#And yes the kitty is a Jellie cat

[elodee]

HERMIT A DAY MAY - DAY 10

Stressmonster x Cucumber Quest

For Stressmonster I chose the wonderful webcomic Cucumber Quest!

I chose this design for her because I thought her colors and aesthetic would work wonderfully with the art style. I also think she would probably appreciate how cute the comic is if she were familiar with it.

This one was very difficult for me and I'm still not entirely satisfied with how it turned out. The rendering for this comic uses a very different style than what I'm used to, and I had some trouble reverse-engineering how the visuals are created, so it didn't turn out as on model as I would have liked. But, that being said, I think she looks adorable anyway. I also totally made up how the kitty would look, since as far as I can remember there aren't any kitties in Cucumber Quest, so I came up with her design from scratch.

To learn more about Cucumber Quest and see my style references, adventure below the cut! (The funds are still raising for Gamers Outreach!)

Cucumber Quest is sweet, beautiful webcomic by the artist Gigi D.G. It follows the adventures of a young rabbit boy named Cucumber and his sister, Almond, as they go on a quest to defeat the Nightmare Knight. Unfortunately Cucumber Quest will not be finished as a comic, due to changing circumstances in the authors personal life, but the story will eventually be concluded as an illustrated script and every one of the over 800 pages of the comic is more than worth reading.

I cannot say enough good things about Cucumber Quest. It has a charming, engaging story, beautiful art, and fun, memorable characters. Please give it a read if you have the chance, you will not regret it. Style references:

The comic uses a lineless style and soft color palettes. The shading changes drastically with the lighting, but I tried to mimic the style as it looks with flat lighting (such as in most panels of the above example).

Here's an example of a character rendered with more dynamic lighting (this is Peridot, she is a witch)

Cucumber Quest title banner

[fluffycatlover]

Lol

[1-marigold-1]

An AU thingy that umm, please listen to my ramble I beg you :[

Hello!!! Had this AU in mind for a bit too long decided to dump it all here :] sorry if it's all a bit messy I'm bad at organising those stuff hghghgghg <-- delusional (explanation and story below the images)

So:

I call it the FMN AU [Forget-Me-Not] and it's set in a fantasy world of course, in a great Empire of Heremitaran.

Because of how big the Empire is, it's divided in two, with two rulers: Ren The King of the North known for his bravery, plenty of victories, feared by those outside of his Empire , and the other one in the Sout is ... well... Mumbo.. (yes he's a king because his father died, he sucks at it tho, can't help but be that wet poor cat and not knowing what to do).

And that's when we come in with Grian and Scar.

There's a crown, to be specific, called the Vacivus Halo which is safely kept in Ren's vault , away from the rest of the world. It's the most powerful thing ever known, and Watchers are ready to fight for it against Listeners, who are worshipped by most of north people and Ren himself. The war those two spiecies of angel-gods started over a crown has been going for many centuries and now when Listeners has had it for themselves for so long, Watchers start to fear that they might use it against them to finally get rid of the enemy.

The crown has been under Watchers' control for some time too, that's when they tasked Mumbo's father with protecting it, but he died at war, crown got stolen, landed in Ren's hands and now all they got is Mumbo... They quickly realized that he's definetely not... well.. worthy? So they give the task of getting it back to an orphan living near the palace. He's a poor chicken keeper until he meets one of The Watchers disguised as a snake, asking him for help, the snake promises him everything he wants. So he agrees.

He gets powers such as:

Manipulating others' minds [putting images and memories that never existed before into anyone's head ]. It's his most powerful ability that he uses by just looking into their eyes, yet there's one thing about it: he can't make people forget the things he puts in their heads.

Flight, he has a cape that turns into wings when needed.

He can see what his snake sees whenever he wants, so he can use it to spy on people.

With those abilities he fools everyone at the palace into believing he's Mumbo's new guard and personal assasin, so he can be always close to the ruler who should be visiting the North very soon... he also makes friends with the young king, they get along pretty well.

Meanwhile Scar has a simmiliar story, though he was an assasin and Ren's guard before Listeners chose him. Ren is still in a good shape and probably will still be a good protector of the crown, but they felt like they need more than one If Watchers ever plan on getting the crown back, so they chose Scar by appearing to him as a cat, they wanted to tell him that they are ready to give him anything he wishes for but he was like "KITTY!!!!!!!! HELLO YOU SO CUTE!!" and agreed right away, just to have a scarf that turns into a cat...... he likes cats alright, he's been feeling pretty lonely recently too...

Scar's powers are:

Super speed [he got it with the boots]

Sensitive Hearing

Completely silent walking

He also got his cat [he named it Jellie because it's semi-transparent like a jelly when in not-scarf form lol] that can transform into a tiger like creature sometimes.

Yeah guess what.

They meet. Grian and Scar. They. Meet.

And they uhhh kinda make friends with eachother and don't really think that they might be enemies.

Watchers don't know that Scar is Listeners' servant, and the other way around, Listeners don't know that Grian is Watchers' servant.

Things escalate from here...... and that's where the story starts!

I have plans on making short comics and stories to tell you the lore piece by piece, but be aware that updates won't be very often, I'll try tho!

ASK ABOUT ANYTHING I WILL ANSWER THE QUESTIONS

Also

Just wanted to add that I made this AU long time ago and Jellie is a fundamental thing in it, very important, as much as she was important to all of us, may she rest in peace <3

[sillylittlelemon]

Helloo!!

There is something that has been stuck in my head for a long time now so I was wondering if we could get a Saiki Kusuo with a s/o that loves cats?? And that he would maybe transform into one for special occasions (like birthdays etc..) and cuddle?? I would literally find that so cute!! I'm a girl but you can do general if you're more comfortable!!

(I hope my request follows the rules😭

Of course! This ask is adorable!🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂❤️❤️❤️❤️ as a cat lover myself Im very excited to write this, thank you anon!!

Also- i just tell you guys, the Saiki K fandom is carrying my blog rn, like- almost allthe interaction im getting is for my Saiki content/saiki requests (and i love it, dont feel bad and dont stop lmao)

This took way too long im sorry babes 😮‍💨

(I don think its saiki but damn either way hes a good looking fella)

One he starts caring about you and worrying about your safety he 'occasionally' tails you as a cat. Following you around town, sometimes meowing at your feet foot attention, 'keeping up the act' you know.

When he finally gets enough of you begging, because hun, you begged, he will give in and take you to a cat cafe, reluctantly taking off his shoes as you enter, paying for 2 hours, and then leading you over to a little table in the back corner (so he can watch the windows and door, yes like a war vet would, my dads a veteran so i can confirm the habit has been instilled in me and comes in handy) he buys you a hot drink, and himself a coffee jelly

Now we've seen him interact with cats. It's not exactly polite. But i feel like him and your cat have come to a tense agreement to both be able to love you and so far that's working in all of your favors

Saiki would, under much very much fake annoyance, turn into a cat for you. Only after that do you realize the 'stray' that you mysteriously see all over town is in fact your boyfriend. Youre obviously estatic, maybe a little weirded out that he followed you around, but mostly estatic. He sighs as he 'rElUctAntLy' changed into his cat form for you, grouching about how he always feels itchy afterwards and finds fur in his hair and wah wah wah, till finally he's a pretty little white cat, purring and settling in your lap, letting you soak up all the kitty cuddles you want.

[sad-ghost-of-garbage]

Nicknames with the Lost Boys

Affectionate and Goofy nicknames for and from the boys

Author: SadGhostofGarbage Warnings: this is a crackfic! It’s only semi serious. There is some NSFW headcannons so MDNI!

David:

David’s nicknames for reader: Kitten, Kitty, Kit Cat, Doll face, Beloved, and My Queen (Yes even as a male reader, David believes himself the King so naturally his partner is his other half despite gender. He regards his partner as the chess Queen to his King; here is a lil blurb of how I see the conversation going, the first time it happens.

Male reader x David: “Um David, why did you call me your Queen? I am a whole grown ass man?” “Beloved, you are the most important piece on my chess board, since I'm clearly the King, you are my other half.” The bastard has the audacity to say condescendingly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You do realize that means I should be protecting you right?” That wipes the smirk right off his face, and he narrows his eyes at you. “Absolutely not happening”. He says with teeth grit in a firm line. “You are not putting yourself in any danger ever.” “Then by chess standards that makes you the Queen”. It was your turn for the shit eating grin, the expression on his face was priceless. It is definitely one of your favorite ways to tease him from that moment on. If however it causes you discomfort he will refrain from using it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still tease him with it. You will be punished accordingly after every instance you jokingly call him “my Queen”, but teasing him is half the fun. Side note, Paul tries to help by suggesting you combine the two, “One of you can be, Quee-ing, and the other can be Ki-een. BOOM! Problem solved, you’re welcome!” Spoiler… It does not solve the problem.

Things that David secretly loves being called, its a “secret” because he “doesn’t do nicknames”: Handsome, Cowboy, My King, My one, My love, basically anything that has a possessive edge implying that David is readers everything (Daddy loves to be needed)

Things reader (and the boys) call him that he “hates”: Daviey (Paul’s go to mostly), Marko calls him Daddy as if he were confessing to a Catholic priest during confession; “Daddy I’ve been naughty” instead of “forgive me father for I have sinned”. Chaos ensues and you will catch David chasing Marko around the cave on multiple occasions for this very reason. David won’t admit out loud that he’s okay with his partner calling him Daddy but he does prefer Sir, but if it revs your engines then he will graciously allow you to call him Daddy. Moral of the story… David is a butthead.

Names David actually hates being called: Baby, And any nickname that is overly obnoxious like : Stud muffin, or Pookie.

Dwayne:

Dwayne’s nicknames for reader; Darling, Sweetheart, Baby/Babygirl/Babyboy (if it is Babyboy, just know Paul is jealous), Mama or Nobi for a non gendered version (of a parental name that both he and Laddie call a parental figure reader), Prince/Princess/Princex

Dwayne’s nicknames from the reader and the boys, they are all fair game for D-man: Papa, Big man, D, Snuggle bear, Big Cat, Baby Daddy

Nicknames that are affectionate when it comes from reader, and jokingly when coming from the boys: Gigantus, Tall Dark and Dracula, Skater boy, Dork

Paul:

Paul’s nicknames for Reader: Sugar, babe, bug, Beautiful/Handsome/Gorgeous, Hot Stuff, My cute lil capri sun! If you're still human. Bit will continue to call you that after you become a vamp as well, he just likes biting. (fun fact I looked up when capri-sun came out, the answer? 1969! its cannon!)

Paul’s nicknames from reader and the boys: Paulie, Puppy, Pretty boy, jellybelly~ Paul got high af and cried because his blood wasn’t jelly bean flavored after he ate 12 bags of them. “I wanna be a jellybean damn it” 😭 NSFW: I saw a post going around about sucking Paul’s dick and my brain went… ah a Paulie pop… and now it lives rent free in my head so have that too

Marko:

Marko’s nicknames for reader: Angel, Dove, Love, precious one, Sunshine, Tesoro / my treasure (if you headcannon him as an Italian, as many do 😉) the Juliet to his Romeo if you're a fem reader (until you point out that Juliet was like 13 and Romeo was 16. And comparing your love to that of children was not as romantic as he assumed it was. Those names quickly get abandoned)

Nicknames for Marko: Cassanova, Italian Stallion, Stud, Angel (the first time reader calls him angel you both argue over who gets to call the other angel, and it ends with an intervention from David. “You are both little devils, you brats!” you both continue to call each other angel, and David continues to call you both little devils.)

