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oshiawaseni · 9 months

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Trails of Love Hori's been paving down in the build up for the series' ending

Part II: Decoding the love story being told through other characters

Part One | II. KamiJirou | Part Three ->

.•° ✿ 5. "I̥̰̟͈̣̮͑̑͐̓̌z̴͉̙̲̋͗͌u̶̫̝̒̊̐Ocha" ೋღ

Oh look, time to defeat the raid boss of BNHA: IzuOcha. (I wrote this meta in March, and after reading it now, I didn't feel I needed to change anything, but I added a small bonus section at the end. Hope you enjoy!)

I have a lot of things to say about why Ochaco was never meant to be the one... but I'll try to stay concise and on topic with regards to this meta. Ochaco appears set up as Izuku's love interest from the get-go, but is that really what Hori wanted to do? I'll be taking a dive into their themes and in part three of this meta, I'll be explaining why the answer to that question has been a resounding: NO!

When I compared the feedback Ochaco got from Aoyama, Toga and Mina about her having a crush on Izuku for wanting to be like him, to Izuku, who didn’t get any feedback for all the times he did the exact same thing and copied Kacchan, it felt very unfair.

See what I mean? It is completely unfair. And this was such a hard topic for me to navigate and answer for the anon at that time. But then I did some thinking.

Compress, Gentle/La Brava, Kamijirou and finally Kirimina (which came as a pleasant surprise, and for me, cemented Hori's intentions with all of this)... all of these characters have been written to highlight various things about BkDk's relationship.

Then, there is Ochaco's admiration of Izuku and she always gets told it's a crush, and it's so weird of a plot to begin with. This very one-sided "crush" also felt out of place with the rest of the themes going on. I eventually realised maybe we had been looking too closely at the admiration issue all along. By attempting to explain the meaning of the tree and why it's different from this other tree, we didn't see the forest it's connected to and that there was actually something bigger going on that Hori had been crafting.

Scale it back and you’ll see: It’s not that Izuku didn’t get his own feedback about his feelings for Kacchan in the various ways he shows he wanted to be like him, but Ochaco’s conversations with Aoyama and Mina and Toga were his feedback!! It was one of the biggest AHHHHHHHHHHH SO THAT'S WHY pin drop moments I've ever had.

No one was calling him out, because they didn't need to! Calling out Ochaco for that behaviour was all Izuku's same behaviour needed!

Chapter 15 is the first time Izuku displays this behaviour of wanting to be like Kacchan. In Chapter 48 Izuku trains his movement after thinking of "Kacchan and the others". His movement mimicking Katsuki's is first noticed by Iida in Chapter 52.

We spent so much time worrying what the difference is between Izuku and Ochaco’s admiration, but we tackled the problem all wrong! In fact, we didn’t need to tackle it at all.

Because not only did Ochaco’s crush sideplot serve as a red herring to veil the real love story going on from the average reader, it was also used as another tool to highlight it.

In chapter 58, Izuku showed off his new movement style and everybody, even Katsuki, noticed it was copying the way Katsuki moves. The fact we get another Ochaco shot of her watching Izuku mimic Katsuki really does add credence to the theory that she noticed Izuku's feelings because he's also copying the person he loves. And if their logic was true for her, then why couldn't it be true for Izuku too? Izuku's mimicry being such a non-issue for 1-A was surely done on purpose for us to see this hypocrisy one day: That her mimicry gets called out as love by everyone, but everyone sleeps on Izuku's own mimicry simply because it's between two boys.

Our take away was never meant to be “what’s the difference between their admiration/love”, but simply that Izuku was both wanting to become like and inadvertently becomes like Kacchan because he loves him so much and a way to keep Kacchan close to him was incorporating both his attitude and movement style into his own.

Hori was linking the two concepts of mimicry and romance together with commentary from Mina/Aoyama/Toga while having Izuku do this EXACT THING they were talking about, with Katsuki, right in front of our damn salad!

Because what other characters noted about Ochaco's behaviour... Izuku was also expressing towards Kacchan. (Hori even brought it up again in DvK2 just to remind *everyone* that Izuku is very conscious of doing the exact same thing as Ochaco)

Even if Ochaco later reveals their logic to not be true FOR HER (which I wholeheartedly believe in. BkDk+TogaChaco end game LETS GO), we know for sure this logic has absolutely been true for Izuku. And the feedback Ochaco got also fits Hori’s framework of;

Bkdk -> are the actions

Other characters -> are the words for their feelings and actions.

