#however they are supposed to look like. somewhat similar. like similar features and colors and stuff

[skitskatdacat63]

FINALLY I HAVE PORTRAITS OF ALL THREE OF THEM AT THE SAME TIME

First of all, please imagine their dynamic as: weird sex thing(Rüß/Noir) and their third(Seren.) More complicated than that obviously but, I think that's the funniest way to describe it. Though there's some basic info here if you're curious. Eclipse is here in spirit(I like the last portrait I drew of her too much to attempt another for now.)

Note about their characters that I thought was too long for the tags. Seeing them together reminds me of how pleased I am about how organically they formed as a group. I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I feel like when you want to give your OCs relationships(friends, family, enemies, lovers, etc), the characters formed from that desire have a hard time evolving out of that role. For a while, or unfortunately forever, they're just: [character's] friend, [character's] brother, etc, rather than their own "person."

However, these guys, their dynamic formed almost completely naturally. Seren is a really old character, she's from before I even started building the foundation of my OC AU; she was actually from my first attempt to create some sort of world(which has been changed a lot to integrate into my main AU now.) Noir was created after the period where I made a lot of my foundational OCs, but she was basically created just to fill the "big bad wolf" role to compliment a red riding hood type character. Rüß was created after the AU had been officially established, and I thought, hey wouldn't it be kinda cool if she was friends with these other two random OCs? And then they became really important characters with lore which soooooo many things hinge upon LOL

But yeah, to have all these established characters, already with personalities, histories and preexisting connections of their own to come together so naturally?? It's just really neat to me still how it all worked out. Funny though how I spent so many years trying to create all these characters, to fill these relationship spaces, only for my most important characters to come together as a unit randomly, and to add to that, my most important ship to swoop in and form completely on a whim (<- the way Eclipoir formed is equally as organic, and almost more impressive to me.)(I don't want this to come off as "Oh look how smart I am," more that it baffles even me the creator how randomly these characters came together after, like I said, so much time spent trying to manually build up relationships.)

[your-ne1ghbor]

Now...we can't have a anniversary if we don't have funny shenanigans going on (Featuring the Evil Royal Couple)

(Technically part 1 ig lol I did the asks first :3)

(How Agatha and Magnus met basically in a nutshell)

You thought Magnus pulled Agatha? Nah, Agatha pulled him 👹

Them Before the Incident is pretty much:

"Do you want to get into some Tomfoolery together?" as they look at each other like:

And then they got into Tomfoolery:

(ignore mag's color pallet i was messing around)

And Ofc, I cannot forget their fear of stars-

(DW Asha will get her own post lol)

Btw it does not matter if your star wont hurt a fly. Their extreme paranoia says: Star = destroyer of Worlds = will eliminate kingdom, must stop it (or panik before)

They have came a long way from...well whatever the fuck I was doing back in the begining where I was just sharing ideas and brainstorming early on-

(Their reaction to that script I never finished storyboarding)

Also I kid you not, draft (or the Magnifico you have seen from my older posts which aren't that cannon anymore possibly) MAGNUS IS LIKE A FUCKING TERRORIST-

Meanwhile, Magnus now is just: "And all I hear are screams......."

Needless to say, Terrorist Magnus would find it a massive skill issue As Magnus now would toss him off a cliff-

What is also pretty funny for comparison is that draft Magnus was pretty similar to WoaS Magnifico as Draft WoaS Magnifico was pretty close to Magnus now. How is that even possible? I will never know-

Now for Agatha, I can pretty much say not much has changed, other than depth to the character, and putting more thought into how I want to present her. However I'd say draft Agatha's design was horse crap. Its so bad like what the hell is this outfit? OUTRAGEOUS

That's why her redesign is better. She is a slaying queen ✨(in both ways of the term)

However I MIGHT have to update her outfit since I her to be able to access her potions more easily instead of it being on a belt, so Im deciding between a cape that holds her potions or another part of her dress that stores them. Im not doing it now, since I still like the outfit and I like drawing her in it, but I might have to for functionality lol.

As Magnus design...look I'm not sure how I want to design it, other than it being very similar to this concept art:

(which funny enough is my fav outfit of him lol)

Anyways uhhh yeah-

Well then lets drop some random facts about them with no context whatsoever:

Magnus still has self taught himself Magic.

Agatha has self taught herself Alchemy (which is just...imagine evil scientist in the basement conducting devilish experiments lmao).

Magnus is fairly good with swords, but excells with spears (since his staff somewhat opperates like one I'd imagine).

Agatha was a great Archer (empathize on was.)

There are reasons for why Magnus/Agatha are assigned to these weapons, since it ties into their character.

Magnus/Agatha are secret nerds.../hj

Mention History/Herbology to them, they will yap to you for hours.

Okayyyyy time to move onto the next post B)

And now take some silly angst/i think there was always something wrong with them/short king reveal

.........my shayla.....

...there is something wrong with them I tell you what-

(concept)

omg height reveal (im between 5'11 and 6'0 ft as Agatha is Basically close to Cannon Mag's height lol)

Okay I'mma go to sleep its 12:20 am bru but I'll be back 😈

OLD STAR BOY PIC WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE....but it matches my mood rn sigh

[blood-darkened-moon]

Berserk-inspired Designs in Dark Souls

It’s not a secret that Hidetaka Miyazaki is a fan of Berserk and that the Soulsborne games are influenced by it. Here are some Dark Souls 1 designs that are known to be and some that I think could be inspired by Berserk.

Artorias the Abysswalker and Guts

Artorias wears a similar armor as Guts’ Berserker Armor. Also, Guts lost his left arm and uses a prosthesis instead. Artorias still has his left arm, but it is broken. Therefore, he cannot use it in the fight.

In this regard, I think Artorias’ Wolf, Sif, could also be a reference to the Beast of Darkness, since it is also a dog/wolf-like creature.

Darkwraith and Skull Knight

Gravelord Nito and Skull Knight

The influence of the Skull Knight on the Darkwraith’s design is quite obvious. However, I think he may also have inspired the design of Nito, even though “skeleton with sword” isn’t that specific.

Moonlight Butterfly and Rosine

Rosine could have inspired the design of the Moonlight Butterfly. They have similar color schemes, and both characters seem to be based on the Luna moth.

Taurus Demon and Zodd

Both are tall, horned monsters with brown fur and have a similar shape overall.

One detail I want to mention is that Zodd’s design is based on a big cat, but he has bovine-like hooves on his feet. The Taurus Demon is supposed to be a bull, according to the name, but he has paws instead of hooves. The paws aren’t cat-like, though.

Four Kings and Ganishka (released)

This one is more speculative. Unlike the Four Kings, Ganishka doesn’t have a solid body in his released form. I still think the color scheme and the overall irregular shape look somewhat similar.

Pinwheel and Rakshas

Mysterious cloaked figures with masks.

Serpent Mage and Snake Lord

Snake people aren’t that specific design-wise, but both are cobras, so there could be a connection.

Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Griffith

How is Ornstein based on Griffith? You may ask. The only similarity is that both characters wear animal-themed armor. Well, Ornstein’s data names in Dark Souls are “Griffith” and “Griffith_large” for his second form. So, he is meant to be the Griffith of DS.

Ornstein might be rather based on the name “Griffith” than his looks. The most common form of a griffin is a mixture between a bird of prey and a lion. These two characters represent these animals. Griffith stands for the bird of prey (falcon), and Ornstein is the lion.

Red Eye Orb and Beherit

The Red Eye Orb lost some facial features compared to the Beherit, but this one is still self-explanatory.

[dreamquest]

DREAMQUEST EPISODE TWO! “Hello, and welcome back to dreamquest! I am your host Jennie and I’ll continue to be here this whole time.” She laughs and continues to talk, “So if you haven’t saw already, a few days ago dreamquest’s social media manager posted a notice on weverse saying that trainees Lola and Mimi will no longer be joining us this point forward.” “I hope that they are doing well and taking care of themselves.”

“Since two trainees have dropped out and only one trainee was supposed to be eliminated, there will be no eliminations in this episode, instead that will be after episode three, so stay tuned.” Jennie explains as she clears her throat to continue. “Now, let’s hear from our judges and trainers, they will be critiquing the performances of each group. So let’s get started!”

Jennie walks over to the judges panel, and begins talking, “First, let’s hear from the spectacular Judy! Good afternoon, Judy, what did you think of the teams?” She smiles and waits for Judy to pick up the mic.

Team Fancy disappointed Judy somewhat, “They performed beautifully but,” she paused pressing her lips together, “I kind of expected more. However, Zarha and Dulcie really shined, their voices took me off guard.” she said, “I wish I saw more of Miyu, though.” she added before sighing. About Midas Touch, “I was blown away,” she began, “They danced well but their voices were amazing. Yurina and Lo were phenomenal.” she explained, “I would've loved to see more of Rin, if she had more lines I do think she'd've s made a bigger impact on me.”

Similar to Fancy, Pink Venmon didn’t blow her away, “In short, I enjoyed it, they performed confidently and I loved that .” she said, “The line distribution shocked me a little, it made it feel more like a song by Sasha and Yurim featuring Yoon and Mimi instead of a group performance.” she admitted, “Regardless, Sasha caught my eye immediately. She was extremely confident, basically oozing it. Hopefully, we can see more of Yoon next time.” Judy couldn’t help but smile when thinking about Illusion, “By far my favorite performance. The choreography for Illusion is difficult and I think they did extremely well.” she answered, “It was captivating; the choreo, the singing and the dancing. I enjoyed how well their voices melded together, I think it added to an already addictive song.” When asked which team she believed had the best performance, Judy voted for Team Illusion!

“Thank you for your input, Judy!” She smiles and moves to the judge next to Judy, Poppy. “Poppy, my love! Please tell us what you thought of each performance” Poppy clears her throat and begins to talk, “For this being the trainees’ first performances in dreamquest,” Poppy nods slowly, the corners of her lips raising into a genuine smile, “everyone did quite well. I am impressed. It makes looking forward to your future performances even more exciting.”

“But of course, I have something to say.” she says, raising a dainty hand to adjust her glasses. “I understand that this is a survival show, and what matters here is proving yourself worthy of debuting alongside other talented individuals. However, I feel most of you are struggling to find,” she pauses, searching for the right word, “…harmonization within your teams. Remember, you are not debuting solo; you will be debuting in a group. I am not suggesting that you need to be best friends or hold back from showcasing your talents. But if you want your team or yourself to get closer to the final line-up, seek some form of harmonization. Work towards agreement and acquaintanceship to perform at your best together.”

“Of course, it’s up to you whether you maintain this… ‘companionship’ after a performance,” she shrugs. Poppy was once a trainee, after all. She is pretty much aware that it isn’t ideal to wear rose-colored glasses in a survival show. “But if you want your team and yourself to win, act as one. At least during the actual performance.” With perfect posture, Poppy sets her hands on her lap and lets her eyes trail over the trainees. when she finds the ones she is looking for, she smiles, “I have my eye on some of you, not going to lie. Can’t wait to see more of you.” she says, her gaze lingering a little longer on Liz, Sasha, Lo, and Yoon. “Keep working hard.” She gives everyone a little bow of respect. “Good luck to everyone with the voting and your future performances. When asked which group had the best performance, she chose Team Pink Vemon!

“Thank you for that, Poppy! And i totally agree with you, you all are not here to debut as soloists so it’s very important that you and your fellow trainees look cohesive and as a team, otherwise in the future if you do end up debuting it’s not going to look natural.” She quickly explains and moves on to the last judge of the bunch, successful soloist, Vernoika!

Veronika looked at the tablet before her, showing Team Fancy’s performance first. Her eyes sharpened as she looked at the trainees dancing, jumping from left to right like she was trying to find a mistake. The camera would occasionally catch her grimacing at the poorly done note, and as soon as one trainee stepped wrong, her gaze would be stuck on the specific girl. Once in a while, Veronika would write something down in her notebook, all while still keeping her eyes on the tablet.

She patiently waited until the performance ended before taking her earphones out. “Okay,” she trailed the last part, and one staff member behind the camera sighed as if they knew what would happen. “Well… I liked the line distribution!” she says enthusiastically. “But if they had focused on the timing of the dance routine and projected their voices more confidently, this performance would’ve been magnificent! Something is missing here, but overall, it was a nice start for all five trainees.”

Veronika’s quick-to-play the other performance from Team Midas Touch. This time, however, she was watching the routine with more contentment. Once again, she’d randomly write something in her book while the dance went on. Her eyes sparkled once Yurina sang the high note effortlessly, and the trainees did the song's last chorus. Veronika took off the earphones the moment they posed, clapping despite only her and the other staff members being in the room. “Oh, now I can definitely see this team as Kiss Of Life’s younger sisters!” She praised. “This trainee did well; all four of them did. I’m glad. I just wish some of them didn’t look nervous; it was visible in their eyes. Other than that, amazing performance. I’ll keep an eye on you, Team Midas Touch!” She playfully glared at the camera before laughing it off.

