#if peach is getting her own game… maybe if it does well (it will she’s the best of all time) Nintendo will finally give us Zelda and or

[twizzlyworm]

This wrist pain is kicking my ass, can’t draw 4 sonic and shadow birthday </33333.

Some of these are before totk came out….. erm fun game it took me almost 200 hours to finally finish da story ^_^

please ignore the horrific cropping of that last image </3.

[stxneflxwers]

pocky day!

aventurine is an expert at this, clearly (/s). the little shit thinks it's hilarious to cause you to bite the pocky at the last moment, though. he will do anything it takes to get you to nibble a little too hard on accident and snap the pocky. you will never get a single kiss from him in a pocky game without at least first getting teased for a long time. but, then again, you can just take matters into your own hands...and get back at him, sooner or later.

boothill is the poor guy that can't do the pocky game to save his life – his teeth are far too...let's say...sharp. he may as well be suck on the pocky stick instead, which you have to stop yourself from laughing and or teasing him. or else he'll never do this again. it takes about maybe 10 or more pocky sticks before you can even dream about getting a tie and leaving a sweet, chocolatey kiss on his lips.

acheron is confused. very confused. but she rolls with it. she enjoys peaches, which are sweet – kind of like chocolate if you do some expert mental gymnastics. it takes her a couple of tries to truly understand the concept of the game, at first she had merely thought winning was all it was about. but, once she realized it was about getting a tie, well... the kiss was far sweeter than any pocky or any peach.

gallagher is another little shit, but only to a mild degree. instead of eating the damned pocky, he takes the pocky from you and sticks it in one of his drinks. and then he hums for a long time, like he's thinking (he's not). he does eventually play along with the game, and the tie is secured with a soft, chaste kiss. and then he asks you if he can have a couple of more sticks – he wants to make a nice concoction to honor this little "event."

misha is a kid, but hey, you give him a full box of pocky anyway! he deserves to have a treat now and again for his hard work. no game is played, you don't even tell him what the game is. you two simply chat, eat pocky, and enjoy the eye-catching landscape of dreamflux reef together. (he wants to remember this moment forever.)

[mae-gi-writes]

let it be me | kuroo tetsurou (2)

In which you, as a new divorcée, can't help but crush on your 4-year-old's new PE Coach.

genre: singleparent!reader x coach! Kuroo, fluff, acquaintances-to-lovers

taglist: @patpatspatz @matchagirliris @multi-fandom-fanfic @alittlebirdahgaselx @kuroos--little--kitten @menacejelly12 @aeshiue @dreamlessnight @altheades @loonalockley @not-your-average-fangirl @bertqut1 @sunlixfl-blog @nabboo007

a/n: enjoy! <3 thanks for all the love given to the first part of this story! here's the second part. Third part is coming soon ~

---- previous | part two | next part >>>

"He can't be serious."

You sigh and watch the wine in your glass slosh around, creating beautiful patterns along the rim of your glass, "unfortunately, I think he is."

Your cousin has on an expression you can't quite place, in-between disgust and pure confusion. He's at the microwave, busy heating up some popcorn. Having adamantly asked you to sit on his couch while taking care of the snacks, you thus decided to watch Sakura play with her legos along the carpet, keeping a watchful eye in case one might end up in her mouth.

"He's only marrying her for the money," is what he concludes after a small pause.

You snort into your glass, take a sip of it and allow the bitterness to coat your tongue, "I wish that were true."

"How would you know that?"

" 'Tsumu, is it written stupid on my forehead?" your own wrinkles in distaste, "I see the way he looks at her. He's--" you choke on your words then, the knot in your throat growing tenfold, "--he's in love with her."

"Who is in love, mum?"

"No one at all," you're quick to answer upon noticing Sakura has been listening in. She normally doesn't, a kid that enjoys staring off into space and conjuring make-believe stories, where there's magic and only happy endings. You try and force a smile onto your face, "how's the house construction for Princess Peach going?"

Your daughter lets out a laugh as she presents to you a square that looks nothing like a house. Still, you coo at it, "so pretty! I bet princess peach would love it."

Your conversation with Atsumu has to wait until Sakura is tucked away in her uncle's bedroom and has listened to three stories about princesses, before you manage to join him back onto the couch where he's busy watching a rerun of volleyball matches.

You don't get to see him much now, courtesy of the fact that he's a national athlete and has been booked at the big games representing Japan. You couldn't be prouder, and yet his permanent absence does still leave a big hole in your heart whenever he flies over a thousand miles. Atsumu had been your rock since you guys were kids, defending you on the school playground and dragging you around to parties and birthdays without your consent. He'd taken care of you as a big brother would and he still is. You don't know how to repay this kind of kindness.

You're just thankful that he has one week off so that you can rant and ramble about the unfairness of the world. At least with Atsumu here, it appeases the pain, if just a little.

"Have you signed the papers yet?" he asks, handing you the bowl of popcorn.

You grab a handful, popping onto of them into your mouth as you answer, "not yet."

"You should ask him for alimony, at least."

"I'm not sure I'd win that, 'Tsumu."

"Still," his nose wrinkles in distaste, "this feels unfair. And why are you the one taking care of Sakura on your own? And I don't mean the parenting part. What about the finances? Why can't he contribute?"

"Because he's a dick and he thinks he can get away with it," you're glad that the tv is providing a welcome distraction, for you can't bear to look into Atsumu's eyes, "I'm just going to sign it and be done with it. I don't want Sakura to suffer any longer. It's not fair on her, she barely sees him."

"Well maybe it's time you find someone else too, y/n."

Your thoughts suddenly flash to Kuroo's beautiful smile and you have to physically force yourself to keep from grinning. You can feel the heat from the back of your neck and come up with the excuse that it's still too early and that Sakura wouldn't like her world shattering just for your happiness.

But it seems that Atsumu knows you better than that, for he asks, "are you blushing?"

"Wha--" Panic skitters through you, "no. No, why would I blush?"

His eyebrows raise, "you’ve met someone then?"

"N--No. Not at all. It's--" you realize you're blundering when his smile widens slightly, "it's not like that."

"So who's the lucky guy?"

"Atsumu."

"Y/N," his eyes glisten with playfulness and he nudges your shoulder, "c'mon. Tell me!"

You let out another breath and mumble, "He’'s not someone I met. He's...Just someone I know."

"And how do you know him?"

"He's Sakura's PE coach."

Atsumu lets out a whistle, "well that--" he shakes his head, "--that's not what I imagined at all."

"Shut up."

"So you like him?"

"It's not--It's really not like that. I--" you try and rack your brain for anything to say because this is really embarrassing. Who has a crush at the age of twenty-nine? Practically all of your friends are already married and have kids, talk about husband problems and how they wish for their youth back. And you? Here you are, thinking you might have a crush. You're no better than a middle school girl.

Which is why you say, "I don't even know him."

"You just think he's cute?"

"Precisely. But there are a lot of cute guys. It doesn't mean anything."

“Right,” Atsumu lets out a breath before he leans back into the couch, “but you know what I think?”

You hum in response.

“I think you should get laid—“

You almost spit out your wine in shock, gape at him in horror, “Atsumu!”

Again, your brain goes into overdrive at the thought of Kuroo and his sweaty chest, the breadth of his shoulders, the way he just towers over your small frame…

NO! You slam onto your mental brakes and shake your head, “you’re disgusting.” You spit out.

“I’m telling the truth princess. I really believe in the power of s—“

“Don’t—“ you cut him off with a raised palm, “don’t even say it.”

“So tell me,” Atsumu proceeds to wriggle his brows suggestively which makes it even harder to stop the blush igniting along your face, “this guy, how handsome is he? Must be pretty good-looking for you to be blushing like that.”

“Shut up ‘Tsumu, it’s not like that at all. Just stop. He's like--half of my age."

“Alright alright,” he laughs his deep-bellied laughter and wraps an arm around you in a gentle, comforting hug, “but if ever you do get lais with him, you gotta tell me.”

“Mum, what does ‘getting laid’ mean?”

“Oh!” Your head snaps to the doorway only to see your daughter all sleepy-eyed and clutching a spare pillow.

“Sakura!” You scramble to over, casting your cousin a scowl as you do, “c’mon, sweetie. Let’s get you back to bed.”

You hear Atsumu’s laughter follow you all the way to the bedroom.

————

It’s weird when Sakura isn’t around.

It’s almost like you’ve lost your purpose. But then again, you should be taking advantage of this right? That’s what everyone keeps telling you.

But alas, something in you cannot just let yourself rest for fear that your thoughts may go into a black hole of what ifs and images of Sakura with your ex-husband’s wife —well, almost ex-husband— and thus decide to take on a last-minute order.

It’s a simple enough request— a birthday cake. While you usually plan events from A to Z, this order merely requested a cake of any kind. So that’s how you spend your Saturday morning — creating a dough and sugar decorations that would fit into the theme of “Halloween”, as per what your client has asked.

You drive up to the pin location around four in the afternoon, strolling through the streets until the google maps signals you that you’ve arrived to your destination. Turning off the ignition at the said house — a beautiful Victorian home adorned with columns twice your height and size — you open your door only to come face to face with a familiar pair of golden eyes.

“Coach?”

“Kosuke-san?”

You both stare. And stare.

It’s shock that comes first. Before realization slaps you in the face, “oh!” You quickly bow in hopes that you haven’t been staring too long, “good afternoon, Coach. What—What brings you here?”

"Kosuke-san," he bows and looks just as surprised as you are, before he notices the way you're struggling to juggle to cake in your arms, "here, let me help you."

Without hesitation, he opens the door a bit wider and closes the gap between you, lifting the box from your arms, "jeez how heavy is this thing?"

You let out a small laugh, "it's all the icing sugar."

"Come in," he gestures with his chin for you to follow and as you step into the threshold he continues, "so when you said you were an event planner--I didn't expect you to be a cake designer too."

"It's an extra service I provide," you shrug, "I'm a patissier by career. Event planning is just something that keeps the cash flowing."

Kuroo pauses in mid-step then, "you're a patissier?"

"Yeah. Well, I was," you chuckle, "but anyway, it's been a while since I've baked now. So I hope it's just as good as you expect it to be."

Kuroo opens his mouth only to be cut off by a horde of boys stumbling into what appears to be the kitchen area. Now that you have a better look, it's all white marble and golden taps and golden handles on every piece of furniture to match. In any case, this house screams of money and for a minute, you feel a bit small and insignificant in your stained-flour blouse, the splotches of paint across your faded out jeans, courtesy of Sakura's art skills.

"You must be y/n!" one of the boys detaches himself. His orange hair glistens in the sun streaming through the window and he's a bit shorter than Kuroo. He beams at you and you can't help but be reminded of a puppy, "thanks for taking my order on such a short notice!"

