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m1ckeyb3rry · 2 months

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── THE GLASS PRINCESS // TWO

Series Synopsis: You wake up in a strange room with no memories, broken glass at your bedside, and a prince named Zuko as your only chance at figuring out who you really are.

Chapter Synopsis: You arrive at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls and meet your roommate.

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Zuko x Reader

Chapter Word Count: 5.1k

Content Warnings: complicated relationships (strangers to friends to lovers to enemies to strangers to lovers to enemies to lovers), amnesia, alternate universe, lots of secrets and lying and mystery

A/N: oc warning from this chapter onwards ig?? i had to make up students for the fire academy so if you don’t like that then idk what to tell you except that you should probably read something else 😔 but even though jia-li and kaho are not canon characters their brothers are!! we will meet them eventually HAHA although i’m sure some of you might be able to guess who they are based on that

To His Royal Highness The Prince,

I have arrived at the Academy safely. Ty Lee and I were given leave from classes today, to allow us to acclimate to the environment of the school, but tomorrow, we will join the others in our year for lessons. I promise that I will work hard, so that Your Highness’s good name is not sullied by poor performance on my part.

If it does not trouble Your Highness greatly, and if it is not presumptuous of me to make a request like this, please feed Bian a treat when she reaches the palace. She is working hard, too.

Ever Your Highness’s humble and obedient servant, Ursa

P.S. Regretfully, I must report that I have still regained nothing in the way of my memories.

The messenger hawk that Prince Zuko had given you was a beautiful animal, almost draconian in appearance, with eyes like amber and a queenly crest of russet feathers. She had an enormous wingspan and talons so large that if you handed her a scroll, she would be able to take it between them and then fly away without waiting for you to strap it to her back.

“Woah, so pretty!” Ty Lee said as the Royal Falconer wheeled the caged bird into your room, vocalizing your exact thoughts at seeing the magnificent hawk. “I’ve never seen one so big.”

“Pretty’s one word for it,” the falconer said, shaking his head. “She’s likely the finest bird Agni’s ever seen. Actually, she was meant to be a coronation gift for Prince Zuko, but he came to the aviary the other day and told me to give her to you.”

You were so enraptured by the hawk that you almost did not notice what the man had said, but when his words registered, you immediately straightened your back and gave him an incredulous look.

“This bird was meant to be the prince’s?” you said.

“She was, but like I said, she’s yours now,” the falconer said. “By order of that very prince himself.”

You bit your tongue, feeling equal parts embarrassed and guilty about the gift. Although you knew he was doing it for his own reasons, you still thought it was strange for Prince Zuko to be paying so much attention to you. Even if he had saved you, what cause was there to give you such a grand bird? A normal one would’ve been fine. A smaller, more average messenger hawk was probably more fitting for who you were, so why instead was the finest bird Agni had ever seen sitting before you?

“Does she have a name?” you said.

“We don’t name the hawks,” the falconer said. “You’re her owner now, though, so if you want to, you can.”

You thought about it for a second. “Bian.”

The falconer wrinkled his nose, giving Bian a look that she ignored entirely, too busy preening her feathers to notice. You waited for him to say something, anything, but it took him a while before he did.

“It’s an interesting name,” he said.

“Is something wrong with it?” you said. “I don’t know why I chose it. I can change it, if you’d like.”

“It’s not my place to be demanding you change your own hawk’s name,” he said, bowing at you.

“Wait,” you said. “Before you leave — must I keep her caged all of the time?”

“It’s not really common for anyone to do otherwise,” the falconer said. “But I suppose she won’t go anywhere unless you tell her to, so it’s fine if you let her out.”

Although he was obviously hinting that you should not do it, you leaned over and unlatched the door to Bian’s cage. You weren’t sure why, but something about seeing her trapped like that made you feel claustrophobic yourself, like the metal bars were encroaching on your neck, like it was your flight which was restricted.

Bian did not move for a bit, and then hesitantly, she peeked her head out of the door. When she realized that she was free, that the door was open, she flapped her wings, and with a great gust of wind, she took off and perched on your windowsill.

“They should know how to take care of her at the school, since most students bring their own messenger hawks, so you won’t have to worry about her there,” the falconer said. “And if you ever come to the palace again, you can leave her with me.”

“As you say, sir,” you said. “I don’t know enough about messenger hawks and their care or keeping, so I will defer to your expertise when it comes down to it.”

“Good,” he said. “Have a nice day, Miss Ursa.”

“And you as well,” you said, waving at him before racing to the windowsill to admire the roosting Bian. She peered at you suspiciously, but when you raised your fingers and rested them on the space between her eyes, she did not so much as snap her beak at you.

“Be careful!” Ty Lee said. “Messenger hawks usually aren’t that friendly. They’re a postal service, not pets.”

“It’s alright,” you said, stroking Bian’s head, smiling as she closed her eyes and crooned at you. “I think she’s different. Well, at least, I don’t think she’ll bite me or anything like that. She’s nice.”

“If you say so,” Ty Lee said. “Though I think I will stay far away, if that’s okay with you.”

“That’s your prerogative,” you said. “But I’m not putting her back in that cage, so don’t expect that.”

“Sure, I won’t! Anyways, she’ll live in the school’s aviary while we’re there, so it’s not a big deal,” she said.

“Oh, true,” you said. “Do you think they’ll let me visit her still?”

“They wouldn’t stop you. How else would you send letters? Although, I can’t really understand why Zuko even gave you a hawk in the first place. Who are you going to be writing to?” she said, picking her bag in one hand and yours in the other.

“I think he wanted me to write to him,” you said, whistling at Bian, who whistled back before she realized you were actually calling her, at which she rustled herself alert. “Bian, do you know where the Royal Fire Academy is? That’s where we’re going. You can either come with us or fly there on your own.”

Bian cocked her head before diving back into her cage, landing on the perch and tucking her head under her wing. You glanced at Ty Lee, who shrugged, obviously as confused as you were.

“I guess I won’t close the door, but if she wants to be in there of her own volition, then I can’t take the decision from her,” you said.

“At least it’ll be easier to take her to the academy,” Ty Lee said. “Speaking of which, we should hurry up and go — I think the carriage driver is waiting for us.”

The carriage was covered in gold and brandished with the emblem of the Fire Nation. A dragon moose was in the harness, dozing off, its ears drooping lazily as it napped. The driver himself was in a similar state, resting his chin in his hands, his hat low over his head to protect him from the sun.

“Sorry we’re so late!” Ty Lee chirped at him. He awoke in a flurry of flailing limbs, looking around wildly before letting out a deep breath when he noticed that it was just you and Ty Lee. “The falconer came to give Ursa a messenger hawk, so that took a bit of time, but we’re here now!”

“It’s not an issue,” the driver said, patting the dragon moose on the rump and swinging off his bench, taking the bags from Ty Lee’s hands. She relinquished them easily, watching as he put them under your seats in the carriage, and then she turned to you.

“Give him Bian’s cage, so that he can put her in there as well,” she said.

“He won’t put her under the seat, right?” you fretted, gripping the bars of the open cage.

“Of course not, silly! He’ll just put her on the carriage floor or something, and we’ll have to sit around her,” she said.

“Okay, if you say so,” you said. “Sir Driver, please take the utmost of care with Bian when you put her away.”

“You don’t have to be that formal with him,” Ty Lee whispered to you as the driver gave you a strange look before grabbing Bian’s cage, though he did gentle his movements when you frowned at how rough he was being. “He’s just a driver.”

“Sorry,” you whispered back. “I would just feel bad if I didn’t address him politely.”

“They’re used to it,” she said, leaping into the carriage once the driver had left and extending her hand out to you to help you in. You grabbed onto it and let her pull you in beside her. Bian squawked indignantly when you narrowly avoided kicking her cage over, and you muttered an apology to her as you sat across from Ty Lee, folding your hands in your lap and crossing your legs at the ankles.

“Is the academy far from here?” you said.

“Not by much. It’s a quick journey, since it’s inside of the volcano as well,” she said.

“Volcano?” you said.

“Oh, sorry, I forgot you wouldn’t have known much about that! The Fire Nation’s capital is inside of a dormant volcano, but of course, the entire city isn’t actually located in the main crater. Only the most high-status dwellings and government buildings are here; everything else is on the sides of the volcano, just because there isn’t enough space for them here,” she said.

“The Royal Fire Academy is included in that?” you said.

“It’s where all the children of the Fire Nation elite go to school,” she said. “Naturally, it’d be in here, too!”

“Ah, that’s sensible,” you said, for you hadn’t thought that through until she had mentioned it. In fairness, you also hadn’t known that the inner circle of the Fire Nation was located inside the crater of a dormant volcano, but then again, what could be a greater representation of the nation’s pride than the subjugation of nature’s own version of fire?

“It’s a very beautiful building,” Ty Lee said. “From what I remember, anyways. Nothing’s as beautiful as the palace, but the academy comes close. And the grounds…you’ll love them, Ursa! Even though I didn’t like my time there that much, I still have some good memories of just how amazing the gardens were. I can’t wait to show you around!”

“I can’t wait to see everything,” you said. “Is there a library?”

“Duh,” Ty Lee said. “It’s a school. Of course there’s a library. Do you like reading or something?”

“I don’t know. I can’t remember, but I’m sure that I’ll be much behind everyone else, so I’ll probably need to do a lot of catching up so that I can still get good marks. A library is my best bet at finding the information I need,” you said.

“You’re so studious,” Ty Lee said. “I’ve always just thought to myself that as long as I pass, it’s fine!”

“The prince has gone through so much effort to ensure my acceptance in the academy,” you said. “The least I can do for him is prove that it wasn’t a waste.”

Ty Lee beamed at you. “You’re amazing! I bet he’ll be really grateful that you’re so dedicated.”

“It’s good to hear that,” you said. “Besides, maybe it’ll help jog my memory if I read about history and science and other such things. According to Prince Zuko, I was a soldier before he found me, but I doubt he knows anything about my hobbies or preferences, so there’s no telling what might spark something in my mind.”

This was the true reason. Though it wasn’t a lie to say that you wanted to make the prince happy, your own identity was more important to you. The memories of the girl named Ursa, who she had been, who she had loved…you wanted to know all of it. You wanted to know who you were, not in anyone else’s words but in your own.

Ty Lee did not seem to judge you. She only smiled sadly before turning to look out the window, an obvious sign that the conversation was over.

She had been right; the journey to the academy did not take much longer than the duration of your conversation. You were there before you knew it, before you were really prepared for what that meant, but it was irrelevant. Your personal feelings on the matter weren’t important, because this was where you would now spend your time. You were going to be a proper Fire Nation girl, a lady, one who could rejoin society as someone that even a prince might be proud of.

Bian was carted off to the academy’s aviary before you could even think to wish her farewell, but beyond promising yourself you would visit her later, there was nothing you could do about it. That was because a tall, stately woman before you was now commanding all of your attention, her pinched face souring when she saw your plain clothes and meager possessions.

“So you are the Ursa that the prince insisted attend my school,” the woman, who must’ve been the Headmistress, said. “And here we have the infamous dropout of the academy, Ty Lee.”

Something about the Headmistress seemed to cow even the perpetually sunny Ty Lee, for she only ducked her head and folded her hands behind her back in deference.

“Yes, Headmistress,” she said. Following her example, you hoped you were doing it correctly.

“Yes, Headmistress,” you said.

“You two are probably the most sorry students I’ve seen in all my years at this institution,” she said. “You’re lucky that you are who you are and that you know who you know. If it weren’t for the royal family’s interference, then mark my words: you would not be standing here now. Neither of you.”

“Thank you, Headmistress,” Ty Lee said.

“Thank you, Headmistress,” you echoed.

“Luckily, two of our students still don’t have roommates, so there’s at least space for you both to stay. For as long as you can bear to, anyways,” the Headmistress said, the latter part of her statement pointed at Ty Lee, who did not even argue. “Ty Lee, you will room with Kaho, and Ursa, you will be with Jia-Li.”

You had been hoping that you would get to stay with Ty Lee, but there was only so much that you could expect to go your way. Although you had no idea who Jia-Li was, you hoped that she would at least be friendly enough that you could live with her without much complaint.

Ty Lee did not seem optimistic about the proposition of rooming with Kaho. Her sweet face crumpled, but she did not speak up. You wondered what kind of person Kaho could be, if even Ty Lee did not want to live with her.

“Yes, Headmistress,” you said, speaking for the both of you when it became evident that Ty Lee was far too distressed to say anything.

“I will show you to your rooms. You arrived too late to attend today’s classes, so you will be excused, but I expect the both of you to be present tomorrow. At this school, education is our priority, and special admission or not, no one is exempt from this,” the Headmistress said.

“Of course, Headmistress,” you said once again. “I am eager to begin learning.”

She glanced at you out of the corner of her eye before turning away. “Good. Enthusiasm is the first step to success. We’ll see; maybe we can make something halfway respectable out of you after all.”

The room you were to share with Jia-Li had a heavy, plain door, though two placards hung on it, the left emblazoned with the characters of your name, the right with hers. The Headmistress did not even wait for you to enter before marching off with Ty Lee, presumably to where Kaho’s room was.

You opened the door gingerly, cringing back preemptively in case Jia-Li was of an easily startled temperament. When there was no blast of fire in your direction, you stepped in, admiring the small room and getting your first glance at your new roommate.

She had long, silky hair tied in a ponytail with a red ribbon, and her eyes, which were trained on a scroll, were the same color as volcano-glass. The bed on the left of the room was clearly hers, as its blankets were messy instead of neatly made, and she was sitting at the desk by its foot. There were paintings hung on her side of the room, but the side that must’ve been yours was noticeably bare, likely in preparation for your arrival.

“Are you Jia-Li?” you said when she did not look up. She dropped the scroll in her hands and sprang to her feet, her cheeks flushed and her palms clasped together in apology.

“Yes, I am! I’m sorry, I didn’t notice you coming in. Are you Ursa?” she said. You wanted to say no, because you still didn’t feel very much like that was who you were, but you just nodded your head.

“It’s nice to meet you. I think we’re going to be roommates?” you said.

“Yes, they brought your things up just now. It’s nice to meet you, too! My last roommate left after losing an Agni Kai, so I’ve been living on my own for a bit. It’ll be nice to have someone here with me again,” she said.

“Do you get kicked out if you lose an Agni Kai?” you said.

“No?” Jia-Li said. “It’s just a dishonorable thing. She got so embarrassed she had to leave, but it’s not like anyone made her go. Actually, she lost to Kaho, so no one was even judging her for losing. Kaho’s only lost an Agni Kai once, and that was to Princess Azula, so it doesn’t even count.”

There it was again: Princess Azula. She must’ve been Prince Zuko’s sister, but everyone said her name differently. Almost reverently, though they never said the prince’s name like that. It was strange. You weren’t sure if you ever wanted to meet the princess, if she inspired this kind of terror in people.

“Sorry,” you said. “I probably should’ve known that. Actually, I probably did know that, but — I’m not sure if they told you or anything, but I don’t have any memories.”

Jia-Li blinked. “They didn’t mention it, but that’s good to know. Who are you the daughter of? They must be pretty distraught that you’re like this.”

“I don’t know. I’m not the daughter of anyone,” you said. “If I have parents or siblings or a family, they are lost somewhere in my mind, along with everything else I cannot recall.”

“Not the daughter of anyone? Then how’d you end up in the academy? It’s infamous for being selective and only open to the children of the nobility,” Jia-Li said. It didn’t seem like she was upset or scandalized by the fact that you, her new roommate, were just some ordinary girl — she just appeared to be confused.

“Actually, I was found by Prince Zuko while injured and taken to the palace to be healed,” you said. “Now that I am in a somewhat better shape, he arranged for me to attend the academy so that I can rejoin Fire Nation society in a proper way and understand what kind of world I am living in.”

Jia-Li’s jaw dropped. “You’re the one here on the royal family’s scholarship?”

“I didn’t know that was a well-known thing…” you said, rubbing the back of your neck sheepishly, stepping into the room fully. Jia-Li’s face lit up as you opened the bags Mai had packed for you and began to shake out your things to set them up in the room.

“Kaho’s been furious since she heard about it!” she said. “She’s always tried to gain favor from the royal family and failed, so to hear that a girl is coming to the academy that has the very thing she lacks has had her in knots.”

The name Kaho was familiar to you, and not just because Jia-Li had mentioned her earlier. You tried to think about where you might know her from, and then you realized that she was Ty Lee’s roommate, the one that she had been upset about.

“Is she someone dangerous?” you said.

“Depends. Are you talented with bending?” Jia-Li said.

“I’m not even a bender,” you said. Jia-Li winced.

“Then yes, she’s dangerous,” she said. “If I were you, I’d steer clear of her.”

“Are you a Firebender?” you said. Jia-Li smiled, holding out her palm, where a small flame blossomed.

“I’m passable enough. Certainly, I’m no prodigy, but I can do most of the intermediate forms, and I’m starting to try some of the more advanced ones, too,” she said. “That, combined with my brother’s friendship with Kaho’s, is enough for her to mostly leave me alone.”

