#Rozen | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

comfy-whumpee · 1 year ago

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Glimmer

Back again! Last piece: Equinox.

Beloved taglist: @bloodybrambles, @wildfaewhump, @ishouldblogmore, @lektric-whump, @that-one-thespian, @raigash, @just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi, @rosesareviolentlyread, @castielamigos-whump-side-blog, @burtlederp, @starnight-whump, @mylifeisonthebookshelf

Rozen knocked on the door, and Joe opened it. He looked surprised, and then made a sheepish glance over his shoulder. Siobhan was visible in the kitchen.

“We were invited over,” he explained half-heartedly. “Nic said they had to go out, so we came.”

Rozen had received a message from them an hour ago, but they’d been asleep. It was only Ellis’s messages that were set to ping loudly 24/7. That was a mistake they would have to rectify.

“I was also invited over,” they told him. Ellis got his height from his father, and they had to look up to stare him down. “By Ellis.”

“Oh.” He stepped aside to let them in, looking uncertainly towards the kitchen. He took a step towards it. “I’ll let Siobhan know. Would you – like a drink?”

“No, thank you,” they said, tone flat. It wasn’t even his house. They glanced at Siobhan, who seemed to be ignoring them, working at a frying pan. They sighed, and climbed the stairs.

Ellis was sitting in the middle of the mattress, visible the moment they reached the landing. They paused in the open doorway, not willing to intrude unless they had to. He looked like he hadn’t slept a wink. They hadn’t either. “Take your time,” they said by way of greeting. “I’m here.”

The relief on his face was stark, and he sighed, covering his face for a moment. Rozen waited patiently.

“Nic called them,” he explained after a moment, voice hushed so they couldn’t hear. “I was asleep.”

Rozen’s lips thinned. It wasn’t like Nic to do something like that. They had followed Ellis’s lead every step of the way until now. They’d jumped the gun. It must have been a bad day for them, and they had always taken too much onto themself.

“They went, with – Felicity. So I woke up and…” He shook his head.

They took a breath. They stepped into the room. “You didn’t agree to this and it shouldn’t have happened before you were ready.”

“I should be ready,” he whispered from behind his hands. He was always all too aware of what he should be.

“Not important. This is your recovery and you have the final say. If you want them to leave, we will make them leave.”

He peeked between his fingers, and then seemed to get self-conscious of it and put his hands into his lap. “It’s okay. They… They’re trying to help.” His tone was unconvinced, even as he tried to persuade himself.

“I’m glad to hear it, but that doesn’t change your authority, on these small things especially. They’ll survive being at home for another week or two. You were working,” their voice firms, “on getting better on your own terms, and the last thing you need is a reminder of their expectations of you.”

His ears burned. He stared at his fingers, twisting together. “They, I can’t let them see. I can’t let them see me now.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” they interrupted, keeping their voice gentle. “The choice is yours. If you would rather it be me and you, until Nic comes back, then it can be. No parents until you’re ready.”

His shoulders hunched. He tried to keep the explanation in, but it was difficult, they could see. His lips were pressed together tightly. He felt guilty. But Rozen had spent enough time working with his parents that they had a good picture of their shortcomings, as all parents were domed to have.

Siobhan and Joe were overprotective and over-permissive. Their intentions were always good. They wanted to see their son. They worried about him. They wanted to support him. They would offer him unconditional love. How could they understand that he was used to conditionals now?

He’d been away for so long that it didn’t matter if he was five or fifty, he’d be treated like a glass statue, and that was far too similar to how Engels had treated him.

“I can’t make them leave,” he decided. The pressure was too much for him to push back. “And I did… I did miss them.”

A decision is a decision. They pivot. “Alright. Then we do damage control.”

His mum always made pancakes like crepes. They were piled four-high on a dinner plate with sugar and chocolate spread set out alongside it. There were premade, toaster-ready scotch pancakes in the cupboard. He wondered if she’d not noticed, or if she’d dismissed them as not good enough.

Somehow, the weirdness of Rozen’s presence at the table made it less weird overall. Mum, dad, son, and hired detective. Ellis was the only one with a plate, though his dad had made himself a coffee.

He bit his tongue as he caught the smell of it. It was Nic’s favourite. One of their fancy ones. And his dad had just helped himself. Didn’t ask Ellis for permission. Ellis would have said yes, but he didn’t ask.

That wasn’t fair, though, was it? It was just coffee.

He really didn’t want to eat with both of them staring at him. He wished he’d let Rozen kick them out. They were more than willing to be the bad guy.

Maybe they knew what he was thinking, because when he didn’t move, they spoke. “I advised you not to come until he was ready.”

The bluntness threw his parents off. Both of them looked away from him.