"No worries at all. You must be...Hinata?"

"Yes!" he shakes your hand, "so I see you've met Kuroo! He's one of my best mates! We used to play against each other back in high school."

"Really now?" you quirk a brow in Kuroo's direction, watching the muscles of his arms ripple as he places the cake in an orderly manner inside the fridge. His voice is muffled when he replies, "yeah, he's the midget that made us jump for our lives. I hated him."

"You're just sour because you lost that one time," Hinata pouts, "but anyway, this is the rest of the ex-team!"

And so that's how you get a round of names that you will probably forget in five minutes and Kuroo, having seen the confusion in your eyes, can't help but laugh to himself because the sight is somewhat adorable. And he knows he shouldn't find it, he knows you're off limits because first, you're a mom from the school and two, you're married and have a kid. It's definitely not at all appropriate for his eyes to be roaming over your curves or to linger over the light glittering in your eyes.

Get a hold of yourself, he mentally whacks the back of his head.

“Where’s the little munchkin?” Kuroo asks you once you’re all settled after having been wheedled by Hinata to stay (“please please please you did such a great job on the cake” is what he’d begged). You’re now perched onto a plush lounge chair, a mixture of juice and vodka in your hand and watching the nth match of pingpong between someone whose name you forget and the other whose name sounds like Daichi. Though yoj might be wrong.

You’re glad for Kuroo’s presence, for even if he is a stranger, he still feels familiar to you right now in this setting.

“Sakura’s with her father today,” you explain with a slight smile in hopes it doesn’t give any of that bitterness away.

Kuroo opens his mouth like he wants so say something — anything— but you beat him to it, “we’re not together. Not anymore.”

His eyes widen with realization and you see it, the way he’s putting all the puzzle pieces together, “I’m sorry to hear,” is what he finally musters.

“Nothing be to be sorry about.”

“So… the name Kosuke…”

“Is my maiden name,” you reply, “I’ve never changed names. Looking back, I think I’ve done the right thing.”

Kuroo isn’t sure whether he should be mad for you or hurt in your place. After all, who in their right mind would leave their wife and their toddler daughter?

He deals with little kids every day, so he knows exactly what they’re like on a daily basis, and it’s not easy.

“I’m sorry,” it seems that’s the only thing he knows how to say.

“Really,” you laugh at him, “how can you be sorry when it’s not even your fault?”

Kuroo shrugs and grins bashfully because yes, it’s true and he still doesn’t know what to say. So he decides to ask, “And Sakura… how is she?”

“She doesn’t realize it. She’s too young,” your smile fades slightly, “in a way, I hope that’s a good sign.”

His heart clenches at the thought of you raising this kid alone. He can’t even imagine it. It makes sympathy swim inside his chest like an ache he can’t quite ignore. The look on your face suggests that you’ve been let down and he has the sudden impulse to tell you that everything will be alright, will be okay.

But he can’t do that. You’ll think of him as a creep. So he bites his tongue and look away instead, at the war of pingpong ongoing between his two friends. In a way, he’s glad for the distraction as he sips on his beer.

“And you?” Your voice piping up surprises him. His eyes flit back to your face. You continue, “married? Engaged?”

Kuroo’s throat bobs as he chuckles, “no. None of that.”

“How come?” You take a sip of your cocktail, “you don’t seem like the type to wound up alone with a hundred cats.”

“No no,” he can’t help but laugh because one, you’re hella attractive to him; tiny and frail and looking like he can fit you in a box no problem and two; you’re actually entertaining to be around. Something that he’s found lacking in his previous dates, “I just didn’t find anyone special yet.”

“Well there's no rush,” you lift your cocktail as you speak, “and anyway, you’re still young. You should enjoy it while you can.”

“Young?” Kuroo’s face breaks into a grin as his golden orbs glimmer down at you, amused, “how old do you think I am?”

"Uhm--I don't know. Early twenties?"

"I'm twenty-five," he gives you a look, "how old are you?"

"Twenty-eight. Going on twenty-nine."

"You look like you've just gotten out of college though," Kuroo's smirk is visible even behind his beer as he chugs down most of his drink, "if I didn't know better, I'd say you and Sakura were sisters."

"Not even," you retort, "And excuse me, but you look younger than twenty-five."

"I make up for it in height," he peers down at you, "but I suppose you wouldn't understand that considering--"

Your arm whacks at his shoulder before you know it. A playful gesture surely, but one that you don't really use on your daughter's teachers. Let alone ones that have bulging muscles and a figure to die for. You stare at your hand for a long minute, your brain going blank, before your eyes whip up to his and horror seeps into your gaze.

"Oh my god!" you screech and recoil like he's the one that had slapped you, "I'm so sorry, I--It's just--automatic you know, my cousin--he's got the same humor and--well I--I'm really sorry--"

The guffaw that leaves Kuroo's mouth is so loud that it causes heads to turn, even the ones invested in the ping pong game. He bends over while holding his stomach and the initial panic that you have wears off upon seeing him look so joyously happy. You can't help but chuckle along.

"What?" you say when he's regained most of his breath, "what's so funny?"

"You are," he grins, before it turns mischievous, "senpai."

"Hey--now that's going a bit too far!"

You're not quite sure what time you get home that night. But you do know that you've gone to sleep with a smile on your face.

————

"Kuroo sensei! He stole my ball!"

A typical Monday morning where Kuroo is busy surveilling the fifth graders as they decided to play basketball during their free time. He's not one to deny such requests, actually enjoys watching them play and seeing them grow day by day, developing their techniques. But to say that he's a bit in the clouds would be an understatement.

"Kuroo sensei!"

He finally snaps back to reality. Blinks down at the tiny boy with the biggest scowl he's ever seen yet, "yes I'm sorry. What's wrong?"

"He stole my ball!" the young boy points at one of the chubby classmates who seems quite content in playing by himself, "and now he's saying that it was his!"

Kuroo can't help but raise a brow. He's taught that class before, knows exactly that the chubby little kid doesn't have that many friends, including the boy standing before him.

"I don't think he stole your ball."

It's a bold statement, but from the way the tiny student squirms and averts his gaze, Kuroo believes he is right, "but--but he did! He really did steal my ball!"

"I have an idea," Kuroo bends down to his height, not able to restrain the grin along his face at the pout forming on the student's lips, "why don't you go and play with him? He seems a bit lonely."

"Yeah that's because he never talks to anyone in class."

"Then why don't you be the first? hm?" he nudges the boy's shoulder, "show your class a good example. Come on."

With a bit more reassurance, the said student goes over and Kuroo watches fondly as the two exchange awkward greetings before the chubby student nods his head, glancing at his PE coach like he'd just dropped a bomb.

Five minutes later, they're playing together like best friends.

And Kuroo goes back to daydreaming.

He's not usually like this. So out of it, so inside his own head that he can't see the outside world. But ever since that party he's been wondering when's the next time he'd get to see you, to talk to you. Not just as Sakura's mum but as someone, maybe a friend. He's addicted to the way your eyes curve up before your lips are even drawn into a smile, like you're sharing a special secret with him before the world gets a flash of blinding white teeth. He enjoys watching you move about because you're just so tiny, holding cups with two hands and always having to tiptoe about to find stuff. But most of all, that conversation with you had him dreaming of more. He wants to know you, that initial curiosity turning to what he'd define as stupid infatuation.

Yes, Kuroo Tetsurou has a crush, and he's not quite sure how to feel about it.

"--Earth to Kuroo?"

He blinks. In front of him stands his colleague and friend Bokuto. Having faced each other off countlessly during their high school days, it was a miracle and lovely surprise to see him at the new year induction. Since then, they’d been a constant pair inside the school walls and creating assignments, organizing and coordinating events had never been so fun.

“Sorry,” he mumbles and rubs a hand over his face.

“You look like death, mate,” Bokuto leans on the fencing that separates the courts from the building, “why the long face?”

“Haven’t slept well,” Kuroo says, but he knows he’s not convincing when Bokuto’s eyebrows raise in question.

“You? Firm believer of 10hrs of sleep every day?” His friend shakes his head, “no way. Tell me what happened. What’s got you looking so dazed?”

“It’s noth—“ he halts. Maybe he can find some advice? Bokuto’s known for being a badass romantic after all. Maybe he can have something wise to say.

Like tell Kuroo you’re way out of his league and— what the hell is he even thinking, dating someone’s mom? Someone older than him, at that?

The words burst out of his mouth without warning:

“I think I like someone.”

Bokuto merely blinks. His face lights up, “well that explains it. Who?”

Kuroo’s arm swings to the back to scratch his neck, “it’s… one of the student’s mom’s.”

The last few words are said in a mumble, causing Bokuto to lean into his friend with a wide-eyed gaze, surprise flitting across his face when he realizes what Kuroo has just said.

“No,” the grey-haired man’s mouth turns into an “o” as he stares his friend down, “no way. Who?”

“I don’t think you know her. Sakura Kosuke?” Kuroo prompts.

“Sakura Kosuke…” Bokuto shakes his head in thought, “haven’t heard of that one. But—-Kuroo! I thought older women weren’t your style!”

“She’s not that old,” Kuroo’s face flames, “only by three years.”

"Who would've thought," Bokuto breathes out with a chuckle when a thought suddenly occurs to him, "wait-- it's not the chick who came by with the cake last weekend?"

Kuroo nods and awkwardly clears his throat, "yeah, the very same."

"Ha! If only I knew! I would've done my best to set you up!"

"It's not funny!"

But now that Bokuto has some leverage of information, he's definitely not going to let it go and Kuroo kind of regrets spilling the beans to him, of all people. That, and the probably fact that he’ll be spreading this news like wildfire across their friend group.

Thankfully, Kuroo’s schedule makes it that it’s hard to think about anything but work since midterm season is approaching for his other primary school colleagues. There’s after-school shows and events for every single activity and since he’s being asked to help for every single thing (because he’s the preschool teacher and, yeah! How come you don’t have any events planned for your preschoolers?!). Which means that he doesn’t have actual time to think about you, not even when he’s finally home and mustering up enough strength to brush his teeth, take a shower and dump himself in bed.

He does, however, collide head-first into you one week day as you’re hurrying out of the principal’s office, looking flustered and red-faced.

“Kosuke-san,” he takes a longing glance your rosy cheeks and felt his hand tingle with want. Just to see if it’s as soft as he imagines it to be? “You okay?”

“Kuroo sensei,” you run a hand through your locks and causing your hair to get even more disheveled, “hi, sorry— how are you? It’s been a while.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” You’re looking a bit more greenish now that he sees you in the light.

“Yes I—“ your hands flutter up before you in an attempt to find an explanation, “—just came back from a meeting with Sakura’s teacher.”

