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cryyelan · 8 months

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𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐔𝐓 — 𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐢 𝐲.

expect bad/inconsistent writing — tws/cws: violence, gore, abuse/bullying, mahito, mc is a lil wack (but I love her) attempted suicide, death, LOTS of angst, also OOC!!

CH1. you are what you eat

no content warnings for this one lol, just a pov switch

SLOW, TIRED STEPS echoed down the corridor as Megumi made his way to his dorm.

Last nights mission went terribly for him, could've been far worse if it weren't for his man-child of a teacher, Gojo.

Megumi reached for the door handle and turned it.

He opened the door, only to be met with an all familiar head of dark hair and her vibrant orange eyes — sitting on his bed.

"[L/N], how did you get in here!?" Megumi asked, surprised.

How did she get in there?

"I have my methods, Fushiguro." She gave him a sly smile.

The boy groaned on annoyance, last night wasn't doing him any favors, he didn't need to have his classmate annoy him.

"What? Can I not check up on my classmate?" [Y/N] batted her eyelashes, 'innocently'.

He figured.

The boy groaned as he entered his room, sitting on his bed alongside the girl.

No words were exchanged afterwords as the duo sat in a comfortable silence, occasionally broken by the birds chirping and the rustling of leaves.

"Soo.. What happened while you're gone?" [Y/N] asked, breaking the silence.

Megumi looked in her direction.

Her face sported a curious expression as she hugged his pillow, legs crossed.

Megumi exhaled before explaining what happened last night — a boy named Itadori Yuji eating the finger and Sukuna incarnating as a result.

"He'll also be a student alongside us." He finished.

[Y/N]'s eyes widen in surprise before changing back into the usual relaxed expression.

Deep down, [Y/N] had garnered a newfound fascination and disgust for the boy known as Itadori Yuji, to think he'd be executed saddened her a little bit, but also deepened her fascination towards him. What is he like? Is he scary? What kind of classmate would he be?

"Fushiguroo... Don't make me more curious than I already am." She said sarcastically.

Megumi sighed at the girl, wondering why shes even his classmate.

"Is that all you're going to say-"

Megumi and [Y/N] heard voices outside the room, had they been ignoring them the entire time they talked?

One out of the two obviously belonged to Gojo-sensei, but the other was unrecognizable to her, piquing her interest futher.

Megumi got off his bed and walked to the door and opening it, the girl trailing behind him.

Megumi stepped into the hallway, [Y/N] stopping just short of the door. She peaked from behind the door, only her face visible — looking at the unfamiliar person before her.

He had bright, coffee brown eyes, his hair was a strange color...pink? He was fairly tall, at least 5'7 from what she could observe.

"Theres a bunch of empty rooms, aren't there?" The boy said flatly.

"Fushiguro! You finally look better!" The male with the strangely colored hair smiled.

"I thought it'd be more lively and fun this way." Gojo spoke.

"Classes and missions are more than enough!" Megumi spot back, frustrated.

"Anyway... It's fine! Most importantly we're goin' out tomorrow!" The older man beamed, clapping his hands together. "We're going to get the fourth first-year student."

"You're too excited for this — why did they let you, of all people, become a teacher again?" The girl peaking behind the door muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.

'They better be a girl..."

Yuji looked in the direction of the girl, setting of the sight of black hair and dull orange eyes looking at him.

"Are you also my classmate? You look a lot like Fushiguro!" He said.

The noirettes exchanged looks at each other, faces screaming 'what the fuck?' as their teacher laughed at their interactions.

"Shut up." Megumi said.

"Stop laughing!" The girl scowled at Gojo.

[Y/N] looked back at the boy, blinking then blankly staring at him, as if she's looking straight into his souls.

'That's him?' The girl thought.

'I never expected him to be so...so...'

stupid.

Her interest was a little crushed, but just who the hell is he? And why is he acting like that?

Yuji, despite paying no mind to her behavior, shivered. "I'm Yuji Itadori — from Sendai! Nice to meet you!" He spoke up, raising his hand out to shake.

"I've heard." She responded with an annoyed expression on her face. She slipped into the hallway, body now fully visible.

"I'm [Y/N] [L/N], likewise" The girl introduced herself, disinterested Yuji's friendly gesture.

Yuji sweat dropped at the girls attitude. 'She doesn't look thrilled to meet me at all!'

His cheerful demeanor deeply bothered her, how could he be so excited about something that will never leave a person the same ever again? It wasn't like she didn't come by choice if it weren't for the heavy amount of convincing she faced.

And Itadori most likely wouldn't last a month.

"I'm going to my room, do whatever you want- I don't care."[Y/N] flipped her hair back and huffed, turning her back to Yuji, leaving for her dorm.

Yuji was the first speak up shortly after she left. "Whats up with her?" He asked the duo.

Megumi didn't answer, but instead shot him a 'take a fucking guess' look, he figured that Yuji's word earlier must've annoyed her and made her want to leave. "She's just little moody, you'll get used to it."

"You still haven't got over her calling you a sugar-addicted bum." The noirette interjects.

"How do you know that?" Despite not showing it, Gojo shivered at the though of being called a 'sugar-addicted bum' again the first time he met her. "She told me herself." Megumi answered.

Sugar addicted? Yes.

Bum? Nope!!

Yuji looked at the two men confused — is She really that mean?

MEANWHILE AT [Y/N]'S DORM / 2ND PERSON POV

Shortly after entering your room, you started pacing without realizing it. You began to contemplate your behavior eariler in the hallway.

You might as well call yourself the rudest person on earth had you said whats else been on your mind.

'GAAAAH!! STUPID ME!! BE MORE POLITE!! APOLOGIZE!! APOLOGIZE!!"

You figured maybe a little later, you can apologize to Itadori for your rude behavior. But right now, you're a pacing, confused, sorry mess.

You still stopped pacing as soon you realized.

You haven't watered your flower in almost three days. Great, now you had more things to worry about. In a panic, you got down and looked under your bed to look for the small watering can. But fortunately, it was still there were you left it, You picked up the can and got up. To your luck, there was still water inside the can.

"Oh thank god.." you mumbled, relieved.

You approached the window seal with bright yellow watering can in hand, you settle your gaze on the singular, halfway full of water — vase of flowers you've been keeping in your room.

During weekends, you often leave for a few hours to gather flowers, either in wild or buy from shops, it had once started off something to take your mind off all the pressure shortly after becoming a student in Jujutsu High. Occasionally buying small enough vases to fit the flowers in, sometimes leaving the vases full of fresh flora in open spaces where your upperclassmen, sorcerers could see, and sometimes your own teacher would take notice.

You gaze at the vase full of morning glories, feeling a vague sense of nostalgia looking at them.

It was only years ago your old friend introduced you to them, even saying giving someone one could be a way of saying you love them.

And the vase, oh the vase.

It looked crudely made, preferably by a child — it was a gift given to you in kindergarten by an old friend.

Looking back at it, it looks terrible but it didn't make the memory any less sweeter, maybe one day, just one day,

You'll thank her.

MORIOKA STATION

There stood a young lady with ginger hair, standing on the platform. "It took four hours just to get to Morioka, time to finally say goodbye to the sticks." She said. "I'll be in Tokyo soon."

"What should I do if I get scouted by a talent agent?"

'Like stardust promotion?' Nobara pondered, curious for what the city has in store.

AUTHORS NOTE!! —

nobara next chap yay!! after that one i wanna publish two more chapters thats more slice of life before every goes to shit thanks to you know who!!

