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#Take artistic liberties I want a hat like that
honehonn3honey · 15 days
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Chiaki Morisawa x Hello Kitty Inspired by the figure of Ho33y Reach 2013
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soft-mafia · 7 months
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Crush [Buggy x Reader] [Part 2]
warnings: female reader, nude drawings
a/n: here’s part 2!! I know a couple of people have been asking for it so I have delivered!! :D
part 1
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Buggy sighed, standing in front of Y/n with nothing on but his socks, “Disappointed?” He said with a gruff sigh, “I know I’m not as.. hunky as some of your drawings but.. just try to make it work.”
Y/n looked at Buggy’s naked body with pure adoration in her eyes— he was much more handsome that she ever imagined. She was too enamored with her gawking that she didn’t even listen to what he had said.
He wasn’t going to lie, the way she was looking at him was kind of creeping him out. He detached one hand to wave it over her face, “Y/n? Hello?”
“Oh my god! The one thing I forgot!!” She gasped, Buggy’s hand flew back to his body as he was caught off guard by her sudden burst back to reality, “Your body hair! Your chest hair— that’s what was missing!!”
Buggy’s eyes widened a bit, “Huh?! Eh— aren’t those things that you want to avoid?”
Y/n set her book down and walked over to Buggy, standing closer to admire him even further, “No way! I think it makes you look so much more sexier!” She put her hands over her mouth and giggled as she blushed. Buggy’s entire face went red, he then laughed, feeling flattered and flustered at the same time.
Y/n shuffled closer to him, tracing the outline of his abs with her finger, “I think you are a hunk. I mean, yeah I kind of took a bit of— artistic liberties.. but you’re still sexy.”
“And my- and my dick..” Buggy mumbled under his breath, “Not as big, is it?” He sighed.
“Wellll, it was an educated guess. But I got pretty close.” Y/n shrugged, then looked down at it as it hung between his legs, she bit her lip. It was thick and meaty just like she imagined it. Buggy couldn’t help but smirk, “Yeah, you like what you see, sweetheart?” He grinned, putting his arms behind his neck to flex his muscles a bit.
Y/n squeaked when she noticed she was staring way too much and hid her face, “I-I’ll get back to— drawing you..” she hurried back to the chair across the room, holding her sketch book. Buggy sighed a bit, and here he was thinking he was about to get some action.. oh well.
“You.. wanted to be taller, right?” Y/n said, looking at her book, then back at Buggy.
Buggy put one foot up on a chair, his hands on his hips, “Yeah, and more buffer, maybe.. with a bigger hat or something too. Something that makes me look cool.”
Y/n giggled, rolling her eyes softly as she began to draw. A few minutes passed and she got the base sketch down, she then looked back at Buggy, starting on the actual line art.
“Jeez does it always take you this long?” Buggy grumbled, his leg starting to cramp a little.
“Yeah duh. Art isn’t easy.” Y/n said, biting her lip as she made Buggy’s abs look extra chiseled, and his hair extra long and voluminous. “So.. you don’t mind that I’m drawing you like this? You don’t think I’m creepy or anything?”
“Well..” Buggy started, looking off to the side, “I was.. weirded out at first, but to be honest I look better in your drawings than I do.. yknow, in general.”
“That’s not true!” Y/n looked at him, “I draw you because you already look hot.”
“Ugh.. don’t lie to me.” Buggy sighed, then looked back at Y/n, “Do you think-.. in your little drawing, you could draw me with a, normal nose? Just any kind of nose but not this big red thing.”
Y/n blinked at Buggy, pausing for a moment, “Why? Your nose is the best part about you..” Y/n was wondering how Buggy would react to this.. he always thought everybody was talking smack about his nose(even when they weren’t even talking about him in the first place..) she wondered how he would take a genuine compliment..
“I told you not to fucking lie to me!!” Buggy snapped, “That’s a cruel way to joke to somebody!! Disguising insults as compliments.. you should be ashamed of yourself!!” Buggy growled, then looked at Y/n’s sketch book. He then stormed over to her, making her gasp as he snatched it out of her hands.
“Is this a joke too? All of these drawings, were you purposefully drawing me like this with my nose just to insult me?!” Buggy growled, “Was everybody else on the crew in on this too?!”
“B-Buggy! That- that doesn’t even make sense, I would never do that!!” Y/n tried to reach out to grab her book, “Buggy, I think you’re handsome, really! Your nose is fine!”
“That’s Captain Buggy.” The man growled at Y/n, which quickly made her shut up and freeze in fear. “You know what.. this isn’t working out. Get out of my room.” Buggy growled and turned away from her after giving her book back, shoving it into her chest.
Y/n had tears in her eyes as she felt her heart break. Her mouth opened, lips trembling— she wanted to say something so bad, something to make things right but.. she was too scared. Y/n sniffled a little bit, she hugged her book to her chest while walking out of Buggy’s quarters.
Buggy sighed and slapped a hand over his forehead, he wrapped a towel around his waist before sitting on the edge of the bed and cracking open a bottle of booze, downing it like there was no tomorrow.
A little after midnight, Buggy was in a slightly intoxicated state. He felt awful, he felt ugly. But most of all— he was starting to miss Y/n. She was so sweet, she actually liked him, she liked him enough to obsessively draw him over and over again. And he just pushed her away. Buggy felt like an absolute asshole, and it made him want to drink even more.
He was about to put the bottle back to his lips again before he heard a knock on his door. He growled, “Go away!” He grumbled.
“C-Captain Buggy.. can I come in?” He heard Y/n’s voice from the other side of the door. Buggy’s eyes soften upon hearing her sweet voice, but then he growled again, “I told you to fuck off!!” As much as he wanted to open the door and hug Y/n until her eyes popped out— he was still pissy at her. Because in his mind, there was no way a girl like Y/n could genuinely find somebody like him attractive. She had to be playing with him.. messing with an old man’s emotions; what a cruel little bitch.
“Captain please, it’s important.” Y/n sounded like a dog scratching on its owner’s door wanting to be let inside..
Buggy growled and stumbled off of his bed, stomping over to the door before slinging it open, “Make it quick.” He growled.
Y/n opened her sketch book and flipped to a page, then showed him a drawing— it made Buggy’s gaze soften once more. It was the drawing of him that she was working on hours ago, he was so.. majestic, his hair was long, shiny and looked like it was blowing through the non existent wind. Y/n had made Buggy so handsome that he didn’t even focus on the nose at all. He had his foot up on a rock, waves were crashing behind him while there were some mermaids in the background flipping in the air. And his dick was huge as always(Y/n drew his actual size this time, now that she knew what it looked like)
“Awww.. baby..” Buggy slurred in his drunken state, wiping a tear from his eyes, “You made me so handsome— I-I’m sorry for yelling at you.. and being an asshole.” He sighed, “I should- I should give you a kiss.” Buggy stepped forward.
Y/n giggled and closed the book, holding it at her side, “I dunno Buggy.. why don’t we wait until you’re sober? I don’t really like the taste of- MMFF!” Without warning, Buggy smushed his lips against Y/n’s. She cringed slightly at the taste of his beer, but she decided to just accept her fate and kiss back.
This was all she ever wanted anyway, attention from her handsome captain. Even though he could be a grumpy pain in the ass sometimes, she thought it made him even more handsome and adorable.
Before she knew it, Buggy was dragging her into his room, then slammed the door behind the two of them.
Y/n had unknowingly dropped her sketchbook out in the hall when Buggy dragged her away. Some crew mates stumbled upon the new drawing, and they laughed their asses off about it for the rest of the night.
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jojo-schmo · 4 months
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[The Forgotten Land Roleswap: Chapter Two, 36]
Author's Note: I am operating under a theory that Waddle Dees find their own names when they learn what skill they want to specialize in or adopt a special trait that distinguishes them from other Dees. From then on, they are referred to by a nickname derived from their found name. They often end with a double "e" but not always.
For example, Wise Waddle Dee just wants to be called "Wise." :P
Bandana Waddle Dee = "Bandee"
Blacksmith Waddle Dee = "Smittee" (Since I didn't want to call him his canon name of Weapons-Shop Waddle Dee in this story simply because I don't like it lol. The artistic liberty is there and I'm taking it!!)
TL;DR: All Dees with jobs/hats have names. :3
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animunerdery · 2 years
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your art is very good and i love it a lot !! ur vrry talented ! however, you seem to still draw usopp with his minstrel lips? i know thatd how they look in canon but a caricature is a caricature. im not saying thid in a mean spirited way, i just want to see your art improve and not alienate who you're trying to depict
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Oda certainly has some “issues” with his designs, Usopp and most of the other black and brown characters, along with pretty much all of his women have fairly obvious “these were designed by a Japanese dude who loves boobs and has probably only seen non asian people in film/media vibes.”
That being said… if it were up to me, I probably would still exaggerate a fair amount of features, but push them more towards the direction of the ethnicity / nationality they’d represent.
Luffy and Vivi for example, I would definitely make brown. I’m pretty sure the live action show will be a disaster given how bad cowboy bebop was, BUT! The casting of live action Luffy is spot on! Curly hair? Check! Thick assed eyebrows? Check! Feral boy energy? Check!
Zoro I’d have it so he dyes his hair, his eyebrows can be dark thick assed Asian eyebrows and the moss is his choice cuz he’s an idiot and thinks it’s cool.
Nami, I’d make her overall a bit more elfin; give a bit of an upturn to her nose and freckles obviously. Aside from that not too much of a change. Animu already makes ppl kinda white looking…
Usopp would definitely be wide nose instead of long nose and frankly I’d give him more prominent eyelids. I think he’d be darker relative to the other mugiwara even if Banchina is mixed race.
Sanji I would definitely give a much bigger much more French nose and maybe make him more like a French Buscemi overall? Sanji’s biggest problems are in his writing, but I think Oda has definitely been showing growth in our weird confused little misogynist.
Chopper I can see as half Asian tbh bc there’s a ton of Asians in Canada. Also he’s a kid so not that different from the way I already draw him haha.
Robin I think would also be more about making that nose more prominent and making those deep set eyes and heavy eyelids pop. Though tbh she could be kinda mixed too, like white Eastern European mixed with Asiatic Steppe ppl blood could also work?
(The main thing I’d change with all the women is waistline and boob size lol, also Nami face, I would definitely make Hancock and Tashigi clearly Asian. Love that Nojiko is black in the live action and would totally make Miss Double Finger black as well. Vivi would totally be brown, why not black? Ptolemaic Egyptians are essentially Greeks, so more Middle Eastern Mediterranean Sefardi vibes for Vivi.)
Franky doesn’t really need much change except maybe the nose also being more prominent? He already does look kinda like a large white dude to begin with lol. His butt-butt chin thing is weird but within the realm of cartoon liberty.
And my Brook would probably look like an older cross between Marley and Hendrix. So not thaaat different from Oda’s design I guess? I think of him as being from Jamaica at any rate, no idea where Oda had actually slated him to be from…
I didn’t do them, but Jinbei would probably be an older chunky Asian dude, and Yamabro would probably be an albino? The whole white hair red eyes thing lol…
At any rate… design is still incredibly labor and thought intensive so despite his issues, I take my hat off with full respect to Oda sensei and base my drawings off those designs.
Also… redesign takes time and energy as well and tbh this blog is just dumb throwaway doodles that take me 5-30min to cobble together. If you wanna see beautifully redesigned mugiwaras, check out these blog rolls of incredible artists who actually put time and energy into their work!
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jacketpotatoo · 2 years
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A step-by-step look at my drawing process (commission edition) ✨
1) My client ( in this case @/brxkenvalley; ig) gives me their pitch and references. In this case, I was asked to draw their oc in whatever pose I thought would suit them and so I came up with these:
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They’re very rough and I focused more on gesture and expression than getting the details right. I also asked them questions clarifying some of their designs and their personality traits (which is a really helpful thing for commissioners to provide so that the artist has a better grasp on the character)
2) my client then asked for C. with an altered expression resembling B. so I made minor alternations to the draft and they decided on the one on the right
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3) After approval, i sketch out the character and I’ve taken to just cleaning up my sketch instead of doing lineart because that saves a lot of time
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The annotations are me asking for some design clarifications because I wanted to make some alternations so that the piece looked better/more complete (esp cuz I thought straight horns did not look very good on the hat). The quick greyscale shading was just a temporary placeholder to separate the elements clearly. As for references, I use a combination of many from google and from pictures I’ve taken myself. For example, the hands here are based partly on an online reference, partly from my own hand, and partly from muscle memory of me practicing and knowing how to make a hand look like it makes sense
4) flats. This was tough because the reference I was given had the character’s whole colour scheme as similar shades of very dark grey and so I took some creative liberty to adjust the colours a little to make the separate parts pop out more
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You can also see the horn fix and added details on the hat. Not much else to say except I stuck very much to cool colours for the whole thing to fit the character’s mysterious vibes
5) Rendering/painting. Everything prior to this was done on procreate but my brushes on Clip Studio Paint are just far superior so rendering was done there
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This is what takes the longest and is where I merge my sketch and flats layer and paint over everything (with the help of the magic tool and lasso tool to select segments according to colour). I think it might’ve taken around 4 hours? I used a lot of different brushes to try and get a varied texture and when I was satisfied, I exported it back over to procreate for colour correcting using different layer types and their in-built adjustment tool. I also used an add-glow correction layer with an airbrush on the white parts it pop out more, as well as give the character a more ethereal look
6) I ask my client if they want any minor changes and if not, I’ll email the file to them :)
And that’s my commission process! I don’t do all of these steps when I’m working on personal art (esp the planning) but occasionally, when I have a clear idea for a more complicated piece, I find planning really helpful. I could also do a process thing for a background piece if anyones interested, just lmk. Also feel free to ask questions if you have any and I hope this was clear!
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etherrreal · 3 years
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“when you pass out at practice”
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Pairing: tsukishima x reader ; kyotani x reader ; aone x reader Genre: comfort-fluff ; drabbles & headcanons Summary: the reader hasn’t been taking care of herself which leads to her passing out at practice  Word Count: 2295 Warnings: fainting, or passing out, from sleep deprivation/not eating/heat exhaustion, some explicit language because i’m an adult A/N: thanks for the fun request! i took a little bit of artistic liberties with the scenario to keep it from being so repetitive so I hope you don’t mind! -Luna
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it was rare that you had a beautiful sunny day on a weekend with no chores to attend to or work to complete
so when your boyfriend Tsukishima texted you and asked you to come join him for casual volleyball practice outside, you decided to take him up on that opportunity
however, not even a cap and some cold water could stave off heat exhaustion
Despite it being 95°F and so humid that the air feels thick when you breathe, it is a beautiful day outside. The sky is completely clear of clouds; the sun is shining directly on you as you, your boyfriend, and Yamaguchi head out to practice at the open field nearby Karasuno. The change of scenery was refreshing and even with it feeling just as hot as it usually does inside the school gym, the occasional breeze and lack of sweaty stench was a huge welcomed change. 
