#there may be some things i'm forgetting but that's about it | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

adaonline · 3 days ago

Text

A Different Take on Mai Akasaki's Secret Quotes

Hello! It's time for me to hop back on my regularly scheduled bullshit! Enjoy!

Since Chapter 3 is currently in development, I decided it was a good time to rewatch DRDT and refresh myself on the content and mysteries we have so far. Obviously, the mother of all Despair Time mysteries surrounds the one and only Mai Akasaki, the seventeenth student.

What do you actually know about Mai? Well, we have a canon design, we have some vague messages hidden in the code, we have a very vague music video starring both her and Teruko, and... that's about it...

There's a lot of assumptions going around about Mai that a lot of people have taken as canon, not realizing how much is complete speculation. It's inferred, but not confirmed, that she's the unnamed student in Min and Xander's bonus episodes, it's inferred but not confirmed that she was a part of some revolution regarding Hope's Peak, etc...

Point being, we have a lot of clues pointing to Mai being involved in the killing game, or at least being a catalyst of sorts for what went wrong with the class, but until the DRDT Dev reveals their master plan, nothing can be taken as 100% fact.

Take the hidden messages, for example.

When you find Mai Akasaki's bio on the tumblr, her "quote" changes every time you refresh the page. Each "quote" corresponds to one of the cast, and if you dig through the source code, the quotes are actually labeled with which student they belong to.

["Some years ago, she was searching for someone named 'Teruko Tawaki.'",

["run script(teruko)"

(forgive my bad copy/paste skills, but this is what I'm talking about, for those unaware, this format is the same for every student.)

While the quote above is obviously connected to Teruko, even without the clarification, there are definitely several that are a bit more... subjective... This has lead to multiple different interpretations of what these quotes could mean, such as each statement is Mai's personal thoughts on the cast, or some sort of mockery of the cast's worst attributes or fears. My interpretation is somewhat different, and while someone has likely posted something similar to this before, I haven't run across it.

To me, I think the best explanation for the quotes is that they are what the cast most admire about Mai, or remember her for. You'll see what I mean.

First, Teruko. This is one self explanatory. Some years ago, Mai went looking for Teruko Tawaki. We don't know WHY she was looking for Teruko, and I imagine it wasn't an easy task, given how under the radar Teruko likes to stay. So when thinking about it, it was likely a memorable moment for Teruko, especially if their first meeting is indeed the cross walk scene from chapter 1.

"A girl who loves her family" This is Charles's quote. Charles doesn't say anything negative about his family, but his main plot revolves around him forgetting the existence of an older brother who died under unknown circumstances. We know nothing about Mai's family, but from the LGI music video, where her portrait is referred to as "somebody dearly loved" I imagine that she was adored by friends and family alike, and she returned that kindness in turn. Charles (speculation incoming) might have admired that about her, and thus this is why this quote is connected to him. It was the thing he admired most about her.

"She remembers everything that is important to others." This is Rose's quote. Rose has a photographic memory, so it's easy to equate this quote to be about her, but from the actions we see of Rose in game, while she has an amazing memory, she's pretty nonchalant to what goes on around her. Don't get me wrong, she's still a sweet girl, but "remember's everything important to others" yeah... no... but Mai, see "dearly loved" was as compassionate and thoughtful as she's made out to be, it's an easy connection to make that she'd be attentive to her friends, likely being a soundboard and a confidant. Rose, with her financial troubles and insecurity over her artwork, would likely remember a girl who took the time to listen and check up on her quite fondly.

"A girl who sees beauty in everyone." This is Arturo's quote. Arturo does NOT see beauty in everyone, this is one of the first things we learn about him. Dude's standards for beauty are in the stratosphere. This causes him to be dismissed and disregarded by the cast due to his annoying personality and weird behavior, especially towards J. However, one thing that most everyone agrees about when it comes to Mai is that she would have been friends with the entire class, and that'd include Arturo. It's hard being an outcast, even when it's of your own making. Sometimes, having a stubborn person repeatedly take a sledgehammer to your walls, refusing to leave you behind even if you want to be, means more than anything. If this WAS their relationship, then Arturo would naturally recall Mai as someone who saw beauty in even the harshest personalities, don't you think?

"A girl with a floral tattoo on her arm" This is Levi's quote. Okay, this through me through a loop when trying to equate this to my theory. This is always the odd man out of secret quotes, as there's no way to relate it to Levi. The floral tattoo is intrinsically linked to MAI. Even the popular theory that the cast all have hidden tattoos on their arms falls flat seeing as we can see the arms of several students and there's no tattoo to be seen.

Then, it hit me. This is literally the only theory that perfectly explains this quote. Because Levi doesn't experience emotion. He has no love for his classmates. He does care in his own way, but he's apathetic towards the majority of his classmates' plights, only engaging because he should, not because he wants to. So, if asked to name the thing he most remembers about a beloved classmate, of course this is the kind of thing Levi would say. It's something physical that he can see, admire, and associate with the person with it and them alone. This is the quote that cemented this theory as being likely in my eyes.

"A girl with many friends" This is Whit's quote. Not as specific as many of the others, but still, personality wise, Whit tries to get along with everyone, even breaking down Charles's walls in less that three days. Imagine the power of friendship that'd form in Whit "extrovert" Young and Mai "dearly beloved" Akasaki joined forces. IDK it fits.

"She kept calling the number, even though no one picked it up" this is Eden's quote. (Speculation ahead, you know the drill) This is another confusing one. Some people think Eden is the one calling the number, other's think it's Mai. I, personally, think it's Mai.

Eden's secret quote is about kissing a friend and then becoming worried that it'd ruin her friendship. In storytelling, you don't want to introduce too many plotlines that have no barring on the plot, and this is one that I feel, based on vibes, might come back. If Mai was Eden's classmate, it's likely they were friends, and if they, say, kissed, and Eden freaked out because she was afraid of losing Mai if she wasn't interested, and maybe.... avoided answering the phone even though Mai kept calling to tell her it was alright, maybe because she feared Mai was angry at her, then this would be the first thing Eden would think of when Mai is brought up. The friend she was terrified to lose, and unintentionally drove away. But Mai kept calling the number, because she didn't want to lose Eden either. This interpretation is one of the more "fanon" ones that I'll list here though, so feel free to disregard it.

"She kept it a secret, and told no one." This is J's secret, obviously relating to her being Mariabella's daughter. We see in chapter 2 how betraying J feels when her secret is revealed, she values her independence and privacy greatly, for her to willingly share that tidbit about herself, she'd have to trust Mai greatly. It'd mean the world for Mai to listen, and keep her promise that she wouldn't tell. This one feels as straightforward as Teruko's to me.

"A girl who wanted to keep everyone safe" This is Hu's quote. Hu is a character that needs to be needed. We know this from how she treats Nico and others in game. But who's taking care of Hu? We know Mai is a sort of "therapist friend" from context clues, so I can see her genuinely caring for Hu and showing her healthier outlets for her to express herself than smothering those around her. This was likely the healthiest friendship is Hu's life, by my estimation.

"Everyone confided in her" This is Nico's quote. We know Nico's secret is that they’re non-binary, and that they weren’t ready to come out yet. Nobody in game "confides" in Nico, so the best way I can connect the quote to them is that they potentially became comfortable enough around Mai to come out to her, similar to J and her secret, because Mai would keep a secret.

"A girl who had a bright future" This is Ace's quote. Ace is a character who believes he doomed. His only talent is something that causes him great distress, he has an eating disorder due to the strict weight regulations on jockeys. His body is falling apart and his nerves are in shambles, and he takes it out on everyone around him. For Ace, he's got no escape from the live he's living. But here comes Mai, this girl who has it all together, people love her, and she loves them. She's kind to everyone and is an successful ultimate. She's everything Ace isn't, but she still cares for him anyways. Of course when thinking of her, he'd think of all the things she could do with her live, and the good she could bring to the world.

"She doesn't like it when her friends fight." This is Arei's quote. Arei's entire arc in Chapter 2 is about her wrestling with her childhood and the dog eat dog mentality she adopted in order to survive. She's abrasive and mean because to be soft is a death sentence. Then she gets to Hope's Peak and she meets Mai, a girl who, like Eden in game, shatters that ideology with a sledgehammer and shows Arei a different path. She hates seeing her friends fight, and shows Arei why. Remember, the cast have lost time. Arei could have had a similiar arc when she was at Hope's Peak that she did in game, except with Mai as the catalyst instead of Eden.

"An average girl with nothing special about her at all." This is Min's quote. This, at first, feels way more Min-coded than Mai-coded, but I'd disagree. We don't know what talent Mai had, she's literally the ultimate ???. It's possible that her talent wasn't anything extraordinary seeming like Ultimate Rebel or Ultimate Plastic Surgeon. She could have had a talent similar to Min's, for all we know. Her talent likely didn't have anything to do with why people loved her, and that might've been an inspirating to Min, who was drilled to believe her worth was directly related to her talent. So, while speculative, I believe this can still work.

"She couldn't stand to do nothing." This is Xander's quote. Xander fights injustice on the regular, overthrowing corrupt officials and advocating for those who can't advocate for themselves. He values those qualities immensely, and for Mai to feel the same, that would put her on David levels of worship in his eyes.

"A girl who didn't foresee the consequences." This is Veronika's quote. Similar to Min's, this feels like something someone would say about Veronika over Mai, but I don't agree. On Veronika's page, her secret quote is "Once something is broken, it can never be pieced together in quite the same way again. The same goes for people" and she monologues to Teruko about how she likes horror because of fictional consequences, but that she often worries about real world consequences to actions. That doesn't stop her from being, well, Veronika, but consequences is a theme heavily tied to her. We already established that Mai "couldn't stand to do nothing" but, in conjunction with a quote we'll talk about shortly, I can see all the good Mai did becoming void in Veronika's eyes because on one misjudged action that led to a domino effect, one that I speculate landed the gang in a killing game (more on that later)

"She forgives everyone" This is David's quote. Oh David, my guy. Dude did a heel-face turn in chapter 2, losing the trust of the entire group and ruining in career in one fell swoop. Regardless of whether or not you believe that his breakdown was just another persona, or that this is the one true David, it's likely that he either had a similar episode in Hope's Peak or confided in the Secret Keeper TM about his true feelings about the world. David, who sees the worst in everyone, and believes that he won't be excepted if he reveals his true colors, being excepted by Mai and forgiven in the event that he takes things too far would be an world-shifting event for him in the event that this actually happened. It would naturally be the first thing he'd think of when remembering Mai.

"It's all your fault" This is MonoTV's quote. Oh boy. I highly doubt MonoTV was a student (that'd be weird even for Danganronpa) but for them to have a quote linked to Mai, directly blaming her for something, and we already know Mai couldn't stand to do nothing and didn't foresee the consequences of it, it's likely that the killing game was her fault.

The quote itself reminds me of the secret David got in Chapter 2, the one he claims was Xander's but many believe is Teruko's. I mostly believe the Teruko explanation, but I also have a crack theory I plan to make at a later date that is absolutely insane but might lend credence to David telling "the truth" about who's secret it was.

Remember, that secret was "How could I even select what secret to be your motive? Just about everything you've done in your life is worth killing for. This killing game is all your fault."

There's not a ton left I can say about this without delving into pure headcannon territory.

That's all the hidden quotes related to Mai. Sorry I don't have a TLDR or a summation of all this for ya'll to read here. Your just going to have to parse through yourselves. I'm tired of typing.

Let me know if you think this is a good theory or lambast my reasoning in the comments, I don't care, I like debates. I'm just a girl excited for Chapter 3, at the end of the day : )

Thanks for reading!!!

