#that now I'm doing things that could very well compromise what little reputation I have online | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nanakah · 3 years

Text

about Ishigami, his growth and Miko's role

most people, myself included, thought at some point that Tsubame's rejection (or acceptance) could wrap up Ishigami's arc and even his past's flashbacks neatly, but Osaragi's arc suddenly revealing there was more to his relationship with Miko made me reflect more and think nah...if anything we're halfway there. It also showed glimpses of him already struggling to find his place in the world by quitting his clubs, even though he was successful at them and there was no Ootomo incident yet to undermine his self-image.

It seemed odd that despite everything he went through he still has his "hair=shield/averting eyes" theme going strong, but it makes sense if you consider even though Tsubame helped him see the way to be more accepting of people and cleared his name, his self-esteem still is super low. I spoke of this in my "sutera" meta, but to Ishigami, his life still has been a sucession of failures and almosts. At his core, he still hasn't fully opened up to people or learned to use his vulnerabilities to his advantage.

If I have grabbed your interest thus far, keep reading for more considerations!

Tsubame is kind to anyone and attempted to do good for him, but ultimately he was never fully himself around her, nor she tried/he alllowed her reaching out to the deepest parts of his insecurities. She doesn't show her own flaws to him either and to this day we get the feeling we don't know her well, just the best parts that Ishigami wanted to see. Kaguya, Miyuki and Chika contribute a lot in a sibling-like way, but there's a limit to how much Kaguya in particular can inspire him. Miko however, has scratched a little beneath the surface and has expressed an interest in helping him with that, even if he himself is still avoiding the topic. She's also more relatable to him in the sense that the rest of the stuco has a history of successes in their lives, while he was able to watch Miko's hardships and failures closely. Their panic attacks even look similar and they're always watching the other to provide backup (in a very roundabout way, at least before) when they happen.

While their personalities are fundamentally different, his arc and struggles remind me a lot of Miyamura from Horimiya and today, as I was musing on what is so different about them as of now, I believe it's how Miyamura didn't have a single *traumatic* mistake to get over, so he goes down his development road much faster. Putting it another way, it's ultimately that Ishigami hasn't yet learned to be kind to himself like Miyamura has through Hori. Like Shirogane and Kaguya are through themselves. In Miyamura's case, sympathizing with how Hori despite her strong exterior can be very fragile inside but still support him (fight for him, defend him, accept his true self, not judge him, hear him, make him feel good enough) made him feel compelled to grow stronger to protect her back.

Miko as she was at the beggining of the story couldn't provide Ishigami this sort of stability (and that's where Osaragi's "prettier story"/"you weren't there for him" reasoning fails) even if deep down she wanted to, but now after making many mistakes, learning from them and becoming more flexible, she absolutely can. Both Ishigami and Miko have deeply rooted issues that took them more than just each other to flesh out and develop, but they're very much the missing puzzle piece the other needs.

Miko still very much has room for growth as well, mainly concerning finding a middle ground between her "bad girl" and "good girl" personas that Ishigami can easily see through, as demonstrated by the consolation chapter. She tried being "bad", she attempted lying but was still saying half-truths, because her love of justice isn't just out of parental abandonment issues or loneliness - she does believe them sincerely. The moment Ishigami headpated her and shared genuine, spot-on words of concern and admiration (thus a hint of fondness), it was all over for her trying to keep up the love-warfare upper hand.

That's not actually new - Ishigami has always demonstrated he was able to see glimpses of her true self, be it teasing how she's an otaku or a closet pervert and such, he never fully bought the strait-laced image she aspired to make real. But it did take him being around her more to see she could be sweet to him and as he puts it, that smiling more is not a bad look on her. Miko says to Osaragi your true self only comes through interacting with others, so given how lonely she has always been (and how the one person close to her - Osaragi - was actually keeping things between them superficial because of her own problems), it's no surprise she's only finding out now who she is. Ishigami can help Miko find a better compromise of good/bad after both not following any rules at all for so long and recently learning that hard work can pay off. Miko immersing herself in his hobby will clash with her rigid study schedule sooner or later, and he'll know how to help her with that better than anyone else.

On the other hand, Ishigami's moral compass, romanticism (love for flowers, planing dates etc) and idealism aren't things he is proud of...yet. He protects himself with layers of cynism, especially in his first appearances, but he is always being contradictory and letting it slip how idealistic/pure he is at heart. He also is only now learning to like his outward image with things like fitness/studying and finding out it's not like he never cared about it - it's just that he was scared shitless of failure, thus never even tried hard in the first place to avoid being hurt. And as I have advocated for in the Sutera post, I expect Miko in some level to help him come to terms with seeing good in himself. Heck, even being able to game with her now and showing off how good he is and having her appreciate it is gonna do wonders to make him feel more "adequate". Tsubame's arc had a lot of him changing himself to become "better", but Miko on the other hand is trying to put herself in HIS shoes to maybe go "hey, I like you as you are. I'm trying to understand you more and put effort in for you".

Ishigami and Miko start out watching out for each other behind their backs - which instead of helping their relationship, drives them further apart because they think the other side is showing no appreciation. As the story progresses, they're slowly learning to make each other more aware of their support, and it is making them open up more in general.

They have a strong belief the other wants to be rescued and there is truth in that. Both want help and to be recognized for their efforts, but won't cry out for it. In the unplugged earbuds chapter Ishigami takes it upon himself to protect Miko's reputation in spite of himself, the election arc has him actually putting effort into the campaign just for the sake of protecting her and at first posing as a rival of hers to Shirogane only to reveal he's trying to "make Miko smile", he is constantly fending off men from interacting with her as protection (while also sounding jealous), he was way more protective of her when she was wearing that cast than needed and is now being able to openly headpat her and sounds almost like her "soothing sounds" from the days of yore lol Sure Tsubame seems like his start to becoming "a better man", but all the way back on the election, it was for Miko's sake that we first SEE him putting effort into *anything* without being coerced by anyone to take action.

And while it's more discreet compared to Ishigami's "white knight" attitude, Miko also tries hard to protect him - cheering him on during the sports festival race and wanting to console him before the stuco intervened, telling him he should study (but he thinks it's just nagging), christmas (which I'll elaborate bellow), making sure he was able to graduate middle school by actually confronting school staff and, of course, their very first meeting as recently revealed.

Many people hated the entirety of Osaragi's arc, but 232 gave very juicy info indeed. Ishigami's reason for supporting Miko from the shadows comes from admiration AND part gratitude for her attempting to talk to him and listen to what troubles him, and seeing they actually had a "falling out" argument was game changing.

He looks sad and troubled to have shut her down there, not simply angry, and so does she (there's tears in her eyes when her face is shown in the next page) - despite her black and white sense of justice at this point of the story, she still wanted to listen to him. And even after that outburst she still believed the rumors weren't real, unlike Osaragi sees it - otherwise she wouldn't have made the effort for him to be able to move on to high school. Why would she care, if she truly hated him and thought he was in the wrong?

If any further proof was needed at all that this info is important, I'm happy to say we have more. I noticed the Christmas stairs scene mirrors this exact falling out moment: "Go away"/"Suit yourself"

But this time Miko had already decided to change, had already seen the mess their relationship became the last time she did not reach out to him and thus already had their previous falling out in mind - meaning she decides to chase after him.

I don't like how the scanlations handled this scene because reading the japanese raws, my interpretation was that Miko was sounding "annoying" because she was still kinda drunk/unfiltered and freaking out when talking to Ishigami, not outright berating him like the Jaimini's box translation made it look like. She also sounds too angry after the fall, so I generally thought Viz's version (the panel shown above) was closer to the original.

"I always have to take care of you! You keep putting youself in danger. You can't make it on your own." is a better translation than Jaimini's, and also parallels better what Ishigami is often telling Miko as well (That she keeps putting herself in danger and that he has to be around to keep her in check). But with 232 in mind, I think it misses a nuance of the original line: "ほんとあんたは私が居ないと危なっかしく駄目ね" - "Honto anta wa watashi ga inaito abunakkashiku dame ne" - while I'm a novice at japanese studies, gathering from what I can read and trying to get a feel of the whole sentence, it's closer to "So it really is dangerous to you if I'm not there/ It's no good if I'm not around you". You can take that as her being full of herself, which is the route Jaimini's goes ("You'd be screwed without me") but that's too hostile - Viz's got the spirit of wanting to protect him better, but the original has an implication that she has "tested not being there"/failed being there before (due to not fully siding with him in middle school) that's absent elsewhere.

IMO the reason Ishigami's "closed his eyes" arc is not over yet is because he hasn't accepted or gotten over or fully learned from his past yet, he simply shut it down. That's why briefly during the sports festival his eyes are in plain view, then go back to their usual for the balloon gag. I'm not sure if Ootomo herself will make a comeback, may or may not - regrets are regrets and sometimes the only solution to them is letting them stay in the past. But the topic of how he saw Miko in middle school and the letter certainly are being set up to still show up in the story.

If I compare him to Miyamura again, he'd still be at the point before Miyamura's haircut - not wanting to face the parts of himself he doesn't like, not quite ready to change. Not quite ready to patch up his own wounds yet and instead silencing everything from his past.

In this sense, Miko does wonders to make him feel more confident even if he hasn't realized it yet, and she's always dropping little hints she'd like him to worry about his future not in a naggy way, but because she genuinely prays for his success. He unconsciously wants Miko to think well of him and it fills him with confidence and a more prideful image of himself he doesn't really display to anyone else, not even Tsubame - like his usages of "ore" (a more manly/confident way of addressing himself) around her (AND HER ALONE):

( I don't like the available translations to the staircase scene either, lol. Zaibatsu has conveyed the tone of the second scene up there perfectly. For the staircase line, I've seen "I'll be there to catch you" and "I'll save you" which are contextually correct, but to me the original "俺が絶対守る" - "I (ore) will absolutely protect you" carries a much more romantic nuance or ambiguity, regardless of him realizing it at that point. It's like, the title to one of the most romantic moments/songs in the CCS Clear card anime ost, for instance. OF COURSE MIKO LOVES HIM. The narrator doesn't overexplain or take apart Ishimiko's interactions like for Prezguya, but all the evidence needed is there. And I gotta add the very next chapter to the staircase one is the "eternal love" x "real love" I'm super fond of that says fate is irrelevant and to find real love you must use your head to realize/understand things, so makes the romantic subtext even greater.)

This whole affair is also making me open my eyes that I should try to study japanese more...of course I'm happy to have translations and scanlators working hard, but there is something inherently lost in adaptations because it robs you of connecting with the author's intentions unless it was the author who wrote the translation in the first place

Thinking back on Ishigami's early "i wanna die/i'm going home/don't look at me" role, it seems unbelievable we're at the point he's now able to directly confront a "stranger" (lololol) or make serious promises with so much confidence.

PLEASE DON'T END SO SOON MANGA, I NEED MORE.

( off-topic kind of, but i'm lazy to make a separate post just for it: Since I mentioned things lost in translation, I saw something on Discord about Ishigami having an unreliable narrator moment in the "compliments" chapter/Iino Miko cannot love part 4 and holy molly, it is true. He first says something akin to "You're just too beautiful" out of context, Miko HEARS IT - and that's why she looks so shocked before asking for clarification - and he DID SAY IT in the speech bubble, but after she's nice to him and he thinks back to what he said he adds a "Your handwriting is just too beautiful" to his flashback. I'm ONTO HIM. ONTO HIM I SAY. It is what he meant, but it's like his mouth betrayed him. Whether it's unconscious or denial...it totally is something. The scanlation completely skips this and had the same line both times it's mentioned.)

