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skylermadness · 3 months

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Cosmic Adoration (Ophion TF/PMC)

(Original Date of Upload: February 14, 2024)

Hey look, I'm uploading something in the same day it gets uploaded on my other accounts. Woah.

Original Description:

Happy Valentine's Day! I've sort of become infrequent when it comes to holiday-themed TFs, but this was actually a story I've wanted to write out for a long time! Quite literally since I started writing it back in January of last year before getting burnt out and never finishing it... until now, anyway. Now I have it done and I can upload it publicly for all to see! I'm quite proud of how this turned out. I typically don't deal in PMC but I feel like that would have been the best route to take this story, and full MC would have tarnished what little themes I was trying to convey with this. I don't think I have much commentary besides all of that though. I guess I could mention there was going to be a reality change segment in the furthest end of the post-TF, but with how I led that segment of the story along I couldn't really fit it in without it feeling needless and awkward.

Valentine's Day.

Initially the very concept of the holiday had eluded Hugo for a good chunk of his life. This had mainly been because he had trouble discerning the purpose of the holiday. Why did such a holiday need to exist to celebrate love? Especially when such a thing could be celebrated on any day of the year. To him, at least originally, it was just a way for stores to boost sales. The most he'd usually acknowledge is the price drops of confectionaries after and that was it. So as far as he cared the holiday was nigh-nonexistent…

That pattern of thought lasted for about twenty-five years. Then he met… Jace…

Dating had always been outside of Hugo’s range of social skills. He had originally thought himself as never really feeling the desire for it. He was content with being single, or at least he tried to tell himself that as to avoid confronting any weird feelings he might have. This thought pattern had quickly changed over the past ten months however, and it was all thanks to the introduction of his boyfriend into his life.

It was… strange, really. Having first fallen in love all that time ago. Was it love at first sight, or was it gradual…? Hugo had originally just been sitting in a coffee shop waiting for his order before going to work, but had encountered Jace after they seemed to recognize him as someone whom he shared a few high school classes with so many years ago. He'd be lying if he said he knew what the guy was talking about, but the thought of being recognized so randomly was quite pleasant.

Their encounters at that shop became frequent, almost weekly. Casual talks about life between the two, sharing their interests and enjoyments to one another. Admittedly Hugo had been the more reserved one of the two, but he always enjoyed listening to Jace talk about their own life. He loved hearing his voice, he loved hearing him speak so passionately about things, he loved… him…

It was definitely a little awkward whispering those very words beneath a breath while in mid-conversation. And even more so when they decided to take things outside and less public so they could talk it out. That awkwardness had quickly faded though, their conversation shifting more into the hypotheticals of dating each other. It was silly and lifted Hugo's spirits up a bit after what he felt like was one big act of making a fool of himself.

Then Jace said he would like to date.

Hugo was surprised, stuttering and sweating and being filled with complete and utter confusion. Jace then gave him a small kiss on the cheek, the man's mustache ticking the skin and making Hugo feel even more flustered.

That was enough to settle everything though. They were officially getting together… but now Hugo had a new problem.

It's been ten months of them dating now and he felt… inadequate? He always felt like his way of expressing love was lackluster in comparison to Jace's. Jace was the more expressive and outgoing one of the two, meanwhile Hugo always had trouble trying to properly express his own emotions in a way that didn't sound like he was forcing it out of himself. He just always had trouble trying to say things properly. Trying to determine what to say, what to do. Was he romantic enough? Was he receiving without giving back in a perfectly equal amount? Of course Jace had been left unaware of these concerns. Hugo had chosen not to tell these fears to them, which in truth might not be a good idea…

He shook his head, then whispered to himself. "Why am I such a mess…"

Realizing he had his head down in thought the whole time, Hugo raised it and looked forward. He was currently walking down the sidewalk of the city's shopping district. It was currently February 13th, the eve of Valentine's Day, and Hugo had decided that with the day of celebrating love fast approaching he should do something for it. It wouldn't necessarily be something grand, but he at least wanted to give his boyfriend something that would commemorate his own love for them.

That's easier said than done though. Fortunately Hugo had a plan! He was on this particular street for a reason, to visit an antique's store and locate something of value there that would be enough to encapsulate his passion. Unfortunately, that was also easier said than done. He wasn't even sure he'd find something there, especially considering how… odd the wares seemed to be, at least just by a casual glance at the store's website.

Still, it was an adequate starting point. His steps began to slow as his peripherals caught onto the deep brown wood of a building. Hugo turned, gazing into the windows and finding shelves lined with various peculiar objects. Too many to discern properly. He lifted his head for one final check, staring up at the letting that spelled out the store's name.

Maurice's Audacious Antiques. The very place he was looking for. Perfect…

A bell above the door silently rang as the young man walked in and the wooden floorboards softly creaked beneath the new weight introduced upon them. The place had an odd and comfy feel to it. Hugo would describe it as cabin in the woods-type vibes. And considering the rusting of the shelves to his left, this place definitely has age to it.

His eyes then caught a singular person here. To the right, behind a counter was a rotund man with a balding head and a thick, tied up beard. His head constantly went back and forth between two objects, a laptop and a notebook with poorly scrawled wording in it, while mumbling random things that Hugo couldn't discern. Hugo took a few steps forward before he was in front of the counter, the younger man noting that the older one hadn't seemed to notice him yet.

"Uh, hi…?"

The burly bear of a man raised upwards with his eyes wide, sharply inhaling. "Got damn, ya' startled me!"

Hugo rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Sorry about that… sir?"

The man's face suddenly shifted from startled to smiling. "No need fer formal'ties! Jus' call me Maurice!"

"Er, right. I just uh, came here to…" Hugo started to trail off. Should he say the reason why he's even here? Will it even help?

Maurice raised a brow. "Ya' alright, son?"

Hugo blinked a few times, then swallowed the forming lump in his throat. "I-I'm fine! I just uh, wanted to find a… gift for someone close to me."

The older man nodded, stroking his beard in thought. Silence filled the space between the two for a few seconds before one of them spoke again.

"Don' think I've gott'n a reques' like that before. Ya might be able to find somethin' in one a' the furth'r shelves though. They have all kindsa trinkets 'n knick-knacks." Maurice advised. He then repositioned his hand to lean his head on its palm. "With our recent batch a' stuff, ya' should find somethin' you like!"

Hugo nodded in response. "Th-thank you… Maurice-"

He turned around and went to the area he was advised to go to. The store's amount of stock was unimpressive with only a single row of five shelves filed one after another, but he had settled on checking the fourth one for anything interesting. It looked like it had small stuff in it after all. Although he was a little curious about the store owner's usage of should and would. It felt like they didn't know their own stock. They tried to ignore that though. They had to focus on finding a gift for Jace.

It was now that Hugo truly saw how strange the objects on these shelves seemed to be though.

Some seemed pretty normal. A few intricately designed rings, sets of jeweled earrings, and weird looking necklaces with a design-scheme that felt expensive to look at. However, oddities seemed to pop up left and right. A red, glass-looking orb; sitting beside it was a blue orb with gold metal zigzagging across the middle. Some weird sharp pen-looking thing, a golden chalice of some kind, and… was that a marble pauldron???

"This is so weird…" Hugo whispered to himself.

Finding a gift was already hard enough, but the pure absurdity here made things feel more challenging than they needed to be. At least finding something perfect was a non-issue. He casually picked up one of the many spheres, one that looked like it contained an entire galaxy inside, and stared at it in utter confusion.

He whispered again, "What is your purpose??" while pushing his face close to the object. He then set it down again, suddenly worried that he might break it.

"This isn't going to work…" he sighed, slowly stepping closer to the shelf's end and the window beside it. He sounded off more objects in his head as he continued forward. Weird blue crystal, a pair of sunglasses, a censor thing, some kind of… cap??

For an antiques store all of this felt absurd-

His confusion was momentarily broken as the peripheral of his eye caught onto something glistening. He turned his head to look and found… another necklace? A fairly simple one at that. It was a single golden string with a white elliptoid object on it. For some reason he felt compelled to pick it up, gently cupping the elliptoid and putting it in his hand.

"What is this…" he asked himself, lifting his hand towards his face a little. The elliptoid looked almost like an egg. Its shell was adorned with beautifully designed spirals, rigid enough that rubbing a thumb over it allowed him to feel them out a little. It felt nice. Nice and warm. He wasn't sure why it was warm, probably because of the sunlight, but it was oddly calming to him.

"It does look pretty neat," he said with a smile. His mind was wracking over all the possible representations this single object could hold. The warmth he feels around Jace, the way they have slowly have made him try to come out of his shell, the newness he felt upon realizing his love for them. A small laugh escaped his throat. All of those sound so cheesy, damn. But… they're the truth, are they not?

It feels so embarrassing though. His smile falters, his emotions dimming. What if it's too cheesy though? What if it comes out horribly and he makes a fool of himself in front of Jace? Damn it, damn it, damn it, he felt so fucking stupid!!

He sighs. "I-I'm overthinking this, I have to… I have to calm down. I just…" he looked out the window, sighing. "I just wish I could better show my feelings…"

Right as these words left his mouth the egg on the necklace began to glow. Bright gold shone from the unknown material, the object slowly shaking as it seemed to move closer to him. Hugo had felt the object moving in his hands and looked towards it, but barely got any time to process it as the object practically flung out of his hand and around his neck.

"Wh-what the hell-" he exclaimed, feeling a tickling around his neck as the string tied around it. He reached up both hands to try and grasp the mysterious egg-like object and pull it off. However, the moment his palm made contact with it he felt an intense warmth run throughout his entire body. He took a few steps back, bumping into the shelf behind him, as an intense golden glow entered his irises.

"What is… hhhaaa…."

A hand opened, fingers unfurling away from the elliptoid as they began to twitch. A strange energy was filling his body, coursing through it painlessly and warming it to a strangely comforting degree. All the while strange changes was beginning to form into his form.

His hands were the part of his body that first made contact with the necklace, which meant they were the first to have begun their transformation. As Hugo's fingers twitched his nails began to lengthen. They grew longer, the tips getting sharper and curling as if they were becoming claws. Their translucency was lost as they gained a golden tone as well. The skin on his hands started to lighten, a cream color entering them as the softness hardened. A leathery texture had steadily etched into them while their composition became less fleshy and more scaly.

As the cream-colored scales started to form across his hands, their size was beginning to increase as well. Both hands had stretched out to become larger and thicker. His fingers were getting plumper and meatier. As his hands got larger in size he gripped both of them into fists, his knuckles proceeding to ache for a moment before short, sharp golden spikes erupted from beneath the scales.

The scales quickly started to move upwards to his wrists and forearms. The area increased in size to match the proportions of his hands. However, this new enlargement had also been due to a gain in muscle mass. Comforting heat surging into his forearm muscles as they began to gain bulk. At the same time the coloration of his scales had steadily shifted, hue changing from its soft cream to a brilliant gold. All the while more short golden spikes erupted from the back of his forearms at evenly spaced intervals before seemingly ending at his elbow.

His elbows got larger, the scales rapidly transitioning to his upper arm and running beneath the short sleeves of his polo shirt. The sleeves proceeded to constrict, his muscles now bloating beneath the lustrous scurf he was gaining. His biceps bulged beneath the fabric to a quickly noticeable degree. His triceps mirrored those changes as well, Hugo's once skinny arms now having been mostly consumed by his newfound musculature. Rips started to form within the fabric of his sleeves as his delts ballooned, his shoulders widening drastically as everything soon began to flow into his body proper.

Hugo leaned on a shelf, breathing deeply as he stared down at a hand. His mind was feeling… conflicted, to say the least. A fraction of him wanted to be afraid, wanted to attempt to pry off this necklace from his neck. His other arm was slowly raising itself up to fulfill that desire. But his fingers that were slowly curling around the elliptoid never closed the gaps between them.