#danganronpa despair time #drdt #drdt theory #mai akasaki

32 notes · View notes

maxdibert · 2 days ago

Note

I don't think it's an exaggeration at all to say that Severus was brilliant, especially at a young age. Sure, he may not be powerful at everything, but he was creating spells and improving potions when he was still a teenager. It's a shame, because he reminds me of people in real life who have so much potential, but due to their circumstances in poverty, they get recruited in violent groups and never achieve their dreams.

I'm pretty sure that someone else who had a fraction of Severus' skills, but came from a different background, would be treated like a prodigy.

Exactly, that’s what was saying @lilithofpenandbook that basically, if he hadn’t been forced to work as a teacher for kids and follow Dumbledore’s plans, and if he’d had the chance to properly train, study, experiment, and develop his skills on his own terms, he could’ve gone much further. And mind you, even with all that, he still went far. As I said, we’re talking about someone who managed to deceive the most powerful Legilimens in the canon, someone with the mental and psychological strength to be a double agent, someone who could do things only the truly great could, like flying without a broom, and someone who, as a kid, already showed above-average talent, wit, and inventiveness.

But it’s also very real that someone from a humble background, whose circumstances led him down some questionable paths, wasn’t able to make the most of his abilities. Like I said, the fact that he died young also worked against him. People tend to forget that Severus wasn’t even 40 when he died, he was very young, really. My mum would’ve called him a boy, lol. It makes you wonder what he could’ve achieved if he’d made it to old age. As I’ve said, all the truly great wizards are already old, none of them are under 60.

#severus snape #pro severus snape #pro snape #severus snape defense #severus snape fandom

24 notes · View notes

blueteller · 2 days ago

Note

Hello!:D Before I ask like—maybe one of the most persistent questions endlessly bugging my mind, I just wanna say I love your posts sm and I love you for it (>v<)♡

I have noticed that there are side characters that stand out the most compared to other side characters, even if they have limited screentime.

And one of those characters is none other than OgCale.

I can even go as far to say that he's one of the most popular characters ever in the fandom, his popularity can surpass some of the main cast's despite having very little screentime and it's actually pretty fascinating. In other transmigration/reincarnation stories, people don't usually care about the original owner of the body the MC currently possesses—and I get why. But Og!Cale? Heck, he's widely loved by many fans!

And so my question is—

Why is Og!Cale so popular and loved in the TCF fandom? There are other characters out there who may have far more intriguing backgrounds and personalities than him, and yet *gestures to the fandom* several fans absolutely adore him (myself included, hehe).

First of all, thank you for your kind words! I'm very happy you enjoy my posts 💖

As for the matter of OG Cale… Why is he so popular and beloved in particular, despite being one of many great side characters in the series? Excellent question! I actually had to sit down and think about it for a little while. I came to the conclusion that it boils down to three major factors.

Number one, the build-up.

OG Cale was a mystery since the beginning. When Cale transmigrated, the question of what kind of person he really was kept coming up. There were obvious contradictions, such as despite being a troublemaker he only went after gangsters and thugs. He allegedly had a bad relationship with his family, and yet they all cared about him very much. He was meant to be an alcoholic trash who threw and broke things when drunk, and yet his alcohol tolerance was incredible and he always missed when he threw bottles, never actually hurting people.

Basically, OG Cale was suspicious. He was hella sus since the start, and that built intrigue around his character. That isn't the only reason why people love him, of course. Many fans got spoiled about him straight away, before reading the whole story, so that can't be all there is to it. But that's definitely where the interest began.

Number two, the subverted expectations.

Don't forget, OG Cale isn't the only "Cale" who's beloved by the fandom. When we got first introduced to our MC, there was this unspoken first impression that he was a typical, what TV Tropes calls, "Audience Surrogate". You know, the type of protagonist who mostly has no personality, solely for the purpose of being a self-insert for the audience. Not to be confused with "Mary Sue " – that is a type of character who definitely has a defined personality. Although both protagonist types serve the same purpose, the latter has more to do with how the overall story is written, and how everybody acts like they're the center of the universe, and how things only happen around them, or directly because of them.

Cale, Kim Rok Soo, was in "danger" of becoming either type of MC at the beginning of the story. Because of how he was trying to sell us the idea of how totally normal of a guy he is, and how he just wants to be left alone in peace, that's all, he swears. I've seen both Audience Surrogate MCs and Mary Sues who claim the same thing at the start of the story yet become the focal point of the plot regardless, and yet fail to show any kind of character development or growth whatsoever – because of the author's bad writing.

In Cale's case, it was revealed as far from the truth as you can get. He quickly subverts those issues before they can become real concerns. Not only does he have a defined, flawed personality and showcases growth, but so do many other characters. And the writing behind Cale's character is so effective, that real people love him about as much as the fictional characters who keep him company in the story.

What does it have to do with OG Cale?

Well. Do you remember when you said, "people don't usually care about the original owner of the body the MC currently possesses, and I get why"? Let's explore that "why" for a little bit.

Where Cale could be expected to be an empty Audience Surrogate character, if TCF was poorly written that is… OG Cale could have ended up as a Blank Slate.

That is, a one-dimensional character whose only role in the story was not to be missed. Which is what happens to most "transmigration victims" in isekai. (The fact that OG Cale is the actual transmigrator in this case instead of our MC makes all of this more fascinating.) In some cases, the "original" was objectively a terrible person; be it a petty crook, or a serious villain, or someone with a rotten personality who used to abuse their privilege, letting the righteous protagonist take over and make things better for everyone. Sometimes they're completely innocent, a tragic victim who passed away prematurely, and the newcomer isn't stealing their life as much as simply slipping into a no-longer-occupied identity, while the original souls reaches a peaceful afterlife. Heck, sometimes the "original" expresses blatant consent before their passing, absolving the protagonist of all guilt regarding their transmigration.

You see, OG Cale could have easily been one of those characters. Written specifically to make create an empty spot for the MC to take over and become the starting point in their journey. And that's exactly the first impression we get! "A generic villain who gets beaten up by the protagonist". No friends, no loose ends, seemingly a worthless noble who does not contribute to society. Whose family only "puts up with him" because they're too nice to throw him out. Someone who kept such distance with everyone in his life, no one even noticed the "original" was gone.

…And yet. He is NOT a Blank Slate at all. Not in the slightest.

To quickly skip over all the reasons why OG Cale was so important to the plot: he was never a generic villain, nor an innocent, tragic victim. Instead, he is THE REASON for the plot. The how and the why of the current timeline. And he's not even dead! He is doing just fine in Kim Rok Soo's body, living a good life. Filling the empty spot left by Cale. I don't think I've seen this kind of plot twist in ANY other isekai! It's really amazing! This is exactly THE best subversion of this trope that I have ever seen. And I love it.

The third and final reason? OG Cale embodies another trope called "The Greatest Story Never Told".

Basically, the kind of life OG Cale lead when he was young – sacrificing his reputation for his step family without anyone knowing, and the deal that he made as he was at the brink of death… Those choices makes him someone who is not only a heroic figure in his own right; he's an unappreciated heroic figure. And that? That is EXTREMELY compelling to any audience.

People like heroes. People also like angst. Hero with angst has double the appeal (which is why so many broody heroes and anti-heroes exist). A heroic figure who has a tragic backstory and never gets the full credit for their sacrifice? People eat that up. I eat that up like candy myself! One of the many reasons why I enjoy time travel stories so much.

Moreover, OG Cale is in fact the only currently alive hero in TCF timeline who has never and will never get that heroic recognition – unless Cale reveals the truth to the Henituse family, which has long become extremely unlikely. Of course it makes OG Cale ripe for all sorts of fan scenarios, be it an AU where he and Cale are twins, where OG Cale goes back in time to save the world himself without Cale's transmigration, where he and Cale are the same person with combined angst… OG Cale has enough complexities to BE a protagonist in his own right. Fans recognize that, subconsciously or not. It makes him great character to write fanfics about.

I'm sure there are many more reasons why fans love to love OG Cale, naturally (his personality and his looks for example). But I think those 3 are the main ones:

Despite his shallow public persona and terrible reputation, he was built up properly as a mysterious character with great depth, and it stayed a mystery for a really long time in the story, which made the fanbase's interest in him grow exponentially.

Just like Cale, he was a clever and plot-relevant subversion of expectations, and an excellent take of what could potentially happen to the "original" that got swapped with a transmigrating protagonist.

He is a tragic heroic figure who's never got credit for his sacrifices, which makes him very compelling to explore in fanfictions.

I hope this helps! Let me hear other reasons why you guys personally love OG Cale 🙂

#tcf #trash of the count's family #lcf #lout of count's family #original cale henituse #og cale #og cale henituse #tcf analysis #tcf character analysis #tcf meta #q&a #replies

36 notes · View notes

mealodyd · 3 days ago

Text

What is Love?

Summary: Y/N has done everything to get into her dream school even if it means never having a boyfriend in all her school years. Starting freshman year at high school and noticing someone who was somewhat different made it difficult for her to get through something that should always be easy for her. She always thought that Love never really anything until she saw him and now, she is questioning what love really is. What is Love?

Pairing: Jake x Fem!reader |Featuring Enhypens Sunghoon|

Genre: Fluff (Smut in future parts)

Warnings: Nothing

Wc: 944

Notes: I'm so excited to be doing this series. Let me know how you like so I can be motivated to start doing more!

Part 2 here!

You never really knew what love was until you met jake.

Love to you was a silly concept that you had always shrugged off.

Growing up you've always wanted your family to be proud of you so you always set boys aside and focused on work just like you always have.

Through your years in high school you watched as you friends slowly became lovers for people who they were dating, and you never once thought about what it would be like to have something like that for yourself until one person caught your eye.

Ever since you started school you've worked on my studies and never really done anything in my life. You knew that if you wanted to make your daily proud you would have to join an ivy league and get a job with a good paying salary.

Eventually you started high school, and you thought that it would be the same thing as every other grade that you were in.

You were in all AP classes as a freshman which is something nobody really does because they like to live their lives and do things outside of school, but not you. If you wanted to be successful for the future, you had to make sure that all 4 years of high school look good on your college resume.

“Y/N wake up so you can start getting ready or you're going to be late”! Mother always loves screaming at me to wake up. It's my personal alarm clock.

“Okkk”! You scream back to let her know that I'm really awake. My mother knows that I want to be on time for school every day, so I am actually really grateful for her when it comes to waking me up and helping me with things.

You ended up getting out of bed and walked to your bathroom to find out your twin brother Sunghoon was already in there singing a song in the shower. And since you didn't want to go downstairs to go to the bathroom you just ended up going back into your bedroom to get dressed.

Luckily there were no uniforms for the high school, so you decided to wear a white pleated skirt and a knitted sweater that was flowy, so it doesn't make you hot.

Because you knew that Sunghoon would take forever in the bathroom you decided to just skip washing your face because you didn't want to risk losing time and being late to school.

You did some light makeup because you've never really wanted to put on makeup for school knowing the school air will just take it off anyway.

Know that you're done getting ready you HAD to make sure you had everything ready and packed so you wouldn't forget many things. You've always liked actually giving the teacher supplies that they asked for in their classrooms because you knew it would always help in the long run and plus some teachers may give extra credit.

Know that you know that everything is ready. You head out of your room and go downstairs to go eat breakfast because usually you would brush your teeth after because you always want them to be fresh.

Since today is the first day mom made some waffles and pancakes which is good because it means i most likely won't be hungry till lunch like i usually am. Finally, Sunghoon comes out of the bathroom as you are eating.

Once you're done eating those delicious pancakes you rush upstairs because you have around 0 minutes until you have to be in the car.

You quickly brush your teeth and look at yourself once more before you go downstairs and into the car to wait for Sunghoon.

Mother finally drops you off and now you're in the office getting your schedule because you weren't at freshman orientation due to being on vacation which you're still bummed about.

