#flowers for mega man au

[flowersofstarlight]

Light & Darkness ⚔️🪶

Inspired by “When the Darkness Comes by Shelby Merry.”

It’s a representation about Slate and Aiden having the courage to conquer fear, to stay true to themselves, to be brave for someone they want to protect no matter what they’ll face, and not letting others define who they are.

Their story still continues as they keep moving forward together, knowing that they’re not alone and their friends are with them till the end.

[leaffiii]

"Hi, this is Cursed Mega Man! this ask goes to Metal Man and Plant Man

How about we compare our skills? it's going to be super cool!(Metal Man)

One of my colleagues named Shadow Wood Man asked me to give you a flower, I hope you like it! (Plant Man)

"....Compare? I'll humour that. The parts that aren't energy are removeable, they do not interchange. I remove and take only what I'll need, should my typical tools be insufficient...."

"Aw, how sweet of him! I don't have many organic plants around base, make sure to thank him for me!... I know a Wood Man myself, y'know, I wonder how different he would be from your worlds uh... more shadowy one?"

[misc-obeyme]

I loveloveLOVE the idea of a FarmSim! AU! Like yourself, I assume a lot of us weren’t raised as farmer’s children, and more or less grew up on Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon. (Altho I do know a bit about living in Indiana, land of the Corn and home of the Indy500, if that counts towards anything lmao). In any case, I hope you like mytake on the Sides!

In terms of Farm Sim tropes, I’d be willing to say that The Royals (Dia, Barb, and ‘Phisto) are a part of some sort of local govt. bc I cannot see them as knees-in-the-mud farmer types lol. Maybe the farm is the “ROYAL FARM OF DIAVOLO” or something to try and convince Dia’s (not-in-a-self-induced-slumber) Mega-Corp father that farms are important, and corpo factories are bad. Diavolo has no idea how farming works but he likes to watch and play with the baby animals. Barb does not appreciate the farm visits bc Dia gets super excited and cannot be told “NO” if he wants to walk across a muddy field and up to a bull like “You are a fine specimen! A complete winner!” Luckily he is blessed with “Animals Love Me” kind of luck. Barb makes sure to get the Young Master dressed appropriately for next time. You need to talk to Barbatos about ordering tools, supplies, and contractors to build/repair things like stables, wells, and greenhouses. Mephistopheles takes care of the buying and selling of animals, and you gotta “prove to him” that you can be responsible enough to handle a horse (he does inspections of the farm and makes EVERYONE take riding/horse care tests).

The angels run the local cafe/store where you can get food and seeds, among other things. They buy your products and sometimes make presents (like sweaters made from your sheep's wool). Simeon and Luke run the Cafe side of things, while Raphael runs the store. Since Luke is a bit young to be running a business, he’s more like an assistant baker and he runs the morning collection at your farm. When he has time, he’ll sing to some of the animals.

Thirteen would probably the the Farm Sim Mine Spelunking Monster Trapper or smth like that? She’ll toss some coin your way if you bring her monster parts or rare ore, and maybe she’ll give you some “recipes” to make mining tools/weapons/traps.

And like... How funny would it be if Solomon just... didn’t change? Like at all? He already fits the “supernatural element” of other farming sims. An interesting and mysterious figure that lives just on the edge of the village. If you come to him with the monster parts/ore instead of Thirteen, he could help artifice some of your farming equipment with special traits, or craft potions that help you talk to animals or w/e.

IDK what do you think?

PLEASE I AM LOVING IT.

Okay okay so I totally agree about Diavolo, everything about that is spot on. He's fascinated by farm life, but knows nothing about it just like he is with humans in the game. Totally gets himself dirty because he just wants to experience things! Come on, Barbatos it'll be fun!!

And the corporation dad, that is perfection, too. Of course Dia's trying to convince his dad that farms are good!

Barb is forever suffering lol. While he does have a garden, I can't see Barbatos doing any kind of hard farm work either. He's definitely more suited to getting permits and such, but I could see him frequenting the angels' bakery because he likes to cook. They swap recipes a lot. Maybe he hosts the cooking competition, mostly because I think that'd be so funny.

Mephisto as the animal guy is perfect, you better believe he's gonna make sure your horse area is up to par before he'll even consider letting you have one.

Love the angels running a cafe and store, that's something I could easily see them doing. And oh my heart Luke singing to the animals!! My precious baby son. I kinda see him also being partial to flowers in general, since that's the only thing he's grown in the actual game lol. Maybe he starts making bouquets or perfumes...

Oh man Thirteen as the miner/monster hunter type! She's got a forge and spends untold amounts of time wandering the woods.

Solomon is such a menace and honestly I can't see him doing anything other than being the supernatural being. I keep thinking of Witchie from Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon. Like it'd be funny if he was more like Dessie and lived in a pond, but let's be real, he's definitely the one making weird potions and magic tools and such.

And of course all the characters are also marriage candidates, so if you marry Solomon, he's gonna come live with you on your farm. Spends all day in his wizard tower on the edge of town, but at night he comes home to his lil farmer spouse lsadlkjdfjkfdkjl.

Wow my worlds are colliding so hard right now I can't even deal with it. What I wouldn't give to have all these characters in a game where I could deliberately pursue and marry one of them!

Anyway, I totally love this and your ideas! I'm pretty sure I would do some unspeakable acts to have an Obey Me farm sim game like this.

[blackholesun321]

Merry Christler @mega-ringsandthings-world your Loguetown au once again has rotted my brain and made me black out to create this! Was it a bought of mania brought on by my love for your blorbos? Maybe. Is it art fueled by my love for this au and your worldbuilding! Definitely. So here’s some of the new (maybe not improved) red haired pirates in this au.

Seriously those of you who haven’t checked out this au it’s amazing and I physically vibrate every time they post something about it!

Below close up of the art and explanations—

Benn my darling. ❤️

I love him so much; he's my angry traumatized dad blorbo, and he gets absolutely sent through the shredder in this AU. How'd he lose an eye and half his face? Well, I'm sure we'll find out, but it certainly did make him look striking. Did y’all know he wears pearl earrings in canon? Because I didn’t. And I think that’s neat and should be commented on more—something something this very masculine character wearing pearl earrings. He wears a lot more perals in this au. This man would kill me, and I’d say thank you.

—————

Look at him and his fancy shirt; man's colors are definitely red and gold, and he looks so fine. You know Mihawk picked out this fit, and those flowers—king loves his embroidered flowers, also done by Mihawk! And those dragon earrings, I wonder where he got those and what they allude to? Also, man is a ball of trauma wrapped in fancy clothes and jewelry to make others see him as a human being. Whoever he's talking to, he doesn't want to be there. The Haki scars are still vibrant and have yet to fade with time, and he's probably less secure about them, so the layers.

—————

Shanks, honey, you still gotta work on your diplomacy face; you don’t look enthused to be wherever you are. Look at all those scars; he gets pretty beat up in this AU. I mean, really beat up. I hope I got the Haki burns up his arms right? But one of my favorite things about this AU is the absolute fashion renaissance that happens later in the fic because of these pirates having a pretty spectacular self-experimenting and exploration phase. Shanks gets a lot of piercings, and Mihawk makes sure that they don’t go to waste.

—————

New Red-Haired Pirate flag. Scary! Wouldn’t want to be on these guys' bad side. They are a lot less the party pirates in this AU, and the flag reflects that. The skull is still laughing but with devil horns and bloody teeth, as well as the red wings to represent someone (Mihawk). Instead of two griffins crossed behind the skull, Shanks' sword is in gold and piercing through its mouth. It was a lot of fun to design. Will be doing Mihawk's flag in the future.

