#and I was like eh what the heck I dunno anything about it but I’ll watch it

[hana-bobo-finch]

??? what the FUCK /pos

[undercovergamer]

✨Silliest Way to Relax✨

⚠️This fic focuses mainly on tickling. Do not read it if that upsets you.⚠️

Ayato introduces Itto to one of those head massager claw things and “accidentally” finds out he’s very sensitive.

This is actually the first Genshin fanfic I’ve ever written. It’s also probably my highest quality one. My crown jewel 🤌💎✨

Also I have no idea how the inside of the Kamisato Estate looks :))) I forgot, so if anything seems out of place, I’m sorry :,)

Word Count: ≈4900 (jesus actual christ- 💀 messed up the count while editing lol)

Kamisato Ayato is, naturally, a very busy man. He’d always have so much work to do, but today he had finally gotten some well-needed time off to just relax. This was at the request of a mildly worried Thoma, not wanting the clan leader to overwork himself. At first, Ayato wasn’t sure how to spend the day. But then he remembered a certain crimson oni, Arataki Itto, who had been pestering him for days about hanging out. So he decided to fulfill that request and invited him to come over.

Itto, of course, had no idea where they were exactly, but he didn’t mind since his dear friend was there with him. He wanted to have fun outdoors, but it started raining shortly after the two met up, so they had to go inside. Who knows, they could’ve caught a cold!

“Whoa… pretty fancy place here, bro!” Itto said, looking around in awe and curiosity.

“Hmm, yes, indeed. I’ll ask Thoma if he could prepare some tea for us. Do you drink tea, Itto?” Ayato replied, still a little cold from the sudden rain outside.

Itto nodded at the question, shaking himself dry and saying “Yeah, man! I- Wait, is Thoma here too?! That’s awesome! Where is he? Ooh! Maybe the three of us could hang out together?” He was full of excitement.

“I’m afraid he’s too busy for that today, but perhaps I could check in with him just in case. Please, follow me. I’ll show you the room we’ll be, er, “chilling” in, as you’d say.”

“Haha! Nice! Let’s go!”

Once the two men entered the “chill-room,” Ayato asked Itto to wait for him there while he went to change into something more comfortable, since his coat was wet.

Unfortunately, Thoma didn’t have time to hang out, but he did prepare some tea and towels for them to warm up. He didn’t get to leave before receiving a tight bear hug from Itto first, though.

After the remaining bros had finished their tea and chatted for a bit, Itto was growing quite restless. His original plan to hunt beetles together was off the table due to the sudden rain and he was getting bored. He enjoyed the chill vibes from simply co existing, but…

“So like… do you have any uh… other fun activities we could do in here?” Itto asked, fidgeting impatiently.

“Hmm, I believe so. What do you have in mind?” Ayato replied while looking around for ideas himself.

“Eh, I dunno. I thought we could like.. go for a walk outside or something, but with all this rain we’d just get cold and sick.” Itto sighed.

Ayato thought for a moment, observing Itto’s body language. “You seem a bit restless. I think I have an idea for what could calm you down.” he said, standing up.

“Pfft, what? I don’t need to calm down, I’m just kinda bored to be honest.” Itto replied as if he wasn’t bouncing with his leg.

“Maybe not, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to try, would it?” Ayato replied with a smile, walking over to his desk to fetch a strange-looking cylinder box. Itto looked at it with curiosity in his eyes. Was it a party popper? No… Ayato opened it and pulled out… something..?

“Whoa, what’s that thing?” Itto asked in confusion. He had never really seen this item before. It looked like some kind of weapon… maybe a kitchen utensil? Some kind of metal spider thing? What the heck was that?? “It looks kinda dangerous.” he said.

Ayato chuckled at the comment and explained, “This is a head massager, it’s not dangerous at all. Just like the name suggests, you use it to gently massage your scalp. It’s great for relieving stress and just relaxing.” He used it on himself to demonstrate. “See? It’s completely safe.” He said with a warm smile.

“Whoa, no way! It looks so weird.” Itto replied, getting up to take a closer look.

“Would you like to give it a try? I highly recommend it.” Ayato tried handing it to him, but he looked at it, puzzled.

“I mean, I guess? I uh, I don’t know how to use it…” he said, scratching his head.

“No problem, I can help you. But first I think you should sit down.” Ayato went and pulled out a chair for him.

“Why? Oh, wait, it’s to like relax more or something, right?”

“Certainly. You are also quite tall which would make sitting more optimal.”

Itto laughed and sat down in the chair while Ayato put the box aside and stood behind him, head massager in hand. There was a hint of mischief in his eyes, but Itto didn’t notice that since he wasn’t facing him.

“Now, just sit still and relax. Let all your worries melt away. Are you ready?” Ayato asked calmly.

“Pff it’s just a massage, of course I’m ready! Ready to relax.” Itto replied with confidence, stretching for a moment to relax his muscles and prevent restless stimming.

“I must warn you, though. It could feel rather… strange the first time.”

“I’m ready for anything! Bring it on!”

Ayato chuckled and gave Itto a headpat for the funny before gently placing the massager on his head, trying to position it so that his horns wouldn’t be in the way. But upon making proper contact, Itto jumped a little and let out a surprised yelp.

“Oh my, are you alright?” Ayato asked, surprised at his sudden reaction.

Itto sat straight and cleared his throat before replying. “Y-Yeah! I’m fine. Just- uh, j-just felt a little strange like you said. Yeah.” But when the massager made contact again, Itto jerked away.

“Oh, do you not like it?” Ayato asked, raising an eyebrow.

Itto straightened up again and said “I-It’s fine! I just- uh, I’m just not used to the, uh... sensation, I guess?”

“Try to hold still, please. You could get hurt if you move too quickly.”

“Gotcha! I’ll be as still as a- uh… um… I’ll be as still as a tree! Yeah. Hahaha!”

Ayato smiled and began to properly massage Itto’s head with the thing, slowly moving it around with ease. But to his “surprise,” Itto wasn’t relaxed at all. He twitched as if he was struggling to sit upright, a leg quickly bouncing up and down while his hands were clenched like fists on his lap.

“Itto, you seem rather tense. Is something wrong?” Ayato asked after a few seconds, with a mischievous smirk on his face as he kept massaging. Itto seemed to have trouble responding. “Are you alright?” Ayato asked, leaning closer to try to look at the oni’s face.

Itto snickered before replying “*snrk-* y-yeah I’m f-f-fine.” He shut his eyes and bit his lip as if trying not to smile, which didn’t work. Ayato angled the massager back a little, which made Itto let out a chuckle, raising his shoulders on reflex. It was clearly difficult to sit still. Hmm, wonder why…

“You know, you don’t seem very relaxed. Are you having trouble sitting still?” Ayato smiled as he sped up the massage a little bit. Itto flinched, trying to contain himself. “*pfft* I’m p-plehenty relaxed- *mpff*” he stuttered, eyes squeezed shut and snickering at the sensations.

Ayato chuckled at his reactions. “Hold still, Itto. Isn’t it relaxing~?” he teased.

“I- mhmhm- I cahan’t- *snrk*” Itto was getting more and more giggly as time went on, but why? Hmm… what a mystery.

“Hmm.. do you want to do something else? You seem stressed.” He slowed the head massager’s movements so Itto would have an easier time answering.

“N-No, it’s fine! Really!” he said with a slight giggle.

“Are you sure?”

“Y-Yeah..! It feels nice! It’s just-…” Itto stopped himself.

“Just.. what?” Ayato asked.

“Just- uh… n-nevermind. It’s nothing.” He replied, suspiciously avoiding eye contact.

“Hmm… I get the feeling there’s something you’re not telling me.”

“W-What do you mehehEEHEahahAHA!?!”

Itto jumped and burst into laughter as he suddenly felt a pair of hands tickling his sides. Ayato had put the head massager aside so he could tickle Itto “on purpose” to prove his point. Itto squirmed away from the chair and ran a few steps before turning around, looking confused and a bit embarrassed.

“Hey! W-What was that for?!” Itto asked, still giggling a bit from the sudden attack.

“Well, you seemed to be struggling with quite the build-up of giggles. I simply felt the need to help you laugh.” Ayato said with a chuckle. Itto felt an embarrassed blush spread across his face. “The thing is, head massagers often tickle really bad the very first time you use one. If you’re ticklish, that is…” Ayato gave him a smug smile.

Itto gasped dramatically. “Waitwaitwait, so you KNEW that would happen? Why didn’t you warn me?!”

Ayato couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction. “I’m sorry, I do admit I was quite curious to see how you’d react to the massage. I actually didn’t think you’d be so ticklish.”

“Wha- me? T-Ticklish? Psh no way.” Itto tried to look serious, as if he hadn’t already revealed it.

Ayato raised an eyebrow, eyeing him up and down. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yeah! I was just uh.. surprised! Yeah. Surprised.” Itto crossed his arms and tried to act tough.

“Is that so…” Ayato crossed his arms as well and narrowed his eyes. That look sent shivers down Itto’s spine.

After some seconds of silence, the oni huffed and said “Ok- ok, fine. You got me, I’m uh… I’m ticklish. BUT!” A playful grin grew on his face. “I bet I’m not the only one!”

“Hang on, let’s not ahead of ourselves. Um.. how about a game of cards?” Ayato looked a little nervous.

“Nuh uh, I wanna know if you’re ticklish too, pal! C’mere!” Itto quickly approached the commissioner as he made a failed attempt at getting away in time. “Ha! Gotcha!” Itto laughed as he captured his friend, arms wrapped around him from behind. Ayato gasped, trying to free himself without hurting the oni. Itto held him in place with one arm and used his other hand to tickle his side. “C’mon, laugh! Tickle tickle tickle~!” he teased, smiling brightly.

“Ah, Itto, y-you’re mistaken.” Ayato said, trying to keep his posture straight.

“Why aren’t you laughing? Come on!” Itto tried to tickle his ribs instead.

Ayato chuckled lightly. “Itto, I’m not ticklish!”

“WHAT?! No way, I don’t believe you!” Itto started to tickle with both hands instead, but to his surprise Ayato still barely reacted, simply smiling softly. Itto let go and stopped tickling once he realized it wasn’t working.

“That’s so unfair!” He whined. Ayato turned to him with a mischievous look on his face. Upon making eye contact, Itto’s face went from frustration to wide eyed concern as he somehow knew what that sly man was up to.

“You know, I think I have another idea of a “fun activity” we could do.” Ayato said with a menacing smile, slowly approaching the oni as he became nervous and backed up.

“Aha, uh, bro, A-Ayato, w-wahait! W-We can talk about thihis! I- I- uh-” Oh, he was right. He knew exactly what Ayato was planning.

“What’s wrong? I thought you said you were bored earlier?”

“M-Maybe it stopped raining! W-We could, uh- g-go outside instead! R-Right??”

Itto soon realized there was a wall behind him, quickly looking around for an exit. Ayato simply smiled at him. “Looks like there’s nowhere to go, hm?” He said teasingly. Itto quickly eyed the door before attempting to make a run for it, but Ayato swiftly grabbed him, somehow wrestling the now rather flustered oni to the floor and straddling his waist.

“Hehe, you’re not getting away that easily~” he teased, smiling down at his catch.

“W-Wahait! B-Bro we- pfft- we can talk about thihis!” Itto could already feel the giggles bubbling up inside him as he realized he couldn’t escape.

“No can do, I’m afraid.” Ayato playfully wiggled his fingers above Itto to tease him, smiling mischievously.

“Wahahahait! Dohohon’t!” Itto began squirming, already giggling in anticipation as the commissioner grinned.

“Oh my~, laughing already? You must be in for quite the ride, huh?”

“Sh-Shut up-” Itto tried to contain his giggles, which immediately spilled out anyway as Ayato’s wiggling fingers sped up and came closer. “W-Wait! Wahahait do nahahahat! Dohohohon’t!”

“Don’t what?” Ayato smirked mischievously.

“Tihickle mehehehe! W-Wahait-” Uh-oh.

“Well if you say so…”

“WAHAIT- NOHOHOHO!”

Oopsies. He fell right into his trap! Ayato began playfully scribbling his fingers around on Itto’s sides and ribcage. “Tickle tickle~”

“Pfft- hwahahahahAHAHAHA!! NohoHOHO!! Y-Yohohouhu t-tricked mehehehEHEHEHAHAHA!!” Itto immediately burst into laughter and squirmed underneath his bro, trying his best to defend himself.

“But isn’t this what you asked for, you silly oni?” Ayato asked with an amused smile.

“Ahahahaha!! I-ehehehe! I sahahaid dohohHOHOHON’T! AHAHAHAHA!!” Itto’s laughter changed volume every time Ayato’s tickles changed intensity. He often switched between quick and playful scribbling to sudden clawing and squeezing, driving the poor oni crazy as he laughed and kicked uncontrollably. Of course, the kicking wasn’t doing anything, but there wasn’t much else he could do other than laugh and flail.

Ayato chuckled and started playfully tickling all over the gang leader’s tummy and abs instead, watching as he threw his head back and laughed louder than before. “BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! IT TICKLEHEHES!!”

“Of course it does, silly. That’s the point, isn’t it? Is this your most ticklish spot?” Ayato smiled and began rapidly poking at Itto’s abs. He flinched and laughed with every poke and tried to swat Ayato’s hands away. “N-NahAHAhahah! Noho it’s n-nahahahat!! EhehEHAHaha!”

“I’m quite curious… would you mind telling me?” Ayato stopped tickling for a moment. Itto was still giggling, but shook his head at the question. “I’m n-not telling you that!” He said through his giggles.

Ayato smiled and started tickling him again. “I guess I’ll just have to find out, hehe...”

Itto covered his mouth, trying really hard not to laugh, which quickly stopped working as Ayato began vibrating claw hands into his midriff, sending him into another fit of loud laughter.

“PFFHWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”

“Tickle tickle, little oni~” Ayato teased, chuckling to himself. What a silly situation!

“NahahahHAHAHAHA!! Thahat tickles sohoHOHO BAHAHAHAHAHAD!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!” Itto cackled his head off, squeezing his eyes shut and desperately kicking as if that would help. Shielding himself wasn’t working either!

“My, my, you’re quite sensitive… are you ticklish here too?” Ayato asked innocently, rapidly squeezing his waist. Itto arched his back and squealed mid laughter, trying to grab Ayato’s hands. He couldn’t believe he just made such an embarrassing noise, but he didn’t have much time to think about that before Ayato’s tickling fingers began climbing up his sides.

“AHAHAHA! Wahahahait! Wait dohohon’t! Hahahaha!!” Itto’s arms practically glued to his sides as a defense mechanism.

“What do you mean?” Ayato kept tickling pretty much any area left unprotected while the oni scrambled to try to defend himself without moving his arms away.

“Ehehehahahaha!! AhaHAHAHA!! Nohohoho!! Ahahayahatohoho!!”

Ayato pulled his hands away, stopping the ticklish torment. Itto’s laughter died down as he tried to catch his breath, still giggling from all that.

“Ah, I might have gotten a little carried away. I’m sorry, Itto. Are you alright?” Ayato asked, feeling a bit concerned.

“Ahaha…! Hehe…! Y-Yeah…!” He still had a giddy smile on his face.

“Are you sure? You seem rather tired.”

“Nah man, I’m full of energy! J-Just wait.. Hahaha…” Itto caught his breath surprisingly quick. Ayato saw an opportunity to bully him a little bit.

“You know, I couldn’t help but notice you never asked me to stop tickling.” he began, smiling smugly as a blush spread across Itto’s face. “Could it be that you like being tickled?”

“Eheheh... busted. I uh… I actually don’t mind, y’know?” Itto replied, still blushing a little. He usually wasn’t embarrassed about being ticklish, but for some reason Ayato just had this vibe that made him feel a bit shy.

“Really?” Ayato asked, raising an eyebrow. Itto laughed and said, “Yeah! I’m having lots of fun!” with a big grin on his face. “Tickling is just another way for me to laugh. Like.. it feels funny, it makes me happy, and uh… it’s just so much fun!” Ayato wasn’t really expecting such an honest answer. “…we are having fun, aren’t we?” Itto asked innocently.

Ayato had an amused look on his face before asking, “So, do you want me to tickle you more?” Itto began giggling in anticipation. “Uh-um m-maybe? I mehean if you want t-tohOHOHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”

Ayato promptly began tickling all over Itto’s ribs and abs, occasionally poking at his bellybutton, which made him jolt and squeal in surprise every time. Truly adorable.

“ThahahaHAHA!! Thahahat’s nohot fahahahahair!! I wahahAHAHAHA!! I w-heheheEEK!! Hahahahaha!!” Itto laughed.

“Pardon?” Ayato asked, smiling at the giggling oni.

“I wahahasn’t reheheheahaha!! I w-wasn’t readEEHEHEHEHAHAHAHA!!” Itto let out a playful scream and threw his head back, cackling uncontrollably when Ayato had started scribbling around on his abs and bellybutton with one hand, while using the other to vibrate into his lower ribs.

“That’s too bad.” he said as he sped up the tickling, occasionally letting fingers slip into Itto’s bellybutton. The oni squirmed with more vigor as his laughter went up an octave, kicking more and trying to push Ayato’s arms away. The random clawing and agile scribbling were driving him up the wall.

“EEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHA!! NAHAHAHAHAHA!! IT TICKLES!!” Ayato began vibrating both claw hands below Itto’s lower ribs, giggling to himself when Itto grabbed his wrists in an attempt to pull the tickling hands away.

“Did you lie about tha-”

“PLEHEHEHEASE!! *hic* CH-CHAHAHAHANGE SPOHOHOT!! *hic* BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!”

“Pardon?” Ayato let Itto pull his hands away so he could breathe.

“Ahaha! Haha! Plehehehease! It tickles r-reheheheally bahahad!” Itto giggled, with the most silly looking smile on his face. Ayato giggled to himself before saying “Did you lie to me? You seem to be very ticklish right below your ribs.” Him pointing out that weakness so casually made the oni blush.

“I- uh, I didn’t lie! I swear! I’m just really ticklish!” Itto giggled, still holding on to Ayato’s wrists.

“Ah, and here I thought I’d struck gold. Would you please let go?”

“No way man! Good luck tickling me without your- wha- hey! How did you-..?” Ayato twisted his wrists in a way that managed to free them from Itto’s grip, promptly making him giggle yet again, full of nervous anticipation. “W-Wait no!”

“Now, how about your sides?” Ayato began tickling up from Itto’s waist before he could react. His arms immediately shot to his sides in defense as he burst into laughter.

“Plehe- ahahahaha!! Please nohohoho!”

“What’s the matter?” Despite his hands being mostly trapped, he found that he could still slowly worm them upwards. Itto’s laughter grew more frantic as he realized where they were headed.

“Nonononohohohoho wahahahait! WAIT! Plehehehease not there!!” Itto shook his head, trying his best to squirm away, which wasn’t working since Ayato was still sat on top of him. Itto pressed his arms against his sides as hard as he could, which seemed to have worked since Ayato couldn’t pull his hands free.

“Itto, could you please raise your-”

“NO! Nohoho! I won’t do that!”

“Why not? Hiding something?”

“Mhmhmhmhm! Pfft-” The anticipation was nerve wrecking!

“Itto, my hands are stuck…”

“Dahahamn, that’s too bad…!”

“I’d give you a break if you’d at least release my hands. If you don’t, I might start squeezing~” he teased.

“Eep! Nohoho!” Itto hesitated, but loosened up enough for Ayato could pull his hands out.

“Thank you. Now, are you still enjoying yourself?” Ayato replied, poking at his abs.

“EEK! Hahaha! Yes I am! Hehehe..!”

Ayato couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How in Teyvat was this man not exhausted yet? The clan leader shook his head and chuckled to himself before saying, “You’re unbelievable.”

Itto laughed at the remark. “Like I said, I’m full of energy! Hahahaha!”

“Though I’m still quite curious… do you think you could raise-”

“Nuh uh, nope, no way! These arms aren’t going anywhere!” Itto was determined not to let him in.

“Really? We’ll see about that.” Ayato smirked.

“Pfft as if! D-Do your wohohorst!”

“Oh? Well, challenge accepted.”

Ayato had a smug expression on his face as he began scribbling all over Itto’s midriff, hearing his boisterous laughter fill the room yet again. Ayato soon realized that this wouldn’t work as well as he had thought. Itto seemed to love being tickled there, which was lowering the chances of him moving his arms. His joyful laughter and lack of protests were evidence of that. Of course, Ayato didn’t mind Itto having fun, but he was determined to win this little “challenge.”

“Hmm, I wonder…” Much to Itto’s surprise, Ayato stopped tickling for a moment.

“Ahehehe...! Is that all you got??” Itto taunted, still giggling quite a lot.

“Not at all, I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve.” Ayato replied before lightly tickling his neck. “Are you ticklish here?”

Itto bit his lip, trying not to laugh. “Pfft- n-nope!” He tried to raise his shoulders or scrunch his neck to defend himself, but Ayato was not fazed.

“No? Are you sure?” He smiled, gently tickling Itto’s jaw and under his chin, chuckling at how the oni tilted his head up instead of scrunching up in defense.

“Mph- *pfft*” Itto tried really hard to hold back his giggles, squeezing his eyes shut to avoid eye contact.

“Then… how about here?” Ayato started gently scribbling all over Itto’s ears.

“Pfft- mhmhm- fwahahahahaha!! N-Nahahat the ehehehears! Nohohoho!!” He could not contain his high-pitched giggles anymore. He tried shaking his head to make it stop, but Ayato was persistent, lightly tickling all over those ticklish ears of his. “Tickle tickle tickle~” Ayato teased, giggling to himself as Itto’s face turned red from embarrassment. He had never heard such sweet giggles come out of this man before.

“EEK! EhehehEHEHEhehe!! It tickles so bahahahahad!! Stahahahap!!” Itto covered his ears with his hands and squirmed. Ayato kept tickling around the area so Itto would remain distracted until…

“Gotcha~” he said before suddenly withdrawing his hands and quickly digging into Itto’s armpits. Itto let out a loud screech and immediately clamped his arms back down to protect himself. However, Ayato still had his hands in there, now holding them still for the sake of bullying.

“Looks like I win.” he said with a smile while the oni giggled hysterically.

“Plehehehease dohohon’t!” Itto pleaded, trying his hardest not to let Ayato move his hands.

“Is this your most ticklish spot?” He teased, moving his fingers a little bit.

“EEHEHEHE! Plehehehase!! Ahahahaha!! A-Anywhere but thehehehere!!” Itto tried desperately to squirm away somehow, but he was still trapped under Ayato who would just come with him every time he managed to move.

“Huh, must be a really bad spot if you’re already begging.” Ayato teased, chuckling to himself.

“SH-SHUT UP!! I d-dohon’t beheheg! Pfft-” Itto protested, trying to contain himself.

“Do you admit defeat?” Ayato asked, with a subtle grin. Despite his already uncontrollable giggling, Itto quickly shook his head in response. “Really?” Ayato asked, astonished. “You can’t be serious…”

“EhehehEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHA!! HYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” Before he could respond, Ayato started mercilessly wiggling his fingers, which immediately sent the gang leader into a loud fit of hysterical laughter. He began struggling even more than before; it was getting really difficult for Ayato to keep him in place.

For Itto, it felt like forever. But in reality it lasted no more than ten seconds in total before his ticklish demise finally came to a stop.

“Ah… you seem to have had enough now. Perhaps I went too far… Are you alright? Breathe...” Ayato said in an attempt to help him calm down. Itto was still giggling his head off while trying to catch his breath. It was clear he had reached his limit. Oops…

“Plehehease..! G-Gehet your hahahands awahahay..!” he giggled, trying to squirm. But he was too tired to put up a fight.

“I can’t, they’re stuck…” If he moved his hands now, it’d just tickle, which none of them wanted anymore. “Itto, I promise I won’t tickle you. Could you please loosen up so I can get my hands back?” Ayato asked calmly, giving him a warm smile to help him feel more at ease. Itto hesitated for a moment before relaxing his arms.

Ayato got off and sat down next to the now exhausted oni, making sure he was alright and helping him sit up.

“I’m terribly sorry if I overwhelmed you. Are you alright?” Ayato asked, genuinely concerned, putting his arm around him for comfort.

“Haha… ehehe…! Phew…! I’m fine.. r-really…!” Itto replied, still giggling while wiping away his tears of mirth.

“Are you sure? Absolutely sure?” Ayato asked, worried.

“Heheh…! I just.. n-neheheed to… huff… catch my breath..!” Itto replied with a smile.

“I’ll go get you some water. Please wait here until I get back.”

“Thahahanks bro.. heheh…! I’m exhausted… haha…!”

Ayato came back with a glass of water about a minute after leaving the room. After Itto finished drinking it, he sighed contently and said, “Phew! Oh man, I haven’t laughed that hard in ages! Hahaha!”

“Itto, are you alright? I-… again, I’m terribly sorry if I overwhelmed you. I must admit I got carried away.” Ayato sighed, feeling a bit guilty.

“Nah nah, bro, don’t worry about it! Really! I’m completely fine.” Itto replied with a bright smile on his face. “That was actually a lot of fun! At least before I ran out of air, heh.” Ayato looked at him in disbelief.

“How- I-… Huh. You truly are something else.” he said, chuckling to himself before standing up.

“What, don’t believe me?” Itto stood up as well. “Then I’ll just show you!” He exclaimed before hugging Ayato real tight, laughing happily. “Trust me man, if I was lying, it’d be obvious. I’m fine! I’m feeling great!”

“Ah, well, that’s a relief.” Ayato smiled and hugged him back. “I’m glad you had fun, Itto.” He was still in disbelief.

“You mean you’re glad WE had fun, right? Hahahaha!” Itto hugged him tighter for the funny, but quickly loosened up as to not crush his bro. “Man, it’s a shame you’re not ticklish too. Otherwise I could get you back right now.” Itto said with a sigh.