There’s very little shade provided by the trees, but you lay out a small blanket under the nearest one anyway. You become the bag and bottle keeper when Tsukishima and Yamaguchi hand you their items, your boyfriend dropping it haphazardly onto the blanket while Yamaguchi delicately places it down with a ‘thank you.’ 
You usually don’t get to see Tsukishima practice, seeing as his normal practices run until the dead of night, so it was fun watching them set and serve the ball back and forth. When the occasional ball lands by your feet, you get the chance to enjoy setting it back to them, even if it often falls short or misses the target completely. 
“Thank god you’re not on our team,” Tsukishima teases, as he watches the ball you set fall 6 feet away from him.
“Yeah, because I’d kick your ass. I know I’m a threat, and you should fear me,” you retort sarcastically. Before he turns away to retrieve the ball, you see him crack a small smile at your tomfoolery. 
However, after a few hours of getting up and down repeatedly to send the balls back under the beating sun, your head starts to pound. Your body is radiating so much heat it makes you want to remove your skin. You know it’s just a matter of time before you start feeling physically ill, as well. You loosen your cap and drink some cold water in hopes that it will relieve some of the tension, but you just feel the same.
You decide to lay down on the blanket, cap laid over your face to block out the sun. You don’t know if you passed out or if you simply tuned out everything around you for a bit, but you jump when you suddenly feel something wet and cold touching your neck.
You reach up to swat it away, thinking it was a bug when you hear Tsukishima’s voice. “Stop that. I’m trying to help you, dummy.” 
Relief washed over you to know that it wasn’t a beetle crawling up your neck but instead your stoic boyfriend pressing his plastic water bottle there to cool you down.
“Yamaguchi thought you died,” he brought up suddenly. “He actually ran to the store to get some more water after I told him to stop overreacting.”
You chuckle, picturing Yamaguchi already mourning over your body just because you were lying down with a cap over your face. “It’s sweet that he cares though, in his own weird way.”
Suddenly, the sky and Tsukishima’s crouching figure are in full view as he flicks the hat off of your face, feeling annoyed that you praised his friend and not him. “What do you think I’m doing, huh?” 
“Aww, do you want me to tell you how you’re the bestest, sweetest, most handsome boyfriend I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing, and that I’m so grateful that you’ve graced me with your help?” you whine in a sarcastic tone, making grabby hands at the tall blond hovering over you.
He slaps your hands away, knowing that if you get your hands on him, you’d squeeze his cheeks and ruffle his hair like you always do. “Well, that’s the last time I ever take care of you.” 
You know he doesn’t mean it and that, if you were ever in some form of peril, he would casually stroll rush to your rescue to make sure you’re okay. You hope that when you look up at him he can see how much you appreciate his efforts.
“Thank you, Kei,” you say sincerely.
“Yeah, whatever.” He sounds dismissive, but you can tell by the scrunched eyebrows and soft look in his eyes as he gazes down at you how much he worries about your well-being, and you’re genuinely grateful to have him be your unofficial nurse. 
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you heard from some classmates that your math teacher was seen printing out math quizzes
*cue studious panic*
 you decided to completely skip lunch and use that time in the library to hit the books hard
your stomach was rumbling, your head was hurting, and your vision would become spotty if you stood up too quickly
you completed your quiz at the end of the day, but by then, you were starving and ready to get something to eat
in your panic, you forgot that you were supposed to meet kyotani after school so you could force him to go to practice that day (or else Iwaizumi would have your ass)
he heard your stomach make monstrous noises and when you let him know you hadn’t eaten, he looked more upset than usual to see you not taking care of yourself
“Let’s skip practice and get some food,” he suggests.
“What? So you can skip out on one of the few practices you go to? Absolutely not!” you reprimand.
“But you need to eat.”
“Look at you being a sweet boyfriend who cares,” you tease, watching him roll his eyes like he’s annoyed, but the pink hue dusting his cheeks says otherwise. “I’ll be fine. I should have an extra granola bar in my bag somewhere.” 
"Whatever, if you say so." He turns his body diagonally, a gesture you know means 'walk with me.' Kyotani has never been keen on PDA, but one thing you have noticed is that he prefers for you to walk directly by his side at all times. To others, it may look like he’s uninterested in you, but you can tell by how often his arm brushes yours that it’s his way of showing affection. 
You stroll across campus together, enjoying a quiet conversation with Kyotani about your day thus far. It doesn’t take long for you to reach the gym entrance, already hearing the balls slamming against the ground inside. You both switch out your shoes before walking in, him going to join his teammates and you finding a seat on the sidelines, seeing Iwaizumi give you a thumbs up for your job well done. 
You take a moment to search through your bag for that granola bar you mentioned earlier. After sifting through books, loose notes, and forgotten pencils and pens, you realize you have no snack to tide you over until the end of practice. 
The market is just down the road. I could probably go pick something up and be back quickly.
You wave Iwaizumi over, figuring you’ll tell him your plans while Kyotani is distracted so he won’t follow you out. You see his back turned to you as Oikawa speaks to the rest of the team, gesturing wildly with a volleyball in hand. 
As Iwaizumi gets closer, you stand up and immediately begin to sway. Your vision grows spotted, and your head feels like it’s floating. 
You hear Kyotani yell out your name before everything goes black.
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When you wake up, the lights are beaming overhead as you lay in some sort of bed. Once you’re coherent enough, you sit up, looking around to see that you’re in the school nurse’s office. You pick up your hand to hold your still aching head when you notice a very angry Kyotani attached to it, already glaring at you.
Your mouth opens and closes repeatedly, not quite knowing what to say after you just passed out in the middle of practice.
"I told you that we should've gotten something to eat," he starts, growling out each word.
You shrink into yourself, feeling embarrassed that you've upset him and couldn’t even take care of yourself properly. "I'm sorry, Kentaro.”
He notices you plucking the lint off your shirt to avoid direct eye contact with him. His eyes close as he collects himself, realizing that now’s not the time to lecture you for something you couldn’t have predicted.
He sighs, standing up slightly to lean over your slumped figure, laying a kiss on your temple. He mumbles a quiet apology against your skin, feeling bad for snapping at you when he should’ve been more kind. He’s working on that, slowly but surely.
“Let’s go get something to eat,” he says, holding your hand while you stand slowly from the bed. You wobble slightly, Kyotani quickly wrapping his arm around your waist to stabilize you. You give him a nod when you’re firmly on your two feet.
“From now on, if you’re hungry, tell me.”
You agreed reluctantly, not exactly wanting him to worry so much but knowing he wouldn’t let you leave without your compliance. 
From then on, he always makes sure to check on you to check if you've eaten or if you need one of the many granola bars he now carries, and while sometimes it's annoying to have him acting like a mother hen, it's also very heartwarming to know that he cares about you that much. Not to mention, he’s saved your ass many times when you have to study overtime for another intense math quiz. 
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the end of the semester was coming to a close and you were scrambling to get everything done on time
there weren't enough hours in the day to study for finals, finish projects, complete homework, and also take care of your human needs, like eating and sleeping
so, you just didn't sleep one night, opting to stay up with some caffeine to power through all of your work
at the beginning of the next day, you felt energetic and peppy, but as it went on, the sluggish feeling started to settle in
by the end, you were feeling absolutely exhausted and ready to drop at any moment
however, you still wanted to accompany Aone to practice that day, as it was your favorite part of your week
aone initially insisted that you head home without him, but he realized it might be safer to go with him after practice, just in case you fell asleep on the train
It feels like it takes ages, but eventually, practice begins to wind down, soreness seeping into each and every team member’s muscles after hours on their feet. A few of them are still practicing quick attacks with each other, but Aone is one more move away from passing out from exhaustion.
He walks over to you sitting on the sidelines, watching you take longer and longer between each blink. Yet, when he gets close enough, you still manage to give him a small smile that kicks his heart into overdrive, his face, no doubt, resembling a tomato because of the gesture.
He sits on the creaky folding chair beside you, taking gulps of his water to try to cool himself down. He almost chokes when he feels your head press up against his shoulder, hand resting on his forearm gently. Sitting still as a rock, he tries to take his mind off his cute partner cuddling up next to him.
"We should stop somewhere and pick up some food on the way to the train,” he suggests, doing his best to ignore the warmth filling his cheeks. “Do you want anything specific?"
You're silent beside him. At first, he thinks you're contemplating what to eat, seeing as you're very particular with your cravings. But when two minutes pass, and there's not even a peep from you, he looks down carefully to find you knocked out against his shoulder, face squished uncomfortably and mouth parting with each deep breath you take.
Aone never pictured this happening to him –mostly because he didn't think he'd ever have a partner who'd feel comfortable enough around him– so he didn't quite know where to go from here. He could wake you up to at least bring you home, but if this is the first time you've slept in over 24 hours, he didn't want to deprive you of more necessary sleep.
The only way Aone can think of bringing you home is to carry you all the way to the train station and... Well, that's as far as he manages to get, but future Aone will figure the rest out.
He asks Futakuchi to gather his things for him because he doesn't want to risk waking you. After some light teasing, he hands Aone his packed duffle and helps put on his jacket with minimal stirring from you.
Aone thanks his friend with a nod before turning to you and slipping his arms under you, one beneath your knees and the other behind your back. He freezes when you begin shifting around, but relaxes once you settle into him.
Aone waves at his team on the way out, with what movement he is allowed, and begins his trek to the train station nearby. 
His arms are aching after hours of practice, but it doesn’t matter, because you nuzzling into his neck with an adorable sigh gives him enough strength to carry you halfway across the country if he needs to. 
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Written by: Luna
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marrys-dream-world · 3 years
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Imposter
Read on AO3
Summary:  Adrien's mother is kind and sweet and loving. The only problem is that it isn't her at all.
Notes: This is based off on this post by @infinitysgrace and a post athat I can’t find anymore, but was about how Emilie’s eye color could be wrong in the wishmaker flashback because it wasn’t her, it was a sentimonster. I took some liberties with sentimonster lore because I’m not 100% sure about all that, but I think it turned out well. 
One of Adrien’s earliest memories is of crying. 
He was young, perhaps three or four, and his room was blurry through his tears. When he grew older, he would get used to his father’s insistence that a night light was coddling Adrien, but at the moment, all he knew was the darkness surrounding him. The room was too big and his bed was in the middle of it, the light from the huge windows playing shadows that tricked his eyes. So he started crying, hoping it would call his parent’s attention and that they would come to him.
(When he grew older, he would learn that crying was useless.)
He felt more than saw his mother coming in, leaving the door open in a crack of light. Her arms wrap around him and she hums soothingly, the sound filling up his chest. She’s warm and smells sweet, like her favorite lavender perfume. He sinks into her, tears drying and sobs reducing to whines. He has tired himself out with that and would probably fall asleep even if left alone, but his mother doesn’t leave. She tucks him in and stays as his eyes close.
The last thing he sees are her wide blue eyes. 
-
Both his parents have drastic mood changes, but Adrien would say that his mother is the most prominent example of this. His father is usually just stoic and, if Adrien pushes him enough, gets annoyed with him. At worst, he’ll get angry and rage at Adrien, calmed down only by his mother’s calm words as she diverts his attention so Adrien can get away. His mother, though, always feels like whiplash.
“Why can’t I go with you?” Adrien, aged seven, asks his mother. He’s sitting on her bed as she packs her bag for another trip with his father. He stopped keeping count of them after the fifth. 
“You’re too young, baby.” She said and even the pet name didn’t stop the sting from her dismissive tone. “Next time, okay?”
He bits back a ‘you said that last time, too’. 
“But I’m already- “
“Adrien.” His mother chides, frowning. Her (disappointed) green eyes held him down. “I said you could stay here with me if you weren't going to be disruptive. Can’t you behave, just this once?”
He swallows back a lump in his throat. “I-I’m sorry, mother.”
But she already turned her back to him and packed the rest of her bag in silence. His mother leaves out her customary goodbye kiss when she leaves for the trip. He isn’t allowed downstairs to see them go and Nathalie insists it isn't a punishment, even though it feels like it. Adrien mopes in his room, not feeling up to enjoy his free day, no tutors or photoshoots, when all he can think about is his mother.
That’s why he’s taken back when she walks in his room.
“Mother?” He gaps, unable to hide his surprise. “I thought you left. Aren’t you going to miss your trip?!”
“I changed my mind, Adrien. Your father and I decided that the trip would be more productive with just him.” She said, eyes warm. Adrien always thought it was beautiful how her eyes could look blue or green, depending on the light. 
“But why?” He asked. She had been so excited for the trip!
“To stay with my precious son, of course.” His mother said, taking him into her arms.
All his questions evaporated right then and there. 
-
After their last trip, his parents decided to take a break from traveling. To network, his father informed him, which meant more boring family dinners and stiff ties. His mom always tuts when he complains about it, so he stays silent this time. At least it’s a dinner with Chloé, his best friend, and her family, so he and her are really only required to have dinner and then they can go off and play in the hotel rooms. 
“Arnold- “ Mrs. Bourgeois starts during dinner, before being nervously corrected by her husband.
“It’s Adrien, dear.”
“Oh right, Adrien. You grew up really well, you look more like your mother everyday.” Other people say it gushing, followed by a ‘so cute’ and pinches to the cheek. Mrs. Bourgeois says it like it’s a fact she approves of; Chloé even copies the small nod her mother makes. “You have her eyes.”
“Thank you, ma’am, but I don’t think so.” He says as politely as he can, but everyone in the table still throws him confused glances.
“You don’t think you look like your mother?” His father asked, raising an eyebrow.
Adrien shook his head. “No, I just don’t think I have her eyes. Mother’s eyes are blue and green and mine are just green.”
The Bourgeois family looks at him like he grew a second head. His parents, however, become tense all of sudden.
“Emilie, Gabriel, I think your son might be colorblind.” Mrs. Bourgeois says dryly and Adrien waits for his parents to come to his defense. They don’t. 
“Maybe. You know how children are.” His mother says, lightly. “I love your hat, Audrey. Is it new?”
The topic changes to Audrey’s new fashion exploits and Adrien and Chloé are finally allowed to go play. 
(Nathalie takes him to an eye doctor Mr. Bourgeois recommended the next day. The colorblind tests come back as negative.)
-
At age eight, Adrien was already used to working on fashion shows for his father’s brand. It didn’t make them easier to go through, however. 
It’s a summer one, this time, and his clothes are light and airy and his skin felt itchy and hot in the air conditioned cat walk. Looking at the bright lights around him hurt and the camera felt like it was looking uncomfortably deep into his soul. Was it too obvious that he wanted to run away? The crowd claps everytime he comes and everyone is smiling. Except for his father. 
After the show, his father spends the rest of the ride in silence as his mother tries to defuse the heavy tension that permeated the air with small talk and gushing compliments about the clothes and Adrien’s performance. It falls flat as she hardly looks like she’s up for talking, dark shadows under her eyes and skin paler than usual. Whenever Adrien asks her if she’s sick, she denies. As soon as they arrive home, he drags Adrien from the car towards the house, grip strong on his left upper arm. 