While watching Team Pink Venom’s performance, Veronika looked divided between pausing mid-through the video or letting it play. However, she decided to be patient and let the girls show what they’ve got. “Well,” she hesitates after the performance, “the line distribution is… yeah,” Veronika decides on that as her answer. “No, I mean, we all know that this line distribution is generally weird, even when Blackpink originally recorded it. But don’t be discouraged; even with fewer lines, you guys still shined! The rapping was good, despite the trainees looking worried. There's a lot of potential here, and I'm excited to see how you'll grow.”

And lastly, Veronika played Team Illusion’s performance. Right from the get-go, the girl couldn’t help but mouth the intro while dancing haphazardly. She watched every girl individually, trying to see if there were any mistakes. So far, she couldn’t find much. As the girls performing struck a pose at the end, Veronika clapped for them, “Wah~ This was refreshing! I think I enjoyed it almost the same as Team Midas Touch’s performance, which says a lot!” She looked down at her notes, going through them to see what she hadn’t mentioned yet. “Oh! I really liked the girls' vocals, and you know what they say; the show saved the best for last!” Veronika winked, laughing once her staff member playfully cringed, “I think these girls have a lot of potential, and hopefully, they stay in the competition to show what else they can do!” When Veronika was asked which team she believed had the best performance, she chose Team Midas Touch!

“Thank you Veronika, and thank you again, judges! I hope the trainees really take into account and listen to what they were told, after all if you don’t listen to criticism, how will you ever improve? Right?” She laughs and walks off the stage, the episode is transitioned into a room, the confessional and we see the one and only Jangmi, who was under a little bit of fire after a recording of her venting her frustrations with her cousin’s, Rin’s lack of line’s in the trainees first ever performance, Genie.”

“Welcome to the dungeon, Jangmi.” A female voice laughs and then speaks again “No, I’m just kidding, I know you were mad at my bosses for the line distribution, but, hey! It got better, did it not?” Jangmi side eyes her and sits down, “Anyways, you’re here because we want to hear what you thought of the performances essentially.” Jangmi nods and begins to talk, "In all honesty, the girls' vocals as a whole were alright for the most part. A few of them stood out more from the others, such as Yurina, but some of them need to work on their live singing skills some more. They really need to project more and use their diaphragms. I could barely hear them while they were performing sometimes, and that was especially the case for Team Fancy. A lot of the girls on that team are great dancers, but their vocals are lacking and some of them barely have the stage presence to actually catch someone's eye. Only a select few on that team actually impressed me, unfortunately. But in my opinion, Team Midas Touch was incredible. Hana and Yurina are very captivating, while Rin is such a great dancer. She moves like water almost, and she's so expressive. And no, I'm not saying that because she's my cousin, so don't jump to conclusions." The unknown female nods and laughs, agreeing with her. When Jangmi was asked which team she thought had the best performance, she chose Team Midas Touch, too!

The episode does another transition, this time showing Jennie sitting down, drinking some juice while she sits down on the makeup and hair chair. “I know ya’ll are sick of seeing me,” she laughs and sips some of her juice, “but! I just got informed that the team who majority voted for is Team Midas Touch! What this means is that along with the judges and the trainers, the trainees who were apart of that group’s performance are allowed to participate in voting for the next song that they would like to do for the next performance! Isn’t that fun? That also means that Rin, Yurina, Hana, and Lo are safe for the time being!”

“Right now I have to go get Yurim and Yedam because after you guys voted for duo’s you’d like to see and what activities you want tnem to do, they were the ones chosen!” Jennie gets up from the chair and shows off her outfit and begins to walk outsides towards the dorm units, that is where the trainees live! She first heads to dorm two, that’s where Yedam, Jisu, and Hana roommate together, she knocks on the door softly three times and comes face to face with Jisu, who almost fainted after seeing her. “Jisu?!” Yedam yells as she walks over to see what had Jisu so startled and she gasps once she see’s Jennie, “oh my god, come in!” She awkwardly smiles as she lets Jennie into their dorm, Jennie makes little chit chat and tells Yedam to come with her to walk to dorm four. She collects Yurim, who in room four, rooms with Sasha and Rin.

“I know ya’ll are a little confused as to why I’ve just got you from your dorms, but it was decided from votes that you two be the first duo to partake in activities! And since there was no elimination today, you can just relax,” she smiles and continues telling them that they will be going to an arcade and then to a cat cafe, she also tells them they will be filmed.

DREAMQUEST EPISODE CONTINUED Once situated in the car, Yurim and Yedam sit in the back of the car, they talk about each other’s performances and play Dress to Impress while waiting to make it to the arcade. Once making it to the arcade they got their wristband on, showing they had unlimited tickets to play any game that they’d like to play.

Dreamquest’s producers rented out the arcade so that it could only be Yurim and Yedam there. After playing many games they finally stopped at the claw machine. “It’s probably going to be a scam, Yurim” Yedam says as she tucks her hair behind her ear. “I know but pleaseeee, for me?” Yurim gives her the biggest puppy dog eyes as long as possible and Yedam finally cracks after three minutes. “Fine, this better be worth it.” She sighs, “It will! I promise! I’ll put it on my bed and sleep with it, annd you can get the other one so we can match!” She laughs and watches as Yedam puts her wristband by the side of the machine so they can detect that she’s going to play it. What she’s talking about are two sanrio plushies, one being cinnamoroll and the other being hello kitty! Yurim wanted them so that they could have something to remind them of their fun day, the cinnamoroll plushie would be her’s, while the hello kitty plushie would be Yedam’s.

Once she won the plushie’s after many many tries Yurim immediately hugged Yedam, thanking her so much time which caused the editors to add that “Listener Yedam + Yapper Yurim ㅋㅋㅋ” subtitle. It has now been two hours since they’ve been ag the arcade and their staff member whose supposed to be their “chaperone” tells them that they will now be going to a cat cafe so that they can get something to eat, instead of just snacks.

The scene then cuts to them in the car and in traffic, Yurim and Yedam watching Netflix on Yedam’s phone, currently catching up on “My Demon” when Yurim realizes the camera is on again and says “I’m Hong Yurim,” Yedam looks up, smiling and seeing what she’s doing, she decides to join in, “and I’m Do Yedam, and you’re watching Disney Channel” both of them laugh after saying that, causing both their staff member and the driver to laugh too.

Once making it to the cat cafe, Yurim grabbed Yedam’s hand, rushing both of them in there and then you hear gasping “KITYYYY!” I don’t think the viewers ever seen Yedam this happy! Yurim laughs a little at her reaction and walks up to the cashier, she orders for both of them because Yedam was occupied playing with the cats. She ended up ordering a small pizza, two frozen-yogurt and two iced-teas. With the help of the staff she carried it to where Yedam was with the cats.

They talked and ate for a bit, taking pictures of the cats and their meal, once they felt like they were there for a good amount of time, with it already turning dark outside, they walked to the car and was driven back to the dorms. Both satisfied with their day out. For it to be the first duo outing, they really set the standard high! If you want to see your duo as the next ones to go out and do activities vote right after the next episode!

⠀⠀ׂ ⠀ ੯ ◟ 𐙚 υ ⠀ ִ aries notes

it’s a long one ya’ll I’m SORRY 😭

puppiez are so cute 😭 i loved writing them!

idk what else to say except episode three will either be out this week or next week! also my mooties suggested that there should only be eight episodes so that’s what we might do 😁 ALSO we might have to do double eliminations or go rupaul’s drag race style and do a “sing for your life” type thing idk 😭

[adelheidvonschicksal]

Can you please do a yandere Todoroki with a darling that likes to wear dresses all the time and skirts something similar to this I know this may sound weird but please bear with me and I hope you have a nice day or night

Summary: It’s an extremely rare occurrence that you give him the honor to help you change without a fight or fidget, and he plans to savor it.

Pairing: Todoroki x Fem!Reader

Content Warning: Yandere, Kidnapping, technically undressing but nothing sexual about it. Author cannot describe clothing.

Notes: 1142 WC. Funny enough, I was writing a fluff piece with a glitzy reader for his birthday when this came in. I hope you have a good day too!

Todoroki would challenge the world to find a moment when you look more innocent than when you are asleep. Your legs are drawn to your chest in a fetal position, hidden amongst the many folds and pleats of your dress while your arms wrap tight around a plush pillow to form the perfect ball of comfort in the center of the bed.

It’s pleasing to know that you’re finally comfortable enough to let your guard down and fall asleep in the middle of the afternoon. Until Todoroki reminds himself you had no way to know that. There are no windows here. No other ways to tell time. There is only the nice bed you currently occupy, a couple of dressers, a large body mirror, and millions of clothes thrown across the floor from your latest rummaging.

Todoroki notices that you settled on a pale pink dress that goes all the way down to your ankles and a ruffled white headdress that he immediately sets out to touch and run his fingers over. The fabric is soft, barely a feather touch, and he is reminded of when he first would see you in such outfits.

Shouto remembers how he would often pass you on the way to work. You stuck out easily on the street compared to the other heroes and businessmen that formed a permanent sea of people in the area. For him, you became the only bright spot in a field of black and gray uniforms. The pretty and feminine way you carried yourself, your made-up face, and your sweet voice all brought him happiness when interacting with you but also concern. Because with innocence and kindness naturally comes vulnerability and danger.

Vulnerability especially is an old friend of his. Shouto knows that those who are defenseless and fragile need to be protected, tended to like a budding flower, and innocence as pure as yours needs to be preserved for as many years as possible. He’s seen what happens otherwise. He’s seen the devastating fall out after innocence leaves people like his mother and brother; and by extension, himself. Shouto only wishes there was someone to protect him then.

The same way he wants to protect you now.

Of course, you didn’t understand or appreciate his efforts at first. You likened it to being like a princess trapped in a gilded tower, and he your captor. However, the switch from a dreary captive stuck in all black and grays back to a delicate colorful princess confirms that he’s accomplished the task of turning from your captor to your prince. At least for the time being.

So, he leans down and kisses you to see if such a thing would be enough to wake you, like in the fairy tales he once believed in as a child. There must have been some truth in those stories because you begin to stir as soon as he pulls away. You greet him with tired eyes as your vision focuses on him. There’s a flash of recognition that causes your features to relax.

“Shouto, you’re back!”

Oh, it sounds so good to hear you are happy to see him for once.

“Hello, love,” he greets with a smile, his heart beating with pure happiness. “How are you?”

“Mm…okay, I suppose, a little better now that you’re back,” you answer with a small smile but there’s still a little sadness hidden in it. He wonders if maybe you are feeling somewhat lonely in this place by yourself or if you are still struggling to accept this arrangement. Either way, he’d have to rectify the situation soon. For now, he has something else for you to help smooth things out.

Gently, he caresses your cheek with the back of his hand and rubs the evidence of sleep from the corner of your eye before reaching to the floor to pick up some bags. “I brought you something for being so good lately,” he explains. Good meaning not running away from him like you tried two months ago.

You grab onto the bags and look inside, and he notes that you do so without any hesitation. He is relived this situation hasn’t seemed to completely damaged you as you carefully pull out a new dress to add to the collection of clothes you have in the room.

“Oh, it’s so pretty,” you comment, running your hands over the material to smooth it out before looking at him. Todoroki smiles at the gleam of gratefulness showing in your eyes. “Thank you, Shouto!”

“Of course, princess,” he replies softly. “Would you like to try it on now?”

“Yes,” you answer, and Shouto moves to leave the room for your privacy. Before he can make it to the door, you stop him with the meek call of his name. “Shouto…” He pauses, his hand freezing on the door handle anxiously. “Could you help me?”

He smiles. As if you really have to ask.

”Of course,” he says, and you move into position.

You stand in front of the mirror with Shouto, your full bodies reflecting as he stands behind you and begins to help you undress. Your headdress goes on the nightstand before he returns to pull down your zipper. Shouto lets your dress fall to the floor and become lost in the mess like the others. Then, he helps pull your new outfit over your head and lace the back cords through the dozen tiny grommets.

His nervous fingers are shaking the entire time he pulls the strings across your back and into their proper holes, not out of nervousness but excitement. Every time his skin unwittingly touches yours, you do not flinch or jump away like he’s accustomed to you doing. It’s an extremely rare occurrence that you give him the honor to help you change without a fight or fidget, and he plans to savor it.

Your relaxation at his presence encourages him to touch you more, to run his hands over your shoulders more, and to place kisses on your bare skin more until he finally finishes suturing up your clothes. Clothes fit for a princess, and he the prince, your savior, the handler of such a perfectly gorgeous doll that he’ll never get tired of dressing so long as it’s the clothes of a content, protected innocent darling. Even more, he approves of how difficult it will be to run away in so many layers but he doesn’t seem to have reason to fear you ever trying to escape again any time soon. 