Nicknames that will get get you (or the boys) in trouble and not the good kind: Cherub, bird boy.

side note, I'd love to hear what nicknames you guys think the boys like being called and call their partners

Taglist: @ria-coolgirl, @britany1997, @henhouse-horrors. If you want added to my Lost Boys taglist lemme know!

[ak4e7a]

sweet disposition – psh

notes: high school au, slice of life, scifi, jay lives to torment sunghoon, angst, hurt, comfort, i learned quantum mechanics to write this, also the first draft of this got me into grad school so #slay i guess

wc: 10.7k

cw: mentions of violence, SA, su1c1de attempt (not actually, it's a metaphor), parent trauma

trailer: you were always stuck in your ways. what happens when you decide to change out of love for someone else?

starring: park sunghoon, lee heeseung, park jongseong, sim jaeyun, and aespa karina (yu jimin)

₊˚ ‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿୨୧ · · ♡ · · ୨୧‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿˚₊

“just desserts” arc — episodes 1-4

You never liked your name. You thought it didn’t suit you. 

After all, it was supposed to mean something like “sound of the heavens”, and you hadn’t spoken in three years. It wasn’t like you were mute or anything. You just didn’t have anything to say to anyone. Like, ever.

Yu Jimin was the closest thing you had to a friend, often acting as a translator between you and the rest of your classmates. You got along well with Jimin because most things she asked would be in the form of a yes or no question, and if she wanted more, it only took one look into your eyes to get an elaborate answer. And you were glad Jimin wasn’t pushy when it came to the subject of your intentional silence.

“I heard they’re playing ‘Silent Penalty’ next week! Those boys are crazy, don’t you think so? Especially Jaeyun and Jongseong,” Jimin cried, clutching her textbooks to her chest with her free arm. You were on your way to your family's cafe, where you worked part-time—Jimin as a waitress, you in the kitchen (where you wouldn’t be bothered).

The month of April tinted the otherwise muted color palette of the outskirts of Shibuya in blushed hues. You always walked home together; the stories of the Hello Kitty murder and the Setagaya Family and the Junko Furuta case so deeply ingrained into their memories that neither of you would allow the other to go anywhere alone. You and Jimin even carried dainty pocket knives in their bags; these were mostly used to open boxes at work or cut slits into the packaging of snacks from the convenience store by your school. But it never hurt to be too safe, especially as teenage girls in a big city.

You nodded, the wind blowing through your high ponytail, tousling several strands out of place. Sometimes you took pity on your friend, wishing you could be better company to the girl who had not left your side since you first moved to Shibuya. You often wondered if you should just tell Jimin how much you appreciated her, and how you wouldn’t leave her unless Jimin explicitly told you to do so. 

Tamago to chikai wa kudake-yasui, you thought to yourself as you continued to walk hand-in-hand. Why not just show her?

It wasn’t like you were a “bad” friend. You often helped Jimin with homework (you did it for her) and you were the one who taught her how to ride a bike. You prepared the best bentos, often shaping the onigiri to resemble the cats from Sailor Moon, and always brought an extra fruit jelly stick for Jimin, who would never fail to still be hungry after lunch.

You wondered if that was enough for Jimin. You supposed it was, since Jimin had never once complained… at least, to your face. But you also wondered how long that would last.

“But, I mean, their leader… he’s kinda cute,” Jimin trailed off. The boy in question was Heeseung, the quiet half of the Fox Club twins. Said “club” was known around Kokusai High School as a sometimes-rowdy, always-mischievous gang, whose members were all brilliant in their own right. “And I heard they’re looking for new members! We should try joining them! Even though… even though we’d be the only girls.”

You exhaled sharply, forcefully — your way of laughing with as little effort as possible. Sometimes, if you felt up to it, you would even treat Jimin to a smile. You followed the pebble you’d been kicking since you left Kokusai before stopping to pick it up and rub it clean with the hem of your sweater. Then you handed the polished stone to Jimin, who took it happily, saying she’d add it to her jar at home.

“I think joining them would be a good idea, even if we’d be the only girls… Maybe they’ll find a way to get you to talk again,” Jimin mumbled as you walked ahead of her. 

Sometimes, you mused, Jimin would say things and forget that you weren’t deaf, just quiet. Extremely, deafeningly quiet.

“Oh! Did you see that new experiment on TV last night?” Jimin asked, catching up to you. “The one about the snails getting their memories erased.”

You raised your eyebrows, and Jimin continued recounting the details from the news report she watched with her dad.

“I bet they taste gross. Don’t know why people have tried eating them. But you could probably find some way to fix that, huh?” she chirped, opening the back door of the cafe. “Since you’re so good at cooking.

You looked up, turning to Jimin with a playful gleam dancing along the outer corners of your normally blunted affect. You shrugged, as if to say, maybe, but it’s anyone’s guess, and helped Jimin tie her pink apron up.

It was a slow afternoon, the usual customers trickling in one at a time like the dregs of a coffee machine after it’s finished brewing. You noticed that Jimin was especially chatty at the register today, and sighed to yourself as you refilled the almond flour jar slower than your grandmother would have liked. How you wished you could join in the conversation.

It was a shame you were still convinced they’d hear you, but no one would truly listen.

When you finished every random task you could think of doing, you peeked out of the little window between the kitchen and the front counter. Its position was perfect for you to watch the television above the customers’ seating area without being caught by whoever happened to be working the cashier shift.

The program on the television that afternoon was a replay of Yuzuru Hanyu’s record-breaking short routine in figure skating at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. Yuzuru had since become one of Japan’s permanent darlings, on and off the ice.

You frowned. That could have been you, had you not torn your right Achilles tendon right before high school started; had you not disappointed your entire family in front of a national audience; had you not landed on your ankle on purpose, because you didn’t know how else to tell your mother that your coach had been touching you in the locker room ever since you put your first pair of skates on. It’s not like your mother would have believed you. She was dating him, after all.

Maybe you would have been an Olympian had you not done any of those things, because no one gave medals out for lying and saying everything was fine.

“Y/N-ie,” Jimin called. “Where’s the milk bread?”

There was no answer, but that was a given. Jimin turned around to find your attention fixed to the television, eyes following Yuzuru’s every movement. If you still spoke, you would have been excitedly calling out each triple Axel and Lutz jump as you saw them.

But no sound came out of you, aside from the slow, deep breaths you took.

Jimin immediately grabbed the remote and changed the channel.

You snapped out of your maladaptive daydreaming, picturing yourself on that podium, and went back into the kitchen without any hesitation, and the milk bread was out of the oven several minutes later.

“Hello!” Jimin said. That was odd, you thought. You were about to close for the night. Usually, in the time you’d been working there, this part of your shift went interrupted.

“Oh… Is halmeoni not here?” went the soft, low voice.

Why are they looking for Grandma?

“No, not today. She hasn’t been feeling well lately. Can I get you anything?”

You crept toward the little window again, peeking behind the vase of lavender flowers that sat on the left side of the shelf that ran along the bottom. You recognized the person speaking. He was wearing the Kosukai boys’ uniform: navy blue blazer, a white shirt, burgundy and mauve necktie, and navy trousers. He was quite tall, with full, messy, dark-brown-almost-black hair parted down the middle, framing his tired, upturned eyes.

He was one of the Fox boys—but not one of high ranking, to your knowledge.

“Oh… um…”

“I’ll give you a moment to decide what you want. Pardon me,” Jimin said sweetly, before walking into the kitchen. The sound of the door swinging open startled you, causing you to nearly knock an open sack of flour over. You ducked down under the window before the boy could spot you. Jimin laughed. “What are you doing? Are you spying?” 

Pause. 

“Do you know who he is?”

No, said your pursed lips. You grabbed a sheet of scrap paper and a pen from the pocket of your frilly black apron and scrawled something down quickly. Jimin took it from you. 

I think that’s the boy Grandma told me about. The one she gives the unsold pastries to at the end of the day.

Jimin giggled. “Oh, no shit. He’s cute! But not as cute as Heeseung.”

You rolled your eyes at a specific tempo that Jimin perfectly recognized to mean shut up, he can probably hear you.

“Well, I’ll clean up here. You go give him the bread.” 

And with that, she pushed you through the swinging door as if she were moving a stack of heavy crates.

It was times like these that you wished she still had the will to speak, so that you could scream at your friend in disbelief. Jimin sometimes liked to take advantage of the fact that you would only physically protest if she thought it was worth fighting about. 

Your eyes softened when you looked at the boy, whose complexion had suddenly tinted the color of pickled plums. It was an uncanny look for someone who was seemingly so reserved and collected, from the times you’d seen him in passing.

“Oh. you ’re the granddaughter, right? Y/N? you ’re in class 3-A, right?” he said, his hands behind his back as he bowed. You nodded.

“I’m in 3-B… So it’s true, huh?” 

Pause. 

“You don’t talk?” 

Another nod.

“You can call me Sunghoon. Nice to meet you,” he said, to which he received a decidedly polite nod. “Oh, yeah. I forgot. I guess you can call me that in your head. Are you the one who does all the baking? If you are, it’s really good.”

You smiled like your muscles weren’t used to the strain before heading to the display case, a brown paper bag in hand. You slid the metal door open and used a pair of tongs to transfer the baked goods into the bag, deftly maneuvering each piece so as to not crush anything. You tied the bag closed with a piece of white ribbon and handed it to him, not allowing yourself to linger on how his cheeks had not let up on their rosy hue.

Sunghoon offered to walk you and Jimin home, out of politeness (and genuine concern for your safety, he said). Jimin accepted before you could even so much as blink a strong no, thanks, and so he waited as the two of you finished closing the cafe before heading in the direction of your apartment building. You tried your best not to panic. Being around the opposite sex was not high up on your very short list of favorite situations.

“I’ve never had a conversation so one-sided and yet only mildly uncomfortable,” Sunghoon said, having since regaled you with some of the more tame stories about the Fox Club. He told you about the time the twins came to school dressed in the girls’ uniforms, when he and three other boys (Park Jonseong, Yang Jungwon, and Nishimura Riki) got into a fight on the train after catching someone nonconsensually taking an upskirt picture, and the famous incident in which more than half of the Foxes ended up in the swimming pool, still fully clothed. “Y/N could hate me for all I know.”

You scowled. He adjusted the strap of your bookbag on his shoulder, clearing his throat. “No, wait, that’s not what you think it means. I meant that because you don’t say anything, you can spend more time judging me.”

You gave him a variation of the same exhaled laugh you only reserved for Jimin, shaking your head. You could already tell Sunghoon was kind by the way he walked on the side closest to the road, and never pushed you to speak the way others tended to do.

“You aren’t?”

I am, but I don’t think poorly of you. It’s the opposite, really.

Jimin chuckled. “She has other things to do besides complain. Like be my best friend. Right, Y/N?”

You nodded.

Of course. you’re pretty much all I have left, and that makes me more pathetic than ever.