There was still another fraction of his mind. Curiosity as to what was going on, as to what this object was doing to him. A strange desire to let that curiosity flourish and let these changes progress. What was happening to him, why was it happening?

His breathing slowed just slightly. "What does this necklace want to do to me!?"

It had to be the necklace's will after all. Such a thought felt so absurd, but in the back of his head he felt it was correct to assume to.

A sharp exhale exited his mouth as he felt a sharp heat enter his torso for a second. His shirt began constricting even more as he felt his own collar bone widen, his entire frame being made more wide and broad. The one button of his polo he had fastened started straining as a result, his frame clearly getting larger than his shirt had been accustomed too. Shortly after that the comforting warmth entered his torso as well. The light of the necklace's egg glowed brighter for a moment, Hugo beginning to feel a strange feeling well up inside him as it did so.

As the scales started to converge on his chest their color lightened back to its previous cream tone. Meanwhile, his chest began to swell in size. His pectorals got larger and rounder, packing on mass at a steady rate as his polo filled out more and more. It wasn't long until their thickening pressed up against his shirt, steadily testing its limits each passing second as his cleavage got deeper and more visible within the fabric. The new roundness of his pectorals were quite visible in general. The one fastened button of his shirt would suddenly pop off, unable to hold itself against the slabs of meat that were now his pecs.

Meanwhile the changes were running down his back as well. The back of his shirt was tightening as his trapezius muscles broadened and enlarged. A sudden surge zipped down his spine, the vertebrae decompressing and getting thicker steadily forcing his height to increase by a few inches over the course of the next few minutes. But the strongest feeling was in two points of his upper back, a massive pressure slowly mounting into them. Two bumps slowly rising from the skin-turning-scales, hard spikes emerging from those bumps and beginning to poke holes in the fabric of his shirt. This pressure only seemed to increase as time went on, Hugo stumbling forward a bit and hunching. He gripped his abdomen with his left arm while he grasped onto a shelf with his right, the sound of metal crunching piercing the air thanks to the strength of his grip and sharpness of his claws.

Hugo practically growled at the mix of senses he was enduring right now. "F-fucking hell-" his voice cracks slightly, sounding slightly deeper as it crackles. "W-where'd that comfort go…"

The warmth he was looking for still remained, albeit now drowned out by the insurmountable pressure in his back.

His abdomen started to churn, the region rippling as his entire lower half was consumed by scales. Hardened slabs of muscles arose from the area, abs pushing forward row by row. His shirt was riding up his belly during the process, his new muscles being granted increasingly better visible. It wasn't long until a solid eight-pack of abs formed. An even stranger addition occurred in his abdominal as well, golden gemstones formed on the perpendicular folds of his muscles: a massive diamond-shaped one at the bottom of his pectoral cleavage, a smaller one at the base of his first row of abs, and the smallest at the base of the second row.

Beneath a hand he felt his side getting indented as well, the muscles in his obliques shifting and gaining in muscularity, strengthening as his chest was barrelling out. All these changes tightened his polo shirt to an even stronger degree, the threads on his sides unstitching due his much larger body size. The size of his newly formed muscles had resulted in the crevices his muscles had produced being visible from indents in the fabric. Due to his increasing height the hem of his shirt continued to rise even more as well.

By this point, the holes in the back of his shirt has been stretched even larger by the formulating spikes. Although at this point the spikes had grown larger enough to prove themselves as the pointed ends of an external bone growth. This growth had continued to extend and expand, a pair of large triangular bulges swelling up at his back. Pressure just continued to build up as these bulges got larger and larger. More and more of the back of his shirt continued to tear, and the bulges gained more and more definition in their shape to point that they were proven to be more than just bulging scaley growths. But after a few more seconds of pressure building, everything came to one big feeling of relief.

“GGRRRAAAAGHHHH!!!” Hugo roared, the sound of splitting fabric piercing the air as his back was finally granted escape from its discomfort. What had emerged from the region was a pair of magnificent wings. They were draconic in appearance with the flesh and membranes possessing the same golden scales that the rest of his body had formed. Furthermore his newly developed wingspan was noticeably large, and as the new appendages curled into themselves it became evident that the fingers of his wings were long enough to descend down to the ground.

The young man could feel the heat of his blood pumping through the newly emerged wings. Strange tingles and sensations coursed through his nervous system as his brain was forced to get accustomed to them, and in truth he could feel his muscle memory rapidly getting used to having them there. Once all the pressure and tightness had subsided, Hugo shakily straightened his back and looked behind him.

“These… things…” he stated, his voice continuing to deepen in tone as he spoke. Like the feel of something commanding was seeping into it. “Why does… having them feel so… nice…?”

Finally unhanding the shelf in front of him, he moves a hand over to give his new wings a gentle caress. That desire to be afraid had been dispelled now, the man filled with a feel of familiarity at the sight instead. These wings were his, and this body…

This body is yours, a stray thought pierces his brain. The Celestial Egg is granting what you desire…

Hugo blinked a few times at the thought, and the pupils of his eyes seemed to get thinner which each blink. He then stops caressing the wing and pulls his hand over to rub a thumb on the egg that adorned the necklace.

“The Celestial Egg…” he whispered, the meekness of his earlier tone of voice almost completely replaced by an almost deific level of deepness. Meanwhile his mind dwells on the object and thinks about what it's done, what it's doing to him, and as he does so he feels a tinge of pressure at the base of his spine.

Instead of sitting around waiting for what he knew was about to explode from his body, he decided to just move his other arm behind him so he could push down the back of his pants a bit. It was a little hard considering his legwear was already at the point that it could barely fit around his waist, but he managed to push the top of his jeans just enough that he could let whatever pressure in his rear relieved itself without having to fight against his pants.

The act had unveiled a small, pointed growth at the base of his spine. Its size wouldn't remain diminutive however as pressure continued to build up within it, that pressure causing it to quickly extend downwards. At first it started out being rather thin and small, like an unimpressive snake slithering out from above the waistline of his pants. However after a few inches it became noticeable that the lengthening appendage was beginning to get segmented, and each segment was slightly larger in diameter than the last. Come ten segments long and it was undeniable that Hugo was gaining a tail, and it was only getting longer. Twelve segments, fifteen, eighteen, twenty two; all with a sequential increase in diameter by almost an inch. Come the mid-twenties and the tail would be about a ruler in thickness. A few more seconds and the segment count reaches the thirties, in which the rate of growth begins to slow down. Thirty two, thirty three, thirty four… then it comes to a halt at about thirty five segments. By then the tail’s width was about a ruler and a half, and the length itself could only be about four times that long. It also formed with the tail’s aforementioned pointed tip, a series of spikes running across the top of certain segments, and a shine from the golden scales adorning it.

Concurrent with the growth of his new appendage were the swath of changes entering into the lower half of his body. The sea of scales cascaded down all sides of his body, flowing down his waist and hardening the skin of his legs to match the nigh-reptilian nature the rest of his body was garnering. Beneath the shifting scales on his thighs were his muscles which, just like in his arms, were in the process of bulking up and discarding their once skinny appearance. His quads and hamstrings grew in conjunction with each other, absolutely bulging in strength as the denims of his jeans were forced to strain against his rapidly developing musculature. At the back of his legs were his gluteus muscles, them too in the process of swelling up to the point his rear was rounding out a fair bit.

Pressure surged throughout the bones in his legs, and the bottoms of each pant leg rose up the crus of his own limbs indicating that more height was being added to his body. All the while a low heat burned in his calves, those muscles also ballooning out of the back of the lower half of his legs. By this point all the crevices that divided his muscles were indenting into the material of his pants, splits and tears forming in the sides of his jeans and revealing the shining gold his body had attained. It was like the changes had finely sculpted his form to a body type akin to the Grecian marble statues, except looking like he himself was worth billions.

The final change in his body’s lower half came to his feet. By now they had already undergone a process to have grown in order to fit his new bodily proportions, larger and wider and thicker. His chunkier toes were pushing up against the fronts of his shoes to such a degree that the footwear themselves was bulging in its attempt to contain them. The heels of his own feet dug into the back of his shoes, and the sides pressed up against their sides. Even a few rips could be heard as the strings began to snap against the bridge of his feet.

And then came the sea of scales…

Once beyond his ankles the hardening of his flesh went from the pristiness of the rest of his form to getting mixed with a shade of vermillion around his feet. As his soles were covered in scales an almost reddish-orange hue formed in the area. Meanwhile the top of his feet seemed to practically harden as a scute-like segmenting broke apart the skin, perfectly dividing itself to align with the ligaments of his toes. And by the time this plating extended to the ends of his toes, an almost bronze shade of brown dispelled the translucency in his toenails as they gradually restructured and sharpened. Rips could be heard from the cloth of his shoes as a quintet of pointed claws emerged from the front, curved and pointed and almost bestial.

Yet none of the sounds of his clothing shattering or the feeling of his form practically improving on itself were as much a distraction for Hugo as they could have been. All during that segment of the transformation his mind was instead focused on his own thoughts. Because the longer the changes are pressed on, the more his body becomes less human, the more information his brain seems to attain. The more the Egg puts into his mind to make his mentality compatible. And he knows it's the Egg that was doing this. His mind registers it as his unique Sacred Artifact.

“Holding all that is and ever was in the very palm of my hand…” the changing man speaks cryptically, a low and deep chuckle escaping his throat after he makes the comment. He could practically feel the power of his own voice resonating through the walls of his throat. Although that could also be from the scales rising up his neck.

A grin then forms on his face, any emotion he was feeling earlier cast away as a feeling of pure confidence had overtaken him. “…and out of everyone within you you're making me one of the most powerful there is? I should feel honored considering just who I used to be~”

He could only grin wider as he felt pressure wracking his very skull. He lets out a laugh of triumphant glee and exclaims, “Yes! Give me that visage and make this Ophion complete!” For a moment the Celestial Egg around his neck glows brighter as if in response to him, then Ophion (who has at this point cast out the name Hugo) continued to grin as his face finally began to push out with his entire skull structure shifting alongside it.

The way his skull was restructuring was a complicated series of events to say the least. The lower half of his face was being pushed forward, and his lower jaw seemed to be extending and growing to be a bit wider in size in comparison to the upper portion. That portion of his face would only continue to push out more and more into a muzzle, the very features of his face being reconstructed to fit this new development. His nose melted into the muzzle’s tip as the nostrils became holes at the furthest end, meanwhile his lips quivered as small portions of them reshaped into points and hardened as they did so. By this point his new snout was looking to be one that belonged to someone draconic in nature, much like how the rest of his body had. This was further proven by how the dome of his head was being reshaped, humanity rapidly being lost under a deluge of shifts that made his entire skull structure that of an entirely different species.

The shape of his skull wasn't the only thing changing either. As the scales washed across his head, rushing past his neck and circling the base of his muzzle, bony protrusions began painlessly erupting from certain areas of his face. On each side of his head a triad of bone spikes would emerge. The series of spikes just barely obscured his ears, which themselves were in the process of repositioning themselves to protrude at the sides of his head while also gaining an almost elfine pointedness to their structure. His eyebrows were quick to fade beneath the scales, quickly replaced by juttings of golden spikes that layered over yet another set of bone spike triplets that would rise from his browline. Even right in between his eyes a very small spike would emerge. And although these weren't spikes, a pair of short and pointed protrusions would extend out of both ends of his chin.

