#although it was more like fighting with photoshop this time

[incomprehensible-phasmid]

Okay, these are kinda fun

[cherryblossompink303]

Patience: ~The twins fight!~

➼ pairing: Kyoya Ootori x Reader ➼ summary: The twins get bored and decide to play around with the two girls of the host club and chaos breaks loose. ➼ what to expect: "I'd look out , for a moment there it sounded like you care" ➼ warnings: none ➼ Part Four | Part Six

"Let's Play the 'which one is Hikaru?' game" The twins chime out, introducing the game that they have played with the clients ever since the host club started.

"So? Can you tell which one of us is Hikaru?” the twins tease in unison.

“Well, it’s hard to say!”

“You’re identical!” The guests gush over the twins in awe.

“Many ladies have tried to tell us apart, but so far none have succeeded.” they wag their fingers in a demeaning fashion.

"That's the dumbest game i've ever heard" Haruhi comments, sat with you having coffee. "They've always done this, it is silly but the girls seem to like it" you shrug.

"You just don't like it because you never guess right y/n" Hikaru appears out of seemingly nowhere as if they heard you from across the room. "No, I never guess because you lie, statistically someone should guess right 50% of the time and yet they never do, I wonder why that is" You taunt, Kyoya chuckles from a nearby table.

The twins gasp dramatically in offence "We would never lie!" the two of them exclaim in unison. "You're jealous because we are so popular" Kaoru accuses, sticking a finger in your face "I'm not even a host, why would I be jealous?"

"Apparently you don’t understand the merits of having a pair of twins as members of the Host Club.”

"Other than you driving Tamaki up the wall?" you tease, knowing what they meant, your the host club's manager you've seen the numbers of it all, next to Tamaki the twins were extremely popular, although you never fully understood the appeal.

“Listen up! Having a couple of good-looking guys with homosexual tendencies earns the club high points. It also helps if the two struggle between their attraction and their friendship.”

You nod, trying to turn away and out of this conversation but they follow your gaze. "And in our case, because we’re twins, our relationship is taboo, and therefore more intriguing.” you grimace, you never try to put too much thought in Hikaru and Kaoru's relationship for the sake of your job, so saying it directly wasn't fun to hear.

The twins appear surrounding a guest. Hikaru tilts her chin his way, whispering into her ear.

“And besides, who hasn’t fantasized about twins? Having two lovers is better than one, don’t you think?”

Kaoru replaces Hikaru’s hand with his own, directing the guest his way, “It’s a young woman’s romantic fantasy.”

The guest stammers, “Well, I- um… yeah, you’re right! I can’t take it!” other guests join in on her squealing. "So you see y/n-"

"Don't, I get the picture, just get back to work"

"Hikaru! Kaoru!” Tamaki appears screaming

The twins mirror each other, hands perched on their hips, “Hm?”

Enraged, Tamaki continues, “When I have control of the club’s website, I did so on one condition! That you take it seriously!” Tamaki shrieks in mortification.

“We take our job very seriously, Boss,” Hikaru assures.

Kaoru waves his hands eccentrically, “In fact, last night we worked on it till dawn.”

Tamaki opens his laptop aggressively, “Is THIS what you worked so hard to create?!” He smacks the keyboard, showing images of Haruhi and You pop up.

"What the..."

Haruhi had been photoshopped- Suprisingly well- to make her appear shirtless, although it was obvious that it was fake since obviously Haruhi does not have the chest of a guy. Meanwhile the twins had edited pictures of you to show more collarbone, one photo being taken from behind had you with a completely exposed back.

"Hm, I didn’t notice that change in the website.”

You nearly jump out of your skin at the voice adjacent to you. None other than Kyoya stands emotionless beside you, observing the picture on the monitor.

“Please don’t tell me you were involved in this.” You plead, knowing that if anyone were to supply the photos used to create these it would be Kyoya. "No, but they are doing remarkably well"

It takes all the strength within you not to hit Kyoya up the back of his head. "Why did you even do this! I'm not even a host, not to mention the fact that the host club has an all female demographic!" You cry, voice increasingly getting higher.

You were going to lose your mind, you know the body in the photos wasn't yours but you were uncomfortable showing a lot of skin regardless, even if it wasn't technically your skin.

“You look great, y/n-Chan!” Honey exclaims from behind you. You make a quick movement and cover his eyes with your hand, much to his confusion.

“Oh! We never see much of y/n! I wanna see!”

“That’s why.” Kyoya points with his pen to the girls fawning over the revealing photo of you.

“Plus, I’m sure our male hosts don’t mind taking a glance at it from time to time.” he shrugs. Oh you were going to kill him.

“You-!”

Tamaki snatches the laptop from you and hands it to the awaiting girls. You exclaim in protest and reach for it, but it’s too late.

“Tell me when!”

“Huh?” the twins tilt their heads.

“When did you take naked pictures of y/n and Hruhi?!”

“Oh, dear god.” You shove your face into your hands and resist the urge to scream.

“You bribed her, didn’t you!” Tamaki starts to cry, grabbing at his hair anxiously.

“You’re imagining things.”

“It’s obvious that the photo’s been altered.”

“It was photoshopped?” Tamaki whimpers, facing the twins with dread.

"Trust me Tamaki I knew nothing about this"

“We did a pretty good job, huh?” Hikaru slides next to Tamaki with Kaoru, shrugging identically.

“We’ve got some major photoshopping talent.” Kaoru brags unabashedly.

“You idiots! That’s a waste of your skills! Have you no shame?!”

Tamaki’s attitude takes a swerve, now kneeling before the twins, pleading, “But if you’re going to do it anyway, can you photoshop Haruhi into this idol photo book?” He presents the twins with the photo book excitedly.

This time, it’s Haruhi’s face that pales, becoming white-faced. You can’t help but laugh.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Boss, why don’t you just-”

“-ask her if she’d wear an outfit like one of those.” the twins suggest, much to Haruhi’s dismay.

Tamaki glances at Haruhi with hopeful eyes, “I never thought to ask her…” he tip-toes behind her and presents her with a pink, frilly dress.

“What do you think about this, my dear?”

“What are you doing with that dress?” Honey tilts his head.

“I would have to agree with Tamaki; I’d love to see what Haruhi looked like if he dressed as a girl!” A guest abandons the laptop to pay attention to Haruhi and Tamaki’s interaction.

“Oh, he’s so cute! I’m sure he’d look great no matter what you put him in.”

Haruhi sighs in exasperation, turning to look at Tamaki with a half-assed glare. Tamaki bursts into tears and drifts away.

You snatch the laptop while it’s unattended and slam it shut, irked. "Okay that's enough, no more creepy photoshops of me and Haruhi you perverts, what do you take us for anyway?"

The twins share an identical smirk with a hum, “Isn’t that obvious? You’re our toys.”

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As we were saying, in order to entertain one’s self in this otherwise boring life-”

“One must find himself stimulating toys.”

You and Haruhi groan in unison “we are not your toys, okay?” The twins shrug with mischievous chuckles.

Suddenly, a door appears behind the three of you, revealing someone cloaked in darkness and peeking out from behind them.

“You want a toy?”

The voice calls your attention as well as the twins’, the three of you glancing over with a chorused confused, “Huh?”

“Toys, toys, if you like toys, then you should come and visit my black magic club.” the figure with a deep voice holds a candelabra.

The pieces fit together in your brain, and you realize the intimidating figure only to be Nekozawa-Senpai. You sigh heavily.

“We’ve opened a marketplace that boasts black magic items from across the globe. We’re also holding mass around the clock.”

Neko’s voice pricks the hairs standing straight on the back of Tamaki’s neck, drawing his attention and fear over to him.

“If you visit right now, I’ll even throw in a free curse doll. You can have Beelzenef as your free gift.”

You snort at the mere name of the doll. The twins struggle to hold in their laughter as well.

“Why is he talking to us through a crack in the door?” Haruhi asks from beside you.

“Wait a second, has that door always been there-?”

Kyoya meanders to the four of you with his infamous folder, “Nekozawa-Senpai likes to hide, he doesn’t really care for brightly lit places.” he clarifies at Haruhi’s question.

You raise your hand childishly, “I still have a question about the door-”

Tamaki stalks up behind Haruhi and speaks abruptly, “Don’t get involved with that guy, Haruhi.”

Haruhi leaps into the air with a yelp at his sudden appearance.

Tamaki isn’t phased in the least, “If you do, you’ll end up being cursed!”

“Do you have any basis for that?” you can’t help but snicker at Tamaki’s attitude toward the clearly harmless elder student.

Dramatically, “Yes! And you should know that! It happened during final exams at the end of the last school year! It’s terrifying just to talk about it.”

“On that fateful day, I accidentally stepped on that weirdo Nekozawa’s cursed doll, Beelzenef. Afterward, I took my exam and the entire test was written in some strange lettering! I looked to the others around me for help and realized I knew none of them! I was all alone in a different dimension!”

Honey cries in the backdrop, “Scary!”

“Did that really happen to you?!” Haruhi gasps.

Kyoya clarifies, “That only happened because you were so scared you accidentally walked into the beginning Greek class and took their exam.” he rolls his eyes.

“No, it was a curse! I know because three days later, I woke up and my legs were as heavy as lead! Just how do you explain that?!” Tamaki challenges.

"your legs were heavy because you ran a marathon the day before, remember?” you point out

Nekozawa appears near you, Kyoya, and Tamaki with a warning, “You shouldn’t underestimate the dark powers of Beelzenef the curse doll! All you have to do is write the name of someone you hate on his back. Then that person is certain to come face to face with misfortune!”

Wow, this guy is dark in more ways than one,” Hikaru observes as Tamaki shakes in fright.

“Supposedly, he hates bright lights,” Kaoru glances at his twin with a glint in his eye, “I wonder what he’ll think of this?” He brings a flashlight out from behind his back, flicking it on and off.

The light shines brightly onto Nekozawa, and incidentally, Tamaki, startling them both.

“You murderers!” Nekozawa shrieks as he dashes back to the safe darkness of his club room, slamming the door behind him.

Tamaki lets out a harrowing shriek, “How on earth could you do such a thing?! Obviously the two of you don’t know the true terror of black magic!” he attempts to scold the twins as they wander off.

They throw themselves into chairs alongside each other boredly.

“Ugh, I am so bored.”

“Isn’t there anything fun we can do around here?”

Being ignored is one of Tamaki’s worst nightmares. So he confines himself to his sulking corner and crouches in shame, “My dignity as the club’s leader is being ignored.”

“It sure is.” you tsk as you shake your head at the twins’ behavior.

“Hey, y/n, we’ve got a favor to ask you.” Both Hikaru and Kaoru raise their hands in unison, gaining your attention. “What is it?”

“The next time we get a day off,”

“Can we come over to your place and hang out?”

You tense up at the question "Why would you do that?" in the two years you had been living in Japan you never really had the club members round to your place, while they all lived in mansions you lived in a small apartment not far from the school.

“We’re curious! We wanna see where you live.”

Without hesitation, you have an answer, “No way.” Your response is immediate.

“Aw, pretty please?” they plead annoyingly. "You never let us come round" Kaoru spoke up.

"I’ve been curious as well; I don’t think any of us have been to your house before.” As per usual, Kyoya appears beside you

“No way in hell, Kyoya,” you deadpan. The crease between Kyoya’s brows becomes more prominent at your response. "Besides, it was your family who set me up with my place, I honestly thought you knew where I live"

Kyoya shrugged "I know your address but I haven't seen it in person, I don't go that far in depth in my research"

“We can settle this with a game!” The twins adorn their green caps.

“If you can’t pick out which one of us is Hikaru, then your penalty will be the two of us coming over to your house later tonight.” They shuffle themselves back and forth, spinning.

“Okay! So which one of us is Hikaru?”

Relief floods your system that the game is so simple- they’ll never have to come over. You point confidently, “This one’s Kaoru, this one’s Hikaru.”

The twins prance in accomplishment, “Uh oh! You got it wrong!” They grin.

You raise an eyebrow that they were still choosing to lie even to you “No, I know I’m right. You guys may look alike, but you’re very different.” you clarify.

The twins let out a mildly frightened laugh, trying to keep their composure.

"How did you do that, y/n? Whenever they wear those hats to cover up which way they part their hair, it’s practically impossible to try and figure out which twin is Hikaru and which one is Kaoru!” a guest catches your attention.

“How can you tell them apart?” Another asks.

"I have to spend every day around them for one, you slowly start to pick up on little things, Hikaru is more impulsive than kaoru while kaoru is more mischevious with his plots"

Kaoru snorts and covers his mouth with his hand, “Sorry, Hikaru, I don’t mean to laugh.” But as he says it, his light chuckle transforms into full-blown laughter.

“Well, I don’t see what’s so funny. I’m honest, I speak my mind, and I don’t hold back.” Hikaru closes his eyes and holds his head high.

“It’s sneaky people like Kaoru who are the troublemakers.”

Kaoru’s eyes open wide and the laughter stops. He rises from his hunched position and glares at Kaoru, suddenly serious.

“Don’t turn this on me, Hikaru. After all, I’m the one who’s always going along with all of your selfish games.”

“I may suggest them, but you’re the one who really gets into them, Kaoru. If you hate it so much, then why don’t you just stop?”

“Because I’d hate to see you make an ass of yourself in front of everyone. It was your idea to call y/n our toy, but I noticed you were quick to make a pass at her,”

You slowly try to creep away from the twins, no longer wanting to be apart of whatever is going on, accidentally backing into Kyoya, who grasps your shoulders to stabilise you. "Are you alright?"

“What’s going on?” your voice is unsteady. He follows your finger and shrugs. “I’m not sure.”

“Admit it, Hikaru, you’re actually in love with y/n, aren’t you?”

You're eyes widen in pure shock, in the years that you had known the twins neither had expressed any romantic interest in you, or at least none that you had noticed. Kyoya's grip on your shoulders tighten a little.

“You’ve got it all wrong, Kaoru! Man, you’re such a freaking idiot!”

“Why would I fall for her? I mean, she looks like a tanuki.” Hikaru reasons.

“Wow, thank you so much Hikaru, appreciate it" you mutter.

“Awesome. This is just perfect!”

Something powerful shakes the ground and rises from the floor.

The motor carries Renge, much to your dismay.

“Our beloved y/n is in the middle of a beautiful yet poignant four-sided romantic relationship!”

“Four-sided-?” You glance around cluelessly.

“And to make it even more exciting, two of y/n’s admirers are twins, torn apart by love! Just the thought of it could make me eat three bowls of rice!”

“Oh butt out, Otaku.” The twins groan. You speak up, “Actually, this is the first time she’s acknowledging my existence so-”

“You guys are meanies, you shouldn’t say something like that to your manager!” Renge cries.

“Never mind.” you pout.

“I’m confused, I thought that you had decided to go back home to France, Renge.” Haruhi points out.

“Well, I was going to start up a host club of my own, but I don’t think France is ready for a host club just yet.” Renge explains.

“Cut it out, already!” The exclamation draws everyone’s attention back to the twins.

“You’re the one who’s always crawling into my bed! Talk about annoying!” Hikaru huffs angrily.

“I only do that cause you look lonely! I wouldn’t choose to sleep in your bed, you idiot!”

Somehow, the twins’ guests find their bickering to be dote-worthy.

“Who are you calling an idiot, you’re the one who sucks at math?” Hikaru fires back with rage.

“Oh yeah? Well, you’re failing your foreign language class, you big dummy!”

“The way you grind your teeth is deafening!”

“At least I don’t toss and turn so much that I fall out of bed!”

“Sex Pixie!”

“Sicko!”

“YOUR MAMA WEARS TOO MUCH MAKEUP!”

“That’s it! We’re over!”

Silence falls over the host club, you look up to see kyoya's equally shocked face.

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By the time you had reached lunch the next day everyone was getting sick of the twins fighting. Haruhi had told you that the twins had showed up to class with dyed hair and nearly tore the classroom apart.

As you along with the rest of the host club entered the refractory the twins were still arguing, this time over what they were ordering for lunch

“I was wondering what all the fuss was about. I can’t believe the two of you are still fighting, you’re a disgrace to the host club.” Tamaki says as you all enter.

“Hey, look who it is.”

“Oh, I love them…”

“I’ve never seen them all together like this…”

"We've had enough of this! You're both to blame for this!" Honey demands.

You turn to Kyoya "I'm surprised you joined us Kyoya, you never normally eat here" you point out, Kyoya still scribbling in his notebook. "Yes well given the circumstances I figured that it would be best that I come and keep an eye on things lest they start chucking things around the room again. I don't want someone to get hurt"

"Someone?" You ask, sending him a pointed look, kyoya glares at you over the rim of his glasses "Don't want to see you needing a doctor, we both know how that would go" he smirks.

You laugh "I'd look out Kyoya, for a moment there it sounded like you care about me" you faux horror. He tutted through a smile "Well we can't have that can we?"

“I don’t care if my boxed lunch is in an embarrassing heart shape! I will eat it!” Tamaki’s shout echoes in the expansive dining hal, leaving the two of you to stare at him in confusioon.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but it’s evident that your fantasies are completely incoherent.” Kyoya departs, carrying his meal on a tray.

