#do you think teru exists in his mind more or less than usual mob

[dolugecat]

On some Japanese social issues I had learned about at uni and abroad):

(Rb ok!)

Legit had an epiphany about the true hidden meaning of the last arc of Mob Psycho 100. It’s hella projection but for real there is nothing neurotypical about Mob or Mob Psycho. I do not wish to enforce my interpretation on others (ironic bc I do that all the time but this is a serious social theory). There are some interesting and very sad social issues in Japan that the west really doesn’t understand but would I think help people understand a lot of context behind not only Mob Psycho, but also a lot of other anime. I learned this at my shitty university (prestigious but horrific) and while studying abroad in Japan and talking with Japanese peers. Get ready here we go (and tw for bullying and darker things):

Unfortunately in East Asian education systems, bullying can be extremely intense. Growing up I assumed it was over exaggerated extremely in anime for drama but it really can be so horrific. From what I’ve heard, there is often a single kid or so who is just shit on by everyone else, even the teacher. Mogami land *is* the reality of some Japanese kids. I’ve read that in Korea, this social punching bag sometimes is just the darkest skinned person (yayyy colorism /angry) and or someone who does not fit in. I mean, we have that in America too, but maybe not as common for the bullying to be as focused on one misfit rather than several. These kids just can’t escape the stigma too, kids from other schools find out they were a major victim at their old school and it starts anew. Thus there is so much stigma and incentive to join in on bullying so you aren’t the one. Sadly, this also ofc leads to higher suicide rates. That’s where the “shoe on building roof” anime trope comes in, bc somehow taking off shoes is relayed to death (I forgot why sorry)

There is a difference in how intense in general high school vs college is too. In the West, commonly college is the more intense curriculum and is harder than high school, but in Japan it’s usually the opposite. Grind suuuupppeeerrrr hard for entrance exams (huge standardized tests that determines what college you can qualify to) bc unlike the ACT or SAT here, that test is by far the most important factor for college admission. Then chill and relax a bit in college. Can’t relate. Name and prestige is very critical for job application, more important than here. That’s why planning out your future is sooo much more intense for Japanese high schoolers than in America, and why there is sooo much more pressure to excel in high school than here. Japanese school years and holidays are done different than ours, I’d suggest looking it up.

Social prestige of going to an American high school or college is nuts. Like whyyy do you value our shitty education, Japan’s is much higher quality (it’s bc we neo colonized them). Being able to speak English is very, very highly valued and any association with Americans make you cooler. From my experience, some Japanese students got very excited to practice speaking English with us, and their biggest issues with learning it is pronunciation, lmao. Wasai english is unique slang that is indeed English words but it’s kinda different and it’s kinda jarring to remember lol. So, Teru having parents that are working overseas isn’t too uncommon, idk about leaving him absolutely alone, but I did have a ex-friend who just came from Japan in middle school who’s situation probably wasn’t too far off from that. Empty wealth with no love, it’s no wonder those kind of people can end up being huge bullies (minori?)

I did a presentation on 引きこもり(hikikomori) for which means “shut in”, (like Serizawa) and it’s fucked up. It’s a social phenomena where according to some Japanese researchers a mix of undisciplined parenting, guilt/not living up to expectations, and hopelessness makes an alarming amount of youth/ young adults literally never go out side their house/room. Often a parent is “enabling” the behavior by supporting them, but idk the articles seemed a bit victim-blaming to me when I read it, but I don’t think I should make a judgement too hard, not my place. I will say I do suspect and believe I read something to support that ASD might play a role in hikikomoris (there is pitiful resources for autistic people in Asia, much much less support than even here, to the point I don’t think most know it exists). Like come on, with the other points I laid out my personal opinion as an Asian American with autism is that it really seems it’s unknowing ableism against autistic classmates, but I didn’t grow up in Asia so I don’t want to say.

Mental health in general is tragically quite abysmal in Japan, and with it being so hyper competitive and brutal work culture, it’s no surprise birth rate in Japan is so low; some Japanese young adults say it seems unethical to bring a life to such hostile world. Suicide rate is of the highest in the world. It’s fucked, I’ve interacted with some of the locals in Tokyo and they were so nice, but the business men just looked dead inside, it’s so sad.

Relationships between child and parent is also strained bc of this intense work and school culture. Quality time is too scarce when you gotta work so much. And the pressure from parents to do well in education or else you might end up socially stigmatized is rough. Bc your job is who you are, it’s hyper capitalism (thanks us for making them do this)

With autism being so unknown, support for parents in raising autistic kids is almost nonexistent. What happens if the “darker” side of ASD shows up in kids? I used to be a menace when I had meltdowns, I felt so bad but really just became so indiscriminately violent. See where this is going? Legit, I think ESP is a sort of metaphor for neurodivergance to ONE. There is so much stigma around it, and even less way for kids to understand why they are different than the others. My Korean family can’t admit we all got ASD, too much fear and internalized shame.

I got finally diagnosed with ASD as an adult and I’ll tell ya, I relate too much to Mob hurting Ritsu. I felt so bad, but also not in control, I knew what I was doing but not how to stop. Luckily, is was blessed in that my hyperfixations involved science and logic, so I did well at school. Sadly, our boy Mob just don’t got the passion or ability to do well at school. His kanji is very bad, even to point of not being confident he wrote a kanji (世) they learn when they are 9, in elementary school (thanks @katyatalks). Him being a bit berated by his parents for having bad grades and bending spoons seems harsh to Westerners I think, but IMO it’s pretty tame from what I’ve seen of some Asian parents (I get to say that lmao). Ofc, however the shaming is very real and Mob just agreeing with them about how weird and stupid he thinks he is so sad. There is even more pressure for the eldest to be better than here, I feel from some interactions. Nonetheless, it’s implied Mob is quite emotionally detached from his parents, even though he loves them, which also adds to his emotional complex. Combined with originally fragile self esteem and feelings of worthlessness, we got one emotionally stunted boy. However, contrary to common belief people with ASD are sometimes hyper empathic and experience emotions very intensely. We are prone to having “meltdowns” which if not assisted with can be quite violent if very intense. For me, my worse meltdowns as a kid came from when I didn’t understand why I wasn’t getting what I wanted, it seemed selfish and cruel of me but I couldn’t control it. I wanted to be a good kid, so why did hit my moms leg at target when she refused to buy me Pokémon toys? I couldn’t come up with a good reason for why my mind just commanded my body to do bad things, just a single thought was controlling me, I want I want I want I want I want ____. Which I argue could be what ???% represents… bc well…. Yeah….. hmm….. not in control of self (mob unconscious), selfish (not actually, I’ve forgave myself but my “normal” kid self was so ashamed), destructive, hurt family, wanting to stop but can’t, that’s kind of…. Too relatable.

But legit, since realizing my new HC, I’ve started to think of the last chapter of mp100 when I “explode” and it helps me feel better and I do gain “control” a bit easier. I don’t feel so bad anymore either, Mob!

#mp100 #mob psycho 100 #my post #mp100 headcanons #welcome to my hc #asd #autism #actually autistic #kageyama shigeo #mob #mp100 meta #Japanese society #japanese culture #meta #mp100 analysis

[marinsawakening]

I’m creating an esper girl AU because of course I am, and it focuses on the girls teaming up to save pretty much all the other espers of Seasoning City, who have been kidnapped by a mysterious organization. Anyway here’s a rundown of everyone’s powers I have so far:

Mezato: brainwashing, but like, mostly subtle. She basically has a form of telepathy/empathy that focuses on projecting her emotions/thoughts/wants/needs onto others, and uses that to influence people’s minds. She usually does this over a longer period of time, because that’s harder to detect or resist, but can brute force her way into your brain if need be. 

Tome: spacey powers; gravity control, wormhole creation, light manipulation (or rather, darkness manipulation; mostly the ability to take light away from places and make it dark, though other abilities sneak in too). Also has some very basic psychokinesis. 