All while these changes had occurred, Hugo’s somewhat lengthy hair was being steadily sloughed off. With each inch of his scalp the sea of gold claimed clumps of hair would slip off his head. It's once luscious fullness thinned out, each follicle being shoved out at the root by his magnificent scales. As more of his hair continued falling off it would also reveal one last set of growths on his head. The first of which was rising from the middle of his head’s apex, a series of short brown spikes that would soon run down the middle back of his head. The second of these changes however was significantly more substantial. Two brown points erupted from a portion of the upper region at his head’s back, and those points were quick to grow outwards and upwards. Unlike the rest of his face’s pointed protrusions, these ones were noticeably less bony despite possessing an appearance of hardness to them. And as the duo of brown growths continued to rise out from his skull, diameter getting a little larger as they got longer, it was evident that he was gaining a pair of horns.

Perhaps the last major change came to Ophion’s teeth. The omnivorous nature of his humanity was quickly shifted, incisors and molars quickly sharpening to fit his new species well. The most drastic change would come to his lower canines though as the reasoning for his lower jaw’s protrusion finally came into tangibility. Much like the horns atop his head the left canine of the two lower teeth would extend upwards a fair bit while sharpening itself and, after a few seconds, shift into being more like a prominent fang. The rightward canine didn't get that luxury however as instead it seemed to practically atomize and leave the gum to harden and scar in mere seconds.

The pressure that had enveloped the anthropomorphic dragon’s head finally began to subside. A glint of red overtook Ophion’s irises as the pupils finally properly slit like a reptile’s. “This feels so… good,” he muttered to himself as he raised up a hand and gently caressed his own face. “Makes me wish I had a mirror to see just how divine I look now!”

Because at this point that's just how he felt: absolutely divine! His brain can register memories of a world beyond this one, a life beyond this one, all of which has been meshed and mixed with his own thoughts of his previous humanity. The Egg had taken his desire and, inevitably, went a bit overboard in fulfilling it. But Ophion hadn't cared, the personality overhaul he had garnered was absolutely wonderful! No more pitiful fears about how he acts, no more staggeringly low amounts of self-confidence, no more worries about… about how he can show his love to…

“Jace…” he whispered beneath a breath. The very name carried the same familiarity that it had when he was a human. And thinking about it… about him made Ophion’s brain register the same emotion the dragon had towards him: an intense feeling of love. But now that intensity practically burned inside him, he felt a devotion that not even those atop the System of Olympus could fell. It was an unquantifiable feeling and was something he just couldn't hold himself from expressing!

“I can finally do what I've wanted for so long~” Ophion proclaimed. He turns and takes a step forward, but is stopped in his tracks almost immediately as he feels a knee of his pants split over his own. It was at this point that the dragon had finally taken full notice of his extremely ill-fitting clothing. His polo was somehow still hanging on for dear life, meanwhile his jeans were a few stitches away from ripping apart at the sides.

“I'm going to need something better than this if I'm going to look more presentable…” he sneered.

The Celestial Egg sparkled a bit and glowed for a few seconds, prompting his clothing to sparkle themselves as a bright light enveloped them. A few seconds later and his clothes would begin to grow, expanding over his form so they could all cover him properly. The hem of his shirt was quick to descend over his abdominal region as the entirety of it enlarged enough that his muscle mass wouldn't indent so intricately into the fabric. But then a different change occured, a deep brown beginning to overtake the coloration of the shirt at a rapid pace. As it did so the small placket of the polo began to extend down the middle, golden buttons lining it but not even bothering to fasten themselves. The once small collar would also lengthen, popping itself upwards as it raised higher and higher. And as the shirt’s split finished its full formation the entirety of the shirt would open to now fully reveal his muscled torso. Meanwhile the back of his shirt was seemingly being restitched, the giant hole formed by his wings altering to become more intentional rather than a byproduct of the appendages tearing through it.

The sleeves of the shirt weren't left unscathed as any rips were fixed almost instantly. The constricted feeling was alleviated, changed to a more snug feel as they more comfortably outlined his upper arm muscles. By the time the sleeves were enveloped by the brown coloration they would also bulge as if they were simultaneously extending in length while still trying to contain themselves to their shortness. This would eventually manifest in the form of his shirt sleeves now taking a rolled up appearance.

A similar discoloration had entered his enlarging pants, although this time it was more beige in tone that was enough to shift the denim into a different and finer material. The shifts within his legwear were a little less intense as they would also only enlarge enough to allow movement yet still be tight enough to outline his muscles, all while fixing themselves of the damage his unexpected growth in muscle had incurred. The button that held the jeans closed gained a golden tone, as did the zipper, both of which being left completely open despite the fact his pants fit him now. And with no belt the only thing that held the jeans on his body was a pair of suspenders that snaked from over his shoulders and down his torso before promptly buckling on his legwear.

The last piece of his attire that remained were his shoes which after being enveloped by the Egg’s magical light… straight up dematerialized into motes of light and leaving his feet bare. The motes of light didn't disappear however, instead floating upwards and behind the dragon before seemingly rematerializing into something else entirely. Fine silken material layering onto his back, amorphousness quickly dispelling as it gained a menagerie of whites and browns, all with trims of gold lining. It was hard to fully realize at first but it would seem that some kind of suit jacket had manifested behind him, being worn casually as it was just clinging onto his shoulders.

With that the Egg’s glow finally dimmed, Ophion now sporting a look that could only be described as both distinguished and casual. With a smile he held the Artifact with two claws and brought it to his face. “Really abiding by all my wants today, hm?”

For once the Egg didn't shine in response. The dragon wasn't expecting any though, so he unhanded the object and let it drift back to hang over his chest. He then sauntered forward, making his way out of the aisle… and into the eyeline of a very awestruck Maurice who was still behind the counter.

“Was wonderin’ if I needed to check on ya’...” Maurice commented as he made eye contact with the anthropomorphic dragon.

“Does this not happen often?” Ophion inquired as he stepped forward towards the counter. “I can practically smell the stench of anomalous magic from this place now…”

“Err…” Maurice looked away.

Ophion chuckled. “Do not think I give much of a care with what you do here. Although I do give thanks for your wares allowing me to attain such a brilliant form~ I don't think I've felt this great in ages!”

“Uhuh…” Maurice nodded, face still in a mix of awe and surprise. “Well, that’ll be-”

“I'll be deciding the price here…” the dragon practically demanded. He fished around a back pocket for a bit and pulled out a wallet, although upon opening it he was greeted with his former self’s image in the ID photo window. “…and I have a feeling I won't be here for much longer.”

Ophion then placed the wallet onto the counter, then turned to make his leave. “Thank you for your help, Maurice! Your actions shall be etched into my memory for as long as time flows!”

Maurice is just left dumbfounded as he watches Ophion leave the store and, after a good few seconds, jet into the air as one would expect a dragon to do.

“...still not quite sure how to process that,” the storeowner muttered as his gaze drifted to the wallet the dragon had left behind as payment.

----------------------------------------------------------

The sound of a blender pierced the air of the apartment, Jace idly watching as the fruit within the object was shredded into a fine paste. He was never quite sure how to spend days off from work whenever he was left alone. Especially since he had his hopes on spending the day with Hugo, but it was almost 5PM and Hugo hadn't gotten back from his mysterious shopping trip yet.

The apartment falls into silence and Jace eyes his phone. Not even an indicator that his last text was read. “What could he be doing…?” the man muttered in concern.

Then the melancholy serenity of the room was broken in an instant by the sound of a thump from the apartment balcony. A giant shadow being cast through the glass, easily visible from the kitchen’s adjacency to the balcony door.

“Uhhhh…” Jace backed up a bit, eyeing the shadow with a slowly building fear in his chest. He couldn't make out what it was, it was just large and… monstrous?

He then hears the balcony door slide open. A sound that prompted him to turn around and scramble for a knife or something to-

“Jace…” a deep voice called out, interrupting his actions. Jace promptly squeaked in response, heart rate skyrocketing. He very slowly turns around to see the form of a golden-scaled musclebound dragon anthro staring straight at him.

“Wh-what are you?!?”

The dragon tilted its head, a spiky brow raised. “How undignified, I probably should've…” he shoved a hand in a pant pocket and pulled out a phone. “Please give me a moment.”

Jace just stood there in fearful silence as he watched the dragon futz around with their phone, the sound of claws tapping on glass being the only thing fully heard in the apartment. Then after a few moments a look of satisfaction formed on the dragon’s face.

“Here,” the dragon held the phone out, its wallpaper fully visible to Jace. The man’s eyes widened as he saw the image: a picture of himself and Hugo. This was Hugo’s phone.

With a shaky step forward Jace began to verbally panic. “Where did you- what did you-”

A look of realization then formed on the dragon's face. “Jace, my love, it's me. Hugo.”

“Your love???” Jace exclaimed, eyeing up the golden dragon with some level of fury in his eyes. “I don't- you can't be! For one, Hugo’s a human!”

“Was, I was a human,” the dragon corrected. “It would be hard to explain it all fully but,” he raised up a hand and tapped what looked to be an egg that was hanging around his neck. “This? This changed me into this glorious form.”

Jace was far from convinced though. “Please, people don't just suddenly transform into dragons! You- you have to have done something to him-”

“Our anniversary is in two months, the receipts for the bracelet you bought me for it are in the dresser next to our bed, and you’re still trying to reserve a date for that one restaurant with the shrimp,” the dragon listed out in rapid succession. He then stepped forward with his arms outstretched. “Now do you believe me, my love? Or must I go into your personal confessions?”

Jace swallowed a lump in his throat. All those things the reptilian spoke of were correct, and there's no way he could've garnered that information unless he was somehow spying on the two of them. “I-I was hoping you wouldn't have noticed any of that!”

“We live in an apartment, love,” the dragon, Hugo apparently, stated as he leaned over the kitchen’s island. “It's almost impossible to hide such sensitive information.”

Jace just nods as he stared into Hugo’s eyes, and just looked at his draconic visage in general. He appeared so nonchalant, so calm, and his face seemed to look more tender the longer he looked at Jace.

“I'm… still trying to process this,” Jace began leaning onto the counter behind him. “How the heck did you get that… thing that transformed you into this, Hugo…?”

“I'd like to start by saying I go by Ophion now. In truth I was trying to find an adequate gift for this coming Valentine's Day,” Ophion began to recount. “I found an interesting antique's store a few days back and decided to pay a visit today. Although in truth it seems that place is some kind of front for magical artifact vending but well…” a somber look formed on his face as he took hold of the necklace’s egg and held it into view. “Truthfully I've always felt like an inadequate lover to you. I was hoping to get you something that'd prove myself, and perhaps make up for my lackluster approach to our relationship. Once I picked up the Celestial Egg it resonated with my desires and made me into this. Transformed me physically, mentally…”

The dragon leaned a little closer, a fervorous look in his eyes. “Perhaps it even deepened my love for you…”

Jace let out a sharp exhale, then stepped forward to gently caress Ophion’s face. “Hu- Ophion. You don't have to give me some trinket to prove your love to me. And truthfully for me, I never found you lackluster at all! Perhaps a little neurotic but, you were always still a wonderful person…”

He then gave the dragon a kiss on the snout.

“...but I should really ask if you feel better about yourself?”

“I do,” the dragon confessed. Ophion lifted his head out of Jace’s grasp and straightened himself up. His form from the waist up was visible from behind the kitchen island: strong muscles, glistening scales, those weird crystals embedded in his body. Jace couldn't even help but give a glance at Ophion’s wings, the man wincing at the thought of having to suddenly grow those. Nonetheless, the golden reptilian had a certain confident aura that Hugo seemed to always have trouble mustering.

“I can't say I'm the same person I was as a human,” Ophion admitted. “The way this Egg works, it put so much into me to make me fit an identity I desired. But I will also admit a fraction of that was because I wanted to be able to better show how much I love you, my love~”

“I don't think you had to change yourself into a literal dragon to show how much you love me,” Jace said with a laugh. “I'm glad you're happy though. I will admit I'm getting used to being called your love, it's so dignified!”