“y/n, you wanna sit here with me?” Hikaru pulls out a seat next to him and gestures to it, suddenly calm, separate from Kaoru.

“Uh, okay.” You approach sceptically, sitting down next to him.

“So what’s that?” He points to your little container you’ve brought with you, “What’d you bring for lunch?”

“Just some food I made before school" you shrug.

“You wanna switch with me? I had to order something different than Kaoru, so I ended up with stuff I don’t really like.” He pushes his tray in your direction and swipes up your container.

“That’s fine with me.” You shrug, taking a fork and poking at the food on your new spread. You begin to chew on a bite, humming with satisfaction and chewing thoroughly.

Kaoru pulls out a chair on the other side of you, “So, y/n, is that any good? How would you like to taste mine? Here.”

He slides his fingers under your chin and aims a spoon toward your mouth, tilting your chin upwards. Your face flushes at the proximity.

Hikaru leans forward and eats what’s on Kaoru’s soon, “Quit butting in, get lost, Kaoru.” He deadpans. You squeak and jerk away, separating yourself from the twins glaring at each other.

Kaoru hesitates before chucking a bowl of soup in Hikaru’s direction.

Although it looks like Hikaru has received the blow, he pulls on Tamaki’s tie to reveal that he shielded himself with his own boss. He smirks.

Before you know it, you’re caught in another crossfire between them. Chairs, plates, food, and even Honey is thrown between them.

You slip away and somehow yet again ended up sat by Kyoya yet again “Weren’t you enjoying yourself over there? I'm sure the twins are excellent company”

“Very funny.” Your eyes roll exaggeratedly, opening up your food. "Why have you brought your own lunch? I understand why Haruhi requires a boxed lunch but you and I both know you are in a vastly different situation to her"

"I don't know I just... I've felt weirdly homesick this week, I figured making some food from where I am from would help" you shrug, Kyoya hums back in understanding "Could I...try some?" He asked, slightly sheepishly which was a rare look for him.

You nod, smiling back as you slide over the box for him to stick his fork in, patiently awaiting as he took a taste. His face lights up in a mix of surprise and delight "This is really good"

"You think? I don't think myself to be that much of a chef" you shrug, sliding the box back to take a taste for yourself "You made this?" you smile back at him nodding "yeah"

Kyoya hums, staring back at you with a look that you couldn't quite place. "You should tell me about your home country more often" he lightly commented, returning to his own food. You stared back at him in mild shock, "Yeah"

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"Looking at the numbers, if this situation isn’t resolved, I’m afraid we’re going to have to stop offering our brotherly love package. We’re down one pair of loving brothers.” Kyoya grumbles, sitting directly across from you.

“Oh, y/n, I just want you to know there’s no reason for you to feel responsible. Even though it was your tactless comment that started this whole feud between the twins in the first place, right?”

Your shoot him a dead pan glare. Clearly he did blame you despite the fact that the twins kind of started the fight themselves.

Honey fidgets solemnly with Usa-Chan in his lap, “It’s weird for Hika-Chan and Kao-Chan to be fighting like this. It’s never happened before.” a frown etched upon his face. Mori nods with a bleak hum.

“They’ve never fought before?” Haruhi chimes in from beside you. You nod grimly.

“I’ve known Hika-Chan and Kao-Chan since we were pre-school. We weren’t in the same year, so I never really got to talk to them, but I remember that the two of them always played together.” Honey recalls.

“Yeah, that’s true. I mean, I’ve only known the twins since they were in middle school but they definitely stood out. It seemed like… they kept everyone at a distance except each other to protect themselves. I mean, they were even more isolated back then, I couldn’t even imagine how they’ve turned out now when I knew them at first.” Tamaki chimed in.

“Maybe this fight is a good thing for them.” He extends his arms to emphasize his next point, “Maybe it means that the twins are expanding their horizons a bit. We should just leave them alone and let them work it out.”

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You quickly realise that leaving them alone to work it out wasn't quite going to cut it. By the time the next day rolled around you all realised that you could not open the host club that day as the twins were yet again hurling things at eachother.

“Don’t you guys think that maybe, it’s time you give up all this fighting? It’s driving me insane!” Tamaki cries, looking like he is one more argument away from having a breakdown

“What’d you say? It’s driving you insane? You’ve got to be kidding me- how do you think I feel right now?! Every time I look in the mirror, I see his face! I’m sick and tired of constantly being mistaken for you, Kaoru! The truth is, I hate your guts!” Hikaru yells across the room.

“You took the words right out of my mouth. In fact, I hate you so much, I bought this! Belzenef, the curse doll!” Hikaru produces the wooden cat doll from his blazer. Tamaki shrieks.

“I’m going to complete the curse, Hikaru. I’m going to write your name on his back.” Kaoru pulls a marker from thin air threateningly, Hikaru growls.

Rage and frustration filled you, this was too far, it was all getting out of hand.

“From this day forward, you’re going to experience nothing but misfortune and sorrow!” The marker squeaks as Kaoru scribbles onto the back of the doll.

Tamaki screeches in horror, his palms cupping both his cheeks.

You march up to him, snatching the doll from him and throwing it to the ground. "Are you insane!?" Kaoru stares back at you in shock. "You don’t bring something like this into a petty fight! Both of you are at fault here, but what’s really sad is that you’ve brought everyone else around you into your big mess!”

At this point you are staring down at the two of them like a mother scolding two small children, “Now apologize to each other! If you don’t make up right now, I’m never gonna let you come over to my house, have I made myself clear?!”

You hadn't even registered the words before they left your mouth, pausing as you processed what you actually had just said. The twins stare up at you in shock and horror, however that does not last long as the corners of their lips twist upwards into a smirk.

“So then what you’re saying, y/n, that if we make up, we can come over to your place?” They circle you with hands perched on their hips.

Vertigo overtook you as you realised exactly what had just happened, looking down to find that all that Kaoru had wrote on the curse doll was 'blank'

“I’m so sorry, Kaoru. Even though I was just following our script, I said such awful things to you. I’m not fit to be your brother.” Hikaru caresses Kaoru by the cheek gently.

Kaoru reaches up and takes Hikaru’s face in his hands, “Don’t say that, Hikaru! I was worried. I couldn’t live with myself if I ever thought I had hurt you.”

“Kaoru, I’ll never let you go again!”

“Hikaru!”

You remain stood there, stunned at what was happening before you.

As the twins embrace, Honey flails his arms with squinted eyes, “You’ve gotta be kidding! You mean you guys were faking it this whole time?!” He screams.

You and Tamaki have fallen to your knees in defeat. Your fist tries its hardest to clench the ground, your head hanging between your shoulders.

“We didn’t have anything else to do, we were bored.”

Tamaki weakly lifts his head to observe them, “Twins with too much time on their hands…”

Hikaru and Kaoru both stick out their tongue at him, pulling a single eyelid down in a mocking way.

“…are the devil.”

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“I’m so glad they made up!” guests squeal in admiration.

With pink and blue hair, the twins encourage them, “Okay, it’s time to play the "which one is Hikaru” game!“ They smile widely.

A guest pipes up, "I know! The twin with the pink hair is Hikaru!” She announces proudly.

“We have a winner!” The twins have found that letting their guests win is also as much fun as watching them get them mixed up.

“So are you two going to keep your wild hair color even though you’ve made up? It’s much easier to tell the two of you apart now.”

Haruhi glances up as she strides past them, cocking an eyebrow as she observes their hair colour. They are not the same as they were yesterday.

“Huh, no, it isn’t.” she almost laughs as she stroll past, anticipating their reaction. They each hum boredly, watching her go. “Today, the pink one is Kaoru and Hikaru’s the blue one. You switched overnight huh?"

You hum in approval from nearby "You're finally catching on Haruhi" you congratulate her at being the second person to correctly tell the twins apart.

The twins freeze, staring at the two of you blankly as they realised that you both could truly tell which one was Hikaru.

"I think you broke them" Kyoya pointed out, glancing up from his notebook. You hum in agreement "Yes I think so" he smirks, placing the book down "I must admit it was quite interesting to see you lay into the twins like that, I've never seen you that angry before"

You shrug "I don't even know where it came from really, I guess something came over me" Kyoya pauses, smile slowly fading into a smirk "I'd look out , for a moment there it sounded like you care"

You laugh.

Maybe you did.

Next time on patience 'The Gradeshool host is the naughty type!'

Tag list (reply to be added): @skottch @cgmajor @rebirthbunbun

[jeonginify]

deny me (lovesong) — kim seungmin. ·˚ ༘♡

↝ pairing: kim seungmin x reader ↝ genre: humor, fluff, established relationship!au ↝ word count: 4k ↝ warnings: general menace behavior, you and seungmin are in love but pretend not to be, gross sickening fluff, jisung obviously doesn’t have the paboracha brain cell this week (don't mind that the banner isn't a gif my photoshop subscription expired.......)

↝ summary: the only thing you love more than your boyfriend seungmin’s smile is his obsession with fucking around with his friends. or, after one too many fights between his two best friends who can’t get along for the life of them, han jisung isn’t sure he can handle it anymore (who’s going to tell him that they don’t actually hate each other and are, in fact, dating?)

Thursdays have always been your favorite day of the week.

“Hi babe.”

To be fair, any day that you get to see Kim Seungmin is your favorite. But for the six months that the two of you have been dating, Thursdays have always been your day because it is when you get to see him the most, free of any distractions.

The two of you met through your mutual friends, and although you love them (well, you love them sometimes), they can be demanding. Early on in the friendship, back when you were all itty bitty freshmen with a thirst for the party life, Changbin claimed Fridays as your going out nights. Saturdays, then, were reserved for movie night at Hyunjin and Minho’s after a few too many Marvel marathons sophomore year. Sundays eventually ended up being taken by weekly brunch with Jeongin, and every other day of the week—well, those ended up occupied by one clingy, over-attached Han Jisung.

But Thursdays? Those Seungmin kept clear just for you.

“Ew,” you wrinkle your nose as your boyfriend leans down and plants a sloppy kiss on your forehead.

He raises a brow before flopping into the seat next to you and wrapping his arm around your waist.

“Say that again,” Seungmin mutters as he peppers more kisses on your face.

Somehow, he manages to make the words sound both threatening and endearing at the same time. His lips trail their way down your cheek, along your jaw, to the corner of your lips, until you can’t take it anymore.

“Okay, okay,” you relent with a laugh. “I missed you too.”

“That’s what I thought,” he says triumphantly. You tilt your head up, ready for the final kiss, but he pretends not to notice the way you pucker your lips.

“Now get away from me.”

Seungmin dramatically pushes you off, but the smirk playing across his face tells you that he is just joking.

“Okay, loser,” you sniff, taking a sip from your coffee.

“How was class today?” He asks, shrugging his bag onto the ground.

“S’alright,” you sigh, pushing a cup towards him. You had ordered his iced Americano when you had arrived a few minutes earlier. This was your favorite café, and it had become a tradition to meet here after classes—it was a bit far from campus, sure, but you never minded, and neither did Seungmin.

He takes a big sip from his drink, grinning happily. 

“Are you finally done with that project Professor Cho assigned?”

“Yes, thank god,” you roll your eyes.

“Good,” he laces his fingers with your hand on top of the table.

“Now you can focus all your attention on me again,” he bats his eyelashes. 

“Awww, was my Minnie jealous of my biology class?” You coo.

“Never,” he wrinkles his nose. “I don’t get jealous.”

“Riiiiiiight,” you nod. “So what do you call that time you ignored Jeongin for two weeks because, and I quote, he was ‘breathing too close’ to me?”

“I just didn’t want any of his stupidity to rub off,” Seungmin says sincerely. “You need every brain cell you can get.”

You scoff and try to break free from where his hand holds yours, but his fingers just tighten their grasp.

“Okay, well what about that time you blew up on Changbin because he fell asleep in my lap?”

Your boyfriend’s eyes narrow at the memory.

“That was, like, a week before we made it official,” he insists. “It wasn’t jealousy, it was anxiety.”

“And who’s fault is it that it took us so long to get together?” You tease.

“Jisung’s,” Seungmin says immediately.

“Okay,” you admit. “That’s like, half true.”

Before you and Seungmin started dating, before the two of you were even friends, there was Han Jisung.

You met him on the first day of college orientation. He latched onto you immediately, claiming that you were the only one who seemed nice enough to be friends with someone as annoying as him. You thought he was just trying to be funny, but after three days non-stop with hi, you learned the hard way he was being dead seriously. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), he was annoying in the exact same way as you, so the two of you got along splendidly.

Seungmin on the other hand had no choice in his relationship with Jisung. Neighbors by chance, childhood friends by force, the two of them were attached at the hip all throughout middle school and high school. In what your boyfriend describes as a cruel twist of fate, Jisung even ended up following Seungmin to university a few towns over. He jokes about how he’ll never be free of him, but you know Seungmin does actually care a lot about Jisung, even if he refuses to admit it.

Once it became apparent that you were a permanent fixture in his life, Jisung made it his duty to connect the bridge between his two best friends. Unfortunately for him, however, you and Seungmin don’t have the smoothest of starts.

The day that Jisung tries to introduce you is probably the worst day possible. You are irritated and sleep deprived, and Seungmin is a week out from the deadline for his biggest presentation of the semester. In short, the two of you are teetering on the edge of sanity and are a little more than a bit exasperated with Jisung himself.

After staying up all night studying for an exam, the last thing you want is to get wasted and stay out past 2am, and yet that is the most likely fate you face when Jisung drags you out to a party against your will.

You really don’t want to be here, but—well, you figure that since you have nothing else to do, you might as well take a chance to de-stress. The party is still in its first leg and hasn’t grown into the rager that it undoubtedly will be, so it is relatively easy to venture into the kitchen and grab a drink.

The first time you lay eyes on Kim Seungmin is when you make your way back to Jisung. The two of them are standing in the backyard, locked in a tepid conversation as you approach.

“Seriously, Jisung,” Seungmin says, running a hand through his hair. “This is why you dragged me out of the library?”

The first thing you notice is how hot he is. Tall, strong jawline, angular face, chocolate eyes. 

The second thing you notice, almost immediately after, is how unhappy he looks to be here. Even more unhappy than you.

“C’mon,” Jisung whines, tugging on Seungmin’s arm. “It’s just for a little bit, and I promise Y/N is cool! Is it a crime that I want my best friends to be friends?”

“It is when I have a ten page paper due tomorrow,” Seungmin mutters.

You don’t blame him for being pissy, but something about the way he says it, with such clear disdain in his voice, rubs you the wrong way.

“Nice to meet you too,” you say sarcastically as you come to a stop next to them.

“Y/N, there you are!” Jisung exclaims happily, latching on to your arm too.

You take a sip of your drink, pushing down the wince that threatens to spread across your face at the taste of pure battery acid jungle juice. And the entire time, you maintain eye contact with Seungmin, never breaking even as you swallow.

To his credit, Seungmin stares back with no hesitation. If you hadn’t been annoyed with him, you probably would have found his confidence insanely attractive. Instead, it annoys you even more. 

And while the two of you are locked in an intense staredown, Jisung stands in between you, one arm still linked with yours and the other with Seungmin’s.

“Y/N,” Jisung begins excitedly. “This is Seungmin. Seungmin, this is Y/N.”

“Right,” Seungmin says dryly. “No offense. I’m sure you’re great...”

The rest of the sentence is implied: “...but I have better things to do right now.”

“You too,” you can’t resist jabbing back.

“So nice to meet you,” Seungmin says briskly. It’s not rude, but it’s not not.

“Not sure if I can say the same,” you respond, a smile stretching across your face despite the acid in your tone.

“G-Guys...” Jisung interrupts nervously, but neither of you notice. 

“Right...” Seungmin says again, nodding slowly.

Despite your abrasive remark, he doesn’t show much reaction. His apathy is like an itch under your skin; in the end, that is what annoys you the most. 

(Now, you love how cool and collected Seungmin can be. But back then, when you first met him, you hated it.)

“Well,” Seungmin turns to Jisung, who has gone as pale as a sheet by now. 

“We met. I’m going to go now.”

“W-What—?” Jisung stutters. Before he can intervene, Seungmin nods once at you and turns, taking three long strides away from you.

By the time Jisung finally finds his words again, Seungmin has already disappeared.

The next time you meet Seungmin is at one of the first movie nights at Hyunjin and Minho’s. It has been a few weeks since Jisung’s failed attempt to introduce you, and you are already cozy on the couch next to Felix when Seungmin walks in.

Jisung is in the middle of telling a very animated story to Minho when he spots Seungmin and immediately freezes. The color leeches from his face so fast that you think he might pass out, but it is only when he looks quickly between you and Seungmin that you realize exactly why he looks so nervous.

“Min,” Felix says happily. “You made it!”

Seungmin nods, his eyes briefly passing over you before he spots the empty spot next to Chan and makes a beeline for it. 

After a little time and a lot of sleep (and maybe just a tad bit of reflection) you have come to the realization that maybe your reaction to Seungmin at the party wasn’t warranted. After all, he was entitled to be annoyed at Jisung and the situation in general, and it wasn’t you specifically that he was irritated about, so you have no reason to take it personally or hold a grudge.

