#dim writes

[dimmestmorn13]

"...Come here for a bit." "...Okay."

based on the mukuyuki story cg bc the mental image wouldn't leave me alone after ryu-san said romamero were like mkyk in a different font

mini-ficlet under the cut

notes: uses concepts from the timeline theory and the idea that merold remembers timelines with my own spin on it (HCs and such), needless to say it's a bit of an AU/canon divergence from what little we know in fragmem canon

---

It starts with the Red Bouquet's first roundtable meeting as a complete unit.

Merold had greeted Hallritt with the typical easygoing callousness Romarriche had expected from his childhood friend. What he hadn't anticipated was that brief flash of animosity. It was a familiar sight, if an oddity by the time and place, because Merold had tensed up as if he'd been in the middle of battle.

Whatever it is that Merold saw in the rookie knight, it bleeds through his actions, and Romarriche can tell that Merold, consciously or not, viewed the man as a threat.

"I would like to think that despite our time apart, I'd still be the one to know you best."

This weariness that looms over his friend is coming to be familiar to him. It's minute. He's seen this before. If it were anyone else other than him, one would be bereft of suspect of Merold ever being in anything else than tip-top shape.

Merold turns to him, that strand of pink hair on top of his head bouncing with the sharp movement as he tilts his head at him with what could be construed as confusion. He knows better, however. "Romarriche? That's pretty sudden to drop on me~" Merold's eyes crinkle with amusement. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you're feeling some jealousy."

"Yes, yes," he humors him, the smile that leaves him is unerringly fond. "However, you do know better."

Romarriche halts, lays his palm flat against his chest, determined. In the middle of the hallways of Lord Marroncream's castle, the two come to a standstill.

"I'm worried." About you.

"You always are. That's just the type of guy you are."

Here's the thing: Merold knows Romarriche just as Romarriche knows Merold. They've known each other since childhood, long before there even was a Merold, the Fragaria of My Melody, and Romarriche, the Fragaria of Marroncream.

"You've been having nightmares." He says slowly. It's come back to him. This had happened before Merold left to travel around the continent. There hadn't been a cure then, he hopes there would be a cure now.

There's a small breadth of distance between them, and yet somehow, Merold seemed no less further away than when he'd been out and about and doing his work. Yet, most intriguingly, "And Hallritt seems to be the trigger, however odd that notion be."

Merold does not respond.

"…Come here for a bit."

Until he does, and Romarriche has always been weak for his childhood friend, and so, he obliges him.

"…Okay," Romarriche says, stepping forward until he and Merold were face to face. Or as much as they can be, when Merold hadn't grown since the last time he'd seen him, leaving the gates and waving goodbye to fulfill the duties expected of the Greatest Knight.

They had been the same height, then.

Merold places his head onto Romarriche's shoulder, hands shaking where he held onto Romarriche's pink coat. His neck tickles at the shuddering breath Merold releases.

Romarriche figures he wouldn't say anything about the sniffles. Nor the wetness that spreads across his shirt.

"Okay," he repeats, wrapping his arms around his friend. "I'm here."

(Romarriche felt real.

In this world that continued to change, Romarriche felt real and alive. He may not remember like he did, but his presence was a comfort that Merold never realized he'd taken for granted, much in the same way those instances of losing Kurode continued to haunt him.

He doesn't know what tipped the man off in this run of events. He'd confronted him before, in the past timelines, but ultimately left the matter well alone before Merold could succumb to the notion of telling his childhood friend anything.

Perhaps, it was Merold himself that had changed. Whichever it was, one thing was certain.

This warmth…

I won't forget this.)

[housecow]

i love when a feedee is obviously a little dumb… like, awww you really couldn’t stop, could you?? no wonder you’re so big. did the thought to stop eating ever cross your mind, or did you just finish everything on your plate because that’s what you were always told to do? did you even realize your portion sizes were getting bigger, too? i bet you get a little mad when people point out how much you’re eating. of course it’s not your fault, you didn’t know any better..

stupid feedees that have to be told they’re out of control. they think they’re not even that big yet

[thoughtkick]

We hide pain in the weirdest places, broken souls and smiling faces.

Stars Go Dim, “You Are Loved”

[perfeqt]

We hide pain in the weirdest places, broken souls and smiling faces.