He then paused. “Now how will we explain to the landlord that my boyfriend has become a real life scalie…”

Ophion let out a hearty laugh. “We don't need to deal with that now…” he then walked around the counter to properly stand near Jace. “It's just me and you, today~”

Ophion then brought Jace into a warm embrace. This mostly meant Jace was being pressed up into the dragon's meaty pecs as he was put into a hug. It made the man blush a bit…

“Now then…” Ophion’s voice lowers to a whisper, and Jace could feel himself being lifted. “How about I show you how a universe can be made…?”

Jace raised a brow. “What's that supposed to mean?”

Ophion just chuckled, and Jace turned his head and found himself being moved out of the kitchen. It took a few more seconds for him to fully register what was about to happen as he realized they were moving into a hallway, and everything finally clicked.

They were heading to the bedroom…

#character tf #tf #transformation #muscle growth tf #species tf #bara tf #male transformation #reptile tf

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anxiously-unsatisfied-world · 3 years

Text

No Cuddles For a Week

@tdbkweek21 / Entry 2: Punishment/Savior

Pairing: Todobaku Warnings: Arguing/Yelling, Sickfic (Nausea) Word Count: 3195

A/N: Entry 2! As much as I chose punishment for the prompt, it’s like more of a bet than a punishment so -shrugs- I guess it’s close enough ^^; Hope you enjoy! <3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I can't believe you would do something like that!" Shouto yells the second they're back in his dorm room.

"Chill out, Shouto. It all worked out in the end." Katsuki leans against the door, watching as his boyfriend paces around the room.

Shouto whirls around and stalks toward him, pressing him up against the door. Normally, Katsuki'd enjoy this position, but not when the temperature is fluctuating so rapidly like Shouto can't decide whether he wants to freeze him or set him on fire more.

"Oh, yeah?! And what if it didn't?? You think I would have wanted to see you get injured in front of me? Or captured again?" The 'or worse' isn't said but both of them hear it anyway.

Katsuki winces as it becomes clear that Shouto's not angry at him, not really, but is some combination of concerned, afraid, and relieved. "No. I don't think you would have. But come on, everything's fine, babe. We saved the day back there. There were no casualties."

Shouto deflates a little and presses up against him. Katsuki curls his arms around him, a hand drifting up and playing with Shouto's hair softly.

"There could have been…" Shouto mumbles after a moment. "If that didn't work out like it did, it could have gone so badly."

"I know." Katsuki lightly scratches Shouto's scalp, sighing softly when Shouto relaxes some. "I'm sorry. I can't promise I won't do it again, but I'll consider other options first."

"I guess that's all I can ask." Shouto nuzzles into Katsuki's neck, clinging to him for a moment before huffing softly. "You make this so difficult." He mumbles, almost petulantly and Katsuki can't help but snort as he lifts him up to carry him to the bed.

"Oh, yeah. How so?" He settles them with Shouto in his lap, chuckling a little at the pout on his boyfriend's face.

"You calm me down so easily. I had this whole punishment in mind but now I don't think it's worth it anymore."

Katsuki raises an eyebrow and nudges Shouto lightly. "A punishment, huh?"

Shouto rolls his eyes and shoves gently against Katsuki's chest. "Oh, hush. It wouldn't be anything fun. You know you're not supposed to enjoy a punishment after all."

"What would it have been?" Katsuki asks and Shouto chuckles a little as he curls further into Katsuki, tracing his fingers over Katsuki's cheek.

"No cuddles for a week." Shouto chuckles again at the way that it's been less than ten minutes since their argument and they're already cuddling. There's no way they would've lasted a week. Even if Katsuki could manage it, Shouto has a feeling he would've caved before the week was up.

"Ouch, princess. That's harsh." Katsuki says, drawing Shouto in further. "Doubt you would last the whole week before ending the punishment early."

Despite having thought the same thing himself, Shouto narrows his eyes at the competitive tone, feeling like he needs to defend himself. So he does.

"Like you wouldn't be suffering either. Need I remind you who starts most of our cuddle sessions?" Shouto raises an eyebrow as he looks Katsuki in the eye.

"Uh, yeah, that's you, princess. Hate to break it to you, but I know how affectionate you truly are under that icy exterior. You wouldn't last the week." Katsuki challenges, smirking when Shouto sits up sharply.

"Oh, yeah? Wanna make that a bet? Loser does one thing the winner wants, no matter what it is."

"You're on," Katsuki says and they shake hands. "However, this should start tomorrow so that it's a full week."

Shouto glances at the setting sun outside the window and nods. "That's fair."

This was about to be the most difficult/interesting week they've had in quite some time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nothing changes immediately the following day. They don't usually get to spend a lot of time with each other between classes and training and the same is true of the first day of their bet.

In fact, they make it well into the evening without it being a problem, caught between homework and studying with their respective friends. Even the fact that it's a scheduled movie night with their classmate doesn't phase either of them.

Katsuki goes to sit near Kirishima while Shouto sits with Midoriya, receiving a confused look almost immediately.

"Um, Todoroki-kun? Are you fighting with Kacchan?" Shouto shakes his head and Midoriya frowns a little. "Then why aren't you sitting with him?" His eyes widen and he waves his arms around. "Not that I mind you sitting with me! It's just you guys tend to cuddle during movies…"

"I know. But we're in a bit of a challenge right now." Shouto says with a small grin. "To see who can make it through the week with no cuddles without caving."

Midoriya starts laughing at that, apologizing when everyone turns to shush him and muffling his laughter with his hands until he calms down. "I'm sorry!" he whispers to Shouto, who waves off his apologies.

"I know, it's not an easy bet, but it'll certainly be interesting."

"Mhm." They turn their attention to the movie then.

After the movie, Shouto starts to go through his normal routine, freezing at the fact that the no cuddling rule renders this little habit obsolete. Normally, about an hour before Katsuki goes to bed, they meet up to talk and cuddle. It's a good way to get out any stresses they had that day before going to sleep, but now that's not really possible… Is it?

He pulls out his phone and texts Katsuki.

S: So, are we still meeting up or does the bet negate this? K: Why would it? … Oh yeah… K: Still, you can come over. We can still talk, just no cuddling this time.

Shouto nods and almost forgets to confirm that he's coming before pulling on some comfy clothes and heading down a floor to Katsuki's room. When he arrives, he almost instinctually crawls into bed beside Katsuki before remembering himself and sitting at the foot of the bed, leaning up against the wall.

It's weird for a moment but they settle into it, the whole process of getting to talk to each other still being relaxing. In fact, they get so into it that they nearly forget that there's a no cuddle rule in the first place aside from a few idle thoughts.

When Katsuki's alarm goes off, Shouto stands up with a soft chuckle. "It is a bit weird for me to leave so promptly, huh?" Katsuki nods, both of them thinking about how neither of them wants to stop cuddling when it's time to separate for the night.

Shouto walks over and kisses Katsuki softly before turning to leave. "Goodnight, love."

"G'night," Katsuki mumbles back, causing Shouto to smile as he leaves the room, returning to his own dorm.

As he's preparing for bed, he receives one text that makes him smile.

K: The bed's too damn cold…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The second day is much the same, but it's a little easier without the movie night reminding them that they can't cuddle together. But the third day, it's like everything that could go wrong is.

First, Katsuki wakes up late, which throws the whole day off. Normally, he has time to go for a run and cook a basic breakfast for him and Shouto (and the rest of their friends but shush, he just makes 'extra' even if that is enough for everyone else). But now, he's barely got time to get up and get dressed before he has to leave the dorm.

If that had been the only thing wrong, then he would've shrugged it off as a weird occurrence and went on with his day, but no.

During one of his classes, he realizes that he left his assignment back in his dorm, leaving him unable to turn it in on time. Thankfully, the teacher understands when he talks to them after class and says that he can turn it in the next day for full credit, but only because he does this so infrequently.

During training, his gauntlets malfunction for some unknown reason and end up literally blowing up in his face, causing him to mess up the task for the day. But then he has no problems for the rest of class, so he doesn't know whether that was just a fluke or not. Still, he'll have the support course students look at them just in case.

His bad luck chills out a bit after school ends, but that's mainly because he doesn't have to patrol today, so it's back to the dorms for him. Thankfully. He honestly believes that he had gone out today that something would go wrong given what's happened so far.

Normally, on a sucky day like this, he would call Shouto to his room a bit early and they'd cuddle more to calm him down, but that's not really an option, is it?

Part of him is tempted to just call the whole thing off so he can cuddle his boyfriend, but the other part really wants to see if Shouto could even last a full week without cuddles.

The rest of the evening proceeds as normal, his bad mood lightening some when he gets to talk with Shouto and see how sympathetic and concerned his boyfriend is. On anyone else, that kind of expression would just make him angry, but he knows Shouto genuinely means it and it's become very comforting to him.

He also notices the way Shouto half-reaches out to him before firmly putting his arms at his side, causing Katsuki to smirk. It seems his urge to comfort him is at war with this whole bet, which makes him even more confident that Shouto's going to be the one to give in first.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katsuki sits up with a gasp, clutching a hand over his heart, his breathing coming in short gasps. He shakes his head to try to clear the images from his dream, but they're persistent, clinging to him like a parasite to its host.

He flicks on the lamp on his nightstand and grabs his phone, already dialing the numbers before he has the conscious thought of who he wants to talk to. Not that it'd be anyone else.

"Katsuki?" Shouto asks, his voice sounding adorably sleepy and confused.

Katsuki tries to respond but all that comes out is a soft whimper, tears pricking his eyes at the confirmation that Shouto is safe, that what he had seen didn't happen.

"Katsuki? Are you okay?" Shouto sounds significantly more awake now and a mix of concerned and almost afraid, one that breaks some of the nightmare's hold on Katsuki enough that he can reply.

"Yeah, just… Had a nightmare…"

Shouto hums softly, the sound soothing some of Katsuki's ruffled nerves. Normally, Shouto would offer to sneak down to his room to cuddle him back to sleep, but Katsuki has a feeling that he'd have to offer that this time with the bet going on, and some part of him doesn't want to give up just yet even if that sounds heavenly.

"What do you want me to do?" Shouto asks, so obviously giving him that out that he could just reach out and take if he wanted.

"Just talk to me?"

"Alright." Shouto starts talking then, telling stories that Katsuki's heard before, but that doesn't matter now. The familiar tales soothe him and he settles under the blankets, letting Shouto's voice lull him back to sleep.

This time, he doesn't have any nightmares.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Day four isn't the most difficult day. It's no day full of bad luck for either of them, the main issue is just the weirdness of the whole situation. Shouto can't recall one time since they started dating that they've gone anywhere longer than two to three days without some sort of cuddle session, even back when Katsuki wasn't as outspoken about enjoying it.

So, it's weird to sit apart from each other during study sessions or movies that the whole class puts on to relax. It's even stranger to not cuddle when they're in Katsuki's room at night, but it's almost starting to feel normal now that it's the fourth day. Which is odd by itself.

Shouto finds it harder to keep his eyes off of Katsuki on the fourth day. The closeness would normally reassure him that the other's alright or happy, but he finds himself watching Katsuki just to do the same thing.

This finds him in the kitchen after their patrols are finished watching Katsuki stir some combination of ingredients in a bowl. He really should be working on an assignment right now, but it's almost hypnotizing. It's like all the stress melts off of Katsuki while he's baking, leaving him looking, for once, fully calm and, in Shouto's eyes at least, unfairly pretty.

"What are you making?" He asks, setting his pencil down and fully giving up on the illusion that he's working.

Katsuki glances up and gives a little shrug. "Cookies."

Shouto smiles a little, smug enough that Katsuki glares at him. "What are you looking at, peppermint?"

"Oh, nothing Just… Those wouldn't happen to be snickerdoodles, would they?" Shouto asks, playing the innocent card all while snickering mentally.

