Valentines Day Special Interlude: Joint Hearts Day

In Pandora's Tears, there are many holidays celebrating Human culture. One such event is Joint Hearts Day. The time of year where the people of the Underbelly celebrate their love, or lack there of, by getting together and spending one night of passion together in a ritualistic mating session before going out to eat dinner or watch a movie.

But for the Domain leaders, they each spend Joint Hearts day alone, instead choosing to pursue a hobby or interest. Eido, for example chooses to spend her days doing an extra encore performance for each year she's a domain leader, calling it her "Black Widow Blackout" show. This usually resulted in casualties from fans dancing till exhaustion. Panila had since banned the show this year, deeming it "A fatal flaw in her judgement." So this year, Eido spent the day shopping with Senshi. She later called it "Her favourite Senshational day ever". Senshi, however, denies it being a fun day, as Eido pressured her into doing an Idol routine despite her large (for a bug) body. 

Tophi and Wendy usually spend Joints Heart day creating a feast for all the lonely hearts... With Wendy usually using a detainment couple or two. This year, they went with a wonderful Lamia and Kobold couple, serving them up as a delicious "Lamia skewer" and "Kobold scaled brownies". Wendy and Tophi said that it was one of their better dishes, as The Lamia's sweat and tears made for an excellent salt while the Kobolds scales were rather soft and chewy, making a perfect contrast in flavour.

Ami usually spent the day playing games in her room, but since becoming a Domain leader, she had gotten a more luxury way to spend her most reclusive day. Her "Angel" had always took the day off on Joint Hearts day, leaving Ami to truly be alone. Since Ami never really dated, she preferred practicing with visual novels, only to get nervous when the characters flirted with her and shutting the games down. This year though, with her luxury pass (And Panila feeling somewhat sorry for her) Ami got permission to use the advance Artificial Intelligence of her heart's sub-mind to... Create a virtual boyfriend. The date started off fine, with Ami feeling confident... Until The AI actually responded to her, making her feel awkward and nervous once again. She instead chose to leave her room and go outside, playing with her dog.

Cheshire had one simple goal on Joint Hearts day. Get Panila to go out on a date with someone. He had been doing it for years, never relenting on his quest to give his favourite person a fancy, romantic date. This year though, he decided to try it with someone Rat suggested. He sent out the invitations, and like clockwork, The Warden went to the fanciest restaurant in Devouring to meet her blind date. Cheshire left Panila and went off to plug himself into a T.V, watching old cartoons as he waited for Panila to finish her date.

Panila had always hated Joint Hearts Day. It started as a reason for her to have an extra day to herself, but devolved into being forced on dates by Cheshire. Panila always got dressed up in her fanciest black dress that had her favourite chains integrated into the design, even knowing she wouldn't get to far with the next date she had. This year, she thought it would be another boring man with no tact or class, but as she sat down and looked at her date, she saw a well dressed man with long braided white hair. She questioned if this was Rat, but was instead told that he had no clue who this Rat person was.

But, even with her Scepticism, she continued the date with "Not Rat". Panila found herself actually having a pleasant time, and the two went back to detainment where they began to dance. As the clock began nearing midnight, Panila leant in for a kiss, only to be met by Rat herself, having used one of her Ratsticks. Panila, despite her eyes not being seen, could have killed her with her glare alone, quickly using chains to whip her out of the building in a display of fury. After the night had ended, she sat down next to Cheshire's plugged in body and ate some ice cream as the two watched old cartoons.

Rat had just finished her night with Panila and began drinking till her hearts content, walking into Biz's underground hideout with a box of alcohol, drinking with the crime boss and her subordinates. It quickly escalated into what Rat would later say was "One of the best parties I ever been to".