“I’ll do my best to avoid her,” you said. “Though I don’t even know who she is, so it’ll be difficult.”

“I’ll look out for you,” Jia-Li promised. “Actually, my best advice would be to avoid people you don’t know in general. Most girls here aren’t that nice.”

“But I only know you and Ty Lee,” you said. Jia-Li nodded.

“That’s enough. Two friends is more than most people have, and it’s better to have two actual friends than ten false ones,” she said.

“How do I know that you’re an actual friend?” you said before clapping your hand over your mouth. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that.”

She laughed. “It’s okay. That’s a good question; one whose answer you will have to determine for yourself. However, whether you think I’m a true friend or not, you’ll have to live with me, so for both our sakes, I hope you come to a more positive conclusion. In the meantime, though, I have to go to afternoon lessons. I’m assuming you’ve been excused from them?”

“Yes, I have been,” you said. “I’m to start with classes tomorrow.”

Jia-Li made a face. “Lucky. You should try to get some rest while you can.”

“I already can’t. I need to spend some time reviewing so that I’m prepared for class tomorrow. I’m already starting off at a disadvantage; I have to do what I can to close the gap between me and everyone else, so that my performance does not reflect poorly on the prince,” you said.

Jia-Li looked impressed. “I’ll leave you to it, then. If you ever need help with your homework or studying or anything, let me know. I’m not the top student at the academy or anything, but my grades are decent.”

“Who’s the top student?” you said. Jia-Li gave you a knowing look.

“It was Princess Azula, before she left, and ever since, it’s been Kaho,” she said.

“Not exactly a person I should be asking for tutoring, then,” you said in defeat.

“Not exactly,” Jia-Li agreed. “Anyways, see you tonight!”

“Tonight? Is something happening?” you said.

“Yeah,” she said. “We’re sleeping. In the same room. As we will be, until the end of the term.”

“Oh, right. I forgot,” you said. Jia-Li smiled, patting you on the shoulder as she walked out.

“Bye, Ursa,” she said.

Once your things were unpacked, you thought about trying to find Ty Lee, but Jia-Li’s warning about Kaho still rang in your head, and considering Kaho was Ty Lee’s roommate, it would probably be best if you avoided that area overall. Besides, you didn’t know where their room was, so even if you weren’t afraid of meeting Kaho, you wouldn’t be able to find Ty Lee anyways.

You were just about sitting down to write a letter to Prince Zuko, telling him about your first day, when someone burst into your room. It wasn’t Jia-Li — you didn’t think she possessed that much energy — but it was still someone familiar to you: Ty Lee.

“You must’ve read my mind,” you said. “I was thinking about how I’d like to meet you.”

“Ursa, things are just horrid! My roommate is Kaho, and she’s just like I remember her being!” Ty Lee wailed, throwing herself into your arms. You barely had the self-possession or advance warning to catch her, and then the only thing you could do was awkwardly pat her on the back, looking around and wishing there was someone else here to help.

“Do you know Kaho from before you left the academy?” you said.

“Do I ever,” Ty Lee muttered. “She’s the reason I’m even friends with Azula.”

“How does that work?” you said.

“She’s insane, that’s how,” Ty Lee said. “Kaho, I mean. She was jealous of how much attention the boys at the Royal Fire Academy for Boys were giving me, so she challenged me to an Agni Kai! Mind you, I’m not even a Firebender.”

“I thought you could only participate in an Agni Kai if you were one, though,” you said.

“Yes, that’s right. She knows that, too. It doesn’t stop her from going around and calling one for at any inconvenience, no matter her opponent’s bending status. The thing is, technically, nonbenders are allowed to call someone else — namely, a Firebender — to represent them in the match,” Ty Lee said.

“Is it common to do that?” you said.

“It’s not really a rule that’s put into practice often, as most people wouldn’t challenge a nonbender to an Agni Kai — excepting Kaho, of course. Anyways, Kaho was the best Firebender in the academy, so no one dared to stand against her, even with that rule in place; no one, that is, but Azula.

“She agreed to be my proxy, though I think that’s just because she was annoyed with how Kaho liked to lord her prowess over everyone. Of course, she won, because she’s the most talented Firebender in the world, and ever since then, she’s been my friend,” Ty Lee finished.

“That’s great,” you said. “Though I’d expect it doesn’t endear you to Kaho any.”

“Not at all!” Ty Lee said. “And now you’re telling me I have to live with her? The Headmistress did this on purpose!”

“How can you know that? Kaho and Jia-Li were probably the only ones needing roommates. It was either me or you,” you said, leaving out the fact that you were secretly pleased that it was her and not you.

“Why didn’t she just make those two stay together and let us be roommates?” Ty Lee said. “I mean, really! Kaho leaves Jia-Li alone, something about their brothers being friends, I think, so they would’ve been fine as a pair, and of course we would’ve had so much fun together. But no. I swear, the Headmistress is punishing me!”

“What for? We just got here,” you said. She gave you a dull look.

“Well, I mean, I did drop out and run away to join the circus, you know…” she said. “It wasn’t the best look for the academy, that’s for sure. She definitely hates me for it.”

“That’s true,” you said. “You should just spend as much time as possible in my room.”

“Sure thing!” she said, like she had been planning on doing that anyways but was pleased to have an official invitation.

“I hope Jia-Li doesn’t mind you being here too much. Did you happen to know her, too?” you said.

“Not that well,” Ty Lee said, tapping her chin in thought. “But I think she was nice. I can’t seem to remember anything about her that particularly stood out, which could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it.”

“Hm,” you said. “She did seem to say that she was pretty mediocre all around, so it checks out.”

“Sounds about right! But forget about our disappointing roommates. Do you know what time it is?” she said, raising her pointer fingers.

“I still don’t understand why it’s that time, but yes, I do know what you’re about to do,” you said.

It was something like a ritual for you two, now. Every day, without fail, Ty Lee would jab you with her pointer fingers, always causing your knees to feel weak and your pulse to grow shallow for a moment. You always asked her what she was doing, but she refused to elaborate, promising that she’d tell you one day.

Not today. Not tomorrow. But one day.

To my dear Ursa,

You don’t have to follow such strict protocols and rules of etiquette when you write to me. I know that I am a prince, but in truth I rarely ever feel like one, so it is strange for me when you act as if I am royalty. You may pity me for saying it, but since I know you so well am your benefactor, I will disclose that the habits of my banishment have yet to fade. And in those days, I was never referred to by such titles, so please stop. It is especially strange to hear you calling me such things.

I am glad that you were given time to settle in. Mai told me she was not sure that the two of you would be afforded such grace, but we are both pleased to hear that you were. I hope that your lessons go well, and that your classmates are kind and helpful. I also hope that, if you cannot have Ty Lee as your roommate, you get someone who is friendly to you.

You needn’t fret about doing well in your classes. I am confident you will, and that you will uphold my good name if I even still have one. Worry only for yourself. Try to avoid trouble, if at all possible, but write to me if it finds you anyways. I will do what I can to help you. I will always do what I can to help you.

I gave Bian a treat, as you asked. She was happy. I give you leave to make requests of me freely. It is not a problem for me to oblige you.

Yours, Zuko

P.S. I am sorry to hear that you still remember nothing. Please write to me if that changes.

P.P.S. Do not sign your letters off like that again. You are not my servant.

#zuko x reader #zuko x y/n #zuko x you #zuko #avatar the last airbender #atla #reader insert #the glass princess #canon au #m1ckeyb3rry writes

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jayteacups · 1 year

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Ignorance Is Bliss

Out of the entire cast of Attack on Titan, the member that spends the least time online is probably Levi. And after seeing the responses to the latest collaboration promotional photoshoot, he wants to keep it that way.

Pairing: Levi Ackerman x GN!Reader

Tags and warnings: Actor AU, established relationship, fluff, (my sorry attempt at) humour, some other characters are mentioned, a few suggestive things are briefly brought up in the form of internet slang, mild spoiler about Levi's state in S4

Word count: 1.1k

A/N: First piece of writing in almost three months 😭 my writing is rough I apologise in advance. Anyway this is very much inspired by the AOT x Gutedama collab illustrations. Might the use of internet slang become very dated in a few years? Probably. Did that stop me from writing this? No. Enjoy this incredibly dumb piece of writing XD

“Why the fuck are they calling me ‘breedable’?” Levi grumbles under his breath, causing you to choke back a laugh.

Setting your book aside, you shuffle closer to your boyfriend on the sofa. “What did you just say?” You ask, incredulous. You’re not entirely sure you heard him correctly—it isn’t a sentence you imagined leaving his mouth, ever.

“I said,” Levi repeats, waving his phone in his hand, “these random perverts on the internet are calling me ‘submissive and breedable’.” With his other hand, he creates air quotation marks. A deep blush washes across his cheeks and ears. “They’re all saying I did a slutty pose, too. How is that slutty? How?”

They’re not wrong, is the sentence that lingers on the tip of your tongue. Instead, you reach out, your lips twitching. “Let me see.”

He sighs and relents, pressing his phone into your hand. He’s been browsing Twitter. Or, more specifically, scrolling through the replies underneath a promotional photoshoot he and his cast members had a few weeks ago: some kind of collaboration with Gutedama, the Sanrio character. You’ve seen the photo before—the actors involved were able to get a sneak peek of the photos a week before they were to be posted, and Levi had shown you his. You’d thought it was hilarious, the way Eren, Mikasa, Armin and Hange all had ordinary, somewhat conservative poses, as opposed to Levi.

“I’m not surprised they’re reacting this way,” you muse, zooming in on Levi’s photo. “You do happen to be the only one on your back, with your legs spread and knees up, giving the camera a very clear view of your crotch. You also happen to be the only one with the ODM straps on, so that does draw attention to your thighs—which look great, by the way…”

Levi crosses his arms. “Don’t tell me you agree with those degenerates.”

Saying nothing, you pointedly continue to scroll through the replies and quotes. ‘He’s so babygirl,’ reads one. ‘I am going to breed this man,’ reads another. Both of those are very tame in comparison to what you have seen before, but as you dive in further, the comments become more and more debauched, most obviously being exaggerated jokes. It’s become the norm. You’re not threatened in the slightest, not at all—in fact, you’re amused. You simply tilt your head and say, “hm.”

Levi throws his hands in the air in exasperation. “Not you too.”

You look up at him through your lashes. “Listen,” you begin, “I’ve been thinking this since day one, but for your sake I didn’t say anything—”

“I am never doing these photoshoots ever again,” he grouses, rubbing his temples. “It’s not… it wasn't even my idea, the photographer asked me to pose like that.”

“Oh, trust me, they got you to pose like that for a reason.” You pass Levi’s phone back to him, patting his shoulder gently.

He scoffs.

“Maybe you should avoid Twitter for a bit, sweetheart, because this isn’t going to end any time soon.”

Sighing, Levi sets his phone down firmly. He resettles on the sofa next to you, his shoulder touching yours, warm body pressing up against your side. “I still don’t get it,” he grumbles. A small wrinkle appears between his brows.

“Get what?” Carefully, you lower your head and press a gentle kiss on the space between his eyebrows, right on the little furrow. He shuffles closer, now leaning his weight against you.

“I get that they’re joking, but… some of the perversions they’re speaking of don’t even make any sense. For a moment, I thought about asking Connie, because the kid basically lives on Twitter—seriously, his screentime is concerning—but knowing him, he’s not going to tell me anything helpful. He laughed in my face last time.”

“Wait, you asked him about this stuff before?”

Levi’s gone redder than a tomato. “I asked him what a ‘little meow meow’ was when the promo photos of me in the bandages got posted.”

You know perfectly well what a ‘little meow meow’ is, but elect not to say anything.

He continues on with his rant, nose wrinkling in both disgust and confusion. “That was a clear lapse of judgement, I know. I’m not asking him or the other kids a thing about this shit ever again. Anyway. What’s with these Twitter users wanting to ‘breed’ me? That’s not even possible. And what does ‘babygirl’ even mean? Isn’t that—” His face sours even further, a realisation dawning upon him. “Fuck, no.”

“What?”

“Isn’t that what the creepy guy from 365 Days says to the main character? That’s… no. I hate it. I hate everything. Fuck this.”

You tilt your head back and laugh. One of your hands comes up to cup the back of Levi’s head, pressing his face to your chest. “No, no, it’s not like that. It’s… it’s an internet saying. Don’t think too much about it, yeah?”

“You know what? I take all my questions back. I really don’t want to know.” His words are muffled. The two of you are sinking further and further into the sofa, lying almost horizontally, with him on top of you.

Giggling, you slip your fingers through his silky hair. “You know what they say. Ignorance is bliss.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“So why were you looking through Twitter, then, hm? You usually stay off social media for weeks on end.”

“Why’d you think? The rest of the cast wouldn’t shut up about it in the group chat, saying I had to see what the responses to the photoshoot were…”

“By the rest of the cast,” your lips twitch with barely restrained laughter, “you mean Hange and Zeke, don’t you?” Those two always love to tease Levi about his rabid fanbase. “I honestly would not be surprised if one of those replies was Zeke on his burner account, having a laugh. You know how much he enjoys winding you up.”

“Fucking hell. I would not put it past him, now that you mention it. Thanks for putting that weird picture into my head.” He rolls his eyes, as you laugh.

———

After enjoying his morning off, Levi gets a private text from Erwin whilst he’s on his way to set: What was all the ruckus about on the cast group chat? I don’t quite understand what was so funny.

He sighs, tapping an answer back on his phone.

Ignorance is bliss, Erwin.

Please do not repost, modify or claim as your own work.

Masterlist

#levi x reader #levi x y/n #levi x you #levi ackerman x reader #levi ackerman x y/n #levi ackerman x you #levi fanfiction #levi fanfic #levi ackerman fanfiction #levi ackerman fanfic #levi fluff #levi ackerman fluff #captain levi x reader #captain levi x you #captain levi x y/n #idk why i'm so self conscious of tagging a;dksjfsdljk

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tastybluesprite · 7 months

Text

Firsts (Classroom of the Elite)

I really love this anime so much. I needed some lee!Ayanokoji and since I couldn’t find any I wrote this myself lol. Btw if you haven’t seen classroom of the elite then please check it out it’s really good!!!

Warnings: This is a tickle fic so if that makes you uncomfortable please keep scrolling

Summery: Sakura is worried about the fact that Ayanokoji never laughs or smiles. He’ll allow her to settle those worries however…

Ayanokoji was just organizing things around his dorm room one night when he got a knock at his door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me, Sakura.” Airi Sakura called nervously from the other side.

Ayanokoji went to open the door for her. “What are you doing here?” He asked with curiosity.

The pink haired girl looked at him nervously. “Well… I just wanted to see how you were doing. I mean you usually seem pretty expressionless anyway, but for some reason I noticed your face being more intense looking today. I couldn’t help but wonder if something had happened.”

“No. Nothings wrong. You were probably just overthinking it. Although, part of me does get the feeling you have ulterior motives here.” Ayanokoji deadpanned.

Sakura flinched. “Ah, you got me…” She seemed very embarrassed at being found out.

Ayanokoji inspected her for a second longer and then gestured for her to come in. She entered and hesitantly sat on his bed. He joined her.

She took a deep breath “The truth is… well, I never see you smile. Not even once. Not ever. I was just a bit worried.” She looked down at her feet, her face burning as she spoke.

“This is how my face normally looks.” Ayanokoji told her. “So please don’t worry about that.”

“Haha, I suppose. Well… I really do want to know, have you ever even laughed before?” Sakura asked the brunette.

Ayanokoji thought about that. “Well, no, I don’t think I can remember ever having laughed.”

Sakura took that in for a moment. “Can I… um… try making you laugh?” She asked tentatively, her face still looking embarrassed.

Ayanokoji looked elsewhere, and then back at her. “Why would you want to do that?”

“It will give me peace of mind. Just to see it for myself.”

“Hm… ok, if that’s what you really want.”

“Really?” She asked, a bit surprised.

“Well, I don’t see why not. It doesn’t bother me nor affect me negatively if you wanted to try that. I would warn you now though, that it would likely not work.”

“Hmm…” Sakura thought about that. “Maybe… I could try telling you a joke?”

“I’ve heard most of them already. None of which I’ve found funny at all, or funny enough to laugh at.”

Sakura tried thinking. What was a foolproof way to get this stoic guy to laugh. Suddenly she had an idea.

She hesitated, not wanting to overstep any boundaries, but slowly reached to squeeze his side. No response.

“What was that for?” He asked her, completely unfazed.

Sakura looked down sheepishly. “I thought maybe I could… try… t-tickling you…” her face was so red by now she was surprised Ayanokoji hadn’t made a comment on it.

“Sorry. I’m not ticklish.” He told her.

“Ah, seriously?” She asked.

“Well, I don’t remember ever being tickled before. But I don’t really think I’m that sensitive.”

“How can you be sure?” She asked.

Ayanokoji shrugged, “I just know. It’s one of those things I can already understand about myself.”

