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bbiemochi · 2 years

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hallooo!! can I request for knights with a gn reader that's multilingual and would yell (curse?) in another language when they're upset?? except they're usually very reserved, and when they're pissed they'd shout for a short while then go back to the usual them. sorry if it's a little specific heheh thank you so much for your hardwork!!

𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚞𝚊𝚐𝚎! | knights x reader

[an]: i hope you didn’t wait long, anon T^T </3 things are starting to get busy and i am highly afraid of letting anyone down :,D how r u doing~? hope u’re ok ! ^^ tysm for requesting, and once again i apologize for taking awhile to finish this :,>

summary: as much as they love you, the sudden mood change when your tongue speaks upon losing your temper is surprising !

pairing: knights x multilingual!g/n!reader [ separate ! ]

genre: fluff, small crack (on izumi’s part)

TSUKASA SUOU

it had been such a long day after rehearsal practice.

one by one did you had to listen to every record the members did on their brand new song, starting with leo to ritsu’s vocal part, not to mention you also had to schedule for a live concert ryouseitai will be holding on next week. anzu had called you to help her out in making their stage outfits for the concert, so you paused your song record checking and helped her out—it took a week to finish by the way. fine’s latest halloween project had to be left in your hands due to you being talented in creating horror themed projects, however it’s just a daily thing you loved thinking of, it wasn’t really a natural talent.

back to the knights rehearsal, leo had newly composed a song that actually sounded more great than the previous ones, not like the old ones sounded horrible—just more catchy is what you meant. dragging you into the recording station along with the other members, all of you listened to the orange head’s rambling about the song. he wanted to get on with it after months of composing, and as always you agreed to do it even if you were hellishly tired.

though…if weren’t for tsukasa helping you out then you would’ve passed out by now due to exhaustion. leo was more than excited to release this song to the public, although it might take time to finish once you corrected all their parts of the song. take ritsu for example, who probably didn’t sleep much as always—he sounded like he was about to pass out in one of his parts of the song. tsukasa was kind and straightforward enough to ask him if he could redo it again, not without giving him a can of juice to energize him. very thoughtful and helpful of him indeed, no wonder why leo decided to give the role of leader towards tsukasa.

and after all that’s done, both leo and tsukasa helped with checking the composed music with you when everyone finished. it took long, but not too long. tsukasa has never seen you so serious before, except when you help produce for knight’s songs. by afternoon did everyone leave, only you in that rehearsal room to finish your job. well, mostly everyone that is. you already know who would be waiting for you to finish your priority.

tsukasa’s presence has always gave you a warm feeling inside. it was as if he planted a blooming beautiful flower inside of your chest, causing it for butterflies to land inside when he’s nearby. not like you always daydreamed of him but—wait no, scratch that, you always do daydream about the handsome male. i mean, who wouldn’t?

“the song will be released by next month. us KNIGHTS will have to practice for our dance training after the recording session. we hope that we wouldn’t cause much trouble as autumn will be begin soon with you and anzu nee-sama busy with your producer schedule,” tsukasa spoke, cleaning the other mess that lays on the side of the room. chuckling, you shook your head, letting out a soft smile at the progress. true that during autumn is where the producer work increases—not to mention that idol work was pressuring not just for the producers but for everyone, yet they were the only things keeping yourself distracted instead of procrastinating.

“i’m sure it won’t be much of a bother, i’m used to it so it’s fine. besides, tsukinaga-san looks so excited for this song’s release. for all the time i knew him, never have i seen him this hyped for his creation to be let out to the public before, it’s cute if you ask me,” you replied to his sentence. with that you see tsukasa’s face frown, “your face certainly doesn’t read so, y/n. i can spot the bags under your eyes, have you been sleeping well lately?” he questions, leaning onto a nearby chair that was on the side. with that brief mention, you felt yourself get caught by a guilt of embarrassment. because of it you looked away.

“shit…i never knew you could notice…”

“d-did you just curse in english???”

“huh?” you perked your head up when the sounding astonished tone in tsukasa’s voice caught you off guard. laughing, you brushed your hair back, “oh ahaha..! yes, i did. it’s just a habit of mine to curse in another language. my bad about it, ‘should’ve watched my language. you could understand english after all, right, tsukasa-kun?”

“o-oh no it’s quite alright. i just never knew you could speak ENGLISH, y/n. i’m quite shocked if you ask me…” steady did his palm placed down calmly over his chest as he smiles back over to you. looking away did. his cheeks glow red as his hair…adorable. “cursing in another language as a habit…i know they have a word meaning for that one, hmm…what do they call that again?”

“multilingual. i have a multilingual tongue,” you told to him. tsukasa’s mouth turns into an ‘o’ shape, getting the meaning you had just said. “multilingual, oh i get it now. y/n you really are an interesting one. i’m glad i got to know something about you as a person than something as just the PRODUCER for KNIGHTS…” there was something tender that holds in his voice, though you didn’t mind much about that.

just with that thought, your face burns red, and tsukasa stands back a little. “ah! i’m thinking weirdly again..! sorry! ahhh goddamn it!”

“woah! y/n chill out…!” you hear him say, both of his hands trying to gesture you to calm down your composure. he has already handled a lot of izumi’s temper a lot before…he did not wanna handle from yours too right now. covering your face, you let out a groan of frustration. this was embarrassing for sure…you didn’t mean to blurt it out loud in front of the person you like. once you felt his presence land over to your side, your face looked away even more, trying to hide your obvious blush on. of course, tsukasa takes notice at this and laughs, “ahaha…! don’t be so flustered, y/n. c’mon, what’s gotten into you? you don’t have to cover yourself now it’s fine.”

the moment he scoots in close towards your side, the more red you get. and honestly? you kinda liked it how close you are with him. just being by his side, it was already enough for you. “i’m glad i got to know something about you as y/n other than being the PRODUCER for KNIGHTS. say, do you wanna hang out with me sometimes? a-after all our work that is…”

LEO TSUKINAGA

“argh! no! not good enough! this won’t do!”

this was the fifth whine he let out this day, mess all around the room that you were the one who was disturbed by it instead of him. leo…really couldn’t calm down when he’s composing a new song. well it’s not leo when there’s no papers flying around the place like rain. and there’s definitely no leo when there’s no y/n picking up the scattered mess created by him.

you had just finished helping rab*its rehearse for their live that is to be held next week, thanks to nazuna everyone is on their perfect shape—and now the first thing you see upon returning to check on the knights is the king continuously whining about his music composing skills before crumpling the papers on his palms and throwing them away towards the trash can (completely missing the shot). arashi had to explain the situation to you, thank god she’s a sweetheart. “i-i’m really sorry about him, y/n-chan. the king wanted to come up with a new project for this month’s halloween theme. and for sure, he started to compose the song’s tune and lyrics right here at the floor. he even asked tsukasa-kun if he could hand him a stack of papers and pulled out a pen…”

you sighed, facepalming. arashi chuckles, nervously. “that’s our king for sure, hehe…i should go out and look for ritsu-kun. he’s probably sleeping somewhere again, we don’t want the school gardeners to think there’s a dead body on the floor. unlike last time…” you heard her mutter, before leaving you and leo alone inside the room. it wasn’t usual for the members of knights to leave you alone to take care of leo who was busy composing for a song, they knew you too were a busy person who does work—and leo could easily be more of a headache towards you…not like it was true but…

“tsukinaga…?” no response, only the sound of pen hitting on the paper writing notes could be heard. yep, he was focused alright. you placed both of your arms down your hip, eyebrow cocked up in complexion when leo didn’t reply to your call. was he always like this when there was one thing floating over his head? izumi’s description of him had always been accurate you’ve gotta say. the small mutters of his words let out to be a whisper underneath his breath, eyes scanning over the notes all and all over.

due to curiosity, you scooted a little closer to the male’s side. woah, only a minute just passed yet he already wrote a whole lot of music scores down on his paper—leo truly was a genius. with that much speed of to think of a tune to play for the new song, leo definitely was next level composer of his unit’s music, you were impressed.

“no, no…this won’t do…”

‘what? he didn’t like his idea that fast? but it was already good…!’ words vacuumed over your mind as you watched leo crumple the paper on his hands, before mindlessly throwing it over behind his back—not even noticing you were behind him the whole time, watching as he writes. the crumpled paper flew right over your face, hitting you permanently close to your forehead and nose. not to mention the sharp area of the paper collapsed right onto your face without hesitation.

you winced from the slight pain, “ow! Блядь!”

“huh? who’s that?” leo’s head suddenly turns around in wonder from the sudden curse you spat out from your lips. you quickly covered your mouth with both of your hands, however leo was already quick to notice that it was just you over behind his presence. “oh y/n! hey! was that you who said something? i thought i heard someone speak an unidentifiable language! ahaha!” he jokes, smiling so adorably at you. a frown, “ah sorry about that. it’s just a habit, and it’s not an unidentifiable language, tsukinaga, it’s russian,” you replied to him, and he echoes out an ‘ooh’ in realization.

“ahaha! ok! russian language. you do know a lot, y/n! it’s what i like about you…! but hey, you’re not the only genius in this room—no, no sir! c’mon, sit next to me! i wanna show you something i’ve been thinking about to write for our next project for halloween! i’m sure the knights are going to love it…!” patting the space next to where he was kneeling, you followed his gesture and sat next to the male who continued to write upon seeing your presence beside him. the pen he holds runs along the sheet of paper, different lines and music notes, leo’s eyes sparkle in delight—though just by watching him react like a child, you couldn’t help but stretch out a smile. “see?? i was hoping the last music score i wrote was the right one, however this seemed to be the perfect one that i wrote so far! my great musician intellect never fails me! ahaha! i’m such a genius!”

once again, like always—the orange head gathers all the paper on the floor in both of his hands, before throwing them all in the air with pride and excitement. his proud laughs makes you sweatdrop. “this new song project is going to be a huge blast! i can’t wait till i finish up the remaining notes, then i’ll call all of my members to the training room, and record!”

“that’s nice but…Проклятье, tsukinaga, you don’t always have to throw the papers…”

“aha! there you go again with your habit! y/n you really are interesting. do you somehow study in different languages from different countries??” oh so that’s what this guy’s on about. sighing, you calmly collected the floating papers that landed down onto the floor, one by one did you pick them up. leo watches you with his eyes fazed with curiosity and sparkles, you had absolutely no idea why he was looking at you like that right now but somehow you just know he wanted to know something about your little habit of cursing in another language. “i’m multilingual. only when i curse that is…. i was supposed to know that you already knew about this since tsukasa-san told this to you before, no?”

“mmm~ nah, i probably wasn’t listening to him. sorry,” he responded, and you just shook your head with a low breath. somehow, no matter how random this guy’s words are sometimes, you just could never be irritated at him. leo was a different kind of breed—unlike izumi who never fails to get into your nerves. “although, languages…aha! y/n you just gave me an idea for a lyric for the song…! thank you so much~! i love you!” he suddenly yelled, and your face turned red. “languages for us two…take my hand, we shall dance underneath the red bright moon…yes! this is perfect! my genius ideas never fail after all!”

“h-hey…! aren’t i the one that made you pop that idea?!”

laughing so lively, leo turns to you with a wide grin over his face, one of the papers crumpled down over his head as he holds it tightly, “yeah, yeah you did! ehehe! i could’ve done it without you, y/n! you’re the best! i reallyyy love you!”

“okay, okay…you’re welcome. no need to say ‘i love you’ as another way of saying ‘thank you,’ tsukinaga-san…” you responded to him. his laughter stopped, and so did the crumpling noise inside of the room.

“hm? oh no, i’m serious.” confused, you turned to him, and leo wasn’t wearing a smile anymore—more like a more nonchalant look.

“i really do love you, y/n. i’m serious.”

IZUMI SENA

work never ends, from here to there.

the amount of typing you had to do to your laptop made you glued to your screen 24/7. with also the amount of documents you had to take note of with every live the idols did in over the span of months is about to make you go insane. you weren’t really familiar of what your idols are feeling when they set upon themselves up on the stage, with thousands of fans watching as they sing and dance with so much confidence in their voice—yet the familiar feeling you do get with them is tiredness and pressure. about pressure, you were just called in today to schedule for knight’s next live that had to be occurred in the following week for the upcoming festival.

you just wished that the stage wouldn’t be so crowded when it comes to applying for tickets in the entrance, poor hajime has to punch them all in before getting ready for his concert—and when its knights we’re talking about, everyone knows they’re in for something good. heck, maybe even all the students from the normal course would go down just to see them perform live. as for you, your job as the producer is to simply look after the idols and help them with their daily deeds. at the moment, you’re in charge in producing for knights, helping them record their songs, rehearse practice, check any errors upon their training, etc.

being producer also means to create absolute perfection upon your creation. anzu always takes good care of trickstar and other various units, so she shouldn’t really worry too much of what falls over her schedule. as for you, this began to become more difficult than the average routine you’d always do, as the festival is close to arriving and knights will be the main unit for the event.

so, here you are, eyes glued to your laptop, staring at the schedule you created for the knights’ training hours, and as for the live’s time. school decorations have already been planned thanks to you and anzu for the ideas, and now it was time to finish the work you’re about to press done for today. ‘let’s see here…the knights’ last training for today is scheduled to 11 in the morning….i have to deliver the remaining documents back to the student council room for isara-kun to collect…i just hope himemiya-san isn’t there errr…’

“oi, get your head off the screen for once and relax. watching you act like that makes my eyes hurt and my skin go bad..”

a small sound coming from the table you sat was created after two cups of coffee was placed right in front of your vision, distracting you from typing your work. figures, the person who had sat next to you was no other than izumi sena of knights. you smiled upon seeing his presence, “izumi hey..! thank you for the coffee. i just need to get these workloads done then i’ll be on with you guys later to prepare for tomorrow’s live. it might take some time..” you say, striking a conversation with the model. before you could continue typing, a hand stopped your wrists from doing so—grip pulling them away from an inch closer towards the keyboards in front.

izumi’s face was in a deep frown, and you knew that expression he wore very well. he always looked grumpy, not like you had any idea why (probably because makoto was avoiding him like always). “didn’t i told you to stop working for a minute and rest? i did not waste my time just to buy you a cup of the best coffee i drink as well. c’mon, get your head out of the laptop for a sec and have a relaxing break. you’ve done enough,” his tone reads annoyance, yet the words he said was caring. looking back at his eyes, you can feel him wince a bit at the shared eye contact you’ve created, “w-what are you looking at? just…get your coffee and have a break…please???” that ‘please’ he lets out motivated you to do what you were asked.

it was rare for izumi to act like this, including if it was someone who wasn’t makoto for once. not like you were implying he was always mean, just something to reconsider for the long time you had known the model. your fingertips made its way to grab the coffee cup sitting before you both—ignoring the way izumi was taking small glances in every movement you’ve done so far after being (slightly) scolded by him earlier about overworking. you love how he acts as if he never cares, but when in reality he has a lot more on his mind than leo. the thought distracted you, when upon touch with the coffee, you winced from the sudden heat that had struck up to the touch.

“it’s hot, you doofus. be careful.” you pouted at him with a frown. “i know that, asshole,” you carefully took the cup into your palms before blowing the hot air escaping through the tiny hole from it. the aroma lingered amazingly through your nostrils—no wonder why izumi loved to buy his own coffee during mornings. just with this scent, the atmosphere was transferred like you were magically sitting in france, near the eiffel tower. a romantic experience indeed. you carefully gave it a few more blows before taking small sips. goddamn it was steaming hot.

“this coffee is tasty, just the right amount of sweetness and bitterness…izumi you really do know your tastes…”

within that compliment does izumi proudly grins, “hmph. well of course, what’s a model with no taste? unlike naru, i rarely eat any sweets to keep my diet balanced in order for my shape to stay perfect. tough thing to do, but it’s pretty much worth it..” he takes another sip of his coffee, avoiding direct eye contact coming from your presence. you let out a small hum, “i can see. however you and arashi-chan do an amazing job when it’s a photoshoot schedule. no wonder you two are often chose as representatives for a school display banner.”

“eh, not really something to be flattered about. besides, aren’t you and naru being really close lately? i’m curious on what’s going on between the both of you…not like i care that is.”

the sudden info izumi leaked cause you quite the surprise, immediately flinching from what he had said—and because of it, a small spill of the coffee you were drinking landed painfully over your palm. “ack! ouch, putangina!”

