#I call them parallel siblings

[giogama08]

Start watching Blue Lock and I have one question. What is Midousuji doing here?

[clegfly]

aaaaaaand the line work for mari’s demo sprites are (mostly) finished! For now. I’m probably going to need a few more expressions than this, but I’ll find that out when writing the dialogue hahsjsjsjs

Now all I have to do is colour and program these in so I’ll update when I’ve done that!!! I’m also gonna start on the others… I wanna show their designs… and also the ghouls. God I am so fucking excited to do the ghouls

[wonder-worker]

"It is too easy to dismiss [Leonor of Navarre] as an overambitious schemer who would do anything to obtain a crown, shedding the blood of her own siblings and her subjects in order to attain the throne. However, a deeper investigation of her long lieutenancy and ephemeral reign shows a woman who fought tenaciously to preserve her place but also worked tirelessly to administer a realm which was crippled by internal conflict and the center of the political schemes of France, Aragon, and Castile. She tried to broker peace, fight off those who opposed her, repair the wounds caused by conflict, protect the sovereignty of the realm, and keep the wheels of governance turning. Leonor was not always successful in achieving all of these aims but given the background of conflict and the lack of cooperation she received from all of her family members, bar her loyal husband, it is a huge achievement that she survived to wear the crown at all. Many writers have argued that Leonor deserved the troubled lieutenancy, personal tragedies, an ephemeral reign, and a blackened reputation, basing their assumption that she committed a crime that cannot be [conclusively] proven. However, a more fitting description of her would be that of a resolute ruler who successfully overcame a multitude of challenges in order to survive in a difficult political landscape and gain a hard-fought throne.”

-Elena Woodacre, "Leonor of Navarre: The Price of Ambition", Queenship, Gender and Reputation in the Medieval and Early Modern West, 1060-1600 (Edited by Zita Eva Rohr and Lisa Benz)

[theprinceandthewitch]

When you come back to Identity V after a 2 year hiatus and see the fanbase siblingize the two characters who share parallels to ancient Greek lovers:

[smonk-wonk]

how are you a holocaust survivor if you're POC?

I'm not a Holocaust survivor I'm 25?

I'm gonna guess you mean descended from Holocaust survivors & victims. In which case it's really sad that you think this way firstly? POC and non Jewish people did in fact die during the holocaust and many were targeted for not fitting the Nazis' idea of the "superior Aryan race".

From The Holocaust Encyclopedia: "When Adolf Hitler and the Nazis came to power in 1933, there were several thousand Black people living in Germany. The Nazi regime discriminated against them because the Nazis viewed Black people as racially inferior. During the Nazi era (1933–1945), the Nazis used racial laws and policies to restrict the economic and social opportunities of Black people in Germany. They also harassed, imprisoned, sterilized, and murdered an unknown number of Black people."

Also contrary to what some believe, and this may sound farfetched and I hope you're sitting down but bear with me- some people are actually more than one race. Some people are POC and white. We call this being biracial. Or in grade school, being an "Oreo". A mutt if they really want to dehumanize you

But while my relatives weren't targeted for their skin color as they were white, many people were. Black Germans and other POC did exist, were murdered and traumatized, and have passed down that generational trauma. Just as other persecuted populations even if it was much less it was no less a part of the genocide and ethnic cleansing.

[winter-jay-official]

Me projecting eldest daughter syndrome onto Dean

[little-limerick-hater]

Sorry--one of my friends pointed out how funny it is that Limerick is named after the poem format most known for innuendos/indecency. Which wasn't my intention but now it definitely is.

+ Sonnet being named after a poem used to examine the tension between elements is sending me into the stratosphere, bye.

Something something, wow you two really stuck close to your structures, huh?

[somewhatsentientspellbook]

There's just something so fascinating about the way the Exandrian pantheon has decided to handle the Aeor Situation™ - by electing a few of their kind to be born as mortals in order to infiltrate the city.

The first to bring herself low was Ioun, and I can only imagine how lonely that must have been for her. To feel infinite wisdom creeping into her adolescent mind? To rise through Aeor's ranks knowing what they'd do to her if the authorities discovered the truth of her existence? Waiting, hoping, perhaps even praying that the other gods would follow through with the plan.

Sarenrae has a husband and children as Trist. I can't help but consider the parallels to Liliana Temult, with a 'higher calling' pulling a mother away from her family. The conversations in the temple suggest that she would have been aware of what she was by the time she started her family. Yet she loves them, cherishes them, even knowing that she might not see them again. Will Amaris, Haylie, and Topher learn that Trist is a goddess? Or will that only be discovered when they find their way to her realm in Elysium?

The Matron was once mortal, and she willingly returned to that form in order to help her newfound siblings dismantle the Aeorian threat. Her steward since childhood was Purvan, helping raise and guide her despite his old age. Imagine being a little girl, guarded by the Champion of Ravens himself and his wolven companion, completely unaware of your own divinity until later in life. Imagine the night she woke up, remembering her ascendency, seeing Purvan and recognising him.

And what of the families that gave birth to and raised the four Betrayer Gods? What of the halfling family who watched their precocious daughter scale a fence with far too much ease than it should be? The day the tortle's parents found him crying in pain and tearing at his skin to distract himself from a memory so distant and yet so real? Or Milo, who became a priest, not to follow in the light of the Dawnfather (like his parents may have thought), but to mock his brother even as a mortal?

These gods spent entire childhoods with families and friends, taking refuge from the skirmishes caused by their other siblings. Who, despite those similarities, have very different opinions of humanity, of Aeor, and themselves.

[calmlb]

It’s been clear that the Tanizakis aren’t siblings from the very beginning

here’s some evidence now that it’s been confirmed canon…

everyone who’s read irl Tanizaki’s book knew that Junichiro & Naomi weren’t siblings as soon as they introduced themselves

BUT just because the Tanizakis aren’t siblings doesn’t mean you can’t feel uncomfortable about them. if you feel uncomfortable, GOOD. that’s exactly what they want

the Tanizakis, Mori— they all use these disturbing ruses to disarm or distract people in order to protect themselves, or to accomplish their goals. this is a writing device that asagiri commonly employs as a way to parallel the irl literature (it’s actually ingenious)

there are 4 main indicators that have always made it clear to me that Junichiro & Naomi are not siblings:

1. most obviously— their character designs. Harukawa is extremely intentional with character designs, & she very intentionally made Naomi & Junichiro look nothing alike

their eye shapes are purposely different

their color palettes are contrasting

even their differing styles of clothing have meaning

this was all done so that the audience could PLAINLY see that they’re not related— so that WE know that they’re lying when they say they ARE related

2. how the people around them respond to their act.

the general reaction is “don’t question it”— which is exactly what they want. “be distracted by how uncomfortable you feel so that you look away from what we’re hiding” (this is likely a protective measure)

3. most importantly, this is meant to parallel irl Tanizaki’s book “Naomi,” where the main character Joji picks up Naomi to raise her into his ideal woman, but since she's so young (& a minor) they call each other cousins (Joji makes no sexual advances on young Naomi btw)

however, his plan backfires because when Naomi gets older & they get married, she flips the script on him & manipulates HIM so that he's under her thumb (which is why bsd Tanizaki is at a domineering Naomi's mercy). Joji let her have her way because of his masochistic tendencies

4. lastly is the emphasis that Asagiri and the Tanizakis themselves put on calling each other siblings.

over & over, it’s “my brother this” & “my sister that”

like they’re desperately trying to convince us that it’s true (“don’t let your lying eyes deceive you”)

here are just a few of many examples from the light novels…

again, if you’ve read “Naomi” you knew that Junichiro & Naomi weren’t siblings as soon as they introduced themselves

just like if you’ve read irl Mori’s works, it’s clear that bsd Mori isn’t a pedophile

just like if you’ve read No Longer Human you know that Dazai’s an unreliable narrator. he makes you think he’s a bad person bc he believes he’s a bad person, but those around him see him differently (btw this doesn’t mean he’s never done anything “bad,” though bsd isn’t about morality— but that’s another discussion)

anyway, i’m so excited for the Tanizakis backstory to be revealed so that we can better understand why they use this defense!!

also let this be a reminder to READ THE LITERATURE if you’re able to!! even reading synopses & analyses of the coordinating books makes bsd make much more sense 🥹

reminder that this how you’re supposed to react while reading bsd:

also, if you’re interested in a post explaining how Mori isn’t a pedo, i wrote this analysis on twt. OR you can read this document that one of my moots sent me (remember: analyzing a character does NOT mean you condone any actions they may or may not commit!)

[cry4mina]

They won’t notice

(Mina x fem!reader)

Word Count: 17.1k

Fluff/Smut

Summary: Meeting your best friends members was always a nerve wracking though, but after the beach day you had with them...one in particular clings a little more than anticipated.

TW: Fluffy, smut, drinking, food, sex, hickeys, light choking, public teasing/sex, bruising, oral, fingering etc etc.

A/N: Per the vote that happened on my blog's 6 month anniversary, this was born. Please excuse the spacing! It was too long for me to separate it the way I prefer. I know it was supposed to just be smut but I'm in my fluffy era, I fear. Thank you to @ghostykapi for helping me put the plot together, this fic would NOT have happened without that precious human so the biggest shout out to her mwa mwa 🖤

Also @myouicieloz and @psylocke142 for helping me keep my sanity and organize my brain for this fic! I appreciate all of you so so so much! <3

Thank you to everyone who voted and who has stuck around to see what comes next! It's appreciated! Have a lovely Sunday and please, get yourself a sweet treat today! <3<3

“I really don’t think you should be so worried, Y/n. They’re going to love you!” Dahyun spoke reassuringly from the drivers seat as she masterfully parallel parked.

“They’re just so important to you and I want to make sure it goes well so I can see you more!” Expressed with love, concern and nervousness.

Being best friends with Dahyun since kindergarten, you were siblings at this point. Always calling each other with random life updates or just to sit in the comfort of each other’s silence.

Since her trainee days, you didn’t really get to hang out as frequently as you both liked, always missing each other with your schedules and free time so when you both were off today, she excitedly invited you to the beach with her and the rest of Twice.

Not having met them before, and being a fan of the music of course, you were very nervous to make a good impression on them - even with Dahyun reassuring you that they’d love you, you couldn’t help but stress.

“Alright, let’s go!” Leaning to grab her stuff out of the back seat and shoving your shoulder a little.

“It’s going to be fine, I swear. I talk about you enough, they already love you!”

Helping her gather the chairs and cooler, you make your way to the stair case leading to the shore and walk down the wooden steps to the sand that sunk slightly with every step taken.

Sun beaming down on you as you heard a familiar voice shout to you.

“Over here!”

Glancing over, you see an excited Jihyo waving her arms above her head next to a large circular set up of umbrellas and towels, the rest of Twice sitting around each other in the shade, chatting and giggling how you would expect.

Holy shit.

That’s Twice.

AND that’s Park Jihyo.

The leader of Twice.

Flagging YOU and Dahyun down.

Stopping in your tracks, you look over to Dahyun, she smiles and ushers you in front of her.

Walking to the group of girls felt like it took years. The anxiety of not only meeting your best friend’s members but Twice was so nerve-wracking, having followed them on their journey to fame in support of Dahyun and just pure enjoyment of the music.

“Hey guys! Wait…where’s Jeongyeon, Nayeon, and Mina?” Dahyun asking, plopping the stuff down in the sand next to Jihyo.

Jihyo in a black bikini, smiles at you and waves before answering the question.

“Nayeon got too drunk so Mina drove them back to the hotel. Jeongyeon is going to stay with her to make sure she drinks water and doesn't leave the room. You know how she gets.” Giggling about the fact that Nayeon was always a little hard to handle when drunk.

“Everyone! This is Y/n!” Dahyun shouted at the girls, they all gathered around to say hello and meet you.

Sana was in a lavender two piece that fit her perfectly, she was such a goddess in person, it was hard not to be flustered.

Momo opted for a royal blue one piece with her hair tied up in a bun, chaeyoung was also in a black bikini similar to Jihyo’s but with a white see through cover over it, and Tzuyu was wearing a sun dress - seemingly not too keen on swimming.

Offering a “finally!”, “we’ve heard so much about you!”, and “it’s nice to put a face to the name!” With hugs and hand shakes.

Sana offered you a drink, a bottle of soju.

“Dahyun told me that Mango was your favorite flavor so I grabbed you a few of these!” smiling as she handed you the chilled bottle from the cooler she brought with her.

“Thank you so much! That’s so sweet!”

Looking down at the bottle, you can’t help but think you were worried for nothing. They’re so welcoming and lovely, hope and warmth replaced the nervousness that once was.

Everyone made small talk while you and Dahyun were setting up the chairs you brought and the extra umbrella to keep the sun off everyone.

Sitting down next to Dahyun and taking a swig of the soju, you finally relax a little. Listening to them discuss the tour and showing you pictures, they ask you about your work and listening very attentively with every answer to their questions.

“So what do you do for work? Dahyun mentioned something with designing?” Momo chimed as she grabbed a bottle of Soju out of the cooler, looking at it and seeing it was melon flavor, making a face and shuffling around the ice for another.

“I’m a concept designer for Lego, actually.”

Always being proud of your job, you loved to brag about it. Having a creative and well paying job was something that you never thought could be possible unless you were an idol but you genuinely enjoyed the process of creating scenes to build and being able to bring them to life with mere plastic blocks.

“Wait…you’re what? No way!” Momo and Sana look at each other and giggle, you hear Sana whisper “Oh she’s going to love you.” but before you could ask what she was talking about, Chaeyoung jumped in and asked about the sets you had designed.

“You know those floral ones? Like the bonsai trees, the potted plants, and the bouquets?”

“No way…”

“Mhm…and those little racecars too, I had a part in those.”

Everyone seems to be side eyeing each other, no one fills you in on what is happening, they just keep looking around at each other until Jihyo finally breaks the silence with a cheers.

“To meeting new family” raising her glass to you and sipping, everyone following the motions.

Curious statement but cheers to that! Being accepted by them so quickly felt like a fever dream, unexpected but lovely.

Car keys jingle behind, a shadow of a woman with long dark wavy hair and her arms crossed looms over you when Dahyun stands and offers a hug to the figure.

“Mina, this is Y/n!”

Oh shit. Myoui Mina…your ult bias.

Dahyun knows the crush you have on Mina, a little worried that she might’ve said something to her, your mind spirals for a moment, wondering if Mina knows…

Act normal, this is fine.

“Uhm, Hi M-Mina. It’s nice to meet you.” Offering a hand to shake, she reaches for it and smiles at you softly, leaning forward and bowing her head slightly as a sign of respect,

How your legs didn’t turn to pure jelly, you have no idea. She was elegant and graceful and you were gay panicking way too hard to even realize how long you held her hand for.

Seems like she doesn’t even notice, she’s looking in your eyes and seemingly nervous as well, but she’s known to be shy so it’s probably just that, right?

“Hey Mina!” Chaeyoung shouts from her chair, waving obnoxiously to her bestfriend and turning to face her.

“Y/n is a concept designer for Lego’s!” Momo elbows Chae in the ribs playfully, shushing her and whispering to her.

“What? No way!” looking over at Chae to see her excitedly beaming back, Momo is shaking her head in her hands like Chaeyoung did something wrong… this confuses you for a split second.

“That’s so cool, I love Legos!” Mina exclaims, the excitement in her eyes is just too adorable to even think about anything else.

“She designed the plants and the little cars you like to build.” Sana shouts from behind Momo, who actively swing her arm back to try and shut her up, Sana just giggles and high fives Chaeyoung.

Tzuyu and Jihyo are just laughing but there’s a silent tension building in your ribcage, a little ache that turns into a fascination…why was Momo trying to stop them from telling her your line of work? And why were Tzuyu and Jihyo laughing?

“I love those! They’re so complicated for how small they are. I just built that orange one with Jeongyeon the other day. They’re so much fun!” shying away from you, she seems to take a step back from you.

Mina has always been known as shy, Dahyun says she has her moments but is also very playful and silly. That intrigued you, wanting to see that side of the soft spoken and regal Mina.

“They always send me sample builds for the ones I design and sometimes the bigger sets that are in testing so next time I’ll save them for you, if you want.” a nervous offer, but a meaningful one.

“Really? That would be amazing!” She’s radiating pure excitement now, unable to help but admire the happiness beaming from her.

Mina sat next to you all day, discussing your line of work and some builds you were working on, even though they were confidential. She swore to secrecy before you told her about them, which you thought was cute.

Having conversations with the other members, Mina never left your side. Your Twice bias taking a liking to you wasn’t something that you expected. She was always close by, even with everyone pulling you and her in different directions.

When everyone decided it was time to go in the ocean, she made sure to swim with you and playfully splash you.

This surprised you, as you weren’t expecting to see the playful side Dahyun spoke of so quickly, but you were grateful she felt comfortable enough to show it so soon.

By the end of the day you had exchanged numbers with the promise of hanging out soon, you hoped that to be true. Though you heard from other members that she wasn’t the best at texting back, you hoped that maybe you’d hear from her again.

—

The car ride home was relatively quiet, both you and Dahyun exhausted from the sun beaming down on you all day. The day was lovely, so happy that you decided to come along- even with it being so nerve wracking.

“So, did you have fun?” Dahyun nudging you with her elbow and making her eyebrows dance because she already knew the answer to your question.

“I did, I did.” giggling back to her.

“So what did you think of everyone?”

“Everyone was so nice! They’re all so sweet and welcoming, I’m really happy I got the chance to meet almost everyone and hang out for a while.” smiling at the new found friendship.

“Was everyone what you were expecting?” side eyeing you from the driver’s seat like she already knew the answer to this question too.

“I mean…for the most part, yes.” knowing what she was really asking, you were waiting for her to ask you flat out ask, until them you would dance around the question.

“Seems like you and Mina got to know each other.” Dahyun has the brightest smile on her face, poking you to see what information she could get out of you.