Emi: written curses/talismans. She can curse anything she writes on, as well as make portable curses on paper. In addition, she can also protect anything she write on and create written talismans for people to carry. Also has the ability to see curses.

Tsubomi: necromancy and control over living beings. More specifically, she can control physical aspects of both dead and living things, such as bones, blood, tissue, etc. Can also create decay, and has chlorokinesis.

Rei: extrasensory perception/clairvoyance. Yes I know she’s a canon esper I just wanted to make clear she’s involved in my AU.

More details about their powers and a little bit about the role I’m planning on giving them in my AU under the cut.

Mezato:

Her powers manifested when she was too young to remember, and she’s used them on an almost daily basis since. This made her spoiled rotten and used to getting her way, creating an ego similar to that of Teru or even Touichirou. However, after the Divine Tree Incident, she got some character development and realized that always getting what she wants through mind control has left her hollow, which, combined with the newfound knowledge of just how scary it can be to be on the receiving end of mind control, has knocked her down a few pegs and made her use her powers less. 

Is mostly a support member, searching out information by brainwashing people into giving it for her and/or using her brainwashing to get access to places she shouldn’t have. 

Has the best control of her powers out of everyone in the group, and functions as something of a mentor for the rest because of that, despite her distinct un-mentor-like personality and the fact that her powers aren’t really comparable to most of the group’s.

Her power level is rather high, somewhere around Teru’s and/or Takenaka’s level, but she’s not and will never be as overpowered as Mob.

Has a very faint, sickly yellow aura. Can brainwash you into overlooking it, forgetting you ever saw it, etc. 

Avoided the organization’s detection because her power is very subtle and hard to recognize, and even telepaths and empaths generally don’t pick up on her aura because she has a unique mix of the two abilities.

Tome:

Her gravity control functions basically the same as the leader of the Seventh Division’s, but much less powerful (and she can’t create orbs at the start of the story).

Her wormhole creation is basically just cool space themed teleportation, with the added bonus of making it easy for to teleport large groups (but she develops it relatively late into the story).

Light manipulation mainly focuses on being able to take light away from a place, so it looks more like she’s controlling darkness than light. However, later during the story, she develops invisibility (and maybe even the ability to manipulate colour? idk I think it’d be cool).

By ‘very basic psychokinesis’, I mean that she can do basic esper things like create barriers/have raw explosions of energy, but can’t do anything more advanced. Doesn’t even have telekinesis. Cannot shape her raw psychic powers like the vectors Teru/that one Seventh division guy uses. At most can blast people somewhere like Serizawa, but it’s much weaker than his. Mostly, her psychic powers lie in her space themed powers.

Her powers manifested when she came under Rusty’s curse, as a desperate reaction to try and keep her alive, but since they only manifested as a slight increase in gravity and some darkness swirling, everyone assumed it was Rusty’s curse and didn’t pay it any mind. Tome later found out that they were her powers, and was planning on telling someone, but then all the espers got kidnapped.

Has really shoddy control of her powers to start with, bc she only just manifested them, but learns and grows quickly.

Has impressive powers but a moderate to moderately high power level, a little weaker than Ritsu to start with and eventually developing to somewhere around his level.

Acts as one of the front line members and is often on the offense, because her powers are very well suited for it, and she’s the only one of the team who can create barriers. Later also helps with stealth missions, after she masters her darkness control/invisibility, and acts as the transportation for the team after she manifests the ability to create wormholes.

Has a very noticeable galaxy aura when she’s using her powers, but it’s faint if she’s not. It gradually becomes more and more noticeable even when she’s ‘in rest’ over the course of the series.

Evaded detection by the organization because her powers had only just manifested, and nobody except her knew they existed.

Emi:

Manifested her powers during the last exam period, after she got way too stressed and her powers pulled a Ritsu and awakened. This happened about a year prior to the start of the story. Found out about her powers after she noticed she had accidentally cursed her teacher with her exam, and suddenly gained the ability to see spirits.

Is bad at detecting esper auras, because her power set is very unique and has little overlap with either psycho/telekinetics or telepaths/empaths.

How powerful her curses/talismans are is almost entirely dependent on how much time she’s had to prepare them; she stores up energy into the curses/talismans, which releases when the curse/talisman is activated. 

She does have an upper limit, of course; the most extreme talisman she could create would be a one-time protection against death, and the most extreme curse she could create would either cause minor decay in a person or collapse a building. She cannot store power for longer than a week.

Has a moderate to moderately high power level. However, her unique power set makes her hard to compare to others. Would, with practice, maybe be about as powerful as or just a little weaker than the curse guy from the Seventh Division, but her power is less suited for battle bc she needs to store energy first.

Has really bad control over her powers bc she’s scared of them; accidentally curses almost anything she writes on, and doesn’t really know what her base powers are. Doesn’t even know she can make talismans at the start of the story. Eventually becomes more confident and gains better control over them.

She didn’t tell Mob or any other esper about her powers because of the aforementioned fear of them. Was, however, working up to asking someone for help after realizing she can’t control them herself; had told Tome in confidence, who was planning on asking Reigen for advice on this (since he may not be an esper, but he knows pretty much all the espers in Seasoning City). 

Avoided detection by the organization partially because she’d told almost nobody of her powers, and partly because her unique power set gave her an aura that’s practically invisible to most other espers.

Has an ink black aura that rises up from her hands like thick smoke/ghibli tears when she’s writing her curses; otherwise doesn’t have an aura at all.

Rarely to never goes out into actual danger situations, because her powers are basically useless for spur of the moment defense. Almost a complete behind the scenes support member, making curses for the team to use and talismans to protect them.

Note to self: prime damsel in distress material. Might get kidnapped at some point.

Made friends with Tome online after finding out they both liked the same game. 

Tsubomi:

Her powers give her the ability to, among other things: have rudimentary brute force control over animal’s bodies (sort of similar to blood bending but harder to maintain; this drains a lot of energy and is generally impractical), deform tissue/blood/bones in animals (hard to control, but easy to manifest), control over plant bodies (the easiest for her), control corpses (very easy), cause decay in things (pretty easy in organic matter, a lot harder in inorganic matter), and heal living thigns (very difficult, requires fine tuned control).

Manifested her power about one to two years after she stopped being friends with Mob, but rarely if ever uses it because it really freaked her parents out and they encouraged her to keep it secret, and because her powers are by and large useless in day to day situations.

She’s not particularly bothered by the nature of her powers herself, but does recognize that it’s very morbid to others, and can be pretty self-conscious about that.

Her control over her powers is decent, but not great. She has a fairly good grasp on what her base abilities are and doesn’t have wild explosions of power, but is bad at knowing where her limits lie and unpracticed in a lot of areas of her power. 

She’s extremely powerful, about at Touichirou’s level, and if she was more practiced, she might even be able to hold her own against Mob. 

Is the tank of the team; because of her raw power, she often brute forces her way through obstacles. The biggest issue with her is that her control isn’t fine tuned enough to ensure that she won’t seriously injure or kill people if she goes against them, which, in the beginning, makes it difficult to send her out into the field. However, once she gets the hang of that, she’s easily the most powerful.

Evaded detection by the organization because she never told anyone she was an esper, and because she moved out of Seasoning City about a year prior to the start of the story.

Emi was a friend in school and she maintained contact with her after she moved.

Gets dragged into the story after Tome, Emi, and Rei evacuate Seasoning City and come to her. 

Rei:

Only canon esper in the gang, and mostly maintains her canon powers. However, due to frequent practice over the course of about four years, her extrasensory perception/clairvoyance now has about an 80% accuracy rate, and she can even sometimes sense nebulous things from the future, such as ‘danger’ or ‘happiness’. 