#kaguya-sama #kaguya-sama spoilers #meta #ishigami yu #yu ishigami #ishimiko #it's ishigami focused but i'd be a dirty liar to say i'm not at least a lil bit biased #longpost #spoilers #yes i am an overthinker and overanalyzer did u notice #horimiya spoilers #yeah i kinda mentioned miyamura lol #i'm not even procrastinating anything this time i just rly care for them #kaguya-sama meta #this is a clown here that procrastinated 3 months to write a thesis but is churning out meta after meta for manga #plz forgive typos i'm still lazy to spellcheck this one lol #ishiino #ishigami using ore again to invite miko to the dance makes this post qualify for fridge brilliance now

37 notes · View notes

fktonofwhatnow · 3 years

Note

ok hold on. acomaf is my fave book out of the whole series (it's mostly out of emotional value, i read it when i was younger and didn't have a real understanding out trauma and abuse only that i saw a character i loved getting out of a bad situation and getting happy) so obviously i didn't mind feysand being endgame and the development all of the characters had. i can accept tamlin turned out like that is realistic due to his trauma, i can accept feyre had to flee because it wasn't right for her, but the thing is after acofs i see no point to feyre leaving tamlin when rhysand ends up doing everything they told us tamlin was evil and unredeemable for. hiding the risks of her pregnancy, putting on shields on her, having feyre need to compromise over it. i honestly felt so betrayed by that. i'm not saying feyre and tamlin were good for each other, but it doesn't feel worth it to dismiss the potential they had for what we got with feysand.

also, sarah learn to treat "ugly" trauma with respect challenge. no they don't need to learn to physically fight to fight it. no they don't need a love interest to overcome it. yes the behaviors acquired from trauma and abuse aren't pretty but that doesn't mean a person is undeserving of kindness and compassion.

i think i had a point somewhere but i can't get to it. so hope you don't mind my rambling. anyway i loved your meta about tamlin i think he deserves better too

HOLY SHIT THIS ONE IS SO GOOD OK IM SO EXCITED

Bro you are so fine, I'm the one who doesn't make any sense and I totally get what you're trying to say. (Acomaf was actually my favorite book in the series too ngl)

BUT FUCK YEAH LETS TALK ABOUT RHYSAND.

I don't think it's a secret that Rhysand is one of my least favorite characters in media, probably ever? (How do I even put this into words) He is a bad character and to me, laughably so. You know how if you've ever written a character, there's that little phase that's like "what if people don't like this character' and then you're sad for a little bit? That's how Rhysand feels to me. He feels like SJM looked at this character and thought "I can't stand the thought of people not liking this character because I love him so much" and then did everything in her power to make sure we know how great he is.

Idk if this is just me screaming into the void, but I get to this place with my characters where like, especially if they are a little more morally gray or their decisions have negative impacts, I understand that I don't need the audience to like my main character. they can stand on their own, they can own up to what they do and they can grow from it. Thats what a good character does. That's how you keep your audience rooting for them. You gotta knock them over sometimes.

SJm doesn't knock Rhysand over. She doesn't push him to make mistakes, apologize, own up and move on. Rhysand has never made a decision that ended poorly for him. Everything goes the way he wants it to, because SJm wants us to know how cool and great he is. People who are cool and great don't make bad decisions! SJm doesn't let Rhysand fail, and she doesn't let him suffer his own decisions. Everyone else suffers his decisions, not him.

Rhysand's reputation as a good person hinges entirely on the audience liking him and/or thinking he's hot. And then what happens when the audience thinks neither of those things? Ya get a rly long post like this by a lil enby who is mad all the time. Rhysand loses all credibility when you look at him through a critical lens. Not a single thing the man does makes any goddamn sense. Here I thought acosf would give us a different perspective on Feysand and I was desperately hoping that Nesta would tell us what she really sees in them and how people around them really feel, I hoped that SjM would throw us for a loop and tell us that hey, she does know that Feysand are fucking toxic as hell and ruin the lives of people around them and she wants to show us that from an outside perspective but noooOoOOOoOoOOOO...

Instead we get Nesta hating herself because Rhysand told her that she shouldn't tell Feyre that Feyre could uh die in childbirth. Hey what the fuck.

Now I don't actually ship feylin, I kinda always sorta knew, even without spoilers, that it wasn't going to work out. Tamlin isn't sjm's idea of a good partner because he's not charming and witty and dark and handsome ya know? We met Rhysand and I knew that I was going to fucking hate this romance. Which sucks because I found Rhysand so intriguing in the first book. Ngl all the time spent in the spring court was kinda boring and every time Rhysand showed up to throw dead faeries at Tamlin I was like "oooooo" and I wanted to know more about why Tamlin, this awkward, blunt and kinda shy dude had beef with this super duper sly and shady man from another court.

I don't know if I've ever said this before, but SJm doesn't let her love interests grow. Rhysand doesn't change over the course of the story because he was already a good guy and his motives were for Feyre's sake I swear, the same goes for Rowan in TOG. SJm doesn't give Rhysand room to change. She needs to get to the part where they fuck make sure everyone knows that Rhysand is a good guy and actually he was good all along so that we like him more than Tamlin. It backtracks on everything bad Rhysand has ever done because you know... He had a good reason! It's fine!

I know it's probably just because SJm doesn't actually know how to write a good character growth arc but... Like can you imagine if Rhysand stayed the bad guy? Or at least remained the bad guy through acotar and acomaf? And then when Rhysand comes to take Feyre for his bargain it really was only to spite Tamlin? What about Rhysand, taking Feyre to the night court with him once a week every month for a long time, if only to see Tamlin's eyes grow darker and emptier every time he goes, and then he really starts to fall in love with Feyre. He's been a monster all this time, angry and cold and cruel and then he actually starts to fall in love. And then to get Feyre to stay he really does try to change, he stops antagonizing Feyre, he stops throwing dead faeries at Tamlin, and he stops harassing the Spring court. He starts spending genuine quality time with Feyre, he starts to learn about her and all the things she likes and he stops trying to get her to come with him just so Tamlin will be mad. He starts asking her to come with him because he wants to be around her and he prays that someday she'll want to be around him too. What if SJm let him grow.

But nahhhhhh instead we have a character who always knows the right answer to things, and he always knows how to fix every issue, and he is always so innovative and outside the box except that he isn't. We get a character who does the same shit as Tamlin but it's ok because he had a good reason not to tell Feyre that she could very well die in childbirth. Uhhhh don't know what that is but uhhh I know he has his reasons because all he has are his reasons.

It would be so easy to hold a mirror up to Rhysand and say "look at this. Look who you are. Do you not look just like Tamlin right now?"

But nooooooooOoOOOo Rhysand doesn't get to be wrong. Rhysand doesn't get to look like Tamlin because Tamlin is evil and Rhysand is definitely NOT I SWEAR.

But yeah I think the point I'm trying to make is that Sarah thinks so highly of Rhysand that he could never do wrong. He could never be like Tamlin, despite the narrative literally telling us the exact opposite.

Like you said, we lost the potential of what feylin could have been if SJm didn't suddenly decide that her audience needs to love Rhysand as much as she does. I think feylin could have been slow and sweet and a story of true healing and learning about one another. I think it would have been kind and steady and lots of "are you ok"s and "I'm sorry"s and "talk to me"s. Everything about Feysand feels rushed and hard and fast and the rest of the world doesn't have time to catch up. It's fucking exhausting to read it ya know what I'm saying.

(also can we talk about Rhysand like dying and Feyre finding the suriel and learning he's her mate and then instead of being like "k let's put a pin in that and fuckin save his life first" she like throws him around and everyone is like "wtf woman" and she's like I neeD tO Be alOnE these people have no idea how to prioritize)

Truly, I think it's innocent to a degree. There is absolutely no harm in wanting people to like your character. The harm comes when you destroy another character with no reason or explanation other than you want people to like a different character. Villain arc? Completely out of left field. You gotta build to that shit or like... Make it so that when you look back you slap your forehead and yell at a wall "OF FUCKING COURSE I SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT"

anyways, SJm treat "ugly" trauma with respect challenge SECONDED.

WELL IM SO SORRY THIS TOOK ME WEEKS YO WRITE IM HAVING A HARD TIME I know it probably doesn't make any sense I can't find my braincells BUT thanks for the ask @xelly

Tell me all your acotar things I love yo hear them !!

#rhysand #anti rhysand #anti sjm #anti acotar #anti inner circle #tamlin #lucien deserved better #they all deserved better frankly

87 notes · View notes

saphirered · 3 years

Note

Hi there! You writings are wonderful. Please could you do an EssekXreader where the reader is from another high ranking den and is betrothed to Essek for political reasons. Both Essek and Reader aren't keen on the idea but eventually after spending time together realise they actually have feelings for each other, I'm thinking a bit like The Swan Princess. Please and thank you.

This is gonna be a two parter as the current draft already exceeds my usual word count limit 🙈 so stay tuned for part two in the next few days! Hope you enjoy 😘

Denial. It must be a cruel joke. Your family, your den they would never use you as a pawn in a bigger plot. This was all just a cruel joke or a move to assure their political advancement without the need to go through with this.

Anger. No. This is real. How dare they? How could they? They would use you like that? Without having the decency to let you know before the deal was made no less! Were it anyone else you’d crush them beneath your boot like the vermin they are for condemning you to a fate not of your own choosing. Perhaps you still might…

Bargain. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe you could just play your part and go your separate ways. A betrothal doesn’t have to end in a marriage. Even if it does, all that counts is appearances. Beyond that you could still have your own life right? You’d always be able to make the ‘me’ decision and wouldn’t have to take in account the ‘we’. Yes that should be right.

Depression. Your life is ruined! You’ll forever be tied to someone else without your consent. Your decisions will reflect on the many now. You’ll have to watch your every move and every choice or it may reflect terribly on your legacy. There’ll be expectations and can you ever live up to them while still being content with your own life or will you be sacrificing your happiness for something so stupid?

Acceptance. Acceptance…. Hell no!

Time for the first official meeting with Essek Thelyss in the context of your arrangement. You’d met many times before given both of your stations and reputations but now, you couldn’t help but feel a coldness towards the man regardless of what cordial or friendly dynamic you might have had in your limited social interactions.

Your respective families meet. You on your side, Essek on his. Both of you portray the facial expressions excepted of you; indifferent content. Nothing over excited nor anything remotely negative either but you’ve been raised a reader of the people and you could see through the cracks in Essek’s appearance. He’s just as happy with this arrangement as you are; not at all.

“It is a pleasure to meet you here today.” Essek speaks. The rules of engagement have not forgone any of you despite your discontent with this whole situation but for the sake of your watching families you’d play your parts. You’d put on a damn good show.

“You as well Shadowhand. Light be blessed we get to spend it in such magnificent company.” You can feel the approving look burn into the back of your head from your Denmother. They’d be none the wiser.

And so the negotiations began. All be damned if you did not at the very least were able to set some of your own terms in this arrangement. Fundings to sustain your lifestyle or a dowry were the least of your worries. You were more concerned with a place you could call your own, time to spend for yourself, security and stability and the ability to continue your life as is regardless of possible marriage. You would never give up your seat at the Bright Queen’s council and you’re very sure Essek wouldn’t give up his either.

Essek had to admit you played the game well. You’re a killer negotiator. Your persuasive side had shone at the Bastion more than once but those circumstances are wholly different than these. Your ability to make it sound like these ideas came from your den and not yourself, and have them think these suggestions were their ideas in the first place is simply remarkable. Remarkable and dangerous. Respect. But no matter how good of a talker you are, or he is for that matter, neither of you could get out of this.

