#ask to tag?? i unno | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

damthosefandoms · 16 days ago

Text

my life has changed in oh so many ways

(ao3 link)

Summary:

"You aren’t stupid. You just learn different than everybody else. You don’t have to do this.”

He stares at her. Maybe she is still kinda nice. But nice girls don’t date guys like Bob Sheldon who've picked on him for a decade now because sometimes he talks funny and because he can’t read or write or do anything like people his age are supposed to, on top of everything else that comes with being a greaser.

Guys like Bob Sheldon who do nothing but get drunk and beat on poor kids like Johnny Cade until they aren’t themselves anymore and never will be again.

"It just ain't fair you never got any help!"

“You told me you wanted to be a teacher here when you grow up, Sodapop. But if you want to be a teacher you have to work! What do you think would happen if I came to school everyday and did nothing?”

“I ‘unno.”

“I’d get fired! So if I were you, I’d pick up that pencil and start writing.”

Soda puts his head down on his desk and cries. His teacher just sighs and walks away. She’s giving up on him just like everyone else.

He’s a lost cause.

He just wanted help.

Soda slams the door to their dad’s old truck and tries to control his breathing. He waits for Darry to drive off, to drop Ponyboy at the middle school, where their genius little brother only has one month left of seventh grade. Soda has what feels like centuries left of tenth; but the piece of paper hidden in his sorry excuse for a backpack will change that.

Steve jogs up to him and goes, “You remember it today?”

“I shoved it under my pillow and couldn’t sleep all night ‘cause of it. Yeah, I remembered it.”

“They gonna take it covered in drool?”

Soda swings at him, but Steve just dodges and switches to walk on his other side. They pause in front of the doors, so Soda can get the withdrawal form out.

The main entrance to Will Rogers High School is intimidating, but not as intimidating as what lies beyond the doors. Most kids—greasers and socs alike—don’t give it a second thought as they walk in every morning, but Sodapop Curtis isn’t most kids, and the paper in his hand proves it.

He’s never even driven by this place without wanting to throw up.

“Seriously, man. You ain’t got nothin’ to worry about. I know Darry’ll kill you, but we talked about this, we all got your back and Two-Bit or me are gonna drive ya to school every day and you can just walk to the DX for work, say you’re working just part time every afternoon now, he’ll never—”

“It ain’t Darry I’m worried about. He’ll be mad as the day is long, I don’t give a damn. Dad gave the okay, it ain’t up to Darrel at all. Never was. But Pony’s gonna take it hard and I can’t stand that.”

Soda gives it three classes before he feels sick to his stomach. He’s got the form folded up in the pocket of his dad’s favorite flannel, the same one he’s worn practically every day since the accident. Darry’s always getting on him about giving it a rest and wearing something else—“Everyone knows we’re poor! No need to make them think we don’t wash our damn clothes!”—but to Soda it’s like a security blanket. It’s also one the few shirts he has that don’t make him want to rip his skin off while wearing it. And, you know, his dad always cut the tags off.

He doesn’t even ask his history teacher to let him use the bathroom, just gets up and leaves. He’s told to sit down but he doesn’t because he’s a greaser and nobody expects obedience from him, anyway. He doesn’t look back as he walks out, just reaches into his pocket and takes out the form. It’s the only piece of paper he’s ever put in there without crumpling. He absent-mindedly hums a little tune while he walks—“Help!” by the Beatles, which is one of his favorite songs. It’s a few years old but he heard it on the radio again recently and it’s catchy, not that he could ever admit that to any of his east side buddies—and he unfolds the form. He wants to read through it one more time before he hands it in.

He knows what it says in theory, but there’s so many words on there, and the font is so small that his eyes kind of glaze over, but he keeps his eyes glued to the page while he walks.

Until he collides with something and it flies out of his hands. He looks up and there’s a girl in front of him—ohgodit’sCherry—and he immediately goes to help her up. She looks at him for a second, eyes wide and he thinks maybe her cheeks might be as red as his are her hair, but she ignores his hand, so instead he goes to pick up her books for her.

“Sorry,” Soda mumbles, somehow briefly forgetting that he’s not supposed to be saying stuff like that to soc girls, he’s got a reputation to uphold, but glory, his Mama taught him manners and he’d be damned if he didn’t use them. And deep down he knows Cherry isn’t like the other soc girls because she was nice to him once in first grade and he’s never ever forgotten it.

He nearly shudders at the memory. The words “consonant digraph” are not ones he remembers anymore, all these years later, but way, way back when he was learning them he wanted to cry at the mention of it.

He’s brought back to first grade. It’s sometime in the beginning half of the year, and they’re doing some cut-and-glue activity with partners. He’s been paired with Sherri Valance because he’s always paired with her. They sit next to each other because their class sits in alphabetical order by first name, and they always do partner work with their neighbors.

There’s muffled yelling down the hall and another first-grade teacher pokes her head in and asks for backup, ‘cause one of her problem students is throwing chairs. Their teacher tells them she’ll be right back and heads out. Soda hears somebody who wasn’t in his class last year mutter to their friend, “Dallas, probably.” They see the principal speed-walking down the hall through the doorway, and then everyone loses interest and starts to get to work.

Sherri taps Soda on the shoulder.

“Can you write our names for me?” she says. “I’m going to go get scissors and stuff.”

She gets up and Soda looks at her nametag. He takes a whole minute to decode it. Sherri.

Goddamn digraphs. /sh/ and /ch/ are his worst enemies lately, and she’s got one of them in her name. He knows it’s real sad that he can barely tell which one. He feels butterflies in his stomach as he picks up his pencil. In the best possible handwriting he can muster up—writes her name. He is pretty sure he wrote it correctly, tries to read it aloud, and thinks he’s doing well until one of the kids at the desk pair behind him, Randy Adderson, laughs.

“What’d you just say?”

Soda is starting to understand now why Darry keeps telling him to stay away from the kids with the nice backpacks and brand-name shoes.

“You’re copying off her nametag and you still spelled it wrong?” Randy sneers, and his friend Bob Sheldon looks over too, and starts to grin. Soda’s butterflies turn into rocks.

“I just wrote her name. Sherri.”

But his mouth does that thing again where the word doesn’t sound quite right coming out of his mouth as it did in his head and he can feel his cheeks heating up. That always happens. Bob and Randy and their friends always make fun of him for it, too. He tries to make out the letters he wrote on the paper.

He did write a y instead of an i. And his S is kinda weird-looking, too.

Oh. He didn’t mean to do that. His pencil must’ve moved on its own again like it always does when his brain gets jumbled.

“Cherry, you said Cherry! Her name is Sherri! An’ I think you wrote it too, but who knows, I can’t read that at all!” Bob jeers at him loudly, and the whole class is starting to look over. Chet Baker, the kid who mentioned Dallas earlier, is laughing too, and he whispers something into the ear of his partner. Soon everyone is staring at him, and Soda feels like sinking into the floor. Bob revels in the glory of it all.

“Leave it to dumb ol’ Sodapop to mess it all up!”

The classroom explodes into laughter, like that was the greatest insult of all time and not some lame comment from little kid.

“I like it, actually,” a voice says suddenly and Soda thinks for a second it’s an angel come down to earth. But it’s just Sherri, and she’s handing Soda a glue stick.

“Cherry. I love that. It’s going to be my new nickname.”

She elbows him gently and smiles at him. Her eyes are so green. Soda thinks green eyes are his favorite; Cherry has green eyes, and so do both of his brothers and his dad. That’s almost all of his favorite people on Earth, except for his mom. Her eyes are brown, like his own.

“I really like it, Soda.”

He really likes it too. Soda wishes he could’ve stayed in first grade forever, sometimes, because back then Cherry always stood up for him and now…

Now they’re sixteen and when he goes to hand Cherry her books, she seems to come back to reality. Her face contorts into something angry, or maybe more defensive, as she snaps, “I don’t need your help, grease. Helping me pick up my books like some wannabe-gentleman… don’t you have a girl, anyway?”

He does. Sandy’s somewhere one floor up in English right now reading some Shakespearean tragedy about star-crossed lovers, and he hasn’t told her he’s dropping out yet, either. He loves—really loves—three people left in the world, two of them are his brothers and one, he thinks, is Sandy, and they’re the only ones of the people he really cares about that he hasn’t told about his plan.

Now that his parents are dead, they’re the only people left he’s truly terrified of disappointing. They’re the only people he ever talk to about his problems.

The only people he felt he could ever ask for help. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t anymore.

So why does it bother him so much when he has to ask Cherry Valance to move her foot because she's standing on a paper that might honestly be his lifeline?

He points it out to her and she goes, “Oh,” and picks it up for him. Even brushes the dust off. Soda watches her eyes scan the top of the paper before his face turns even more red and he has to rip it from her hand.

“You didn’t see shit, soc,” he snaps, and maybe it’s mean and out of character for the ever-so-charming Sodapop Curtis that is known to walk these halls, but he’s embarrassed. There’s a sinking feeling in his gut at the face Cherry’s making and his stomach somehow hurts even more.

Not hurts. He’s got butterflies.

He’s in love with Sandy though, and she loves him back, and who gives a damn if he’s been practically ignoring Cherry for a decade now. Who gives a damn if she was the only person from the entire west side of Tulsa to show up at his parents’ funeral. She’s always gone to their church and it was right after the regular Sunday morning service and it doesn’t mean shit. Even if he didn’t have a box under his bed he’s been filling with cash for a ring to marry Sandy one day, Cherry wouldn’t matter, because she’s a soc and he’s a greaser and he might not be in even the average level English class like Sandy is, but Soda asked his mom about it once back when Darry was in sophomore year and was reading it and so he knows how Romeo & Juliet ends.

Soda’s in love with Sandy. She loves him back. He flips the collar of his flannel up because he’s a greaser and he’s gotta look tuff or tough or whatever and keeps walking.

“Sodapop!” Cherry calls, and he shouldn’t turn around but there’s classes going on right now and no one’s watching them.

“What?”

“I just—you aren’t stupid. You just learn different than everybody else. You don’t have to do this.”

He stares at her. Maybe she is still kinda nice. But nice girls don’t date guys like Bob Sheldon who’ve picked on him for a decade now because sometimes he talks funny and because he can’t read or write or do anything like people his age are supposed to, on top of everything else that comes with being a greaser.

Guys like Bob Sheldon who do nothing but get drunk and beat on poor kids like Johnny Cade until they aren’t themselves anymore and never will be again.

“School just ain’t going to be the same without you brightening up everyone’s day, Soda,” Cherry calls after him, but he pushes through the door to the stairwell and pretends her words aren’t eating him alive.

“It just ain’t fair you never got any help!”

He wanted to be a teacher once. So did his mom, once upon a time, that meant college, and she had no money and had a baby at eighteen, so she never even had a shot of working in a daycare. And Soda’s dumb and nobody wants a dumb teacher, so he’s never going to be able to make a difference in the lives of kids like him.

Cherry’s right, he never got any help. That’s why he wanted to be the one to help the next generation. But it’s not going to happen.

She stood up for him once. She used to check his work for him before he handed it in. She would whisper-read when they were supposed to be reading silently so he’d understand the passage. They just can’t talk about it anymore because they grew up.

There aren’t many things he’ll miss about Will Rogers High School, but Cherry Valance is admittedly going to be one of them.

Another thing he won’t miss—the grouchy secretary he’s got to hand in the form to. When he gets to the office she gives him a nasty look that just screams get back to class, hood! or maybe something more along the lines of what’s this idiot doing here? He blow in on the way to stupid town?

…Maybe it’s an oh great, another greasy little troublemaker sent to the office.