Ochaco never was a raid boss to begin with... she only had the appearance of one. All to get BkDK through to the finish line.

Ochaco talking about "putting the All Might doll away" here used the same verb as "shutting her feelings away" and her scene instantly jumps to Izuku looking at his black whip - a quirk he has also "put away" behind a locked door that represents OFA. Black whip is a quirk which emerged from the feelings he has for Katsuki, that Izuku has also had to "put away" because what happened to him was so traumatic. I think Hori wanted us to see their two stories of "locking something away" were actually the same in essence, and it wasn't just black whip itself that Izuku had to lock away, but also his feelings for Katsuki... because we lost Izuku's POV towards Katsuki after the "I'm too blessed." scene. Most likely to hide the romantic love Izuku feels towards him from the reader.

I realised the same logic of the other couples also applied to Ochaco too a few months ago, while I was putting together this meta about all the ways Hori has indirectly shown readers what Izuku’s feelings for Kacchan are. Hori couldn’t say it outright because of his demographic and the current expectations society has that BL should stay in it's own category and far removed from shounen.

So Hori gave bkdk their moments without a whole lot of context and developed the idea of them simultaneously in another language, by getting other various characters to do the talking. And he used these characters to indirectly spell out bkdk’s love story in conjunction with bkdk’s own behaviour, all for the sake of his big bkdk reveal in the series' finale.

And to think he’s been doing this almost since the beginning blows my mind. (Chapter 15! Chapter 15 was the start of WWKD: What Would Kacchan Do) The man is a genius. A lot of this feels like he had needed to release his feelings about bkdk, so he left these trails of code throughout the manga... and we’ve finally cracked the damn thing.

We did it. We realised Hori’s 2nd language and roundabout method of telling one of the greatest love stories in shounen history. And I’m sure there’s even more examples of it to discover, that all our fandom's talented, keen-eyed bkdks find every day.

If Horikoshi Kohei-Sensei wrote this story because he wanted to cement his mark in jump history, he has deservedly done just that!

Part B - The real ship of dreams

(It felt too good to be true, yet I was quietly hoping...) .•° ✿ 5. TogaChako ೋღ

Circling back to the first part of this meta, "The Shape of an Eternal Bond" ... Do you remember when I talked about how BkDk couldn't imagine a world without each other, and the sense of an eternity they both exude together? Something that has always been, something that will always be. It seems more themes and feelings we get from bkdk's relationship have now been thrown into the Togachaco fight.

Ochaco gave Toga what is essentially a marriage proposal to a vampire, and then her wires made the shape of the infinity symbol. Toga expresses to her "I can't stand the thought of you not being in this world anymore." This is 1. so touching 2. bkdk as HELL, and I am certain that Katsuki and Izuku will confess their desires to be together forever before this manga ends.

I mean, this just goes to show you how us bkdks and Hori are literally on the same neural link, and we've been right about his methods of storytelling and how he's leaving trails of love inside these other couples to express concepts that are present in bkdk's own (soon to be) very romantic relationship.

It's a fun thought exercise to look at Togachaco's fight and predict what certain themes of theirs Hori will install into bkdk's talk/feelings they will express to each other... but there is a certain one, other than "forever", I feel very strongly about and will focus on here...

And that is Izuku's smile.

Something Katsuki once detested became the thing he most advocated for and longed to protect. His thumbs pointing to himself while talking about smiles... no wonder this had an air of Katsuki, himself, being the biggest reason Izuku smiles. "How could you leave me and choose this for us - a life of no smiling like that?"

At the start of the series, Katsuki couldn't stand Izuku's face or the smile he made at him. Whenever he saw it, he could only think of it as somebody laughing at him, looking down on him... but then DvK2 reframed Izuku's wide smiles at him and turned them into something pure, and genuine, and I think that's when Katsuki started to realise how much he was being loved the whole time.

And how could Katsuki possibly not reciprocate those earnest feelings from his special person who helped him find his heroic heart?

And this seems to be something Ochaco has noticed about Izuku? Ochaco, somebody who loves when people smile, noticed how big Izuku smiles when he talks about heroes... but especially the besotted faces he makes whenever he's with Katsuki... Of course she did.