“Maybe you have a weak spot that you don’t know about? Humans are generally… well, ticklish, and even though there are some who might not be, even they usually have a spot or two that gets them.

“Hm… maybe you’re right. You can see that for yourself if you want.”

“What? Really?” Sakura asked, getting really flustered. “Y-you’re really going to let me try tickling you?”

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t see what’s the big deal. And I’ll admit I’m a bit curious also. Maybe I do have a weak spot. Also, I do want to help you get peace of mind with this if it bothers you so much.”

He raised his arms only slightly above his head, leaving his body completely unguarded. Sakura hesitated for a moment. She couldn’t believe he was actually letting him do this.

She went for his ribs, scratching and massaging. No response. She next went for his belly. Still no response. Even going for his armpits or thighs didn’t do anything.

“Sorry to disappoint.” He told her.

Sakura smiled “No don’t worry about it, it’s really ok.”

Suddenly she realized something. “Wait, what about your feet?”

“What about them?”

Sakura blushed. “Well, I mean, we didn’t try there yet.”

Ayanokoji looked down at his socked feet and then, moving back to make room, brought them up, resting them on the bed right next to her.

Sakura hesitated. She didn’t expect anything, but nonetheless dragging a nail down his sole.

To her great surprise, Ayanokoji suddenly jerked his foot away at the contact.

She looked up at him to see, for once since meeting him, a bit of surprise in his eyes.

“Ayanokoji, I think your feet are ticklish…” she told him, trying to hold back a giggle.

“You think so?”

“Yeah! You totally jerked your foot away when I touched it.”

He slowly brought his foot back to its original position.

Sakura then wiggled her fingers against the bottom of his foot instead. This time, Ayanokoji let out a noise that he didn’t think he would ever make. A squeak. Once again resulting in jerking his foot away.

Sakura looked at him with slight shock. She then grabbed his ankle, trapping it in an armlock, and now started to actually tickle his foot.

Ayanokoji flinched and started struggling with his leg.

“H-hey! Wait!” He told her. He felt laughter bubbling in his chest.

When she got to the pad of his foot, just before his toes, that’s when he finally cracked for the first time ever.

“Ah- ehehehehehehehehe…” soft, breathy giggles filled the room as he fell back.

He had never felt this feeling before. It was like a bunch of fluffy clouds were surrounding him. His chest and shoulders felt as if they were releasing pressure that was building up for a very long time.

It felt good. Really good.

Even if he knew it wasn’t smart to let his guard down like this, he allowed himself to laugh and feel. It was refreshing. Like drinking a cold glass of water during a really hot day.

The bottem of his feet lit up with electric shocks as Sakura scratched along them. Soon he tapped her back as a way to call for mercy.

Sakura let his legs go and Ayanokoji sat upright again. “So… what did you think?” He asked her. “Satisfied?”

“Well…” Sakura needed a moment because she was still a bit dazed from shock. “You have a really nice laugh Ayanokoji. I wish you would do it more often.”

For the first time he felt heat rise to his cheeks. “Ok well, in that case I wish you good night.”

“Y-yeah! G-good night Ayano…” Sakura got up hastily and left his dorm room.

Ayanokoji sighed and lay back on his bed.

Maybe he should’ve asked Sakura not to tell anyone about this.

#sprite🥤#tickling #tickle fic #classroom of the elite #ayanokoji #kiyotaka ayanokouji #ayanokoji kiyotaka #lee!ayanokoji #ler!sakura #airi sakura #sakura airi #ayanokoji x sakura #sfw tickling community #sfw blog #sfw tickles #sfw tickle fanfic #sfw tickle fluff

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neon-lights-and-glitter · 2 years

Text

An Evening I Will Not Forget - Part 2

Part 1

Summary - After Jacks accidental text to the reader, they both finally talk for the first time in 10 months and figure out their relationship.

Song - Congratulations by Mac Miller

Word Count - 2.7k

A/N- I didn't plan out a part 2 when I originally posted the first part, but I got a couple requests for one so I hope this meets your expectations, I actually like the way it turned out.

You didn’t get Jack’s text until you woke up in the morning. You didn’t know how to respond, so you didn’t. Did he even mean for you to see it? You had Jack’s number blocked for almost a year now, and from the few times you had seen him since you broke up you were pretty sure he knew that. How many other texts did he send? What did they say?

It was nice to know that Jack still loved you, at least that’s what he said. Though the only way you made yourself come to terms with the breakup was by assuming that Jack hated you and know knowing that he didn’t brought back emotions that you had been burying for the last 10 months.

Jack also saw the text again when he woke up, he almost didn’t pay any attention to it, but for some reason he stared at it for a second. It took a couple seconds for Jack to realize that the text was delivered, it was such a normal message to see with texts and he had just woken up. When he did though, his reaction was similar to yours, maybe just a few more curse words and a little embarrassment.

Jack didn’t know what to do either, should he ignore it and act like nothing happened? Does he apologize? No, because he meant it. Does he send another text asking to talk to you, and hope you didn’t block his number again after getting the text? Should he wait and see if you respond? He truly had no idea.

Part of him hoped that you would respond, but another part of him hoped that you didn’t. Jack desperately wanted to hear that you still loved him, but he was terrified that you didn’t. Even though you told Jack that you would always love him, things change. For all Jack knew you had moved on. Sure, he hadn’t heard anything about you moving on from any of his friends, but would they really tell him if they knew? Jack did everything he could, other than asking someone, to find out if you did, but he couldn’t find anything.

You both tried to move on, but neither of you could, neither of you wanted to.

Jack had the day off, which he loved having a day off, but right now, he wanted to do anything to keep his mind off of you. Every time Jack heard his phone go off, he couldn’t help but check it immediately, wanting to know if it was you, but it never was. This lasted hours, something that Urban noticed when they finally met up later in the day.

At first Urban just assumed that Jack was waiting on something work related, so he didn’t say anything. After watching Jack drop everything as soon as his phone would go off, Urban finally decided to ask what he was waiting for.

“What’s going on? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this.” Urban told Jack, watching as he checked his phone again.

“I don’t know” Jack sighed, truthfully, he was waiting for something that might never come.

“Dude, you’ve probably checked your phone 50 times in the last 2 hours.” Urban reminded him and Jack sighed.

“I might have made a mistake.” Jack said, and that seemed to get more of Urbans attention then he already had.

“Go on.” Urban urged.

“I might have texted (Y/N) last night.” Jack said, and urban rolled his eyes, no longer as interested.

“Okay? And? You said last night she blocked your number so why does it matter?”

“Well, she must have unblocked it because it went through this time.” Jack said, gaining Urbans attention back.

“This is why we don’t text ex’s” Urban said, “What did you say?” Jack handed Urban his phone with your texts open, Urban read the last one and then shrugged. “That’s not bad, it could have been worse.”

“I know it could be worse” Jack said, grabbing his phone back before Urban could scroll though anymore texts. “I don’t care about what the text says, I don’t care that she knows I still love her, I just want to know if she feels the same way or not.” Jack explained.

“Then you need to talk to her.” Urban said and Jack rolled his eyes.

“And how am I supposed to do that if she doesn’t respond to my text?” Jack asked, Urban rolling his eyes this time.

“Just ask her to talk.” Urban said, “Like I said, she still loves you, she probably just wasn’t expecting a text like that from you. She told me that she thinks you hate her.” Urban told him

Jack thought for a moment before realizing that maybe Urban was right. Grabbing his phone before sending you another text “Hey, can we talk?” He pressed send before he could back out.

“I’m tired of being the in-between for you two.” Urban said under his breath.

When you got Jack’s second text you couldn’t help but smile. Maybe his first text wasn’t a mistake. Maybe he did mean it. This time you decided to respond, because it was a lot easier to figure out what you wanted to say.

“Yeah, I’d like that. Are you still in town?” You sent back.

“Yeah, still at the apartment? Can I come over?” Jack responded almost immediately.

“I am, and of course you can” You sent. When you and Jack broke up Jack insisted you took the apartment. He traveled so much that it made more sense for him to move out instead of you.

It wasn’t long before Jack was knocking on the front door, less than an hour. As soon as you heard the knock you sighed, immediately regretting letting him come over. You hadn’t been alone with Jack in 10 months, and you’ve barely talked to him, now he was going to be in what used to be your shared apartment.

You walked over to the front door, hesitating for a second before opening it.

“Hi” You smiled softly, looking up at Jack, something about him still made you feel comfortable, no matter the situation. You opened the door farther to let him.

“Hi (Y/N)” Jack smiled at you as he stepped inside. “Thanks for letting me come over.” You closed the door behind him.

“Jack, you know I wouldn’t have told you no. I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while now honestly, just didn’t know how to approach it.” You sighed softly, walking over to the couch, and sat down, motioning for him to sit down next to you.

“I haven’t known how to approach it either.” Jack sighed, running his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry about the I love you text by the way. I know that it probably seemed random, and I get why you didn’t respond.” Jack looked over at you as he talked.

“I didn’t respond because I wasn’t sure how. I still love you too Jack, but I thought you hated me for breaking up with you. I guess just hearing that you might not hate me, confused me, I guess. I made myself okay with the idea that you did.” You explained, Jack shook his head.

“I could never, and I would never hate you. Even though Urban told me you still loved me, I never believed him. I thought you hated me because you broke up with me.”

“I told Urban not to tell you that” You crossed your arms over your chest and pouted, making Jack laugh softly before he started talking again.

“As much as I hate to admit it, you were right though. The last 10 months have been fucking hell and I didn’t understand it at first, it took a while, but we were growing apart. I just didn’t want to admit it. I think that if we wouldn’t have broken up then, we would have broken up at some point, and instead of being able to have this conversation now, we would have hated each other for the rest of our lives. I’m sorry for leaving that night, I’m sorry for practically saying you didn’t love me, and I’m sorry for letting you think that I hated you.” Jack told you.

You wiped the tears from underneath your eyes, “Fuck I promised myself I wouldn’t cry.” You and Jack both laughed softly. Jack reached over and wrapped his arms around you pulling you closer to him, rubbing your back softly. You both sat in silence as Jack let you cry as long as you needed to.

“Can I ask you something?” You looked up at Jack, not pulling away from him.

“Anything.” Jack ran his fingers through your hair.

“Where did you go when you left that night? You can tell me the truth, no matter what it is.” You asked.

“Do you think I cheated on you?” Jack asked, and you shrugged.

“I mean, the thought has occurred occasionally.” You admitted.

“I didn’t cheat on you I promise, I never cheated on you. I did lie about where I went though, I went to Urban’s” Jack admitted.

“You could have told me that.” You told him, before he continued.

“I was planning on asking you to marry me. I had been keeping the ring at Urban’s, so you didn’t find it. He was the only one who knew. I had the ring for a while, a couple months. I’m not sure exactly how long. I know we had talked about it a couple times, but every time I went to ask something didn’t feel right. I was afraid you’d say no, that’s what made me realize you were right.” Jack paused as he continued to play with your hair.

“I had never been that scared to ask you something, not even when I asked you to move to Atlanta with me when we were 17. I wasn’t even scared to ask you, I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you I was just scared to lose you. I thought if I asked you to marry me, I would at least have a chance for you to stay. I wasn’t going to do it that night, I was going to wait until we weren’t fighting anymore, but you just beat me to leaving before I could even ask.” Jack paused.

“Jack- “ You started to talk but Jack shook his head.

“Let me finish, then you can say whatever you want” Jack told you, and you nodded, staying in his arms even if you knew you probably shouldn’t. You missed the feeling of being in his arms.

“I think it’s a good thing you did. That’s when we would have ended up hating each other. I was just desperate for you not to leave me. I had never been in love with someone like I loved you, I still haven’t, I don’t think I ever could be. I still love you just as much as I did when I decided I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you.” Jack finished.

“Can I talk now?” You teased, Jack laughed softly and nodded.

“Yeah, that was a lot I know, I’m sorry.” Jack said, making you shake your head.

“Don’t be sorry.” You told him, “I have a lot to say too, maybe not quite as much because I told you how I felt when we broke up, but if either of us want a chance at us working out again, we have to tell each other how we feel.”

“You’re right.” Jack smiled softly, you turned in his arms so you could look at him easier.

“I still love you Jack, I never stopped loving you either. I never wanted you to feel like you had to choose between me and your career. It’s not fair to you, you worked too hard to give everything up for me. I know you said you would, but I would never let you do that.” As you talked you grabbed one of his hands, playing with his fingers.

“The last 10 months have been hell for me too. I never even imagined living without you. I never wanted you to feel like our relationship didn’t matter to me, because it did, it mattered way more than anything else ever has. I always pictured us spending the rest of our lives together, and I still do. If you would have asked me to marry me, I would have said yes, fuck, if you asked me right now, I probably would say yes. Not that I think you should, not that I don’t want to marry you someday, but we’re not really together, so it might be weird.” You continued to ramble before Jack interrupted you.

“I know what you mean (Y/N)” Jack laughed softly, “Don’t worry, I didn’t come here to propose.”

“Not going to lie, I thought that’s where this was going for a minute” You laughed softly before you continued what you were saying before. “Anyways, I think the last 10 months just really made me realize that I can’t live without you in my life.” You told jack, letting his hand go as you finished talking.

“I never want to live without you again either.” Jack told you, his eyes lingering on your lips for a second before looking back into your eyes, you nodded slightly as you both leaned in to kiss each other, it was a soft kiss, quicker than either of you would have wanted, but that didn’t matter when you both immediately reconnected your lips, deepening the kiss as Jack pulled you even closer to him. Both of you waited as long as you could before pulling away to catch your breath. It was like you were trying to make up for the last 10 months of not being able to kiss each other.

“Will you be my girlfriend (Y/N)? Again?” Jack asked you quietly and you nodded.

“Of course, I will Jack.” You smiled and pressed your lips together one more time for a quick kiss.

“How much longer are you in town?” You asked, even though you hated the idea of him leaving so soon.

“I’m here for 3 more days, then I fly to Los Angeles.” Jack answered, before hesitating for a moment. “Come with me. Fly to California with me. I’ll get your flights booked, I’ll get you a hotel room if you don’t want to stay with me, I’ll get you whatever you want, just come with me.” Jack practically begged, but he didn’t want to leave you already, he just got you back.

“Okay, I’ll go with you.” You answered, you would have gone anywhere if it meant not having to have Jack leave your side already. “Stay with me tonight?” You asked, and Jack nodded.

“Of course, I will, I want to stay with you for the rest of our lives.” Jack told you, pressing a kiss to the top of your head making you smile.

“Thank you for waiting for me” You looked up at him.

“I would have waited as long as you wanted me to.” Jack promised, and both of you knew that was the truth, you felt the same way, you would have waited as long as Jack wanted you to.

Even though neither of you knew it, the second time Jack asked you out was almost identical to the first. Both of you rambling about your feelings towards each other, except this time it was feelings about marrying each other instead of feelings about being more the friends. Even the words and the kisses were the same. The way Jack had to go out of town shortly after he asked you to be his girlfriend, though you both had to convince your parents to let you go instead of Jack just convincing you, that was definitely easier this time. Even Jack staying over the night he asked you out was the same, except he stayed over at your apartment rather then you staying over at his house.

The thing that was different, was your feelings for each other. The first time you both thought you were in love, but this time you both knew you were in love.

#jack harlow #jack harlow x reader #jack harlow imagine

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yourlocalartsonist · 1 year

Text

ROTTMNT Moths Fly In Packs - Chapter Three

A/N: HEY IM ALIVE. I am so sorry it’s been two literal weeks I got stuck in a rut and then like couldn’t figure out how to write from there for the life of me 🫠 BUT HEY I figured it out eventually and Ngl I think this chapter turned out pretty fun and cute! It is the first time I wrote Mikey for a long period of time and a little bit of Donnie too so like, apologies for any OOC moments. I’m still learning TvT But yesyes, enjoy the read and thank you for your time <3 Also I’ve decided Mikey and Salena’s duo name is gonna be Pink Tangerine anyway byeeeeeeeee

Next Chapter

Previous Chapter

Chapter One

Disclaimer: Chapter involves light manipulation, light sexual harassment, curse words, and violence. If you’re sensitive to that stuff, scroll past and stay safe <3

—

The mushy brown grub splat down on my tray.

I stuck out my tongue in disgust. School lunch might honestly be the worst thing known to man, the bar is so low the devil plays limbo with it. Yet somehow this school still puts everywhere else to shame.

I overheard from some of the upperclassmen a while back that the food used to be on par with others, apparently it got worse after they hired a new lunch aid. No one ever told him anything, though. We’re all way too scared of him.

We sat down at a table and I began poking the food with my fork, mentally preparing to stomach it down. Jaiden looked at me with similarly dead eyes from our meal.

“God, this is so gross. I get that this lunch is supposed to be healthy and all but sometimes I’d rather just eat burger grease.”

That was the second reason I never said anything to the lunch aid. As much as I shit on the food, it’s actually healthier than the usual microwaved fries and stuff. I’ve noticed the effects too, ever since I joined Roosevelt High last year my body admittedly felt much less sluggish.