Clearly that’s the right one, because the first thing she says is “What’d you do? I ain’t gotten a call up or nothin’.”

“I have this withdrawal form to hand in. I talked to our case worker with social services, she says she confirmed with you guys here that my dad’s signature should still be good enough even though he…?”

She swipes the form out of his hands and glances over it. “I’ll have the principal look at it. Get back to class.”

Soda turns, fully intent on finding his backpack and then walking out a side door somewhere instead, and he’s still going to—but just as he’s walking out someone calls his name. He looks back over his shoulder and the principal has stepped out of his office.

“Mr. Curtis, can you do me a favor?” He asks, and Soda nods, just hoping it’s not to do with that form.

He’s handed an envelope, but it’s not for him.

To the Parent/Guardian of Ponyboy Michael Curtis, it says on the front. Soda’s confused.

“I don’t get it.”

“It’s an intake form for high school.”

“Pony’s in seventh grade. There’s a month left of school.”

“Yes, and his test scores are like nothing we’ve ever seen. He’s going to be coming here next year.”

“He’s in seventh grade. Sir, he never even hands in his homework on time! How’s he jumping ahead to ninth?”

“Mr. Curtis, please, just deliver that letter, would you? Saves me the trouble of having to mail it myself. Glory knows you of all people should understand not wanting to waste money on a stamp.”

The butterflies in Soda’s stomach from earlier turn to rocks and he feels like he’s being weighed down again. “I understand just fine, sir.”

He walks back to class, grabs his backpack and walks all the way home.

That night Darry talks about throwing a party for their little brother and Soda has to grin and bear it, because he’s honestly jealous as all hell. He’ll never admit it, though, because he’s as jealous as he is proud of Ponyboy.

But now he’s never going to be able to tell them he dropped out.

Not when Pony’s immediate reaction to the letter is “I get to go school with Soda next year?”

(He then adds, “and Johnny?” but Soda missed that part because he was too busy wallowing in his own guilt.)

Ponyboy’s going to hate this, he thinks the world and more of Soda and he’ll probably find a way to blame Darry for it. But it’s not Darry’s fault, it isn’t their parents’ fault or anybody’s except Soda’s brain for not working like it should. He thinks if his brothers fight tonight he’ll either lose it and kill them both or never stop crying, so he doesn’t tell them that night.

He doesn’t tell them for a month, not until it’s the last week of school and it’s pouring rain and Darry’s roofing job gets canceled for the day. He comes home early to find Soda sitting on the couch watching cartoons because it’s too early to head out to the DX. The clothes he left the house in that morning for school are drying on the radiator and Soda’s nose is red and Darry has to put the worry he’s going to get sick from walking home in the rain aside.

Ponyboy thinks Darry didn’t yell at Soda for dropping out. Well, he wasn’t home for the fallout.

For the “I know school is hard for you. If you really needed a day off, little buddy, you coulda told me instead of skipping. I’ll go call the school now and say you’re sick.”

And the “Sodapop Patrick, what the hell do they mean you ain’t been enrolled at Will Rogers for a month now?”

Or the horrible silence as Darry has to drive Soda to the DX for work in the pouring rain just so whatever cold he definitely caught that morning won’t get worse before it even starts.

No, Ponyboy won’t find out about any of it until he’s back to school shopping in August and jokingly asks Soda if he’s throwing in the towel this year because he’s not buying anything, and Soda casually tells him he’s not going back to school. That working full time at the DX over the summer wasn’t just a summer thing. It doesn’t go over well.

Darry carpools to work on the first day of Pony’s freshman year, because Soda practically begged him to let him have the truck to bring Pony to school alone that morning. Normally the kid would’ve walked, but Soda knows how big of a day this is, and their mom used to always make sure they didn’t have to walk on the first day, not even to the bus stop when they were in grammar school.

They pull up to the curb by the front doors and Soda can see Steve and Two-Bit and Johnny waiting for Ponyboy. He really appreciates Johnny for that. He never goes anywhere in the school that socs go unless there’s a teacher in the room, after he got jumped at the end of the last school year.

It figures he’d show up for Ponyboy, though. If Johnny isn’t with Dally—who’s not there because he got locked up after taking the blame for busting out a bunch of school windows last year even though Two-Bit did that—he’s with Ponyboy. They’re just close like that.

(Actually, Soda’s pretty sure Dally got himself arrested either because he’s simply self-destructive, or so he wouldn’t give himself a chance to kill anybody for what happened to Johnny, but that’s not really the point.)

Soda turns off the engine of the truck and turns to his brother.

“You ready?”

Ponyboy shrugs. He’s chewing on his thumbnail, a nervous habit the three brothers share. Soda gently pushes his arm down, getting Pony’s hand away from his mouth.

“You’re gonna do great, Pony. You might be young but you’re smarter than everybody in there. You’re the smartest guy I know.”

“You know Darry.”

“Darry’s Darry. He’s smart but he’s like—perfect, yknow? He don’t count. And he an’ I both reckon you’re smarter than he’ll ever be. You’re goin’ places, Pony. Really, truly going places. We both know it. You’re on your way up in the world, you’re gonna go so far.”

“People said that about Darry. Look at him now. He’s just a college dro—” Ponyboy cuts himself off and Soda knows why.

“Show ‘em what for, Pony,” he says. “Show ‘em what us Curtises are really made of, okay? Darry gave up his chance for us, but…if anybody’s gonna make it outta this place it’s gonna be you.”

Because Ponyboy was made great things, and Soda wasn’t, and he might still be jealous but his baby brother is going to kick ass in high school.

Soda hugs him and Pony gets out of the truck, and as he starts to walk away, Soda rolls the window down and he calls out:

“Hey, Pony, if you meet a girl named Cherry, tell her I said hi!”

Pony rolls his eyes and waves. Soda laughs to himself as he drives off.

Ponyboy Curtis, talking to a soc girl. Imagine that.

He’s too busy laughing at his own joke to notice Sandy on the sidewalk as he drives past, heading up the steps into the school practically hand-in-hand with a guy who isn’t him.

He does see a girl with auburn hair walking up to school, frowning, and Bob Sheldon’s got an arm around her.

“Great job, Soda! Mrs. Larkin, look how good Sodapop’s doing! He nearly finished the whole worksheet and didn’t give up once!”

“You aren’t stupid. You just learn different than everybody else.”

Soda turns the radio on. “All You Need Is Love” blasts through the speakers. The truck’s windows are down as he heads for the exit of the school’s parking lot.

One head turns.

But Sandy doesn’t like the Beatles.

#sodapop curtis #cherry valance #cherrycola #outsiders fanfic #ponyboy curtis #darry curtis #bob sheldon #greasers #socs #sandy the outsiders #the outsiders #the outsiders musical #the outsiders broadway #the outsiders 1983 #the outsiders book #julie writes stuff #my post

52 notes · View notes

mouseymilkovich · 2 months ago

Text

Nicotine & Tangerines | Carmandy | Chapter Two

previous chapter | masterlist | playlist | pinterest board | next chapter

Chapter Summary: A date, a real date. Family spaghetti. Opening up— in more ways than one. All of these things lead up to a decision for Mandy— and we're only just getting started. | Carmy Berzatto x Mandy Milkovich — The Bear x Shameless Crossover (part of my Shameless Bear Universe!)

Content Tags: Brief Claire mentions, mentions of Mickey having a gun (Milkovich tingz), Mandy opens up a bit to Carmy about growing up, mentions of sh scars on Mandy (not graphic), unprotected sex, Carmy being a big time boob guy yk, pulling out

Important Info: (texting) blue = Carmy, pink = Mandy

Chapter Two: Everything Has Changed

Word Count: 2.3k

Mandy was a little bit astounded about what a gentleman Carmy seemed to be— it was one of the few times in her life a man didn't just have an end goal of getting her into bed. Of course, not that she would've minded getting into bed with Carmy... but that was something to think about later.

Meanwhile, Carmy found that this girl just absolutely flooded his mind, occupied his every thought— any lingering thoughts or feelings surrounding Claire? Gone. Erased.

"So, y'gonna ask 'er out on a proper date, cousin?" Richie asked Carmy with a little sly grin.

Carmy raised his eyebrows at Richie, shrugging a bit. "Who said I even liked her, huh?"

Richie rolled his eyes, letting out an exasperated sigh. "Carmen Anthony Berzatto, you honestly think I can't read you like a fuckin' book sometimes?"

Sydney giggled quietly as Carmy's cheeks turned pink. Okay, he'd been caught.

"So I like her! What's the big fuckin' deal?" Carmy grumbled quietly, trying to focus back on what he was doing.

"Is it a crime for me to want you to be happy, huh?" Richie asked, leaning against the counter.

"No. But it's fuckin' suspicious." Carmy muttered in response.

"Is it really that suspicious?" Richie huffed.

Carmy and Sydney both paused, then exchanged a glance before each looking at Richie, then answered in tandem. "Yes."

"Fuck both of you!"

Of course, Carmy did have plans to ask Mandy on a proper date. But he wanted to go about this carefully— he was sure Mandy had her walls built up about as high as he did, if not higher. And last time he had a relationship, in the not-so-distant past, she was such a distraction to him that so many things happened with The Bear that he barely remembered. This was not going to be another Claire-esque incident.

He had to remain focused on one thing at a time, but he also had to put his business first— Mandy was great, but he'd made this mistake before, and it cost him Claire, a shit ton of sleep, and very nearly Richie.

So, after the restaurant closed for the night, Carmy decided he needed to take his opportunity. He'd been texting back and forth with Mandy, spending a couple minutes with her here and there, but not a proper date... yet, that was.

hey um, would it be weird if i asked you to come over on saturday night?

Saturday was perfect— he'd coordinated it with Richie that he didn't need to come in, and the restaurant was closed on Sunday, in case things ran long on the date... for some reason.

not weird at all, i'd like that a lot<3

God, she always had to send those cute little hearts...

Okay, so she agreed. Now all Carmy needed was an official plan— he sort of had one, but he was panicking about what to cook... as if she didn't already enjoy his cooking.

"So? D'ya ask her out?" Richie asked with a sly grin.

Carmy groaned as he and Richie headed out of the restaurant. "Yes. I did. Can you piss off, Rich? Why're you so invested in this anyways?"

"Is it a crime for me to wanna make sure y're treatin' Mandy okay? Jeesh." Richie insisted, he was continuing to play the close friend angle like a fiddle.

"She's comin' over Saturday... kinda nervous." He muttered softly. "I 'unno what to make."

"Spaghetti! Make the family spaghetti, dipshit!" Richie responded quickly, patting Carmy's back.

Carmy gave Richie a puzzled look for a moment.

Richie rolled his eyes. "Spaghetti is simple, it's good, and y're sharin' somethin' special."

Carmy thought for a moment, then nodded a bit. "Sometimes you're smart, cousin."

┈

The ever anticipated Saturday came too quickly for Carmy, and too slowly for Mandy, both in their eagerness for a real actual date.

Mandy kept mentally scolding herself all week— she should not be actually falling for Carmy... but, who could blame her? The guy was handsome, and he had a dorkish charm about him. Despite the similar appearance, Lip was one of the furthest things from her mind when she was with Carmy.

As she headed to Carmy's apartment, Mandy nervously fiddled with her necklace, her bracelets, smoother out her dress... why was she so nervous? She'd done the whole "date" thing to death. Was it because she actually liked Carmy?

She took a deep breath, then gently knocked on the door of his apartment.

From the other side of the door, Mandy could hear shuffling and Carmy muttering something like "ah shit, son of a bitch—" from the other side. It made her giggle.

He opened the door, greeting her with that awkward yet charming smile. "Um, hey. C'mon in."