—

The next Friday, you took the challenger’s seat at the Fox Den’s lunch table, on an otherwise bleak, foggy afternoon.

The entire cafeteria was in shock. The aforementioned seat was more of a symbolic gesture than anything; the Foxes rarely, if ever, gained new members because of how rough their games could get. The reward, however, was respect, notoriety, and the unyielding loyalty of seven teenage boys.

“Alright, hold on,” Jaeyun, the outgoing one of the twins and de-facto second in command, interrupted as the other boys cheered and swooned over you. He ran a hand through his dyed pastel pink hair cooly, eyeing you in front of him; your posture indicated that you were not scared in the slightest. 

You were everyone’s hallway crush, despite your cold exterior and refusal to even consider any confessions of their affection. Not one day could go by without you hearing usually-innocent comments about how pretty you were, garnering comparisons to different shoujo protagonists.

And to exacerbate those remarks, that week, you’d heard the boys giving Sunghoon shit after finding out he walked you and Jimin home; it was all they talked about in their free time since Monday morning, bombarding him with questions about what your voice sounded like and if there were really scars on your ankle and how you smelled. 

Everyone froze, waiting for the next words. Jaeyun looked at you as if you were a particularly difficult sudoku puzzle. “You sure you want to do this? I won’t go easy on you just because you’re a girl.”

You nodded metronomically.

Jimin cried out a sharp “No!” before covering her mouth in what you thought was a mix of devastation and realization, tears pooling in her eyes like spring dewdrops on blades of grass. When her eyes locked with yours, the universe was put on hold for a moment. You wished you could hold her hand and say it out loud.

I’m doing this for you.

Beside Jaeyun, Park  Jongseong, another one of your fellow third-years, brandished two long needles, previously wrapped in his white handkerchief. He towered in front of you like the Tokyo Skytree, his long black hair covering one eye, the other glinting playfully under the fluorescent lights of the cafeteria. He’d abandoned his blazer over the back of the empty chair in front of her, the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up, exposing the prominent veins along his inner forearms. “Who’s going today?”

“I’ll do it,” Sunghoon said over the voices of the other club members, easing his way through the slowly-growing crowd of students. “Let’s make it quick.”

“Who has the stuff?” Jongseong asked, spraying something onto the needles that made the club’s seating area instantly smell like a hospital. You grimaced only for a second, pushing back the memories of being in the emergency room.

There was an exchange between two closed fists, and before any more objections, Heeseung was announcing the rules to Silent Penalty, tossing a pair of dice in the air as he spoke.

“A roll of eight means you take a penalty mission. If both parties have eight at the end of the same round, both will face penalty. We’ll do two penalties. Keep a straight face through both, and you win. Back out, and you forfeit the whole game. Consequences will be decided later on.” He shot a glance at Y/N. “If you win, you will be the first girl in the club. Do you accept?”

You shook your head slowly. The boys whispered furiously behind you. You pointed at Jimin.

“Oh… She means that I get to come, too,” Jimin piped up, half-hidden behind Yang Jungwon’s broad back.

The dark-haired twin snickered. “Fine. That doesn’t bother me. Anyone against it? No? Then let’s start. Good luck, Y/N. Sunghoonie is our best Penalty player.”

“I wouldn’t say ‘best’,” Jongseong argued. “Luckiest, sure.”

Round one: you , 7; Sunghoon, 4.

Round two: you , 9; Sunghoon, 7.

Round three: you , 5; Sunghoon, 11.

“Shit, Seung,” Jongseong murmured to Heeseung as they stood behind Sunghoon. “Maybe you should have picked a different penalty number.”

Heeseung grinned, patting his friend on the back with a heavy hand. “It’s a thirteen-point-eighty-nine percent chance of rolling an eight. Not zero. Just be patient.”

Tensions mounted in the tenth round, but neither Sunghoon nor you were fazed. Not even when both of you rolled your first eight.

Jaeyun clapped, earning him a glare from his twin brother. “Oh, finally.”

“First penalty,” Heeseung announced, nudging Jaeyun aside. “Jongseong, the needles, please.”

Jimin gasped. “No, wait, what are you doing?”

“Ear piercings,” Jongseong answered with a grin as he began to sanitize two silver studs in his handkerchief. With his free hand, he held Jimin firmly in her spot by the cuff of her blazer. “Don’t worry, Heeseung is good at it.” Still clutching her, he used their joined hands to point to his right ear, a diamond earring in the center of his lobe. “Got this one last year.”

“Ready?” Heeseung asked, taking the alcohol-soaked handkerchief from Jongseong, hands already gloved up.

Everyone watched in silence as Sunghoon allowed Heeseung to confidently push the needle into his cartilage. Sunghoon blinked once, twice, then licked his lips all while the earring was inserted and the backing locked into place.

Taking the other needle, Heeseung sauntered over to you. You looked at him before turning to Sunghoon, brushing your hair away from your face.

“You already have a piercing,” he frowned, gingerly pinching your right ear between his pointer finger and thumb. “I’ll just pick another spot… is this okay?”

You nodded, feeling him graze over the protrusion covering the opening of your ear. You inhaled what could have been construed as the last breath of a dying woman, then exhaled as Heeseung pushed the needle through the thick cartilage of her tragus. He screwed the earring into place, smirking.

“Brave girl.” He turned to his brother. “Did she flinch?”

“Didn’t even blink,” Jaeyun praised. “Fucking sick.”

Sunghoon bit his lip, taking the dice out of your cold hand.

Round fifteen: you , 8; Sunghoon, 8.

“Damn, again?” Jongseong remarked. “That’s either very lucky or very unlucky.”

“The special lunch, Sunghoon,” Heeseung commanded. The boy ducked under the table to retrieve a bento box, blowing his bangs out of his face as he came back up. He looked like he was going to throw up. You thought the pain in his ear couldn’t have been that bad for him.

“Do we have to?” he asked. “Can’t we do something else?”

You answered on Heeseung’s behalf, leaning forward, propping your chin up with your hand, elbow resting on the tabletop as you looked into his eyes. Whatever it is, let’s just get it over with. Unless you’re too scared.

“No.” Jaeyun opened the box, revealing two snails and a small clear container filled with white crystalline grains. Sugar, you hoped, although it was most likely salt. “Here. We’re running out of time.”

You each reached for a snail, Sunghoon opting for the larger of the two.

“Wait,” Heeseung ordered, eyes narrowing to the point where he resembled the nickname he was often called—snake. You and Sunghoon waited, still clutching their own snails. “Sunghoonie, give yours to Y/N. She���s the challenger, not you.”

You resisted the urge to squirm as you felt a jolt run up your arm, like you’d accidentally touched the prongs of a plug that was halfway out of an electrical socket.

Sunghoon scowled. “This isn’t going to be pretty, regardless.”

Amane put her free hand over his, with an expression she hoped he would understand as  don’t worry, it’ll be fine, and they switched snails.

“Put some sugar and eat it,” Jaeyun chimed in.

Amane let go of his hand as he glared at the shock of pink hair sticking out in the crowd. “The shells, too?” he drawled.

“Don’t be a smartass, Hoon,” Jongseong laughed.

It was slimy and bitter, even with the sugar. You kept your focus on Sunghoon as your lips wrapped around the opening of the shell, sucking on the body until it slid into your mouth. you r first mistake was chewing, the snail guts oozing onto your palate. you r vision blackened around the edges, and in the span of several milliseconds the Sunghoon that sat in front of you was replaced by the image of a younger boy, with the same dark black-brown hair and dark eyes, albeit thinner, almost haggard-looking.

All you could do while you were frozen in place was swallow, watching the boy as he was pushed out of the front door of an unfamiliar house by someone who could have only been his father, a silver second-place trophy thrown after him. It clattered to the ground, smashing into several pieces that the boy gathered up into the hem of his black sweater. He ran through the old, worn-down neighborhood until he reached another apartment, knocking on the glossy red door until a dark-haired woman with glasses answered, letting the crying boy inside.

You felt the unwelcome but familiar sinking feeling of parental disappointment gather in the pit of your stomach, its endless tentacles swirling and wrapping themselves around the chunks of snail entrails that slid down your esophagus.

You guessed that Sunghoon was experiencing something similar, which meant that he saw the memory of a young girl gliding across a sheet of ice in a skintight jeweled red leotard and matching skirt with all the elegance and grace of a koi fish in water. Out of the corner of the girl’s periphery, a group of people gathered at a section of the plexiglass that framed the entire ice rink; one man smiled, and he saw you skate into a jump before landing with a resounding crack that caused every spectator in the stadium to get on their feet for a closer look.

He would have then seen that man run onto the ice and pick you up, cradling you too close to his body even if he were your father. His hands were in the wrong places, and Sunghoon would have to have wondered why no one was saying anything. Perhaps their focus was all on the blood that began to seep through your nude-colored tights.

“Congratulations, Y/N,” went one of the twins—your focus was too far elsewhere to distinguish or care about who it was. “Welcome to the Fox Club.” 

You ran out of the school building as soon as the dismissal bell rang, Jimin and Sunghoon calling out after you.

— 

“Umiushi,” Sunghoon said, pointing to the creatures at the bottom of the metal basin. You were in the kitchen of the apartment he shared with his aunt, who just so happened to be a marine biologist studying these so-called “memory snails”. “That’s what we ate. But it’s a special type. Jimin said she told you about them.”

You watched the sea snails in a curious disgust, afraid that they would somehow leap out of the water and down your throat. You nodded to affirm him.

“Yeah. Basically, they have some sort of molecule that can be blocked so that their memories can be blocked, too. There’s not much else we know about them… and I asked Aunt Mina—don’t worry, I didn’t tell her what I saw or anything, it was a hypothetical question—I asked her if it’s possible to transfer memories, and she said it’s impossible right now. Something like that would be magic.”

You grimaced. Magic was for children.  

It had been two months since that Friday afternoon that changed everything. Since that day, Sunghoon had followed you home, knowing full well what you’d seen from the snail he’d first touched, the one you ended up eating. He told you how his Aunt Mina took him in after his father disowned him for losing the chess tournament, and how they hadn’t spoken since. 

The next morning, you showed up at their house and handed him an origami crane with Why the bread, then? scrawled inside.

Sunghoon explained to you that he was saving all his pocket money to one day pay for a chess “tutor” to whip him into shape, so he could win enough matches for him to go home—the promise his father had made to him the last time they’d spoken, almost a decade ago. You appreciated the honesty of a mere acquaintance so much so that you returned to school after that weekend with a photocopy of several diary entries that pertained to the memory he’d intercepted.

Inside, you confirmed his suspicions. The man was your coach, and, incidentally, your mother’s boyfriend. No one believed what was going on, and your furious mother sent you to live with your estranged father’s mother in Shibuya. It was almost five hours away from Sendai, where you had grown up and trained with one of Japan’s future Olympic figure skaters, Yuzuru himself. Before the incident, it was pretty much guaranteed that you would reach that level, too, since everyone said you were blessed by the gods with such talent. But as your mother said, it was you who ruined everything. Not the gods, not the universe, not fate.

You stopped speaking, Sunghoon learned in your handwriting, because you felt as though no one would listen if you did. You said it was easier that way, less effort on your part. It was harder for you to make promises that you didn’t even want to consider keeping. It forced people to be direct, otherwise they’d get nowhere with you. You didn’t like talking, anyway. It was worth less than acting upon things.