On the Weekly Shounen Jump cover that featured bnha chapter 394, most of the characters on it are happy and smiling. Izuku isn't, however. That's because he's lost the ability to smile because Katsuki is still dead in the manga... Hori used this jump issue to build on this theme in the manga - that if you take Katsuki away, then away goes Izuku's smile, too.

Because Katsuki's very existence gives Izuku his happiness.

These two panels were supposed to be compared to each other - "Blood" and "Smiles" are two concepts mirroring each other in Togachaco's story. It's their different love languages. Toga felt like she couldn't ask Saito-kun for blood because he'd never accept her, Ochaco felt like she couldn't ask Izuku for his smile... because he'd also never accept her... she knew this was because Izuku already had somebody who gave him his sweetest smile... the same person who knew him more than anyone.

Chapter 395's title, 'shiawase no ue ni' was an interesting one that feels nuanced with Ochaco's feelings towards Izuku. It can be read as "Above (my) happiness..." I think this title is describing the concept of prioritising something else BEFORE one's own happiness. It's the perfect concept title for self-sacrifice, like Toga putting Ochaco's life above her own, but could ALSO be referencing Ochaco placing Izuku's happiness with Katsuki before her own feelings for him!!

Ochaco's story, at present, appears to be about putting aside unrequited love for a person she didn't quite understand, and instead placing her efforts into an attainable goal - rescuing somebody's heart from despair, and in doing so, becoming each other's important person. And then neither have to journey through life alone anymore. Ochaco knew this is something Izuku and Katsuki found in each other. In the image above, the girls are looking at Izuku and Saito, who won't turn their way, because they are both looking at a blonde boy next to them. Their "Sometimes Saturday." Katsuki.

The hidden face as Ochaco says she "came to like" Izuku Midoriya is quite suspicious. It belies what she's saying and she seems to either be hiding something negative or she’s not being truly forthcoming about her situation and feelings for Izuku. There are also themes of envy that finally showed up in Togachaco's dialogue which may be foundation Hori has laid down for the reveal of Ochaco's feelings later, as well. Envy about the attention Izuku received from others as a hero. Envy towards Izuku's innate passion for heroes, and the adoring faces he makes for Katsuki, perhaps.

So this smile that Katsuki has always misunderstood as something negative aimed towards him ended up turning into something... very lovely and important to him, as shown in Izuku's panel and how Ochaco described Toga's smile right afterwards.

And honestly... if we get little snapshots of the many smiles Izuku has made for Katsuki, while Katsuki is thinking about how adorable Izuku looks just for him when they're talking, I don't think I'll make it out of this bkdk reveal alive. Hori is going to obliterate us with whatever he's got cooking for them.

With all the major bkdk-alike couples now finished, the next post of this meta series will be: Part III, and the conclusion of this meta series ->

Back to Part One

#bakudeku #bnha meta #bkdk canon #hori trails #must read meta #kana writes #togachaco #bkdk #I'm sorry I took so long to post this part #you see... there was an order i was trying to do things in...#i wanted to link to topics I was writing on twitter but then stuff happened there which messed with my plans for writing these metas out #on top of that #the tumblr editor would randomly wipe out entire asks so I became really demotivated #but this is one of the last metas I wanted to write for bkdk so I will finish writing at least this series to completion #sorry the togachaco section is small I didn't want to make the post even longer but I felt like I should talk about them #as this was the intended final post of part II - I shoulda known togachaco would also become a big part of this meta series xD #but their themes and expressions of love are a happy and welcome surprise just like kiriminas :)

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mementoasts · 2 months

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dude where did you even get that

#i liked drawing this-- felt comfortable. nice to post something i can be a million percent confident in xD (more or less)#i didn't rly plan on doing anything for valentine's day (this is a bit late tbf) but the idea came to me last night #sooooo i spent the evening drawing him and daigo bear #masadai #masato arakawa #ryo aoki #daigo dojima #(only a bear version but who cares fhskhdskfhk)#rgg #ryu ga gotoku #yakuza #the void given form

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yuriyuruandyuraart · 3 months

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY @zu-is-here 🎉

I'm so happy I had the opportunity to join in a collab for once hhh xD especially when it's something as sweet as a hug bomb for one of the kindest souls I ever interacted with online waa have a great day zuuu >:'Dc <3333