“Oh?” Kuroo frowns, “what—nothing bad, I hope?”

“It’s just—well,” you try to chuckle but it comes out like a whimper, “apparently she got into a fight with one of the other girls in her class. Got a few injuries herself so…”

Your eyes are wet and it seems you’re half a second away from a breakdown. So it’s only natural for Kuroo to take a few steps closer to you before he whispers a soft, “hey hey, you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m sorry,” you take a shaky breath, “it’s just been a long, hard morning.”

“Yeah,” Kuroo bites onto his lower lip, not sure what to do to make things better as he watches your chest move up and down in staggered breaths.

That’s when an idea hits him. He makes a grab for the back of your elbow and the smallness, the thinness of your limb takes him be surprise as he steers you out of the corridor.

And when your wide eyes flutter up to his, he quickly says something along the lines of, “I know a place. It’ll make you feel better.”

That’s how he finds himself dragging you to the nearby coffee place he always frequents— called Espresso Block— a small vintage bakery run by none other than his good friend Osamu Miya, as part of his expansion branch from his onigiri restaurants.

"Y/N!" Osamu greets as soon as he spots your face trailing behind Kuroo's tall figure. He pushes the raven-haired man aside with impatience before sauntering over and wrapping you up in a bear hug.

"Osamu," you breathe in the scent of baked croissants lingering on his uniform, "you're choking me."

"Oh--sorry," he drops you and grins sheepishly, that is before he registers that you're together with one of his friends, causing his eyes to narrow, "how do you two know each other?"

"Kosuke-san is Sakura's mother and she was having a bad day," Kuroo explains before he turns to you, "how do you know him?"

Did you imagine the five-second frostiness that came from his tone? Maybe not, as you reply, "he's my cousin. We grew up together. I taught him how to play volleyball back in primary school."

Kuroo's relief is instant. Thank god, it's not a close friend, nor is it a romantic partner candidate. His mood brightens instantly and without further ado he proceeds to lead you towards a table in the back.

He doesn’t fail to ignore the way Osamu’s eyes are following him all the way back to his table as he carries the two drinks — strawberry latte for him and a black coffee for you — and Kuroo can just hope that his dear friend can keep his distance until you've gone.

Becayse he's quite certain he will be subject to interrogation. Especially if you're that close to Osamu.

Placing the tray on the table, he takes out the mug and pushes it into your hands before finding his seat opposite you. You grab the cup between your two palms and take a deep breath as Kuroo sips on his latte.

The sweetness of the strawberry never disappoints. It’s refreshing and brings a smile to his lips. Osamu sure knows his desserts.

“I'm really sorry about what happened earlier," you seem to have composed yourself from earlier. You take a small sip of your coffee and Kuroo watches in amusement as you shudder.

"Do you want some milk with that?" he can't help but ask.

You nod and look shameful, and Kuroo's heart squeezes with sympathy. Your eyes are tinged with aprons of blue and there are tired lines lining your eyes and the corners of your mouth. It's only when he comes back -- from having gotten some steamed milk from Osamu and a suggestive wink to match -- you dip your head into a nod and mumble out a soft 'thanks', eyes glued to the way the dark brown turned into a creamy latte.

"You could've asked me for a latte," Kuroo smiled to show that he didn't mind at all. But you winced.

"I'm sorry--"

"Don't say sorry," he softened, "just--next time, you can tell me what you want, Kosuke-san. I'm not here to bite you...unless you want me to."

Your eyes flit up to his in surprise and Kuroo pinks at his words. They'd just slipped out on their own. It's not like he'd wanted to sound flirty when you're looking all shaky and worse for wear. He quickly clear his throat and tries to change the subject, "how are Sakura's injuries?"

"She's fine, got herself a bruised lip."

His eyebrows raise in surprise, "woah, that's still something."

"Yeah," you mutter and take another sip. And then another, "I hope this doesn't become a habit."

"I've taught Sakura since the start of this semester," Kuroo leans forward, elbows propped onto the table, "and I can tell you--she's anything but violent."

"I really hope you're right about this. I can't have her running around beating up everyone."

Kuroo stifled a small laugh, "to be honest, I think it's good she knows how to defend herself."

You shoot him a look and he can't help but laugh. And it's so contagious, the way it booms out of him like a melody, that you cannot restrain yourself from joining in.

"You're right," you say in-between chuckles.

"Maybe she got her mom's feisty spirit," Kuroo adds.

"No way. I was as silent as a mouse," you retort, "if she got anything like that, it's probably from her father's--"

You halt in mid-conversation, wanting to bite down your tongue for even mentioning him and quickly flash Kuroo a bashful smile in hopes he'll just brush it off, "sorry, let's not talk about him--"

"Kosuke-san, you really have to stop saying sorry all the time," Kuroo says with a grin, "it's not healthy."

"I know, I'm--" you catch yourself and he bursts out laughing once more at your face, "don't say it! No matter what!" he chides.

"Stop--" but you're grinning from ear to ear, cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling, "--Kuroo sensei, I hope you're not as playful with your students or they'd never learn anything from you."

"Course not," he winks, "I keep that solely for the pretty ladies."

His suggestive tone makes you blush despite it all and you look down at your coffee with the blush blazing so hard across your cheeks you swear everyone can see its colour from afar.

"I don't know how it is at home though," Kuroo's voice brings you out of your small bubble of warmth, "it must be tough handling Sakura all alone. Do you ever take a break?"

"Well, she goes to see her dad ever two weeks. But other than that, she's always with me unless my parents decide to come over. Which isn't as often as I would like."

"Why's that?"

"They live in the countryside and have a farm. It's hard for them to take days off, and I don't blame them not wanting to be around," your voice lowers to a mutter at the last few words, "especially after what happened with the marriage and all..."

"Marriages fail every time," Kuroo says gently then, "that too, isn't your fault."

"I wish my parents believed that," you let out a small laugh, "but they're right. We were too young to get married."

"But you have Sakura right? Isn't she worth it?"

His eyes, golden flecked and filled with so much hope and softness, meet yours from across the table. You suddenly feel a bit hot in your seat, wanting to squirm as you quickly look away from Kuroo's gaze because dear god, it's almost like he's ripping away, ripping apart every single layer of self-protection and preservation and reading you out like an open book.

"You're right," you clear your throat upon realizing he'd still been waiting for your response, "she is worth every single second. I wouldn't change anything about what happened. I just--I wish my parents could see it that way too."

"I think you spend a little too much time stressing about things you can't control," Kuroo takes another sip of his latte, "how about you learn to let go a bit? Maybe take the day off? Go hiking?"

"With Sakura?" you shake your head, "impossible, I--"

"Surely you have someone that can take care of her while you're gone," he tilts his head, jaw resting into one of his hands and making him appear all the more handsome.

Your thoughts flash to Atsumu. He's right, you could technically take a day off by dropping Sakura with the blonde. But she's not his responsibility and Atsumu has other priorities in his life rather than hang out with his niece. But Kuroo's persistence is strong and he makes you -- practically orders you -- to text him when he connects the dots that you two are also family.

"That guy can learn a thing or two about being responsible anyway," grins Kuroo, "so I'm sure he won't mind."

————

How did you end up here?

That's the question you keep asking yourself -- even when you're busy picking out your clothes only to realize that you barely have anything that's worth 'party material', even when you're attempting to do your makeup even though it's been almost three (or four?) years since you've tried to look your best because Sakura's wellbeing always came first.

Even when you're strapping up your black ankle boots, the question is getting drilled into your brain like a broken mixtape as you wonder whether this is a good idea after all.

"Go," Atsumu is firm when you call him for the nth time. It's five minutes until Kuroo's supposed to pick you up and feeling the pressure on your shoulders, you quickly decide to call your cousin in an emergency, "you have to do it, y/n. Stop making this all about Sakura. You need to be happy too."

"I am happy," was what you'd mumbled out in the phone receiver. You don't realize how tightly you're gripping the phone, so tight that your knuckles have turned white.

"I know you are, but you'll be happier if you live for yourself. At least for one night," Atsumu responds, "and Sakura's safe with me. And if ever there's an issue I'll call Osamu first to--"

"What?! No! No you call me first, okay?"

"Y/n please just relax. It's supposed to be a fun night."

You slump against the wall in defeat, "I don't even know why I'm doing this," you mumble mostly to yourself, though you're certain he can hear it too, "there's no point trying to prove that I'm content with my life. There are things that are going to leave me unsatisfied. I'm--I was fine with that, really."

"Are you though?" your cousin's voice is accusatory this time, "you're ready to live just for Sakura? Making her happy will make you happy too? Is this how it's supposed to work?"

"Technically yes, I'm her mother--"

"--And you've been left behind!"

The words are like a slap. You bite down onto your lower lip.

It draws blood.

You hiss, sucking on the skin as the metallic taste hits your tongue.

In truth, Atsumu has a point. You can't just live to make Sakura happy because that will ultimately destroy you. Not because she's not the only thing you need in your life. But because despite having your little girl being the center of your world, despite being able to sustain her with your career, you still feel like it's just yesterday when Aoi had upped and left you. His excuses, as pathetic as they had been, were arrows shooting straight into your heart. He left you crying into your pillow that night, hovering over your figure until you'd told him to 'get lost or I'll call the cops on you' before curling up on the small couch that you'd gotten rid of once he'd moved out for good.

So much pain. So much pain and haunted nights and obstacles that had come your way. That, along with caring for Sakura, had been a big hurdle. You remembered the long mornings, how hard it had been to drag yourself out of bed for the first few days. Atsumu had volunteered to stay with you then, giving you all the support you needed until you'd had enough strength to get back on your feet.

So he knew exactly what you'd gone through. Had seen it all first-hand. He wasn't kidding when he said you really needed to get laid. Somehow, he seems to have a valid point.

But it's been so long since you've left the dating scene that the thought of it makes you want to vomit.

"I'm sorry y/n, that wasn't cool." Atsumu's voice flows through the receiver like a lullaby and you take a deep, staggering breath, "I just--I know how hard it's been pulling your weight and caring for Sakura. It practically consumed your entire life. It's about time you get that motherfucker back for screwing things up--"

"Language," you tsk at him.

"You know what I mean," he replies impatiently, "So go out there, have fun. Get smashed. And at least do something to make you happy for a change. Alright?"

"Yeah okay," you mumble.

"And plus, you're with a bunch of guys that I know. They're cool. They'll keep an eye on you."

"Thanks mom."

"Anytime hun."

You can't help but giggle before you hear a car pulling up outside, "alright. I think my ride's here."

"Yeah, try to get laid okay--"

"Atsumu!" your cheeks flame, "I hope you're not saying all this in front of Sakura!"