“Yes, that was really nice.” softly spoken back to her, face blushed completely as she knew about your celebrity crush on Mina.

“Soooooo…did you get her number?”

“Dubu!” shouted in shock at her while she cackles at you, unable to help yourself, you smack her shoulder playfully.

“What?! I’m just asking you a question!” flipping the blinker and snickering to herself as she pulls into your apartment building.

“Are you staying with me tonight?” changing the subject to avoid answering the question.

“Yes! Is that still okay?”

“It’s always okay. That’s why you have the spare key, duh!” getting out of the car and grabbing your stuff.

“Sooo…did you get her number or m…?”

You put your had up, halting her sentence, and making a face at her.

“I’m not talking to you about this!”

“Why not?! I can be your wingman! Come on!” Dahyun protests against your silence in the matter.

“Oh, shit, Dubu I left my phone in your car but my hands are full. Can you go grab it for me?”

“Sure” Dahyun goes to the car and snags your phone off the front seat, noticing a notification on the locks screen, she smiles widely.

“SO YOU DID GET HER NUMBER” Dahyun is jumping for joy at this revelation.

“Oh my goodness, I can see it now…The wedding, the pictures…ugh you guys are going to be so cute!” skipping to the elevator and holding it open for you before hitting the button for the top floor.

“Kim Dahyun! If you don’t shut your mouth!”

You don’t even know if Mina is into you, not wanting to be excited about something that might not happen, you just take it at face value.

“What!? I’m just saying, Y/n! Mina barely texts any of the members back so the fact that you have 2 notifications for her here is actually insane.” her eyes more serious now, her tone a little more pointed but it’s hard to believe.

The elevator dings and you step out, walking to your front door and punching the code in before pushing it open and placing everything down inside. Sand trails through your kitchen when you head to your room, Dahyun follows.

“What if she just wants the legos? I mean I’m happy to give them to her but her texting me doesn’t mean she likes me like that!” huffing at playing devils advocate.

Wanting to believe her, you just weren’t sure. The interactions you had with Mina were relatively surface level and it’s not that uncommon to have those conversations with anyone. You didn’t want to assume they meant more then they actually did.

“Trust me, Mina doesn’t talk to strangers like that. Not that you’re a stranger, I’ve told them so much about you already. But like…she just met you and clung to you all day…that’s a big deal…she doesn’t do that at all.” Dahyun has taken her stance. The stance of when she’s trying to prove a point and she knows she’s right.

You’re too stubborn to believe her.

“I guess we will see in time.” shrugging your shoulders and turning on your shower so you can rinse the beach off your skin.

“Dude, I’m telling you! She likes you!” Dahyun is practically yelling now, waving her hands around her head in frustration and huffing as she stops out of the room.

Giggling at her theatrics, you are curious if what she’s saying is true. Just as the thought passes by. your phone goes off again and Dahyun bolts back into the room.

“IF THAT’S A TEXT FROM MINA, THEN SHE ABSOLUTELY LIKES YOU BECAUSE A TRIPLE TEXT?? SHE WOULD NEVER DREAM OF IT.” screaming with such force it startles you.

Looking down at your phone, it scans your face and you look at the banner messages.

Mina Myoui: It was really nice to meet you today! I hope you join us for more activities in the future. (6:27pm)

Mina Myoui: I would love to hang out sometime, would you want to build legos together or something? (6:38pm)

Mina Myoui: Is that too much? Sorry. (7:02pm)

“Oh? It’s Mina…she wants to hang out” you’re in a bit of shock to see her name pop up in your phone, her asking you to hang out and then asking you if it’s too much?

No way. You wished it wasn’t weird to ask her to come over right now, actually.

“SHE FREAKIN’ LIKES YOU!” Dahyun goes on her yelling rant about how Mina is never like this and how she wouldn’t even text her best friend that many times in a row and blah blah blah.

Sitting there and starring at the screen, you see the typing bubble pop up and disappear quickly. Is she staring at her phone for a response?

You: It was so nice meeting you today too! I would love to build legos with you. Just let me know when you’re free. Not too much at all :) I was hoping you’d ask! (7:05pm)

Throwing your phone on the bed, you swiftly turn around to take your shower. You can hear Dahyun screaming from the living room in absolute victory, which makes you laugh.

Rinsing the sand off your legs, you remember the conversations you had with Mina about her lego build collection and her other hobbies. She talked about her love for video games a lot, saying that she’s got a few she plays every day and some she played mostly on vacation.

Mentioning minecraft survival and how she enjoys how puzzle-like it feels to be able to gather the materials and keep your character safe when the little zombies are out and about.

Mina also mentioned wanting to write more songs but being nervous about the vulnerability of putting her thoughts into lyrics. Encouraging her to take that step and be more vulnerable, you reminded her that so many people admire her.

“You should write more if you want to! I know that a lot of people really love the song you did for the Misamo debut, I think it would be really awesome for you to do more if that was something you wanted.” nodding your head at her.

She blushed at that, her cheeks reddened as she dipped her hair down trying to hide her face.

How adorable she is when she talks about things she’s passionate about.

Finally done with your shower, you dry off to find that Dahyun had used the guest bathroom to do the same. Her hair wrapped in a towel, in comfy clothes, and scrolling through her phone waiting for you.

Flipping on a random show, you sit on the couch with Dahyun and proceed to scroll through your phone when you get another text from Mina.

Mina Myoui: I think I’m free sometime next week if you want to get together! (7:36pm)

You: Yeah, I would like that! I have a few test sets of lego’s at the house we could build together if you want! (7:37pm)

Mina Myoui: I would love that (7:39pm)

“Who are you texting? With that huge smile on your face?! IT’S MINA ISN’T IT?!” Dahyun seemed to be more excited about this than you were, and that was saying a lot considering you were literally making plans to hang out with your Ult bias.

“Dahyun! Let me exist! Jeez!” huffed at her, all she did was smile and text someone ferociously on her phone before completely changing the subject and carrying on your night like normal.

—6 months later—

Mina ended up cancelling on you because of a last minute schedule, but still texted you every day just to talk. You even FaceTimed and talked on the phone often, just getting to know each other and updating each other on the day to day.

Zipping your suitcase closed, you sigh.

Deciding that you would bring a tote with a couple tester sets of legos with you to give to the girls who saw her the most, that way when she did have a moment, she could relax with them.

“You ready?” Dahyun shouted from the front door as you picked out a few sets for Mina…Dahyun wouldn’t do it because she wanted you to do it yourself, you planned to pass them along to Chae or Momo.

“Yeah, I’m ready.” grabbing your bags and heading for the door.

“Why do you sound so sad? We are going on a winter adventure to the mountains!” lifting her arms to the sky to try and get you to laugh, it doesn’t work.

“Sorry, Dubu. I was just really hoping Mina would come too. We talk so often but I haven’t seen her since the beach day. I was just really looking forward to spending time with her is all.” sighing as you hoisted your suitcase into the car, grabbing a blanket you brought for the ride and curling up in the passenger seat.

“It’s okay, Y/nnie. I’m sure we will have fun either way.” there’s a smirk on her face, something is off but you are too distracted by your own thoughts to even want to ask.

The soft blanket you brought with you brings you some sort of comfort, keeping you warm even in the sadness.

You decide to text Mina.

You: Hey! I hope your schedules go well today! Sad you can’t make it to the vacation :/ (10:04am)

You: I am bringing some of those builds with me for the girlies to bring to you later though! I hope you enjoy them when you can :) (10:05am)

Unable to stop yourself from being disappointed, you put your phone in your lap and watch the scenes out the window pass you by.

The city quickly turned into country side, a few farms here and there, some cows you are sure to point out to Dahyun who has been surprisingly quiet the last 45 minutes.

Sighing at the lack of response, you really really wished Mina was coming to this outing. Always being bad at hiding your emotions, you knew try to hide them from Dahyun by just staring out the window.

Your phone pinging breaks your state of dissociation.

Mina Myoui: That is so sweet of you! I’ll hold onto them so we can build them together. :) (10:55am)

Mina Myoui: I wish I was coming too. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you, but I promise I’ll see you so soon. These unexpected schedules they keep booking me for are really kicking my ass lol (10:56am)

You: I can imagine! Please get some rest when you can! You work hard and should make sure to take care of yourself. (10:57am)

Mina Myoui: Trust me, I’ll get some good rest this week ;) (10:59am)

This week? Like when we are in the mountains with most of the girls?

You: Please do! You’ve definitely earned it with how busy you are! (11:01am)

A sigh leaves your lips, wishing she wasn’t so busy so you could spend time with her.

Eyes drifting back to out the window, you try to muster up the courage to be excited about hanging out with Sana, Chaeyoung, Momo, Nayeon and Jihyo.

Tzuyu was with her family this week, Jeongyeon was overseeing the animal shelter while the owner was on vacation and Mina was…busy.

Pushing positivity into you brain, you list off the things that you could look forward too.

Relaxing.

Meeting Nayeon.

Hot tub and sauna in a massive rented house in the mountains.

Snow.

Hanging out with the girls again.

“Everyone is really excited to see you again, you know.” Dahyun chimes in, disrupting your thoughts.

“Are they? They’re so sweet.” Monotone in your reply, unintentional, but present.

“Come on, Y/n. I know you wanted to see Mina but there will be other times.” Reaching out to rub your shoulder in an act of comfort.

“I know, I know. We just have been texting since the beach trip and I was looking forward to hanging out with her in person again. You guys are always so busy, I thought we could…” letting the sentence end before finishing it.

“I know but trust me, we’ve got a lot of fun things planned!” Dahyun is suddenly very giddy, bouncing in her seat in excitement.

You don’t match the energy.

—

The countryside grows into mountains, slowly unfolding into a snow filled road lined with trees that winds around the peak you’d be staying at for the next few days.

Admittedly the scenery was beautiful, the trees sprinkled with white flakes of ice, the deep greens and browns that fill the spots the reflective chill couldn’t.

For the rest of the ride, you were trapped in your thoughts. Holding onto the text exchange from Mina about being able to see each other soon.

Your little crush developed into full blown liking her and you dreamed of the comfort you’d feel when you see her again.

—

Pulling up to the house, you were immediately captivated by how lavish it looked, even from the outside.

Big stone pillars around the front door, large windows that allowed you to see inside to find marble flooring, massive fancy chandeliers, and the girls laughing and playing in the living room.

Sana points to the driveway, seeing you and Dahyun getting out of the car. Watching as they all stand and run to another part of the house.

The front door flings open and everyone runs out in the snow to greet you with hugs and help you with your bags.

Nayeon walks right up to you and pulls you in for a hug.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you, Y/n! So sorry about last time. “ bowing her head in a small moment of shame.

“It’s totally okay. I’ve had my fair share of days like that.” smiling at her and offering some reassurance that there was no judgement there.

Nayeon grins back at you, pulling you in for a hug as if you had always known each other. There was a warmth about her that made you feel calm, less worried. Almost like a best friend that you hadn’t seen in years hugging you again.

Sana and Chae see this, scrunching their noses and looking at each other with confusion. Brushing this off, you hug them and say it’s good to see them again and you’re looking forward to spening more time together.

Jihyo walks up, slaps you on the back playfully and puts her arms out for you, waiting for you to do the same. Giggling at her and returning the hug, you squeeze her tight.

“It’s good to see you again, Hyo.”

“Right back at you, Y/n” warmly rubbing the spot she just smacked.

Jihyo and you had developed a solid friendship after the beach day. She would come over and have dinner with you, just hang out and watch movies or you’d go to hers and do the same.

There was a sense of family between you and everyone, they had accepted and welcomed you even before you had actually met them at the beach that day.

Knowing that you and Dahyun had grown up together probably helped that along, but the kindness they had always shown you was full of genuine love and safety.

Bringing the bags into the house, you couldn’t help but take in the rest of the luxury it was dripping in.

The marble counter tops matching the floors, the conversation pit in the den behind a beige L shaped couch with a huge TV hanging on the wall, the fireplace that was fancy enough to be considered a work of art, and the fact that it had 10 bedrooms with bathrooms attached was just mind blowing.

“We hung nameplates on the doors for both of your rooms, if you want to go see! But we’ve just been hanging out in the living room and just talking.” Jihyo says, making her way back to what you would assume is the seat she was in before you arrived.

“Yes, I’m going to go put my stuff down and I’ll be right back.” making your way to the staircase and taking the first few steps.

You see Dahyun and Jihyo side eye each other out of your peripherals and brush it off, you knew that your energy was noticeably off but you wouldn’t admit why.

You’re sure that Dahyun was already filling the group in on why you weren’t exactly yourself today.

—

Finally reaching the top of the stairs, you hang a left into the hallway and see hand painted signs hanging on the doors. All the members ones were painting in their representative colors, yours was Mint green…cute joke.

Looking around you, seeing that there was another Mint green sign…for Mina…all the members had rooms assigned to them even if they weren’t here? Tzuyu and Jeongyeon had ones also. It’s cute that they always include everyone, it makes you smile.

Stepping inside the room, you see a MASSIVE bed with a fire place across the room from it. A big tv mounted on the wall, the deep red tones of the room really provide a coziness that matches what the fireplace brings. Thinking about sleeping in here tonight makes you yawn at how comfortable you already feel.

Checking your phone to see nothing from Mina, you sigh again. Tossing it on the bed and trying to figure out how you’re going to shake this sadness you have about not being here this weekend. Placing your bags down, you opt to check out the bathroom, walking over and flicking the light switch on - it’s absolutely lavish.

The bathtub is basically its own hot tub, jets and everything. The shower is huge and natural, rocks inside and fake plants. Gasping in shock at how immaculate this bathroom was, you look up at the ceiling and notice that there’s a long spout on the ceiling behind the shower glass that just looks like a disc drive.

Seeing the buttons on the wall, you press one out of curiosity.

A waterfall starts.

A waterfall shower??? In the mountains?? Luxury is crazy but you were so excited to shower tomorrow morning.

A knock at the door startles you, pressing the button again to stop the shower, you rush over to the door to your room and open it to find Momo smiling at you.

“Mind if I come in?"

“Sure!” swinging the door open, she lays down on her stomach on the bed and watches you get settled.

“Hey, Y/n. Can we talk for a minute?” there’s some concern in her voice.

Swinging around to face her so she knows you’re present, you sit next to her and wait for her to say what she has made clear she wants to.

“You seem really nice and I enjoyed getting to know you at the beach that day. It’s seems that you will be around more, and I just want to make sure that you know how protective we are of each other…do you get what I’m saying?” there’s an inflection in her tone that you can’t shake, what did she mean by that?

“Uhm…truthfully, I don’t have malicious intentions at all. All of you mean so much to Dahyun and she’s part of my family at this point. I wouldn’t dream of harming any of you in anyway. If anything, I’m nervous about you guys not really liking me or me being like weird or something” reassurance and vulnerability gifted to Hirai Momo.

“Why would we think you’re weird?” laughing at this, she seems to have eased up in the seriousness of her last statement.

“To be honest, I’m actually a huge fan.”

“What?” giggled back.

“Yes! I’ve been following the group for years, not only out of support for Dahyun but because I just really enjoy the music too. So half the time I’m around you I’m like “Oh shit that’s fucking Hirai Momo, the dancing machine from Twice” but I know you’re a person so I obviously don’t want to be like weird about it” unable to help yourself, you laugh at what you’re saying.

She joins you, cackling with you.

“I need you to know we felt the same way! We were so nervous about meeting you because of how much you mean to Dahyun…we were worried about how we would come off to you.” offering the same vulnerability back to you.

“So we had the same thoughts, minus the “holy shit you’re twice” moment?”

“It seems that way.” smiling at you, soften up a bit at from the one on one interaction.

Momo gets up and heads for the door.

“I’ll give you some space to get settled. Come down when you’re ready! We made hot chocolate too so you’re welcome to that as well.” pulling the door open, Momo looks back to you before stepping out of the room.

“I can see what she sees in you.” disappearing before you have a moment to question what she had just said to you.

Who sees what in you?

An iced chill of worry shoots through you, matching the show that laces the ground outside the window…trying not to worry about it, you slip on something more comfortable and head downstairs to make small talk with the rest of the girls.

When they see you coming, they hush each other to be sure you didn’t hear what they were discussing. That also brings some anxiety with it but no matter, you’re here to have fun.

Letting go of the worry of what they were discussing, you just sink into the moment and jump into the conversation that Jihyo started about some of the things she was working on.

Momo brings you a mug of hot chocolate and sits next to you on the couch, the friendship being cultivated with these girls is something you would cherish- you could already tell that they were making space for you in their lives and that meant the world.

—

Dinner was around the corner, everyone was laying around and watching TV together in the living room while waiting for the delivery to arrive, you had ordered sushi an hour ago and expected it to take a while to get out here but all of you were waiting with anticipation for the delicious food that was about to arrive.

Checking your phone multiple times that evening to see if you had a response from Mina, but nothing…she must be really busy. That’s what you assume anyway…you wished she was here.

Jihyo’s phone went off, she smiled so widely, her cheeks could’ve fallen right off. Very excited about the sushi, I guess?

“It’s here!” jumping up and running out of sight to the door.

Looking up from your phone, everyone is side eyeing you and watching you closely. The confusion sets in, why are you being watched?

Slowly turning to make eye contact with Momo, she looks away in a panic. Sana does the same and Chae just smiles widely at you.

Uhm…this is really weird?

“Hey, Y/n! Would you mind helping me in the kitchen?” Jihyo yells from the front door, you can hear the plastic bags rustling against her arms.

“Yeah!” shouted back before you get up and walk through the kitchen door.

No one is here…?

A figure walks through the door that connects to the foyer, long dark wavy hair, a pale complexion and a big smile on her face…

“Hey, Y/n” the figure says while your eyes focus.

It’s Mina.

“Mina!” rushing over to her to give her a hug, the excitement consuming you. Heart racing and eye’s watering at the pure happiness felt with her around.

