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theresattrpgforthat · 24 days

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TTRPGs for people with dyscalculia?

THEME : Dyscalculia Friendly.

Hello friend, I’m going to first point you to the Math-Lite Chaotic Murder Hobos recommendation post I wrote up a year or two ago.

What I understand about dyscalculia is that in can affect the ability to do mental math, but I'm not sure how much it affects number recognition. I have a few games here that ask you to read the faces on a die, but I don't think any of them expect you to do any addition. I hope you find something fun on this list!

Cats of Catthulu, by Joel Sparks.

CATS OF CATTHULHU is the beloved rules-light roleplaying game in which the players take the part of ordinary cats, secretly defending human civilization from the Chaos Cults of the other animals. All the players have to do is act like cats, while the Cat Herder arranges exciting challenges for them—anything from snacky time to daringly interrupting dire rituals.

In Cats of Catthulhu, the way the story will go is always a mystery. You and your friends play to find out what happens. One person, the Cat Herder, arranges the secrets and situations, and sets the scene, but even they don’t know where the night will end. The players take the role of individual, ordinary cats. All you really need to do is act like a cat.

It might be a bit difficult to get your hands on them, but the original dice for Cats of Catthulhu don’t have any numbers on them; instead, they have sad cats and happy cats. Whenever a cat does something, they roll 2 of these dice. Rolling a Happy Cat is a success; rolling a Sad Cat is a failure. The reasoning behind these dice is: cats can’t do math!

If you can’t get your hands on cat dice, you can use any old d6, and regard 1-2 as Sad Cats and 3-6 as Happy Cats. You’ll also want to get some kind of physical token to use as Treats, which are player currency used to allow free re-rolls. Cats of Catthulhu is great for groups who are mostly getting together to just have a fun time, ready to act silly and get into all kinds of shenanigans.

DUSK, by Gila RPGs.

Equipped with the latest suntech, you are tasked with venturing out into the Dusk, and helping bring a new dawn to humanity. The Dusk does not want you there.

Good luck.

In DUSK, you play as Shards, survivors on the planet Obron after the devastating nova-event that saw your world destroyed. Now you wield powerful technology fueled by pieces of your dead sun, in hopes of surviving another day. DUSK uses the LUMEN 2.0 system, and is a diceless RPG focused on resource management rather than luck or chance.

As a diceless game, DUSK feels a lot different from a number of other diceless games, and I think that’s because of the style of game it’s working off of. LUMEN games are more about strategy than they are about narrative, and in DUSK that’s carried forward in the form of Suntech, items that require energy to power and provide specific advantages.

DUSK is still a relatively new game, but the designer is prolific in the amount of quality work he’s released in the past - and so when he says that there’s more to come, you best believe there’s more to come. If you’d still like to roll dice but you like the idea of the setting in this game, you might want to check out NOVA, which also uses the LUMEN system but gives you dice to roll or LUNA, a game about cultists trying to destroy the moon. Both of these games use pools of d6’s and ask you to look for the highest number, so I don’t think there’s that much math involved.

CASE & SOUL, by Briar Sovereign.

CASE&SOUL is a lightweight tabletop game for telling action-packed stories in the mecha genre. CASE&SOUL is designed for one-shots and short to mid length campaigns. Speed through a lightweight downtime; hire freelancers to pad out your Crew’s skills on missions. Customize your playbooks with SOUL moves, and enjoy a cut-down FITD gameplay with just the essentials for fast and flexible sessions.

Forged in the Dark games use a dice pool, rather than abilities with modifiers. You add dice from various places on your worksheet, and try to roll at least one 4 or higher. Rolling a 4 or 5 is usually a mixed success, and rolling a 6 is a complete success. Personally, I’m a big fan of games that use dice pools, as I’m also not a fan of trying to add up all of those numbers, and having to just look for the single highest dice helps speed up action resolution.

At the same time, Forged in the Dark games can have a lot of moving pieces at once, especially if the GM wants to track a large number of factions, or players want to plan multiple-stage missions. CASE & SOUL advertises itself as a slimmed-down version of these kinds of games, but I can’t tell whether or not that is the case when I look at the character sheets. What intrigues me is the CASE and SOUL tracks; I think your CASE is your Mech, and it receives Harm differently than your SOUL, which is an interesting way to measure how much your mech is (or is not) part of you.

Keyforge: Secrets of the Crucible, by Edge Studio.

In the center of the universe hangs the Crucible, a gigantic artificial world created by the enigmatic Architects and home to countless beings and cultures. Here, impossibly advanced technologies mix with arcane powers to make for a setting unlike any other! Uncovering the secrets of this mysterious world will take all your skills—but the potential rewards are boundless…

Explore this world of boundless opportunity in Secrets of the Crucible, a new sourcebook for the Genesys Roleplaying System set in the KeyForge universe!

You’ll need the Genesys Rulebook for this one, because the main reason I’m recommending Secrets of the Crucible is because of the dice system. Genesys dice don’t use numbers; they use symbols that represent success and failure - and they also have symbols that deepen the nuance of each roll. You can roll advantages or disadvantages that calibrate exactly how much you succeed, as well as triumphs or despairs that give you the same kind of highs and lows as a Nat 20 or a Nat 1 in D&D. This means that each roll tells you so much more about what’s going on around you than just whether you open a door or sweet-talk a guard.

As for the setting, Keyforge is originally a card game published by Fantasy Flight games, about a world called the Crucible, full of secrets that various factions are competing to unlock. It reminds me of the worlds of Magic: the Gathering or League of Legends, with various settings that look very distinct from each-other, and represent different styles of play.

SHIVER, by Parable Games.

WHAT IS SHIVER?

SHIVER is a tabletop roleplaying game that lets players bring their favourite scary movies, spooky tv shows, and horror stories to life. Ever wanted to play through the plot of your favourite film on the tabletop? Or wanted to make sequels, prequels and original stories in the worlds of pop culture you love? SHIVER lets you play that!

SHIVER is setting neutral allowing you to play any story, anytime, and as anyone. Want to play a game of teens in survival mode against a zombie horde? Kids on Bikes who dread exploring a haunted house on Halloween night? Or perhaps a medieval monster hunter looking for a werewolf, vampire or mage? SHIVER can deliver stories and characters for anything from cult pulp classic to Cthulhu fuelled eldritch mystery.

The designer of SHIVER set out with the goal of making games easier for his friends, who had similar struggles with games that had too much math involved. Players roll six-sided and eight-sided dice with various symbols on them, looking for the symbol that represents their character's strengths. The more difficult the task is, the more of the required symbol you need. The game itself is recognized as a class-act horror game, good for everything from pulp-action to gothic fiction to slasher horror. If you don't have the special dice, you can substitute with d6's & d8's, or you can use the free Dice Roller designed for this game.

Tournament Arc, by Biscuit Fund Games.

Are you looking to experience the triumphs and defeats of Space Hyper-Basketball? Need to feel the epic highs and dizzying lows of card games in the post-apocalypse? Want to face the trials and tribulations of the cheese-rolling World Circuit?

Tournament Arc is your very own collaborative sports anime experience, made in the diceless Belonging Outside Belonging engine popularized by games like Dream Askew and Wanderhome. In every thrilling episode, you’ll play the part of the Team as they negotiate the complexities of their daily lives, explore a collaboratively created world, and, most importantly, play the Game.

Tournament Arc is both diceless and GM-less, and is designed to tell stories about teambuilding and competitive sports, although the setting appears to be pretty flexible. The Belonging Outside Belonging game system provides each character type with prompts, and sorts those prompts into different categories. Usually there will be some things you can always do that generate tokens as well as narrative obstacles, and then other things that you can only do when you spend tokens - and as a result, also help characters confront those narrative obstacles. If you have players that like having something tactile to keep in their hands as they play, you might like Tournament Arc.

Warehouse Bitches, by Darling Demon Games.

The Time Worm arrived as it was prophesied just as the crown fell upon his head, and all potentials collapsed into a single haunted citadel, which you call Hex City. You are transgender punks and goths from earth, and in this place your powerful hearts make you witches, daemons, beast-people and arcane architects. We bide our time, smoking and drinking, playing video games and eyeing the crumbling walls of our enemy, The Lord of Olympus.

In Warehouse Bitches, you play as one of the titular warehouse-dwelling trans folk in the hellish Hex City. In this GMless Belonging Outside Belonging game with a unique coin-flip mechanic, you'll wield magic, build allies across the city and fight back against the bastards in subtle ways.

I’ve already explained a bit about how Belonging Outside Belonging works, but Warehouse Bitches adds another layer by using coins as tokens. Using coins, your options are different depending on whether or not the coin is on Heads or Tails. The moves on your character sheet are not just differentiated between Strong and Vulnerable, they’re also differentiated between Heads or Tails, and you must have matching sides of the coins showing in order to be able to use those moves. Characters also have Magic moves, which require the player to flip every coin they currently hold, and reassign those coins based on whatever side they land on.

Warehouse Bitches has only 4 playbooks as it stands now, so a group of 4 players is probably the largest group that can play the book as it stands now. The game is GM-less, but looking at the rules, I think it would be possible to have someone pick up the GM role in order to introduce complications and narrate the actions of various other factions in town. Similar to other BoB games, there are zones that have various elements and details that need to be decided as you play, which will also help provide events and interesting features that keep the game fresh and exciting.

#indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #tabletop games #dnd #asks #indie ttrpg #math-light #math-lite

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keeryscharm · 4 months

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Devil At The Drive-In

Title: Devil At The Drive-In

Pairing: Gator Tillman x Fem!Reader

Summary: You and Gator are on a date at the drive-in but his thoughts aren’t on the movie

Warnings: SMUT (MINORS DNI), naive!reader, virgin!reader, mentions of dub-con, mentions of pregnancy, breeding kink

Notes: I originally wrote and shared this fic on a now deleted account. I don’t think it’s still out there, but if it is, I’m the original author. This is just a slightly reworked repost. Also, I don’t have a proof reader, so please be gentle.

“Gator, stop!” you giggle, scrunching down in your seat as your boyfriend presses his face into the crook of your neck, peppering the sensitive skin with a series of rapid-fire kisses. Holding your bag of drive-in popcorn in one hand, you playfully bat at Gator’s chest with the other. “Watch the movie, silly boy”

With a grunt, a dejected Gator slides back to his side of the backseat before reaching for his large cup of Mountain Dew. This is the second time tonight his advances have been thwarted and the movie isn’t even half finished. For once the young deputy is starting to doubt himself.

The drive-in had been Gator’s idea, of course, as were all your dates. He never asked your input, knowing you’d agree to whatever he chose. Why wouldn’t you? He was a catch. Probably the catch of the town. A deputy, the sheriff’s son, strong and driven. A real man. Of course, he’d hung around the store you work at for nearly a weak, falsely claiming shoplifting was on the rise in the area, before finally getting the courage to ask you out for coffee. But that wasn’t important. What was important was, despite the brief time you’ve been together, Gator is certain you are the one for him. You’re pretty, sweet, loyal, and, thankfully, naive as hell.

You always listen wide-eyed to his stories about life as a small town cop, believing every embellished word that falls from his lips. “You’re so brave”, you’ve said more than once, awe dripping from your voice. You spend your lunch breaks bringing him a homemade lunch, barely having time for two bites of your own, because he lied that all the officers’ wives and girlfriends did the same. Gator had no doubt you were the one he wanted and now he was ready to lock it down.

For most men in the town committing to a woman involved a trip to the fancy jewelry store one town over and trading two months of salary for a sparkling engagement ring. For the less traditional men it means shopping for a home together, ring or not. To Gator Tillman it means only one thing - getting you pregnant. He wants you walking down the aisle with his baby inside you and not a chance in hell of ever being free. You’ll quit your job, close out your bank account, and be completely dependent on him just as God intended. His little housewife, scurrying around the house each morning as you hurriedly cook his breakfast and iron his uniform, your big, round belly leading the way.

As a boy Gator had heard his father lecture on the “sinful nature” of the local drive-in. The crumbling parking lot was practically a relic even then, but still, his father warned of how easy it was for a woman to give into a man during a drive-in movie. Drive-ins allowed cars to become bedrooms on wheels, Roy proclaimed to the young men who were gullible enough to listen, tempting even the most virtuous woman to give away her precious flower in the heat of the moment.

Now, casting a sideways glance to watch you reach for a piece of salty popcorn from the greasy paper bag, quickly licking it with the tip of your tongue before sliding it between your glossed lips, Gator is sure his dad is full of shit. He’d got further with you the night of the county fair, when he’d won you not one but two stuffed animals, and you’d let him grind against you until you became convinced you were going too far and frantically begged him to stop.

As Gator pretends to give a damn about the sappy romance film playing on the large screen, his mind wanders to how he had intended for the night to go. A far more interesting film begins playing in his mind.

“Gator”, you pant, lips wet with saliva, your naked breasts heaving. “We shouldn’t. I - I want to save myself.” Staring down at your concerned face in the dim glow of the drive-in screen, gaze unwavering, Gator’s fingers continue their assault of your clit. “Shhhh, it’s okay. You were saving it for me, y/n. The man you’re meant to be with, right? To marry? Baby, I’m here. You’re mine. Just trust me” He pulls back just long enough to free his cock from his underwear and doesn’t even try to hide his wolfish grin as your eyes widen. “You like what you see, sugar? Think you can take all this?” He pumps his length twice. “Don’t worry, I’ll make it fit”

Gator runs a hand up over his face, skimming his slicked back hair, before shifting uncomfortably in his seat. The stirring in his pants is not easily ignored but his thoughts are not deterred.

“Oh my god, Gator!” you mew. Your nails leave trails of angry red lines down his back, making him curse and hiss in painful pleasure. Your face is screwed up in obvious discomfort, makeup running, as your virgin cunt struggles to take his generous sized cock, but you clearly don’t want him to stop anytime soon. Squeezing your face, Gator coos condescendingly, mouth hovering over yours. “You like being so full of me, princess? I bet you’re glad you waited for a real man, huh? Gonna wanna fuck all the time now, I bet. Always gonna want it raw like this so you can really feel me” Half nodding, half tugged downward by Gator’s hand, you shake your head in agreement.

Gator’s cock is straining against his jeans, now achingly hard. He masks a groan with a cough as he squeezes himself through the denim. No matter how invested you are in the movie you’re sure to soon notice your boyfriend’s raging hard-on. And yet the thoughts roll on. He thinks of all the places he can fuck you after he’s got you addicted to his cock. You straddling his lap and riding him in the back of his patrol car. In his bed while his father is at home, clasping his hand tightly over your mouth. Maybe he’ll show up when it’s your night to close up after work and bend you over the counter. He’ll take you wherever he can, as many times as he can, until he’s sure he’s knocked you up. He sees that day so clearly in his mind.

“Gator, I - I have to tell you something. Um…” Your eyes are clearly red from crying. “I’m pregnant” You say the words like they should be a surprise, as if your boyfriend hasn’t been constantly fucking your brains out and telling you not to worry your pretty head about birth control. Even now you look so damn innocent. “My sweet girl”, Gator whispers, pulling you against his chest, placing a hand under your chin to make you meet his gaze. “This just means we have to have that wedding a little sooner, that’s all. Don’t you worry, I’m gonna take care of you” His hand rests on your belly. “I’m gonna take care of both of you”.

“Really? You’re not mad?” Your tear-stained face lights up in obvious relief. So. Fucking. Cute.

“Of course not, y/n! I’ll even go with you tomorrow to hand in your two week notice”

“Oh, I don’t have to quit, Gator. I can -“

“Easy, sugar, let me handle everything, okay? You don’t wanna stress the baby, do you?”

A throaty groan escapes Gator at the thought of accomplishing his goal and this time it catches your attention. When you ask if he’s alright the concern in your voice is so genuine Gator can’t control himself. In one quick motion he grabs your hand and presses it to his erection. A gasp and a soft, surprised whisper. “Gator…”

“You feel that, baby? That’s all because of you. That’s what you do to me. You gonna take care of it for me? Let me make you feel good so I can feel good too?” He punctuates the last word by forcing your hand to squeeze his hard-on. A moment later you shyly nod, leaning forward to offer your slightly parted mouth. Gator’s kiss is all tongue and teeth.

“I’m gonna take care of you, y/n”, he moans into your mouth, gently pushing you down on to your back. “Just trust me, baby”

#gator tillman #fargo fx #gator tillman x reader #my fics #joe keery

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ohkkotsuu · 10 months

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𝐈𝐁𝐓 — 𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐁𝐅 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆! choso kamo.

ৎ୭ PAIRING: choso kamo x gender neutral reader (they/them pronouns used, unspecified anatomy)

ৎ୭ ABOUT: your boyfriend never experienced many things from the normal human world, as a half-curse. he's fully convinced that he needs to be a better boyfriend. so, he'll do his best to be the best for you. he sets some rules to be a boyfriend, a good one.

ৎ୭ CW/TW: SFW. choso is just so sweet i wanna bite him, overprotective behavior (a bit), choso is a simp and he wants to marry you, this is really just him being head over heels for you, choso calls you some petnames, itadori and nobara are mentioned (not as a couple)! fluff. straight up fluff. i just wrote a lot of him being silly about you lololol maybe this will become a series?? with other characters maybe. also, please, if you enjoy it, tell me about it! i would love to interact more with reblogs and comments from you all.

CHOSO never knew what to expect from the future, always being surprised by the violent turns in his life. lose two of his brothers, find a new brother — and certainly, he hadn't expected to have his heart so deeply won by you. nor win yours back. a sweetness of fate after so much sourness, which he hoped to make it last.

so choso became your partner (apparently, a modern term is boyfriend, so that works too). however, he has no idea how to be a good boyfriend. that makes choso resort to the best wingman he knows, an expert in people and relationships — his brother, yuuji itadori.

and it's from there that choso actively engages in what yuuji called “intensive boyfriend training”.

said training consists in watching hours of romantic movies, flipping through cliché books with good male leads, even retorting to reading shojo manga to know how to act romantic. yuuji even enlisted the help of a friend, nobara, so they only have quality content for training. no toxic male leads, no weird unconsensual stuff. only the best examples so he could become the best boyfriend. choso wants to know everything about how a guy should act to be a good boyfriend. after all, you're his world, and you deserve the best and the best only.

curses acquire information from the brain of the vessel they inhabit, but choso himself has no relationship experience. Centuries of his life were focused solely on protecting his siblings, and that is still one of his priorities — but, another priority is also you. he sets down some personal rules to himself, just so he can guide his heart through this whole “being a good boyfriend” thing.

his number one rule is never lie to you. never. doesn't matter the circumstances, choso will absolutely always be truthful and honest with you. relationships are based on trust, love and sharing. you are the person who showed him that there are ways to love someone beyond platonic — and, in return, you'll have his heart and he'll have yours. you are a partner for life in his eyes, and he would trust you with everything.

he's always truthful about things: where he's been, who he's been with, how he's feeling, he doesn't hide anything. choso even overshares every now and then. in his eyes, there is not even a single reason to lie to you. originally, he hesitated at the question of “how are you?” if he wasn't doing alright. choso wanted to be your white knight, the one who could protect you and his brothers without having to be weak. he slowly opened up as he realized it wasn't wrong to be weak. another valuable lesson you taught him.

if he is not feeling well, he will be sincere and say that he is not feeling well. choso will usually asks for what he wants — hold your hand, cuddle, kisses, anything really. he is also very honest when you ask for outfit opinions, for example — he admires how different colors suit you, how different types of fabrics of many different looks adorn your body. you usually need to call him more than once.