Mandy stepped into the apartment, glancing around at the small and... denim covered(?) place. Why the hell did he have so many jeans everywhere?

"I-I know it ain't much—"

"Carmy, need I remind you, south side girl." Mandy laughed softly.

"Right, um, sorry." Carmy laughed softly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, I made spaghetti, so um, come make yourself comfortable— I don't really have a dining table..."

God, he had such a man apartment. Seriously, what the hell was with all the jeans all over the place?

As Mandy sat on the couch, Carmy brought over two neatly plated things of spaghetti with garlic bread— funny, he wasn't at work, but he was definitely still plating as if he were.

"This looks great, Carm." She smiled softly at him.

"This is the special family recipe, um, Mikey used'ta make it all the time." Carmy muttered softly. "He especially did it when I was a kid and had a rough day at school, cus it was my favourite."

"That's really sweet." Mandy smiled softly. "Whenever I had a bad day at school as a kid, Mickey would just threaten to bring a gun to school the next day."

"Jeesh, your brother sounds, uh, real... intense."

"He means well. It's just the way we grew up, we lived in a really rough part of the south side." Mandy muttered with a little laugh. Finally, she took a bite of spaghetti, and then gasped softly. "Oh my god, this amazing."

Carmy smiled a little. Why did hearing Mandy say his food was good mean more to him than a fucking professional chef saying that? "I'm glad you like it."

"Man, I can't remember the last time I've had a home cooked meal." Mandy muttered softly.

Carmy raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"It's... kinda long and sad." She muttered, noticing the intrigue in Carmy's eyes.

"I got time."

┈

The night was filled with conversation. Mandy told Carmy bits and pieces about how she grew up, not everything— she couldn't do that, not yet. But she did talk about how she, her brothers, and little sister, Macie, never knew their mom, about her little half sister, Molly. Their dad was an asshole, their neighbourhood was terrible, Lip was sometimes Mandy's escape but he ended up not wanting her around, Mickey got lucky, having Ian around. She and her siblings learned to survive on scraps, frozen or boxed shitty food, fast food, anything they could steal.

Carmy couldn't hardly believe it. Sure, his childhood was rough, it wasn't perfect by any means, but in comparison to everything Mandy told him? God.

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out—"

"You didn't." Carmy muttered softly. "Sorry, um... I just... that sounds so... I'm so sorry, Mandy."

His gaze as he looked at her was soft, he'd probably never looked at anybody like that before. Not even Claire. It nearly made Mandy forget the whole reason she was spending this time with Carmy to begin with...

"I almost wished I'd met you earlier..." He muttered softly. "I would've... I dunno, I would've kept ya around..."

Mandy smiled just a little at those words. "You don't know that for sure. Besides, I probably would've terrified you as a teenager."

Carmy laughed a little. "Well, if teen Mandy was anything like the Mandy I know now... yeah, I'm sure I would've been scared... though, maybe I still would've brought you around, piss my mom off or something."

Mandy erupted into a fit of giggles from that. God, if only...

"Well, if teen Carmy was anything like the Carmy I know now, I probably would've been scared... but for a different reason." She laughed, repeating part of what Carmy had said. "Probably because if you'd shown genuine interest in me, I wouldn't know what to do."

Carmy smiled sadly, reaching over and brushing some hair out of her face. "I'm sorry you ever had to feel that way because of anybody else."

They hadn't really realized that the gap between them had slowly gotten smaller— and smaller. Carmy gently cupped Mandy's cheek, almost absentmindedly, his thumb ran along her cheekbone.

"You're really pretty." He mumbled quietly to her. A warmth overtook Carmy's body, maybe it was the close proximity to Mandy, maybe it was his face flushing. Maybe it was the sudden, unbelievably strong urge to kiss her.

┈

The feverish kiss carried on into Carmy's dimly lit bedroom, articles of clothing being discarded and forgotten about alone the way. Carmy practically growled at Mandy's lack of bra.

"God, y're fuckin' beautiful." He murmured, admiring her body in front of him.

Mandy smiled, almost bashfully— sure, she heard that sometimes... but, it felt different coming from Carmy, somehow.

Carmy laid back on his bed, one arm behind his head, smiling at Mandy as he waited for her to join him. As he gazed at her, he noticed the scars all over her thighs— he had a feeling he knew what those might have been from, but he didn't wanna ask. If she wanted to, she'd tell him.

But, he really did think she was beautiful.

She climbed into his bed, straddling his thighs and smirking down at him. "You've got the right idea, huh?"

"I like when a pretty girl rides me, okay? Sue me." Carmy teased with a little grin. Admittedly, being a boob guy, his favourite positions were any where he could watch his girl's tits bounce— he damn near got drunk on that shit.

He was already hard just from looking at her, just from watching the way she moved and hearing her voice. Maybe he was a little pathetic when it came to simping over women.

Mandy spat in her hand, then wrapped it around Carmy's dick and coated him with a mixture of her saliva and his pre. It made his hips twitch, a soft moan falling from his lips.

God, if he was already becoming a mess just from this, what would happen when she actually got down to business?

After she gave him a few more strokes, she positioned herself over him, then slowly sank down, little whimpers and "ah"s escaping her as she was filled by his large cock.

Carmy gripped the bedsheets below him as he felt the warmth of her cunt envelope him, biting his lip. Fuck, she felt good. It almost took every ounce of him not to cum just from that.

Mandy, being a seasoned expert (especially in comparison to Carmy), she took him like a champ. Her hips rocked and bucked, her head tilted back as she moaned out loudly.

"Fuck, Carmy, you feel s'fucking good, mm—" She moaned out while starting to pick up her pace.

Carmy whimpered as Mandy's pace quickened, feeling a familiar heat in his stomach and his cock twitching inside her. "S-Slow down, 'm gonna—"

"Already?" Mandy asked, looking down at Carmy as she started to slow down her movements. "You a fuckin' virgin or something?"

His cheeks turned red at the comment, a bit embarrassed. "N-No, it's just... b-been a while..." He stammered, wondering how pathetic he sounded when he said that. No girl he'd been with before was as intense as Mandy.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." She muttered reassuringly. "Wanna switch positions? Go at your pace?"

"Y-Yeah, okay, o-okay." Carmy nodded.

Mandy climbed off, and rolled over, spreading her thighs so he could slide right back in. As Carmy picked himself up and positioned himself at her core, he internally decided he had to have her there before he even got close. So, right as he pressed his tip at her entrance, his thumb met her clit, rubbing in tight circles as he pushed himself fully in.

"F-Fuck, Carmy!" She moaned out, her back arching. It almost made Carmy get a little cocky— he'd have to show off his true finger skills later.

He deemed himself successful when he felt her walls clenching around his cock, his eyes fluttered a little at the feeling.

"You gonna cum f'me, huh? Y-Yeah, y're gonna cum on my dick?" He panted out, trying to catch his breath to stop himself from just finishing inside her first.

Mandy cried out loudly as her hips arched, cumming around his cock. That pushed Carmy over the edge, ropes of his hot seed landing on her thighs as he pulled out.

Carmy crashed against the mattress beside her, both of them panting. Internally, Carmy was proud of himself for having her done first... even if he came immediately after, but that was besides the point.

After his moment of internal celebration, Carmy put his arms around Mandy, pulling her close to his chest.

"That was really nice... hopefully next time I can go a little longer." He joked.

Mandy giggled softly, looking up at Carmy as she cuddled into him. "It's okay... I thought it was kinda cute."

He smiled softly, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead.

As they cuddled, and Carmy fell asleep, Mandy was left for her thoughts for a moment. Everything felt different, he felt different...

Maybe it was time Richie stop paying her.

⋆ ˚｡ ⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡ ⋆

tags ; @thecapricunt1616 @buzzcutlip

click here if you'd like to be tagged in any future updates of my work!

37 notes · View notes

itsuki-minamy · 2 months ago

Text

"SIDE GOLD"

CHAPTER 4: IKU AND THE BIRIBIRI GROUP (Part 3)

* List of Chapters

Translation: Naru-kun Raws: Anno

Unno Yutaka hates rain.

Therefore, on days when the weather is not good, he usually spends the day resting at the back of Todokoro Suwako's cafe, or resting at the back of the "Yakumo" game room. Unno, who was resting at the back of "Yakumo" that day as usual, suddenly stood up and walked out through the back door.

The direct reason was...

[Where?]

The radio that was beside his bed.

[Miya-chan, where are you?]

Even if he hit it or broke it,

[Whoever knows, answer me... I am...]

It was because that continued raising the voice.

[Oh... "Green King"...]

With a bat umbrella, he walked as if he was kicking the bitter icy rain.

Then, a member who was following closely behind joined him.

It was Todokoro Suwako, holding an umbrella.

"Even though I said I wasn’t going anywhere."

A hard look emerged from behind the round black glasses.

Embarrassed, Unno pouted even though he was the culprit.

"That’s not what I meant. I’m sure you understand."

"You said that? That's not even true."

Another person began to tease and follow them.

It was Tamataro Okuma, dressed in an uncomfortable-looking raincoat.

"There are people who believe in the phrase "don’t fly" and it's cannonball."

"Don't make any noise."

"There's a lot of noise."

At times like this, Unno and Suwako would answer in unison.

Okuma let out a sigh and asked again.

"So you know where you're going, right?"

"There's going to be a commotion anyway, so let's go there."

Suwako was very taken aback by the terse and messy answer.

"Were you planning on just walking in the rain until then?!"

"He's a boss who always looks out for you, see?"

Okuma was equally taken aback, but handed over the newspaper he had in his pocket.

After receiving it, Unno drew his attention to the area circled in red. The headline of the small article read, "Traffic restrictions in the vicinity of Nanakamado City due to the extraction of infectious disease samples from the Research Institute for Infectious Disease Control".

"Nanakamado, umm... Colt’s house?"

Without taking a moment to think, Unno's feet turned in that direction.

The two followers also had their destinations arranged.

"That's the only place where there's going to be commotion today. Traffic regulations will require people to pay before entering and leaving."

"Well, I guess the young lady and her blue-hatted husband will be coming too."

Unno walked away, kicking away the freezing rain.

"Don't talk about that bastard, he's really bad."

Although he had a premonition of a battle, or even a conviction, his steps remained the same.

The next two people were the same.

++++++++++

In Tsunogui Iku's memory, there is a flame break.

She doesn't remember what was supposed to be on the other side of that flame.

The woman she is today began with that fire, wandering through the scorched fields.

The fact that she was burned during an air raid was discovered by others much later.

At that time, she wandered around with a vague sense of loss, as the endlessly hot flames annihilated everything in their path... including her memories.

The only thing besides life was a name.

A name tag was sewn onto her clothes, which were riddled with tiny holes caused by the sparks. The small piece of cloth that testified to her existence had the words "Tsunogui Iku" written on it in furigana, probably because it was difficult to read. Or perhaps it was a beacon for parents and children to find each other among the burnt ruins, but it was never used.

Along with her memory, many of her criteria for judgment had also disappeared, and her face was expressionless.

At that moment, she was incapable of experiencing feelings built on some sort of foundation, such as feeling sad for the person she had lost or angry at the person who had provoked her.

The instincts of a living being, of being hungry and thirsty to connect with the present, and fearing the danger of oneself who has no way to protect oneself, ruled everything in her small body.

Even after the flame that caused the rupture had turned into a wasteland of extinguished charcoal,

She continued to walk aimlessly, hungry, thirsty, and scared.

No one else had the energy to help her.

Above all, it was not a particularly unusual hardship.

It was quite normal, except for the memory.

Many children lost their parents and were orphaned.