She giggles at how excited you are to see her, hugging you back just as tightly.

You realize that this is only the second time you’ve seen her in person and this might read as too much. Pulling back quickly, you offer a small apology.

“No, it’s okay. I missed you too.” placing her hand on your upper arm and sliding it down to your forearm.

Heart pounding out of your chest, you try to gain some form of calmness and look away but the blush got to your cheeks before you realized what was happening.

Mina giggles again, sliding her hand past your’s, brushing your fingers with hers on the way down before her hand is back at her side.

“I wanted to surprise you…” hesitantly leaves her mouth with hushed breath, that you weren’t expecting.

“You wanted to surprise me?”

“Well, yes. We’ve been talking so much and truthfully I-”

A crash through the kitchen doors startle both of you, Sana and Momo looking for something harder than hot chocolate to drink.

“Oh! Uhm, so sorry. We were looking for the liquor cabinet…” Sana offers as an excuse for what ruined the moment.

Momo is nodding her head, closing her eyes tightly in embarrassment it seems.

“It’s okay…Don’t worry.” Mina offers up to them as they scurry out of the kitchen.

Both of you sigh.

“I’m happy you surprised me.” smiling at her.

“Me too. And we have this whole week to hang out too!” excited leaves her lips.

She seems as eager to spend time with you as you do with her, it makes your insides warm and fluttery even if you were trying to not assume anything.

“MINA IS HERE!” Sana’s shouts can be heard in the kitchen, rumbling follows.

Muted foot steps can be heard scampering on the hardwood floors, followed by hushed giggling and whispering behind the wooden door, however the door doesn’t move.

They’re trying to hear what you are talking to Mina about.

Glancing over to Mina, you make eye contact - she knows better than you what they’re doing. A glimmer behind her eye catches your attention…for more reasons than one.

“Come with me” hushed breathless whisper leaves her perfectly pink lips, you try to process what she mouthed to you, completely lost in the beauty she radiated.

This was the playfulness Dahyun had always spoke of.

She tiptoed to the other door silently, turning around to see you still in place. She waves you over and you follow her actions of silently.

When you were close enough to her, she grabbed your wrist and snuck through the door.

Gasping unintentionally at her touch, she raises a hand to cover your mouth. Eye widened at the action, you can only look at her in shock.

Your blood runs cold but your heart bursts into flames, pounding at the touch of Mina for a few reasons.

One: because she is touching you.

Two: because her hand is covering your mouth and that always sparks something more lust driven from you, not that she would know that.

Mina leans into your ear and whispers, “…Shh until we scare them, okay?”

Nodding your head to let her know you understood the assignment, she looked into your eyes before she slowly removed her hand. Watching her as she looked at your lips and then back to your eyes.

Blush taking over your cheeks, yet again, you can’t help but smile and break the eye contact. Worrying that the tension was just you, you try to focus on being calm and quiet so you can scare the girls.

Mina looks at you for longer than expected before she sneaks around the corner, your wrist still in hand.

“I don’t hear anything!” Sana harshly whispers.

“Maybe they know we are trying to listen in?” Chae replied

Jihyo shushes them both.

Sneaking around the corner with Mina in the lead, you see everyone has their ears pressed up against the door, trying to listen to the ghosts in the kitchen.

Mina looks at you and represses a giggle, tightening her lips and trying to compose herself. The ache to kiss her builds in your stomach, how could someone be so elegant and so silly at the same time?

She steps out from being the wall, pulling you with her and sneaking behind the group, joining them as if she was always there.

“What are we doing?” Mina whispers to Nayeon, trying to see how far she can take this bit.

“We are waiting to hear if Mina tells Y/n that she likes her. Don’t you remember? We set up this surprise so we could push them together!” Nayeon whispers back to Mina unconsciously, not even realize the bomb that she just dropped.

Mina goes pale, frozen in the secret that was just exposed unwilling to look at you from the sheer panic that swept through her soul at Nayeon’s words back to her.

“I think Y/n knows now but I didn’t tell her.” Mina says loud enough for everyone to hear, startling everyone who was against the door.

They try to play it cool and nonchalant, but you and Mina had stood there too long to buy it.

“Wait so she kno-” Momo asks in confusion.

“Okaaaaay! Let’s not do that right now.” Mina waves her hands up in from of everyone to keep them from asking questions.

You just stood there and trying to process what Nayeon just said. Mina likes you? Like…likes you likes you?

“Dinner is ready so let’s go eat!” an attempt at damage control by Jihyo, it works for the most part.

“Wait…Mina, can we talk?” snagging her by the hand before she could follow the group into the den for sushi.

“Yes, of course.” stopping and turning around to look at you nervously while you spoke.

“You…like me?” shyly inquiring on if you heard that right from Nayeon.

“I…uh…yes.” her head is hanging, eyes at the ground so she doesn’t have to see your reaction. Toying with her fingers to keep calm in this conversation.

Not being used to seeing Mina in this light, you take the opportunity to be bold, placing a finger under her chin and lifting her face to meet yours.

She gasps at the action before going back to looking at your lips again, this time she makes eye contact but there’s something different about the way she’s looking at you.

Without even realizing it, you get closer to each other. Gravitating like magnets until your noses brush, startling you out of the haze but not allowing you to pull back.

Mina has an eagerness about her, being this close to her - you can see the hunger in her eyes. Tension palpable between the two of you, you can tell that she wants this just as bad as you do.

Noses brushing as you inch closer and closer, you can feel her breath on your lips and feel her hands creep around your waist only to pull you into her, finally locking your lips together.

A soft peck first, giving each other the time to process what just happened. You take a few seconds to reminisce in how soft and delicate her lips were, her touches feather light and conducting so much heat that you feel like you could explode.

“Was tha-” Cut off by you cupping her face and bringing her back to you.

Lips connecting again, this time deeper and more passionately. Her hands on your waist coasting up your sides and back before letting them drape over your shoulders.

Separating before it could turn into too much, you take a moment to feel every single drop of oxytocin that seeped into your veins. Gold laced sparks of sweetness send goosebumps across your skin in a wave of euphoria that couldn’t compare to anything you had ever experience.

“I like you too.” one last peck before you take her by the hand and lead her to the den for dinner she brought for everyone.

—

Once dinner is over, Sana and Momo went back to the kitchen to see if they could find the liquor cabinet with Jihyo’s help. Nayeon, Chae and Dahyun went upstairs to their respective rooms so change and get more comfortable.

You and Mina sit in the den, basking in the excitement of your confession of fondness for each other. It was all so new, but so comfortable. Existing in the same space together brought you a sense of peace you had never known, a calmness that was unexplainable other than being next to her.

“Did you actually bring those lego sets?” quietly inquired without looking at you.

“I did. I thought you’d want to build them in your downtime and I promised to give them to you so I wanted to make good on that promise.” looking over to her and offering her a smile.

“You’re cute.” Mina giggles, flushing red at the genuine care you showed her.

“Do you want to build a few while we are here? I did manage to get one of those cars I know you like building, it’s limited edition too.”

“What?! No way!” excitement now in her eyes as she finally looks at you. She must be nervous.

“Yes! I brought a few different ones, a couple of the plant ones I designed, the car, and then I got this new one that I thought you might like. It’s a minecraft one of the villages in the games…that one isn’t releasing until next year but I had a part in designing it so they sent me a tester.”

“A minecraft one?!” Mina looks like she’s about to fall over with anticipation.

“You remembered that I liked Minecraft?” Freezing in place while waiting for your answer.

“Yeah, it’s one of your favorites. Of course, I remember.”

She looks at you in a way that made your heart soar, the care and kindness displayed on her face and in her body language was enough to send you into overdrive. Willing to do anything to keep her looking at you like that, you scoot closer to her and she instinctively puts an arm around you.

“Soooooo do you want to build one tonight or do you want to wait for the morning?”

“We can do whatever you wa-”

Jihyo comes crashing through the door with a bottle of bourbon that was completely full, she shows it off like it’s a fine bottle of wine, not realize that she had just interrupted.

“Oh, yes! Such a fine bottle of bourbon Ms. Park! I’ll take two glasses please” teasingly at Jihyo.

Jihyo bows gracefully, Momo and Sana come back with glasses for everyone and Jihyo starts to pour some drinks. Momo stokes the fire and Sana takes a seat next to Mina. Nayeon, Dahyun and Chaeyoung come running down barreling down the stairs now in sweatpants, with blankets in hand.

Jihyo is passing out the glasses of bourbon to everyone, once you get your’s, you take a small sip and enjoy the warmth that fills your chest. It matches the warmth that Mina brought you, so a perfect pairing you’d say.

Watching everyone make faces at the flavor of the bourbon was hilarious, it seems that you and Jihyo are the only ones fond of it.

“Tomorrow, I’m going into town to get something that isn’t this.” Sana, still scrunching her nose from the burn, says very matter of factly.

“I’ll go with you!” Nayeon and Momo say in unison, looking at each other and laughing.

“I want to get some stuff to make breakfast sometime this week.” Momo seems to have a plan to treat us to a yummy meal.

“I’d just like to see what the stores look like around here.” Nayeon just wanting an adventure.

Jihyo gets up, shooting the rest of her glass and then makes her way to the stairs.

“I’m going to go and sit in the sauna for a while if anyone wants to join.”

“I have to see this sauna. This house is immaculate, honestly.” standing up and finishing your drink quickly.

Mina says nothing but stands with you, matching your movements of finishing your drink.

Momo and Sana get comfortable on the couch with Dahyun and Chaeyoung, Nayeon follows Jihyo up the stairs to the rooms. You and Mina are close behind, going to your individual rooms to change into bathing suits.

—

Once everyone is changed, you all head through the den and to the end of the hall where a light wood door leads you to the spa part of the house. There’s a sauna and a hot tub, as well as some showers. Fountains in the middle of the large room have you reeling.

This house must cost a fortune.

Mina clings to you the entire time, never leaving your side.

Everyone in their bathing suits, Jihyo in that same black one she wore, Nayeon in a bright blue one piece and Mina is wearing what seems to be a dark bikini but she’s got a see through cover that hides the true color of it. You are in an oversized t-shirt to cover up through the house, bathing suit underneath.

Jihyo is feeling that drinks as she’s getting loud and silly, being playful and flirty with everyone.

Getting ready to go into the sauna, you put your towel down next to Mina and remove your shirt, revealing your body to her but this time she’s sure to take in every inch of skin you showed her.

Eyes completely glued to you giving you butterflies and adding to the crush that you both had for each other.

Seeing her look at you the way she did, you smirk, waiting for her to bring eye contact back to you. You lean into her ear and whisper:

“You can see more later, if you want.” winking and running your hand down her arm to her hand, entwining your fingers before turning around to face the chaos that was unfolding, drunk Nayeon and Jihyo giggling at themselves.

Mina’s demeanor has changed, she’s got her hand that wasn’t holding yours on your lower back and this surprises you. You wouldn’t really take her to have the dominant vibe, but she sinks into it as if it’s always been there.

Jihyo takes one look at you in the bikini and whistles, obnoxiously checking you out.

“Damn, Y/n! Have you been working out? Look at you!” winking dramatically and nudging you with her elbow.

Playful and silly, constantly joking around with each other, Jihyo and you had become good friends but it was nothing more than friends. The thought never even crossed your mind.

Mina tenses at this, tilting her head to the side and questioning this interaction she just witnessed between the two of you.

Nayeon is in her own world on her phone when Jihyo drags her into the sauna, leaving you and Mina in the vast white tiled room with a hot tub and a fountain in the middle of the tension.

Mina says nothing, but strips off her cover - revealing her abs and strong arms. You practically drool over her, mouth agape, eyes trailing along the flow of her body and up to her smiling face.

Giggling at how your jaw drops for her, she is sure to get closer to you mimicking your movements from when you took your shirt off earlier.

“Want to see more later? Perhaps I’ll extend that invite back to you. Unless you have other plans with Jihyo…?” from sexy to snarky in a matter of second, you can’t believe the sneer on her face.

Is she jealous?

“I’m not drooling over Jihyo, am I? I didn’t kiss Jihyo earlier, did I?” thrown back at her so she can see that it’s just you and her in this.

No one else.

Mina smiles, cupping your face and kissing you intensely, like she was staking her claim to you. The creates quite a reaction from you, making you more than a little needy.

“Sauna or hot tub?” disconnecting her lips and bending forward and ushering her hand out, offering the decision to you in a manner that was the opposite energy of this kiss she just gave.

“Whatever you want” kicking it back to her, noticeably swooning at the way she took charge - despite the jealousy.

“The hot tub looks nice…” eyebrows rising, looking over to you to see if you approve.

“Hot tub it is.” Grabbing her hand and leading her to the water being disturbed by jets, stepping in and finding your spot in one of the corners.

She follows suit, sitting next to you and slouching into the warmth of the water. Sighing as her body unclenches, you look over at her…admiring the serenity that she emitted.

Her long dark hair hanging off the side to not get it wet, her eyes closed, and her face so peaceful…you leaned over to kiss her temple, unable to help yourself with how excited you were about your mutual feelings for each other.

Mina opens one eye, peaking at your through her bangs before letting out a giggle.

“What are you doing?” eyes still closed with the edges of her mouth curled into a smile as she relaxes further.

“Oh, nothing…just thinking about someone.” you know exactly what kind of curiosity this would peak in her…soon she’d be exactly where you wanted her to be.

“Who are you thinking about?” her brows furrow at the words, knowing she would get jealous again.

“Well you see, I’ve been talking to this girl for a long time…we texted and spoke on the phone a lot and I really like her.” Mina opens here eyes, sitting up to look at you with her elbow resting on the edge of the hot tub, placing her head on her hand.

“I found out today that she likes me too…and I’m really excited about it.” whispered through s light nervousness that rises through the heat of the jets.

“…are you referring to someone that’s in the room?” One of her eyebrows raises while the other furrows, the look of confusion on Mina’s face makes you chuckle at her.

The sound of your laugh makes her other brow descend, furrowing to match the other.

Is she really confused about this?

“Yes, the other person is in the room.” still giggling at her while playfully flicking water towards her.

“…like in this room? or just this part of the hou-”

“Mina…it’s you. Don’t overthink it.” leaning in and kissing her softly for reassurance.

Whipping your leg over her thighs, you straddle her. Deepening the kiss and letting out some of the passion that had built within you over the last few months of not seeing her but speaking with her daily.

Her arms wrap around your waist, coasting up your back lightly, sending a single shiver down your spine - clattering your bones with the warmth she offered to you.

Slipping a finger under the string that held your top up, the fabric tightens before threatening to fall. Pulling her arm towards you to remove that threat, you pull back from her and look her in the eyes.

The tension is so thick, even a knife couldn’t slice the pure desire that was trapped in the gaze you were locked in. Mina’s breath picks up when your hand raises to her cheek, caressing it softly before a single finger trails down to her chest between her breasts and down her stomach.

Reconnecting your lips, you drop your hand down to the wear the fabric starts on the bottoms of her swimsuit, tracing the edge of it gently just to tease her and see her reaction.

This sparks a fire in her belly and you can tell as her breath hitches and she slouches to allow you access to what you were asking permission silently for.

“Can I?” To vocalize asking even though the signs were clear.

“Please” hushed tone drenched in neediness before returning her mouth to yours, swiping her tongue at your lips and further deepening the passion playing out before the two of you.

Jihyo and Nayeon both cackle from the sauna, both you and Mina freeze.

Turning your head slowly to see if you had been caught.

The reflection of the glass shows you on top of Mina, who is bright red due to embarrassment of possibly being spotted in this compromising position.

Behind your imagine in the fogged up glass is Nayeon and Jihyo watching something on Nayeon’s phone, giggling at it and completely immersed in whatever video it was.

“They are laughing at something on Nayeon’s phone and they’re definitely drunk…they won’t notice us.” Bringing your mouth to her neck to plant a few kisses down to her collarbone.

Mina lets out a whine that would be burnt into your brain for the rest of your life. The pure need that reverberated off your eardrums caused an ache that words could not explain.

Half-lidded brown eyes look up at you, a hand slips up and around your neck to pull you closer so your lips meet once more.

The dominance in her rattles you in the best way possible, her hand around your throat to tug you closer to her sent a shot of hunger through you like nothing else ever could.

“Do it” between the soft romantic pecks she was carefully placed on your jaw, gently kissing up to your ear just to let out the faintest whimper inciting you to grind against her thigh roughly to get some stimulation.

Your hand back to where it was on her swim suit, slipping down underneath the fabric to slip a finger between her fold and gently rub her clit.

A gasp leaves her lips, the tone of yearning so present that it sent you into a spiral of just wanting to please her. A need so strong that you could not have any thoughts aside from how her face would contort when you finally gave her what she wanted.

The sound of the glass door to the sauna opening brings both of you back to the present, removing you from how wrapped up in each other you were.

“Can you believe that this is what Jeongyeon and Tzu are missing out on? This house is amazing… and the weath-…are we interrupting?” Nayeon’s eye widen, arm flying out to stop Jihyo in her tracks as they both look up to see you straddling Mina.

Bless how strong the jets were so they couldn’t see that your hand was between Mina’s legs.

“No, no, we were just uhm…talking…” trying regulate your breath so they wouldn’t catch on.

Too late.

“Sure, you were….” Jihyo giggles and takes Nayeon by the hand, dragging her out of the spa area of the house.

Looking down at Mina, her hands are covering her face in embarrassment, you lean down and kiss her forehead. She spreads her pointer and middle fingers and peaks out at you, giggling out of shock.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure they’re gone now…” removing your hand from where it was and taking her wrists to pry her hands off her face.

“Maybe we should pick this up later…somewhere a little more private?” she’s tugging at the strings that are keeping your bottoms from falling completely off. The smirk that is displayed on her face is one that reflects the ache inside you.

“Maybe we should.” sliding off her lap and into the seat you were in before. Mina smiles at you, giggling and trying to cover her stunning smile with her hands as she gets out of the hot tub, holding her hand out to you so you don’t slip on the steps.

