#tbh i actually though this lesson was kind of okay | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stellamancer · 1 year

Text

pairing: fem!reader x merman!satoru gojo

contents: more varying levels of anxiety from the reader, mentions of food and eating, satoru gojo is an absolute menace

notes: part ii! um, got a little delayed because i wanted to write a kiss scene... and also because i was fretting over characterization, over reader’s characteriztion, over gojo’s... he’s really hard to write i think. nuances, you know? hoping i did a good job. also somehow this chapter is?? longer?? than the last?? i’m surprised tbh. anyway, please enjoy.

word count: 5.5k (who the hell am i???)

previous chapter || masterlist

You think you might have made a really, really big mistake.

Last night, it didn't seem like a mistake, rather, it seemed like the right thing to do. Who knows who could have found him? What they would have with him? To him? It was better to have brought the merman home than to leave him to an uncertain and possibly cruel fate. You did the right thing; you were certain of it.

At least, you were until you woke up, greeted by the merman's smooth voice and his blue, blue eyes. Ever since then, it’s just been one thing after another with him.

Don't you know that merfolk need the water to be at a specific temperature?

Don't you know that the water needs to be at a certain salinity level?

Don't you know that thing you're keeping him in is far too small?

It's only been for a couple of hours, but you're already completely exhausted trying to keep up and accommodate his needs. To be honest, it's actually kind of overwhelming and you can't help but wonder if this is what it's like for people who adopt animals just because they think they're cute or something.

Not that you would call the merman cute.

Especially not after he’s spent all morning basically mocking you for not knowing anything about merfolk. You didn’t even know they were real until last night, so how could you possibly know the optimal ambient water temperature for a merperson? But you're trying, and hopefully that counts for something. Which is why you're standing in the doorway of your bathroom, holding a platter with a single, whole, raw mackerel on it, its dead eyes boring into your very soul.

Originally, you were going to grill the mackerel in question and have it for breakfast, but you’ve been so caught up in doing this and that for the merman that you haven’t had the time to eat, much less cook. It’s fine. You and Minori planned to meet up at that cafe off the beach that she likes, so you can just eat there even if you think their food sacrifices flavor for the sake of looking disgustingly photogenic.

Speaking of that, you should probably start getting ready soon. You’re supposed to meet up in a little over an hour, and you feel a little gross, still in the clothes you wore last night, plus you have no doubt that you absolutely need a shower, but before you can do any of that, you need to feed the merman.

His gaze zeroes in on the platter in your hands, realizing you heard him earlier (as if you couldn't— he's so very loud). He seems to perk up at the prospect of eating, but it doesn't last long as a frown settles across his features. You gulp. It feels like you're in for yet another merfolk lesson.

Finally, he asks, "Is that supposed to be… food?"

You nod slowly.

"For me?"

You nod again.

"I can't eat that."

"Wh-why not? What's wrong with it?" You almost demand. In hindsight, you should have asked, especially since Mr. Merman's seemed eager to point out every misstep you've made so far. You were so sure that the mackerel would have been acceptable that you didn't even bother. It makes sense for a merman to eat fish right? What else would he eat? Seaweed? Is he maybe vegan?

"It's dead," he tells you and though his tone is plain, you can see the amusement dancing in those beautiful blue eyes of his. "Fish are best live— squirming as you bite into them, their blood squirting—"

"Okay!" You squeak, interrupting his rather grotesque description. It’s way too early for any kind of gory stuff. "Okay! Got it!"

Well, that settles that; he’s definitely not vegan.

He grins, clearly finding enjoyment in your discomfort, and you try to tell yourself, again, that you did the right thing. You're trying your best, but the fact that it doesn't seem to be amounting to anything is frustrating. The merman's constant jabs and jeers at you and your efforts certainly aren't helping.

Neither is the distinct feeling of intense hanger that's starting to claw at you.

Maybe you should have a snack before you meet up with Minori.

The merman tilts his head, and you think maybe he's trying to look innocent, his eyes big and wet, his lips barely puckered. But the mischievous look in his eyes betrays him, making it clear that his aim is just to continue messing with you. "Oh, but—"

"Unfortunately," you interject again, exasperation seeping into your tone. You can feel your hanger about to violently consume you as you hiss. "I'm rather uneducated when it comes to merfolk food culture."

He just stares at you and it feels strange that he has no quip to counter you with.

Shit. Was that a bit much? You regret your words as soon as they're out of your mouth. Despite the merman's behavior, he doesn't entirely deserve to be on the receiving end of your ire. You really should have asked about his diet. And maybe gotten yourself a bite to eat while you were getting him that fish. It's not as if you didn't know you were hungry.

You take a deep, deep breath, hoping that fresh oxygen in your lungs can keep you sane for just a little bit longer. "Sorry. Just… is there— is it really completely inedible like this? If you really want it warm or something, I can cook it for you really quick."

He seems to consider your words, and you hope his response will be favorable. "...No, it's fine like this, I guess."

Relief saturates you as you exhale. You hadn't even realized you'd been holding your breath. "I promise I'll get you something better later, it's just I… kind of don't have the time right now."

The merman hums and holds his hand out expectantly. You're not sure if you should just give him the whole platter or just the fish itself; you opt for the former as you cross the length of the bathroom to give him his meal. Then you look away. He's either going to swallow the fish whole or bite into it, and frankly, you don't know if you can stomach the sight of either.

It sounds like the latter though. You start to step away, seeing this as the perfect opportunity to get ready, but that would have to start with a shower and while the shower is completely separate from the tub it is also right there. The thought of giving the merman a show while he eats is absolutely mortifying, especially when you consider how unnaturally handsome he is. Maybe you should leave a little early and swing by the bathhouse to shower there…

“Got plans?” The merman’s voice stops you in your tracks.

“Uh, yeah.”

"A hot date?" he probes, sounding like he's snickering.

Your face feels warm and you whirl around to face him, catching a peek of a bit of the mackerel's tail hanging out of his mouth. "No, I'm meeting up with my best friend."

Last night doesn't count. You barely even spoke with one another. Not that you could since she—

"You don't seem all that excited about it," the merman remarks, his eyes watching you curiously, looking impossibly bluer than before.

You open your mouth to refute the claim. To tell him that the reason you don't seem excited isn't because of Minori but because you've spent your entire morning running yourself ragged because of him. But it’s not quite true, so you don’t. Try as you might to ignore it, Minori's recent behavior still weighs on you, awkward and uncomfortable. You hold your tongue and instead say, "That's… not true."

The merman's expression is indecipherable, his icy blue gaze fixed on you. It feels like he’s seeing right through you, silently calling you out on your weak excuse of a lie.

Feeling the conversation is over, you turn back around and take another step to leave, but then the merman speaks again.

“So, you know,” he starts, his tone adopting a flirtatious edge. “I’d be happy to teach you about merfolk culture. I’m pretty good at it, if I do say so myself.”

Your entire body goes rigid and you glance back at him, in mild disbelief. “At… teaching?”

He grins at you, as if he’s happy to have your eyes on him again. Is he starved for attention or something? The merman winks as he responds cheerfully, “Yup!”

You gawk at him. “Like how you’ve been ‘teaching’ me all day?”

“That’s right! You’ll be an expert in no time.”

You doubt that. His teaching methods leave a lot to be desired; you’d even go so far as to say he’s actually a garbage teacher. You consider telling him this, but decide not to because he really seems legitimately proud of his skills (or lack thereof). “I don’t know…”

“Come on! It’ll be lots of fun!”

You doubt that even more. “Based on everything you’ve ‘taught’ me so far, I’m honestly not even sure if I can adequately take care of you here…” You pause, then add, slowly more to yourself than the merman. “Maybe when I get back I should call the aquarium…”

It would be better, you think, to return him to the sea where he belongs. If anything, he seems well enough, and he hasn’t made any mention of any injuries that would keep him from going back. You don’t know for sure, but being in the aquarium would probably be better than your parent’s luxurious bathtub.

“An aquarium?” he exclaims and his voice is louder than usual, causing you to jump just a little bit. “You’re not serious, right?”

“Uh, well—”

“They keep a lot of different aquatic creatures there, don’t they?” the merman says before you can say anything.

“Yeah, but that means the facilities are bigger and so you’d—”

“They probably wouldn’t be able to give me the same kind of personalized care that I could get from you.”

“Maybe, but I’m sure they’d—”

“Besides,” he interrupts again, his voice even louder as if he’s trying (and succeeding) to gain dominance over the conversation at hand. “They’d probably keep me there for the rest of my life! They might even experiment on me!”

Wide eyed, you stare at the merman. Your initial thought is that the family that owns the aquarium wouldn’t do that, but you don’t know, someone else who works there might. Merfolk are supposed to be myths, legends, so it’s not completely outside the realm of possibility that if you were to dump him off at the aquarium that he’d become someone’s research project.

"You wouldn't do that to me, would you?" he pleads, staring at you, his baby blue eyes blown wide, wet with what you think, in the back of your mind, are crocodile tears, his lower lip quivering as if he’s a frightened child.

“I…” you start, trying to think of something, anything to say. There’s no doubt in your mind that the merman is guilting you. But you also know that he has a point, there’s no way to ensure that he’ll be treated humanely if you hand him off to someone else. Your stomach churns at the thought of scientists cruelly poking and prodding at him with needles and scalpels as if he were a lab rat. No matter how annoying he’s been, he wouldn’t deserve that.

After all, isn’t that why you brought him home in the first place? To protect him from such a cruel fate? If you were just going to hand him off to someone else, you should have just left him on the beach.

Slowly, you shake your head, “No… I wouldn’t.”

Pleased, the merman beams at you, his expression now the complete opposite of the pitiful look he was sporting just a moment ago. Despite his cheer, you still feel uneasy and you don’t think it’s because you’re hungry.

The reason becomes obvious when the merman speaks, as if your body was giving you a premonition, trying to warn you. “That settles it then! Guess we’re roommates now!”

You stare at him blankly, your thoughts stuttering at his words, struggling to comprehend them as if they were spoken with a foreign tongue. What did he say? What did he say? When your brain finally processes them, translates them into something you can understand, you nearly screech, the words flying out of your mouth before you can even think about filtering them. “Roommates? Who said anything about roommates?”

The merman’s eyes narrow into a smoldering gaze and you distantly wonder if he's just trying to show off the range of emotions that he's capable of. His voice drops an octave, purposefully sultry and seductive as he says, "Well, if you'd like a different kind of arrangement—"

"Shut up!" you finally snap, ignoring the electric feeling running up and down your spine at the mere sound of his voice. You don’t think you’ve snapped at anyone before, much less a stranger, but to hell with that and to him too. All morning he’s been bossing you around and while you’ve been doing you best to acquiesce to him, he keeps messing with you as if you’re his own personal toy. Maybe it really is the hanger, having consumed you, body and mind, by this point, but regardless, you’ve hit your limit with him. “We absolutely cannot be roommates! Don’t you have to return to the ocean, anyway? Won’t you turn into seafoam or something if you don’t?”

He starts to laugh and you glare at him. It probably sounds stupid, but you think you’ve heard something like that before, but then again it’s not like you actually know anything. The merman waves his hand dismissively, his lips curled up in amusement. “I know what you’re thinking and no, it’s nothing like that.”

"Okay, but that doesn't answer my question."

He gives you a noncommittal shrug. “Yeah, eventually.”