Which is why you’re not annoyed at Seungmin’s presence. tonight. Instead, you can’t help but feel a little bit... awkward. Chagrined, maybe?

You might feel calm but Jisung is two seconds away from pissing his pants. In fact, he’s so desperate to clear up any misunderstandings that halfway through the movie he texts you for an emergency rendezvous in the kitchen.

“IpromiseIdidn’tknowhewasgoingtocometonight!” Jisung blurts out in one breath once you two are away from the rest of the guys.

“Okay...?” You raise a brow.

“So, like,” he blabbers, “don’t hate me! I love you both and I’m sorry for forcing you guys to meet—”

“—Jisung,” you interrupt. “It’s okay.”

“Really?” He asks uncertainly.

“Really,” you affirm.

“Okay,” he nods, and you feel the overwhelming urge to give him a paper bag to breathe into. Not because that is the proper treatment for hyperventilation—precisely because it isn’t, and maybe if he passes out then he’ll stop worrying.

When you walk back into the living room, Seungmin doesn’t even look up at you, but you have the strangest feeling that he knows exactly what you and Jisung were talking about.

Later that night, you loiter around the apartment a little bit longer than you usually would, just to avoid leaving at the same time as Seungmin. Your plan backfires, though, when Jisung has to leave early. You try to hang around a little bit longer, but then Minho and Hyunjin start to wonder why you are still there, and you have no choice but to leave. 

Which is how you end up trailing awkwardly after Seungmin on your walk back to your apartment. It takes him precisely two minutes to notice that you are behind him, and then three more before he comes to a halt.

“I’m not following you!” You insist immediately. “My place is just in this direction too.”

“Okay.”

“Okay...” you parrot back awkwardly.

“So,” Seungmin begins a moment later. “I just... I wanted to apologize.”

“What?”

“For that night at the party,” he clarifies. “I was kind of... no, I was very stressed. And rude. It wasn’t cool for me to treat you like that.”

You are so stunned you don’t know what to say.

“Jisung speaks very highly of you,” Seungmin continues. “And I swear, if it had been any other day, I wouldn’t have been such a dick. Not that it’s any excuse...”

“Well,” you begin, a warm blush spreading over your cheeks. “I don’t think that’s really your fault. I was kind of a bitch, too.”

His serious facade cracks and a small hint of a smile peeks through.

“Either way,” Seungmin says. “I did actually want to make a good impression, believe it or not, so... Do you think we could start over?”

You don’t even have to think before you respond, “I’ll gladly erase that version of Y/N you met for this one. I promise, I’m not always that rude.”

His face breaks into a bigger smile, and it almost takes your breath away.

“Well,” he says. “That makes two of us.”

That is the beginning of your friendship with Seungmin. After that first movie night, you start to see him more frequently on campus. Then, the new semester starts, and you find that the two of you share an intro to film class.

Almost naturally, the two of you start to hang out more and more, and you begrudgingly realize that maybe Jisung was on to something when he insisted that the two of you meet.

It is only when you’re too deep in and the feelings (romantic, of course) for Seungmin have really started to take root do the two of you realize—even though you rehabilitated your relationship, Jisung still thinks you hate each other. 

This realization hits on a Friday at a party that Changbin drags the entire group to. This time, thankfully, both you and Seungmin do want to be there, and the night is going well.

(At least, as well as it can when you are grappling with the complicated newfound feelings you have for a recent friend-slash-study buddy.)

Then, in the midst of a tequila the midst of a tequila-induced haze, Jeongin finds you and Seungmin on the dancefloor.

“Hey!” he shouts. “You guys are friends, right?”

Seungmin looks at you, then shrugs.

“Yeah!” You shout back. 

“Then why,” Jeongin asks, “is Jisung about to have a mental breakdown about you two?”

“What do you mean?”

He keeps whining to Changbin about how horrible it is that you two hate each other!”

“We don’t—” You begin.

The realization hits you and Seungmin at the same time, and it’s like you can see the lightbulb go off in his head. 

“Oh...” you mutter.

“Oh,” he agrees.

“You guys are weird!” Jeongin shouts, eyes flitting between the two of you as you stare at each other.

“Heyyyyyy!” Jisung shouts even louder, his voice anxious as he comes to a stop between you and Seungmin.

“How are you both doing?”

His nervousness is almost laughable, but when you look at Seungmin, there is a devious twinkle in his eyes.

By now, you know him pretty well. And that look? It tells you only one thing: that he’s about to do something to fuck around with Jisung.

“I’m fine,” Seungmin says primly. His tone is such a stark contrast to how he was speaking only moments ago—it is guarded and prickly, and you catch on immediately.

“Who knows,” you mutter a moment later, going along with Seungmin.

“So you guys—” Jisung begins wearily.

“He keeps following me,” you point out.

“She keeps following me,” Seungmin rebutts.

“R-Really?” Jisung asks nervously. 

“Whatever,” you roll your eyes. “I’m going to find Felix.”

Seungmin averts his gaze quickly, but not before you see the way he is biting back his laugh. And when you turn on your heel and head outside, a smile is plastered to your face as Jisung begins to badger him with questions.

The smile remains glued in place as the sound of Seungmin fibbing fades into the background.

That is the first time you pretend to still dislike each other in front of Jisung. The next time it happens is right before Hyunjin’s birthday when Felix ropes everyone into baking brownies for him. After that, it is when you and the guys go paintballing and you and Seungmin end up on opposite teams.

The fun of it is always how flustered Jisung gets. None of your other friends actually believe that you and Seungmin dislike each other—they know better than that. But Jisung, with his whole chest, thinks you and Seungmin hate each other. (Never mind the fact that you can’t look at him without hearts in your eyes...)

Once the charade started, you and Seungmin never clarified how long you were going to play along with it. Eventually, months have passed, and then when he finally works up the guts to ask you out officially, the face remains firmly in place.

Which is how you wind up here, six months later and happily dating, with your mutual best friend under the assumption that you guys actually hate each other.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” Seungmin asks as he takes a sip from his iced Americano.

“How irritating you were when we first met,” you say wistfully, tapping your fingers affectionately on the back of his hand.

“Hmmm? I recall you being just as irritating,” Seungmin tells you. 

“Me?” You gasp. “I’m an angel. I could never.”

“More like a devil in disguise,” he rolls his eyes.

“If I’m a devil, what does that say about you?”

“What can I say? I love charity work,” he declares dramatically. “You’re my community service project.

“I’m telling your mom,” you attempt to pull your hand out of his, and this time you succeed.

A pout stretches across his face, and it only takes a few seconds for you to break and lace your fingers with his once again.

“You’re scared of my mom,” Seungmin challenges, a lazy smirk stretching across his face.

Butterflies swim through your stomach, but you shove them down at the obvious jab.

“I’m not scared of her!” You insist. “I’m scared of meeting her. There’s a difference.”

“Sure, babe,” he nods solemnly.

“I’m serious!”

“I’m sure you are,” he placates.

“Stop looking at me like that,” now it is your turn to pout.

“Like what?” He asks innocently. 

“Like you think I’m cute.”

“But I do think you’re cute,” Seungmin points out.

“Well,” you say, flustered. “Stop!”

“It’s your fault for looking like that,” he says. “I’m not making you do that. In fact, don’t you think it’s more unfair for me?”

“How?” You narrow your eyes.

“I should be the cute one in the relationship,” he says like its obvious. “It’s not fair that you’re more adorable than me.”

“Awww, Seung,” you light up.

“I think you’re very adorable, and—” you coo, but stop short when something outside the coffee shop window catches you by surprise.

“—And I hate you,” you finish shortly, shoving Seungmin’s hand out of yours and crossing your arm with a huff.

“What?” He mutters, confused. “Wait, what just happened? Did I do something wrong?”

You roll your eyes, scooting your chair away from him. A distinctive chime rings, indicating that the door has been opened and then closed.

“Babe—” He begins, but then he stops too.

“Bab-y,” Seungmin says derisively, arranging his face into a mask of cool disdain.

“I’m calling you a baby.”

“Nice save,” you mouth, and Seungmin sticks his tongue out at you.

“Y/N,” Jisung’s voice comes behind you. “Seungmin! What are you guys doing here... Together?”

He sounds equal parts shocked and horrified, and for a moment you feel bad for him.

Then you remember that time last month when he woke you up at the ass crack of dawn and dragged you on a hike up a mountain, only to abandon you halfway up because he got a call from the girl he’s been hooking up with to come over, and you suddenly don’t feel bad anymore.

“Our professor assigned a group project,” Seungmin fibs seamlessly. “Y/N and I got paired up.”

“No need to sound so annoyed,” you say sweetly, kicking him under the table. 

(It’s less of a kick and more of you playing footsies with him, but it has the desired effect when Jisung’s eyes flit nervously around and Seungmin’s finger twitches ever so slightly towards your hand.)

“Who said I’m annoyed about it?” Seungmin asks, a serene smile stretching across his face.

“You did,” you tell him. “Many times, actually.”

“I’m more than annoyed. Exasperated, maybe, or incensed.

“Anyways,” you roll your eyes, barely able to keep your laughter at bay.

The funniest part about this conversation is that Seungmin isn’t completely lying.

Although the two of you aren’t currently working on anything, you were paired up a few weeks ago. Throughout the project, he couldn’t stop complaining about how annoying it was to be paired up with you—he claimed you were a pretty distraction, and that he couldn’t be expected to get any work done around you when he could kiss you instead.

“What are you doing here, Jisung?”

“I was just passing by!” He says shrilly, a little bit too fast.

Your raise an eyebrow. Recently, any time Jisung finds you and Seungmin in a (fake) argument, he can’t seem to escape fast enough. Individually, he has no problem being around you two. But it’s like he’s afraid to be standing in the blast zone when it comes to you and Seungmin together—which, in your opinion, is hilarious. 

The farce, then, is both amusing and beneficial, which is probably why you and Seungmin have dragged it out for so long. Because god knows, if Jisung knew that you and Seungmin actually liked each other, he would never give you any alone time.

His two best friends being friends is his dream. His two best friends dating? Frankly, you’re scared to see how he would act...

“Passing by?” Seungmin asks. “This far away from campus?”

“Yup!” Jisung exclaims cheerily. “And would you look at that? It’s already 4pm. I’ve got to go! I’ll see you later, bye!”

He is already inching towards the door before he begins speaking. By the time he has squeezed all the words out, his hands are on the door. 

You barely have the chance to say a quick “bye!” before he swings the door open and rushes out.

You and Seungmin watch through the window as Jisung speed walks away from the coffee shop, his fingers gripping his bag tightly.

And then, when he is out of sight, you both burst into laughter.

“Sorry babe,” you pout, reaching for Seungmin’s hand once the coast is clear. “I don’t actually hate you.”

“Well, unfortunately,” he clicks his tongue. “I was actually calling you a baby.”

Your pout deepens.

“But you’re my baby,” Seungmin amends, giving you a little kiss on the cheek. You sigh happily, scooting close so you can link your arm through his.

“D’you think we should tell him sometime soon?” You ask. 

A moment of silence passes.

“Nah,” Seungmin says finally. 

“Really?” 

“He was a menace to me throughout high school,” he says. “This is my revenge.

“Okay...” You say uncertainly.

“And, if you think about it,” Seungmin goes on. “It’s his fault that he still hasn’t noticed after all this time. All the other guys know. Even Hyunjin knows.”

“You know, that is a good point.”

“Thanks babe,” he kisses your cheek again, a smirk on his face. “I know it is.”

“Oh, hush,” you mutter, not entirely happy with how smug he looks.

But then, he leans in and finally kisses you on the lips, and you forget why you were annoyed with him in the first place. 

[hugsandchaos]

The Dannypocalypse

I don’t know how to photoshop yet, so this will be my first contribution to the Dannypocalypse instead! It’s unfortunately very short compared to my usual work. I think I did a good job despite it, though! Hope you enjoy!

Actual Summary: Warriors has what he believes to be the weirdest nightmare, Danny is confused.

Word count: 1,919

The first thing Warriors noticed waking up was the lack of the smell of cooking food. That, along with routinely having to get up almost before he even realized he was awake when he was captain, helped him push himself to wakefulness almost instinctively. He didn’t pay much attention to that small part of his mind still trying to put up a fight and get him to go back to sleep. It’s lost for years, and it won’t win this time. Although he felt a little bit heavier than usual. Warriors rubbed the gunk out of his eyes before stretching his arms above his head.

He slowly stood up and opened his eyes to see Wild, Wind, and Four huddled together with their backs facing him. Looking around, Warriors couldn’t see anyone else. The clearing they’d set up camp in was vacant aside from him, the three heroes, and the pot. The forest was also oddly quiet, and it was much later in the day. Maybe closer to lunch than breakfast. The realization made a part of his subconscious panic and think that any moment now, he’d be scolded badly, like back in training.

All these things were off and didn’t make much sense. How did he sleep in that late? Or not notice the others leaving? And if the fire was burning, why couldn’t he smell the smoke? He walked towards the three heroes who were probably looking at the ingredients that hadn’t been cooked yet. Maybe they were deciding what to actually cook. Interrupting was usually rude, but Warriors had to know.

“Hey, where are the others?” He asked. The three of them turned around to face him in unison, and to say that Warriors was startled by what he saw would be an understatement.

Where there should’ve been their faces, Danny’s face had replaced them. They all held the same expression, something akin to irritation or semi-controlled anger. Like the expression was asking “Did you really just do that?”. It was wrong. Very wrong. Not only their face, but also their hair was exactly like Danny’s. The unnatural sight was more scary to Warriors than it should’ve been. He’s felt true fear before, fear that erased everything else in his mind until there was nothing left except his internal voice screaming at him to run, and this was pretty close to it.

The sense of dread that came from seeing someone’s face on a person it didn’t belong to made him feel like he was frozen in place. His mind screamed at him to run, to get away from whatever was happening, but he couldn’t.

The three of them stood up. That was the push Warriors needed to finally move his legs and take a step back, then another. Another step back, and the three heroes took one towards him. Even though they weren’t holding any weapons or a shield, that was enough to make Warriors finally turn his heel and break out into a sprint in the opposite direction. Not towards any specific destination, just away from whatever he’d just seen.

Why did they have the new kid’s face?! How did that happen?! It hadn’t even looked like some mask, it was like their very heads were replaced as soon as they turned around. Where was the original? Where were the others? Maybe they knew something.

The worst thing was even though the captain was going as fast as he could, he felt like he was going at a snail’s pace, and it was terrifying. One glance behind him showed the three abominations running after him, still bearing the same expression. The forest seemed to go on for quite a while before he broke out into a large field he remembered passing through with everyone earlier. Standing by a tree in the shade were the silhouettes of three people.

Warriors could see the outlines standing out against the sunlight covered grass behind them, but for some reason, he couldn’t make out who they actually were. One of the shapes looked like Sky with the cape, but the other two were more difficult. Regardless, he sprinted towards them.

“Hey! Sky?! Is that you?!” Warriors asked, sounding more panicked than he would’ve liked, but he felt like he couldn’t help it. The three of them stepped into the light. Sky, Legend, and Hyrule all had Danny’s face and hair instead of their own.”No, it’s not!” Warriors said, answering his own question. He turned to the left and bolted across the plains, still feeling as if he was moving incredibly slow. It was like he was watching everything ahead inch closer through glass goggles.

Still, seeing his friends’ faces replaced with the new kid’s face was unnaturally horrifying, especially when they’re chasing him without opening their mouths to take steady breaths so they could keep going while Warriors feels like he’s suddenly running low on breath. It only got worse when he suddenly found himself re-entering the forest and running along a skinny dirt path. That wasn’t the bad part, though. The bad part was Time sitting on a small boulder to the right of the path. Just like the other six, he too wore Danny’s face.

“Shit!!” Warriors exclaimed as he ran past. Time watched him pass by before Warriors heard the sound of heavy armor starting to move, and he knew that he was about to chase him as well. It only fueled Warriors’ fear even further, pushing him to run past his limits, and that’s just what he did.

The dirt path led him to a spirit spring like the one in Kakiriko village, surrounded by very tall rocky walls consisting of red and orange colors. On the other side, the water turned to grass to support a fence. A fence encasing several Ordonian goats like in Twilight’s drawings along with Twilight himself, petting the goats like there was nothing wrong.

Warriors had his doubts about him being okay and not having Danny’s face, but he had to try. He must know what was going on!

The water splashed loudly as Warriors ran into the shallow lake. Soon, seven pairs followed behind him. The way the water turned from a clear liquid into solid green grass as he grew closer was definitely abnormal. There should be at least sand between them!

He lunged over the fence when he grew close enough, ducking into a roll and standing up quickly.“Twilight! Thank goodness!” Warriors exclaimed. He started to slow down a little as he grew closer to the ranch hand.”Listen, there’s something—“ He stopped talking when Twilight turned around to reveal that he also had Danny’s face instead of his own. Warriors immediately started running again somewhere to the right, and Twilight’s footsteps following behind him never sounded so scary.

He jumped over the fence on the other side of the plain and kept running now on solid ground as fast as his legs could go, and he even did all he could to push them past that. The way the rocky canyon surrounding the spring opened up on the other side to reveal more open space and green grass didn’t make sense. How was he back on the plains?

