#also i would like to clarify: TO ME it looks like more of a haunting sitch so thats how i portrayed it

[crow-quet]

the preview made me want to draw moonpaw!! and her twin of course. :3

also wanted to explore both the individual designs esp since the twin gets her own

[hxnbi]

⸻ ღ ❝ WHAT IF I... ❞

you pop the question, asking him, “what if i disappeared one day?" to gauge his reaction

ft. hayato suo, yamato endo, choji tomiyama, umemiya hajime, ren kaji, haruka sakura, kyotaro sugishita, jo togame x gn. reader (separate)

ღ HAYATO SUO ─ ❀ °. ⁺ ♡

He tilts his head to the side. "Whatever do you mean by that?" A brief flash of confusion crossed SUO's face before the ever-present smile of his returned.

"I mean, like, what if I just, from out of nowhere, went poof one day? What would you do?" you clarified with a smile. 

You couldn't quite figure out what was going through his mind as he let out a pensive hum, his index finger rhythmically tapping against his cheek, appearing to be in a deep moment of thought. Granted, you never did know what Suo is thinking about, but something appeared to be different this time.

Suo knew that the question you asked was a mere hypothetical, similar to the ones where you'd find on random scenarios online—meant to be a casual inquiry intended to gauge his reaction, so he didn't give it much concern. In fact, he leaned into it.

"Well then, if that's the case, as your boyfriend." He leaned down to whisper in your ear, "It's only right for me to find you and make sure you’re safe, isn't it?" 

He says it so matter-of-factly with a hefty amount of confidence that undoubtedly makes your heart flutter. There's no hesitation, no doubt in his voice, as if it's the most natural thing in the world. But the outside is indeed never what it appears to be, but also what can be the most deceiving. Suo doesn't worry too much about your question upfront, but there would be times when his mind would wander, drifting back to that single conversation that haunted his thoughts. What implored you to ever ask him that? 

And so, over the next few days and weeks, Suo would watch you with even more attentiveness than he already did, which was already considerable. Being by your side meant everything to him, and he couldn't imagine life without you if that were to ever ring true. After a few days of thinking, Suo's answer has not changed and will never change, but the realm of possibility that you might disappear will forever linger in his mind.

ღ YAMATO ENDO ─ ❀ °. ⁺ ♡

ENDO, with his piercing, sweatdropping gaze, doesn't even take a minute to look at you, and, instead, at himself. Not in the literal sense, but inwardly. He scrutinizes his every action, every word, trying to decipher what could he could’ve done or said to have prompted such a question from you.

"Disappear?" he asks with a tone of sharp curiosity as he finally meets your nervous gaze. "Is that what you really want?"

Cupping his chin, all with the expression that he's about to beat someone half to death, Endo takes a quiet moment to himself and thinks about your question more thoroughly, which only makes you more anxious, in all honesty. 

With a sheepish laugh, you attempted to steer the conversation to a different subject, but Endo was having none of it. His intense focus was right then and there for you to answer.

Endo sits back down, covering his face with his calloused hand, letting out a low chuckle, "You must be either naive or plain stupid if you ever think that's going to happen on my watch.”

"H-Huh?"

"Because you're never leaving me." Endo’s voice carries utter conviction, a lifelong promise wrapped in a singular statement.

Endo snickers a bit from your seemingly adorable reaction before fading into an expression of distaste. His eyes bore into yours, filled with an emotion you can't quite place. "I don't know what brought this on, but let me make one thing clear. You're not going anywhere. Not without me."

He reaches out, his hand finding yours, gripping it firmly. You can feel the roughness of his skin, the callousness from all his previous fights, the strength in his hold, and it grounds you. A chuckle escapes him as he leans back, the seriousness melting away as a mischievous grin spreads across his face from ear to ear. "Besides, who else is going to put up with your atrocious cooking?"

ღ CHOJI TOMIYAMA ─ ❀ °. ⁺ ♡

CHOJI takes a moment to think. "Hmmm, well then. I'll just find you again! Simple and easy! Don’t you think?!”

You laugh alongside him, not having the heart to continue the conversation. But unbeknownst to you, Choji's light-hearted response hides a deeper concern. Choji may act childish, but he's not stupid. He knows that he's not perfect, and in fact, he's a very flawed human being who has done far more harm than he'd ever like to admit, and certainly not to his lover…

Thus, throughout the day, you would be subjected to Choji clinging onto you. Whether you like it or not, he becomes your shadow, sticking to you like glue. As for bathroom breaks? Well, sucks to be you, that's not going to happen without him hovering nearby like a mosquito.

You knew what this meant. Choji's playful manner masks the underlying fear of losing you, and he doesn't let you out of his sight. Whether it's following you to the kitchen or tagging along to every errand, Choji's constant presence lingering over your every move is both endearing and slightly overwhelming. He jokes and laughs, trying to keep the mood light, but you can see the worry in his eyes whenever he thinks you're not looking. It's clear that the thought of being without you is something he can't bear. Just thinking about how his life would be if you left was enough of a nightmare that he decides that possibility would never be considered.

Choji's answer remains constant, but don't let that fool.

ღ HAJIME UMEMIYA ─ ❀ °. ⁺ ♡

UMEMIYA is immediately alarmed by your question, pausing right in the midst of caring for his plants to turn to you with a rather distressed frown that deepened with every second. He jumps to grab your arm, perhaps in fear of you leaving right then and there, and asks with a nervous laugh, "Ahah… you're joking, right?”

…Was this supposed to be some kind of dare from Hiragi or Tsubaki?

And his grip will not loosen until you tell him every single detail, tenfold. Unlike the usual energetic demeanour he broadcasts to the world, Umemiya doesn't even try to hide the fact that he's worried, scared, terrified even, with all but the absolute worst scenarios surfacing in his mind. Were you being threatened in some way because of him? Or… was it something about him?

On the surface, he knows that you asked that question in a hypothetical sense, but that doesn't lessen his fear that it could happen, and your bringing it up helped trigger it. His past memories come right back to haunt him again.

And without thinking, Umemiya embraces you in a bone-crushing hug. "I-I don't know what made you want to say that. Please… Hit me, get mad at me, yell at me, hate me even, but please, don't ever leave me.”

His grip tightens around you, desperation evident in the way he clings to you as if you might vanish at any moment. You can feel the tremor in his hands, the rapid beat of his heart against your ear. It breaks your heart to see him like this, so vulnerable and afraid. You gently stroked his back, whispering soothing words to calm his frayed nerves. Slowly, his breathing steadies, and he relaxes a bit in your arms, but the fear in his eyes still remains. It's clear that the thought of losing you terrifies him more than anything else.

His mind races, no, refuses to accept the thought of you ever disappearing from him. His answer was clear. He was never going to let that happen, not without a reason for closure. And so, Umemiya's efforts to spend more time with you would only be further amplified from there. 

Waking up in the morning? Umemiya would be out your door soon enough with a bed-in-breakfast. Getting groceries? Umemiya will once again be there to be your personal bag-handler and bodyguard. You'd have to reassure him plenty in order to convince him that nobody is out to get you and that you aren’t in danger by any means. But even then, that was not going to work either, oh no. 

As the leader of Furin, Umemiya would make sure that you were protected at all times, sending only the best and closest friends to watch over you and make sure that you were safe. Sakura would snort and mutter under his breath, clicking his tongue, "that guy is overdoing it," only to receive a stern but anxious look from Nirei and a withering glare from Hiragi and especially, if in the presence of the man himself, Umemiya, would receive a look that could shoot literal bullets right into his skull.

How on earth could you tell him by that point that it was all a joke…?

ღ REN KAJI ─ ❀ °. ⁺ ♡

Admittedly, KAJI does not think much of it as he continues to listen to his music with your head resting comfortably on his lap. What do you mean you're just going to leave? Without him? Impossible. 

He hums before going back to indulging his lollipop, which, by all means, was his solace. But later on, Kaji's mind drifts back to the question you asked. His eyebrows fold into two thinly knitted lines as he processes what could ever be your reasoning for asking such a thing. Not even the most relaxing of music could calm his mind as he begins to overthink every little detail of your relationship, replaying every conversation, every moment you've shared, searching for clues or hints he might have missed that made you want to think that.

The thought of you leaving gnaws at him—a rather unsettling and even unfamiliar feeling that he can't shake off no matter how hard he tries. Kaji debates with himself whether to bring it up with you again or let it slide, not wanting to seem insecure but also desperate for reassurance and that what he heard wasn't actually true.

His heart races with each passing thought, and he finds himself pacing back and forth while outside your school building, awaiting you to come out, trying to make sense of his swirling emotions. That is, until you ask him with a confused frown what he was doing.

He doesn't wait for a response but instead pulls you straight into his arms. Kaji grabs both your shoulders and apologizes. He stares right into your wide eyes, and he finally confesses, "If you disappeared… then I wouldn't know what to do with myself."

Kaji gulps in the air like someone who's drowned. He hardly even knew what to do with himself, just pondering the answer about a mere possibility. If that ever came to fruition, he'd be utterly lost. Though he guards his heart carefully, he's unrestrained with his body, whether for comfort or for pleasure.

He holds you firmly. Implacably. He will hold you all night if needs must, and throughout the day. His grip shifts to a tight hug as if trying to squeeze out all the sadness with his strong arms. "So please, don't."

With a heartfelt sigh, the tightness in your shoulders relaxed and you caressed his back with a gentle hand, all while comforting with your voice—the same voice Kaji grew to love with all his heart.

ღ HARUKA SAKURA ─ ❀ °. ⁺ ♡

Rolls his eyes. "What do you mean you're just going to disappear?" SAKURA clicks his tongue. "As if that's ever going to happen."

But in reality, despite his outward words, Sakura is far more concerned than he initially lets on. His composure can only stretch so far until he loses it. Quite literally. He may put on a brave face, but the thought of you vanishing haunts him. He starts by subtly interrogating your friends, your family, and anyone who might know something. His questions are cloaked in casual conversation—well, as casual as Sakura thinks—but the urgency in his eyes betrays his true feelings.

He becomes much more protective from then on, always by your side, watching you with a worried gaze that he often tries to mask. But you, in fact, do notice the change, the way Sakura hovers a little closer to you when he's, without exception, extremely volatile to physical touch, his touches lingering a little longer, and his blatant need for confirmation that you're not going to leave. 

Until, one day, out of nowhere, Sakura answered the question. "If you leave… then I won't stop until I find you. That's it," he muttered in a voice so low that you could hardly believe it, your eyes widening in surprise.

"Haru, could you say that again?" you asked, voice trembling with emotion.

“Huh?”

“Just now, could you repeat it?”

Sakura grumbled, scrunching his flushed crimson face into a grimace. "Y-You idiot!! I already said it!!!"

"But I want to hear it again…" you pouted, feigning sadness, making Sakura blush even further, his ears a deep crimson.

"Tch… I'm just telling you, if you disappear one day, I'm just going to find you, and I'll keep trying until I do."

ღ KYOTARO SUGISHITA ─ ❀ °. ⁺ ♡

SUGISHITA is eerily silent. Usually, that wouldn't be as much cause for concern, but there was something different in Sugishita's expression that unnerved you. Disappearing? That was a joke, right? No… you probably meant something else. You did mention that you planned to go out to buy groceries later that week. Could it be because of that? Or perhaps…

Sugishita, in his inward panic, grabs your arm with a grip tight enough to completely cut off the blood circulation to the rest of your body. "You're… going to leave? How? …When? W-Why?"

You could see that Sugishita was becoming increasingly anxious, his mind seeming to be practically in another dimension. With a pat on his head, you reassure him that you meant it all as a hypothetical question and that you aren't going to leave by any means. But the damage had been done. Sugishita, being the worrywart, needed far more confirmation than just that.

And just like Choji, for the next few days, Sugishita would be watching your moves like a hawk, standing at your side, towering over you. His eyes follow your every move. His piercing eyes staring into your soul felt almost suffocating, but it was clear that he couldn't bear the thought of losing you, even for a single moment.

Umemiya, with his usual bravado, burst out into laughter as he claps Sugishita's flushed cheeks repeatedly, reassuring him once more that it was nothing but a mere misunderstanding and a curiosity for his answer on his part. Hiragi agreed, nodding his head along.

Nonsense, Sugishita thinks with a wry face. He will be the one to ensure your safety, replaced by a type of intensity that makes you feel, while protected, also slightly on edge with the burning stare that he insists on maintaining to keep watch, even when you shoo him away.

You knew that his actions came from a place of love from when you initially asked him that question, but even so, did you really need him to stand outside your classroom door…?

ღ JO TOGAME ─ ❀ °. ⁺ ♡

Your words would kick his mind into gear almost instantaneously. TOGAME's thoughts raced, his aloof demeanour spinning around in circles like a pertueral carousel as he considered the possibility. Togame eventually came to the harrowing conclusion that he wasn't enough for you, that you felt neglected, or worse, unhappy being with him. 

He stared at you, his eyes wide. "What do you mean by 'disappear'?" he asked, his voice trembling a bit despite his efforts to keep it steady.

Just the mere thought of that made his stomach churn and his chest tighten. He couldn't bear the idea of losing you, even if through the lens of a mere hypothetical question. Togame, usually so stoic and composed, felt his facade crumble before your very eyes. Regardless, he was still intent on proving his worth and winning you back, all in the name of rectifying whatever he had failed to do.

You could see the pure, unfiltered, raw emotion in his eyes, the sheer terror of losing you. "Oh no, Jo, I didn't mean it seriously! I was just curious," you said in hopes of soothing him, but the worry etched on his face didn't fade. Not in the slightest.

"...it's not something I can just ignore," he said, voice growing firmer. "If you ever feel that way, if you ever think about leaving, please, talk to me first and we can communicate… Let me fix whatever is wrong. l, whatever it is. Because the thought of you not being in my life is unbearable…" He reached out, taking your hands in his shaky ones. “You want to know my answer? I would search for you everywhere, and do anything to bring you back. You mean far too much to me to just let you go…”

His vulnerability was laid bare, even to your own surprise, who didn't expect this from a mere question. But that’s just it. It wasn’t a mere question to him.

Togame would do anything to prove his love to you, to ensure that you never felt the need to ask such a question again. And in that, he certainly succeeded, because you would never doubt his devotion to you again, not that you did to begin with, but knew that it was a slippery slope and a topic to avoid when with him.

But, for good measure, after that conversation fiasco, Togame had taken up a new hobby. And you were more than happy until you realized what that "hobby" of his entailed, as friends or practically anybody who was an unfortunate passerby, would immediately notice a bodyguard-like figure constantly by your side. That is, until they saw the brute clinging onto you like a man desperate for even a whiff of your attention.

©hxnbi. comments, reblogs, and likes are always appreciated ♡

[osaemu]

GOJO SATORU: GUILTY CONSCIENCE

✩ ‧ ˚. serial killer!au: ever since that first night, you can't get him off your mind—and even though you handed him over to law enforcement, it looks like he still wants you too. PART 1 | NSFW

contents: fem!reader. porn with plot, dubcon, semi-public sex (in a bathroom), oral (m. receiving), fingering (f. receiving), pet names (detective, princess, smart girl, pretty girl, etc.), gojo cums in your mouth. non-sexual threatening. non-sexual usage of knives/guns. more plot than porn. this is not good for you btw !!! 4K words.

author's note: pls appreciate your smut writers bc this shit is hard !!!! the sk!series might be over after this one bc i'm not feeling it anymore, but nothing's set in stone yet. posting this for the ppl who wanted a part two, but personally i would've just left it as a standalone.. oh well, i didn't want 4K words to go to waste, so enjoy 🤍

“satoru gojo, what are we going to do with you?” your subordinate asks, resting his hands on the table dividing the dim interrogation room in two. you and your coworker sit on one side, facing the serial killer on the other side—who also happens to be the man you fucked in an alley two weeks ago.

ever since that first encounter, you haven’t been able to get his face out of your mind. at work, his ice blue eyes haunted your every move. at home, he was all you could picture as your mind strayed back to your time beneath him. and now, as you and your boss interrogate him, all you can think about is how good satoru’s hands felt roaming over your skin when you cornered him—or, more accurately, when he cornered you.

“i dunno,” satoru replies, leaning back in his chair and resting his hands behind his head. he grins shamelessly, looking you up and down with interest. “so, pretty girl, how’ve you been since we last met?”

you slip your hands into your pockets to stop yourself from doing something you’ll regret and ignore the curious look your coworker gives you. “this meeting isn’t about me. this is about the people you killed and the punishment you’re about to get,” you answer through gritted teeth.

satoru laughs, eyes locking with yours and seeing right through you. “that’s funny. so, who’s this shrimpy guy next to you? your boyfriend?” he jeers, grinning unnervingly at your coworker. you shoot your subordinate an apologetic look, which he responds to with a nod.

“i’m her boss, actually,” he clarifies, running a hand through his blonde hair and narrowing his eyes. “kento nanami. and i’ve been referred to as a lot of things, but shrimpy is a first.” satoru makes a face and laughs, as if he’s amused by the whole scene. 

“really? i’m surprised,” satoru replies easily. “i mean, whatever. i’ve seen better looking officers… like the one next to you.” he looks back at you, a careless smile still dancing on his lips. kento frowns and looks back and forth from you to satoru, and you force yourself to maintain a poker face in order to detract any suspicion.

“do you two know each other?” kento asks, crossing his arms. satoru starts laughing again, to which you roll your eyes. even if satoru were to tell kento what you hadn’t—that you two had fucked when you were supposed to be arresting him—you doubted that kento would believe him. after all, what’s the word of an obnoxious criminal compared to yours?

you shake your head and ignore satoru. “i’m the one who’s been leading the investigation on him for the past couple months,” you answer. kento meets your eyes and cocks an eyebrow, so you continue, “we met two weeks ago. i cornered him, but he escaped—”

“she let me,” satoru interjects, clearly enjoying the death glare you shoot at him a second later.

“you held a gun to my forehead,” you remind him pointedly, tapping the spot on your head where you vividly remember the cold metal resting against. 

“yeah, but i kissed it aft—”

“we’re getting off-topic,” kento interrupts, shooting you a warning glance. “detective, i’ll handle the interrogation from here.”

you hesitate, not liking how smug satoru’s expression is—but, seeing as you don’t have a choice, you dip your head in assent and exit the room. 

now that satoru’s been caught and is now in the grasp of the law, you don’t really have anything to do for the rest of the day. he was your case, and now, it looks like it’s closed, especially if your boss is the one interrogating him.

kento nanami has a reputation among law enforcement—he’s known as the stoic, serious man with a perfect record. there hasn’t been a single criminal he’s interrogated that hasn’t cracked, although the knot in your stomach tells you that this might be the first.

a sharp knock sounds on your office door, summoning you back from your train of thought. “it’s open,” you call, holding a piping hot coffee with both hands. kento opens the door and steps inside, eyebrows unusually tensed. his hands are balled into fists, too, in stark contrast to his characteristically calm demeanor. 

