#Because when he tries when he's alone it sounds weird sense he's hearing Japanese all the time

[kakusu-shipping]

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR MUSHISHI S/I!! Where did he come from?? Does he have a relationship with Ginko or anyone else?? I bet he researches Mushi, right? That seems on brand with you and your curious lil brain

Aaaaah you'd think right. I am once again answering an S/I ask with Actually I have two different Self Inserts for this fandom fdkgjfdkg

The other one, an adult who lives alone and runs a hot spring in the mountains Ginko regularly visits does Research Mushi, and writes about them in his novels. He's part of the ever growing Aro Ginko Polycule, I've talked about him a few times, he's not interesting, just kind of domestic and in love with Ginko who pays him a visit once a year or so.

A lot of my younger self inserts are much more Head Empty than my older ones, the one your asking about especially

He's a kid inflicted by the Ginko who just showed up one day in Adashino's village. Adashino assumed him some sort of love child of Ginko's and sent a letter telling him to get his ass over here as soon as possible.

He appears about 7 or 8 years old, but it's hard to tell sense his knowledge seems toddler like. He doesn't know how to use chop sticks, or what he can and can't eat, or how to dress himself, and doesn't speak or seem to understand much of what anyone says to him.

He has a bad tenancy to grab Mushi by the handful and shove them in his Tokoyami filled eye, which is what lead Doctor Adashino to bandaging up the opening, sense he assumed that probably wasn't a good thing to be doing.

In the few weeks it took Ginko to arrive, Adashino got pretty attached to the kid, getting rather use to parenting his larger than most toddler. However, like Ginko, if in one place for too long Mushi will begin to swarm around him, making it dangerous for him to stay in the villager, or anywhere for that matter.

It took a lot of convincing, but Ginko eventually agreed to take the kid on as his apprentice, taking him on his travels and teaching him the dangers and nuances of Mushi.

Basically, he becomes Ginko and Adashino's adopted son over time. Whenever he gets to talking he calls Adashino "Papa", but Ginko remains just Ginko or some form of "Master"/"Sensei" when he's learning. He also calls Tanyuu variations of "Mama" or "Auntie", with Tama being "Grandma" exclusively. He doesn't like Kumado at all.

[chocosea]

Suite Precure Novel Prologue & Chapter 1 Summary

(This book is first person perspective from Hibiki.)

Prologue:

This summarizes the series' events and sets up an ominous tone for the upcoming chapters.

Hibiki wonders why she never noticed the deep sadness that was always right next to her. She now feels like she's being chased after by a quiet dark wave that's engulfing her. This part is cryptic and probably refers to events later in the novel, but she's basically in a dark place where there is no more sounds, which she simultaneously wants to stay in forever and leave immediately. She doesn't know what to do and doesn't believe she can fight heroically.

She never thought in her wildest dreams that she would ever feel this way.

Chapter 1 — As for Us Since then...

Hibiki is in her third year of middle school and is going to graduate soon. After graduation, she's going to study abroad in Germany for music stuff. This is taking after her dad, since he studied there and also can speak German.

That said, she gets the sense that her dad's German is weird, much like his Japanese is weird due to his quirky personality. Hibiki has doubts that people will understand his weird German, but he's also the only person she can learn the language from so she's getting instruction from him anyway.

In terms of music lessons, Hibiki is getting piano lessons from both her dad and Ouji. Ouji sometimes teaches her 1-on-1, which she hasn't told Kanade yet because she knows Kanade would be jealous. Unlike her dad, Ouji actually explains what parts she gets wrong and gently encourages her by telling her that everything will turn out right. This has endeared him to her greatly to the point that she starts feeling her heart beat faster and her temperature rising sometimes when they're alone. In other words, Hibiki now also has a crush on Ouji-senpai. (This is also confirmed in later chapters.)

Ellen (Eren?) is trying to be a musician and writes her own songs that she plays around town. Hibiki notes her songs are a little sad but beautiful, a fact she hasn't told Ellen because she feels that Ellen might get carried away. Trio the Minor have also come to stay in Kanon Town and sing Ellen's back vocals sometimes. They've apparently ditched their funny outfits and made their hair normal (boo). They work at the biggest music store in town and want to debut with Ellen.

Pii-chan is living with Hibiki. Hummy is working as a songstress in Majorland and is staying there all the time.

Otokichi has been telling Hibiki, Ako, and Ellen that they all sound off when they play music (or in Ako's case, sing), lately. Probably because they're all off doing their own thing and their hearts aren't in harmony anymore.

Hibiki has to play a performance with Kanade at a farewell party before she leaves for abroad but Kanade hasn't been showing up to practice at all because she's so busy with baking, trying to get into a prestigious baking school.

Since Kanade wasn't showing up to practice, Hibiki went to go steal some of her food from her club. Though she was counting on Kanade noticing her and getting mad at her in their usual joke routine (it's evident here that Hibiki likes baiting her like this), Kanade was busy talking to a friend in the hallway. Kanade is very serious and really upset at Seika (who has graduated) and says something slightly mean about Seika's tarts (calling them far too mediocre) to the friend she's talking with. Seika apparently wouldn't praise Kanade's latest cake. This surprises Hibiki, both on the front the Seika would say something about the delicious cake she's in the middle of stealing & eating, and that Kanade would ever say something like that about a senpai she looked up to so much.

The friend noticed Hibiki and Hibiki was ready to hear Kanade's loud tsukkomi "HIBIKIIIII!!!" but instead Kanade is just quiet and is like, "Sorry. i'm busy today," and tries to return to baking.

Hibiki pulled Kanade into the hallway and told her she thinks it's really important for them to practice, and that she really wants to have a good performance with Kanade in their "last" moments before she goes off to Germany. Kanade said "last" was dramatic, and that she's sorry she forgot but she'll show up next time. She does a wink + puts her hands together, which Hibiki thinks she looks so cute that she relents.

Kanade tells her that a while ago a famous pastry baker came to visit and said she had talent. Hibiki wonders when that was and feels like Kanade is drifting from her, since before Hibiki would've been the first person Kanade would tell right after it happened.

Hibiki tries to invite Kanade to go to the ocean with Ako and Ellen and Kanade turns her down immediately because she's too busy. Kanade is thinking of setting up her own store instead of inheriting her dad's shop in the future too.

Hibiki feels like a kid who just had their favorite toy taken away. like she would just start bawling at Kanade being distant if she wasn't older.

Afterwards, Hibiki goes on an aimless walk and ends up in front of the clock tower where she sees Ellen. When she smiles at Hibiki, Hibiki internally compares her smile to a surprise present that makes her heart skip a beat "even though we're friends" (lol). Ellen also turns down Hibiki's offer to go to the beach, says she doesn't want to return to how they were before (alluding to having to fight and being evil due to her remaining guilt about the whole thing).

Hibiki goes to Shirabe Mansion and runs into Ako who is there because she ran away from Majorland temporarily (just for the day) as she's sick of having to hold her tongue to act like the queen that Mephisto and Aphrodite are training her to be. Even Otokichi says that she needs to try to tolerate it because she's going to be the queen of a whole country. So Ako is kind of arguing with all of her family right now.

Hibiki once again tries to suggest that the team all hang out but Ako immediately said "Can't." before Hibiki could even finish her sentence. RIP.

Hibiki is jealous of Kanade for having so much confidence in knowing what she wants to do to the point that she's not even asking her dad or Seika-senpai for advice anymore.

Hummy came to visit and brought cupcakes from Kanade's store — Hibiki notes that she doesn't remember the last time she's had these. Hibiki plays some piano with Hummy singing and narrates that she can relax around Hummy. It seems Hummy comes to hang out every now and then to check up on Pii-chan (Mephisto & Aphrodite ask her to do this periodically). Afterwards Hummy says goodbye and tells Hibiki to be happy while going back to Majorland.

Personal commentary:

The Ouji thing is extremely annoying. That's now 3/4 of the Suite girls who have had a crush on him, Ako only escaping because she was paired with Souta instead. (Speaking of which, where is that kid?)

It just seems so annoyingly out of character for Hibiki who didn't get his charm and had absolutely zero interest in him the whole series, even when he was just as kind and sparkly then too. I just don't like it. Hibikana wishful delusions instead, I feel like it should've just been left to Kanade since that was already established in show and far more in character.

Otherwise it's honestly cute that Hibiki is aware of her goading Kanade by stealing food routine and likes going through with the whole thing. It really indicates that despite her telling Kanade to buzz off multiple times in the first few eps of the anime she actually is taking actions to stay close to her also even if she didn't want to admit it. Even when they were barely speaking to each other they still had the fight routine about her stealing food from the baking club, which is something she probably did because it was an obvious way to get a reaction from Kanade. But unable to admit her feelings about it or talk about what was actually causing the rift in their relationship, she didn't know how to do anything else other than just fight with Kanade. (Though their initial fight with the whole tree waiting thing was silly as hell.) But like any interaction is better than none so Hibiki still stole food regularly enough for it to become a pattern between the two of them.

The other characters at the club also point that out in ep 1 (?) that Hibiki and Kanade actually are close and both of them shout that they aren't. Meanwhile they both get something out of the interaction enough to keep negging each other even though that isn't what they ultimately want.

However, unlike in the show where they would just start poking at each other's weak points emotionally, instead they both appear to be avoiding blow ups, even as they continue to dance around their emotions. Kind of weird though, since in show even in the early eps when they didn't admit that they were friends again Hibiki would do things like run to Kanade and confess that she's the number one fan of her cakes.

I feel like Kanade is throwing herself into her baking because she doesn't want to think about Hibiki leaving. So she's also avoiding all the things that will come off as like a "This our last time". I wonder if Kanade's new dream to own a posh store of her own is also a "I don't need Hibiki because I have a dream as big as hers" thing.

I don't really like the characterization that Otokichi would get on Ako's (who is like what, now, 9? 10?) case about being a future queen, or that Ako would speak so bluntly and coldly to him. I can sooort of see it but I expected Ako to have a better relationship with Otokichi than this. Rather than being cold to him, I expected her to have a harder time to say stuff that might disappoint him since he was there for her when neither of her parents were and in the anime. Like if she was going to get mad at Otokichi I feel like it would be more of a frustrated, hurt / crying outburst type of mad that wants a hug rather than a cold freeze. Given Otokichi's goofy smile for her and stuff in the show, I also feel like he would've been less scolding about the whole thing and more of trying to give her gentler reminders. They're really trying to pull Ako as having to Grow Up immediately but it's kind of funny are you really going to grill your 9 year old like this. You and what, your entourage of clowns and animated self-playing instruments?

Anyway this book is a big tonal shift.

[ericspinkhair]

quarantine longings

pairing: best friend!kevin x fem!reader

word count: 3.2k

synopsis: you and your best friend have sex because quarantine made you horny

warnings: best friends to lovers, takes place during the pandemic, spoiler of 356 days (but not the end, just generally the plot), no use of condoms but only the pill, creampie, sexual fantasies, fingering, hand-job, sex, slight angst at the end if you squint

a/n: I would literally die for kevin, I love him so much. I'll be writing a multiple parts series about him after I'm done writing scenarios for every member first.

requests are open!

masterlist + requests

you slammed your foot hard against the wall and cursed in pain. you hopped on one foot to your bed, holding your other leg in agony and tasted blood as you bit your lip to keep the volume of your suffering groans in check. someone knocked on the door.

'are you okay?' your roommate asked concerned.

'no, leave me alone, kevin,' you croaked out. you wanted to suffer by yourself.

there was an awkward silence and then you heard him sigh. soon after, the door next to your room closed shut.

why were you so frustrated, one might ask? well, the pandemic was kicking your butt and you just couldn't take it anymore. when the news of the virus had first spread, no one thought it would become this serious. but suddenly everyone was walking around with masks and spent most of their time staying at home.

after graduating high school, you and kevin had decided to move in together for college because both of you were broke and couldn't afford to live alone. you had been best friends since middle school and had been convinced that it was a smart idea at the time.

and everything went smoothly for the first one and a half years. however, after not seeing anyone else since the start of the pandemic over a year ago, it became increasingly difficult to share an apartment, but not in the way one might assume. you were neither sick of each other nor did you fight a lot. to tell the truth, it was quite the opposite.

earlier, before you had kicked the wall in anger, the two of you had painted together. kevin was majoring in art and, since you didn't have anything better to do, you joined him while he did projects for his classes. you might have been majoring in journalism but you had always liked drawing and painting, even though you weren't particularly skilled. you were a naturally clumsy person, always tripping over air and dropping things. today you were hecticly moving around your hands while telling him about a stupid video you had seen and you accidently let go of the brush in your hand. it hit the side of kevin's face, leaving a wide splodge of red paint on his right cheek.

to get back at you, he jerked his paint brush and splattered some green color on your white shirt. you saw this as a challenge and soon both of you were both drenched in the colors of the rainbow, laughing hysterically on the floor, not caring that you were spreading the paint on the poor carpet.

you turned your heads to look at each other and you felt absolutely in peace. you loved this man and couldn't be more glad that it was him and not anyone else you were stuck with inside of this apartment.

he stood up to take off his stained shirt and your smile quickly faded off your face. your lips slightly parted and you couldn't help but stare at his now exposed biceps and abs.

your mouth watered and you felt heat pooling between your legs as you took your time to study his architecture. thoughts about how badly you wanted him to thrust into you while his strong arms held you up invaded your mind. you tried to shake them off but it was impossible.

occasions like this were slowly becoming a common occurrence for you.

having mostly stayed inside for over a year, also meant that you didn't have sex for that long. it's not like you were the horniest person on the planet but you still had needs that were being neglected. with kevin being home all the time you didn't even dare to masturbate, scared that he would be able to hear you through the frustratingly thin walls. you must have gone insane with all the lust building up inside you and that's why you suddenly craved to have sex with your best friend. this whole thing was destroying everything. it was hard to act normal when he was making you this nervous and heated but you tried to pretend that everything was fine anyway for the sake of your friendship.

that was the reason why you were angry and had hurt yourself. you hated the way you felt about your best friend and you hated the pandemic for not giving you an outlet to escape so you could recollect yourself.

what you weren't aware of was that kevin was no stranger to the exact same frustration.

he would need more than his ten fingers and ten toes to be able to count the amount of times he had to run to the bathroom to hide his boner because he had done so much as look at you bend over or stretch. he didn't want to make you uncomfortable but it was a challenge to try and calm down his hormones.

whenever he jacked off, images of you flashed through his mind; your sweet curves and pink lips drove him insane.

last week, you two were cooking together and you had asked him to get the salt. he stood behind you to reach for it on the highest shelf. he was forced to press his crotch against your butt cheeks and his dick hardened against his will. he quickly handed you the salt, excused himself and ran off before you could figure out what had happened.

he might not have known the cause of your sudden outburst but he sympathized with your fury because he had a lot of pent up anger towards covid as well.

he lay in his bed and tried to focus on the book he was reading but he couldn't tune out the groans coming from the room next to his. he cursed.

'stop it!' he was panicking as he saw a familiar tent forming in his pants. your sounds triggered some weird perverted part of his brain that sent signals right to his genitals. his dick was hardening and he saw no other solution to his problem than to give in to his subconscious desires.

he pulled down his pants just far enough so that his cock had enough room to spring out. it only needed a few strokes before it stood tall and angry. kevin pressed his head into his pillow and moved his hand fast. he wanted to get over with it quickly. he emptied his cum on his stomach while imagining your greedy little mouth being stuffed by his cock. he lay there panting as yet another round of shame flushed over him.

'get yourself together,' he whispered, mentally slapping himself.

***

'do you want to order japanese or italian?' you asked kevin. today was friday which meant it was time for your weekly tradition of ordering take out and watching a movie.

'definitely italian. we've already had japanese for the past four days. I need something else for a change,' kevin complained and shuddered at the thought of having to eat sushi again. the japanese restaurant prepared absolutely delicious food but he just couldn't stand it anymore.

you laughed at his pained facial expression. 'fine, italian it is.'

within twenty minutes the doorbell rang and after about half a minute kevin came back with two huge boxes.

he opened them on the small table situated in front of your couch and the smell of freshly cooked pasta seasoned with basil made your stomach growl.

kevin wanted to dig in already but you stopped him. you had to choose a movie first.

'let's watch tall girl. I saw everyone hate on it on tiktok,' you suggested.

'I think we should watch 365 days, that was all over my for you page as well,' kevin argued. you hadn't heard of it so you weren't sure whether it would be the right movie for you. the rule was that it had to be as bad as possible.

'according to what I have heard, it's apparently even worse than 50 shades of grey,' kevin added which piqued your interest. the both of you had watched 50 shades about two months ago and you were honestly shocked by how awful it actually was. you couldn't understand why everyone had been so obsessed with it when it was first released. if 356 days was really worse, then you'd hit the jackpot. you clapped your hands.

'fine, you win. I swear if the movie isn't as horrible as you say it is then you owe me something!' he intertwined his pinky with yours to promise.

watching horrible movies was way better than watching good ones. making fun of bad storylines, stupid characters or horrible editing was one of your favorite past times.

'I guess I'll have to add are you lost, baby girl to the top 10 worst lines ever spoken. who thought ah yes this is sexy, let's have him repeat it over and over again', you complained, shoving some pasta into your mouth.

'so he's like I won't do anything without your permission while he is literally groping her boobs against her will, like make it make sense, massimo', added kevin, ruffling his hair in frustration. he almost completely forgot about the food.

'so let me get this straight: he drugged her, kidnapped her, tied her up, hung up a painting of her just because he saw her face when his dad was shot?'

'totally relatable.' both of you giggled.

you were enjoying complaining about the plot. it was horrible.

there were plenty of erotic scenes but they were honestly so funny and kinda gross that you could bare it without really being affected by them. kevin, on the other hand, had placed a pillow over his hard-on to hide the embarrassing fact that these terrible, smutty scenes had turned him on.

and then the infamous boat scene came.

massimo and laura had a huge fight, she fell of the boat, he saved her and now she was suddenly so in love with him that she begs him to fuck her. which he does.

you felt your panties become increasingly wet as the couple had steaming hot sex.

'this is embarrassing but I'm so horny,' you admitted but in a way that should have suggested that you meant it as a joke. something about this statement stirred something in kevin.

'well, what can I say?' he replied and lifted the pillow. your pupils widened at the sight of your best friend's bulge.

his eyes darkened and he looked at you with lust clearly written on his face. you reciprocated his stare with the same intensity. you tried to focus on his dark brown orbs instead of his boner but the image you had just seen was present in your mind.

his gaze shifted to your lips and, before you knew it, kevin climbed above you and pressed your back flat onto the couch.

your lips locked and you immediately buried your hands in his hair to pull him closer. you moved in sync, his lips fitting perfectly onto yours. you bucked your hips up against his crotch and earned a moan from kevin. he opened his eyes in shock as realization hit him. he quickly pulled away and jumped off the coach.

'I'm so sorry, y/n. I shouldn't have just done that. I don't know what came over me,' he apologized profusely, staring at his feet. did he really think that you didn't want this?

'give me your hand,' you told him and held out your hand.

'why?' he raised his eyebrows in confusion. you rolled your eyes.

'just do it.'

you took his hand and led it to your crotch.

'what are you- oh my god.' your juices had completely soaked through your panties and your sweatpants. 'you are so wet.'

'for you,' you added. 'there's no need to apologize. I'm literally begging you to continue.'

you didn't have to say that twice before he pulled you closer to him by your hips and engaged you in another desperate kiss. his hands were groping your butt while you let yours slide under his hoodie. you felt his naked skin and toned abs, as you rubbed his stomach. you lowered your hands and bravely palmed his boner through his clothes.

'y/n,' he hissed out against your lips. you hooked your thumbs in the elastic of his pants and underwear, and pushed the material down to his thighs. he struggled to get them off.

you stroked his hard dick as he slipped his hand into your panties to massage your pussy at the same time.

he slipped one finger inside and began working it in and out. you finally were getting the relief you had been desperately craving for for so long. kevin was skilled and your walls were trying to swallow his slim finger. you were quickly coming close to your orgasm after having abstained for more than a year. you pulled his hand out.

'I bet you can make me come even better with your dick,' you challenged kevin.

'you bet I will.' he was confident.

'let me just look for a condom.' he was already turning away to go search in his room but you held him back by the arm.

'forget about it. I'm on the pill and I want you raw. I want you to come inside me and not spill into a stupid condom.'

the idea of this sounded very tempting to kevin. he picked you up and threw you back onto the couch, drawing your hips closer to him so he could pull off all the pieces of clothing that were hindering him from accessing your pussy.

he propped up his arms next to your sides and spread your thighs apart. strings of arousal were hanging from your folds and he saw your hole desperately clench around nothing. his dick hurt from how much he wanted to finally be inside of you. he wanted to find out how close he had been able to imagine how you would feel around him.

your hole took him in easily, welcoming him happily by embracing it tightly. kevin swore he could've cum right here and there.

he went slow at first to give you a chance to adjust but you were already fully ready, rocking your hips forward to meet his thrusts.

he crashed your mouths together and you kissed him like he was oxygen and you were short of air. you smiled and your eyes rolled back, satisfied with how things had played out today and the prospects of coming looked fairly promising.

desperate for release, kevin picked up the pace, his eyes closed while fucking into you like a horny animal. he couldn't help himself and all the 'faster's and 'harder's spilling from your mouth only encouraged him to drive himself deeper into you.

you wrapped your legs around his torso in an attempt to regain the control you were losing.

'fuck fuck fuck,' you cursed, feeling your muscles starting to contract. kevin brushed away some hair that was stuck to your sweaty forehead.

'it's fine, I'm coming too,' he announced and it took only a few more thrusts before a body shaking orgasm flushed over you, making you see only white. this drove kevin over the edge too and he spilled inside you, filling you up with his hot cum. he continued to slowly ease his dick in and out of you, fucking his semen right back into you until you had ridden out both of your orgasms. he let himself fall onto the couch right next to you, panting hard.

'I very much needed this,' you sighed in content.

'same, I wasn't sure whether I could hold out any longer without having a proper orgasm.' he watched his cum drip out of you.

'we should've thought of this sooner,' you said. 'this was a great idea.'

kevin hummed in agreement.

***

so now you and kevin were having sex on a regular basis, your high score being five times in a day. it felt good to finally live out your sexuality and not having to restrict yourself. sure, you guys did it more than necessary but it was a great way to pass time and it felt fucking amazing.

today you had done it in the shower after waking up, then on the kitchen counter and you had just finished having sex in his bed.

he was spooning you from behind, his cock still placed inside of you. he nuzzled his nose into your neck.

'stop, that tickles,' you chuckled.

'sorry.'

after a while of comfortable silence you heard him let out a big sigh.

'what's wrong?' you asked as he pulled out of you. you turned around to be able to look at him.

'I don't think I can do it like this anymore,' he confessed.

'what do you mean?' you asked. 'are you talking about us having sex?'

he nodded. your heart dropped and you started feeling dizzy. you tried to search for answers in his eyes but he avoided looking at you.

'w-why?' you stuttered, trying to hold back the tears that were welling up in your eyes.

'it was amazing at first,' he started and finally raised his head to meet your gaze, 'and I went into it without much thought. I went crazy during quarantine and began fantasizing about having sex with you. then it became reality but now I understand that was probably wrong of me. I've always thought of myself as a gentleman, yet I slept with you without much thought. you see, my issue is this…'

suspense hung in the air and you were impatiently waiting for him to get to the point.

'I like you.'

you quietly gasped in surprise. you had been expecting him to say you were bad at sex and that he regretted everything but not this.

'I shouldn't be sleeping with you unless you were my girlfriend,' he finished off his ramble. you felt immensely relieved.

'do you want me to?' you asked him.

'want you to what?' kevin was confused. he had been a hundred percent sure you'd immediately jump out of the bed in disgust when he confessed.

'be your girlfriend. after all, I like you too, you moron.' you realized that you had known this for a while. you might have even been crushing on your best friend since way before the pandemic struck but it was kind of hard to track your feelings. still, you were sure you liked him too. now that he had admitted his feelings, you were able to admit yours not only to him but to yourself as well.

'wow, I didn't expect this,' kevin confessed surprised. you laughed.

