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cheapshrimpysheep · 10 months

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You Will Stop the Wedding! - Jamil Viper

SUMMARY: YOU were the one being kidnapped by Princess Eliza to marry her. How would he react and how would he save you? With the aggravation of he already having a crush on you.

CHARACTERS: Jamil Viper x Reader

TAGS: Fluff; GN Reader; Declaration

WORD COUNT: 1.260 words

Riddle Rosehearts / Leona Kingscholar / Azul Ashengrotto / Jamil Viper / Vil Schoenheit / Idia Shroud / Malleus Draconia

Rescuing You - Deuce Spade; Jack Howl; Floyd Leech; Kalim Al-Asim

COMMENTS: What have I done? Why did I commit to writing this? And why did I write so much? Why was I so inspired? There were seven of them! Why do I do this to myself? So yeah, this took me a long time. But I hope it was worth it, for me and for you.

CONTEXT: Someone was kidnapped to marry some ghost princess and might end up turning into a ghost too. And they just found out that someone was you.

Jamil was not present at the Housewarden's meeting, since he isn't one. But it didn't take long for Kalim to tell him, especially because he was panicking. He starts saying loose sentences about ghosts, kidnapping, marriage and especially your name. Jamil gets very serious and asks Kalim to stop for a few seconds, calm down a little and explain things clearly. And if that doesn't work, he has a plan B: ask one of the other Housewardens. Riddle would be an excellent choice.

After fully understanding what is happening, he himself panics for a moment. But then he clears his throat and calms himself down. He asks, no, he orders Kalim to stay safe in Scarabia while he joins the others in the rescue groups. When Kalim tries to convince Jamil to let him help them, Jamil gets straight to the point and says it's dangerous, both for him and for you. Does he really want to risk ruining everything? It's your life that's at stake here! Jamil was being harsher than usual, but Kalim knew why, and promised that he would stay in Scarabia hoping that everything would go well. He would behave well for Jamil and for you.

However Jamil is too cautious to simply believe him. So most likely, without Kalim noticing, Jamil will put him to sleep or something with some spell or with his Snake Wisper. You know, just in case.

Jamil asked to be in the last group. A little like Azul, he is the type to first analyse all angles of the situation before forming a more appropriate plan.

When it's the last group's turn, whenever someone needs to stay behind to tie up the ghosts, Jamil tells one of the others to do it. He always managed to show himself as a good strategist and someone who conveys the confidence of a leader, so the others just followed this order without questioning much. His behavior showed that he seemed to have a plan in place. He ends up being the only one to arrive at the ceremony hall.

He could follow the plan, but he knew himself well in this regard. He is good at hiding his true feelings, but he is not good at showing feelings that are antagonistic to his true ones. The princess would definitely notice this as she noticed some of the others' strategies. For these reasons he had a plan B, but still wanted to try the original plan.

“Your majesty, you must stop this wedding. You are taking with you someone who doesn't want to be with you. If you don't marry someone who loves you back, both of your lives... afterlives? will be miserable. And that's why I'm here. Please accept me as your husband and I promise to do everything in my power to make your afterlife wonderful.” Everything was going well, until he proposed to her husband.

The princess said out loud the same thing that you also noticed. In these sentences his emotion almost disappeared, showing that he was lying. And she accused him of trying to deceive her.

Jamil sighed. He was now forced to follow plan B, which he never really likes to follow. Be honest.“You are correct, your majesty. I was lying. But-” Before he could continue speaking the princess ordered the guards to catch him. And he had a plan for that too.

He managed to dodge all the ghost guards and was heading towards the altar where you and the princess were. But one thing wasn't part of his plan: One of the guards turning into a giant ghost. Obviously he still tried to fight and did his best, but he still lost against the guard. As soon as the guard caught him, the princess wasted no time in slapping him, she didn't want to hear his excuses.

However, Jamil remained able to move. Everyone gasps, including the princess. When the guards ask what's going on, the princess says it can only mean one thing. The thing is that her slap is capable of petrifying anyone, except those who have already found their true love. The reaction from all NRC students is like "What the F-?!" And Jamil’s reaction was to lower his head to try to make his hair hide his face.

Then he lifted it again, with an upset and slightly obscured expression on his face. He really hated exposing himself like that, but at that moment, it was his last shot to save you. “Do you want the truth? I'm here for someone, yes, but not for you. I'm here for the person you kidnapped to force to be your partner.” She starts to say that she didn't kidnap or force anyone. “Your delusion disgusts me.” The guard shakes him, threatening him not to insult the princess.

But now the princess is interested. He was there for you? So why did he ask to marry her? “Because we had a plan.” Jamil admits, as if he's had enough and just wants to resolve everything once and for all. “Making you accept one of us as a husband to put a ring on your finger that would send you to the afterlife.” The princess is offended and feels attacked by that. And while she and the guard start to say how outrageous that is, Jamil looks at the princess again, but this time with a condescending look.

“If you're going to take someone with you, take me then. Let (Y/N) go. Let me go in their place. From a young age I learned that part of my job would be to be willing to give my life for someone. Let me give my life for someone I lo... care about, then.” He couldn't fake something like this that well.

And, out of nowhere, the princess started to feel sorry for herself and jealous of you. Having someone willing to give their life for you like that. This was the greatest proof of love anyone could give. How she wished she had someone like that for herself too. And this was the opportunity that the guard who was in love with her found to declare himself and say that he would give his life for her, after all, technically, he had already done so. And that whole ending of the princess realizing that she loved him too happens, they get married and happily ever after.

As soon as the guard releases Jamil, he runs to you. “Are you well? Are you hurt?” You were petrified, but shortly afterwards you could move again. Jamil never left your side until the ghosts left.

After everything and while the first-years were getting ready to tidy up and clean the cafeteria, you asked Jamil to wait a bit. You leave the room so you can talk alone. He couldn't look at you, and he was trying to hide his face with his hands or his hair. He had practically already declared himself to you during all that madness. So you decide it's your turn to tell him that you feel the same way about him. He looks at you in surprise and you can see how flattered he was.

Knowing now that your feelings were mutual, he becomes kind of smug. “Does that mean you would give your life for me too? That you would serve me if necessary? *chuckle* Don't worry, I'm just messing with you. Unless you don't mind.” You say you would, at least, kiss him right there and then. He holds you by the waist. “Be my guest.”

If you would like to read more from me, you can find it in my pinned post: INDEX

#Twisted Wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #disney twisted wonderland #twst imagines #twst wonderland #twst fluff #Twisted Wonderland Fluff #Ghost Marriage #The Phantom Bride: Love at First Fright #Jamil Viper #Jamil Viper x Reader #Jamil x Reader

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faebaex · 8 months

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Tangled in Wonderland - Pick Your Poison

author note: next part finally! i enjoyed writing Vil, I've never written for him before and really wanted to do a good job. i thought alot about his values and how to put across his character, so i hope it doesn't seem too ooc, as i have never written him before now! next up is Ignihyde, and i'm planning to get that out before the end of the month! I've had an idea for that chapter for months, and i'm really excited to write it and add a little twist ≧✯◡✯≦ hope you enjoy!!

characters: Vil Schoenheit x GN!Reader

Something was definitely up.

Really, you should be relieved. This is what you had wanted all along, the whole reason that you had kept a low profile in the first place. But for some reason, now you just felt disconcerted. Uneasy, like there was an axe hanging above your head, ready to drop any moment.

Azul had still overblot. It wasn’t unexpected, especially considering you were the one who gave the Heartslabyul braincell duo the hot tip on where exactly they should look to get some leverage on Azul. You had no idea of what Leona’s involvement was in the whole situation, if he was at all, and you weren’t present to witness Azul’s overblot. But that wasn’t the part that had you all shaken up.

No.

The part that disturbed you was that Jamil’s overblot still happened, and you had absolutely no involvement in the events. You made sure you stayed well away from Scarabia, from Kalim, from Jamil. Even when you inevitably ran into him in the cafeteria kitchen when you were feeding the fire fairies, you made sure not to stare into his eyes, staring at his lips or anywhere else instead. You excused yourself as soon as possible, even though you were sure you’d aroused Jamil’s suspicions at least a little bit with your flighty behaviour.

You had wondered what the consequences of this would be. Would Jamil’s initial plan be a success and Kalim would end up ousted from his role as housewarden? Would Jamil take his place and finally be satisfied? Would his overblot be avoided altogether?

Clearly not.

You first noticed that something was up when Grim didn’t return back to Ramshackle one afternoon after the two of you had split up the work of feeding the fire fairies. You had hoped that he was just taking his sweet time, but he didn’t return that evening, or the evening after that. You debated with the idea of going and helping him out, but eventually decided not to. You felt a little bad, sure, but you trusted Grim’s tenacity to get him out of trouble.

When Grim finally returned home, he was practically bursting at the seams to tell you everything that had happened during his absence. Such willingness earned him a can of premium tuna, which you kept on hand for bribery. As you had expected, he had spent the last couple of days playing through the story route for book four. After becoming embroiled in the study hell that brainwashed Kalim was forcing on the Scarabia students, Grim escaped only to fall straight into the arms of Octavinelle. From what Grim had told you, book four played out exactly the same as the game, even without your presence, with Octavinelle’s meddling resulting in Jamil’s plan being foiled and him subsequently overblotting. Grim was particularly proud to tell you that even when Azul and the Leech twins had asked about you, he had not said a single peep about you. You gave him another can of premium tuna for that, hoping that one it was true, and two that he would be more inclined to continue being as discrete in the future.

You wondered if book four had continued as planned without your presence because the main character was more passive during that book then they were in all previous books. It was getting harder to wrack your brain and remember all the finer details of each book, especially considering that actually being in Twisted Wonderland when these events were unfolding was giving you seriously nauseating amounts of déjà vu.

All of these feelings led you to your next plan of action. With the culture fair fast approaching, that meant that book five was also on the horizon. And that meant you would have to deal with Vil Schoenheit. You’d been lucky enough to avoid any interactions with him at all since arriving in Twisted Wonderland, and you wanted to keep that streak going, preferably. You needed to not participate in the SDC at all, and you definitely couldn’t have the NRC Tribe staying at Ramshackle.

So yet again, you kept your head down. You didn’t go to the audition with Ace and Deuce, although you did feel bad enough about ditching them to watch their practices once or twice. When Rook’s message on an arrow summoned you to the Pomefiore ballroom after school with Ace and Deuce, you refused to attend. The Heartslabyul duo were confused at your outright refusal, but you managed to convince them that you had no interest in the SDC and simply wanted to focus all your energy on finding a way home. They both seemed to accept that, even if they found your behaviour a little odd.

That resulted in the Headmage paying you a rare visit in the library a few days later. He had implored you to find ‘enough kindness in your heart’ to share Ramshackle dorm with the SDC members. You had refused, of course, even after he tried to sweeten the deal by promising to pay for renovations to Ramshackle, which you knew were never going to happen. Crowley even had the audacity to promise to increase his exploration in a way home for you, which very almost had you throwing one of the books you had in front of you at him. You didn’t particularly want to upset the library ghosts. You managed to chase off Crowley by using the opening he had given you when he had brought up your home situation, with you pressing the Headmage on what exactly he had been doing this whole time. You were hoping that was the end of it, and if you just kept your head down and refused to cooperate, you could stay safely in the background.

But of course that wasn’t the end of it, because for some reason everyone at Night Raven College wanted to test your patience, even if you hadn’t officially met them yet.

You had left the library late that night, having gotten carried away reading one of the books you had sourced. Whilst the books that you read in an attempt to figure out a way home were often dense and confusing, you often came across interesting sections. You’d never dreamed that you’d be reading textbooks about magic, real magic, so it was so easy to get lost when interesting tidbits about forgotten magical practices or magical artifacts came up. You were startled when one of the library ghosts gave you a not so gentle fright to let you know it was late and you should probably go home, and you didn’t need any more persuading.

You were sure that Grim had probably fended for himself for dinner and you wondered if he would be that upset if you snagged one of his tins of tuna for himself as you crossed over the threshold into Ramshackle. You yawned, not bothering to cover your mouth, and attempting to stretch your stiff shoulders and back as you slowly ambled through the walkway towards the kitchen.

“If you paid more attention to your posture, you wouldn’t be feeling stiff at all.”

You froze in the walkway when you heard that familiar voice that shouldn’t feel familiar.

You doubled back several steps until you were looking in through the doorway towards the lounge, where none other than Vil Schoenheit sat on your couch, demurely sipping from one of your mugs. Your expression must have said it all, because he brought the mug away from his lips and raised an elegant eyebrow at you.

“Must you gawk? It does nothing for your features.”

You hadn’t even realised your mouth was hanging open, and you promptly snapped it shut. “What are you doing here?” You stuttered out before you managed to regain some of your composure, “I told the Headmage I wasn’t interested in hosting the NRC Tribe, so if he told you that—”

“I know what you said. I’m here because I think you should reconsider.” Vil remarked, a certain haughtiness in his tone that told you he thought you were being unnecessarily difficult. He gestured toward a free seat on the sofa, as if it was his lounge, not yours.

You blinked, slightly taken back by the audacity before you leaned heavily on the doorframe, pinching the bridge of your nose as that familiar feeling of frustration that you got when you had to deal with any of characters pestering you began to build in your bones. “Look—” You began.

“No, sit. We will be having a proper discussion about this.” Vil cut you off with an air of authority, one wielded by someone who often got their way, one way or another. Your eyes narrowed, your hand dropping from your face so Vil could feel the full impact of your disdain. “This is my dorm, Schoenheit, you should be treating me with more respect. You can’t order me around here.”