“something wrong?” you ask tentatively, studying your boss’s troubled eyes.

kento takes a seat in the leather chair in the corner of your office and rests his elbow on the armrest, rubbing his temples. “detective, be honest with me. what happened the night you were supposed to arrest satoru gojo?”

for the first time since satoru pinned you to the wall of a darkened alley, your heart drops. kento’s knowing eyes watch your every move, from the subtle twitch in your eye to the way your fingers tense around the cup of coffee. “what do you mean?” you ask carefully, surprised at how steady your own voice is.

“detective, don’t play games with me,” kento asserts calmly, hand casually drifting towards the side of his waist. you know him well enough to know what he’s reaching for—the same instrument that another man pressed against your forehead just two weeks ago.

despite your mind being clouded with fear and uncertainty, you manage to rationalize your way through the situation. what proof could your boss possibly have besides the word of a criminal? 

it’s your word against his—and you both know whose word kento’ll believe.

“that night, he threatened to kill me,” you start, repeating the story you told the authorities when they came ten minutes too late to catch satoru. “and he must’ve drugged me or knocked me unconscious because next thing i knew, he was gone.” your confidence grows with every word, and you start nodding as if you believe your own lies.

kento’s eyes narrow, and you force yourself to hold your poker face as he scrutinizes you and your words. three long, painful seconds of silence pass before his hand moves away from the holster strapped to his waist, and you internally sigh in relief. he stands without a word and makes to exit the room, but before he does, you risk it all. “why do you ask, sir?”

your boss pauses and turns back to you, eyebrows lifting in mild interest. he doesn’t answer immediately, and you tentatively ask, “...what did he tell you?”

kento exhales a soft huff of air, a look of dread in his brown eyes. “detective, for your own peace of mind, i assure you that you don’t want to know.”

well, fuck.

“i trust your judgement, then,” you reply, feeling your poker face start to slip away. you lift your now-cold cup of coffee to your lips and take a sip, attempting to hide the grimace that threatens to make an appearance. “have a good night, boss.”

“you too, detective. stay safe.”

“i’ll do my best.”

kento nods and heads out, and through your open window you watch him tell another one of your coworkers about how he’s planning on heading out early to make bread for his family, a gentle smile on his lips. eventually, he waves bye and exits the building.

you finish off your coffee and stand up, fishing out your key card from your pocket. you figure that you should head to the bathroom before you go home, just in case. a couple of your coworkers congratulate you when you come out of your office, praising you on the capture of your suspect. you take their compliments with a smile, ultimately wishing them a good night and escaping to the bathroom.

the door clicks shut behind you, and the comfortable quiet eases you at once. but before you can even appreciate the silence of the confined room, a sultry, familiar voice interrupts your thoughts. “aw, you weren’t gonna say bye before you left?”

you turn and your mouth drops open—standing before you, in the flesh, is the criminal you swore you last saw handcuffed to a chair.

“what the fu—”

satoru reaches out and grabs your wrist before you can scurry away or grab your phone. he pulls you into his chest, and you can feel his heartbeat against your back—at least, that’s what you notice before he clamps his hand over your mouth to stifle your yells.

“shut it,” satoru hisses, breath hot against the side of your face. he turns you towards the mirror of the bathroom so you can see how he’s holding you—one hand over your mouth, and one wrapped around your waist. “don’t try anything clever, sweetheart. i wouldn’t wanna have to hurt that pretty face of yours.”

you turn your head and glare at him furiously, cussing like a sailor against his hand. you eventually try to bite it, but your meager attack is essentially useless against his iron grip. satoru raises his eyebrows sternly and hushes you again, ice-blue eyes boring into your own. 

“i’ll answer your questions, honey, but be careful,” he pauses and nods at his pocket, where the handle of what appears to be a knife—how the fuck did he get his hands on a knife?—pokes out of the cloth. “okay, i’m gonna take my hand off your mouth now,” he murmurs, purposefully lowering his voice.

true to his word, satoru removes his hand from your mouth. you take a long breath and hesitate—again, there’s not much you can do in this situation but play along. if he’s telling the truth, you can ask questions and he can answer them, so you try your hand at getting some information and biding time. someone would have to walk in the bathroom eventually, right?

“by the way,” satoru starts, a grin curving the corners of his lips upward. “nobody’s gonna come save you, princess. the door’s locked from the inside.” he also removes his hand from your waist, letting you take a step back.

“how?” you ask suspiciously, unsure if he’s telling the truth or not.

satoru laughs—his hair falls into his eyes, and immediately shakes it away with a huff of breath. “i’m good with my hands. but you already know that, don’t ya?”

you back away towards the other side of the bathroom, where sinks line the quartz countertop. “why aren’t you still in the interrogation room?”

“you think you’re the only girl i can convince to let me go?” satoru tuts, clicking his tongue disapprovingly. he reaches into his pocket—not the one with the knife—and extracts a badge of some sort. satoru flicks it at you, and you catch it in midair. to your surprise, it’s the badge of one of your superiors who was supposed to be keeping an eye on satoru. the coy smile on satoru’s face confirms what you’re thinking, and his nod seals it the next second. 

“okay,” you say carefully, drawing out the word for a couple seconds. “how long have you been waiting here?”

“long enough,” satoru answers vaguely, not bothering to elaborate.

“thanks a lot,” you deadpan.

“nice to see that you’re still feisty—”

“and what the hell did you tell my boss?” you interrupt, suddenly remembering the dread-filled way kento had looked at you. the way your voice rises is unexpected enough to force satoru to involuntarily take a step back. it’s not much, but the step you take forward a second later to assert your position brings you a small feeling of satisfaction. after all, he’s only human—and all humans get surprised by loud noises.

satoru holds up his hands in mock surrender and eyes you skeptically. “you’re really worried about your boss’s approval, aren’t you?” he asks dryly, white hair falling into his eyes again. “heh, desperate much?”

you roll your eyes and curl your hands into fists—unfortunately, your action only seems to amuse satoru, but you ignore the little “aw” he coos and continue glaring at him. “answer the fucking question, satoru.”

“language,” he snorts. a second later, satoru cocks his head and thinks for a moment, and when his eyes land on you again he asks, “so, you’re still callin’ me satoru? cute.”

your face involuntarily heats up, and even though you’re sure satoru can tell, you pretend not to notice—again. “answer the question or i’ll scream.”

“you wouldn’t dare.”

“wouldn’t i?”

you don’t get the chance to fufill your threat, because satoru sees that you’re serious a second too early—everything’s a blur as he grabs your wrists and bunches them into one hand, firmly securing your hands behind your back. his chest rests on top of your back as he folds you over the bathroom counter, and his reflection leers at you from the mirror. “nice try, baby. but remember, you’re dealin’ with a world-class serial killer.”

“world-class? how humble of you,” you snap irritably, craning your neck to glare at satoru out of the corner of your eye. “you asshole, get off me or i’ll—”

satoru interrupts you by prodding at your lips with two of his fingers, forcing your mouth open and slipping them inside. you instantly attempt to bite him, but his fingers are so long that they trigger your gag reflex instead. “missed me, detective?” satoru coos, curling his fingers downwards and pressing on your tongue. a little whine involuntarily slips out of your lips, and satoru takes that as a yes. “yeah, i can tell,” he continues, studying your heated face in the reflection of the mirror. “i bet you couldn’t stop thinkin’ about me since that night, yeah?”

he doesn’t bother waiting for a response before he extracts his fingers and leaves you gasping for breath. you watch as satoru lifts his now-soaked fingers to his lips and runs his tongue over them, ice-blue eyes boring into your own. it’s disgusting, filthy even, but that doesn’t stop your thighs from clenching together in a futile attempt to hide your arousal from him.

“y’know, i think you’re wearing too many clothes,” satoru sighs, resting his chin on top of your head and smiling coyly. “wanna fix that for me?”

“do i have a choice?”

“no.” satoru pushes himself off of you and gives you enough space to start removing your clothes without his smothering presence. the idea of running away or screaming crosses your mind, but the serial killer’s smile makes you certain that you’d regret it—and that’s even disregarding the knife that’s still shining at you from his pocket. 

seeing as you don’t really have any other option, you slowly shrug off your coat and let it slide down your body and onto the floor. your collared shirt comes off next, followed by your pants, until there’s hardly anything shielding you from satoru’s hungry eyes. the feeling stirring in the pit of your stomach is hard to describe—it’s something like a mix between longing and fear, two emotions you hadn’t felt since that night.

and maybe, even though every instinct you have insists that this is the last thing you should be finding pleasure in, you want to feel that way again.

“you really coulda been anything in the world with that body,” satoru sighs, leaning back against a wall and taking his sweet time looking you up and down. his eyes narrow slyly as he watches you shrink away from him instinctually, and the next thing you know, he’s on you again, hands tracing over your skin and lips unbearably close to yours. “although, i guess it’s a good thing you’re a detective, ‘cause i wouldn’t have met you if you weren’t.”

you shouldn’t be agreeing with him, and as he lifts you up onto the counter, you also know that you shouldn’t be letting him do this. it goes against everything you swore to protect when you joined law enforcement, and if this ever got out—no, when it got out, you’d be the pariah of the city.

but even after thinking it through, one, two, maybe even three times, you can’t find it in your heart to care about much else than the hands pushing apart your thighs and slipping inside your shamelessly wet cunt.

“heh, how long has it been since we last did this?” satoru coos, eyes glazing over with a mixture of lust and adoration. his face is redder than you’ve ever seen it—the blush spreads all the way up to the tips of his ears, and it’s even more prominent underneath the overhead lights as he eyes you. “two weeks, right? feels like it’s been twenty.”

“do you ever shut up?” you mutter sourly, averting your eyes from satoru’s. he responds by curling up the two fingers he has inside your cunt, a mean little smile on his lips. 

“careful with that mouth of yours,” satoru warns, pushing his fingers in farther until he’s practically knuckle-deep inside of you. his thumb rests firmly against your clit, toying with the sensitive skin. “it’ll get you in trouble one day, pretty girl…” satoru withdraws his fingers in one swift motion with a soft, wet pop. he lifts his hand to his lips and licks off your slick, swiping his tongue over his fingers a couple times with a smile. “y’know what? i’ll let you go if you can do one thing for me, ‘kay?”

he waits for your response, raising an eyebrow patiently for you to catch your breath. it almost feels like deja vu, or some cheesy movie from the 90’s: the pretty little detective getting fucked by the big bad serial killer, and you know how these films always ended—not pretty.

“what?” you ask halfheartedly, expecting him to ask you to do something like erase him from the police records or sabotage the investigation. satoru cups your face with both hands, leaning in close enough for his lips to brush against yours, and his smile is almost mocking when he replies.

“suck my dick.”

part of you wants to ask “that’s it?”, but the glimmer in satoru’s knowing eyes makes you certain that he won’t make this easy for you. 

“what if i say no?” you ask tentatively. it’s a stupid question—now you’re just playing russian roulette with his rationality, and either way, you already know your decision.

the past two weeks have been torture. every waking moment of yours was spent thinking about the man you fucked, and every time you thought of his carefree smile and feather-light touch, you just felt guilty for wanting more. after all, when you first became a detective, you swore to prioritize your job and not make any personal relationships with your subjects. and yet, here you were, almost too eager to get on your knees for the serial killer who you swore to incapacitate. 

satoru shrugs nonchalantly in response to your question and not-so-subtly shoots a furtive glance at his pocket, where the handle of his knife still pokes out. “you’re a smart girl. i think you can guess, yeah?”

and that’s how you ended up with your lips wrapped around satoru’s dick for the seventh time (if you include every fantasy you’ve had about giving him head). it’s almost funny how he switches up the second you run your tongue over his blushing pink tip—his face goes red, all the way up to his ears, and the little breathy moans that slip out of his lips would be adorable in any other context but this.

“f-fuck, wasn’t expecting you to be this good,” he manages to mutter through gritted teeth, eyes fluttering open and shut. “where’d you learn to suck dick like this, heh—”

it’s been.. a while since satoru first helped you get on your knees in front of him and unzipped his pants, and even though it could’ve just been a couple minutes, it feels like this is all you’ve ever known. satoru’s ice blue eyes have barely moved from you since you started, and it looks like it’ll stay like that until you finish—or, more accurately, until he finishes.

satoru’s foot bounces on the floor as you lick a long stripe from the tip of his dick to the top of it, and the way his nails dig into his palm makes you absolutely certain that he’s close to cumming down your throat. “shit, don’t— don’t stop,” he chokes out, threading his fingers through your hair and involuntarily pushing down your head. “fuck—”

when satoru finally cums, it’s pitifully obvious—actually, it’s almost embarrassing. last time, you were the one in shambles when he was done with you, but now, it looks like it’s the other way around. his eyes flicker as they almost roll back from the sheer pleasure of you sucking him dry, and when satoru’s cum shoots out of his painfully hard dick, it’s a hot mess that leaks out of your mouth and down your chin. 

“y-yeah, good girl,” he murmurs shakily, reaching down and swiping his thumb over your cum-soaked, swollen lips. you lick off the thick, viscous liquid from his fingers instinctually, a dazed little smile on your face as you watch satoru tilt his head back towards the ceiling.

it’s interesting, seeing the city’s infamous serial killer like this. he’s leaning back against the white tile of the bathroom walls, chest heaving from his orgasm, and in that moment, you realize that his attention is on everything else but you. 

so, naturally, you stab him in the back.

not literally—that’d be a pain for your office’s custodian to clean up, but you extract the knife from satoru’s discarded pants and, before he can register the sharp object in your shaky hand, you press it to his blush-red throat. 

satoru’s hazy eyes widen in disbelief as he realizes what’s going on before they narrow in what looks almost like a mix between anger and shock. it’s stupid, foolish, and almost naive, but somewhere in your chest, it feels like a dagger pokes at your softened heart when you categorize the look in his eyes as betrayal. which is, by all accounts, entirely unreasonable—did he seriously think you wouldn’t take advantage of him like this?

at the end of the day, no matter how good the dick was, you weren’t about to sacrifice your well-paying job for a man on the run from the law.

“what the fuck?” satoru snaps, hand twitching in a movement to throw you off of him, but thankfully, the sudden shift in atmosphere heightened your instincts to a point where nothing could possibly catch you off-guard. you dig in the knife a millimeter deeper into his throat, avoiding eye contact with the man you just made cum with your mouth. “are you—”

“yeah, i am,” you assert, biding time. as much as you’d like to pretend that you’re completely in control of the situation, there’s only so long that you can hold up this stalemate. satoru’s stronger than you physically, and the second he figures out a way to handle the knife pressed to his neck, he’d get his revenge.

satoru comes to this conclusion about as fast as you did, and his lips curve upwards in a jeering smile. the look in his eyes is borderline insane when he snarls, “nobody’s gonna rescue you from me, princess. just you wait—”

and, with perfect comedic timing, the bathroom door opens, and one of your female co-workers steps in. you’ve never talked to her much, but thankfully, her instincts are even faster than yours.

what happens next goes by in a haze. your co-worker holds a gun to the side satoru’s head, and calls for backup. then, a handful of sleepy-eyed police officers haul away a cursing and fighting satoru to who-knows-where.

but just before he’s out of sight, satoru shoots you an unsettlingly calm look. and as if that wasn’t concerning enough, the last words he mouths to you are “this isn’t over.”

[abyssalzones]

can you tell us about your interpretation of the better world universe!!!! especially curious how stan/mystery trio works into it

hell yesssss I definitely can. ABW is maybe my favorite niche gf thing and probably the only "AU" I care about but that may be due to the fact that it's an AU that exists in the canon and we know so little about it. so it has an established foundation that you're left to fill in the details with yourself... it's like a poke bowl to me. you can put anything in there

and since I felt like it here's a bonus pic of them living their best lives pestering ford

[explanation-y stuff under ze cut because I got very longwinded]

as for specifics of how I see everything working out, there's a few key points that establish why things happened differently from canon, the most important being:

Stan agrees to hide journal #3 somewhere

Ford reunites with fiddleford and they begin working together again

both of these are already confirmed in canon, the first being the most obvious "schism" between timelines. literally everything in ABW is the way it is because stan made a different decision. kind of crazy in terms of its implications: I feel like that moment in the basement is a really good example of how stan gets so few opportunities to shape her own life (while ford is in the picture...) because of her role as the 'black sheep' twin. it's not exactly a premeditated decision to push ford into the portal, it's her acting on feelings that have been bubbling unaddressed under the surface for 10-something years at that point, and only then does she have any sort of power over the "narrative" of both her life and the story itself, something that from her pov has been ford's story. and in the canon timeline, she says no.

so like, what the hell made her say yes in ABW's timeline? this question kind of haunts me because I feel like it has to be entirely dependent on what the inside of stan's head looked like at the time. it's possible something influenced her, but overall I think it's more interesting if ford did and said all the exact same things up until this point and it really was entirely dependent on stan's decision internally.

so stan says yes, goes on a big trip to the other side of the world somehow, and buries journal 3 somewhere probably never to be found again. yay! but, uh, going on a trip like ford was suggesting would... take weeks. that would leave ford alone again. and not to have my established thoughts informed by new material or anything but bill did give him 72 hours.

so, next order of business: how in the fuck would ford convince fiddleford to rejoin him??? I'm unsure between journal 3 and tbob's information how ford may have tried to reach out to him but it seems like fiddleford was pretty adamant about staying away from that guy, out of guilt or fear of bill/the portal or both. I don't think logically it would just be a matter of ford calling him enough times or finding out where he lives- and I think that's kind of getting away from the point of why ABW is the way it is too. if stan is suddenly making decisions that are influencing ford's life, I think it would be similarly interesting if fiddleford also possessed some unique autonomy in this scenario.

aka I think ford got fucked up badly (possibly involving losing an eye) and fiddleford found him half-dead while trying to burn his house down. [mabel voice] romance!

to clarify: I don't think fiddleford is obligated to take care of ford. a major part of him leaving the project was finally making the decision to leave a situation that was hurting him, that he'd been staying in entirely because he still cared about ford and felt on some level he could still help him (which gets broken with "I don't need you!") and I think that's a very reasonable decision on his part. but I also do have to think about all the times ford has been "the hero" in situations where fiddleford ends up hurt and helpless because of something traumatizing. I think it'd be fascinating to see that reversed and have fiddleford actively making the difficult, messy decision to take care of that guy even when they're on miserable terms. and so begins like a solid week of these two desperately trying to look out for eachother in a nightmare scenario where one of them probably needs to go to a hospital + keeps getting possessed off and on and the other is going through the worst addiction/withdrawal cycle of his life irt the memory gun. yay! (part of the reason this even works To Me also is heavily informed by the lack of secrets: if fiddleford is actively dressing that guy's wounds he can't really keep it all to himself anymore. crushingly intimate perhaps...)

stan gets back eventually. such is the context of this pic

from there it's a nebulous grab-bag of things I think could happen up to the foundation of the institute.

how do all three of these incredibly fucked up individuals get along? well they don't but then they do.

how do they get bill out of ford's head without performing amateur brain surgery? idk. my best guess is a fiddleford and stan bonding trip into ford's mindscape that potentially helps answer the first question. possibly utilizing the memory gun. shrugs.

what's up with that one picture you drew of parallel fidds holding the memory gun up to ford's head? well. okay that one might or might not be something that actually happened but the idea was just that ford is coping badly with a few specific things and I liked the idea of fiddleford "holding onto" something for him to remember and work through later when he's ready to deal with it, it's an interesting reversal of how he's normally more of a memory sink.

from the point in canon about them stabilizing the portal so that bill can't use it to get into their dimension anymore onward, I think it just becomes a matter of them living the lives they could've always had in canon without realizing it. hence "a better world." some cool tidbits I like to think about:

stan gets to transition much earlier (late 1990's perhaps?) and probably starts going by "lee" instead

she's also the institute's CMO and is mostly in it for going on business trips abroad with ford. and the money. obviously.

the institute probably also legitimately changes the world on a sociopolitical scale outside of just interdimensional travel since their research renders them uniquely untouchable and all three of them are trans (I'm cartoon logic-ing a little bit here just let me have this one)

ford is the eccentric bill nye esque face of the company, fiddleford is the backbone. that isn't to say ford doesn't do anything as I think he'd always moreso be in it for the science than the fame (though it is nice to be more than comfortable financially) but it's an open secret fiddleford keeps tabs on literally everything, he's still very security-oriented.

the northwest family now has a more prominent ongoing rivalry with the pines family that could be very funny to think about. they've taken all the LOGGING JOBS with their damn SCIENCE

part of the reason I thought ford should lose an eye is because I think having him wear an eyepatch would be a neat way to parallel stan's "role" as mr. mystery visually! stan wears an eyepatch for no legitimate reason to keep up appearances as a schlocky tourist trap host, but it also alludes to her being more than she seems under the surface. ford's eyepatch does sort of have a legitimate reason to exist, but he also could just wear his glass eye and it would probably be less "conspicuous." he chooses the eyepatch instead because it's part of his image as Stanford Pines, Founder of Oddology, and because it keeps him safe. there's also a little residual scarring there from damage to his eyelid/tarsal plate which could easily represent him hiding the more "damaged" aspects of himself under his successes. ouch.

