#and making things like sitting at my desk to work on my manga much harder

[feliciadraws]

Hey guys I am terribly sorry about the lack of manga updates as of late, I kind of took another unannounced hiatus and haven’t worked on it since May (some life stuff and a few health issues deciding to be a pain in the backside, as well as DnD taking up some of my time hehe) but despair not! I’m back working on it and sharing another snippet with Ammy and Kokari!

[rinnstars]

hello hello hello !! it's me again, aqua girl !

another req ( yes, bc my mind never runs out of ideas ) hiihihihih.

imagine the trope " she fell first but he fell harder " with rin. + literal highschool love?? THAT'S LIKE, SOMETHING I COULD NEVER HAVE :((

ik you haven't done my previous req but im just dumping this on your ask notif :)) i hope you don't mind thoo, please take your time and get some rest ! thank you thank you !!

project love!

the start of yours and rin’s love story (with a science project)

itoshi rin x reader: fluff, you fell first & rin falls harder ofc<3, not proofread + likes and reblogs r appreciated <3

a love at first sight - you’ve seen it happen in those mangas you’ve read since forever, where both characters’ eyes practically light up when they see each other for the first time, where their heart beat a little too loud characterised by the loud beating rhythm beside the character written in in black ink, where they practically see each other in their millions of lifetime lived before this one. of course, you’ve long given up on such dreams depicted in fantasy dreams, opting to relieve them through reading such mangas or hearing about it from friends that are viewing everything through rose-tinted glasses whilst laying on your bed with that playlist that the hopeless romantic in you when you were younger made right on valentine day to manifest. you think youre all grown up now compared to the much more childish and kiddish version of you when you were just a little younger, smiling without a care in the world with your hands wrapped around friends, hands holding that bag that’s a little out of place compared to your now plain and boring one bought simply to fit in. and perhaps, its foreshadowing when you fall asleep that night dreaming of another romantic fantasy plot that you practically ripped right off that show you grew up on.

and right now, you think youre practically those same manga characters as you sit right beside itoshi rin. its stupid - the way his hair perfectly frames his pretty face that is even more elevated with the sun reflected on it that you have to stare through the reflection of the phone youre awkwardly fiddling with, the way his eyes is practically angelic as it stares right underneath the desk onto a football notebook-esque thing that you cannot make head or tails of, and of course the way his voice practically make you flush and make your heart beat as though you’re riding a rollercoaster as you (try to) nonchalantly wave to introduce yourself to your new seat partner. you’ve read countless of mangas to know how this is supposed to go - you’ll be assigned a group project and he’ll somehow fall in love with you mid discussion and confess to you at the very first place you meet. except: you don’t even think you can carry this group project with the way your attention naturally draws to him so focused and determined as he slowly flips through the books as though hes studying for an exam, you don’t think you can even hear the teacher with the way your ears only capture that heart beat that even beats against your head with the background noise of his breaths that sends little electric shocks to your spine, you don’t even think you can get any work done with him beside you with you being barely being able to send a text to your friends about him. and of course after a few weeks of just looking at him through your phone that you pretend to type away at every science lesson, you are undoubted assigned said assignment - one that neither of you listened about during class and now turn to look at each other dumbfounded without a single clue of anything that has occured in this class.

if anything, you think you blame this unfortunate situation of you and him on wasting your luck on your lucky draws and arcade games during the holidays - both of you in the library having to write about a famous scientist and their creation that none of you have any interest in, scratching your heads as you two look at your laptop that has an embrassingly large crack on its screen. if anything, you think not even the lack of distance between the two of you can aid you in this graded assignment as you two scramble to find any citation and information just a day before the graded assignment is due. well, technically you think it wouldn’t have to be this way if he was actually awake on the day the assignment was announced and not awake out of shock of having his name called, jolting up within a few seconds as though practiced, or if you had the guts to ask him when he was free until the very last minute (that he thankfully apparently didn’t have practice) and with the time ticking, you don’t think you have time to be regretting on things better left unsaid, as you zoom in whilst letting rin take down the key point from the article and writing the page in the article section, slightly cursing as his hands accidentally smudges a little ink whilst writing. you think without the stress, you would practically be red in the face having being so near him, his hands touching yours a little as he lean in so close to the screen that you think he might just need glasses right next to your face to read the words as his eyes squint a little to make sense before pulling back to write hurriedly onto the large piece of paper that slowly gets filled.

and itoshi rin thinks hes absolutely lovesick and unlike himself. ironically, outside the field, he isn’t focused on much outside of things he finds a little fun in - horror movies and mangas he has downloaded on his phone to that he sometimes watches on the long bus ride home from his training centre, english classes that he gets to write stories that draws inspiration from said horror films, collecting his favourite soccer magazines from that convenience store down the street whose owner still recognises him by heart. and he sure isn’t focused in that science class that’s simply compulsory - he’ll do well enough to pass as per always, studying hard at home by making notes and doing the assignments and opting to take advantage of sitting at the back at the corner by reading soccer magazine bought an hour ago on the way to school beside his partner that he knows for sure isn’t focusing on whatever’s in front either. there’s nothing much for him to notice, all he really cares is doing decently in school to promote to the next year, using his football club to practice a little before heading to the pathways to his dream at that training facility that’s a little too far for him on days that is what truly matters to him.

perhaps its fate way of messing with him as he skips his one day of training, sitting beside you, right in the library cramming god-knows what project that he gets reminded the day before of the dateline. he didn’t think his heart ever pumped this heart against his chest outside of the field as he sits so closely to you that his head gets a little dizzy which only getting worse as he has to lean in to read the shaky words on the screen right beside your face that he thinks he makes contact with his own face, his hands brushing against yours that sends electricity run through his body as he attempts to write as fast as he can as his sweaty palm slows his usually fast writing down, his eyes that seems to naturally focus on you rather than the bolded letters on the screen that is practically his exam grade. hes never felt this way about someone else, his mind focused solely on his dreams and passion that everything else had always seem like background noise to him, but you seem to stand out strangely as though you’ve placed a spell on him that has him hooked. and when hes all done, walking with you under the moonlight, he thinks you look like an actual angel with the way the moonlight reflects on your face as it crinkles as you grin, laughing at some stupid joke he strangely says that is so unlike him he had to take a double take on what he said himself. and he thinks you might be a gift given from whatever deity he should start believing in - with the way you so smoothly enter his orbit that he swears he built layers of walls up from just a few years ago, as though you had the key to his heart and simply unlocked it and attached yourself onto him like you two were meant to be. and he thinks you really might be some sort of deity next when you wave goodbye to him at your apartment that seemed so natural, as you infiltrate his mind even on his walk home where he skipped his own bus stop for the sake of staying with you just a little longer, abandoning his own routine and throwing it away completely for you.

and he knows hes definitely lovesick - when he thinks back of all those stupid games his friends do at that training facility, calculating yours and his name on some random website to find the love percentage between you and him whilst biting his lip at two in the morning after finding himself unable to sleep with thoughts of you keeping his brain awake, taking out a flower from the living room at two in the morning to do the ‘do they like me not” in his own room with his palm sweating each round, and checking your contact he found from the class group chat looking at your profile picture and feeling his cheeks and heart grow warm at the bright smile you sported. and he thinks hes definitely screwed when you and him pass the project to the teacher, and all he can pray for now is for another project for you and him to do so he can get to have another excuse to be so close with you, to be in your orbit once more, to be someone a little more in your bright world.

and its weeks later at the same library, this time simply a study date as you focused on your work and he fiddles around with his pen, unable to keep his eyes and heart off you who he thinks looks adorable with your scrunched face and lip bit as you attempted to find the solution to god knows what, where he suddenly blurts out like an idiot he thinks:

“i think i really like you” which he thinks is an understatement to the growing feelings that claws at his heart. he thinks if you asked, he would do anything - from wearing those cringe matching t-shirts that he cant help but do a double take on whenever he goes out and pass by clothing store to daydream of you and him in those, from performing in front of a whole crowd some cringe love song to profess his love to the whole wide world like the mangas he sees you read underneath the table during science class, from even attempting to giving you the whole wide world. and he thinks he might have just given you just that as he looks at your stunned appearance, your eyes widening completely as you shifted your focus from your boring homework to his with just a turn of a head.

“.. i think i like you too, rin.” and you think ironically that you just might be living in those mangas that you used to read of and still do, as he looks at you as though youre his whole world, as your hand linger and finally holds his, fitting in his like two matching puzzle pieces meant to be, as you lean a little closer to his face, practically hearing both yours and his shaky breath and fast heartbeat as he nervously merge your lips together for a few seconds before immediately pulling away.

[handstosasamiya]

A New First

Fluffy First Time One Shot under the cut.

Rating: Explicit/18+

Pairing: Sasaki and Miyano (Post Canon - They are 18+ in this oneshot)

Sasaki is house sitting, which means the boys are alone. No time limits, no interuptions. They discuss and discover what making love means to them.

(This discription kinda makes me want to gag with a spoon, but it is what is, ha)

“Hey, Miya!” Sasaki purred into his phone as he stuffed a duffle bag with clothes. “Soooooo, I am house-sitting for a friend this week. He is heading home for spring break. I know you were planning on doing some extra exam prep over the break, but I was wondering, if maybe, you wanted to come keep me company, Saturday, maybe?”

“Uhh, sure, I’d like that. I’ll let my mom know I’ll be away this weekend. I don’t think it will be a problem. What time did you want to meet up?” Miyano’s voice vibrated against Sasaki’s face.

“Whenever you can arrive, is great. I’ll send you the address and you can just text me when you are on your way.”

“Ok, that sounds good. I will.”

“I really miss you.” Sasaki grinned.  

“We just saw each other a few days ago, but yes, I miss you too. I can’t talk long though. I am meeting Tashiro and Kureasawa at the library for a project but I can call you tonight.”

“Ok, bye then. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Sasaki tossed the duffle bag on the floor and plopped stomach down on his bed.

Wait, did Miyano say he’d tell his mom he’d be gone for weekend?’  I said, Saturday. I was hoping he’d stay the weekend but didn’t want to spook him. If I have him all night to myself, I am not sure I’ll be able to control myself. The only thing I’ll have to stop me from devouring him is my own will. Ugh.

Sasaki buried his face his pillow.

You don’t play fair, Yoshikazu.

*

Meanwhile in Miyano’s room:

Wait, why did I say I’d stay the weekend? He invited me for Saturday.  Miyano dropped his head to his desk and scolded himself.

When he said he was house sitting for the week, I got ahead of myself. If he doesn’t want me to stay, I’ll come home of course, but…

Miyano made his way to his manga shelf and pulled a volume off his shelf.

Is it this manga where the characters are dog sitting?  

Miyano sat on the end of his bed and flipped through the manga. After a few moments of review, he flopped back on his bed and covered his blushing face with the book.  

I forgot how steamy this one is.

Sasaki and I will be alone together. Like, alone, alone.  No one to interrupt us. We’ve made out a few times, but always in places or at times where things couldn’t go too far.  If I spend the night, or even just the day, how far am I willing to go?

Ahh! Why I am I thinking about this? Miyano whined to himself.  Stop me! I need to go meet Tashiro and Kureasawa and I can’t be all worked up!

*

“Geez, Miyano. What is with you? You seem abnormally distracted today.” Tashira commented reaching across the table for Miyano’s sheet to see how much research he had accomplished.  “You hardly did anything?”

“Trouble in paradise, maybe?” Kureasawa asked.

“No, not trouble. Sasaki and I are fine. More than fine. I am going to see him this weekend actually! He’s house-sitting and –“

“House-sitting, you say. So, you will be all alone with him then? Somewhere private? I can see why you are distracted,” Kureasawa teased.   

“What! No! I am not thinking about being alone with Sasaki!” Miyano protested turning red as a tomato.

“BS. You totally are. What are you planning to do with him, or to-?” Tashiro pried, leaning in closer.

“Just normal things!” Miyano leaned away from Tashiro and blushed harder.

“You and your normal things doesn’t give me anything to work with you know!” Tashiro protested.

“Just normal things, eh?” Kureasawa raised his eyebrow, causing his glasses to slip slightly on his nose. “I know what I would be doing if my girlfriend and I were shacked up alone for the weekend together.”

Tashiro and Miyano groaned in unison.

“I would make sweet love to her from dusk to dawn.” Kureasawa sighed.

“Stawp!” Miyano squealed, covering his face with his papers.  

“Shhh,” echoed from several directions of the library.

“You made me yell in the library!” Miyano scolded quietly.

Kureasawa chuckled, “Well, whatever you do, I hope you two have fun. You will have to give me all the details so I can tell my girlfriend.”

“I will definitely NOT being doing that.” Miyano declared.

*

10:30am, Saturday morning, Sasaki was laying on the couch of his friend’s apartment reading the latest manga Miyano gave him, a calico cat purring on his chest, when the door buzzer rang.

“Miya?” he asked into the intercom.

“Yes, it’s me.”

“I’ll come down to get you and walk you up.”

*

“So this is my friend Minamoto’s place. He is a trust fund baby. His father owns a software company and he’s loaded. His girlfriend lives near where he grew up so he likes to go home often, but he has two cats and expensive instruments, so he asked if I wanted to hang out here and keep them company. It’s a great gig. It’s way easier studying here than at home. Nice and quiet.” Sasaki rambled as he took Miyano’s coat and bag and led him into the apartment.

“Wow. It’s nice!” Miyano declared as he took in his surroundings before dropping his gaze to his feet.

“It is! I’m a little jelly but if he’s gonna let me use the place, I can’t complain.”

“Do you want to take me on a tour?” Miyano asked.

“A tour? Of the apartment? Sure.” Sasaki stretched out his arms, encouraging Miyano to follow, “Well, this is the living room and kitchen. Bathroom is here. Linen closet. Minamoto’s room. And this is the spare room where I am staying.”

“So this is where you are sleeping?”

“Ahh, Yup.”

Miyano paused awkwardly in the doorway for a moment and stared at the slightly ruffled bed.

If I stay the night, we’ll we both sleep here? Miyano thought. I want to lie with him now. Thinking about it all day is going to kill me.

 Miyano breathed in sharply and pivoted so he was in front of Sasaki and pulled him into the room.

“Miya?” Sasaki swallowed and focused his gaze on boyfriend. His heart pounded hard in his chest, as he watched Miyano close the door behind them.

Miyano pushed him into a seated position on the bed, stood in front of him and gave him a tender kiss before resting his forehead against his. Black and red bangs intertwined.

“So, uh, what do you want to do today?” Sasaki asked in bewilderment. He was usually the one who initiated any affection. Not that he was complaining. 

“I, I, I want to make love to you, Shuumei-san.” Miyano blurted.

Sasaki eyes widened.

“It’s still morning and you just got here, but ok,” Sasaki stood up and ran his fingers along the hem of Miyano’s sweater and let his breath fall near the nape of his neck.

Miyano gasped and pushed him back down on the bed, “But, but, just wait a minute!”

“MMM?” Sasaki watched Miyano take his hands in his.

“I say I want to make love to you, and I feel like I do, but I don’t know what I mean exactly. When I am with you, I just want to touch you and hold you so close I could melt into your skin. I know talk of semes and ukes isn’t real life and I said I am not an uke, which I’m not, but part of me wants to let you, uh, you know, so I can say we are lovers, but you are a very large man,” Miyano’s eyes dropped to Sasaki’s lap, “a very large man, and I think you’d destroy me, which may sound sexy on the pages of a manga, but is absolutely terrifying in real life and I am not sure if I’ll ever want to do anything like that anyways, by you or to you. And if I don’t want to do that, can I say I want to make love to you? I really want to show you I love you, but I’m suddenly feeling really confused. I’m screwing this up.”

Sasaki stared at Miyano while he rambled and tried his best to process what his boyfriend was saying. His eyes softened and he pulled his hands from Miyano’s so he could cover his smile. A chuckle escaped.

“Don’t laugh at me, Sasaki!” Miyano scolded.

Sasaki walked his fingers over Miyano’s lower stomach, belt buckle and down, barely touching him.

“How do you know I am a large man?” Sasaki teased.

“Umm, one can assume you are proportionate, but I can feel it through our clothes when you get too excited kissing sometimes, you know,” Miyano blushed.

“Oh, my bad.” Sasaki let out a huge belly laugh.

“You’re still laughing!”

“I can’t help it. You are so cute.” Sasaki ran his hands up and down Miyano’s arms, “But seriously, I am glad we are having this conversation. Good to set some boundaries before things get heated”

“You’re right, Sasaki,” Miyano hung his head, “I was just going to jump you.”

“Ha ha ha. That would have startled me but I would have rolled with it. Just to be clear, you are worried we can’t make love, if we don’t do butt stuff?”

“Please don’t say it like that!”

“How else am I supposed to say it, anal penetration? That sounds clinical.”

Miyano covered his years, “No, no, no, no! Stop.”

Sasaki laughed and pulled Miyano into his lap.

“Do you want to hear my thoughts on the subject?”

“Yes, please, but don’t say butt stuff or, ugh.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.” Sasaki buried his face into the crook of Miyano’s neck and kissed it tenderly.

 “Yoshikazu, I love you and you love me, yes?”

“Very much so.”

“And when I kiss you, I hope you feel loved,” Sasaki kissed just below Miyano’s earlobe.

“Hmmm, hmmm,” Miyano closed his eyes and leaned into.

Sasaki again traced his hand along the hem of Miyano’s shirt and grazed the bare skin above his hip. He slipped his hand up his bare back.

“And I hope when I touch you, you feel cherished.”

“I do.” Miyano exhaled the breath he was holding.

“So, if we pour our love into our kisses and touches till we overflow and it spills from us, I think we can say we are making love.” Sasaki turned Miyano towards him and kissed him tenderly. “How does that sound?”

“Poetic, actually.”

“Pfft. You flatter me. While I desperately want to touch you till you overflow, I never want to do anything that would make you feel uncomfortable and I hope you continue to talk to me about your thoughts and feelings. I want you to feel safe with me and we never have to do anything you don’t feel comfortable doing. If I ever get overzealous, you can beat me off with a stick, because admittedly, I’d devour you if you’d let me.”

“Beat you off with a stick?”

“Ha ha. So, what would you really like to do today, Yoshikazu? We can go see a mov- ”

“I really want to make love to you. Shumei-“

Sasaki cut the -san off with a kiss.

“Again please.”

“I want to make love to you, the way you described. I want to touch you until I overflow with love.”

“I’d like that,” Sasaki grinned before falling back and pulling Miyano on top of him, kissing him with fervor, his hands up Miyano’s shirt seeking the comfort of his bare skin.

They just kissed for awhile, a tangle of lips and limbs, hands reaching out for each other.

“I’m too warm,” Miyano said breathlessly, straddling Sasaki as he removed his sweater.

“Me, too,” Sasaki breathed.

Miyano pulled him up by his sweater so he could remove his too.  Miyano ran his hands down Sasaki’s bare chest then stopped to take the sight of him in.  

“You’re so beautiful, Shumei-san.”

“Beautiful, eh?”

“I mean, handsome, I don’t mean to make you feel girl-“

“I don’t mind if you call me beautiful.” Sasaki reached up and touched Miyano softly on the face. He traced his lips with his thumb, “I like it. Can I call you beautiful, too?”

“I don’t mind if you say it.”

“Good, cause it’s true.” Sasaki fell back down on the bed. “God, you are beautiful. But this view of you straddling me is kind of like looking into the sun. So, hot!”  Sasaki draped his forearms over his own eyes.

Miyano grinned, not caring if whether Sasaki meant what he said, or was teasing. He moved Sasaki’s arms, pinning them above his head. He kissed up Sasaki’s neck. When he made it to his ear, he felt Sasaki buck and harden underneath him.  

He began to kiss lower, making his way down Sasaki’s chest. He smiled to himself, when he felt Sasaki buck again as he flicked his tongue over his nipple.

Miyano kissed his way down Sasaki’s abdomen, encouraged but his soft groans. He breathed warmly on the tip of Sasaki’s manhood, that peeked out from the waist of his pants, before freeing it from its clothed restraints.

Sasaki covered his flushed face with his arms once again and gasped when Miyano took him into his mouth and licked down his shaft.

I have never felt this fucking good! If he keeps at this I am going to explode. Sasaki thought to himself.

“No, don’t. Stop.” Sasaki groaned, “Come back up here.”

Surprised, Miyano kissed his way back up to Sasaki’s lips.

“Did you not like it?” Miyano asked.

“I liked it too much,” Sasaki whimpered and flopped over so they were both on their sides. “If I cum, I want to cum together.”

Sasaki fumbled at Miyano’s belt, his old striped belt.

“I’m shaking.” Sasaki lamented.

“I can do it.”

Miyano slipped out of his pants himself.

For a moment, they laid still, naked in each other’s arms.

“I love you so much, it hurts,” Sasaki declared.

Miyano pulled him tight.

“I love you too, Shuu. My heart might burst.”

Another tight squeeze followed.

Sasaki ran his hand down Miyano’s body as he kissed him passionately.

Miyano moaned and moved his hips unconsciously as Sasaki took him in his hand.

Sasaki nibbled on his shoulder as Miyano gyrated against him.

Miyano pulled them closer.

Sasaki responded by moving his own hips in time, their erections pressed together.

He ran his tongue up Miyano’s neck and nibbled on his ear again.

“Ahhh, Shuumei-san,” Miyano whimpered, “I feel like I can’t get close enough to you.”

Sasaki shifted them so he was on top and pinned Miyano underneath him.

“Is this better?” He asked.

“Hmm, hmm,” Miyano responded.

Sasaki wrapped his long fingers around both their manhood’s.

He felt Miyano’s breath quicken, hurrying his own.

“Ahh, I’m gonna spill,” Miyano arched against him.

Sasaki felt him pulse against him.

“Ahh, me, too.”

Sasaki let himself drop on Miyano.

“Let me know if I am squishing you,” he said as he ran his fingers through Miyano’s hair. He peppered his face with kisses.

“You’re not,” Miyano panted, “I like feeling you this close.”

Miyano felt wetness on his cheek.

“Are you crying, Shuu?”

“No. Maybe. I just love you so much, it’s overcoming me.”

Miyano slipped out from underneath him so he could kiss the tears away.

“Did we make so much love, it is also spilling from your eyes?” Miyano teased.

“It seems so. But I want make more and more and more.”

[bakuhoes-dumbass]

Aberration - Chapter 1

MHA!Various x Fem!Reader

Thriller/Horror/Drama

Criminal!AU

Words: 2.3k

A/N: Yay, here’s the first chapter of my new AU! It might be a little slower at first but it’ll pick up the further we get into it. So I hope you like this!

Warnings: Yandere Themes, Mentions of murder, blood, felonies, bullying, swearing.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of MHA, just this story. In no way does this reflect the characters, writers or VAs of the show/manga. MINORS DNI.

~~~

Aberration Masterlist/Character profiles

~~~

In this world, mutations, renamed as ‘Quirks’, are abnormal. Only about 5%-8% of the world population are known to have these so called ‘Quirks’. You are a graduate of one of the most prestigious science tech schools in the country. You’ve been selected to work for a secret scientific research facility that houses some of the most notorious criminals in the nation. Besides their crimes, what makes these individuals incredibly dangerous are their mutations. After meeting these individuals, they seem to have taking a liking to you. That should make your research and search for the cure all that much easier…

Right?

~~~

Before you stands one of the largest facilities you have ever seen. You take a deep breath, attempting to calm your rapidly beating heart. Adjusting the strap on your bag, you make your way into the research center.

Upon entering, you gasp in wonder. The inside is huge, tall pure white walls that meet at a double paned glass ceiling. In front of you is a wall of security, stretching to accommodate the vast interior of the lobby. You walk up to the nearest security officer and give them your information. Thankfully, you were on a list and after checking you over, you're granted entrance to the building.

That's where you meet a man and a woman, both dressed in white lab coats and carrying clipboards. You bow your head to the two of them and they return the gesture.

"Ms. Y/N, I presume? My name is Shota Aizawa and this is my assistant, Momo Yaoyorozu." The older of the two speak.

You smile at the two. "Yes, nice to meet you. I'm Y/N, L/N, graduate of UA science tech. I am so happy to be here and look forward to working with the two of you."

The younger girl nods and smiles, gesturing behind the two of them. "If you would kindly follow us, we can get started."

