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kaylinalexanderbooks · 7 months ago

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OC questionnaire

Thanks to @elsie-writes here, here, and here, @illarian-rambling here and here, @willtheweaver here, @ceph-the-ghost-writer here, and @mysticstarlightduck here!

I've somehow been tagged more than this somehow, but this post is so long I've decided to cut it off here.

Rules: answer the questions as an OC, then leave three new questions for the people you tag!

Past questionnaires: masterpost for round one

Tagging @mk-writes-stuff @elsie-writes @katwritesshit @rickie-the-storyteller @cherrybombfangirlwrites

+ ANYONE ELSE

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

@nebula--nix @literarynecromancy @honeybewrites

I have done all TSP characters I can answer for. Everyone else is not important enough for me to leave a response. SOTL doesn't have enough yet.

Under the cut: Tyler, Gwen, Liam, Noelle, Akash, Robbie, Sam, Ewan

#1- Tyler

Who is the most memorable person you've ever seen? Why are they so memorable?

“One guy I met a few years ago, Anathi. He was interesting. A little, uh, repressed due to having never really interacted with anyone for three years. Um. He was an ultimate, but like way taller than average, so also physically memorable. Haven't seen him in years though. So, anyway, did you know the human mind can never forget a face? And it also can't make up one, either. So, if you see someone you don't know in your dream, you have to have seen them on the street at some point!”

What stresses you out most?

“Stupid and lazy and incompetent people in charge. Like, who gave that idiot so much power? A bigger idiot??? So an even bigger idiot has even more power. Awesome. Fantastic. It sucks.”

What is your favorite holiday?

“Halloween. It is fun to dress up as whatever I want. And plan a decent costume with makeup. It also pisses off Medina. And Dr. Asghar. Those are always fun.”

Other Tyler: questionnaire one, two truths and a lie

#2- Gwen

What is the most important thing someone can receive?

“Love, friendship, support, compassion.... I think I will go with support. Support in all areas of your life I find important.”

What was your favorite age of your life?

“I like being twelve. But I miss being six. When my grandfather would read to me.”

How do you like your coffee (or tea)?

“Preferably, not at the same time! Haha. ... Did I tell you about that? Yeah, I accidentally made my coffee with a tea bag. It...was surprising, for sure. Awful, but I couldn't stop drinking it. May make it intentionally again. I usually just take my coffee with sweet cream.”

Other Gwen: OC in three, OC in fifteen, picrew, kiss, two truths and a lie, questionnaire one, OC interview

#3- Liam

What's your go-to beverage?

“Water. And I'm not saying that to be boring. It's just objectively the best beverage. It keeps you healthy, hydrated. Why waste money on carbonated garbage? Everyone should be drinking water. It does nothing but help you. Except people who are allergic to water, but that is an incredibly rare condition.”

What's the stupidest argument you've ever gotten into?

“There is literally no such thing as a stupid argument. However, I did get punched in the face when I lectured this one kid about how landings didn't count as steps. Of course, they do, but I thought it would be funny if I tried to convince him they did not. Apparently I pissed him off.”

How do you act when you're over-tired?

“I become more easy to distract. Overwhelmed, maybe anxiety. More reserved. I also start noticing my mistakes more. I also keep thinking I'm sick. That's much better than some. Think about it: I could be yelling and screaming at everyone. I could become an evil dictator. But I don't. I just affect me, and in the end, that's much better.”

Other Liam: questionnaire one, interview

What would you do if you found someone's wallet and ID on the floor with no one in sight?

#4- Noelle

“I would look at the ID and figure out a way to give it back to the person who lost it. Depending on where I am, I'd give it to proper authorities. At school, the front office. Police if I'm out. If all else fails, I suppose I could ask Lexi to teleport me to them.”

Can you swim?

“Of course I can. It doesn't make sense not to learn. My mom taught me when I was really young.”

If you were an animal, what would you be?

“What a stupid hypothetical question. I'm not a shapeshifter. *Sigh* Okay, fine, I'll try. Um... Owls represent intelligence so maybe that? I think I'm smart. Wolves are loyal to their family. I'd call myself that.”

Other Noelle: OC in three, OC in fifteen, Picrew, Bingo, questionnaire one

#5- Akash

What is your idea of a romantic date?

“Oh, man. Everything! Dinner and a movie. Holding hands as we walk through an art exhibit. Strolling or hiking through nature. The classic stuff! That reminds me... I need to plan something for Gwen... A bit nervous to ask her out, to be honest, but Robbie says she won't mind what we do as long as we're together. I dunno, man, first dates seem so crucial to get right.”

Can you be trusted to keep a secret?

“Yes. [Pause] I mean, I've kept my own, so I'd completely understand, and would respect your wishes. But just so you know, I hate lying. Despite doing it. But I fixed it! So yes, I can, but I'll hate every second of it. Although it will not make me feel guilty like it was when it was mine! But uh... Don't ask me to keep it from Robbie... Y'know what? Don't tell me. Sorry.”

What is one thing that makes your blood boil?

“Well, uh... I hate not getting respect. It's not like I think I'm entitled to it, but... I do still want it. People with no compassion for each other, it... It pisses me off a little. I hate seeing it.”

Other Akash: OC in three, OC in fifteen, Picrew, kiss, questionnaire one, two truths and a lie

#6- Robbie

Which weirdly specific superpower would you prefer: ability to cook eggs in any manner and have them turn out perfectly, or ability to always recommend a piece of media someone else will enjoy?

“Eggs. Gonna be honest, I almost want the second one, but I can already do that! I have excellent tastes. Although maybe that is, like, a superpower or something and it would go away when I get the eggs power. Hm. Eggs because I genuinely also want to help my mom out in the kitchen. I mean, I can already make eggs, but I get overwhelmed most of the time, so I stick to scrambled just so I know I'm doing it right. So yeah, eggs. If my media powers go away, I don't care, because I'll still love my stupid cartoons.”

Most awkward conversation you've ever had?

“Oh, God. Why. Why must you make me remember this?? Sooo I had this playhouse I went to as a kid. One of my friends there was this girl Ava. We went to that playhouse for years! And one day, she came to my seventh grade play on The Secret Garden. I was hanging with Akash and another kid in the play, Bryan. Ava comes up to us after the play to congratulate me and say hi. And then I said, 'Bryan, let me introduce you to my old friend...' and then I blanked for a solid 17 seconds on her name. It was awful. I said, 'Ava' at the same time Akash did to cover for me. It was... So bad. I tried to pass it off as me being overly dramatic with a pause and that I wanted Akash to say her name at the same time. But. I think she knew.”

How accurate do you think your zodiac sign is?

“Apparently, I'm a Taurus. And according to Google... This is literally not me at all. Like, it says I'm super sensual and grounded. [Pause] Me. Sensual and grounded! What even?!”

Other Robbie: OC in fifteen, OC in three, Picrew, two truths and a lie, questionnaire one

#7- Sam

What is your favorite drink?

“Ooh, lemonade! I love lemonade!! I always wanted to have a lemonade stand actually. I like all kinds of lemonade. Canned or homemade or whatever!! I usually have a can after dance class.”

Do you know how to dance?

“I do! I'm in a class that I go to weekly! We do ballet and tap dancing. It's so fun! I could dance all day long!”

What would make you never forgive someone?

“I'm not sure. I like moving on and pretending the bad stuff didn't happen. But I guess... If a friend did something awful to another.”

Other Sam: questionnaire one

#8- Ewan

What is your favorite small nature item? Pinecones, rocks, leaves, seashells?

“I like rocks. I have a rock collection. I think it's pretty cool.”

Do you have a go-to or favorite idiom?