You wait, because you know there’s got to be more to it than that. Is he just doing these dramatic pauses for the fun of it? He shoots you a mischievous grin, almost confirming it, as he adds, “Should be fine as long as I go back in the next hundred years or so.”

You nearly choke on the air. One hundred years? He can’t be serious. You take a deep, deep breath before speaking. “Sorry, but I don’t have one hundred years to be your roommate— I don’t even know if I’ll live that long. I’m only going to be here for the summer, and then I’m heading back home to Tokyo.”

That should be enough to deter him. At least that’s what you think, but you also think that the merman might like proving you wrong. His smile shifts only just slightly, the glimmering in his eyes reminding you more of the sky than the sea that he calls home. “For the summer then. We can be roommates until you go back to Tokyo.”

You scowl, wracking your mind for some kind of counterpoint, but it feels like you’re fighting a losing battle in trying to argue with him. He takes your silence as a chance to attempt to further convince you. “Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re the only one here, right?”

You don’t say anything so he continues.

“Aren’t you lonely here all on your own?”

His question hangs in the air, unanswered, as you remain silent.

The truth is you’re used to it— to being lonely. You’ve been living on your own in Tokyo for long enough to be comfortable with the silence that comes with solitude. It’s no stranger, and sometimes you could even consider it a friend. But there’s no denying that maybe, just maybe you’d been hoping there would have been a little more time between your arrival and your parents’ departure. It’s fine. You’ll see them when they get back.

Besides, you still have Minori.

You can still hang out with her. Go eat at little cafes where you’re meant to take pictures of the food rather than enjoy eating it. Or have sleepovers where you chat about anything and everything. How she’s got something going on with Hayato. How weirdly nice Shinomiya is. How different life in Tokyo is compared to here. And maybe spending time with her will be enough to take the place of the silence, the loneliness that you’re grown accustomed to. It’s fine, you tell yourself, almost viciously. It’s fine because you still have Minori.

Minori, who’s supposedly your best friend.

Minori, who, you suppose, is acting strange around you.

Minori, who you’re supposed to hang out with in about an hour.

“We can’t be roommates,” you repeat, through gritted teeth as you reach up to massage your temple in exasperation. You don’t have time to deal with this right now: you need to get ready. “I don’t even know you. I don’t even know your name.”

The merman opens his mouth to respond but just as he starts to speak, you can feel a vibrating in your pocket. Soon after the sound of your ringtone fills the bathroom, echoing off the walls. You shoot him a look, silently telling him to be quiet as you reach into your pocket to grab your phone. Your stomach feels like it’s doing gymnastics, flipping and folding into itself, uncomfortably, painfully. It’s amazing your phone is still alive, having gone all night and almost all morning off the charger and you catch sight of how much the battery remains— nine percent. But that’s not the most important thing right now.

It’s Minori that’s calling.

You turn away from the merman, gulping as you swipe the green answer button on the screen. “Hello?”

“Hey.” Her voice is strained, hoarse, like she’s gotten sick or spent all night screaming.

“Are you okay?” you ask, more a formality than anything. You know the answer, but you’re still concerned.

“No, I—” She coughs. It sounds almost forced. You ignore it. “I… kinda drank a little too much last night…”

Somehow, you’re not surprised. You bite the inside of your cheek as you try not to frown. “It’s okay. We can reschedule.”

“...you sure?”

“Yeah,” you say softly. “You don’t feel well and… we have all summer to hang out.”

She doesn’t say anything.

“Okay,” Minori rasps out, then she adds, almost an afterthought. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” you insist. “Really.”

You could almost swear you hear another voice in the background, one that sounds almost familiar but you ignore it. You ignore it. You ignore it.

“It’s fine,” you repeat. “We have all summer.”

“Right.”

“Just get some rest, okay?”

“Mmhmm… bye.”

“Bye.” The line clicks first on Minori’s end. Your hand drops to your side limply and your phone almost slips from your fingers.

You don’t know how to feel.

On the one hand, she really might have drank too much. You remember seeing a few coolers filled to the brim with booze last night. It’s not impossible that, after you’d left, people, people including Minori, might have really gone to town with the drinking. She definitely could have gotten a hangover from drinking too much.

But something else in the back of your mind insists otherwise, it whispers that there’s something else going on. Her behavior is too suspicious, and it’s getting harder and harder to fight off the notion that she’s doing this on purpose, that she’s avoiding seeing you, avoiding talking to you.

And that hurts.

But what hurts more is that you don’t really know why.

Is it just because you were really bad at talking to her when you were in Tokyo? Or is it something else? You could message her and ask, but you’d rather ask her in person when you can. If you can.

“Satoru.”

You startle at the sound of the merman’s voice, turning toward him. You almost forgot that he was here. He’s watching you curiously, expression unreadable. It makes you a little uncomfortable, like he’s dissecting you.

“What?” Your voice is almost inaudible.

“Satoru,” he repeats and you notice his tone is almost gentle now. “That’s my name.”

“...just Satoru?” you ask, unsure. You actually have little doubt that it’s his name, but it feels a little… too close, too personal to be using his first name when you barely know him.

The merman gives you a wry smile as he dodges your question. “You know, it’s impolite to not offer your name after someone else gives you theirs.”

He’s not wrong, but still you hesitate. You feel like there’s some unspoken significance in giving him your name, like once you do, you’ll be setting something into motion that you won’t be able to stop.

It’s just a name, just your name.

Satoru’s eyes glimmer as you offer it to him and he repeats your name back, as if he’s testing the feel of it in his mouth. Something in your chest stirs at the sound of it, a little voice in the back of your head smugly telling you that it was right, but you ignore it.

With a satisfied hum, he says, tone shifting into something more cheerful, “With that out of the way, there’s no reason we can’t be roommates now, right?”

You stare at him wide eyed. It’s completely beyond you why he’d rather spend his time here, in your parent’s bathroom over being in the big wide ocean, but it’s clear that he has no intent on giving up. Between Satoru keeping you busy all morning and Minori canceling your plans, you don’t really have the energy to fight him any more anyway.

“It’ll be fun, I promise,” Satoru insists with a smile. This one is different from the others you’ve seen from him so far and you wonder if he’s trying to take a different approach to convince you.

Not that he needs to any more; you’re already resigned yourself to your fate.

“...only until I go back to Tokyo, okay?” you relent, squeezing the phone in your hand so hard it might break. This might be a mistake, agreeing to let this merman, to let Satoru stay here for the summer, but it’s fine.

It’s fine.

Satoru beams, bright and triumphant as he echoes. “Only until you go back to Tokyo.”

One trip out of the house to the bathhouse and the store is enough to reduce the discontent you feel from whatever is going on with Minori to just a frustrating buzz in the back of your mind. You know it won’t fully go away until you and Minori actually talk about it, but with the way things are going, who knows when that will be?

Besides, you feel like your hands are going to be too full attending to Satoru to dwell on anything for very long.

You heave everything you got at the store onto the counter. Even though you’d gone just yesterday, the sudden appearance of another mouth to feed demanded another trip. Despite Satoru’s offer to teach you about merfolk culture, he wasn’t particularly helpful when you asked him (this time) what kind of food to get him. Seafood, he’d told you with a snicker, and when you probed for something more substantial than that all he said was to surprise him.

His teaching methods really do leave a lot to be desired.

You did what you could with what little he gave you. Naturally, you bought seafood, two more whole fish, and then some other things, some of them a little… unconventional. It’s fine, though, you made sure to get things you could eat just in case Satoru doesn't like them. And if he doesn't maybe that'll teach him to be a little more specific next time.

"Hey! Are you back?" Satoru's naturally loud voice echoes throughout the house. He must have really good hearing if he heard you shuffling in the kitchen, though you did slam the door pretty loud when you came back in earlier.

"Yeah!" You holler back.

"Perfect! I'm hungry!"

Of course he is. But then again, it's been a bit since he ate that mackerel earlier. Your stomach rumbles in agreement with Satoru. After Minori had called, your hanger and appetite had basically disappeared, but now it seems like it's recovered. Your stomach grumbles again, and you consider eating before bringing Satoru his food, but…

Since you're "roommates" now wouldn't it be better to eat together?

Sharing a meal with Satoru sounds like a mistake, but if he gets too annoying you can just get up and walk away. Nodding to yourself, you grab the things you'd bought to eat and some of the things you'd gotten for Satoru to try and head for the bathroom, stopping by the storage closet on the way.

You find what you're looking for— your mother's bed and bathtub trays— with relative ease. Hopefully, the bathtub tray will sit comfortably on the tub, even with Satoru's massive body in it, if not… you can probably both share the bed tray. You grab both trays and, while it's a little awkward, you manage to carry them both into the bathroom.

Satoru's lounging in the tub, since there's not really much else he can do, his long arms and even longer tail hanging off the edges. You feel bad, even though your parents' luxury tub is huge by human standards, it really is too small for him. Maybe it'd be fine if he could bend his tail the way people bend their legs but you don't know if he can. When you enter, Satoru tilts his head toward you and shoots you a lazy grin. You freeze, remembering again, how stunningly handsome he is.

And then he ruins it, by opening his mouth, eyes on the bag in your hand.

He starts to pout. "Did you bring me another dead fish?"

"They only sell dead fish at the store." You say while you set up the trays as little makeshift tables for you both. Luckily, the bathtub tray fits— just barely— but a win’s a win in your book. When that’s all done, you start to pull everything out of the bags. Satoru watches curiously as you separate your stuff from his. Belatedly, you realize you’ve only really brought him snacks and nothing actually substantial.

“So, what have we got here?” he asks when you’re done.

“Uh, well,” you point at each item, telling him what it is as you sit down next to the tub. “Dried shredded squid, some different kinds of seaweed snacks and dried anchovies.”

Satoru hums and picks up the bag of dried anchovies and examines it, turning it over in his hands. Is he wondering how to open it? You’re about to reach over and show him the notch in the bag that he needs to tear, but he gets to it before you do and rips the bag open. It’s a little impressive that he figured it out on his own. You watch as he reaches his hand in and gingerly pulls out one of the fish. He turns it over in his fingers, looking at it before popping the whole thing in his mouth. You hear the absolute barest crunch as he chews on it.

When he’s done he chucks another one in his mouth as if it were a potato chip. “Not bad.”

You beam, maybe it’s not a glowing review, but still you’re glad to have finally, finally gotten some kind of stamp of approval from Satoru.

He glances at you and his lips ease up into a mischievous smile as he plucks yet another anchovy from the bag and holds it up to your face in offering. “Would you like one too?”

You eye the anchovy anxiously and bite your lip, not sure what to say. Do you tell him? Or do you just bite the bullet?

“What’s with that look?” Satoru asks, pouting. “Do you humans not eat these?”

“Uh…”

The pout becomes more pronounced, his eyebrows furrowing together. “Did you really give me something you wouldn’t eat? How mean.”

“...you said surprise me,” you finally grumble. “I’ve only ever used those in making soup stock— I’ve never eaten them like that.”

In an instant Satoru’s frown is gone as he latches onto the last thing you’ve said. He leans forward excitedly, his eyes shimmering with some kind of predatory joy. “Is that so? That would make this… your first time too?”

He does that thing with his voice again, and your brain goes offline for just a millisecond before booting back up. “Don’t make it weird.”