In a tense situation on the brink of defeat, there were very few ways to save orphans like her damaged by the war. There are very few orphanages that are public protection facilities and individual households are doing their best to keep their own families alive. It would have been better if only children could be evacuated, and it was still the same day to day where they evacuated to eat or not.

Orphans who were burned in the air raids flocked to makeshift communal dining halls or died in the field. On very rare occasions, some children found adopters, but in reality they were only a handful, or rather almost no one. Most of them just wandered around, got lost, and ended up at the edge of the place.

After many days, she finally reached one such abyss, the underground passage of Ueno Station.

It was a narrow, winding concrete underpass that connected the burned-out JNR Ueno Station to the Keisei Line’s Ueno Koen Station, and served as a makeshift evacuation center for people who had nowhere to go. Of course, that hadn’t been publicly acknowledged. Due to several large air raids, the number of homeless people numbered in the hundreds, even thousands, and society was at a standstill, with no one able to do anything about it.

10% to 20% of the homeless people were children, and she ended up living like one of them. Although they called it life, it wasn’t that of a normal human being. They slept in unsanitary and unsafe spaces, crammed into places where it was difficult to even lie down, and they survived by running soup kitchens and begging, and when that wasn’t enough, they resorted to illegal means… to put it bluntly, they resorted to criminal acts. The targets were mainly people coming and going from Ueno Station, sometimes people from far away who were rebuilding the ruins, and sometimes nearby neighbors who slept and woke up together in the underground passage.

"I can’t help it, what else can I do?"

In the stagnant darkness of the underground passage, she heard someone muttering.

In such a place, where everyone’s hearts were filled with resignation at the thought of losing their human relationships, Tsunogui Iku was rebuilding herself and continuing to live.

There is a girl who has a keen eye and keen intuition.

Such rumors began to circulate among the vagabonds of the underground passages a few months after the Empire of Japan, which they did not care about, suffered defeat and collapse.

At first, she was simply someone who knew a secret place to store leftover food from a US military facility, and for a short time, that place filled the stomachs of the few people who followed her until the parliamentarians chased them away.

Soon, people who had not only witnessed the incident but also cooperated with it began to share their experiences, such as locating a supply storage area that had been cleverly hidden by a blackmailer and unearthing several underground warehouses buried among the burnt ruins.

Ultimately, by predicting from the police's movements that a raid on an underground passage (squatter raid) is taking place, she gains tremendous trust from those who believe her and escape.

The girl's name is Tsunogui Iku.

Judging from the clothes she was wearing, that seemed to be the case.

She could be about ten years old. In addition to the person in question having lost their memory, homeless children are usually malnourished and underdeveloped. Guessing from her emaciated appearance was unreliable.

She was small in appearance, with a hunched back, and had a habit of slightly thrusting her chin forward. It was whispered that she looked like a beast, with her large eyes peeking out from her long, unruly hair.

When this strange-looking girl was asked the reason for her unusual intuition,

"You know it's going to happen when you see it."

She explained it concisely and difficultly. It is said that she is able to have a vague idea of what will happen based on what she sees and how she will move from there.

Iku was often approached by people who thought that even if they couldn't understand her, there was value in using her, but unfortunately Iku didn't have the social skills to be "used for good". At this point, she shows no interest in collective action, and in the above case, she didn't encourage others to do anything. Those who followed or heard the story willingly participated in the spillover.

All she does is search for food, eat, defecate, and sleep. She secretly wanders around the city during the day and returns to the underground passage to sleep at night, repeating the same behavior. It was truly the life of a beast.

The other things began to increase little by little, and it was at the time when people began to flood into Tokyo again that she began to see obvious changes.

The trigger was a common occurrence.

The child sleeping next to her died of hunger.

It was not her friend, it was a child who somehow had a fixed position next to her and sometimes did not have it.

The children who often walked astride them were dying of hunger.

It was a child whose face she did not know well, and who always slept on the way to her usual bed.

The child who spoke to her without giving her anything died of hunger.

It was a child who only thought she was noisy and had never exchanged a single proper voice.

Children were dying of hunger.

Similarly, adults were dying of hunger.

It was a common occurrence, but the rate of occurrence was accelerating.

From the fall of 1945 (Showa 20) to the following year, the year of Japan's defeat in the war, there was a food shortage that was even more severe in Tokyo. Defeated countries have limited reserves and do not matter as they did during the war.

Furthermore, immediately after the defeat, Typhoon Makurazaki swept through the Japanese archipelago, destroying fields across the country and causing the worst crop failures in the Taisho and Showa periods. Even food distribution to the general public was suffering a reduction.

Furthermore, people returned to Tokyo, where air raids had ceased, and demobilized soldiers arrived as well. The city of Tokyo, which had always been a large consumer area, was experiencing rapid, uncontrollable population expansion.

The population did not increase naturally due to development, but was due to a sudden influx of population. There was no way production or supply could keep up (after this, Tokyo's population would increase by 1 million people in just one year).

The balance that had kept the vagrants barely alive, surviving the day by eating or not, was shattered by this food shortage. All kinds of people faced food shortages, and the homeless people down below were forced to starve, unable to get food even if they begged and soup kitchens were disrupted.

At first, Iku showed no particular reaction to the starvation of these other people, but soon she realized that it was becoming difficult to get food and that there was a limit to what she could do with a little intuition.

She began to have relationships with other people.

She learned to talk to people, she began to act and work together.

Still, all she could do was spread out a little, but in that small space there was a chance to find life... to put it more plainly, there was a chance to find food.

From her experience, she has seen many adults who think that children's weaknesses are an opportunity to take advantage of them, and who want to wear them out and throw them away, but the only ones who can work together and share the results are children of the same generation.

Over time, Iku and the dozens of homeless people who gathered around him became well-known in the neighborhood. Sometimes they died, ran away, or got separated, but they were never killed.

Homeless people do not understand difficult issues. They often acted on impulse or mood rather than logic. Among the jobs offered to them, Iku chose one that even they felt they could do.

Basically, they work in groups of several people and mainly do simple jobs like traveling around the city in Batya (waste collection business), selling newspapers, collecting trash cans, and shining shoes in a row. Homeless children were often suspected of stealing, so they could hardly work in a shop (although in some cases the suspicions were true).

In illegal activities, they often acted as transporters, secretly transporting rice and other goods thrown from trains to black markets to evade inspections. They were highly valued by black marketers because they never ran away with their belongings, never fought in secret, and were often obedient if given food.

In this way, Iku and the vagabonds around her began to resist the cold winds of society to a certain extent, but change came from an unexpected direction, leaving no trace.

The blind old man who taught Iku enough words to hold a conversation was killed. He was unknown to no one, never talked about himself, and had just appeared in a corner of an underground passage, but the Ueno yakuza glared at him and thought he was the mastermind who was manipulating a group of vagabonds and sucking their delicious juices.

Speaking of the interaction between the old man and Iku and the others, they talked about various things and received a small amount of food in return, but that was all, but there was no way for an outsider to know the actual circumstances of their interactions. For the yakuza, it was just a matter of removing the nuisance in order to remove the convenient.

After inflicting irreparable injuries on the yakuza who had approached them as their new boss, Iku and the vagabonds around her suddenly disappeared from the Ueno underground passage. These incidents... the murders, injuries, and disappearances were too much to erase, and people soon forgot the memories of the strange girl.

It was the summer of 1946 (Showa 21).

The months leading up to the breakup seemed to be going well.

Iku and his friends, who had literally become vagabonds with no place to live, set their sights on the barely surviving fields in the suburbs, rather than the urban areas of Tokyo, which had dried up due to food shortages. Following Iku's instructions, the children hid and penetrated the darkness, where their guard was relaxed, and were efficient and thorough, ruthlessly stealing the crops, which were valuable under the current circumstances.

They became bands of thieves and continued to plunder the outer limits of Tokyo from east to north, north to west... and finally reached a dead end. The police, taking the increasing damage seriously, formed a vigilante group together with the former local police (a part-time fire department that was disbanded by headquarters, but reorganized as a fire department the following year, in 1947). This was because they were organized and took strict precautions.

Iku's intuition was correct. She knew where the crops grew, and she also knew that the vigilante group was keeping a close eye on that area, and that if they ventured there, they would definitely be caught.

But she couldn't do anything else. There was no power to change things. Like other vagabonds, her young and wild mind couldn't even think of anything else.

They simply stopped targeting the fields and focused their attention on their next looting target.

Distributed in the western part of Tokyo, this is a place where rations for soldiers, luxury items sold to XP shops, and daily necessities are collected.

In other words, it's a base warehouse for the Occupation Forces, a subordinate unit of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces Headquarters.

They had no idea how great a risk they were taking.

The first five cases went as smoothly as before. Following Iku's instincts, they sneaked through security and gaps, and looted many things without being seen. The children were delighted by these processed and sweet foods, unlike agricultural products.

But that was all. They could not imagine what kind of reactions their actions would provoke, or the mechanisms they would unleash, outside of “out there” where they were looking at the moment.

By late autumn, relief supplies from well-known Asian relief organizations, the so-called "Lara supplies", had begun to arrive at the warehouses of the Occupation Forces. These are not just literal relief supplies, but are politically important tools for the Japanese government, which is facing a food shortage. There was no way they were going to let those few warehouse raiders have their way with those items.

The Headquarters decided to use the entire organization called the Occupation Forces to subjugate the mysterious bandits. The strategy was to leave the warehouse, which was predicted to be the next target, unguarded and reduce the circle of troops surrounding the area. That’s it. Just like in the previous war, it was a sumo yokozuna match in which even the slightest discrepancy was crushed with great force.

The characteristics of the robbers analyzed by the Occupation Forces were that they were incredibly thoughtless, contrary to their excellent infiltration techniques.

They raided the Occupation Forces' warehouses scattered from the north, one after another and periodically (this is the period when the children have eaten all the food they have stolen). The behavior was easy to predict.

The sixth attack occurred at the planned time and place. The operation went off without a hitch and the robbers, pursued by the troops surrounding them, were cornered in a corner of a grass field.

A cold rain fell on a dark night.

The last words the old man muttered when asked who stabbed him:

"Now that I know, what will I do? There's nothing I can do about it."

There's nothing she can do.

Tsunogui Iku hated that word.

She felt like those words were robbing her of the strength to live.

Many of those who spoke those words died before her eyes.

That happened to an old man whose name she didn't even know.

About the old man who died in blood and mud,

There's nothing she can do,

She didn't want to say that.

At that moment,

Even though she was forced to participate in a massacre with other homeless children,

She desperately tried to never let those words enter her mind.

The rain made everything go crazy.

Iku's intuition doesn't work unless she checks with her eyes whether it's a moving object or person.

The encircling troops of the Occupation Forces, who were stationed far away from the decoy warehouse, had no way of knowing about this situation, but in the end they opted for effective action. All the troops were forced to stay indoors, hating the cold rain. Anyway, from now on they will have to walk in the rain no matter how much they hate it. Furthermore, the operation started after midnight. At least until then, everyone was warming themselves in front of the stoves with a bottle of sake in hand.

Iku and the others didn’t know that and headed for the target warehouse, thinking that they had escaped the safety net as usual. Iku herself could smell a hint of unease in the air, but she didn't stop her attacks. That's because they had already eaten all the food they had on hand. They believe that things will turn out well next time, so they have no extra savings. Days filled with successful experiences had secretly stripped the wanderers of their sense of caution.

And so the strategy to subdue the warehouse raiders was launched.

First, superimposed on the sound of the rain, the sound of countless gunshots echoed in the dark night.

When Iku saw the gunshots, she instantly realized.

(Sounds, gunshots, noticed, soldiers, occupation forces, many.)

Realizing that, she shouted to the homeless people.

"Run away from here!"