He’d seen the map had Twilight shown them of his Hyrule, but trying to reach into his memories and get a clear image of it was very difficult. He was running blindly through a world he wasn’t familiar with, and it was one of the worst positions to be in. Warriors continued running through the forest until he spotted a castle in the distance.

Yes! The castle town! He was sure he’d find help there from the guards!

Warriors kept going as fast as he could, fast enough to make part of him tell him to slow down or he’d trip and hit the ground that was slowly becoming white bricks, but he refused to listen. Especially when that small part of him was outvoted by the rest of him. He ran over a wooden bridge going over a river and past the open, unguarded entrance. Once he was inside and saw the crowd, his eyes widened in horror. He forced himself to stop so suddenly that he almost fell.

Every single person, young and old, tall and short, wore Danny’s face. And they were looking right at him.

Warriors turned around to try to get out and get somewhere else, but he stopped when he saw his friends right at the entrance he’d passed mere seconds ago. They formed a wall and blocked him from leaving.

How did they get there so fast?!

The captain frantically looked around. The crowd was slowly closing in on him, but it felt like he only had seconds to do something or some terrible fate would claim him as its next victim. No matter where he turned, the weird Danny-faced-not-Dannys would be blocking any exit. He didn’t want to do this, but seeing no other option, Warriors tried to reach back for his sword. But his hand clasped over thin air. He turned around. He’d forgotten it back at the camp.

Before he could turn back to look ahead, a hand grabbed at his left shoulder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warriors startled awake and inhaled sharply as he sat up. For a while, the world was concealed by several black, fuzzy looking dots, but those soon faded away to allow room for what was actually in front of him. At the same time, he became dizzy when he sat up too fast, so he didn’t process whatever was said to him or even notice it until it was repeated.

“Are you okay?” A voice asked.

Warriors quickly turned to see Twilight knelt down next to him. Warriors felt swarmed with relief when he saw that he had his normal face again, black marking and all. He couldn’t help but breathe out a small sigh as the tension from expecting to see Danny’s face unnaturally plastered on the ranch hand’s head again vanished. He never thought he’d be so happy to see someone wearing a face that was their own.

It was then that Warriors registered the hand on his left shoulder. It was all a dream.

Twilight looked worried as he anticipated an answer.

Warriors took a moment to look around the campsite, just to be sure. Sure enough, everyone had their normal faces. Time, Wind, Wild, Hyrule, Legend, Four, all of them. They were already awake and talking while Wild worked on breakfast. Warriors lifted his arm and put his head in his hand. Twilight still had his hand on his shoulders to try to comfort him.“I think I just had the weirdest nightmare of my life.” Warriors admitted, half muttering it in slight disbelief.

Even though he wasn’t in actual danger in the dream and he was awake now, the fear for his life still lingered in the back of his mind. None of Danny-look-alikes had really threatened him, but the way they kept following him and eventually had him surrounded with the only way out seeming to be with his sword was terrifying.

“Really? What was it about?”

Warriors practically jumped out of his seat and turned to look at Danny. The only one with his face, the way it should be. The hoard of Danny’s flashed in Warrior’s mind as he stared at the teen now with slight distrust.”I’ve got my eye on you.” Warriors said, before he even realized it. Danny, the real one, just looked at him confused.

Bonus:

Danny: *glancing between the other Links, then back at Warriors, utterly confused* What did I do???

(I hardly ever write dreams, but I remember some of mine pretty often, so I tried using some of the themes I’d encounter along with some tips I looked up. Obviously, I used the whole “somehow running very slowly” thing, and since Warriors wasn’t familiar with Twilight’s world yet, and dreams are often mixtures of reality, memories, and imagination, I didn’t think I had to make sure the story went along with the map. I also tried to find some middle ground between not being very descriptive and not giving any description of the dream surroundings.)

[fayrinferno]

The Escaflowne Movie CD Dramas

Time to share some thoughts about the CD dramas I recently posted (one, two). There’s so many topics I will just make a few sections. This is insanely long and... just insane again. So I'm putting a cut right here.

First of all, this was such a different translation project than I’m used to! Meaning, it was spoken word instead of written and there was no official transcription. That is the difference between these two movie dramas and the series drama (Thought of Jeture). ToJ had the whole script in the booklet, so that would make the translation MUCH easier. The only thing we have for these are the summaries in the movie Newtype Artbook. Anyway, it was a fight but I’m pretty confident with this translation.

Speaking of booklets, sorry about the quality of the pictures/scans. For some reason, these booklets are really deteriorating, dunno if anyone who has the same CDs can confirm, but they are yellowing pretty badly and what is worse, in an irregular way where one page is totally different color from the other. I don’t think the environment I store it in is too bad, there’s not a problem with humidity or anything and most of the other materials are fine but ofc, I can’t speak for the previous owner. Or it’s simply a feature. The booklets are printed on some textured, off-white (possibly recycled?) paper in the first place, so they were never white, but then there’s the yellowing. I tried to fix it a bit in Photoshop but when it’s irregular AND in color, my editing skills come short. BTW, I had a similar problem when I scanned Escabible, I just gave up and made it B&W cause the print was originally green on pages that yellowed with time. Anyway, these cd drama booklets have sparse contents compared to some others (there are only the song lyrics and credits and some non-specific artwork), so I included the scans more or less informatively.

Finally, to the contents. This is definitely more complementary to the movie than the novel which takes some different paths. I believe this one was made so that it doesn’t contradict anything in the movie, although some things leave you guessing. We’ll get to them later. Which may be one of the reasons why it's kind of hard to be in the drama setting and not to feel like “this is just another Escaflowne AU” but realize it is an actual prequel/prologue to the movie. It has all the scenes that you would have in yet another Escaflowne retelling, such as:

sketch of Hitomi’s relationship with Yukari

Hitomi’s suddenly getting isekai’d and realizing it by observing Earth from Gaea

Hitomi meeting Van under dramatic circumstances (though I must say this is probably their most civil first encounter, there’s practically no fighting!)

meeting with other characters like Allen and Millerna (the Van and Allen fight is practically a copy of the movie fight… even bears resemblance to their first series encounter)

introduction to other characters like Folken, Dryden, and Dilandau

I get it, I get it. This was a case of amnesia in the end. But we are just more used to AUs in this fandom, haha. I also get you would want cameos to every character with a semblance of a fandom in a new franchise material. But I can’t shake the feeling they weren’t trying all that hard to tie things into the movie perfectly, although the cd drama is described as its prequel.

For clarity, I still consider the cd dramas and the movies the same universe and the things that happened in the drama as canon for the movie. There is also the movie novel, which I will publish in the future, but that one is another beast and I wouldn’t necessarily say things that are true there are some secret lore for the movie that was just never mentioned. It’s more up to the decision of the reader whether you accept them into your movie headcanon (because some of the novel lore contradicts the movie so how much can you believe the rest of it?) The multiverse is quite insane already but yes, this happens, with other titles as well.

BTW, it is neat they included Dornkirk’s seiyuu in the voice of Orm. This is a pretty mysterious character but he fulfills the role of the deus ex machina for the whole thing, never to be mentioned again in the actual movie. It is through him we learn more about Folken and Van, which would otherwise have to be spoken about by themselves in a voice drama/movie, and yeah, we all know the odds of that. Anyway, he is not human. He is not Dragon Clan, because that’s people like Van and Folken. And yet, he changes into a dragon. Is he actually a dragon god? One of the two who created Gaea? I guess not if it’s the two princes who decide the fate of Gaea instead of him. Perhaps he lost his power or there were lesser dragon gods? Or he’s not a dragon at all; it’s just sorcery of some sort. He says he’s just a sorcerer, after all. But he looks like a goblin. It took me a while to realize and you may not remember either, but the movie also has madoushi or sorcerers, except they don't look exactly human.

Rather, they resemble the series Ispano and their work with on Alseides confirms this. So now I believe this Orm could possibly be one of these guys (maybe before whatever it is that got done to them?) and he shows his true form to Hitomi. And when you think of it, much like Ispano, Orm acts as a sort of “insurance” against world destruction. The topics just keep recurring it seems.

Anyway, I just made some notes about these cd dramas and grouped them according to the topic.

Physical descriptions of the characters

If you introduce a character in an audio drama like this, you have to introduce them through the narrator’s voice, similarly to a book. That’s why Hitomi has to spend more time describing Orm’s shiny eyes, protruding teeth, etc. than she does with the known characters with a known design, who, all with the exception of Van, get just about one sentence. She spends some more time describing Van and although she observes how “beautiful the two look in their fight” (I had to make a note of that), she never spares a second thought to Allen, or any of the other handsome men she sees. No more love triangles, the soulmate game here is too strong! 

Anyway, in this material, Hitomi describes Van’s eyes twice with a word that literally means “see-through”. It felt odd but it is apparently a set expression, unless they tried to involve some double meaning. It’s apparently a synonym of clear/shiny/sparkly/pure/beautiful eyes… you can buy contact lenses that promise to do this for you in Japan lol. I translated the novel as well and there are more strange descriptions of his eyes in there, maybe that’s why it felt so significant. There is also a bit of a difference compared to the series materials, where they would just describe the color in a way you would describe a specific shade of blue or any other color. In any case, however literally or not they meant this, Van has pretty eyes, as we already knew. It was also funny when Millerna described him as cute and connected it to whether he would want to join Abaharaki. Like a cute face was a prerequisite or something lol. But she’s probably on about him being too tsun despite the face.

Another thing we discussed during editing was this “sign of the king” that was shown already at the time of Van’s birth… and wasn’t at the time of Folken’s. At first, I thought very simplistically that it may have something to do with the tattoos (or would they be markings then)? But that doesn’t seem to be the case and they are confirmed to be tattoos for the novel, although it doesn’t seem anyone else from the Dragon Clan would have them there. In the movie, on the contrary, young Dune and even Van’s mother are shown to have them as well, so the meaning of them could have been different. Back to the “sign of the king,” I returned to that part of the translation later and it seems it was something that the seers saw in their prophecies after all. Some symbol of the dragon king that was not specified. Sidenote, I pitied and blamed Dune’s mother at the same time. Poor guy.

This got all about Van again but I don’t think anyone else was given enough description to even discuss? It’s clearly obvious who Hitomi’s love interest is. I would say it makes it clearer than the movie itself, because it has these inner monologues and it’s pretty romantic already despite the two barely knowing each other. I would even say Van’s behavior is gentler than any other iteration (?) But when you think of it, the cd dramas are usually THE fanservice materials, aren’t they? So obviously, they would give most attention to the popular characters and ships… but let’s get to the more pragmatic stuff.

When do the Prologues take place?

The two prologues obviously happen before the movie but how long before that? Let’s check some placeholders and see what we can figure out.

“the winter of my sixteenth year” “not even a spring break yet” “soon, you’ll be a third year”

High school in Japan is three years with the school year starting in spring. So I believe this is happening at the end of Hitomi’s second year. Her age of 16 fits. In the movie materials, her age is described as 17, so somewhere between the two, she also has her birthday. Could it be in December, same as in the series? That would make the window for the drama very narrow, because it’s winter but not yet 9th of December. We can't probably take that date as a reference, anyway.

“is the way to the Mystic Moon closed now?” “yes, for now. But once the moon is full again…”

This is something Folken and Sora speak about in cd 1 when Van deflects Orm. But then it is Van who reaches out to Hitomi first before they can do as they plan. At the end of cd 2, Folken asks Sora to open the path again so I assume these conditions still apply. Then the movie may be one or several months after the events of the cd drama, since they need the full moon. Well, if the Moon works and time passes the same on both planets…

I believe this takes place in a range of one to few more months before the movie. Why? Folken asks Sora if the way to the Mystic Moon is closed. And Sora says, it is, "but once the Moon is full again..." Unclear which moon, but we could assume their moon, the one with the eye. Looks similar to our moon, and if it was the same, it would have been one month. But then, the movie is definitely not taking place in the winter, like this drama. So, when is it?

Let’s look at the placeholders from the movie directly. First thing we have is Hitomi’s watch, which says, SA 18th, 16:15:28. Normally, SA would stand for Saturday, the screen of her watch (or the information on it) even looks pretty similar to existing models of Casio Chronograph/Illuminator:

You may wonder why she would be at school on Saturday afternoon but it was normal at the time of the movie production, Japanese students only had Sundays off. They talk about some plans next day on the train right after the rooftop scene and Hitomi asks Yukari to give her a wake-up call in the morning, which would fit. You see them having a bit of fun and it doesn’t seem the next day yet, they are still in their uniforms. Later at the stairs (although it is not in the subs I had), Yukari says they will see each other at school tomorrow. But shouldn’t it be Sunday next day? Or is what we see already the next day, the thing they made plans for? But why not dress casually, then? And aren't they on the train to/in Tokyo already when they discuss this? I guess this theory is not too likely, then.

It’s actually baffling. Because the scenes also do not follow in a linear way; you see them on the train, there is a shot of Hitomi at the stadium already, then they walk around Harajuku/Omotesando, and back on the train where they are held-off because of an accident at Yoyogi. Yoyogi station is on Yamanote line, the circular line going around Tokyo. That station, Harajuku, Omotesando, Meiji Jingu, National Stadium… it’s all in the same wide area but maybe it’s a bit too much for walking, unless they had a lot of time. I mean it would take them almost two hours just to get to that athletics stadium if they left their school right after the roof scene at 4 pm (according to her jersey, the school is still in Kamakura). But they don’t even have their school bags, Yukari just has a small shopping/gift bag it seems. Did they put them in a coin locker on the station or something? In the novel, they just run away from school (or rather, from an angry teacher), so that would make sense with the bags if they at least had some money on them but it seems too late in the day to do that. But I guess it’s still the best explanation. The sun sets around 7 pm at that time of the year in Tokyo. But that still doesn’t explain why Yukari says “see you at school tomorrow” when it should be the weekend. If she meant cram school, guess she would say that and not school. Maybe there’s something I’m missing that puts it all together. Or they are doing this on purpose. EDIT: I just reread this for possible typos and it came to my mind that the plans Yukari and Hitomi have could be for Sunday AND at school. Yukari says, "you promised, remember?" which made me feel like she was worried Hitomi would just cancel but it may actually be something of a favor to Yukari? IDK, for example, helping her cleaning the club room or something? She DOES use "kureru" which means that she hopes Hitomi will do this "for her". That's a thought...

Anyway, I researched the watch a bit and if the display was really like a digital Casio Chronograph, we wouldn’t know the month from looking at the screen (some models have the full date but this type, only the day of the month). But what can we guess about the month from the movie itself? It's not full-blown spring, otherwise we would see at least one blooming sakura tree, I guarantee it. In similar vein, if it was the height of summer, there would be sound of cicadas (June to September). Late spring/early summer or early autumn is my best bet based on the greenery we see, plus Hitomi and Yukari wearing the summer uniforms (the school uniform would have a version for cold and hot days) and people wearing tshirts and summer dresses in Tokyo. Then it would be about half a year after the cd drama.

But here’s a crazy thing: Hitomi’s watch is shown once again on Gaea and it has SA 19th 17:05 on it. It is the next day compared to the roof scene where it's 18th but also it's still SA… This confused me so much I even checked the settei but I didn't learn much besides that it's her favorite watch and the pattern you see above the screen is an image of an angel that can be backlit in the dark and that she only checks the time once while on Gaea. The settei uses the time from the roof scene btw.

So does the SA stand for month after all? SA for sangatsu (March)? It doesn’t look like March in the scenes with Yukari, I mean, March is the graduation month, remember? Sakuras would be everywhere and they would wear jackets. Could it be then they simply forgot to change SA to SU? That would be the smoothest explanation in fact. Or is there some significance to this? Something something her watch has stopped like that time at the Tokyo Station when she was a child? Anyway, let’s recap the options, since, as usual with the franchise, there is a hole in each and every one of them:

If the roof is on Saturday 18th and the stadium are the same day, then next day we see her watch on Gaea and it’s “SA” 19th… then where did they leave their school bags and why is Yukari telling Hitomi she’ll meet her tomorrow at school if it should be a day off?

If the roof is on Saturday 18th and the stadium on Sunday 19th evening… then why are they wearing school uniforms on Sunday and why are they on a train to Tokyo on Saturday and why should her watch show the “SA” 19th 5 pm after she came to Gaea and slept for some time at the caravan?

If SA is not for Saturday but for the month of March and the roof scene could be any weekday… then why is her watch different from regular Japanese digital watches and why doesn’t it look at all like March outside?

And if SA is neither for Saturday nor sangatsu... then WHAT? I think it could be a subtle “Stop Asking” by the creators, lol.

Or, you know what, her watch did not take the interplanetary travel and the liquid in Escaflowne cockpit too well and broke. That’s my best explanation offer I guess (besides an animation error).

Why does Van not remember Hitomi in the movie if he has already met her?

I consider this the elephant in the room: okay, Hitomi went to Gaea before but Orm used his magic to bring her back and make her forget. But what about everyone else who met her, back on Gaea? Which would be Van, Allen, Millerna, Gaddes, Jajuka, Sora, and Folken? I believe some of their reactions in the movie, but especially Van’s in the beginning, confirm that they don’t remember that encounter.

