#i have a lot of thoughts about this specific expression on togame

[evergreen-endo]

I have an urge to stir you into whatever gloop glop mr venus made

no dont just think about togame’s jaw doing that little clench and unclench thing while his pupils dilate!! he gets this really stony expression that looks like he’s thinking of nothing and everything all at once. but his breath picks up and you can see it in his chest. it stretches his shirt out just a tad every time he inhales….yeah yeah yeah !

[the-masked-ram]

Never Late, Never On Time- Togame x GN!Reader drabble

A/N: this is the sfw festival drabble for @ficsforgaza sponsored by @sophiawhite0066 thanks so much for the sponsor and sorry for the slow post!

@interstellar-inn

Reminder I still have a lot of fics for gaza to available, tons of drabbles multichaps, and a couple drabble series. If you are interested in seeing a specific fandom I write for let me know and I might add a drabble to donation pile (this is not a request invitation)

CW: sfw, literally this is rare pure fluff from me(not even a kiss)

---

The warmth of the night was unusual for fall, the humidity not necessarily as uncommon. However, neither was necessarily unwelcome. It was easy to slip into the festival mood with the heat and the sparkling lanterns and lights strung through the stalls. The smell of sweetened soy sauce for dango mixed wonderfully with the salt of the more savory offerings like meat skewers and dried squid. It was hard not to let your senses pull you into the wonderland waiting just in front of you.

But you forced yourself to hang back, forced yourself to wait. You balanced carefully on the geta you were not used to, and for a moment you were jealous of Togame who would be used to this atmosphere and the clothing that came with it. Jo, the man you were meeting here, and just the thought had your fingers tightening in the light silk of your yukata. You were honestly glad you had forgone the under-robes you would normally wear for fall because tonight was too hot, and you were too nervous. You’d have sweated through the layers within moments.

You frowned as you checked the time and realized Togame was making you wait again. He was only five minutes late, but it was just so him. He would show up with one minute to spare before it rolled into fifteen minutes, spouting some bullshit about how he couldn’t be truly late until that minute hand ticked into the fifteen zone. You rolled your eyes even as you smirked, because though this was your first date together, nothing had truly changed.

You were looking at some masks when you felt the presence at your back, when a hand that had begun to grow familiar with the subtle brushes you'd been experiencing the last few weeks, settled into yours. His fingers tangled with yours, and you took a steadying breath as your lungs seized and heart thrashed.

“Hello, Jo,” you whispered.

“Hey, darling,” he responded, the smirk audible in his lazy voice. “Wait long?”

His words were barely a sentence, all slurred in his usual way that showed he had hardly any energy for anything that wasn’t fighting. Yet here he was, looking at you with those sleepy and adoring eyes as he slowly blinked life back into them. He’d found time in his napping schedule to spend on you yet again. Like always.

The thought did anything but calm your rebellious chest. Instead, everything inside it seemed to shudder as you looked at him back and felt a swooping pleasure take over your gut.

“Think it was ten minutes this time,” you said with a pout that was fighting to unfurl into a grin.

“Not late,” he responded as if he knew the thoughts you were entertaining just moments before.

That smile you’d been holding back finally took hold, turning your puffy lower lip smoother as your mouth curled. He returned the expression, though his was relaxed and half-assed that look in his eyes, however, was anything but. The one that both pinned you down and raised you higher. You breathed, taking in his scent of amber musk and the sugary bubbles of Ramune that always seemed to cling to him.

“If that’s what you say,” you answered with a laugh.

Those calloused fingers that you had grown to recognize grew tighter as he drew you closer. This was a first date, but so many things were unknown were Togame. Would he rush this? Would you be the reason he quickened his pace? You looked at him with wide and affectionate eyes and his gaze flickered down to your smiling lips.

No, he wouldn’t, but not because of his relaxed nature. There was plenty of heated desire festering beneath the surface of his green eyes. He wouldn’t hurry it along because he wanted the ache growing so sweetly in his chest to bloom until he couldn’t stand it. He wanted to own everything about you and, if that meant stringing those things he wanted to do for you, to do to you, out just a bit longer then he would. He was used to taking it slow and though everything in him screamed to take your soft waist in his wide grip and kiss you senseless now, he would make you need him with your heart and mind long before he claimed your body. Since you’d already stolen all of him.