She actually was detected by the organization, but she felt a sense of danger before they came to kidnap her and booked it. When she realized that almost all of her friends weren’t answering their phone, she figured out that espers were probably being targeted by someone, and went to Tome for help, who seemed like the safest option at the time. Tome realizes she might be watched bc of her work at Spirits and Such, and brings them both to Emi, after which they decide it would be saver to go out of town entirely and go to stay with Tsubomi.

She went to Tome for help because she was one of the two (supposed) non-espers involved in esper shenanigans she knew. The other was the Awakening Lab guy, but after being kidnapped by Claw, she realizes that he would almost certainly be watched, and opted for Tome instead. 

While they aren’t close, acquaintances more than friends, she knows Tome from Spirits and Such. 

Functions as a support member, primarily; while she does go out into the field if necessary (usually paired up with Mezato, because she could point to people who probably has information/are important and Mezato could take care of them), she also often stays at home base, sifting through documents and internet rumors to find the ones that she can sense would be the most useful. 

As in canon, her power level is very low, but she is definitely one of the most practiced members of the group and has good advice on how to train your powers. Along with Mezato, functions as something of a mentor as a result, and is very nervous about it.

#emi #takane tsubomi #ichi mezato #kurata tome #kurosaki rei #mp100 #mezato #*tsubomi voice* you cannot kill me in any way that matters. decay is an extant form of life. #tsubomi's power is still under contruction and might change to heat manipulation #but i think this is pretty badass #my posts #also don't get ur hopes up about me actually writing this #i suck at action scenes and this would most likely have a ton of them #so unless i can figure out how to avoid that im probably not gonna write a full blown fic for this #esper girl gang au

[avecorviidae]

Fic: Aubade - Chapter Four

Fandom: Mob Psycho 100 Rating: M Relationship(s): Kageyama Ritsu/Suzuki Shou Word Count: 3696

Ao3 Link

His stomach is turning with how early it is, but he can’t seem to get back to sleep.

It’s been years since his dad leaving for work has woken him up, but he finds himself staring at his closet door nonetheless, listening to the muffled sounds from the hallway, his parents’ low voices murmuring something to each other, the soft jingling of keys and the tap tap tap of shoes on the floor as his dad moves from the front hall into the kitchen, and then back. It’s probably not that long in all, but it feels like an eternity before he finally hears the door slam, and the sound of a car starting outside. He hears his mother for a few moments longer, locking the door and then rustling around in the kitchen for a while, but she quickly retreats back into the bedroom—probably to go back to sleep—and the house falls silent once more.

He watches as the sunlight filters through his blinds, gradually illuminating his bedroom until the dull, muted shadows have transformed themselves into more familiar shapes. The alarm clock on his bedside table reads 7:19, which is frankly too early to be awake during summer break, but while Ritsu’s eyes are blurred and heavy with sleep, he’s not sure that he’s actually tired anymore. Or, rather, he’s too busy thinking to be tired.

He lazily shifts his gaze downwards, looking at Shou on the ground. His intricately crafted nest looks like it’s been through a natural disaster, with his single pillow lying halfway across the room at the foot of the door, the quilt that Ritsu had put down folded half in on itself, and Shou not actually on the pallet in the first place, instead having rolled off onto the carpet at some point during the night and taking most of the blankets in a twisted mess along with him. He’s face down on the floor, wrapped up in a cocoon with only his hair and a single leg escaping his burrow. As if on cue, he starts to shift around, making to roll over but getting caught in his blanket straightjacket, and settling on his stomach again with a muffled sigh. Ritsu takes a moment to be intensely jealous of Shou, who is probably on god-only-knows what timezone, and won’t wake up until noon at the earliest. “I mean, you don’t have to answer right now. Think about it, though?” Well, Ritsu’s thinking about it alright. It’s probably the reason he can’t get back to sleep. He rolls over to stare at the wall instead, Shou’s words from last night echoing in his mind. Really, it takes a certain type of person to drop a “let’s move in together” into a conversation, yawn, and then fall asleep without providing any further details or explanation.

The part of Ritsu’s mind that has been desperately trying to rationalize with his anxiety since middle school argues that it’s nothing to freak out over, and that he really shouldn’t start over-analyzing three sentences before Shou is even awake to explain them. The rest of Ritsu’s mind, which is analysis-oriented, exists in a state of complete structural and emotional chaos, and listens to no man, is just about ready to blow. Because, well, this could go one of two ways. On one hand, Shou could be serious. He might actually, legitimately, for whatever reason be suggesting that he and Ritsu get an apartment together, which... While appealing on the surface, it presents a whole range of issues and little details that he can’t be bothered to think about beyond a big chaotic ball of ‘this wouldn’t work’ in his mind. Still though, he finds himself quashing the impulse to go shake Shou awake and say ‘yes’ without a second thought, because details and obstacles always seem to be less concrete around Shou, but… Well, on the other hand. It could be something that he said while he was tired, and when he wakes up, he’ll either ignore it altogether, or brush it off with a laugh, and somehow that’s worse, because Ritsu is realizing with growing irritation that he wants Shou to be serious, which is stupid, this is a ridiculous idea, and it’s the kind of thing that requires serious consideration and planning and mutual discussions, not an offhanded suggestion right before falling asleep.

Wouldn’t he do that kind of thing totally impulsively, though? He sits up, shaking his head slightly to dispel the devil’s advocate in the back of his mind. This train of thought is going nowhere quickly, but it’s certainly not getting him anywhere nearer to sleep, so he might as well get up.

Shou is a heavy enough sleeper that Ritsu doesn’t worry about tiptoeing past him to reach the door, although he does take care not to step on his stray leg, and he opens and closes the bedroom door slowly to minimize the creaking. The wooden floor sticks to his bare feet as he pads down the hallway into the kitchen, following the vague smell of coffee floating around the house. Most of the pot that his dad must’ve brewed this morning is gone, probably poured into a thermos so that he could drink it on the drive, but there’s just enough left for Ritsu to fill one mug. For a few minutes he just leans against the counter, nursing his drink in silence. He knows, rationally, that there have been some moments of silence over the last year, but he’s still having trouble processing it in large amounts, this state of nothing in the house making noise except for his own breathing. No TV on in the other room, no loud Skype calls from elsewhere in the dorm, no shouting or music from down the hall, no horns or revving engines or street vendors outside of the window. It doesn’t feel real. After a while, the near-unreality gets to be too much, and he pulls out his phone to satisfy the nagging voice in his mind. Once he’d graduated, his brother had never woken up before ten in the morning, but his partner…

TO: TERUKI You awake FROM: TERUKI Of course! :0 but why are you?? Suspicions confirmed, Ritsu flips to Teru’s contact page and hits call. He most likely won’t be interrupting anything; Teru usually isn’t awake early for any specific reason, he’s just a morning person, because of course he is. He’s probably already back from a morning bike ride, sitting in the kitchen drinking a smoothie made of some bizarre trendy health fruit. “Little brother?” Teru picks up on the second ring. “Hey. You knew that Shou was coming back here, right?” There are a few moments of silence, but Ritsu waits. “...He may have mentioned it to me at some poin-” “Don’t bullshit me, Hanazawa, you had yesterday completely planned.”

Ritsu hears a soft, static-filled sigh on the other end of the line before Teru starts to speak again. “I hope you’re not hurt by the fact that he didn’t tell you? He was worried you would be, he wanted to back out of the whole thing… it was really me who told him to keep the secret for the sake of the surprise.”

