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el-buzz · 3 months

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Too much work!! :c

A Cg! Clay x Agere! Reader fic

This was sort of self-indulgent because I’m sort of in a spot where I seriously have to focus on schoolwork which obviously can be really draining so I tried to scrap this together whenever I had free time :D

(^such a lie I did all this when I should’ve been doing work or sleeping dinwhdjsjdh)

it’s not the best but I wanted to feed myself and anyone else interested in cg! Clay

Again it’s mostly kiddo at start but then goes into more toddler/babyish reader at the end

3.1k+ words :D!! (Yeah I traded quality for quantity 😭😭)

Cross posted on Ao3 at Soft_Buzz!!

Let's just say you haven't been having the best month. Seriously, it hasn't been easy to stay happy, but you really do try your best! It's not your fault that everything just seems like too much. You wanted to help Clay with his tasks. You know, help a loved one out! Unfortunately, the paperwork and amount of tasks you had were overwhelming. Checking the safety of the old gold courses, the amount of food left before needing to send another party out for scavenging, and even the functionality of the new security that had been set up was draaaaaaaining.

Sure you did have Clay to help you out with the accounting, buuuut by the time you were done with everything, you were just too tired to even function!! At least the praise he would give you provided you with some energy and motivation. You genuinely have no idea how Clay seems to find joy in any of this and even has the energy to participate in other activities like his sad book club. You weren't barely even able to spare time to read for funsies or scrapbook at all!

Currently, you were doing the most simple of reports in the admin building, but your brain just will not budge. You just can't concentrate or recall any information at all. You read parts of paperwork, but gosh it all just seems like mumbo jumbo to you. Poor you, staring at the paper desperately hoping for things to align and make sense, but you were just so tired and irritated too!!

All this serious business was genuinely so not your forte, but you wanted to impress Clay by helping him out. But clearly, your plan wasn't working out too well... You didn't want to disappoint him. You wanted him to be proud of you and tell you how good you've done!!

Overwhelming guilt got a hold of you, and tears began to spill down your cheeks. You just wanted a break. You needed a break. You couldn't handle this. It was too much. Gosh even your skin felt like too much and chewing on one of your fingers clearly wasn't helping. The pen in your hand shook from your hold. Your breath hitched, and it started to get hard to breathe. Ignoring your tears, you decided to try to continue the report with shaky handwriting. Tears fall onto the fresh ink. You tried to clean them off by swiping away, but you only managed to smudge the ink and ruin the report.

That was your last straw. Nope no no no. You whined. As you start taking in your situation, you begin to sob. You throw your pen and crumble the stupid report out of frustration. You just couldn't anymore. You sniffled and tried to hold back your emotions. The last thing you wanted to do was make a mess that you would have to clean up. You let the tears fall as you hiccup and bring your legs up to your chest.

Unfortunately, your state doesn't improve when you hear the door of the admin building creak open. Shoot shoot shoot. You panic as you try to get rid of your tears by rubbing them off with your hands. You quickly get back to sitting correctly and try to hide your face from view. The last thing you wanted was for Clay to see you like this.

"Heyy Y/n," Clay says as he enters. From the sound of his tone, he clearly had his usual upbeat smile. "You've seriously got to try that new cheese combo that Viva made. It's killer" He takes note that you're quiet and really focused on some paperwork. "Okay.. you're focused. I respect that." You sniffle. "Wait a minute.. Are you sick? Is that why you aren't talking? Your throat hurts or something?" You tremble as he starts to walk over to you and reaches to feel your forehead. Well, you tried..

You look up at him and start to tear up again. "Woah? Hey, what's going on? You're kinda freaking me out?" The concern is evident on his face, and your heart warms at the thought of him being attentive to you. But gosh were you also scared to death right now, and to make matters worse, you started to feel that fuzzy headspace encase your mind.

You whine, not sure of what to say to him, and open your arms for a hug while hiccuping. "Can I have a hug? P-please?" Your voice cracks as you speak.