“putangi-what?!” the perplexed tone izumi held between his voice made you want to chuckle. a small napkin you wiped with to clear the stain off of your palm was placed neatly beside your laptop before you faced izumi with a nervous smile, scratching the nape of your neck as you laughed, “ahaha, sorry about bursting that out all of a sudden…it’s just a habit i grew with, not really a big deal…”

the male cocks an eyebrow up, “habit? oh, you must have a multilanguaged tongue. well that’s amazing.”

“multilingual, izumi-san. i study a lot of different languages most of the time. it begun when i just graduated middle school, i decided to read a lot of english textbooks from europe and even from south asian countries..then until today even after i enrolled in yumenosaki private academy, i’m still practicing..” his eyes were captivated when he listens to you talk about yourself..but just like he said, who was he to care about it? he has other more important business to deal with…probably.

“izumi-san does that really perked up towards your interest?”

“h-hah??” the cut off of his thoughts like a cord. “in your dreams…! i’m a busy person, like hell i would get so interested on a person speaking on different words on their tongues,” is what came out to his reply. yet however you knew he was trying to reject the thought of that.

maybe you should get to tease him more sometimes. besides, maybe a spark could happen between a good looking idol who models and a hard working producer.

ARASHI NARUKAMI

“neuken!”

“ah! ah! ah! y/n-chan~ language~!” arashi’s fingers once again grabbed a piece of chocolate from the tray that sat near the table you two had seated on at the moment, and immediately shoved the dessert right inside of your mouth, shutting you within seconds.

yumenosaki’s garden had really did grown over the years, with the newest fresh bouquet of flowers plastered all over the sides, a beautiful view from the widow of the naked eye, everything was as tidy as it should be. you should mention of how the school garden should be thanking hajime for always taking such good care of the area—the boy was too pure for this world. as much as you’d like to describe more the your favorite spot’s scenery, time was running a little fast for today.

exams were coming up this month in cram lessons, and not only were you troubled with your other school works and incoming projects, but now you also had for trouble studying for the exams. your girlfriend was kind enough to help you out in your studying, yet it looks like you were going to need more than that to easily memorize all of your previous lessons. giggling, arashi softly pats your head with a smile, reassuring you down. “now, now, no need to stress out, y/n-chan, you’ll get there soon. mathematics is hard, i know, but you have to learn these by heart.”

“i get it…but these are so hard to familiarize with i just can’t…” you slumped your head down on the table with a loud groan. “calculus is going to be the end of me. whoever made calculus i hope they rot..”

“c’mon, don’t be like that~ tell you this, if you get to fully study—i’ll treat you to the snack bar you always love to go on dates~! we can even bring mika-chan if he can come along.”

“really??!” a smile stretches towards your expression. arashi was lucky she had hit the jackpot. carrying her face with the support of both of her palms, a cute smile is spotted at the presence of her expression, “then, i need you to study. if you’re able to solve these two problems then i promise after the exams, we’re going to visit there to your favorite snack bar and i’ll even pay for the meals~” the tone in her voice reads a hint of honesty, and this just perks you up even more. not even a second passes, a book was back in your hands and your eyes were focused only on the textbook in hand—understanding your lesson.

“is it finding the root…? or factoring? verdorie, why am i so dumb..?”

“go, go, y/n-chan..! go, go, y/n-chan..!” even with her cheers echoing in the background, it still couldn’t help you immediately memorize the lesson in mind. arashi was cute, supportive, caring, and also very loving—you knew she had always been out of your league upon meeting her and her unit. izumi had always made a big fuss of how she slapped him when they were both younger along with one of the members of trickstar, though after knowing izumi for quite some time you know whose fault really was when she slapped him. typical.

she grew interested of how your tongue is able to speak multiple languages. that is when you curse, however arashi still finds it a unique thing about yourself as the y/n she’s in love with and adores. heck, there were even times where she would bug you to teach her french. but now she wants to know how to speak dutch. arashi endears your multilingual tongue within the bottom of her heart. “if you teach me how to speak dutch, i’ll help you out with your homework~”

“oh come on! that’s not fair…! i’m a busy person at the moment..!” you whined. arashi smiles, heaven sent upon your presence when she yet again shoved another chocolate piece into your mouth, wiping the small chocolate the smudges near the corner of your lips. your face blooms into a red appearance, and with a laugh, arashi lovingly brushes your hair back.

“i know~ but seeing you so flustered is adorable, y/n-chan~”

RITSU SAKUMA

“that’s the wrong note..”

it was the 6th time ritsu had said that. inside the music room where you two sat, the younger sakuma sibling gently instructs your fingers beneath the piano keys, placing where they were supposed to lang upon pressing a note. 5:29pm at yumenosaki’s music room, ritsu had no choice but to ask his older brother if he could use the area so he’ll teach you how to play the piano.

it was simple, as a producer you told to yourself that knowing how to play instruments or beat gadgets are required in order to compose music. you had a strict schedule within yourself, and everybody seemed to know that fully well about you. anzu suggests you shouldn’t really force yourself to learn (you had just finished knowing how to play the guitar thanks to koga, flute thanks to the aoi twins, and violin from rei), though of course, you’re a little stubborn. so this time, you went for ritsu for advice on how to play the piano.

the knights had no certain schedule for this week, so they were off to do whatever they desire. you had already produced to them a couple of many times, so you knew who the members are and what they’re like. the one that left a big impression on you the most was ritsu, a sibling of the leader of undead. he was quiet, always sleepy, and sometimes very teasing, although his skills in singing was amazing despite his appearance. he was very close with one of the student council members, and from time to time during lunch, you and the other female producer would spot him knocked out on the school grounds. due to that you both would hurriedly have to call isara out for help—he was used to it.

you both grew close, and soon enough you labeled him as a good friend. for now. after you learned he was very skilled with the piano, leo was the one who recommended to him to become your instructor, and here you both are now.

the male sighs as he watches you attempt to do the notes right again—no hints of seeing you give up so easily. it was already the late afternoon and he sadly couldn’t continue his nap because he was teaching you at the moment, and at the same moment he stands he was tired. “this won’t do…you need a better tutor that’s suit for this kinds of stuff…” a yawn escapes his lips, “i want to lay down..i hope brother won’t mind if i sleep in his coff—

“bon dieu!”

ritsu flinches from the sudden thud coming from the piano. turning to you, a puzzled look was scanned across his face. was that voice came from you? he wasn’t even sure, that language…was it…french? “y/n-san..?”

“ah, sorry..! that came out unexpectedly…err…” you bashfully covered your mouth with both of your palms. ritsu tilts his head, yet walks back to your side, looking as nonchalant as ever, his face wearing that same look of wanting to slumber. “are you upset..?” he questions, noticing of how you were shaking a little bit. you laughed it off, “i-i’m fine..! sorry, if i worried you. it’s just a small habit i grew with…”

“you mean cursing in other languages?”

you sweatdropped. “yeah…whenever i feel down or just…mad.”

“i see, that’s impressive. so, do you still want to continue learning how to play? or do you wanna stop here for a while? we’ve been here for hours already..” straightforward he is—typical ritsu. “if it doesn’t bother you much, yes i want to keep going…if that’s ok…?”

a smile grows across across ritsu’s cheek, “sure, i’ll teach you more then. make sure to listen attentively now, ok? i’m a little sleepy at the moment since i haven’t slept much from an hour ago, but i’ll still tutor you.” your face contorts into a smile from a concerned expression as he explains his side. you totally forgot…it was important for ritsu to take his daily naps. him and rei’s vampiric disease are one of the main reasons why his body grows weak, and can easily pass out anywhere. if he continues to do this to himself then…

“merde…a-actually maybe you should take a nap first…! ritsu-kun, you shouldn’t really force yourself to teach me, taking a nap is important for yourself after all…” you explained, waving both of your hands in front before he went forward to teaching you. ritsu tilts his head, “huh? you said something funny again, y/n-san. no, it’s quite alright. you needn’t worry about me…it’s almost evening anyways so, i’ll go to sleep sooner or later..i’ll keep teaching you, i still have the energy..”

“you still have the energy?”

“i’m saying i like you…” he still held a normal expression on his face even after saying that, with a faint grin and a soft touch to your fingers that were pressing gently over the piano keys—your eyes went wide when the male scoots closer to your side.

your brain went off for a moment. ‘huh? like me? wait, what does that mean…? hold on…is it…?!?!?’ your thoughts were going completely berserk. a shade of red pops over your face, and within notice ritsu chuckles, “you’re blushing…adorable…”

“are you serious?? you better not be joking, ritsu, i swear i will not hesitate to slap you…!”

“don’t slap me…i’m far too weak to handle that at the moment..” his reply sounded weaker indeed, before a yawn escalates out of his lips.

the evening grew warm between the atmosphere of the both of you, pianos and french love languages from a multilingual tongue of yours to teach. ritsu drew the piano notes, while you wrote the love words.

a/n: hi sorry this took a while, school’s been keeping me busy lately i’m sorry :,} hope everyone didn’t wait long ! aLSO SORRY IF ARASHI’S PART WAS SHORT ToT I DON’T HATE HER I SWEAR, I JUST COULDN’T FIND A PERFECT INSPO FOR HER PLANNED SCENARIO :,>

requests: closed :(

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danieesketches · 1 year

Photo

[MAY 2006]

‘And when they do, there’s an explosion of emotions. They talk and laugh and smile. They go see a movie, they go out for a meal, mobile phones allow them to take photos so easily and they have fun pulling stupid faces into the tiny lens, hands twisting awkwardly so the camera can actually focus on them.’

I’m not a writer, but after finishing Road 96 Mile 0, I had many emotions and decided to write a fanfic. I’m not the greatest writer out there, and I imagine there’s probably a fair few mistakes in this, but I had fun creating this.

More of my ramblings are below the keep reading line, along with the story. It became way longer than I imagined it would, but I hope you enjoy reading it, if you chose to do so!

[SPOILERS IN STORY AND AUTHOR NOTES BELOW]

Self indulgent Road 96 Mile 0 fanfic because the game was everything I hoped for it to be and more.

SPOILERS FOR MILE 0 AND ROAD 96 GOOD ENDINGS.

Also, there is swearing in this story.

This is set during and after the ending in which Kaito and his family are driving away to start their new lives. There is also some mentions of the Road 96 ending where Florres wins (specifically the ending where John, Fanny and Alex embrace one another).

I haven’t started the main Road 96 game yet though, so the knowledge of it I do have is based on playthrough bits I’ve seen on YouTube.

It’s somewhat mostly Kaito-centric but I do try to discuss his parents and a few other characters here and there.

In which life goes on and the years bring many changes.

The feeling of the night time breeze hit Kaito as he mindlessly gazed out the open window. The stars lined the sky for what seemed like endless miles and the view behind them got smaller and smaller.

Big Bear Rest Stop got smaller and smaller.

Petria got smaller and smaller.

Kaito could have screamed, he could have cried. Zoe had taken the file, but she’d finally know. She’d finally wake the fuck up and see he was right all along. Robert had been so close to finishing them all off there but something in the gun wielding man let them live, leaving with fake IDs, glances across their shoulder and hope.

Instead, he cleared the breath he’d lodged into his throat and whispered “I love you both.” to his parents. He’s nearly lost them so many times, but he hasn’t told them how much they mean to him. How he’s sorry he’s been so angry that he’s not let them know he can still feel love without it being at the expense of hurting someone else.

He sees his mom and dad smile. Tired smiles, but for once they seem to have a light in their eyes. Like maybe something good is ahead.

“We love you too Kaito.” Anzu smiles. “Now get some rest, we have a while to go.”

For the first time in longer than he realises, he knows he’ll sleep maybe peacefully as opposed to the often mild resentment.

The car takes them to a place that isn’t quite a town, village or city. More like a pit stop kind of area just after the border, enough places to look around but not exactly somewhere you’d settle down for the remainder of your life.

It’s small, quiet and far from the shitty work dormitory. Daw looks over at his sleeping wife and son and is thankful to whatever higher power exists that he lives another day to see them flourish.

He’d long been desensitised to the awful treatment from the upperclass toward the poorer folk of Petria. Having moved there with his wife during its early days of the past dictatorship, they’d managed to get by easily enough as long as they kept their mouths shut and just did what they were told. But then the old leadership was overthrown by Tyrak and everything went from bad to worse.

When Anzu found out they were expecting Kaito, she and her husband had been living in a small apartment at the time, but supporting a baby and yourself was not easy with their wages, so Daw took it upon himself to take as many jobs as he could so Anzu could rest during her maternity.

Their neighbours at the time had been the loveliest older couple they could ever call friends. The Johnsons had seen Petria in many of its forms. Their own lives had not been a walk in the park there, but things went onward and got manageable. Malcolm, the husband, was a crossword enthusiast but didn’t always like reading the contents of the newspapers he bought for puzzles. Abigail, the wife, was short but absolutely loved to wear a bright pink cardigan and green flowery bag whenever she wasn’t working.

They had been a staple support, Abigail coming around to check up on Anzu when Daw and Malcolm weren’t available. She’d bring around some jam and crackers and gently spoke. Malcolm helped them insulate their apartment windows and put reflective foil behind their main room radiator so they’d be a bit warmer when it got colder.

Daw was a silent man. He didn’t argue with authority. He just did as he was told, even when his boss was a pretentious 20 something year old whose manager status was entirely down to nepotism. Daw cleaned streets, wiped windows, trimmed hedges, painted walls. You name it, he’d probably done it.

Long hours, mediocre pay, but if it meant his wife didn’t have to worry or suffer, he’d do it a thousand times over.

Kaito was born on February 17th,1980. He’d cried so much and held so tightly onto the fabric of his mother’s nightdress. Daw had been afraid to hold him too roughly but Anzu had placed the restless infant in his arms and immediately, the fear was replaced by a strive to make sure his son and wife never had to worry.

In the very far distance of White Sands, fireworks had been set off for some other party, but Anzu and Daw saw those as a joyous cry out to welcome their baby boy into the world.

As time went on, Daw was heartbroken to see the consequences of not being able to keep his promise. Kaito was 14 when Aya passed away and he was 15 when he dropped out of high school to help his parents out when they ended up being evicted from their old apartment.

He’d done so with a smile, but Daw knew when his son was lying and would never admit to seeing the resentment he cast at the rich folk who’d look at workers as if they were scum.

Times like these, he missed the Johnsons. He regrets 1986 happening. He hoped they didn’t suffer.

Anzu did the speaking at the motel front desk. John had given them an envelope of cash along with a note reading the address to this place.

“Tell the front desk Mr Ursus recommended you stay here. That’ll help things run smoothly. This should cover you for a bit.” The trucker has advised them before heading on his own way.

The bearded Brigade had been right too. Front desk had them sign a month lease and gave them the keys to a room. The rate worked out fairly even to the worker dorm rent. The envelope had held a combination of their savings they had slowly put away over the course of 6 years and a little extra that John had added.

The room was one main room decorated with a double bed and single bed separated by a desk with a lamp, another desk, a tiny mini fridge and a wardrobe. An iron and a kettle were sat on the bigger table. Through a door was the bathroom which was plain but had a cupboard above the sink for storing things in.

It was big and small all at once, but for now it was home. So clad with only a few bags of clothes and the odd trinket between them, they wiped down surfaces with some wipes and set to getting accustomed to all of this.

“It’s so big.” Kaito mused. For the first time in a long time, all of them would be guaranteed to sleep in a bed for every night the family stayed here.

For the first three days, tiredness had taken hold of the Lin family far more than expected. To the point they’d maybe been awake for 5 hours of each day. Almost like they were chasing away years of burdens. By day four, they needed to eat an actual meal instead of a couple crackers.

Front desk had lead them to a room they could use for cooking. $5 fee per person, per use, so the family decided only one would cook in there while the others would take the food to their room.

The first proper meal they sat down to eat was rice with some veggies they’d gotten from the convenience store. Their fridge however had many sandwiches wrapped in cling film, a bag of apples, a bottle of diet cola and some instant noodles.

And it, in Anzu’s opinion, was the best meal she’d had in ages.

Maybe this little motel could be home for a while longer.