“Well, food is food. Let’s just be grateful it’s even human food at this point.”

They giggled and scoffed. “Yeah, barely.”

Trying to distract myself from how squishy my mouth felt at every bite, I focused on Jaiden instead. They don’t really emote often, they’re the type of person to have a resting-bitch-face 24/7. But of course, one of life’s greatest ironies was blessing Jaiden with one of the heartiest smiles I’ve ever seen.

For a moment their lips curve, their forehead wrinkles, and their tooth gap is on full display. Eyes shut, all their thoughts were too focused on whatever brought them so much glee, completely forgetting to worry about how they looked or were being perceived. I wish they could be like that all the time.

“Hello? You’re staring at me like a creep again.”

“I know, I know. I’ll stop.” I rolled my eyes, knowing they didn’t actually mind.

“You really should smile more often, though. You’re gifted with such a pretty smile but you never show it off, Jay.”

It went quiet. Before I could spend too long worrying if I said the wrong thing, they broke the silence.

“Hey, can I talk to you about something?”

“Is that even a question? You know you can tell me anything.”

“Well yeah but…it’s kinda relationship related.”

Oh dear. I straightened up and focused all my attention on them. I may be ass at understanding romance but by god, I still tried my best to help Jaiden with theirs.

“So…Was he distant again?”

“I mean, yeah technically. But it’s not even just him anymore, I haven’t been the best at reaching out either. I don’t want anyone else to know this so you better keep it a secret.”

I nodded and they continued.

“I guess I just can’t find any reason to catch up with him. He barely talks to me, stopped complimenting me, and I just can’t like him like that when it feels like he doesn’t even remember we’re dating. I haven’t felt happy with him or confident or anything cause he doesn’t! Talk! About! Me!”

“Ah y-yeah, that’s…that’s pretty bad.”

“He knows how I feel about this stuff. I’m worried he’s not into me anymore. I haven’t felt beautiful in so long because of him. I feel invisible Salena.”

I thought back to our old school. Jaiden had a huge crush on one of our classmates and miraculously got asked out by him just a year later. It was quite the celebratory moment, we stayed up for hours gushing about it over the phone that night. That memory still makes me feel warm.

“What are you gonna do now?”

“That’s what I don’t know. I’m not sure what to do or how to take all of this. Nothing really feels the same anymore.” Their face fell back to its usual deadpan stare. “Honestly, I’m wondering if it would be better to just break things off.”

“…Well, whatever happens, I’m here for you.”

We sat in awkward silence. I wish I was better at comforting people. Jaiden isn’t a huge hugger either so I can’t even try that.

“By the way I…I think I’m starting to like someone else, actually.”

Their voice was barely above a whisper. Before I could ask who, a tray slammed down between us.

“Hey, guys - Jaiden move over a bit - what’d I miss?”

“Hey Zane!”

“Hiya Zane.” I gave him a small wave and Jaiden and I made room for him between us.

I started zoning out a bit while Jaiden and Zane caught up with each other. My mind wouldn’t stop thinking about what Jaiden said. That they like someone else. I mean, it’s not a wild idea considering how they and their boyfriend barely count as a couple anymore but still. Last I checked, Jaiden pretty much loathed the kids in our grade and neither of us get crushes that easily so I wonder who actually got their heart all soft.

I jumped from a sudden sharp pain in my legs. Jaiden and Zane’s conversation paused as they redirected their attention to me and my agony.

“Hey dude, are you okay?”

“Yep! I’m fine, just been working my legs a bit too much I suppose!”

Damn it Leo and your stupid persuasiveness.

What he promised would only be a “weekend thing” turned into an “almost every night thing”, leading to my legs cursing me out from how much pain consistent parkour brings them. Worst part is I can’t even blame him entirely, I’m a druggie for dopamine and caved in at the first mention of doing it more often.

“Are you sure you’re alright? Your legs keep hurting lately. Do you need painkillers? Or do you wanna go to the nurse? I can take you there!” Zane reached out and grabbed my hand.

I could feel the hair on my arms rising for the wrong reasons. Panicking, I pulled my hand back and rushed to reassure them both I was perfectly okay. Thankfully, we moved on and Zane started to ramble about some guy in his class annoying him today.

Or at least, he moved on. I was still trying to recover from the contact. I mean, this isn’t the first time he’s held my hand, our friendship was always very physically affectionate. But I just haven’t been able to handle any touch from Zane for a while. I hate that everything feels so different now knowing that he likes me. It’s not like he can control it, why do I have to be so weird about it? A little hand-holding shouldn’t get such a repulsed reaction from me.

I decided to stop my brain’s downwards spiral and calm myself down. I took a quiet breath and joined back in the conversation.

I caught Jaiden glancing at his hand. They were quieter than usual after that.

***

I walked out the building as the school day ended, the afternoon sun lit up the schoolyard. The weather was getting pleasantly warmer as spring truly settled in.

Zane walked beside me with a lollipop in his mouth as we both waited for Jaiden. The two of them have an elective today but Jaiden had to run a quick question by the teacher and told me to keep Zane company for the time being. I had my own plans but it’s no biggie, all electives start ten minutes after school ends so we’ve got time. I already let Mikey know I’d be running a little late.

“I know I’m not Mr. Sunshine or anything, but I’d be lying if I said it isn’t gorgeous out today.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, it really is!”

“...You’re still thinking about Jaiden aren’t you?”

“Y-yeah sorry.”

I could tell Zane was getting a bit irritated. My attention hadn’t really been on him much today, I just couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong with Jaiden. I know they don’t really talk much but they got abnormally quiet after lunch even for them.

“I told you they’re fine Salena. I even checked in twice for your sake.”

“I know it’s just… Nevermind, you know me, I get paranoid easily.” That’s only half true. I’m paranoid but I’m not stupid.

“Hey actually, I was wondering.” He leaned closer and started playing with a loose strand of my hair, prompting me to lean away “Jaiden seemed really tired today so maybe they’d wanna go home early and rest. Do you want to-“

“I’m here.”

They stared at us with a frown on their face. Their voice was monotone. It was always monotone but usually it’d have a bit of charm mixed in with the whole dead-inside vibe. Something wasn’t right.

But no matter! They’re both here now and I should honestly get going. Zane’s here with them so I can worry about Jaiden tomorrow.

“Great! Seeing as you two are ready to go, I shall take my leave as well. Bye guys!”

“But-“

They cut him off. “Bye Salena.”

I don’t know what I did but something definitely happened with Jaiden.

Even though I didn’t manage to fully suppress my thoughts, the walk to the alley where we agreed to meet drifted my attention back towards the beautiful sunny day. The sky was cloudless, a soft spring breeze. For once the air wasn’t clouded with the stinging scent of garbage and car smoke and instead smelled fresh. Woodsy even. Don’t really get a day this perfect often here. It must’ve been fate for today to be the day I’m actually spending time with one of the guys.

Thanks to Leo’s reassurance that night, I gained some confidence and took his advice on talking with them more often. Mikey was definitely the most receptive to that. He and I bonded pretty quickly due to us being the same age and having a similar (and superior) artistic taste so obviously I had to say yes when he asked to hang out, even if it took a while for our schedules to line up.

I did one last scan to make sure no one was around before texting Mikey of my arrival. He popped out from behind a dumpster, eyes matching the bright blue sky.

“Hey hey hey! Ready for the world’s most epic hang out ever?”

“Hell yes I am! I’ve been waiting for this all week! But uh, you’re 100% sure being out in public during the day won’t be a problem considering…this whole situation?”

“We’re fine, chill. No one will recognize me with my super amazing Raph-approved disguise on!”

…His disguise was a hoodie and pants.

I mean, I guess it is New York so no one will probably care enough to notice. Or care even after they do notice. I think I’m just a little nervous since it’s my first time out in public with him.

Besides, his fit was on fire! He wore a cropped orange hoodie with white accents matched with baggy, light cargo pants. He actually looked a little taller from the pairing, maybe I should take fashion tips from him. He did remind me a little of those orange-and-creme popsicle sticks though.

I heard thumping in the distance and cocked my head to hear better.

Clomp, clomp, clomp.

Footsteps? Loud, heavy ones. They remind me of…

“Mikey, you have to hide! S-someone’s coming!”

“But I’m disgui-”

“Trust me just go!”

As he jumped back behind the dumpster, Zane came around the corner and found me leaning against the wall pretending to be on my phone. I mentally high-fived myself for the spot-on guess.

“There you are.”

“Hey! Did you need something?”

“Oh, no. Or well, yeah actually but first, what are you doing next to a garbage bin?”

“I’m waiting for my friend. We have plans today.”

“W-what?” His brows furrowed, pained eyes pierced mine “Plans? With who? Jaiden isn’t even free today.”

“I have other friends too, Zane.”

He scoffed and shoved his hands down his pockets.

“Like, who? Druggies?” …Homie what the hell?

“What kind of people are you friends with that have you meet up with them here?”

“Uh, why are you getting so mad anyway? I’m just meeting up with someone.”

“Well, I don’t want that someone to be dangerous! I’m just looking out for you.” He sighed. “And also because I was gonna ask if you wanted to hang out with me today.”

Confused, I stared back at him. “But you and Jaiden have an elective today? The one I just left you two at?”

“Yeah and I told Jaiden I was gonna skip. It’s a nice day, I wanted to be with you. Looks like I did all that for nothing.” Another sigh.

“Oh. I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know- Wait, hold on, you left Jaiden?” Oh god. I subconsciously started biting my nails. “Zane, they were already visibly upset today! They need someone with them!”

Stomping my feet, I tried searching for a solution. I couldn’t just cancel on Mikey, we’ve had this planned for so long! But I can’t leave Jaiden on their own either. They have certain tendencies and I can’t risk that again. Ugh, everything would’ve been okay if at least Zane was with them!

“Zane, you have to go back. Jaiden needs company and I’m busy today anyway.”

“Don’t panic so much, they said they’d be fine.”

“And you believed that? You know they’ve lied about that before. Several times before! They didn’t seem okay, I need you to be them.”

“But I want to be with you. Not Jaiden, you. You can’t expect me to just control these things, Salena.”

This dude! Why is he being so difficult?

Okay, calm down Salena. Not a time for anger.

“I-I know, but it’s just one day. Jaiden’s your friend, too. And besides, you’ll both have fun this way!”

My attempts to shoo him away changed his angered face. He suddenly looked so disheartened I can’t tell if it was better or worse. I’m a little annoyed he left Jaiden on their own but he must’ve planned this out for a while if he seems this disappointed. I guess I’d be upset too if I was in his shoes. Though I also would’ve asked the other person ahead of time but different people, different mindsets I suppose. I softened my tone.

“Hey, Zane? I promise we’ll hang out tomorrow. I’ll make it up to you. And we can even call when I’m done, okay? But right now Jaiden needs you. And I need this. Just…can I please have a few hours away today?”

He looked at me, conflicting eyes switching between both of mine. Third sigh, more whispery than the others “...Fine, you know I can’t say no to you. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He pat my head, slightly ruffling my hair “Don’t forget to call me when you’re free.”

Hearing the heavy steps fade as he got farther and farther away, I let out the biggest exhale of my life as my body slumped over.

“Ooh mama, that was rough.” Mikey, somehow already next to me, matched my relief. “Does he always act like that?”

“Well, ‘always’ is a strong word…”

“And you’ve never told him how you feel about it? Never, you know, put down boundaries?”

My eyes scampered around to focus on anything but his face while my body shrunk. Guilty as charged.

He sighed and whipped out a pair of round glasses, swinging his arm over my shoulder “So, I know Dr. Feelings is supposed to be on vacation for the day, but since you’re a friend you get special privileges!”

“Um…D-Doctor who?”

“Tell me about this guy, Salena.”

After recovering from the reveal of his secret therapist mode, I told Mikey about Zane and our friendship as we made our way to an ice cream parlor. According to him, talking about your feelings is always better with a sweet treat to distract you from your crushing crippling depression.

“Wait wait, before we start, what flavor?”

“Oh, chocolate obviously.”

His eyes lit up as he happily hummed “A person of culture! Begin~” He handed me a chocolate cone and got the same for himself.

I felt a little guilty for using him on a day we were meant to relax but at the same time, the thought of having someone to talk to about my weird dynamic with Zane made it weirdly hard to resist. Plus, Mikey just has a very calming presence to him, one that makes it so easy to open up and word-vomit your entire life story to.

Still, I tried my best to not overshare and disrespect Zane’s privacy so I kept things brief and broad, only mentioning what I felt was note-worthy. And probably better to keep his crush on me hidden for now, at least.

Instead, I briefed him about Zane’s home life being the classic “rich kid with absent and narcissistic parents” trope and how much his older brother, or better known as the golden child, emotionally abused him growing up. I could sense Mikey softened a bit at that.

I mentioned Zane’s anger issues, habitual bullying, fear of abandonment. His slowly-developed kleptomania. I told him about the people Zane hung out with and of my secret disapproval of them. If Zane seems bad, those guys make him seem heavenly.

And lastly, I talked about our unlikely friendship. How he gradually became nicer to me. How he told me how different I was to him the day I asked why he stopped bullying me. How unexpectedly sweet and protective he can be.

And how scared he’d get sometimes that one day I’d just ditch him like everyone else did.

“That’s awful! It must’ve been hard for him dealing with all of that.”

“It was. That’s why he’s so clingy towards me. He feels like no one understands him the way I do or even wants to try.”

“I’m guessing that’s why you deal with it.”

I quietly nodded. “I know he can be a bit much sometimes. But I don’t ever want to leave him. He’s like family to me, it just wouldn't be right if I abandoned him.”

Mikey smiled at me “Yeah, don’t worry, I get that.”

He took another bite of his cone and stared out the window. He looked strangely timid, I’ve never seen Mikey so mild-mannered before.

“Do you remember when I told you about our dad Draxum?”

“Oh yeah, the sheep guy! You mentioned he had a ‘bad boy’ phase. Heh, ba-a-a-a-a-ad.” I giggled to myself mimicking a sheep as Mikey looked at me with horrific disgust.

“Leo must love you, doesn’t he.”

“Oh hush, it was funny. Anyway, you were saying?~”

“Well during his ‘insert ruined joke here’ phase, Draxum used to try to kill us like at least once a week. He went on and on about wanting to ‘destroy humanity’ and ‘protect Yōkai kind’ and we were made to do that.”

We started walking outside as he continued his story.

“But, my brothers and I could never. We love humans, I mean you guys literally invented art! And even though Draxum made us, he wasn’t attached enough to not brutally murder us for that disagreement. He threw Leo off a roof once, too.”

“Sorry, what now?” It’s making sense now why Leo was so careful about me not falling when we hang out.

“Yeah, I felt so bad! I mean, Raph gets to see something as cool as that happen but I’m stuck being used as a tug-of-war rope for a giant spider lady! The universe can be so unfair…”

“Your priorities are confusing but go on.”

We made our way on to a roof to enjoy the city’s view. Mikey went on a tangent about all their adventures stopping Draxum and the poorly-named Foot Clan from assembling this mythical shredding monster guy. Whoever named these guys needs originality lessons.

“Then after they finished making the Shredder, they betrayed Draxum. They only wanted to use him so the armor thing would work. And I know that we’re supposed to hate him and stuff, but I felt really really bad for him.”

I thought back to how I felt every time someone I thought was a friend ended up stabbing me in the back “Honestly, I would too. Villain or not, betrayal still sucks.”

“Exactly! And to make matters worse, I found him living on the streets later! He’s a wanted criminal in the Hidden City and had nowhere to go in New York. So obviously, I set him up with a nice, top tier home and helped him adjust to humanity. My brothers doubted us a lot but he’s doing great now. He even has his own job as a lunch aid!”

His bubbly smile dropped as he looked off to the distance. Up until now, Mikey’s been pretty animated when he talks, using his hands and sometimes whole body to enhance his speech. Right now though, he was still. Very still.

“But back then, sometimes even I thought I was crazy. I was trying to change a guy who’s fear-response was genocide, that’s not an easy thing to do. So many failed attempts at getting him to like humans, so many failed attempts of him trying to throw kids when they got on his nerves. Don’t get me wrong, it’s more than worth it in the end but when you’re actually doing it? It’s so exhausting.”

Exhausting. I never realized how fitting that word sounded until he said it. Exhausting.

“That sounds like a literal nightmare. Especially without any external support…” Oh god this was hitting too close to home. Abort! Abort!

“Wanna know what kept me going?”

“Yeah?”

He turned towards me. His blue eyes were illuminated by the sun. Actually, there were some new spots on his body that were glowing, too?

“Draxum made us. He was family to me. It wouldn’t be right to just abandon him.”

Oh.

He turned back to look at the sky. “I know you care about Zane and I can empathize with that so I’ll say this as nicely as I can… ZANE IS A WHINY PIECE OF SHIT.”

I forgot how loud Mikey screams oh god.

“He’s clingy, he’s rude, he called me a druggie for choosing to meet up in an alley, I mean what’s wrong with either?!”

