#and interesting to see this story in the set of enstars as a whole there is just a lot to say about it

[yume-fanfare]

*steps out of sudden death covered in blood* ive been fundamentally changed

[every-sanji]

hes such a red flag I love him sm (my friends have agreed that someone needs to stay with me and make sure whoever I choose to date isn't like this)

Also: fav sanji outfit?

i will be so honest being a sanji enjoyer is also kind of a red flag depending on how they go about it. i do not trust any of the people who just look for power scaling bullshit and ignore the rest of the story in general but especially when they're talking about sanji. as for outfits i decided to see what the wiki had and this is going to be in no particular order but i had a lot that i enjoyed. going to put them under the cut bc i feel like its going to get long.

okay there is a somewhat particular order because this is his first outfit and you really cant go wrong with the classics. a good double breasted suit does a lot for someone. also what happened to his arm in this frame hello.

next up is his gentlecook tshirt. honestly this one is just cute 10/10 no notes

skipping ahead a bit we have the white suit from whole cake island. i love a good white suit but i'd love to see it with a bit more embroidery or something to really make it stand out. can't help being an 18th century historian have you guys seen 18th century embroidery? that shit is insane like imagine this with some roses going along the waistcoat

Following that is the wake up outfit. for some reason i remember watching this op for the anime in my parents living room when i was like 16. i have to assume i was babysitting or something late at night while waiting for my parents to get home or something. or maybe it was because hulu's version of one piece straight up didnt change the op for the next set of episodes and i had to watch this one so many times more than what it was in the original run for some reason. anyway i love the wake up outfits a lot

and going to make this the last one but this is one of his outfits from baron omatsuri and the secret island. its giving cozy medieval european peasant vibes and i love it. i would wear this unironically it looks so comfortable

also if you scrolled this far might i interest you in the newest enstars mv its all i can think of right now. imagine sanji in this idk this is my blog i can post what i want but i'm so obsessed with it

[lycanthian]

hey wait. what fucking war in enstars

um. yeah. the war. it was like, a whole thing? i wont explain the whole thing here but like. generally enstars in its current state At This Moment has 4 primary Years to choose from

chronologically:

1. War Era

- in which the school is radically changed by an extremely passionate student council president in order to raise talented and unique idols. he does this via "war"

- usually referred to in flashback sequences.

- this era is never depicted as the Current Era in any of the series' 8 year lifespan.

2. ! era.

- this is the Present Day of the first game. generally the two main games are discerned between with the amt of exclamation points. its confusing

- main story follows a rookie unit into stardom by challenging what the student council president sets up back in the war.

- this era ends with a graduation event, and all students moving up a grade or graduating out.

3. !! era.

- the Present Day of the second game, which introduced 3D mvs and rhythm game aspects.

- the major status quo change here is that that old student council president has now started a large Production Agency Conglomerate, called Ensemble Square, that oversees all the characters and their units

- 8 new characters / 2 new units are introduced as they begin a new year. generally follows those two new units as theyre haphazardly thrown together and forced to perform, though has a good and healthy amount of content for other units as well.

4. Post-Grad !! era

- current day as of right now on JP servers.

- another graduation event was held back in march 2023 in which the second graduating class, well, graduated. everyone else moves up in grades as intended

- well, actually, just kidding? that Big Production Agency Conglomerate, Ensemble Square has now also absorbed the 3 named idol schools into the ES Academy. we dont know much about this currently tbh.

- honestly not much about this era in general is known. we havent gotten super important stories about the new school environment or anything yet to my knowledge. theyre still running stories and events that take place before that last graduation, or stories that dont take place at the academy (and thus we dont see it)

anyways. all of this to say that the war is insane. read the wiki page if ur interested! (content warning for short references to violence and suicide) https://ensemble-stars.fandom.com/wiki/The_War

i know you just asked abt the war but its important to contextualize it within the reference of the other eras! its very interesting to me actually that they do go the road of nobody strictly winning or losing the war (because war is bad for everyone involved), and especially looking into how it affects characters and relationship in post-war stories! :3

[mihai-florescu]

enstars analyses uhmmm i think we should spend more time talking about what dreams mean to characters ^^ it is In The Name. but i mostly think about how ritsu's issues with emotional dependency and wilfulness, all this stuff where he plays up his emotionality (??) are both result of and like an.. acting out of ... trauma from being u know. a chronically ill kid. with an absent family? and literally like two people who would visit him? and the isolation he would understandably feel; and the dependence he would have on those only points of connection--and he can't control those--i think it's interesting and i love ritsu. it's like, sometimes he acts like he chose to be how he is but a lot of it is out of his hands. hi i hope the rest of ur day goes well :>

Disclaimer post writing an answer, my mind drifted away while writing and i ended up just kinda Pondering and Rambling. Im sorry if it seems a bit scattered and all over the place, that's my mind rn. Ok, let's see what i actually said now.