~~~

"Ms. Y/N, here's the list of the inmates you will be working with from this point on."

Momo hands you a clipboard containing pictures and descriptions of each individual. Your eyes scan the information on the page in front of you, your brow raising with each word you read. "There is… quite a bit of information on these individuals."

Aizawa nods. "Considering how dangerous the subjects are, it's best to have every detail we can."

You internally cringed at the term 'subject'. These were criminals, yes, but they were still living breathing people. Noone deserves to be dehumanized, no matter the reason.

Shaking your head of those thoughts, you continue to look over the notes in your hands. One in particular catches your eye. " 'Multiple counts of 3rd degree murder by reason of insanity' and yet he's only deemed as a level 4 danger?"

The doctor looks over your shoulder at the character profile. "Ah, yes. Fumikage Tokoyami. He's an interesting one, to say the least." You wait for him to continue, but seeing as it doesn't seem like he will, you gesture for him to elaborate. "Tokoyami himself is actually fairly harmless and incredibly cooperating, which is why he gets a level 4 only. However…" Aizawa looks down the hall of the facility to a door near the end. "Dark Shadow is deemed a level 9."

Your eyes shoot up in shock. "Dark Shadow? A level 9? Explain."

"Dark Shadow is his mutation. It's a completely sentient being that he harbors inside of him. Highly dangerous, more so if there is darkness." He looks back at you. "I'll let him explain the reason why he was instituted. He always prefers to explain the story himself."

The more Aizawa explains Tokoyami's situation, the more your excitement builds up, wanting desperately to meet this man. This was such an interesting mutation and you couldn't wait to hear everything he had to tell you. You take a breath to calm your childish manner and clear your throat.

"If it's alright with you, sir, I'd like-" You look down at your clipboard once again. "'Inmate 06' to be the first one I meet with."

Aizawa nods and writes something down in his notebook. "Very well. Follow me this way please."

You follow the doctor down the long white hallway, your excitement growing with each step. Along the way, you notice each door on the facility that lines either side of the stretched hall. Each door had a narrow window towards the top and a small number engraved underneath. You don't take too much notice and keep following the doctor to your destination. However, an eerie feeling makes you freeze in your tracks.

You slowly rotate your head and look at the inmate's door you stopped next to. The color drains from your face as you see two ice blue eyes peering right into yours. It felt like your breath was stolen, a hint of fear and anxiety built up within you from this intense gaze. After what felt like hours, you snap your gaze back to Aizawa and Momo, who were standing in front of a door you were also supposed to be at.

"I would highly advise you to keep cautious while you are in this facility. While we keep all inmates in cuffs that neutralize their mutations, the technology has not been 100% perfected yet and parts of their powers may leak out. That is why we have additional precautionary measures in place for each inmate." Aizawa gives you an impartial look as you walk over. "Now. The only special precaution with Inmate 06 is the lights must stay on at all times. There are no light switches in his cell, so nothing should go wrong. But like I said, always stay cautious."

You nod your head at the doctor's words and turn to face the door. Aizawa places a hand onto the keypad next to the door, scanning his prints before buzzing and opening the door. You give the man one last nod before making your way inside the room. The room itself is bare. White floors, white walls and an equally white ceiling. Nothing was in there except a desk with a chair and a bed.

On top of that bed sat a young man with the body of a human and the head of a crow. Your eyes widen in awe at the beautiful being in front of you. Tokoyami tilts his head and gives you a curious look.

"Oh. Hello, there. I've never seen you before."

The deep voice of the man shocks you. You bow your head and give the bird man a smile. "Hello, Tokoyami. My name is Y/N. I'm the new scientist at this facility. I'm here to get to know and observe you all to help further our findings for a cure. I hope we can be friends."

Tokoyami blinks. "You want to be… friends? With us?"

"Yeah, of course. Why not?" Your smile never leaves your face.

"Well, maybe because we're all… felons? The greater majority of us being murderers?"

"I truly believe everyone deserves a second chance." You gesture to the desk chair, silently asking if you could sit. The man nods and you greatly take your seat. "Now, would you ever be so kind as to answer a few questions for me, Tokoyami? I would like to get to know you a little better." You take out your pen and notebook, opening to a fresh page.

Tokoyami nods again and you give him a smile. "Just a few standard questions first. Can you please state your full name, age and date of birth?"

"Fumikage Tokoyami, age 22, October 30th."

"What is the name of your quirk and how does it work?"

Tokoyami fiddles with the quirk-cancelling cuffs around his wrists at the mention of his quirk but answers anyway. "It's called Dark Shadow. It's a fully sentient shadow that resides inside my body. It can come out when I call call it or it can show itself on it's own. But it's always connected to me and cannot be separated. It…" Tokoyami takes a breath. "It gets stronger the darker my surroundings are. So the less light, the less control I have over it. If it gets too dark, it completely takes over me, no longer under my control."

The longer you listen to him, the wider your eyes get and the more they shine in wonder. "That is incredible! To have that kind of quirk is truly fascinating!"

Hearing your words of praise would have made Tokoyami blush, if he could. He clears his throat in embarrassment. "Why, thank you for those kind words. Though, I doubt having this...quirk, as you say, is all to be impressed about."

You shake your head. "You may not think so, but really, I've never seen anything like it." You excitedly write a few things down before making eye contact with him again. "Now onto my final question of the day. Can you please tell me the reason why you are here?"

Tokoyami stays silent for a moment, staring at nothing in particular, residing in his thoughts. You clear your throat and he looks up to you. You give him a small, comforting smile and it causes Tokoyami's heart to beat harder. For some unknown reason, he suddenly feels like he can trust you with anything.

"I've been charged with multiple counts of 3rd degree murder." He sighs, recalling that day. "I was invited to a college party on a date, by someone whom I had grown quite infatuated with. I never really was one to socialize and never really had any friends. But I really liked this person, so I went. At first it was going okay, nothing too out of the ordinary. Then, the host decided that playing truth or dare was the way to go.

 So my date dragged me to sit down and join them. Every time I was asked, I always chose truth. And everytime, their questions were about my appearance, my mutation. Laughing at all my answers, mocking my looks, talking about how unnatural I was. The more they asked, the more my anxiety and anger built up. But my stubbornness didn't want to show any weakness, so I stayed. 

Finally, I decided to just choose dare instead. At that point, I decided that nothing could be more humiliating than what they've already done." His sharp, red eyes flickered to yours. "Oh, how wrong I was. They dared me to go into the closet with my so-called 'date'. We were shut in and from then, they decided to tell me how this whole thing was a set up, just to humiliate me. That anyone with mutations like myself should just disappear because of how disgusting we are." He spits out that word like it was rotten food. "Remember how I said Dark Shadow gains control in the dark? Well, with my anger rising and the fact that it was almost pitch black in that closet, I lost control of myself and Dark Shadow took control of me. Next thing I remember, I was standing in the middle of the college dorm party, blood painting the floors, the walls, and the entirety of my class slaughtered."

You almost dropped your pen in shock but regained your composure. You give the poor young man a sad smile. He sighs and finishes off his explanation. "I was arrested and charged with multiple counts of 3rd degree murder by reason of insanity, considering I was technically not in my right state of mind at the time."

The two of you sit there in silence, basking in all this new-found information. You close your notebook and set your pen down, facing Tokoyami directly. "Listen to me. There is nothing wrong with the way you look or your quirk. Just because it isn't the societal norm, doesn't mean it's disgusting or wrong. Remember that."

Tokoyami blinks in surprise."Um, thank you." Those were the only words he could say, as how shocked he was at what you said.

You tilt your head and stare at him. "If I may ask, would I be able to feel your head? I'm very curious as to what your feathers feel like. It would greatly help my research as well."

"Oh. U-um, yeah. Sure."

You move to gently sit next to Tokoyami, so as to not startle him too much. You slowly lift your hand and place it on his head, eyes lighting up as you card your fingers through his feathers. "Oh wow, they're so soft!"

Tokoyami's heart speeds up, his feathers ruffling at your touch. He gazes at you with something akin to admiration. No one was ever gentle with him like this before. After another few seconds, you retreat your hand, Tokoyami almost whimpering at the absence.

"Well, I better get going. I have quite a few more things to do today before my shift is over." You gather up your things and bow your head at the half bird boy. "I greatly appreciate your time and look forward to our future sessions. Have a good rest of your day!" You smile at Tokoyami before heading back to the door and signaling Aizawa to open it.

"Goodbye, Ms. Y/N. I look forward to meeting with you again." Tokoyami watches you leave his room. Once you're gone, he runs his hand through his feathers, imagining they were your fingers.

As the door closes, you turn to Aizawa who gives you a disappointed look.

"What?"

"You touched the inmate. Why in the hell would you do that?"

You place your hand on your hip and give the doctor a stern look. "I was curious about his mutation and wanted to see how it felt."

He sighs and runs a hand down his face. "We try to avoid any physical contact with any of the inmates, as it may trigger something deep within them. Remember, Y/N. Every single one of these individuals are dangerous and unstable. Any abnormal behavior could result in catastrophic consequences."

You sigh and shake your head, giving him a chaste nod. "Yes, Sir. You're right. I promise to heed your warning and modify how I work."

The doctor looks satisfied as he turns on his heel and walks further down the long hallway. You quickly follow to keep up. "Now, on to your next subject. Inmate 04, Eijiro Kirishima." You flip the page of your inmate profiles to see a picture of a red-haired man. "He is of a higher danger level, so make sure to keep your guard up. And for the love of God, under any circumstances…