“choso.”

“hm? yes, baby?”

his heart skips a beat when he sees your smile. “you're staring. did you like this one?”

unfortunately, his opinion for visuals isn't exactly helpful, per say. he thinks everything look pretty in you, and he'll be very straightforward about it, because it's never about the attires you wear for him, no — you are insanely perfect. you're what makes this clothes pretty, not the opposite. you are what makes his world more worth living.

“I love everything you wear. you look amazing in everything.” the corners of his mouth lift up a bit as he give you the usual lovey-dovey stare.

you giggle a bit, unable to stop yourself from thinking that he's just so cute, staring at you like that. as if you were the moon and the stars. or even more than that.

“thanks, choso, but we've been here for half an hour. I need help to pick an outfit.”

the second rule he sets for himself is to protect you and care for you. he's absolutely never taking you anywhere risky. he'll do anything to be sure you're safe — anything he can. choso is always off guard for you, you make him feel safer than ever. but he's not relaxing about other things.

he would never forgive himself if you were hurt because he's too relaxed. he doesn't always have to be perfect, he knows, but he will still give every last drop of his own blood for your safety and your smile.

he's always keeping an eye out for suspicious people or cursed energy. if any signs of danger appear, he is ready to catch you on his arms, bridal style, and just run away to get you somewhere safe — which has already created some situations that are as embarrassing as they are amusing. another option is him entering on this intimidating mode, if not the immediate fight response.

he also doesn't like curses, even weak ones, around you. he acquired the habit of killing them immediately, being careful not to splash the purple blood of the spirits on you. he also carries around a tissue, either to wipe his face if a drop or two has spilled or to wipe his hand — he would never hold your hand while his is dirty like that. this is his version of “boyfriend who kills bugs for you” (to be fair, he would kill bugs too, if they're bothering you). choso was surprised when he learned that this is something boyfriends do for their partners, watching it on a romance series where a guy kills a bug when his love interest was too scared to do the same.

he's protective, but he's trying to be careful not to scare you or be creepy. he pulls you by your waist, always so gentle, staring daggers at a guy at the mall, scaring him away.

“choso.” he turns his head to you, and his eyes soften immediately. “what are you doing?”

“that man was staring at you.” he says, a bit grumpy. you only giggle and lean in to give him a kiss on the cheek — something that makes his face pink and a soft smile creeps it's way into his expression.

“thank you. but you didn't had to scare him, I know that guy. he's an acquaintance of mine.”

“oh. should I get rid of him?” he asks.

“choso, no, that's not what I meant—”

the third rule is something he made up seeing romantic movies: be a gentleman. he was doing that already, by taking care of you, showing his love, but according to yuuji and nobara, people love when their boyfriend is kind and does stuff for them. which made choso really confused.

“people get..impressed, when their loved ones show affection and minimum care or respect?” he can't really understand it, but if it's what will make him a better boyfriend, he'll become the most cliche of a gentleman.

(he's totally unaware that he is one already, and that no one was expecting him to do more).

so he looks for all kinds of opportunities to do something for you. place your orders in stores if you are too shy to do so, carry your shopping bags for you, put his coat over your shoulders when it's cold.

the “problem” is that it becomes something on a medium-large scale. you don't carry anything around choso, he carries everything for you. even small bags. the only thing with you should be a purse or backpack (if you wear any of those), and even with that he offers to carry it for you.

then there comes a day when you two are walking and choso stops. before you can ask him what's wrong, he picks you up on his arms. you cling to his shoulders with a surprised yelp. one of his arms is under your legs and the other supporting your back like a groom carrying his bride — as he hopes that one day, he will be that to you. and much more.

he just carries you for a few moments more without even complaining. he never complains. he loves carrying you, doing things for you, and you weight nothing to him.

“choso, what are you doing? what was that for?” he looks down at you.

“there was a mud puddle in the way, dear. if you crossed it, you would get your shoes dirty.” he explains nonchalantly, with you still on his arms. he seems ready to put you down, if you ask for it.

you both know he would have you bridal-style on his arms for a whole day if you let him.

hearing your giggle makes his heart flutter. although, one of his eyebrows raise softly.

“choso, we could have just skirted around the puddle.”

“oh.” he hadn't thought of that.

the fourth and final rule is never forget. he should never forget anything about you or involving you. dating anniversary, your birthday, this man has it engraved on his memory. he understands that these are special days not only for human customs, but for him personally — after all, your dating anniversary is a celebration of one of the happiest days of his life. the day you and him became a couple.

he certainly thinks that day would only be surpassed by your future wedding anniversary. but these things can wait. the wedding can wait. he's happy just by being with you.

it memorizes all your preferences, from the simplest to the most complicated. he knows what kind of movies you like, which series you hate, which food you prefer for every situation. he has your favorite brands decorated so he can get those for you. choso memorized all your orders in coffee shops or diners so he can order for you, too. it also learns if you have allergies.

sometimes he can't really believe that humans have such organisms. resist some diseases, but if you eat a tomato being allergic, something like this kill a human? impressive.

if you are in a situation where another person is hanging out with you and they ask for something “wrong”, choso will politely correct them.

“no, actually, they're allergic to those.”

“my partner asked for this, actually.”

people may think he's being arrogant, by correcting everyone about what you want — but what surprises everyone, even you, is that he always get it right. he knows your gift preference: what items you like the most, or, if you like it, handmade gifts. he learns how to do those for you.

with a lot of help from the internet, yuuji and some moral support from nobara, choso sucefully made you a bracelet. he hands it to you carefully, a bit scared that you won't like it. it's one of those bracelets with letters on it, it reads:

“cho loves you”. you look at him, and he seems shy. this is the first time he actually made something instead of buying something.

“ran out of letters, so there was no way to have another S and O.” his tone is a bit apologetical, and his cheeks are pink. “I made it for you.”

before he can say anything else, you pull him for a gentle, sweet kiss. even such lovely action knocks the breath out of his lungs and makes his head spin. your smile when you lean back makes choso think he's in heaven.

“thank you, choso. I loved it, I loved it so much! help me put it on?” you ask with those cute puppy dog eyes.

and of course you could put the bracelet on for yourself, you both know it. but he accepts any excuse to touch you, and you want to see him do it. while he helps you with your new jewelry, it reminds you of the day he slipped a dating ring on your finger.

“done, baby.” he says softly, eyes laying on the bracelet and moving to your hand, where a ring that matches his adorn one of your fingers. his fingertips touches it softly and he smiles, whispering: “I'll marry you someday.”

“what was that, choso?”

“nothing.” he looks away, embarrassed. but in a way, you both know it: it's a promise.

©OHKKOTSUU on tumblr.

#ira.writes #jjk choso #choso x reader #choso kamo x reader #choso kamo x you #jjk x reader #jjk x you #jjk x gender neutral reader #❝ teeth rotting ❞#jujutsu kaisen x reader #choso kamo #choso #jjk fluff #jjk x y/n #jujutsu kaisen choso #jujutsu kaisen fluff #jujutsu kaisen x you #jujutsu kaisen x gender neutral reader

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a-twistedheartslonging · 2 months

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Okay so idea for your nonhuman au. Idk if you've gotten asks similar to this one but I still think it's cool

Make Pomefoire Harpy's. Just make them these big, fluffy, stupid, birbs. All of which have no sense of personal space. They love to ruin Yuu's personal space. Especially Rook.

Vil is 100% a peacock. No changing my mind on that. And he's constantly trying flash Yuu his tail feathers. And when they don't notice or seem to care he gets so pissy. He has the biggest temper tantrum about it. But if you compliment his feathers, boy oh boy will he be all over you. The big bird man just melts into a pile of pretty feathers in your arms the moment you so much as open your lips to compliment him.

Rook I imagine is some sort of falcon or Hawk. He loves to fly around, and often times dives down to just miss Yuu by a couple inches. Yuu thinks it's some sort of scare tactic, but in reality he's trying to impress them.

Now Epel in my mind is a sparrow. He seems to be very meek and shy but when he wants to he can be very flirtatious. He can and will take Yuu by the hand and dance with them. Oh you can't dance? Mm too bad, time to dance. He won't listen to any sort of complaints you have about it. He's very bossy when he wants to be.

Tbh nothing for the AU is really set in stone so I might do stuff about them being different kinds of beasties than what I originally wrote, and if peeps want to send in their own different things, I'm totally fine with it.

I haven't done anything for the pompom dorm but LOVE harpies.

It makes total sense for Vil to be a type of peacock one, but also...

Have you seen a Secretary Bird?

Tall, beautiful, and long legs. I see one and can't help but think "that's him."

Jamil might want to be careful cuz they stomp the shit out of snakes though. Said stomps are very strong too.

youtube

Regardless of the kind of bird he is you know he's going to have the most beautiful feathers that he spends so much time grooming and has perfected his mating dance...not that you know it's a mating dance. Showing any positive reaction to it considered acceptance so...be careful friend.

Man, I've tried thinking up what kind of beasty rook would be but it's just so hard because he's...Rook.

Falcons and Hawks are certainly great hunters, our already dangerous Rook would become even more deadly. Dude would so swoop down to scare you and give a silly giggle at your scared reaction.

With Epel, I was thinking of him with the more obvi choice of being a bunny but thought it would be funny if, like, one of his parents was a bunny, the other was a bear, and he came out a bear but ended up with the small cuteness of a bun.

He's your little lavender cuddles teddy.

Him as a sparrow though. 🤔

Did you know that sparrows wave their wings to communicate with each other? Scientists used to believe that wing waving was a friendly way for sparrows to say hello or goodbye to friends. But that’s not the case. The opposite is true; wing waving is all about displaying anger.

Image a pissed off Epel flapping his wings at someone.

Their also wonderful singers and use that to attract mates, imagine him trying to rizz you up with his own songs.

#twst #twisted wonderland #nonhuman au #ask #asks #vil schoenheit #rook hunt #epel felmier #twst vil #twst rook #twst epel

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alexa-fika · 2 months

Note

Could I ask for robin and franky kinda adopting a little girl? Like she sits and cuddles Robin whenever Robin is reading. Just loves how silly Franky can be? Just imagine a little kid running up to then when their scared

Relaxation and entertainment( Robin x f!child!reader x Franky)

A/N okay anon im gonna confess, I ‘ve had this ready for a week… maybe more. I just was so ashamed cause I thought it was really bad so I just kind buried under other works but you deserve something even if it’s not the best.

Reader here is replaced by Dokucha as a placeholder which means reader in japanese

Dividers by @/saradika

Robin sat in her usual spot, on the deck of the Thousand Sunny. Sitting at one of the tables and enjoyed one of the rare peaceful moments they were able to have as she read one of her books.

In her lap sat the youngest of the crew, a darling little girl who was taken in by the crew; she had grown particularly fond of two of the members; however, the one she was currently cuddling with and a certain Cola-loving Cyborg

“Here you go, Robin-chan,” Sanji said, dropping down a drink in front of the archeologist, his usual love-sick look adorning his features

“Thank you, Sanji,” Robin replied, smiling at the blond and putting her book down

“Anything for you, Robin-chan,” he exclaimed, heart filling his eyes until he glanced down at the child in her lap

“Here you go, Dokucha,” he said, placing a similar looking drink in front of her

She beams quickly, grabbing the drink

“Thank you, Sanji-nii!”

“You’re welcome,” Sanji replies, ruffling their hair and waving the pair goodbye as he entered the kitchen once again

“It’s yummy, Robin-nee!”

“I’m glad it’s to your liking,” she says, smiling, her face softening as she looks down at the young child

“I love you, Robin-nee!”

Robin laughs and ruffles her hair gently

“Love you too,” she replies hugging her softly

“Franky-nii!”

Yeahhhhhh?

“Im boreeed”

“Uh oh, sounds like a big job for the SUPERRR Franky!“ he said, turning with them with his usual grin

“So whatcha bored about?”

She giggles at that and shrugs

“Everyone’s busy.”

“Well, if no one is around to entertain you, then it looks like it's up to me! You want to hang out and have some fun?”

“Yeaaah”

“Awesome! I've got a good idea... I know a new cola shop that has the good stuff; we could start there?”

“Wah, really?!”

“Yeah! It just opened, and they have all kinds of cola! They say they have one that's so good it makes your skin feel tingly; wanna try it?”

“Yeah!!”

“SUPERRRR” he exclaimed, throwing the small girl onto his shoulders and making his way out of the ship

“Superrrr,” she parrots, strings of laughs escaping her as she tightened her hold on his neck exited for the bubbly drink.

My first time trying this Format… what do you think? Nay or yay? I could also just write a transition between the two rather than dividing them, I just din’t have any idea how to join them so I wrote two different scenes, originally I had them separated by a divider/timelapse but I thought ‘Might as well try this’

Taglist:

@imaginarydreams

@amethystviolin

@h0n3y-l3m0n05

#franky x oc #franky #straw hat robin #robin x oc #straw hat pirates #strawhat franky #one piece #one piece x reader #one piece imagine #one piece fluff #one piece x child!reader #nico robin #robin x reader #nico robin x reader #nico robin x you #nico robin x y/n #nico robin x oc #franky x reader

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zgvlt · 2 years

Text

launch our love jade leech x reader

summary: You and Jade send out your wedding invitations. (Almost) nobody knew you two were dating in the first place

author's note: written for a discord server event! bc june is wedding szn. and also because i realized i needed more silly (and domestic) jade in my life. this is sillier than most of my writings bc i wrote it to destress from my finals hehe

tags: gender neutral reader, sfw, fluff, established relationship, marriage, weddings, some cursing, 6.7k+ words, not beta read

you can also read this on AO3

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM (CAUSED BY YOU AND JADE)

“Jade, you’re smiling. Is something funny?”

“Aren’t I always smiling, my dear?”

“Not always, not with your teeth.” So you said, but weren’t you the one baring your teeth at him right now? “You’re amused by something. Care to share?”

Maybe Jade didn’t seem like the type, but he loved jokes—stupid jokes, and even funny things that weren’t actually jokes. He just liked being able to laugh at something, someone, and oh, he was going to have the biggest laugh of his twenty something years of life—both on land and in sea.

In fact, he might have been laughing right now just at the very thought of the situation.

“Perhaps I’m just happy?” he mused, knowing for certain that you didn’t buy it. You knew him too well, for too long—sometimes he still found himself thinking just how odd it was for the two of you to have gotten so close, but it certainly made things more interesting, didn’t it? It would be difficult to imagine how he’d be living his life now if you weren’t by his side. “You bring me happiness. Is that so unbelievable?”

“No, but isn’t it weird that years ago I would have thought your words were some ploy to tease me, or make fun of my feelings for you?” you said, a laugh escaping your lips. “I can’t believe I fell for you first. So cringe of me, honestly.”

“Yes, but I had been the one to ask you out first,” he reminded you, clicking his tongue in the process, “really, you made your feelings so obvious but you simply wouldn’t do anything. Did you ever feel bad for me, poor Jade Leech who knew nothing about human romance customs, having to do all the hard work in courting you?”

“Yes, and in my pity I stayed with you for eight years,” you deadpanned, clearly enjoying the joke as much as he was. That was something about you he’d always loved—you always got a chuckle out of him, not merely from your words, but even your mannerisms and willingness to just go along with whatever he was saying, inserting your own quips as well. “And will continue to for even more years than that.”

“My love is so gracious,” he praised, clearly teasing but voice laced with unmistakable affection, “if this is what it feels to be pitied by you, then I’ll simply have to have your pity all to myself, hmm?”

“You…”

Jade really couldn’t help himself then, laughing as you were torn between letting him know he was being infuriating, or saying something terribly sappy yourself.

“I still don’t believe you, by the way,” you said, returning back to the original topic of conversation, “but I think I know why you’re so excited now. It has to do with the invites we sent out earlier this morning, doesn’t it?”

“Heheh. I might be losing my touch if it’s that obvious,” he replied, both of you knowing it had more to do with you than him.

The invites. They were pretty things—pearl white envelopes with intricate calligraphy at the very center, something formal to fit both Jade’s disposition and the event, but the design of the letter inside clearly had your touch. He actually still had a few unsent ones himself, ones he would deliver himself once he returned to the Coral Sea.

Save the best for last, of course.

“You think any of them would have gotten it by now?” He responded to your question with a smile that showed his teeth, he was certain of it this time. Oh, he was more than sure at least one person would have gotten it, received by the ones that lived closer, already opened by the ones a little less busier, and he was elated in anticipation of their responses. “Judging by the look on your face, that’s a yes. Should I mute my phone?”

“Absolutely not,” he replied immediately, and then added for good measure, “additionally, could you make sure every call is on speaker phone?”

As though simply waiting for his cue, your phone began to ring, and Jade had no doubts someone had already read the invite and was more than ready to make a complaint, or ask for an explanation, or both.

“Is it–” he looked over your shoulder to read the caller ID– “ah, I was wondering which one of the two. Go on and answer. I’ll just be here, listening attentively.”

“Fine, fine, but get ready. Once this call ends we’re clearly going to get them non-stop, either from your phone or mine.” You took a deep breath, as if to prepare yourself for your impending doom, before pressing the answer button.

THE CALL WHERE HIS SIGNIFICANT OTHER GETS CURSED AT (AND HE LETS IT HAPPEN)

“You fucking fuck,” Ace said, slowly and almost threateningly, and Jade almost let out a huff of laughter at that alone. Only almost, for he had wanted to stay silent for a little longer just to hear what either one of you would talk about. “I raised and looked after you for over three years–”

“Now who’s doing the raising in the group, you say? If not me, it’s obviously–”

“Shut up! I need to tell you how disappointedI am!”

Jade threw you a look and you only shrugged. Ace always seemed like the annoying older brother type of friend, but was he actually some secret mother hen type? He always pictured that role for… essentially every other close friend you had, but he supposed distance could bring the fretting out of anyone.

“As I was saying, you know how much I L-word you, you little shit, but what is this behavior? Is this how you repay me?” On second thought, this was annoying older brother behavior. “How could you do this to your best friend—no, absolutely no oh, Deuce, Jack, Epel, Ortho, Sebek, is my blah blah now! Betrayal! One second I have Jade’s contact name renamed to your TOTGA, next second you’re getting married to him?”

At Ace’s exclamation Jade allowed himself to unstifle his laughter, slapping his thigh with the free hand, the one not attached to the arm that was draped around your own laughter-induced quivering shoulders.

“TOTGA?”

“The One That Got Away. Coined by Cater, but Ace found it too funny so it stuck as an inside joke about… well, obviously about you,” you explained, near groaning at the reminder, “basically, Ace thinks you were incapable of returning my feelings.”

“Hey, I never said that! I just said you were too much of a wuss to actually do anything. You cried when he became a fourth year, remember? Ace… I want to see Jade, huhu. I’m so sadddd, wah wah wah, wah, wah.”

“What a subpar impersonation. I wish I was there to witness it myself.” It was a little hard to shake off the image in his head once Ace got it in there—he hated seeing you upset of course, but you crying because you missed him? That would have certainly been a cute sight. He wondered if Ace or one of your other friends had managed to have that, or any other similar event, recorded on video.

He’s not quite Azul but he’s made his fair share of deals, too.

“And for your information, Ace, you might like to know that it was I who made the first move, so you would be right about your assumptions.”

“Thank you for your service. My dear friend would have stayed single, still living in the college, doing nothing but taking care of Grim until the ripe old age of a hundred and one otherwise,” Ace might have sounded like he had significantly calmed down, but you seemed to know better.

Ace was never particular about the respect for seniority, and while some parts of him had already matured, according to you that is, some parts were bound to stay the same.