Finally, you start making it to your first class which you know some of your friends have because you guys had chosen your schedule together. Although they couldn't do everything class with you because they wanted to have some normal classes and not have all AP classes because they knew that it would be a lot of pressure on their shoulders. So, you guys decided to go art, math and science together.

Your first class was Science so when you entered the room you immediately saw your best friends Lily and Nora whom you have known since the 2nd grade.

You run up to them and hug them because you haven't seen each other since last year due to you being in Korea to visit family.

“OMG I've missed you guys so freaking much”” I can't believe i had to not see you this whole summer” You guys were freaking out seeing each other until you settled down and chose some seats to sit in.

Eventually everyone else found some sets and the teacher introduced herself. Her name was MRS. Flanigan. She had just been married the year before, so this was her first year of being a fully married teacher.

After she introduced herself, she made groups based on who you're sitting by to do some icebreaker challenges to get to know the class better. You and your best friends were in one group and then there were four other people who joined because they were close by.

Everyone was super nice but there was this one guy sitting there and not saying anything to anyone else, but his friend and his name was Jake Sim. He was cute but you knew that you could be distracted because you had a goal. You found out that only your best friends and Jake were the only freshmen in that whole class.

Eventually the class ended, and everyone went to their next classes, and yours was History which you dreaded. You found out that Jake Sim was in your class again which did sorta bother you, but you knew it couldn't in the long run.

Once again, the classes did basically the same things the whole day. But the only thing that you really noticed about the whole thing is that Jake Sim has all the same AP classes with you.

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

#jake smut #jake fluff #jake enhypen #Enhypen #enhypen hard hours #enhypen series #enhypen hard headcanons #enhypen hard thoughts #jake enhypen smut

25 notes · View notes

pikadxtra · 11 months ago

Text

UltiMelee

(Edited on April 7th, 2025)

Status: Active Tag: #UltiMelee

This is a hack for Super Smash Bros. Melee that aims to tweak all characters' attributes and movesets to match their Super Smash Bros. Ultimate counterparts, and working from that mix to balance the cast by changing parts of their moveset while keeping true to their character. There are also changes to some mechanics to mix the best of both games, keeping the faster nature of Melee while bringing the better mechanics of later games over, and leaving behind some of Melee's worse ones for a better experience overall.

Mainly, mechanics like Powershield (I think that's the term for the reflecting projectiles with a perfect shield) and Meteor Cancelling have been removed, though others have been changed as well.

More details below the cut.

Mechanics changed from vanilla include:

Powershield has been removed; projectiles can no longer be reflected by shielding, as this invalidates 99% of projectiles in the game. They can still bounce off your shield like other games, and you can still use digital shield.

Meteor Cancelling has been removed; moves can no longer be jumped out of if they have downwards angled knockback.

Airdodges don't leave you in Freefall; this is experimental for now, ideally airdodges shouldn't cancel your gravity momentum, but this is how it is for now.

Ledge invincibility can no longer be abused; invincibility from ledge now functions like shields, regenerating with time, meaning you can't ledge stall anymore.

Hitbox angle 367° (Autolink) has been added; this allows multihit moves to connect more reliably.

Ledge grabs prioritize closest player instead of being port dependent.

Two players attempting to grab at the same time will cause a tech grab, sending both players back instead of giving priority based on port.

Bury mechanics now behave like Brawl's, where a strong hit will unbury.

Various bug fixes: Throw hitstun bug fix, Freeze glitch, Invisible ceiling, Phantom Hits.

Wobbling disabled after 3 hits.

C Stick works properly in 1 Player Modes.

Other miscellaneous changes:

Names can be longer.

Can play as alternate characters by pressing Z over Zelda (Sheik), Captain Falcon (Male Wireframe), Peach (Female Wireframe), and Bowser (Giga Bowser) on the Character Select Screen to switch between characters. For now, victory screens have been disabled because most of these characters weren't meant to be playable and have no victory animations, causing the game to crash if they win a match.

Neutral spawns on competitive legal stages.

Player can select amount of stocks in All Star Mode.

HUD becomes transparent while players are under it.

Game rules default to 4 stocks, 6 minutes, Friendly Fire on.

Each character will have a post dedicated to them when they are done being worked on, because it's too much to focus on for this post.

Additionally, I should note that this mod doesn't aim to elevate characters to top levels in vanilla, but rather a more healthy balance centered around what you'd expect from a mid tier character like Mario or Samus in vanilla. I will do my best to avoid a spacies situation like Project M and Project +. The goal is to make a fun game that still functions competitively, not kill the fun for both sides. Ultimate was closest in good balance, but it was still far from perfect, so this is an attempt to make something better. No overpowered characters, and no unusable ones either should be the end result if things go right.

Honestly, I have more fun with Melee casually than I do in Ultimate already, but it's a mixed bag competitively for both. If things go right, players should still be able to express themselves through their character instead of being stuck with the same options every time. It's a lot to ask for, but I think it should be doable.

#project info #UltiMelee #active project #there may be some things i'm forgetting but that's about it #yes i'm messing with the wireframes and giga bowser too not just the regular cast #bc more characters is better #in the future i might want to switch to MeleeEX or something bc i want more characters but for now i don't have the knowledge #to work with it so this is what i have to use #some of the stuff i have ready is already really fun to play around with i wanna share it so bad but i wanna just share everything about #a character when i have them in a complete enough state to keep things better organized #tho i will spoil rn that if i end up working with MeleeEX at some point then I'll add Metal Mario first #my beloved #outdated

0 notes

fictionadventurer · 4 months ago

Text

This is probably the wrong way to do it, but the only way I can get ready for Lent is to take what Chesterton might call a Robinson Crusoe approach. I'm going to go without certain things during Lent, so I get excited to enjoy the things I'll have, especially if it's something I don't appreciate enough during the months when I'm not fasting. Like, I give up sweets during Lent, so now's the time to get excited about pretzels. I'm giving up my phone, so it's time to get excited about other things I can do with my free time. Stuff like that.

#catholic things #lent #really feeling this because i'm giving up ebooks for lent #which is going to be a MAJOR sacrifice #because ebooks were always a huge part of previous lents with social media fasts #this year i decided that ebooks means i still spend a lot of time looking at my phone #so i've got to give up that too #(i did buy myself three kate stradling books)#(which is kind of cheating)#(but the heir and the spare has become such a strong lenten tradition)#(that i'd probably give up on the ebook fast right away if i didn't have it on hand)#(and i always finish reading that book by wanting to read more of hers)#(so i bought two fairy tale novellas too)#(i can justify it because i've read those books so many times)#(that i feel should send some money her way beyond like the 99 cents i spent on the ebooks)#ANYWAY #the point is that i went to put those books on my shelf #and i'm so excited because i have some AMAZING books there #that i usually forget about in the quest to find the next thing #so i'm excited to dive into the unread books #(though i'm also in a mood to reread all the things so i may wind up doing that)#also this is still a major sacrifice because i won't have books on hand at all times like with ebooks

35 notes · View notes

krys-does-art-stuff · 2 months ago

Text

Wanted some refs for Abby and I had missed doing splash pages, so I did a lil of both.

May 2025

#krys draws fanart #traditional stuff #digital stuff #ikevamp oc #abigail clarke (oc)#ikemen vampire #vincent van gogh (ikevamp)#theodorous van gogh (ikevamp)#leonardo da vinci (ikevamp)#may 2025 #2025 #today's post is brought to you by tumblr #as I used two refs that came across my dash today #first was a ship art with the same pose so I just copied it for Abby and Vincent #Abby talking about Yuri Gagarin was also inspired by a post I saw on my dash today #where the caption makes special note of Yuri being at home with his wife and that he was an amateur photographer #pic featured him holding a camera in hands thus abby's pose #the post itself was talking about how people (especially celebrities)'s lives are flattened out to just one note while forgetting that #they are people with rich lives outside of the one thing they are famous for #which is why Abby is talking about Yuri Gagarin first as being a hobbyist photographer #and having a minor note that he went to space too lol #I'm sure Sebas would be delighted with this kind of humor I'm sure #this page also gave me a reminder that I should probably do some studies of the boyos as well #as I'm still kinda :| about Vincent's face #and Leonardo could use some work too #Theo's perfect tho #no notes

16 notes · View notes

wallpacapaca · 3 days ago

Text

Let me start with the key players in this story:

- Ehri Mol, my main Warrior of Light. Chaotic lesbian lizard lady who abhored Ardbert until the Rak'Tika portion of the story (we will get into the shift in her opinion later).

- Odgerel Mol, Ehri's twin and also a shard of Azem. He's a scholar in Sharlayan with a focus on the study of ascians and the ancient world (tangent: my Azem, Orpheus, got twice sundered due to Trauma He Endured From His Not That Great Brother Emet-Selch Sacrificing His Wife To Summon Zodiark) (that's only really tangentially relevant but it needed said because Od is also an Azem of the Source but NOT the one that rejoined with Ardbert, that was Ehri)

- Adelram Hylfist, Ardbert's son (because I'm very self indulgent :D). I call him Ade (pronounced addy) for short and will likely do that during this cause im dumb and will forget this isn't all being screamed to my FC and is instead a public tumblr post

In this version of events, Stormblood, Shadowbringers and Endwalker all basically happen as normal with some minor additions, mostly because I have too many OCs and I want to make them all fit in. Notably, during that part of post SB when all the scions are dropping like flies, Ehri is getting super depressed about it and meets and befriends Adelram who admits he may know what's going on. This gets revealed later but Ade was brought to the Source in a similar way by Hydaelyn (he's my 1.0 WoL so that's fun) that G'raha was using to bring Ehri and the scions to the First so he has Experience with this first hand. He himself has been looking to try and get home for a while now and suspects that keeping close to Ehri may just do the trick. It does but not before he leaves her a note explaining that whole situation to her because admittedly that's confusing as hell.

Flash forward to ShB and Ehri is understandably pretty vocal constantly about her negative opinions of Ardbert given the Current Situation She Finds Herself In. Ade, who is traveling with her, understandably comes to the same conclusion he had when first getting back to the First which is "Oh shit oh no no one can find out I'm that guy's kid oh fuck oh shit". This lie ends up coming to a head during the Rak'tika section and Ade admits the truth which is what starts to turn Ehri around finally because she has been Very Antagonistic to Ardbert the entire time. She doesn't tell Ade she's been talking to his dad's ghost though. I also think it's important to note Ehri and Ade are splitting the role of "Warrior of Darkness" here with both taking in the light of the wardens so they're both getting pretty fucked up emotionally by this point due to the sheer amount of aether they've taken in.

Shadowbringers ends as normal with Ehri rejoining with Ardbert. During that fight, Ade recognizes the axe of course, and knows that his father did the right thing in the end wherever he is. He let's all the light he took in go to support the big smack to Emet (tangent: Ehri at the time didn't know it was because of Azem but she fucking hated Emet at first glance so needless to say this sequence is even more brutal in my HC than it is in the game).

Things all kind of play out the same until post EW with the exception of Ade making a pact with Titania to get the funny fae transport between worlds power so he can go help Ehri during EW so he's part pixie now don't worry about it im sure he's fine also Ehri and Odgerel weren't really on speaking terms until EW because of something that happened in ARR so now Odgerel is part of the story.

Ade is visiting the Source again during the post story and trying to help work on a way to better support travel between the worlds (hey remember when that was what Y'shtola was supposed to be doing? ... I miss Runar) and Ehri and Od are doing the Pandemonium stuff and hearing Ehri and Ade banter about Ardbert gets Od think thonking that there simply must be a way to do a mini sundering of sorts. Split up the soul a bit, ya know? The interaction goes a little:

Odgerel: Now, I may be wrong, but I'm sure I can figure out with enough time a formula to identify the aetheric qualities of each soul rejoined to yours Ehri and pick out his. At that point I would just need to pluck it from you.

Ade: Wouldn't that potentially harm her though?

Odgerel: That's true...