After their first week of staying together and slowly adjusting to now being known as the Chen family, the trio enquired to the front desk clerk about employment within that area. And would luck have it, the motel was considering hiring more help with some tasks like the laundry and housecleaning.

With the promise of things that sounded too good to be true (alright hours, alright payrate, heavily discounted accommodation and a $3 discount in the utilities rooms) the trio were responsible for things like the cleaning of the rooms, laundry and making the exterior look nice. They worked at different hours but usually two were working the same shift, leaving the third to their own devices.

“Not to worry, if Ursus sent you here, it’s the least I can do.” The woman smiled a cheeky grin before pulling out a sheet of paper to jot down their names and place them into their respective shifts.

Paychecks were given every two weeks and Kaito nearly choked when he saw they’d each gotten $60. Last time they’d gotten something even close to that was when management had been feeling generous (probably trying to be eligible for some weird tax loophole) one Christmas and gave everyone a bonus as a treat. It was only ever the once that happened though.

While his parents had work that day, Kaito had two days off and so he decided that he would treat his parents to dinner. The convenience store clerk was bored reading a magazine. Kaito felt weird as he tried to decide between which pasta sauce he wanted to try. The mini basket on his arm already had a huge bag of fusilli alongside some milk powder and a box of cereal.

Deciding on a plain tomato one, he took the items to be paid for when he glanced a packet of plain biscuits on the stand by him. And for the first time ever, he didn’t cringe when he saw they cost nearly a dollar.

Anzu and Daw are asleep in their bed when Kaito creeps out of the room to sit on the porch steps outside. In his hand he has a mug of water and a few biscuits on a napkin. He just sits and watches the world go by. Rarely does a car drive past tonight and here he is in pyjamas with midnight snacks, feeling the weight of the past three weeks.

Petria feels like forever ago and not long enough. He’s woken up each day and not felt like he’s going to lose his shit and tear down Tyrak posters. Thankfully this place is very ‘no politics mentioned’ (at least in attitude) so he doesn’t particularly have to consider the implications that anyone around him may want to sing praises for that shithead.

If they’re going to feel that way, they should stay silent.

The stars aren’t as bright tonight. But the skies are peaceful. He knows that if he were to stand in the middle of the road, he’d see Mount National closer than he could from the roof he and Zoe once sat at. Picking a biscuit to chew on, he pauses and places it down.

“Fucking hell.” He mumbles and draws himself close. Tears pool and are blotted away by the sleeve of his top. “fucking hell.” He repeats.

Because his family is not rich; but here he is. A warm bed, a job he doesn’t particularly hate his manager at and he just bought a pack of fucking biscuits because he saw them and decided why not? He feels like they’re finally winning something. Maybe not a huge something but there’s something.

“I know son. I know.” His mother whispers lovingly as she takes a seat next to him and brings him in for a hug. It’s been so long since she heard her son cry, even more so for reasons not affiliated with the brutal reality of what being poor poor was like.

Daw watched the scene from the door. For the first time in a while, all three of them had the next day free and so he decided he’d see if there happened to be any crossword books in the little shop.

“I’m sure you’d be proud, Johnsons.” The older man smiled.

The store has crossword books. Daw buys a handful of them.

They haven’t gotten around to talking about everything they went through, and for a while, they probably won’t. But that’s for their future.

By July, Kaito and his family take a trip to the town a 15 minute drive away from their accommodation. They’ve been putting bits of money down here and there and that’s just as well because after the past two months of a better diet and a steady enough routine, Kaito finds that his old clothes fit slightly closer on him than they used to be. His face wasn’t so gaunt anymore either, one might say he didn’t immediately look like seething death.

Their family had never had a reason to spend above their means, so on a sleepy summer morning, the trio are looking at items in a small charity shop. Amidst her collection of clothing, Anzu saw a lovely green top with flowers on it that reminded her of the bag Abigail had once owned and cherished.

Daw picked up a few Hawaiian shirts and a little fishing hat to add to his collection of one. The work back in Petria may have been gruelling but the hat he wore everyday was a comfort to him. It has been a gift Kaito had acquired for him (the younger never did reveal how he found or got the hat).

Kaito, however, had a bit of different styles in his hand. He had a couple plain tops, a pair of jeans and a couple pairs of trousers, however he also had a bright green and orange colour block shirt and a t-shirt that seemed to be for some band called Metallica.

By the time they get back, Kaito and Daw head back out to start their respective shifts cleaning the vacant rooms and sorting out the laundry load. Anzu sets to carefully removing the price stickers on the clothes and separating them accordingly to get them washed while the machines were free.

Charity shops weren’t a huge thing back in Petria, but when they were, the price of stuff was outrageous to even be considered charity.

Sat in the little room with only her thoughts, she absentmindedly listens to the radio talk about things like some pop group’s upcoming concert in Philadelphia or a new vacuum going on sale. And as the washing machine thrums, she finds herself calm.

Routine, Kaito learns over time, is nice. The solid structure of expecting to do something one day and another thing on another is working wonders for him. He carries a little year planner and in it he has his work shift hours written and any reminders he needs to note.

He starts thinking about the gaps in times he has on some weeks. How he remembers his days used to be fairly sporadic after he dropped out of high school. Sometimes he’d be delivering newspapers, others he’d be hanging out with Zoe- before all the need to get out was a thing.

Petria doesn’t become much of a topic of conversation for any of them, though he’s sure at some point his family is going to need to talk about this to someone. He also doesn’t hear about it on the radio stations or TV in the reception area. It’s frightening, like it cut itself off from the world. Beyond those walls was a hellscape.

This motel area isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s a thousand times better than where they ran away from and that in itself makes it almost like a heaven of some sorts.

Kaito wasn’t sure how long they’d be staying here after they renewed their lease for the fifth time. He was starting to wonder what was beyond this beyond.

Donning a pair of rubber gloves, Kaito sets to cleaning the utilities area of any food stains, bits of rubbish and dust that may be accumulating. As he scrubs and sprays surface cleaner, the clerk (god, what was her name?) came rushing in to him and quietly beckoned him to come into the back room.

His parents are in the room, eyes glued to the TV when they see it. The newscaster is discussing some documents that have been given to them, recording how the 1986 Peak Collapse was caused not by the Black Brigades but rather Tyrak and his government. Kaito finds himself unable to speak. And as the story progresses, they hear how the dictator had been arrested for his crimes, how Senator Florres won her election campaign and pledged to make amends with many of the citizens of Petria and break down barriers set by the corrupt class system and its equally awful upholders.

“Holy shit.” His father swore. Kaito didn’t know the man even knew how to swear. Learn something new every day.

“I imagine you guys will want some time to process this. Finish up what you’re doing now and take the rest of the night off.” The woman, whom Kaito notices has a name tag saying ‘Arlene’ speaks softly to the boy before she walks into another smaller connecting room to take a call.

The family turn to one another. This day, this day that they could never imagined would happen, had indeed happened.

“Go on Kaito.” Anzu looked ready to burst into tears, her hands shook in her husband’s and she hunched over to take a deep breath. Kaito looked over at her, and wrapped his arms around her and his dad before agreeing and leaving.

In the smaller private room with only a filing cabinet, a yellow radio and a landline, Arlene dials a number she’s committed to memory but still keeps a post it note for. The phone line rings out and nobody takes the call, so she hangs up and just stands there.

Right now she wants to speak to John. Wants to tell him it’s all been worth it, to say thank you for what he and Conny and Stephen and Naomi had done for her all those years ago.

See, she knew what the deal with people that came to her establishment per recommendation of Mr Ursus was. Having been a Brigade as long as she was, she knew what it was like to be scared and looking for a new life.

The dictatorships of Petria had turned what could have been a good place to live into a nightmare for the reserved many.

The Brigades in their early days helped her get out, but she couldn’t bring herself to completely abandon her roots. Something about the hope John had for the future for many had drawn her to staying as a contact for the cause.

This motel had been abandoned when she took it under her wing for dirt cheap from a businessman desperate to get it sold off. And it had taken some time and perseverance, but things were going in such a way that they could keep the business running.

She was happy to spend a while longer here, until there was a guarantee that Tyrak and those alike could never ruin Petria as much as it already had been. And she’d use this place to help those John brought to her.

She’d give them employment as their new self, something to have a reference of for when they spread their wings and flew out of the nest. Rule number one, everyone gets a second chance at life. Rule number two, whoever you were before you came to her was irrelevant.

Arlene takes a deep breath and takes hold of the radio, putting it in one of the black plastic bags she always keeps in the cabinet. Tonight she is celebrating, she’s not sure how, but she is. Once night shift comes in; she’ll let them know the good news if they haven’t already heard.

When Kaito returns home, there are grapes and strawberries in one bowl and a huge serving of pasta and sauce in another. There’s also a bottle of cider on the desk that he nearly asks about but his mother smiles “Arlene is very kind.”

As Kaito cheekily asks if he is included in the kindness, Anzu follows up with “maybe our kindness, but not hers.” And the younger realises that’s the first time in a long time that he has heard his mom make a joke (though he knows she’s completely serious).

They eat happily that evening, and still have a nicely stocked fridge for the next few days. Tyrak is hopefully suffering tremendously and people might not have to sneak out of Petria anymore.

Kaito finds himself a little bitter that his family had to worry for so long only for a few months later to bring new hope. Only a little though. Kaito Lin was born in poverty, raised in poverty and saw people’s darkness far too often. Kaito Lin can rest easy now and Kaito Chen will carry on for him.

Maybe that, in itself, is the greatest gift he can receive.

And if the Chen family smile a little more often as they work the days after, well that’s not for Arlene to judge.

It was late September when Daw and Anzu were finishing their shifts when they saw her in the lobby. Zoe Muller, but not as they remembered her. Now she seemed different, not just because of the piercings and tattoo, but something about her seemed knowing right now. And she must have recognised the duo too because Arlene looked between the trio, lingering on the Chen’s as if to ask if they needed her to do something.

When Daw greeted Zoe with a simple “hello. You are looking well.” Arlene figured they might be okay, and left to go take care of some paperwork, sliding a set of keys to Zoe and taking a few dollar bills into the back room.

Zoe was at a slight loss for words seeing Daw and Anzu in attire that wasn’t the blue Petria workers uniform. They looked content in their grey sweats and plain tops. She took a moment to compose herself and approached the duo, keeping a slight distance between them as if she were afraid they’d reject her.

“I-I. I’m sorry.” She spologises.

“We know.” Daw comments. Kaito had told them what happened when they got into the car after Robert’s hissy fit.

“If you wish to see Kaito, he will likely be around. He likes the view on the porch steps.”

Zoe nods, fear and elation caught in her throat. She hadn’t expected the Lin family to be here. She knows John mentioned having a contact running a motel, but what were the odds of this one being the exact one that her best friend and his family would go to?

“I’d like that.” She smiles. She lets them leave first just as Arlene returns to the front and gives her a knowing look.

“Got some catching up to do or apologisin’?”

“Yes.” Zoe notes, and leaves. Arlene chuckles to herself, wondering what on earth John would say to all of this.

Kaito was wearing a green and orange shirt when Zoe saw him sitting on one of the remaining plastic chairs at the foot of the porch. She couldn’t tell if he was sat outside his own room or not but there he was.

He seemed at peace, a crossword book in his hand and a pencil in the other.

“K?” The nickname seems foreign on her tongue. And when the boy turns to her, he can’t help but take in Zoe’s appearance. Eyebrow and numerous lobe piercings, shorter hair and the bird tattoo she’d once had him trace was now permanent ink.

“Z?” he doesn’t seem to quite believe his eyes, setting down the book and standing up to properly determine he wasn’t imagining things.

“Can I sit?” she motions to the porch space next to him. He nods, and then they realise that they’re not the same teens they were a few months ago.

“You got that tattoo eh?” Kaito motions to her shoulder. She’s taken aback. There doesn’t seem to be animosity in his voice. And his eyes aren’t analysing or glaring. In fact, the boy before her is what she imagines Kaito would have been like if his life in Petria had been different.

His dimples are more prominent too, and here he is. As real as can be.

“You were right K. you were always right, and I was so wrong, and-“

“I know.” He muses.

Kaito neither forgive Zoe, nor did he not forgive her. It was a grey area of understanding and knowing that everyone was hurting. Granted he wished they’d left on better terms, but it is what it is and they’re here now.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know.” Kaito finishes. “I’m sorry too. For hurting you back then.”

Zoe forgave Kaito the moment she read the file, but in the spirit of the conversation, she made that vocal and while it wasn’t an immediate patch up of their friendship, it was a start.

“So how are things? I saw the news.” The raven haired boy asks as they stare at each other, noting changes here and there. “Florres won.”

“Yeah, she did. People decided change needed to be given a chance. She’s mild, but she’ll need to be strong to keep her promises. She has potential.”

“Well if the footage of the riots is anything to go by, I think she’ll be desperate to prevent being on the receiving end of that.” Kaito mused, but the way he looked at her said there were unsaid things.

“And how are you?” he went with.

“Depends. There’s a lot of things happening all at once. I think I should give you full disclosure that technically I may or may not be a Brigade…” Zoe starts off and the look Kaito gives her is frozen in the shock. It’s not mouth open, jaw on the floor but the way his eyes nearly pop out of his skull and he whispers “you fucking what?” certainly say something.

“You were right K. The government were lying the whole time. It was the only way I’d have the means to get the story out there!”

“You could have gotten hurt or worse.” Kaito harshly reminded her. “You’re not indestructible.”

“Maybe! But if it meant other people didn’t have to say goodbye to their loved ones, it was worth the risk!” Zoe slammed her hand on the porch floor. “The worst thing I ever did was not saying goodbye to you and I’m not letting anyone else go through that.”

The eighteen year old watched her backpack topple onto its side, the trombone and skates tied to it made a noise. Her friend? Ex-friend? Best friend? Looked at the stuff with something akin to yearning. It had be a while since he skated around.

“You know, the field over there isn’t too sandy.” Kaito stood up and walked behind him into the room. For a few minutes, Zoe wasn’t sure what he was planning until he came out in plainer clothes with his board tucked under his arm.

“Bear in mind, I’m a little out of practice.” Kaito quickly defends, and Zoe’s relieved. “But is now the time for skating?” she’s hesitant to say all is forgiven just yet.

“Was it ever the time for skating back there?” he shrugs. “…unless someone’s out there chasing you?” he eyes her and she shakes her head. Most- if not all- authorities are too busy trying to gain public forgiveness or repair the extensive damage of the past three weeks of rioting.

“Unpack your stuff and let’s go!”

Not all has been forgotten or forgiven, but it’s one step at a time.

It’s coming to the end of the summer of 1999 when the Chen family make a huge decision to leave the motel and head further up. They’ve made some good memories in this small unassuming area and found many an interesting store in the town up ahead, but they’re ready to spread their wings and fly.

Arlene sits them down in her backroom office to say goodbye. A litre bottle of some flavoured water and some crisps are in a little carrier bag that she shuffles over to them. “You three have been real good company here, I’ll miss y’all. You promise to take care, you hear me?”

Anzu smiled and takes her hand to shake it. “We will. Thank you, for everything you’ve done for us. We truly can’t thank you enough.”

Arlene waves her hand. “Nonsense, you just be sure to live a happy life however you can. Don’t go becoming assholes though; I’ll never forgive you for that.” She cackles. She knows they’re good people at heart. This world ain’t made to be easy if you’re too kind, but after what they’ve been through, she’s sure they’ll figure something out.

“As long as I’m here, this place will always be open for you. Just ask for Arlie.” Arlie is a nickname she let’s an absolute select few use. Most are Brigades but the people they send to her get to share that privilege if she sees fit.

(What she doesn’t mention explicitly is how she added a little extra to their final paychecks, nor does she mention the post it note with her number on it. A smile is scrawled in the bottom corner and a tiny ‘be safe!’ written with it. She really wants them to do well, as she does all who are sent to her).

Kaito asks Arlene to let Zoe know that they’re leaving. He’s not sure where though.

“Yeah, the baby birds are finally flying the coop.” Arlene feels like a mother hen watching her kids move out. “Kaito wanted me to let you know that much. Somewhere beyond here. He’ll figure it out.”