The final page of the diary entries was a single line, a proverb you lived by. 

Tamago to chikai wa kudake-yasui.

Eggs and vows are easily broken.

— 

You stood on the rooftop, the frigid night air whipping your cheeks the color of the sakura trees below. You and Sunghoon had snuck to the top of one of the Tokyo skyscrapers way past midnight, on a whim. Now, as one of the Foxes, you would agree that life was a bit more fun with some trouble.

You were more than happy Jimin had finally confessed her feelings to Heeseung, and he’d reciprocated, even if it meant you and your best friend spent less time alone together. While Sunghoon could never take Jimin’s place exactly, he fit into your life just fine. Maybe it was because you made space for him to be there.

He loved fruit jelly sticks just as much as Jimin, so you started bringing an extra one for him as well. You noticed that when he took the leftovers from your grandmother’s cafe, the taiyaki in the bag excited him the most. He told you that they were called something else back home in Korea, but he thought yours tasted better. After that, you would always “accidentally” make too many, and give him the rest when you thought no one was looking. You once found him in the library playing chess against himself, and the next day you sat in front of him and played until the lunch bell rang, having learned the rules the night before.

You found out Sunghoon spoke the same language as you. Acts of service. He carried around a pack of Salonpas because you were prone to muscle cramps and the occasional shooting pain in your ankle. you ’d always blush and look away when he’d hand you a clip to keep your hair out of your face, ignoring how his fingers lingered on yours just a split second too long to be platonic. When the boys would tease the two of you about being constantly together, you would text your snarky comeback to Sunghoon, and he would say it out loud for you. And everyone would laugh.

You truly were practically inseparable, though. You couldn’t bring yourself to shut him out, not when he’d already seen what you considered to be the worst part of you and why you were the way you were, and still chosen to think the best of you. On Friday nights, when Jimin and Heeseung were out on yet another city expedition, the two of you would sit on the plastic-covered couch in your grandmother’s living room and watch Yuri On Ice, the anime about a competitive figure skater’s return to the sport. And Sunghoon wouldn’t make you feel embarrassed about crying, only comforting you after making sure it was okay to touch you.

You liked him. He could doze off at times, but he never made a big deal about it. You admired that. And you also appreciated that he never said he felt sorry for you and what happened when you were thirteen. It was unnecessary, you thought. The important thing was that he was there.

The Foxes always traveled in packs. For the boys, it was a sign of friendship. To you, it was protection. Being one of the two girls in the club meant they were extra protective over you, and Sunghoon was no exception. In fact, he was the rule. Every day, without fail, he and Heeseung would walk you and Jimin to school, then to work, then back home.

The world felt a little less lonely to you. And maybe, just maybe, you could stop running from it with one good leg to stand on. Maybe you could find it in yourself to forgive a world that took, since that world had Sunghoon in it. Almost as if it were trying to make it up to you.

His black scarf was wrapped around your neck, flooding your nose with the scent of clean laundry and musk. He’d let you wear it on the train ride over to Shinjuku, and you wondered if he was falling in love with you, too. You hoped that he knew you weren’t scared of being so close to him. Not when he was everything you needed from yourself.

“It’s time we started living for ourselves, don’t you think?” you asked, staring down at the city lights in all their neon glory. Every single speck represented another disappointment, another broken heart, another fruitless wish. None of it mattered. But it still did. “Maybe start chasing a different dream. Maybe the same one. But be in control this time. It’s more fun that way, isn’t it?”

The wind blew your pleated uniform skirt upward, and when you turned to see if Sunghoon was looking, he was. At your face. You had just mustered the courage to speak again, voice raspy from years of unuse. You leaned ever so slightly over the edge, arms spread out wide, feeling the strong breeze catch your body in the current. The tickle of the urge to free-fall played around in your mind.

“Y/N!” Sunghoon yelled before grabbing your wrist at the last possible moment and pulling you back hard enough for you to fall on top of him. You clambered off after a moment’s hesitation, sitting beside him and smoothing out the hem of your skirt.

You looked down, almost ashamed of your impulse. “You….”

“Y/N,” he wheezed, pushing his bangs out of his face as he tried to collect himself. “Are you crazy?”

Your brow furrowed as you examined the worried expression that painted his delicate, sculpted face. “What… What’s wrong, Sunghoon?” The roll of your tongue felt nice in your mouth; yes, you could get used to saying his name out loud. “Are you okay?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Sunghoon retorted, to which you answered with your usual breathy laugh.

“I don’t think killing yourself is that funny—did I miss a joke or something?”

You smiled at him, taking his hand into yours. His was much bigger, and warmer, but felt right all the same. “I wasn’t going to kill myself at all,” you said. “At least, not literally.”

Goodbye, silent Y/N.

–––

“under the moon” arc — episodes 5-8

It had been four months since the snail incident. And while you certainly would have not preferred to have someone who was a stranger at the time witness the worst thing that had ever happened to you, you didn’t regret having the sticky ooze of entrails coagulate in your body.

Because you would have never guessed you would gain a whole new family out of it.

The boys could get rowdy at times, but they meant well—for the most part. Those occasional instances when they didn’t were usually because someone had decided to bother you  and force you to speak for them. You didn’t mind talking most of the time now; all that mattered was that you got to decide when you’d open your  mouth and to whom you’d speak to.

Being one of the two girls in the group certainly had its drawbacks, but you liked to think you balanced them out just fine. After all, their detention rate had gone down in the past couple of months thanks to you insisting they stop throwing water balloons off the gym’s roof and they stop sneaking into the basketball team’s gym to deflate all the balls.

“Y/N-ie,” Jongseong chirped as he sauntered over to the Foxes’ table with his bento in hand. He was the only one besides Jimin who used that particular honorific, and you only allowed him to do so because of how stupidly tall he was compared to you. “Where’s Hoon?”

You looked up from your food, stony eyes glancing at the other boys—and Jimin, who sat beside Heeseung—and everyone shrugged. You blinked slowly at Jongseong before answering, “He’s going to enter the cafeteria in… five seconds.”

“You’re just bullshitting at this point,” Jaeyun laughed, mouth full of rice. While he was certainly more in-your-face than his twin brother, the Foxes’ vice president was surprisingly still pleasant to be around. You would never say it to his ridiculous pink hair, though, because he’d never shut up about it if you did. “Damn, you eat one snail and suddenly you’re Yuuji Itadori or something.”

“She’s not making it up, Yunie,” Jimin chimed in from where Heeseung’s arm was around her shoulder. She pointed in the direction of the double doors. “Look, there he is.”

You lifted your bag out of the chair next to you without even looking to see if Sunghoon had already reached the table. It was like you had a radar for him and him only, and you’d spent the last few days staying up late thinking about how that was possible.

You both seemed to be able to sense what the other person was feeling, which meant that neither of you were ever hungry, tired, or in a bad mood for long. You often would run into each other during times you normally weren’t supposed to be together, the rare occasions where you would spend your weekends alone always seemed to change the moment the both of you left your houses. At one point, you two discovered that not only did Sunghoon have an insane talent for drawing, but he could accurately guess what you were wearing and how your hair was styled without having seen you prior to his sketches.

Thankfully, however, you couldn’t totally read each other’s minds. You would be embarrassed for Sunghoon to find out you’d come to love him if he could hear your thoughts.

It couldn’t have been the snails that did this to you, right?

“Sorry, Hiroto-sensei was chewing my ass out,” Sunghoon said as he shrugged off his uniform blazer and sat down. He placed a carton of mango juice beside your hand, the straw already punctured through the foil seal.

“You were sleeping in class again, weren’t you?” you asked, handing Sunghoon the bento you spent the morning preparing for him. It had all his favorites—pork curry, rice, natto, a soft boiled egg, and the taiyaki from your family’s cafe.

“At this point, I don’t know why he even tries,” he laughed. You smiled at him softly. You were glad you found it in yourself to speak, because your new family actually paid attention to you. They didn’t possess Sunghoon’s attuned nature towards you, but you appreciated them all the same. “I need my nine hours one way or the other.”

“You had nine hours last night.” You paused, chopsticks in midair. “Jongseong, why are you staring?”

The black-haired boy looked at you as if you should have known the answer. “It’s like you two have powers or something.”

“Why would you say that?” Sunghoon asked.

“You two are so connected, it’s romantic.”

You tried to hide the blush spreading across your face. “Shut up.”

You and Sunghoon both agreed that God—at least, the one from Christianity—wasn’t real. Something from a World War II history documentary they’d watched together said it best—a line carved into the walls of a jail in the Mauthausen concentration camp.

“If there is a God, then He will have to beg for my forgiveness.”

Certainly, that God was all sorts of fucked up to grant free will. To allow your figure skating coach to violate your body for years. To be unable to stop Sunghoon’s father from beating him for every game of chess he lost. To give the worst pain to the least deserving.

That is the problem of evil. That if there were such suffering in the world, and yet God could not prevent it, then He is not omnipotent. Maybe He didn’t even come close to the power that Izanami and Izanagi or any of the other Shinto deities held, and they were far from perfect.

Sunghoon once told you that he would destroy the whole world for you if he could, to which you simply rolled your eyes and said that that would be no fun. This was, incidentally, after he’d gifted you a painting he’d done of the ancient lotus garden in Kumamoto. Making art was his new hobby that you made him pick up so he wouldn’t be so burnt out playing chess all the time.

“And why not?”

“Because our suffering helps us delight in everything else that much more,” you answered, resting your cheek on his shoulder. You knew you wouldn’t have said that two months ago, that you would have instead told him that humans are put on Earth to suffer and nothing else, but after being around friends who didn’t take life so seriously (if they ever did at all), you’d learned to have fun with your finite existence as it was.

Of course, you appreciated Sunghoon’s sentiment all the same. It held you close and told you everything would be alright, that the way your life had turned out was not your fault like you’d believed it was, but rather a consequence of things you could not control. In your physics class, Hiroto-sensei had quoted Albert Einstein during a lecture on quantum mechanics.

“God does not play dice with the universe.”

That was to say, Einstein never believed in the idea that atoms were governed by randomness. He turned his nose up at the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which itself stated that there was no way to accurately predetermine the speed and position of a particle at any moment. He asserted that there was no way that anything could be certain, that it wasn’t possible to describe things in terms of probabilities. He thought that the course of all events was fixed, that God formulated and prescribed a certain set of laws and sat back to watch the universe evolve in accordance with those laws.

You would have to disagree with him.

After all, what kind of vindictive God would— 

— 

“Sunghoon,” you said as you laid on the floor of your living room, listening to music in English because you promised each other that one day you would get out of the country together. On this particular night, your album of choice was Radiohead’s Pablo Honey. 

He had mentioned that the band, at one point, refused to play “Creep” live because it was the one song the audience came to hear. You knew what that felt like. 

Sunghoon turned his gaze away from the ceiling to look at you, his eyes softening. “Hm?”

“Do… do you still like chess?”

You knew that he would understand what you meant by that. In the past few weeks, you’d had to practice with him after it turned out that you were a better opponent than anyone in Kokusai’s chess club. Sunghoon was still dead-set on going back to playing competitively, all in the name of being allowed to return to his childhood home, to his father, one day. At least, that’s what you thought.