“But also, I just know you’re part of the reason why I never found out the two of you got in a relationship in the first place! So what was the reason? A prank?”

“Of course not. What kind of man would have a joke run for as long as eight years?” Jade said, pretending he wasn’t that type of man. Honestly speaking, he really never intended it to be secret or anything. Azul and Floyd knew because it was impossible to hide things from either one—the latter being his brother, the other being your supplier of potions in your earlier years of visiting him and his family.

It just so happened that with a strange set of circumstances it would appear you never got the chance to tell anyone, he was too private a person to share the more intimate details of his life, and the two of you decided to just stick with it for as long as either one of you didn’t get caught.

“Okay, fine, I know why Jade wouldn’t say anything… but you, don’t think I have forgotten about you. Actually, shit, I’m tired of shouting. Give me a sec.”

“Wait, what are you doing?”

“Giving the phone to our favorite Deucey-Weucey. Nice going with the invites by the way—flying envelope followed me around in the middle of the street until I opened it. I thought my unpaid taxes were haunting me!”

Ah, yes, the wonderful flying tracker envelopes. Jade had paid good money for those—for convenience, else it would have been too difficult sending formal, non-digital invites to everyone all across the land, but he would not deny that the idea of an envelope hunting and chasing down your mutual friends was fun to imagine.

“You were shouting that loud in public? Also… are you joking? Ace, pay your taxes?”

“Pass. Oh, and don’t tell Deuce I said that, by the way. He’s freaking out more than me—he’s been spamming me with texts because I got to call you first—and we don’t need the policeman to freak out even more because of my inability to be a law-abiding citizen. He just finished his shift, too! … Yo, Deuce! Guess who I’m on the phone with—Oi! At least ask before–”

“First of all, congratulations,” a different voice came out of the phone speaker this time, a little gentler and kinder but clearly holding back. Ah, Jade thought to himself, here was the other one he was waiting on for your end. “Bet you Ace didn’t even say that, right?”

“He didn’t,” the two of you replied at the same time, much to the chagrin of the voice whining at an audible distance.

“Oh, hello,” Deuce greeted, oddly politely, “you don’t mind if I shout at your spouse-to-be, right? I’ve been holding back from doing so for about twenty or so minutes now.”

Well, Jade always liked politeness. Why, it reminded him of himself, after all.

“Fufu… go for it,” he said, but honestly you could have been the one to agree to it yourself with the way you readied yourself by pushing the phone slightly further away than when you were talking to Ace. Interesting reaction.

“You can cover your ears, I just need to get this out of my system… WHAT THE HELL? THIS IS WORSE THAN ANY OF ACE’S PRANKS!” Jade had to wonder if that was more compliment or insult. Deuce was less harsh than Ace with his wording, but the tone of voice was more intimidating, a little delinquent-like. You seemed used to it, though, maybe even a little fond and reminiscent.

“We kept comforting you because we… okay fine, Ace, shut up, because I thought you kept getting rejected, but not only have you been together all this time, the two of you are getting married? Also meaning, time had passed since you proposed… or Jade proposed to you?”

“Actually,” Ace interjected, loud enough to be picked up by the microphone, “since when did the two of you get together? This is very important by the way, please answer correctly.”

“Answering correctly… ah, I see what’s going on here,” Jade replied with an amused laugh, “I hope you got the right answer, then. The last week of my third year, so before the summer of yours.”

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line before the two of them began making a ruckus once more.

“Fucking Ortho?! Out of all of us, Ortho gets it right?” Ace bemoaned, “The way we dissed him too for guessing incorrectly. Of course he knew without actually knowing. I mean thank the Seven it wasn’t Sebek or Jack or I would never let myself live it down, and if it was Epel he would never let us live it down, but wow.”

“They made me bet as well, by the way,” you told Jade, “betting on my own love life… or lack of, at the time.”

“And you got it wrong?” he snickered, always happy for something new to tease you about. “Please do tell, when did you think we would get together?”

“Uh… I don’t remember?”

“Never. You said the two of you were never, ever, ever, getting together,” Deuce reminded you, pretending to simply be helpful even though it was obvious he was attempting to get back at you one way or another. Well, it was helpful to Jade, at least. He’s not surprised by the answer, it would have been rather typical considering your mindset back then, but your reaction right now was very adorable.

He had no plans of teasing you about it at this very moment, but he stored that information for another time.

“Wait, I just realized something. You were also crying to us that time, so then… you were crying because–”

“Oh,” you sounded a little bashful, “it was because I thought we wouldn’t be together because… you know, Jade would be out there in some mountain, probably without phone reception, and I would be stuck in NRC, so…”

“...so you didn’t think you two were actually in a relationship,” your statement was finished for you by Deuce, who sounded, and probably looked, exasperated, “and then you two actually were, but you were either still sad about the distance or too embarrassed to tell us you were mistaken that you never told us.”

“Yeah, something like that, and also I kept getting teased about it so as payback I kept holding off telling all of you, until…”

“Until you literally forgot to ever tell us,” Ace groaned, “shit, that’s one long grudge.”

Well, Jade might have had some part to do with you not talking about it after your third year. He was the one who convinced you it’d be fun to let them figure it out for themselves. If they weren’t able to tell while they still got to see you every day, how much harder would it be for them once you all went your separate ways all over Twisted Wonderland?

“Okay, maybe deserved on our end, but I don’t want to take responsibility so fuck you… oh, and congratulations to both of you lovebirds… er, fish?”

THE CALL WHERE HE MESSES WITH SOMEONE (AS USUAL)

You were still in the middle of your call with Ace and Deuce, voice call turned video call as the three of you planned a pre-wedding meet-up with the rest of your friend circle for the purpose of deciding who your best man would be (thankfully not a problem he has to deal with, considering Floyd was the only real choice), when he received a call on his phone.

“Who is it?” you asked, breaking away from the conversation for a few seconds.

“Trey,” he replied, quite normally if he would say so himself, although you must have known better based on the way you were looking at him.

“Don’t stress him out too much, Jade.” He agreed, although he certainly didn’t promise anything. If he was being honest, one of the calls he was anticipating getting was from the bakers’ son. Perhaps because it was interesting seeing the seemingly ordinary people break out of their restraints and say something funny.

“Say hi to Trey for me! Or tell him to call me… not any time for the rest of the day or night, if I’m being honest.”

With that he slinked away from the bedroom to the living room, letting himself relax atop the sofa as he answered the call.

“You know, Jade, most people send in their order forms online these days. Or in person, if they want a taste test first.”

“Oh, do you not want to comment on the invite first? The RSVP is included in the envelope, but you could let me know right now. How many guests do you intend on bringing? You could always bring your siblings—given my being a twin, I’ve always been fond–”

“Jade,” Trey interrupted, already sounding exasperated, “am I really a guest when you’re asking me to make your wedding cake?”

“And the wedding favor pastries as well, if you don’t mind,” Jade supplied, smiling to himself. Good, Trey was reacting exactly how he wanted him to. Sure, he did not doubt the man probably had some degree of surprise regarding his relationship status, but that seemed to be a second thought in the dread of dealing with what would presumably be at least a medium sized order.

“We would appreciate your suggestions as well. Which do you think would be better: cupcakes, quite overused but popular for a reason; small cakes, so we don’t have to go through the hassle of giving away slices of the wedding cake; or something a little less fancy, like cookies or brownies?

“Also, what do you think about the cake itself? How many tiers are the norm for wedding cakes? Why is it that most people go for height when you can go for width and length? What do you think about including mushrooms–”

“Jade, absolutely not. We can add the fake sugary ones if you want, but no real mushrooms,” Trey sounded somewhere in between flabbergasted and disgusted at the suggestion. Now, wasn’t it obvious he was just joking? He wasn’t really going to insist on adding mushrooms in the cake… unless it was actually an unfounded good combination?

“Also, for the love of the Queen, please just go to the bakery for a taste test… ugh, I can’t believe you’re getting married before me. What in Wonderland…”

“Really makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” And because Jade was secure with his sense of humor, he laughed at his own joke. What Jade would give to be able to see the look on his face right now, curious about what sort of face he must have pulled in that dead silence of five seconds. “Oh, and I just thought of something… what do you think about mushroom shaped biscuits as wedding favors?”

THE CALL WHERE YOU GET A PART-TIME WEDDING PLANNER (BUT WHO DOESN’T LOVE FREEBIES?)

You had received a few more calls last night, mostly quick congratulations paired with a “but… have you always been together with Jade? Somehow, I always thought…”

Those people never pried too much, likely to save themselves from the potential embarrassment of having forgotten such an important detail about a friend, maybe preferring to ask someone else about the details. None of them were too interesting so Jade didn’t mind much.

The real fun continued the very next day. The intended guests seemed to have enough decency to not call past midnight, although he did spot a few 3 a.m. text messages sent to some group chat you happened to be in, so the night was relatively peaceful. Someone, however, seemed to be a particularly early riser, dragging the both of you with him with one notification.

Not a call, just a notification that somehow jolted you awake, your sudden movement waking him as well.

“What–”

“I thought it was for work… I panicked.” Despite the fact that it was very much a weekend, it seemed that it was hard to get rid of habits. “Who else just sends sudden calendar invites to unplanned video calls aside from… oh, this makes sense, actually.”

You suddenly got up from bed and Jade, admittedly still a little sleepily, watched as you tried to fix yourself up—slowly walking to the bathroom as you washed your face, even brushing your teeth. That told Jade he would not be expecting you to head back to sleep despite the fact that the sun had likely risen at most about half an hour ago. If it weren’t for the fact that you were just straightening out your rumpled sleepwear, he would have thought you had planned on going out.

“Already so energetic in the morning,” Jade commented. For a busy man like him, he quite liked getting to sleep in whenever he could with his beloved at his side, but he was just as content watching you in the early hours of the day. Seeing you go about your morning, yes, but more so waking up in the same room as you, something that would become more common once the two of you got married.

He had always missed mornings with you whenever he was under the sea instead of by your side.

“Jade, do I look presentable?” you suddenly asked, plopping back down on the bed, lowering your head to lock eyes with him. He’s not quite sure what you’re expecting out of him considering the biased lens he views you in.

“You know my heart is aflutter whenever I see you,” he answered, not dishonest in the slightest but always worded in a way he knew you would like, “my darling is as beautiful as usual, brilliant and timeless like the most precious pearl.”

“And that’s not what I was asking. Presentable is different from beautiful.” Still, you looked appreciative of his praise, allowing yourself to accept it instead of turning it down, and really, that’s the reception Jade likes the most from you. “Oh well. Vil will probably understand anyway.”

Oh? He knew you and Vil kept in touch even after his graduation, but among his list of people who he thought would contact you next, he had not considered someone as busy as Vil Schoenheit to be next. Not that he had any plans of going back to sleep when you were already awake, but now he was more enthused to listen in—intrigued in all matters that had to do with you, and he supposed because it had to do with him, as well.

He doesn’t even have to tell you—you put it on speaker immediately.

“You know, most people these days try to soft launch their relationships on MagiCam, but you did not even do a normal hard launch, no, you went all the way with a wedding announcement. Do you think yourself a celebrity with this kind of secrecy?”

“Ahaha, well–”

“Oh, and before I forget, I’ll be sending you my work schedule. We can’t have you looking like a potato on your wedding day, can we? Do you already have something to wear? If not, I can introduce you to some designers, no need to worry I still remember what styles you like best, and then we can choose which outfit you’ll want to wear best during the ceremony itself, and then the reception—

And we can’t forget about make-up! You–ah, Jade, hello, I just noticed the top of your head peeking near out of frame. I can send you both some palettes that would work best with your skin, the Seven knows I have too much unused make-up from brand deals, and–”

“Vil,” you interrupted suddenly, “not that I don’t appreciate the help, because I do, I mean I haven’t even thought of getting into more comfortable clothes for the reception? But why are you doing so much? Aren’t you busy?”

“I would have to agree. It’s as if you have chosen to take up the task of being our wedding planner.”

“Because it’s bad manners to outdress the newlyweds,” Vil explained, as if it was the simplest thing in the world to understand, “so just this once, the both of you have to look better than me. Understood?”

THE CALL WHERE YOU AND A CROW ARGUE ABOUT WHO WALKS DOWN THE AISLE AS YOUR GUARDIAN (SPOILER: IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN TREIN)

Jade took over the kitchen most days, for as long as he had the time for it. Not only was he confident in his skills but he enjoyed the act of cooking just as much as getting to show off his skills for you.

And of course, because there was the thrill of letting slip that there was some special secret ingredient that always left you slightly perturbed or excited. Not that there was any most of the time, he just wanted to see if you would keep buying it, and he would eat up the slightest hesitation before you eventually gave in because A) you trusted him and knew deep down he was either playing with you or added something he knew you liked, or B) you just wanted to eat your meal already.

One of those was more romantic than the other.

Regardless, he was cooking for you because you seemed like you needed the energy. While the both of you agreed on wanting to get married soon—considering the two of you lived together and were as domestic as couples could get to the point that it was as if he was already a married man anyway—you seemed to wonder if there was enough time to plan everything that still needed to be planned.

“Of course there will be,” he reassured you, momentarily abandoning the meals he had not finished plating to step closer to you, “we still have four months to go, and I’m here to help you, remember?”

“I know, and I love you even more for it.” You don’t waste a single second after he places his hand atop yours, turning your palm over to interlock fingers properly. That’s another thing Jade adores about you—how easily you can confess and show your feelings for him. “A part of me was just hoping wedding planning would be a little easier than it actually is.”

“I’m sure it’s made easier with magic involved,” Jade said with a laugh, “although ceremonies are much simpler under the sea.”

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean that kind of preparation.” You seemed to be experiencing some degree of unease, likely at the thought of something. “More so… people.”

Jade smiled. Close-lipped.

“If there’s anyone being a bother, or being troublesome–”

“Jade, no,” you interrupted quickly, as if suddenly fearing for the lives of several people. “Not like that. I received an email from Professor Crewel a while ago. Apparently our wedding has become a hot topic in the staff room.”

He blinked, pretending to be surprised.

“Oh my, now why would that be?”

You need not answer that question, not when it was so obvious. You had wormed your way into their hearts in the span of four years, perhaps even more considering how often you visited for the sake of Grim, and now they were attached to ex-Ramshackle Prefect, current pseudo-NRC staff.

(Neither of you were really sure if beast caretaker was a real position considering Crowley had yet to house any beasts beyond Grim, but you liked the allowance and the ability to come and get your cat-not-cat whenever you wanted.)

“I don’t know,” you sighed, legitimately looking a little confused, “but Professor Crewel… he offered to help with the clothes, but I said Vil was already doing that, so instead he said he’d send over some gifts. I mean I expect that on the ceremony day itself, but not months before?”

“May I ask… did you happen to have a favorite professor?” Because it was easy to tell why one of them was buttering you up so suddenly, although he was a tad unsure if it would be for naught. Perhaps you already had someone in mind.

Before you could answer, a song he could not recall having heard before rang out in the room. It was, for a lack of a better term, the type of tune that would be catchy at first until it inevitably became the most annoying sound in existence. Earworm might have been the word for it.

“Ah, Crowley is calling. I forgot that was the ringtone I set for him,” you said, as if that was enough to explain everything.

It was.

“Headmaster–”

“My child, who has grown up so fast to the point of finally getting married.” You exchanged looks with Jade, and while he was evidently more amused than you, he understood the incoming headache. Crowley himself was the incoming headache. “I would just like to remind you that this most generous, gracious, giving headmaster of yours is also your guardian by law, yes?”

As much of a secretive man the headmaster could be, now was certainly not one of those times, and the realization of what your old professors were up to had dawned on you.

“Professor Crewel’s quite generous as well,” you said, “you know, he offered to buy me a few things for the wedding”. It was as if you were pretending to be deep in thought, when in reality you were baiting the crow into either telling you what he wanted outright, or at least offering you something a stingy man like him normally wouldn’t.

Then again, Jade was just a little concerned that even if Crowley did get you something, it would come from NRC’s budget. None of his business, but there was the probability of you feeling guilty over that.

“What, so are you choosing Divus then?”

“Who said I would be choosing Professor Crewel?”

Truthfully Jade did think that, among the whole staff, Headmaster Crowley or Professor Crewel would have been the best choices to take the position of your guardian down the aisle, but perhaps that was merely his impression of who would most want to be in that position as opposed to who you would want.

“See, I was just thinking of having Grim stroll down the aisle considering he’s the closest I have to family, but Jade and I have been talking about whether he should be a flower boy or the ring bearer.”

Yes, that much was true, and while a basket would have been heavy he was partial to flower boy simply because it would be funny to watch him throw petals around the beach, accidentally having his paws sink in the sand, but he could not say that or else be accused of bullying your beloved beast by you.

“So since it can’t be Grim… since he looks after Grim when I can’t, I thought Professor Trein–”

“Absolutely not!” You had ruffled the feathers of the headmaster with one utterance of a name, as though you and the senior professor had personally offended him. With how dramatic he used to be, and seemingly still is, it was very likely he felt that way, Jade thought. “Trein has already walked down the aisle for SO many weddings! This is incredibly unfair for the childless like me.”

“Isn’t Professor Crewel in the exact same situation?”

“No, he has his puppies. That makes him a father. Meanwhile there’s me. I am alone and childless and you are the closest thing I have to a child, will you deprive me of the opportunity to flaunt–ahem, to show my support for the marriage of two very wonderful NRC alumni?”

“Wow,” Jade said, almost in disbelief at such a poor excuse, “that sounded very convincing and not at all falsified. I might ask you to replace my father at this point.”

THE ONE WHERE SOMEONE STRESSES ABOUT HIS WEDDING MORE THAN HIS FAMILY (AND HIM)

Jade had expected that his brother would momentarily make a fuss, that his twin would be filled to the brim with excitement while complaining about how the wedding date was too far and how he should have it sooner.

He also anticipated his parents' congratulations, their happiness in spite of wanting a ceremony under the sea as well, their wishes that you had visited with him today so that they could spoil you with something extravagant for the occasion.

But Azul? Sure, he had expected some degree of fretting, but the octomer was stressing about the wedding as if he was the one getting married. Dear Sea Witch, if this was how Azul was going to act at being his wedding’s caterer, just how much worse would he fuss if he ever got married?

“You should have told me sooner, Jade!” Azul exclaimed, already grabbing a scroll with one tentacle to jot down estimates—Jade was unsure of the specifics but it figured it must have been the usual: assumed guest count (Azul had not even bothered to ask, somehow he just put a number eerily close to the own estimate you and Jade had in your heads), times and dates, which foods and drinks he’ll likely end up having prepared, even from where best to source ingredients around June, the month of the wedding.

“Ah, Trey’s handling the wedding cake and favors, but not the desserts themselves, so feel free to cancel those two out,” the moray added, stifling a laugh at how cross Azul suddenly looked with him.

“I don’t know if I’m more upset at you going to Trey for that when I’m perfectly capable, or for not telling me before I finished the estimate costing. Do you know how difficult it is to cater for big events?”

“With the amount of experience I’ve had assisting you? Of course I know,” Jade pointed out dryly, “and I know just as well that you are incredibly capable. This is simply a small feat for you, Azul.”

“Most caterers in the industry ask for six to twelve months in leeway preparation time when it comes to reservations.” It was phrased to be informative, but really it sounded like he was being chided. “If you had not come to me, I am certain everyone else would have rejected you. Aren’t you fortunate to have me as a… to have connections to someone as capable as me?”