It’s early the next morning when the family have their boxes and bags filled and they make their way out of the parking lot. There’s a gas station in the little town up ahead, so they stop there to fill up the car and extra gas can they have in the boot. Mount National is further behind them than it was before. Daw keeps driving. The family decided that they’ll stay in one of the towns further on their journey.

The place itself is within the Western Sea side of the map called Anamesa. It’s a fair distance away from the seaside town of Thalassa; so the cost of living isn’t too bad. Not as cheap as the motel afforded them, but you could see something for what you spent.

They live in their car while paperwork is sorted out for the little two bed house they choose.

It’s a humble house, in need of some care though. The back garden is covered in weeds and dandelions, inside the paint is chipped in places and the only furnishings remaining of the old tenants in the house are the wardrobe in one bedroom, a dull white washing machine and a brown leather sofa that creaked when you sat on it. (They definitely did not get their deposit back).

But this is their fourth home. And they love it already.

(Daw finds a phone booth a few roads away and calls the number on the now found note to wish Arlene well and let her know they’re settling in as best they can).

Finding work takes some time, so they try to get many affairs sorted like opening bank accounts, getting registered to vote in the area and all that. The phone booth did not know what hit it. They live very frugally for the time being until some full time cleaning jobs open up and Anzu and Daw go for them. Arlene giving them both a glowing set of references when she receives the call from the employment agency, practically tells them they’re lucky the Chen’s want to work for them because they were so good to Arlene’s business.

The probation period of the job lasts three months, so the duo make sure they’re present on time at every shift, even if the hours they’re away from home are very long. It’s somewhat lonely for Kaito who uses his sudden free time to sort out things at home like clearing the back garden and trying to find his own feet, searching through numerous newspaper ads for what this place has to offer.

As of December 1999, that is working as a kitchen porter for a fast food place.

It’s then in the Friday newspaper in January of 2000 when Daw mentions to Kaito that he saw an ad in a paper detailing how to apply for GED examinations. His mother and father have a high school education and they wanted to make sure he had as much of a foundation in life as he could.

They didn’t tiger parent him about it, but did express they’d never been able to forgive themselves for being the reason Kaito dropped out when he had a good head on his shoulders and could use it. Kaito doesn’t argue with them, but he does try to dilute their feelings of guilt by mentioning how the school was probably going to close anyway after the Vice Principal was arrested for having Brigade affiliations.

(It’s true. Well, except for the school closing. Tyrak just dumped a heap of his goons there to make sure people kept silent about any anti-government slander. Everyone hated everyone there. Who knows if the place does even still exist by now).

So Kaito does as the newspaper says. His mom got a landline phone with the first paycheck she got for that month and he calls the number to register his interest. He’ll need to take a couple tests so they can determine if he would be eligible for the programme with any chance of passing at the end. Hopefully work won’t be arses about him needing to switch his hours. (They kind of are, but they don’t fire him so he guesses it’s a win?)

Daw used his pay on the monthly rent and the utilities while Anzu focused on things like necessities and getting their house slowly done up. Kaito would often buy some bits of food, but his parents urged him to make sure he was saving bits away (and had any necessary text books he’d need for his studies).

Kaito passes his pre-study exams and is accepted onto the programme. The cost of the programme is not at all as daunting as he’d imagined it to be, but he dips into the small savings fund he’d assembled from his motel cleaning wages, promising himself to put it back over the year.

The library is an hour away, so Kaito decides to get all the books he can in the one sitting and gets a library card sorted while he’s there. (He’s amazed at how real the fake IDs are and wonders whether Robert had some dirt on someone in the profession. Even the birth certificates are frighteningly real… though the fact the only differences on them to his genuine documents is the family surname and very minor details is funny to him in some respects).

Maybe he ought to consider some home workouts. The books were heavy, but the librarian was at least 20 years older than him and wielded them without fuss.

One year passes and by the time it’s May of 2001, not only does Kaito pass the GED examinations, but his Walkman kicks the bucket after four years of faithful use. Mp3 players are coming into the market, but their price tag are a little steep for his liking, so he finds a little shop on the high street and gets a second hand one for $90 dollars. (It lasts a year and a half).

Thankfully, some other things the Chen’s have acquired over that time are lasting way longer. The dressers and the bed bases are holding up well, as is the TV. Pretty much all of their furniture is from a charity stores around the town, the only exception to the rule is the mattresses on their beds. Anzu never trusted second hand fabric focused upholstery because of how easily germs could settle inside it and you wouldn’t know.

It’s why all their furniture can be wiped or in the very least is water resistant.

Daw and Anzu work early mornings and sometimes a few hours in the evenings, so they don’t have forever to sit around and take in the sights, but one of the rare times their rota means they work bulk hours over a few days, they use their time off to sit in the garden with a couple cheap beers in hand and watch the sun slowly dip down over the hours. Today, they decide that the day can be lazy. Dinner isn’t anything huge, just a bowl of pasta and sauce.

Kaito returns home from work with some fries from work and for some reason, a handful of the little toys usually included in the kid’s meals.

“They just looked goofy.” He shrugs. “And they were getting rid of them because of the new theme or something.”

The little toys sit on his windowsill in the corner and remain there for many years to come until Kaito takes his own next step in life and moves into a little studio apartment.

As more years pass, it’s soon May 2006. Ten years since they fled Petria.

Anzu and Daw remain working with the agency that hired them in ’99, however they move house as one closer to some hiking fields becomes available. Kaito goes from kitchen porter to hotel receptionist for a small chain. The hours are slightly under full time, but it gives him enough to pay his bills, he has some small tattoos too. Nothing major- just lineart of Mount National on his left clavicle and a skateboard on his inner arm.

He has a few friends too; or at least people he talks to enough. They’re kind. He doesn’t tell them a great deal about himself other than things he’s learned about himself post-1996 and that his family moved there after finding themselves in awe with the fields. It’s partly true.

He gets a TV, a Playstation 2 and a mobile phone (though to be fair, he gets them on a monthly credit pay back plan so it’s not a huge chunk of luxurious spending in one go). He gets Arlene’s phone number from his family so he can call her, because he’s mature enough now to independently put into words his gratitude to her and to John. The number still leads to her, her voice is heavy with smoking and age, but the smile in her voice is just as prominent as it was years ago. She’s happy to let Kaito know that Mr Ursus found love in his life. She also mentions a few things she’s learned over time.

“I think I got a couple years left here before I try fly the coop, if I’m bein’ honest with you.”

“For real?”

“Yeah. Florres seems to be doing okay enough at her job; Petria isn’t as huge a shitshow nowadays. It still has a lot of progress to make, but democracy is doing its best. I ain’t movin’ down there though. Been there, done that- got the t-shirt. I wanna see what life’s got to offer elsewhere.”

Arlene is smiling on the phone as she looks at a few leaflets she has for different places to visit beyond the border. People come and go out of this place, they want to see the Petria of the news stories or they’re finally visiting away from there. She’s got a good team of people. She’s thinking of turning ownership over to her night shift lot, maybe expanding this place to other areas. Who knows?

Kaito runs a hand through his shorter hair and inhales through his teeth to ask “Have you heard from Zoe?” last they saw each other was when they both ran into the plains opposite the motel to skate. Kaito still has his board too. Sometimes he regrets not continuing using it, he’s pretty sure his balance is shot to shit and he’d fall if he tried to use it, but he keeps it as a memory.

On a plus side, he knows for a fact he could carry those GED textbooks without complaining if the situation called for it.

“A while back. She sounds well in herself. I can pass along your details to her if you want. She’s probably travelling at the moment.”

Kaito nods. “That’d be nice. Thanks.”

“Don’t sweat it kid. You keep yourself well, pop down here if you can. We still got some good cola.”

“Aha, I’ll try. I won’t promise though. But if you do decide to go travelling, come up to Anamesa. We got good beers here.”

“Oh my god. You’re still a baby, why are you drinking?”

“I’m 26.”

“You’ll always be a baby to me.” Arlene pauses. “Keep yourself well Kaito. Your parents are proud of you. I hope you’re proud of them.”

“I am. I really am. Thanks. See you later!”

“Good. Take care!” Arlene hangs up.

A month later, Kaito receives a text message.

‘It’s Zoe! Call me!”

And he does. And he hears how the years have deepened her voice slightly, but her experiences have humbled it.

They decide to meet up that week.

And when they do, there’s an explosion of emotions. They talk and laugh and smile. They go see a movie, they go out for a meal, mobile phones allow them to take photos so easily and they have fun pulling stupid faces into the tiny lens, hands twisting awkwardly so the camera can actually focus on them.

She offers to stay in a hotel so she can stay in Anamesa a while longer, but he offers her his apartment. So they get some snacks and drinks and they act like the apartment is their old construction yard hideout. Kaito has a few games so they hook them up and joke about things and it’s all just amazing.

Zoe thinks that they needed to be adults to be able to do this, that the pain of their parting ways was too fresh in the 90s. Time didn’t erase what happened; it just put a few things into perspective.

Her style has changed slightly again. Her hair remains shoulder length and loose, but she also has some blonde highlights in her bangs. She still has her eyebrow piercing and the numerous ones in her lobes, all adorning purple earrings; however the addition of a new nose piercing is also noticed.

Kaito knows she has more tattoos, though the only bit he’s seen to indicate that is a few stars he saw on her lower arm. She’s long abandoned her full on ripped alien top- punk skater girl look and gone for a white tank, blue denim jacket and green ¾ khakis.

Kaito wouldn’t particularly say his own sense of style was all that different from his youth, granted he owned more formal clothing now (shirts, and a couple trousers and a blazer). Most of his clothes were plain black for his job, but outside of that, he was mostly a comfortable clothes kind of guy. And none of them had holes in them.

They’re playing one of the Street Fighter games and Kaito is getting his ass kicked for the fifth time in a row when he makes a request.

“What if we went on a road trip?”

“Hmn?” Zoe’s turned to him but is still button mashing and Kaito considers knocking it out of her hand so he can land a few hits in. He chose not to because of maturity and shit, but he pauses it and that’s just as good.

“You know, rent a car and go out on the roads for a week in summer. See what else there is to this place?” last time he said something similar was in relation to escaping Petria, but this idea is about enjoying life. Making memories. His life here is amazing, but he wants to see more things.

Zoe seems to take a few minutes to ponder the idea and Kaito regrets even asking until the woman asks if he can drive and if he has the time. Because while she personally does, what with working as a freelance travel writer and pretty much funding her life with the savings fund she’d transferred into an entirely separate bank (the privilege of her rich upbringing, she’d not lie); it feels only fair for her to check he’s in a comfortable position to do so.

“I have plenty of remaining hours. Only have a few days booked for use so far.” He shrugged.

Zoe nodded wordlessly as she considered the idea. She vaguely remembered the last time Kaito had said something similar back in White Sands, back when it had been hidden with the intention of fleeing a terrible place.

“Zoe?” Kaito quietly asks and she blinks a few times, straightening her back before her expression relaxes and she nods at him. “I don’t think I can say no to that.” She smiles, holding up her can of beer for a toast. And as the night continues on, Kaito offers her his bed but she opts for the sofa. He has an early start the next morning, but finishes after lunch so they can talk about other stuff when he gets back.

Zoe was awake when Kaito left out for work at quarter past five. Leaving his keys on the side after unlocking the door, he waves her a “later Z!” and she returns it with a “later K!”

The sun was bright even at its early rising, the heat wasn’t yet unbearable. And as Kaito sat on the bus to work, he truly felt like he had what he’d yearned for most in life.

A lot of elements of this are based on Google searches for things that were applicable to America in the specific years I mention during this story. I may not have all the details correct, so I apologise for any mistakes I may have made.

I didn’t know whether their new IDs would change their names completely, partially or just different details instead, so I chose to only change the family surname, any other details that could/would be changed are down to your interpretation.

Arlene was not a character I thought I’d write about in this as much as I did, but she grew on me.

In respect to Thalassa and Anamesa; I searched Petria’s meaning online and the first result I got said it was the Greek word for ‘rock’. Following that, I decided to find the word for ‘sea’ (thus Thalassa and it being a seaside town) and Anamesa is noted as an adverb meaning ‘between’ (and I wanted it to be placed in between a bunch of other towns/cities).

Also an extra I wanted to include but Kaito definitely got his tattoos done by an apprentice artist (based entirely on my first tattoo being done by an apprentice).

Maybe things have been unrealistic in this story, but I love happy endings. I’m not the best writer out there, but I had a lot of fun writing this. It became way longer than I had in mind but it is what it is.

#road 96 #road 96 mile 0 #r96:m0 #road 96 zoe #road 96 kaito #zoe muller #kaito lin #road 96 fanfic #danieesketches

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desired-display · 1 year

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pinned

hello. welcome to my smut writing blog. i write porn and other mature works on there. here’s some rules for this space:

- absolutely no minors allowed. i can’t control what you read and see, but know that i’m not responsible for it if you continue anyways - i do have a main, but i won’t share it for privacy reasons. just call me "desire" if you want or make up your own nicknames - i write for my faves primarily, which includes kaname/tatsumi/jun and himeru/rinne/niki. i might write things for other characters i like, though - i will never write anything containing underage sex/pedophilia/incest/noncon, that includes coercion/dubcon and cnc. - all characters i write nsfw for are 18 or older in their source material. i do not believe in “aging up” underage characters for nsfw purposes. that’s just pedophilia with extra steps - zero tolerance for bigotry of any kind. asks containing homophobia, transphobia, racism and ableism will be deleted especially if they are about a specific character (racist or fetishistic comments about rinne/adonis, ableist comments on eichi/kaname/tatsumi, misgendering arashi, etc.) - femstars is okay, but i don’t believe in cisgender people and i will not always use she/her for characters even if they are fem in my work (arashi is excluded from this; i will always use she/her and she will not be cisbent in any way) - going off of that, never assume any characters in my works are cis especially if they are amab and use he/him - i commissions for nsfw work... may be allowed, in the future

blacklist:

- incest/pedophilia/rape/grooming of any kind - these ships: rinne/shu, izumi/makoto, natsume/the other eccentrics, exvalk, himeru rei or rinne/any 3rd years (including anzu), eichi/exfine. this is just a boundary i’m setting for personal reasons. - i don’t tolerate akiomi/seiya/jin with ANY students, also. those ARE gross and problematic and i will block you if you send me anything with that - unsanitary kinks (piss, scat, period blood) - cnc/dubcon - a/b/o

okay. now that that’s settled, some basic things i will post about here:

- links to fics ive published - thoughts about fics i want to write - thoughts in general - asks others send me whether it’s responses to my fics or another rambling of sorts. you’re free to use my inbox for talking about who you want to rail/be railed by/rail each other, even if i don’t produce them

anyways, here’s a tierlist for character’s i’ll write for

(tierlist link here also)

i will probably open up an FAQ later once i’ve done more with this blog. for now, enjoy your stay

#pinned

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qtipcottonbuds · 3 years

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Hey, I have a fun question for you! Imagine Haikyuu volleyball teams in a fantasy AU, all of them being different clans. (The clans are the teams. Example: Karasuno, Aoba Johsai, Nekoma, etc)

Which type of fantasy creatures do you think each team would be? (Example: Werewolves, dragons, demons, etc)

Ooh, no because I absolutely love this question (AND RAMBLE TIME YES YES) - 😼☝🏼 also this is a great Halloween fanfic concept as well HELLO. fudge I'll break it down into mini paragraph thingybobs too, 🐻 with me lovely.

INARIZAKI ;; a part of me is definitely stuck on the idea of werewolves, there's something about it that just fits the characteristics of both the Miya Twins, Kita and actually Aran as well. But at the same time, I feel like Asian Folklore, specifically Yokai's would definitely work well here too.

KARASUNO ;; anzu's definitely >:D (Sumerian mythology, controlling that of both the winds and the thunder clouds, which fits it perfect with Nishinoya 🏃🏃🏃🏃), but just in general, they are such beautiful creatures.

NEKOMA ;; you know, this might sound a bit strange, but I can see the Nekoma team actually being a bunch of cheeky ghosts, especially Lev Haiba, poltergeists even. and also with the whole stereotypical strategic elements - spirits just know how to play with their victims, including opposing volleyball players.

AOBA JOHSAI ;; Azeban's, we going back to Abenaki mythology, specifically know as native american lore based in North America. so i may have purely based this on Kyotani and his eyeliner, because these spirits are in the shape of a racoon, but are literally harmless, they just enjoy doing cheeky things.