“Ah, yes, that’s a shame. But at least y-EEK!” Ayato suddenly jumped after he felt something run across his lower back.

…silence...

“Ah, ahem. B-But at least you had f-”

“What was that noise~?” Itto interrupted, tightening the hug and smirking.

“Ah, er, I th-thought I saw sometHIHING!” Another scribble. A grin full of mischief crept across Itto’s face as he quickly scribbled a third time, making Ayato jump. “D-Dohon’t!”

Itto gasped dramatically before saying “You lied to me, bro! How could you?”

“Aha, I-Itto, wait-” Ayato tried stifling his giggles, struggling to maintain the hug as Itto held him tight and slowly tickled his lower back with both hands. Ayato regretted removing his coat earlier… he had no protection from those tingles!

“Ohohoho I KNEW you were hiding something! I knew it all along!” Itto exclaimed, ready for revenge.

“W-Wahait! I-Itto! P-Please!” Ayato began squirming, fearing what’s to come.

“Nuh uh, it’s payback time!” Itto started tickling faster.

“Ihihittoho nohohoho! Wahahait!” Ayato tried to push him away.

“Tickle tickle tickle~” Itto started tickling harder.

“Ahahahahahahahaha!!” Ayato threw his head back laughing, trying to twist away from the mischievous hands. But resistance was futile, the hug was too powerful! So instead, he tried to tickle Itto’s armpits again to make him let go. Itto instantly jumped and started laughing, but instead of letting go and squirming away, he managed to wrestle Ayato to the floor, successfully pinning him face-down. He was too competitive to literally fall for that trick.

“N-Nohoho, wait! Itto, please! I’m sorry!” Ayato giggled uncharacteristically, unable to crawl away due to Itto straddling his legs.

“Ohoho you’re gonna get it now!” Itto exclaimed before tickling all over Ayato’s lower back, sending him into a fit of laughter. Truly a rare sound coming from the normally composed clan leader.

“Ahahahahaha!! Ittohohohahahahaha! I’m sohohorrehehEHEHEHE!!” Ayato squeaked, laughing his head off and trying his hardest to crawl away. Itto was too heavy to budge, though. The commissioner hadn’t been tickled in such a long time, he barely knew how to react. He wasn’t strong enough to escape, and… was he actually having fun?

“Oh by the way, if you want me to stop, just tell me to and I’ll let up! Promise.” Itto said, giggling to himself while squeezing Ayato’s waist, making the man jolt and squeak. Itto laughed at the reaction and kept tickling.

“Tickle tickle tickle!”

“EEK! WahahAHAIT! N-Nohohot thahaHAHAHAT!! Hahahahehe! Nohohot theHEHEHere!!”

“Aha! A weak spot! Hehe, I win~”

“NohoHOHOhoho!! *snort* PlehEHEHEhease!!”

“You haven’t said ‘stop’ yet~ Hehehe! Kitchy kitchy koo!”

“HahahahahAHAHAHAHAHA!!”

Facing the “wrath of the tickle monster” was not exactly what the commissioner had planned for his day off. But it turns out it wasn’t as bad as he’d anticipated.

After Ayato had recovered from being tickled silly, and after convincing Thoma he wasn’t in any real danger, Itto even agreed to try the head massager again. He claimed it “feels really nice and relaxing but also tickles super bad at the same time” and that “it’s a double edged sword” and “not fair.” It did indeed still tickle really bad, but the oni kept insisting it “felt nice.” It’ll take some time getting used to, that’s for sure!

The two really enjoyed their day together and their bond strengthened significantly. Who knew laughing your ass off could be so relaxing? Ah, time well spent.

[ray-the-fanatic]

ramona (87 specifically)

| Send me a ship and I’ll answer three questions based on if I ship it or not.

I love Ramona don't get me wrong but when it comes to the 87 version? I do not ship it.

- Why don’t you ship it?

Well the fact Mona is only in one single epsiode has a lot todo with it and well I dunno when I watched it. Raphael didn't seem that into her. As a friend and ally yeah but heck Raph showed more romantic intrest in Erma when hit with a love potion than he did Mona. Litteraly the most he did was says he thinks she's beautiful but eh just saying someone looks good I don't feel is basis for intrest.

- What would have made you like it?

Maybe if Mona had been in the show a bit more? She was interesting. I mean, she is smart for one and two she can handle herself in a fight, and like Raphael can make bold, reckless moves like going to the submine despite it going to explode.

- Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

Raph and Mona had good on screen chemistry it didn't feel forced in the slightest and they bounced off each other well.

[luke-shywalker]

let me know if you need anything

“Hey, Solo!”

Ben looked up. The sudden motion triggered a dull ache in his right eye—he winced.

“Uh—sorry.” Amalia came to a halt in front of him in the grass. The tall, bulky Togruta girl always looked like she was going to barrel right into you, but always managed to stop a few inches short. Back when they’d hated each other, Ben had thought this was some kind of intimidation tactic. But now that they were something like friends, he realized that she was just…well…awkward as heck.

Amalia peered at him and at his covered eye, then tapped her own cheek. “You look like one of the deep space pirates.”

“Wow,” said Ben, deadpan. “I’ve only heard that about five hundred times since I came back to Jedi school.”

“What’d they do to you, huh?”

Ben juggled the air with his hands, trying to figure out how much detail to go into. “Uh…they cut my eyeball open, and sewed a synthetic band into it to hold it together and make it stop falling apart. Basically.”

“Whoa. Sounds gnarly, dude.” Amalia paused. “…Can I see?”

Ben laughed. “Bro. Do you want to see?”

“I mean? Kinda? Will you like, die if it’s exposed to air?”

“Listen, I’ll show you, if you want to freaking see so bad.” He lifted the patch. He had to manually pry his eyelids apart—they were still swollen. He closed his left eye, just to see how well he could see her—everything was sort of a bright, slanted blur.

Amalia made a face. “Ew. It’s all red. Is that blood? Nasty. I see a coagulated mass of—something. There is straight-up slime in your eye, dude.”

Ben put the patch back on. “Yeah—I’ve been trying to, like—cry it out, but I can’t think of anything sad enough to make me cry. I dunno. I’ve had a hard time feeling emotion lately, in general.”

He said it, and then realized he hadn’t wanted to say it. He backtracked as quickly as he could.

“But now that you’re here, Mal, all I gotta do is look at your ugly mug,” he quipped.

Amalia rolled her eyes so hard she pretty much just rolled her whole head. “Hardee har har. Have you looked in a mirror? Geez, Solo, you can’t say shit like that to girls.”

“Oh—you’re a girl? Oh my Force, I didn’t realize. Sorry, miss.”

She wound up and punched him in the arm. Hard.

“Ow! Bruh. I’m already injured.”

“Well, you weren’t injured enough,” Amalia huffed. “Fixed it for you.”

“I’m telling Uncle Luke.”

“Yeah, go run and tell your Uncle Luke. Pissbaby.”

Ben tried to think of something clever to retort, but then his eye started hurting again, and he felt kind of sick. He hissed and lowered himself down into the grass, which seemed to initiate a truce.

Amalia leaned down. “You okay, bro?”

“Yeah—fine.”

“Are you still allowed to train and stuff?”

“I’m not supposed to do any ‘strenuous activity’ for four weeks.”

“Well, you were never getting any, anyway,” Amalia snickered. “Now you just have an excuse.”

Ben wrinkled his nose. “Ew. No, I mean…”

“Does lifting rocks with the Force count as strenuous activity? You’re not technically lifting them physically.”

“Eh. I always give myself headaches when I do that normally, anyway, so…maybe just littler rocks.”

“When are you gonna be able to see again?”

“Out of this eye?”

“Yeah, well, which eye do you think I’m kriffin’ talking about, dumbass—“

“I don’t know.”

“…Damn.” Amalia sat down next to him. “Sucks.”

“Yeah, I mean…I know it’s gonna be months. Maybe a year. And I don’t even know if it’ll ever be the same. Probably not.”

Amalia twitched her lips to one side. “Does it bother you?”

“Like, what, the pain? Or…”

“No, like…losing your vision. Like, coping with the loss.”

Ben shrugged. “…I dunno. Sure ain’t the biggest thing I’ve lost. It’s hard, I guess, knowing you’ll never be the same, but…I was already never gonna be the same, so…” He trailed off.

Amalia nodded at the horizon, picking a blade of grass apart with her fingers. “Yeah…I get how that is.”

They sat there in silence for a few moments. A low breeze came and rustled the grass.

“…Maybe I’ll gain some kind of extra Force sensitivity,” Ben said hopefully. “To compensate. Or something.”

“Yeah,” said Amalia. “Or…maybe you won’t, and you’ll just be half-blind.”

Ben threw her a tired glance. “Thanks, Mal. You’re a real pal.”

“What can I say? I try to offer a realistic outlook on life.”

“Hm.”

“But, for real though…let me know if you need anything. Okay, Solo?”

Ben raised an eyebrow. “Like what? Another punch in the arm?”

“Well, yeah, if you need that, I’m your girl. But, uh, seriously. Like if you need to talk, or…” She gestured vaguely at nothing.

“No offense, Mal? But you are not great at talking.”

“Hey. Never said I was. Just said that I would. Or if you wanna, like, just go throw rocks in the pond together, or something. Go look for weird bugs. Climb that cliffside Luke said not to climb. You know?”

Ben smirked. “Ha. Okay. Yeah. Gotcha. And then I’ll bang my head real hard, and knock out my other eye.”

“Exactly. You get me.” Amalia stood up and dusted the grass off her tunic. “Well…I’m on kitchen prep with Fannie and Meliko tonight, so…guess I gotta go. Do an extra meditation for me, will ya? Fannie drives me nuts.”

“Really? She’s so nice.”

“Yeah,” Amalia scoffed. “That’s what drives me nuts.”

Ben snorted. “Well, okay, Mal. See ya at dinner, then, I guess.”

“Will you see me though?”

“Dude, shut up!”

[seaofghouls]

Gravity Falls/Iplier AU ( Dark x Reader ) Part 3

 HELLO HELLO! Part 3!  Taglist: @a-frozen-bag-of-corn @crazy-obsessed-fangirl @lunariasilver

Episode: The Inconveniencing  Y/N was restocking the shelves as Mabel spun around on a large globe. “Mabel, do you believe in ghosts?” Dipper asked. “I believe that you’re a huge dork!” Mabel laughed.

Dipper stopped the spinning globe with his pencil with an irritated face. Mabel fell off and screamed.

“Wendy, Y/N, Soos, I’m heading out. Clean out the bathroom while I’m gone.” Stan said.

“Yes sir!” Soos said. 

“Absolutely not.” Both Y/N and Wendy said at the same time.

 “I’d fire all of you if I could.” Stan said while walking out.

“Hey guys! What’s this? A secret entrance to the roof??” Wendy said as she pulled a curtain aside revealing a ladder leading up to the roof.

“I don’t think Mr. Pines would like that..” Soos said.

Wendy waved her hand in front of Soos a few times.

“You’re freaking me out, dude!” He said. 

“Let’s go! You too, Y/N!” Wendy said. 

Y/N shrugged and climbed the ladder with agility. Wendy stared at the ladder wide-eyed. “Impressive.” She said before following after Y/N.

The twins then followed after Wendy. “This is pretty sweet.” Y/N said. 

There was a beach chair and a bucket of pinecones up on the roof. “Yeah, I may come up here, all the time, everyday.” Wendy said with a grin. 

Wendy motioned to the bucket of pinecones. “Take your hit, dudes!”

She picked up a pinecone and hit the center of the bullseye on the totem ahead of them.

Y/N grinned and picked up a pinecone. Throwing it, they scored right on the nose of the totem. The pinecone was literally pierced by the nose.

“Oh! Score!” Wendy high fived Y/N. 

“Take your shot, Dipper!” Y/N encouraged. 

Dipper picked up a pinecone and accidentally hit the car below, setting off the car alarm.

“Score! Great going, Dipper! C’mon, don’t leave me hanging!” Wendy said.

Dipper high fived Wendy before the sound of a horn came through the woods.

“Oop, that’s my ride. Later dorks!” Wendy said.

She hopped onto a pinetree and slid down to the ground.

“See ya, Wendy.” Y/N waved. 

“Bye, Wendy! Hah!” Dipper said way too enthusiastically. 

“Uh oh! I sense a romance happening! Dipper’s in love!” Mabel said. 

Y/N sighed, shaking their head. 

“Oh, cut it out. It’s not like I lay awake at night thinking about her!” Dipper said.

The next day, Y/N was just hanging out in the gift shop.

Wendy was about to leave when Dipper stopped her.

“Hey, Wendy? Do you think we could tag along this time?” Dipper asked.

“I don’t know, how old did you say you were?” Wendy asked. 

“Thirteen! We’re thirteen.” Dipper said. 

“What about you? I’ve been wondering that for a while now.” Wendy said, looking over at Y/N.

“Ah, I’m twenty six.” Y/N said. 

“Sweet. You’re an attorney, right? You’re coming with.” Wendy said.

“Ah, alright then. Just let me make a call first.” Y/N pulled their phone out of their pocket to call Dark and let him know where they were.

“Just between us three, I know that they never get out of their house. They only come here for work. They’ve never been seen in town.” Wendy whispered. 

The twins nodded.

Y/N came back over to them. 

“Alright! Let’s get going.” They said.

Walking outside, Wendy called out to the group.

“Hey dudes! This is Y/N, Dipper, and Mabel. They’re tagging along.” 

“Alright! Welcome aboard!” Nate said. 

Y/N hopped in the back with a grin. 

They heard some argument in the front before Mabel and Dipper came into the back with them. 

Their phone buzzed and they checked the notification. It was a text from Tambery. 

‘Hey. You seem cool. Let’s be friends.’ 

How did she get their number? Oh well. Wendy probably gave it to her. 

‘You too, dude, I’d like that.’ 

Looking up from their phone, they stared out the window, ignoring Dipper and Mabel’s banter. 

Eventually, the van stopped in front of an old convenience store. 

“Alright. Let’s climb over this fence.” Wendy said. 

“Who wants to go first?” She asked.

Y/N stepped forward and climbed over the tall fence with ease. The others clapped their hands at their skills. 

“Well, just don’t stand there and clap! Come on, dudes!” Y/N said. 

The others climbed over the fence with smiles on their faces. The only one left was Dipper. 

“C’mon, Dipper!” Y/N called out.

Dipper hesitated. 

“Dude! Your sister did it!” Robbie called out.

“Give me a second.” Y/N said.

They climbed back over the fence and grabbed Dipper. 

“There we go!” They grinned.

“Sweet.” Wendy said.

Robbie walked over to the door but it was locked. He couldn’t get it open.

“Let me try.” Dipper said. 

Robbie rolled his eyes. “Sure, I can’t get it, but Dipper over here is child hercules!” He said sarcastically. 

Dipper climbed up to the vent, crawled into it, and opened the door from the inside.

“Doctor Fun Times! Woo!” Nate called out.

The other people in the group agreed. 

Walking into the store, Y/N sighed. “I wonder if the power works.”

They walked around for a bit and found a generator. They started it up and the power came back on. They smiled, happy with themselves. 

“Woah, so much food! I haven’t had a lot of this in a very long time.” Y/N said. 

Only Dipper and Mabel knew how literally Y/N was when they said that. 

“Cheer up, Y/N! We have all night. Eat to your heart’s content!” Mabel said.

Y/N smiled. The rest of the night consisted of eating junk food and hanging out. 

Y/N was sitting with Wendy and Dipper up on one of the shelves. 

“Jesus, Mabel is going crazy for that Smile Dip.” Y/N said. 

Mabel was currently foaming out of the mouth. Y/N cringed. 

“You know, Dipper, you’re surprisingly mature for your age. Y/N, you’re unsurprisingly immature for your age.” Wendy said. 

Y/N laughed. “Oh, you have no idea.” 

Eating an ice cream cone, they smiled. 

A while passed and Dipper was being a bit paranoid.

“It’ll be fine, Dipper!” Y/N reassured. 

“Yeah, maybe you’re right. It’s just.. Stan isn’t picking up and I’ve been seeing some strange things.” Dipper sighed. 

“First of all, this is Gravity Falls. You shouldn’t expect something that isn’t weird. Two, do you even know who you’re talking to? Hello? We’ll be fine.” Y/N said. 

“Oh! Look at this!” Nate said. 

It was the tracings of a body. Y/N’s eyes widened. All that they could think of was Actor’s body. That horrible night. 

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Y/N mumbled. 

“Dude. I dare you to lay down in it.” Lee said. 

“Eh, I don’t know if we should do that..” Dipper said. 

“Don’t be lame.” Nate said. 

“Fine! You know what? I’ll do it.” Dipper said. 

Dipper laid down in the sketch of the body. Things started to shake like crazy. 

“Oh no.” Y/N gulped.

Mabel’s body was floating in the hair and she had blue eyes.

She laughed like crazy. She trapped Thompson, Robbie, Lee, Tambery, and Nate. 

Y/N, Dipper, and Wendy were hiding under a cabinet. 

“Can’t you do something, Y/N??” Dipper asked. 

“They’re a ghost! I don’t wanna harm Mabel, so I can’t do anything.” Y/N sighed.

“What do the ghosts want?” Dipper asked.

“I don’t know! We’ve just been doing normal teenage things!” Wendy cried.

“Wait. Repeat that again?” Dipper asked.

“Normal teenage things?” She repeated. “That’s it! Of course! They hate teenagers!” Dipper said.

He climbed out of the cabinet. 

“Dipper! What are you doing??” Y/N whisper-yelled. 

“Trust me.” He said. 

Y/N hesitated and then nodded. 

“Hey! Ghost! I’ve got something to tell you! I’m twelve! Technically not a teen!” Dipper called out.

“Oh! Why didn’t you say so?” The ghost said.

They left Mabel’s body. It was revealed that there were two of them. An old lady and an old man. 

They went on a monologue on why they hated teens. Apparently teens gave them a heart attack. 

“If you could let me and my friends go, that’d be great.” He said.

“Only if you do a dance.” The male ghost said.

“Well, I only know the lamby dance. I can’t do the dance without the costume, though, so!” Dipper said.

The ghost snapped his fingers. “Now dance!” 

Dipper now had a lamb costume on. He sighed before doing an over the top, embarrassing lamb dance.

Y/N had to cover their mouth to keep them from laughing.

The ghost laughed. “Very good! You and your friends can leave now.” The ghost said. 

He snapped his fingers and everything went back to normal.

The teenagers that were trapped were very disoriented when everything was back to normal. 

To save Dipper from a world of embarrassment, Wendy made up a story about how he beat the heck out of the ghosts. Mabel had woken up by this time, but she was really out of it. Y/N carried Mabel to the van. 

The van pulled up in front of the Mystery Shack. Y/N hopped out, helping Dipper and Mabel out as well. 

“We should do this again sometime, Wendy. You have my number, call if you need anything.” Y/N smiled. 

“You got it, sunshine.” Wendy fingergunned Y/N. 

“Sunshine? Where did that come from?” Y/N asked. 

“I dunno. I heard Dark calling you that and realized that it fits you perfectly.” Wendy grinned. 

“Alright. See you at work, then.” Y/N said, waving. 

“God, they are so cool.” Lee said as Y/N walked into the woods. 

“They sure are.” Wendy said. 

“I’m home, Dark!” Y/N said as they walked into the cabin. 

Y/N groaned as they stretched. 

Dark was sitting at the counter, reading a book. 

“So, I had a run in with a ghost.” They said. 

“Oh?” Dark said, looking up at Y/N.

“Yeah. I’m exhausted now, so I’m gonna sleep. Night, Dark.” Y/N said. 

Dark waved as they headed into their room.

Y/N smiled as they collapsed into their bed. 

Things were getting interesting.

[gamebunny-advance]

NSR Doodle Dump

Eh... nothing exciting, but I’ll still write y’all some notes.

1) It’s been so long since I’ve actually drawn a 1010, so I did a couple of doodles to warm up. I think I’m placing their eyes too far apart XP. I like to imagine that White’s ahoge is actually an antenna that sends out signals to the others.

I’m sure this has shown up in earlier drafts, but my 1010s were all supposed to have an associated symbol that would get added to their eyes/hair shines (kinda like how I used to draw the Matsunos), though I’m usually too lazy to actually add it:

White: Star

Red: Plus Sign

Blue: Minus Sign

Yellow: Triangle

Green: Ring

2) Another Sewer Gang doodle. I wish there was more art of them together. I know they don’t really *do* anything aside from Kliff and Zam, but they’re there ya know?

3) I just can’t let this idea go. Included Zuke this time because I’ve been neglecting him UoU.

4) Sprite Redraw. I have that particular screenshot for a different post I have in my drafts. I dunno, just thought it’d be fun to do, but I can not figure out what the heck May is doing with her hands.

5) Just a music asshole doodle in the usual style.

6) Scrapped TNa1010 panel “Wants and Needs”. I still dunno how I’m gonna name the other 1010s, so I scrapped this, plus it’s a little too early for him to definitively say, “Yes, I’m actually a 1010... maybe.”

7) Please pardon me while I indulge in some cringe. “No Mushroom Roads”, my awful Mario crossover where Mayrio and Zukigi travel across the Vinyl Kingdom to rescue their Princess from King Bowsiana.

Anyway~

The first sketch I actually did was Yinu + Mother as a Crazee Dayzee (er, Rozee) and a Wiggler respectively, but that one’s still pretty rough, so here are the Ben-Bens instead. Originally I wanted to base them off of the Mario Sunshine bob-ombs where they’re more robotic looking, but I couldn’t really make it work, so I went with the classical design. I dunno how far I’m gonna get in this project since it’s so cringy, but here are the enemy conversions:

DJSS: Spike: I was thinking about this one more mechanically than the aesthetics, since I think it would be cool if he could upchuck and throw the planets/disco balls, but maybe he should be an X-Naut?

Sayu: Cheep Cheep: Couldn’t think of another aquatic Mario enemy, but I think a cheep cheep themed Sayu would be cute.

DK West: Waluigi: I mean, I guess Wario is more aesthetically suitable, but if Zuke is Luigi, then West can’t be anyone except Waluigi.

Yinu + Mother: Crazee Dayzee + Wiggler: I had fun making a rose themed dayzee, and I think that the wiggler being an enemy that has an “angry state” plus happens to be flower-themed was also perfect. Maybe her Dad would be a piranha plant since they don’t have eyes.

1010: Bob-ombs: Originally thought of making them shy guys since I think “dropping their mask” would have been a good fill in for them losing their faces, but there’s just something funnier about the resident sexymen being orbs with legs. Since bob-ombs don’t really have hair aside from their fuse, I gave Yellow an eyepatch to replicate his fringe covering his eye. I dunno how I’m gonna handle NJ though. Originally I thought of just making him King Bob-omb, but putting his radar on the face wasn’t really working. Maybe I’ll just make him a shy guy instead?

Eve: Magikoopa: Eve is so unique, I had a hard time thinking of an aesthetically suitable enemy, so instead I chose something based on her role as Tatiana’s closest friend. I’ve also considered just leaving her human, but I’m not sure yet.

Everyone else is essentially still human and are just dressed as the characters.

[i-need-entertainment]

Wait

Character: Hanamaki x reader

Hanamaki didn’t know what to expect from the day when he woke up. But running desperately through an airport trying to catch the love of his life from leaving without confessing his feelings was definitely not at the top of his list. He didn’t really know what he’d say if he was able to catch you in time, he just knew he needed to tell you- before he never got the chance.