Sometimes i think about how the war wouldnt have played out the same had rei never left ritsu to try to find doctors and cures for him (which led to breaking the promise of staying with ritsu that ultimately changed everything in their relationship forever). I wonder if rei would have ever even been in the cemetary and met keito had he just stayed to take care of ritsu. I also wonder if keito and rei would ever bond about having someone dear to them be sick. And had rei stayed, ritsu wouldnt have been upset and willing to give eichi advice on how to take him down. Would there had even been a war if Keito hadnt met Rei, or if the student council hadnt figured out how to send rei away. Would rei even be a protagonist if he hadnt left ritsu, if he had just stayed home in obscurity as well (i dont think so, and the story is built on the existence of these extraordinary characters, by the characters who arent, but are willing to make their way into the narrative nevertheless and achieve their dreams) One action's ripple effects etcetc.

Sorry i realise this was got way off topic from your original ask. I think i will continue to be off topic because i cant stop the train of thought ive embarked upon at this tardy post midnight time. I think eichi and ritsu are an underrated duo... they helped each other take steps towards their dreams afterall. During checkmate eichi giving a harsh wakeup call to ritsu in regard to being in his brother's shadow unless he does something himself to prove he's alive (top 10 eichi mean moments where he's also projecting onto the other person his own issues... not that he was wrong, but still). And in black tea, ritsu advising eichi on the war preparations during tea club (a serene setting in what was otherwise a hellish place, a piece of an everyday normal students life, which eichi craved so much his whole life. And ritsu also needed the club, interacting with new people, let alone another chronically ill kid).

Im thinking about your last sentence and how ritsu clung to the vampire persona the family adopted, the way to cope with the hereditary disability. As opposed to rei who changed his persona and struggled with the way he was perceived as a monster, when he was a human just as much as everyone else and tried to ignore his disability even? I dont think ignore is the best word. Downplay. It was always the acknowledgement that ritsu had it worse, despite the fact that rei also had it, he was looking for a cure for ritsu instead. First instance and development of his habit of helping people when they dont necessarily even ask for it. But yes anyway millions of tangents aside, ritsu clinging on to the vampire persona tighter and more consistently in his character, as a coping mechanism with a condition he didnt ask for, that is outside his hands. The one thing that was in his power was choosing to play into the vampire persona.

I havent even touched on mao... to be fair i dont think im the most qualified person to speak on him, or his relationship with ritsu. I am still figuring out my thoughts on them. Im glad they grew to find their own dreams in yumenosaki (heh), in the same realm, but not tied to each other where it gets suffocating.

I wouldnt call anything i said analysis as i wouldve probably ordered things better and had, well, an actual point, but i hope my stream of conciousness was as fun for you to read as it was for me to just think and type

[stierhai]

Enstars AUs, 1-5

Okay so I signed up for a 5k AU fic challenge, and I've got 17 enstars AUs to sort through and figure out which one I want to write.

The Non-Idol AUs

[Because Enstars is Enstars, this is not quite the same as a mundane AU. Things are still just as set-up in canon, there's just no idol industry or idol activities involved]

Valkyrie, Non-Idol AU. - For this, Shu is an installation/multimedia/theatre artist who puts on big walk through shows, Mika does weird found art about recontextualizing the cute as grotesque and things that would be tossed out and rubbish as things of value. Meanwhile, Nazuna was Shu's high school muse and he resents himself for not having his own artistic voice but loving the praise he gets for working with Shu and knowing his technical chops are good and his knowledge of motion, music, sound, and mass-appeal are good but he doesn't have a vision of his own. He ends up having a complex towards Shu, where he simultaneously wants to split from him and fails to do so because of his fears of his own inadequacy and follows him to university instead where he has to find his own voice as an artist. Pros: I can write all of valkyrie pretty well, their voices are easy, even in AU their motivations are simple to grasp. It would be easy to write in under 5k words and wouldn't require a ton of set-up. Cons: Research