Do not touch him."

~~~

Taglist: @theblueslytherin @sterassion @somechick30003 @meena-in-a-nutshell @justtj-andnonumberspls @zombieonna @amajikiwife @yulifee @atexansadventureintokinkandlife @ep-ip-ha-ny @hcneymilkks @pastelmoonwitche @stayarmytinyzenmoa-l @railmeddy @unlimitedfirepheonix @confaegion @drownedbytears @burntcrips @silverqueenie @the-lady-writes-what @awkward-confused 

[If your name is bolded, I was unable to tag you.]

[a-write-for-soreeyes]

Making Bets | Seo-Joon [True Beauty] x Gender Neutral!Reader

summary: making bets with your boyfriend Seo-Joon was NEVER a good idea, but when a no kiss bet with a promise of a week of dates comes up, how could you refuse?

word count: 2280

a/n: sorry i’ve been so absent! it’s been really hard to finish writing anything i’ve started recently but i’ve got something in the works i hope you all enjoy! :D <3

———————————————-

Making bets with Han Seo-joon was never a good idea. But, when the prize was a full week where the winner gets to choose a week of dates… how could I say no.

“y/n I don’t get why you said yes to this bet, we all know you can’t even last through first period without a kiss from Seo-joon.” Soo-a said as she cuddled further into Tae-hoon’ side on the bench across the lunch table, “yah, we all know you guys are all over each other whenever possible,” Tae-hoon groaned out leaning his head on Soo-a’, “speak of the devil.” looking up from shuffling food around my tray I saw Seo-joon approaching the table trailing just behind Ju-kyung and Soo-ho’s linked arm forms looking a little more than disgruntled at the couple walking in front of him.

“Hello love birds, how nice of you to grace us with your presence on this fine monday morning.” Tae-hoon teased as the other couple sat next to me, Seo-joon taking the last spot to the right of Soo-a, across from me.

“What Seo-joon, not going to kiss your partner hello?” Soo-ho joked as he kissed Ju-Kyung’ cheek before picking food up from his plate and feeding her.

“Morning.” Seo-joon whispered, barely sparing me a glance before looking back at his tray. “Morning babe.” I whispered back.

“So y/n...I heard you and Seo-joon made a bet over the weekend. What’s up with that?” Ju-Kyung asked pushing her hair over her shoulder and turning my way, “oh,” clearing my throat, “Well, Seo-joon's friends were complaining over the weekend about how much we kiss each other in front of them, so we decided to make a bet on how long we could go without kissing each other, and whoever caves in first loses. But, the winner gets to decide a full week of dates the loser has to pay for.” I stated.

“OOO! That sounds fun! We both know you guys though, and we know you both wont last 3 days!” Soo-a joked, causing the rest of the table to laugh, “what plans do you have to win?” she continued.

“Well, I’m not sure to be honest,” I chuckled running a stressed hand through my hair, “I think I’m just going to try and focus on something else other than kissing him, even though that’s going to be hard.” I said laughing a little, sticking my tongue out at Seo-joon just to tease him.

“Well if you need any help y/n just let us know, Ju-kyung and I would be happy to help!” Soo-a said, as everyone returned to their lunches.

--------------------------------------------------

“y/n it’s been 2 days and you’re already starting to annoy us with all your whining about missing your ‘sweet precious Seo-joon’” Soo-jin joked, making a silly whiny voice at the end causing the other girls around the table with us to laugh at her terrible impression of me.

“Ya Soo-ho has been telling me about how annoying Seon-joon has been about this whole bet thing and he’s just about ready to kill him.” Ju-kyung laughed.

Sighing I took a sip of my milkshake, “I know, we’re so annoying but I don’t know what to do, I really miss him, but I don’t want to have to pay for all the dates we’d be going on.”

“Well why don’t you try to seduce him?” Soo-jin started, “I mean you’re closing at your work tomorrow right? Why don’t you invite him over for a late night swim after you close? I mean your boss shouldn’t mind if you don’t tell them right?”

“That’s,,,that’s not a bad idea Soo-jin.”

“Ya! And you can ask him tomorrow at school in front of all his friends! He’d be crazy to say no in front of them! especially to a makeout session in a pool!” Ju-Kyung reasoned, Soo-a shaking her head in agreement at our master plan.

“Alright then! Tomorrow at school.” I stated, taking the last sip of my milkshake.

--------------------------------------------------

“Hey baby.” I said walking right up to Seo-joon in the hallway, effectively stopping Seo-joon and his posse in their tracks.

“Oh, uhh, hey honey, how’s it going?” Seo-joon said, startled by my sudden appearance in front of him.

“Hey y/n!” one of Seo-joons friends said cheerfully. Paying his friend no mind I started to lean in closer to Seo-joon, causing him to lean his head back to avoid mine.

“So listen, I was thinking about going swimming at my work later? My boss is letting me close alone tonight since I’ve got the late shift?” I said leaning in closer with each sentence. Looking into Seo-joon's widened eyes at my statement.

Hearing his friends muffled laughing from behind him, he cleared his throat composing himself, “thanks for the offer baby but uh- i'm busy tonight.” he said hurriedly, before pushing past me and making his way into the classroom behind us, sitting at his desk hiding his flushed face and trying to ignore his friends teasing.

Looking over to Soo-a and Ju-Kyung I shook my head. Soo-a's expression turned to one of disappointment and Ju-Kyung letting out a hufft that our plan hadn’t worked.

--------------------------------------------------

“Soo-aaaaaa, our plan didn’t wooorrrrkk.” I whined, placing my head on my hand and leaning against the lunch table, “I don’t know what I'm supposed to do anymore, it’s been 6 days and I miss him.”

“y/n dude we know you miss him but you gotta stop talking about how much you miss him, it’s all you’ve been talking about since this whole bet started.” Tae-hoon complained.

“Listen, it’s not my fault that he’s so perfect and that every time I see him I just wanna kiss his perfect lips.” I whined my head slipping down my arm as I stared at Seo-joon from across the lunch room.

“Well if I were you and I wanted to avoid kissing my boyfriend I would just ignore him until he gives in.” Ju-kyung said between mouthfuls of rice and meat off of her lunch tray, “thanks babe.” Soo-ho said sarcastically as he looked at Ju-kyung blank faced, “no problem honey, only telling you the truth.” She joked before giving him a quick kiss on the lips, which he gladly accepted.

“I hate you guys and your cute-and-able-to-kiss-each-other, relationships.” I sighed, “well I guess ignoring him until he gives in isn’t such a bad idea.”

-------------------------------------------------

“Hey baby.” Seo-joon whispered as he placed his arm above me on the wall leaning in. “h-hey Seo-joon, how-how’s your day been?” I stuttered out trying to look him in the eyes, “My day’s better now that I've seen you.” He stated, gently lifting my face to properly look him in the eyes. “Listen honey, I have to get going to class but how about after school I take you to that book store you’ve been begging me to take you to”,

“Y-yeah, that would be nice thanks.”

“Good.” He leaned in to kiss me, feeling his warm breath fan across my face, causing me to flush. Closing my eyes I waited for the final push of his lips against mine, but instead felt the cold take the place of his warm breath as he suddenly pulled away his light laughter mixing with the small snickers of his friends watching the interaction, “see ya later baby.” he stated walking off down the hallway, his friends chasing after him, congratulation him on the little stunt he pulled on me. Seeing Ju-kyung, Soo-a and Soo-jin shaking their heads out of the corner of my eye, Soo-jin tutted “using your own tactic against you, that’s evil. but, man, you’ve got it bad for that boy. Good luck paying for all those dates.”

“I’m gonna have to try a lot harder to ignore him if he’s going to keep pulling stunts like that.” I sighed.

------------------------------------------------

It’s been 8 days since the bet had started, and it hadn’t gotten any easier to not kiss him. We’ve been effectively avoiding each other, this afternoon at school being the first time we’ve spoken since last thursday.

“Thanks for paying my bus fee. You didn’t have to do that” I thanked Seo-joon awkwardly as we took a seat at the very back of the bus.

“Of course, you’re my partner, you think I'd make you pay your own bus fee?” he laughed lightly, reaching out for my hand. Quickly yanking my hand away from his grasp I cleared my throat fixing my uniform shirt, looking away before I could get drawn back in by him.

“How was your day? You know besides great because now you’re seeing me.” he joked trying to drag my gaze away from the window to my left, “it was fine thanks, boring but you know how it is, stressed for the test on friday though.” I tried to joke, switching my gaze from the window to my fingers, playing with the hem of my dressshirt.

Sitting in awkward silence for the rest of the bus ride, we finally arrived at the small corner bookstore Ju-kyung recommended I check out.

“You know I could have just driven us here on my motorcycle right?”

“Well yeah but you know how I feel about your motorcycle, you’re gonna get killed on that think Seo-joon.” I joked, knocking his shoulder lightly, trying to lighten the mood from the tense bus right here. “Here let me get that for you.” Seo-joon said softly as he grabbed the door handle pulling it open for me to enter the warmth of the small store.

“Ah welcome!” the man at the front desk said as he pulled his headphones up from his neck to cover his ears, “FEEL FREE TO LOOK AROUND.” he yelled over the blasting rock music coming from his headphones.

Seo-joon and I quickly thanked him before walking further into the winding stacks of manga, making sure to be well out of earshot before bursting into fits of giggles over the yelling of the man at the front desk, calming down slightly before hearing him knock over a drink and letting out a few loud curses, throwing us back into our fits of giggles, leaning in Seo-joon's warmth trying to calm down.

Pulling away from him I cleared my throat before making my way further into the store fixing my uniform sweater to try and calm my warming face. Hearing Seo-joon clear his own throat before following a few steps behind me.

Running my fingers softly over the spines of manga looking for a title that grabbed me, I scanned the bookshelf spotting a title I recognized. “Seo-joon look!” I spoke excitedly pointing to the book I recognized on the top shelf, “My sister and I used to read them when we were younger, we would fight over our single copy for hours trying to read it before the other was able to.” I laughed lightly at the memory, not noticing Seo-joon's soft gaze watching me ramble about my childhood. Reaching up to try and grab the book I switched to standing on my tiptoes stretching my arm up as far as possible mumbling to myself, cursing my parents for making me so short. Just as I felt my finger tips brush the cracked spine of the manga a large hand came out of my right field vision grabbing the book off the shelf for me. “Ah thank you baby.” I thanked Seo-joon turning to him, reaching out for the book he still held in his much larger hands, however being slightly startled at how close he was actually standing to me.

Standing still for a few moments just looking at each other I broke the silence, “thanks for grabbing that for me. Could I please have the book now?” my voice coming out in barely a whisper. Not getting any sort of response from Seo-joon I asked him, “Seo-joon? What’s wrong ba-” not being able to get through the full sentence before feeling the breath knocked out of me as Seo-joon pressed his lips against mine, effectively ending the bet in one, beautiful, breathtaking, sweet kiss.

Pulling back after a few moments to catch out breath I looked up at him, eyes slightly closed still relishing in the feeling of the kiss we shared, a soft warm light coming from the shop's eclectic lighting fixtures, haloing him making him look more ethereal than I have ever seen him. “Sorry I didn’t ask you if I could kiss you, but I just saw you rambling about the book you were passionate about, and you look so cute with your hair falling in front of your face like it is,” he whispered lovingly pushing a strand of hair out of my sight, “and I just realized. I love you.” he stated, taking a deep breath in waiting for my reaction to his first confession.

Looking at me worriedly waiting for my reaction. “I love you too Seo-joon” I whispered, standing on my tiptoes, burying my face in his neck embarrassed at the first proper confession of our love for each other. Feeling Seo-joon smile into my neck he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer into his warm body, standing back, flat on my feet he buried me further into his chest, the both of us relishing in the warmth the others love provided.

“You know, I think our first date this week should be the movies tomorrow.” I started to laugh, feeling his chest rumble beneath my head he sighed lightly,

“You’re going to drain my bank account dry this week with these dates aren’t you?”

“Hahaha! Maybe I am. It’s only because I love you though.”

“I love you too”

[kimistorm]

Poetry and Capitalization [Nathaniel X Reader]

It was another normal day at Françoise Dupont High School. Students were slowly trickling into the first class of the day and you were sitting quietly in the back hidden behind a slightly battered copy of your favorite manga. You heard footsteps come your way and you glanced up to see Nathaniel coming back to his seat. You gave him a quick smile (which he returned) before turning back to your book and pushing back up the glasses that had started to slide down your nose. You really needed to get those adjusted. Laying on your side with your glasses on was not the best of ideas.

That was how most mornings went. The two of you silently in the back of the class. Sometimes you wished that you could strike up a conversation with him, so you could get to know each other, unfortunately, you were too nervous to. You might've had a small crush on the red-head next to you. Okay, maybe not small. Try...head over heels in love with him. He was just so pretty, and talented, and you could go on and on. You didn't want to make the mutual 'sitting silently next to each other' feeling awkward. Plus, making a conversation was hard.

The bell rang and Ms. Bustier called the class to attention, "today we'll be working with partners on a project." You inwardly sighed and you heard other students actually sigh. Working with people was such a pain sometimes, and you dearly wished you didn't get partnered up with someone difficult to work with. "Don't be all cranky just yet," she frowned and waved her finger in a scolding fashion, "you'll be working with your table partners." Immediately the class was much happier. You turned to look at Nathaniel next to you and gave a small, somewhat awkward wave. He mirrored it. "Now I want you to analyze and annotate this poem by e. e. cummings. [love is more thicker than forget]" Ms. Bustier explained as she handed out the paper. "You'll have the rest of the class to work on this." She finished and the class bustled with activity.

You cleared your throat and ended up coughing into your hand. Why were you so nervous all of a sudden? This was just a school assignment. That you were working on with a partner. Who happened to be Nathaniel. The boy you were totally head over heels for. Oh. That explains it. "So..."

"Let's read it first, then we'll talk about it." Nathaniel suggested and you readily agreed with his suggestion. The two of you lapsed into silence as you read the poem. When you finished reading, you took out a writing utensil to make notes.

"It's a love poem." You declared once Nathaniel had finished reading. He nodded in agreement. "Well, obviously. He says it straight out in the title."

"He describes it as something that's kind of everywhere." Nathaniel added his own thoughts.

"Yeah, even in the hearts of teens." You muttered under your breath.

"Huh?" Nathaniel squinted at the paper in confusion, "where?"

"Uh nothing!" you answered hastily. You didn't want to make things awkward. Or make him think you're weird. And you definitely didn't want your confession to come out through the poetry of some old man who didn't care about capitalization. "It's everywhere but also it's minuscule. Since he describes how love is lesser than a lot of things."

"I wonder what he means by 'and more it cannot die'?" Nathaniel pondered.

"Maybe it's something like how my love for you won't fade even if you never notice-ah-I mean it's everlasting." You felt your face turn the color of his hair. What was this? First you were coughing over just thinking about talking and now words are spilling out of your mouth without you thinking about it?

"Do you believe love is everlasting?" he seemed to have not noticed your huge slip-up.

"Well yeah, if you find the right person. I think it's hard to do that, even harder to find mutual everlasting love." You nodded, you let out a silent sigh of relief. You didn't spill out your entire heart to him just then.

"What about unreciprocated love?"

"Like how I feel about you?" you clapped your hands over your mouth and stared wide-eyed at Nathaniel. You were certain he caught that. He looked at you in shock. Oh how you wished you could hide behind your manga, glasses weren't very good shields. Maybe you should take a leaf from Nathaniel's book and get bangs to shield your eyes. Or maybe you could wear prescription sunglasses.

"What?"

"Uh nothing!" you mentally cried at how your voice had just jumped a pitch, you were sure everyone in the class could hear you.

He smiled, "it's alright to tell me. I won't laugh at you."

"No no no, it's fine. I mean it's nothing. Nothing. Really." You wanted to bash your head on the table. What were you doing? "Have you ever thought about how nearly everyone in this class has some sort of crush or romance?" you died on the inside. You were certain by this point someone had control over your body. You were never like this. "Nevermind. That was a silly thought. Do you think mad could mean angry or insane?"

Nathaniel blinked. He looked like he needed a couple minutes to digest what had just happened, and to be honest, so did you. "Are you feeling alright?" he asked in concern, "you're not normally like this."

Inside you were squealing. He noticed you enough to know what you were normally like? Maybe your love wasn't in vain. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just, I'm not used to talking to my crush." Okay, now you were dead. "I never said that." You whispered and face-desked but immediately regretted that because your glasses started to press uncomfortably on your face.

You felt a piece of paper push its way to your face and you sat back up to look at the paper. On it was a few words written in Nathaniel's scrawl. 'I like you (f/n).' Your face turned into a tomato and you looked at Nathaniel quizzically but he was pointedly ignoring your gaze while an equally bright blush covered his cheeks. "Flip it over." He muttered. You did what he told you to and gasped. It was a drawing of you sitting at your desk with a manga held in your hands.

"Wait what?" you questioned in awe.

"Nevermind it's obvious you don't like me back I thought that maybe you did and maybe it was a good time to show you-" you didn't know his face could get to the exact same shade as his hair.

"Wait no! I do like you! You're an adorable tomato! Wait, that's not a compliment." You guessed that your face was probably the same shade as Nathaniel's hair as well.

The two of you made eye contact and then started to quietly laugh, "so you do like me?"

"Of course!" you affirmed, "I have for a while now." You added quietly.

"Good."

"You owe me twenty bucks!" You heard Rose squeal and you and Nathaniel looked at her mortified. Juleka sighed but handed her the money anyway.

"Were they betting on us getting together?" you whispered.

Nathaniel looked shell-shocked, "I think so."

You turned back to the poem in front of you, "this is still a thing we need to do."

From under the table you felt a hand timidly hold your own and you quickly reciprocated the action, "do you think this was intentional?" Nathaniel wondered as he looked at Ms. Bustier who was busy helping some students at the front of the room.

"I'm not about to give credit of this to a man who doesn't use capitalization."

Masterlist

AN: Okay, a bit of explanation about the capitalization jabs at e. e. cummings (and yes, he often writes his name like that). He commonly doesn't follow normal capitalization rules or even just writing rules. He likes to use the words to create "aesthetic movement" (source) Example.

[mammons-sugarbaby]

The bros reading MC’s diary Part II: Romantic!

Lucifer ⦁ He'd started giving MC piano lessons after their RAD classes, they'd requested it and he wasn't going to pass up a chance to show off his talents. ⦁ After MC leaves he notices they forgot their things, namely a few schoolbooks and notebooks ⦁ He also notices when he gathers them up that one notebook seems different than the others and opens it to see what it is ⦁ It's a daily journal of their time in the devildom ⦁ He flips through a few more pages and lands on a page that, to his surprise, is about him ⦁ He goes to the beginning and sees where it becomes less about general happenings and more about him

Diary Content ⦁ "Lucifer agreed to teach me how to play the piano! I've already been practicing a little so he would be impressed at how quickly I learned. I feel bad for lying but... It's a chance to be close to him, to get him to notice me. Sometimes it's hard to concentrate with him right next to me, and when our hands brush against each other...It take everything in me to keep my composure!"

⦁ "I'm so excited! Lucifer is taking me to Restaurant Six tomorrow! He says it's to reward me for my hard work, both for my RAD classes, and how well I've done in our piano lessons! My heart was beating so fast when he asked if I would like to go. I'm going to go shopping later for an outfit to wear, it has to be something special! I know it's just a treat but....I'm just going to pretend we're on a date."

⦁ "I'm so embarrassed! I was waiting for Lucifer in the music room and I started daydreaming about us sitting next to each other. Lucifer turned to me and our eyes met and I confessed my feelings and....then he leaned in and kissed me! So I was shocked when Lucifer was right in front of me suddenly asking if I was okay. For a second I thought the kiss had actually happened...But he just said we had better start lessons...and I was too nervous through the whole thing I kept messing up...I think I irritated him because he said that I I obviously wasn't able to pay attention and that continuing would be a waste of time..."

His Reaction ⦁ He had been surprised at how quickly MC had learned and suspected they knew more than they let on, and though he wanted to be mad or disappointed about the lying, he was actually impressed with the lengths they went to get his attention. He made a mental note to be more....attentive during their next lesson.

⦁ Lucifer recalled his shock at how well MC had dressed for the occasion, he hadn't expected them to go all out. At the time he felt a little guilty for not putting more effort in his attire, but seeing how MC stared at him and how they blushed when he looked at them or complimented them, he doubted they cared. He would ask them again when he had some free time, this time he would specify that this time was more of a...romantic occasion.

⦁ He recalled that day well, he had entered the music room and saw MC staring at nothing, a hint of a blush on their face. It had taken a few moments for him to get their attention, and now their reaction when they snapped out of it made sense. He felt bad now because he had snapped at them, but he would make it up to them in the future. He looked forward to teasing them, and....he'd be lying if he said he hadn't thought about kissing them at times.

Mammon ⦁ He was looking through MC's stuff to sell for quick grim ⦁ Finds an intricate looking book, it's looks expensive ⦁ He opens it and notices its a scrapbook ⦁ He soon realizes that there a lot of cut outs and pictures of him ⦁ And there are full pages of writing ⦁ Of course he's going to read about what they have to say about him, The Great Mammon!

Diary Content ⦁ "Managed to sneak in another magazine that featured Mammon without anyone noticing, I'd be so embarrassed if anyone found this book. I feel like a kid with a crush drawing hearts all over everything but...it's fun, and it's not like anyone is actually going to see. I'm almost embarrassed at all the times I've written about confessing to him."

⦁ "He makes my heart stop sometimes I swear, every time he looks at me, my mouth goes dry and I feel like I can't breath for a minute. He's just so damn hot. And he's funny too! And even when he's hyped up about another plan to make quick grim, even if it makes absolutely no damn sense, I can't help but nod along and want his plan to succeed."

⦁ "I know it's dumb but I just want to march over to him one day and demand to know how he feels about me. Sometimes he acts all flustered around me and his face looks like he's blushing, but then he says something that dismisses everything and just...crushes me a little. Today we were hanging out and one of his brothers teased him about being around me all the time and he told them it wasn't like he wanted to, he was just helping me with classwork. Which he was, and poorly at that, but it hurt a lot, I had to get out of there before he saw me cry. He apologized later but....he just gives off such mixed signals...I wish he'd just say how he actually felt."

His Reaction ⦁ He's floored, he had absolutely no idea they felt this way. At most he just thought they were a fan of his. But they were right, they had written what seemed like a hundred different ways of confessing their feelings to him. He felt his get hotter and hotter with each page he read.

⦁ He had just figured MC was kinda shy and was supportive towards everyone. He even thought they were fake laughing at his dumb jokes to make him feel better, especially since everyone usually groaned and said his joke was stupid. But the fact that they actually found him attractive and funny? He wanted to run to MC and wrap them in a bear hug.

⦁ Mammon hadn't realized he'd been hurting MC all this time, making them feel like he was stringing them along. He just got so embarrassed and didn't want anyone know how he felt about MC. He already got so much shit from his brothers, teasing him about falling for the human wasn't appealing. But he'd take their teasing over continuing to hurt MC this way. He couldn't bring himself to admit his feelings outright, but he wouldn't deny them anymore. 

Levi ⦁ He'd gone into MC's room to retrieve some games and manga he'd lent them ⦁ He saw a pile of books near a neat stack of games and assumed they'd left it on their desk for him. ⦁ It wasn't until he got back to his room and was organizing them that he realized he grabbed a book that wasn't his. ⦁ He opened it then quickly shut it after realizing it was their diary. ⦁ He argued with himself to read or not to read, but he saw his name! ⦁ Deciding, he opened the diary again, he just had to know what they were writing about him

Diary Content ⦁ "Hung out with Levi in his room today. He was watching a new show, as usual, and I asked if I could join him. He said sure, but there wasn't a whole lot of space to sit, so I tried clearing away a few things so I could sit beside him without being too close. But I guess I was still nervous being so close to him because I kept fidgeting and bouncing my legs. Eventually he got annoyed and grabbed my legs and put them in his lap!! I was so shocked my brain felt like it short circuited."

⦁ "While I was playing co-op mode with Levi tonight, he got in a rough spot and I ended up saving him. You would have thought I'd saved his actual life! He threw his arms around me and told me I was the best player-2 ever!! My heart was pounding, he usually wasn't so...hands on? I'm probably weird for thinking about it, but I imagined him kissing my cheek."

⦁ "Every day I feel like it gets harder and harder to be around Levi, I get so....tongue tied! And my heart feels like its beating a thousand times a minute! My face gets so hot and i feel like I can't even look at him or I'll confess on the spot! I haven't been hanging out with him as much because....I really like him but I'm sure that he'd think having a 'normie' crush on him would be lame and gross. And he seems so down lately I just want to cheer him up and see him smile again! Maybe I can give him head pats to cheer him up? It would give me an excuse to touch him at least..."

His Reaction ⦁ He remembered that night, mainly because when he had realized what he'd done, he got so embarrassed. MC had been really quiet and would barely look at him, of course they'd be disgusted by a gross otaku like him...

⦁ His brain had to take a moment to process the last sentence. They wanted him to....KISS them??? He hadn't thought about it when he had hugged them because he was so happy, but afterwards he couldn't stop thinking about it, how he wanted to wrap his arms around them again, to hold them..

⦁ So THAT'S why they had been avoiding him!! He thought after the previous two events, they were grossed out by him but....they liked him?? Like liked him?? He honestly couldn't wrap his head around it, he wanted to think it was some trick but....this was MC's diary, why would they lie about something that was only meant for their eyes?? MC liked him....as more that a friend....He couldn't get them out of his head for the rest of the day.

Satan ⦁ MC returned some books he'd lent them ⦁ While putting them away, Satan realized they'd accidentally given him one of their books ⦁ They'd already left though, he opened it to see what the book was about ⦁ It was a thick journal and he realized it was specifically a diary ⦁ And the page he'd opened to was about him ⦁ Intrigued, he sat down and flipped to the first page.

Diary Content ⦁ "Satan offered me a few books today that he enjoyed and suggested we start reading together so we could talk about them. I pointed out he's a much faster reader and he said we could limit it to a few chapters a week. He's so considerate and I really would love to share something like that with him! I know he gets a bad rep for being the avatar of wrath but he's surprisingly gentle most of the time. And I like a lot of the books he reads, so we have that in common. And if there's something I liked but he didn't personally find interesting, he still talks with me about it in detail and lets me be excited. Usually people ould just brush me off because they didn't care."

⦁ "I went to Satan's room earlier to hang out but he was so engrossed in reading I don't think he noticed me come in. I just found a spot to sit and started playing on my d.d.d, but I couldn't help but get distracted by him. I love watching his facial expressions while he reads, if he's around others his face gives nothing away, but when he's alone, or with me, that mask falls. He finally noticed me when I giggled at his shocked expression and seemed embarrassed, but I told him it was something on my phone. I would hate for him to put that mask up around me, I like seeing him openly himself."

⦁ "Today I almost pulled a huge pile of books on myself by accident. I didn't realize when I was trying to get a book from the top shelf that there were books piled on top of it! Luckily Satan was there to catch it before it fell and warned me to be careful. But when he stepped in to stop the books, he'd grabbed my shoulder and pulled me against him, like he was trying to shield me. Then when the books had steadied, he turned me around and asked if I was okay. The look of concern on his face...I can tell he cares about me. I know he didn't mean anything by it, but I swear my heart fluttered for the rest of the evening. I know I liked him before that but...is it cliche to say I think I fell in love? Maybe not that serious but....I definitely have strong feelings for him."

His Reaction ⦁ He was touched at MC's words, he already felt like they were a kindred spirit, but this really made him feel even more drawn to them. He loved being able to talk about a story with them; and realized soon after they had arrived and started reading together that they weren't as fast a reader, which made sense he'd been reading for much longer than they had been alive. He knew how it felt to be dismissed, and even if he didn't find a particular book to his liking, hearing MC's thoughts and feelings on it somehow made him see it in a different light.

⦁ He hadn't realized he let his guard down around MC so much, it almost made him embarrassed to know they had seen him make all sorts of silly faces, but reading that they enjoyed him being comfortable around them made him smile. He did trust them, more than he realized. And it didn't appear that they were aware that they too, made silly faces while reading. But they didn't hide it when they were around everyone else, in fact the only time he'd see them have a blank expression while reading, was when they were reading something erotic. He laughed because when he asked what they were reading to make their face so intense, they immediately turned red and they got embarrassed.

⦁ He remembered that day, how he saw the books teetering on the edge, that sharp worried feeling, and the way they felt against him when he pulled them back. He was able to stop the books from falling, but he was actually prepared to shield them with his body. And seeing their face, wide-eyed and a light blush across their cheeks, he was surprised at the restraint he had; because right then he had wanted nothing more than to lean in and kiss them. But he didn't think that they held the same feelings for him and didn't want to make them uncomfortable. But now he knew they felt they same way, and reading about them falling in love, even jokingly, left him smiling for the rest of the day.

Asmo ⦁ He went into MC's room to show off some new beauty products he'd bought ⦁ They weren't in their room, so he texted them, they replied they'd be there shortly ⦁ he takes a seat on their bed and notices a notebook on their nightstand ⦁ He opens it and sees it's their diary ⦁ And more importantly, they're writing about him

Diary Content ⦁ "I almost managed to flirt back at Asmo with a straight face today. Almost. He's too good! Whenever I do manage to flirt back, the next thing he says leaves me a stuttering mess...I know he flirts with everyone so of course he's going to be amazing at it, but I wish I could fluster him at least once! I think he would look really cute being a blushing mess."

⦁ "It's hard not to take him seriously with the things he says sometimes. It's too easy to read into things. I know he's just teasing me and he doesn't mean the things he says, but sometimes....like today, we were sitting next to each other and he just! Put his arms around me! And said I was one of the cutest humans he'd ever seen!! He's seen thousands of humans, I don't see how I could possibly compare. I even said so and he took my face in his hands and had this really serious look on his face. He told me I shouldn't be so critical of myself and he knows cute when he sees cute! Then he told me we need to have a self care day soon."

⦁ "Asmo!!!! Kissed my cheek!!! Then whispered in my ear!!! All he said was "See you later~" but!!! I swear I couldn't speak for a solid 10 minutes. I sat there and daydreamed about kissing him back, and wrapping my arms around him, and holding hands, and going on cute dates, and all that during class! I missed everything!! And there's a test coming up.....The boy is going to be the death of me, especially if I fail this test and Lucifer finds out....Still...as pathetic as it might be to actually have a crush on the avatar of lust, knowing full well he doesn't feel the same way, it's just how he acts...I might just tell him how I feel so he can shoot me down and I can get over this silly little crush."