Something about that made you uneasy, but you knew you were in no place to cast stones. After all, you had your own share of disappointing your parents. Your own mother had not come to see you in Shibuya since the day she abandoned you there, effectively handing over any parenting duties to your grandmother. The phone works two ways, and she’d never acknowledged that fact of the universe. And, unlike Sunghoon, you had never been offered the opportunity to go back “home” to Sendai. As if that place had ever been your home to begin with.

The nuances between your circumstances were only sparing, to say the least.

“You’re worried about me,” he declared. “You think I want to win a tournament so I can go home.”

You hummed in agreement.

“Well, yeah. I want to go home. But only to drop that stupid trophy off at my father’s door and be the one who never speaks to him again. Besides, why should I return to that place when I’m completely fine here?”

Maybe Jongseong had a point, you thought. Maybe you two did share something more than a lunch box of snails. Maybe it’s romantic, after all.

“Are you really okay here?”

He returned his gaze to the ceiling, avoiding your eyes. “Yeah. Because it’s where you are.”

— 

Sunghoon knelt down at your feet, lacing up your ice skates.

However, your legs were bouncing uncontrollably, and it wasn’t because of how cold the indoor rink was. Part of you wished that your Achilles tendon didn’t heal completely.

“Look, you made it this far,” Sunghoon said quietly, brushing his fingers against your supposed bad ankle. The doctors had said you’d be fine to skate on it, that it was your mind that wasn’t allowing you to try again. “We can come back another time.”

You shook your head. How you’d longed to be back, pining for a time where you would be free from the prison of invisible hands gripping her limbs, pinning you down on the ground. “No. I promised you we’d do it today. I need to do this for myself, too.”

“If you can’t—”

“Don’t tell me you doubt me, because I’ve already got that covered,” you snapped, the words flying out faster than you could control them. Your hand came up to cover your mouth. “I’m sorry, Hoonie. I didn’t mean—”

He shook his head, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Don’t worry. It’s nice to finally hear what you think. But I disagree. You are so much more than you realize. I’m proud of you.”

Your eyes closed gently before you allowed herself to momentarily soak up those four words.

Then you shrugged off your coat and took his hand, letting him guide you to the rink. The frigid air tried to seep through your fleece-lined stockings but it was nothing to you as you began to wobble on the ice. You scolded herself internally and forced her muscles to relax. It was unbecoming of you to say you should have been an Olympian before the accident and then proceed to look like you needed a walker. 

It took several moments before you began to glide carefully, the blades of your skates just an extension of your body.

You didn’t need to go back to Sendai anymore. You could stand on both legs now, head held high.

For the next few minutes, you took your time getting used to the feeling again, silently willing all of your faith in yourself to return. You were different now. You could trust yourself. Protect yourself.  Being a Fox brought that out of you—your bravery, determination, the unabashed desire to take what the universe threw at you and spit it back in its face.

Of course, you had to thank Sunghoon for showing up when he did. Before then, you were what some people would call just waiting to die. Waiting for the possible day in which you would stop being who you were.

He never forced you to do anything you didn’t want to do. He never forced himself on you. The first time you ever held hands, it was you who reached for him in your sleep as you napped on the floor next to him, the space heater keeping the two of you warm.

Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared.

You didn’t need to, anymore. You glanced over your shoulder to find Sunghoon watching you intently, head propped up with his hand as he leaned on the railing.

One, two… three… jump.

You closed your eyes and leapt, spinning three hundred and sixty degrees before landing with only minimal strain, the skirt of your dress fluttering. You could hear Sunghoon’s overjoyed cries faintly as you continued to swim through the air, feeling the rush that used to overcome you when you were younger, although this time, there was nothing looming over you like the shadow of the Grim Reaper. Your entire body vibrated, all of your electrons dancing along with you.

Sunghoon didn’t hesitate when you came to him, pulling you in for a tight hug.

It was short-lived, though, because as soon as you came into contact,

you passed right through him.

“What… what the fuck?” he whispered, turning his head around to see you standing behind him. You were staring at your own hands, wondering what the hell just happened. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. It didn’t hurt.” You looked at him with a mirrored wide-eyed expression. “I think we need to call Jongseong.”

“I knew it,” Park Jongseong said smugly, strolling into the lobby of the ice rink with his hands in his pockets and an unlit Seven Stars dangling from his lips. You and Sunghoon sat one seat apart, in fear that it would happen again.

“Don’t be crazy,” you muttered as you crossed your arms. You uncrossed them when you considered the possibility that your hands could go inside your body if you weren’t careful. “There’s no such thing as having powers.”

“Sure,” Sunghoon added. “But there has to be some sort of explanation for this.”

Jongseong grinned, pushing his black hair out of his face. “Yeah. You’ve heard of quantum theory, right? Atomic principles? Hoon, you weren’t asleep during that lecture, were you?”

“Maybe I was. What do atoms have to do with any of this?” Sunghoon asked, rolling his eyes.

“Well, basically… how can I explain this easily… uh… your atoms and Y/N’s were so perfectly aligned that you… y’know… passed through each other.”

You frowned. “But Einstein said—”

“He was wrong. People can be wrong. Shit, even the gods were wrong sometimes. Damn, do you sleep in class, too?”

“I—”

“Nothing,” Jongseong said, “is a guarantee. Except death.”

Take that, Einstein.

— 

“You’re beautiful. I wish I could draw you right now,” he said.

You let out a soft, nervous laugh. “Cameras exist. You could just take a picture.”

“That’s not nearly enough.”

Your hands trailed shakily along the lapels of Sunghoon’s blue blazer, fingertips grazing the hem as he edged closer to you. You wondered if the accident would happen again.

“H-hoon…” you whispered as you attempted to sink your head deeper into his scarf wrapped around your neck. “I’m scared.”

They were on the rooftop you’d killed herself on—in the metaphorical sense—all those months ago. Since then, everything as you knew it was different, from your voice to the way you presented yourself all the way down to how you felt. 

“Nonsense,” he quipped in the same hushed tone. Your eyes were locked on your shoes, feet pointed toward one another. “You’re damn well the bravest person I know. It’s contagious, actually.”

“This is different,” you replied. You rubbed the fabric of his blazer feebly. “I…”

“I love you,” he said, tucking his index and middle fingers beneath her chin to tilt your head up to look at him. “I really love you.”

I love you. I love you a lot.

“No! you  can’t just… you can’t just say it like that!” you protested, hands flattening against his broad chest and attempting to push him away from you. It was no use. Despite how lanky he appeared to be, he was built like an iron wall.

Sunghoon chuckled, wrapping his fingers around yours. “How would you rather I say it?”

You froze as heat rose to your face. They’d just discussed this in class; the story went that Souseki Natsume, a famous writer who once taught English, said that because the Japanese did not declare their love so loosely the way Westerners did, the most appropriate equivalent of the expression would be “the moon is beautiful, isn’t it?”.

And the most appropriate “literary” response to that came out of your mouth smoothly, like melted ice cream. “Shindemo ii wa.”

I would die happy.

–––

season finale: i know the end — episodes 9-12

When observed under a microscope, two particles both affected by one experience will no longer exist as individuals thereafter, but as two halves of one whole. This phenomenon is known as quantum entanglement, and had been used by several of your closest friends to describe the way in which your life had flipped itself over its axis on one April afternoon in your third and final year of high school.

Five years had passed since you’d graduated. Since the day you grew a spine and ate a snail with Park Sunghoon, the day you stopped living on autopilot. Since you’d fallen in love with him and regained the mastery of your own voice, both of these things you’d done over and over again, day after day. And it had been three years since you finally returned to competitive figure skating to prove that you could do more than just fine on your own, without your mother and certainly without a coach who would violate your physical existence.

But in those years, Sunghoon still hadn’t made it out of Japan like he said you both would someday. At least, you hoped, not yet. Not yet, but soon. You knew it had to be soon.

You sat in your small apartment in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles, an expensive neighborhood you were only able to afford because of the amount of endorsements you’d taken on. Your little black cat, Tai, as in taiyaki, as in the dessert Sunghoon loved so much, purred contentedly in your lap as you stared out of the window and into the street below. 

You’d agreed to adopt a cat together one day. You wondered if he already had one of his own by now. You assumed he did; on several occasions you could sense his presence, encouraging you, making you push forward and keep fighting against the universe, against Izanami and Izanagi, against God Himself.

This was what you did in your free time. Miss your life back home. You didn’t want to make any new friends. It was useless. No one could take or come anywhere remotely near Sunghoon’s place—or Jimin’s, or Heeseung’s, or Jaeyun’s, or Jongseong’s, for that matter. 

Soon, you promised yourself, you could show Sunghoon all that he’d missed out on. In your second year in America, you finally mastered the quadruple lutz after several doctors quelled your anxieties and confirmed your ankle really had healed miraculously. 

You decided you would also take Sunghoon to Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, where you’d go every time you felt like getting on a Boeing 747 to give up on this dream once and for all and go back to him, your other dream—if he’d still have you, that is. You didn’t know for sure.

You played with your phone in your hand, turning it over in your palm. You knew he was only a call away, but you were starting to go back to your old self, unsure of whether or not he’d even pick up. There was also a newfound sense of pride you had, not wanting to be the first one to cave in. If he was the one who pushed you forward, why should you be like Eurydice and turn around to look back?

But Sunghoon was the one who put it best, every single time you asked him why he gave up on playing chess in favor of going to art school after graduation—even though his victory in the championships would win back the respect of his father: “I don’t need to go home when you’re right beside me.”

Liar. Where are you?

That night, like many other nights spent lonely, you could feel him beside you, when everything was still except your own chest, aching for some sort of reprieve from the constant gravitational pull of your personal sun and moon, and the monotonous whirr of the electric fan that sat watch beside yoiur bed. You felt the ghost of his fingertips along your spine, and since you happened to be super lucky and lying extra quietly this time—you heard his voice, soft and low and warm like whiskey down your throat. It played on a loop until it lulled you to sleep.

“We’ll go together. I promise.”

He’d said that the night he admitted he loved you.

You also knew that he always knew where you stood on things as flimsy as words:

Tamago to chikai wa kudake-yasui.

Eggs and vows are easily broken.

And since he knew, why would he say that—when he was the one who could read you without even so much as a perfunctory glance? Why would he stand with you in Terminal 1 of Tokyo Narita without his own boarding pass? Why would he tell you to break up with him right before you got on that plane to California?

Stupid plane. Stupid distance. Stupid Y/N. Stupid, stupid, stupid. You had no patience for idiots. You weren’t excluded from your own disdain.

The only thing that kept you sane was the fact that somewhere deep inside you, in a place whose existence you were reluctant to acknowledge, you knew that one day, you’d see him again.

You had to.

You just hoped you’d still be able to recognize each other.

— 

To change the polarity of an electromagnet, two people are required. They use one snail for each person. Their most repressed memory will transfer over to the snail once it’s been touched. In order for the magnetic fields to switch, the parties must switch their snails and consume them.

The result should not end in repulsion.

The day Sunghoon’s atoms had lined up with yours so perfectly that you passed right through him was an indicator that some things weren’t just theories that could be disproved with a fallacy or two. That much was true.