The thing is, the thing is, Ritsu hadn’t even thought to be angry at Shou for not telling him he was coming home, he’d just been glad that he was there. He wonders when he stopped considering Shou’s presence a given in his life. Still, this was getting off-track. “No, it’s- I’m not. But, uh, did he tell you anything about his plans for once he got here?” It’s a bit of a long shot, sure. He’s not really sure how long Teru’s been sitting on the fact that Shou was coming back; it could’ve been two months, two weeks, or two days, giving them just enough time to actually plan the meetup. “Oh, you mean the fact that he’s staying for good? Yes, he told me.” Yeah, let’s go with that, Ritsu thinks. It’s close enough. “Yeah. Do you know where he’s planning on living?” He asks the question deliberately, lightly enough that if Teru genuinely doesn’t know a thing, he won’t take note of it, but if he’s bullshitting as much as Ritsu thinks he might be, it’ll cut through all of Teru’s deflections and get to the heart of the matter. Sure enough, when Teru responds, the jovially innocuous tone has been dropped, instead replaced with a dry, “He asked you, didn’t he?” Ritsu struggles to find the right way to phrase what he’s thinking, but eventually settles on a blunt, “Was he joking?” “Did you turn him down?” And now Teru sounds genuinely surprised, almost sputtering, although reasonably that could be the unreliable phone connection. No, wait, Ritsu hears a faint, “Shit, my blueberries!” on the other end, followed by distant clattering. He takes a moment to feel vaguely guilty for whatever breakfast food he just accidentally ruined. “He fell asleep before I could say anything. Did. He. Mean. It.” At this point it’s clear that Teru knows far more than he’s letting on, and Ritsu can be as bratty and grumpy as he likes about it, but Teru will probably remain cryptically neutral and try and force Ritsu to solve his own problems, because he’s actually a good friend, even if Ritsu kind of hates him for it most of the time. As predicted, once given the high ground again, Teru’s voice goes airy and vague. “What do you think, Ritsu? What would your plans be, in his place?” Ritsu’s first instinct is to say live in my giant fucking house, but… would he? Over the years, Ritsu hasn’t spent much time in Shou’s house, but he still remembers its sprawling, sparse rooms, its high gothic ceilings, its impersonal style, like it had been furnished to be a model home. More importantly, he knows that for periods, however brief, Shou lived in that house with his father. Teru, because he’s decent enough at leading a horse to water but can’t quite resist giving it one last hint that it’s supposed to be drinking, gives one last thought before hanging up. “He’s spent the better part of two days on a plane or in an airport. Don’t you think, after all that, the only thing you’d want would be to sleep in an actual bed? Instead, I’m guessing he spent the night on your floor.”

-

“Mom?” He steps into the kitchen, still scrubbing the damp towel over his hair to get rid of any stray dripping.

He’d spent a while kicking around in the living room, flipping through the TV and ending up on another episode of the same soap opera. It must’ve been on a marathon, because he’d still been watching it when his mother had finally gotten up and stolen the remote privileges from him, so that she could watch the tv while she was cooking. She’d then booted him out of the living room entirely, until he was “showered and dressed like a responsible adult,” which had taken him… probably a bit longer than entirely appropriate. By the time he’d finally felt gross enough to get out of bed and shower, it was because the sun was high in the sky and his room was uncomfortably warm. Today’s a baking day, apparently, judging by the absolute chaos of the kitchen. It’ll never fail to amaze him how his mother can make an entire meal and only leave a sinkful of dishes, but when it comes to baking, suddenly there’s three pans, fifteen bowls, and every spoon in the house strewn about the kitchen at random, coupled with streaks of batter and random starbursts of flour scattered on every available surface. Even without the clutter, the sweet smell filling the kitchen and rapidly spreading to the rest of the house gives it away. Curiously, he wanders over to the sink, peeking into one of the pans filled halfway with soapy water. Dark streaks of caramel climb the inside of the pot. Ah, Ritsu thinks, understanding suddenly dawning. He hears his mother’s voice from the hallway, just a moment before she steps into the room behind him. “Ritsu? You called– oh, there you are. Yes, yes, I know,” she tuts at his knowing smile, “they’re almost ready. Now, go get Suzuki up. He gets first taste.”

“Aw, what? I asked you to make them in the first place–” his protest is short-lived, ended by a flour-covered spatula to the arm. He ducks past her and out of the kitchen before she can start properly shooing him, and closes his bedroom door behind him with a small click. Shou has migrated again while Ritsu was in the shower, this time rolling over to the other side of the pallet, but still refusing to actually sleep on it. One of his arms has escaped the blanket cocoon now, and it’s stretched on the carpet above his head, drifting close enough to the edge of the room that Ritsu thinks he probably flung it up there and whacked his hand against the wall at some point. Ritsu crouches down by Shou’s head and taps him on the shoulder lightly, once, twice. “Shou? You awake?” Shou makes a low noise, not quite a groan, but definitely not awake enough to be a hum of acknowledgement. Ritsu just puts it down to Shou’s chronic inability to shut up.

Ritsu shifts so that he’s sitting more comfortably, legs curled underneath him and propping himself up on one hand. He tries again, this time shaking Shou’s shoulder until his eyes slowly blink open, looking up at Ritsu, bleary and unfocused. This time, the noise he makes is definitely awake, a disgruntled whine that makes Ritsu huff a quiet laugh.

He pulls away and leans back, giving Shou a dry smile. “Well good morning, Sunshine.”

Shou squints, before mumbling, “Morning? No. Never mind,” and making to roll over again. Ritsu grabs the blanket wrapped around his shoulders and tugs him back before he can, countering, “Almost one in the afternoon, actually.” That gets a sigh of resigned defeat, and Shou rolls onto his back, staring up at the ceiling with unseeing eyes. There’s a pretty incredible imprint of the carpet on his face, climbing in red lines from his cheek to his temple. “Don’t wanna get up. Floor’s nice. Ritsu, your floor is good.” “Thank you.” He can’t quite keep the laugh out of his voice, or the grin off of his face, but he does actually make an attempt to get them back on task. “Even so, you do have to get up. We’ve got stuff to talk about.” Ritsu mentally kicks himself, because that was a dick move, dropping a ‘we need to talk’ in there first thing after he wakes up, and he just hopes that Shou’s still too out of it to have noticed. “Plus, there’s food in the kitchen. C’mon, up.” With some more struggling, Ritsu manages to get Shou on his feet and shuffling to the kitchen, although he’d had to compromise with the blankets, allowing him to keep one of the bigger, fuzzy ones wrapped around his shoulders like a cape and trailing behind him like a bridal train. He lets Shou lean most of his weight against Ritsu’s side, because otherwise he’s a little worried Shou will wander straight into the wall.

He pauses under the archway to the kitchen, pulling Ritsu to a halt with a tug on his arm. Ritsu watches him squint, take a deep breath, and he murmurs, “Smells like…” and then his eyes go wide, and he’s grinning at Ritsu, so abruptly awake it’s almost starting. “I love this family,” he says, before he’s bounding into the kitchen, blanket still flowing behind him.

Ritsu knows for a fact that those cookies are still hot, especially taking into account the caramel factor, so he just pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs in resignation when Shou grabs one off of the cooling rack and shoves the entire thing in his mouth. He’s not sure if pyrokinesis gives one immunity to all burns or if Shou just genuinely doesn’t care, but either way he seems unfazed, closing his eyes with a groan that’s borderline obscene.

Ritsu’s mother, hovering by the sink, is watching him with roughly the same dry bemusement that Ritsu is, although she does actually move to shoo him away from the counter before he can do something silly like try and float the entire tray away, or further damage the inside of his mouth. She stacks about half of the cookies onto a plate and sends them off with it, and Ritsu feels about fifteen years old again, sitting on the floor of his bedroom with his best friend and eating cookies for breakfast at one in the afternoon. Shou’s sitting cross-legged on the pallet, munching on one of the little cookies and probably getting crumbs all over the floor in the process. “So,” he says around a mouthful, leaning one elbow on his knee, “you said we were gonna talk?” Ritsu’s already given up phrasing this delicately before the conversation has even properly begun, so he doesn’t hesitate to say, “Yeah, about what you said last night.” Aside from lighting up in recognition, Shou’s expression gives very little away, but his leg instantly starts to bounce, just a little, beating up and down like a hummingbird wing. “Oh, right. I was just, thinking about it, I guess?” He shrugs a little. He’s clearly trying to keep his voice casual, but his nerves are about as subtle as a brick to the face. Ritsu stays silent, cueing him to continue, to explain his thoughts. Give Shou enough time and he will start talking, eventually.