#HugForZu #my art #my gif #my animation #gift #yuso #my skelesona #other's sona #i know i haven't posted in months but I didn't I didn't have time at all like gosh xd #all i know is that I really wanted to make something special this year since I didn't really like how it looked last time #but I think I'm a little bit more proud of this one at least HH xD I hope you like it and the others gifts zu!!#so proud to belong in a community as wellcoming and sweet as this one where I can meet people like you guys :'D #your support means the world and i especially didn't forget the bombshell of a drawing you dropped on me last year like GOOSHHH #if i had the time i would've painted something nice and edgy for dark cream but lets keep that idea until next year hehehe >;)c #happy bday and have an amazing tiiime muah muah<3333

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shubbzebubs · 10 months

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I flashed in and out of putting effort in this shitpost 😭

Jack makes another one of his batshit lrders

#Nutmegan does not get paid enough for this #didn't use refs cuz fuk xd internet was out that day too for serveral hours #if you notice a slight alt with this one compared to the one I posted yesterday #artist hindsight kicked in xp #Big Jack Horner #Puss in Boots #Nutmegan #Puss in Boots the last wish #Okay so 18 pounds of cokane #art tag #bloop doops #sketch #shitpost art #Bakers Dozen #princess celestia

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anthurak · 1 year

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“Is that SERIOUSLY what this is all about? You still blame ME for what happened to Torchwick?”

“If you’re looking for an apology, you’ve wasted your time!”

“Is that what you want? Well if you want me dead, then come get me!”

I love how Ruby has exactly zero fucking patience for Neo’s revenge fixation XD

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 9 #Ruby Rose #it didn't last long but i did love our brief glimsp of 'has had enough of your shit' ruby this episode XD

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bigcats-birds-and-books · 7 months

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Books of 2023: IMPERIAL RADCH by Ann Leckie.

Up next! This came highly recommended by many friends (and also the internet at large when I asked for SFF revenge recs, so thanks!), and I have Tracked Down The Original Covers, so I'm ready to go.

#books #books of 2023 #ann leckie #ancillary justice #ancillary sword #ancillary mercy #book photography #my photography #the first book was used and it has a signed bookplate AND it's a first edition!!!#what a find!!!#thanks HPB lol i appreciate u #....full disclosure this is another series i didn't pick up because i didn't love the covers lol #(but i dislike these covers less than the new covers......)#fortunately: the last thing i had this experience with was Murderbot and we all know how well that turned out XD #i'm also excited for POV fuckery i love fun POVs #imperial radch #did i accidentally add a trilogy and a duology (vicious) to my pre-NaNo TBR though?? yes. yes i did.#it's fine it's not even october lmao #i can read six books + one book in a month and a week right???

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sinvulkt · 2 months

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writing patterns tag game

Rules: list the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern!

Thank you for the tag, @ravenite-void !! 🎶✨️ I had lot of fun doing this :3 (although i didn’t notice a particular pattern except that my WIPs are too old to appear here and maybe i should get out of hiatus xd)

*** ** * ** ***

1. Sēċan (Star Wars)

Everything began when Luke went to fetch a wasted Ben in Anchorhead’s only tavern.

2. The Monster and the Child (Star Wars)

The dragon slept, curled on itself in the cold cell that was its home.

3. Batman’s Downfall (To Stand Alone) (DC)

There was a new killer in town. He called himself 'Red Hood'. Had he been clownier, Batman would have bet on a new scheme from the Joker part.

4. Ahch-To Soul, Korriban Body (Star Wars)

The hound - for it had no name but hound, beast, mutant - collapsed in the dark alley, its small paws folding underneath it.

5. A Nightinghale in a Golden Cage (Star Wars)

I had left the Gruyère to explore, the break on planet finally allowing me to stretch my wings after spending so long cooped up in the ship, when a cry in the Force alerted me.

6. A Feather's Fall (Star Wars)

I walked alongside the young Togorian that had recently become my ‘Padawan’, glancing proudly at the green crystal that shone in his fist.

7. Scales of Ember (A:tLA)

Everything burned. His body felt strange, his nerves raw, as if liquid fire was spreading through his veins.

8. À La Croisée Du Temps (Le Visiteur du Futur)

Renard se réveilla en sursaut. Son front rencontra un mur. Il poussa un juron et, plus lentement cette fois, il se releva.