DATE TECH ;; White Stags, or Goldhorns (based in slavic lore), because aone as a forest creature with golden horns as a antelope 😵, okay but really, vv gentle (unless provoked silly billy) but just, yes. that is all.

FUKURODANI ;; I'm actually thinking either cryptids, or hellhounds, but I'm definitely leaning towards hellhounds. head empty, just brainrot of hellhound bokuto 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

NOHEBI ;; Naga's. no questions about it. OR OR UH UH KRAKENS BECAUSE YES HELLO DAISHOU WITH TENTACLES GOODBYE 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨‼️

SHIRATORIZAWA ;; one word. Jiangshi. (or the Chinese hopping vampire in Chinese folklore). I absolutely love Tendou, but I can totally see him fitting into this role so well, alongside Goshiki, so incredibly unnerving. and the fact that they don't move either until nightime, and just hop - definitely lulls you into a false sense of security if they aren't moving during the day, thinking you're safe.

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duelistkingdom · 3 years

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please give us the encourageshipping tedtalk!

i got thirty minutes while my blankets dry! so here it is: WHY YUGI X ANZU X ATEM IS THE BEST OT3

subtitled: there's an inflammatory statement on why you guys dismiss it but ion wanna go there before bed :|

anyway. we're going into Deep Lore here. sure, you can definitely claim that anzu's feelings for yugi "went away" when she realized yugi and atem are separate people. ore you can be a genius and see that she merely learned how to separate those feelings because anzu has a level of emotional intelligence to her. i suspect that she was nervous upon realizing she has feelings for both.

the fandom loves to demonize anzu for having a crush on atem and like... okay, whatever. anzu doesn't fuckin owe yugi an apology for having a crush on atem, even less so when yugi also has a crush on atem. like... why should she feel bad for liking atem and yugi at the same time. is that not just what we do too? she's RIGHT and she SHOULD say it, actually.

and yeah, you could bring up the ceremonial duel and anzu only focusing on atem's feelings... but atem's the one who is going to fuckin die if he loses? so i didn't really see it as "anzu has stronger feelings for atem", more so that she knew who she'd lose if atem lost. yugi would continue on if he lost but atem would be lost to them forever. and i mean, does it not impact yugi too if atem is lost?

is yugi not a central key component to every ship that involves atem? it is his body that atem is using to see the outside world, after all. it is impossible to ignore yugi as a factor and anzu certainly has feelings towards yugi himself. the duelist kingdom version of events in both the anime and manga show this: anzu cares about yugi. atem also cares about yugi. it is impossible for both of them to move forward with their feelings if yugi is not okay with it. placing the ball in yugi's court.

atem, meanwhile, has no memory of his life prior to the puzzle. but with yugi and anzu? none of that matters. yugi has given him his memories and anzu has helped him make new ones. they both have grounded him so tightly to the modern world that his ancient past doesn't matter. it is anzu that atem first tells that he wishes to seek out his memories but it is yugi that makes him unsure if this is the right choice. he is torn between wanting to know and wanting to stay, basically.

and fuck, what post would this be without mention the cartouche. the fuckin cartouche. how anzu was the one to give it to him and yugi was the one to discover that if they wish something in the memory world it comes true and how that later boomerangs when anzu uses what yugi told her to make atem's name appear on his cartouche. atem literally gains his memory because of anzu handing him the cartouche and because yugi was smart enough to figure out how the memory world works. atem exists as his own person specifically because of anzu and yugi. it makes me fuckin INSANE, actually.

this is getting LONG as hell but anyway: encourageshipping is such a nuanced & layered ship and there's SO MUCH going on it that i just... could never get tired of exploring it all. thank you for coming to my tedtalk and i am So Sorry that i rambled for so many paragraphs.

#encourageshipping #i'm tired so if this doesn't make sense #it's because i didn't proof this #and it's just a ramble of various encourage thoughts and how i feel about them #fuckin seven paragraphs i am so sorry about that tho #it can't be helped

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deejadabbles · 3 years

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I'M HERE FOR THE RAMBLE. PLEASE, CONTINUE.

You sure you wanna open this can???? Okay you asked for it!!

Since you didn't mention a specific WIP I'll just take the invitation to ramble about my latest micro obsession XD

So for once I'm not writing a reader insert *add dramatic gasp here*! It's a puzzleshipping Noir-themed AU with an extra helping of masked vigilante romance.

Yugi is a private detective who gets hired to find a missing girl, who got wrapped up with some goons employed by the infamous gangster, Gozaburo Kaiba. During said investigation he comes face to face with The Shadow, a mysterious vigilante who, for about year, has been saving citizens in alleyways and rounding up Kaiba's thugs. Yugi manages to convince the mercurial vigilante to team up with him and bring Gozaburo Kaiba to justice.

A big lure I have in writing (and I hope, people reading) this fic is the ~dangerously seductive~ vibe that's surrounding the romance. Yugi has no idea who this masked man is but when he talks in that sinfully deep voice, pulls Yugi into strong arms and out of danger, and insists that he's too dangerous to get close to, Yugi can't help but be drawn in.

There's also a mystical vibe, as there's a reason they call him The Shadow. He looks and moves like living smoke, with red eyes that are almost demon-like (and scare mafia goons out of their wits). He's definitely a man, though, and Yugi knows it the first time The Shadow saves him and he feels the firm chest of a man, not a monster.

It'll take a while for Yugi to know more about the hero, but Yugi has his own reasons for bringing Gozaburo down...even if working with the mysteriously hot shadow man is a bonus.

All, or at least almost all the story will be from Yugi's POV, there may be a chapter or two from Atem's perspective once more is revealed about his character but I haven't decided on that yet, we'll see where the story goes.

There's a whole host of characters that'll make appearances, Mai, Anzu, and Duke being the firsts. I want to have Jonouchi, Ryou, and Honda make cameos too, but not exactly sure when or how yet. Then, Miho, Mokuba, and Seto will too, just in later chapters.

Any way, I've barely started on this yet, but I'm already really loving the way it's turning out, I've never written a story with a Noir-vibe and I'm excited about the experience! I'm hoping I'll stick to this idea long enough to have some chapters out soon but...we'll see? You guys know how I am *nervous laugh* I'm sure I have lots of other tidbits and points I could ramble about but I'll stop for now lol

Thank you for letting me ramble you lovely person!

#ask #deeja rambles #puzzleshipping

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straightfacedstrangeness · 3 years

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Not that anyone asked (but seriously I’d LOVE for someone to talk to me about PokeSpe (just no spoilers past vol 13)) but since I made an offhand remark about my Top 5 favorite characters, it occurred to me that I actually DO have approximately 5 top favorite characters, and I’m procrastinating on work, so I’m gonna ramble

**just in case, note that a lot of this will revolve around my childhood experience with gender in a “I’m AFAB (and present-day me still identifies as a cis girl) but I don’t fit in with what media is telling me girls are like” way, a brief childhood feeling of homophobia, and probably general TMI about my opinions and emotions throughout my life, haha

1. Yellow

Okay, so, I was a little kid when Pokemon Adventures started coming out in English, back when manga was released as single-issue monthly comic books instead of complete volumes. So I was rereading the same chapters over and over while anxiously awaiting the rest of the story (and wound up missing a bunch of issues anyway)

I enjoyed the RGB arc, I thought it was fun, but I didn’t LOVE the series until Yellow showed up. At that age my ideal crush was “a cute boy my age who would be nice to me” and Yellow was presented to the reader as a cute boy my age who was sweet and kind and gentle, but also good in a fight, as all shounen protags must be. Extra bonus points because they had just a few physically weak Pokémon and tried to fight battles in a way that minimized damage to their own and the opponent’s Pokémon, which meant they fought in a particularly smart and clever way. And I was considered “smart” for being good at school, so being a SMART cute “boy” my age who would be nice to me, Yellow was PERFECT. I mean, I loved the arc in general because of the clever battles, and the mystery of what had happened to Red, why these people were after Pikachu, why Yellow was so secretive about themself and their mission, etc was really engaging. But also I adored Yellow as a character and partly in a “I wonder if ‘he’ would like me??” kind of way X’D So to my tiny child self who didn’t even know it was possible to like-like someone of the same gender (because I hadn’t read Cardcaptor Sakura yet XD ), the reveal that Yellow was a “girl” was devastating—I had to cross out floating hearts on at least one drawing of us holding hands (scandalous!) and, while kind of stunned and shaken for a while, decided that what I’d felt all along was a deep, intense desire to be friends X’D (which probably wasn’t too far from the truth since I was pre-puberty and later turned out to be asexual)

(Also note that I never got the RGB issue that had the chapter where Red helps a little ‘girl’ capture a Rattata—later proven to be Yellow’s backstory—so the gender reveal really came out of nowhere for me.)

But anyways, I still love Yellow as a character for all the above reasons, without the crush aspects because I’m way older than them now.

Also when I reread the series ten years ago, I finally realized “wait, aside from surprising the reader, there’s no real plot reason for Yellow to pretend to be a ‘boy’ except that Green told ‘her’ to—so why did ‘she’ do it?”...and because at that time I didn’t even know that nonbinary genders existed, I decided it was cus they had low self-esteem and pretending to be a different person gave them courage (the same reading I had for Mulan at the time). These days I’m more inclined to “yeah, I think Yellow’s nonbinary,” but that other interpretation was deeply relatable to me and only made me love Yellow even more.

2. Bill

Bill’s definitely a character I’ve grown to love more as an adult, since I’ve gone from seeing myself as “a protagonist doing cool things” to “a side character just living their life who hopefully gets to do something once in a while.” But as a kid and now, I like him mostly for the slapstick and goofy expressions and the (early chapters Viz translations) outrageous accent X’D My brain desperately craves endorphins and the best way to get em is through a good laugh.

But also, I liked that he was introduced as a goofy character-of-the-week who got into ridiculous trouble and had to be rescued, but then kept being brought back, was slowly built up to be the “smart sidekick who explains things,” and eventually got to the point where he was participating in big battles (the Yellow finale on Cerise Island). I rambled about this in the tags of another post, but I liked that he was a character who was “weak” without being “useless.” As a kid who was good at school, I was obsessed with being good at things and had developed a black-and-white view of the world where either you were “strong/smart” or “weak/stupid” to the point that failing or just being not-so-good at anything was devastating (it still kind of is), because that meant I was actually “weak/stupid” when I was supposed to be “strong/smart.” So it was kind of awesome that this guy who kept getting into trouble and having to be rescued—and didn’t even want to BE part of the final battle—managed to hold his own and get through it and help out instead of being a burden that dragged everyone down. Seriously, he used a MAGIKARP effectively—the Pokémon everyone makes fun of for being “useless” and he used its one attack to save his life!

(Bonus points for all this happening in contrast to my devastating childhood experience of stanning The One Girl Character in every popular shounen series, waiting desperately for her to get to do something in battle, and then her one spotlight episode revolved around her struggling because she was so weak...not only was that actually happening to a boy for once, it was actually happening in a more satisfying/empowering way :’D )

3. Gold

I have extremely specific tastes when it comes to “the dumb shounen/action movie protag,” because as a kid I hated it when the main character was “dumb” because I was “smart” (re: good at school) and people who were “dumb” shouldn’t deserve to be the main character and have all the cool powers and save the world and stuff. As an adult, I hate it when male characters are dumb and/or jerks but it’s treated as fine or even sexy(??) and the other characters fawn over them, and I generally still kind of hate it when characters who are dumb and/or jerks get the big important role when there’s a female character RIGHT THERE who’s more competent (and OF COURSE she has to wind up falling in love with him)

But anyway, I have extremely specific tastes, and Gold is it X’D He’s the perfect combination of “unshakably confident in his own stupid/egotistic views” and “treated as annoying and/or comic relief by the rest of the cast” with a bonus dash of actually being really clever in battle (so my inner child goes “Ah yes, technically, he is ’smart,’ and therefore...worthwhile“) Making me laugh while also impressing me is like the key to my heart.

4. Crystal

I’m too lazy to look it up, but when Viz was publishing Pokemon Adventures as monthly comics, they must have switched to publishing it as trade paperbacks only and/or had a huge gap between the end of Yellow and the start of GSC, because for YEARS I’d thought Yellow was the end of the series and was shocked the first time I saw later volumes. (My dad was buying us the monthly issues at the local comic store, and either they wouldn’t have ordered the trade paperbacks or he wouldn’t have thought to check those shelves.)

Anyway, that’s a long lead-in to the statement of “Crystal would automatically be my #1 or #2 if I’d read her arc as a kid.” She’s a girl, she wears pants, she’s EXTREMELY smart (genius-level “book-smarts” about every Pokémon’s behaviors and weaknesses PLUS being clever in a battle), was tough as nails (she KICKED her Pokéballs!!), had no interest in romance or her appearance, AND had a short arc about losing her confidence and training herself back up to full power. I would have KILLED for a character like that when I was a little girl being told that “girls don’t like action shows like Dragon Ball Z” (but I was a girl and I did???) and that girls were supposed to be pretty and obsessed with fashion and dating, and that girls were never the main character of action series, just side characters who either did nothing or got one chance to do something and were pathetically weak (see above, and/or Sakura’s fight against Ino (Naruto), those couple filler eps where Téa/Anzu played Duel Monsters (Yu-Gi-Oh), Videl getting pummeled by Spopovich (DBZ), etc).

So anyway, she’s awesome, she’s exactly the type of character I would’ve loved as a kid. The only reason she’s behind Gold here is because at my age, “makes me laugh” > “the kind of main character I used to wish I could be”

5. Green (the girl trainer...I’m just too loyal to the Viz version to call her “Blue”...)

I’m trying not to rehash the same “I’m a girl but none of the girls in my shows/comics are like me!” childhood woes over and over, haha, but as much as I always enjoyed Green for being extremely clever and outsmarting the boys and being funny when she did so, she always lost points with me for being “pretty” and flirting to get her way, because that put her in the box of “girls are supposed to be pretty and desired by boys and obsessed with their appearance and romance” that was so foreign and disheartening to me as a kid.

But her staredown with Ho-oh at the end of the GSC arc TOTALLY got me. As a sad adult with anxiety, watching characters who are absolutely terrified overcome their fear, watching characters who are completely beaten down struggle back to their feet and keep fighting, is like my ultimate power fantasy. That sequence genuinely had me in tears.

Also her bond with Silver is super precious, especially since that’s like the first time in the series we’ve seen her be genuinely emotional and vulnerable with someone instead of teasing or manipulating them.

Honorable mention: Sapphire

I haven’t gotten up to R/S in my reread yet, and I only read that arc once over like a weekend ten years ago, but I’m pretty sure she’s gonna be a Top Fave cus again there’s that “I'm not like other girls!” childhood feel (last time I’m saying it, I promise)

It’s a story arc where one protag wants to fight the gyms and the other protag wants to win the beauty contests, but the one who wants to fight the gyms is the girl!! And she’s the typical “dumb but extremely good at fighting” shounen protag but she’s the girl!! She’s feral and illiterate and a total tomboy and wins all her fights and she’s a GIRL!!!!

Anyway, those are my kids and my dude and my probably way-too-personal reasons why. If you wanna reblog, reply, or send an ask about your own faves...please

#pokemon adventures #rambling #crackpotawesomes #spent like an hour and a half on this oops

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fluffyy-dreaming · 4 years

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☁️ Requesting Information and Rules ☁️

This is primarily an Enstars X Reader blog, however healthy ships are welcomed !! This includes :

Headcanons

Scenarios

Matchups

Please do note I prefer simple requests but I am open to all. There is no guarantee that I will complete a request. If I misunderstood your request, please tell me and I’ll try my best to rewrite it !!

For matchups, please try to include as much information about yourself as possible. This can include :

Personality traits (necessary)

Gender and pronouns (necessary)

Sexuality (necessary)

MBTI type

Hobbies (necessary)

Dislikes/phobias

Love language (recommended)

You may specify if you’d like/would not like a graduate or 1st/2nd/3rd year, someone from a specific unit, etc.