“I’m not really gonna stay in that house. I might, uh, sell it? Or rent it out? Whatever. But I’m gonna look for an apartment somewhere. I don’t know where yet, but I’ve been thinking maybe around here or further north. I just thought that, y’know, with your dorm and all, you might wanna get out and into a proper place.”

That’s a lot of information for Ritsu to process. About halfway through, his explanation had started to sound almost rehearsed, meaning he’s thought about this. Shou’s stopped even trying to look at Ritsu, instead staring intently at his hands twisting in his lap, and Ritsu is just staring, and trying not to think about the fact that Shou has basically just admitted that he’s been looking at apartments near Grain City.

“Shou, I…” he starts, trails off into silence, sighs as he’s trying to gather his thoughts. Shou’s shoulders are hunched, like he’s bracing himself for what Ritsu’s going to say. He takes a breath and tries to start again. “It’s not that I don’t want to,” and the reluctance in his voice is genuine, “but the reason I’m in dorms in the first place is that I can’t afford an apartment. I can’t pay rent, or the bills, hell, I can barely contribute to the groceries as is.” Shou’s head shoots up and his eyes meet Ritsu’s, staring at him in open surprise. “Oh, I didn’t even think about… I don’t care about that.”

And, oh, Ritsu is an idiot, he’s actually just plain stupid. Of course money isn’t an issue for Shou. Between his father’s numerous global ventures, inheritance money, and a massive trust fund that had opened up for Shou when he’d turned eighteen, paying full rent on an apartment, even somewhere like Grain City, is probably nothing for him.

He’s immediately resistant to the idea of Shou paying for everything for both of them, taking advantage of him and always feeling like he’ll owe him something in return. The little devil’s advocate starts jabbering in the back of his mind, though, argues that he’ll probably do that anyways. Regardless of whether Ritsu’s living with him, Shou will get an apartment, and if he’s close enough to the university, Ritsu will probably be spending a decent amount of time over there, hanging out and mooching off of his wifi and the peace and quiet that he can’t get in his dorm.

Besides, and the voice is smug, like a lawyer giving the closing statement after the most one-sided case of his life. It sounds irritatingly like Teru.

You know he doesn’t want to live alone. Ritsu leans back until he can reach for his backpack, and tugs out a notepad and a pen. He flips it open to a blank page. “Right,” he says, pointing the pen right at Shou’s nose, “If we’re doing this, we’re doing it together, and we’re doing it right. We are not jumping into this blind and ending up in a shithole with no ceiling.”

Shou stares cross eyed at the tip of the pen for a moment, face blank, before he lights up, and Ritsu swears to god that the room gets just a little bit brighter. He scooches across the floor to press up against Ritsu’s side. “Gameplan time?” “Yep.”

-

Within an hour, their list reads as follows:

find an apartment

move out of dorm (paperwork???? talk to $ aid guy)

get dog DO NOT GET DOG

move into aptmt

furniture??

spoons silverware

towels

we need cups right

plates????

IKEA

Ritsu scans over the list on the floor in front of them, tapping the pen absently against Shou’s knee. “This is… a lot,” he says, with some trepidation. “We’re gonna have to go up and look at apartments before the the week is up, if we want to be moved in by the end of summer.” He’ll be sad to cut his visit short, considering just how little he gets to see his family, and he can already sense the impending stress that this move is going to cause. Still, he can’t help being excited, caught up in Shou’s boundless enthusiasm, especially seeing it all laid out as a concrete plan in front of him. “Do you think your mom will let us take the rest of the cookies?”

“Yes, Shou.”

#/ #// #/// #//// #///// #robin fic #mp100 fic #fic: aubade

[fireflysummers]

Mob Psycho 100 x Paranatural

Okay my dudes, I figure I may as well put these ideas down in one post since I don’t have time to draw them (or any more at least). They all stemmed from a convo a month or two ago between me and @happikattwuzheere concerning how Reigen is the Anti-Spender.

@7bluecats and @cocoa-bee I think you two were asking about this general stuff.

-cracks knuckles- 

Okay so. I have like. Several variations on the theme.

1. Total Crossover: The cast of paranatural meets the cast of MP100 (ignoring language barriers and geographical locations)

Or: The Fun AU where friendships and rivalries abound and there’s not much angst

Johnny immediately picks Mob out for a wimp and attempts to intimidate him...he is immediately stopped by (1) Ritsu, (2) Teru, (3) The Body Improvement Club

Dimple terrorizes PJ and attempts to arm wrestle Lefty

Suzy and Mezato meet. Even to those not physically present, there is an immediate chill as though some unholy partnership has been formed. (Alternatively they also compete for information because one girl is a master at bribery and blackmail, the other one literally started her own cult in her classmate’s image)

Reigen left hooks Spender for putting kids in the line of danger in order to satisfy his own ego (”You f*cked up some perfectly good children is what you did. Look at them. They’ve got anxiety!”)

Spender attempts to convince Mob (and the other Esper kids) to be his disciples. Shou laughs. Ritsu hates him more than he distrusts Reigen. Teru laughs and insults his choice of clothing. Mob is uncomfortable.

Salt Mid Student Council v Mayview Mid Student Council: an immovable object meets an unstoppable force

idk but Tome and Lisa look like they could be related all right?

The Esper kids in general get along with the Activity Club

Isaac and Ritsu have literally no patience for each other; Isaac and Teru have no patience for each other because Teru keeps insisting that he (and especially Mob) are probably stronger than Isaac

Isabel challenges them all to arm wrestles. To Shou’s horror, she wins them all.

Ed and Teru for some reason actually hit it off. Mostly because Teru is a movie buff like Ed and Ed is an invaluable source of creative ideas that Teru can actual implement in battle.

Shou (on Isaac): HAHA LOOK IT’S LIKE ME AND YOU FUSED TOGETHER TO MAKE ONE SUPER VOLATILE ANGST LORD

Max doesn’t really like Reigen, but he doesn’t immediately distrust him either because, despite being a con man, Reigen is by and large more honest than Spender

Max isn’t sure if he likes Mob, but he’s nice to him. He finds Teru obnoxious, but finds Ritsu tolerable in a way that Isaac isn’t. Mostly because Ritsu doesn’t demand things like loyalty and friendship right out. He gets along best with Shou, who is King at Wicked Stunts and Lighting Stuff on Fire.

Johnny is kind of terrified of Teru because Teru has expertise in dealing with delinquents and isn’t afraid to pull that card (even without the use of his psychic powers)

Hitball tourney between the two schools. Mob spends the entire time surrounded by the Body Improvement Club. People are reasonably intimidated. Despite that though the teams are pretty evenly matched.

BL makes the mistake of trying to connect into Mob’s mind. She disconnects that one REAL FAST.

Matsuo comes home with a new collection of mundane objects that are infused with spirits of all kinds

Mob accidentally pops the bubble surrounding Mayview and unleashes the apocalypse

2. Spender is Reigen

Spender is a legitimate psychic who runs the Spirits and Such Consultation.

He is a good bit less successful than Reigen because he is actually relatively bad with interpersonal relationships

Also his main goal is boosting his own ego, as opposed to Reigen who was kind of bored but mostly wanted to help people somehow

tbh I don’t think that Mob would have stuck around Spender like he did Reigen. Spender talks too much about himself, and as hard as he tries to be inspirational he lacks the sincerity and emotional depth that Reigen does to pull it off.