You sighed, trudging through the farmer’s market in search of your favorite stand, which was run by a group of friends who reminded you so much of your beloved Fox Club back home. They sold baked goods that your trainer would frown upon if she saw them, but you believed that you deserved to eat them every Sunday.

And without fail, Sunghoon’s voice popped up in your head, reassuring you that you could eat them every day if you wanted to, just as long as you did it in moderation.

“Thank you,” you whispered quietly, still unsure as ever if he could hear your reply.

You paid for the decadent salted chocolate chip cookies and walked the four blocks home, debating for the millionth time over why you and him had to be forced apart. Did it mean you had to grow alone first? Would you be able to ever feel whole again?

You were able, however, to feel him missing you. So it wasn’t as completely one-sided as it seemed to be sometimes. It was always there, a slight tug in your heartstrings like a thread on its last life. It sat in your chest right beside where you missed him. On this particular day, it was strong. Stronger than any of the other days that came before, so overwhelming that you had to stop halfway home and sit on a bench to catch your breath.

Could quantum theory explain how he could feel whatever you were thinking? Or how you knew, back when you two were still together, what he wanted for dinner before you even asked? Or how your anxieties would disappear just as fast as they came, replaced by a flood of reassurances?

You had had a feeling that he failed his Visa interview on purpose, six months before you were slated to go to America. In the embassy’s lobby, he’d told you that the interviewer said he would have passed if you were his wife and not just his girlfriend.

Liar.

He’d assured you that he did want to go with you. He could find a job working for Pixar or Illumination or anywhere that would hire him for his talent. So why was the universe making it so hard for you to be together now, when the first two years of your entanglement were so easy?

Nothing, you learned, was supposed to make sense. You could spend hours asking “But why?” to every answer and there would be nothing to shut you up. In fleeting moments you would reconsider your decision to speak again, because the one person you spoke for was a little more than five thousand miles away.

So how am I able to be happy when he isn’t right next to me?

Not as happy as you knew you could be, but happy nonetheless. You were running after your first dream, after all.

Your phone rang when you got home.

“Jimin?” you asked, squinting at the screen. You were met with the image of your best friend, bouncing her seven-month-old baby on her lap, a little girl named after you. “Are you okay? Did something happen?”

“Hey, Y/N,” Jimin’s husband, Heeseung, called, waving to the camera. It was so surreal for you to think that Jimin ended up with her high school boyfriend while you were twenty-three and still pining over yours.

“Have you seen it?” Jimin squealed over the sound of the baby’s giggling. A TV in the background could be heard, the voices speaking Japanese. “The first episode just came out!”

“Seen what? What are you talking about? It’s literally only ten in the morning here.”

“Sunghoon’s anime! It’s so good!”

Your heart stopped pumping for a split second as you heard the double saccharine syllables of his name. The little communication you had with him while you were gone were only simple, fond exchanges over congratulations. The last you’d heard from him, he’d gotten a job at a big animation studio. Of course he was too humble to tell you everything. “What… What's it about?”

“It’s a romance. Everyone in the world is assigned a soulmate and the main characters experience a lot of crazy shit the closer they get to each other. Sorry the summary’s so bad, I promise it’s way better than I just made it sound.”

Soulmates, huh?

— 

It has been said that the atoms of the universe have been rearranged to create the world as it is known now. Should that be true, two people can be born of the same star and not realize it until the moment presents itself.

You knew Sunghoon was there before you even saw him in the crowd. The air suddenly felt different, like you’d just dragged your bare feet through carpet and was just millimeters away from touching a brass doorknob.

On normal competition days you would have attributed the charged atmosphere to nerves or the ten-thousand volt energy of the spectators cheering on their favorite skater. But it wasn’t a normal competition day, unless the winter Olympics in Seattle was just some regular thing. 

You knew it: Sunghoon had made it out of Japan this time.

“Ladies and gentlemen, in third place, USA: Allison Steadmeyer!”

Cue music. Polite wave. Applause.

“In second place, Russia: Irina Khodorkhovsky!”

Music. Wave. Applause.

“In first place, Japan: Y/N!”

The single cheer of one person drowned out the rest.

“Why did you walk away from me?” you asked quietly; anyone around would have chalked up your tears as those of victory, of making a comeback worthy of an Oscar-nominated film. That was because they couldn’t feel the way you instinctively latched onto Sunghoon like an oxygen atom receiving its electron pairing. “Why didn’t you go with me?”

“I didn’t want to get in the way of your dreams,” Sunghoon said into the apple scent of your hairspray. You trembled in his arms, the dazzling Swarovski crystals of your midnight blue spandex dress digging through the wool of his coat. “I knew I would only be a bother to you in the end.”

“Liar.” Tears swam in your vision, blurring his face until he was only the galaxy of vanilla and cinnamon you saw every night behind your eyelids. “Didn’t you know? Didn’t you know that you were a part of them?”

“No.”

You were even stronger by then. The first time you ever tried to physically push him away, he was confessing his love for you. This time, he stumbled backward, albeit only by one step. “Liar!”

“I’m sorry. You know I love you and that hasn’t changed. I just wanted you to be free, I didn’t want to be a burden on you. But it seems as though we’re really meant to be together. I didn’t do what I did to hurt you. I tried so hard to make it not hurt. ”

“What do you mean?”

“As long as I tried to be happy, I figured that you would feel it, too. You know, like what Jongseong said when we were younger. We’re connected. But it was difficult. Every day, I felt you missing me as much as I missed you.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“That even if we were across the entire fucking universe, we’d still be tied together. And nothing could come between that. I know it now, and I’m sorry.”

“I never want to hear you apologize to me ever again,” you mumbled.

— 

“Y/N?” 

You were lying on your hotel bed, one of his arms wrapped around your shoulder as his hand aimlessly played with your hair that was still wavy from being knotted in a tight bun for your performance that day.

One side of your face was pressed against where his heart beat in synchronization with yours. “Yes?”

“Did you ever feel… alone?”

You shook your head. “No. Just lonely.”

“Do you still feel it now?”

“Well, you’re here, aren’t you?”

He pressed a kiss to the bony ridges of your knuckles. “And I’m never leaving unless it’s with you.”

a/n: surprise surprise! y'all thought SSV was gonna be my debut on here? well i lied. here's arguably one of the saddest things i've written so far besides that one angst i wrote in stella's dms last week. i hope you love it as much as i loved writing it. thank you to nia for encouraging me to post this :D taglist: @karinasbaby @enha-stars @intromortal @heeslomll @venomhee @heeheeswifey

[nibbelraz]

Demonic Norwegian forest cat. He is so big and fluffy and powerful. He can pull a sled. His claws are like black diamonds. MQF knows that thing can and will mercilessly slaughter anyone it deems a threat. How in the name of fuck did shang-shixiong adopt one. "Eh? Well, he's just a little kitty. Sweet baby cat, very cute. Full of fluff. Ham head bee belly, maker of biscuits. Jelly bean peets (paw feets) and poof tail." Thank you shang-shixiong that was incomprehensible

He's bringing this beast baby to the peak lord meetings and it's met with pure fear the first couple of times until they pet it and ah they understand

Yes indeed look at his poof tail and jelly bean peets...

[poetthewriter]

Hello!! I'm a bit new to your writing but I'd like to request smth! :D

Could you do a Goodtimeswithscar Scar x GN!Cat-Hybrid!Reader? The reader has spots of fur on their body. It tends to poof up everytime Scar would compliment them! One shot or hcs are fine w me :))

-🌑 anon

OMG HEY HEY MOONY (i now will call you moony) IM SORRY THIS DID NOT SHOW UP ON MY PHONE INBOX BUT I IS ON MY COMPUTER THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME I MISSED IT!

𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕= 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒃&𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒔🌱🧄🌿

Cozy kitty cat

GoodTimesWithScar x Gn!reader

Scar had always had quite an interest in the feline creatures and with that he even owned a friend of his own, Jellie, of course that along with his love for cats that meant he loved you quite a lot. when he first me you, aside from you already attention catching looks scar found great fascination in you cat like traits and soon this became one of his hobbies, trying to learn about your true self and kitty like antics.

Over time scar noticed even the smallest things about your hybrid side like how in the dark your eyes narrowed and you could always guide him through places at night, how every once and a while especially after sleeping you would stretch your back and arms out as far as you could and open your mouth showing off you pointy teeth, and how you would knead you hands into people after pouncing on top of them then continue to gently push you head into your friends rubbing you checks and hair against them.

This quest to learn more never failed to bore the young man but over time things started to change. yes your cat like features, antics, and habits where quite cute and charming but his focus on you shifted in a new direction.

❀✿❁✾❀✿❁✾❀✿❁✾❃❀✿❁✾❀✿❁✾❃❀✿❁✾❃❀✿❁✾

walking past a multitude of houses scar hummed gently, his steps had a swing in them and he seemed quite buzzy , the day was quite boring so far so Scar thought what better to do then visit his good friend, you. the flower sway beside him and he jumps up to you door, *knock knock knock* Scar pounds his fist on your door and waits for an answer, minutes past and the thought that you arnt home has crossed his mind but he shakes his head. only a few days prier the two of you talked about you weekly plans and you told him you would be home today.

after contemplating for a moment the eccentric man finally makes a decision, the window close to you door is open and it doesn't seem like you would get to angry at him...…

Scars foot balances between the porch and your window seal slipping back and forth he manages to pull him self through the opening. taking of his shoes he walks around your house with a big smile still painted on his face, a silly voice calls out your name but to no Advil there's still no response.

just before Scar goes to give up something catches his attention.

A shirt?

a shirt lays on the ground right in front of the laundry room, Scar picks it up and smiles at it knowing that its yours, trying to be kind Scar opens the laundry room door to put the shirt in there but to his surprise there you are laying on top of a piles of freshly dried clothes.

Scar cant help but laugh at the silly sight before him but try's to muffle his giggles as hard as he can as to not wake you up. as he calms down he cant help but stare, you lay there and somehow just from seeing you he feels calm, and purrs softly emit from you mouth and your ears softly switch.

slowly scar sits beside you on the massive pile of freshly clean clothing, towels and blankets and sinks in to the softness, his closes his eyes understanding why you fell asleep here, the makeshift bed is still super warm from the dryer and extra soft after being newly washed and after just moments he has already drifted asleep right beside you.

❀✿❁✾❀✿❁✾❀✿❁✾❃❀✿❁✾❀✿❁✾❃❀✿❁✾❃❀✿❁✾

your eyes flush open and you take a moment to adjust to the lights around you, looking around now awake a soft sound of breathing catches your ears, looking down beside you their sits scar and you cant help but heat up.

"huh... what time is it" Scar mumbles patting his hands around searching the room. "wait, Y/n! I forgot I came, did I scare you?" he continues speaking with a grin.

"What are you doing here Pretty boy?" you respond to his antics and you cling on to him pushing you ears as well as hair into the crook of his neck. Scar sits there all giddy over the nickname you commonly call him that he doesn't really notice that you turn on some lanterns until you have finished lighting them all.

"i was a little bored~ and what better to do then to visit my favorite catlike friend!" he pipes dragging out some of his word extenuating his smirky dimeter, the patches of you fur poof up as he finishes complementing you and your cheeks rose up as you tuck your face into you hands.