“Huh. I've literally never thought of this before. I guess I like 'cross the bridge when we get there.' It's kind of a mantra for me. Worrying about the future, y'know? I don't like waiting until we get there to cross the bridge. I want to be prepared to cross the bridge. At the same time... I'm bad at preparing cause I'm not proactive. So I use the idiom to get out of the stuff I don't want to do now. I have a complicated relationship with this idiom....”

What is your favorite fruit?

“No, don't make me choose!! I guess... Cantaloupe. You probably weren't expecting that.”

Other Ewan: questionnaire one, kiss

Your questions:

What's the last thing you replaced, and why did you have to replace it?

Where's a place you've been that you felt out of place?

Do you trust your instincts?

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s-a-f-u-n-a · 6 months ago

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New Oc

I've created another oc because you can never have too many! I was too lazy to draw so I just made it in picrew, I haven't decided which fandom she should be apart of yet so yeah, anyway her name is Odalia Bloodrose. :D

#New oc #Odalia #Odalia Bloodrose #Picrew

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bananasofthorns · 9 months ago

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banana's oc masterpost

I am very fond of my little guys and you should be, too. so here's the rundown on all of them, plus links to learn more! feel free to send me asks about any of them I will love you forever if you do

(I was two or three ttrpg PCs in when I realized I had accidentally named them all with something starting with the letter A. after that, I decided to commit to the bit. so here we are)

picrews/art for everyone will be beneath the cut!

Aphim

My PC for @/herethereverywhere's life series campaign! He is a Watcher currently in the game to prove himself and maintain his Watcher status. He is also the worst. (We're using the monster of the week playbook - his class is "the divine")

posts I've made about him | posts I've vibe checked him with | writing | campaign tag

Aster

My PC for @/superioritycomplexes's post-empires season 1 campain! He's a tiefling inquisitive rogue. He has a few identity issues and a lot of daddy issues, both of which have recently come to light. It's very awkward when you steal from an empire's most prestigious/powerful Church using your father's name as an alias only to return to said empire five years later and run in to said father. Oops.

posts I've made about him | posts I've vibe checked him with | writing

Avery Teck

My PC for a Supernatural-inspired monster of the week campaign one of my irls is going to run! Currently, he's a night shift gas station attendant in a tiny, rural Kansas town. He's also sharing a head with a demon, but this is actually not that big of a deal for him, because he's the host of a system (even if his other headmates haven't fronted in a while) (in their defense, last time they fronted they fucked around and found out with a cult, so they're chilling for a while) (the cult is, in fact, why Avery is now minorly possessed).

posts I've made about him | posts I've vibe checked him with | writing [none yet]

Aphim - picrew by caramael

Aster - picrew by crowsen

Avery - the one on the left is how he normally looks; the one on the right is from The Demoning (aka when he got sacrificed by a cult but, instead of dying, got possessed by the demon they were trying to summon. picrew by makowka, art by @/acentrics

#banana made a post #oc tag aphim #oc tag aster #oc tag avery #btw avery and anika having the same first And last initials WAS a coincidence

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singeryuri · 10 months ago

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made my genshin self insert using the genshin picrew, ft changsheng (link)

a drawing of them should b ready soon but in the meanwhile, to have something to post on here, here's Dorenia/Ren! He's a pneuma hydro catalyst originally from Fontaine but moved to Liyue. She's an adventurer who also helps out at Bubu Pharmacy, running errands and occasionally delivering things. I haven't thought too much about their dynamic with Baizhu yet, as he's rather new but um. They're silly together and love each other so much trust <3 Ren uses any pronouns !

pro.ship & mdni don't touch this post shoo

#[🪼] talking #s/i: ren #genshin impact self insert #genshin self insert #genshin s/i #self shipper #self ship #self shipping #selfship #selfship community #selfshipper #selfshipping community

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aro-iceland · 1 year ago

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not really a drawing request but id love to know more about your ocs??? from what you’ve posted they look amazing??

Thank you VERY much!!! i forgot how much i love to talk about them

(sorry for the old art or picrews, i am too excited to not talk about them and simultaneously not patient enough to redraw them)

All picrew links: Kit + Kevín + Lilly Annalise Piper + Cecily Mikael + Claire Princeton

here's a general overview of everything that exists:

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part 1: em groups

you should at least be vaguely familiar with my em. every single au and whatever hetalia character i feel like grabbing for that day goes in there. interesting little tidbit that somehow hasn't come up so far is that in more human AUs of mine he's part irish! ~20% of icelandic males and 60% of females actually have irish/keltic ancestry!!! ireland being his mom hc is going WILD in me. he's also very magic because that headcanon singlehandedly started the ice obsession in me. how well in tune he is with it and how exactly it looks like depends on the au . i also make him closer friends with swe and fin because i can👍

(excerpt from my em content dedicated whatsapp group with just my (non-hetalia) best friend and me: )

le is there a lot because i love him so so much. incredibly phoenix coded man

there's also monaco, gwendolyn or gwenny to me. she's a permanent resident because i support women's rights (slaying) and wrongs (gambling addictions)

a notable not fully formed character is faroe islands! petra sometimes, emma other times. i genuinely don't know where those names come from. i heard the faroe islands and iceland being referred to as "kind of like twins" and as each othere's "best friends" *somewhere* and i am VERY normal about that too. oh SO normal

part 2: mikael's world

a fusion of 2 groups put into one world, connected by one flimsy tie. it's mostly analogous to real life but no homophobia👍

Group A: Pentagon

Mikael started out as a swedish micronation oc but we don't talk about that. he has a chicken called omelette because of inside jokes during... my wattpad era... shudders. i project onto him a lot and lots of his design is just wish fullfillment. while i love my ocs suffering and angst, because i put so much of myself in him, ultimately, his story is one of healing. major point of difference between us though is that his parents abandoned him and mine... didn't.do.that. 💀👍

Claire and Piper both actually started out as minecraft skins i made for fun!! and then i made them kith:3

Cecily and Kit were added becaue i felt like something was missing to complete the friendgroup!

Group B: menace club

Kevín and Lilly are my ACNL and ACNH side accounts...... and Annalise was some pretty trans woman i drew one day there's nothing much to this

Part 3: D&D

so.. confession: i haven't actually played d&d yet! but my friends love it a lot, i love a couple ttrpg podcasts so.. yeah i have a couple concepts!

The Leighlar Pilayden, or blueberry bitchfuck as i like to call him, Half Elf sorcerer who was abandoned as a babg and raised in a cult which, in a world with multiple deities, somehow ended up believing in the *one* that doesn't exist! he's a sorcerer but they all think his powers a blessing from their god

MY BABY MY SOBBING WET CAT SON! PRINCETON INTEKONA!!!

TIEFLING BARD I might get to play as him soon... negative strength, the only reason he has such a high charisma stat is because everyone pitties him... he accidentally ended up in a criminal gang... he plays the pan flute and bagpipes... pathetic baby

Part 4: Miscellaneous

All the Characters that are alone in their worlds!

(^aesthetic wise but he definitely kins larry)

Brian is the brain cell a friend and i are sharing and also the last one we have. he's a SOO overworked office worker. he has to handle EVERYTHING he's so exhausted please give him a break. he recently got a boyfriend. good for my him

Recently re-named Ailbhe used to be Avery and is a genderless, fully white skinned(as in colour not the skin colour we associate with the word. imagine porcelaine!) and neon yellow haired fallen angel/ex-demi-god!! not much lore but... lots of potential!!

Firenze is... idk he just happened in one history lesson in 2018 and now he's here. bunny boy with lots of responsibilities around the palace!!!

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and ... phew. i THINK that's it? mostly? oh my god. if. there's anyone you wanna know more about... tell ME

#how in the actual fresh hell do i tag this?#trick question #i won't tag this!#except for this #of course

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misc-obeyme · 1 year ago

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I love them both together already 😭😂 I love the blue hair and green eyes on Ciaran it's such a pretty combo 🥺❤️ ...and demon oc!?!? I can't wait to see them when you introduce them!!