“What a gentle woman you are.” it’s so hard to not blush in her presence.

“Only for you.” kissing each knuckle on the hand and leading you to where your stuff was so you could dry off and cover up before walking through the house again.

—

Stepping out into the den, you see all eyes are on you and Mina as you make your way to the stairs and walk up them. You’re too wrapped in each other to even care that everyone is watching the two of you walk, hand in hand, to your room.

Getting up to the doors with the name plates, you tug her into your room, closing the door behind you before pushing her up against it, gently.

“I’ve thought about this before…” Mina husks as she feels your lips against her neck.

“Have you?” between the love bites you’re placing down her neck and onto her chest.

“Mhm…but it went a little differently…” there’s an inflection in her voice that you don’t recognize, a pang of dominance that made you want to let her take the reigns…but not without a little pushing.

“Oh yeah? How did that go then?” not budging in the slightest, waiting for her to make her move.

“Like this.” Mina grabs your waist, guiding you to switch places with her.

“I take it you want to be in charge then?” tucking a lock of her lustrous wavy hair behind her ear, before wrapping your arms around her neck.

“I might” an evil grin shines back at you, unsure of what was behind the reflection of the supposedly dominant Mina.

She weaves her fingers between yours, inching closer and closer towards your face until her nose is grazing yours - foreheads pressed together and her breath on your lips.

Too focused on just breathing properly, you don’t even notice that she’s raised your hands above your head and pinned them to the door effortlessly. Being in the position with her was something you never thought possible, but here you were…being pushed against a door and trapped by Mina.

“You like this…don’t you? I bet you never expected me to be the top and I was going to let you live out your dominant fantasy but…you’re so irresistible. I can’t help but want to-”

Heavy knocks against your back startle both of you.

“Yes?” the annoyance in your tone is very much heard through the door.

“Hey…”

Mina rolls her eyes.

“Of course, it’s Jihyo.” whispered to you after removing her hands from pinning you, finding something else to touch.

“uhm…we are going to watch a scary movie if you want to join us…un- unless you’re busy…we didn’t want to start it without you” Jihyo sounds like she knows what she’s intruding on, trying to get through the sentence without stuttering it seemed.

“We’ll change and will be down in a moment!” Mina shouted through the door, probably to assert her place in your room and let Jihyo know what was happening between the two of you.

The stern tone she took sent a chill down your body, a tense sensation between your legs further developed when she ran a single finger up your thigh, dragging along the re-dampened bathing suit - gliding it along your slit while keeping her eyes locked with yours.

Blinking a few times and trying to keep collected while she teases you. One hand spends it’s time tracing the outline of your pussy over the bottoms of the swim suit and the other is making it’s journey up to your neck, gripping it and squeezing ever so slightly just to see what you’d do.

Shuttering under her touch, you heard an “Okay! See you soon then!” as Jihyo makes her way down the stairs.

Listening as the foot steps retreat, Mina pulls the strings keeping your bottoms up, releasing them to the floor, your large shirt still covering most of you.

“I’ve been wondering for so long…” Mina drops to her knees lifting your shirt to expose how wet you were for her.

“… what you taste like” sliding her tongue between your folds and taking a single long lick right up to your clit.

Wanting to collapse under the pleasure of her tongue on you, you moan. Not caring who or what heard you. This flipped a switch inside you, wanting to grab her hair and use her face in a very vile way, but the look in her eyes stops you.

“I look forward to tasting more of you later.” The sound of her smacking her lips fills the room, gazing at her as she stands up and removes the cover of her swim suit before walking to the bathroom.

Frozen in place, you try to take in what just happened and are trying to grasp why it’s not still happening.

“Uhm, Mina?” following her to the big luxurious bathroom that was connected to your room.

“Why…? Can we uhm….” stammering through what you had hoped would be full sentences.

“Why what, darling?” Turning around to face you before pulling the strings that kept her top up, revealing her chest to you.

The smack of the swim suit on your bathroom floor doesn’t even phase you as you gawk at how beautiful Mina is…even more so now that her breasts are exposed to you.

Never thinking the shy Mina you had observed and heard about would be so bold…you just stand there and try to process the fact that not only did Mina Myoui lick your pussy but she was standing there…topless…in front of you…

“Cat got your tongue?” stepping closer to you, lifting your shirt as a signal to take it off, you comply happily.

Pulling the strings from your top, she exposes you even further. Standing there naked in front of her, she licks her lips and that sends you reeling.

“God, you’re so stunning…” eyes tracing every part of your skin.

Feeling your slick drip down your thighs, you try to clench them to get some form of relief.

This doesn’t go unnoticed.

Mina drops to her knees again, stopping the dribble of wetness with her tongue and bringing herself back up to where it originated from.

“Is this what you want, baby?” taking one big long lick of your cunt again.

“oh fuck…” escapes your throat in a whimper, she smirks from between your legs.

Standing up abruptly, she removed her bottoms and is now naked with you in this massive, fancy bathroom.

“Well, we have a movie date tonight so this will have to wait.” winking at you and kissing your lips so you can taste yourself on her mouth.

This turns your legs into jelly as she walks back to the room after hanging the bathing suits up.

“Can I wear a pair of your sweats and a tshirt?”

Following her to the room, you’re in a daze. Unable to comprehend what Mina’s tongue just did to you and how nonchalant she was about it all.

“…Y/n?”

“Oh! Uhm, yes. Whatever you want.” trying to snap back to reality but the nagging between your legs was screaming for more of her.

“You’re cute when you’re flustered…I’ll keep that in mind.” pulling out a big black T-shirt and a pair of sweat pants from your bag, slipping them on with no bra or panties.

Following this, you slip on your other pair of sweats and a shirt. Just doing what you assumed to be routine and trying not to focus on how badly you wanted her to touch you again.

Everything after this was a blur. Walking down the stairs, finding seats next to each other, her resting her legs on you, and even what movie you were watching was not something at the forefront of your mind.

You could only think about Mina.

On her knees.

Tongue buried in you.

Smacking her lips at your taste.

—

Halfway through the movie, you’ve calmed a bit enough to take in what was happening around you. Jihyo, Nayeon, Momo, and Sana had gotten more drinks and were giggling and laughing with each other.

Chaeyoung and Dahyun were on the verge of falling asleep and Mina was laying in your lap, between your legs with her head on your hipbone and the top knuckles of two her fingers hooked around your waistband.

Feeling yourself clenching at this, you try to hold her hand instead but it doesn’t work. She simply nuzzles into you more, bringing you right back into your horny daze of endlessly craving her touch.

Feeling how wet you were, you adjust slighty. This doesn’t go unnoticed at all. Mina lifts her head up at you, big brown eyes connecting with yours before she looks around the room and surveys what has everyone’s attention.

On the couch that was positioned behind yours, Jihyo, Momo, Nayeon, and Sana are distracted with each other and on the other couch across from you, Chaeyoung and Dahyun have fallen asleep.

Looking back to you, there’s a glimmer in her eyes, a sparkle you’d never seen before. She grabs a blanket that was on the end of the couch and pulls it up to her neck.

Assuming she was just cold, you place a hand on her back and rub slow circles to try and offer some warmth.

That’s when you feel it.

Mina scoots up so her shoulders align with your hips, she tugs your waistband down under your ass, the blanket hiding it all and slips a single finger between your lips before gently strokes your folds.

“Mina, what are you doing?” hushed tone filled with anxiety as she keeps on, rubbing and teasing your clit while you’re panicked and looking around to see if anyone will see what is happening.”

“They won’t notice, I promise. Plus, I just can’t resist you. I’ve wanted this for so long…keep quiet for me, baby.” whispered seductively to you before scooting down so her face was level with her hand and slowly dips her finger inside you just to pull it back out.

Hips bucking up, they betray your words and tell her that you wanted more of this despite being surrounded by her members and your best friend.

She lets out devious smirk before her head drops down, tongue replacing her finger on your clit for a long sensual lick.

Body betraying you in more ways than one, a string of slick attaches to her tongue, only breaking when she pulls it back into mouth to fully engulf herself in your flavor.

“You taste so good, I think I’ll devour you right here.” another lick as her finger slips inside you and starts pumping slowly.

The worry of anyone finding out about what was happening now thrusts to the back of your mind.

You don’t care, you just need her and she knew that. It was obvious, feeling yourself dripping all over her finger and the shimmering around her lips.

Mina continued on, licking your clit and pressing her fingers against your g-spot as you rocked your hips with her movements.

Running your fingers through her hair as you hissed out of pleasure, both of you freeze- hoping that no one heard the sound that erupted from the couch.

“You okay?” Jihyo inquired through her drunkenness.

“Yeah, I’m fine! Just sleepy.” lifting your arms and stretching them back to try and fool her, but you had your doubts that she believed you.

Mina started licking and sucking again as soon as Jihyo spoke and through out the interaction, not even worried about what anyone was thinking, focusing on you and only you.

The idea of getting caught made you nervous but you didn’t want her tongue to leave you for even a second. You’re sure she could feel how much your body liked the way she felt against you, you only wished she could hear how good it feel.

Another soft sigh leaves your lips, this one barely audible, as your hands grip her hair. Another finger slips in as she gradually picks up her pace.

Thrusting your hips up into her, you look down at her. The grip you have on her hair tells her everything she needs to know.

Mina suddenly stops, pulling your sweats back up as you twitch from the lack of stimulation. Breathing heavy and thoroughly confused, you glare at her and shake your head in confusion.

Climbing up to lay her head on your shoulder, she leans up to kiss you and you can taste yourself on her lips again.

She must like making you taste yourself, not that you were complaining.

“As much as I want to make you cum right now…I’d rather hear you.” Before getting comfortable curled up on your torso.

Slipping a hand under your shirt, she rolls one of your nipples causing you to involuntarily thrust your hips up.

“I want to keep you like this until later…when I can have you how I want you.”

Your heart is pounding in disbelief, pleasure, and nervousness. The concoction of emotions and chemicals flooding your veins is a strange and electric feeling.

The iced chill of adrenaline from what just happened makes you tense as the movie in the background plays on, not that you were paying attention.

Focused on Mina’s touch, deciding to give you a break after hearing your heart pound, she simply drew small hearts with the tip of her finger- ghosting your initials on your chest and giving you a sense of ease.

The clock ticked on with the rhythm of her traces against your skin, the movie played on and you stayed splayed out on the couch with Mina resting on your chest, patiently waiting for it to end so that you could have the time you wanted with her.

Eyes getting heavier and heavier as time goes on, fighting every mist of sleep that touched your eyes. Wanting to see what would happen when this movie ended and only jolting awake when Nayeon’s monstrous laugh echoed against the walls.

Ultimately losing the battle against sleep while Mina aided it.

—

The sound of the door knob rattling pulled you out of deep sleep and into a light trance. The arms around you felt familiar but not in the way you expected.

“Thank you, Hyo.” almost being able to see Mina roll her eyes as you were gently placed on the bed, unmoving to see how this conversation would play out.

“Mina…what’s with you today? You’ve been very cold to me and I’m not understanding why.” Jihyo seems adamant about getting an answer but you can hear the hesitation in Mina.

“You’re just so close…I’ve never liked someone like I like Y/n…and with the bond you have with her, I’m worried that she would rather be with you.” sadness in the huffed explanation wrenches your heart in a way you didn’t have words to explain.

“Mina…we are just friends. There is nothing going on between us. She likes you…and with both of you in my ear about it, I had the managers move your schedules so you could spend time together…why would I do that if I didn’t want you to be together?” Jihyo seems offended at what Mina has just said to her, only further proving that Jihyo was rooting for the two of you.

“You’re right…I’m sorry.” Realization hitting that she didn’t need to be so possessive of you, the tone she took in this was genuine.

“It’s okay. I understand. I promise you though, we just get along well. There’s nothing romantic there, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Alright now go get some sleep! We are on vacation after all.”

The door closes and you aren’t sure what side of it Mina was on. That is until you felt the bed dip in next to you and the covers slither out from under you just to be thrown over top of you.

Rotating around, keeping your eyes closed you nuzzle into her neck and try to sleep again. Wrapping her arms around you, she kisses your forehead and follows you off to sleep.

—

The sound of birds chirping in the early morning wakes you, gently pulling you out of your Mina filled dreams to waking up next to her, still wrapped in her arms. Soft breaths from her ease any tension you would normally have, what a lovely way to start your day.

Eyes cracking open, letting in the milky orange light that was shining through the window, creating a golden hour that radiated Mina’s beauty when you didn’t think she could get more effervescent.

You could lay there with her all day and not have a single regret or pang of remorse. She was like a beautiful peace of art that was in motion, a painting come to life that you felt lucky to see with your own eyes, let alone be able to touch.

Laughing and heavy footsteps bring her out of sleep, sighing and shifting in place before relaxing back into you again. Switching spots with her, you sat up. Letting her rest her head on your chest while you mindlessly scrolled through your phone until she was finally awake.

Mina wasn’t much of a talker in the mornings, you learned. A grumpy little baby laid next to you, hiding her face in her hair and snuggling into your chest further.

“Good Morning, gorgeous.” kissing her forehead and petting her hair.

A soft smile greeted you back before quickly melting into a soft tired expression.

“You ready to start the day? We can go get coffee and start a fire.” trying to coax her out of bed with things that might actually get her up.

Mina shakes her head and wraps her arms around you tighter, signaling that she was in fact NOT ready to move at all.

“What if we got coffee…” Mina glares up at you between her bang, you can’t help but laugh at how adorable she was.

“Hear me out, hear me out! What if we got coffee, started a fire and I brought down some of those lego sets I brought for you and you can build one while enjoying the warmth? I can read a little while you do that. Sound good?” speaking in a hushed tone to allow her some time to acclimate to something other than the dreamscape she just left.

She nods her head quickly with a cheeky smile on her face, still holding you tightly and waiting for you to make the first move.

“Alright, then that’s our plan.” Kissing her forehead one last time before standing up to sort through the few boxes that you had brought with you.

Mina picked the lego bouquet of roses before she went to her own room to brush her teeth and change.

Doing the same, brushing your teeth and changing your shirt into an oversized crew neck sweater.

Grabbing the rose set as well as the specialty car you told her about, knowing she would want to build more after, and your book, you met Mina in the hallway. Making your way down to the kitchen together to get a mug of freshly made coffee.

Dahyun, Sana and Jihyo were in the kitchen making small talk as Sana flipped a pancake.

“Good Morning!!” Sana shot her hand up in the sky to wave at you boisterously, already full of energy.

This doesn’t surprise you at all. Dahyun winces at the ray of sunshine making breakfast but offers both of you a huge smile. Jihyo waves to both of you and carries on with her conversation. Nayeon and Momo are no where to be found while Chae is curled up on the couch in the living room snoring away while the snow falls outside.

“We were going to go out and build snowmen later, if you wanted to join us!” Sana seems so excited about it, it’s hard to turn her down.

“I think Mina and I are going to have a lazy day inside, but maybe tomorrow?” offering the alternative for her, knowing she would say yes.

“Tomorrow! Yes, you owe me a snowman building session tomorrow” pointing the spatula at you and then mina and then back at you before flipping the pancake onto the already made stack.

Sana serves everyone breakfast as Momo and Nayeon come down the stairs, sleep still filling their eyes.

Jihyo goes to wake Chaeyoung up and everyone eats breakfast and drinks coffee together. It’s so nice to be apart of this, it feels so…wholesome, to be brought into their little family even with a few of the members missing.

You feel accepted and at peace.

—

After breakfast ends, everyone but you and Mina go upstairs to suit up for the snow. Finding a quiet place in the den, you get a fire going while Mina goes and grabs you both mugs of hot chocolate.

Setting up on the coffee table, you spend an hour building the bouquet of roses lego set with Mina. Working together and adding piece by piece until it’s almost complete.

Unable to help yourself, you offer her a single plastic rose before finishing the set.

Mina blushes at the offer and kissing your cheek before finally adding the final piece to it.

“We did that so quickly.”

“We make a great team, I’d say.” nudging her with your elbow and winking.

Her face flushes again, grabbing your arm and hugging it tightly while resting her head on your shoulder, admiring the bouquet of roses make of plastic bricks.

“I did bring something else though. I had a feeling we would end up finishing this quickly so I brought one of the car sets down for you to do. I know these are your favorite.” offering her the box to a specially made Mint Green racecar with her Twice number on it.

Mina gasps, hands covering her mouth as she sees that the limited edition set. 1 of 1. Specially made per your request.

“Y/n…did you have this made for me?” Looking at you in disbelief before excitedly opening the box and dumping the bags full of pieces out.

“I wanted to get you something you’d be able to keep and know that it was yours. It was nothing, really. I just wanted to get you something special.” shying away from her as she looked up at you with an entirely new gaze.

All you can do is smile at her, you knew this was the perfect surprise for her and you were happy to see her reaction.

“It’s perfect…Thank you so much.” taking a moment to look into your eyes before ripping the bags open eagerly. You sit next to her and open your book, starting to read by the fire while Mina tinkered with the plastic blocks, building her very own Lego Race car.

—

A few hours in, you and Mina were just enjoying each other’s presence. Completely immersed in each other while doing your separate tasks while the rest of the girls play in the snow outside, you are completely content with everything happening.

“Y/n? Will you help me with this part?” Mina asks seemingly befuddled with what was in her hands.

“Sure!” sliding your bookmark back into the book and closing it shut before placing it up on the table.

Leaning over to see the instructions, you notice that the car is already built past that part. Raising an eyebrow at Mina, you look over and catch the spark in her eyes…

“I don’t actually need help with the legos.” smirked as she scooted into your lap, crossing her legs around your torso and locking you into place.

Mina removes your shirt, revealing a black lace bra that she had worn just for you.

Stunned was an understatement, you were gawking at her smooth chest and abs as she wrapped her arms around your neck.

“I can’t stop thinking about last night…” kissing you passionately in the middle of her sentence, gripping your hair while she does.