Fishcult, Non-idol AU. - If the cast hadn't gone to idol school Kanata wouldn't have gotten out which makes all the fish cult stuff go pretty different as compared to canon. I need to decide a POV character, but I'm leaning towards Kanata due to how limited his POV is, with his knowledge base being really small it's easy to write the world widening around him. Madara and Souma are good foils, in that Madara and Souma are both devoted to Kanata, but Madara thinks the whole God thing is full of shit and Kanata should get to live a human life, while Souma doesn't see the issue with what he was raised to think. Pros: interesting, weird, definitely very canon divergent while exploring canon's set-up in a different way, works with the word limit. Cons: I need to read Stella Maris and the lookback story where Kanata's mom tried to have him kidnapped. I'm behind on fishcult canon, and I should read at least one thing to brush up on Souma's voice. I also haven't written for any of the fishcult before.

Rich kids, Non-idol AU - By the Rich Kids, I mean the ones that are known to run in the same circles before going to Yumenosaki together, so at the very least that brings us Eichi, Hiyori, Tori, and Tsukasa. Rich brat politics and policies. I think the thing to figure out here is what Eichi would want to do with his influence if he didn't get super into idols like he did in canon. I keep thinking about his stupid suicide theme park and I'm like maybe he is just early canon Seto Kaiba in this AU. But setting aside Eichi, these are all characters that are to some degree characterized by isolation. Tori and Tsukasa's social difficulties are because they weren't well-socialized as children. Hiyori is the most socially adept of the bunch when he's not intentionally being awful, but his tendency towards picking up strays feels kind of like it could come from that sort of lack. As Hiyori is the frivolous second son who has decided to be useless so his brother is the clear pick for heir and is kind of supporting him in that way, it'd be funny if stuck in insular rich kid land he ends up getting attached to another one of the canon rich kids, since Tsukasa and Tori are canonically like really in eEichi's corner and Hiyori can't stand Eichi. Is he able to wear them down? Is it a sort of rivalry in which Hiyori is trying to win over their affection but instead the younger two are stuck idolizing Eichi who is what they should want to be while Hiyori is more genuinely personable and enjoyable to be around when they're not at very public social functions? I feel I'd pivot the whole thing on the Hiyori-Eichi relationship and divide. Pros: I love Hiyori, and I can write a pretty good Eichi. Cons: I think I need a better idea of where to go with this. At least a better idea of what exactly Eichi is up to.

Sakuma Ritsu + Mao, Non-idol AU - the vampire-centric au!! My real motivation here is figuring out a way to make Mao interesting to me. Like in canon he's easily the most boring member of the cast but that's because like, he's Trickstar's people person. He's the one who knows how to be a properly socialized human being. but it doesn't really present interpersonal strife for him other than he is so tired, so overshadowed, and so overworked. But it's not a conflict so much as a difficulty, if that makes sense. Because so much of the Yumenosaki student body is really fucking weird, there's not a ton of pressure on Mao to divorce his weird friends. Mao, who wants ultimately to be liked and is sort of a people pleaser. He's very go with the flow, and will sacrifice himself to maintain social harmony. In canon, with Trickstar, this makes him a pretty good tsukkomi to comedic effect, but it's not dramatic. But non-idol AU. Ritsu, a vampire. In a more mundane piece of the enstars world, I can see that being an actual piece of conflict in the social fabric. Usually Mao's refusal to acknowledge the vampire thing because "Ritsu is human" is a statement not about Ritsu's physically not being a vampire with a weakness to sunlight and all that, but rather a statement about Ritsu being a person. But if the rest of the people were more >( about Ritsu being "chuuni" while Ritsu is actually suffering because of his physical condition, to what degree can Mao actually cover for that? Basically, I want to put more pressure on the gears of that relationship. Early in canon in the... band event? the student festival one in ES! there's some conflict around this, but it feels like more of a misunderstanding from Ritsu than any genuine pressure being placed upon Mao. Mao is a rock in canon. Solid. I want to see that shaken, at least a little! I also thought a bit about Sakuma Rei and Keito in this AU but honestly everything I want from them is covered by the Crossroads + Vampire Shogun events so I'm chill. This would be for the younger Sakuma brother! Pros: Vampires. Cons: Mao