Thank you, Steph! I think the green eyes/blue hair look nice together, too... which is good because my reasons for giving them to Ciaran are completely self indulgent lol.

Ciaran is only very slightly based on me... personality-wise they aren't like me at all. But appearance-wise, I decided to give them some features that I wish I had. I used to have blue hair, but since I had to bleach my hair out to dye it that color, it really damaged my hair and made it super crispy. So I wanted Ciaran to have blue hair without the damage. The eyes are because I always wished I had green eyes when I was younger. I have since come to love my brown eyes, but it was a thing for me for a little while. But they really do compliment each other, huh?? Lol!

And oh my gosh, I didn't think anybody would notice me saying anything about my OC in the tags!

He is making an appearance in The Threads That Bind - the next couple of chapters have a little bit about his backstory. But not much because he's just a side character in the story. I was able to use him because part of his backstory is that he's friends with Barbatos.

I can't draw at all and I haven't yet found a picrew that really looks like him. I haven't really thought about introducing him beyond having him in that story, but maybe I should make a little profile or something about him? I'm very fond of him so I would love to share more about him.

I don't talk much about my MC or OCs on here because I'm shy about it lol. But I actually love talking about them, so thank you for asking and giving me the opportunity! <3

#my MC and OC are really funny together too #because their personalities kinda clash #wow I just realized I don't have tags for them...#I'll make one for Ciaran right now #oc gets to wait lol #hmm I don't have a mutuals tag either #obey me mc ciaran #cc mutuals #cosmicstarlatte #misc answers

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himejoblr · 1 year ago

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i haven't posted oc's in a while LOL,,,, sorry for that hahwjdawndfd

anyweyzzzzzzzzzzzzz,, meet ryuuzaki mato (竜崎マト) and uruwashi hazuki (雲類鷲晴月) !! (he/she for mato, any prns for hazuki)

“these two never go a day without plotting something together, but no one in seishou's soccer club can deny that their presence somehow keeps the entire team sane.”

rambling under the cut!! if ure in the inablr disc server then uve probably seen some of this

first of all, i'd like to say that i used picrews as references for them, but i only made slight changes for mato (the og skin color was too dull.... </3)

okay so. mato. he's genderfluid, bisexual, and uses he/she pronouns (already stated that on the top of the post)! she prefers being called by her given name rather than her surname (take into account the name order in japan)

and yes, they're both managers! i figured i wanted to make male manager ocs, and these two were the result,, i KNOW mato looks like a girl but let him (and ME) be plz :3c

((also also they R dating. but they do not know that yet))

she isn't usually seen wearing the prescribed blazer for seishou, but i like to think that they (seishou) aren't too strict with the school dress code. although that was the case, mato still promised she'd (mostly) wear vests or cardigans that had similar colors to the blazer. at first, she was a bit nervous about going to school with a yellow cardigan, but seishou allowed it, so she's safe!!! wow!!!!!!!! also whether he wears a skirt or pants to school depends on his mood

my guy is obsessed with vests and cardigans so everyone just kinda immediately associates those clothes to him whenever they come across them. some examples of how his casual outfits usually look like: these pins. might have slight modifications depending on how diligent i am

now, about his past, why he wears an eyepatch, and how his sister died........

a random fact about her is that she owns a toy piano from her unfortunately deceased older sister, and has a youtube channel dedicated to making covers with it, occasionally accompanying them with a xylophone and/or her voice. figure one: final duet.

ah wait. before i talk abt his past, i wanna talk abt etymologies!!!!!

first of all, the ryuu in her surname 竜崎 (first kanji/character) is from 竜座 (ryuuza), which means draco constellation! this is supposed to be in line w how they name seishou characters (aka they name them after constellations). as for mato, i just took that from the first two syllables of matoro juka's surname and wrote it in katakana LMAO

his sister, ryuuzaki yostuha (name not final), died at 15 years old, which is basically fresh outta junior high (bc she was turning 16 that year). apparently, she had a stalker who had been planning to kill her since 2 years ago, and they murdered her on her birthday. mato was 9 at the time.

mato's initial reaction was shock and denial, since yknow. yotsuha's his sister. and she's one of his closest... friends? relatives? ever.

it's been 3 years since yotsuha's death, and mato's now in junior high. he noticed how his parents' attention suddenly turned to him, and how they started giving him so much affection the same way they did to yotsuha, and it kinda irked him a bit. she knew? she should be grateful since her parents actually "care" about her now, but on second thought, it's probably because they're coping with losing their eldest daughter.

okay NOW on why she's wearing an eyepatch. in her last few days of being a first year in seishou, same stalker who killed yotsuha suddenly showed up on her way home and attempted murdering her too, but only ended up stabbing her right eye. stalker ended up retreating but got arrested later lolz

and Finally. the general gist of his past as of now is that he grew up being neglected by his parents until his sister died and all the attention and affection they gave to her suddenly turned to him. then on one fine day, stalker who murdered older sister pulled a funny and stabbed his eye. okay that's it

next up, uruwashi hazuki! they're also genderfluid, unlabeled sexuality (still not sure about this) and they use any prns (stated already at the top of the post but yk)!

she basically wears the girls' seishou uniform Except:

she wears those tight shorts or whatever theyre called (whatever terumi wears in her og zeus uniform)

her blazer is unbuttoned and the polo? shirt is untucked on one side (usually the left)

as for his casual outfit.... well, the picrew i used just clearly depicts his usual casual outfit lol

a random fact about him is that he tends to collect a lot of space-related stuff, especially if it's something connected to constellations, stars, and the moon. i mean. moon is literally in his name (月(tsuki/zuki) = moon)

for etymologies, the washi in her surname 雲類鷲 (third kanji/character) comes from 鷲座/わし座 (washiza), which means aquila/eagle constellation!!! same thing as a while ago, and also i wanted to give her a moon typa motif so i put 月 in her name HAKALSJAH (also fyi i took her surname from uruwashi karuta ayakashi akashi 😭😭😭😭😭)

as for their past, i'm still thinking about it. for now, it's just something along the lines of being raised by a seemingly ordinary family in a broken village.

i plan to expand that idea maybe by around the end of the week since moratorium is this week which means i'll get really busy... 💔

anyways, i'm glad i still had the time to write this! i'd like to remind you again that half (if not more or less) of the info i jotted down in this post aren't completely finalized yet, and are therefore subject to change in the not-so distant future!

if you reached this part of the post, then thanks for reading, and i hope you enjoyed me rambling about my sillies!! cya!!!

#inazuma eleven #original character #oc #inazuma eleven oc #art #my art #digital art #nanairomelette art #allister's self-made lore book

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magigalocs · 2 years ago

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How what does Sasha Frost look like?

Could send us an Image of how/what she looks like.

Funny you should ask cause I just finished making these!

DISCLAIMER: I haven't made a reference sheet for her yet, (I really should have by now lmao) so I don't have a set look for what she looks like.

What I can do is show you something I threw together using this dollmaker right here. (SECOND DISCLAIMER: Sasha's hair is actually this shade of blue, the dollmaker I used just didn't have options for blue hair sadly 😢)

The 2nd pic (made using this picrew) is more accurate of what she looks like in general.

Hope this helped!

#redesign stuff #sasha frost #doll makers #oc faceclaim #ben 10 oc

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madphantom · 11 months ago

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Hello! I sent an anon a looong time ago asking if it would be okay to send some of the notes I took when reading Sarah. Sorry that it took so long!

At first I was trying to figure out how to format it and send them to you. I remembered reading "night flowers shirking from the light of the sun" on the google docs pdf thing, and it had the notes on the side. I thought that would be easy to read so I was trying to figure out how to convert my botes to that.

Then, I accidetally deleted ReadEra, which I used to read your book and was where my notes were. I panicked and redownloaded it, but my data was gone.