BYR

I will not write angst/ab**e, NSFW, or mental illness centered fanfics

I will not write any toxic ships (includes power imbalances, 1st/3rd, 1st/2nd/graduate, etc. DNI if you are not anti-ship or you are 27+)

I apologize if I mischaracterize anyone esp !!Music characters

I don’t write for any non-idols besides Anzu.

No romantic Tori Himemiya requests. I’m okay with platonic relationship requests (not limited to Tori)

I will write for up to 4 characters/two units/groups

When requesting a matchup, you may specify how many you’d like as I can try to match you up with a max of 3 characters. I will match you up with one by default.

You may also request for me to match you with an entire group/circle

I will usually write everything in bullet point format

Hashtags used :

# fluffyydreamming - Used for all posts

# cloudy.stardust - Rambling, non-writing text posts and posts in general

# drowsy.readers - Interactions with my beloved readers <3

# shooting.star.signs - Any posts or photos sent in

# fountain.of.dreamms / fountain of dreams - Reader submitted requests

# solstice.writings - Non-reader submitted ideas/stories

# solstice.matchups - Matchups !!

# milkyway.palace - Any important updates/rules !!

In general, my inbox and DMs are always open for discussions aside from requests, so please don't be shy!! I'm also completely fine with promoting and helping out new writing blogs 💕

I apologize if your request takes a while. Please remember to reblog my work if you want to support me! I am still new to writing and this blog is mainly for fun. Thank you for reading :) !!

#enstars x reader #ensemble stars matchups #ensemble stars matchup #ensemble stars x reader #milkyway.palace #fluffyydreamming

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lia-nikiforov · 6 years

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Spring 2018 Anime Final Review

So, uh, this is six months late. I’ve had half of this post in my drafts forever. To make it short, as I’ve mentioned previously, mom lost her job, which has not only been a heavy hit to my sense of stability for the last six months, but also means my time to watch anime was seriously reduced and even now a slight change of plans fucks up my whole schedule and sets me back for a full week. Anyway, nobody cares about any of these shows anymore so let’s get straight to it? I’m gonna ommit the two-cours that continued into the Summer - hopefully I’ll be able to make that post soonish? idk. Worst to best, same as usual

The crappy gender politics pit of shame

Darling in the FRANXX: I think everyone has ripped this show to threads at this point and there isn’t much I could add to that. It is quite funny to me to see how many people flipped out when the show went completely bananas in its last few episodes. Feels a bit like KADO, I’ve been telling y’all this was a ton of empty crap since episode 2, it just took the writing to completely self-destruct for everyone else to notice. A part of me feels tempted to do a long post breaking down just how badly the show collapsed in its final shebang, specifically how every single twist and turn completely nulled any remote kind of message or central thesis the show may have had, but at the same time it doesn’t seem worth the time. In the end, I may have given What is Internal Consistency, The anime way too much credit. It’s not hateful antigay propaganda, it’s just dumb as shits, with a writer and creators who didn’t think for half a second of the implications of what they were doing, and who were so incompetent they couldn’t even conserve the minimal plot and character coherency within a single episode, let alone 24. In other words, Darling isn’t saying “gays shouldn’t exist” but “I have no idea of anything regarding gay people”. What makes it egregious is that the show spent so much time acting like it was “meaningful” and “important” and yet it ended saying absolutely fucking nothing. Except mayb “have babies”. Down to oblivion you go, along with the likes of KADO, to the void of shows that couldn’t even be offensively bad and no one will remember a year from now. Bonus garbage points for the half-assed “bury your gays”.

Nil of Libra Admirari or whatever this show was called: I’m not trying to diss on the show, I just genuinely never remember the title because I have the JP and EN all mixed up. Not that it matters much, as far as I could tell, the show could call Shalabalabatuna and it would have the same significance in regard to the content. But the title isn’t important. In fact, it may be a bit unfair to have this show in this section. For the most part, Main Girl is very self-determined and has an active role in the story.... but then the last two episodes heavily featured a lot of rape threats or rape themes and forced pregnancy (real and threat) and I don’t really understand why they’d go there all of a sudden. One of them was treated relatively well, even empowering the victim in the process, but when the ikemen bad guy was rambling endlessly about how he wanted to impregnate the protagonist it really turned me off :/ I’m also not a fan of “main boy was her secret fiancé all along”, but at least they also handled that somewhat decently. It’s a very disposable series, but since I watched all of Amnesia, I think I owe every otoge adaptation at least the smallest chance to clear that very low bar, and Libra of Nil does it, more competently than most other stuff in the same genre.

Hisone to Masotan: I really, really wanted to love this show. Even now, as I put it in the pit of shame category, I’m pained. There was a good show in this, and a lot of it made it to the screen: an adorable, charming little story about a woman finding her place in the world, making new friends, finding her calling and bonding with an adorable dragon. Unfortunately, it got buried down under this opressing, horrendous gender politics that tried to do something with bringing attention to sexism in the military only to cancel it out making the one dude that embodied that sexism getting rewarded with the affections of a girl he explicitly tried to crush. It also called back on the virgin or whore fallacy and even managed to shove in a “bury your gays” trope. Even though Hisone challenges the ritual bullshit, it’s too little, too late, and she does end up carrying it out anyway, so the defiance to the status quo is of little importance in terms of problematizing the ritual itself. Sorry BONES, it wasn’t meant to be this time.

The ni fu ni fa section

Ni fu ni fa is a Mexican colloquialism for “It was okay but it didn’t change my life.”

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boueibu HAPPY KISS: This soft reboot of the franchise had some really great episodes and did an actually good job of developping its characters. For the most part, it achieved what its predecessor did in terms of satirical comedy and I enjoyed it quite a bit. However, what bunked it down so low in the list was the final episode. At some point, the writers forgot they were doing a parody and made the show somewhat self-serious, way closer in tone to the magical girl anime it was supposed to be making fun of, rather than the satire its predecessor was. Whereas S1 ended with the whole Magical boy stuff being revealed as a crappy space reality TV show, this one ended with a real cheesy conflict about happiness and family and blablabla. Which is not bad by itself if this were a Precure show, but that kind of self-serious plot development just didn’t work for this series. I still enjoyed it, and the fanservice episode is one of the best of the whole franchise, but I’m a bit sad the finale missed the mark so badly.

Hinamatsuri: Hinamatsuri was very hit-or-miss for me. There were some truly brilliant episodes, a lot of funny vignettes and heart-warming stories, and then there was some stuff that made me uncomfortable -like every single Hitomi story- or felt unnecessary and dry. It also threw me off that the superpower dynamic completely disappeared in the second half of the show, especially in Anzu’s part of the story. It was okay but I feel like I needed something that felt like a closing, and choosing to end it with Mao who featured very minimally in the show overall didn’t cut it. It’s a fun show, I’d reccommend people check it out, but it felt a bit too disjointed for me

Persona 5: The Animation: This is a hard show to place because I love the looks of it and I think the concept is interesting and pretty cool, but there is something that’s keeping me from connecting emotionally to the story. The part where changing the villains’ heart makes them repent from their sins and become “good” feels very artificial and very tasteless when you’re dealing with rapists and abusers. I ended dropping it at episode 16, I just couldn’t find the motivation to catch up with the 6 episodes i’d fallen behind on because my schedule is a tragedy

Tokyo Ghoul: Re: I guess it’s fair to say I’ve kind of outgrown Tokyo Ghoul. There’s something messy and confusing about how this season panned out, and there comes a point in which misery porn just doesn’t cut it anymore. I still watch because Ishida has a way to make every single goddamn character extremely sympathetic, which makes for an emotionally engaging viewing even when you’re not sure of what the plot is supposed to be or who you should be rooting for. I tried picking up the new season that just started airing and immediately found I had no idea of what was going on, who was on who’s side and in general, who the fuck were 90% of the characters, so I dropped it.

Nanatsu no Taizai: Imashime no Fukkatsu: I’ve mentioned it before, this second season had the opposite problem than the first one: the pace was too slow. It took more than half of it to get to Escanor, and then the season ends at a kind of random spot. I really thought we’d get further along on the story, since Gowther’s backstory was hinted at in the openings, but no such thing happened. They did manage to give us a variety of cool moments and fights, and I love Ban so his scenes with Zhivago and Elaine made me quite happy, though I really wish the romance between Elizabeth and Meliodas wasn’t su dubious and cringy. In light of some revelations that take place further along the manga, going out of their way to emphasize that Meliodas was a sort of mentor figure for Elizabeth when she was a toddler seems unncessary and just very squeamish. I do hope we get a third season though, and an OVA of the Vampires of whatever side story would be great too.

Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori: I was pleasantly surprised by this show, and it’s closer to being one of my top of the season than it is to “meh”. It had some weaker, cheesier segments, but it also managed great whacky moments and a genuine soothing atmosphere. What surprised me most is that the vanilla looking cast of moderately handsome dudes managed to develop into interesting, funny individuals with a dynamic that made every episode enjoyable. A solid reccommendation for anyone wanting to see delicious looking food and moderately handsome dudes being ridiculous. Also, the cat episode is the best episode of anime ever produced.

The I’m probably the only person alive who enjoys these shows

Mahou Shoujo Ore: This is a difficult show to place because it wasn’t quite as great as I wanted it to be and its parodic nature took me by surprise, but somehow I was still seriously entertained more often than not. The twists in the final quarter and the absolutely bonkers finale was a total riot, but I definitely advise caution before going in, given that some of the jokes may seem insensitive or in poor taste in regards to gender presentation, sexuality and there are even some mild harrassment jokes that certainly made me roll my eyes.

Yowamushi Pedal: Glory Line: I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but I think through half of the show’s 25 episode run, I was convinced the title was actually Glory Road. It’s kind of anticlimactic that it’s called Glory Line if they don’t actually reach the final Goal btw. Anyway, I feel I say this a lot, but really, if you didn’t like the previous Yowapeda seasons, there’s nothing here for you, and if you did, you’re probably not gonna hop off this late in the game. This season does suffer from the same dragging than its predecessors, with the added issue of being quite pessimistic for no reason in about half the episodes, and a diminished presence for Onoda. I really wish they hadn’t dragged the Day 2 goal so long, I really hoped we’d see the end of the race, but no such luck I guess. Still love most of it and hope we get one more season or a movie to complete the story.

The favorites of the season

Golden Kamuy: In spite of its pacing issues, terrible animation and general clunkiness, I can’t help but love this show. When season 1 ended my feelings for it had mellowed quite a bit, but as soon as I picked up season 2 this Fall I just fell in love all over again. It’s fun, unique, over-the-top in some ways, incredibly grounded in others, and the dynamics between the characters are incredibly charming.

Hozuki no Reitetsu: It’s hard to talk about this one because it feels repetitive, given how tonally the show remains just the same across its three seasons. It could’ve very well been a one-season, 36 episode show, for how little it changes in spite of the time that transpired between the first season and the second. But in short, the comedy continues to be as spot on as always, the Zashikiwarashi twins are the best addition to the cast. It’s definitely a show I could watch endless episodes off, and the rare case of an episodic series with no overarching plot that I can enjoy wholeheartedly.

Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card arc: Over the course of the series, I’ve expressed a few concerns and misgivings about how the story of this 20th anniversary sequel was playing out. The final episode was particularly troublesome in that it left the story unfinished in spite of deviating from the manga. In spite of this, more than anything I’m very happy that this continuation still retains what made the original so special, that they captured the magic behind Sakura’s “everything will be alright” spell and gave us the chance to spend more time with these beloved characters and see their stories continue. The slow but sweet development of Sakura and Syaoran’s puppy love is a definite highlight. Needs more Touya/Yukito and Yue in general.

Piano no Mori: This show got heavily overlooked because it was kidnapped by Netflix (pls stop immediately), and then when it was finally unceremoniously dumped a month or two ago, it came under fire for the wonky CGI during the piano scenes -and it is indeed very wonky-. But beyond that, I found the story very engaging, especially because Kai is such a fascinating protagonist, his intense rivalry-friendship with Megane-kun (sorry, it’s been six months, i can’t remember names) is exactly the type I can’t help but root for. Kai’s participation in the final episode gave me goosebumps. I’m very happy we’re getting a continuation, can’t wait to see how the Chopin competition develops.

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii: Sweet, funny and absolutely delightful from start to finish, Wotakoi was easily one of the highlights of the season. Although there were some aspects about Cosplayer-senpai and Yuri Otaku-senpai’s (I’m really trying to remember the names, I’m sorry!! ;---;) that didn’t work for me -namely the izakaya segment- Narumi and Hirotaka more than made up for it with their clumsy yet adorable romance. I spent the entirety of the amusement park episode screeching. I really hope we get a continuation -and get a chance to see more of Hirotaka’s brother and his gamer friend too- and that in general we can get more anime about adult stories

Megalobox: Who would’ve thought that a show that wasn’t even in my radar before the season started would’ve end as one of my favorites, possibly of the year? Even as someone who’s only marginally acquainted with Ashita no Joe and has no interst in the sport of boxing, I was completely enthralled by the style and passion of this production. As I said a bit above, intense rivalries are very appealing to me, and the build up in the tension between Joe and Yuri was almost palpable, their mutual respect gave me chills. Definitely the surprise of the season, made even better by its optimistic happy ending to contrast with its predecessor’s tragedy. Megalobox is a unique anniversary project that is closer to an homage and it works perfectly. Definitely check it out.

That’s it for the Spring season! I hope i can do the summer season this weekend and maaaybe even my watchlist for the Fall season. Fingers crossed i won’t get swallowed up in other stuff :’D

#anime final impressions #spring anime #god i've forgotten 95% of my tags #darling in the franxx #megalobox #wotaku ni koi wa muzukashii #piano no mori #card captor sakura clear card arc #hozuki no reitetsu #golden kamuy #yowapeda #mahou shoujo ore #rokuhoudou yotsuiro biyori #nanatsu no taizai #persona 5 #tokyo ghoul: re #hinamatsuri #hisone to masotan #binan koukou chikyuu boueibu

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mintys-musings · 1 year

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anzu liker ??? omg do u mind dropping some of ur nsfw hcs ,,

anzu liker !! i dont mind at all :3 im glad theres so many of yall that like anzu ensemble stars out here. more love for the apricot girlie is lovely !

NSFW under cut~!

okay. here are my anzu nsfw hcs...

she's mostly a sub/bottom because she's usually in control of everything it's nice to just get pounded beyond any coherent thought (mindbreak girlie frfr.) BUT when she tops? when she gets to dom someone? she will put in the work

in those moments, she's a gentle femdom p much. looves to spoil those under her UNLESS they're being a brat. in which case she does the "That's not very nice~" and edging begins (followed by overstimulation)

whiny. esp if things aren't progressing fast enough

that said, she's not gonna outright verbalize her wants sometimes because she gets embarrassed by how horny she gets

incredibly down bad over text. so down bad. sends the most tasteful nudes at precise moments since she knows people's schedules

also all bark no bite over text. she's not an outright brat, but she is a tease. and if you confront her about it she turns into a flustered mess. so make her put her money where her mouth is 💚

knows a lot about kinks in theory, but not so much in practice due to lack of experience. into various dom/sub dynamics and will adjust depending on what you want

definitely has a size kink. well discussed on this blog. its practically canon tbh

has a breeding kink BUT would take either someone she trusts to be involved (trickstar, madara, undead, akatsuki, arashi) or her to be very horny to let anyone bust a nut inside

has a mild voice kink which is dangerous in her line of work

bit of an oral fixation. likes having something for her mouth to do- be it kissing, leaving hickeys, etc. etc. gives head like no other tbh

cockwarming enthusiast !!

while she likes the idea of being secretly teased in public, she would not let it happen in the slightest. honestly? can barely get horny during the day (if at all)

after hours though it's like a switch flips in her brain and she gets horny so quick

... if she had the week off, she'd be very into trying the idea of free use

her underwear is plain until she starts to have a sex life. then she starts buying cute lingerie. usually babydoll types. very fond of garterbelts

i cant imagine her being very needy after, but she is clingy. she's already the type to hug your arm while you're out. give her cuddles after sex please !!

even after being fucked senseless, she still tries to get up and get you both water and whatever else (please just relax anzu...)

erm yeah ! ^×^)/)

#Minty Answers #Minty Rambles #anzu specific ramble #anzu thirst #??? maybe #anzu ensemble stars

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flyswhumpcenter · 5 years

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Unspoken Words [Whumptober 2019 - Day 19: Broken Voice]

Summary: Five friends, their leader's missing voice, and the little signs that they all look out for each other.