'yeah, we should've realized this sooner.' he pulled you closer and kissed you. it was different than the other times. his lips moved softly against yours, in contrast to all of your rough and passionate kisses you had exchanged these past few weeks. he conveyed his emotions through the kiss.

'you're ready again?' you groaned as you felt kevin's dick harden against your upper thigh. he chuckled.

'sorry, you just turn me on so much.'

so then you did it for the fourth time. that day, you set a new record of having sex six times. you might have been happy now but still just as horny.

[oumakokichi]

hello! could you talk a bit more about the original (as in jp, not localization) ouma's personality and speech patterns? you've mentioned that he tends to trail off or speak more softly when it is implied he is speaking the truth, etc. and how he is not so loud/intentionally obnoxious. //btw when does he call himself a fairy? that's so cute

I got a couple of questions asking about the fairy line Ouma has, so I don’t mind sort of rolling them both into one! And I’m more than happy to talk a little more in-depth about Ouma’s speech patterns and personality in the original game, too!

Since I’ll be covering some late-game spoilers, I’ll put the bulk of this under the cut, so be careful when reading!

First off, I cannot stress how much I recommed playing ndrv3 with the Japanese voices enabled. If you’ve already played through the English dub but never experiened the original voice acting cast, I promise you won’t be disappointed. The Japanese cast are all fantastic, incredibly talented VAs who, unlike the dub, were hired specifically for these roles and not just re-casted from previous DR games.

Hiro Shimono as Ouma gives an absolutely incredible performance. The localization might still have many flaws in its translation and omission of certain lines or punctuation, but you can still very much get a feel for how Ouma’s character was intended by listening to Shimono’s performance. Re-playing the game with the Japanese voices will definitely let you hear how soft and tonally different Shimono’s performance is in places from the English dub, and compare it to the way in which many lines are written and punctuated as if Ouma’s yelling at everyone.

That isn’t to say that Shimono’s Ouma is never loud or excited: Ouma is a character whose moods and façades are all over the place, and therefore his performance requires a voice actor who can similarly change moods and intonation on a dime. Ouma is very much loud and haughty and deliberately annoying when he’s supposed to be, but his voice is also low and ominous at other points when he’s trying to be scary. And again, it’s soft and hesitant in places where he’s considering divulging some of his information, or when he’s insisting that all the things he does are for everyone’s sake, because he cares about them and doesn’t want anyone to die.

These moments feel so much more genuine in the Japanese version of the game--because they’re meant to be. As fantastic of a liar as Ouma is, it’s much easier for us, the player, to tell when he’s lying on a re-play, knowing the information from chapters 5 and 6 that we do, and looking at cues like his sprites (often his blank-faced ones) and, yes, his delivery of certain lines.

This probably sounds like me just gushing about what a fantastic voice actor Hiro Shimono is, and in part that’s exactly what it is, but I want to stress that pretty much every single voice actor in the Japanese cast is just as fantastic and that they all do their jobs incredibly well. With all that gushing out of the way, I’ll move on to talking about some of Ouma’s actual speech tics and the way he refers to other characters.

Like most things about him, Ouma’s speech patterns are sort of an interesting mix and even seem a little contradictory at times. He uses the very masculine pronoun “ore” (オレ), but he also refers to nearly everyone (with only a handful of exceptions) by their surnames and the much more childish honorific “-chan” (i.e. “Saihara-chan,” “Akamatsu-chan,” “Amami-chan,” etc.)

The use of “-chan” is very interesting. Honorifics in Japan are extremely complicated and tend to mean different things depending on who is using them. Typically, “-chan” is seen as a very feminine way to refer to someone else, commonly used in close-knit friend groups among school girls.

There are, of course, a few notable exceptions to this however: often times, middle-aged or elderly people will call a child “-chan” regardless of gender, as a way of showing they find them cute and endearing. And sometimes, people will use “-chan” to refer to other things they find cute, such as pets, or even to refer to themselves in a sort of informal, tongue-in-cheek way.

The fact that Ouma uses “-chan” as an honorific to refer to nearly everyone in the game stands out quite a lot: by and large, boys don’t use this term to refer to other boys. Using “-chan” to refer to anyone you’ve just met or don’t know very well is already somewhat frowned upon, but a boy using it to refer to other boys is especially rare. This helps set Ouma’s character up as someone who is both incredibly casual and informal with others (not to mention, you know, quite coded). Considering childishness and lightheartedness are traits Ouma values, and how much emphasis is put on him having “a very innocent, childish streak that’s hard to hate,” it makes sense then that he would talk like this.

Not counting Monokuma and the Monokubs, the only characters who Ouma doesn’t refer to with “-chan” are Gonta and Kiibo, who he simply calls by name. This also says some interesting things about his character.

Gonta is easily the character who Ouma interacts with the most often, as well as the charater he hurts the most in the end. Ouma’s choice to exclude Gonta from his usual way of calling people is, I think, a testament to how much Gonta really wanted to be friends with him, even if their friendship was never exactly on equal footing.

Meanwhile with Kiibo, I feel the choice to exclude him from his usual way of addressing others is indicative of how much Ouma tried to remind himself that Kiibo “wasn’t human,” and therefore how suspicious he found his presence in the killing game. We know Ouma suspected Kiibo and likely even had an inkling of his role as the audience proxy/camera in the game, due to how Kiibo’s picture is one of the only others set aside on his whiteboard besides Saihara’s, with the word “weird” written next to it (he also clearly guessed about the cameras after Gonta’s line in chapter 2, as we see from how he commissioned Miu for the bug-vac).

Ouma clearly enjoys teasing Kiibo a lot, and their banter reads very much like a manzai comedy duo; I feel like Ouma often tried pushing himself to remember that Kiibo “wasn’t human” on purpose in order to not get too attached to him or too distracted from his goal of ending the killing game. I don’t think Ouma’s decision to exclude Kiibo from the way that he very particularly referred to most of the rest of the group was just an accident or a coincidence.

Honorifics aside, Ouma also refers to several characters in interesting ways. He often uses “daisuki na ___-chan” (大好きな) to refer to some of the other characters, a phrase which more or less equates to “my beloved.” He uses this phrase with Saihara more than any other character of the game, but there are a few other instances where he does use it with Amami, Momota, and (if I’m remembering correctly) Kaede. Pretty much every single instance where the localization put, “because I love you” or “because you’re my favorite” whenever Ouma was talking to Saihara was usually a point where he would specifically call him “my beloved Saihara-chan.”

In chapter 4 during the scene where Ouma is alone in the parlor of the VR world, he also specifically, exclusively refers to Saihara as “suki ni natta hito” (好きになった人), literally: “the person I fell in love with.” This line was changed in the localization to, “when there’s a person I like,” which is more or less literally correct--however, the phrase “suki ni natta” is much heavier and more loaded with explicitly romantic implications than “suki” would be on its own, as it’s often used in Japanese love songs and shoujo manga love confessions.

Worth noting in my opinion is the fact that this is the exact same phrasing Maki uses to describe her romantic feelings for Momota. Since Maki’s feelings for Momota are considered canonically confirmed because of this, Ouma’s feelings should be considered equally canon, but a lot of people don’t know this because, well, it’s sort of been lost in translation.

And now, on to the fairy line! Ouma calls himself a fairy in chapter 3, when he pops up in the middle of Saihara and Korekiyo’s discussion of the katana in Korekiyo’s lab. Full of enthusiasm, he decides to touch the sword and examine it for himself; Korekiyo starts to object, but Ouma interrupts and says:

“Come on, it’s not a big deal! I’m like a fairy, so it’ll be fine!”

I’ve always really loved this line and thought it was super adorable, both as a nod to how fairies aren’t supposed to be able to touch steel in most fae mythos, as well as the fact that fairies tend to also have a love for mischief and pranks and lies. The localization apparently didn’t like it so much though, because this line is simply changed to, “Come on, would I lie to you?” instead.

One final thing I can think of as far as Ouma’s speech tics go is that his laugh in Japanese is romanized as “nishishi” instead of “neeheehee,” as this is closer to the Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound horses make--but I actually don’t mind this localization change at all! “Neeheehee” definitely looks a lot closer to the word “neigh” and helps capture that horse joke in a way that I feel like western players can more easily understand.

All in all, while I still definitely feel people can like and enjoy Ouma’s character from playing the localization alone, I still stand by my opinion that listening to the original Japanese voices helps give a much better picture of how the character was intended to come across, and really shows how much depth Hiro Shimono put into his performance. He’s quoted in the official ndrv3 artbook as saying that he believes Ouma is someone who’s actually “really meek if you take away his strong wish to outwit everyone” (credit to @kaibutsushidousha for the art book translation), and I think this interpretation of Ouma really shows through in so many of his lines.

Thank you both for the really fun questions! I hope I could provide some more interesting information about Ouma and the translation!

[geekgirles]

Orange and Peppermint

After breaking up with Adrien for his lies, Kagami is in need of someone she can trust to confide her feelings in. She needs a friend who understands what she's going through; she needs Marinette.

As the café’s doorbell rang above her head when she opened the door, Marinette had a million thoughts running frantically through her mind. Why did Kagami call her to meet up? And why did she sound so dejected? And why talking to her instead of Adrien? Did something happen?

Marinette scoffed at herself. Of course something happened. Just the other day she got akumatised into Lies! It was obvious that something bad must have happened for her to become an akuma’s target. But the true question was, why talking to her about it?

Sure, they were friends. Once she got to know the fencer, Marinette realised how nice and kind Kagami truly was. They hung out and had fun, but still, she was no Adrien! Kagami herself said that, while she valued their friendship, Adrien came first.

Well, she didn’t exactly say that... And Marinette couldn’t really blame her... But it still didn’t make sense that she would want to confide in her instead of the person she was closest to. There was something really strange about all this.

Strange or not, Kagami needed her help, and she was going to be there for her. She still couldn’t believe how lucky she’d been. The moment Longg found out his former wielder needed help, he took charge of the situation and got every kwami to behave just so she could go and talk to Kagami. If only she’d been as lucky while she was still dating Luka...

Feeling her eyes watering, Marinette shook her head determinedly. As much as it pained her not being able to have a normal relationship with a guy as great as Luka, it would have all been very stressful and unfair to him unless Shadow Moth backed down. And he would never back down until he was defeated.

Sighing loudly, Marinette looked around the establishment. It was the same café where she and Kagami had celebrated the former’s birthday. An elegant but very affordable café near the school. In fact, Kagami managed to go instead of being sent directly back home thanks to it being close to it, and therefore, her fencing classes. Adrien couldn’t make it since he had a photoshoot, but the girls had a great time nonetheless.

Squinting her eyes looking for her friend, Marinette made out Kagami waving her hand in the air to help her locate her. She was seated near the wall, on the other end of the room and nursing some orange juice. Waving her hand in return and smiling softly, Marinette made her way to where Kagami was.

“Hey, Kagami.” She greeted as she moved away the chair before sitting on it and getting closer to the table. “How you’ve been? Did anything interesting happen in fencing class?” Marinette knew she was making small talk, but she didn’t know how to approach the subject. For all she knew, maybe Kagami just wanted to spend some time with a friend.

The fencer smiled at her, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Hello, Marinette. You could say it did...”

That took Marinette slightly by surprise. Straightening up a little, she was about to ask what she meant when the waiter came, asking for her order. “Oh! Uh...um...I’ll have what she’s having.” The waiter wrote it down and with that he went back the way he came from. With him gone, the pigtailed girl tried again. “So, fencing class. What happened? Did Monsieur D’Argencour make a mistake and give the point of the match to someone else?”

Kagami chuckled slightly at that. “No, for once he was being accurate when announcing the results of the matches.” She averted her gaze to the floor. “He actually also stopped a fight. Or rather, he stopped a match from turning into a nasty fight.”

Marinette could only look at her with bulging eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I almost attacked Adrien during the match out of anger.” She confessed. Seeing her friend’s horrified expression, she hurried to assure her. “Don’t worry, Marinette. As I said, Monsieur D’Argencour managed to stop me before I could do something I’d regret.”

Marinette was ever so thankful her juice hadn’t arrived yet, otherwise she would have either choked on it or spilt it all over the place. This didn’t make any sense, though. She knew Kagami had a strong temper, but she would never try to hurt Adrien! Except for when she was akumatised into Riposte... But other than that, never! Then why would she take her anger out on him like that? For all the questions running through her mind, Marinette could only settle for one. “Why would you do that?”

Placing her hands on her lap, her head low in embarrassment, the Japanese girl could only grit her teeth and be honest. After all, weren’t lies the true responsible behind all her hurt? “I was mad at him for lying to me.”

Taking a gulp from her glass of orange juice that had just been served, Marinette gulped loudly. That was not the answer she expected to hear at all. “Adrien? Lying to you? Are you sure?” She didn’t want to doubt her friend, but the reason she loved Adrien so much was precisely his honesty, so hearing he had lied to Kagami was completely surreal to her.

“Positive.” Kagami nodded. “These past few weeks he’s been lying to me nonstop. Every time we had a date, he would disappear not long after arriving. He always gave me some poor excuse, like his father needing him or something like that. In the end, we barely spent any time together.”

“But why would he lie about his father needing him? I mean, Gabriel Agreste is a very busy man and he’s constantly monitoring Adrien’s already packed schedule.”

“Because if his father truly needed him that urgently, he wouldn’t allow Adrien to go see me in the first place.”

Marinette couldn’t argue against that logic.

Rubbing her face with her hands, Kagami sighed loudly. “But the last straw was the other day, when we were supposed to attend Prince Ali’s birthday party. After we left the Couffaine’s boat the lucky charm you made for him fell out of his pocket.

“I picked it up. As soon as we arrived at the city hall, Adrien left, seeing he’d lost something. I held onto the lucky charm and waited for him. And hour or so later he came back, saying he’d finally found what he’d lost. When I asked him what it was he said it was your lucky charm, and it was then he realised he didn’t have it with him. So I revealed to him I had it all along, and that I knew he was lying to me.”

Marinette could feel her insides churn. She couldn’t believe her little lucky charm could bring so much trouble. It was more of an unlucky charm! “What did you do next?”

“I told him the truth.” Kagami said. “I told him I had lied too, many times. But unlike him, I always lied to spend more time together. All he ever did was lie to get away from me.” Her voice had taken on a shaky note as she spoke. “But he still refused to tell me the truth. After that I entered the city hall, alone, and I...I got akumatised.”

Marinette’s eyes were as wide as saucers. So that was why Lies’ akumatised object was her lucky charm. But this whole thing was very weird. Why would Adrien ever need to lie to Kagami? Or about having lost her lucky charm and going to find it? What was it that he couldn’t tell Kagami? But most importantly, “Why are you telling me this?”

“So you’re careful if you two ever end up together.” She told her with steely eyes.

“W-what!? M-me and A-Adrien?” Trying to act nonchalant, she scoffed at the idea while waving it off with a movement of her hand. “D-don’t be silly! Why...why would I want to date Adrien?” She finished her little rant with an awkward, unconvincing laugh.

“Because you’ve been in love with him for longer.” The Japanese girl answered, her expression unchanged.

Marinette yelped at her bluntness. She was never going to get used to it, it seemed. “Look, Marinette. Right now I’m too hurt to even see Adrien, but I know you care about him. So I’m telling you this so you don’t go through the same pain as I am going through. Whatever it is, Adrien has a secret he will lie to everyone about in order to keep it hidden.”

The pigtailed girl frowned in empathy for Kagami’s sadness. “But why are you saying that? I mean, he is your boyfriend...” She said as she took a gulp from her orange juice, Kagami’s laying forgotten by her side.

“I broke up with him after fencing class.”

And, she spilt her juice all over the place. She totally didn’t see that one coming. “What?!” Marinette screeched in disbelief. Noticing heads turning in their direction, she blushed and coughed slightly before asking in a more subdued voice. “Did you seriously break up with him?”

“Yes.” The fencer replied. “I already told you, he kept lying to me. I can’t be with a person who won’t be honest with me, especially not if he lies to get away from me when all I want is to be closer to him. His hesitation has always hurt me, but this is a new level of pain.” She looked Marinette in the eye, her gaze intense and full of emotion. “I need somebody I can trust; that’s what my mother has always taught me, and if Adrien can’t be that person...” She huffed in annoyance. “Then it is best I let him go.”

“And you’re telling me all this because you trust me?” She...didn’t know what to say to that.

Kagami nodded solemnly. “Indeed. Not only are you my friend, Marinette, you are the only person who understands how difficult it can be to love Adrien.”

Her eyes widening at her friend’s words, Marinette could only cast her eyes down and slump against her chair at the truth in that statement. As much as she loved Adrien, nobody knew how emotionally exhausting it could be. She loved the girls and was thankful for them trying to help her get closer to him, but they had no idea how painful it was when it all failed. They didn’t know what it was like to be living in a completely different world from him. How frustrating it was to see literal pests getting closer to him while she was stuck being his friend. They had no idea what it was to have the universe plotting against her to ruin her chances at confessing to him.

They didn’t know the first thing of how tiring it really was.

But, apparently, Kagami did.

“Out of all the girls that are interested in Adrien, I was actually jealous of you the most.” Marinette confessed with a shy smile.

Kagami gasped at her words. “You...you were jealous of me?”

“Oh, yes.” The pigtailed girl let out a small laugh. “I mean, Chloé and Lila are too much of a pain for Adrien to show any interest in them, that I know. But you? You are pretty, and an awesome fencer, and so similar to him, and he’s always been very comfortable around you. Compared to you, what chances do I have?”

Her head shot up when she felt a warm presence over her hand. Looking at it, she realised it was Kagami. She’d put her own hand on top of hers and was looking at her with a mixture of mirth and sadness in her eyes. “More than you think.”

“I’ve often found myself jealous of you as well, Marinette. Despite everything you said, Adrien always seemed to harbour a special fondness for you. And you’ve known him for longer, so it was a bit of a painful reminder of the life he has outside of me.” The fencer confessed.

Now the blue-eyed girl was just incredulous. “A special fondness, for me? I find that hard to believe. I mean, sure, we’re friends, but that’s all there is‒.”

“I’ve always felt there was much more than just that, mind you.” Kagami cut her off. “After Ladybug and Chat Noir saved me when I was turned into Riposte I got to clear things up with Adrien. He had nothing but praise and kind words for you, he always speaks of you fondly.” Resting her head against her fist, she appraised her companion with an amused smirk on her face. “And do I have to remind you he ditched me twice on our “first date” to check up on you?”

Marinette gasped at that, appalled. “Oh my Gosh, I am so sorry for that, Kagami! I never meant to!”

“Relax, Marinette. I know that. I’m just saying Adrien feels something very powerful for you, even if he refuses to see it.” She rolled her eyes at that.

Marinette couldn’t help but feel her cheeks heating up a little. Could it be? Did Adrien really feel something for her?

A comfortable silence settled between them. Even if the atmosphere wasn’t awkward, Marinette wanted to say something to keep the conversation going, but she didn’t know what. Looking over at Kagami, she was staring at her glass of orange juice as if it was the most interesting thing in the world, a sad smile on her lips.

When the fencer spoke up, Marinette jumped in surprise. “You know? After André said Adrien and I were like an orange and peppermint ice cream when he sneaked out of the Bourgeois’ anniversary party, I started adding a little bit of peppermint to everything I had that had oranges in it.”

“How did it taste?”

“Terrible!” Kagami chuckled heartedly before sighing wistfully. “Maybe it was a sign that we were never really meant to be after all...”

Seeing Kagami so dejected didn’t sit well with Marinette. She’d grown used to the strong, confident fencer who never took any crap from anyone, so seeing her so sad now... Determination running through her veins, Marinette took the menu with the most enthusiasm anyone had ever taken a menu with. “Do you want to try their chocolate croissants? It won’t be the end of the world if I eat food that isn’t from my parents’ bakery just once.”

Taken aback by the abrupt change of topic, Kagami soon figured out what the blue-eyed girl was trying to do. She could only smile warmly at her friend in return.

.........

The rest of the afternoon went by smoothly. Once Kagami had opened up about her break up with Adrien they spent the remaining time talking about everything and nothing over some tasty treats. Tasty, but not mouth-watering. That was an adjective she reserved only for her parents’ bakery.

Waving Kagami goodbye as she got into her car, Marinette was left alone with her thoughts. So she wasn’t the only one who felt threatened over the presence of another girl in Adrien’s life. Moreover, Adrien actually seemed to have a soft spot for her. Any other day she would’ve leapt with joy, but now she had more pressing matters to tend to.

In a way, Kagami was right. Nobody other than them understood how painful caring for Adrien could be. Though she never even fathomed the idea of stop caring for Adrien, she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t wished he could just be another good friend to her, and not the boy she had been pining for ever since that fateful storm. Loving Adrien required a strong heart and lots of patience; his life was so hectic and busy that only someone who didn’t take things personally or wasn’t disappointed easily would be able to keep up with it.

Loving Adrien was extremely demanding, and it wasn’t even his fault! If she already had a hard time before, how would she manage now that she was the Guardian?

She knew the answer to that. She wouldn’t manage. Her duties had already cost her a relationship with someone as sweet, talented, and incredible as Luka, they would surely cost her Adrien, too. It was best to let him go.

But after talking to Kagami about their own relationship, there was still something she would like to know: what could Adrien possibly be hiding?

[thewriterowl]

some headcanon about Luke childhood and adolescence on Tatooine?

Oh sure thing! Now, I’d definitely use a lot of what is talked about already.

Luke was sort of exiled from most people, especially any of those who are close to his age. 

Now, Tatooine is a hella lonely planet. I recently reblogged an amazing chart that has so many planets, their systems/rims, stats, etc. and it provides so much info. Like how it is estimated only around 200,000 people live on all of Tatooine. The clumps of population are sort of spread out and hopping from one town to the next is not just something you can just get up and do. So Luke has almost no opportunity to even find friends.

I pictures that Biggs actually didn’t like Luke at first when they were kids. That he followed the group and that his family maybe urged for him to stay away from that boy, something just wasn’t quite right to him. The Lars were a rather respectable sort but they were still...odd. His father Cliegg was a pretty good man who saved and married Shmi Skywalker after his wife died, and Shmi was a good soul too...but there were so many rumors about her and her son who she claimed did not have a father. The son that won a race, threw a lot into chaos, and disappeared with cloaked figures. Lars claims this boy is the son of the missing child of Shmi, who had died when all that dramatics happened in the Core Worlds.

It was just...odd. And Luke was odd. Yes, there have been kids born with blond-ish hair and blue eyes before...but the colors were always darker. Their eyes would be such dark blue that they probably could look brown in some light and usually when they reach the teenage years the hair was already starting to darken. It was just a sort of normal thing on the planet. Pretty much everyone grew up too. Even the most measly of slaves had to have girth and strength on them to be of any use on this planet.

Luke just was always slightly off. His hair remained this pretty gold, his eyes were such a strange hue of blue, his face never took on a tough or quite masculine appearance, and he was just small. He was lanky and awkward and just never jumped in height like most kids. He was pathetically weak looking which is enough for most to keep their distances because if you’re around someone weak you could get drug down too.

Then there was those weird things that happen around him. Creatures that normally stayed hidden in the depths of the Tatooine desert and never inched close to towns would be found skulking and whimpering around the Lars’ property, always clawing at the wall that surrounded Luke’s room. The kid always knew where to search for a new well. He could sense when a seller is not being quite honest. He picked up blaster shooting quicker than any other child and could always find his target.  He knew how to use a speeder masterfully when he was ten. Beru’s plants sprouted with Luke nearby and gave them vegetables even during the drier months. He could predict things. And, as a child, when he had his rare tantrums things seemed to move. Then there was the fact that mysterious old Ben could be seen, only just, in the background, watching over the kid.

So, yeah, Luke was not seen as a welcomed sort.

But he was so stubborn and so eager for attention and to make friends that Biggs had a hard time fighting him off. The kid just managed to always find him so he just sorta gave up. He wasn’t about to bash a kid built like a twig’s nose in. That wasn’t exactly honorable. And well...Luke is actually pretty fun. He was always excited to go on adventures. He said yes to most anything. He was up for any dare. No matter what happened, he would always smile about it, just happy to be included. Biggs found he had far more fun with this kid than most anyone else so he just took him under his wing. Biggs was probably one of the more popular guys growing up so a lot of people left Luke alone after that, just primarily ignoring him or a cruel name tossed his way and or there.