 Today was the first day of summer vacation, yesterday having been the last day of his 2nd year of high school, and today being the last day of volleyball practice for 2 whole weeks. So imagine his surprise when he walked into practice, expecting to be greeted by their beautiful funny and wonderful manager, you, only to not see you there at all…”Eh, Mattsun..where’s Y/n?” Matsukawa put on a shocked, then saddened expression. “She didn’t tell you?” Hanamaki’s face fell. You didn’t tell him…what? “Um…no? What’s going on, where is she?” Matsukawa looked away before sighing and looking back at his friend in sadness. “Dude…she’s gone…or she will be. She’s moving to (country of choice) today. She seriously didn’t tell you?” Hanamaki felt his heart drop to his stomach a wave of nausea coming over him. Fighting through the cracks in his voice he managed to sneak out a pained ‘what?’. Matsukawa nodded giving his friend a firm pat on the shoulder before turning around. “Which airport?” Matsukawa deviously smiled before his sad expression returned when he turned to face Hanamaki. “Sendai Airport.” Before anyone could say anything Hanamaki was running out of the gym towards the nearest train station. ”…You know, as much as I say it to Oikawa, you’re a real crappy guy Matsukawa..” Iwaizumi said as he slapped the back of his head. Sighing Matsukawa rubbed the back of his head before shrugging a dorky smile making its way to his face. “Yeaaahhh I know. But how else was he ever gonna tell her?” Rolling his eyes the newly appointed ace and vice-captain turned towards the team, “Minus Hanamaki, let’s make this last practice count guys!” After several train rides, nearly tripping on his own two feet a couple thousand times and going through airport security as fast as he could he was now running through the airport looking, no searching for a familiar head of h/c hair. While he was losing his mind, he couldn’t help but keep wondering, ‘why didn’t she tell me?’. You didn’t know it but Makki had had the biggest crush on you since first year. Not only did he find you extremely pretty but you were also funny, enjoyable to be around, easy to talk to and you had been super supportive of him…so it was pretty inevitable that he had caught feelings for you. But did he tell you that, of course he didn’t. HOW COULD HE?!!? Sure, he knew he wasn’t bad looking but standing next to Oikawa he felt like chump change. Matsukawa was taller, Iwaizumi had bigger muscles, he just felt…average. But you, even if he saw you as out of his league, you made him feel like he was the most special person on earth. You chose to spend your time with him, you chose to tell him all your secrets and troubles. And you chose to kiss him…oh…maybe that’s why you’re leaving. In all fairness it’s not like the two of you kissed on the lips, you kissed him on the cheek. But seeing as you kind of ran away after made him think you regretted it…so he let it go, since he didn’t want to make you more uncomfortable with him than he already did. Even if he couldn’t have you as his girlfriend, he still wanted you as a friend. Even if it would hurt, he at least wanted you by his side. Dodging yet another small child he continued on his way. ‘Gate B…Gate B…where the hECK is Gate B!!’ He stopped for a moment to catch his breath, his hands finding their way to his knees as his chest heaved. But he couldn’t stop, he couldn’t just let you go from his life like that. “*pant* Y/n….gotta…find…Y/n…” He paused for a moment when he felt a small tug on his sleeve. Looking up from his hunched over position he saw a small girl with her mom behind her. “Uhm…did you say you were looking for Y/n?” Makki’s eyes widened as he knelt down in front of the small girl profusely nodding his head. The little girl looked back at her mom making sure he was okay to talk to. “My name is Hanamaki Takahiro, I’m a friend of Y/n’s…I really need to talk to her.” The little girls eyes widened, she knew that name. “Y/n’s my big sister, she talks about you a lot. She’s over there,” The little girl pointed to the one area Makki hadn’t gone yet. “You better be fast, she’s gonna leave soon.” Hanamaki stood up thanking the little girl and her mom, er, your little sister and your mom before running off in that direction. His heart was racing, his lungs were about to give out, and if his adrenaline were to wear off he’s pretty confident he’d pass out. But that all went to the back of his mind when he saw the h/c locks he loved so much. Those same h/c locks that were about to board the plane. “WAIT!” Just as you were about to board your flight (albeit incredibly early) you paused, recognizing that familiar voice, turning around you especially recognized that head of strawberry colored hair. “What- Makki? Makki what are you doing here-“He paused your questions with one of his hands while he stood there hunched over with the other hand on his knee. “I *pant* I had to tell you…” You stepped out of line, walking towards him, as you did this a small crowd had gathered around the two of you. “Tell me what? Can it wa-“He stood now, walking towards you as he took his hands in yours. He shook his head, his hair was hilariously disheveled “No…no it really can’t” He looked up, intense gray eyes looking into your e/c ones. He let out a shaky sigh before starting again. “Listen, I’ve got a lot to tell you…and I need you to listen, so please promise me you’ll wait until I’m done…even if you don’t feel the same…just…let me explain…” You opened your mouth to speak before closing it, slowly nodding your head to show him you were ready for him to continue. He took a deep breath, gave himself a firm nod and looked right back in your eyes. “…I’ll give you seven seconds…seven seconds to push me away and if you do I won’t hate you or hold it against you.” You looked at him in confusion before he tugged you towards him, his lips meeting yours with nothing but his love for you. Although passionate, the kiss was short and seeing as it had been more than seven seconds and you were now forehead to forehead with your hands on his face and his just above your hips, he figured you at least didn’t hate him. “I like you…a lot..heh I’ve liked you since our first year. I didn’t tell you because I know you probably don’t like me back…and it’s fine if you don’t! But, I needed to tell you, before you moved and I lost my chance. So, go ahead, you can reject me now, I can take it.” You kept your hands on his cheeks, pulling away only a little so you could look him in the eyes. “Takahiro,” His gray gaze met yours, a little shocked at hearing his first name fall from your lips. “I’m not moving.” His head shot up, “Wait- then why did Mattsu-….that bit-“ He was cut off by your laughter. “Did he tell you I was moving?!?!” Hanamaki sighed as he nodded. Before chuckling, “Yeah, he did...” You smiled as her thumb stroked his cheek. “Takahiro…I’m not moving.”. . . “What?” You laughed before nodding. “I’m just going on vacation for two weeks, I’ll be back.” Makki shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell me?” You looked down, moving your hands to intertwine with his. “After I kissed you the other day, I thought you hated me…I guess I just needed some time…to get over you not returning my feelings. But I guess that’s not really an issue huh” Makki laughed as his head rested against yours once again. “We’re really stupid aren’t we?” you both laughed at your statement. “At least now I won’t be stupid alone. Assuming that it..you’d like to be my girlfriend…?” You nodded smiling as you hugged him tight. “I’d love to…Makki…” He shook his head, “That’s Takahiro to you ma’am.” You both stayed in the other’s arms until you pulled away. “Wait, you actually believed him when he told you I was moving? And then you came all the way here..? You didn’t question it once?” Makki let out a sigh of frustration. “Let’s just call it a heat of the moment thing.” Y/n leaned in and gave him one more kiss, this time to the lips, before pulling away. “I’m glad you did…OH! I have to go! Uhm, I’ll call you, Takahiro~” He nodded his head. “Yeah, and as much as I loved risking my life to get here to complete this awesome scene straight out of a romance movie, I kind of feel like I’m gonna pass out. Have fun on your vacation Y/n, I’ll talk to you later Beloved Girlfriend~” You laughed, gathering your luggage, “Talk to you later Beloved Boyfriend.” Waving to him one last time, you turned and walked onto your plane, claps and whistles all around you two as you both went your separate ways. So, maybe he had been lied to, risked his life, and broken a *few* laws but in the end he ended up with the most precious thing he could ever want…you. So, he headed home with a smile on his face and a pep in his step. He had finally gotten his dream girl, he had finally gotten Y/n L/n.

*Back at the gym*

“So…” Iwaizumi rolled his eyes, “’So’ what?” Mattsun couldn’t stop the lop sided smile that formed on his face, “So do you think he figured it out yet?” Iwaizumi shrugged, “Dunno, depends on if he was able to catch her or not.” Mattsun’s smile turned into a full blown smirk. “Oh, believe me, he caught her in time. With the bait I gave him, which he snatched up, there was no way he was ever gonna let her go without telling her. I simply helped light the fire is all.” Iwaizumi’s face held his signature scowl as he shook his head. Sure, he disagreed with Matsukawa’s instigating, but he couldn’t deny he was happy for his friend.

[dukeofonions]

Season Two Episode Ranking

Warning: I get very, very, very, critical in this ranking. Like, angry ranting that’s almost laughable. Should I be getting this worked up over an online series? Eh, probably not. But this is my life and I’ll get outrageously angry over whatever media I want. 

Seriously though, this is all just my personal opinion. I’m not saying you have to agree with me and if you like the episodes that I don’t then that’s perfectly fine. 

I tend to overthink things a lot and I spend most of my time analyzing every little details of this series because what else am I supposed to do at work?

So yeah, this ranking is definitely less positive than the one I did for the first season. But I hope y’all can still have some fun going over it! And if anyone does their own rankings be sure to tag me because I’d love to see them and see how mine compare! 

Anyways, enough of me acting like this is more important than it is, on with the ranking! 

I can’t believe season two only has 12 episodes. Now I went ahead and counted Moving On as one episode in this ranking since my opinions on both parts are pretty similar, but sweet cheese and fish this season started on September 1st, 2017 with Fitting in and right now is left on Putting Others First which came out on May 1st, 2020. And as of me writing this it is now May 2nd, 2021. It’s been a whole year since the last episode and we still have no idea when the finale is coming. 

Like, bruh. 

Also remember how the longest episode in season one was only about 15 minutes long and the shortest one was barely four minutes? 

Well the shortest episode in season two is Crofters- The Musical which is 8:42 seconds. The longest episode is Putting Others First which is a whopping 51:09.

And I wish I could say that the writing was on the same level it was in the first season, but there’s a reason I put that warning up there. 

Well, enough stalling, let’s get this ball rolling.

#11 Embarrassing Phases

There are no words in the English language that can describe the sheer amount of hatred I have for this episode. If I could rank this any lower, I would, which will happen once we finally get the season finale. I don't know how that episode will go but it'll definitely be better than whatever dumpster fire this was.

Like, okay. I have some positives. Roman, Patton, and Virgil's costumes were cool. I won't lie I live for vampire Virgil. And the message about embracing your past "phases" and exploring how they helped made you who you are. That's neat. I like that.

And that's it.

My biggest gripe with this episode is Virgil. He just acts like a complete bitch in this! And I don't mean that in an endearing way he's literally so mean for no reason!

He's all "You guys are trivializing my past!"

In response to them going "Hey Virgil, we're glad you're part of our group now and are proud of how far you've come!"

Like okay, even if it was insensitive to call it a "phase" literally there was no reason for him to get as angry as he did.

Just a simple; "Hey, I don't like it when you refer to what I went through as a phase because it feels like you're not talking it seriously."

Isnt that what this whole show is about? Communication???

It wasn't fun watching him just insulting the others, it was annoying!

Like poor Patton, just trying to help and be encouraging, only for Virgil to keep treating him like dirt.

What did I miss here? Virgil was fine in the last few episodes, so what the heck happened?

Oh and let's not forget the great advice Thomas offers Patton at the end of the episode in regards to handling Virgil: "Don't do anything to get on his bad side or else he'll do bad things to you!"

Okay I'm paraphrasing here but that's basically what he says! And since Virgil is supposed to be a representation of anxiety, this is a horrible message!!!

What happened to finding healthy ways to cope with your anxiety? What happened to keeping it in check so it didn't take over your life?

Yeah I'm definitely gonna make a full post about this one episode later because there's a whole lot more to unpack here. But yeah -10/10

#10 Putting Others First

There is just way too much going on with this episode. They try cramming so much in here that I don't even remember more than half of it.

I remember the opening song, then the Lilypadton fight and everything that happens from there. That's it.

And those are the best parts of this episode, but even that has problems because everything with Janus feels like a completely different episode.

Also the whole way they try to teach about morality is all over the place. How did we go from choosing a wedding over a callback to deciding whether or not you would die for your friends to self care is important?

And while the video game sequences, while utilized well in some places, were way too distracting and it felt like they were just trying to shove as many video game references in as they could.

You could take out just about all of them and the episode wouldn't change. Everything they were used for could have been done just through having the characters talk to each other, and knowing this makes the fact that this video was delayed for so long because of it just makes the whole thing worse.

Like the animations were well done, and I don't want to downplay the hard work the animator did. They were just doing their job after all.

But the trolley scenes (especially the second one) hurt my eyes with all the flashing (would have been nice to have some kind of warning for that) and some of the voice effects (especially on Logan's) were grating and distracting.

I want to rank this episode higher, but it has almost zero rewatch ability and honestly besides the ending, when I first watched this episode I was just kinda let down.

#9 Crofters- The Musical

Okay look, the song is a bop and I adore the fact that Logan and Roman got two episodes in the spotlight, but it's just kinda "meh" to me. Plus I get just a tinge of second hand embarrassment but that's just me.

And I know this is kinda unfair but another reason why this one isn't higher is because of a couple of things. One is that they set up some angst for Roman, he's clearly not doing well and Thomas thinks the best thing to do is tell him that he might get his own jam flavor.

Then he does, and instead of following up on that little plot point from this video, they just rushed out a commercial and completely ignored and potential story telling or character development for Roman.

So yeah "Return of the Jam" is the main reason why I don't like this one as much as I used to. And I actually just got an idea for a new post comparing these two so add that to my to-do list.

#8 Fitting In

I actually skipped this one during my first official watch through for one reason and one reason alone: I wasn't allowed to watch Harry Potter.

But I realized that my parents wouldn't approve of me of watching a gay man's content either so I just said screw it.

And luckily I understood enough Harry Potter references to get what they were talking about and honestly, this episode is a lot of fun.

It's a good follow up to Accepting Anxiety, and a nice way to kick off season two. Virgil is finding his place among the group and everyone is trying their best to make him feel welcome, it's really sweet.

And of course we get the new costumes (which i hadn't even noticed that they were wearing their old costumes at first) and I dunno it just gives off season one vibes and it makes me happy.

#7 Moving On Part One/Moving On Part Two

Yeah honestly my thoughts on both parts of this episode are the same. What can I say? It's really good.

This definitely one of the more emotionally heavy episodes in the series, and we see the characters at their lowest for really, the first time in this series.

I adore Patton's room and how each side gets their own corners. All the little details they add in, including the changing picture in the background, it really gives off that nostalgia feel they were going for.

What I love most about this episode is how (unlike some other episodes) they actually let the emotional moments sink in and don't throw in a joke immediately after. Like the ending is bittersweet, sad almost, and I love that they stuck with the mood up until the episode ended.

Not to say there weren't some jokes here and there (mostly in the first part) but once the mood shifts and things become more serious they let that mood stay. And when there are jokes they all work really well.

This is one episode I've actually watched the least out of season two, so it'll be interesting when I go watch it again to see if any of this holds up.

#6 Why Do We Get Out of Bed in the Morning?

Honestly I only put this one above Moving On because Logan and Roman are my favorites.

This episode is actually one of the weaker ones, which hurts to say because again, favorite characters, but goodness it's all over the place. It feels like a precursor to POF and not in a good way.

Logan and Roman just basically argue back and forth throughout the whole episode, never seeing eye to eye with each other, to the point where I think think the writers realized they couldn't find a way to get these two to agree so they just had Thomas step in and be like, "You guys make a really good team!"

Dude, were you even paying attention? They never even reached a conclusion on their own. And even though they have their little moment at the end, it's all kinda ruined when nothing in their relationship changes.

Yes, in Learning New Things About Ourselves, they acknowledge that there's more work to be done in regards to them, which makes sense. People aren't going to suddenly change overnight.

Yet despite having come to some kind of understanding with each other twice now (both here and LNTAO) in the following episodes they still act like they hate each other! Heck Roman is downright nasty to him for seemingly no reason and I don't really blame him for it.

More like I think the writers just don't know how to develop their relationship and just aren't as interested in them as the others. Logan's been reduced to being Mr. Exposition and apparently Roman's personal issues aren't enough for him to carry a room episode on his own because they felt the need to introduce two new characters before he finally gets it.

Sorry, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, the episode.

There's some funny bits here and there and the little animations are cute (even if unnecessary) but really it's only saving grace is being Roman and Logan centered.

Even though they felt the need to include a cameo from literally every other character because apparently no one has any faith that Logan and Roman can carry an episode on their own.

#5 The Sanders Sides 12 Days of Christmas

This episode is just pure fun. Look, I'm not a big fan of Christmas, even less of a fan of Christmas songs, but my gosh this episode almost makes me appreciate the season.

The way they're all just bickering the whole time, being very confused, and how there's just so much personality from each character even when they're not talking/singing and just being in the background is *chef's kiss* perfect.

There's so many fun little details to pick out during the song and it's fun to go back and watch how each side reacts to different things.

#4 Selfishness vs Selflessness

Gonna be real, this used to be my favorite episode. Until my overly critical brain started finding all kinds of problems in the writing department but I think I’ve been negative enough on this post so I’ll save it for another time. 

Janus steals the show in this one, it’s his first official appearance since his debut and he just soaks up the spotlight. It’s refreshing to have an antagonist in the show again, and he’s the perfect foil for each of the original Sides. 

He knows how to play into Roman’s insecurities, know how to feed into his ego and get him on his side. He’s in direct opposition to Patton, who believes that everything Janus represents is wrong. He’s able to silence Logan and take him out of the conversation, speaking over him most of the time. 

And I guess he and Virgil have some beef I dunno. 

The courtroom scenario is fun, and I love how Janus is the only one who sees how ridiculous it is (even though it was your idea in the first place, Jan) and everyone else seeing it as perfectly normal is hilarious. 

I do like some of the more dramatic moments in this episode, especially that final bit with Janus questioning Thomas until he finally gets him to admit the truth. It was intense and reminded me of the scene where Janus confronts Roman in a similar manner. 

While far from perfect this is still a good episode and I can find a lot to love about it, like Janus in a suit. 

#3 Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts

This episode scared the shit out of me and I loved it.

Okay it didn’t actually scare me. But I stayed up to wait for it to be posted, which wasn’t until 2 or 3 in the morning. So by the time I finally watched it I was half awake and not expecting anything that I witnessed. 

The result was me being terrified of Thomas with a mustache and it prevented me from sleeping. I was over it the next day though and had Forbidden Fruit stuck in my head all day. Which isn’t good when you’re running the register at work and you can’t stop singing it. 

There’s a lot of reason why I love this episode, Remus being the primary thing. His entrance is iconic, the first few notes from his theme play as he creeps up behind the TV, him smiling at Roman all creepily until he whacks him over the head and knocks him out for most of the episode. 

Then we get the song, Forbidden Fruit, which is just great. Slight secondhand embarrassment but seeing the finished product and all they put into it, I can’t help but love it. 

Still miffed that Janus hasn’t gotten a song... specifically a villain song... I won’t ever let that go...

Logan is another highlight in this episode (no surprise) and seeing him go head-to-head against his polar opposite without batting an eye was interesting since I was kinda expecting them to show Logan having trouble dealing with Remus but nope. He handled it like a champ and I love them both. 

Now I am kinda wary as to how they’re going to handle Remus in the future, especially with the intrusive thoughts aspect. It’s a sensitive topic and they’re already screwing up anxiety. But Remus has only been in one episode so far which means I can’t make any solid judgments until he’s appeared in more episodes, so I’ll have to wait and see. 

All in all, great episode! Definitely deserves to be in my top three. 

#2 Learning New Things About Ourselves

This episode made me feel so nostalgic. I freaking love puppets and grew up with Sesame Street and the Muppets, so I’m probably biased towards this episode but to me this is really one of the better written episodes. 

Perfect? Heck no. But really, really good. 

I love that we get to explore a bit more with Logan and Roman’s characters, in a lot of ways this is kind of a Logan episode which has him standing against the other Sides, and it’s really interesting to see just how different he is compared to the three of them and it could just be me but it seemed like he’s becoming more of an outsider and isn’t as close with the original four as he used to be, and this episode is what really kicks that idea off. 

I can also relate to the “Well that’s nice but what do you do for a living?” message, except in my case it’s more like I want to quit my “real job” to pursue what I’m passionate about while people tell me it’ll probably never happen or “Yeah that’s a nice hobby!” So this episode really struck close to home and I just have a lot of sentimental feelings towards this one. 

I love all of the designs for the puppets, they all just fit perfectly and I wouldn’t mind seeing them make a comeback one day. I know that’d be difficult since they’d need a professional to puppet them but hey, one can dream right?

And oh my gosh the song, it just gives off the same feel from Sesame Street and Muppet songs with it’s jazzy feel. And I won’t lie I flipped my lid when Logan and Thomas were in the same shot together. We hadn’t seen any of the Sides share the screen with Thomas yet and the fact that it was Logan, and he was arguing with Thomas and they were singing over each other? Ah I love it!

Also don’t get me started on how Logan’s bit in the song sounds more villainous than the others. I’m not saying anything just a neat little observation. 

I have a lot of happy feelings attached to this episode, so despite the few problems I have with it I could never bring myself to hate it. The only one that tops it is...

#1 Can Lying Be Good?

The episode that started it all. The one that caught my attention and sparked my new fixation on this little series that I had just glossed over before.

I really don’t know what prompted me to watch this episode, other than I wasn’t in the best place and it just happened to pop into my recommendations one day and I figured, “Huh, haven’t watched this guy for awhile. Let’s see what he’s been up to.”

Once the episode was finished my first thought was “Holy shit when did this series start having lore?!”

This episode is probably the closest thing to perfect out of all the season two episodes so far. The writing is clever, pretty much all of the jokes land, and oh my gosh the editing in this one is phenomenal. 

The way they show Roman shifting between himself and Joan throughout the episode is what sticks out the most. Having Roman’s voice coming from Joan, or having them briefly change back to Roman, I love it so much. 

Not to mention Thomas’s ever changing shirt that reflects what he’s thinking/feeling is a neat little detail.

Did I mention this episode is hilarious? The ridiculousness of each scenario that they act out, with all the little inputs from Logan and Virgil who are both trying their best to do their jobs besides not even wanting to be part of it in the first place is adorable. 

And of course, the man of the hour, Deceit. Or Janus as we now know him as. 

Is it weird that I like Deceit more as a name? Probably, but that’s just because I don’t like how early his name was revealed. 

Okay that was my last negative comment. Promise.

Now since I hadn’t watched Sanders Sides in a while I didn’t notice anything off about “Patton” during my first watch. But going back after seeing the rest of the series helped me catch all the little hints they added to clue in the audience that something wasn’t right. 

A lot of it is really subtle, mostly in the acting department, but once you’ve caught on to everything it makes you wonder how you didn’t notice the first time. You can even see Logan and Virgil throughout the episode, knowing that something is off with “Patton” but holding back their concerns until Virgil finally calls Deceit out. 

I’ve rewatched Deceit’s reveal so many times. When he finally drops the act after Thomas makes up his mind not to lie, you can just tell he no longer cares whether Thomas knows or not. Then things get even more tense when Logan is silenced, and everyone knows what’s going on except Thomas. 

The music starts to build up, Thomas is flipping out, then after Deceit taunts him again he finally demands to know what’s going on and BAM there he is!

I love everything about this. 

Like, what else can I say? This episode is brilliant. It really shows exactly what this team is capable of when they’re at their best. The pacing, the build up, the writing, all of it combined together to make the perfect episode.

Season Two has been, interesting. The long waits have caused some problems with the pacing and characters, not to mention the departure of Joan from the writing team with new writers entering the room, not to mention the first welcome now unwelcome arrival of Asides, and with only the season finale left before season three, it makes me wonder just where this series is headed.

I know this series is capable of doing incredible things, season one is still solid and it really holds up even after all this time. But season two just feels like a jumbled mess. Sure, it’s easy to enjoy the episodes individually, but once you try to fit them all together it’s like trying to jam a puzzle piece into a place where it doesn’t fit. 

The best way to describe this season is as an experimental season. Each episode has the team trying something new, sometimes it seems these gimmicks take precedence over the story itself. Of course, some of these can work to the episode’s advantage, while others are just distracting and you’d know you wouldn’t miss them if they were gone. 

It’s a mixed bag that’s for sure. One that has me watching in morbid curiosity as I wait to see whether it’ll crash in the end or blow my expectations out of the water. It really is fun to analyze these episodes, and yes I know I can be very harsh but believe it or not this is how I engage with media that I love.

My hope is that team will learn from season two and try to take a more simple approach with their production once season three roles around. Because if they continue at the same pace they are now I doubt there will be many people around to see this series through. 

And on that note, that was my ranking of season two! I’m actually kinda excited now to go back and rewatch everything, I hope I don’t have to wait much longer to do so but that all depends on when the season two finale comes. Whether it ends up exceeding my expectations or just being “meh” I know it’ll be interesting regardless and I can’t wait to see just how they plan on wrapping this all up before the final season arrives. 

[mathmusic8]

Book of Boba Fett Episode 6 Reaction

Here I was, getting ready for bed, wondering if any other fanfics have updated, and then I remembered—it’s Wednesday! No sleep for me haha

Spoilers (and a lot of all caps and keysmashing) under the cut

Oh no, we’re starting with the “no attachment” speech in the recap? I don’t like where that’s headed

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Eeeeey! Cob Vanth!

He looks kinda… puny without Boba’s armor haha

Still a dead shot tho—nicely done

“Think it through.” I like that catch phrase—so long as we’re not gonna hear it every other minute :D

…whatcha gonna do with that spice, Vanth?

Good. Good man.

-

Artoo!

It ain’t a Star Wars show without an Artoo cameo

-

I’m so excited for this :D

Wish I knew what Artoo was saying on that walk over haha—I feel like he’s either just whistling along his way or dropping galactic secrets lore about Jedi or Mandalorians in a cheerful tone like nobody’s business

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Por que? Artoo? Taking a nap there, buddy?

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“Is anyone here? Anyone alive?” pffft now we’re asking the important questions XD

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Grogu!

…I sense a lot of telepathy in this scene

-

Luke: *impressive Force demonstration on a few dozen frogs*

Grogu’s face: 8D SNACKS!! XD

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“Would you like to remember?” Oofta, that’s a heavy question

-

GAH ORDER 66 FLASHBACK I WAS NOT PREPARED

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Ooof

Big oof

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Hah, poor Mando XD

GYEARDFADADFADGANSTHGAEARTN SO SHE DOES KNOW LUKE

-

“I’m an old friend of the family”

OUCH

That’s accurate, heartfelt, and painful all at the same time

-

Gah, her short lekku still bother me.

-

Oh so there is some kind of armor in that tiny little hanky? Okay XD

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“If he sees you, it’ll only make things more difficult for him.”

Oh, and not seeing him but knowing he was there won’t?

I have some thoughts on Jedi and their no attachment business

-

UGH this just makes me sad

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WHAT THE HECK—YOU DON’T LET THE KID SEE MANDO BUT YOU LET HIM WATCH MANDO FLY AWAY?? Are you trying to give him abandonment issues??

-

YOU SHOT THE BABY

With a training bolt, but still

-

“Trust your instincts.”

LET HIM GO, LUKE! LET HIM BE A BABY MANDO!

-

Gah, that better not be the last we see from them in forever.

-

Pfft, nice bumper decorations you got there, Jawas

-

“He’s new—still a bit jumpy—is that a Naboo star fighter?” XDDD

-

Does… anyone go to this bar besides Vanth?

-

“That big smile of yours lets you get away with anything.” XDDDD LOVE THAT

-

What’s this on the horizon?

Sandpeople?

It’s—

IT’S C A D B A N E

IN LIVE ACTION

THIS WON’T END WELL

Wait—wait—this is after the Return of the Jedi—

NO ONE KILLED HIM YET??

HOW??!! WHY?!?!

He’s gotta be ancient

And what the CRAP is he doing here??????