“How does it look?” you ask as you size yourself up in the mirror.

“Perfect as always,” he answers, studying the way the outfit hugs and falls on your body; proud that he’ll be the one to strip you of it later to reveal how pretty you are underneath. He almost couldn’t wait.

[adobe-outdesign]

what are your thoughts on the cyndaquil line ? cyndaquils my all time favorite pokemon and id love to hear your thoughts on it hctsvkgxjg

There's a lot of debate over what Cyndaquil is supposed to be–mouse, echidnas, etc. For the record, I always saw them as a neat monster foremost, and a hedgehog/echida hybrid secondly.

Regardless of what it is/isn't supposed to be, I really like its design. First, it's adorable, especially with the perpetually closed eyes. It does a good job of being cute without being overly "cutesy" or baby-ish.

And secondly, the way it has the dark areas on the back to add contrast with both the cream underside but also the flames themselves, making them pop, is so good. Especially with how it runs down that distinctive face shape and stops just short of the tip.

Speaking of those flames, I know there's some controversy on the fact that they're actually retractable. Personally, I actually like this concept a lot; I feel like it's one of the more distinctive parts of the line, and even the red spots in the areas that the flames come from are a nice touch.

However, with that said, I agree that only having the flames out when attacking is terrible; it means that you barely see one of the main features of the design and doesn't make much in-universe sense. Instead, I like the way PLA does it; having the flames out for the entirely of a battle, and only having them out when otherwise outside of its Pokeball. It keeps the retractable idea will still having the flames out most of the time.

Quilava is a bit similar to the rest of the line, but I'll give it a pass because it does change as much as it can—flame placement, marking placement, and overall body structure.

This artwork actually isn't a good representation of Quilava as a whole, as it's actually quadrupedal and only stands on its hind legs like this on rare occasions. It's also obvious when it's on all fours that this thing is long, more of a weasel than a porcupine at this point. This gives it a considerably more unique look than the Typhlosion-esq official art.

And while I don't like it quite as much as Cyndaquil due to the body shape being less distinct/interesting, it keeps all the good elements, such as the retractable flames and countershading. So, overall, pretty solid.

I'm only now noticing that Typhlosion's dark blue is a completely different hue than its pre-evos. Weird.

Anyway, Typhlosion seems to be based on honey badgers, so it's appropriate that it looks so ferocious, as honey badgers Really Want To Kill You at all times. This also makes it feel appropriately powerful for a final evo, and it still retains all the good and unique elements of the line.

However, while Typhlosion is good overall, I do feel like it's probably the weakest of the group. For whatever reason, the flames reduce further and further as the line goes, so at this point there's not as much of the nifty fire porcupine element to it. This also makes the design feel pretty "bare" compared to its pre-evos, as it has more body but less fire proportionally despite that.

And secondly, the markings. They worked well on the pre-evos because they're primarily quadrupedal, so you see the top of their bodies most of the time. With Typhlosion, you see the underside most of the time; thus, it looks somewhat plain and empty. This is something I think the Hisuian form (which I reviewed over here) improves a bit, as it adds a simple black collar around the neck, which helps add contrast to the front of the body and breaks up the cream void a bit.

This is also why the line looks so "naked" without the flames on it. The flames are the only things adding visual interest due to the reduct markings and more generic body shape, so when you take the one point of color away there's not a whole lot left.

As a whole, however, I'd say the line is pretty solid. Cyndaquil has a pretty perfect design, Quilava does its best to be unique while still transition between the two, and while Typhlosion's design is the weakest, it makes up for it with sheer power. Overall, probably my favorite fire-type starter line thus far.

[justadcgirl]

CATS: THE MUSICAL 2020

[A WASTED POTENTIAL and how it could have been better]

Now if any of you saw Cats (God bless your soul) you may not have the best opinions of it. That's a fair assumption to have. I watched it recently and realised that despite the internets rightful vitriol towards this 3d animated retelling, it had alot of potential to be good in its own way.

Thus I have sought to fix the movie

The Visual aspect

What went wrong

First I want to compare these 2 images

The image on the left has exaggerated cat features Cloth and furs rapped around their arms, legs and torsos to reduced the human proportions and traits, making it more animalistic. Makeup which accentuate feline features, that moves from the face into the head piece. And bold colors to booth.

The right image has none of these. The colors are singular, as with most of the characters. The re are no attempts to remove the human characteristics on this model, excluding the placement of the ears. To put it simply they slapped fur whiskers and a tail on a human a called them a cat.

What separates the characters from the play and the movie on a visual level is that the 2020 version makes them look more human than cat.

Though this can be considered one of its greater downfalls. I believe this stark difference could have distinguished it in a good way.

Another problem is that cats switch between wearing clothes and not wearing them. There's alot of inconsistency.

Okay so how would I fix it?

1. Make everyone human like

Instead of making the mice and roaches look like nightmare fuel. Just give them animal and bug like characteristics on their human bodies. Like they did with the cats

2. Give them all clothes.

Due to the more human appearance of the characters. It would be better to have them wear clothes. Not only would this solve the problem of inconsistency in terms clothing within the show. But it would also allow them to tell more about the character through clothing.

Here are some examples.

A. Victoria

I think her outfit should be a simple fully white dress. She is new to the streets and has yet to find her place amongst the cats.

To add she should be the only cat with that shade of bright white. Making her stand out even more amongst the other characters.

All other white cats should stick to shades of off-white to differentiate.

B. Jennyanydots

Her outfit should look something like this. It's simple and represents her as a simple, prim and proper individual. The colors should look bleached out and dull.

However as she starts to sing and reveals her real personality which is far more energetic and outgoing. She changes her clothes(Instead of unzipping her skin 🤢) into something more stage worthy.

I was thinking she could wear a burlesque-like outfit. Lots of feather tho. And the color should pop. I'm thinking bright red of orange

C. The roaches and mice

As I stated earlier I believe both the mice and the roaches should look somewhat human. In some way.

Additionally I believe they should be wearing clothes as well.

Though unlike the cats, who have a varietyof coats lenghts and colors ,their appearances don't vary outside of minor colour discrepancies.

For the roaches

For the mice

(I'm thinking like a coal miner outfit. Didn'tfeel like drawing it. So this is the basic idea)

4. The twins

They are supposed to be kittens. And are very young so they would wear matching outfits in green or blue.

5. Background cats.

The background cats should wear an outfit like this along with a pair of ballet slippers

The colours should be simple and be similar to their fur color.

Depending on the scene accessories can be added to make them suit the scene better.

However they should never captivate the audience as much as the main characters on screen

5. Old Deuteronomy

Should wear long fluffy coat to substitute for long fur.

[rainbow-bastard-club]

Could you tell us more abt how each character is like, personality-wise? :0

Of course! I'll divide it into two categories, as their behavior on set is different than off-set! Though this is a long post, so it'll be under a read more!

On Camera:

Black is portrayed as a mean older sibling who pranks all the others and laughs at them and is generally one note and annoying to watch. He comes across as mean spirited.

White is the inverse, where he is portrayed as the voice of reason for Black, and constantly has to try to keep his twin from bothering anybody/ he cleans up the aftermath of said pranks.

Red is very much the know it all who is constantly reading a book of some sort and turns away from most of the other children actors, as he's supposed to be a snobbish character in the show.

Orange is very excitable, however shows an extreme lack in desire to do anything physical, also he is eating something in every single shot he is in, for the comedic value.

Yellow is also quite the happy-go-lucky kid, though in the show he's portrayed as being slightly forgetful and leaving messes everywhere (as that was the lesson he was supposed to teach.)

Green is in fact blind since creation, and so is usually accompanied by someone else in the show, but he is very quiet and introverted.

Sky Blue is significantly louder and more outgoing, and she usually was the one to accompany him, because they balanced each other out.

Blue was very much the special boy, and often had the most screen time shared with other human actors as compared to his siblings.

Indigo was very quiet and stern, almost coming across as rude, unless the episode was focusing on space in which case she could talk for hours with complete sincerity.

Purple is an enigma, they're kind of, able to disappear for a while and then reappear later, and you don't even realize they were missing. They're calm, and don't speak much.

Violet is mellow, not necessarily calm, but he can put people at ease around him. Semi-chatty, but always pretending to be stupid in the show to annoy Red.

Pink is absolutely in love with the color, and the concept of love, and is so frilly and charming, so most of the episodes she's in feature something to do with the concept of love or romance.

Brown is outgoing, but to a point. On camera he usually just pushes past said point, though, and he's the kind of person who seems like they're in a perpetually good mood.

Grey is very reserved and timid, becoming nervous when new people are around him, or when the spotlight is on him. For said reason he usually isn't in too many shots and is always accompanied by a sibling.

Off Camera:

Black is actually the more mellow and laid-back sibling, who would rather just be listening to music, thank you. He goes out of his way to be kind to his siblings and fellow actors.

White is actually much ruder and more passive-aggressive than he is in the show. Even if he doesn't yell, he is very overwhelming to be around.

Red is still somewhat of a know it all, however he tries to make sure things he knows can be taught to everyone, even if he has to leave some information out, and his tastes in books are much different.

Orange is. He's. Eh... having sensory issues relating to food, and then being forced to eat on camera kind of gave him issues. He's reserved and doesn't like being looked at or paid attention to.

Yellow is still just as outgoing and crafty but is significantly better about not leaving scraps of paper and marker than he is in the show.

Green is very similar, as he is shy and prone to trailing off, however he's very aware of what's going on around him, even if it seems like he wouldn't be. He's got some suspicions.

Sky Blue still hangs around Green and helps him out whenever she can, but secretly she is obsessed with cars and trucks and trains.

Blue actually dislikes having so much attention on him, so whenever he is off camera, he seems to be trying to ride the adrenaline. However, he will seek out his siblings for hugs and affection.

Indigo is genuinely just as curious about space off camera as she is on camera, so she will talk to everyone about space whenever she can. Routinely begs Red to take her to the library so she can look at pictures of stars in the books.

Purple is still so sneaky, but their primary hiding area is under the castle walkway, they'd much rather be listening to music than anything else.

Violet is smarter than he appears in the show, and is just as chatty, and friendly, but doesn't hang out with everyone super often.

Pink secretly adores all things dark and spooky and has a videotape of the Addams family which she obsesses over. She has also filled an entire sketchbook with drawings of her as Morticia.

Brown reaches that point of no longer being outgoing quicker, and therefore will just walk out from conversations if he no longer wants to participate.

Grey is still very reserved, but he does much better off camera, because nobody is filming him, and he isn't around people he doesn't know. Very sleepy.

[cuppajj]

Since the ask box is open, do you have any fun trivia to share about some of your ocs, perhaps? Thank you, and have a wonderful day!

Yeah!!!!! I’ll give some to some of my ocs who I don’t really talk about that much (because they’re in dev otl). Drill can take a breather for this one :D

Scotta

A little bit of oc lore - Scotta is from Nebulos, but she’s a hybrid of a Nebulan and a mysterious alien species. Pure blooded Nebulans are bald and bleed green-hazel blood, but she has hair and red-pink blood, which are inherited from her other species. Because of this, she was treated as an outcast during her time on Nebulos, before she met the Autobots. Because of this, “hairy,” “odd-blooded,” and especially “freak” are very derogatory for her.

She sounds like Sadie from Halo ODST.

Despite wearing purple, her favorite color is pink!

She loves entomology, astronomy, and botany, and she’s highly knowledgeable in all three fields. Her favorite bug is the butterfly, her favorite celestial feature is the nebula, and her favorite earth fruit is the strawberry! On an unrelated note, she’s allergic to coffee beans.

Glare

He and Scotta know each other, and are very close. He tries to be like a father figure to her.

His design is inspired by the nekomata of Japanese folklore: they are intelligent yet malevolent cat Yokai with two tails, who use the powers of pyromancy, necromancy, and shapeshifting to torment and/or kill humans. Cat wise, his appearance bears somewhat of a resemblance to a lynx.

His voice box will often emit a crackling or rumbling sound after certain sentences he says. This is because his voice box is slightly ruptured, causing his voice to sound less natural than normal.

While he might look big and scary, he’s got a soft spark underneath. He spends much of his time drawing and painting.

He’s a little over 50 feet tall.

Vix

They own two soundboards, which they can use one servo to play on.

Their real name is Deadbeat. On a similar note, they take heavy inspiration from the likes of Daft Punk, Shawn Wasabi, and Dedf1sh (splatoon 2).

They implanted a feature that allows them to tweak their voice box to sound differently, depending on if they want a more natural or artificial voice, a masculine or feminine voice, or anything in between. They primarily use this feature for voice samples that they put into their songs.