Then! While looking through my files! I realised that it made routine backups of its data, including backups that should be after I made all my notes! Hooray!

So I've been able to compile all my notes now. I've decided to forgo making a google doc esque file and just compile the text and send it to you in an ask.

The asterisks in the text was what I actually highlighted, the rest of the paragraph(s) is just for context. I read the snippets you gave before you released the book, so that’s why I referance some things that haven't happened yet (although, I did come back to past parts of the book after I read later parts of it to add more notes, I'm pretty sure).

Initially these notes were just meant for me, so I get a bit personal in some of them (and some pf them are worded a bit weirdly. I did make minor edits to some of them to make them more legible). So sometimes what I say doesn't really align with character motivations. Sometimes I am also just plain wrong about character motivations as well asdfwj.

Also I cut out some of the notes, and the spacing might be weird since tumblr made this into a single text block when I pasted it into an ask, so I had to manually add all of the paragraph breaks.

With all that said, here's the notes!

*****

"...the home of Desmond and Suzanne C. Bell, where the *childless* couple lived together from 1930 until Suzanne's peaceful death..."

If this were a real thing I'd be like "Why did you even bring up/emphasise that they were childless? Weird ass thing to do." But since this is a work of fiction.

I believe Suzanne was the one who had a secret? If I am remembering that correctly from the character intros with the picrews. I wonder if she's also trans? Although, a couple unable to conceive together could still have children. So I suppose that doesn't support a trans argument.

Like, they could adopt or have a surrogate. Many ways for a trans-Suzanne-cis-Desmond to have children.

*****

"We had briefly stopped for a chat while you were chasing your hat, and she had given her name as Suzanne and his as *Mr. Frank Carlyle*."

Ah! She took her dead lover's name! Also, given "the Carlyle boy came back", that implies that she also took his last name.

(Future me: ?? I do not know what I meant here. They already stated her name as Mr. Frank *Carlyle* in this line...

Edit: Oh wait I get it now. At the time, I didn't know Sarah was pretending to be Frankie, nor did I know Frankie's last name. So I thought that when she detransitioned, she took on a derivative of Frankie's name instead of going back to her deadname to remember him.

I also knew that in that snippet that person was talking about how Frankie dying was strange, since "the Carlyle boy came back", which meant that Carlyle was his last name.

So I thought Sarah took on the name Frank to remember Frankie, and took Carlyle like in a married way. I didn't know she took his name wholesale because she was impersonating him.)

*****

"*I shook my head. "By God, no. This beautiful creature deserves to live in freedom. Can you imagine something so unique and so mesmerizing surviving against all odds just to be kept in some cage as something to be poked and prodded at? It'd be a downright crime."*"

Ah, after reading the part where they got the croc, I see the parallels to queerness.

*****

"The deer stood motionlessly in the garden...[]

"... *I need to see it from up close*," I whispered. "Otherwise I will never believe myself.""

Me moment. Wish I could go outside to look at a wondrous deer. Or a strange, wondrous sight in general. Like when that car burst into flame in front of our house during the night, and we all gathered around to watch.

*****

"*Four silver eyes glistened at me in the shadows. The deer watched as I placed one foot in front of the other. It took a hesitant step towards me, then another. I saw the muscles moving underneath the snow white fur. Then, suddenly, it took a giant leap and disappeared in the fog.*"

I wonder what the God thought of him. I think it's a good person. I wonder if it had goodwill towards him because of how he said it would be awful to kill it.

*****

"Clouds sail past on the *lake's mirror-like surface*"

Wow what a pretty lake!

*****

""*We have to start somewhere*," I replied. "If I know how he fell, I know how he landed, but more crucially, I know what he would want to stay alive for."

Ah, I kinda expected it to be a twist, where Ignatius only sent them out so that they would not have to be there.

*****

*"Sa…" - he took a deep gasping breath - "Sa….rah!"*

I appreciate how she restarted. Reminds me pf myself. I would've been worried that the pause would have been long enough that my words sounded like two syllables, rather than two halves of one word. So, I appreciated how she started, just to make her words clearer.

Also, I wonder why she said this. I might've said this too. I want to correct you about my name. I always do, but especially now. I'm about to die. It's all about me now. Don’t I get to have this one thing? I want you to know what my name is, at least.

But I will not tell you it is mine. I will give you no context. I so desperately want to tell you it is mine, but I can’t. Doing so would decrease my chances of survival by way of decreasing my chances of receiving good medical care, and it would decrease my chances of being tolerated well in my potentially final moments.

I can't have that. Surviving is more important. But I at least want you to know my name, and that you're wrong about me. I can be satisfied with that. It's okay because I have at least that. "Sarah."

*****

"He had run there through the deep green forest, *trying to hide from his mother after breaking a pot at home*."

The real villain here is the mother (or parents). This wouldn't have happened if she did not react so poorly to similar things that the child is scared enough after breaking a pot to leave the house.

*****

"...the God rose once more, towards the surface, towards the light, to find who the culprit that had woken *it* was."

Hrrg,,, I love it/its gods,,,,

*****

"...*mesmerized by what he saw. And he stepped out into the waves, and followed the sweet sounds of the flute into the cool blue. And he thought of nothing but those slender fingers, and the rose-coloured eyes that seemed to contain the moon and stars on summer mornings.*"

Dunno if I want to interpret this in an aro or gay way. If a gay way, it's potentially really funny. Worst crush ever. Immediately drowned in a lake because of it.

(One sided, ofc. Tragic! You were accidentally so ethereal and mesmerising that the boy you wanted to interact with got a crush on you that Immediately killed him. Sad!)

*****

"...it remembered in horror how once upon a time it had been chased into the lake by the townsfolk, *who could not understand it, and it could not understand them.*"

Damn epic autism moment,,,, everyone knows that epic autism moment when you are so thorourghly misunderstood by others, and how despite how much you struggle to, you cannot seem to understand them either,,,,

They shouldn't have been such an ass to the God.

*****

"*And so the God left the child on the shore among the wildflowers, and it returned to its eternal sleep, to forget what it had done and forget once more about the world and its cruelty. But they say to this day, on moonlit nights, if you toss a pebble into the lake and find yourself followed home by a white animal, it is the God taking pleasure in seeing you.*"

Ah! Comment on this later!

Edit: It is later an I. Still cannot seem to find the words to convey what thoughts and memories this sparks in me. Oh well!

At least I know. Hope I don't forget though. At least I can say that this passage is significant to me!

*****

""It is a sad story, isn't it?" Sarah tilted her head. "After all, the God was not evil, was it?

It was simply there. It could not know that the boy would die for trying to understand it."

"*Perhaps. Or perhaps* it knew, deep down. Perhaps it thought another ghost might save it from haunting itself.""

Damn, he really wants to play devil's advocate, huh?

*****

"...[The Storyteller's] split lips drawn back in what was a smile that reminded me of a *snarling fox*."

Ah, I get it now! They *are* a fox! This is just like in dbttlor where a character is compared with a nonstandard but still familiar animal and it's like, wow! What a novel and therefore interesting and apt comparison! And then it turns out it wasn't just a random animal for sake of novelty, but it turns out they actually *are* that animal!

*****

""Do me a favour. Don't tell Suzanne until it has happened. She is such a good girl, I'd hate to see her worry in my last moments."

I chewed my lip. Then I lowered my head. "*I promise.*""

DAMN. What a difficult position to be in. She deserves to know but why should Sarah (I think) make herself uncomfortable to be better for Suzanne? She's dying. It's all about her.

*****

""Where are you traveling to?"

"Oh, well…" The Storyteller chuckled. "Nowhere, really. I just wanted to get around a bit. Not stay in one place for too long."

"But isn't that dangerous?", Sarah inquired.