But assuming that Mob did stick around, I don’t think that Spender would be healthy to his maturity

Spender wouldn’t trust Mob to make decisions as a rational individual. He’d treat him like he was kind of dumb, just because Mob approaches thoughts very differently from most people. He’d maybe try to shelter him out of this weird protective instinct, but he wouldn’t really respect Mob as an intelligent individual (and he is, that smackdown with Touchirou shows that he not only thinksa bout stuff, he thinks deeply)

Spender would take Mob’s silence as approval. All the time. 

Spender would however be able to teach Mob how to channel his powers to an extent but his teaching would always be hampered by his own inferiority complex regarding Mob’s natural ability.

In the end, Mob would have more technical mastery of his psychic skills (despite that not being what he REALLY wants out of life anyways), and also likely be a lot more doubtful of his own decisions and less likely to take risks

This story would end with the Mogami arc, wherein Spender would think himself the True Hero as he does, and attempt to take on Mogami himself.  He dies.

3. Reigen is Spender

The least developed of the AUs, in which Reigen is an American middle school teacher

He still doesn’t have powers, beyond being able to see the spirits. He can’t use spectral energy or use weapons. 

Everybody thinks he can though

As in, BL thinks that he’s an incredibly powerful spectral because he keeps resisting her attempts to link with him mentally. In reality he doesn’t even know that that dream stuff exists, or is vaguely aware of it only.

He’s known for being a little bit scattered as a teacher, easily flustered and known to bullshit his way through stuff that he obviously doesn’t know

Despite that he’s well loved because at the end of the day, no matter how frustrated or tired he is, he legitimately gives the impression that he cares about his students.

He’s slightly better at handling Isaac than Spender is. For starters, he actually gives Isaac a degree of respect, answering him honestly where he can and giving him “I can’t tell you that right now, but I promise I’ll tell you when you’re no longer inhabited by a highly dangerous spirit monster okay?” where he can’t

Also he wouldn’t have fought Forge. I mean, he doesn’t have any powers anyways, and because holy shit that thing spits fire. If the kids were in danger he would have ditched so fast because the kids always come first.

Actually he probably would have called off the mission the minute that things started turning out more dangerous than projected

Zarei would probably still hate him though because he’s the type of guy who gets under her skin

Day is sneaky af and Reigen wouldn’t make the mistake of underestimating her like literally everybody else in the series right now

He’s legitimately worried about Max, who has clearly not moved on from mourning his mother. He’s a lot more attentive to this as a motivator in Max’s actions, and although he won’t ask about it directly he’s definitely checking for warning signs

He’s nearly gotten fired three times for physically threatening students (they deserved it but whatever)

Has been called a coward many, many times by almost every character in the series. Literally does not care because the people he cares about are still, by and large, alive

4. Max’s Mogami World

I don’t really remember the context of this one but it definitely started with discussing how differently Mogami’s world would have presented itself

There are a number of context clues implying that Max feels guilt over his mother’s death, so his isolation in the mind world is built around that

In this world, he still has a dad and a sister, but they both blame him for what happened to his mom. Not verbally, usually, but definitely in the coldness towards him and the way that look at him when they think he’s not looking

The move to Mayview isolates him completely, and he’s not brought into a circle of friends at his new school

Physical bullying doesn’t bother him nearly as much, because he knows how to fight back, but he takes to ditching school in an attempt to avoid his tormentors. This, in turn, causes a lot of the teachers to label him as a delinquent and start treating him more poorly

Minori (or the character equivalent in this world) finds out about Max’s mom somehow (via Suzy or somebody else snooping around), and uses that knowledge to emotionally bully Max into a corner

Max is the only one in the Paranatural cast that would have survived longer than a week in a Mogami world. Everybody else would have been too easy to pull apart.

Except maybe Ed. Mogami wouldn’t know what the heck to do with Ed. (Nobody does.)

I may have to add stuff later because I can’t remember what other stuff we talked about, but Katt and I did develop a fun new painful theory or two from this mess of stuff.

#mob psycho 100 #mp100 #paranatural #pnat

[avecorviidae]

Fic: Aubade - Chapter One

Fandom: Mob Psycho 100 Rating: M Relationship(s): Kageyama Ritsu/Suzuki Shou Word Count: 4196

Ao3 Link

Ritsu takes the overnight train from Grain City. His mother had told him to take the day train, given that they both knew he wouldn’t sleep on the ride home, and it would be better for him to arrive in the evening and go straight to bed, instead of arriving at dawn and spending all day trying not to fall asleep. She was probably right, but Ritsu was more or less an insomniac anyways, and night trains tended to be far less crowded, so. If he didn’t have to sit anywhere near a small, loud child, it would all be worth it.

He leans against a stone pillar on the platform and waits for the train to pull in. Despite the heavy summer air, the stone is cool at his back, seeping into his t-shirt and providing a pleasant contrast to the hot coffee in his hand. It should be cooling down a little soon, he thinks, staring at the sky, painted in soft pinks and oranges that darken into a deep red where the sun has disappeared behind some distant mountains. He cranes his head in the other direction to see where inky blue is starting to appear on the horizon, fading abruptly into the soft light of the sunset in broad strokes. It reminds him of the time he and Mob had found their mother’s watercolours when they were little, and decided to ‘decorate’ Ritsu’s bedroom walls. He spots a couple of white pinpricks in the distance, and distracts himself with trying to figure out if they’re stars or planes until the train pulls into the station, stopping at the platform with a shuddering sigh.

The only other people who would take an overnight train all the way to Seasoning City are a small crowd of salarymen making a commute for work, and Ritsu is infinitely thankful that they all seem to be as tired and antisocial as he is, because he finds himself alone in a passenger car aside from one dead-eyed guy in a suit who sits as far away from Ritsu as he’s physically able. Ritsu dumps his backpack onto the seats across from him and sits down, careful to hold his coffee steady as the train starts to pull out. He’s found that he can usually pack light when he’s going home for breaks, so his backpack just has the essentials. His wallet, phone charger, laptop, toiletries, a couple of books, a jacket, and some clean underwear are all he really needs to grab. While he knows that his brother’s old bedroom has been converted into a sewing room of sorts since he moved out, his mother has been loathe to change Ritsu’s room at all, so all of his clothes and such will still be waiting for him at home.

He settles back in his seat and lets himself stare out of the window as the train speeds up, until the station and the outskirts of Grain City fades away and the landscape turns into an indistinct blur. After a while, he remembers to pull out his phone.

TO: SHIGEO Got on the train, I should get into town early tomorrow

His phone buzzes with a response about a minute later.

FROM: SHIGEO Ok, be safe! You should try to get some sleep :0 If you tell me when youre getting close, me and Teru can pick you up at the station

TO: SHIGEO Im going to get here pretty early, youll probably still be asleep But thanks You should sleep too, ill see you tomorrow

FROM: SHIGEO Ok, see you!! <3

Ritsu wrestles with his pride for a few moments before sending back a ‘<3’ and shoving his phone back in his pocket.

He lets himself sit for another while, sipping on his drink and grimacing. Eugh. Cheap train station coffee is only tolerable while it’s too hot to taste. Still, he’s spent money on this, so he’s committed now. Night’s fallen quickly, and now when he looks out of his window, all he can see is murky blue, and the vague lights of some buildings in a city off in the distance. They’re just far enough outside of the city that Ritsu thinks he might be able to see the stars, except that the glare from the thin LED strips above the window is reflecting off of the glass too much to see anything but his own face.

A chill settles over the compartment. Not a bad one, or a particularly ominous one, but without the sunlight, the speed of the train and the air conditioning is enough to make him shiver in his thin shirt, reach over to grab a hoodie from his bag.

He shouldn’t leave himself alone with his thoughts, he knows, even as he continues to stare off at nothing. He’s notoriously introspective at this time of night, and he knows he’ll work himself into a panic if he just starts thinking, about this past year and himself and what he even wants to do… He shakes himself out of it. Come on, dumbass. You’ve got ten hours in here, let’s make it past the ten minute mark without dealing with this again. He should distract himself. Read, or play on his phone, or something, but as per usual, he can’t really bring himself to drag himself out of his daze. It’s an oddly comforting feeling, his mind retreating to the point that he barely feels real, like nothing actually exists in the pitch black beyond the window.