[stratocumulusperlucidus]

Fic recs but they're all wips

I'm currently reading some really good First Prince fanfictions that are in the process of being published (some are already written, some are not), and it's been really fun having to wait for the next chapter and getting notifications so I thought I'd share.

Looping Day by TuppingLiberty

Chapters: 3/?

When Alex wakes up at the Melbourne Climate Conference after meeting Prince Henry, and it's actually not the next day, he realizes he's looping time.

Common Misconceptions of Ghosting by @faketrex

Chapters: 4/7

It takes Alex several years in the residence before he meets a White House ghost.

It takes him a good while longer yet to actually realize it once he has.

(Or, five times Henry haunts Alex, and one time he doesn't.)

NOTE: This story is complete, updates will be posted Tuesdays and Fridays.

False Dichotomy by chamel /@cha-melodius

Chapters: 2/12

One of the world’s largest retailers is opening a store on his street. A bookstore. He looks down at the article in his hand again and catches sight of a phrase: “We hope that people will see this as more than a bookstore, and hope to foster a sense of community.” As if Henry Fox-Mountchristen has any concept of what community means.

Alex very narrowly does not break something.

(When global mega-retailer Mountchristen opens a new location—led by the infuriatingly attractive and insufferable Henry Fox-Mountchristen—near his LGBTQ-focused bookshop in Soho, Alex's comfortable life is turned upsided down. Luckily, he has one of his best friends to turn to: a guy he met online and knows only as H. Meanwhile, Henry is battling against his family to make a positive difference in the world and falling further in love with a man he's never met. But... what if they changed that?

Yes, it's a You've Got Mail AU. Completely written, updating Tuesdays and Fridays.)

Sweet Like Cinnamon by KarsKars

Chapters: 3/?

Soulmate Vampire AU where soulmates share senses. Alex and Henry share the sense of taste - which poses a problem when your soulmate is an actual vampire.

Hair Twined With Flowers by Thee_Maxwell / @gay-flyboys

Chapters: 3/5

Most people get used to the feeling of their soulmate flowers appearing—it’s never something that’s too intense. They show up with just a slight pain so you didn’t accidentally look down one day and find your shin had been entirely covered in a bright red bouquet of whatever flower the cosmos decided to permanently etch onto your skin.

Alex has long since made peace with his flower being a fucking type of mint. Technically. His skin is decorated in several places with long strands of lavender. They’ve all faded now, a ghost along his skin, barely visible if you weren’t looking, though they never fully go away.

or

The Soulmate Flower AU

[dana-chan-the-control-brain]

I just realized I could ask a bunch of dadler questions

What's his fav colour? Does he have a hard time with purple things once the virus is gone? (I read a fic where Moon had problems with purple 'cause of the virus, so I'm curious if dadler would have a similar situation)

Does he have a favourite flower?

What kind of music does he like?

How old is he? (I'd assume in his 30s at least but I figured I may as well ask)

What was he like pre virus? Was he happier and more energetic or was he just kinda always grumpy and tired?

What kind of clothes does he like wearing?

Does he have a favourite memory? Does he even remember much from before the virus?

That's about all I can think of tbh other than favourite food

"i just realized I could ask a bunch of Dadler questions"

Me: (IS HIT WITH A BEAM OF LIGHT SO BLINDING I COLLAPSE)

Oh . AAAA.. wow. Hfhdhd that's a lot of questions. I'm not used to people liking my ocs that much 🥺💕

I'll do my best.

One of Dadler's favorite color has either been light purple or blues. But he's always been a fan of brown and cream beige.

He has little reservations about Purple. If anything, he would argue (and probably has with Glitchtrap) that Afton always used shitty shades of purple. He likes lavender and the lighter colors. Which seems practically like a different color entirely to Afton's purple. So he isn't perturbed by it.

Favorite flower... Again, probably Lavender

As far as music goes. He likes a lot of eighties rock. A lot of classic rock and a few grunge hits too. It's rare he really listens to anything pop. Even something that came out ten years ago. He tried to give death metal a chance, but too loud for his tastes. He has a soft spot for a good rock ballad.

As of the Lives AU he is 34.

Before the virus, he wasn't necessarily "happy" but he was definitely energetic. Strangely hyper fixated on whatever animatronic he was working on. He was a very bright student at the university. And although he was anti social and kept to himself, he was the kind of guy who could energetically ramble for hours over something that caught his interest.

Although, he did have a pension for having a smart mouth and sometimes correcting or butting in when he wasn't needed. He didn't have a lot of friends.

Probably known as the quiet loner. But once you get him talking he'd never shut up.

Dadler is a fan of wearing button down shirts and jeans typically. The man should diversify his wardrobe.

A favorite memory? Hmmm.

Seeing Foxy preform at the Mega Pizzaplex as he was falling apart is definitely one of his core memories.

But another one high up there...

I'm guessing it's not anything specific. But he loved the time, sitting on the carpet as a child, playing with toy trains, while his grandmother knitted in her rocking chair. Just those quiet moments. Also his grandmother showing him how to bake a pie is also pretty high up there. He really loves his grandma.

He remembers a lot before the virus... But also not a lot. He already had gaps in his memory in his childhood due to traumatic events he blocks out.

But while under Afton's control, he was taking a lot of weed and alcohol. So it's not like he remembers the details..... Even if he did have some control.... His posession wasn't a complete takeover like Vannys was. So his memory fares about as well as someone trying to recall a dream.

Like he remembers things more as a third party experience. A lot of Dadler lives is him going though his notes and realizing just how bad things actually were.

Favorite Food?

He likes apple and cinnamon pie.

Also is a huge fan of sushi.

Other than those few things it's hard to get him that excited about food.

[subzeroiceskater]

Yuletide 2023

Hey, Subzero Ice Skater here, thanks for reading this and considering writing for me. It’s my second time doing Yuletide but first time doing a letter. I am still feeling my way back through fanfiction; right now I feel I could be up to just about anything, if written with love, confidence, and good will. However, it’s probably more difficult to write without some idea of who you’re writing for. It’s easier to edit down a mountain of words than coming in fresh at a white blank page.

I know Yuletide is the small fandom exchange but I’ve never really been part of an overly huge fandom, especially one that had me wanting to read its fic or having a huge amount of fic at all. I felt like I never got to experience through beginners’ fanfic tropes that I read other fans all the time. Mostly the fluffy stuff: the five things plus one, the fake dating, the coffee/bookshop/library AUs, sickfic, whatever a wingfic is–the tried, true and usually shippy–it’d be fun to finally get to read that. I think that’s what I’m mostly looking for–something really fun, probably fluffy. That kind of fic is probably more fitting if keeping to the lower, relaxing end of Yuletide.

But on the flipside, I love the more serious kind of fics: character studies, stories with a touch of wistfulness, maybe horror; where characters learn fundamental truths about life and are forever changed, or something is slowly revealed about the world around them. Atmospheric pieces. I’m a big fan of those English Western literary short stories–stories with a twist, either happy or not.

I think if unsure, it’s probably best to go with a happy or hopeful ending. Or if it’s that puts the character(s) through the wringer, something that ends with powerful catharsis. I think if you hit on a hit on an idea and you’re confident with your skill, I’d say go for it. 