9. Flightless (Star Wars)

It had been her mistake.

10. By each other we pass by, our meeting as fleeting as the brush of wings (Star Wars)

There had been a disturbance on Canyon. Vader was called to deal with the issue.

*** ** * ** ***

Now, tagging time~ !

@fanfictasia @kefalion @bluntblade @doctorgeekery @pat-the-togorian @purple-iris @beguilewritesstuff @linzerj @cinderfeather @kuraiarcoiris @wendingways @gasmeros @renegadeoftheworld @threebea @batsimph @metellastella @chickadeechickadoo @aimportantdragoncollector @in-company-of-misery @udekai @purpleopossum don’t hesitate to join if you want to! (Although no pressure). I’m pretty sure you can interpret the rules as ’last chapter posted’ instead of last fic posted xd (like several chapters of a same multichap fic).

Anyone who see this post and want to join in on the fun, do so!

#so i took last fics posted - not updated #meaning none of my longfics are there XD #(also oops i didn't post anything in the last two months #shame on me XD)#tag game #tumblr game #writing patterns #writing patterns tag game #writers on tumblr

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retracexcviii · 1 year

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Dominique in the stage play

Last comic by Jun on Twitter. Cleaning by me and translation by my anon friend, ily 🛐

If you want the clean page I let it here:

It was a little pain to clean but not as much as the previous one 🤣

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anothermonikan · 2 months

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Ponee (It is half 3 in the morning)

#hey she didn't actually come out too bad!#I didn't show the last time I tried to draw Sunny but it didn't look great ehe ^^;#I think Ponies are gonna have to be a digital art only thing for now cause I had the select and drag so many elements of this #to make this look right sahsdhdshsdh #Yeah despite liking ponies since I've became a conscious thing I never drew them a bunch #and well. that's because I didn't start drawing properly until I was like. 11 years old. and I was super into something else then ehe ^^;#Sorry to get personal in the tags of an mlp art thing but I do think about how I always wanted to draw but like.#I was such a chronic perfectionist as a little little kid??? I HATED everything I tried to make XD #It makes me a little sad yknow? cause like. most kids don't give a shit they just draw whatever and it's beautiful and amazing #it makes me sad that I didn't allow myself to have that! I worked backwards IG lmao #little 6 year old hating everything she tried to make for not being perfect to me now where I love when my art is full of imperfections #that's the point of art!!! Have fun!!! It doesn't need to be perfect or even “good”!#because art is about expression yknow? and drawing stuff you like!#sorry this only took like an hour this should be on a more high-effort drawing sdhdhdshsd #Also um hi to the person who followed me for MLP G5 art?? I mostly post about puters and Ultrakill and Rain World here #But I do really love ponies I need to draw them more often XD #this is my whatever blog. I post whatever interests me here hehe #MLP #MLP G5 #Android Arts #Android.txt

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lieutenantselnia · 2 months

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Happy birthday @leibi97!!🥳

For this year I tried drawing a cutesy Sir Pentious, I've done a fanart of him once before, but that was already about 3 years ago and still with the old design😅

I imagine Pentious as someone who would be absolutely delighted to celebrate the birthday of a loved one, and would go out of his way to ensure they have a great day. His overenthusiasm and excitement might result in a bit of a chaos though😂 But our beloved snek boi is just trying his best🥺🥰 I like to think he made the cake himself, but I'm not sure if he would bake it the traditional way or build some cake-inator kind of machine, because why wouldn't he xD

#also I didn't finish a gift last minute for once yay xD #hazbin hotel #sir pentious #fanart #digital art #birthday drawing #art for friends #selniasart

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hoardlikegoldenirises · 2 months

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tonal whiplash—a scene out of context.

Trying to draw 616 Scarlet Spider Kaine is so hard for me 😂 I think my problem was the cheekbones, which I tried to fix, so I think he turned out alright here. I'm just so used to drawing him smashed up. Obviously. Also. It's really hard to draw windowverse Kaine's nose in profile. I need to find some reference photos or something.