His Reaction ⦁ He loved when MC tried to flirt with him, loved seeing their face and seeing them try so hard to act unphased. There was a time or two when they actually had said something that caught him off-guard and made him blush, but he's well practiced at  hiding his feelings. 

⦁ He remembered that day! MC was wearing such a cute outfit and looked absolutely stunning, he couldn't help himself! And then when they put themself down it made his stomach drop. He couldn't believe they actually tried to compare themself. He wanted to go on a who lecture about how everyone has something about them that shines and they shouldn't compare themself, but them again he technically compared them to all the other humans he'd seen....He still meant what he said though, yes physically they were cute, but they sounded cute, acted cute, just....everything about them he found endearing. Even when they were angry, or sad, he thought the were one of the most attractive beings he'd laid eyes on. It threw him off when he thought about it too much, so he did what he did best and deflected, and pushed those thoughts and feelings down. But he couldn't just let them continue to think that they couldn't compare! So he suggested a self care day to try and lift their spirits.

⦁ Oh honey....he wasn't joking. More and more he found himself being serious when he flirted and asked after them. After a while he realized he was pursuing them, it was shocking because usually he was the one being pursued. He had figured MC had developed a crush on him, who wouldn't?? But it made him feel strange because he reciprocated their feelings. He started to plan to ask them on a date under the guise of studying, since they were...distracted during class. He didn't want them to get punished if the failed a test. Lucifer would blame him and tell him he wasn't allowed MC. He wouldn't follow the rules of course, but it would be a pain to try and sneak around to see MC. His thoughts wandered and he imagined kissing MC, something he'd done plenty of times before, but this time it made him blush and he felt giddy and nervous.

Beel ⦁ To be fair, MC told him he could borrow their study notes, but didn't tell him where in their room they left the notebook ⦁ He sees what he assumes is the notebook on their bed and grabs it and heads to his room ⦁ Once he gets settled, he opens it and reads half the page before it clicks that these are definitely not study notes ⦁ This is their diary, and they were writing about him ⦁ He shuts it so fast, super embarrassed, but he can't stop thinking about what he'd read ⦁ Guilty, he opens it to read more

Diary Content ⦁ "Beel asked today if I wanted to go with him to Hell’s Kitchen, he heard they had one of my favorite foods back in stock. I was surprised and asked him how he knew it was one of my favorites, I had only eaten it twice. He told me he notices how my face changes when I eat something I particularly like, and how I make a little humming noise. I was really embarrassed and it made me a little self conscious, so I told him I'd get back to him about it. I hated seeing his face fall...Then he apologized and said he'd see me later, which made me feel even worse!! I just... the thought of someone paying that much attention to me, to notice what I like and how I act when something makes me happy...I'm not used to it. Of course I found him later and asked him if his offer still stood and I swear his smile made me forget for a moment that there wasn't a sun in the devildom."

⦁ "I failed a test today!!! Lucifer is going to kill me...I told Beel about it and he asked if I would be okay if he helped me study. I told him I would be so grateful! I was so happy I hugged him without thinking and I swear I saw him blushing, I mean I was too but then he told me I could always come to him if I ever needed anything. I swear my heart jumped in my throat. He's always looking out for me, I know he's nice to everyone but....he always makes me feel like I'm special to him. I'm probably looking into it way too much but I might have a small crush on him. Not that he feels the same way, and I'm okay with that, but it's nice to know I have someone I can always count on."

⦁ "I want a black hole to open and swallow me!!! I'm going to hide in my room until I go back home I'm so embarrassed!! I was eating lunch with Beel and I was eating a  jelly pastry and he noticed I had some on the corner of my mouth so he asked me to hold still for a second, and wiped it off with his thumb then licked it! I just...couldn't stop staring at him and his mouth....He thought I wanted some of the food he was eating so he offered to let me have some, then held it out for me to take a bite. Then!! Asmo walked by and said how we were so cute together, feeding each other and acting like a cute couple! Beel was confused and told him we weren't dating, and Asmo looked surprised and told him that I had a crush so he thought I had asked him out. I haven't been answering my phone and I've been hiding out at Purgatory Hall for a few hours now. I don't think I can face Beel after this...."

His Reaction ⦁ Beel had seen Hell’s Kitchen had a dish that MC really enjoyed back in stock for a limited time, so he wanted to surprise MC. He thought he'd made them uncomfortable, in a way he kind of did but for a different reason. Maybe it was because food was his thing so he noticed how others reacted when they ate foods they did or didn't like. So he was really surprised when they found him later and apologized and asked him if he still wanted to go. At the time it made him really happy, even more so now. He felt his cheeks flush at the last sentence, did MC really feel that way?

⦁ He had seen how distraught MC was that day and when they told him what had happened, he offered to help. He usually got good grades and didn't think anything of it, but when they threw their arms around him out of the blue, and how happy they were, he got a little embarrassed. They just looked so cute and he found himself wanting to see them more so he told them they could come to him for anything. In a way they were really special to him, and he too liked them in more that just a friendly way. He felt really happy though, that they trusted him so much.

⦁ Things had gone back to normal since that day, mostly anyway. By the time dinner came around and MC still wasn't home, he went out and looked for them. Luckily when he texted Simeon and Luke, Simeon replied that they were at Purgatory Hall baking with Luke. He still wasn't sure how he felt at the time, since learning that MC also had feelings for him, but he didn't want to make things awkward so he asked if Belphie could go for him and bring them home. He replayed the events of the day over in his head, but this time from MC's point of view and how he would have felt had they acted as he had... He didn't want to make things awkward again since things had mostly gone back to normal but he also didn't just want to ignore the fact that they both had mutual feelings for each other.

Belphie ⦁ MC texts him asking if he could bring their notebooks they forgot ⦁ They were supposed to have a study session in the planetarium but MC had forgotten their things in the attic ⦁ He opens one of the notebooks to quickly scan over the notes they were supposed to study ⦁ These are not school related ⦁ This is their diary, and what’s more, there's a lot about him in it ⦁ His eyebrows furrowed and he settled in to read what MC had to say about him.

Diary Content ⦁ " Beel asked me today if I was mad at Belphie, if we had a fight. I was confused and told him no and asked why. He explained that he noticed when I would see Belphie, I'd usually try and leave the room, or I'd avoid trying to look at him again. I hadn't realized I'd been so obvious about it, but I couldn't explain the reason why to him. He told me Belphie was starting to get depressed, and mentioned that I might have had a change of heart due to the incident. I told him that wasn't the case at all! This is a mess....I'll either have to get over myself or tell Belphie the truth...It's not fair to him I'm acting like this."

⦁ "Belphie's noticed I haven't been coming over for naps as often, I always tell him I've got stuff going on. I used to be fine with cuddling for naps, was totally okay with waking up and having his arm slung over me. I don't know when it changed but I started feeling shy, I was less comfortable with him touching me. Not in a bad way! Just....I got hyper aware anytime he touched me, my heart would start pounding. And in the cases that I couldn't come up with a good reason to say no to a nap, I kept as much distance as I could. Saying I felt too hot to be all wrapped up has been a good excuse so far, and it's not a lie."

⦁ " Ugh! Everytime I try to talk to Belphie about why I've been acting so weird, one of his brothers comes around! Or Simeon...or Solomon...or Luke...It's like now that I'm trying to confess, everyone can sense something is about to go down! I just...want to tell him that I like him as more than a friend and if he can just bear with me so I can get over it, I mean he obviously doesn't feel the same and I don't want to make things more awkward and lose my best friend. Part of me wants Belphie to like me back, as more than a friend, but the other part knows that'll never happen and I need to just get over it."

His Reaction ⦁ At one point he barely spoke to MC aside from meals and in passing, they either didn't reply to his texts, or they took forever. He thought maybe they had finally come to their senses and realized that they actually hated him, and for good reason. Even though he knew they had every right, it still made him feel depressed and lonely, angry even sometimes; and one day he'd vented to Beel. While it irritated him that his twin had told MC, he was relieved to read that MC's behavior wasn't in relation to the incident. But now he was curious about what it WAS about.

⦁ He had noticed MC had been avoiding him in a sense, and at the time he wasn't sure what he'd done. But in the times that they had stayed over for a nap, they would practically be hanging off the edge of the bed, or as far from him as they could get. They told him they were hot, which given the red face and sweating, he believed. He had actually planned to get a fan and a mini air conditioner so they would be more comfortable, he still planned to, but now he had a different reason in mind.

⦁ Belphie remembered the various times MC would ask to talk with him, only to change their mind whenever someone else was around. He was actually going to ask them to meet him at the planetarium tonight and demand to know what was going on. But his brain stopped working when he read MC liked him. Like liked him. He laughed because he was doing the same thing, but he was much better at hiding his feelings. He'd had centuries to master it after all. He was tempted to let MC go through all the embarrassment of a confession after what they'd put him through lately, but right now all he wanted to do was find them and wrap his arms around them and tell them how dumb they were for crushing on a demon. A demon who was just as dumb for having a crush on a human.

[svtxsoju]

01. crush that hangover! | dear miss soju

ღ Synopsis: College is hard. Love is even harder. Good thing the students of Mansae University can write in to Miss Soju, the campus’ very own romance advice columnist! The only problem is she’s never been in a relationship. Ever. There’s no telling what kind of chaos she may cause in the love lives of several of MU’s most eligible bachelors. Too bad no one knows who she really is!  ღ Characters/Pairings: college AU! Seventeen & OC’s, Pairings TBA! ღ Genre: Romantic Comedy, Slice of Life ღ Warning(s): Mentions of alcohol, underage drinking, mentions of sex, language, bad jokes ღ Word Count: 5.0k words  ღ Binu’s Note: ever stare at a selfie so long that it looks weird? ya that’s this chapter for me. there were just so many elements that i wanted to get right, but i kept changing things and now i can’t look at it anymore :c i’ll properly proofread it later, but for now enjoy!! i have some other content ima post later so i’m p excited for that hehehe anyway ya happy friday!!! 

《 ⊛ Author’s Note & Credits ⊛ Disclaimer ⊛ Masterlist ⊛ 》

《 Previous ⊛ Next 》

Monday, September 2, 2019 9:05AM

This was not how Joohyun had imagined her first day at The Front. Whenever she described this moment to Jihoon, she was very clear about the way she would walk in so confidently that the senior writers would wonder why they forgot to email her an invite to their 8:30 meeting. Jihoon, who relished in raining on her parade, predicted that they wouldn’t even know her name. But she had no time for his blunt realism, because she had been living as a made-up person since June and her corporate daydreams were the only things keeping her sane. She knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but she figured that once they saw her talent, everything would be just fine.

So it’s not difficult to imagine Joohyun’s distress when she just barely stumbled into the office this morning, nursing a mind-melting hangover. 

She should have known she would be a goner when the sports section interns had challenged her to a drinking game at last night’s welcome party. Her drinking partner, a small girl interning at HR, had only made it two shots in before falling asleep on her lap. For the record, she had still made sure that she was the last intern standing (although she definitely wasn’t the same bright-eyed freshman that could chug a pitcher of soju and beer just to spite Jihoon). Looking around the office, she felt a little relieved to find that the other interns were suffering just as much as her, if their slumped positions and pained groans told her anything. So much for giving a good first impression.

Joohyun was trying her best not to look like she was two steps from an early grave when she was approached by a big woman with a laptop in her arms. She awkwardly bowed her head to greet her, but the woman’s gaze never left the screen of her Macbook. “Miss… Joonyoung?”

“Oh, that’s not--” 

“You’re the new advice column intern, correct?” 

“Oh. Yes, that’s me, but that’s not my--” 

“I’ll show you to your desk.” Without so much as a glance, the woman turned on her heel, now typing furiously on her laptop. Joohyun followed behind glumly.

This was all Jihoon’s fault. 

“So, how’s your first day going?” Jihoon asked over his bowl of ramen. He flagged down the tall waiter and ordered a bowl of rice.

“Fine,” was Joohyun’s curt answer. In truth, it was far from ideal. She had watched longingly as all the other interns were assigned with their first projects, while she was left with an empty inbox. How was she supposed to write an advice column when there was no one asking her for advice? She spent most of the morning familiarizing herself with the previous entries of The Front’s dating advice column, the most recent of which dated to the newspaper’s May issue… from 1997. 

When her supervisor told her to take a lunch break, she had made a beeline to meet Jihoon at the restaurant near the cafe he worked at. Now that she was sitting in front of him though, she wasn’t quite ready to confess that her dream job was much more mundane than she expected. “Hey, wasn’t this a fried chicken shop last semester?” 

“That bad, huh?” Jihoon clicked his tongue. Joohyun sighed - she didn’t know why she even tried to hide anything from him when he’s known her for 12 years. He probably knew some parts of her better than she did. “Come on Joo, don’t give up on Miss Soju so easily. It’s just because you’re a little hungover. We watched The Notebook like five times this summer! What more do you need to know about true love? Do you want me to set you up on another date with that freakishly tall dude for more hands-on experience? Ah, speak of the devil!” 

“Thanks, Mingyu.” Joohyun took the bowl of rice and gave the server a sweet smile, which greatly contrasted with the glare she shot at Jihoon soon after. The server, a stunning boy with jet-black hair and tanned skin, stuck his tongue out at Jihoon. She waited until Mingyu went to the other side of the restaurant to serve a rowdy group of boys to whisper-shout at Jihoon. “Can you try not to expose my identity to the whole campus before I even get the chance to write my first ever entry?” 

“Ohhh, that’s why you’re sulking. No one’s sent you a letter yet so you didn’t get to do anything today,” Jihoon said. It sometimes got annoying how he could read her like she was his worn-out copy of his favorite sports manga.  She had to admit though, he did find ways to make it worth it. Like when he said, “I might actually be able to help you with that one, if you want. I can make a little shout out for Miss Soju on my stream tonight. For a small price, of course.” 

“You’re streaming tonight?” The girl perked up from poking at her noodles. Over the past three years, Jihoon had built up a cult following through Woozi’s Universe, a Twitch stream where he shared music made by the underground artists on campus (including him). He only ever released new music on Mondays, so tonight would definitely have a large viewership. Joohyun immediately went into her business pose lest she show how eager she really was. “Well, what would you like in exchange, Mr. Lee?” 

“I merely request that you pay for my lunch today, Ms. So,” he replied. Joohyun looked in horror at Jihoon, a petite man who ate like he was three boys going through puberty; today alone he had had an extra-large bowl of ramen, three orders of rice, and two cans of Coke. 

Then, she imagined facing an empty inbox for the rest of the week. Yup, this was  definitely worth it. That didn’t stop her from making a show of taking out her wallet, taking care to sigh extra  loudly. She had to give Jihoon his moment to revel in his triumphs, otherwise he would get grumpy. 

Jihoon cackled giddily. “Pleasure doing business with you as always, Ms. So.” 

“Pretty sure my hangover is coming back.”

“Oh shit, shut up!” Jihoon suddenly yelped and ducked underneath the table.

“What the hell, Jih--” 

“No, don’t say my name! He might hear you and then I’ll have to talk to him,” Jihoon whispered, jerking his head towards a bright yellow blur skipping to the back of the restaurant. “He’s one of my fans. He found out I worked at the cafe and now he keeps coming in to talk to about how sad his sex life is.”

Joohyun pursed her lips and peeked a glance over. He had joined the table of rowdy boys.  “Hmm, maybe I should say hi... he seems like a potential Miss Soju reader.” 

“Just pay the check already, woman!” 

The new interns at The Front were not the only students sporting hangovers that day. This can only be expected of the second week back at MU. Sunday night had been the explosive finale of a full week of department welcome parties, happy reunions, and lots and lots of alcohol. Some of the incoming freshmen were convinced that Mansae University was not actually a school, but a training ground for surviving as many shots of soju as physically possible. That is until they woke up on Monday morning and still had to drag themselves to their 9AM’s, suddenly faced with the reality of what college really was: an endless cycle of perpetual hangovers and school work that’s due way too soon. 

This was all good news for the new ramen shop on campus, which had been serving the hoards of hungover zombies since 10AM. Vernon, who was in great pain from the night before, had been ambushed by his roommate after his morning class. He was brought to the restaurant under the pretense of curing his woes with a bowl of warm soup and noodles. When he caught sight of a man in red waiting for them at a back table though, he immediately knew what was actually coming. 

“Hello Vernonnie,” Seungcheol greeted him with a sly smile. “Care to take a seat next to me?”

“Uh, not really,” Vernon mumbled, but he sat down anyway. He scrunched his nose at his roommate as the boy slumped into the seat in front of him. “Traitor.”

“Sorry babe, Seungcheol hyung promised me free lunch. Also, you’re one to talk, after you abandoned me to fend for myself last night--! Ugh,” his roommate, Seungkwan, clutched at his head, where a rusty hammer persistently tapped away at his temple. “Hyung, why did you do this to me? My face is gonna be bloated for the rest of the week. I have an audition in two days, you know!” 

“Hey, I did ask you if you were sure you wanted-- what was that you ordered? Oh yeah-- ‘the strongest drink that is legal to serve in South Korea’!” Seungcheol said, his eyes wide. As he got more defensive, he began to point his finger excessively at Seungkwan. “And what was it all for? To impress your new crush?” 

“I am way too hungover to get lectured by a couple of hypocrites,” Seungkwan grumbled. “I was trying to get some inspiration, you know, a drunken spark of genius! How else am I supposed to figure out how to confess to them?”

“Okay, I wasn’t actually asking,” Seungcheol ignored Seungkwan’s offended gasp in favor of turning his attention to a fidgeting Vernon. His cherry red lips now returned to its wide grin. “I am here to discuss where our dearest Vernon went off to last night.” 

“Um.” Vernon answered with a nervous smile. “I just went home early--”

“Bullshit!” Seungkwan looked absolutely scandalized. “It wasn’t enough to abandon me, so now you’re lying too? I don’t know if I can take much more of this!” 

Vernon had only officially known Seungkwan for two whole weeks, but with the way the two had been inseparable since move-in day, everyone at the freshmen dorms had assumed that they had known each other for years and years. He knew that someone like Boo Seungkwan was a rare find as far as random dorm assignments went, and that not everyone was so lucky to have a roommate that reminds them to eat real food once in a while or a friend who’s willing to take care of them when they get their first real hangover. Just for that day alone, Vernon knew that Seungkwan deserved to know where he went. Plus he shared a room with him, so it’s not like he could hide anything anyway.

Seungcheol shook his head and slung an arm around Vernon’s shoulder. His grip wasn’t tight but firm enough that Vernon knew he was trapped there until he confessed the truth. “Look, I don’t need any details! I just wanted to make sure that you’re staying safe and all that junk. Also, I would like to know what base you got to.” He erupted into a fit of giggles, but soon cleared his throat to return to his investigation. “Really though, tell us what happened.” 

It wasn’t like Vernon didn’t want to tell Seungcheol either. Vernon’s and Seungcheol’s families had known each other since the two boys were in middle and high school, and when he found out that Seungcheol would be a senior at Mansae University that year, he felt some of his nerves ease up about moving out. Seungcheol had always been like an older brother to him, and was always there when he needed his help in high school. He trusted him! 

That’s probably why he subconsciously blamed Seungcheol for the pain he was going through at the moment. When the upperclassman had offered to sneak Vernon and Seungkwan into a party at the karaoke bar that he bartended at, the two freshmen all too eagerly accepted without thinking of any consequences. They had received no pointers, no words of caution. How were they supposed to know that bar parties were completely different from welcome dinners? And how was Seungkwan supposed to know that downing so many cocktails within the hour wasn’t a good idea? Most importantly, how was Vernon supposed to know that he would meet someone like her there? Vernon groaned into his hands as he could no longer resist the flood of memories from the night before, and leaned into Seungcheol’s shoulder as he tried to recoil from his past self. “Hyung, it hurts too much to say out loud.”

“It’s okay buddy, take your time,” Seungcheol patted his head gently and called the tall server over. Vernon continued to let out unintelligible noises of regret while the senior ordered bowls for all three of them. “How are you even hungover right now? I only remember giving you one drink last night before you went off with--”

“I’m not hungover.”

“Oh. Then what are you?”

“An idiot,” Vernon mumbled through his fingers. “A big, cringy idiot.” 

Seungkwan raised his hand, looking frantically between the two boys. “Excuse me? Did I miss the reading homework? Went off with who? Last night? What? How drunk was I?!” 

“Very drunk, but that’s not why you didn’t notice Vernon’s new friend. You were a little occupied with your own conquest,” Seungcheol stage-whispered from across the table. “Honestly, you two are wild. It’s only two weeks into fall semester and you’re already out here simping.”

“Um, and? I saw you making googly eyes at several ladies last night!” The higher Seungkwan’s voice rose, the harder the rusty hammer banged inside his head. “Ow.”

“Those were just my friends who happened to be ladies! Sorry that my eyes are just naturally soft and alluring,” Seungcheol said, batting his long, dark lashes at the boy. “What were her eyes like, Vernon? I only noticed that she had a nose ring. Couldn’t really see her properly while you two were ‘talking’ in the corner...” 

“The corner! A nose ring!” Seungkwan repeated and clutched at his chest. “Tell me more.” 

“We were just talking!” Vernon finally spoke, his face stuck in an embarrassed grimace. “There’s not really much more to tell. I just know that she’s the coolest girl I’ve ever met and I’ll never meet anyone like her again.”

“What! You two were talking for like two hours! And I saw you leaving with her!” Seungcheol said a little too loudly for Vernon’s liking. The server gingerly approached their table with their orders, setting the bowls down as quickly as possible before rushing away. Vernon noted to give him a big tip when they left. “Don’t tell us that’s all.”

“I just dropped her off at her apartment and went back to the dorms,” Vernon confirmed to Seungcheol’s horror. “I really didn’t want it to be just last night.”

“So... you asked her out?” 

“No.”

“You got her number?”

“No.”

“Her Instagram? Her Twitter? Her student ID number? Do you even know her name?” 

“I already said I was an idiot,” Vernon whined. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to talk about it. But yes, I did at least get her name.”

It was the only thing he could think of since he woke up. She was the only thing he could think of since he woke up. The way her eyes had lit up while they talked about her major. The way her lips had curved into a clever smile when she told a joke. The way her small hand had fit in his as they walked to her apartment. Then, he would remember how he completely fucked it all up before he started, and his headache would return full-force. 

“Dude.” Seungcheol fixed him with a stern stare, but it was kind of hard to take him seriously when his mouth was full of noodles. “Have you never asked a girl out before?”

“You know I have! I don’t know what happened either, okay? I guess I just froze up when she looked at me… then I just went home after telling her good night.”

Seungcheol feigned a gag. “Gross. I was joking earlier, but you’re an actual simp. Hate to break it to you like this.” 

“I think it’s sweet,” Seungkwan piped up from where he comfortably rested his head on the table.

“That’s nice, Seungkwan, but ‘sweet’ isn’t gonna get either of you laid,” Seungcheol chuckled. “Vernon, your girl was clearly waiting for you to make the next move. Trust me, girls don’t just ask anyone to walk them home.”

“I didn’t want to look like a creep!” Vernon sullenly stared down at his untouched bowl of noodles. “What am I supposed to do now, hyung?”

“Yeah, lend us your wisdom, O Alluring One,” Seungkwan chanted. “You clearly have plenty of experience from the past three years. 

“Like I said, I just have a lot of friends,” Seungcheol shrugged, then suddenly checked the time on his phone. “Oh shit--  speaking of friends, I have to meet one for a study session at her apartment in 15 minutes.”

“Sounds nasty.”

“Your mom’s nasty,” Seungcheol retorted with a provocative smile. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Boo! Then maybe you’d be able to think of how to confess.”

“Uncalled for!”

He placed several bills on the table and checked his phone again. “This should be enough to cover lunch, kiddos. I wish I could help you two, but I’m booked for the rest of the day. And the week.”

“But what if I meet her again?” Vernon asked desperately. 

“Then text me! I might not reply right away though. I’ve got two classes later and then I have dinner plans--”

“Another girl I presume--”

“Shut up! I also have to go to the gym before doing… uh, doing a thing. And then I have a shift at 24H.” Seungcheol stood up and looked at the distressed boys before him, his soft eyes more affectionate than alluring. Was he like this as a freshman? He reached over to ruffle the freshmans' heads. “You two should probably leave soon, too. I’ll see y’all later!” 

And just like that, Seungcheol was gone, and Vernon was once again left without any advice from the senior. Vernon was never one for dramatics, but his personal failures felt like a gray cloud of shame hanging over him. He began to worry that he was just gonna have to live like this forever, because nothing in the world was bright enough to break through his doom and gloom (well, her smile probably could, but Vernon was never going to see that again). The fact that Seungkwan seemed like he was about to Train to Busan his ass any minute now didn’t really lift his spirits either.

Lucky for him, the universe was not going to let him give up so easily. At that moment, a boy with glaringly yellow hair and a heavy camera on his shoulder bursted through the entrance. His smile brightened when he spotted the two boys in the back and he didn’t hesitate to bound towards them, skipping right past the server welcoming him in. “Seungkwan! I knew I’d find you here.”

“Dearest Vernon, it seems we have been joined by the lovely Soonyoung hyung. Perhaps he might know the medicine we require to ease our ailments in love,” Seungkwan suddenly stood up, all signs of his hangover expertly hidden. He smiled directly into the camera lens. “Hyung, would you kindly share your wisdom with us lowly freshmen? Pray tell, how does one woo the object of their affection?”

Vernon, who was well-acquainted with Seungkwan’s antics by then, watched on in silent amusement. If anything could distract him from his internal turmoil for a moment, it was Seungkwan; even if he was just spewing nonsense. What really made him crack up though, was the way Soonyoung (that was his name, right?) was clearly trying very hard to suppress his giggles. “Um,” Soonyoung managed to  cut in breathlessly. “You know I’m not rolling, right? Also, I didn’t understand any of the words that just left your mouth, but it definitely felt like you were putting some sort of ancient curse on me. Hi, I’m Soonyoung by the way!”

Vernon introduced himself and shook Soonyoung’s hand. Seungkwan could only sigh in exasperation at Soonyoung’s lack of culture (not that he was surprised of course). The boy apparently thought it was a good fashion choice to leave his apartment wearing a tiger print button-up. “I was  asking if you could help us out with confessing to our crushes,” Seungkwan said with a roll of his eyes. 

“Ohh, that’s what you said!” Soonyoung laughed until he was keeled over, clutching his stomach. Vernon and Seungkwan could only watch him with great expectation. When the boy finally caught his breath and wiped the sweat from his brow, he gave the boys a very serious look. “Yeah, I haven’t gotten any since January. So you should probably ask someone else.” 

This also did not surprise Seungkwan. 

“Excuse me?” The tall server approached them again, clearly giving them his best ‘I hate working in retail’ smile. “If y’all are done eating, could you please leave? You’re disturbing the other customers.” 

“I’m eating, I’m eating!” Soonyoung smiled until his cheeks reached his eyes, a power move that he saves for occasions where he found himself in trouble, which happened more often than he’d care to admit. Once the server let them be, muttering something about not getting paid enough, Soonyoung turned his killing smile onto the two boys. “Can I have some of this? I can Venmo y’all later, I’m pretty broke right now.” 

Vernon pushed his uneaten ramen towards Soonyoung, who looked at him as if he was the sun itself. The boy carefully set down his film camera and immediately began slurping away. Vernon nodded his head towards the contraption and asked why he was carrying it around.

 “Oh, I rented it before coming to find Seungkwan. I’m thinking about making him the subject of my film project this semester, since the theater program is pretty buzzed that he’s joining this year!” Soonyoung patted the camera affectionately.

“‘Thinking about?’ I thought I was your final choice!” Seungkwan blurted. The ramen he had for lunch seemed to have finally restored some of his strength, because he no longer clutched at his temple when his voice rose.

“I said ‘most likely’ choice! I just want to keep my options open,” Soonyoung responded with great care. He didn’t want to hurt Seungkwan’s feelings, but he was definitely re-evaluating alternate subjects at the moment.  “It’s only the second week!”

“This is why you’re single,” the theater major said in a huff. “Lack of commitment!”

“Hey! I am perfectly capable of commitment. It’s the girls that don’t want to commit, ” Soonyoung said in a small voice, and looked off into the distance wistfully. “I really hope Woozi does put out a new song tonight. Maybe he’ll tweet something soon.” 

“Woozi? Who’s that?” Vernon asked. At this point, he was just looking for anything that would fend off his memories, which lingered at the edges of his mind and waited for moments of silence to bring him another fresh glass of cringe. He was pretty sure that he had experienced well above the recommended daily serving. 

“Oh, he’s a Twitch streamer from MU! I was actually gonna say if you two are really struggling in the love department, you should definitely check out his stream tonight.” Soonyoung nearly wiggled with enthusiasm. “He usually promotes songs from artists around the area, but his self-composed songs are my personal favorites. They’ve been what’s getting me through this dry spell, honestly.”

“Oh, that sounds pretty cool.” It sounded like it was right up Vernon’s alley, actually. 

Soonyoung nodded. “You listen to them and you just feel hopeful to find the kind of love he sings about. I’ll send you the link later!” 

“Underground artists? No thanks, I think I’ll stick to Eva Noblezada,” Seungkwan scoffed. “I don’t really think a stranger can help me with my problems. They don’t even know me.” 

“Oh come on, Kwan. Let’s just give it a shot!”

Even after all his grumbling, Seungkwan still sat beside Vernon at one of the desks in their dorm later that night. They had opened the link Soonyoung had sent them, and munched on some snacks while they waited for the stream to start up. Vernon waited with baited breath for his distraction to begin; he had spent most of the day attempting to wall off any thoughts of her or last night, but it was kind of difficult to think of anything else when all of his professors only droned on and on about quizzes and homework. 

When a boy with fair skin and burgundy hair came into frame, he nearly sighed in relief. The streamer appeared to be sitting in a small, dark office only illuminated by his computer screen and several pink neon signs that hung on the walls. Vernon could recognize the faint outlines of several guitars and a keyboard behind him. The boy clicked around for a while as more people joined the stream before finally waving into the camera. 

“Hi guys, welcome in! Thanks for joining Woozi’s Universe. If you’re new here, I’m Woozi and I like to write songs sometimes. If you’re an old subscriber, I’m really sorry for the long wait.  I’ve been working on a lot of projects, doing some collabs - I’ll actually be releasing one of those collabs tonight and I’m really excited for you guys to hear it. If you have any new songs you want to listen to together, go ahead and leave them in the chat!”