Twins + Organized Crime Non-Idol AU. And by organized crime I mean Ibara, because if the Godfather and Gatekeeper stuff wasn't idol stuff it would still be crime stuff! But we've got a pair of homeless kids on the street who are both smart and survivable and codependent and canonically the twins glom onto Ibara for their own advantage and to annoy Ibara and it's great. If we take them out of the idol industry and have them do this anyway, CONGRATS TWINS, YOU'RE NOW CRIMINALS. I think this would be fun because Yuuta's got his like, I want Hinata to feel despair at other people because then we'll be the same again! He'll prioritize us over all others because he'll realize he can't depend on others! This AU gives Yuuta a leg up on Hinata in terms of their dueling world-views, and Hinata more to grapple with in terms of his brother's grudge and malice against the world. Especially if we assume the Hinata suicide attempt still happened in this world. But they've also got Ibara who had a similarly terrible childhood in their corner, and while Ibara plays the villain he tends to actually default to selfish altruism. We'll provide these services so people think better of us. :) He's the cynic but he is playing the part as much as it is true. I think it'd be a really fun fic for just really dissecting the three of their different world views. While also getting to write about fun crimes. Let the twins do crimes! Yuuta can enjoy it for real and Hinata can have so much internal screaming about it! How much sabotage to his brother can he get away with to protect his brother from himself! Pros: I love the twins and Ibara. Cons: I have never written any of them before.

Continued here.

[yandere-daze]

Ok i have been thinking about the reason why the game would try and make you an idol when you enter the enstar world.

The biggest reason why I think it would prioritize making you an idol than just a producer is because the game primarily focuses on the idol aspect. The producers are there yes but it's mostly the idols that get most attention. And since it's a game, its coded to make the player feel entertained. Being an idol gives you more involvement in the story overall so it pushing you to become an idol, even if its against your own will, isn't really too far off.

I also love the idea that the twins look almost exactly like us. Gives it more of a horror vibe and I'm down for it. Also I feel like the game would also give these twins a specific set of skills and cheats that would help the player in their journey to becoming an idol. Oh you're too broke to join this live? No worries the twins came from a powerful and rich family, money isnt a problem. You don't have anyone to design your clothes? The twins have some people they know that can do that! Since they are a blank slate, the game can pretty much add whatever they want about the twins' life, which is usually for your own convenience.

While I would love to think the game is also a yandere for us (since it would be fun to think about), its behavior towards us is probably because its a game. Games tend to focus on making sure the player is having fun and keeps making things fun to get you to stay. Now that your in their world, the system then changes its approach on how to make this whole 'im stuck in another world' fun.

Id feel bad for the player who got into the game cause ik every event is gon involve them and thats probably more stressful than fun lmao.

gn reader

tw yandere

Why the game might make you an idol and more thoughts on the n/a twins supporting you

Those are some really good ideas! And I agree with the fact that the idols are usually more involved in the story compared to the producer/ Anzu, especially in the !! era. So if the game wants you to be a part of it´s world and include you as much as possible, it would make a lot of sense to turn you into an idol, even against your will.

I mean yes, you probably don´t have any prior knowledge about being an idol ( I doubt anyone that is an idol irl would read my fanfiction x,dfnsl), that doesn´t really matter. It can just twist the world itself to give you all the opportunities and talents you need. It would be no fun for you to just be a background Npc, right? The game wants you to be entertained so it needs to put you in the spotlight!

And I know right? The twins looking eerily similar to you is absolutely perfect and a great idea. Mad props to 🔆 anon for sending that in. It´s a really cool AU to think about!

The twins having these “cheats” is also something I can totally see. I already mentioned here that the game tries it absolute best to make you important and support you with all means necessary and that could include messing with what the n/a twins are able to do. I mean they´re only hastily put-together characters in the first place, they´re placeholders, completely void of any unique features. They carry your face and interests. They have absolutely zero connection to the enstars plot as a whole as they were simply created by the game to support you.

So it´s very simple to make something up about their upbringing. Nothing is known about them so nothing the game makes up on the fly contradicts the canon. No one is going to notice. So what if no one has ever heard of this nameless super rich family? It simply wasn´t mentioned before. No one can prove it *doesn´t* exist, right? So it´s all right to mold the twins until they fit whatever you may need at the moment.