Whereas Drillburst’s musical themes are about pain and healing, Vix’s music tends to have a running theme of mind control, psychedelics, and hypnotism. This is inspired by the nigh-brainwashing actions done by the Senate during the golden age, as well as the phrase “you are being deceived.” As a follower of Decepticonism, these themes speak to them above all else.

Vix and Drillburst hang out often, and work on songs together. They’re probably his love interest. :)

Melody (FOWAU)

I don’t talk about her much!

Her real name isn’t Melody, but Sharon.

Before becoming Megan’s campaign manager, she was an assistant manager at a law firm, an assistant professor of civics at a university, a sales consultant, a librarian, and had a brief stint as a waitress, just to name a few. She’s been all over the place, and isn’t sure if she’s done with it yet.

She has an ex-husband who she will not stop thinking about, even though she knows it’s not good for her.

Knife throwing, axe throwing, gun practice… she’s surprisingly good at all three of them. She just can’t do it when she has a kid running around!

Melody was supposed to be a one shot one off character from the earliest fowau comic I drew, without a name or personality or backstory. However life finds a way XD

[aeipathcy]

@pvremichigan * ✭ ❪ plotted starter ❫

Lately, Larisa had been finding herself absentmindedly wandering over to a particular street. If her path didn’t include crossing by it, she would detour to make use of it. There were little shops located here she would find herself browsing, but it all seemed as though she only walked this specific street for one reason: to meet a certain someone. For so long, she told herself to never grow attached, but of course she had to get attached to stranger she had meet here.

The girl couldn’t sense his presence here today, that reading of immeasurable life energy nowhere to be found. However, she felt something similar to it lurking within the crowd. As that presence passed by the thrift store the redhead was currently browsing, she immediately set the china cup she held down on the display shelf and bolted out the door. People with such high levels of energy were rare. This person could also be another potential—

Potential what?

She didn’t mean food source did she? Wasn’t she supposed to put that behind her now? But without the life energy from others, she’d surely die.

Blending into the flow of people, Larisa continued to follow the odd reading she was sensing. As the people pushed and pulled her into different directions, the girl found herself squeezing past bodies to get closer. She just had to know who had this energy reading. Reaching out a hand when the reading was close enough, the redhead found herself gripping onto a sleeve of a coat. It wasn’t the coat she was familiar with, so it couldn’t be the guy she was hoping to see.

Somehow, the crowd seemed to fade away as Larisa lifted her gaze to figure out whose sleeve she had just grabbed. The first thing she noticed was the red hair, somewhat long and beautifully curled—the color was like her own red hair except many shades darker based on a more natural shade of red compared to hers. When the person looked back to acknowledge her, she noticed the more feminine features of their face. Was it also strange to notice she had a similar eye color to herself as well?

Ah, the owner of this reading was a woman and nothing like the person she wanted to see.

But was she another immortal?

Realizing she was being rude, Larisa quickly pulled herself out of her trance, her gaze locking with the stranger’s, ❝ Are you... who exactly are you? ❞ she found herself asking. While she had no place to be asking such a thing considering she didn’t even know this lady, the words tumbled out before she could stop them.

[nomstellations]

Tricks and Treats

Your phone chimes as you reach your destination, and you look up from the GPS to the building before you. Spellbound Delights...it was a bakery that had just opened here, advertising pastries and treats imbued with magic. It was run by a supposed "cake witch," and you were curious about that. You've never heard of that kind of witch, did they just...conjure cakes? Were conjured cakes just as real as authentically baked ones? Curious and craving sweets, you came to find an answer. Today was its grand opening, and you came early to be the first to check it out. There wasn't anyone else here but you thankfully, and you stepped inside the bakery.

You were immediately greeted by the sweet smell of pastries and tarts, the display case was full of freshly made treats and there was even a platter set out of things to try. Some of them glittered, others constantly shifted their colors...these must be the magical ones, wonder what they do? There didn't seem to be anyone behind the counter, but you could hear someone's singing coming from the back of the bakery. However lovely their voice was you wanted a snack, so you called out to them. The singing stops, and the sound of heels clicking against the floor rapidly approaches you. A surprisingly tall woman now stands before you, her smile bright.

"Well hi there, sugar! I wasn't expecting to get a customer so early! Couldn't resist the allure of my treats, hmm~?" You take in her features rather than replying, as the first thing you noticed that her hair was made of frosting. Thick white curls fell to the side of her face and down her back, smelling of sweet cream cheese. She was wearing a frilly apron over an equally frilly red dress that went down to her knees, and she sported a red hat with white highlights and a large dollop of frosting on it. She really seemed to take the cake theme seriously, but it seemed like every part of her was made of the stuff. Noting how you stared, she gave you a patient smile and leaned against the counter. "Heehee, curious? My name's Chiffon, and I'm the only cake witch of my kind! I pioneered the field, in fact! Studying the magic permanently changed my body into cake...so why not open a bakery? I want my hard work to change lives for the better~" Her whole body was cake? Now that changed a few things. You tell her that you were interested in some of her goods made with magic, and you want to know what some of them are and what they do. Lighting up like a christmas tree, the witch sits up straight with a smile. "Of course! See, these turnovers here can grant you good luck for the whole day, and those blueberry scones can give you a confidence boost….these here are just regular apple fritters, but they're absolutely delectable!" As Chiffon rambles on about cakes that can cure curses and pies that can grant flight, you eye her with a hungry stare. You occasionally had some more…predatory inclinations, and while you had come here for a sweet snack there was something far sweeter and more filling right in front of you. The biggest cake of all was right here, why not enjoy it? You just need to take the chance….

Interrupting her ramble, you tell Chiffon that you're looking to...taste some of her goods before buying any. She gestures proudly to a tray of snacks she set out, presumably for customers to try. "Sure thing, honeybun~ Might I recommend the petit fours? They're small, but flavorful!" You had no intention of actually buying anything now that you had your eyes on the prize, but you might as well play along and make your move while she was distracted. You pick up one of the little cakes, admiring the cute star candy it was decorated with before taking a bite. It tasted sweet and had strawberry frosting inside, and you hummed in delight at its flavor. At the very least it tasted great, and a warmth started to flow through you. Maybe this cake was magic? It probably did something cute, like make it so you'd be happy all day...you would be when you got a taste of Chiffon, that's for sure. However…. When did the bakery get a bit bigger? Or rather, when did you get a bit smaller? Chiffon's heels clicking against the floor got your attention, and you looked to see her towering over you. She has a small but somewhat smug grin, and she leans down to your level.

"Maybe you should've asked more about those, sweetie~ The "petit" part is rather literal! You didn't get as small as I thought, though...guess you have a bit of magic resistance in you! Oh well, you're even cuter like this...like a little teddy bear!" You're very confused, but before you can ask her hands wrap around your waist and lift you up much like a cat. She brings you up to her face, her smile growing wider. Your befuddled expression earns a chuckle out of her, and her grip gets a bit tighter. "I saw the looks you were giving me...it wasn't the snacks in the case you wanted, was it? Sorry sugar, but I'm never on the menu~" You pale a bit, she knew? You were in trouble now. "You know...you look cute enough to eat right now~ Guess you're learning the hard way that this snack bites back, huh?" She lifts you up above her head, and you start wriggling around as you realize her plans. "Come now, you'll be just fine! I only hope that you won't be too rattled after this...I'd like it if you came by again sometime, hehe~" Come back? She was going to eat you! You wriggle but she waves her free hand, and you find your movements slowing down and becoming sluggish. "Settle down, you'll be just fine~ Haven't you always wanted to lay on some soft cake? Well, you'll be laying in it soon!" Without wasting any more time she opens her mouth, lowering you inside. Her tongue comes up and grazes your legs and you shudder a bit, regretting wearing shorts out today. You were far too big for her to eat in one go, so she opted to take her time as she steadily lowered you in farther. A deep slow gulp marks the start of your descent, and you find that even if you had the strength to wiggle you couldn’t. The cakey muscles of her throat were tight, and her saliva seemed to be...sticky? Was it some kind of glaze? Whatever it was it clung to you, and you slowly sunk into her mouth with each swallow. Chiffon hummed and you could feel the vibrations around you, supposedly she liked the way you tasted. You were pulled into her throat without much incident, now slowly sliding down towards her stomach. Interestingly enough you could hear the sounds of her body working, seems like everything still worked even after being turned into living food. While her biology did interest you, you didn’t want a look this close! Peristalsis seemed to be doing its job rather well despite your sticky situation, and after a few moments it pushed you into a somewhat more spacious chamber. The walls were slick much like a real stomach’s, but they were so much more softer. You landed in a pool of glaze, similar to the kind you’d put on donuts. Was this her equivalent of stomach acids…? It felt warm in here, like a freshly baked cake, and the walls closed in with a delighted growl to rub against you and check you out. The witch herself sighed happily from above, giving the bump you made in her middle a gentle rub. The way her dress puffed out should cover you nicely, though you filled her up pretty well...she’ll manage with a bit of extra weight, today was the grand opening of her bakery after all! “So~ How do you like feeling that that cake felt? You’d have to try a lot harder than that to get your hands on me, cutie~” She chuckled, and you found your face flushing a bit in embarrassment. “Not to worry, though….you’ll be safe. I’ll just have to hold onto you for a while for trying to ruin my opening day! I promise to get you cleaned up when you’re out, I’m not cruel. Enjoy your ride!” She started to move, and your world rocked gently back and forth. It smelled really sweet in here, and the warmth was honestly nice...she wasn’t being malicious, so you didn’t feel as tense as you used to. Maybe you could just mellow out and relax in here, with the consistent movement of her stomach allowing you to relax. You wondered however, if there was any kind of magic that could safely get all this glaze out of your hair and clothes...

[ddaehyeon]

ophiuchus - you have this limited stack of sticky notes. write whatever you want on it, and that note would magically appear somewhere in your soulmate’s line of sight during that day.

send me a member and a constellation!

— pairing: jung subin + gn!reader

— genre: fluff, soulmate au, office au

— word count: 1.5k

— requested ☆ victon masterlist

today will be the start.

that was the words scribbled on a blue sticky note you kept in between the pages of your favorite book. the last note you received from your soulmate. you randomly found it by your desk as you were working on your resume for a manufacturing company you were trying to get into. months had passed since you last got a note, so you assumed it was your soulmate’s final words to you.

a fascinating way to get to know your soulmate, although you doubt you ever got the chance to send your soulmate any type of notes. you can’t remember having that limited stack of sticky notes similar to what your friends would gush about during college. and your soulmate wasn’t too keen on giving off their identity either, settling for a few words of encouragement every other day and sometimes, random words. like really random ones. there was even a time they sent off a what seemed to be a grocery list.

though you got a hold of their last note, their other notes were no longer with you. with most of it only appearing in your line of sight, either too far to be reached or too awkward to pick up.

“good morning, you’re the new analyst, right?” a man with towering height greeted you, slumping a box on your table. things you supposed were necessary for your job. you peered over their id, their smiling photograph looking back at you. choi byungchan.

“i am.” a small curve made its way to your brim, lighting up your face a bit. though there was no point in denying that you were actually worried about what you were to do. the new environment adequate for your stomach to twist in both nervousness and excitement.

byungchan looked at the close area, the nearest cubicles were ones occupied by employees who probably had started their day way too early. already in the middle of typing out reports, with some answering phone calls and pacing in and out of the area. “our advertising manager is scary.”

a clearing of the throat stopped you from whatever question you were to throw as to why byungchan said that. another guy appeared next to your cubicle, he was holding a couple of brown envelopes. “am i?”

you shot a look on his id, his name easily spotted. jung subin. underneath, his title proudly printed. he was the advertising manager.

“just kidding.” byungchan let out a chuckle before grinning to the other. waving in your direction before leaving your cubicle.

subin watched him all along before he stepped closer to you, placing what he was carrying on the table. it was a few clippings and report summary of the former trends and advertising plans. “i compiled everything that you might need there, on the sticky note my email’s written. if ever you need additional data, just send me a message.”

“thank you,” you said with a nod. opposite to what byungchan had warned, subin wasn’t really scary. though you had to agree that his sharp look made him somewhat intimidating. gazing at the sticky note stuck on the top of the envelope, a cold feeling crawled onto your skin. breathe immediately sucked in, heart missing one beat— wait a minute.

