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wanderingchocolateeclair · 2 years ago

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Interdimentional Therapy AU?

Interdimensional Therapy AU!!

It is a crossover fic in the works with myself and @laughteronsilverwings and is about our respective versions of Best Jeanist, getting warped into the same dimension and meeting!!

My version of jeanist is referred to as 'e!jeanist' or 'Jean/Wren' and Silver's is referred to as 's!jeanist' or 'Arcane/Arc'. Any comments from me are in bold. Any comments from silver are in italics.

They get to go on an adventure together and the entire thing is at around 40k words now!! While I'm here, here's the next part:

Interdimensional Therapy AU - Part 6

Previous Part || Next Part

CW: mentions of scars, panic attacks,

Starts with s!jeanist's pov and switches with every -

Tsunagu blinked. Looked like Jean was also somewhat morally bankrupt. Good on him. They could be in debt to the ‘morality bank’ together. “It’s… decent? I can charm people out of arresting me in French, if that’s what you’re looking for.” He scanned the street for targets- it was nice that the two of them were dressed nicely, people only suspected semi-well-off people to steal money by scamming, not pickpocketing.

“Did your phone die? Like- you have one of those money-payment apps, right?” Tsunagu has one on a burner phone. It was the account of some rich asshole that he’d stolen. Though-

He reaches into his bag to check. Yep. Tsunagu’s phone has no power, though, it’s not as mangled as he expected it to be, after a teleport. Worldleap? Whichever one. The last time he’d been teleported, well… things with fiddly small bits sometimes just. Didn’t work afterwards. “I’ve got a power bank if you need one. What food does the night market have? Uh- is this a legal one, or…?”

He let the question trail off into the air. Mostly, the markets with food were nice and legal. Friendly. The ones without food, though. Those were the quote-unquote ‘black markets’. The ones that operated only a part of the day, then melted into brickwork and air. The markets that didn’t officially exist.

Tsunagu’s also seen hybrids of the two, but honestly those were kinda hard to find. Stall-server food and paranoid criminals did not get along. Sometimes. Most times.

Oh, that gal looked like she had money. Tsunagu slipped out of the staircase-thing he and Jean were at, stole her wallet and watch -he put the watch back, it wasn’t very good- then took the cash out.

Then he put the wallet back where it was. Tsunagu isn’t an asshole. Most times.

He goes with the crowd, blending in and ending back where Jean was. The whole thing had taken around a minute. He’s good at this. And Tsunagu’s also had some practice with… liberating things from people generally on a different level of paranoia than the general French public.

Tsunagu holds up the wad of cash. The girl was probably a tourist of some kind- he’d stolen five hundred euros, that was a lot more than most people would carry with them on a day-to-day basis. “Is this enough? I mean- if it isn’t, then we should go for the tourists. They’re used to being pickpocketed. And it won’t ruin their week, probably.”

“Huh, that was fast! Good job!” Tsunagu congratulated, giving a thumbs up. Okay, maybe congratulating someone for stealing five hundred euros wasn’t the best thing to do- but so what? It was impressive that Arcane had managed it that fast! “You beat me to it!” He joked, to be honest he was ever-so-slightly looking forward to nicking a few things- it had been a while, okay?

“I’m sure that will be plenty!” He smiled, signalling for them both to start walking and head towards the main street. “Though we can get more if we need to.”

Tsunagu turned around, smiling - though you could only see it through his eyes… barely… the tinted glasses did a good job masking them as well. “Are you ready to get some food?” He laughed, somewhat mischievously.

“I was ready ten minutes ago,” Tsunagu snarks back playfully. “Night market, right? Oh- I think I saw a pastries store there… do you like apple-cinnamon muffins? I like them. There’s this place in my world that makes them perfectly, and with vanilla ice cream on top.”

Beat Jean to it- well, good to know other-him could still pickpocket? His eyes flash at Tsunagu, even though the tinted glasses, and wow he doesn’t think his eyes were ever that attention-inducing.

His stomach rumbles. “Actually. Do you mind if we, uh, get some real food first? Fried rice? Anything you want to get? We’ve got five hundred here, and we can both always get more. So we don’t need to worry about budget…” Tsunagu trails off, looking at the crowd of people. “Ah- which way was your night market again?”

Tsunagu laughed, his own stomach yelling at him for food. “Oh definitely. I can smell food from here-” He hadn’t really noticed how hungry he was until this point. “I’ve honestly been kinda craving souvlaki… there was a really nice stall that did them here, if they’re still here.”

“Apple-cinnamon muffins with ice cream, huh? I haven’t tried that yet, but it sounds amazing.”

‘Pastries…’ Tsunagu made a mental note, smiling to himself lightly. ‘I’ll keep that in mind.’