Satoru smiles, unaffected by your deflection. He waves the anchovy in front of you. “Well? Gonna try?”

You stare at it. It’s not like you’re opposed to it, so why not? It’s Satoru’s first time trying anchovies like this, so in a way would it be fair. You’re drawing the line at letting him hand feed it to you, though. Leaning a little bit back, you take the fish from him and toss it into your mouth. Just as you expected it’s a little crunchy, but more than that the taste is intense and salty, but…

“It’s not bad,” you remark, echoing Satoru’s sentiments. He grins and starts to eat them in earnest, few at a time. You pull at the plastic of one of the rice balls you got for yourself so you can dig in. After a couple bites, you notice out of the corner of your eye that Satoru’s looking at you again. “Mmm?”

“What do you have?”

You swallow what’s in your mouth before you explain. “Just some rice balls and a fruit sando.”

“Why does your food look better than mine?”

“Uh,” you pause, trying to think of how to word it, “My stuff is more… complex, I guess?”

Most of what you got for Satoru is pretty simple, consisting of only an ingredient or two. He huffs, obviously off-put by your answer, and leers at you like he wants something. Then he says, petulant, “I want some.”

You’re almost startled at how straightforward he is about it. Almost.

“I… just wasn’t sure if your stomach would be able to handle more… processed human foods,” you explain. “If… if you really want, we can share. I-I just wouldn’t want you to get sick from something you ate, you know?”

Satoru’s eyes widen slightly at your words, but then he waves his hand almost dismissively, “Nah, it should be fine.”

You’re not so sure, but if he says so. “Okay…”

“So, what's that?” he asks, gesturing to the rice ball in your hand.

“It’s a tuna mayo rice ball. The other one I have has salted salmon.”

“I see.”

You think about the best way to go about sharing the rice ball. Would it be better to just flat out give him your salted salmon rice ball? There’s really no way for you to break off a piece of your rice ball to give him to try without basically breaking the entire thing apart.

Before you can decide on a course of action, Satoru ends up deciding for you. He leans all the way forward, getting all into your personal space so he can take a huge chomp out of the rice ball in your hands. You almost drop the entire thing in shock, and Satoru is either completely unaware or doesn’t even care as he leans back in the tub, grinning with a wicked amusement as he chews.

“That’s pretty good,” he remarks, licking his lips. Your eyes are unfortunate enough to pay a little too much attention to the action.

It takes you a moment to recover and you hand him the rest of the rice ball and say. “Okay, well, you can have the rest of this one and I’ll just have this one to myself.”

“I thought we were sharing?”

“We are,” you insist. “You’re eating that one, and I’m eating this one.”

“But I wanted to try the salted salmon one, too.”

“I… I will get one just for you next time I go to the store, okay?” you offer, hoping that will deter him from invading your personal space again and sinking his teeth into the other rice ball.

It doesn’t.

You’re so lucky that the fruit sando is sliced in two pieces.

next chapter (coming soon) →

#satoru gojo x reader #satoru gojo x you #gojo x you #gojo x reader #jjk x reader #nikuniku fics #sots fic tag

208 notes · View notes

awrkive · 1 year

Text

[TEASER] LOVE LESSONS, pt. 2 (M) — JJK.

jungkook and you talked about the deal more, escalating it to new heights.

PAIRING jungkook x (fem) reader

GENRE smut, kind of fluffy tbh, r18+

WORD COUNT 816 words for this teaser but the final chapter word count is 8.9k

WARNINGS/MISC virgin!reader, kinda spoiled brat!!reader lol, childhood friend-ish!jk, college!au, jk college course reveal 😁 explicit sexual content. again, (awkward?) first times

NOTES im so excited to be posting this! i also did not realize that its been almost a year since part 1 was posted lol. click read more to see important note in the end!!

[ READ PART 1 HERE ]

FULL VERSION OUT NOW. READ HERE !

"Uhm, do you really wanna do it?" You asked. Again. For the second time that night. "Because, it's totally okay if you changed your mind."

Jungkook arched his brow. "I already said I would do it."

"Yeah, but maybe you were just saying that to get me off your back."

He rolled his eyes. "You and your assumptions…"

There was a fat pout on your lips after hearing those words.

"I said I'll do it and I will. I was just thinking that maybe we can establish some rules? Some boundaries, for you and I, both. Just so we know that there's no one taking advantage of the other. Like, I don't want you to think that I'm in on this because I'm some – perverted guy preying on your lack of experience, you know?"

Your heart melted at that. Jungkook was fairly annoying at times. He was such a perfectionist, a stickler to rules, always playing your bodyguard, always telling on your father of things you did that he disapproved of. But thinking about it, he never really overstepped. Yeah, he was a perfectionist. But that was because he knew exactly what he wanted and that was great. He was a stickler to rules but he was never a killjoy. He only stuck his nose to business he was personally involved in… and admittedly, he only ever told on your father when you did (again, admittedly) stupid things. It was even more accurate to think that maybe, you were the annoying one. Always pushing at his buttons… being stubborn… and he tolerated that. A lot of times throughout the years you've known each other.

"That's really sweet of you, Bunny."

The nickname earned you a groan from him. And it was perfect! Because you were feeling mushy all of a sudden but you didn't want to and so calling him the nickname he loathed gave you the opportunity to ease the mood again.

Jungkook grunted your name and rolled his eyes, and you only laughed at the scrunch of his face because it was always funny to see him so disgruntled by that nickname. And he looked extra cute with his fluffy, overgrown hair and prescription glasses. He wore it often nowadays. To add, the nickname was just as adorable, so you never really understood his demise. You, on the other hand, would like to be called bunny…

But anyway, he made a pretty important point.

"I don't think you're taking advantage of me. Do you think I'm taking advantage of you?" Because it was more accurate to put it that way. You were the one who came to him suddenly proposing something crazy.

He shook his head. "Definitely not. So, about rules? Do you have suggestions?"

You leaned back and passively watched the scenes playing out before you on the television.

"All I can think of right now is that you can stop it any time soon. Like, if you wake up tomorrow and think you don't want this anymore, then just tell me. Or like, you're dating someone…" Like, maybe, Eunseo? That was what you thought of after you said the word date. You chose to omit that part. You looked at him. "Okay?"

Nodding, Jungkook mirrored your action on the couch. "That's a good one. You can, too."

You hummed. "Also… I don't really know anything. I wasn't kidding when I said I never watched porn, not until now, anyway. I'm actually, really, serious when I ask you questions, even though they're kind of stupid sometimes."

Ah, there it was. Even though you liked to believe that this was all lighthearted for you (which is, for the most part, anyway), it was kind of a sore spot. Your lack of experience was an insecurity, although you try to hide it a lot. You didn't want to tell Jungkook that, afraid he might think it was stupid. Or laugh. Like he did sometimes… you were 20 years old.

But it was like he read your mind and then suddenly, he took a hold of your arm so he could look right into your eyes.

"Hey, they're not stupid. I'm sorry if I laughed at them, you can, like, punch me anytime if I do that again. Deal?"

You looked away and sighed. "You're patronizing me." You pouted.

"Okay, sorry. I'm not. Just saying I don't mock you for not having sex yet," you still weren't looking at him and so he continued, "Alright, I'm going to be honest. I really was genuinely shocked when you told me you haven't done it before."

You finally looked at him, confused. "Why?"

He let go of your arm and smiled. "You're attractive, is all. So I just thought…"

Arching your brow, you crossed your arms. A defense mechanism because you liked being called pretty and he can't know that. "Really?"

"Yeah," he looked down. Unintentionally. "And you have nice boobs."

YOU CAN NOW READ THE FULL VERSION OF PART 2 ON MY PATREON PAGE !! heres the post about the tiers and the link to the part 2 of love lessons <3 to my followers, it is def not an obligation to avail any of the tiers as i will still post my stories publicly. on the other hand, to anyone who subscribes, thank you so so much!!

#jungkook smut #jungkook fluff #jungkook x reader #jungkook scenarios #bts smut #bts ff #bts fanfic #jungkook imagines #jeon jungkook x reader #jungkook x you #bts imagines #jeon jungkook #bts jungkook

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egophiliac · 1 year

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Hello!! I'm in love with your artstyle (especially the way you did the signature spells??? I've been looking at them for a while adsgfdfsf, they look like movie posters tbh and that's fricking cool to me. anyway!! I'm a player on the NA server (btw, I've already seen spoilers of chap 7 due to tumblr/reddit/pinterest, so yeah it's not the most spoiled I've ever been so yea) and yeah. I'm getting through the story okay but do you have any advice for people trying to get through certain events with a more limited life schedule??? Also, what are some of the differences that you notice between the english (if you see a lot of it??) and Japanese versions of the game? sorry if this was a longer ask, i tried to be simple but i wanted to tell you that I loved your art and everything just spiraled AAAAAAH

thank you! ❤️❤️❤️ I've been surprised by how many people really like my posters -- it's kind of a weird style to do fanart in, I guess, but I'm glad other people think it's cool too! :D

(gonna answer out of order because the event stuff turned into a huge block of text, sorry!)

I've seen a few of the localizations, but I don't know a lot about the Eng version, so I can't speak too much about differences. (I do think "housewarden" has a better sound to it than "dorm leader" though...they need a fancy little word to match their fancy little outfits.) I did look up the unique magic/signature spells to see if they were able to somehow work in the glossing -- I'm not even sure how you would localize that without it being super weird, so I don't blame them, but I was a little sad anyway! :( in Japanese, they're all written as Japanese phrases with the English as ruby text, and sometimes they're given a little extra meaning. like -- this is where the episode 7 spoilers I'm tagging are) the words that Mal says are "Fae of Maleficence":

but the meaning of the Japanese is "Blessing", which is a nice little "ooooh" moment given the context of it!

there isn't always an extra meaning, sometimes it's just. super literal. but my other favorite is Jack's, where what he means is "✨howl that pierces the moonlit night✨", but what he actually yells is "UNLEASH BEAST" before turning into a giant dog. what a good boy.

as for event advice (under the cut, because this was already getting long)...

speaking as someone who is 100% F2P and therefore also tends to get kind of burnt by some of these events -- the #1 most important thing is to just...make peace with not getting everyone. :') I am a collector-type person, so it definitely gets grating when I can't have all the fancy PNGs my little packrat heart desires. generally though: never do random pulls, always be saving your keys and gems between events. (once a month you can buy a 10-set from Sam for a 50 gem discount, and logging in on a character's birthday will give you a 10-set for free, so make sure to do those!). when the event info starts coming out, pick one or two cards that you really want and work specifically towards those, focusing on grinding out the items and/or using your saved-up pulls on their specific banner. and in the end, accept that it might just not be meant to be, even if you hit the 100-pull pity SSR no I'm not still bitter over fairy gala Ortho why do you ask. if the event doesn't have any cards that you really want, take it as an opportunity to save for the next one!

hoard your star fragments (the things that restore AP) -- if you're going for a card that requires grinding event items to permanently unlock, and the item is one you get from lessons, you can use star fragments to bump your AP up to 30 at a time (10 is the limit that will restore over time, but 30 is the max you can have at once). that makes for a looong lesson loop, but I usually get about 50-60 items per 30 lessons, and I just let it run in the background while doing other stuff. (usually these items are what also unlock the event story, so I'll do a huge amount of lessons first thing and then have enough to get the whole story at once. 👍) it can get really grindy, but events go on for a while so it's not usually that bad if you space it out a bit, instead of waiting until the last minute to try and get those last 600 items (cough) (cough).

if it's one of the ones where you get the item from doing a rhythmic, you get the same amount of items no matter how well you do, even if you miss every note. so you can just...tap occasionally to restart it and get the same effect. if it's a battle one, you do have to actually win to get the item, but once you figure out the sweet spot of a team setup + highest battle level where you win every time, it becomes basically the same deal.

so...yeah, tl;dr you can get away with a lot just by setting things up to run in the background and paying just enough attention to tap through some of the menus. it does require a certain amount of time to just leave your phone while still sorta-kinda paying attention to it, so it might not work for everyone, but that's the best way I've found to get through most events!