A burst of laughter echoes from the receiver, "don't worry, miss Sakura is asleep. Have fun y/n! Take pictures!"

The drive there is less awkward than you'd imagined it to be, despite the fact that Kuroo's get-up does make your mouth salivate. And not just you. You realize a bunch of girls have him on their radar, from the stolen glances driven his way as you follow his broad back out of the parking and into the small terrace-looking entrance flanked by colored glowing palm trees.

"I haven't been in a club for like four years," you confess to him as you trudge into the queue. The air smells like cigarette and smoke. And something else. Something dangerous. It makes you giddy, you realize.

"Four years?" his eyes grow round as he looks down at you, "you have drunk before right? To the brink of passing out?"

"Like...maybe four years ago?"

His mouth opens, then closes. He shakes his head, a smile curving at the edges of his lips, "remind me not to drown you with tequila."

"I'll try my best."

You meet the rest of the gang upon stumbling into the club. It's dark and pulsating with music, with two dance floors separated by the DJ stationed on a platform right in the middle. Lights are bouncing off the space like crazy and all around you are moving bodies that writh and mold together until you're not sure where one ends and the other begins.

“Y/N! You’re here!” A drunk Hinata hooks an arm around your shoulder before steering you towards the bar, “you’re just in time! We were going for a round of lambos.”

“Lambos?” You balk and meet Kuroo’s eye, “you mean— Lamborgini’s?”

“Hell yeah!” Another one of the guys chimes in. It’s almost comical, the way they’re all stumbling against each other as you move like a congregation until you’re straight up in front of the barman.

“Ten Lambo’s please!” Hinata slams his card ontot he counter.

It brings back a wave of nostalgia, seeing the line of glasses and the way the bartender drops the alcohol in like he can do it with his eyes closed. You’re jostled and pressed against warm chests and shoulders, surrounded from all sides and yet, you feel safe with them all. That is, until you feel a soft brush against your elbow.

You turn to see Kuroo’s warm golden orbs.

“All okay?” He mouths to you.

You nod and give him a smile in return, and the grin that he cracks makes a troop of butterflies swoop into your stomach.

You look away just as Hinata thrusts a glass into your hands, “come y/n! This one’s on me!”

One shot becomes two. And two become three. Soon enough you find yourself on the dance floor and moving to the beat with one of the girls from the group— Yachi?— while the guys are trying to pay each other back their shots. The music vibrates through the floor up your body and flood your veins so that you get lost in it, ecstasy and the thrill of just being alive finally gushing through your brain, fogged up and amplified by the alcohol in your bloodstream.

It’s amazing. You feel free. Like nothing can stop you.

It’s honestly the best you’ve felt in a while.

After a while, you and Yachi decide to take a well-deserved break, stumbling over to the clustered seating space filled with red cushions as the boys scatter to find more alcohol. At this point you’re surprised that they’re still moving around and conscious, considering the amount they’ve drunk.

One of the boys— the one with the kind smile called Daichi— offers to get you guys some water as you take a seat, allowing your tired legs to take a break.

“I’m going to fine Hinata!” Yachi says into your ear and you nod before ushering her out of your way. There’s something between those two, a kind of tension that will develop into something more if they just allow it.

But you’re not one to meddle, not when your own love life’s a mess.

That’s when you notice.

It’s the lingering stare out of the corner of your peripheral that makes you turn your head.

Then you see him.

A tall, lanky man. He’s seated right opposite you, a drink in his hand and taking a swig. But there’s no mistake, for when his eyes meet yours across the room you can only jolt in shock.

You look away with embarrassment and disgust. Heat spreads to the back of your neck and goosebumps run up your arms. Suddenly, it’s a little too cold in this hot, sweaty club.

Why is he looking at you like that?

There’s no mistaking the intention. You risk one more glance and confirm that indeed, there’s a darkness in his eyes; the kind of a predator.

The kind that wants to strip you bare.

It’s unsetttling, unnerving.

Disgusting.

You don’t even hesitate. It’s like instinct for you jump off your seat with the only purpose to find Kuroo. But to your terror, the man starts to follow you. And soon enough it becomes a game of catch: of cat and mouse. You almost trip over your high heels as you push through the moving bodies as quickly as you can.

But the figure is there, hovering over you like a dark shadow that causes your heart to clench.

You bite back a whimper, pushing through a throng of girls as you frantically search for a sign of Kuroo’s familiar mop of hair. Or Hinata’s. Or just about anyone for that matter—

Bumping into a chest, you’re more than surprised as you let out a small yelp only to hear a familiar alto.

“Kosuke-san, everything alright?”

“K—Kuroo sensei,” your mumble is drowned in the beats of the music, eyes darting between his face and the dodgy man.

He’s now standing by the bar a few feet away from you. The same kind of withering stare that makes you wince.

Hurriedly, you turn to Kuroo and grip his shirt, wanting nothing more than to hide behind him, “I—uhm— there’s someone—“ the words jumble up as they pour out of your mouth and you find you can do nothing but grip his shirt for dear life, like Kuroo’s the only thing that can help you out of here.

Thankfully, he seems to understand your dilemma, for he puts a hand on your shoulder before steering you a little closer to him and away from the main path, a frown evident on his face, “what’s wrong Kosuke-san?”

But it’s only when he follows your fear-stricken eyes that Kuroo realizes there’s something — someone tormenting you. He recognizes the dark hunger, the prowling intent.

Instantly, his hand grips your waist. Tugs you closer.

You stumble into him, “Kuroo sensei—“

But Kuroo’s not having it. He stares the man down with a glower, longer body practically wrapped around yours in a protective embrace as he dares the man to do something, anything.

Try me, his eyes are saying, you’re not going to lay a single hand on her.

The stranger finally breaks eye contact after a few beats of silence and Kuroo keeps watch, golden eyes blazing until the man is nothing more but a memory of smoke as he disappears into the crowd.

Only then does he allow his hold to relax. Tilting down towards you. He murmurs out softly:

“He’s gone, Kosuke-san.”

You’re practically glued to him at this point, face buried in his chest and hands gripping so tightly onto his shirt that you might’ve grown claws. Kuroo nudges you gently once more, and that’s when you look up from the depths of his shirt.

The sight makes him almost coo because goddamnit even in the dim disco lights you look adorable. He has the sudden urge to pinch your cheeks and he’s glad his hands are somewhat occupied along your waist.

“You okay?” Is what he whispers.

You nod, looking a bit shaky and green int the face, “yeah—I’m—I’m fine. Thank you. He was—it scared me.”

“I know,” Kuroo draws away ever so slightly so he can have a better look at your face, “I’ll bring you home, alright?”

“No no it’s okay,” you shake your head and attempt a smile, but even Kuroo can see past those shaky lips, “you stay and have fun. I’ll call an Uber and—“

“Nonsense,” he grabs your elbow once more, “I’ll accompany you. C’mon.”

———

It’s definitely unnerving. It leaves you shaking with fear and you’re thankful for Kuroo’s strong grip on your arm as he maneuvers you out of the club.

The rush of cold wind hits your cheeks, leaving the soft beats of the club behind. Slowly, the world comes back into focus as the air rushes through your lungs and the sound bustling traffic in the distance is brought back into focus.

Only then do you realize how close you’re standing to the coach.

With a start, you stumble away with a muttered “sorry”, not daring to meet his eyes while quickly brushing off your clothes because dear god you weren’t sure what to do with your hands.

The uber arrives without much delay — thankfully — and the ride home is silent, almost as if there’s an awkward tension that has settled between the two of you. Away from the alcohol and now sobering up, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that you’d practically glued yourself to this man earlier. The act is so embarrassing you decidedly keep your gaze on the flurry of bustling streets and dim lamps flying by.

You don’t realize you’ve dozed off until a warm hand is shaking your shoulder, followed by a soft; “we’re here.”

You gasp, noticing that you’ve been pressed against Kuroo’s shoulder all this time.

“Oh,” you scramble away as quick as lightning, “I’m so sorry—“

His lips quirk upwards, “no harm done, senpai.”

You hate it when he calls you that. It makes you sound… old.

Nevertheless, you decide to be quiet as he accompanies you up to your flat, hands in his pockets while following you up the rusty stairs. You hope he’s not judging; it’s not like you have unlimited amounts of funding, what with Sakura’s education and activities.

“Well,” you finally reach the door to your flat and turn on your heel so that you face him, “thanks… for everything.”

"No problem," he's smiling down at you. Still so patient, still so happy to help. Your heart swells in your chest and you ask, "how are you getting back?"

"Oh, probably Uber..." he trails off, already turning away to fish his phone out of his pocket, "it's not far."

"Where do you live?"

You almost bawk when he tells you his address, because it's practically at the other end of town. He'll be there in forty-five minutes, at least.

The words are automatic, shooting out of you, "I'm so--"

But Kuroo's hand whips out, clamping over your lips. Your eyes widen as you look up at him, only to see the young man grinning like there's no tomorrow.

"You really need to stop doing that," he finally says before drawing back. Already, you're hit with the cold air following Kuroo's touch upon your skin, "I wanted to accompany you. There's nothing to apologize for."

"I know, but--"

He throws you another pointed look that has you clamping down on your mouth. You're about to say sorry once more because you're being a pathetic blubbery mess, but the look in his eyes makes you say a soft, "thank you" instead.

"You're welcome," and with one final grin and a wave to match, the school Coach disappears down the corridor, leaving you gazing at his broad back until his silhouette turns the corner and away from your sight.

[palskippah]

Hi! @hyperfixatingonbowuigisohard had this idea of Mr. L but preggy and I loved it jsdisd

I know nearly nothing of this game, but here's some ideas anyways for it!

-Mr L does his little presentation number, turning around, balancing his weight on one foot, and almost giving Bowser a heart attack when he clearly was barely keeping his balance, fearing that his husband would stumble and fall.

-Bowser immediately recognizes him, and Peach mutters to herself that Mr L reminds her strongly of someone, but she's not sure who. Bowser looks at her in disbelief, not sure if she's messing with him or not.

>Mario doesn't recognize Luigi at all at first, and Bowser genuinely asks him if he's an idiot. That's clearly Luigi! Same hat (a bit different though) and his overalls (although darker...) and that's his mustache! (looking as dashing as ever, by the way), and he's exactly as pregnant as Luigi! (Mario signs that Luigi isn't the only pregnant person in the world, and Bowser gets exasperated).

>Bowser keeps trying to convince Mario to not fight his expectant husband (AKA, Mario's brother!), and even if it wasn't Luigi, the man was clearly very pregnant, how was he going to fight him?!