Vil gave you a smile that was as demeaning as it was beautiful. “Of course. But we are both housewardens, and housewardens should treat each other with mutual respect, no? The least you could do is give me the courtesy of a discussion.”

If you never had to deal with another housewarden again, it would be too soon.

You huffed but relented, moving over towards one of the sofas and all but threw yourself down, with elicited another eyebrow raise from Vil. Your phone tumbled out of your pocket on impact, lighting up in all its cracked glory and drawing Vil’s eye. “You should really get that fixed.” Vil commented dryly, and you scoffed whilst flipping it over, hiding it from his critical gaze.

“There is nothing you can say that will convince me to host the NRC Tribe here, so you’re just wasting your breath.” You said bluntly, hoping to end this pointless conversation quickly, but Vil didn’t look phased.

“I thought you might say that, so lets just cut to the negotiations. If you allow the NRC Tribe to stay here until the SDC concludes, Rook and I shall donate our share of the prize to Ramshackle dorm. Should we win, of course.” Vil looked at you expectantly, and you rolled your eyes.

“Crowley already tried to bribe me, and I’m not buying it.” You responded cooly, “I don’t intend to stay at Ramshackle, or even Twisted Wonderland, long enough to enjoy any benefit from allowing the NRC Tribe to stay here.” A bluff, considering you had no new leads on how to get home, but Vil didn’t seem to catch on, “also, all that hinges on the NRC Tribe actually winning the SDC. Not saying I don’t have any faith…” Which of course you don’t, you know the outcome. “… But as I’ve already made clear, I really don’t want to host, especially not out the goodness of my heart.”

To his credit, Vil seemed to be mulling over your words, placing his mug of tea down so he could fold his arms gracefully in front of him. “Ah yes, I see… The Headmage did mention you had been researching quite steadfastly. You know, tenacity is the pillar of Pomefiore…” You swear you could see a hint of respect in his eyes as he looked on at you approvingly, before he continued on with his train of thought, “then how about something more short term to sweeten the deal? Such as…” His eyes darted down to your poor phone. “Perhaps I could arrange for your phone to be fixed?”

You scoffed. “Who are you, Azul?” Vil frowned at that comparison, looking a little affronted. Good.

“How about this, then. The NRC Tribe stays here for the time that we need, and that’ll be it. You won’t be expected to carry out any support duties, nor give us any of your time. Furthermore, I’ll provide groceries for the full duration that we are at Ramshackle, and I won’t tell Crowley about it. Perhaps then you can put your living allowance for that month towards something to help with your research? All you need to do is allow us use of your free rooms and living space for a limited period. And of course, if NRC tribe are victorious at the SDC, I still intend to donate my share of the prize to Ramshackle.”

It was a tempting offer.

What you wanted was to not be involved with the SDC at all, and this allowed you to do that. You wouldn’t be the manager, or support in any form. You wouldn’t even have to see the NRC Tribe if you didn’t want to, you’re pretty sure you could negotiate further with Vil that the members weren’t to disturb you at all during their stay. You had already seen how Vil had ruled with an iron fist during the story, if it got him what he wanted, he would see it done.

But… With the NRC Tribe staying at Ramshackle, there was a risk that Ace and Deuce would gravitate towards you, and then Grim would get dragged in, which would likely end with you getting caught up and… You shook your head, looking towards Vil resolutely. “No, that’s not going to work for me. Sorry, but the NRC Tribe are going to have to find somewhere else for their training camp.”

Vil stared at you for a long moment, his eyes narrowing slightly as if he was studying you before he sighed, twisting his wrist around elegantly to check the time. “I’ll allow you to sleep on it. We can continue this topic again in the morning. Its time for me to retire for the evening, I don’t want to waste the effects of that herbal tea.”

You crooked an eyebrow as Vil stood, following suit shortly after. He drank a sleep tea in your dorm, even though he had to walk back to his own dorm? Odd, but each to their own. Maybe it was a Pomefiore thing? You did vaguely remember from the game that Vil set strict standards for himself…

You followed him out of the lounge, planning on giving him the courtesy of walking him to the door. Whilst he had invaded your home, he had been civil, which was more than you could say about half the other people on campus who pestered you on campus.

Of course, you had no idea just how deeply Vil had taken root in your home during your absence.

As you left the lounge, Vil turned towards the staircase instead of continuing down the walkway to where the main doors lie. “Uh, Vil. Wrong way. The entrance is this way.” You directed politely, only for Vil to continue walking. As he reached the first stair, he looked over his shoulder at you, with a look you could only describe as coy.

“Didn’t I mention, my dear? I’ve already moved in.”

For the second time that evening, your jaw dropped. Was he serious?!

“Vil—” You began, but he was already continuing up the stairs, clearly unbothered by your surprise and discontent. “I’ll see you in the morning, bright and early to continue our discussion. Sleep well, Prefect.”

You could only watch as Vil climbed the stairs and disappeared deeper into Ramshackle, hearing the creaky sound of the door of the room he had chosen opening and closing as he retired for the night. You were rendered absolutely speechless. You had never anticipated something like this happening. Even without agreeing to having the NRC Tribe stay at Ramshackle for their training camp, you still had Vil Schoenheit staying here anyway?! You scrubbed your hands over your tired face in frustration.

Just what else were you in for?

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst x reader #twisted wonderland x reader #twst vil #vil schoenheit #vil schoenheit x reader

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a-twistedheartslonging · 1 month

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Okay so I'm using this text to speech thing but anyway. so Jade Leach he's living his fan fic life. Like that's just how he lives. he just lives fanfiction. But that's the thing. some of the stuff he talks about in the recent update is genuinely stuff he wants to do. So whenever he was in that event and he's like "oh yeah I have a plan" and he starts listing off all the activities and scenarios that would make him stop everything he's doing and go hang out. But that's the thing. All that stuff that he wants to do is straight up activities he genuinely wants. He wants to hang out, he wants to go hiking, he wants to go discover new things and plants and mushrooms, to go out and do that with you. I just know he is SEETHING about that during the whole scene and especially when he's hiding and watching but can't come out yet. He's so mad which is probably also why he's so brutal about it and happy when he can take out his frustration. But all I can think is that if before all that book 7 stuff - because let's be real there was like a lot of time to hang out and do whatsoever before the whole book 7- but anyways let's say a reader or yuu that likes hiking anyway -cuz let's be real that place is huge, that campus is huge, the ramshackle is right there in the middle of everything plus there's a forest like right next to it- so if you were to just like walking or hiking and you had been hiking that whole time to decompress and explore (though maybe not necessarily with jade and more like as a hobby since NRC life is chaotic so maybe you didn't sign up for stuff etc). It's so over though if you end up making hiking buddies and he finds out. Especially if you two were hanging out anyways before he found out. Jade finds out that you were hiking without him and not only that, you were hiking with somebody else (considering the state of his mountain lovers club). I just feel he's pissed, very jealous though i feel like he both wishes you said something and also that he asked earlier (i can only imagine it's a scenario where you simply never know all of someone's hobbies just cause you hadn't thought to bring it up). Anyways i feel like he'd be so mad, just so mad about all of that. He'd be so mad cuz like "what do you mean that you were hiking without him? what do you mean you had a hiking buddy? you just HAD OTHER HIKERS with you?? how dare you 😡😢??" Especially since Jade has been there for a year and you know he's just so mad, he's so pissed, and he's so jealous and he wants to hang out because i know that Yuu even in canon hangs out with him a little bit but that's the point! He's sitting there and he's like "you're out there living my life, living my dream ,and you didn't even invite me???" he's so mad he's just so jealous of this whole situation

Pardon ramble, i was also using text to speech which was good because i found it easier than trying to type it up but i had to edit it and also pardon if it's tough to read since it's basically my excited speech patterns which can get rambly lol.

i think that'd be a funny fic idea.

You know, it didn't really hit me at first why he seemed to be sadistic with the fake him, but it does make sense that he would be jealous. Even intimidating guys get lonely, and he's made a few different comments before about wanting others to join and how Azul and Floyd aren't fond of his rambles or mushrooms.

I think it would be kind of funny for Yuu, alone or with their hiking buddy, to randomly run into Jade during one of his treks into nature. Why didn't you tell him you liked hiking and nature? 😠 You could have joined his club a long while ago!

You both better join his club to make up for it, if he doesn't like the other guy, they might fall off something though. I guess it would just be the two of you bonding over nature together then...

Being in his club could be a sweet deal, it's a good way to get the guy to have a positive association with you, would probably be hard for others to do otherwise since he and his brother go after peeps they find interesting.

But with this, even if your not the most exciting person, you can gain some of his interest and he might even do certain things to make sure you'll stay in the club. Say something about considering quitting the club since these guys have been bullying you and you just want to head straight to your dorm after class? Welp, it seems they recently got stuck in a contract with Azul, no need for you to change your schedule now.

Ah, the food. You may possibly get slightly poisoned by things until he decides he likes you but the fact that you're willing to try his mushroom stuff gets you more brownie points with the guy. Plus, you get free food often. I hope your like me and love mushrooms.

I'm kind of imagining a situation where you get into his club before Azul tries taking Ramshackle and when it does happen Jade is pretty insistent on getting Azul to let you stay in their dorm and is kind of anxious about you hating him because of the situation and quitting his club.

#twisted wonderland #twst #ask #asks #twst jade #jade leech #twisted wonderland jade

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dotster001 · 2 years

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Found

Summary: Lilia x gn!reader. Lilia has lived multiple lifetimes with you. But where have you been?

CW: reader has been multiple genders previously, but is currently using gn!pronouns. Discussions of death and illness. Angst to comfort.

Chapters: two

"You'll find me when I come back. I know you will."

That was the last thing you'd said to him when you died in your first lifetime. Even he was young then. A young fae soldier on a mission, days away from being promoted.

You were a male human soldier, who'd been in the company that "captured" him. You'd treated him with respect. You cared about his well being, and he never had the heart to tell you how the other soldiers treated him.

On your way to take him to the palace, you'd talk. You fell for each other on the journey, even though everything in him knew the end was coming.

He'd told you his plan, and asked you to flee with him. You'd told him you both had a duty to your people. But you couldn't hate him. And, at the end, he held you in his arms, you'd told him you were certain he'd find you again.

He'd felt you come back fifty years later. He waited until you would be an adult, then went searching for you. You were a woman this time, a maid to a human Queen.

He visited you at night, a stranger from the woods. You'd fallen for him again, and began to make plans to start a family together.

Then you'd fallen ill, taken down by one of the numerous human ailments, and, on your deathbed, had told him the same thing.

"You'll find me when I come back. I know you will."

Fifty years, like clockwork. Fifty years after your death, he'd feel you return. He'd wait until you'd reached adulthood, and then he would come find you. You'd been multiple genders, had multiple appearances, and lived in multiple places.

It hadn't been until your fourth lifetime that you'd been able to live longer. And even then you'd never make it to your happily ever after. But everytime, you'd assure him that you knew he'd find you. And your hope kept him going.

He was so excited this time. Raising the young prince, he had a head start with the family you'd always talked about…but he never felt you.

A long, long, time had passed since you were supposed to have returned. Many lifetimes, actually, had come and gone, and nothing.

He added Silver, then eventually Sebek, to his little family. But by then he had finally lost hope that you were coming back.

…..

He was all dressed up in his ceremonial robes for the opening ceremonies, and looking for his silly prince, who had once again not been informed that something was happening. He had been searching around Ramshackle when he felt it. Felt you.

And he ran. All sense left his mind as he ran toward the familiar feeling. He couldn't even process his own thoughts anymore, only pure joy and excitement.

He felt he was drawing nearer and was so lost in his revery he nearly bumped straight into Riddle and Azul.

"Vanrouge? Is everything all right?" Riddle raised an eyebrow. Lilia froze for a moment seeing the collared cat thing that Azul was using his hand to keep from yelling.

Startled back to reality, he heard murmuring and yelling in the mirror chamber.

"What's happening?" He asked, trying to seem normal.

"Some student arrived late and this creature tried to set Kalim on fire," Riddle sighed.

The creature looked to be trying to protest, but Azul was doing a good job keeping him from talking.

"Are you here to pick up the new Diasomnia students?" Riddle tried after he stayed silent.

"Ah yes. Seems Malleus wasn't informed again," he laughed lightly, gave a nod, and entered the mirror chamber, where he felt your soul burning brightly for him like a torch.

His eyes fell on you immediately. Standing next to Crowley, shouting and trying to explain something. The room became aware of his presence and all eyes were on him, even yours.

Even if he couldn't feel you, he'd have known it was you. Right now you looked scared, tired, stressed, confused, and everything in between. But your eyes. No matter who you were or what you looked like, your eyes had the same glint in every lifetime. Like you knew a secret no one else knew. Though, you yourself never seemed to know what it was when he asked.

And now those eyes were on him. No recognition, of course, it was rare for you to remember a past life outside of a dream here and there. But still, you were here! And, even if he had to do his duty first, he still felt a joy he hadn't felt in a long time.

He'd kept his promise.

He'd found you.

....

Tag list-@shytastemakerthing @leonia0

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #lilia x reader #lilia vanrouge #lilia vanrouge x reader #twst lilia

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luxaryllis · 4 months

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A Decision You Won't Regret: Azul Ashengrotto

Note: Sorry heh it's not a request in here but here's another fic for @twst-charity! It's a Twisted Wonderland-themed charity drive for Palestine. I highly encourage everyone to go to support them and the charity drive, such as spreading word around for it, and donating and sending in requests. Their pinned post and blog in general has a lot of information, and they also have contributor sign-ups open as well! I really hope you guys can support in any way you can!