“C’mon, I saw some dango over there,” he tilted his chin toward a stall.

“Shouldn’t we have something more like dinner,” you chided but followed him with a laugh that lit up your entire face.

It was a laugh that would rival the fireworks the two of you watched later on in the night, chomping away at taiyaki as you sat on the edge of the river and pointed out your favorites. Even though your hand was busy the one clasped in his never left it the entirety of the night. Neither of you spoke about why, neither of you told each other that you were desperate for every scrap of a second to last a little longer in each other’s company. And for once, as Togame stood on your doorstep with his hands finally deep in his old Shishitoren jacket, he wished he hadn’t been ten minutes late. Those ten minutes now felt like an eternity. Maybe you could break his habit of never being on time. You and your firework eyes.

[tokiro07]

Cipher Academy ch. 3 thoughts

[Out of Juice]

Is it rude of me to exclusively make observations about how Cipher Academy reminds me of Nisio Isin’s other works? I hope not, because it’s how I show my love

So Iroha denies Kogoe’s invitation to partner up, not just because the task is too great or because Iroha lacks the ambition to hunt for the Morg, but because he doesn’t feel comfortable being that close to a girl so fast. Gives me Hitoyoshi vibes, rejecting Medaka when they were three. Obviously Iroha doesn’t feel like he’s up to it, but the idea that he’s just embarrassed to work closely with a girl is surprisingly endearing

We’re then introduced to CG, who I assume is an AI assistant created by Kogoe, aptly named because he’s literally a computer-generated image. I love this guy’s design with his mustache literally being shaped into a C and a G. Again, I wonder if this was Nisio Isin’s idea or Iwasaki’s, but whatever the case, props to Iwasaki for the execution

Kogoe resolves to get Iroha to “fall for [her]” by giving him a confidence boost through puzzle solving, which rather than reminding me of Medaka Box reminds me of Katanagatari wherein Togame blatantly and shallowly attempts to make Shichika fall in love with her so that he’ll do what she commands. The difference here is that Shichika, being an isolated man-child, immediately decides that he does in fact love Togame because she told him to, while Iroha is definitely going to take some more convincing if it even happens at all

Iroha is confronted by Toshusai’s minions, who bafflingly challenge him to his choice of a puzzle or dance battle. This seems pretty random, and knowing Nisio Isin the way I do, that’s definitely how it’s supposed to feel, especially since while Iroha chooses the dance battle, Yukako goes with the puzzle anyway, making his choice moot. I’m expecting that the twist of the puzzle will be that it’s related to dancing in some way, much like the previous puzzle was solved through Morse Code after it had been a plot point

In a flashback, we learn that Yukako suspects Iroha’s glasses came from Kogoe, and Toshusai informs us that if so, the glasses are worth over 100 million yen just from the materials. This confirms that Toshusai is well aware of what the glasses are capable of and is already onto Iroha using them to solve the puzzle from chapter 1. Despite how dangerous they can be, Toshusai refuses to steal them from Iroha, as they are for all intents and purposes his legal property and doing so would land her and her minions in jail. I really appreciate that Toshusai seems to have a strong moral code, though she goes onto say that stealing them from Kogoe specifically would make matters different. I suppose preventing the actions of a warmonger outweigh the moral implications of thievery

We cut to Iroha dancing, which if nothing else, demonstrates that he has a pretty impressive skillset outside of puzzle solving. He ends with an idol-like pose and pops his glasses back on, making an honestly adorable expression as he asks how he did. It was super endearing even if it feels like it was kind of a pointless scene at the moment. I expect it will come up later, as it gives the impression that there’s a lot more beneath the surface for Iroha than someone whose just kinda good at puzzles

Yukako gets embarrassed that Iroha’s dancing was presumably more feminine than she could ever hope to be, so she pivots to the puzzle battle rather than the dance battle and informs Iroha that at Cipher Academy, deals made over codes are absolute. This is a pretty common thing in manga where competition is a major theme, as the sanctity of the sport is obviously one of the story’s top priorities, and we need to establish that the stakes are actually important to the people involved as quickly as possible