Ehri: OH MY GOD PLEASE GET HIM OUT OF ME HES GIVING ME STRAIGHT MAN THOUGHTS AND I DONT WANT EM I DONT CARE IF YOU MESS IT UP YOUVE GOTTA TRY

So Odgerel, also being gifted with the ability to use the Azem crystal due to being a sundered shard of my Azem, spends some time doing the smart person things and eventually comes to the conclusion that in addition to needing the crystal and his formulas someone with really strong memories of the person has to be there to draw that sundered soul out. He observed that Ardbert's soul would always be a bit easier to pick out when Ade was around. With all of this realized, he makes and attempt, and ta-da!

They do this on the First and travel isn't able to really be achieved between the worlds yet so he's just happily enjoying his retirement there with his kiddo :)

ardbert lives au enjoyers: what is your explanation for it?

#ffxiv #i love my OCs #long post

36 notes · View notes

bittybeanie · 1 year ago

Text

oh boy! time to post a new fic! I can't believe it's been *checks calendar* ....oh. uh. oops. ignore that! it's the fourth and final installment of (this) aspec reigen series, complete with a lite™ version of a couple different kinks and finally getting to touch the peen! this one's real long, folks, clocking in at about 9,500 words, so you might wanna get a nice beverage and settle in.

content notes: thigh riding, themes of consent, drunk almost sex, a discussion about the drunk almost sex in the following scene, praise kink, a very loose (literally) definition of bondage, and so so many pet names. minors please don't interact!

also on ao3!

It takes more than a couple tries for you to get settled on the bed. You’re too close, then too far, and Reigen can’t get comfy, and your hand keeps sliding out from under you, and he can’t decide how he wants your leg angled, and there’s too many clothes, then all at once so few clothes that it feels like too much at once and you hastily agree to put your shirts back on, not wanting to break the already fragile layer of quiet hope.

Finally, finally, everything is perfect.

Awkward, stilted, and a little tense, and you’re not sure how long your leg will let you keep it just barely raised like this before it cramps up, but he’s here, embarrassed but steadfast, breath coming out in shivery gasps, hovering over your thigh, one hair fisted in the back of your hair. If he tips over, there’s no way you’re not going with.

Perfect.

His thighs shake as he holds himself up, deciding which direction he wants to move. You reach for the small of his back to steady him. "Does this count as keeping my hands out of the way?" He nods, so you test the waters by sliding your other hand up his thigh.

"As long you don’t- just no direct touching. Close to is fine, just not… well." He moves a hand back and forth across where he’s hovering over your thigh.

“Keep off the goods. Gotcha."

"The goods? Awful. You're awful, I swear."

You slide your hand up, just barely skimming your fingernails over his hip when you catch the hem of his shirt, and his cock twitches in his boxers.

"The goods don't seem to agree."

"Oi." Despite his protests, the laughter loosens him, and he relaxes enough to lean back into your knee. “Fine, fine, just stop saying goods.”

“Alright.” He raises an eyebrow. You lift both hands in surrender. “I promise! I will never again use ‘the goods’ to refer to your perfect, gorgeous, suckable-”

“I get it! I get it.” He grabs onto your shoulder - maybe in an effort to distract you, or maybe just to keep his balance - as he shifts closer. You can practically feel the heat radiating from his ears. “Here, actually, can you-? Hm.” He presses a hand against the inside of your other leg, thumb digging in as he gives a shove. He slides a knee into the newly free space between your legs, leaning forward to get a better angle. Your hands settle back on his waist.

“Better?”

“Much.” He lets out a little hum as he pushes his hips forward, and you have to stamp down a whimper at the feeling, his dick heavy and warm even through fabric.

“Didn’t mean to just push like that, though. Sorry.”

“S’okay. I’ll survive a little manhandling, as a treat.” You hit the last “t” sound with a click of your tongue, and he falls into your neck with a laugh. You trace patterns on his hips as he moves, tracking the motion as you press your fingers into his skin. “God, how do you get your hips to move that smooth? It’s sorta mesmerizing.”

“Hm? Oh, I don’t know, I’m just- I wasn’t thinking about it. S’just what f- ha, feels good.” His breath fans out across your collarbone, warm and fast.

“Yeah? You like using my thigh, baby? No thoughts other than what feels good? Your own personal toy to get yourself off against?”

“Oi.” His hips stutter once before he falls back into a slower rhythm. His fingers dig into your shoulder as he pulls you closer.

“Too much?”

“That’s not how I think of you.”

You can’t help but laugh, a light chuckle coming out in a breath against his hair. “I know, ‘Taka, I know.” You slide your hands under his shirt, over his stomach and up to his collarbone. “But would it really be so bad to belong to you?”

“I- fuck.” There’s a moment of worry when he shoves you away, but then he’s scrambling for the hem of his shirt and pulling.

“Are you sure?” It’s a formality, uttered even as you’re already reaching to help slide the fabric over his elbows, but it’s one you can’t even imagine going without.

“Very.” He lifts himself off of you to push his boxers down, shifting his weight from one leg to the other as he shimmies them all the way off. The mattress shifts and pitches him over, and you hurry to grab his arm.

He crawls back over to straddle your thigh, the tip of his cock tapping lightly against your side before he leans back onto his ankles.

“Do I need to get-?” You chuck his shirt into infinity and gesture vaguely to the bedside drawer. He’s technically never told you that he started keeping lube in there, but he hasn’t made much effort to keep the secret either.

He shakes his head. “I’m close. Won’t matter.”

He tries to go back to rutting against you, anchoring his hands on your waist to tilt his hips this way and that, but something about the new angle is off, and he can’t get any good contact.

“Oh no, now horrible, your dick is just so hard it won’t stay down on its own.”

He clicks his tongue at you as he scoots to sit closer, flush making its way from his ears to the edges of his cheeks.

“That gorgeous curve probably isn’t helping, either. In this case, anyway. Be an absolute treat to have inside me, though.” You press your thumbs in just above his knees, encouraging him to spread his legs more, and he jumps with a squeak, hands flying to grab yours. “Sorry, sorry, di-”

“No, it’s-” He pulls your hands together, just in front of his stomach, and the tip of his cock brushes against you. For a moment, you think he’s going to pull down, but he guides your hands back to his hips, pressing them into his skin as he rolls his hips. “Here.”

He gives up and puts his hand flat over his dick, pinning it down against your leg. He lifts himself to adjust the angle, just his tip dragging along your skin until he bumps into your hip, precum rolling out in a thin line over your thigh. When he pulls back, he grinds down insistently, coating his length and covering what isn’t already marked of your thigh so he can slide more easily. After a few impatient jolts of his hips, he settles back into a rhythm, smooth and fluid, and lets up on the pressure of his hand. He slings his other arm over your shoulder to pull you closer, and he falls forward to bury his face in your neck, whining into your collarbone.

He wasn’t lying when he said he was close, because it only takes a few drags of his cock against you for him to seize up, body tensing before going boneless, cum rolling over his hand and onto your hip as he slumps against you in a mess of pants and sighs. You slide your hands up his back to support his full weight, pressing kisses to his hair as he catches his breath.

“Just… gimme a second, I can cl- get you- god, my legs.” He rolls off of you with none of his usual grace, limbs falling everywhere at once, lightly smacking your arm as he goes limp.

You laugh and push his hair back from his face. You don’t bother to untangle your legs from his, accepting your fate of needing a shower later in exchange for getting to lean down to kiss his cheek.

“Eh, let it dry.”

“I’m starting to think you like it more than tolerate it.”

“If you haven’t gotten the hint by now that I want you to absolutely cov-”

He gives you a shove, rolling his hand so there’s no real force behind it, but you seize the chance to topple with a dramatic moan, one hand falling theatrically across your forehead as your eyes flutter closed.

“Oh, stop it.” He crawls over and props himself up on his elbows. You can feel his breath fanning over your collarbone, stilted like he’s trying not to laugh. You crack one eye open, breaking into giggles when you see his forced serious expression, eyebrows pinched together and one cheek sucked into his mouth to keep the smile off his face. He breaks at your laughter, breathing out through his nose and pressing his forehead to yours. “I can’t take you anywhere.”

“Oh, you could take me anywhere, handsome.” You waggle your eyebrows suggestively, and he rolls onto his back with an exasperated groan. You laugh again and sit up, pulling a blanket over him so you can settle in without accidentally brushing somewhere he’d rather you didn’t.

“Hey, Arataka?”

“I love you, too.”

“That, too.” You chuckle. “But I have a real question this time.”

“Oh.” He turns his head. “Sure.”

“After you… when you took my hands earlier, were you…?” The fleeting moment of contact between him and your hands floats through your mind. You can’t help but wonder what he was thinking in the moment he hesitated, but it feels weirdly invasive to ask so bluntly. “Sorry, never mind, this is a weird line of thought.”

You lay down beside him, craning your neck to rest your head on his shoulder. His hand finds yours, lacing your fingers together as his thumb smooths up your wrist.

“Do you mean…” He takes a steadying breath, grip tightening almost imperceptibly. “Do you mean after the clothes came off?”

You nod. For a moment, he stills, not even breathing.

“I was… I wanted so badly to let you touch me. I thought if I didn’t have to say it, if I could just… imply, then I could get around it, but,” he sighs heavily, and he sounds tired when he continues, “I panicked.”

You’re both quiet, long enough that you startle even yourself when you finally break the silence.

“It’s not a bad idea.”

“...Panicking?”

“No, angel. Implying.” He presses his cheek to the top of your head. “Maybe you just have to imply for a little longer.”

“I’m not following.”

“What if you left your hand on top of mine? That way it’s like- it’s the same as when you do it, but it sort of, hm, bridges the gap? All the sexy, none of the surprise.”

For a long moment, you’re not sure if he’s quiet because he’s thinking or because he’s falling asleep.

He hums, shoulder rolling under your head, and he pulls you tighter against his side.

"Okay." You shift nervously, tucking your foot underneath yourself, then deciding against it and unfolding your legs. "Walk me through the zones again."

"I'm not a city planning map." He rolls his eyes, but he takes your hand. You’re not sure which one of you the gesture is supposed to comfort.

You shift back onto your knees.

"Here up, anything goes." He points at the middle of his chest. "But try to stay- so more like, well, from maybe..." He gestures to his collarbone and wags his finger up and down. "Here to here, really."

When he looks back at you, you can tell he's waiting for something. You settle for a small nod.

"Right. A-and then, here to here," he points from his chest to just above his hip, "Hands are fine. Doing... whatever." He steadies himself with another deep breath and rushes through the rest. "Legs, stay still, and anything... direct we'll do the- on the- yeah, got it, that's all."

You let him sit for a moment to make sure there's nothing he forgot. His grip on your hand tightens, and you swear he moves to pull you closer, but he must decide against it at the last second.

"Whose hand is going on top again? Sorry, we've swapped it so many times I can't remember if we decided."

"Oh. Right. Um." He hovers his right hand over his left, then swaps them, then swaps them again. “Yours under mine.”

“Got it.” You reach for him, letting him pull your hand up to his collar. "And you know you can tell me to stop at any time?"

"You tell me that every time."

"It's important every time."

He swallows thickly and traces a circle on the back of your hand with his thumb. "Yeah. I know."

You shift to pull your legs off to the side, then cross them again, then sit back up on your knees. Gently taking the collar of his shirt in your hands, you trail one thumb along the edge of the fabric until you reach the top button. "And can I do this, or would you like to?"

He nods before realizing there were two options in your question, then points at you, then at your hands, then flashes you a thumbs up. "Yeah. Go ahead."

"Well, now hold on, I have manners. I'm not going straight for the goods." He laughs and shimmies to sit up straighter, letting his legs straighten out in front of him. "How about the pants later?"

"Uh, right, that's, I didn't think about that. I mean it would make sense that you're going to be- I mean it's not like-"

"Arataka."