Here's the link to donate and send in requests, which can also be found in their pinned post and the blog as well! You just have to give a proof of donation and send in your request there.

I had so much fun writing this fic hehe, as Azul is one of my personal fav characters! The donor requested for a Hurt/Comfort platonic fic with Azul and Yuu. This Yuu is completely gender neutral and uses they/them pronouns, and there aren't any specific warnings here!

Anyway, I do hope to do more fics for the charity drive, as well as the many number of requests in my own inbox soon, since it is summer break for me now and I know how long some of you have been waiting hehe!

"You and your tender disposition will only be taken advantage of here. If you ever feel like you've drawn the short straw, come see me. You won't regret it.”

Azul told Yuu that once, after they had helped him out for what felt like the nth time since they became “friends” (in Yuu’s standards). At the time, they had shrugged it off as nothing; they were careful, after all.

“I’ll be fine, Azul.” They told him, waving his words off with an easy-going smile. “I’ve been a student in NRC for months now. I know how the students here work, plus I know my boundaries and what I don’t want to do. Trust me.”

Azul held back a scoff, knowing how untrue that statement was. He knew Yuu well enough to be able to tell that their kindness would be their downfall. He still remembered how, deep in desperation, they recklessly made a deal with him simply to save their friends (who were paying the price for their own actions). Yuu was too kind. Too compassionate. Too selfless. While Azul had seen them scolding their friends for their foolish actions, he knew that Yuu would never betray or leave them behind. No matter what happened to them, Yuu’s altruism would always make them such an easy target. Pure benevolence will never come rewarded unless you get something in return. And a life of selflessness is simply signing your soul off to all sorts of pain and cruelty.

No world has a place for someone who blindly offers up themself to help others. Azul learned that when he was just a child. And he can see where Yuu’s path will bring them; straight to a time of despair in the hands of the people they wrongly chose to trust. And Azul will be there, to grant them comfort and a way to stop the pain. He will be their saving grace in a time of need. All for a simple price, of course. Unlike Yuu, Azul knows how the world works, and he knows that all it takes for such a kind-hearted person to lose their strong spirit is just a couple of betrayals and misunderstandings. Weakened people are always the easiest people to wring a profit out of too.

A profit, nothing more than business, was all Azul thought of his “friendship” with Yuu. Every time Yuu would help him, he would find a way to make up for it; be it through study guides, notes, some extra help gathering ingredients for Alchemy class, or simply managing to convince Sam to lower prices for groceries they were planning to buy, Azul would always pay back his debt, even if Yuu didn’t know it was him in the first place.

Any debt that hasn’t been paid, Azul kept note of. He had a list, ready to pull out should the opportunity arise. To Azul, this was all just a transactional business; while it was obvious that Yuu had no such intentions, Azul was ready to pounce, should the opportunity arise. Yuu has the heart of gold, and Azul has a mind that greeds for gold. And a true businessman would never let any opportunity pass him by. Even if that means the downfall of someone else.

That was Azul’s mindset as he spent more time with Yuu. Every gift and act of goodness he offers, he justifies it as him “paying back his debt”. And yet, slowly, he’s stopped looking for ways to force Yuu to do favors for him in return for his “kindness”. He still thought he saw this whole thing as a transaction; it was just him getting used to their constant presence in his life. No, he’s not getting attached to them; he invited them for lunch to learn more about what makes them tick. Surely, he could find something he can take advantage of. He’ll use the information he gets for a way to have another leg up on someone else.

So why does he feel strings tug at his heart as he watches them sob and wail at his feet, begging him for help. This is what he wanted, isn’t it? The Ramshackle prefect is right there, deeper in despair than Azul had ever seen before. Yuu is completely open and vulnerable for the taking, like an unsuspecting bubble approaching a spike, waiting to pop it. And yet, Azul finds himself feeling the exact opposite of relief. He feels worried, even a little angry at the thought of someone taking advantage of his friend.

Wait. His… friend? Since when does Azul think of Yuu as his friend? Are they even true friends? A small voice in Azul’s mind shouts, “No! You thought of taking advantage of them multiple times! True friends don’t do that.” And the second-year most certainly agrees, trying to ignore the sting in his chest at the thought of being such a terrible friend to someone who trusts him enough to come to him for help. What a rubbish excuse of a friend Azul is, if he thinks he can be Yuu’s friend, after everything he’s done to them.

“Prefect… tell me what happened. Every detail, please.” Azul musters up the strength to speak, and he realizes that he no longer needs to try pretending that he cares. It’s like it’s instinctive to want to know who made tears marr the Ramshackle prefect’s face. He's sure to make sure that whoever did shall pay a dear price, and he's even more certain that Jade and Floyd would be happy to help get to the bottom of this.

The moment he finds out the truth, Azul starts to scheme in his mind. Taking advantage of the prefect, his… friend, like this is considered a slight against Azul himself. At least, that's what he tells himself as he plans the perpetrator's downfall. It's what he tells himself as he brings Yuu into the Mostro Lounge, personally making a drink for them and getting them some snacks.

It's simple revenge, Azul tells himself as he learns the identity of Yuu's perpetrators and begins to think of ways to ruin their life. Night Raven College is a dog-eat-dog school, after all. Azul can't blame others for finding it easy to take advantage of the Ramshackle prefect's kindness, but he can most certainly blame others for taking advantage of his friend.

It feels weird to call Yuu his friend, Azul thinks to himself as he makes idle and (hopefully) comforting chatter with the prefect. After what he's done to them, it feels almost hypocritical and wrong to be friends with them. Azul knows that getting revenge on their behalf still won't make him a worthy friend, but perhaps it will help ease his unease about being a horrible friend to the prefect.

For now, though, Azul will focus on making sure that Yuu is comforted and feels better. “Please, make yourself at home here in the Mostro Lounge. The drinks and food are on the house.” He tells them, watching with a fond smile as they slowly start to calm down from their crying fit.

“Worry not, prefect. Jade, Floyd and I will make sure that they will pay dearly for what they've done.”

As Azul escorts the prefect out of Mostro Lounge, he stops them for a bit, and hesitantly tries to speak what he truly feels. “Thank you, Yuu. Thank you for trusting me enough to come to me.” He gives them a soft smile, and hopes that the prefect understands how grateful he is at the surplus amount of trust they've put in him.

Azul has long grown used to losing people's trust in him, especially after he's wrung them out for his advantage. He's always prepared to let go of his “clients” after they lose use to him. It's gone to a point where barely anyone can place their full trust in Azul, no matter how hard he genuinely tries to take back such faith in him. The Ramshackle prefect having so much trust in Azul is… a nice change. A foolish decision on the prefect's part for sure, but Azul promises himself it won't be one they regret.

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst hurt comfort #twst azul #azul ashengrotto #azul x reader #twst platonic

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lunerna21 · 1 month

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I FINALLY CAUGHT UP TO THE UPDATE FOR BOOK 7 AND I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED WITH HOW MUCH I ENJOYED IT

***SPOILERS FOR BOOK 7 JPN SERVER AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!***

***ALSO SLIGHTLY LONG POST AHEAD! MY APOLOGIES!***

UM CAN I MENTION HOW HARD I LAUGHED WHEN SILVER WAS TELLING THE STORY ABOUT FLOYD GRABBING RIDDLE'S HAIR TO SEE IF IT WAS HOT?!

AND JADE HYSTERICALLY LAUGHING WHILE AZUL IGNORES THEM!!!!

If they ever animate that scene, I'm gonna hurl from seeing Floyd just being catapulted off screen and Jade enjoying himself 😂

Floyd being so bored of his dream and just him swaying like the seaweed was freakin hysterical 😂

It just reminded me of this for some reason:

I mean it makes sense since Floyd is always up for a challenge and isn't afraid of basically anything, so of course Malleus's vision for Floyd's dream wasn't going to be very exciting

ALSO WE CAN TALK ABOUT FLOYD HAD THE BALLS TO FIGHT MALLEUS, LEONA AND EVEN FUCKING CATER?! CATER WIPED THE FLOOR FIGHTING FLOYD BUT I WASN'T EXPECTING CATER TO KICK ASS

HELL YES CATER!!

.......And then we jump into Jade's dream...

....The moment I saw how Jade imagined both Azul and Floyd...

AND THEN SOMEONE POSTED THIS ON TWITTER AND I ABSOLUTELY LOST IT

JADE BY FAR IS THE MOST HYSTERICAL CHARACTER IN TWST AND I CAN'T BELIEVE FLOYD HAD TO SEE HIS DOOFY LOOKING FACE LIKE THAT

I don't blame Floyd for duking it out with Jade I would feel the same if thats how my siblings imagined me lol

And finally, Azul's dream!!

First of all, AZUL WAS SOMETHING ELSE DURING HIS DREAMS

Azul being a coral rush player?! AND KINDA BEING JOCKY?! I wasn’t prepared for that! 😂

(special shoutout to Idia for throwing shade at his first image of a cocky player, that was 👌🏻)

JADE JUST GRABBING POOR IDIA'S TABLET AND GETTING AZUL'S SIGNATURE ON IT 😂👏🏻👏🏻

AND IDIA JUST SLOWING MOVING OFF TO THE SIDE THIS POOR GUY HAS BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH 😂

When the mermaids started harassing everyone and knocked us over, I WASNT READY FOR AZUL TO CARE WHEN WE GOT HIT

I WAS A FREAKING MESS IM SO DELUSIONAL AND I KNOW HE'S NOT ALWAYS NICE BUT AHHHHHHHH HE WAS SO CUTE HERE (Ignore me I'm delusional and I've missed Azul so much 🥺❤️)

It was so bizarre to see Azul playing a jocky player and being popular in school, but once Idia explained that any negative moments or lessons Azul had to face (bullying, losing the contracts) were no longer a thought because of it only being a dream with no negative emotions

It’s still mind boggling how detailed everyone’s dreams are but terrifying like damn Malleus has so much power and yet he can juggle so many of them

After Azul invited us to the party and was INCREDIBLY NICE for someone like him, and Idia got suss:

I knew something was up, especially after he made everyone wear the anenomes for the party AND GRIM SHOULD'VE KNOWN BETTER HE WENT THROUGH THIS BEFORE WHY DID HE BELIEVE THIS

Floyd and Jade bouncing off Azul being a bully was soooo worth it

It's kinda scary how I preferred the old Azul, considering he wasn't a cocky jock straight from a manga/book ICK ICK ICK

AND THEN AFTER AZUL FELL INTO THE BLOT, HE WAS A PAIN IN THE BUTT TO CORNER I WAS SO IMPRESSED WITH THE PLANNING AND HOW WE HELPED DESTROY THE CONTRACTS ONCE AGAIN

But this devastated me 😭

It still must've felt pretty shitty having to go through that again, but I started to cry I'm just so happy Azul woke up from his dream 😭❤️❤️❤️

Azul's battle with himself! *chefs kiss* I love how they reference it similar to the battle from The Little Mermaid and how Azul's blot form began to grow

But let me tell you something:

I WOULD DIE IF I COULD FRAME THIS!! JUST SEEING THE GLOWING EYE AND AZUL DOING THIS POSE! PERFECTION!!!

ITS SO GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK AZUL!!!❤️

This chapter was such a fun trip, and I'm so glad we're slowly getting closer to releasing everyone from their dreams

BUT ONE LAST THING! TWST INTENTIONALLY DID THIS TO HURT MY FEELINGS!

HOOOOOWWWWW DARE TWST FOR SHOVING THIS IN MY FACE I WANT MY BEST FRIENDS BACK SO BADLY AND THE FACT THAT THEY DO THIS CONSTANTLY AND ALSO GRIM BRINGING THEM UP IS JUST AWFUL

I MISS THEM SO MUCH I NEED TO SEE THEM AGAIN

NEXT UP, SAVANACLAW!! (RUGGIE I MISS YOU SO SO MUCH!!)

Enjoy the weekend~~!!!❤️

(Screenshots from https://youtube.com/@gasmask01?si=lpin67yaOvHDdg_c )

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emeraldtart · 5 months

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TWST X No Straight Roads (ft. 1010!Yuu)

After the whole Rock Revolution fiasco, Neon J decided it's time to introduce a new member to 1010. Also because his twins (Eloni and Haym) wanted a baby sibling.

So he made Kaw*. The crew's newest member, rapper, and the mysterious one. Since they're recently made, they're as sentient as MK-I androids, but it doesn't stop their fellow troops and captain from trying to indulge them.

Unfortunately, an incident involving Kliff messing with Neon J and DJSS's newest equipment caused them to be pulled to Twisted Wonderland to everyone's horror.

Facts about 1010!Yuu

Their name is a pun on two things 'kau' which is one of the ways to say 'you', which is in a more casual way as opposed to 'awak'. And also 'kaw' which means strong tasting beverages.

They're not sentient (yet)

They are made as a foil to Rin, from their colors (white vs purple), roles (leader and loner) and 'age' (oldest and youngest).

Their weapon is a gun, and they have a sniper gun installed in their arms. Think of Lady Nagan from MHA.

They haven't met Bunk Bed Junction. Their siblings were planning to meet with them until the incident.

Throughout the prologue they're just standing there like ._. while the chaos is happening around them. Nothing in their programming make them equipped with this situation.

Flirt with the first years + dorm leaders because they mistake them as a crowd of fans.

Their base programming/personality can be summed up as: quiet.

Shroud brothers are equal part excited and confused. Excited because holy crap, an idol robot!? That's cool! Confused because who installs weapons inside a idol robot!?