Stars Go Dim, “You Are Loved”

[therealslimshakespeare]

Disrespectful angling of the camera to crop out my vital role between Gale’s legs—*gunshot*

[perfectfeelings]

We hide pain in the weirdest places, broken souls and smiling faces.

Stars Go Dim, “You Are Loved”

[quotefeeling]

We hide pain in the weirdest places, broken souls and smiling faces.

Stars Go Dim, “You Are Loved”

[whimsimmortal]

Chapter 4 of the Summoner's Second Chances fic is here!!!

She took the chance to study him: the mesmerizing waving of his hair, like seagrass… the illuminated curve of his cheekbones and his jaw, and of his slackened, chapped lips… the bridge of his nose—were those freckles? Aww! She’d never been close enough to notice.

So many concept sketches below cut! Spoilers, ig...?

Had to practice coloring dim lighting on the black paper before I did the official illustration >0> so here's ur bonus "color swatch"

(Shhhh don't think about how the position of their hands isn't exactly what I wrote, just,,, appreciate the silly unicorn blanket,,,,, skfhksfhdj)

The sketch. If u even care. >w>

"Waffle face" haha lol poor sucker

"Would it kill you to trust me a little bit?"

He scowled, sulky and hazy. "Well... I dunno. Will it?"

[fanaticsnail]

There are a few things going on right now in regards to my writing:

Handling requests for full-length fics and slowly churning through the kissing booth requests (I love doing both of these, it is a favourite). So, so many kisses. So many tropes. I love it.

Starting Pollen for Ace while writing pollen for Mihawk. This has been an entertaining comparison to write for. We love seeing what neediness looks like on Mihawk, and little whimpers from Ace while he's holding back.

Carving out a fic gift swap for a beautiful mutual who wrote me a gift, which is turning out to be very cathartic and angsty to write for our beautiful Rosinante. Au, he comes back - but only for a day. It is heartbreaking, and I am mourning while writing it.

Writing some unhinged smut to cope with the trauma induced from the prior point. Also for Rosinante. Who doesn't want to see the big, soldier man jealous?

Forcing down the desire to write for a protective and possessive Doflamingo caring for his partner as they lay overcome with illness in their bed. I dunno if it's the health-scare drawing me to him, but the need is there regardless. Need him to be a force of nature while helpless and possessive: nothing he can do, comparisons drawn to his mother.

Writing some more 'Hey Doc' to get rid of the sillies.

If you have any questions or thoughts about any of these, please send asks! I love talking about these silly little guys 🖤

[dimmestmorn13]

ppssst. hey, don't tell him i told you how it happened, yeah?

(click for better quality)

read L <- R im never doing a 4koma ever again

[thoughtkick]

We hide pain in the weirdest places, broken souls and smiling faces.

Stars Go Dim, “You Are Loved”

[descendinginto-madness]

welt except he has a fever and desperately needs sleep

cw: descriptions of illness, high fever, being kinda delirious/out of it, sleep deprivation?, nightmares, headaches, mentions of death

contains spoilers for welt's hi3 lore

also, disclaimer! welt in here is very reluctant to ask for help and feeling bad about it because... well i imagine he'd react like this, BUT! needing help and asking for it is completely normal and valid and okay; please remember that and take care of urself ok!! ily /p

alright, so...

i'm gonna be honest since i found @bugbytez13 's blog welt sickfic ideas don't want to leave my head LMAO except i will write a detailed description of a fic instead of the fic itself. that's it that's the post

tbh this ramble in particular could be made into two separate fanfics (one sickfic and one specifically about the nightmares) but shh

i will forever be self conscious or anxious about things i post that aren't just headcanons or silly little rambles, but also... writing this went surprisingly smoothly so! enjoy the essay or something idk HAHA

======================================

so, about welt...

i just know this man is going to force himself to stay awake. maybe his self-sacrificing issues are less present now, and he doesn't immediately throw himself in danger in every fight ever, but he's still stubborn as hell. so he won't admit something is wrong. he won't admit that maybe getting way too little sleep several days in a row wasn't doing wonders for his immune system and he's now finally feeling the consequences. to be fair, he expected it might end like this, but he didn't want to take breaks - there's still too many things to take care of before they finally head to penacony. and now, he will still insist of taking care of everything, even though his body is basically begging him to go take a nap.