>Mr L overhears and takes it personally, jumping into battle. He loses, of course. And when he's on the ground, tired and out of breath (from what Bowser's just sure is just the baby tiring him up, because Mario was really tame on his attacks), the koopa hands him a Shroom Shake so he feels better, and Mr L angrily accepts it and then sends Bowser straight to hell. When he tries to stand up and fails miserably, he lets the koopa help him to his feet, and then sends him to hell again and leaves, to work on his Brobot. (I can't remember what else happens during that fight asdkaj)

>I can't remember how Mr L leaves after the first battle, but imagine he's waddling very slowly away and Bowser's like 'Babe?? Luigi?? Please come back :C' and Luigi is literally within arm reach (especially for Bowser), but he's also very angry and telling the koopa weirdo (AKA, King Corny, King Incompetent, Mr wrappedaroundyourhusbandsfinger, King Bootlicker) to back off or he'll kill him. And well, Luigi is very capable of doing anything, and this is a brainwashed, evil Luigi, so the koopa isn't taking any chances. And the 'Green Thunder' is even more cranky because Mario didn't even break a sweat and Mr L was all huffing and puffing when the battle ended. The whole waddle away, when he wasn't insulting Bowser, Mr L muttered to himself about the stupid huge baby that didn't let him do anything and the horrors of motherhood and pregnancy.

-Mr L doesn't care for the baby, because he just came to existence and found himself heavily pregnant. He doesn't know this baby; he doesn't feel anything for them! But still there's the muscle memory or maybe it's the feelings that Luigi has for the little thing or something, because sometimes Mr L would find that he had been stroking his own belly or resting his hand on it. He'd move his hand away as if burned, and quickly look around hoping none of Count Bleck's other minions saw him showing such weakness, feeling embarrassed.

-Normally Bowser is all over Luigi to be of assistance for anything he may need, to, y'know, make his life easier now that he's pregnant. And Luigi is always glad that he has his husband right there to take care of him, but that is not the case with Mr L. He's angry that the idiot koopa thinks that he needs to be monitored like a baby, when he can take perfectly good care of himself! But also, he claims so and all, but is clearly struggling.

>Like at some moment he presents his brobot control remote (or something? How does he even summon that robot?) and then accidentally drops it. All of them, Mario, Peach, Bowser and Mr L stare at it for a few seconds. When Bowser makes a movement of going forward to pick it for him, the green one swats him away, he can pick it up himself, thanks fucking very much. Cue Mr L doing the pitiful preggy crouch while Mario and Peach pointedly don't look (after he yells that they can stop staring!) and Bowser tries to get closer to just pick the damn thing himself so Luigi can stop straining himself (getting yelled at in return).

-On Super Dimentio form, know that brainwashed Luigi (Mr. L) and Dimentio don't give a single shit about the baby, the first obviously having the set goal of being of assistance to Dimentio or whatevs, and the late one wanting to fulfill the prophecy. But well, Luigi sure does, so he subconsciously makes sure to protect his bebi Magma. The new form is huge, but the baby is still normal sized, it's just that Luigi made sure to give them some extra padding because it looked like they'd need it to be safe.

>By the way, the idea of one side of his face being a crying Luigi and the other being Dimentio is directly from @galaxygermdraws' design of Super Dimentio which is so cool :'''v

>Super Dimentio form may have only some physical characteristics of Luigi and only Dimentio's mind controlling it, but Luigi has been pregnant for many months now, and he can't help muscle memory, so the Super Dimentio form waddles like he does, and maybe Mario, Peach and Bowser would find it funny, if they weren't so horrified by the whole ordeal and the huge hands trying to squish them like bugs.

-As soon as Luigi is out of the Super Dimentio form, he's lying on the ground and wiping the streak of tears from the only cheek that has them, while wondering aloud why is he crying and on his side on the floor, and the next second after that, he's wrapped in Bowser's arms and Mario's holding his hand and Peach is touching his face, all of them fretting over him, while Luigi doesn't know what has them with such worried expressions, or why Bowser's weeping so much.

-If before Bowser was all over him, since the whole Chaos Heart ordeal he doesn't take his eyes away from Luigi, neither does Mario, who's glued to him for long weeks until he can feel that his brother is going to be alright.

>Anyways, baby's born, they're all happy yey :D Also pls look at that paper Magma I drew, that's my best drawing up to date.

ALSO alternate thing where the Chaos Heart remained with the baby in some weird way, but they don't notice because she's literally just a baby but she has the potential to destroy the universe, but Magma never does because she's a chill girl her whole life who doesn't have reasons to unleash the doom of the universe JSJDK silly idea in the same way that Luigi -the bestest guy around- is supposed to help destroy everything (??? or something like that I read somewhere? Maybe it was a headcanon aksdladk)

Thanks if you read till here!

[googleitlol]

Aaaah, I’m sorry if I’m bothering you with all these asks, but I have to know this! How would Black Myth Wukong go with Dove in it, considering the story? Especially with what happened to the original Wukong and her potential interactions with the Destined One?

OOOOOOOH THIS ONE IS INTERESTING!! Also, don't ever apologise for giving me asks to answer, I love yapping so you're doing me a favour. Also I hope you know the vault of angst and depression you just opened

Ok so just letting you know, I have two different endings for PoM I may go with: a happy ending… and a less happy ending. Since I'm already feeling depressed, I'm gonna answer this as though the less happy ending is what happens. In it, Dove gains immortality (but for reasons I won't disclose yet) and is separated from everyone forever, including Wukong. He can't even try to save her because, well… spoilers.

I know the basics of the game lore so sorry if I get anything wrong/misunderstand anything, but this is how I think it'd go. Also, spoilers under the cut for Black Myth Wukong.

TW: Suicide

So from my understanding, the Destined One isn't technically Wukong, but he inherits his memories by the end of the game. With that in mind, I see this going similar to what I've seen of Wukong finding a reincarnated reader, but reversed.

Dove eventually escapes the place she is trapped in, but by the time she makes it back to Flower Fruit Mountain to find Sun Wukong… the worst has already happened. Erlang is the one who tells her how Sun Wukong ended his life, his final plan to free himself from the Heaven's grasp.

Before being separated, Dove had already learned some hard truths from Guan Yin about events concerning her past. Learning about what her master had been keeping secret from her, and then the relief of seeing her love again being crushed by the reality of his suicide, it breaks her. She had spent years fighting to get back to her Peaches, to the one that she could always depend on. He was with her when she learned about Guan Yin's secrets, they had to drag him away from her the day they were separated– it hits her then, the last moment she ever saw him was when he was in pain, clawing at demons that pulled him further away from her. The last she ever saw of those beautiful sunset eyes… they were filled in anguish and rage.

After learning of Sun Wukong's fate, Dove grows bitter and cold. She doesn't return to Potalaka Mountain– she can't stand to be in the presence of any of the deities anymore, not even the one who raised her. Who lied to her. Moksa checks in on her every now and then, from a distance, she won't talk to him either. It's a pitiful sight, how she becomes a shell of her former self. Dove cuts contact with nearly everyone and travels the road on her own, helping people where she can, but no task she does is ever enough to distract her from that emptiness that takes root inside. It's painful, and no matter how hard she tries, that pain won't go away.

Then, by chance, she comes across a monkey demon.

Confusion is the first word that comes to mind when describing her reaction to seeing the Destined One for the first time. Maybe her mind is just playing tricks on her again… but this doesn't feel like she's seeing things. He feels real. Dove has already gone through the emotional ups and downs of meeting a reincarnated loved one before, but this is different. It's different because it's Sun Wukong. There has never been another like him.

She does suppose the same holds true once she spends more time with the Destined One, he isn't like Sun Wukong. He's more… stoic. He doesn't say much, and compared to the talkative Monkey King, it's a little unnerving at first. Is this really the person she loves? It's a question she struggles with as she goes through the game with him, helping him. Travelling with the Destined One, it's almost reminiscent of the original journey. That's what Dove tells herself, anyway.

Whether or not it really is him, it's safe to say any reincarnated/reborn Monkey King would be falling for Dove pretty hard. I'm still figuring out how the Destined One would be around her at first, maybe he's a little put off by this strange immortal woman who decided to tag along with him. She's helpful, so he doesn't mind the company, but that doesn't stop him from wondering why she's with him. Maybe there's one night where she's helping him recover from a serious fight, probably scolding him for something reckless he did as she works her magic and all he can do is frown. Why does she care so much about him?

Whether he can understand her motives or not, he does appreciate it. Having another person to face these hardships with, someone who has his back through the toughest battles and his lowest moments, he's never had that before. Or maybe, it's just something he's missed. It's strange, how she is able to comfort him. Not just because of her tranquil power, it isn't necessarily her calming aura that puts his mind to rest… there's something deeper, something that tugs at his chest and pulls him to her. This longing to be near her.

He wants to know more, ask why she's so intent on helping him, but Dove is good at avoiding questions, she's constantly guarded around him. The Destined One likely wouldn't pry as much as Wukong would in this situation, but his curiosity still kills him inside. Instead of getting his answers from her, he starts finding the answers in his head, with educated guesses. Maybe Dove was just so awe-struck by his handsomeness that she decided to help him in any way she can, on the spot. He liked that theory 😏

As their journey continues, they do warm up to each other more. Maybe they pass through a village in the midst of a celebration and Dove manages to convince the Destined One to dance with her. Sun Wukong did the same for her all those years ago. Maybe one night after setting up camp for the night, the Destined One begins to comb through her hair, not thinking too much of it since it's normal for other monkeys to preen through one another's hair, it's a show of his affection.

Dove is usually so guarded, but in that moment her walls come crumbling down. She tries to push down her silent sobs, but it's difficult. Sun Wukong was the last person to go through her hair like this, and the simple action brings back so many fond memories. When he realises she's crying, he stops but she grabs his hand before he can fully pull away.

"Don't stop, please. It's okay, I'm… I'm okay."

Maybe he pulls her close after that, holding her in his arms as she does the same. There's so much pain in her heart, and all he wants is to take it away. The only question is, how?

By the end of the game where the Destined One gains all of Wukong's memories, so many of Dove's actions become clear to him. She can see in his eyes when he looks at her, a new hint recognition in his features as she realises who she really is, who she was to Sun Wukong.

Even by this point, Dove is conflicted over her feelings for the Destined One. She's come to love him throughout their journey, but is it the same love? Or is there some part of her brain convincing her it has to be the same, that this is the same man she fell in love with. Does she love this new Monkey King, or the memory he represents?

If one thing is for certain, the Destined One is confident in his feelings for her. Even before receiving those memories, he had been falling for Dove with every moment they spent together. If anything, these memories only make his love for her stronger, knowing what they've been through in a past life, how she stayed by him through this new journey because of their past.