They're waterproof, as they are a navy robot.

Idia realizes he's a hypocrite because he did the same thing to Ortho.

Kaw is mostly expressionless until they see a large enough crowd and they suddenly flirts with them.

They can sing and dance, and sometimes sings the last word of a sentence.

Neon J made Kaw more durable, as he had learnt from his encounter with B2J during the Rock Revolution. They won't explode from people screaming, and they also have a sort of mini-Qwasa in their body that they can charge by listening to Funky House and Dance-pop/Europop music, which they can do simply be performing a song in that genre.

They're also charged by cheers like their brothers.

Since they came from a world that revolves around music, their body occasionally moves to an invisible tempo, even when they are standing still.

Started to show signs of sentience during Heartslabyul when Riddle insulted Neon J. They began to insult him back in a way only robots can, and everyone who heard their words were scared of what they said.

In Savanaclaw they started to 'have fun' playing a magicless form of Magishift with the first years and Savanaclaw.

Octavinelle was when they became fully sentient. They suddenly cried when the Savanaclaw students tried to pick a fight with them, as the stress finally catch up with them.

Everyone freaks out because 1) They can cry!? and 2) Oh shit, they're crying.

It also happens that at that moment Neon J managed to connect with Kaw's hologram projector + communicator, sees his metal child crying with an awkward Savanaclaw gang and Grim trying to console them, and began to threat the ever-loving daylights out of the students.

After all is said and done, Kaw explains everything and Neon J starts making plans on how to take out Azul.

Kaw: Dad. You can't do that, that's illegal.

Neon J: I know. But just so you know, your older brothers are not going to- wait. Did you just call me dad!?

Kaw: Wha- I- I mean SIR! *salutes*

Neon J: Oh my gosh... TROOPS! YOUR FELLOW SOLDIER HAS GAINED SENTIENCE! COME TAKE A LOOK!

Kaw: DAD, NO!!!

Savanaclaw looking at Neon J and thought: Oh Sevens, they weren't kidding when they said their captain(dad?) has a sonar for a head.

Jack may or may have not taken a picture of Neon J's hologram and send it to ADeuce (the picture got photobombed by the rest of 1010)

Let just say that Crowley's on NJ + 1010's hit list when they found out what he made their youngest member do.

The list of people increased when Neon J brought it up to NSR meetings.

B2J found out through 1010 who were hanging out with them.

Crowley is on sight in Vinyl City, beaten only by Kliff.

When VDC rolls in, they join in the training as emotional support.

Kaw managed to find a loophole in Vil's Unique Magic so they sneak in some sweets for the VDC team.

Trein noticed Kaw's disappointment at not being allowed to join in on VDC, being a 10-feet 10-inches tall robot and all. He pulled some strings with Crewel and allow Kaw to join in on the closing ceremony with their brothers.

Let just say that Kaw aced both history and potionology as a thank you gift.

As for Malleus, he was interested in this tall robot. A being made of metal, that sings and dance and powered by music? Very interesting indeed.

Their talk at first is very brief because of Kaw's lack of sentience, but then they started to become more human and eventually Malleus pointed out how they have become much more than what they were born for; a living being.

Kaw calls him Abang (Big brother/older brother).

Rin felt that his status as the eldest brother is being challenged.

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driedupeyeballs · 8 months

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you should totally tell us some of your Jamiazu headcanons/lh

OK UH LETS GO THIS MIGHT GET KINDA ANGSTY BUT RAAAH

So Jamil was definitely initially the type to be like “oh, a crush. How do I get rid of it.”

This is both bcuz he’s a loner and also bcuz he’s never really been allowed to have anything to himself for his whole life, so something like a long term relationship seemed especially out of the question. He initially was the type to wait it out and just let the feelings disappear on their own (spoiler: they didn’t)

As for Azul, he fell for Jamil almost immediately but was slow on realizing it. It was probably some off handed comment from one of the twins that made him conscious of the fact he had this crush, but he was pretty confident that Jamil didn’t like him back so didn’t act on it.

They both have a kind of guilt about not being good enough, Jamil because he has like no free will and Azul because of all his self esteem issues. They both feel inferior but see each other as absolutely perfect, they just completely adore each other

Azul is very reassuring, and just generally good with words like compliments and whatnot. This goes past their relationship, Azul just has a supreme vocabulary which is half the reason he’s able to rope so many people into schemes. Jamil isn’t as verbal or eloquent, he generally expresses his love more through acts of service like he’s used to, but it’s different w Azul. Cuz he’s not doing stuff for him because he has to or because of work, he’s doing it because he wants to, because he wants to make Azul happy cuz he’s one of the few lights in Jamil’s life.

I think Azul confessed first and Jamil ended up being the one to ask him to be his bf, probably took Azul a long ass time before he did open up to Jamil about his feelings and obviously Jamil reciprocated long before he knew Azul liked him, but he had his whole plan to repress it until it goes away lmao. So once he knows he’s not getting rid of it he’s the one that takes the initiative to make it official.

They didn’t get together immediately, kind of had a gray area period of knowing they like each other and acting sort of coupley just not having any labels on it. (But Jamil kinda likes the labels cuz he’s possessive but not like in a toxic way)

They cook for each other like a lot… Jamil’s love language is food atp and he knows Azul struggles with it so he lets him take it at his own pace. Azul doesn’t cook a lot cuz he’s not confident in his skills despite being great at it, he starts cooking for Jamil a bit later on and wow I’m realizing this whole segment is ripped straight out of aquarium cuz that fic rearranged the chemistry of my brain

They’re even worse about sharing clothes than most couples, they both like clothes w hoods (Jamil so he can hide and Azul cuz it’s dark and confined) so they end up stealing each others hoodies every chance they get until eventually no one knows which is whos anymore… Jamil can also occasionally be seen wearing that light blue coat from Azul’s dorm uniform if it’s especially cold outside (merfolk don’t get cold as easily so Azul’s always loading off his jackets onto Jamil in the winter)

On the topic of Azul’s merform, personal headcanon that it’s long as fuck, like 30ish feet, our man could easily crush a boat lmao. That’s one of the reasons he hides it away so much, not only is he self conscious he’s also afraid of accidentally hurting someone since his tentacles kinda have minds of their own and explore by themselves when he isn’t paying attention. It took a while before Jamil saw his merform, like a WHILE. like not until after NRC type shit cuz of a plethora of reasons. Jamil was always curious even before they started dating, but despite his anticipation took it at a leisurely/slower pace for Azul cuz he didn’t wanna make him feel rushed or uncomfortable.

When Jamil finally saw Azul’s merform tho it was a very sweet scene… our snake boy practically fell in love all over again lmao

Azul has not stopped trying to get Jamil into Octavinelle, in fact he’s gotten worse. He’s always pulling out the “I still think we could rule the world together” and Jamil just says the octavinelle hat is ugly then kisses him so he’ll shut up

Jamil deliberately kept their relationship a secret from Kalim specifically for months. Both because he’s trying to disconnect their lives a bit more and also bcuz… it’s Kalim. He’d probably throw like a “congrats on getting a boyfriend” party which Jamil did not want to deal with lmao. As for Azul, the tweels were the first to know. (In my headcanon/heart Kalim is besties w the tweels so he probably found out through either them or just general word of mouth cuz Jamil was determined to keep that shit from him for as long as possible)

Azuls big on pet names, E.G “my pearl”, “angelfish” etc. Jamil just sticks to “habibi” (and “asshole”/“cephalofuck” )

Azul comes to all of Jamil’s basketball games, and Jamil tries to participate in board games sometimes but he gets a lil too competitive sometimes lmao… board games club dnd campaign is kinda real to me tho so he’d probably play in that (and queue Azul “i roll to steal Jamil’s heart <3” then rolls a 4 and everyone else pisses themselves laughing while Jamil contemplates moving to another country and never being seen again)

Azul is a massive animal lover, he’s fascinated by earth animals. Jamil has had to stop him from petting a feral raccoon on several occasions. He also shares Jamil’s fondness for snakes and parrots too, I imagine if they ever move into together they’d have plenty of pets… *clears throat* I definitely haven’t made and named… pets for them… *awkward coughing*

General Azul HC he blushes blue cuz octopi have blue blood and Jamil adores this

ANYWAY UH I’ve gone on way too long here um yes JAMIAZU!! After NRC they move into a beachfront place in the Shaftlands and they r happy and canon and I am so mentally ill over them

#jamiazu #azujami #azul ashengrotto #twst jamil #Twst headcanons #I am so normal about them

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 9 days

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Yuu can do it!

Part 59

First - Previous - Masterlist - TBC

“– so Jack grabs the rock, right, and Enma asks him to pass it over. And then he –.”

“Ito, c’mon,” Enma groaned, his face in his arms, his ears tinted red.

“– tried to bite the rock?!” Ito continued to explain, incredulously.

“I had to know, okay?! Grim’s always talking about how those things taste amazing! What if he was right?!”

Kuroki grinned, rolling his eyes. “And how did it taste?”

Enma seemed to be trying to disappear into the side of Kuroki’s mattress. “Like a rock…”

“Rocks taste good,” Grim said, firmly, patting his stomach. “Especially the ones that come out of those Phantoms.”

Kuroki scratched the monster behind his ears, smiling. “Well, I’m sure those blot stones are worth a fortune, so I’m glad you’re satiating yourself for free. I don’t want to go into debt to feed you.”

“Oh,” Ito said, snapping their fingers. “That reminds me. So, you know how we kinda ruined a fourth of Ashengrotto-senpai’s restaurant?”

“I thought you said it was a sixteenth?” Grim said, confused.

“I did do that, yes,” Ito said, their lips curling into a grin. “Anyways. I’ve been thinking. Ashengrotto-senpai is gonna make us sign a deal again to make him pay off that debt, soooooo… I think we should tell the Headmaster that the Lounge got trashed during the Overblot.”

Kuroki, who was always down to make the Headmaster suffer, nodded vehemently. At the end of the day, even if Kuroki wasn’t particularly fond of Azul Ashengrotto, he hated Crowley and everything he represented. If something hurt Crowley, he wasn’t going to pettily toss the idea aside simply because it might help Azul out.

He also liked not being in debt.

“I could still make you pay regardless!” a voice chimed in.

Kuroki reconsidered whether he hated Azul or Crowley more.

Yeah… still Crowley.

But this thought was immediately swiped from his mind, because Azul wasn’t walking into the infirmary on his own. No, he was being carried on Floyd’s back like a child.

Kuroki pressed his lips into a thin line to hide a smile. The paycheck. Just think about the paycheck and keep a straight face.

It was much harder when Jade waved at Enma when the boy lifted his head to see the newcomers. Enma immediately seemed to go through all five stages of grief. And then he ducked his head once again, trying to become one with Kuroki’s hospital bed.

“Oh?” Jade said, waiting for just a moment so Floyd could deposit a grumpy Azul on one of the cots, before making his way over to poke at Enma’s shoulder. “And here I thought you were eager to fight me… why not now? We’re both free, are we not?”

Kuroki narrowed his eyes.

His expression immediately softened when Enma’s hand found his own, squeezing a little. “Even if – if – y’know, I’m not really intending on leaving right now.”

Jade tipped his head to the side. Probably considering which choice on his dialogue tree would mess with Enma the most.

“Am I missing something?” Ito not-so-quietly whispered to Kuroki.

“We saw –.”

“I will suffocate you with a pillow while you sleep.”

“– absolutely nothing,” Kuroki decided. He could always tell Ito later, if they didn’t figure it out themself.

In the meantime, though, Kuroki considered the pros and cons of letting Jade mess with Enma. It was, slightly, unfair, he thought. He figured that, had he liked men, he would have probably been unable to look someone in the eyes mere hours after having seen them naked, especially not in such… strange circumstances.

But it was funny, so… as long as it didn’t go too far, Kuroki decided to let it ride.

Azul Ashengrotto, ruiner of plans, had other ideas:

“Nice to see that all of you can still be so… lively, in these sorts of circumstances,” he said, in a tone that suggested he did not, in fact, think it was ‘nice to see’.

“This is – like – Overblot number four, forgive us for not caring that much anymore,” Ito sighed.

“Four? I’ve only heard of three,” Jade said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ito waved him off.

Jade looked like he was very much going to worry about it. Which was unfortunate for Kuroki, since he worked with him.

… wait, he was definitely fired at this point. Yeah! He had never been so happy to be at risk of dying of hunger!

Okay, admittedly, it was much harder to be pleased when he thought about the ‘at risk of dying of hunger’ thing.

He glanced at Azul, laying in his cot, trying valiantly to ignore Floyd poking and prodding at him.

“I do have to admit,” Kuroki said. “This is the first time someone actively tried to kill one of us. Like, most of the time, we were just there.”

Azul winced.

Kuroki pulled Grim onto his lap, carefully running his hand along his unfortunately-slick back. Floyd was right, he was like a little seal. It was cute, he supposed. He still missed the fur, though.

“... listen, Azul –.”

“I never gave you permission to call me that.”

“You literally tried to murder me. I’m done being polite.”

Azul flushed.

“All jokes – most jokes – aside… regardless of the fact that I do not like you, I can admit that you’re very hard-working. Sometimes hard work doesn’t beat natural talent, but it still does a lot, and most bosses prefer a hard worker over a naturally talented person, anyway. Naturally talented people kinda suck. See Kingscholar-senpai for an example.”

Azul’s face, slowly, flushed.

“Awww, what's the matter? Are you gettin' teary-eyed, Azul?” Floyd cooed.