“is something wrong?” subin asked, halting your train of thoughts, but not the trail of sensation that was rapidly setting in your body.

you shook your head, unable to commit to any verbal response.

his writing was familiar.

awfully familiar.

never did the idea leave your mind. for good days it remained there.

subin wasn’t in his office when you got there. you’d simply leave the files he had asked for only if you didn’t need some other monthly data. quite urgent of a need that you were willing to wait just a little bit until his meeting ends.

unable to hold still in sitting on the couch, you stood and wandered around his office. supplies tidily stacked on the shelves, a pile of documents on his table, most of the former advertising campaigns stuck on the bulletin adjacent to the sofa. the thing that caught your eyes the most was the handwritten weekly schedule. his handwriting.

once again, you ended up having a staring game with the paper. trying to analyze it as if it was your schedule, when in fact you were not really paying attention to what was written. all your focus fixated on how it was written. curving in rush, yet still neat.

the door swung open almost inaudibly or perhaps you were simply lost with your thoughts that you failed to perceive it. not until subin’s voice echoed in your ears as he stood behind you did you notice that he was already back.

“i’m free this weekend,” subin casually said, a chuckle heard from him afterward as he walked towards his table to settle down his notebook.

you shook your head, a little abashed of how he caught you in the act of staring at his writing. oh well, his weekly schedule. “that’s not it.”

nodding his head, he sat down on his chair. “then why were you looking at my schedule ever so intently?”

“just…” stepping away from the bulletin, you walked closer to his table. for a moment, you contemplated whether to tell him about your thoughts or not. but there was nothing weird with finding someone’s handwriting familiar, right? it wasn’t such a strange thing, right? meeting his gaze was enough of a reassurance, quite inquisitive too. “i think your handwriting is familiar.”

“it is?” he raised a brow at your words. “what do you mean?”

unsure of what to say, you blurted out the first thing that came to your mind. “today will be the start.”

the puzzlement that came across his features allowed an awkward smile to come to your lips. maybe it was some kind of coincidence. he wasn’t that person, no? admittedly, that was quite a disappointment. you shook your head in an attempt to take the words back. “nevermind.”

that was ignored though, subin’s frown melted upon a realization. “so you were that person who kept on sending those animal doodles when i was a kid?”

and it was your turn to be confused. “what?”

a knowing smile lit upon his lips, welcoming and a bit nostalgic. eyes discerning, warm gaze as if he had found someone he had been looking for. “do you not remember drawing something on a paper and it disappearing?”

“wait, so you mean—”

there were only a few instances it occurred or at least that was the depth your memories could still recognize. around kindergarten, you had this notepad that you weren’t entirely sure how you got. its pages were pigmented in bright and whimsical colors. and you filled it with the same amount of playfulness through doodles of animals and flowers, most were silly, but fun to make. however, none of it lasted in the notepad, all disappearing after the day it was drawn. you didn’t mind though, thinking that perhaps someone just pulled it off or it just magically vanished.

it was magical, yes, but it didn’t just disappear.

“i even have most of it kept,” subin confirmed, pulling a drawer and retrieving his keys from it. lifting his hand, he revealed a keyring that had a small drawing of a bunny locked on it. the color of the paper familiar to you, regardless of the many shades of color there was. its blue tone was distinct. “this drawing was from you?”

you took a few steps closer to him to study the keychain which he ended up handing to you. shooting him a look, a question slipped out of your tongue. “you mean you were actually able to get some sticky notes from me?”

subin bobbed his head up and down, his smile spreading in delight. “when we were younger.”

later that day, subin insisted on walking you to the bus stop. the remaining rays of sunlight brushes upon your figure, two shadows moving from behind as the two of you strolled on the sidewalk. you were unable to hold any more conversations earlier due to the other office tasks both of you had to work on.

“so why haven’t you been writing?” you asked, breaking the silence that had been existing ever since you stepped out of the building.

subin shrugged. “i ran out of it.”

“i see.” you nodded at his words, feet stopping in one go when you thought of another question. something you’d been curious about. “what do you mean by ‘today will be the start’ on your last note?”

“oh that?” subin’s track halted as well, a moment taken to look at the sky. the colors altering to what seemed to have been the pigments of the sticky notes the two of you had exchanged— of orange and red. “it just meant that from that day onwards, i will simply allow fate to work, to bring us together.”

he turned to look at you, the curve on his lips was able to spark a glimmer in his eyes. “and it seems like it did.”

[pizzazz-party]

Part 2: Ring’s Powers—And What They All Have In Common

Easily the most mystifying thing about this game is— how on earth the magical sentient Pilates ring can do what he does. Seriously. Except, there is some underlying logic here. Buckle up, guys, we’re doing pseudo-science.

(Spoilers for up to the end of the main storyline. Various outfit spoilers beyond that.)

So. I’m just going to say it? The foundation of Ring’s powers essentially boils down to “energy manipulation.” That was probably an easy conclusion to reach if you’ve read Part 1. We’ve already basically established that much. So today we’re diving into the three main categories of how Ring manipulates energy.

They are:

Amplification. Using energy to amplify the strength of a physical motion.

Construction. Using energy to build new structures.

Conversion. Altering the state of the energy itself. Either by converting it to another type of energy, or by converting it into matter (and vice versa).

All of Ring’s various powers and abilities fall under at least one of these categories. Most belong to more than one.

You’re going to want to peek at this little Venn Diagram I’ve made. And possibly make friends with it, because it’s going to keep coming back at the end of every segment. We’re going to go over Ring’s lesser abilities first, then his five special powers, and finally his sealing ability.

And before we start! Some quick reminders, in case you need them.

“Life energy” exists in all things everywhere.

“Exercise energy” is a type of life energy, and we see its presence most often in the form of Trainee’s signature flames.

The type of exercise energy Trainee produces is now pure and inhuman—because she’s synced with Ring.

Pure energy exists on a scale from “positive” to “negative.” Ring is partially made of pure positive energy. It’s the glowing stuff that flows through his tube.

There’s a fundamental difference between the “red,” “yellow,” “blue,” and “green” energies that get used in fit battles by other humans and humanoids, and the “pure positive” stuff that Ring and Trainee exhibit. (Seriously if you’ve never read Part 1 before, I strongly suggest you do so now.)

———

Alright! Ring’s wild list of “lesser” powers include:

Acting as a heart beat monitor

Crushing boulders into pebbles

Creating air blasts

Creating suction vortexes

Creating and wielding fit battle constructs

Creating ab guards

Creating non-battle constructs (Or whatever you would call “Quick! Turn into a tree!”)

Creating a sync bond

Creating solid constructs in Game Gyms

With exactly three exceptions, all of the abilities on this list involve some degree of amplification. So let’s walk through this.

HEART MONITOR. Amplification. The simplest to explain. When Ring is measuring your heart beat, he’s just amping the sound or vibration, sort of like a stethoscope.

BOULDER CRUSHING. Construction + Amplification. When you press Ring into your stomach to crush a boulder, he (1) loops a construct around said boulder and then he (2) amplifies the crushing motion of said construct, using raw exercise energy from the force of your press.

Air blasts and vortexes are a bit trickier to explain, but you have to remember that Ring is actively choosing what to amplify and what to ignore.

AIR BLASTS. Amplification. In the case of air blasts—when you squeeze the Ring Con, you’re also technically squeezing air molecules out of the center of the Pilates ring as you distort the shape. In-game, Ring is just picking a direction (away from your avatar’s face, very helpful) and amplifying the force of that squeeze into a harsh blast of air.

SUCTION VORTEX. Amplification. The vortex operates on a similar, but opposite premise. When you pull on your Ring Con, you’re actually still just pushing air molecules out, same as when you squeeze. But when you release it and the Pilates ring springs back into its original shape, the air molecules go rushing back, as though sucked in. In-game, Ring is once again just picking a direction to amplify the force of that suction.

FIT BATTLE CONSTRUCTS. Amplification + Construction + Conversion. Alright, this one is a bit more complicated. But have you ever noticed that no matter how how poorly you are at holding squats—as long as you hold that squat, Ring’s construct will buff up to completion. It’s, for the lack of a better word, the “quality” of the exercise energy going into it, that determines how hard the construct can swing—and how much damage it can really do. The better the “quality” that Ring has to work with, the more he can amplify the strength of his constructs.

Construction here is pretty self-explanatory . We’ve already poked at this in Part 1, but Ring is in charge of crafting and swinging your battle constructs, not Trainee. Once you select a fit skill—before you even have Trainee move to perform and hold said fit skill—the appropriate glowing limb constructs are already hovering above your enemies. That’s Ring’s doing. You have to remember that he does, actually, have his own supply of energy separate from Trainee. And this is just one of the ways in which he openly uses it.

Conversion technically only comes into play here after World 2, once Trainee and Ring retrieve the Color Coding power. I mentioned above (and yet again, more thoroughly in Part 1) that the exercise energy Trainee and Ring give off—purified positive exercise energy—fundamentally differs from the red/yellow/blue/green stuff found in human beings. Ring can manipulate light and color on a superficial basis without Color Coding (he once mimicked the purple flames of Dark Influence back in World 1), but it’s a surface level change. Ring’s constructs don’t yield any “extra damage” benefits in a fight until Color Coding is retrieved.

AB GUARDS. Construction + Amplification. Admittedly, this one’s pretty similar. (I mean, I’d argue that Trainee and Ring are both making the construct this time...) But with one key difference! There’s no conversion happening here. At all. Which makes sense, actually. A shield of “red energy” would be especially weak to red attacks. A shield of “green energy” would be especially weak to green attacks. And so on and so forth. Ring’s signature energy, however, doesn’t appear to come with any such caveats. (We never run into another being quite like Ring.)

QUICK TURN INTO A TREE. Construction + Conversion. The tree thing, functions like a fit battle construct, minus the amplification. Trainee holds the pose so that she and Ring can continue hiding in the construct, because slinkbugs are thieves that steal away valuable grocery monies. She’s the power source. Ring’s job is to shape the tree as convincingly as possible. There’s no amplification going on here.

SYNCHRONIZING. Conversion. As far as we know, synchronizing with Ring appears to have somehow overwritten Trainee’s original—human—energy signature, and made her somewhat biologically closer to being like Ring. There’s still a lot we don’t know about syncing, but you can read more about it here in Part 1.

GAME GYM CONSTRUCTS. Construction + Conversion. Up until this point, when it comes to “conversion,” all we’ve talked about is when Ring takes one glowing energy type, and converts it into another glowing energy type. Let’s talk matter.

Fit battle constructs, while still being made of energy, are actually pretty solid. You whack monsters with them all the time, this isn’t news. You don’t have to be a physics expert (and I’m really not) to understand that “energy,” as it exists in Ring Fit Adventure, operates under some pretty loose rules of reality. In this game, Pilates rings can be sentient! Dragons can be bodybuilders! And “energy” can be condensed into a shape hard enough to send your enemies flying—and still be considered “just energy,” not “matter”. Because we’ve seen what it looks like when energy gets turned into physical material, and vice verse. We’ve seen Ring do it loads of times.

Specifically, we see it happen in the mini game gyms.

So there are thirteen types of gyms spread across the world of Ring Fit. Most of them, like Dreadmill, don’t require a person to use any fancy tools to play. But others do. Exactly four require that Ring attach an extra accessory.

We only see Trainee play, but these gyms are canonically popular with the public. It’s implied that the gym supplies participants with the appropriate props instead of, like, making people bring their own parachutes or something. It’s also implied that Trainee refuses a bunch of these props, because she has Ring. And Ring can (temporarily) create his own props.

I say “temporary” because when you finish a game like Aerochute. Or Bank Balance. The two props are converted back into Ring’s signature golden energy, and then they dissipate into sparkles. We never explicitly see Ring making these tools, but we sure as hell see them get expelled.

We never see the other two props from Core Crushing and Smack Back dematerialize. (We also don’t see Trainee victory posing in either game.) But I don’t see why we should rule out that they can’t, if Ring was able to make the first two.

So. Like I said: CONSTRUCTION + CONVERSION = GAME GYM CONSTRUCTS. No amplification here, I doubt Ring would ever knowingly help you cheat.

This concludes Ring’s “lesser” powers.

———

Ring’s five—“special”—powers. You know them. You love them! They are:

Color coding

Smoothiecraft

River Rowing

Jump Boost

And the Wing Ability

Even before digging into what these entail, the special five are…interesting. Outside of Ring, they take the shape of giant, pulsing balls of energy. They’re coveted by nearly everyone who comes into contact with them. Seriously. From Dragaux himself to Honey to the Sportans, to random monsters to Daddalus to Solar Plexia the rain goddess—most of the persons listed here either can’t use Ring’s powers, or don’t even recognize them for what they are. “Treasure,” “shining jewel,” “glowy thing.” These are all things they have been dubbed as by outsiders.

Except, they’re not supposed to be removable. This is not a feature of Ring’s. We know thanks to Allegra (and Titanium White, bless her soul) that metaphysical traits can be ripped out of a person. This is more or less what Dragaux did to Ring. But unlike with what happened to Titanium White, it seems like Dragaux ripped out an extra glob of Ring’s energy reserves with each power. Those little “badges” in the menu screen aren’t just visual representations of your retrieval progress; they physically exist in the game. Ring shows one to Solar Plexia in World 8.