AERAEAHYKSAADFGDGKFHGDUKSYHA SO MANY QUESTIONS

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AFGADGSHAekgefWR HIS VOICE IS DIFFERENT but I guess you can’t have everything

HE’S PALER THAN HE USED TO BE maybe he’s just old

-

Deputy dude, you gonna die

-

Eeeh, not sure how I feel about those teeth. Feel overdone to me. Like I can feel the actor struggling to talk around them... eh, guess it's whatever

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“You shoulda never given up your armor.”

GAH THIS IS BAD

That deputy’s gonna die in three… two… one…

OH CRAP HE GOT VANTH FIRST

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Little background voices: There’s something wrong with the Marshall!

NO KIDDING. I mean he was just, oh, I dunno, SHOT

-

BOOM

OH SNAP

Welp. Boba’s gonna have his hands full next episode

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OH GOOD WE’RE BACK TO THE JEDI

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Chainmail! Woo!

GAH! HE KEPT YODA’S LIGHTSABER

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“But you may choose only one.”

WHHYYYYYYYY THO

Take the chainmail kid

Then come back for the saber when Luke sleeping. You’ve probably had more training than him anyway.

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You can go with your family, but you’ll be giving in to your weakness, or you can stay and I’ll teach you to become a great Jedi

Wow look at that bias!

Jerk

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“Which do you choose?”

It’s gonna be a cliffhanger.

Yup, cliffhanger

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Okay, why the heck does Ahsoka have long lekku in concept art but not in the show

Also I’m still freaking out that CAD BANE is still alive. Like, he felt like a grumpy old man in the Clone Wars, let alone after the whole original trilogy

I know there was some unfinished Clone War episodes that had a Boba Fett vs. Cad Bane showdown where they both got headshots in and yet both survived.

Maybe Bane got wind that Boba resurfaced and dragged himself out of retirement to finish off that showdown. Feels like something he would do.

Oh plus we know there’s bad blood between him and Fennec.

Maybe Boba will finally actually kill him, unlike all the Jedi and Clones and Sith and I’m assuming other bounty hunters who have tried and failed.

[hopevalley]

Season 8, Episode 5: What the Heart Wants

I was going to try to follow my scene-by-scene format for the entire season, but I’ve been getting a lot of migraines recently, presumably from staring at the computer too long, so I don’t want to spend all morning working on typing up the play-by-play for this episode.

Also, for what it’s worth I think this episode lends itself to plot discussion better than some of the previous episodes...at least in some sense.

And as another head’s up, it’s back to being critical for me. ;P

Storylines:

School Ends/Graduation/Parent-Teacher Conferences

The Dress Shop/Rachel

Postal Service, Ned

Bill’s Uniform, Nathan’s Vacation

Carson and Faith

Henry

Elizabeth and Lucas

Clara’s Dilemma

--

School Ends/Graduation/Parent-Teacher Conferences

This plot felt a little scattered, but for once it wasn’t the kind of storyline they foisted too much drama upon. After years of every single function possible being besieged by bullshittery, it’s a relief to see one go off without a real hitch.

The beginning scene with Robert hugging Elizabeth was sweet. I enjoyed the Canfields immensely and am intrigued by Angela’s role in the story long-term (PLEASE let her befriend Allie!). Nathan...eh, I have thoughts—but I’ll talk about that a bit soon. The actual ceremony was cute and kind of fun with the kids singing. 

Neat Thing I Noticed:

Continuity? Cat Montgomery is still listed as Emily’s mother. ♥♥♥ I don’t know why but this made me really happy???

-

Complaint Corner:

Parent-teacher conferences should have been in this show from a much earlier point, and so should graduation have been. If there was a point to this celebration (the first year in a while anyone was old enough to graduate) that would have been a nice touch, too. It just managed to feel sliiiightly out of place.

I’ll forgive the “everyone in town goes to the graduation” thing because this is 1918...something like this would be a whole-town affair IMO. Invite everyone and have a nice get-together/party, probably on a Sunday afternoon after church but Hope Valley does whatever it wants, so...eh.

The threat of merging Hope Valley with other schools doesn’t fit in this scenario and it feels like they ripped it directly out of Tales from Avonlea which was almost rage-inducing to me.

Look, school mergers happened a lot in the early 1900s, especially around the WWI mark, but it wouldn’t be hitting a rural western town just yet. They don’t have any way of getting these kids to other towns for schooling. Where would the next closest school be? It would have to be pretty large and modern to merge multiple schools together.

*Adjusts nerd glasses* This felt forced and completely unnecessary. If anything this guy could be telling Elizabeth that they’re working on building a modern school somewhat close by, and could even have her involved in some decision-making regarding layout. Then they could bring in a “merger” storyline next season without it feeling out of place.

It mostly just felt dramatic for the hell of it, and it was boring, as was this man’s threat that Elizabeth had no right to teach a blind student. As if they’d accept Angela at a better school? As if her parents could afford top tier education for her? PLEASE.

Now it’s time for Nathan. The man chose to go fishing instead of to the parent-teacher conference? It makes him look like a tool. This isn’t about him or about Elizabeth; it’s about Allie. I understand why he didn’t want to go, but he should have done it anyway. It would have taken five minutes of his time. 

His flippant attitude annoyed me because it went completely against his character as we know it, but Elizabeth’s lecturing was irritating, too. For a moment I thought we had Lorigail back on the show...

I think Elizabeth was well within her rights to warn Nathan about the effect his work has on his ward, but that inquiry took like a week AT MOST. Heck, let’s be generous and say TWO WEEKS. Allie’s concentration suffered for two weeks. There was no need to say more than, “Hey she worries about you and her work suffered for a bit during that time frame, just so you’re aware.” 

I think what annoyed me about the math program thing is that...Elizabeth being a teacher would probably be VERY WELL AWARE that MOST of the parents to her students aren’t good enough at schooling to assist their kids with their homework. I dunno, it just feels out of place for her to tell Nathan that she wants to put Allie in an accelerated “program” and that Allie might need his help with her homework. It’s even more out of place when he admits he used to bribe his sister to do his work for him. Like. It’s very possible he’s not that good at math and isn’t capable of helping. (But maybe that will be a plot down the road...?)

“Or a tutor...” BITCH WHERE IS HE GONNA FIND A TUTOR IN THIS TOWN?! It’s super annoying to see dialogue like this that feels completely out of touch with the reality these people would be living in...lol. But also if she needs a tutor to stay caught up in an advanced program, she probably...shouldn’t be in the advanced program.

I don’t know how to feel about this whole thing here: “Nathan, you are Allie’s world. You’re the only father she’s ever known, and as she grows up you will always be the measure of the quality she’ll look for in a man as she chooses who to marry.” 

On one hand, it does fit the situation (he seems to think everything is behind him but Elizabeth’s words are kind of a caution that 1) his actions still have an effect on Allie, and 2) every day he’s teaching her by example). On the other hand, it seems almost wildly inappropriate to bring up? At the same time, it’s probably not wrong that Allie will measure other men (friends, acquaintances, potential future romantic interests) against Nathan’s example.

I dunno. The conversation felt disjointed. 

I think what they were going for was Nathan just feeling too awkward and weird about being with Elizabeth to want to be there for the conference, but...he interacted with her quite normally after the inquiry and stuff (even after she’d broken things off with him), so...it feels out of place. Like maybe this should have taken place right after the breakup and not weeks later?

Anyone else have thoughts on this and why it doesn’t feel quite right?

--

The Dress Shop/Rachel

This plot wasn’t what I would call a waste of time (rather, it’s worth having it mentioned now), but part of it was completely pointless and stupid. The whole Rachel getting lost thing was tacked into the promos to stir up drama, but nothing happened and there was nothing worrisome even going on. YAWN.

Rosemary’s desire to do something meaningful and different with her life is super interesting. I’m very curious to see what they decide to do with her if Dottie does sell the dress shop.

Also, Rosemary finding the book under Rachel’s bed was pretty funny.

But yeah, I didn’t really find much in this plotline to care deeply about. I guess I am pretty interested in knowing who might be purchasing the dress shop and/or if this decision is to bring someone else onto the show (a female love interest for the man who doesn’t win Elizabeth’s heart in the end, or even to bring back an old character*) or to take the dress shop out of the equation entirely... It’s also just as possible that Rosemary/Lee or Clara/Jesse end up buying it themselves down the line... Thoughts?

*I can’t begin to imagine who would be the best fit for this in this case, though. Who would have the money to buy her out?

--

Postal Service, Ned

Ned is just honestly so cute and fun. I love him. He’s really been doing well this season and seeing him wander around town delivering mail door to door was kind of nice.

Also, he’s one SMOOTH operator! Look at him, talking about putting a bell on the door so that he and Florence won’t be caught off-guard if they’re in the middle of...something. 

Oh my, Ned. What might customers be...interrupting? :3

Continuity? Not only was the ulcer from last season brought up, but the horrid cabbage juice was, too. :’) It was a nice touch. And these two had just enough screentime to be kind of fun/interesting without also taking up too much time.

--

Bill’s Uniform, Nathan’s Vacation

Nathan got his vacation and Bill is in charge...again. This happens an awful lot. I wonder if it’ll actually impact the next few episodes or if it’s just here for the hell of it.

I love Bill a lot and I want to brag up his character in this episode a bit. I’ve complained many times in the past about him being written like a Grumpy Old Man Yelling at Clouds but this episode was super respectful. He got his scene with his uniform. Nobody interrupted it. There weren’t even any words. I quite liked it.

But it also felt kind of...pointless? I don’t want to judge it too harshly yet. Like the dress shop plotline, this could actually be going somewhere in the next couple of episodes. 

Plus, unrelated to the uniform, it was nice to see Bill acting fatherly toward Clara. While it sort of came out of nowhere for the wedding, I appreciate the attempt at continuity there. Plus, so far this season, I’ve felt like Bill’s almost been a father-figure to Clara, Fiona, and even Nathan, so I’m enjoying that a lot.

--

Carson and Faith

CONTINUITY? The show finally remembered that not only is Carson actually a surgeon, but that was his original passion. It’s not that they completely forgot (S5 had him performing surgery on his sister-in-law, after all), but giving Carson a PASSION makes him a way more interesting character to me. 

And also, finally, this feels like a REAL high-stakes plotline for him and for Faith.

I really liked Faith’s take on things. I know, I know, I’ve been rooting at them to break up, but the reason is mostly because they’re just so BORING together. I’d rather watch Henry twirl around in a chair for an hour than suffer through date scenes with these two.

It’s not that I’m against a doctor wife/husband team. I’m not. I just think Faith was a much more interesting and cool character on the show before Carson showed up and usurped her place (and completely overshadowed her for literal seasons). This plotline for Carson might actually be interesting. Like, a fellowship? For modern surgery? IN BALTIMORE?!

I hope this is Faith’s way of saying she wants a break and/or a break would be good for them. I can’t picture her leaving Hope Valley without any trained medical staff, let alone long enough for a fellowship... 

But if this goes through, what will they do with it? Would they really write Carson off the show? To be perfectly honest with y’all, I’d be fine with that. At least it’s the type of write-off that makes a lot of good sense (unlike some of the other ones we got). I guess this is just another “wait and see” plotline which is uhh...the theme of this episode, huh? Anyone have thoughts on this?

--

Henry

Henry barely had any screentime, but I do want to say he is #relateable. The man is back at work for ten seconds and already exhausted. SAME.

Also, I appreciate that he’s ready to be back in the oil business. At what cost? I know people were worried they were gonna kill him off, and I really doubted it, but now I’m starting to wonder where they’re going with this exactly. Yet another wait and see moment LOL!

--

Elizabeth and Lucas

Some damn fine scenes for Lucas and Elizabeth in this episode. Mostly the scenic ones. :P

I enjoyed the agreement to a date. The horseback riding stuff was pretty cute. 

Complaint corner? I don’t know. I have petty complaints. Even though the celebration for the kids was a town-wide event, and therefore Lucas was invited, it still felt out of place to see it brought up. Maybe it should have been mentioned as a town celebration from the start?

Then Lucas’s comment about not wanting to make things awkward for Nathan (who is actually a parent and there) makes a liiiittle more sense. I do think it was good of him to not go, even though he wanted to spend more time with Elizabeth, but it gave off a weird vibe, like, “Look at how good and wholesome Lucas is!” Is that intentional? I’m not...sure...?

For what it’s worth I already felt like Lucas was an honorable person in this regard. He loaned Nathan money, after all. Maybe he should have told Elizabeth he views Nathan as a friend and doesn’t want to hurt his feelings unnecessarily and/or if he was there he’d want to hog her all to himself or something cheesy. Hm.

My other complaints are:

Elizabeth running to the saloon would be WAY faster than all this getting set up at her house...?? Who thought this made sense?

Elizabeth’s dress looked like a nightie she bought at Kohls.

Too many damn candles.

Characters Do What Plot Dictates Even Though Plot Makes No Sense. More at 11:00!!

I have no further comments on the dress. It needed sleeves or something so it looked more like a dress and not like a nightgown/piece of lingerie.

I think the candles might have been on purpose to parallel Jack...but I hated it lol. Fire hazard? HAVEN’T ENOUGH THINGS IN TOWN BURNED DOWN/EXPLODED?!

I didn’t hate the date scene! But I never feel like Elizabeth has any meaningful conversations with Lucas and it’s starting to drive me batty. 

Could we get uhhh something of substance please? It has to be surface-level nonsense on purpose. Right? RIGHT?

(And no, discussing a book for ten seconds on-screen is not “intelligent conversation” okay...?)

It’s really a shame because I’m starting to actually warm up to Lucas a little bit in this season but it feels like the conversations are just...kind of stilted and she’s not really into dating him—just agreeing to it because he’s the only option. 

And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but...he deserves better than that. 

Don’t get me wrong, by the way. If it’s part of the story and it’s revealed as such down the road, I’ll be fine with it...but I always worry they’ll just skip important relationship milestones and/or important conversations and expect us all to just accept it.

Kiiiiiind of looking forward to the rainy date scene in the next episode, though. I’m Team Nathan mostly but I’m keeping an open mind and I think I might actually enjoy it. Hopefully they’ll get some good scenes together that don’t feel like this one did.

--

Clara's Dilemma

Clara’s fears about running the salon without Fiona...are legit. LOL.

Also, this little bit was funny (between Mike and Jesse and Bill):

Anyway, if Clara was that worried about it, she should have just...told Fiona no? I hope it comes up down the road. Poor Molly??

I genuinely don’t know how I feel about Clara and Jesse’s involvement in this episode. I guess it was okay. I liked Clara’s scenes with Bill. I thought the idea of Clara and Jesse buying into the cafe was a nice one. Jesse having “invested” their money and lost it all, though... They did a similar plot with other people in what...Season 5 was it? Or was that the start of S6? He didn’t even say what he invested it in? But he admits the money is all gone? 

I think that’s what was missing from that scene. “I invested it in X, hoping to make us more money, but it didn’t work out and we lost everything.”

I’m not going to criticize Jesse’s characterization, only because sometimes character "growth” doesn’t happen for the better of anyone involved. My biggest worry here is that it’ll be solved by the end of next episode....but I hope that’s not it.

Like, I think they did better with Frank and Abigail if we’re going to talk about a man who didn’t know how to live like he was in a committed relationship. It made more sense with Frank, too, being older and single most of his life. His bouts of selfishness felt realistic.

Jesse feels like he’s somehow getting worse and worse as a person as the show goes on. I’m kind of at a point where I hope he and Clara divorce, because he’s so damn selfish it’s embarrassing. He’s off having a beer while his wife works multiple jobs? And then he has the audacity to act like they should save money when he just blew all their savings? 

I’m sure it’ll work out fine but I hope Clara puts herself in charge of the finances at the very least.

As to investing failures, I liked how they did that with Henry and Abigail. That was the kind of tension and worry that felt natural to me—like she trusted him with her money after he’d proven himself untrustworthy ten million times throughout the years, and he failed and had to uhh admit that. 

Jesse straight up betrayed Clara. Which, if it’s dealt with in a satisfying way...I think can be a good plotline. I just worry about it actually being dealt with properly. That’s a huge stumbling block in a relationship. And why is he continually getting worse as a person? There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. 

Gasp... it’s almost like it’s just plot because they feel like they have to give someone something every damn episode.

--

Which brings me to THE FINAL

COMPLAINT CORNER (The Big Boy™ Complaints)

The show has really struggled with finding its footing. I wish they’d take notes from better shows with ensemble casts (cough cough Road to Avonlea cough) without also ripping off their storylines (cough school merges cough).

My #1 complaint at this point in Season 8 is the SHEER AMOUNT OF THINGS GOING ON EVERY EPISODE.

I want continuity, so I want to see things happen naturally over a season, but my God do we not need to have mindless pointless crap in the episode. Rachel getting “lost” for ten seconds wasted literal MINUTES of screen time that would have been MUCH better allocated to basically anyone else in this episode.

And I don’t think it would bother me so much if it wasn’t also shoved into the promo like it was supposed to matter. It didn’t matter. Nobody cares. Why was it allowed to stay in the episode alongside stuff like Clara and Bill’s conversation?

Or Lucas and Carson’s?

I think they want to appease all the fans in every episode by giving them scenes of their favorites, but what did Henry sitting in his chair accomplish in this episode? Rachel getting lost? Jack not sleeping well/missing his mom? The school superintendent?

Did Bill trying on his uniform have to be in this episode? Did Jesse and Clara’s problems have to come fully to light right now?

When every episode is formatted like this, with 10 plotlines all interconnected slightly and going on at the same time, I feel like...nobody gets the spotlight they deserve when they deserve it.

I cANNOT believe I’m saying this, but this plotline for Carson, especially if it will end with him leaving the show for a while or permanently should get the focus it deserves. But it won’t if we get tiny snips of it here and there and then BOOM decision made because Reasons.

And again, I know I’ve said before that I want more continuity throughout the season, but... the best way to do that is to tighten up the plots. Have fewer of them per season and give more screentime to the ones you choose to pursue. 

--

Anyway, I’m still enjoying the season, but I hope they keep some of this kind of stuff in mind for next season. They don’t need plotlines for everyone in every episode. They need the plotlines they choose to write to be worth their screentime.

Sorry this was sloppily written and all that. Hopefully it makes sense. Very curious to see y’alls thoughts. Feel free to make your own posts and @ me, or reblog this or comment!

[reimahowaido]

I’ll get to those Magic Crafter Dragons I sweeeear But first, fun stuff from Discord. Dunno who made the original, it was just posted on a server, but yeet I did it anyway First of all, I don’t play a lot of games. I like games and the idea of them. I enjoy people playing stuff, I love watching others play. It’s that little sibling culture. But lemme toss a word or few about all of these. Though first of all, I only own 4 of the 8 games listed and even still I’ve only played 3 of them xD R.I.P. Pokemon Cafe Mix - The game is just Super Cute. Like oh my god Aesthetics! Adorable, every pokemon looks so nice and I just want to go to the cafe and taste everything and just chill. Please. It looks so cozy and relaxing. Gameplay is fairly simple too. Sometimes things seem a bit BS but in one way or another I’ll get through every stage etc. so it’s not too bad. Most of the time relaxing, can be addicting because of how simple things are. But really I love the game and I hope one day they’ll add more of the pokemon I like xD Buizel is my current favourite <3 It’d be nice seeing Mienshao or Mienfoo for one, maybe Glameow as it doesn’t get a lot of attention. We got Gogoat, but I wouldn’t mind a Sawsbuck or Deerling Pokemon Black 2 - To keep the Pokemon trend going, this is my fave out of the mainline games. I’ve been a fan ever since the first generation, I’m older than Gen 1 at that. But yeah, we did buy games but Nintendo stuff was too expensive and so I never really got to play those growing up. Black 2 was the first game I ever bought, for myself, with my own money. It was my first game and I loved it dearly. Still do and man I’d Love to replay it, but the curse of only 1 save file is cruel. I don’t want to restart my first ever save file. Currently I have no way of transferring anything over and I even have a Shiny Gothorita there (as underwhelming as it is, it was my first ever shiny). I love these games~~ Lots of different pokemon to choose from, great story, the fact that it’s a sequel is so freaking cool and unique I Love It So Much. Of course it’d be cool to have some extra things to do in it, like cleaning my badges, contests would be cool, I loved the mining stuff in Gen 4 when I got to try it on my friend’s Platinum save file as a kid. Speaking of, Gen 4 games would probably be my favourites, if I ever had the chance of owning and playing any fully. They have soooo much to do in them! Gen 5 is good and certainly up there in faves, but bruh, Gen 4 had all sorts of extra stuff, especially Platinum, and in HG/SS you had Pokemon following you like bruh that’s Crazy and I’d love to have that for a game I own, it’s like a dream Honorable mentions to Mystery Dungeon and Gen 6′s Pokemon Y for some grand memories. Firstly Pokemon Y, the second game I ever owned I think, great fun. I played that game for hooooooooours and it’s the only Pokemon Game that I’ve both played as a Nuzlocke and actually reset to play again. Also the first gen where I actually really got into competitive stuff, breeding for natures and stuff, and I’ve caught so many shinies in Y and Omega Ruby (mostly Y, OR has 1 shiny in Pidove, while Y has Ninetales, Pachirisu, Burmy, Gligar, and perhaps some other ones I caught/hatched myself). Mystery Dungeon games get a mention for having cool stories and I like the idea of the personality test and stuff. I’ve never played or owned any of these games, but I’ve watched Marriland play a handful of the games and currently am enjoying MDB playing through the first games in the series. Also a quick bloop on Colosseum being Cool as heck, and Battle Revolution gets a shoutout for looking so freaking good, having amazing music and making me search up videos with my favourite pokemon and just looking and watching hundreds of videos just because they looked so nice