@bridemiko — if you see any of my work published outside of tumblr, quotev, and wattpad — its most likely not me!

#jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk x reader #jjk itadori #itadori x reader #yuji itadori #yuji x reader #nobara kugisaki #megumi fushiguro #gojo satoru #amariwritess

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tsukiyadori · 6 months

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Reading (+Watching) Log 2023.09-11 - September to November

Trying this out, not sure if a continuation is feasible, this took a bit to collect...

Reading languages: German, English, Japanese, not listing which was what

Titles are as I've read them either first or most and thus remember it for that title mostly

Not going to bother putting in the original titles of translated reads

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SEPTEMBER

Tried starting reading some of that little stack of doujins and failed to continue right after the first

Still in the middle of an Anime watching slump, but there's an actual tiny titbit watched. Somehow it was only now that I realized Puella Magi Madoka Magica apparently gets counted as a GL?

Anime:

Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Walpurgisnacht Rising Trailer

Doujinshi:

Gusari (Natsuki Kizu) - Kuroko no Basketball Fanbook 2: Ashita no Tenki

Light Novel:

By the Grace of the Gods V2-5

Manga:

Aishiteru Game wo Owarasetai ch38-39 Ane no Shinyuu, Watashi no Koibito ch20-21.1 Boku no Diamond Star ch11-12.2 Buta no Liver wa Kanetsushiro ch29 By the Grace of the Gods Ch35.3-4 Cinderella Closet v6ch24 Deep Scar v2ch14 Die rachsüchtige weiße Katze und der Drachenkönig ch1Leseprobe Eikyuukei ch5 Girl Crush Ch46-52 Hari to Hitsuji no Fune ch7.2-8.1 I'm a Maid, but I've Pulled Out the Holy Sword?! Ch21-24 Juuban-sama no Enmusubi: Kamiari Hanayome Kitan ch2.2-3 Kakegurui Ch103 Kemutai Hanashi ch7-10 Kimi ni wa Todokanai ch40.1 Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata bangai-wink Komorebi Shoutengai no Changing Wonder ch14 Leaving Our Truths to the Shooting Star ch1-4.3 Love is an Illusion - The Queen Intro ch1 Midnight Clubbing Sex V1 Midnight Delivery Sex v1 Miryou no Otome to Katabutsu Hittou Majutsushi no Hatsukoi Kiroku ch13.3-4 Moteki v1-3ch15 Motokare ga Fudanshi ni natte Orimashite v2 Mr. Mallow Blue ch27 My Regret ch9final.2 Noragami ch106.2-107.2 Oshi no Ko interlude 1-4 Oshi no Ko ch126 Phantom Seer v1 Prinz Freya v2-v6ch18 Promise Cinderella Ch119 Re:Zero the Mansion v1ch4 Seraph of the End ch117-129 Shuumatsu Touring ch32 Sonna Kazoku nara Sutechaeba? ch55-56 Taberare Usa ch67-70 Tenmaku Cinema Ch1-21 The Case Files of Jeweler Richard Masago Nasu Part 2-3 The Devil is a Part-Timer! v18ch90-94 The Villainess's Guide to (Not) Falling in Love Ch7-12.1 Unnamed Memory ch30.1-2 Verliebt in die Nacht v5-9 Watashi wo Tabetai, Hitodenashi ch32.1-3 What did you eat yesterday? v20 Yoshios Jugend ch1?

Notes:

Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata - Excellent as usual, but only a special there

What did you eat yesterday? - Excellent as usual, but it was a wee bit weaker than the last one or two volumes

Oshi no Ko - I keep going back every week

Seraph of the End - What are they even doing now. This smelled like something inbetween queerplatonic to the edge of romance (? - albeit a not exactly healthy one) for a helluva long stretch, but then it just has to come around the corner of, hey, look, they weren't even humans. Well, ok, they weren't really all that "human" right of the beginning. But anyway, can we go back to having some more Mahiro? Thanks.

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OCTOBER:

End of the month, at the same 27th October it was supposed to be a Jeweler Richard day as both the new English and Japanese volume were coming out. Things that went wrong: Seven Seas botched up v6's English release by leaving out the second half the Sinhalite extra case and the afterword. I also went out of my way to take a few days off to read the 13th's volume in Japanese in any sense of a safely time planed healthy manner right upon release, but entirely forgot, that ebooks have a delay in release date, so that one came out a week later. I was positively furious about my own stupidity and misplanning.

Light Novel:

Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki-kun v6.5 By the Grace of the Gods LN v6-9 The Case Files of Jeweler Richard Masago Nasu Part 4 The Case Files of Jeweler Richard v2.Garnet Reread The Case Files of Jeweler Richard きらきら星たちのパーティ

Manga:

100-nengo ni Tenseishita Watashi, Zense no Juukishi ni Kyuukonsaremashita: Heika wa Watashi ga Moto Oujo da to Okizukidenai you desu ch12.1-2 Aishiteru Game wo Owarasetai ch40-41 Ane no Shinyuu, Watashi no Koibito ch21.2 Ane no Shinyuu, Watashi no Koibito tokubetsuhen.1-2 Ano Natsu ga Houwa suru. ch11-12.1 Arte v13ch64-v16ch79 BL Game no Shujinkou no Otouto de aru Koto ni Ki ga Tsukimashita ch17 Boruto: Two Blue Vortex ch2-3 Buta no Liver wa Kanetsushiro ch30.1 By the Grace of the Gods c36 Dead Company v1-3 Dekiru Neko wa Kyou mo Yuuutsu ch100 Deliquent Daddy & Tender Teacher v1 Detektiv Conan v101 Flüster mir ein Liebeslied v1 Girl Crush Ch53-55 Harebare Biyori ch20.2 Hatsu * Haru v1ch4, v3-6 I've become an Omega Today v1 Isekai de Ane ni Namae wo Ubawaremashita ch12.2-14.1 Kemutai Hanashi ch11 Kimi ni wa Todokanai ch40.2 Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata Ch71-72 Kuni Watari no Renkinjutsushi: Ouji ni Damasare Oukyuu wo Oidasareta Watashi wa, Aru Tabi no Ichidan to Deaimashita ch6.3-7.2 Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa, Moto Tekikoku de Jiyuu Kimama na Hanayome Seikatsu wo Mankitsusuru ch26-27 Love is an Illusion - The Queen ch2 Miryou no Otome to Katabutsu Hittou Majutsushi no Hatsukoi Kiroku ch13.5-14.3-4 Motokare ga Fudanshi ni natte Orimashite v2-v3ch18 My Dear Agent v1ch4 My Regret ch9final.3 Noragami ch108 Okazari Ouhi ni Nattanode, Kossori Hataraki ni deru koto ni Shimashita ~Usagi ga Iru node Hitorine mo Sabishiku Arimasen!~ ch20-21.4 Oshi no Ko ch127-130 Rental Girlfriend v17-v18ch157 Seraph of the End ch130 Shinde Miro to Iwareta no de Shinimashita. ch5.1-2 Sonna Kazoku nara Sutechaeba? ch57-58 Taberare Usa Ch74-75 Motokare ga Fudanshi ni natte Orimashite v3ch17 The Lady Likes a Nerd over Princes Ch1-7 The Saint's Magic Power is Omipotent ch36-37.2 The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent: The Other Saint ch1-4.4, ch21.1-4 The Valiant Must Fall v1-v2ch18 Watashi wo Tabetai, Hitodenashi ch33.1 Yomei Ichinen to Senkokusareta Boku ga, Yomei Hantoshi no Kimi to Deatta Hanashi ch6-7.1 Your Tears are Mine Ch1-25 今日からここで暮らシマす!? ch1

Notes:

Arte turned into out to be surprisingly good after all. Both characterization and artstyle (especially on Arte herself) have gone quite a long way compared to the beginning. Irene is posively an awesome character and the covet yet devoted and subtly beautiful one sided GL-side plot was a surprise addition I hadn't expected at all.