Time passes haphazardly, like it’s having trouble squeezing into the stale air of the compartment. His eyes lazily trace patterns on the ugly fabric of the chair across from him for what feels like minutes but could be hours, and despite the caffeine, he finds himself nodding forward, eyes blurring and drifting shut. By the other door, the nondescript businessman has pulled out his laptop and has been typing something for an indeterminate amount of time, and he latches onto the steady tap tap tap tap of the keys, the rapid taptaptaptap when he’s hitting the backspace, turns it into white noise in his mind that blocks out his actual thoughts.

He almost, almost jumps when his phone vibrates in his pocket again. FROM: YOUR FAVORITE ;) yo r u awake

TO: YOUR FAVORITE ;) Yes. what do you want, shou? FROM: YOUR FAVORITE ;) omg why r u up its like fuck in the morning s l e e p anyways teru says ur on ur way back to seasoning u didnt drop out right

He squints at the text, momentarily confused, until a glance at his phone’s clock informs him that it’s almost one in the morning. He must’ve actually fallen asleep for a while. He has a sneaking suspicion that the businessman over there has a very, very close deadline.

TO: YOUR FAVORITE ;) I told you what date i was coming back home a month ago. You know. When i planned this trip. Shockingly, shou, college students get summer break too.

FROM: YOUR FAVORITE ;) i was busy!!!! i forgot!!!!!! how long r u in town :3

TO: YOUR FAVORITE ;) Two weeks. Im just dropping by to see my family and sleep for a while, really.

FROM: YOUR FAVORITE ;) and get a haircut

TO: YOUR FAVORITE ;) And get a haircut.

FROM: YOUR FAVORITE ;) anyways it is like 1 am u should be sleeping

TO: YOUR FAVORITE ;) So should you. I’m on a train, what’s your excuse?

FROM: YOUR FAVORITE ;) :p

Ritsu snorts quietly. Stunning argumentation as always, Suzuki.

He wonders absently if Shou will be around. He’d stayed a couple of cities over for high school, but he’d started travelling as soon as they’d graduated. Apparently, there’d been some overseas business of his father’s that he had to take care of now that he was eighteen, so Ritsu hasn't seen him at all this last year, even during Christmas break. It hadn’t stopped Shou from texting him almost nonstop, however, regardless of different timezones. He wonders if Shou’s even in the country right now. Is it really worth it to get his hopes up, though? He’s already excited to see his brother, and Teru and Reigen, and his parents, so there’s no point in being disappointed if Shou has business elsewhere. They’re not kids anymore, it’s stupid of him to expect Shou to drop whatever obligations or responsibilities he might have to show up in Seasoning City, just to see Ritsu.

His phone buzzes with a new message.

FROM: YOUR FAVORITE ;) hey do u know if ur mom still makes those rlly nice weird caramel cookie things i miss them deeply almost as much as i miss ur dumb face ive almost forgotten what ur angry frown looks like

—

He pauses at the front door, hand resting on the doorknob.

Auras are still… interesting, to Ritsu. Even despite six or so years of being able to use his powers, he still doesn’t really get the buzzing frequencies of energy that roll off of espers in waves, resonating with something in the back of his mind, like plucking on a violin string pulled too tight. He’d eventually gotten used to people’s auras, of course. His brother’s, he’d grown up with. Teru’s was a brainfreeze and a burn all at once, a rush of blood to the head that was strange, but not entirely unpleasant. Shou’s was, well. Shou. He hadn’t realized that places had auras as well. Standing in front of his house, though, he can feel it enveloping him like a blanket right out of the dryer, can feel it in the strange places that his powers seem to manifest, climbing in pinpricks up his arms and heavy at the roof of his mouth, raising the hairs on the back of his neck. It’s achingly, painfully familiar, and it’s only been a year, but he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed living in a place that’s lived and breathed psychic powers, that’s still imbued with them despite both of its resident espers moving out, and this house feels like home.

Mob is on him almost before he’s through the door, arms wrapped tightly enough around his shoulders to knock the breath out of him. Mob is only a few inches taller than him, but Ritsu is still struck with the feeling of being encompassed by his brother, and it feels in a sense similar to the aura of their house, but there’s something different, something uniquely Mob about it.

Ritsu lets himself enjoy it, hooking his chin over Mob’s shoulder so that he can return the hug without getting crushed completely. “Hey, Nii-san, what are you doing here?” He should be at his own apartment, theoretically. After all, it’s not like he has a bed here anymore.

Mob loosens his grip on Ritsu enough to take a step back and look him in the eyes. He beams at him a moment before his smile is dampened a little by sheepishness. “Ah, well. We thought we’d spend the night so that we could be here when you arrived.” Ritsu has a moment to think ‘We’? before Teru appears in the front hallway, weird hair and atrocious green sweater and all. “Hey, Little Brother!” he calls out with a wave, before weaving around Mob to give Ritsu a hug of his own. “Don’t call me that,” he scolds, whacking him on the back of the head even as he’s letting Teru try his damndest to squeeze him to death.

Teru and Mob have set up a fairly impressive pillow nest on the couch, and the TV is still on low volume, the tail end of some competitive cooking show marathon. That was a ‘thing,’ with these two, for some reason that Ritsu couldn’t understand. They just tended to be stupid competitions with stupid people who’d decided to embarrass themselves on television. Mob had told him it was “kind of stressful, but Teruki likes it, so it’s alright,” while Teru called it a “valuable bonding experience”. Ritsu wonders, sometimes, if all people in relationships are this weird, or if it’s just these two.

Once Ritsu has sneaked past his parents’ room and dumped his bag in his (as predicted, completely unchanged) room, he collapses onto the sofa with them, infinitely grateful for a chair that wasn’t actively trying to murder his back. For the rest of the train ride back, he’d had the good sense to shove another hoodie in between his neck and the window, and it had served as a pillow well enough, but God, his neck was killing him. Well, at least he’d come out of it better off than the businessman, who’d walked off of the train with an imprint of a keyboard on his forehead. Teru curls the other end of the sofa and Mob sits in the middle between them, pulling a pillow into his lap. Ritsu flops down with his head on it, scooching around until he’s mostly comfortable.

The silence that falls over the room is drowsy and comfortable, despite the muffled screaming coming from the television set. He knows that when his parents wake up in a few hours, there’ll be a barrage of hugs and wet kisses and questions about his school and his dorm and his grades and his friends, and a thousand other things that had always seemed so important this last year, when they took up every waking moment of his time, but thinking back now, feel so minuscule and pointless, just part of the drivel of everyday life. So for now, he’s content to let his eyes glaze over until the light from the TV fades into a blue haze that fills the room and lulls him into a sense of nothingness. He must fall into that grey area between asleep and awake, because at some point he becomes aware that Mob and Teru are talking, but he only catches snippets, keeps drifting off too much to follow the flow of the conversation. He catches, “-opening up the office this week? Shishou said…” from his brother, and something like “Ugh, please, no,” from Teru. Mob comments at some point on Ritsu falling asleep, and he’s not, not quite, but he’s also not nearly awake enough to dispute the fact. The only time he properly wakes up is when he feels Teru’s socked toes poking his head, playing with his hair. “-have got to cut this,” he’s saying, and his voice is soft and syrupy-slow, so Ritsu guesses he’s not too far off from sleep himself. “I mean, I know he’s got college and everything, but would it kill him to buy a pair of scissors?” Ritsu attempts to respond, but he all that comes out of his mouth is a series of jumbled word-sounds that are half-muffled by the cushion in his face, so he has to take a moment to blink himself awake and reorient himself before he can mumble, “I did trim it.” It’s not his fault if his hair is gravity’s natural enemy. And sure, he could actually get himself a proper haircut in between breaks, but in his defense, he doesn’t have to pay Teru.