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland spoilers #twisted wonderland episode 7 spoilers #twisted wonderland book 7 spoilers #i feel like i just emerged from juice hell from getting my sunset lilia #and yet here i am diving right into tuna hell for my grim #it's okay i wasn't using these ap on anything else anyway #i have gotten SUPER lucky on some of these events #like i think the only halloween card i'm missing is ace #which is nuts considering how many of those are ssrs #but then i didn't manage to get a single one of the birthday diasomnias past the first year :(#we're not going to talk about the dorm dias. we just aren't.#the gacha giveth and it taketh away

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sweetpea-sprite · 1 year

Text

magical classism/fantasy politics: the megapost

[ID: a screenshot of cassiopeia casting the manna in ni no kuni: wrath of the white witch. overlaid on top of the image is impact font text which reads “this will affect the / engineering industry i think”. end ID]

good evening everyone. i’m ruby sweetpea-sprite. i’m so fucking normal about ni no kuni’s fake politics. i refuse to be the only one so here i am creating a megapost about every little piece of lore about it so that others can join me. if you’re new here: um. welcome. kublai was a diversity hire. more on that later!

for a summary: non-magical people have been oppressed since nazcaa fell, due to sages being in power and refusing to let them develop their own technology, as they “believe it to be against the gods” (and want to keep their societal power). this, ultimately, culminated into a large reason why lucien became shadar and banned magic. the goal of this post is to compile evidence for these events like some kind of fictional history lesson. it is a long fucking post.

this post will be in sections because it’s a long fucking post. recommended reading before we start, though i will be including quotes so you don’t gotta (though tbh you should read the tales of wonder anyway. for fun): the tenth tale of wonder, the flying machine.

have fun!

part one: the wizard’s companion

this first section is going to be the longest section because there’s so much shit in this fucking book dude. okay. don’t expect all of these sections to be this long the wizard’s companion is just fucked up

if you’ve just come back from reading that tale of wonder. hi! how was it. do you believe me yet

if you did not read the tale of wonder: just so you know, the wizard’s companion is bigoted.

i want to preface this section with this is not horace’s fault i promise. almost certainly, the wizard’s companion has been updated over the ten thousand years since it was written, and nazcaa has various attributes that mean there is no way anyone from there wrote this stuff (more on this later) - even excluding the fact that, you know. we actually have a timeframe for the tenth tale of wonder taking place (as the drawings the man sees are implied to be leonardo da vinci’s flying machine sketches) and it is decidedly not nazcaan times.

whoever the sages were who updated the wizard’s companion, however. well they weren’t great. to summarise: they wanted to keep their place in society and keep it WELL, by suppressing all knowledge of technology ever.

let’s start with the tale of wonder. the tenth tale of wonder, the flying machine, is about a man who goes to ichi no kuni (oliver’s world, for those who don’t know) and discovers sketches of a flying machine done by a painter. he then traces those sketches and brings them back to build the contraption - however, he is stopped by a sage. the entire tale is like this, understand, which is why i recommend reading it, but here are some choice quotes, from pages 300-302 of the companion:

“Using a machine to achieve something that should only be achieved using magic is akin to poisoning this world. “Poison!? Why is it like poison?” “Magic may only be used by those who possess a pure heart and who have undergone the proper training. Wizards borrow some of nature’s power and use it to humans’ benefit. Only those with a pure heart, one uncorrupted by evil, are able to do this. Using machines to triumph over nature is not the behavior of the pure-hearted.” Now, what the sage meant was that anyone could use a machine to manipulate nature--even the untrained and the evil. Machines gave ordinary humans powers that only gods and wizards should have.

“Esteemed Sage, wasn’t magic originally intended to make our lives easier? If machines achieve the same effect, why shouldn’t we use them?” “Because machines can be used by the wrong people, for the wrong reasons,” replied the sage impatiently. But the young wizard was undeterred. “I have been to the other world, and I know how things work there. They have people called ‘scientists’--they are the ones who make the machines--and they work miracles! They are capable of mixing iron with other rare metals to create things called ‘alloys’ which are strong enough to plough even the rockiest of soil. You cannot deny that farmers’ lives are much easier as a result! “Surely you do not believe that all ‘scientists’ seek to improve people’s lives?” the sage snapped back. “Do you not think, perhaps, that some of them wish to use their machines to control people--to bend them to their will?” The young wizard was speechless for a moment, but he soon found his tongue again. “Couldn’t the same be said for magic? Aren’t there some people who seek to use magic to increase their own influence?”

so you can see where i’m coming from.

the comparisons to poison. putting wizards on the same level as gods. stating that only those with a pure heart are able to use magic (blatantly untrue). magic as a sacred thing that cannot be defiled. “Do you not think, perhaps, that some of them wish to use their machines to control people--to bend them to their will?” the sage says, while clearly controlling what non-wizards do with their resources. this tale is directly written on the side of the sage; at the end, when the young man finally builds a cloud sweeper, the final paragraphs say this:

Indeed, he was too captivated by the scenery to spare a thought for the effect his new magical machine would have on the world. Had he known what impact it would have, you can be sure he would not have been quite so elated!

what impact?? there’s no impact i can find. cloud sweepers just exist. they help non-wizards travel. the only impact it could possibly be referencing is perhaps the start of people making more technology, inspired by this guy’s cloud sweepers. which, yeah. i guess the wizard’s companion would be upset about that.

technology, and wizards shunning it, is a large part of the wizard’s companion. this tale is the most egregious example, but there are more areas if you know where to look. we’ll come back to the tale of wonder in a moment, but for now, on the topic of cloud sweepers and how much the sages hate them, take a look at the first means of transportation section - page 129.

Non-wizards have long been forced to rely on vehicles to carry them to their destinations. This section aims to introduce some of the more common modes of transportation currently in use. All wizards are advised to read the information contained herein, for one cannot predict when circumstance--nixing, dismemberment, or wand loss, to name but three--might necessitate the use of such infernal contraptions as those here described.

note the PHRASING. non-wizards are forced to rely on vehicles. dismemberment as one of the circumstances, like you’d have to lose an arm to even consider this. and the most damning - “infernal” contraptions. they fucking hate these things

after that introductory paragraph, it does not get better: it goes on to describe cloud sweepers, in a rather bitter tone:

Wizards, of course, do not require magical assistance to fly through the air. Indeed, in times gone by, wizards would not have countenanced travel by any means other than broom. Alas, the age has changed, and now young wizards insist on using half-magical, half-mechanical contraptions known as “Cloud Sweepers.” Cloud Sweepers require only the merest dash of magic to get them off the ground, meaning that inexperienced magic users--and even non-wizards!--are able to ride them with gay abandon.

and even non-wizards! it says, with shock and horror. dear god... who let the non-wizards travel quickly and safely. this is going against the laws of nature

outside of cloud sweepers, in the second means of transportation section, this continues. with... boats. BOATS. THEY MAKE FUN OF NON-WIZARDS USING BOATS!!! PAGE 147:

Non-wizards rely upon ships to carry them across the world’s oceans. Indeed, many dream of owning their own vessels, imagining the “freedom” this would offer them.

freedom is IN QUOTES. THEY’RE MAKING FUN OF YOU FOR YOUR LITTLE BOAT RIDES!!! in all seriousness, these authors genuinely view non-wizards as inferior. they believe they will never have true freedom; always confined to the vehicles they’re allowed to make, the restrictions on which are defined BY THE SAGES. it’s kind of ridiculous.

obviously, all of this is awful. in the tale of wonder quotes i showed earlier, you can see a sage demanding that a non-wizard get rid of all of his sketches of technology. we can likely assume this was common practice back then, that sages simply had the power to do such a thing - or maybe this man was more dedicated than the rest (he had to be to actually build a da vinci flying machine when da vinci was still alive...) and they decided they had to put an end to it.

however, this kept happening. the tale continues on to say that other people, too, went to ichi no kuni and came back with stories of machines they saw there. how did they go, you might ask me. non-wizards can’t cast gateway.

there was a tunnel between worlds.

THE SAGES SEALED THE TUNNEL BETWEEN WORLDS TO KEEP PEOPLE FROM BRINGING BACK TECHNOLOGY THAT WOULD HELP THEM.

PAGE 302:

The sages realized that something must be done, because technology from the other world was threatening to ruin the balance of their own. They decided to seal the tunnel to the other world, to ensure that the place of magic within society was never threatened again. Now, visiting the other world was not completely forbidden--why, powerful wizards could still cast the spell known as “Gateway” and travel to the other world any time they pleased!

seriously they sealed the tunnel between worlds, knowing that only they would be able to access ichi no kuni. this is a fake world with fake politics and i’m pissed off about this. they wanted non-wizards to have as little power as possible.

this is, unfortunately, not the end of this section. there is one more very large thing about the wizard’s companion and this topic, that i’ve been consciously leaving out:

the sages hate technology. every section on technology is written in a bitter tone... except when they are talking about military, or already existing militarised things.

page 129 (means of transportation part one, cloud sweepers):

To give credit where it is due, certain enterprising engineers have gone so far as to attach guns to the front of their Cloud Sweepers, allowing them to attack enemies while in mid-air--a recognised limitation of the traditional wizard’s broom.

page 130 (rare weapons and armor - yes this is the page right after the one where they insult cloud sweepers):

Such items include pistols that allow one to open locks from a distance, and harps that attack one’s enemies when plucked. Should you be fortunate enough to come across such rare items, do not be afraid to use them on the field of battle. A wizard has nothing to fear from material objects.

page 147 (means of transportation part two, porco grosso):

The latest rumors emanating from the factories of Hamelin surround a battle tank known as the Porco Grosso. This leaked image--depicting the tank’s designers, the Porco twins, standing next to their creation--is the only evidence of its existence. The Porco Grosso is believed to be capable of scaling vertical walls and attacking an entire battalion of enemy troops with a single volley.

page 329 (regions of the world, hamelin):

The citizens of Hamelin are united both by their inquisitive natures and their desire to support and protect their empire. As a result, large-scale magi-scientific military projects are quite normal. Such projects are always kept top-secret, of course, butt rumors suggest that Hamelin’s latest development, the Porco Grosso tank, is several leagues ahead of any weapon in the other nations’ respective arsenals.

A wizard has nothing to fear from material objects. lol. lmao

all of these quotes are entirely neutral or positive about these developments. this edition of the wizard’s companion was published at the very start of shadar’s reign, likely before he began properly enforcing the magic ban. on hamelin’s page, the only technology talked about is that of military value; it’s likely safe to assume any other technology was forbidden.