Stuff I like:

Women being cool

World History

 the Arctic 

Acknowledgement/presence of Indigenous people/history/practices especially in spaces usually believed to be the province of Western/white people (eg in the history of the Arctic)

Astronomy

unusual formats (example: epistolary format) 

unusual POVs (stories told from an outsider’s or an NPC’s experience) 

connecting themes like flower or plant or animal symbolism, flower languages or objects that can reveal something their character 

passages of time (a day-in-the-life, four seasons in a year, birth to death, first and last times)

literary AUs (one time I saw somebody request a Gawain and the Green Knight AU for Mega Man and I just fell so in love with doing something like that) (even cooler if it’s something that’s not from the familiar Western literary canons, say Latin American, South East Asian, Arctic literature, as long as you’re up for it.)

Bisexual characters

Gender non-conforming characters

Time travel/Time loops/Temporal Fish Out of Water/ Time Travel shenanigans in general.

If you’re really confident, playing with meta, like a self-aware narrator or the narrative coming alive.

Crossovers with stuff I like! I think I’m supposed to say I’m opting-in. If you’re familiar with more than one of my fandoms, especially the ones requested here, and somehow work out a way where my favorite characters meet/interact/even just help each other from the sidelines, I bet that could be very cool.

For the robot characters, going “let us contemplate our humanity”

Happy/ fun/ awkward sex with lots of laughter.

Parallel plots that combine at the end.

Vignettes.

Culture/personality crashes

Crack treated seriously

Puns

Holiday/Christmas fic (doesn’t have to be, obviously)

My tolerance for violence is fairly high, but I’m going to stick to Violence-For-Rule-Of-Cool-Sexy-or-Funny. If they get permanently injured or just for the duration of the story, I want stuff that makes them look hot or cool, like scars or eye patches or crutches. I’m also more than okay with topics like suicidal thoughts or ideation. I’d actually welcome it especially if it’s in service of catharsis. Whatever their bodies can stay broken but their spirit don’t, at least, not at the very end.

DO NOT WANTS: Scat Watersports Omegaverse Readerfic (First or second person POV is okay if playing around with unusual or unreliable narrators)

Art and treats are welcomed. If you give any art based on any characters requested here, I’m probably going to cry. ;___; If you’re a visual artist, I’d love to see you use new techniques or whatever you’ve always to do as practice. Use me as your guinea pig!

Rockman | Mega Man Classic

Tundra Man, Bounce Man, Block Man, Impact Man

Tundra Man as the fic focus–the story is about him, features him in a major way, or about somebody/something else but from his POV. Bounce Man, Block Man, Impact Man could appear as POV/major/supporting/background/mentioned characters.

I’m completely normal about Tundra Man. He’s my favorite Mega Man character and I fell in love with him at first sight and I’m absolutely pretty much always ravenous for anything more about him. I’m not weird. I think he’s gorgeous and his backstory is cool and moved me. Imagine being built for one thing, completely falling in love with another, and giving absolutely everything about yourself to your chosen art?

Tundra’s past– I’d love to see exploration of his past life: his daily and implied solitary life and work as an arctic robot, how or when exactly he was inspired by figure skating on television, or how he balanced his work and his newfound passion for skating before the events of the game. All the decisions he had to make when he was modifying himself. As a polar exploration robot, where did he go? As land development robot, what did he do? The fact that he could even decide to modify himself, when apparently, all the robots don’t have true free will, is so endlessly fascinating to me–what does that imply about Mega Man’s world and its robots? And it’s never revealed how he looked with tougher-exterior, so what did he look like? Does it matter to him? Does miss being stronger? Was the price worth it?

Tundra’s future– Or maybe skip a bit to his future–Tundra  gets rebuilt after the events of Mega Man 11, and he decides to pursue a career in figure skating. What’s that like? I’ve seen a (way too) few interpretations of how Tundra would tackle that and I’d just love more. What is competitive figure skating like for robots? Would somebody like him be able to just do that? Does he face any obstacles or objections from his creators? Does he face any backlash from what he did to the city and city museum? Did you know in his original Japanese profile, it’s said he was inspired specifically by ice dancing? A sport that is a totally different beast than singles ice skating? What if he originally did want to do ice dancing? What other challenges or opportunities or culture clashes would a solitary ice robot who spent years in the Arctic encounter when thrusted into a highly competitive, highly publicized, seemingly glamorous world of competitive ice skating? How would someone like him, a robot who had to do self-modifications, actually compete against actual sports robots simply built for skating and nothing else? Is he unique or severely underqualified? Are there even such a thing as professional robot ice skaters or was he watching a human ice skating competition? Does he get support from Cossack Labs or Dr. Light or does he get punished for going against his original design. And another thing, what is up with him being built by Cossack Labs but him showing up with Dr. Light’s lab at the beginning of Mega Man 11–what is the story there, is he a reverse Beat–

Tundra and the Arctic – Sorry, I’m but I’m totally normal about Tundra. This one is about a tundra AU–despite being called Tundra Man, neither his stage (which mostly takes place in a museum), nor his current passions (figure skating) nor his original purpose (polar exploration or development) seem to reflect the tundra much. I think it’d be easy to write Tundra as completely abandoning his original purpose for skating but I’d like to headcanon where he still cares a lot for the tundra and the welfare of the Arctic as a whole. There are a lot of assumptions and misconceptions about the Arctic and I’d love to see that as a reflection of the man himself. It’s not always eternal ice–the tundra is a biome that supports life and people all year around, and have for thousands of years. There’s spring, summer, fall, and winter in the Arctic tundra. Maybe something like a fisher king situation where the landscape reflects his state of mind or where he is in life, maybe it’s just symbolic. Maybe it’s literal since he’s a powerful robot made for land development. Maybe it’s magic realism. His purpose being about land development in Arctic brings up interesting implications but it’s really addressed in canon. There was even a joke about how people never getting to see his performance as bad global warming. Climate change is still a thing in their world when Chill Man is described to be made to stop the glaciers from melting. How does Tundra himself deal with climate change in his world when land development in the Arctic usually mean using up its resources and hastening global warming. Does he feel guilty? Does he ignore it? Does he work with anti-global warming robots like Chill Man or does he clash against them? Is pursuing his passions selfish in light of this? 

Tundra people & animals! –I understand if topics like global warming and climate change can get too depressing so if you can just focus on Tundra loving and caring about the tundra. I’d love to see Tundra being cute with tundra animals, whether robots like his stage’s Ice Swans or biological like the huskies, seals and bears mentioned in his profile. Maybe he got so good with modifying robots because he was in charge of repairs for the animal ones. Maybe the living animals ended up watching him because he was in charge of tracking them first. If there are any original human characters featured, I’d love there to be Indigenous Arctic people. I really dislike the story and perception of the Arctic being so overwhelmingly white and mostly about Western colonization, with little thought of the Indigenous people who lived there for thousands of years, seeing them as nothing more than ancient history. Again, I understand that topics could be depressing, and maybe rather be avoided, but there’s no need to get heavy on it, either. I'd just like to see Indigenous people being presented in Mega Man’s world just as much as any other nation. Like, if there’s scientist, citizens, travelers, entrepreneurs, or what have you, and it takes place in the Arctic (or even not), it’d be cool if background characters could be native or at the very least, not overwhelmingly white.