Boruto: Two Blue Vortex - Sarada your earrings are actually pretty, but do you know some space time jutsu to freeze your coat in space like that without ever falling off despite all sorts of moves and jumps?

By the Grace of the Gods - The MC is technically this super overpowered character stereotype that is quite prevalent, but there's something about this character just going methodically step by step and just conquering everything that somehow never makes him come off as boringly OP. Also it has quite some iyashikei effect properties to it. It kinda feels... healthy. (Well it is a story about healing.)

Dead Company - This was kinda trash that had me confused if I missed out on some prequel (I didn't, there's only Doubt and Judge otherwise), and while it goes and explains the foundation mechanics of those two, it effectively is just a short version of Btooom.

Deliquent Daddy & Tender Teacher - Soft cheese, it kinda is predictable, but there is nothing offensive about it and propagates a healthy relationship, so worth a mention especially in the BL department. Obligatory spicy extra chapters remain cursed, but this was at least inerweaved with the characters and their relationship progression.

Girl Crush - This series has been excellent before, but with chapter 54 it has become a marvel that positively floored me. The climax of that chapter was nothing short of awesome. It's also such a great culmation of the main character's, Tenka's, character development progression in a nutshell. She was that character, which she is employed to depict in a music video, she met someone, showered her with irritation and jealousy, couldn't stand herself so resolved to leave it all behind and pursue getting that one thing she was so jealous of by going into the same career. But she also can't have in the same way, so grinds to the place in her own meticulous way. Gets this acting job where she's playing a role very like her past self and she pulls it out with this beautiful scene reel while thinking of what she almost became and then throws the papers for the scene but also at her past self. It's such a picturesque showing of how you can still be ashamed of what you were and did in the past, but still look back at it and use the experience to forward yourself instead of just desperately trying to bury it. I'm cursing and crying: Why does this series not have a print version. Neither in English nor Japanese or anywhere. 😭

Hatsu * Haru - I've read some vols of Yuzuki-san Chi no Yon Kyoudai from the author and that one was pretty good, but this this one is a patience wrecking piece of Highschool-Shoujo-Cheese. It does have some fairly interesting paneling here and there. But darn it, it's just exhausting.

I've become an Omega Today - Certainly wins a price in the "if you only talked (but then we'd have no plot)" category. Noteworthy tho for especially being Omegaaverse and not abusive or dubiously coercive. (How sad that this is something noteworthy.) Also interestingly this is the third in the set now that shares the same visual character design and personality template as I Hear the Sunspot and Summer with You.

Isekai de Ane ni Namae wo Ubawaremashita - Cute, nice dresses and just gimme those hairdoes, too.

Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata - Very good as usual, this now has a sort of Aishiteru Game wo Owasetai arc atm, but it's a helluva better one.

Speaking of Aishiteru Game wo Owarasetai, sigh, I'm really not liking how it introduces some kinks, depicts the courage it needs to confess to it to your crush, only for the narrative to keep using it for gags that ultimately imo are based on shaming on it.

Motokare ga Fudanshi ni natte Orimashite - I previously had read the first few free chapters and then the end of the series on pixiv as it ran. I thought they were all just kind dense adorkable adults or a bit of late bloomers, but then it turns out that of the four main characters 3 are looking very demi aro/ace, and furthermore it gets revealed that two of them are about as officially aroace as you can possibly be without using the label.

My Regret - Finished. Excellent series that I had started at around the same time as My Diamond Star which both had me confused if it was supposed to be BL or not. The latter turned out to be one, this one pleasantly did not and was just about two very different people, whose lives get connected though an old man dying and leaving behind a legacy of grief, self reflection and self betterment. The climax would have been a perfect stopping point, but then it throws in the epilogue that comes along with a complete curveball of looking like something that smells queerplatonic and seems even more interesting. Which makes the series now just mean for stopping right there. D:

Taberare Usa - Flashback arc, so there is a break of the buns-as-sweets doom main plot. Instead lots, lots of bun cheese.

The Case Files of Jeweler Richard: Masago Nasu - I wrote about that one a bit before. But Seigi, Seigi, what are you doing with just hanging up on Richard after splurting off something like that?

The Valiant Must Fall: I thought Gunslinger Girl was a pretty good series. But this series from the same author is kinda on the nose about how much it has researched the history of that epoch. Sadly this is also the only thing really interesting about it. There's a few pages of essays by a historian at the end of the volumes and probably I may stick to it simply for those.

Yomei Ichinen to Senkokusareta Boku ga, Yomei Hantoshi no Kimi to Deatta Hanashi - This guy totally is gonna live in the end, while the girl dies, it just screams that trope. And woe and behold: Surprise surprise there is actually a possibility of an operation for this terminal death doomed heart disease teen. (And silly boy refuses to do it as of yet, are you serious?)

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NOVEMBER:

I noticed Comikey's "free" and "free with ads" per day isn't globally counted (like Manga Up! for example), rather than per title.

That caused a reading spree there, which saw the advent of a good bunch of webtoons.

There was a regular classic novel read inbetween (gasp)

Reading actually good series remains a health hazard of reading everything too quick with too little breaks and sleep (Unnamed Memory, Goddess of Healing)

I still have not even started Jeweler Richard v13 and don't dare to for health and stamina safety reasons...

Light Novels:

By the Grace of the Gods V9-V11 Unnamed Memory v3-6

Novels:

The Old Man in the Corner

Manga:

A Side Character's Love Story Ch1-14 After God Ch1-27 Aishiteru Game wo Owarasetai ch40-41 Alabaster Ch1-4 Ano Natsu ga Houwa suru. ch12.2 Arte Ch81-83 Asobi Asobase Ch1-20 Barbara Ch1-14 Beauty as the Beast Ch1-15 Brutal ch1-8.1 Buta no Liver wa Kanetsushiro ch30.1-4 By the Grace of the Gods Ch34-V8Ch40.3-4 Color of Happiness v9-v11 Crime and Punishment ch1-4 Dekiru Neko wa Kyou mo Yuuutsu ch100 Dienerin des verfluchten Kindes v6ch29-ch38 Eikyuukei ch7 Fesseln der Liebe v6 Girl Crush ch56-57 Grimoire Heilkunde magischer Wesen v4-5 Hari to Hitsuji no Fune ch8.2 I'm cute enough to get away with it Ch1-19 Isekai de Ane ni Namae wo Ubawaremashita ch14.2-ch14.4 Kakan no Oukoku no Hanagirai Hime ch7.1-8.2-3 Kemutai Hanashi ch12 Killer in Love Ch1-30 Kimi ni wa Todokanai ch41 Kindergarten Wars ch1-25 Knitter's High ch23-24.3 Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata ch73-74 Komorebi Shoutengai no Changing Wonder ch15 Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa, Moto Tekikoku de Jiyuu Kimama na Hanayome Seikatsu wo Mankitsusuru ch26-27 Lost Youth Ch1-2.2 Mein geliebter Gaming-Freund ist mein fieser Boss?! v1ch20 Miryou no Otome to Katabutsu Hittou Majutsushi no Hatsukoi Kiroku ch15.1-2 Monster 8 ch70-97 Mr. Mallow Blue ch28 Noragami ch108.2 Okazari Ouhi ni Nattanode, Kossori Hataraki ni deru koto ni Shimashita ~Usagi ga Iru node Hitorine mo Sabishiku Arimasen!~ ch22.1-2 Oshi no Ko ch131-132 Phantom Seer v2-v3ch25 Repeating Your End Together ch1-5.1 Shibatarian Ch2-16 The Ichinose Family's Deadly Sins ch1-48 The Lady Likes a Nerd over Princes Ch8-16 Together Forever Ch1-16 Unnamed Memory ch31.1-32.2 Verliebt in mehr als dein Gesicht v1-4 Watashi wo Tabetai, Hitodenashi ch33.1-3 Witch Enforcer ch1-3 Yomei Ichinen to Senkokusareta Boku ga, Yomei Hantoshi no Kimi to Deatta Hanashi ch7.2-8.1-2 Your Tears are Mine Ch26-31 Zombie 100 v7-9ch34

