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tahitiwoke · 2 years

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five times kissed / Give Me Another

ONE | DIRTY WORK GETS THE JOB DONE.

would you close the door, phillip? lets not go on and on about the tip-toe game they've been playing or about how she seems far further away from him than she has been in months; always there with a hand against his arm or his shoulder, always close by with a comment in his ear. he feels cornered by her in a way. in the white house, there seems to be not a single room he can be in alone without her or frank pressing in at all sides. she consumes him and he consumes her attention. it's easy to let her do it. easy to be led by the hand, like a stray dog lured by the promise of fresh meat.

(who is the meat, he wonders. who is leading who to the spade?)

the door clicks shut and behind him he hears her exhale. she is close. so close he can feel the warmth of her body at his back. he can feel the soft way she feels her way across the broad hard wire of his shoulders, fingertips digging in just slightly in encouragement. turn around she is saying without saying it and so he does and she's taller in her heels but still barely up to his chin. " what do you want? " he asks. there is a pause while the cogs in her brain turn, as if she's coming to a decision the way a train comes into the station. all at once at first and then slowly, waiting for the track to run out.

i want you to fuck me. as easy as if she was asking for the time. he almost looks for frank in the corner - is it a game? a fresh way to humiliate him? right here. there is a quiet pressing into the room but he can hear the assistants milling around in the halls. he looks down at her, tries to decide if he can see the truth behind it and finds he's already looking at it. i want you to fuck me.

kissing her takes the shape of something hateful, a passionate and open mouthed, all tongue and teeth for a moment that she returns with a villainous desire that takes his breath away. broken when he lifts her onto the desk. it's the only time they kiss for the entire forty-five minutes that he spends between her legs.

TWO | MAYBE I'M TOO BUSY BEING YOURS.

he's not on a date but it's drinks, and for the life of him he cannot remember this woman's name. he knows she just graduated georgetown and thinks it's, like, so crazy you work at the white house, y'know, i applied for an internship but didn't get it because there was a whole thing about one of underwood's guys and it was super weird, like, the vibe there was so totally off. honestly, he stopped listening half an hour ago which seemed to suit her fine. she's incredibly hot.

(and yet, and yet, and yet. he's thinking of a different blonde in a different room with a different way of saying his name. he's thinking about soft thighs and the stern way she looks at him when he leaves her office.)

he doesn't know what the game will be this time when she calls. he answers on the second ring -- her demand is short, impassive, impossible to read the intention behind. i had a craving for something sweet. that's all she says before she hangs up; what she could want is beyond him, leaves him googling her name and then cutting himself off with a click of his phone button before the search page even loads. his date waves as he darts out the door, he doesn't even look back.

he gets to the white house within twenty-seven minutes -- in hand is not chocolates or candies, it's strawberries. he doesn't know if she likes them or not, but he thinks he remembers seeing her eat them once -- claire takes them, sets them on countertop in the residency kitchen, and tips up onto her toes. (she's sans heels, which puts her so, so much farther down.) when she kisses him, it's against the corner of his mouth, just a fraction closer than they would normally.

thank you, phillip. it's as if you read my mind.

THREE | YOU DO SUCH DAMAGE.

if you say her name again, i'll cut out your tongue. he doesn't know why he says it, why he's so angry about the way carol's name gets battered around in the press, why he blames her for it so suddenly and viscerally. it's your fault he wants to scream, you dragged me into this, you and frank, and you can manipulate me all you want but you cannot bring the woman i love into this. woman he loved. it is complicated.

( she's in veins. has been for decades. he cannot cut the part of himself out that feels utterly beholden to a woman who has not looked at him in fifteen years. he cannot mistake the anger for anything but the scorn of guilt and fear and regret. )

they don't talk for a few days. she does as promised, she fixes things, and carol's name falls out of fashion quickly - before the next cycle even really starts. he isn't interesting. the lack of reaction from his office or the oval makes it so much more disinteresting, it's easy to discard it as rumour and posturing.

there is a hesitancy to her interaction with him after that, just a hiccup in their odd which he has come to think as normal. it's a quiet sort of distance, one he doesn't notice until it's suddenly there and when he drags himself up to the residency, exhausted beyond measure from an angry, two hour long phone call with carol, it is in answer to a text do you have a moment?

he stands there with a hunch in his shoulders and feeling like gravity itself is dragging him to the crust of the earth; she pulls him into a bend by his tie. it's sharp. sudden. it hurts. hand wrapping once, twice into the material in the fist she's made and yanking him down quickly, it chokes him. just enough -- the look on her face tells him not to dare move to try and loosen it with his own fingers. don't ever speak to me that way again hisses in his ear -- but to soften the blow, she kisses his cheek. smoothes the slight lipstick stain away from the skin.