"Yeah." He swallows.

"I'm not going to be offended if you’d like to take off your own pants."

He pauses, staring down at his knee. Eventually, he shakes his head. "I want you to do it."

"And your-?"

"Just do it at the same time."

"Got it." You take a steadying breath of your own. "I won't stay there, but is it okay if I straddle you for a little bit? I wa-"

His hands are pulling at your waist before you can get your legs properly unfolded, and you almost tumble over him. He laughs an apology as you move on top of him, hovering over his legs to avoid making any real contact.

You brush his bangs back from his face, following through with the motion until your fingers tangle in the shorter strands of hair at the back of his head. He tilts to follow your hand, craning his neck to keep you from pulling.

"Ready?"

He nods slightly.

"I’d like a verbal yes for this one, lovely."

He swallows. You watch his Adam's apple bob.

"Yeah, yes.” He nods again. His hand jerks, taking yours with it, and he awkwardly lets your hand fall into his lap. You do your best not to move. “I trust you."

You drag your gaze back up to his face, searching for any last signs of reluctance. A bead of sweat trails down his temple, and you’re certain if you put your hand to his cheek you’d worry he had a fever. Sure enough, when you slide your fingers along his jaw, he’s hot to the touch, and the tips of his ears are turning brighter shades of red by the second.

He clears his throat, pushing his jaw into your palm. “Are you gonna-?”

“In a minute.” You swipe your thumb across his bottom lip. “I’m savoring.”

He scoffs at that, the same scoff he uses when he sees somebody do something stupid in public, and you take the opportunity to catch him by surprise, surging forward to push him down onto the bed. His hands go to your shoulders on instinct but he pulls them back almost immediately, hovering awkwardly in the space between you. Using your grip on his chin, you angle his head so you can lean down and kiss him without knocking your noses together.

Once you’re sure you can support yourself without falling on him, you allow your free hand to trail down, tracing down the muscles in his neck, across his collarbone and back, finally settling on the first button of his shirt. It takes a little effort to get it undone with just one hand, but you manage it, and you allow yourself to dip down as you settle into a rhythm, lips ghosting along Reigen’s skin as you uncover more of it.

He’s shivering, hand shaking where it hovers over yours on the last button of his shirt. When you slide your hand back up along his side, his hand falls back to the bed, pulling at a wrinkle in the sheets.

You kiss along his jaw, savoring the feeling every time his breath catches in his throat under your lips. Your hand trails down along his side, wrapping around him to hold his waist when he arches up into the press of your thumb. He hums, eyelids fluttering, and you dare to slide your hand down, ever so slightly, thumb brushing over his waistband and back onto bare skin.

He grabs for you, grasp tight around your wrist, almost painful before he slowly relaxes and drags your hand back up toward his chest. You push yourself off him, swinging your leg to kneel beside him.

“Here, let’s try this.” You guide him to sit up. Once he’s situated against the headboard, you settle in by his thigh, your knee pressing gently into his hip. One hand traces circles and patterns as you trail down to his stomach. “Still good?”

He hums, but he scrambles for your wrist again, holding on tighter and tighter the closer you get to the button on his pants.

“You’re allowed to change your mind, y’know. I can let you do it.”

“That’s not- mm.” He relaxes his death grip on your arm but keeps his thumb hooked around it. After a few tries to let go completely, his head tips forward into your shoulder. “I thought I would… I’m sorry.”

You shake your head and slowly pull away. “Nothing to apologize for.” You cup his face with both hands and gently turn him, but he doesn’t hold your gaze for long.

“Do you want to keep going? Should I…?”

He opens his mouth, but says nothing. His expression is pinched, tight with something you’re not sure how to label. His fingers press together, thumb and index, thumb and middle, thumb and ring, thumb and pinky, over and over as you lean back, nodding softly.

“Stay in bed?” Your voice is shakier than you’d like. You swear he flinches, and you clear your throat. “Or move to the couch and watch something?”

“Couch.” He nods once, stiff and harsh, and swallows thickly. “Thanks.”

He presses a kiss to the corner of your mouth, and slides out of bed, starting to button his shirt back up as he wanders into the other room.

You keep nodding as if in a trance, and you follow him out.

Despite the now faint memory of some friend of a friend forcefully inviting you, there's not a single soul at the party you recognize. With the exception of a few people dancing by the kitchen, closer to the speakers, everyone has settled for taking a seat and awkwardly bobbing their head. You’ve repeated the same three lines of small talk more times than you can count, it's just cold enough that you've had the chills the whole time while still managing to feel overwhelmingly stifled, and the music is so awful you wonder how somebody hasn’t tried to change it yet. But there's alcohol, the good stuff that somebody is clearly very particular about, and lots of it. You can't remember how much you've had, and that fact is enough to tell you it was probably too much, but it doesn't stop you from taking whatever the host is passing out when they wander through.

You think Reigen might be the only person doing worse than you. He looks... woozy. His face is flushed and his eyes are lidded like he might throw up, pass out, or both at any moment. At one point he took a tumble when he tried to sit down, graciously ignored by everyone else, and you had to throw your arm around his waist to keep him from sliding down the front of the couch again. He's leaning on you for support every time he moves, and if there were anything left in his can you’re sure he would be spilling it on you right now.

He's restless at the best of times, you know this, but even through the fog you can tell something is off. Not wrong exactly, but he keeps giving you this sideways glance, digging his fingers into your thigh to steady himself and then yanking his hand away, knocking his head into your shoulder and muttering something you haven't been able to make out.

He laughs - way too loudly at something you're not sure was supposed to be funny - and stands abruptly. Your hand around his waist falls limp on the couch, and he sways without the support.

"I'm going to the re- the ba- I gotta piss."

Nobody but you pays him any attention. He takes a wobbly step forward, knocking his foot into the leg of the coffee table, but he doesn't seem fazed. His knees bend at a weird angle as he shifts his weight from foot to foot, then he straightens back up and whirls around to face you. The momentum sends him tumbling back down, and you manage to catch him before his nose smashes into your jaw.

"I guess you better help me there."

"Yeah." Your voice crackles from dehydration. You have to clear your throat and try again to get a recognizable sound to come out. "Alright." You do a quick mental scan of your legs to make sure they'll support you before you motion for him to get up so you can stand. He does, grabbing your wrist and pulling with the conviction of somebody who does not need help walking.

The gears in your head start to turn.

He drags you along, glancing over his shoulder as he rounds the corner into the hallway, only stumbling once when he has to screech to a halt and back up to yank a door open. He pushes you inside, pulling the door closed behind him after he follows you in.

It's pitch black, and you're not sure if the overwhelming lemon smell is coming from Reigen or something in the room. You reach out to find him, but your fingers brush against something cold and smooth instead, and it's not until it tilts and hits you in the head that you realize it's probably a handle for something. Reigen's hand whacks into your arm and he holds on tight, fingers digging into your shoulder as he pulls you forward.

"I don't think that was the right door."

"Hm? Oh, sure." You can feel the air beside you moving until eventually his other hand finds your face, one finger dragging across your cheek until it hits your nose. "No, I- yeah, I know."

"Then wh-"

He pushes, hard and sudden. You fight to keep your balance as you adjust to the weird backwards lean you find yourself in. Reigen hisses as he pulls his fingers out from between you and the wall.

"Dumb, that was so dumb. Sorry." He fumbles for your waist to guide you backwards, and you feel his hips press against you when he reaches past your head to lean on the wall.

Everything clicks together all at once.

Your hands fly to where his waist should be. Once you find him, you're not sure if you want to shove him away or pull him in closer.

"You're super drunk. I don't know if-"

"Tha's the point." The hand on your face slides around until his thumb catches your bottom lip. He sways, like talking about it has made him remember how much he's had to drink. When he leans against you, he's heavier than normal, like he can’t support his weight anymore. "Liquid courage."

"I’m drunk."

"Mm. Shit." He pulls away, just barely, and he nods. "Do you mind?"

Your mouth drops open uselessly. All your thoughts feel like static, indecipherable noise screaming for you to do something, if only you could figure out what. He's squirming now, like it hurts to stay still. You realize he's whimpering at the same time you realize he's grinding his hips against your leg.

“M’fine.”

He lets out a sigh of relief and drops his hands as he shuffles around. You take the chance to stand back up. When you finally bump into each other again, he wraps his arms around you and squeezes, his breathing coming out in pants against your chest. He hooks one leg around yours, tapping his foot against your heel to bring your leg forward. You make a strangled humming sound when he grinds against your thigh.

"Hey, where's your hand?"

"My...?" You suddenly remember you have hands. You allow yourself a moment of silence for all the time you could have been holding onto him before you push one hand forward. It smacks into what you think is his stomach. "Sorry. Here."

"S'kay. Stay put." You keep your hand pressed against him as he leans backward. You're not sure when he stopped holding onto you, but one of his hands is suddenly over yours, and a loud zip cuts through the sound of you both breathing. He slides his hand down, dragging yours with it. Your fingers glide along his skin, smooth and soft, until you brush against a patch of hair.

A sobering panic cuts through you.

He must realize what he's doing at the same time you do, because you both freeze. His grip tightens. He guides your hand away from him slowly, stopping when he makes contact with your side.

"Stay... stay put."

He turns and scrambles for the door. Something falls beside you when he misses the doorknob, then you're squinting as light floods in from the hallway. You can make out the silhouette of him sprinting into the room diagonal from where you're standing, and then there's the unmistakable sound of vomiting.

Your place is only two blocks away - no more than a ten minute walk.

You call a cab service.

It smells like coffee.

When you try to sit up, the room spins. You end up in a sort of half sit, half lean as you grab onto the side of the mattress, willing everything to stay still. You take stock of the things that are clear enough to look at, slowly making sense of what happened once you got home.

You're laying on top of the covers, still in your clothes from last night. One shoe is in the doorway, and the other is nowhere in sight, probably somewhere closer to the entrance. The coffee smell, growing more enticing by the second, is a good sign Reigen's in the kitchen.

You slide onto the floor beside your bed, not trusting yourself to stand up without falling just yet, to rummage for more comfortable clothes. Once you manage to get changed, you stand up slowly, and make your way to the kitchen.

Reigen must have grabbed a set of pajamas at some point last night, though you can't remember when. His back is turned to you; he's lazily stirring something on the stove. Two steaming cups of coffee sit on the counter beside him. Before you can decide whether you want to say something and risk startling him, he seems to sense you standing there, and he turns around with a weak smile.

"Hey."

"Morning?" It's both a greeting and a question, because you have no idea what time it is.

"Yeah." He lets out a breathy chuckle. "How, um, how you feeling?"

Your head is throbbing so bad your teeth hurt, your legs and back are sore, and you have a looming sense of guilt.

"I think I should be asking you that."

"I'm fine, really." He clicks off the fire and reaches for a bowl. "I told you, I felt basically back to normal after I- well, um, you know. Thanks again, by the way, for car- for carrying me."

You nod softly, feeling a little useless as he hands you what looks and smells like a very delicious soup.

"Reigen, I am so-" "I didn't mean-"

He reaches for a second bowl. "You first." When you start to shake your head, he rolls his wrist in a "go on" motion. "Please. I'm not actually sure how to say mine yet."

"Right." You swallow thickly, fidgeting with your spoon. Deep in thought, you miss Reigen slipping past you. He clears his throat and gestures to the seat across from him. You slide into the chair. Your spoon clanks against the bowl as you set it down. "I, um. Shit, I'm so sorry."

He seems surprised, a spoonful of soup halfway to his lips.

"What for?"

"Wh-" You blink. "Every... thing? I- I know sorry doesn't even cover it, but I-"

"Whoa, hey, okay." He shakes his hand in front of him. "Never mind, I'll go first, because I think you got the wrong idea and I'm not gonna let you apologize for anything that happened."