Katsuki freezes for a split second, causing Shouto to start snickering out loud. "So, they are, huh? Why? Is the lack of cuddles stressing you out?" Shouto says, teasing lightly and once again offering an out if Katsuki wants to take it.

"Pfft no." Katsuki sets the bowl down, a touch too hard, and starts rolling the dough into little balls. "Why would it be? I can make a week without cuddles easily."

"Uh-huh," Shouto says, knowing that he's bluffing. Katsuki tends to make snickerdoodles only when he's needing the comfort of his favorite childhood treat, so he's clearly more stressed than he's wanting to show. But Shouto respects the way he won't back down. If he were really upset, then he wouldn't let his pride get in the way.

"Can I--?" Shouto starts to ask but Katsuki shoots him a quick glare.

"Only if there's dough leftover, you greedy little shit," Katsuki says, rolling his eyes when Shouto gives him a happy look. Both of them know that he's going to leave some extra cookie dough for Shouto, but he doesn't have to admit it out loud.

Katsuki finishes rolling the dough into balls and puts the tray into the oven before dropping the bowl by Shouto's workspace, shaking his head slightly when Shouto immediately scoops some up and eats it. Katsuki turns to go clean up, but notices how little work Shouto's gotten finished while they've been here.

"If you can get that done by the time the cookies are done, I'll let you have two fresh out of the oven." He specifically doesn't say that Shouto gets a single cookie regardless, but he doesn't need to as Shouto nods, a determined look crossing his face as he gets back to work, letting Katsuki clean up.

Shouto does manage to get his work finished on time and they spend the rest of the evening together, not having to worry about class the next day. Though, both are worried about the extra challenge the weekend will bring since they won't have the excuse of training and classwork to busy them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shouto whines softly as he wakes up, burrowing under the blanket as his head pounds at how bright the light streaming in through the window is. He lays in bed for a little longer before getting up, wincing as he has to grab onto his desk to steady himself.

He shakes his head barely, regretting the motion almost immediately as it makes his stomach roll. It's clear that it'd be a bad idea even going downstairs so he just goes to the bathroom and brushes his teeth before crawling back into bed and grabbing his phone.

S: Kat… I don't feel good.

He doesn't immediately get a response, though the text has been read, and he's nearly fallen back asleep when there's a light knock on his door. Shouto whines softly but gets up to answer the door, smiling a bit when he sees Katsuki on the other side carrying container of soup.

Katsuki jerks his head in the direction of Shouto's bed and Shouto obediently goes and crawls under the covers. Katsuki sets the container on Shouto's nightstand and kneels down, brushing some of Shouto's hair out of his face.

"Mind eating some of that for me, Shou?" Katsuki asks softly, shushing him softly when Shouto just makes a face. "I know, but you have to eat something."

Shouto nods and sits up while Katsuki removes the lid from the container, handing the container and gesturing for Shouto to sip at it. Shouto does and realizes that the soup mainly consists of broth, meaning Katsuki guessed right at how he was feeling.

He's able to stomach about a third of the container before his stomach complains and he pushes it back into Katsuki's hands, who nods and puts the lid on it before setting it to the side. Katsuki looks at him with a contemplative expression before sighing softly.

"The bet's over." He says. Shouto gives him a confused look, the words not making any sense. Just because he's sick doesn't mean they can't still do the bet. "Shut up. I know you, princess. You're even more cuddly when you're sick and I'm not going to withhold one of the things that makes you feel better just because of a damn bet."

Shouto nods, leaning back in bed while Katsuki grabs Shouto's laptop off his desk and settles on the bed beside him. Shouto leans his head against Katsuki's shoulder while the other pulls up Netflix, picking Shouto's favorite movie before pulling Shouto properly into his arms.

They spend the rest of the day watching movies and cuddling with Shouto drifting in and out of sleep and breaks where Katsuki would go down to the kitchen and bring back more soup/eat his own meals.

"It is kinda funny though." Katsuki says while the credits of one movie are rolling. Shouto hums in responds and Katsuki chuckles a bit. "The one week we decide to do this, everything goes wrong and makes it even more difficult."

Shouto giggles a bit. "Yeah. I mean, it's supposed to be a challenge, right?"

Katsuki nods and presses a kiss to the top of Shouto's head. "Yeah, makes me wonder, though. If we can't manage a week of no cuddling while we're still in school, how are we going to make it through any week-long missions as heroes?"

Shouto yawns softly and nuzzles into Katsuki's neck. "Hmm, guess we should try to always be paired up. Then we won't have to go without."

Katsuki chuckles and picks another movie, figuring Shouto's not going to be awake for much of it the way he's acting. "Hmm, maybe. Rest, princess. We can figure that out later."

Shouto nods and snuggles a bit closer to Katsuki, falling asleep to the opening credits.

#todobaku #todoroki shouto #bakugou katsuki #bnha #tdbkweek21 #my posts

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spitandfroth · 4 years

Text

My Psychedelic Journey

Why take mushrooms?

What do they do to you?

I want to explain why I take them, my reasoning is not for everyone if anyone else at all! We all have our reasons.

So, Since being 16 i have taken drugs, started on pills, then coke and onwards. I had a coke & speed addiction for a 2-3 year period and often relapsing. I had consciously not taken psychedelics as i have known I've been mentally ill since being 20 and being diagnosed and given Prozac at that age. I was wary that i would have bad trips or i would be stuck on a trip. I just felt the risks were too high, especially taking medication and all the other drugs. Pretty sure i took LSD one night at a party was these green things and i was off my nut, i was in a different reality and i was quite honestly scared. i went skinny dipping in November at Great Yarmouth beach! So yeah it was a weird thing to happen and to this day can't remember what these pills/little plastic-looking things were or what i did with them, literally can't remember if it was paper or a pill. they were just in a bowl with all the other drugs.

I digress, several years later, I’d been clean maybe 1-2 years of all substances including weed, well maybe the odd joint but we moved somewhere we couldn't find a supplier! So we would have to make a 2-hour drive down to manchester just to pick up but eventually decided it wasn't worth the money in fuel. We were also skint which didn't help matters. We eventually found a supplier of weed and met new people who like us, liked drugs. We started sessioning on anything and everything. Mainly research chemicals as they were cheap and plentiful. m-kat hadn’t be criminalised at that point so we were importing large amounts of it. My friend, Xander decided to start making his own drugs. We were all sceptical about it but we trusted him. He made LSE(?) which is pretty much LSD but i think weaker, that trip was a nightmare as i spoke to my boyfriend just before the trip and i hadn't hung up and he heard me slagging him off...Anyway, moving on lol He made DMT one day, took ages. We had enough for the 3 of us who wanted to do it and my god, it's a short trip but it changed my way of thinking forever. I may revisit the DMT experience later. We did DMT a fair few times before i abruptly moved out as i ended the relationship with my boyfriend.

Now i did some research online, it wasn't as fruitful in results as it is today, we are talking 10 or so years ago. So came across mushrooms and some scant info on where to find them and how to take them. I went for a walk with the dogs, we lived in the middle of nowhere, 1500 ft above sea level (lived on top of hartside) and by a river and lots of sheep. Anyway, i started looking in sheep fields and soon realised that the fields were full of them! I would collect enough for a few doses at a time and dry as much as possible. I was taking shrooms 3-4 times a week including at times DMT.

So we’ve got to where i am taking them, i best explain why and what the effects were.

To be honest i took it as an escape. My relationship was a nightmare, he made me feel like death was my only escape. I had spoken to friends who had used psychedelics and they thought it might help me feel better. I had started being in pain a lot too at that point but not medicated for it. I was still taking meds but when planning i stopped taking them the day before. As Psilocybin is affected by SNRI’s. That applies to most drugs though tbh. it gives you a very high tolerance, you have to take more to feel it. Which could result in serotonin syndrome.

I wanted to search deeper inside myself, i had been interested in Buddhism and Krishna consciousness for maybe a year at that point and i saw it as a way of speaking to god. to confirm to myself that he existed. What i got was a revelation.

So using it so regularly means i can't remember each trip but i can give you what i learned and saw from those experiences.

I would take maybe 10g (its rough but 6 cup teapot with a handful of shrooms in) of fresh shrooms in tea. Tasted rank but get it down you! Then wait, and it is a waiting game!

I would sit cross-legged, often by the log burner, just close my eyes, listen to music and i would feel calm. A completely blissed feeling. An inner peace. I could see patterns and colours, swirling great vortex’s of colours and light. If i opened my eyes the patterns and colours overlayed the room and i would just forget i was in the room. I would see parts of my past, like showing me it wasn't my fault, that i should let go of trauma. I saw my present and it was like looking at my brain, black, covered in clouds and dying. If i touched it then there was a flash of colour. I saw the energy of the universe in front of me, glowing and pulsating in front of me, my heart beating with it, a feeling of supreme power came over me like i had been recharged. I was seeing my future, i saw the love i am capable of giving and receiving. It showed that my empathy wasn't a weakness and showed i was a good soul, It made me think deeply on experiences and learning from them, it cleansed me, it rewrote who i was. All hate drained from me. At peace with myself and others. The visuals were amazing, you can't describe it, you cant show the colours on a palette, you cant imagine the scale of this place. It truly was an amazing thing to do with my life for a year.

So it showed me a different me and overtime i morphed into that person. Today i am still hugely empathetic towards people. I have a kind and calm nature. I don't hold onto hate & i respect myself more.

However, i have decided i need to revisit the energy, i need its healing and recharging. I want to journey further and this time i get to do it with someone i love, my sister. She’s used drugs infrequently for a few years but like me, she has mental problems and wants to try shrooms more holistically than just ‘getting high’ and she thinks i can do that with her. I will be there to look after her, to experience everything with her. I want her to get to where i did and she sees life differently. That she grows as a person. It will be a very special journey that i get to be a part of.

So we reach the end of my epic. I hope you read it and enjoyed it. Maybe learn something, understand it better, i don’t know but most of all it's out there. Sharing experiences are a solid way of learning and getting to know someone.

Enjoy your mushrooms, be safe & enjoy your trip <3

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keishins-ukai · 4 years

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I Just Wanna Be Your Favourite Boy

(here’s a link if you prefer reading on ao3)

The amount of alcohol flowing in Kuroo’s veins was not enough to distract him from how pathetic all of this truly was . He was at his first University party, he was surrounded by beautiful people and free alcohol, he should be having the time of his life, right? Tetsurō sat in his friend’s garden with his back resting against the cold brick of the house, his head resting there too. His arms were balanced on his pulled-up knees, his eyes closed.

To any party-goers that ventured outside this would look normal, like the first year partied too hard and passed out super early – it's not like that kind of thing doesn’t happen all the time. Then they’d notice the earbuds still in his ears (though they weren’t playing anything, he just didn’t want to speak to anyone), the dry tear tracks down his cheeks, the ever so slight shaking of his chin. Well, that or the glitter-like sparkle that seemed to be all around the black-haired boy

Tears had become a very common part of Tetsurō’s life recently, a fact he hated with every fibre of his being. Six months ago, you would need the saddest song on earth put in the background of the saddest video on earth and he might have considered crying. Now all it took now was the thought of blond and black hair, golden eyes, mint vodka that smelled like his shampoo…

The stars hadn’t appeared until his first day of university. He had texted Kenma when he’d woken up - Kuroo always texted as soon as he woke up – some dumb chemistry joke he’d found the night before, trying to convey his excitement at finally starting his course. Kenma never usually replied immediately, though this day he did, though Kuroo didn’t actually know why (Kuroo would look back and see it as the first sign. Kenma told him everything)

Kenma had only sent a gif of a cat showing almost complete apathy, but Kuroo’s heart started racing nonetheless, mind spiralling at all of the possible meanings behind the response and never once landing on the real answer (Kenma just woke up earlier than normal). They’d texted a lot of the day, Kuroo only turning his phone off during classes, not wanting to make any bad impressions.