Afternoon tea, a few lunches and dinners here and there and even a few events you were forced to attend with Essek as your escort under the careful watch of your dens. Whenever you were sure they were out of earshot you did not make it unknown neither of you wanted to be here and would prefer to be as far away from each other as possible.

Then there were the times you swore you might actually be able to like the Shadowhand. Councils held lead to many arguments, the Bright Queen watching the court fight among themselves for a next course of action, fundings to be divided and efforts to be pursued. You always kept a level head not allowing yourself to get worked up, or at least appear you weren’t but sometimes you could strangle the life out of some of these fools.

To your surprise in some of these occasions Essek would take your side and support your arguments, concerns and points brought up in debates. So he does know what’s good for him after all? Those moments were quickly ruined by the next point on the schedule where you’d be at opposing sides again. Usually you’d be able to work up an opponent in debate until their credibility would be questioned but Essek had caught onto your games and was no fool. If you could keep your cool, so could he. You had learned how to push his buttons as he had yours.

After a particularly heated debate the Bright Queen dismissed the dens, done with the bickering and infighting for the day. You couldn’t blame her even though there were still many things unspoken. You and Essek were at odds once more and you couldn’t be happier to be done for the day and head somewhere you wouldn’t be forced to interact with the asshole.

Conferring with your allies, trying to gain support of others, you grabbed your things ready to leave the Bastion. There he floated in the anti-chamber eyes cold focussed on you, waiting. You pretend you don’t notice and keep walking for the exit. Essek calls your name as you’re about to pass him. You don’t respond and keep going. He calls again. No response. He grabs your arm stopping you in your tracks. How you’d hoped to escape this confrontation.

“A moment of your time please.” The words leave his lips with an artificial, well-practiced warmth. Oh you’re fighting so hard to contain yourself but you too had a facade to keep up.

“Another time perhaps. I’ve grown quite exhausted after the day’s events. If you will excuse me.” You smile innocently placing your hand over his secured around your wrist. You pry your fingers beneath forcing him to release his grasp on you.

“Then allow me to escort you back home. Should you be able to muster up the strength to converse on our path I’d love nothing more than to just hear your voice.” Essek encases your hands between his. Eyes of the dens fall upon the two of you in the middle of the anti-chamber. Essek is known to be a reserved individual and these advances definitely stand out.

Oh so that’s the game we’re playing. Asshole move, Shadowhand. Two can play this game. If it’s the company you’re currently in he’s using against you you can do the same. You take a step closer to him standing on your tiptoes and lean in to press your lips to his cheek. You linger just a little and whisper into his ear.

“I have nothing to say to you.” You allow the distaste to bleed through your barely audible words before you pull away and take a step back. You couldn’t refuse his ‘generous offer’. It might make you look bad so you smile bright and nod even managing to call on a fake blush like some lovesick fool. From the corners of your eyes you notice the court members whisper among each other. Good. Let them talk. You link your arm through Essek’s still carrying your things.

“I believe I might have forgotten my transcripts of the day. Would you mind joining me in retrieving them?” So whatever the wizard needed to discuss with you he couldn’t say in public… Oh Essek what a mistake you made… That certainly offers you some opportunities to use to your advantage.

“Nonsense! I have my transcripts. You’re free to borrow them, or perhaps you’d like to study them with me? It might give us the opportunity to come to a compromise without wasting the Council’s time. After all, there’s much more pressing matters.” His expression might be a thankful one but if looks could kill… you’d be introduced into your next life this very second.

You begin leading Essek out of the building not allowing him any response or comeback for your previous statement. You walk head held high catching onto the praises of others. ‘A great match’? If only they knew…

Your walk continued in seething silence from Essek. Until you reached your home. Opening the door and leaning against the doorframe making sure no one else is in sight, you smirk at him.

“I’m curious. If I refused to part with these,” You hold up the transcripts. “What would you do? Would you go back and receive your own copies or would you go without them?” You leaf through the pages. It’s not like you needed them. You already had all you needed memorised so if anything they’d go into your archives for future reference and case study if necessary. Essek doesn’t dignify you with an answer yet so you continue to press his buttons.

“Would you be able to discredit my every word or counter them without the direct word for word reference? Would your arguments hold any weight against my own? Or would you be forced to depend on the vote or Light’s mercy, the Bright Queen’s verdict because if the latter, you’ve already lost, my dear.” You can’t hold back the smugness in your achievements. The look of defeat brought you satisfaction.

Essek bites his tongue. Even he knows that in theoretics you have the upper hand now. Recalling your words from memory alone wouldn’t be enough. He’d needed to cite them exactly providing the transcript in your possession. He couldn’t go back or it might arise questions, questions he couldn’t afford at this moment. What caught him off guard was you offering him the transcript still. He takes it before you can change your mind, the pages disappearing beneath his cloak.

“Luckily for you I’m not your enemy. Yes we might disagree on matters of state but at the end of the day we’re going to be stuck together and there’s nothing either of us can do about it.”

“What are you suggesting?” Essek doesn’t know wether he should be wary, outright suspicious, or glad you’ve come up with a plan amidst the chaos.

“A truce. If we keep these antics going it will lead to a war between the two of us. Are you really prepared to be expected to spend the rest of your life with someone you’ve grown to hate? Because I’m not. I’d rather sleep in my bed withe the comfort of knowing my partner will not stab me in the back or sabotage me at every opportunity he gets.” Partner. He. Not they. He. So not even you had a way out of this betrothal.

“Resentment grows much faster than affection.” Essek deadpans. Yes he sees your reasonings and you make some solid arguments but that doesn’t mean he has to trust your motives. He’s aware you in your position are much more dangerous than any spy, assassin or foreign force.

“Light be with me.” You’re exasperated. You’re offering an olive branch and this is his response? You pull him inside and close the door dropping the act entirely within the confines of your own home knowing no one will be watching you here.

“I am not offering you an epic enemies to lovers tale! I’m offering to make the best out of a situation neither of us actually want to be in! Marriage is just another contract. We do what is expected of us by following it to the letter and nothing more, nothing less. Love or affection is not part of that contract but respect is.” Essek takes in your words and considers them making sure you’re not twisting things in such a way you could later use against him or to your advantage.

“Your logic is sound and your arguments persuasive.” You raise your hand in an exasperated ‘thank you’ as he straightens your back and looks down at you.

“Very well. We have an agreement.” You’re on the verge of letting out a breath of relief at Essek agreeing to your terms and suggestions. You’d rather be sure this man isn’t going to drop you on a different plane in your sleep once you’ll be forced to share a home. You’d rather know you can trust him to have your back despite your grievances. At the end of the day, you both want to survive.

“Match made in Elysium.” Sarcasm is clear in your voice and the both of you cannot help but smile. More like match made in hell with the ‘letter of the law’ approach to navigating your predicament.

—————

Pacing back and forth fingers pressed to your lips in thought of Essek’s sitting room you ponder the terms of your agreement. Essek himself is seated on the couch leaning over a two sheets of paper, a long list of demands from both sides written on each.

“Next up housing.” You announce. Essek fiddles with the pen looking over the lists.

“I’m not willing to part with my towers unless something of equal or greater value is returned. I need space for my practices, experiments and studies.”

“I’ll agree to part with my own home under the terms you will share your personal resources with me and I will have amicable space for my own pursuits be this here or at another place of our mutual choosing.” Essek considers your terms on this matter. They are agreeable but this is a negotiation and neither of you are refraining from pushing for an outcome to suit yourself best.

“We will share my home then but we will both share our resources unless they pertain to exclusively personal matters or those of state when we inevitably find ourselves on opposing sides in the Bastion.” You stop pacing and turn to face Essek. He watches for your responses.

“I get my own tower.” You counter.

“That’s preposterous. I have need for certain rooms and areas for my studies and cannot relocate them.”

“Fine. Then I’ll get all unoccupied or unnecessary rooms.”

“You’ll get your own private bedchambers, study and sitting room just as I’ll have mine. These chambers will be exclusive and privacy to be respected. Other spaces save for my laboratory, for your own safety, are communal.” By the expression on your face Essek knows you’ve caught him in a loophole.

“Agreed. We’re entitled to our private spaces and will share the unspecified ones. Kitchen, dining room, living area… library…” You caught hime there… Essek’s expression turns sour. He’d have preferred to keep that one to himself but the agreement is fair.

“I wish to make an amendment.”

“Name your terms.”

“Some shelves will belong to my private collection. You will refrain from touching these tomes and scrolls without my explicit permission.” You ponder not entirely convinced. There’s nothing in there for you and Essek knows it. You raise an eyebrow for him to continue and concede on a previously negotiated term for this amendment to go through.

“And in return, you get to redecorate our communal spaces how you see fit, within the realms of reason.” Essek empathises the latter part of his statement.

“Agreeable.” You nod. “Next up; social engagements.”

The two of you go back and forth agreeing, adjusting, and conceding to come to an equal understanding and finalise your arrangement. Over all, it went surprisingly well. It certainly was a nice change of scene to have somewhat friendly negotiations without the added pressure of the dens and the Bright Queen herself watching you.

Essek makes for a good conversationalist and you might even dare say you enjoyed your afternoon setting the terms and conditions. Maybe you could be friends after all. That would be nice.

#critical role #critical role x reader #mighty nein #mighty nein x reader #essek thelyss x reader #essek x reader #essek #essek thelyss #critrole x reader

49 notes · View notes

thotsforvillainrights · 3 years

Note

May i request some smutty HC's(or whatever) with Tabe, Hojo, Katsukame, and Sakaki? Like, where they prefer to do it, do they prefer a dom or sub S/O, are they okay with/how they feel about pegging, fav positions, what gets them going etc. anything is fine uwu. I'm sorry that this is a weird ask and that I chose a weird selection. They need some love. BTW, you don't have to do this if you feel uncomfortable. Have a good day💜

(Let’s go I love this! This is my first time doing smut for these boys I think, so I’m excited to see how it’ll turn out. The sad news is that even though I recently added Tabe and Hojo to my smut list, I still hadn’t added Katsukame or Sakaki. To see the updated list by the way, it’s in my bio! Hope I haven’t disappointed anyone!)

~Tabe/Hojo Smut Headcanons~

headcanon|scenario|imagine|match-up

~Tabe~

-He really hasn’t felt anything akin to sexual interest until he met you. In fact, he didn’t really develop sexual urges until he had fully fallen in love with you. After the love came, the sudden urges came on and he was finally seeing sex for what it could be between you two...something special and intimate. Don’t get him wrong or anything! He knows intimacy can be found in other ways but at this point he’s really interested in doing it with you. I think once you realize this, you take things slow for your first time and oh my God Tabe will do anything to feel that intense please again and again.

-Personally he prefers to do it in the secrecy of his own home with you but if you’re the type to do public stuff then who is he to turn you down? The temptation from you is just far too strong sometimes. He’ll find himself in a rather compromising position wherever you lay on the naughtiness at. He simply can’t control himself! As Tabe would put it: feeling your skin against him is like an all you can eat buffet with no price tag attached. In other words: your body is his heaven.

-Does he prefer Dom or Sub? It doesn’t matter to him! But don’t expect him to be any kind of rough with you because he simply can’t bring himself to do it to you. I’d say he leans more on the side with a partner that leads in the bedroom so he doesn’t need to do all the serious world. He’s not lazy, Sorimitsu just doesn’t think he’s capable of that kind of thing just yet. Since he’s more of a pillow princess letting you take control then that goes hand in hand with his opinion on pegging. Go ahead and give it all you got but be gentle, he’s a little sensitive!