“Oh!” He hummed in realisation, just as they were about to get to the more crowded area. “Before we get to the food, I just wanted to check- Can I refer to you as Cane for the time being? Is that okay? It sticks out a little less as a name.” Tsunagu tilted his head in a questioning manner.

Cane. Hm- that… worked. “I think, uh, Arc might work better?” Tsunagu shrugged. “It depends. Souvlaki? That’s the tacos with meat, right? The ones with the spices.”

His mouth watered. “Yeah, let’s go get that. You’re Wren, and I’m Arc-or-Arcane.” They approach the stall and vendor, sticking to the edges. Tsunagu resists picking another pocket. “Which one do you want?” He hurriedly scans the board. Ooh, that one looked good. Fried beef, cabbage, onions, doused with honey and in a skewer. Wrapped in one of those- rollable flatbreads. Tsunagu swallowed the mouthful of saliva. “I’m getting the beef one.”

Ooh- there was! Milk tea. With grass jelly. And the chewy pearls… ooh, there was a warm option. He’s getting that, too. With extra sugar. “Wren? Do you know what you’re going to order?”

Tsunagu turns to Jean, who’s looking at the menu, focused. Hm. He’s considering his options, probably.

“Arc… got it!” Tsunagu gave a thumbs up.

Ohhh the food smelt so good, he couldn’t help but let out a tiny sigh- god he was hungry. And there was the stall -the pot of gold (food)- right in front of them.

He scanned over the menu, eyes landing directly on the one he wanted. Pork, warm pita bread and tzatziki sauce. Simple, but heavenly. Drinks? ‘Hm…they’ve changed the menu around a bit.’ he internally complained slightly, he wasn’t a fan of changes in layout- but hey, it’s been a couple of years. Hot chocolate with chilli and cinnamon? That sounded good.

“Yep, I got it!” Tsunagu smiled. “Beef? That sounds good. I’m getting the pork one.” He caught the vendors attention and signaled they were ready to order. Oh, French, right- this would be a nice refresh of his language skills. “Hi, can I get… the number three- yeah the pork one with the- yeah.” He placed his order in between the vendors’ slightly-aggressive-looking but well meaning gestures.

“You want the pork souvlaki with pita and tzatziki, yes?” The vendor checked, scribbling down the order.

“Yes, please. And can I get a ‘Chilli and Cinnamon Hot Chocolate’ please?”

The vendor nodded, scribbling the last bit and gesturing at Arcane.

“Oh-” Tsunagu turned to the smaller figure next to him. “What do you want, Arc?”

“The honey-beef wrapped skewer and a warm milk tea with grass jelly, pearls. Extra sweet for the drink, please.” Tsunagu told the server. He wasn’t… quite sure how to, uh, order things. But bluffing had seemed to work before, and if it didn’t, the worst that could happen was him getting poisoned. And that would solve all his problems, so. Yeah.

“Meal twelve, drizzled with honey, warm, extra sweet for your milk jelly pearl tea, yes?”

“Yes. Thank you.” The server wrote it down, and passed him a meal ticket. Two meal tickets.

“Tell your older sibling we don’t bite. They are new to Paris, yes? First time in the night market?”

Well. It was, aside from the ‘older sibling part’, entirely reversed. Jean had lived in Paris for years. The night market… he was probably a regular? But it worked out. So Tsunagu just went along with it. “I think so? I’m not too sure. He’s been to France before, though.”

“Ah. I can tell- he has a good accent on the vowels. Clean words.” They pat him on the head. “Take care of your older sibling, cheri.”

He’ll ask, after the waiter goes away. After a few more rounds of pleasantries, they leave. He turns to Jean. “You’ve been here before, right? Is it the disguise?” Tsunagu tacked on, just in case Jean really didn’t want to talk about it.

He’d led them to this place, which indicated he was probably familiar with it. So- unless he’d gone through something that led to a personality change, or he hid behind a mask in Paris, or something like that, you’d think the server would recognize him.

Or the guy was new.

Ah. Shit. So…

How was he going to explain the whole… kinda-spiralled-and-had-a-meltdown-and-changed-his-entire-self thing he had, well, been going through? That would be a tricky one.

So he simply settled with: “Ah, well I've changed my look a little… I may have cut most of my hair off- for certain reasons…” He trailed off, avoiding eye-contact and playing with his sleeves. He cleared his throat, “Ah- yeah! It’s. It’s the outfits, mhm- uh- yeah- I, uh… I had a very different style back then- haha…” Okay, maybe that was the least convincing Tsunagu had ever been but…

That wasn’t something he wanted to go into. Not right now. The memories were… too there right now. Too fresh. He didn’t want to dump that on a kid he just met… even if he was an alternate version of himself.

Change the subject. How does he change the subject? What does he change the subject to?