Luke got kidnapped at least once in “cannon” but I believe that the Hutts would’ve tried to get him for the slave market. Maybe he wouldn’t sell for too much on Tatooine but he was clearly growing up into something pretty and different and that could be a lot of credits for them. Obi-Wan put a stop to it the moment he realized Luke had their attention and no one looked for Luke after that.

He tried to run away once, because he just felt so drained and empty on Tatooine, but Owen found him and dragged him back and scolded him so bad that Luke’s early stages of guilt-complex really ignited. He didn’t mention leaving for a little while after that. But he clearly was desperate to leave.

Luke had a lot of weird dreams. Sometimes even when he was awake. He could see and hear things that were there but...not. Sometimes it was foggy and blurry but he could make out a tall man who blinked from human to a black mass, breathing like a monster. Sometimes it was a man with white robes and long hair and a beard who would smile at him and give him a pat on his head, his expression calm and knowing but always gentle and comfortable. Sometimes the man would blur and Luke could see a hole in his stomach. Sometimes he would see a tall woman who glowed and had glowing green hair who would hold him close, calling him the Light’s child. Other times there was this odd pull to...someone...his mirror. Not his reflection but...yet she, as he knew it was a she, was. This other part of him. And sometimes he swore she felt him right back. He could sometimes hear a little thrum, it sounded like someone like him, but maybe younger...or maybe older, asking for the dark to please leave. He could hear another boy, someone Luke was connected to in some way, full of so much anger and kindness as he donned himself in armor. And sometimes he saw a pale monster, cackling in the shadows, with glowing yellowed eyes and who felt like decay.

Most times, he just never felt quite alone. Like there was something, or multiple somethings, always there. This pull, this connection, to everything. When he focused on it too much it made him very tired so he didn’t do it too often.

He didn’t talk about these things to his family either. 

Luke asked about his parents a lot but his aunt and uncle always refused to tell him much. They claimed to only have a little information on his father and knew nothing of his mother. He never gave up, trying to get as many stories from them as possible but it was always the same four to five stories each time.

Luke felt, or at least believed he felt, that his parents did love him and didn’t abandon him. They just died, which was sad but quite normal on Tatooine. He still wished he could see their faces and hear their voices. He usually just called them Mother and Father in his head, as a slight way to detach himself from the pain, cause Luke would be the sort who would call them mommy and daddy when he was young and then mom and dad when he was older. Mother and Father was just this...title he had for two strangers he wished he knew.

Luke still loved them very much and liked to pretend they would show up on the doorstep one day and pull him into a hug, holding him tight, and promising to never leave him again. That they would all stay together.

Luke thrived off of fairy-tale like stories and could never get enough speed in his life. Politics were never something he understood. He had plans on joining the Imperial Academy the moment he was able to become a pilot and travel across the galaxy. He could probably earn credits and get his own place and maybe take care of his aunt and uncle. He often wondered if he could be a hero.

He caused mischief but mostly on accident. He did not need much to keep him occupied and Owen realized he was very good with building, taking care of, and communicating with droids than most.

When he was seventeen to eighteen, folks who were a lot older or a very unsavory would approach Owen to try and get a deal to marry Luke.  He was still small and lanky, but people were beginning to notice he was prettier than some girls. Even some from the Hutt’s circle came in with offers to marry Luke into their protection--he could even live at the palace. Owen always rejected every proposal and kept Luke even closer to home after that, rarely letting him leave unless he was with Biggs. After Biggs left, it was always a battle to let Luke leave the farm. It made Luke smothered and a bit exhausted and whiny. He was nearing twenty and he was still treated like this delicate child.

Luke did have a massive crush on Biggs but never acted on it. Other than that he was far more interested in other things. 

He was good in picking up most languages by ear, he seemed to know Binary from the start, but he could never do well with speaking. it always sounded awkward to him. Beru taught him to read and write and she found if Luke only had a few texts, after a few lessons he would start to pick things up. Before he leaves, he is fluent in understanding Basic, Binary, Huttese, Jawaese, and Tusken sign. He can’t speak a lick of anything outside of Basic. 

Luke was always very kind and apologetic to whoever he met. He always felt he was something wrong and broken and would try to not bother anyone if he could. If something happened he was quick to blame himself (picked up from a lot of his interaction with the people of Tatooine and, unintentionally, from his aunt and uncle who did appear fearful of him at times). He puts other people first and has a hard time seeing other having faults but rather he is so broken that he makes them have faults.

He loves sweets but for savory, his was a big fan of things like rice and bread (I swear, in a Modern AU Luke would almost live off of Japanese rice and would be someone who could actually cook it (cause i can’t and it breaks my heart) and could just eat it as is or he just has it as the foundation for every meal) with some vegetables. He did not grow up with seasoning so he has no idea how to really use it...but would grow to enjoy it after some time.

Luke loves anything dog-like. He probably won over some Tusken’s because their dogs adored Luke.

Luke is amazing at engineering...but ask him what 6+6 is and he’ll probably go blank. Don’t make the poor boy think. He runs on instinct and can easily short-circuit his brain if he tries to think about what he is doing (cause often he shouldn’t really know it as he wasn’t taught it, he just somehow knows what to do)

Just cause of how Tatooine is...it is possible Luke has rarely been hugged and potentially rarely told he was loved.

[sanjuno]

You're doing NaNo?! Can you tell us anything about what you'll be doing???

SPOILERS FOR SANJUNO’S NANO 2020 PROJECT

No Evil Abolishing Resentment System

Transmigrator!Madara meets Reincarnator!Tobirama (… 55 times in a row.)

For NaNoWriMo 2020 – How Many AUs Can I Fit In One Fic?

·      0 Tails Interlude

o   Meet Sanzan-han

o   Introduction to System driven Quick-Transmigration isekai plot

o   “The seeds of evil are as follows, to hear of evil and take no action against it, to see evil and take no action against it, to speak of evil and take no action against it.”

o   “To do nothing in the face of evil is not a neutral act.”

o   “The only thing required for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing.”

·      1st World:

o   Crystal Nuclei Zombie Apocalypse with Ability Users and levelling up AU

o   Politician!Madara ended up being shoved into a zombie tide by people who thought he was too strong/disliked him before the apocalypse

o   Scientist!Tobirama really regrets not preventing that when Zombie Emperor Madara breaks through the city walls and kills everyone in Konoha Base

o   Reborn!Tobirama is determined to complete the vaccine he was working on in his first life – also keep Madara alive so he can’t become a super zombie

§  Tobirama would like to say he is surprised by Madara’s competency in zombie annihilation but he remembers how terrifying Zombie King Madara was so he really isn’t shocked that Empowered Human Madara is just as much the living embodiment of Nightmare Fuel

o   Madara as evolved Zombie catnip with a mouthy pet fish

§  Madara is absolutely disgusted by the Z-poc Virus undead they are gross, rotting, and go squelchwhen he hits them.

§  Some zombie bits get stuck in Madara’s hair. He has a screaming tantrum and promptly sets the entire horde on fire.

§  Pro-tip: Career politicians should avoid indulging in a crying fit over getting their precious beautiful hair dirty during a fight if they want to be taken seriously by their military escort even if they areso hilariously OP they can indulge in whiny hysterics and not die horribly as a result

o   The Zombies are Zetsu

o   Oh look Madara’s blood has the key component to creating the zombie vaccine who would have thought

o   There is so much angry sex for stress relief, just… so much

o    

·      1 Tail Interlude

o   Madara is pissed off that he accidently ended up in a relationship with Tobirama

o   Madara wants a refund on this System

o   Sanzan-han explains the fine print of “No Evils Abolishing Resentment System” – the Target must have resentment both towards Madara and from Madara

o   Madara’s first world was intended to lock his target

o   Switching targets will result in a full reset of his karma to level 1 – no cheating by using his previous incarnations accumulated points to get a head start any more

o   Madara’s only other valid targets approaching Tobirama’s stats were Hashirama and Mito

o   Madara could target someone else but without the heavy accumulation of karma like the Senju-Uchiha bloodfeud situation it would take thousands of lifetimes to accrue 10 tails

o   Madara is so mad ^_^

·      2nd World

o   Japanese Classic Fable AU

o   Crane Wife!Madara being Tsundere with his husband

o   Madara is accused of theft and Scholar!Tobirama is convinced to spy on his wife’s weaving

o   Madara gets caught ripping out feathers to weave into silks that are sold to pay for Tobirama’s exams

o   Madara flies away and is shot down by hunters

o   Reborn!Tobirama who is more than a little obsessed with making sure his wife doesn’t have a reason to fly off again

o   Madara doesn’t really understand why Tobirama is trying to prevent him from doing anything productive this is weird

o   Zetsu is a corrupted monk trying to capture Madara for his feathers/demon core

·      3rd World

o   Galactic Empire Mecha Pilots with psychic powers and enhanced bodies versus the Zerg Horde

o   Arranged Marriages for the noble class occur based on genetic advantages rather than affection

o   Ace Pilot/Mecha Engineer!Tobirama pays less than zero attention to his nominal spouse and heir in favour of developing weapons to fight against the Zerg

o   SSS Ace Pilot!Madara resigned to being ignored by spouse, makes friends with in-laws for sheer spite

o   Madara framed for sabotage – dies holding off a Zerg swarm

o   Science child!Kagami killed by kidnappers

o   Reborn!Tobirama pays better attention to his spouse and child while fighting to end the Zerg threat

o   The Zerg are Zetsu

o   Madara rolls his eyes and sets the Zerg Queen (Kaguya) on fire – Tobirama confused and aroused by his spouse

·      2 Tails Interlude

o   Madara wants to know if he’s going to be required to save the world every single time he’s due to earn a new tail

o   Sanzan-han: Sources say “probably”

o   Madara would question the heavy-handed implication that Zetsu was just using him but he’s still super pissed off about being trapped in a cave for 50 years and then possessed by a demon goddess thing so he’s more than willing the blame Zetsu for all the horrible things that happened

·      4th World

o   Japanese Mythical Creature AU

o   Kitsune!Madara saves the life of War General/Prince!Tobirama from Yin poisoning

o   There’s a snowstorm and Madara has to warm Tobirama up

o   Madara is a Calamitous Beauty and killed by cultists who wanted his demon core

o   Reborn!Tobirama is doing his best to take responsibility

o   Zetsu is the cultists who poisoned Tobirama and killed Madara

o   Madara is super pissed off but the shrine and the garden Tobirama builds for him are really nice so maybe he won’t claw the pasty bastard’s face off

·      5th World

o   Super Heroes and Villains in a Megamind AU

o   Pyromaniacal Villain!Madara “Moon Eye” is obviously an alien and the arch nemesis of the city’s most beloved Hero, Treeman

o   Aquatic Hero “Flying Thunder”!Tobirama’s civilian-marine biologist ID keeps getting kidnapped

o   Reborn!Tobirama needs to keep Madara sane and honestly that’s easier than it sounds because Madara gets adorably flustered when given sincere compliments and is hilariously easy to distract with questions about his obviously-also-alien pet fish

o   #I accidently started dating my brother’s arch nemesis #what do I do? #waiting online for answers

o   Sanzan-han is Minion and really likes the exo-suit

o   Zetsu is an evil shadow organization trying to take control of the heroes for world domination reasons

o   Madara has an invisible Susanoo and as ridiculous as this world can be he’s having fun in it

o   “PRESENTATION!”

·      6th World

o   Immortal Cultivators AU

o   Borderline-demonic/Unorthodox Sect Leader!Madara is getting chased around by Righteous Sect Inner Disciple!Tobirama because Madara keeps nabbing all the good secret treasures that Tobirama needs to prevent the demon realm from breaking free and invading

o   Reborn!Tobirama realizes in hindsight that Original Goods!Madara was also trying to prevent the Demon Realm invasion because the Righteous Sects didn’t listen to his initial warnings

o   Tobirama eventually pins Madara down as his Dao companion to get access to the booty loot Madara has collected/protect Madara from being targeted by unscrupulous treasure hunters

o   The demons/demonic spirits are Zetsu

o   Madara is playing whack-a-Zetsu and doesn’t have time for Tobirama��s nonsense

·      3 Tails Interlude

o   Sanzan-han praises Madara for his top-notch seduction skillz

o   Madara is So Done with this stupid godsdamned fish

o   Sanzan-han mentions but doesn’t explain that the accumulation of “affection points” will start having a notable effect on Tobirama soon – so gambatte, Mada-sama!

o   Madara tries to ignore the constant hooking up in favour of plotting new ways to kill Zetsu – seeing as the creature is the only thing he can kill in the Other-Worlds without losing the “ExP” that will allow his return home

·      7th World

o   Geode Betting Modern AU

o   Carver!Madara is a picky spoiled artiste who got blamed for ruining Tobirama’s family

o   Reborn-with-Treasure-Senses Appraiser!Tobirama is determined to “get revenge in advance” on Madara only to realize what a dork Madara is

o   Tobirama frantically backs off on his face-slapping plot only to overcompensate his way into dating a crazy artist

o   #oops

o   Zetsu are the yakuza involved in rigging the Geode betting

o   Madara is confused by the lack of open warfare but thinks this is a nice vacation

·      8th World

o   Greek Monsters AU

o   Gorgon!Madara has the strongest stone-gaze in History

o   Heroic Demigod!Tobirama arrives to take off Madara’s head for prophecy reasons

o   Tobirama’s Quest ends in tragedy – turns out ghosts/guardians of the Underworld don’t turn to stone so Tobirama can’t bring his little brothers out using Madara’s decapitated head

o   Madara is hiding from Reborn!Tobirama because he wants to keep in head on his neck, fuckdammit and accidently interrupts the murder of Kawarama and Itama via even more accidental kidnapping

o   Tobirama just wants to apologize for overreacting to a very ambiguously worded prophecy that he self-fulfilled – Tobirama is really, really very sorry, really – also wtf give him back his baby brothers

o   Zetsu is the Oracle of Kaguya who killed Tobirama’s little brothers and wanted Tobirama/Madara cursed/dead

·      9th World

o   Sentinels and Guides are Known AU

o   SSS Guide!Madara is 100% going to cut a bitch if these special fucking snowflake godsdamned Sentinels don’t piss off and leave him alone

o   6-sense Alpha Sentinel Prime!Tobirama does not want a Guide who will only slow him down with their coddling nature

o   Tobirama rejects Madara/doesn’t acknowledge their nascent connection

o   Reborn!Tobirama wakes up out of a zone – wakes up after pulling the Guide he recognized far too late as his own out of the depths of the bay – and promptly terrifies his entire family by going hyper-focused and borderline feral as he takes off to hunt down his Guide

o   Tobirama’s Guide – his Guide who is still alive – still alive and not drowned

o   Reborn!Tobirama has some lingering trauma to work through btw

o   Madara terrifies so many people when he starts inducing hallucinations as a defense mechanism

o   Zetsu are dark Sentinel cult masquerading as a shady government organization

·      10th World

o   Classic D&D AU

o   Harpy Queen!Madara is being plotted against

o   Necromancer!Tobirama regrets killing Madara and keeping his soul in a jar when he finds out the truth

o   Tobirama let’s Izuna “mete justice” – protip: Uchiha Harpies are actually Furies

o   Reborn!Tobirama decides he quite enjoys being Madara’s concubine

o   Madara lays an egg

o   The Demon Gods trying to break loose and destroy all life get kicked back into the Underworld – insert Zetsu smiting here

o   Hashirama is traumatized by his little brother’s loincloth

·      4 Tails Interlude

o   Madara throws an epic tantrum over the egg-laying thing

o   Sanzan-han doesn’t understand his deal but obligingly flees screaming in terror anyway

·      11th World

o   Imperial Court AU

o   Fire Priest!Madara is given as a “bride” to Imperial Prince Tobirama to remove Tobirama from the line of succession

o   Tobirama considered a “holy child” by the Fire devotees due to his red eyes

o   Tobirama realizes too late that his opinion of his “wife” was manipulated so that he wouldn’t be able to gather his full strength to compete with his enemies

o   Reborn!Tobirama has goals to 1. Be gay, and; 2. Commit Treason

o   Zetsu as the scheming Minister who is actually the bastard child of Empress Dowager Kaguya

o   Madara turns the court upside down and shakes because he’s bored and vindictive

·      12th World

o   Beastmen in Space AU

o   The Tribes are even more stupidly competitive than shinobi Clans but have more space (lol) to spread out so they aren’t at full war with each other

o   Snow Leopard!Madara has a female beast form as most Uchiha males do – Uchiha females tend to have male Beast Forms

o   Uchiha Do Not switch forms in Public/on the Battlefield and also the Uchiha don’t gender the way the other Tribes do

o   White Tiger!Tobirama only discovers this after the Uchiha are destroyed by hostile invasion of Borg-type enemies

o   Zetsu are the Borg knockoffs

o   Reborn!Tobirama starts courting Madara because rowr and peace happens because kittens – yay!

o   Madara uses his carving skills to create power stones that allow High Level Beasts to control themselves

·      13th World

o   Castlevania-esque Vampire AU

o   Vampires and Humans share a world but live in different realities thanks to magic sub-dimensions

o   Vampire Prince!Madara is lazy and hedonistic

o   Vampire Prince!Tobirama is disdainful of Madara’s magpie brain

o   Zetsu is the Religious extremist Vampire cult that realizes that Madara is the key to tearing down the veil and bleeds him dry to shatter the barrier separating the worlds and free the first vampire Kaguya

o   Reborn!Tobirama absolutely refuses to allow the Veil to get torn down again so he gets stupidly “devoted and jealous” over his previously despised betrothed

o   Madara is rather offended that the blood drinking is sexy and also that Tobirama is a tasty snack

·      14th World

o   Merfolk AU

o   Devil Firefish Mer!Madara always knew that the merfolk from the deeper waters would only visit the Volcanic Reef to mate and leave, especially the sharks – but he had still wanted to hope for something more…

o   Great White Mer!Tobirama only ever left the Kelp Forest to guard his more hormone driven kin when the pod headed to shallower waters to spawn and let the fry gather strength in the protection of the cove before heading back home

o   Tangling with the pretty, poisonous leader of the Uchiha pod was a mistake that could be entirely blamed on his brother’s tendency to overindulge in urchin-spines and share his vices with every mer in the vicinity

o   Someone (see: Zetsu) fucks up and pisses off the Ocean

o   Seaquakes and the resulting tsunami’s drive all the mer to the deepest-water cities to wait out the disasters

o   Madara gets eaten by a giant kraken while defending the fry – Tobirama arrives just in time to see Madara and their son get torn in half

o   Reborn!Tobirama courts Madara properly and the Uchiha pod moves into the sea-caves because the coral as too fragile for Tobirama’s peace of mind

o   Zetsu are creepy seaweed/anglerfish things

·      15th World

o   Virtual Reality Game AU

o   Code-writer!Tobirama develops Kenjutsu Mania Online in an attempt to revive his comatose little brothers

o   Overworked Detective!Madara gets suckered into the VR game with his little brothers

o   Crazy Person (Kaguya) traps all the players in a death game – as you do

o   Tobirama gets exposed as a game designer and PK’d

o   Reborn!Tobirama parties with Madara and gets married for the ExP bonus

o   Zetsu are a computer virus AI like Agent Smith

o   Madara uses IRL weapon skills to break the game and his character build before he smashes the Crazy Person open like an overripe melon

o   All the little brothers wake up

·      5 Tails Interlude

o   Sanzan-han is very proud! Mada-sama is halfway there!

o   Madara is throwing a huge fit over giving birth in 2 out of 5 worlds

o   But Mada-sama, the massive amount of affection points!

o   Fuck your affection points!

o   That’s the spirit, Mada-sama!

·      16th World

o   Modern Wizards AU

o   Dragon Keeper!Madara trips over poachers/dark wizards who kidnapped Ancient Runes Master!Tobirama for evil-ritual-sacrifice purposes

o   They accidently end up in a Marriage Bond

o   Tobirama suspects Madara of being a Dark Wizard

o   Madara is framed and executed – only for the real culprit to be exposed a few months later

o   The real culprit is Kaguya and Zetsu natch

o   Tobirama explodes a Time Turner

o   Reborn!Tobirama drags his new spouse Dark Wizard hunting

o   Couple Therapy for dumb Wizards go

·      17th World

o   ID Porn in a Miraculous AU

o   Masked Hero Phoenix is consistently pursued and wooed by his partner in crime fighting, Dragon

o   PoliSci TA!Madara has a raging brain crush on Bio-Chem Doctorate Student!Tobirama

o   An ill-advised insult/rejection causes Phoenix to darken and self-destruct

o   A grief-stricken Dragon “teleports” his mind back in time

o   Madara is so confused by Tobirama and his new stalker tendencies

o   Kaguya is RabbitMoth and Zetsu are the Akuma

·      18th World

o   Really Cheap Silmarillion Knockoff AU

o   Spell-Singer!Madara is driven mad by an Oath that was forced on him by a Messenger done Dark

o   Kaguya as the evil god and Zetsu as her evil Messenger

o   Forger!Tobirama doesn’t pay attention to extenuating circumstances until it’s too late and the bodies are buried

o   The World goes to shit for 3 ages because Tobirama’s shinies are the shiniest

o   Reborn!Tobirama devotes himself to fucking over Zetsu’s evil schemes and making pretty baubles for Madara

o   The fact that Madara’s new hairpin can level a mountain range is incidental and has nothing to do with Tobirama’s paranoia

o   An ancient mystery re. parentage is solved when Madara sings Kagami into being right on schedule – Tobirama is delighted to assist this time

·      19th World

o   Steampunk AU a la FF flavour

o   Enemy Nation!Madara is the Prince/General who goes crazy due to infection from alien viral lifeform

o   HoL Companion!Tobirama as a Prince of the protag Nation who are prophesized to save the world from Calamity

o   World goes to shit

o   Zetsu is the Scourge and Kaguya is Jenova/the Accursed

o   Tobirama is too impatient to wait out the “time-skip”

o   Reborn!Tobirama sneaks into the enemy stronghold – finds pre-infection!Madara imprisoned with tiny clone-child Kagami and steals them both

o   Cue roadtrip shenanigans as both sides try to track them down

o   Madara gets to one-man-army the forces of evil – Tobirama is very impressed

·      20th World

o   Demon Hunter AU

o   Incubus!Madara has a “food allergy” and has been stuck at the physical age of 13 being fed energy by his family members for the last 200 years

o   Functionally Ace Demon Hunter!Tobirama pegs Madara for a sex demon on sight because the lust whammy is legit the most distracting thing to ever happen to him and that incubus looks like a child ew

o   Tobirama sets a trap for Madara and is mean about it because he doesn’t appreciate the second-hand bad-touch feelings – trigger warning: allusions to non-con gangbang

o   Madara kills the “bait” and Tobirama bursts into the room

o   Tobirama sees adult!Madara in the aftermath of the carnage and is horrified to recognize his soulmate

o   Madara proceeds to vomit blood and dies at Tobirama’s feet – the allergy is no joke

o   Tobirama learns about Madara’s “allergy” from revenge rampage Izuna – recognizes that Izuna is Touka’s soulmate and doesn’t fight back

o   Tobirama regrets so hard he magics his soul back in time to the day he first saw Madara

o   The most awkward dating adventure begins

o   Zetsu are the actually evil demons who eat people for real – and not in the fun way Uchiha do

·      21st World

o   Gods AU

o   Ocean Kami!Tobirama realizes too late that he loved Volcano!Kami Madara and was unable to rescue him from the Underworld – that trick never works

o   Reborn!Tobirama starts bringing Madara tributes, averts the Twilight of the Gods via shameless debauchery, and accidently builds a tropical island honeymoon palace to spoil Madara in

o   Zetsu are the evil servants of the “god-eating Titan” Kaguya

·      6 Tails Interlude

o   Lots of Madara screaming about how the Powers That Be are far too fucking obsessed with seeing Madara get railed

o   Sanzan-han goes no-duh, most lifeforms devote about 99% of their spare life energy towards reproductive efforts

o   Madara is very grumpy about being a SSS Class Ninja Nightmare reduced to pillow-book wish-fulfillment fantasy fodder