“Do you enjoy embarrassing me in front of everyone, Adrien?” His father asked calmly, but his hand tightened on his arm. 
Adrien couldn’t speak. It felt like it was happening to someone else, his mind weirdly detached from the situation. The only thing stopping him from floating away was the pain in his arm. 
“That’s enough, Gabriel.” He heard his mother, voice muffled. It felt like he was underwater in the pool and she was speaking from far away. Her hand, though, he felt acutely as she extricated his father’s hand from his arm. “Adrien, go, please.”
He runs away without second thought, only pausing guiltily at leaving his mother with his irate father when he starts hearing his father’s screaming. Adrien hides under the blankets in his room, heart racing long after the noise stops as he tries to focus his mind into anything else. He startles when he feels a hand touching his blanket cocoon. 
“Shhh, it’s okay, baby.” He hears his mother’s voice and frantically tears his blanket away. 
Adrien relaxes as he looks into her wide blue eyes and comforting smile, trying to leap for a hug. She stops him. 
“Let me see your arm first.” She says and he reluctantly takes off his jacket, wincing. The bruise on his arm doesn’t look pretty, so it’s for the best that he doesn’t go out much after fashion shows. “I can’t believe I let you get hurt.”
Her tone is soft and she looks, weirdly enough, genuinely confused as she touches the bruise on his arm and coos in apology as he flinches. 
“Father is just stressed.” Adrien parrots back his mother’s usual spiel after his dad does something less than exemplary. “It’s just how she is, it’s okay.”
"It 's not okay.” His mother says right away. “I’m supposed to not let anything hurt you, Adrien.” 
She says that with such a passion that he can believe she actually means it. But instead of the elation he expected when he heard it, all he felt was a surge of anger. Because why now? After all those moments when she scolded him for avoiding his father or not looking him in the eye, why now?
“There isn’t anything we can do about it, is there?.” He snaps, echoing her words to him from what felt like yesterday. 
She deflated. “I’m sorry. There isn’t.”
-
His father went away from a trip again and his mother, once again, decided to stay. 
Spending time with his mother during father’s trip was great, especially since she was in such a good mood and looking much healthier than she did these days. She lets him have an extra scoop of ice cream for dessert as soon as Nathalie turns her back on them, she spends the whole day playing with him in the garder, she helps with his homework and makes him a snack between classes. They play the piano together, making up different tunes and giggling. 
“Don’t I have to practice this?” He asked, pointing to the sheets of the classical song he was supposed to learn. 
His mother wrinkled her nose.
“You already work too hard, Adrien, it’s nice to have some fun once in a while.” She said, twisting her wedding ring on her finger. She usually didn’t wear it when spending time with him, only when she spent time with father, so it caught his attention. “Besides, nobody has to know.” 
They watch a movie he picked that night. His mother rarely did that and when she did, she was very picky about it. Artist stuff, he supposed. This time he got to choose, though, and he picked on based on a manga he liked, Astroboy. His mother seemed excited in the beginning, but her mood quickly subdued as the movie went on. 
“Are you not liking it?” He whispered to her and she shook her head.
“I am, baby, don’t worry. Are you?”
“Yeah. It's not really like the manga, but I like it.” He said. “I just think it’s a little unfair, you know. How he doesn’t know he isn’t really the scientist’s son, that he’s just a robot.”
His mother’s arms tighten around him. “I don’t think it’s unfair.”
“Really?” Adrien watched as the images from the screen played on his mother’s blue eyes.
“Really.” She repeated. “Him knowing would be crueler.”
-
At age ten, Adrien is awakened on a rainy night by his mother shaking him.
It was the night his father was supposed to come back from a trip and he had spent a fun day with his mother, studying and playing (“You need both to be a healthy boy, Adrien!” She grinned at him and he beamed back at her). His mother had looked a little skittish earlier, looking over her shoulder often only to just find Natahalie and fidgeting with the ring on her hand, that she usually wore every time his father was traveling. She wouldn't tell him what was wrong and insisted she hadn’t been sick. Nevertheless, he worried. 
“Mother, what’s wrong?” He asked, sleepiness fading away as he noticed how frantic she looked. 
“Adrien, I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Every moment I’ve been conscious, it’s been on my mind. Can you trust me?” She asked him, stroking his head with the hand that wore her wedding ring, and he nodded. “I need you to pack a small bag and come with me, okay? We’re going on a trip, just you and me.”
“A trip?” It was all he ever wanted, but the look in his mother’s blue eyes made him hesitate. “Is everything okay?”
“No, baby.” She said, kissing the top of his head. “But it will be. Hurry up, I need you to pack while I handle some things. Meet me downstairs in five minutes, okay?”
With anyone else, even his father, he would have asked more questions. This was his beloved mother, though, so he just got up and started to pack his clothes and some of his stuff that he couldn’t do a few days without. He carefully closed his door, running down the stair and to his mother by the door. She looked damp, her outfit changed and an umbrella hanging by her feet along with some bags. 
“Adrien?” She asked, turning her green eyes to him. In her left hand, she held her wedding ring.
“Mother? Are you okay?” He asked, noting how much paler and shakier she looked than when he saw her upstairs. 
“Yes, of course.” His mother said as she put her wedding ring back on. “Whatever I said to you upstairs, forget it, okay?”
“W-what?”
“I didn’t know what I was saying.” She said, eyes staring straight at her ring. “Don’t worry, it won’t happen again. Go back to bed, baby. Your father is back earlier than expected and he won’t like to see you up so late. ”
He nodded, unwilling to argue, and took his bag back with him to his room. His mother suddenly acting weird and standoffish wasn’t anything new, it was fine. She would go back to being his sweet, kind mother soon enough. He was sure of it. 
(She never did.)
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luvluvnitrodynamite · 3 years
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random dates with jujutsu kaisen characters
ft. itadori yuuji, fushiguro megumi, kugisaki nobara, zenin maki, inumaki toge, nanami kento, and gojou satoru
g/n!reader (except maybe for maki but that's more personal pref)
itadori yuuji - "hey!-", you were essentially muted as itadori plops a strawberry in your mouth. you bite down, wrinkling your nose up at him in fake upset. he just smiles and laugh, as you drop the pout and laugh with him. you two were on a picnic, drinking lemonade and watching the hours melt away into the sunny sky. currently, you two were demolishing a carton of strawberries, the green tops abandoned on a plate next to you. you swallowed, relishing the sweetness lingering on your tongue.
taking one last berry, itadori reclined and sprawled on the blanket while putting his hands behind his head. you laid down on the blanket next to him, placing your head on his chest. he glanced down at you and took one of your hands in his, his thumb starting to trace gentle circles on your palm. with your free hand, you pointed up to the clouds in the sky. "that one looks like a bus," you suggested. "mmm, i think it looks like a log," he responds. "that one looks like a cat." "i think it looks like a log." "ok, that one looks like a tree." "mmmmmmm i think it looks like a log," he says again. "yuuji, you think all of them look like logs," you say. you can feel his laugh bubbling in his chest as he says, "because all of them do look like logs." he points up at the sky at different clouds, "that one does....and that one does....i think these are actually all logs in disguise." you playfully swat his hand and turn your head up at him, saying, "you need to use your imagination a bit. if you're only looking for logs, all you're going to find is logs."
instead of responding, itadori shifts forward and captures your mouth in soft kiss. you respond, pushing your lips against his in a sweet dance. his tongue finds its way into your mouth, deepening the kiss. his hand has slipped out of yours and now is on the small of your back, pushing you closer into him. he smiles into the kiss, pausing. "what?" you ask, temporarily affixing your head above his. "nothing," he responds, "i just hope we can stay like this for a little while longer."
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fushiguro megumi - he's is nursing a cup of black tea in a porcelain cup and saucer, while he chews on a black ballpoint pen. fushiguro is in a cafe across the street, but you can see him through the window. as you walk in, the bell above the door jingles and he glances up at you. he smiles and clears a pile of papers, making room for you at the table. you sit down across from him, noticing that he's already ordered a cup of tea and a croissant for you.
"hey 'gumi. what'cha up to?" you ask, lifting the cup to your lips. "working on this latest batch, but it's tough. did you bring your stuff?" he asks. you pull out a small notebook, untying the ribbon that holds the pages shut. "of course i did, i want your feedback on my latest poems," you respond. "this is the most recent one i wrote." in the garden of my mind/you sink my heart into my soul/blooming into something unknown/glassy eyes speaking of that garden untold is what you hand to him. he furrows his brow as he reads over the lines, once, twice, three....ohmygod how many times is he going to read it? is it bad??? you catch your lip between your teeth as you wait for his critiques, anxiously tapping your fingers against the table. finally, he looks up to you. "i like the use of garden as a metaphor, but i think you could expand on it more. it's a short poem so i know you don't have much room, but i'm really fixed on this idea of a garden. what grows there? who takes care of it?" he questions. his brows is still furrowed and you can practically see the wheels turning behind his poofy hair.
you smile over at him saying, "well, megumi i think you already know the answer to your questions." he blushes and looks out the window. the wheels are turning in his head again, but for a different reason. you know fushiguro isn't exactly the greatest with his feelings, so you give him a minute. he still gets flustered when you even allude to loving him, it's so removed from his own view of himself that he needs to take a minute to process. in the meantime, you rip off a fluffy piece of croissant and feel the buttery layers melt on your tongue. you look out the window, quietly drifting off to another world. "did you want to read my poem?" he asks, snapping you back to reality. you nod, picking up the piece of paper he passes you. your eyes focus on the first line: i love you.
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kugisaki nobara - you love nobara, you honestly do, but sometimes you forget about that when she gets in a yelling match with the man at the ice cream truck. you're pulling your hat over your head, hoping to spontaneously melt into a puddle while the two of them go back and forth. "i don't know what you want me to say! i'm sorry i gave the wrong flavor to them, but i can't change it," the vendor says exasperatedly. nobara wrinkles up her nose in disgust at the vendor, retorting, "this business is absolutely shameful. i come all the way here for ice cream, and you can't even properly fulfill my order. what if i reported you to the better business bureau? hmmm? would you be a bit more cooperative then?"
yeah, it's been going on like this for a few minutes. you think you're going to evaporate into thin air when you realize the arguing has stopped and nobara is on her way back. and...omg...she's holding a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone!! you immediately perk up. "you got it!" you exclaim, quickly taking the cone from her. you take a bite (do you bite ice cream???? lick??? v unsure), and faux-swoon at how good it is. forgetting your previous embarrassment, you swiftly press a kiss to nobara's lips as a thank-you. "thank you nobara, this was so sweet of you!" her face deeply reddens, every ounce of toughness from the earlier altercation dissipated. she tosses her hair, trying to play it off. "oh, you know, it wasn't difficult. you just had to ask nicely." you smile at her, suddenly wanting to pay her back for the embarrassment she dealt you before.
before she can react, you quickly leave a flurry of kisses all over her face. you zing from her cheeks to her nose to her lips to her forehead and back around so fast it makes her dizzy. if you thought she was red before, she's somehow gone an even deeper shade of brick. now she's the one pulling her hat down over her head. "y/n!! cut it out, we're in public!" she hisses at you, but there's no real venom behind it. "sorry, i couldn't help it. you just looked too pretty to resist," you say, and start walking toward the city. even through the brim of her hat, nobara can see you walking away. before catching up, she's rooted in place wondering how on earth she got so lucky.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
zenin maki - "y/n, i look stupid. can i take this off?" you smile at her, only your head sticking out from your door. "nope!!," you gleefully respond. maki stands outside your room with an annoyed look and crossed arms, wearing the maid outfit you dropped off at her house this morning. you quickly close the door and speedily drag your socks up your thighs and tuck the matching headband into your hair. admiring yourself in the mirror one last time, you opened the door and shyly step out in your own maid outfit. "how do i look?," you say, tucking a lock of hair behind your ear.
maki.pdf has crashed. her eyes flick up and down your body, a slight blush forming on her pearlescent cheeks. you note her silence and flounce over to her. tucking your hands behind your back and rocking on your heels, you lean forward. "maaaaaaaaki," you languish in her name, dragging out the syllables. "cat got your tongue?" she snaps back to the real world, a coy smile on her lips. she moves swiftly, and before you know it she's pressed up against you with a hand on your lower back and the other hand tilting your chin up at her. "of course not, darling, but i wouldn't mind getting yours," she says, gently stroking her thumb over your lips. you momentarily flush, a pretty pink haze spreading over your face. you wiggle out of her hold and kiss the tip of her nose, before dashing down the hallway.
confused, maki watches as you return with...a broom. "c'mon! maids clean, don't they?" you say as you hand her the broom. maki bemusedly watches as you pull out a rag and a can of pledge. "y/n. you called me here, with a maid outfit, so we could clean your house?" she ask. "yep!". oh my. maki watches as you spray chemicals over the table, then polish it clean with the rag. fuck it, she starts sweeping your hallway. "am i even going to get anything out of this?", whining, she stops sweeping. you pause and smile. "of course maki. after all, i have to pay you for your services." maki smirks at you, resting her hands and head on top of the broom. "oh? and what would that be?" she says, raising her eyebrows. "anything you want." maki's smirk deepens, and she goes back to sweeping. "and if i want you?" you too go back to your cleaning. "well, in that case, i suppose you have to do a really good job of cleaning."
your house has never looked cleaner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
inumaki toge - you dip your paintbrush into the water, swirling it around and making sure it was clean before dipping it into bubblegum-colored paint. inumaki sits on the other side of you, though part of him is obscured by his easel. you would have asked him to move a few hours ago, but luckily you were almost done painting him. the sun was starting to set, so the colors of the setting were changing a bit but you were sure inumaki wouldn't care too much if you took some artistic liberties. you added the pink streaks in the clouds, trying to fluff them up as much as possible and make them look sweet. you frowned as you went a bit too far, having to clean your paintbrush and then touch up the painting with white.
finally, a few more mistakes and fixes later, you think you're satisfied with your work. it was a portrait of inumaki, sitting on his artist's stool with the blue sky and green hill in the background. a few hours ago it would have been an almost perfect rendering of the scene, save for the fact that you decided to paint him without his trademark collar over his face. you happened to love the seal on his face and tongue, but his covering of it made him more insecure about it as time went on. as he got used to seeing his face without it, he wondered if it would just be better if he didn't have a seal on his face at all. now he barely pulls down his collar, only ever to shout out cursed speech commands. "toge can we see each others' paintings now?" you ask. "okaka!" he responds. you sigh and say, "okay, let me know when you're done." you continue to add a few more cursory details until you hear "takana!" from the other easel. you poke your head around, asking, "do you want me to go first?" inumaki nods, and gets up.