"But you trusted me, and I-"

"And I still do. That's- that was the whole- look, I-" He sighs. His spoon clanks as he sets it down, abandoned in favor of wringing his hands together. "I set you up."

"You-?"

"I didn't mean to! I thought- It was stupid, and I should have just told you what I was trying to do, I know , but I- I wasn’t exactly thinking straight, and I thought if I could speed up the process, then- I mean, there's only so many times you can put up with almost getting to- if I could- ugh, sorry, hang on."

He pinches the bridge of his nose. You swear your headache is reacting sympathetically, because pain shoots between your temples, dull but persistent. He goes to retrieve the coffees from the kitchen, just cool enough to drink, and you down some as soon as he hands you a mug.

"You've been so patient, and I know you would never do anything I didn't want, but I... I keep overthinking it. And I thought it would be the perfect excuse to... to not have to think about it at all. I mean that's- that's just what people do at parties, right, and- I mean, it was... ugh." He sits back down, his posture unnaturally rigid. He chooses his next words carefully, pausing between words as if he’s testing out different sentences in his head. "I trusted you… to not take it further than I was comfortable with… more than I trusted myself to… not panic over nothing. So, I- I saw the chance and I..." He gestures weakly, hand falling back to the table with a soft thump.

"Liquid courage."

He takes a sip of his coffee and slumps forward, holding his chin with one hand.

"You... got drunk on purpose?"

"Not originally, but, uh."

You nod slowly. Your stomach grumbles, and you realize you haven't actually eaten any of your soup. You take a reluctant spoonful, chewing slowly as you take everything in.

"When you froze up, it- I realized how little I had thought it through. I- it wasn't fair to you. You didn't do anything to- I never should have put you in that position in the first place."

"I... would have appreciated a warning, yeah."

"Sorry." He runs his hand through his hair and leaves it against the back of his neck. "I'm really sorry."

"Apology accepted." Reigen relaxes into his chair. As he stretches his legs out, one of his feet bumps against your ankle, and you laugh softly. "I'm still sorry, too. I should have asked more questions. And I didn't... I think I noticed something was wrong but I didn’t realize it was that frustrating for you. Before, I mean. I never wanted to make you feel like you had to do something like that."

"It's exclusively a me problem, I promise. I thought something would have worked by now. I don't... I don't really know what’s getting in the way." He shakes his head, breathing out sharply through his nose.

“I mean, literally speaking, your hands.” You laugh and take another sip of your coffee. He tilts his head. “Because, you know, y-you always grab my hand before I-?” He stares, unblinking. “Sorry, too soon to joke, probably,” you mutter into your cup, taking another sip just to have something to do.

When he moves again, it’s with a jerky start, sitting up and leaning forward. “My hands.”

“Yeah, I-”

“No, my hands.” He throws his elbows onto the table. The bowls clatter and his coffee sloshes; his chair scrapes against the floor as he stands. His wrists come together in front of you, palms up and fingers curled loosely, as he stares, silent, waiting for a glimpse of recognition to cross your face. It takes a moment, but when he finds it, he grins. “My hands.”

“If you want to stop-”

“Saying so has always been enough.”

You stand, leaning to match his eye level. You consider him, searching for hesitation, but you find none.

You take his hand, and you start pulling.

“This is… mine?” An old black tie lays across Reigen’s palms, the ends hanging loosely over his thighs.

“Yeah, you left it here. A while ago, I guess.” You shrug. “You never really liked it, though, plus you’re here all the time anyway, so I didn’t get around to giving it back, and it’s just been here ever since.”

As you slide the drawer closed, he catches a glimpse of an old t-shirt he left on his first night in your place, folded neatly in the back corner, under a small collection of his dress socks.

There are signs of him everywhere, really, if he looks. His toothbrush in your bathroom, a blanket he bought you for your birthday draped over the back of the couch, his favorite sweater of yours hanging on the handle of the closet, never out of service long enough to make it in with the rest of your clothes.

He’s struck with the realization it’s not just in your things, your home, but in you, the way you gesture with an extra dramatic flourish that wasn’t there before, the unwavering, tight smile that settles on your face when you talk to clients, the softness in your voice when you welcome the kids into the office, quietly clearing a table for them to do homework on, the flashes of movement in the kitchen as you dash back and forth whenever you make recipes he taught you - favorites from when things were harder and uncertain and cooking was his escape, before even the hardest parts of his life were laced with joy.

He’s wearing off on you.

He’s known it for a while, but he’s never put it all together like this, never seen it all so neatly represented in a single black tie, satin and unassuming and full of possibility. You kick your abandoned shoe out of the way, pushing the door shut with a soft click that startles him just enough to draw his attention.

“Still okay?”

He wonders how you’ve worn off on him, which parts of him weren’t there before that he doesn’t notice, can’t notice.

“Yeah.” He nods. “I’m ready.”

He smooths his thumb over the fabric, watching it wrinkle and crease where he applies pressure. It slides across his palms, dragging slowly as you wrap one end around your hand, until he’s left with empty air, hands outstretched between you.

He feels light.

You take his hands in yours, turning them in toward each other, and start to lay the tie across his wrists.

“Oh, wait!” You pull back right away, and he holds up one finger. “Not- we should take my shirt off first.”

“Jesus, you scared the shit out of me!” You laugh and settle back onto your knees. “Yes, okay, let’s- yeah.”

Reigen stops halfway up. The fabric stays bunched when he lets go, and he pulls your hands to the exposed patch of skin. He can feel the tie, still wrapped around your palm, pressing against his side, cold and smooth, and he swallows thickly. As you drag your hands up, it slides up with you, and a shiver wracks through him when you finally pull the shirt off his arms.

He cups your face, pulling you into a kiss, fingers coming to press at the back of your neck to keep you against him as he topples backward. You catch yourself on one hand, the end of the tie flipping to rest over his shoulder as you climb to straddle him. He’s insistent, both hands tangling in your hair, little sighs and puffs of breath against your mouth as he refuses to pull away for air.

You press a kiss to his cheek to soothe the loss when you lean back. He drapes his arms over your shoulders, locking his fingers together behind your head.

“We could stay like this? My hands are… close-ish together.”

“I can’t see behind me to tie it, but,” you pull his hands around your head, “I’m sure we can figure it out after that.”

He nods. You turn his hands back toward each other and his fingers curl, knuckles pressing together as he relaxes. You drape the tie around his wrists, trying a few different ways of looping it but not finding anything you’re satisfied with.

“Sorry. I just wanna make sure you can get out if you need.”

“It’s alright. I like the attention.”

You freeze, a wobbly grin taking shape as your face heats up.

“‘Taka, I’m supposed to be the composed one!”

“I’m just trying to be honest!” He flexes his wrists, pressing his knuckles together to crack them.

“Don’t worry,” you press both ends of the tie between his hands and motion for him to hold them still, “I like giving you attention.” You fold the middle of the tie over to make two loops and start twisting them in on themselves. “And I wanna hear about it as much as you can bear.”

“You seem plenty composed to me.” He pinches his thumb between two fingers and squeezes.

“Quick recovery. I learned from the best.” You wink and put your fingers through the loops. “Here, hands in here.”

He flattens his hands to squeeze them through, stopping to let you shimmy the tie the rest of the way over. You hold the ends of the tie and give a quick tug before tying them together.

“There, it’ll have to do.” You slip a finger in each loop, making sure there’s enough room to be comfortable without him being able to slip out without meaning to. “It’s a little loose, so don’t pull too hard, okay?”

“Sure.” He folds his elbows down, letting his hands come to rest on his chest. He jerks one hand up toward his hair, pulling his other hand with it, and the tie snaps taut. He has the courtesy to look sheepish. “I’ll try.”

You roll your eyes, smile still wide.

“Hands above your head, please.”

“Hm?”

“I’d like to get at your neck.” You press up on his elbows, and he unfolds his arms. “Those were in the way.”

“O-oh. Right.”

You lean down, tilting his chin up with one hand, and press a kiss to his throat, savoring the way it moves as he swallows. You trail down until you reach his stomach, dragging your tongue along his skin on the way back up. He exhales sharply, breath moving your hair as you get closer to his face. He forces out a laugh, and he rolls one shoulder.

You glance up. The tie is already starting to come loose, untwisting in the middle, but his hands are clasped together, the tie held in place between his wrists, fingers over the ends.

You kiss him, quick and breathless, and slip your fingers under his waistband. When his breath hitches, you smooth your thumb along the bone there, a reassurance you won’t move yet. You can feel him tense under you, pressing up into your touch, then slowly settling back onto the mattress.

You’re both reluctant to acknowledge the fact that you have to get off of him to take his pants off. You do your best to shimmy them under you, and he lifts his hips to help, but you need both hands to make sure his boxers stay on for now, and you want to make sure he can move his legs, so eventually, begrudgingly, you climb off him.

He takes the opportunity to stretch, his back arching off the bed as you throw his pants off somewhere to worry about later.

“Ooh, pretty. Think you can do that for me again?” You press a thumb to the inside of his thigh, at the edge of where his boxer leg has ridden up, and he jumps, hips rolling against your touch.

“Trickery.” He squirms, a whine that refuses to come out shining through in his voice. “Not fair.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get plenty more chances.” You trail your fingers up his thigh, along the “v” of the bone, up his stomach. He shivers when you trail back down, your fingers catching on the waistband of his boxers to drag it over his skin before letting go, settling your hand lightly over the bulge in the fabric. It’s slightly damp against your skin, and Reigen chokes back a moan when you press down.

You pull, grinding your palm down on his cock as the waistband moves until you can see the base of it, then you slide back up, tracing the outline of him with your fingers. When he whimpers, you’re too slow to hide your grin, and he glares halfheartedly.

“Having fun down there?”

“Oh, lots, thanks.” You slip your thumb below the elastic. “Seems like you are, too.”

“Hm.”

“Sorry, what was that?” You lift your hand with mock alarm, and he scrambles to reach for you, slowly lowering his arms to his chest when he sees your smile.

“Yes.”

“So, just to make sure, you are having fun?” It’s just as sarcastic as it is serious, and he seems to take it in equal measures, because he scoffs at the same time he nods. Both hands are on his hips now, both thumbs in his waistband, and you pull up gently to get him to lift his hips.

“Good boy.”

You’re not sure you would have felt it if you weren’t holding him, but he definitely shudders, trembling where your fingers press into his skin.

“Arataka.”

“Hmm?” He sounds breathless, and his chest heaves with effort, the rest of him as still as he can keep it.

“Should I keep calling you a good boy?”

“Um. If you want.” He jerks his hips up, and you take the hint to slide his boxers off, keeping an eye on his face as you do. You climb between his legs and lean over him, wrapping your hand slowly around his cock, firmly but gently, your thumb over the tip.

He squeaks, and he tenses, but he doesn’t reach for your hands.

“You’re doing so well, ‘Taka.” He swallows, and he shifts his hands, twisting the tie so he can lay his arms closer to his hair. “Such a good boy for me.” Precum oozes out of his slit, and you feel it roll down your hand.

“Mhm.” You lean back on your heels. “How about this? You tell me what feels good, and every time you do,” you pull your thumb down, spreading the precum along his length, “I’ll let you know just how much I appreciate it. Sound good?”

He nods, and you stop moving.

“Can I hear you say it?”

“Yes,” he breathes, pressing his wrists together, “yes, sounds good.”

“Good job.” When you lean to kiss him, grip tightening to keep his dick down against his stomach, his knuckles brush over your hair. “So perfect.”

You start slow, focusing more on touching every inch of him then keeping any sort of rhythm. When you trail up the vein on the underside, he shivers, and he gasps when you squeeze the base, and his hips jerk up when you pass over his slit, one leg coming up to press his ankle against your side. It’s not until you slip your other hand around him, though, arm passing through the space created by the bend of his knee to settle on his outer thigh, that he says anything.