“…the way you tasted just…” another passionate kiss

“…I need more of you.” open mouthed entanglement leads you to lay down without removing your lips from her.

Back against the soft rug while Mina straddles you, making out without a care and just dissolving into each other. Hands land on her hips, you start to tug and push her against you, creating friction against her.

“Fuck” moaned into your mouth, grinding herself against you now before lifting up your torso and removing your crew neck, revealing no bra underneath.

Barely allowing her mouth to leave you, she keeps grinding against your thighs and you can feel how wet she’s becoming. Heat radiating from between her legs like the burn of the sun, she can’t help but thrust her hips harder against you.

Instincts kick in, hands tracing up behind Mina’s back to unhook the bra she was wearing and slipping it off her arms before setting it on the couch next to you.

Pulling her closer to you, pressing her body against yours, you try to roll her over onto her back but she stops you, not allowing you to be on top of her.

“That’s not how this is going to go” scooting down your legs and kissing from your neck, to your chest, to your stomach and eventually laying a few open mouthed kisses on your hips as she slowly brought your sweat pants down and off your body.

“I’ve been waiting too long and I’m impatient. I have to have you.” spreading your legs apart and kissing up your thighs, being sure to take her time biting and licking up to your soaked pussy.

Feeling your pulse inside yourself, heart beating so fast at the pure need that was illuminating off the both of you, and you can’t help but try to take a little charge by gripping her hair and bringing her where you wanted her.

Mina’s hands fly up, gathering your wrists while you’re too enthralled with what her mouth was doing, she keeps them in the grip of one of her hands.

“I don’t remember telling you to touch me.” the sternness in your words takes you by surprise, in the best way possible.

Dripping endlessly for her, you feel so empty without her inside of you. Already being so needy and thinking about how she teased you so much in the past 24 hours, you would so anything just to feel her lips on you for even a moment.

“Please, baby” huffed through the heavy breaths of anticipation as she inches closer and closer to exactly where you want her to be.

“Please, what?” looking into your eyes as she waits for your response.

“I need you.”

“You need me? Where do you need me?” smirking and waiting for you to say it.

“I need you to fuck me, please! You’ve teased me so much…I need to feel you on me.” as you state your case, Mina’s pointer finger glides through your drenched lips and she tastes your slick right off of it, moaning at the flavor.

“Mina…please!” about to cry from how badly you want it.

How badly you want her.

Without a word, Mina’s mouth is on you again. Taking the long licks up your pussy and back down again, teasing your entrance and clit on both passes.

Hips now thrusting on their own, you follow her patterns and whimper at every tease she has given you. Tongue swiping across your entrance and then back up to your clit, before she finally starts placing soft pecks right where you wanted her.

“Oh, fuck…Mina, p-please.” grinding down on her tongue while she keeps your wrists locked in her hand.

Her pace speeds up, lapping at your folds before latching herself onto your clit and creating a circular pattern with her tongue.

The fire in your stomach rages on, burning every single molecule of any thought you had, with the exception of her and every single pass of her tongue on you.

The ache for her inside you was earthshattering, you needed to feel her long fingers thrusting into you.

She must’ve heard your thoughts.

As you whined and whimpered for her, she let go of your wrists, wrapping one arm around your thigh, and the other gathering up your essence before plunging two fingers inside of you with ease.

The gasp you let out must’ve been music to her ears, your hips lurching forward to feel her deeper inside of you. Eagerness and need refracting off the thing sheen of sweat that was seeping through your pores, the harsh breaths that became heavier with each pump of her fingers and swipe of her tongue.

It was not long before the flicking of her tongue that had built the foundation of the orgasm that was about to shatter through you. Her digits hastily pressing and releasing inside of you was so heavenly, you couldn’t hold it any longer.

“I’m g-gonna, fuck, cum!”

Mina detaches her mouth from you for a moment, eyeing your neediness and desire for release before teasing you further. Her fingers never stop.

“You’re going to cum for me? Already?” kissing your inner thighs as she admires the mess she made of you.

“Going to be a good girl and cum in my mouth, baby?” seductively growled from between your legs before she places her mouth back on you.

This sends you into overdrive, clawing at the rug underneath you to feel some form of stability when her mouth returns to you and you become undone.

Twitching and convulsing under her as pure ethereal ecstasy sinks into your skin, veins flash hot and then cold as you feel the rush of pleasure that Mina was expertly giving you. Gasping and reaching for something to grip while you continue riding out your orgasm on Mina’s fingers and mouth before finally collapsing and just trying to catch your breath.

Mina smirks from between your legs, propping herself up on her elbows, pulling her fingers out of you, and sucking them dry. Being sure you watch her lick her lips clean.

She crawls up next to you, snuggling into you neck and laying soft, gentle kisses on your cheeks, swiping away the strands of hair stuck to your face while you lay there in awe of her.

“Myoui Mina…what a surprise you are.” between the breaths you were trying to stabilize.

“Oh, this is just round one…” proactively murmured to you, followed by a playful giggle and another peck to the cheek.

Turning your head to look at her in shock, unable to comprehend how someone who seems so shy is actually so…bold.

“Round…one?”

Mina pushes your head away from her and bites down harshly on your neck, reignited the flame she just quelled within you. Kissing your skin lightly, she gives you another harsh bite farther down your neck.

“Mhm…put your clothes on…we are going upstairs” sitting up and dragging your cloths off the couch before throwing your pants and shirt at you, watching as you put them on in a panic and scamper for the stairs.

Mina laughs and throws her shirt on, grabbing the lace bra and taking off after you- racing after you upstairs to your room.

You get to the door first, almost ripping it off the hinges and dive onto the bed- she’s laughing as she steps in about 5 seconds after you.

A grin painted on her face as she closes the door and locks it behind her, immediately removing her shirt and letting her pants hit the floor.

A black lace thong, matching the bra she previously wore, was the only thing she was wearing and you wanted it off immediately.

Sitting up on the bed, you stripped your clothes off so fast you thought they might rip, tossing them to the side and patiently waiting for her to come over to you.

Mina crawls over top of you, face mere centimeters away as she forces you down on your back again.

“Fuck, you’re so pretty.” Caressing your cheeks before connecting your lips again, pressing her body against you completely.

Taking the opportunity and using her vulnerability against her, you sweep your leg around her, rolling her over in the process and pinning her to the mattress without ever separating from her lips.

Pinning her hands above her, you kiss down her neck to her chest, bringing her nipple in your mouth and swirling your tongue around it briefly.

Letting go of her wrists, she’s quick to grip the hair on the back of your head, bringing you closer to her and moaning with each pass of your tongue over your nipple.

Sitting up to slip her lace panties off, Mina lifts her hips for you so you can easily peel them off of her. With this movement, you are able to see how soaked her panties actually were.

“Someone is excited, hm?” Winking up at her and tossing her underwear with the rest of your clothes.

Bringing your face down and level with her pussy, you flatten your tongue against her folds and fully taste her.

Gasping at the feeling of your tongue, she’s quick to grip your hair again, steering your head where she wanted it. It was very clear who was in charge but she was willing to let you pretend.

After a few minutes of Mina whining while thrusting into your face. She tugs your hair up, pulling you away from her, and signaling you to come up to her.

This was a trick.

She flips you over, crawling up your body and pinning your down shoulders with her knees.

Her pussy so close to your mouth, you’re drooling for it as you watch her drip onto your chest.

She grabs you by your hair and mounts your face.

“You’re going to do exactly what I say, isn’t that right baby?” Growled at you from above paired with a menacing glare.

Nodding your head eagerly, you’re ready for whatever she brings.

“Good girl, now stick out your tongue for me.”

You spend the rest of your day and night doing exactly what you’re told, in your room with the bed bumping against the walls matching the grunts and groans of pleasure that the entire house could hear…even with it being so large.

—

Bright rays of sunlight burst through the curtains that you slid shut the afternoon before, waking you from your peaceful sleep. Shifting a bit, you stretch and sigh as you allow your body to wake up.

Muttering under your breath at the soreness you seemed to have gathered from the night before, you stand up and head to the bathroom for a shower to rinse the sex off your body.

Stretching again once you stand, your legs are threaten to come out from under you with each step as you make your way to the bathroom, trying to be as silent as possible to not wake up the woman that made you ache in two different ways.

Leaving the door ajar so the latch wouldn’t wake Mina, you flick the lights on. Approaching the mirror, you take in the deep shades of purple and red that littered your body from head to toe.

“Oh…shit.” Pulling the skin taut and trying to plan out how you were going to hide these marks all over you.

The door swings open, a hand flies to the wall, hitting the button to turn the shower on. A sigh travels through the room before arms wrap around your waist from behind and a warm cheek lands on your back.

“Good morning,” muffled against your back.

“Good morning, my little vampire.”

“Your what?” Furrowing her brows at you while trying to understand the statement while half asleep.

“Look at the marks you made” lifting your chin up to show her.

Mina opens her eyes, peaking over your shoulder, looking at you in confusion until she sees the marks she left all over your neck, chest and thighs.

“Oh my god?!” Concern in her voice as she lets go of you to get in front of you and inspect your marks further.

Gently turning your head, looking at your neck to see big bruises and bite marks that trail down to your chest and hips.

“I’m so sorry, honey…I guess I got a little carried away…I hope the girls don’t pay too much attention to them” shying away from you, hiding in shame and worry.

“Hey hey hey,” pulling her towards you, holding her close.

“I enjoyed every second of yesterday. Even the marks, okay? And I’m sure they won’t notice them. I’ll wear my hair down so they’re covered, okay?” Rubbing her arms for reassurance.

“Besides, I think they’re my color. Don’t you?” Showing them off in a fashionable way to get a laugh out of her.

“Okay okaaaaaay, but you know that if there’s ever anything that I do in the bedroom that you don’t like…you can tell me and we won’t do that again, right?” Dragging a finger down your chest gently, biting her bottom lip before looking up at you.

“I know. I trust you. And for what it’s worth…I wouldn’t change a single thing about what happened yesterday…except maybe finishing the Lego set. But we can do that today!” Kissing her forehead and rubbing her back.

Mina flashes a gummy smile and giggles before pulling you into the shower with her to perform some morning after aftercare.

Spinning you around, Mina gently washed your hair and back, sudsing you up and letting you stand in the warm water as she rinses you off.

Sensing some tension, you can tell something is on her mind. Grabbing her hand, weaving your fingers together before she can lather your chest up with soap, you cock your head to the side.

“Everything okay? You seem a little tense”

“Yeah…I just…Can I ask you something?” shy returning, you can tell it’s taken her a moment to build up the courage to say what she wants to.

“Of course, you can ask me anything.” Reassuring her that this was a safe space to say whatever she needed.

“Would you…uhm….want to…” her eyes shift in nervousness, you find it adorable.

“…be my girlfriend?” Her eyes hit the floor, waiting for your reply.

Lifting her chin up to make eye contact with you, you admire her face, caressing her cheek before placing a romantic soft kiss on her lips.

“I’d love to.”

Mina’s gummy smile returns once again, she’s giddy at your response and your heart soars with care for this person that you had admired, who was now your partner in crime.

You finish cleaning yourselves up and get dressed, heading down stairs to get some breakfast. Both of you starving from your rigorous activities the day prior.

—

Momo is cooking breakfast, everyone is sitting around the table as you and Mina make your way to your seats.

Wincing as you sit down, trying to get comfortable with the soreness that was through out your body. Mina sees the discomfort in you, rubbing your shoulder to try and ease some of it.

“Good Morning, you two!” Sana is beaming and repressing laughter as she take sight of both of you.

“Yeah, good moOoOoOrning” Nayeon seems to be teasing the two of you when Jihyo walks into the kitchen and sees you both sitting there, hiding the shame of everyone knowing what you’ve been up to.

It’s apparent that she notices the dark marks along your neck and the awkward way you’re sitting in the chair.

Well, fuck.

A huge smile spreads across her face, whipping around to Dahyun’s spot at the table, she runs over and starts shimmying and jumping up and down in celebration.

“HA! Dahyun! Pay up!” Jihyo stretches her hand out to Dahyun.

“Pay up?” Questioning what just came out of Jihyo’s mouth, one brow raised at the statement.

Dahyun sighs, slapping a $20 into Jihyo’s hand before looking dead at you.

“We had a bet going. I said you would be the top and Jihyo said it would be Mina…And you LET ME DOWN!” Slamming her hands on the table dramatically while everyone around you bursted into laughter.

“Yeah right, Dubu! Mina cannot be out topped.” Momo chimed in while bringing an array of food to the table with Sana and Nayeon following with trays of various fruits, bacon, sausage, waffles and toast.

“But Y/n has always been the more dominant one in all of her relationships! I thought this would be the same!” Distraught in her words, Dahyun lays her head on the table accepting her defeat.

“Wait…how did you know we would even get together?” Mina inquired to everyone.

“That’s a joke, right? The amount you two talked about each other to us…it was obvious. We just had to push a little. Plus, Mina you’ve had a crush on Y/n since Dahyun showed you pictures of their last vacation together.” Jihyo chimed in with Nayeon giggling in the background.

“I tried to get them to let it happen naturally but SOME people…” Momo glaring at Chae and Sana.

“…wanted to push. I’ll admit, I’m happy they did.” Momo is smiling at the two of you, while everyone else is arguing about who contributed to you ultimately getting together.

You and Mina join hands under the table, laughing at the chaos around you and happy to see the support and love from the rest of the girls.

[fumifooms]

The Nakamoto household - facts & theories masterpost

Table of contents:

the hierarchy & general situation

The parents

The Maizuru situation

The siblings

The other retainers

Izutsumi

Toshiro

Conclusion

I also made tldr summary charts here. This post is about collecting facts about the setting and characters, but it’s gonna be a lot of analysis on what it means through the lens of Toshiro as well, his relationship and place in everything etc etc. They have entangled drama the scale of Daltian Clan. Things are so interwoven it’s hard to keep topics neatly in their own section, because of this pictures may be relevant at several point of this but I mostly won’t be putting them in twice, you might have to do some scrolling up while reading if you want the visual proof to accompany statements. Unlike with Chilchuck’s family there’s less ambiguousness and more intricate details and implications so it’s less theorizing & headcanoning and more stringing together all the crumbs canon gave us. I also dig into some cultural parallels, especially since characters from Wa are the most culturally coded in the series. Also disclaimer that I’ll be calling Shuro Toshiro through this whole thing because that’s his actual name & Shuro isn’t even a nickname he’s shown to like, for accuracy’s sake. The servant girls have real names but are always called by their code names so I’ll call them as such, except for Izutsumi who was named Asebi which I won’t be using.

The general situation

To start off, what’s the situation in canon? All three kids of the head of the house, the three sons (Toshiro and his two younger brothers), are sent out on a vague mission to find something interesting for his father to pick the heir. Each son is thus on their own journey, out with their own group of retainers for an unsure length of time, during canon it’s been 2 years that Toshiro left the house for this mission, and they seemingly all drifted towards dungeons. It’s important to remember that this state of things is the exception and not the rule, and before this the sons lived at home and had different uses of their time, and the retainers had other jobs than care after them. See the next paragraph.

The household offers ninja services, no exaggeration or misuse of the term, mostly spyint but also "covert maneuvers" which could include anything including assassination of people high up. That’s the job of their servants/retainers at least, the heads themselves are more like managers probably, possibly samurais themselves though especially since as we see with the heirs (besides the samurai armor) they also got trained in fighting as their skills showcase. I need to dig into the history of samurais more before I can draw the parallel confidently though. The Nakamoto household is noble/wealthy, distinguished as the Adventurer’s Bible puts it, but it works for and puts its service at use for "their local lord". It buys servants, but also has families who have served it for generations like with Hien. The comic shows that there aren’t only women servants, it’s just the ones we see all happen to be because Toshiro’s retainers are only a small team of all of Nakamoto’s servants.

Above, in a page showcasing characters’ relationships with their party leader: 父親の部下を借りている状態なので、 距離がある。Doubtlessly there must be a translation of this already somewhere but I’m lazy and impatient so I turned to machine translation instead, this translates into: "Since he is borrowing his father's subordinates, there is a distance between him and them". Calling the servants retainers is what most of the fandom does and it’s accurate so I’ll be calling them this.

Hien and Toshiro were childhood friends which means the servants do have some degree of contact not even just together but with the heirs too, or maybe just specifically Hien, since both their parents were ninjas for the Nakamotos she ended up getting raised there and they let her play with him as an exception? They did end up drifting away as adults as their relationship got more professional, so it’s possible. The servants eat and sleep in shared spaces, separate from the masters, though Maizuru has her own bedroom, if the room configuration at the in is to be believed + it’d make sense since she’s governess/head servant. I’m hesitant wether to say it’s implied that this group of 4 retainers was always a bit of a team or it wasn’t and got formed for Toshiro specifically. We know that Benichidori had little contact with Toshiro before they were sent out together for example, but we do see all three girls with Izutsumi in Inutade’s extra when they were younger, and them eating in the same japanese styled room etc. The inn they stay at on The Island is western styled though they do have futons rather than beds (there’s only one bed in their shared room and Hien has it because of her rank).

From Izutsumi’s Adventurer’s Bible profile: "Maizuru, who was also Shuro's governess, is the one thing Izutsumi fears. After Izutsumi was taken in by the Nakamoto family, Maizuru forced her through a harsh training regimen of speech, common sense, and fighting skills. Since Izutsumi refused to listen to her, Maizuru set a curse on her that would activate if Maizuru didn't touch her within a set time frame: "Ninja Art: Babysitter." "

Maizuru, called a governess, is the one training the girls, at least some of them, we know for a fact she was the one to train Izutsumi for example, and in general she’s the one in charge of the ninja girls we see. She was a ninja herself but retired from frontline missions, but has a central role managing the servants instead. Inutade for example is strong but not stealthy, and it’s said that it’s Maizuru’s job to choose how to train her and what role to give her in consequence. Her training includes manners but fighting as well, notably kunais and martial arts. Hien is shown to use bombs and Benichidori is implied to be good at disguises, Inutade uses a bold weapon like a club but it’s implied with "ogres and clubs just go together" and Maizuru not knowing where to put her to use that it’s uncommon for Nakamoto servants to use those. Their board game artworks also show their specialties neatly. When brought into the household, the servants are given new names and their whole lives become devotion to the house and their duties. The names might be intended to act as code names due to them being ninjas? It’s implied that they never use their non-code names anymore once they start serving the household. Maizuru’s training also contains language and "common sense"… Critical thinking? As well as implied etiquette. This isn’t surprising, as she was the one put in charge of raising not only Toshiro but his brothers as well.