“Micheal my ears, please.”

He took a deep breath and by the grace of heaven itself he calmed down.

“Look, I don’t know if you can help Zane the same way I helped Draxum. Some people don’t want to be changed, that was my biggest fear with Drax. But that’s not my point.” He put a soft hand on my shoulder, the tone of his voice sounded different. “What I’m saying is, I get it.”

My throat felt itchy. I hadn’t heard words like that in years. Having someone say they understand me, not being judged or getting weird looks for feeling the way I do. And I can’t even help believing him, after everything he’s told me it sounds like he meant it. I don’t really know how I feel right now. But then again, maybe I don’t have to know.

We stayed in comfortable silence listening to the city below.

There weren’t too many people out right now, everyone who had been outside enjoying the nice weather before were returning home from shopping or leaving cafés. Not many cars on the street, either. All in all, a nice and peaceful day.

Until, of course, it wasn’t.

A giant pink food truck with a weird stake on the top raced by definitively over the speed limit. Another large vehicle following it. It was green with a disk on the back, it kinda looked like a shell? Or maybe I’ve been talking with turtles too often-

“The Turtle Tank?”

“YOU GUYS HAVE A TURTLE TANK?!” Oh my stars! They just keep getting cooler every day I see them!

“And Meatsweat’s truck!”

“Oh, it’s Mr. Oinkerton.”

In the distance we could hear a familiar angry voice screaming vulgar words at the pig mobile through an oversized megaphone. How’d Donnie even get in this situation?

“So like…should we check in on him?”

“Nah, Dee’s probably fine.”

“Okay fair, but he’s partaking in chaotic activities without us.”

“...You know what, I like the way you think! Come on!” He rolled up his sleeve revealing a black band on his wrist and excitedly spoke to it as we both started running to catch up with the trucks.

“Hey Dontron! Why’re you on a chase with Meatsweats?”

“Mikey? You can see me? Are you in proximity?”

“Yeah! We can see you from the rooftops. I’ll wave!”

“Ugh, good I could use the help, Meatsweats upgraded his stupid truck so now it’s too fast to keep up with! Listen, he kidnapped some guy off the street and I don’t know what he’s gonna do so if you could assist-”

“On it, Dee!”

Seeing Mikey speed through the roofs was astounding! He bounced from building to building, doing flips and spins whenever he could. He looked so graceful while doing it, too. Kind of reminds me of ballerinas. Compared to him I was a heaving mess in the back. I’m faster than I was before, that’s for sure, but still had a really hard time keeping up with him. I’m starting to think Leo went easy on me…

But compared to the car chase down below, even Mikey could barely keep up.

“Man, Donnie wasn’t kidding when he said the truck got upgrades. Meatsweats was never this fast before.”

“Mikey, how long are we just gonna tail them? We’re not really getting anywhere like this.”

“Well we can’t run fast enough…” he looked at Meatsweat’s trying to fight Donnie off, leaving the back door to his truck wide open. His eyes lit up “But we can fly fast enough! I’ll swing you!”

Donnie’s voice returned to the comms “Mikey where are you? Could really use that help right now!” Meatsweats was starting to close the door.

Seeing this in my excited adrenalined nature, I rushed to approve the plan. “Okay, let’s do it!”

One of his nunchucks wrapped around me and my legs left the ground. I cut through the air getting flung right into the truck, somehow not breaking any bones after crashing in. Probably should have thought about that before.

I looked out and met Donnie’s panicked glare. “SALENA?!”

“Hi Donnie!” The door shut and my attention turned toward Meatsweats and a terrified boy with a bag covering his head in the corner.

“Who the hell are- oi, you’re the annoying lass from before, aren’t you?” Oh damn, he remembers me. “What’s with you and ruining my dinner plans?”

“Wait, dinner plans? You’re gonna eat him!?”

He looked so unbelievably offended at that, because of course it was such a stretch to come to that conclusion “What are you, stupid? I was a human before getting mutated. I was a world renowned chef, Rupert Swaggart!”

“Your name was Rupert? Ew.”

“SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!” Oh right, this is a hostage situation.

“Sorry, sorry, distractions. So what you’re saying is, you’re not gonna eat him?”

“No, of course not, human meat is an atrocious flavor.” That’s a relief! “However, they make a lovely meal for mutant livestock. And now I can feed twice the amount.” Oh.

He charged at me with his enormous tenderizer and I quickly got up and prepared my body for the attacks.

Go left! Now right! Right again! DUCK! He’s so swift with his strikes it’s almost too much for me to handle. I tried looking for any openings out but it was useless! All the doors are locked and he’s blocking the switch.

“How come he gets tied up but I have to be killed now?”

“Personal grudges.”

I got backed into a corner and narrowly avoided a butcher knife thrown straight at my head. Whatever greater force is keeping me safe, I owe you my life.

Wait! He threw a knife!

Genius struck me as I pulled the blade out from the wall. I charged at him, getting all my energy ready for the blow. Meatsweats chuckled.

“Aww, you really think you can fight back with a tiny cleaver?”

“Not quite.”

Instead of the slice the idiot pig prepared for, I planted my foot firm on the ground and swung the sharp blade to the left, smashing right through the window.

“What the-”

Perfect! Now to take care of the swine.

I darted around the room taunting him, now being the one to control where he’d strike. My heart was beating at the speed of sound, legs quick and light. My reflexes took over completely. It’s crazy to say this but I feel like I’m really in my zone!

Once I annoyed him enough to turn his blows even more aggressive than before, I ran right behind him, clinging on to his back. He took the bait and smashed down. The metal hammer hit him smack dab on the head as I dodged away, knocking him out.

Cutting my celebrations short, I rushed over to the boy and helped him up. He flinched at my touch, the bag still blinding his sight.

“What’s happening?!”

“Your rescue, that’s what. Now, come on!”

I helped him avoid the loose shards on the bottom while getting his body out the window. I stuck my head out and yelled for Donnie, who was still right behind us relieved to see me in one piece.

“Donnie I’m throwing him out the window, tell me when Mikey’s ready!”

“I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WERE RESCUING ME!”

After getting the thumbs up from Donnie, I pushed the boy out to the streets and sure enough, Mikey’s chains caught him and pulled him up to wherever he was on the roofs.

I heard a grunt behind me. Meatsweats was awake already? God I can’t believe I was scared I actually hurt him.

I scampered up to the roof of the truck. Unfortunately got jumpscared as the vent flung open and Meatsweats tried going through it. My bad for wanting to catch my breath, I guess.

“Salena jump!”

I took his suggestion and ran forward, avoiding the grimy mutant pig, and leaped over to the tank. A hole opened up and allowed me inside with Donnie looking back, setting the tank to autopilot and checking me for any serious injuries.

“So which one of you dum-dums thought it was a brilliant plan to send the untrained non-mutant human into the murderous chef’s vehicle?”

“Oh, was that bad?” Well, at least it’s over now.

Mikey’s voice came through Donnie’s own hand wrap. His were larger than Mikey’s, covering his entire palm compared to Mikey’s wrist bands.

“Donnie! Is Salena okay?”

“Physically or mentally.”

“Yepperoni. I’m right here, Mikey.”

“Phew good! And uh, by any chance, are you guys still following

Meatsweats?”

“Uh, I’m about to stop the tank, why?”

He nervously laughed “So um, you know the person we just saved right? Apparently he had a really important USB with him and he thinks it fell out in the truck…”

“OH COME ON!”

And so the chase continues as we scrambled to find answers.

“Are we really going to keep tracking Meatsweats for a USB drive? Who even uses them anymore!”

“He sounds super panicked so it must be bad, Dee. What if it’s something dangerous?”

“He’s a teenager, Micheal, why would he have dangerous intel?”

“Aren’t you two teenagers?”

“We don’t count!”

“How do we even get it from Meatsweats’ truck?”

Donnie switched over to the control manual and got a bunch of missiles ready “That’s it! I’m going lethal!”

Mikey’s face appeared on the monitor “Donnie don’t! You could destroy the drive thingie.”

“But my moment…”

“Donnie!”

Red lights started blinking, warning about the tank’s declining gas.

“Fine but we’re running out of time, what else can we do?”

“Want me to jump back in?”

“Do you want to die?”

“Sometimes.” They stared at me wide-eyed as I had the dawning realization “Oh wait that was rhetorical, wasn’t it?”

I forced my three brain cells to try and be useful.

C’mon, brain. Think, Salena! Think!

I saw the cleaver I still had in my hands and got an idea.

Bingo!

“Donnie! Drive to his right!”

“What? Um okay. Wait, where are you going!?”

I climbed back out the hole on the top. “When I count to three, stop the Turtle Tank.”

“CAN ANYONE COMMUNICATE THEIR PLANS WITH ME BEFORE IMPULSIVELY JUMPING IN?”

I threw my hair back letting the rushing keep it out of the way.

“Ready Donnie?”

“No.”

I aimed the cleaver for the front right tire and began counting “One…”

Pulled my arm back, getting ready to throw “Two…”

I took a deep breath. Arms don’t fail me now. I swung forward and felt the handle leave my grasp.

“Three!”

The tank jolted to a stop, knocking me forward. Donnie came out and helped me to my feet.

“You good?”

“Well, I’m alive so.”

We looked up and saw the blade successfully puncture the tire, sending the truck skidding to a crash at a light pole.

“Great Galileo, you actually did it. I’ll confess, I’m impressed!” Is this what validation feels like?

The round tangerine joined us not too long after with the boy strapped to his back and came running towards me.

“Salena, you were amazing!” Validation and a hug on the same day? Have I been blessed?

“Hey can someone get this thing off my head now?”

I looked at the boy, then at the horrific scenery behind him. “Uh…maybe we should get to a less chaotic place first.”

Mikey handed me the USB he found in Meatsweats’ truck. ”Sorry our day got interrupted Salena. You can always come back after helping him!”

I was about to agree but felt a buzz on my skirt pocket. I took out my phone and saw a pestering text from my aunt as well as the time being 5:00pm.

“I would but, I should probably get home anyway. You guys okay with um…all that?” I pointed to the passed out pig in his broken down truck.

Donnie pat my head with one of his extra robot arms “No probbles, we’ll take care of it. You’ve helped enough.”

I guess he’s always been nice-ish to me but still didn’t expect affection from him.

I saw him and Mikey chatting while cleaning up the mess, Mikey beaming as Donnie ruffled what would’ve been his hair if he had any. I smiled. Maybe I just never looked close enough at Donnie. Seems like he’s always been this way.

I lead the boy away from the mutant havoc and into a more public area before taking the bag off his head.

“Are you okay?”

He blinked and I studied his features a bit more. Dark eyes, short black hair, and round glasses. “Yeah I-I think. Thanks for saving me.”

I handed him his pen drive and after a few more thank-yous, he left. As promised, gave Zane a call. He didn’t pick up though. I shrugged it off and started walking back home. What a day today has been!

—

Next Chapter

#rise of the tmnt #save rottmnt #unpause rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #rise of the turtles #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt season 3 #nickelodeon #rottmnt fanfiction #rottmnt x oc #rottmnt oc #oc x canon #rottmnt s3 #rottmnt mikey #mikey hamato #rise mikey #rottmnt moths fly in packs

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brxkxnhxxrtsclxb · 3 months

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i decided to fill this in to show what i have :3

i personally only collect draculaura cuz she speaks to me. pink + black + hearts + witch ?? sign me up !! ^_^

mentioning the above to apologize in case it irks anyone and they just wanna keep scrolling. i understand if people get bothered considering the fact mattel tends to shove her to the front and center constantly and doesn’t let the other ghouls shine as much. i understand everyone is tired of the pink vampire but she speaks to me so much >.<

i’ve never actually seen the G3 show but the dolls are cute and that’s what matters to me >.< i do tend to keep up with the lore here and there though :3

oh, and core refresh is my favorite draculaura🖤✨

wishlist:

SS1 because i want her fashion items and accessories but she’s so hard to find now T_T

then there’s faboolous pets and fangtastic road trips dracs !! reason they’re on my wishlist is simply cuz i want them but refrain from buying them due to her coming with clawdeen and i personally don’t vibe with G3 clawdeen’s dolls at all and i don’t wanna have a poor doll just sitting abandoned and unloved :(( (also idc for the car. i have no need for it😭)

tbh only reason i keep purchasing drac dolls is cuz of her fashion pieces and accessories. i’m currently rerooting my monster ball one and i wanna be able to dress her in many cute outfits !! i don’t need more drac dolls, i just want her stuff and it sucks mattel won’t do fashion packs when they’re most important now. the different bodies in G3 calls for them to be a need. don’t get me wrong, i love the different bodies but i do hate that the fashion is limited in some ways. i truly do hope mattel provides fashion packs for each individual character so it stays within their aesthetic in the future

i’m debating getting scare-adise dracula. i don’t really want her, just her handbag xD it’s so cute !! my dracs could use it ^_^ (i might just buy it separately ?? might do the same with OG creepover’s shirt). maybe i will forget fangtastic road trip drac if i find her shoes. they’re TO DIE FOR and my drac needs them sksk

sorry for the ramble >.< on a final note, one doll i do truly want is fearbook dracula. she sounds so cute ^_^ and i was excited for monster fest after the stock photos dropped but judging by the concept art, unfortunately drac is so boring compared to the other ghouls :(( i understand cuz she’s a play set doll and something has to get sacrificed for the budget to go on the set. oh well. i wouldn’t want the truck anyway. just the doll so that saves me money and space xD

#monster high #monster high dolls #monster high g3 #monster high gen 3 dolls #monster high draculaura #draculaura

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thaddeusthawne · 10 months

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Thank You

Snowells Week 2023: Day 7: Year 7 (Snowells Appreciation Day)

So this is going to be a little different from the other days I will post for this week. I still have more to post but I’ve been a bit delayed due to personal reasons but they will be put out soon! That being said, I wanted to say thank you to everyone in this fandom.

In different ways you guys have inspired me to start creating things that most fandoms haven’t. Maybe it’s because most fandoms are so big and intimidating to join but for me, the snowells fandom has always been this safe place to interact with. Whether it’s everyone’s collective excitement over snowells related scenes or funny joke posts this fandom felt easy to enjoy and participate in.

Funny enough I didn’t start shipping snowells until I ran into my first fanfic for this ship. I knew about it because I had followed some snowells peeps on my old blog (deleted it and recreated a new main & this side blog) but I never really understood the fascination for it. However one night I remember just scrolling on tumblr and accidentally clicking on the wrong ao3 link. For the life of me I can’t remember what fic it was but that’s only because I ended up reading pretty much everything that I could find. This was around the time that the beginning of season 2 was airing if that helps give an idea of what I walking into in terms of the fandom content. I stayed up that night just reading, clicking on fics randomly. I finally understood. And then a short time later Harry saved Caitlin from Grodd and then in the next episode she saved him from a bullet.

I was hooked and excited at the possibility on them getting together and started to silently enjoy them. I looked forward to every possible scene and over the years I kept thinking “Maybe it might finally happen!”. It never did of course but it did give me a lot of ideas.

Then in 2019 I finally found the courage to make my own stuff. It was nerve-racking but I had seen other people’s works and ideas met with so much positivity that I felt brave enough to try. Then I started to post some things and I was like “They’re reblogging it? And liking it? And leaving comments in the tags? 😳🥹🥰”. It meant a lot to me back then and it still means so much to me now. While I still have moments of self doubt, I look back on where I started and how far I’ve come. I honestly don’t think I would have been able to do that in any other fandom.

This community allowed me a space to grow as a writer/creator. I still have room to grow, but being able to participate and get even a few comments really helped build up my confidence and motivated me to learn to improve my skills. I went from writing maybe a few paragraphs to starting to flesh things out way more and planning out more extensive stories. Even though the show is over, I still plan to keep writing for this ship. I’m going to miss this show and these characters but I am hopeful that this fandom will still stay a source of comfort for me and anyone else who might feel the same way.

And while this ship may not have sailed, it was still fun to party on the boat.

#snowellsweek2023 #day 7 #thank you all so much!#and maybe one day we'll see these two in some other form of media #*looks at dc headquarters*

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bleachbleachbleach · 11 months

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Hi! Love the blog, it’s great to revel in everything Bleach! I have two questions that have been plaguing me since I reread the manga in the past few months, and I was hoping you (or your followers) could help me. Spoilers for TYBW below!

What did Aizen (or his henchmen) take from Matsumoto for Gin to go to such lengths to avenge her?

And, spoiler:

What happened to Yachiru in the TYBW-arc? Was she the embodiment of Zaraki’s zanpakuto in the end?

Thank you!

We’re glad you’re enjoying the blog! <3

The Matsumoto question is so funny to me, because that’s a topic I’ve seen people discuss with absolute certitude what was taken and what the outcomes would be, and I have always confused because none of it was at all the impression I’d come away with. And I was like, damn, what did I miss??? How could I do you so wrong, Matsumoto, my baby girl, one of my very top blorbos??