Bounce Man – Bouncy is adorable and cute; thinking about him makes me want to cry. He has my favorite stage music of the game! If I could request longfic of my faves I would. I’m mostly interested in a Tundra-focused fic so for any appearance by Bouncy, I’d like it to be on support for him. It’s easy to dismiss such a happy-go-lucky character described as having childlike innocence as having no depth or unable to feel any “real” emotions but I’d love a serious take on him, while still keeping his upbeat attitude. A sort of “crack taken seriously” but robot bouncing form. I wanna see him seriously played against Tundra, they’ve got some good parallels going on. 

Bounce was also transformed from his original purpose, but unlike Tundra, it wasn’t his choice. Also unlike Tundra, who WANTS people to know who he is and what he does,  Bounce is already established as a household name (with his own brand of exercise–Hopxercise) and beloved by people (well, kids). Bounce Man was transformed from something with underground utility (crash test dummies aren’t known for public appeal) to something that brings a lot of people joy (an adorable, probably profitable, athletic mascot). I’ve always felt there was some horror to make something self-aware crash test dummy that’s made just for the sole purpose of dying over and over again. And then he gets turned into a funny clown fitness instructor. There’s definitely a story there, feel–a horror, maybe the consequences of capitalism and fitness culture or something.

Is Tundra jealous of Bounce’s appeal?  Does he try to leverage his relationship with Bounce Man somehow? How do they react to each other? Does Bounce not notice since he’s too happy-go-lucky? Or he does notice but he just does not care? Bounce is basically a fitness coach so does Bounce use his expertise to help out Tundra achieve his figure skating dreams? How would robot-to-robot exercise work anyway?

Ship/Sexfic: Sex with Mega Man robots! How does it go down?

I don’t have a favorite Tundra ship but I’d love to see a take on a Tundra x Bounce pairing. It doesn’t have to involve sex, since I’m more than happy with them as friends or lovers but non-humanoid robots don’t get as much play with the fandom, especially not with sex, and I’d love for someone else to try it with Bounce. Bounce is a big moving weight ball with long stretchy arms and more than thick enough fingers. Plus, Bounce is basically a clown robot in charge of a gym with lots of access to exercise equipment and utilities. Plenty of opportunity to stretch all kinds of things. Considering Bounce’s personality, I’m looking for something funny than straight up hot, but I’m sure there’s plenty of opportunities for funny and/or heartwarming sex.

Block Man and Impact Man – I nominated them because I’d nominate all the MM11 robot masters if I could. I love them all but Block and Impact are slightly less popular since they’re more of the less humanoid of the robots and they’re my favorites after Tundra and Bounce. I adore that Block’s a huge history nerd with an ambitious heart to build like ancients and that Impact’s basically four people (he’s three robots who consider himself brothers and could change control or split depending on the situation, that’s so cool and how does that work? How does he feel?) I especially love that they’re canonically drinking buddies and I headcanon them as ride and die brothers-in-arms. You don’t have to include them fic but it’d be nice if they could be supporting characters, can make a background appearance, mentioned somewhere, or help influence the plot in some way. Some ideas: they have to help fix or build something for Tundra and/or Bounce. Maybe something goes wrong with Boing-Boing Park. Maybe there’s a secret plan to help build a training ice rink for Tundra. Maybe the two invite Bounce and Tundra on their drinking trips and they talk about love, life and ancient history (both personal and real world). Maybe it’s just as cute as the four robots just hanging out in the Arctic and building snowmen, snow pyramids and enjoying each other’s company.

Other Mega Man 11 Robot Masters are more than welcome to show up. As is pretty much any associated characters like Rock and Roll and Dr. Light and Dr. Wily. If you can throw in the Cossacks somewhere and explore their dynamics somewhere, I would immediately meet my expiration date out of happiness.

Fandom DNW:

Bounce having a childish and naive means he’s treated as a literal child. If Tundra, Impact and Block are considered adults in robot years then should Bounce. Please treat Bounce as an adult that happens to act childish and not a literal kid.

Tundra being dismissive or not caring about the Arctic.

Advance Wars

Jess, Jake, Colin, Worldbuilding

Jess x Jake as a ship, Colin as a major/supporting/background/mentioned character, Worldbuilding that features all three or any of Advance Wars characters.

There’s Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp out there but I’d like to stick with the canon of the original three games (Olaf’s defected from Orange Star, Eagle being surprised at being beaten by a girl, Cosmo/Macro/Omega Land existing as separate continents, their appearances (not a fan of Jess’s redesign specifically) etc). It might be a mess, canon-wise, but it was the mess I fell in love with. 

I’m starving for Jess x Jake. Just give me something anything, I’ll be so grateful aaaah. From the fluffiest fluff to heaviest military fic! I’m also very normal about Jess x Jake. I love them both individually and together; Jess GreenEarth is my everything and I think Jake’s so fun, but for this, I’d  like them to be treated as a set and shipped, shipped, shipped together like an overnight package. For something that has some canonical basis (they have a Tag Power in Advance Wars: Dual Strike), there’s absolutely nothing for them. I’m a multishipper and also like them with other people but, in my heart of hearts, they’re the OTP. I think for most people, they don’t ping off with shippy vibes, especially compared with their possible tags or interactions in the games – Javier is outwardly romantic towards Jess, it’s very hard to not see Sasha’s interactions as romance and Jake is clearly devoted to Rachel. I’ve heard that a relationship is more like mentorship than romantic and I agree–and that’s why I think they’re so good together. The relationship that’s sweet, solid, dependable, sweet, and maybe more than a little silliness.

Colin - Colin’s actually my favorite male character. He’s just this proper little gentleman who shows hints of inexperience.  He’s very booksmart with military tactics but still so very impressionable, especially to those he admires, and I don’t think that would change when he grows up. He’s just so mature in some ways and totally inexperienced in others. I’d like him to make an appearance somehow and help the couple along–maybe he’d like some lessons from Jess, maybe he’s curious why his sister Sasha is so taken with Jake; maybe his Power of Money could help kickstart whatever scenarios happen with Jake and Jess. 

Or you could flip my last request–Colin as the possible focus or POV of the story while JakexJess happens in the background. Maybe Colin doesn’t quite recognize what’s happening, or maybe he does and he somehow helps them get together in his own quiet Colin way. Jess mentoring Colin as well–they’re both from so different social backgrounds but they also both have this studious, honor student approach to the military.  How much are they different, how much are they alike? A Jess and Colin friendship would be precious to me.

I’d love it if all three of them are featured equally somehow (anthology??? Baton pass story telling?) but I don’t mind if the focus is not equal, because I do love all of them so much.

I’ve been into flower languages lately and Jess’s favorite thing is apparently dandelions. What could Jake’s and Colin’s favorite flowers be? What does this say about their characters? Is it meaningful to their life or does it remind them of a certain period of time in their life? A person maybe. Maybe their home countries.

Jake and Jess geeking about tanks and machinery would be so good.

So in the game, they don’t really do well in snow. Maybe they get stuck in a blizzard and get snowed in some place and very sexy, sexy shenanigans happen. I’m all in for Jake x Jess smut. My only preference would be Jess femdom. Maybe Jess could be a mentor for Jake in more ways than one.

Jake and Jess are ride-and-die for each other. By this I mean, literally. Maybe not sexually, but that could be funny, too. In a similar idea, they use their Tag Power together but it somehow translates to them actually playing “heavy metal”. Full on ridiculous, unleashing their full potential means re-enacting the scenes from Mad Max Fury Road, Flame Guitar style.

They keep spending all their time working, fighting and unconsciously finding all the reasons to spend time with each other, completely unaware they’re already in love with each other.