"Dangerous?" They raised their eyebrows. "*Why…ohh, right.*"

*Monkey King voice* "Ohhh right. Mortality."

*****

"*But there was no ghost. There never had been. There had only been love and what it had left behind.*"

YO. COOL ASS LINE. I like how it wasn't supernatural, and instead was just grief. More relatable.

Also reminds me of the "Wasn't actually supernatural but still equally or even more horrifying" trope, which I love.

Like the story of those kids camping around a river who hear the story of a ghost who'll drown you, and at night they hear someone stepping around their campsite, so they get scared. Then cops show up the next day saying someone was killed at another campsite nearby. So they're like "0_0 ...Were they ...*drowned*?".

And the cops are like "No they were shot." So they're like "Oh.", then "OH. A MURDERER WAS AT OUR CAMPSITE LAST NIGHT."

The scares feel more grounded that way, which is cool (not that I don't like supernatural scares as well, 'cus I definitely do).

*****

""How come they left the house with all their belongings still in it? I have often asked myself that." I kicked a pebble out of the way.

The Storyteller sighed. "*Their only son drowned in the lake.*"

I wonder if this is the boy from that Gramma's story.

*****

"I thought of the child that had drowned in these peaceful green waves. *Suddenly I no longer felt like going for a swim.*"

Lol number one "guy who is going to drown" thing to say. Also, that body was recovered. I'd be more disturbed by the two corpses that stayed down there.

*****

""Was that a heron?", they inquired.

"Yes, a white one," I replied. "It flew across the lake. Looked quite majestic."

The Storyteller stopped dead in their tracks. "*We should go back.*""

Damn does the god just kill random people? It didn't strike me as a bad person.

*****

"I tilted my head in confusion. "Why?"

*"Trust me." They chewed their lip. "It will rain soon."

When I looked up, the sky that had just been stark blue had turned ash grey.*"

HUH. WAIT. What is the extent of their power? After reading the book, they kinda seem like a normal guy but with immortality, the ability to turn into a fox, see out of their rings, and with knowledge about the God.

Like, they were clearly just saying this so they didn't have to say "Yeah that white heron was a god and I want you to stay away from it in case it kills you."

But it *did* rain. Can they predict the weather as well?? (Maybe that's not even a power. They've just been around so long they can tell what the weather will be.)

*****

"Lightning made the *black lake* glint ominously in the distance"

Urgh,, I love lakes <3

*****

"Gramma Margaret smiled with *stained teeth*"

OUGH. I love stained teeth! It's always so cool! Every character ever should have stained/yellowed teeth.

*****

"Her teeth glinted in the flickering red light like *wet metal*."

Ooh, cool.

*****

"*I woke up, suddenly. It was as if a heavy fog had been lifted from my mind.

It was cold. My neck hurt. My eyes were burning.*"

Damn. Moment when you exit hyperfocus and are suddenly hit with all the status conditions.

*****

"*The Storyteller put a hand on their mouth and I felt strangely watched*"

Ah, because the ring on their hand, which they can see out of, would be facing towards him.

*****

"*Sarah was lying at the bottom of the stairs, her hair a mess, sobbing.*"

Ooh! Just like at the beginning! Maybe this is what happened to her when she was old!

*****

"Her skin was milky *white*"

White-ass.

*****

"The deer flinched when the fox bit into its leg. *The smaller animal was whining and crying in pain, but persistent.*"

Does biting into it physically hurt them?

*****

"*We do not want them to leave and it seems like, for the moment, they are content staying.*"

Aww, friends <3

*****

"Rolling [the crane] over into the grave *pushed my heart inbetween my ribs, but I kept myself contained.*"

Ooh, what a neat phrase!

*****

""Wouldn't that make a lovely story?"

"Of course it would, I just have to say, I am not particularly fond of the idea of being the protagonist in a ghost story""

Hehe, the fact that he agreed that that would be a lovely story...

Like, I thought he would go, "No! That is awfully morbid!", but no. He's like "Yes, that would be a very lovely and cool story. I would just not like to be in it."

I must say, I like this more. I'm gonna add interactions like that into my stories <3.

*****

""No, I mean…it doesn't look alive. It's full of dirt and its feathers are falling out and it's viciously pecking at itself. It looks like it should never have come here in the first place."

The Storyteller tilted their head, but said nothing. *They probably thought I was losing my mind.*"

Oh no, my friend the Normal Person Storyteller is gonna think I'm a weirdo for thinking something supernatural happened! :(. They're just a normal human with no contact with that sort of stuff, so of course they wouldn't believe me :(.

*****

"[Suzanne] sighed, glanced at me uneasily. "Will you wake me if anything new shall happen?"

"*Of course.*""

NO YOU WON'T. YOU'RE NOT GONNA. HOW HORRIBLE*.

*Not saying Ignatius is horrible. This is a complicated situation, and I don’t know what the right choice is. But this is a horrible situation for Suzanne to find herself in.

*****

"*Heavens, no. What on earth would she do with me? She's an angel, what am I? A milkman's son, who writes quite awful poetry in his free time. No, no, I think it is better for the both of us if I just continue to stare from a distance…and fall a little more in love with every passing day…"*"

Girlie, this is unfair to her! You are assuming how she feels and acting on that assumption. She should be able to come to her own decision regarding that (being in a relationship with you) with all the information in front of her.

For example, what if she liked you back? It's mean to assert that she simply cannot fall in love with certain people, when she has never said so herself!

Also, you're implying that she is quite shallow to not fall in love with common people just because they're not big fancy fraughts.

*****

""*I'm quite sure she would not mind knowing about your feelings*""

This too! What's the harm? Even if she doesn't like you romantically, she clearly loves and/or cares about you. She would still love to be friends after. Nothing would change except that you respected her ability to come to a decision on her own, and that you gave it a shot. You would give her the info, instead of just assuming.

*****

""*Perhaps not tonight*""

Pfft yeah. Don't confess when her mum's dying.

*****

"*I hesitated, unsure what to say. Then I lowered my head.

"I should go back to reading that book."*"

LMAOOO

*****

"*His body…his body was like mine, but it was so beautiful*"

FUCK. FUCK, I LOVE TRANSNESS

*****

""*You don't even realize what you've summoned. Good Lord. You have doomed yourself, my friend.*""

Did they think he was in on the supernatural shit before this?

*****

"*The Storyteller left silent as a ghost two nights ago. I woke twice during the night, once because I heard the door, once because a fox screamed outside, almost a sorrowful wail.*"

Aw man... The friends part :(.

*****

"Sarah and I spent the day inside, with *her drawing*"

Ooh, I was wondering who was drawing those pictures!

*****

""I started falling." Her voice was quiet and shaky. "I fell and fell, deep into a bottomless pit. *And then I woke up.*"" --

I wonder what it means that she dreamt this. Not as in the meaning of it, but as in, does that mean the god can make up dreams for you? And has the power of foresight? And can directly influence what you see/think? (Like straight up make it up fully. Instead of influencing one's thoughts to lean a certain way. It's instead the exact scenario, the exact wording.)

*****

"*On the way I noticed that we had forgotten to bring our laundry inside and some of it had scattered across the yard. Too bad, but nothing terrible - we had all the time in the world to wash it again, after all.*"

Aw man. Not realising that this means that the dream was a premonition, and that they are in grave danger. "Oh well, we have all the time in the world to wash it." No you don't. This marks your end. Last night truly was a quiet end of the world.

*****

"With a scream I ran back out of the barn, *leaving the deadman with my face inside.*"

OOH. Does he become a crane? When that person later says a strange looking Frankie hung out with the Storyteller, was that even Frankie? Or the crane?

*****

"Diary entry of Sarah *Winston*"

Ah, so that’s what her last name was before she took on the name Carlyle! Sarah Carlyle, nee Winston.

*****

"*Something has been wrong for a very long time.*"

And it's finally come to a head.