Puzzle number 5 consists of 51 stars, each with a combination of letters and numbers, though some only have letters. Two stars are filled in, labeled G and N3, while one is separate from the rest, labeled W3. I saw someone mention in the comments on MangaPlus that since there are 51 stars, it might represent the 50 states of America plus Washington, DC. With this hint, I checked the stars against an alphabetical list of the states, and sure enough, the numbers correspond to the number of states that start with each letter (ex: there’s A1, A2, A3 and A4, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, and Arkansas, but no A5), and includes Washington, DC for five Ws rather than what would normally be four. Weirdly the L for Louisiana is lowercase, but I’m not sure if that’s relevant. Also, Washington, DC should strictly be a D, as its postal abbreviation is DC for District of Columbia, but that may be a hint that we’re not meant to be using the postal abbreviations at all

Anyway, this would make G Georgia and N3 New Hampshire, assuming it’s supposed to be completely alphabetical. I get the feeling it isn’t, though, since the lone W at the bottom, which would make sense to be Washington, DC because of its isolation, is W3, when alphabetically it would be W2 immediately following Washington state.

This also tells us that it isn’t chronological, as DC was founded first and would therefore be W1. It’s not by population or geographical size, as it would be W4 or W5 respectively. It isn’t by what order you would find them when looking on a map, as no matter which direction you start from, DC would never be the third one you find. I have to figure that the solution can’t be related to anything not readily apparent in the picture itself, so it must have something to do with the order that they’re laid out on the page itself. They don’t line up to a map of the US, though, evidenced by the fact that DC is nowhere near any of the M’s that could indicate Maryland

You may think it doesn’t really matter what makes DC W3, but as near as I can tell, it’s the single most important factor in the puzzle. G is obviously Georgia, it can only be Georgia, but there are eight N’s, so if alphabetization doesn’t explain why DC is W3, then it can’t possibly be meant to suggest that N3 is New Hampshire as we suggested. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that New Hampshire is the only answer it almost definitely CAN’T be, as that would allow the answer to be solvable with alphabetization when it’s not supposed to be

The main issue is that I don’t know what exactly we’re trying to solve here. Are we trying to find a name like in chapter 1? A location like in chapter 2? Are Georgia and unnamed state that starts with N the ultimate goal, or are they just hints in and of themselves? Once we’ve solved for N, do we need to determine a relationship between it and Georgia? Or am I completely off-base and we should be drawing lines between the stars to create a picture using G and N3 as hints for where to start? It was written while Yukako was watching Iroha dance, so my best guess is that, like I said earlier, it has something to do with dancing, but lord knows I can’t figure out what. I’ve been plugging away at this for over an hour now and I just can’t figure it out, and Iroha was only given 30 minutes total! 

In exchange for the possibility of exile, Iroha demands that if he wins, Toshusai’s minions will stop chasing Kogoe, which he says with enough conviction that Kogoe swoons and CG chastises her for falling for Iroha. It’s a super cute and endearing moment for me, I like when characters insist on making someone fall for them for likely selfish reasons only to be the ones to fall in love first

Kogoe refers to the AR glasses as CG’s grandchild, implying that the glasses have an AI in them (which was also implied by them talking in chapter 1, though I just assumed that was Kogoe at the time), so I’m hoping that they’ll have a name and face like CG does (even if Iroha is the one who names them). I also only just noticed that the glasses have cameras on the end-pieces, explaining how they perceive visuals; I kind of just assumed that the lenses were able to capture light as it passed through to the eye, but I guess that wouldn’t really make sense scientifically since they’re clear, huh? I think Kogoe’s glasses might be the same way, which would also mean that she’s the only one who can see/hear CG since he’s literally an AR projection on the lenses

Finally, to make matters worse (and a lot funnier), the AR glasses run out of charge, making this the do-or-die challenge that Iroha needs to prove to himself and the audience that the glasses are not a crutch or a cheat device, but as Kogoe said, a tool merely to help Iroha visualize puzzles in a way that’s more conducive to his method of problem solving. I’m glad that this kind of trial by fire is coming up in only chapter 3, because it gave us just enough time to familiarize ourselves with how the glasses work without allowing anyone enough time to think that they were honestly doing all of the work

I think I forgot to mention it in my thoughts on chapter 1, but I really love how when solving a puzzle using the glasses, Iroha is shown moving his fingers around the empty air, which is actually what I do when trying to solve problems in my head! It was very relatable, and I hope it’s something that he’ll continue to do even when not being aided by the glasses

...Wait...long, orange hair...glasses...

...Ah hell, am I gonna end up cosplaying Iroha...