It's smeared off to the side lol (different WIP/sketch, making a scar reference lol—it actually came in handy for this pic a little bit)

Anyway, here are the lines without any colors—

beef

I did not necessarily originally intend to blanket everything in solid black, so there are lines that aren't visible lmao — but in the dream sequence thing this is part of there is a lot of pure darkness and voids of negative space so i was like, you know, i should probably invoke that here. I GUESS I could have colored 616 Kaine's pants dark gray or something but I decided to leave it all invisible so I could keep the palette simple and focus more on the... copious quantities of blood lol

tfw your hair is just soaked with blood. I was just about to say "in the nature of dreams, this isn't realistic, and his hair isn't actually soaked in blood irl" but then I thought about it for a sec and... no, it definitely is soaked all the way up to the back of his head because of the fact that he ends up lying in a pool of his own blood for like... at least fifteen minutes. if not longer. maybe thirty minutes?

it gets chopped to chin-length after this (when he gets ✨hospitalized✨ because he's ✨dying✨) on account of the blood being a radioactive biohazard and also a hazard in general (tripping hazard, tangling hazard, etc.)—the buzzcut in some other sketches I've posted is not until a week or two later and is something he does because of some complex emotions.

they go to a renfair like three weeks after this 😂

Anywho~

he is m— he is my poor little meow meow,,,

#This is AU!Kaine and 616 Kaine but it could also be read as like. 90s Kaine and 2010s Kaine I guess #ftr there isn't actually any multiversal stuff in windowverse it's just an extension of kaine's visions and prophetic dreams and stuff #though i suppose you could argue that this might still be the crossing of a threshold into another universe possibly.#nadiart #kaine parker #came in through the window last night #rough art #sort... of...#Man these semi-cleaned up sketches are really throwing a wrench in my extremely black and white tagging system XD #i like doing them though #fanadiart #blood #using kaine's hair to censor gore—actually i didn't think this through entirely when i was sketching it and had forgotten about the blood #and then i was like #wait #are his wounds still wounds in the dream or is he just covered in blood with scars—i still don't know #but i think the intent is that it would be so dark you wouldn't really be able to tell anyway? so this works #anyway it's important to get a little bit homoerotic with a dreamscape alternate universe version of yourself #as a treat

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hannah-heartstrings · 1 month

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Sweet Surprise

During a trip to Skingrad, Lecrinn and Garrus decide to surprise each other. Early in the timeline, though I'm not actually sure how canon it is.

The lost sweetroll prompt fic. I spent half a month writing this, finished it, and went "meh." By then I'd worked on it to the point of not being able to tell if it was good or not, and I still can't tell.

So I'll just release it into the wild and you can tell me. (I do know some things I do and don't like but I decided to keep them to the tags.) From October 2022 but I'm still accepting concrit on it.

@druidx @babyblueetbaemonster @inkysqueed

---------

Cradling two sweet rolls in one hand Lecrinn held them close as she pushed the heavy door with the other. She opened it just enough to slip out, leaving the chatter and warmth of the busy inn for the street outside. It was also busy and warm but more tolerably so.

She squinted against the afternoon sun. Now that she had the sweet rolls it was time to find Garrus, after she dragged him all the way from Cheydinhal to Skingrad it was only right he get something out of it.

The roads were narrow between the tall stone buildings that arched above them. She weaved through their hustle and bustle. The street widened out into a fork, forward continued to more buildings and to the left, a statue of a horseman. There gazing up at the statue she found Garrus.

Catching her from the corner of his eye he turned and beamed at her.

She couldn’t help but smile back.

“I have a surprise for you,” he said as she walked up.

“So do I!” She stopped, both their smiles falling at the sweet rolls in the other’s hands. Looking back up at the other’s face they gave laughing smiles.

“I suppose we had the same idea,” he shifted.

She shrugged. “It’s a good idea.” His smile looked forced, he seemed to feel awkward, she didn’t know why and it was making her feel awkward too. “Well… this one’s yours,” she held one out and they swapped, both laughing a little. She noticed he only held one. “Did you already eat yours?”

“I uh,” he glanced down, “I don’t know how much money this trip will end up costing so I only bought one for you.”

“Oh…” she looked to her second one.

“You can keep it.”

“Nah, lets split it later.”

“No, you bought it for yourself, you can have it.”

She walked passed him. “One and a half sweet rolls is still more than I planned on getting.”

He tilted his head, he supposed that was true. Turning he saw her sitting on the round base of the statue. He looked startled. “Are you allowed to sit there?”