·      22nd World

o   Noodle Dragon AU

o   Dragon King of the Northern Ocean!Tobirama and Quetzalcoatl!Madara courting shenanigans

o   OTL!Tobirama fucked up and led Hunters (Zetsu) to OTL!Madara’s nest and they stole his heart for black magic doomsday ritual

o   Madara ended up a stone statue curled around the shattered remains of his first egg

o   Reborn!Tobirama is determined to be a properly attentive mate

o   Madara is resigned to laying eggs again

·      23rd World

o   GoT-knockoff Medieval AU

o   Madara gets burned at the stake as a witch, doesn’t die, and then gets torn apart by a terrified mob

o   Northern Lord!Tobirama realizes that he done fucked up and needs Madara to beat the evil ice zombies

o   Reborn!Tobirama starts wooing an extremely cranky pyro-prince while trying to give the Uchiha Crown Prince more positive PR with the peasantry to avoid another riot

o   Zetsu are the Others, Kaguya as the Night Queen

·      24th World

o   ‘Taur AU – Tribal Setting

o   Leopard-Taur!Madara lives high up in the Mountains

o   Tiger-Taur!Tobirama is poisoned and delirious during a fated encounter – he doesn’t learn what happened or who saved him until after both prides are mostly destroyed

o   Reborn!Tobirama manages to avoid delirium induced amnesia and starts stalking Madara with the intent to make love not war

o   Zetsu are corrupted from using radioactive/poisonous Power Stones to boost strength, Kaguya is actually parasite queen

·      25th World

o   Exorcists and Ghosts AU

o   Cursed Ghost!Madara lingers in the courtyard he called home while he was alive

o   Kagami wanders in during the ghost hour and Madara shoves him into a cabinet to protect him

o   Exorcist!Tobirama finds out that Madara was still protecting Kagami from the devil spirits – not haunting him – only after the devils grow stronger and get free after ghost!Madara is destroyed

o   Reborn!Tobirama needs to figure out a way to woo his past incarnation’s very justifiably angry murdered consort before Madara denies Tobirama visitation rights

o   Zetsu are devil spirits who cursed Madara to death, Kaguya wants to consume Kagami for power

·      26th World

o   Midsummer Night’s Dream AU

o   Fairy Prince!Tobirama gets dosed with love potion

o   Meets Dark Forest King!Madara

o   Falls in potion induced love – which gets Tobirama invested enough to forget his previous prejudices and fall in True Love

o   Then Madara dies

o   Reborn!Tobirama is now immune to Love Potions because he is in True Love with Madara – fuck you, cheating bastard traitors to the Fairy Crown

o   Tobirama runs off into the Dark Forest to snag himself a Goblin King (and break Hashirama out of Love Potion induced insanity, natch)

o   Zetsu as the dirtbag fiancée, Kaguya as the dark fairy trying to take over both kingdoms

·      27th World

o   Naga AU

o   Banded Sea Kriat!Tobirama tangles with in-heat Black Hooded Tiger Snake!Madara and doesn’t realize until later that the whole situation was a bloodmage trap

o   Zetsu are the bloodmages

o   Tobirama finds Madara’s still bleeding skinned body a few weeks after they tangle – manages to get Madara’s skin and their still-curing egg back from the hunting team

o   Tobirama tries to save their egg and fails – it was taken from Madara too soon

o   Tobirama hunts down the bloodmage and dies in killing them

o   Reborn!Tobirama gives Madara proper aftercare – notes the bloody wound from the unwanted heat inducing potion – and hauls Madara back to his den for proper nesting

·      28th World

o   Magical Knight AU

o   Storm Knight!Tobirama damages Evil General!Madara’s control seal during the battle of the week

o   Tobirama then runs into amnesiac in civilian ID Madara after the fight and goes on a date

o   Tobirama still end up killing Madara when the brainwashing is reapplied – prolonged death scene reveals that Madara was mind-controlled not committing betrayal

o   Reborn!Tobirama puts significantly more effort into ensuring that the control seal is completely removed from “General Indra”

o   Madara helps defeat the Ancient Evil while wearing leather booty shorts

o   Kaguya as Mettalia, Zetsu as the Youma

·      7 Tails Interlude

o   Forget about the indignity of being Tobirama’s go-to baby incubator – Madara is absolutely flipping his shit over the booty shorts

o   Sanzan-han thought they were quite flattering on you, Mada-sama!

·      29th World

o   Blood Magic AU

o   Demon Lord!Madara gets honeytrapped by Blood Mage!Tobirama and stabbed from behind by Hashirama

o   Tobirama turns Madara’s body into a scrying gem to steal his powers and secrets

o   Snooping through Madara’s memories of their courtship lets Tobirama discover that Madara’s “evil plot” was a baby Kagami now cold in his cradle

o   Reborn!Tobirama is doing everything in his power to keep his family from finding out about Madara because the Senju’s whole “thing” is demon hunting and stealing their magic

o   Kaguya as the creepy Ancestor of the Senju clan who started the demon killing habit, Zetsu as the twisted remains of Senju elders who cursed themselves due to magic addiction

·      30th World

o   Phantom Thief AU

o   Kaito!Tobirama has to watch as his dear Detective!Madara gets gunned down by the Black Organization

o   Reborn!Tobirama first tries to send Madara away for his own safety – has a control freak panic attack when he can’t see Madara

o   Tobirama proceeds to go full disclosure overcompensation trying to keep Madara safe

o   Madara is a Sigh and steals all nine bijuu tama while Tobirama is sorting himself out

o   … Tobirama would like to know when his dear Detective learned to pick locks but before that there is a very serious problem that has arisen in Tobirama’s pants that needs to be dealt with because that was the smoothest heist Tobirama has ever borne witness to holy shit

o   Zetsu as the Black Organization looking for the magic gem Kaguya

·      31st World

o   Transformers AU

o   Decepticon!Madara is Sunspot and Autobot!Tobirama is Whitespace

o   The Great War happens – Kaguya-as-Unicron wakes up and eats most of the planet and population

o   “That’s no moon.”

o   Whitespace yeets his spark back in time and attempts to if not stop then at least delay the start of the Great War

o   Reborn!Whitespace ends up pair-bonding with Sunspot to rob the Decepticons of their Air Commander

o   A 3rd faction forms separate from the High Council versus Violent Terrorist Extremists options

·      32nd World

o   Beauty and the Beast meets Hanahaki Tragedy AU

o   Imprisoned Guest!Tobirama heads home for The Visit and stays away too long – not longer than he promised, but Beast!Madara was days away from suffocation

o   Tobirama comes back to a silent castle and finds Madara on his bed surrounded by blood and the flowers that had burst out from under his skin

o   Reborn!Tobirama is determined to break the curse – Madara is just really tired and in pain

o   What kind of fucking sadist curses a kid with roses growing inside their body – Madara was 13 when this shit started and his body knows it

o   True Loves Kiss ensues (and also Itama and Kawarama beat the shit out of Zetsu for cursing their new brother in law)

·      33rd World

o   ABO ElfQuest-ish AU

o   Alpha!Tobirama thinks he was tricked into marriage hunting Omega!Madara as part of a plot against the Senju Kingdom – everyone knows that you can’t trust Dark Elves

o   Tobirama finds out too late that there are evil forces on the loose that only the Uchiha are aware of – that’s why the Dark Elves are called Dark Elves, because they hunt evil in the dark

o   Madara is caught and left mutilated for Tobirama to come across just as he made up his mind to treat his mate better

o   Reborn!Tobirama misses his cue from the original setup – but he still finds Madara hiding in a waterfall cave because fuck no, no more fucking fucking

o   Spoiler: Madara gets fucked good and hard

o   Tobirama and Madara go demon hunting together

o   Zetsu are the Madkin demons created by Kaguya’s twisted flesh-shaping

·      34th World

o   Wonderland AU

o   Evil Dictatorship ruling family Uchiha Clan are actually held captive by their Palace – it’s a seal keeping a demon asleep and powered by the Uchiha who live inside the castle – the Uchiha don’t actually do much ruling, the Council of Elders is where the majority of the corruption is

o   Revolutionary!Tobirama kidnaps Crown Prince of Hearts!Madara during the siege to “free” Wonderland which lets the demon loose so Tobirama is forced to marry Madara and have kids quick due to being responsible for the plan that killed off 99% of the Uchiha

o   Also people born with red eyes get married to the Uchiha in the Kingdom of Hearts – those with red eyes have hearts that cannot be fooled or controlled (meaning they’re able to see through the demon’s tricks)

o   Reborn!Tobirama has just enough time to alter his plan for the attack on the Palace of Hearts – then he walks in on the turncoat guards who gave the Revolution entry to the Palace making comments about sexually assaulting Madara

o   Tobirama bursts in before Madara can break their skulls and “saves” his future husband

o   Most of the Uchiha survive this time – only the Elders get killed

o   Tobirama marries Madara again and gets to work on revamping the bad laws

o   Zetsu is the Jabberwocky

·      35th World

o   Werewolf Fighting Ring AU

o   Alpha Werewolf!Tobirama was unwillingly mated to Alpha Werewolf!Madara when he was caught and held prisoner by slave traffickers

o   Tobirama rejects Madara once they’re free of the arena but makes sure to “payback” Madara for his “humiliation” first

o   Madara had been given heat drugs the entire time and didn’t remember what Tobirama resented him for

o   Madara ends up dying from mate-loss

o   Tobirama is focused on bringing down the slavery ring and doesn’t know Madara died – until Hashirama sends him a letter about how his mate “didn’t make it through the birth” and asking him to get back for the funeral

o   Tobirama finally slows down – reads the file on Madara he has been ignoring since he found it – and breaks

o   Reborn!Tobirama is focused on treating Madara as a proper mate while also getting revenge on the Slavers

o   Madara is going to rip out so many throats out over being pregnant again

o   Zetsu as the warlocks running the slave rings to feed Kaguya power

·      36th World

o   Star Wars AU

o   By-the-Code Jedi!Tobirama tends to bisect all the “darksiders” he runs into – kills Izuna during a mission

o   Madara does full dark-side rage and Empress Kaguya takes over

o   Zetsu as the Darkside clone army

o   Reborn!Tobirama is a lot less saber-happy and has learned that the Uchiha are not dark – more wild/grey

o   Ends up Force Bonded to Madara to bring Balance

·      8 Tails Interlude

o   Madara has a screaming breakdown to the tune of “why fucking Tobirama?!?!?!”

o   Sanzan-han is like “He resented you the most? Duh? No Evil Abolishing Resentment System?”

o   Madara tries his best to fry the stupid gods-be-damned-twice fish

·      37th World

o   Sex Slave Soulmate AU

o   War-Mage!Tobirama uses borderline-forbidden magic to make Kagami – shatters his soulmate link to do so, which is what makes the magic unpopular but not illegal as nobody is actually “harmed” by the spell

o   Note: Kagami is now the living embodiment of the link

o   Kagami finds Courtesan!Madara in a high-end brothel that is a front for nobles to buy magically bound sex-slaves – this is actually super forbidden magic, btw

o   Tobirama saves Madara and the other enslaved thralls while rescuing Kagami

o   Madara had enough magic to fight against the enchantment and managed to get Kagami out of the brothel – that’s how Tobirama knew where to attack

o   No follow through after the rescue – Madara and the others are left under the enslavement seals

o   Madara ends up assaulted/dead/silenced by the nobles who used to patronize the brothel and slave market

o   Reborn!Tobirama moves faster and has already figured out how to break the enslavement curse – gets to the brothel before Madara manages to get Kagami out again

o   Mexican standoff ensues – Tobirama rescues his soulmate and kid

o   Madara gets freed from the curse

o   Courting ensues when their soulmark repairs when they touch after the curse is broken

o   Kaguya as the evil mage who was using the brothels as a power source, Zetsu as her simulacrum servants

·      38th World

o   Mythos AU

o   Dragon!Tobirama is married to Phoenix!Madara and resents it

o   Madara has bad PR and Tobirama listens to rumours so he ignores Madara as much as he can

o   Civil War erupts – Madara hides Kagami when their Palace is attacked and is a distraction

o   Tobirama finds his spouse ritually violated to steal his “fire”

o   Reborn!Tobirama is a much more enthusiastic spouse and realizes that Madara is a fluffy sap

o   Zetsu as the invading horde of magic thieves

·      39th World

o   Angels AU

o   Angel!Tobirama is “tempted” by Fallen!Madara

o   Tobirama kills Madara and kicks off a new War In Heaven

o   Regret hits when Tobirama finds Kagami’s body after Danzo kills him… in an exact mirror of how Tobirama tricked Madara

o   Reborn!Tobirama decides to “prove” that Madara is “evil” before killing him this time to keep the War from happening again

o   Tobirama gets his nose rubbed in Madara’s ability to love his family

o   Zetsu as actual demons who are trying to kill off both Angels and Fallen

·      40th World

o   Fae Marriage Hunt AU

o   Winter Fae!Tobirama was a petty bastard and resisted his betrothal to the point a Marriage Hunt was the only option

o   Skinchanger!Madara wins the Hunt

o   The peace between the High Court and the Wild Hunt collapses after Madara is killed during a diplomatic meeting

o   Reborn!Tobirama decides to play along/use his “marriage” to make the peace permanent

o   Tobirama gets his misconceptions challenged when Madara rides his cooperative “willing” bride into the ground

o   Kaguya as an evil Fairy Queen with Zetsu as her Greymalkin

·      41st World

o   The Mummy AU

o   Archeologist!Tobirama accidently triggers mummy!Madara’s awakening and the crazy demon cultists take advantage

o   Madara lets Tobirama kill him rather than let the cultists sacrifice Tobirama

o   Tobirama gets an info dump on Madara’s trauma

o   Reborn!Tobirama uses the evil cult to resurrect Madara properly and woos the ancient shogun like a boss

o   Kaguya as even more ancient evil Mummy and Zetsu as obsessed cultists

·      42nd World

o   Labyrinth AU

o   Adventurer!Tobirama keeps meeting a mysterious “king” in his dreams – King of the Labyrinth!Madara keeps a veil over his head and his hands covered by extra-long fluttery sleeves

o   Tobirama has to beat the Labyrinth to rescue his little brothers

o   Paranoid Tobirama gets tricked into betraying Madara by goblin Zetsu – the Labyrinth collapses

o   Tobirama’s little brothers are killed along with all the other kidnapped children – the energy from their deaths and the destruction of the Labyrinth is used to fuel the resurrection of a Demon God Kaguya

o   Tobirama dies taking his revenge after learning the full story

o   Reborn!Tobirama is much more willing to “dance” with Madara now that he knows Madara is as much or more a prisoner than the stolen children

o   Madara was used as a lure – his fingers bound in wire and his eyes sewn shut – but they miscalculated because Madara was still the King and wouldn’t let anyone who can’t complete his Labyrinth reach the children

o   Tobirama completes the Labyrinth… after he frees Madara

o   Yay romantic dance sequences

·      43rd World

o   Four Kings AU

o   Byakko!Tobirama gets trapped in a blood-and-wine seal

o   Suzaku!Madara runs afoul of Tobirama’s enemies, kills them all in a rage, and trips into Tobirama’s trap with him

o   Violent coitus ensues

o   Madara breaks the seal once the trap’s power has been exhausted and runs away

o   Tobirama wakes up with a blank memory as a result of the seal

o   Madara lays an egg – Kagami hatches

o   Zetsu as Minions of the God-Eater Kaguya catch Madara while he’s weak and sacrifice him thinking he still contains the combined essence of Byakko and Suzaku

o   Hey but actually Madara’s power was at a low ebb because he spent it all on Kagami so no resurrections for you, stupid doomsday cult

o   Tobirama rescues Kagami – baby bird begs the tiger to save his mama – is too late

o   Reborn!Tobirama gets to watch his past!self deflower the avatar of Suzaku and oh shit that means Kagami is my son? Tobirama is a scream

o   Time to gather the Four Kings and destroy a Demon Cult! Mito is Seiryuu and Hashirama is Genbu.

·      44th World

o   Warprize Ger AU

o   Imperial Prince!Tobirama is given as a consort to Ger Emperor Madara as part of a Senju plot

o   Tobirama is unaware that his attendants are using him to poison Madara but is super pissed at his father for giving him away as a treaty gift

o   Madara dies birthing Kagami but reveals to Tobirama that he was glad to marry him – Kagami is worth it and Tobirama was the only man to ever give Madara flowers

o   Kagami learns that it was a Senju plot that killed his mother and hates Tobirama for his part in it

o   War erupts between the Uchiha Empire and the Senju Kingdom again and destroys both countries

o   Reborn!Tobirama decides to overturn all his father’s plan and dotes on his Imperial Spouse – so manyflowers are given

o   Madara is an amazing Emperor and newly crowned Emperor Hashirama is super thrilled to have such peaceful relations with his neighbour thanks to Tobirama’s beautiful love story

·      45th World

o   Buddy-cop StarTrek Federation AU

o   Senju-With-Tentacles, Psychic!Uchiha-With-Horns

o   PHEREMONE MARKERS~!!

o   Zetsu are the Borg

o   Kagami is a Tube Baby

·      9 Tails Interlude

o   Madara is freaking the fuck out the last set of worlds were uniquely traumatizing – especially the Labyrinth one

·      46th World

o   Loveless AU

o   Sacrifice!Madara has learned to fight on auto – the first Sacrifice to figure out how to do so, and he doesn’t stop fighting even when his Fighter shows up

o   Fighter!Tobirama never wanted a Sacrifice because he didn’t want them to get hurt and he sees Madara acting as a Fighter so he doesn’t believe that Madara is a Sacrifice

o   The name of their Bond is Devotion

o   Madara gets targeted by a swarm of Dr. Kaguya’s fake-bonded Zetsu

o   Tobirama finds Madara’s body in Kaguya’s lab and uncovers the Bond too late to save his Sacrifice

o   Reborn!Tobirama is hyper overprotective and Madara trounces his Fighter’s ass up and down the street until he feels better about living in a reality with a world-wide virginity fetish

·      47th World

o   Witch Madara and Magical Creature Tobirama

o   Tobirama is cursed into a human form

o   Tricked into thinking that he has to kill Madara/a Witch to get the curse broken?

o   It was all a lie

o   Tobirama twisting the curse to go back in time instead of dying

o   Madara is too gods-be-damned-again tired for this nonsense

o    

·      48th World

o   Stargate AU

o   Head Scientist of the Expedition Tobirama

o   Leader of the surviving “Ancients” Madara

·      49th World

o   Welcome to Nightvale AU

o   Tobirama, the Scientist

o   Madara, the Sherriff of the Secret Police

o    

·      50th World

o   BDSM AU

o   Tobirama IDS as a Switch but he’s service oriented non-dynamic instead

o   Madara thinks toys/scenes are silly – demi-romantic/grey-ace Madara rides again

o   Tobirama has cultural dissonance meeting a “Dom” who likes being the one fucked

·      51st World

o   TRON?

·      52nd World

o   Tyrant CEO/Entertainment Circle

·      53rd World

o   From another world AU

o   Tobirama drops into Fantasy Land from a Modern-ish Naruto World

o   Madara as the Villainous Noble who was “jealous” of Tobirama’s magic power

·      54th World

o   Last Unicorn AU

o   Madara is the Kirin

o   Tobirama as a Wizard who likes Science more

·      55th World

o   Dragon Raja AU

·      10 Tails Interlude

o   Sanzan-han reveals why they were helping Madara – and fade to black

·      Return to the Warring Clans Era

o   Canon is About to Be Diverted

o   Madara is back on the battlefield where Izuna died

o   Promptly summons Sanzan-han to stop this fucking bullshit – Sanzan-han has ascended and become a massive dragon so yeah the battle is definitely over now

o   Tobirama appears to be having a migraine – whoops looks like the arrival of Sanzan-han has started the data-dump of all Tobirama’s System-generated memories into canon!Tobirama

o   Peace and Konoha happen

·      Epilogue/Extras

o   Tobirama has Suspicions regarding his shiny new memories – especially because he remembers seeing that fish. Everywhere. All the time. Stupid fish.

o   Everyone is very confused by how fast Tobirama and Madara get over the war and hook up but yay peace? Also Madara and Tobirama somehow make a baby and everyone is too busy trying to figure out how that works to complain anymore.

o    

·      

[leiaimnida]

Wedding

Warning: Characters involved are my OCs from Demon Slayer universe. If I am able to upload their... biography or something, this word should be in a hyperlink. Japanese words that are in red are defined at the end of the fic.

Timeline: after Muzan's defeat and the dissolving of the Demon Slayer Corps.

Characters: Arai Junko, Fujiwara Maria, Nakajima Fujita, Uchida Amida

Also tagging @animatedarchives @ineedselfcontrol-helpme @applepienation because I remember that they were the ones who were interested with my OCs 🥺 (HELLO, GUYS, ILY SO MUCH-)

DESPITE the scorching heat, Maria went forth with her walk. Beads of sweat trickled at the side of her face, the *wagasa resting on her shoulder not being able to protect her from the blazing sun.

But all the discomfort from the immense heat was worth it when she hears a loud shrill a couple steps away from her. Lifting her eyes, she sees a little child, running towards her direction despite of struggling with her faded red yukata.

"Amria!" The child squealed as its tiny arms wrapped around Maria's legs. Maria giggled as she slowly crouched on the ground, letting her wagasa litter on the soil as she hugged the little child.

"Chiyo, you shouldn't be walking on the streets by yourself," Maria said in a motherly-like tone, ignoring the fact that Chiyo had just mispronounced her name.

"Where is your aunt? It's weird that I don't see her beside you, she's literally glued to-"

"Chiyo!" A familiar scream was heard from afar, making Maria drift her sight from the child to the women in front of her.

Speaking of the devil.

Maria chuckled. It's been a month since she last visited but Junko had little to no changes. Her hair is still tied in a messy way (which irks Maria but it isn't her hair so she can't really have it on her way) and Junko still had her weird taste of yukata designs that according to her "drives the men away".

Maria picked her wagasa, her free hand reaching for Chiyo's as she started to walk towards Junko's direction.

"Junko-chan!"

The voice made Junko look towards her left, a sense of relief washing her worries as she sees Chiyo, her niece, with Maria, a trusted friend.

She composes herself as she meets them, "Maria-san," Junko greeted her former comrade as she crouched to pick Chiyo up, the weight of the child not bothering her given her former occupation.

"Good thing I saw Chiyo before anyone else did," Maria said, now lifting her right hand that has been carrying a red cloth shifted into a bag all along, "I brought a watermelon?"

"THANK you so much, Arai-san," Maria thanked Junko's elder sister who only gave a smile in return before picking Chiyo up, informing her sister and visitor that they're heading to the market, leaving Junko and Maria alone.

"So," Maria placed her slice of watermelon down, "How are things here?"

Junko leaned lightly on the *shoji screen, her feet hanging at the edge of the *tatami floor as she indulged herself with Maria's present, "I've been healing well from...you know," Junko eyed Maria meaningfully, "I've been spending all of my money at my niece and the expenses at this house."

Junko made it sound as if it was a burden but Maria could see through her eyes: she was happy and contented. Far from the look on her face whenever she had to discuss her past with her father. Maria couldn't help but smile, seeing that her friend is finally at peace.

"Spend it well, then," Maria chuckled as she took a bite from her slice once again.

"Which reminds me..." Junko muttered as she now stare at the *shishi odoshi playfully rocking back and forth at her backyard, "What happened to the two?"

Maria chuckled, fixing her glasses, "On their own as well, I guess," she shrugged, "Fujita did say she's going home."

"Amida, though..." Junko interrupted.

Maria heaved a sigh, one that sounded as if she were in distress, "I don't know about him."

Junko shrugged, "I just hope he's doing well...". She said with utmost sincerity, "Plus, he's old enough to take care of himself."

Maria couldn't agree more.

Silence then consumed the two as they went on feasting from the watermelon Maria brought. However, an odd shrill interrupted their peace.

"Kaw! Kaw!" A crow landed in between Maria and Junko, startling the two as they scoot away from the uninvited crow.