The “funny” part comes from me immediately thinking “maybe we have fundamentally different assumptions about the nature of the soul” instead of thinking the MUCH MORE LIKELY, NORMAL, AND CORRECT thing, which is “oh, they read CFYOW and I haven’t.”

Because the version of this discussion I tend see is:

Aizen took a part of Matsumoto’s soul

—> which means she is missing part of her soul

—> which means she’ll probably never be able to achieve bankai

—> ultimate tragedy

I don’t get this train of logic. I don’t mean that as like, a “rawr they’re so wrong and I’m so right” thing. It’s just an interpretation so far beyond my ken my brain short circuits and I quietly let what meager thoughts I do have fall from my head, and then I forget about them.

Below the cut, 12 paragraphs of tangential talk of souls and bankai, and 4 paragraphs directly addressing the questions in the ask. Feel free to scroll to the bottom for those!

I BELIEVE the CFYOW connection here is Aizen explaining bits of Soul King (in Matsumoto’s case, a Nail) found their way into a bunch of people’s souls, and Aizen took it out of Matsumoto and fed it to his Hougyoku. Something something Fullbringers, too, but I’m not the person to ask about this because in addition to not having read CFYOW, I am also not personally interested in the Soul King or the Hougyoku or the Fullbringers. But this CFYOW info does make other people’s discussions of this make a lot more sense to me!!

All the same, the reason my brain jumped to “different interpretations of the nature of the soul!” is because I don’t think I can personally conceptualize “missing” a *part* of a soul? In my mind, a soul is a soul or it’s not; there’s no decimals involved. Why I’d have this mentally locked in, of all things, I don’t know. I’m not a theist IRL, but apparently this is just How Fictional Souls work.

In my mind, a soul is like a worm, or a liver. Cut out a part of it, and it just keeps worming, or liver-ing, and its state of being and function are basically unchanged. You can’t have <I>part</I> of a soul; it’s either a soul or it’s not. The thing that got cut off is a shed item that has no definition. (Maybe what I actually have a strong opinion about is Matsumoto being a full, self-actualized, undiminished person, irrespective of her traumas.)

As far as Bleach goes, I don’t think we’ve had any canon mentions of souls that don’t exist as whole integrals (e.g. Pluses or Minuses). I mean, Fracciones, LOL, but that’s not really… those are not what I am talking about. XDD And the aforementioned Soul King body parts, but Soul King gonna Soul King. We’ve seen souls dissipate into motes, but I feel like that’s a transition from being a soul into being reishi motes that are Not Soul that will probably reconstitute into some other soul at some later point. The notion of giving someone your shinigami power and why that’s so illegal might factor in here, but those mechanics seem different, too.

There are lots of different interpretations of the nature of the soul, of course, and entire theologies dedicated to these questions. But I think the soul interpretation I like the best and that I think tracks with what we know about zanapakutou is that a soul is not a rigid, singular thing. It’s more a fluid series of occurrences and experiences bound together relationally, which I feel like tracks with the development of a shinigami’s relationship to their zanapakutou; there’s some base that you need to hear the name of, or some extant entity you need to come to understand, but beyond that your bankai (and to be honest, probably the higher-level development of your shikai) is going to be created of your experiences and desires and values and all these things that area part of your wily and ever-shifting but irreducible soul fabric.

Again, that’s just me and what I think is most interesting to think about. Of all the things that could have umpteen different interpretations, I think souls are high on the list!

But thinking about the whole bankai discussion I see sometimes, here’s why it’s just not something I think about in that way:

1) Everyone we know and their hamster has bankai, sure, but I think one of the big schisms between our perception of this world as readers and the lived experience of shinigami in this world is that bankai is incredibly rare, a largely unknown quantity, and probably not something the average denizen of Soul Society or even Joe Shinigami thinks a lot about in their day-to-day. Bankai is the exception, not the expectation.

Most shinigami don’t even have *shikai* and even people like Iemura, who as afar as we’ve seen is basically useless, is a cream of the crop shinigami, skill-wise. Unless you’re Ichigo being bullied into achieving bankai in three days (or Hisagi also being bullied into bankai for some Kensei reason), I feel like shinigami don’t go around thinking “this is why you don’t have bankai” because no one really expects that’s something to expect to be able to achieve. It’d be like going around thinking, “What part of my soul is missing that I can’t win a Nobel Prize?”

2) Maybe I’m just a bad Bleach fan, but I don’t really see a lot of value in achieving bankai, anyway. I mean, for the self-actualization, absolutely! But there is more than one route to self-actualization and I don’t think that not having bankai bars you from other routes. Bankai is a perfect storm of aptitudes and training and self-sorting, not an end-all. If it’s not in your practice, it’s not in your practice. I don’t feel like it’s the Soul Society equivalent of becoming a Pokemon Master, where it’s every ten-year old’s dream, a thing that’s purportedly normal and reasonable to want and achieve.

That reality is important to me, because I feel like it marks the distance between what is highlighted in our experience of Bleach as a plot-driven narrative and the Joe Shinigami experience of mulling about in the background, and that kind of thing really tickles me. Love it.

Okay, Matsumoto’s definitely not a background character. But even for VCs! Most PhDs don’t strive for MacArthur Genius Awards, and the implication isn’t that you’re unambitious or a deficient scholar if you never earn one. I dunno. I understand the trauma/tragedy of having bankai stolen, as in TYBW. What a mindfuck! D: But I don’t respond to “never having achieved bankai” in the same way.

But that’s all a huge tangent!

What did Aizen take from Matsumoto, for Gin to go to such lengths to avenge her?

For me, the question isn’t “what” did he take; what was this important thing. I think it’s the act of taking—the audacity of feeling justified and empowered to do so. To use the souls of Rukongai for one’s own end, as though they are a resource and not a people.

What happened to Yachiru in the TYBW-arc?

Lots of interpretations here, as well. I’ll share what has always been my perception. Yachiru has always seemed, to me, an entity unto herself. “Child-like,” to a degree, but also nothing like a child, and not treated as a child. But also not treated as other shinigami—there seems to be some understanding that she is an entity unto herself. Don’t question it, just work with it. Which, for all the Gotei’s failures, is something they’re actually pretty good at. They know Yachiru is not really the normative shinigami, but she’s Yachiru, and they’re rolling with it. The same goes for Nemu.

She’s probably one of those things that I mentioned above, for which there is no real definition or designation, because she exists outside of the matrix. She is not a soul; she is not a sword; yet she is also both of those things. Yeah, I think she’s part of Zaraki’s sword, but not in ways that are equivalent to the Zabimaru spirit Renji speaks to in the Soul Society arc; or to dragon-Hyourinmaru, or to the humanoid Zanpakutou spirits in the Zanpakutou Rebellion Arc.

She is Yachiru.

#NB: i wrote the first part of this ask in february while Going Through It and have opted to just post-it as is #because i didn't want to think about february anymore and decided i would prefer to live with the dust and mess of this response instead #apologies for the long response time!#matsumoto rangiku #kusajishi yachiru #no brain just bleach #asks #holy shoot i fixed a typo and tumblr changed where the cut in this post was! sorry about that. it's fixed now and much shorter b4 the cut

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odaclan · 2 years

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This hairstyle is not chasenmage, and Sengoku samurai rarely wear this

I’m talking about this hair:

(screenshot from Kirin ga Kuru)

This is not specifically about Nobunaga or anything, but 90% of the Nobunaga I see in Taiga drama and movies usually has this hair style, and I want to talk about it. There were some drawing guides I’ve seen online that mistakenly label this hair as “chasenmage”, and it’s somewhat misleading.

Chasenmage 茶筅髷, literally meaning “tea whisk hair”, is one of the hairstyles commonly worn in the Muromachi and Azuchi-Momoyama period aside from the folded topknot (orimage/chonmage). The hair is tied tightly with strings, leaving a small tuft at the end, making it resemble a tea whisk. However, even a high-angled chasenmage doesn’t go as far as stick straight up like seen above.

That being said, I say they “rarely” wear the sticking-up style, not “never”, because this hairstyle is actually "real”. It’s not a made-up style invented by Kabuki or movies, it’s just... incorrectly applied. This hairstyle is called kanmuri-shita no motodori 冠下髻 or hitotsu motodori 一髻. It’s the hairstyle worn under the kanmuri (court cap):

(image from Kotobank dictionary)

So if you want to be "accurate”, it’s fine Nobunaga or some other daimyou wears this hairstyle sometimes, but only if you’re showing they’re in the process of getting dressed or undressed from courtly attires (for meeting with the shogun or other courtly business).

It’s one thing if the character is the emperor or court nobles, as the caps are often part of the daily attire. It would make sense that they might keep their hair in kanmuri-shita style even in leisure. However, Sengoku daimyou wear their hair mostly in the folded topknot style, and there is no reason for them to constantly wear kanmuri-shita hair. And, once more, the kanmuri-shita is not the chasenmage that Sengoku samurai did frequently wear.

(Emperor Seiwa, shown with his hair in the kanmuri-shita style. From the Ban Dainagon Ekotoba 伴大納言絵詞 picture scroll)

Picture from Teijou Zakki 貞丈雑記, written by Ise Sadatake around 1763-1784, also describing that this hairstyle is meant to be worn under a hat (either an eboshi or a kanmuri, as mentioned above)

I can’t trace where/how it began, but at some point it seems that Kabuki actors starts wearing that hairstyle in their performances:

Ukiyo-e of Kabuki actors then influence ukiyo-e depictions of “historical events” of the Sengoku. Then, when people start making movies about Sengoku samurai maybe in the 50s and 60s, ukiyo-e and Kabuki costumes are probably the easiest source of reference, resulting in this long-standing “trend” to give Sengoku samurai this hairdo.

(Nobunaga wearing that now-“iconic” hairstyle in an ukiyo-e by Yōsai Nobukazu 楊斎延一)

Meta-wise speaking, it’s likely that studios maintain this “wrong” hairstyle to save on budget. It’s better to just reuse old wigs rather than spend more money to make a new batch of historically-accurate wigs. However, I don’t really see any reason for illustrated media maintaining this, other than “maybe the artist just didn’t know”. Unlike the image of Nobunaga wearing European armour, there is no real branding attached to this hairstyle, so there is no specific need to keep drawing this style. Far as I can tell, Sengoku enthusiasts are equally fine with seeing samurai wearing just a “normal ponytail”.

Or, if not, something like this:

The hairdo Koei likes to use for their Nobunaga’s Ambition portraits may not necessarily be an accurate chasenmage either, but it’s “less wrong” than the kanmuri-shita.

We end with what a “correct” chasenmage looks like, as depicted by paintings from the 16th century:

Some attendants from Nanban Byoubu by Kanō Naizen 狩野内膳 were shown wearing chasenmage.

Falconers from the Rakuchuu Rakugai screen, by Kanō Eitoku. *) The third person behind them that I did not mark is angled oddly, so I wasn’t able to identify if that was a chasenmage (more stiff, secured with more strings) or just a “floppy ponytail”.

Modern illustration for clarity, provided by Kotobank online dictionary.

#long post #sengoku era #sengoku jidai #sengoku period #japanese history #japanese culture

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onlyjaeyun · 4 months

Note

alright now WHAT THE FUCK? so much shit just happened i need a moment to unpack everything. okay so first of all fashion icon yn ☝️ jay is so proud of u bby. second of all yn is gONNA CO-COACH WITH SUNGHOON? 😨😨 so much stuff is happening i feel like im about to forget smth important from the new chap again but YOOOOO WHY IS SUNGHOON SO SASSY 😭 the sassy men apocalypse is so real 🤕 but pookie calm down pls he keeps eating yn up if i had someone pointing out my daddy issues like that i would straight up cry. ngl if i were in yn’s place i would’ve blocked from the first “what the FUCK” but that’s just me personally 😶 ANYWHO jaemin what the FUCK 😨😨😨 i’m actually so like ?!?!?! he’s so cheating he’s literally actually deadass wallahi fr fr cheating ??????????? like the fucking audacity that some male species have is actually jaw dropping. how r u gonna get all insecure about yn being surrounded by her friends who r practically like her brothers and go “i don’t feel comfortable around them” like WHAT 😨 the self projection is sO REAL. and bby. yn, my love. my angel. my everything. dump his ass i’m begging you. EVEN IF YOU TRULY BELIEVE that u can’t find anyone better and you won’t be able to find anyone after someone as shitty as CH jaems (which u for sure will!!) it’s so much better to be single rather than be with someone who literally does not give a singular flying fuck about you. like girl protect your dignity 🤕🤕 break up with his ass even if he’s the last bf you’ll ever have it’s better than being with someone who’s CHEATING. anywho now that that’s out of the way, really jaemin. jakyung??? REALLY???? ngl the whole hoon & jakyung convo really made me almost throw up the whole time “i can’t study when im tense like this” please do me a favour and suck my dick ew i gen can’t. also WDYM THEYRE GONNA FUCK SO MUCH SOONER THAN ANY OF UR SMAUS? 😨 mamas pls calm down i am not prepared for a hate fucking between yn & hoon (i am. im playing im so seated for it.)

anywho my rant for chap.4 is done and i just wanted to say congratulations zadie !!! you know u ate that smau up SO WELL (especially when it’s supposed to be e2l and the characters are supposed to be hated for character development purposes) when you get anons in ur inbox hating on your work 🥰 like u fr made it and i’m so proud of you ! anyways CH ate. easily one of the best enha smaus in the making with your amazing writing & plot development sending u so much love zadie & so many hugs & kisses i can’t wait to see u piss more ppl off and i can’t wait to see the new CH chapters <333

(no but like genuinely is it that hard to SCROLL AWAY from smth that doesn’t please you? 💀 i don’t get it cuz i’ve seen works that i personally didn’t like yet i never felt the need to go in their inbox and be like “ur shit is so unlikeable dawg what the fuck” because what??? wasting my time like that when i could be searching for a diff fic that i could actually like.

like hello people have different tastes. there might be smth that u don’t like (that one anon) that a different person would gladly eat up (me basically) and there’s absolutely no reason to shit/hate on other people’s works/tastes. ESPECIALLY on tumblr. an app where u get to read literally top quality work for FREE.

and i’m sure so many writers are open for feedback as long as it’s NICE. you can very easily send feedback about a shitty work WHILE appreciating the writer’s effort and hard work spent on it even if the end result didn’t satisfy you. but to straight up go “ur shit is unlikable” IS CRAZY FOR ME 💀💀💀 like pls go into ur notes app or go into ur drafts and write shit that’s “likeable” for u instead of hating on miss zadie 🙏🏼 anywho im sorry this became so long but that was so unnecessary like anon grow up pls you’re better than this

i just want u to know zadie that this is YOUR work. (really want to emphasise this especially after that one ask u got during SB and how it made u pull away from the DDLG concept), the first person that should be satisfied with your works is YOU. if you want to add ddlg pls do if u don’t then don’t if u want to extend the e2l plot in CH please DOOOO these are works and literally universes that you’re creating according to your own liking (and i promise whatever you put out will be amazing because all your works are actually so incredible you’re UNABLE to make smth bad) so pls pls pls add whatever u want !! write whatever you want as long as YOURE satisfied then that’s all that matters ! again love u so much i hope you’re taking care of urself <333

& and always keep your foot down these bitches necks ☝️💯

-⁉️

THERE YOU ARE HI ANGEL BABY 🤭🤭🤭🤍 i hope youve been doing well and are taking good care of yourself !!!!!

gonna try my best and respond to all parts so excuse me pls if i forget any 😭

I ABSOLUTELY AGREEEE. being single is so much better than being with someone like CH!jaems and im afraid ch!y/n's gonna need a while to realise that 🫣 and i know hhe whole jakyung x hoonie part was a little 😞 bc like why would he do that we all know he's madly in love with his enemy (he literally genuinely hates her) but its for the plot i promise 😞😞😞😞

i have also decided to add the smut a little earlier mostly bc i havent properly written smut for hoonie yet and i want to so bad like he's so dreamy and so mean it manes me want to spread my legs and go feral like full on begging and shit so the reason behind the early scheduled smut scene is mostly because of my hunger for sunghoon (jake look away baby)

and the whole not liking a character situation with the E2L is somehhing i struggled with a lot because i 100% agree with you hence the reason i responded the way i did but i genuinely get the nonie bc like thats our hoonie and i make him look so bad BUT I PROMISE ITS FOR THE PLOT 😭😭😭

i will also never get the whole idea of going into someone's inbox and just ranting and complaining when you could just..click away but whatever honestly sto ive accepted that this smau will trigger a LOT of people and i have come to the conclusion that it justa pproves my thoughts of doing what's necessary 🫣

thank you so, so much for your sweet words baby. i do need those reminders every now and then simply because as a writer i tend to get caught up by all the engagement and interactions and asks and comments and the numbers that i tend to forget who i'm writing for in the first place. i hope you know this ask literally means the world to me and i love and appreciate you so so so much, sending you a big kiss rn 🥺☁️🫧🩷

#; mailbox 📬#; cold hearts

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muttween · 2 years

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Namaari headcanons pt.1

Since i'm taking a break from ao3 and i had this draft quite in my head lately, I've decided to use some of my spare time to write some hcs that i will definitely explore in the future during my college break:

There is this one peculiar orphanage/daycare in all of kumandra (built around a few months after the events of the movie), the only one that accepts and looks after children with mixed origins (half-spine,half-fang, etc..) as well as the mentally/physically disabled little ones. Sadly but as expected, they are often the target of supremacists groups and bigoted people who not only seek to chase the “dirty offspring” but to exterminate every single one of them for the sake of ”keeping the nations purified”. Namaari, being the ‘friend of all children’ we know she is, takes it as her duty to defend those kids as well as scare those binturis away, helping the settlement with the jade from her own pockets, providing toys, games, medication and other resources. She makes sure all kids have returned to their homes safe and sound. Just imagine this big softie running and playing with the little ones. (Tong goes with Namaari as well, they always try to win him with the tug of war).