Okay, well, good to know Jean was both absolute dogshit at lying and traumatized. “Huh,” Tsunagu says instead of all the questions he wants to ask, because he’s not totally heartless. “I guess we both had a style change. I used to dress all formal-like. Now I just do whatever.” Kind of a lie, but also not really. Tsunagu’s more practical these days. He cocks his head at Jean. “Yeah, it’s probably the… outfit and glasses. Maybe even the boots, they’ve propelled you to too-tall heights.”

Internally, his mind is working away. Outfit change… a big haircut, change in life. Probably something bad. Mhm. Yeah, this is a topic to touch upon later. His eye catches on a bakery- there. “After we get our food, we can probably go get something at that bakery over there.” He nods at it, and-

Their numbers are called. “I’ll go get them,” Tsunagu says, slipping off the stool and leaving his bag on the table. Jean would probably take care of it, and this would give him a chance to calm down.

He went to the vendor, got the tray and the two big paper cups with three skewers in them each, the two drinks on the tray, and paid them the money. Twelve euros. Maybe he should’ve taken less from the tourist, but… naah.

Tsunagu took the tray, balanced it, and started walking back.

Tsunagu watched as Arcane walked away and let out a deep sigh, he’d be surprised if Arcane didn’t hear it to be honest.

Well. He most likely gathered that what Tsunagu had said was a massive lie. Well, not entirely, he did have a very different style back then, but still. Tsunagu’s ability to lie on the spot seemed to vanish into thin air- which was surprising, considering he used to do that a lot… it was probably the trauma… yeah…

He pulls Arcane’s bag a little closer and places his hand on it, just to be safe. They weren’t the only ones in Paris who were willing to pickpocket, and were awfully experienced at it too.

Tsunagu sighed. He appreciated how quickly Arcane moved on from the topic, and how he didn’t pry or ask questions. It would probably pop back up at some point and force itself to be known and shared, but for the time being he would happily just move on and eat some food. Arcane had said something but… he didn’t hear what he said. Maybe a little too preoccupied with panic.

He looked down at his hands. Ah. he’d unravelled his sleeves almost all the way to his elbows. ‘Shit shit shit-’ he very rapidly stitched the sleeves back together with his quirk and breathed.

‘Okay, Tsunagu, just focus on the food. The food. Think about how hungry you are, let’s just focus on that, shall we?’ He tried to calm himself down internally. It worked, to a certain degree.

Ah. Arcane was coming back. And with food… oh it smelt so good… Tsunagu’s focus had already been ensnared by the wafts of tasty aromas heading towards him. That was good.

Tsunagu slid the tray over. “Thanks for looking after my bag,” He muttered, attention focused on the food and food only. It looks good. He divides the tray neatly in half and drags his cup with the three beef skewers in it closer. And then he takes a bite.

Flavor explodes in his mouth. Spices mingling but not overshadowing any tastes other than celery. The honey makes it sweet, lingering-at-the-corners-of-your-mouth sweet. Tsunagu thinks he might be in love.

He blinks.

The skewer is finished. “Oh, wow,” Tsunagu breathes out. “It’s- how did I miss this in mine? This is. Amazing.” He picks up another skewer and eats it. “Do you think they’ve got cheese sticks?” He wonders out loud.

Tsunagu kinda misses them. A conbini near his house used to sell them. Then the store got demolished by Endeavour.

He still holds a (small) grudge over that. And to be fair, the guy had paid back all the money the store lost. It was just that the store had decided to move. He took a sip of the boba tea absentmindedly.

It was good. Not as good as the skewers, but just warm-and-sweet enough for today. And by today, Tsunagu means it’s cold in Paris. So this is a nice change… the pearls are a little bit weird for chewing, though. But otherwise it’s perfect. “How’s your food?” He doesn’t bother looking up.

Tsunagu looked down at the skewers, the warm bread… the sauce- oh it all looked and smelled so good- And the drink was steaming, he could smell the cinnamon and chilli, he couldn’t wait.

One tiny problem, however. He has to remove his mask, in order to get all this amazing food in him- and that meant one thing: lower face reveal for Arcane! That was… honestly, not as nerve wracking after the mini panic attack he’d just had, so he pushed it down and simply accepted that hey- it was going to happen eventually, and at least it’s for good food.

He glanced up at Arcane, who seemed to be very much enjoying his food… okay, maybe that was an understatement- he seemed to really be tearing up those skewers, like… like a very hungry wild animal that has never been fed. Actually. Tsunagu’s not sure if Arcane had actually been chewing the food or whether he'd just… bitten through the entire thing. The skewers. Like, the wooden parts. Tsunagu made a mental note to check that those were still intact later.

Sighing quietly, he pulled off his mask and rubbed his face. No matter how used to wearing the mask he was, it always felt itchy after so long. He folded the black mask and put it into his pocket, not looking up. He wasn’t ready to see another person’s reaction to his face again. Not yet, food could come first.