you hold your breath as he walks over to survey your work. you feel him stop behind you and just...stare. no tsunamayo, no sujiko, not even an okaka. "what do you think?" you ask. he says nothing, and just points to his painted mouth. you look at him and feel a little bit crushed; he doesn't look angry or anything, but rather a little deflated. "are you upset i painted the curse seal?" you ask him. he responds with a slightly desolate "okaka" and your chest clutches a little bit. you wanted to show him how pretty he was with the seal, but you supposed you would have to go a bit further. "toge can you come a little closer?" he complies and moves right next to you. you quickly jump off the stool and clasp his face in your hands. slowly, you pull down his collar, revealing the seal. you hold his gaze for a moment longer, and then gently press kisses along the surface of the curse. you make sure to touch every angle, feeling the heat of his skin rise each new time your lips touch the curse. you pull your head back and say, "i think the curse seal is pretty. the way it curves along your cheek is just gorgeous, it's such a rich shade of black, and it looks the best when i see you smile. but most of all, you make it look pretty. i like the curse seal because it's a part of you." inumaki softly smiles when he hears this, and just wraps you up into a hug. you two stay like that for a minute or two, interrupted only by "can i see your painting of me now?" "shake."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
nanami kento - you two are at home in the kitchen. normally you both take turns cooking and cleaning, but tonight you decided to make dinner together. nanami is cutting up vegetables for your curry, while you focus on cooking the chicken in the sauce. soft music plays while a delicious aroma fills the room. nanami finishes cutting up the vegetables, neatly zooshing them into the pan with the knife. you add coconut milk and spices, stirring as the sizzling gets loud, and then gently recedes into a soft bubbling. you watch the pan carefully as nanami shifts behind you, wrapping his arms around your front. his face rests on your shoulder as you both watch the pan bubble away.
he gently bites your ear, asking, "how was your day?". your hand comes up to rest on his cheek, sighing contently. "fine. i was a bit busy, but nothing out of the ordinary. how was yours?". nanami sighs, the air lusciously dancing around your ear. "mmmmmm...annoying. or, more aptly, gojou was." you laugh, imaging all the ways the he could have been a nuisance. "is that so?," you say. "yes, but i don't want to dwell on it. work is work, and i'd rather focus on my time outside of it," nanami says. "like focusing on you," he breathes into your ear. he gently spins you around so that you're facing him, and pulls you closer to his body. he wraps his arms around your back, and you wrap your arms around his neck. you two begin to softly dance to the music, not even moving from the spot you're currently in. it's not perfect dancing by any standards; in fact, you think you're off-beat. still, with nanami humming in your ear and such a comforting aura surrounding you, you don't really think it matters.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
gojou satoru - for once, you two aren't running around and acting crazy. instead, you've just woken up to rain pattering on the window and cloudy skies overhead. gojou is still asleep in bed, blindfold slipped over his face with his closed eyes revealed to the world. you smile, enjoying the sight. it's not often you two get time to just be together, with gojou being gone all the time, his students needing his attention, and your own life and responsibilities. you slip out of the room and into the kitchen, cutting up fruit and making coffee. you bring it back into the room, the smell waking up your drowsy boyfriend. crystalline eyes look up at you, filled with love and adoration. you sit on the bed as he sits up, passing him a plate and a mug.
"hey, i just had the craziest dream," he says, mouth full of raspberries. "oh? would you like to tell me about it?," you respond, sipping your coffee. gojou smirks at you. "well, normally i would say to never tell a bad dream before breakfast because that's the surest way to make it come true, but i don't believe in that, and anyways i could kick the dream curse's ass if it came to it. so, itadori is a woman, and sukuna keeps taking over to play with boobs, right?". he rambles on, and you think he's actually making some of this up on the fly, but it's entertaining and you don't want to interrupt him. he tells you the whole story, and by the end you've both finished your breakfast. you're still laughing at the part where inumaki is left at the alter by nobara chasing after maki, when he picks up your plate and mug and places it on the little table beside the bed.
"satoru, what are you-," you're interrupted as he swiftly pulls you into his lap, your back flush against his chest. confused, he hands you the book on the side table while he picks up a stack of reports. he opens them and starts reading, while you look at him in confusion. he apprehensively pauses and looks at you. "we don't get to have a lot of quiet time like this," he hesitantly explains, "so i thought we could just do something with each other, even if it's just reading. i have to read these reports and you wanted to finish that book anyway, so i thought we could start like this." he smiles down at you, and it's like he shoots warmth straight into your chest and fans it out to the tips of your fingers, toes, and eyelashes. you ghost his cheek with a kiss and burrow into his chest. "of course, 'toru. this is absolutely perfect." you feel his chest skip a beat through your skin, and try to hid your smile. you open your book while he resumes his reports, and bask in the comfort of shared love.
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been a while since i posted a fic update! anyone wanna read some cowboy au nonsense? sure you do! well here it is
The blinding, unforgiving midday heat is enough to raise blisters on the skin. Looking out over a crowd of folks booing him, calling for his demise, probably should have had some kind of emotional impact. On the occasion of one’s death, after all, one does expect tears. Flowers, laid out in lace, dark veils and coal black clothes, a few muffled sobs from those further back in the funerary procession, unable to contain themselves. Instead he’s met with the dusty faces of former neighbors and strangers alike, all eagerly waiting to hear the exact tone and pitch that his neck will make when it snaps.
Bored, he turns his attention from the crowd, and watches a lizard scurry across the wooden planks of the gallows, as a man to his right fits a rough bit of rope around his neck. It scratches, but he doesn’t react, not feeling frightened or even especially interested. A similar rough twine is binding his hands together behind his back, keeping him from having any viable way to save himself. The crowd is calling for blood now. Hangings generally are not gorey affairs, but he did once see a drop too sudden and a rope so long that the fella wasn’t just hung, he was decapitated. Beetlejuice glances back down at the crowd, tries to imagine what direction his head would roll if that happened here, and smirks, because it seems to him the last thing he’d see would be the view from inside the skirts of some of the women standing front and center. Not the worst last sight a man could have. “You think you could hurry this along?” he asks the man fitting the noose around his neck. “Sun’s beatin’ down somethin’ fierce an’ I ain’t got my hat.” His personal possessions are back at the sheriff’s office- hat, bandana, silver plated, pearl handled pistol, and his custom belt buckle, just about the nicest, and maybe only, thing he ever paid for. God damn corrupt lawman’s probably gonna pawn his stuff as soon as he’s swinging. Maybe before. Maybe his last worldly possessions are already gone. S’not like he’ll need them, where he’s goin.
A face he recognizes is led up from the crowd, an ancient wizened body tanned for years by the all too eager sunlight and scorching sands. It’s the local preacher, who he remembers from his formative years. The old man used to give him bread and plain, unseasoned chicken in return for listening to him talk about god, and if he hadn’t been nearly starved to death half the time, he might have spat in the old man’s face. Shouldn't charity be done for the sake of charity, not proselytizing? He’d said so once, and that was the last meal the old miser had given him. Jackass.
“Beetlejuice,” the preacher begins. His name is said with disdain and a curled upper lip. It’s one of the reasons he chose it, honestly. “You still have time to repent, young man. I remember you, as a child, bright eyed, curious about the kingdom of heaven.” Well now, that’s the very definition of taking artist liberty. “Now, here, you have one more chance to repent, to accept god’s mercy, and avoid the lake of fire.” The crowd is watching, waiting to see if he will confess his remorse. Beetlejuice hums, rocks on the balls of his feet, and then sighs. “.. C’mere,” He mumbles, jerking his head to indicate the old man should step closer. The holy man does. “I got a lot to confess to, preacher man, an’ not much time.” His voice is soft. The ailing man can’t hear him, steps closer, if only a little. “So much to confess to, in fact, I oughta just… Skip th’ whole thing an’ go straight to hell!” And Beetlejuice reels back, and then slams his forehead into the old man’s face. The sickeningly satisfying crunch of cartilage tells him he’s broken the preacher’s nose, as the elderly man falls back, crying out in pain, blood gushing from his new wound. The crowd roars, furious, and he grins, and laughs. “Ain’t no good extendin’ your pious pity to me!” he calls, gleeful, as he’s pelted with whatever the people watching can get their hands on, and the old man is helped, taken away, led off of the platform. “Enough, enough, we will have order!” a lawman cries, coming up the gallow steps, to stand in front of the outlaw. It’s enough to get the crowd to settle, or at least stop throwing things. There’s still a bad energy in the air, which Beetlejuice can taste on the tip of his tongue. His smile is rictus, he’s delighted to be the cause of it all.
“This man has been tried and found guilty,” the lawman continues. The trial had been very short, and his incarceration shorter. He understands he’s being made an example of to other outlaws, bandits, and trouble makers. They intentionally didn’t give him any time to plan anything, or for any coconspirators to come and assist him. Joke’s on them. They could have taken all the time in the world. Ain’t nobody alive who cares for this outlaw. Not a soul who would dare to come and stage a rescue. He’s utterly alone. “He’s allowed his last words. Clearly,” the lawman turns, eyes Beetlejuice, who smiles flirtatiously. The other man’s expression shifts from annoyance to disgust. “He’s disavowed the advice of Pastor Neighbors.” “M’not so sure you’re usin’ that word right, friend,” Beetlejuice snorts, but he’s ignored. “Any last words?” the hangman to his right asks, his hand itching to grip the lever that will drop the floor and finally, finally, release the outlaw from the confines of mortal life.
Beetlejuice grins.
“If any of you have a message for th’ devil, give it to me!” he shouts, with a cackle, and he watches in rapt and morbid delight at the way the faces in the crowd twist. “I’ll carry it down to hell for you!” The crowd is furious enough it almost seems to him they’re going to storm the platform, and maybe beat him to death. The wave of gasps from the women folk is particularly amusing.
“Enough of this!” He hears the voice of the lawman, disgusted, and the hangman must agree, because the last thing he hears is the lever being thrown, and the floor gives out under him, and he’s falling, falling, falling.
His ass hits a chair.
There’s a moment of blinded confusion, because he's gone from the unbearable dusty sun of midday California, to a cool, dark, musty smelling interior. His eyes need a moment to adjust to the change. He’s sitting in a room he doesn’t recognize. The chair under him is plush, but just thin seated enough to be a tad uncomfortable. He squirms in it, confused, and finds his hands are still tied behind his back. He turns his head. Seated across from him is a young woman.. Well, little girl might be more accurate, she’s maybe fourteen. There’s a wicked looking hoofprint emblazoned on her right temple. The blood that’s leaking from the wound has gone a sickly old color. They stare at each other. “Did that hurt?” she asks, first, and he squints, because he’d been about to ask the same question. Her hand has gone to her throat, as she looks at him, and he looks down, pressing his fat face into his fat neck to create an unflattering double chin as he does so. He can feel the rope around his neck. He follows the line of it with his eyes, and turns to look up. The rope travels up from him, into the ceiling. It’s still taught, like he’s suspended by it, but his ass is touching chair, his boots are on the ground, and he doesn’t feel choked by it’s presence. He tuts. “Didn’t feel a thing. That hurt?” he tries to gesture to her wound, but again, he’s reminded his hands are bound behind him. She stands. “Hurt a bit, but then I got so dizzy I didn’t hardly feel it, after,” she tells him, and then, like the good little frontierswoman she is, she produces a knife from inside some pocket in the volume of her skirts, and gratefully, he leans forward. She rests a knee on one of the chairs, to get a better angle, as she uses her bowie to cut through the rope at his wrists. “Awful kind of you, half pint,” he tells her, and she smiles. “Ain’t nothin.” She settles into the chair next to him, which is a little surprising, but he doesn’t mind, over all. “You’re an outlaw, then?” she asks. He grunts, and then turns to face her, with a grin. “You probably heard of me. They called me Th’ Ghost, on occasion, cause I could slip away without bein’ caught-” he watches her eyes travel up the line of his noose, and then settle back on his face, a little less impressed than she ought to be. He responds by pinching her nose, and she swats at his hand, and laughs. “I do think I heard of you,” she concedes. “I’m Presley.” “Presley, alright. You got a clue where we are, kiddo?” “I just was told to wait.” “Told by who?”
Across the room, a window he hadn’t registered as being there slides open. This place vaguely resembles a bank, he realizes, and so that means that’s the teller’s window. A woman with a tired expression on a pretty face peers out at him. “Hey, dead beat,” she calls, her accent thick around the words. “Juno wants to see you.” He motions to himself, questioningly. She raises an eyebrow in silent confirmation. “Should I care?” he asks, and her upper lip curls in the most beautiful version of a sneer he’s ever seen. “You’re real funny. Get in there before she loses her temper.” And she reaches up, and slams the window shut.
He looks to Presley, and they both share a little shrug, before he stands, and takes a step. The rope going through the ceiling moves with him, not along any visible track, that he can see, but seeming rather more like a toy balloon on a string, bobbing along as though after a child winding their way through the crowd of a state fair. There’s a door by the teller’s window, and he makes for it, only for the window to slide open again, and that beautiful face to reappear. She looks him over, not seeming particularly impressed, but also not outright cruel. “Where’s your handbook?” she asks. Beetlejuice tilts his head. It lolls a little comically to one side, presumably because his neck is broken. She sighs, pinches the bridge of her nose. “You can’t be serious. You didn’t bring your handbook?” “Listen, lady, even if I had whatever book you’re talkin about, I couldn’t read it,” he counters, and she pauses, at that. “Illiterate. Of course. What’s even the point of the handbook when so many folks can’t read it?” she mutters to herself, and then she waives him at the door, the conversation apparently over. Alright.
The door, predictably, leads to a hallway, a bit unlike anything he’s ever seen before, in terms of sheer length of the thing. It twists around like a snake, and the number of doors along the hall leads him to believe wherever he is, it’s massive. The hallway is empty, save for a man at the far end, mopping, and there doesn’t seem to be anything around for him to tuck into his pockets. Too bad, he mopes, as he carries himself down the hall, boots clacking in a way he finds tactile and pleasant. He passes the custodian, who stares at the floor behind him and sighs, and Beetlejuice looks back to see a mess of dusty footprints he’s left on a previously slightly damp but otherwise pristine floor. With a snort, he spits into the bucket of mop water, and the other man jumps back, disgusted, as Beetlejuice cackles, and continues his leisurely walk down the hall.
At a certain point he realizes he’s got no idea where he’s going, but it doesn’t especially matter. Wherever he is now, whatever version of the afterlife this is, because clearly, that’s what this is, it doesn’t seem to be fire and brimstone and all that bullshit, so he takes it easy, opening doors at random and peeking through. The things he sees don’t always make sense to him, feel like they’re out of place from the world as he knows it. He opens one door, and suddenly he’s staring at what must be a city, but the buildings are so tall they’re touching the sky, going up past the clouds, up into the heaven he doesn’t believe can really be up there. The people are dressed strangely, men and women wandering around in little more than underclothes, which he likes, instantly, and the streets are black with painted yellow lines, instead of dust and earth. Some kind of metal.. Something, a trolley without a track, moves on it’s own down the street, and he catches a glimpse of faces inside. He gets lost in the contents of this door, staring for a long time, entranced, and then it’s slammed suddenly. He turns, catches sight of the custodian with his hand on the door, and growls, an animalistic sound he didn’t know he could do. And then he stops, and turns to look, because the custodian is still a ways behind him, mopping with spit water. It’s the same man. “You don’t need to go poking your snout into places it doesn’t belong,” the man says, simply, and then in a blink, both versions of him are gone from the hallway. Maybe that’s just an… afterlife thing.