“Dear me. You've gone back to that ink-spewing crybaby again.”

“Hey! You two signed an NDA covering that exact topic!”

“Right you are. My mistake,” Jade said.

Azul looked like he doubted it was a ‘mistake’. Probably because it definitely wasn’t one.

But, in the end, perhaps because he was simply too drained to deal with it, he turned back to Kuroki and said, “Your attempts to console me are clumsy at best.”

“Suffer, then,” Kuroki said. He’d tried his best. If Azul decided not to take it to heart, then what was he supposed to do? It was officially no longer his problem.

Enma grinned. “Aw. Kuroki. You were almost heartfelt for a minute there. Are you feeling okay?”

“No. I might be concussed,” Kuroki deadpanned.

… damn it, now Ito and Enma had noticed that he hadn’t even gotten halfway through his potion and were shoving it toward him again.

He, reluctantly, mostly just to assuage their worries, brought it to his lips again.

“What’s that?” Azul said.

Kuroki, pleased to talk and therefore have an excuse to not drink the potion anymore, lifted it high above his head. “A health potion.”

Azul blinked.

“... the fuck is a health potion?” Floyd asked.

“Is that a… thing from your world?” Jade asked, a little hesitantly.

Something like dread curled in the back of Kuroki’s mind. His hand fell back to his lap, his fingers tightening around the neck of the flask. “The Headmaster gave it to us, actually.”

(A little unwillingly, sure, but Kuroki would never admit that to them of all people.)

If anything, that answer just seemed to make the three mermen more confused. They looked between themselves, unsure.

“There’s no such thing as a ‘health potion’,” said Jade.

Which, of course, raised the question of what the fuck was it, then?

Kuroki worried his lip. Man, he really didn’t need any more world-shattering revelations today. Or tomorrow. Or, frankly, for the rest of his life, but he would settle for, like, a week.

“Can I analyze the rest of that?” Azul asked, his eyes gleaming.

Kuroki, who really didn’t want to drink anymore, jumped at the opportunity to rush out of bed and hand it over to Azul.

Grim immediately flew over and grabbed Kuroki by the back of his shirt, dragging him back to bed, his curses muffled by the shirt in his mouth.

Azul’s pupils narrowed at the potion for a moment. He held it up to the light, tilting it this way and that. His lips pressed into a thin line.

And then the door to the hospital wing started to open, and Azul rushed to hide it beneath his pillow.

They all smiled, innocently, at the Headmaster.

Crowley looked over all of their pleasant expressions, his wings fluffing up briefly, before he smoothed himself out, smiling in a way that was clearly supposed to be pleasant, but was instead coming off as blatantly nervous. “I’m here to assist you all.”

“Took you long enough,” Kuroki said.

The tension broke.

Enma cuffed Kuroki over the back of his head.

Kuroki flipped him off. “Bitch?! I’m injured, you can’t hit me!”

“I just watched you run across a room, you’re fine,” Enma said.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Crowley said, cheerily, striding over.

Kuroki, of course, thanks to the not-health-potion, was declared to be perfectly fine.

But Crowley still wanted him to stay overnight for monitoring. Something about how, when you survive drowning, you can later do something called ‘dry drowning’, where your lungs decide to be a bitch and fill with water a second time for funsies.

Kuroki was half-tempted to simply see whether he should test out the limits of his possible immortality, but that voice in his head sounded distinctly like Enma, and he never listened to Enma, thank you very much.

So, he shrugged and nodded. Monitoring his health would, perhaps, actually be good for said health!

“And,” added Crowley, squinting at them. He pointed at Ito and Enma. “You two have to leave when the hospital wing closes in a few minutes, and you can’t come back until it opens again at 7 tomorrow.”

Their expressions immediately darkened.

If you looked carefully, you could see their minds all racing, trying to find a loophole.

Enma, after a moment, brightened back up. “Okay, Headmaster. We can do that.”

Crowley’s victorious look dropped into a slight frown. “Why do I feel like I’m losing?”

“I don’t know, why do you?” Enma asked, so very innocent.

“Can’t you three behave for, perhaps, a day?” he damn-near begged.

“We just killed an Overblot for you,” Ito deadpanned.

“... that you did!” he coughed, awkwardly, and then turned to go deal with the victim of said Overblot.

Azul, too, was mostly fine. Though the broken leg was still there. Whoops.

Crowley, after a bit of magic to make sure Azul’s bones were in place (everyone pretended that they didn’t hear the boy gasp in pain for a minute there, they were assholes, but not evil), made a quick splint for the injury.

And then he ushered the Leech twins out the door, Ito and Enma in tow, calling for Azul and Kuroki to sleep well and to simply say his name if they needed help.

Kuroki and Azul looked at each other in awkward silence, unsure what to do. Should they just… sleep? Talk?

Kuroki scratched behind Grim’s ear, his lips pursed into a thin line. “So, uh, am I fired?” he asked.

He no longer had a contract assuring that he wouldn’t be fired for no good reason. And, even if he had, he was pretty sure that ‘breaking the kneecaps of your boss’ and ‘trashing your workplace’ would count as being ‘good reason’.

To his surprise, though, Azul shook his head. Vehemently.

“No. You make my life miserable for fun. I haven’t even done anything to you! There’s no way I’m going to give you an actual reason to dislike me.”

… Leona, you have been forgiven. Your claims of Kuroki being evil might have just saved half of the Ramshackle student’s income.

“Sweet,” said Kuroki, slumping against his pillows. He was pretty sure that Crowley would have made him work in the infirmary if he had no other options, but he also knew Ito’s paycheck was around half of his own, and that included all of the hours where they simply ‘forgot’ to clock out.

They would have been able to scrape by, but Kuroki liked having some disposable income. The ability to slowly fix up their house was nice. And not cheap.

At least a certain birdman had stopped crashing in through their windows when Kuroki started making him pay for the damages.

Speaking of…

There was a knock on the window.

Kuroki raised his eyebrows when he saw Floyd Leech, perched on the windowsill, smiling and waving at them.

After a second’s hesitation, he hefted Grim in his arms and made his way over. “Hi…”

“We’ve come to take you guys home,” Floyd answered the unasked question.

“How did you get up here?” Grim asked, his eyes wide.

“Jumped, Azarashi-chan,” Floyd said, as if it were obvious.

Maybe it was. Azul didn’t look particularly surprised.

Kuroki sighed, peering past Floyd. The others were on the ground. Ito and Enma were chatting, but they brightened up and waved at him when they noticed him looking.

“... how do you expect me to get down?” Kuroki asked.

Floyd smiled.

“Fuck.”

The Ramshackle and Octavinelle dorms were quick to part ways. The moon hung in the sky, tinted just slightly green as always. The campus was quiet, barely a whisper of conversation on the wind – two people rushing around, clearly looking for someone, though Kuroki couldn’t say he knew who their Waka-sama was, so he wouldn’t be of help.

Not that he was particularly interested in helping either way. On the one hand, Grim was asleep on his shoulders and he didn’t want to wake the monster, and on the other hand, he certainly wasn’t kind enough to help people for free (ew). Basically, he saw no reason to be nice right now, try again later.

Ito yawned, rubbing the tiny tears that formed in their eyes away absently. “Can’t wait to get back home,” they murmured, briefly bumping their shoulder against Kuroki’s.

“Hope the Leech twins haven’t trashed the place,” Enma said.

“We can make them pay for damages,” Kuroki decided. “Plus some – for emotional damages.”

Enma hummed his agreement.

Kuroki stuffed his hands into his pockets. “... so…”

“So?” Ito said, lightly.

He took a deep breath. “Um. I didn’t – I’m not going to say I’m sorry for making that contract, okay? If I had the opportunity, I’d do it again.”

And, seeing as that contract with Azul had dissolved along with all of the others, this was actually something he had seriously considered.

“But,” he said. “I honestly… didn’t think it would affect you guys at all. I mean, sure, my anxiety was telling me that you guys might make a deal with Azul one day, but I didn’t… actually think you would. I didn’t think it would change anything, or mean anything, really. I kind of just expected it to be a quick deal that would never come up again. I didn’t… want to hurt you guys. I didn’t think you’d ever have a reason to know.”

Enma and Ito glanced at each other.

“... has anyone ever told you that you suck at apologizing?” Ito asked, lightly, their shoulder bumping against his.

Kuroki smiled, a little sheepishly. “I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever done it, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Enma sighed, lifting a hand to ruffle his hair. For once, Kuroki didn’t even give a halfhearted complaint.

“One day the ‘I never really had friends or a family’ excuse isn’t gonna work, y’know.”

Kuroki peered out from under the hand on his head, warily. “Is it working now, though? Because I can pull the ‘ooh ouch owie I am in so much pain’ excuse, too, if it’s not.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Enma said, his lips starting to twitch into a smile. He pulled Kuroki into his side. “You – you know that we weren’t… we don’t hate you, right? Like, you’ve seen how Ito and I are when we hate people. We just needed a little time to deal with it.”

“I still don’t get why you were upset, really,” Kuroki admitted. “If you guys did it for me, I’d be thankful – flattered.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Enma muttered.

Kuroki opened his mouth to argue, but Ito beat him to the punch: “It doesn’t matter how you would react, because we aren’t you.”

“... I mean…”

Ito flicked him in the shoulder. “Yes, yes, our fundamental framework seems to be the same or whatever, but there are still more than enough differences for us to technically also count as different people.”

Kuroki huffed.

Ito sighed. “We know you… didn’t take it very well that we were avoiding you, but, frankly… that was the nicest I could be at the time. I mean, if I talked to you, I’d treat you how I treat Trey-senpai, and I can guarantee you would like that less.”

Kuroki considered that. It wouldn’t pick at his insecurities in the same way, but he did appreciate not having a broken nose…

“Like, really, did you want me to treat you like Ruggie? Or Jade Leech-senpai?”

“I definitely don’t want to be treated the way you treat Jade Leech-senpai,” Kuroki said, rolling his eyes. “But you cannot call what you have with him ‘hate’.”

“How do you know that, hm? You’re not me!”

“It’s painfully obvious. I mean, dude, I thought you were a good actor.”

“It’s not obvious… is it?”

He looked to Ito for help. Ito looked away, whistling innocently.

Poor Enma’s face went beet red in the moonlight. He groaned.

“Do you think he knows?”

Ito shrugged. “Even if he returned your feelings, I doubt he’d confess to you, he’d rather watch you flounder. And I think you’d be too prideful to risk making a fool of yourself to confess. So… I don’t know if it matters.”

“... is that a no?”

“It’s an I can’t read that guy at all.”

“Either way, as the only male figure in your life, I don’t approve,” Kuroki pitched in, because he had to. “There is no way in hell I am letting you date Jade-fucking-Leech of all people.”

“What’s wrong with him?!”

“What isn’t wrong with him?”

“I refuse to be Floyd Leech-senpai’s brother-in-law,” Kuroki added.

Ito blinked. Once. Twice. “You guys’re related?”

Enma and Kuroki immediately went tense.

“No, no,” Kuroki said, scrambling for an explanation, because he doubted that the truth would go over well with Ito in particular. “It’s just… since Enma and I don’t have any siblings, and we probably have similar genetic makeups, we’ve decided that we count.”

Ito’s eyebrows knit. They glanced between Kuroki and Enma. And then seemed to shrug internally. “I mean. I wouldn’t define it that way, but you can do that, if you want.”

Oh, the Leech twins had cleaned up their house for them in preparation for the Mostro Lounge branch they had wanted to turn it into.

Nice. Free labor!

They enjoyed this for all of five seconds, before immediately trudging upstairs and collapsing into bed as one.

Kuroki rested his hands on his hips. “Why would I let you come with us? You didn’t even come and visit me in the hospital wing yesterday!”

“I was busy stealing that mattress for you,” Jack said.

“... forgiven,” Kuroki decided, suddenly recalling that the Tetanus Spring was strangely missing from their bed the previous night. “What’s you two’s excuse?”

“We got roped into helping clean up Octavinelle!” Deuce defended them.

“How?! Why?!”

Ace and Deuce looked as if they had been struck dumb.

“I think we were so used to the crazy shit you guys drag us into that we just kinda went along out of habit,” Ace admitted.

(All of that work conditioning their friends over months, and the Octavinelle people might have ruined it for them! Nooo! They were waiting to cash that in for something big!)

“Sucks to suck,” Grim said, smirking.

“Says the guy who doesn’t even notice when they’re roping him into their schemes,” Deuce said.

“They don’t rope me into anything. They’re my familiars,” Grim sniffed.

Jack gave the three Yuus a glare. The Yuus simply smiled serenely.

“He’s right. He could order us around, if he wanted,” Ito said, lacing their hands behind their back.

Kuroki hugged the monster closer to his chest, smirking over his head. “We would never manipulate him into anything.”

Enma batted his eyelashes. “He helps us because we’re his darling, well-behaved henchmen, and he’s an amazing boss.”

“Exactly!” said Grim, nodding his approval.

“This is seriously fucked up. This is – like – brainwashing,” Ace said, horrified.

Kuroki hummed, pressing a kiss to the top of Grim’s head.

“They don’t even deny it,” Deuce said.

“... I’m starting to think that I shouldn’t be hanging around you three,” Jack muttered.

“Nah, you’re stuck with us now,” Enma said, giving Jack a pat on the shoulder, a mockery of comfort.

“Speaking of which!” Ito lifted their backpack, full of leftover water-breathing potions. “Let’s go on a field trip!”

The museum was closed. Again.

Kuroki frowned. It… wasn’t supposed to be closed today. He glanced at the sign outside the door to confirm, and found that he hadn’t remembered wrong.