FOUR | EMOTIONAL MOTION SICKNESS.

it is not the first time he has been in her bed, not the first time he has kissed her (they do that now; it's a private thing, nothing casual shared over breakfast or anything, but when he fucks her, when she fucks him, they kiss and it feels like they should have been doing that from the very beginning). but he is inside her and her eyes are fixed on a point over his shoulder as she rides him; she's been going between the corner of the room and the doorway behind them, seems as though she's watching a fucking tennis match, and he doesn't know why. can't understand what's so damn distracting.

( it's a little bit of an ego thing, alright. don't judge him. he likes to have her entire attention and when she's distracted like this, as she has been before but never to such an extent, it's a bruise. )

so he kisses her - or tries to, but she pulls away from it, seems annoyed by the effort and rides him harder, determined to find something he isn't sure she's actually looking for. and because her attention is once again occupied elsewhere, he bites down on her shoulder, kisses away the burn as she hisses, frowning down at him suddenly, sharply. she's angry -- in a way he isn't sure is entirely directed at him. there is a pause. a longer pause. and then she's climbing off his lap, striding away, naked, into the bathroom. she slams the door and calls you should leave through it.

FIVE | YOU'RE A COWBOY LIKE ME.

the state of the union is an incredible thing to watch; he's never appreciated politics but there is a certain patriotism inspired by watching a leader actually lead. it's a powerful agenda being set out, a powerful way of talking. she sends him a text when the dinner and dancing ends to say she's turning in and if he wouldn't mind saying goodnight.

he, of course, acquiesces. it's scott on the door so he doesn't get too much of a look when he slips in through the door to the residency, finding her in the bedroom removing an earring. have you had a good night? she asks but he doesn't really hear it -- her silhouette has him half-drunk, the sharp cut of her against the solid white of the wall, the dress she's wearing fluttering out still about her. she's stunningly beautiful and there's a gut ache in him that he doesn't recognise -- it's so easy to step towards her slowly. give her time to turn him away if she needs, but it doesn't seem as though she wants to.

( they've been getting closer and closer to something and further away from the nothing they were. it's been going for a while. they had started kissing more and more, not just when they're fucking, and it's softer, slower. quieter. )

when he gets closer to her now, he takes his time. he tilts her chin towards him, offers a soft smile, proud of her and the night and way they'd cheered downstairs for her. it's victory. it's a real victory. when he bends to kiss her, she meets him halfway.

#*SAVE.#halechief #im gonna kms #V || FRIENDS. ROMANS. COUNTRYMEN. ( CAESAR! BRUTUS! )#WHICH HURTS AND IS DESIRED.

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pianostarinwonderland · 2 months

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Now it's likely we will enter everyone's dream what do you think azul dream would be?

rubs hands Ohhhh anon, you're in luck because I have so many thoughts.

Since I also have ideas for the tweels, I'll take this time to write what I think all the Octavinelle dreams will be like. Most of these are my own thoughts, but some ideas are from friends. And because I love the trio so much, I'll also write my own ideas of what would possibly get them to wake up and such.

General notes before listing the individual dreams:

May be an obvious point, but I think all 3 of them will have each other in their dreams. Octa trio are very close, and I don't think they can imagine not having each other in their lives. It also matches how their initial dorm card art have each other + how all three of their stories are tied together.

I think that Jade is going to be the Octavinelle dream segment's SSR because of the twins, Kalim and co. will likely have an easier time waking Floyd up. Jade may need some prodding from someone more familiar with him.

However, I do acknowledge the argument made by my friend that it is possible for Floyd to be the SSR as he's the rightmost one in the order you find at the lessons (if you notice, the order goes Ortho > Lilia > Rook > Kalim (though Kalim is an exception) with Sebek in between Lilia and Rook, and they're the rightmost ones in their dorm order seen in lessons. Floyd is the rightmost one in the Octavinelle order). And I wouldn't be surprised if TWST decides to pull that out. But admittedly, I don't know what exactly would make Floyd's dream deep enough that he needs to be woken up by someone more familiar, so I write the dreams with the assumption that Jade will be the SSR.

Though not necessarily going to be important in the following ramble, I have a feeling that they will release Coral Sea's hometown event to be able to use certain assets (i.e. backgrounds, possible official reveal of Azul's merform) in book 7, just like Vil's hometown event was used for the Pomefiore dream segment.

As a disclaimer, I don't have full translations of the last two updates so I may not have the most accurate ideas for how the Octa dream segment can turn out because there are patterns they're following here. Many of these are still brainrot induced (even though I think I make good logic wheezes).