Fire Emblem has to be the 2nd series of games I’ve gotten the most into. Although I’m a fairly new fan and my experiences and knowledge are limited, I do still enjoy the series and games - both old and new - a bunch. I only own Awakening, Conquest and 3 Houses, but I’ve again watched others play the past games a bunch, so I have some knowledge and memorable moments from those games too. Now I haven’t actually gotten myself to play 3 Houses yet, I’ve seen playthroughs of the game already and know the story etc. But yeh. Still, I’d say that I’ll probably like 3 Houses more than Awakening and Conquest. Awakening is nostalgia galore for me, but it does have its things with the story and characters and stuff. It’s nice, but I dunno, I just feel 3 Houses has an edge on it in some way. Maybe it’s just... Less controversial? Less Flame Wars? Maybe? Fates games, well, we all know the big glaring thing here. The story. And some of the characters suffer from this too. I kinda do wish that the Player had a biiiit more control in how the story went and played out, like I feel you definitely could have saved Scarlet in some way still, and all that. But eh, there’s enough stuff for me to go and prefer 3 Houses over it. And yes, I like choosing the members of my team and playing however I like, so giving me the ability to class my characters however I want is going to be a mistake as I’ll just make everyone a mounted unit and get destroyed but hey! Options :2 Variety :22 Great tiiiiimes~ Also it’s Blue Lions for me, Golden Deer Second Now for the games I don’t own. I chose Radiant Dawn because the Tellius games are just so good. I love the character in them, the story is pretty solid and the worldbuilding is cool too :2 I like both of the games, and while Path of Radiance is more coherent and doesn’t give split the characters up a bunch, Radiant Dawn has More of the great characters :2 Yes I know, not all of them are as fleshed out and thought out as the first game’s characters, but yo I still love them. I love a good continuation to a story. I love a ‘hey maybe it wasn’t as Black & White as we were made to believe’ twist. Also just hella good memories from watching BigKlingy play these games. The audience memed Aran to the final levels. We did it, he did so well, Aran deserved to be there xD Radiant Dawn also brings us Nailah, who is just. Yeah, you speak to me on so many levels, I’m easily readable. But also, woman, wolf, strong, yasss~~ Also I love the idea of the Jaegan character being a Thief/Assassin. That’s just so different and cool to me after all these Horse Units. And I’m the one guy who likes Levail and would love to see more of him. Give us more of Levail, the man who almost made it to being playable. Man. Levail is probably the one reason I’d pick Radiant Dawn over Path of Radiance xD The other game I’ve watched BigKlingy play through (and that’s my only experience on that game) is Sacred Stones. Pretty solid game all in all. Story, characters, but speaking of that story, if you really think about it, it’s Hella Dark, and that’s actually kinda cool in a way. I’m not that into dark stories, but here it worked. Also watched PhoenixMaster1′s playthrough on the Echoes game. I do like the game, if i find it one day I Might buy it but I’m not like in a hurry to get it. It was cool though, different for reasons but hey~ Also, Berkut, yes. I’m one of those people who like this angry man. But come on, he was really good xD Spyro I’ve already talked about in my lengthy little thing that I’ll get to continuing eventually xD But yes, I freaking love Spyro, my childhood, still very enjoyable experience full of great memories Metroid Fusion - Oh boy here come the nostalgia~ I’ve actually never played any Metroid games myself. I got introduced to the series in the early 2010s through youtube videos. I’m fairly sure it was me looking through dozens and dozens of Top 10 videos, several of which were on ‘the scariest bosses’, either unexpectedly scary or something else. But guess what, Nightmare from Fusion was in there, and I Think the person in the video said something on not wanting to even show the final forms of Nightmare’s face because it was that horrifying to them. And honestly? The fact that they didn’t show how bad it got, mixed with my morbid curiosity and woop, here I go~ Down the Metroid rabbithole where I watched a lot of videos on people fighting Nightmare and the other bosses in the game, eventually going into watching full run-throughs of the game and enjoying my time. Game looked pretty good, soundtrack was really nice too. And so I ended up on listening to a lot of the game series’ music and getting more familiar with the other games and the lore too. Learning to know that Samus was a lady was also hella badass. Fusion started it all for me, and while Super Metroid is cool, people also just play it a loooot, especially the Speedrunners, there’s also plenty of hacks based on that game and yeah I get it the game is Good, but that makes Fusion all the more special to me~ Devil May Cry 3 - Ok so again, I’ve not played any DMC games myself. This one again though is nostalgia ocean for me~ 2010 or such, I’m on some forum, said forum has a forum game based around songs or such and someone links one from this game. I Think it was the Doppelganger battle theme, or then I just found that one and listened to it for hours among the other battle themes these games have because they’re soooo gooood~~ DMC 4 was fairly new at that time, but I remember Gredo’s and Agnus’ themes being up there in songs I listened to a lot too. My experiences and stuff on this series was fully based on the songs, images on said songs, bits and pieces of the cutscenes of these games I saw and comments I read. I didn’t get too deep into DMC back then though, but I did have a bit of knowledge here and there, even if my idea of the stories in all the games was, well, I wouldn’t call it warped, but I definitely had imagined the story going differently to how things actually went xD Still, as a few years back I returned to DMC out of that feeling of nostalgia, and discovered DMC 5 had Just been released, boi, I was In. And I watched through cutscene compilations, playthoughs and what have you on all the games (Except for DmC, boot to you ReBoot), and it was quite the hype time~ I enjoy the chracters, the story that there is around them, and just how carefree and fun stuff can be. The party sure did get crazy~ Lost Dimension - The last game I have on the list there. This might be a weird one and I get that yeah. How many have even heard of this game? I sure wouldn’t have ever known of it without BigKlingy’s playthrough of it. But that playthrough was full of memories, I should really rewatch it one day~ I may not remember an awful lot about the game, but I do keep coming back to it in one way or another. I liked the character designs, the fact that all of them were unique and had their own abilities, there was a bit of story around all of them, the traitor system had you thinking & made each run a little different... That’s some Cool Stuff! The game might be a bit obscure and seriously not known at all, but for what it was, it was great and I enjoyed it a bunch! And now for stuff that wasn’t on the list but I kinda still want to mention. Because why not~ IB - This Almost made it onto the list, but I felt a little closer of a connection to the other games on it. But IB is one of those games from the early 2010s that I also got introduced to through the wonderful world of Youtube. I have forgotten the name of the person whose playthrough in the game I watched. But I watched a ton of people play this game. It was just. So cool. The puzzles in this game were nice and the fact I myself could solve and understand them too was pretty nice to me, and for some reason I just enjoyed watching other people react to the game and try solving stuff. It also had a couple different endings so watching and seeing what the other people got was also interesting. Great memories~ Witch’s House / Ao Oni / Mad Father - And all sorts of other horror games that kinda fall under this grouping and style and stuff. Yeah, IB kinda opened a bit of a thing for me as I realized I greatly enjoyed the horror games with puzzle elements to themselves + a bit of story here and there. There’s definitely much much more than these 3, I watched soooo many of these games being played by others. Ao Oni I may have discovered through my Hetalia phase though, HetaOni, if any of you still recognize that name. Daym. Although at first I didn’t want to watch HetaOni because of the portraits. Pfffff I thought the person who made them was being mean to some of the characters, but nah, I’d later learn that those were simply just mimicing the ones from the original game. But yeah, Ao Oni had a dozen variants and things inspired by it so those kept me busy for a whiiiiiile Hades - Now here’s a cool recent game! Again, haven’t played it, but it looks cool. The story is nice, character designs are God Like (hehe), soundtrack is super cool, aesthetics and oh my god everything is voice acted oh my gooood. This game is just. So cool. And the team who did it seems really cool too and are seemingly full of nice amazing people. This is definitely some great example work on how things should be done :2 Definitely something to look up to, I love everything about them~ The only reason Hades isn’t up there is because of its recentness and my brain not managing to think of it somehow even as I struggled to come up with stuff (I was mostly trying to think of stuff I had played, so that’s one thing. I even struggled to remember DMC because my current hyperfixations are elsewhere and that’s freaking Wild considering how much I enjoy DMC) But yeah, Hades is Super Freaking Cool Crash Bandicoot - These games I did play as a kid actually, the 1st one was way too hard and the 3rd one was my favourite. I like Crash, these games were nice too and I have plenty of good memories with the game, just not enough to make it up there on my list. Yeah it sounds stupid that I’d take out a game I actually played and replace it with stuff that I didn’t, but... Hey, my list Minecraft - Watched several videos on other people pllaying this game, I know of it, I respect it, but I’ve never played it myself and stuff. It’s cool but didn’t make it on the list Animal Crossing - Riiiiiight, these games seem adorable and I wouldn’t mind owning an AC game one day. I’d probably reset continuously though to get Skye in my town/village/island, she’s my favourite xD If the recent game had cost lest I might have gotten it. 60-70€ is just, a lot of money Persona - I guess I’ll mention these too. My experiences are through Bigklingy’s videos again. 3 is a fave, 4 seems cool, 5 I don’t know a lot about but it seems nice too. I probably wouldn’t be able to play these games myself, since some fights kinda need certain things and strategies and you can’t really just pick whatever and whom ever and roll through with brute strength. I mean, I Guess you could, but that might not be as fun in the long run? Who knows, but it’s not exactly like Pokemon or Fire Emblem in those regards you know The big conclusion is that I like all sorts of different aesthetic looks, mostly probably natural with some brighter colors in it. Stories are good, I love stories! Good characters with nice designs and backstories are really nice too. Things being thought out and built nicely is great you know? A little bit of strategy, fantasy here and there. Nothing too dark and gloomy or ‘hyper realistic’ or what have you. I guess no first person shooters either, though combat is fine. Games where I can pick and choose what to use and what kinds of ‘teams’ I build and the ‘members’ I use in them is nice. I do love watching others play, but with games like Pokemon & Fire Emblem I have that drive of choosing who to use and having my own unique experience kinda gets me to buy the games.

[ask-marcus-cally-and-ari]

Only Human

Chapter 13: Help and Who Gives It

The ragtag group had hidden in the next city over, taking a well-deserved rest. They rested so much that it took repeated knocks on the van door to wake them up. Marcus groaned and got up groggily. “G-Go away, Cally, I’m tryna sleep...” 

“Wha...?” Cally mumbled, sitting up. “I was asleep.” 

Marcus jerked his head up and looked around. “Wha - If that’s not you, then who’s knocking?” 

“I... I dunno. Get your handgun ready,” Cally said, slowly walking up to the door to look and see who was there. 

On the other side was a RED Sniper, dressed in strange, camo-like attire. Cally closed her eyes, looking through the information she’d seen from HECU’s database. P_ss Cakehole was the Freak who matched this one's description, and he was a very, very hostile Freak. 

“Marcus, wake up Spyper. We may need him.” 

“Who’s at the door?” 

“P*ss Cakehole. A very hostile Freak.” 

“Wha - Why is he bothering us!?” 

“I don’t know. Heck, I don’t even know why he isn’t shoving a saw through the van door.” 

“WHAT!?” 

“Yeah... please get Spyper.” 

Marcus proceeded to run to the front of the van to get the hybrid Freaks’ attention. “Spyper! Spyper, wake up! P_ss Cakehole is LITERALLY knocking on the front door!” 

“Nghhh... Wake me up when the pancakes are ready, Mommy,” Spyper mumbled drowsily. 

“SPYPER!” Marcus screamed, shaking the Freak by his shoulders. 

“EJFGHFEFHREWKEDFMV! WHAT’S GOING ON?!” 

“P_SS CAKEHOLE IS AT THE FRONT DOOR!” 

Spyper jumped in shock. “WHAT?!” 

“FRONT DOOR! NOW!” 

Spyper nodded and teleported behind P*ss, and Cally was treated to a view of two Freaks having a knock-down, drag-out fight. 

“This is not what I wanted to wake up to at 8 in the morning,” Marcus complained, watching the two Freaks go at it outside. 

It didn’t take long for P*ss to start wrestling Spyper. “I didn’t come here to hurt the little twerps, let me go!” 

“Then what are you here for!?” 

“I’m here because I wanna help!” 

“...The hell are you talking about?” 

“Let me in and I’ll tell you.” 

Spyper let Cakehole go and got to his feet, glaring at the Freak. “If this is some kind of trick…” 

“No trick, I swear.” 

Spyper walked around Cakehole and opened the van door, still glaring at him. “I’m holding you to that.” 

Marcus pointed a gun out the door, right at Cakehole’s head. “Hey. Sorry about this, but you can never be too careful.” 

“Now what do you want? You never show up ‘just to help.’” 

“Can we tie him up first?” Marcus asked. “I’d feel way more comfortable.” 

Spyper tilted his head towards Cakehole with a shrug. “Sorry, we gotta.” 

Five minutes later, P_ss was tied to a chair with a sh_t-eating grin on his face and the business end of Marcus’s gun rested against his head, Marcus himself behind the Sniper. 

“Alright, spill it.” 

“Well, the main thing is, I’m bored, and you guys are being hunted. It looks like fun.” 

“...That’s it?” 

“That’s it. I get to entertain myself, you get help.” 

“...No tricks?” 

“No tricks.” 

Spyper squinted. “Why do I not trust you?” 

“Because we don’t get along. But you need me.” 

“For what?” 

Marcus glared. "Yeah. We've been doing just fine by ourselves." 

“Boy, you got your a$$ whooped yesterday,” Cally frowned. 

"And I'm still alive." 

“Barely.”

“You got into a fight with ol’ Brutal, eh?” P_ss remarked, looking back at Marcus. 

"Yeah. And isn't he your homie? How do I know he didn't send you here to give us that work?" 

“Because I hate ‘em. Brutal and me ain’t friends by a long shot.” 

"What happened?" 

“He went after you. And I don’t get near kids when it comes to my carving collection, so I certainly don’t want anyone else doing anything similar. That’s the other reason I’m here.” 

"So this is a case of evil having standards?" 

P_ss shrugged. “I guess so.” 

Marcus crossed his arms. "Give me one good reason not to throw you out on your *ss." 

“Because I see stone in your eyes. And in her eyes,” P_ss said, tilting his head to Cally. “And I wanna hurt the guy who put it there.” 

Marcus locked eyes with P*ss. "Can you?" 

P_ss met Marcus’ steely gaze. “I’m P_ss f_cking Cakehole. Of course I can.” 

Marcus turned to Cally, who turned to Spyper. 

“He can,” Spyper nodded. “I’ve seen him put Brutal on his a$$ several times.” 

"In that case, welcome to the… whatever the f*ck we're gonna call ourselves. We'll introduce you to Ari when he wakes up. Hurt or intimidate them and you die." 

“I wouldn’t dream of it, kid.” 

~~~ 

As hours passed, Marcus began to grow tired of being on the road for so long. Or rather, sky.

“How much longer until HECU? I thought you said it wasn’t far! And Ari really needs some medical attention!”

“I know! I’m going as fast as I can without being noticed by other Freaks!”

Ari was talking to P*ss. “So how old are you?”

“44,” P*ss shrugged. “It’s hard to keep up sometimes when you don’t even have a calendar.” 

Marcus huffed. “You look the part,” he said, cleaning his gun. “How long you been a Freak? And how’d it happen?” 

“Honestly, I can’t even remember. Just that I’ve been one for awhile.” 

“So,” Ari said, “how come you and Mr. Brutal are enemies? Is it just because he wants to hurt us?” 

“Eh, me and him have never really gotten along all that well.” 

“I thought Snipers got along. Respect for the job or something.” 

“Nah. He barely counts as a Sniper with how up close he likes to fight.” 

Marcus shrugged. “He and I agree there. Always satisfying to deck an *sshole who’s been all up in your grill.” 

Cally glanced out of the van’s back window and noticed a clearing coming up on the road, a chapel standing at the end of the path. “Wait, where are we?”

“Pit stop. This is where one of our friends live,” Spyper said, hopping out of the front seat. “If you need to use the bathroom or grab something to eat, do it now.” 

“Hey, this is Christian Pure Spy’s chapel,” Cally frowned. 

Ari whimpered. “I-Isn’t he dating Mr. Brutal?” he asked, hugging Marcus’s arm. 

“He is, but he’s never home at this time of day,” Intelligent assured, stepping out of the van. “The place should be empty.” 

Marcus nodded. “I’ll keep my gun ready. Just in case.” 

The trio of Freaks and the trio of teens stepped out of the van and headed inside the chapel, which did appear to be completely vacant. The lights were switched off and the church was eerily silent. 

“Alright, this place is clear. Get everything you need to do out of the way and let’s get going.” 

Marcus nodded, heading to find some medical supplies and ammo. Entering the kitchen, Marcus rummaged around the cabinets and drawers in search of whatever he could scrounge together. Bandages, antibiotics, painkillers, anything he could use to stave off the pain and potential infection of Ari’s wound. 

A search he immediately forgot upon hearing something shift behind him. Swiftly spinning around, Marcus had his gun drawn in seconds. However, he lacked a target. All that was behind him was a thin veil of sparkling blue smoke hanging in the air. 

"I swear I saw..."  Marcus lowered his gun ever so slightly and looked back and forth in search of whatever had made the noise. What he found instead was a trail of more sparkling smoke leading out of the kitchen and back into the nave of the chapel. 

"F*CK THAT!" Marcus cried, running for the nearest window. 

“Hey, HEY! The hell are you doing!?” A voice cried out, and the sparkling smoke suddenly reached out and grabbed Marcus, pulling him back to the floor mid-leap. 

Marcus wasted no time, grabbing his gun. "BREAK YOSELF, FOOL! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME RIGHT NOW-" 

“HEY! Calm down!” The keeper of the voice yelped, and Marcus was both dumbfounded and terrified to find himself staring at what looked like a 14th century court jester, complete with the jingling hat and the frills about the neck, wrists, and ankles. 

"AW, HELL NAH, THIS SOME PENNYWISE SH_T!" Marcus screamed, promptly decking the jester in the face, which made a bizarre squeaking noise on impact before the clown hit the floor.

“OW! You know, even though that doesn’t injure me, that still hurts!” 

"Good! Get on the ground now!" 

“What the hell is going on in here!?” Spyper shouted, running into the kitchen with his kukri drawn. “Where’s the danger!?” 

Marcus glared at the figure. "Here. Who's this bozo?" 

“What the-” Spyper let out a sigh of relief and lowered his knife. “Oh, that’s just Count Jester. They’re a friend.” 

"...they are?" 

Jester nodded in response and leapt to their feet. “That I am!”

“They are,” Spyper confirmed, holstering his kukri. “Sorry if they scared you. I know not everyone is comfortable with clowns.”

“Jesters,” Jester clarified. 

"...explain, please." 

“How I’m friends with them?” Spyper asked. 

“Yeah. And just… this.” 

“Eh?” Jester tilted their head. 

“This. All this.” 

Jester looked down at themself and shrugged. “Blame the Jar for that.” 

“Jar?” 

Jester reached under their hat and produced a golden idol with a ruby heart set into it. “Long story short: I used to be a normal human, I got sealed inside this thing, and it's magic turned me into this.” 

“Uh...” Marcus stepped back. 

“That is a severely abridged version of events. We’d be here all day unpacking what went down,” Spyper clarified. 

“And we can’t risk that.” 

“No. Anyways, Count Jester here is completely harmless and wouldn’t hurt you even if they wanted to. They lack any and all offensive capabilities.”

“You can also blame the Jar for that,” Jester added. 

Marcus slowly put the gun back. “Okay then...” 

“I know, it sounds really weird, but being weird is my entire existence now.”

“What’s going on!? Who’s in danger!?” Cally shouted, running into the kitchen with a bat, Ari following close behind.

“Ah, it’s alright! Mostly,” Marcus shouted back, raising a hand to his friends. “It was just a clown.” Then he turned to Jester. "Sorry for almost blowing your head off."

“Eh, it’s alright. I can just reattach my limbs at will.”

“...Anyways,” Spyper cleared his throat. “Jester, this is Marcus, Cally, and Ari. You’ve probably seen Marcus before since a lot of people recorded his and Brutals brawl a few days ago.” 

"MOTHERFU-" 

“Easy, Marcus,” Ari said, patting him on the back. 

"Sorry. Just on edge." 

“Wait, that was you Brutal was fighting?” Jester quizzed. 

"Yeah. And I got my _ss handed to me." 

“It’s actually why we’re currently on the run. Ari got hurt in the fight,” Spyper explained, motioning to the layers of bandages wrapped around Ari’s torso. 

Ari frowned. "It's not that bad, really." 

“We ran out of bandages in the van,” Spyper deadpanned. 

"But I'm alive and I can walk…?" 

“And you’re still hurt!” Jester cried. “Poor thing, that’s a really nasty injury. You’d need a full team of doctors to get this thing treated properly.” 

"And even then, Brutal doesn't seem to take good care of his weapons. A bad enough infection from the rust could kill her in half the time a surgery could take," Cally added. 

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m here, then!” Jester grinned. “I’ve got an infirmary with the best team of doctors on the planet. Come on, I’ll take you there!” 

Marcus frowned. "Where is this place?" 

“It’s Jesterland! A pocket dimension I created!” 

“Oh, HELL nah! A pocket dimension you completely created? You could subtract us from the human population and no one would find our bodies!” 

“Now just calm down, I’ve been to Jesterland. It’s physically impossible to get hurt in there,” Spyper assured. 

“...you’re sure?” 

“Yes, I’m sure. The entire dimension is basically one giant amusement park and petting zoo.” 

Marcus sighed. “...listen here. I’m trusting you on this. I find anything fishy or they do anything to us and it’s a wrap. Got it?” 

“Understood,” Spyper nodded. “Alright Jester, do your magic!”

Jester grinned and rubbed their hands together, sparkling smoke building up around their hands and arms. When the smoke had covered their arms completely, they tossed it over the Trio and the Freaks and snapped their fingers. In an instant, everyone was whisked away from the chapel and were sent tumbling through a tunnel of light that descended downwards at a breakneck pace. 

“MOTHERF*****CKEEEEEER!” 

“It’s ok, this happens all the time!” Spyper shouted. “We’re just in between dimensions right now!” 

“We’ll be in Jesterland in no time!” Jester called.

“YOU GUYS ARE FREAKS, NOT HUMAN! I’M NOT BUILT FOR FALLING!” 

Cally sighed. “This is gonna suck.” 

As they reached the end of the tunnel, a portal opened up beneath them and everyone soon found themselves falling from the skies of a giant amusement park that was enveloped in a brilliant glow. 

“Wow,” Ari beamed, so wrapped up in the sights that he didn’t even notice the bandages flying off their torso. 

Approaching the ground, Marcus frantically covered his face and braced himself for impact - which never came as a cloud of blue smoke enveloped him right before he hit the ground, and the smoke gently sat him down, completely unscathed. 

“Wh-” Marcus blinked rapidly and looked around, watching the rest of the Freaks and his friends being gently set onto the ground before Jester finally joined them, landing square on their feet. “How did you...” 

“Magic,” Jester grinned, blue sparkles flashing from their hands. 

“I... you know what? As long as you can help Ari I’m not gonna say sh*t.” 

“Great! Then let’s get going!” Jester shuffled past Marcus and headed towards a giant gateway. Clapping their hands thrice in succession, the gates creaked open and revealed the amusement park inside, which was even more brilliant and glowing than before. “Welcome to Jesterland! The greatest show not on Earth!” 

“Please don’t remind me of that. I’m compromising enough as it is.” 

“Someone’s paranoid,” P*ss sing-songed. At which point he was quickly smacked by Spyper. “Ow! What was that for?!” 

“Stop needling him.”

Heading into Jesterland proper, the Trio were met with an array of sights and sounds. Music seemed to play around every corner and the air was filled with the delicious scent of freshly baked cakes and pies. 

Marcus had his hands in his pockets, a guarded look in his eyes as he surveyed the area. 

“If you guys are hungry, help yourselves to whatever you like!” Jester said, gesturing to the many food stalls around them. “There’s plenty to go around!” 

Cally beamed. “This is so cool! Where are the brownies?” 

“The brownie and cookie stall is just to the left,” Jester said, pointing further down the street. 

“Thanks!” Cally ran off as a group of doctors gathered around Ari, leading him away. 

~~~ 

With Ari being treated, Marcus scouted out everything surrounding the Infirmary, still wary about Jester and their dimension. Jesterland looked bright and friendly, but the amusement park still gave Marcus a sense of unease even when it shouldn’t have. Even the bizarrely adorable creatures that called Jesterland home - the Funna - seemed dangerous to Marcus, even as one of them was purring and rubbing against his leg and another was asking for belly rubs. 

He touched the creature apprehensively, then pulled away like it would poison him if he touched it. But the critter simply squeaked, waving it’s nubby paws in the air playfully as it began to purr as well. Marcus tentatively reached down again, gently scratching the creature's belly.

“...this is too good to be true. It has to be.” 

“Hello again!” Jester called, floating up to Marcus with another creature in their arms. “I see you found some of my Funna.” 

“...what now?” 

“Funna,” Jester clarified, pointing to the creatures around Marcus. “My Funna. They’re all my creations.” 

“The f*ck.”

“Hey, you’re in Jesterland. This place is weird and whimsical by nature.” 

Marcus nodded apprehensively.

“Do you want to see the rest of Jesterland?” 

“...maybe.”

Jester sighed and set down the Funna in their arms. “Do you wanna talk? I know you guys haven’t had the best experiences with Freaks.” 

“Ladies and gentlemen, the understatement of the year goes to...” Marcus sharpened his knife. “You know, just two weeks ago I was the star athlete in my school. Captain of the football team, baseball team, and basketball team, and I had the highest swimming stats to boot. Now I’m practically a fugitive.”

“Yeah, I was talking to Spyper about that. I’m really sorry you and your friends had to go through all that.” 

“Heh… It sucked, I’ll tell you that.” 

“Sorry…” Jester wrung their hands together, then turned their gaze to the sky as a gale force wind suddenly slammed down over the streets. Looking up, Marcus’s jaw nearly dropped to the ground as an impossibly colossal amber dragon swooped overhead, riding on a pair of wings adorned in golden feathers. 

“What’s that? WHAT’S THAT?!” Marcus screamed, frantically reaching for his weapon.

“Wait, WAIT! Calm down, that’s just Ray! I can assure you that she’s not gonna hurt you!” 

“THAT DRAGON HAS TO BE AT LEAST FIFTY TIMES MY SIZE-” 

“Actually she’s more like, 200 times your size-” Jester paused, then remembered their situation when Marcus’s hand went instinctively for his weapon. “But that isn’t important because she’s friendly! That’s High Empress Ray. Mother of Quetzcoo’s and Crown Jewel of Jesterland. She wouldn’t dream of hurting you or anyone else.” 

“You don’t reach such a position of power as Empress by not being able to clap anyone you want,” Marcus hissed, glaring at Jester. 

Jester remained silent for a moment, their eyes darting around. “I mean…” 

“So yeah, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna get Cally and Ari and get the f_ck outta this place before Big_ss Dragon up there decides I should have an immediate board meeting with my ancestors,” Marcus said, getting up. 

“Wait, hang on! Ray is empress of this place because she’s second-in-command. And because she’s the only one here who can actually fight. But I assure you, she’s not gonna hurt you. She’s like a giant mom for everyone here.” 

“On your mama?” 

“...I don’t know if you’re being rhetorical or not because she’s literally modelled after my mom.” 

“Oh. Uh... in my neighborhood, if you put something on your mama it’s one of the highest forms of promise or assurance you can give. You essentially promise that what you’re saying is true or something bad can happen to her, and you love her enough to not lie.” 

“Oh. Well, then yeah, I swear on my mama. Quite literally.” 

Marcus nodded. “...alright. I’m trusting you.” 

Jester smiled and whistled up to Ray as she landed nearby. “Hey, Ray! Come say hello!”

Marcus paled and clenched his fists instinctively when the colossal amber dragon turned her attention to him and Jester and craned her massive head down to their level. She was so impossibly large that Marcus was barely the size of a single feather on her head. 

Marcus, being the sensible and somewhat paranoid person the previous couple weeks had turned him into, made the logical decision to deal with this turn of events. “Nope. F*ck this. I’m out.” 

“Wait. I’m not going to hurt you,” a gentle voice called out, one that was startlingly calm and quiet for such a large creature. 

“Wh-”

“I’m Ray. You must be Marcus.”

“Yes...?” 

“Sorry for startling you. Sometimes I forget about my own size.” 

Marcus took a breath. “I probably woulda been startled anyway. You know, because fugitive.”

“What a shame,” Ray churred. “A pity. You and your friends having to run from something that was forced upon you.” 

Marcus nodded. “Yeah. And now we have to go stop what seems like a good idea at the start. Well, we don’t have to, but we’re gonna do it anyway because they asked for it by attacking us.” 

“What!? That’s terrible!” 

“Yep. Because for some reason we’re the only ones who can stop the plan we would barely have noticed or pawned off to people who didn’t have the right qualifications if we’d just been left to our own devices. Cally was gonna go to the cops with what she knew initially.” 

“What you are facing is serious. I take it that your friends have been heading to HECU for help,” Ray said, tilting her head to Intelligent and Spyper. “HECU was built to handle unnatural threats, after all.” 

“Yeah. And every time we stopped at a town, our pals were there to greet us. Though I learned that I can feel people’s presence when they’re not even touching me because my sense of touch is just that good, so there’s that.” 

“That’s why it’s taking us forever to actually get there,” Spyper added, setting down a drink he’d picked up from one of the food stalls. “Brutal and his little posse keep chasing us around and I can barely keep the van on course because of it.” 

“You’d think he’d bring more heavy hitters,” Marcus said. “Hasn’t he got some friends in high- well, high in the evil motherf*cker world- places?” 

Jester huffed. “I still can’t believe Brutal is going after you. You guys are kids!” 

“Yeah. I mean, I tricked him into getting close enough with his guard down that I could put two in him, but still! I was scared, the f*ck did he want me to do?!” 

“Why is he even going after you? He’d never go after kids like this before now.” 