A part of him still hesitated to call Azul a friend. Perhaps it was a case of old habits dying hard, or just for the sake of either one of their prides, but he would never call Azul a friend to his face. Azul was just Azul, who he and his brother stuck around with since childhood because he was interesting, but–

“And congratulations, Jade. I’m happy for you. Who would have thought you would ever marry,” Azul said, smirking and yet refusing to lock eyes with him. Jade thought he might have been a little teary-eyed, but it was harder to tell underwater. Even if he was sure, he had no plans of making fun of Azul for it, just this once.

Just this once, he might admit to himself that Azul was a friend.

THE ONE WHERE HE SURPRISES EVERYONE ONE LAST TIME (BUT IS THERE EVER REALLY A LAST TIME?)

Jade has long prepared for his speech, has it memorized down to the very last word. Even if he hadn’t, it would be relatively easy to say everything on the spot—discuss how he fell for you, the story of how you two got together, the love he did and does and forever will have for you, and of course, how the two of you managed to keep everything a secret until recently. Still, he prepared for it, mostly because he had one last surprise saved for the very end.

You’re a little teary-eyed near the end, what people thought was the end, of his speech; he thinks he can spot his father crying as well, and he wonders if that’ll stop or worsen by the time he has to give out his speech. Azul’s there, nodding his head in approval and clapping as if he had just finished giving a business presentation instead, while Floyd is cheering and hollering and amazingly, his tie has yet to be fully discarded.

On your end of guests, he can spot a few of your friends be mildly surprised from witnessing how heartwarming he could be when he felt like showing it; Malleus Draconia simply radiating joy from being present, still really odd to know his significant other was friends with a future King; Leona, placed at the table farthest from Malleus’, not looking particularly enthused, almost as if he hadn’t brought an expensive gift in hopes of one-upping his fellow prince (although he was certain Kalim had one-upped them both on accident).

The professors were also there, and he had overheard them (rather, Crowley and Crewel, who you eventually decided both got to represent you down the aisle) arguing amongst themselves earlier about who got to dance with you first.

The answer was him, your groom, quite clearly, and perhaps Floyd will want to steal either him or you away for a little bit.

When the clapping ceases he lets out a most bright grin, then again when was he not genuinely smiling and laughing today, before speaking into the microphone once more.

“Once more, I thank all of you for attending this special day. You have all helped make this a memory-filled day… but before I hand the microphone over to my father, I have an announcement to make.” He turned to look at you, still seated beside him and beaming in approval, even throwing a little thumbs up from beneath the table.

He loved you even more for not only letting him, but encouraging him to have one last hurrah.

“I have heard a lot of complaints regarding how sudden we announced our wedding, or perhaps more appropriate to say our relationship status.” He had received a few chuckles out of that one, but who was Jade if not someone who wanted the last laugh? “We, my beloved and I, understand your complaints, and so we took your feedback, went over it carefully, and decided to do better next time.

“That is to say, you are all invited to our second wedding in the Coral Sea. Same date next year, no dress or tail code this time, fufu…”

He loved it—the commotion it caused, the way his father was weeping a little harder, he did wish for the two of them to have the Coral Sea ceremony; the way Azul was calculating the costs of everything again, now with the included costs of actually having the guests be able to breathe; party animals like his brother, Kalim, and Cater easily anticipating another celebration; Ace, Deuce, and Jack having war flashbacks to what happened the first time they visited the place; and most importantly, your reaction.

You already knew what was coming, but he always loved watching the different expressions bleed into your face, and there was just something about how happy you were at the reminder that you’d get to celebrate your union again, but this time in his culture.

With the microphone safely out of his hands and plopped in front of his father, his lips near your ear. The world may already know, but even then he whispers the words themselves as though they were still a secret—

“I love you.”

“You only love me because chaos always follows me around,” you said, clearly joking. Because he’s him, he returns the favor.

“Oh yes, because I stayed in this relationship for over eight years for a joke. I pity you, my dear.”

“Mhmm, if this is what it feels to be pitied by you, I can’t wait to experience it for the rest of our lives.” He’s unsure of who laughed first, but what does it matter, really?

A few of your fingers slipped underneath his gloved hand, idly writing something against his skin that warmed his heart—your new initials.

“I love you too,” you whispered back, and he smiled because he knew. Beneath the politeness and the jokes, the truth was not something that he had to wrangle out of you, but something easily seen and easily told.

“So… how are we pranking them next?”

masterlist

#twst x reader #jade leech x reader #twisted wonderland x reader #jade leech #twst #twisted wonderland #nathya twst writing

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lurkingshan · 4 months

Note

Happy wednesday!

So I was bored and thought I would ask a silly question.

From the bl couples we know and love, who do you think, if given the opportunity, would go completely overboard in their valentine day's celebrations? And what would they do?

Rose💜

Oh, Rose, what a delightful question. Now, if I may offer an observation to give context for this list: Valentine's Day is a specific kind of romantic celebration that many loving couples simply do not bother with. It's a cheesefest, a celebration of consumerism, and often a very public display of love that lots of folks just don't go in for, so a couple's absence from this list does not indicate a lack of genuine affection. Valentines Day is for simps (affectionate). And, in most (but not all) couples, there is only one simp in the relationship. With that said, let's talk about the top 10 simps in bl.

Karan, Cherry Magic Thailand

Let's get this out of the way right off the top, because Karan has reached levels of simpitude previously unknown to man. He is exactly the kind of nerd who would make a big embarrassing deal about this holiday while Achi blushes his way through the day. I believe he has learned from his bad date faux pas, however, so he will make sure to stick to things Achi actually likes and try to reign in the worst of his overspending to avoid making his boyfriend uncomfortable. I'm picturing a homemade lunchbox with heart shaped food, a big bouquet of flowers presented at the office in front of their coworkers, a romantic klongboat ride, and a sentimental gift like a framed photo.

Kurosawa, Cherry Magic Japan

Now you may think its cheating to include two different versions of the same character on this list, but I disagree because Kurosawa is the OG simp and their simping presents very differently. Kurosawa is going for a quieter display, making Adachi a nice dinner at home and reading him an original poem he composed on his lunch breaks. Adachi will blush and stammer and feel bad about not getting Kurosawa a gift, and Kurosawa will tell him his presence is gift enough.

Ten, Cooking Crush

Was there any doubt he would be on this list? Ten loves nothing more than a thoughtful, heartfelt act of service, and Valentines Day gives him a perfect excuse. He's making Prem a sentimental homemade meal tied to one of their cooking lesson memories, and he's created a new magnet featuring the two of them to go on Prem's oven mitt. Prem pretends to hate it but won't stop smiling every time Ten looks away, and later reveals he made them a heart-shaped dessert.

Yai, I Feel You Linger in the Air

Another poet for our list. Yai would love this cheesy ass holiday and take it as an excuse to dress Jom up all fancy, go dancing at the speakeasy, and whisper poetry into his ear to his heart's content. Jom with his modern POV on the holiday rolls his eyes at first, but then gets swept up in the romance and rewards Yai handsomely when they get home.

Hantae, Sing My Crush

This holiday was made for Hantae. He loves nothing more than being loud and embarrassing about his love for Baram. He has a whole Day of Fun planned for them, which Baram goes along with, pretending he didn't get Hantae anything until they get home and he pulls out his guitar to play a new original song he wrote for his man.

Gun and Cher, A Boss and A Babe

The rare simp4simp relationship, we have a twofer! Gun and Cher go all out on Valentines Day to the point of making it a competition for who can pull off the most surprises to make the other happiest. They do this at the office in full view of all their friends and coworkers, of course. In the end it's a draw and Gun lets the staff go home early to their sweethearts, everybody wins.

Gavreel, Gameboys

Picture Gavreel stalking Cairo around the house trying to smother him with kisses, attempting to cook a meal that he definitely burns, ands presenting Cairo with a new body pillow with his image on it for when they are apart. Cairo protests every step of the way, but is secretly touched and loving every minute.

Lian, Cutie Pie

Lian is a traditional romantic so he will be taking Kuea out for a fancy dinner, presenting him with a giant bouquet of flowers and the most expensive bottle of champagne available, and then taking him home for some sensual and loving missionary sex. Kuea eats it up.

Tinn, My School President

Did you think we were getting out of this list without mentioning our most promising young simp? Ha! Tinn loves this holiday and takes it as an excuse to engage in PDA all over campus. Gun returns the favor just to see him blush, and they end the day on a cute date out to an amusement park where they take lots of couple photos and generally nauseate all their friends with all their social media posts.

#cherry magic th #cherry magic #cooking crush #sing my crush #i feel you linger in the air #a boss and a babe #gameboys #cutie pie #my school president #top 10 bl simps #shan answers

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starysky1289 · 6 months

Text

Vanessa X Reader. Boba date

Note: if you feel like you have seen this before, you have. In my original account u wrote Boba date, I wanted to rewrite it here <3

The Holiday music buzzed around you, you sat in a small booth, scrolling through your phone as you waited for Vanessa. She had promised you a few days prior that you two could meet up at the local Boba Shop on her lunch break.

You looked out through the front windows, looking for any sign of that old cop car your girlfriend was assigned, and refused to give up. You always teased her about it, calling it her second girlfriend.

A few moments, you saw the black and white car pull in, you quickly got up to meet her at the door. Vanessa was still wearing her Police uniform, she must of raced here after clocking out for lunch.

“ Y/N! There’s my girl. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long “

Vanessa purred, kissing you gently, letting you take her by the hand and walk her into the line of other people.

“ no, you didn’t! I missed you, I was so excited all day! “

“ I’ve missed you too. Hey, this one’s on me. You get whatever size, drink, and snack you want, ok? “

You smiled, squeezing Vanessa hand as you nodded. Vanessa was like one of those scary pitbulls in her uniform. Everyone in the shop was glancing up at her, a little worried she’d break her soft character and arrest some random person.

But that wasn’t your Vanessa. Your Vanessa spoiled you on dates, and wouldn’t do any work business unless absolutely necessary. You both finally made your way up to the Cashier, they cleared there throat before taking to you.

“ welcome to bubble boba, what can i get you two? “

Vanessa nudged you gently to order first.

“ I’ll have a large Fruit Punch Slush, with mango popping boba, and Blueberry muffin! “

“ I’ll get a Milk tea, extra tapioca beads please, and…I’ll do a peppermint chip muffin. “

The Cashier punched your orders into there screen, looking back up at you.

“ that’ll be 18.67, swipe here when your ready “

Vanessa quickly swiped her card through the slot, before sticking it back into her belt. The Cashier handed her the order receipt, and you both stood over to the side.

“ anything interesting happen at work yet? “

You playfully asked, Vanessa ran her fingers through your hair, laughing softly.

“ nope. Ives been handing out speeding tickets. I did see a deer earlier though, and nice big Buck, I’ll send you the picture later. “

You grinned again, as your order number was called. You both went up and grabbed your drinks and muffins.

“ let’s go eat in my shop. Just be careful, chief gets on our ass if we leave crumbs. “

“ I’ll be careful Nessa! “

You both headed out of the shop, you sat shotgun in the squad car, you were always amazed by how many buttons the car had. Vanessa would always talk about how each one worked.

“ hey, I get home late today, if you wanna start watching Love Island you can, just don’t spoil it when we watch it together, ok? “

“ it’s ok, I’ve got my own show I’m into, I know you wouldn’t like it, it’s about silly magic stuff “

Vanessa smiled, rustling your hair with her fingers. You both began to eat and drink your stuff, chatting the hour away. Vanessa tells you about the work place drama, and you tell her how you watched the neighborhood kids ride bikes for the first time, up and down the street while you cleaned.

At the hours end, You both got of of the car, you pulled Vanessa into a tight hug, gripping her waist.

“ I’ll miss you. “

“ I’ll be home in the morning sweet heart. “

“ but still…what if I just came with you and you kept me in the back! “

Vanessa only chuckled, leaning down and kissing you gently, pushing your hair behind your ears.

“ the chief would be mad, than he would make me lock you up, and you’d cry, and I’d feel bad. “

“ true. Promise you’ll text me when you can!! “

“ I will. I love you sweetheart. “

“ I love you more nessy!! “

You kissed her again, before letting her go. You both got into your respective cars, blowing playful kisses at eachother before pulling off. You were already planning the next Lunch date in your head.

#five nights at freddy's #vanessa shelly #vanessa shelly x reader #fluff #hehe I hope yall enjoyed

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misc-obeyme · 6 months

Text

9 Days of Solomon: Day 9 - Humanity

Okay I have just enough time to post this today. Happy birthday Solomon, you old sorcerer. I don't know what it is about your cheeky lil laugh, but I love it and your stupid face.

Since we were talking about other characters mentioning that Solomon is a little less than human, I kinda took that idea and ran with it.

Anyway, thank you to @/impish-ivy for hosting this event! I had fun with all of the prompts and I loved writing about Solomon.

GN!MC x Solomon

Warnings: bed sharing but nothing sexy (if you want sexy, go read the one I wrote for the "pact" prompt lol)

Most of the time, you were admiring the way the starlight of the Devildom sparkled across Solomon's hair, making it look like shining silver. But the way it looked in the human world, with the sun's rays bringing out the warmth and making it look almost gold was just as captivating.

You had come to the human world for a little while with everyone in tow. It was a getaway hosted by Diavolo, a time for you to take a break from school work and enjoy the world you so rarely inhabited these days.

And while everyone else enjoyed their time there, it was undeniable that you and Solomon had a different experience. It was something you mentioned, about being in the world that had been your home for most of your life, the nuances about it that you understood better than those of the Devildom.

When Solomon agreed with you, someone else brought up the fact that he himself was practically a demon. They had said it before, of course. But for some reason, it was on your mind today. Perhaps because you were here with Solomon in the world you both originally came from - the world where you belonged and yet did not belong at the same time.

The two of you had gone for a little coffee break at a nearby cafe. You were sitting together outside at one of the small tables, soaking in the bright sunlight of afternoon.

There was a moment of comfortable silence between you before you said, "Do you ever feel that you're no longer human?"

Solomon blinked, clearly not expecting you to ask such a heavy question. He put down his coffee to think about it for a moment, seriously considering it.

"Sometimes," he said. "But in the end, no matter how I've changed, I am still human. Are you feeling that way, MC?"

You sighed. "Not exactly," you said. "But being back here in the human world makes me realize how different I've become. You must have been dealing with that feeling for a long time now."

Solomon sat back and looked out at the street, the passing people, the sunlight in the trees. "It's a unique experience. Even humans that become sorcerers or witches still have their short lifespan. In that sense, I'm more like the demons and angels - living far longer than any human normally would."

"How do you deal with that?" you asked.

Solomon looked back at you and smiled brightly. "It's easier now than it's ever been."

You frowned. "How so?"

Solomon leaned on the table toward you. "Because every time I look at you, I see my own humanity reflected back at me."

Your eyes widened a little before you laughed and looked away. "You're so ridiculous."

Solomon laughed, too, leaning back in his chair again.

Perhaps you didn't believe him. It seemed so silly to think that Solomon's understanding of his own identity was profoundly affected by your very presence. You were sure he was only saying that to make you feel better. He was always looking out for you and minimizing his own pain to make things easier for you. It wasn't like you didn't notice.

That night, your thoughts were churning as you stared up at the dark ceiling of the hotel room that Diavolo had procured for you. A few doors down, you hoped Solomon was peacefully asleep in his.

As for yourself, you couldn't stop thinking about the conversation you had with him earlier. The implications of everything he had said, about his life and what it meant to be human, were weighing heavily upon your heart. You wanted him to be happy. If he found himself in you, what would he do when you were gone?

There was a soft knock on your hotel room door. Puzzled, you got out of bed to open it.

Your stomach twisted when you saw Solomon on the other side. He looked terrible, like he had been tossing and turning all night. There were dark circles under his eyes, his hair was mussed, and his pajamas were askew.

"MC," he said, his voice sounding strained and hoarse. "I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

"No," you said. "I was still awake. Is everything okay?"

Solomon's eyes met yours. In those shades of grey, brown, and a hint of blue, you saw a depth of pain you had never seen in him before. Only for a moment did it linger before everything seemed to clear, before it was all replaced with something else. Fondness? Love?

No. It was belonging.

Solomon looked at you like he had finally found himself.

"I couldn't sleep," Solomon said simply. "And I wanted to see you."

He didn't really need to tell you this. Understanding shivered between you, like two lost souls resonating at the same vibration.

You reached out and took his hand, pulling him into your room. You closed the door behind him. You didn't let go of him as you went back to your bed.

Solomon didn't protest. He allowed you to guide him, finding his way beneath the blankets beside you in the plush hotel linens.

You snuggled into his side, wrapping one arm around him. The other hand held his still, clutched against your chest.

You gently kissed the back of his hand. "I couldn't sleep, either. So I'm glad you're here."

Solomon huffed a small laugh that ruffled against your hair. "You were thinking about my humanity, weren't you?"

You wiggled against him a little bit, but didn't say anything.

Solomon kissed the top of your head. "I've learned that it isn't very helpful to worry about the future, MC," he said. "And I've never felt more human than I have right now, right here, with you."

Maybe things would change in the future. You couldn't predict the way the tides would turn. But Solomon was right. In a world of magic, demons, and angels, the two of you would always find your humanity in each other. And for now, that was all that mattered.

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

#9DaysofSolomon #obey me #obey me nightbringer #obey me shall we date #omswd #obey me solomon #om solomon #solomon obey me #obey me solomon x reader #om solomon x reader #solomon obey me x reader #misc writes

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lotties-ashwagandha · 1 year

Note

I'm not sure if you are taking requests for Ocean's 8. If you are, could I request Debbie X reader X Lou. Where both of them have a crush on reader . Who is younger , Daphne always flirts with reader the most and they get along , she's tech smart . So a combo of bad ass daredevil minx and tech smart . Or whatever you'd like, sorry if it's silly :)

SECURITY CAMERAS

pairing: lou miller x reader x debbie ocean

word count: 1275

notes and warnings: only note i have is that debbie and lou are in an established relationship w each other in this but not with reader,, but i feel like that’s kinda implied originally!! i loved this request but kinda hate what i wrote i was in a writing slump oops (also i didn’t proofread this)

You unlocked your phone, forcing yourself to at least pay half-attention to the conversation being held in front of you by the rest of the group.

“How long do you think it will take?” Someone asked, and briefly you glanced up before turning back to your phone.

“Three months,” Debbie answered from a few feet away, “two, if we can get a head start on getting into the security system.”

“I’ve got it,” you said absent-mindedly, maneuvering through passwords on your phone. You’d slunk back into a corner, noticing when another hour had passed since the last time you’d checked, desperate to make sure everything was okay.

You would never admit it to anyone, for it would sound extremely creepy, but you’d hacked into Lou’s phone and were tracking her — she had gone to meet a new potential recruit for the next heist, and none of you had known much about the girl you were trying to hire, other than that she was quite proficient with weapons and fighting. You wanted to make sure Lou got home safe, especially since none of the other women working on the heist with you seemed even relatively concerned about Lou’s whereabouts, even Debbie.

You let out a sigh of relief upon finding that the location of her phone was home.

Just for good measure, you began to hack into her home security system. You knew it was a bit much, but if you could just check the cameras and make sure her car was there, you would know that everything was fine.

“Hey,” you heard, and looked up to find Debbie looming over you. Glancing around you realized that everyone else was packing up to go home. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” you nodded, “I’m just checking on my car, it’s being repaired.”

“What’s wrong with it?” Debbie asked, and you knew she could see right through you.

“An engine thing.”