This entire world was made for you after all <3

( And yes, being involved with every single event would be so exhausting, the poor player. Can´t imagine that )

[maddiethebull]

May I request a scrnario with leviathan with an s/o who's a closet otaku (like she rlly tries hard to hide it from him lmao) and how would he react when he manages to discover her otome/male idol merch (like enstars, tsukiuta or a Idolish7 lololol) hidden in some part of her room/closet

Levi (Obey Me!) - Prompt - Being with a secret otaku MC

Sorry that this took fucking forever, I had my Mid terms which was a ride and a half, but heres the story. I used the power of my own weeb knowledge to write this, hope you love it!! Thank you for making a request

You, Satan, and Asmo were sitting in the living room watching The Real Housewives of Devildom when you all heard an ear shattering seemingly female scream. Asmo jumped like a baby into your arms while Satan, who was off in his own world reading a detective novel since you got so caught up in the show that you weren’t even looking at your Spells notes anymore, looked up and straight to the source. It came from your room. The biggest problem was that you guys had no idea where Lucifer fucked off to so you couldn’t ask him to go check it out. 

Asmo quivered in your arms, saying, “M-MC, go check it out.”

“WHAT? Me? You want me to check it out?” You? The weakest of the bunch??

Satan spoke up, “why don’t we all go check it out, that way we’ll have MC with us to make sure she’s okay and have two demons to protect her.”

Reluctantly, you and Asmo got up to follow Satan’s lead.

-Five hours ago-

Levi was so far ahead of you in Mario Kart : Journey into Devildom ™ that he passed the finish line nearly a minute before you. 

“Hah, normie!!” he said. 

You had been not only defeated, but defeated so badly that you silently declared Mario your arch enemy. You looked to Levi, 

“Hey, that level was really hard, okay?” you said with puppy dog eyes, hoping to avoid his taunts about your gaming abilities. 

“Nahhhh it wasn’t you’re just such a normie that you couldn’t finish it in first place like me.” He said it with a taunting smile and a sly look in those orange eyes. 

You decided to repay his taunts; you stood up and then kneeled, your hand on your heart, 

“Forgive me, your weeb highness.”

You grabbed his hand, you were going to kiss it to really drive the whole weeb highness joke in but he tugged away immediately. He was blushing the color of a fuji apple. He put his wrist over his mouth and avoided eye contact, he was slightly embarrassed from your joke, but it was you grabbing his hand that sent the flush to his cheeks. Of course, he would never admit that to you, so he said, 

“H-hey, you don’t have to make fun of me.”

“You just called me a normie, Levi,” you said, looking up at him with a beaming smile. 

He blushed more, “G-get up MC, it’s w-weird l-looking at you like that.” In a desperate attempt to hide his blushing cheeks, he wasn’t even looking at you now. This is why you loved teasing him back, he would always become so flustered when you teased him back and seeing him blush was the cutest thing you could ever imagine.  No matter how much Levi called you a normie or made fun of you for being bad with the video game controller, you never turned down a chance to give him a taste of his own medicine. He didn’t even know the best part. You were totally an otaku! Just like him – well, maybe not just like him, you left your room much more than him and another tiny detail is that you had gone to the ends of the earth to hide your otaku side from everyone you came into contact with. 

“Hah,” Levi laughed, “when you were being all butthurt about being a normie, you sounded like Suki from My Heartless Father Threw Me Out At Birth But It’s Fine Because He Died and Left Me With A Fortune But My Angry Mother Tried To Kill Me But I Killed Someone, Who Is It? When her heartless father threw-”

“I understand Levi.”

Realizing that maybe the name was a little too forth-giving to the plot, he tried a different reference just so he could see you not understand it. 

“Okay what about this one, you sound like SHEba at the final battle when she gave a speech to the dog-humanoid overlord.”

“Pfft, no I didn’t, she was way more worked up okay. And that was the same day that she found out her father was the villain so that’s two people betraying poor SHEba. Also, what was with the ending, was that a set up for a sequel or something? I think that a sequel would be dragging it on too much just like when ‘Did She Do It?’ came out after ‘Do What I Say! : Should We Have A Courtship?’”

Levi was looking at you, mouth hanging open, “Uhhh MC, you’ve seen ‘Bone Catcher: The Planet of the Dogs’? AND ‘Do What I Say!’????”

“Oh, uh, no, not really, only a little bit of it. Just some snippets because you were talking about it so I watched like five minutes, not really my thing………”

“ASDFGHJKL only this meme can describe how I’m feeling.” It was a deep fried meme written in ancient devildom language over the picture of what seemed to be a demonic pikachu with its mouth open. 

You sigh, “Levi I can’t read that.”

“Hm, maybe a NORMIE (lolololol)  like you shouldn’t read it!”

You laughed, “okay, Levi.” 