Oh yes I want to mention that all the retainers’ "first deaths" are in the dungeon during canon, considering our main cast we’re used to death being permissible because dungeons make resurrections possible, but it’s relevant to remember that these people never died before. Never. These girls are professionals, ninjas with a sometimes very dangerous job. Messing up means death, permanently.

From what we see and with who we see, the hierarchy is:

Father (head of house, his word goes)

Mother (has status which puts her wishes above others’ and give her some control over the house, it’s unsure how much though, but hierarchy wise she’s very much above the rest but below the father)

Maizuru (governess, in charge of (at least some) servants and raising Toshiro. Two dots)

Hien (leader of their squad, trained servant from a family devoted to the Nakamotos. Two dots)

Benichidori (trained bought servant. Two dots)

Inutade and Izutsumi (bought servants. Power wise from their rank it’s unsure just how much the difference between Inutade (who has one dot), Izutsumi (who has none) and Benichidori (who has two) is, since Hien is team leader between the four servants at least that’s measurable. Inutade gets some janitor duties, and Izutsumi has a curse put on her so she doesn’t run away I suppose. Power wise it’s unsure, but socially/role wise Inutade and especially Asebi are treated worse.)

I didn’t add the sons because I’m talking more generally about the power structure and it’d depend on each sibling, like Toshiro’s wants and directives during canon trump Maizuru’s, but Maizuru is also his nanny and manages the girls so she has a lot of importance and sway even on the final decisions.

The parents

I am so pissed I forgot that we know Toshiro’s father’s name, Toshitsugu, from these panels showing the progression of the family tree. I am so pissed I’m adding this halfway into writing this whole thing, I am not gonna go back and replace every "the father" by his name atm.

The father is the part of this puzzle most important yet most shrouded in mystery, or rather a lack of details. What we do know paints a pretty full and vivid portrait: impulsive and cares mainly about his own entertainment. Maizuru calls him a fool, his sons are exasperated and go "This again?" when he summons them saying that they’re boring/dull, everyone knows he’s having an affair and he often has undignified demeanor, but what he says goes so yes Maizuru will take Izutsumi under her wing, yes the sons will be going out right away into the world to find you the 8th world wonder, yes whatever you want lord. He seems to have little care for how his action affects others, like crashing into Maizuru’s room at night and asking she take care of a catgirl, or sending out his sons suddenly with kicks to the butts. He does what he wants hen he wants and others have to comply.

Like we see with Izutsumi and Inutade, he tends to take a liking to slaves here and there and buy them on the spot, usually at entertainment places, like sumo wrestling matches for Inutade and a freakshow for Izutsumi. The Adventurer’s Bible states him acquiring Inutade as "By coincidence, Shuro's father came to see her first match; he liked her and bought her for the Nakamoto family." and Izutsumi as "She was on display as a "cat-girl" in a sideshow when Shuro's father took an interest in her and bought her." In Maizuru’s extra, he calls Izutsumi a "souvenir" he got for her, and he’s drunk so it could well be assumed that buying Izutsumi was a drunken whim, and that he mitht be alcoholic. You can’t really say that he picks them out because he sees potential in them to be a ninja or would be useful, since with Izutsumi she had no fighting training and Inutade doesn’t fit the skills they seek like stealth and she has trouble fitting in. You could assign noble goals to him like maybe wanting to help or relating to the misfits, but I think with what we see of him it’s more likely that he likes to pick up "oddities", like a catgirl at a freakshow or an ogre, especially since one of the only things we know of him is he wants his sons to bring back interesting trophies from their travels. Toshiro, about his father buying Inutade, says: "People in power desire ogre as servants, and ogres are chosen as opponents in tests of strengths or military exploits. My father bought her for similar reasons."

Also from this we can infer that he goes out to events often, like circus and sumo wrestling, again mostly for entertainment from what we see. I like to think it’s implied that he used to travell maybe still does, due to his own liking for it as a test and because he visits various places like the sideshow, plus his forearm scars in Toshiro’s extra… But him being a samurai in service of a lord could definitely explain that.

This all paints an interesting picture doesn’t it… The Nakamoto’s lifestyle is super encased in rules and social propriety, duty and hierarchy. Old noble man who’s been surrounded by propriety all his life and just wants some spark of interesting stuff happening amongst the humdrum of his lavish cushioned life at home, and is shitty to people around him in consequence and due to his privilege allowing him to. He’s despicable, but from his 3 appearances he becomes an interesting well-fleshed character, at least proportionally to the screentime he gets…

We also know that the affair with Maizuru is well known at least inside the household, so there’s no genuine secrecy around the topic. Makes sense that the wife would hate her guts.

Ahh yes the mother. Little is known about the mother, except that from Maizuru’s profile "Shuro’s mother can’t stand the sight of her, to the point where there are areas on the property Maizuru is forbidden to enter. Maizuru, however, is impressed by his wife’s strength of character." From this I glean that she does have enough power/respect in the house that she can make rules like where Maizuru is allowed to go. Also the implication that otherwise Mazuru would have access to EVERYWHERE in the house despite being only a (high-ranking) servant is a bit interesting. Wether the mother’s "strength of character" is overt and hot-headed or understated and cool-headed is unsure, but I imagine the latter more. I could see Maizuru’s angle in many ways, from being able to tolerate "that fool" aka the father both just in general and with knowing that he’s cheating on her, to knowing how hard it is to be respected as a woman and admiring her putting up with it all and still being able to have sway in the household. This is I think the only mention of the mother anywhere. Doesn’t seem like she is an important figure to Toshiro at all: in fact we hear about her on Maizuru’s profile, and seeing all of this we can see the importance of her in Maizuru’s backstory and life, moreso than Toshiro’s. I imagine she’s a bit of a recluse, which is part of why Maizuru not being allowed to roam the full house is important, because them running into each other at the house is high.

It’s unsure how much contact the parents have with their kids. What we know is that they left the principal tasks of raising the kids, or at least Toshiro, to servants. Toshiro’s profile says that he’s more attached to Maizuru than his parents, and that’s the phrasing. From the comic where their father summons the sons, it does seem like they’re more or less used to interacting, with the sons’ "This again?". So it’s not that they’ve only interacted with them few times enough to count on fingers, but how meaningful were those interactions? From Toshiro’s profile we know he has a complex where he thinks he’ll never get recognition from his father or be able to measure up to him… But is that more born out of secondhand gossip and expectations, or from direct interactions with him that made him feel that way? Likely a mix of both, especially since the father does seem to be very dismissive, uncaring and insulting with his sons. Oh, but it’s definitely notable that in the Hag monster tidbit (below in Maizuru’s section) six years old Toshiro runs to his father scared shitless for help against the shikigami, and his father casually helps him without batting an eye. Toshitsugu knows how to deal with Maizuru’s shikigamis, and he does so efficiently and without any sense of worry or urgency. Although the event traumatized Toshiro and he was very scared, it doesn’t seem like his father offered any comfort, beyond just helping getting rid of it and letting him cower behind him without comment. Toshitsugu gives hungover vibes in that one imo haha. It’s shown he was already training as a ninja, perhaps this event only reinforced Toshiro’s complex, seeing his father, the samurai the achieved man who has expectations for him, so unfazed and uncaring like that.

The Maizuru situation

Let’s establish a timeline first. It’s left vague how much time she’s served the Nakamoto family for, or how she came to be in their service. The central point is that "She was put in charge of raising their children at a young age". If straight from his birth, Maizuru started taking care of Toshiro when she was 15 years old. If from toddler age, then 16. It’s uncertain if when she stopped getting front-line espionage missions, but we know it’s late rather than early despite having kid raising duties. But well, since she’s also in charge of the ninjas she’s definitely has a multitasking role even now.

The dad prob has around 5-10 years more than Maizuru, I’d say. We only see half of his face and only a good few years in the past, around ~3 years ago probably with the shuro quest and a good 7 years with Izutsumi as a kid, but visually those are the vibes I’m getting. From Toshiro’s birth, it’s possible that the father was 15 when the baby was born too? But conception would have been closer to 14 years old then, and yeah I don’t think they marry and have kids that young. Toshiro is 26 years old in canon and is unmarried, and the heir hasn’t been officially picked, so marriage and kids don’t seem to be in the family’s priorities. Even if Maizuru do say that the father would love if Toshiro brought back a wife.

Now the elephant in the room: she has an on-and-off affair with the father and it has been si for many many years, at LEAST 7 years since that’s when we see that comic of him going into her chambers about Izutsumi, and in the comic above, Hien in that panel has an ambiguous age. Regardless it’s definitely implied that it’s a long, long-standing thing. Hien’s phrasing above makes it sound as if it’s not purely physical, as if feelings are involved, "he’s head over heels for his confidante", and who knows if this relationship is part of why Maizuru was chosen to be the governess, or even hired at all.

It’s in the feud with his father that we learn about maizuru’s affair and how after learning it he started shutting her out emotionally. It’s left vague when Toshiro learned about it, Hien made it sound as if everybody always more or less knew but I don’t think Toshiro started shutting her out when he was still pretty young. Regardless, the two are implied to be linked, his dislike of his father/complex and how he stopped getting along well with Maizuru/being emotionally open with her. Is it that he now feels as though Maizuru is actually on his father’s side and not his own, that after all if she had to choose she’d pick him over Toshiro too? Or is it that, because his father’s known to be a self-centered frivolous jerk, that knowing she lets it happen, "can’t seem to shake it", he respects her less? He has an irresponsible reputation and she does give off the vibe of needing to clean up his messes, so that wouldn’t be unplausible either.

On the flipside from her perspective, since he learned she was his dad’s mistress he emotionally shut her out, which can partly explain why she’s SO fussy with him and happy at the slightest hint of happiness or compliance, like when he listens to her and eats, or maybe even being happy that he lets her help him dress and keep tidy (imo this is supported by how they interact in the page showing him interacting with all his party members). She wants to regain that closeness they once had and for her baby chick to be alright as he’s slipping through her fingers. Man so sad to think about him rejecting her when he’s the only thing in her life. She’s raised him for 26 years, no wonder she’s so attached to him, the only thing in her life she feels true unconditional attachment for. Maizuru says that she thinks Toshiro’ll be a better head of the house than the father, too. The respect and care is somewhat onesided, given freely from her side but repressed from his end. When she cares for Toshiro is when her demeanor immediately and drastically softens. She gets easily carried away when it comes to him, rambling enthusiastically or smiling widely or tearing up. Her tendency to ramble or tell anecdotes about Toshiro is shown making Hien and Benichidori go "Here she goes again…" twice through canon.

With Izutsumi’s timeline we see Izutsumi was taken into the Nakamoto household at 10 yo, and since in the comic with Maizuru and the dad she’s shown as stinky and all I imagine she arrived there the same day, so Maizuru was in charge of her since she was first here. In fact if we assumed that it’s the same day as when he bought her at the circus show, then we could assume that buying her was a drunken whim like mentioned.

Since Izutsumi was taken in at 10 and she’s 17, this would mean that Maizuru is 34 years old here. She looks younger without makeup, but lower than that is mathematically impossible besides maybe 33 if Maizuru and Izutsumi’s birthdays line up just right.

Time for the second elephant in the room!!

Maizuru’s magic

Maizuru is the only person in the Nakamoto household, anyone from Wa really, who we see using magic, I doubt she’d be the only one who can use magic in the household but as the governess it wouldn’t be unplausible I suppose. From what we see, the magic is estimated by Marcille to be an "appropriation of gnomic magic" with an eastern script. For my analysis of written magic (though with only a brief glance over Maizuru’s magic), see this post.

If you scroll up and read the little section on Maizuru’s profile, Ninja art: babysitter: "One of the curses put on Izutsumi is Ninja Art: Babysitter, which manifests as a terrifying hag shikigami. Unless Maizuru touches the victim within a set time frame, this terrible curse makes a hag appear and chase them around with a carving knife. Maizuru originally created it in an attempt to keep Shuro from getting lost, but it ended up traumatizing him…"

From Izutsumi’s profile: "Maizuru, who was Shuro’s governess, is the one thing Izutsumi fears. […] Since Izutsumi refused to listen to her, Maizuru set a curse on her that would activate if Maizuru didn’t touch her within a set time frame: "Ninja Art: Babysitter." It was put on her when she was 12. Since Toshiro had it as a kid, presumably the curse can be lifted off rather easily, Marcille was confident on reverse engineering it as well. It’s unsaid what the time frame is, it’s kept vague everywhere and Izutsumi herself says "who knows" how long it is. Izutsumi ran away despite the very real risk of it killing her. Essentially, Maizuru can put people in a timebomb collar

… MAIZURU WHAT THE HELL

As we might have expected, Maizuru being given the task of rasing a child at 15 did not go perfectly. This, a babysitting technique??! This comic happens when Toshiro was 6 and so Maizuru was 21. Interesting to note that Toshiro didn’t even know it was Maizuru’s doing before this conversation during canon, and he doesn’t know how to bring it up or deal with it how it affected him. Maizuru seems surprisingly uncaring of Toshiro’s feelings on the matter here, oblivious to his conflict her and fondly recalling it all.

This curse is a shikigami. From her profile: "A shikigami user, Maizuru has a variety of shikigami that have been sealed in paper as her servants. Her favorite seems to be Gyuki, a bull ogre." Now don’t ask me when Gyuki appears, I do not remember it. But before we go into the cultural/historical basis for this practice, let’s take a second to recognize the parallel that Maizuru has servants she keeps sealed unless useful in the moment, even despite having enough "attachment" to have a favorite. She’s the governess in charge of the other servants, and she has shikigamis, which she has used on the heir and the runt at the bottom of the hierarchy alike.

Shikigami, in traditional japanese folklore, are conjured to exercise risky orders for their masters, such as spying, stealing and enemy tracking. Shikigami are said to be invisible most of the time, but they can be made visible by binding them into small, folded and artfully cut paper manikins.

Shikigamis are from onmyodo, onmyoji is a profession-legal title historically but it’s what you call a practitioner of onmyodo, and so I feel content in saying that Maizuru is an onmyoji, or based on it. Her outfit reminds me of a shinto priest. It’s interestingly closer to a shinto priest outfit than a miko/shrine maiden’s (in picture below, 2 instead of 5), and I feel like red being chosen for the inner sleeve is a very charged decision since the white & red color combo is the shinto clothes color combo. Especially white clothes with red inner sleeve. Shinto priests can be women nowadays but they’re rare, and onmyojis can be considered shinto priests though it’s a more complex than that. Image below as example, source. Now I don’t think Maizuru has the role or prestige of a priest at all- But the association with onmyodo and spirituality is definitely meant to be made I think. Onmyojis are usually clothed similarly to this.

The babysitter ninja art seems to be based off of the hannya yokai. "They were once human women who were consumed by jealousy and transformed into demonesses", twisted by anger and resentment. Interesting considering her being a mistress to a man whose wife hates her. Hannyas are associated with wisdom because of its name, but there is nothing positive about them. At its highest level of "demonic corruption" if I can call it that, their body tend to become serpentine, fun link to make with her name being from the snakeberry plant.

Other cultural ties or symbolism on Maizuru’s character could be found in the motif of cranes due to her sleeves, in the tales of the crane wife, origami cranes (called orizuru, from deformation of 鶴 "tsuru" aka "crane". All names are written in katakanas in Dungeon Meshi, but thus if we had had the kanjis it’s possible her name would have been written with the kanji for crane), tennyos, and japanese crane symbolism in general. I thought cranes might have been associated with motherhood, but seemingly not in japanese culture at least, I was thinking of storks haha.

Ok speaking of her name. Maizuru is the name of an existing japanese city (舞鶴), meaning "dancing crane". From @room-surprise’s work in progress research paper on Dungeon Meshi characters’ names: "Maizuru is her ninja code name, and comes from “maizurusou”, which is maianthemum dilatatum, the snakeberry plant/two-leaved Solomon's seal/false lily of the valley. Lily of the Valley is a plant associated with motherhood and virtue… So Maizuru being a false Lily of the Valley implies that she is a false, replacement mother, and also hints at the way that Toshiro became cold towards her when he realized she was his father’s mistress, and not a pure, virtuous mother-like figure that he thought she was. Also, lilies are toxic to cats, which makes sense since Maizuru and Izutsumi have an extremely bad relationship." For more details I’ll leave it up to Room when the paper is ready to be released. Edit: It’s out!! Click here! Incredible meta that goes into a ton of details not only about Maizuru.

So some big themes of her character are: (false) motherhood, spirituality/magic, control, cranes, woman’s jealousy.

The siblings

Alriight so besides Toshiro the eldest at 26 years old, there is Toshiyuki (Toshitsuge in one fantranslation) the middle son and Toshizane the youngest (Toshikage in one fantranslation). They were all said to be raised by Maizuru. "A strange level of distance" is interesting. Why strange? I feel like this implies they do interact regularly, and that they’re all rather civil wirh each other, but they still have little bond to speak of. That wouldn’t surprise me, especially since even inside the family etiquette and propriety and rules are enforced, the summoning by his father feels very formal and they all listen to him standing in silence despite having snappy inner thoughts. It’s unsure if they were largely raised together or apart, but since Maizuru was their (at least main) caretaker/governess it implies that they were imo. They were put in competition with each other for the title of heir to the house, though it’s unsure to what degree. It’s examplified by their family all having names that start with "Toshi" that the legacy is very important and thrust upon them, cogs in a machine almost. They all think the same thing when their father summons them and has a spiel, so they’re used to the same sort of treatment and they are indeed brothers for being on similar wavelengths haha.