The surrounding homeless people grabbed nearby food and chased after Iku, who was the first to run. Normally that would have been enough to get away with it, but this day was different.

At regular intervals gunshots could be heard behind the rain.

A cold wall of fear rose wherever they ran.

Every time her path was blocked, she ran away in another direction.

After repeating that dozens of times, the children realized.

Before they knew it, they heard gunshots coming from all directions.

When they finally hid in a corner of the grass field, they found themselves completely surrounded. To ensure that the bandits never escaped, the occupation forces continued to pursue them with gunfire.

The action the children were required to take in response to that siege was to surrender.

All they had to do was raise their hands and stand in front of the surrounding troops.

The occupation forces had no idea that all the bandits surrounding them were children.

The reason the Headquarters carried out the subjugation operation in the first place was that Lala's supplies were meant to help people like them who were in a state of starvation. Or perhaps simply letting that thin, dirty figure stand in front of the base gate would have given them enough food for a day.

But they didn't do that. That's because they were only thinking about looting.

In the first place, the option of surrendering didn't even cross her mind. There was no chance to gain knowledge.

To them, the occupation forces that kept firing guns were nothing more than an enemy that would kill them if they didn't run away.

To the opposing occupation forces, what's hiding deep in the grass is nothing more than filthy thieves gathering for relief supplies.

She couldn't do anything about it and things ended up like this.

Finally, many children, unable to bear the pressure of being surrounded and the gunfire, ran out of the grass without hearing Iku's restraints. It wasn't the slow steps of surrender, but a frantic and fierce run.

The occupation forces, who had originally been ordered to shoot at the bandits, aimed their guns at the children without hesitation. There was no way they could observe the other person closely in the dark and rain. The way a figure ran out of the grass seemed like nothing more than a desperate counterattack by the robbers.

The children turned into beehives one after another and sank into the mud.

After these gruesome encounters all around, the occupation forces began to slaughter them. Since there are no signs of them offering to surrender, there is no need to hold back. The plan is to shoot them all there, so there will be no one to stop them now. The soldiers were even more motivated to put an end to it quickly due to the gruesome nature of the incident.

The bullets pierced the rain, shook the grass, and reaped lives.

In order to avoid this death passing over her head, Iku lay down in the mud and continued to struggle desperately.

She found no way to escape.

She didn't know what to do at a time like that.

Still, it didn't mean it couldn't be helped.

She didn't want to give up her strength to live.

She didn't know the reason for the obsession.

("One hand"...)

She just didn't want to die.

More than that, she wanted to be alive.

She came from beyond the confines of the flame and possessed within her the power to live. It was just a bit of intuition, but that abnormal power had certainly kept her alive until now.

And she overcomes it again.

What she tried to accept on the other side of the rift.

("Come"...)

She had almost accepted that she couldn't do anything about it.

Along with the words told to her by the person she lost in the fire.

To live in the present moment, she breaks away from the ordinary.

From deep within the cold rain and dark skies a new force emerged.

It glowed green and turned into a flash of lightning.

("Live"...)

The moment she was struck by the power, Tsunogui Iku felt the truth flowing into her. At the same time, there was also something moving along with that principle, something developing beyond the Slate lying silently somewhere.

Instead of printing out words, she felt a huge and complex system.

In a surge of power, she grasped the flow that formed everything from the other side to that place.

Now she knew how to call someone who can do that.

"..."Green Queen"..."

After obtaining the power to live, the "Green Queen" first used it to "graft". She enveloped the vagabonds lying in the mud in her current. A tremendous electric shock ran through the land, giving the twenty people who were still alive the power they needed to make the most of their lives.

These scenes were hidden by the night, rain, and grass, and were never seen by the besieging forces. First of all, they no longer looked at the ground. They all looked up, dumbfounded.

In the dark night sky, a huge green sword shone brightly against the cold rain.

Even after the siege was broken by a sudden flash of lightning and allowed the bandits to escape, the soldiers of the occupation forces remained trapped in a strange dream. It wasn't long before the Heaven's Sword disappeared, and the cold rain showered their faces, and they finally realized the fact that their plan had failed.

The next day, regarding the sword that appeared in Japan three times and the paranormal phenomena that accompanied it, the Headquarters officially announced that it was a mass hallucination as usual, and further imposed a gag order to prevent the spread of rumors.

From the circumstances of the interview, it was clear that the incompetent guy who worked as a warehouse raider had obtained powers similar to that "demon". The Headquarters, which was in charge of maintaining public order, had no choice but to fear the arrival of a new crisis, but it turned out that these fears were unfounded. Like the "demon", the new sword master did not seem to have any intention of showing his fangs to them, at least on the surface.

However, surveillance and search had to continue. Although an examination of the operation revealed that "the warehouse raiders were a group that included many children", this did not reflect the (extremely unpleasant) situation at the location where "only the corpses of the children were left behind". It is nothing more than rhetoric to improve appearance, simply paraphrasing the situation at the scene. In the end, no other clues were found that could be useful in the search.

Above all, after the operation, the raider in question had disappeared.

It is true that, if you have such supernatural power, there is no need to go out of your way to steal.

He must be hiding in the darkness of the world, secretly plotting a plan worthy of using his power.

So, the Headquarters thought about it logically and remained extremely cautious.

But in reality, it was a complete acceptance.

That night, Tsunogui Iku woke up as the "Green Queen" and continued to rob the surrounding area with vagabonds in tow. What she gained through tragedy and awakening was a feeling of remorse for her careless plundering, and not a psychic's mission to provide a general outline of the plan.

With the sense of scanning and grasping things she gained as the "Green Queen", she was able to more clearly recognize where things were, how they moved, and where they were transported to. She then began to use that power to formulate elaborate robbery plans.

Existing supply warehouses, truck beds parked during transportation, wooden boxes piled up behind liquor stores, discarded items from accounting books, and stock that managers had forgotten about and left to rot. From there, she secretly stole an amount that would not cause any stir.

The Headquarters feared that they were hiding in the darkness of the world, but in the end, they were just children who wanted to eat as much as they could, no matter how far they went.

Lightning had begun to strike frequently in the western part of Tokyo.

Immediately afterward, the food disappeared without anyone noticing.

It was infinitely small, and those were all phenomena caused by the "Green Queen".

They secretly called themselves "The Biribiri Group". The twenty people who survived that night of murder are strongly united and lived together. No one escaped for about two years, until they caught a little girl sleeping on a blanket in a truck.

Iku has now jumped into the world to help that person.

There is no calculation. If she thinks she has to, she will not hesitate.

There is no fear of seriously exerting her "Green Queen" power.

The "Blue King" Somei Nazumi entered, or rather cut into, Nanakamado’s command room, and understood the situation from the screams overflowing from the communication device and the "Green King's" few words.

(The "Green King" who attacked Atsugi's base and his group are searching for a person called Miya-chan.)

The moment he understood, he destroyed all the communication devices in the room with a flash of his white sword. Nanakamado’s side must not allow the "Green King" to leak unnecessary information, whether out of distress or frustration.

Then, Nazumi entered the room and approached the person who seemed to be the chief engineer. However, in order to avoid unnecessary questions and answers, he did not forget to point the tip of his sword at him.

"Where is the key?!"

The questions became abstract as he took a few steps further in his understanding.

Even the chief engineer, who answered with a blank look, didn't understand.

"Key?!"

"It's a person called Miya! Is he an engineer, a witch, or a geisha?"

"I-I don't know! It's true, it's true!"

"......!"

Realizing that there was no deception in his tense expression, Nazumi grew increasingly impatient.

(This is the worst timing.)

Yes, he was unusually anxious.

(That tone of voice was trying to get a response through intimidation... In other words, the "Green King" was angry.)

Since the communication was from the Atsugi base where the rebel troops were stationed, it's highly likely that the "Green King" will target Nanakamado, a sophisticated intelligence agency located in the same hole. Soon, he and his group will attack in the freezing rain. From the brief content of the communication, elements such as children, women, forcefulness, and promiscuity could be extracted. He couldn't imagine him as a person who would settle the score with an unconditional conversation.

First of all, it is necessary to take control of the person called Miya and set her up as a negotiator. Still, five minutes is a good chance for a peaceful ending. If they allowed the arrival of the "Green King" as it was, they had no idea how many problems would arise during the search process. Of course, the Fourth Legislative Bureau of the Ministry of Justice exists precisely for this kind of emergency, but that's not the problem.

(He must not participate.)

If the enemy is so strong that he has no choice but to bring out the glow of a sword (Schubert), like in the battle with the "Red King" Unno Yutaka the other day, he might summon that monster again. That was the biggest problem. At that time, with the help of the "Gray King" Benji Otono, he was able to pass through without incident, but he doesn't think his good fortune will continue next time. He didn't think he would lose (he was also an arrogant King in that regard), but it was physically and politically dangerous for him to show his true intentions as the "Blue King" in such a complicated situation.

(This person is useless, so what else can I do?)

Nazumi turned the focus of his thought away from the chief engineer who pointed at him with his finger and took a broader view of what was there. From among the principles and phenomena that have been worked out up to this point,

(We need a collaborator who knows the inner workings of this place in detail and can have a conversation with them.)

It will only take him a moment to find the piece he needs.

"Where is Mr. Thomas Colt?"

"What? Ugh!"

He pushed the blade an inch towards the chief engineer, whom he asked again.

"Where is Mr. Thomas Colt?"

"Oh, I should have taken the doctor to the underground bunker."

"Please call him, there should be an indoor broadcast."

"Okay, someone..."

The voice of the chief engineer, who was following instructions, was cut off by the arrival of something.

Nazumi thought he was moving things as quickly as possible, and that's exactly what happened.

However, the existence of a "King" has the power to destroy such ideas and reality.

Tsunogui was the "Green Queen".

Atsugi Air Base is located about 40 kilometers west of Nanakamado.

A green lightning bolt shot out from there, scattering sparks.

It wasn't the "Green Queen".

It was a boy considered a vassal and a member of the "Biribiri Group".

A small body wrapped in lightning abruptly cut through the air and finally landed on top of a telephone pole. As he bent his knees like a monkey and reached out one hand towards the telephone pole for support and the other towards the rainy weather, the lightning around him became even more intense. The green power traveled along the cable and extended eastward.

Finally, when his power reached its limit of expansion, a new person rushed out from the base. The jump followed exactly the same trajectory, and just before colliding with the first person, his body began to slide. Riding the lightning, he went eastward. When he reached the limit of extension, the second person also applied force to the cable and stretched it.

As the second child finished, one by one, the children of the "Biribiri Group" slid their bodies towards the beam, transmitting their power and stretching it. When the last person was able to follow their movements, the total length of the electric wires transmitting the force had reached a kilometer. Nanakamado was still far away, but it didn't matter.

This is because what the vassals have prepared so far is nothing more than a taxiway or runway prepared for the "King" to head east. The preparations are complete and the time has come to travel the laid out path.

An extremely large beam shot out from the base.

The moment it traveled on the green energy extending from the top of the wire, it was guided and accelerated, passing over the heads of the subjects at high speed. At some point, it gained momentum surpassing that of a cannonball and flew away with its vassals in tow.

Naturally, the destination is east.

The other side of the communication he picked up was Nanakamado.

It had been less than five minutes since the previous question.

The loudmouthed "Green King" Tsunogui Iku arrived amidst the chaos.

Nazumi felt it coming from the freezing rain.

"Okay, someone..."

The chief engineer suddenly cut off the voice.

Right after that, something crashed to the ground.

Nazumi immediately knew what that something was.

Not only was there a crashing sound that shook the air and pieces of concrete flew, but there was also a flash of green lightning. The edge of the lightning spread out and burst into the freezing rain, leaving sparks and sounds.