While it obviously hadn’t been the reason, in the following months Kuroo had started to blame turning his phone off as the inciting event as when he turned his phone on he got the notification, the moment that changed everything. It was so small, so seemingly inconsequential.

Instagram: Kodzuken has posted a photo

Kenma’s Instagram consisted mainly of photos from games he was playing, purposely unflattering pictures of himself or animals. But that day was different. He posted a picture of him and Hinata, and the orange-haired boy was positively grinning into the camera, Kenma wasn’t even smiling but Kuroo could tell he was happy, that he was less stressed than he had been for a lot of the summer.

Kuroo knew that what he told himself was unfair, that there simply wasn’t enough data to support the idea of ‘he likes Shōyō more’. But none of that mattered, Kuroo just knew. He didn’t need evidence to prove that Kenma had feelings for the shrimp, the ever so slight dimple was proof enough – even Kuroo had only seen that dimple once, and he wasn’t the one who bought it out.

Crying in the men’s bathroom, as it turns out, is neither very comfortable nor as discreet as one would imagine, though that didn’t matter to Tetsuro as the itching and burning sensation was the only thing he could think about. ‘What the hell is this?’ repeated in his mind as he did his best to stop the small glass-like crystals from falling to the floor and creating even more noise. After spending what felt like an eternity researching what could possibly in all hell be happening to him he moved, hating the quiet twinkling sounds in his pocket.

‘Of course this would happen to me.’ Kuroo would think to himself repeatedly over the next few days ‘Star fucking tears’.

Stars Tears

Caused by intense but unrequited love, always romantic, ‘star tears’ is a rare condition wherein the afflicted will secrete small crystalline shards from their tear ducts, the crystals often being compared to stars which is where the illness got its name. Side effects from stage two ‘star tears’ can include

- Leaking tear ducts

- Dryness of the eyeballs

- Itchiness in the eye area

- Blocked tear ducts

And in some extreme cases

- Partial or complete colour blindness

- Partial or complete sight loss.

As the disease is caused by unrequited love there is no ‘mainstream’ treatment which can cure this, some patients never being cured while others were reportedly healed if the person they loved also loved them back, in a romantic sense.

Even though he was aware of how bad an idea it was, Kuroo remained sat in his friend's garden, though now his earphones were playing something. More specifically he had his ‘Kenma’ playlist on which was playing all of the songs and bands that the shorter boy had ever introduced him to. They were playing at full volume to drown out his own thoughts - the ones nibbling on his mind, making him think of lazy nights playing ‘Majora’s Mask’ with him , of the nights leading up to Christmas making their cinnamon and raisin cookies, of the toothbrush that had been Kuroo’s spare but that he’d stolen because of their frequent sleepovers.

He really didn’t want to cry again, having decided that his new rate of three times a week was far too much, but the stars demanded more still. In the beginning, they would only appear if he’d seen his face, whether it be over skype or as a photo. That had been remarkably easy to handle - Kuroo had just moved all of the photos of him to the ‘hidden’ folder on his phone, and minimise the skype screen when they talked. Easy.

But then Kuroo started to really miss him, started to think of him almost every moment of the day, affecting his sleep and work schedule. That’s when he realised how truly fucked he was. You can’t just pick and choose what parts of friendship you want to participate in and expect it to remain completely intact. Kenma didn’t know what was going on, but he could sense a change, making more of an effort to start their conversations, to not leave Kuroo out of what was going on his life, to make sure that the elder knew that they were still friends.

It was unfair how this made everything worse, that Kenma’s thoughtful inclusions made Kuroo feel more excluded than ever, made him feel both like he had a chance and also made him know that Kenma saw him as his closest friend and that he wouldn’t be more. Kenma had always worried with his crushes that initiating things with them would scare them off, that he would be seen as overbearing. Rather than risking anything, he would just wait until he thought the other would like him back before asking them on a date.

The tears started to increase, them coming at just the thought of Kenma when Kuroo hadn’t got any prevention methods. His most effective was to drown out any other noise with the sound of his own music, even investing in better earphones to ensure that he wouldn’t be hearing any other external noises. However, his playlist choice could definitely be improved upon since every voice, every chord, every bar had the Kenma Kozume seal of approval, making the task of not thinking about the boy almost impossible.

Not even twenty minutes alone and his mind wandered, going to almost every stop in Tetsurō’s brain before stopping at one that made his heart dance. If it were a book the edges would be folded, the spine broke, and some of the pages ripped just from the sheer amount of use.

“Stop looking at my ass!” Kenma had demanded, trying his best to wriggle away from Kuroo “This isn’t for you”. The blond wasn’t looking at him, trying to pretend that his attention was on the syringe in his hand.

“You’re the one who asked me to do this.” Kuroo reminds, reaching over for the injection. “And knowing I was coming over to do this you decided to wear trousers rather than shorts when all I need is your thigh, so…” Their eyes meet and the elder man winks.

Kenma’s face scrunches up in retaliation, fingers lingering for just a moment against Kuroo’s, placing the syringe gently in his hand. “What are you trying to suggest?”

He pretends to think for a second when he wipes a disinfectant wipe on his leg, knowing that he technically didn’t need to but also wanting to be as safe as possible. “That maybe you wanted me to see your ass?”

The youngers face calms into a neutral expression. “Dream on Tetsurō.” Despite being quite scared of needles, he had decided on having testosterone injections rather than pills or any other alternative, finding that needing to do injections more infrequently benefitted him more. He’d also figured that getting someone else to administer the injection would have negated his fear.

Kuroo had agreed, why would it be more difficult for an injection to occur when you’re not the one putting the needle in your skin? The answer; Kenma was a wriggler. He moved back on the bed every time that Tetsurō tried to move closer to him “Come on, kitten.” he chides, the pet name tacked on as a joke.

His only answer is a hiss, a literal fucking hiss, as Kenma tries to move his leg away again, but is caught by the ankle and pressed back down to the bed. Kuroo eventually managed to give Kenma his testosterone, despite the difficulty and found that when he went home there was only one thing on his mind. The hiss.

Most people who met Kenma Kozume thought he was polite, shy and awkward. And he was all of those things, but he was also so much more. He was funny, intuitive, self-assured and weird and Tetsurō loved that so much. As soon as he thought the word ‘love’, everything seemed to make sense. Every look that lasted too long, every thought replaced by one of Kenma, every feeling of longing to be with his best friend.

Tetsurō was in love with his partner in crime. He still is.

Rex Orange County is a band that frequently blasts on Kuroo’s phone, them having many songs that fit the themes of unrequited love so well that he had no choice but to really connect with their music. Though there was one song in particular that is constantly on his mind, the song being called ‘Best Friend’.

At some point in his reminiscing Kuroo had put on the song, immediately pressing the repeat button as he moved his head to stare into the night sky.

But no, it wasn't meant to be and see, I wasn't made for you

And you weren't made for me

When he was younger he’d wanted to be an astronomer, having found the stars and the moon fascinating, but he couldn’t stand the sight of them anymore. His hands were shaking, shoulders shaking, lip shaking. Maybe if he got some closure he could move on and get rid of this disease, finally feel whole again.

Love someone for loving you instead of someone really cool

That makes your heart melt

Tetsurō needed to turn this song off, to stop fucking thinking about him, about the man he had literal scientific proof that he doesn’t love him back, but the pure boost of serotonin he got when he thought about Kenma was worth it. It was worth the pain, it was worth the constantly itchy eyes, it was worth feeling sick to his stomach anytime he sees a twinkle.

Oh, I still wanna be your favourite boy

I wanna be the one that makes your day

The one you think about as you lie awake

He started typing the text before he could stop himself, feeling like he was watching himself make this extremely poor decision but having absolutely no power to stop himself. Even if it wouldn’t make Kenma love him it would be cathartic, right? And as long as he’s vague enough he could preserve their friendship, maybe even claim plausible deniability if necessary. The text read: ‘listening to this and thinking about you’ along with a link to Best Friend.

Kenma’s response was very short, only three words but enough to send his heart into a tailspin, for it to stop completely in its tracks, to make him feel like he’d never breathe again. ‘I’m dating Shōyō’

That night Kuroo lost the golden hue of his eyes.

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A special thanks to @wanderlustsky for beta reading this! it was amazingly helpful <3

#kuroken #haikyū!!#angst #star tears #no happy ending #best friend #rex orange county #haikyuu kuroo #kozume kenma #haikyuu kenma #kuroo tetsuro

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cadday · 4 years

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Collateral Damage Chapter 8

For a while everything just returns to routine. He gets up, goes on guard duty or assists infrequently in the labs, which really translates to picking at Even. Some days he trains with Dilan and Aeleus, some days he just trains the brat Lea, who is okay to have hang around when he isn’t mooning over the Isa. He sometimes asks his other heart resident questions and she answers kinda vaguely but from what he can tell she’s older than him somehow, and knows Luxu at least by name. She is also a key bearer who isn’t keen on Luxu doing whatever it is Luxu is doing. So makes her an ally. Which is good. What’s not good is her heart not getting much stronger and she sleeps most of the time more out of necessity then anything else. He worries she’s going to just vanish one of these days and there won’t be much else to be done about it.

Besides he concerns Radiant Garden remains, well, radiant. It shows no signs of falling to darkness as it is, and the few heartless interlopers they dispatch are few and weak. Braig still gets fidgety for days when they appear and he lurks in the courtyard until he catches sight of the little redhead girl on days where he thinks there are too many. She doesn’t ever seem to be in danger or missing from action so he tries to relax and stay some semblance of positive.

It’s freaking storming when things go wrong, because of course it is. It’s been more than a month since he’d been restored to just Braig and he should have known not to let his guard down.

At first Braig is loitering around the library, Ienzo was reading and Braig, with some assistance from Lea and Isa after he egged them on enough, had built a book fort around the other boy. They were trying to figure out the best way to make a doorway that didn’t collapse immediately when Aeleus came in the room, soaking wet and a little worse for wear.

“Braig something’s happened…” He’s up and running out of the library before Aeleus gets much more out. The man is hot on his heels though and quickly catches up to him to keep pace.

“Master Ansem, Even, and Dilan went ahead. They sent me back to get you, some little girl showed up in the storm and said that monsters had attacked them.” They ran out the door and into the storm and Braig cringed at the lack of visibility. Aeleus steered them off towards the residential districts and they slowed down when they were greeted by several people loitering around their doorways looking on concerned. They spotted Master Ansem, and Even at a smaller house down the street. The little girl was their clinging with Even’s labcoat wrapped around her awkwardly. They were all soaked from the rain and Even was kneeling next to the girl talking about something with a serious expression. Master Ansem looked less than happy.

“What happened?” They skidded to a stop and Braig noticed the house's windows were all shattered. He cringed before looking back at Ansem.

“The heartless returned and…” He glanced at the girl before frowning and stopping his thought. Braig could only guess that there was a reason the kid’s grandma wasn’t around. Dilan came out of the house then looking grim, he shook his head and Braig tried not to wonder if he could have prevented this. He felt something hit his leg and he stumbled a bit startled. Looking down he was greeted by the girl clinging to him for dear life. Master Ansem sighed.

“Now Kairi, it is going to be okay,” Ansem looked back at the house and shook his head. “She will have to return with us until other arrangements are made, we should at least get out of the rain before we all catch a cold.” Braig watched the rest of the apprentices watch the girl, Kairi, unsure of how to proceed and he sighed before picking her up.

“Well let’s go then. It’s freaking cold out here and I don’t fancy getting struck by lightning.”