-Tabe’s fave position is missionary. Sounds mega boring but he likes looking into your eyes while you two do it. It really breaches the line between fucking and making love. When looking into you eyes during the act goes on, he feels a bit more connected to you. It makes him feel the moment is more special and his heart swells with love and affection for you, as well as pride when knowing it’s him that makes you feel this good. Looking in your eyes is also an excellent way to get him going before the act as well. The look in your eyes when you’re flirting with him says a million words even if your mouth is silent. When you give him that nasty look, he knows it’s about to go down.

~Hojo~

-He’s so respectful to you for the most part. He’s doing his best to keep up with that reputation, but you just love fucking him up with the way you tease him. There’s only so much a man can take before he cracks. You know this too, that’s why you always love trying to bring out the beast in him. In fact, from the very first moment you two had sex for the first time it was YOU that started it. Hojo remembers that night very clearly too. The way you smirked at him when you ran your hand smoothly up his chest and unbuttoned his already open shirt. Then that damn batting of your lashes. Shit...Hojo really lost himself in you that night.

-That was the only time you guys did it outside of your own apartment. Usually he’ll get down to business in the bedroom, but sometimes you find yourselves in other places. Sometimes the couch, or maybe the kitchen counter or table. Other times you might be on the floor of the hallway or even in the bathroom. Very rarely you might do it in the car but this is very very rare, like maybe twice every 6 months or less. This doesn’t mean it’s any less spicy though!

-Hojo loves you no matter what but he’s most definitely the dominant one in the relationship right now (and probably always). He’s the one that grips your wrists while he’s rocking his hips into you firmly and watching you lose yourself in the pleasure. He’s the one tying you to bed with his tie and teasing you until tears appear in the corners of your eyes while you beg him to touch you. He’s the one popping you on the ass and talking dirty to you until you finish right in front of him. Despite all of this, he’s the king of aftercare with you. He holds you close, cuddles you, and kisses you as if he hasn’t seen you in forever. He’s right back in gentlemen mode now so don’t worry lol.

-Even though he’s real nasty in the sheets, he’s not a fan of pegging sadly. Like he tried it once or twice for you but he can’t vibe with it. Nothing is going up his ass again even if it’s you trying it. He’ll apologize a million times over but I’m sure you’re okay with it. After all, it’s all about compromise in the bedroom between you two. The love is there and it never weakens so no worries. Despite him not being down for you pegging him, he’s down for it being the other way around if you don’t mind lol. His fave position is doggy style. It feels a bit raunchy when he can slightly push your face into the pillows while he hits it from behind yknow? And nothing gets him going more than that behind of yours. Doesn’t matter the size of it. Big or small, flat or plump, it’s a part of you that he absolutely loves. That’s why when you really wanna tease him, all you have to do is bend over and let him get a good view of it.

»—————————–———————————————————–✄

Instagram: @pastelbattydraws & @pastelbattystore

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNMJH7vHL7APNobUykhK4w?view_as=subscriber

#bnha #mha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #sorimitsu tabe #tabe soramitsu #bnha tabe #bnha hojo #yu hojo #shie hassaikai #yakuza #eight precepts of death #eight expendables #eightfold cleansers #eight bullets #smut

28 notes · View notes

writingismyhappytime · 5 years

Note

I'm thankful for friends, making new friends, meeting the band in two weeks, and road trips ❤️ hope this works in a magical way as a fic

You squeeze your arms around Chris, a warm, fuzzy feeling settling over your shoulders as you look around the home you’ve made together. It’s perfectly decorated for the holidays, much to his dismay, but it’s important to you to get into the spirit. You want to wake up every day to the smell of gingerbread candles or pumpkin spice, shove your feet into warm slippers and walk into a livingroom prepared for Christmas despite Halloween was two days ago.

“This is going to be such a good year,” you say excitedly, pleased at the Christmas tree looming in the corner of the room, decorated in reds and golds on one side, blacks and silvers on the other --- neither of you could agree on the colors, so you compromised.

Honestly? You kind of like it, it shows both of your personalities, both of your tastes.

“You’re not going to try to get out of meeting my parents this time, right?” You ask after a moment, twitching your eyes up at the tall black-haired man beside you who was looking at his phone rather than at the decorations you’ve been laboring over for days.

“Last time was an accident,” he mumbles defensively; it’s not his fault that there was an emergency band meeting about the album that he sort of planned as a way to get out of meeting your very country-bumpkin parents for the first time. He just knows they’re not going to like him, and you’ve only been dating a year! Isn’t it a little fast to meet the family just yet?

Sure, you might be living together, you have for the last six months, but that’s different! Sure, you might also be in one of his music videos, and on one of his bank accounts just in case there’s an emergency, but --- well, those things had all seemed natural to happen at the time! No rush, no force, not like this whole parents thing.

It makes him uncomfortable.

He’s an adult, technically old enough to be a parent himself now, but that doesn’t make the impending situation any less doom-filled. Maybe he can say one of the band broke their leg and he has to go to the hospital, and make one of them limp around for six months in a cast when you’re around. That seems like a more logical thing to do, actually, maybe Ricky would ---.

“Chris.”

“Yeah?”

“Stop plotting for a way out of this,” you wag your finger firmly at him as you step away, gathering errant tinsel decorating his black livingroom suite. “You can’t bail on me this time, I won’t allow it. I don’t care if someone is dying, you’re meeting my folks.”

Folks.

“Ugh.”

“Do I have too?” He grumbles unhappily, sitting down heavily in the armchair, grimacing as he realizes he’s squishing Rudolph. He’s not near as into the holiday spirit as you are, and it sort of irks him to come home and see all this nonsense hanging around, but you were just so excited to decorate he couldn’t exactly tell you no. He frowns down at the reindeer he holds in his tattooed hands, the bright red nose he has the sudden urge to rip off.

“They’ve been wanting to meet you for a long time, Chris, so yes! We’ve been together over a year now!’

Not quite a year, Chris thinks. He tosses Rudolph away from him, not caring where he lands as he looks at you. “Yes, but we don’t want to rush anything. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind giving us more time before they meet me.”

“Are you afraid of my parents?” You frown at him, garland hanging from your neck as you try to gather your holiday supplies. You have some glitter on you from who knows what, some ornaments are hanging off your fingers by their delicate strings, and under one arm is apparently sticks you can buy to apparently stuff the tree and make it look fuller? He’d never heard of such a thing before. “Is big bad frontman of a metal band afraid of meeting two old people? My mom crochets and my dad runs the local bingo, they’re not exactly feral.”

You look... amused.

Chris face sours. “I am not afraid of meeting them! I just --- well, I don’t know. It just seems soon. Why don’t we wait another year?”

“Why? Do you plan on breaking up with me sometime next year?” You quirk a brow at him curiously, slowly putting your ornaments away. “Is that why you don’t want to meet them?”

“No.” Chris squirms.

“They’re just people, Chris, you meet new ones every day! There’s nothing different and nothing to be worried about,” you sound exasperated, struggling too get the tinsel off of you and into the designated box.

“But it’s different,” he replies, getting to his feet to help you. He lifts the tinsel off of you, tossing it into the box already overflowing with decor. "It's your people."

"They're going to like you," you say, brushing at your ugly, obnoxious cat sweater. He swears you've pulled out a box that has a sweater for every single day until the holiday, and now you're talking about making him wear some! He does have a reputation to uphold! Although, it would be a funny card to send out, both of you wearing horrid looking sweaters.

Actually, that would be cute, he's not quite so opposed now.

"Are you sure they're not going to think I'm the devil luring their little girl to the dark side?"

You roll your eyes. "No. If anything, I think I'm more devious than you are, you just look the part. Don't let my cat sweater fool you, Mr. Cerulli, I'm quite the devil myself."

"Oh really? Chris chuckles, feeling your arms curling tightly around his waist again as you snuggle into him. He holds you, giving you a light squeeze as he presses his lips into your hair.

Yeah, still doesn't want to meet your parents.

Still will try to find a way out of it.

Just won't mention that detail to you.

"Oh, and when we sit down at Thanksgiving, we have this tradition of going around the table saying what we're thankful for because we really are that basic, but you're going to have to play long. Say something cheesy, my mom will love that," you say, your voice muffled by his shirt. "It doesn't matter if you really mean it or not, but that'll make them like you more. Which I also don't think you have anything to worry about. My mom keeps telling everyone she slept with a member of Motley Crue back in the day, so I don't know how true that is or not, but be prepared for that story since she knows you're in a band."

Chris chuckles, his lips curving. "Sleeping with the band runs in the family, huh?"

"You could say that." You reply, shrugging your shoulders. You nudge him until he's taking a few steps back, falling back into the armchair still warm from his occupation earlier. You sit down in his lap, curling your cold toes against his leg as you snuggle into him, his warm arms keeping you against him. "Do you want to practice what you're thankful for?"

"Not really."

"Oh, come on," you shuffle a little, letting your head rest against his black-clad shoulder. "Humor me."

Hmph.

"I'm thankful for --- you being my girlfriend. Baking lots of cookies, making it smell girly as fuck in here at all times." Chris glances dubiously at all the lit candles.

"Well, there's a start," you bite your lower lip, cheeks pinkening. He started off so well.

"I'm thankful for --- all that we have together," you say after a moment. "Our apartment, the things we do together."

Oh, are you going back and forth now? Crap, what else can he be thankful for?

"Uhh --- I'm thankful for... um... I don't know." he grimaces. This is a lot harder than expected. What is he thankful for? He tries to think, but his mind is just completely blank.

"Well, I'll go again. I'm thankful for friends, making new friends," you chew your lip thoughtfully. "Meeting the band in two weeks." You haven't met any of them, not because you don't want too, your life is just busy and they're his work buddies, you don't think it's important to meet them until he wants you too --- turns out now he does, which made you so happy to know he wants you more involved in his life! "And road trips."

"Road trips?"

"Yep. We're taking one next year, remember? You might have got to see all fifty states, but I'm still lacking seven of them! I need to finish my tshirt collection."

Oh god.

Chris forgot about that.

"I can always buy you one when I go through the state."

"It's not the same! I want to see it for myself. You did promise me, remember?" You boop his nose lightly with your finger, amused when his pale cheeks turn bright pink. "I want us to go together for the experience. It'll be fun. You can take a week off work, and we can just spend it together."

Ahuh.

"Like... are we driving or flying?"

"Well, we can rent an RV, really spend some close time together," you say, pretending to be thoughtful and not ignore his horrified look. "You remember that movie with Robin Williams? It'll kind of be an adventure like that! It'll be fun!"

Absolutely not.

Chris has not sunk that low!

"Doesn't he get run over by the RV?"

"I'm sure you'll be fine, honey." you pat his shoulder reassuringly.

Chris sighs.

Sure he will.

"You know what else I'm thankful for?" You say after a moment, snuggled in his lap in your warm sweater, his arms keeping away the chill of the room. You love little, simple moments like this when it's just the two of you, when it's quiet and peaceful, all you're missing is the crackling of an open fire.

"What's that?"

"You." You press a soft kiss against his chin, smiling. "Putting up with me and my holiday obsession, letting me decorate this space and tease you about RV's but going along with it anyway. I love you, and you're important to me, I'm so thankful that I met you and that we've been able to spend all this time together."

Chris blinks, his cheeks a nice rosy hue as he absorbs your words.

"How am I supposed to top that?" He mumbles, and you smile warmly at him, snuggling close again.

"You're not supposed too, so long as you feel the same."

His arms around you tighten. "I definitely feel the same."