For something a little more serious and realistic, they’re in an established relationship but having some trouble navigating a long distance relationship between Green Earth and Orange Star. They’re also from totally different countries and upbringing (roughly speaking Germany and the USA). They might get a little strained but they’re still determined to work it out and have their happy ending together.

Colin, for some reason, buys out an amusement park and for some reason, Jess and Jake decided they HAVE to test out all the rides–no one asked them to, but they just felt it was their duty, you know. What no, it wasn’t an excuse to act out a date. There’a war going on and they’re two very serious, very adult, military personnel; not two teenagers in love. Now watch them break the speed limit on these bumper cars.

Actually, Colin buys/does something and Jess/Jake deals with it in their own way.

They all end up in Blue Moon’s equivalent of the Arctic Russia somehow, say on a mission, and they experience what the Arctic have to offer (northern lights, harsh winters, polar bears???)

Jake is taken aback by Jess even bringing up hot springs. Maybe he was just way too distracted by the image of her + hot springs. How distracted could he get when those hot springs joke become real.

Missing scenes between or during one of the game's missions. A take on their final convo before the last battle.

I also adore the Allied Nations a lot and I’d really love it if they could show up. Not necessary but it’d be so good to have fic with screen time for Sasha, Grimm, Sensei, Javier and my beautiful sweet girl, Rachel, especially the old timers. They’re not very popular but I love them so much. I also love the Bolt Guard so if you need some villains for your story for any reason, I’d love to see them.

Advance Wars (Worldbuilding)

If you could feature female infantry soldiers or officers as being a normal part of the military that’d make me so happy. I don’t mind appropriate enough sexism since that was a part of the original games (or even some racism as a result of historical fighting between countries) but Wars World is mostly chill so I’d like to keep the representation positive and progressive level. This is a world where female COs are the norm so it’d be nice if the rest of its military mostly reflect this. If you want to tackle a more realistic then, especially in service of a more serious fic take, then okay, but it's more fluffy and lighthearted then let the world reflect this, too.

Maybe you want to take on a particular worldbuilding, well, fine, I wanna read your meta, but there seems to be this desire to make Advance Wars gritty and realistic and “make it make sense!” when I really do prefer the cartoon wars world. Yes, this is a world where children, teens and grandpas fight in the army with superpowers, but don’t try to justify with realism, just go with it! I don’t mind poking fun with the silliness of the world but at the end of the day, I just want any roasting and exploring to be done with genuine love, and not embarrassment.

Fandom DNW: I love memes and stupid jokes but please, no “What’s an airport again” gag or any references to it. Nothing else in Advance Wars fanfic will immediately and negatively take me out than that.

Please don’t overly feminize Jess especially in some attempt to correct her gender expression or shove into traditional strict gender roles. She’s fairly in butch and gender non-comforming in appearance and in character. But please don’t go the other way and make her into an unemotional, unsmiling, uncaring men or people hater. I’m really not fond of the Re-Boot Camp redesign. It’s implied she worked her way up against sexism, I’m okay with some of that being present or getting believably sick of it. She’s been described in her Japanese profile as an otokomasari, but while she doesn’t get along with Eagle and she says she doesn’t quite “get” people like with battles, she shown also very kind and friendly towards Jake, Javier and Drake, and she’s mentioned to be popular with her troops which definitely has men it, too. Please think of her with a strong, knowing, gentle smile.

Another Eden

Riica, Zilva, Toova, Another Eden Worldbuilding

Gen fic focusing Zilva and Riica, not necessarily together; optional Toova appearing as a major/supporting/background/mentioned character, Worldbuilding is optional

She’s a work android who’s a little WHACKy*, he’s a gentleman soldier who loves writing letters to his wife–together they fight crime! Well, not exactly. There are dozens of dozens of characters in Another Eden, and so many times, places, stories that I honestly don’t know where to begin. However, these two are my favorite characters and while they didn’t have direct interactions, I’d love fic or art about them. Maybe they go on a time travel adventure together, solving problems like delivering lost letters, or finding lost cats. Maybe one of them gets in trouble and the other helps them out like Riica breaks down and only Zilva is around to help or Zilva seems really sad one day and Riica misunderstands the situation but ends up cheering him out anyway.  They don’t even have to be together or at all; I’d be happy with a split up story or scenes that may or may not be connected at the end.

*her weapon type is hammer

 I really like them because they’re both odd ducks in their way even in their own team/game–even as a pretty adorable gothic lolita character, Riica’s the only visibly “robot” like playable character–almost all non-human like girls look more like conventional humans. Zilva is the only visibly old man playable in the game. They’re both cool but I like how they stand out from the other playable characters.

Zilva is one of the few characters with the art personality. Along with the letter writing, I think it'd be wonderful to see him make art and use that to help people in some way. Art probably meant visual art but what if he’s particularly well-versed in the art of writing? Calligraphy and the like. If you want to speculate what exactly happened to his wife and how this still exactly drives him, please do.

I just think Riica is adorable and very funny. Her off-kilter personality and robotic manner could make for some fun situations and interactions.

We’ve got a character from the present times, a character from the far future, and bringing up a character from antiquity, here's Toova.

By the time Aldo and the gang meet her, she’s already about three thousand years old; she’s implied she might be able to survive way into Riica’s time, over twenty thousand years, easy. Even though Zilva looks older and Riica’s a machine, she’s probably the most mature and “together” of the three. It might be hard to juggle between three viewpoints, I’m okay with her being a supporting character or even just a cameo. She could be one asking help or the one they turn for advice. She might never show up at all but her presence can be felt in the background or through letters. I want to imagine all of Aldo’s traveling companions end up as friends. Maybe Toova and Zilva could end up talking about Toova’s Orphia and Zilva’s wife.

Worldbuilding: Again, the settings of Another Eden encompassed so many eras, places and even timelines, it’d be hard to pick to focus on. If you’ve got any ideas for something to focus on, I’d love to read it. I’ll be honest, I’ve probably forgotten a huge chunk of background lore since there’s so much of it and I play every so often but if you want to write something particular, go for it.

 I think since AE is so big on time travel, I’d like to see it treated as a theme in general. Like, a story that’s about the past, present and future. Maybe it’s literal as them hopping from era to era in an attempt to right something that was wrong. Maybe it’s as low stakes as finding a lost cat or delivering a forgotten letter. They must be aware of Aldo’s time traveling adventures so it’d be possible if the story could incorporate stuff like time loops or playing with time travel tropes in general. It could be present in the story itself like presenting a non-linear narrative or a story going backwards, or sidewards.

If possible I want the focus split between Riica and Zilva, and a huge side helping of Toova, but I don’t mind the rest of the cast or even original characters making an appearance and helping out with the story.

Fandom-specific DNW: 

I know it’s something that happens in canon but please no jokes about how Toova is self-conscious about how old she is. The whole “haha obviously beautiful women are still so superficial about their ages and looks” joke is so tiresome to me. I don’t imagine Zilva could ever be that rude but I don’t like Riica or any other character commenting and Toova overreacting. Discussions or comments about aging, growing, or mortality are fine. Even other jokes or gags about it are fine, just no “it’s rude to ask a woman her real age” gags. 

No smut or ship requests for this fandom. Background couples/shipping are okay if you wanna bring in other characters and their relationships. Non-canon ships are okay to appear if you have them.

Thanks for getting this far. I’m looking forward to reading the story that only you can tell.