He reaches, after what feels like a boring and dragging eternity of twenty whole minutes, a set of saloon doors, the swinging kind. There’s a void of blackness behind them, but the draw he feels is unmistakable, and he pushes them open, and walks through. Instead of a room black as ink, he finds himself… standing on the wooden porch of a bar he remembers frequenting fairly often, in his younger days. At least, he has clear memories of walking into the bar. How and when and why he ended up outside of it, well… whiskey has a hell of an effect on a man’s memory. It’s a fairly chilly desert night. The chirping of crickets and the long ways away lonely baying of a dog is a sort of familiar comfort, but god damn it, he’s just left this world. He wasn’t intending on coming back to it, ever. The dusty streets are dim, illuminated only by the moon, the stars, and the few lamps still burning in windows. The town is quiet.
On the dirt road in front of him is a woman, staring at him. She’s small, older, nicely dressed, with hair shorter than he’s ever seen on a lady, and a mouth sort of like a toad, long and downturned. There’s an unlit cigarette between her fingers. She’s watching him, curious and apathetic all at once. He returns the look. “Juno, then?” he grunts, stepping off the porch. No dust lifts when his boots hit the unpaved road, which he notes. Maybe he’s not really here. Maybe he’s a ghost. Fitting.
“Lawrence “Beetlejuice” Shoggoth,” she says, as he comes to stand in front of her. “Took you long enough. You realize I’ve been waiting here for days. You get lost, or something?” Her tone is sharp, like a schoolmarm with too much on her hands and not enough energy for it all. He feels a little sheepish, if only because no, he hadn’t realized that. “Gimme a break,” he says, instead of an apology. “I just died.” “Like that makes you special,” she huffs, and then, waving her unlit cigarette in his face, machine rolled, not hand, he notes, she asks, “Have you got a match?” He produces one from one of the many pockets of his moss green duster, strikes it on his thumb, and holds it up for her. She has the decency to look grateful, as she leans in, cigarette to her lips, and lights it from that little flame. “So,” she exhales smoke, and it curls from the corner of her lips, and out a previously unspotted slash to her throat. No wondering how she died, then. Speaking of, he glances up, to see that his noose is no longer floating above his head, and turning, he catches sight of it dragging on the ground behind him, long and snake-like in the way it’s twisted and coiled. Juno snaps her long red nails in his face, brings his attention back to her. “You weren’t supposed to die, you know. You’ve mucked things up for me.” “Whut?” he grunts, a bit thrown. She rubs her temples. “You were supposed to go in your seventies. Catch tuberculosis and wither away in obscurity. How old are you?” “Thirty four, or abouts,” he croaks, and she takes another drag. “You let yourself be caught,” she accuses. Well.. yeah. But how the hell does she know that? “I got pinned down in a shootout. Lucky they didn’t blow my head off, right then.” “You’ve gotten out of worse.” She looks almost.. Disappointed. “And then you put down your weapons, instead of fighting it out.” “I was surrounded.” “You were sloppy.” “What’s it to you, anyway?” he growls, again low and animalistic, which Juno ignores, as she walks circles around him, studying him. “You let yourself be caught, and you let yourself be hung. You didn’t even try to get away. You might not have killed yourself, but you let them kill you, for you,” she says. “And it’s giving me a hell of a time, both because it’s changed you, and because I have to put you somewhere, Beetlejuice, and now no one knows where you should go.” “So what does that mean?” “It means, my little statistical outlier, that you’re going to be staying up here, probably a lot broader a time than it would have taken you to just live your life and die at seventy,” she sighs, rubbing at her forehead. “Which is a shame. Because.. I was looking forward to.. To you. And now we both have to wait longer,” and here, she finishes her circle of him, to stand face to face with him again, and she flicks his ear, the way he always imagined an frustrated mother might. “Because you gave up. You weren’t supposed to give up.” “Wasn't much worth livin’ for,” he says, and it’s got more emotion behind it than he meant to give it. Juno’s hand goes to her throat, and she looks pained. “I guess that’s an inherited trait,” her voice is soft, and he squints at her, confused. Instead of giving him any context for that, she points down the dusty main road. Shining under the moonlight, he can see, vaguely, a dark shape suspended in air, near the gallows. “Go put your suit back on,” she says dryly. “And try not to cause enough trouble that I have to come up here and get after you, understood?” “What part of outlaw ain’t you gettin?” he snorts, and she responds by giving him an affectionate pat to his scruffy cheek, before she takes another drag, and vanishes inside the swirling smoke. He’s left standing on his own.
His “suit” is still hanging, he notes, looking up at himself. He’s strung up on a tall pole by the platform, leaving it free for more use, if need be, with his body on display as a gruesome reminder for potential criminals that this is a hanging town, and they’ve even hung their most despised son. His neck is bent at an ugly angle, a little bulge at the side betraying how exactly his bones had shattered, and his skin has gone a bad color, gray and foul looking. But aside from that, he’s not rotted the way he would think he ought to be. Juno’d said she’d been waiting for days, presumably meaning it has been days since his death, but his body is looking remarkably unbuzzard pecked and unrotted. He shimmies up the pole he’s hung from, his ghostly noose trailing behind him, and the moment he touches his own boot, the world spins, going upside down and inside out in a way that’s too painful to try and perceive.
“Gahh-” says Beetlejuice, because he’s back in his body, which is still being hung by that god damn noose, and he realizes, annoyed, that he has no way of cutting himself down. He kicks, pointlessly, one hand going to the rope at his neck, to clutch it and try to keep it from choking himself again, and the other grabbing at the rope further up, gripping it to pull himself up, give himself some slack, instead of hanging taught. It’s not the most coordinated he’s ever been. At least there’s no one around to watch him struggle.
“Holy shit, the body’s movin!” he hears someone holler. Oh, come on.
Read the rest, right over HERE
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jiminrings · 3 years
Note
BALLOON ANIMAL ARTIST JK I JUST FEEL LIKE HE WOULD BE REALLY GOOD AT IT AND MAKE YOU A FLOWER THEN ASK YOU ON A DATE
baby i love u and your big sexy brain <3 welcome to waikiki meets hospital playlist dynamic ft. balloon artist!jk
“who’s a good baby? is it you? iS IT YOU????”
you’d be the first one to admit that you had an exhausting horrible night
being a nurse sUCKS the life out of you and as much as it’s fulfilling, you almost always feel the urge to admit yourself to the ER for being extremely fatigued
it’s all worth it!! it should be
after all, paying for a mansion in an exclusive village and sharing it with your friends doeS warrant some elbow grease
seokjin works in wall street and sometimes he comes home crying but it’s okay because you do have an expensive fridge that everyone worked overtime for <3
hoseok’s a veterinary assistant and is your trusty friend who always sends in pictures of the animals that come in to cheer you up while at work
namjoon’s a painter by passion and accountant by profession!! he does only come out with a few pieces at a time but mAN does it rake in the money
jimin’s a flight attendant and does everyone the pleasure of securing either free or discounted tickets, and bringing home unused airline towels to dry off the dishes!!
lastly, taehyung’s someone you can call a former trustfund baby or somewhat :O the last big chunk of money he spent from his fund was the downpayment and security deposit for this mansion!!!
it’s a long story and he’s currently all over the place but he’s finding regular jobs!! his latest gig was working at a high-end ice cream place but he immediately quit once he learned that he needed to put his back into it and not just scoop up ice cream like he did in his dreams :((
most importantly, taehyung has a baby :-)
he’s a dad!! a single one at that
it’s truly a LONG story but the bottomline is that he has nabi, his cutest little dumpling!! and he has all of you, his friends who didn’t hesitate to step up as nabi’s parents in a way too even if he didn’t ask any of you
you all love the chunky monkey so much that you’ve all taken the liberty to call him your baby at times and tae doesn’t even mind!! nabi’s so lucky (he hopes) to have him as a dad and his friends as his cool uncles and aunt
nevertheless, you indeed had a bad night working the night shift and came home to nabi’s birthday party just in time!! :D
he turned two years old at midnight and even if you weren’t physically present at the mansion like the guys were (they requested their leaves two months earlier) because of being understaffed, you were able to see him and tae blow out multiple cakes that each one bought him
seeing him giggle at your arms just by doing the bare minimum makes you full already <3
all your exhaustion is melted away because it’s your favorite toddler’s birthday party!! the party that you all insisted on shelling out for that made tae almost cry bc of how much you all love his son
“jimin i am not sewing your forehead up when you end up falling in the wrong angle,” you roll your eyes at him who’s currently doing backflips in the bouncy house that managed to fit in the mansion
“hoseok can!!” he yells back and backflips twice in a row, much to the actual children’s amusement and your worry
“i will NOT stitch you up! the thread i have is for the pregnant dogs only!!!”
everyone’s entertaining guests left and right, including taehyung who’s the dad of the little man of the hour :D
he keeps pointing at nabi who’s currently in your arms every ten seconds and it’s now your job to make him giggle every single time to wave at the people
“what do you want, monkey? do you want some ice cream? i won’t tell your dad,” you eagerly ask the wide-eyed baby in your arms, pointing at the ice cream cart that namjoon probably ordered
“no thank you!” nabi cutely aND politely declines, his head shaking no and his speech and pronunciation getting clearer day by day
most of the time though he says it like tHANK YEWWWW and you would immediately grin every time because it’s the cutest thing ever
“hmm, look at that!! face painting!! do you want some butterflies?”
you point at yet another station that you guess seokjin arranged, knowing that at some point into this party, he’d all drag you in here to get matching marks or something lol
nabi once again declines, his eyes searching around that makes you do the same on what you could do to entertain him
he has the same habit down like taehyung and loudly gASPS, pointing his finger and almost shrieking in excitement
“bawoo — balloon!!! balloon!!!”
:O
it is now your life purpose to walk as fast as you could to this balloon station with nabi bouncing up and down your arm in excitement
jungkook’s having the time of his life here :D
normally he’s mostly called in the holiday season and occasionally at big birthday parties (the one where like two sides of the family share every baby’s first birthday party lmao) throughout the year!!
but he’s never had a client who requested him for a singular birthday party!! let alone at a hOUSE
ok maybe that was an understatement
he means a mansion
if he’s being quite honest, the mr. park jimin he spoke to on the phone sounded too kind that he just mistakened him for a party planner or something
he immediately said yes because he had no on-site bookings for that day, or even the week perhaps, and expected to stroll into a carnival in the middle of an executive village
aha :D jungkook is wrong :D
jimin met him by the front door wherein a lot of people are already crossing paths such as catering and not to mention the bouncy house you cAN’T miss, and just briefly touched in on the situation
“oh no, i’m not the dad, man — but thanks!! i’m his uncle. nabi’s dad is my friend, taehyung. and me and my friends, including taehyung, all live here. we’re all like family, basically.”
jungkook saw the other stations invited and he expected that his would have less children y’know?? bouncy house, ice cream station, facepainting, hotdog cart aND magic show???? yeah <3
but god is he wrong
the children are in a single-file line for hIM and his balloon artistry!!! the requests range from pretzels to pirate hats to chandeliers with the bulbs as smiley faces!!!
he’s managed to do all of them so far and he’s now made a decent dent on the line of children waiting for him
jungkook is a happy and content balloon artist :D
“EXCUSE ME! BIRTHDAY BOY COMING THROUGH!!”
oh my god what was that
you’re walking at full-speed and holler out, making sure to emphasize birthday boy because nuh-uh you and nabi will nOT line up for his own party <3 thank you very much
the children coo and the older kids coax the other ones to make way for the both of you to the front of the line, immediately plopping to a mini chair in front of the guy
“hiiii!!”
nabi drawls politely and waves his hand, making you do the same
“what a cute little thing,” the guy in front of you coos and it’s his voice that perhaps makes you melt a little, just seeing the top of his hair for now because he’s crouching down to be eye-level with nabi, “what can i do for you, little buddy?”
he toothily grins and straightens his posture, raising his eyes to look at who’s holding nabi in place and-
???????????????????
jungkook literally stops breathing for a second
“h-hi!! what can i do for you today?” jungkook squeaks, his eyes even more wide and curious to look at the prettiest girl he’s ever seen in his life
you’re sure that you were gonna stammer once you open your mouth so you don’t at all, instead focusing on nabi who’s on your lap
“what do you want, monkey?”
“nabi please! i want nABI!!! nabi nabi nabiiiiiiiiii-“
“yes. he wants nabi, please.”
jungkook nods fervently, his hands about to pluck ballons from his kit before he realizes to ask
“does he want his face? or like, his name? what colors do you want, bud?”
he’s not the least bit bothered at the choices in his head because you’re widening your eyes on what could this guy dO with just balloons, knowing to yourself that even pumping one is difficult work already
“oh! he wants nabi,” you clarify and jungkook tilts his head, mouth slightly agape at to what you’re trying to get at, “butterfly, i mean. nabi knows that his name means butterfly and he likes them a lot! don’t you, monkey?”
nabi nods so hard that it almost gives him a headache and jungkook wants to facepalm himself to the grave
“r-right! why didn’t i think of that?? because nabi means.... nabi....... right!! sorry, oh my god. o-oh! i meant oh my gosh. i uhm-...”
he’s a mess and he knows it, letting his hands take over and grab the same theme colors of blue and lavender from his bag to start on his work
kook tries not to lift his head up ever so often because you’d find him out instantly that he’s looking at you
so what he does instead is peer and coo at nabi every few seconds and tHEN look up at you because you also giggle whenever he giggles
he’s probably feeling pressure with the way your eyes are set on him too and what he’s doing that he pOPS a balloon right with his hands
“sorry, sorry! did i spook you?”
jungkook’s worried because he heard a collective gasp from the kids around him but his main priority is the birthday boy AND you
nabi’s shoulders rose and that’s about it
he shakes his head to himself, looking at you who’s carrying a curious gaze on your face that looks amused
“sorry. i-it’s just you’re so pretty and-“
he’s embarrassed himself in front of a pretty girl and her son and-
wait a second
the color just dRAINS from his face and he’s about to quit at the second
“oh my god i am so sorry. y-you must be nabi’s mother. you’re mr. taehyung’s-“
“friend!! i’m y/n, i’m just taehyung’s friend,” you interject quickly because you cannot believe that pretty boy called you pretty, and at the next breath thought you were taehyung’s wife, “and nabi’s my nephew. we’re all just friends who live together!! i have no boyfriend, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
...