...more on this later... haha...

part two: the implications

“the implications” of course being various things in game, and how they affect the characters. now that you know the general situation regarding non-wizards, you might ask me. ruby. how in god’s name did this start?

...well, we don’t know for sure. and it could very easily be as simple as “wizards have power and it developed from there”. but i have a theory.

nazcaa, as it happens, was very magi-scientific. we know this because have you ever been attacked by a magimech. i have. it’s fucking terrifying. those bitches were these people’s FAMILIARS!!! nazcaa was around during the age of sages, also known as the sagely stone age, when people were experimenting with stones, discovering the power behind them (maybe i should make a lore post on rocks)! no one was restricted! magi-science was HAPPENING. the wizard king was well known for being equal, to the point of choosing his stone guardians to represent humans, animals, and creatures.

and then, of course, he was assassinated.

and then, of course, his daughter cast the forbidden spell, and doomed nazcaa entirely.

my theory is that nazcaa was somewhat of a trailblazer for this stuff (the MAGIMECHS) and that when it was destroyed, people saw their technology as the thing that cursed them. the wizard’s companion describes nazcaa as a legend; how did the destruction of a kingdom that large not make it into history books? easy: no one knows what happened. but they can guess - and my guess is that they thought their technology went against the laws of nature, and therefore the gods. over thousands of years, this translates into nazcaa being forgotten, but the idea of that still lingering. obviously, this is a theory, and isn’t actually confirmed. but it would make a lot of sense, right?

that’s nazcaa; let’s talk about more modern-day things. for example, khulan and kublai.

even without dotdd confirming it, we can assume xanadu was pretty magical. it was run by a great sage and it fucking floated. it was magical. when kublai was hired, it was a highly magical palace of a highly magical kingdom; he is non-magical, to the point where in dotdd, he uses cloud sweepers, in a clear showing of his divide from wizardry. his position in the xanadu army was... i mean i already said it at the top of this essay: he was a diversity hire.

this is why khulan and kublai’s relationship was such a well-guarded secret. have you ever wondered why in god’s name they were so secretive about it? it’s THIS. are you kidding? the implications of a great sage and a non-wizard sky pirate...

while on the topic of kublai: in dotdd, there’s a little secret cave, called the “sky pirate’s hideout” (different to the one in wotww; kublai’s hideout in dotdd is called dragon’s den) in which you find ghosts of a long lost magic pirate crew from hundreds of years ago. most of it isn’t relevant to this post, but the ghost at the entrance directly scoffs at kublai’s pirate crew for not being able to use magic:

“Using magic to move a huge ship, we were a great pirate crew that controlled the seas around the world!“ [Drippy] “Never saw you lot. Though there is a Pirate King [Kublai] who flies the sky.” “Hmph. The pirates here are small fry compared to the olden days. I guess it’s because they’ve lost their ability to use magic. How pitiful they’ve become.”

it’s a neat little insight into how wizards from before shadar’s reign viewed non-magical people - and a neat little insight into how kublai was likely viewed when hired by the xanaduvian palace.

now that that’s done. here’s the big one:

hamelin.

gascon as well, in a moment. but for now let’s talk about hamelin as a city. now that we know all this, we can pretty easily make some assumptions about hamelin: before shadar’s reign, they were making military weapons and military weapons only (supported by the fact the wizard’s companion still describes hamelin as a “seat of scientific and magical learning”). during shadar’s reign, they may have gone a little too crazy; now that the sages are no longer in power, they’re experiencing an industrial revolution on such a large and fast scale because now they can actually make machines that aren’t. guns or tanks. and they already have the knowledge to do so because they’ve already been making guns and tanks. hamelin is on top of large mining deposits - clear by the mines and quarries everywhere on the pig iron plain - and they’ve already been making the aforementioned guns and tanks, so their tech evolves first.

(xanadu was on an island right next to autumnia; i wouldn’t be surprised if the iron wyvern came out of hamelin.)

they build a roof over the city. we know from dotdd that the primary reason for this is to protect them (likely from shadar, who is right next door), but it may have also been to keep the rain out of their engines. they don’t think about the consequences - they don’t KNOW about the consequences until they have to name a chest disease hamelin heart, a name, again, from dotdd (love that game), because the smog clouds the city.

(according to dotdd, hamelin was the smallest of the cities on autumnia before shadar took over. now it’s the only one standing.)

now. gascon. gascon is the most obvious piece of evidence for this entire thing, considering his lack of magic is a large plotpoint. it seems like even though hamelin as a city has been largely letting go of all of this, in favour of technology, the noble class has other ideas - they want to keep magical superiority alive, so much so that they refuse to have a non-wizard on the throne. even though gascon is good with machines - he gives you a blueprint for a gun he designed! - and would currently be a better fit for the throne than a great sage with no mechanical knowledge, he’s unable to ascend the throne because he can’t do magic. hamelin is a mechanical empire, no one is allowed to use magic ANYWAY, and gascon isn’t allowed to ascend the throne.

genuinely i wish marcassin’s brokenhearted plotline focused more on his ability to run the kingdom; the person who was meant to and was better fit for the job left him on account of the pressure from the sages, after all. he’s doing his best. he really is. but considering he IS a great sage, and most of marcassin’s education likely revolved around that instead of anything his kingdom is known for (seriously. isn’t it crazy that hamelin is the only one of the three kingdoms run by a great sage? that it has a law on it? ...more on this later)... he is not the best for the job is he. yet even if gascon didn’t run, from what we can tell from what swaine says about the situation, marcassin would have become emperor in his place anyway.

this shit runs DEEP.

part three: lucien

this is the big one. why did lucien, as shadar, ban magic? well i hope that now that you’ve read the rest of this post you can infer why, but the answer is easy: he wanted to stop the oppression of non-wizards, by taking away the power the sages wielded. but it’s actually a lot more personal than that. a lot of this section will be going into one of dotdd’s dlc quests, in which this is essentially spelled out for you.

because, according to this dlc quest: lucien did not grow up practicing magic.

in this quest (really series of quests. there’s three of them), you meet three of lucien’s friends from when he was in the army. they’re ghosts, of course, but they’re unable to move on because they feel guilt for not standing with lucien when he turned traitor. they say, very directly:

“A long time ago, Shadar wasn’t even able to use magic.” [Esther] “Seriously? Shadar. The Dark Djinn. One of the most powerful wizards ever, and you’re saying he wasn’t always able to use magic?” [Swaine] “But... If he couldn’t use magic, how was he able to join the battle mages?” “He didn’t want to join the battle mages. He thought that he would be just a normal soldier, given that he was a young man from Halcyon. But, even though he couldn’t use magic, he was made the attendant of a battle mage magimech.” [Oliver] “Magimech?” “He was a soldier whose job was to make synthetic stones. He knew how to hit the enemy hard, but he broke himself in the process of making our weapons. He was a support worker for those who were on the front lines. Lucien was right in the middle of all that, and I think that’s where he became interested in magic.”

so just to be clear. lucien was originally not a soldier in this war. he was an engineer who made weapons (because he wasn’t allowed to make anything else) who then began fighting after he became interested in magic. not only that, he was an apprentice of some kind to a MAGIMECH. are you kidding.

(speaking of. this is very similar to a certain someone in motorville.)

later on in this quest, you find lucien’s diary - kept safe by the magimech he attended - which details his contempt for living in a magic-driven world:

Magic is to blame, if anything... I won’t ever forgive anyone who uses magic spells to harm another person. If there were no magic in this world in the first place... then we wouldn’t have such horrifying wars, either. There is no place for me in this terrifying world. Even if my existence was suddenly extinguished, I don’t think that even my friends would miss me... or notice. But, the innocence of all the people caught up in this world of magic keeps eating away at me. I want to devote myself to protecting innocence. And I want to leave this diary for my friends to read, one day. I will hide it away somewhere no sane person would ever look for it, and I will entrust it to the custody of a guardian. If ever there is a person who reads this diary... I hope that they are a person who holds the same convictions and hopes for the future of the world that I do.

we all know lucien’s motivations for becoming the dark djinn: he wanted to put an end to the wars that seemed to run rampant throughout the world (hell. if you look at some of the dialogue from king tom and cowlipha lowlah, there’s still animosity between the three kingdoms.) so he became the sole target. and i mean. crazy fucking plan but it worked! the world is a lot more peaceful now than in lucien’s age! i don’t condone the murders but he did kind of fucking do it is the thing!

but why did he ban magic specifically? why were there wars in the first place? here’s my second theory of this post: the wars were between sages.

they’re using magic to fight. they’re using armies to attack each other. why ARE military inventions praised so highly by sages, when they have magic that can do much of the same? because their armies can use them. the target in rubicon when lucien betrayed his army was a sage - alicia’s parent. If there were no magic in this world in the first place... then we wouldn’t have such horrifying wars, either.

the sages like the invention of weapons that non-wizards can use so that those non-wizards can fight their wars for them. hamelin’s law that only a great sage can run the kingdom makes a lot more sense when you consider it’s not only for a class boundary, but for control.

the, now rather obvious, reason lucien banned magic was to get rid of the power imbalance; he took down all of the sages who were oppressing non-wizards, he stopped the wars they caused, he forced them to adapt without magic because they couldn’t defeat him. and. again it worked! hamelin is expanding, the al mamoon army uses cloud sweepers now, khulan and kublai are together... things are better! despite the horrors! the world of ni no kuni, as it is in game, is in a very specific position - where shadar has now managed to achieve his aim - tipping the scales so that non-wizards are no longer oppressed. clearly, there’s still some way to go, but it’s a good damn start.

but his job is done; there’s no need for him anymore. the wars are over, the world is almost peaceful again - the last thread tying it to that time is shadar himself. and i mean he did murder and break the hearts of a lot of people also. for the world to be truly peaceful, he needs to be defeated.

and isn’t it poetic that the pure-hearted one, he who will drive out the darkness. is a kid from motor city who likes building cars and didn’t know magic existed until he was thirteen.

Using machines to triumph over nature is not the behavior of the pure-hearted.

imagine how pissed off these sages would be. they come out of hiding after shadar has been defeated like finally! the place of magic within society has been restored! we will now start banning technology again and the pure-hearted one is sitting there like why would you do that :( they’re so cool :(

THEY WOULD BE SO ANGRYYYY it would be so funny. they can’t even fucking say anything. he’s a great sage’s son. he’s from detroit. they’ve been waiting for this powerful wizard to show up to defeat shadar so they can get their world back and he turns out to be a Mechanic. from Another World. full of CARS. AND HE’S THE SECOND COMING OF THE WIZARD KING. IMAGINE.

part four: conclusion

this is where i leave you. with the knowledge that oliver’s existence is driving magical bigots batshit. good for him

thank you for reading this 4500 WORD JESUS CHRIST???? essay. if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them in my askbox. i fucking love politics that aren’t real in any shape or form and i also love other things about ni no kuni too so you can ask me anything about it.

i hope you get it now.