“It's not the job of the artist to give the audience what the audience wants. If the audience knew what they needed, then they wouldn't be the audience. They would be the artists. It is the job of artists to give the audience what they need.”- Alan Moore

[the-golden-oath]

Dust in Proximity Masterpost

The coolest sci-fi hermits AU you've ever seen!

Summary: Grian, after winning a GIGACorp-sponsored simulated death game, finds that his winnings have been stolen by his in-game business partner. He swears revenge in the sweetest way, but things don’t go how he wants them to. He and Scar get caught up in interspace drama, builder disputes, and even an illegal redstoning ring. Grian was sealed in his fate when he followed Scar into a simulated desert, it seems. He just can’t escape the man, and the more time they spend saving each other’s lives, the more he finds himself never wanting to leave.

Chapters: 2/?

Rating: Explicit

Pairing: Scar/Grian

Tags: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Worldbuilding, sci-fi lore, smallishbeans voice: LORE LORE LORE, Enemies to Lovers, more specifically: strangers to lovers to enemies to friends to lovers, but half of that happens in the past, third life references, Flirting, Flashbacks, Sexual Content, Drama, Action and Smut, (this fic’s cliffnotes), Disabled GoodTimesWithScar, BAMF GoodTimesWithScar, everyone is kinda a bamf ngl, Space Pirates, scar’s a pirate! a charismatic one at that, and a businessman. and a slut, he does it all tbh, Artificial Intelligence, physical violence, Kidnapping, Literal Sleeping Together, Nightmares, some of the guys are aliens huehuehue. guess who?, GIGACorp (Hermitcraft), The Entity (Hermitcraft), Stratos (Empires SMP), you don’t have to know anything about empires to read this, i swear i am just padding out the environment with giant floating space islands, Minor Antagonist OCs, they r not important lol, background clethdubs, background mumskall, background stresskal, background rendoc, Background Flower Husbands, background jizzie, background poly team zit, I’m not tagging any of them for real bc they are mentioned so fleetingly, they will get their own spin-offs, mostly everyone is in this, Illicit activities, underground societies, drugs and alcohol, accidental intoxication, fuck gigacorp all my homies hate gigacorp, it’s a monopoly megacorporation in space. how could it ever be good?, the only saving grace is everything is IDA complaint (individuals w disabilities act), there is no ableism in futuristic space, no beta we simply perish into the unforgiving expanse of empty space, Other Additional Tags to Be Added

It has action, intrigue, huge things in space, a mega-corporation, and the power of friendship! Scar is a space pirate and Grian is a builder who's dissatisfied with his life.

This is the core work and will tell Grian and Scar's story while also setting up the universe for the spin-offs I have planned.

[em-dualism]

Pinned Post Link Hub 🌱

The Shocking Twins of Dream Island

semi-selective RP/ask blog for Pat and Rey Sprigs from Mega Man Star Force - tended to by Grammar

10+ years RP experience

Crossovers and OCs welcomed and encouraged! No prior knowledge of this series is needed to interact. Stop by and smell the flowers!

Rules - Muse Info - Side Muses - AUs

Bonus Star Force info for anyone that'd like to at least know the basics!

I've also got a Battle Network multimuse RP sideblog over at @augmentedmuse !

[ayashitetsuko]

Introducing my ongoing long fic: Flower Garden aka the Firefighter AU fic!

Reasons why you should give this a try:

1. Librarian!Stede and Firefighter!Izzy

2. Small town romance with a fun world-building, e.g Stede’s address is 40 Oranges Avenue

3. Enemies to Lovers, the most delicious #bitch4bitch flavour there is

4. Dogs! We have Princess Sugarplum Bonnet the pom and Rodrigo Hands the Doberman

5. Excellent cameo set that includes Magic Man, Elder Tribe, and even Mama Bonnet

6. An authentic portrayal of autistic and demisexual lead

7. I also structured the plot in such a way that the explicit scenes are contained within a chapter. Readers can easily skip them without missing a plot point

8. This fic is very collaborative in nature! It features illustrations from mega-talented artists such as @ohmymartyn98 @DicenDelirio @sweveris and more! 🤩 They are more than just decorations. They play crucial roles in the story

9. It’s also the result of brainstorming within the #Stizzy Discord server! Very collaborative

10. And finally, it is written in Anisa-style fluff and wholesomeness with a touch of spice and drama here and there

Enjoy! Let me know what you think of it

[fecha11]

Mo, 27. März & Di, 28.März

Die zwei Tage waren entspannt und intensiv zugleich. Erstmal finde ich es mega, einfach 5 Schritte nach draußen zu laufen und frische Feigen und Tomaten essen zu können. Super lecker aber Opa im Vertrauen, Deine Tomaten sind natürlich nicht zu übertreffen, auch nicht am andern Ende der Welt ( ;

Montags hat J. keine KiTa. Am Morgen kam eine Kiwi-Freundin von meiner Patentante B. um etwas abzuholen und ihr Sohn hat mit den beiden Kids gespielt. Sie hat weder eine Frucht, noch einen Vogel zur Freundin, die Neuseeländer sind nur sehr stolz auf ihre einzigartigen Naturschätze und nennen sich selber Kiwi. Später kam eine deutschsprachige Freundin zu Besuch. Das war richtig entspannt, denn die beiden haben Thermomixrezepte ausprobiert (soo lecker!) während ihr Sohn und J. richtig toll gespielt haben. Ich habe mich viel mit M. beschäftigt. Eigentlich will sie immer viel zu ihrem großen Bruder und das machen was er macht. Aber glücklicherweise haben die Jungs uns Geschenke gemacht. Sie fanden das eher spaßig, M. fand die Kuscheltiere, Schuhe, bunten Tücher und co höchst interessant und wir erwachsenen waren glücklich, weil alle Kinder ganz von alleine glücklich waren. Schuhe sind übringens generell groß im Rennen. Es ist so spannend, alle möglichen Schuhe an- und auszuziehen. Das kanm man stundenlang machen! Ist im Übrigen nicht viel übertrieben. Sie schafft locker 20 Minuten am Stück Schuh an, Schuh aus, und das ganz alleine. Mein persönlicher Favorit ist von heute (Mittwoch) die dicken Socken mit rechts dem rosanen Feen-Crog und links dem FlipFlop. Nur aus irgendeinem Grund wollte der nicht so richtig und so war es einfach praktischer mit einem Schuh an den Füßen den Garten zu erkunden und den FlipFlop im Mund zu tragen, denn freie Hände sind wichtig zum erkunden, im Fall abfangen und v.a. klettern! Das ist sowieso das aller Beste! Abgesehen von den Schuhen und Mamas/Papas/Omas/Opas Armen natürlich.

Abgesehen vom Sandkasten und den Pflanzensprenklern war mein Highlight des Tages auf jeden Fall der Chor von Riverside, einem Ort in der Nähe. Dahin hat B. Schwiegervater mich mitgenommen. Ich wohne ja bei meiner Patentante B. plus Partner M. und Kinder J. (4), M. (1,5) im Haus. Auf dem gleichen Grundstück leben seine Eltern, also B.s Schwiegerpapa M. und Schwiegermama K. Sie kommen ursprünglich aus der Schweiz, aber schon ihre Söhne sind hier in NZ aufgewachsen. Ihre Schwester ist momentan plus Ehemann aus Frankreich zu Besuch, aber nicht mehr lange.