He gives it a moment, then, "But were you serious about the RV thing? Because we can seriously just fly to whatever state you want to start in and rent a car or something."

"Well, I'll guess we'll find out next year when we start planning for our trip, won't we?" You say lightly, drawing circles with your fingertips along the lines of his dark shirt. "After you meet my parents."

He frowns.

Why do you have to keep reminding him about that?

37 notes · View notes

forkanna · 4 years

Link

[AO3] [WATTPAD] [QUOTEV]

Chie was warm when she awoke the next morning. What a lovely feeling! She couldn't remember how long it had been since she last felt this peaceful — as if pure sunshine itself were wrapping around her, coiled like an affectionate snake. Even though that was a very weird mental image.

Speaking of which… the sunshine itself was just barely peeking in through the windows of the room, making her close her eyes a little tighter as she snuggled harder against her pillow. All she wanted to do was sleep in and forget the frightening, insane dream she had. Yukiko falling into the TV? Monster clones crawling all over each other — and worse still, Yu and Yosuke seeing them like that?! Horrible and crazy, even if the ending of the dream was a little less unpleasant. No, she would rather just think about sunshine and her best friend and let the nightmare fade into nothingness.

"Yukiko…" she breathed with a small smile.

"Hmm?"

The response didn't startle her. Not at first. She simply was too comfortable, too happy, for the reality of the situation to poke through that fuzzy blanket of contentment. However, she did start to feel like either her pillow was a little too warm, or her dog somehow knew the word "Hmm" now. And come to that, Muku wasn't an inside dog. Why was he in her bed today?

When she moved her face just a little to snuggle closer and hopefully fall back asleep, she could suddenly tell that there was hair covering her pillow. Not fabric, and not dog fur either… actual human hair. That was weird. Her brain finally put it together: the least weird thing to be covered in human hair was a human, not a pillow or a dog. So that meant…

That meant…

Drawing backward, Chie opened her eyes to observe a sea of silky black strands. Yukiko. She didn't need to scroll through some huge list of people it could be; she knew, even without seeing anything else. This wasn't the first time they had fallen asleep together and awoken in the same bed. Just the first time since finding out a shadowy part of her heart wanted to wake up next to her every morning.

Moving her arm a little showed her that it was around Yukiko's stomach. And it felt so good there… who wouldn't love to spoon the junior innkeeper? Flawless goddess that she was. Practically everybody who went to Yasogami High shared that opinion; with the exception of Ai Ebihara, who was gorgeous but as snooty and unpleasant as they came, she was most definitely the hottest girl in school. She had even overheard a couple of "If I were gay" discussions in the locker room that hinted Yukiko would be their ideal.

But now, Chie and Yukiko were gay. For real, not just hypothetically.

"Oh shit," she breathed when she remembered that particular detail. The shadows had been telling the truth. Sure, she knew she could put up a fight, try to pretend it was all a dream or they were lying, but the moment she accepted that other Chie into her heart she relinquished all right to deny it any longer. "Yukiko… I think we're in trouble."

"Hmm?" she groaned again, squirming a little in Chie's embrace. Her hand drifted up to rest on the back of Chie's, which made her smile. What a tender touch. "Prince? What time is it?"

Now she burst into a full rosy blush like she never had before. Yukiko was calling her that in her sleep now? She had thought the shadow exaggerated that slightly, like they tended to do, but apparently it was no exaggeration. Before she could think through her response, it was out of her mouth and into the air.

"I don't know, Princess."

Yukiko's dark eyes fluttered open, staring at the wall bordering the window. Now she could see this was Yuki's room; her brain hadn't been firing on all cylinders before. Such a traditional Japanese room, complete with low tables and tatami, a bonsai on a small table in the corner, hanging calligraphy — and they were curled up in a futon that was luxurious for one person but very slightly too small for two. There was also a poster of a pop group Yukiko loved, but it was framed; probably a compromise on her mother's part.

"Chie-chan?" she breathed.

"Yeah?"

"It's you. Why… last night, what happened?"

"Nothing! Nothing happened!" That was her first instinct; cover her own ass, make sure Yukiko didn't think she was being a creep. Then she cleared her throat. "I m-mean, uh… I don't know. What do you remember?"

Her warm body shifted, and Chie felt her neck growing yet hotter. This felt too good in a way it never had before. "I remember… the castle. You saved me. I'm… oh."

"Oh?"

"I remember our shadows."

"Damn," she sighed. "I was kinda hoping you'd forget that part. So embarrassing!"

"I know! I've never… how could that other me be s-so indecent? I've never had thoughts like those before!"

Chie sighed, petting up and down her best friend's stomach. She felt the muscles twitch and shift in response. "Um… yeah, but… I have. And I think the shadows kinda, um, fed off each other? Or something, I guess. I don't know."

Finally, Yukiko turned just enough so she could look at her best friend out of the corner of her eye. "You've really thought about me that way?"

"Not… like the shadow said I did. I wasn't trying to…" She grimaced, and Yukiko's expression grew more concerned. "Never wanted to be with you… like that. It was just a thought or two, I promise. Because there's never been any guys I was really into, y'know? So after seeing that video, I… y-you're so pretty, and we're already best friends… so I had to wonder…"

"You had to wonder…?" When Chie didn't continue, she bit her lip for a moment before whispering, "If maybe you and I could be like the girls in the video?"

"Yeah! But then I was like, that's stupid, right? We're friends! And that's cool! You've been my best friend practically my whole life, and I love that. I don't wanna mess it up."

"Chie… why are we in bed together?"

Swallowing hard, she tried to scrape together two brain cells. "Well… you collapsed in the castle, and then I was trying to help carry you out… and after that… man, I really don't remember."

"If…" Yukiko rolled onto her back, and Chie felt even more self-conscious now that they could see each other. That perfect, angelic face, gazing up at her with concern and trust. She didn't deserve that. "Maybe Yu and Yosuke couldn't carry both of us all the way to both houses? So they just left you here."

"Maybe…" She sighed, looking away. "I'm sorry, Yuki-chan. I didn't mean to flake."

"Flake? What do you mean?"

"I should have been able to carry you all the way home, if I'm really your… well, y'know."

"My prince?" When Chie nodded, she let out the softest little chuckle. "You really think I don't still see you that way? You went to an entire other world for me. A-and you accepted your shadow, even after she told everyone that you… after she did those things to the other Yukiko."

"I couldn't hide from them anymore," she sighed, slumping just a little. "Not with it all out in the open, and… and it being the truth."

"No, that's not what I was trying to explain. I know the only reason you accepted that was to make sure I was safe. I could tell." Her hand drifted up to cup Chie's cheek. "My brave prince, risking her life, and then… her reputation in front of the guys. And all I did was be a victim."

Eyebrows furrowing, she leaned a little closer. "Don't say it like that. We were all victims — of whoever's behind this stupid stuff. How were you supposed to know you'd get kidnapped?!"

"But I couldn't protect myself," she insisted. "Couldn't stop them from catching me and throwing me into the TV. What kind of pathetic-"

"Stop! You have every right to just… be a peaceful, gentle girl, who likes to study, and laugh at stupid jokes, a-and… and I would die to defend that right!"

Yukiko's face suddenly grew deathly serious. "No. Please don't say things like that, Chie. I don't want to think about… well, I just don't want to think about that. Okay?"

"Okay," she acquiesced with a little nod. While Yukiko was breathing a sigh of relief, she kissed her cheek. "I'm just glad we got you back safe and sound."

"Oh," Yukiko breathed. Only then did Chie realise what she had done, but her friend was already smiling. "Y-yes. Thank you."

"S-sorry."

"No, no, it's alright! It felt very…" She trailed off, the bridge of her nose and her cheeks turning pink. "I can't believe this is real. We're… I didn't even know. How could I not know I had those feelings buried inside of me? Am I stupid?"

"Only if I am, too," she chuckled, and Yukiko grinned bashfully.

"I guess you're right. We can't pretend that both of our shadows weren't having a great time over there."

"We could," Chie hedged playfully. "Try to pretend the whole thing was just a big hallucination. But now that Tomoe is a part of me, I don't think it's gonna work very well."

"Tomoe?"

After blinking for a moment, Chie breathed, "Whoa. I just… knew that name. That's the other me; her name is Tomoe. How? She never told me…"

"Konohana Sakuya."

"Huh?"

"That's… mine's name," she explained, sounding just as confused as Chie. "They're part of us, but… also something else. I saw them change before we accepted them; do you think…?"

"I don't know," she admitted readily. "Seriously, I wish I did. But I remember Yosuke saying something about that when we were all talking about what happened when him and Yu went into the TV before. They used a word… I just can't remember what it was now."

"That's alright. We can ask them later." They shifted and felt their legs graze each other's, and Yukiko giggled a bit. "Wow, this feels very different from before."

"You bet. I'm… I don't know what to do."

"What do you want to do? We can get up now if that's-"

"NO! I mean, uhh… it's okay. We can chill for a minute."

Yukiko smiled sweetly up at her, even if her face was glowing crimson. "You don't have to do that anymore, you know. Hide your true feelings. If you do want to… be close to me, we can do that. It's a little scary since it's new, but I… don't mind. Not at all."

"Really? It's not too weird?" She moved her legs again. "I don't think, um… we're wearing very much. Under the sheets."

"Y-yeah. It's… don't worry, I'm sure it was my mother who undressed us, or one of the other women."

"It had better have been. I'll punt that Yosuke to the moon if he even took off one of my shoes!" They both giggled a little before relaxing again, even if they weren't fully relaxed. Too much excitement.

"Your legs are smooth," Yukiko commented out of nowhere. "A-against mine. Sorry."

"What are you sorry for?"

"Well… it's strange, isn't it? For us to be doing this, and… I want to tell you what I'm thinking, but I'm also ashamed of those things. It's silly; I just got done telling you everything is fine, and yet…"

One of Chie's shoulders rose and fell with a little shrug. "It's okay. Seriously, I'm… don't worry about me judging you. I'm pretty sure it's my fault we even saw our shadows doing that since I'm the perv."

"You are not a perv," she chuckled. "Unless you were lying about how often you go to watch those videos."

"I wasn't. Like, I only went on there once." Sighing, she forced herself to admit, "I did watch more than one video, though. Like, a few. But I felt so creepy afterward that I couldn't let myself go back."

"I see. Did you want to look at some together?"

Chie nearly lost her mind at that thought. Therefore, she was quick to assure her, "S-some other time! Maybe? I dunno, um…"

"O-oh, okay," Yukiko quickly agreed, nodding as she swallowed hard. "I didn't mean to upset you, or to suggest something… too unpleasant. Just trying to help."

"You are! I mean it, this is really… I'm so happy that you're not skeeved, or think I'm being a perv, or hating me for… being gross with that website. I just… got curious, and then it was super fascinating."

After debating internally for a second, Yukiko whispered, "And then, you pictured the two of us doing the same thing?" No answer. Yukiko reached up to pet along her cheek again as she added, "It's alright. I think… w-well, I don't like anyone thinking of me that way. It seems vulgar. Except, knowing you have… it doesn't make me angry like Yosuke does when he asks what my measurements are."

Chie's lip curled. "That boy is a real horndog. Not a bad guy overall, but like, he's sure got a one-track mind."

"Yeah!" she agreed with a musical laugh that made Chie melt in a way it never had before. She always loved it, sure, but now it had a deeper effect than could be explained away. "I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to get us into swimsuits as soon as the weather's warmer."