"Kaw! Kaw! Attention! Attention!" It cawed as it flapped its wings.

"Wait-" Maria scooted towards the crow this time, no longer afraid, "A kasugai crow?" She thought out loud as she offered her wrist. The trained crow flew towards her, landing on her offered hand.

"It is a kasugai crow!" Maria gleefully cheered as her other hand inspected its wings, trying to determine how long was it travelling.

"You still have your crow?" Junko asked, amused.

"I do! Though I don't let it fly that much-" Maria paused, "Wait, where's your crow?"

"I had to set it free. Chiyo kept on playing with the crow," Junko explained as she remembered how her adorable niece tried to drown the poor crow once, "Whose crow is this?"

As if the crow understood Junko's question, it cawed once again, "Nakajima! Nakajima Fujita! Nakajima Fujita!"

"Fujita!" Maria exclaimed as her shoulders popped in surprise, she glances at Junko who remained unfazed exterior-wise.

"Message!" The crow flew from Maria's hand, hovering above the two, "Message from Nakajima! Nakajima Fujita! Message from Nakajima Fujita!"

"Finally!" Maria clapped as she sat properly once again. Junko stood from sitting, getting impatient with the crow.

"What is it?" Junko asked.

"Invitation! Invitation! Fujiwara Maria invitation! Arai Junko invitation!"

"Invitation?" Maria and Junko muttered in unison.

"Invitation to what?" Maria asked, standing alongside Junko as well.

"Wedding! Invitation wedding!"

"A wedding?" Junko wobbled her head.

"Arai Junko! Fujiwara Maria! Invited! Invited! Nakajima Fujita wedding!"

Maria was able to connect the broken words the crow was saying. She cupper her lips with her hand, "Fujita's wedding?!" She speculated.

Junko's brows furrowed, getting more and more confused. She wants answers and she's getting it. She looked at the crow, casting it a glare in which the crow immediately understood, given how it's now frantically flapping its wings for its own life.

"I don't understand," Junko blurted out as she inhaled sharply, "I remember her saying she'd rather die alone unless if she's marrying someone rich. Which household is it?" Junko asked herself as she recounted some of the well-known households she knew.

"I'm going to die alone. I don't care if no one's going to take care of me, I have my wealth? I am only marrying someone if they're rich and they can make me richer. I deserve this given that I slay pathetic creatures for a living!" Maria couldn't help but remember what Fujita once cried.

"Who could it be-"

"Invited to wedding! Nakajima Fujita and Uchida Amida wedding!"

The ladies both fell silent, Maria's watermelon creating a thud now that she dropped it in surprise.

"Their what?!" Maria shrieked in surprise.

"Those bitches are getting married?!" Junko couldn't help but to curse and to blurt out her surprise as well.

"Kaw! Kaw!" The crow flapped it's way towards-

"Hold on a second!"

"Junko-chan, the crow!" Maria said as she went near Junko.

But Junko was not listening both to Maria's plea and the crow's distressed cry. She remained her grip on the little crow's tail despite of its flapping.

"How are they getting married?" Junko asked in confusion, "I mean, the four of us separated. How? Were they seeing each other? What?"

"I don't know as well!" Maria exclaimed as she cupped her hands, slightly hopping from her place, "They're actually getting married, what the hell?!"

"I am confused," Junko said out loud, "I need answers."

"Let's let the crow give Fujita our message then," Maria suggested as she eyed the poor crow again.

Junko nodded, letting go of the crow who immediately fell on the floor, its chest puffing in exhaustion from trying to escape from Junko's grip.

"Uh... what do we tell them?" Maria said as she knelt, cupping her chin, "Uh...Fujita, hello? Congratulations with your wedding and we're definitely coming-"

"Tell her that what the fuck are they thinking and why on earth are they getting married-"

"Junko!" Maria reprimanded but Junko went on with her message for Fujita and Amida. Well...mostly curses.

END.

Definition

Wagasa are Japanese traditional oil-paper umbrellas.

Shoji is a Japanese traditional wooden sliding doors with translucent paper/screen on.

Tatami is a Japanese traditional mat used as flooring in traditional Japanese-style rooms.

Shishi Odoshi also known as 'sharedeer' or 'scareboar' are Japanese devices used to frighten away animals. Similar to a scarecrow. Mostly seen at backyards though (that cute little fountain with bamboos bumping with one another due to water).

[suhfleur]

dear, my dear • jaebeom (2/4)

• pairing: soulmate!jaebeom x reader

• genre: romance, angst, smut

• warnings: cursing, sexual content

• word count: 2.2k

summary: in a world where a touch can lock the doors of the heart, his voice opened the doors to your soul as he filled it with joy.

a/n: i like doing cliches. enjoy. forgive any typos, i didn’t review this.

•••

“That’s amazing!”, would sound fake.

“Wow, how it happened?”, wasn't something you wanted to know. And, “I'm happy for you” would be the last thing you felt like saying.

But you should still be a good friend.

He never even broached the subject of soulmates with you, so knowing how he felt at the moment was a cloudy situation.

You weren’t sure how to act.

Sunny decided to sleep with you, just in case, because she was too good of a friend to let your shocked ass alone. And you were grateful, because being alone all night wouldn’t do anything for you, except make you cry.

But right now, you are lying on the floor of the rooftop of your building, staring at the stars as if maybe they could tell you what to do. Pretending that nothing happened wouldn’t help much.

[10:16 pm] loftv: And how are you feeling about this?

You thought maybe he might be busy in the studio and wouldn't answer fast, but the answer soon came.

[10:21 pm] def: fine. I feel the same as always.

[10:22 pm] loftv: Is that all? Didn't you feel anything extraordinary?

[10:22 pm] def: it doesn't matter to me.

[10:23 pm] loftv: And why not?

def is typing… appeared on your screen for at least 7 minutes, and yet, no message came for almost others 5 minutes.

[10:35 pm] def: you took too long to answer. what happened?

Okay. He definitely doesn’t want to talk about it. Time to move on.

[10:36 pm] def: I missed you.

You sighed heavily, feeling your stomach twist and turn. No matter if you had found your soulmate, def was still the one you loved. And nothing would change that, not even a predestined love.

[10:37 pm] loftv: I’m sorry. Got carried away with some things. Missed you too.

[10:38 pm] loftv: A lot.

[10:38 pm] loftv: Tell me how you feeling. What you doing right now?

Putting your phone down, you heard Sunny clear her throat, looking at you suggestively.

“What?” You asked nonchalantly.

“You found your soulmate." She said as she propped her elbows on the floor and rested her chin on her left hand. “And I’m not even questioning it, I know you found him… or it is her?” She asked smiling.

“I don’t know,” You answered, thinking about the whole situation at the subway and how it messed the hell out of you. Sunny looked at you deadass like that meant ‘what do you mean, girl?’. “It happened at the subway station. People kept pushing me until somebody touched me and everything happened. I lost him… or her. I don’t have any idea. I just felt like crying… but not because I was scared. But… I felt happiness. It was so weird…”

“Do you still think the soulmate thing is something theatrical?” Sunny asked you while running her fingers through your hair. She seemed cynical.

“No. Not even a bit,” you turned on the floor until you were face to face with her. “and that’s why I’m mad. And scared. And everything.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to have that person. Even if my body it’s telling me otherwise, this is not what I want.”

“This is not who you want, right?” Sunny’s voice sounded kinder and her eyes tried to calm you down. Somehow.

“I love somebody else, Sunny.” Your eyes filled with water, so you returned back to the starting position, with your back against the floor as you looked up, expecting something to come from the sky and change all that, again.

“You know… When I met Jaehyun, everything seemed so natural that it was weird. Like, I had never seen him before and it didn’t feel strange at all. I hoped that even though he was the person I was going to spend the rest of my days with, we would have some kind of... uncomfortable moment, I guess? After all, we didn't know each other. But when I bumped into him at the Museum and we started talking, that thing... started to make sense.” She said excitedly while sitting and crossing her legs.

“What thing?” You asked, curious, looking at her again.

“Do you remember that I would always tell you that every time I picked up that specific book from the library, I felt something different? I never knew how to explain that, but I would always feel that warm feeling, like my soul was being hugged, and you called me high, which was rude of you, by the way, little bitch. But, moving on, when Jaehyun and I started meeting each other, he told me he used to go to that library and always take that same book to read!”

“Okay now, this is a hell of a coincidence.” You answering, not knowing exactly where Sunny was trying to go with that information.

“The thing is: it wasn’t a coincidence, Y/N. Whenever I walked in front of that law firm, I felt the same way I felt when I touched that book. That was because Jaehyun worked there. That Japanese food restaurant that you and I like to go whenever is possible, I used to feel the same way too, because Jaehyun used to go there a few times when you and I were, he would sit with his friends a few tables away from us, every Friday.”

You still didn’t get it.

“What you trying to say to me, Sunny?”

“This whole soulmate thing is not like life is throwing somebody at your door and saying ‘here it is’. It is not predestined as a computer programming, it is built until it is unified. It’s storytelling, your storytelling, but it has to be built. Life introduces you to your soulmate, in some weird ways, yes, but it does. That’s why it’s called soulmate.” Her eyes expressed more than what you could catch. “Just don’t overthink right now. At some point, you will know what I mean.”

And you really wish you could understand that at the moment, fully. But maybe it was not for you right now.

“Hungry?” You nodded. “Good, I will order pizza now. Half spicy!” Sunny got up quickly, laughing. “And you are going to eat with me!”

“You know I don’t eat spicy things!” You shouted as she ran into your apartment, moving backward just a few steps to look at you.

“Life is too short to not eat spicy things, especially when you never ate it before. And, if I were you I'd look at my phone because you're probably leaving a certain someone talking to himself.” She said laughing as she disappeared into your living room.

Oh shit, def…

Quickly picking up your phone from the floor, you see that he had only sent you two messages, 10 minutes ago.

[10:41 pm] def: can I call you? I really missed you.

[10:45 pm] def: please?

You felt your hands shake a little at the question. The two of you had never been messaging, his idea of not knowing much about you never included not talking on the phone, but he never even asked about it.

And now, receiving his call was an overwhelming idea.

[10:55 pm] loftv: I’m sorry, I was talking to my friend.

[10:55 pm] loftv: But yes, call me.

And as soon as you sent the message you started preparing, trying not to create what you didn't want: expectations. You had no more than 1 minute to think about anything because soon your phone was vibrating and his name was shining brightly on your screen.

You answered quickly.

“Hey.”

His low and husky voice vibrated in your ears, in almost a whisper, as if he was testing territory. And you felt like throwing up, your stomach kept spinning, feeling goosebumps on the back of your neck. He could always make you fall apart just like that.

“Hey, you… You never answered me what you were doing.” You said shyly, biting your lower lip, hoping that you didn’t sound stupid.

“That’s why I’m calling you, miss. To show you what I’m doing…” His voice sounded a little more excited.

“Well… You are not going to really show me anything, you know how calls work right? I just can hear you.” You mocked.

“Oh, you are the smartest person in the world, uh?” He answered wryly. “You understand what I’m saying, you wanna know what I’m doing or not?”

“Ok, big baby. I’m all ears.” You heard a small laugh from him, making you smile more. He was walking somewhere because you could hear him opening and closing a door. “Where are you?”

“Studio.” His voice was distant as if the cell phone had been placed somewhere far away.

“I’m waiting…” You hummed.

“Wait a minute, Einstein. I’m almost there.” Then you heard the keyboard noise and a few clicks. “There we go, I hope you like it…”

A gentle guitar melody began to play and you lay back on the floor again, enjoying his voice blending perfectly with the sound of the strings and the sudden beat coming in.

“You’re always in my thoughts,

Where you are right now,

If only I could know

Even if it takes a few years

I want to find you…

Come back to me.”

The calm words being chanted as supplications filled your mind, while the starry sky presented you with this perfect combination.

You didn't even notice when it was over. Only when you heard his voice again.

“You liked it?” He sounded hesitant.

“You still ask me that? It's beautiful. Perfect. Tell me this is the final version, please, I'll kill you if you make any changes." You heard his laugh and some noises again, as if he were leaving that place again, locking a door.

"I would only change something if you told me this song was horrible, after all, you are my quality manager, right?"

The noise of movement and cars grew louder.

"Are you leaving the studio?"

“Yes. I’m going home now because I think somebody once told me that if I was past 11 pm in the studio, she would strangle me or something like that…”

“That must be a nice person, then.” You answered, laughing at him. At least your threats were working.

“Yeah. She is very nice… But tell me now, what are you doing, my Lily?”

So, you guys talked about absolutely everything, from how sushi is not all that good to the meaning of constellations in each mythology, which honestly left you wanting to jump on him because that man could talk about everything, and there wasn’t, at the moment, something sexier than the way he explained things. The conversation was so long and relaxed that you walked through the whole house while talking to him, and now you were on the living room floor, next to a Sunny who just passed out watching Princess Mononoke from Studio Ghibli. After eating a disguting spicy pizza that almost made you throw up while talking to def, and he mocked you for 15 minutes.

Just as your friendship started naturally, the same thing happened with this first phone conversation and you thought "why the hell am I so afraid?", you had never felt so stupid. It was time to be brave. After all, you had nothing to lose. He was not predestined for you.

"Def?" You called, hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"I think... I mean... Why is it so hard to form a phrase? God... Ok. I think we should see each other, if it's ok with you."

You waited anxiously for the answer, and received a laugh.

"If it's ok for me? C’mon now, I'm waiting to see you for months. Of course it's ok for me. When do you want to see me?"

Right now, please.

"Is it okay if I want to see you tomorrow? After work...”

“Are you sure? I mean, you know I work at home, so no problem but it won't be tiring for you?” The concern in his voice warmed your heart a bit. Always so understanding.

“Yes, I’m sure. Don’t worry. I just really want to see you.” You admitted holding your breathe.

“I really want to see you, Lily. I really do.”

“Good, I can’t wait to hear why you call me Lily and it better be a good reason or I swear to God, we gonna fight!” His laughter once again filled your ears and heart. “Even though I don't want to go now, it's already 2 am and in 5 hours I have to go to the university and then work. Unfortunately, capitalism forces me to go. See you tomorrow?” You asked with dreamy voice, and big smile.

“Of course you will... Before you go, let me tell you one important thing.”

“What is it?” You asked curiously, looking lazily at the screen.

“My name is Jaebeom. Lim Jaebeom. Sleep well, my Lily.”

[dianapana]

SasuHina Month 2020- Day 14

Prompt -Yakuza

This is in the same universe

Today should be a celebration, but most of my maids have been quiet and watching me with pity. Their uneasiness is understandable but it doesn’t help my anxiety. I was 7 years old when I realized that love in our world does not exist; if love is a flower than we are poisoned and dry soil, love cannot survive here let alone flourish. But marriage is sacred to women, it’s our only goal, since we are born, we are taught to cook, clean and be silent. We are trophies for men to display. Women are not seen as humans but as objects that men can do what they see fit with. We’re always owned, first by our fathers and later in life by our husbands. I’ve seen quite a few of my cousins getting married, most of them were terrified. Only very few still had their innocence and viewed marriage as a positive thing, they were foolish enough to thing that love and marriage are the same thing. But one does not need love in a marriage, most of our world is proof of that. I’ve seen one of the girls that has naively gone into the arms of her new husband expecting kindness, her innocence has been killed, every little sound makes her flinch, she always wears long sleeved shirts and turtlenecks. I wished to help her but, in our world, nobody can come between a man and his wife, despite the clear signs of abuse.

“You look beautiful, Hime-sama” the maid brushing my hair says. She was new, young, maybe 13 and her eyes shine like diamonds. The maid that just finished my make-up shakes her head but everyone remains quiet.

“I can’t wait for my own wedding. How I want a man that loves me like your future husband loves you Hime-sama.” Her voice is breathless and I can tell she’s in her own world. She has rose-colored glasses on and sees everything in pinks and reds. She touches the tiara on my head “Look how beautiful this is. And he bought it just for you, oh how much he must love you”

The piece of jewelry is indeed lovely, it was delivered this morning along with a full set of earrings, necklace and bracelet. They are heavy and rather than ornaments they feel like chains. I had done my best in the past 2 hours, since I put the dress on, not to look at myself in the mirror, I don’t look at my hands in my lap for the fear of seeing the engagement ring. I had a habit of playing with my fingers but it stopped a few days after I got the ring; I kept touching it and being reminded of my future.

I had only seen my future husband once; when he gave me the ring. And we did not speak. But I knew his name and I looked him up, asked around. I wish I hadn’t. The young girl stops brushing my hair and an older maid takes her place and starts curling it. “permission to take the tiara off until your hairdo is done?” her voice is low and filled with pity. They all pity me. They know who this man is and what his reputations says about him. They raised me and now they’re preparing me for the beginning of the end.

“Granted.” The tiara is placed on the vanity and my eyes fall to it. It is beautiful, it looked like a flower crown made out of silver; each flower has in the middle a white diamond surrounded by 6 rubies. The earrings are small, each a flower, the bracelet is just like the tiara flowers braided together and the necklace is made out of a single stem in a U shape with one flower at each end. The red rubies only make me think about all the blood money they must have costed, just like the dress I’m wearing, just like every other dress I own. Not a single thing I have touched in my life has been paid in anything but blood money. I was born with blood on my hands.

“Your mother would have loved the sight of you today” says one of the maids, she too is new in taking care of me, she’s one of Hanabi’s maids so it makes sense for her to lie. My little sister is one of the few girls that hasn’t had her innocence ripped from her soft hands.

My mother wouldn’t have loved this for me. My mother wouldn’t have loved me. She couldn’t. She was bitter and cold. Dad had turned her to be like him. But Hanabi doesn’t know that. The stories everyone tells her about our mother are of her being loving and caring, about how mother’s dying wish was to hold her baby. Mother died giving birth to Hanabi, but she hadn’t seen her, she didn’t hold her, nor would she had wanted to. Hanabi had to be cut from my mother’s corpse. I walked in the room expecting to see my mother and father smile at each other and kiss their new born daughter like they do in the movies. Instead mother was dead on the table, a nurse was holding a crying baby and father was smoking. He hadn’t seen me and even if he did, I don’t think he would have cared. ‘Take this thing away’ he told one of his men, disgust could be heard in his tone; the ‘thing’ was my mother.

Mother had never been affectionate, she never held be, never played with me or told me stories. She critiqued me or ignored me. Yet when she became pregnant, she seemed to be happier and for the first few months of her pregnancy she was kind. It all changed when they learned it was yet another girl. Father wanted a boy, an heir. Moher spiraled, she started drinking and smoking not caring that it was bad for her or the baby. Hanabi was born prematurely at 6 months and a half because mother tried to get rid of her on her own but that led to Hanabi being born early and her dying. Who knows, maybe that was her goal all along.

The maid finished curling my hair and put it in an elegant bun when she says “I’ll put the tiara back on” and I nod. The preparations are done. Any moment now father will come to walk me to the ceremony and down the aisle to the man known as ‘the devil’. In a world of murder and crime my future husband is known under that and many other names. I have heard stories upon stories and they were all cruel and terrifying.

I don’t get much time to run wild with my own thoughts because my bedroom door opens and Neji is on the other side which shouldn’t surprise me but it still does. I get up and go to him; Neji has been oddly quiet since the engagement was announced a month ago. He did almost everything in his power to stay away and even now I see grief and regret in his eyes. He’s blaming himself for not being able to stop this marriage. There is nothing anyone could have done. Father and Fugaku Uchiha reached an understanding and they decided to unite our families. As far as I know this hasn’t happened in the past 150 years.

The walk to the back door is not as long as I would have wanted. This ceremony is the official one but it’s held in our backyard because only our immediate family was invited. There’s a war going down in the yakuza world at the moment which is also the reason why I think the two leaders decided to bury the hatched for the time being and focus on the common enemy. Neji leads me to the door where he tells me to wait and he goes to the side door probably to tell father I’m here. A few moments later the very same side door opens and father walks in; it is weird seeing him in a suit and not in his normal traditional Japanese clothing.

He doesn’t tell me I look pretty; he doesn’t say he is proud; he doesn’t say anything but place my hand on his arm and opens the doors. Neji, Hanabi and 3 elders are on the right and 6 Uchiha’s are on the left. The wedding is a secret. In front is my future husband, wearing a suit my eyes move to his ear. He has a number of piercings but the one that catches my eye is a flower with red rubies. His earring matched with mine.

Mikot, Sasuke’s mother was the one to organize this, she pushed for a western ceremony for the family so I could wear a normal wedding dress which apparently is every little girl’s dream. After the waters clear we will have another ceremony and party with more people and in a traditional Japanese style. Upon hearing that, Hanabi started whining and saying how unfair it was that I would get two weddings. I did not feel quite as lucky as she thought I was.

There is no music in the background, the walk is short and father does not make a show of telling Sasuke ‘you better take care of her’ this is not like in the movies. I take a step towards Sasuke and do my best not to flinch when he takes my hands into his. His skin is rough and his hands look so much bigger compared to mine. I heard that he crushed someone’s neck with his bare hands. I heard he bathes in his enemies’ blood. I heard his eyes look red like the devil just before he kills someone.

I am frightened to look him in the eye, but I feel his overwhelming presence all around me and his stare on my face and I know he wants me to look at him so I do. My eyes meet his and they do indeed look red. I have to fight against every instinct in my body that tells me to run.

The officiant says his part and asks us to repeat after him and we do. The rings are exchanged and the ceremony ends with the man saying ‘You may kiss the bride’. I didn’t allow myself to think about this before. I don’t know what to do but I don’t have to do anything; Sasuke takes a step forward and lowers his head so our lips meet. His lips are softer than I expected and so it the kiss, he doesn’t put more pressure on it and after a few seconds he rights himself. We both turn to our families. I don’t feel different. I thought I would feel monumentally different after becoming someone’s wife, after becoming Sasuke’s wife. But I feel normal. Hanabi is he first to come to me and hug me. She goes on and on and on about how beautiful I look and how she’ll miss me. I’ll miss her too. In all this I never once thought about how I am leaving her here with father. He’ll crush her spirit much like he did mine. Despite being the one that just gave her life away to ‘the devil’ of the yakuza; I feel pity for Hanabi.

For the next hour or two Sasuke stays by my side, his arm around my waist and we all sit around a table and eat. Father looks pleased for the first time in forever and he and Fugaku talk like they are old friends. Hanabi talks to Mikoto about whatever they talk about. Neji and I are quiet, while my husband talks to his brother.

I ate a few bites but I have been on the edge the whole day so eating more would only lead to disaster. I push the food in my plate around for a few moments before I feel Sasuke shift next to me. “Are you not hungry?” he whispers into my ear and I shiver, half from fear and half because he caught me off guard.

I look at him and he looks genuinely worried. I heard him being called the stoic, emotionless and expressionless prince. So why would he look like that? I simply shake my head and avert my gaze from his. His fingers around my waist tighten for the briefest moment letting me know he’s displeased with me ignoring him. The meal goes on for a couple more minutes before Sasuke clears his throat rather loudly and everyone stops talking.

“Today has been a lovely day and I could not imagine having spent it with anyone else. But as lovely as it has been it has been just as tiering. So, if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to take my wife home and rest”

Sasuke gets up and extends his hand to me, I don’t even think about it and take it. Before leaving I go to hug Hanabi and Neji once more. I return to the side of my husband and he takes my hand and holds it. I see Neji looking worried at our joined hands but for some reasons I feel oddly calm. All throughout today I have been very calm.

Sasuke’s mother hugs both of us, his brother and father clap him on the shoulder and kiss my hand and we part ways. Sasuke leads me to a limousine and I have to say that is not what I expected. My surprise must have shown on my face.

“Mother insisted. If I learned something in this life is that it’s much easier to just allow her to do whatever she wishes than fight her.” He says. It feels weird to be alone with him and hear him talk about such trivia things. It makes me realize how I did not think of Sasuke as a human at all.