As soon as the stream started flowing, Vernon immediately knew why Soonyoung gave Woozi such rave reviews. The guy just had good vibes and he definitely knew his music. Vernon was hooked. Even Seungkwan, try as he might to look disinterested, couldn’t help bopping his head occasionally.

“Thanks for the subscription @chweinggum! You just helped me reach my tenth new sub for tonight, and you guys know what that means. Time for the new song! It was really fun to write this with my collaborator, so we really hope you like it!” 

After spending the past hour just vibing in Woozi’s Universe, discovering new songs and artists, Vernon had really hyped himself up to hear the streamer’s personal work. If Soonyoung’s words were true, this would be the song that would truly heal his heartache, the song that would push him to forget about the whole ordeal. He listened in anticipation as pleasant harmonies played through his laptop speakers. But as the song progressed, Vernon did not quite feel the reprieve he was hoping for. In fact, he was kind of taken aback. The lyrics… felt like they told his story. Maybe not word for word, but enough to make Vernon stare at the laptop screen with his mouth open. What kind of hocus pocus, That’s So Raven, mind reading shit was this? The song broke down the walls he had tried to build throughout the day and left him vulnerable to its strangely upbeat and energetic tune. 

He had to admit that he didn’t hate it. The cringe from his own actions did not disappear, but the song helped him focus more on the moments that made his heart flutter, the moments that incited those pesky butterflies in his stomach. They were the moments that made him so hard on himself in the first place and the reasons why it hurt so much that he messed up. She had made him feel seen. She had done everything right. And all he wanted to do was to show her that he saw her too. He just had to figure out how. 

Woozi clapped his hands loudly when the song came to an end, bringing Vernon out of his deep reverie. “And that was Pretty U by yours truly! I collaborated on it with an artist who doesn’t want to be named as of now, so I’ll just say it was great to work with such a talented person and I hope to work with them again soon! Anyway, we know the lyrics are pretty cheesy, but let’s just say it’s based on a juvenile romance! I tried capturing that giddy feeling of liking someone and wanting to tell them pretty words but losing confidence at the last second. I’m sure we’ve all been there before.”

Vernon sat up, nodding his head as if Woozi could see him. After his song scanned his soul like that, Vernon figured it wasn’t impossible.

“I know that some of my subscribers listen to me because they go through these kinds of hardships. But I wanted to say that my songs can’t fix everything. Even I go through it sometimes and I need someone to lean on. There’s actually a new thing I just found out about from a friend - ‘Dear Miss Soju’. It’s a column that they’re gonna start publishing on The Front’s website, and you can anonymously write in all your burning questions about love, relationships, or sex. So if you’re having a hard time confessing like in this song, just know that there’s someone out there to help you out!

“Since you’ll be anonymous, you can write about your heart’s deepest desires, even if it’s a little freaky. Yes, I’m talking to you, user @callmesoon, please stop trying to tell me about your sex life. Anyway, I’ll put the email in the description for anyone that’s interested!” Woozi paused to laugh at several of the comments. “No guys, The Front does not sponsor me. But I can tell you about a company that does sponsor me. Hello Fresh--”  

Seungkwan closed the laptop and sighed. “Well, that didn’t help me at all. Soonyoung hyung said this Woozi guy was gonna make me feel better, but now he’s just telling us to spilll all our secrets to some other stranger. What a scam! Right, Vernon? Vernon?”

By the time Seungkwan turned to look at his friend, Vernon was already writing his second draft for his email. The boy sighed again. Maybe he could give it a shot.

The next morning, Joohyun opened up her laptop to find thirteen emails in her inbox. She smiled. 

Now she could get to work.

[nalgenewhore]

A rogue storm had her presumed dead and stranded on the red planet. Left on her own, astronaut Aelin Galathynius has four years to make it to the next drop-site, some two thousand miles. Armed with her smarts and dwindling supplies, Aelin attempts to survive on an inhospitable planet, when the nearest help is only millions of miles away.

masterlist - ao3 - last chapter - next chapter

an: we really getting into now hehe 

+*+*+*+*+*+*

The military cemetery thirty minutes outside Orynth was cold and bleak, fitting for the day.

Everyone in attendance was staring at the empty casket being lowered into the hole dug into the frozen ground of early January. Weylan shuffled his notes, clearing his throat before speaking, “Our space program was lucky to have an astronaut like Aelin Galathynius. She gave her life to this program and will be sorely missed. Her sacrifice in the furthering of science itself will not be in vain and the men and women here at TNSB will notice her absence every second of every hour, ensuring that her death means something. Anneith bless her and Hellas save her,” he said, making the sign of protection and prayer, a three fingered claw-like shape and pushing it from his heart.

The attendees repeated the gesture while Manon and Asterin whispered their own prayers, holding hands tightly, designating the highest Ironteeth honour on the fallen woman.

 +*+*+*+*+*+*

Gavriel was already in Weylan’s office as he walked in with Asterin, the two locked in a hushed argument. Upon spying the mission director, they paused and Weylan nodded towards the folder in his hand, “What’s that there?”

“I need you to sign off on the plans for the-“

“No.”

Gavriel pressed harder, “I know I can get parliament to fund it-“

“Gavriel, that’s not why I said no and you know it.” Weylan sighed and walked past him to sit behind his desk, Asterin taking a seat beside Gavriel. “We’re a public organization, everything we do has to be transparent.”

“And?”

Weylan and Asterin shared a look before the director responded, speaking slowly, “The moment the satellites point to the hab, we broadcast Aelin Galathynius’ body to the world.”

Gavriel scoffed, “You’re afraid of a PR scandal?”

Asterin rose a brow, “Of course we are. We have a dead astronaut on Farnor and we still need funding for The Crone.”

“So then what do we do?” he asked, tapping his finger on the folder, “She’s not going to decompose, her body will be up there forever.”

The director shrugged, “Meteorology reports that she’ll be covered by sand in less than a year.”

Gavriel threw his hands up, nearly hitting Asterin in the process, “We can’t wait a year! We have work to do and are we not going to discuss retrieving her body?”

“And what? Waste money and time for a corpse?”

Both Asterin and Gavriel flinched, the former hiding her adverse reaction better than Gavriel did. He was at a loss for words, thankfully Asterin spoke up, “Weylan, think about it. The Crone can bring the body back. Sympathy for her family-“

“What family? She’s an orphan and unmarried.”

It took conscious effort to anger Gavriel and he clamped down on the red-hot emotion, gritting his teeth as Asterin spoke again, “The Crone can bring back her body. We don’t make the mission about that, but we make it clear that that’s part of it. I can spin it if we do this now, Weylan. We can’t wait a year – people won’t care in a year.”

  +*+*+*+*+*+*

The pain had lessened, if barely, as Aelin came to, not sure how’d long it had been since she’d passed out. There was no new blood and she sighed in relief, reaching for the pills again and taking one. Aelin stood up, pushing herself up carefully until she was standing.

She groaned but was able to breathe past the ache and hobble her way to the bunks, dragging out her box and getting warmer clothes.

Putting them on took energy, too much of it, and she was panting as she sat on the floor, her back against her bed. Her stomach panged in hunger and she would have to find something to eat soon, but first, she grabbed her laptop and moved to the kitchen, sitting down and opening the computer up.

After a few taps and a bit of fiddling, she clicked on the video journaling and the camera started rolling. “Fuck, I don’t know how to do this,” she muttered, glancing at herself on the screen before squaring her shoulders and taking deep breath. “Uh, hi. This is Aelin Galathynius, recording from the hab. It’s currently,” she looked at the timestamp next to the recording time, “sixteen-hundred hours and surprise, I lived!” She laughed shakily, dragging her hand through her hair. “Obviously.” 

“I’m assuming this is a surprise to the crew and TNSB, if not, I’m going to kick some asses, but… I did not die on day eighteen. If I’m piecing this all together correctly, this,” she held up the antennae, “lovely little thing here damaged my bio-monitor and the team… had to leave before someone else got hurt.” Tears filled her eyes and she wiped them away, “Stupid painkillers, making me cry. But I… if I don’t make it out of here, which is highly likely, I just want to tell my crew that I don’t blame you, ok?”

She let out a shaky breath and continued, “I know that you broody humans are going to blame yourselves, especially you, Commander, but it was a tough situation and I would’ve made the same call. It’s just my bad luck, you know?”

Aelin shook her head, “Alright, now that all the mushy stuff is out of the way, I need to do some science.” She grabbed a nearby pen and her mission file, “There’s no way to contact TNSB because the satellite broke and I was impaled by the antennae. The next manned mission is in four years and I have to survive on a desolate planet for that long, right? Oh, and get to the Mistward crater where a prepositioned FAV is just waiting.”

She chewed on the pen, brows furrowing as she thought, “It’s a thirty-one-day expedition which means we have provisions for seventy, as a precaution.” She scribbled some numbers down, her mind whirling, “Now, it’s just me here which means it’ll last for…” she trailed off, “three-hundred days. With rationing, I can stretch it to four hundred. Which means I don’t have enough provisions to make it.”

With a sly grin, she looked up at the camera, “Thankfully, I know a thing or two about botany and soil.”

Aelin pushed herself in the wheeled chair to the pantry, opening every drawer and carefully counting every packet they had, separating them into different piles.

One, marked with red letters, Do not open until Beltane caught her eye and she grabbed it, “Oh, thank fuck the only thing Terrasen can grow is potatoes.” She looked at the camera by the microwave, “I’m about to science the shit out of this. It’s not gonna be pretty, I need to reclaim our waste and make fertilizer, but… it’ll keep me alive.” For now.

 +*+*+*+*+*+*

It had been a week since the storm and Aelin had completed converted the kitchen into a greenhouse, Farnor soil on the floor, fertilized with the crew’s own human waste, with neat rows of spuds by moving all the chairs and tables outside, dumping them on the ground next to the rover station. That was another thing. To get to the next drop-site, it was a two-thousand-kilometre drive and the rover went a total of fifty.

Adding in the fact that she would have to spend the nights inside the rover as well, with outside temperatures reaching negative seventy-three in Celsius, she would need to turn on the heater, which would drain the battery.

She’d long since gone through everyone’s things, finding the holy grail, a rover manual in Lorcan’s box. Aelin had never been more thankful for mechanical engineering in her life.

It was slow and hard work to modify the two rovers they had. After fifty kilometres, the batteries would need to be recharged, at the hab.

Left with no other options, Aelin had been forced to dig up the old radioisotope thermoelectric generator, powered by none other than plutonium itself. The list of dangers was lengthy, however, Aelin wasn’t too worried.

She talked to the camera in the rover, “Now, I do remember that one of our lessons was ‘Don’t Go Digging Up The Big Box Of Plutonium,’ but it’s either cancer due to exposure or slowly dying due to the laws of thermodynamics. Honestly, at this point, getting cancer due to exposure to a toxic chemical would be heaven compared to being alone on a desolate planet, but them’s the breaks, I guess.”

 +*+*+*+*+*+*

The lone astronaut was sitting before the computer, wearing the hoodie Rowan had left. It was the only thing that brought her comfort, other than the motherload she’d found on Nesryn’s computer – all of the Twilight movies and, of course, the computer geek’s favourite manga, Anatolia Story. It was surprisingly interesting and after she’d binge read seven out of twenty-eight volumes, Aelin forced herself to stop, telling herself she’d only read one volume a week. So far, she’d kept to her promise, but she’d been so busy with figuring out how to stay alive, she hardly had any free time.

She did find enough time to laugh herself silly over the fact that Fenrys’ had every Disney princess movie available, even her favourite: Mulan.

Elide had been her saviour with PDFs of Harry Potter, and Lorcan with Marvel movies. Even grouchy Rowan had Grey’s Anatomy, which was quite a shock to find out, given how much the doctor looked down on the show. Sometimes, Aelin imagined his voice as he ranted about how dramatic and unrealistic it was, especially with how many of the doctors slept with their co-workers.

But now was not the time to think of such things, Aelin had work to do.

Last night, she had recorded, yet again, her random thought pattern, focusing on how she would water her crops, after having planting the spuds for Beltane. “Thank the gods that Elide was always a fucking weirdo and learned how to fabricate water at much too young, but hey, foster parents don’t pay that much attention. Well,” she chuckled, “they paid enough attention to stop her from ordering The Anarchist’s Cookbook, which is a good thing because that was a time when we were in one of our little spats,” which were really anything but little. “She was able to put together this handy-dandy thing.” She indicated the packet on the table, of various simple reactions including one very, very important one.

Water.

Aelin toyed with Elide’s evil eye symbol, “The thing is, to make water, we need fire, which seems a bit strange, why would one need fire for water? But anyway, TNSB is against fire because of the whole ‘fire in space makes everyone die’ thing. So, everything is fire-retardant. Everything,” she held up the evil eye, which happened to be made of wood, “except for El’s personal items.”

There was a small knife on the table and she picked it up, shaving off pieces of her sister’s carving, “Ellie, if you see this, I’m assuming you don’t mind that I went through your personal boxes – all of yours actually. Commander, and I mean this with no offence, but all you listen to is punk. I have nothing against punk, but after a while, it all sounds the same, you know? One guy yells, ‘one two three four’ and then the guitars and drumming starts!”

Eventually, she had a nice pile of wood shavings and she carefully carried them over to the middle of the room. She remembered to put on her mask before passing through the plastic tarp, where Aelin had set up a very rudimentary stove-esque set up.  The normally risky experiment was even more dangerous and she wasn’t going to blow herself up by forgetting to account for the oxygen she was exhaling.

“Ok,” she breathed out, putting the wood shavings on the sieve that covered the empty can of beans. Her eyes were wide, missing nothing. So many things could go wrong and Elide’s voice filled her head, There’s a reason people without chemistry degrees don’t make water. “I know that,” she bit out, her brows lowering as she carefully poured a few drops of rocket fuel – hydrazine – which was conveniently made of two sodium atoms bonded with four hydrogen atoms.

Carefully, so carefully, she struck the torch, wincing as the wood caught on fire, the flames fluttering happily. When nothing bad happened, she cheered and smiled beneath her mask, keeping one eye on the set-up and another on her spuds as she backed up into the kitchen, a slightly mad smile on her face as she sat down heavily on the chair and looked into the camera, “Don’t worry, guys, no explosions or fire, other than the very controlled experiment.”

 +*+*+*+*+*+*

Aelin was hunched over a map, Iron Man: 3 playing idly on the laptop beside her. She was planning her route to the drop-site, which was in the Mistward crater. She breathed out and wiped the sweat from her brow.

Sweat.

Hardly daring to move, she turned to look at the plastic tarp of her greenhouse, seeing the drops of moisture on it. With a half-crazed laugh, she stood up and entered the closed off space, running her hand over the tarp, her fingertips coming away wet. “Water,” she breathed, buzzing with joy, “water! I have water!”

She raced to her bunk and threw on her suit and helmet, bouncing on her toes as she waited for the airlock tunnel to depressurize and then she raced to the water reclaimer, as fast as one could while wearing a spacesuit.

The sun beat down on her but she barely paid the heat any mind as she opened the water reclaimer, a dry sob tearing from her throat as she found it to be filled to the brim with the crystal clear liquid. 

For the first time since she’d woken up, Aelin felt hope, bright and beautiful hope. 

+*+*+*+*+*+*

It was past midnight in Perranth and Nox Owens yawned into his mug of tea, blinking hard to stay awake.

He settled back into his chair in Satellite Control, pulling up the aerial images of the hab for his boss. They took a while to load and he might have dozed off, jolting and nearly spilling his tea as the computer beeped, indicating the images were ready. With a slight sigh, he carefully put his mug down and pushed his glasses up after they had slipped down to the end on his nose yet again.

Blinking the sleepiness from his startlingly grey eyes, he clicked through the batch, making sure everything was normal before sending them up to his superiors. Something had him shifting in his wheelie-chair and narrowing his angular eyes, “What the fu…”

No. It couldn’t be. How in Hellas’ realm was the rover moving? The solar panels?

This didn’t make any sense…

Logically, the satellite planner knew that there was only one answer for this, he just couldn’t believe it.

Maybe he’d seen it wrong or these were old pictures, but the timestamp in the corner of the screen told him that what he was seeing was correct.

And that meant that… Aelin Galathynius was alive. And they’d left her on Farnor, alone.

Shit.

It took him a few tries to grab the phone and he couldn’t tear his eyes away as the operator picked up.

“This is Nox Owens from SatCon, I need to speak with Gavriel Aryeh. The Farnor Mission Director, yes. It’s an emergency.”

“Emergency, really?”

Nox hissed into the receiver, “Yes, it’s an emergency.”

+*+*+*+*+*+*

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[star-light-imagines]

hey, can you write some headcanons for izuku, tenya, and fumikage with a s/o who has really severe adhd? their very intelligent but they have an extremely hard time sitting still and focusing on any task. bonus points if that makes them a really good fighter wuth a strong quirk. thank you!

ADHD Headcanons

Anime/Manga: My Hero Academia

Warnings: None

Enjoy this quirk fest! 💚, 💙,🖤

Ps: I’m still new to this, so thank you for sending in a request and I’m going to give it the best I possibly can!

——————————————————————————

When Izuku first met you he was confused when he saw how you couldn’t stay still very well in class. He noticed how you would tap your feet repeatedly, how you would get distracted by things outside the window easily, how you would eagerly jump out of your seat when class would end. While others thought of this as weird or annoying, he thought it was interesting.

“Y/N, I noticed how everyday you are always moving around during class in some way or form, is it due to your quirk?”

“No I have ADHD, it’s separate from my quirk. However, it does make my quirk stronger than what you would expect. I may get distracted by things around me easily, but all that means is I notice my surroundings more than others, and I can use that to my advantage. Also the fact that I can’t stay still for very long helps me improve my quirk and become stronger. I’m always training because it helps keep me relaxed, but I’m learning to use my ADHD to my advantage in battle situations.”

“Wow! Y/N you have really thought this through and used what you have at your disposal to become a stronger. Is it okay if you give me some tips for my journals, maybe even train with you so I can pick up a few moves?”

“Of course! I would love the company.”

He will stand up for you when others discourage you for having ADHD and trying to be a hero. In fact, if you are training against someone in class when this happens, he will purposely cheer for you super loudly behind them.

“Can Y/N even be a pro hero with how they are always distracted and not paying attention in class?”

“I don’t know I heard Y/N is smart, I mean they get the highest test scores even though they don’t sit still in class.”

“That doesn’t mean Y/N got what it takes to be a pro hero.”

Izuku was sitting behind the two boys murmuring over you as you had stood up to train against kaminari. He was excitedly waiting for you to show them how powerful you really are. “You got this Y/N!” He yelled loudly, so loudly the boys turned around to look at him with disgust.

“If you watch you might learn something.” He said smugly to the boys before pulling out his notebook to take notes for you and how to better improve his own skills.

He knew he liked you after your first conversation after class that one day. However the more time he spends with you the harder he falls. Soon it’s hard for him to not blush when you walk up to him, or for him to not stutter during conversations with you, or even for him to make proper eye contact and because of this you begin to think he doesn’t like you and get anxious.

“Hey Izuku can we talk?” You say walking over to him in the lounge. He was studying the notes he had taken during class but as soon as he looked up and saw you were the one talking he immediately looked back down.

“S-sure what’s up Y/N?” He asked nervously

“I noticed how you haven’t been acting the same around me lately. Do you not want to be friends anymore? Did my ADHD become annoying ?” You ask sadly while looking down at your feet.

“What! No! That’s not it at all, I promise. I’m so sorry I made you feel that way.” Izuku immediately stands up and grabs your hands so that you look at him.

“Then what is it? Why don’t you look at me? Why don’t you want to spend time with me anymore? Damnit Deku! It hurts so much to see you look away from me when I try to talk to you!”

“Y/N I like you..it’s all because I like you and I didn’t know if you would feel the same way or if you would just want to focus on becoming a pro hero and everytime I made eye contact with you I would turn so red you would probably think I had run 5 miles.” He said as tears started to well up in his eyes.

“Izuku... I like you to, you were the first person in the class to accept me and give me strength to continue. You didn’t judge me for my ADHD but instead saw it as one of my strengths. You stand up for me when I’m not around to do it for myself, you help me when I’m struggling, you support me when I’m feeling like giving up. Of course I like you.” I say with tears falling down my cheeks.

When he first met you in class, he was a bit annoyed that you couldn’t sit still and had become a slight distraction for him. However, he was being polite by not saying anything since no one else seemed to mind. Each day he would look towards your seat to see you shaking a knee or tapping your pencil on the desk. He couldn’t concentrate on anything other than you.

He started to notice more than just your repeated movements each day. He noticed how your hair shinned when the sun hit it from the windows, how you would sometimes doodle classmates into your notes, and especially how you would smile with relief when ever you could stand from your seat. He never even talked to you, but you somehow invaded his thoughts.

“Iida! This is Y/N, I thought you two should meet since you haven’t talked yet.” Mono says happily while introducing you two one day during lunch.

“Hello Y/N, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Tenya says politely while holding his hand out to shake yours.

“Nice to meet you as well.” You say as you take his hand in yours and in that moment he felt as if he was was shocked by lighting with the electricity he felt from holding your hand.

“I’ve wanted to ask something for awhile now, if you don’t mind?”

“Go ahead, I don’t mind at all.”

“I noticed how you don’t sit very still in class, is there a reason for that?”

“Oh! I have ADHD, it’s a bit hard for me to focus when I’m not moving. I hope it doesn’t bother you.” At this moment it all clicked for Tenya

“Not at all. I will admit that at first it did slightly irritate me but after a few days it became like a routine for me to see you always moving around. It would be weird if I didn’t see it now.”

He knows how strong your quirk is because he has seen you in action multiple times during class and training. He knows how hard you work and how you are able to out maneuver even him most days. You have strong strategic skills as well and can be a strong opponent for anyone in school. However some people don’t realize this when all they see is you being distracted and endlessly moving around during lunch hours, and because of this he won’t hesitate to step in if someone decides to talk behind your back.

“Y/N is so annoying sometimes. Like please sit still for two minutes.”

“I bet Y/N can’t even stay still for 1 minute.” The person says and laughs while watching you from across the cafeteria.

“I don’t know how people put up with that everyday.”

Tenya had heard this conversation on accident while walking past them and immediately stopped in his tracks. He watched as you sat happily with Izuku and Momo and turned to look at the girls who talking bad about you and laughing. He couldn’t let this slide, not when he imagined the look your face if you ever heard what they were saying.

“Excuse me, I overheard your conversation and I would like to let you know that Y/N is the best person I know. Not only can Y/N make some of the top scores in class, but can fight well beyond anyone’s expectations or even skill set for that matter. It shouldn’t matter that Y/N can’t sit still for very long, all that matters is how they are as a person and how willing they are to work towards their goals.”

He didn’t realize his feelings for awhile because he had never liked someone before. You most likely realized your feelings before he did and told him about it and that’s when it clicked for him that that’s what he’s been feelings and what’s been missing from his life.

“Tenya, I have something I need to tell you.” You say quietly in the middle of your movie night one day.

“Oh? Go ahead”

“I like you, I really do. I don’t know how you feel or if you even want to be with me-“ you didn’t get to finish because as soon as he heard the words he realized all he wanted in that moment was to kiss you.

“I guess that means you want me then” you say with a laugh after the kiss.

Fumikage didn’t mind when he noticed how you would shake your legs while sitting in class or how you would click your pen several times whithin minutes. He had seen people with ADHD before and had been good friends with many of them to. However, he did see how others would treat you and made it his mission to become friends with you even though he wasn’t very social.

“Y/N right?” He said while walking up to your desk before class one day.

“Um, yes! Is there something I can do for you?”

“I just wanted to let you know it’s okay to have ADHD. Obviously you are strong or else you wouldn’t be in this class and I know you will get even stronger. If you ever need someone to talk to I’ll be here.”

He would be the first person to come to your rescue when someone picks a fight with you or makes fun of you over your ADHD. He would have a hard time holding back his anger, but he definitely would make sure they wouldn’t mess with you again.

“Y/N I can’t fucking stand sitting behind you everyday and watching you tap your feet and move your arms! I can’t focus in class!” Mineta exclaims

“Funny coming from a boy that can’t focus anyway due to his perverted thoughts about every girl on the planet. How about instead of blaming her for your inability to focus you just learn how to control your thoughts. You know what? Just switch seats with me and the next time you fail a test you won’t have Y/N to blame.”

Fumikage obviously cared about you and liked you but he didn’t want to tell you his feelings without knowing where you stood. So when you confessed your feelings one day while walking back to the dorms, he couldn’t have been happier to be able to finally get his own feelings off his chest.

“Fumikage, wait, slow down.” You yelled while running toward him.

“Do you need something Y/N?”

“Yes, I need to tell you how I like you and how I hope you will accept my feelings!”

“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for you to say those words.” He said before drawing you into a hug.

[cesarinthefreezer]

A Heart of Gold no one can See

Rohan x reader

You’ve been Rohan’s assistant for about 8 months now. You do simple things like bring him tea, run simple errands and some light house keeping. He had you come over at 11:00am and dismissed you at what ever time he felt he no longer needed you. The two of you got along pretty well for the most part but Rohan’s personally was a bit abrasive. Despite his rudeness you knew he had a good heart deep down. Every once in a while the two of you would chat over a cup of tea and go for a walk together so he could clear his head. Sometimes he could be quite charming and sweet if the moment was right, but he could easily revert to his cold attitude.

It was 11:05 when you opened the door of Rohan’s Victorian style house drenched from the rain. You hang up your jacket and walk up stairs to his studio. Before you can say a work Rohan speaks without taking his eyes of his work

“You’re late.”

You feel your heart sink

“Yes I was just about to apologize for that I got caught in some rain”

Rohan looks up at you

“I can see that, you’re a mess” rolling his eyes

His rudeness was the last thing you needed today and you snapped

“Look I was about to say I’m sorry I am late I really do try my best for you, you know? why can’t we be friends and you not be so rude to me”

Rohan slams his pencil down on the desk

“I don’t want your company, now do your job and bring me some tea”

You turn to stomp out of the room. Rohan was being truthful when he said he didn’t want your company, but what you didn’t know was that he needed it, he longed for it but his cold attitude always got to him. He cares for you, maybe even love you even but he didn’t know how to tell or show you.

As you walk angrily down the hall towards the steps Rohan calls out to you.

“Y/n wait let me apologize”

When you reach the top of the stairs you spin around to face him but your wet shoes slip on the wood floor and you go tumbling down the stairs. When your head hits the hard floor you black out.

Rohan runs to the railing to see your unmoving body at the base of the stairs. When you open your eyes he breaths a sign of relief. But you on the other hand do not, you can’t move or speak and you feel something warm pooling around your head, you feel yourself start to panic. Rohan runs down the stairs and kneels at your side bringing your bloodied head into his lap, not concerned about getting blood on his designer pants. He can see the fear in your eyes and shallow breaths struggle in and out of your body.

Raising his hand

“ HEAVENS DOOR!”

Rohan takes a moment to read your injuries and lifts a pen to the side of your face. He is pained to discover he cant write them out, he can only read your vitals and they get worse with every minute that passes. You’ve cracked your skull and broken a few ribs and you’re losing blood quickly. Rohan is overcome with emotions, he’s angry at himself for treating you the way he has but he’s scared he will lose you. He scopes you up in his arms and runs to his car, the only person who can fix this is Josuke. He places you on the back seat and has heavens door hold your head with its childlike hands.

Driving as fast as he can and using heavens door to keep and eye on your vitals he arrives at Josukes house. Pulling you out of the car bridal style he runs through the rain to the door. He begins to kick the front door violently as the rain comes down harder soaking you both. You can see the distress in his face and you want to comfort him but you can’t speak or move and soon he will fade from your vision.

“JOSUKE!!!, JOSUKE OPEN UP PLEASE I NEED YOUR HELP.

Rohan collapses to his knees with you in his arms. Despite all the rain you can see tears in his eyes before he fades from your vision and you black out once more.

Finally the door opens “Rohan what do you...”

Josuke looks down to see Rohan with you in his arms the two of you soaked in blood and rain. Rohan raises his head

“Josuke please I know you can fix her you have to, not just for her but for me”

With no hesitation Josuke summons Crazy Diamond who heals your broken ribs and cracked skull, but you don’t wake up. With a mix of anger and fear Rohan yells at Josuke

“Why isn’t she awake Josuke, why?, I thought you could fix her. I need her, I....think I love her”

Josuke puts a hand on Rohan’s shoulder

“She lost a lot of blood Rohan her body needs time, she needs some rest, lets get her back to your house”

He then helps Rohan get you into his car holds your body while Rohan drives the 3 of you back to his house. When they arrive home Rohan takes you upstairs and places you in the bath tub and removes your clothes respectfully. With the help of crazy diamond( because Rohan doesn’t want Josuke to see you naked but needs help) He washes the blood out of your hair and cleans you up. He puts you in a t shirt and a pair of his briefs that act like shorts on you. For the next 3 days Rohan doesn’t leave your side. Josuke also stays to help take care of you and remind Rohan to eat and get some sleep.

Rohan spends the days sitting with you, moving you from laying down to sitting up in his bed to help with your blood flow. He brushes your hair and wipes your face down with a washcloth. And at night he sleeps with you against him to keep you warm. Josuke tries to help but Rohan feels this is his responsibility and pushes Josuke away. He worries everyday, your body remains so cold to his touch from the loss of blood, but using heavens door reassured him you are getting better.

When you finally gain consciousness you find yourself in a room you don’t recognize, wearing clothes that aren’t yours. You look over to see a familiar friend asleep in a chair next to the bed. It’s Josuke, but what is he doing here and most importantly where is here. You didn’t realize it when you woke up but are sitting upright agains something warm. You turn to see that that something is someone. Rohan is asleep sitting behind you with his back against the head board and his legs on either side of you. This must be Rohan’s bed room, you had never been in it before because there was no reason for you to be.This startled you for a second and you try to collect your thoughts and remember what happened. In that moment Josuke wakes up

“Y/n) your awake how do you feel”

You rub your eyes

“Hey Josuke, I feel okay I guess I’m a bit confused, why are you here and why am I in bed with Rohan?”

Josuke runs a hand through his hair

“You fell down the stairs and cracked your head , I was able to heal you but you’ve been out for 3 days. Rohan has been taking care of you and I’ve been helping where he’ll let me. I’m glad he’s finally sleeping though, he refused to leave your side and when he would for only a few minutes he’d have me sit with you”

You look at him wide eyed and lift your hand to the back of your head