The trek back to the castle was mostly quiet and Braig tried not to think about how young Kairi was and how she wasn’t much older in the time he had already lived through. Back in the castle Isa, Lea, and Ienzo were loitering around the entrance trying to not look concerned when they came back soaking wet with another kid. Master Ansem waved them off though, which only meant they kept lingering in doorways as they all took turns getting dried off and keeping an eye on Kairi. She was really quiet and Even said it was most likely shock. At some point Ienzo, Lea, and Isa had begun dragging in pillows and blankets, and a very ridiculous teddy bear to pile around her and eventually they all took to laying around the sitting room he was holed up in waiting to see what happened. Dilan and Aeleus had gone back to the street to see if anything else had been attacked or anyone for that matter. Even was falling into the role of fussing Dad again as he kept checking Kairi’s temperature and fussing around the sitting room until Braig got so frustrated with his fidgeting around he tripped him into the seat next to him. Braig was just sitting. Master Ansem had commented about Kairi seeming to recognize him and Braig mentioned meeting her on patrol, which apparently meant he wanted to help babysit. Honestly he preferred this to returning to the street, for one the rain sucked, but mainly he was having a hard time coping with, well this failure. Heartless taking hearts could mean Radiant Garden could still fall, albeit slower. Without the machine it could give them more time to stop it.

He would have to teach Kairi how to summon the keyblade. Braig didn’t really have much choice. The heart sent a feeling of agreement and he frowned slightly. Not right now though. The kid needed time to cope and Braig needed to figure out how he was going to explain any of this to the other’s if and probably when they found out what he was up to. Sure he would be able to explain training the kid as concern for her well being but well when the keyblade shows up there will probably be some questions. Eventually Dilan and Aeleus return with less than stellar news. Two families were missing from nearby houses as well as an older gentleman who lived alone next door. Broken windows and in one house the dining room looked like it had been splintered into a hundred pieces.

Braig wanted to hit his head on the wall. Instead he helped send the brat’s to their rooms for the night and helped Even as he set Kairi up in a guest room. She still wasn’t talking but their was not much else they could do tonight. Braig hoped the sunrise would bring a positive light back to the world.

“Kid my rooms two halls away okay, a left into the big hall and then another left. I’m the first door on the right. You need anything feel free to wake me up. If you can’t find me feel free to just yell until someone finds you. Lea yells when he's lost all the time as well so everyones used to it.” Kairi didn’t even look at him so he sighed, “Good night kid.” He shut the door and headed to his room to turn in.

The next week Master Ansem sets about trying to find a place for Kairi, and after exhausting family and friends as being unable or otherwise not around anymore, Kairi becomes a fixture in the castle. Which is convenient for Braig but makes Even get dramatically aggravated for a while even as he personally makes her and Ienzo chocolate chip waffles for breakfast that morning and then takes them shopping to get Kairi some things for her new room. Kairi is so little and it takes her some time to adjust as much as it does them.

She has nightmares. Screaming, crying terrors, in the middle of the night. They take turns based on who gets to her first really to calm her down. Aeleus buys her a night light shaped like a star. It changes colors and seems to help a bit.

Lea and Kairi get along remarkably well. He carries her everywhere and Isa indulges her just as much because it makes Lea light up like the freaking sun when he does.

Ienzo shows Kairi books and stories, and reads to her a lot. She likes stories of worlds, and different places. Stuff with happy endings and magical creatures. Her favorites have dragons, and her least favorites have princesses locked away or sleeping. The kids though are okay and Braig feels a little hopeful again. Seeing Kairi with the other kids though reminds him this kid is way too little to be fighting anything.

‘not safe if she can’t fight.’ And his weird heart friend is right but it still doesn’t make it suck any less. So Braig out of spite and because frisbees are not weapons, buys Isa and Lea real weapons. He gets a lecture for it about safety, sights christmas presents only to be told it’s the middle of summer but who cares, they were training them to fight anyway. Isa is not really thrilled at being given a weapon, he gets a sword because braig figures it’s close enough to what he used later and giving a teen a claymore seemed like the road to injury. Lea gets chakrams, because he can’t think of anything else to get the kid, but they're plain compared to the memories warring in his head and little more than bladed circles. The little turd actually complains they lack style and he tells him he can have nicer ones when he can use those properly.

Ienzo gets a book on magic because he feels guilty buying the other twerps things and not the younger boy. Ienzo seems at least happy with it and Even is just happy he didn’t get Ienzo a sharp thing he thinks.

Training Lea and Isa is equal parts awful and hilarious. They tend to alternate between being motivated and lazy and he finds while Lea’s style he get’s, kids bendy and fast and he can work with that, Isa kinda fights like he’s trying to break everything into a million pieces, for being so calm Isa has a temper just as much as Lea in a fight. So he starts dragging Dilan and Aeleus into training, and then pushing the little berserker in their direction.

This is fine for a while and he feels better when they all can defend themselves adequately. Heartless still came and went, they kept an eye on darker days and there were casualties but few and far between.

As time moves on Braig feels a little better about the changes, and starts to think less of what hasn’t happened. Aqua never does return, and he assumes the worst and adds it to his growing list of failures. Years pass and he teaches Kairi to summon the keyblade, with the guidance of the other heart, under the guise of meditation or some bologna. She proceeds to run around the castle showing everyone her giant flowery key. He pushes Even in the right direction into understanding what it’s for and not before long Kairi under strict supervision is riding Radiant Garden of heartless. They take turns going on jobs with her and the kid turns out to be a scrappy little thing in a fight. She’s all quick movements and dancing away from attacks. Lea likes sparring with her the most and they spend hours in complicated spars trying to wear the other out.

Braig still feel’s tense though and as he watches the kids grow up they get closer to another major point in his time that hasn’t happened. Ansem Seeker of Darkness might not even exist in this world, no Xehanort Terra meant no Xemnas so really they shouldn’t have anything to worry about...

#braig #xigbar #luxu #xehanort #kingdom hearts #fix it #kairi #lea #isa #aeleus #even #dilan #ansem the wise #axel #saix #lexaeus #vexen #xaldin #kairi deserved better #au #time travel

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goldenworldsabound · 6 years

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Yakuza!Wendy - Relationships

I wanted to think a little about yakuza!Wendy's relationships outside the Awakusu-kai. I think she was probably pretty lonely as an adult, because once she officially joined her grandpa's yakuza she cut ties with most people - she felt it was the right thing to do, for their sake. This is about people she met during high school. Turns out I have a lot to say so I’ll save the rest for later!

Kadota (and the van gang) They were pretty close in high school, mainly because when Shizuo would mess up some other high school's gang, those gangs would come looking for revenge. Both Kadota and Wendy were pretty well known fighters so they'd always go after them instead of Shizuo. Luckily Wendy and Kadota were more than capable of handling such threats. She cut ties after college, suddenly. I think eventually she runs into Kadota on the street (with the rest of the van gang) and their friendship is rekindled. She gets along with the rest of the gang too. Erika and Walker find out she runs a Poke'mon merch blog and absolutely lose it and adore her for it. Erika also wants her to cosplay A LOT (maybe she can be convinced eventually). Togusa is a little scared of her at first but decides that since she's more down to earth than Erika and Walker she's nice to have around after all.

Shinra She actually didn't cut ties with Shinra because he's an underground doctor, his life isn't more dangerous from having her in it. They have a lot of banter and she acts like he's supremely annoying but deep down she really cares about him. (When that Ruri stalker beats him up? She is ready to KILL)

Celty Because of knowing Shinra, she of course knows Celty. Celty was really excited to meet her back in the day because she could feel that Wendy had an odd power. They didn't talk too much, but they often had friendly sparring matches. Infrequently, Wendy would talk to Celty about very serious things (mostly when Wendy had an emotional breakdown over bottling everything up), but those times got less frequent as she grew older. Sometimes they see each other at work as well.

Shizuo Wendy is terrified of Shizuo and avoids him at almost any cost. The combination of having a crush on him in high school and seeing firsthand what he can do gave her some really weird feelings. She's also just terrified because he's one person she knows would destroy her in a fight. She will ALWAYS leave if he comes by, without a second thought.

Izaya Izaya is like, an acquaintance she sort of hates but can't seem to get out of her life, since he's a business partner with the Awakusu-kai. When they were in high school he asked her out, and she agreed, and it turned out to just be an experiment on his part. She hated that, obviously, and it really impacted how she viewed other people for a long time. She puts up with him now, but given the opportunity she'd punch him. Repeatedly.

#yakuza au #sharp lines and soft edges #not really but it's related to that verse so there we go #fic #sort of

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queenieofaces · 7 years

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When did you know?

This post has been cross-posted to The Asexual Agenda.

I have a friend who in the last few months has started questioning if they might be queer (although they’re still trying to figure out where exactly they might fall). They’ve been talking to me about it a fair amount, for obvious reasons. The other day, though, we were chatting and they asked, “When did you know?”

“Which part of it?” was my immediate reply.

“Any part of it.”

The thing is, this question should be pretty easy to answer. I have a standard narrative that I use for activism work, of course--I got my first crush on a girl when I was 15, got a crush on a guy a little over a year later, learned that asexuality existed a little less than a year after that,* but didn’t start openly identifying as asexual until my twenties.

Reality is, predictably, a whole lot messier.

Here’s a place to start: I don’t actually remember when I started identifying as a biromantic asexual. I came out to my second partner (who also turned out to be ace), and I remember saying, “Do you know what ‘biromantic asexual’ means?” so obviously I knew the term by that point. But I don’t remember actually seeing the word or thinking, “Oh, hey, that applies to me.” You’d think that would be a big realization, right? There are so many narratives about people finding words for who and what they are and having huge revelations and I have...zilch. I had read the page on asexuality years prior, so I guess I must have internalized romantic orientation as a concept, assigned myself a romantic orientation, and then...never thought about it again? I don’t think I have a bad memory so much as it was a non-event for me. I knew, but knowing didn’t matter as much to me as telling someone.

Or, there’s this: I got my first crush on a girl when I was 15. I don’t think I ever went through a period of denial--it was very much “oh, okay, I have a crush on a girl; this isn’t ideal but I guess it’s happening” rather than trying to write off my feelings. But, in hindsight, maybe it was easy for me to accept because I started experiencing some kind of nebulous attraction to girls starting...probably when I was 11 or 12 at the latest. (It may actually have been much earlier than that--my mom got really frustrated with me when I was about 4 because I wouldn’t stop kissing this girl I was friends with. She was frustrated not by the kissing itself but because the girl in question turned out to have chicken pox.) I took dance classes starting in my preteens, and there were certain girls who I really wanted to impress. Because they were good dancers, uh, yeah, that was the only reason. I really wanted to talk to them and have them like me, but I was so painfully shy that I mostly couldn’t manage it. One of them complimented my shirt one time and I kept timing my laundry so that I’d wear that shirt to class in the hopes that she’d compliment it again. In hindsight, holy cow, tiny Queenie, that’s maybe not the most heterosexual behavior, but I didn’t realize that until I was in my twenties. Before that point, it was just me having uncomfortably big feelings about people I wanted to be friends with (something I’m very good at).

Or this: when I was 12, I got into a big argument with my dad about whether or not there were too many kissing scenes in The Lord of the Rings. I told him that the kissing scenes disrupted the flow of the plot and were excruciatingly dull, and he made fun of me and told me that he’d be laughing in a few years when I was eating up kissing scenes like candy. I remember telling him that that wasn’t going to happen. (I was right. The kissing scenes in The Two Towers are still pointless.) Do we count that as me “knowing”? Or was that just young Queenie having a good sense of plot pacing?

Or how about this: I started being bullied when I was in my early teens because my peers knew something was off about me. I wasn’t interested in boys (I faked a crush on a boy at one point to get people off my back), found the constant discussion about who people like liked really boring, and said some blunt and kind of mean things in response to one girl who kept monologuing about how much she enjoyed making out with her boyfriend. She called me heartless and a monster, and I thought she might be right. I had figured out by that point that I wasn’t experiencing what my peers were and assumed there was something wrong with me. Do we count that as me “knowing”? (Does it matter if I “knew” before I had the words for it? Does it only count if I had proper words to put to the experience? Or does it count only when I had proper words and started expressing those words to other people?)