“Fuck, that, more of that. P-please.”

“This hand?” You press your fingers into his thigh. He presses back.

“Yeah. I need… just, hold onto me.”

“Okay. Yeah, of course, sweetheart.” You scoot closer to wrap your hand tighter around his leg, spreading your legs to slip your knee underneath him. Once he relaxes, the full weight of his leg on yours, you press a kiss to his knee. “Good boy.”

“Shit,” he laughs, squirming closer to you. “S’not close enough.”

“Let me try something, then.” You slide backwards, reluctantly letting his leg fall to the bed, and you shimmy onto your stomach. When you pull his leg over your shoulder, he immediately hooks his ankle into your back and lets out a breathy moan. The pressure makes it a little harder to reach back around his thigh, but he relaxes into it easier, and the view is incredible. “There you go, perfect.”

You start up a little faster this time, twisting your wrist as you move up and down, and he bucks up into your hand. You risk a kiss to his thigh and his hands fly to your hair, the ends of the tie flowing down against your cheek.

“Sorry, too much?”

“Not enough.” His voice is scratchy now, and he gives a little tug once he gets a hold of you. “Can you, don’t put it- but, closer?”

“You want me here instead?” You press a kiss to the underside of his cock, flipping the loose ends of the tie out of the way to lay across his hip.

“Y-yes. Yes, fuck.”

“Gladly.” Between words, you pepper kisses along his shaft, following the trail of your hand up and down. “Thank you for letting me do this for you. You look so beautiful like this, feeling so good.”

He starts to make a noise of protest, but it quickly shifts into a stifled groan when you press a kiss to his tip, just barely letting your tongue drag across his slit as you pull away.

He whines and bucks his hips to follow you, and you can’t help but let an incredulous laugh slip out. “Alright, love, I’m gonna give you a choice, okay?”

He swallows thickly, then nods.

“Option one, you can tell me exactly how you want me to make you come. If you want my hand or my mouth or to go faster or slower or anything at all you just have to say the word. But I won’t do anything you don’t tell me, so you’ll have to say exactly what you want.”

His breathing is ragged, and he twitches in your grasp. “And option two?”

You grin and lean over him, propping yourself up on one hand. “I do whatever makes you the loudest, and if you stop making those pretty noises for me, I stop.” He seems to flinch at that, and you brush his hair back. “Just for a little while.”

He takes a shaky breath, eyes fluttering closed, and he pulls his arms in and down to drape one across his forehead. The tie was never really secure in the first place, but after quite a bit of pulling and flailing, it’s fully undone by now, nothing but luck and stubborn determination holding the loops in place around Reigen’s wrists.

“Both options, of course, come with all sorts of praise and admiration.” You slip a finger under the fabric and give a light tug. He lifts his hands to let the tie slide free.

When he opens his eyes, a shudder running down his spine, he sees you absent-mindedly tying the tie around your neck, uneven and loose, hanging down between you to brush against his stomach. He’s sure you just needed somewhere to put it, something to do with your hands, but it flips a strangely possessive switch somewhere inside him. Not because he’s seeing you in his clothes - he’s had the privilege of that many times before - but because you’ve taken the thing that was supposed to restrain his ability to fuck up the situation, taken something he left safe for you to keep track of without even realizing he’d done it, taken the symbol of his presence in your space and your time and your life, and you’ve put it on without a second thought. He thinks of his misguided reasoning that got you into this situation, that he trusts you with him more than he trusts himself, and he knows what he wants.

For once, words are failing him, which just makes the choice even easier.

“Second one.”

Your eyebrows raise a little, like you’re surprised at his answer, and he almost takes it all back, but then you’re grinning and leaning down to cup his jaw, kissing him like he’s giving you the only air you could ever breathe, and he moans into your mouth.

You lean away just enough to pull in a gasp of air, fingers sliding to tangle into the base of his hair.

“Just like that, gorgeous.”

He laughs, sucking in a shaky breath as you wrap your hand around him again. It pinches into a sort of strained whimper as he starts to quiet himself and thinks better of it, and you start moving.

“That’s it, good boy, just let me take care of everything.”

For all he got into his head before, breaking the seal of touching him seems to have removed any last bits of hesitation, because he relaxes into your touch almost immediately. Your experimenting earlier left you with a good idea of what will get the best noises out of him, and he doesn’t hold back. You’re silently thankful, not only because you get to hear him, but also because you’re not sure you could have followed through on your threat of stopping. And if he’s exaggerating for your sake, all clipped moans and raspy mumbling and bucking hips, well, you’re not going to complain.

After a particularly tight stroke up his cock and a brush of teeth up the inside of his thigh, he pulls one arm over his mouth, pushing it against his lips with his other hand. You’re still deciding if that counts as muffling his sounds enough to slow down when he bites his wrist and yelps, a loud, desperate, frantic noise that seizes what little of your attention isn’t already on him. His head tips back as he struggles to prop himself up on one elbow, hand flipping to clamp down over his mouth, and you can see the bite mark, lines pressed into the pale skin just below the jut of bone where palm meets wrist. It takes you a minute to realize he’s saying something, your brain struggling to piece his noises together into words.

“Can I have your hand?” You hum, scrambling to extract your hand from his leg. “I just- I need,” he opens and closes his hands, “something.” When you hold your hand up blindly toward him, he takes it quickly and holds on tight, fingers lacing together with yours. He gives a few tugs, and you hurry to sit up.

“Please, I need- I can’t take it anymore.” He looks frantic, eyebrows pinched together and his chest heaving with ragged, shaky breaths. His hips buck wildly, quick and shallow into your curled fingers. You realize you’ve forgotten to keep moving as you were watching him, and you quickly correct your mistake, reveling in the shiver that racks through him as your thumb swipes over his tip.

He’s begging now, your name falling out in pieces between gasps and cries; he’s still tugging at your hand like you can’t get close enough, pressing his lips to your jaw like he can’t quite remember how to leave kisses there. He pitches his hips up and presses against you, knees coming together to press into your sides, pinning your hand against your torso as he lets out a final shuddering whimper.

He comes across your fingers, his whole body tense as he holds himself up, back arched and head rolled to the side. He moves to wrap his arms around you, forgetting that his elbow is supporting him, and he pulls you down with him as he falls the short distance to the mattress.

You do your best to roll off him without letting go of him during the aftershocks, but you’re not exactly paying attention to where you’re still holding, and he yelps again from the overstimulation. You yank your hand away with half an apology, smoothing your hand up his side as you lift yourself up on your other arm.

“Nono, wait, don’t-” He scrambles to grab you wherever he can, and you intercept him before he can smack you across the face.

“It’s okay, ‘Taka, s’okay. I’m not going anywhere. I just didn’t wanna crush you. Let’s sit up so you can get some water, alright? All that noise can really make your throat sore, I know.” You slip your hands under him, one at the small of his back and one between his shoulders, gently lifting him toward the headboard. “That’s it. You’re okay. I gotcha.”

Once he’s upright, a glass of water in two shaky hands, you lean over the side of the bed to fumble for a washcloth. When he doesn’t slow down on his own, you start to reach for the glass, but he pulls away for a big gulp of air before you can.

“How you feelin’?”

He doesn’t answer right away, leaving you to fidget with the cloth, slowly reaching for his thigh. He lets his eyes slide closed as you start to wipe him off, smoothing an apologetic thumb over his hip when he hisses from the sensitivity. You wipe your hand on a mostly clean corner before you chuck it in the general direction of the hamper, silently relieved when it makes it in.

“I think I died.” His hands are still shaking as he goes to set the glass on your nightstand, and you gingerly take it from him, lifting yourself up to set it on the far corner where neither of you can accidentally knock it off later. “I understand you now.”

“You didn’t die, I promise.” You allow yourself a smirk and pull a blanket up from the end of the bed. “That’s high praise, though.”

“You’re high praise.”

“You’re the one that liked it so much.”

He rolls his eyes, too tired to argue. As you pull yourself up the bed to sit beside him, he leans over, one hand sliding behind you to rest on your hip. Now that he doesn’t have the distraction of everything else, you can tell he’s starting to think, because his ears are tinting pink and he’s fidgeting with a string on the edge of the blanket.

“Doesn’t mean I wasn’t happy to oblige.”

You scoop his hand into yours, leaving the blanket’s seams to live another day, and examine the bite mark on his wrist.

“I can’t believe I did that.” He scoffs, shaking his head a little as you turn his arm over. “The hell was I thinking?”

“Obviously you weren’t, which is both the point and very hot, so hush.” He turns away stubbornly, but he looks pleased. “You could probably say a spirit did it. Biting seems like an evil ghost thing to do, right?”

“With clearly human teeth?”

“Maybe it… stole them?”

He laughs, pulling away from your grip to get comfortable against your side. Just as you start to drift off, soothed by the sound of his breathing slowing and his weight settling on you as he relaxes, you feel his fingers walking down your hip, making their way to your thigh. You crack one eye open, and he looks away with obviously fake innocence.

“Where you going with that hand, darling?”

He smiles, bright and daring, as his fingers dig in. “Your turn?”

You consider it. You’re not quite capable of fully ignoring how turned on seeing him like this has made you. There’s a bit of nervous energy, buzzing over what’s left of your hangover, excitement, the joy that bubbles up in your chest at seeing him smiling at you like that, everything coming together in an overwhelming, swirling feeling of wanting whatever he will give you. But there’s something else, a calm undercurrent to it all, coating the emotion in quiet and directing it all back to a single point, solid and unwavering and right .

More than anything, you are content.

He sees your expression and laughs, must know what you’re going to say the moment you decide, because he mouths the words along with you as he pulls his hand back up to your hip.

“Maybe next time.”

#reigen arataka x reader #reigen x reader #my writing #it's been so long i forget how i tag things lol #hey bestie you're for sure gonna get a notif for this and i apologize in advance lsjkdfk #thank you so so much to everyone that stayed through the hiatus #i have been reading all the kind comments and asks and even though i don't respond they absolutely make my day #i was trying to avoid the internet as much as possible and it kinda... just stayed that way for a long time #if you're worried about this being the “last” aspec reigen pls don't panic #there's a more detailed ramble on ao3 but basically there will be more of these two goofs in love #(and probably a third goof in love)#but i wanna change some stuff and it'll be easier to do that in a new series #since this wasn't really meant to be a series in the first place weirdly #so basically it may be slow going but this isn't the end #i'm dropping this and then going to bed so i'll see y'all in the morning i hope you enjoy!!#i have.... so much to catch up on.....

101 notes · View notes

a-host-of-dancing-daffodils · 3 months ago

Text

idk if anyone following me here is celebrating but Happy Purim!

today sucked major nuts and I don't have the energy to make Hamantashen but I am going to fix myself a drink, eat prepackaged cookies, and since I have no silly costume to dress up in, I will watch my favourite Englishman dress up in a silly costume

and look super cute

and stare at his best friend like this

He may not have the power to fix me but he sure is helping <3

#Okay new observation: the sexy saxophone song that plays after Poirot says it's time for some Crème de Banane?#It's 'THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU'!!?? my HEART?? That's *SUCH* A HASTIROT SONG??#'the very thought of you//and I forget to do//the little ordinary things that everyone ought to do'#(Oh yep. That part is Hastings' part. stares at Poirot too long. Looks at Poirot when others are speaking to him.)#'I'm living in//a kind of daydream//I'm happy as a king//and foolish though it may seem//to me//that's everything'#(they make each other happyyy)#'the mere idea(r) of you//the longing here for you//you'll never know//how slow//the moments go//'till I'm near to you'#(says Poirot when he's missing Hastings)#'I see your face//in every flower//your eyes in stars above//it's just the thought of you//the very thought of you//my love'#Listen!!!! I'm NEVER gonna be normal about this episode I love it so #anyways fuck today I'm gonna turn it around nobody gets to kick me when I'm down and make me stay on the ground #I'M STILL HERE BITCHES YA CAN'T GET RID OF ME THAT EASY #Once I get some rest it's over for those problems o' mine #(I would not be feeling like this if it wasn't for my friend too so shoutout to her for listening to me complain/worry/be generally #terrified for like. 2 hours. and still telling me that I'm gonna be okay and that I have the power to fight back against the horrors)#hastings x poirot #3.10 affair at the victory ball #poirot #watching poirot #hastings/poirot #back on my screencapping bullshit #hastirot

19 notes · View notes

miasiegert · 3 days ago

Text

I am so thrilled you got to see the show and what an honor to get these compliments on the costumes! Collin (Skimble) got very, very sick so Austin covered. We love the Fulton so much, we overnighted 5 unitards (and one warmer set) even though that was outside of the contract. I'm not sure which day you went but there was some overlap and with equity rules, fittings must be scheduled in advance so although he has a Skimble unitard, Austin might not have been able actually put it on for the song. Song pieces, yes, but unitard, no. Ultimately though, equity is great as it protects the actors! We are all for equity!