#ni no kuni #ni no kuni: wrath of the white witch #rambles

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hyukabean · 2 years

Text

hwang hyunjin as your bf (headcanons)

req – for my youth pastor simp <3 @yejiimg

nana's notes – speed wrote this cause inspo <3 all my other wips are… eh not happy with them yet

warning(s) – does jealousy count??

unedited.

how you met .｡.:*☆

i feel like you’d meet through lily, hear me out

nmixx is still a rookie group, and the budget is definitely a lot lower than some of the big names under jype

they can’t really afford to always pay staff full time, so they decided to hire a bunch of interns, for much less pay ofc

being a college student though, you don’t mind, and decide to take the job!

being able to speak english with lily would definitely make her feel more at ease when she’s stressed and so on

with time, y’all become besties~

you’ll wait for her after she’s done working, and sooner rather than later, you become a known face

felix invites her out for boba one day, and she takes you with her cause why not?

a few months in, i can also see you getting close to the skz aussie line, even if you don’t constantly hang out (cause jypapi’s got chan in his dungeon-)

hyunjin needed inspo for his new painting, and so felix is, “hey, meet my friend, they’re kinda cool”

and hyunjin’s like?????? no???????????

but ofc he end up saying yes anyways

ngl bby would be hella awkward and shy. but not like the stuttering mess, more like the o-o, i’m watching you

lily would just laugh awkwardly, and continue speaking to you

trying to “ignore” him, you do the same

but then he’s like !! woah. they’re kinda pretty… and look at their shiny eyes… oh and the lines when they smile

jinnie would def start drawing without even noticing.

by the end of it, you all just kind of part ways, not having gotten much closer

he’d ask felix for your number though, and send you the sketch with a lil, ‘sry about last time… but, can i draw u again?’

ofc you’re super flattered and agree *cue felix and lily evil chuckling*

it would take a long time for him to trust, and get close to you, but after your there, you’re in

it would genuinely just be friendship at first, but when your birthday rolls around and he sticks a letter and a painting of you in your hands before leaving?

yeah, you’re definitely in-in now. (that’s what she said-)

pros .｡.:*☆

okay, 100% the pet name privileges

he’s not suuuper affectionate with the other members, save for felix, so when he starts doing little things like: calling you princess, feeding you, actually texting you back, no one knows how to respond

hyunjin is definitely a secret hopeless romantic, and so it’s no surprise that he draws inspiration from romantic things, aka, you <3

def has lil sketches of you laying around

constantly takes secret candid pictures of you, and re-drawing them, knowing full well he’ll never be able to encapsulate all of your beauty

free dance lessons. he would offer to teach you anything.

loves seeing you have fun <3 loves seeing you (full stop)

tbh he’d cringe a bit if you’re awkward, but would also lovingly guide you, recounting all the steps for you~

by far the #1 hyunjin bf privilege is getting to back hug him and getting forehead kisses as a thank you

no matter who’s around, how tall you are, how much you weigh, if you’ve got acne or not, none of it matters.

tldr. bby’s a major simp for you <3

last but not least, you get all of his hoodies. it gets to a point where, if you’re not wearing something matching, he straight up just makes you wear his clothes, no questions asked

but don’t you dare tease him about it, he’ll ignore you for a solid 3 hours straight

affection gets it’s own section muahahah

cons .｡.:*☆

jealousy. though it’s not allllways a bad thing. it can get pretty rough. essentially, there’s two types:

1) the ‘cute’ jealous

hyunjin’s english is pretty good, but his confidence isn’t always the highest (which it definitely should be wtf-)

so he does get a bit :< seeing you and felix, or lily talk so freely with each other

and though, again, he understands, he can’t always respond

so, whenever he’s put in that situation, he sulks and goes to his room

which in itself isn’t reeeaally an issue, but communication definitely something he needs to work on in a relationship

anyways, you sneak after him one day, and find him studying english using text books:(

ofc you confront him and you’re like ??? why didn’t you ask me:(( and he’s like :(((((( sry bby

2) the ‘not so cute’ jealous

as mature as i think hyunjin is, he’s not always open to talking about what bothers him

this would often lead to petty arguments, empty but hurtful words, or just radio silence.

often the members would try and help, but controlling his jealousy when he sees you with someone else, or doing something, whatever it may be, is something he should fix

and he’s well aware of it.

this wouldn’t be a problem too too often

but once it’s there, it’s there

once you reassure him over and over and over again, and he realizes it’s really his insecurities that fuel this arguments, he’d better himself

getting there takes a while though

affection .｡.:*☆

as for affection..:

i think it’s goes one of two ways

either his s/o is also a ‘tsundere’, or they’re super affectionate

if they’re the former, he’d would 100% get along with them

they’d get the feeling of not wanting to be touched 24/7 but not minding it from time to time

though if they’re equally as prideful as his is, you’ll need to compromise on who asks first

overall though 10/10 would love someone similar to him

if they’re suuuper affectionate… they’ll need to tread on eggshells for a while

not because he doesn’t love them, but just because he’s someone who doesn’t feel the need to be touchy all the time

when he’s in that mood, he’s 1000000% going at it, kisses hugs everything

but when he’s not, he needs space (back it up bestie)

again, you’ll need to compromise

either way, you’ve seen him around felix, he wouldn’t ever leave you touch starved;)

habits / miscellaneous .｡.:*☆

playing w/ your fingers cause they’re pretty

giving you head pats cause he likes telling you you’ve done well without actually having to say it

would give you a promise ring <3

hyunjin would love having you sleep over

it’s here the affection side of him would come out the most

he’d leech on to you, and just mwahmwahmwah in his sleep

also would watch you sleep if he woke up first (…that sounded a lot less weird in my head-)

over all, 10/10 would recommend to a friend;)

#[📁] – nana’s files #skz headcanons #stray kids headcanons #hyunjin x reader #hwang hyunjin #Hyunjin headcanons #stray kids x reader #bf headcanons #skz x reader #headcanons #kpop headcanons #lee felix #lily #nmixx #fluff #angst #stray kids fluff #stray kids angst

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misc-obeyme · 6 months

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its been a minute since ive played either game, do you know if theres detention??? was daydreaming about good doer delinquent mc (as in, beats up the bullies but ends up in detention/teachers think theyre the bad one) and then realized i either dont remember or havent seen any detention

🐈‍⬛

Hello there, 🐈‍⬛ anon!

As it turns out, there is in fact detention!

It happens in season four of the OG when MC and Simeon start talking at lunch. They get distracted and totally miss one of their classes. Skipping class means you get detention!

When they showed up to the classroom in which detention was being held, it was being run by Barbatos. I found this very interesting because they said that detention is normally run by a student council member, thus implying that Barbatos is not actually on the student council himself. I kind of see this as he just acts as Diavolo's personal assistant so he's like council adjacent. But also good because give the man a break from something for once.

Anyway, they proceed to explain that it has to be Barbatos now because members of the student council kept finding themselves in detention. In this case, they're talking about Mammon specifically. I can't remember what he did, though.

Also present is Thirteen who I think caused some kind of trouble with a trap or something. I don't remember that exactly, either tbh.

The punishment is writing lines on a chalkboard.

Barbatos tells Simeon to write something like "I smile a lot but I'm scary when I'm angry ♡" with the heart and everything.

I don't remember what MC's line was or if they even gave us one.

But this stuck out to me because I remember being like I am a grown ass adult there is no way I would agree to do detention at all, let alone writing lines. Then again, these are also ancient beings and they're doing it, so they'd probably be like being over thirty is not a good enough reason to get out of writing lines lol.

Anyway, I think it was mostly a lighthearted sort of thing.

Personally I really like the idea of do gooder delinquent MC getting in detention all the time to the point where Barb is just like, don't even bother. He'd be like okay obviously you're not supposed to beat up students, but if you sneak out of detention, I shall turn a blind eye... and he'd get away with it easily too.

Anyway, I hope that helps you out! I don't remember exactly what lesson that detention part is in, so if someone knows, please feel free to drop the number in the comments or something!

#ahh detention #truly what was the point #I certainly never learned anything from sitting in a classroom for an extra hour after school #also I deliberately did not mention that I'd rather have detention with Barbatos just the two of us #because that would devolve into naughtiness #though I would probably deliberately get into detention if that was the case #obey me #obey me nightbringer #obey me simeon #obey me barbatos #🐈‍⬛ anon #misc answers

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cherryo · 2 years

Note

can i req suggestive hcs of the rise turtles(separate) of how they would react to fem!reader on top of them during fun time suddenly put a hand on their throat and lightly choke them and then suddenly stopping when she realizes she got too lost in the moment?

so with this i kinda did this where the boys are like surprised in a good way and not like scared? if that makes any sense ! i appreciate you requesting and I loved writing this <33

Pairings: Rise!boys x fem!reader (seperate) hc genre: smut? smut HCs wordcount: Pronouns:she/her w/ fem genitalia Warnings: explicit content, swearing, choking, BOYS ARE AGED APPROPRIATELY <333

Raph:

So you cant exactly “choke” him because well,,, your hands probably wont even reach around his neck

You end up just putting pressure on his neck?

He stops, like fully stops his part and youre confused

You realize as he just kind of reaches up and pulls your hands off his neck

You apologize and all he does is smile and says its okay

Tbh i dont think he’d be into it but he wouldnt mind if you were

Was just shocked tbh but was like kind of turned on by your straight forward-ness

You both had an in-depth convo after about what you both like and if the other is okay with it and what not, tried to make it a lesson almost?

He’s so silly, he’d probs admire the fact you thought you could actually choke him and thought it was hot that you got that into it hehe

Leo

You could wrap your hands around his neck

Also stopped but as soon as he made eyecontact he laughed, like belly laughed

He thought it was cute and hot

I feel he’d be into this tbh

Didnt let you apologize because “it was so hot babe! Why would i let you apologize for that?”

I dont think he would want to choke you unless you specifically asked beforehand

Defintietly wants to be choked though teehee

I doubt you’d have an in-depth conversation but he’d ask what else you were into and what you were hiding up your sleeve

Donnie

Literally the most shocked out of all the boys

I don’t think he’d stop but would def sit up in shock

Would look at you then like hold your hands together in confusion

Didnt know you were into that but was seriously turned on by it

I think Donnie would be into it both ways? So being choked and choking you?

He’d def do it if you had a hot reaction to it!!

Idk why but i think donnie would be the experimental one out of them all

Y’all talk about other things to try later on

Mikey

Holy shit

Just goes wide-eyed

He isn't stopping so he's not going to let you stop

Def an ‘in the moment' type of guy?

Like he wasn't sure what to do but to continue?

He wasn't nervous or scared, just turned on

You stopped when you realized, apologized, and felt bad but he laughed it off and said it was fine and sorta hot

Yall have an in-depth conversation because yknow, dr. feelings has to make an appearance lol

And the fact he wants to know what else you like

#chasewrites #rottmnt #rottmnt x reader smut #rottmnt raph #rottmnt donnie #tmnt 2018 #rottmnt leo #rottmnt mikey

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chronicallydragons · 1 month

Text

Tag Game: OC interaction

I'm finally catching up on tag games! Thanks both @tildeathiwillwrite and @illarian-rambling for the tags! I'll do both here if that's okay!

Rules: Provide a short description of your oc, then using the description given by the person who tagged you, describe how you think the two of them would interact.