I'm unsure if ford and stan would ever feel comfortable getting back in touch with their parents. I know a lot of people go that route with fan material but I don't think they should have to. I think they're much happier now having healed the rift between them on their own and getting to live successful lives for themselves, rather than to prove something to their father.

that being said I do think fiddleford gets in touch with emma-may and his son again and they end up on better terms with time and a Lot of effort. tate's family is now composed of his father, mother, "uncle" ford (in the ye olde gay closeted sense of referring to your dad's partner as an uncle), and auntie lee, and I like to think they go out on trips to the lake together often :]

also ford and fiddleford tie the knot unofficially (in the eyes of the government anyway) in 1990. owed to stan somehow getting "ordained" as a rabbi. don't ask me how.

the pines twins start visiting the institute from a younger age than they do irt visiting stan in the show-- but they're only permitted to come along on heavily-supervised interdimensional excursions once they turn 12. cue antics!

anyway, hopefully this extremely longwinded and loosely structured mess helped answer your question. I like ABW sooo so so much you guys

[moonstruckme]

i want this to be a series even if i'm the only one who will read it

would you do more royal!au sirius x reader??? please??? i mean the fluff and the banter alone are ripe for more situations but the smut of banging in a castle in formal wear or the angst of some great big political problem??? i'm here for it allllllll

only if you're interested in it

Absolutely I would! Thanks for requesting lovely ;)

cw: nausea, controlling family dynamics

prince!Sirius x princess!reader ♡ 2.1k words

You lie atop your bed, rubbing the sheets between your thumb and pointer finger. You estimate their thread count is about ten gazillion. The duvet piled by your feet is probably stuffed with feathers of a goose hatched from a golden egg and raised with a silver spoon right here in the palace. It all makes you feel slightly nauseous to think about. 

Though in fairness, the nausea could be from any number of things. The several courses of rich foods you had to force down over dinner with the Black family, the way Sirius’ eyes seemed to flicker every time they passed over you, the many, many hours of memorization you’d put in only to set your fork on the wrong edge of the plate when you wanted to signal you were finished eating, or perhaps the conversation you had with your grandmother and her council of advisors in her office afterwards. 

All in all, you’re really only waiting to either be violently sick or fall asleep. Whichever comes first. 

A knock on the door makes you sit up slowly. No one usually cares to see you past dinnertime. You wonder for a moment if you’ve misheard, if someone knocked further down the hall and the sound carried. 

Then it comes again. You get up. 

Sirius’ mouth is already half curved when you open the door, but his smile blooms as he takes you in from head to toe. 

“My,” he leans against your doorframe, looking positively delighted, “don’t you look cozy.” 

Your cheeks flame. You hadn’t been expecting any visitors when you’d put on your pajama bottoms and giant, graphic nightshirt. Sirius is also the most casual you’ve seen him in a gray sweatshirt and dark jeans, but he’s still wearing clothes, which means he’s still dressed better than you. You fear this is an inevitability you may never escape with him. 

“I’m having an early night,” you say.  

He frowns. “Oh. Really? What could I do to persuade you not to?” 

You feel your eyebrows rise. “What would you be persuading me to do instead?” 

“I’ve been thinking,” Sirius says, looking you in the eyes, “we should go out.” 

You feel acid in the back of your throat. You nearly choke on it. “We—you and me?” 

“I see how that wording could be confusing. I don’t mean like a date,” he clarifies. You let out a breath, and his grin renews. “Not that I would ever deny you one, gorgeous, if that’s what you wanted. But what I had in mind was more of an introduction to the kingdom.” 

Your stomach settles a bit. The inside of your lip finds its way between your teeth. “What do you mean?” 

“Well, it doesn’t seem like you’ve gotten out much since you’ve been here. Am I wrong?” 

You shake your head. 

Sirius’ smile is almost gentle. “I know it’s a bit unorthodox, because I’m not from here and your family rules this place, but I’ve actually been here quite a lot. I could show you around the town, get you acquainted with some worthwhile haunts.” He pauses, analyzing your reaction. “There’s a bakery not far from here that has the most incredible apple pastries this time of year, best I’ve had. They only use seasonal ingredients.” 

There’s an uneasy feeling about this, about him, an allure and a simultaneous urge to run. But you’re intrigued. “The best you’ve had?” 

His eyes flash with satisfaction. “Change quickly. They close at ten.” 

Sirius proves his prowess quickly. He brings you into town off the main road and says a few words to your guards that have them keeping a furtive distance from the both of you. To any passerby along the lamplit streets, you look like a regular couple. Intentionally or not, Sirius’ hand in yours completes the image. 

He pulls you into a coffee shop first, coerces you into trying a specialty latte and promises it won’t matter when you order it decaf. You make it to the bakery just before close, and Sirius orders not only the apple pastries but some with pear and a few with blackberry and one muffin for each of you to have tomorrow morning. He charms everyone behind the counter so effortlessly the owner gives you the muffins for free. 

You end up sitting on the grass at the edge of a park, on a hill sloping downward towards the street. Admittedly, you’ve not put much thought into the kingdom you’re allegedly supposed to run someday. It still feels like some kind of fraudulence to sleep in your bedroom in the palace, and the idea of being a princess to this place doesn’t feel any more real now that you’re seeing it up close. 

But this is a town you could love, you think. It’s the sort of place you might have traveled, before, and imagined your life in. Maybe a job at the bakery, grabbing coffee before your early mornings, indistinguishable from any of the other locals strolling around and chatting with shopkeepers and wearing their footprints into the ground. It’s hard not to imagine it even now, though you know your role in this place is far less quaint.

“Mmmmygod,” Sirius moans, licking sugary apple glaze from the corner of his mouth. “Your palate is not prepared for this. Don’t let it get cold.” 

You fish your apple pastry out of the bag obediently, taking a bite. It’s warm and soft, the dough flattening over your tongue. You close your eyes, and the flavor blooms. 

“Wow.” 

“Right?” He sounds downright gleeful, excited for you in a way that’s out of keeping with the refined, stately way you’re both usually expected to behave. 

“You were right. It’s really good.” You give him a smile and take another bite before putting the pastry away. 

Sirius cocks an eyebrow at you, his expression unabashedly judgemental. “You’re not going to finish it?” 

“Dinner didn’t sit very well with me,” you say apologetically. “You can have the rest, if you want.” 

“Oh.” His countenance melds into something like sympathy. “That’s alright, you can reheat it tomorrow if you like. Are you not feeling well?” 

You press your lips into a smile. “I’m okay.” 

“They’ve been running you pretty ragged, yeah? It must be a lot.” 

“I’m okay,” you say again, softer. 

You think the polite thing would be to at least act like he believes you, but Sirius doesn’t. You can feel his gaze on your face as you look out over the town. He’s been a bit different tonight, you think. Still ridiculous and jovial and loud, but gentler at times. Friendly in a more sincere way. Kind. 

You take a breath. “Can I ask you something?” 

You can practically feel the lift of his eyebrows. “Maybe,” he answers, half humorous. 

“Did you know our families have been trying to arrange our marriage?” 

There’s a thick pause. You watch a couple of the lights in windows go out. 

Sirius’ sigh is heavy. “Honestly? I suspected.”

You turn towards him, your throat tightening with nausea and fright and half a dozen other emotions you haven’t identified yet. Sirius is still looking at you, his mouth twisted in a grimace. 

“My family doesn’t tend to see fit to involve me in these things, even when they pertain to me,” he says somewhat bitterly, “but I know how my parents operate. It’s not rare for us to have visits here, but these last couple since you arrived have involved much more nice-making than usual.” He leans back on his forearms, tilting his face to the sky. For the first time since you’ve met him you think that he looks almost tired. “I suppose us appearing to get along at the ball probably didn’t help matters. They’re always looking for someone who can ‘tame’ me. Now they likely think you’re it.” 

You fight to keep your tone even. “Can they just do that? Make us get married?” 

“Well, clearly it’s not that easy, or we would be.” Sirius seems to be musing aloud. His eyes trace the stars, voice low and thoughtful. “I imagine the holdup is on your side of things. My family would love to be rid of me, but your lot may not want to take me on.” 

“I’m sure that’s not true,” you say, but your voice is growing wispy, your vision blurring. 

Sirius sits up. “Hey.” He sounds upset, but his hand on your shoulder is gentle. “Don’t do that. It’s not as bad as it seems, it’ll be okay.” 

“Sorry.” You jam your fingertips into your eyes, trying to keep tears from leaking out. “I’m sorry, I’ve just never felt so…out of control before.” 

Lately, that’s all you’ve felt. Helpless, robbed of your autonomy. You eat and wear and say what you’re told to, you need guards to go out and get pastries, and now the rest of your life is being practically given away to some other kingdom so that your family can rest easy knowing trade agreements are well solidified. 

“I know,” Sirius murmurs. His palm runs a couple inches down your arm, then back up again. It’s the most tentative you’ve seen him. “You’re not, though, really. They can scheme all they want, but nothing has to happen unless both of us get in front of an altar and say ‘I do.’ No one can actually make us go through with it.” 

You lower your hands enough to look at him, and he gives you a sideways smile. 

“I’d be more than happy to be the one to ruin us, if you like. I have a reputation for foiling my parents’ plans anyway. You can even act betrayed. The gracious new princess, and the wayward prince who wouldn’t be bound to her.” 

You worry the inside of your lip. “I wouldn’t want to throw you under the bus.” 

“Sweet of you, doll, but I’m already under there. No sense in taking you with me.” 

He takes another pastry out of the bag, resolved and resigned. You study him. Your life has been nothing but change lately. One terrifying revelation leading to the next, seemingly following a structure you’re not privy to. You haven’t had time to get your feet under you in your new life, constantly being told you’re doing things wrong or getting introduced to new important people or having your manners corrected. This is only your first time getting out into the town where you live! You don’t feel ready to be married. 

But through all the madness of your new life, Sirius has been an odd sort of constant. Kind, and grounding, and casual even when it’s improper. He’s been a real friend to you, the only person who stops to ask how you’re doing and seemingly wants an honest answer. You’ve come to take comfort in him. 

“Do you really think my family is keeping us from…” You find you can’t say it, but Sirius catches your drift anyway. 

“It’s the only explanation I can come up with,” he replies. “Or, not keeping us from it, necessarily, but slowing the process. They’re likely negotiating something to do with the trade agreement, making sure I’m a worthwhile deal for them to take on.” 

“How long does negotiating that stuff take?” 

“I don’t know. Believe it or not, this is actually my first time as well. At least a couple weeks, I’d guess. Your family may want to see how you’re settling in first.” 

You gnaw on your lip, pensive. When you look at Sirius, he’s looking back at you, gray eyes discerning. 

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” he asks you. 

“What if we didn’t stop it yet?” 

Surprise flickers over his expression, gone as quickly as it came. “I assumed you’d want to be done with this as soon as possible. Why are you asking?” 

You shrug, feeling your cheeks heat. “You’d probably have to be here pretty often while they’re still talking things out, right?” 

“Yeah…” 

“And we’re sort of friends now, aren’t we?” 

Sirius’ mouth pulls up on one side. “I’d love to be your friend, gorgeous.” 

“So…” You pull up a blade of grass, carving it in half with your fingernail. “As long as we don’t say ‘I do,’ we don’t have to be married, but we don’t necessarily have to send you home before they’ve even decided anything, right?”

He leans forward interestedly. “Are you suggesting we let our families go through weeks of pointless negotiations, maybe even humor their beliefs that we like each other, just to break things off when it all comes to a head?”

“Well, we do like each other, don’t we?” You smile, and he beams back. “I don’t know, would that be okay with you?”

“Oh.” Sirius shakes his head at you, still grinning. “Sweetheart, you are even more fun than I imagined you’d be.”

[thehistoriccemetery]

Bg3 Companions respond to: “I’m safe with you, right? You’re not gonna let anyone hurt me?”

Some comfort from our ladies: Shadowheart, Lae’zel, Karlach, and Minthara (sorry to my fellow Jaheira lovers she didn’t make it into this one.)

Also I’m starting to write more full length fics so if anyone has a particular thing I’ve written they’d like to see more on, let me know!

You’re a strong leader and warrior, and you know that. But sometimes the past comes up stronger than you can handle and you think of all the times you needed a protector of your own. In the moonlight, you ask your companions for a bit of reassurance.

Shadowheart

“Of course,” She adjusts your position so she is looking you in the eyes. “Why? Is something the matter? Are you in danger?” Her face is full of worry and concern.

“No, it’s…” you trail off, unsure of how to explain the aching vulnerability in your chest. “Never mind, it was a stupid thing to say.”

You avoid her gaze, feeling a bit foolish for asking such a question. You try to tuck your head back against her chest, but before you can, she takes your face in her hands.

“I’m sorry no one protected you. I’m sorry they let you get hurt before you could stop it. You deserved so much better, but I’m here now. I will protect you.”

Tears welled up in your eyes, and she gently wipes them away with her thumb as they trail down your cheeks. You are so thankful for the miraculous way she can always say exactly what you need to hear.

“The gods really did bless me when they brought me you,” you said, swiping your own tears out of your eyes. “It’s hard to remember when we’ve gone through so much, but I’m so blessed to have you.”

Shadowheart pulls you back to her chest, letting you cry while she gently strokes your hair. If there is one thing she will not let go from her time with Shar, it is the importance of feeling the pain.

You will move through it and she will move through it with you, no matter how long it takes.

She looks up to the moon and says a silent prayer to her new lady. “Guide them through this grief with your light.”

Lae’zel

Lae’zel is terribly confused as soon as the words leave your mouth. You didn’t know she could raise a single eyebrow like that.

“Why would you need my protection?” She asks. “You are a fierce warrior. You are safe with you.”

You smile. It’s not exactly what you were looking for, but the sentiment is there.

“Are you injured? Feeling ill, perhaps? In this case, you have my sword until you heal. I may even be able find that sorry excuse for a cleric around here somewhere…” she rambles until you place a hand on her shoulder.

You explain that you are not physically wounded, and she need not worry. It’s the inside that feels a little broken right now, in your head.

When she pushes a blade to your throat you quickly clarify that it is NOT in a ceremorphosis kind of way.

She retracts the blade, grateful she does not have to kill you, but still confused. It’s not that she’s never experienced what you’re feeling before, but the act of asking for or receiving comfort is unfamiliar to her.

She still wants to help though, so you guide her to sit cross legged on the ground and you place your head in her lap.

You can’t help but giggle as she stares down at you with that confused look on her face. “This is helping?”

“Can you stroke my hair?” You ask, not having grown accustomed to the awkwardness of such direct words yet.

She places her hand in your hair, carefully stroking the top of your head.

It clearly doesn’t come natural to her, but her willingness to try answers all of your questions. No one is ever gonna hurt you again.

Karlach

Karlach pulls you to lay on her chest and wraps her arms around you tight. “You are always safe with me, ‘kay? Always. Not a soul will hurt you. Ever. Again.”

She knows of your past, the pain you carry, the people you’ve lost, how they haunt you. Even before she could hold you she’s been there, beside you for everything.

“We protect each other, remember? You’ve got my back and I’ve got yours.” She asks. You nod into her chest.

You recall all the times you’ve done the same for her. You know the far away look in her eyes, when she is forced to relive her hell terrors once more. Ever since the night Dammon fixed her engine you vowed she’d never wake up from a nightmare anywhere but your arms.

“And what a hell of a team we make,” you chuckle. “Remember that time you ripped that bugbear’s fucking arm off after he nicked me with his mace?” You laugh, lightening the mood with a memory.

Karlach laughed as well. “And it was while I was still burning hot as the hells so the fucker’s fur lit up like a torch.” She was laughing so hard she could hardly finish the sentence.

“And he took out a good chunk of goblins when he went a runnin’,” you rolled off of her, swinging your arms above your head and doing your best bugbear-on-fire impression.

The two of spent the rest of the evening roaring with laughter about your favorite memories and stories. Only stopping when Karlach’s eyes began to feel heavy and the laughter turned into yawns.

“If I have to fight every demon in hell, then I’ll run out of blood to bleed before I lose you.”* You whisper before kissing her forehead and snuggling back up to drift off to sleep.

*(lyric from Penelope Scott’s “Over the Moon”)

Minthara

A look of disgust flashed across her face. Such a blatant display of vulnerability was unfamiliar to her and not befitting.

But when she looked at you, she softened ever so slightly. It was as if she was looking at you how you were when it all happened. She was looking at a hurt child.

Unfortunately for you, vulnerability wasn’t befitting of child in her eyes either.

“Do not ask such foolish questions,” She says passively. “You have not been threatened, have you?”