“How’d you drive it all the way here to Tammy’s, then?”

You paused. At a complete loss for words you attempted to move away, but she stepped in front of you.

“What’s going on?” She asked, stepping forward, “and don’t lie to me.”

You couldn’t very well tell her that you were looking through the security cameras of her and her wife’s home.

You sighed, relenting, preparing yourself for whatever her reaction would be. “Alright, you really want to know?” You turned your phone for her to see. “I hacked into your security cameras.”

Debbie raised her eyebrows, smirking. “Oh? And why did you do that?”

“No one seemed very concerned about Lou meeting the new girl, so I just wanted to make sure she got home okay.”

“You couldn’t have texted her?”

“I didn’t want to seem invasive. Creepy.”

“So hacking into our home security isn’t creepy?” Debbie challenged, though you could hear the slight amusement in her tone.

You didn’t have any idea how to respond to that. “Sorry,” you said quietly, embarrassment rising in your chest.

“No, it’s okay. I’m just a bit disappointed that it’s only Lou you’re watching.”

“I never said that,” you corrected with a small smile, and she nodded.

“You’re really fucking weird.”

“Ok, James Bond.”

She scoffed. “I’m much more sexy than James Bond.”

“I know,” you agreed, and though her expression stayed set in stone, you knew your agreement had caught her attention.

“Come over tomorrow,” Debbie said abruptly. “You want to know if everything’s fine. Come see for yourself.”

“What time?”

“Whenever you want.”

You nodded, shifting slightly in your stance as her gaze became more intense. “I’ll be there.”

She didn’t give you a response, only dug her keys out of her purse and left smugly, flashing you a glance as if she’d won an unspoken competition.

—

You arrived the next day just after noon. All morning you’d been dying to see Lou and Debbie, but every time you’d picked up your keys to leave you had made up some excuse of why you needed another half hour, until eventually you had swallowed your excuses and had forced yourself into the car. You were terrified in the best way, enamored with the two women so completely that every interaction you had seemed like the coming of rapture.

You knocked on the door to the theater. It felt like an eternity before Lou approached and let you in, and as you stepped into their home you felt an overwhelming aura of comfort, and a great amount of your nerves melted away. You realized how terribly deeply you loved the both of them, Lou and Debbie, that you could simply be in their presence and all of your worries would melt away.

“We were starting to think you wouldn’t make it,” Lou said, her tone light as she led you into the living room.

“I wouldn’t have missed seeing you.”

“I’m glad,” she answered, continuing into the kitchen. She came back after with a bottle of wine and three glasses, opening it and beginning to pour drinks. “Debbie should be down in a few minutes.”

As if on cue, you heard footsteps as someone descended the stairs, and after a moment Debbie appeared, angelic in every stride, picturesque in the way she sat down on the sofa across from you with such nonchalance.

Your gaze flickered over to Lou, and you noticed that she, too, had been captivated for a moment. The ghost of a smile lingered on her lips as she sat in the armchair next to the sofa.

Feeling unspeakably awkward as the only one still standing, you sat down next to Debbie on the sofa, taking a sip of your wine.

“I stole that from Tammy’s,” Debbie said with a small smile, gesturing to the wine. “I doubt she’ll miss it, with all the shit she has packed in her house.”

“Good call with stealing it,” you said, “Tammy’s the biggest wine snob I’ve ever met, though then again there’s Daphne, and she won’t drink anything unless she thinks the label is pretty.”

“You spend a lot of time with Daphne,” said Lou, her tone completely neutral.

“We’ve known each other for a long time.”

“Seems like it.”

“What does that mean?” You asked, noticing the edge to her tone. You smirked, your gaze flickering between them. “What, you think I’m into Daphne?”

“Aren’t you?”

“She never leaves your side,” Debbie agreed, setting her wine on the table.

“Daphne’s beautiful,” you said, “but I’ve never had my sights set on her.”

“She certainly has hers set on you.”

“I’m not sure I understand why the two of you are so concerned with who I may or may not be seeing,” you criticized. “If you’ve called me all the way out here just to—”

You were cut off by Debbie’s lips connecting with yours, her hand having found its way to your jaw. You were overcome completely by her, only her, entirely bliss.

She was the first to pull away, analyzing your features for any indication of your reaction.

In a silent reassurance you pulled her in again, letting yourself be enveloped once more in the tenderness of her touch.

All at once Lou was on your other side, sitting against the armrest of the sofa. You extended a hand towards her, pulling her closer, and then it was not Debbie to overcome your senses but Lou, and finally you felt complete, at home in a way you had never before felt.

“If I’d known that being a bit of a stalker and hacking your security cameras would get me this,” you breathed after a minute, biting back a smile, “I would have done it a lot sooner.”

———

Taglist: @cartoonpeoples @thedeconstructionist @cordeliass @paulsonsratched @goodeday2u @traumatisedfangirl @christies-fleur

#loubbie x reader #debbie ocean x reader #lou miller x reader #oceans 8 #lou x debbie #lou x debbie x reader #debbie ocean x lou miller x reader #debbie x lou x reader #oceans eight #ocean’s 8 #ocean’s eight

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thebleedingwoodland · 2 years

Text

Time to release draft I wrote in year 2021.

Warning: ⚠️Very long post, no hide. Important critical about faulty of The Sims 3 game content directed to EA (Electronic Arts) company. ⚠️ English is not my first language. I cannot input many images/pictures for evidences because the post is already too long, please do research by yourself to find more images/pictures.

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As an ethnically Chinese, I baffled seeing what EA portraying China/Chinese culture in TS3 World Adventures world Shang Simla. For more than 10 years. It is full of wrong ignorant portrayal, obviously without asking input from actual Chinese people and portraying the world as “China inspired East Asian world with American Chinatown based on what Westerners’ perspective”.

If you are non Chinese, non Asian, please do not believe nonsense what EA made in Shang Simla.

Using icon of Japan: Torii Gate.

To be more specific, Itsukushima Shrine.

There are Great Wall, Chinese Gate, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven in the game, why didn’t (logically) EA made the icon based on one of the builds? France and Egypt have correct icons with same build in the game, Eiffel Tower and Pyramid. Imagine if Windenburg, TS4 Europe world, has American Liberty Statue as icon, what’s your reaction?

There is one person already complained about the matter on EA forum, no response from EA themselves. https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/Sims-3-World-Adventures-is-incorrect-and-technically-racist/td-p/3474359

Symbol for China should be: Forbidden City / Great Wall / Pai Fang (牌坊)

Shang Simla residents bowing to other Sims when greeting. Chinese people DO NOT BOW when greeting people, but shake hand as usual. The only Chinese people bowing is when we are in important respectful and formal events, such as showing respect to the dead person in funeral / cemetery and religious events, or any formal apologies by company and services in China and Taiwan. For normal occasions, meeting other people casually, there is no bow in Chinese culture, only Japanese and Koreans who bow. I guess EA added the “bow” culture to make Shang Simla more “exotic” and more “Asian”, as Al Simhara and Champs Les Sims have local gesture greeting.

Fortune Cookies. There is no such thing as Fortune Cookies in Chinese culture. Fortune Cookies are cookies originated from Japan, spread to USA country, popularized by Japanese immigrants to Chinese restaurant in USA. “China” world? More like American Chinatown, located in USA. It is not first EA did that mistake in TS3, In TS4, EA added Fortune Cookies symbol in street food vendor for Chinese food stall.

https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/fortune-cookies-2/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_cookie

Accurate historical Chinese food / dessert = Mooncake (in Autumn) or Zongzi (in Summer).

Mooncake, TS3 CC made by LunaYue

Left: Zongzi from Southern part of China, TS3 CC made by me, right: Zongzi from Northern part of China, TS4 CC made by Rex.

There is Korean household in Shang Simla. Ho Sung Kim, Hui Young Kim, Sun Young Kim Why did EA added Korean Sims in “China” country? As if EA wants to mix up China setting, Japan icon & bowing culture, Korean Sims as one “exotic” East Asian country. Why called it China (literally in-game) if EA added fusion with Japanese and Korean elements?

“Asian trait” for Shang Simla residents, instead of “Chinese trait”. Did EA know Asian is continent, not only one country? Which consists many countries? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asian_countries_by_area China only cannot represent Asian continent. Southeast Asian countries and other regions of Asia do not use chopsticks when eating. Southeast Asia uses spoon & fork and hand. South Asia uses hand.

Houses in Shang Simla are very exaggerated Ancient China palace style, so silly and hilarious. According to EA, Chinese resident house must look like stereotypical exotic curved palace like portrayed in movies.

While ordinary Chinese residents (in villages) are like THESE .

Square boxy, normal looking roof. Curved palace looking like what you saw is for kingdom in high position in ancient dynasty time, not for poor or ordinary peasant citizens. If you see that kind of curved building in modern time, is for community lots and as tourist attraction. Not for ordinary residential houses. I envy for Al Simhara and Champs Les Sims, they at least have better portrayal of Egypt and France in modern setting, but in villages. Their Sims residents do not live in tacky Versailles mansion- like house or Pyramid-like building.

There’s one dish called Egg Rolls, which is actually called Spring Rolls in Chinese & Asian countries. The dish placed together with noodles in one plate, which looks very weird and gross 🤢 , it’s like putting burger and spaghetti in one plate.

Chinese and other Southeast Asian countries place and eat Spring Rolls in one plate, as a individual meal or snack, not place it together with another main course meal. Like THIS.

I suspect the culture of American people putting all food in one plate in “Americanized Chinese food” buffet restaurant.

Small issue but a bit annoyance: Shang Simla wives have the same last name with their husbands. While actually in Chinese culture, married women still keep their birth last name, not following their husband’s last name. What I know, western culture forces married women to change their last name same as their husband‘s last name. As TS3 game has feature of separating last name and household name, better make more sense to make the husband and wife of Shang Simla residents having different last name.

EA confused “modern setting but taking place in village” with “ancient time”. “Shang Simla, China is home to people that value discipline, peace, and clarity of mind over all else...” . The description is very stereotype Hong Kong Kung Fu movie (Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, etc) taking place in ancient time. Real Chinese culture value family, fortune, culture, food over all else. “Discipline, peace, clarity of mind”...? Must be “fantasy” made by westerners thinking China is still stuck in ancient dynasty time practicing martial arts with martial arts-like “discipline” rules like depicted in fictional movies. EA must be confuse “Quietness, peaceful society” to Japan. Chinese people culture in general is very extroverted, loud, and noisy. Champs Les Sims and Al Simhara obviously taking place in modern but in village. “ Champs Les Sims, France offers the cultural elite some of the finer things in life. Sims can learn the fine culinary art of nectar making, or flash over with a camera to learn the Photography Skill.” Sounds normal and applicable in modern time. Local Champs Les Sims do not dress like in ancient European Medieval or France Revolution era. Local Al Simhara wearing conservative long dress with head cover as Muslim society, not ancient Egypt Pharaoh-like clothing.

Very stereotype view about Chinese by westerners: Kung Fu. TS3 Martial Arts in-game are not comparable to real Chinese Martial Arts, definitely not all. It’s just a made up cartoony fighting of generic punch, kick, parry for E rating game / suitable for children by EA, mix up with Japanese Karate (breaking block). If you want to see better portrayal of Chinese Martial Arts for Teen Rating game, go play fighting game like Tekken. (Nah, that’s fighting game. For real life wushu you can see example like THIS or many more on internet. I’m not interested in Chinese Martial Arts.) --- You know the most realistic ethnic Chinese people’s activities? KARAOKE & GAMBLING ! 😂 Also, “fighting” to pay the restaurant bill first.

Whoever making this chopsticks animation is violating the most basic principle of 3D animation : Doesn’t look at the real life reference. TS3 has the worst eating using chopsticks animation compared to TS2 and TS4. You cannot hold food with chopsticks in real life like this, it’s just lazy animating.

How to Hold Chopsticks (in English language)

(Do not use “It’s too difficult, it’s foreign culture!” as an excuse. Asian food is already globalized and famous in western countries. I know you westerners have experienced holding chopsticks to eat Chinese/Japanese food in your country. If you do the 3D animation job, do it professionally, regardless the difficulty!). Left-handed is very uncommon in Asian countries, and many Asian and Middle East countries with significant Muslim population sees left hand is “dirty hand”, right hand is “good hand” , including Egypt, which is Al Simhara, fictional country EA portrayed in-game. EA must be careful at portraying culture outside than American. Majority people in this world using right hand, not left hand. TS2 and TS4 right: Using right hand, why TS3 suddenly switched to left hand?

English version of the game is much more hilarious:

In English version, Shang Simla signature dish named “Stir-Fry”. “Stir-Fry” is cooking technique, not name of the dish. Is like naming boiled egg as “Boiled” and Fried rice as “Fried”. Why didn’t the dish named “Stir-Fried Chicken/Pork/Beef” or “Stir-Fried Vegetable” or “Stir-Fried Noodles” to make more sense? Furthermore, the 3D food object themselves is bad. Sorry to say, what EA’s made is very laughable and doesn’t deserve to be called “Chinese Dish”.

Chinese food always combine all stir-fried ingredients into one in one plate! Not separated like North and South Korea! As a real life designer, I notice that EA employee pick wrong yellow colour for noodles-like texture, random western leaf decoration, separated (?) into two. Real stir-fried noodles looks like THESE.

Appetizing yellow, vibrant colour, fresh, combining all types of ingredients into one. My guess is because American Chinese buffet again as the responsible why the “Chinese” food in American country look like what EA portrayed 🤢 To be honest, I am disappointed why the signature food of the in-game country must be ordinary home-cooked food cooked for 10 minutes, not something exquisite, restaurant/chef-made such as Peking Duck? Peking Duck is national dish of China. When I was in vacation trip in Guilin, China, I always served with Peking Duck in all restaurant I visited. Must be because American Chinese buffet again that serves Americanized style Stir-Fried food as popular “Chinese” food known for American people.

In TS3 WA EP English version, Spring Roll is named as “Egg rolls”. In Asian countries, not just China, Spring Rolls （春捲）are THESE. You westerners are mistaken Spring Rolls with “Egg Rolls” name, then you wondered why “Egg Rolls” made without eggs 😂 . Egg rolls （蛋捲）are THESE. Made from eggs. Biscuit and crunchy. In TS3 WA EP Traditional Chinese version, the dish is correctly named 春捲 . I researched about Spring Rolls in English language, it seems like U.S.A like / obsessed about Spring Rolls as Chinese food. Probably because Spring Rolls often served in Chinese restaurant in U.S.A? If EA wanted to create accurate signature dish of China, it must be: 1) Peking Duck 2) Noodles / Rice Porridge / Century Egg / Braised Pork Belly / Hot Pot . Not Dim Sum because Dim Sum already in Base Game.

Shang Simla resident names in English version are confusing, mix up Last name as first name, first name as last name, there is parody of real life famous Chinese person, there are made up names such as Adaeze, Bebe, Louie (??) How could these names fit to China world at all?

If EA cannot portray specific country decently, don’t ever dare to call the fictional world as the real life ones.... If the result is disastrous like this, better to call it just Shang Simla, do not call it China. What EA portray is not China, but “East Asian inspired world mixed with American Chinatown in western view”.

How could EA, a big corporation, biggest video game developer, with big budget, did not hire someone expert to do research about the culture they portrayed first? Was there no internet connection in EA studio? Didn’t they at least has Chinese descent employee in their office? California has many Asian descent include Chinese. EA has headquarters in Beijing and Shanghai.... EA market this game to other Chinese countries (not just China) such as Taiwan and Hongkong, hiring Traditional Chinese translator to translate the game, also there are many ethnic Chinese and other Asians who play the Sims game, of course we can recognize the inaccuracies very easily.

This is another example of westerners making profit from product sales portraying Asians without doing research, without consulting to the actual Asians people at all. Look how mess Disney’s Mulan (2020) movie is. Every Chinese descent and actual China people hate it for ignorant portrayal and inaccuracies by western moviemakers without doing research at all, also bad story plot, suddenly fantasy mixed with random Chinese element wuxia/xianxia stereotype that looks cringy parody, wrong phoenix (western/Egypt phoenix, not Chinese FengHuang), Chinese letters on sword looks like bad/awkward Chinese tattoo by westerners. I have real life sibling still hating and complaining everytime Mulan 2020 was mentioned 😂. Western Simmers from USA, Europe keep taking screenshots of Shang Simla, saying Shang Simla is beautiful.... You westerners call Shang Simla beautiful because you don’t know Chinese culture at all, you only see the landscape and don’t see how awful the culture portrayal of EA made in that world.

Now I want to know how bad the portrayal EA made for Champs Les Sims as France world and Al Simhara as Egypt world.... I can see Al Simhara is too stereotyped as “Indiana Jones raiding tomb adventure” site. I see there are many French Simblrs.. please post and elaborate if you find any inaccuracies 😁

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Arguments:

- It’s just a game:

Whoever complain like this must be casual gamers who only playing The Sims as Barbie dressing simulator or Candy Crush mobile game and do not have experience of playing real video game titles. EA is one of biggest video game company with big budget releasing AAA video game titles to make profit, similar to Disney. They’re not free CC creators. Whoever create game placing expensive price tag with very big budget for making big profit from international players must be responsible to create product with quality and effort, including consulting & do research to local people & culture to depict culture outside their default culture (American). I bet you Americans and Europeans complain if you find inaccuracies or any stupid fatal mistake depicting your own country and culture. It’s not just cultural inaccuracies, there are many bug, glitch, cheaply-made, bad animations, missing features or any factors are not deserved in The Sims game that supposedly AAA expensive game titles.

- The Sims is marketed heavily for U.S.A. and European countries to appeal U.S.A. and European players:

Video games, any titles, any genre, is marketed to international people, not just western countries only. The Sims is translated to Chinese language, sold in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and any other Asian countries. If EA marketed heavily for western countries only, why are EA hiring Chinese translator then sell their games into those countries? Hiring translator + shipping + marketing to other countries have costs too.

- But we westerners are accustomed/used to Fortune Cookies as they are cookies that usually available in Chinese restaurants!

“Chinese” restaurant? Ha ha ha. That is Americanized Chinese restaurant. Every Chinese restaurant in every country changed to suit local people’s taste, so no longer authentic. In my country, Chinese restaurant provides not authentic and hybrid to local cuisine in my country too. Please broaden your knowledge, google Fortune Cookies for 1 minute and it says originated from USA. Furthermore, Shang Simla is located in China in-game by EA, it is supposed to depict China, not Chinatown in western country. It is unprofessional/laziness from EA by not researching or consulting to actual Chinese people (I repeat: They’re big company, not free CC creators). No need to use World Adventures EP to provide Fortune Cookies, just release in Base game or Store content separately. Because using World Adventures EP to introduce in the Shang Simla, China world, it makes as if Fortune Cookies belongs to Chinese culture / China, while actually it’s foreign/alien cookies for us ethnic Chinese.

- The Sims 3 World Adventures is focused heavily on adventure, explorations, and martial arts. It’s family-oriented / cartoony game / parody of life anyway.

I know that The Sims game is parody of American suburb life. Countries often depict other countries with stereotype. Focusing on martial arts because China/ Chinese culture is often depicted by foreigners as Martial Arts because Hong Kong / Chinese martial arts movies taking place in ancient time is very popular internationally, no wonder Chinese culture is stereotyped with martial arts. But this inaccuracies or any stupid fatal mistake is supposed to be not happening if the employees whoever create the game do research carefully. Mistaking Chinese symbol with Japanese symbol? Seriously?