We'd absolutely LOVE to see your fanart if you draw Jenny. I was really proud of the tap suit. This was one of the rare times I frankensteined a costume. I found an Akira fringe jumpsuit that retails for over $300 USD but it was with its 2nd owner and very damaged so I snatched it up at about $70 including shipping and the costume department took our specialty fringe to mix in so she'd have tiger stripes and leopard spots. It's VERY subtle but the tiny details change things. David pulled the Beetle coats. That is such a tricky number and Spike/might have been covering Tumble that show is only 16! Jonathan was in it a few shows and is only 18! TALENT!!! I think Buckets went on too and she's so good!

I hope I can answer a few questions or fill in some gaps (and I have to skip a lot because otherwise that'd be major spoiler risk). HEADS UP that there might be LIGHT spoilers so if you're planning to see the show, SKIP THIS PART PLEASE! Idk unless you love spoilers?:

Don't ever feel bad about forgetting things! That happens sometimes when you're caught in the moment. and honestly you noticed a LOT!!! For "Moments of Happiness" it's very theatrical and staged differently than any other production. What gets me is when Will Mann breaks for a moment and cries because he feels so betrayed by Grizzabella.

Jellicle Songs... Mungo's part... that is cat-parodying a part in Michael Jackson's "You Wanna Be Starting Something." That's why older people in the audience were probably laughing extra hard there.

Mungo is canonically bi in this version and absolutely likes Tugger. He also is a himbo and misses the point nonstop. The "Cook" in Mungo and Rumple is Jennifer Coolidge. lol

Gus/Pekes and Pollicles is a HUGE favorite and done by James Patterson, the last Tour IV Munkustrap. He is HARDCORE. We LOVED designing this number and he improvises a bit each show. The peke/pollicle/guard dog masks were SO hard to source but I found a wonderful leather mask maker who, by fluke, was having a clear out sale!

We sewed the Tugger costume from scratch, coat included. That was REALLY hard...

I teared up with your compliments on the Macavity costume. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. None of you know the backstory, because I'm getting old, but when I was a Superfan, I designed that costume for myself and was told, "It's absolutely impossible to create," "It's a bad idea," "you can't have an open coat be fitted like that." I had zero confidence so I shut down and put my design away. In our first meeting with The Fulton, the assistant director mentioned Macavity is a very important character to him and they wanted something special--and I paused then asked did they have a moment... we saved a red faux snakeprint leather from what would have been about fifteen years ago, untouched, and I pitched the design, mentioning influence from Dante from Devil May Cry but mostly Sisqo's stunning coat in the "You Are Everything" video Dru Hill did--an iconic outfit with the sleeveless trench, the hat, the glove, the pants--and it was greenlit on the spot. We did the gusset corset backing and sides, hand-sewed red spikes, sewed on leather trim, everything. Brian is the sweetest man alive and TERRIFYING as Macavity--he is so expressive. There's a neat trick where besides Jack in the Box, if you look on the scaffolding, Macavity's ALSO there with the huge storm.

And yes, you were correct--Macavity fights Bombalurina and uses some of his magic on her.

I got lost but seriously, thank you. Bottom of my heart. That means *everything* on such a personal level and heals so much in my soul for the Macavity costume comments. You literally have no clue. I'm not joking that I'm teary-eyed right now.

Also fun fact: Macavity is always played by literally the NICEST person in the cast by far.

I'm so glad you loved the twins! They're SO imporant in this production and are meant to be Deut's Guards--Cori representing the sun and Tantomile the moon with their collars as they're very ethereal. They are some of the few cats with breeds as they're meant to be lilac point Siamese cats. Cori's note is that he HATES being touched. He is VERY offended. Full disclaimer that we knew Tracy and were friends prior to production because David worked 6 weeks on Anastasia with him so we knew we'd love the twins extra hard in advance out of bias... at the same time, they deserved it. They're SO good.

Everything cool i can recall from Cats at the Fulton :3

Before jellicle songs for jellicle cats:

-There were thunder sfx and lightning effects, and before the show started there was an announcement about "hazardous weather"

-After that, the show opened on Grizabella walking around through various set pieces and rubbing against them. There was a magician's box (No idea what it's actually called) that had Griz and Misto's names on it, which kind of implied that they used to have an act together

-Eventually, Griz opened a large trunk on stage and took out her dress, which she wore for the rest of the show

Jellicle songs for jellicle cats:

-Can't remember too much unfortunately, i was honestly still just trying it get myself to fully realize i was actually there lol

-During the chorus, in the part where the boot usually falls and the singing pauses, they instead had Mungojerrie go off and do his own solo while everyone stared at him disapprovingly until he stopped and they could finish singing, which i thought was really funny

The naming of cats:

-Super intense, just how it should be. Lottsss of eye contact

White cat dance+invitation to the jellicle ball:

-Not much specifically to say, but the actress who played Vic was fantastic. Sososo fascinating to watch from the perspective of someone who has never done ballet in their life lol

The old gumbie cat:

-INCREDIBLE. OHH MY GOD I LOVED THAT NUMBER SO MUCH

-One of the BEST Jenny costumes EVER imo

-They had her be a sort of ex-showgirl, and had a set of curtains come in to give her a different background for her tap number.

-Her song outfit was gold and super sparkly and soooo fun to watch while she danced

-Honestly i need to draw that jenny at some point i loved her so much

The rum tum tugger:

-Such a fun number to watch, and SUPER interactive with the crowd

-Tugger flirted a TON with the people in the front row

-During the chorus of his song, they had Mungojerrie in with all of the kittens, and he had another solo bit similar to the one he had in jellicle songs for jellicle cats. I literally can't remember anyone else who was in the kitten group lol

-They gave the "terrible bore" line to Tantomile and Coricopat, but whateverrrr man. they had a bigger role in this version anyway, so it made sense.

-Honestly the whole number was just super extra, juuusstt how it should be :]

Grizabella the glamour cat:

-Not much in specific I can remember, but the Demeter from this show has an AMAZING voice. Actually gasped when she started singing.

Bustopher jones:

-at the beginning and end of the number, Bustopher rode in and out on a little car. In the middle/end, he stood on the hood, and sang from there. I'm also pretty sure Bombalurina was on the roof of the car!

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer:

-All of the lights shut off when the other characters ran offstage, and Jerrie+Teazer came in from the sides and shined flashlights through the audience while giggling

-Plenty of fun choreo in this number, they really managed to get the characters personalities to show!

Old deuteronomy:

-Uhhhh i don't know dude. i forget 😢

-tugger and munk sang from the platforms+back on the sides of the stage which was cool i guess?

-sorry i genuinely don't remember anything :(

The jellicle ball:

-I said it before, but the whole cast were such amazing dancers, it was sooo fun to watch!!

-Tugger and Bomba danced together most of the time, so tuggerlurina enjoyers do with that what you will :)

-some time around the beginning Tugger yelled "Party time!!"

Memory (Medly):

-not much to say

-The Griz from this version has an amazing voice dude. sooo pretty

The moments of happiness:

-GOD I REMEMBER NOTHING I'M SORRYYYY 💔

Gus the theatre cat+Pekes and Pollicles:

-Jellylorum was super sweet <3

-The pekes and pollicles bit was in place of Growltiger, and had Gus play the rumpus cat

-the flashback sequence was super funny, and kind of painted Gus as less of a respectable actor, and more of a super pretentious guy who considers himself a good actor

-He spent a bunch of time interacting with the audience, asking if they'd seen him as various roles in various plays which were all titled as some sort of cat pun version of famous plays/musicals

-Honestly though it was such a treat to watch, and a really fun interpretation of Gus that i never really considered before！

Skimbleshanks the railway cat:

-the guy who played Skimble actually wasn't there, so his understudy took over, and so instead of it being sung by skimble, it was sung by Alonso in overalls

-Honestly though it was kind of weird seeing that number being sung about a guy who was clearly NOT skimble

-Don't take that as me not liking it though!!! It was such a good number!!!

-During the song, Skimble jumped into Coricopat's arms, which Coricopat was very unhappy with lol. He ended up dropping skimble, who was completely unphased and just kept singing. what a joyful guy.

-Tugger was getting super into to the song when they were all laying on the floor :3

Macavity the mystery cat:

-he started by jumping out of a jack in the box!!!

-The moon in the background turned red, which was a nice detail

-Such a gorgeous Macavity?? he did not need to be that pretty /hj

-I actually cannot stress how much i liked that Macavity costume.

-The song itself was sung sooo nicely :)

-They had most of the girls on stage, not just Bomba and Demeter. I know there were 8 of them in total, and besides Bomba and Demeter i can remember Jenny and Jellylorum in specific, but i know there were more of them

-During the fight scene, Tugger tried to kidnap Bomba, not Demeter (I THINK, i'm not fully sure of this part)

Mr. Mistofelees:

-WOW

-Great conjuring turns, my moms couldn't stop talking about them lol

-during the chorus, after old deut is brought back, there were a bunch of balloons that the cast members tossed into the crowd, and were incouraging people to bat around.

-I had full cat makeup on at the time, and the woman playing Bombalurina smiled at me :)

Memory:

-Grizabella sang from on top of a jack in the box, the same one Mac came out of

-SO beautiful oh my god

-i stopped breathing during the chorus omfg it was so beautiful

-RAHHH I LOVE MEMORY RAHHGHHGHHHH

Journey to the heaviside layer:

-Old deut started by pointing to jenny and gus and asking the rest of the tribe which one they thought should be the jellicle choice. They all shook their heads for both of them, so he asked them who they thought it should be, and they all pointed to Grizabella, which was so cute <3

-They had Griz get into a roller coaster car and drive off. there was a projection of a roller coaster on the back wall, and when she eventually went off stage, an animation played of her car going along the coaster and eventually flying off towards the moon

-a little detail i noticed was that Macavity was actually watching this number from the very top of the back scaffolding :3

The addressing of cats:

-I. i literally can't remember anything from any of Deuteronomy's songs. what the flip.

-I think it was pretty good tho!

Extra bits that i didn't know where to put:

-GOD i loved the Tantomile and Coricopat from this production. So gorgeous. So so so gorgeous. oh my god i loved the,

-I loved the use of the scaffolding in the back, as well as the platforms on the sides. having people up there during the parts where the whole tribe is together really did a lot for the overall affect

Okay, that's it!! sorry if this had the most booty ass grammar ever, i am NOT editing all of that lol. This was literally the highlight of my whole year, i was shaking from excitement the whole time <3

Such an amazing production, such and amazing cast, and such and amazing experience <3

#cats the musical #cats musical #cats at the fulton #cats fulton #cats fulton 2025 #we designed these hell yeah #we designed it

36 notes · View notes