You shake your head sheepishly. “No, I was just feeling… I don’t know… weak, I guess.”

Minthara drops whatever she was working on before and approaches you, adjusting your body and posture from the droopy form that walked into her tent.

When she has you standing tall with your chest puffed out she scrunches her face into a look even more stern and scary, then motions for you to do the same.

Once you’re in position, she walks around you, admiring you in a slow circle. “Hmm…” she tuts, “you do not look weak. You look rather strong. Like you could lead six…” she pauses, looking for the right word, “hooligans around the better half of Faerûn.”

You can’t suppress the smile that grows on your face, and as she completes her circle, you can see she is smiling too.

But, just to be clear, she is currently committing atrocities on the last person to look at you funny. She would burn down the house of Baenre itself if it meant keeping you safe.

[kaiser1ns]

KIKI'S CHARACTER ANALYSIS ON TAKIISHI CHIKA

BEFORE PROCEEDING TO READ i want to clarify that this is my opinion and my take on his character before we get to know more about him in the manga. i know that the way i write about him is not what he really is, and that can cause conflicts but i am trying my best! contains small spoilers ahead! anyway hope you will enjoy!

Written on August 9th 2024. Posted on August 10th 2024. Edited on

Takiishi Chika is expressive only when he wants to be, but most of the time he is with that bored expression making it look like he is some kind of robot or haunted doll. As already known his face changes when he feels anger or when he fights with someone at his level or higher, it's when he gets happy and excited, because there is someone who will not bore him and keep up with the adrenaline.

He will not listen to anyone in whom he finds no interest. People can talk to him, but he will pay no attention to them. He will listen, catch a sentence here and there, and when someone mentions something that intrudes on him, he will listen without hesitation wanting to know more.

Strikes me as a type who is also very observant. Not only in a fight but when around people in a calm setting. Also intelligent, may not show it because he acts on impulse but everything is calculated.

Likes to light up fireworks when there's nothing better to do or people to fight. It's nice and something he can do on his own.

He likes to sit on the rooftop of buildings and look down on everything and everyone, either enjoying the view or the feeling of power. We again don't know why. But in Chapter 134: The Moment Longed For, when Endo Yamato receives a punch to his face because he stopped Chika's sudden charge at Umeniya, the conversation goes as such "But hey, Umemiya told us to go to the roof with him. It's been ages since we have been there. You like the roof don't you?" and then Chika freezes agreeing with what Edno said "Right. That's true." Then he walks past Umemiya telling him to go there, leaving everyone behind.

The question here is why Chika likes roofs so much, and what exactly does Furin's rooftop that Umemiya wants to show him? My mind directly goes to the garden. Is it to see one's growth despite its roots? What if Chika used to take care of the garden too? I know, it's a laughable idea and seems impossible but what if? So many questions, but not many answers. This is normal, seeing as how their battle is just beginning and the characters' internal and external conflicts are yet to emerge.

As stated, he is violent and short-tempered, he would never let anyone or anything block him from doing what he wants, it doesn't matter if it was a friend or an enemy. He is capable of destroying everything in his path. But personally, I think he won't hit someone if there's no reason to or if he isn't provoked in some way.

He doesn't care about the others, he only cares for himself and his enjoyment.

Of course, he knows many people and many people know him. But he isn't close with anyone besides Endo Yamato, even if they are childhood friends and their friendship is weird, Chika just lets Endo do whatever he wants — buy him clothes, paint his nails, find him opponents. He probably never asked for him to do such things but Chika knows how devoted the tattooed fool is to him, and so he played along. That leads me to a theory that he was spoiled as a child, that's why he doesn't question Endo, because he is used to getting what he wants and if something goes in his way, he will eliminate it.

Endo stated that Takiishi "began to fizzle out when he left Furin" meaning he was slowly losing his spark and maybe fighting out of boredom and not excitement. Chika is "The Strongest Man in Furin History". Probably in his first year, there wasn't anyone worthy enough to keep up with his pace and cause that fervor to ignite his flames.

Two years later when he dropped out of Furin Highschool he became a shadow and it was a few in the school who knew the truth about him, including Umemiya, the person Chika probably wanted to fight from the start.

In Chapter 142: Revelation, we see Takiishi in Endo's memories, and he has always been so aggressive towards the world, but unfortunately, we still don't know the reason why — perhaps a family conflict that indicates him being abused as a child; himself being bullied and then turning into a bully, or he was a prodigy too doing everything before other kids his age making him develop faster and he took advantage of that. So many theories. Hope we know in the future! [this part will be edited once his backstory is out]

God complex which may also be associated with mania or a superiority complex. Someone with a god complex may exhibit no regard for the conventions and demands of society and may request special consideration or privileges. GD is linked to Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) with a diminished ability to empathize with other people's feelings. Even tho we don't see Takiishi being 'in love' with himself, he only cares about himself, and thus I will say he is probably narcissistic but not to such an extent.

But here I think the right word which should be used is Egoist — a self-centered, selfish person or arrogantly conceited person. Egoism comes in different forms as there are several reasons as to why someone may act in their own self-interest, such as ethics or rationality. The three main types of egoism are physical egoism, ethical egoism and rational egoism.

1. Physical Egoism

This type of egoism refers to the basic, instinctual drive for self-preservation and personal survival. It is often associated with natural instincts and physical needs, such as hunger, thirst, and the avoidance of pain. Physical egoism emphasizes the inherent tendency of living beings to prioritize their own physical well-being and survival above all else. In this view, self-interest is rooted in biological imperatives.

2. Ethical Egoism

Ethical egoism is a normative theory that suggests some individuals act in their own self-interest. It is a prescriptive approach, meaning it provides guidance on how people should behave. Ethical egoism posits that morally right actions are those that maximize one's own welfare. Unlike physical egoism, which is based on natural instincts, ethical egoism is a philosophical stance arguing that self-interest should be the guiding principle of moral decision-making.

3. Rational Egoism

Rational egoism posits that it is rational for individuals to act in their own self-interest because doing so leads to the best outcomes for themselves. This form of egoism is based on the idea that reason, rather than mere instinct or moral obligation, should guide self-interested behavior. Rational egoism suggests that acting in one's own long-term interest is not only logical but also the most reasonable course of action for achieving happiness and success. It often involves considering the consequences of actions and making choices that best serve one's goals in a rational, calculated manner.

In conclusion:

Takiishi Chika is impulsive, violent, and primarily concerned with his own physical needs and desires, aligning most closely with physical egoism. He doesn't seem to consider the long-term consequences of his actions, nor does he follow a moral code that dictates acting in his self-interest in a socially constructive way, which would be characteristic of ethical or rational egoism.

The behavior could be indicative of several potential mental health conditions or personality disorders, but it's important to note that diagnosing someone, especially when a real person requires a qualified mental health professional. However, I am not a professional and I am doing this only for my entertainment in the fictional world. There are a few possibilities that might align with the characteristics of Takiishi Chika.

1. Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD):

Individuals with ASPD often exhibit a disregard for the rights of others, lack of empathy, and can be prone to aggressive, violent behavior. They may engage in fights, show little concern for the safety or feelings of others, and may be manipulative or deceitful.

2. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD):

While not always violent, people with BPD may experience intense emotional reactions, including anger and aggression. They can also have a pattern of unstable relationships, self-harming behaviors, and fear of abandonment, which might be linked to masochistic tendencies.

3. Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED):

This disorder is characterized by sudden, explosive outbursts of anger or violence that are disproportionate to the situation. The person might feel a sense of relief after the outburst but may also feel remorse or regret later.

4. Sadistic Personality Disorder:

Although not recognized in the DSM-5, some traits could align with what was previously considered Sadistic Personality Disorder. This involves deriving pleasure from the suffering of others, which could explain sadistic tendencies.

Chika's behaviour is explosive or volatile sadism. This type of sadism is characterized by sudden outbursts of aggression and violence, often triggered by frustration or when the person feels someone is in their way. Individuals with this type of sadism tend to lack empathy, and their violent behavior can be unpredictable and intense.

In addition, his potential sadomasochistic tendencies suggest he might derive some pleasure from both inflicting pain on others (sadism) and experiencing pain themselves (masochism). This combination can make his behavior particularly volatile, as he may be drawn to situations that allows him to express both these desires.

5. Conduct Disorder (in younger individuals):

If the individual is younger, this could be a sign of Conduct Disorder, characterized by aggressive behavior, a lack of empathy, and a disregard for rules or the rights of others. This condition in youth can sometimes progress to Antisocial Personality Disorder in adulthood.

6. Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD):

While not typically associated with overt physical violence, individuals with NPD can display aggression when their ego is threatened. They may lack empathy and be manipulative or exploitative in relationships, only caring about others when it benefits them.

7. Psychopathy:

A more severe form of ASPD, psychopathy involves a profound lack of empathy, superficial charm, and often a tendency toward manipulative and violent behavior. Sadistic tendencies may also be present.

8. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD):

Individuals with PTSD may experience anger as a response to trauma reminders or as part of the hyperarousal symptoms. Irritability and angry outbursts. Feeling constantly on edge or easily startled.

PTSD develops after exposure to a traumatic event, and anger can be a coping mechanism or reaction to perceived threats.

9. Trauma and Childhood Experiences:

Anger issues can also stem from unresolved trauma, especially if it occurred during childhood. People who have experienced abuse, neglect, or abandonment may develop anger as a defense mechanism. Difficulty trusting others, leading to anger in relationships. Feeling easily threatened or provoked. Chronic irritability or anger without a clear cause.

This is all I can think of when I did my research. Chika definitely has something traumatic happened to him or he was someone's trauma.

But there can be a scenario with him just being born like that even if love and kindness were shown to him. We will know more once Satoru Nii drops his full backstory like he did with Endo and Umemiya.

TAKIISHI CHIKA'S CHARACTER IN MY WRITING STYLE

I don't want to make him too out of character for the sake of the people who like or will like him, as I want them to have the best experience while reading any of my works that includes him.

In many of my drabbles readers will get to see him being more soft towards the female character or his girlfriend as stated in the most scenarios. He is being vulnerable towards you. It is simply the way I imagine him when he gets to like someone who catches his attention: he wants to know everything, is being possessive, is more expressive, making space in his heart only for you, though his ego and pride would no go down but instead they will go up because he has something the others don't.

As I stated earlier, he will not listen or look at anyone in whom he finds no interest. That being said, and as a cliché as it sounds, you are different, he wants to have you to either a) play with you until you break or b) learn about the way you are making him feel, because his heartbeat only rises when he fights.

When Takiishi Chika learns to love, or at least tries, he realizes that he can tolerate people who get in his way, meaning he tolerates you and is extremely important for him to see you everyday. And if his nonchalant behaviour is due to a trauma, you are his free therapy.

I saw people who think he doesn't talk much, again he does, he chose to who, how and when. Even if it's one word, sentence or a punch, he will talk.

In my opinion the way he loves is unique, everyone has their own way to express their longing for the other. He doesn't know what love is, its a new term in his vocabulary, and you teach him the ways of being soft and tender.

He is protective of you, very fond by the way you show him how to do things and he acts on instinct. If he wants a kiss, he will get one no matter what. If he wants get intimate or just to initiate a physical touch, he without thinking twice would. Takiishi Chika is not a person who waits, unless necessary, because when he wants something he will make sure to have it. If he wants you he will get you. He is the living prime of "If he wanted, he would."

But then again he has another dark, manipulative and toxic side. Again he is not good or used to expressing his emotions that well, if he wanted to hurt you, unintentionally or not, he would. I know I'm repeating myself a lot with words, but it's true. Was it with a real or non-existent person, if they wanted to, they would do anything to or for you.

This is mostly what I have to say about him, in hopes of your understanding and if you got to the end of this long post, thank you! Takiishi Chika is not that complex of a character, he is pretty easy to understand in my opinion, as long you want to do it.

But it's my profile, my own way to express myself amd how i view a certain character. I would be happy if someone wants to discuss further issues with our blazing inferno Chika <3

And as the manga will continue and more will be understood, I will give it my best to describe and write not only about Chika, but also about all the other characters. I hope this was a hopeful guide to answer questions if you even had one.

Thank you Chika nation for the support, and thank you for reading and following through my writing journey! More is yet to come (⁠｡⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠｡⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠♡

[cherubimcore]

phantom of the opera ! au

pairing: logan x reader

author's notes: i have been writing this since last month, i still don't think is really that good but i'm happy with it, i did re-read the phantom of the opera and did my research to write this fic (still i could have made some mistakes) so after saying all that happy halloween! 🎃

“the phantom of the opera really existed, but he wasn’t a cold translucent body that resembles a person nor a floating sheet with holes for eyes, the phantom of the opera was a broken man with such a guilt on his shoulders that made him feel like a monster, everyone thought of him as a monster but every time i looked at him i only saw a man that suffered his entire life, that needed someone to love and cherish him despite his flaws and i love i love i love him and he loves me back with the same passion”

- (l/n), (y/n). diary of (y/n), 1870

your day ended with whispers amid young dancers and singers in the dressing room.

“i saw the phantom today while we performed!”

“you saw him?”

“as plainly as i see you!”

“what does he look like? please tell us!”

while taking off your corset you started to pay attention to their words when you heard the mention of this phantom, everyone was uneasy (to say the least) in the opera house because of the rumors of a ghost wandering around, especially after the death of the stagehand after a performance not long ago.

“well… he was in one of the boxes, box five you know, the box on the grand tier, next to the stage-box, on the left”

“this is ridiculous!” you said, a hand on the hip and furrowed brows “you wouldn’t be able to see anything in box five from the stage, let alone a person!”

“it wasn’t a person!” the girl you still haven’t learned the name snapped as if she couldn’t believe someone was doubting her testimony, she then sat down again with a terrified expression “it was him, i’m sure of it, the phantom! it was the monster that killed mr. buquet!”

“mr. buquet was found hanged” you clarified trying to put some sense in the girl’s head, as much as you were also scared of the thought of working in a haunted opera with a killer ghost, you also tries to use logic in every aspect of your life, and everything related to this rumor was not logic “he killed himself, that had nothing to do with this phantom of your because he simply isn’t real”

another one of the girls who hadn’t been talking all that much clenched her fists.

“i want to hear you say that when he comes after you!” she hissed “let’s go, girls”

the other dancers gathered their belongings and left the room.

in a blink of an eye you were alone.

it was already difficult enough being the new girl, but now you were the new girl everybody hated.

with a sigh you plop down on a chair in the corner of the room and start to think.

there were things concerning you more than this stupid rumor, worries that came before you got hired in the opera.

you always loved to sing, with both your parents being musicians, you were surrounded by music since you were born and throughout your life the only thing that made you keep going was your dream of becoming a lead soprano, the lead soprano, someone who’s voice would be remembered for the rest of eternity, so you practiced and practiced and practiced to one day perform on stage and hear the praises of the public, infatuated with your voice.

but after the death of your parents you stopped singing completely, not feeling the joy you once felt only the grief consuming your soul, it took years for you to start singing again and by the time you started once again, you were already a bit rusty, but you couldn’t give up, even if your parents weren’t here anymore you would make them proud.

but doubts always lingered in your mind ever since you got hired in the palais garnier: what if you couldn’t make your parents proud? what if you weren’t good enough? what if even if you practiced 24/7, 7 days a week you still wouldn’t get the lead soprano role like you always wanted?

what if you simply were a failure?

your took a deep breath feeling tears running down your cheeks and quickly dried them with the sleeve of your costume.

you get up determined to bury those thoughts so deep inside you they wouldn’t be able to claw their way back and ruin you.

you were going to be the lead soprano.

people will love your voice.

your parents will be proud.

whatever it takes.

a couple days later after making that promise you were in your dressing room after another performance still breathing heavily from the intensity of the spectacle, behind your door you could hear whispers and footsteps meaning people were already leaving the opera for the night, you knew you needed to leave sooner or later but your mistakes on stage kept plaguing your mind, it had been days since you had a proper night of sleep and some of your co-workers started to take notice of the heavy bags under your eyes but you simply couldn’t sleep knowing your goal was so far away, especially when you caught the other singers saying you were “singing like a crock”after practice, questioning how someone like you has been hired in the infamous palais garnier.

so you wouldn’t sleep, if you wanted to be better than all of them you needed to practice twice as hard.

you took a deep breath while locking the door to make sure no one would interrupt you and started to undress from your cherubino costume, you still didn’t know why the directors made you play a breeches role even if it your voice wasn’t the right tone for this character, and put some actual comfortable clothes before taking off your make-up.

with one more look at the mirror you started to sing.

your sweet yet insecure voice filled your dressing room, it was a promising voice, but it lacked control and you knew it, your voice faltered at some point making you sigh, frustrated. you couldn’t reach the higher notes and it tormented you, with a groan you opened your mouth to start again.

but before any sound could come out of your throat you felt a presence in the room.

suddenly a deep and seductive voice echoed off the walls, as if coming from every corner at once “you are forcing it”

your breath was caught in your chest as you looked around, but saw no one.

“who’s there?” you asked with a trembling voice.

“someone who can help you, if you trust me”

a shiver ran down your spine.

it was him.

you just knew it.

the phantom.

somehow he passed through your locked door, now you were the one locked inside with him.

“why should i trust you?” you replied with more courage than you actually felt.

“because i can make you into what you wish to be and more, everything you dream can be yours… if you accept me as your mentor.”

you hesitated, torn between fear and a strange attraction, feeling a shiver run down your spine. you knew you should fear this man, you knew you should get out of the room screaming for your life, but the promise he made, to reach the greatness you so desired, was irresistible.

“yes” you whispered, sealing your fate.

from that night on, the phantom became your shadow, guiding you through every note, shaping your voice until perfection, but his presence was overwhelming. you felt his gaze at all times, as if he could see through you, knowing every thought, every emotion, you even questioned at one point if he could actually read your mind.

your classes first started in your own dressing room, you remembered the first time you actually saw him, after countless times asking him to show himself, you lost your breath, the man was breathtaking, he had a strong built body beneath dress-clothes that hugged his body perfectly even with those clothes you could tell he had a hirsute physique especially because of his mutton chop sideburns, he also had a unique hairstyle that reminded you of cat ears for some reason.

“you…” you looked at him puzzled “you are the phantom of the opera?”

the man chuckles while looking around the room lit by a soft light, the only thing he could think about was how he never had seen it so close.

“that’s what they call me?” he smiled at you, you noticed he had animal-like canine teeth, a small detail that, alongside his other features, made your knees weak.

you smiled at him.

“what should i call you?” you asked “since you are my mentor now, how do you want me to call you?”

he looked a little shocked when you make that question, as if no one had asked him that in a long time.