Clay sighed and took you in his arms, hugging you tightly. "There, there. Take your time," he soothed, rubbing your back. "It's okay, now. I'm here. You've got me." After a few minutes, and a bit of protest from you, he pulled away and wiped the corners of your damp eyes with his thumb, smiling with much love and care in the world.

By now your breathing had evened, and all you had left was some sniffling. "Now..," Clay starts as he caresses your cheek, "Do you want to talk about it?"

You pout and look down while fidgeting with your fingers. After a few seconds, you nod. "It's just..." you bring your thumb up to your mouth, "too mush."

Clay tilts his head at that. "What's too much?" He questions as he runs his hand through your hair and reaches into his pocket for a lollipop that Viva had given him earlier.

"Work!" You whined before sniffling and rubbing your hand against your nose.

"You feel overwhelmed because of your tasks?" Clay questions you softly as he removes your thumb from your mouth and hands you a lollipop. As you take it from his hands, you whine and nod. "Oh baby...," he mutters as he caresses your face, "but I thought you liked doing them?" You put the lollipop into your mouth and try to calm yourself before speaking again.

"I did..," you look up at him, "I wanted to help you. I really did!" You exclaim at him, but then start to look away with teary eyes. "B-but, then everyfing kept piling up an- and I was tired and started being slow and getting distracted and suddenly I barely had any time for myself!"

Clay just sighs softly and pulls you onto his lap when you finish speaking. "Why didn't you tell me any of this sooner?? We could've sorted the problem out before it got this bad." He questions you.

You bit your trembling lip while still looking away from him. "Didn wanna upset you," you pouted as you felt yourself fall into a younger mindset.

"Oh honey, you know you'd never disappoint me. I love you too much to ever feel that way towards you."

"No even a lil?" You ask while looking up at him in awe.

"Not even a lil," he answered with a reassuring smile while leaning in to kiss your forehead.

"The only thing that really disappoints me is the fact that I never realized you felt this way," He gives you a tight squeeze and nuzzles your neck. You return his embrace with new tears rolling down your cheeks. You tighten your hold scared that if you don't, you might just fall apart. The both of you stay quiet for a moment as he hugs you and whispers sweet nothings into your ear while rubbing your back. You hiccup and sniffle, but you don't dare to loosen your hold. Not that Clay minded. He'd been concerned for you and just wanted to give you the best comfort he could provide.

After calming down, you loosen your hold. Clay cups your face with both of his hands and starts littering your face with kisses. You persist on moving away from him but he keeps his hold on your face.

"Hmno.!.. M' icky!" You snuffle.

"Hmm true... but when has that ever stopped me?" He questions with a smug smile on his face. Your silence answers him for you. "Exactly. But you do have a point," Clay states as he grabs a tissue or two from the desk. "Here." He brings it up to your face and helps you blow your nose. "There we go. Much better now right?" He then chucks the dirty tissue into a trash can.

"Mhm, fank you!" You smile back at him while.

"No problem, baby." He responds and boops your nose, which gets a giggle out of you.

"You know.. you do such a good job all the time, but you clearly need a break and that's okay. So..," Clay picks you up. "That's what we're gonna do. Take a break."

You start squirming in his hold. "Buh wah bout tha wok?!?" You babble while reaching out for the report you had started to redo earlier. Clearly that desperate need to be a sort of workaholic kicked in.

"Ah ah ah," Clay tuts you while bouncing you in his arms, "shhh about that now. We're taking a break. End of discussion." He asserts while petting your head as you pout.

"Plus someone is clearly too small to be doing big adult work. Looks like I've got a little baby on my hands " He says while cooing at you and pinching your cheeks. You were about to whine and complain, but a quick peck on the cheek quieted you right up. "Hm much better."

"Gesss it wouldn huwt," you mutter and start to cling to Clay.

"No it wouldn't," Clay reaffirms to you while making your head rest on his shoulder. Clay opens the door. "Hang tight. We're going back to your pod for some little time okay?"

"Mkay." You wrap your limbs around him and hide your face in the crook of his neck. Gosh if anyone saw you right now, you'd just combust from embarrassment.

