed to go there together. I miss you.
How silly, she thought, we play with each other every day, don’t we? She nodded.
“Promise me,” he said gravely, “you won’t try to do everything on your own.”
“Inever do that. You’re always by yourself, though,” she said, a tone of accusation creeping into her voice, as if to call him a hypocrite.
Liar. I miss you.
“I do, don’t I?” he said fondly, “it’s a good thing I have you then.” Thank you for showing me this world. I miss you. Come home.
“I’m sorry I keep forcing you to play tag,” she said, “I don’t like you ignoring us.”
“It’s okay, I don’t mind.” I never have. I miss you.
She was growing less and less corporeal by the second.
“Hey - Ray! Did I ride a giraffe there yet?”
“Not yet, but you will.”
“Really?”
“Really.”I promise.
She was completely transparent now.
“Bye, Ray! Say hi to me, for me!”
“I will, happy birthday, by the way.” I hope you have a wonderful 14th, Emma. I’m sorry I’m not there to celebrate.
“I’ll meet you there, someday!”
“I’ll see you soon,” he said, ignoring the sinking disappointment of returning to an Emma-less world. I miss you. I’ll find you.
“Take care!” I’ll try, thank you for seeing me. It’s been so long. Take care.
And with that, she was gone, returning him to his world.
***
“Yo.”
“Ray!” exclaimed Emma, tearing her eyes away from the spot the older Ray had been.
“You’re it.” That’s right, we were playing tag.
“I avoided everyone for really long, though,” she said, mildly annoyed he had caught her. And I was nice to you too, even though you were old.
“Sure.”What do you mean, sure?
“I did! Even Norman didn’t catch me!” she protested, following him back to their home.
He gave a short, mocking laugh.
“Ray!” she yelled indignantly. “That was a new record - and I didn’t even try to hide! What took you so-”
“Surprise!” all around her, her family sprouted from among the bushes leading into the forest.
“Happy Birthday, dummy,” said Ray, helping Norman heave their present into her arms.
“It was all Ray’s idea!” said Nat, “he knew you’d be distracted for a while if we played tag.”
See, Ray? You always knew everyone in our family so well - you’re going to find that person, I know it.
***
I’m going to find you, swore Ray, walking back through the woods, back to his family.