Once Ring’s reunited with one of his powers, it could be that he reabsorbs the excess energy, and all that’s left behind is the little “badge” that’s been sitting in its center—and that’s the thing that actually lets him wield whatever power he’s reacquired.

———

COLOR CODING. Conversion. Taking pure energy, and converting it for fit battles benefits. We covered this one.

SMOOTHIECRAFT. Conversion. Actually, the weirdest one on this list. I’ve gone over this video as slowly as my phone will allow. And to the best of what I’m seeing, Ring is taking these ingredients, converting them into a bubble of light, and then squeezing them back out as a physical paste. You can watch a video of it happening here.

The fact that it’s a chilled paste and not a fine liquid, speaks to some level of intent and control. Fire is what happens when atoms are moving very, very fast. Ice occurs when eligible molecules are moving very, very slowly. Cold is an absence of heat, and heat is just another form of energy.

RIVER ROWING. Conversion + Construction. For the longest time, I thought this “power” was Ring just storing a boat and some oars in his pocket dimension. But that’s not the whole picture.

The one time we “see” Ring summon something—as in we are 100% sure that he isn’t creating the object in question—is when he’s summoning ingredients for a smoothie. And the process looks very different. Please refer to the appropriate screenshots below the video. But to spell it out: there are two consistent traits that appear, when Ring is summoning something from his “pocket dimension.” There is:

Always some circle of light present. The item emerges from the “pocket” as energy, so Ring is converting it back into matter as he takes it out. If whatever’s getting converted normally exists as a physical object (and not just as a “temporary” one) then there’s some kind of circle present somewhere.

Always some level of detail to whatever is getting taken out of the “pocket,” even before the item appears to “solidify” into normal.

You can see River Rowing in action at its activation and deactivation. Unfortunately the position of the camera prevents us from seeing a clear image of the boat as it appears. But its massive light show does include a conversion circle—or a “portal,” if you will, as Trainee walks under the arch. (The camera also prevents us from seeing the boat get sent away.)

We do see the oars, though. As sturdy as they look, they each start out as a shape made of pure energy, with no extra detailing before they “solidify.” So again, conversion and construction are at work here.

JUMP BOOST. Amplification. Works the same way as an air blast. I…don’t actually see a reason as to why Ring can’t already do this? So long as the both of them are fast and strong enough, they should be able double-jump. I don’t like it, but I’m willing to chalk this one up to gameplay mechanics. Jump Boost only exists so you can skip over enemies anyway.

WING ABILITY. Conversion + Amplification. If the boat in River Rowing is an object being converted into and out of Ring’s pocket dimension—then so are the wings. I’m certain of it. There’s a circle of light as Trainee runs under the arch, same as with River Rowing. And if you watch closely here, you can see that each wings appears with distinct, detailed trimming straight from the get-go. Maybe more importantly, you can see each wing actually emerging from a portal of light. These portals come back again as Ring banishes the wings back into his pocket. The wings visibly sink into the portals, and then disappear.

This ability also falls under amplification. It looks like Trainee’s energy also gets fed into the trimmings, and that could increase the force of the flaps. It might be that the two of them wouldn’t be able to cut into the air as well without that boost.

This concludes Ring’s “special” powers.

———

And last but not least: sealing.

Ah, sealing. One of the first powers we ever see on screen. We witness it in action only once, way back in the beginning of the game. So our knowledge of how it works is limited. Something we also know very little about? Ring’s sneaky little “pocket dimension” trick. Unlike sealing, Ring doesn’t even acknowledge this as a power worth talking about. But as it turns out, if you’re working under the assumption that these two are related, it starts filling in some blanks.

Sealing, as we’re shown in the initial cutscene, has done something weird to Ring’s colors. His metal is the same as ever, but the energy that flows through his veins? It cycles through a faint rainbow as it flashes from light yellow to light purple. Dark Influence purple.

“Pocket dimension” implies Ring is somehow connected to a space physically separate from him and further separate from our reality. But if the objects Ring pulls from his “pocket” emerge as energy, that need to be converted back into matter. What if it’s closer than we thought. What if—everything that Ring stores away for you, from every boat or shirt or—heaven forbid—bodybuilding dragon…

What if it all.

Goes into.

His tube.

Life energy exists in everything, everywhere. And Ring is apparently a master at manipulating it into his donut stream. If a tomato, a living thing, can be converted twice and still come out of his “pocket” in one piece—then why not Dragaux? Maybe even especially Dragaux. He appears to convert himself back into the flesh once he’s out.

As for the physical seal that Trainee breaks…As best as I can figure, that thing is a lock being held into place by Ring’s sheer might and concentration. The way Ring talks about it, sealing sounds less like a one-time thing and more like this one, long, continuous effort in suppressing Dragaux. Because despite all restrictions, Dragaux never stopped training, never stopped straining, against his new prison. That seal was on its least legs, even before Trainee ruined Ring’s concentration.

———

STORAGE. Conversion. Physical matter gets temporarily converted into energy, and then tucked away into the tube containing Ring’s personal reservoir of life energy. Safely reversible. Objects can be converted/stored/released remotely, far away from Ring’s center.

SEALING. Conversion + Construction. Storage with a locked gate. The lock needs constant focus and effort to maintain. The physical seal bears a spiral symbol—the very same we see flashing white across the screen before every fit battle—and possibly doubles as a warning sign for danger, please don’t touch.

———

And that’s it. That’s all of them.

This thing is so dense, you genuinely deserve a pat on the back for making it to the end. Unless, you skipped around looking for the last Venn diagram? Which. In that case, here it is! As promised, the complete picture.

TL;DR:

Maybe some of these alignments leave room for argument, but I think the categories themselves stand up pretty well.

I hope reading this only gave you half the headache that writing it gave me! It was fun…when I wasn’t muttering curses against Ring under my breath. The formatting was a pain, but I think I handled it okay.

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DISCLAIMER: I take this video game way too seriously. This is all for fun! I feel pretty strongly about my conclusions, but I’ll go back and edit this if/when/where applicable. Thanks for reading.

———

Ring Analysis

Part 1: Synchronizing—How It Works and What It Tells Us About Ring

Part 2: Ring’s Powers—And What They All Have In Common

Part 3: Ring’s Biology and Possible Origins

[shadow-otousan]

Deciphering the years in which Shadowsan grew up in

 Alternative title: Debunking the supposed fact that Shadowsan is 40+ (I’m looking at you, cs wiki)

Since Shadowsan’s flashback in s02e03, this has been on my mind. After some intense image searching, I can finally share the fruits of my research. 

Let’s cut to the chase. 

This is Shadowsan as a child, then known as Suhara. (Also pictured are most likely his playmates.) The style of clothing they wear, which you can see mostly on the other kids, were fashionable as everyday wear for children during the 60s (and possibly earlier during the late 50s). This nostalgic blog in Japanese in which the author talks about their childhood and details the timeline of the decade, also describes the fashion worn by himself and his peers.

The caption (fortunately in English) as follows:

Children of everyday wear of 1965 is this is it !!

The boy on the far right and the two boys on the far left are wearing the style most similar to what we see in the flashback--sweaters worn over their shirts, and shorts that barely stop at the thighs or, if longer, above the knees. We can safely say that Shadowsan spent his childhood at least somewhere in the mid-60s.

Now on to the second decade and this time, we’ll be looking at Shadowsan and his brother. But first, we’ll be focusing on the most conspicuous example for what was considered the style of that decade.

This is Hideo as a young adult. Now the decade in which this took place was easier to figure. It might help that I had a 70s phase in college lol. The type of glasses he wore originated in the late 60s as a reaction to the unattractive and sometimes even downright butt-ugly spectacles of the past decades (except cat eye glasses but even that was a mixed bag). However, this style of eyewear really peaked in popularity during the 70s and it endured somewhat into the 80s.

Glasses became seen as fashionable with their large, thick, and colorful frames as seen in these ads. Tinted lenses, if we’re talking about sunglasses. Now what only stumps me is that I cannot find the exact example for Hideo’s glasses, as I see only one bridge on his frames instead of the more common two (those are the type of glasses Shadowsan buys for himself during the Fashionista Caper showing us that fashion is cyclical, but I digress). Regardless, the shapes are there.

As for his hair, you can simply find it by typing “70年代 アイドル 男性” in google image search. But for the sake of one example:

The only slight difference is that apparently, most of them parted their hair to the right instead of slightly to the left like Hideo does (and Masashi Sada as you can see above. Bonus points for being the few famous people in Japan who wears glasses so now I’m given the theory that the character designers lowkey based Hideo off of him. Highly unlikely, but it’s a nice thought. While we’re here, check out one of his songs like this one). His hairstyle also lasted until the 80s (because any start of the decade will always have holdovers from the previous one) until perms and hairspray made them even crazier. Hideo’s hairstyle can be describe as ‘feathered.’ Hideo’s clothes lack the then ubiquitous bell-bottom pants and wide lapels of the 70s though I’m chalking that up to even Hideo thinking those were silly (bell-bottoms could actually sweep up the dirt if you don’t wear platform shoes..I also tripped on them twice while walking ;w;).

Next, Shadowsan--este, Suhara as a teen.

Because he’s a rebel, it’s a given that his style does NOT reflect the popular fashion of his youth unless you’re in a gang (or trying to look like you’re a part of one). They seem to have one thing in common though: a buzzcut.

This was a photo of what seems to be gang members, taken by Katsumi Watanabe in 1972. The man on the middle right is the closest we have to Suhara’s style, befitting a misfit of Japanese society. On the contrary to medium-length feathered hair and colorful clothes, such rebels would go out of their way to stick out from the norm. Worth noting that the bosozoku fashion--in which elements of American choppers and 50s greasers are combined with Japanese elements (i.e. gakuran--high school uniform for males, hachimaki, sarashi, tokkou-fuku--”special fighting jacket”, etc.)--did not become quite popular until the 80s, so what Suhara wears is more or less a prototype of what will become the stereotypical look of Japanese delinquents (although those styles have actually coexisted too).

Now with all that out of the way. We can estimate as to how old they really are.

If Shadowsan was a 60s kid, that would place his birth years somewhere during the end of the 50s or the very beginning of the 60s, making him 50 plus or early 60s at the time of the show’s setting (2019).

Hideo, meanwhile, I’m just gonna take a wild guess and say he’s 5 to 7 years older (or even 10 considering how much older he looks compared to his brother in the current show), which would place his birth years squarely in the 50s, beggining, mid, or late. In the show’s setting, that would make him either 60 plus or pushing 70 years old. If 10, mid 70s or plus.

Until a concise number is given to us by the CS crew, I will strictly hold on to these conclusions as their more or less true ages. Of course, everyone is free to disagree because, after all, these are only theories and if they were to be debunked in the future, I won’t be surprised. Just a little heartbroken lol Because I’m not a historian of any sort nor am I Japanese, feel free to add on this or correct me on some mistakes I might have made.

And that concludes this post. Class dismissed ;P

(Last minute addendum: I would also like to point out that though it seems that most VILE operatives recruited are young as some argue that any VILE operative student had to be 20, nowhere in the show does it require only a certain group of young people can join. It might be entirely possible that as long as one is an adult (20 or older), one can join VILE. And Shadowsan, from the looks of it, seems to be in his late 30s or early 40s when he was a student going by his facial features. He just used to look really young bc Asian aging is a paradox. You can be older than you look, vice versa, and suddenly look like your age. But hey, like I said, only theories)

Ok, now I’m done~

[hongism]

mists of celeste ➻ one

➻ pairing: ??? x fem reader ➻ genre: space au, pirate au, space pirate!ateez, angst, eventual smut ➻ Word Count: 4.5k ➻ Rating: M ➻ Warnings: language, violence, guns and weaponry, blood, future warnings tba ➻ summary: Sneaking aboard the ship of a renowned space pirate may not have been the best idea, but you’ll have to make do with what fate has handed to you 

⇐ previous | next ⇒

mists of celeste act one ➻ part one

‎

"You said that you're with the military? I don't recall the military having ships as small as yours." If possible, your eyes would roll all the way back in your head at the man's comment. Instead, you plaster a smile on your lips, gaze flitting around the bridge as you do. 

 "Yes, Ambassador Salvadore. They sent me on a transport ship, as I am here to relieve the captain of his duties—"

 "That is not necessary, Miss."

 "—on military orders, Ambassador." Your grin continues to stretch as you gauge the state of the bridge. It is severely lacking in terms of soldiers, which is good for you on multiple fronts, but the ambassador before you is proving to be more difficult than you first anticipated.

 "Well, that is quite unfortunate then, seeing as I will never have a woman command my ship even if on supposed "military orders". Which division did you say you were from?" The ambassador is too much of a skeptic; he must be old enough to have witnessed – perhaps even taken part in – the First Military Revolt in 2143 when the first female Fleet Admiral was inaugurated, but you don't have time to argue politics with an old man.