A short chat with the guards revealed that someone had privately booked the place just last night.

Enma pouted up a storm.

Kuroki sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Fine. We can go to the library. But you have a budget on how many books you can st – check out.”

Ito looked at him, now, their eyes gleaming.

“One piece of jewelry.”

“Five.”

“One.”

“Four.”

“... two,” Kuroki offered.

“Seven,” Enma pitched in, because he sucked.

“Oh, yeah, seven,” Ito nodded along.

“Three!” Kuroki amended, a little desperately.

“Three it is!” they chirped.

Kuroki narrowed his eyes at them. He, suddenly, strongly suspected that Ito had been going for three the entire time.

But he sighed, nodding. “Yeah. Fine. Let’s go get your jewelry now, since Enma’s definitely going to spend the rest of the day in the library.”

Ace, Deuce, and Jack immediately backed off a few steps.

“Yeah, no, we’re going to wait outside. You guys have fun,” Ace said.

“You guys are literally so gay,” Ito said, rolling their eyes. “You cannot tell me that you’re scared of going in a fucking jewelry store.”

They were.

And, in the end, the Yuus were happy to let the three of them go and grab some food for everyone while they shopped.

“Aw, man, and they were so cute, too,” said Ito frowning at the price of a set of earrings and a matching necklace. From the way they had bee-lined to this store, Kuroki suspected that they had spotted the jewelry pieces sometime over the past three days. Perhaps when they went to get food with Floyd, way back on day one?

But they were disappointed to learn that that shit was not cheap.

The woman running the store gave a slightly apologetic smile. “Seaglass is pretty easy to come by down here, but welding isn’t particularly fun to do. The heating vents are…”

Enma hummed, his eyes gleaming. “It must be hard when there’s no fire.”

“Oh, there’s fire, if you can get a mage to help you, but it costs a pretty penny,” she said, lifting her arms in a shrug. “And, frankly, I don’t want to get near the stuff. It’s freaky.”

Grim sulked.

Ito smiled, reaching out and scratching behind Grim’s ears. “Fire’s not all bad, just a little misunderstood. Y’know, people used to make giant forest fires on purpose, because the ashes would make good fertilizer for their crops.”

Grim brightened up again. “And it cooks your food, after, too!”

“And it cooks your food,” Ito agreed, softer than Kuroki had ever seen them.

Now, if Kuroki had to guess, Ito had probably never had a pet before, and therefore didn’t hold the same reservations against caring for Grim as they did for Kuroki and Enma. There was no mental turmoil to be had, no ‘oh gosh am I betraying my original family?’ so why shouldn’t they indulge themself? Add Ito’s fondness for children, and their openly favoring Grim was inevitable.

This didn’t make him feel any less jealous.

It certainly made him feel stupid for being jealous in the first place, though.

He sighed as he took in the price. It… honestly wasn’t that much more expensive than he was expecting…

“This is about the amount I thought it’d be, if you really want just these.”

Ito lit up, leaning over to press a quick kiss to his cheek.

Kuroki smiled a little, his bad mood dissipating instantly.

The woman laughed. “Why does the little one get to decide whether you can buy things?”

“Little?” protested Kuroki.

But his friends seemed to not care for defending his honor on that front. Or any front.

“Because he likes budgeting, and if we don’t follow his budget he complains for days,” Enma lamented.

“I’m trying to keep us from starving to death!”

Grim raised his paw. “But you don’t let me get the fancy tuna.”

“It literally doesn’t even taste any different!”

He shook his head. “The extra money makes it taste better.”

Kuroki scowled. His life sucks.

At least Ito was happy, beaming as Enma helped fasten the necklace in place, sliding the pendant under their shirt for safekeeping.

With that, they were off in search of a library they could definitely-not-steal-from.

“Not going to wear the earrings?” Kuroki asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not underwater,” Ito said, slightly forlorn as they carefully tucked the box into their pocket. “Swimming with earrings is always a little risky. If you’re not careful, they can pull their way right through your earlobe. And then you can’t wear any earrings.”

“... I’m not sure that ‘not being able to wear any earrings’ is the worst thing about that scenario,” Kuroki said.

“No, it is.”

“Okay.”

Jack, Ace, and Deuce came back empty-handed.

This should have been considered a crime, but alas, they couldn’t prosecute their friends. They just glared at them as hard as they could.

“They like raw fish down here,” Ace grumbled. “And not in the sushi way, in the straight-up raw fish way.”

Grim frowned. “What’s wrong with that?”

“We’re trying not to get food poisoning,” Jack said.

“... what’s that?”

“Oh, to be a monster,” Enma sighed.

“Yeah, so you could eat rocks?” Ace asked, smirking.

“You’re on thin ice for not coming back with food, Ace, reconsider what you just said.”

Ace looked like he had considered it very heavily and was willing to face the consequences, but someone saved him:

“Koebi-chan!”

“How does this keep happening to me?” Kuroki whispered.

And then he was bowled over, arms latching themselves around him.

He scowled, pushing at Floyd’s face. “Get off. Why are you here?!”

“We live underwater. Why are you here?” Jade asked.

Enma scowled at him, crossing his arms over his chest. If asked, he would definitely say the flush in his face was due to annoyance. “We’re shopping.”

“Actually, we’re going to the library,” Grim corrected.

Enma gave him a betrayed look. Grim merely blinked back at him, confused.

Ito sighed. “We were gonna go to the museum, but it’s closed, so we’re gonna grab some books from the library.”

“And, let me guess, you have no intention of returning said books?” Azul said, raising an eyebrow. He was still in his human form, for some reason, getting dragged along by Jade.

But who cares about his weird choices? He was currently suggesting that they would commit a crime, which simply would not do!

“I plead the fifth,” Ito said, solemnly.

Unfortunately for Ito, no one understood their joke. They slumped against Enma, sulking. Enma patted them atop the head.

Kuroki pressed his hand over his chest. “What they’re trying to say is that you really can’t believe that we, the people who organized a heist to steal a photo for you, would steal from a public institution.”

Azul rolled his eyes.

Floyd hummed. “If you guys’re wanting to get into the museum, we can take you.”

Kuroki tipped his head back against Floyd’s shoulder. “It’s closed for the day.”

“And why is that?” Jade asked, smiling behind his hand.

“‘Cause someone’s rented the place. I didn’t even know you could do that,” Enma mumbled.

“You wouldn’t have been able to afford it even if you had known,” Azul said.

“... no way,” said Deuce, catching on first, surprisingly.

“Yes, we have decided to rent out the museum for the day,” Azul sighed. “I have to put a photo back in its rightful place.”

Azul glared at the Leech twins. The Leech twins, of course, were unperturbed.

Kuroki, however, was also more than a little miffed. “Really?! It was so hard to get that photo, and you’re just gonna put it back?!”

Jade tipped his head to the side. “Azul here wanted it because he wished to erase his past. Considering what happened yesterday… clearly, he cannot outrun it, so facing it is the only option he has left.”

Kuroki’s heart thudded in his throat.

He smiled around it. “So, if he’s facing his past, shouldn’t he be in his merman form?”

“You’re pushing it,” Azul gritted out, his businessman’s smile straining.

Kuroki snickered.

Enma waved his hands for everyone’s attention. “No more banter! Let’s go to the museum!”

Kuroki smiled. He was acting like a little kid who was very excited about a field trip. It was funny, but also a little cute. So, he shut his mouth, and allowed the Octavinelle kids to lead them all to the museum.

The museum was nice. Kuroki couldn’t say it particularly interested him. He’d never been a history buff, like Ito, or fascinated by the world around him in the way Enma was.

So, he let them have their fun while he hung back near the entrance with Azul to make sure he didn’t try anything while putting the photo back.

“It’s a nice photo,” Kuroki offered.

Azul stuck it to the wall, scowling. “It’s a perfectly fine photo, just not a good one of me.”

Yeah, Kuroki had kind of guessed that much. Between the octopus-themed Overblot, and the ink-spewing crybaby’ line, and Leona calling him a ‘cephalo-punk’, putting together the pieces wasn’t that difficult – Azul was the little octopus Jade and Floyd were annoying in the picture.

And, considering how far their little group of three was from the rest of their class, and how they all looked different from the others… well, Kuroki had a few guesses as to why Azul was the way he was.

No wonder he’d fixated on Kuroki.

Kuroki was still taking it personally, though. If only because he didn’t generally appreciate it when people tried to kill him.

Azul stared at the photo of himself.

“I thought… if I could just erase all proof of my past, I would feel better,” Azul admitted, leaning against his cane. “I managed to get all of my classmate’s yearbooks, the negatives from the photographers, even this. But…”

“It didn’t make you happy?” Kuroki guessed.

Azul snorted. “Not in the least. All I could think about was how one day, somehow, someone would find out, and everything would just… end. And I’d be back there. Never did I think that it would be my contracts that would fail me, though.”

Kuroki thought about it, and then shrugged, leaning against one of the turnstile machines. He wasn’t at all qualified, but Azul was talking to him for some reason, and therefore it fell on Kuroki to fix things.

“Well… I think your problem is that you focused on the wrong thing. You wanted to make it so no one could make fun of you, right? But the people making fun of you… okay, they were the problem, but that’s not something that you can change. Sometimes, your situation is shitty, and you just have to move on, because there’s nothing else you can do.”

Azul gave him a slightly tired smile. “You’re bad at this.”

“I’ve been told I’m bad at apologies, too,” Kuroki shrugged. “Speaking really isn’t my strong suit, I think.”

They stayed there in silence for a long while.

“... did that work for you? Moving past it?”

“Our situations are different.” He walked over to peer at the photo. Slowly, he lifted his hand, thumb up, covering Azul’s past self. “I wasn’t… bullied, per se. I just… wasn’t.”

If Kuroki had never existed back in his own world, would it have changed anything?

Had he been born here, would he have been better off?

There was no point in ‘what ifs’, and yet it was hard to dismiss the thoughts entirely.

“And, as for moving on…” Kuroki smiled, wryly. “I think this is a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ kinda situation.”

Enma hooked his arm through Kuroki’s the moment he saw him.

“C’mon, you have to see the dinosaur skeleton,” Grim said. “It’s huge.”

“It’s not a dinosaur, it’s a sea dragon,” Jade corrected, lightly.

“Yeah, yeah, the definitely-not-an-ichthyosaur,” Enma said, rolling his eyes.

“What’s an ichthyosaur?” Jade asked, raising his eyebrows.

Enma’s eyes gleamed. “Okay, so, it’s this species of big water dinosaur, and it –.”

Kuroki tuned Enma out. Not because he wasn’t necessarily interested in dinosaurs, he is a guy, after all, he had just heard this particular rant before.

He watched as Deuce admired the craftsmanship on a nearby cauldron, which was said to belong to the Sea Witch. Ace was laughing at Deuce, but he took pictures when asked.

Ito and Floyd had taken to the gift shop, which housed one very stressed out worker who looked like they might start swimming belly-up if Floyd stayed for much longer. Ito, of course, was probably doing this on purpose in hopes that, should the woman pass out, they would get the chance to loot the place. They were owed one more piece of jewelry for the day, after all, and if there was anything they took seriously it was certainly their physical appearance.

As for Jack, he was currently looking at the different bioluminescent plants and small fish that were being used as makeshift lamps. He poked one of the fish. The fish, being a fish, swam away. Which, unfortunately, seemed to ignite a latent hunting instinct, and now Jack was chasing it around.

Kuroki smiled, his attention turning back to Enma.

“– took out a whole T-rex, it’s so cool, I wish I could show you the movie –.”

Ah, it was still going.

Perhaps at least partially because Jade was egging Enma on, nodding along with interest, but…

Now that Kuroki thought about it, Enma’s dinosaur rants usually lasted the longest, since it usually devolved into talking about Jurassic Park, which was… a movie series from Enma’s world. Apparently, it had dinosaurs in it. Lucky bastards don’t even know what they have going for them.

Ito walked over, a new shell bracelet on their wrist. Kuroki rolled his eyes. They simply shrugged, entirely unrepentant.

Which was fair, it wasn’t like Kuroki was going to get onto one of his friends for theft.

His eyes flicked to Deuce, who might also commit theft, honestly, judging by how he clearly coveted the cauldron, and found Azul standing by him, giving a sales pitch:

“I do understand how mages create fire underwater, but I should warn you now – my knowledge doesn’t come cheap.”

Deuce and Ace started rifling through their pockets.

Had they learned nothing from the entire anemone situation? Maybe Ito was right, they should have let Azul have control over them for at least a little while.

… well, it was officially the start of Winter Break for them, Kuroki supposed, and Azul was only asking for hard cash. He could let them have their fun.

In fact.

Kuroki nudged Enma in the side. Enma paused in his rant about how the moral of the first movie (something about how ‘You were so focused on whether you could, that you never stopped to consider if you should’) was stupid and annoying, actually.

“Azul is going to explain how fire works underwater.”

“... hold that thought, senpai,” Enma said, before immediately rushing to join the others.

(Kuroki sighed as he was dragged with him, relieved. Crisis averted. Jade and Enma could not become friends – or, worse, more than friends.)

Azul raised his eyebrows at the new addition to his audience but, having been paid, he seemed more than happy to comply. Probably because Ace and Deuce had shoved some extra thaumarks into his hands.