But how can you erase someone from several people’s memories at once? Even if you erase the memory of her, her actions on Gaea leave some impact… Folken literally swears to bring her back again and he does in the movie. Moreover, in the cd drama, the location of Escaflowne is revealed to Folken through Hitomi’s ancient memories (as Sora spies on her telepathically). The first scene of the movie has Van stealing the armor from Black Dragon Clan’s ship. I believe this ties nicely to the “Escaflowne is discovered underneath Torushina” from the ending of the cd drama. Basically, some time has passed, and BDC dug out Escaflowne, now transporting it to Folken. Meanwhile, Folken is trying to summon Hitomi back because with her and Escaflowne, he apparently has all the ingredients for his plan.

When it comes to Abaharaki, apparently, the cd drama gives us a scene of their first meeting with Van. So, it has not been all that long that he was with the Abaharaki. But since he is with them in the movie, this event from the cd drama is also something that did not get reversed by Orm sending Hitomi back. It’s hard to wrap one’s head around. Allen, Millerna, and Gaddes come across Hitomi and Van because they were apparently in the vicinity and “saw a light”. This is all happening in a “holy land” that bears the name of Arzas, btw.

But if Van wasn’t summoning the Wing Goddess, why would he even go there? Why would Allen come check if there was no light from her arrival from Earth? Of course, the meeting of Van and Abaharaki might have happened anyway, by pure chance. After all, Merle in the movie says they “met on the battlefield”. For the Abaharaki, they “could not take a better look” at Hitomi before she was snatched away by Jajuka and they’ve never seen her again in the drama. So I guess their movie reactions would be plausible even if they did remember Hitomi’s first arrival in the cd drama. But Van is just a big question mark and either their meeting “never happened” or his memory got erased.

So Orm changed into a dragon and took Hitomi, her memories, and apparently Van’s memories away. Then what, was Van just left standing there, wondering what happened and why he even went out there? How about Merle, who went with him to rescue Hitomi? She would remember that the Wing Goddess was there, wouldn’t she? Even though she hasn’t seen her in the cd drama. This adds Merle to Allen, Millerna, Gaddes, and Mole, who form a group of characters who knew of the Wing Goddess coming to Gaea but wouldn’t know her face.

Then we have another group formed by Van, Folken, Sora, Jajuka, who had also seen her. Out of all these, Van is the only one who is confirmed to have forgotten. Others may as well remember everything, because they go retrieve Escaflowne and eventually Hitomi. Interesting. So I guess the first group may remember her arrival, they just don’t know how she looks. The second group, minus Van, could know everything. Van was apparently made to forget by some effect of Orm’s sorcery. Either he forgot her face or their whole encounter. That, or it never happened.

Another variation is, only Folken and Sora remember Hitomi. I guess that would make some sense, since Sora seems to be the one ‘in the know’ about everything, together with Orm, and to some extent, Folken. Then again, Van is a pretty strong magic user himself as we discover, so why would Folken and Sora be able resist Orm’s magic and not him?

I guess this could be explained by Orm’s final scene, where he sounds pretty mad at Van. Which is interesting. He’s not cross with Folken who wants to destroy the world, he’s angry with Van cause he is using Hitomi as a tool for his revenge which will just cause her more sorrow. So, does he in fact only seal her away from Van or erase only his memories? Because Van is not ready to lift Hitomi’s spirits and ease her loneliness? It seems Orm puts some hopes of saving the world into Van and is disappointed that he doesn’t realize what he needs to do. Then again, how would sealing Van away and leaving the path open for Folken help? Perhaps Orm meant to seal her away from both brothers but Sora overcame that magic? It’s frustrating that they just won’t.let.us.know.

But I believe Van having no memory of their encounter could be why (besides the obvious resonance of their depressed souls) Folken is the one to bring Hitomi to Gaea in the movie. Van isn’t even trying to reach her anymore like he does in the cd drama, it seems he is 100% focused on obtaining Escaflowne. Which I guess was his mindset in the first place even as he, on his own volition, went out and whisked Hitomi away from Earth, which coincidentally made for a pretty romantic scene but you can still see he’s all about obtaining the armor. I mean it is logical, once he knows BDC has Escaflowne, it means everything to take it out of their hands. It is also sort of parallel to the series when he asks her pragmatically and logically to help him against Zaibach without considering her feelings.

But really, nothing like, “You’re the Wing Goddess? Few months back, I tried to summon you from the holy land of Arzas, using all the magic taught to me by the beast clan but you left me on Read?” Ahh yes that would be uncharacteristic to disclose by this particular character, I get it.

So what do you think? Did Orm make him forget or did he revert Hitomi’s whole first visit to Gaea?

“Ancient Gaea”

What is also pretty blurry is this whole “Wing Goddess lived on ancient Gaea and she met Van then… but she has forgotten.”

Okay, what do we know of this “ancient Gaea”? We know the Wing Goddess as well as “Van” in some form lived there and then. And they were “alike” in some way. Orm calls them “twins” or “gemini” which I do get may sound problematic (I translated it as “two of the same kind” in the end) but I don’t think he means they are related. Also, “dragons” lived on this Gaea. I don’t know, as I listened to this part with the series soundtrack in the bg, I suddenly got the feeling like they talked about the series. Which makes not much sense of course. There is no proof of that. Movie Escaflowne is different, the series one didn’t destroy the world… it doesn’t work. But I still got a nostalgic feeling like that.

Then the last thing we know is Escaflowne actually destroyed some major city… I guess, likely in battle with the movie Alseides, they just laid ruin to this ancient Gaea civilization, whatever it was. In this battle it seems, Escaflowne could have been buried by rubble of what could have been the predecessor of Torushina, which itself could have been gradually built upon the ancient city ruins. That’s all we know. Anyway, I kinda hate when Sora teases like “could we bring back the ancient memories of the Wing Goddess?” Don’t give us hope if you’re never, ever gonna deliver, dammit. Maybe I should deliver in fic form haha (no I will not start another project).

Random thoughts after watching the movie after having translated the drama

Now that I think of it, the movie actively avoids any direct reference to the events of the cd drama. But after giving a proper attention to the CD drama, you see echoes of it in the movie, echoes of Hitomi remembering on some level after all. Like, when they are frolicking with Yukari, and she hears Sora’s song… she immediately understands someone is calling. It’s not “I hear a song nobody else seems to hear” anymore, it’s her immediately understanding that Yukari doesn’t hear it and that she’s being called.

BTW, what I humbly believe the movie subs/dubs could have done a little better was the scene with Yukari at the stadium. Hitomi tells Yukari she’s annoying for meddling in her life. She says “annoying” and “just disappear” repeatedly and there is this transition from when it seems like she’s really calling Yukari  “annoying” and muttering she should “go away” to when you understand that she is talking about herself. Hitomi is the “bad guy” and she’s the one who should “disappear”. If you use “fade away” it doesn’t click so much because you don’t tell another person to “fade away”.

Also, in cd 1, when Hitomi sees Van for the first time and the dragon fossil in the face of the mountain. I got this weird feeling it could be Van just before he takes off to kill everyone on the Black Dragon Ship and steal Escaflowne in the very first movie scene. Because yes, we see the mountain with the dragon fossil in that movie scene (presumably one of the twin gods Van prays to), he prays for the death of his enemies (that he does massacre in the movie opening scene), even the music is the same... because Bird song is the first part of First Vision, the OST for the first scene of the movie.

Or perhaps, for Hitomi's “first vision”, and it refers to this scene from the drama? Of course, nothing gets confirmed here either. Anyway, if she sees Van in real time, what would he be doing at the time she’s under Orm’s spell on the train? Well, apparently, he is aware of Orm’s actions, and with support of the elders from the wolf village, he is trying to intercept him. Which he does later, in the cave. But would his preparation for that be this? Wishing death upon his enemies with the sword drawn and then flying off… idk, it fits the movie scene better.

This post got really speculative so I’ll just stop here but I think I’ll make one or two other posts. One will just have the movie trivia without as much of my speculation. Another will be a bit critical because while I like Escaflowne in all its forms, I did get a bit frustrated here and I should let it out.

[m1ckeyb3rry]

Pomegranate Ink: XX

Series Synopsis: Unable to heal but willing to fight, with a fiancé in Kyoto and a last name that looms over everything you do, you accept an offer to study at Tokyo Jujutsu Tech. What you did not know was that your salvation and your ruination alike would soon join you at the school, neatly wrapped in the form of a boy followed by death.

Chapter Synopsis: You go on a mission for Gojo.

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Yuta Okkotsu × Female Reader

Chapter Word Count: 5.9k

Content Warnings: angst, misogyny, naoya zenin, forbidden relationships, canon-typical violence, character death, original characters included

A/N: there’s been too much gojo in pomegranate ink recently but the next few chapters after this one should be the exchange event which means minimal gojo !!

Although you were technically his coworker and equal now, the admiration you held for Kento Nanami had never quite faded. He had even given you his recommendation, so he obviously did not feel like there was a massive gap in your statuses — or, indeed, any gap at all — but that did not change the fact that when you joined Gojo in his office and saw that Nanami was standing there, you immediately straightened your back.

“Nanami, sir, I didn’t realize you’d be here!” you said before turning to Gojo. “And what was that crazy ominous text about, huh?”

“I’m the teacher here, so why am I the one you disrespect so much?” Gojo muttered. You gave him a look, because if you had to list all of the reasons why Gojo didn’t deserve any respect, then you’d be talking for a very long time.

“It’s good to see you again, Y/N. I hope you’ve been doing well,” Nanami said, as polite as ever despite the typical squabble between you and Gojo. “I expect I’m here for much the same reason as you. Although, I’m not quite sure how keen I am on Gojo asking a child to do his dirty work.”

“She’s a Grade 1 sorcerer, the same as you, and you’re the one who recommended her, so why would I treat her as any lesser?” Gojo said. Nanami gave you a sympathetic frown.

“I recommended her because she deserves to be paid more. That’s not a reason for her to be getting jerked around by you and your inane demands,” he said. “She’s still only a second year, so please remember that the next time you ask her about something so serious.”

“What’s going on?” you said. “It’s alright, Nanami, sir. I mean, whatever Gojo’s about to say is definitely going to be something stupid, but I don’t mind helping him out. He’s done so much for me that it’s only fair.”

“Still, you should try to stay out of harm’s way as best as you can,” Nanami said.

“I can use my Reverse Cursed Technique now, so there’s definitely no issue,” you said. “Anyways, Gojo, get on with it. I’ll show you the meme Yuta made for me earlier if you’re quick enough.”

“He’s onto making memes now?” Gojo said in surprise. “That’s big news.”

“I think Toge got him into it,” you said. Gojo thought about this before nodding. It made sense; Toge had been a master with photoshop since birth or something, probably, and he was Yuta’s best friend. It stood to reason that his habits would eventually rub off.

“You’ll definitely have to show me later. I asked you to come here for a reason, though, so we should go over that first. Do you remember what I was telling you earlier, about that special grade curse that performed a Domain Expansion in front of Yuji and I?” he said.

“Yes. It was definitely a worrying thing, especially because Domain Expansions necessitate such a high level of skill. Even sorcerers that can perform them are so rare, which makes it a big problem that there are curses which now can,” you said.

“Exactly. There was recently an incident at a nearby high school that I believe those curses might be involved in, so I’m sending Yuji and Nanami to investigate. I’d go myself, but I have to go on a trip, so I can’t,” Gojo said.

“I don’t recall agreeing to do this,” Nanami interjected. Gojo ignored him; of course, Nanami definitely would go. Even though he was a rule-follower, he didn’t have a great love for the higher ups, and despite his comically constant irritation with Gojo, he also had a lot of faith in the man, which meant he’d begrudgingly oblige his requests, no matter what.

“Why’s that involve me?” you said.

“Originally, I thought about having you take the mission instead of Nanami, since you were a Grade 1 sorcerer who already knew about Yuji’s existence, which would mean one less person would have to find out, but I realized that there was a flaw in that plan: because you’re still a student, the higher ups would definitely be suspicious about that kind of assignment. Even a tiny bit of added scrutiny would be enough for them to pick up on Yuji, and I don’t need to explain to you why that would be disastrous,” he said.

“That’s why you went with Nanami,” you realized. “They don’t really care about him and what he does. Uh, no offense, sir, it’s just that you give off such a stiff vibe that they think you’re firmly on their side, so you’re totally above suspicion when compared to me and Gojo.”

“I understand,” he said. It was something about Nanami which you appreciated, the fact that he didn’t really get upset very easily. He was a relaxed man who was very unflappable, at least as long as Gojo was uninvolved.

“He’s also trustworthy enough to not reveal any details of the mission,” Gojo added. “These are all compliments, Nanami, so you should accept them!”

“Get to the point,” Nanami said. “I see what you want from me, but if you can’t send her on that mission, then why have you called her?”

“Y/N, while Nanami and Yuji are busy investigating that scene, I want you on a different case. You see, a few days ago, a restaurant randomly burst into flames. Although that could be a coincidence, something tells me that there’s more to it. It might even be that same curse from earlier. I want you to see if there’s some kind of greater plot going on here that the curses are working together to achieve, or if it’s just a coincidence that this kind of thing has been happening on such a mass scale recently,” he said.

“Very few things are coincidences,” you said. “Although I do think this one might be. I suppose there is a chance it’s not, though, so sure. I can do that.”

“Hold on a second. You said that that curse could perform a Domain Expansion. What if it pulls that out? Does she have any counter to that?” Nanami said. “If she doesn’t, then it’s totally irresponsible of you to send her. Even more irresponsible than I ever thought you’d be.”

“Um,” Gojo said. “Y/N? Do you have a counter for that?”

“Wow, Gojo,” you said. “I can’t believe you didn’t think of that. Thank you for the concern, Nanami, sir, but as the case may be, I actually do have something I can use if things come to it, so I’ll be alright.”

“If you say so,” Nanami said.

“I knew you’d have a way around it! Or else I wouldn’t have asked you to take the mission in the first place!” Gojo said.

“Oh yeah? What’s my counter, then, huh?” you said. Gojo was oddly quiet for a second.

“I don’t know?” he said finally, voice quiet like a mouse’s instead of boisterous as usual. “I just had faith that you’d figure something or another out. You’re a talented sorcerer, so I had no doubts you’d be alright. Besides, like you said, sorcerers with Domain Expansions are a rarity, so it’s not like I could just find and send someone who can use it to investigate. Even if I could, I wouldn’t trust anyone else the way I trust you, and anyways combat should be your last resort. Avoid it if possible.”

It was very difficult to be angry at Gojo. He looked like a sad, wet cat that had just been sprayed and scolded, pouting slightly, his shoulders slumped. You clicked your tongue before leaning over and hugging him tightly.

“I was only joking. I know you wouldn’t put me in harm’s way if you could help it. I’m a Grade 1 sorcerer now; how could I claim that title if just a Domain Expansion was enough to take me out? You were right to ask me. I’ll take care of things, don’t you worry, and I’ll be back in time to take part in the exchange event, too,” you said.

“For the record, I wasn’t joking,” Nanami said. “But there’s no point in further argument. You’re right about one thing, Gojo, and that’s that there aren’t that many sorcerers around that we can trust. Like it or not, we’ll have to make use of Y/N’s talents.”

“I wouldn’t have asked her if it wasn’t like that,” Gojo said. “That’s the world we’ve been given, though, so we’ll make the best of it. Y/N, I’ll take you out for dinner and shopping once you’re back as a thank you.”

“You don’t have to do that,” you said. “But you know I’d never say no to such an offer! You better have that credit card at the ready. I’m taking you up on it for sure.”

“Good,” Gojo said. “I expected no less.”

You were wearing a pair of sunglasses Gojo had lent you as you walked down the street, attempting to look as inconspicuous as possible. You didn’t want to be at all recognizable — not by the curses, who would probably not remember your face even if they saw it, but by anyone related to jujutsu society who might be out and about. If one of your cousins or someone like that saw you, then you’d be in a world of trouble. After all, they’d definitely ask you why you weren’t at the school, and what would you even say to that? You couldn’t exactly tell them that you were on a secret mission for Gojo, so it would be an awkward conversation overall. You had faith in your disguise, though, so there was definitely no issue —

“Hey, Y/N! I wasn’t expecting to see you out here!” a friendly voice said.

You whipped around, trying to discern who it was that had recognized you. The typical culprits were absent — any of your classmates, the third years, your family members, or any of the higher ups. Finally, your eyes lit upon him, beaming and obviously about to say something again, just as loudly as he had the first time.

“Shut up,” you hissed, wrapping your arm around his neck to yank his head down and slapping your hand over his mouth. “I’m supposed to be in disguise right now.”

“Really?” Takuma Ino said, voice muffled by your palm. “You look exactly the same but with sunglasses, though. As far as disguises go, I don’t think it’s that effective.”

“What are you doing here, anyways?” you said, deciding you’d have to reevaluate your disguise at a later moment. Pushing your sunglasses up to rest on the crown of your head, you let go of Ino, who rubbed the back of his neck and readjusted his shirt collar.