Webtoons:

A Royal Princess With Black Hair ch1-47 A Spoonful of your Love ch1-20 Blind Passion Ch1-3 Breed my Dear Enemy Ch1-43 Conspiracy of Love Ch1-9 Corridor of Mirs Ch1-19 Dawn the Teen Witch Ch1-65 Fall in the Night with you Ch0-40 Flowers for the Outcast ch1-23 Flowers in the Secret Place Ch0-2 For Stella Ch1-33 If Future Ch1-49 Night Crying Crow v4ch35 Phoenix in the Imperial Palace ch1-7 Sand Castle ch1-35 She Had You at Hello ch1-7 She is also cute today ch0-47 Spirit of Peach Blossom Ch1-27 Taberare Usa ch75-79 The Blue Snake and the Red Moon Ch0-32 The Giantess wants Love Ch0-60.5 The Goddess of Healing Ch0-159 The Mermaid Wears a Dress ch1-25 To be Winner Ch0-49 To be or not to be Ch5-11 Scroll of the White Silk Cloud ch4-31.4

Notes:

By the Grace of the Gods - Things are progressing more actual plot wise and it has had a few twists in there. The healing bit of this tale has even more strongly become a center piece and it just works. Does that count as an iyashikei? I'm inclined to count it. Also gimme some of these slimes. They seem like such a life enrichment.

Unnamed Memory - Positively excellent series, tho the ending had me a bit "somehow this is too easy, why didn't they just do this from the start". Anyway, it's not actually the end there, but Yen Press still has no announcement for the After the End sequel. Booo.

The Old Man in the Corner - read because it was mentioned in The Case Files of Jeweler Richard v5. *cough*. Granted it is very good classic orthodox mystery.

After God - This is weird and trashy, and sometimes just, uuuh, okay.... but also some of these monsters' designs and drawings are quite the eyecatcher.

Barbara - Read because Tezuka and being one of his gekigas. Same boat as MW. It was rather "what the...."

Beauty as the Beast - I've read Arcana from the author before. There is something sad about knowing how the art looked like in classic print b/w-style and then to see how it looks after moving on to webtoon, and this one is one that clearly downgraded, especially on the backgrounds and coloring. The narrative is still starting off straight forward and moving on to become about as convoluted and confusing as Arcana was. Funny also the main character is called Ines yet again.

Color of Happiness - I think I do not like that ending at all. It feels a bit like it took the easiest way to dodge the a cheese-cheese route (which would have come off as questionable given she is so young) and took the only one that was going to be safe from even any implications. And the way it went about it is a bit too deus ex machina convenient, while making hardly any sense. Do think it's kinda too bad, that it also ruins the side plot about the mother and grandmother, that wasn't so uninteresting about how toxicity gets inherited. How to break the chain could have been a nice focal theme and it's also kinda there, but completely drowned by that nonsense pulled, which ultimately renders the mother right with her telling Sachi it wasn't "going to go her way" after all.

Kemutai Hanashi - Chapter 12 is absolutely great, a generally important conversation to be had and breathtakingly beautifully depicted. I exploded in word count and basically translating most of the whole thing over here.

Killer in Love - I'm not sure what this is, it looks very toxic, but also seems to be a bit of.... I don't know why something about these two's relationship reminds me a little bit of Azure & Claude. Maybe it's this flair of this is absolutely going to be doomed, they are definitely doomed bit?

Kimi ni wa Todokanai - After a long detour from going from a shoujo-style that happens to be a BL to feeling very BL-genre BL, I finally got some shoujo feels back from it. Specifically it reminded me of A Condition Called Love, as far as I read that one. As in that talk about a sort of desperate to obsessive desire vs. someone who is on track of developing desires, but not quite so quick vs. boundaries. Considering that the talk about that in v4 was something I thought was great, if it comes back to what happens between v5-7 with all the bad dubCon glory and discussed that, maybe I'll come to like those bits in hindsight or when revisiting, too. (Personally I am inclined to suspect the drama adaption may have had a hand in this detour of tonal style.)

Kindergarten Wars - This was surprisingly way better than expected, too bad, that the art is a little bit unpolished. (Imagine that, but with, like, Spy x Family levels of art? Actually they have kinda similar vibes, just no Anya there.)

Shibatarian - It is creepy, it is horror, it's doing it's job right, but it is also just so creepy. The scenes in the aquarium were definitely quite a beautiful mood. Despite or maybe right because of all the snarling creepiness looming.

The Ichinose Family's Deadly Sins - Does its mystery box mystery very well, especially in the first half, but can't say I really have re-read urges. If there is, it probably would be about the art in the beginning - It is a bit on the cruder side of things, but manages to cement it right as its own signature style (kinda Shin Chan-wise), but then also has these panels and double spreads with an absurd amount of detail levels. Unfortunately all that experimental bit about the art vanishes after a while. (Would not surprise me, if it just was to taxing to draw.)

Together Forever - I think the girl is actually pretty creepy. But this is essentially a female Seme character and the older guy is a sort of uke. Female Semes are ludicrously rare, so I'm somehow still on it...

Witch Enforcer - This has some really good looking art, especially in the color pages.

Your Tears are Mine - Starts decently enough with centering around a little kink of the protagonist girl and goes steady with that and the relationship. Unfortunately just feels axed by the end.

A Royal Princess With Black Hair - The main is a strong female lead and perfectly cool and entertaining to follow. Also consistently solid art despite being a full color webtoon.

Blind Passion - The art is pretty good looking, also historic setting GL, Arte kinda appetized me a bit on that. Will probably take a good while until the free bonus coins on Leizhin will have collected it up.

Breed my Dear Enemy - The title is eyebrow raising as is the premise that has an isekai into a book, where the main doesn't even read the book, but just gets to have it magically downloaded into her brain, while isekai'd. But anyhow, some very digital looking, but still pretty art, especially in terms of the customes of that historic china epoch. And the female lead is a strong and wry one, that's always good.

Dawn the Teen Witch - Cute and good looking art and colors and actually shadings and all, also solid characters and good worldbuilding and weavings of a intruiguing wide spanning mystery plot next to a coming of age + romance plot. And then it just ends. Feels very like an axed series, and while it kinda ends with a finish line, it feels more like just a season end than anything else.