“Nic invited us,” Mum said.

“Nic doesn’t get to decide. Only Ellis can. He did not invite you.”

Ellis stole a bite of crepe. He was still chewing when Mum looks back to him. “Do you not want us here?”

He dropped his gaze. The food suddenly lost its taste.

Rozen had his back. “That’s not the point,” they interjected, tone still level. “Asking for forgiveness is not the same as asking for permission. Ellis hasn’t had control over his own space and who he gets to see for a long time. It’s hard for him to express his boundaries.”

This was what they had discussed upstairs. Rozen had told him to speak for himself, but that they would if he didn’t.

It wasn’t the right thing to say, though. Mum turned her head away. “He was going to be left alone. You told us he can’t be left alone, after that – the cupboard.”

It felt wrong, that she knew about the cupboard. He didn’t expect her to bring it up. Nic wouldn’t talk about details like that out of nowhere, and Felicity and Iz didn’t know about them. But now that they were in the conversation, it felt… It felt like exposure of just how messed up he was. Can’t be left alone.

He had to speak. He had to be part of this. He opened his mouth.

“And you can’t blame us for wanting to come,” Dad put in. He sounded less argumentative than Mum, but just as stubborn. “Even if he had told us to go when we got here. It would have been worth it to come.”

“It’s fine,” Ellis broke in before Rozen could retort. “It’s fine, you can stay.”

Their relief was instantly palpable. It turned his stomach. He shouldn’t have this much power.

They clearly thought the conversation is over, but Rozen was cuing him for the other thing he wanted to say. “That’s your choice,” they said firmly. “Do you have any ground rules?”

He took a breath. It had been a long time since he had to do this. The last time he’d stood up to them, the last time they went too far in their protectiveness… It was for Nic.

This time, for himself.

“This is my house,” he said. His voice dipped to quiet, but they listened. They did always listen. “It’s, this is – my space. So you have to ask me for things. Not get them, take them yourselves.” He looked at his dad’s coffee mug. “It’s Nic’s house too.”

“Of course, sweetie,” his mum agreed. They would listen, if he told them, when he told them.

“And don’t,” he took a breath, “don’t assume what I want. I’m not a kid. You have to ask, and if I say no, you can’t – you can’t say anything back. Because I won’t be able to argue. I’m… not there yet.”

He saw the twinge of pain in Mum’s eyes, and his dad turning his down to the table. They understood, a little.

They listened.

“I didn’t want you to come because I wasn’t ready but it’s too late now,” he finished, all at once. “So just be patient and don’t – just try to do things your way. I need to choose.”

His heart was pounding as he stopped, and he waited in the silence that followed, tensed for the pushback, the shutdown, the dismissive, cutting looks and comments and are you done making demands?

It he was just a pet, and pets didn’t get to do this, didn’t get to say these things, if he would be in trouble…

“Okay,” his mum agreed. “I know I’m not good at that so I’ll try and you can tell me off.” She didn’t look away from him. “Thank you for telling me.”

His dad nodded. “We just want to help. However we can.”

“I think there was one other thing,” Rozen prompted gently.

Ellis sucked in another breath. Of course.

“Call me my name,” he requested. “Don’t say, um… Darling. Or sweetheart. Those things.” He couldn’t meet their eyes, his face warm. “That’s what he called me.”

He didn’t want to see the tears. He didn’t want to see the pain. He had to look after his own.

“Okay,” his dad replied, hushed.

He glanced up in the following silence. His dad wasn’t really the one he needed to change, but his mum…

“What about gingersnap?”

He blinked at her. She was smiling, the brave kind of smile that he recognised from himself.

They hadn’t called him that since he was little. His eyes filled with tears and he forced them down. Crying was too tiring.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Yeah, that’s… Yeah.” He smiled back.

After his pancakes, he messaged Nic.

Hope you are getting good sleep. I’m okay. Love you.

#pet whumpee #recovering whumpee #whump #comfort #caretaking #ellis #rozen #siobhan #joe #deconditioning

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shima-draws · 4 months ago

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YIPPEE PRETTY BOY IS FINISHED 👀

More info on him below!

Name: Rozen (Codename: Cavalier)

Age: 32

Hair color: Strawberry blonde

Eye color: Magenta

Element: None

Rozen is currently a member of Nahu's party, but before then he was working as a high-ranked officer of an underground gambling ring 😳 It wasn't a job occupation he necessarily chose, he really ended up there because he had nowhere else to go after a tragedy occurred in his childhood. And speaking of which--

Rozen was abandoned by his parents at a young age, dumping him into the first orphanage they could find. This of course caused a lot of trauma and essentially made it so that he no longer trusted anybody due to fear of abandonment. He grew up bitter and angry at the world, living as a troublemaker and pretty much going by his own rules (which caused the director of the orphanage plenty of headaches). Unfortunately due to his prickly personality this made it nearly impossible for any one to adopt him--but he preferred it that way, intent on leaving the orphanage on his own as soon as he was of age.