“I was planning on going to see a movie at the theater a few blocks down! Do you want to come?” he said. You thought about it for a second. It would be fun, after all — Ino was the kind of person that you couldn’t help liking. He had this unfailing optimism about him that made him a great mission partner, and he also was one of those people that had a moral code they actually followed. Overall, you were definitely really fond of Ino, but you knew you couldn’t take the time off even if you wanted to. Gojo was counting on you.

“I’m sorry, I wish I could. I’m actually busy right now, though,” you said. Ino shrugged.

“No worries,” he said. “I’ll see you around, then! Let’s try to go on a mission together at some point. It’s way better doing stuff with you than it is with most of the other Grade 1 sorcerers. Last time I went, they had me go with Naoya Zenin.”

You winced at the mention of the name alone. “I’m so sorry.”

“It was fine, I guess. He’s just kind of—” Ino leaned in to whisper in your ear “—a douchebag.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” you said with a snort. “Luckily, I haven’t seen him since he was suspended after that mission where he supervised me. Douchebag is the best way to describe him, so don’t think I’ll tell on you for thinking like that.”

“Thanks,” Ino said, clearly relieved. “Anyways, I should go! The movie’s starting soon, and I like watching all the trailers that come before it, so I can’t be late. See you around, Y/N!”

“See you,” you said, waving as he turned the corner. It was a little disappointing. The downside of being a Grade 1 sorcerer: you had even less time to just enjoy your time as a student. Instead of getting to train with your friends and watch movies, you were completing a dangerous mission, with unregistered special grade curses as your opponents. While Ino watched his movie and your classmates prepared with one another for the exchange event, you were conducting a potentially fatal investigation.

At least you got paid way more than the rest of them — bar Yuta, of course, who was rolling in the cash of his special-grade salary. But he was also an entire continent away, so you didn’t envy him too much.

The restaurant that Gojo was talking about was closed off with construction barriers and yellow tape. Fiddling with the pouch of needles you carried with you at all times, you stepped over the tape and around the barriers, closing your eyes and sharpening your cursed signature detection.

The incident had happened a few days ago, so they were incredibly faint, but the residuals were definitely there. Gojo had been right in sending you; the whispering remnants of cursed energy would’ve escaped almost anyone else’s notice. It was only because of your advanced signature perception that you had caught them, and even then, you would’ve missed them if you weren’t looking for them in the first place.

“One — two — three — four,” you counted, crouching before the only seat that wasn’t scorched. For some reason, this residual felt familiar to you, though you couldn’t quite place where you remembered it from. That only made you feel more uneasy; was it a curse you had faced before? Or was it a possibility that someone you knew was working as a curse user alongside the special grade curses?

It couldn’t be anyone too familiar, though. You would’ve known who they were for sure if you had met them more than a few times. Whoever’s residual this was, they were a person you had only encountered once or twice. That didn’t narrow it down any, of course, and indeed it made it more difficult for you to pin down who it could’ve belonged to. How were you supposed to recognize someone you barely knew?

Pulling out your phone, you typed out your findings in a new note. Four residuals at restaurant. Three belonging to curses. One belonging to a curse user. Curse user’s residual is familiar but unidentifiable.

You’d email the entire attachment to Gojo once you were finished with the mission so that he had a frame of reference and some background for when you gave him the official report in person. This way, you’d also be sure to not forget anything, since you were writing it all down as you discovered it.

Leaving the strongest source of the residuals behind, you went over to one of the charred pieces of wood that must’ve once been a chair. When you poked it with your finger, it crumbled away into ash. Your lips tugged downwards into a frown, and you knelt, squinting at it. This was the important part; curses could appear anywhere, but whether they were involved in the disaster was what you were supposed to be investigating.

All residuals told a story. What did these ones have to say? What had happened at this restaurant? Was it something mundane, or was something more sinister at work?

A man set ablaze by something cursed. Flames bursting up at random. People burning. Fire licking throughout the restaurant, stopping at the feet of the three curses and their benefactor and then suddenly extinguishing. The foursome leaving the restaurant with nary their clothes singed.

Gojo was right: it had not been a coincidence. This restaurant had burnt on purpose by what you could only assume was the curse he had met earlier, the fiery one with the head like a volcano. Furthermore, you could sense no other residuals besides the ones left by the group, which meant that the curse had done it for no reason other than because it could.

Naturally, there was no sense in trying to assign meaning to the actions of curses. They were who they were; it was in the character of a curse to destroy, so there wasn’t any morality to it. They weren’t evil out of conscious choice — that was what was intrinsic for them, so that was how they acted. Still, this felt unnecessarily cruel, a display of senseless violence just for violence’s sake.

Fire seems to have been set with malicious intent. No evidence of a struggle. No evidence of a need for self-defense. No evidence of outside intervention via sorcery.

Leaving the restaurant behind, you leaned against the wall, trying to figure out what you should do next. Any residuals that the curses might’ve left as they made their escape would be washed away by now, simply due to the massive traffic in the area, so you couldn’t track them that way. But what other clues did you have about their hiding spots? How else could you observe them? Your findings weren’t anything special, especially without much to substantiate them. They could be put down to the typical behavior of curses, even though you had this sense that something else was at play.

“Honestly,” you said, puffing out your cheeks and letting your sunglasses fall back on the bridge of your nose. “This blows. What am I supposed to do now?”

“You know,” a wheezy voice said from beside you, “I never thought someone as mortal as you would dare stick their nose where it doesn’t belong, but I guess humans really are stupid."

It was like that snake curse of Elakshi’s all over again. You hadn’t even noticed the curse approaching, but here it was, in this deserted alleyway with you, right next to you. It was a grotesque mixture of person and horror, too close to humanity to be dismissed in turn, too close to monstrosity to be given any real sympathy.

As Itadori and Gojo had said, his head resembled a volcano, with one single, huge eye glaring out in front of him. His back was hunched, like he was an elderly man, and he wore a yellow-spotted cape draped over his shoulders. He mirrored your position, making no move to attack you, obviously delighting in the fact that you recognized him.

“You’re the curse that Gojo fought,” you said. The curse spat, his saliva splattering against the concrete and melting it, steam arising from the spots where it had dropped.

“Satoru Gojo,” he snapped. “Yeah, I fought that weakling.”

“Didn’t he beat you? You shouldn’t call him weak. If anyone’s weak, it’s you,” you criticized. This was, in hindsight, not the smartest thing you could’ve done, but you found it a little humorous that this curse really believed Gojo was the weak one between them two.

“What?” the curse said, flames bursting from the openings which must’ve functioned as his ears. You winced, taking a step back from the massive heat suddenly emanating from him. “You think I’m weak? You are nothing compared to Satoru Gojo and I. You could never defeat me, and yet you dare call me weak?”

“How did you know I’d be here?” you said, deciding to get to the point before he began to attack. “You must’ve, or else you wouldn’t have come. I know your hideout isn’t nearby, because I would’ve sensed it, which means that, for some reason, you believed that a sorcerer would come to the scene of your crime. Why? What tipped you off?”

The curse ignored you. “If you think I’m so weak, then fight me yourself! Come on, girl, why don’t you?”

“I’m not in the mood,” you said, eyeing him warily, taking another step back. Gojo had recommended you avoid combat, and you were inclined to agree with him. This did not seem like an ideal matchup for you; this curse, whoever he was, seemed to be the type that was focused on brute strength and sheer power. Furthermore, there was no way you could take him by surprise, and even if you got lucky and managed to land a hit or two, there wasn’t a guarantee that they’d be immediately fatal.

Your best bet would be to escape now, before he could attack you. But where would you go? The alleyway opened up into bustling streets on either side, which meant that you’d be putting civilians at risk if you fled and the curse decided to chase you. The question of where he had come from also remained. Did he have backup? Even now, were there more curses on their way to attack you? Or were the majority of their forces located in that high school where Itadori and Nanami were operating?

“That high school,” you continued in a forced show of bravado. “You’re involved in that, aren’t you? You and the other unregistered special grades. Have you all formed some kind of group?”

“Why should I answer your questions?” the curse shouted, the top of his head emitting wisps of smoke, threatening at an eruption. “You’re a human, so I owe you nothing! I know you’re running because you have no hope of fighting me, but don’t think I’ll let that happen. I’ll kill you before you can take another step!”

“Who are you?” you pressed, ignoring his threats. “Curse, tell me your name. If it makes you feel better, mine is Y/N L/N.”

The curse froze in his tracks, fire abruptly cooling, the air almost chilly in the absence of his furnace-like heat. Then, to your surprise, he took a step backwards, though he still trembled with rage, his single eye narrowed at you. There was a war in that iris, like he could not come to terms with what he had to do.

“Y/N…L/N?” he repeated. You hadn’t been expecting that kind of reaction, but you definitely weren’t complaining.

“Yes,” you said. “And you are? Who do you work for? I know you’re operating alongside at least one curse user. Who are they? I know I recognize their residuals, but I can’t place where from. Who is it? Tell me, now, before I — I call Gojo!”

“Satoru Gojo is abroad,” the curse said. “So don’t think that that kind of threat will work on me. But if you really are Y/N L/N…I’ve heard about you, in fact.”

“From who?” you said, still trying to figure out how he knew Gojo wasn’t in the country. “Who told you about me? Why does it matter who I am? Didn’t you just want to kill me?”

It wasn’t like you wanted him to kill you, but the total flip in his attitude alongside the reluctance with which it had occurred made you mistrustful. Was this a way for him to catch you off guard? If that was the case, then it wasn’t working. You still didn’t believe in him one bit, and you also couldn’t figure out what kind of angle he was playing it. It was totally unbelievable for him to have heard of you — unless he somehow knew about that.

“I’ve been told that you cannot die if we want Sukuna on our side,” the curse said, though his hands twitched, like he wanted to reach out and burn you with them regardless. “If we want him to fight with us, then we cannot kill you.”

“So that’s your goal,” you said. “Or at least one of them: you want to reawaken Sukuna fully. I guess that that’s not too much of a surprise, though I don’t understand what my involvement in the scenario is.”

The curse’s lip curled in disgust. “I don’t, either. You’re just a bag of bones, held together with a minuscule amount of cursed energy. What vested interest does someone like Sukuna have in a weakling like you? Why does it matter that you live? I’d ignore the warning, but last time I did…well. We can’t risk it. Not yet, anyways. Get out of my sight, irritating pest, before I change my mind and decide that killing you and shutting your insufferable mouth is worth risking Sukuna’s aid in our plan!”

“That’s fine by me,” you said. “I’ve found out more than enough. I hope to never see you again, Mount Fuji!”

“Mount Fuji?” the curse screeched after you. You could see the air shimmering around him, a warning of an imminent explosion as you sprinted away. “Be grateful you escaped this time! It won’t be the case if we ever meet again, Y/N L/N!”

With trembling fingers, you finished typing your report on the bus, glancing out the window periodically in case the curse had decided to chase you all of this way. Once it had been formatted and updated with all of your findings, you downloaded it as a PDF and emailed it to Gojo. This was a weight off your shoulders; at least now, even if that curse did come for you, you had managed to get the information to Gojo.

It had been more productive of a mission than you had originally anticipated. Although some of your conclusions were little more than conjecture, only guesses based on offhand comments made by the curse and the more circumstantial evidence, you felt confident about most of it being correct — and you told Gojo as much when you met him next.

“You really think there’s someone leaking our information?” Gojo said. You sighed, swirling a spoonful of sugar into the tea Gojo had offered you. Nanami and Itadori had just returned from their mission, and you were sure that whatever they had discovered would reflect what you had.

“The curse knew that I’d be there, which I suppose you could put down to a lucky guess, but he also knew that you were abroad. There’s no way he could’ve just happened upon such a random explanation; the most likely solution is that someone’s giving them our information. It would also account for why those residuals felt so familiar,” you said.

“Someone in jujutsu society, who you’ve only met once or twice, is working with the curses,” Gojo said, massaging his temples.

“I’d like to say it’s Naoya,” you offered. “Mostly because I hate him and believe that most of the world’s problems can be put upon him. But, unfortunately, I’d have recognized his signature, and anyways he wouldn’t benefit from jujutsu society collapsing, so we can rule him out.”

“I wouldn’t have really suspected him in the first place,” Gojo said. “If I had to guess, it’s someone associated with one of the schools.”

“Another student?” you said. Gojo nodded.

“Or a faculty member, possibly. I doubt that they would be the curse user whose residuals you recognized, but I do think that that’s where that group is getting their information from. I’ll ask Utahime to look into it — I’ve known her since I was young, so I can be reasonably assured that she’s not the one who’s leaking our secrets,” he said.

“Then whose residuals could they be?” you said. Gojo shook his head.

“I don’t know. I hope that, by catching the spy, we can figure that part out,” he said.

“There’s another thing I don’t understand. If the curses are working together to resurrect Sukuna, then why would a sorcerer be working with them? What use would any of the students have with a world where Sukuna reigns once more?” you said.

“Use your imagination, Y/N,” Gojo said. “Think about it. There’s a lot of reasons that people would want to ally themselves with the curses, especially because of how powerful they are. Even if they don’t agree with the final outcome, they might be trying to use the curses’ powers to their own ends.”

“Do they really think that they can deal with curses like that and win?” you said derisively. “It never ends well when sorcerers get involved with curses, especially inexperienced sorcerers, which is what they would be if they’re a student.”

“If they’re inexperienced, then they wouldn’t have the foresight to realize that. Or maybe there’s something they want badly enough that they’ll take the risk,” Gojo said. “There’s a lot of reasons. I can’t be certain, but anyways, I think it’s the most likely explanation. Like I said, we’ll have Utahime help us. She may not excel in strength, but she’s always been the observant type. If anyone can get to the root of things, it’s her.”

“That’s good,” you said. “Yeah, you’re right. There’s not much more we can do. It’s just all so much, and so sudden, too.”

“I’m sorry,” Gojo said. “Thank you for going on that mission. You definitely managed to make the most of it. I’m just glad that you escaped the curse without having to fight. I don’t know how that kind of a confrontation would’ve gone.”

“Probably not well,” you admitted. “He’s not the kind of opponent I’m best suited to face off against.”

“How’d you manage it? You were obviously around him long enough that you could have an entire conversation with him, so how were you able to escape fighting? He was so ill-tempered when we met,” Gojo said.

“Maybe that’s just your personality,” you suggested weakly. You had avoided including that particular detail in your report, mostly because you were still struggling to come to terms with it and what it meant.

“Do you really think so? If that’s the case, then he definitely would’ve fought you, because according to your report, you were just as annoying as I would’ve been in the same situation,” he said.

“No,” you said. “That’s not why. It’s because of Sukuna.”

“Sukuna?” Gojo repeated incredulously. “How’d he end up there?”

“He wasn’t there. Not physically, at least. It’s the same thing from when I went to help Megumi, when Sukuna refused to genuinely, properly fight me. For some reason, my death is something that he wants to avoid, to the point that even that curse believed that killing me would automatically disqualify Sukuna from their list of allies,” you said, and you were surprised to feel your throat swelling, choking with inexplicable tears. “I don’t understand it, Gojo. What does he want from me?”

You buried your face in your hands. You knew it was a little ungrateful — after all, you had the King of Curses supposedly watching over you, his name alone ensuring you did not die, but why did it not feel like a blessing? Why was there no benevolence to it? Why did it frighten you so much?

Sukuna did not care about you. He wasn’t protecting you, necessarily. He was just keeping you around for some greater purpose, one that only he could fathom. That was what you feared. What would Sukuna’s whims cost you? What was it that he was saving you for? What would he do to you once you had fulfilled his wish? Because you knew he hated you. He hated your ancestor, and therefore he hated you, and although there was something blocking him from it, he certainly wished for your death. So what was it that he could possibly want from you above all else? What could he possibly want so much that he would even delay the death he so longed to see for it?

Gojo’s hand was soft atop your head. He did not pat you, nor did he stroke your hair. He just let his hand rest there — it was as much comfort as he knew how to give, after all. This was Gojo at his core: a man who did not really understand how to love someone else. Maybe another person might’ve resented him for it, but it only made you feel fiercely more for him, made you wish you could go back in time to when he had been a child and tell him that one day, he would meet you, someone who’d always love him, no matter what, and that he only had to hold on until such a day could come.

“He wants something only you can give,” Gojo said. “I don’t know what that could be. Sukuna’s never been the kind of person that can be easily understood. It doesn’t make sense to me, either, but that’s how it is.”

“I don’t know, either,” you said. Gojo ruffled your hair before retracting his hand.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to know immediately. But think about it, alright?” he said. “And in the meantime, you might as well enjoy the benefits a little. You can’t escape it, so take advantage of the fact that he’s decided, for some reason or another, that you are important to his plans!”

“Yes,” you said. “You’re right. There’s always a bright side, isn’t there?”

“There you go. Cheer up! Let’s move on to more fun topics. The exchange event is in a couple of days. Aren’t you excited to see everyone again?” Gojo said.

“Not when one of them might be a traitor,” you confessed. Gojo shook his head.