Fandom: Ensemble Stars! Relationship: Trickstar boys and gal being friends

Wordcount: 1.146 words

Content Warnings: None.

Notes: Before I ramble: we're in search for characters for an Enstars Maze Runner AU RP server! Specifically, we're searching for people who could roleplay as Keito, Yuzuru and Eichi. If you're interested, or know someone who could be, please consider the offer or share it with your Enstars friendos! Here's the link to the doc explaining everything, in case you're interested!

"Hokuto lives a day like Celty Stardust: the fic" or something. Private jokes about animes I haven't really watched but can reference some stuff from aside, welcome back to "I show my personal biases and write about friendships I like: the chaotic prompt fill depository"! I really didn't see myself writing for "Asphyxiation", so I made something fluffy and kinda whumpy instead. What can I say, I really wanted to write some Trickstar goodness! I originally planned on making Hokke much more miserable with his little voice-stealing mysterious ailment, but decided against it anyway for some light-hearted banter. What can I say, a boy likes his sons and daughter being kind to each other. Not in the mood for angst, you could say, lol

Event hosted by @whumptober2019

AO3 version available here.

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“You can’t speak?!”

Akehoshi seemed surprised beyond his own mind as his eyes blinked furiously right in front of his nose. What, had it never happened to him? All things considered, Akehoshi seemed like the type of idiot who could never catch a cold, so that made sense, he supposed… Would have been less of a hassle if he wasn’t screaming that in the middle of the school, prompting the entire class to turn to their discussion. Nonetheless, he nodded as a reply, looking away. Something about being a leader…

“Ah, man, that sucks! I hope you’ll feel better soon, Hidaka. Sounds rough.”

Yuuki’s comment was far more considerate, his gaze full of concern and empathy. Well, not that he liked getting pitied, but the circumstances were playing against it. It didn’t help that both Akehoshi and he were making sad faces. He typed his reply on his phone.

Sorry for this, guys.

“No issue there, don’t apologize! We can still practice our choreographies, right?”

I suppose so.

“W-well, that’s only if you’re feeling well enough to it! You look kinda pale…”

“Ah, that’s right, you’re shinier than usual, Hokke!” (What did that mean? He didn’t know the connotation this carried, that was for sure).

I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.

“If you ever feel not up to it, please tell us, okay?”

Sure.

“Good morning guys!” Isara suddenly came into the picture, wide smile on this face, walking up to them from the neighbour room. By his side was their producer, just as smiling, waving her hand in their direction.

“Good morning!” Yuuki replied, perking up.

“Hi Producer, hi Sally! No student council work today?”

Stuck with his silence, all Hokuto could to was wave with his hand. God, that was so embarrassing…

“For once, I don’t! Not gonna lie, it does feel kinda weird…”

“That’s great!”

Isara chuckled.

“How are you, everyone?”

“I’m doing great!”

“Same here!”

Silence unfolded. Silence he should have been filling, but…

“What about you, Hokuto? You’re strangely silent today.”

He was about to type a reply on his phone yet again, but Akehoshi did the job instead.

“Ah, right! Hokke can’t speak today!”

Isara’s face instantly showed the colour of surprise, head bolting from the redhead to their leader.

“Wait, your voice’s broken or something?”

He nodded. No point bringing out his phone for that.

“I see. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask us, we’ll help you no issue. Right guys?”

The three others surrounding them nodded along. This was going to be tough, but with companions like them, it sounded less painful than it had when he had just discovered in what state his throat was.

Hokuto had a few observations to make about being the leader of an idol unit without a voice. None of them were any positive.

Singing was quite obviously out of the question, or else he’d have coughed until the end of times, so he instead playback-sang his own voice. That was pathetic at best, but it got the job done and the point across: the point was their stage occupation and choreography.

Breathing through his mouth itched. His throat was already sore from whatever he was infected with, the situation didn’t make it much better. The more they went, the more he pretended to sing, the more it hurt, to the point he hesitated between coughing every second or stopping breathing altogether. He picked the first, in the end.

Even moving around was awkward. He felt sluggish and, while that wasn’t linked to having lost his voice, it was somewhat related anyway. The day wasn’t good, but repeating the idea in his head over and over again as he tried recovering his breath wasn’t going to make things much better by the end of it.

“Guys, please stop for a moment,” Anzu interjected in the middle of their session, clapping her hands together. They stopped immediately.

“What’s wrong, Producer?” Akehoshi asked.

“Can I see you for a moment, Hokuto?” This felt like a sword of Damocles, about to fall upon him, but he nodded after finishing his coughing fit. “Subaru, Makoto, Mao, feel free to continue!”

“Roger,” Isara said as the three went back to their task.

Well, there was no point in disobeying her, so he did as he was asked.

They went to the next room, the music entirely muted by the walls, as she invited him to sit down at a table and poured him a cup of tea. Weird time to invite him to do so, but she must have known what she was doing, so whatever. Still, he had questions popping in his mind, so he got his phone out of his pocket and started typing again. He cleared his throat to catch her attention (she was focused on a couple of papers, and he immediately regretted asking his throat to put itself on fire again).

Why have you brought me here?

“Ah, right,” she giggled, “I forgot to explain myself, haven’t I?”

I don’t quite understand.

“You seemed tired, so I figured I’d help in some way. What about stopping for today?”

That sounds unreasonable.

“Hokuto… I don’t think your illness is going to go away this easily if you don’t rest a little.”

And was she wrong? Not really.

I’m still their leader.

“I know that, but I’m you guys’ producer. I can handle it just fine. Plus, it’s not like I’m asking you to go away, right? I’m just asking you to watch, I suppose…”

During a moment of silence, he figured he may as well eye the tea and discover why he had gotten served this in particular.

“That’s for your throat. Mao gave me a recipe to try, I hope it’ll work.”

Typical Isara, he figured. This man had tricks upon tricks down his sleeves. Still, he brought the cup to his mouth: it’d have been a shame to let this go to waste. It was just as sweet as he’d have expected a beverage filled to the core with honey to be like, but this was no problem as it was, in fact, a solution to the issue at hand.

Thank you.

“It’s nothing, really. Now, what about we go back to watch them?”

Let’s do that.

The moment they went back to their practice room was when he also realized the four of them had planned this all along. That was made obvious by the winks they exchanged, between themselves, between them and Anzu; and he tried, deep down, to find something to say against it, to get their routine working, to feel betrayed and fooled; yet nothing came to his mind but light-hearted gratitude. He, once again, typed his words on his phone’s keyboard.

Thank you, everyone.

For someone whose day was supposed to be filled with misery and silence, Hokuto sure was a happy and vocal fellow.

#ensemble stars #hidaka hokuto #akehoshi subaru #yuuki makoto #isara mao #anzu (enstars)#trickstar #fluff #friendship #hurt comfort #whumptober2019 #altno.2 #broken voice #brotp: shining ensemble

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mastabas-and-mushussu · 6 years

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Polytheist Ramblings: Nisaba

I was going to title this “Finding Sanctuary”, but I think this fits with my little series better.

I talk a lot about other gods, because their influences are many-layered. It’s easy to talk about a goddess of the mountains when you live there, or a god of the furious sun when you’re melting. But how to talk about a goddess you’re sworn to? There’s something about the relationship that just won’t out with words, which is ironic considering.

My Lady Nisaba colored like the stars, whose body is the flecked barley, She who holds the Book of Names and who had a hand in the creation of her scribes, the goddess I revere and adore, is... as I said, words fail. Except for the part where she literally IS the written word. And then I’m laughing at my laptop screen again.

But my mind was wandering the other day, and I started mentally constructing a hypothetical temple. Something small and unobtrusive, but interesting. Maybe someplace busy, like New York, with the old back-alley surprise shops and classy old courtyards surrounded by sprouting skyscrapers. I’m rather attached to America, but I could see something similar in London. Either way, some sort of divot in the walls of glass and steel, a high-walled courtyard with a heavy door. But the door is left open, and the walls are soft with vines. It’s guarded by twin stone lions. The same ones you sometimes see in the yards of people trying too hard to look regal, maybe. But it’s an old practice. Probably inspired by the New York Library. Possibly a reflection of the statues that guarded kings and old polytheist temples. Either way, there would be lions, and maybe a carving of the Anzu Bird over the lintel.

In this hypothetical little sacellum, no if ands or buts about it, there would be a public bookcase or two. I’ve seen them around town, and they’re absolutely brilliant. The paving stones would be covered in all sorts of book quotes in as many languages as I could convince a mason to try, including Braille. At the back there would have to be a statue, and some of my thinking is probably inspired by when I wandered Granada and would stumble on an aljibe with a mosaic of the Virgin over it. In my head this looks a little bit close to the Madonna, and I’m not sure what I think of that. But there’d be a little plaque on the wall explaining who she is, and a basket or two for whatever a person might want to offer. I like the idea of a prayer box, I’ve seen those before, where you write on a slip of paper and it stays in the box as a secret. Or the papers are burned. Either way, both fit with the goddess of the written word and the old ways of burning offerings to lift your prayers skyward.

I have a lot of ideas, and no real means or resources to focus on them, but ideas are nice. I was thinking about this temple idea, and I wondered to myself what her sacred animal would be. There’s no record of one. Lions and bulls and dragons are all staple parts of the old hymns, but... I wanted to see if anything had developed over the years. In America we’ve developed this idea of giving teachers an apple, which is why I offer them to her. We associate twin lions with libraries because of the New York Library. Maybe there was more, hiding away with the book curses and scriptoriums.

I typed “Ten Most Iconic Libraries” into Google.

A good percentage of them are related to monasteries, which makes sense. Some of them had royal sponsorship at one point or another. There’s nods to their local history, the obvious relish of architects given room to play, some modernized and some stately old monuments. But there was one little detail that kept popping up in the descriptions: quite a few of the oldest libraries had a... symbiotic relationship of sorts with resident bats.

Bats and small birds like to hole up in unusual places, true. Check out your local mall food court and keep an eye out in the airport as you drag your suitcase down the moving sidewalk to see for yourself what I mean. But apparently your friendly neighborhood pest control has a taste for bookworms.

(For the record, the term ‘bookworm’ refers to any insect with a taste for literature. This extends to moths who eat cloth bindings and beetles who tunnel through the paper like wood, as well as the beetles after your leather tomes.)

In ancient Sumer, bats and birds were associated with Nanshe, especially pelicans. More specifically, owls were associated with lilitu-demons and possibly Ereshkigal. But then, their libraries more closely resembled the cooling rack at your local college pottery class. Not something many bookworms wanted to nibble.

Cultures change and religions evolve. I think I’ve found my answers, at least to this question. Especially considering how sometimes the endless shelves remind me of a quiet crypt (Seriously, my first time in a proper old crypt that was my first comparison). Maybe I’m obsessive and seeing connections, maybe bats are my favorite animal and I’m biased. But it’s interesting, to see the evolution of the gods. It’s interesting, to run the thought experiments, to ask the “what if”s, to make yourself at home on the outskirts and then see places where society has already met you in the middle, unnoticed.

For that matter, colophons are pretty cool too.

Nisaba za3-mi2-zu dug3-ga-am3

#levpag #sumer #mesopotamia #pagan #nisaba #bats #library #lions #temple #thought experiment #goddess #writing #anunnaki #dingir

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ryntaia · 7 years

Text

Title: Gachapon

Fandom: Yu Gi Oh

Rating: T (language)

Genre: Friendship/Fluff

Pairing: Implied KaiJou/Puppyshipping/Violetshipping

Summary: KaibaCorp releases a new series of Gachapon for the new year. Jounouchi expresses his delight and disdain.

Status: Complete

Read on Ao3!

Read on FF.net!

Or read below the cut.

Gachapon

“They’re kinda cute, don’t you think?”

Jounouchi only scowled at the little resin doll. It was small enough to fit between his thumb and forefinger, if they stretched out a little, and glared obnoxiously back at him with disgustingly ‘chibified’ features. He rocked the doll back and forth in his hand, sticking his tongue out as if the miniature Kaiba Seto was the man himself. Anzu sighed and rolled her eyes as she turned the crank on the machine again; a small ball emblazoned with the KaibaCorp logo fell out. Gently she popped it open with a short giggle.

“Got him.” She said proudly, turning to display her new keychain decoration to the blonde teen. He tore his eyes away from his internal argument with the resin Kaiba to look at Anzu’s Gachapon catch of the day. As if Yugi couldn’t get smaller, here he sat in the crook of Anzu’s hands with a smile painted obliviously onto his face. She quickly clipped it onto the top of her phone with her other catches—a small resin Bakura Ryou, a small resin Kujaku Mai, and a generic Rare Hunter charm of a man in a cloak with his face obscured.

The most common one was the last; Anzu had actually tossed several of them. Jounouchi supposed every Gachapon pull needed at least one junk draw but the Rare Hunters seemed like it was in bad taste. It wasn’t like anyone was going to get it aside from the finalists. Maybe Kaiba just wanted to mock them, or tout that he had destroyed the organization. Likely without acknowledging their contributions.

He’s such a goddamn jerk.

“There are three tiers of rarity for this new ‘Best of Duelists’ gachapon line, you know..” Anzu rambled on, gently rubbing the small Yugi doll on the head before tossing her phone back in her bag. Jounouchi only grunted in acknowledgement as he shoved the Kaiba doll in his jacket pocket, following after the girl. “The first tier are these generic cloaked bad guys. The second tier is Noted Duelists. The third tier is the Best of Duelists. They’re the hardest to get. That Kaiba one is pretty rare, I think, so you got really lucky!”

Don’t let him bother you was laced into her tone but he didn’t acknowledge it. They had to meet Yugi at Burger World but the brunette had insisted on stopping by the arcade to see their new Gachapon machines. He had told her to just go to Kame Game Shop, since they had the same machines, but she had told him that she wanted to surprise Yugi. Probably why they had spent an hour trying to GET Yugi out of the machine. It didn’t surprise him; Kaiba was an asshole but he had to acknowledge that Yugi deserved to be respected as the best of the best.

Meanwhile I’m probably not even in that dumbass machine. Such a prick.

“Hey! HEY! Guys, where have you been?”

Jounouchi looked up sharply; Yugi was running down the steps of the fast food joint with a hop in his step. When he came to a stop in front of them, a smile spread across his face. The duelist just had that kind of a smile; the kind that made you forget what you were annoyed about, shoving Jounouchi’s irritation to the back of his head. He grinned widely back, throwing an arm around the smaller teen’s shoulder while Anzu chuckled at the sight.

“Sorry we took so long. I had to pick SOMETHING up!” Anzu flashed her phone to Yugi, the small charm bouncing off the back to cast a mirror of his contagious happiness back to his counterpart. Yugi gasped loudly, a blush spreading across his phone when he realized that HE was clasped onto ANZU’S phone of all places. Jounouchi watched in amusement as the shorter teen babbled through talking to her about how nice it was and how good she was at Gachapon while the girl shook her head with a nervous laugh, explaining how long it had actually taken.

“Why d’ya think we took so long to get here, huh?” Jounouchi quipped. “She wanted to get THAT specific one, y’know?”

Anzu flushed. “Shut up, Jounouchi. You’re just mad because you only tried once.”

“Jounouchi tried too?” Interrupted Yugi, excitement in his eyes. Internally the blonde cursed the girl; he should’ve known better. Every time he tried to tease Anzu, she brought it back at him tenfold. “What’d you get, Jounouchi? We just got those machines in at the shop, so I haven’t been able to try them yet.”

“Uh, I didn’t get nothing special.” He lied, trying to pass it off as he desperately wished he had just tossed the dumb resin keychain. But Anzu said it was rare, which probably meant it was valuable, so he had thought he could hock it to some dumb kid fanboy of the Kaiba Corporation. Whatever money he could’ve gotten from it didn’t really seem worth it now.

“Come on, don’t be that way.” Anzu scolded, reaching swiftly into Jounouchi’s pocket to snag the doll. Ignoring the blonde’s protests, she presented the small Kaiba to Yugi. It scowled back at him just as the real Kaiba would regularly scowl at the other duelist. It didn’t seem to phase Yugi, though; if anything, he seemed amazed by it. “Jounouchi got the Kaiba one. He’s just being a big baby about it.”