This all went to shit when a new kid was brought into the orphanage, by the name of Malachi :)

Malachi's circumstances were completely opposite of Rozen's--he had a family who loved him, but their lives were brought to a violent end when they were suddenly attacked by a group of rogues after their fortune. Rozen looked at Malachi and immediately saw himself; angry, bitter and broken because of the cards he'd been dealt. This in turn lead to a very...rocky start between them, due to how similarly they acted around people. Rozen viewed Malachi as a little brat and basically had the opinion of "boo hoo you're an orphan well at least your parents loved you and didn't throw you away like mine did". (So, a biiiiit of jealousy there. LMAO) Malachi thought Rozen's arrogant and stand-offish personality was annoying and correctly called him out for being a total fake. They were definitely at each other's throats for a while!

All of this changed when Rozen got a bit too big for his britches and pissed off the wrong crowd. Surprisingly, Malachi rescued him from being beaten to absolute shit and Rozen was shocked that Malachi actually helped him. Nobody had ever shown him that kind of care all his life, and Malachi was in the same shitty situation that he was, except probably worse. Rozen started to soften up around him after this, and slowly started to drop his defenses and show his true personality. Despite Malachi finding Rozen's change of heart "creepy", and his sudden personality change kind of drastic, he couldn't help but grow attached to him too. Before long they were practically attached at the hip, and if you saw one of them you'd know the other wasn't too far behind.

At this point Rozen was fully himself instead of the persona/act he'd been putting on for all his life. AKA he essentially has the personality of a golden retriever, is kind of an airhead (or an idiot, according to Malachi), and is a total softie. Him finally showing his kinder side helped Malachi too, and eventually, after spending two years together, Malachi was crushing on him HARD lol. Of course, Rozen only really viewed Malachi as a best friend, especially due to their age difference (being 4 years apart, with Rozen being 17 at the time and Malachi being 13).

The two of them were determined to leave the orphanage together, either being adopted as a package deal or just leaving when they were finally of age. This came crashing down when a couple looking to adopt just Malachi showed up, and despite the pair's attempts to sabotage any sort of chance Malachi would get adopted, the couple was insistent on taking him home. This sparked some suspicion in Rozen, wondering just why they were so intent on Malachi. He soon found out that these people were connected to the rogues that had killed Malachi's parents--they were seeking the same fortune and knew that Malachi was the key to finding it. Rozen confronted them and convinced them to take him instead, as Malachi had told him he had no idea about his parents' riches so he'd essentially be useless to the couple. Rozen offered his services and promised he would stop at nothing to find them the treasure, as long as they left Malachi alone. The couple agreed.

Malachi, of course, was devastated to find out about Rozen being adopted (and right before he'd become of age too), not wanting to be apart from him. Rozen explained his reasoning and revealed it was all part of his plan--he'd go away with the couple and then slip back to the orphanage in the middle of the night, where he and Malachi would run away together. With a promise to return, Rozen left with the couple, and they stopped at a nearby manor for the night.

As Rozen was preparing to sneak out and back to Malachi, the manor was suddenly attacked. The couple who had adopted him were slaughtered in the ensuing break in, and Rozen barely escaped alive. One of the villains managed to catch him off guard and cut his eye, leaving him half blind. Horrified, he raced back to the orphanage, only to find the entire village engulfed in flames--along with the orphanage itself. Rozen immediately tried to run into the building, fearing that Malachi was still inside, waiting for him--but before he could do so, he was pulled back by a strange figure.

The figure revealed he was the one who organized the attack on the couple and their accomplices, explaining that they had betrayed his trust. The couple were the ones to initiate the fire in order to wipe any evidence that they'd visited the town in the first place, wanting to cover their tracks. The figure introduces himself as the head of an underground crime organization by the codename of Roi...you see where I'm going with this right 👀 He tells Rozen that, regretfully, there were no survivors, and Rozen breaks down in tears upon realizing that Malachi was gone.

Roi offers Rozen a place among his men, seeing as he had nowhere else to turn to. Rozen, too distraught and emotionally unstable, numbly agrees. This would turn out to be the worst decision of his life.

Roi takes Rozen back to his headquarters and has him sign a contract, essentially chaining him to Roi and the organization as a whole. Rozen is trained to become a master of deception and the overseer of the gambling ring, working at various casinos and resorts to scam big spenders out of their money. By the time Rozen realizes what he's gotten into it's far too late; there's no escape for him and he's completely under Roi's control. Escape means death, and while Rozen wouldn't mind dying to be reunited with Malachi, fear stops him from ever going through with it.