except maybe, he didn't even expect it to get this bad. or thought that he can just power through it. i mean, he's been through much worse, right? this is nothing compared to literally losing his body for some time. but he's sitting in the parlor car, and he's half awake, and unusually cold, and his head is hurting, and keeping up the act is getting harder and harder - but he has to, because the younger members of the crew are here too, even if only march is talking to him.

but they pick up on the fact that something is wrong, of course they do. his eyes are unfocused, he looks like he's about to fall asleep - or pass out - and march had to repeat herself twice for him to even fully process what she was asking him, and so suddenly stelle is next to him, attempting to touch his forehead - and he recoils. "i'm fine," he says, and it's probably a bit too quick and a bit too firm than he'd like it to be, and all of this is stupid, really, because he shouldn't be scared of someone touching him. how hot can it really be anyway if he's feeling so cold, right? but if that wasn't enough dan heng asks an even more dreaded question, "are you sure, mr yang? do you want us to call himeko?" and welt decides it's time to excuse himself, before he makes them even more worried. because even in his present state, he can pick up on the fact they're concerned, but at the same time unsure of what to do, and it makes him feel guilty. of course they're unsure; he's usually their caretaker, and he always knows what to do, and it should never be the other way around. he should've just stayed in his room all day, shouldn't he.

"thank you all for your concern, but i'm alright." he stands up. "now, please excuse me, i still have some work to do." of course that's true, but he's almost certain he won't be able to focus on that- but he just needs an excuse to get out from here and be left alone anyway.

but stelle is right next to him, and looking determined to accompany him to his room, too. "you look like you're about to fall, mr yang," they explain, and he wants to insist that he's okay once again, but realizes he's too tired to do so. it would take him at least a few minutes, and it's a few minutes he doesn't have nearly enough energy for. he just wants to finally lie down. so, he lets stelle essentially escort him into the hallway and to his bedroom, and make sure he doesn't collapse on his way there, and-- it's embarassing, honestly, because it's already so difficult for him to show himeko the slightest hints that something might be wrong, and right now the situation is similar but ten times worse - so it's also ten times harder for him to come to terms with the fact he needs to rely on someone.

"my... apologies for making you all worry," he says quietly when they reach his room, and he's so thankful that he left the lights off, because the parlor car was way too bright, and though the hallway was a bit better, it still wasn't good.

"it's alright," stelle shakes her head, and stands there in the doorway, even as he heads towards his bed and sits down. "i'll ask himeko to check up on you in a bit?" she asks, and he only nods, though he isn't sure if she can actually see it. he doesn't want to talk anymore, he doesn't want to think because even just that seems to make his headache worse, he just wants stelle to leave, he just wants to sleep-- he isn't even sure if he understood her question correctly, but he also doesn't have the energy to care. he falls asleep the moment the door closes behind her, fully clothed and half covered with a thick blanket, but even then he isn't allowed a peaceful rest.

memories from old battles flash before his eyes, silhouettes of enemies he once fought, those against whom he won - but also of those who severly injured or even killed him, and with that come the memories of the pain

and the fear of losing his body again.

when he finally awakens, sweating, shaky for reasons other than his fever, and still feeling pretty awful, it takes him longer than usual to remember where he is. it takes him longer than usual to remember that he's safe.

but now there's medicine and a thermometer on his nightstand, and a note written in himeko's neat handwriting - though he actually spots and reads it some time later - telling him to rest as much as he needs to, because she'll take care of everything; and only after he does read it and feels a sense of relief come over him, he realizes how much the thought of having to leave all the work in order to take a break actually stressed him out. he still feels bad about it, because of course he does, and of course he's going to apologize to everyone later.

but he's also able to sleep more peacefully now.

[thehopefulquotes]

We hide pain in the weirdest places, broken souls and smiling faces.

Stars Go Dim, “You Are Loved”

[surqrised]

We hide pain in the weirdest places, broken souls and smiling faces.

Stars Go Dim, “You Are Loved”

[faeryaesther]

; May I have my own feet and freedom of choice in my twenty-five.

[litrallytyrus]

took an edible went on a walk and by the end of it i was thinking to myself “i’m the coolest person in the world like my hobbies are so awesome and the shows i like are objectively better than the shows other people like”