“3 days?”

Josuke nods. You then feel Rohan move behind you as he starts to wake up. Josuke stand up and heads towards the door

“I’ll give you two some time, I’m glad your okay now y/n”

You smile

“Thank you Josuke, you saved my life”

He shakes his head and points to Rohan

“You should be thanking him”

He leaves the room and you turn to look at Rohan has as he opens his eyes. When he realizes you’re awake he pulls you to his chest

“Oh thank god I was afraid you’d never wake up and I’d never see those eyes again”

You pull away from him

“Rohan I... I don’t understand why do you care so much, you said you don’t want me around”

With tears in his eyes he grabs your face

“No, I don’t just want you.... I need you , you make my days Brighter and my nights warmer when I think of you.”

He pulls your face to his and lands a soft yet passionate kiss on your lips

“I love you y/n and I hope you can love this jerk of a manga artist”

You lean in a kiss him again

“Of course I can”

With you in his arms the two of you fall back asleep.

[duratrans]

Satoshi Mizukami Q&A, 3/3

Satoshi Mizukami recently took questions from the editor's desk, and publicly from write-ins, for an interview to celebrate the first volume of Solte going on sale (Jan 9th!). So I translated them all! It’s in three parts, so I’ll post them one by one.

Here is the third and final section, general questions of all kinds.

Q: I heard you were pretty impressed by Masakazu Ishiguro's Hero (note: Debut work in Gekkan Afternoon, 2000), and when you met him you said "You're my rival!" right to his face! Is there anyone that comes to mind you would still consider your professional rival today? A: Oof. I don't think I have that spirit in me any more. But, even while myself and so many of my friends are starting to slow down, when I see them putting out work, I do feel encouraged to stick it out.

Q: I've heard you started working to become a manga artist because you "wanted to live in a fantasy world" yourself. If you really could jump into a fictional world, what kind of work would it be? Who would you be in the story? The main character, or maybe the last boss? A: I want to live in a porno game. Somewhere with no danger or fighting.

Q: From any medium, can you think of one piece that you liked the most or inspired you? And can you explain why? A: There's probably too many to try and pick just one, but in terms of what really influenced me; For manga, late 90's Shonen Sunday and early 2000's Afternoon. Then, 90's new-wave light novels. For anime, Diebuster. In film, La Puta. A handful of Sega Saturn games. Some scifi stories on forums, and a bunch of other works on Shosetsu-ka ni Narou.

Q: What have you seen/read/played more recently that you liked the best? And can you tell us what you liked? A: Manga: Touge Oni. It was the first thing I read in a while that made me jealous. In books, The Three-Body Problem. I liked the second of the trilogy best, but they were just good page-turners. For anime, Karakuri Circus. The manga ended long enough ago that it felt like going in fresh again, so it hit just right. Really liked the OP too. Film: Interstellar. Tenet wasn't great, so I rewatched this again and still good. It's exactly the kind of movie I was wanting. Games: Ring Fit. I had the idea if I got a little bit in shape, I might get some motivation back. I feel like it might be working? Just the teensiest, slightest bit. Light novels: I Am the Only One Who Knows This World Is a Game. It's just the right amount of bonkers.

Q: If you had ultimate freedom to do any kind of manga you wanted, what would it be like? Would you want a long series, or something shorter? -Ruha A: I was going to say I haven’t exactly had any restrictions, but actually a few things did come up with Solte. But even still, I can fit in any ideas I really want to draw, so I think things are pretty good as they are.

Q: If you had to put yourself in a genre, what kind of manga artist do you think you are? Sci-fi? Or maybe romance? -Takeshi A: I'm a little surprised to see "romance", even as an example. If you ask me, you can categorize me however you want.

Q: Which character are you most attached to, out of all of your works? -Habu A: Anima from Biscuit Hammer.

Q: When you're designing your characters, how do you come up with a good balance when it comes to the composition and relationships in the cast? -Yoneko A: Oh, man. I just kinda... Feel it out.

Q: I've been a big fan of your work forever! I really like your drawing style. How do you make your art the way you do? -gum A: I dunno, that's just how it turns out when I draw. I've been telling myself "Wow, I need to work on my art" for 19 years, since the day I was first published.

Q: Has raising a child had any effect on your stories? -Tai A: It means I work less.

Q: I want to draw manga too, but I'm not very confident in my skills. Do you have any advice? -Tai Arima A: First, do you mean you're not satisfied yourself with the quality of your work, or you're just not confident enough to put it out there? Don't worry, this is always a fundamental issue for creators, things rarely come out just how you imagine them. It's like how you can only print out photos at a resolution as sharp as your camera can capture them. I recommend you start by just making something. Sit down, do it, and finish it, and you'll learn a lot from it. It'll be up to you whether you show that around, but when you start, I wouldn't necessarily make a big deal out of it, you can just work on it quietly without making a big announcement. That way, there's no pressure, and if it's not working out, you can still stop or take a break without feeling bad about it. You decide how to use your time the best.

Q: When I went to a promo event for Planet With at Loft, you and Rensuke Oshikiri (Hi Score Girl) both talked about how as you get older, you find it harder and harder to stay motivated. Have you found anything that helps you in that regard? -Tayu A: I listed to some cheerful music for a while last week and actually found it helped my mood a little.

Q: I love how expressive all of your characters are! Is there anything particular in your process for when you are working on faces and expressions? -Arbel A: I have to be careful I don't go overboard making the same expression I'm drawing.

Q: I write for a hobby, but I always have trouble planning out how the story comes together. Do you have any advice or a favorite method for composing a story? -Nigou A: I read and re-read what I've got, and anywhere I think it's getting dull, I change the scene or add some exciting development. Make the last thing you think would happen, happen. And don't worry about how to tidy everything up, that's a problem for tomorrow you. Today you just has to lay it out.

Q: Hello, Sensei. I've read all your works, and I'm a big fan, but what really impresses me is your dialog. I love how it always just flows off the page, it reads so naturally. So, my question is, when you are writing the dialog, do you just hear it unfold naturally in the character's voices, or do you write more deliberately like "oh, here they would probably say this?" That probably sounds weird to people who've never written manga, but I'd like to know about your process. P.S. Good luck with the Ring Fit grind. -Kiki A: First I decide how the dialog needs to play out in order to advance the story in the direction I want. Then, I just let the characters talk among themselves, and if it doesn't turn out right, I go back, shake things up, and try again. And sometimes I get good material, but it just needs to be trimmed or re-arranged just right.

Q: A lot of your stories have some sort of turning point where the back half really kicks it up a notch and things just keep getting more intense. Do you already have these developments planned when you start a manga? -TKO A: I usually have a few ideas but it's always pretty vague. I never know if I'm gonna wind up putting in or cutting certain scenes, so I don't worry about it too much.

Q: Do you have one favorite scene or a particular line from your own work? -yamatozo A: At the beginning of Spirit Circle volume 6, where the bad guy falls down the stairs and goes "I've made a lot of missteps".

Q: Do you have any idea of what genre you'd like to draw next? -Umehoshi A: I won't say no, but I don't want to give anything away (for my next work, or this one).

Q: If you weren't successful as a manga artist, where do you think you would be? -Ayuta A: Jail. But I'd be a model prisoner.

Q: How much longer do you think you'd like to continue as a manga artist? -Ayuta A: If I could pay the bills for the rest of my life with 24 pages a month, that's just what I'd do. At some point maybe I'll get to be unsatisfied with that and start to push myself to work more and more until I get sick of it, but no telling when that might come.

Q: How do you think of your character's names? -Takeshi A: They just come to me. I look at how I designed the characters and just imagine.

Q: I feel like some kind of forgiveness or absolution is something a lot of your characters go through. Does "forgiveness" have a special significance to you? -Bow-wow A: I'm not sure. Maybe it's me who is seeking forgiveness.

Q: Do you have a favorite phrase or motto? A: I like Shigeru Mizuki's (Gegege no Kitaro) 7 Rules of Being Happy. I don't really go around saying them or anything, but it's something I like to remind myself of, and helps me be mindful of other people. Also, I like "fortune favors the bold."

Q: You like frogs enough that you always draw yourself as one. What do you like about frogs? And do you have a favorite species? A: Frogs are cute. I like green tree frogs the best.

Q: You've drawn a lot of different youkai in Sengoku Youko, but out of all the youkai that most people know from stories, which is your favorite? Could it be the Chan Chu (chinese money toad), or possibly the oogama (monstrous giant toad)? A: My favorite youkai is Mizuki Shigeru.

Q: You've been doing Ring Fit, and eating oatmeal, are you doing anything else to help stay in shape? A: I put the Karakuri Circus season one and season two OP on a playlist and listen to it while I walk to work.

Q: If you were stranded all alone on a deserted island, what are the three things you would want to have with you? A: Really? Okay. I would bring two essential tools I can't find on an island, and a map.

Q: Do you have a favorite actor or celebrity? -Umehoshi A: Nope.

Q: What's the best kind of alcohol and snacks you've had? Where did you drink it? -Ikaninjin A: In the middle of a hellish summer and probably suffering from heatstroke at an amusement park with my kid, I had the best beer of my life in an air-conditioned food court. And the delicious spice to top it off was the bright sun knifing through the window that I just knew was tormenting everyone still outside.

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up? -Ayuta A: A youkai.

Q: What does your internal mindscape look like? -Rou A: An empty lot.

Q: Has anything happened recently that you're happy about? -Sanachan A: My son is starting to read and write.

Q: What kind of hotpot are you looking forward to this winter? -Tommy A: I'm not crazy about hotpot.

Q: I'd like to go to another event where we can toast again, would you consider it?

-Uta

A: If current events allow.

Q: How many times have you thought about quitting Ring Fit? -Honyarara A: 2 or 3 times. A week.

Q: I know you call it your "100-day Ring Fit Diary" on twitter, but since you've been taking breaks too, will you be going past 100? Will the illustrations be collected and published anywhere? -The Dieting Gentleman A: I'm going until I clear adventure mode, but it'll probably be finished by the time this article is up. I'll probably do some sets here and there. No plans for the illustrations.

Q: Do you have a favorite panel out of all your works? -Umehoshi A: You guys are really focused on my favorite everything. I have a lot of panels I like, not one in particular.

Q: Hi, I really enjoy all of your works, and there's one thing I think I notice (sorry if I'm wrong), and that's a love of glasses girls. Out of your manga so far, which is your favorite of all your glasses girls? Do you have a particular girl you've become a fan of recently? As for myself, I really like Yoru from Sanjin Sadou, so I'd love to see a story with her and her sister! -Bashi A: Glasses girls aren't particularly a thing for me.

Q: When you're doing authographs or sketches, does it bother you at all if people request characters from your past works? If I get a chance, I would probably ask for Hyou Shimaki from Biscuit Hammer, for instance. -Akasha A: If it's a promo event for a Mag Garden title, and you were to ask for a character from a Gahosha title, for instance, it might technically bump up against merchandising contracts, which makes it a little weird (I'm typically not allowed to to create any merchandise without going through the publisher), but my managing editors are usually cool enough about it. But if it's specifically a Sengoku Youko event, for instance, and I'm constantly getting asked for Biscuit Hammer drawings (let's say more than half), that would probably be an issue and they might make a rule against it for next time. Also, I tend to forget how the older characters actually looked. For personal reasons, I probably won't be doing any in-person events like this for a while, though. There's also the whole "current state of the world" thing, and my profitability and if bookstores actually want to do it, a lot of issues to solve.

Q: You usually draw Anima working out on Twitter, but did you have plans for any other characters to show up doing Ring Fit? (Like from Angel or Sanjin) -RYO A: I did, but forgot.

Q: Will you put together another oneshot collection, like Geko Geko? -Friday A: I don't know.

Q: Question! What is love? -Shirae A: To live is to love.

Q: How about this, do you have any questions you want to ask your readers? -Buriki A: Would you rather have: A. One series a month, from roughs to completion, all done by me B: Two series a month, with roughs by me and final touches by someone else

Q: I know thinking positive is half the battle, but what can I do about people who're determined to get me down? Can I give them a Samidare Punch? -Nondakure A: Your fist, and the choice of how to use it, belongs to you alone.

[simkjrs]

fic: see you in the dark

chapter i: a troublePSIme development

saiki kusuo no psi nan x worm web serial | saiki kusuo & taylor hebert | 3k

----

Psychic power. For instance… hearing other people’s thoughts, or seeing what’s on the other side of a wall, or even manipulating objects through power of will alone. A power to do what normal people can’t. That’s what I have. 

My name is Saiki Kusuo, and I am an esper. 

Q: Are you a chuunibyou?

A: No. 

I’ve lived with this power my whole life. Some of you might be thinking, “How lucky! With that kind of power, you could do anything you want!” Wrong! Do you know how annoying it is to always be hearing people’s thoughts, or constantly seeing through skin and muscle until everyone simply looks like walking sacks of bones? Not to mention each power comes with its own downsides too. Read the manga if you want to learn more. In any case, having psychic power has done nothing but inconvenience me since the moment of my birth, and is barely any help in my pursuit of my dream to live a completely ordinary life. 

That said, thanks to my psychic powers, nothing bad has ever really happened to me, so I don’t really have anything to complain about. 

Well, there is one thing. 

“Saiki. How did your part of the project go last night?” 

As I haven’t brainwashed the people of this world into ignoring me speaking directly to their minds with telepathy, I can only respond through physical gesture or by speaking with my actual voice. I don’t particularly care to do the latter, so I simply nod in greeting. 

Here, Hebert. Take this packet of papers with all my work so you can look over it and calm down your paranoia about me ruining your grades, and so I don’t have to speak. 

As you may have guessed, the one speaking to me is named Hebert. Taylor Hebert, to be exact. Since this is a story and not a manga or anime, I’ll describe her for you. She’s tall for her age, thin, and has long, curly black hair. As for her facial features… She probably has a wide mouth, but I wouldn’t know, since my X-ray vision is always on and looking at anyone for longer than a second means I start seeing through their skin down to their muscle and bone. Thanks to that I’ve never bothered to memorize people’s faces very closely. I can identify them by their thoughts anyways. 

So why are you complaining about Hebert? you might be asking. Is she a bad school partner? Does she smell bad? Does she have a romantic inclination for you that you can’t maneuver your way out of no matter how hard you try, like a certain blue-haired perfect pretty girl loved by God? 

None of the above. There’s nothing wrong with Hebert herself. She’s capable, diligent, and introverted, which suits a shy and withdrawn student like me. No, the problem is the trouble that she comes with. 

Here they come, right on cue. Hess has walked by and bumped Hebert just a little too hard, almost jostling the papers out of her hands. None of that, now. I’ll help Hebert keep ahold of them with a little telekinesis. I worked hard on those papers, you know. No knocking them down. 

“Oops, sorry, we didn’t see you there, Taylor,” says Barnes sweetly. “I guess we just didn’t notice you, what with how plain and ugly your clothes are…” 

And there they go, starting up with one insult after another. They’re not even very good insults. Well, carry on a bullying campaign for a year and a half and you’ll eventually run out of material, I suppose. It’s still quite annoying to hear themselves congratulating themselves for a job well done with each insult, though. Like this, with Barnes…  

<Hehe. The look on her face. She’s totally self conscious about how she looks, now. I wonder if she’ll go cry in the bathroom later?> 

That’s not something you should be proud of, you know. The level of self-congratulation sure is amazing. Actually, what’s more amazing is how shamelessly they bully Hebert right in front of others. I’m right here, you know? Not that I want them to notice me, but it’s the principle of the matter. 

I shift in my seat slightly, which successfully draws their attention away from Taylor for a moment. 

“Oh, sorry, Saiki,” Barnes says. “Were we interrupting a moment between you two?” Yes, our homework consultation time. “Nah, who am I kidding? No one would ever get together with flat-chest over here.” What’s the big deal about the size of someone’s chest? One mass of fat and muscle is basically the same as another; if there’s a little more or less, who cares. “You’re still working with her on this project? You can do way better than her.” 

Is that so? Certainly I could find a partner with better grades if I wanted, but I don’t want good grades. I want ones that are completely ordinarily average. Standing out is the opposite of what I want to do… although, being partnered with Hebert, I’ve already failed step one. What a pain. 

“Yeah,” says Clements. “Haven’t you heard how bad her grades are? She never turns in anything on time…” That’s because you steal her things. “And she cheats…” That’s because you frame her after you copy her work. “And when she does turn in original work, the quality is so bad, she might as well drop out and join the Merchants!” That’s because she has to redo her work after you destroy it. Who has the time to redo everything perfectly a second time. 

The bullies all seem to think this is very clever though, laughing at Hebert. It’s actually quite incredible that anyone could be this cliche. 

Hebert has lowered her head. … It’s only natural to be worn down after months of this treatment, I suppose. 

<Damn it. Why did they have to do this in front of Saiki? Now I’ll lose another partner, too. Can’t I have just one class without having to worry about them?> 

It doesn’t really make a difference if they do it here or in another classroom, Hebert. I can still hear it with my telepathy. This bullying case is even worse than Akechi’s. At least Akechi had acquaintances who would help him in the aftermath. But no one steps up to help Hebert. 

“Hey, it’s rude to ignore people when they’re talking to you,” says Barnes. 

Ah, that’s right, they’re waiting for a response from me. Why did you have to drag me into this, seriously. 

“Well?” says Barnes, putting a hand on her hip. “What do you think?” 

Now that it’s come to this, I have no choice but to respond. 

What should I do? Talk to her? I’d rather not make my first spoken words in this story to someone like her. 

Ignore her? 

<This guy is ticking me off. If he keeps ignoring me, I’ll have to explain to him properly how it works around here…> 

That’s just trouble. How annoying. 

With those two options off the table, you’ve left me no choice but to show you the power of an esper, Barnes. You brought this on yourself. 

“Hey, she’s talking to you,” Hess says menacingly, stepping up to me and grabbing me by the collar of my shirt. “Or do you want to end up on the shit list like Hebert, here?” 

I narrow my eyes. I see. So you want to pick a fight with me? 

Then you better be prepared for the consequences. 

Hess flinches for a second, before gripping my shirt harder. “What’s with that look?” she says lowly. <What was that?! Usually he just sits there passively with a blank expression. He doesn’t respond to anything. He’s totally prey! He’s basically air! But for a second there, I could have sworn…> 

“Don’t bother with him,” Clements says disdainfully. “I mean, if he doesn’t want to talk, he’s pretty much declared where he stands, right?” She smiles. Next to her, Barnes holds the papers I worked so hard on last night. She makes direct eye contact with me as she rips it into shreds. I have the feeling I’m supposed to be hurt by this action somehow, but this level of harassment is so petty it’s just sad. 

<That’ll show you not to mess with me. So hurry up and change your expression already…Hm?> 

She follows my gaze to the doorway behind her. 

There stands Mr. Prescott, looking at the shredded paper on the desk. That’s right. Behold the revenge of an esper. 

“Miss Barnes,” says Mr. Prescott, “Care to explain?” 

<Damn it, it’s Shadow Stalker and her friends. I can’t turn a blind eye to this, but if I’m too hard on her, we could lose the PRT funding…> 

“Oh, Mr. Prescott!” Barnes says sweetly. “We were just messing around between friends. Sorry, it looks a little compromising, huh?” 

Mr. Prescott’s gaze travels to where Hess is still holding my shirt. Hess lets go quickly and straightens up. 

“Yes,” Mr. Prescott says slowly. “Well. There’s nothing wrong with having fun with your friends. But be sure not to disrupt class. Everyone be seated, then. The bell is about to ring.” 

“Sure thing, Mr. Prescott,” Clements says, and the bullies disperse away from my desk. 

<At least they gave me an excuse not to do anything, but honestly, if you’re going to do anything, make sure I won’t see it…> Mr. Prescott, you sure do love that PRT funding, huh. What is with this school. So irresponsible. 

<What bad luck. Usually the teacher doesn’t get here for a couple minutes more,> Emma thinks. <What was that timing?> 

That would be my doing. Using my telepathy, I nudged Mr. Prescott into deciding to walk over a few minutes earlier than usual. Of course, now he’s thinking about how he’s strictly not entering the classroom until after the bell has rung because he wants to avoid seeing trouble like that again, so it seems it was a one-time use trick, but it’s enough to make everyone back off for now. 

<That Saiki, he didn’t even flinch. It’s like he knew Mr. Prescott was coming.> There goes Hess speculating about me again. <Or it could just be his face. He always looks like he just smelt something foul. I don’t think I’ve seen him change expression once. Or heard him talk, for that matter.> A pause. <Wait, is he mute?> 

She feels a moment of shame. That’s right. You should feel bad. 

<…Typical. How weak. He’s got to be prey after all.> 

Wow. What a character. 

Hess, for someone who likes to call herself a predator, you’ve sure got bad instincts. 

“I’m sorry, Saiki,” Hebert says to me as Mr. Prescott sets up the projector. “It’s my fault your work got ruined.” 

<Why’d he have to catch their attention like that, anyways? If he’d just kept his head low, maybe I could’ve gotten through this class’s project...> 

Your resentment is saying something totally different. I don’t hold it against her, though, since anyone would gather up resentment after being bullied for so long. It’s only natural to lash out against someone you can actually have an impact on instead of the people whose fault it actually is. At least she’s only doing it in her mind. 

<No, what am I thinking? It’s the Trio’s fault. It’s just so frustrating. They’ve already ruined my notebooks this morning.> … It’s a tough life. I’m surprised at how reasonable Hebert is being even in the confines of her own mind, though. It’s okay to sling mud at me a little longer. I can take it. I’ve heard thoughts like that my whole life. Although, thanks for not blaming me for too long, I suppose. It would have been annoying to work with you while constantly hearing how upset you are with me. <And now Saiki’s going to stop working with me, because he won’t want to be dragged into this. I’m alone again.>

Hahhh, seriously, what a pain. I haven’t even responded yet, you know? 

I shrug at Hebert, and then I reach into my bag for a spare sheaf of papers. With a bit of thoughtography, I copy the research I did last night onto the papers and pull them out. 

Hebert’s eyes widen when I put it in front of her. “You brought a second copy.” The amount of relief she feels is a bit depressing. The suspicion that immediately follows, even more so. “Why?” 

I slide my eyes to look at Barnes across the room, curl my lips into a slight sneer, and then turn my eyes back to the front, going back to my usual blank expression. 

<Emma? Wait, so he made preparations in case the Trio did anything?> Sure, let’s go with that. <Then… Well. Of course he’s noticed the bullying by now. But if he knew what was going on, why didn’t he do anything earlier? Why now?> 

Sorry, Hebert. I’m not really a nice person. I don’t take action unless it directly affects me. You’ve gotten quite the selfish partner. 

<But at the same time… I guess if I was in his position, I wouldn’t be able to do anything about them, either. He’s only just transferred into the school, and I don’t think he has any friends.> Don’t say that with such a pitying tone. I don’t want any friends here. <How would he even stand up to the Trio’s social circle? But he still stuck with me as a partner even though he knew. He made backup copies so we’d still be able to complete the project…> 

Hebert lowers her head at her desk. 

<And for a second there, I thought he really was going to fight Hess, too.> She noticed too, huh. Well, hopefully she’ll write it off as easily as they did. <That basically makes him the only person here to show me any kind of support, doesn’t it?> Just my luck. Of course she didn’t. <Maybe if someone like him had arrived here just a few months earlier, the locker incident wouldn’t have...>

Hebert, your life is seriously depressing. I haven’t done anything for you. It’s just a copy of my work, stop reading so much into it. 

<He didn’t have to go that far for me.> 

Seriously, it wasn’t for you. They were just getting me involved. It annoys me when someone thinks they can get the better of me. 

“…Thanks.” 

I said it wasn’t for you. 

Whatever. I give her a curt nod and then go back to ignoring her. This is an important class to pay attention to, after all. 

“Good morning, class. Welcome back to our Parahuman Studies unit. As a reminder, your research project is due this Friday…” 

<I wonder why an upperclassman like Saiki is taking this class, though. Is he taking it for easy units, maybe?> 

Hebert, I’m trying to concentrate here. 

<Well, it is an elective class, so maybe he’s just interested in the topic. The research he did looked really thorough and well-cited, too. I wonder how knowledgeable he is? Maybe I’ll ask after class.> Please don’t. I’m a sensitive soul. If too many people try to engage me in social interaction in one day I’ll wither away and die. <Who knows, maybe he even knows something that could help me with my debut.> 

Oh boy.

<Yeah. I can’t put off debuting any longer. I’ve had these powers for long enough, it’s time I stop delaying and start doing something meaningful.> 

This is the other troublesome thing with Hebert. 

What? you might be saying. Isn’t it cool that she has powers? Look you can be friends, and you’re not alone anymore. 

First of all, I’m not interested in being anyone’s friend. There’s nothing wrong with being alone. But no, the real problem is that she’s not like me at all. 

<Shard:Queen_Administrator:<PROCESS_INPUT>>

There’s a parasitic alien shard attached to her brain, and it’s the thing that gives her powers. On top of that, she controls bugs. 

It’s not that I’m afraid of bugs. They’re not particularly disgusting, either. Not much more than seeing people’s muscular structure every day, anyways. What really bothers me about them is that they’re so small I can’t read their minds or predict them. Birds, mammals, even fish? Sure. Bugs, though? Nothing. It’s way too creepy. 

I nearly refused to be her partner when I realized what she could do, but it turns out that by listening to this “Queen Administrator” shard, I can predict what nearby bugs are going to do and when. So it’s better to be next to her than not… even though it comes with the downside of knowing where every single bug in a two block radius is. 

And there are so. Many. Bugs. Just my luck. I’ll never be able to relax again. 

I’m getting sidetracked. The point is: I’m different from her. I’m different from every parahuman on this Earth, in fact. Of all the superpowered people on this planet, there is still not a single one like me. 

I’m sure that you, as a savvy reader, have noticed my phrasing by now. This Earth? you may be asking. Yes. This Earth, as one among many. This dimension is a different dimension from my own. 

That’s the biggest thing to complain about, really. I’ve accidentally hopped dimensions, and I don’t have a clue how to get back home. 

—— 

How did I get here? you might ask. Well, it’s a simple answer, really. For all of you manga readers, you may recall that in chapter 206 my limiter device malfunctioned and resulted in me acquiring a wide variety of inconvenient and useless powers. One of those powers? Dimension hopping. 

But that’s not useless at all! you might be crying. Imagine the possibilities! The riches you could acquire! The fame you could accrue! The technological development you could facilitate! 

With my powers I could make money in hundreds of different ways, easily. I don’t need dimension hopping for that. And why would I get myself money anyways, when I can just acquire what I want directly with my powers? 

That’s why I don’t bother with riches, and fame is just annoying because of all the attention. And I wouldn’t want to help facilitate technological development. That would require me to reveal my abilities in some capacity, and you should have realized by now that I would much prefer my privacy. 

In any case, I accidentally dimension hopped here. I managed to use one of the other “useless powers” to fix my limiter device so my psychic powers worked properly again, but now I can’t figure out how to get home. I don’t know how to break my limiter in the right way to get the dimension hopping power back, and I don’t want to risk it either, since my powers without the limiter device are uncontrollably strong and I might end up irrevocably changing this world if I’m not careful. 

Oh well. Kuusuke will probably find where I’ve ended up, eventually. The best thing to do is stay in one place until then. 

——

After a long and harrowing day at school blending into the background, I’ve finally arrived home. 

“Home.” In reality, it’s just an abandoned house that I fixed up with my psychic powers. No one knows I’m here. Well, that’s fine with me, though. 

Finishing all my homework is easy, so I take care of that first. Then I read some books. Then it’s around dinnertime. That’s a simple matter of taking some plants I gathered and deer meat I hunted from a forest on the other continent the other day, and stored in my “refrigerator” of ice I made from my cryokinesis. Then cook everything with pyrokinesis in an iron pot I bought with some money I got from cheating the lottery with my clairvoyance and X-ray powers. 

It’s quiet without my noisy and troublesome family around… Well, I’m always complaining about them, so I don’t have the right to complain about not having them here. 

There’s really not much to do. Maybe I should get myself a computer so I can go look around that PHO forum that Hebert is always thinking about. 

Speaking of Hebert, didn’t she say she was going to debut tonight? I guess I’ll check in on her. It would be annoying if my project partner got herself killed on her first night out, after all. Let’s see… 

Crossing my eyes, I activate my clairvoyance. Where is she… Aha, there. 

“--shoot the kids.”

<What? He’s going to murder children?! I know that’s Lung I’m going up against, but I can’t just sit here and do nothing…!> 

<Shard:Queen_Administrator:<COMMAND>>

Wait wait wait. Lung? As in the leader of that one gang, the parahuman who no one wants to take on? 

Good grief. Hebert, you sure have a talent for getting into trouble. I’m trying to keep this story strictly comedy, or failing that, at least something that’s not dark. You just had to go and change the genre, didn’t you. What am I supposed to do here? 

So much for a quiet, peaceful night.

[duker42]

Part 1 Can I get a highschool into college au. Levi and reader are best friends. Unfortunately reader lives with an abusive father. Levi lives with kenny. Kenny's an asshole but not as much as the manga. More tough love. Levi has no idea about the abuse, shes really good at hiding it, but kenny has noticed the bruises on her and he knows the kind of man the father is. He starts subtly asking levi about her maybe saying he should invite her to dinner disguising it as teasing for him liking her.

Kenny as a decent guy! Yay!!!! 😆😆😆

💜Family Matters💜

“Hey brat! I’m home! Where are you?” Levi winced as he heard the loud voice of his uncle call from downstairs as the door opened.

Y/N laughed at the pained look Levi gave every time his uncle came home from work. Never failed, every day he made that same expression. “He’s not that bad, Levi.” She chided as she rolled over on his bed and looked at him upside down from where he was sitting at his desk.

“Try living with him.” Levi muttered under his breath as he rolled his eyes. He turned towards the door to his bedroom as they both heard feet pound up the stairs.

“Not interrupting anything am I?” Levi’s uncle swung the door opened with a saucy grin. He was a tall thin man, his grey eyes a shade lighter than his nephew’s and had brown hair and a goatee where Levi had jet back hair and was always shaved smooth.

Levi rolled his eyes even harder and threw the pen in his hand at the older man. “Yep, caught us fucking.” He deadpanned.

“Ha! Like you have the balls to put the moves on a girl, runt!” Levi seethed at the comment, but Kenny rolled on like he hadn’t insulted him. “Dinner’ll be ready in about an hour.”

Kenny paused and glanced at Y/N. His nephew’s best friend was wearing long sleeves today. With shorts. Damnit. “Y/N, you’re staying too, right? Don’t leave me alone with this brat to suffer through his sullen scowls during dinner. I’d rather have him moon over you.”

Y/N grinned as Levi’s face turned bright red, Kenny loved to wind him up. “Sure Uncle K, I’ll stay.”

Kenny gave a nod and closed the door behind him, giving a muffled yell about wrapping it as he thundered down the stairs again.

Levi shook his head as he ground out “That man in a menace.”

Y/N threw a pillow at Levi and dodged it when he tried to smash it in her face. “Stop! Levi! Stop!” She said laughing as he gave her a fiendish grin while bopping her continuously on the head.