“Whoa, you got that one on your first try?! That’s really lucky, Jounouchi. We got a rarity index for the Best of Duelists Gachapon back at the shop. The highest tier is pretty impossible to get.” Yugi seemed to glow with excitement; anything to do with games brought the best of the boy out of his shell. He pulled out his phone to search through the internet, presenting the results back to his friends. They leaned in; it looked to be an index of the full content of the new Gachapon, as well as which rarity tiers each resin keychain doll would be in.

At the lowest tier was, as Jounouchi had expected, was the generic ‘Rare Hunter’ designs—although they weren’t labeled as Rare Hunters, just as ‘Hunters’. The second tier was the widest one containing Bakura, Mai, Pegasus, and all of the Ishtar siblings. The final row was outlined in bright gold and emblazoned with the series title, Best of Duelists. The smiling Yugi Gachapon doll sat in the number one slot, while the Kaiba Gachapon doll sat aside it scowling at him from the number two slot. Seemed about right. Jounouchi raised a surprised eyebrow at the third member of the Best of Duelists rank.

Better known as himself.

The doll stood triumphant, a look of self-confidence plastered across the resin facial features. One hand was held out in challenge, a tiny card lodged between the small fingers, with his other arm pulled back with a purposely battered looking duel disk clasped to the forearm. At that point the real Jounouchi’s brain just kind of shut off, unable to make sense of his placement—he hadn’t even expected to be in KaibaCorp’s shitty Gachapon draw, much less one of the top three rarest dolls in the pool.

He sat back with his arms crossed. His lower lip jutted out in thought, and his head tilted to the side to let untrimmed blonde hair tickle his cheeks. Anzu and Yugi watched him curiously, almost cautiously, as the ex-delinquent duelist took his sweet time digesting the paper in front of him. To their relief, a cheeky and broad smile finally stretched across Jounouchi’s face—and, Yugi noted with a tinge of worry, his smile was somewhat smug and overconfident.

That….could mean trouble.

“It has been GREAT seeing you guys but I gotta head back to the arcade—”

“Grampa said my friends can get a discount on the Gachapon right now at the game shop.”

“….I gotta be heading over to the game shop, it’s been a while since we’ve just popped in and said hi to Gramps! Come on, come on, no point waiting around, don’t wanna waste time and money or whatever it is they say…” Jounouchi said impatiently. Yugi rolled his eyes with a small smile on his face as he was pushed in the direction he had come from, exchanging a knowing glance with the brunette girl aside him. Anzu could barely restrain her giggles.

“So, uh, how many of them did you buy, exactly?”

Jounouchi grinned, rocking the little resin version of himself next to his face as he sat on his desk facing Yugi. The triumphant grin on the doll was reflected perfectly on his face. “A lot. I think I got all of them but, eh, don’t really care. If you and Anzu want ‘em then they’re yours. I got what I wanted.”

“Yourself?” Anzu asked, eyebrow raised.

“It’s more than that. It’s—”

The moment that Jounouchi trailed off and locked onto Kaiba Seto entering the room, it all suddenly all clicked together for Yugi and he sunk back into his chair to prepare for impact. The blonde jumped over the desks to skid to a halt in front of the CEO’s desk, one fist on his hip and one presenting the resin doll that so oddly seemed to mirror his current confident pose. Kaiba cast a brief glance at the keychain and then snapped his eyes to the face of the shorter blonde in front of him. Yugi groaned; even from across the room he could almost see Kaiba’s eye twitching in annoyance.

“Is there something you’d like to discuss or are you just wasting my time as usual, bonkotsu?” Kaiba said distastefully, briefly trying to shove past Jounouchi. The other duelist wasn’t having it, moving to plant himself right on the top of Kaiba Seto’s desk and ignoring the attention that they were gaining from the class. “Get off of my desk, you mongrel. I don’t have time for your idiocy today or any day.”

“You put me in the Best of Duelists top tier rank for the Gachapon.”

Silence overtook the classroom for several minutes as Kaiba stared down the blonde and his resin toy. If Jonouchi hadn’t known better then he would’ve thought that the brunette duelist was trying to will him out of existence, or burn a hole straight through his skull to get rid of him once and for all. The dark, annoyed look in his eyes definitely spoke that in spades.

It didn’t explain the slightest hints of a flush around Kaiba’s ears, though.

“…Company mandates.” Kaiba finally said, slamming his bookbag down on Jounouchi’s middle. The blonde coughed and slammed against the wall beside Kaiba’s desk. “When the Kaiba Corporation assembled all their duelist data you ended up being tallied into the third place. So congratulations, a computer data system really thinks you are incredibly talented. It’s certainly a pity that computers have such a regrettable margin of error.”

“It took me three hours to get this damn thing!”

“You spent three hours at a Gachapon machine. Congratulations. You’re even more of an idiot nobody than I had previously assumed.” Kaiba said flatly. Jounouchi flushed in embarrassment, feeling the sharp points of the resin doll poking against his hand as he clutched it into a fist. “Get off my desk, Jounouchi. If you want to waste your own time, that’s fine, but don’t waste mine.”

“…You’re such a fucking asshole, Kaiba.” Jounouchi muttered, finally sliding off Kaiba’s desk and moping back to his own seat. His bait went ignored; the brunette only sat in his own seat as the teacher strode in to begin writing on the blackboard with a strained smile on her face. Yugi patted the blonde on the back comfortingly but Jounouchi could only manage a nod of acknowledgement, staring instead down at the confident little doll in his hands.

It looked a lot more confident than he felt right now.

The only thing that managed to take him out of his moping was his battered, barely functional old cellphone vibrating slightly in his pocket. He clipped the gachapon prize to his jacket and flipped open the phone underneath the wood of his desk. The teacher had stopped bothering to tell him to put the damn thing away but old habits really did die hard. It was just a bunch of text messages—from Kaiba Mokuba. The young millionaire had marked them as ‘important’ but Mokuba did that with a lot of texts that didn’t really have any cause for alarm.

Jounouchi found that he got along with the younger Kaiba much better than he did the elder. While Mokuba was, in his own way, a bit of a stuck up brat he still was capable of embracing fun. He had never made it much of a habit to hang out with kids but after Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, the wild haired heir had made it clear that he enjoyed the company of Yugi and his friends whether his brother liked it or not. Ever so often he would ring one of them up about something he was excited about and more often than not it turned out to be enjoyable. And while Mokuba had picked up on Kaiba’s insulting mannerisms towards Jounouchi, it hadn’t been hard to tell that Mokuba favored the blonde more than anyone in the group apart from maybe Yugi.

It got a small chuckle out of him. At least not all the Kaibas were complete dicks.

M-KC [Kaiba Mokuba]: Hey Jounouchi!

M-KC [Kaiba Mokuba]: I got a list of upcoming card releases for the next fiscal year

M-KC [Kaiba Mokuba]: You and Yugi wanna see?

M-KC [Kaiba Mokuba]: They’re in the Simulator already and everything, you can try them out if you want

As soon as the teacher was facing the blackboard again, Jounouchi nudged Yugi and held his phone out to the smaller boy. The joy that spread across his face was just as contagious as usual; he figured he could take that as a yes and brought his phone back under the desk. A small chuckle caught in his throat to avoid being caught—Yugi was not subtle in the slightest. The king of games looked right ready to explode with anticipation at the idea of seeing the new releases. Jounouchi couldn’t blame him. Even Kame Shop didn’t get the official Industrial Illusions card lists until mandated.

Wheeler [Jounouchi Katsuya]: lol if u could see the look on Yug’s face

Wheeler [Jounouchi Katsuya]: u’d think he won the lottery or something

Wheeler [Jounouchi Katsuya]: anyways

Wheeler [Jounouchi Katsuya]: where u want us to meet u

M-KC [Kaiba Mokuba]: I’ll send someone to pick you guys up after school.

Wheeler [Jounouchi Katsuya]: 1 of those fancy limos?

M-KC [Kaiba Mokuba]: In your dreams, Jounouchi.

He snickered and stuffed his phone back into his pocket. The kid definitely wouldn’t send a limo, but knowing the typical Kaiba brothers procedure, he WOULD send over some fancy hybrid car complete with a chauffeur and a bodyguard. Mokuba was not shy about his wealth like some kids might have been. Then again, as Jounouchi’s phone rumbled again and went ignored, the blonde remembered that the boy wasn’t shy about many things.

In fact, in many ways, he was way too damn forward for his own good.

M-KC [Kaiba Mokuba]: You should bring Shizuka too.

M-KC [Kaiba Mokuba]: She likes chocolate, right?

Damn cheeky kid.

He had to admit that he was still a little unused to being in Kaiba Manor. He never felt particularly posh but there was something about an army of maids that succeeded in making Jounouchi Katsuya feel like an unwashed heathen. If he didn’t know better than he would’ve assumed that Kaiba had them all greet Mokuba and him at the door just to make him feel out of place. He grimaced at the thought—who did he think he was kidding? That was exactly the sort of thing Kaiba would do.

“Welcome home, Master Mokuba! Welcome to the Kaiba Manor, honored guest of Master Mokuba!” They chorused so loudly that the sound reverberated against the walls of the wide foyer. Instinctually Jounouchi shoved his hands in his pocket, wishing desperately that Yugi hadn’t been forced to make the decision no one should have to make: his passion for his hobby versus his passion for his crush. In the end, Yugi had apologized profusely and gone to the movie with Anzu. Jounouchi was nearly certainly they were dating at this point and just keeping it under the table.

It still left him high and dry and feeling awkward as hell standing in the Kaiba Manor being led down the halls by Mokuba. He’d been here before, of course, but always with Yugi or Otogi or even Honda…never solely by himself. It hadn’t seemed to faze the younger Kaiba but Jounouchi himself was waiting for his brunette sibling to jump out from behind the corner to throw him out.

“Hey, you got your own keychain doll.” Jounouchi blinked; he had forgotten it was even still clipped onto his jacket. But Mokuba was tugging at the small resin figure and nodding approvingly. “That’s one of the rarer ones. I have ‘em all, of course, courtesy of the manufacturing department. But nii-sama told me it meant more if I got them on my own so I’ve been cranking the gachapon at the arcade a few times a day just for the hell of it.”

“Taking it at a slow pace, huh?” Jounouchi managed a strained grin. “You can have this one if you want. I don’t really want it anymore.”

Mokuba blinked large, uncomprehending purple eyes at him. “What? This one is hard to get. That’s stupid. These things are pretty valuable to the right person, you know. I haven’t even gotten it from the arcade yet. That old bastard who runs it told me that its been the rarest drop so far.”

“Yeah, well, it don’t mean anything.” Jounouchi mumbled.

“Jeez, not in a good mood or something?” Mokuba mused, crossing his arms and fixing Jounouchi with that patented look of disapproval. It made the blonde want to roll his eyes. The younger Kaiba may be the more tolerable of the two, but he was picking up on his brother’s habits way too much. His expressions were starting to mirror Kaiba Seto’s. “You wanna see the design works for them?”

“Huh?”

“Before we look at the cards. You wanna see the gachapon designs?”

“You got ‘em on a USB or something? Who designed them, anyways? They did a pretty good job, at least.” Jounouchi muttered, holding the doll up towards the window; the soft yellow paints caught the sunlight coming through and formed almost an odd glow about the keychain. He was entranced with it for a moment before he caught the odd, almost confused, look that Mokuba was giving him. “What? What’s up?”

“Uh…nothing, just…” Mokuba hesitated; he seemed conflicted on something. “…I think they’re in the file library, he usually puts design work in there after the product releases…come on.”

Jounouchi wasn’t given a chance to protest as the wild haired child grabbed his arm and whisked him down the hallways. It was almost dizzying; Kaiba Manor always was. Sometimes the blonde wondered if it had been built as some sort of maze to trap and confuse anyone with under a million dollars in their bank account. The constantly curving passageways certainly gave credence to his theory. The thoughts were blown out of his head as they stopped in front of a pair of double doors. Mokuba pushed them open with no hesitation to reveal walls and walls of files cabinets.

The blonde stood awkwardly in the disturbingly clean room as Mokuba flipped through the files inside. Something inside him wished he had dumped the gachapon toy. Those things had brought him nothing but annoyance and frustration so far. Finally, though, Mokuba let out a small confident chirp and threw one of the files down onto the white marble floor. His guest kneeled down with one eyebrow raised, pushing the papers away from each other.

They looked like…designs.

Toy designs.

Gachapon toy designs.

The Best of Duelist Gachapon toy designs.

“Seto designed all the prizes by himself. The Best of Duelist collection has something of a pet project of his for the last few months.” Mokuba rolled his eyes with a smile and Jounouchi could almost feel the pride radiating off the middle schooler. “He spent so much damn time compiling the data for the collection. Went through a bunch of designs for each of the dolls.”

“…That’s not what Kaiba said…”

“Huh? Really?” Mokuba cocked his head to the side. “The heck did he tell you?”

“He said that a computer compiled all the duelist data.” Jounouchi held up a secondary folder in the designs file—it was easily the thickest of the design folders. The rest seems to have a small collection of about nine or ten prototypes and a final design page. This one, however, was stuffed full of easily thirty to forty pages. The second he tried to pick it up, the paper within toppled out all over the floor. Mokuba let out a shriek and fumbled forward to push all the paper together.

Jounouchi caught all of it anyways.

Meticulous drawing after drawing stuffed together with paper clippings, each one highlighted with abnormally neat written notes. One was covered with a variety of golden yellow sample sheets, another with a variety of simple sketches noting the flow of the subject’s face. The strong curve of the nose, the broad smile, the surprisingly sharp and vibrant eyes cloaked under poorly trimmed blonde hair. Several pages seemed dedicated to eyes—each colored and marked precisely with the correct and incorrect colors. Other seemed dedicated to poses—how to properly capture the subject’s mannerisms and confidence in posture without removing the warm and open feeling.

He carefully picked up the design sheet marked as the final one and unclipped the doll at his waist, holding it up against the paper.

Identical. Same pose, same expression, same feeling.

Same Jounouchi Katsuya.

Mokuba coughed awkwardly.

Jounouchi managed to slip his fingers in between the papers and pull one out; a very simple charcoal drawing of himself wearing a very irritated expression. He recognized this one; they had been assigned as partners in art class one day and it hadn’t ended well. The blonde hadn’t even gotten around to doing the portrait assignment and Kaiba had left quickly after his partner obnoxiously removed to stay still, muttering curses under his breath. Apparently he had actually been working on the assignment rather than just bantering.

And for a lot longer than that, apparently.

“Look, Jounouchi, if you could maybe never tell nii-sama that I let you in here that would be…that would be just great, y’know?” Mokuba said awkwardly, just short of stuttering his words out. Jounouchi chuckled a bit, waving the charcoal doodle in his hands back and forth in Mokuba’s face. “What? You’re gonna tell him? Come on, Jounouchi, don’t be an asshole.”

“I’ll stay quiet if you give me this one.”

“Huh?”

“Well, it IS of me, isn’t it? So that means it belongs to me, right?” Jounouchi said innocently. From the look on Mokuba’s face, the blonde’s logic didn’t check out—but he still needed to cover his own ass. Finally, he was treated with an exasperated sigh and a nod. “Great! I wasn’t even here today, then.”

He didn’t catch the odd look of contemplation on the other boy’s face as he exited down the hallway, and Jounouchi didn’t much care either. A broad grin matching the toy clipped at his side now spread his face, confidence sparkling in brown eyes. So Kaiba Seto could say all he wanted that Jounouchi Katsuya was a dud, a loser, a has-been, a moron—but his files showed differently. The blonde had been thoroughly researched and planned for a pet project of THE teenage CEO himself. He wondered, briefly, if he should rub it in Kaiba’s face and decided against it.

After all, it couldn’t mean any more than the designs and effort showing that he actually did consider Jounouchi not only capable but worth piles of his own effort.

Maybe I’ll go get back the rest of those dolls from Anzu…

#Yugioh #Puppyshipping #Violetshipping #Jounouchi Katsuya #Joey Wheeler #Kaiba Seto #Seto Kaiba #Mokuba Kaiba #Kaiba Mokuba #Mazaki Anzu #Mutou Yuugi #fanfiction #gachapon

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