That’s not even touching the way the language I use has changed over the past 5+ years. I call myself queer now rather than biromantic--I’ll say I’m bi spec when I’m in bi spaces. I used to think I was attracted to men and women more or less equally--now I’m mainly attracted to women and non-binary people. (I haven’t been attracted to a man for...approaching a decade now. That might be for Trauma Reasons or it might be luck of the draw--I’m attracted to people so infrequently that I’m working with a spectacularly small sample here.) I’m much more likely to say that I’m greyromantic than demiromantic now. 5 years ago I used to be more upfront about being ace than about being biromantic--now people are much more likely to know that I’m queer but may not know I’m ace unless we’re close (or I feel the need to out myself by making an awful pun which, let’s be real, I’ve done multiple times). But I’m not sure that we can say that I didn’t know before--it’s just that language in queer and ace communities is constantly shifting, and I’ve shifted along with it. I’m always trying to triangulate who and what I am as precisely and concisely as I can, but sometimes it’s more useful for me to throw out “queer” than to kick off the hour-long conversation about how exactly attraction happens (or, sometimes more pertinently, doesn’t happen) for me.

A lot of the time being able to talk to other people about something is a bigger turning point for me than knowing that thing about myself. The first time I came out as ace was more important to me than discovering asexuality. Which is more important: knowing or being able to make known? Does it matter when I knew if I expected to keep that knowledge locked up inside me forever? Does it matter when I knew if I somehow managed to forget that moment of knowing, but remembered the moment of telling someone else?

Maybe “When did you know?” just isn’t the right question for me. It’s probably the right question for a lot of people, but introspection has always been my strong suit while expressing my inner monologue is less so.

So, here, let me ask you: When did you know?

*Okay, so if you want to be a detective and work out my exact age it is in fact possible to do that by going through this post and previous posts I’ve made. I’m going to ask that you not do that, or at least that if you do that you don’t post about it. I’ve been intentionally evasive about my age for complicated reasons that mostly have to do with protecting my privacy (people knowing personal information about me is very anxiety-provoking, she says, on a blog where she frequently talks about very sensitive stuff because wow anxiety is weird), but this post would be borderline incomprehensible if I continued to be evasive--“February 2011″ means a lot less than an age for this kind of personal narrative.

#actuallyasexual #asexual #ace safe #what the frick tags are people using now #I'm so out of touch #cross posted to the asexual agenda #queer ace #another leaking feelings post #I'm...so out of practice writing blog posts and it's so intensely obvious #anyway...here is a not terribly exciting post for National Coming Out Day

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aestheticdumpp · 7 years

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introduced and presented.

Each dignified event was as important as the last, but the week in which leaders and figureheads from all over the world gathered together was the most simultaneously exciting and nerve wracking. Royalty from each and every country came together for official meetings regarding alliances and trades and to boast prosperity.

However, Princess Holly of Fitzroy didn't care much for the business side of things; she'd never had much interest in the numbers and the specifics of it all, and moreover, it wasn't a lady's place to be involved. Or, at least, that was what the people of Fitzroy believed. Their princess was not entirely sure this was true, but she had no urge to combat it. It was not an issue she knew how to tackle.

And besides, it wasn't ladylike to do so.

They had been situated in a guest room, waiting to be presented to a grand ballroom filled with their noble peers. This year, the Week was in Dominica. She'd once met the Queen of Dominica, an elderly woman who referred to herself as the nation's grandmother, and had found her quite dear and charming, but knew no more of the country beyond that – except that she found it far too warm.

When the staff had told them that it was their cue to present themselves, Holly checked herself once over in the mirror – the headdress of baby's breath, small pink roses, and brilliant golden leaves sat in her long, curled red hair, pinned in places as if it fell naturally so; her dress, modest with its high neck, long sleeves, and full skirt, was a soft white colour, with small golden and pink detailing to match. She was pale, very much so, and had a minimal amount of makeup on, just enough to make her eyes bigger and bluer.

The very picture of Fitzroy tradition.

They entered the room and Holly surveyed the people as best she could without appearing as if she was doing so. She spotted the royal family from Rouge, their Grand Duchess sitting front and centre, and felt herself grow intimidated. Their culture was vastly different to her own; the women wore dresses that nearly bore their bodies, they all spoke loudly and out of turn, and would often shoehorn a parade or festival out of every celebration. It startled her. Not to mention, their Grand Duchess – Madison? – had been known to be both gentle and ruthless. She didn't know what to think.

Nearby, the royal family of Virginia were settling into their spot – they had entered just before her own family. Holly spotted Thomas, the Prince, and smiled at him subtly. He caught it, slipped her a playful wink, and as she felt her face flush, she saw him chuckle to himself. He'd been her longest friend and she loved him very much, and she was thrilled to see him again.

Holly wasn't given much more of a chance to survey the room when she and the nobility of Fitzroy had reached the royal Dominican family. The elderly queen sat in her throne, a thing of such ornate design, and smiled at them warmly. Holly's father, the King, greeted the woman with practised tradition, before she introduced the two men beside her.

The first was the smallest. His name was Sonny, and he was to be Duke as soon as his brother took over.

But oh, gosh, his brother.

His name was Usnavi, and his shoulder length dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail. He stood a head taller than her, and met her with the richest, most enchanting eyes she'd ever seen.

He had noticed her too; or at least, she corrected herself modestly, they'd happened to make eye contact. That was a start. For her, anyway. When he had greeted her, Holly had to remind herself to stay calm – they were in front of so many people! She couldn't be rude.

"Hola. I am Usnavi."

His voice wasn't deep and rich like Thomas', nor was it as crisp and proper like her dear friend George's, but it was almost musical to her.

"Hello." She stuttered nervously, taking his extended hand. "I'm Holly."

He'd taken her wrist to his lips, bending low to reach it, before smiling back up at her as he righted himself.

"So I've heard. I hope you enjoy our little performance later. Thomas says you love music."

She smiled brightly, letting out a polite giggle. "Oh, yes. So telling of one's culture, and yet so relatable for all kinds of people."

Usnavi squeezed her hand as both Holly's father and the Duke, her friend George, eyed them up. She had grown stiffer under their gaze, nervous. He gave her a charming, warm grin, before dropping her hand.

"We will speak later, I hope."

"U-uh. Certainly."

Several moments went by and soon enough, dignitaries were mingling, disappearing to other rooms, to balconies and to gardens, heading into a dining hall where a banquet had been arranged, and suddenly the room was quite empty. All that remained were the Grand Duchess – Holly was so sure her name was Madison –of Rouge, the Dominican princes, Thomas, herself and George, with a handful of squires and handmaidens, and some people from countries Holly had never been to.

George kept an arm around her until he was invited to dine with a few men. He turned to her, and she merely smiled at him, insisting he enjoy himself.

"But, darling-"

"George, you have all week to talk business and be respectable. Enjoy the frivolities."

The men disappeared quickly and as soon as George had turned a corner, she caught Thomas' eye.

Her dearest, oldest friend was approaching her rather quickly, excited to reunite after nearly three months of being separated. He lifted her off her feet in greeting and the redhead could help but laugh.

"Thomas! I'm so excited to see you! It's been far too long."

He grinned at her, taking a hold of her hands. "You're right. Come on, you've gotta meet some people."

Thomas offered her his arm and she took it, grateful he would indulge her in a little more Fitzroy tradition. He must have known how nervous she was. As they crossed the hall, he spoke quietly to her and she giggled, making small remarks back that caused him to laugh heartily.

Across the room, the eldest Prince of Dominica was talking to the Grand Duchess; they'd met on various occasions throughout their lives, and were able to call themselves friends. Perhaps not ones that were incredibly close, but ones who enjoyed each other's company very much.

The Grand Duchess turned to her friend, watching as the two least likely old friends embraced and laughed and walked closely.

"That's... odd. Prince Thomas is meant to be really... smooth. Relaxed. The Fitzroy girl, or so I've heard, is quite uptight."

"The whole culture is."

"Yeah, but you know what I mean. It's weird."

Usnavi grinned. "You're weird."

Madison rolled her eyes but smiled all the same as her friend lightheartedly teased her. They watched as the younger Prince, Sonny, clapped Thomas on the back and spoke to his redheaded friend amicably. Usnavi was watching her react to her brother, and Madison smirked.

"What, is Vanessa not enough for you?"

He huffed. "I don't like the whole arranged thing, you know. Abuela is trying to set it up. It's not... formally arranged. It just feels forced."

"She may as well be a concubine, Usnavi, all she wants is the money."

He eyed her carefully. "Don't I know it."

"Ayo, Usnavi!" Sonny called as he approached the two. He stopped in his tracks, gave a mockingly deep bow to Madison, who laughed in response, before straightening up.

"You gotta speak to the Fitzroy girl. Man, she's so easy to fluster. It's hilarious."

Usnavi raised an eyebrow, chuckling. "Are you bullying visiting royalty?"

"Only a little. But I'm cute and charming, so it's okay."

He darted off to take part in the banquet, and Usnavi turned to Madison. She looked up at him.

"Have you ever met her?"

"Before today? No."

Madison hummed, shrugging. "She's meant to be nice, underneath all that tradition."

"Let's go meet her, then. I have to say hello to Thomas, anyway."

After dragging the Duchess to her feet – Thomas was somebody, she believed, was enjoyed best in small, infrequent doses – the two approached the other pair.

Thomas and Usnavi shook hands, beaming at each other and falling into conversation very easily. It was something neither girl cared much for – Holly because it was not her business, and Madison because she didn't care.

She grew bored quickly, sighing. Best she take control of the conversation. "I'm Madison. I'm the Grand Duchess of Rouge. I was introduced before the two of you, so I thought I'd better introduce myself."

Thomas surveyed her quickly, carefully, not not subtly. He didn't care to be subtle, and this much was obvious from his magenta suit robes.

"Thomas. I'm the Prince of Virginia. Big place, large population. Known best for crops, mainly. We're–"

"Darling." His friend spoke up, taking his arm in a tighter grip to get his attention. "I'm sure the Grand Duchess doesn't care much for geographical logistics. She's just saying hello."

"Oh." He eyed her again, deciding the redhead was right. "Well, hello."

Usnavi smiled, containing a chuckle at his friend's expense. "You're Holly, right? Princess of Fitzroy?"

Holly looked up at him, a little startled, and nodded. "Uh, yes, your highness."

"You needn't use formalities with me."

"Oh trust me." Thomas interjected, "She needs to. It's best to just let her."

His tone was joking, prodding lightly at his friend, but there was a layer of something defensive over his friend, and Madison squinted, unsure how a man so obviously arrogant as Thomas could also be gentle and protective.

It sounded odd, but she didn't question it.

Holly blushed under the attention that was now focused on her, but she deflected it masterfully, asking Madison about her travel to Dominica.

They stood there and chatted for almost forty minutes before George had returned to fetch Holly. He introduced himself, barely, before whisking her out of the room, hand planted firmly on her lower back.

"Are they together?" Madison asked Thomas, assuming he'd be the man to know.

She assumed correctly. "Sort of. He's interested in marrying her for title and money, but her parents aren't very sure of him yet. He's a Baron, so there's some nobility in him, but the obstacle is that he's a major asshole."

Usnavi said nothing during the whole exchange, watching the retreating Fitzroy representatives.

"You alright, Usnavi?"

"Hm? Oh. Yeah. Let's go to the banquet."

Despite their slowly clashing personalities, Madison looked at Thomas for confirmation that Usnavi was indeed acting weird. One look at the Virginian assured her that he agreed, but they followed their friend anyway.

#royal au #usnavi #holly #thomas #madison

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