Sensing your unease, Clay gives you a kiss on your head and starts to pat and rub your back. "Don't worry we'll be there before you know it." You just respond to him with a soft whine and start to fidget with the stick of your lollipop.

•••

When you get inside your pod, Clay walks past the living room and into your bedroom. He set you down and your bed and gives you your stuffie. Now with you focused on your lil buddy, Clay takes the opportunity to get you a comfortable set of clothes. He comes backs, and you let him help you into them. Clay can't help himself and decides to tickle you to get a giggle out of you, which works of course. You squirm and playfully fight back. He soon stops and chucks your big kid clothes into a laundry basket.

"Ok, now how about you get your little stuff and toys out while I set up a play area in the living room?" He asks while turning back to you.

"Yeah!!" You jump up and start to get your stuff from under the bed.

"Alright," Clay chuckles and pats your head before getting some soft blankets, pillows, and some stuffies and exiting the room.

You, very enthusiastically, search through your stuff trying to pick out some of the things you want such as your paci, a sippy cup, and some stim toys! When you were done, you put everything back in the box as neatly as you could and shoved it under the bed.

You quickly run out of the room with newfound enthusiasm and everything in your hands, maybe dropping a toy or two on your way over. But it's okay! You'll come back for them, probably.

In the living room, Clay has now set up blankets and arranged the pillows on the floor and couch. He had also quickly grabbed some grapes from the fridge and put them in a bowl on the coffee table. Now, Clay pulled out some paper and crayons that you had stored in one of your cabinets, in case you felt like drawing or scribbling. He just wanted to make this a good experience for you!

Clay looks up and sees you running over to him, "Careful there. You don't wanna fall over and get hurt." He chuckles.

"Nah I won-" you begin to brush him over before you stumbled over and start to fall over, making you drop all of your stuff.

"Woah!!" Clay quickly places down the blank paper and hurries over to catch you before you fell hard.

You whine and look down with a frown due to the random scare and dropping everything.

"Oh chin up, sweetheart." He speaks softly while taking out the bare lollipop stick and replacing it with your pacifier, which you happily took. "Just a lil scare but you'll always be safe with me. Let me take me take care of this"

You whine and shake your head. "Hmno! I help!" You remark and start to get on with the business of picking up your mess like the very independent kiddo you desperately wanted to be.

"Hey! Nope no c'mon..." Clay picks you from under your armpits like, one might with a cat, and then settles you right on his hip.

You look at him with an apparent frown and pout. "I help."

"No. Not today. Let me do this for you. Let me take care of my baby." He caresses your cheeks before giving a few pecks on the forehead and cheek.

"You may want to be a big kid, but you definitely need to be small. Just want to show you a token of my appreciation for the hard hard work you've been doing, yes?" He looks as your for further confirmation.

You sigh. "Okay.., jus fo today," you mumble slightly upset, but you wrapped yourself around Clay anyway. He smiled before humming and getting to work, which honestly helped you relax and start to nod off. The pacifier in your mouth just helped to make everything feel fuzzy and sleepy..

Once done, Clay set you down the floor on top of the blankets and pillows. You plop yourself right on top of them and start to make grabby hands at one of your stuffies on the couch. Happily, Clay hands it over to you and you begin to snuggle your buddy. He coos at the cute sight in front of him, causing you to blush but be more playful.

"Gosh you are so adorable, hun. How did I end up with the world's cutest baby?" He pinches your cheeks, and you just smile and babble back him. "Who's the cutest baby? Huh? Huh? Is it you?" He tickles and nuzzles you. You kick your feet in the air and tap your chest with one of your hands. "Yeah, that's right! You are! You're the cutest one!"

You move onto your tummy and crawl over to the stimmy toys that you had brought with you. They are in such pretty colors. Clay sits down beside you and follows along and entertains your little antics. Doing little things like grabbing a toy, showing you how to use it, and handing it over for you to try it too! Unfortunately, you start to be impulsive and play a little too rough with them by grabbing and throwing them against the ground. Seems like the both of you might have underestimated the extent of your regression. Woops...