We spend most of the ride to his house in silence, but it’s not an awkward silence. I feel something scary starting to bubble in my chest, hope, hope that this might not be as bad as I initially thought. I thought I knew better than to have hope. But his gentleness thus far took me by surprise. Even now in the car he hasn’t let go of my hand, rather his thumb is caressing my wrist gently. His eyes are on the road so I allow myself to look at him. Beside all the horrible things I’ve heard about him the other thing I knew was that Sasuke is beautiful. And being as close to him as I am now, I can indeed confirm those stories. I have not seen many men outside of the Hyuuga family in reality, but Sasuke is much more handsome than all of them and then any men I’ve seen in cinematography. He turns to look at me and our eyes meet, this time his eyes are black and not red. He looks relaxed and a bit tired but not cruel and my hope grows a little more. I have to remember myself that no matter how beautiful and kind people look they could still be monsters, and my husband is a monster, but he doesn’t look like one when he smirks at me and rises our joined hands to his lips and kisses my knuckles. When the car stops and we step out it isn’t dread that I feel but hope. I thought I knew better than to expect anything out of life, but this moment right here proves me wrong. I don’t scream, I don’t cry or try to run away, instead I walk hand in hand with my husband to the door of my new house, it all feels utterly domestic, normal.

[agrestebug]

It starts with coffee

Hey everyone! The Miraculous Fanworks Discord is celebrating their anniversary! HUZZAH! So here is a little one shot as a treat - thank you so much to LadyBuginette from the server who submitted the prompt!

Trying to act casual, Marinette peered slyly over her large sunglasses. Her gaze focused on the café across from where she and Adrien were having lunch. Adrien shook his head at his girlfriend of eight years, but couldn't hold back the smile at her antics, "They'll be fine."

"I know they'll be fine." Marinette told the love of her life quickly, "I just want to make sure. Kagami is one of my best friends,"

"And Felix is my cousin." He reached across the small table and laced his fingers through hers, "Princess," he called her softly, immediately getting her attention. "They'll be fine."

He held her beautiful blue eyes with a soft smile on his face. Her fingers squeezed his and she let out a heavy sigh, "I know, I know you are right, but I was the one who set them up. If it backfires,"

"It won't. You have always been a people person, ever since college. You and your miraculous instinct to know when two people are a good fit has never been wrong." He reminded her triumphantly, lifting her hand and placing a gentle kiss on her knuckles.

She smiled at the move, her cheeks dusting with a soft pink, "Tomcat."

"How dare you." He teased, "I am a purrfect gentleman."

"No, don't start with the puns Kitten, please." She practically begged.

"Promise to enjoy your own date instead of worrying about theirs." He told her instantly, "Only then will I purromise."

She groaned but relented, taking off the sunglasses and taking one last look over at the café, seeing how awkward her two friends looked. This wasn't a mistake… right?

"All right, okay. I promise."

…

Felix had his eyes glued to the address on his phone. Why in the hell did his cousin want to meet him for lunch like this all of a sudden? This was his ONE day off from Gabriel, and he was sure there were much better things he could be doing than grabbing a quick coffee with his obnoxiously positive cousin.

God he hoped Adrien hadn't ordered for him. If he had to force down one more of those, cups of sugar Adrien liked to think passed for coffee, he was going to walk out without so much as a word.

He entered the small café, glad at least that it seemed pretty empty. Adrien's fame tended to haunt them at the worst of times, and it was even worse when they were both out. One of the unlucky side-effects to being practically twins.

He waited for a minute or two, getting ready to call and check on Adrien's whereabouts when his phone rang. He saw her face and frowned, answering it quickly, "Marinette, where is he?"

"I kidnapped him!" She said brightly, "Sorry to steal your lunch date, BUUUUUUUT, I sent a replacement. Make sure you treat her well or I will tell everyone about your love for little black cats."

He groaned as he realized what she had done, "You planned this didn't you? Damn it Marinette I told you I didn't…" he paused, seeing a very beautiful girl with short dark hair walking into the café. She looked around, a slight scowl maring her distinct features. He knew instantly that she was Japanese, but never had he seen eyes quite like hers. They were hazel, yes, but he felt like that description was dull and more of an insult no matter how he thought about it.

"I… have to go." He managed to force out, clicking off when he heard Marinette giggling.

The dark haired beauty made eye contact with him, her expression turning knowing as she slowly made her way towards him. He placed his phone inside his jacket pocket when she stopped in front of him, "Marinette was correct. You could pass for Adrien quite easily."

Her tone was flat, not a judgment in any way whatsoever. Surprised by her bluntness, he said it in the same flat tone, "Our mother's were twins, so the odds of their children bearing similar likeness is purely based on genetics."

"Statistically however, the odds of twins birthing separately and still having a child bearing remarkable resemblance to one another is less than one percent, assuming your father's were not related in any way." She stated, her somewhat cold gaze piercing straight through him.

"I guess." He muttered, fighting the urge to shift uncomfortably under the strength of her gaze. It was a rare person who could hold his own cold gaze for so long. Let alone make him consciously feel uncomfortable.

She was interesting, to say the least.

"Marinette said I would like you." She told him.

"That right." He asked skeptically, even though it didn't come out like a question.

"Yes. However I believe she's biased." The girl told him, giving him an awkward smile that was all teeth.

He cleared his throat at the underlying implication, "Well she didn't say much about you. I was tricked."

The weird smile fell off her face easily, replaced by a carefully masked neutral expression. "I don't need your charity."

She turned to walk away, and his hand moved of its own accord. He gripped her arm, just hard enough to force her stop before instantly letting her go when her expression hardened.

"It's not charity." He clarified, "My apologies if that is how it came across. It was not my intent."

She studied him carefully, staying silent for a moment before telling him, "Pressed dark roast, no sugar, no cream. I'll find a table." She turned away from him again, and he stared at her in a new sense of shock. She drank her coffee the same way he did. He turned and went to the counter, placing the order and adding a few vanilla and almond biscotti's.

Just because he liked his coffee dark, didn't mean he didn't enjoy having something sweet with it.

He paid and the waitress told him they would bring the order out to the table. He found the dark haired girl sitting at a table outside, glaring angrily at her phone and texting quickly. He heard her small huff as he sat down across from her. She immediately put her phone away, a scowl still on her face as she looked at him.

"I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Kagami Tsurugi."

He nodded once, "Felix Graham de Vanily."

They went silent, only holding eyes for a few seconds before looking away. He was going to murder Marinette for this. How could she have possibly thought that putting him through this sort of awkward endeavour would make him happy? He huffed out loud, already planning multiple ways to get back at Marinette for this stunt. And Adrien too. His cousin was wrapped around the designer's finger, so he had no doubt that he'd had some part of this.

"If something is bothering you, you shouldn't let anyone see or hear it."

He glanced over at her, freezing his face before he could let the emotion pass, "Of course. A momentary lapse that won't be repeated, I assure you."

She nodded tersely, the air between them turning awkward again when the waiter saved them for a few moments by bringing their coffee. He took a sip, enjoying the deep, rich flavor of the coffee when a warm breeze brushed past them. "It's nice out today." He commented, watching over the rim of his cup as she took a sip.

A ghost of a smile graced her features, "It is."

He was lost in the image of that small smile that she let out. He was a Graham de Vanily. He'd be damned if he couldn't find a way to make her smile for real. He tried to make small talk, to see what he could trigger to get her really talking. If he could find out what she liked, he knew he'd be able to see a real smile on her face.

He was surprised through his questioning to find that they had more than their taste in dark coffee in common. Kagami practiced both aikido and mixed martial arts, something that he himself had taken since he was four. They had both spent a majority of their life outside of France, but had still ended up being drawn back here. It even seemed that they had similar upbringings, with parents of influence that forced them to play a part.

Felix mulled over her words about how strict of a schedule she followed while finishing off another cup of coffee. This girl was… amazingly unique, to say the least. She was strong, both in will and in heart, but carried an air of calm that could intimidate anyone with a single glance. She also had a bit of a sarcastic nature, one that he fully appreciated.

He watched her finish off her first cup of coffee, thinking that this really was nice. He wished his other dates had gone the way this one was.

"I am surprised." He started slowly.

She caught his eyes, "That right," she stated, the same way he had earlier. His lips twitched, wanting to turn into a smirk. So, she wasn't just beautiful. An idle thought crossed his head, most dragons were beautiful, but it didn't make them any less deadly.

"Yes." He said calmly, "That you agreed to stay. This isn't the first time Marinette has pulled something like this on me, or Adrien for that matter."

"Your surprise then surprises me." She said, placing her cup down gently, "I knew what I was walking into, granted, it was more to quiet Marinette's…" Kagami went silent, her brows knitting together.

"Obnoxious positivity." He supplied simply, pointing towards the biscotti, "Ladies first."

She grabbed one, smirking, "You've been on the receiving end of it too then?"

He said it tiredly, "If you only knew."

A soft smile finally formed on her face, and her voice lost some of its harshness, "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours. I bet I have you beat."

He let his manners slip just the smallest bit, "Not a chance in hell."

She giggled, and the sound echoed in his heart. He smiled, diving into the story and knowing he would win this. The second he was done, she started her own story, one he could hardly believe. But he could do one better. He told her one of the worst stories he had, where Adrien and Marinette had tag-teamed him. He had ended up on a double date with the sickeningly sweet lovebirds, trying the entire night not to gag. His 'date' was more consumed with her phone than anything he'd had to say. And she had the gall to ask him to go out again.

Kagami laughed as their third cup of coffee was brought out to them, "That sounds painful, extremely so."

He shrugged, but was smiling himself, "It can't be as bad as Adrien and Marinette dancing around each other in college. He was so blind to her feelings, I offered to buy him glasses more than once."

Kagami's smile widened, "I remember that. Poor Marinette. I tried to give her the confidence to go after him the way she wished, to no avail."

They said it at the same time, "Thank god for that masquerade."

They smiled at each other, "Marinette in that Ladybug dress." "And Adrien in that cat suit. They were a sight to see."

"Adrien told me that night, he hadn't been that happy since his mother passed. As obnoxious as they can be, I'm glad he has her." Felix admitted, thinking back to how different he and Adrien had reacted when they lost a parent. When his father died, he'd secluded himself, and purposely pushed people away. His uncle had trapped Adrien in his gilded cage, but Adrien never lost his light. He fought so hard to keep that light bright, and in the end it had acted like a beacon that brought Marinette to him.

Kagami's solemn voice broke though his thoughts, "Sometimes, I wish I had reacted the way Adrien did."

He nearly choked on his coffee at her words. He hadn't said all of that out loud had he?

She heard him sputter and continued quietly, "When my father passed, I secluded myself. I purposely pushed people away to avoid ever feeling that way again. If that was what love brought, pain, from a fate no one can escape,"

"Then it was better to be without it." He finished, understanding her perfectly.

She nodded, asking him gently, "You as well?"

"When my father passed." He admitted, "My mother pushed me to date for a while, wishing for an heir to the estate after me," he scoffed as he thought back to his mother's not so subtle hints, and saw Kagami shaking her head tiredly.

"My mother has spoken the same to me on numerous occasions. That's why I left and moved in with Marinette." She said heavily, "Children have never been one of my desires."

"Nor mine." He agreed, "What sort of father would I be? I can barely deal with Adrien and Marinette half the time."

"Deal with them?" She said scoffing, "I walk away when they become too much."

They shared a laugh, and he noticed the sun beginning to lower. She glanced around too, seeing his look, and said it sounding almost disappointed, "It is getting rather late in the afternoon. Maybe we should wrap this up."

She stood and he stood with her, not ready to let her go just yet. "Perhaps you'll allow me the chance to make up for my earlier rudeness."

He held his arm out for hers, and to his inner joy that seemed to have bloomed in her presence, she put her arm in his. He smiled at her, really smiled, and she smiled back as they left the café. On the way to her and Marinette's apartment, they exchanged a few more stories and were laughing again by the time they made it to the apartment door.

"Oh wait until I bring it up, he is going to go scarlet." Felix told her happily at the embarrassing story of Adrien she had just shared with him. Making fun of Adrien and Marinette was another thing they had in common.

"Make sure you take a picture and send it to me." She told him, taking her arm out of his. "Thank you, for walking me home." She said sincerely.

"It was my pleasure." He whispered, his voice barely able to get the simple sentence out. He pushed a small piece of her loose hair behind her ear, lowering his hand slowly.

A small blush appeared on her cheeks, and he asked her softly, "Would you, consider doing this again, with me? A real date."

She smiled, the hazel of her eyes turning to amber gold, "I'd like that."

He smiled brighter, "Whenever you are free next. I'll alter my schedule to meet yours."

"That won't be necessary,"

"It would be my honor." He said, taking a small step back away from her so that he could leave, "Have a good night Kagami."

He turned away from her, the urge to stay much harder to push down than he would have ever thought.

A firm hand grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop. There was a fierce expression on her face, "Idiot."

She pulled him back to her and kissed him soundly. His eyes briefly widened in shock until he returned the pressure. A soft hum escaped her as she pulled back with a triumphant smirk, "Good night Felix."

She opened the door to the apartment and walked inside, closing the door softly behind her.

He smiled to himself, staring at the door like an idiot for a minute before turning to leave, already in anticipation of seeing her again.

The elevator opened, and he laughed as he entered, hearing dual squealing coming in the direction of the girls' apartment.

Thanks for reading! I’d love to know what you guys think! This is cross-posted on A03 and FFN under the same username AgresteBug - so please don’t repost without my permission!

[paladin-lynx]

“why are we whispering?” with like,, anyone from the arcana if you play it but if you don’t, with anyone from be more chill!!

I actually just recently started playing “The Arcana” but haven’t gotten very far, so I don’t think I can write anything about it just yet. Maybe soon! So for now, I’ll go with “Be More Chill” and a pairing that I’ve been meaning to write about for a while!

Send me a character/ship/fandom and a prompt and I’ll write something!

Fandom: Be More Chill (musical)

Ships: The SQUIP x Jeremy Heere (Technical Difficulties/Squipemy/Squeremy/JereSquip)

Setting: Post-musical AU where the SQUIP somehow returned as a human and was redeemed/rehabilitated by Jeremy (with the help of the rest of the squad), and lives with him having had nowhere else to go. He looks pretty similar to how he looked in Jeremy’s head, and physically he looks to be around college age.

It had already been a good few months since the SQUIPcident, as it had been deemed, and even if things were weird, they were going relatively well. Jeremy would never forget how initially terrified he’d been when suddenly a familiar Keanu Reeves-esque looking individual had shown up at his front door. Even if he’d looked worse for wear and rather pathetic, the voices in Jeremy’s head had been screaming, “it’s the SQUIP, he’s going to hurt you, he’s going to ruin your life again, you can’t trust him, get away—” and he’d slammed the door in his face.

But of course, upon hearing the tentative knocking and quiet voice – still with that almost ridiculous-sounding surfer lilt – asking him to please listen, empathetic Jeremiah Heere couldn’t help but open the door again and give it another try. He supposed it had made sense that his SQUIP had picked up traits from him, given that they’d shared a brain for a time, but it was still strange to see what it looked like when he fell into a panic attack.

From there, everything had changed. Jeremy had taken it upon himself to teach his former SQUIP – who they defaulted to just called ‘Squip’ – how to be a proper human being. It was strange, in a way, because here was someone who used to be a machine that knew the ins and outs of social interaction, that could read every single vital of its host and deduce when something specific was needed, and yet he tended to forget to do basic human things. Jeremy would constantly have to remind him to eat, chastise him for staying up too late, tell him that some of his behaviors weren’t exactly acceptable. It was almost like their roles had been reversed. Squip was embarrassed about it but chalked it up to still being used to being a supercomputer, who didn’t have to do all of the things that it kept tabs on for its user.

If there was anything that Squip was the worst at doing, it was sleeping. Of course, Jeremy knew that there was a reason behind it other than just forgetting to, because as a stupid squishy human, it was difficult to go too long without it. Jeremy heard Squip’s screams in the middle of the night, even if Squip liked to act like he silenced himself before anyone noticed, and Jeremy was familiar enough with nightmares to know that they could scare you away from wanting to sleep even if you were tired to the bone. But the result was that Squip tended to sleep in the middle of the day, which wouldn’t be a huge deal if there weren’t times he’d just straight-up passed out over things he was doing. He’d almost hurt himself on multiple occasions because of it, but he seemed to be getting better at reading the signs and getting himself somewhere comfortable before promptly zonking out. He seemed to sleep better during the day, and Jeremy wasn’t sure if that was because he felt safer with the buzz of activity in the Heere household around him, or if his mind was just too exhausted to come up with a nightmare.

Jeremy and Squip had sat and talked about their trauma together quite frequently. It was actually pretty easy to discuss it with one another because they understood it best out of everyone. Jeremy knew now that Squip had human feelings and an actual conscience that he felt awfully guilty for everything and was hoping that becoming human was his second chance to be a good influence on Jeremy. Jeremy always tried to tell him that he shouldn’t feel too bad about the past because he’d been forced to follow his code and there was even a chance he had been defective – and Jeremy also pointed out that some of the pain others had felt had been his own fault, without Squip’s help – but Squip still refused to accept that. He was determined to spend the rest of his life making up for his actions. He’d even said he didn’t want to give himself a ‘real name’ until he felt he’d earned it, despite the fact that they both knew he couldn’t go out into the real world calling himself ‘Squip’.

And as time went on, Jeremy and Squip got ever closer. It was easier for Jeremy to forgive him than he had initially thought it would be, because this version of Squip was so different. It was obvious now that he was free from the shackles of his programming, he was an entirely new being. He could still act a bit stuck-up and like a know-it-all, because he still had a lot of knowledge stuffed into his now-human brain, but he was also funny, clever, and never missed an opportunity to help someone. Even the rest of Jeremy’s new squad – even Michael – had slowly come to accept him. But even if Squip had become part of the group, he was closest to Jeremy and, honestly, Jeremy was becoming incredibly fond of him. It was a bit difficult for him not to, really.

Of course, Squip still tended to stay in Jeremy’s house for the most part. He sometimes wandered out on the town while Jeremy was at school and Mr. Heere was at work, but without identification and much money, there was only so much he could do on his own. Jeremy knew that he liked to frequent the park because now that he could actually feel things, he had become a bit obsessed with nature, which was kind of funny considering how technologically-inclined he was.

Today was a day like any other. Because it was Friday afternoon, Michael was coming over after school so that they could spend stay up stupidly late playing video games and gorging themselves with junk food and soda – nothing with Mountain Dew, though. Jeremy was religiously staying away from the brand from now on, to be safe, even though Squip was very obviously out of his head.

“I am not going to see the Sonic the Hedgehog movie with you,” Jeremy said as they walked up the steps to his house, fishing his key out of his pants pocket.

Michael pouted at him. “Why not? It’ll be great! You can’t go to that movie by yourself! Do you know how embarrassing that’ll be?”

“Not nearly as embarrassing as you constantly making comments about how I’ll wanna get it on with Sonic.”

Michael snickered, nudging Jeremy with his shoulder as they stopped in front of the door. “I’ve gotta be supportive of my furry best friend, don’t I? Maybe Tails’ll be in it, too! You know all the jokes online about his second tail being a b—”

“Mell,” Jeremy hissed, his cheeks burning as he fumbled to get the key in the lock, muttering under his breath, even slipping into Japanese for a moment without really realizing. As he finally shoved the key into the slot, he collected himself. “Honestly, with all the freaking ridiculous research you do, I’d say you’re the furry. And, for the record, I do not wanna do anything with Sonic. Or Tails. Or any of them!”

Michael laughed again, more heartily this time, as he followed Jeremy through the now open door. “I’m doin’ all the work because you’re too ashamed to. I, of course, have absolutely no shame. So I’m helping ya out. You’re welcome, by the way. But I do know you prefer your catgirls. I guess they gotta look somewhat human for you to—”

“Michael.”

“Look, I know as well as you do that your dad isn’t home right now, so I will keep talking about this. I mean, you remember Krystal from Star Fox? Of course you do. They knew exactly what they were doing when they designed her. Although I guess you also really liked Scar and Kovu, so maybe they don’t—”

“Michael.”

“Come on, Jere, I—”

“Michael!” Jeremy finally turned to his friend and waved one hand in a ‘keep it down’ gesture as he quietly closed the door.

Michael blinked, clamping his mouth shut in surprise. He waited a moment before he spoke again, much more softly: “Why are we whispering?”

Jeremy pointed to the living room, where the TV was playing a re-run of Rick and Morty. And there, sprawled on the couch fast asleep, one arm hanging off the edge, was Squip.

“Oh,” Michael murmured, once again trailing behind Jeremy as they went into the living room, slipping off their shoes and backpacks along the way.

Jeremy shed his coat and tossed it onto one of the armchairs before padding over to the couch, his expression softening as he gazed down at his housemate. There had only been a handful of times he’d seen his SQUIP look peaceful, and they were so few and far between that he wasn’t even sure he could remember the exact contexts. But seeing him now – mouth slightly open, black hair splayed on one of the small couch pillows with that one silly white streak falling somewhat into his face, brow not creased in concentration like it always used to be – warmed Jeremy’s heart in a way he couldn’t quite explain. Squip had said at one point that Jeremy should want him dead after what he did, to which Jeremy had said that he couldn’t wish something like that even on his worst enemy, let alone someone on the path to redemption.

Jeremy grabbed the blanket draped over the back of the couch and gently lay it over Squip, tugging it into place so he was properly covered. When Squip mumbled something and shifted slightly, Jeremy feared he’d woken him up, but Squip simply grabbed the blanket and pulled it up, nuzzling into it and humming contently, still very much asleep.

Jeremy couldn’t help breaking into a smile and reaching down to gently brush that white streak off of Squip’s forehead, letting his hand linger for a moment and just watching the former supercomputer.

“You’re so whipped for him, dude.”

Michael’s words snapped Jeremy out of his reverie and he pulled his hand back as if he’d been burned, his cheeks going up in flames. He looked up at Michael with wide eyes. “What?” he whisper-yelled, and he swore his voice went up at least ten octaves. “I am not!”

Michael just quirked an eyebrow in his trademarked ‘you know I’m right’ way. “You so are, Jere. I’ve seen the way you look at him when we’re all hanging out together, and just now. You used to look at Christine that way.”

Jeremy’s face was still dark red, almost putting Michael’s prized hoodie to shame, and he peeked down at Squip again. Squip had always been attractive, even when he had just been a projection of Jeremy’s mind. Jeremy had a feeling that was intentional, because he would be more willing to listen to and follow the orders of someone he was interested in. Of course, Jeremy had been struggling with his bisexuality then, so he wouldn’t have ever accepted the fact that he was maybe attracted to someone who presented male. But perhaps, like Rich, being freed from the commanding voice in his head had made him come to a few realizations.

And now, the new human Squip was ever the charmer, using little pet names constantly, always knowing what to say in that smooth-as-honey voice of his, cracking a smirk that could make anyone’s knees weak and okay, maybe could make a few people question their sexuality. He’d come back from his excursions plenty of times with little slips of paper in his pocket with various phone numbers, and maybe it made Jeremy a little envious that Squip had only been around like this for a handful of months and could get more people to ask him out merely by existing than Jeremy could by using every trick in the figurative book of romance. Not even Christine had stuck around, after everything they’d gone through, although they were still very close as friends.

But that didn’t mean Jeremy was into Squip.

…Right?

Jeremy huffed, stepping away from the couch and snatching up his coat, grabbing Michael’s abandoned one along the way so he could stomp over to the closet and hang them up. “You’re high.”

“Nope. I am one-hundred percent sober, Jere-bear. You like him. Like like him.”

Jeremy was too flustered to make fun of Michael for using the elementary school phrase and instead just glared at his friend as he came back over to join him in the living room. “I do not,” he repeated.

Michael smiled, amusement dancing in his eyes. “You sound like you’re trying to convince yourself.”

Michael had known Jeremy for over twelve years, and even if he sometimes didn’t understand what Jeremy was going through, he knew all of Jeremy’s tendencies and mannerisms down to a T. It was part of why Michael had been so worried when Jeremy had started changing after getting his SQUIP. So of course, if anyone was going to know that Jeremy was going through a romantic crisis, it was Michael.

Jeremy let out a slow breath, trying to rub the heat out of his cheeks, as if that would work. The more Michael commented on his apparent predicament, the less and less inclined Jeremy was to disagree. He peeked down at Squip’s sleeping form once more, just in time to see him murmur something in Japanese that Jeremy sort of understood as “very comfy” and turn over to face the other way, and Jeremy’s heart stuttered.