....
yeah maybe you embarrassed yourself this time
you may have said too much information to the balloon artist but jungkook’s just staring at you fondly
and nabi’s switching his gaze between the two of you and claps his hands to snap the two of you out of it lmao
kook chuckles to himself and he cannot stop smiling, even when he’s tying the last balloon to nabi’s butterfly
“there you go, cutie. happy birthday!!” he hands nabi the hUGE butterfly he just made but the sheer difference of how big it is makes the toddler even more happy, hugging it to his chest
jungkook watches you pepper kisses on nabi’s cheeks and that launches him into quickly pulling out balloons while your eyes are deviated from him, hands twisting and turning like his wHOLE LIFE depended on it
“my name’s jungkook, by the way,” he calls you when you’re just about to stand up, smiling giddily at you, “thought you should know.”
cute :-)
before you could thank him, he extends his arm and your mind recognizes the familiar shape which makes you smile instantly
jungkook made you a flower balloon <3
“i think i’ll remember you, jungkook.”
you laugh as the only thing you can smell from it is latex, the huge flower staring at you right in the face
jungkook sheepishly blushes, pursing his lips in happiness
“i’m free whenever you’re free — f-for a date, y’know? just so you could remember me more.”
.
.
.
bonus: dilf taehyung has his own drabble!!
bonus bonus: bestie anon brought my attention to these tiktoks below and gAWD i’m so happy <3
first, second
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shepherds-of-haven · 3 years
Note
And what about a Stardew Valley AU? Pretty please with a cherry on top?
I’m on my phone in a waiting room so this will be very short--it also won’t be a 1:1 AU, I took some liberties!
Blade: the local hunter/woodsman who basically lives alone in the woods and barely interacts with anybody except to slink into town, give the butcher some dead animals and pelts, and then leave again for the season Trouble: the town blacksmith who forges weapons for the local adventurers and mercenaries who go to explore the mines/fight monsters. He dreams of coming up with some kind of invention (think the world’s first revolver or something) and becoming a gunsmith or adventurer in a bigger town/city. He probably also plays football in a strange anachronistic twist. Does this AU take place in the modern world like Stardew or a weird fantasy farm AU? Idk. But wait, does Stardew take place in the modern world?? There’s corporations and cars... but also slimes and wizards? I guess it’s its own thing. I’m going to pretend it doesn’t have guns. 
Shery: the town veterinarian who looks after all of the valley’s animals, from the dogs and cats to the farm animals! She also lives above the town grocery store and helps Riel out when it gets busy. She helps organize the town’s flower festivals and other events!
Tallys: she’s an artist living on a cottage on the beach; you can sometimes see her collecting shells and making structures out of deadwood. She’s basically a hippie who wants to commune with nature, and is generally solitary until Shery recruits her to start using her expertise to help with the flower festivals!
Riel: he was once a promising executive in a large corporation, but his health suffered from the stress, so he now chooses to run a small grocery store in this idyllic town. He generally seems innocuous and nerdy--he wears glasses and does his account books with an abacus in his shirtsleeves--but when another corporation (or his old one) tries to muscle in, he starts using connections no one knew he had to defend the town...
Chase: a young man who got into so much trouble in the big city that he was forced to return to his hometown at the behest of his worried mother. He chafes under the boredom of small town life, but in a strange twist of events, somehow finds himself becoming the relied-upon town sheriff. He has an unorthodox way of doing things and an alarming willingness to kill anyone who threatens the town, but he keeps the valley safe from harm!
Red: the local wizard who lives up in his tower, performing experiments and researching the arcane. Many are unnerved to discover that he’s not an old man with a beard; he’s young, tall, and hot! Many farmhands feign illness in the hopes that he’ll drop by with a cure--he’s like the rural Howl!
Ayla: she is the valley’s premiere horsewoman, running a stable at the edge of town. Her horses win prizes for both their looks and their skills, and she’s willing to train anyone to ride if they’re willing to put up with her tough style of teaching. You can always catch her at sunset, watching the sun go down behind the mountains with a piece of straw in her mouth and her hat pulled down low over her eyes! 
Halek: the owner of the local saloon who generally keeps to himself, but is always willing to listen with a smile and a dishrag on his shoulder. Everybody is surprised when his twin brother comes to fetch him and it’s revealed he’s some sort of royal in a neighboring country!
Briony: a girl who drifted into town and quickly made fast friends, but who refuses to reveal who she really is or where she came from. She rooms with Shery above Riel’s grocery store and earns money by serving as a cattle herd, riding one of Ayla’s horses and guarding the local cows as they’re transported from place to place or grazing, fending off wolves, slimes, and even bandits! She keeps saying she’ll have to move on someday, but is reluctant to go until her past finally catches up to her... (Secretly, she’s a magic-user too!)
Lavinet: a socialite who retreated to this remote town following a scandal. Then she buys the local ranch (the one that Ayla runs) and decides to convert it into a luxury resort to show people the beauty of Stardew Valley! She first harbors ambitions to return to the big city and return to her career in force, but eventually falls in love and learns to truly love her life in a small town!
Mimir: local cryptid and creature of the night. Rumor has it that you can see a pale woman walking the woods outside of town on nights of the full moon, and that if you see her, she will deliver a prophecy about your life... by day, she appears in a traveling caravan, selling sundry goods and dried herbs as an innocuous wanderer
Caine: just your typical neighborhood boy who dreams of becoming an adventurer and slaying monsters! Instead, he is a farmhand on his family’s successful farm, learning how to grow greenbeans and blueberries and running around town with his dog, Good Boy!
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rhyselinn · 3 years
Text
Gather round folks, it’s time to talk about Shovel Knight characters’ canon heights!
First things first, let’s talk about our friend Reize Seatlan.
His creator, Seizui, has been building canon around this character for years, and this link tells us that Reize’s canon height is 160 cm (5'3").
Let’s take a look at this boy’s sprite: (complete with blue Photoshop rulers in case you want to see where I measured from)
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*caveat: Reize’s hair is extremely fluffy. It runs in the family, so I counted his height as being shorter than the height of his hair. It makes sense and it makes the math easier
Counting the pixels in Reize’s sprite, we can see that he is 32 pixels tall. So when we divide 160 cm by 32 pixels, we discover that each pixel in the Shovel Knight universe is 5 centimeters in real life.
So, what does this mean for the rest of the Shovel Knight cast?
Great question: I’ve got the rest of the math (with screenshot proof) under the cut:
Alright, in no particular order, let’s talk about Plague Knight next.
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--Worth noting that I’m using playable/Showdown sprites as opposed to boss sprites when possible. This helps keep characters proportional to each other
--Plague Knight is 31 pixels tall = 155 cm tall = 5 foot 1. Tiny plague knight, but as we’ll see later, not the tiniest member of the cast
Tiniest member of the cast, you say? Could you mean... Tinker Knight?
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--Tinker Knight slouches in almost all of his sprites, so I tried to find a sprite of him NOT slouching. That extra pixel makes a difference for this tiny character lol
--27 pixels tall = 135 cm tall = 4 foot 5. tiny tinker. But still not the tiniest member of the cast, believe it or not!
Shovel Knight:
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--fairly straightforward. i did wonder if his victory pose was any taller than his regular pose, but it's not
24 pixels tall = 120 cm = 3 foot 11. tiny. tiny shovel. the average 9 year old child is between 120-145 centimeters. So not only is Shovel the size of a 9 year old, but he might actually be the shortest in the class...
Black Knight:
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--there are interesting things i could say about the bird feather situation but eh. imma go with eh. bird feathers do not count as height, final answer --other than that, pretty easy here
24 pixels tall = 120 cm = 3 foot 11. same size as shovel, aka also the size of a 9 year old. adorable
Propeller Knight:
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--slouches REALLY BAD. ALL THE TIME. --his least slouch-y sprite is his tuxedo sprite from the end of Plague of Shadows, so I used that initially... only to realize that he's the exact same height in his other sprites as well. How about that! Maybe he has some kind of a battery pack for his propeller hat in the back of his shirt. It would explain his terrible posture.
--39 pixels tall = 195 cm tall = 6 foot 4. Tall, but not unreasonable.
Mole Knight:
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--has some fascinating squash and stretch in his sprite sheet --fabulous from an animation standpoint. difficult from a math standpoint --i refuse to count his fire-hair as height lol
Squash sprite: 32 pixels tall = 160 cm = 5 foot 2 Normal: 36 pixels tall = 180 cm = 5 foot 10 Stretch sprite: 46 pixels tall = 230 cm = 7 foot 6 (!!!)
I have no explanation for this other than artistic liberties lol
Specter Knight:
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--i'm so glad player sprites exist lol. Specter's boss fight sprites are just piles of cloth with him slouching underneath. I will gleefully ignore them for this exercise --that said, even with player sprites, specter knight is HUNCHED OVER ALMOST ALL THE TIME. AUGH. --fortunately, cold shoulder sprites exist, and a few other action-y type poses. they’re pretty consistent with each other (within a pixel or so) --how much of Specter's hood is fluffy cloth vs actual height? good question. I compared to one of Donovan's sprites to give us a good estimate, give or take 1 pixel or so
37 pixels tall = 185 cm = 6 foot 0. Pretty average here.
Treasure Knight:
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--also slouches in a lot of his sprites, but at least has a few non-slouchy sprites for us to examine. I chose the taller of the two for consistency (difference of 50 vs 51 pixels)
Treasure Height: 51 pixels = 255 cm = 8 foot 4 (!!!?!) This man is huge!
King Knight:
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--his normal standing sprite met my requirements, so I used that --I included his boss sprite without the crown for comparison, because a crown does not actually make one taller lol (sorry not sorry, king) --this also shows the importance of using player sprites vs boss sprites. the difference between the two is pretty obvious here
32 pixels tall = 160 cm = 5 foot 2. tiny. tiny king
Polar Knight:
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--hunched over. like, all the time. --there aren't really any sprites of him not hunched over, but the least hunched over is him doing his shovel up attack, so I'll use that, and his normal sprite for comparison
Normal sprite: 47 pixels tall = 235 cm = 7 foot 8 (!!!) Tall sprite: 58 pixels tall = 290 cm = 9 foot 6 (!!!?!?!?!) tl;dr polar knight is a beast of a man and we all knew that already hahaha. the tallest man on record in medical history was 8 ft 11. This is absolutely bonkers
Shield Knight:
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--while she does have hunched over sprites, i simply avoided them lol. --how tall is her head inside her helmet? great question! the world may never know. Since our only reference for this is concept art (which does little more than tells us her head is shaped like a human’s and not, say, a squid’s), I kinda winged the exact pixel count. --also worth noting is that she grows a few inches when she sticks her leg out lol
Normal sprite: 35 pixels = 175 cm = 5 foot 8 (tall but normal height for an adult woman) Tall sprite: 40 pixels = 200 cm = 6 foot 6 (!!!!) (hOLY MAMA beautiful big buff lady)
And just for fun, I added a few other important characters from the main stories:
Mona:
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--we know she is a tall lady, but exactly how tall? --all of her sprites seem pretty consistent in height, which makes my job easy!
48 pixels tall = 240 cm = 7 foot 10. (???????!!!?) She is the size of Shovel Knight and Black Knight stacked on top of each other. Amazing. I have nothing but awe and admiration for this incredibly tall lady
Luan:
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--He has a bunch of funky tumbling/hunched over sprites and very fluffy hair. like father, like son. I did my best to pick the most reasonable sprites of the bunch --after that, I decided two pixels of hair is enough. voluminous hair is impressive but is not height --similar to Shield Knight, he grows a few inches when he sticks his leg out lol
Normal Sprite: 39 pixels = 195 cm = 6 foot 4 Tall Sprite: 43 pixels = 215 cm = 7 foot 0 (!!) All the better for reaching those hard-to-reach platforms in the Tower of Fate, I guess?
King Knight’s Mom:
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--last but not least, the best character in king of cards (you know it's true lol) --she also has somewhat fluffy hair. i'm not counting her bun as height.
41 pixels = 205 cm = 6 foot 8 (!!!). It's not Mona tall, but it's still very tall. Tallness may run in the family, but King Knight seeems to have missed out on all of those genes hahaha.
Special thanks to https://www.spriters-resource.com/pc_computer/shovelknight/ for having all the sprites in one easy place! Thanks for reading!
*disclaimer: I am only human and if I flubbed the math or measurements on any of this, I hope you’ll forgive me. I promise I didn’t mean to slight whichever character was affected
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thankskenpenders · 3 years
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Enerjak Reborn intermission: Who the hell is Enerjak?
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Before we move on to the second half of the fun, thrilling, and exciting Enerjak Reborn arc, I think it’s a good idea to pause and take a look back at where we came from. Reading this arc, you may be asking yourself: where’d this Enerjak guy come from? It’s been over six years since I covered the comics featuring the original Enerjak, after all (and I tended to skim over stuff a lot more back then)
So here’s a crash course in Archie’s original nemesis for Knuckles. The big question today is... did the original Enerjak ever DO anything?
As has been established, the original Enerjak was a powered up form Dimitri took on. Even if you’re not following all this too closely, you’ll probably recognize Dimitri as the floating cyborg echidna head. He’s pretty memorable in that form
In his youth, though, Dimitri was a normal echidna scientist working alongside his brother Edmund on Angel Island. Together, the two of them found the legendary Zoot Chute
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This, of course, led them to the chamber of the twelve Chaos Emeralds (yes, twelve--the lore was different back then) that were holding Angel Island up in the air. It had been generations since the echidnas had Brexited their capital city into the sky to dodge the White Comet, and they figured, hey, maybe we should land this thing. And so Edmund and Dimitri set out to slowly syphon away the power of the Emeralds to do just that, gently lowering the floating landmass back into the crater it had left behind. A reasonable idea!
Except then their proposal to land Angel Island was denied, so Dimitri got pissed and stole the Chaos Syphon to do it anyway. But then the machine went HAYWIRE and he absorbed the energy himself and it flipped his morality switch from good to EVIL!!!
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Boy, that was sudden!
From there Dimitri’s plan was to enslave everyone on Angel Island and make them turn the whole island into one big airship, from which Dimitri would subjugate the surface world
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(No, the pirate motif isn’t an artist taking liberties with the script--Ken drew these lore dump backup stories himself)
Boy, this guy sure does have big plans! And he’s got the power to back it up, too, since he absorbed eleven whole Chaos Emer--oh, whoops, the fire ants chewed through the base of his spooky tower and he was immediately crushed by rocks before he could do literally anything else with his new power
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From here, Edmund and his allies “renounced technology” and “destroyed their city” (not really, but that’s how the story goes). His descendants would become the Brotherhood of Guardians, eventually including Locke and Knuckles. This part of the lore dump gave me some of my favorite panels. Meanwhile, Dimitri’s side of the family sought revenge and went full techno-fascist, forming the Dark Legion
Fast forward a few hundred years to the events of the three-issue Knuckles miniseries, and Dimitri's HP finally recharges and he manages to escape from the rubble, ready for his first face-off with Knuckles! Except he’s no longer just Dimitri... he’s apparently now Enerjak!