The Goddess of Healing - The complete suprise hit of the month out of blue nowhere. Very pretty dawings. Lots, lots of hairdoes, hair ornaments and jewelery, a huge wide wardrobe of outfits from that ~16h century China epoch. A huge display of varied pouts. The female lead is great. The whole plot is a multi layered mystery/thriller plot. It has a little bit of plot armor, but then it's also a reincarnation story with tinges of fate implied, so kinda excused. The lead is very determined and just so badass, clever, determined, who can stand her own ground, but also knows how to rely to compensate her own weaknesses. Her romance with the male lead is build over mostly intellectual attraction. There's even a little side romance of another pair, adult, mature, cute and chiefly over emotional attraction. Both have integrity at their foundational centerpiece. I quite like all of that.

(3h 50m: 1.5h of which data extraction)

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athyrabunlord · 6 years

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About LLSHP AU (Afterword)

[Brief note about School Term] [other LLSHP AU stuff] [YohaMaRuby concept arts] [ChikaYouRiko concept arts] [KanaDiaMari concept arts] [Hogwarts Staff]

[FFN link] [Pixiv Link] [Translated to Chinese by plin2290]

I’m just so pleased and happy to have made it! I have so many existing incomplete stories that it’s astounding for me to actually complete a multi-chapter story. Once again, I’d like to say a huge THANK YOU!! to my readers for staying with me to the end, providing me feedback and expressing interest, motivating and inspiring me enough to reach this point.

The following is really just about my rambling, about my thoughts, about the planning process and my decisions, so do keep reading if you’re interested in the makings of this story. I just feel like sharing (aka: blah blah blah) since, again, I actually friggin completed a story omg (´；Д；｀)

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

First of all, let’s go way back to near the end of October 2016, not long after LLS Season 1 ended. Yes this is so long ago lmao. After drawing several canon-related fanarts and writing short blips to satiate my thirst, I decided to create a complete whole AU so I can fantasize more XD I ended up picking the Harry Potter verse because, come on, it’s always fun trying to Sort your favorite characters and think about their abilities and whatnot.

Ideas started to whirl and initial sketches began. There’s an old post explaining why I Sort the girls into their respective Houses. That’s also when extra details were pondered over, the why and the pros in doing so. You should know by this point that I’m a complete useless 3rd Years trash, but as I brainstorm more, I realize that their story is more suitable to be a prequel, something that supplements a main story. And so, what should the main story be about? What kind of story do I want to present? Who would be the perfect main character/narrator for this?

Yoshiko. In canon, she’s already associated with (black) magic and, as a First-Year and Muggleborn, she would be perfect for a reader to immerse into this fascinating new world of magic through her perspective. As an old post says, I fudged up the School Term and age during the initial stage and didn’t realize until everything’s all finalized, that’s why I had to keep it as it is XD;;;;

Anyway, at this point, I’ve already decided Yoshiko to be a Horcrux, with the antagonist of this story to be Yohane, and how the last few chapters are going to play out. Everything else, even the other characters’ backgrounds are all further elaborated and refined based off of this central plot. On a side note, how sexy is Aikyan’s solo in the 3rd Live, I mean, the white and black wing I could only think about Yoshiko/Yohane DX

Ahem, I’ve always found Yoshiko’s character fascinating, that there’s a Yohane side of her even though, really, she’s Yoshiko (a good girl). The Chamber of Secrets and the Half-Blood Prince are the main source of inspiration for this particular idea, but of course HP fans might notice many elements from the original story used or modified in my story. I’m also a strong believer that the Patronus Charm can do more than just warding off Dementors or Lethifolds (and Obscurus), hence its significance in this story, especially later chapters.

Therefore, each girl’s Patronus was tentatively decided at this early stage, with 1 or 2 possibilities. After this, I then thought of what ships should this story present. As much as I did not want romance/ships be The Major Point, I have to acknowledge that ships are what people go for in a story, myself included. I understand shipping might turn people away from even trying a story, that’s why I kept it secret for the first few chapters before confirming it on tumblr (where the chapters were first uploaded). I was just testing the waters, to see if people are interested in the story enough to keep reading even if the ships aren’t their preferences.

Back to planning stage - as a multi-shipper, I did not want to set in stone right off the bat what the ships are either. And thus I continued expanding on ideas and see where things would go, keeping most of the initial interactions and important moments intact. This is why there are times it might seem there are multiple pairings even though nothing was specified (cough wee kanadia, youriko etc (｡･ ω<)ゞてへぺろ♡). Not to mention, as the main character, Yoshiko will always have moments with each of the 8 girls. I remember joking in an old post that, if this were a gal-game, there are various routes to this story, from the default path to those you have to unlock via certain conditions XDDD

Naturally, members of the 1st-year trio and Guilty Kiss get more screen time with Yoshiko. Then, as a fellow Slytherin and part of the tsurime trio, Dia does too. Not to mention Season1’s anime ED shows You & Angel together, You gets special moments too. Chika is Aqours’ leader who first accepted Yoshiko into the group as datenshi, so I tried to show that as much as I could given the circumstances in the story. And so, this leaves poor orca on the side lol. But yeah, YoshiMaru, YoshiRiko, YoshiRuby, so many possibilities! However, as more details get finalized, such as Yoshiko’s childhood, her Shiira-KANSU! Patronus and about the Augurey, YoshiMaru just happened. Things seem to click into place with their love as the focal point and I was able to keep expanding the story. First puppy love, innocent and pure. A dream that grew to become reality. Could other ships have worked? Yes, but then that would’ve given this story a different direction and it wouldn’t have been LLSHP AU – Yoshiko Tsushima and the Fallen Angel anymore. As I developed YoshiMaru more and more, I was very satisfied with my choice.

On a side note, I confirm Yoshiko did have a crush on You at first (and Hanamaru had a crush on Kanan) xD it’s mostly just physical attraction in a “the-senpai-I-admire” kind of way, and it soon morphs to strong friendship as this story progresses. I don’t know if this was obvious at all but that’s why these two girls always have a soft spot for Gryffindor Baka#2 and Baka #3 xD!!!

On the other hand, I was not expecting DiaRiko to form. Yes, it was my guilty ship but I didn’t intend for them to be a couple in this story, just close friends/confidantes. In canon, they’re already the straight man of their respective year trios (most of the time anyway, I’m looking at you ponkotsu penguin). Yet, given their respective pasts and personalities, they became intimately close and found solace with each other, and that kind of relationship is what I tried to show to the readers, especially through the Carbonado Interlude. They’re not predestined to fall in love but they did and found happiness. Out of the four ships, I was most worried about DiaRiko since it’s a rareship unlike the other three. That’s why I keep saying how pleased I am that it ended up being well-received by fans ;;A;;

ChikaYou came to be as I finalize the 2ndYears’ background and Riko’s part, while KanaMari’s story is set aside for the prequel and thus not given much spotlight in the main story (and also due POV effect). In spite of how much I adore ChikaYou, it’s also not shown much because of what happened in the story but also because I wanted to present their dynamic as a duo and CYR bond with Ruby (since that’s how Yoshiko perceives them most of the time anyway).