"Looks like we gotta make a change of plans huh lil bub?" He pushes the toys away from you, but you whine and reach out for them, almost dropping your pacifier in the process. "You're too small to be playing with these right now. Oh look!!" He hands you your stuffy from earlier. "This friend wants some cuddles. C'mon give him a big big hug!" He made an example of him hugging an invisible teddy and you followed suit.

As you were busy tending to your teddy, Clay made sure to move the smaller and harder toys away from you. He didn't want you getting hurt or accidentally breaking something because of some rough playing or you putting things where they shouldn't go. Instead, he surrounds you with soft textured stuff like your blankets and stuffies.

When he was done, he decided to offer you some of the grapes he had gotten. "You want some bubba?"

You gasp and nod. "Mhm mhm I wan pleaseeee!!"

"Here you go," he gives you a few, and you happily start chewing and eating them. You even pretend to feed you stuffie. Hey, they get hungry too! Clay chuckles and then gives you a kiss on the forehead.

After a while of playing with your fluffy friends, you start you feel your eyelids and head droop a little. You look at Clay and tug at his sweater.

"Hm?"

"eep..." You whine and rub your tired eyes.

Clay takes in your state and pulls you onto his lap. "I see." He slides one of his hands up and down your back. "You want some warm tea?" He whispers and you nod softly.

"Sippy or bottle?"

"Baba.." you manage to mutter. A small pout forms on your lips. If you were to be honest, you'd admit that you were a little upset over regressing to a younger state than you would've liked.

Clay gets up and places you on the couch before walking away and into the kitchen to make you some tea. You get comfortable and bury yourself under a the blankets, looking all snug like bug.

By time Clay came back with the tea in a baby bottle, your pacifier looked like it was about to fall out of your mouth. Chuckling to himself, he takes it and places it on the coffee table. He carefully moves you, so he can sit beside you. You start to wake up a little and start to whine while making grabby hands at him.

"Shh shh, I've got you." He grabs you and moves you onto his lap to comfortably feed you your babas.

You snuggle up against him and rub your face on his torso. He brings the bottle up to your lips and you take it into your mouth. The soft and warm feeling of the tea fills you and makes you feel ever so small yet happy.

Clay starts to hum and pat your side while holding the bottle up for you. You lightly place one of your hands on top of his and he caresses your soft cheek.

After a while, you were close to finishing the bottle, but sleep seemed to win over you. Clay noticed this and placed the bottle on the coffee table. He moved, so he could be laying down with you on top of him. Clay placed your stuffy in your arms and wrapped his arms around you. Smiling at the sight of you before him, he gives you one last kiss on the head.

Author’s Note:

Lowkey, I felt like I was yapping after reader and Clay left the admin building. I just desperately wanted to reach 3k words for some reason aghhh and I so missed the opportunity to have Clay read to the reader

I had originally planned to make this into two separate parts but honestly I just wanted this over with so it is definitely rushed but comme ci, comme ça (at least I finally made a fanfic that I actually go all the way through to finish woo!! 🎉‼️)

#Ironically enough this might be the last fanfic I do in a while if not ever because I’ve decided to put #attention on academic work related stuff. I know I know I’ll never learn to take breaks but Ughhghh I’ll #take breaks when I’m a nursing home or sum 😭😭 for now it’s just time to hit the grind.#trolls 3 #clay #clay x reader #being brave out here and using clay x reader in the post just to see what happens #if i get any hatred i’ll immediately remove it :/#trolls agere #sobbing #what the duck did I just write??