“This is it trimmed? I’m actually scared to imagine you growing it out.”

Ritsu makes a noncommittal hmm noise, just for the sake of acknowledging that something was said. He blinks slowly at the wall on the other side of the room, having to take a moment to remember where, exactly, he is. The TV has been turned off at some point, so the only light in the living room is coming from the windows, whatever muted grey light has managed to slip above the horizon and filter through the clouds. It’s not quite dawn yet, Ritsu thinks, but it will be soon. He thinks he could probably get up now, maybe should get up, and weighs the option in his mind. Pros: good coffee and food in the kitchen. Actually being awake at a normal time to talk to everyone today. Cons: this sofa is very comfortable and warm. He manages to make himself turn his head to look up, and sees that above him, his brother is either already asleep, or most of the way there. Listening carefully, he can hear Teru’s breathing shift into something that’s just a little too close to snoring to be conscious. The movement, however small, makes something twist in his stomach and crawl up his throat, the weird sort of nausea that screams too early! Waaaaay too early! Well, if nobody else is awake…

—

He actually, properly, really wakes up to the sound of his mother talking, and the smell of something sweet filling the house.

“Shigeo, close the bedroom doors, or the whole house will smell like cinnamon!” Teru shouts back, “You say that like it’s a bad thing!” and Ritsu hadn’t realized that Teru was still on the sofa with him, so it almost scares him out of his skin. He feels toes poking at his head again, sharper jabs than earlier, and he has to take a moment to admire his brother’s willingness to compromise in a relationship, because really, even on a sofa, who sleeps in their socks? Teru’s voice is gentle when he speaks, as if he hadn’t just bellowed halfway across the house. “Hey, Ritsu, you should wake up. Your mom is making breakfast.” Ritsu rolls onto his back, groaning and blinking blearily at the ceiling as he listens to the distant sound of the bedroom doors shutting. Mob has somehow extracted himself from under Ritsu at some point, because his head is a lot lower than he remembers, and he can hear his voice from somewhere else in the house. Not loud enough to catch what he’s saying, but gentle and distinct enough to identify it as him. His mother’s response is drowned out by the clattering sound of a pan or a pot in the sink, but he’s guessing that Mob must’ve been sent to fetch them, because Ritsu hears, or… wait, no, more senses him approaching. He’s always had a little bit of trouble distinguishing his psychic sense from his physical ones when first waking up. He’s staring, eyes half-lidded, at a little dark speck on the off-white ceiling, so he can only really see a vague idea of Mob’s location as he comes up to the back of the sofa, leaning over to speak quietly to Teru. “Is he awake?” “I think so? His eyes are certainly open, but that doesn’t mean much with him, does it?” Mob laughs softly, more of a quick exhale than anything. “Not really. I’m setting the table. I’ll come and get you when it’s done.” He can’t be certain, but he’s pretty sure that Mob just leaned down to drop a kiss on Teru’s head, so he does his duty as a little brother and makes a face. It’s brattish, sure, and above his maturity level by far. He likes Teru quite a bit, and they’ve had mature, adult conversations in which Ritsu described in precise detail exactly what he would do to Teru if he ever hurt his brother intentionally, but, well. He did just finish his first year of college, so he’s reserving the right to be childish and annoying at least once. He leans his head back until he can make eye contact with Teru and stick his tongue out. Teru, smug bastard that he is, just raises an eyebrow and says, “Ah, I guess he is awake.”

Mob, still leaning over the back of the sofa, beams at him. “Ritsu! Morning. There’s French toast, are you hungry?” He hadn’t really noticed until this exact moment, but holy shit, he is starving. Sure enough, as soon as he steps foot near the dining table, his mother and father are all over him. He manages to get through his mother’s almost violent physical affection with minimal injuries, just by virtue of being much taller than her. His father’s bear hug, on the other hand, is a whole other ordeal. Still, he finds himself sat at the dining table with a plate in front of him, with Mob on his left, and Teru sat on the short end to his right. Despite quite a bit of it being about him, most of the conversation seems to pass right over his head, with Teru and his brother fending off most of his parents’ questions. Most of them seem to be just for the sake of chatting during breakfast, seeing as they already know what his roommates are like, how he likes his professors, and how he did on his finals. His mother had made a habit of calling him at least once every week while he was away, “just to check in”. It always feels like family dinners with Teru and his parents should be unspeakably awkward. Sure, his parents seem… okay with Mob and Teru, at least to their faces, although they seem convinced that either Teru and Mob are just really good friends, or that Mob is eventually going to get over this “phase of his” and marry that nice Takane girl he’d gone to school with. Bad enough that he’s not even going to school, he’d overheard his father say once, without this nonsense on top of everything else.

Still, Teru has something of an irresistible personality, a natural charm that has only grown under Reigen’s watchful eye. A single sentence and a sweeping gesture could enrapture a whole room, and he could talk you out of your life savings and leave you thanking him for it. Turning up the charm for his boyfriend’s parents is hardly any effort at all. Spirits and Such is lucky to have him. Ritsu is certainly grateful for the way Teru sends his parents’ questions flying back at them with a smile, leaving Ritsu to work his way through his toast and gulp down coffee until he feels at least marginally alive.

It also doesn’t hurt Teru’s case that he insists on helping to clear the table, and offers to do the dishes until Ritsu’s mother actually kicks him out of the kitchen.

Ritsu’s still feeling a little hazy; Shou has described jetlag to him, and although he knows it has to do with timezones, he’s starting to think it might also be a general lethargy that comes with travelling long distances. Still, he’s awake enough to thank his mother for breakfast, and walk through to help Teru and Mob to fold up just about every blanket in the house, and put them back in their rightful places. Ritsu ends up with an old fluffy blanket piled in his hands, bright green with little cows printed on it, and he’s already halfway through the door to Mob’s old room before he remembers that there’s no bedroom in here anymore. He squints at the makeshift studio, trying to recall what it had looked like before Mob had moved out. The bed had been by the closet… No, they’d moved it so it was by the window eventually, so he could keep it open during the summer. His desk had been replaced by a bigger one, with an old-looking sewing machine plugged in on top of it. He feels like the room had been so much bigger when his brother had been in it, although, admittedly, he hadn’t had much stuff to fill it with. Now, between the desk, the piles of fabric heaped around the room, the… well, he assumes they’re quilts… it feels cluttered. Unfamiliar, certainly. Where did this stuff even come from? I don’t recognize any of it. “Ritsu?” Mob’s voice snaps him out of his thoughts, and he makes his way quickly back to the living room, pausing to shove the blanket into a hall closet as he passes. Teru starts speaking to him as soon as he’s in the room, even as he’s simultaneously typing on his phone at a frankly alarming speed. “Oi, Ritsu. We’re not opening the office this week, but we should probably head over there later today. That way, you can see Da- uh, Reigen, and I’ll take care of your hair quickly. Get it over with, you know? We can go out to lunch and stuff afterwards.” That last bit strikes Ritsu has odd, said with a tone that’s just barely on-edge,  like Teru thinks he needs some incentive to go out with them. Still, it probably doesn’t really matter. He’s probably just trying to think of a way to get Ritsu to agree to eat at one of the bizarre, alleged ‘restaurants’that he seems to frequent. So, Ritsu sits down on the sofa beside Teru, saying, “You just can’t stand to look at my bangs falling in my face anymore.” Teru neither confirms nor denies, just keeps typing, which is enough of an admission in itself. “Yeah, sure, sounds like a plan. I just need to shower and stuff first.” Teru nods. “Yeah, Mob’s already getting ready. I was thinking we set off in, oh, forty-five minutes?” “Alright.”

#/ #// #/// #//// #///// #robin fic #mp100 fic #fic: aubade