"Probably right! I mean, God, why is he like that?!" They both giggled for a few seconds, trying to relax against each other's bodies despite the electricity sparking between them. Then Chie cuddled a little closer, feeling Yukiko's arms tighten around her back. "Mmm…"

A tender mouth came to rest against the crown of her head, pushing into the hair a tiny bit — not quite a kiss. Just a tender gesture. "Chie… I don't understand a lot of this. I really don't. But I want you to know something."

"What's up?" she breathed.

"That you and I… we're friends. And not just 'I'll see you in class' friends, but 'I'll see you every day for the rest of our lives' friends. Even if we aren't… that kind, if our feelings aren't the same, that doesn't matter. I will never turn my back on this friendship."

Her heart felt like it could burst. "Y-Yuki-chan… I… for real? You and me, forever?"

"Sorry."

"No, no, I feel the same way!"

"You do?!" When Chie nodded, she embraced her even more tightly. "Oh, Chie… I've felt that way for a long time! I just wasn't sure if I should say it, or if it would be too strange. Since it sounded like…"

When she didn't finish the thought after a few seconds, she whispered, "Yeah. It sure does sound like… a love confession."

"Right. And of course, I love you. I'm just… not sure what kind of…"

"Hey, don't sweat it," she reassured her with a smile as she held onto her friend. Trying to ignore how warm she was, how good she smelled… how little they were wearing, even if it was underneath bedsheets. "We'll figure that out. Probably."

For a few minutes, they simply laid there, too afraid to continue. To misspeak and change the whole situation sooner than either of them were prepared for. Finally, Yukiko cleared her throat as she caressed up and down Chie's mostly-bare back, fingers tripping slightly over the strap of her sports bra.

"So… um… fingers can really… do that to a woman? And it doesn't hurt?"

Instantly, Chie turned back into a mess. It became a lot harder to ignore certain physical reactions when forced to think about that spectacle their shadows put on again — especially when she could feel a very warm hip pushing against the area in question.

"Y-yeah, I guess so! Not that I tried it, but I, u-um… looked like it to me."

"Wow…"

"I know, right? Crazy…"

Licking her lips, Yukiko whispered, "And you would want to try that with me?"

"NO! I uh, I mean… yeah? But we're not doing that kind of stuff, so it's fine! Really, I'm just… I feel a little light-headed, do you feel light-headed? Is it hot in here or is it just you?"

Yukiko had been laughing until the last part, which made her gasp. "Me? Hot?!"

"Yeah, you! Geez, haven't you ever looked in a mirror? Don't you hear how the boys talk about you in school?"

"W-well… I think boys just talk about girls like that all the time," she hedged, cheeks flaming red. "And of course, I know I'm not ugly, but I also don't think I'm particularly pretty. Or unique; I'm such a common girl. What about Ebihara-san? She's much prettier than me. And so are you!"

Chuckling just a little at her friend's modesty — which she knew was true and not a facade, thanks to their shadow-encounters — she kissed her cheek and whispered, "You're beautiful, ya idiot. And everybody knows Ebihara's a bitch."

"CHIE!" she cried out in shock, even though she started giggling a moment later. Chie allowed herself to relax into the embrace as her friend shook with mirth for a few seconds. "I… I can't believe you said that!"

"What? It's true! She's a huge bitch and nobody can stand her. I mean… she's probably just really insecure or whatever, but does that have to mean she takes it out on the rest of us?"

Yukiko nodded thoughtfully as they relaxed against each other. "I wonder… if she went into the TV with us… what her shadow would be like? Or my parents, or… anyone. Not that I want them to have to go through what we have, or what the reporter and Saki-san did, for sure — nobody else should die. I'm just curious what secrets are in their hearts; it might explain why Ebihara-san is so, um, unpleasant."

"Who knows?" she sighed, relaxing a little more as they both fell silent. At least they had the topic of the egomaniacal Ai to distract them for a few seconds.

What should they do now? Of course, they could just keep lying there, but given that she already felt the embers of need trying to catch the rest of her on fire, that was a bad plan if she didn't want to end up repeating what the shadows had done. Which neither of them was quite ready for. Could they actually just get up and start acting like everything was fine? No, that ship had sailed; actually watching part of their own selves acting out secret fantasies would not be so easy to forget as a slip of a tongue, or a lingering glance.

"Yuki-chan?"

"Yes?"

"Um… I'm sorry for how I used to think about you." There, perfect. This was something she needed to do, anyway, and it would help keep them from thinking too hard about other matters. "For thinking of you as dependent on me, o-or whatever. I know we kind of already went over that, but I wanted to formally apologi-"

"Shhh," she shushed her, kissing her cheek. "Chie, don't. I know… I know I put you on a pedestal, and you enjoyed the pedestal. We both could have been… smarter? Or more wise? Or maybe just more honest about our feelings with each other. A-anyway, I, um… I don't like you any less, and I don't think you're a bad person at all. So don't worry about those things."

Great. Yukiko was so kind and understanding that now they had nothing to distract them from the deeper worries about their sexuality. And since they had already admitted their feelings, more or less…

"D-does this mean… we're… dating?"

"Does it?" Yukiko asked, eyebrows shooting upward. "Wow…"

Grimacing, she hissed, "Don't just accept it like that! We're both girls, aren't we?"

"Well, yes. But I've read somewhere that it's becoming more and more commonly accepted in other parts of the world. There are countries in Africa where it's still punishable by death, but everywhere else…"

"Death!" she squeaked, clutching at her own throat.

"Stop," she snorted with a slight smile. "It's terrible, yes, but I don't plan on moving to Africa, so you and I should be safe."

Chie forced herself to breathe. Then she cleared her throat and followed up with, "Still, um… we're in Japan. It's weird here, right? They're going to look at us funny."

"Maybe…" She frowned a little, then she shrugged. "But how will they know we're not just friends?"

"Well, that- oh. Oh, I guess you're right, huh? Unless we make out in the middle of class, anyway."

"You want to make out in the middle of class?" Chie's brain short-circuited for a minute before Yukiko giggled. "Sorry, that was mean. I made you picture it, I think."

"N-not 'mean'! Nope! And what do you mean? I didn't picture anything!" When her friend only continued to giggle at her expense, belly shaking, Chie rolled her eyes and smiled. "You're such a goof. Do you know that? Like, everybody else is fooled by your cute 'proper lady' kimono-wearing facade, but not me. I see who you really are."

Her smile was coy as she gazed upward, the sun coming through the window in just the right way to sparkle in one of her eyes. "And who am I?"

What Chie had been going to say was something along the lines of "a nerd"; she actually wasn't entirely sure. But seeing her like that prompted a quiet, "Perfect."

"What?" Yukiko's smile disappeared, only to reappear smaller and alongside a rosy blush. "O-oh."

"What?"

"I didn't think… you were going to say something like…" Throat working to swallow, she looked away. "Wow. You really are a prince."

"A-ah, come on," she tried to laugh it off. "Just because I said that one thing?"

"No. It's the way you said it; the way you were looking at me when you did. There was this dreamy sincerity in your eyes, and… your voice was so serious. I got goosebumps." When Chie laughed again, she pushed down the sheet and raised up an arm. "No really! Look, I have them!"

However, Chie became distracted by something else other than the tiny scores of bumps along Yukiko's arm. There was no bra. She had still been expecting actual clothes, really, but even beyond those having gone missing, her best friend was topless. And unless she missed her guess, those peaks were erect — probably for the same reason her arm had blossomed into gooseflesh.

Because of Chie.

"Oh!" Yukiko suddenly gasped when she realised, her other arm sliding up to lay across her chest and conceal everything. "Oh no, I- I'm sorry, I w-wasn't… sometimes I can be such a ditz!"

"Yeah…" Once hearing she said that, she hurried to assure her, "Wait, hang on, you're n-not a ditz. I don't think that! I meant, um… it's okay! Yeah."

Both of them were red enough in the face that they probably could have cooked omelettes on their cheeks. Chie took a quick glance down to see if she was clothed, and she was — in her sports bra. At least it was something. Yukiko was probably either wearing no bra before, or hers was nicer and more elaborate, so the women who worked at the inn had removed it so she could rest comfortably after her ordeal. It made sense, even if it resulted in this awkward situation.

"...want to…"

"What?"

Yukiko was quick to shake her head. "Nothing."

"No, really," Chie insisted. "I missed what you said."

"I asked if you wanted… to… t-touch them?"

Licking her lips, she glanced around the room. "Okay, I uh… I know we said we'd do that whole 'honesty' thing from now on. But are you sure you wanna be asking me questions like that?"

"I am," she whispered. "Even if the answers might scare me a little, I could never be really scared. Not with you next to me."

Heart bursting with love, Chie smiled down at her and leaned in for a gentle kiss. Neither of them were really ready, but she suddenly knew that there was no point in depriving each other of the chance to experience this connection — one that had existed all along. They just lied to themselves about what kind of connection it was.

And Yukiko's lips were soft, sweet. Perfect like the rest of her. Chie found she never wanted to stop. Her hand drifted up to grip Yukiko's upper arm, and both of Yuki's hands rested lightly on her collarbone as the kiss deepened — just like a princess! This was crazy!

"Oh wow," Yuki breathed once they parted for air.

"Shit," Chie rasped in a voice husky with need. Then she cleared her throat to try again. "I m-mean… that was… I've never… shit."

Her friend giggled warmly, one hand drifting up to cup her cheek. "My eloquent prince."

"Sh-shut up." When she only giggled more, Chie bumped their noses together with a bashful smile. "But yeah, that was amazing. And I, uh, I wouldn't mind doing some more."

"Doing some more kissing? Is that a proper way to phrase it?"

"I don't even care, man. Like, I'm trying not to scream and roll around on the floor!" They both giggled this time, and Chie buried her face in her hand. "You're my princess. How did I not see… was I just really dumb?"

"I feel pretty dumb, too, so it's okay." Pillowy lips grazed her cheek and sent her heart skipping over a beat. "But um… we should probably take a break. Before one of us faints."

"That might be a good idea." When Yukiko started to stand up, she covered her eyes. "AH!"

"Oh! Do you… not want to see my body? I'm sorry…"

As fervently as she could, she shook her head. "That's not it! I'm just… like, if I'm kind of the 'boy' now, you aren't supposed to be showing off the goods, right? Like, u-um… maybe that's stupid. Sorry! I don't know what the hell I'm saying anymore!"

"It's okay," Yukiko laughed lightly. "But you're not a boy; you're just… my prince. Prince Chie. And if you want your princess to be more modest, I can be."

"That wasn't what I meant, either; it's not that you're doing something bad! You're great! REALLY great! B-but I shouldn't be a, um, a pervert-prince."

"Ohhh… okay, I think I understand. You want my permission to look? Instead of just, um, accidentally sneaking a peek?"

"Yes. Or like, um… well, yeah, pretty much. But I don't want you to give it right now just because I'm in the room."

The quietest little giggle almost made her look anyway. "You've already seen my body."

"That wasn't you. Probably my imagination's like, idea of what you would look like naked? But you'd have to tell me if it was, uh… accurate."

"How am I supposed to do that? I have no idea what I look like down there!"

"Like I would?! And it's your body!"

"Chie!" she gasped, a little embarrassed now. "Wh-why would I look at myself like that? I'd need a mirror, and… a-and I, u-um…"

Finally dropping her hands, she saw Yukiko had donned a kimono — not the somewhat ornate tsukesage she had been wearing when dragged into the Midnight Channel, which there would be no way she could get all that on in the limited time since getting up, but a simple pink-and-white chequed yukata. Chie felt her tiny flicker of lust turning to contentment and affection.