He picked apart the pork and took small chunks out of the bread, taking his time and very slowly making his way through the skewer. Damn. They were just as good as he remembered. This helped take his mind off of everything- food always helped.

Tsunagu had worked his way through his second skewer and looked up at Jean’s silence. Huh. He had long, thin, silver scarring, all across his neck and face. Tsunagu thought of his sides, where Aloys had pinned him down and worked a thin, sharp knife (so sharp that he’d barely felt the cuts at the time) through his sides.

Jean’s face looked like… someone had just. Taken that same knife and went to town. No method to the madness, just thin lines of scar-silver over his neck and lower face. But hey- Tsunagu’s seen walking skeletons, barely held together by the (not) grace of (a) god. This doesn’t scratch anywhere close to his perception of body horror.

So he turns his attention back to his food. Hm- Jean’s picking at his. Maybe he’s just a slow eater, though. He picks his beef-honey skewer back up and eyes Jean’s chocolate-drink-thing. Tsunagu’s pretty sure it’s got… chili? In it? And, listen. He’s not a person to judge food choices, but why chili? In hot chocolate?

Tsunagu flicks a hand and tugs at Jean’s sleeve a little bit. “Does… your hot chocolate taste good?” He eyes it warily, slowing down on his eating a little bit.

Ah. He forgot about the drink for a moment. “Oh!” Tsunagu laughed nervously. “I haven’t tried it yet!”

He picks up the cup, looking at it for a moment. Hm. The cup was red. Nice. Tsunagu likes red.

He takes a sip and coughs on the fumes. There's the chilli and cinnamon- but other than that… It tasted really nice! Warmth that ran immediately down into his core, the sweet hot chocolate, made even sweeter by the cinnamon and with that spiced taste… okay, maybe Tsunagu had a new favourite drink. He would have to try and make this at home- maybe make Kuugo try it. That would be fun.

“Well, it is honestly amazing.” He raised his eyebrows and smiled at Arcane. “Uh. How is yours?”

“It’s good.” Arcane frowns a little bit into his boba. “The pearls are a bit weird, but the jelly is perfect. Are you… sure your drink is good?” He eyed it warily. “I think I smelled chili.” His eyes flicker to Tsunagu’s face.

Tsunagu laughed a little. “Ah yes, it has chilli and cinnamon in it! Maybe it sounds a little strange as a combination, but it works surprisingly well!” He picked at his food some more, wishing it would go in and go down a little faster. “Yours smells lovely! Milk tea is always a good choice. Is your food okay?” Maybe that question didn’t need to be asked, considering it was all almost gone, but he was trying to make conversation to move the awkward atmosphere away.

Tsunagu hums. “It’s good. I don’t know if I have this place in my Paris, I might have to look for it- actually. On second thought, probably not.” He glances at the hot chocolate Jean’s sipping from. He… is still slightly judgemental of this choice.

He finishes the last of his skewers in a few bites. “I think I saw an ice cream stall over there.” Tsuangu points. “What flavours do you like? I’m pretty sure there’s slushies, too- I’m going to go get them, and then we can continue our ‘question for a question’ thing?”

Jean hums. “Ice cream! Just a plain mint-choc-chip is good for me! I’m not the biggest fan of slushies.” He pauses, taking a small bite of food. “Sorry, it might take a little while for me to get through this, but sure! We can continue the questions!”

Tsunagu nods. “Don’t worry, take your time. Watch my bag?” He leaves the stool and his bag behind, cash in hand. It takes him a little while to weave through the dense crowd -he has to duck under a few hanging lights- and get to the stall. No line, which was nice.

“Excuse me,” He tells the vendor. She has a pronoun pin on. “One mint chocolate, medium and a double caramel-vanilla, please. Both in cups.”

She nods and starts rolling the ice-creams into cups. Once she’s done, she slides them over the counter. “Thirteen.”

Tsunagu hands the money over and walks back. “I’m back,” He tells Jean. “You can go first with the question thing.” There’s no need to give him even more stress- it’s obvious that Jean really, really, really doesn’t like having his face in the open.

---------------End Part---------------

Hope you enjoy this part- I'll have to remember to post the next bit in a few days perhaps.

We are starting to approach the proper trauma-dumping moments -specifically for e!jeanist in this case- and so living up to the name of the au /lh (I haven't released my jeanist backstory hc into the world yet so this will give you parts of it)

((everything will be tagged accordingly, please let me know if I have missed anything!))

#bnha #eclair wrote something?!#best jeanist #hakamada tsunagu #mha #interdimensional therapy au #anon <3 #here!!#(e!jeanist is fresh out of the trauma oven <3)#can't wait to carry on with this- theres gonna be some good ol twists to look forward to #tw caps #AHEM EXCUSE ME TUMBLR CAN THE 'KEEP READING' PLS STAY WHERE IT IS THANK YOU

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