@tildeathiwillwrite's oc: Hector Epsilona is Caenum's resident Watcher (which is a detective/bodyguard/mercenary-type job). He knows the law (and its loopholes) very well, and uses both extensively, and enjoys a small amount of freedom to operate outside the law if he sees fit. He is extremely protective of and attached to those he cares about, especially his apprentice, Luc. He is generally polite, if a bit stern, and is always looking for a way to turn something into a lesson. I used the Wheel again (it's a brilliant idea!) and got Sophie from my MG werewolf WIP

My OC: Sophie Beatrice Larsen is a 12 years old and is a sixth grader at Forest Hills Elementary. She's 100% in her "weird 12 year old" phase and embracing and loving every second of that. She firmly believes mythological creatures are real and will go to the ends of the earth to prove they actually exist. She's delightfully weird, incredibly passionate, and super curious. She's naturally good at tracking and investigating and looking for clues and asking questions. She's also got a large amount of sass for such a tiny human and won't just standby in the face of injustice. How I think they'd interact: Sophie would probably idolize Hector, tbh. I mean, he's a detective??? She's absolutely taking notes and copying every single thing he does so she can be a better detective too. Whether or not Hector is chill about this, I have no clue XD ---

@illarian-rambling's oc: OC: Elsind is a 20 year old changeling whose true form looks like a mannequin wrapped in raw meat with five fins ringing its face, and who can transition between a solid and liquid state. They change their disguise frequently (they can only do people, not animals) and use the pronouns of whatever face they’re wearing. As a person, Elsind is anxious, easily flustered, cries a lot, and is overall very kind-hearted, despite working as an assassin for a rebel cell. She ended up in that line of work because she wants revenge for what the nobility of her home put her through - kidnapping her at thirteen to serve as a court freak. He thinks if he can assassinate his target, he can earn his courage back and be more than another discarded toy of the ruling class, even if the idea of killing someone makes him sick. Indeed, classism is where Elsind gets very passionate, as well as talking about romance novels. They long for love, even if they think no one would accept a changeling without a disguise. I would also say she’s chronically unlucky. If anyone is going to slip in the mud in his nice new dress, it’s Elsind. All I have written down on their character notes is “eager to please, easily overwhelmed, great combo of traits,” which is pretty much Elsind’s deal. The Wheel has chosen Lizzie--also from my MG werewolf WIP. I suppose it's appropriate that the best friends get chosen together (though for what it's worth, Sophie would be FASCINATED by Elsind and would beg for them to change their face and show her what his true form is and would 100% love her true form) My OC: Elizabeth Page (Lizzie) is also a 12 year old 6th grader at Forest Hills Elementary. She has pretty debilitating POTS symptoms and is often dizzy, fatigued, and in pain. She's incredibly loyal, loving, and kind. She really sees the best in people. She's also a werewolf. Because werewolves are so often depicted as monsters and were nearly hunted to extinction in the 1500s, it's against werewolf law to let nonwerewolves know to keep them safe. Lizzie adores Sophie and wants to help with the investigations but she's not allowed to tell and she spends the first chunk of the book terrified that Sophie won't accept her if she finds out the truth. How I think they'd interact: Listen. A huge proportion of my characters are shapeshifters in someway, so it's no surprise I got a shapeshifter when I pulled a character at random. But I think the fact the wheel pulled Lizzie to meet Elsind is a really good match. Lizzie's also incredibly anxious, kindhearted, and ALSO ready to seek revenge. A big plot point is that Sophie and Lizzie find a new kid who was just recently turned into a werewolf (Lizzie was born into a werewolf family), and Lizzie's ready to square up with whoever it was that attacked a 12 year old boy. So I think Lizzie and Elsind would probably definitely get along.

I'm nervous to tag people because I'm going to try to get through the rest of the tag games and I only have like 3 or 4 people I know are okay with tags and I don't really want to spam tag anyone, so... open tag?? (if you want to be tagged, please let me know!)

#tag game #writing tag game #writblr #OC interactions #other people's OCs #my OCs #disability rep #MG Werewolf WIP

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prodigal-upsiders · 1 year

Text

more fruity four band au

I cannot stop rotating band au in my head, so here’s specifically some random bits about the instruments and covers they play:

Nancy plays the drums, and I have a lot of thoughts about how that comes about. might post a snippet or two about it later.

Robin picks up the bass, because I think that is very sexy of her. (one or two of their original songs do feature some cool brass from her as well, but I don’t think she really like, loves the trumpet itself so much as she just loves making music)

Steve is the lead singer, but he also surprises them with the info that his parents used to pay for piano lessons. they stopped when he got to high school, wanted him to focus on sports and other things, but he gets a secondhand keyboard and goes to town reviving those skills. their original tracks don’t feature a lot of keyboard but it’s very fun flavor to bring out sometimes

More Steve - he picks up the rhythm guitar parts. Steve is a highly kinesthetic learner, okay; give him something to do with his hands and he picks it up quick. also, "hey man will you teach me how to play guitar” was initially a ploy he cooked up to get Eddie to sit fucking still while he was still healing after spring break, but hey actually he really enjoys it

we all know Eddie is lead guitar. I just didn’t want to not give him a bullet point of his own okay

as far as genre goes I think their band ends up with an experimental rock n roll vibe, not all heavy metal but with influences for sure - they just don’t let Eddie write that many songs about dragons and witches, lol. but he does get to show off with fantastic guitar solos, because honestly is it even any flavor of 80s rock if there’s not a cool guitar solo in it. there’s enough shared roots between their tastes to make something really cool. I know the “steve only listens to pop” is popular, but tbh the fic “Cut and Changed and Rearranged” put Boston fan Steve in my head and he will never leave now, so. I have more specific ideas about which albums Eddie plays to coax them to the edge of the metal genre, though, because of course he does

I don’t envision they ever like, hit it really big - I think a certain level of commercial success would freak them out, honestly. it’s not a lifelong career for any of them but Eddie, who stays in the industry but transitions to mainly songwriting and/or producing in the later years. but they put out several albums, do a couple of tours, and are kind of a cult classic of the scene before they retire. they do record a reunion/celebration album when gay marriage is made legal and it’s all the songs they had to shelve back in the day because there was definitely no way to make them sounds straight lol. they drop the announcement of the album and also the fact that they’re marrying each other in the same tweet.

a couple of the songs I put on their playlist with the hcs about them:

Immigrant Song - Led Zepplin. Steve may be lead vocals but it’s Nancy and Robin who like to do the war cry part

Baba O’Riley - The Who. aka Teenage Wasteland, and Steve absolutely practices that intro for weeks in secret so that he’s got it down enough that he can wink at Eddie the first time he plays it for the band

Bad Reputation / Call Me Lightning - a couple of the few that Robin takes lead vocals instead of Steve. listen if Nancy and Robin don’t get to cover some Joan Jett then what’s the POINT

#stranger things #fruity four #nancy wheeler #robin buckley #steve harrington #eddie munson #headcanon #the upsiders au #steddie #ronance #eventually because what is the point if not homoerotic musical choices #im easing back into the actual practice of writing fic #so for now just some notes and snippets and thoughts

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trashiewrites · 2 years

Text

All the HCs I’ve done but ALEJANDRO EDITION!!

All the head cannons ive done but our favorite Mexican man. Cause TBH who doesn’t love his goofy ass.

ALSO YES I AM ALIVE!! I have a lot of request and work has been killing me lately! So if you have a request you sent im still doing them i swear! Enjoy!!

Relationship:

+CAN AND WILL SERENADE YOUUU

+won your heart with his guitar. That is just the truth. You try to lie and say something more romantic.

+He gets offended that you think it wasn't romantic.

+Honestly, he's when he isn't working, HES A PUPPY! He's so happy to be around you and wants to get up and do things with you.

+It is not uncommon to see you two roaming the streets of Las Almas till dusk because he honestly wants to.

+HE MAKES THE BEST FOOD HAND DOWN!! IF YOU WANNA DATE A MAN FOR HIS COOKING YOU CAN NOT AND I REPEAT C A N N O T BEAT ALEJANDRO

+If you aren't a fan of Mexican food, he's okay with it. He would usually make you a separate meal cause you aren't stopping him from his Carnita Enchiladas.

+His family (if he does have any) Is very kind to you! If you don't speak Spanish, they try their best to speak English and you try to talk as much as Alejandro teaches you.

+Going through your daily chores doing Spanish lessons with him

+ Legit, your number one fan! in everything, no matter what.

Sick

:+You wanna know the best thing about Mexican/ Hispanic foods? THERE IS A LOT OF SOUP!!!

+SOUP IS NEVER JUST BORING CHICKEN NOODLES! THIS MAN MAKES IT ALL; FIDEO, MENUDO, CALDO DE QUESO! AKA surprise soup every day.

+ Takes over all the chores in the house. All of them

+ *INSERT DEAFENING VOLUME SPANISH MUSIC* You already know he's doing more dancing than actually cleaning.

+ Vix... If you know, you know...

+He's not entirely against medicine, but let's say he's wary about it... Won't stop you from doing it tho. It's more of a personal thing.

+ About him getting sick, "Si no te estás muriendo, estás bien." If you aren't dying, you're fine.

+You often argue with him over this mentality because he gets really bad sometimes. I mean he needs to go to the hospital before because of it

.+AKA Good luck trying to keep this puto in place. That will be the biggest challenge

. Christmas:

+1st day of November, He gives no fucks.

+Prob took out the tree the day after Halloween.

+you get new ornaments every single year, this year you found one from a series you like. Mister over here got a T-Rex with some skis.

+ He's not particularly too religious but he does have religious-based decorations. You know the usual, baby Jesus and the three wise men. You may have given some new decorations to the Virgin Mary you may not have.

+He does go to church Christmas morning with his family. He always asks you if you want to come and if you don't that's okay with him.

+There's a cookout at his family's place that lasts a bit, nothing too crazy! Lots of dancing, live music and of course, great food.

+THE REAL KICKER IS THE PARTY ALEJANDRO TAKES YOU TO WITH HIS SQUAD. Ooooh, THAT PLACE IS LIVELY!

+yall both drank so much you blacked out. Luckily you didn't drive home that night. Rudy did, but you wouldn't know that till later.

Wedding:

+The wedding was in Las Almas, no doubt. At least it would be tough to convince him for it to be anywhere else.

+if you had to pick anywhere if you didn't want a church wedding, then it would be in the woods nearby. Nice and scenic!

+He spent whatever to have it look the way you wanted. Any expense as long as he deemed it reasonable.

+The ceremony itself was amazing! Mystical and beautiful, felt as if you were in your little fairy tale. AND TO BE MARRIED TO ALEJANDRO! oh, honey, you were in tears.

+Yall already know who his best man is. 100% Rudy, and if they could make it, Soup and Ghost.

+ The reception after was WILD! Not perfect though.

+paid for a custom cake and umm... it arrived... a little lopsided but that's okay! A little melted too but it's okay, still edible!

+He slammed your face into your slice of cake. Soon after met with the same fate. Cake faced, he acted shocked and offended.

+didn't get absolutely shitfaced at your own wedding surprisingly. Everyone who was a guest, except the designated driver, got hammered.

+overall 9.5/10 would marry again.

#COD MW2 #cod #CODMW #Alejandro Vargas mw2 #alejandro #alejandro vargas #los vaqueros #modern warfare #Modern Warfare 2 #call of duty modern warfare 2 #call of duty modern warfare #modern warfare headcanons #call of duty #call of duty headcanons

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autopotion · 3 months

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Ppl always talk about how Penelo, Vaan, and Fran get very little content compared to the other three, but tbh Basch hasn't had anything to do for like. Hours. I think he had a couple lines in Jahara and that was it (I'm at the Stilshrine of Miriam).