 "I'm afraid you don't have a choice, Ambassador. It's military orders, whether you like it or not. We are beyond the days of sexist remarks about women commandeering ships, are we not?" You bite out. The smile on your lips falters a bit, and the older man's gaze hardens on you. 

 "Where are your papers? I need proof of your purpose here, as well as a written record of your orders." 

 One hand slips down your thigh, brushing the holster where your pistol sits, but you bring it back up upon second thought. 

 "Papers were not given, sir. The HMS Revenge is less than 50 thousand megameters from Eros and as such, my commander did not think it necessary to send me out with papers." You bring your hands behind your back to resist the urge of putting a bullet between the ambassador's eyes, clasping them tightly and glaring at the grey-haired man before you. Whether he believes your words or not is unimportant, because he can't seem to stay focused on the topic at hand anyways.

 "Where is your seal? What rank are you? Your division? The name of your commander so that I can have a word with him once we dock on Eros again?"

 "I am wearing my seal, sir, along with my uniform. As for your other questions, I believe that if it were a man standing before you, you would ask nothing of him, Ambassador. Thus I do not feel inclined to answer any of your questions." The old man's eyes rake over your form, and once again, you feel your fingers itching to reach for your pistol as he stares. Biting down hard on the tip of your tongue, you push the desire back and grin back at the man. The uniform you're currently wearing fits awkwardly – baggy at the shoulders and waist, along with sleeves that keep falling past your wrists when you let go of them, and overall it's a bit obvious that the uniform did not originally belong to you. The excuse you can think of on the spot is that you were given a recycled uniform, but considering how stubborn and skeptical Ambassador Salvadore is, you don't think you'll be able to slip through with that lie.

 "Your uniform looks like it was taken from the garbage," the man states, confirming your concerns. You sigh then open your mouth to retort but he cuts you off before you have the chance. "You are one soddy excuse for a pirate, girl. One woman against an entire crew? A fool's errand if anything. Not at all some grand heist."

 "I am not a pirate," you spit back between gritted teeth. "I am merely here on military business. Nothing more, nothing less."

 "You see, Miss, that is actually not true. You cannot be here on military business because I would've been informed beforehand. No one elected to inform me of a change in the captainship, however. Thus, you must either be a pirate of another sort of criminal." The man takes a few steps forward, risking to be within a couple feet of you now, and you note the lack of weapon on him. He walks with a slight limp, no doubt a bummed knee from early military days that he never had surgery on, and his left foot drags a bit along the floor as he walks over. "Besides, your face looks quite familiar, Miss. Have I seen you on a bounty paper before?"

 "I highly doubt that," you whisper. Eyes dare to meet yours, and you pass a sinister smirk his way before uttering your next words. "I make a note to not leave anyone alive once they've seen me." His eyes widen. 

 "Grab her!"

 You bring your hand to your holster with the intention to use the weapon this time, but somehow the man is quicker. Well, his men are quicker. One comes from behind you – the guard who brought you to the bridge when you boarded – and another comes from your right, grabbing your arm before you have the chance to pull out your gun.

 "Cute trap, ambassador. Think of it all by yourself?" 

 "In fact, I did. Didn't take much thought since all pirates are the same."

 "This is a mistake, ambassador. You really don't want to be doing this, I promise. And I'll remind you again: I am not a pirate." You don't waste your time struggling against the grip of the men around your arms. Instead, you glare at the old man in front of you as though it'll get you out of this predicament faster. You get what you asked for, just not in the way you were wanting or expecting. The cool touch of a gun barrel finds your temple.

 "Then you're a fugitive. Or a criminal. A pirate is no different. You all bleed the same, so there's no point in making useless distinctions."

 "You bleed the same too, ambassador."

 "Kill her." 

 You brace yourself for the worst, hoping at least for a swift and painless death, but it doesn't come right away. The ground quakes underneath you, then everything jerks for a moment. In a split second, the lights dim and flash red, sirens begin to wail throughout the bridge, and you spot the captain scrambling to return to his post. The ship wobbles, and as it does, your captors lose their balance. You seize the moment, yanking your limbs from their grasp and slamming the back of your head against the man behind you. A sickening crunch follows along with a scream of pain. The man on your left is already beginning to recover his balance so you have to work fast and swing your elbow against his jugular before he can fire his gun. He crumples under the attack and clutches at his throat while you swing around to deliver a similar blow to the soldier behind you as well.

 "Captain, report! What is happening?" The ambassador yells, scampering back as you grab the gun from the man beside you. 

 "I can answer that for you," you huff. Your chest heaves from the sudden burst of exertion, and you rise to your feet slowly. The ship lurches again, sending the crew careening backward, but you steady yourself by ducking down. "You're being boarded by actual pirates. And in my time in the black seas, I've only seen one crew use this boarding tactic."

 "Who? Tell me now, girl!"

 "Give me control of the ship now or you're not getting out of this mess alive," you say, taking several steps towards the ambassador.

 "Absolutely not. I would rather see this ship blown to pieces before she falls into the hands of a pirate."

 "She'll be in the hands of a pirate regardless!" You argue, and your tone grows incredulous when the old man glares at you.

 "They're pirates. They don't stand a chance against soldiers from the Royal Military," he sneers before turning on his heel and walking towards the captain. 

 "Holy fuck… it's the Scourge of the Black Sea." It's another crew member who mutters the words, gun no longer aimed at you but just past your shoulder, and you whip upon hearing the name. You had seen the Scourge's file many many times, yet none of the pictures included in it were accurate in the slightest now that you are face to face with the man. 

 Kim Hongjoong, barely older than you yet still the most notorious pirate in the galaxy. Scourge of the Black Sea, a moniker that serves him well, but seeing him before you now changes that. First of all, he's not nearly as tall as you pictured him to be. The files never shared details about his height or hair color or anything like that, but you somewhat expected the infamous Scourge of the Black Sea to be of intimidating height; however, the three men standing around him are all taller than him, although not by a drastic amount. Still, you weren't expecting the man to look as young as he does. Someone with a track record like his surely would seem much older than his profile depicts him to be. You can't call him out for his age since you are younger than him yourself but after years of expectations about what this infamous pirate would be like, you feel a bit let down. His gaze is piercing and harsh, but a gleam in his eyes shelters playfulness. Behind that sharp gaze lies dark eyes, so dark they almost seem black from the angle you're standing at. Beyond that though, you don't find yourself scared at the sight of him at all.

 He doesn't look your way, in fact, he glances past you as though you don't exist. Someone else is looking directly at you, however, and it's his gaze that redirects your focus. You don't recognize him – or the other two men with the Scourge for that matter – but he has distinct features. Cat-like eyes, upturned and wide, alongside a captivating smile that's a bit too bright for your liking. His grin is strange, but hair even stranger – a solid head of black except for one section at the front of his head cut out like a slice of pure white strands. His gaze doesn't falter, remaining locked on yours as you continue to analyze him. It's almost as though he seems to know you and who you are, a knowing quirk in his expression. 

 "More fucking pirates on my ship!" 

 You maintain a stare with the man beside the Scourge rather than turning to look back at the ambassador again.

 "Now, now..." Hongjoong cuts through the terse silence across the bridge, voice booming throughout the room with little effort. He takes one, then two steps forward, the jacket around his shoulders sweeping back with the movement. It's only two steps, and yet you feel the intimidating aura radiating off of the man in those small movements. "All I want is what's in the cargo hold. Give me what I want, and I'll spare your men."

 "Open fire soldiers!"

 "I guess we're gonna do this the hard way then," Hongjoong mutters as the soldiers scattered throughout the bridge raise their weapons. That's your cue to duck out of the way. As fascinating as the boy with cat-like features may be, you would rather not be riddled with bullets because you were too focused on staring at him. You have no doubts that the Scourge would shoot right through you, and you're going to have to move fast to get what you're wanting without trouble from him. You push forward, running directly at a soldier off to your left, then the gunfire begins to ring in your ears along with the alarm. 

 It doesn't take much effort to wrestle the gun from its owner. One swift kick to the side of his knee and a fist to his nose suffices, and the weapon falls into your hands. You slam the butt of the gun against his cheekbone, not waiting for him to fall to the floor before you're pushing past him to get into the captain's cabin. 

 "Fucking hell," you curse under your breath when the door snaps shut behind you. 

 Gunfire and alarms still ring outside the door. You aren't sure how long the gunfire is going to last, but your getaway ship leaves when it's over meaning that you need to move quickly. Papers are strewn all across the captain's desk, but the ones you're looking for won't be lying about. You drop the rifle to the desk and squat down to be eye level with the drawers, clicking the first open. 

 "Where are you?" You mutter to yourself as you file through the mess in the drawers. Digging to the back, your fingers close around a bundle of papers. You yank them forward, seeing a neat red ribbon tied around the middle along with a wax seal placed directly over the thread. It bears the Royal Insignia of Eros. You sigh at the sight, one finger trails over the ridges of the wax, and you read the words across the front to yourself. "Papers of Free Travel and Safe Conduct. Signed by the king." A small, raspy laugh escapes your lips. Despite the chaos of gunfire and alarms blaring around you, you can't help but feel a wave of calm wash over you.

 "Put the papers down, pirate." You glance up, eyes fixating on the door, and spot the ambassador glaring you down. You tuck the letters into your shirt, your free hand gliding across the desk to grab for the rifle you set down. 

 "Sorry old man. I'm leaving with these papers. It doesn't matter whether you're dead or alive to me." You lift the rifle and point it at the man's head without hesitation. "Cross me, Ambassador Salvadore. You won't live to see the end of it."

 "The papers or your life," he spits back, shakily lifting his own pistol. Perhaps you were wrong about his endeavors in the military previously, or maybe he's just that terrified of you. 

 "Did you misunderstand me? Step aside. The pirates with the Scourge already killed all your men, didn't they? My guess is they're on the way to the cargo hold and plan to kill every soldier along the way. Do you want to join the corpses?" You let the gun slip down a little. The ambassador quakes under your movements but shakes his head once you finish speaking. "Then step aside."

 He does as told, moving away from the door as you keep your gun trained on him. You don't dare look away from him, too wary of him being trigger happy or trying to jump you once you get closer to the door. The cool touch of metal hits your back, and you feel around for the touchpad beside the door. 

 "Why are you doing this?" He asks once you lower your gun.

 "I want my freedom. I don't care what I have to do to get it."

 "So you're going to kill me anyway then?"

 "No. I'll leave that for the Scourge. They say he doesn't take prisoners." You turn away, slamming your palm against the door control. As it slides open, you pass one last glance to your dear ambassador. Eyes stretch wide as he lifts his pistol again, and you're forced to duck away as best you can. Either you're too slow or he's too quick. The resounding echo of a pistol shot follows, and you barely register that you've just been hit until a burning sensation sears through your right arm. If not for the adrenaline coursing through your veins, you would be crumpled on the ground in pain. It's a good thing for that too because you don't have much time to sneak aboard your getaway ship. 

 The ambassador doesn't follow you out, and you don't stop to check your wound before darting after the trail of dead bodies. 

 "Shit shit shit," you hiss under your breath. Warm blood begins to trickle down your arm, making the fabric of your ill-fitting uniform cling to your skin. If your studies of Kim Hongjoong's tactics are correct, he should've docked his ship along the corridor to the ballistics bay, and your studies must be accurate because there is one living person near the end of the corridor. Guarding the docking station. With a gun. Just your luck. 

 "Hongjoong, there's a—" You chuck your rifle at him, catching the man off guard, and he stumbles back to dodge your weak attack. Killing him would be foolish and far too suspicious, but you're doomed in hand to hand combat with a gunshot wound in your dominant arm. "Fuck. There's a girl here, she's—" You cut him off again, sweeping a foot under his and bringing him to the floor. His gun clatters to the side. You bring your left hand down in attempts to punch him, but he catches you by the wrist before you can make contact. The fabric of your sleeve slides a bit, you panic, and with frantic movements, you try to pull out of his grasp. The two of you freeze where you are and merely stare at each other for a moment. Then he grabs for his gun again, whipping a leg up to rail you in the side. You hiss at the impact but manage to kick his gun away before he can grab hold of it. 

 "Seonghwa? Seonghwa, repeat." The voice comes from the man's form, no doubt the wristband that glows as the audio comes through. You scramble for your pistol, crying out in pain as your muscles flex at the spot of your wound, but manage to bring the butt of the gun against the man's temple before he has the chance to respond to his captain. "Seonghwa. Are you there? I repeat, are you there?" 

 You sit up, a slight stumble in your steps as you get back to your feet. The man – Seonghwa, most likely – doesn't move, but you can see the staggered rhythm of his breaths as his chest heaves. He'll get away with a headache and minor concussion at best, which is better than being dead for certain.