"Awwwww! i love when you fur poofs up like that" scar says reaching his hand you pet the soft patch on your right cheek and scratch the back of your ear, normally some cat hybrid didn't like when people touched them or pet them but you liked it to be honest you quite like when your friends pat you head or pick up on your cat like traits you found it to be quite endearing but with scar everything was different you loved it. Scar was your person always the kindest and most accepting of you he made you feel better then anyone had, the man loved you cat like self but overtime things changed.

"thank you Scar" you respond to his previous comment but little did he know that you weren't just thinking him for the complements he showered you with but for the love he shared with you. you pull scar up of the pile of now cold clothing and drag him to the living room, the couch is pulled out covered in piles of warm blankets and fuzzy pillows and the room is kept warm by the gentle fire.

Adding a few logs of wood in to the fireplace you finally sit down with Scar once again and the two of you huddle into the warmth of the house and each other. huh?.. wait is this normal for friends?......

Scar finally understands yes he loved your cat side but the only reason he loves it as much as he does is because its a part of you, everything you do cat like or not he loves and finds ever so charming, so he could care less hybrid or not he loves you.

three words come out of you mouth as if you had read his mind right as you fall asleep you cant help but say..

"i love you"

[py-dreamer]

Yea so I finally got tired of making the canvas size so bloody small the damn banner has a higher resolution than the actual pic.

And oopsie doopsie! Looks like I posted over the time limit again!

Another dumb dumb thing I realized is that last year me was actually right. And this year I got the countdown wrong. I was basically counting down including my birthday so I started on the goddamn 11th when if I did continue like this I would've ended up saying it was '1 day till my birthday' on my actual f*cking birthday.

So yea, love that -_-.

Regardless, quite happy with how Sandy turned out!

I think he was kinda easier to do cause since he's bigger, he fills up more space but I still think the cake is decently jam packed with enough decorations.

The cake itself is similar to a cheesecake but the top layer is like a jelly with fruits suspended in it, that being: a pineapple slice, an orange cutie and two star shaped fruits probably like mango or just something tropical and acidic.

(Also fun fact if u look closely there are scratch marks on the cake lol)

We have the magic flower from that one episode to decorate the corner.

Of course the kitties sprinkled throughout.

Sandy's boat might be the most detailed sugar cookie I've done thus far, would not do it again though.

Mans is sitting on an orange macaron, my dad thought it was a burger -_-.

Not much to say about the ribbon but I was scared if I gave him the pink beaded necklace thing, he'd look to top heavy so I draped them around the cake instead.

His weapon, the moon bladed thingy (I actually don't know what it's called) and that thing next to it that Mo's hanging off of is a spoon stabbing a cherry. The splash of red broke up the blue nicely.

(And if you're curious yes that is a tiny spider friend accompanying our blue subject ^u', seems he's quite fond of him don't you think?)

He has the most fruit thus far I think with: pineapple, orange, a cherry and more tropical fruits like I mentioned earlier.

And that's his cat teapot from his introduction! It was too cute! I had to use it!!!

As well as a very large teacup holding a cat, yes they're both necessary. Nothing much to say about the balloon though.

Sandy has a pink bow, cause I feel like sometimes we forget pink is his accent color and let him be cutesy for a bit!

Very cutesy. Very mindful. Very demure.

He also has a silver star cause he is best boiii!!!

[dragonflavoredcake]

Scar: Baby Jellie! Oh, hello baby! Hey kitty, itty bitty kitty cat, you are so cute, oh yes you are, you are the cutest little kitty ever— Pearl, secretly filming him: This will make excellent blackmail material the next time he tries to stiff me for cleaning services. Grian: "Blackmail" implies that he feels any shame at all.

[m-jelly]

Hey jelly! You write wonderfully! How about Single Dad! Levi x reader where Levi is a single father and about to introduce the girlfriend to his kid. Reader is in love with Levi so she is nervous because she want kid to like her. I'm sure it will be adorable

@kenkopanda-art <3

Hopeful family

Pairing: Dad!Levi x Fem!Reader

Genre and tags: Modern AU, dad Levi, adoption, little Mikasa, fluff, meetings, being a couple.

Concept: You and Levi are deeply in love with each other, so he wants to introduce you to his adopted daughter, Mikasa. You are terrified of it happening because you can see yourself growing old with Levi, and you have talked so much about the future. You finally meet Mikasa and things go better than you expected.

Taglist: @ladycheesington @skittlelover69 @li-anne @galactict3a @notgoodforlife @2moth-anon2 @youre-ackermine @nyxiieluna @nbinairyn @thebobaprincess @levisbrat25 @demonsimp6

You climbed off the bus with your overnight bag in hand, along with a bag full of gifts. Levi had offered to pick you up, but you said you would make your way over because you needed to prepare yourself. You needed to calm your anxiety before you met Mikasa.

Levi adopted Mikasa when her parents passed. Mikasa was a distant relative of Mikasa's and became her dad very quickly. He took her as his own when she was a few months old. Levi had raised her from a baby and loved her as if she was his own. You knew how close they were and that she was Levi's world and he did dream of having more kids in the future.

You gulped hard as you stood in front of his cute townhouse with perfectly painted fences, neatly laid out flowers and a cute swing bench on the decking. You adored his house and seeing a little girl's outdoor toys on the grass made you smile.

Mikasa was only three, but she was a smart and active little girl. Levi told you how she was running circles around him most days. Levi loved it. He loved everything about his little girl and showed you videos of her and her development. Levi had told you Mikasa was going to love you, but you still worried.

You opened the little gate to the front garden and made your way up to the front door. You let out a long sigh and shook your arms a little. You pressed the doorbell and waited. You smiled when you heard a squeal of happiness and Levi's muffled voice getting closer.

Levi opened the front door and smiled at you. "Hey, beautiful." He pulled you close and kissed you. "Mm, you are wonderful. I'm so glad you're staying over."

"Me too."

"I love you."

You blushed. "I love you too."

"Daddy?"

Levi looked down at his little girl, her back hair was tamed and a cute red bow was in it. He smiled as she fiddled with her pretty dress, one that she told Levi she had to wear because she wanted so badly to look good for the visiting Queen. Levi loved how Mikasa was so excited to meet you and for you to be her mummy.

He petted her head. "Go ahead."

Mikasa shuffled in her little socks with cats on. "Mm...hi...I'm Mikasa."

You crouched down and offered your hand as you said your name. "Lovely to meet you finally. Your daddy has told me so much about you and I must say, you are like a little princess."

Mikasa's eyes lit up. "Princess?"

You giggled. "That's right." You gasped. "I love your dress and socks. You like cats?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"They're so cute."

She bounced up and down. "Can I show you my kitties?"

You gasped as she grabbed your hand. "Oh, I'd love to."

Levi chuckled. "I've got your bags."

"Thanks." You ran with Mikasa and went upstairs. You released her hand and watched her run around grabbing a few toys she liked. "They're very cute. Which one do you love?"

She picked up a little kitty. "This one."

You sat on the floor and hummed a laugh. "I like it."

Levi stepped into the room with a bag. "You might want this."

You took it from him. "Thank you. I have a hello gift." You pulled out a big cuddle cat. "I picked this one because it looks like your daddy."

Mikasa took it from you and stared at the big cuddly cat. Tears filled her eyes before she threw herself at you. "Thank you."

You hugged her back. "You're welcome. I uh...I baked some cakes cause your daddy said you like tea parties."

Mikasa opened your bag and looked inside. "Yum yum yum!"

Levi picked up the bag. "Not yet."

Mikasa pouted. "Daddyyyy."

He ruffled her hair. "Not yet. We'll set up the party first. Once we have the party, it's nap time."

Mikasa pouted. "No nap time."

"Yes nap time. You need sleep."

"Daddyyy."

You cleared your throat. "I like nap time, it's my favourite part of the day."

Mikasa gasped a moment before humming. "Okay. Nap time." She got up. "Party!"

Levi watched her run off. "I might ask you to come over more often." He looked over at you. "To get her to sleep."

You lowered your head. "I think I need help getting up."

"Nerves?"

You whined. "Yes. I can't believe she likes me. I was panicking so much."

Levi knelt in front of you. "She was so excited to meet you that she couldn't sleep. It took us a while to get her outfit this morning. She said it had to be perfect."

You welled up. "She's so cute." You threw yourself at Levi and hugged him. "I'm so happy she likes me."

Levi squeezed you. "She loves you, I can tell." He picked you up and stood making you laugh. "Come on, my Queen, our little princess is waiting." He took you downstairs and plopped you onto your feet. "Looks like the princess is setting up her tea party."

You giggled as she ran around setting up her little table. "I'm glad she's excited."

"Me too."

Mikasa ran over to you and held your hand. "The Queen sits with the princess!"

Levi folded his arms. "Oi? What about the King? He wants to give the Queen kisses."

Mikasa shook her head. "Later, daddy."

"Okay, later."

Mikasa pulled you along and patted a seat. "This one."

You sat down and smiled. "Thank you."

You had your tea party with Mikasa and talked to her whenever she asked questions. You made her laugh and fascinated her with stories. As time went on she slowly fell asleep. She hugged your side and fell asleep holding you.

Levi smiled as he cleaned up. "I think today went perfectly."

"Me too. I was worried over nothing."

Levi picked up Mikasa and held her close. "I'll put her to bed and I'll be right back."

You waved. "Sure." You walked to his kitchen and made a cup of tea for you and Levi. You sat in the window seat and opened the window to get the warm summer air in. "Mm, peaceful."

"You look right at home."

You blushed as you looked over at Levi. "Really?"

He sat opposite you and enjoyed his tea. "Mm. Wonderful tea, thank you."

"I'm glad you like it."

He put his cup down and took yours away from you. "Come here."

You pouted. "My tea."

He grabbed you and dragged you between his legs and into his arms. "I was denied kisses. I need kisses."

You wrapped your arms around Levi's neck and started kissing him over and over. You smiled against his lips before pushing your tongue into his mouth. You moaned in delight as your tongues danced together and a tingle started in both your bodies.

Levi squeezed your bum in his hands. "Tomorrow morning will be interesting. I am sure Mikasa will wake us both up."

You hummed a laugh. "That's okay. I'm just glad she's accepted me."

"Well, you're Queen according to her." He purred. "My Queen and I'm your King."

You nuzzled your nose against his. "Yes you are."

[ask-the-amph-greater-universe]

*bursts into the room tugging a wheeled cat carrier in behind me*

Rigel! I have a kitty for you. Antares, still working on your bud. Got a few options but nothing concrete yet. *opens the cat carrier while wearing thick-ish gloves to pick up a mostly black cat with a white chin and some spot of darker black spots on his face and sides. He has a few scars on his back and thighs. Also has green eyes and a little nub of a tail (manx)* This is Hades. He grew up on a farm before it got foreclosed on. He herded and protected chickens which included fighting a fox or two which is where the scars are from. Uh he does bite sometimes if he's mad (thus my protective gloves for my human hands). idk if there is anything prey like around here, but if there is, you will probably receive dead presents once he likes you.