“logan” the man you once called phantom answered, a little out of breath “you can call me logan…”

overtime, something strange began to happen, it wasn’t just your voice that was changing, your heart raced every time you heard his voice. you longed for his teaching, for his presence.

logan also started to change, instead of coaching you as far away as possible he started to get closer and closer to you, slowly he would open up about his past but nothing that would indicate how logan ended up in the opera house and you were scared to ask questions and end up pushing him away, what had started as mere admiration on both parts grew into something deeper and darker.

you began to seek him out, even when he didn’t call you, the thing you most wanted was to see who the man behind the grumpy face was, why was he living in the opera? where were his family? what was he hiding?

your heart races with an inexplicable pull towards logan, a fascination you can no longer deny, with all those feelings and questions in your mind you decided to follow him deeper into the shadows.

it was difficult to put your plan into action, you started to understand why logan laughed when you said people called him “phantom”.

logan really had the gift of appearing and disappearing to his heart’s content as if he didn’t have a physical body.

but you knew better.

after failing multiple times to follow him you started to watch the man even more closely every time when you were together, and when you weren’t you wandered around the opera trying to understand the architecture and looking for secret passages and hiding places that would allow logan to pass unseen amongst opera workers and yourself.

to be honest you felt a little bit ridiculous doing this but you knew, even if it would sound ridiculous to someone else, it was the only possible explanation you had at the moment.

and it didn’t take long for you to find out what you were looking for.

and it took even less time for you to find yourself in the underground catacombs of the paris opera house.

“what am i doing? what am i doing? what am i doing?” you chanted to yourself while looking at the damp walls and flickering lights in what felt like a haunted place at the time, but then you started to actually think about what were you doing and who are you doing it for.

you were doing this for the man who found potential in your voice at a time you were unsure if you actually had any talent for singing.

you were doing this for the man that held you so delicately when you were crying your eyes out when you didn’t get the role of eurydice, a role where you practiced so hard with him and you felt you were letting him down because of your failure.

you were doing this for the man that, when you mentioned that to him, he held your face still wet from your tears and made you look into his eyes, instead of finding him looking at you with an angry expression and telling you he really was disappointed with you, questioning why he decided to be your mentor actually you were met with the kindest eyes you had ever seen in your life while logan whispered “you will never let me down”

you were doing this for the man that never let you touch his hands saying they had done more harm than good, that they are dangerous but you always notice the longing expression, showing a desire for you to ignore his words and look past his facade and love him besides his faults.

and you do.

you do love him besides his faults.

you are doing this for logan, the man that also loves you besides your own faults.

a lost soul, yearning, just like yours.

your thoughts were interrupted when you heard his voice.

“you shouldn’t have come, (y/n). these halls, this life… it’s not meant for you.”

ahead of you, logan’s form is barely visible, his black clothes blending with the darkness.

the man speaks without turning, his voice both haunting and tender.

“but i must understand” your voice wavers, not from hesitation “you… you’re more than a phantom, more than the stories they tell, i’ve felt it since the first time you sang to me.”

you took a few more steps closer.

“you say this is not my world, but i feel like i belong here with you, in the music, in the dark”

“what about your dream?” logan finally turned to face you, even in the badly lit room you were in, the pain in his eyes was unmistakable “your dream to be a lead soprano? your dream to make the world know your voice?”

you giggled.

“i can still do all those things, i never said i wanted to be famous,” you confessed “i want to be a legend, the lead soprano who made people reach nirvana once in their life to never be seen again.”

logan looked puzzled, he couldn’t understand how someone like you would prefer a life in darkness with him instead of the glory of being in the spotlight where you could have everything you wanted.

“you don’t know what you are saying” logan’s voice trembles as he gestures around him, to the cavernous, endless maze of catacombs “this is not beauty, it is madness, a prison. my past, what i truly am… are not things you would wish to see.

you stepped closer to him, your hand outstretched but not quite touching the man in front of you.

“then show me. show me your past. show me your pain” your breath catches in your throat as you speak “i want to know, logan. i want to see what makes you… you.”

logan inhales sharply at hearing his name on your lips, as if you had unraveled a sacred secret. he looks away, conflicted, his shoulders tense. but you move even closer, your fingers brushing the edge of his suit.

“if you follow me any further, (y/n), there will be no turning back." logan's voice softens, filled with sorrow. "my world, my heart - it will consume you."

he looks into your eyes, pleading with you to turn away, pleading with you to think again and leave him in the darkness and live a better life.

but seeing the determination in your face, he sighs defeated.

"very well... follow me"

logan continues deeper into the labyrinth, and you, unwavering follows. the air grows colder, the walls narrower making you feel as if the weight of the earth is pressing down on you, it didn't take long for you both to reach a hidden chamber. inside, candlelight flickers over rows of old mirrors, sheets of music, and a grand organ, half-covered in dust. the remnants of a tortures life, a man that forgot the world above.

your breath catches as you step into the room, your eyes scanning the relics of his past.

"this..." your voice is soft, filled with wonder and sadness. "this is where you've been all these years?"

you turn around to face him, logan watches you as if waiting for you to recoil in horror, but when you don't, when instead you step closer and places your hand gently on his, something breaks inside of him.

"this is all i am" logan's voice, rough but tender, breaks the silence "a creature of the dark, of pain. nothing more."

your eyes fill with tears, but still you don't look away.

"no. you are more than that. you are music, you are passion, you are love. logan, i see you and i love what i see."

gently you took his hands and place in on your cheeks, logan's eyes are filled with disbelief and emotion, met your.

"you don't know what i have done, you don't know what these hands are capable of"

"then show me and let me love you anyway"

in that moment, something shifts. the darkness no longer feels suffocating but intimate, a shared space where two souls, both broken in their own way, find solace in each other.

[yaeggravate]

THEORY: KAEYA IS HALF-SEELIE

Back by unpopular demand: Seelie Kaeya theory.

I have already talked about this before, many, many times, but I wanted to gather all my jumbled thoughts from the past few months into one proper post along with some new revelations that further support the theory.

I just want to clarify first that I don't like abandoning the narrative in favor of a theory. I wouldn't be constantly trying to push for this if I wasn't at least 80% sure.

Kaeya is my favorite character in the whole game, but I am well aware of the limitations being put on his character…

…Unless 5-star Kaeya comes through for us, that is.

*UPDATE: added a section on Arlecchino 🥳 (4.6)

**added more info about Nicole (4.7)

***we now have verbal confirmation Seelie are angels! (5.1)

Apologies for the long read but I had to make it as thorough as possible, you understand.

INDEX

1. Seelie = Angels 2. Connections to Seelie and the Jinn 3. Midsummer Night's Dream 4. Nicole Reeyn 5. Arlecchino 6. Visual Similarities and Characteristics 7. Perinheri

SEELIE = ANGELS

Yohualtecuhtin, Lord of the Night: The people of Natlan worship me, and call me their "lord"... In the ancient past, before we died out, we were also known by a different name... "Angels." Yohualtecuhtin, Lord of the Night: But, adventurers like you are probably more familiar with our devolved form... Seelies. Traveler: So, Seelies are angels...

Note: 5.1's Archon Quest has finally verbally confirmed Seelie are angels but I will leave my old reasoning here to show you that it has always been foreshadowed.

Seelie are equated to angels in the game. The floating eyeball versions are even modeled after a type of sea slug called Sea Angels. In case you need more evidence than that:

Nabu Malikata is a Seelie survivor. Her last name Malikata can be derived from malayikata ملائكة which means angels/messengers in Arabic.

The Jinn were created from Nabu Malikata's blood, they are referred to as the "descendants of Seelie" in the world quest "The Falcon's Hunt".

Seelie were heavenly envoys who would deliver messages from Celestia to humans. Nabu Malikata even refers to them as the "fallen envoys of heaven", after they were cast down.

So, if you ever happen to spot the phrase "heavenly/divine envoys", they are actually referring to the Seelie.

As for what they may have looked like, the Mural Room in Dragonspine features a depiction of an envoy with wings and what looks like horns or a crown on its head. Translated from Latin, the text next to it is as follows:

Fidelis angeli iuvant The angels help the faithful

Seelie are guides who reward humans with treasure after they lead them back to their Seelie courts. Simply put, they are returning a favor. Who else do we know of who is obsessed with favors?

ANGELS GEORG

The Seelie Kaeya has a bunch of notable connections to angels, the more you start to look for them the more you notice.

According to Kaeya's character story A List, he owns a book called The Adventures of Angelos, in which he keeps a list of names. Angelos, of course, means angel.

Between the pages of "The Adventures of Angelos," you find a list of names written on a sheet of official Knights of Favonius letterhead paper.

Kaeya's favorite haunt is Angel's Share. The logo for Angel's Share is two angels drinking from a wine glass. Angel's Share was established by Dawn Winery, where Kaeya was left at for unknown reasons. According to Diluc's character story, Crepus told him the following:

"The world would never turn its back on the faithful."

This is reminiscent of the mural in Dragonspine: "The angels help the faithful."

Furthermore, the teacups used to represent the mage Nicole can be found in Dawn Winery. Nicole is known as the "guide who never gets lost" and there is one teacup missing in the trailer. We'll get back to that piece of porcelain later.

It's possible that Dawn Winery had some dealings with the Seelie or that it was established by them. Remember Crepus owned a Delusion which means he must have had ties to the Fatui. We know of one character who is both Seelie and Fatui: Columbina.

Columbina is most likely a Seelie since the decorations in her hair match perfectly with the decoration on the Seelie courts. The character of Columbina is also known as a fairy-like dancer; fairies is what the Seelie are in popular culture… (More on that later.)

In the third volume of the book Drunkard's Tale, a lone wolf meets a Seelie survivor who is singing in an unfamiliar language. This Seelie is speculated to be Columbina. The Seelie is adressed as Maiden with the same characters in Chinese as Columbina's other title Damselette.

少女 = Damselette / Maiden

Curiously enough, this particular volume of the book can be found in Dawn Winery.

Kaeya's favorite drink is Death After Noon. This is based on the real drink "Death in the Afternoon", which famously contains absinthe. In the Book of Revelation, Apsinthion, or Wormwood, is the name of an angel or star who fell to earth.

The Abyss Mages chant in Enochian which is the language of the angels. They use this language when they regenerate their shields and to control the Hilichurls. The Abyss Order mostly consists of former Khaenri'ahns.

When Kaeya spots the Abyss Mage back in the Temple of the Wolf, it speaks to him in Enochian. They even added a subtitle to highlight its importance.

Kaeya: There's no way hilichurls organized an ambush like this themselves — not with their limited mental capacity… (A Hydro Abyss Mage reveals itself) Kaeya: Thus YOU were behind this. Hydro Abyss Mage: Gohus, Chiso Vonph.

Kaeya claims he's blessed with certain linguistic powers when the Paimon asks him how he gathered information about the Abyss Twin.

Paimon: What exactly did you have to do to find this out!? Kaeya: Heh… Let's just say I'm blessed with certain linguistic powers.

In the manga, it was implied Kaeya was able to read an unfamiliar script that not even Lisa, the Akademiya's best student in two hundred years, could understand.

We don't know where Kaeya lived beforehand but he might have lived in the Dark Sea. The Dark Sea is not a literal sea but any place outside of the rule of the Seven. Think Enkanomiya and possibly Khaenri'ah.

Kaeya: But, as you can see, this is but a deserted land. Based on previous experience, I decided that it would be best to wait for contact.

In the Midsummer Island event, Kaeya says he's been stranded on an island before, and in typical Kaeya fashion does not elaborate. (This might be connected to the Nameless Island, which Kaeya visited on his birthday.) Venti alludes Kaeya might have come from the Dark Sea, by the poem he gives him:

Venti: "Majestic waves cresting, surf roaring its tale, none but the ocean to hear as I sing." Venti: "The stars in my eyes as I chart toward the horizon, that into one day, from the endless dome of night I shall spring."

Palaces of the Seelie can be found in one particular ruin of the Dark Sea: Drunkard's Tale, where the Seelie maiden was situated. (AKA Columbina)

This wasteland is said to be a land beyond the dominion of the deities, inhabited only by the grotesque ghostly remains of fallen gods, where the former palaces of the Seelie now stand empty.

In the Veluriyam Mirage event, Kaeya starred in a play written by Zosimos. According to Idyia, Zosimos based the play on a rumor he heard about a thief and a mage, meaning there might be some truth to it. He then combined the story with Idyia's backstory.

Kaeya's character, the unnamed dagger bandit, follows a shooting star, which turns out to be a woman. The dagger bandit is most likely meant to be someone related to Kaeya, since he hailed from a dark realm and his vision is modified to look like an 8-pointed star (as per Zosimos's design). The dark realm could very well be Khaenri'ahn.

As it turns out, Zosimos's namesake Zosimos the alchemist, claimed fallen angels were the ones who taught humans the art of metallurgy.

The ancient and divine writings say that the angels became enamoured of women; and, descending, taught them all the works of nature. From them, therefore, is the first tradition, chema, concerning these arts; for they called this book chema and hence the science of chemistry takes its name.

…Yeah, I don't think it's a coincidence the play Kaeya starred in was written by this specific guy 😮‍💨

Maybe we're meant to equate the fallen star with a fallen angel. Whoever this fallen star and dagger bandit are, is unknown, but I think we can safely assume it has something to do with Kaeya's family and/or Khaenri'ah's deeper lore.

Kaeya's constellation is a peacock. Peacocks have countless eyes just like how angels are popularly depicted. In Renaissance art, angels are even portrayed with peacock wings.

The description of Kaeya's friendship namecard in CN implies he has many Augen. 👁

孔雀漂亮尾羽上的花纹很像是永不闭上的眼睛。所以凯亚并非少了一只眼睛、而是··· The patterns on the beautiful tail feathers of a peacock resemble eyes that never close. So Kaeya isn’t missing an eye, but…

And then it just trails off. I think it’s meant to say: "Kaeya isn’t missing an eye, rather he has many of them."

Perhaps they were being literal.

The Jinn In his hangout, Kaeya gifts the Traveler a lamp said to have housed a powerful Jinni. As said before Jinn are descendants of the Seelie.

The people turned against each other, and the Jinn scattered across the lands… Broken souls became fuel to a titanic machine, and the mindless descendants of the Seelie were degraded into slaves of infinite power…

In comparison to other companion gifts, who are connected to their item in some way, Kaeya's gift stands out as an outlier… unless it is a surprise tool that can help us understand him later.

He is also familiar with the tale of the in-game book Shepard and the Magic Bottle, although he changes the ending of the story as he recounts it to Klee. This book is about a Jinni who gets freed from a bottle...

From his hangout, we learn Kaeya owns a lucky coin that can allegedly do anything he wishes from it. He then goes on to say there's a pre-existing arrangement between them. Perhaps this coin has a Jinni fragment inside of it similar to Benben.

That would be the simple explanation… but nothing is ever simple with Kaeya.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

Now onto the most damning piece of evidence. Kaeya himself is based on the changeling baby from Midsummer Night's Dream. Oberon is the Fairy King, whose name is the French derivative of Alberich.

This checks out as Oberon was also an important figure from the Merovingian Dynasty that included names such as Chlothar and Caribert.

Titania is the Fairy Queen, who adopted her scion's baby after she died in childbirth. This baby was the son of an Indian king, in other words, an Indian prince.

In today's popular culture, Titania is the Queen of the Summer Court, also known as the Seelie Court.

Most literature, folklore, and pop-culture interpretations of faerie depict Titania as the actual leader of the Seelie Fey, she often rules the Summer Court.

Princess Fischl is also connected to this play, as she had created a Sommernachtgarten, or Summer Night Garden, that now lies in ruins in the domain Midsummer Courtyard.

Suddenly Kaeya and Fischl being featured in the Midsummer Island events start to make sense. I wouldn't be surprised if Fischl showed up again in this year's summer event.

How Kaeya and Princess Fischl are connected is still unclear but the possibility of them being related keeps growing. Whatever the case, the Indian prince's (adoptive) mom being a Seelie Queen is pretty straightforward.

"But isn't he adopted? That means he isn't a Seelie!" Yes, but remember Oberon, Titania's husband, is Alberich who Kaeya IS related to.

It's hard to tell what direction they're going in, but I have no doubt Kaeya is half-something, because the other character he is based on is Hagen, who is always half-Human, with the other part being either dwarf or elf.

With all the angel/Seelie/Jinn connections, I think we can guess what Kaeya's other half is.

Before I forget: Oberon and Titania fought over the child; Oberon wanted the boy to become a knight, his henchman, but Titania refused as she felt obligated to raise him in his mother's stead. Unfortunately, Oberon succeeded in getting Titania to hand over the child, as he had trapped her in a dream-like state...

Another fun thing I discovered is that the title of the trailer Winter Night's Lazzo is a reference to Midsummer Night's Dream as well.

An explanation for this could be that aside from the aforementioned Seelie, there exist a darker counterpart, the Unseelie, which has its roots in Scottish folklore.

The most common courts from traditional legends are the Seelie or Summer Court, and the Unseelie or Winter Court.

In popular culture, the Unseelie Court is the Winter Court ruled by the Queen of Air and Darkness: the sister of Titania. This Winter Queen seems to be unnamed but I've found some call her Mab, another reference to one of Shakespeare's plays.

Did you know they probably named Snezhnaya after the fairy tale of the Snow Queen, which is Snezhnaya Koroleva in Russian? Snow Queen, Winter Queen, Tsaritsa... The shoe fits 🤷🏽‍♀️

In Genshin, there is no mention of any Unseelie yet, but if the Seelie are like angels, then the Unseelie might be the equivalent of fallen angels or demons. Well, we shall see how that plays out.

Back to Titania, she was a fairy who adopted her friend's son after she passed away. Is there is a character who could fulfill this role for Kaeya, acting as some kind of guardian angel?

NICOLE REEYN

Nicole is a witch of the Hexenzirkel, known as Mage "N". She is a powerful prophet capable of divining the fate of the world.

She is also a teacup.

Alice says Nicole is the guide who never gets lost and that she is obsessed with guiding people. That's literally Seelie 101!

Alice: The "guide who will never get lost" is N, otherwise known as Nicole. You may have not encountered her yet, but she is a truly extraordinary woman who has made this world's direction and order her subject of study. Alice: Some of you may be fortunate enough to have already heard her voice. Like a prophetess, she will only speak to guide people toward the truth when a change has occurred in the world. Alice: She has a tendency to… suddenly speak in someone's mind without any warning.

New dialogue from Wolfy, the stuffed toy from Imaginarium Theater, pretty much confirms Nicole is a Seelie. He talks about a "Boar" Tribe, where the "boars" did bad things and were punished by their Master.

Wolfy: The master took out a rusted set of scales, and told the boars to stack their own things on both sides. If the scales tipped to one side, they could leave.

The boars who gave up their heads turned into animals like wolves, snakes and lizards and the boars who gave up their muscle became rabbits, instinctively guiding people to treasure. Guiding people to treasure is the number one job of the Seelie husks.

Loading Screen Now you see them; now you don't. Once a mighty race that lived to guide mankind, now the most Seelie offer is a little treasure to willing followers.

However, there was one boar who placed their head and muscle evenly on both sides of the scale, which caused it to break in the middle. This "boar" is Nicole.