~~~~~

Kenny sat back and watched Levi and Y/N joke around with each other as they ate. He nursed the beer he had opened as he glanced at the girl that his dumb nephew still hadn’t worked out that he was completely in love with. She was being abused, he could feel it in his gut.

He knew Y/N’s dad, never really talking much with the man but he had heard things about him. He seemed to get off on bullying those that were under his care. If his hunch was correct, he was abusing the wonderful girl that sitting at his table right now. And that was something that made Kenny sick.

Sure he might be tough on Levi, but it was always to push the kid harder, make him believe that he could become more than what Kenny was, more than what Kuchel had become before her death. He ragged on the boy, probably teased him a bit more than what was healthy, but he had grown a thick skin and sharp wit, something he would need in the real world.

“So Levi, I sent in the check for your tuition today. Don’t make me regret wasting that money on you.” Kenny said, making Levi look towards him.

“Whatever old man, I’m smarter than you give me credit for.” Levi rolled his eyes as Kenny grinned while tossing back the rest of his beer. Yep, the kid was definitely an Ackerman.

~~~~~

Y/N had reluctantly gone home after receiving a text from her father. Kenny had waved her on and told her to go, that Levi would clean the kitchen. Levi had scowled, not at the prospect of cleaning but that Kenny was ordering him to. The boy loved to clean, but he also loved being stubborn when told to do something.

Kenny hadn’t let him do it alone though, using the opportunity to ask a few well placed questions about Y/N’s family and home life. It did nothing more than cement his suspicions that the girl was being mistreated at home. They never hung out at her house, Y/N always preferring to come over to Levi’s. A means of escape.

He was going to have to keep an eye on the situation. Maybe try to keep inviting the brat to stay for dinner more. He grinned, he would be able to tease Levi about the girl more that way too. He had to have some fun with the runt before he went off to college.

~~~~~

Kenny’s sharp eyes noticed that there were plenty of times that Y/N wore far heavier clothes that what was good in the hot weather. Even claiming that she couldn’t go swimming because of her period.

He had to assume they weren’t having sex, because the boy hadn’t picked up on the fact that she had used that exact same excuse two week earlier to not play in the pool behind their house.

While Kenny was grateful that Levi hadn’t figured out what was going on, it meant that Y/N was dealing with it alone. The boy had a temper, and was quick with his fists or a knife when someone he loved was being threatened. Not that Kenny could blame him, he got it honestly and his skills had been taught to him by his uncle.

But he didn’t want the brat to ruin his life before he got started, and he was afraid that Levi would end up killing her old man if he found out. He still hadn’t confirmed it 100% but the fact that Levi had tugged on her arm the other day playfully and Y/N had winced in pain, told Kenny that there was another bruise being hidden in the long layers.

~~~~~

“Kenny! Stop! That’s Y/N!” Levi shouted as he looked out the car window.

Y/N was limping, almost unable to walk as she slowly made her way towards the store that Kenny and Levi had been headed to themselves. Her body language screamed pain as she forced one foot in front of the other.

Kenny pulled to the side of the road and Levi darted out of the car and ran over to Y/N. The older man saw Levi look under the veil of her hair and sweep it back to reveal a nasty purple bruise on her eye.

“KENNY!” Levi shouted as he stared in horror at her face.

Kenny got out and came around to where Levi and Y/N were standing. Her face was swollen, her eye almost completely shut from the pressure of the bruise. Her lip was split and had dried blood crusted on it.

He saw Y/N wince as Levi’s hands tightened around her arms. He grabbed Levi and spun him around, his face inches from the boy’s.

He slapped the car keys into Levi’s hands. “Get Y/N back to the house and clean her up.” He barked.

Levi nodded and reached for Y/N again. He got her bundled into the care and squealed tires as he flipped a bitch and headed back for their house.

Kenny’s eyes narrowed as he set out to handle something.

~~~~~

He ignored her protests and stripped her down to her underwear. His eyes were wide as he backed away in horror. Almost every inch of her body was bruised under her clothes. Her skin was a myriad of yellow, purples and greens. Old bruises and fresh ones mixed together.

“Fuck, Y/N. Why didn’t you say something?” He demanded as he led her into the bathroom.

Y/N winched as she sat down gingerly on the toilet while Levi started the water. “How? ‘Hey Levi, my dad’s a sadistic son of a bitch who enjoys beating the shit out of me. And it’s only gotten worse the closer I get to being free from him?’ How the hell was I supposed to tell you that?”

“Exactly like that you fucking idiot!” Levi spat as he filled the bath with some oils that he used when he was sporting some nasty bruises from wrestling matches. Hopefully it would help ease some of her pain.

Y/N turned red when Levi nonchalantly pulled her underwear and bra off before helping her ease into the tub. He was acting like it was no big deal that she was naked in front of him.

He left her to go get the medical supplies and an ice pack for her eye. When he got downstairs, he took a deep breath before opening the fridge door so hard he almost broke the handle.

He needed to focus, she needed him right now. He couldn’t afford to let his own emotions get in the way. He shook his head and started gathering what he needed.

Back upstairs he tended every cut, cleaned every injury she had, hiding the fact that his hands were shaking. She was injured and hurting, she didn’t need to know that he was trying so hard not to let his eyes drift down in a way that wasn’t purely assessing her injuries. He gently cleaned her lip and washed the blood out of her hair while she held the ice pack to her eye.

When he was done, he helped her slip on a clean shirt and gym shorts of his before putting her to bed in his bed. He sat next to her as she tried to smile at him, making him frown and put his finger to her busted lip. “Stop idiot. Don’t hurt yourself more.” He told her.

“Thank you Levi.” Y/N muttered as her eyes drifted shut. He was always so curious why she fell asleep so quickly at his house when they were hanging out. Now he knew, she felt safe, apparently something that was abnormal for her.

He brushed a few errant strands of hair from her face and lean over to kiss her forehead before getting up. He gathered the supplies and took them back downstairs to put away.

He paused, closing his eyes and sighing heavily. He could have lost his best friend. Guilt crashed over him for never noticing the signs that were there. The excuses that she liked long sleeves better, that her arms got cold. The winces when she was touched sometimes, claiming she had hurt herself being clumsy.

She could have died. Beaten to death by that fucking excuse of a man she called a father and he wouldn’t have know until it was too late. She wouldn’t have shown up one day, or responded to his text messages and he would have been clueless until it was in the news or he had gotten angry and gone over to her house.

She had begged him to not do anything, not to confront her father. But Levi knew he was lying when he told her that he wouldn’t. His hands balled into fists and his face turned dark with rage as he started for the door.

Just as he yanked it open, Kenny was reaching for the handle. They looked at each other, his uncle noticing the fierce look on Levi’s face.

“It’s taken care of.” Kenny growled, reaching out to grab onto his shoulder.

That stopped Levi from his murderous goal. His eyes widened as he looked over his uncle. There was a splatter of blood on his shirt, and his right fist had bruised knuckles.

“Where is she?” Kenny asked, his own eyes still dark.

“Upstairs...but-“ Levi started but was cut off by Kenny walking him around him and started up the stairs.

Levi trailed after him as he entered Levi’s room and sat down in the chair at Levi’s desk and looked at Y/N. His noticed his uncle’s eyes took on a hooded look, similar to his own when he doesn’t want to show his emotions.

They sat in silence for about 10 minutes until Y/N stirred.

“Hey brat.” Y/N’s eyes opened at the sound of Kenny’s voice. She went to sit up, but Kenny motioned for her to stay put.

“Tomorrow we’re going to get your shit. You are not to go over there without me or Levi. Understand?” Kenny said as he pierced her with a hard look.

Y/N was confused. “W-What? Where am I going?” She asked.

“You’re living here until college. Your dad agreed pretty easily, but I don’t want you around that bastard alone.” His eyes hardened as he looked at the bruises on her face. He didn’t hit him enough, Kenny thought.

“Why?” Y/N asked as Kenny rolled his eyes and stood up.

“No wonder the runt’s in love with you. You’re just as much of an idiot as he is.” Kenny muttered, ignoring the dark scowl on Levi’s face. He looked down at the girl that if the kid got his shit together would one day be an Ackerman too. “Family matters, Y/N. We may be assholes, but we Ackermans stick together.”