How about American country world has Eiffel Tower or Pisa Tower as symbol icon? France world has American Liberty statue as symbol icon? Croissant and spaghettis placed on the same plate? Croissant has shape and colour resembles to poop? France world has Pizza and French Fries depicted as French culinary specialty in that world? Champs Les Sims, France world has German household and Italian and Spanish elements, local Sims trait has “European trait” instead of French trait? France world has stereotype castle-like or Versailles-like house build? France world has stereotype ancient French revolution clothing complete with fork sticks and fire torch, with depiction of the world like “Seeking for equality and fairness, [reference to French Revolution]” ancient stereotype for the world that supposed to be placed in modern setting in village? You want to depict adventure and exploration culture, but with this kind of depiction, I bet actual French people will not feel comfortable, and other westerners from USA or any other western countries will recognize the stupidity and inaccuracies easily.

- EA will not make super realistic depiction of world like its real life country. China in TS3 World Adventures is supposedly focus on exploration/adventure not miniature real life China and realistic society with karaoke, gambling, and focus on family.

Yeah, I know. I didn’t expect EA, The Sims game developer from USA will include karaoke and gambling or any super realistic for cultural world depiction, it must be something famous and stereotype from the country. Champs Les Sims world has the most normal description: “...offers the cultural elite some of the finer things in life. Sims can learn the fine culinary art of nectar making, or flash over with a camera to learn the Photography Skill.” Shang Simla: “...value discipline, peace, and clarity of mind ...” sounds very exaggerated too heavily focused on martial arts in ancient time in fictional movies and confused with Japanese Zen Garden or Chinese Spa/Meditation by Americans. Better description if Shang Simla is “...offer the cultural experience, culinary, and successful exploration will be granted with good fortune. Sims can learn Martial Arts skill...” Strong points of China (and Chinese culture) is the culture and food. Martial Arts is supposedly a bonus, not the prime feature. If Champs Les Sims has nectar making, these prime features of Shang Simla that fits for the game:

Making noodles. Noodles are the most oldest food invention in history, recorded 4.000 years ago in China, becomes important meal in Chinese culture. Imagine the cartoony/goofy animations when Sims crafting noodles then fail with funny expression. Very fitting to the game.

Or making dumplings.

Calligraphy

Majiang (Mahjong) technically gambling. EA had made playing cards table for TS2, just re-use the cards game table coding.

LION DANCE video

Giving simoleons in Hong Bao (Red Envelope) to Lion Dance, then Sims will be granted with ‘Good Luck Charm’ or ‘Good Mood Moodlet’. Lion Dance has cartoony moves, jumping from one pole to another, so it’s very fitting to The Sims game.

Not the Fortune Cookies in-game. Fortune Cookies is American, so it’s useless, doesn’t provide any functional and wasting potential for The Sims 3 World Adventure EP to represent real culture.

It’s unfortunate that Americans or western people in general seem to think Chinese culture is “Kung Fu - Dragon - Kung Fu - Dragon - Exotic palace looking building from the East - qipao / cheongsam - Americanized/westernised Chinese food.” only.

-But they are American company!!111!! As a company from different country/culture they could be at least cannot represent other cultures 100% accurately! Shang Simla is fictional world!!1!!

Whoever complain like this must be casual gamers who only playing The Sims as Barbie dressing simulator or Candy Crush mobile game and do not have experience of playing real video game titles. 😂

There are Lion Dance and Hong Bao (Red Envelope) as Lunar New Year update in The Sims Freeplay in year 2015. Yeah authentic representation 😁 , by The Sims Freeplay mobile division team, different team than EA The Sims 3, made exclusively for players from Asia.

Whoever game developer team behind it had done great job: did research and obviously had consultation to actual Chinese people. (I mean, how many average American/western people in general aware of Lion Dance and Hong Bao?)

No need for EA team to travel far away to China to survey, just do deep research on internet and asking someone working in EA ethnically Chinese. Costs $0 for them. There are a lot of authentic real culture that will give more unique, fresh idea, great input into the game if only the game developer team willing to spend their time and effort to do research.

I applause the authentic representation but too bad it’s in mobile game.

https://www.techinasia.com/sims-freeplay-cny-update

Other games? Sleeping Dogs.

Developer from Canada, Publisher from Japan, the team behind them seems to don’t have Hong Kong and Chinese ethnic, but they did great job at representing fictional Hong Kong setting looks like actual real life Hong Kong.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/307690/Sleeping_Dogs_Definitive_Edition/

I’m not from Hong Kong, but definitely feels the Southern Chinese culture vibe. Authentic street food, noisy people, pedestrians eating noodles with styrofoam package in street, night market, shrine to pray, Chinese festival, Lion Dance, Jiangshi (Chinese hopping vampire), realistic street fighting (not Kung Fu), game price is more cheaper than The Sims 3, definitely they didn’t make stupidity such as mistaking Chinese icon symbol with Japanese icon symbol and including Fortune Cookies. (My Sleeping Dogs save game file is corrupt, you can take a look at Youtube videos).

The Sims is the only proper game with genre of life simulator on the market, but disappointingly, the developer of the game do not take the quality of the game very seriously about dining. I often see many action games, fighting games, other genres portraying authentic food, how to dining properly with right utensils, right hand, although they are not life simulator genre. The Sims? The genre of life simulator? Eat with left hand, eating animation still like a cartoony greedy pig, do not use fork and knife elegantly but instead using only fork with stiff animation, wrong chopsticks hand position, not authentic food, food only represented in one plate = one meal = for one person which is lazy coding & no innovation. In real life, one person put many meals on dining table to pick and choose to put on that person’s main plate/bowl, not just eat on one plate only.

-Why are you complain so much? Show some respect to EA’s employees!

I’m real life employee who have been working as 3D Artist & Animator for video games and movies companies for years. No need to be employee for this kind of industry, as a customer who had paid the product must be feeling disappointment and anger if the product you buy is broken, not working, faulty, and after service is bad. Not the employees’ fault, not at all, the fault must be upper management of company, who demand income as fast as possible, hiring few low-skill workers to cut production cost as possible to force them to create many assets in-products as many as possible in short deadline, not doing research, not brainstorming the ideas and resources well because the company do not have good communication and time management or probably do not have much fund to pay research, then release product immediately although the product is not finished/developed well. My guess is that upper management in EA doesn’t care quality of The Sims game itself, as the game is seen as “Children’s Toys”, marketing for teenage girls / majority women, so the company doesn’t take it seriously, contrast to EA’s sports game titles, Battlefield, Star Wars’ Battlefront, or any titles marketed strongly for teenage guys / men.

Look at complaint at someone who’s saying Shang Simla icon is wrong, is Japan’s Torii Gate. No response from EA at all. Very unprofessional, while the fault is the company itself.

EA Sims 3 division, if you couldn’t do the research, give the world to ethnically Chinese, to be remade by actual Chinese employees (I know it’s impossible, The Sims 3 is ended, already 12 years old). Seriously. Clearly EA has money, power, headquarter in Shanghai and Beijing.. It would be much better, authentic portrayal, than ignorant stupid wrong portrayal that seems to make fun of Chinese culture in bad way and misleading to western/international players. I’m only Chinese descent, dislike portrayal of Shang Simla world, let alone Chinese Simmers live in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

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alreadyjackbestfriend · 1 year

Text

unfair

synopsis: It's not your fault that your boyfriend's best friend fell in love with you.

GENRE: angst

A/N: this will have part two, andddd I have another love triangle idea with jack and urban, let me know if you are interested in that concept.

also, I accidentally wrote 700 more words than originally intended, hope you enjoy!

You were petrified, you really didn't know what to say, or what to do.

“y/n, I’m so sorry, you don't really have to tell me anything. Jack is my best friend and I wouldn't do anything to break up the two of you and ruin his happiness. It's just... I've been hiding this feeling for months and even though it sounds a bit silly, you're the person I was least afraid to tell, because I felt like you were the one who could best understand me and not judge me or take it the wrong way.” Urban said almost in one breath.

His blue eyes didn't meet yours, his long hair fell in his face, trying to hide his embarrassment. Your boyfriend's best friend had just confessed that he was in love with you.

"Urban, don't worry, I don't judge you or take it badly, you even flatter me" you said trying to lighten his mood, and you got a small laugh from him, "no one can control who they fall in love with, but we both know that nothing will happen between us... I... well, I love jack a lot" you said, choosing your words carefully, Urban looked so vulnerable in front of you that you were afraid to say what he already knew: you were lost and madly in love with Jack, but you weren't going to put it that way, “so, what shall we do?”

Urban looked at you surprised, looking back at you for the first time, "you don't have to do anything"

"but I want to help. I want to help you, make things easier… and prevent you from suffering”

"I think that's kind of impossible, y/n" he replied, laughing humorlessly. and you made a grimace of discomfort at the thought of someone suffering because of you, not knowing what to answer.

"but yes, you can help me. I think... we should keep some distance"

"Okay," you said, swallowing hard. This would also be difficult for you, you loved urban very much, just not as he expected. Also, you shared space 24/7 so the task would be twice as difficult.

"and no word of this to jack, please" he added, his expression pleading.

"It's going to be hard to hide if we keep our distance" you warned him.

"I just... I'll try to keep myself busy so it doesn't show."

"Okay..." you said, "can I... can I give you one last hug before we go our separate ways?" You said half jokingly, half seriously. he smiled at you tenderly, nodding and opening his arms. you shortened the distance that separated you and surrounded him with your arms.

All this conversation was happening in the middle of the night, a few steps from the tour bus. Jack wasn't around, probably worrying about some technical stuff about his gigs, since he liked to be involved in all aspects of the tour, and Urban had asked you to join him for a smoke, but he never lit the blunt, he just started talking as if he needed to vomit the words that came out of his mouth, since his big secret was making him feel sick.

Therefore, you didn’t notice that Jack had been watching you from afar for a while. He hadn't wanted to interrupt you, because he had noticed the expression of pity on your face and how Urban only looked down. There weren't the usual laughs between you two, even away from you, Jack could feel the strange atmosphere that surrounded you both.

And even if he didn't want it, when the hug began to last longer than he considered appropriate, he felt his stomach tighten into a knot. He didn't want to distrust you, you weren't really doing anything wrong, but the act still left a bad taste in his mouth. When he saw you separate from the embrace, and you started to walk towards the bus, he quickly walked in, trying not to let you know that he had seen much of the interaction.

Without realizing it, the next few days Jack acted more distant towards you, and seemed to always have something on his mind. You tried to ask him a few times, but he always denied it. He seemed to be living inside his head, with no intention of wanting to get out. He stayed out of almost all social interactions, watching from the outside, especially you and Urban. The estrangement between you two did not go unnoticed by him.

One day you couldn't take it anymore and you faced him, you needed to know why he was acting so strange and distant.

"Why don't you and Urban talk anymore?" was the first thing he responded when you decided to face him.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"oh, so you don't deny it"

"Jack, what the fuck. Urban is your best friend, not mine...we've never been very close anyway."

"You're lying to me, and you know it."

"What are you insinuating?"

"I really don't know, y/n" he sighed, "I'd love it if you could tell me." you were silent for a few seconds. You wished you could be honest with Jack, fix this awkward situation you both had inadvertently created, but you had promised Urban not to tell him anything.

"So, you're not going to tell me," Jack talked again, and you looked down, "great." he added, getting up from the couch in the hotel room and walking to the door.

"Jack!" you said, standing up too. your eyes filling with tears without being able to avoid it, the anguish in your chest becoming unbearable.

"What, y/n? Just be honest, please."

"I promise you it's nothing. You're making a mess for nothing"

"If you don't want to give me an answer, then Urban will" was the last thing he said, before leaving the room.

***

You didn't know what to do, so you just waited, even though time didn't seem to advance. You tried to distract yourself on your phone, reading, or watching TV, but nothing helped, you could only think about what could be happening with Jack and Urban, but you didn't dare going out.

Jack came back an hour later, there was a tiredness on his face that you couldn't read, it didn't look like the normal tiredness he was always a victim of, but more like an emotional exhaustion.

You looked at him with expectant eyes, full of fear of what he might say. He didn't say anything for a few seconds.

"So, he's in love with you" he said with an expression you couldn't read either, which was killing you.

"umm, yeah..."

"and he asked you not to tell me anything" he added, and you just nodded, "and you did, you were true to your word"

"please jack, you're killing me. i need to know what you think"

"Honestly, I don't know, y/n, I never expected to be in this situation, but... Urban is going to take a break from touring, he decided it himself, but to be honest I think it's the best thing for me too. I know it's not his fault, but I'm angry, I think because he didn’t have the courage to tell me the truth in all these months” he went silent for a couple of seconds, “and also he never had the intention of doing it!” he said a little louder, trying to get his frustration out, “he asked you not to tell me anything for fuck’s sake”

you agreed, for a few seconds no one said anything but the uncertainty was too strong.

"and what about me?" he looked at you.

"what about you?" he asked you, like he was really confused.

"Are you mad at me too? Do you want me to go away?" you asked with a lump in your throat, a lump that deepened with each second of silence.

"I…I don't know…this is so weird, I have all these mixed feelings and I don't know what to do with them"

"It's not my fault, jack" you gasped, two silent tears escaping down your cheeks.

"I know"

"So? Why don't you tell me it's not my fault and you don't want me to go?" you said hurt.

"I don't know y/n, put yourself in my position a bit. My best friend is in love with my girlfriend, he confesses it to her and asks her not to tell me anything, I see them giving each other a very long hug, as if they were both full of feelings for each other..."

"wait, what?"

"yes, I saw you that night"

"It’s not what you are thinking, we weren't doing anything wrong”

"I know, but you kept the secret, y/n, you preferred to be loyal to him over me"

"he’s my friend" you said weakly, as weak as your justification.

"and i'm your fucking boyfriend!" Jack raised his voice, making you jump, "I'm sorry" he said a few seconds later, "I'm very confused, this has never happened to me with urban before, first of all... because he's never been in love, you're the first in his life, y/n" he looked at you with sad eyes, "and I don't know if I can live with that"

"jack, please, please don't break up with me. none of the three of us are to blame, we can get over it" you said desperate.

"You've been the only girl to ever unfreeze the heart of a man I've known almost all my life, y/n, how do I know his feelings for you won't come back as soon as he sees you again?"

"this is so damn unfair, jack" You said angrily, "I never meant for this to happen. I've never behaved inappropriately with him, I've never flirted with him, I've always had eyes only for you, my heart has always been with you, and you're going to leave me for something in which I am not to blame?”

“I’m not leaving you”

“but you’re thinking about it!”

“y/n, please, let's just let things cool down for a few weeks, take some distance and then talk with a cool head. I just... feel a lot of negative things right now."

"okay, let's let things cool down" you replied sarcastically, "although I don't know if things will go back to the way they were after that" were your last words before taking your phone and leaving the room.

taglist:

@hoodharlow

@awhore4moree

@jackmans-poison

#jack harlow fanfic #jack harlow fic #jack harlow x reader #jack harlow x y/n #jack harlow x you #jack harlow imagine #jack harlow imagines #jack harlow one shot #jack harlow angst

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earlgodwin · 1 month

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okay i know you've mentioned/answered this a million times but i would love to get your top recommendations for borgias published books and content.

i haven't really ventured into those selections but i really want to take the leap into that realm and buy/borrow some books and read them..!

(also i'm curious if you read many fanfictions for the borgias, and if so do you have any good recs?)

💞

hi <33! no worries at all! i love being asked questions about everything related to the borgias, as i get very enthusiastic about them. now, let's start with my favorite borgias biographies:

maria bellonci's 'lucrezia borgia' because i'm very obsessed with accuracy and avoiding cliché biased narratives. it's such a solid read really! it also portrays lucrezia in a way that i've always believed she was—a completely misunderstood woman who is a pawn in the power and ambition games of her father and brother. but deep down, she's just a silly, pretty poetry lover who's guilty by association. this book also debunks cesare's supposed "jealousy" towards juan as the shows how much he loves him (based on the letters to each other) and that rodrigo has always loved his children equally, which is a cherry on top lol.

emma lucas's 'lucrezia borgia.' while it's not entirely accurate because it satisfies my beloved (but not accurate) 'lucrezia is a femme fatale and not saintly' narrative (which i love, by the way), i'm fascinated by how it unexpectedly delves deep into her family, especially rodrigo, cesare, and juan. it also provides great anecdotes about the characters so there's that. despite having negative reviews, the biography is actually very well-written and highly entertaining! fuck the gossip!

christopher hibbert's 'the borgias and their enemies.' for some reason, i keep forgetting to recommend this book to my friends. i tend to get easily investedwith any borgia book that focuses on the pope and his children, providing narratives without forcing you to choose what to believe. the author obviously conducted extensive research before publishing it because when reading a biography (not historical fiction), i prefer to avoid biased perspectives that can be heavily misleading. i also appreciate the fact that machiavelli (and other important figures) plays an important role in this biography because i'm always excited about him.

ferdinand gregorovius' 'lucretia borgia according to original documents and correspondence of her day'. it's also a very unbiased excellent piece of history that is full of validated source. and i just adore how the author is pro-lucrezia as well.

samantha morris' 'cesare and lucrezia: brother and sister of history's most vilified family' is also well documented and well researched! while cesare was given more depth than lucrezia, still, lucrezia's character in this biography is more colorful. obviously the most popular narrative for the borgia family is them being incestuous, corrupt and violent, a family to be feared, but the author suggests otherwise as she sets out to prove this is not the full story and she does make a good argument! as she detailed how they've been portrayed by mainstream media as well as detailing what happened to their descendants.

sarah bradford's 'lucrezia borgia.' okay, so this one isn't a favorite of mine, but i'd recommend it to you or anyone who's a huge fan of ceslu. it's written like a love story biography exclusively about them. while i like how she wrote about ceslu, i heavily dislike how she wrote about juan and rodrigo and how she portrayed them based on narratives from the family's enemies. the author also manipulated a letter about the envoy boccaccio, which is supposed to praise both brothers. but instead, the author just one-upped him with cesare by dunking on him, which i personally find lame and intensely inaccurate since juan borgia was pretty much loved by his wife, his family, and his friends based on the retrieved documents and letters. that being said, i do enjoy the ceslu parts, of course, and i believe any fan of showtime's 'the borgias' who ships ceslu would enjoy this book and its fluent writing and can easily ignore the negatively inaccurate narratives about the other members of the family.

that's all for the biography books! now let's start with historical fiction:

sarah dunant's 'blood and beauty'. one thing about me is that i'm never gonna stop praising this book because it is absolutely my favorite historical fiction book about this extraordinary family! again, i get so invested in any book when the author does extensive research. also, if you're looking for a book about this family that reads like an episode of showtime's 'the borgias,' then this book is your go-to! full of interesting dynamics, and yes, cesare is as cruel and megalomaniacal as history and machiavelli portrayed him, lucrezia as a victim of her father and brother's political ambitions game, and juan as the flawed kid who was eventually sunk deep when he got dragged into his father's ambitions game. while the book doesn't provide a deeper exploration of the characters' psyche, it's more focused on the story by making it very engaging and sheds light on their complex relationships and their rise to power. and every character is highly sympathetic as the author brilliantly humanizes them. in short, it is emotionally intriguing and a must-read for the borgias enjoyers.

mario puzo's 'the family'. you know, i wasn't even surprised a bit that this book's writing and story being groundbreaking because after all, it is written by the author of 'the godfather'. the family is such a compelling book, such tender writing when it comes to lucrezia and cesare. the story becomes intriguing the more you read. i also loved puzo's portrayal of rodrigo as this family man who deeply loves his children yet he uses them as pawns (which is also similar to jeremy irons' portrayal). while i gotta criticize that the characters have no depth and his version of lucrezia as this damsel angel for her father and brother is, uhhh… quite boring. i like her when she's multilayered lol. i also think the way he tried to present cesare and give him the "from zero to hero" trope in order to make him relatable is also lame because cesare's success as a historical figure is because he was calculating and wicked, and definitely not a bitter loser. i mean, i could absolutely ignore the bitterness part, but at least françois arnaud's cesare added so many layers and swag in the characters, therefore you could ignore it. but i can overlook all that when there's an engaging story and great writing, no matter what the characterizations are like. so overall, it's impressive and entertaining, and you will definitely enjoy it.

regarding fanfiction; i'm sorry but i never read any because i feel quite satisfied by all 'the borgias' show canon that we have and all these historical books. i wish i could help with recommending fics :/

thank you very much for the question, and i hope this post answers it. have a great day 💕🫶

#silvermars 💌#loved answering this one!#book recommendations #the borgias #biography #historical drama #historical fiction #historical figures #renaissance #house of borgia #lucrezia borgia #cesare borgia #juan borgia #rodrigo borgia #mario puzo #sarah bradford #text post

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wingsonghalo · 3 months

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A Practice, For Now ((HanaKou version))

SO back in October of 2022, I goofily remixed my first HanaNene fic, A Practice, For Now (also available on Ao3), to feature Hanako asking Kou to help him practice kissing. It's still HanaNene-coded (and MitsuKou-coded), but instead of Nene asking Hanako for practice because she wants her first kiss before she dies, Hanako is asking Kou for practice because he wants to already know how if he ever ends up kissing Nene. So they stumble through some first kisses. They are so silly and I love them. While I initially just wrote this for my HanaNene server for a bit of fun, even keeping the structure of the opening lines of the original fic and the 8-page length (it's literally just 469 words less than the original lmao), it's been SO long since I posted any of my JSHK writing, and there is not enough HanaKou in the world, so!! I hope you enjoy this silliness!! (Also, obviously this would be before any canon kisses, haha) ================================================

It wasn't the proper setting, the air dusty and still in the abandoned classroom, the dying sunlight streaming in through the window in dust-mote-laden rays, and his nose twitching from the chalk dust as he cleaned the board. It wasn't the right time either, 4PM on a Friday. It most certainly wasn't the right person.