Fran's content is slight but like, I think it actually has a leg up on the others for being complete; the Eruyt arc is short, but it is an entire arc, with interesting supporting characters, key character moments, and ties to the overarching plot that don't get in the way of the arc (the nethicite, the brief appearance of Venat). Balthier got stuff that didn't get in the way of Fran's stuff, and was the perfect supporting character for her. Vaan even had some good moments where he feels like the guy he was in the first five hours again. Like it's actually extremely solid as far as the story arcs in this game go, and a rare moment where I felt like every writer was on the same page, in this case about what kind of character Fran is.

I don't feel that way about the rest of the cast (barring Balthier who is so obviously the team favorite). Vaan is WILDLY inconsistent as a protagonist; he got over his hatred of Basch like an hour after he met the guy, and it's clear the dev team had conflicting ideas about what to do with him after that, so he slingshots between "hothead kid who is earnest but impulsive" and "the wise commoner kid who reflects sagely on his own shortcomings in earshot of the impulsive vengeance-questing princess so she can one day learn those lessons too." Like I'm not saying he can't be both--ideally he should be both!--but the writing absolutely does not straddle that line at all, but faceplants in one direction depending on what they want from the scene. It's such a shame because I actually really like Vaan and think there are a number of interesting ideas in his concept, but I don't think those ideas stick the landing. The most damning thing about him is he doesn't feel like the protagonist of the game. He doesn't even feel like a deuteragonist in an ensemble cast, he feels like the kid sidekick (like Laphicet). I just don't think that's any way to treat your leading man, and it leads to a lot of writing confusion, and fan confusion, about what the character arcs even are.

And I also don't feel like Ashe herself escaped the inconsistent writing! I think in some ways her plot is very clear, but in most of the scenes she's in, she's hardly interfacing with the party like... at all. I hate to say it, but she often has more dynamic relationships with the guests, most strikingly Vossler and Larsa, than she does with party members who aren't Basch (and later Balthier). She does talk to Vaan, like they're clearly trying to do the "commoner foil to the princess" thing with them, but... again, I feel like those Vaan scenes are written inconsistently, so it just kinda comes off as Vaan spouting off unearned platitudes while Ashe is like "oh I see! [continues to pursue vengeance for the next fifty hours until the last Vaan Speech finally sticks]"

Idk. I feel like a much more interesting arc for Vaan & Ashe is like... okay, so Ashe is the Occuria's candidate, right? But it's implied they're also grooming Vaan as an alternate if Ashe doesn't work out. While Ashe sees Rasler, Vaan sees Reks. But while Ashe still feels so much fury about Rasler, Vaan stops expressing anger about Reks after he's resolved his shit with Basch in the first five hours of the game... so he seems like a pretty weak candidate for the Occuria to pin their hopes on. I feel like an interesting pitch would be for Vaan and Ashe to actually be in lockstep for like, most of the game (which is what the Occuria's illusions seem to suggest anyway). Vaan learns Basch didn't kill his brother. Cool. Someone still did though, which means someone's still to blame, which means he can't let go of his anger yet. Easy enough to make Gabranth his new target. And then, in the later hours of the game, after their big adventure, Vaan is waffling more, thinking about what Ashe's vengeance would mean for his home, and the other common people of Dalmasca, and firmly plants his feet on the side of No Vengeance, Not Like This, just in time for the climax at the Pharos. In many ways I feel like the pieces of that plot are already there, and may or may not be what the dev team thought they were writing! But, as it is, it just kinda falls flat. Tbh I think that's because the writers had inconsistent visions about what Vaan's internal world is like.

As for the others... I mean, Penelo got all her shit cut, which is beyond sad. But Basch also gets his rough edges smoothed out after Vaan stops hating him--I mean, I think he gets some good stuff with Vossler and his own brother, but he's curiously absent from a lot of Ashe's conversations about power-seeking, mostly just kinda watching her from afar with either stone-faced concern or a bland smile. Though many fans point to Basch's existence as like "see! this one's not like the other Final Fantasies, it's got this grizzled old guy in it who's closer to the main plot of the game than the protagonist is!" (and also bcuz they're still on that Basch Was Always Supposed To Be The Protagonist theory that got debunked), Basch doesn't actually get all that much content, let alone enough to carry him as the protag.

Idk. This is the same criticism of FFXII that people have made many, many times, but it really is just a wildly inconsistently written game. The first several hours are extremely strong, and then not only is the story doled out in increasingly smaller portions with less frequency, but the writing loses track of what most of the characters actually want. No wonder fans attach themselves to Balthier, he's easily the most consistently written character in the game. Every other character either suffers from inconsistencies (Vaan, Ashe), or is consistent, but runs out of material (Fran, Basch), or has basically been written out of the story (Penelo).

DGMW I still love FFXII though. Definitely a GOAT for me. It just clearly and obviously suffered from the abrupt change in the development team and Matsuno's fraught departure.

#SORRY THIS GOT LONG LMAO it's just stream of consciousness thoughts #ffxii blogging

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chasingfictions · 2 years

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tell us about ur willam pratt (human spike) thoughts all of them rn

OH HI BESTIE OKAY . let's go let's do this hiiiii <3

first of all. william pratt is specifically designed to make me insane bc i was very much a Bow Girl Victoriana Tween <333 girls who mained samantha among the american girl dolls rise up, our time is now <3

SECOND OF ALL . okay william as a total mama's boy is a given and i think probably one of the reasons he was really close with his mom is that either he didn't have a governess, as would have been typical for children of his station, or his mother just took on a lot more of the childrearing than would have been typical, so he just spent more time with her than with the governess. also part of that is the only child thing !! i really subscribe to the fanon that he did have a bunch of other siblings it's just that none of them survived to adulthood or even that far out of infancy tbh . and he never really missed that sense of camaraderie because he had his mother, who was his best friend . william and anne serving gilmoregirlsism . im not afraid to speak on it!!! anne bringing william with her to her social calls and her friends are like . bruh shouldn't he be at home with the governess :) why are you bringing your child places :) and she says No He Likes To Sit With the Ladies but she says it with this intonation:

that said i think if william DID have a governess he adored her and hid behind her skirts and really wanted her to like him BUT the governess was like, his mother is far too permissive with him, i have to enforce some sort of discipline on this child or he will become a menace. so she's very strict on him. he simultaneously has a massive childhood crush on her the way kids get on their babysitters and wants her to approve of him and but ALSO when she would be upset with him i think he would run to get mummy and be a little crybaby snitch about it . i know that in my gut .

i think william had a pretty no good very bad time at school . like this boy did not have friends and didnt interact much with other children. like when the family was in london for the summers and christmas he was just very close knit with them and didnt have other children to play with. and when they were at their countryside estate i think he played a little bit with the estate staff's children but in kind of like a , our mom said we have to play with this weirdo boy because his mom gives us the money we need to be alive :) and then he goes off to school for the first time and he is suddenly around Boys and spoiler alert The Boys Do Not Like Him . he is sensitive and weepy and gets in trouble and the teachers think he needs to toughen up and the other boys think he's lame because he can't play any games. the other boys are like have you SEEN crybaby william he cant even PLAY stick and hoop. Loser .

ALSO i think it's relevant that in his "lessons" trauma monologue he says I Dropped My Board In The River And The Chalk All Ran. Sure to Be Caned. Should Have Seen That Coming. like he did NOT have a good time at school he did not he did NOT

i think he spends most of his time at school like, alone reading books and wandering the grounds looking for dandelions and clovers and probably because he Is Him gets really attached to like, the school nurse and whenever he gets injured trying to play cricket (which is a Lot. it happens A Lot. people think he's getting injured on purpose ? so he doesnt have to play anymore? but actually it's sadder and the truth is he Really is Trying. he's just So Bad) -- anyway whenever he gets injured he just goes and sits with the nurse and she tells him old stories and folktales and servants' gossip and he's like :))) this is the life :))))))

i think EVENTUALLY though he sort of . somewhat figures out how to function socially . like he makes some, if not friends, then at least Acquaintances . like i think it takes him his whole time at school to figure out how to do that but by the time he like . leaves eton and goes off to oxford or cambridge or wherever he's not actively getting bullied while he's in the room. people still talk shit about him but they're like, i don't know this isn't even fun anymore because he can't even tell . he studies classics and keeps trying to get his poems published and like, nobody will take his work which is saying something because he is a rich boy from a good family. like maybe he gets One poem published because like, an old friend of his dad's owns the magazine and tells the editor to throw him a bone, and he throws a huge luncheon to celebrate the publication and he is So Excited.

also obviously he is such a romantic but he Does Not Know How To Talk To Women Despite His Greatest Desire In Life From Day One Being To Talk To Women He Loves to Hang With Girlies . like i think during the marriage season he just gets really in his head and overthinks it and is really stupid and also gets like, really fixated on one eligible young lady per season and that young lady is NEVER interested in him she is ALWAYS out of his league and pre-betrothed . like i think cecily was the strongest love/infatuation of his human life but i also think she was the latest in a long line of like, william comes home from the latest ball and is like, Mother I Found The One I Found The Girl I'm Going To Marry and Isn't Miss Bradshaw Just Lovely??? and his mother already knows from her gossip over tea that miss bradshaw is soon to be engaged to colonel phillips but she also can't stand to bruise his lil self esteem so she's just like oh :))) that's so sweet dear i can't wait to meet her :))) you must bring her over to introduce to me for supper :)) can she play the pianoforte? meanwhile if he wasn't so myopic (see it's funny bc he's NOT myopic he's actually farsighted hehe) he'd be able to loosen his sights a little and actually court someone successfully who would see he is sweet and kind and nice :) but he is way too nervous and anxious and frazzled to

anyway at most of these balls he ends up reverting to his natural state and just chatting with the aunts and dowagers and chaperones and spinsters like . he simply wants to be shooting the shit with the old ladies and moms it is his natural state it is his personal brand of heroin . he is this meme but it's about gossiping with the old ladies

ALSO obviously he is a reader he is a brontes boy he is a byron boy he is a wilde boy he is a tennyson boy i KNOW he is . he is an austen boy and he kins marianne dashwood . he can talk to you about keats for fifty minutes straight . also obviously because he studied classics he is In It he is like excuse me do you have a minute to talk about sappho :))) do you have a minute to talk about how apuleius' the golden ass is a metaphor for the transformation of the soul :)) he said hello excuse me :))) also he LOVES the opera ,sdfds everyone is going to the opera to flirt and spy and gossip meanwhile he is wrenching the opera glasses out of the hand of the young lady his mama charitably set him up with like Excuse Me I Know Youre Using Those To See What's Up With the Couple In The Next Box But If I Don't Get a Closer Look At the Tears and Pain On That Tenor's Face I will Perish Look How He Emotes the Lyrics. Darling Are You Looking At How He Emotes . william said it's actually so much more beautiful if you speak the italian :)))) ALSO i KNOW that boy loves a penny dreadful but he gets scared when they're too creepyspookygothic :) he said excuse me small victorian child selling these penny dreadfuls on the street but can you inform me next time it is a pleasing pulpy love story? thank you so much :) can't bear so much dreadful death :) and the kid is like. sir, dreadful is in the name :)

ANYWAY THAT'S HUMAN SPIKE THAT'S MY BOY THAT'S MY BABY I LOVE HIM SO MUCH <33

#this is making me wanna write a victoriana spike fic SO BAD #ask #btvs meta

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