Wolfy: And so she became a mute person — for she had placed her voice upon the scales as well. Wolfy: She is also a friend of Madame Mage, and I hear she likes to speak in people's heads!

The witch pictured on this slide from the Hexenzirkel teaser is most likely Nicole since it immediately cuts to her teacups.

She is blowing away wind similar to depictions of wind deities. The accompanying subtitle even is "sometimes, we all need to vent our troubles to the wind". This could mean Nicole is some kind of air spirit…or a Seelie, who were once "faster than a storm" according to the Aranara.

Furthermore, Nicole losing her voice, or perhaps giving it up, is reminiscent of the fairy tale The Little Mermaid, written by Hans Christian Anderson, Anderdottir's inspiration. In the book, the mermaid sacrifices her voice to become human. However she fails to uphold the condition and dies, which turns her into an air spirit.

Perhaps she's a Seelie, or a descendant of the Seelie, similar to the Jinn. In the Danish opera Holger Danske, Titania is the Queen of the Sylphs, who are air spirits. We don't have Sylphs mentioned verbatim in the game yet, aside from Venti being an air spirit.

Kaeya conveniently has several references to the wind.

He is dubbed the Frostwind Swordsman, his outfit is called Icy Featherflight, his OTHER outfit is Sailwind Shadow, his sixth constellation is Glacial Whirlwind, and he has a passive that decreases stamina consumption…

Noelle even describes him as someone who comes and goes with the wind.

As mentioned in the previous section, Kaeya was stranded on a deserted island, this might be referring to the Nameless Island, which, according to an old blog post on the official CN website, Kaeya visited on his birthday. Where this island came from is unclear but it is shrouded in mist and invisible on the map.

The Nameless Island has a sun-or moondial associated with the God of Time. The weathered transcription is as follows:

Ravaged Carving: "Stories brought on the wind will bloom into legends in due time."

You can also hear this faint voice speaking when you do the quest related to the island:

Faint Voice: "An ancient tale comes whisked in the wind…" Faint Voice: "In time, it will grow and sprout once again…"

In the same blog post, Kaeya says the following:

我还有很多故事…还有很多时间。 I have plenty of stories… and plenty of time.

😮‍💨

When Kaeya casts his burst you even see him pull the wind towards himself, towards that eight-pointed star.

Furthermore, he came to Mondstadt during a LATE SUMMER NIGHT'S STORM, contradicting the fact that there hasn't been a single storm in Mondstadt since Venti gave them his protection.

Kaeya's Character Story "If Master Crepus hadn't taken me in, I doubt I'd have made it through the storm that night."

Vind: Since Lord Barbatos began protecting Mondstadt, we have not seen a single storm, and the watchtowers have slowly fallen into disrepair.

He probably wasn't lying about this since Varka could have easily fact-checked this with Diluc or Dawn Winery.

Perhaps Nicole was responsible for this odd contradiction if she was the one who guided Kaeya and his father to Dawn Winery. Coincidentally, the Jinni Liloupar was able to command sandstorms at her will.

Liloupar once had the immense power to command sandstorms at her will. The howling gale that lashes the desert used to be the blade and shield at her disposal.

Since the Jinn are descendants of the Seelie, perhaps Nicole could have a similar power. (Or maybe she became a giant wind turbine, who even knows anymore.)

"But why would a witch go through all this trouble for just one guy?" If Titania took care of her friend's baby after she died, then maybe Nicole was friends with Kaeya's mom and decided to offer her protection.

Or perhaps they were sisters. There is after all a teacup from the same teaset missing from the trailer.

Let's just get this out of the way first: No, Nicole is not Diluc's mom, the pattern on the teacups can be found within the architecture of Dawn Winery, which means she's either the founder or an ancestor of Crepus or both. Angel's Share is named as such for a reason.

Diluc does not possess any huge Seelie/fairy/angel/witch connections other than Angel's Share so I don't think she's related to him. Kaeya on the other hand 🤷🏽‍♀️

I am not going to say anything about the possibility of Nicole being Kaeya's mom, but I will say that Nicole's name means "Victory of the people", while the first character in Kaeya's name means victory as well.

Nicole = from νίκη (níkē, “victory”) +‎ λαός (laós, “people”). Kaeya = 凯亚, 凯 = music of triumph; paean; triumph; victory

And please don't forget the poor missing teacup next to Nicole's, it is no doubt going to be important.

Anyway, Kaeya does have some serious connections to Princess Fischl, with hints at him being a Prince continuing to persist, so he's definitely not some random guy. Whether he's aware of this or not is debatable.

He's called "our last hope", by his father, which like everything pertaining to Kaeya, is never explained. However, the Aranara Aranaga describes hope as a dream that never dissipates… A Midsummer Night's Dream if you will 😉

Aranaga: There are dreams because there is memory. Memory is nourished, so there is life. So, it can grow, the thing to repel Marana (forbidden knowledge). Traveler: I'm guessing you mean "hope"? Aranaga: Yeah, right you are, Golden Nara (Traveler). The thing that flows, cannot be seen, cannot be touched… Hope. Like the wind… But it never dissipates, like a dream.

Nabu Malikata Nicole has some fascinating similarities with Nabu Malikata that I will briefly list here:

Nabu Malikata last name can mean angels but it can also mean queen. Nicole Reeyn's last name is derived from reine which also means queen.

"Nabu" means prophet in Akkadian and she was able to predict her own death, Nicole is a prophetess too.

After Nabu Malikata disappeared, Deshret dreamed of her feeling her way through a crystalline maze. The inside of Irminsul is a crystalline maze. Nicole is part of the Hexenzirkel who travel to the Irminsul to study it.

Nabu Malikata is the Mistress of the Orchard and Wine, Nicole has ties to Dawn Winery, a wine orchard.

Nabu Malikata is also a dream-mother, capable of giving humans dreams. According to Furina's character blurb, Nicole left a fabel inside someone's dream.

I can't say they're the same person but this is one of those things that will keep haunting you once you uncover it. And now they will haunt you.

ARLECCHINO

Enter "Father".

What we know of her so far is that she is the last surviving descendant of Khaenri'ah's Crimson Moon clan. Arlecchino's blood is cursed, yet unlike the other curse-bearers we know like Dainsleif and Chlothar, she still ages visibly. Before we get ahead of ourselves, it's specifically stated in her boss description that she IS the Crimson Moon's SOLE scion, so Kaeya is likely not part of that bloodline.

Someday, the hearth-fire's faint radiance shall burn the old world away, incinerating the final scion of the baleful moon as well.

I think we all know by now that Arlecchino has some angelic features.

Like Kaeya, she is associated with an animal with many eyes: a spider. And like Kaeya, she wears one prominent wing on her back but only when she is in battle. This wing is actually crafted by her from spider silk, so it's not actually an "organic" wing.

Arlecchino shares boss theme lyrics with the most famous one-winged angel in recent history: Sephiroth (FF7). They are both in turn inspired by Abezethibou, a fallen angel with one red wing. The interesting thing about Sephiroth is that he was born from an experiment, where they injected cells from an alien "calamity" into him when he was still a fetus. This led him to develop the iconic one black wing.

Furthermore, the title of Arlecchino can be traced back to the Erlking, an evil elf who could kill children with just one touch. Arlecchino does seem to be somewhat inspired by him as seen in this comparison.

Erlking means Elf King which just so happens to be the meaning of Alberich (Elf King). 🤨 There's even a dude straight up called Alf (elf) in the Perinheri book.

In the Romance-speaking world, beings comparable to elves are widely known by words derived from Latin fata ('fate'), which came into English as fairy. This word became partly synonymous with elf by the early modern period.

😑…

Since the Balemoon Bloodfire that runs through Arlecchino's veins originates from the long-dead Crimson Moon, it's possible that either the moons are angels or they were the ones who created them. The Seelie must have come into existence somehow; it would make sense for them to originate from the Moon Sisters.

The moons would not be as low-ranked as the Seelie-angels, they'd most likely be akin to Archangels/other higher ranked angels. Luckily for us, Mona's astrolabe conveniently uses the names of 4 Archangels.

(From the Wiki) Mona's astrolabe (Outer ring): GBL URL MKL RPL The archangels Gabriel, Uriel, Michael, and Raphael.

…It is unknown who they are referring to but since she is using her astrolabe to divine someone's fate they're probably the names of the three Moon Sisters + Sun. (We can't be sure yet if the Four Shades are the Moon Sisters/Sun so I will refrain from making that assumption until we know more.)

Arlecchino has another weird ability: her blood can create afterimages or shadows which appear like this around her in her boss fight:

These look awfully similar to the Pari in-game, and Pari just so happen to be like fairies in Persian mythology. Arlecchino's nickname was even Perrie, which is probably a pun on Peri, the inspiration behind the Pari.

In the game, the Pari are sentient beings of Khvarena, which in turn was separated from Nabu Malikata's body. As it happens, Khvarena can also dwell inside humans, these people are called the scions of Khvarena. (More on that here where I proposed Kaeya's mom might have been one of these scions.)

Stamen of Khvarena's Origin Nabu Malikata: "And so I separated you (Khvarena) from my body, and I ask you now to prevent that nightmare's coming."

No doubt about it: Arlecchino is carrying the bloodline of a (dead) moon angel…thing. Maybe all Khaenri'ahns are descendants of angels, but it's hard to say for now if they inherited it through normal means, or if the Crimson Moon clan used a ritual to transmute their blood. According to the book Perinheri, the Crimson Moon dynasty was deeply involved with alchemy, though it fell off by the time of the Eclipse Dynasty.

(Perhaps they even used the Moon's remains (ashes) to achieve this. Maybe that's why Arlecchino glitches: she was "re-born" from the "afterimage" (ashes) of the Crimson Moon.)

Combined with Zosimos's play implying the fallen star was a fallen angel, Khaenri'ahns could very well be descendants of fallen angels. In that case, they could be like the Nephilim, who are descendants of humans and fallen angels. Nephilim is often translated as giants or the fallen ones, which is very funny considering the meaning of Titania's name (Titan).

Speaking of Titania… In Arlecchino's teapot voicelines she talks about an opera called The Unexpected Dream. Unclear if this is referring to thee Midsummer Night's Dream, but given what we know of this game and its apparent obsession with the play, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to assume it is.

The name Titania for the queen of the fairies appears to have been the invention of Shakespeare, for, as Mr. Ritson remarks, she is not "so called by any other writer." Why, however, the poet designated her by this title, presents, according to Mr. Keightley, no difficulty. "It was," he says, "the belief of those days that the fairies were the same as the classic nymphs, the attendants of Diana. The Fairy Queen was therefore the same as Diana whom Ovid (Met. iii. 173) styles Titania."

Also, scholars suggest Shakespeare's Titania is ultimately referring to the moon goddess Diana, so make of that what you will. There's even a part in the play where Titania looks up at the moon and likens it to a crying eye… Another fun fact: on Tsurumi island, there's a mural from the ancient civilization ruins that references a poem about Diana by the Latin poet Catullus.

In any case, Arlecchino basically adds fuel to the theory that Khaenri'ahns might be the descendants of angels/Seelie. Though whether they inherited it naturally, through snorting up moon ashes or making deals with suspicious purple crystals remains to be seen. The Balemoon Bloodfire is dubbed a "noble blood" which means the Crimson Moon clan was regarded as nobility. Just another thing Arlecchino and Kaeya have in common.

This poses another conundrum for Kaeya though: if it's his Khaenri'ahn father who gave him his supposed "angel" ancestry as opposed to his mother, we're still left with the mystery of where he got his royal heritage from. Nobility ≠ royalty.

The Alberichs weren't of royal blood, we know this, yet Kaeya's prince-baiting adventure continues, same as it ever was 😮‍💨

BREATH OF THE FEYWILD

This is the fun part where I list similarities between Kaeya and the Seelie, from his design to his personality.

Visual Design As you know, Kaeya has a giant wing on his back with three feathers. (Funnily enough the pattern on the outer border is the same as the sun- or moondial on the Nameless Island 😑)

No one else has wings on their outfit other than Paimon and Skirk who has a tiny one on her back. Arlecchino has one wing that only appears in battle or during her charged attack. Seelie courts have a little wing emblem and that angel in the Dragonspine Mural has a stylized wing.

Kaeya has one eye and wears a fluffy boa, same as the Seelie husks we see floating around. Though Kaeya doesn't have two horns, the peacock on his namecard does have two little feathers on its head.

Also, the Seelie emblem on the domain murals look similar to the 8-pointed star on Kaeya's outfit. The downward point is elongated which could represent the cone-shaped legs the Seelie husks have.

Seelie and their beauty keep being equated to moonlight… Kaeya is called canonically good-looking in game and has unexplained light streaks in his hair.

Kaeya was left in Mondstadt (Moon City), ordered a Moonlit Alley in his hangout (with Venti present) and gifted the Traveler a Moon Pie for his most recent birthday 😒. Surely of no importance whatsoever.

Personality I am basing this on the known Seelie we have in the game: Nabu Malikata, Columbina, and Angelica (from the book Perinheri).

First of, Seelie were guides of humanity, and taught them wisdom and language.

Arama: A Seelie? In the ancient stories, Seelies were a great race with wisdom and beauty beyond the pale of this earth. They traveled with Nara (humans) and taught Nara languages and the philosophy of nature.

… In his teapot dialogue, Kaeya offers to put together a guide for the Traveler when they ask for his wisdom.

Traveler: Can I rely on your words of wisdom in the future? Kaeya: I'm at your service. In fact… would you like me to compile a guide for you…? Kaeya: It would contain all kinds of practical knowledge for at home and on the road, including the techniques I have developed for communicating with people from all walks of life. I'd like to share it all with you.

Kaeya acts as a teacher for Klee giving her advice on how to dodge the authorities (Jean) and whatnot.

Speaking of dodging, as stated previously, Seelie were said to be faster than a storm, and Kaeya has a passive called Hidden Strength that decreases stamina consumption. He's actually one of the fastest running characters-gameplay wise.

The loading screen description for Seelie says the following;

Now you see them, now you don't.

Finally an explanation for Kaeya's ability to teleport in his normal attacks. It's just as Noelle said, he comes and goes with the wind.

In Scottish folklore Seelie will ask humans for help and give them a reward in return. In his Story Quest, Kaeya does the same, asking the Traveler for help and gifting them a sword for their efforts. Yes, it was a trap but he did do all of that, and in his Story Quest no less! Story Quests are designed as a glimpse into the character's life….

Wait a minute, he led them into a trap. Where have I heard that before?

Angelica! The woman from the book Perinheri is very obviously an angel (HER NAME LITERALLY GIVES IT AWAY) and thus potentially a Seelie, or at least someone belonging to the angel hierarchy.

Angelica led Hleobrant on with promises and then led him into a trap, not unlike what Nabu Malikata did to Deshret. She knew she was going to die and used his feelings for her to make sure she would never be forgotten.

Furthermore, if a Seelie is insulted they will exact revenge on those who wronged them.

Diluc: Yes… about Kaeya… Diluc: I should have known he would see this as the perfect opportunity to get back at me.

Dude pulled up the Wikipedia page on Seelie 😭😭😭.

Another thing about Kaeya is that he will collect the fears and sensitivities of people as material to tease them about. …In the Harbingers trailer, Columbina teases Dottore about his age, knowing full well he's sensitive about it.

Columbina: I must say, you're looking very young today, Doctor Dottore: You know very well that I do not take that as a compliment

Wanderer describes Columbina as someone who is eerily unbothered and unfazed in every situation.

About Damselette Let me ask: what should you do if you were to encounter a "damsel" who is oblivious and innocent at any given time, and unconcerned and unfeeling in any given situation? If it were me, I could at least challenge her to a fight. But if it were you… with your conscience, I would stay away from her.

In his character story, Kaeya is described as having a cavalier attitude which in that context means, "showing arrogant or offhand disregard; dismissive", since he put the lives of his men in danger by triggering a Ruin Guard 😂. They hate to see a whimsical guy winning.

Character Story 5 Sinister thoughts flashed through Kaeya's mind, and he simply smirked: "This world is truly… fascinating."

You can also see this in Crepus's famous death scene where he was standing in the back smirking Just according to keikaku.

According to Scara, Columbina appears to be oblivious, though whether she's feigning or not remains to be seen. Kaeya has his own fair share of moments where he pretends to be in the dark.

Think the opposite of Furina who pretended to know everything.

He even acted like a "damsel" in need of help right of the bat in his Story Quest.

Kaeya: This is bad… Such a hassle… What am I going to do… Traveler: What's wrong, Kaeya? You don't usually lose your chill. Kaeya: Oh, thank the Thousand Winds! (Traveler), your arrival must be the grace of the gods! Kaeya: If I may ask — envoy sent by the Anemo God to save this mere mortal — could you spare a moment?

(Would be very fun if Columbina and Kaeya know each other from the dark recesses that is Kaeya's childhood and Kaeya is mimicking her behavior like some kind of mentee.)

Both Nabu Malikata and Columbina do not seem to possess human emotions which makes sense since they operate on a higher level than humans. Does make you wonder if Kaeya's occasionally strange behavior is a result of him being half-Seelie.

While not exactly a personality trait, Kaeya repeats some of Nicole's sayings which I thought was interesting.

Nicole: History does not change easily, but human hearts can. Kaeya: History always repeats itself. Kaeya: Anyway, that's exactly why actors need to wake up and realize they don't have to follow the script. There's nothing to stop them from following their gut and making it up as they go along.

As for why Kaeya would know this: find out in 2026 😂 (😭)

Venti Since fairies and air spirits are another potential branch of Kaeya's family tree we can consult the most prominent air spirit in the game: Venti.

Kaeya and Venti have a lot in common, personality wise. Both like alcohol, are mischievous, and have a very mellow attitude.

They also tend to disappear when we need lore the most.

This is very stereotypical of how fairies are portrayed. Down to their love of wine and penchant to pull pranks.

Is Venti some kind of Seelie? Well, he does have wings, and he was a single thread of the thousand winds which represent freedom… Freedom, just like Angelica.

Play within a play In Midsummer Night's Dream, the fairies toy with the humans like dolls. It's their meddling that causes all the mishaps in the play. They even call Oberon the King of Shadows, with shadows referring to the fairies as well as being Elizabethan slang for actors.

[…] even within this fictional world [Shakespeare] has created, the human characters are still treated as plot devices, pawns to be manipulated and directed across the play by the faeries.

If you've read the manga, you know where this is going.

If not:

“All the world's a stage, and all the people merely players – Kaeya Alberich”

–William Shakespeare

Kaeya has more instances where he treats people like they are fulfilling a role: in his outfit description he talks about the bandit and the knight as roles they have to fulfill. When he first meets the Traveler, he applauds like he just witnessed a performance. In Diluc's Story Quest, he breaks the fourth wall by mentioning the chapter of the Story Quest he's in.

Paimon: Kaeya!? Where did you come from? Kaeya: I just picked a good spot to quietly sit and watch the show. Paimon: Whaaa… You've been here this whole time!?