Nazumi jumped from the collapsed roof to the roof just beyond, hoping to control the situation as soon as possible or, if possible, end it without missing a shot. When he came down, he saw a large hole in the center of the rooftop, an elegant bell tower rising higher, as if it had been hit by a cannonball.

From the depths of that large hole filled with lightning,

"Eh?!"

A figure, smaller than he expected, leapt towards Nazumi.

A girl whose appearance could be mistaken for that of a beast. The "Green Queen", Tsunogui Iku, did not speak or utter her name in battle. She will just have to strike him with all her might without hesitation from the start.

Nazumi barely managed to stop the small palm that tried to grab his face, but with a grip strong enough to crush rocks. When he came into contact with the lightning, an intense electric current ran through his body.

"..."Green King"! What you seek..."

Despite the pain, Nazumi still called out to her, but Iku paid him no heed.

When Nazumi tried to turn around, the palm of violent force was approaching once again.

"Eh?!"

This time, instead of blocking it with his sword, he dodged it with his body.

Iku didn't even have time to land, kicking the ceiling and attempting to grab it three times.

Nazumi watched her persistent attacks and began to understand the new factors that were shaping the battle situation.

(She's not going crazy somehow, she's clearly aiming for me.)

If you think about it calmly, it was a strange story.

She suddenly set Nazumi as her target and fights with all her might.

First, she should check if he's related to that situation and then ask, "I'm looking for Miya-chan." That would be the normal way. She didn't ask who the other person was, didn't tell him what her demands were, and attacked Nazumi she had just found with all her might from the start, which was foolish even for a child.

The "Blue King" was confused by the girl who didn't allow him to easily understand.

The "Green Queen", on the other hand, also had her own criteria for judgment.

Adults don't listen to what the vagabonds say and even refuse. Therefore, after gaining power, she decided to defeat the strongest of her opponents first. By doing so, hierarchical relationships are recorded and conversations can be established for the first time with less rejection, lies and deception.

In other words, the "Green Queen" thought that before she could do anything, she had to defeat the "Blue King".

Although she did not know the other person, she felt that way.

(This guy is the strongest here..., so I'll beat him.)

Nazumi couldn't understand those thoughts, but he knew that Iku had no intention of talking to him.

As long as he understands that, he'll feel relieved.

(We can control each other before they release their sword glow (Schubert)... no, we have to.)

The sword was abruptly swung and blue power overflowed throughout his body.

(First, I'll block the electric discharge and buy time to unlock my power.)

His consciousness increased in concentration and he began to have a broader view of the war situation.

The agility of the opponent who attacks without interruption is abnormal.

The interval between attacks is too short. There is almost no reserve in the continuous movement of jumping, landing, standing, and jumping again. Although her physical abilities improved like a superhuman, her maneuvers and trajectories were often impossible according to the laws of physics.

Due to this feeling of unease, Nazumi searched for a logical coherence. That is the act of "cutting", as he puts it. He tried to use not only his eyes and brain of observation, but also his sense of swordplay that Chika taught him and his power as a "King" to understand the phenomenon before him.

Immediately after that, Nazumi came to a realization.

(It’s not an illusion.)

Within his wide field of vision, he saw the freezing rain pouring down, the dazzling lightning flashing, and beyond that, several figures passing by. Those small figures were constantly moving, with the two combatants at the center.

(The children... are they subjects of the "Green King"?)

During the battle, Nazumi understood the principle of action of Iku and the "Biribiri Group" in a short period of time. By comparing it to the current situation, he had finally “revealed” their tactics to the truth.

(I see, it's a group operation that makes use of a wonderful "power".)

Around 20 of them, led by the "Green Queen", formed an induced current force field to aid their movement. The lightning didn't disperse in vain. It was a battle garden built by the vassals to make the "King" dance as they pleased, allowing her to accelerate, decelerate, and bend freely.

(The characteristic of the "Green King" is that it connects with others.)

Nazumi was satisfied that he had "solved" a new principle, but that had nothing to do with the quality of the battle. Even if he had revealed the truth, he wouldn't have found a way to overcome the situation he faced.

On the other hand, Iku and the others were steadily advancing towards victory. Every time the captured prey showed the behavior of breaking through the force field, Iku would block the front, attack the back, push left and right, and shake it up and down.

By blocking those attacks, the prey, Nazumi, is pushed back to the center of the group, or, in other words, the center of the force field. He was forced to fight on a narrow rooftop against an opponent who displayed overwhelming agility.

(Isn't it time to praise this as a good strategy with well-organized principles and methods?)

A stronger blue glow enveloped Nazumi's entire body as he smiled fearlessly.

"Ah!"

It seemed like his goal was to cum, and a flash from the upper deck was shot towards the space he avoided. The blue power that returns everything to order cut through the electricity and created a path within the force field. At the same time, he stomped the ground with his boots and escaped from the rooftop. Without risking the carelessness of flying through the air, he ran down the blue crystal step and stood in the front garden of the research institute.

(With so much space, you can see the entire siege.)

Soon after, the "Green Queen" and the "Biribiri Group" descended upon him, scattering lightning, glaring down at him arrogantly as he readjusted his stance. A king who doesn't hesitate to fight, and subjects who are willing to give it their all. She was a brave figure made of pure hostility and command because she was a child.

After all, they don't hold a conversation with their opponents.

Iku immediately pounced on him, and the children scattered and surrounded Nazumi.

Nazumi, on the other hand, looked for a clue to defeat that tactic.

In other words, aside from Iku, he had begun to analyze the behavioral patterns of the children around him.

It's a simple operation on the surface. He evades Iku's attack and returns with a blue slash. However, it seemed like a desperate counterattack at first, but he soon regained his stance and his counterattacks became more precise.

Iku also noticed it immediately, as she had control of the entire force field. Behind his dodge, a blue slash was aimed at the child around him. The accuracy gradually increases and it will hit the target in a few more crosses.

(If I keep fighting this guy, it won't work.)

A hunch that had never gone wrong triggered a danger signal in Iku's mind.

Her decisions are always immediate.

This bright blue adult will not give up unless crushed with maximum force.

Action begins with decision.

Suddenly, the force field current concentrated at her feet. There was a green explosion and she jumped.

Nazumi took an Ukedachi stance, thinking it was an attack on himself, but the direction of the jump was completely different.

The place where Iku rose was directly above, in the middle of the sky where freezing rain was falling.

Hiding is the "special characteristic" of the "Biribiri Group". The induced current force field surrounding Nazumi was actually not circular. It was shaped like a spiral, or more specifically, a long vertical tornado. In order to escape the excess current of the "Green King", which spreads enormous power, it always rose up in a whirlpool. Then, at the point where the excess current rose, it transformed the cloud directly above it into a certain structure. It became a colossal cloud that continued to accumulate electric charge.

At the command of the "Green Queen", who was floating in the air, the out-of-season colossal clouds let out a solemn and divine wail. Pointing in the direction of the force was a gigantic sword-shaped glow (Schubert) that glowed green and appeared before he knew it.

"Thundering Jutsu."

A lightning bolt filled with hundreds of ordinary forms fell under the guidance of the "Biribiri Group".

Nazumi cast aside his thoughts and protected himself with all the power he could exert at the moment.

"Guh!"

The entire lobby of the research institute was shattered by the electric shock and the explosion of the atmosphere. Numerous wrinkles and collapses appeared at the front of the house, and the tall concrete wall collapsed without a trace. Not only was there a roar that almost broke the eardrums, but also a strong shock wave that even the surrounding troops were shocked.

Nazumi was alive.

(Was it me who was drawn into the open area?)

A thin layer of smoke enveloped his entire body, but the shield of the "Blue King" was barely able to protect him.

(She was able to detect the offensive and defensive tendencies in just a few minutes. How sharp she is.)

A voice that takes priority over everything jumped into his consciousness, which had been absorbed in the analysis of that moment.

"Zanshin!"

Don't relax,

Don't lose attention,

A word that expresses the knowledge of martial arts, a voice that has been beaten many times in the dojo. There was no need to ask who it was, but Somei Chika, wielding a naginata, was issuing a loud voice from the ruined entrance.

Nazumi reflexively brought his consciousness to the foundation of reality and analyzed it.

"......?!"

The attack had not ended yet.

The gigantic lightning bolt did not let all of its power flow into the ground, but instead stayed as much as possible within the circle of the "Biribiri Group" surrounding it, trying to unleash the final blow within the siege.

Nazumi ran.

The power he used in the previous defense could not be recovered in that instant, but he was not afraid or anxious. That was because Chika was wielding a naginata. Nazumi was confident and even believed that his wife in that form was invincible.

Therefore, he was running straight towards her.

Chika will not betray her husband’s trust. The others do not know.

"Lightning bolt!"

The halberd was swung down with all of her soul power. The blue power released from the sword was direct and strong, as if to show the user's true nature, and struck from outside the encirclement.

The ring of electricity was completely severed, destroying the stability of the force field.

The ring that housed an enormous amount of power scattered sparks and flew into pieces, and the children bounced off each other with their powers.

As the current flew turbulently, Nazumi finally escaped the encirclement by stepping on the blue force in a straight line. Standing next to Chika where he should be, he finally let out a sigh.

"Thank you for your help, Chika-san."

"You're welcome. By the way, Nazumi, is that the "Green King"?"

"It seems so."

Before the two could see, Iku was calling out to the "Biribiri Group" that had scattered in all directions. It seemed like it would be some time before some of the astonished people returned. Calling Iku himself might lead to a rematch, so Nazumi only spoke to Chika.

"I let Kouki (Schubert), who looks like a sword, out, I'm just ashamed of my inexperience."

"Not at all. If you were to show me two of those things, that's what would happen."

"Two?"

When he heard that, he noticed that there was also a gigantic blue glow in the shape of a sword (Schubert) floating above Nazumi. It seemed as if he was being pressured harder than he felt. His feelings of shame and anxiety about the situation doubled.

Chika verbally attacked her husband.

"Failure is a natural part of being human, just recover without worrying about it."

Nazumi looked at his wife who was attacking him with words.

"Really?"

"That's right."

After stating that, she gave him a belated report as vice commander.

"We've captured the main area. Shall we gather the personnel here?"

No, Nazumi lightly shook his head.

"I'll take care of this. Chika-san, please contact Mr. Thomas Colt, who seems to be in the underground bunker. Ask him about a person called "Miya"... she's probably a child like them. I want everyone to look for her. Only then can a dialogue be established with them."

"...The "Green King" is a child who can't hear."

Chika gave a loud salute as if to cut off her grief and went inside.

Suppressing the urge to send her off, Nazumi once again faced his opponent.

Iku, who was wary of Chika, immediately began to move as her figure disappeared. Once again, the lightning became more and more dazzling and enveloped the children. Nazumi couldn't help but smile bitterly at his direct and brazen actions.

(Clean up quickly.)

He doesn't believe there is another trick as powerful as the lightning bolt above. She must be a little upset that she couldn't kill him. It wouldn't be impossible to exploit that weakness and bend it.

(Fortunately, her power has been restored by bringing out the Sword-Shaped Radiance (Schubert).)

Nazumi stepped forward to make up for it.

(I mostly grabbed it.)

Both the "Green King" who pounced on him and the "Biribiri Group" surrounding him fought for too long and exposed much of their strength. This is probably the first time he's fought such a long battle.

(No wonder, the fight between kings is... difficult.)

Recalling the fight with a bandit, a faint feeling of "disliking" came back to him.

However, in any case, Nazumi had that experience.

Iku and the "Biribiri Group" don't have that.

He doesn't really like it, but experience makes the difference between winning and losing.