*****

"*Bell Senior's old man says he was quite spooked by the change. Took a crucifix with him every time he delivered the milk. Just in case.*"

Dude, she's just some guy :/.

*****

"*Avoided that blue house like the plague. You'd think he saw a ghost there.*"

Maybe Frankie didn't come back at all... Maybe it was Sarah...

But they look quite dissimilar! Did she straighten and dye her hair?

*****

"*He had a disagreement with his mother and father one night, just a few days before Sarah passed, packed his things and left.*"

Okay so I'm almost certain that it was Sarah who came back, not Frankie. By this time it was already Sarah. Did she have a disagreement with Frankie's parents about pretending to be him?

*****

"*For a while they thought it was his youthful stubbornness that kept him from returning.*"

But then why did they think this? Did they truly think she was Frankie? Or were they just saying that's what they thought in order to cover up Sarah's identity whenever somebody asked?

*****

""...It was assumed that during his hot-headed travels, he had simply been robbed and murdered. An old woman was killed in the area just a month later, so it seemed reasonable."

"Oh, what a tragedy." I thought about the night Frankie had described in his diary, the night when he told the Storyteller about the beheaded old woman. *Gramma Margaret.*"

Is this the same Margaret that is Sarah's mother? I don't think so. Is this the same old woman who died a month after Sarah went missing (as Frankie)? I don’t think it is, since Gramma Margaret died *before* that happened.

*****

"*I sat at the kitchen table, staring at the singular candle illuminating the house*"

Me fr. But also, just like the dream!

*****

"*the Storyteller standing in the doorway*"

Just like the dream!

*****

"*"I'll go get the spades if you want me to," the Storyteller said quietly.*"

Grrahhh!! He is the crane!!

I wonder if he will come back as a crane supernatural. I wonder if the zombie crane ever existed, or was just an illusion made by the god to foretell Frankie's death.

*****

""Down by the lake." I glanced at the ground beneath me. "There is…there was a willow where we always used to sit and tell each other stories…most of them old stories by the *old blind woman* in whose house we lived. We would tell those stories, or spin new tales out of them, or dream how else they could have ended…the willow fell in the storm.""

Okay see, for a sec I wondered previously if the old woman was actually the Storyteller, and they were shapeshifted. But I was like, no. She's not blind (and her eyes were described as milky, not red. At least I think. But the woman on the book cover had red eyes).

But now I'm thinking it may be so? But I didn't know the storyteller could shapeshift into anything besides the human form we see them in and the fox one.

Or maybe it's like with the crocodile. Related to but not the same. Why would the Storyteller be beheaded?

*****

"*"I am sorry," I whispered. "I was going to tell you, but your father made me promise not to say a word. He did not want you to worry."*"

Ah, there it is! Thank goodness she found out beforehand!

*****

"*Suzanne laughed; it was a hollow laugh. "Did not want me to worry! He tumbled down the stairs with a sound as if the world was ending, broke almost every bone in his body and he does not want me to worry! Heavens-" She had begun to cry. "Oh doctor. How cruel can one be, for goodness' sake?"*"

Literally!!

*****

"*Then, suddenly, Desmond reached for Suzanne's hand and began pleading with her. Her hazel eyes were haunted when she replied to whatever he had said, but he vigorously shook his head and smiled, tears running down his white cheeks.*"

Epic suicidal ideation/talking someone down from it moment (might not be what they're actually talking about).

*****

"Arms tightly wrapped around each other [Suzanne and Desmond] stood there in the snow, almost becoming *one singular grotesque silhouette melted together.*"

Aro moment. The House Party moment.

*****

"As I looked around the room that had been our bedroom I saw the jar with the two-headed crocodile standing on the windowsill and softly exhaled.

"Will you take it with you?", the Storyteller asked.

"Of course," I replied. It resides on the sill of my childhood bedroom now, the *pale skin* of the animal"

Okay, see. I was wondering how this was related to the god. When I first learned of the croc (from the snippet before the story was released) I thought this was the god, in a different form. But the croc is definitely dead, and I don’t think the god can be killed. Plus we see the god later, and the croc never disappears.

Then, I went, "wait! The croc was never actually described as white, so they're unrelated!" But now that is not so.

*****

"*I walked across the damp brown leaves, grabbed the deer by its antlers and shook it until it stared right into my face with one eye from each head. It looked different from this perspective. Surprised…no. Scared.*"

Yeah! Kill that bitch, Sarah! Teach it what's what!

*****

"*It did not always feel good, but damn it, it felt strong.*"

OUGHFF. Adding this one to the quotes pile!

*****

cracked blue building

So it really is her house? I thought she was going to Frankie's house. So is she not impersonating him? But then, why did she take his name?

Maybe she is detransitioning to an old identity that was forced upon her, and not pretending to be Frankie. But since the name she took on was Frank, maybe she swapped deadnames with Frankie when they were choosing their names?

*****

"*The deer is outside again and staring at me. I think it might be crying.*"

Ah. So that is why it is here tonight.

*****

"*A fox is wailing out in the field.*"

I'm glad they are here during the last night of their friend.

*****

"*I think it's quiet now.*"

And so she is dead. But how did the fall occur? Did she call the deer?

*****

"Swiftly, I walked over to it and with hesitation and shaking fingers, reached beneath its shirt. Indeed, there was Sarah's *sweetwater pearl necklace*"

!!! She kept it...!!!

*****

"*I realized in shock and horror that the man that had died under my roof was no man at all - it was Sarah I had been treating. All these years she had returned to hiding as what she had always been perceived as*."

That is oddly understanding of Ignat.

*****

"What a strange feeling. I believe half of my soul was left back there by the lake, waiting for the other half still flickering in my heart to reunite with it."

Waah! She returns to Frankie and her life on the lake!!

*****

"*How do you know that story?*"

"I don't want to tell stories. I don't want their lives to be laid out like they're some fascination. A [] for people to ogle at for a while. They were real people, more than some scary ghost. And they deserve privacy.

But. Their stories are being told anyway. I do not want to tell stories about them. But I have to correct them every time I hear them. Let them really be known. Adding to those tall tales."

*****

"*Before you become a deathbed confession or someone else's ghost story*"

I like that he acknowledges that he has become wrapped up in this, and that because it would make such a good story, the person who he is writing this to and who is dear to him, Andrew, will most likely also be affected.

*****

"*Author's* Note:

...The author vividly remembers the chill that ran down her spine whenever she saw this person in the now overgrown yard, smiling like a fox baring its teeth."

Is this Susan from the second book, "Susan's Hell Sprint"? (Sick ass name btw. Truly one of the titles of all time.)

*****

I wanted to say that I really liked your book, and I can't wait to read the next one! ^_^

Ayyyyyyyyy amazing notes!!!! I had so much fun reading these!!!

Suzanne is actually trans! I tried to drop a couple subtle hints about it but nothing too obvious, such as the childless thing and the deep voice. Also, the moment Desmond and Suzanne talk outside she actually confesses this to him.

As for Sarah and Frankie, they traded names when they came out to each other, and when Sarah returned, she simply took on her old name.

The author isn't actually Susan, though that would've been cool. The author is some random teenager in the 2010s. Susan's Hell Sprint is set in the 1970s :).

#personal post #sarah the novel #susan's hell sprint

4 notes · View notes

pyrettawychwiggin · 4 months ago

Text

Wishful Thinking' (Nanami Kento x OC) - Part 4

(Jujutsu Kaisen Fanfiction)

Readers be warned: this fanfiction is full of heavy spoilers from the tailend of Jujutsu Kaisen's second season (the Shibuya Incident). If you are not yet familiar with what happens in that arc, I would bookmark this series to come back to when you have.

Before you read this, take a moment to check out Himawari's character sheet. Otherwise, some of the following events may not make a whole lot of sense. Enjoy!