"You never got curious?" she asked as she got up. Now it was Yukiko's turn to blush and look away, and Chie made straight for the similar red-and-white yukata that had been hanging next to Yukiko's. She wanted them to both be comfortable instead of anxious. "I did."

"You did?!"

"Sure. I mean, I didn't do anything super crazy, just… when I learned to use a tampon…" Then she laughed awkwardly. "Maybe this is nasty to talk about, anyway."

"No, no, it's alright. I never…" Clearing her throat, she rephrased, "I use pads."

"Ohhhh. Yeah okay, I guess you wouldn't have." Then she tied the robe around the waist and approached her friend. "Well, I'm sure it's… nice?"

Flushed and squirming, she chanced a smile up at Chie. "I h-hope so. For you. Whenever we, u-um… not that we need to."

"Right! For sure! Nobody's holding a gun to our heads, telling us we have to bone!" At the last word, Yukiko flinched, so she grimaced and added, "Too far? I'm sorry, I know you're not real thrilled about people using-"

"It's alright. We're um… this is a very stressful and new situation. And I should probably get over things like that if I'm ever going to be a good wife for you."

Now it was Chie's turn to flush brick red, brain misfiring and leaving her stuttering and gaping at her. Wife. Was that where this was heading? Marriage?! But two women couldn't get married! Maybe they could live together, sure, but wouldn't that basically make them lifelong roommates? Who had sex? And kissed, and took care of each other, and…

"I guess you will be," she breathed aloud as the realisation hit her. "And I'll be a good wife for you, too! Like, so good, I swear!"

Yukiko reached forward to take up Chie's hands, holding them loosely as they gazed into each other's eyes. "Of course you will. I might be scared, and have no idea what I'm doing, but it's not about who you are. I know you're the best person in my life." They shared a small kiss — that still sent tingles along Chie's spine, despite how brief and chaste it was — before she added, "But aren't you the husband?"

"Hey, I draw the line at 'prince'," she laughed back. "You want a husband, you better ask Yu."

"No, thank you," she giggled. "He's very sweet but he isn't my Prince."

"Yosuke?"

"EW! That's so intolerable — he would be the worst!"

Chie cackled as they headed for the bedroom door to finally start their day, hand in hand. "Right?! He'd be better off with some girl like Ebihara!"

"Well, let's not go too far… I'm not sure who doesn't deserve whom in that scenario."

To Be Continued…

#We'll Face Ourselves #persona 4 #p4 fanfic #forkanna writes #persona 4 fanfiction #jess the writer

3 notes · View notes

shenanigumi · 6 years

Note

Hello!! I'm on my third playthrough now but tbh I still don't really understand the politics in the game, like what everyone wants to achieve and who's allied with whom and what their statuses are... do you maybe know of a website or any other source where this is explained in a simple and comprehensable way? The ingame encyclopedia doesn't really help... ;~~; Thank you very much!!

Hey there! Information about the Bakumatsu Period in Japan is, for whatever reason, comparatively hard to come by in English sources. It’s a little easier to find biographies on specific warriors, but even those are scattered. I can give you a super-basic rundown of the situation since I did an independent study on the time period, but the sources I had to use are neither simple nor easily accessible. If anyone else has recommendations for more professional sources, please feel free to reblog or comment with them!

Disclaimer: This is super-simplified and I’m not covering events that didn’t happen in the game. Also, it’s been over a year since I’ve done said independent study, so I may be a little rusty. I apologize in advance.

Basically, the situation around which the game is built is that as of 1853, the Western powers forced Japan to open itself to trade with other nations, causing a great deal of domestic unrest. Nobody in Japan was happy about this, but two factions arose with different ideas about how to deal with the situation. One side was comprised of the shogunate forces, loyal to the Tokugawa regime, who believed that the Tokugawa clan held supreme authority to govern Japan due to their victory in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. The other side was comprised of the imperialist forces, who were growing rapidly more impatient with the shogunate’s inability to expel the foreigners as promised, and believed that elevating the emperor to sole ruler of Japan would unite the people and expedite the process. The important thing to note here is that the emperor himself was pro-shogunate, so he had little to no control over those who wanted to give him more power.

Initially, imperialism was a widely shared sentiment, but lacked a real army to back it up (since the shogun was the military commander). However, the people’s unrest was growing quickly with every year the shogunate failed to rid the country of the foreigners. Wary of the situation in the imperial capital, Kyoto, the shogun raised the Roshigumi, the first-ever officially recognized group of warriors that didn’t have to be born into the samurai class in order to be allowed to fight, and sent them there to make sure that a.) the citizens were safe from the disillusioned ronin wandering the streets; and b.) the imperialist situation didn’t get out of hand, as both the shogun and the emperor were in agreement. After a series of complicated situations, covered in the events of Reimeiroku, the group became known as the Shinsengumi and remained in Kyoto to keep order as the shogun’s special police force.

Meanwhile, the Choshu domain—or Chōshū, but it’s simplified in the Hakuōki translation—as well as a few others took up force of arms in the name of the emperor, but without official recognition or even approval. This led to their adoption of violently unorthodox methods, such as kidnapping the emperor to force him to comply with their demands. This was what the Choshu were planning during the Ikeda Incident and later attempted to carry out during the Kinmon Incident (localized as the Hamaguri Rebellion). The shogunate forces quashed it, but the general unrest remained.

Following this, the shogunate branded the Choshu enemies of the state and ordered its domains to prepare for an expedition against them as punishment. However, the shogun did not personally lead the expedition, and morale had already begun to fail among the domains. The leaders of many domains did not see the point of pursuing the Choshu when they had already been routed, and perceived it as a waste of time, soldiers, and supplies. To make matters worse, several of the domains loyal to the shogunate were actually forced into subservience centuries ago, again due to the outcome of the Battle of Sekigahara. Among them were the Satsuma, who began sympathizing with the Choshu and ultimately allied with them, as revealed by Shiranui at Aburakōji (Aburano Koji).

But that only officially happened a few years later, so let’s back up a bit, to when Itou Kashitaro and his men joined the Shinsengumi. They did so partly to leech off the shogun’s protection, and partly to compromise their secondary function in Kyoto: suppressing the imperialist agenda. As imperialists, their ultimate aims differed from the Shinsengumi, but they were able to rally behind the common cause of protecting the people for a time. However, as tensions continued rising between the shogunate and imperialist forces, exacerbated by the deaths of both the shogun himself and the pro-shogunate emperor, the rift between the Shinsengumi and Itou’s faction grew wider. This was especially important because by that time, the Satsuma and Choshu were in accord and had insinuated themselves in the imperial court, naming the fifteen-year-old grandson of one of the Satsuma officials the new emperor. With a shift in power in their favor, Itou and his men no longer had any reason to cooperate with the Shinsengumi and founded the organization localized as the “Guardians of the Imperial Tomb”.

Some time later, the ronin Sakamoto Ryouma of the imperialist Tosa domain successfully convinced the newly named shogun to abdicate power willingly, and wrote up a plan for the transference of power. However, due to being perceived as the final blow to the failing shogunate, he was assassinated by members of the Mimawarigumi, another shogunate-affiliated group. Itou slandered Harada Sanosuke by insisting that he had been responsible, and that combined with his intention to kill Kondou led to the Shinsengumi’s decision to assassinate him at Aburakōji.

On a larger scale, tensions between the imperialists (who now held legitimate governmental power) and the shogunate forces (who were now disgraced) grew equally violent. This ultimately led to the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, which resulted in several domains formerly loyal to the Tokugawa defecting to the imperial side, and the shogunate army officially being condemned as traitors. Even the shogun had no interest in opposing the imperial court, despite the efforts of his army, and retreated to Edo rather than hole up in Osaka Castle. This is the main controversy of Chapter 4 [or Ch5 in KW], as the men of the Shinsengumi were prepared to fight to the death for the shogun in the Kyoto area but were then duty- and honor-bound to follow him to Edo instead.

(Incidentally, this also became a matter of war by proxy. Although everyone in Japan wanted the foreigners out, they elected to take advantage of their presence in their country to employ their strategies and technology. The English allied with the imperial army, while the French allied with the shogunate army, which is why the Shinsengumi later had access to Western wear and weaponry.)

As the war went on, similarly to the original situation in which the emperor had little control over the imperialists, the shogun lost any control over the pro-shogunate army. Hijikata’s initial attempts to persuade the higher-ups in the shogunate to grant the Shinsengumi more men and supplies failed, as so few of them had an interest in fighting, until finally Katsu Kaishū granted them the means to try and capture Koufu Castle. This may have been a ploy to get rid of the Shinsengumi by throwing them into an impossible battle, as the more they fought in the name of the shogunate, the longer the violence would persist. As the Shinsengumi continued northward to try and join the alliance of northern clans, and then to Ezo, it became more and more a matter of the imperial court fighting against those they had labeled traitors, regardless of the reason, until finally the last remnants of the formerly shogunate army were routed at the Battle of Hakodate. Kazama was right, as usual: it really was little more than a scramble for power, money, and reputation.

Hope I could help!! If you have any more specific questions, please feel free to ask me, though the same disclaimer will always apply.

#answered #history lesson

23 notes · View notes

sieben9 · 6 years

Note

Hello! It is I, you new Santa, here to inform you that I am ready to write a brand new, complete fic all for you! (and also, I may have watched a little bit more Sesame Street than this my brain can hold this morning - pardon my Grovering) I've got your prompt in my hands and I'm all set to get to it, but first I must ask you a few questions so prepare yourself for incoming messages. 1 Do you have any squicks, triggers, or absolute no's that I need to avoid? 2 Favorite/ least favorite tropes?

3 Besides Rumple and Belle, who are your favorite characters in Once? Also, those whom you wouldn’t mind seeing in a pit of boiling snake entrails?

4 Favorite show / movie / song / book, etc (for no real reason other than I’m trying to get to know you).

5 What kind of points would you like me to hit in the story?

6 Who is your favorite muppet? I will be back later on, in the meantime, I hope you have a lovely day! PS, I hope you like AUs.

Hey there, (new) Santa! Thank you so much for stepping in : D (And don’t worry about the Grover thing--my “speech” pattern in English is usually 50% compromised of the last piece of acoustic media I consumed, and that is why I should not be allowed to listen to the Sherlock Holmes audiobooks before trying to talk to actual people.)

Alrighty, let’s get to the questions part of this. In order:

1) Rolling out the actual specifics on that would take forever (and I’m not exactly comfortable doing it on the blog), so let’s just say: if we could stay away from protracted death scenes, especially in hospitals, that would be great. I’m not sure how it could come up, but y’know, putting it out here. Just in case. The three main AO3 warnings basically fall into the category of “I Would Prefer Not To”, but that’s the only hard no I can think of (that would reasonably come up).

2) ...how long do you have? Nah, just kidding, I’ll try and keep it short. I love some Angst With A Happy Ending (and its violent little sibling, Hurt/Comfort). Also, if it fits your idea, I so don’t mind established relationships. Reading about these two idiots get together is always wonderful, but reading about them go up against stuff together has a special place in my heart.Not-so-favourite tropes: Love Triangles. This is more trope fatigue than trope dislike, but just... please no.

3) As I’m sure nobody is sick of hearing by now: I love Ruby to bits. There’s of course always Regina, but I don’t know how easily she can be fit into a story, so... at your own discretion and all that. I love Neal/Bae a whole bunch, too, and even a mention that he’s around and well would be great!