…But he can't be sure whether she feels the same. Not when he still doesn't know if he is Sun Wukong, or just holds his memories now. It's something they'd have to work through and figure out together, but one thing is for certain. Dove doesn't plan on leaving anytime soon.

[aimfor-theheart]

cielo,, how does nico react to you shifting around in his lap when you're in public w friends,, if you'd have any ideas,,,

of course i have ideas anon. of course. pls enjoy 💗

pairing: nicholas d. wolfwood x gender neutral reader

cw: sweetheart pet name used, flirting…suggestive…

ﾟ•┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ ୨♡୧ ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈• ｡ﾟ

the night is young and warm and hazy—the moon is a shy curve in the sky, glowing beneath thin clouds that amble by. the stars are dancing and bright, like girls in the night, heavendrunk and giddy.

on the patio of an old dive bar in the middle of nowhere, you sit in nicholas’ lap.

vash and meryl and milly are around the table. their drinks are almost empty—you’re just shy of finishing your own. the card game has just begun. some old one vash likes to play and milly claims she used to play with all her siblings. nicholas knows it because—well, when doesn’t he know a card game?

you and meryl are new to it but meryl has that determined little furrow to her brow. she’s set her jaw. she wants to win.

but you’re in nico’s lap, sitting pretty with your bare legs thrown over his. one arm looped around his neck so you can lean back into him and look at his hand of cards. he claims he’s tryin’ to teach you.

you haven’t been paying enough attention.

it’s a rare night that you really indulge in displays of affection this large, especially around the group, but you’re all a little tipsy and soft-hearted and there had only been four chairs around the table. they’d all taken their seat and nico, without missing a beat, had pulled you right in to his lap. fit you snug against him.

meryl hadn’t even said a peep about it, who usually complains if you get a little overly affectionate in front of her. instead, she’d just kept chatting away to you like nothing had ever happened. like you weren’t perched in nick’s lap with one of his arms looped around your waist.

vash eyes you a little funny from time to time—staring a little too long at you or nico. you catch him once glancing down to nico’s hands on the curve of your waist or softness of your thighs.

you don’t really mind.

“alright, sweetheart, let’s see what we got.” nico says to you, leaning back in his chair so no one can see his cards except you, nestled close to him.

you lay your head against his sternum to look, tucking beneath his chin. his arms are looped around you to fan the cards out for the two of you to see.

seems like a good hand to you—two queens, a jack, and a ten. you don’t say a peep, though, and you feel nico sigh beneath you. he nudges his nose to your temple absentmindedly.

he smells like the faded cologne he wears—grisalva and amber and leather. and a little like the sun, after a long day beneath it. bourbon on his breath. tobacco.

you nuzzle into him—you forget yourself for a moment. you have half a mind to dot little kisses against his jaw, maybe a little nip of your teeth—

“what card should we put down?” he murmurs, voice rumbling and low. you can feel it vibrate in his chest.

you squirm a little and sluggishly return your focus to the cards.

you eye them. then eye the card meryl put down.

you tap one of the queens.

“good call,” he says and leans forward, jostling you a little to put it down on the table.

“damn,” vash says and he’s got a flush on his face. you think it’s from the drink—he’s got the same drink as nico. something strong and stiff—milly does, too. she likes to keep up with the boys. “i’ve got a shit hand.” he laughs, nudging down a four.

you and meryl have something a little sweeter—peach and honey and liquor.

you don’t really know how the game is going.

when the round is over and nico throws down his cards, the table groans.

“i really thought i had him!” meryl cries.

“you’ll get him next time, meryl!” milly encourages, sliding the cards into her hands, collecting them all.

“hard to beat him this round.” vash agrees, looking at you.

with nico’s hands free, he squeezes your thigh, your waist. “got my lucky charm right here.”

vash’s eyes flicker. you squirm. vash quickly takes a sip of his drink, averting his attention.

“meryl, if you want, i can start cheatin’ for you.”

nico bounces his knees a little, jostling you, “you’d betray me like that?”

he hitches his chin over your shoulder to rub his stubbly cheek against your own. you can’t help but laugh a little, the soft, high way you do when it’s just you and nico. giggly and sweet.

“you always win card games.” you reply, “i’m rooting for meryl this time.”

he nudges his nose against your jaw and—

you wanna kiss him. you wanna turn in his arms and straddle his waist and you wanna—

your hips shift a little. his hand squeezes your thigh. maybe in warning.

“while i appreciate the support, i need to win fair and square.” meryl announces and the flush in her face, all rosy, is certainly from the drink. she hardly pays you or nico any mind.

“atta girl, meryl!” milly says, beginning to deal the cards again.

nico’s got his arms around you again to hold up the cards. you’re not really thinking of much except that he’s so big and solid beneath you and you wish his hands would do something else than hold some cards.

he has some rings on his fingers and you eye them.

you squirm again, imagining those fingers between your legs or in your mouth or—

this time, he rumbles in your ear, low and soft and just for you, “sit still.”

which only makes you want to move more.

he hums as he looks at his cards.

you have half a mind to purr, to wrap your arms around him and just melt into his embrace, let him have you whatever way he wants. and though nico can be a brute, he tries not to react to the way you shift again.

the game unfolds.

you try to stay patient but it’s proving difficult.

your hips shift fractionally, an aborted little rock, and you feel—

you feel that he’s hard and.

heat rushes through you, cracks through you like a lightning strike to an old, dry tree. and—

and you want more.

“how much longer until the game is over?” you try for casualness. nico huffs.

“probably a half hour or so,” milly says and then she looks dead at you and asks very cheerfully, “why? in a rush?”

vash coughs into his drink.

you feel heat rush to your face. “no!” you reply quickly, “i’m just gettin’ tired.”

“poor baby,” meryl mocks, “i better hurry up and win then.”

nico remains strangely silent. but when you shift again, he grabs your waist tight. he stills you. he doesn’t let you move like that again.

he finishes his drink—he tosses down his cards.

meryl shouts, cheering. she’s won finally and with it, the whole game.

“good play, stryfe.” nico grunts, “you caught on fast.”

“that’s what i do!” she boasts, clinking her glass with milly’s, then vash’s. then yours.

“and now you’re free to go—“ meryl looks at the pair of you and she flusters a little finally, “uh—sleep.”

vash laughs and milly chimes in, “beauty rest is important, after all.”

“yeah, yeah,” nico waves them off, “i need a smoke. and to sleep.” he says, more to you, as he urges you up with a little tap to your thigh. you hop up.

you bid your friends goodnight, downing the rest of your drink, before skipping a little to catch up to nico. the moment you’re beside him, his big hand comes down on the nape of your neck, and he pulls you in close.

you cozy up to him.

“you think you’re cute?” nico asks, leaning down a little, “squirming in my lap the whole damn night?”

“couldn’t help it,” you try to shrug, smiling up at him with a little too much innocence, “was feeling antsy.”

“you’re a brat.” he says, “you need better manners, sweetheart. i was enjoying myself.”

“oh i know,” you say, “i felt that—“

he swats your bottom and you yelp his name, scandalized and quickly glancing behind you to see if anyone saw. no one in sight. he guides you back to your room.

“maybe i’ll teach you some, huh?” he asks but he’s not really asking. you feel warmth hit your face. you peak up at him.

he squeezes the nape of your neck as his dark eyes find yours.

a fissure of heat, like lightning bursting across the sky.

“maybe a lesson in patience.” he says and though his tone is light, you hear the barb in it somewhere, catch the flash of his teeth when he smiles at you.

your stomach flips.

you have a feeling you’re in for a long night.

[biggest-geo-oogami-enjoyer]

TKATB - Theories, wahoo.

This will contain spoilers for Days 1 and 2 of @fantasia-kitt 's 'The Kid At The Back', along with containing mentions of material found on her Twitter (https://twitter.com/fantasia_kitt).

This is mostly based off things I've picked apart and/or kinda pieced together. If you feel I'm incorrect, or am missing something; hell, if you have any theories of your own, please share!

Anyway, the actual theories (apologies in advance if the rambling is...uh...too rambly).

- Okay, so considering the fact Jess was moved into the ‘Lower Class’ school, it means that she either failed a class or got a ‘violation’ (those are the conditions for being moved down, according to Hyugo). Brittney mentioned how ‘confident and loud’ Jess is when she’s angry, and Brittney apparently was popular at some point, but lost it at the party (it was mentioned a few times by Deryl) 2 years ago due to an incident. I think maybe Brittney was being bullied and Jess lost her shit, maybe even got physical? And that led to the duo being sent to the ‘Lower Class’ school.

- Subaru (Geo) and Hyugo are mentioned to be brothers, but Hyugo says “Subaru! I wasn’t expecting to see you here!”, which could mean Geo (due to him being rich af) was moved down as well??? Hyugo and Geo are brothers but have different surnames, so I have a feeling (also because Geo is said to have daddy issues by Fantasia herself), that maybe Subaru Oogami and Hyugo Sugimoto aren’t related.

- Continuing that, Hyugo is the ‘traitor’ that the ‘Rough-Voiced Man’ was looking for in the cinema, so he’s obviously affilated with some dodgy people, and we know he hates injustice, so perhaps he is a mercenary or assassin of sorts (he did canonically kill somebody, with Sol witnessing it, check Fantasia’s twitter); and that could be why Geo avoids him? Hell, why does Subaru even go by Geo? Is it a codename, like Geo Sugimoto, is he hiding his real identity?

- With the person who threatened MC and their father with taking the farm, and the Marie Antoinette references, maybe the ‘handsome man’ is Crowe’s father? Hell, maybe even Eries, the fuchsia-eyed celebrity Jess loves. Along with that, the 'moral' I suppose of her biography was along the lines of: change is inevitable, either you deny it, or accept it. It'll happen anyway, what changes is your role and reaction to it (say you choose Crowe, Sol'll lose his marbles; if you choose Sol, Crowe might move on...unless he's also insane but I doubt it).

- Flowers seem to be important symbolism-wise, like the carnation and passionflower mentions made by Crowe (carnations can mean love for someone, or purity if white, or rejection/disappointment if yellow. Passionflowers mean renewal and hope I think). Brugmansia is also a poisonous flower, so it hints to Sol being a ‘poison’ that could kill us.

- I've seen this mentioned by @sweet-herbal-peach-tea (I'm sorry for tagging you anon, I wanted to credit you; also check their theories out as well anons), but I'll add it here anyway: With the prominence of Edgar Allan Poe's 'Annabel Lee', it could hint to Sol having loved us either in a past life...or...maybe we - the MC - look identical to a past lover of his, one who maybe passed; and he's deluded himself into thinking we are them?