But Hanako, who was loitering around here for reasons Kou couldn't explain, brought up a very unexpected topic nevertheless.

"Hey, kid?" he finally spoke up, hovering helpfully in the background as Kou launched into another coughing fit from clapping the chalkboard erasers together.

"Hm?" Kou responded once he was able to speak again, tossing a glimpse at him over his shoulder. Being a ghost, his lungs already drew in no air and thus he did not have to choke on this chalk dust, the lucky bastard.

"We should kiss."

Kou dropped both erasers and began another spectacular coughing fit, no chalk dust required this time, as he whirled on him. "WHAT?!" He'd turned around so fast he almost fell over, and struggled to steady himself by flinging his hands back to brace on the chalk tray.

The Toilet Troll just looked mildly concerned at Kou's sudden inability to stand or breathe air, raising his eyebrows a little. "Be a little louder, why don't you; I think there are people in the next prefecture over who didn't hear you."

"What the HELL kind of thing is that to say?!" Kou demanded, his knees wobbling.

His ghost friend frowned. "I thought it was a rather clever joke. You were so loud that I was implying that people—"

"NOT THAT," Kou interrupted, flinging a hand out to stop him. "The… what you said before that!" Had he misheard or something?!

"Oh," said Hanako mildly, "when I said we should kiss?"

"What is HAPPENING?!" Kou clutched his head desperately. "Is this some kind of bizarre nightmare?!"

"How rude." Hanako's disapproving frown was even more pronounced now. "It was an earnest suggestion."

No matter how many times Kou blinked his wide eyes at his friend, nothing changed, so he dropped his arms and rested his weight against the chalk tray behind him. The pain of it jabbing into his back kept him grounded. "Okay, seriously, what the hell, Hanako? You know perfectly well that that sounds like an insane suggestion, so unless this is just a really bad joke, you must have a pretty good reason." Kou's best guess was that Hanako was going to somehow trick him into agreeing and then laugh at him.

Hanako didn't look like he was in the mood for laughing, however. He heaved a huge sigh, and sat heavily on one of the desks closest to Kou near the front of the classroom with a fwump. Usually he didn't make much noise when he sat on things, so he must have been either really tired, or really dedicated to being theatrical (it was most often the latter). "Look… my life ended before I got to experience a lot of things. Things I thought I never would experience now that I’m dead. But…" He bit his lip. Kou was pretty sure he wasn't just being theatrical now. "It kind of seems like one thing that I thought was out of reach… might not be?"

"You're going to have to be more specific," Kou pressed him.

The ghost tapped his fingertips together. "There's… someone that I like. And I was thinking I'd like to maybe tell them how I feel.” The fingertip-tapping got faster. “And possibly practice a way of expressing those feelings."

"And… who might you be talking about?" Kou had a pretty good idea, but he wanted to be sure.

The gold eyes he lifted to meet Kou's were pleading, desperate. "Do I really have to say it? You feel the same way about her, don't you?"

Her. As he suspected, this had something to do with Hanako's feelings for Yashiro-senpai. Kou didn't respond, except to clench his fists by his sides. "So… what, you want some experience before you tell her your feelings? With me?"

"With my friend," Hanako emphasized softly, and looked down. "My only other friend. I don't have a lot of allies, you know."

Goddammit. How was he supposed to refuse that outright? "And why should I help you? Doesn't that give you an unfair advantage?" he pointed out, crossing his arms. He tried to keep his voice wary, but to his own ears he already sounded resigned.

"Well, you'd gain experience too, hopefully. Don't tell me you're rolling in romantic expertise?"

Kou grimaced, mouth pulling to one side as he tapped a fingertip on his arm. "I have zero experience, a fact I'm sure you're aware of, or you wouldn't have asked me."

He smiled, equal parts devious and sheepish. "Guilty as charged."

The sigh Kou let out lasted a good five seconds. "You're not joking, are you." It wasn't really a question, but Hanako shook his head anyway. "This is ridiculous. You know that, right?" Hanako nodded, his eyes not moving from him as Kou took a few steps towards him. "I mean, I'm a guy. It's not going to be like kissing her. Aren't you freaked out by it?" Another shake of the head. Kou gulped as Hanako stood up again, ghostly feet touching the floor.

He was shorter than Kou. Kou had known that, but it was especially evident now that they were standing facing each other. "Does it freak you out?" he asked.

"Only because it's you," Kou quipped.

"But… you're okay with it?" His goldenrod eyes wavered a bit.

Kou shrugged. "Only because it's you," he repeated, and bent down. Hanako's eyes fluttered shut just in time for their lips to meet.

It was so cold that it surprised him, and maybe that was why it only lasted a split second. But that had hardly been enough to qualify as experience, so when Hanako pressed back up against his mouth, Kou didn't back away. They stood there like that for a few seconds, neither moving a muscle. Kou could hear his pulse pounding in his ears.

When Hanako pulled away, he glanced unsurely up at the other boy. "Well… what did you think?"

"I'll be honest, dude," said Kou: "It kind of sucked."

Hanako flinched. "Well, you said it yourself: it's not the same as it would be with a girl!" Still, his shoulders slumped. "It was bad, huh…"

It was almost endearing, how seriously he was taking this. But Kou pushed back the slightly sappy feelings of fondness swirling inside him at watching Hanako fidget, his cheeks still dusted pink. "I think it's because we were just kind of standing there," he said with a slight smile. "You're supposed to sort of… tilt your head or whatever, I think. So it doesn't feel as stiff."

"Well look who's suddenly an expert," Hanako huffed, but he looked intrigued at this new information. "If you know what you're supposed to do, why didn't you do it?"

"Pardon me for trying to get over the feeling of smooching a popsicle!" Kou fired back.

Hanako's cheeks went a shade darker. "I can't help that any more than you can help feeling like a furnace!"

"A furnace?" Kou repeated.

"Yeah, a furnace!" Hanako crossed his arms, and the pouting look on his face was what some might describe as cute. "You're so hot that I thought I was going to evaporate into mist!"

They stared at each other for a few seconds.

"I'm hot, huh," Kou said, trying not to burst into laughter.

"I didn't mean it like that and you know it," Hanako grumbled, his whole face red.

Kou was usually the butt of Hanako's jokes, so it was quite gratifying being the one to make Hanako feel like a fool for once. "No, I know what you meant," he said, pretending to puff out his chest and combing his fingers back through his hair in his best male model impression. "I'm a total stud." He was, at least, related to someone people frequently labeled as such.

"I'm going to rip that stupid earring off you," the ghost spat, but there was no real threat behind the words.

"Don't hate me for being beautiful," Kou sighed melodramatically. It was the kind of thing Mitsuba might have said, he thought with a fair bit of amusement.

"It's time to shut up now," said Hanako, yanking Kou down by his tie to kiss him again.

Hanako was, at the very least, a quick learner, because this time he tilted his head as instructed, their lips molding together easily. Kou responded as well as he could, moving his mouth in counterpoint. The other boy's lips were soft, and the temperature difference was not exactly unpleasant once he got used to it. Before he even realized it, he found himself swept away in the sensation, allowing himself to be guided by feeling alone. But eventually he needed to breathe, and so he put his hands on Hanako's shoulders to push him back.

The ghost must have misunderstood the intention, however, because he took the increased contact as encouragement, pressing against him more insistently and forcing Kou to take a surprised breath in through his nose instead. Hanako was kissing him like he had something to prove now, having let go of his tie to grasp his shirt with both fists as if to prevent Kou's escape.

Kou wasn't trying to escape, though. His grip on Hanako's shoulders, which had started as an attempt to push him away, now drew him a little closer. His lips responded to Hanako's every move, trying to slow him down where he was too forceful and coax a reaction whenever he stilled. Where had all this sudden effort come from? Kou's knees felt a bit weak, which was stupid because he was kissing Hanako, and it wasn't like there should be any actual feelings involved here, and oh my god he was kissing Hanako; what was this situation and why was his head swimming and why did it feel like sparklers in his gut when Hanako accidentally caught a tooth on his lower lip and pulled away to huskily whisper a "sorry" before kissing him again?

Kou muffled a sound into Hanako's mouth and kissed back like he meant it, because he wasn't just going to let this pervy ghost make him feel like some swooning chick—not that he was swooning or anything. Yes, he only nibbled Hanako's lip back out of spite, to show that Hanako couldn't get the better of him. It had nothing to do with wanting to delight over the startled murmur the other boy made, nor with savoring the way he felt Hanako's cold hands tremble as they clutched his shirt.

This was just Kou's first experience with kissing someone, that was all. That was why every place Hanako touched felt simultaneously freezing and burning hot, that was why his knees felt ready to give out, that was why he shuddered and gripped tighter when Hanako pulled Kou's lower lip between his, like he was reluctant to part from him.

When they drew back this time, both of their faces were red, and they gasped for air, staring at each other almost challengingly. The rosy tint of Hanako's cheeks was almost—okay, no, it was completely adorable.

Shit, Kou thought to himself as his heart lurched in his chest, did he maybe have sort of a tiny thing for Hanako?

Whatever; not important right now.

"Does it always… feel like that?" Hanako finally broke the silence. His voice sounded a bit roughened in a way that made the hairs on the back of Kou's neck stand up.

"Like what?" Kou prompted, brain still a bit sluggish and yet swirling with questions.

"Like, you know…" Number Seven of the School Wonders lowered his head, looking like a shy young boy rather than an impressive leader of apparitions as his large eyes flicked up towards Kou’s. "…Good?"

Some part of Kou preened at the praise, implicit though it was. "We've already established that I have zero experience, so I couldn't tell you."

"Ah," Hanako replied with a nod, "that's true."

"But…" The hesitance had crept into Kou's voice too now as he stuck his hands in his pockets. "I didn't… hate it."

Hanako's face lit up, and Kou's heart skipped a beat. Oh no. Kou hadn't been aware of how bad his soft spot was for this little jerk. "So it wasn't as bad that time?"

Kou stifled an uncomfortable laugh. That was putting things mildly. "Nah, it was, um…" He cleared his throat, and ran a hand through his messy blonde hair. "Definitely not as bad."

The other boy grinned a mile wide. "Aww, I love you too, kiddo," the menace teased with a wink.

"I take it back," Kou decided. "I hated it, and I hate you."

"I know you don't mean it, but hearing you say it kind of hurts anyway." Hanako was pouting again. "If I tried kissing you again, would you hate me less, or more?”

"You're really pushing it," Kou groused as he rolled his eyes. "Don't you think you've gotten enough practice?"

The other boy didn't look confident, pressing his fingertips together and glancing up at Kou hesitantly. "I don't know… do you think she'd punch me if I kissed her at this, er, skill level?"

"I don't think she'd punch you," Kou said, crossing his arms thoughtfully, "but if you made her cry, I would definitely punch you."

Hanako's expression clouded over, his eyes darkening and his brows drawing together. "It's selfish to feel this way, I know. I mean, you're actually alive. She'll remember you when she leaves this place. You…" He hung his head. "…actually have a chance with her."

Kou smiled, a little bittersweetly. "There was a time that I would have loved to date Senpai. She's really cute, and totally my type." He scooped up Raiteijou, which had been leaning against the wall in the corner, wrapped up and disguised as an umbrella, before facing Hanako again. He felt more secure with the staff in his hands. "But the more I spent time around you guys," he continued, "the more I realized that I have more fun as her friend." Plus there was the fact that his senpai was completely obviously head-over-heels in love with the ghost in front of him, but he wasn’t going to give Hanako the satisfaction of admitting that.

Hanako's eyebrows shot up. "Did you just friendzone Yashiro?"

He brought one shoulder up to his ear in a half-shrug. "I guess?"

"So… you don't have feelings for her?" He sounded incredulous, like he couldn't believe anyone wouldn't love Yashiro Nene.

"Not romantic ones anymore," he clarified. He'd still do just about anything for her as a friend, after all.

Hanako narrowed his eyes. "Why'd you agree to help your former rival, then? Just out of the goodness of your heart?"

He hesitated, his free hand clenching into a fist in his pocket. Pink hair and a smile brighter than the midday sun flashed through his mind like snapshots. "I still might have wanted some practice," he mumbled.

Hanako waggled his eyebrows at him, leaning right into his space. "Don't tell me I'm more your type now?~"

Kou whacked the Porcelain-Throne Poltergeist lightly on the head with Raiteijou. "Go back to your bathroom if you want to talk shit," he grumbled, but his cheeks felt warm.

"It's a good thing I didn't fall for you, since you'd apparently be an abusive boyfriend," Hanako whined, rubbing the spot Kou's wrapped staff had hit. Kou was positive it hadn't actually hurt him. He was just being dramatic.

"I'd never hit anyone I was dating," Kou said with dignity. "You're a special case."

"You think I'm special~" Hanako sang, floating around him obnoxiously. "You liked smooching me~"

Irritation prickled Kou's spine. He wanted to smack him again, but instead he took a deep, grounding breath. He could be mature here. "Like I said, it wasn't bad," he got out through gritted teeth. "Thank you for the experience." He gave a stiff bow before turning on his heel. "If you're done being a pain in the ass, I'll be on my way." He hadn't entirely finished cleaning the classroom, but if Hanako kept being so annoying, Kou couldn't guarantee he'd be able to resist shutting him up (whether with Raiteijou or his own mouth, he was still debating).

"Wait!" Hanako's hand closed around the fabric at his back, and Kou stopped in his tracks. "I, um… I didn't get to say thank you." Curiously, Kou turned around to face him again, raising an eyebrow to prompt him.

The vulnerability in Hanako's face couldn't be anything but genuine, his brows drawn up as he let go of Kou. "I really couldn't have asked anyone else for help about this." He pulled his cap off his head, fidgeting with it as he held it down by his waist. "It… means a lot to me that you didn't just laugh in my face."

Kou wanted to make a joke, like Hanako would have at any other time. Say yeah, well, it was a close thing or can I still laugh now? But looking at this kid—this kid who had died before his first kiss, died before he'd even gotten to Kou's age, this kid who was short and scrawny and suspicious and had a propensity for dirty jokes but had also saved Kou more times than he could count, who had called Kou his only other friend—he couldn't bring himself to make light of things.

"You're really important to Senpai, Hanako," he said, tone heavy with sincerity, and then grabbed Hanako's hat out of his hands. He shoved it back onto the other boy's head and pulled it low over his eyes, ignoring Hanako's squawk of alarm and laying one more kiss on the hat's brim. "…But you're important to me, too. Don't forget that."

Hanako's hands sprang up to push his cap back into its rightful place, and Kou was satisfied to see that his whole face was glowing red. He looked absolutely stunned, his mouth hanging open and his hair in disarray as he fumbled for words. "I, what's—what's with that, all of a sudden?" he finally sputtered. "Getting all sentimental on me like that…!"

"You started it," Kou retaliated, sticking out his tongue.

Wow, Hanako actually looked more flustered than Kou had been banking on. Either Hanako had some slight feelings buried there too that were going to remain unaddressed, or Kou was way cooler than anyone ever admitted.

(Or Hanako was just easy to fluster. It was probably that, but Kou's ego wanted it to be more than that.)

"You're not going to tell anyone about this, are you?" Hanako said next, still straightening his hat and looking out of sorts as he cleared his throat.

"Psh. Like I'd want to tell anyone about kissing you," Kou threw over his shoulder, since he was getting ready to leave.

"You say that, but I know you're just dying to gush about my considerable talent." Ah, he'd recovered his swagger that quickly, huh?

"I'm not dying for anything, pal," he shot back with a lopsided grin, shrugging on his uniform jacket, which he’d flung over a desk chair.

They shared a look, and Kou felt certain that there was understanding between them when Hanako grinned back.

"See you tomorrow, Kou."

It was perhaps the first time Hanako had actually said his name, and the sound of it was like a flicker of candle flame in his chest, making his smile widen even further.

There was a lot of stuff for Kou to figure out. Maybe he had a bit of experience now, but still not much confidence to make any moves to resolve his entanglement with a certain other supernatural. Maybe he'd never get any kind of satisfying happy ending even if he did gain some confidence. Maybe he'd essentially given away his first kisses to someone he had no intention of pursuing (tiny embers of something burning in his chest notwithstanding). Maybe he didn't have much of an idea of where to go from here.

But that was okay.

"Good night, Hanako," he replied, pushing open the door to the classroom.

For now, this was fine.

================================================

Thanks for letting me revisit this old thing!! If y'all like it, I'll put it up on Ao3 as well, LOL. 💖

#hanakou #hananene #jibaku shounen hanako kun #toilet bound hanako kun #mitsukou #stuff i write

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wutheringmights · 2 months

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AUTHORS COMMENTARY FOR NEW CTB PLSSSSS😭😭😭

Thank you! I would be more than happy to explain myself.

My commentaries have, historically, been a pain in the butt to read on a formatting level. I have attempted to fix this by breaking up the commentary into labeled sections. Consequently, this led to me writing out way more than I normally would.

So, enjoy.

[The Past]

Pre-Festival & Festival Day

As I mentioned previously, I wrote a significant part of this past section for the last chapter-- all the way up until Link asks for Icarius’s name. I ended up cutting the chapter into two for space, which meant that there was a few weeks between writing the first and second half of the icarius stuff.