Years pass and Rozen's skills only improve. Out of all the "games" that go on in the ring he becomes an absolute master at cards and takes pride in it (his sleight of hand is actually insane). Being a non-elemental, he uses card-based magic as his offense. He becomes a well-known and respected (and feared) member of the organization, and Roi regards him highly, eventually promoting him and giving the codename "Cavalier". However, things are a bit different behind the scenes--Roi is merciless, abusive, and just an overall toxic person to be around, and Rozen is not excluded from his wrath despite being his so-called "favorite". Rozen has had to endure his abuse for years, and is in constant fear for his life. It's really bad 😭

Things start to shift when Roi brings in a new pawn by the codename of Valet. Valet is surprisingly sympathetic considering the type of people Rozen works with, and Rozen grows to admire his cool head, sharp tongue and intelligence. However, Valet begins to butt into his business, urging him to break free from Roi and find a better path in life. Rozen isn't too happy with someone intruding on his personal matters and lashes out at Valet, causing a rift between them. Valet only wants to help and doesn't want to see Rozen suffer; Rozen knows better than anyone that there's no escape from Roi and has resigned himself to his fate--and he doesn't want to see Valet get hurt either.

This is when Nahu and co. come in ;)

Nahu and co. are sent to infiltrate the gambling ring, and immediately things are thrown into absolute chaos. After many twists and turns (and plot), Nahu goes to face off against Roi in one final fight. Roi captures Rozen and chains him up, unwilling to let his perfect pawn go free, and poisons him so that he loses any strength to escape. While Nahu is absolutely wrecking shit fighting Roi, Valet sneaks up to where Rozen is being held and attempts to set him free. Through the haze, Rozen witnesses Valet trying to free him, and sadly reminisces about Malachi. Rozen tells Valet to let him go, to let him die--that way he can be with the only person he cares about again. Valet yells at him and says no, he can't die, because--

Valet is Malachi.

Recognition hits immediately. Valet has always seemed familiar to Rozen, though he could never put his finger on it. But now he can see it, Valet is Malachi, Malachi is alive, Malachi has been by his side this ENTIRE time and he is SUCH a fucking idiot for not realizing sooner--

Nahu defeats Roi, and before Rozen succumbs to the poison, Malachi threatens him and says he'd better not die before he can kick his ass. Rozen laughs and thinks I can't BELIEVE I didn't notice, they talk the same way.

Days later he finally wakes up to find Malachi beside him, and immediately bursts into tears. Malachi explains that he'd been rescued by one of the townspeople when the orphanage went up in flames. It left him with a few burn scars but it ALSO awakened fire magic within him, which he can now wield freely. Malachi was told that Rozen had been killed by the people who attacked the village--which weren't actually the rogues, the village had been attacked by Roi himself, and HE was the one to set the village ablaze. (So Rozen had even been manipulated by him back then. MAN) Malachi refused to believe that Rozen was dead despite all the evidence claiming otherwise, and spent the next 15 years searching for him. Malachi was eventually employed by a sort of intelligence agency that sent him undercover to the gambling ring, and that was when he found Rozen again and realized he was alive. However, while Malachi was 100% ready to blow his cover and escape with Rozen, he was coerced into staying for the mission, much to his frustration.

Malachi tells him that he hadn't thought of anything else for the past 15 years, and now that he'd found Rozen he'd never leave his side again 🥺 Rozen feels the same way. They both realize they're probably in trouble, with Malachi prepared to abandon his duty to be with Rozen and Rozen with his...complicated history being involved in an underground crime organization. LMAO

Luckily for them, Nahu is all about recruiting them, and they both agree to join his squad <3 Their new life together begins!! Rozen has to grapple with the fact that Malachi is definitely not the kid he used to know and has grown up, a lot. Malachi, meanwhile, has been in love with Rozen since he was 12 and is trying everything he can to properly express that. Rozen slowly comes to terms with the fact that yeah, he's probably in love with Malachi, and things just get more interesting from there as they dance around each other for months just trying to figure it out ;)

AND THAT'S HIM MY MASTER OF CARDS MY HEARTBROKEN KING MY SLUT TITTY-WINDOW THIGH-HIGH WEARING KING thank you for reading mwah <3 (Also Malachi will be posted soon I have to write his side of the story as well lol)

#Original character #OC #Original art #Character art #Character design #Fantasy #Lovecore #OC design #Character sheet #Among the Stars #ATS #Rozen #Shima's OCs #Art #Digital art #Shima arts #Long post #shima-draws

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