“I don’t see anyone guarding it.” Pulling the pack off her shoulders and beside her she rifled through it.

“What if you get in trouble?”

“Then you can just arrest me.”

He looked around before going over to sit beside her.

Finding a small cloth she wrapped up one of the rolls and put it in her pack. She then turned all her attention to the one in her hand, closing her eyes as she took a bite, savoring its sweet spice.

“Mmm!”

She looked to Garrus who was looking at his sweet roll surprised.

“They really are better in Skingrad.”

“Salmo’s sweet rolls are famous for a reason.”

“Perhaps we should get more of these before we leave.”

Her smile widened. “Does Cheydinhal have its own desserts?” She took another bite.

“There’s the thirty layer cake.”

She had to quickly swallow the bite. “Thirty layers?”

“They’re thin.”

“Why would you ever need thirty layers?!”

“No, they’re very thin, it isn’t much taller than a regular cake.”

“Oh… I’m having a hard time picturing it,” she gave a smirk, “I think I’ll have to see it for myself.” The smile turned more genuine. “Is it good?” She took a smaller bite.

“I haven’t got to try one, they’re expensive.”

The smile fell. “Oh.”

“I like the spiced root cake the Dunmer make, and there’s one made from something called marshmerrow, it’s a little too sweet for me but I think you’d like it.”

“I’ll have to try them next time I’m in town.”

“I’m also quite fond of the bread they make out of yams, though,” he lowered his voice, “I’ve been afraid to try it with scrib jelly.”

“What’s that?”

“…Maybe when you’re done with your sweet roll.”

Her brows rose.

As they continued eating she looked around, gaze catching on the red leaves of a nearby tree, its branches bobbing slightly.

He stared out at the street. “I have been trying to learn more about Dunmer culture, and not judge things that are different too quickly.”

She smirked to him. “Except for scrib jelly?”

“Well some things are easier to respect from afar.”

“Ah.”

“It is admirable though, because not much grows in the ashlands they have to find food elsewhere and they managed to get multiple food types out of something others wouldn’t see as such, they’re survivors, no matter the situation you put them in.”

She furrowed her brows. “I really don’t want to know what a scrib is, do I?”

“No.” Tearing a piece off his sweet roll he rolled it between his fingers. “I hope that learning more about them will help me be a better guard to them, like you said, at the very least, perhaps I’ll be a better man.”

Her smile lessened but turned more genuine. “You are a good guard.”

“I hope so, protecting everyone is why I became a guard in the first place.” Eating the bite his eyes lit up. He turned to her. “Does the Merchant Inn still make those blackberry tarts?”

“What?” She blinked, brain taking a second to keep up with the sudden topic change.

“I use to get them sometimes when I was training in the Imperial City.”

“Um…” she glanced off, thinking, before turning back to him. “I don’t know, I’ll check. If they do I’ll bring you some, unless they wouldn’t stay good… Maybe I’ll just have to bring you there,” she smirked.

“Hopefully that can be soon,” he turned back to his sweet roll.

She looked surprised. Did he mean he wanted the tarts soon or did he like her dragging him places? She looked away as she couldn’t contain the grin spreading across her face.

Turning back to him she saw he was staring at his dessert, the same awkward look as when she gave it to him. Seemed whatever had been bothering him never really went away. “What’s wrong?”

“I am grateful, truly, but since I wanted to surprise you didn’t know what I was doing and bought some too.”

“So now we have three sweet rolls,” she was confused as to how this was a problem.

“I just feel bad you had to pay for two.”

“Oh…” she glanced off with a smirk, “don’t worry about that.”

#tes oc #oblivion fanfiction #oblivion #the elder scrolls #tes #hero of kvatch #garrus darelliun #fanfiction #my writing #lecrinn #thiefguard #i don't think i like how they're talking about dunmer culture #it feels off to me #i do like the last line though #and though this scene might not be canon garrus liking ash yams is because it keeps cropping up in fics that don't get finished 😅#also when she says he's a good guard i thought it also said she looked sad because he didn't know how much that meant coming from her #but it's not there? or in my cut file? so apparently i didn't write it?#i think it would've been better with it #also their reactions to the thirty layer cake came from me reading about it on uesp and thinking the rich of cheydinhal had gone too far #and my mom pulling up a picture to show me that the layers are paper thin XD

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