I really did not spend as much time with the latter half as I wanted to, and I think it suffers for it. I’ll elaborate on that in a second. Let’s try to stick to talking about the chapter in a somewhat chronological order.

I joked about this last weekend, but Jakucho is extremely funny for hearing Link speculate about Icarius and Nephus and deciding, “Yup. Not my problem. Have fun with that.” Of course, she thinks he’s obsessed with Nephus and not Icarius.

Gaze upon my weak attempt to confirm Ayane is trans. I think this might have been a bit of a clunky way to do it. I never know how to get characters to confirm their identities without it sounding too much like a script read. Hopefully, this was at least clear if not entirely blatant.

Holidays are such an important part of world building, and I think it is very silly when you are in a fun little fantasy world and they celebrate not-Christmas or the like. That being said, sometimes you are so exhausted of any ideas that you have to sit down and say “Fuck it. Off-brand Halloween.”

That being said, having a holiday to mourn the loss of the Sacred Realm feels fitting for the world, even if the inclusion of masks was a bit clunky.

I really do think an under-explored area of Zelda lore is that the goddess’s realm is just... gone. Corrupted. Where are the goddesses now that the Sacred Realm is the Dark World? Is there a holy crusade to restore the Dark World to the Sacred Realm? I think Nintendo could do a dark fantasy spin off about this. Or when I finally get around to running that Hyrule homebrew DND campaign I have been cajoling my friends into playing, I’ll make it a plot point.

Now that I am typing this, I am realizing that I really should have had a little moment where all the masks forces Link to remember the child. Fuck.

In my original vision, Icarius was going to be very polite and quiet while at Jakucho’s estate, only for his next scene to be him snarking at some guys during a bar fight. What a bait and switch that would have been.

When I was a kid, I genuinely thought that the keaton mask was supposed to be a Pikachu mask (in part because I had only seen it in my cousin’s copy of Super Smash Bros). Hence, the yellow fox vs yellow mouse banter.

Link’s House / Icarius Backstory

Writing Icarius and Link banter was surprisingly difficult. I have this whole vision in my head about these two being loving to verbally spar with each other. And for some reason, the dialogue was just not flowing the other day.

And by the other day, I mean that a part of my major revisions the day of posting was to fix this entire section. Did it work? Not really. But I got a D grade prose up to a B-, and that was going to have to do.

My biggest gripe is their conversation in Link’s house, where Icarius info-dumps his entire backstory. In my brain, this scene would have felt dark and moody while still being a little romantic. They definitely hit all the points I needed them to hit for the plot, but it just... it’s so stilted. It doesn’t feel like Icarius is unloading years-worth of grievances on someone who he can trust to listen, if only for a night. It feels like Icarius is reading from a script. Ugh.

There was going to be an in-story explanation from Icarius as to why his hair is bleached that never actually came up. For those curious, it’s that Nephus had the grand idea first to bleach his hair but was worried it wouldn’t look good. So he had Icarius dye his first. Sure enough, he thought it looked terrible and decided to not go through with his end. Icarius was going to be very annoyed by that and would bitch about how long it would take for him to grow it out again.

I originally was not going to give him the bleached hair to begin with, but after everyone made fun of Warriors for not recognizing him in the first place, I felt like I had to make a significant change to his appearance. It actually helped to get him to play the role I needed him to play in Link’s post-war problems.

Let’s rewind. In my original outline, Icarius was never here in Kakariko. This entire chapter would have instead been Link deciding on his own terms to get over his hang-up over being involved with men and going out to flirt with one. This would have been a random soldier who had been discharged and was just passing through town on his way home from the war. Link would have subconsciously been attracted to him because he resembled the engineer.

For example, he would have made some comment about liking how strong his hands were.

This soldier was truly going to be a random guy. At most, he would have mentioned rooming with a friend on-leave named Arlo (who appeared earlier in story as a soldier in the trenches). The whole point was that Link felt like he could connect with another person as long as he didn’t give them a chance to look too deeply into him.

But after the House of Nephus characters were all introduced, I realized I needed to find some way to elaborate on them. Switching out the random soldier for Icarius was the easiest move.

Does it work? Kinda? It definitely helps the obsession plotline, but the original point got lost among all of the Icarius backstory.

So, Icarius backstory. I feel terrible for everyone who was looking forward to Link being swept away in a beautiful, touching romance. I tried to warn you.

Icarius and his relationship with Nephis is fascinating to me, and I really feel like I only have time to scratch the surface. Icarius is very smart, but believes that Nephus is one the “good ones.” But he can see that Nephus is starting to lose respect for him, so he plays these tricks to remind him that he’s still needed. He knows its foolish but his entire like has encompassed Nephus and he’s scared to know what it would look like without him. It works for a while, but not long enough. The reader knows that it stops working because that smart mouth of his that always picks fights gets taken away.

And that’s not even addressing the greater society Icarius lives in or the way Philo’s addition changes things for him even more.

All that’s to say that even if Icarius is not the perfect romantic lead people were hoping for, I intended to suggest in-story that if either him or Link were in different circumstances, there could be something there.

I actually really like the idea of Warriors’s love interest being an agent of an enemy state who is mean to him in the exact way he thinks is hot. Instead of inventing Hylian soldier or Sheikah warrior OC’s to be Warriors’s love interest, can there be more of this? It doesn’t even need to be Icarius. I just think falling-in-love with-the-enemy-but-the-enemy-is-a-shithead-about-it is an extremely funny dynamic.

There is also nothing funnier than Icarius thinking he’s met a nice, normal guy only to realize mid-act that he Messed Up

Also I hope this contexts helps fill-in the blanks for some of Icarius’s actions in the present day, which is no doubt a lot of “oh crap, it’s that guy I screwed that one time” and “how dare you forget about the one time we screwed!”

Post-Icarius Timeskip

I really needed to spend a few days at least on that last bit about Link’s realization. It’s so pivotal for his character, and I really just shoved it in at the end there. I’m going to have to add a lot of flowery prose to the beginning of next chapter to make up for it.

That being said, it’s important to me that there really isn’t a specific trigger for him realizing what he’s done. He just finally feels comfortable and safe enough for his brain to start processing everything he did.

It was very important to me that Link decided to stop dwelling in his past by putting a bowl into his cabinet, only for that bowl to break when he realizes what he’s done. Symbolism and stuff.

[Present Day]

Ganondorf’s Arrival & Townhouse

I’m really happy that so many of you were excited for Ganondorf’s arrival last chapter. That scene was so cheesy that I was worried it would dampen the excitement of actually getting to see him.

Originally, Ganondorf and Lincoln were going to have their argument in a bedroom, but I moved it to the foyer for convenience sake. But in my mind, I never moved Lincoln’s starting place from hiding in Ganondorf’s room, hence why he started the scene at the top of the stairs and not a more logical spot (in the hallway).

The reason it was going to be in the bedroom was because I thought Lincoln had snuck past Ganondorf’s guards and housestaff. But they all know about Lincoln, so it made more sense for Lincoln to subtly enter through the back entrance. It’s a whole thing.

I think my favorite part of the Chain already being at Ganondorf’s house is that there’s an implied subplot that happened off-screen where they plus Lincoln had to go hunting for where they thought Ganondorf was staying.

When Spirit pretends to not know who Ganondorf is, there was going to be a joke where the boys are trying to explain everything and he’s like “oh, so we’re all being racist here.” I ended up cutting it because, well, they were being racist.

Speaking of which, the whole thing with the maid calling Warriors “my lady” is that Warriors was going to try to gently correct her (because he thinks she’s stupid), only to find out that she was just being passive aggressive

Some may remember that one of the hardest cuts I made to CTB was a reporter OC. You can definitely tell that I am massively regretting that cut right now. Imagine how could it would have been for Warriors to pressure this antagonist journalist who’s been reporting all his fuck-ups into helping him fix everything. That sub plot would have been so good.

I was going to have a few of the other heroes confront Warriors as to why he credited Zelda, reaching a similar conclusion that his narration provided. Ended up cutting it for space.

A lot of the black blood stuff that I came up with for this chapter really doesn’t hit with LU, but at this point, I really don’t care.

There’s something about how Spirit viewing monsters and humans the same resulting in him very easily killing people while also being the only one who would realize that black blooded monsters could have always been cured, had anyone thought about it before. I just enjoy the way this man thinks.

Also, Spirit really enjoying spicy food is such a stupid character quirk, and I am almost ashamed of how much effort I went to develop it. Originally, I wanted Wild to get so fed up with Spirit being unimpressed with his cooking that he would demand Spirit to cook one night, only to discover that he actually can’t cook and just overcompensates with a shit-ton of hot sauce.

Ganondorf’s speech about how to win a war is partly the result of me spending months ruminating about how the Triforce could be used to end a war ethically, and partly an exploration of how Ganondorf thinks

I wanted to do one last scene of everyone leaving, where Wind would confront Time about being an asshole to Ganondorf. I cut it for space, then convinced myself that I would have time to add it back in, only to then cut it for time. My apologies to the Wind fans who have gotten nothing as of late.

Hospital & Family Dinner

I said before that I wasn’t initially going to rescue Toto until the end, which means that I had no plan for how Toto would feel until now. I realized that Toto was just... done. He wanted no part in Warriors’s life any longer. Unlike Kat, who got a lovely send off, I think this will be the last we see of Toto: an unfinished, unresolved mess of emotions.

When I was first describing Lincoln’s casual fit, I remember thinking to myself that I was just describing a semi-retired aged rockstar. The image has not left my brain, and if I was willing to throw a few more anachronisms into the story, I would have 100% described Lincoln like that.

Fun fact: Orlanda’s family was going to come back in the form of her sibling being a prominent member of the rebellion. I didn’t do it because it was getting ridiculous how many relevant people were related to each other.

When I was first coming up with Linkle’s character, I had the idea that she had that shallow form of feminism where it’s a big win for women everywhere when, say, generic action heroine wears pants. So I had it in my mind that Linkle hates dresses on principle. So during the fever dream sequence, when Warriors dreamt that Linkle was fawning over a dress, it was to show that he didn’t really know her that well.

But I never really established this idea that well and no one knew this about Linkle, so into a dress she goes.

I told myself that I was going to scour the entire story to double check if I had ever described Lincoln laughing anywhere, but never got around to it. But the nice thing about unreliable narrators is that if I get something wrong, I can just blame Warriors (that is not really how unreliable narrators work)

I have a friend who “tee-hees” while she laughs, and it’s the cutest thing ever. I just think it would be fun if Lincoln also has an adorable little kitten laugh.

I had to look up how they build roads on dunes for this chapter.

I did write the full Lincoln and Ganondorf backstory in a post way back when, if anyone wants to review it. It would be nice to get to get all the small details into the main story, but it’s really not pertinent to any of the main action

I definitely talked about Niko before, but I can’t find the posts. To refresh: Niko is Spirit’s uncle, in that he’s a member of the Macaryll family but no one can remember who he’s actually related to. Spirit’s parents are dead, and he lived with a different uncle and aunt until his apprenticeship. Then he moved in with Niko since he lived near Alfonzo.

Warriors hating chocolate is a character quirk that’s not necessary to the story, but I just think is too funny to not go out of my way to include

The idea of Linkle and Lincoln dancing came from a completely different scene idea. I played around with doing a similar set-up while the Chain is on the road to the Zora’s Domain. The scene would start with Sky showing Lana how to do a Skyloftian dance, which would lead to everyone else showing off their moves. When Warriors admits that he doesn’t think he could dance anymore, Spirit would teach him a New Hyrulean dance that required only one hand.

That led to an idea of Warriors dancing with Linkle and Lincoln, then just Linkle and Lincoln dancing themselves.

The night was going to end with Warriors forgetting his scarf and, when he went back to get it, he would overhear Lincoln venting to Ganondorf about how the whole stepping up as the parent thing is going. This got cut because it’s more fascinating when you’re forced to infer that a character is thinking.

The Walk Back & Out Dancing

This scene of Warriors and Spirit walking back together and opening up is my real pride and joy this chapter, which unfortunately got massively overshadowed by everything else.

So I will now take time to gush.

Spirit’s photography... so I wanted to give this man a hobby because the man cannot just like trains. I know everyone headcanons it as his hyperfixation, but it’s also his job. He needs a richer life than just that one thing. Granted, I took the route of making him start as a trainspotter like the Spirit Tracks NPC Ferrus.

I just feel like I am so correct about Spirit liking photography. I want this to be my cultural impact. I know I said that already about Icarius, but I mean this more. Go forth and give that man a camera.

The official document Spirit was carrying around was his engineering license.

Also, I was 100% ready for everyone to flood me with questions about Spirit’s ex-boyfriend. After the ickywars ordeal, I figured that there was a significant chance y’all wouldn’t be normal about him. I was prepared. And you know what? I’ve heard zilch. So, let me info dump about this man now.

Spirit’s ex-boyfriend is named Jean. He is on the cusp of 30 (compared to Spirit’s 23/24). He’s a mechanic, which is a few steps below Royal Engineer. He lost his leg in a work accident when a piece of machinery fell on him. They met through work. Spirit goes through phases of being a serial dater before swearing off dating for a few months, but Jean is the first person to make it past an awkward first date and hit relationship status. Spirit thought that because he was older, he would be more understanding.

And Jean tried. He really did. But Spirit is massive defensive and always on the offensive, so every slight disagreement turned into an explosive argument. Jean decided that he could not deal with someone who could not have a rational conversation with him, so he dumped him after 6 months. This was fairly recent, about three months before Spirit returned to Warriors’s era.

Spirit was going to name drop Jean in his speech later, but I couldn’t figure out a way to make it clear who Jean was without it sounding awkward.

I really like Spirit and Warriors’s conversation about Icarius, if only because it shows where their communication fails. When Warriors insists that you have a duty to disobey bad orders, he is criticizing himself for falling into the military mindset. This sounds like a criticism to Spirit, who insists that people will do anything under orders because that is what he did.

After Warriors has spent nearly every chapter since his amputation bemoaning his disability, I really wanted there to be a moment where he realizes that just because his ability level is different, he doesn’t have to give up doing everything he loves. That’s just an important lesson for him to learn, even if it is a little inspiration-porn-y.

The Hot Mess

You might realize that there is a massive elephant in the room I am not going to discuss here. That is because this post is going into the main tag. No one has complained to me yet, but let’s not tempt anyone right now. Just like the Neck Thing, I’ll make a separate post later for anyone who wants it. Just remind me in a few days.

With that being said--

Them sharing a cigarette was another scene that was originally conceived as taking place during the trip to the Zora’s Domain. Spirit’s anecdote about failing to make friends would have served as an early hint about his loneliness and inability to make friends.

I also have never smoked a cigarette before, so I had to sit there on wikiHow reading up on how to smoke one without coughing.

The half in Spirit’s four and a half attempts at quitting is this time he decided to quit, only to relapse after three hours. It was too short to count as a full attempt.

Spirit’s speech hopefully reveals what exactly is Spirit’s problem, both how he sees it and how it really is. Unlike Warriors, he never found support and healing once the war ending. No one understood his experiences, and his coping mechanism of lashing out ward away anyone who could help him. Spirit just wants to feel better, but he doesn’t know how.

Like... his whole thing about starting his own garage-- he’s a child prodigy who is used to be good at the things he does. He ended up tarnishing his own reputation, so he threw himself back into work because working on trains and fulfilling his dream is supposed to make him happy. He’s successful, but he’s not satisfied.

I was also expecting people to have a ton of questions about why Alfonzo disowned Spirit. In short, Spirit was already on a thin line with his lashing out and shitty attitude. Alfonzo was willing to let that slide until he realized Spirit was breaking work regulations to go on more runs without taking the legally required amount of time to rest inbetween. Spirit was a legal liability. He fired Spirit, but made it very clear that he was doing him a favor by not reporting him and getting his Royal Engineering license suspended.

No one else in New Hyrule knows the real reason why Spirit was fired, so they all assumed it was his personality. So he has a bit of a reputation now for being hard to work with.

Another thing that was not 100% conveyed in Spirit’s speech was that even if he didn’t hurt Zelda, he could not be with her because he does not want to be Prince Consort. His experiences in Warriors’s Hyrule thoroughly scared him off from politics, though he would have refused anyway since he would never give up being an engineer.

Fundamentally, Spirit is an extremely lonely person who has felt abandoned by everyone in his life. He knows that his life is the way it is now because of his experiences with Warriors. His guiding principle is trying to find some way to fix himself so that he can get the life he was supposed to have, one where he is happy and loved.

I just... god, I love this character.

And then there’s Warriors, who feels like he not capable of change and that any opportunity he has to change has been denied to him. Fixing Spirit and Time’s relationship was supposed to be a part of his redemption. Making Spirit happy was supposed to mean he’s forgiven. He has no friends, not in the Chain or in Toto. No one needs him.

Warriors also just means so much to me. I adore this disaster of a human being.

Warriors’s Plan Out

Does Warriors’s plan make sense? I am assuming it does since no one expressed confusion, but nearly every comment thus far has exclusively been about the Hot Mess (understandable).

There was a reason I was peeved I had to cut every chance in earlier in the story to go back to Castle Town, and it’s because I’ve known that it was going to be an extremely important location.

Warriors choosing to forgo a glorious revolution in favor of maintaining (if not manipulating) the status quo is not a great philosophy for our protagonist to be spouting in 2024. In my defense: a) I came up with this story in 2021, which was a different real world landscape, and b) Warriors would never become this ideal hero.

It feels more true for Warriors to not really become the idealized hero. His best is not that great. But if he can’t help being the worst, he could at least use his methods for good.

I have mentioned before that I have low empathy. Lincoln’s speech about people naturally being better or worst at being good is a product of a lot of my musing about how I sometimes feel frustrated and resentful at how hard I find it to follow the social cues that would make me a “better person.” Wouldn’t I be a better person if I had an easier time recognize when someone is in trouble and needs my help. Instead, I have to depend on myself to remember the cues, and I am so prone to mistakes.

I want to be a kind person. I want to be the best person anyone has ever met, but it’s an uphill battle. I feel like I am always working against myself. But it’s still important that I make the choice every day to be kind to others.

Besides, I have been told that I am more kind and helpful than other people, if only because I don’t rely on my feelings when deciding to reach out to others. So it has its perks.

I’m not saying Warriors has low empathy. I have expressly written him as someone with empathy. But my philosophy that kindness and caring for others is an active choice just felt like it belongs here.

There is story-canon low empathy character that I wanted to reveal in story to help Warriors beat the accusations and get people to not armchair diagnose him. I am still holding out hope I will have time and space to explore this in story, but if I don’t--

Four is written to have low empathy. It’s a consequence of the Four Sword splitting up his emotions, making it extremely difficult to tap into more than one emotion at a time, much less his empathy towards others. He can feel how this change in himself and has some thoughts on the whole thing.

Is that the end of the chapter. Fuck yeah. I’ve been working on this since Monday, If you read all this... congrats! I hope it was worth it.

Also, I forgot to mention that this is the end of Act 5. My act system is a scam and not that important, but I figured I should let you all know.

#your bonus fact is that i misspelled ganondorf's name about twenty different ways while writing this chapter #the swiftness and volume of demands for a commentary was very funny #y'all really wanted me to explain myself #bonus bonus fun fact is that it took all my will power to not formally name the chapter the Hot Mess #but like the neck thing we will just have this informal title for the scene in question lol #me rambling #lu ctb #ask #linked universe #anonymous #ctb spoilers #ctb commentary #ctb lore #fallenleafofmaple #meanlesbean #shoot-i-messed-up #savimatteo2810

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