Ruby, my widdle cinnamon roll baby, is left unpaired for a reason. I want to show that platonic/friendship love is just as wonderful and powerful. There’s a saying ‘lovers come and go, but friends are for life’, and that’s exactly what Yoshiko and Hanamaru meant for Ruby, and vice versa. Now, while I’m on this, I have a confession about Ruby’s fate. After the concept arts were drawn and uploaded, I was finalizing the details of the three Arcs before I toss the first chapter onto tumblr. The end of ch19 is definitely one of the biggest climax of the story - Ruby ended up being Yohane’s target instead of Dia. Originally, uh, yeah, Ruby is supposed to die because her wounds were too much. Regular healing spells do not work on sectumsempra, only a special counter-Curse could reverse the effects. I tried very hard to find a way around it to save her. I don’t want my baby to die, any of them really, and she still have so much ahead of her. Fortunately, I was able to save her through Yoshiko/Yohane which, in turn, saved this raven-haired girl as well. I was able to continue working backwards on finalizing the Arcs and individual chapters with a peaceful state of mind.

‘Yoshiko’, as in the one who’s been narrating the story from ch1-20, still died in a way, but at least I was able to change the story from Bad End to True End (?). True End is the ch21 I uploaded. Bad End route would have Ruby dead, Yoshiko gone and ch21 would turn out completely different. A Happy End would be Yoshiko the Narrator miraculously alive and the others not having scars or still recovering, but I just find that too unrealistic. I’ve minimized the, uh, damage enough as it is, given the circumstances. J.K. Rowling did go on a killing spree in Book7 but come on, with a psychotic maniac like Voldemort and all those magical spells, you can easily kill people. You don’t need Avada Kedavra to kill someone, a sudden Diffindo or Reducto is enough. I’ve chosen my sacrifice and one is too many already. And speaking of sacrifice, let me talk a bit about Riko and why she was the ‘first victim’. Omoi yo Hitotsu ni Nare. Even though this story was outlined even before the First Live, this song already stands out to me from the anime, a song where the 8 of them sang in Riko’s absence but her spirit is still with them. And so, I sort of portrayed that the way it is in this story. Even though Riko didn’t get any lines from ch12 onward until ch20, her role remains significant and is the pivotal point for the remainder of Arc2 and Arc3. In terms of the plot, I’ve followed my outline quite closely. All the core points remained unchanged as I write out the chapters, though how I write a chapter (ie the wording, the extra little details, and actual professor dialogues instead of just narration) did change as I go along, influenced by more of the official content. Facts about characters that are only revealed in Season2 or other media such as SIF etc were not incorporated into this story (for example, Kanan being afraid of ghosts and height). As I mentioned in an older post about wands, I would have chosen phoenix feather for Ruby’s wand core had I known about the Duo-Trio results. The Kazuno sisters would have been incorporated into the story alas, back then, very little was known about Saint Snow in Season1 of the anime. Yes… season2 was finished and, like, a total of 15 live performances have happened between the creation and the completion of this story LOL Back to the plot. Seven is said to be a magical number in the HP verse and that’s why each Arc has 7 chapters. Arc 1 is the Intro, Arc 2 is the turning point, Arc 3 is the climax and the resolution. Sounds easy and straightforward so I thought I would’ve finished the story within a year. Well. It ended up almost taking two years lmao. Obligations IRL aside, new ideas, more AUs, more fanarts etc also make sticking to the update schedule difficult. It’s the worst when it comes to writer’s block – you have the outlines, you know what’s supposed to happen in a chapter, yet the words just aren’t flowing and you’re stuck. Thankfully, with you lovely readers giving the feedback and encouragement I need, I made it over each bump on the road to get to the finale. Hanamaru wrote most of this story, yes. Each chapter titles with exception of Ruby’s interlude and ch18-19 also showed up in ch21. The title of the ‘book’ is supposed to be revealed in the Epilogue but, since I had to upload it onto Fanfiction.Net, I can’t just call it LLSHP AU so I had to reveal “Yoshiko Tsushima and the Fallen Angel” right away. Back then I called this a temporary title because I did think about giving this story an alternate title, since she didn’t write the interludes, ch21 and the epilogue. However, at the end of the day, this still suits the story best. After all, the individual titles for ch21 and the epilogue make up the story’s title.

“Yoshiko has always known that she isn't normal like everyone else. Surely, she would master everything about magic at Hogwarts, and become the amazing fallen angel she's meant to be. Little did she know, her school year would be more than eventful as she makes great friends, uncovers secrets, and learns what it truly means to be Yohane.” - this is the summary I put on Fanfiction.Net. It speaks from both Yoshiko the Narrator’s perspective, and Yoshiko from the Epilogue’s perspective. It probably sounds confusing but I hope you understand what I mean. So, what’s next? I’ve invested a lot in this world of LLSHP AU already and there are still so many more possibilities, especially with the rather open ending both ch21 and the epilogue presents, so I’m definitely not done with this AU! Since I have the memory of a goldfish, I don’t know if I’ve already mentioned this but the prequel will be told mostly in Mari’s POV. It will have occasional Dia and Kanan POVs too (because I’m a shameless 3yrs-oshi and writer privilege); Rather than taking forever to write and cramping the scenes into a massive interlude chapters, I’ve decided to split it in shorter chapters - this will roughly be a 12-part story that took place before the main story, showcasing segments of the kanadiamari’s first 3 years at Hogwarts.

This prequel is… relatively normal and lighter compared to the main story, meaning it’s more school-oriented and more slice-of-life episodes for the most part (at least, that’s the outline), and much more Professor cameos. There will be more N-card girls to be showcased as well, such as kanadiamari’s Housemates and Quidditch teammates. Overall, it’ll be shiny °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖° There will not be a full sequel to the main story. Instead, there will be blips/drabbles about events that happen after the main story, as teased in the Epilogue - the TriWizard Tournament for one XD And, unlike the main story, the ideas for blips in this sequel-timeline are more vague, so I’ll be able to incorporate new content into it (as in, from official content 2017 onward such as proper characterization of Saint Snow).

There are plans for omake/filler fun blips as well - little incidents that happened throughout the main story or, rather, ‘excerpts’ that Hanamaru wrote but didn’t make it to the final version of her book. The first Halloween, more scenes with the Professors, birthdays and so on.

There are also plans for character-exclusive blips as well, similar to an Interlude. For example, DiaRiko’s ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) cough cough.

My tentative plan is to keep going with the prequel, and maybe every few chapter or so I’d write a sequel-timeline blip. I’ll see how my muse and inspiration is in the future, I’m already extremely satisfied that I finished the main story XD And I do want to work on some of my other existing AUs (ie Animus AU and Mafia AU just because I’ve already invested time in creating the concept arts and so I don’t want them to sink into oblivion…) or who knows, there might be new AUs. I mean, pretty much every new SIF set is enough to inspire a brand new AU please allow me a moment to giggle like the trash I am over the DiaRiko UR set *pterodactyl screech*

AHEM. Another thing is illustration/artworks. Since most of my time was spent on writing, there are much fewer artworks than I would’ve liked for this story. I think I mentioned this somewhere that I’d love to have an individual cover art for each chapter alas, no time at all DX I’d like to have at least one illustration per chapter too but OTL I can only pick one and so for this AU I chose writing over drawing. Cry.

Anyway, I’ve rambled long enough and I think I’ve talked about everything I want to get off my chest. If you have any questions/feedback, go ahead and fire’em at me, since I’m now able to answer anything without fear of spoilers now XD (unless your question is about the prequel or things that happen in the sequel-timeline)

Thanks for reading the whole thing and, ofc, staying with me until the end of this story!