“Well, you see, understanding fire and its properties is important. It feeds on oxygen, which means you must provide it with air to breathe. You start off with a wind spell…”

#twisted wonderland #twst yuu #kuroki yuuya #enma yuuken #twst grim #ace trappola #deuce spade #jack howl #the muse will not release me helppppp #azul ashengrotto #jade leech #floyd leech #dire crowley #octavinelle

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thegoldencontracts · 4 months

Text

What Do You Want?

Summary: You try to approach Azul with an offer. His response is- odd, to say the least.

Notes: My heart wants fluff to make up for the angst yesterday... im sorry T_T

The moment you'd first seen Azul, you thought he was pretty. Then, you started noticing other little cool things about him. And before you knew it, you had a crush.

"You're- so stupid!" Ace said with a laugh. "You actually think Azul Ashengrotto would ever like anyone? Best outcome is, he tries to scam you but you barely manage to win."

"I've got a point-card!" You said cheerily. "And I've made a rough outline of what I want my contract to look like."

The 'outline' was only one sentence, but Ace didn't need to know that.

At that moment, though, Ace's eyes widened.

"You're actually gonna do it?" He said, the grin fading from his face.

"Yeah," you said. You were going to try and make a contract with him, see what happened. Maybe it wouldn't work out. But hey, you'd never know if you didn't try!

Besides, you had a plan. And that plan was what brought you to the VIP room, a golden point card in hand.

"Ah, what a pleasant surprise it is to see you here!" Azul said with a salesman's grin that somehow still looked cute. "I was under the impression you couldn't afford point-cards."

You laughed.

"It's lovely what happens when you make people compensate you for your labor," you said. And it was true. Telling people you'd do something for a free meal at the Lounge got you point cards and food witthout any complaints. For some reason, people were more willing to do that than give you the money straight-up, even if the expensive meals usually meant they'd have to pay more. Whatever.

"Oh," Azul said, before quickly changing the topic. "So what exactly is your desire?"

You smirked.

"Azul," you said. "Considering the ranking of the Golden card, that means you have to accept any contract I propose, so long as it doesn't pose direct harm to your mental or physical wellbeing in some way, shape, or form, correct?"

Azul's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Correct, however, you're forgetting-"

"The impact limit, yes," you said. "If the wish in question requires maiming, killing, or mentally scarring any individual, whether or not you agree to grant it becomes a decision entirely at your discretion."

At this point, Azul was looking at you like you'd grown two heads.

"Your point is...?" He asked.

"I won't have to make any other payment for my wish then, correct?" You said. You knew how these exchanges worked, and you did not want to get scammed.

Azul bit his lip.

"Fine, fine, you 'win', I suppose. Just- tell me what exactly it is you desire," he said.

You smiled, handing him a piece of paper with the draft of your contract on it. Azul's eyes widened in shock at its contents.

'Be my friend!' it said.

"Sooooo, what do you think?" You asked.

Azul shot you a glare. Harsh.

"What do you want?"

"I already told you- well, wrote to you, I guess, but-"

"No," Azul said, voice dangerously level. "What do you truly want?"

"Be my friend!" You said, flashing him a thumbs up. But Azul was still angry. Did he just hate you or something?

"I don't appreciate such juvenile attempts at mockery," he said. "If you have no true wish to make, then I shall have you escorted out."

You sighed. Seriously, this was getting annoying. Did he want to avoid you that badly?

"Look," you said. "I already laid it all out - you should try being my friend! And if you don't like it, then you stop! Simple as that, right?"

Azul scoffed.

"That's preposterous," he said. "No one would ever want such a thing-"

"Well, I want it," you said, before sighing. "Look, is it really that big of a deal?"

At that, Azul seemed to malfunction, like he couldn't possibly comprehend what you were saying. That was weird. Why wasn't he happy? Wasn't he going to try and scam you or something?

At long last, Azul shook away the red dusting his cheeks, handing you a pamphlet.

"Take this for now," he said. It was a study guide for Alchemy. "And keep the point card. I'll continue my inquiry tomorrow during lunch, so prepare yourself. Now then, leave."

"Great! See you tomorrow lunch then, Azul."

You took the study guide and headed for the exit. The study guide was pretty good, actually. And there was that little chibi doodle with hearts around it - you didn't know where it came from, but it kind of reminded you of yourself!

So, hey, it seemed like things were going pretty well.

Meanwhile, Azul was in a panic.

"The Prefect's caught on, I'm certain of it!" He said to Floyd and Jade, furiously flipping through his book of contingency plans for any type of social situation gone wrong. "Why else would such an odd request be made of me?"

Floyd rolled his eyes.

"Cause Shrimpy wanted to be your friend?" He said.

"No one would ever desire such a thing!" Azul said. "The Prefect's found out about that foolish little crush of mine, and decided to make a fool out of me. There's no other explanation!"

It was a sensible explanation, wasn't it? Common, too. It had happened to Azul all the time back then. He simply had to make sure he didn't slip, that he established consequences for all those who attempted to mess with him now.

His thoughts were cut off by the sound of Jade's laughter.

"What seems to be the matter, Jade? Do enlighten me," Azul asked dryly.

"You made an error in your panicked frenzy with the Prefect, that's all," Jade said. "The study guide you gave was the one with the doodles."

Azul felt his mouth go dry.

"W-What?"

"The one filled with countless doodles of your little crush, surrounded by hearts."

O-Of all the study guides, why that one?

Seven, how he wished to crawl into an octopus pot right now. But for now, all he could settle for was burying his face in his hands, left alone with his thoughts as he tuned Jade and Floyd out entirely.

He hadn't believed it, but- what if you were being sincere? What if you truly did want to grow closer to him? Yes, it was true that such a thing had never occurred in the past, meaning an analysis of past trends would seem such a thing impossible, and this sort of trick had been played on him countless times before but-

You seemed oddly sincere about it. And, frankly, he wanted you to be.

Azul couldn't help but sigh. Though it would likely cause him problems later, for now, he couldn't help but let himself hope.

#azul ashengrotto #twisted wonderland #twst #azul ashengrotto x reader #azul x reader #azul ashengrotto x you #twst x reader #twst azul

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ryuichirou · 25 days

Text

Replies

Some replies! Mostly twst related, one about boys wearing skirts and stuff…

Anonymous asked:

To the latest mer-azul drawing:

Can I suck your right tit and giggle the left one

😱 Scandalous; Azul would probably get so offended if he heard you. Tshhh!

blackbutlerfandomnerddomain asked:

~If you get this, answer w/ three random facts about yourself and send it to the last seven blogs in your notifs. anon or not, doesn’t matter, let’s get to know the person behind the blog!~

Alright, I don’t mind sharing some random facts! I repeat some of them every time I am asked to name random facts about myself though, so some might already know about them…

I was born on Friday the 13th, so I get super smug every time this weekday/date combo happens.

I collect figurines! I own a big aniplex Azul one, and I preordered Idia as well… I mostly collect nendoroids, but I don’t have any twst nendos yet :( (they’re too expensive)

I have a bachelor’s degree in sociology, but only use it to talk about how people are wrong on the internet.

Anonymous asked:

Which of the twst boys do you think would be willing to where "feminine" clothes like dresses and skirts? Who wears them the most? Who hates them? Who looks best? How often does Rook try to look up Vil's skirt?

Everyone would look good! Everyone should wear a dress just to prove my point!! But if we’re being serious… I’ll only talk about the ones I have anything to say about.

Hmm, I think it’s safe to say that Vil is the most comfortable wearing this kind of clothes. With his rant about stupid it is to call clothes “feminine” or “masculine” (based btw), I am very sure he has a bunch of straight-up skirts or dresses in his closet. In the game he tends to wear things that still have some “androgynous” vibe, and he usually wears pants or leggings underneath his most “ladylike” stuff, but I don’t think it has anything to do with him being uncomfy without them. Which I guess you already implied with your last question lol Maybe this is why Vil always wears pants or leggings underneath his skirt-like clothes – because otherwise Rook gets way too fucking distracted!!

I think Riddle wouldn’t mind wearing a dress as long as it’s reminiscent of the Queen herself and there is an occasion. The line for him is kind of blurred when it comes to how far he is willing to go to emulate her. He would look very good, we’ve seen his Overblot self, and he’s pretty much wearing a dress there! The rest of the boys wouldn’t want to do it though, even Cater, who seems like he is very chill about this kind of stuff at first…

Savanaclaw boys – not really, I don’t think they have any opinion on skirts or dresses at all; Octavinelle boys – also not really, buuut Floyd could have fun with a skirt for like 10 minutes lol I think he wouldn’t necessarily be uncomfortable, he doesn’t have the “boys shouldn’t wear this” bias – he doesn’t care. It’s just not his style. Azul tries really hard to present in a very specific way, so dresses and skirts feel like a very wrong choice to him. And Jade, similarly to Floyd, doesn’t really care. But he recognises that others do, and weaponises it…

Kalim could do it but probably as a joke. He wouldn’t look super embarrassed, but he would laugh and say that this is kind of embarrassing. In general, Kalim doesn’t care about it much, but he would love to see some stuff on Jamil. Jamil, as always, just wants a nap, but he would be far more comfortable wearing a dress or a skirt than he thinks. And he would look great, especially if it’s a short skirt or a dress with a traditional silky vibe.

Epel hates dresses and he dreads the moment Vil makes him wear one. Of course he would look adorable in a dress or a skirt, especially if this is some kind of Lolita dress, but he really really hates the idea. Vil wasn’t even planning on making him wear it, but if he’s being so pissy about it, fine… he will make him wear a dress.

Idia would hate the idea, he would instantly think that people (even if he is all alone in this) would think that he is just some loser dressing all pretty thinking that it would make him look good and girly. He thinks that he is too lanky and bony for that – his knees aren’t pretty enough for that. Ortho doesn’t think so; also Ortho would 100% wear a dress or a skirt with no issue other than it has to be made into a gear for him to wear.

Lilia also would have no issue wearing a dress or a skirt, but he would prefer a skirt. He would enjoy how flowy it is and how it drops and reveals his underwear when he’s flying upside-down. Silver would be a bit embarrassed and worry that he doesn’t look as good as he should, but wouldn’t mind the dress/skirt itself. And Malleus wouldn’t mind wearing one at all, as long as it’s for someone’s private eyes~

#replies #headcanons

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mysteryshoptls · 1 year

Text

SR Jade Leech Lab Coat Personal Story: Part 2

"It simply means I love them"

(Part 1) Part 2

[Alchemy Workshop]

Jade: When subjected to the electricity that comes from lightning strikes, mushrooms grow even larger. However, the reason for this is still unknown…

Jade: I was skeptical when I read that in my reference books, but it does seem that the mushrooms that were given an electrical stimulus did grow faster.

Jade: Lightning bolts which would normally be a terrifying cause of forest fires, can also help promote growth, I see. Such is one of the many mysteries the mountains possess!

Jade: How wonderfully fascinating. I shall have to keep an eye on the weather whenever I hike in the mountains now.

Azul: Ah, Jade, so you were here.

Azul: Really, I searched everywhere for you… I'd prefer if you wouldn't inconvenience me like this.

Jade: Oh my, is it that late already?

Jade: I must prepare the Mostro Lounge to open its doors.

Azul: Also, I would speak to you on today's provision purchases… Wait a moment.

Jade: What is it?

Azul: Those aren't… mushrooms that you have there in your hands, are they?

Jade: Yes, they are. These are the mushrooms that I had so lovingly cultivated that are now ready to be consumed.

Azul: We do not need any more mushrooms!

Jade: Eh.

Jade: I had planned on using my painstakingly cultivated mushrooms to craft some appetizers for the Mostro Lounge today.

Jade: Were you not yourself elated before this, saying, "What good fortune to get our hands on good quality ingredients, all for free!"

Azul: Indeed, I was pleased at first. They were also very popular dishes in the Mostro Lounge.

Azul: However, I have grown tired of them. Dish after dish, day after day… You are growing too many mushrooms.

Jade: I believe you also said, "Mushrooms are low in calories."

Azul: You need to consider that there is such a thing as "too much."

Azul: It's been just mushrooms for two weeks straight, you know. Two. Weeks. Straight. I will not eat any more.

Azul: And it would not be good if we were to bore our customers with that repetition.

Jade: However, I could not possibly throw away these sweet, little mushrooms I raised with all my heart…

Azul: I didn't say anything about doing anything wasteful like throwing them away. Sell them to the cafeteria, or the school store.

Jade: Sell them, I see…

Jade: Well, there is precedent here, so I'm sure the cafeteria will buy them from me.

Azul: Precedent?

Jade: Ah, just speaking out loud. I shall do as you say.

Jade: After all, I went through the trouble of cultivating these. I would be most pleased if I could give them to someone who would enjoy eating them.

[Cafeteria]

ーThe next day

[rabble, rabble]

Floyd: Gonna eat all the non-mushroom things～

Azul: I shall also be eating something other than mushroom based.

Floyd: Lately, Jade's always been smelling like dirt, too, y'know. I hate being in our room 'cause of it.

Azul: How hard you have it, Floyd.

Azul: It must be painful to have a sibling in such a strange club as the "Mountain Lover's Club."

Jade: There seems to be a lot of chatter going on behind my back… Well, not that I mind.

Jade: Now, where is he… Ah, there he is.

Jade: Fufu…

Azul: Jade? What is with that grin?

Jade: No, it's nothing. Let us eat.

Lilia: What's this, your lunch today is risotto again, Silver!?

Silver: Yes.

Lilia: I remember, the other day, you said that the mushroom risotto was delicious. Did you get hooked on it?

Silver: No, that isn't it…

Silver: …Yes, I've been searching for the flavor I tasted that day by eating the mushroom risotto every day since then here in the cafeteria. However, it seems to have returned to its former flavor.