To this he smiled, you didn’t know why but he smiled nonetheless. In truth, he was just happy that he could have a conversation with you like this. You were the only person he’d ever met that went to such lengths to hang out with him, I mean Satan sometimes came around to watch dramas and Mammon came around to ask for money, but you didn’t want that. You wanted to hole up with him, hear his voice, see his smile, play the games you weren’t accustomed to. You just wanted to be with him and that was the most profound realization that came upon Levi after you two first began hanging out like this. You were his first best friend and his first romantic interest that wasn’t 2D, so it was a big deal when you came to hang out in his room.

He didn’t want you to leave so he spoke,

“So, wanna play another game so you can lose?”

“Very funny,” you said, giving him a smirk.

“For reals though, I have this new game and it’s a two player.”

You stretched your arms out as you stood up from where you were sitting on the ground, “maybe tomorrow, I have a big test coming up in Spells class and I really need to study for it.”

He looked down to the controller that was still in one of his hands, “oh, okay, just do your normie studying but tomorrow you have to be here to play it with me, like blood oath promise me.”

“I feel like a blood oath is a little too serious for this situation, pinky promise,” you said holding out your pinky.

He couldn’t help but blush at the thought of touching your hand again. 

“Pffft, w-what a lame normie thing to do, l-let’s do a pinky promise t-then.” 

“Okay,” you linked your pinkies together and looked into his eyes that were surrounded by a rose color that crept up to his entire face, “I pinky promise you that I will be here tomorrow so I can be your player two.” 

He blushed even harder, “okay, w-whatever.” And you were on your way out, but just before you opened the door, “oh, by the way, I lost my headphones at R.A.D., can I borrow some earbuds for tonight?”

“Hmph, okay but JUST for tonight, the premiere of Generic Anime Name is gonna be on Devflix tomorrow morning and I can’t miss watching that.”

And with that, you were off to study in your room until Asmo yanked the headphones from your ears,

“Hey MC, guess what show is on?”

“Asmo I’m trying to study,” you put Levi’s headphones in your pocket as to avoid further ear pulling. 

“But it’s ‘The Real Housewives of Devildom!’ Remember how you promised me last week that you would watch the new episode with me?”

“Asmo, not now, I need to study for this test

“MCCCC, you SAID you woulddddd you prommmisssed”

“Ugh fine but only if we bring Satan along to help me study during commercials.”

“Yayyyy!” 

Meanwhile notification beeped on Levi’s D.D.D.,

“As a present we’ll be releasing the premiere of Generic Anime Name a little early for our loving fans

Levi rushed to your room and walked right in, not bothering to knock. It was a good thing you weren’t there because you would’ve punched him in the face if another person had come in while you were studying. He wondered for a second where you had gone, but that wasn’t the issue at hand, he HAD to find his headphones. He rummaged through almost your entire room. ‘Where would they be?’ ‘Maybe she dropped them and kicked them under the bed?’ So, he went looking under your bed and found tons upon tons of anime and otome merch. He saw a body pillow of Gavyn from Mr. Passion: Monarch’s Decision and that’s when he lost all composure and let out a scream. About five minutes of digging through your stacks of posters and T-shirts and yet another body pillow, the door was nearly busted open by you, Asmo, and Satan. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He was hurt, really hurt you could tell because he didn’t even have the strength to call you a normie. He figured you didn’t tell him because you didn’t think he was cool enough or hot enough like Gavyn. Maybe you even didn’t like him at all. 

“Uhhhhh, I’m going to leave now, bye,”Asmo said, sprinting out of the awkward situation and Satan soon followed seeing that there wasn’t some ghost wandering about in your room. 

“Levi-”

“Are we friends?” This caught you off guard, why the hell would he think you weren’t friends? He was your best friend and at the same time your biggest crush. 

“Of course, Levi, we’re friends,” your head hung low, you felt slightly ashamed of hiding this side of you from him. 

“Then why did you hide all of this from me?”

“Because I was scared of how you would react. In the human world, there was a guy I used to really like, he was my only friend at the time, but when I showed him these things, he stopped talking to me; he wouldn’t even look at me in the hallways. I felt so alone. He thought it was weird and childish and- and he said I was creepy. I just-” tears began rolling from your eyes from remembering this and realizing that Levi was nothing like that guy. Levi, even though he didn’t show it much, actually cared about you and he was even into some of the same things you were but you were just too damn scared of something like that happening again.

You choked back your tears, “I just didn’t want to lose you.” 