“Don’t think like that. Certainly, you shouldn’t trust anyone with your deepest secrets — except for Yuta — but they are all your friends. You can still be happy to see them. Let Utahime and I deal with the problem of the traitor; you just enjoy yourself at the event, alright?” he said.

“Alright,” you agreed. “And although I agree that he’s definitely not the traitor, why is only Yuta deemed so trustworthy? Why didn’t you include Maki or Tullia on the list?”

“He’s in Africa, so it wouldn’t make any sense for him to be the spy,” Gojo said. “He’d be an awful source of information, since he pretty much…has none at the moment. We have to suspect basically everyone else, even though you’re right in thinking that it’s unlikely for either of those two to be spies.”

“I see,” you said. “I guess there’s nothing to be done about it now, is there? This is what it’ll be like until we can catch the spy.”

“I’m afraid it is,” Gojo said sympathetically. “Hey. Wanna go get ice cream with me?”

“You just got back from your trip, didn’t you? I don’t want to make you go out if you’re tired,” you said. Gojo had insisted on meeting with you the instant he had returned from the airport, and though he had done an admirable job at hiding it, you knew he was still exhausted. Still, he shook his head.

“Nah, I was going to go either way. It’ll just make me less lonely if you come along, too,” he said, standing up and pulling you to your feet. “Come on, it’ll be fun!”

You laughed softly. “You know, Gojo, sometimes I think you’re not that bad.”

“Hey, thanks! Anyways, I’m thinking of trying a new flavor, but I’m not sure if I’ll like it. Do you promise to finish it for me if I don’t?” he said.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever. You have to pay for it, though,” you said.

“Pinky swear?”

“Don’t push your luck.”

[gobblinhours]

Thin Line Commentary

I've never done this before, but @alchemicallymoon made one for their Agent 32 fic, (which can be read here) so what the hell, seems like an interesting idea!

And fun fact, the whole idea for this fic was spawned because I cannot smile, I just press my lips together into a Thin Line (title drop)

Biggest thing to note: How long it took to write. I thought that it would be around 5000 words and I could get it out by Thanksgiving.

This was not the case. The original roadmap was Eight & Four -> Eight & Three, with a one-day time skip in the middle. But then I had an idea to make it less abrupt, so I integrated Off the Hook into it, before realizing I was leaning into Eight's relationship with Pearl, at the cost of Marina, so I had to make another scene with Eight and Marina to even things out. (leading to this post) Then I figured I should throw in a little bit of positive interaction between Pearl and Marina, which luckily was easily able to be adapted into something subtly referencing Pearlina at the end.

Then I realized that someone had to stay back to commentate over the radio, and if Three and Eight were going to go into a kettle together like I planned, someone else would have to be in the story. I'm not confident in writing Cuttlefish or Sheldon for extended periods, and I already utilized Marie for a joke, so Callie was the most viable option.

And she worked surprisingly well! She and Eight bounced off of each other as if they had been friends for years, even though at this point in time this was the first time Eight had spent any time 1-on-1 with Callie, and she was a great foil to Three, with both examples leading to slapdash photoshop jobs. I had them run through a kettle, (24, for obvious reasons.), and fun fact: That was written as I played through it with a charger, albeit with two people and an increase in skill.

After that, I finally was able to get Three and Eight together, although by that point I was already over my estimate and had to cut out a plot point to save time and energy. (Three and Eight get sushi together during the evening with a Three name drop!) Luckily that was at the very end of the fic, so that fact, combined with the fact that I had no idea how to bridge the time gap except for a shopping montage, which seemed like too much of a cut for me, so I chopped it down to lunch, turf war, and video games. In the end, the roadmap ended up more like Eight & Four -> Eight & Pearl -> Eight & Marina -> Eight with Pearlina in the background -> Eight & Callie -> Eight & Three.

The biggest time loss besides IRL business was finding ways to connect the scenes together organically, as I didn't want to overutilize line breaks. I spent days unable to think of a way to connect them, (the kettle run and lunch being especially egregious) to the point where the once-liberal Thanksgiving estimate was now a speck in the rear-view mirror. The second biggest issue was writing a turf war, as I realized that fight scenes (specifically choreography) were not my specialty. (Also why you don't get to see Eight play generic-brand DDR) I can visualize it in my mind, but I can't put it into words. Hopefully with practice that can be fixed.

Overall, this is the second fic I've written that I was 100% proud of upon release, possibly due to the anxiety that came from accidentally posting it early drowned out any perceived issues, which happened with my first fic, which is the other one I was satisfied with. (my one complaint is that I couldn't come up with a good name for Callie to use in a chatroom, because agentFUN was already taken and I couldn't come up with anything else.)

Overall, I'm surprisingly happy with the quality of this, and I doubt that I'll write anything close to this length and quality, at least for a while. And while I know that I did say that I would write another Agent 24 fic next, this has drained me of any motivation to write anything focused on this ship, and I need time to recover. But I have plenty of non-24 related ideas, and motivation still flows within me. The most anyone should expect for a bit is occasional updates to my microfic dump, but that by no means means that I am not going to write anything big again, just taking a break from more time-consuming projects, as I spent over a month on this, and the added pressure of having people vote on this didn't help at all, so from now on I probably won't do that.

But even though it was absolute hell to write, it was oddly satisfying to work on, and it feels weird not having to think about what to write next.

[furymint]

2023 Creator Reflection

ffxiv.

1. dance me to the end of love

this one was fun! i always like merging a character's outfit with the bg so i liked doing that again. picking the colors for elliots outfit was also enjoyable. ive wanted to make smth w that cover for a while

2. shame was still the tyrant of his life

i only wrote two nol and eli things this year and neither of them are finished. the first was a continuation of a scene where nol kisses elliot against the blue stained glass in his room--i once posted it but then i deleted it bc it made me feel woozy for its allusions to sex. i wanted to rebuild it and take a shot at it now that im comfortable writing n reading sex, but i never got very far. theres actually lots of nice parts! i just like nols dumb angsting the best!

3. valentine

i really wanted to focus on nol's eye here, but also not make it too obvious lol. i used a ps filter like a schmuck but i wanted it to be darker without making it even more difficult to see, so i took away their bodies and limited the colors to make it what it is.

4. amateur cracksmen

the second nol n eli wip, which doesnt have many interesting lines rn, was a raffles-inspired story where eli drags nol as his valet to a rival artist's house and tries to steal back the brooch that he bought from an underground dealer feat. much babbling abt the state of societal responsibility that war is supposed to bring

ffxvi.

1. herz an herz dir

i wrote some reflections about this one already here. i honestly was very (distressed voice) cant believe im writing pure fanfic for the first time in over ten years and lacked a lot of direction when i started bc uhhhhh terence has 8 and a half mins of screen time. i tried to convince myself that it's not much different than me stealing brucemont for my own evil devices, but the unique perspective of seeing quite so much fan content def influenced my interpretation. i wanted their relationship to be much more imbalanced from the get-go initially--dion using his power unintentionally and terence barely passing a thought abt it until later bc he's just so accustomed to obeying--but i ended up giving terence a lot more sway & ammunition in their argument. the breakfast bed thing is also smth im rly fond of.

2. mund an mund

there's also additional meta for this one here. i made a silly doodle abt it also. dion kept picking fights here! it honestly turned out how i expected. when i first started this fic, i was gonna have dion start out right in oriflamme and meet ter and kihel there, but i booted them to northreach so i could have this stretch of conflict. i think it's like. Bad Pacing. technically. if i still believe the conflict introduced in the next chapter is the core one, that is. which i sorrrrta do. but i dont care bc i rly like the visual of kihel laying in dion's lap and getting to put a gun on the wall w ahmed.

3. eines atems

its been two months since the last chapter and this chapter is humiliatingly not written. i have all my scrambled notes and scenes that i jotted down in between the first two chapters, so i have a full direction, but it's been really difficult to write lately. ive been devoting all my time to trying to recoup my mental health and work on my teredio secret santa. ill start next year with this wip as a priority, so for now i only have the photoshop edit for it. kihel is holding terence's hand--it's his pov turn.

overall i didnt like this year very much. i didn't read, create, research or do a lot even though i tried to. i became really disconnected from all of my friends bc im too tired to stay for rp or hold online conversations. at this point, i dont play ffxiv at all except the few times i managed to rp a little. i moved into nanny's house and have my own space, but don't have the presence of mind to do anything about my pc, books, and so on, although i did make a lot of progress rewrapping my books w fresh wraps and some other things. my plans for next year are to reach out to a couple of my friends, build my pc, relearn + rebuild + relaunch my queer lit blog on open source code, survive school, and rediscover the productivity ive lost the past few years.

teredio has helped me a LOT to find community, inspiration, and art in my loneliest year yet. im very proud of my fic and grateful every day to the ppl who have reached out to me about liking it. even if im sorry about my productivity rate in comparison to how many extraordinary writers there are in the ship's fandom, i know i have to be easy on myself to relearn how to write, create a writing schedule that works for me, and stop punishing myself when i cant get the words out.

past reflections:  2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

[cinamun]

Hi! I've been wanting to make my own sim story (currently in the stages of fighting my insecurities of inadequacy) but I wanted to know what's your process between writing and talking pictures? Like, do you find poses to fit the scene you've written, or write around poses you've found? I have this image in my head of how things should look, but I can't find the poses for them and it has become very frustrating.

OMG THATS SO FRUSTRATING!!! Sorry nonny, I had to react to that last sentence first because maaaaaannnnn lol

Secondly, I absolutely want you to make your own sim story, we're a whole subculture and we're kinda dope. Plus who doesn't love a good book? But instead of a book, its 10+ pictures and a transcript from a game we all love?

My process changes depending upon what I'm going for but here's the gist of it:

Before I even open up the game (or while its loading) I'm thinking about what the scene is gonna be. Then I start googling poses. Mind you, I have a LOT of poses already so I do this moreso to see if I already have something. Will the scene require hugging, physical touch, arguing, playing a sport, etc. Then I start downloading. Now, if google turns up nothing, I use what I already have and make it work. I typically have to google if I'm doing something out of the ordinary, like that football game. As a storyteller, you'll want lots of conversation, emotion, couple and single poses. Of ALL varieties (like couple walking, single texting poses, stuff like that), you can never have too many of those. Model poses and stuff like that I rarely use (except for prom lol).

Then, I go in game and set up scenes, go into CAS and change outfits for the occasion and start thinking about dialogue. For me, the dialogue happens in Photoshop. I have a general idea of what will be said, but it isn't fleshed out until I'm looking at the screens in photoshop (when I'm doing this, I'm noticing facial expressions, body language, the mood, the lighting, etc). I don't have anything scripted, I just have the idea in my head, although I've definitely taken notes because I'll think of something I want to be said and don't want to lose it (my short term memory sucks ass).

If you get stuck on the poses that don't fit, definitely google, its helped me more than I can imagine, sometimes google images will lead me to pinterest which will have poses that don't show up in the google search. Don't let that frustrate you too much, because when all else failed, I've had two OCs just start a conversation, watch real close and if I'm quick enough with the pause button, I can get a great shot:

Above pic Indya was not posed but Darren was. I sent her to the bedroom and she walked past looking at him like this LMFAO swear! So I hit the pause button and the dialogue I was thinking of lined up perfectly.

If anything, this is a practice and I'm so glad you asked because for as long as I've been writing sims stories, I still get stuck, I still can't find what I need and only recently actually asked a friend if they did commissions because I really REALLY wanted a certain scene!! Ugh! And with the level of adulting I have to do, I honestly don't have time to learn poses so I'm so so thankful for those that know how and share them. I get how frustrating it is because the last thing you want to do is change a mood or a scene because you can't find the right pose.

This was long as hell but I hope it helps in some way! Reach out any time for tips, tricks and whatever the hell else! I love y'all and want to read your stories!

[plaguelily-art]

Still trying to get back into the swing of art, decided to finally sit down and draw myself some references for my variation of Zelda in the Sky Pirates story. I redesigned her armor...again (I think I'm up to three redesigns now?), although I'm probably happiest with this set of color palettes (special thanks to @kelseymichikoart for helping with the palettes). If nothing else, I'm glad that her core design, especially the face and hair, is easy enough to draw that I don't feel like I'm fighting it every time I draw her.

The project itself has been at a bit of a standstill because I ran into a block midway through the outline, but after playing TotK and thinking about the lore updates I need to change in the story, I went over some of the details and I think with a few key changes I can get both the story to flow more smoothly and find a way past the block so I can finish the outline and start on the script. Haven't made much progress this year because life things keep happening, but I'm not giving up.

—————————————————————————

2023, Summer Digital (Adobe Photoshop) Redesign and concept for this story and its character iterations belongs to me. Zelda is a character from the Legend of Zelda series, and belongs to Nintendo. Artwork belongs to me.

This image (published by the artist to deviantart.com/plaguelily, plaguelily-art.tumblr.com) may not be reproduced, copied, edited, republished, reuploaded, distributed, or redistributed in any way, and I do not give permission for the creation of any sort of derivatives of my work including the use of the work in datasets used for generation of AI art or any other sort of procedurally generated image program or software. Thank you.

[eleni-cherie]

ok nobody's gonna see or care this but I'm gonna rant bc I am sick of my life and maybe someone can relate: so long story short, I'm a 27 year old graphic designer who was working 2 years at a big e-commerce shop until the new asshole supervisor didn't want to continue my contract that expired bc of his hurt ego bc I (along w pretty much everyone else bc he liked to pick fights w ppl from all departments bc he got into everyone's business) dared to argue w him BC HE KEPT CHANGING HIS MIND EVERY TWO MINS AND KEPT CONTRADICTING HIMSELF ALL THE TIME. so I lost my job last October and ever since I'm unemployed. I live in germany (Berlin) so I get unemployment money, but it only lasts for a year and it's already the end of July and I still can't manage finding a job although I've probably applied to 90 jobs by now of which only about 10-15 turned into job interviews - or the new trend "getting to know you meetings". of which only 1 invited me for a 2nd interview. now I get there's sadly so many designers, the job market is kinda oversaturated and for one job probably 20-30 ppl apply. but then sometimes this isn't even the problem. I had an interview for what seemed to be my dream job so I was super excited for this but then when I met the two guys doing it, they were very underwhelming. I mean little to no reaction to what I was telling them about myself and at the end they only asked 3 quite superficial questions. that's it. meanwhile others for companies I'm less suitable for, ask me like 20. then there's this other case, where they give you tasks and I don't mind tasks but one time I'd have needed the whole creative suit for them and like - hello? I'm unemployed and don't have the extra money to spend 60 euros every month on Adobe? I only an old Photoshop Version and that's it. then another time they gave me tasks that were only 40% graphic design related (but very vague descriptions/no real info) and 60% marketing/copyright related and like sorry, but I only have basic marketing knowledge and I'm not a fcking ad writer? there's this trend nowadays, they say they want a graphic designer but what they really want is a graphic designer / marketing expert / social media manager / copywriter / photographer / editor / etc. but still w only a graphic designer salary, so they don't have to pay five different ppl. like FCK YOU!

and thing is, in my desperation I even applied to random jobs (which said "No experience needed" in the description) like vendor or barrista. even in a copyshop where I thought I should fit in bc of my knowledge of print products, but either no response at all or I "lacked sale experience". bc Idk how it's in other countries but here you need a certificate for anything. even for a shop vendor you need a 3 year long apprenticeship. for a moment I contemplated going freelance or self-employed but a) I got no fcking clue how and what I have to do and b) taxes and insurance system in Germany is insane, I read an article and was overwhelmed.

So yeah, I'm getting fed up and sad and mad mostly also very anxious about my fcking future bc it honestly seems like I'll end up just moving back to my parents at this point. idk what to do anymore. I try and try and try, but nothing happens and I'm just done. the pressure is overwhelming and the sad thing is, I purposely decided not to visit my relatives/my grandparents this summer (the live in greece) thinking I "might find a job" and even if not, I don't have the extra money for plane tickets! they're extremely overpriced. and it's sad bc whenever I talk to my grandparents they say they miss me and how they're worried about me being unemployed. and my grandparents aren't the youngest anymore either (83 and 89) and I haven't seen then in a year, so that only saddens me more on top of feeling like an overall loser.

[aceofwhump]

15 Questions, 15 Mutuals

Thanks for the tag @hold-him-down!!!

1. Are you named for anyone?: I am actually! My real first name is the feminized version of my fathers.

2. When was the last time you cried?: The day I watched The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies I sobbed my heart out. That was, what, 4 days ago I think? I'm now about to watch LOTR: Return of the King and I suspect I'll be crying then too. Nearly cried multiple times two days while watching Fellowship and any allusion and mention to the events of the hobbit gave me feels. BUT! I did not cry. I'm quite proud of myself for that. Oh wait. No I lied. I definitely cried when they found Balin's tomb in Moria and Oris skeleton was there next to the tomb.

3. Do you have kids?: Nope. Not at all and I don't want kids. I'm never going to have children. I've got my cat: Sable. She's my baby. For now and forever all my children will be cats.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?: Lol yeah I do. Far too often. I need to tune it down sometimes lol.

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people?: Oh interesting. Umm... I guess either their tone of voice is they speak first. I'm very conscious of people's tone of voice. If they don't speak I'm usually noticing style of clothing.