Intertwining with the "Green King" fighting in the center,

The footsteps of the "Biribiri Group" moving,

Nazumi was able to read the reality of the force field of both of them.

Observation leads to inferences.

(Wasn't this tactic originally intended to be implemented in a wider area?)

His guess was correct.

Her combat experience is limited to meeting Hagure several times in the two years since Iku became the "Green King". At that time, she only used a weak "Dazzling Jutsu" once, and the circle was kept far away from each other, and the induced current force field was also slightly deployed.

Now it's the other way around, and the children are closing the distance and deploying a powerful force field to fight against the powerful enemy known as the "Blue King". As a result, they were often swept away by the strong power of the "Green Queen" and left exposed to attacks from within. Cooperation is not as perfect as it seems.

These children, who have lived alone, have no guidelines or aspirations for their studies. The current induced force field strategy, which could have been the most powerful if it had been refined, had been neglected until now, when Iku encountered a strong enemy, relying entirely on his own individual strength.

(Well, thanks to that, I can also achieve a victory.)

Nazumi gathered the elements he had read up until now and used them in his own battle.

"Now it's my turn."

The stance had changed.

Instead of dodging and countering the opponent, he moved towards attacking and setting the stage himself.

Iku sensed it, but her methods remained the same. She has been at her best from the beginning. She has nothing but her full potential. The endless battle she was currently fighting was just to buy time until she could unleash the second "Rumbling Jutsu".

Suddenly, Nazumi made a move.

"Ha!"

At first glance, it was the same slash as before, but it wasn't just a slash. It was his first chance. It's the same with cutting the force field, and with that in mind, he used his second sword to slash in the opposite direction.

A boy was right between the two sharp vertical slashes.

Nazumi quickly approached the boy, who suddenly broke away from the force field and had stopped moving. While the opponent was confused, he pressed the hilt against his opponent and pushed him away.

The boy, who received a strong but non-lethal blow, rolled out of the force field with the whites of his eyes exposed.

Nazumi shouted to provoke the opponent and also to corner him.

"One!"

(I missed it.)

Iku was extremely excited and grabbed him even tighter.

However, that rough behavior no longer translates to Nazumi. He enveloped his entire body in blue power to avoid the electric shock, dodging it like a thin layer of paper, and then used one sword, then two swords, and slashed at another person. He pushed the boy away again, causing him to faint. It was a series of movements that looked like a dance.

"Two!"

(Hey, he's gone.)

According to Nazumi's calculations, if he separated the five from the siege, the "Green King" could also be attacked.

As each person diminishes, the induced current loses its sophistication and the speed of the impulse decreases... but she did not choose to flee. She came here to rescue her friend. She made that decision not based on logic or calculations. That's why she doesn't think about anything else. She had no choice but to continue fighting.

Meanwhile,

"Three!"

(Ah, he fainted.)

"Four!"

(Ah, it leaked.)

In addition, the number of people who left their places increased and the control of the force field became visibly questionable. Iku was irritated that her thrust was not as powerful and had no direction, but she still did not try to stop the fight.

Nazumi pushed the next fifth person away and at the same time prepared in his mind and body the final blow that would make him win.

(The only way to incapacitate her is to hit her with a dangerous spike... Chika might get angry at me for being too harsh on a child, but there's no other choice.)

Then,

"Five!"

(Oh, it's wet... I can eat it.)

The other person who had been waiting for the power to subside... rose up, as if seeping from the cracked ground.

He could be mistaken for black clothes,

He couldn't see the depths, there was no end,

Another person who exudes a feeling of "nothingness" that seems to sink forever.

He extended his twisted rows of teeth and swallowed the weakened "Green Queen" in one breath.

#k #k project #k side gold #kokujoji daikaku #somei nazumi #somei chika #unno yutaka #todokoro suwako #tamataro okuma #tsunogui iku

11 notes · View notes

skitariiposting · 2 years ago

Note

So what's fame like if I can ask

Uh... I 'unno. I guess there's the literal definition, but I'm assuming you'd rather hear my own personal outlook on it. If not, just ignore this answer and Google "fame definition," it'll do a better job than me trying to define it off the top of my head.

Honestly, just being an obscure internet figure or having a cult classic following is perfect. Even if its a small circle, just having people who enjoy what I do and enjoy having me as a part of their communities is fine with me. Heck, having people feel like they're a part of the skitariiposting community, if that even exists, would be amazing.

At the end of the day, I want to leave enough of an imprint on people that after their first interaction with me, when they see me next in a reply section, or a reblog or something, they want to talk with me again. I try to interact with everyone who talks to me, not to garner attention or become known as "the guy who's nice on the internet only to become famous off of it" but because I want to be genuine. I've been on the other end of hearing crickets when trying to reach out to someone you admire. I know the feeling. I don't want anyone to have that feeling when interacting with me.

Am I perfect at it? No. I'm sure I've already broke this trend. If I miss you, it's likely due to my ADHD or my goblin brain. Sometimes, I think about responding to something and end up convincing myself I actually had and not actually responding. Sometimes I get distracted midway through responding and save it to my drafts and then sit back down and completely blanking it out of my brain what I was doing before. If I miss you, it my fault, not yours. Feel free to reach out again and it'll come back to the forefront of my brain and I'll start responding again. (And usually apologize for missing the first one)

So, long, long story short. My goal for fame is this: I want to be the Keanu Reeves of Tumblr. Not like how reddit worships Keanu or as rich or anything, but like how if you saw Keanu in real life and walked up to him, he's wearing sweat pants and a baseball cap. If you say hi to him, he's nice and chill and has a conversation with you about his motorcycle. If you ask him for a pic, he'll take one and ask if you could tag him in it so he can save it.

I just want to be a recognizable, friendly face for everyone. I want to be a bonfire from darksouls, where you've waded through a rough day and open your feed and see the little red hood in my profile picture and feel happy knowing that if you reached out to me, I'll talk back :)

I hope you love yourselves as much as I love you, thank you guys for everything you've done for me so far and I hope it keeps going for a long time.

#ask-itarii #skitposting

5 notes · View notes

kyupidos · 1 year ago

Text

09/01/23’s delivery 🏹✉️ twisted wonderland

as if i know?!ヽ( ･∀･)ﾉ_θ彡☆Σ(ノ `Д´)ノ,ヽ( ･∀･)ﾉ_θ彡☆Σ(ノ `Д´)ノ ;; summary. ‘they ask a friend for advice on their turmoils— though they didn’t expect a response regarding romance.’

characters. scarabia , pomefiore, ignihyde : jamil viper , epel felmier , idia shroud ( separate ) ;; romantic . 🖇️ tags. reader is gender neutral ( you/your ), reader may or may not be yuu ( up to the reader ), pre-relationship, romantic fluff 📡

_a/n. finding stable wifi is hard, but anything to be on that tumblr fic grind 🫡 also i have such a twst bias something i forget i’m multifandom..i need to get to writing for those fandoms soon.

j. viper

— scarabia’s vice housewarden can’t be exactly sure what he feels for you. jamil was never one for expressing his feelings, considering his circumstances. and especially so in regards to romance, of all things. who was he to dabble in such a subject, after all, with it being so foreign to him? and yet all it took was you..and now he’s thinking and feeling all sorts of things.

— as for why he decides to consult kalim, he doesn’t know. well, at least kalim seems to be less emotionally constipated than he is, so there’s an excuse going for him. it’s a relatively normal scene, jamil is preparing food for a party and kalim asks him what he can describe about how he feels about you. it feels cathartic, actually, to get those emotions off his chest.

— though he doesn’t quite understand why when he looks up from his cooking, kalim is looking at him with an unexpected teasing face, holding back giggles; at least until it hits him. “jamil, are you sure you aren’t..in loooveeee??” oh, crud. he doesn’t know why it took him until that very moment, but his eyes widen just the slightest as he thinks back to every interaction he’s had to you thus far. yes, absolutely, he is in love with you.

— yet the first thing that jumbles out of his mouth as his face suddenly feels hot is, “how am i supposed to know?!”

e. felmier

— absolutely not; when it came to sappy, cringy things like romance, epel was not a contender in the least. so he absolutely could care less when he notices the way his heart beats faster when he’s around you, the way his palms get sweaty when he notices he’s a bit closer to you than he should be, and so many other idiotic romance tropes he swore he’d never fall into.

— however in the world he ended up confessing this all to troublemaker ace, he absolutely will never know. but at the same time, ace had a girlfriend back in middle school, right? so surely he has enough experience to tell him that no, it’s not romance, he’s just confusing it with something else, because there’s no way—

— “you’re in love.” ace sighed dramatically, epel sweating buckets at the response because based on how ace was acting, it was almost like the answer was obvious. as if he was the last one to know about his own feelings, even! though even despite this, it felt like epel knew that he was in love, yet being told it felt like being hit with a ton of bricks. “so, you gonna confess already, or what?”

— inevitably his accent ends up slipping, but he can’t be bothered to care. “uh..i ‘unno?!”

i. shroud

— romance? certainly something that’s the last thing on idia’s mind, that’s for sure. he’d much, much rather be involved in just about, well— anything else. such a thing always feels like such a chore to him, and it’d be way easier to be a romance god in an otome game, where the routes are laid out for him and all the options are pretty well coded as to whether or not it’ll romance the character or not. so real life romance? nuh uh. no way is he in love with you, surely not, there’s no way, nowaynowaynoway—

— he ends up asking azul for help during club hours. it made sense in his head, azul’s well versed in a plethora of things, so obviously he knows a lot about love, right? yet he was so quick to regret it. what if his stupid unsureness about his feelings for you end up as blackmail or something?! seriously, couldn’t he have gone to anyone else?

— though he almost screws up his play when azul lets out a knowing sigh, “certainly, you’ve caught feelings. romantic ones, at that.” “i have?!” ah, crapcrapcrap, he should’ve known! why didn’t his normie detectors work on himself?! and now he’s gotta deal with feelings, and his daydreams about being your boyfriend, and holding your hand when you get sad, and perhaps maybeevenkissingyou..

— “ah, you seem choked up, idia!” and the moment idia got lost in his thoughts about you, azul spoke up again. “could you perhaps be looking for a way to confess? well, i could help you out for the low low price of—“ “uwahh?! n-no, i’m fine!!”

118 notes · View notes

reynaruina · 5 years ago

Note

Oh my god dib hearing zim praise the doll and immediately thinks he’s praising somebody else

Dib, inmediately after:

#little Diblet #ask #ponytail dib au #cw sensitive #i unno how tf to tag that second gif #maybe Dib's spy camera breaks and he can only get audio #and Zim so happens to not call the doll his over and over like he does"#so Dib just like #disintegrates on the spot #dfhdkdsjfsddf #this destroys the man #Anonymous

107 notes · View notes

darling0ne · 5 years ago

Text

taka cuddle with me challenge

#ian speaks #i'm having One Of Those Days :/#like i got invited to a taka appreciation gc on instagram which has gotten me the first successful human interactions i've had in months so #that's 👍👍👍 nd i probably shouldn't be complaining but like.#stop talking about ishim//ondo stop talking about ishim//ondo #like i shouldn't be complaining but i 'unno today's not the day. and i don't want to say anything bc they're just having fun #plus *everybody* likes ishim//ondo so i'm not gonna say anything. like i'd prefer to deal with a bit of discomfort than ruin everybody's #fun and my one chance at social interaction #woops i didn't mean to vent haha oops #like it's mostly fine!! like i said it's just one of those days and rn even one (1) mention of ishim//ondo gets me feeling like this 😔#anyway uh *holds taka in my arms*#ask to tag

2 notes · View notes

peri · 5 years ago

Text

... dont rb

#log date.txt #dont rb #i remembered why prlmthyst as a ship made me uncomfortable #spelling like that so it doesnt show up in the ship tag #probably wont elaborate bc rly i dont want to get into discourse on my blog #or talk abt ... the thing that makes me uncomfortable bc its a triggering subject for me #obvs dont judge ppl who do ship it tho . just a personal revelation #after watching the movie it kinda reminded me #i have the tendency to repress so sometimes i forget these things and aaa #anyways .....#again if u like the ship im not hating u its ... PERSONAL !#ty #just wanted to get it out there bc i remembered someone asked me abt the ship before recently-ish #wanted 2 ..... properly establish myself .... i 'unno #having a trauma day babes dw abt it #might delete later idk

26 notes · View notes

givepraise · 5 years ago

Note

❛ no airbag, we die like men. ❜ the bs is here

Though his gaze remains impassive, his grip tightens. Calculated risks could pay of tremendously, but this was nothing more than betting on a roll of a dice.

Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, yet he should have expected this sort of reckless behavior.

“ It’s your death — “ a full scowl, “ I will simply have to cushion the impact with your carcass. ”

#toestalucia #WHAT DO I TAG THIS AS #IS IT MODERN #OR IS IT A LESS HOMICIDAL CILIUS I UNNO #DO I TAG THIS AS CRACK #KDSAFJK THIS IS SO FUNNY #also : reads ur other ask #haha im in danger

4 notes · View notes

fmdjoosungarchive · 5 years ago

Text

fmdmeme002, but all at once so i don’t spam y’all

1) what is your goal for this year/next year?

reading the sticky note, sung’s first thought was that he’d like to do many things. but, that wasn’t specific enough for a fan to feel satisfied. releasing more music with element was important to him, but so was having the time and creativity to write more music for others, and spend more time with friends and family. in the end, it only took a glance up at the fan to figure out what he wanted to write. “to meet more fans around the world!!!!”

2) what song would you want to sing to or play for someone you like?

a giggle left his lips when the girl in front of him asked her question. “are you looking to hire me for someone special?” it was natural, to play around with fans like they were his friends. to sung, they were. “i’d play something romantic. maybe one of @fmdxsuji’s songs.”

3) what’s your favorite scent?

sung knew this question had to come from a fan who knew him well. with the amount of candles in his side of the dorm, there were many to choose from. on camera, he tended to name more ‘manly’ scents, but in the space of fans, he was honest. “soft scents,” he wrote, “strawberry lemon ice a lot lately.”

4) if you spent one day with a fan, where would you go and what would you do?

sung’s hand readied to write that they should go to a theme park, but stopped short. there was a chance he might not be feeling very high energy that day, and the fans deserved better of him. he could say the library, too, but that might be too low energy for many fans. he settled with a basic compromise of, “what you like best!!!!”

5) what new concept do you want to try showing fans?

“a cute concept! wouldn’t we be so cute? especially yujinnie.” the fan responded that they thought he’d be cute too, which, he laughed and thanked them for. he hoped as much, anyway.

6) which girl group do you like the most recently?

he glanced up through his eyelashes with a smile. “this won’t be any surprise to you,” he said, and looked back down. “wish!!!” and on either side of the word he drew ‘hang loose’ symbol hands to symbolize the key point dance from signal. if he had more time, he might have taken a picture to send to @fmdluna.

7) which boy group do you like the most recently?

with ride on the wind’s promotions, sung held onto his songs of the summer for longer than he might have normally. though he knew he wasn’t going to stray away from his usual answers, picking which one was difficult. so, he had to go with which song was on his mind the most. “nine critical beauties!!! ㅋㅋ”

8) what soloist do you like the most recently?

it was inevitable that he’d receive a question like this during his solo debut. though they might expect a playful narcissistic answer, sung felt too grateful to the people that supported him and showed up for him to do anything less than sincere. “my friend @fmdjoohwan!!!” as he handed back the album and note, he said, “isn’t he so sexy these days?” to which the fan agreed.

9) what song have you been listening to a lot that you would recommend to fans?

“knight @fmdtaeyong‘s help,” he wrote, with a slight hesitation. the fans were still only getting to know him, and how willing he was to share things he felt was important. and this, was important. the fan read back his message, and asked why, and he took a breath before he said, “it’s okay to admit we all need help sometimes.”

10) what is your most used app?

sung never thought anyone would be interested in something like what app he uses most. if he had the time to pull out his phone and check, he could probably tell them definitively, but as it was, he had to make his best guess. “kkt, i think...” he paused to think, and continued, “or twitter!”

11) what should someone do to win your heart?

there was no way sung could tell them the truth. his heart would never belong to another person, and he knew that. @fmddaisuke knew that. the world didn’t, and might not ever. the thought was... upsetting, to say the least. but, he didn’t dwell on it, as he flashed a smile, and wrote, “give me lots of love!” and surrounded it with drawings of hearts.

12) what do you want for your next birthday?

he’d learned well enough by now that these questions tended to be sneaky ways to find out what they would next gift him, especially if the person was a fansite. which, this girl was. she was very kind whenever he’d met her, and frankly, he was always happy for any korean who supported them as dearly as she did, but, he wasn’t one to seek material things anymore. he wrote down something he thought might be more helpful, “every aether to be happier than the year before.”

13) what is do you consider to be your most charming feature/trait?

sung didn’t like thinking about his physical self as attractive. the only person he cared to be attractive for was his boyfriend, and even then, he’d rather have his personality shine through his looks. it may have been a simple answer, but he wrote, “kindness,” and slid the album back to the fan. aloud, he told them, “to me, being kind is one of the most admirable traits there is.”

14) what is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

there were so many to choose from. sung never liked sticking to one kind for too long, not when a new wild flavor would be coming out every month. the classics were great, the ones he couldn’t even fathom what they might taste like were great. but, he went for middle of the road, “rocky road!!!,” and drew a mountain underneath for the words to follow.

15) how should i ask out the person i like?

“trust yourself,” he wrote, but didn’t feel like that was adequate. he held up a hand, and the fan took it, interlocking their fingers. “show them how much you care, and be straightforward. and, if they don’t feel the same way, it’s their own loss. you can only accept their affections if it’s as strong as yours.”

16) what’s the secret behind your good looks?

plastic surgery. that wasn’t a good answer. that was, more accurately, a terrible answer. sung thought he looked nice before his procedures, but, not good enough, he guessed. “a healthy skincare regime!”

17) what do you think of fans of the same gender as you?

element seemed to have a greater mix of genders in their fans. like with most idol groups, the majority leaned towards women, but sung particularly liked when men came up. it was... exhilarating. like a shot of adrenaline. this man seemed quite confident in meeting him, which sent a pang to his heart that they were still shy enough to write their question on a sticky note. “the more i meet, the happier sungie is!”

18) what is the most recent thing that made you happy?

right after their official debut, it probably was the most obvious that that would be the happiest moment. nothing else compared, in his eyes. but, most recently? “a delicious breakfast!” he wrote, and drew a small drawing of himself eating from a bowl.

19) what is your happiness level these days on a scale from 0 to 100?

if he really thought about it, it might not be that high. the thought wasn’t a great one to have. he’d just had his solo debut, with an entire mini album, mostly created by himself. but it was hard, different, the things expected of him were different. he made a compromise, writing “90!!!” and drew a little face in the zero.

20) can you give some inspiring words for someone going through a hard time?

whenever sung received this question, he worried that the fan was the one going through a difficult time. with his hand on the fan’s, he could tell them his own truth. “let yourself feel what you feel. and when you have, breathe it back out. let it off of your shoulders, so that you can remember a new day will come.”

21) what words of advice would you give to someone studying for their college exam?

“don’t listen to decipher sunbaenim’s ring ding dong!!!” the joke he wrote down was silly enough. he knew from personal experience how terribly that song could get stuck in someone’s head while studying. but, he added a second note below that, something that mattered more, in his opinion. “and accept that you’re still smart and amazing no matter how you do.”

22) give yourself a percent ranking from 0 to 100 in the following categories: cute, cool, and sexy.

some recess in sung hoped he could be 100 in all of the categories presented to him. if there was one that stuck out above the rest, though, it was cuteness. he wrote down an 80, for that. it was a decent score, not high enough too many people would disagree, hopefully. next was sexy, at 70. as much as he didn’t care for the image, gold star did like to present him as a sexy type, and sung couldn’t deny it. and, coming up in last, was cool, at 40. sung had never considered himself the traditionally cool type, but he was alright with that.

23) what place do you want to travel to the most?

sung didn’t think much about vacations, or anything of that nature. the first thing that came to mind was to travel back home. the second, to japan with @fmddaisuke, to see his family, because he knew how much his boyfriend ached for them. but, in the end, he wrote down, “wherever our aether are!”

24) what language would you like to learn?

language was a tricky subject for sung. he felt like he was pretty good at korean, all things considered. he was well-read, and expanded his vocabulary often enough. when it came to other languages, he had trouble making sentences himself. he’d been told he had great accents, and he could understand someone when they were speaking in english or japanese, for the most part, but responding back... was a gamble. he felt like he was already trying hard enough with english and japanese, so he went for the language he heard often that he didn’t mostly understand, “spanish!!!”

25) what is the first thing you think of when someone mentions your fans?

the relationship sung had with his fans wasn’t as complicated as it seemed it was for many of his friends. sure, there were people that didn’t follow element’s career the way he would, but sung didn’t consider those people to be much of fans. the fans were the ones who supported them fully, from a distance, and enjoyed them for what they were. they were the ones who brought sung joy. “happiness”

26) what is your favorite movie/book you’ve seen/read recently?

in the space of these close fan interactions, sung could be more honest than he might have otherwise. chances were, only interns at the company and aethers would see his response. he read often, watched movies on a regular basis as well, though not as often as he read, so choosing one was difficult. but, the one that had stuck out the most to him recently was, “call me by your name!!”

27) what are your recent wishes?

“element and aether’s happiness”. writing the words down wasn’t a difficult decision. sung knew in his heart those were two of his wishes. he supposed part of him wished for element’s success too. even if he was happy with where they were at, he knew his members weren’t. and they deserved the world.

28) what are the requirements for your ideal type?

it was a common question. part of the fantasy of being an idol meant the expectation that fans would want to date him. but unlike some of his other members, sung enjoyed it. playing along was fun, when the fan knew the limits of their relationship. when it came to sung, there weren’t many restrictions. he wanted to know their fans in as close of a capacity as he could, because he felt like they deserved that. like most other times that question had come up, it was written on a sticky note, that he could playfully hide as he wrote, “to be as sweet as you!” before giving it back, and seeing the happy blush on the fan’s face.

29) what job would you want if you weren’t an idol?

before being in element, sung never considered that question. what he might want was very different from what he might have ended up doing. he knew that if he never made it into debut, he’d have stayed in his family’s business, and likely been miserable. but over the years, he had the opportunity to actually think on that question. most of the time, he threw out one of the many jobs he thought might have been cool, but this time, like many other instances, he went with what felt the most fitting for him, “a teacher,” to which he drew an apple beside it.

30) what is a hobby you’d like to pick up?

the fan was pretty young, for their usual demographic. positively adorable, but also confident enough to ask their question to his face, rather than write it down. his answer came quickly, “cooking!” though he had many hobbies he admired, wanting to become a better cook had been a dream for quite a long time, which he continued to share with the fan. they expressed the sentiment of wanting to help teach him, and he agreed they’d need to sort that out, before the fan was ushered over to @fmdyujin.

#fmdmeme002 #ask meme #tried tagging specific ppl mentions but i may have missed sum #i unno #like i've done before there are screenshots of the asks so yall dont think im cheating

2 notes · View notes