Naja jedenfalls in dem Chor war es wundervoll. Solch poitive Atmosphäre. Ich bin zwar sicher mit Noten hätten wir die Strukturen der zu singenden Passagen alle besser und v.a. schneller verstanden, aber wer will schon einfach und schnell? ( ; Witzigerweise waren von den ca. 25 Menschen 10 deutsch und eines der Kanone (oder wie auch immer die Mehrzahl heißt) war "I like the Flowers, I like the ..., I like the Mountains, I like the rolling Hills. I like the (an der Stelle hatte die Dirigierende ne ganz interessante Vorstellung von Melodie und Text), dumdidadel dumdidadel dumdidadel dumdidadel...". Witzigerweise kannten fast alle deutschsprachigen dieses englische Lied, den Kiwis währenddessen war es ziemlich unbekannt.

Nach einem wundervollen Abschluss und einem fantastischen Sternenhimmel ging dieser Tag zu Ende.

Am nächsten Morgen brachten wir den Älteren zur KiTa. Dort machten sie einen Ausflug zur Mahana School und bastelten Osternester. Wir 3 weiblichen Wesen tankten gerade kurz nachdem das rote Lämpchen sich meldete das Auto und schauten uns in Mapua um. Überschaulicher kleiner Ort am Meer, super schön dort. Wir beobachteten Möwen, einen Austernfischer und M. konnte in den großen Steinen (für sie wahrscheinlich eher kleine Felsen) umherklettern.

Da Auto fahren ja gar nicht super ist, weil da könnte man ja was verpassen, ging ich mot der kleinen Forscherin im Baggi zur Bäckerei und traf mich dort mit B. Wir holten uns was Leckeres was wir zu Hause genossen ebenso wie die Zeit mal in Ruhe zu plaudern.

Die Kinder hatten später noch ein "Playdate" wofür ich CheesePuffs backte, purer Eigennutz ( ; Als der Große von der KiTa abgeholt werden musste schlief die Kleine, wobei sie natürlich aufwachte just war Mama vom Hof gefahren. Aber wir zwei haben das zusammen gut gemeistert und neben den Schuhen auch Trampolin und Windspiel erkundet. Im Übrigen zeigt sie uns auch jede Spinne indem sie drauf zeigt und laut "Maamaaa" ruft. Kommt mir bekannt vor, haha ( : (Mama, ich hab Dich lieb!)

Zum Playdate bin ich nicht mit sondern nutzte die Zeit meine Wäsche abzuhängen, meinen Koffer weiter auszupacken, meine Ukulele zu stimmen (was echt Arbeit war, denn zum Fliegen soll man die Seiten dolle lockern damit sie nicht reißen durch Druck-/Temperaturunterschiede, klang grausig), mit ihr zu singen, zu lesen, Vögel zu beobachten und Feigen vom Baum zu essen.

Abends aßen wir den größtenteils von mir gemachten Rote Beete Salat (dieser Thermomix ist wirklich für Kochlegasteniker) und hatten einen langen aber ruhigen Abend mit den Kids.

Achja, ein Mini-Kinderbuch auf Māori habe ich mir dank Google auch übersetzt. Hoch offiziell heißt die Sprache der Ureinwohner Neuseelands Te Reo Māori. Sie wurde lange Zeit verboten. Inzwischen wird das Wiederaufleben der Sprache von der Regierung gefördert. Es gibt Bilderbücher, Übersetzungen bei Durchsagen und z.B. an Flughäfen wird man mit "Kia Ora" begrüßt. Grüße gehen an der Stelle raus an Chrirex, welcher jetzt fleißig Maori lernt.

[somewhere-in-a-microwave]

These are meant to be sketches of my Naria Girls redesign for an AU thingy, as you can see, this isn't in pure swag HD quality. (I apologise if my fingers look weird)

They have casual forms too but it's only doodles.

I included Usagi/Naria Winter...? (the pseudo fourth member) as well for some reason, she's gonna be a very important character in my au.

I emphasised more of Urara/Naria Spring's flower motif and made the edges of her hair more rounder to look like petals plus flower skirt. I also turned the ponytail into somewhat of a bluebell (yeah pink bluebells actually exist). made the ribbon longer and sleeves into bulbs or strawberries.

I attempted to get inspirations from Luna Platz of the Mega Man Star Force series for the appearance of Hanabi/Naria Summer. Tried to add more star imagery but sorta failed?

For Inaho/Naria Autumn I was going for moon/crescent theming but I didn't exactly do much with it (I'm rather embarassed, I was making her more witchy T-T).

Left Usagi/Naria Winter...? as herself because of lore. She isn't exactly a real Naria unlike the trio which is the reason she has a default-ish look to her magical girl form but I'm thinking about butterfly symbolism because of her bows.

Maybe I'll do a pure swag HD quality of the image and add more lore to my epik kool Naria Girls rewrite AU.

This is all relating to a reddit post I did

*P.S, I also did a few redesigns of the monsters but I'm gatekeeping them for now*

EDIT: The REAL Naria Winter also exists but I don't exactly know where to put her in my (wacky) retelling of the story. To tell them apart I decided to call Usagi "NotWinter" and Naria Winter "REALWinter".

[musicalravencreates]

There's this tattoo of Kirby and around it, it says, "I want you inside me" and fuck I can't NOT see Arin getting that tattoo

[flowersofstarlight]

🍓Strawberry Dresses🍓

I haven’t drawn characters with pretty dresses for a while. So I thought my two OCs (Aiden and Slate) would look beautiful wearing strawberry dresses. Hope you like it. 😊💖❤️💕💝🌟✨🍓🌸🌼💐

[kessielrg]

[Kingdom Hearts] Apologize Quickly and Sincerely

Summary: By far, Ven’s got the most boring job at the flower shop; the cashier. Sitting day in and day out for someone to browse along the rows of flowers and gardening tools, then probably walk right out again. Sometimes an interesting thing would happen- but they were few and far between. [flower shop AU focused on UX kids, with a bonus cameo of Mega Man X][Part 14 in a series of oneshots][VenxOC][EphemerxOC/F!Player]

Rating: K

Word count: 1,862 words

If you liked this story, please reblog!

- - -

Ven was still reeling over the fact that he gave Sabrina his number. She sent him that first, historical text sometime the next day. From here, he saved her in his phone as Wabi-Sabi (it was a good nickname; he needed to ask Brain how he came up with it) and the rest was history. The hardest part was knowing when to stop.

A part of him didn't realize how much free time he had at the flower shop until now. He and Sabrina had been texting for long enough that his battery was already half dead. And yet, they kept going.

‘Are you doing anything fun tonight?’ he sent to her.

‘I have a dance class, so don’t try it.’

‘What kind?’

‘Pole.’

Ven nearly doubled over himself at the counter. Definitely accidentally whacked his leg. He wondered for a fearful moment if Skuld would come out and ask what he was doing- then tell him to do inventory. But she didn’t. Instead his phone gave him another ping, indicating that Sabrina had decided to give him ample time to freak out.

‘It’s lyrical. I do lyrical. As if I have the upper body strength to pull working on a pole convincingly.’

‘Are there any studios around here that support… that?’

‘No. The closest specialized studio around here is for aerial silk, and THAT’S two cities over. What makes you think there’s a space for that kind of dancing anywhere around here? You’re hopeless.’

As Ven would come to realize, many years down the line, that last phrase was a sign of endearment. For now, it felt like a genuine insult.