Now for my favourite ones:

- The Hallow’s Ball, the event Deryl mentions on the groupchat, is on Friday. Assuming the game will be 7 days long and that Day 1 is Monday, that means Day 5 is crucial. It could be a catalyst, hell it may even decide what ending you get (Fantasia said there’ll probably be about 5, 1 true, 2 good, 2 bad; albeit that could change). Geo mentions he doesn’t want to go, neither does Brittney, but I think she will due to the fact Jess is. It may decide whether you choose Crowe or Sol, along with finalising relations with the other characters.

- Hyugo also mentions ‘taking care of Sol for him’, implying his absence…or even death. Hyugo pulls a gun on a person who seems to know him, maybe the boss of a crime syndicate? Hyugo hates injustice, so maybe the missing persons cases are being caused by people Hyugo knows, and he wants to stop them? I think if Hyugo vanishes (hell, it’s already known that he doesn’t always show up to class), it might be a way to get more info out of Geo.

That’s all I got off the top of my head lol, if it seems janky, I'm sorry. ;^

And uuh...yeah. This is my first Tumblr post so yeah. Love this Visual Novel and cannot wait to see more! (Especially of Geode lmfao).

[softdykellie]

ੈ✩‧₊˚ motion sickness part ii | ellie w.

previous part here | next part here soon

PAIRING: modern!ellie x fem!reader

SUMMARY: having grown up together, everyone knew eachother in jackson. when a brooding newcomer owner to a tattoo shop comes along apparently charming her friendly florist neighbor things seem to take a turn.

WARNING: alternative universe! purposefully all lower case. multiple part series. not a very eventful beginning as ellie’s relationship with reader is slow burn but it will start evolving after this one seriously trust me!

WORD COUNT: 632

ellie. you tasted her name on your tongue and melted into the feeling, flushed. dina had certainly manifested her wishes into fruition, you thought. stared at the girl for way too long, getting familiar with her features and vacant gaze towards the alcohol filled shelves against the main bar wall, freckles like starry war paint, eyebrow scar, pale green iris, peach pink lips, auburn hair gently brushing her shoulder at length. breathtaking, you immediately named the feeling, but she looked worn, tossed around. you blamed it on the bruised eye, caught onto sky grey vibes.

a silly game blossomed into your heart years ago, the inspiration for your flower shop really: how everyone you meet could be described by the floral language. dina thought hers too common, but it was your favorite, a daisy, standing for loyal love and “i’ll never tell”. jesse, a white jasmin, sweet love, amiability. even abby, coriander. you did not know the girl at all, but you saw red carnations grow behind her in the way spiritualists would claim to see auras. red carnations; “my heart aches”.

“flower shop girl, yes, that’d be me”

“cute” she mumbled sipping on the beer dina had given her before promptly pretending to be busy elsewhere though noticebly eavesdropping.

“you’ve got a lot of tattoos on you” jesse pointed matter of factly, earning a chuckle “perks of the job?”

“the job” ellie repeated his words in light humor as if minimizing her own career with the sound “yeah, i guess. you want one?”

“fuck, yeah! maybe a dragon up my back or or you know a snake, i don’t know, what do you usually draw?”

“pretty things” she answered before taking you off guard with a head movement that pointed you out amongst them all “like her” she twisted her body around to meet your face “what would you get, flower girl? roses?”

“the sun” you answered “what does that say about me?”

ellie smiled a weak smile, raising the sleeve of her grey t-shirt to expose a beaming sun by her bicep, detailed sad expression in black ink across its center. you took notice of everything. ferns and a moth grew from her hand to the very end of her forearm and covered scars you could only assume to have been self inflicted. a sword pierced through the spare space of skin next to a phoenix and finally angel wings alongside a well hidden initial: J. you wouldn’t ask, but you wanted to.

“trying to figure that out myself”

you hadn’t noticed when abby left, only that she was gone when a couple dollars slipped past you towards the ground from the countertops, extra tips for dina. you wanted her extroverted ways to carry the conversation, ask the newcomer about the altercation, but she seemed to enjoy playing dutiful dedicated owner more. small talk failed you, and ellie was uninterested.

you planned out your next meeting in your head, showing up with cookies as they do in the movies, catching glimpses of her sketches on the wall, giving them backstories to fill the gaps. it wasn’t so strange to be eager as you were taking into consideration how rare these opportunities had presented themselves: you never left jackson, not even on vacation. the world was meant to turn on its axis but you were destined to stay still, an agoraphobia rooted into your veins like movement would burst your chest open, bloody and broken. the flowers had been a therapist’s idea: to take care of something innocent as a purpose, exist outside the shell of a body you painfully cared for in pure obligation. your personal garden arsenal though, had meaning. yellow tulips, that’s what you were. the flower for unrequited love. the one tattooed by ellie’s hipbone you were yet to see.

[keen-eye]

got really bored and made the N6 into Club Penguins. couldn’t decide whether they should look like their CC designs, or CT designs, or how they’d design their own penguins, so I did a mix of the 3 / what felt right lol

the N6 as players:

Brooklynn: obsessed with playing the PSA missions. the others always ask her to play with them and she promises to after just one more mission (a lie). investigated the Operation Blackout rumors. she’s constantly searching for secret messages on the island. she uses her coins to buy the most fashionable outfits and loves being the first to find new hidden items in the catalogs. hangs out in the Coffee Shop with everyone

Kenji: wants to have the highest rated igloo, but he’s not very good at the minigames so Yaz plays on his account to get him coins. he scouts other players’ igloos to steal borrow ideas. loves the monthly parties/themes and throwing his own parties. collects Special Actions’ Items (pretends to work everywhere). looks online to know where/when to find rare items (also uses codes). throws snowballs at other players 

Yaz: prides herself on being the best at the minigames. when she wants to play Sled Racing she yells at other players on the Ski Hill to play against her. Darius beat her at Card-Jitsu too many times and now she refuses to play (her excuse is that it doesn't take skill anyway). enjoys the Night of the Living Sled short films and dressing up for the Halloween parties. one time she submitted artwork to be displayed in the game

Darius: as good at the minigames as Yaz but he doesn’t take it nearly as seriously. his favorite game is Card-Jitsu and he’s always trying to get the others to play with him. he earned all the belts in one sitting (then did it on Kenji’s account). plays in the Arcade and reads books in the Book Room. loves anything Rockhopper related. always exploring less popular areas of the island and finding/unlocking secret rooms

Ben: very invested in the in-game conspiracy theories and lore. logs on and immediately tries to tip the Iceberg (hard hat on, pengussy out). tries to convince others of the most random theories. eavesdrops on players misbehaving and follows them around because he’s nosy. has been banned many times for refusing to leave other penguins’ igloos when they tell him to. reports “pookies” because he thinks they’re pedos

Sammy: spends most of her time in the main hangout spots chatting with everyone. she’s been temporarily banned twice for revealing and asking for too much personal information (you can’t ask for someone’s address to send them a care package, Sammy). she’s the best at Puffle Roundup and uses her coins to adopt puffles (she has to get one of every color/type). she takes naming and caring for them very seriously

comments on their designs ->

Brooklynn was the hardest in getting the right outfit/jewelry combo, but I lucked out with her hair. an alternate version of her had glasses but I wanted her to have eyelashes (does she look like a Simpsons character, maybe)

Kenji was originally going to be blue but red just went better with his outfit + vibe. an alternate version of him had sunglasses but I wanted his eyes to be visible

Yaz could have been black, her favorite color like I did with Brooklynn, but she looked better purple. she had good options for hair but not for her outfit

Darius was the easiest (minimalist king), but unfortunately Club P is lacking in textured hair options so this was the best I could do. he could have been green but brown suited him best

Ben is the best imo. the hair and outfit were perfect, but had to settle for a satchel. he could have been peach but he looks better orange

Sammy looks the most like her younger self but no other hair option matched her as well as this one. she could have been yellow but I swapped her and Brooklynn’s colors. she's the only one with expressive eyes

Everyone’s shoe choices were very easy

[pillow-anime-talk]

gender swap.

request: how do you think a female wammy’s boys, lawliet and light would be?

# tags: headcanons; gender swap; slice of life; mostly fluff; maybe angst or drama; also comedy (a bit); sfw

includes: light yagami, l lawliet, beyond birthday, nate river, mail jeevas & mihael keehl {death note}

— LIGHT

↘ Oh, she is definitely one of the most beautiful women in the university and gets a scholarship every year for her academic achievements. She is not competitive and doesn’t try to be; she simply has an innate talent for quickly remembering informations and numbers and uses it to get the best grades, and thus awards or recognition among professors.

↘ She is not very interested in relationships; many boys chase after her, but she doesn’t care at all. Brown-haired girl much more prefers to focus on her career and private goals (both in the Kira case and her job in the investigative department).

↘ Nevertheless, if the situation requires it, she will use her charm and grace to achieve what she needs. This woman will stop at nothing when her own life is at stake.

— LAWLIET

↘ I imagine she’s wearing these cool, fluffy hoodies and huge pants tightly tightened around the waist. She is the definition of a woman who likes to play video games, drink energy drinks, watch anime and sit in her own room (alone).

↘ Just like the original L, she also likes sweets and juicy fruits. I imagine her favorites are mango or peaches. In my head I think that she is a vegetarian and cooks well to maintain a healthy, balanced diet based on the right products.

↘ She is an introvert and it’s hard to make friends with her, even though I personally find her a very attractive woman. However, she seems to be unapproachable and therefore has no success in friendship or love.

— BEYOND

↘ She is a loner who devotes herself to her own projects. She has at most one friend, but she lives alone in a small studio apartment with her beloved cat (she is definitely a cat-person).

↘ She studies criminology or forensic psychology and likes to listen to podcasts. She has very good grades, but very rarely appears in class (he comes to universities only when there are exams). The professors have no problem with her, but they know that she is a rather mysterious girl who struggles with personal problems. Nevertheless, she does very well, although she is an outcast.

↘ That girl enjoys night time and loves spending time with her cat while watching crime shows on Netflix. She definitely has trouble sleeping.

— NATE

↘ Another nerd. The best student in the year, the best student in the field and the best student in the entire university. In addition, she is artistically and musically talented (playing the violin and piano, #canon). Although she doesn’t have many friends, she is quite popular and her white hair catches the eye of most students. She is very liked by the professors, even if she looks at the window during classes and does not write anything in her notebook.

↘ I think she is fluent in French, German, English, Japanese and Swedish. She likes to learn new things – she remembers everything so easily. And also has a natural talent for this type of thing.

↘ She doesn’t have a driving license and is afraid to drive. She’s definitely using other people for a free ride.

— MAIL

↘ Not studying. I think she found work as a graphic designer, game tester or digital game designer. It’s something she likes and she’s really good at it. In the future, she would like to set up her own studio where she would create games.