Ok, with all that said, here are my thoughts for the Octa trio's dreams :>>

Floyd Leech: Living underwater with Jade and Azul

It's not a secret that Floyd is at his happiest when he's in his merform. Among the trio, he's the one who transforms the most often into his merform. Some incidents include the time that he transformed during swimming class according to Ruggie (Book 3) and Vargas Camp where he transformed to get fish. Floyd is also the one who tells the most stories of his time under the sea with Jade and Azul. We know about their middle school band because of him (Robe Kalim vignette); we know about Azul's actual size in his octopus form because of him (Beans 2 main story); we know about the music contests they used to join because of him (Portfest Floyd vignette).

So it makes sense that his dream would be in the sea, where he's in his merform. It's also going to be pretty simplistic, depicting a happy life underwater.

TWST tends to be very comedic, especially with the first dream. So my friend suggested it would be fun if there were literal fish versions of the cast in his dream 😂 so we could have live2D assets of a literal goldfish Riddle, crab Ace, sea snake Jamil, etc.

Jade and Azul of course would be in merform along with him. Maybe they might be playing in their middle school band: Floyd on drums, Jade on bass, and Azul on piano (and maybe their audience is composed of the NRC cast as fish).

In this dream, maybe Floyd has no memory of ever being on land with Jade and Azul. So that may be what the others will use to wake him up.

Jamil would probably remind Floyd of basketball club days + dancing, and Ortho would probably remind him of his love for shoes. These could be pretty reasonable as the permanent card vignettes (so SR Robe/Lab, R Uni/PE, SSR Dorm) seem to be compliant with the canon of the main story. Grim would probably remind him as well of Book 3's events and how he'd do fun shit with Azul and Jade at the Mostro Lounge. They would probably remind him as well that Jade and Azul love what they do on land.

I don't know where to insert this, but it's very likely that Azul in this dream does not hate his merform. Floyd talks highly of his merform (whether it looks yummy or very strong), so it's possible that he wishes that Azul loves himself just a little bit more (I really want to say it is hinted at, but at the moment, I have no idea if that's correct, let alone say where it is hinted at, so I won't say it like it's canon). And by extension, this can be Floyd's way of sharing that maybe Azul wouldn't have OB'd if he was more accepting of himself.

Jade Leech: If Azul never overblotted

Jade's dream would take a similar path to Rook's dream, in which the premise for the latter is that Vil never overblotted because he's not in conflict with Neige. And for Rook, that's okay, he just wants Vil to be happy, even if he looks on from afar. Except that for Jade, he wants to be the reason that Azul didn't have to overblot.

See, it's very subtle, but Jade is probably upset or even traumatized from Azul's overblot. While he never shows this (this motherfucker istg) the one small bit of evidence of this is in Book 4. Jamil's hypnotizing everyone, and Kalim, Azul, and the rest are frantic as they don't know what to do. But as Jamil is about to overblot, Jade tells him to stop, or else he will overblot. And that's a very interesting thing: why is it Jade who's the one telling Jamil that he'll overblot at the rate he was going? Why not Azul, who's both fascinated with Jamil and the one who underwent overblot? Or even Grim and Yuu who have 3 experiences of overblots by that time? Of course, that's not necessarily a guaranteed indication that Jade is upset from Azul's overblot, as in general, overblot is very dangerous and could kill a life. Jade may have been saying this to prevent Jamil from entering a life-or-death situation. However, I still find it intriguing that it's Jade who's warning Jamil, especially when another instance of another character trying to stop an OB was Kalim, who followed Vil since he was reminded of Jamil's own OB (and we know Jamil and Kalim have been together since forever).

There's two ways that this can go: either (1) Jade's dream follows like Rook's, or (2) it goes the opposite of Rook's.

In (1), Jade (and consequently, Floyd) would not be friends with Azul, and Azul would continue on as he is, only a lot more independent.

(1) stems from the fact that the plan Yuu hatched to destroy Azul's contracts was hinged on separating the twins from Azul. Jade might have realized this, either in Book 3 or off screen post Book 3. And in a similar fashion to Rook, he might blame himself a little bit for Azul not being able to get the contracts off of Leona on his own due to the fact that he and Floyd are always with him. So in his mind, he thinks he might be dragging Azul's potential down, and he knows how much Azul wants to become the best version of himself. So maybe he looks on from afar as well. Maybe he's still an Octavinelle student, but not the vice leader.

(2) also stems from that same fact, but it also has an additional element: In Book 3, Jade asked Azul if they should do anything about Leona, since it was unexpected for Yuu to stay in Savanaclaw. Azul replied that he probably won't act on anything, so he says not to disturb him. What if Jade might have been hooked onto this? That maybe he should have acted more upon his suspicions? That maybe he should have been more attentive when spying on Yuu and co to find out when they hatched this plan? So maybe in dream (2), he had a countermeasure or he just knew when to nudge Floyd to go back to the dorm before Leona destroyed the contracts. Then once that was dealt with, they deal with the photo and bam, Azul wins and they get the Ramshackle branch.