As he prepared his counter defense, the bell above the front door twinkled. In came a man about as tall as Brain, but probably closer in age to Lauriam. He seemed rather lost as he looked around the shop with his dark green eyes. The man ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair before spotting Ventus at the counter. A small sigh of relief escaped his lips.

“Excuse me? Are you able to help me?”

Ven was midword when he heard the man speak up. Despite the warm, rather skittish voice, it still succeeded in making him jump a good foot.

“U-uh? Yeah. I can.” he quickly agreed. “How can I help you?”

The man gave Ven a smile that rather mirrored Sora’s when he was being bashful.

“My name is Xavier, and I wanted to get a gift for my girlfriend.” the man explained, as if it were something to be embarrassed over. “Something small, but nice. It’s kinda an apology for having her move in with me and my kids. They can be a handful, and loud. Definitely not what she was expecting.”

“We have some basic arrangements in this book.” Ven absently said, not looking away from his phone as he pulled out a random binder from under the counter. “You can pick one out if you don’t want to look around the shop.”

“Thank you.” Xavier nodded. He carefully opened the binder cover and made an odd face at the first arrangement he saw. It was a rather tall one, boasting bright pink peonies and yellow carnations. Ven wasn’t noticing. He had a girl to text.

‘In any case, Brain’s never mentioned that you liked dancing. Do you do recitals? You should invite us next time.’

‘Brain isn’t Ephemer.’ came the lightning fast reply. ‘Second, who said I wanted you to attend any? Maybe I just do my own thing in the studio then flake before recital practice starts so we don’t waste money on one-use costumes. That shit’s expensive.’ There was a small pause before the addition of; ‘Aren’t you supposed to be working?’

‘It’s just some guy who wants to apologize to his girlfriend. He’ll be in and out in no time.’ He put on a rather proud smirk before adding, ‘Aren’t YOU supposed to be working?’

‘I don’t start until next Wednesday. Nice try.’

Xavier let out an unintentional gasp when he saw a certain vase arrangement. Purple and green and blue and red were all carefully placed in the same glass vase. It was perfect.

“Um…” he carefully said to the boy at the counter, “I think I found what I’m looking for. Sir?”

‘Still at the mall, right? We’ll be neighbors.’

‘You sound like Brain. Stop.’

‘No.’

“Sir?” Xavier tried again, placing a feather-like touch on the boy’s elbow.

Ven was terribly glad that no one else was around to hear his terrified screech. A second after, his face was red hot from embarrassment. He couldn’t even look Xavier in the eye after that. Never minding that it was just now dawning on him that he had been ignoring a customer. At least he seemed to be pretty relaxed?

“I’m just texting a friend.” the boy sheepishly apologized. He probably shouldn’t have told the truth, but he had already made a fool of himself at this point. “I’m sorry. I should be paying more attention to you.”

Xavier smiled. “Don’t worry. I know how it is.” he gently said. “It’s always kinda nerve racking when you start dating.”

Ven immediately looked up- his face flaring a different shade of red now. “N-no! We’re not dating!” he quickly insisted. “We’re just friends! I gave her my number recently and it’s just been… nice talking to her more often. But we’re not dating!”

The funny look Xavier gave him illustrated he did not believe such a thing. You see, Xavier was a good 5 years older than he looked. In his 30 years of life so far, he had gotten married shortly after high school, had four children (the oldest was about 10 now, and the youngest was 7), got divorced, and was now dating again with a woman he loved even more than his first wife. There was even a time in his life where he and his oldest friend tried dating, but it didn’t work out. Suffice to say, he wasn’t a stranger to a lot of ‘firsts’ that happen in relationships. Whether or not he felt confident with them was still a matter of debate.

This kid didn’t seem like a bad one; the kind that purposely slacked off at work for one reason or another. It kinda reminded Xavier of himself. Then again, Xavier was constantly told that he had more empathy than the entire human race put together. He might have been self projecting instead.

“How old are you?” he asked as he and the boy went over options for the vase.

“Eighteen.”

“So you’re a senior this year?”

The boy nodded his head.

“Any plans for after?”

This time he got a half shrug. “Probably going to stay here.” the boy told him. “I don’t need to get a car or house or anything yet, so I guess I could still save.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Xavier nodded. “A lot more defined than what I had.”

The boy nodded, more as a gesture to illustrate that he really didn’t want Xavier’s life story. Xavier got it. They weren’t here to be friends.

Over the next few minutes, Xavier and Ventus worked together on just how the former wanted his arrangement to look. There wasn’t much that Xavier wanted to change from the picture. It was more of a matter that they couldn’t get the flowers in a week’s time, so they had to switch some out. Ven made sure to assure Xavier that they wouldn’t charge him more for it- the price in the book was one they stuck with because it got updated every quarter. Skuld made sure of that.

“Would you like to add a personal message?” Ven asked as they were finishing up the other details. “Only a hundred munny more. It would round up your current order to 3,000 munny.”

Xavier hummed a little as he thought it over.

“Is there a word limit?” he asked, even giving his head a curious tilt.

“Not that I can easily think of.” Ven said with a shake of his head. “I’d have to type it in first to know. Might be a hundred words.”

Xavier then gave a sage-like nod. “I think I can work with that,” he admitted. “Sure, let’s add a message.”

“Right.” Ven agreed. He dug around one of the drawers next to him for the personal message form. If Xavier had done this online, he could have just typed it in himself. But in person there was paperwork.

As he was pulling the form out, Sabrina sent Ven another text. The phone let out its little ping and a vibration to get his attention. Xavier looked at it, then at Ven with almost expectancy. But, as Xavier had decided earlier, Ven was a good worker when his head was in the right space. The boy went over how Xavier should go about writing the message -make sure each letter is in its own box, please- and with that the man started to write.

Instead of checking to see what witty message Sabrina had sent Ven this time, the boy watched as Xavier very carefully wrote out a message of his own. He was taking a lot of consideration into it. Ven’s phone pinged again- either as a second reminder for Sabrina’s last text, or she had sent a new one. When Xavier was finished, he looked over the form once and twice. He pushed the form to Ventus with a grin on his face.

“There.” he decided. “That should do it.”

Ven nodded. As he picked the form up, he couldn’t help but read the message itself.

‘Aero, I believe in six impossible things; A quiet household, Harpuia disobeying a rule, Fefnir refraining from cursing, Leviathan staying away from water, Phantom making it obvious he’s entered the room, and falling out of love with you. -X’

“What do you think?” Xavier asked. His face had fallen a bit. It made Ven wonder if he had made a weird face while reading it.

The boy was silent as he genuinely thought it over. The message wasn’t more than 40 words long, and he could tell that it held a lot of personal weight. He assumed those weird names were X’s kids. Just as he wondered who would name their kid Phantom or Leviathan, Ven remembered Brain and kept his thoughts to himself.

“She’ll love it.” he said. His voice coming out a lot more quiet than he meant to.

Xavier let out a relieved sigh. “Good. Very good.”

A few minutes more of confirming the payment, Xavier’s gift to his girlfriend was set to arrive a few days from then. The man seemed rather grateful for it all. He waved at Ven as he left. Ventus himself gave a few minutes before going to check his phone. Apparently Sabrina was trying to decide if he was ghosting her now. The corners of his lips teased into a smirk as he replied.

‘Imagine listing six impossible things as a love language. This guy was such a sap.’

‘Well, I hope you had fun with your kettle, pot.’

And with that, Ven laughed.

[p-ogman]

I haven't posted on here in like a month