Toshiyuki, as seen in the comic about his retainers, the poor soul sent into Darkest Dungeon, is brattish. Rude, selfish and rather lecherous, does not hesitate to be mean to his retainers and complain he wasn’t given women retainers. Visually he looks what, 14 years old top. I wonder if Maizuru stopped using her babysitter ninja art on the heirs after it traumatized Toshiro, and if so maybe that explains why Toshiyuki Knows No Fear In His Heart™️ and that’s why he can spout off stuff like that.

The retainers for the youngest brother, Toshizane, don’t seem to be as clad in ninja gear as the other two, seems like the priority is to take care of the very young young master there? Rather than truly go adventuring and dungeoneering, perhaps. Not that it’s ever said by anyone that their quest is to go into dungeons specifically, only to find something "interesting" to bring back, but both Toshiro and Toshiyuki are shown to have ended up drifting into dungeons. Toshizane looks young, I’d clock him 8 years old personally. He’s drawn looking rather innocent, especially the headshot doodle above and in the Toshitsuge complaining about his retainers comic. ALTHOUGH on the latter, interestingly as we see with Toshiro having a smug smirk in that same panel (or alternatively a smug indifferent/uncomfortable "i don’t care about this, even though you want it so much" look which at the very least is very exaggerated from how he emotes in reality), it’s Toshiyuki’s unreliable/exaggerated vision of his brothers and it doesn’t necessaeily reflect reality, though it’s still interesting to note that that’s the vision Toshiyuki has of his brothers/the impression Toshizane gives off. That can imply juicy dynamics for the brothers, for example if Toshiyuki feels as though he’s in competition with his brothers, feels superior to them, that instead of pushing the shitty family dynamic angst onto his father he puts the blame for it all onto Toshiro. Toshizane seems maybe too young to notice the tensions and seriousness around him, maybe more coddled��� IS WHAT I WOULD SAY BUT in the comic where their father send them away he’s as well-behaved and serious as the others, so clearly he has a grasp on his role.

When talking about which retainers go with who, it’s said it was the father’s choice. I’d like to assume it wasn’t an airheaded/random choice. Maybe he knew that Toshiyuki would be weird about having women in his team of retainers? And wants to forge their character or protect them in the way they need. Though how Toshiro’s party only has women isn’t only pointed out and commented on by the comic with Toshitsuge but also in the main Dungeon Meshi story, both Marcille and Chilchuck going "his party is fully made up of women", one more loudly than the other haha. So it does feel like a somewhat pointed/purposeful decision, if not that the 4 girls were already a team like I mentioned.

The other retainers

Already made an analysis of Hien and Benichidori’s relationship (+ moment compilation) here. Honestly my juices are exhausted so quick rundown:

Hien’s parents both serve the Nakamotos, so she grew up with the family and was even a childhood friend of Toshiro. She assumed he and her might end up in a Maizuru-Toshitsugu situation ‘just because that’s how things are’/‘it’d be a natural development’ if we’re to believe Hien, ahh what growing up at the Nakamotos’ with those role models will make you believe is normal hah, and was surprised when it ended up not in that way at all. They grew more distant with time, in good part because of the professional nature of their roles in relation to each other (truly a reversal of the Maizuru-Toshitsugu situation). She’s the leader of their lil squad, under Maizuru, she’s very confident and she gets the perks, like getting the bedframe in the shared inn room. For all the details just read her page. She has two dots, showing her rank as a full fledged ninja. I made a more in depth more speculative reading of her in this post.

Benichidori was bought, by "the Nakamotos" so we don’t know who made the final decision. She’s perceptive and submissive, her specialty is implied to be disguise. She never had much contact with Toshiro before she became part of his party. She has facial dysmorphia where she fears the judgement of others if she doesn’t wear makeup and highly values beauty, in her extra her anxiety really shows and she ends up angrily snapping at Hien. Benichidori ends up taking a big liking to Hien and from there on they’re implied to be inseparable. She has two dots, showing her rank as a full fledged ninja.

Inutade is said to worship Toshitsugu because he "saved her" from her horrible life conditions, buying her personally from the sumo matches, she’s extremely grateful to the family and is happy to do any work they give her and is highly satisfied with her current living conditions. She seems to find Toshiro intimidating, though. She was separated from her parents from before she can remember and raised as a sumo wrestler in inhumane betting matches, where her front tooth broke. It seems she has very littke ambitions and dreams besides obeying orders day to day, but after Izutsumi fled away she was happy for her and mused that she’d love to go out and find her one day. They’re so besties Izutsumi gave her a dream of her own I’m sobbing… </3 She has one dot, showing she still has to be attributed her role and earn her stripes.

Their approval rating of their leader. The highest total score from all the parties.

Izutsumi

Sighh where to even begin. Her timeline was put in Maizuru’s section of this post but the rundown is "taken away from parents and turned into a beastkin" at 6 yo (the human half of her soul), "sent to a sideshow on the island of Wa" at 7 yo and bought by Toshitsugu at 10 yo when he took an interest in her when he visited the sideshow. Maizuru put the curse on Izutsumi at age 12, so from then on she always had to not stray much far from Maizuru or risk death, it’s unsure if Inutade’s extra is from before that time, before she was 12, so she could still attempt many many tries to run away. If that’s the case, then Maizuru’s curse was very much treated as a last resort, honestly beyond everything else I can see it being a pain that Maizuru would need to touch her every so often on Maizuru’s schedule as well. The alternative is that, not unlike Kabru who had no regrets dying in a dungeon rather than staying with Milsiril, she’d risk her life to get a taste of freedom. Besides, you know, being a slave and having a timebomb collar with Maizuru’s curse, her frustrations with her life with the Nakamotos is most concisely put in the comic just up above, Inutade’s extra.

She has no dot tattoo, meaning she’s at rock bottom of the hierarchy. It makes sense, since unlike Inutade she’s rebellious and needs threats to obey orders, and even then might try shifty business.

This last part where Izutsumi tries sleeping with Toshiro is most interesting to me. So she’s sought out contact with Toshiro before, she considers him "the stuck-up guy" but she doesn’t exactly hate him. I wonder if this comic is set in the inn on The Island or back at the Nakamoto household, because if that’s the latter it implies that she could get access to his room if she’s sneaky.

Oh oh also, this is fanon but since Toshiro’s weapon is one used usually on horseback, and with the steadfast and upright character of horses I associate Toshiro with horses a bit, though this is wild fanon. What’s interesting is that the plant Asebi was named after is a plant infamous for being toxic to horses. Hehe hehehe he wears a ponytail… Hm now that I think of it hairdos have importance for samurais, should look into that.

Toshiro

God. Ok. Everything was leading up to this guy. Need to split open his head like a geode and vibecheck his brain crystals. Let’s get some interesting details out of the way first.

His weapon is a tachi, not a katana. The wikipedia on tachis is more in depth if you want, but I consider the article I linked to be in deoth and digestible. Tachis are heavier and longer blades than katanas, and make for better horseback weapons than close combat. The way Toshiro uses one instead of a katakana shows that he’s extra strong… And does make sense, since most monsters won’t fight in as close quarters as human fighters. If katanas aren’t a thing in the world yet could make a difference, since tachis were invented first, and once the katana was invented and spread tachis became something more common in higher-ranking samurais. In the monster tidbit of the Hag, it’s shown that even at 6 years old Toshiro was training and learning ninja skills, his first instinct to the shikigami besides running being to fight.

Toshiro knew that Izutsumi wanted to leave, for sure. He may have been sympathetic, if his cryptic look back at her in the ‘Toshiro interacting with his party members’ page means anything. As seen below though, him being sympathetic doesn’t necessarily mean that much. Also, Toshiro had to have known about the curse on Izutsumi, where if Maizuru doesn’t touch her once in a while she’d die. "Asebi must have ran away, leave her" can be seen as subtle support for her to gain her freedom, but it could just as easily be seen as him leaving her behind to die. Because the outcome options are 1) she gets killed by Maizuru's curse, 2) she finds a way to break the spell, 3) she finds a way back to them.

He’s very conflict averse. Wether it be in relationships like with Laios or the status quo. Will not stand up for 99% things including himself. He obeys his father quietly despite his anger and dislike. This is the same guy who can't even get himself to speak up to correct the butchering of his name, the slippery slope that got him tangled in the Laios party seemingly without resistance. It’s very japanese etiquette from even nowadays, never saying a direct no to not be rude. ALSO THAT PANEL, has Toshiro beaten an ogre before?? Is that a brother of his?? Does seem in character for Toshiyuki the most, unless Toshiro was desperate to earn his father’s attention with feats. On the right I’d say the ones in the foreground are two of the brothers, maybe the third being the one to gesture to the ogre. It’s worth noting that inheritance laws during the Edo period often made the heir the son with "the most merit".

When with a goal that’s important to him he’s fine with even starving for it. Although what we see him be like that about in canon is Falin, aka self-admittedly in the post-canon proposal comic "the first person he has liked this much", which for him I feel is like admitting she’s one of the first things he has truly wanted for himself and fought for, soo… It’s more like an exceptional freaking out moment than something that would be recurring, most likely. How disheveled he got is a testament to how much he would forego propriety and rules for people of his status for the person he cares about most. Maizuru says the first personal request he’s (ever?) made was for them to help him rescue Falin.

Which ahh yes, his crush on Falin. I do think idealization plays into it, he doesn’t know Falin that well for sure, but it’s more complex than that too. Falin is pretty and can have an ethereal energy to her, she’s caring and gentle kinda motherly which Toshiro would find soothing I imagine, BUT MOST OF ALL. She’s weird!! She’s just weird enough to allow and be charmed by!! Shuro was fully shaped by his upbringing and environment of nobility, social etiquette and whatnot. Yeah she’s weird and quirky, but still quiet and sweet-mannered enough that he’s like "Yes, she wouldn’t bring shame on my family name". And why would he be charmed by her weirdness? Because all he’s ever known is rules!! Conformity, fitting in!! Unlike the others he knows, she is weird without being overbearing as well. "Woah she’s so different… She’s kind and soft and doesn’t care about fitting in… She is out of this world, she’s free, she shows me a world where tenderness and authenticity is possible…" She’s like his comfort character. MOREOVERRR I had totally forgotten about it, but Toshiro was shown watching a snail behind a bush and losing sight of everything else (like Maizuru calling him) as a kid in the Hag monster tidbit, the moment he fell in love with Falin it was when she looked enthralled at a caterpillar and he mentions how "most girls would have screamed or recoiled in disgust", and in the beach chibis page he’s crouching and collecting shells thinking about Falin… He likes bugs and crawly critters guys, he wishes he could be cottagecore too… It’s a genuine shared interest… . Someone pointed out that Toshiro & Falin’s relationship probaboy references this japanese folk tale, and I think that’s very interesting to note.

And Maizuru is like his mom but it’s a Thistle situation where they can’t just be a normal family and normal affectionate either- and when he learns about his father having a thing with her he feels weirded out. And like. Who knows how much he even got out of the mansion. He got homeschooled. He’s distant with his brothers. The family is in shambles

Shuro’s issue is that he was taught to be perfect and have the upmost respectable behavior, so if something annoys him he has to be righteous about it and that it’s the annoying thing’s fault or moral failing. Bro just let yourself be petty sometimes it’s healthier. With the feud with his father it’s explicitly stated that the pressure and expectations of the family name weigh on him a lot.

But then, that makes his beef with Laios so understandable doesn’t it. Not justified, but explained certainly.

Laios & Shuro and the whole mess coming to a head

I’ve made an analysis of the Laios-Shuro fight from Laios’ pov before, here. This is the Shuro pov analysis. Yes yes in The Fight, Shuro is dehydrated sleep-deprived and underate, he’s majorly off his rocker, BUT his frustration and the underlying issues are still things he felt on any day and it’s interesting to note.

Toshiro has been raised from his birth with the priority of propriety, nobility, etiquette, rules, conforming elegantly, appareances and reputation are everything. He’s modest, humble, quiet, stays in his lane and bottles all his feelings up. Wait who is this loud guy coming up to me being inconsiderate and loud af?? Does he not see me blinking in morse code that I’m not enjoying this and want him to leave?? Was he raised in a barn?? He’s overbearing and rude and way too friendly- He’s weird wtf! Not conforming to basic etiquette is illegal??! And people just… Let him do whateve he wants?? He lives well, no one stops him or kills him?? What the fuck, I’ve followed rules and etiquette thoroughly all my life, and it’s thankless work I get no recognition for, meanwhile he gets to be oblivious af and do whatever he wants without getting clapped?? Resentment, frustration, dislike, anger anger anger, jealousy.

Laios might even remind Toshuro of his dad in a way, because he SEEMS impulsive and like he does whatever he wants without a care to people around him, without thinking of how it might affect them. Doing things without thinking through the Implications. And interestingly this is a bit paralleled to to how Shuro is serious, strict, and big on the duties that come with having a leader role and the family dynamic it brings, like Laios’ own father, who Laios also dislikes… Dealing with his anger towards Laios, especially knowing that Laios doesn’t mean anything bad by it like Toshiro admits, is probably very healing to him. He stops repressing and thinks through his issues a bit, realizes what parts of his life he’s unhappy with and where all the negative feelings come from. I do think he bottles up his dislike for his father a bit, he has to at least for appearances. His beef with Laios is repackaged internalized anger for his father, but it’s ALSO repackaged frustration from his etiquette-bound lifestyle. He says it himself, when Laios is like "You never told Falin how you feel…? Alright, when I can I’ll tell her for you buddy!!", "that’s the part of you that I envy". Laios’ ability to just come out and say what he wants to, what he means. He wishes he could be free of all the rules more, that he had te courage to speak out, like with Inutade, or talking things out with Maizuru, or nit having to act like he’s not angry with his father. This narrative point of Toshiro envying Laios’ ability to say things freely and being frustrated by not being able to himself is ESPECIALLY examplified by their first interactions, the basis of their relationship: Laios enthusiastically befriending him, giving him a bad nickname and roping him into joining his party, with Toshiro never turning it all down despite wanting to, too hesitant to act possibly rude.

And now is time for the laishuro addendum… Because of personal experiences it’s a bit of a sensitive spot to me so while I see timelines in which I enjoy it I’m very picky… This is all further theorizing from me btw I’m not pushing my view here onto ppl as facts, but I think there’s more interesting bits and scenarios to bite into here. Laishuro has very cute and sweet potential. I personally don’t see the "Oh wait Laios is just girl Falin… 😳" angle because to me if anything that’d just make Shuro disillusioned with Falin lol, but like yes make Shuro learn that it’s ok to be weird with Laios 🥺 They DO have differences first of all, important ones, especially from Toshiro’s perspective. Laios is overwhelming, whereas Falin is soothing. Laios is loud and asks things of him where Falin is a calm, quiet presence. Laios pushes himself onto Toshiro, whereas Falin is content on just doing her own thing in her corner alone.

Hot take but the ultimate laishuro timeline is the one where he DOESN’T bring Laios back home, because he knows he’ll be seen as an oddity and clown by his father, and he doesn’t want Laios to be treated like the tapdancing monkey there to please and entertain his father the way he himself has always kind of been. Wouldn’t inflict that onto someone he loves. He can recognize when people are taken advantage of (mostly) like Inutade, and it doesn’t settle right with him. He might be especially sensitive to it in Inutade’s case because it’s about seeing his dad in a better light than he deserves, though. His father is his weak spot, THE weak spot.

It gets me so emotional thinking about it actually because seeing Laios played like a fiddle by his father, Laios so happy to find someone who’s enthusiastically listening to him ramble and engaging, would destroy Shuro emotionally I think. Like. On one hand being like "Oh of course my dad would find Laios fun, unlike me his boring son", super angry as coping mechanism for his intense sadness of not having positive parental attention, and then on the other he’d see Laios being treated as a clown and identify with it and that would remind him of how he gets treated similarly which he’s in denial about (more or less, but since he puts up with the family rules and follows along he hasn’t given up on getting recognition. He wants his father’s approval, and he couldn’t blame Laios for being happy with it despite how hurtful that attention truly is without Laios’ knowledge), which would be such an overwhelming conflicted mess of emotions and his worldview would shatter a bit because he has to repress it all even now, and he’d have a breakdown.

And similar deal but if he brought Falin home… Bc ok yes he idealizes her and doesn’t even know her all that well, but like I said imo what he sees in her is that "Woah she’s so different… She’s kind and soft and doesn’t care about fitting in… She is out of this world, she’s free, she shows me a world where tenderness and authenticity is possible…" So meanwhile with Laios he’d have mixed feelings on him getting treated like a clown and identify with it, bringing Falin home and having her be demeaned would be like having his perfect comfort character dunked on and he gets reminded that the world can’t have anything good actually. With both Toudens it’d make his resentment towards his father even worse, he might snap. I’m not the biggest on gendered analysis tbh but Kui evidently does like to do it to some degree, with the genderbending changing their life considerably and different fantasy cultures having different gender roles and all, but Shuro idealizing the Touden sister as something perfect he cannot attain while being jealous and frustrated at Laios for being something he cannot attain is like. So compelling actually. With Maizuru’s hannya of female rage weaponized there could be a theme of pushing the blame and responsibilities of things onto women too, the responsibility to raise and to manage and to dish out the work and to clean after mens’ reckless decisions. Anyways just a tangent.