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crescentfool · 20 days

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i've been doing a bunch of tartarus runs in reload lately, and it got me thinking about how i miss certain ways FES's clunky gameplay can characterize minato… (ramble about the great clock mechanic + leveling up party members in reload vs fes under the cut)

when i got to yabbashah block in tartarus (block 3), i remember commending the developers for adding the great clock mechanic. it's a much more convenient way to keep party members at the protagonist's level- so when you think about p3 from the perspective of trying to make it easier for people to play, the mechanic succeeds in this respect.

but now that i'm in adamah block, and that i've done lots of my once-a-month tartarus runs… i think that i got a little too dependent on it, and the way that i played through reload feels like a vastly different experience from how i played FES.

in reload, my party's levels are very lopsided. minato, yukari, akihiko, mitsuru, and fuuka are all level 90+, meanwhile junpei and aigis are at level 79, and then… poor ken and koromaru are at 71 and 64 respectively. (i never got to have a great clock for them…)

meanwhile, in FES, my party's levels were much more evenly distributed and were at least level 90. i did all of this manually for every monthly tartarus run because i enjoyed having options available for the taratarus guardians and monthly operations.

with how i perceive minato, i feel that the way i played FES feels more in-line with his character than me dawdling around waiting for the great clocks in reload.

FES's gameplay loop left me with the very strong impression that minato has to work twice as hard as everyone else in SEES does. it makes sense because, yeah, he's the leader, but something about having minato run through tartarus multiple times with different groups of people just to make sure that they are adequately prepared speaks volumes about his character, to me.

and while the tired mechanic is present in reload to some degree, most notably with allowing you to freely raise your courage stat when you visit edogawa after school… the tiredness system doesn't hit the same way that FES does, i think.

the way your party members in FES will call it quits when they return to the entrance floor at tartarus when they're tired, versus minato, in spite of all his tiredness and sickness, still pushes through tartarus because it's his responsibility…. idk!!! i miss that! i feel like this really hammers home the difference between minato and the rest of SEES, how minato doesn't really see himself as a human with needs worth respecting as long as he's useful to someone.

i don't think that tartarus being tedious (in FES especially) is not what most people would describe as fun, and i can respect people thinking it's a slog. but, regardless of how it feels to play, it doesn't change that FES's gameplay loop is a fundamental building block in how i perceive minato…

of course, i do recognize that you can just opt to NOT use the great clock in reload (and it's great when players are offered the choice to not partake in mechanics)! i definitely think that if someone really wanted to, they could manually level up party members, but i do feel that kind of playstyle isn't necessarily "incentivized" to the type of people who are into playing games for Having a Good Time. it's kind of like… "why would you do that when there's a much more convenient option available to you."

in any case! despite my woes, i do want to emphasize that i'm glad that reload has a much more smoother gameplay loop than the original P3 did, because it does make the game more accessible to people. having played both FES and reload, it feels very strongly apparent to me how the core gameplay formula of persona has really been refined in the past 18 years (to think og p3 was 2006 and reload is 2024.. time flies!). and reload has made revisiting a story that i love so dearly much, much easier because the gameplay just bops!

at the same time, due to my "i miss characterization informed by weird and dated FES gameplay quirks" woes, i still think that playing FES is worthwhile. (really, i feel this way about all iterations of p3! i think it's worthwhile to see what each version and side media has to say even if it doesn't Land™ for you.) but i also understand why people wouldn't want to play it, so i will keep writing posts about things i liked from FES's gameplay because i'm still very fond of FES (especially in respects to minato. these mechanics are so telling about him!!!) 💪

#lizzy speaks #persona 3 #persona 3 reload #<- specifically mentions of mechanics. no added story content just tartarus talk #minato arisato #today on lizz life: lizz wakes up THINKING about minato for the NTH time and is compelled to write a tumblr post about it #tartarus in reload is excellent looking and fun but i keep thinking about what i liked about how FES characterizes minato so #here i am... LOL... with my 790 or so word ramble... im so normal about the blue boy #i needed to get my feelings out there somewhere i just could not stop thinking about HIM HE IS IN MY BRAIN 24/7 #me playing reload last night like 'minato would not fucking wait for a great clock to make sure that SEES is adequately prepared.'#and yet my sloth brain awaits the great clock... LOL gameplay convenience is not lost on me #i'm stuck in tartarus rn im grinding rubies and stuff trying to get equipment so i can throw hands with elizabeth its going to be fun #im still not done with this game i continue to be haunted by tartarus i fucking love that tower unironically #uh usually id ramble more in tags but. go read my post!! because i like analyzing FES gameplay mechanics!! i am full of passion and love!

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