Rigel: Yes! Oh he looks so rowdy. A little fighter! Little farm man. He's got no tail? He's a little stump. Little black and gray stub. He knows how to be rough tough it sounds like. Fighting foxes. He won't bite me. Not that it's going to hurt. Lunar made sure of that. Oh goodness I hope he will let me take him with me.

Antares: It can't be that hard to find an exquisite cat. Are you just looking the lowlands?

Rigel: Well maybe if you weren't so specific about your perfect little stary cat, You would have gotten one earlier.

Antares: It doesn't literally have to be stars! Just gorgeous, and reflective of the night.

Rigel: Still more specific than goth.

Antares: You!

Black Star: Oh hey you got a cat too. Wow they were really serious about that.

Rigel: Yah. And he's jelly that I got mine before him.

Antares: Gerrrr

Black Star: I'm sure you'll get yours sooner or later Antares. Pretty sure Cygnus is hiding away with his. Kind of vanished, But as long as he's happy that's fine. I'm sure you'll probably do the same Rigel. Got to take care of your fuzzy. What are you going to name them?

Rigel: Agghh... Rock?

Antares: Rock?

Rigel: Well he looks like a rock.

Antares: .....

Black Star: Just let him have it. Little Rock.

Rigel: Rough rock!

Black Star: Rough rock.

[sams-spot-for-things]

Scar clasped his hands together, grinning downwards beside his chair. “Today’s a big day, Jellie!”

The cat just glared at him from her perch on the slightly elevated brick ground. She had been sleeping peacefully before Scar came rolling in hot with very earsplitting fireworks, which he had made a mental note to switch out for quieter ones. Jellies’ grumpy complexion explained more than she needed to with words (if she could explain herself, that is. But Scar was pretty sure she cursed him out often in kitty meowing language regardless.)

She seemed almost judgmental, almost as if… doubting his statement. In kitty angry-face speak. And sure, to on onlooker it very well may appear to be just her resting face, but to Scar? A challenge.

“Oh, come on!” Scar rolled his eyes, shifting the leftover fireworks in his arms, “I know what I’m doing! Trust me, this is- it will be big. And cool. You’ll eat your… look?”

Jellie stared at him. There was most definitely doubt there.

“Whatever! You’ll see! Follow me- ooh, that rhymed,” he added, mostly to himself- but Jellie still sniffed disdainfully and started her sassy walk alongside the road of Scarland with him.

Jellie strutted, Scar wheeled, and the two of them made their way down Mainstreet. Scar made sure to pause and gawk in awe at every little detail in the buildings they had created together.

(“Look, Jellie! Remember whenever I put that window in, and you climbed up and accidentally pawed me in the face because you hadn’t been fed yet?” Scar laughed, and Jellie purred, but truth be told- Scar still wasn’t sure to this day whether it was really as “accidental” as her big eyes had pleaded.)

The time flew from noon to afternoon then dusk, sun traveling across the sky with the two on their venture throughout the park. They had only just gotten halfway through Adventureland whenever Jellie started swatting at his pant leg.

“What is it now? You can’t be hungry yet, surely, we left the castle’s restaurant barely an hour ago!” He humored, unable to stop the warm smile that spread across his face as he picked his cat up and placed her on his lap.

And she just… stared at him. Jellie was long out of the morning’s unpleasant mood, but she now seemed… sad. And knowing.

Scar sighed. She was too clever for her own good. Scar knew he had made a mistake owning the smartest cat alive.

“Jellie, I know you recognize this time, or I guess this feeling- yes, it is the end of the season. I’m sorry I didn’t mention it earlier.”

Jellie’s head seemed to droop, if only a little. It kind of made Scar’s heart break.

“Hey, don’t get upset on me now! You didn’t let me finish.” He patted her head with one hand, and pulled out his comm with the other. He went to the server file, pressing buttons with his thumb quickly to not keep the curious Jellie in the corner of his eye waiting.

Scar pulled up the link, and showed her the screen. “X gave me the world download file early, Jellie.”

Jellie blinked at him with a head tilt, what Scar could only interpret as, “Meaning…?”

Scar started rubbing her head again. “It means we get Scarland, Jellie! We get to keep it! We still haven’t decided whenever the next season will start exactly, so we have plenty of time to relax there and build until then! Honestly, I’m not even stopping after the season starts. It’s too special.”

Jellie didn’t seem quite as thrilled as he had hoped. She eyed him up and down, tail waving lightly in unpredictable motions behind her, and then she turned to the side, towards the one and only goat’s Perimeter.

Scar frowned. He thought about Grian setting up shriekers under the coral flowerbeds in his base, and Jellie being mysteriously moved from that area of the park to the complete opposite whenever she had been supposedly napping. He thought about Cub coming by for a visit, and bringing her “Evil Version” for a playdate where Jellie had so much fun she knocked herself out. He thought about spotting Doc setting up wither skulls to fly above his grounds, but taking breaks to scratch under Jellie’s chin right where she likes it. Something you could only know if you have spent a lot of time with her.

Scar also thinks he finally understood.

“You’re going to miss them, aren’t you?” It was his turn to tilt his head to the side.

Jellie shifted her gaze from their neighbor, staring back at him. Scar’s expression softened.

“I will, too. But there’s always a great big beautiful tomorrow Jellie, don’t you ever forget that.” He leaned down, and gently gave her a kiss on the nose. Jellie let him.

“I love you.” He said, and he knew she would say it back if she could. But instead, she just looked at him in kitty happy-face speak. He was completely fine with that.

Scar pulled away to talk to her properly once more, leaning back in his wheelchair. “Come on, Jellie. The people of Scarland and friends are awaiting their queen.” He wiggled an eyebrow mischievously.

Jellie rolled her eyes- and okay, moment over, he got it. He was about to throw a silly retort whenever she head-butted him affectionately in the arm, and Scar was reminded of how neither of them could stay mad at each other for long (Scar because she was just too cute, and Jellie because he fed her.)

Later that night, most of the Hermits showed up to enjoy Scarland for the final time, while extra quiet fireworks lit up the sky in various cat-shapes in front of them. Jellie was the main center of attention, which of course she loved. Impulse and Mumbo reaching down to pet her, Grian and Pearl running wild with her in the streets, Cub sneaking treats to her when he thought Scar wasn’t looking, and Doc scratching under her chin. All of his days work of spotting tiny mistakes to enhance with Jellie had proved to show in his favor, as the park was spotless and gosh, Scar would never get over how beautiful it was at night.

How beautiful it was to see all of his friends standing here, in his park.

And perusing through the crowd, his gaze found Jellie’s- who’s met his- and they both stared at each other, no words needing to be said.

Well, maybe it wasn’t so much his park entirely, but he was okay with that.

And Scar grinned, knowing it had been a big day, and that whenever they were on their single-player Scarland world, he would get to tease Jellie all about how he had been right. But just for tonight, he would let her lay in his bed, sleeping easy and thinking she had won.

But that was the yet, and this was the now. So, Scar raised a glass up into the air, and made a toast to the best cat he could ever have, the one and only Jellie. And she stared at him with love.

[safetycar-restart]

Hi shels!! I think since it's au night we could discuss cat!max, I consider this a crime that we don't talk about him often enough.

I think he would require cuddles every single time you come back home. Also, I can totally imagine him laying on top of you same as cats make themselves into a loaf on top of their owner.

Next thing, I feel like his tail is very sensitive and max is very particular about who can touch it. Every time he gets upset it bristles so reader developed a habit of smoothing the hair down to try to calm him down because it kinda grounds him?? Just a reminder that she's there and there's no need to be nervous.

Also, the amount of happy purrs after a scene during aftercare? Enormous. Our kitty is fucked out of his mind and sooo happy he cannot contain himself and starts purring not even realising it

You're so right we need to discuss cat!max more and AU night is the perfect time for it.

So firstly, I think that even though max slowly gets more and more comfortable with you and with his cat hybrid instincts, he still struggles with actually verbalising what he wants? However, he also has the classic cat instincts of just doing whatever the hell he wants, so as he gets more comfortable he kinda just takes whatever he wants from you, which you have no problem with because you'd much rather have that than him close up and not express his needs at all.

All of this is to say that max will often come home and rather than ask for cuddles, he'll just... jump on you. You MUST cuddle him when you get back home and if you don't then he will make sure he gets his cuddles himself.

He'll also just drag you to the nearest couch or bed the moment he can because he must cuddle you! And you know how cats tend to rub themselves on people they care about? Max has to do that every single time you come home. Ideally you must come home and immediately sit down and let him rub himself all over you until he's satisfied and only then can you continue with your day.

And yes he will lay directly on top of you.

You swear max has a sixth sense for somehow knowing every single time you're sitting or laying down. The moment you sit or lay down, he just appears out of nowhere and lays down on top of you.

You have absolutely no say in this. He is your cat hybrid boyfriend and therefore that is his right.

Anyway, his tail!! He has such a sensitive tail and while at first he refused to let you touch it at all, he slowly realises how nice it feels whenever you pet his tail.

I also think he starts to kinda hand you his tail? It's his silent way of letting you know he wants your attention or is feeling unsettled or something like that, because he knows you'll immediately start petting his tail which his exact;y what he wants.

It's always after petting his tail for a few minutes that he just turns into jelly. He leans into you, making you take his full weight and just purring lightly because he's getting the attention he wanted.

He truly has the nicest purrs, and after scenes? He's like a little motor, especially because he's so relaxed that he's not trying to hold back so he's just purring happily to himself while you clean him up and then pull him into your arms.

Just... happy well cared for cat!max.

[frozenjokes]

what if we were actors who got trapped in some horrible sitcom set where we are forcibly influenced by the whims of our audience if we can’t be entertaining enough on our own will. yes the audience wants blood. no, animals are not exempt from this. no, children are not exempt from this.

still developing this fic but I might polish it into less of a fic and more of a short horror story with like. Minecraft guy names. because that’s just how I’m rolling rn. I’m taking my time with it. However I do have a nonsensical outline with notes for the first half of the story beats so if you’re interested you can see that below the cut

note: first three bullet points are short bc I wrote a bit of this before realizing this was going to need more of a plan. Basically jellie has a nightmare she’s getting choked out by scar (as a kitty cat) and wakes up with an asthma attack attributed to her own dander. Scar and her have a normal cute father daughter moment before jellie knocks her sleeping medication off her side table and it spills everywhere which is where the Badness Vibes begin to be set.

another note: this is not shipping. Cub and scar are just actors playing the role of fathers but they’re kinda just besties that are trauma bonded at this point. They do both care deeply about jellie though and would act as her guardians despite the situation.

(might share the first bits I wrote later bc I’m not quite ready to continue working on it, who knows!)

[kinhelp-permitoffice]

Kinfession time!!!! This is so odd and wierd and funky. Its like. Im Jellie, yes as in the cat. Mr. Scar goodtimes' cat? Yeah. NOT the real one mind you, but some weird magical version from hermitcraft. My scar was like elven or a witch, or both frankly, and I was this weird odd creature?? I could shrink and grow at will, and he'd put me in his pocket or satchel when I was small or ask me to grow to about panda or car size so I could help transport materials. I was like a familiar, almost??

Contradictory kins are gonna kill me one day

I'm sorry, this might be the coolest kinfession I've ever seen before??? Panda sized kitty goes crazy /pos