[s7-evermore]

𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄 [Preview]

↳ 𝔽𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕠𝕞: Ikemen Vampire x Ikemen Revolution 

↳ 𝔾𝕖𝕟𝕣𝕖/𝕤: Slice of life(?), misc... 

↳ ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕣: Sekiguchi Gin (OC)

↳ ℕ𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕤: I will be using some ikemen revolution characters as normal people in this story. Most of them will be around Gin’s age here or older...

𝔻𝕖𝕤𝕔𝕣𝕚𝕡𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟:

After the death of her grandfather, 15-year-old Gin is left in the hands of a mysterious relative of hers. He goes by the name Comte de Saint-Germain and he tells her everything that has been left unsaid between her and her grandfather...

[ GIN ]

𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞, I never saw things the same way other people did. Some say it's a blessing, some may say it's a curse, but along the way, I lost the idea of what those two words meant. The sky was especially blue today, not completely devoid of clouds, perhaps only small wisps of them, like the left behind cotton candy lingering in the cotton candy machine. They looked sweet just like them, drifting ever so slowly with the pace of the sun. 

I watched silently as people passed by, particles in different colors and shapes trailing behind them, lingering on their clothing or on their skin. The scent of the flowers on my front lawn was carried away by the wind, to the bees, and to the nostrils of my neighbor and his dog. 

My kind neighbor gazed at me with a sympathetic expression, but I paid no attention to it. I think I've had enough with receiving those kinds of looks now.

I sat outside the house I have now been living in alone for a few days since Gramps' death. I was waiting for someone, but I didn't know who.

Well, not exactly. I've seen Gramps writing and exchanging letters with him several times before. I never looked into those letters or read them at all whenever Gramps accidentally left them on the dining room table. But I remember how those letters looked from a distance. Cursive words were neatly written with elegant penmanship, matching the stationery it was inscribed on. 

To me, it looked like Gramps was exchanging words with someone from another time. Someone who was still stuck in the past, writing letters instead of emails, sending long messages through paper instead of simply DMing him. 

Gramps told me this person was a distant relative of mine on my father's side, which made me curious every time. I barely knew anything about my father, other than the fact that he was always craving for adventure, so much that he just... disappeared. 

I don't even remember much of my mother's face. Sometimes I hear her singing to me, the song was a blur, but I remember the tone of her voice, so tender and sweet. I only remember the way her hair flowed in the wind because we had the same hair color, but that was about it. Most of my childhood memories were hazy recollections of my mother and most of them were only about my grandfather and me. 

Gramps was probably the only one I had most memories of. I could remember almost every little thing about him. He would play songs from his old record player whenever we did spring cleaning once a week in the afternoon. His usual breakfast was avocado toast, eggs, and cheese paired with apple juice, and sometimes he'd make me the same meal when I said I didn't mind. 

He had a large study of his own, but I never went in it because I wanted to respect his privacy. I've snuck a few glances whenever he left the door slightly ajar, and I would see his scratched mahogany desk and his old reading lamp sitting on the corner of it. I remembered the tall shelf of books on the other side of the room, as well as the old grandfather clock whose hands were frozen in time. 

Gramps kept grandma's old china in a glass cupboard that I never bothered to touch, I always left Gramps to clean it because I never trusted myself with antiques like that. Also because next to that cupboard was a stash of his favorite sake, and I automatically knew I wasn't allowed to touch those. 

I remember the times when he would drop me off and pick me up from school, he would always tell me old jokes that we'd both laugh at. He always laughed hard when it came to jokes, he'd laugh harder at his own. 

I remember the times when I'd come home late after hanging out with my friends. He would always leave me dinner and he would either be asleep or working and writing in his study. Gramps never cared about who I made friends with as long as they weren't bad enough to make me commit crimes or murder someone. As long as I knew what I was doing, then he didn't mind what I did. Perhaps that was his way of letting me know that he respected my privacy too as I did with his. 

Gramps was basically the only family I thought I had, that was until a few months ago when he told me he'd reached out to an old friend of his, which happened to be the relative from my father's side. He told me he was from France, but he never truly told me his name. Gramps called him 'Comte' and said that was the only name most people referred to him by. 

I remembered my 14th birthday. Gramps received another letter from this Comte that night and told me it had come with a package for me. Although I knew it was from a stranger (that I now referred to as my distant relative who I had no idea even existed), I was excited to open it the moment Gramps said it was for me. When I unraveled the silk blue ribbon, I was astonished to find a golden butterfly hairclip resting against a velvet cushion, gleaming bright with opulence inside the cream white box. 

Gramps was the one who clipped it on my head the next day when I was preparing for school, he even told me not to take it off or ruin it as it was obviously expensive. So, I never did. I never took it off unless I had to take a shower or sleep. I always kept the hairpin near, in my bag, or tucked safely in my pocket. I cleaned it every now and then too, to maintain its gleam. 

Until now, as I waited, I felt the butterfly pin clipped on my hair. I wonder if this Comte guy would notice it?

Averting my eyes away from the sky once again, I look at the large rolled luggage next to me, filled with things I considered 'necessary', and the large guitar case that once belonged to my mother sitting next to it. 

You go through life thinking you need a lot. I thought the same thing when I was thinking about what to pack. Clothes for spring, summer, autumn, winter, a small collection of my favorite mangas and books, the cute stationery I've been collecting over the years, my favorite anime figurines and nendroids, and useless notebooks with stories surreal enough to consider a child's...

But the longer I let my mind roam, the more I realized that everything I deemed necessary didn't seem as important to me now as it was before. I remember taking all those things out of my travel luggage and shoved in the only few clothes I thought was my favorite, the scarf Gramps made for me when I was twelve, the two albums of CDs that I bought over the years with the money I saved, the CD player and the pair of headphones he bought for me during my 14th birthday (it was adorable. Some people would consider that word to be the last thing you'd call an elderly man, but how could he not be when he tried so hard to search about modern trends just to know what a typical teenager like me would like?), my switch, my wallet, and my phone, my camera, and a photo of my mother. 

I was only fifteen, and in the future half of these things might be useless to me, but I just had to keep them as a reminder that I did have a good childhood. One that I would be willing to look back on when I'm old enough. 

As for everything else, I will leave them as pieces of me. I thought that maybe leaving behind things I owned would be evidence that I lived in this house, alongside my grandfather and the memories he had before me. 

I previously thought that it would be too soon for me to get used to not having Gramps in my life. I was aware of the fact that someday, I'm gonna have to live life alone, perhaps start a new family if I was allowed to. Until now, I still couldn't get used to the foreign feeling of having him gone.

I saw the signs that foreshadowed events of my soon-to-be solitary life, but I thought if I innocently ignored them, they wouldn't happen so soon. 

Of course, I knew about his sickness. Despite my intelligence, I tried to keep hoping that he would at least be alive to see me grow into an adult, to send me to college, or even live long enough to see me get married like he did, like my mother did. I noticed the whites in his eyes getting yellower. I noticed his usually tanned skin getting paler and paler. 

I saw the bloody handkerchiefs he stuck into jars. Whenever I did the laundry, I took them out of there and removed the stains like it was the most natural thing. I recalled his lessons on stain removal, not just on clothes but on various things such as carpets, rugs, or even curtains. I folded those handkerchiefs like they hadn't been tainted with blood moments ago. I acted like he was still okay, like he was taking care of himself. 

But it all backfired in the end.

...

In front of my house stops an opulent car, causing me to immediately straighten up as I freed myself from the thoughts that plagued my mind. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, my brows twitching when I spotted a man dressed in fine clothing stepping out of the car. 

Almost everything about him felt 'out-of-this-world'. His suit was obviously in the style of 18th-19th century European fashion, but it felt somehow modern that he stood out enough to be mistaken for an actor who had the role of a nobleman (the kind you see in anime or in dramas). His hair seemed to shine like specks of gold under the sun. His eyes were just shrouded with mystery, the kind that makes you think he had already seen everything, from the beginning of time up to the day earth is shattered by an asteroid. 

To conclude, he looked like a man straight out of a drama, and I never thought I'd live long enough to meet such a person. 

I slid my headphones around my neck as he approached me with a gentle smile, the kind that could mean a lot of things other than 'kindness'. I knew he was being genuine with his actions, but it was the constant wariness that I felt around other people that made me think otherwise. Things that don't appear to be what they truly are throw me off, I forgot if I was ever like this before.

He looked human, but he didn't feel like it. 

The man crouched in front of me. I was sitting on one of the steps, clutching tightly on the CD player in my hands. 

His gaze softens as he speaks, "You must be Gin."

I nod, "Yeah. Are you... Comte?"

I’ve been thinking about posting this for a while now, though I think it will mostly end up being a series of random one-shot stories of my OC interacting with IkeVamp and IkeRev characters. Since Gin is only fifteen (15), her relationship with the ikevamp characters will remain platonic, their interactions are going to be a brother/sister kind of thing. 

Such is not the case with the ikerev suitors though. Like I mentioned in the notes, they will be around Gin’s age. 

Also, if you still can’t tell, Gin has a type of synesthesia that allows her to see smells or scents as small shapes and colors.

[happy-haunts]

The Hostess

Chapter one | Constance pt.1 : Constance pt.2

Chapter two | Mister Topper pt.1 : Mister Topper pt.2

Chapter three | Madame Leota pt.1 : Madame Leota pt.2

Chapter four | The Hostess

Chapter five | Captain Blood pt.1 : Captain Blood pt.2

Chapter six | Emily DeClaire pt.1 : Emily DeClaire pt.2 : Emily DeClaire pt.3

Chapter seven | Finale

I walked with Red and Constance behind me as I held my lamp up beside my head, leading them to a door that said ‘Cast Members Only’ and upon opening they were flooded with the overwhelming pinks, on my walls were several prominent heroes, princesses, magical girls, and fantasy posters. I had bookshelves filled with books- sitting atop them were the animes, manga, and novels of the characters on my walls if not more, hanging in a closet with black beads as curtains were cosplays and an assortment of pastel clothing, my bed was just a standard queen with regular pastel pink sheets(and a body pillow of a really hot anime girl), and last but not least my pink desk with my tiny chibi figurines, pink desk chair, pink headphones, and gaming set up.

I felt rather embarrassed that Red and Constance had to see this side of me but I attempted not to show it as I took a seat in my desk chair. Constance sat on my bed while Red kept standing- she seemed visibly uncomfortable in my room.

“Okay so pushing aside all of the questions I have about just this...” Red gestured to everything, “Maybe you can tell us how you managed to break Constances’ amnesia? Because that would be helpful in the future.”

“I can tell you that but it might involve alot more context.” I poked my fingers together nervously.

Red sighed and sat beside Constance on the bed, “Fine! Tell us your life story!” Constance gave a smile as she poked the body pillow.

❧

I am a twin, but my sister and I aren’t very close since she tends to be so depressing! She asks me if I want to know when I want to die, tells me the world is eternally doomed, and will sometimes quote outdated jokes from the internet. I’m the opposite to my sister, I read manga, cosplay, do seances in my room at 2am because I desperately want a date even if that means I need to sign a pact with a crossroads demon, and sometimes I actually drink the recommended amount of water in a day. Our home life was normal enough, we lived in the suburbs of California which could be kind of dreary at times with how sunny it is, so when my sister and I received a letter to work in a haunted mansion (TM) you could see how we would jump at the chance! It was a dream job for both of us! My sister would get to do more research in the powers of the undead and I could spend all day reading manga and messaging my devil boyfriend who won’t return my summons.

And that was that, I was sent to Liberty Square to await the inevitable rising of my undead ancestors and make sure they didn’t do anything damaging to anyone in or around the mansion.

When I arrived to the rather well-put together mansion I was greeted by a gentleman named Fletcher Hodges who was there to welcome me to the mansion. “Ah you must have been the Hostess assigned to the Liberty Square branch of Gracey manors?” He extended his hand for me to shake as I accepted it.

“Yes, I heard there would be ghosts...? Where are they?”

“Oh they haven’t risen just yet, but according to our calculations they should be due to show in a couple months - if they show at all.”

“You don’t believe in ghosts Mr. Hodges?” He adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat.

“Not exactly, I know they exist since I’ve conducted many experiments and what I’ve recorded is that ghosts are seemingly everywhere - dozens of people who have unfinished business (or in this case cursed) roaming on a plane parallel to our own, but we are unable to see or interact with them without the aid of technology or a highly remarkable gift.”

“Wait if they can’t interact with us then what is the threat of this curse? They’ll all just exist on their own plane.”

“Ah, not exactly! I was reading up on this type of necromancy in ‘Necronomicon on the go’ and there is a footnote similar to this situation -it states that if an apparition gains the ability to raise the dead then it can have a dramatic side-effect, which may cause the user and those risen to exist in the same plane as us mortals while also having their spectral bodies.”

“Well that could be a problem.”

“And as a descendant of the Gracey bloodline we believe it is your responsibility to care for your elderly.”

“Would they really be considered elderly if they’re dead?” Mr. Hodges waved his hand at me and handed me an envelope as well as a box.

“Lets not get into the finer details, here is your first paycheck - you will receive one at the end of every week, and here is your uniform.”

“How will you know I’m even in uniform?” He looked at me with a stone cold expression.

“We know everything.” I raised my eyebrows - that was disturbing. “Now if you excuse me I need to be in Tokyo tomorrow - so I must get to the airport.”

“Wait, isn’t there anything you can give me? Maybe a spirit wrangling lasso?”

“I’m afraid not, but Leota’s headstone is out back so perhaps you can ask her once she’s risen.” He gave me a wave and walked back to his car.

“Well that’s not very helpful.” I opened the paystub and almost choked $400 for doing nothing in an empty mansion! “You know maybe I can figure something out.”

❧

I wasn’t sure how long it would take for these ghosts to appear - or if they even would - but I got started on my room almost immediately, painting the walls myself and buying cheap shelves so I could save up for the books and figures that I always wished I had enough money for.

I remember a very specific weekend when I was putting together a second bookshelf (I had filled the other one up already)and was out of uniform - it wasn’t anything awful just a pink shirt with fuzzy blue pajama bottoms. I heard a voice coming from the hallway and quickly threw on my uniform before walking out to investigate - but we will ignore the fact that I had forgotten I was wearing pink bunny slippers.

Walking down the hallway was a blue apparition, he shimmered like water, his wavy hair floating around his features.

“Emily?” He called, but when he turned his head he only saw me. “Who are you?”

“The Hostess - who are you?”

“William Gracey, is Emily here? Have I risen her?”

“I’m not sure? Maybe die again and come back later?” He gave me a skeptical look.

“I don’t think I can be killed again.”

“I could figure it out probably, I’ve been watching this show about two brothers who fight monsters and -.”

“I’ll stop you, I don’t care.” He then kept walking - mumbling something to himself.

“Maybe if it hasn’t worked you just need to try harder?” William glanced back to me with a dark glare- his glowing red eyes piercing me.

“Fine, why don’t I just raise the entire graveyard!”

“No, no, no, no!”

But I guess I hit a nerve because he raised everyone...

Ballroom dancers were swaying in the parlor, an undead horse charged down the halls, some guy kept throwing around hat puns and making his head appear in his hat suitcase - it was overall a mess.

“Perhaps this is better?” William smirked and disappeared into the walls.

“What a dick!” I shouted, but I had a job to do ... oh crap I had a job to do. “Well lets start with ... A catalog.” So I grabbed a spare journal and began to catalog all the names of of the inhabitants and a short description of them.

Constance Hatchaway : Attic bride - I walked into the attic to try and find that William guy who made my life 999 times harder than it needed to be, sitting on a chest was Constance.

“Hello? I’m making a catalog of ghosts in the mansion, could I get your name and if you can recall - a brief summary of your life?” She stood up and when she turned to face me I noticed the hatchet in her hand.

“Constance Hatchaway - the Hatchaway bride, I killed all of my husbands in life because they were trash.”

“Mhm, mhm, ma’am please set down the hatchet.” She looked at her hand and gave a little chuckle.

“I’m not going to do anything to you...” She sat back on a chest with her chin in her palm. “I just wish I had made some different choices when I was alive.”

“If it helps you have a whole afterlife to do things that you wanted to before? I can come back to talk more with you after the catalog is done?” She perked up and gave me a warm smile.

“That would be wonderful if you did.”

Hatty : origins unknown - I had begun to notice when I approached the inhabitants of the mansion over time a lot of them couldn’t much recall their lives, most of those in particular were quite old ghosts, I’m talking Egypt ghosts which made absolutely no sense! But the puzzling thing was when I approached Hatty - a rather skeletal looking apparition - he couldn’t recall his name, life, or death let alone recall the room he just came out of. I took it upon myself to just go ahead and write down a name for him, Hatty seemed rather suitable given that was his preferred pun.

Madame Leota : Psychic and Scorceress - When Leota finally appeared in her crystal ball she was rather puzzled, not knowing that she would be buried on Gracey soil -thus immortalizing herself within the curse.

“Just call me the Hostess.” Leota eyed me up and down before finally flashing a smile.

“Alright, so what else is it that you need of me?”

“I’m glad you asked, I need to have more power over the mansion’s ghosts than that William guy.”

“Well if you remain inside the mansion’s property you’re out of luck, I gave him all the powers he desires so long as he died and was forgotten.”

“Isn’t there some kind of loophole you can give me just in case this dick decides he wants to go on a power trip?”

“I suppose I could give you something to ward off his presence in a limited manner...” She made a lantern materialize before me, “When a candle is lit inside this lantern, any control William has over the inhabitants of this mansion will be lifted - as well as William cannot step foot into the light to do harm to any apparitions he may wish to hurt.”

“This is fantastic!”

“I could, however, give you all the powers I possess if you want to make a deal?”

“Nah that’s okay and anyway the groundskeeper has been complaining about not having a light at nighttime, so this can double as his little walking light.” I exited the seance room and began looking through my catalog - so far I recorded 998 ghosts, but I hadn’t ran into any named Emily? Maybe William’s attempt to bring this girl back from the dead really did fail?

❧

I walked along the large windows of the ballroom as I watched the dancers spin in circles, but something outside caught my eye - a glowing specter in the distance.

“I am not about to lose a ghost on my first day.” I grumbled and marched outside, it was further away than I expected - sitting atop a hill of wildflowers overlooking the river that reflected moonlight from it’s surface. “Hey! You’re too far from the mansion property, I’m going to need to escort you back inside until I see about drawing up some travel papers - because honestly I don’t think those hitchhikers are going to stay in one place very long.” I placed my hand on my hip with a sigh - I needed a raise.

“I danced with a boy on that river.” The ghost mused, her hair was a dark violet, skin purple, and wearing a white wedding dress with a matching flower crown that left petals scattered through her hair. “I remember that ... I remember everything...” She turned to face me, her eyes glowed blue unlike all the other ghosts, and on her chest was a bright red beating heart.

“I don’t think I’ve met you...” I mumbled, sitting beside her and pulling out my catalog. “What is your name?”

“Emily DeClaire, what is your name?” She adjusted herself so we faced each other.

“I’m the...” I blinked, my heart tugged in my chest as I was about to tell her my job description. “I’m Tera Normal.”

“Good to meet you! But you aren’t a ghost?” She hesitantly reached out her hands and passed them through my arm.

“No, I’m the Hostess I work here to try and keep all of you contained - seeing as you aren’t supposed to be on this plane but rather the one parallel to us.” I sighed “But William really missed you I guess and is looking for you.”

“Oh dear, well I can help in any way that I’m able!” She clenched her little hands into fists, smiling with determination. “But I suppose first I should go see William if he is missing me that much.” She bounced up in realization, “Oh! Is Mister Topper here too?”

“I don’t have a Mister Topper listed...” I furiously flipped through my catalog, “I have an Ezra Topper?”

“No, that’s just Mister Topper’s brother.” She gave a huff as another startling feeling came across my heart, I felt like it was breaking in two. “I suppose he can’t be here can he?”

“Not if he wasn’t buried here.” Another sharp pain pierced my heart. “But maybe William can sort this out?” Part of the aching lifted.

“Do you really think so?” She smiled at me then twirled into the air, “Okay! we can go see William, maybe he knows how to get my Topper back!”

But once we walked back into the mansion I noticed there was something strange going on with Emily. “So does this Mister Topper have a first name or is it just Topper?”

“Who?” Emily turned her gaze to me now.

“Um, Mister Topper? The guy you’re missing?”

“Topper... Top hat...” She mused- but was overcome when she thought about top hat and began crying. “He lost his head!”

“Whoa, okay what is going on with you?”

“Hurry back!” She screamed as her deafening heartbeat made the walls shake. “Please, Hurry back!”

“I’m right here, Emily...”

“Now look what you’ve done.” William scolded as he walked from the walls and wrapped his arms around Emily- who cried in his chest. “Hush, just forget and all the pain will be gone.” His hand slid over her head making her blink - a smile spreading across her lips.

“I can’t even remember what I was doing again, you must think I’m an air head.” She laughed to William, but tears were still streaking down her cheeks.

“What did you just do?” I hissed to the man, he glared at me - releasing Emily and lifting his hand to her.

“Emily can you give the Hostess and I some privacy?”

“Sure!” She sniffled and began floating down the hall, “I sure am crying a lot today.” William watched her disappear behind a door and then turned his gaze back to me.

“You can’t mention that name to her, where did you even hear it?”

“She told me his name! Are you the one making her forget? What is your problem!”

“It’s for her own good, you didn’t see her when she first came back ...” He closed his eyes and sighed, “She can’t remember, just trust me.”

“Well forgive me but I don’t trust you.” I lifted my lantern, reaching into my pockets to find some of the matches I stowed away.

“What you’re going to blind me?” He laughed and made a fist, slipping the hallway rug out from under my feet and knocking me to the ground, I clutched the lantern against me to keep it from breaking- William approached me now, I began crawling backwards in a panic. “I know, how about I have you join the mansion? We are just dying to have you!”

“Or you can shove it six feet under.” I lit up the match and ignited the lantern - shining it on William which pushed him backwards, I could see he was annoyed.

“Fine, you can do whatever it is you do - but leave Emily alone as well as make sure no one interferes with her memory, or there will be deadly consequences.”

“Just keep making death puns, I can sit here all day.” His cheeks glowed with a dark blue as he turned away and walked back into the wall. “He is SUCH a dick!”

❧

I sat at my desk and kicked my feet in my chair, Red and Constance looking at me with great interest. “Fast forward to today I had come across Hatty being crazier than normal, and whatever had been pushed on Hatty was spreading into the other ghosts - they didn’t seem to remember who they were or who I was! The ballroom ghosts were in a panic because they all forgot how to dance, and the Quartet forgot how to sing! So I lit my lamp and decided it was time to find the source - I ran from room to room till I came across you two! And now I know why the mansion is acting strange- because you two are prying into ghost business and William doesn’t want you to.”

“Well someone killed Emily and we think the murderer might *be* William, which means we need to confront him.” Constance had determination in her glowing yellow eyes, “Emily deserves better than to be played like a puppet.”

“Enough.” Came a deep voice, I turned quickly to my lamp to see the nub of my candle was out- the flame had been doused by the wax. “If you are all so curious to have a conversation then lets talk!” The voice boomed and my figurines were thrown across the room making me scream, books flying from the shelves, floor shaking, and lightbulbs bursting leaving us all in complete darkness other than the three glowing bodies before me.

Wait.

Three?

There he was, the first ghost I had laid eyes on when the mansion came to life.

“William?” I whispered in disbelief, Red seemed to be unaffected by this as though she might have guessed.

“What? Cat got your tongue? I thought you wanted to talk.” He grinned.