 "Shit." The voice crackles through Seonghwa's wristband, and you can barely hear it over the still-blaring alarms in the ship. "Yeosang, come in. Go check up on Seonghwa. Kill anyone in your way. We aren't here to make friends." You step over the man's unconscious body, glancing into the ship on the other side. 

 "Cargo bay, cargo bay. Surely you have signs on your ship, Scourge," you mutter as you step onto the foreign spaceship. "Can't be much different than a military ship, right?" You slip your pistol back into its holster, right hand still dancing over the grip despite the pain radiating from that arm. The adrenaline is beginning to wear off, and the more you walk the more you feel the pain. Thankfully, the ship is smaller than anticipated. It's only a short trip to reach the cargo bay, no elevators either, which surprises you. You had initially imagined that the infamous Scourge of the Black Sea would have a ship that's a bit more difficult to sneak onto and carry stowaways, but perhaps you overestimated him.

 The cargo bay is littered with boxes. Some are stacked all the way to the ceiling, while others remain strewn about, all evenly spaced. Despite the volume of boxes, there isn't much space left in the bay. No doubt, they'll decide to make port on one of the trading planets soon to sell off all the stolen cargo, meaning that you'll be able to escape then. Hopefully with relative ease too because otherwise, you're going to be trapped on the ship of one of the most merciless pirates in the galaxy. 

 Slipping between the rows of boxes, your gaze trails over each label. Guns, ammunition, meats, produce, textiles, spices, crafting tools – there seems to be a box for every object in existence. You pause beside a box labeled fabrics and thumb at the clasps, clicking them open to reveal the contents. It's only about half full of spools, more than plenty enough room for you to fit inside, and it would be marginally more comfortable than a crate full of guns. You glance around the cargo bay first, eyes scanning the walls and ceiling for any signs of cameras before you duck into the crate. 

 It's a tight fit, a bit too cramped for comfort, but of course, comfort isn't a luxury you can afford to bitch about at the moment. The searing pain radiating from your right arm is a bigger concern, especially considering that it is getting worse and worse with each passing moment. You bring a finger to your arm, feeling around for an exit wound on the opposite side; however, you can't find one despite all your prodding. Meaning that the bullet is still lodged in your arm.

 "Fucking shit," you curse under your breath. Your arm falls to the bed of fabrics limply. One fucking ambassador with a shaky hand is not going to send you to your grave because of a damn bullet in your arm, and you'd sooner tear the bullet out with your own fingers.

 "Deliver the boxes here!" The sudden intrusion of voices stops your fingers from reaching for the wound, however, and you instead press your left palm over the wound in attempts to slow the bleeding. "If you're done getting beat up by soldiers, that is." The voice no doubt belongs to the Scourge, but the next one is less familiar. 

 "She wasn't a fucking soldier. I told you that." A grunt follows along with the thud of something heavy. It takes a few moments for you to realize that the "she" is, in fact, you, and the person Hongjoong is speaking to must be the man you clobbered at the docking station. "No way she was military. She had a uniform but when we were fighting, I caught her arm and there were chains branded on the inside of her wrist." Your eyes widen despite only seeing darkness around you. Subconsciously, you tighten your grip around your wound, the image of chains branded onto your skin the only thing you can see. 

 "You still got your ass handed to you."

 "Yeah well, maybe she ought to join the crew since she's able to kick my ass."

 "Why would a military traitor be of any use to me?" Silence answers the question, and Hongjoong continues speaking, his clear voice ringing loudly in your ears as though he's right next to you. "Who says that military traitor won't betray me too?"

 "I don't recall you saying that about our dear Royal Betrayer when he joined the crew. Besides, a prejudice against the military does not equal a prejudice against any sort of leadership."

 "Oh, is that so? Would you like to go back onto that ship and get her? If you're so adamant about her joining my crew, why don't you do that?"

 "No sir. I wouldn't like to do that. I am merely trying to be logical. We've lost over half our crew in the past two months, either due to death or desertion. Hongjoong, you really need to consider bringing mo—"

 "You need to consider your position on this ship," Hongjoong cuts in, voice dropping in volume and turning to venom. "You are Lieutenant, not Captain. I am the Captain. Is that not clear?"

 "Crystal clear."

 "I will consider bringing more crewmates in when I deem it necessary. Understood?"

 "Yes, Captain. It was merely a suggestion. Nothing else." Quiet falls between the men, air so tense you could cut it with a knife even from your position in this crate. "What of the survivors, Captain?"

 "Kill them all. Destroy the ship as well. I don't want to see a single trace of the HMS Revenge. We got what we needed. Nothing else matters." 

 You shift and twist in the crate, trying to adjust into a more comfortable position only to slam your arm against the side of the wood. A sharp hiss escapes your lips before you can stop it. Teeth sink into your lower lip as you attempt to contain the sound but the damage is already done. 

 There's silence outside the crate.

 Your heart thrums loud, erratic beats against your eardrums.

 Two seconds meld into five, then ten seconds pass in silence. You hear no sounds of movement, no scraping of shoes or thumps of boots. 

 "You don't have to do this, Hongjoong," the second voice speaks at last. "As you said, we got what we needed. We can just leave now."

 "I do have to do this, Seonghwa. If I don't kill a man every now and then, no one fears me."

 "What of the trail of corpses aboard that ship right now? Is that not enough fear for you? Do you think their families and friends wait at home afraid of you?”

 "I gave you an order, Lieutenant."

 "Yes, Captain." Footsteps resound, the clanking of boots against metal flooring, and the sound grows fainter until you can't hear anything except the thud of your heartbeat in your ears and the rasps of your breath. You don't risk lifting the lid of the crate yet, not until you're absolutely certain that the two men have left the cargo hold. You lie in the darkness, listening to nothing except the faint sounds of your own breathing for god knows how long. 

 When you finally creak the lid open, there is only more darkness surrounding you. The lights throughout the cargo bay are dimmed, leaving you to feel your way around the crate to little avail. The blood on your hand has grown sticky from the length of time you've been lying there but at least the steady flow of blood has subsided to a slow trickle. You grab at one of the spools of fabric in your new home. Tearing a long strip of the material off, you try your best to bandage the wound without being able to see it or have both hands to do so. It's awkward and shitty, no doubt barely a knot keeping it together, but it's just enough pressure to alleviate some of the blood flow. 

 The steady loss of blood has left you dizzy. You crawl back into the crawl with heavy limbs, barely able to close the lid back just enough so that you can still breathe some fresh air. Time seems to stretch on forever, the darkness simultaneously keeping you up and helping you fall into slumber. You finally slip into sleep between the throbbing pain in your right arm and the stinging memory of a hot brand being pressed against the inside of your left wrist, along with the words "filthy fucking traitor". You fall asleep with one hand resting over the place where you tucked the stolen papers into your shirt, the folds of the letters easing your worries enough to let you sleep.

✧  ✧  ✧

a/n: on god, y'all are probably like pleASE calypso no more series istg you don't have the tiME but oh well i may not have the time but i've got the enthusiasm :D ((jk pls don't scalp me i'm just trying to have fun here)) but also hello hello thank you for reading!!! i really hope you all enjoyed it and please let me know what you think of it and feel free to send an ask if you have any questions/feedback/just overall love for me bc i’m really anxious to know what you all think!!!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

[glassworkspiderlilies]

respite (ver. 2)

Genshin Impact | @albelumiweek 2021 Day 3 | "when was the last time you slept?” | AO3 Summary: “I’m fine,” she repeats softly, as though she can convince herself to believe it if she says it enough times.  Notes: same prompt but different timeline! featuring...ever so slightly protective albedo. :3

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“I hear you haven’t been sleeping.”

Lumine turns from her restless gardening in her Serenitea Realm, finding Albedo strolling towards her with Paimon floating beside him. She gives her fairy friend a look, and Paimon feigns innocence with extremely low effort by looking to the side and whistling.

Lumine sighs, standing up and brushing dirt off of her hands by clapping them together, keeping her head down.

“I’m fine,” she says, the words unconvincing to everyone involved, “It happens sometimes.”

Albedo raises an eyebrow, then reaches over and gently places his fingers under her chin, tilting her face up. Her eyes are bruised purple underneath; she looks exhausted, and she pinches her lips together at his frown, averting her gaze.  

“I’m fine,” she repeats softly, as though she can convince herself to believe it if she says it enough times.

“How long has it been since you last slept?”

She does not answer, and brushes his hand away.

“I am resting,” she says instead, after a while.

“That is not the same,” Albedo replies softly.

She glances at him.

“It’s all I’m capable of right now,” she responds flatly before looking away again.

Albedo and Paimon exchange a look, the former starting to fully understand just how bad the situation is. But knows and is here now, and does not intend to let the situation go unresolved.

“Will you invite me inside?” he asks politely, and Lumine blinks at him, coloring a little at her poor hospitality.

“Yes, of course,” she says hastily, gesturing. “I’m sorry—go ahead and make yourself comfortable. My hands are dirty; I’ll follow in a moment. Paimon knows where everything is.”

The fairy salutes, rushing Albedo inside. He’s been here a few times before, but the layout changes every now and then. It is lightly furnished, the Realm too newly acquired and the Traveler too busy to outfit it more extravagantly. Still—it has very serviceable basics, and Albedo gets to work.  

By the time Lumine comes in, he has a pot of tea ready, and she blinks at him.

“What’s this?” she asks somewhat suspiciously as she peeks into the pot.

The liquid is thicker than tea, but has a similar color and smell.

“A draught, to help you sleep,” he says, and Lumine looks up at him. “Without dreams,” he adds.

Her face is unreadable, but she takes the cup he pours for her and sips at it without much hesitation. It’s a little bitterer than standard tea, but she doesn’t mind the flavor. It suits her mood.

Paimon has disappeared, and Lumine knows this is a conspiracy but lets it slide. She is exhausted. Albedo leads Lumine to the plush sofa in front of the fireplace, taking a seat next to her at a polite distance. They are silent for a while, staring into the dancing flames, and Lumine drinks two cups of not-tea in theinterim before she finally speaks.

“I’ve tried sleeping draughts before,” she says quietly, looking at her hands. “They haven’t helped.”

“Ah, but they were not brewed by me,” Albedo replies, and his confidence gets a smile out of her.

“I suppose not,” she relents, but the humor drops from her face quickly. It is another long while before she speaks again. “…Aether…didn’t come home with me. How funny that Madame Ping should gift me this realm after he…”

She trails off, her eyes distant, and though she had said nothing about her most recent adventure upon her return, there is much he can already piece together from her brief admission alone.

“I am at your service, if there is any assistance I can provide you,” he says softly, after the silence has stretched awhile, startling her back into focus.

She stares at him, the directness of her gaze harsh and searching. Her lips twist as though she might lash out, but when her mouth opens, sorrow creeps into her expression instead, and she looks away.

“I thought you found interaction with others a waste of time,” she mutters, though it is a weak deflection after all this time.

It was Albedo Paimon went to for help, after all, and not without good reason. Things between them have not been so cold and distant in a while.

“I’ll not deny it, for most cases,” he says, just a hint of amusement tinting his voice, “But after meeting you, I’d rather spend my time on you than other matters. It’s a unique anomaly.”

She jerks back to stare at him, blinking in surprise.

“I likely know the reason why,” he adds, and he looks satisfied to see her cheeks go slightly pink.

She glares at him without much heat, sipping at her third cup of his not-tea to avoid responding. But then she sighs, her expression complicated again.

“Thank you,” she says simply, and for a moment she looks so fragile that the slightest touch could crumble her.

“…May I try an experiment?” Albedo asks, and Lumine tilts her head at him curiously, nodding her permission.

He scoots closer, gently pressing her head to his shoulder. He then takes her wrist in his hand, his thumb searching out her pulse.

“What…?”

“Shhh. Close your eyes.”

She tries to look up at him, but he merely smiles and covers her eyes. She huffs, but he feels her eyelashes brush his fingers as she does as he says.

“One,” he begins, keeping his voice low, “Two, three…”    

Her breathing slows after a few more counts, though he continues for a few extra moments. Once he is certain that she’s fully asleep, he lowers her onto his lap so that she can rest more comfortably.

Paimon reappears shortly after with a rich blue blanket, looking satisfied.

“Thanks,” she says quietly as she spreads it over her, and Albedo inclines his head in acknowledgement before she disappears again.

Albedo looks back down at Lumine and brushes a strand of hair away from her cheek. What she must have gone through, to wear herself down to this point. But if she found her brother once…surely she can do so again. He will help her however he can, though he will need to hear the full story from her eventually.

But even without it…he sits there through the night, making plans in his head, reorganizing and revising until he is satisfied that a handful of them will produce acceptable results. He will discuss them with Lumine when she wakes.

For now, he sits with her, his hands cradling her head, his eyes gleaming in the firelight.