Shuro on a bad family angst day is everything I love in a blorbo… He can be a lil shitty as a treat to make his healing arc more fulfilling. Toshiro snapping after he sees how they treat Laios/Falin and he gives up the family headship to LEAVE. Maizuru arc where she has to choose between loyalty to the clan and loyalty to Toshiro, will she stay with the boy she raised or go home… To me Maizuru is much less sympathetic than Shuro, but she is pretty tragic and her selfless love for Shuro is her one redeeming quality. Babygirl take no shit no more, but also better yourself and turn your life around please and thank you… She is so evidently taken advantage of but like. What else does she have? So she just takes care of and loves the boy she raised like her own kid and goes about her daily life in servitude and doesn’t think too much about it all.

Shuro is awful a nickname but also, I think Shiro would be a good nickname for Toshiro, because it gets rid of that ‘Toshi’ first part of his name that all the male members of his family share. It severes the link to his father and the tied pressure from his family.

Laishuro brotp turning slow burn romance would be so lovely. I think college au for laishuro would be peak actually… Shuro so is the repressed "I am so normal" guy who has a furry liberation identity crisis arc… I also quite like the potential he’d have with Namari, as both work-oriented misfit foreigners cast out of their homes, and she’s also bolder so it’d be good for him, and he could bring her stability… That’s a topic for another day tho. Even he and falin are sweet tbh, they could have traveled around together even if just as friends… Bc yeah she does value him as a friend at least somewhat, she says she’ll visit him~! Mostly I want Izutsumi-Toshiro brotp fancontent.

Conclusion

The household is very hierarchy oriented, and honestly the system doesn’t seem to make anyone happy, or at least not healthily so. Sighh feudalism.

Obviously their situation are very different, but still Toshiro and Izutsumi react to the same conflict in opposite ways: when a hierarchy and lifestyle of rules and duty is thrust upon them, Toshiro obeys and believes that it’s how things simply are, always having it been drilled into him since being a baby and being privileged enough to live ok with things as they are, meanwhile Izutsumi rages and eventually breaks free and never wants to submit herself to rules or hierarchy ever again, even if that perceived hierarchy is a mutually beneficial professional party dynamic or having a role inside a well-meaning team, like Laios’ party. WHICH IS WHY THEY SHOULD HANG OUT AND HAVE AN ARC TOGETHER. LET HER INFLUENCE HIM TO GET WILDER AND THINK OF HIMSELF MORE. FUCK INHERITING THE HEADSHIP. THE SIBLINGS NARRATIVE.

As always if I find more stuff to add i’ll edit it in. Rn I’m thinking that I’ll look into ninja & samurai feudal history and try to find specific terms that might fit their roles and situations more. I should reread try to cover Izutsumi’s end of the Toshiro-Izu dynamic as well.

I greatly recommend this paper for more excellent meta on all named Dunmeshi characters and their culture!

Ah yes yes, I forgot to talk about it but we don’t know what Toshiro’s retainers have been doing with their time on The Island, especially while he was dungeon diving with Laios and co. Although in the anime’s ed in this shot we see them "stealthily" follow him around, so presumably when he’s not in dungeons they’re tailing his moves.

Afterword here, it has summary charts about the power structure & relationships and complementary pages and artworks, couldn’t put them in here because SIGH 30 pictures per post limit.

[pico-farad]

I finished season 1 of Vrains and it was cool but I thought it needed about 2 billion more secret identity shenanigans

extended thoughts below

So I went into a deep dive in my last two posts (1, 2) about all the problems I had with Vrains, and you'd think I didn't enjoy it, but in fact as I was watching, there was a separate, parallel version of Vrains that was playing in my head, a Yugioh I think we were robbed of and which fixes every problem I had with the first season, and that is Secret Identities AU.

Yusaku needs FRIENDS

This is YUGIOH.

This dynamic is everything I wanted from Vrains. Yusaku developing unexpected fondness for these bozos who think he needs a defense squad. I want Miraculous Ladybug levels of secret identity shenanigans. I want Yusaku slapping his duel disk every time Ai tries to blow their cover.

This AU sprung forth from the scene in the duel club where he shows Naoki his decoy deck. Having Yusaku passing as a bad duelist is 1) so funny, but 2) Yusaku needing to maintain his low profile is a useful contrivance for other characters to get more duels, and 3) I think it would be a really fun one-off episode where Yusaku has to duel using his bad deck. When he wins, Naoki is so proud he cries.

Having Yusaku actually have to interact with the other characters in the real world opens up Greek play levels of dramatic irony. The crux of a secret identity story is that every single interaction builds up anticipation, because you the viewer know that the other party is being deceived, and that the tension will snap when the secret is revealed.

I have zero anticipation about Playmaker's identity being revealed, because Aoi would be like "oh.... I guess he goes to my school" and Go would be like "have I seen that guy before?" But SIAU Playmaker? My guy is making friends just so he can betray them. Insane.

Go needs A ROLE IN THE STORY.

I said in my first post that Go isn't a rival or a best friend character. SIAU fixes this by making him both simultaneously.

Having him be the ace of the duel club is a natural replacement for his whole hero of the orphans schtick, while placing him directly the circle of relevance with the other characters. Instead of being disgruntled that the orphans suddenly like Playmaker more than him, he's disgruntled that Naoki and the duel club mooks are fawning over Playmaker -- which is actually just Naoki's character anyway.

I would kill for a big dramatic moment where Go learns that Playmaker and Yusaku are the same person, and even though Go feels betrayed that Yusaku has been deceiving him, he stands by Yusaku anyway because they're friends.

With a secret identity story, every conversation is working on multiple levels because each character is working with asymmetric information. You get these fascinating, layered scenes of two characters talking past each other because they cannot give up their secret.

Which would go especially hard with Go and Yusaku, because Go has legitimate criticisms of Playmaker in canon and Yusaku has legitimate reasoning behind the things he does, and as Go Onizuka and Playmaker they could never come to an understanding on them, but as Go and Yusaku, two friends in duel club, that door becomes open to them.

Aoi needs WRITING THAT ISN'T A TRAINWRECK

I made a whole post on this. Basically every problem would be solved if Akira doesn't know that she's Blue Angel. There's no reason for her to lose grotesquely against Yusaku, or have her basic autonomy called into question constantly. 

Having her actively deceive her brother is delicious. Like I said in my last post, it's so obvious how Akira's overprotectiveness has taken its toll on Aoi, and pushed her into developing this other persona, Blue Angel. I want this absolutely dysfunctional sibling relationship so badly. The Blue Angel vs. Zaizen duel would make me lose my mind.

And a secret identities setting works so well with the potential themes of VRAINS as a stand-in for the internet and Blue Angel as an idol. Give me that Perfect Blue Satoshi Kon good stuff. Give me those themes about identity, and the different lives we live, outward and inward, online and offline.

This also helps Akira's character, because I think he would be much more interesting and relevantly positioned in the story if he stayed a SOL Technologies baddie. SOL Technologies has very little presence in season 1 despite being critical to the story. After Zaizen is replaced by an irrelevant clown, they don't do anything but send out mook AIs to get destroyed. By having a three-way standoff between Yusaku's squad, the Knights of Hanoi, and SOL Technologies, both Hanoi and SOL Technologies become more compelling. They've both got all the reason in the world to want to take down the other. Zaizen vs. Revolver or Spectre? That's good shit.

And don't get me started on how I would turn Revolver into a Secret Identities character.

[raconteur-wanpi]

Actually, speaking of the whole Sanji & Usopp Meta again (I won't shut up about it ever) and the common complaint of "why wasn't Usopp in WCI?", the more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that it IS because they are foils.

It's kind of a joke I've seen around that "WCI wouldn't have happened if Usopp was there" but I actually genuinely believe that. Do you think Sanji would have the guts to lie out of his teeth (the whole pretending he was a cruel haughty prince this whole time) to drive away his crew during that carriage scene, if the Certified Crew Liar who Lies to Protect Himself and Others was there? To call him out? To immediately recognize that behavior? Do you think Sanji would have it in him to FIGHT LUFFY, if Usopp, who was deeply scarred by his own brawl with Luffy, was there to watch them? When Usopp reminds Sanji of his past self? Would Sanji find the strength or the courage to make Usopp relive Water 7 in that scene? Would Sanji find it that easy to lament about his weakness compared to his powerful siblings during the entirety of the arc if the "guy that survives being the Weak Human in a world of Monsters" was there to remind him it IS possible to survive? Especially when you accept the help of your friends?

Usopp wasn't in WCI cause it would have been over like ten times quicker lmao. Sanji needed to feel isolated and desperate in his solitude for the arc to work, and the best way to do that is to separate him from one of his major foils. And I think it's the same reason his other two parallels, Zoro and Robin, weren't in it either.

[missnancychavez]

So I am on my third rewatch of Twisters. So here are some of my own personal headcanons and theories for the movie and some parallels that may add weight to those theories.

1. The original 5 friend group dynamic: Jeb and Praveen have known each other for years and are each others best friend. Javi and Kate are the dynamic duo (basing it on the fact that they were the only ones to do the handshake together). And Addy is everyone's little sister. Her and Kate were extremely close, but in a different way than her friendship with Javi.

2. Tyler Owens is the nephew of Bill and Jo on Bill's side (As we knew Jo didn't have any sibling). He spent his summers with them as a kid, and then as a teenager, he moved in with them full time. He started chasing with them around then, too. He even pays homage to that as he is driving a newer model of Bill's red dodge ram.

3. Boone and Lily have something going on. The way Boone screams her name as she gets picked up by the wind. And their personalities are perfect together. You can't convince me otherwise.

4. Kate and Tyler kiss in the truck after the chase they go on straight from the airport at the end of the movie. (Refer to point 8)

5. Kate puts in her resignation almost immediately, and Javi cuts ties with Riggs and Scott. The wranglers and Kate join StormPAR. Kate and Tyler spend the off-season working with Javi while the others do their own gigs, but during the storm season, they are all chasing and gathering data.

6. Cathy is so encouraging of her daughter because she's been through loss before. They called her Mrs. Carter, meaning she was married. Kate's dad died when Kate was a little girl. Cathy had to learn how to navigate being a young mom and tending a farm on her own. But she also knows that it could stop her from living her life. So she didn't. She grieved, and she learned to live with the grief and still do what she loves. It's why she is so encouraging of Kate getting back out there.

7. Kate stayed in OK for another couple of weeks after the tornado (neither her nor Tyler appeared injured in the final scene, and the truck looks great, all things considered, so clearly they had time tp heal and fix the truck.) They all were forcibly invited back to the farm by Cathy after Tyler and the wranglers went to drop Kate off post El Reno. Cathy took one look at Tyler and forced him in the house. Kate gave herself a headache from laughing so hard. She was then sent inside alongside him. Cathy made everyone stay for as long as they needed. But she did, however, get some free labour from it. It was an unspoken agreement that Kate's was now home base.

8. By the credit scenes, Kate and Tyler are together. Their first kiss was immediately after the two of them went chasing from the airport. Something about their adrenaline rushing, and it being just the two of them. It was electric. It was immediate. It just happened, and when they pulled back, they both started laughing. It reminded him of the first time they chased together, just the two of them. Kate delayed her flight for another two days. She was back home within the month. Tyler quickly realised he would have to start bribing Boone afterwards on the days he and Kate went out.

9. Kate and Boone will play card games at night to see who gets shotgun the next day, when Boone isn't riding with Lily, of course. Turns out, Kate's damn good at playing poker. On the rare occasion that Kate drives, Boone automatically hops in the back of the truck. He won't tell anyone, but he loves it when she drives. She gets this manic energy about her in the drivers seat and his adrenaline always ends up pumping. Tyler loves it, too, but he has no qualms verbalizing his affections toward her.

10. Tyler has nightmares now. Of watching Kate drive into the tornado. Of finding her body, discarded and broken by his truck. Of her slipping through his fingers during a storm. He wakes up sweating and panicking. And it's only when he sees her that he can calm himself down. The two of them, those first two weeks after El Reno, would spend hours each night, sitting in the barn, going over formulas. Or sitting outside on the tree swing, talking until they were both too exhausted to have any nightmares. When she left to go back to New York, she wasn't particularly surprised when one night she awoke to her phone ringing, Tyler close to having a full blown panic attack as he tried and failed to reassure himself that she was okay without her help. They would always call each other before bed after that, usually falling asleep over facetime.

[theprinceandthewitch]

I don't think I mentioned this... but in Ashes of Memory, Alice receives a letter from Orpheus addressed as "Eury Lamb"

Lamb is the last name of the man who adopted her and experimented on her. It also serves as a reference to Little Girl's "Source of Evil" cosmetic, which is lamb themed.

"Eury" is a reference to Eurydice. People have theorized "Eury Lamb" is the name her adoptive father, Villhelm Lamb gave to her to keep her true identity a secret. But that's not rlly relevant...

What is relevant is that this makes Orpheus' alias choice even MORE obvious he loves Alice... this mans got romantic interest in her...

People who use that adoption letter as proof that the writers want you to view their relationship as sibling-like are so cringe. That letter is literally the direct opposite of "sibling-like".

Folks missed the part called "context": Orpheus [who was 17 at the time] knew she was being abused at the orphanage and tried to get her out in the least stressful way possible... and he couldn't even adopt her to begin with because the orphanage thought it would be best for her to be taken in by a blood relative. Which was a lie, because they ended up giving her to Villhelm Lamb to be used as his lab rat.

Like idk man... the writers have made it so abundantly clear Orpheus doesn't see her as a sister. That One letter doesn't prove he sees her as a sibling because if they wanted to make them siblings... then.... they would have... ya know, made them siblings... but they don't because.... they're not siblings and they're writing a tragic romance LMAO.

As for Alice, in AoM she calls him a playmate... granted she doesn't know Orpheus and her playmate are the same person, but she remembers him as her friend and not her brother... because.... they were never adopted siblings...

But yeah It's so crazy to think Orpheus doesn't love her... I'm over here losing my mind at That Scene in AoM where Orpheus asks Alice if she could play a song for him on her father's favorite piano.

What gets me is that this scene shows how much Orpheus missed her. He buys everything her relatives sold off so he can rebuild the mansions' interior to how it was when they were children. He also goes out of his way to fix her father's favorite piano. The piano didn't just need fine tuning - it was straight up destroyed during the raid. It was a really, really expensive thing to repair. Even though Alice's father had other pianos, some of which could have survived the raid, he rebuilds the one which holds alot of sentimental value to her... LIKE???

REALLY... You guys really want me to think Orpheus did all this JUST out of a sense of guilt for unintentionally causing the raid? You are rlly gonna look me in the eyes and tell me Orpheus using "Orpheus" as his alias while addressing Alice as "Eury" is totally platonic?

Are u rlly gonna say that to me knowing this official artwork made Norton and Melly wear their Pluto and Proserpina/Persephone outfits while Frederick, Orpheus, and Alice are dressed normally? My brother in Christ... will you rlly look me in the eyes and tell me Orpheus [AND THE BIRDS] holding flowers is platonic symbolism...

THIS ISN'T EVEN SUBTLE LOOOOL

How much more evidence do people need that these two aren't siblings AND they're on a whole romantic journey together...

[doberbutts]

Tbh I think the comparison to white people might be some simple us vs them thinking (maybe not all the time, though). White people complaining about oppression = nonsense/overeaggeration (if you're myopic), therefore comparing transmascs to white people is a way to call what they say nonsense. Or, if you're under the impression oppression=good person points, then white = bad/wrong, therefore transmascs are bad/wrong. Idk. Lots of these folks have some black/white thinking.

I think the answer is much easier than that.

The majority of people I see using the race analogy to draw a parallel of white vs black racism and trans man vs woman oppression are white themselves. Not everyone, but I would say my casual scroll of Bad Take Havers usually reveals whiteness here.

It does not surprise me at all that the very same white people doing this do not have the nuanced racial understanding to be able to reflect how, for instance, both black communities and latine communities experience racism in different yet similar ways, and how there is both bad blood and also shared history and solidarity between both communities, with many people who exist somewhere in between (afrolatinos) and people who exist completely outside of this equation (other marginalized races of color) or on the fringes (other mixed people of color but with only one of the involved races in this venn diagram) that also may experience their own oppression.

And so, they don't even think to use the comparison of black and Latino understanding, instead choosing to reach for white vs black racial dynamics. They don't have the understanding necessary to get why that's neither a good comparison nor is it a fair one to use especially when this particular conversation was started by trans mascs of color and how prior conversations regarding trans men and mascs occupying a marginalized gender were started by both (cis *and* trans) women of color and trans men and mascs of color.

It also does not escape my attention that those insisting that not only do trans men and mascs have privilege (something I do not completely disagree with, although I think as always it is more nuanced than "have" vs "have not") but also that trans men and mascs are specifically an *oppressor class* are also largely white, and show an inability to understand that "privilege" does not always equally translate to "oppressor". This comes to a head when discussing trans men in powerful positions- teachers, doctors, politicians, business owners, religious leaders, even celebrities- and whether they are pushing harmful rhetoric or if they are holding the line and refusing to budge.

And, while not true in all cases and certainly no one is perfect, because people are people and thus imperfect at the best of times, the majority of all trans people in power hold the line and refuse to budge regarding harm to our community. We can all think of examples- usually celebrities- of otherwise, but those pushing for laws and change are generally hand-in-hand with each other keeping step and refusing to leave their fellow siblings behind.

This does not mean that we cannot *contribute to* or even *lean on* transmisogyny- remember, there were cis women on the Supreme Court gleefully voting away abortion rights even though it directly affects them. There is no identity that makes you immune to bigoted bias, and no identity that protects you from doing harm to others. That is on each of us to do better, to each out in fellowship and solidarity to our fellow humans, and to lift each other out of the pit.

Much like how a Latino friend of mine may experience privilege in that he does not experience the antiblackness I do, and much how I may have privilege that I speak English as my mother tongue and he doesn't in this largely English-language-dominated country, neither of us are inherently each other's oppressors unless we are acting on oppressive bias. Intentionally or otherwise.

Oppression is action, not existence.

But again, I am not surprised a group of largely white people do not understand nearly enough of this nuance as it applies to race to then be able to apply it to gender.