He stood up and walked over to you, “MC, you don’t need to hide from me… I would never stop talking to you, even if you were into stuff I didn’t like. I just like being around you and having a friend to play video games with and watch anime with and you listen to me talk about Ruri-chan and- and,” his voice shook. Now both of you were crying as he pulled you in for a hug, you were both such softies that you couldn’t help but get worked up over your emotions. Neither of you wanted to lose the other, and Levi didn’t want you to feel like you needed to hide any part of you from him because, after all, you were his player two. 

“Y-you should never leave your player two behind,” he said with his face buried in the crook of your neck. Lucifer gave a passing look in your room when he got back to see that you were alright but saw two emotional weebs crying and hugging instead. 

“MC, Levi, I beg of you, whatever it is that you’re doing, just finish and go to sleep.”

You and Levi separated but instead of going to his room, Levi stayed with you to watch that new anime premiere episode. You shared the headphones even after you nodded off to bed and Levi was just sat next to you, listening to whatever was on his computer while smiling gently at you, studying your features as you lay peacefully asleep. Finally around five in the morning you were both asleep as Levi unconsciously held you close, in his arms, never wanting to let go of his Player Two.

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[flyswhumpcenter]

Spilled Coffee [Whumptober 2019 - Day 10: Unconscious]

Summary: Anzu's evening gets turned upside down when someone familiar passes out right in front of her.

Fandom: Ensemble Stars (coffeeshop/college AU) Relationships: platonic Anzu & Mao friendship, implied pre-rel Anzu/Hokuto

Wordcount: 1,374 words

Content Warnings: None.

Notes: Finally catching up on my lateness with an Enstars fic! It's a missing scene from my only other Enstars fic at the moment, Nurse Café. It's a Hokuto-centric HokuAn sickfic in case you've *somehow* not heard of it while lurking around their tag lol (and it's like 4-chapter-long, albeit said chapters are short). I'm afraid I did write this story with the idea that the reader would have read Nurse Café first, or at least its first chapter, as it provides the context and implied conversations taking place here between Anzu and Hokuto. Anyway. I'm not sure of how much I've actually filled the "Unconscious" prompt, but do I ever properly fulfill a prompt, especially for challenges like this? Technically someone's unconscious here, so that has to make up for it, right? Riiiight? Also how do you write Mao? I feel like I've gotten him very, very wrong in this story lol. It's my first time actually writing him, though, so there's that I guess. woops.

Event hosted by @whumptober2019

AO3 version available here.

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It had been a normal evening shift at the coffeeshop. The regulars had bought their usual drink, some new faces discovered the shop, some people changed from their habits, others continued discovering the other drinks they had never dipped a tongue into. Things were calm, almost soothingly so, making for a comfortable after-class shift where she had managed to squeeze in some college work too. Reading a book between clients was a way to both earn some precious money and advance in her school business.

Alas, Anzu hadn’t gotten to closing the shop yet when things drastically changed.

 The atmosphere until then had been of a cosy coffeeshop right before closure. The radio played softly the latest hit songs in the background, all chairs were empty and having been cleaned, her workmate had left already because his shift was ending before hers. Anzu had always appreciated this specific mood the shop could slip into once the sun was setting down, cleaning her counter before closing for the night. She had ten minutes left before shutting the lights off, a time that seemed very short compared to the rest of the day…

…and yet that had left the time for an unusual client to come in.

 The bells ringing surprised her out of her cleaning affairs, making her rise her head to the doorway, only for her to notice the client was already right in front of her face. Her eyes then directly met with a long-time friend, perhaps someone that was just a bit more than that: second-year literature major Hokuto, whom she could swear she had never seen even looking through her shop’s windows. It was odd for someone like him, who usually prided himself in his stricter living style compared to their friend group (Subaru being his favourite person to tease), taught to him by his grandmother, to step into her shop at such an hour of the night, at almost eleven o’clock.

The state his face was in didn’t ring any better bell. She had almost not been able to recognize him: a low and raspy voice, fluttering eyelids, glassy eyes with deep dark bags under them, swaying on his feet and words half-making sense. Clearly, this man needs a good night of sleep; and yet he orders an espresso of all things. If not having seem him for almost two weeks wasn’t rising enough red flags, then seeing him this obviously sleep-deprived could only have made her worry even further.