“He wants the plan to work. And it was a good premise; every kid’s dream. But we’re apparently too big of a risk.” 

“What even is this plan? And why is Brutal in on it?”

“Wait, Jester? You haven’t heard about any of this?” Spyper looked surprised as he turned to Jester. “It’s pretty much all we’ve been able to focus on for the past few days.” 

Intelligent nodded. “It’s been the gossip of the Freak community. I didn’t believe it until Spyper and I met those three off an edge. Cally had a nasty bump on her head.” 

“Unless you’ve had your head stuck in the parties around here, there’s no way you haven’t heard of it,” Spyper nodded.

“Well...No, I haven’t. I mean, Polite told me a few days ago that Brutal was going after a few people, and I was hoping he wasn’t going after you kids, but that’s about it.” 

Intelligent tilted his head. “You need to come to the bar more. We gather there to talk about the times and it’s a ceasefire.” 

“You guys know I don’t like gossiping,” Jester groused. “Anyways, I had no idea Brutal was in on any kind of plan. What even is the ‘plan?’” 

Intelligent opened his mouth to reply, then froze. “Wait. Where’s Marcus?” 

“He left while you were talking,” Ray said. 

“When has he ever been quiet enough to sneak off?!” 

“Marcus! MARCUS!” Spyper shouted, scanning the immediate area for any sign of the teenager. “He was just in front of us, how did he disappear so quickly!?” 

Marcus, for his part, had made record time across Jesterland to find Cally, who was in line for a ride. “Cal! You okay?” 

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine. Just waiting to get on the Teacups,” She replied, motioning to the ride she was waiting to board. “You ok? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” 

“I... I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” She smiled, patting Marcus’ arm. “Hey, you can relax here for the time being. This place has got everything. We can loosen up a bit before we hit the road again.” 

“Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t help but feel something off.” 

“We’re in a giant amusement park made by a glorified clown,” Cally remarked. “It’s gonna feel a bit off just because of that. Especially since you’re afraid of clowns.” 

“IT scared the sh*t outta me, thank you very much!” 

“Like I said, scared of clowns,” Cally snickered. 

“Girl who freaked out at Child’s Play says what?” 

Cally proceeded to smack Marcus on the arm. 

“Chill with that. Better sense of touch.” 

“Right, sorry. Uh...So, have you heard from the Infirmary yet? Jester said they should be out in a few minutes.” 

“No. You don’t think Ari was poisoned or didn’t make it, do you?” 

“No, of course not. Believe me, I checked around his room before she was admitted. There’s nothing dangerous in there.” 

Marcus nodded. 

“Come on, we can go check on them just to make sure.”

[ryqoshay]

Tri-Arame: Take the Lead Right

Primary Pairing Trio: YuuAyuSetsu Words: ~1.4k Rating: T with my signature implied off camera M finish Time Frame: First year of college? Maybe second? Dunno yet Story Arc: Stand Alone

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Author’s Note: I really do intend to write some scenes for my other fics, honest. But a, I can’t help where my µ’s muse leads and b, I checked a few versions of the ship tag last time and found the results... lacking.

Also, the link to the inspiration for this scene will be in the followup post.

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“Mmm… that was so~ good…” Yuu leaned back and let out a content sigh. “Setsuna-chan and I are becoming a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen.” She grinned. “Maybe someday we’ll be as good as you, Ayumu.”

“I think you may already be there.” Ayumu said, raising her last bite as if to toast the idea.

Setsuna shook her head. “No, I believe Ayumu-san is still the best cook among us.” She offered a smile to the blushing redhead before picking up her plate.

“I’ll take that.” Ayumu said, reaching over. “You two made dinner, so I’ll clean up.”

“You sure?” Yuu asked.

Ayumu nodded. “I should be done before the episode airs if one of you wants to set things up.” With that said, she stacked the three plates and moved everything over to the sink.

As she began washing, Ayumu couldn’t help glancing over regularly toward the others. She enjoyed watching Setsuna’s excitement as she unlocked Ayumu’s laptop and brought up the streaming site. It came as no surprise that a moment later, sounds from the previous episode started coming out of the speakers as the anime addicted girl skimmed through it for a review.

For her part, Yuu remained in her prior position. From there, she could see the screen, but like Ayumu, she seemed more content with watching Setsuna.

“Ne, do you think we have enough time to make tea?” Yuu suddenly asked after a few minutes.

“Probably.” Ayumu responded. “Want me to put on the kettle?

“I’ll get it.” The twin-tailed girl bounced up. “Anyone else want some?”

“Yes, please.” The redhead nodded.

“Setsuna-chan?” Yuu asked.

“Mm?” The raven-haired girl startled from her review session and looked up.

“Tea?”

“Oh, yes, sorry, yes, thank you, please.” Despite where her gaze was directed, her attention was obviously still on the show.

Yuu laughed lightly and moved to the kitchen to fill the kettle. Not long after, Ayumu finished with the dishes and headed back to the kotatsu. However, instead of taking her usual spot on her own side, she settled in directly next to the girl already there. For her part, Setsuna glanced over and offered a quick smile.

Once the tea was ready, Yuu brought it out to the table and sat down on the other side of Setsuna from Ayumu. It was almost perfectly timed as Setsuna was ready to switch tabs, refresh and begin streaming the newly uploaded episode. Finally settled, the trio, crowded comfortably together, began to watch.

As far as Ayumu was concerned, the anime in question was yet another high fantasy with powerful heroes, dastardly villains and a decidedly contrived romantic subplot. But Setsuna was utterly obsessed with it, having collected the entire manga set, several hard copies of popular doujinshi, a few posters and even figures of two main heroines. And Yuu was quite enthusiastic about the series as well, though nowhere near Setsuna’s level.

As such, it was more her girlfriends’ passion for the series that interested Ayumu than the anime itself, but she paid attention nonetheless so she could participate in the conversations that would inevitably follow the ending credits. Tonight’s episode was particularly important as it was the season finale.

And befitting of a season finale of such a series, the action was packed to the brim as the heroes confronted the villain. Still, despite the visual spectacle, Ayumu stole many glances over to her girlfriends to observe their riveted attention. But when the big bad was finally defeated and the storyline began to wrap up, Ayumu expected the other two to relax a little. Except they didn’t. Both Yuu and Setsuna continued to stare, almost unblinking at the screen.

Were they expecting something else to happ… Oh…

“Awww~…” Setsuna, unsurprisingly, was the one to vocalize her reaction as the protagonist confessed her feelings to the heroine who had fought by her side for so long.

The scene was a sweet and fitting culmination of everything that had happened between the them, but Ayumu couldn’t help feeling like things could have been handled better. Early development had felt awkward and forced and it had taken more than a couple episodes before Ayumu could agree the two had chemistry. It was quite different from the angelic doujin Setsuna loved so mu…

Eh?

Ayumu blinked as something soft pressed gently against her cheek. And as quickly and unexpectedly as it had come, it was gone. She turned her head just in time to catch Setsuna leaning over to peck a kiss on Yuu’s cheek as well. Then, with a blossoming blush, Setsuna settled back down and began fidgeting with the hem of her shorts.

Cute. By the gods was that cute. But… is Setsuna-chan really satisfied with just that much?

Ayumu was all too aware that Setsuna maintained a fear of pushing her desires onto others. It was why she refused to take any sort of official leadership role within their school idol club when it reformed, despite the other members respecting her knowledge concerning idols and regularly turning to her for advice. Ayumu assumed this was also why Setsuna seldom was the one to offer invites for her friends to join her in shopping for anime merchandise, even after the three of them had a fairly well-established tradition of going together. She would sooner go by herself than believe she was inconveniencing a friend with her own desires.

And while Setsuna had become fairly open with hugs and holding hands, this felt different. Very different. And Ayumu was more than a little intrigued. And she wished she could give voice to her thoughts and tell Setsuna that it was alright to desire such things from her girlfriends as they were more than willing to participate.

“Setsuna-chan.” Yuu broke the quite among them.

“Y-yes?” Setsuna sputtered in response. “Wh-what is it, Y…?” She was cutoff as Yuu leaned in and pressed her lips against hers.

Something twisted within Ayumu. Apparently, she wasn’t just intrigued…

“Hah…” Setsuna breathed as the two parted. Her head wobbled a bit as her expression became dazed.

Yuu chuckled. “If you want to take the lead, you should at least go that far.”

“R-right…” Setsuna pouted as her blush deepened.

More. Ayumu also wanted more than just a peck on the cheek, and more than that.

Of course, that would mean she would be the one taking the lead at this point. Ayumu understood Setsuna’s reluctance to push beyond where she had left off. And it didn’t help that Yuu had teased her about the times she had given in fully to her desires and done whatever had been necessary to satiate them.

But who could blame her for giving into the temptation provided by not just one, but two irresistible girlfriends? And now, tensions were obviously mounting among them, Setsuna was adorably flustered, and Yuu was sitting with a smirk that made Ayumu want to wipe it off her face with her lips. Of course, her desires would be boiling over at this point.

Oh, to heck with it. Let Yuu tease her later, she could be embarrassed then. If neither Yuu nor Setsuna were going to do anything else, Ayumu would.

Setsuna jumped with surprise as Ayumu placed her hand on her cheek and guided her into a kiss.

Yuu giggled. “Looks like Ayumu can go that far.”

Though the teasing was likely directed more at Setsuna, Ayumu felt the need to respond as she pulled away a little.

“But why only stop there, Yuu-chan?” The redhead murmured before trailing a few kisses across Setsuna’s cheek. She smiled as the raven-haired girl shivered when her teeth grazed her ear. “Why not go even farther?”

“That’s a good point.” The green-tipped girl conceded.

“Ayumu-san… Yuu-s-Ah!” Setsuna gasped as Yuu joined in.

As Ayumu made her way down Setsuna’s neck, she placed a hand on her shoulder and began to guide her down. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that the credits were rolling for the anime stream and made a mental note to apologize to Setsuna for making her miss the last few minutes, as well as delaying the post-credit discussion.

As for that conversation, Setsuna could take the lead for it as that was one place where she excelled. And perhaps someday she might have the confidence to take the lead right in the trio’s current activities.

However, for the time being, Ayumu knew that if her desires were to be fully sated, she would have to be the one to forget her reservations and progress things. It wasn’t easy, but…

Setsuna whimpered.

Yuu moaned.

… or… perhaps maybe it was…

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Author’s Note Continued in Followup Post

[spnsmile]

#StayAtHOmeChallenge Monday- MOTEL tehehe

Thank you for hosting this! @pray4jensen​ @helianthus21​ @bend-me-shape-me​

Have some domestic fluff! Rated M for fun part.

It starts when they both stand side by side to another world-ending showdown. Dean couldn’t make out of things anymore, so he pulls Cas into another goodbye hug and makes out with his best friend.

Dean didn’t think much of it, it felt so easy, it felt so right when he gets lost in the embrace, Cas whispering little  ‘don’t go’  and ‘ I will go with you’  and it’s pure heartache for Dean since he didn’t want to leave, he wants to stay, But he has to save the world. Cas holds on him tight because Dean may not mean anything to the world, but Dean is sure for this angel he is everything.

He wasn’t thinking of anything else save how he loves this dorky angel soldier who’s still there beside him in the end, not leaving but always fulfilling his promise that he would be there watching Dean till the end like one of those romantic stories of till death do us part.

It dawns on Dean that it’s there, it’s happening, they are parting, and it crushed his heart, made him hesitate to lose his life because he wants to live more, wants to share more with this upset angel who only wants nothing but Dean.

They make out. Kiss each other breathless as Cas quickly hangs on tight when Dean moves their lips together feeling like his heart would burst and Dean thinks he wants to stay alive for this.  He kisses Cas, no  Cas kisses him,  it doesn’t matter who’s leading who, Sam was there only giving a satisfied huff of fucking finally, as the two parted with sparks in their eyes, moistened lips still asking for more.

All this in front of Chuck.

They face him like one of those avengers assemble a team with new determination, especially Dean thinking if possible, and he didn’t want to die here. He holds Castiel’s hand tight, giving him the solid belief he can do anything with the angel beside him, stands side by side with Sam, the world behind them.

Chuck stares from the angel to the hunter. Dean sees it, a flash of something uncertain, so like rubbing salt on the wound, he told Chuck can kill them over again. Still, he will never take this away from them (raises their intertwined hands) says it like a delusional lover in front of the angel’s father. The father is adamant about separating his angel prince from the pauper.

An abrupt halt of the world crumbling and a declaration of change in his plan to not end the universe when he realized what he is missing in the world is just a teensy bit of love.

Loved saved the world.

Which leaves Dean Winchester a bundle of excited nerves and embarrassment now that everyone knows his exclusive relationship, there’s no stopping now. Three weeks later they get invited to Garth’s house again for a small celebration as the world lives a little longer oblivious to a near demise. The world moves on.

Jody and Cas are talking at the veranda, leaving Dean with Donna and Garth who are very curious of his new status while Sam grimaces at things he didn’t want to see, but Dean is more aggressive because heck—who here thinks it’s not making him nervous about being with Cas?

“I mean, you think it’s easy to ask Cas just to fuck?”

Donna laughs the loudest while Garth snickers and steals a look over Sam who shakes his head, but Dean is serious. Sure, they did pretty raucous stuff on the first week. Broke Dean’s bed the second with Sam threatening them not to use any table whatsoever because he’s no fun like that, so much fun with Cas that Dean starts dreading something he would never tell a soul.

“Hey, Cas,” Garth says when the angel sat on the armchair where Dean sits and the hunter is overcome with the impulse to wrap his arms around Cas’ waist but is not going to spend the next hours getting teased by Donna over being the clingy boyfriend.

“Don’t be like me Dean, the old me.” Donna says with a roll of her eyes, “Gettin laid didn’t make a difference to Doug who can only see as far as his nose. Good thing you both are handsome, wonder if a spot would open?”

Jody says something about not over her coffee and everyone burst out laughing. Thank god Garth starts asking Sam about his love life now that things have settled and Eileen’s name is in the air. Dean laughs and teases his brother with everyone but there is a bubble of fear forming at the pit of his stomach.

He looks at Castiel still perched on the armchair with that cute curl at the corner of his lips while he listens to Garth’s family stories. So pink and full, he can press a smile and heaven would open again for Dean. He can only think of kissing Cas. Can only think of Cas naked on his bed, Cas inside his shower and just Cas curled next to him be it in the Dean Cave or the Impala. Really, there’s not a moment where he doesn’t look at Cas without thinking of all other naughty things with the angel but it’s been a month and Dean’s expiration date for happiness is fast approaching. He tells himself it’s not true, not gonna happen, Castiel  won’t get tired of him—  and he knows it’s ugly and it’s him but he wants Cas—let hell burn him again for lusting but Cas will get him back.

It’s called trust.

He looks down Cas’ hand just there pressed on his lap. Dean should hold it, should grab on and pull Cas into a kiss but it’s catching to him now, the expiration together with the expectation so he doesn’t. He sits there staring on his knees and Cas looks at him from his peripheral, they both smile and even though Dean didn’t mean it, he looks away far too quickly,  blushing.

He knows Cas noticed because the angel shifted on his seat towards Dean, but Garth’s voice pulled their attention back when he happily calls his twins who were watching them from the stairs.

Dean’s mouth falls open because he’s told Cas about it, waited to get home in the Bunker just to tell Castiel he’s got a baby named after him. He’s not sure if it meant anything to Cas, because yeah most of his brothers and sisters even the prophets have names all over the world—how many Michaels and Gabriels and Judes and Luke do you know—? But when the toddlers come bouncing in with their little legs now walking, the introduction was made. Dean fixes his eyes on Castiel looking at Castiel and it’s weird how the eye contact matches—something that looked deep and profound or Cas the angel is playing them.

Silence falls, then Castiel splits into a smile all sunny and gummy it reaches his eyes with corners crinkling. Baby Castiel runs to Dean who catches him around the middle and makes him sit on his lap.

Dean laughs at Cas’ surprised look

“Did the weird trench coat man scare you?” Dean asks the boy who turned to hide his head on his shoulder. He exchanges look with Cas who tilts his head looking confused.

“It’s probably because he can’t get your scent, Cas. Being an angel and all that.” Sam says to which Garth nods. Sam the toddler is also perched on Sam’s other lap.

“Yes, the twins kind of imprinted on you both since you last visited, so they’re fond of you.” Garth explains, “Don’t worry, imprinting is nothing permanent.”

“What the hell does that mean, eh, Cas?” Dean says.

“Well—” Castiel frowns because Dean isn’t talking to him but the baby. Dean throws him a playful look then to Cas the toddler, whom Castiel is now staring at with an odd transfixed expression.

Garth gets up to help Bessie in the kitchen and it’s a whirl of baby talks and Jodie and Donna taking the twins with them, leaving Cas and Dean (Sam evaporates the moment he realized he’s being left behind). Except nothing happens because Castiel looks preoccupied and for the first time Dean halts his overactive hand from touching him places—cause geez they’re in a house that lives on scents.

“It’s a long ride back home,” he says suggestively, eyebrows quirking “we’ll stop at a motel—”

“I’m getting my own room,” Cas says dismissively, not leaving any explanation when he stands up because Garth is calling from the dining room about dinner. “Let’s go—”

Dean is too dumbstruck but he finds his voice—

“What?”

“Room, my own. Mine.”

“Why?”

Castiel frowns. “Because I can. You can get your own room too—but I’ll get a separate room if there’s a vacancy.”

“B-but  why ?” Dean stands up in disbelief. He knows it’s weird and there are many things he wants to say as support evidence to that but nothing comes out in words.

Castiel blinks. “Why is it so strange to you, Dean?”

Maybe because they’ve been sleeping together? Couple? Boyfriends? Dunno, name it! Dean thinks he said it but no, he only stares and stares and maybe thinks the expiration date is closer than he thinks.

***

The drive is quiet, even Sam notices it. Dean only glares from the mirrors on sides and rearview to the angel who only squints back at him acting innocent but soon starts giving him a scowl. Sam doesn’t get between them anymore. Sam is sensible like that. He can get between them if it’s about a hunt where sides need to be patched, stowaway the craps, but beyond work, the boundaries of people in relationship—Sam knows it’s not his call unless an initiative to reach out is made.

They find a motel—Dean slams the door close, let Sam take care of the room assignment then gave Dean his keys. There’s so much vacant room, it’s not right. He lifts his eyes behind Sam but Cas is not there. He sets his jaws to  kill.

“What are you so mad about?” Sam says sounding exasperated. “Is it because Cas wants to get his own room?” there’s a raise of eyebrows from Samwitch that Dean can’t return without exploding.

“So he really got his room?” he snaps.

“Paid for it, even. 208.” Sam says, “Stop being a bitch, Dean. So, your boyfriend wants to be independent. What are you getting your hackles up for? He’s making choices and it’s not bad choices, but he’s getting there.”

“Yeah, getting his own room from me is really boyfriend’s stuff.” Dean turns walking to the number Sam gave him, “Might as well told me to touch my own dick.”

“You’re getting annoying, Dean. So what if Cas took Garth’s words seriously—”

Dean snaps from reverie. Garth? What Garth? “What are you talking about?”

“I knew it, you weren’t listening and he’s right opposite you!”

Dean makes a face. “You know who was sitting beside me with thighs right next to my elbow like a good steak, right?”

So yeah, maybe he was too busy looking at Cas’ lips, his jaw too sharp he wants to nibble at, that fucking high cheekbone he wants to do bad things with— then glorious thighs—

Sam makes a grunting noise and turns to a door, expression disgusted. Dean finds their room next to each other which was rare, but he was still waiting for Sam to answer.

“What did Garth say?”

“Garth was talking about dividing stuff in the house, chores, finances, you know, the happy life. But he takes measures he doesn’t forget how to make Bessie feel special. They’re both great at parenthood, but he says you still shouldn’t forget to make special stuff for each other like paying for extra dates, unexpected out of towns for recreational things, putting extra effort in making her coffee—or just surprising her with paying the bills when it’s her turn, well, those. Comes with a happy marriage, you don’t forget making each other feel special.”

“Huh…so Cas wanting his own space, his own room is supposed to be in favour of me?” Dean says flatly

Sam rolls his eyes, “Oh,  work with me, Dean.”

With that, he pulls enters his room and shuts the door, leaving Dean staring at the brotherless space and boyfriendless front of his room. Grunting again, he enters his own room.

***

It’s only after his shower that it struck Dean the possibility of him staring at a  special date right in the face. It all clicked on him. He just had a shower and is thinking of a miserable night alone when he remembers Castiel hasn’t even checked on him not once, and Cas doesn’t do that. Cas has obsessions with Dean’s health and even when they fight, Castiel will come back to check on Dean like it’s his personal business.

Dean has no problem being Castiel’s personal business.

It all came together like that. What Sam said, it’s a connection to Garth’s domesticity and making another feel special.

Fuck…Did Cas…?

The idea has Dean pressing his knuckle on his lips.

Shit.

It gets him giddy. He quickly gets dressed. He wants to jump out of his room and knocks on Cas’ door, because he knows Castiel is waiting—then he remembers that maybe Cas is still fixing stuff? What do angels know about making special dates and in less than fan hour no less?

So Dean calms down, tells himself to not blow this for Cas. He sits at the edge of his bed, not touching anything. He fixes his eyes on the door, waiting like how a lioness waits for its prey. Leaning on his elbow, he listens to the sound of his watch ticking by, listens to his breath slow down even the tapping of his foot ceases.

Cas is making something special for him.  His angel wants to make him feel special like— Dean swallows, heart pounding. There’s a dizzying buzz on his ears, an unsteady hummin on his chest and just…

Fifteen minutes, twenty. This is worse than waiting for Apocalypse. He gives it another ten minutes… he’s out the door in two.

He leaves the room in a blur, searches for that door, finds it, didn’t kick it but he knocks. No answer. He tries again but on the third try, he’s got a pin on his fingers and picking the lock. He opens the door, heart pounding like he’s doing something inappropriate. Yes, guilty as charged, but turns the lights and lo—there right there is a red queen-sized bed just for him and Cas.

Dean’s eyes widen—so there’s a very good AC in the room, two large pillows for couples and ahh—there are even two white bathrobes, but there’s no Cas.

Blinking to himself, he checks the bathroom, finds no one there. He hopes Cas didn’t bother with flowers and wine, sheesh. His grin spreads wide. Dean undresses quickly and pulls on the white bathrobe. He throws himself in the middle of the bed, hissing at the mess and trying to smoothen the sheets before plopping in the middle.

So what if he’s going to be part of the surprise?

The bed is directly in front of the door. Dean tries to arrange himself, trying to look sexy and all that because he can. Starts with raising one knee, his other leg splayed open, shifts so he is half sitting with the bathrobe exposing his neck because his neck is godly. He shifts his butt again trying to ordinate the damn vibrating muscles until he finds himself propped up on the head board, legs crossed with slit open in between for good measure.

What Dean didn’t expect is waiting for another twenty minutes then…well, he dozes off, blesses him.

The next thing he is aware of is the sound of door opening and closing. He lifts his head up in automatic response, looking for any sign of demons or intruders after his life but in the bright light of the room, he finds himself staring at the blurry figure of the angel in the trench coat.

Dean smiles.

“Surprised?”

Castiel doesn’t answer. The lights are on and despite being a little groggy Dean can see the angel is more than shock, he is breathing hard like he ran a marathon, his lips are parted open and there’s a flicker of fear mixed with relief behind his eyes. Dean quickly sits up, sensing trouble—

“Cas, what—”

Castiel charges forward and trench coat fills his vision. Castiel knelt on the bed, arms full of Dean. Head on the angel’s chest where he can hear the pounding of Cas’ heart. Cas sticks his face on Dean’s neck with a shudder.

“Hey, hey—” Deans says a little perturbed, pulling away from the angel’s clutches, “What happened?” This is not going great.

 “You weren’t in your room.” He mumbles, nose pressed on the hollow between his shoulder and neck, “I went… I knocked. I called Sam, he said you were upset. I thought you went away but your car is outside and I….”

Dean takes a deep sigh. His confusion gets forgotten when he sees Castiel’s knees perfectly in between his legs. He holds on Castiel’s waist, smiling a little.

“I’ve been here waiting for you. Where’d you go?”

Castiel mutters something about pizza and sure enough, there are two boxes on the table for him plus six cans. Cas thought of this a lot.

Dean eases the angel from his shoulders then flips him down the bed in one swoop. Castiel gets flat on his back while Dean props his body on an angle facing the angel on his side with a look of interest on his face.

“Mmm… I heard you were planning on a slumber party.”

“No...”

“Dinner date?”

“We had dinner at Garth’s house.” Cas frowns so adorably even with a straight face Dean can’t help teasing him.

“Fine, sex date?” at close proximity, Dean winks. “Did I blow it?”

Castiel’s face flushes.

From where he lies with the light just above the hunter’s shoulder, Dean can see how Cas’ whole face turns every spot of red from his neck up to his hairline. He can hear the angel’s heartbeat

Dean reaches a finger and places it on Cas’ chest. The little jolt from the touch makes Dean smile and he presses down a little so half his body is almost on top of his partner.

“Who’s surprised now?” Dean wiggles eyebrows at the angel before completely straddling him.

Castiel hitches a breath, hands holding Dean’s thighs for support.  Dean watches as the blue eyes follow the trail of Dean’s shoulder now exposed from the sliding bathrobe and fuck Dean thinks he must’ve looked like a pornstar.

But Cas stares back at him in the eyes all in control of his desire.

“You were… here. How did you know?”

“Know what? Cas, as long as we have this thing between us, I’ll crawl to any hole just to sleep with you.”

“I thought you’re gone,” Castiel repeats but there’s no reason to be sad, he doesn’t let go of Dean’s hips.