(Temporary image of Himawari made in the Picrew creator- try it yourself here!)

General Warnings: SFW, at least PG-13 due to minor depictions of injury/gore, fluff

| ♡ |

(That evening...)

Nanami neatly tucked the final section of the sheet into the corner of the futon while Himawari waited on the adjacent loveseat, cupping the freshly-brewed cup of herbal tea in her hands.

"I feel bad," she began. "Making you set up your own bed when you're my guest."

"I insisted," Nanami replied plainly. "You may be able to stand again, but I don't want you pushing yourself too far when you should still be recovering."

He lifted the soft knit blanket over the sheet, letting it gently flutter back down onto the surface.

"Will you be warm enough with that?" Himawari eyed the blanket. She only ever used it to sit over her legs while she read or watched television in the living area. "It's a little thin."

"That will be fine, thank you." Nanami nodded, taking a seat on the edge of the futon, resting his elbows on his knees with a yawn. "Would you happen to have a spare pillow?"

"Oh! Of course." Himawari stood from her seat and started walking over to the linen closet. "Wait here."

She moved around the corner and pulled the closet door open. Tilting her chin upward, she realized her spare pillow was on the top shelf that was a little too high, even for her.

Whose bright idea was it to keep anything on the top shelf...? She thought to herself for a moment before snickering under her breath. Oh, right. That was me.

She reached upward and stood on her tiptoes when a zing of pain shot up her body from the strain, causing her to stumble back with a jolt. To her surprise, she felt Nanami's hands press against her shoulders to keep her from falling over, her back gently pressed against his chest. Not thinking, she looked up at him awkwardly from over her shoulder, her breath catching in her throat. His steady one-eyed gaze met hers and instantly made her feel three feet tall. I've never looked at his face this closely before...

"Miss Sasaki," he began, the warm breath of his voice brushing across the skin of her face. "Tell me something."

"Y-yes?" She gulped, unable to move.

"What is your aversion to asking for help?" He asked flatly. Keeping on hand on her shoulder, he reached over her head to slide the pillow off the shelf.

Himawari sheepishly sunk down a little, assuming he was genuinely irritated with her when he softly bonked her on the head with the soft pillow before tucking it under his arm. She let out a scoff.

"Hey..." She mockingly rubbed her head with a chuckle. To her surprise, Nanami cracked the slightest hint of a smile that made her heart skip a beat. "Huh. So you can smile."

"I smile plenty." He closed the door of the closet and guided her back to the main room with a gentle hand in the middle of her back. "Just not without reason."

He set the pillow down at the head of the futon before checking his own teacup. "Ah," he clicked his tongue. "I'm going to brew another pot. Would you like me to top you up while I'm at it?"

"I'm alright, thank you," Himawari responded with a bow. "I think I'm actually going to take this opportunity to shower. I haven't had the chance to clean up since..."

As she trailed off, her momentary joviality from her banter with Nanami faded, replaced with the memories she'd been trying to avoid ever since she'd finished sobbing earlier. Nanami's mouth curved into a slight frown.

"Are you sure that's wise?" He asked. "You're still not completely stable. I don't want you to fall."

"I'll take it slow and keep a hand on the wall, don't worry," Himawari replied, shaking her sadness away from her expression as best she could. "What, are you offering to help me shower?"

"What?!" Nanami's jaw dropped, surprised at her brazen remark. "No! I-I just-"

"I'm kidding, Mr. Nanami," Himawari laughed, shaking her head incredulously. "I'll be careful, okay? Make yourself comfortable; help yourself to whatever you find in the kitchen. I'll be back in a bit."

Not waiting for a response, Himawari walked into the bathroom, leaving Nanami to brew his tea, the unburnt tip of his right ear flushed red with embarrassment.

"Hah..." Himawari let out a breath of relief as she dried her hair with her favourite towel. It feels so good to feel clean again.

| ♡ |

She thew her towel into the corner laundry hamper and set her Scarecrow costume in a plastic bag and tied it off, setting it in the garbage can when she re-emerged into the main room of the flat.

Nanami was sitting at one of the stools by the kitchen island, reading one of Himawari's books while Hoshi snuggled up over his right shoulder like a fluffy black scarf. Himawari's giggle caught his attention as she approached him.

"Looks like you've made a friend for life in Hoshi."

"Is that her name?" Nanami rubbed Hoshi under the chin and was met with a soft purr. He let out an amused huff. "I think I know why we get along so well."

"Oh?" Himawari tilted her head curiously.

"Look." Nanami held Hoshi up beside his face and looked at Himawari with a deadpan expression, pointing at her missing eye with his burnt finger. "We match."

Himawari gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh; but she and Nanami both broke into laughter when Hoshi batted at his nose with an irritated chirp.

"Alright, alright." He set the perturbed feline gently on the ground by his feet. Hoshi pressed up against his calves with a purr of forgiveness before walking off to the water dish. "Oh, I hope you don't mind - I borrowed one of your books."

"No problem," Himawari shrugged. "Which one?"

"It's your collected works of Edgar Allen Poe," he explained, taking another sip of his tea as Himawari took a seat in the stool beside him, resting her elbows on the surface if the island.

"Oh, that's a great read," she said with a smile. "I didn't know you liked Poe."

"Truthfully, I haven't read much of his work," Nanami crossed an ankle over his knee as he spoke. "I've read The Raven of course, and The Tell-Tale Heart, but that's about it."

"What kind of books do you usually read?" Himawari asked.

"I enjoy historical fiction and mystery - but I'll read almost anything with a decent plot and premise." He pressed a lip to his fingers as he thought about it. "Actually, I was just in the middle of reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' before I was called away to Shibuya."

"That's a classic." Himawari smiled. "Have you read it before, or was that your first read through?"

"That was my first. Then again, I have a collection of books I still need to make time for." Nanami hid an involuntary yawn behind his hand. "Pardon."

"No worries - it's getting late. We should probably turn in for the night. Before we do," Himawari began. "Would you mind if I check on your burns?"

"Mm?" Nanami regarded her with surprise and curiosity. "You're not going to try to use your time reversal again, are you? I won't allow it - you've pushed yourself too far as it is."

"Oh, er - no... even if I had the energy, that wouldn't work. Too much time has passed since you first sustained these injuries," Himawari explained. "But there's power and magic in this world that has nothing to do with cursed energy."

"Oh?" Nanami raised an eyebrow. "Like?"

"Modern medicine." Himawari smiled. Nanami nodded in understanding. "In this case, a gel derived from my aloe vera leaves. It does wonders for burns. I know that they will never fully go away - these burns are far too intense for that - but with proper care, we can speed the healing process along."

"Have you done this before?" Nanami was genuinely curious, but also uncertain, generally preferring to see a doctor or a medical sorcerer when injured.

"On a much smaller scale, yes," Himawari answered honestly. "I've used it on animals a couple times when they've shown up with burns. It always works wonders, though; and it can bring some pain relief in the earlier days."

"If you're sure, I won't turn down the help." Nanami nodded in acceptance. "Is there anything you need from me?"

"Nope. Just go ahead and take a seat on the futon while I go and get the mixture ready," Himawari bowed respectfully and walked off to her patio garden from the sliding wooden slat door to her deck.

Nanami obeyed, settling on the edge of the mattress to wait. A minute later, she returned with several thick, green aloe vera leaves and a clean mixing bowl, setting them down on the counter. He couldn't see what she was doing from where he was, but she seemed to move with the confidence of someone who knew what she was doing.

"Alright; that should do it," Himawari sighed, taking a moment to wash her hands at the kitchen sink. "If we need more later, I can always mix up another batch."

She carried the bowl over to the futon and took a seat beside Nanami when she had a realization.

"Oh, er..." She said shyly.

"What is it?"

"I can't access your burns like this - with your shirt on, I mean." Himawari's cheeks went red with embarrassment as she spoke. "I'm sorry if this is awkward."