 Still, here, Anzu wasn’t Hokuto’s friend: she was an employee, a seller, a barista. She served him his cup, let him sit wherever he wanted, got his money. The full price wasn’t there: in fact, there was a chunk of the cost that he’d have usually noticed was missing. Still, she decided to brush it aside: it was the end of the day and some leftover coffee, it wasn’t a big deal, she’d pay the rest herself with some tip money. She could at least do that for him.

As she finished cleaning the counter, she noticed eleven was very near. Closing hour was coming next and she absolutely had to lock the door, prompting her to walk up to and inform him of the situation. He barely lifted his head from the hand barely holding it up. Concern and curiosity mixed together and, unable to help herself, Anzu put a careful hand on his forehead. He didn’t flinch, nearly didn’t blink, almost relishing in her palm; it felt like putting her hand on a stove that hadn’t fully gone cold yet.

She didn’t like it in the slightest.

 What followed was a confusing mess. As if he had regained back the energy he missed, Hokuto jerked away and gulped his cup in a couple swallows, most likely parching his throat in burning coffee, before trying to get up, giving her nonsensical mumbles. Despite the signs she had noticed that kept piling up, she got astonished to see his body pitch forward, his eyes rolling in the back of his skull, without a word more comprehensible than a grunt. Her arms almost failed catching him in his fall, nearly sending him crashing onto the floor; instead, she managed to put him softly to the ground, using her lap as a pillow for his head before she had taken off her apron to do so.

Okay, now that she had an unconscious friend and a shop to close on her hands, what was she supposed to do? She couldn’t leave either of them like that, so she ran to get her phone from her purse, until she spotted something, or rather someone, interesting in the corner of her eye through the main window: Mao, a common friend of them. Anzu immediately began waving her arms in his direction, trying to get his attention.

 To her relief, her friend immediately got the signal, running to her shop with a smile until it disappeared from his face as soon as he realized what was happening.

“W-wait…” He told her, face twisting in disbelief. “Is that really…?”

“Yeah…” She quickly replied before kneeling back.

“Quick question: how did you end up with a knocked-out Hokuto in your shop?”

“I… don’t really know. He stumbled here and ordered an espresso, but when I went to tell him I needed to close the shop, he got to his feet and fainted right here and there. All I know is that he looks severely sleep-deprived and that he’s running hot.”

Mao peered from above, crouching next to her, putting his own hand to make sure.

“Ah, yeah, I confirm, he’s burning up,” he shook his hand almost as soon as he had put it on their friend’s forehead. “He’s wasted for sure. How the hell did that even happen… I wouldn’t be surprised if that was me, but Hokuto? That’s a whole other puzzle!”

 Anzu didn’t take her eyes off the unconscious boy in front of her, instead mechanically brushing his bangs from his forehead. Her fingers were wet from the gesture, but her brain was blanking out from how weird the situation was and how worried she was getting.

“Should we call an ambulance?” She eventually mused out loud.

“Honestly? I’d have if it wasn’t Hokuto we’re talking about. If we do, his parents will know about it, and his grandma too, and he’ll scold us for having indirectly told his parents…” A nervous giggle. “What I’m trying to say is that, if you ask me, Hokuto is the kind of person who doesn’t like suddenly waking up in the hospital with four people looking over him.”

She hummed as a reply.

“Still, I wouldn’t let him alone in his place either. If he’s passed out right here and there, he probably can’t even stand properly, so taking care of himself is out of the question until he’s slept for something like three days. How the hell did that happen…”

“Then, let’s bring him to my place.”

 Mao froze for a solid thirty seconds.

“…huh?”

“Don’t you usually bring Ritsu to your place whenever he falls asleep in public?”

“I do, but we’re childhood friends, that’s not the same thing!” His face suddenly brightened up. “Heh, if you see it that way, I suppose it’s not too bad. I’d even say Hokuto would like waking up at your place!”

“What do you mean by that?” Her face felt a bit warmer, weird.

“Ah, nothing,” his smile was kind of going against that statement. “Let’s bring this guy to your flat then. Help me get him on my back so you can close the shop.”

“Got it,” she said as she rose to her feet, doing as she was tasked to do, and recovering both her apron and the keys inside its pocket.

 A couple minutes later, Anzu had left the shop in its optimal closing state: all clean, lights switched off, door locked behind her. Once that was said and done, glancing at both of her friends, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you, Mao.”

“You’re welcome! Now, that was nothing, let’s get him home, shall we?”

Glancing one last time at the unconscious Hokuto propped on Mao’s back, she nodded.

“Yeah, let’s go.”