Dean grins lowering himself on top of the angel, so Castiel’s whole body stiffens, beneath too, with Dean carefully putting his elbows on Cas’ chest. They stare at each other, Dean finding the right space between Cas’ legs and yes, he finds himself hard. Cas is still on his coat, well dressed and well, this is fantasy porn, he thinks.

“You’re sneaking around, huh?”

“I’m not.”

“Buying pizza’s, stuff… I thought you were upset.”

Dean hums. He can read more from Castiel’s eyes.

“And?”

“I thought you… went to a bar…”

“Ah, you thought  I was sneaking around.”

“I thought I had to eat pizza alone.”

Dean grins.

“I wouldn’t dream of leaving you, Cas. I’m yours.”

Castiel doesn’t answer, but he nods his head vigorously. Doing so, the angel lets his eyes wander to the crack between Dean’s chest, then up to Dean’s lips. Cas wets his lips.

Dean knows they both just want to get on it. In answer to that he wants to do it too, he rolls his hips. Castiel gasps and clutches on his waist. “Dean…”

Dean’s face softens. Cas is staring at him too, well, on his lips and his face and its visible Cas wants him. How can he ever think the spark would fly out of this relationship?

“You want to prepare a special date for me?” he touches Cas’ cheeks, and he is very gentle. He is trying to control himself not to dive in and kiss Cas like how he should be doing five minutes ago, but he also needs this out. “You want us to date, Cas? Like a normal couple?”

Castiel bites his bottom lips and nods once. “I just want to take care of you.”

“Aw, my baby is so sweet. Sorry to blow this, but you take care of me, Cas.” Dean says quietly, lowering his lips so he can feel the hot breath of the angel next to his, “You’re always there.”

“But I don’t take care of you like how they do it. The married couple.” Cas says. Dean can’t fight the spreading grin on his face. He buries his head on his arms, feeling the butterflies swirl inside his stomach.

“Messaged received.”

Cas doesn’t think they’re boyfriends. He thinks they’re married. Wants to take care of Dean too. Dean’s heart swells. His whole face reddens and when he kisses Cas it’s more than lust, it’s more than wanting. When he lets the robe off his shoulder with frantic kisses still on his angel, he thinks how Cas wants to make him happy. He ruts on Cas’ thighs. He thinks of Cas wishing to stay with him forever. And he gets off on that. Accidentally. Without anything but Cas' kneading his ass. He comes on Cas’ thighs. He knows Cas was surprised. They’re only just beginning. Fuck, Cas is still on his dress when Dean comes, and it's dizzying. Cas catches him, and Dean can't apologize because Cas is kissing him roughly with tongues licking inside his open mouth while he breathes, taking him and he lets him.

His quick release is a little embarrassing, but Dean supposes, it’s the thought that counts.

Then Cas is on top of him with blazing blue eyes, bedsheet crumple around them, Cas clothes sliding down the floor where Dean has forgotten the bathrobe and everything else is a blur.

End. Ao3 Link 

@verobatto-angelxhunter​ better late than...uhm xD

[ngame989]

“Enough” - TGG SVTFOE Fanfic Collection Ch. 11

Writing: @ngame989​

Art: @toxicpsychox​

Musical Arrangement: @ubercelloczar​

Editing: @ubercelloczar​, @seddm​

Alternate fic links - FFnet, AO3

Summary: Star, Marco, Tom, and Janna reflect on their pasts, arrive at a crossroads in the present, and make decisions about their futures when Echo Creek Academy hosts a dance with an uncannily familiar theme.

Comic Page

Masterpost

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy New Year! This is a very special chapter, slightly breaking the tradition of having its poster be a Polaroid photo (though one of those will be coming soon lol). Also, this was inspired by an actual real life event, Google the date for yourself. MASSIVE thanks to my friend @ubercelloczar​​ for the musical arrangement - I can’t embed it partway through so I’ll just link it when the time comes. Hope you enjoy!

Red. All these years, and she was just now realizing how little red there was in her expansive collection of outfits. Star could probably count on one hand the number of times she’d worn anything in that color besides Marco’s oversized hoodies. Though for all intents and purposes she’d moved into Marco’s room over a year ago, most of her clothes were still kept in her old room at Angie’s insistence. You leave pajamas in the mailbox ONE TIME and suddenly everyone’s all “please use a closet, Star.” Her fingers fondly brushed over the fabrics of dozens of dresses and skirts she owned. The turquoise with the narwhal? Timeless classic, though a bit worse for wear after so many life or death incidents on Mewni. Purple with suspenders? Eh, not so much… for whatever reason she just hadn’t felt like wearing that in a while. Her sleeveless sky blue dress, on the other hand, had made its way back into her rotation after the dimensions cleaved. Why, she couldn’t say, though she tended to skip the leg warmers these days. The pink overalls with the cute skirt were one of her favorite buys on Earthni - the perfect blend of dimensional fashions.

Minutes passed as she reminisced, her wardrobe a library unveiling its stories as her eyes roved its contents. One random winter night came to mind at the sight of her rarely used fuzzy yellow jammies. The heater had been on the fritz, so she and Marco had cuddled up even closer than normal. Her brain had been too frozen to think straight at the time, but in hindsight it was one of her favorite memories - spending all night watching movies with family, hot cocoa by the gallon, and holding Marco tight did more to warm her soul than any heater ever could. Some more notable memories were captured in the attire too, like the lavender dress she’d planned to wear to her first school dance before ditching it to resurrect a clown; the Love Sentence concert tee she’d made; her green dinosaur dress, captured forever on that fateful photo strip.

Experiences shared with Marco stood out among the rest - they usually did anyway, but tonight perhaps more than most, and for good reason. She’d once obsessed over a tattered, stinky hoodie of his as a source of calm and stability for some of the harshest weeks in her life, but tonight she felt like she was at her highest point. When her eyes finally spotted her target, the reason she had even been rummaging around an old closet and choking on enough dust to fell an adult warnicorn, her small, nostalgic smile stretched into a wide grin laden with too many emotions to count. If there’s any night to wear red, this is it, Star thought as she slipped into the silky dress awaiting her.

After all, she and Marco were once again going to a Blood Moon Ball.

Six Weeks Earlier

“Not sure if we’ll be able to pull this off, Diaz. They’ve got us surrounded.” Steam rolled out of Star’s mouth with the words, threatening to give away their location. She shivered despite the warm pink fleece she wore; the wind today was so chilly that even Marco had donned a winter jacket over his hoodie. They were in the midst of a battle, nay, an all-out war. We’ve got one, maybe two dozen? We’re doomed.

Where Star faltered, Marco’s resolve was firm. “Our only option is a last stand. I can lead a strong forward assault and draw fire long enough for you to flank their offense.” They’d found a secure location with solid cover, but it severely limited their scouting ability. Marco lowered his hood and stole a glance above the metal behind them, ducking back down instantly. Snow had already accumulated on his lashes and glittered softly in the sunlight, but Star couldn’t afford to linger on that image. It was do or die.

He took her hands and pulled her close, almost touching their noses. “If I don’t make it, Star, I want you to take care of Nachos for me, OK?” He scooped up his armful of snowballs and moved into position.

She theatrically reached out a hand towards him right as he got to the threshold of safety. “I’ll never forget you Marcoooo…” she whispered loudly. The pair giggled as Star grabbed her ammunition. “Alright, enough of that. Ready?”

“Ready.”

Marco dashed around the playground slide and into the fray. Right as Star followed, she heard him yelp and fall into the soft snow coating the playground, three enemy combatants hovering over him and pelting him mercilessly. “Marco!” Star yelled and trudged over with the gleeful cheers of their enemy ringing in her ears. “Speak to me, Marco! Don’t leave me!”

“Star… Remember me...” He grunted and let his head drop into the snow.

“Noooooooooo!” With one final breath, she flopped on top of him and accepted death by a thousand snowballs.

One extra large hunk of snow, far too large to have been thrown by any of the kids, exploded on Star’s back and coated her entirely in soft white fluff. Star heard the warm rumble of Antonio’s hearty chuckles at his successful finishing blow. “Alright, kiddos, your families are here. Have a happy break!” His beefy hand grabbed Star’s own and easily hefted her to her feet before doing the same for Marco. How the heck he was OK in the cold with just an ear-flappy-hat and his usual flannel shirt, she’d never know.

Star dusted herself off and watched the children skip through the snow - a much smaller group than usual, since it was the last evening shift before Christumpmasday break. Most were eager to return to their families, though Star had to help two little girls finish building their snowlizard and take a few pictures before they were willing to leave without bursting into tears; in their defense, it was a ridiculously cute and fun snowlizard. And with that, it was finally holiday break time!

As they walked back to the Center with Antonio, Star took in the sight of the campus covered in fresh snow. The sparkling white planes draped across the pristine Earth architecture contrasted with the raw, natural aesthetic of snow and ice intermingled with remnants of a once-thriving Mewman village, but it all blended together into something unique and beautiful. She caught Marco transfixed with a goofy smile on his face, in awe of her as much as she was with the world, and her cheeks flushed a tiny bit more than they’d already done in the cold. The crunch of snow underfoot and the gentle whooshing of the wind as they swung their joined hands back and forth were the only sounds disturbing this peaceful, perfect moment.

“Merry Christumpmasday, Antonio!” Star shouted as she gave her boss-slash-friend a big hug, and he laughed and returned the gesture with enough strength to lift both Star and Marco off the ground a little.

“Same to you two. Thanks again for staying late, I feel bad about keeping anyone here like this. My husband’s still out of town until tomorrow so home, work, it’s all the same to me, personally. Wish your whole family the best for me.” After saying their goodbyes, Star and Marco walked back out into the cold where their ride was waiting.

“Hey, girl” Marco’s voice was tender as he adjusted Nachos’ cute winter cap and stroked her back. As he was testing his foothold to make sure he wouldn’t slip and faceplant while trying to hop on, Antonio peeked his head out the door.

“Wait, before you go… an elderly lady gave me this flier for some kinda dance.” He scratched his chin through his beard. “Dunno why she brought it here of all places, but since I had it, I thought I might as well pass it along.”

“Oh, is it for that big dance the high school is throwing for all the teens in town?” Marco asked.

“Seems so. Maybe she just got confused about what kinds of kids it was for,” Antonio said, lightly chuckling. “January 30, it says, and it’s an all-nighter; that’s quite the shindig. If Earthni parties are anything like my high school days, it’s probably best I give you the whole next day off,” he said with a wink and a smirk.

All night dance? Even the Bounce Lounge was rarely that crazy - what was so special about this? Antonio handed the flier to Star and Marco who took hold of the other side of it, moving it between them as they gaped in shock at its contents.

“No way, there’s no way, what the-” she and Marco muttered in perfect unison. “Are you- seeing this? It can’t- how did-” They started and stopped as their attempts to stop copying each other canceled each other out.

Marco blinked a few more times to finally pry his eyes away from the page. “Well, eclipses do happen pretty often on Earth, I guess...” They both glanced incredulously back and forth between each other and the flier before the tension in their shoulders finally dropped. An unspoken agreement had been made: they might as well give this dance a shot. Star took one last look at the flier before hopping on Nachos, stuffing it into her jacket and wrapping her arms around Marco’s midriff for the ride home, its words emblazoned in her mind.

January 30-31, 2018. Super Blue Blood Moon Eclipse Extravaganza at Echo Creek Academy! Come dance under the red light of the lunar eclipse!

***

Present Day

“OK, Diaz, let’s see what you’ve got. Sweat prevention, check,” he noted with a quick whiff of his armpits. “Outfit, check.” Bright red dress shirt, sharp black jacket, sleek black tie. Marco posed in the bathroom mirror a few times, getting everything in order for a night he’d been looking forward to for months. “Hair, check.” It was just his usual style, but it never hurt to make sure it was ready to go. Looking good, Diaz.

His stare lingered in their bedroom mirror for a moment too long as thoughts began racing through his mind. Was he nervous? Marco Diaz, nervous for a big night with the girl he loved? More often than not Star was his reason not to be nervous about anything, but this was their first big formal dance as a couple and he did have a pretty dicey history with those. And what were the odds that it was on the night of the Blood Moon again? He wasn’t exactly worried about the curse, per se - there was some caveat or another in demon lore that the Blood Moon could only impart its curse when shining through a special Underworld crystal, the very same one embedded in the roof of the Lucitor ballroom years ago, Relicor had assured them. And it’s not like it even did anything bad to them in the first place, right? Marco still stood by his own words - it was all baloney. Still though, it did leave him with a decision to make. He experimentally put on his Día de Los Muertos mask and turned his head a bit. Should he?

“I don’t think I ever told you how cute you look in that mask.” He’d gotten pretty good about anticipating Star’s sudden appearances but had been caught up in his own mind enough that he still jumped a bit, much to her amusement. “Buuuuuuuut…” she drawled as she swiftly stepped forward and snatched it off his head. “I like your face more.” She grinned and pinched his cheek before they both stopped to truly look at each other. They hadn’t seen each other’s outfits ahead of time but as always they’d been on the same page. “I like the rest of you, too,” she muttered, biting her lip. Marco felt his cheeks turn the same color as his shirt at the comment, but also at her own appearance. Two wavy strands of hair in front of her ears framed her adorable face, though her hair had otherwise been left down as normal. Her red dress had a lone heart clasp on one shoulder, a pattern of moons and stars on a dark band circling the waist, a knee-length wavy skirt that gently swished as she rocked back and forth, and black high heels.

“Wow,” he uttered.

“You like it?” Star asked hopefully. “I thought, well, I didn’t want to go too over-the-top and wear the old Blood Moon Ball outfit but I still wanted to fit the theme so-”

“You’re beautiful,” Marco stated. Not that she’d needed to be wearing an incredible evening dress for him to think that, and he knew she knew that too, but she was still making him a bit dizzy right now. “Wait-” he stopped her when she tried to move in for a kiss, leaning back to their nightstand. He grabbed her horns and gently placed them on her head, brushing a wayward strand of hair back into place. “Perfect.” He leaned forward to kiss her, seeing her doing the same as his eyelids closed, and-

“Mijos!” Star and Marco’s eyes opened, freezing in place so close together that her breath tickled his lips, staring at each other for a second before turning towards the door. Daaaaad. “Oh, sorry, did we interrupt a moment?” We? Rafael stepped aside to reveal all their parents, plus Eclipsa and Globgor, crammed into the hallway. Star took Marco’s hand as they separated.

“Eeeee!” Eclipsa squealed in delight. “You two are absolutely precious. Come downstairs, loves, we must take your picture.”

“I’ve got two backup rolls of film!” Angie chimed in as Moon herded them all down the stairs and out of the way.

Marco looked at Star, who was goofily smiling at him as she squeezed his hand. It wasn’t that he minded being affectionate with Star around friends and family - heck, his own parents were still the most overtly lovey-dovey couple in the house - but he couldn’t help a bit of embarrassment when they were the center of attention like that. After double checking to make sure they had everything they needed, the pair headed out and walked down the stairs together to the oohs and aahs of their families. Star’s parents merely watched while Marco’s both wielded cameras, snapping pictures fervently. Nachos wasn’t due for another few minutes, so they decided to just endure the gauntlet.

“Didn’t think a sort-of-school dance was such a big deal,” Star murmured. Eclipsa sat down on the arm of the couch next to Globgor while Moon daintily folded her hands in her lap on the opposite side with River squished between her and the size-shifter.

“Well, when Marco left for Mewni, we were worried he’d never get to have a prom,” Angie cheerily responded, having evidently heard Star’s comment. “This is basically the same thing, though. Raf, honey, remember our prom?”

“Oh, yes, it was delightful,” he said, finally lowering the camera and turning to address the others on the couch. “We had actually just broken up that morning and went separately, but your mother just happened to walk directly into me as the slow music started and we ended up waltzing the night away. That was the last time we had to get back together.” How many details about my parents have I missed? Marco wondered to himself, before realizing he likely didn’t want to know quite a few of them and shuddering a bit. Still, it was better than being endlessly fawned over, so Marco stood perfectly still and shut his mouth.

Eclipsa set a hand on Globgor’s shoulder, smiling fondly. “Globgor and I met at a dance too! Well, not quite a ‘dance’, I suppose... he twirled me out of the way of an assassin’s arrow, and I swept him off his feet, but the principle seems about the same to me.”

“I was about to eat a guard until she blasted me to the ground. She cast a spell on me in more ways than one.” Globgor laughed. “Though the literal one was very painful,” he added seriously.

“Well, River and I had been to our share of Silver Bell Balls and other royal festivities,” Moon chimed in. “Though when I was Star’s age we weren’t together yet, and I was very focused on the kingdom by the time things were calm enough to enjoy them properly…”

“And now our little girl is going to big fancy galas with a handsome young man. Next thing you know she’ll be setting out on her own, never needing her parents again!” River wailed, clutching Moon’s arm. Well, the diversion was good while it lasted.

“River, please,” Moon gently chided. “You two are quite the adorable couple, though. Though I never wished to interfere in your personal affairs on Mewni, I am certainly glad things eventually worked out as well as they did.”

Eclipsa strolled over and enveloped both of them in a hug. “You two look positively astonishing together,” she cooed before releasing them to take them in one at a time. “Star, darling, you’re as stunning as I’ve ever seen you. And Marco...” She paused, placing her hands on his shoulders. Her purple eyes were laden with unbridled affection as they looked him up and down, her lips turning upward in as sincere a smile as he’d seen her display. “Marco, you sweet young man… You’re quite lucky to have each other, you know. Perhaps it’s not my place to say, but I’m so proud of how you’ve grown these past few years. Now have fun tonight, this is great practice for a certain other first dance I see in your future,” she finished with a wink, causing his blush to return with a vengeance.

“Picture time!” Rafael singsonged, getting up close and flashing a camera near Marco’s face. “Do some fun poses! Give the people what they want! We are not going to miss any more of our son’s major life moments!” His voice was filled with determination to the point of sounding angry, and Marco’s eyes widened in part sympathy, part stark terror. Minutes flew by as Star and Marco supplied their families’ demands, exhausting both the traditional prom shots and their signature poses: back-to-back, too cool for school, Star pinching his cheeks, drowning in a monster’s stomach acid… the list seemed endless, and though goofing around with Star was always fun, he’d been anticipating the dance so long that every second of delay felt like torture. Finally, Marco breathed a sigh of relief when his dad moaned in dismay at the camera clicking without anything happening; he was out of film.

“Oh dear, only one left,” Angie echoed. “Let’s get a nice one of a kiss. Don’t be shy.”

“Well, Marco? Shall we?” Star threw him a flirtatious grin, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He opened his mouth to respond with a quip of his own when he heard wheels screeching to a stop outside. Sweet freedom. “Well, that’s our ride!” Marco stated a bit too forcefully, breaking away from Star and heading towards the door to greet Nachos. Flying in on a dragoncycle would be a major departure from whatever prom fantasies about picking up Jackie in a limo he’d had as a kid, but he still wanted to do something special with a traditional flair. She snorted and cackled when the door opened and revealed his grand prom surprise: Nachos with a top hat and bow tie.

“Marco, what did you do to her?”

“Well, it’s prom, so our ride needs to be the fanciest it can be,” he giggled as she rolled her eyes. “Only the best for you, m’la-”

When Star’s lips cut him off sweetly as she tugged him closer, suddenly Marco didn’t mind staying a little bit longer, and the snap of his mother’s camera seemed to agree.

***

Chaos. Compared to any dance Star had been to before, this was the best kind of chaos. The energetic beat of the electronic music thrummed in her ears as her hips swayed and arms waved in the air. She wasn’t sure exactly how many people had shown up, but the gymnasium of Echo Creek Academy was more packed than she’d ever seen it. Still, it wasn’t so cramped that she had no room to get her groove on; when her butt bumped into Marco beside her, it was by choice as she slyly grinned at her boyfriend in his red shirt, now sans jacket. He smirked back at her and set his feet in place, slicing his hands wildly through the air. “I thought you didn’t like the sword-hand dance,” Star loudly spoke into his ear, though it was a whisper relative to the volume of the music and crowd.

“Yeah, but if everyone else is gonna do it anyway, I might as well own it.” They locked eyes as she began to mirror him, mimicking his karate poses in time with the music. He abruptly grabbed both her hands and swung them up and down, laughing as they just shook everything they had without a care in the world. She yanked him towards her and spun them both around, their backs flush against each other as they kept bouncing to the rhythm.

“Woop, woop! Starco in da HOUSE!” Ponyhead stuck her horn between them, forcing them apart as she floated up and down.

Tom also made his way beside them, drink in hand. “Anyone else want punch?” He lowered the plastic cups he’d been levitating over the crowd into Star and Marco’s hands, and Pony’s tongue. “Gotta say, this is pretty good punch. What kind of blood is it? Centaur? Unicorn? Oooooh, I’ve heard that giraffigator blood is hot these days.”

Marco eyed his cup warily. “What the heck is a giraffigat-”

“WHAT’S THIS ‘BOUT UNICORN BLOOD?” Pony screamed, getting up in Tom’s face.

Star quickly separated them, holding her hands up to try and ease her friends. “Guys, guys, there’s no actual blood in it, I think it’s just citrus.” Well, she was fairly sure. She took one trial sip, tasting the sweet flavor of- “Wait, yep, this is blood,” she said disgustedly after she spit it back into the cup.

“More for me, then,” Tom said nonchalantly, as he snatched Marco’s cup and took another swig while Pony floated in circles grumbling. It seemed like the DJ was taking a break from the upbeat dancing music for now, so the group made their way to the outskirts of the gymnasium where they’d left their belongings. Star laid down on the bleachers, resting her head on Marco’s lap after he’d put his jacket back on and sat down. He stroked her hair with his thumb as they relaxed after an intense hour of dancing. It struck her that this was actually the first time she’d ever truly had carefree fun at a formal dance. The original Blood Moon Ball left her with very mixed feelings to say the least, and her one experience with an Earth dance had been a bit of a disaster even though she didn’t actually go. Time had largely expunged the lingering venom she’d directed at herself for her relationship mistakes after returning to Mewni, leaving some life lessons and fond memories; but even some enjoyable fiery dances with Tom didn’t change the fact that the Silver Bell Balls were stuffy political dramafests. She reached up and intertwined her fingers with Marco’s, squeezing his hand and beaming at him - this was more like it.

“You know, I will say, this DJ is killing it tonight,” Pony said as she returned. “I was kinda expectin’ something lame but this is the best party I’ve been to since the Bounce Lounge closed.” Star nodded in agreement.

Tom leaned back and crossed his legs a few rows below them, taking a sip from his second cup so far. “Oh, yeah, I know him, he’s actually the cousin of my old anger management coach. His name’s Kim H. Brian.”

“I thought your coach’s name was Brian,” Marco responded.

“Yeah, Brian Brian.”

“Get outta t- wait, the Kim H. Brian?” Star bolted up at Marco’s words and they stared at each other incredulously.

“The producer of Love Sentence’s most controversial album, Prison Breakup?” Star and Marco said simultaneously.

“That’s the one,” Tom said, chuckling a bit. “Only you two could still say entire sentences at the same time without a demonic curse.” He stared into his drink for a few seconds, his visage suddenly becoming completely somber. All three eyes closed as he took a deep breath before floating up and sitting next to the couple. “Look, about the whole Blood Moon thing-”

Hold on, was he still in a twist about this? “Tom, it’s fine!” Star said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “We broke the Curse, you apologized, it’s all good.”

“I know, but it’s not that- after we went to the Severing Stone, deep down I knew that the Curse wasn’t why you two had those feelings, but I just kept pretending because I still liked you, Star. If I hadn’t been so caught up in that, maybe it wouldn’t have taken so damn long to sort our mess out. I know it doesn’t matter anymore, but… I guess the dance just got me thinking again about friendship and love and stuff. So if you’re OK with it, I actually asked Kim to do a little something special for you two later, to help give you the Blood Moon Ball you deserve,” he finished with a toothy smile.

Star’s eyes started to mist up; Tom had always been supportive of Star and Marco since they’d all sorted themselves out, but it never failed to move her. Star lunged forward, wrapping herself around him in a bear hug, and Marco followed suit. “Toooooom, that’s so sweet!”

“Yeah, man, that’s really-” Marco was stopped by the sudden intrusion of Ponyhead into their little moment.

“Hey, Lucitor, do you know where Janna went? I’ve been TRYING to ask her for the hot deets on totally eligible bachelors here. You know, name, height, bank account balance: the usual business. So anyway she hasn’t been, like, responding at all and I’m starting to worry I might not be able to score a good enough rebound to make Seahorse see that he made the biggest mistake of his life letting me dump him!”

Marco nodded toward the still-in-progress group hug. “Little busy?”

“Yeah, whatever, save your huggy feeltime for later, this is im-por-tant.”

“OK, fine,” Tom said, extricating himself from the embrace. “I haven’t seen her for a while but I can help look. It’s Janna, so she’s probably just splicing some gargoyle DNA to a class hamster or something.”

“Last I saw, she was by the old photobooth.”

Wait, that had survived? Star and Marco exchanged shocked glances at the thought of the site of their first kiss having survived the whole way to Earthni.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Marco asked. Star grinned and nodded, grabbing his hand to run off and make even more memories.

***

Janna Ordonia had never been more scared in her entire life. Okay, maybe that time a monster guy exploded into dust a few feet in front of her was more viscerally terrifying, but Janna was used to freakiness and death even before she’d spent so much time in the literal Underworld. Tonight, though? The pit in her stomach that left her unable to speak, unable to think, was something almost alien to her. She had so much unique expertise in dealing with all things mystical and macabre that it took something completely and utterly human to faze her, and now she found herself staring in a mirror struggling to cope.

Janna Ordonia had caught feelings.