#LLSHP AU #athyra rambles #really just athyra blabbering #this thing is almost 3k #at least it's shorter than the Patronus Ramble lmao #but yeah I think that's everything #all that's left are the fun times with the prequel and blips #makings-of #I feel accomplished to have come this far #it really has been an amazing journey #yeah I think that's everything I want to say #it's not like this is the end-end...#prequel and other stuff

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daedalmirage · 2 years

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exe rxn | ray | albatross

Out.

It’s all a caged and broken hawk thinks as it batters its wings against its bars, and it’s all Ray thinks as she grips onto herself, opposite hands on opposite shoulders. She isn’t crying and isn’t screaming, not anymore, and maybe she only manages not to by pushing them down with her hands like this. Out, she thinks again, but she doesn’t move. Just as the bars hold the bird in, the phantom feeling of all those hands push her down, leaving her anchored but trembling.

That will pass. She’ll have to move eventually. Her gaze though -- that’s the part that’s unmistakable. That stare may be more familiar to someone than her voice, with how directly she looks and how seldom she speaks. But it doesn’t have that sharpness, not anymore. How could it? Her left eye is completely clouded over, a fog a lighthouse couldn’t cut through.

She must be wading too deeply in shock to remember that she’s careful. Bella approaches and Ray’s head doesn’t turn. It stays like this as Bella passes where Pluto once sat and still when she’s just between Sonia and Shari. It takes until Bella says her codename for her to startle at how close her voice is, how to her, Bella may as well have manifested before her like a ghost.

It would be a kind lie, calling the way Ray’s hand touches her left cheek subtle. Her face, so ruddy from sobbing just before, drains and turns pale, a telltale sign of a crawling realization.

Bella’s assurances wash over her. That hand of hers goes back to her shoulder, holding it tighter than it had been before.

(Pluto’s body had been enough, and so had the slump in Nina’s shoulders, and so had the hands at her ankles, and so had the scruffle of her hair. Bella and Sonia offer her a kindness she wants and is repulsed by in the same degrees. It draws and pushes her in the same way that the idea of crawling back to the sea of those souls does. She can’t have it right now, and she can’t be touched right now, and she can’t be a prop for anyone’s feelings right now.)

“Don’t,” her voice always has a tickle in it, but here it's grown to a rasp. It takes all of her to not lash out, to bite in the same way that caged hawk might, trying to remember how to be kind, instead. “Please don’t.”

She isn’t ready to stand, but she does anyway. Her carefulness keeps leaving her. She forgets to hide how much she favors her right side now, and walks along the wall there. If she leaves plenty of space on her left, she’ll know it’s there for her even if she can’t see it.

She can be whatever they need her to be -- a warning, a reminder, a regret -- but that isn’t Ray’s business, not really.

Draw a conclusion that helps you sleep best at night.

All she knows is that she’ll have to find out what she needs this to be, if she wants to forget the feeling of those ghost hands on her face or if she needs to remember it for forever.

#daedal mirage #ch1 #ch1 afterword #ray #submission

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daedalmirage · 2 years

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i decided i’m leaving you! i’m leaving you! | sonia | re: trial 1 punishment

“Lest you all forget, you all are not the only ones who have to wake up with the consequences of my actions.”

Funny, how Nina should say that before Ray is taken away to face those very consequences in her stead.

Sonia watches what is before them. It’s like a dream— a movie, her mind corrects— and she might think it really is one if not for Ray’s terror that lances through the screen, all too real. She knows what it’s like to see people who are afraid.

(To be afraid.)

It’s not the fear, though. It’s the spirits who get Ray in the end, drawing a reaction out of the woman that Sonia never thought she’d ever see. Family is the first word that comes to her head when she sees the figures arranged together, and her imagination conjures up a story for Ray that may be true, may not be true— she has no idea.

(What she imagines, though, is that Ray’s family is dead.)

In the end, Ray lives. Sonia doesn’t feel like it’s a better outcome than Nina dying, though. Ray had to go through that because enough people wanted to keep Nina’s blood off their hands? Are they going to do this every time? Tie the vote, maim an innocent for the sake of minimizing death? Don’t any of them know there are fates far worse than losing an eye, worse than death itself?

Then again… would she be feeling this way if Nina and Pluto’s places were switched? Would she not be grateful to Ray for accidentally protecting someone she knew enough to prefer? How deep does her own hypocrisy run?

(...)

All ridiculous questions. In the end, they’re just people.

Still… she moves towards Ray, watching her carefully. Waiting for a moment where her assistance might be needed. Because Ray’s just a person, but she’s also a person who helped save Sonia and Pluto once. She may not be able to repay the favor now, but she can at least be ready to.

(She can’t help but wonder, for a moment, how different it would be if she and Pluto were simply left there to drift.)

#daedal mirage #ch1 #ch1 afterword #sonia

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daedalmirage · 2 years

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silent sinner in blue || ch1 trial end || tezuka

It's too much—

—to even start thinking about.

Mounting, pounding assault on the hull that is his skull, of noise, of worries, of stares. There is a threshold at which, to protect some fundamental piece of consciousness, overwhelmed threat processing circuits cease firing alarm altogether, and deep, primordial brain stem instincts begin to take over. Non-essentials turn off. It's heartbeat, lungs, hormones, basalt, only the base things necessary for survival. A complete and total shut down.

Tezuka retreats inwards, physically, this time. Crouching down, incredibly small, the way children are instructed to in the event of a tornado barreling through, knees to chest and hand on the top of the head, but he covers his ears here, not his neck. Keeps his eyes very tight. Feels his mouth very dry. It is working. He is disappearing, unresponsive, unable to move, unable to even remember how to speak if he could find words to say. Nothing comes in, nothing goes out. It is as closest to an information vacuum seal as one can get, with just the slightest perforations letting him hear his half-breath-half-choke-half-noises be muffled into his clothes. It is not enough.

He does everything to unsee what comes next, to rationalize it as his mind playing tricks on him, imagined disasters and catastrophes as he so likes to fill his brain with. It might have been Ray who was taken, he tells himself, but it could have been any woman, or any of them, or no one at all. He pulls sheep wool over his eyes and does not—

—does not hear the

screaming

—or the

gasps

—nor the

fear.

None of it at all.

Tezuka has found a place where he is alone and nothing happens, and because nothing has happened, and because someone is dead (he has not checked otherwise), and because he is too much a coward and a weak thing and a mess to even be of use were he in a mind to help, he is gone.

He is nowhere to be found.

#daedal mirage #ch1 #ch1 afterword #tezuka #submission

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daedalmirage · 2 years

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daylight come and we want go home | bella | re: THAT?

Bella had closed her eyes. It’s the best she can do, without giving everything away. It’s the greatest sensory deprivation she can provide herself. If she shuts her eyes, and she doesn’t focus, then none of this is real, because she’s in a black, endless void with no beginning and so no end.

She doesn’t hear people’s protests against her statement, because she isn’t listening. She doesn’t hear them questioning, talking, anxiously waiting. She doesn’t wait with any anxiety at all. It’s an inevitability. There’s no pit in her stomach that wasn’t dropped a long, long time ago. But she does hear Misery’s little screech - because it’s hard not to - and she doesn’t have time to feel anything other than relief that it wasn’t her before it’s all happening so agonizingly slowly, but too, too fast.