BECAUSE HE COMES AND GOES LIKE THE WIND KEEP UP PAIMON

And after Crepus's death he ponders on the roles he should have played: that of a son and that of a brother.

Very normal behavior…FOR A SEELIE.

You see, Deshret and Nabu Malikata created a City for the Jinn, called the City of Amphitheaters… where they had theaters 😮‍💨

Altar of Mirages The Jinn once used this place as a free theater and a paradise without sorrow or care.

Princess Fischl also introduced theater to the paradise of the Immernachtreich where her people would dedicate plays to her. (Don't underestimate how connected she is to all this!)

PERINHERI

In case you're unaware, a new book released in patch 4.5 called Perinheri has given us new Khaenri'ah lore. I'll only mention the bits relevant to the theory but it's definitely worth reading if you haven't already.

In the story, a woman named Angelica visits the "Kingdom" as a supposed Princess from some defeated nation. Angelica declares she will marry the greatest knight of the Kingdom and lists several names, one of which is Alberich, leader of half of the knights.

But that's not the only interesting part.

Angelica leads Hleobrant outside the Kingdom's borders which causes him to transform into a beast. This is because he is cursed: his ancestors forsook their gods when they came to live at the Kingdom.

Angelica, however, bears no such curses as she explains:

The witch, Angelica, explained thus: "Hleobrant is the descendant of those who forsook their god and came to the Kingdom. This is why the Kingdom's obstinately pure-blooded aristocracy persists. This is the price of betraying your own god. As for you, Perinheri, you are one who drifted there. Thus, you bear no such curse. You may not have the nobility to shoulder a world, but you too have your own destiny. And as for me? I betrayed no one, not for a moment, until my god died, so I too bear this curse not. But you now see who I truly am, yes?"

Look. I don't think I need to spell this out but Angelica is an angel, her name is even explained to mean "one who is as a divine emissary", which, as we established before, are Seelie. Kaeya even has that stupid book The Adventures of Angelos which is obviously a hint towards whatever the fuck he is.

Angelos, Angelica…. Need I say more? 😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

She also conveniently disappears at the end BECAUSE SHE COMES AND GOES LIKE THE WIND

Anyway, this could explain why Kaeya isn't cursed, his mother was a Seelie who never forsook her god. We don't know what the bloodline of Khaenri'ahns consists of… so I can't confidently say they are all descendants of angels. Kaeya definitely is though. You're still a Seelie and that's FINAL.

Otherwise I don't know how else you could explain all of the above.

If he's not a Seelie/angel or a descendant of one, then the only explanation I can think of is that he was blessed by one and is under their protection. Perhaps he was even raised by a bunch of them like the Indian prince from Shakespeare's play.

Maybe in some kind of Sommernachtgarten ☀️🌺

Or a Winter Palace 👸🏼❄️

Frost Prince, Sun Prince, Seelie Prince, whatever Kaeya might be, I will keep updating this post as we go along for the sake of the five people reading this 🫡.

It's like Shakespeare always said, it's Kaeya's world and we're all just living in it.

[your-average-yandere-lover]

𝓡𝓮𝓭𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓸𝓷 𝓗𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓗𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓬𝓪𝓷𝓷𝓸𝓷’𝓼

Tw: Cursing, Spooky themes, Teo slander, mentions of pumpkin slaughter and suggestive content under the cut.

Notes: Happy Halloween! I wanted to do more but I've been so busy with midterms, work and personal stuff that I never got around to it! Here is my half assed Redacted headcanon because—I can. Side note if someone can clarify, is redacted they/them exclusive or bother he/him, they/them, my ass is confused. Obsessed either way though, none the less lol…mk—Happy Halloween!!! ψ(｀∇´)ψ

❥ Redacted likes Halloween. Obviously, they would only want to celebrate Halloween if it makes angel happy. However, considering Redacted is a huge horror fan, they would probably pick Halloween over the other holidays.

❥ Redacted enjoys when you feel safe and happy so, when you said you wanted to go to a haunted house, it wasn’t exactly exciting news.

❥ The idea of you being in fear was something they dreaded but…on the other hand…you clinging onto them for dear life was just a tiny…tiny bit tempting—but the cost of scaring you didn’t compete with the temptation of being depended on. Ultimately they agreed to take you, but they had to gather every ounce of strength in them to ensure they didn’t clobber every actor jumping out in front of you.

❥ Unknowingly angel did the staff an act of kindness when convincing Redacted not to take their ‘new’ sledgehammer to ‘cosplay’ as a serial killer whilst out and about.

❥ Redacted has a special cell in hell for the few propionate actors that popped out and made angel scream bloody murder—And don’t think for one minute he doesn’t have a grudge against every single person who works at the haunted house—even though it was your idea to go in the first place. Simply put, he’s not nearly as forgiving as angel.

❥ At some point in the spooky season, Redacted would absolutely take you to your favorite candy shop, if you like sweets, because—who doesn’t love treating their inner child to some candies! They’d make sure that the store would have all the candies you’d both would share as kids. Redacted would also make sure sure to buy a bunch to take home and devour while you turn off the lights and pretend you aren’t home when the trick-or-treaters come by. Yk because that’s what all adults do on Halloween—be fr with me rn. Unless your Teo ig…I have no doubt homeboy is terrorizing children and flirting with women wearing suggestive outfits, on their way to parties.

❥ Around the spooky season, Redacted loves to watch you watching classics like Slasher films or Halloween but, he’ll only put them on if you want to watch them. He enjoys setting out nostalgic snacks from your childhoods and cuddling up in a blanket with you.

❥ Redacted may pull off the goth aesthetic, however Redacted would create a movie night straight outta a Pinterest board if they knew it would make angel happy. They’d honestly do anything to make you smile and enjoy your time together.

❥ When you suggested pumpkin carving, you never expected them to create such detailed monstrosities. Their pumpkin looked professional, they would absolutely win any contest, hands down; ya boy put Dr.Frankenstein to shame. And watching them carve the guts out was another thing, bro would literally butcher the pumpkin like they were creating an audition tape for a slasher film; they were completely unphased by the nasty smell and the pumpkin pulp everywhere.

❥ Being an artist they’d made their pumpkins look really cool—like one was a hockey mask and the other was a cute doodle like portrait of you as an Angel which he loved your sweet reaction to. The only down side was you didn’t really have anywhere to put them but luckily the you and the fellow library staff were told you could bring some by to add a bit of fun to the building around the spooky season.

❥ If you like pumpkin seeds, he’d make them with you after you set out your pumpkins. The more fun activities to do with you the better—even if they watched twenty different videos on baking the seeds the night before and is stressed about making sure everything is perfect.

❥ If you bake your friends anything, Redacted will get hella Jealous. They want to say something but they don’t wanna ruin your fun ideas—well they really just want you to save your fun ideas for them. Besides you look so cute in the apron they bought you. They end up switching your sugar with the salt, and making the desserts into a literal salt licks in hopes you give up and go to them for comfort. And that maybe if you serve your dessert to other people they will fall off the face of the earth.

❥On that note…He would 100% scare the living shit out of Leon, Teo, Jay, Violet, anyone honestly if you weren't around or you thought it was funny.

~~~~~18+ under the line~~~~~~~

❥ You’re gonna dress up?…Hell yeah. Redacted loves this idea. They’d shamelessly sends you all sorts of costumes you can’t wear out. They won’t waste the opportunity to make this holiday into an excuse to seduce angel.

[circyexistforcontent]

Omg your sibling scara is the cutest!!! Could you do some head cannons of them when they where younger? Like how they would spend time together like collecting flowers, ingredients, stuff like that? ❤️

SAGAU BUT YOU DESCENDED EARLIER THAN EXPECTED

❀ synopsis: the sacred scriptures stated that 6000 years from now you would descend to Teyvat once more. Thousands of years passed and it's now 200 years until you descend. Little do they know, you defy the holy scriptures and descended 200 years earlier than what was prophecized, just in time for Kabukimono to find you homeless and broke.

❀ notes: guys I still haven't made it to Inazuma so please bare with me on this one. And also keep note since the reader is the "divine creator" they are immortal in this headcanon.

❀ pronouns: they/them

When Scaramouche was left behind by Ei he didn't have anywhere to go and continued to wander mindlessly in the woods. Soon he found a small pavilion and decided to stay there to shield himself from the rain. Most of his days consist of sleeping and exploring to find any sort of fruit to get his hands on. But one day when the rain was pouring the sky split open and a human falls from the sky. It was only for a second before it closed again.

He rushes towards you when you fell harshly to the ground, he observes you for a moment when he saw your strange attire. How did you fall off the sky? Why did you fall from the sky? Did your mother leave you here too? He quickly leaves his trance to bring you under the pavilion with him since you might fall ill.

Most of his days consist of staying with you on the beach side. He would sometimes follow you around like a duckling when he notices you exploring since he has nothing better to do anyway. When you sleep he would cuddle onto your side and stay there for as long as you're unconscious.

he thinks you're strange, he doesn't understand why you would touch his hair or pinch his cheeks when all he did was sit down and do nothing. And sometimes you would educate him on things he didn't know about. His favorite moments are when he would lay himself beside you while you tell him stories about another world.

He wants to thank you for all that you have taught him, but finding exquisite gifts in a place far from civilization is hard. So most of his gifts consist of giving you flowers or helping you cook by finding ingredients. You had to save him from electro slimes more than once its not even funny-

When the both of you made it to the village of Tatarasuna he always asks for your assistance in helping him with basic needs. Most villagers would look at both of you and consider you siblings and Scaramouche would agree. If you clarify to the villagers that you two are in fact not siblings he would be dumbfounded, you don't consider him as your brother? But you both have been living together for a long time! A-are you going to leave him soon then?

His habit of sleeping beside you never passes, if you both have separate rooms he wouldn't be able to sleep. Not when the nightmares of you leaving haunt him every night. So when you're fast asleep in the middle of the night Scaramouche would enter your room and shake you awake, claiming he had another nightmare again and asking if he can sleep beside you. If you don't wake up he will cuddle beside you anyway, holding you tight before sleeping himself.

After the two betrayals he would consider you as one of his ONLY trusted ally, he would never tell anyone that he considers you as family. What if they use you against him? Or worse, what if they try to get close to you and you abandon him for them? He can't risks that.

Once it's known that you are actually the Divine Creator of Teyvat it now makes sense to him why you fell down from the sky all those centuries ago. But he wouldn't treat you any different, so what about his sibling being the almighty creator? They are still his family, he wouldn't subject you to high expectations. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't be overprotective. Cause now you have all these new responsibilities, plus your clingy pets- *cough* excuse him- acolytes are always with you, and he barely gets to spend time with you! And it infuriates him to no end.

Why can't they just leave him and his sibling alone? He was the first person you met when you descended, so what right do they have to think they can take you away from him?

"You don't need to be around those bumbling idiots all the time. Just ditch them and travel with me. I know a place where those pests won't follow us."

[peachpitlover]

Vulnerable

In which Y/n is JJ’s anxious girl but he’ll always protect her.

Pairing: JJ Maybankx Reader

Word Count: 1.4k

Warnings: Swearing (just a little), talk of anxiety and ocd, mentions of medication, mentions of physical abuse (not reader or jj), and smut

My Masterlists

~~~

JJ learned early on in their friendship that Y/n was much more reserved than the rest of the group. Don’t get him wrong, she was fun and outgoing and silly, but the smallest thing would have her shrinking into herself. It was only when they started dating that she opened up to him. She explained that she was diagnosed with severe anxiety when she was twelve, as well as OCD. Her mom tried every possible remedy in the book; therapy, OCD clinics, meditation, and natural remedies but nothing worked. She got put onto medication after a year of no relief and the dose was slowly rising until about a year ago. The medication did a great deal to help her, but her thoughts were still often clouded with anxiety. While the severity of Y/n’s OCD died down a lot, she still found herself needing to check her pockets and bag multiple times before leaving the house, and opening and closing the fridge door more times than she can count “because it didn’t sound right.” The Pogues knew better than to disturb her antics and waited patiently for her to sigh in relief and look up with a smile.

Once Kiara had tried to interrupt Y/n’s trance of opening and closing the front door of the Chateau, but it only ended in Y/n cutting into the palms of her hands with her nails as she tried to control herself and tears from the anxiety she felt because once again “it didn’t feel right.” JJ had also once tried to stop her from the never ending cycle of Y/n tapping each side of her arm to make it “feel even.” Then, she had snapped at JJ and locked him out of his own room. She’s well aware that this only exists in her head, but it doesn’t do much to make the feeling any less real.

JJ is against the headboard of her bed with Y/n on his lap. His hands roaming from her shoulders to her hips and back as he kissed her. With both hands in his hair, Y/n panted and squirmed in his arms while her hips gently ground into his.

“You want to do something tonight, angel? Don’t have to, I just think you’re a little needy,” he smiled as he broke away from her swollen lips.

“Um,” she mumbled. “maybe. I don’t know, like what?”

“Anything you want, maybe just putting my hand inside your shorts and rubbing you? Hm, how’s that sound?”

“I don’t know J,” she whined as she picked at her nails.

JJ only frowned and took her hands in his.

“Don’t have to do anything you don’t want, ok baby? Just tell me you don’t like it and we’ll stop,” he’s heard the story of her friend in high school who beat up his girlfriend. He was the last person you would expect to do something like that, and the thought constantly haunted her mind when surrounded by men. She trusted JJ with her whole heart, but her brain told her that she could never know for sure.

“Like, how?”

“How I would rub you?” He clarified.

“Mhm,” she whispered.

He smiled at her shyness: “Just over your panties sweet girl, unless you want more. Just play with your little clit and make you feel good,” he spoke as he held eye contact with her.

“Yeah,” she murmured as her eyes dropped to their intertwined hands.

“Yeah? You want that?”

She nodded with a shy smile before hiding in his neck and he tsked at her.

“Gotta use your words. I’m not gonna do anything until you say what you want.”

“I want that, JJ.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, yes please,” she whined.

“That’s my girl, kiss me baby. I’ll do the rest,” he smiled as she surged forward and her hands went straight to his hair.

JJ continued to kiss her and rub her back as his right hand crept lower and lower until it was resting over her hip, massaging at the skin and pulling at the band of her sleep shorts.

“Can I, baby?” He spoke against her.

“Yes,” she whined and connected their lips again.

As his hand dipped into her shorts the slightest bit, her stomach tensed involuntarily.

“It’s ok,” she whispered almost immediately.

He continued until his fingers were resting just above her clit and his wrist submerged fully into her shorts.

“Just focus on kissing me, baby,” he whispered into her mouth and moved his left hand to her lower back.

Once his fingers rested on her clit, she jumped and gasped, he felt her lashes flutter against his skin as her eyes shot open.

“It’s ok, angel. I’ve got you, I’d never hurt you, my baby. You’re ok,” he whispered.

“It’s just…” she cut herself off as she pulled her head back.

“I know, you’re ok. You’re my sweet girl, I’d never hurt you. Not ever, if you want to stop we can.”

“I know that, it’s just new, is all.”

“I know, and you’re doing so good for me, do you wanna keep going?”

“Yes please.”

He smiled against her lips and kissed the corner of her mouth. Moving his lips to her cheeks and jaw, and eventually her neck. JJ pressed his fingers into her gently and he felt her thighs tense; “I’m ok,” she whispered.

“You’re ok,” he confirmed in between kissing. He began to circle his fore and middle fingers against her as gently as possible.

“Oh,” she gasped.

“Oh?” JJ smiled into her neck.

“I like that.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhm, feels really nice,” she breathed out an almost moan as he pushed his fingers against her mound with a little more pressure.

“Must have been aching, huh sweet girl? I can feel how warm you are.”

“Needed it,” she whined.

“Yeah? You needed me to touch you?”

“Mhm- JJ!” She sucked in some air as he let his hands dip until his fingers rested over her slit, still over her panties. He pushed slightly, not enough to push his fingers in, but enough to satiate that ache and draw out a loud moan.

“I know, I’ve got you,” he whispered before his lips found hers once again and his left hand on her back pulled her impossibly closer.

“I liked the other thing, can you do that again?”

“You liked when I rubbed your clit?”

“Mhm,” she moaned and bucked her hips when his fingers rested on her covered clit.

“Words, baby. Or I’ll stop,” he reminded gently.

“Yes, J! Please,” JJ couldn’t get enough of the sweet moans and whimpers that came from her, they made his stomach flip as an ache settled between his legs.

“More please,” she whimpered and ground her hips down into his hand.

“Can I touch you under your panties? Is that what you want?” Y/n couldn’t help the way her stomach fluttered when he called them panties.

“Yes please, I really want that,” she whispered and smiled shyly.

“Ok sweet girl,” he smiled and slid his hand into her panties. “God, you’re so fucking wet, baby.”

“Oh fuck!” She cried and closed her hand around his hair and tugged.

“Feels good?” He teased her.

“S-so good. Please, please,” she didn’t know what she was asking for, her mind too muddled with pleasure to think of anything else.

“Gonna cum for me?”

“Yes, yes J, please.”

“Cum for me, angel, I’ve got you.”

Her moans became louder and more frantic as her head fell back and her thighs began to shake.

“Oh my god!” Y/n came with one final mewl.

“Good girl, so good for me.”

“Thank you JJ,” she smiled as she nuzzled her head into his neck.

“Don’t have to thank me. I hate to make you get up but I have to go to the bathroom.”

“No, just a few minutes, please?” She pouted and whined.

“I gotta go take care of myself then I’m all yours.”

She stared at him for a moment before her eyes widened in understanding; “Oh, sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, I’ll be quick I promise,” he kissed her one last time before standing up.

“JJ?” She called just before he entered the bathroom.

“Yeah, baby?”

“I love you, thank you,” she smiled.

“I love you more than you know, angel girl.”

[kalinara]

(X-Men #14, Fall of the House of X #1, X-Men #1 - 2024)

So one of the things that I've been wanting to blog about since I went back to my origins to be a full on Cyclops-centered comics blog again, is how delightful (and maybe a bit delightfully dysfunctional) I find the modern Jean Grey and Scott Summers relationship.

You probably have an idea of where this is going already, given the number of top/bottom jokes I've made about the two. (Technically they're probably domme/sub jokes, but it's funnier to use the other terms. Also, I'm pretty sure they engage in telekinetic pegging.)

So I'm putting it behind a cut, because it's long and rambly, and with additional scans. But nothing in it should be a surprise.

Anyway it really is genuinely fascinating to me.

First of all, I'm very happy with the modern, and I think ORIGINAL, interpretation of the Jean Grey - Phoenix relationship, where the Phoenix is, always has been, and always will be, a part of Jean Grey herself. I always thought the possession/replacement story was unnecessary, and it's far more interesting to look at it as Jean all along.

But more importantly, given my focus, is that I'm delighted at how this has shaken out into this absolutely fascinating Goddess-Mortal dynamic between these two characters.