She’d always known she had a thing for the spooky and supernatural, so an attraction to a half-demon with two horns, three eyes, and purple skin was basically inevitable. It hadn’t bothered her like this when she’d had a casual fling with a talking skeleton years ago, either. The only logical conclusion she could draw was that whatever she was feeling now was a different beast altogether. The night had started out so pleasantly: the Lucitors had invited her over for a casual dinner beforehand - whatever meat the Underworld used for burgers was damn good - and they’d taken the carriage together to the dance afterwards.

It just made practical sense, it didn’t mean anything, I don’t WANT it to mean anything. Some variant of this refrain had been repeating in her mind a lot lately, but staring at her own reflection, it felt thinner with every passing second. If it was true, she probably wouldn’t even be here now; she could be doing way cooler things with the night of an ultra-rare eclipse than drinking cheap punch and shuffling awkwardly on the dance floor to chart-topping pop trash. But Tom had seemed excited at the prospect, and the next thing she knew she had picked out a simple black dress with pink highlights - hell, it was even Tom’s nonjudgmental support that had given her the confidence to wear her secret favorite color more in the first place. One way or another, everything seemed to circle back to one simple fact. Each day spent learning about the Underworld and adventuring in its depths was obviously worthwhile on its own merits, but it was always better with him. If she couldn’t stop this storm brewing inside, then the only thing left was to take control of it on her own terms. Well, this is it, Janna. You have a serious crush on Tom Lucitor.

By the time her mind had finished processing its own confession, she’d already made her way back to the gym and meandered to a vacant corner to watch idly by herself, not unlike how she’d spent most of the dance so far. They’d arrived from the Underworld fashionably late and it had only taken a few minutes for Janna to ditch her friends and hide while she moped about her feelings, but of course as soon as she wanted company again there was none to be found. She huffed and pulled out her phone, switching between a few games to occupy the time.

“Hey.” She looked up to find Tom holding two glasses. “Anything fun going on in this empty corner?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty intense over here. Some dust bunnies got in a street fight.” She smirked and stole one of his glasses, raising it to her lips for a sip.

“Wait, don’t, that’s-” It tasted funny, fruity and sweet but with a metallic tang. “Blood.” Ah. She considered it for a moment before deciding to take another sip. She’d had worse. “Anyway, where have you been? We basically haven’t seen you since we got here.”

“Oh, you know, nowhere and everywhere. It’s what I do,” she deflected. “Where’re the others?” Star and Ponyhead were forces of nature when it came to stealing the spotlight, so Janna figured they were her best shot at getting through the night with minimal awkwardness.

“We were taking a break and then they ran off to a photobooth. I still don’t really get the hype, but you know how it is with them.”

“Yeah, it’s gross.”

“Yep…” They both fell silent, continuing to drink what was supposedly some kind of real blood punch as the dance droned on in the background. “Hey, so, uh, can we talk for a sec? About… us?”

She tried her damnedest to suppress the unexpected surge of conflicting emotions, burying her face in her cup until she thought she could reliably answer. One time, when they were in elementary school, she’d poured milk down Marco’s shirt at lunch and a few other girls had teased her, insisting that meant Janna had a crush on him. She never really understood that connection - she just kinda liked pranking Marco - but the taunts had gotten to her. There was a sort of pride she felt in being inscrutable, an enigma that could only be unraveled on her own terms. Had he figured her out so easily when she herself had been in denial? A mumbled “uh, sure” was the best she could as she ran through the last few months in her head trying to figure out if she’d betrayed her feelings.

“It’s pretty loud in here, can we head outside?” Janna only nodded in response, her own racing thoughts drowning out her surroundings. The DJ was announcing some kind of special song request as the gym doors closed behind them and they stepped out into the chilly winter air. “Oh, right, um-” Tom quickly took his jacket off, handing it to her. “Since it’s cold, and I can make my own fire, and-”

“Thanks,” she gruffly said, putting her arms through it. Damn him. She was cold, and he was being thoughtful and helpful, but it only made the upcoming conversation even more difficult for her to have. One hand idly pawed through the enchanted storage compartment she’d fitted in her dress (even in formalwear, she considered function most important). Damnit, she’d left her entire arsenal at home, save for a prototype glass bottle that would harmlessly evaporate on impact, which was filled with some leftover antigravity potion - no easy way out of this, then.

“No problemo,” he drawled, pointing finger guns at her before jamming both hands into his pockets and staring at the ground. “Since Star and I broke up, I’ve been trying really hard to just be my own person. Heck, you’re the one that showed me that’s what I needed to focus on. I had no clue what I was doing.... Honestly, I still don’t.” He paused again, turning back towards the school. “Being here, it just makes it hard to ignore how things have been kinda, you know, weird lately, between…” A little fireball coming off his finger zigzagged back and forth between them.

Why was he so insistent on bringing this up? “Look, Tom, we don’t have to-”

He turned back towards her “Yes, Janna, I think we do! If we don’t deal with it now it’s only going to get worse, and I don’t- I can’t-”

“Dude, drop it, OK? Let’s just go back inside so we can-”

“NO!” A puff of flame shot out of his head but quickly dissipated, leaving only a lingering sizzle and water in his eyes. “I can’t do this anymore! I like you, Janna. I really like you, and it’s screwing everything up.” ...wha? There were a few hundred possible ways Janna thought to respond, but none even made it beyond a guttural yelp in her throat, so Tom continued unabated. “I know you’re you, and you can stay really chill about stuff even when you care a lot, but I can’t, OK? You’re clever and fearless and everything’s more fun with you. You’re one of my best friends and that’s why I couldn’t keep doing this without telling you even if I’m probably making a complete idiot of myself right now.” Every second that Janna remained utterly paralyzed on the spot left Tom’s eyeliner even more streaked as his tears rained down, each tiny splash hissing on the cold pavement and melting the nearby snow and ice. “Yeah, OK, I get it. Look, forget I said anything, I just want to still be friends, OK? I- I totally get if you want some space for a while, so I’ll just- alright, bye.” He wiped off his face with his sleeve and turned around, floating off the ground and flying back into the building, leaving Janna alone on the sidewalk.

The oncoming shivers in Janna’s spine provided the final push to lift the dense fog clouding her mind. He’d just confessed to her, he had a crush on her, and she’d basically just snapped his heart in two. Pangs of guilt and sorrow and joy all ganged up on her; was this how bad things had been for Star and Marco? She almost felt sorry for ribbing them about their romantic struggles now. At this point the only thing left to do was to find Tom, so she sprinted into the building after him, braving the fray of the dance floor once more.

Can’t be that hard to spot a tall set of horns with three eyes. Even though there were all sorts of monsters in attendance, there were very few demons, but that didn’t seem to help her locate him. He wasn’t responding to her texts either, ugh! As Janna kept looking around, she realized she didn’t recognize anyone here. She’d left Echo Creek Academy at the same time as Marco but didn’t go to college, nor had she spent a ton of time with Mewni’s teenage population before the Cleaving. The Underworld was what she knew best; it was where she’d felt most at home, even with two whole dimensions merged together, and that realization spurred her to keep searching. Janna barged through another door into the hallway and rounded a corner, instantly colliding with someone.

“Ex-CUSE me! Watch your freaking face before I pulv-” Ponyhead shouted, shaking her hair back into place after being bumped into the locker. “Oh, it’s you, girl! Where you been? And is that Tom’s jac-”

“Tom. Have you seen him?”

“Oh, I see how it is, first Starco gets their own flipping song and runs outside to go boink under the moonlight or whatever, then my boyfriend runs off to sell a toaster or whatever, then Tom comes in here all moody and doesn’t want to talk to me, and now you’re abandoning me too? I feel like I’ve barely been around you guys lately, why does no one want to spend time with Ponyhead?”

“Wait, didn’t you dump- never mind, Pony, this is important, OK? I seriously blew it, I need to talk to him-”

“Hey, woah, is there some drama going on here? Shoot, why didn’t you say so? OK, so, he was floating around in circles out here for a bit. I came out here to do my bi-hourly makeup check just a minute ago and I do believe he was going back into the gym, mmhm, yes, that is where he was. Go do whatchu gotta do and give me the juicy deets after, mmkay?” Ponyhead winked and whacked Janna on the back with her horn.

Janna ran back into the gym and finally spotted Tom standing in the center of the floor, uninterestedly swaying back and forth to the beat of some crooning couple’s ballad. When his eyes met hers, his gaze became visibly pained as he turned to walk away. “Tom!” Her pleading shout was emphatic enough to keep him from running, but it also attracted an audience and left her standing there, too uncomfortable to speak.

Janna put one foot forward, then another, then another, willing herself forward against her better judgment. She’d frankly had enough: enough talking about her feelings, enough uncertainty about her own relationships, enough giving a single damn about “what-if”s. There’d be plenty of time later to tell him he was her best friend too, to assuage his doubts, and to put more meaningful words to her own feelings, but for now, she had settled on a course of action that began with reaching into her pocket to pull out the lone potion bottle within.

“Uh, Janna, what-” Tom stammered, a different kind of concern than the one he’d been stewing in all night bubbling up in his expression as the crowd backed up slightly. Some tiny voice in the back of her mind registered that they seemed nervous to the point of being frightened, and that comforting feeling pushed her to do the one last thing she needed to do. Before he could react, she slammed the bottle to the ground at her feet and felt the weak antigravity effect take hold. Janna closed the last few steps of distance to Tom, firmly grabbed both his shoulders, and kicked off the ground, crashing her lips into his as she hovered a few inches off the dance floor. Tom unconsciously did the same, letting her momentum carry both of them into the air until the confused, but cheering, audience was beneath them.

As he started to return the kiss, he hesitantly placed one arm on her waist and another behind her back to keep them from drifting apart, and Janna wasn’t sure she’d ever felt so secure.

***

Alright, that’s the last of them. Marco finished carefully stacking the photo strips in Star’s bag while he waited for her to return from the restroom. The photobooth had thankfully been a much more fun and much less emotionally exhausting experience this time around, though a very smug Ben Photino had still greeted them when they were done, $650 richer than before.

Now’s my chance, Star thought as she snuck up and affectionately pounced on Marco from behind. Nearly everything about tonight had been perfect so far - just her, Marco, and their friends getting a night of dancing and partying she wasn’t sure she’d ever forget. For so much of her life, it had seemed like nothing important could ever happen without a sizable dose of drama and conflict; by comparison, this all seemed like a dream, and she didn’t want to wake up anytime soon. Speaking of her friends, though… “Hey, where are the others?” She felt a bit guilty over ditching everyone else to go back to the booth for corn knows how much time, but she was certain they wouldn’t have gone too far.

“Not sure,” Marco responded, craning his neck and spotting a tuft of pink spiky hair and two brown horns across the gym. Why was he heading for the exit?

Marco started to lead the way across the gym floor when the sound system screeched with audio feedback and boomed with the sound of tapping a microphone. “Echo Creek, are we having fun tonight?” the DJ, Kim H. Brian, asked the cheering crowd. “We’re gonna keep this party flowing, but right now we have a very special song for all the soulmates out there, so get ready to twist and twirl your special guy or girl.” Star and Marco tentatively stopped in their tracks.

“Is that-” Marco started.

“What Tom was talking about?” Star finished. “We have to get him before he misses it!” What did you do this time, Tom?

(LINK TO AUDIO)

They had made it to the center of the dance floor when the lights dimmed and tinted red. It was obviously from a stage light, but the effect still flooded them with the same hopes and wants and fears from their run-ins with the Blood Moon. Marco gently smiled and took the lead, keeping one hand in hers and tugging her closer with the other on her waist. Piano chords opened the piece - a slow waltz - and Star and Marco were taking their first steps when the cello started to play a hauntingly familiar melody. It struck them both at the same time - this was the same tune that had played when they danced under the light of the Blood Moon only a few months into her friendship. Their moves grew more daring and flashy as the song went on, spinning and swaying to the rhythm.

“I always forget how good a dancer you are, Marco” Star dreamily sighed when he spun her around and dipped her down.

“My grandma taught me. She says that the only right way to dance is the fun way,” Marco laughed, lingering for half a second too long as the music swelled around them. Somewhere in those blue eyes sparkling with only love for him, he’d lost track of the world around them. Only after he noticed how the blonde curls in front of her ears shimmered in the red light did he snap back to reality and continue the dance, much to Star’s amusement.

“That’s good, because it’s always fun with you.” They stepped in harmony, slowly rotating as they box stepped to the same waltz that had once been a source of apprehension. Star took her hand off his shoulder and lifted it to his face, rubbing her thumb over his cheek. She knew the contours of his face inside and out, could describe every last detail of all the facial hairs that he’d given silly names, could picture every last one of the warm and loving ways his soothing chocolate gaze could pierce her soul, yet it didn’t stop her from being completely enraptured by it now. That intimate knowledge informed her when even the most trivial thing was out of place, which is why she decided to flick a spot just under his mole. “You had a fleck of corn.”

“In my defense, your dad’s cooking is really messy.”

“Yeah… it was cute, though. Like you had a second mole.” Something had changed in the waltz from what they remembered, a different theme slowly building until it led into a refrain that was entirely new yet somehow familiar in a way neither could place. It was a vibrant, comforting melody that felt right for them. Star shifted her hands to the back of his neck as the distance closed between them. Though Marco had grown noticeably taller than her, in her heels she found herself at nearly eye level with him as she rested her forehead on his.

Marco’s arms slithered around her waist, holding her tight as their lively waltz morphed into intimate, formless swaying. “This- this is really nice.”

“Yeah… I love it. I love you, Marco.” She paused a moment, leaning back to get a clear view of as much of him as she could; even after a year and a half of being together and years of friendship before that, she was still giddy over how much she truly loved every bit of him. “Nothing’s ever going to change that.”

“I love you too, Star. I’m not going anywhere.” Their hands joined once more as they resumed their spirited dance, their devotion to one another vaulting their joy to new heights. Neither cared about elegance or form anymore; their steps and spins and lifts came from the deepest places within, as if their very souls were mingling in the air above. Plucked strings accentuated the song as it grew calmer and entered what Marco was fairly sure was its final verse. A bittersweet sensation bubbled up from within his chest; he’d had plenty of moments with Star that he’d never wanted to end, but this one seemed to have an extra significance attached. The final chord of the waltz rung out, the pair both freezing in place in their final waltz pose, stunned at the beauty of what had just transpired.

The crowd’s clapping broke finally them out of their trance. “Woah,” they breathed out in unison. In her breathless state, Star idly wondered if the applause was for them, but she realized how silly that was as the full breadth of the outside world slowly trickled back into her senses. Shortly after, the dance went back to normal; had it been a dream? No, of course not, it had literally just happened mere seconds ago, but the impact it had on them felt otherworldly.

Returning from the daze, Marco finally recalled their goal of finding Tom, and the extent to which Marco wanted to crush Tom in a thankful hug and blubber into his shoulder gave it an additional sense of urgency. He turned to her with a determined look, and had it returned. “We should find Tom.” They went to the gym exit, but it was blocked by... Miss Skullnick.

“Oh, it’s you. Nice to see you, Star,” she saccharinely sneered. “Don’t be trying anything funny, you hear me? We’ve already had four couples’ ‘incidents’.”

A shiver ran through Star at the involuntary thought of Miss Skullnick catching her and Marco in a more... private moment, but she quickly brushed it aside for her own sanity. “Skullzy, we’re just trying to find our friend,” she whined.

“Well, too bad, you can’t use this door. The sidewalk somehow melted and completely iced over, and I don’t wanna be sued for liability!”

“C’mon, Star,” Marco said. “We can just go out the front door.” She was still indignant, but acquiesced and followed Marco into the main building and through a hallway. They rounded the corner to the main entrance and stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of Ponyhead passionately making out with Seahorse.

“Pony?!?” Star shouted.

“Oh, um, why hello Star and Earth Turd!”

“Greetings!” Seahorse added in his usual monotone chipper voice.

Star slapped her hand to her forehead. “I thought you broke up ‘for really-realz’ this time, Pony?”

“Well, yes, mmhmm, I do believe that is how I described the sequence of events that occurred. But then, well, you know how it is with him… we made up while y’all went off to take a bazillion pictures or whatever. That weird old human lady that kinda looks like a troll caught us while we were-”

“Pony!” Star yelled, cutting her off in shock. Really, though, the most surprising part was that Ponyhead had been responsible for only one of the so-called “couple’s incidents.”

“Lilacia gave a very high satisfaction rating to the Reflectacorp™ line of vibrating-”

Marco stepped in and clamping Seahorse’s mouth shut before they could be traumatized any further. Star rolled her eyes and took Marco’s hand once more, heading past the other couple towards the front door.

“Fine, I see how it is. C’mon, Seahorse, let’s go get freak-ay on the dance floor!”

“Reflectacorp™ disco technology allows you to boogie and/or woogie risk-free, guarantee-!”

The double doors shut behind Star and Marco as they stepped out into the cold. They walked around the building towards the gym and saw that Miss Skullnick had been telling the truth; but there was no one else in sight, only the snowflakes gently drifting through the air and a full moon above in the night sky. Star still wanted to get back to her friends, but the tranquil scene gave her pause as she stood beside him. Something had been subtly gnawing at her all night - though it’d been on her mind longer than that, if she was honest with herself. “Hey Marco?”

“Yeah?”

“When Eclipsa said earlier about ‘another dance’...” She swallowed, letting the implication hang between them. “Do you think that’s something that will happen?”

He glanced at her quizzically until the meaning sank in and his heart skipped a beat. Was she- did she- is she asking… His eyes blinked rapidly once, twice, three times while he processed the gravity of the question. But his surprise quickly dissolved; after all, he’d been thinking about it too. Maybe he hadn’t drawn that specific connection, but how many times tonight alone had he beheld the wonderful girl beside him and remarked to himself that he’d be happy with her for the rest of his life? He swiveled around to stand in front of her, taking both of her hands into his own. “If you want it to, then I know it will, someday.”

She sighed happily, lacing her fingers through his. It wasn’t even the first time they’d declared their love with permanence, but no matter how far they went, they couldn’t help but be concerned about how the other felt about the next step. “Didn’t a lot of people usually wait until they’re, like, 30 to get married on Earth?”

“A lot of them, yeah,” he admitted, “but, I dunno, I don’t really care about that.”

“Me neither,” she asserted, happily beaming at him.

“So we just… let it happen when we’re ready, I guess.”

“Mmhmm,” Star hummed, feeling a warmth deep inside that combated the chill prickling her skin. One of her hands left his and tangled itself in his hair, as her gaze fondly roved the face she hoped to see as long as she lived before finally settling on his lips. He had the same idea, leaning forward and sweetly kissing her. Their lips were a bit chapped from the cold, but it didn’t bother either of them; this signified something far more than physical gratification. She pressed them closer together until there was no distance left between them, the dual friction of his soft, inviting lips moving against hers and her silky dress rubbing on the coarse fabric of his jacket thrummed through her entire body.

When they separated, his eyes scanned the sky for a moment before sheepishly turning back downwards. “Huh,” he murmured.

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s stupid.” Star raised an eyebrow insistently, the pair still in each other’s arms. “It’s just, I thought that maybe- maybe the Blood Moon would be shining, or our cheekmarks would glow or something. It’s dumb, I know-”

“Well, that does happen to us a lot,” she conceded. “But I’m pretty sure the eclipse isn’t supposed to start until, like, 3 AM.” “Have you ever thought about when we broke the Curse?”

“What do you mean?”

Star stepped away from their embrace, folding her arms and stuffing her frigid hands under her armpits as she frustratedly tried to piece together her complicated thoughts. “Like, when we were in the Severing Stone, I remember it took us back to the Blood Moon Ball and we started dancing… what happened after that? If it never changed how we feel, what was even the point?”

Marco shrugged; when he’d finally accepted his feelings once and for all, he’d dismissed the entire concept of the Curse as bogus, but since then he had considered it in some new lights. “If it was actually a curse, I’m glad we got rid of it, but… looking back, I’m kinda glad that the Blood Moon Ball went like it did. That was one of the first times I saw how special you are to me.”

“Same. Plus, that’s where I learned you dance good,” she growled with a smirk. “But still… sometimes I wonder if I told you I loved you while we were in there. Because I did love you then, you know. Even if I was trying to push it away.”

“Maybe we’ll never know.”

“I guess I’ll just have to tell you every chance I get from now on, then, because you’re stuck with me, Diaz.”

“So long as we both shall live. Do you accept?” He asked with a cheeky grin.

Her laughter, bubbly and playful and sincere all at once, was answer enough for Marco. Not one to be outdone, though, Star carefully lowered herself onto one knee, lowering her head and closing her eyes solemnly before looking back up at him. “I dooOOOH-” She shrieked as the icy sidewalk took its toll and sent her toppling sideways. Marco reacted quickly, stopping her from hitting the ground and helping her to her feet. “Maaaaybe we should go inside now.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he responded, draping his jacket over both their shoulders like a cape. “Still have to thank Tom.” She clung to him as they hurried back around the school and into its shelter from the cold - even shared body heat and emotional warmth could only do so much. Although they’d removed whatever eternal supernatural soul-binding curse the Blood Moon may have bestowed, Marco mused, they’d still shared a tender first dance and grown as partners under its light, once upon a time. Perhaps, in a roundabout way, it had always been a blessing, too. In a sense, they’d just cleaved their own souls together again with only a simple promise. No magic, no curses, just Star Butterfly and Marco Diaz... and that was more than enough.

They stepped back into the gym, ready for the hours of partying ahead of them, and were greeted by the sight of Janna and Tom floating in the air locked in a passionate kiss. Star and Marco’s eyeballs both nearly bugged out of their heads as their eyes whipped back and forth between each other and the spectacle in front of them, leaving them with only one possible response.

“WHAT THE-”

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #583: Shocking Discovery! (Persona 5)

8:34 p.m. at Okumura's Residence, Living Room......

Lavenza: (Immediately Closes her Book Loudly) Eureka!!

Morgana: (Abruptly Wakes up On Lavenza's Lap) Huh?! Wha- What's going on?

Lavenza: Mona-Chan, I have just witnessed a very shocking revelation as we speak!

Morgana: (Tirelessly Rubbing his Eyes) "Shocking Revelation"?.....What did you discovered?

Lavenza: Something very intriguing about the Joker.

Morgana: Ren?...Did you discovered anything new about his persona or something?

Lavenza: Even better. I have discovered that the Joker.....Is half kitten!

Morgana: ..............................What?

Lavenza: I said that I have discovered that he is half kitten. (Boops on Morgana's Nose) Just like you.

Morgana turns to Ren, who is relaxingly resting his head on Makoto's lap on the other side of the room.

Morgana: (Turns Back to Lavenza and Sighs) Alright. I'll bite. What makes you think Ren's a half cat?

Lavenza: Well, ever since I started spending time with each and everyone of you the past two months, I have noticed a few similarities between the both of you.

Morgana: (Raised an Eyebrow) Really now?

Lavenza: (Simply Nodded) You enjoy taking naps, receiving head pats, and cuddling with love ones. Most noticably on their lap.

Morgana: (Starts Blushing) W-Well, I mean...... Y-You're lap is pretty cozy.....

Lavenza: (Giggles Softly) It's okay, Mona-Chan. There's no need for you to feel flustered. I've always enjoyed your company. Even now.

Morgana: (Starts Smiling a Little) Thanks. I-I enjoy your company too, Lavenza.

Lavenza: (Smiles Softly as She Gives Morgana a Small Peck on top of his Head)

Morgana: (Starts Blushing Again) T-T-Thanks for that!

Lavenza: (Giggles Softly) You are very welcome, my fluffy friend.

Futuba: (Jump on the Couch and Sat Next with the Duo with a Bowl of Popcorn in Her Hands) Hey, kiddos. Whatcha doing?

Lavenza: We were just examining how the Joker is half kitten.

Futuba: Who? Ren? ('Heh') Oh yeah. He is such a cat sometimes.

Morgana: Wait. You're telling me you believe in this theory too, Futuba?

Futuba: Heck yeah I do. I mean, have you even seen the signs lately? The amount of naps he's taken, the hair ruffles, his enjoyment of cuddles and laying on the Queen's lap. I'm honestly surprised no one didn't notice any of this sooner.

Lavenza: ('Gasps') Oh my gosh. (Smiles Brightly) That's the same exact details I've thought of beforehand!

Futuba: (Smiles Brightly) For real? That's right, Lavvy-san! (Gently Ruffles the top of Lavenza's Hair) Big sis is so proud of you~

Lavenza: (Giggles Softly) Thank you, big sis Futuba.

Morgana: Eh...I dunno, you guys. Even if we do have those similarities from another, I can't really imagine Ren as an actual-

Makoto: (Giggles Softly on the Other Side of the Room) Oho, Ren~

Ren: (Makes a Relaxed Noise that Resemble a Kitten's Soft Purr)

Makoto: (Ruffling the top of Ren's Hair While Having a Sheepish Smile on Her Face) I swear. You're too much sometimes!~

Ren: (Chuckles Lightly) In my defense, you and your lap are still the best form of comfort for me~ I can sleep like this for hours on end if I really want to.

Makoto: (Rolled her Eyes Playfully) I can believe that. (Gives Ren a Kiss on top of his Head) I love you so much, Ren~

Ren: (Snuggles Onto Makoto's Lap With a Big Dorky Smile on his Face) I love you too, my dear queen~

Makoto: (Starts Giggling Some More)

Morgana: (Eyes Widened in Shock at the Slight of What is in Front of Him From the Other Side of the Room) Oh my god. He really is half cat.....(Looks Back at Lavenza) I'm never doubting your discoveries ever again.

Lavenza: (Smiles Brightly) Thank you, Mona-Chan~

Futuba: You guys think Renny gonna turn into a were-cat one of these days? Very similar to a werewolf, but in a kitty form!

Lavenza: Oooh. (Claps her Hands in Excitement) That would be very interesting to see Indeed.

Morgana: (Gives Futuba a "Really?" Look) Don't encourage her, Lavenza.

@princeoflions123

@keyenuta

@26shann

@cyber-wildcat

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