Both (1) and (2) are connected by Jade's wish in the Dances and Wishes event, where he expresses that his wish is for Azul's and Floyd's wishes to come true. In a sense, (1) fits this a bit better than (2). There's also the idea that moray eels have a cowardly nature, according to Floyd. (1) could be an expression of said nature within Jade.

But if you ask me, I think (2) is a bit more in line with Jade. Firstly because I doubt he can imagine not being close to Azul, secondly because I think in his ideal world, I think he'd wish he had more control over what happened (and Jade has a thing for control).

Thirdly, it matches in terms of how his dorm card and Rook's dorm card are both same and different. The gameplay of TWST tends to be intermingled with the story and characters at times. Dorm Jade and Rook both have first spells where they boost their ATK stat for 3 turns, with fire as their duo element. The differences between them are (a) card typing (Rook Attack vs. Jade Defense) and (b) M1/M3 elements (Flora/Water Rook vs. Water/Flora for Jade). This parallel can be reflected in their dreams vs. the reality of their situations. Rook dreamt of never being involved with Vil, but in real life he was in time to intervene and save Neige. Meanwhile, Jade would dream of being on time to stop Leona, while in real life, he was too late and only in time to kick Azul's ass out of his overblot.

And fourth, this is where you may wonder: Isn't Azul's second dream going to be the Book 3 AU, based on the patterns with Idia, Vil, and Jamil? To which I answer: yes! Definitely! But here's where I'm going to point out something: Jade and Azul not only have similar ish mindsets but also have the same paintings in their initial Platinum card art, just with flipped positions. I like to think that this is reflective of their dreams, where both of them wish to change the same events of Book 3, except that they'd go about it differently.

Jade would definitely be woken up by Floyd, who would remind him that what happened has already happened. (On this note, I wonder if we'll get to see one of their vicious sibling fights so Jade can wake up, but I'm just dreaming at this point)

By virtue of him being the SSR, we gotta think of what's the scenario that would make Jade cry! Him having to fight the fake Azul and Floyd might break him. Yeah, he's fought Floyd and all, probably dueled with Azul too, but it could be different when he has to be 100% serious about it. Either that or, there might be some part of him that hates the fact that it was a dream. And Floyd would have to snap him out of it, saying that everything is okay.

Azul Ashengrotto: Ultimate business owner + Book 3 AU

The first dream we enter, in typical Azul fashion, we're likely going to see him owning a whole chain of Mostro Lounge restaurants! And maybe not only that: he's probably running a hotel or two, he's got a delivery service going, he probably has a monopoly running while we're at it. Basically, it's all the stuff that he lists down in Book 6 before he sleeps on Riddle's shoulder.

His businesses expand over both land and sea. Since Azul prefers being on land, we may see him on land first before diving to the sea to check on business there. And that's where the first confrontation happens.

I think Azul would feel practically invincible by this point! And by invincible, he not only has everything he wants, but there's not a trace of his past to be discovered, so people think he's always been this intelligent and strong. So when he's confronted by Jade and Floyd, who share memories of his past (his shared past with them, from middle school to NRC), that's the first instance of Azul slowly starting to wake up and him panicking about his perfect world being fake. And it almost works until the dream versions of Jade and Floyd come in and remind Azul of the kind of invincible person he is.

Then they descend to the second dream, which is the Book 3 AU where Azul got his contracts from Leona and probably beat his ass. Except that the difference between this and Jade's dream is that Azul does this all by himself. When dream Jade and Floyd get back to him with the photo, they're praising him, all like, "Good job Azul! You're so strong and powerful! I'm glad I get to hang out with someone as awesome as you are!"

But the real Jade and Floyd would try to stop him from destroying the photo and tell him that it's a reminder of who he was, and how much he's grown. And if Azul succeeds in destroying that photo, Jade and Floyd would pull out the photos that they carry with them (think the album from the opening). They want him to accept the person that he was, and realize the person he is now is someone who's grown stronger. He has become better.

On how his dream would collapse, this is tricky. I would want that Azul destroys his contracts (thereby breaking the deal he made with Yuu, which would entail that his happy end has been broken), but him not destroying the photo would also cause the dream to collapse since the way to his happy end involves removing all ties to his past, namely the photos. He could do both. However, the trend so far is that foreign influence affecting the happy ending is what would break the dream. If anything, if Jade and Floyd do have their own copies of Azul's past photos, that means that the presence of those indicates that Azul's ties to his past are not broken at all, and therefore they would break the dream.

Then as per pattern, the others leave while Azul sinks deeper to try and wake himself up. He meets his OB self, who's steeped in his insecurities and is very unaccepting of his past. And this is where Azul accepts those insecurities and accepts his past but will continue to move forward with his life and grow to be a person he can be proud of, and fight his OB self. Then he faces his first dream and dream Jade and Floyd, and then he wakes up eventually.