I chose the panels that I did for this post, because I feel like they really illustrate Scott's side of their relationship dynamic. You have poor Jean, who fears her power and what she might do, and constantly tries to atone for the damage she'd done in the past when she'd lost control of herself* (and I want to get back to the Dark Phoenix Saga, in a bit). And then you have Scott, whose reaction to the fact that his wife is maybe the most powerful being in the universe appears to be "my wife can beat up the entire universe, and it is fucking awesome!"

I mean look at these panels. The first one is from Judgment Day, a story that could prompt so much meta in its own right. We've seen how the Progenitor works at this point - he judges the vast majority of people and finds them wanting. A lot of times the root of his judgment seems to be based either on the character's own guilt and sense of failure (see e.g. Steve Rogers and Matt Murdock), or their complete apathy and disinterest in improvement (see: Charles Xavier). Scott seems like a sitting duck for the first kind of judgment: he IS prone to self-hatred and is haunted by his bad decisions and mistakes.

But he does something unexpected: he denies that the Progenitor has any right to judge him at al. He's willingly given that authority to only one person. And she's not here right now. And he PASSES.

Sadly, the Progenitor does end up throwing this back onto Jean during HER test:

(A.X.E. - X-Men #1)

Sadly, Scott's dead right now and not really able to clarify. But we as readers can go back and look at that top panel. That is not a man who is petrified of his wife. He may well sleep in the lair of the red dragon, but he LIKES it that way.

Basically, Scott Summers passed his Judgment Day test for being a massive submissive. And I love that.

And we see the "only my wife can judge me/would you like to meet her" thing again when Scott's on trial in Fall of the House of X.

And it's fascinating in context, because only a few issues before, he and Jean were on the outs, and she basically DOES judge him:

(It's probably wrong how hot I find it when she holds back his powers like that. It's like power-bondage or something.)

Anyway, this is from X-Men #23. In two issues, he'll be captured. She'll be DEAD. And everything goes straight to Hell. And yeah, they've implicitly resolved their issues before hand (since he's agreeing to leave the X-Men with her in Hellfire Gala), but it's still very sudden.

But in that panel, up there, he has no doubts at all. They were on the outs. She's dead. He's been tortured. And still, facing a kangaroo court, he's completely unwavering in his faith in her.

It's lovely.

Sentimentality aside, the key takeaway here is that he's not afraid of her. Even now, when she's fully integrated her power and is up in space re-igniting stars, he's not afraid of her. I'm actually not sure if he was even afraid of her in the Dark Phoenix Saga. Afraid FOR her, yes. And he certainly recognized when she lost it and tried to talk her down (and seemed to be succeeding, until Xavier interrupted!).

We do see, at one single point, Scott express any kind of feeling of inferiority to Jean. And that's in that truly delightful From the Ashes, Infinity storyline where, when she's freeing him from telepathic captivity, he shows her the hidden files in his mind - how he'd fantasized about them growing old together, and how he knows that won't happen now.

(I love the infinity comics, but it's so hard to blog with them, you know?)

But yeah, Scott's one point of vulnerability with regard to the inequality in their relationship has nothing to do with power. He just doesn't want to be forgotten.

So anyway, I included the last scan because, vulnerable issues aside, overall, he really does seem to enjoy the fact that his wife is the more powerful cavalry, who'll happily come to save and/or avenge him and is very happy to use that against anyone he wants.

It's cute and even a little childish in a fascinating way. "My dad can beat up your dad." Only it's wife, instead of dad.

(Look, I've already done the meta about Scott Summers dating people who parallel his many abusive father figures. The fact that both Emma Frost and Jack Winters have unbreakable diamond alternate forms ALONE...well...)

But we are talking about a man who hadn't really been a child since the day his parents' plane crashed, who bounced from abusive situation to abusive situation, without any hope of rescue (even from the father who was STILL ALIVE in space somewhere). It must be an incredibly heady feeling to be able to say, "YES, my wife is bigger than you and will ALWAYS come to save me."

It might be a bit of a gender subversion on the whole historical romance novel premise of the abused servant girl getting to run off with the warlord who would kill everyone who looked at her wrong.

(I also suspect there's an element of "Okay, fuck it. Everyone's blamed me for everything for so long, including me, that I'm just going to bend over and let HER punish me. And that's IT.")

As for what Jean gets out of the deal, well, she's got someone who will never be afraid of her, who admires every time she lets loose with her power, and thinks she's beautiful and amazing, and helps keep her connected with her past, her self and humanity, not by trying to rein her in, but by providing her with basic human comforts (like an unnecessary space ship), simply to make her happy.

Let's just hope that nothing ever happens to him. Because, well, as I've said before, the thing that most adaptations miss about the Dark Phoenix Saga, is that it's never been about a woman being too powerful for anyone's good. It's about a woman who gets repeatedly gaslit, manipulated, mentally fucked around with, who then watches the man she love get hurt and (apparently) die without being able to do anything about it.

...well, I'm a whump fan who likes seeing powerful ladies wreak havoc to rescue hurt and vulnerable men. So I know what I would like to see happen...

[anjanahalo]

Wayne vs Fenton 4

probably after tim starts investigating

~*~

It was another scheduled playdate that forced Damian to really question what Danny meant when he stated he was “liminal.” From what Danny shared at the time, it felt like a chronic medical condition. He’d been exposed, at some point, to a substance Danny knew from his scientist parents as “ectoplasm.” The exposure was strong enough to leave a lingering effect upon Damian’s body. However, Danny also warned the sort of ectoplasm in question was, as quoted by his classmate “super gross and nasty. Not shocked if it made you more prone to angry outbursts than the normal liminal. Like, getting into actually fighty fights and not regular fights.” Danny, as usual, wasn’t exceedingly helpful in clarifying his explanation. His peer evidentially understood the topic, but was horrendous in conveying the principles. From what he’d gleaned, it seemed this “ectoplasm” was a form of less potent Lazarus Water as, when he’d questioned Danny if it could heal the ill or bring the dead to life, Danny seemed horrified at the prospect. Damian didn’t question further. He enjoyed having Danny’s companionship. He’d hate to jeopardize that with giving his friend dangerous knowledge that might lead to the League hunting him down. He’d have to ask for help in researching this, but later. Later became now when, during their fight, after Damian lept to the next rooftop after being pushed closed to the edge, Danny stopped his pursuit. “Whoa, okay, we gotta go back.” “Are you frightened of falling, Danny?” “From that jump? No, but we’re not going further that way. Let’s head back. Saw an ice cream place a few blocks over. We could go there for a playdate treat?” “You’re deflecting.” “I am not! Get over here and say that to my face.” Damian didn’t move. “Make me.” Danny didn’t move. “Seriously, I get you’re liminal, but you’re apparently not liminal enough to realize why we should go back but, trust me, we should go back.” “I’d like a logical explanation you want to draw our ‘playdate’ to a close before I return, Daniel” Danny groaned. “You know how much I hate that name!” “And I’ll keep calling you that until you either use your fists or your words to stop me, Daniel.” “Urgh, look, you gotta promise not to pick any fights, alright? Seriously. There’s a super dangerous and strong liminal that way, and I do not want to deal with that shit on a school night.” Damian glanced back, properly mapping their location. They were both on the border of Park Row, better known as Crime Alley. Even more known among the Batclan as Red Hood’s territory. Red Hood, Jason Todd, a man who, very certainly, came in contact with the Lazarus pits. If living by them made Damian liminal in Danny’s scientific senses, being fully revived by them certainly would. Damian thought about tempting Danny further in to watch his reactions, but decided against it. Having strong if indirect proof of his hypothesis would be enough for the evening, considering his company. “Alright, Danny. This area is known as Crime Alley. Best to head back for ice cream.” “Thank you! Ancients!” Danny gave his favorite odd curse. “I didn’t want to have to chase you down in that sort of poisonous haunt!” “A…haunt?” “Nevermind about it. Basically the area a liminal lives gives a sort of aura from their ectoplasm and, trust me, yours might give the heebie geebies, but his is full Jason Vorhees. Neither of us want to deal with that shit. You paying?” Damian smiled back, hiding the thoughts and theories forming in his head given the indirect information he’d just been given from a scientific perspective of the Pits. “I assumed you were since you suggested it.” Danny sighed. “Fine, I guess I can use my meager allowance on you. But that means no waffle cones.” “And the place offers vegan-” “Of course it does! You think I’d be so focused on fighting you I wouldn’t note if a neat ice cream place didn’t offer vegan options for you? What sort of friend do you think I am?!” “With that division of attention,” Damian laughed, “it’s a bit up in the air.”

[spinchip]

Zane peeks over Dot’s shoulder where she’s curled up on the couch reading a book. “What are you reading?”

It’s a testament to how normalized being haunted is for her when she doesn’t even flinch. She glances over at him before dog-earing the page and putting her book down. She glances around the room to make sure no one is within ear-shot, “Romance book. Princess is kidnapped, a knight goes to save her, the wizard who kidnapped her falls in love with her- Oh, the Knight is also in love with her. Classic love triangle.” She shrugs before pinning him with a playfully pointed glare, “Nice of you to show up. It was my turn to make dinner tonight y'know, And everyone is always raving about your cooking. I could have used your help!”

He has the good graces to look apologetic, “How long have I been gone for this time?” he asks.

“Just one day.” she reassures him, “Not too long.”

“Ah, good.” He murmurs.

“Hey, you’ve never told me- where do you go?” Tilting her head, she clarifies, “Like when you vanish for days at a time. Where do you disappear off to?”

He feigns sitting on the arm of the couch. He can’t actually interact with the physical world in any way, but it makes him feel more grounded to pretend, “I do not know.” He admits, “Someplace dark and quiet… similar to the space between dreams.”

“So it’s like you're sleeping?”

“Not quite. I can still sleep, like during the times when you need your privacy. That is different from this.” he thinks on it for a moment, “I can sleep in that place, too. So I am awake when I am pulled there.”

She makes a humming noise, “Do you think it’s a place in Ninjago?”

“It is a possibility.” he frowns, “I cannot be sure.”

She worries her fingers over the edge of the knee joint on her prosthetic, “Are you sure it’s a good idea to keep everything a secret from the others?”

She watches him deflate a little, his whole body slumping in a soul-deep sadness, “I do not want to keep this from the others, but it is necessary. These black out episodes are proof of that… I am not stable. Whatever is keeping me here may not be permanent, and from our research so far there is no way to bring me back. Telling the others may just be giving them false hope.”

“Yeah…” she sighs, “If I told them you were still around and then you vanished for good, it'd be like you died all over again.”

“That is one way to put it.” He smiles grimly.

There’s a pause, “It’s hard for me too.” She admits softly. “I mean, not so much now because I’m used to you going MIA… but you were gone for a whole week once, and I was afraid you were gone. What if I can't find a way to bring you back before you’re stuck in that place forever?”

“Dot,” He says gently, placing a hand on top of her own. There’s no sensation on her skin, it’s like he’s not even touching her at all, “I chose this when I destroyed the overlord. Whatever happens is not your fault. I am at peace with my actions.” He reassures her.

“I just… can’t imagine life without you anymore, y’know?”

“I would miss you too.” He pats her hand just to do it, “I believe we will find an answer, and if we do not then that is just how it was meant to be. You will have ice… even if my presence is gone, I will always be with you.”

“You’re a big sap when you want to be.” She sniffs, rubbing at her eye.

“I am actually a regular sized robot.” he informs her with a snarks grin.

She shakes her head, “A regular sized robot who is not funny.”

“Of course not. I have not turned on my funny switch.”

“Your what?”

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

This shot is going to haunt me for at LEAST the next couple months. Like. It's driving me insane. And it's all because of one stupid, tiny detail.

The blood drips on Vox's mouth

Now, there are 3 reasons this is bothering me so much. 1 is obviously the fact that THEY ARE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HIS MOUTH, 2 is that there's no real reason the blood drips would be appearing in this moment, and 3 is that this is part of a sequence where VAL AND ANGEL ALSO BOTH HAVE PINK LIQUID DRIPPING FROM THEIR MOUTHS.

Now, there are possible, very reasonable explanations for the blood drips(which I feel the need to clarify have been CONSISTENTLY on the left side of his mouth in every shot except for like one other): it could be an animation error, simple as that. It could also be that they just switched the sides so the blood drips would be more noticeable, but I'm not really sure why they would do that? Because A, I edited the screenshot so that the blood drips are in their normal position and it literally looks fine

And B, why would it be extra important for us to know the drips are THERE unless they have some kind of significance in the context of Poison? Every detail in an animated show is deliberate because each panel literally has to be drawn out. If they flipped Vox's blood drips to the other side in this scene in order to draw attention to it, then there's a REASON behind it, there is something important going on here.

I think it's also important to acknowledge the only OTHER time Vox's blood drips have been on the right, this shot in the finale:

Though in this shot there's also an extra drip on the left, and the two on the right are both different sizes, which. Isn't how they normally look. The drips in this frame just overall look a lot more natural then the usual ones? Which I haven't added a picture of yet but they look like this

Two, same sized red stripes on the left side of his mouth. Anyways those are the only two times they look different, and the two moments have literally nothing in common so I can't figure out why they would be different THERE. The best explanation I can think of for the one from the finale is that a story board artist made an artistic choice(hence the drips looking significantly more natural, mor like Alastor's at the end of Stayed Gone), and then it never got changed or corrected or whatever because the frame where his face is right up in the camera last for like a split second. But Idk. That explanation doesn't really apply to the Poison shot because they look EXACTLY the same aside from being on the wrong side and the Poison shot lasts a lot longer than the close up in the finale does.

I would also like to point out that the drips switching sides is NOT a Val make out session exclusive, because when they're making out in the finale, the drips are still on the left. Like you can see the right side of his mouth in this shot and it's completely drip free.

That was a LOT of text for just one section but ONTO REASON NUMBER 2!!!!!! There is no reason Vox would be doing the fucking mouth bleeding thing in that scene.

Those blood drips only appear on Vox's mouth when he's really, REALLY worked up. The times we see them he's typically REALLY angry or REALLY excited. Like, emotions that would typically cause an adrenaline rush. And there's no real reason he would be having an adrenaline rush in this scene? Like unless wanting to make out with someone real real bad gives you an adrenaline rush I wouldn't know I'm ace. But even if that IS the case, shouldn't the drips disappear after Angel interupts them?

There's no energy in his expression when he looks at Angel, no real evidence that he's feeling anything beyond "ugh this guy again". No reason he would still have the drips. And it's not even really an animation thing, because there was plenty of time to get the drips to subtly go away in this shot. But no. They stay for the whole time. Also, while looking through GIFs to find one of this scene, I noticed that Vox literally NEVER has the blood drips when he's frowning. There a couple shots where it would make sense for the drips to appear(like when he calls Adam a pussy for not killing Al), but they don't, and in all of those shots he's frowning. So for this to be the ONLY TIME the blood drips don't dissappear when he stops smiling? Idk seems kinda sus.

Now. The final, and possibly most concerning reason this scene won't leave me the fuck alone: Angel and Val are drooling to.

(IM SO SORRY FOR THE HORRIBLE QUALITY I HAD TO GET THE SCREENSHOT FROM A LOW QUALITY REPOST OF THE MUSIC VIDEO OFF OF YOUTUBE-)

It's really, really subtle, like to the point where I didn't actually notice it until I saw somebody else point it out, but in the scene where Angel is breaking down after all the SHIT Val put him through over the course of the Poison music video, he has a little bit of neon pink coming out of his mouth. He then wipes it away, looks at his hand, and turns to look at Vox & Val.

And Val has it to. All three of them have the same bright pink dripping from their mouths. And granted, Vox & Val are in a very limited color pallette, and the red in Vox's design got swapped for that same bright pink, and his drips are usually the same red as his eyes, but the fact that it's the same color as the spit(?) coming out of Angel & Val's mouths should at least be a little noteworthy, right?

ALSO!!!!!!! I literally just now put this together- the pink substance is coming off of the right side of Vox and Angel's mouths, but the left side of Val's. It's a small detail, but given that the main reason this scene is driving me up the goddamn walls is that Vox's drips are ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HIS MOUTH, there's gotta be something to it.

Anyways, these points have all been driven into the ground already. Everybody and their mother have been taking this scene and analyzing it, saying the same shit I just did in a bunch of different ways. I'm rehashing all of this because it's relevant to the conversation, but at this point it's kinda like just pointing out the obvious. BUT! I do want to try bringing something new to the table, something that might ALSO explain why Vox's drips are on the wrong side(again, same side as Angel's), so bear with me here:

I've pointed this out before, but Poison is a pseudo dream sequence. It's constantly cutting back and forth between Angel living it up vs him suffering extensively. This is the most obvious during the dance sequence with the giant blue screens(which I cannot provide a GIF of bcuz I have already reached the image limit for this post-). The very obvious dichotomy is meant to show us how Angel uses his mask to cope with the constant abuse, he literally says he's dissociating in the song, but it ALSO means that a lot of the stuff we're seeing in this sequence isn't literal. The scene with Vox and Val might be part of that.

Vox and Val are in a very different color pallette from everything surrounding them. They're both colored in dark blues and neon pink, purple & blue. The demon beside them, however, is not. That demon is colored more naturally. And while, from a technical stand point, I think it's mostly just to make sure Vox & Val pop and are the center of our attention, it could ALSO mean that this is specifically a part of Angel's dream sequence. It's how Angel sees them. And Vox's drips are on the wrong side.

Now, I don't wanna say that this means Angel feels that Vox is in a similar situation to him, because it feels. Weird. But then again, this shot is the only thing we have on Angel's view of Vox! We know plenty about how Vox views Angel, it's not like. Specific. It's just pretty obvious that Vox Does Not Like Him. But we have nothing concrete on Angel's view of Vox(or Velvette for that matter but that's not relevant rn). Which is interesting, because Angel DEFINITELY has oppinions on him. Vox is dating Valentino, Angel's abuser, and never does anything to stop the abuse. That's gotta lead to some built up resentment, y'know? But all we have right now to show us Angel's view of Vox is something that, if you look deep enough, seems to imply he feels more empathetic towards the guy then anything else? Again, Vox and Angel's pink drips are on the right. Valentino's pink drips are on the left. Vox's blood drips are almost always on the left. But they aren't here. They're on the same side as Angel's. You see what I'm getting at here? Wether Angel is RIGHT about Vox being "on the same side" as he is remains to be determined, but still.

Anyways, I could just be over thinking this. I have a long, storied history of taking small details that are probably just mistakes and blowing them completely out of proportion. Ask literally any of my friends abour Bird Teeth and they will confirm. Plus, I'm probably gonna end up over thinking this shit for all of May and completely change my mind on what the reversed blood drips mean, I have a tendency to do that. But for now this is my theory; the reason Vox's blood drips are on the wrong side of his mouth in Poison is because Angel views Vox as being in a similar situation with Valentino to the one he himself is in. Not the exact same, but similar enough to warrant sympathy at the very least.