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While the echidna lore dump stories published literally immediately before this miniseries that Ken drew himself depicted Dimitri as simply turning all green and glowy in his powered up state, the art in the recap pages of this miniseries seems to retcon the story and say that he had actually turned into Enerjak. I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just use Enerjak in the original stories to set the persona up more instead of just having Dimitri turn green. Here Archimedes also refers to Enerjak as “the great evil of legend” even though no one is supposed to know about Dimitri’s Enerjak persona yet. Actually, this little point of confusion was expanded upon by Ian, which is why in his version of the canon Enerjak is an entity that multiple people can become, rather than just a supervillain persona for Dimitri. Anyway!
In this first confrontation, Enerjak displayed a few of the signature moves Knuckles has been using in the Enerjak Reborn arc. He’s able to unleash blasts of Chaos energy, freeze his opponents in place, and teleport them elsewhere. He uses this to make short work of the Chaotix and teleport Knuckles and Archimedes out to die in the desert of Sandopolis Zone
From there, Enerjak made a new evil citadel (guy just LOVES making evil citadels), this time made to resemble Echidnaopolis... except evil. He christened it “Nekronopolis.” He also, like... made some robots for Knuckles to fight, apparently based on robots they used to have in Echidnaopolis? Okay
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In their final confrontation of the miniseries, Enerjak mind controls the Chaotix to make them fight Knuckles. He then starts going on and on about his unlimited power while struggling to kill a teenager, only to be undone when--surprise!--the fire ants show up and sabotage his fortress again. This time, though, they launch him into space with help from Locke instead of just making the citadel collapse on top of him. Oh, and then his evil fortress disappears. He leaves no mark on the status quo of the series in his first appearance aside from adding one more guy to the list of characters Knuckles has fought
Later, in issue #7 of the full Knuckles series, Enerjak is summoned back to Angel Island and meets the Dark Legion. Since he’s their beloved Dimitri, he immediately becomes their new leader. And so Enerjak gets his rematch with Knuckles. This time he uses new tricks like making himself giant and teleporting himself and Knuckles to various inhospitable locations like the moon. (Admittedly, the moon thing is cool.)
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Eventually he gets bored toying with Knuckles, though, and he decides to just disintegrate him
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BUT Knuckles is immediately saved by God the Ancient Walkers, who won’t allow one of their Chosen Ones to die so easily. So he comes back right away
Enerjak then leads the Dark Legion on an all-out assault on Echidnaopolis. He doesn’t really do much even though he could probably singlehandedly disintegrate the entire Echidnaopolis defense force with the snap of his fingers
And then Mammoth fucking Mogul shows up and drains him of all his power with the Sword of Acorns and turns him into a prune
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No, Knuckles wasn’t even the one who beat his supposed nemesis in either fight
And that’s it for Enerjak! No, really! He appears in two story arcs for a total of six issues, and that’s it. He’s just regular old Dimitri from this point forward, eventually becoming a cyborg and then a head. He has no powers and is just a fascist
As with just about every other element of Ken’s Knuckles comics, Enerjak was all hype and no substance. Dimitri is an important figure in The Lore, but as Enerjak he doesn’t actually do anything with his unlimited power that has any lasting impact on the story whatsoever. He just taunts Knuckles and then gets his power slurped out by a mid-tier villain. It’s clear that Ken wanted to paint this as Dimitri repeatedly suffering for his hubris, but it sure would’ve been nice if he actually did anything before he loses each time. Like, honestly? If you took the Enerjak persona out of the story entirely and instead just had the Dark Legion bring back regular old Dimitri with their technology, very little about the overarching story would change. He also has absolutely zero nuance as a character, going from a well-intentioned if headstrong scientist to a world-conquering tyrant demigod to the leader of the techno-fascists at the drop of a hat when the story requires it
Needless to say, it is VERY SATISFYING to have Knuckles become a version of Enerjak with way more nuance and to see him actually do stuff with that power in Ian’s run. Not just cool fighting moves (although he has those!), but also stuff that will have a lasting impact on the series
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Summary: The sides do a Secret Santa... fluff and mild chaos ensue
Pairings: Platonic DRLAMP, Dukeceit/Demus, Logicality, Prinxiety
Warnings: A little bit of self-deprecating thoughts at the beginning, and some Remus being Remus
Genre: Fluff fluff fluff!
Credit:
@multi-fandoms-posts - Thanks for the suggestion! I took some creative liberties but this is based on a suggestion they gave me.
@voltsm - Thanks for the encouragement! This person is an INCREDIBLE artist, I highly recommend looking at their amazing amazing blog!
A/N: This is the first Sanders Sides one shot I've written in a while, but I think it turned out well! Please don't repost on different websites, but reblogs are greatly appreciated!
Remus paced his room, growling in frustration. His mind wandered back to the conversation all the sides had earlier.
"Let's do a Secret Santa!" Patton had said, looking like he was going to burst from excitement.
Roman nodded enthusiastically. "That's a great idea, padre!"
"I'm up for it if you guys are," Virgil replied with a shrug.
"I do believe that doing a Secret Santa could be beneficial to our mental and emotional health," said Logan, pushing up his glasses.
All of them looked at Janus and Remus, catching both of them off guard.
"You'd really be okay with us joining?" Remus asked.
"Of course! We are famILY, after all!" Patton responded happily. Remus looked at Janus, who simply shrugged.
"I think the Secret Santa is an awful idea and wouldn't like to participate," Janus said with a small smirk.
"Why not!" Remus happily agreed.
Yet here he was now, flopping on his bed, and ironically out of ideas. He summoned something to eat, and wasn't sure if it was deodorant, a sandwich, or some ungodly abomination of both. At this point he didn't care.
He stared at the faint strip of paper labeled "Janus." Each of them had grabbed a paper from Janus's hat, and Remus had been pretty excited when he got the name of his best friend. Until he couldn't figure out what to get him.
"I'm CREATIVITY, and I've been his friend the longest! I should know what to get him!" he angrily muttered to himself. "Who am I kidding... I'm just intrusive thoughts."
"Hey Rem-" Roman said, rising up in his brother's room. He instantly stopped when he saw the poorly disguised bags under Remus's eyes. "...you okay?"
"Not really," Remus mumbled into his blankets, "why'd you come?"
Roman paused for a second. "Wellll I was having some trouble coming up with a gift for the person I got, so I was wondering if you could help. However, it looks like your having some trouble too."
Remus looked up at Roman, noticing the bags he had under his eyes as well.
"Creative block," they both muttered at the same time.
Remus laughed for the first time in days. "Wow, even the creativity gets it," he said with a teasing smirk.
"I think you mean creativities. We are both creativity, after all!" Roman happily replied. He began ranting about something he was trying to make, but Remus didn't hear a word.
Both creativity, he thought as he began to smile again, he thinks we're both creativity?
"Rem? Remus?" Roman asked.
"Oh, sorry! What'd you say? Remus asked, snapping out of his thoughts.
"What should I get Virgil?" Roman asked again.
"Virgil?"
"Yeah, Gerard Gay isn't the best at dropping hints at what he wants."
"Hm... what do you know he likes? Put yourself in his shoes. Or his-"
"MUSIC HE LIKES MUSIC!" Roman quickly interrupted. "He likes listening to music!"
Remus laughed a loud, full, laugh, making Roman smile and laugh a little as well. "If you were Virgil, what would you want?"
Roman pondered the question for a couple minutes, then suddenly shot up with an idea. "OH! I KNOW WHAT TO GET HIM! Thanks Remus!"
"No problem Roman, just remember to-" Remus began, then looked at Roman who narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "toooooo... wish him a Merry Christmas!"
"Nice save," Roman chuckled, making Remus beam. "Do you want some help figuring out what to give who you have?"
Remus sighed, mumbling a tired "I don't know," into his pillows.
"Hm... well just remember what you told me," Roman said, "what would you want if you were them?" Remus opened his mouth with a mischevious smirk, to which Roman added, "rule of thumb, if you wouldn't want Patton to get mad or pass out, don't give it as a gift." Remus immediately shut his mouth.
Remus sighed and groaned into his pillow, exhausted from having no ideas.
"Let's see... you can make things, summon things-" Roman started.
"Wait, summon things, like animals?" Remus asked.
"Of course! If you wanted to, that is. Although I'd suggest not making it lethal," Roman replied with a smile.
Remus grinned. "Thanks Ro, I think I have an idea!"
"That's great! Let me know if you'd like any help!"
"Thanks!"
Remus smiled to himself as Roman left, carefully working on his idea for Janus. He was certain it would be amazing.
~CHRISTMAS DAY~
"CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS!" Patton excitedly shouted, waking everyone up in the process.
Patton had insisted on a sleepover on Christmas Eve, and none of them had the heart to deny the request.
Virgil yawned, failing to hide the small smile on his face as he noticed Roman stretch, hair messily falling down on his face.
"Nice bedhead Princey," Virgil teased.
Roman playfully glared, clutching his heart as if in agony.
"Why, Emo Nightmare, must you wound me like this? How could you DARE insist that, I, PRINCE Roman, have a-" he tilted his head back dramatically, causing him to see his reflection in a mirror and let out a very un-prince like squawk.
"I'll make the hot cocoa and then we can do the Secret Santa!" Patton exclaimed, rushing to the kitchen.
"I can assist you Patton," Logan offered, putting on his glasses.
"Thanks Logie!" Patton replied, making Logan blush at the nickname.
Remus and Janus slowly woke up as well, both a little excited although hesitant admit it.
"Well, this is not how I wanted to be woken up," Janus mumbled to himself with a soft smile on his face, oblivious to a blushing Remus looking at him. When he looked back and saw Remus staring at him, a faint blush spread behind his scales.
"Hey Janus, there's chaos and I didn't cause it!" Remus said, turning away to hide his blush.
"I'm not surprised, and I don't think you'll add to the chaos as soon as you can-" Janus began, only to see Remus already gone and probably eating something inedible.
After the chaos had died down (Roman brushed his hair and they dragged back Remus from eating Christmas lights), it was finally time for the Secret Santa to begin.
"Me first!" Patton said, rushing to grab the gift he had gotten. As soon as he found it he ran back to put it in Logan's lap. "This is my Secret Santa gift to you!"
"Do... do they know what a SECRET Santa is supposed to be?" Janus whispered to Remus who was sitting next to him, raising an eyebrow.
After taking a moment to collect himself, Logan carefully unwrapped the gift. Inside were multiple sci-fi series that he had been looking for.
"I knew you had been looking for those books, so I got them for you!" Patton exclaimed, voice nearly shaking from excitement.
For a moment, Logan was stunned into silence. However, he quickly recovered and replied with "t-thank you Patton, I deeply appreciate the thought put into this. I look forward to reading them."
Patton quietly peeped a quick "you're welcome," butterflies in his chest from the touched look on Logan's face. Logan suddenly turned back around, handing a small wrapped gift to Patton. "It's not the best, but I hope it's satisfactory."
Patton quickly looked up, momentarily caught up in the euphoria of gifts. He tore into the present to find a small, blue, crotche cat with a tiny heart on it's ear.
"Aww, Logan!!! This is purrrr-fect!"
Logan tried to roll his eyes at the pun, but couldn't keep a small laugh from escaping.
"Me next!" Roman sang dramatically, heading over to Virgil with a carefully wrapped gift and taking a seat next to him.
Virgil carefully opened his gift, slowly taking off the tape and removing the wrapping paper. Roman bounced up and down next to him, both in nervousness and excitement.
After what felt like forever to Roman, Virgil pulled out a dark purple set of headphones, with a black thorn pattern carved into them.
"Woah Princey... did you MAKE these?" Virgil asked, completely in shock at the care put into the headphones he held.
"Yep!" Roman responded giddily. "It took a lot of time, but I figured it out! The thorns were a last minute touch though. Oh! And they also block out other sounds, you had mentioned that your current headphones didn't do that a while ago."
Virgil, one of the most reserved sides, looked like he was on the verge of tears. "Thanks... I didn't realize you cared that much Roman," he said quietly, hiding his blushing face in his sleeves and gently leaning against him.
Roman gave him a soft, genuine smile as Virgil leaned against his arm. "Of course Stormcloud!"
"This is your present... it's awful compared to the headphones though..." Virgil mumbled, shyly taking his head out of his hands and giving Roman a shiny red bag with lots of tissue paper.
Roman being Roman, he quickly (and messily) opened up the gift, squealing when he pulled out a thin but elegant red crown. "It's a CROWN, put it on me, put it on me, put it on me!"
Virgil hesitantly put it Roman, who squealed impossibly louder after turning around and seeing his reflection in the mirror. "I love it!!!"
Roman hugged Virgil tightly, and after the initial shock, Virgil relaxed into the hug. To Roman's surprise, he stayed leaning against him even when the hug had ended. He didn't mind.
"Since it isn't obvious who your gift is from now, here's yours Remus," Janus said, handing a rather large bag to Remus.
Remus immediately tore into the bag, clawing his way in through the side instead of taking out the tissue paper. He gasped in astonishment when he pulled out a long, intricate sword, identical to the one of his logo.
"Woahhhh..." he whispered under his breath, admiring the sword. He looked up at Janus, a huge grin on his face. "Thanks!!"
Janus smiled, secretly relieved that Remus did enjoy his gift.
"I have your gift... I just didn't really have a way to wrap it," Remus said, a hint of nervousness in his voice. "So, uh, hold out your hands and close your eyes."
"Remus, is this something appropriate?"
"Yep!"
Janus raised an eyebrow but did as Remus had asked. A second later, he heard a collective gasp from around the room, followed by something placed in his hand.
"You can open your eyes now."
Janus slowly opened his eyes, shocked to find a small, yellow snake that fit in the palm of his hand. His eyes widened, and for a brief second his face shone like the universe had been placed in his eyes.
"You like it?" Remus asked.
Janus nodded vigorously, at a loss for words but as absolutely adoring the snake that slithered in his hand.
After opening the rest of the gifts, all the sides stayed together for a Christmas movie night. Patton was asleep on a dreaming Logan, and Virgil was asleep against a sleepy Roman who wrapped his arms around him.
"Hey, Janus?" Remus asked, yawning.
Janus looked over.
"Did... did you really like my gift?"
Janus smiled a true, genuine smile, reserved oy for Remus, and kissed Remus's forehead softly, making them both blush. "I loved it."
As Remus soon fell asleep against Janus, the slimey snake boi only had one thought.
Rigging the Secret Santa was definitely worth it.
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S3 ep4
LEEEEETS GOOO!
Girl Stinky fighting Grandpa for Sal's honor 😍
So many Sams😲
Can the narrator pls shut up
"After they yanked it away they turned their attention on us." "actually I think they were more interested in me."