4) Favourites!Show: Doctor Who (nobody @ me, you can’t change my mind anyways)Movie: ...idk, Hot Fuzz, probably? (I don’t “connect” to movies very strongly, but I can watch that one pretty much any time and have a ton of fun)Song: Uh... last week, you mean? “The Cave” by Mumford & Sons. Generally, I’m a big fan of ballads, because... well, I like it when music tells a story. And yes, I adore musical theatre. Again, you can’t change my mind *g*Book: *looks at ginormous pile of Discworld books* Definitely one of those. Please don’t make me choose between my children! (It’s either “Night Watch” or “Maskerade”, I think.)And for the etcetera: my favourite flower is the evening star/evening primrose, because they smell amazing.

5) Tbh, I’m a bit wary of going into too much detail, because I really don’t want to inadvertently box you in. I would love if there’s a “moment of support” between Rumple and Belle, though (meaning that one or both of them support/help the other against whatever nonsense is going on at the time). Also, any mention that Rumple either has contact with his family (whoever may count among them in your AU) or at least wants to have contact with them would be wonderful.

6) I... Uhm... I never watched a single Muppet thing in my life. Not because I avoided them, mind you, our paths just never crossed. (I think they’re less ubiquitous in Germany). But if I have to pick one by reputation alone, I think I’ll go with Miss Piggy.

Wow, OK, that took a surprising amount of time. Can I ask what your favourite show, movie, and book are? I know that asks have a limited character number, and that the whole anonymity thing makes things difficult, but I thought those are safe enough *g*

And yes, I love AUs!

#siebens rcij santa #Anonymous #sieben talks

1 note · View note

backseat-imagines · 7 years

Note

sleepsunderthesun: Can you do more spy s/o with the baby? I'm especially interested in Gladio possibly wanting to bond with his baby but his s/o is having a hard time letting him in again? But if you have ideas for the other chocobros for this chocohoe then I totally don't mind. :)

Why yes I can friend~ And because I too am a massive chocohoe, I’ll do a little something for all the guys!(based off of this post)

Things were already getting awkward with Noctis, and the longer everything went on the more awkward it got. He had this partner, who was now pregnant, to worry about. But then there was the matter of Lady Lunafreya as well and he wasn’t sure how this was going to play out. Ultimately he knew who he was likely going to choose, if he had to choose, and he really didn’t actually want to do that. In either case he would look like a bad guy to the common people and it all depended on which reputation he wanted. Did he want to be known as the irresponsible king who couldn’t keep it in his pants where people would speculate him abandoning his bastard child? Or did he want the people to be angry with him because the peace between lands rested on his shoulders, and he would have “sacrificed” that for his own selfish heart? And he’d hate for either of them to have the possible chance of being called homewreckers. So unless he kept them a secret entirely… As unhappy as it makes them, he has them stay behind in Cape Caem, where Iris and Talcott would keep them company and Monica would be able to help guide them along through this. But then the unexpected happens, and after breaking into the labs in Gralea, Noctis goes missing. No one ends up sure how to break the news to them, but someone has to. “He’ll come back,” Everyone keeps promising. But it’s been years and it’s hard to hold out hope for that Noctis will ever come back. It’s been a decade… At this point they’re delivering supplies back and forth along with driving other hunters to and fro, always keeping their kid beside them. It’s a usual and mundane task, but sometimes life changes scenery unexpectedly; with Ignis accompanying them, they drive back to hammerhead to where Prompto and Gladio is also waiting. It’s so rare for everyone to be gathered up like this (it’s nice, but it also creates a pang of sadness because there is one missing piece to this puzzle), but it almost seems like everyone is waiting. For what? But then… Off in the distance there was a trail of bright lights blazing through at high speeds, cutting through the darkness and parting the sea of daemons. Talcott was coming through and parked right in front of the garage. Suddenly it felt like the Astrals themselves came down to grace Eos that day as the passenger door opened and they saw who it was that climbed out.It’s him… They rushed towards him. The reunion between the two of them is awkward. There’s the fear that time has turned them back into strangers. But back in the day there was a lot of unspoken feelings and they find out those has a funny way of surfacing and catching back up in their throats. So many false starts on sentences as both of them want to say something, how they felt about events of back then and how it is now, but where do they even begin to process the infatuation from ten long years ago? Noctis almost finds himself at a loss of words because in all this time everyone else had matured and changed so much, but he was a little behind them all now. The that had changed around him, besides his appearance and acceptance to his duty clung right to the leg of his old flame; his child. Noctis finds himself speechless as he approaches his kid. He looks at his child’s eyes and he sees so much of himself in them; uncertain and afraid. His child seems shy, but at the same time he can’t even begin to go on about how brave his kid must be because every day they’re facing a world of monsters, even if they are afraid. And it saddens him to know that their whole life they’ve known no world outside of a monster filled one and it’s not right… “I’ll beat the biggest, baddest and most terrifying one of them all and end this once and for all.” Noctis promises and tells them that they’ll soon get to experience a world so bright and where they won’t have to fear playing in the streets and how they’ll be able to scale the tallest mountains or catch the biggest fish- if that’s what they so wish. Just have to wait a little longer… Though he knows he’ll have to go soon, he still takes a couple of days to catch back up with the guys, and his partner (though could he call them that still? He’s not even sure), and to get to know his own kid as well as two days can even permit him. And it hurts him to know this is his only and last chance to even do this…

—————————-

Good luck seemed scarce these days and the bad luck seemed to be always looming over in one form or another. Or so it felt. Ignis’s partner did manage to make a brief return to the Empire, but that didn’t last very long… And so they came back and rushed for the well needed warmth of his arms. At long last their time with the Nifs was coming to an end. At least they could try to reforge a life away from then and all that and he would support them and try to offer any help he could, when he could. And so he and the rest safely escorted them to Meldacio. Surrounded by mostly strong and skilled hunters, it was quiet and perhaps they could find some peace with it being in such a remote location. But then Altissia happened… Despite all recommendation of them needing to sit back and take it easy just to help the pregnancy along, they came on out anyways- much to even Ignis’s dismay. But what else were they supposed to do? The team was nearly one man down entirely(he shouldn’t push himself like this either) so briefly coming back to aid them was a risk they were willing to take. At least for now. Though everyone did come to a compromise where they could come with, but they’d stay back and play healer by tossing the potions out. And they would help guide Ignis along when he needed it. Things were a tad difficult. Ignis got frequently annoyed as his partner tried to help him adjust because he felt that they were trying to baby him too often, even if they really weren’t, and it sometimes had him feeling useless and lord knows that wasn’t a good combination with their heightened emotions from the hormones. So many silly misunderstandings got caused by this. However, after the last incident on the train just shortly after finding the last tomb, it was agreed on that from here on out it was too risky for his partner to remain with the group. They stayed back with Aranea, who later took them back to Lucis and would wait for him. Ignis comes back, and the both of them try to adjust to the new fate that’s been handed down to them. He hears the sadness in their voice when they say how short the days are getting and when it fades into nothing but a constant night. He can sense light and it saddens him when he stops noticing any adjustments through the day, but it’s only so much sadder when they talk about it. That’s not a world he wants them to live in, nor his child, and he’s not going to let anything stop him from changing the current state of it. Once the child is a few years old, the two of them start to switch up who’s at home and who’s out to hunt. Ignis wishes this could be different, he wants more time with the both his partner and child, but he can at the very least cherish the time he gets with his kid when he’s back on his downtime. He may be blind, but Ignis knows that his child is the most beautiful one in the world. And about the most spoiled as well…

—————————-

The Amicitia line has not been one to so quickly abandoned any of their own flesh and blood. And Gladio isn’t wanting to be the one who changes that now. If Gladio didn’t know better, just by the thought alone he could swear that the spirits of his parents where there behind him and breathing down his neck, ready to shake their heads in disappointment over the possibility of it. But the problem here wasn’t that he didn’t want to be in his child’s life (the child was his, he ought to be there for them), but it’s that his ex partner… isn’t so keen on the idea. “I’m fine Gladio. I’ve been taking care of the kid just fine on my own so far, I don’t need your help.” “It’s not a matter of help-” “I know…” They interrupted. “It’s probably a matter of pride.” “Don’t start putting words in my mouth…” They were set firmly in their stance and was trying to keep Gladio at arm’s length so to speak. Not that he could really blame them. That fight was more than enough to ruin what they had and keep it all strained. But it also didn’t help his case that they were already fairly independent too. When they said they didn’t need him they meant it. With sheer determination alone he was sure they would make it through any struggle, and they were sure of that too. But again, it’s not a matter of need. Nor obligation either. Gladio wanted to be a part of his own kids life and- “The kid needs a father,” he tries to reason- as far as he was concerned it was unfair for the child to not have both of them in their life. But as hard work as being a parent is he didn’t think it was fair for all responsibility to rest on their shoulders. He helped make this bed, he should be able to lie in it by splitting that duty. But try as Gladio might, he was unable to sway them. However this was not the last of this they’d hear of the subject for he already vowed to come back when all is said and done. And he does… When the world turns to darkness Gladio is desperate to know if the two of them are okay. Are they still alive? Are they okay? Where are they at and how are they managing? He finally finds the two out in the wilderness and somehow avoiding all the daemons as they try to travel to where it’s rumored to be safe. That’s when things start to change. They and Gladio aren’t exactly together, but they go back to being on decent terms. Enough so that they share their home with Gladio. They take turns on who goes out to hunt, which means Gladio gets to be a bigger part of his child’s life now since he watches over the kid while the other is out to fight daemons.

—————————-

By the end of the day, it’s just the two of them; them and Prompto. And if there was one thing they could take any kind of comfort in it’s that at least they still have him… They have him. And Prompto still can’t to help but to be a worrywart about them either. He’s so far away now that he’s convinced them to go back to hammerhead. But it’s where they’ll be safe, back with Cid and Cindy, and Takka too. Just he sometimes he wonders if maybe he wasn’t being selfish about sending them away, and he feels guilty for not being around to keep an eye on them and make sure they’ll be okay. But he keeps calling in every day. Or at least tries to; sometimes he gets so exhausted that he finally sits down and passes out nigh instantly, and remains out for the rest of that night and until the middle of the next day. Which is something he always profusely apologizes for. “It won’t be like this for long! I promise I’ll be back to you in the blink of an eye!” He promises once he’s back that the both of them can start making plans. The plans, however, was going from Hammerhead to Lestallum once Eos found itself lost. Naturally it was something Prompto was already going to suggest with the daemons being everywhere (though Hammerhead was always bright and safe) just because he wanted them to be safe. But doubly so now that they were with child and it wouldn’t be too long before he was a father. He wanted to ensure that day would come. Though once the children had been born, Prompto took quite a bit of time away from the daemon hunting- something that him and Gladio had gotten into a spat over; him disapproving because Prompto should be out there fighting to help make sure the world was going to be safe. Stress and tension had been high and Prompto understood that, but he didn’t stand for being told if he really loved or cared then he should be out their taking a stand and risking himself… His partner needed this time with him now more than ever, and so did his child. And him being around to help take care of the kids helped when it came to them and having to work through postpartum. Prompto tries his best to be a good father during the time he’s getting to spend there. The children don’t understand everything of what he’s saying yet, they’re still too young for that yet, but that doesn’t stop him from telling about his journey to the little ones. Or from pampering them constantly. The world might be dark, but there is those little bright moments where he falls asleep with one or both children resting on his chest- they break out his now-cracked camera to snap a quick one, or the fun of them getting to witness a baby puking on him for the first time.Eventually the day comes where he has to go back out; continue his training and go back to fight the good fight. It’s hard for him to depart his home like this, it’s hard on them all. But he must… He must.

#FFXV #Scenario #Ignis #Noctis #Prompto #Gladiolus

21 notes · View notes