I hold it in my heart that Namaari is secretly an aunt with at least one surviving big brother/sister and an adorable nephew.

Namaari’s father, the fallen chief of Fang, unfortunately passed away when Namaari was only 8 due to the pestilence that plagued Fang, wiping down one third of it’s population, including a big part of Namaari’s family members, relatives and other loved ones.

Noi and her ongis share a very sweet and strong friendship with Namaari, so strong Noi obeys and listens to either Tong or Namaari only, both are often seen playing catch with Noi easily fooling Namaari. Often times, she’s seen bouncing between Namaari’s head and Tong’s shoulders

Sisu takes Namaari to the hot springs of Heart as one of their favorite things to do together, as well as skydiving along with her brothers and sisters, which absolute makes Namaari’s day a lot better.

Namaari has a small room just around the corner of her own bedroom that is full of her most precious belongings, from the fang children’s drawings to the tapestries full of dragons and scrolls full of dragon myths and fables.

Tong has carved wooden figurines of his friends, though Namaari has at least 5 or 6 of her. Why so many you ask? Tong never gets her undercut right, he always forget that her undercut is on the right side, not on the left.

Let’s all agree that Namaari is the type of woman who looks like she spends most of her time in the Fang library and the training grounds.

Initial distrust now gone, Tong and Namaari are partners-in-arms, drinking-buddies (not really, Tong chugs lots of rice wine while Namaari sticks to a fine grape wine), close like family, she also becomes his son’s godmother under Tong and his wife’s request at some point.

When Tong finds out that Namaari lost her father for good, he slowly starts to act more fatherly and attentive towards her, at first she’s terrified and immediately scurries away due to years of having to hold the fate of Fang in her shoulders alongside her mother, but slowly accepts his paternal embrace.

Namaari learned the basics of sewing and woodcarving with Tong by the way.

If guilt and trust-issues weren’t as bad enough, Namaari suffers with abandonment-issues and a big amount of unresolved grief. Those barely visible ”wrinkles” under her eyes we’ve seen in the movie might have been caused by the countless nights without sleep, possibly filled with tears as well. Out of concern for her daughter’s well-being, Virana “orders” Namaari to visit the healer’s hut for therapy at least twice a week.

The reason Boun likes Namaari the most, which i also agree, is that she doesn’t treat him like a kid, but an equal.

When Boun returns to school in Tail, he starts to get harassed by older and larger classmates, at first the harassment was only verbal but it did took a small toll on his mental health and the bullying became so frequent it started to get physical.

Both Namaari and Boun started to practice various styles of martial arts and physical exercise, from grappling and striking to sword-fighting and advanced weapon techniques. To train his coordination and focus, Namaari also started teaching Boun archery.

Namaari and Boun also enjoy cooking and baking together, as well as singing and dancing while at it. Namaari gave Boun a secret recipe book of dishes and appetizers that was a gift from her maternal grandfather to her.

Raya and Namaari have grown close surprisingly fast, both apologizing for the bad things they’ve done to one another, eagerly and relieved to finally put the past behind them, which was something Raya wanted more than anything since the beginning.

Both girls go camping after diplomatic travels.

Raya is ALWAYS the one initiating physical touch with Namaari, even before they start dating.

When Raya and Namaari finally get together, Raya gets even more physically intimate with Namaari, such as kissing her shoulder blades, threading her fingers on Namaari’s scalp all the way to her undercut, nuzzling her neck in broad daylight. Raya is definitely the type to kiss Namaari out of nowhere and absolutely adores brushing their noses together every time she does it.

Everyone, specially Tong and Raya, playfully ruffle Namaari’s undercut, much to her annoyance.

#rayaari #raya and the last dragon #ratld #raya #sisu #namaari #boun #tong #noi #ongis #headcanon

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linklethehistorian · 8 months

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Since I’ve seen a fair bit of discourse around this in the past few years, let me just put this out there in no uncertain terms: if someone shipping something turns you off from that ship, that’s a you problem and in no way the other person’s responsibility.

Now, I’m not talking about someone being so obsessed with their ship that they start being a dick to you or others who ship different ships, because they believe that their ship is the only real or true one.

I’m not talking about when a large portion of the fandom ships something and that same sub-fandom of shippers are largely assholes of some variety, whether or not it actually has to do with their ship.

While I personally don’t get the idea that such a thing could make you no longer like something you loved, that is still valid and you are never required to keep liking or loving a ship for any reason, so long as you respect that others do.

What I am talking about specifically in this post is someone shipping their favorite ship completely harmlessly — by which I mean, never harassing anyone, never intentionally making it anyone else’s problem, never telling anyone else what to ship or not ship or anything else obnoxious like that — but doing so to the point where it is all they seem to post/reblog/like, etc.

If such a person being extremely active in their shipping bothers you to the point where you lose interest in the ship when you previously enjoyed it, then the problem is not them. It is you.

“But it’s unhealthy to make shipping your whole life!!!”

To that, I have three things to say.

First of all, no matter how many posts you’ve read on their blog(s), you do not know what their actual real life is like or what goes on in their head; it could very well be that you’re only seeing a small portion of their actual interests because that is simply the only thing they’re interested in sharing about themselves online. They may even have other accounts they don’t advertise that surround other things.

But secondly, even if you somehow did know for certain that this was their entire life and all they did…so what? No matter how ‘unhealthy’ you may think it is, what other people do with their lives and center their lives around is not your business or within your right to try to control — not unless they’re harming others directly by doing it. (And no, you being offended by their shipping does not count. You have the option to block them, or simply ignore their posts and keep scrolling.)

Which brings me to my third point…they’re not harming anyone in what they’re doing. As a matter of fact, by sitting there all day on their own personal account posting about things they love in their own spaces, not bothering nor being deterred by anyone else, they’re actually already being a far better member of the fandom than a great deal of the people who don’t only post about one thing — including you.

Unlike you, they’re spending their days enjoying things and focusing on that which they love, while ignoring the outside noise and the critics and the haters and anyone else whose posts might otherwise be offending them or deterring them from shipping their favorite ship.

Unlike you, they’re minding their own business and not trying to control other people’s shipping habits.

Unlike you, they probably know how the block button works, or at least how to look away from things they don’t like.

If you don’t want to ship something because of someone like them, then don’t ship it. But also, don’t act like it’s their fault or their problem for minding their own business, doing their own thing, in their own spaces.

You made the decision not to ship something anymore. That’s all it is.

#linklethehistorian #my thoughts #thoughts #non fandom #nonfandom #fandom #I’m tired of the “oh this person was such a rabid fan that they killed my interest in the ship”#first of all “rabid fan” nowadays has the connotation that someone is being actively harmful and intentionally rude to others #a person who is minding their own business but being enthusiastic about their ship is not a “rabid fan”#and most importantly no that person did not kill your interest in the ship #you did #you looked at that person and decided “this turns me off from that ship” and proceeded not to like it anymore #that is a valid decision as no one needs a reason to stop being interested in something #but it is not someone else’s fault for being more enthusiastic than you’d like #the world doesn’t revolve around you and your preferences

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squeiky · 9 months

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Sometimes I get really sad and lonely and then I scroll through tumblr.

I think I have to start making a routine to walk outside, but i keep making excuses not too. The only outside place I want to be is on my porch and a park that’s 30 minutes away.

I’m really lonely apparently. It’s a side effect of having very little of a social life (aside from the few interactions on here. Since I don’t interact with anyone on any other site tbh.)

I think it’s just easy for me to be alone. Like I’m sure I developed some kind of abandonment issues and I’m fully aware of how it makes me feel- and that might be why i keep avoiding irl interactions.

Everything feels easier here. No anxiety no pressure. I know people here are okay and already know my goofy little self. I don’t have to worry about appearances and present how I desire. I don’t feel trapped.

I can scream into the void here. I can keep screaming and maybe one day, someone might just scream back. It’s a good feeling.

I keep feeling guilty for posting or rebloging so much. I look at other people getting asks or interactions as “successes”. I see comments and tags and it’s “success”. At what? Hell if I know. Perhaps some social game like popularity, or the fact that somebody is liked enough to have people talk to them.

Ugh, I used to read my old blog posts from an account long abandoned. Reeked of insecurity. I see myself falling back into that spiral over and over again whenever the darkness creeps up a little to closely. Like I can only eve ignore it for so long, until I’m back to screaming again like I am now.

It’s like that stupid feeling, like someone in the back of my mind is screaming “please be with me.” It’s crying all the time.

I don’t know what freindship is, I only see people in black and whites of “useful” and “not useful” the definition of useful isnt exact and varies person to person, but I recognize this is my thought process.

I guess there’s the guilt of it all too. Some underlying shame or guilt constantly pestering me. I hate annoying things and it’s really annoying.

I’m young, and I’m still figuring things out. Though that doesn’t really invalidate or solve how I feel now. Idk.

At some point in time I forgot how to talk to people in real life. It’s like when I do my soul leaves my body and I just go on autopilot. Only to return to a state of constant evaluation and analysis (which are my saviors).

Sometimes I just want to stay broken. Or maybe I was never broken to begin with. I don’t know. I’m sad and buttnaked writing this at 11:54 because I’m slowly developing a fear of sleeping (technically I just have s very strong desire to stay awake for no reason in particular.)

I fucked up with the alt descriptions for my art. I’m unsure if I’m making excuses not to make alts because it’s too much effort-or it’s something else.all I know is that I feel guilty about it.

I hate guilt (or is what I feel shame? I’m uncertain). I wish I never felt it. It’s a disgusting feeling that only does me bad. Usually I can just determine via logic when ive fucked up. But if what I feel is guilt then I do not like it. I wish it wasn’t there I wish it didn’t exist because it annoys me.

I cleared out my wounds too. I’m hopping I made it better by opening up a covered path that was clogging the infection gunk from getting out- and some dead skin. Getting hurt sucks.I thought I would be stronger. But I am reminded I am frail.

Screaming into the void in hopes of a freind. It’s a strange habit to have. Always screaming never a reply. I wish I could make things like this one person I follow. I’ve never seen them ever sad about their lack of interactions (atleast in this platform). I’m trying to be like that. But it sucks that I can’t register likes Orin the same way I do as reason people’s tags or comments or seeing their reblogs.

Since I’m always reblogging other peoples stuff, there’s always that nagging feeling when ever I make my own shit that it’s never enough.

One day though I think I’ll feel “enough”. I’ll drink champagne on that day and eat a chocolate cupcake. Just like a birthday celebration.

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slapegg · 1 year

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Some thoughts about… Resident Evil Village

Village feels like a fairly un-Resident Evil Resident Evil. The game is mostly going from set-piece to set-piece with moments of exploration or combat in-between, but the set-pieces are danged good, so I didn’t really mind. The beginning is a strong of escalating “what the hell is going on” moments where Ethan fumbles his way through everything confused, exasperated, and forced to accept that every one of his quips falls horribly flat so he may not be an action star. He just gets knocked around like one. I love how every other line of Ethan’s dialogue is (rightfully) something along the lines of “What the hell is going on!?”, but then there are moments where his hand gets lopped off and he casually just pops it back on and sprinkles it with magic healing juice and all is right with the world. So much hand trauma in this game. So, so much. What’s the polar opposite of a foot fetish? Hand trauma? Hand gore? The story does a really nice job of making the antagonists a bit tragic so you feel bad for them, but also never letting you forget that they are all absolute monsters. The cast is a real strong point for the game.

Towards the end, they tie the story back to the classic games’ roots but it all feels superficial. Do you want to know where Umbrella got the idea for their logo from? Or who Spencer’s teacher was? I mean, not really, but okay. Chris is the main connection and the intro sets him up to be a bad guy with a really intense opening. THINGS get revealed as you progress and you ultimately find out that, you know, Chris had plenty of time to say something and explain a few things in the beginning. Jill would be so disappointed in him being a jerk. This also might be the only time I’ve seen a normal looking 3D model of a baby in a video game. Or movie? But also later, the most abnormal looking 3D model of a baby. Ewww!

I really enjoyed the story and characters, but the gameplay ended up just being okay. It came down to all the chase sequences ruining my fun. I want to be able to explore and look around, not always be in a rush and then cut off from investigating because I hit a point of no return and the area closes off. I also hated the stalker/chase enemies from the remakes of RE 2 and 3, but those games as a whole felt more “Resident Evil-y” due to them having more exploration and puzzles, versus Village being more action and combat focused. So I liked Village but not nearly as much as I could have. It’s also not great about signposting what your goal is in an area. The Factory especially just dumps you in with no goal. You just keep advancing and for some reason, Ethan knows where to climb or drop down or what vents to climb through. Trying to explore around the castle is a huge pain because the whole area feels like a chase sequence. I put off collecting things until I completed a puzzle, hoping that would end the chase bits, only to find out the puzzle was a point of no return and shut me off of the rest of the castle.

When trying to explore, there are so many blocked or one-way paths in the village that the map isn’t very helpful. You just need to stumble around enough until you remember each section and which path has which object Ethan refuses to just… walk around. And Mother Miranda help you if you go through an area but take a different path and miss the door that you can only unlock from one side that would let you shortcut back there.

The game is also bad about not auto-selecting the item you need to interact with a lock when you own it. Like with the wells, you have to scroll through and select the “well wheel” from your inventory and then he’ll use it. But it’s always the same wheel and there’s nothing else that interacts with the well other than that wheel. It sounds like a petty complaint but there are a lot of doors/wells to interact with and having to keep selecting specific keys is a nuisance. Also on the minor front, there are tons of collectibles between story files, wells, windows, hunting animals, outhouses, goat statues, and I’m probably forgetting more, but the game doesn’t tell you which ones you missed or leave a blank spot for missed files. The files are the most annoying because they have story tied to them so there’s an actual benefit to them. At least tell me what part of the game they’re in, like you’re missing 3 in the village, 2 in Castle X, 2 in Castle Y, and so on. All the collectibles are a real “just use an FAQ” design that hurts the spirit of exploration.

This is a very dark game. Not in a spooky way, just in a “I think they forgot to light this scene” way. It would be really great if entertainment companies realized that just making things hard to see doesn’t make things scary. And it’s doubly annoying in a game where there’s so much pixel hunting for items.

The layout is also weird about save points. Sometimes, there will be two or three or them all grouped near each other and other times, there are long stretches where you can’t save/quit. There is an auto-save that activates, but I really don’t trust that enough to quit on an auto-save rather than a manual one. Does the auto-save slot work if I turn the game off or is it just for checkpoints if you die? Is it like a suspend state that will delete after using it? I don’t know and the game doesn’t tell you.

I’ve mentioned them a few times now, but I really disliked the focus on the chase sequences. Some of them are just unfair on your first time through, but never scary. Unless you already know what to do, it’s you flailing around until you figure out that there is a puzzle. It’s hard to search for a solution when you don’t even know there is a puzzle or you stand in just the wrong spot so the interact prompts don’t display and you get stuck. In a particularly tense scene, you’re fleeing an enemy towards a door that then starts closing. I hit the crouch button, expecting to slide under it (which Ethan had more than enough room to do), but I instead bugged the game and Ethan got stuck crouching and the game wouldn’t let me stand up anymore. By the time I figured out what was going on, the chase enemy caught up to me, killed me, and redoing that scene had zero excitement because now I was still a bit confused but mostly annoyed and the solution was “don’t go for the door, run down the hallway”. The chase scenes aren’t tense or exciting because of anything good, it’s just the fear of “if I make one mistake, I’m going to die and lose progress”. At least in the RE2 and 3 remakes, you could KO Mr. X/Nemesis for a bit and get back to exploring. Here, it’s a lot of standing around and hoping the chaser goes away, because they’re invincible and some are one-hit deaths. Even on the final unlockable difficulty, the regular combat probably won’t be your cause of deaths until the very end. It’s that the chase sequences are harder and more frequent in some areas. It’s not fun or a good challenge, it just sucks.