"Looks like it's time to boil the haggis" I love u Grandpa Stinky
"Need any help?" "No, I've been dreaming of this for years." *Continues to shoot Sam clones*
Skunkape loosing his mind
Oh geez, the dogglegangers kidnapped him
Girl Stinky still denying her obvious relationship with Sal
Oh hey I can make toast... Never mind then 😕
"Ah, I remember when I was a toaster."
Max and Grandpa are having a little too much fun shooting the clones
Why does Stinky have a picture of the DeSoto???
Well, the plan to turn into the DeSoto failed
I really didn't need to read minds to figure out how to get out, but I guess it was a good way to remind players of the tunnel
"Max is so powerful now... Soon he won't even need a partner."
Ew, Grandpa wants to sell clone meat 🤢
Sam struggling to not eat a fudgcicle is super relatable
Oh the tunnel is blocked. Knowing Girl she probably has a backup
I knew it.
"Happiness is a warm gun." "My gun is always warm... and a little bit moist." WHAT
*Gives clone a peanut butter ball* "Ew. It has peanut butter dog mouth. I hate when I do that."
Haha I made Sam eat a peanut butter ball now he's doing that dog lip smack thing
Oh hey, we can take a fudgcicle now. ...Oh, I know what to do!
Presidential Alert: The Stinky's are fighting!
Why does Girl Stinky's tunnel lead to a cloning facility?
The clone Sam approves of Sam's outfit
He stole Sam's hat!!!
"That's strange." yeah, you think!?
"--unholy army of sexually provocative Sam clones" What you just call them Max 👀
Cthulu tenticles!!!
They have spikes
"I'm thinking of a number between--" "Potato!" "That's uncanny."
Sam
"Momma sure does love a nicely turned Sam gam."
This episode is quickly turning into Max repeatedly saying how hot he thinks Sam is 👀
I guess let's explore the tunnels
Ooh the museum
Doctor Norrington? We get to meet him?
Nope :(
When they jumped back into the tunnels Max raised his hands up and Sam picked him up 😭😭😭🥰🥰🥰
Back through the tunnels
The shadow physics are all messed up
Boscotech!
Harry and Superball are trying to contact Momma. Can she not appear anymore?
Queen? Where are you?
"Keep your eyes peeled, Max." "Ugh, that's disgusting, Sam."
"What do you know about these scary--" "But dashing!" "--toy stealing Sam clones." oh max
"So you don't know where Momma Bosco is?" Sam says with a huge sad face
Superball my love
Max smokes Cuban cigars
"Yes sir, quite the coinkydink."
"I'm going to stand over here and try to shake off the memory of you saying balliwick." *,Literally stands in corner shaking his arms side to side* Max. I love you
*Harry insults Sam* *Max jumps to his defence*
"I'm afraid the contents on my mind is classified, sirs."
I'm going to find Sal
The hat thief stole the car!!!
Buster Blaster!!!
"Max." "that's what they call me at the manipedi." The boys get manicurs
I can't get to Sal or Buster Blaster because of the clones :(
Look a buster blaster's future and he's just floating through space shouting "This is totally awesome!"
Back to Stinky's
Flint Paper!!!
Flint's mind is just noir narrative... As it should be
Girl Stinky realized Max has been reading her mind
Sam and Max role-playing as Flint and Girl has me laughing
Girl tied Sam up into her lies
The fact that the boys don't realize who Mr. S is is astonishing
Great I have to find a cake. Back to Sal?
The clone Sam hugging the stuffed Bunny 🥰
Sam was doing the same to Max 😍
Love for legomorphs is stored in the dna
Oh hey I missed Charlie the first time
Max shares the creeped out feelings Charlie gives me. Good
Sal knows how to cook 💖
Sal is an artist 🥰
I love Sal
OMG is there actual blood on the cake
No! Don't eat Max!
Sam got a kiss from Stinky, lucky dog. I can't tell if he's surprised or grossed out 😂
Flint and Max are disgusted by the kiss
Oh to be kissed by Girl Stinky... or Sybil... Or Momma Bosco.
Sal doesn't want to kill. Good man
Girl and Sal are my new otp
Oh no, power het couple are possessed
Ok, I'm going back to boscotech for now to mess with Harry now that I have Charlie
Max really hamming it up
Oh hey, Max actually summoned Momma
Agent Superball just teleported?!
What is going on with him?
Also he has OTHER superiors
Momma are you hiding something?
"mmm-mm-mm, those shorts sure don't leave anything to the imagination, do they?"
Was Max right, does Momma have a thing for Sam?
Lol she was lying.
She seems to feel guilty about selling her cloning machines.
Max don't you dare mention the poppers in front of me!!!
It's pretty obvious it's Papierwaite
I like it when she spins
Oh, are we going to track down Bosco to get more DNA for her new body?
I'm going to take to Buster Blaster
"Hey, you wouldn't happen to know anything about those Sam clones running around?" "THOSE ARE REAL?" "Yeah." "HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!"
He gave us a letter to give to Momma from Bosco.
"See ya Buster." "I AM BECOME DEATH!"
Sam called Bosco "baby Bosco"
Oh hey, I probably should have tried reading Papierwaiite's mind already
Sam picked Max up so he could type in the code
Ew, Norrinton is a chest burster cthulu
Everyone keeps making fun of Sam's weight :(
Max's reaction to Norringron's grandson being named Junior is great
I used the destabilizer to look for the weapon and now Sam is crying profusely
That Romeo and Juliet reference tho
He's fine now
Well that was a lot of trial and error
Got the new toy and killed the tentacles
Time to get Momma a new body
Momma is bald. That's fine
Love that she's fully clothed even though that doesn't make any sense
Yay shooting things!
Oh no we made Sal fall
Momma is so excited to telport
Aw, she held Max's hand while Sam patted his head ❤️
She punched out Girl! Go Momma!
Ha, we made the clones dance.
Yay, we figured out where the toybox is.
AAAAH
I knew Charlie was going to be evil!
I hate evil dolls
The clones knocked the boys out
We're at the statue of liberty now???
Ew, she's got tenticles
Charlie wants to be reunited with Junior. Can't let that happen since it'll cause the apocalypse
Max is more concerned for Sam than the world
Charlie kidnapped Norrinton
Sam is still struggling against the thrall
Oh hey, got Charlie to let Sam talk
Let's mess with the sheet music
The liberty puzzel was fun
Oh shit, did Charlie just kill Norrington and Papierwaite
Ooooh, Max is all glowly
Ok, that last puzzel was kinda easy
Sam got his hat back!
Max, oh no he fell
Sam looked so scared
Oh Max, scared us for no reason
Oh God, he's scaring us for real now
OMG is this because he swallowed some demon yolk?
He's so big and Cthulu-y now!!!
Shut up narrator!
"Well, this is new." oh Sam
Wait the episode just ends there!?
Gaaahd now I have to stay up and play the next one or die from suspense.
After credits scene... Did we kill Sal!? Nooo!!!!
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hoseas-angry-ghost · 3 years
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YES YES YES I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR UR THEORIES
Hello anon! I am very surprised anyone wants to hear my chutney but here's my Strange Man Hot Take with some hopefully interesting info for curious parties:
To be honest, R* included so much misdirection around the Strange Man's identity (especially in RDR1) that I'm not *totally* convinced they're married to any one idea. RDR2 also complicated things by introducing new religions into Red Dead's world (Voodoo, Old Norse, etc.): he's no longer limited to just Christian / Western interpretations, as in RDR1, and it's possible R* might try to syncretise him with figures from other faiths (they did place Bayall Edge in Bayou Nwa, where most of the Voodoo stuff is).
At the same time, though, I think RDR2 actually narrowed things down somewhat in terms of the direction R* chose to take his character, and what we were shown of that. There's still a level of misdirection in RDR2, but IMO, it almost comes off as half-hearted in comparison to what was basically trolling in RDR1 -- it seems like they were a lot more focused on playing the "bad news" angle the second time round.
Based on what we know, and on the balance of things, I'm not convinced that the Strange Man is necessarily meant to be any one thing or figure, but I do think he's meant to fulfil some type of Satanic role within Red Dead's world, either in main or in part.
I won't compare and dissect other theories or anything, I just thought I'd list off some things that people might find interesting:
Armadillo. The deal between the Strange Man and Herbert Moon seems to be a pretty textbook Faustian bargain: Moon is offered earthly rewards ("happiness or two generations"), and although the price was (tellingly?) never specified, it seems like the recent Blood Money update for RDO all but confirmed that the cost was probably his soul. Although it's left ambiguous what Moon actually chose, the Armadillo curse was possibly an unforeseen (for Moon) consequence of the deal's terms, which would fit with similar tales of the devil or demon in question taking liberties with their end of the bargain.
In the files, there's some great audio of Moon off the shits and straight-up saying "I've made a deal with the devil, and I will never truly die!" It's possible this was cut for its own reasons (too overt?), but as a lot of stuff was apparently cut from Armadillo, I'm guessing it was either cut when Arthur in New Austin got cut, or it was part of something that R* didn't have time to implement in the epilogue. Either way, if it's not actually in the game then it's not technically canon, but it is an indication of what R* was thinking during development.
There's a lot of audio from the Armadillo townsfolk in general about devils and "devil curses," but the only thing I know of that definitely made it into the game is a line from the town crier ("Devil has the town in his hand").
There's audio of the Armadillo bartender saying "I heard the Tillworths made a deal with the devil to keep from gettin' sick! I don't wanna die any more than the next man, but ain't no safety worth a man's soul." Possibly idle gossip, but given Moon, possibly not.
RDO seemed to flirt with the idea of soul-selling a little bit with Old Man Jones' line "Well, this is America, so anything can be bought -- even souls," but then RDO pretty much just came right out and said it with Bluewater John in the Blood Money update. Bluewater John also apparently made a deal, almost definitely with the Strange Man (given the Moon deal and how close Bayall Edge is to all the drama); he was based on blues musician Robert Johnson and the myth that he sold his soul to the devil for mastery of the guitar. It's basically a rehash of the Moon deal, except it's... not subtle in its dialogue about deals, devils and souls.
"I GAVE EVERYTHING FOR ART, AND I LEARNED TOO MUCH AND NOTHING AT ALL" written on the wall at Bayall Edge also sounds like a reference to another one of these deals to me ("everything" being their soul, and "I learned too much and nothing at all" the foolishness of accepting eternal damnation for temporary knowledge). I think Bayall Edge might have originally belonged to a painter who struck a deal with the Strange Man for artistic skill, but then the Strange Man slowly possessed him or something -- which could be why some of the landscapes depict RDR1's I Know You locations, and why the writings on the wall kind of look like they deteriorate in quality. The puddle of blood at the foot of the portrait might also be linked to this somehow (whose is it?).
It's the deal-making for souls that really pushed the "devil" theory over the edge for me, because I can't think of whose wheelhouse that would be in except a devil's, or someone similarly malevolent.
Alternative name. The Strange Man's character model is called cs_mysteriousstranger in RDR2, and he's referred to as "the mysterious stranger" at least once in RDR1's in-game text. This could be a reference to The Mysterious Stranger, written by Mark Twain between 1897-1908, in which the stranger is a supernatural being called Satan. (At the end of the last version written, he tells the protagonist that nothing really exists and their lives are just a dream.)
Bayall Edge. Bayall Edge was possibly based on a Louisiana urban myth called the Devil's Toy Box, which is "described as a shack. From the outside, it is unappealing and average. ...The inside of the shack consists of floor-to-ceiling mirrors, including the walls. No one can last more than five minutes in this room. ...According to the legend, if you stood inside this mirror-room alone for too long, supposedly the devil would show up and steal your soul." The Strange Man does show up in the mirror eventually, and it's kind of curious that the paintings that change depending on your Honour act as metaphorical mirrors. This was also cut, but in the files, Arthur's drawing of the interior of Bayall Edge is unusually sloppy, like his faculties were impaired or something.
"Awful, fascinating and seductive". John writes this about Bayall Edge after the portrait is finished, and I think that's as good a description of something like the / a devil as any, but "seductive" is a big red flag for me, because it's such an odd choice of word and, from a Christian perspective, it's so loaded with connotations of evil and sin and temptation.
I Know You. Some have pointed out that I Know You in RDR1 resembles the Temptation of Christ, as it also takes place in three separate locations in the desert, and John is given moral tests in which he must choose between higher virtue or worldly vice. John is also, in a weird way, a kind of Christ-like figure in that he ultimately sacrifices his life for others. I do think the "temptation" in these encounters is very surreptitious but very much there ("Or rob her yourself" -- excuse me??), but they may also be operating on a Biblical definition of the word, i.e. a test or trial with the free choice of committing sin.
RDR1 dialogue. I don't want to get *too* much into this because I feel like we're all just getting punked in RDR1, but I think the Strange Man's dialogue broadly fits with something like a "devil" interpretation, or at least doesn't contradict it.
I'm thinking particularly of lines like "Damn you!" / "Yes, many have" (which would work metaphorically but also literally, given that the devil was thrown from heaven by God and his angels), and "I hope my boy turns out just like you" (of all the leading theories, I think Satan is the only figure who's popularly conceptualised as having a son, or prophesied to have a son -- God obviously had a son, but that ship kinda sailed).
I think the "accountant" line refers to Honour (which even uses an invisible numerical system), and how John's fate depends on the number of both good and bad acts he's committed throughout his life, and how these weigh against each other. If the Strange Man likes to collect souls, then he would have a vested interest in auditing you and seeing if your accounts are in the black or the red, as it were (and providing you with opportunities to push yourself further into the latter...), because if you're bankrupt, you're his.
Blind Man Cassidy. Interestingly, Cassidy seems to distinguish between "Death" and the Strange Man, implying that he's something else beyond his understanding: in one of Arthur's fortunes, after his TB diagnosis, he says "the man with no nose [Death] is coming for you," but in one of John's fortunes, he says "Two strangers seek thee: one from this world, perhaps one from another. One brings hatred; I'm not so sure what the other brings."
Arthur's cut dialogue. In the files, there's audio of Arthur having the exact same conversation with Herbert Moon as John in the epilogue, asking about the Strange Man picture because he "just seemed familiar". I think it's interesting that, like John, Arthur also would have apparently recognised the Strange Man despite (presumably) never seeing him before. Given how strong a theme morality is in Red Dead -- and how much both John and Arthur struggle with it -- my theory is that they find the Strange Man vaguely familiar because they're both familiar with the evil within themselves, or the potential for evil; and likewise, the Strange Man "knows" John because he embodies evil in some sense, so is aware of John's worst sins (like his involvement at Blackwater), or possibly even all of his sins (which would be, like, a lot).
Honourable mention: There's such a greater emphasis on conspiracies, myths, etc. in RDR2 that I half-wonder if the Strange Man's RDR2 incarnation was partly inspired by Hat Man (~excuse the link~ but often it's hard to find good sources for the kind of weird shit R* includes in their games).
ANYWAY, this got a little long but I hope someone found all this at least passably interesting. Thanks again for letting me ramble about the video game man, anon!
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