And when it’s done…

When it’s over…

…

Bella hates the silence. The stunned, horrified non-sound of everyone holding their breaths in disbelief. She hates the silence when people don’t know what to say, what condolences to give, how to fix a thing that never should have been broken. She hates it, but she’s used to it, blanketed in silence day in and day out, with almost nothing ever getting through the oppressive weight of it, so it stands to reason that she’s one of the first to react. Shooting up from her seat the moment Ray is back in hers, almost before the puppet has even left, she’s never run so quickly in her life. Past Franz, past Tezuka, without sparing them a look - she’d seen what had happened. She knew. She knew that-

“Ray-”

Bella says, her voice sounding so uncharacteristically upset, afraid. Carefully touching the taller girl’s arm, she kneels next to her, looking alarmed and worried.

(If she’d carefully angled herself between the target of her attention and the one who’d nearly been in her place, well…)

“It’s sudden. I know. It’ll take time to adjust. I’ll help you, I know what it’s like. I’m going to help you. Okay?”

She just keeps quietly repeating this sentiment in a soft, soothing voice, the sound no longer betraying the distress clear as day on her face. It’ll be anger, soon. Maybe she’ll wake up tomorrow and go on a killing spree herself, vengeful over this action not even done to her. She has no reason to feel this upset and yet…and yet…

“I wonder, Nina,” the chef says, not even bothering to look back at her. “If the life you’ll have now is better than dying. I really, really wonder.”

The worst part is, she sounds completely sincere.

#daedal mirage #ch1 #ch1 afterword #bella #submission

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daedalmirage · 2 years

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【AFTERWORD 1.4】 THE PUPPET CLAPS.

Two times, this time. Pomfpomf! - and the way to the exit as laid out once more, allowing you to leave at your leisure.

Paying no attention to RAY or anyone else in the room, she lets out a bored sigh.

“You all seem super tense, you know that? Did I miss something when I was gone, ooooor...? Like, what was with all of the running around? Don’t you all know that karaoke is the best way to alleviate stress?”

The moment the sentence leaves her mouth, the puppet lets out a small gasp (that sounds more like a squeak) and puts a mitten to her mouth.

“... ....Well, it’s pretty late anyway, I think you should all get some sleep and be thankful that I’m contractually obligated not to scare you too much yet. Like, what, is this the sort of scenario people get used to? Like people’s hearts don’t race when someone else is met with a scary, horrible end?!”

She shakes her head.

“Anyway, you all got off easy again!! Next time ... next time ...”

Misery continues to mutter something - incomprehensible - as she falls from her chair and does her disappearing act once more.

【 CHAPTER 1 END 】

You have all received 3 COINS!

#daedal mirage #ch1 #ch1 afterword #plot

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daedalmirage · 2 years

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【PUNISHMENT 1】 night-mare life-in-death

Plucked so quickly from everyone else, Ray doesn’t have any time to orient herself. She’d had no votes. What had she done, why had she been deemed fit to die--

again, her brain supplies, you were chosen before, with that Mark.

--it quiets her panic enough so that she manages to get a sweep of the room before she’s whisked away, as close to a goodbye as she manages.

The stage is set. Ray stands on a boat.

It can’t be one of hers, not any of the cargo ships she’s spoken of, and not even one of the smaller exploration boats she may have mentioned. No, it’s closer to the size of the rowboat Nina and Pluto took to that islet, wooden and just big enough to house a wheel and a bell. When Ray adjusts to the dark of the starry, moonless night, she shifts only for the boat to pitch in turn. She stills, as if she’s only now realized what she must be on.

The ship’s bell sounds, crisp and clear, and another follows it. Ray waits for the boat to steady before she tromps towards it, comfortable with her footing now that she knows she’s at sea.

Clong, clong, clong, clong, clong, clong….

The eighth toll comes and none follow.

It’s strange. It’s the quiet after that makes Ray startle. Her head jerks to the side like a frightened horse, and that’s all it takes for the ship to buck her off, sending her tumbling overboard.

There’s no sound, no splash, no scream.

But a fog clears, and now Ray bobs on the surface of a shimmering river, hesitantly brushing a dry lock of hair from her face. No droplets fall from her arm when it raises, no waterlogged jacket weighs her down. Slowly, shakily, her hand falls back to the water and her eyes follow it, watching it graze the surface--

--of a translucent cheek, a mouth that shuts when her finger touches it.

Ray screams.

Ray doesn’t make a habit of being loud. Maybe this is why. Her voice cuts like a gull’s cry, panicked and delirious, as she wrenches her arms away desperately, sending her hand into a coil of hair, a knee, a shoulder. Incorporeal hands raise to try to grasp her, to pull her into this river of souls, but can’t find lasting purchase on her living body. With every movement she makes to try to keep control, she thrashes against spirit after spirit, disturbing them again and again. She must realize this because she abruptly stills, terror making the whites of her eyes stand out in the dark. Maybe Bella had been right, and maybe the vote had disrespected Pluto’s memory. Maybe Ray is here because, of all people, she should know better. Ray’s life had been offered up long ago in service to those who no longer had one of their own. Maybe these hands are only trying to take back what she’d always given them, maybe she deserves to die if she’s forgotten to speak for them, maybe--

Paralyzed by her own accord, she’s helpless as two, three, six hands haul her from the tangle of limbs that clamber to drag her back down. She’s pulled and then placed, trembling, on the shore, those hands letting go and taking full shape next to her.

Three diffuse spirits linger beside her. The largest reaches a hand forward. Ray flinches back hard, but the spirit only touches the sleeve of her jacket. It tugs it, almost playfully, and with its hand there, it’s impossible not to notice the similar cut of the spirit’s sleeve, how it seems to fit it the same way Ray’s fits her.

Ray’s gaze bores into the figure, and then shifts to the smallest. The little spirit raises a hand to wave, but Ray interrupts the motion by cupping the hand between her own. Ray looks at their hands together -- the spirit’s looks so small in Ray’s big ones -- and something breaks in her posture, shoulders jerking up with a sudden sob.

The remaining figure touches Ray’s chin, and she compliantly looks at its face where she’s directed. In an ultimately useless gesture, the ghost swipes its fingers across Ray’s tears, which only makes Ray cry more, her mouth pressing together to try to keep quiet. It doesn’t work, of course, and for a couple of Ray’s heartbeats, the four of them sit on that shore, something peculiarly tender about it all.

Then, that last, comforting ghost brings its hand to Ray’s face once more. Even without a solid face, there’s an intensity to its beseeching stare, an expectation in the way it holds its fingers.

Ray doesn’t thrash, not like before. What the ghost wants from her is merely something it’s taking back, something Ray wouldn’t dare to keep from it.

She’s always heard that she has her mother’s eyes, after all.

A fog moves in and claims Ray’s eye, the cloud swirling as it settles. At the same time, warmth ebbs into the ghost’s eye, spreading slowly like a watercolor. They both stare at each other with their twin gazes for a moment, but the ghost breaks it first, the brown eye flattening on the bottom in a smile -- kinder than Ray’s ever seem -- before it looks away.

The rest feels like it happens all at once. Ray’s blinking fast, tears dropping from her eyelashes and her body swaying like she’s disoriented, and the three spirits stir. One by one, they tousle her hair before slipping back into the stream, rejoining the dead. Ray cries out and stumbles forward after them, but it’s too far and too fast. The sea of souls claims her once more, but this time, she sinks. She’s whirling through them, looking more like she’s falling…

…Until the footage cuts. There’s no need for it when Ray slams back into her seat, trembling and silent once more.

#daedal mirage #ch1 #ch1 afterword #plot #punishment #ray

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