Actually, playing through the unlockable difficulty retroactively kind of gutted my feelings for the game. It’s like they sat down and decided to highlight everything bad about the game and the last few sections had the power to go back in time and suck away the fun I had earlier. There’s a boss fight that uses different mechanics from the rest of the game and on the normal difficulties, it’s not a good boss fight but it’s different so it feels special. On the extra difficulty, I think it just comes down to luck? I spent about an hour dying over and over, listening to the same speech from the boss over and over. I checked websites and watched Youtube videos on how to do it and they were either no help at all or the boss I was fighting was not doing what the boss in the videos was doing. I was about three attempts away from “guess I’m uninstalling this game” when I guess I just got lucky and beat the fight. I didn’t do anything special or different on that last attempt, the boss just did different things and rushed me less and the debris on the field appeared in better spots. Oh, and you can’t heal through the whole fight. Then this section is followed by one where you have a different inventory and have to fight swarms and swarms of enemies with a peashooter of a gun that takes forever to reload. I genuinely don’t know if that section has infinite enemies or just entirely too many of them. And there’s only a single checkpoint at the very end of the section. Followed by a boss fight that’s lousy even on the normal difficulties because you’re in this shitty little cramped space for the fight and the boss’s hit/hurt boxes are wonky and the boss just has entirely too much health. Once you figure out how to cheese the fight, it’s just a prolonged and boring war of attrition. The reward you get for beating the highest difficulty isn’t even good! The gun is weaker than the ones you already have and you can’t upgrade it. It feels like they left a 0 off the values and it only does 500 damage instead of 5000.

But as long you’re playing on the normal difficulties, Village probably the best ending of all the RE games. I love the ending of Outbreak, but Village’s is super well done. Ethan’s story wrapped up nicely and did the character justice. Ethan is such a dork through that whole game but for that entire stretch of the ending, the dude is a champ. Then they toss in a revelation right at the end to set up RE9 and that might get bonkers. And man, with the scene over the ending credits. I’d love to know if they wrote that pre or post Covid.

They unfortunately don’t explain or get deeper into a lot of the interesting lore Village sets up. What was the deal with the tinkerer guy with four wives? There are enough details that it seems like he’ll be important and he’s never mentioned again. The Duke is great, I want to know more about the Duke! The RE4 merchant didn’t need a lot of backstory because he’s more gameplay mechanic than actual character, but the Duke is a key part of the story and actively involved with your progress beyond just selling things, but they never explore it. Is he supposed to be the tinkerer? Is he Eve’s dad? Tell meeee.

This is weirdly the most “it’s magic” of the RE games. The Mold/ceremony kind of just devolves into mysticism at the end. One of the reasons I love Resident Evil is because of the lengths they go to to explain all their pseudoscience. But here, we have a character proclaiming that at dawn the ritual will be complete and powers being magically taken away/transferred. That’s just out of a fantasy story. Some better writing on those spots could have made them all work, but as it is, you’re left wondering why some things happen/why the town is the way it is and the game doesn’t seem interested in giving you any information. The Village is a cool place and gives you the feeling that it has real history but the game is just, nope, look at these cool ominous statues, sure bet there’s a story behind those, okay bye.

Village is a good game, but again, not as good as it could have been. There’s too much of a focus on gun fights and chase scenes and the exploration feels held back by a lot of decisions. I really liked most of my time with it, but after I beat it and thought back on it, I had those moments of disappointment. But it did leave me excited for what RE9 has to offer, but I have no real desire to play the DLC for Village with Rose’s mission, so take all that as you will.

I will end with my repeated appeal: Capcom, please just release a new RE Raid Mode game. Mercenaries Mode is tedious memorization and not very fun. Just give me another Raid Mode. Make it a standalone game. You don’t need to make Revelations 3. Reuse assets and stages galore! I don’t care, I just want to play more Raid Mode. I think I’ve now said “Raid Mode” enough to appeal to the search engine optimization deities that will ensure it gets made.

#resident evil #resident evil 8 #resident evil village #village #re village #re8

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kotosnoozy · 2 years

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「witness me, old man」

chp 2 - café vesperia

2nd in a series of yuraven oneshots for my favourite aus, and first thing for my modern au, tales of the seaside!. ao3 link in the replies.

1. tales of asteria | recollections of eden 2. modern/coffee shop au 3. tales of the rays | 'it's new years! brave vesperia' event 4. schwann brigade yuri au 5. zestiria setting au 6. modern/band au. ao3 link in the replies.

“THE FUCKIN’ CHEEK OF THAT GUY!!”

There’s a clattering in the café as he flings open the office door to clomp downstairs. He’s met with the sight of Karol and Estelle scrambling to rescue a bundle of coats and bags from a pile on the floor, no doubt startled by his shouting (he’ll apologise to them later, when he’s not so monstrously pissed off). Even Judy seems distressed at the sight of him - his expression must be even more thunderous than the last time Flynn had helped to prepare their stock and absolutely tanked their income for the week as a result.

“Christ , Yuri, calm the fuck down, will you?” Rita scolds him. He merely growls in response, throwing himself into the seat opposite her and tossing her his phone.

“Not a chance in ‘ell. Not when I’ve just seen that.” he says. Rita slides her Gunnars off her head to sit on her nose, scanning the phone screen rapidly. The others watch on curiously as her brows furrow more and more with each word she reads. She’s speechless for a moment, as she finishes, simply staring blankly at the screen.

“...Fucking huh!?” she finally decides on.

“Right!?” Yuri responds, throwing his arms out wildly.

“What, what is it?” Karol says, abandoning the coats in lieu of trying to read over Rita’s shoulder. Estelle looks conflicted for a second, before she carefully re-hangs Judy’s bag and comes to join their impromptu staff meeting.

“Some absolute circus clown only gave us 4 stars on TripAdvisor!” she fumes, holding it back over her shoulder for Karol to read better. She doesn’t let go as he goes to take it from her, so he simply stands there clutching both it and her hand.

“Wait a sec…” he says, reading the review carefully, muttering the keywords out loud for the girls’ benefit. “Accessible… perfect beachfront location… vibrant but homely décor… great selection of food, even if you don’t have a sweet tooth… great value for high quality hand-made products… food 5/5, atmosphere 5/5, value 5/5… service only a 4!?”

“Oh my.” Judy exclaims.

“The hell does that even mean!? He didn’t even put a reason!!” Rita crows, snatching the phone back from Karol, scrolling angrily up the screen once more. “Who the hell does this… ‘Raven of Altosk’ guy think he is!?”

“Oh!” Estelle gasps. “Of Altosk , you said? Aren’t they that big online publication with review specialists that tour each county?”

“Yes, that’s right. They have a lot of clout when it comes to the service industry.” Judy muses aloud. “I’d been trying to keep up with our county’s reviewer to make sure we had our best face on when they got here, but… I guess they swapped guys around.”

“Oh no!” Estelle exclaims. “That’s a shame…”

"It is what it is." She shrugs. "It's not all bad, anyway - a 4/5 from an Altosk reviewer is still extremely high praise."

“Whaddya mean, our ‘best face’?” Yuri barks belatedly, face lemon-sour as he swings forward to grab his phone back from Rita. “We’re the best there is around ‘ere and you know it, Judy, we deserve way more than a 4. Ain’t any one of us that wouldn’t be worth a 5 for service - she might be prickly but even Rita knows better than to ruin a sale.”

“Hey.”

From the corner of his eye, as he ignores Rita’s indignation, he sees Estelle start to fidget. He turns to her, horrified to see her slowly begin to resemble a deer in headlights as she meets his eyes.

“...Estelle?”

She shrinks in on herself, gaze quickly averting.

“Estelle.”

“ Um!” she squeaks, even more mouselike than average. “Well, the thing is-”

Ding-ding-ding!

“G’mornin’, ladies n gents!” coos the sudden arrival triumphantly over the ring of the doorbell, startling all of them this time.

In the doorway stands a man who’s familiar to Yuri - he’s always found it hard to forget a handsome face, and this one is more so than most. If he’s remembering correctly, he’s a customer from a few days prior. He’d ordered a salmon bagel and a double shot of his guaranteed-to-raise-the-dead Blast Heart espresso, which he’d drained in a matter of seconds, before ordering another with a wink (Yuri knows he shouldn’t have found that hot, but he’s self-admittedly a man of strange taste).

He’s traded his previous low v-neck grape shirt (which had displayed an intricate spiralling tattoo buried beneath a veritable explosion of fluffy chest hair that Yuri had really wanted to get his hands into) for a too-big yellow raincoat. He looks less like a hot older bear, and more like Paddington Bear on a rainy day - though somehow it’s still kind of working for him?

His cocky lopsided grin somehow twinkles ( ‘Is that a gold tooth?’ Yuri thinks, throat suddenly dry) as he scans the staff of Café Vesperia.

“Bad time?” he drawls, seemingly already knowing the answer.

“Wait a--” there’s a screech of metal against wood as Rita jumps to her feet. “YOU!!”

The man blinks, smile innocent but the crease to his eyes anything but.

“Me?”

She whips to look at Yuri so quickly he’s half surprised her glasses don’t go flying across the room.

“Yuri, it’s the fuckin’ Altosk guy!!”

It’s his turn to blink confusedly.

“...huh?”

She glares at him in disbelief.

“Look at the guy’s profile picture, you idiot.”

He glances down to his phone. She’s right - the same catlike grin that just walked through the door stares up at him from his screen too.

In an instant, all idle daydreams of shoving the man up against the nearest wall and ravishing him are gone. Now the only thing he wants to do to him is kill him.

His chair goes tumbling even faster than Rita’s, clattering to the floor so loudly that Estelle lets out another involuntary squeak. He’s across the room in a matter of steps, grabbing the man by his stupid yellow coat with a snarl and pulling him so close that he can practically taste his breath.

“What’s the big idea, shitlord!?” he shouts, tone absolutely venomous. “You know for a fuckin’ fact that we’re the best food place on the beachfront, so why the fuck did you give us a worse review than the Van Eltia!?”

‘Raven’ continues to smirk at him, entirely unaffected by his anger. Behind him, Judy huffs a weary sigh, muttering something exasperatedly about ‘boys’ as she goes to set up the register for the day.

Karol makes a small noise of surprise.

“Wait. Is… is this all just about your stupid cockfight with Eizen…?!”

Raven snickers. Yuri shakes him firmly. It does nothing to stop him.

“Shut up Karol, that isn’t important right now.” he spits over his shoulder. “What is is that I’m gonna murder this guy, how the fuck are you saying the Van Eltia has better service than us when they have Magilou and Rokurou!?”

The older man sends him a withering, pitying look. It takes every bit of strength in his body to suppress the urge to bite him.

“Well, fer one thing, dear Magillanica’s never tried t’kill me.”

“I find that really hard to believe.”

Raven barks a laugh.

“S’cause o’ this sort o’ treatment, sweetcheeks.”

“Huh?” Yuri says intelligently, caught off guard. “ What sort of treatment?”

“Yer customer service is a shambles, love.”

He blinks at him. The other man’s still smiling, but it doesn’t seem mocking like before. He’s entirely serious.

He finds himself at a loss for words.

“You… are a little unprofessional sometimes, Yuri.” Estelle pipes up bashfully. “In a… not-so- endearing way.”

“Exactly!” crows Raven, with a snap and point of his finger in Estelle’s direction. “The young lady gets it!”

He meets Yuri’s eyes, dropping the timbre of his voice lower as he speaks just for his captor’s ears.

“Don’t get me wrong though, darlin’, I love a bit o’ verbal abuse fr'm a pretty face.” he says, with a waggle of his eyebrows that leaves Yuri red and spluttering. “But I know that int fer everyone.”

He’s so taken off guard that his grip slackens - the older man takes the opportunity to slip out of his grasp, putting a little distance between them with a wink. He scowls in response.

“I couldn’t get this place out my mind though - ‘s nice! Real spiffy.”

“Spiffy? ” Rita parrots, “What year are you from, 1943?”

He ignores her.

“In all honesty, ‘s a real shame I had to rate you below Van Eltia. Person’lly , I prefer Vesperia , but ol’ Aifread runs a real tight ship. Only way you’ll get that perfect score is by perfectin’ yer pleasantries, Mr Lowell. ‘N that means no swearin’ in awe when yer customers can drink way more of yer fancy coffee than y’expected.”

“Really , Yuri?” Karol mutters exasperatedly. His ears burn in mortification - Karol feeling justified judging him for being messy with how bad he is whenever Nan or Jude show up is a new personal low.

“And how the fu --” his teeth grit painfully as he clamps his jaw shut, catching himself before the curse can leave his lips. Raven seems impressed, lazy gaze widening as his seemingly-omnipresent playful smile splits into a toothy grin. It almost makes the blood he’s drawn nicking the inside of his cheek worth it.

He exhales deeply, trying again.

“How on earth do you expect me to do that on short notice?” he drawls tiredly.

“Well wi’ ‘ow quick you were to correct yerself jus’ now, I’d say yer on the right track already lad!” Raven crows, digging his hands deep into the pockets of his raincoat. “An’ wi’ a bit o’ gentle coaxin’ from ol’ Raven here, ye’ll be right as rain in two shakes of a lamb’s tail!”

The confusion in the room is palpable. Yuri doesn’t have to turn around to know the brows of every member of his team are furrowed. Raven, looking around at them all, somehow has the gall to look confused .

“What?”

“Whaddyou mean, what?” Rita throws right back at him.

“If you’ll forgive my saying so, Mr Raven,” Estelle starts, doing her best to calm Rita with a hand to her shoulder “it is an awfully strange proposal.”

“‘Ow come?” he chirps, eyebrow quirked. “Seems like an ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine’ sort o’ situation t’ me.”

“How , exactly?” Judy asks, leaning over the counter with an air of menace, as always on the lookout for those who’d seek to do them harm. There’s a wave of pride that accompanies any flares of protectiveness Judy has for their business, and this time is no different - Yuri can’t help the tiny huff of amusement that escapes him, though it seems that it doesn’t go unnoticed by Raven either.

“Don’t worry yer pretty little ‘ead, darlin’,” he says, tone sincere and gaze steady. “I ain’t out to do any damage - no under’anded business from me, cross me heart.”

He pulls a hand back out of his coat, and it goes up to scratch at the underside of his chin as he averts his gaze - somehow he seems almost bashful.

“Ye ain’t been ‘ere long in the grand scheme o’ things, but… I dunno. Vesperia’s cozy . Got a right nice vibe to it. And ye all seem like decent folk. A little nuts, but not in an ‘armful way like certain locals I could name.”

(His first and only visit to the local chippy (in which he’d witnessed one member of staff doing her utmost to dunk another’s head into the chip fryer while they swore up a storm) instantly comes to mind - he’s pretty sure he knows what the older man means by ‘harmful’ and he can’t say he’s not glad that they don’t fall into that category)

“I’m not expectin’ to put any dosh in m’pocket, mind.” he continues, meeting Yuri’s steely gaze confidently. “But I’d be lyin’ if I said that there weren’t… other benefits to you lot stickin’ around.”

It shouldn’t surprise him to find, as he pettily refuses to break eye contact, that Raven’s eyes are as handsome as the rest of him. They’re piercing and warm and intense despite resembling chipped ice, and he finds himself only growing warmer as they slowly begin to rake down his body - breathless as the older man chews at his lip, easy to mistake for an idle habit but feeling to Yuri in that moment like anything but.

He barely knows this man. Despite his pretty, comforting words, his goals are strange and his motivations unclear, and Yuri has more trust issues than pairs of socks; should know not to blindly place faith in strangers.

And yet.

Maybe it’s his imagination - no doubt aided by thoughts from places further south than his brain - but it’s like there’s something in the air between them, crackling like electricity, something more than the simple chemistry he’s felt with other hot people he’s met in this town. The tension is addictive and there’s a weight in his chest, fluttering, that tells him to chase it, hold it and never let go, lose himself to it completely and see where it leads.

It feels, a tiny voice in the back of his mind chirps, as Raven’s eyes settle on his once more, like it could be home.

“And what ‘benefits’ are we talking here?” asks Rita, far from impressed, from his periphery.

Raven’s mouth slowly lifts into a gentle smile, dazzling, as he continues to stare straight at Yuri, and he feels his heart lurch with a frankly disgusting amount of hope in response.

Then he smirks.

“Why, more o’ Mister Lowell’s fancy coffee o’course!” he chirps, grin shit-eating.

And then he shuffles away, over to the counter, paying absolutely no mind to Yuri even as he proceeds to choke violently on his own spit.

“A double shot ‘o Blast Heart, please, Judy darlin’!” he hears the older man coo, distantly, as Karol rushes over to him to slap him on the back, Estelle chittering worriedly.

When, spine bruised and throat raw, he finally manages to breathe normally again, he casts a sour glance Raven’s way. He finds him lounging against the counter like he belongs there, smug gaze trained on Yuri even as Judy slides his espresso his way. He takes it without looking, offering her a silent wave of his fingers in thanks. Then with a wink at Yuri, he necks it cleanly, exactly as he had a few days prior, before turning to order a second.

Raven of Altosk, Yuri muses, is absolutely going to be a pain in the arse from here on out, whether I want him to or not. And it’d be an outright lie if I said I wasn’t at least a little bit looking forward to it.

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