Silver: The risotto that day was especially good. …However, it may have been a fluke. What a pity.

Lilia: Well, maybe there will come a time where you'll encounter it once more. Look forward to that and enjoy your meal in the meantime.

Silver: Yes, I shall.

Silver: …

Silver: …!

Lilia: What is it, Silver? You've frozen again.

Silver: This risotto…

Lilia: A-Are you saying this time it's actually poisoned? Is it!?

Silver: It's...

Lilia: Silver!

Silver: It's...

Silver: It's delicious!!!!!

Lilia: What, so it's good?

Lilia: What's with your reactions? Don't try to startle your elders like this. It's bad for my heart.

Silver: Today's risotto is just like that day's… No, it's much more flavorful than that day.

Silver: It's thicker than before, and both the texture and taste are much richer. The amazing flavor of the mushrooms have completely engulfed this risotto!

Lilia: I-I see.

Lilia: It must truly be something, if even someone as ordinarily stoic as you would go to that lengths to describe it.

Silver: That's right. This is the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. I never thought flavors could change this drastically.

Silver: Where could they have possibly gotten these ingredients…? These must be the highest grade of mushrooms.

Silver: Please, Father, you should try some too!

Jade: …

Azul: …de …Jade! Can you not hear me?

Floyd: There he goes again, just grinning in silence. I don't get it…

Azul: Perhaps he ate some strange mushroom…?

Floyd: Eh… Yikes…

(Part 1) Part 2

#twisted wonderland #twst #jade leech #azul ashengrotto #floyd leech #silver #lilia vanrouge #twst jade #twst azul #twst floyd #twst silver #twst lilia #twst translation

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pixiestickie · 1 year

Note

also jamiazu prompt fr u to talk abt: who do u think kissed the other first. how do u think their first kiss played out

RUBS MY EVIL HANDS LIKE AN EVIL MOSQUITO ON A SUMMER MORNING

okay so ill get to the point my awnser is jamil im sorry . i dont know how many people here will agree with this post but i am no longer a coward on tumblr (LIAR)

i mostly feel like this because I can’t picture azul as being straight forward about that sort of thing. i can picture him as meticolously planning and practicing everything beforehand and then just failing miserably because jamil is jamil.

sometimes i think abt how azul never had a friend to socualize with in his childhood (other than the tweels which are FAR from normal friends). if he ever crushed on someone as a kid he 100% never acted out on it because of how insecure he was (and is) with all that bullying he received

also azul is at disadvantage because jamil is always so grumpy around him how is one supposed to know if its ok to kiss this guy without getting punched in the face

the whole thing about jamiazu is that jamil needs to learn how to trust azul (abd actually azul does as well but thats another can of worms that needs its seperate post) which is why i can only see it happen post-book6 jamil

once he learns to overcome his horrifying trust issues induced by his horrible job . thats when he kisses azul ^_^

i really went off topic with this post cuz it was supposed to be about a first kiss but i deserve to wtite paragraphs and be shameless i think

anyway my vision is: they’re hanging out alone in an unplanned place like maybe away from a scarabia party? maybe in the fucking hallways bathrooms away from classes? just not a planned date or anything because i have delusions (i feel like jamil would do it in an unplanned context on purpose). at first they’re just standing there alone with lots of tension, with azul trying to chat like he always does but jamil is deep in thought about how he feels about everything. jamil concludes that he is so tired of depriving himself of what he wants and of holding himself back. that he should go for that kiss because he deserves it ^_^ and azul explodes and dies……. u think about the rest…….

i hope you like my vision i should not be allowed to write crimge when sleep deprived ❤️❤️❤️

#i cut so much shit off cuz i went on such an off topic tangent #about their trust issues #but it needs a seperate post #;7 #&?&&((&(&&(#IM SO GONNA REGRET THIS ONCE I WAKE UP TOMORROW BUT THATS EXACLTY WHY IM POSTING THIS NOW.#jamiazu #i am even goijg to fucking tag thjs.#i am in my villain arc(girl who is talking about her jnteresst)#also again thank you sm for the asks and the prompt it’s really helped getting my mind off things #i am going to bed in a bright mood #i hope i didnt go too off topic im a lost cause

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dotster001 · 8 months

Note

Hiya!!! I was wondering if I could request what would happen if Yuu accidentally ignited a Snow Ball War at NRC? It could be HCs or imagines with whoever you want!

Snowball War

Summary: Gn!reader

A/N: idk where you guys live, but for the last two weeks, I've lived IN THE FUCKING ARCTIC. Today it finally reached 30° after two weeks of 14° and lower, and snow storms, and freezing rain, so I wrote this to celebrate a liveable temperature where I could actually see road for once.

“I have an idea.”

“Ah shit, not that look. Y/N, whatever he is about to ask you, say no,” Ace warned.

You looked up from your lunch in confusion. Epel had just slid over, with a wicked look in his eye. A look that normally came from Ace. And if Ace was telling you it would be bad, then it would surely be bad.

“I've never done anything wrong in my life!”

In the seat next to you, Jack snorted, but didn't say anything.

“Listen, Y/N, my best friend, one who I'd do anything for,” he pleadingly took your hand, full charm on. “I never ask for anything.”

This time you snorted.

“I just want this one thing.”

“What is it, Epel?” You asked tiredly.

“Well, you know how it's snowing? I need you to pretend we are having a snowball fight, so that I can “accidentally” hit Vil with a snowball.”

You yanked your hand back, and went back to your lunch.

“Just listen! He's gonna be on his internship next year, so I'll never get another chance!”

“Ask Ace.”

“No way, I choose to live.”

“It has to be you!” Epel pleaded. “You're the only one who can do it and not get killed! He likes you!”

“He sure has a funny way of showing it…”

“Look, we just need to throw a couple snowballs at each other, then when Vil walks through the courtyard, I'll accidentally miss you, and hit him. Then while I'm giving a fake apology, you're gonna hit me in the face with a snowball, and he'll see I'm telling the truth.”

“First off, he'll kill me for enabling you, because that's such bullshit that he won't believe. Second off,” you threw your hands up in frustration, “my aim is not good enough to hit you in the face. But you know who's is?”

You stared pointedly at Ace, who vehemently shook his head. “Stop trying to drag me into this!”

“Y/N,” Epel pleaded, taking your hand again, and making the saddest expression you'd ever seen. “Please.”

Jack groaned next to you. “Oh sevens.”

And you knew why he groaned. Because there was no way you were going to say no to that face.

….

Your fingers were starting to go numb from throwing snow.

“Epel, are you sure he's coming?” You whined.

“He has to come this way for film club! He's just, probably delayed or something.”

You grumbled as you leaned down to make what felt like the 300th snowball.

You heard a not so subtle cough from Epel, and knew that the devil himself had arrived. You subtly nodded, and threw a snowball at him. As planned, Epel threw one that was way over your shoulder. You heard the disgusted “ugh” as Epel began his fake apology, then aimed at Epel's face.

Unfortunately, just like you warned him, your aim was not good. It sailed past him, and hit a certain suited someone square in the back. Azul, flanked by the twins, slowly turned towards you, a cold smile on his face.

“Take care of that, please,” he said, and you stumbled backwards as you watched the twins make their way towards you.

“Shit, Epel-” you called, but he was too busy getting lectured. You watched Floyd pick up an armful of snow, and start running towards you, Jade preparing to snipe you with snowballs after the initial attack.

You ran, but slipped on an ice patch, falling straight into a body, who was just as unfortunate as you. The both of you went down, just as Floyd dropped the snow pile on the both of you.

“What in Seven’s name-” Jamil shouted from under you, and the snow pile. Only to get hit square in the face with Jade's sniper snowball.

“I've always wanted to do this!” Kalim giggled, still on his feet, and untouched with snow. He made a snowball, and threw it at the next unfortunate passerby who walked through the doorway.

Poor Idia…

He squeaked and hid behind Ortho, whispering something into the cyborg's ear. Ortho 's eyes brightened in excitement, and you watched in horror as his arm turned into a gun of sorts, and started rocketing snowballs every which way. You snatched Jamil's and Floyd's wrists, and dragged them behind a bench.

….

It hadn't taken long for some teams to form. Any poor soul who wandered into the courtyard was forced to take cover as snowballs were rained down upon them. This might have ended hours ago. Except Ortho was trigger happy, to the extent that Idia was hiding with your team, and Floyd had betrayed five different teams already. The other reason this wasn't over, was each team got "lucky" enough to have at least one person who had a vendetta against someone else.

You got lucky enough to be stuck with Leona.

Your team consisted of Leona, Jack, Idia, Jamil, and Trey. An odd mix to be sure.

“Snowball,” Leona grunted, Jack quickly handing him the requested snowball. He threw it with astounding speed and accuracy, hitting Cater square in the chest, hard enough that he released an oomph that was audible across the courtyard. Poor Cater hadn't meant to hit Leona, he was aiming for-

“Please! I won't punish any of you! Just let me go back to my dorm!” Riddle pleaded, his arms in the air in show of peace. He was knocked over by a barrage of snowballs, from Ortho and various other participants.

“Snowball,” Leona grunted.

“Oomph! Leona, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hit you!” Cater sobbed from across the way.

“Snowball.”

“Oomph!”

You grabbed Idia and Trey by the collar, bringing them in closer to you.

“We gotta come up with a plan,” you said barely above a whisper. Your bench was crowded, and not very safe from snowballs. Then again, it was better than the tree that Ace's team was stuck behind.

“Like what?” Jamil grumbled.

“Damn it!” You heard an unrecognizable cry, as Floyd slid back behind your bench.

“I'm back on your team!” Floyd giggled happily. “What are we doing?”

“Plotting our escape,” Trey said with a tired laugh.

Floyd pursed his lips. Then threw a snowball straight at Trey's face, bursting into laughter and rushing to join a different team.

“Wonderful,” Trey muttered, wiping his glasses off on his shirt.

“We're gonna die here,” Idia whined, burying his head in his arms.

“We could use Shroud as a shield. His baby brother wouldn't dare hit him,” Jamil offered up.

Idia glared at Jamil. “Aren't you supposed to smart! If that was true, why would I be hiding behind a bench like you dweebs?”

“Fu fu fu, what do we have here?” Lilia's upside down face suddenly appeared in the middle of your group. You popped up in shock, and in that moment, were slammed in the back of your head by a snowball.

You turned to glare at the perpetrator. Of those who had a vendetta, Rook seemed to be out for you. He smiled pleasantly, as he aimed another one at you, before Jamil yanked you back down.

“Lilia, we need to get out of here. Can you use that big brain of yours to help us?” Idia cried, at the bargaining stage of the stages of grief.

“Hm…” Lilia tilted his head thoughtfully, then poofed out of sight in magenta smoke.

Moments later, Malleus and all of his attendants walked out into the courtyard.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” you muttered.

“Why? They're our back up, right?” Idia muttered.

“No. I very much doubt it,” you heaved out. You peaked up over the edge of the bench, where Malleus made eye contact, and gave a small smile. Lilia waved just as Malleus threw the snowball at you. You ducked at the last moment, and-

“Fuck you, lizard!” Leona leapt over the bench, threw a snowball at Malleus, then tackled him to the ground, the two of them wrestling in a snow pile. Lilia looked on as though this was the proudest moment of his life.

Floyd flopped back over to your group.

“‘m bored. I wanna break out with you guys.”

“That was fast,” Jack muttered, though you weren't sure if he was referring to Leona, or Floyd.

“Well, there's our distraction. You're from a dorm that's all about strategy, come up with something!” You snapped at Jamil.

He glared, and sighed tiredly. “Realistically, I can't leave before Kalim is done.”

The rest of you stared at him, unimpressed. He sighed.

“But if you still want a plan, then use Jack and Shroud as a shield.”

“I already told you, Ortho is gonna-”

“Did I say shield? I meant sacrifice.”

“Fine with me!” You jumped to your feet, yanking Idia up in front of you. Trey realized you were already moving, and quickly joined you as you pulled a shouting Idia along the courtyard. Behind you, you saw Floyd trying to wrestle Jack into being his shield. It was going badly. Not your problem anymore.

You made it halfway across the courtyard, when a hand grabbed your ankle. You looked down, to see Deuce staring up at you.

“Take me with you,” he croaked.

You reached out to grab his hand, but startled as Trey started moving you and your shield with even more fervor.

“Wait, Deuce!” you cried.

“Who?” Trey said, his face the picture of innocence, even as he fought to keep back a vicious smirk.

“Big brother!” Ortho giggled.

“Ortho, wait-” Idia cried, and you were all shocked as chunks of snow rose and fell above his shoulders from the quickly pulverized snowballs.

“Big brother! You're supposed to throw a snowball back!”

You finally reached the door, Trey reaching behind him and turning the knob. He pulled you in behind him, as Idia dove to the ground. Trey quickly slammed the door.

You were going to ask whether you should try to save Idia, but he looked at you in concern. He gently grabbed your hands in his own, rubbing them between his.

“Your hands are so cold. There's hot cocoa in my dorm.”

“Hot cocoa,” you muttered, as your fingers started to burn from the lingering frostbite.

“And I can make some warm bread…”

“Oh,” you whispered in awe, slowly following him as he walked backwards to the mirror chamber.

“The kitchen is very warm…”

“Yeah…”

You heard a snowball hit the door, and were nearly pulled out of the cozy hypnosis that Trey had put you under, but he whispered.

“Heartslaybul has very soft blankets.”

And then you were right back under.

Tag list- @eccedentesiast-sapphic @leoll

#twisted wonderland

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