6. What’s your eye color?: Blue

7. Scary movies or happy endings?: Happy endings definitely. But I love scary movies and so many of them don't necessarily end happily. Although now that I think of it a lot of my favorite scary movies do end on a positive/happy note (as happy as a horror movie can be lol). So yeah happy ending. I love me a happy ending. Don't enjoy movies that end sadly.

8. Any special talents?: Uhhh yes? Let me see...I can play the trumpet and the bugle (pretty much the same instrument just a bugle has no valves). I can crochet. I can pick a padlock. I can operate a 1940s era switchboard and field phones. I can untie any knot you give me no matter how complicated (my sister uses this weird super power of mine all the time when her box of necklaces get tangled together. I've never not been able to untie a knot). Do photoshop skills count as special talents?

9. Where were you born?: Ohio in the USA. Not getting more specific than that sorry.

10. What are your hobbies?: My main hobbies are crocheting and historical reenacting. That's where I put all my time and money. Some other things I enjoy as a hobby are photoshop editing, writing, reading fanfic, watch tv/movies, and seeing musicals at the theater.

11. Have you any pets?: Yup! Got a cat named Sable, my weird little rescue baby. And I've got a dachshund/jack russell mix named Penny. She's 13 years old and still a spitfire.

12. What sports do you play/have played?: I don't play anything now because I'm super lazy and poor and all the leagues around me cost like $200 to play but I played softball and volleyball in high school. Volleyball is my favorite sport. I miss it terribly. I was a libero. Did basketball for a year but ended up hating it. And on occasion I'd play touch football with the neighborhood guys. I couldn't pass for shit but I'd catch anything thrown at me. Also, and I'll fight you on this, but marching is a sport and I was in marching band all throughout high school and college. I consider that my main sport.

13. How tall are you?: 5′7″

14. Favorite subject in school?: History!!! I loved that subject so much I took two history classes at once in senior year and then went on to get two degrees in it.

15. Dream job?: I'm gonna be really borng here for a second but I don't think I have a dream job anymore. Mainly cause I really don't want to work. I want to have enough money in my life to never have to work at all. But since that's not the case, my dream job is something related to history. Something where I can sit all day surrounded by historical objects. Spending the day by myself, only having to talk to someone on occasion, where I just get to sit at a desk and look at historical stuff. My dream job is quiet and peaceful but has fun times with a few coworkers. I get to do something that gives me a sense of purpose and fulfillment. And pays really well so I can afford to travel and buy all the stuff I don't need but so desperately want.

tagging: Anyone who wants to do it!!!!

[howhow326]

Redraw of my Maryland Region starters

Chesacrab, the Blue Crab pokemon.

Chesacrab are a delicacy in it's home region. However, these little guys can pack quite the punch too! (I hope you like that background because its the best ine here lol)

Chesanectes, the Blue Crab pokemon

The meat from this pokemon's body is rolled into balls as a type of food in its home region. Chesanectes won't let you eat them without a fight, however. (Im sorry for making the background blend into the artwork, plz dont smite me.)

Chesapike, the Skipjack pokemon

Type: Water/Steel

Ability: Torrent / Swift Swim

Stats

HP: 65

Attack: 101

Defense: 110

Special Attack: 90

Special Defense: 65

Speed: 100

BST: 531

This pokemon used to be used for naval warfare in historic times. It's exoskeleton is stronger than Titanium! (As you can see, I finnally learned how to draw texture in Photoshop lol)

Rubfuzz, the warm fur Pokemon

Rubfuzz has an internal temperature of 101 degrees Celsius. It uses it's warm body to survive harsh winters.

Rubrumfur, the warm fur pokemon

Rubrumfur has one of the most expensive furs in the world. Clothes made from it's fur gets hot easily. (These two were very easy to make and I appreciate that)

Rubrumfang, the Luxury Pokemon

Type: Fire/Dark

Ability: Blaze / Vampirism (User heals their HP from half the damage done to Target using fang and bite moves)

Stats

HP: 100

Attack: 81

Defense: 110

Special attack: 65

Special defense: 110

Speed: 65

BST: 531

Rubrumfang's fur is the warmest in the world! It has an internal body temperature of 900 degrees Celsius. (So many lines, so many colors... never again.)

Peonybred, the dark horse Pokemon

Peonybred may seem docile, but it's actually very skittish. They run as fast as possible at the first sight of danger. (Can you tell I didn't know how to do lineart for a mostly black designyet? Although I kinda like the fact that it looks less like a black horse and more like abstract shadow horse)

Dandebred, the dark horse Pokemon

Dandebred are said to be able to sense how pure someone's heart is. If a person with an impure heart approaches one, Dandebred attacks. (So my original drawing for this guy was less black then black while still being black [???] so I translated it to it not being a silhouette but also having this weird texture that randomly shifts from light to dark. I always thought this was my blandest design but it ended up interesting?!)

Bleysanbred, the dark unicorn Pokemon

Type: Grass/Fairy

Ability: Overgrown / Speed Boost

Stats

HP: 65

Attack: 125

Defense: 65

Special attack: 85

Special defense: 65

Speed: 126

BST: 531

Bleysanbred has very low tolerance for corruption. It is known to rampage throughout the wilderness when it senses an impure heart.

Bleysanbred are used for jousting. Trainers are only able to ride them if their desire for the sport is pure. (I finnaly learned how to do line art for a black object, yay! Although I had the new problem of the other horses looking like nightmares, so I switched up the lighting on Bleysanbred to make it just as mindscrewy.)

[timothystillopf1]

Photoshop, Session 1 - Homework Task

This week we were tasked with taking everything we had learned in our session and applying it ourselves to our own images. I am quite confident in this task as I have quite a bit of experience in photo editing although, not in Photoshop! So although I am confident I am equally excited to put these new methods to the test!.

I began with this image that I took recently at Auckland zoo. After converting it from a RAW colour image into a Black and White JPEG, it was time to begin. I chose this image as it was taken through glass which unfortunately resulted in quite a blown-out and over-brightened image which felt like the perfect image to practice using the Curves tool.

I began by pulling the bottom left node of the Curves Histogram to the right in order to bring more of the darkness into the image and give it more depth/contrast against the hard whites of the glass reflections.

Next, I then placed nodes across the line and first began dragging the light (top right area) parts downward, again, in an attempt to combat the glare coming off of the glass and to try and give more definition of the zoo keeper who was also masked by the glare. moving down the line I continue pulling the nodes downward trying to darken the image while trying to maintain all the information within the image and also tone down the contrast in order to produce a pleasant to-the-eye image. After this I feel I had achieved what I had set out to do, turning the previously harshly bright and almost unreadable image, into a more digestible and crisp image. I feel I were to change anything, I may have maybe brightened it just that wee bit more but even with that in mind, I think I have achieved my goal and have come out with something I am happy with.

Next on my list was also from my recent trip away to Auckland Zoo of an Alligator. I chose this image because unlike the first, there aren't too many defects to fight within it, aside from the water glare, but I'm hoping by using the Curves tool I can bring out more of the white tones while trying to maintain definition under the water while also beefing up the black tones to make a more powerful, textured, contrasted, black and white working.

Unlike before, I began by bringing both corners of the histogram closer to where the activity of the histogram was to get a gauge of how these shades were going to cooperate. This produced results very close to what I intended but there are definitely still some issues to iron out. The lighting on the scales of the subject is almost the way I want them to be yet they are just a tad too bright and the details of the subject underwater are not quite as visible as I'd like them to be.

The changes I achieved seem subtle when compared to the previous image but as we were shown during our session, in some cases, just slight adjustments need to be applied to achieve your desired result. I managed to adjust the Curves in a way that I was able to accentuate the submerged parts of the subject adding depth to the image. I was also able to achieve the desired amount of contrast between the lights and darks not just overall but also on the back of my subject. Overall I feel I have achieved my goal.

For this next image, I aim to use both the Curves, Hue/Saturation, and Colour Balance tools in order to breathe more color and life into the image. This image is reminiscent to me of a National Geographic image and I aim to edit it as such.

Beginning with Curves, unlike the Black and White images I was editing, there wasn't too much to do with this tool let alone much I could do as it wasn't very hard to start losing the information within the image. My main goal in using Curves was to bring down the brightness of the sky in the top right corner and bring up the shadows within the image to better highlight my subject matter, some changes may need to be made but for now, I move on to Hue/Saturation.

again making very minor adjustments with this tool, by using the Hue slider, I managed to bring out the orange/brown tones on my subject matter and the tree branch it is perched on. I decided to leave it here with this tool for now as any more or any less starts to drastically change the colours across the board leaving me with an undesirable effect. In saying this I think in comparison to the original message, I think I have managed to breathe a bit more colour into the overall image but I'm still not happy with the overall colour. Time for Colour Balance!

Making small adjustments, I start by tweaking the Mid-tones, moving the sliders into the warmer ends of the spectrum to try and knock out the blue tones within the image. In turn, I ended up adding more colour to my subject which, I this case, I don't seem to mind for the time being given.

the adjustments I made to the Shadows, by accident, returned me with an aesthetic akin to an old colour film still which I found quite pleasurable. Even though I was trying to add more warmth to the image, I am quite pleased with this effect. Typically when I edit my main intention is to get it more to how I would have seen it in person when I took the photo and tend to stay away from stylized editing. This has opened my eyes a little bit and is something I am going to lean into more while editing this image.

And lean in I certainly did. I decided to test the sliders' capabilities and dragged them in multiple different ways, giving me this. While it is now warmer as I originally intended, I feel it still gives off this old colour film still sort of feel which I'm still loving. As unexpected as this outcome has been, I do feel that it is slightly too dramatic for my taste and I will now go back and do some tweaking to try and make a slightly more organic image while attempting to maintain this Film-esque vibe I have created.

after going back through and making some re-adjustments, this is my final result. Funnily enough, it has come out as somewhat of a combination of both of the above images creating a colour contrast between the shadows (blue) and the Highlights (yellow) that I find quite pleasing and fits my intention of the old style, film-esque feel I was inspired to achieve.

moving away from animals, my next image was taken in the New Market Mall in Auckland. I wanted to choose something more environmental and without a main focus point to give me more to account for/be aware of while editing. right away I know I want to make it more dramatic by accentuating the shadows and highlighting the lights within them. I really like the tone of the image already so colour changes may not need to be made but I'm sure I'll find a way to incorporate it as it may end up adding to my image come the end result.

I found curves very useful in this image. Immediately I was able to intensify the light coming through the ceiling creating this great texture and colour I was not anticipating. The lights hidden in the shadows were a bit tricky to work around with curves as it was very tempting to just make it as dark as possible but it made things look and feel quite unnatural.

I pulled up the Exposure tool to balance out the darks and lights in the image by adjusting the Exposure and Gamma Correction sliders which added to the intensity of the blacks and whites within the image. I'm really happy with this image now but as I learned in the previous edit, It's always good to experiment and try everything!

as a result of adjusting the Hue in this image, I managed to bring out more of the colour in the wood and turn the white light from the ceiling into a more of a blue shade which has left me with a colour palette I find quite pleasurable.

adjusting the Shadows in the Colour Balance tool allowed me to creat an overall feeling for the image. By moving the Colour sliders again to the cooler ends of the spectrum, I was met with a cold flow that matched the light coming from above while not disturbing the reds/magentas in the wood paneling.

Adjusting the Highlights within the colour balance tool allowed me to 'purify' the original colour palette i was working with before using this tool. I was able to work more with the reds/magentas making them stand out more through the blues/cyans aswell as make a more natural and more calm blue from the lights above.

This is my final result. I feel that with all the layers used in the editing process, I may have lost a little bit of detail in the overall image yet overall I am pleased with how it has turned out! I enjoyed this task. Applying what we had learned in class to these images has encouraged me to go a bit more out there with my editing, play with everything and see how it all fits together! Through this, I have made some stylized images I otherwise wouldn't have done using my normal editing process and I look forward to applying this in the future. In saying that, I can definitely see photoshop becoming a more regular tool in my tool belt. not as a replacement but as an alternative. To give different feelings to images. I did find there were times during this task when I would have found Lightroom more useful But nonetheless, I still find Photoshop I useful asset in Photography.

[allsonicgames]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1

Original Platform: PC/360/PS3

Original release: 12th October 2010

Version played: 360

Available to buy: Yes

I was originally going to do Sonic 4 as a single game, but after playing through Episode 1 and Episode 2, it’s evident that they’re completely different games so I’ve decided to give them separate slots. The “Episode” part of this is a complete lie, it seems.

Also a complete lie is the “Sonic the Hedgehog 4” name it has been given. It’s nothing like a sequel to the original games in any way. The best way I can justify the name is that it’s a new take on the Game Gear “Sonic the Hedgehog 4”, aka Sonic Blast, which seems apt due to the more maze-like levels and the “Donkey Kong Country” style graphics, where Sonic’s sprite is based on a 3D model. It kind of looks similar to the Sonic Blast one, too.

The other parts of the game take on different styles. The levels look like they’re 2D textures with some shading added in photoshop to make it “look” 3D. The backgrounds are sometimes layers of 2D, but other times are fully 3D. Dr Robotnic has a cel shaded style and stands out. There’s no consistency to the graphical style at all.

Also like Sonic Blast is how slow it takes Sonic to get moving. Moving from a standstill is so slow it’s agonising. Especially when you’re trying to move Sonic away from an obstacle. There’s something off about the way he moves and jumps as well. It’s not nice to play. Sonic Blast 2 (the name I’ve given this game) also features the homing attack from the 3D games, but unlike some of those, it also kills Sonic’s momentum, so you have to start moving from a standstill again. Even when you have the Power Sneakers, Sonic still feels slow.

The levels are a rehash of previous levels: Green Hill, Casino Night, Labyrinth and Scrap Brain. They have different names in Sonic Blast 2, but they don’t feel different (although Scrap Brain has elements from a Sonic 2 level). There’s three acts for each zone and two of these are all incredibly dull, just retreading old ground. The second act of each stage does try something new.

The second act of Casino Night introduces a cannon mechanic, where you have to aim and fire Sonic. Aiming is very slow and it’s not smooth or fun at all. Labyrinth zone act 2 is dark and Sonic has a torch, lighting other torches (sometimes activating switches) and setting off TNT. With a better level design and physics, this level could actually be really good.

The bosses are mostly the same as the original bosses, with a brief second stage. Even the final boss is just the final boss from Sonic 2, and you have to fight all the previous bosses again to reach it.

Sonic Blast 2 is a poor rehash of Sonic 1 & 2, with bad graphics and wonky physics. It’s a very poor Sonic game.

[lilulicious]

Foreword (OOC)

This fanfic/roleplay story will ask you to suspend disbelief even more so than just the fact that it's based on a romance between the main playable character that I've created in a video game (my Captain) and a romanceable NPC in the same video game (Sam Coe), with same videogame being Bethesda's Starfield, released in September of 2023. It has also been a long time in the making, since finding an appropriate venue to place this work has been difficult to pin down. I have a WordPress blog that I don't like, there is always the role play channel belonging to the official Bethesda Discord for Starfield, but another Starfield fan that I follow on Twitter (I won't call it X) said she used Tumblr and I said, "Perfect!" And here I am.

Because all good movies have at least a trailer or a synopsis, I will at least write a little something about what this story is about:

My Captain finds herself thrust into the Settled Systems from a most unlikely homeworld. Lilu finds herself in another place and time, barely beginning life as a miner with Argos Extractors, when she's plunged into the hunt for the Artifacts with Constellation. She meets the man of her dreams... literally of her dreams... in Sam Coe. But the fairy tale ending is anywhere but close, because Lilu is no princess. She's a hardened soldier from a different life. Constellation and the Settled Systems won't know what to make of her. Neither will Sam. But if everyone will just give her a fighting chance, she can help make a difference. If not, they risk their own peril.

Source material for plot devices include the following:

**Potential Film Spoilers Ahead** The Final Countdown was a favorite film of mine in the 80's, I was 12 when it came out, and TL;DR premise was a modern day aircraft carrier in Pearl Harbor passed through what looked like a freak storm, but it was really a portal to 1941 Pearl Harbor. Could they have a chance to change history? You'd have to watch the movie to find out.

2. The Army has a female active-duty sniper now.

3. Women have been in Delta Force since the 1990's, often in clandestine roles.

Although this is not really a plot device, I play Starfield now to a playlist on Apple Music curated with the music of Nothing But Thieves, Muse, Royal Blood, and The Killers. Most of this is captured on my 2024 year end replay.

Finally, I want to reemphasize that I've been stewing on this fanfic/roleplay for a long while now, and I have tons of virtual photography to back that up. None of this is Photoshop or AI in any way. This is 100% in-game, photo-mode work. Poses were achieved through patience, repetition, do-overs, lots of cursing, and a good bit of luck. Oh, and those quirky Bethesda bugs that occasionally do work out in our favor, praise the powers that be. Here are a few samples as a taste, and I'm going to try to get the first "chapter" out during New Year's week. I'll post a Creation/Mod list as well, as I use several apparel and decoration mods, shipbuilding hab and outpost mods, etc. Happy Holidays, all!