"Don't be absurd." Nanami unbuttoned his collared shirt and removed it, setting it neatly on the pillow. Himawari tried to avert her eyes, now feeling overly aware of how close she was to the sorcerer.

"Would you rather I start with your front, or your back?" She cleared her throat and busied her hands with the mixture, preparing to place the first layer.

"The back, I think," he replied, shifting his body to face away from Himawari, resting his knee on the surface of the futon. She slathered a handful of the gel onto her hands, hovering them over his skin and pausing.

"I should warn you; this will sting at first, but the soothing effects shouldn't take long to kick in. Just let me know if you need me stop, alright?" Himawari waited for a response and received a single nod. The moment she placed her hands on his shoulderblades, she felt his muscles tense as he took in a sharp inhale at the jolt of stinging pain shooting across his skin.

"Sorry..." she winced. Nanami simply nodded for her to continue. As she moved the gelatin around the surface of his skin, his tension slowly eased away and he let out a long, deep exhale of relief. "That's a little better, I hope."

Nanami closed his eyes as he allowed Himawari to ease the gel across his back, impressed with how gentle yet firm her touch was. "You're very good at that."

"Well, I'd better be - it's kind of my job, after all," she joked. "I'm a massage therapist and acupuncturist - part-time, anyway."

"Hm." Nanami's response was curt, but he couldn't help but imagine having a proper massage from Himawari and felt his temperature rise a little. He pushed away the thought almost as quickly as it had come. Stop it, you oaf. This woman is going out of her way to help you; this is no time to be thinking of that.

"That was a clever career choice," Nanami stated with a calm smile. "Utilizing the skills you already have in your day-to-day basis - it's very fitting considering your cursed tool."

"I thought so, too. Your back is fully covered." Himawari removed her hands from his skin a few minutes later to Nanami's silent dismay. "Would mind turning around so I can get started on the rest?"

Nanami nodded and shifted around to face her, looking down at her with an unreadable expression before casting his gaze to the sidd. She took more gelatin into her hands and hovered them over the burns on his ribs and stomach.

"Again, this will sting at first..." She placed her hands on him once more and felt his muscles contract, his eyes clenching shut with a low grunt. "Hang in there, Mr. Nanami. It will pass."

Sure enough, the pain passed as she worked her way up his torso, easing the gelatin across his skin and carefully spreading it with her palms, fanning her fingers out gently then relenting her pressure to reach back into the mixing bowl. She tried to pay no mind to way his well-toned body felt; the way his muscles contracted and relaxed under her touch - but she would be lying if she'd said it didn't have her feeling some sort of way. Just as his strong back had been, the rest of him was just as well-defined.

Stay professional, Hima. She gulped. Just like any other client.

She briefly worked her way up his neck before her hands arrived at his jawline. She gently applied the gelatin to his cheekbones and just by his lips, then up to his forehead just around his eyepatch.

"The skin by the eyes is far more sensitive than the rest of your facial skin," Himawari explained, her hand lingering on his shoulder while the other hovered over the medical tape across his left eye. "I'm going to remove the eyepatch so I can tend to the skin around the wound and disinfect it while I'm at it, alright?"

Nanami nodded and closed his remaining eye as her soft hands slowly removed the medical tape and gauze, setting it to the side. He could still feel the soreness around the socket, but he was certain this was only due to his burns, now.

Huh... Himawari started applying a thin layer to the tender skin as he let out an almost imperceptible wince. Even with half his body covered in scar tissue and an eye missing, he's still so handsome.

His hardened expression was no less intense with his remaining amber eye. His blonde hair fell flat over his furrowed brow, and his jawline was sharp enough to cut paper. He maintained an intimidating and powerful aire through his sheer strength of presence alone, yet Himawari felt completely safe in his company, despite the butterflies in her stomach.

All too soon, she knew had finished her task. As she started to remove her hands from his face, Nanami's long fingers caught hers and brought them back up to his cheek, his eye closed as he took in the feeling of her fingertips on his skin.

He seemed almost as surprised as she was at his reaction, removing his hands from her own immediately with a gulp.

"I'm sorry, Miss Sasaki..." He cleared his throat and looked away abashedly. "I don't know why I just grabbed your hands like that."

"Hah - no harm done!" Himawari's cheeks were beet red, but she waved the moment off with a laugh to try and break the tension. "I hope I wasn't too rough on you - burns can be a nasty business."

"Not at all. I feel much better, thank you."

Himawari carefully started fashioning a fresh new eyepatch from sterile gauze as Nanami regarded her, deep in thought.

"I want to ask you something," he began. Himawari nodded to signal she was listening as she cleaned off her hands with a damp towel she'd brought with her. "Why did you leave the program all those years ago? Surely you could have been a valuable Jujutsu healer with a few more years of study."

"Oh, er..." Himawari frowned, unpleasant memories flashing behind her eyes, the echoes of long-standing guilt and inadequacy circling within her mind. "I just... wasn't cut out for the life of a Jujutsu sorcerer. I was never able to keep a cool head in combat. I would have been dead weight no matter who they would have paired me with - and I certainly would never have been able to take on a high-level threat solo."

"Perhaps if you were paired with the right team mate, you may have felt differently."

"Like you?" Himawari joked, raising an eyebrow and flashing him a cheeky, bittersweet smile. "Trust me - you don't want to be dealing with a big nasty curse while you're stuck hauling me around because my knees buckled a block and a half ago."

That earned her a huff of either mild amusement or derision. She chose to change the subject.

"Looking at the state of those burns, they appear to be third-degree, though they were probably fourth-degree before my time reversal..." Himawari started sifting through her medical kit. "As you can already tell, the recovery process is... unpleasant, but you should be through the worst of it now."

She unpacked a sterile pack of gauze wrap and signaled for Nanami to extend his arm as she wrapped the gauze around his burned areas.

"Right now, your biggest risk factors are going to be infection and dehydration. The gelatin I used was instilled with a minor antibiotic, but we still need to be careful and keep things as clean as possible while your body works on repairing itself." As Himawari reached her arms around Nanami's back, he shuddered at the sensation of her breath across his neck. "Staying hydrated - that's your main job now. Beyond that, we can leave these bandages alone for a few days and check on your progress when it's time to let your skin breathe."

"Thank you, Miss Sasaki." Nanami bowed, meeting her soft smile with one of his own as she tied off the last of the gauze wrap.

Nanami and Himawari lingered on the futon for a moment. Nanami stared down at her soft features, accented by the glow of the golden lighting of the nearby paper lamp. He found his gaze drawn to her long honey-coloured eyelashes, then to the smattering of freckles on her cheeks, and finally to her peach-coloured lips, parted ever so slightly in a way that had him subconsciously leaning forward before he stopped himself.

Himawari seemed to shake off some sort of thought herself, rising to her feet with her back to the sorcerer.

"Well, I've leave you to it then, Mr. Nanami," she said with a bow. "I hope you sleep well. If you need anything, don't hesitate to wake me, alright?"

Before he could answer, she was skittering back to her room with a cheerful "good night!" before disappearing around the corner.

Nanami let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, lowering back onto the futon in silence, his mind moving at a mile a minute. Meanwhile, Himawari buried her blushing face into her pillow, attempting to shake the feeling of his hands pulling hers back to his face, and the way he had looked at her just a moment ago that had her reeling.

I'm reading way too much into this...

~ To Be Continued...

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Sketches I need to make after this chapter:

• Nanami & Hoshi ('Look. We match.')

• Nanami holding Himawari's hands up to his face.

Part 3 | Part 5

#PSH #Purple strudel house #JJK #jujutsu kaisen #nanami kento #nanami #nanami x oc #himawari #fanfiction #fan fiction #wishful thinking #sfw #fluff #shibuya incident #Spotify

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