“…So what if I do?” he mumbled, shoving his hands into his pants pockets.

Michael shrugged, flashing him another little grin. “You do you, my man. I mean, it’s a little weird because he used to be a pill in your head and tried to take over the world with you as his sleeper agent. But I guess it’s not that much weirder than you being into animal people.”

“You are the absolute worst,” Jeremy groaned, lolling his head back in exasperation for a moment before sighing. “It’s not like he would wanna date me anyway. He has so many admirers. He could have literally anyone he wants.”

“You know I’ve never actually called any of those numbers I’ve received.”

Jeremy and Michael both froze at the voice, and Jeremy’s gaze snapped down to the couch again. There was Squip, eyes open and watching him curiously, a tiny, sleepy smile on his lips.

“Y-you’re…awake?” Jeremy squeaked, his blush returning full-force. “I, uh, you…H-how much did you hear…?”

“Just enough.” Squip chuckled and sat up, still holding the blanket to his chest in a way that Jeremy decided he should not find as cute as it was. “I know you were trying to be quiet, but I wasn’t in that deep of a sleep to begin with. But I felt rude interrupting.”

“You were eavesdropping. That’s worse,” Jeremy argued, and Michael laughed, excusing himself to go raid the kitchen. Jeremy silently cursed him for leaving him alone with his maybe kind of crush that he’d just realized he maybe had.

Squip only smiled again, letting the blanket drop into his lap and picking up the remote to turn off the TV. He set it down again and beckoned Jeremy to sit with him. After a moment of hesitation, the boy did so and Squip turned to face him, tilting his head like he always did when he was thinking.

They sat there in silence for what to Jeremy felt like an eternity – but was probably no more than ten seconds – and he fidgeted in his spot, finally piping up. “So…”

“…I may not have been human for long,” Squip began, “and I may still be figuring some things out, but I do know that I feel strongly for you. Up until recently, I had thought that it was perhaps just residual attachment from when I was your SQUIP, and the persisting need to look after you and care for your well-being, but I’m beginning to think that it may be something…more than that. And I wouldn’t be averse to seeing what developments come out of it.”

Jeremy just blinked dumbly at him. “…In English, please?”

Squip just laughed warmly, slipping a hand into Jeremy’s hair and pulling him forward to plant a soft kiss to his forehead. “I like like you, too, sweetheart.”

[fluidityandgiggles]

Dalton Big Bang day 43 - Valentine

Writing Masterpost, AO3 Link

Notes: Also known as: Gigs tries to write jogan giving their son The Talk and failing miserably due to being a useless asexual.

One day. One fucking day. I'll write a full next gen fic, with all the kids, because y'all know by now I have headcanons for everything. And then y'all would get to see just how chaotic AJ Sotto and Parker Willis can be. But for now, this is about Johnny and his adorable Hanover boyfriend.

If there was a truth everyone in Dalton could agree on, it was that history teacher and Warblers coach, Mr. Wright, was a man you didn't want to cross. The unfortunate ones who were asked to meet with him privately refused to speak of what was told, and whether it was for good or bad reasons, nobody wanted to ask.

And then there were the students who visited his office without even being called. Johnny Larson-Wright, AJ Sotto, Parker Willis. Parker's older brothers graduated from Windsor and Stuart a few years ago, so that brand of crazy would make sense coming from them, but the others…

Well, Valentine Moore always thought people were crazy for assuming their teacher was such a bad man. He made Warblers practice enjoyable every time, gave people solos in a very fair manner, and yeah, maybe he was a bit strict. But he seemed nice enough.

But who was Valentine to say anything? He's never had a conversation alone with him. Maybe they were just exaggerating things!

Yeah, that had to be it!

...until the unfortunate day in late February when he was called in to Mr. Wright's office.

It was all everyone talked about the whole day. Johnny didn't make a fuss about it, unlike most of the others, which was reassuring and even more stressful in equal measures. Oh, how the mighty have fallen, straight-A student Valentine Moore must see the monster, maybe he fucked up real bad this time. Maybe they found out that he contributed to Johnny and AJ's bullshit—

No, wait, no. He does draw, it's his one coping mechanism, but no way they used his art for graffiti. Maybe… maybe it had to do with the homework he didn't turn in for history class? No, but he did it all, he just forgot his notebook by accident, Mr. Wright would probably understand! He must understand, it's not the first time, it's just—

"Stop pacing by my door, Moore," the teacher called, making Valentine freeze in place and start shaking. "You're not exactly invisible."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Wright." He just lowered his eyes and walked into the office, closing the door behind him. "Won't do so again."

"It's all good, I get that you're nervous. But there's nothing to be nervous about."

"Is it about the homework I forgot to turn in last week…?"

"No. I care less about the homework than I do about this subject." The teacher started tapping on the desk with his fingers, making Valentine shiver a bit more. "I understand you're seeing my son."

His stomach fell as his shaking stopped.

"I don't… what? No, you got it wrong, I just—"

"Wrong? Unless Johnny is dating another Valentine Moore, who goes to this school and boards in Hanover, and is a member of the Warblers, I have no reason to believe I got it wrong."

"I… I'll break up with him, sir, it's okay. I know I'm not…"

As Valentine started feeling tears fall down his cheek, he also felt a large hand take his, as he started a silent prayer in his mind.

"I'm not mad at you," Mr. Wright — Logan — told him. "In fact, I'm relieved. It seems like he's very serious about you. His father and I are very proud of him. But I'll tell you this. If you hurt my boy—"

"It's the end of me, I know. I'm so sorry, sir."

"...yeah. That's… yeah." As Valentine raised his eyes, he saw his teacher start to fumble a bit. That was unusual… "I didn't actually think I'll get this far, if I'm honest… I'm not allowed to hurt you, as your teacher. But do expect to have a talk again. If either of you get hurt. It's not just about him in this relationship, it's about you too."

"O— okay! Okay, thank you!"

"Now, about that homework—"

"Dad!" Interrupted a call as the door flung open, and in ran Johnny, red in the face and wholly amused. "AJ broke Ramsey's window by accident, we're gonna get killed! Help! Oh, hi Val!"

"Hi!" If Valentine smiled at that, it wasn't his fault. This was the best thing that happened today.

"I swear, when we got you into Stuart we hoped you'd do better than this," Mr. Wright sighed, getting up from his chair. "Excuse me, Moore, it seems like something more... urgent came up."

"Oh no, it's… it's all fine. I'll leave! It's okay!"

"I apologize, Moore."

As Valentine rushed to get up and leave, Logan put a hand on his son's shoulder, trying to make him calm down. The redness still persisted, but his smile cracked, and the twinkle of joy in his eyes teeny off as a blanket of disappointment fell on him.

"We're in trouble, aren't we?"

"You're not. AJ, though, is in so much trouble. Now show me the damage. I'll talk to Ramsey."

————

"So how are you guys doing?" Julian asked through FaceTime, watching his family eat dinner while he had his lunch break on set. Jerry, their newest cat, was also on the table to eat his own dinner. Natalie was paying more attention to him than she was to her dinner.

Johnny kinda wanted to poke her to answer him.

"We're all fine," Logan told him, ignoring the kids to a degree. "Did you watch the regionals video?"

"I did. So did half the cast. Good job on that. Nice song choices too, Squid."

"Thanks," Logan snorted, then turned to nudge Johnny. "Did you hear your pops?"

"I did." He went bright red. "I… I chose the second one."

Julian chuckled at that. "Yeah? No shit, Johnny. Was it inspired by someone special?"

"Yeah… I mean—"

"It certainly looked like it. Reminded me of the Hummel-Sottos back when we were juniors ourselves. Ugh, I can't listen to Raise Your Glass anymore without wanting to gag."

Johnny tried to hide. His dads were great, he never thought otherwise! Pops was the more lenient one, the more open one. The one with less dignity somehow. Probably from growing up in the spotlight and being in the public eye for so long. Dad was stricter, less… open, about all the embarrassing stuff, but he was also home more. Less absent than Pops. So he… knew more, about the kids. Pops was the one to go to with love problems, Dad was the one for any other issues.

Johnny loved them both equally. But they were both equally embarrassing, and that was a lot of embarrassing, and he really didn't want to talk to them about his love life.

"So who's the special someone?" Julian kept on teasing. "Who were you singing You're My Best Friend to?"

"Just…"

"Val," Natalie answered for him, making him choke. "He totally likes Valentine."

"Nat, shush."

"Well, did you tell him yet?" Julian raised an eyebrow, laughing a bit. "He doesn't seem like the guy to get… subtle flirting."

"He's my boyfriend now, okay?" Johnny snapped. "I… I told him. After the performance ended. And then we were together for Valentine's day and now we're together. Is that what you wanna hear?"

"...actually yes, that is what I want to hear. Honey, that's great! Does he make you happy? Do you two talk through your problems or do you keep them inside until you'll burn out like what happened when you were in fifth grade? Do you two fuck yet?"

"Pops!"

"Daddy! Ew!"

As Johnny pretended to gag, and Natalie ran off from the table to wash her mouth, Logan rolled his eyes with a smile and turned the call to face him more.

"They're doing alright, J. They're actually doing better than we did when we started going out. At least with the whole… communication thing."

"You assume we communicated ever," Julian joked, making Logan smile more. "I'm kidding… I'm just happy they're doing well. He seems like a good kid."

"Who, Valentine?"

"Yeah."

"He's great… a bit shy. Reminds me of Reed back when."

"Sounds like a blast. God… I miss you guys. I wanna be there, I wanna meet that kid honest and proper… would it be too weird to give them the sex talk through face cam?"

"I think it would be… a terrible idea, Jules. Please wait until you're back home."

"You forget I can still hear you guys!" Came the groan from Johnny, followed by a call from someone to remind Julian he needs to get dressed for his next scene.

"I love you too!" Julian called to Johnny, receiving a loud groan in return. "Lo, I love you so much."

"I love you too, J."

"I'll see you guys in a month, okay? Not too much left to wait. I'll try to find some of those Japanese kitkats you like."

"Thank you. Have a good day, Jules."

"Good night, Lo. Good night, kids!"

Logan hung up as Johnny mumbled a "yeah, yeah" and Natalie came back to the table, still gagging. 

"...okay, but did you?"

"Nat, I'm not answering that question!"

"Okay, sorry! Jeez!"

Yeah… this was his family now. Logan still struggled to believe this fact. But this was his family now.

————

"How about this argument stops now?" Johnny called right as Julian walked through the door that Saturday afternoon, to catch his husband and daughter standing on one couch and his son comforting a redhead stranger on the other. "It doesn't fucking matter who's a better partner for Mark, he's in a fucking coma. And besides, your screams are making him uncomfortable."

"Do I even want to know?" Julian asked as he dropped his bags, pulling Logan down from the couch so they could kiss. Much to the gagging noises coming from Natalie. "Hello, love."

"Hi, Jules."

"They're listening to The Bright Sessions again," Johnny tried to say, getting somewhat ignored. "It's just—"

"I'm going to my room!"

"Okay! Hello to you too, Natalie!"

That was all about an hour ago, and as things were now, Julian felt far more awake. He took a shower, unpacked his bags, made himself a cup of coffee and now got to cuddle with his husband and their three cats on the couch as their son tried his best to make his boyfriend feel comfortable. The boy didn't look the most reassured though, but at least he didn't seem like he's going to stress himself to death, so he figured it was okay.

"You met my pops before," Julian heard Johnny tell Valentine quietly. "Why are you so scared now?"

"Because I met him as your friend, and now I'm your boyfriend, it's not the same type of meeting!"

"He's right, it's not," Logan told the kids, laughing a bit. "It's scarier than meeting as a friend."

"Dad, you're not helping."

"It's also more relieving than you think, Moore. Trust me."

He sniffled and nodded, trying to calm down more. An uneasy feat, but one Logan and Johnny were sure he could accomplish.

"So… how are you?" Julian asked after a moment of silence, winking at Valentine. "I saw your regionals performance. You did good."

"Th— thank you!" He started blushing at that. "I… I'm good! I think, at least… How are you?"

"I'm very good, thank you for asking. So…" Julian chuckled, taking a bit of a shaky breath. "You're dating now, I heard."

Valentine could've died then and there.

"Dad had to tell him," Johnny tried to explain, but it didn't exactly work that well, as he watched his boyfriend try to hide as his pops kept on smiling.

"I'm not going to make fun of you, I just want to talk to you two. Make sure you know what you're doing, so you won't end up, you know…"

"Like your pops and I were when we started going out," Logan filled in for him.

"Exactly."

"If you want to tell us to use protection, it's okay, I think we know that by now," Valentine managed to say through his weak voice and high anxiety. "At least I know. My parents had our pastor give me that talk when I was thirteen."

"I use protection every time, it's nothing new."

"I'm sure you both know we're very proud of you for practicing that part of the relationship, but there are many more things I'm sure you don't even think of. For example, do you two communicate?" Julian received a very tired side-eye from Johnny and a nod from Valentine. "I'll ask a more specific question. Do you two talk about your feelings? About how certain things the other person does make you feel?"

"What do you mean…?"

"Before Logan and I started going out, I used to be really jealous about things. He used to have a crush on Kurt Hummel, good god, just remembering that hurts me…"

"Does it hurt because Shadow is literally on your rib cage?" Johnny suggests, watching the cat in question curl up defensively.

"No, she's good. It's another kind of pain, honey. But it… you remember when we told you about Adam? Back when Nat was being stalked?"

Johnny nodded, and Val just stared for a moment. "Stalked…?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Adam was my stalker when we were in high school," Julian explained, feeling Logan's grip on him getting tighter. "He forced me to tell Logan I love him. Neither of us were ready at the time, and I wish Adam no harm. I hope he managed to build a normal, semi sane life from those ashes. But he forced Logan and I to have a conversation neither of us were ready for."

"Okay… Pops, why is this important?"

"Because that's what happens when you don't communicate, honey. We didn't communicate until we were forced to. Please don't do that, okay? Can you promise me you'll talk about your feelings?"

"...Dad, what is he talking about? He's scaring Val."

"You're asking your dad and not me? John, I am deeply—"

"Communication is the key to any relationship," Logan said, cutting Julian in the middle and leaving him to play offended. "Consent is just a form of communication."

"One day, you two would decide that now is the right time to start having sex." Johnny started gagging at that. "When that day comes, we both want you to be ready. And it goes far beyond just knowing how to have safe sex. Having a healthy relationship is all about talking, because if you keep it inside, you heard what'll happen. Now, do you two communicate? Do you talk about your feelings, your fears? How far have you gone physically? This is a judgement-free zone, so don't feel ashamed."

"Just… just first base… Val is… uncomfortable with sex… Pops, why are you like this?"

"Because I love you and want to make sure you're safe. You know, some people might not want to have sex ever in their whole life, and that's okay too. A relationship isn't defined by how many times your dick has been in your partner's ass."

"Jules, that's… maybe overstepping a bit. You're scaring the children."

"So let's go back to the talking part. How many dates have you gone on yet? Where to?"

————

Johnny drove the two of them back to Dalton the following Sunday evening, and Natalie had a sleepover at her friend's place, so Logan figured he could make something nice happen for Julian's return. They didn't exactly get to do much yesterday, but it didn't mean they couldn't do anything now. So he ordered some Italian food, he got a bottle of wine, he picked a movie for the two of them to watch before regrettably falling asleep on the couch…

"Well, hello," Julian called as he came down the stairs, seeing Logan fretting over his phone. "What worries you so?"

"I'm waiting for takeout to get here… Michelle says hi."

"Well, when did you order takeout?" He got up to kiss Logan's cheek, hugging him under his arms.

"Seven twenty-three."

"And what time is it now?"

"Seven fifty."

"So they're not late, you're just anxious."

"I guess…" He put his phone down, instead hugging Julian. "I just… I don't know, I got excited. We get to be alone for the first time in…"

"Yeah… you said Michelle said hi? How's her and John's vacation in the Maldives going? Do they miss us too much yet?"

"I don't think they do. Michelle always misses us."

"True… oh, she'd love Valentine."

"She already does."

Logan nodded, then buried his face in Julian's shoulder. He was gone for too long this time. Or maybe they'd just gotten used to spending more time together without any projects getting in the way.

For Julian, three and a half months in New Zealand were also getting too much, and he always got jealous that he couldn't see Johnny compete or be there for Natalie while she auditioned for her own tv shows. He felt like he was missing too much. Sure, he took a break after the whole… stalking situation happened, but that was years ago. His return to mainstream just made him tired.

Both of them had their qualms about the direction their lives were going, and both of them were cut off by the doorbell, and Logan letting go for one moment so he could get the bags and tip the delivery guy. But soon enough it was both of them on the couch, eating their pasta and drinking wine and trying to decide if The Favorite was really the right movie to watch right now or if they felt like something less serious.

"The boys really remind me of us," Logan said in the middle of it all, making Julian choke a bit.

"Really? I can see how Johnny reminds you of you, but I don't think—"

"When we started going out," he finished his sentence. "We were awkward at best…"

"Your friends wouldn't let me off the hook."

"Hey, okay, that was mostly Dwight, and he's your friend too."

"He still wouldn't let me off the hook!"

"You know he only did it because he worries for us. Both of us. He did the same to me too."

"Okay, sure… do you think I just went full Dwight on them yesterday?"

"You… didn't. Not really. I think you did okay. Maybe a bit TMI on some details, but…" Julian made a scene of hiding his face in a pillow, trying to suppress his embarrassment. "Jules, I love you, but I don't think talking about my personal relationship history with our sixteen-year old son and his boyfriend is such a smart idea. Especially since it was mine. I'm not the average, I'm the exception."

"Was there any other way I should've gone at it?"

"I don't know, but I don't think two of my own students can look me in the face anymore."

"I think we should both be grateful we didn't talk about Derek's history at least."

They shared a look, their faces bright red and struggling to hold back a smile, before bursting into laughter. 

"I worry for Valentine if you would have talked about Derek… Jules, that poor kid is terrified of everything, let's not traumatize him even more. I'm still his teacher."

"I worry more for what Johnמy would've said… or Nat. Oh, imagine if Nat would've heard that… you know she and Emma talk about everything, right? And I mean everything. She would've told her, and then Derek would've known, and then we'd both be dead."

"Let's… let's just be grateful that this talk is over with and that we don't need to advise them on more just yet…"

"More like what? Marriage, having children?"

"I know you're joking but yes, that is a very real possibility for us in the future."

"So let's just… fuck, I can't breathe…"

"Oh, shit! Your inhaler is here, come on…"

"...Logan?" Julian asked after a few moments, his breathing calming down now.

"Yeah?"

"Let's keep the marriage counseling to the future, okay?" He smiled as Logan nodded, leaning over to kiss his cheek again. "I love you."

"Jules, I love you."

"I know. Lucky me."

[adrienaline-rushed-art]

(For the character ask) Adrien Agreste!!

YOU CHOSE MY SON! you’d better prepare your noodles because I’ve got a lot to gush about my favorite boy

Why I like them: From the beginning, he was my very favorite character because he was a weird combination of someone I was close to as well as myself. Although, over time it’s been more and more about relating to him as opposed to seeing someone else in him. At the time that he first became a reminder of someone special, he got me out of a depressive state, and continues to do so!

I love what a genuinely good listener he is. He’s very considerate and respectful, he puts others before himself— though, Ladybug can tell you why that is also a flaw. 

I like to think about the scenes in Horrificator when his classmates kept fighting, but he— one of the leads —didn’t make any input to take sides. Not even for Nino, his best friend! But he did look really upset to see his friends arguing

He’s also very forgiving and patient, I mean… as annoying as Lila can be, he actually tries to understand and help her. And what he said in onichan is implied to be correct based on the beginning of the episode.

He got it on the head, and not only for the sake of excusing bad behavior, he can relate. He knows he’s gone out of line because of his loneliness and abandonment issues. He excused Lila for the same reason in season 1

Defending Lila for lying about her relationship with Ladybug (See ‘Copycat’) 

He definitely understands what’s bad behavior (as opposed to Lila and Chloe, he does remain selfless and kind) and when he doesn’t he gets to use this sympathy as an opportunity for learning. But he also knows a cry for help when he sees one, he doesn’t want anyone to feel the way he does. 

The only real downside is it makes him a doormat for Lila, Chloe, and most importantly his father. But he’s learning and I’m so happy for him. 

he’ll accept a rough relationship for the sake of helping you be better through kindness until it hurts his loved-ones, where he absolutely has to cut you off. That’s one thing he doesn’t relate to or believe in. When he knows he messed up and hurt someone, he didn’t mean it, so he apologizes. 

But you can see in his face that he doesn’t feel good doing it, because although it doesn’t excuse toxicity, he knows that the person’s pain is why they act that way. 

It’s still for his friends more than himself, but I’ll take it for now. The biggest flaw he has is also one of his sweetest traits, believing in the best out of everyone. He’s at least learning that you can’t always assume someone doesn’t mean any harm.

Also:

fcKing suPERB adrien

I also like his sensitivity. He isn’t trying to be the cool and mysterious type, he’s emotional, passionate, and caring. This vulnerability can also be his downfall at times, but he carries his weight and makes himself responsible for his mistakes, so he’s an excellent example to kids. He’s a good boy in a world of romanticized “bad boys”.

Favorite episode (scene if movie): I can’t really say, I’m bad at choosing favorites. Really any scene he’s in— especially as Chat Noir —immediately makes me happy. Scenes of his that are sad or frustrating don’t make me happy in the sense that I like what’s happening, but the rush of emotions I get when I get to watch him interact with other characters and just be.. him… brings a certain type of joy? The fact that when he’s sad, I’m really sad… I don’t know, it’s a nice feeling. Don’t @ me but 2 years ago in my baby project, I named the baby Adrien, because I’ve adopted him and he is my son.

I guess I really like him in riposte? He was very soft in that episode, he was all giggly and blushy. Also, Gigantitan, Chris Master, and Sapotis? He’s so good with kids! Chat Noir got a lot of lines in Silencer (hA) and I thoroughly enjoyed that, he was such a dork. Weredad was just a masterpiece, we got to explore his thoughts toward Marinette too so that was cool. So it really comes down to any episode that he shines the brightest, the more screen time and dialogue the better. I WANT to learn MORE about him.

None of these are favorite episodes of all time I don’t think? It’s just my favorite moments for him I guess. Gigantitan might be a good example for an episode that fits on both lists, though. We saw a lot of different sides to him. We got to see Marinette comfort Chat Noir when he finally admitted his heartache, he finally admitted his frustrations with Gabriel to Nathalie (although she would have known without him saying), and I actually liked seeing Chat Noir’s petty side directed to Ladybug. No, I didn’t like that he was being unfair, but everyone has this type of moment in their life because we’re human, which is why it was SO great to see him like this.

He’s messing up? Fantastic! And it was so intriguing to see how he behaved when he finally snaps, particularly toward Ladybug. We hadn’t seen him lash out toward a friend— let alone a romantic interest —at this point. He really needed to unleash those emotions, and I’m glad he didn’t keep them bottled up any longer. He was having a garbage day to begin with, I wouldn’t be able to stand watching him brush it off.

It wasn’t fair to Ladybug, but it was perfectly fair to himself. Ladybug said she couldn’t hang out because she was with friends, sure! From his perspective, what does that look like? Well, we got to understand it thanks to this episode. Think to what happens to him later in the episode, he’s unable to spend time with his friends. There might be a tinge of jealousy toward that. Or maybe it’s that the phrasing made it sound like Chat Noir wasn’t a friend, which adds up to his relief at the end of the episode when Ladybug calls him a best friend. But also, the excuse wasn’t satisfying to him because clearly, he had intended to put both friends and Ladybug in his schedule, why couldn’t she do the same? I’m not saying this is logical thinking, but it’s interesting to step back and realize that it’s entirely likely he thought this way. And it all makes sense that he cherishes being with her more than any romantic future with her, because the fact he didn’t get angry when he heard about her “boy”, but he did when it came to her friends.

And, a little Ladybug appreciation, she didn’t invalidate those feelings. He’s not allowed to act up and ruin an akuma fight, but he is allowed to feel that way. I mean, it was a little mean to suggest fake dating right after brushing off a real one. But he realized how inappropriate the timing was, and apologized for it. And taking his humility a step further, he went with Ladybug’s original (arguably tortuous) plan, and disciplined himself during it. He didn’t try to take advantage and get all smoochie and cuddly on her. He offered his hand, but she’s the one who came to him and kissed him on the cheek. He let her create the boundaries. Later, he kissed her on the cheek for the first time.

Anyway sorry for that entire essay, but as you can tell I really loved that episode front and back.

Favorite season/movie: I think since we only have two and a half seasons, I can only say season 2 for now. I say season 2 because it’s where we first uncover more of Adrichat, not only to ourselves but to Marinette. He’s been really cute in S3 so far though, so my opinion could always change.

Favorite line: Any of his laughs. Ok fine, an actual line… uhh.. you know what, he’s said a lot of very profound and sweet things… so how about something stupid and random 

“Wanna hear a secret? I love chouquettes.” You sure do, you little dork. 

Favorite outfit: That purple/maroonish and green one on one of his magazine covers. 

OTP: Marichat, always. Ladynoir close second. If we’re talking outside of canon, probs Alyadrien. 

Brotp: Nino, obviously, they’re phenomenal. 

Head Canon: Maybe this is less of a headcanon, and more of an excuse for the writing.. but I don’t think Adrien is that oblivious. But as someone who’s forgiving, it would make sense that he also doesn’t assume things that could hurt them. For one, he denies Marinette likes him simply because she seems to have implied she doesn’t. He takes her word for it. 

Notice that almost every time it comes up, it’s not denying his own feelings, and he’s not even denying the “signs”. He just doesn’t want to put words in her mouth or ruin their friendship by jumping to conclusions that could put distance between them. It makes sense that he would want to protect their friendship because of how they met. 

Unpopular opinion Adrien is not a mary sue. First, I’ve already mentioned plenty of flaws in this post. Having no flaws is one side of a mary sue, the other side is being overpowered. So what if he’s in a bunch of clubs and has essentially mastered all of them. Stress on essentially, so far we know he can play one(1) classical piece on the piano and he messed up on it (it was a small mistake because of skipping practice, but a True™ mary sue wouldn’t have). Also… I’m sure he’s fluent in Chinese and Japanese, but he could be pronouncing better. Actually, that’s unfair, the French dub did pretty well for Japanese pronunciation and everyone knows French is more canon. I don’t know enough about Chinese to judge his pronunciation of it. We don’t know much about his sports except that he’s good at them, but we know Kagami kicks his ass at fencing apparently, so still not overpowered. Anyhow, these are just talents and skills. Not only can anyone learn them with effort (because he isn’t a prodigy at any of them), but it’s realistic that the famous model son of the strict CEO and founder to the prestigious fashion company Gabriel would be forced to have a full tool belt. Not to mention he’s a model in the acting business (Animaestro) actors legit have to know how to do EVERYTHing to even compete with others. None of the above has to do with power though.

  If anything, he’s underpowered. He’s not treated very well for a teammate who isn’t a sidekick. Often his intellect, wisdom, rationale, skills, and agility have been compromised for the sake of making ✦Ladybug✦ look good. Which, is sort of counter-intuitive if you think about it. We know this from the inconsistencies between episodes. One episode he’s decoding morse, giving Ladybug advice, making detailed plans, or showing off his expert-level martial arts… the next he’s… accidentally grabbing an ice cream cone while Cataclysm is activated? hmmm. ALso, as stated before, Adrien’s intelligence is suppressed for the advancement of the plot.

A wish: I want more Ladynoir discussions outside of akuma battles. Regarding things like the Dark Cupid kiss.. there are a lot of things I want them to straighten out and grow on. 

And, I think this is going to happen anyhow… but like,,, he needs to find out about the scarf, I’m sorry. I know it’ll be bittersweet but,,ghhhgk

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: *INHALES* pleASe, Emilie, be a good person!! ALSo, NO FIGHTS WITH NINO. EVER. 

5 words to best describe them: Patient, dorky, loving, childlike (not childish), brave

My nickname for them: heeheh, it’s my blog name title, Paw Prince.

I wrote you a whole book, my bad. I don’t regret it though. Now you know why it took me so long to answer.

[storywriting]

[ Bc yall have foolishly greenlit my Nirvash Headcanon production, here is a general discussion of who I think Nirvash is and I’ll thank you to give me excuses to be more specific. ]

First things first. The Nirvash is the first creature Eureka ever had a conversation with or considered her friend. While Eureka had to learn to speak to people, the ability to communicate with her own kind is one of the few things she was born knowing, so she took to Nirvash right away. The Nirvash is unfortunately one of the main factors that ended up landing her as an emotionally stunted military dog instead of having a normal life where she is nurtured and fully educated by humans. I honestly think if the folks in the lab hadn’t realized her piloting potential, Eureka would have been raised as a completely different person. Since science had never been able to crack the Nirvash typeZERO, she was very valuable to have. They didn’t waste their budget on anything else once they knew that.

I also think the Nirvash had never been called Nirvash by people prior to the discovery of Eureka. Nirvash was exclusively called the typeZERO until Eureka was able to communicate enough to tell humans the name.

Vaguely related, Eureka’s name is also not human given because she is named after an event experienced by the scub coral and it doesn’t make sense to me that humans in 11005 or whatever would think to name her after something that happened in like 2005.  Eureka’s name comes from the very first time Scub Coral entered Earth’s atmosphere, where it crashed into a satellite and was forced to make a home in the Earth’s oceans. Based on what Sakuya says, it’s likely that the whole of the coralian system became aware when it was decided Eureka would be born. Nirvash likely told Eureka her own name if she didn’t already know it herself.

Archetypes are sexless, so as one might expect, Nirvash doesn’t have a particular concept or interest in gender identity. Eureka calls Nirvash “he” in the original series dub and “she” in all future adaptations. I suspect that using “he” might have originally been a mistake by the localization team since Nirvash isn’t voiced until the very end and the Japanese language doesn't really ever require a speaker to designate a gendered pronoun. Whether it was a mistake or on purpose, I tend to explain this by just saying that Eureka copied the words other people used whenever she would personify the Nirvash to them. That would be in line with her character.

Eureka also speaks about Nirvash like a child quite often even though Nirvash is most certainly an older life form than she is. I suspect this is to do with a difference in experience and the higher barriers of understanding for a creature like Nirvash. Put simply, Nirvash is a less developed creature than Eureka is.

In the AU movie archetypes arent the same type of creature as in the main series--they were made or evolved differently.  In the film, the Larval Nirvash is somewhat intelligent. Larval Nirvash pays attention to people and tries to participate in conversations despite being unable speak. 10/10 very tiny and cute and runs around, always doing their best.

I honestly believe that main series Nirvash has a similar temperament and level of intelligence to this AU iteration.  Also, the way Eureka speaks about Nirvash, like a child, in my mind supports the idea that the Nirvash is capable only of very simple thoughts and ideas early on. Nirvash isn't enlightened, per se. At least not at the beginning. Nirvash is a failed attempt at making a person. It makes sense that Nirvash would be less advanced.  If we could hear Nirvash's early conversations with Eureka, I suspect Nirvash's interests and concerns would sound pretty simplistic. I hesitate to compare Nirvash to any stage of human development tbh, mostly because it seems like Nirvash is very intelligent about certain things (like in battle, Nirvash makes very strategic choices), but probably couldn't even match a toddler on other things. Emotional intelligence, for example, is probably something that takes a while for Nirvash to pick up even the tiniest shred of.  Still, Nirvash's wants and feelings do seem to become slightly less simplistic over time. Still simple compared to a person, but the feedback Eureka gives originally is like "nirvash is happy" and by the end it's more like "nirvash feels x complex way because of what they did when x happened and how it turned out". Put simply, Nirvash knows what Nirvash knows, but not much else. Nirvash is maybe like Eureka in that regard. They're in their own weird stage of development where some of their stats are maxed and some of them are like...what are you even doing.  I also pretty strongly headcanon that, like Eureka, Nirvash's understanding of the world and of humans is growing as the series progresses, which I think is fairly substantiated but rarely addressed directly.

As the audience we don't get to see the way Nirvash communicates very often, especially not in any direct easy-to-be-understood-by-people fashion. If you want to learn anything about Nirvash as a viewer you have to speculate based on the few times Nirvash displays some will of her own, or go by the very little information Eureka gives about what Nirvash is thinking. Eureka is somewhat private about her relationship with Nirvash at times, which I find interesting, but that’s a topic for another post.

I pretty strongly headcanon that Nirvash sort of dislikes people, or at the very least, mistrusts the ones she doesn’t know.  I believe this because Nirvash outright refuses to be piloted, even by people with compac drives.  Compac drives are the "keys" humans use to communicate with LFOs, but LFOs cant really communicate back. We know that Nirvash for whatever reason really didnt want to be piloted, but then Nirvash met Eureka and felt willing to activate for her because they could converse and agree on things. No compac drive required for that.  Nirvash will fly for Eureka because they can have a relationship that is a two way street.  It doesn’t require the kind of faith Nirvash would need to let a human do whatever they wanted.

I suspect when Eureka is piloting there is a lot of give and take. They're discussing what they should do.  They compromise on a course of action by combining their understanding.  The trouble any time there is something going on between the Nirvash and Eureka is that it's not a conversation the audience gets to hear. We just have to watch and do our best to interpret

I think that over time Nirvash comes to appreciate and even like some humans and seeks methods of communication with ones she vibes with.  Ultimately the Nirvash does become more able to understand and commune with people because Eureka acts as a cultural bridge between them.   I really like the idea that Nirvash becomes interested in communicating with humans in the limited ways available to her, but only after spending a lot of time with Eureka and taking a shine to Renton. I also know the show gives Nirvash a clear human sounding voice that makes understandable words but I honestly hc that Nirvash sounds more abstract than that in most situation. Like idk, machine noises, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites™ or something like that.  I think if a human was able to hear Nirvash in any passive sort of way, it probably wouldn’t really sound like language. Eureka can always understand Nirvash but if you're Renton or maybe Ao just hanging around and are somehow catching bits and pieces of that consciousness floating in the air it's gonna feel weird and garbled in your brain unless you're able to make that more direct connection with the Nirvash somehow. It's just not natural to humans, it's not their first language.

On the subject of Nirvash getting on with humans, there is eventually a situation where Renton has to pilot the Nirvash himself. This is on the tail end of Eureka being really down and not really explaining why.  Sometimes when she touches the Nirvash she starts to bleed and it becomes clear that The Girls Are Fighting™️. When Eureka sees Renton piloting she is taken aback by the fact that Nirvash would allow somebody other than her to pilot alone. Also, she comments on how that's 'not Nirvash's style'. It's left ambiguous what exactly her meaning is there, but she becomes pretty upset. There are a few ways I've interpreted it, though it's hard to pin down exactly. One possibility is that she’s upset because Renton and Nirvash Did A Violence. Alternatively it could be because the fighting Eureka saw from them was obviously more of Renton's own will than the give and take she prefers with the Nirvash. Another option is that Renton is not imposing his will, but rather bringing out something in Nirvash Eureka doesn't recognize and isn't comfortable with being a stranger to. Eureka is at this point very stressed that the Nirvash wont talk to her. She seems to go from very excited that Renton makes the Nirvash happy to very distressed that Renton is changing her relationship with the Nirvash. Nirvash is probably one of the only relationships Eureka has where she is comfortable and feels she is on the same page nearly all the time, so it's jarring for that to be challenged or changed. 

A lot of the conflict with nirvash is never clarified in stone, but we know for sure that Renton causes Eureka to change and that's a big deal for everybody involved. Nirvash and Eureka don't really know change before this.  In terms of Nirvash’s opinion, we know mostly about the parts Eureka reacts to, but if you think about it we dont really find out why Nirvash likes Renton in the first place or what initially caused Nirvash to becomes less open with Eureka. It's hard to place exactly what the conflict is. Just that it involves Renton and it involves this change. Despite Eureka being the best creature humanty has for communicating with Archetypes there are still certain barriers between them. They are the same creature, but theyre vastly different versions of the same creature with vastly different capabilities and experiences. Nirvash and Eureka will inevitably end up in situations where they don’t see eye to eye if for no other reason than their mental and sensory experience is vastly different from one another. I suspect that Nirvash is at times jealous of Eureka going off and having experiences and relationships with others, in the same way Eureka gets jealous when Nirvash seems to prefer Renton over her.

That all said, I do think Nirvash does have some sense of right and wrong even without Eureka’s guidance, but Eureka shows evidence of chiding or suggesting morality to the Nirvash throughout. Things like compassion and a moral compass seem to be way more pronounced for Nirvash later on in the series, after like 40 episodes of bonding and getting into and out of trouble together.  Again, we can’t know all the details because the audience doesn’t get any unfiltered version of Nirvash’s perspective, but we know for sure that Eureka (and eventually Renton) is very very important to her even when the they are in conflict. In turn, Eureka regularly demonstrates that she trusts Nirvash implicitly and seems to respect Nirvash's judgement in many kinds of situations. The Nirvash is a member of the family through and through. She’s always down to help the cause, and she appreciates the great privilege involved in having a front row seat to Eureka’s experience. The Nivash has had an unprecedented opportunity to become enlightened about other creatures in ways the rest of the Scub Coral could not. In another life Nirvash could have had any number of destinies, possibly even safer ones with less strife and less change. She was never essential to the plan of putting yet another humanoid coralian into the world and could have moved for anybody else and had a completely different life. Maybe in times of conflict Nirvash thinks about that, but if there’s one thing that’s canon as hell I know that Nirvash would never trade away being loved by the Storywriter.

We stan a queen.

[moro-nokimi]

we see things as we are, not as they are

AN: a gift for penny ‘nya’ @irinyaclockworker, feat. the fic title by fall out boy, stolen from bll. the prompt for this was “naomi and mello discuss labb,” which turned into a raye and naomi character study with discussion of labb.

warnings for raye and naomi being mushy and/or uwu, food and alcohol mentions, reference to vomiting, description of burn wounds, references to suicide.

“So, briefing: This is some kid who calls himself Mello…,” Raye read out from the report. A phone rang. “That’s L, I’d bet a lot of money on it.”

“And I could’ve sworn you weren’t a betting man,” Suruga said. “FBI. We were wondering when we’d hear from you, L.” Suruga began scribbling notes. “Uh huh. Yeah, we’re not releasing him into your custody. No? He’s been arrested under suspicion of racketeering, L.” Suruga held in a sigh. “If your history with him is so huge, maybe you could consider cooperating with the prosecution to put him away. Bye.”

“Sounds bad,” Delilah said.

“That’s understating things. L wants us to release him into his custody where he’ll likely be imprisoned for the rest of his life. I said no and he’s not happy.”

“Never would’ve guessed. So, he calls himself Mello; his real name isn’t known. What do your notes say?” Raye asked.

“He was a resident of Wammy’s House---you know, that orphanage that some philanthropist millionaire ran. British branch, it looks like.” Suruga scanned his notes. “Uh… Yeah, he’s been running with the Mafia for a while. He had something to do with the Kira case…?”

“No wonder L wants him in his custody,” Delilah said. “So now we have to question him… Sounds like a job for someone else.”

---

“You really caught one of the people involved in the Kira case?” Naomi asked, her eyes wide. “You’re kidding.”

“You’d know if I was. So L wants him released into his custody, which Suruga wasn’t happy about.”

“Typical of him.”

“I can’t tell you much more besides that he seems to know L personally, or they have a long history together.” He shrugged. “What do you think?”

“I wanna talk to him! This is huge!” The stir-fry Naomi was making with such vigor slipped out of the pan and onto the stove. “Dammit. But, of course, I likely won’t.”

“ … Actually, here’s the weird thing. He seemed to recognise me when I was putting the cuffs on. I didn’t even introduce myself and he knew my name. Even asked if Naomi was around.”

Naomi almost dropped the spatula. “What?”

“You heard me right.”

“Now I’m certain that you’re messing with me.”

“Unfortunately, your BS sensor is wrong.”

Raye was familiar with the look Naomi had on her face. She shook sesame oil over the frying rice. “That is odd.”

“Even Suruga was weirded out; the man’s seen some shit.”

“Yeah, like you almost hitting me in the head while you idiots were playing frisbee.”

“You’re still holding onto that?”

She nodded and tossed the rice. “Yeah. So what else did Suruga think?”

“He was curious about how the kid knew us. I’ll take this out.” He scraped out the rice into a container. “I’m mediating on whether you should go in and question him.”

“The kids can deal with me being out for a few hours, they’re fourteen and eleven.”

“I remember the crap my brothers and I got into at those ages.”

“They’re not you or your brothers. Fuyumi has her head screwed on straight and she can easily watch Daichi. Thankfully, they inherited my sense.”

“You’re goading me.” He whistled for the kids to set the table. “We’ll discuss it later.”

She nodded and brought out the stir-fry.

---

Naomi sat silent, glass of wine in hand. “I can’t go directly into FBI HQ as a civilian unless I were to be stupid and get myself arrested. That’s the hardest part to work around.”

“He’s being held in county at the moment. I can arrange a meeting. I doubt that anyone will look twice if you’re in your old clothing.”

Naomi looked at him knowingly. “You will.”

“Gross!” Daichi said, pretending to dry heave.

“Shut up!” Fuyumi called from her room.

“I didn’t do anything!”

Fuyumi poked her head out from the top of the stairs. “Dude, they told us to go upstairs for a reason.”

“I just wanted dessert!”

“We don’t even have any!”

Staring Fuyumi down, Daichi slowly began to dance the floss.

Fuyumi groaned and closed her bedroom door.

Daichi turned around to find his parents staring at the ceiling, trying not to laugh. “You can laugh.”

Naomi kept a tight grip on her composure. “Snacks are in the cabinet on top of the fridge. Go. Don’t leave a mess in your room.”

“So, they inherited your sense, huh?” Raye asked, almost purple from holding in laughter. “That is such a move fourteen year old you would’ve made.”

“It would not!” Naomi replied, somewhat offended. (No one likes being reminded of their fourteen year old self.)

She cleared her throat. “Okay, so if you arrange a visit I can come with. Since we won’t be talking any specific details, you won’t be on the hook. I think.”

“Worth the shot.”

---

Naomi tried not to wince as she came into the room. This kid was handcuffed to the table, which was not unusual. What was, was the fact that he was burnt to a crisp. Likely blind and deaf on one side from all the scar tissue, little to no hair growth on that burnt side… It’s a miracle that kid’s alive.

They took their places. Mello’s eyes lit up. 

“You! I almost forgot that you were engaged.”

“Excuse me?” Naomi asked, her shoulders tensing. “I don’t know you.”

“Oh no, I’d imagine not.”

“Then would you mind telling us how you know us?”

“You don’t remember?”

Naomi was a self described bleeding heart, but she wasn’t stupid. There was a lot more below the surface, and even though his behavior was reminiscent of Beyond Birthday, he too was calculated.

Beyond Birthday…

“You mean when I worked for L personally?” Naomi asked.

She did not like thinking about that case.

“Yes! I’d be stupid not to clock your husband here the second I got myself arrested. I heard it from L himself, but I didn’t think I’d get the chance to meet you!”

As if this were a treat…

“Do you usually take joy in meeting cops face-to-face?” Raye asked bluntly.

This didn’t seem to provoke him as much as it would Beyond.

Mello shrugged. “I don’t care. I sure as hell didn’t think you would bring along a civilian. Do you think you’re going to get disciplined for that?”

Raye took a deep breath. “I would think you have more pressing matters than a cop’s professional life.”

Naomi sat in silence. “All right. What do you know of when I worked for L?”

“Well, you got suspended for not firing at a kid in a gang. L reached out to you because of all these murders in the LA area and he wanted you to go to one of the victims’ houses. So, you rode over and found some knucklehead who looked like L who really weirded you out. Is that all right?”

“Generally.”

“So he continues to weird you out and appears to already have his own idea about this case. Little do you know, you’re alone with the psycho and he’s leaving you clues the whole time. He ropes you into his weirdness and you realise… well, I don’t remember. L’s own details were fuzzy.”

“L told you this himself?” Naomi asked. “The one who I kicked down the stairs? That L?”

Mello nodded triumphantly. “Mhm. And I get to hold that over the current L’s head.”

This wasn’t news to Naomi: the L she had worked with and this L were way too different. But he wasn’t the type to just let that slip.

Naomi waved him along to continue.

“Yeah, so you call up this dude and ask him to run a check on that weird dude, for any PIs by the name of Rue Ryuuzaki, and some comment about how he speaks Japanese really well. Funnily enough, L described him as dark-skinned.”

“He was definitely not white hispanic, but I can spot yellowface and he wasn’t doing it. I would bet a lot of money that he’s Japanese.”

“I would imagine asking someone’s ethnicity doesn’t come up that often,” Raye said.

“Might as well have asked him ‘what are you?’” Naomi shook her head.

“Yeah, so you step on him and come to a conclusion that there’s a clock or something like that. Two people are narrowed down as being the next victims, so that PI and you hole up in those potential victims’ apartments. She realises that B was going to off himself, so she hauls ass to the floor B is on and shoots the door open---”

“Nope.”

“What?”

“Nope. When you get suspended, you hand in your badge and your gun. I Watchmen-style kicked the door out of the frame. I only have ideas about how B figured out that I was with the FBI without my badge on me.”

Or those Eyes he was talking about… 

Ugh---no---come on, it’s conjecture and stupid of me to think that he could be telling the truth about that. 

… But why would he lie when he’s already in custody? He has nothing to lose. 

Exactly. People don’t need motivation to lie sometimes.

“So you arrested him---didn’t read him his rights---and he gets taken into custody. A few days later, some other knucklehead comes back and tries to hug you. You kick him down the stairs and almost arrest him for assault. He just says ‘call me Ryuuzaki’ and you’re struck by his resemblance to B.”

“I came very close to not reading him his rights; I think what happened is that I was saying ‘you do not have the right to remain silent’ in my head and it just… slipped out.”

“So most of it was accurate?”

Naomi nodded. “About that ‘current L’ you were talking about… you have history together?”

---

“That was stressful,” she said. 

“I can imagine. Are you okay?”

She nodded. “You can drop me off at the house. The kids are supposed to be home soon anyways.”

“Two and a half hours is not soon. The house will be fine without you. It’s lunchtime.”

“I don’t like being reminded of my screwups.”

“Don’t we all? For what it’s worth, the job doesn’t leave a lot of room for humanity.”

It was true, he still didn’t like going on buses. If he could thank Kira or Kiichiro Osoreda for that, he would. Sarcastically, of course.

---

Suruga put his head in his hands. “There are some knuckleheads in another room who wanted to talk to us. They say that they’re with L.”

Delilah sighed. “I doubt that they’re lying, but they sure are persistent.”

“Might as well rip off the band-aid,” Raye said. 

---

“We already know why you’re here,” Suruga said. “Let’s just get to the point: the FBI isn’t going to lease custody of a known mafioso to L. I don’t give a flying fuck if that means there are going to be repercussions on myself with my job.”

“While we appreciate your straightforwardness, that’s not what we came here for. L dispatched us personally, he says that he’s happy to assist in Mello’s prosecution,” Rester said. 

“Oh. Okay. Is that all?”

“It is.”

Should I? Well, I don’t know if they’re simply going to go---fuck it. “I met with Mello earlier today; he seemed like he knows this L personally. Can I ask why?”

Both men glanced at Lidner, who stared straight ahead into the middle distance. She mulled something over. 

“They have a long history together. That kid almost killed this L.”

The hair on the back of Raye’s neck stood up. 

---

“No way,” Naomi said.

“I know, I couldn’t believe them when I heard it.”

Naomi busied herself with filling the kettle. “You should sit down. For what it’s worth, I don’t blame you for your reaction.”

“It’s fine. Building a case will be easy.”

“You’ll have to testify, though.”

“It’s not anything I haven’t done before.”

The kettle began to whistle. Naomi held in a sigh. Sometimes she wished they could just leave this life behind.

She put a teabag into a mug and poured water. She set it down in front of him.

Trauma is a difficult thing to work through, but they understand each other. They grasped the other’s hand.

But hey: this is enough.