↘ I have a vision in my head that she is sharing a room in an apartment with several people and she is that girl who likes to party and come home late. Plus, she smokes cigarettes and likes to sleep in late – a real example of a bad girl you don’t have to worry about if your boyfriend hangs out with her after school on a project.

↘ Nevertheless, she is a girl who sleeps with her favorite stuffed animal at night and I have no excuse for that, I just feel in my heart that she has a little brown teddy bear without one eye that she got from her favorite grandma and always sits on her bed waiting for her to come home.

— MIHAEL 

↘ She has many friends, but only one true bestie, with whom she is perfectly matched in characters. She swears, she smokes, she’s always late, she’s sophisticated, she’ll take your boyfriend away if you get in her way... She does not like nosy people and gossip about herself, which is why she always deals with such matters personally, preferably behind the walls of the building or between the garages.

↘ She is brutal and emotionless. She has definitely not yet met a person who could heal this little, wishing for happiness heart. Currently, she lives alone and spent nights in the arms of random men. She doesn’t mind.

↘ Somewhere in the back of my mind I have a vision that she has been to the police station more than once for theft or battery. But she has a rich dad, so she gets away with everything. 

[doubledyke]

How do you think would be Edd and Ed's lives in a world where Eddy was never born or they never meet him? Would they indeed be accepted by the other kids, or would they be lonely hermits stuck on their houses (Edd with his experiments and Ed with his sci-fi movies as their only friends respectively)? I bet more on the second option.

oh boy, the question of all time. i guess i'll have to go with the second option to some extent.

ed is unlikely to be truly and wholly accepted by most of the other kids with or without eddy imo. he's smelly and weird, and sarah, who's part of the in-crowd, can't stand him. she's not going to let him join in the reindeer games, and i doubt he'd want to spend more time with her than he already has to, let's be real.

he could very well be perfectly happy with the life of a hermit. like you mentioned, he's got his movies and comics, his models, and a limitless imagination. he doesn't strike me as the type to require much or really any social interaction or validation. he does love being around his friends! edd and eddy that is. he's an extremely sweet person, and very affectionate towards people he cares about. but he could fare just as well being a loner. also, dude can evidently conjure up a tulpa any time he wants (e.g. jib).

he isn't one to hold grudges at all, so if the kids did occasionally need him to effortlessly lift a house or car, he'd happily oblige. that's about the extent of their "acceptance" of ed though. jonny and rolf are the exceptions - i think they'd be buddies with the lump.

it might be a little harder to say for certain with edd, since he puts up so many fronts. i think he may be somewhat accepted - he's clean, smart, and the girls think he's cute. he's good to have around when you need help with homework, or your bike chain slips... or you've got a growth of some sort... but much like big ed, he's pretty strange, on top of being finicky, pretentious, etc.. and he's a buzzkill a lot of the time, which gets old real fast. that being said i think he could easily build a superficial rapport with the kids, though they probably won't be inviting him to any soirees. if i had to choose a kid who might connect most with edd, it'd be jimmy..... so literally exactly what happens in the show.

as far as edd ending up a shut in, i imagine without eddy he probably would spend most of his time on his own, but does venture outdoors. he loves being in nature and looking at bugs, that typa stuff. he'd still do that, just alone i guess. not a farfetched assumption at all. but edd does crave SOME level of social approval and validation. and since he doesn't get it at home, he has to look elsewhere. so without eddy, he would have to manage with a few fair-weather friendships in the neighborhood until he inevitably leaves peach creek and meets people that are more his speed.

there's an argument to be made that despite his need for socialization, he, like ed, would have little to no desire to hang out with the cul-de-sac kids. cuz like, what would they do? it's nearly impossible for me to imagine edd 'playing' with the other kids, since he's 12 going on 45. edd doesn't play, at least not uncritically lmao. he likes to read and do his tinkering and experiments, etc.. at least with ed and eddy he can put those things to some kind of use.

which brings me to my semi-related tangent, and i'll try not to go too far off the rails here, but don't hold your breath.

i feel like this kind of question is prevalent because some people want to imagine that the cul-de-sac would be all sunshine and rainbows if only eddy wasn't around. as if ed and edd are clamoring to hang out with kevin (lol) and the only thing preventing them from being the toasts of the town is eddy? it's really weird seeing as he's basically the main character and there's not a show without their antics. idk what to tell those people except that maybe they need to find another long defunct cartoon to over analyze 😬

not that you're doing this at all anon, but it drives me crazy when people try to absolve edd of wrongdoing and paint him as a trembling victim. i mean, people can do whatever they want, but shitting on eddy is a bit much. plus it strips away a lot of what makes edd interesting.

edd makes a conscious and informed choice every day to hang out with ed and eddy.

i don't personally think it's because he was or necessarily would be outright shunned by the other kids. dare i say, he just likes them lmao.

eddy and edd have a major similarity in their desire to appear more mature than they are:

eddy is shameless in his attempts, whereas edd tries to play it off.

and that's it. that's the show.

kidding, but only a little. essentially, they're both precocious and have probably been exposed to shit that kids shouldn't be exposed to. i think that's the foundation of their friendship, aside from having the same name.

in some ways, eddy IS more "mature" than his peers, in his own greasy way. he's mostly a typical idiot pre-teen, but let's give him some credit here: he knows it's a dog eat dog world and you don't get anywhere in life by whistlin' dixie. he's just trying to get a head start.

edd is complicit and just as culpable as eddy is in their grift. he compulsively voices his disapproval and still not only goes along, but contributes greatly. it appears that a lot of the time his biggest qualm is even that the scams are immoral, but that they're unconvincing.

there could be a few different explanations for that, but "edd is a victim of eddy" simply isn't one of them.

a) edd also wants money, and if that means fleecing people he believes are below him, so be it.

b) edd views these rackets as the preferable, more adult-esque alternative to playing tiddlywinks with his peers.

c) he likes spending time with ed and eddy and that entails running two-bit scams

these aren't mutually exclusive by any means. to me, all three apply at various times in the series.

all that to say, i don't think edd is forced to hang out with ed and eddy because he's just SO outwardly off-putting that the kids wouldn't give him the time of day. that assumes that he even wants their time, y'know. unlike eddy, edd is not "cool-conscious". he doesn't care where he belongs, he's just wants to belong. and he found his sense of belonging with dumb and dumber. it says a lot about him, i think 😂

much like any kid if he really wanted to mesh with the in-crowd, he'd find a way. to act like edd has no other option just comes off as a slight toward the other two eds.

okay anyway, the eds are a package deal. without eddy... there's literally no ed edd n eddy. none of them would develop the way they did if one of them was missing. that's why it's weird to try and guess what would happen if eddy wasn't around. but...

i don't see edd giving ed much of a chance if it weren't for eddy's forcing them to be around each other. he'd get one whiff of the guy and disintegrate into a pile of wood dust. and ed barely understands what edd says, so why would he have ever initiated a conversation if not for eddy standing by to interpret??

of course, edd did a pretty good job at predicting what life would look like for ed and eddy if he ended up as the pretzel legged boy in the sideshow - the sucker quotient does go way down when the signs are misspelled. and as for if it were just edd and eddy, they would've killed each other by the end of season 2.

[gingergari]

Hi!! (I'm sorry this is the third time I'm trying to send the ask, I think my wifi is fighting with me aksdasl) I love your Mareach babies! and the art you have of them :''v Also their names are perfect bc of all the meanings jsdskd I'd love to know more of them bc I too love twins whdjwhdw How are they when they grow up? Or even when they were still babies!

i’m so glad you like mela and pera! :^) (and dw, the internet’s been wonky here too)

on the backend of things i’ve used mela for a mareach kid for a few years but it’s only this year when i was actually like. designing her that i was like ‘they should have twins. something something runs in the family (on my dad’s side of the family his mom had twins and the twins also had twins) something something legendary star twin having twins’ so i trialed a few names (mainly arancia) before i settled on pera! :^)

i’ve been having the time of my life this semester (/s) so i really haven’t developed them very much unfortunately :( but that’s what asks are for! (so please send more if you’re curious!)

this is getting long so here’s a post cut

mela is the more excitable twin and comes up with a lot of ideas, but as they grew up she defaults more to pera to lead because she tends to execute them better and think of details mela would miss

though as kids pera would go along with whatever mela suggested bc she thought it was fun ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (mela was the one who proposed playing with fire, pera would probably just say ‘lets do it outside’)

i think they fully developed their own ‘firebrand’ around 3-4! but there were signs beforehand, like mela sneezing smoke as a baby and having a higher normal body temperature than pera

(but peach’s magic is so strong there was little doubt that her children would inherit her abilities, and they do end up doing so to some degree! fire just manifested early)

in terms of them as babies, they were definitely a handful but overall ‘good’ babies

once pera knew how to walk tho it was a wrap

very adventurous and loves pursuing knowledge no matter what it takes (nosy and persistent) meanwhile mela has that same curiosity but doesn’t really know what she wants. the happy hobby pursuer

we know mario has experience with younger children and babies (mallow, goombario if you squint a little, watt, yoshi kid, himself (PiT moment), olivia) and peach likely doesn’t have nearly as much but it’s still a different ball game when it’s your kid and two of them and being prince consort(? king? in my head he stayed prince consort but i like @istadris ‘s thing) but he does have a huge community so they do end up well traveled/being cared for and spoiled by many of mario’s companions, and especially so by luigi, peasley, and daisy

back to them being more grown up

mela is the oldest (and as such wears warm-reddish colors in accordance with my headcanon of mushroom world sibling pairs) so technically she’s first in line for the throne, but she doesn’t have as much of an interest in it and believes pera would be a better choice. pera (wears green tones) to her credit does show more interest so they may forgo tradition once more when the time comes but joint ruling was never out of the question

but they don’t have to worry about that for quite a while (but i think peach would do well to make sure both are prepared regardless because of her own experience)

as a pair they aren’t as joined together at the hip as mario and luigi were/are mostly because they didn’t grow up in an environment where mela or pera absolutely needed to protect the other (nor were they ever forcibly separated like the bros were in yoshis island) but they absolutely love each other and would be friends if they weren’t sisters

when they were little tho they were obviously fraternal and always wanted to look identical so they mostly dressed the same until they got to be maybe around 6-8? wide range ik but yeah

but i’m not entirely sure what the situation with bowser is like when they’re growing up but it isn’t as volatile as it currently is. the @justcallmerosey post with clementine giving me ideas tho👀

[heloflor]

Random Super Paper Mario headcanon because it doesn’t fit any of my WIPs so might as well say it here: the way Nastasia hypnotizes people is by taking some feelings or desires that the person already possesses and amplifying them to the max. So it’s less about brainwashing and more about bringing out a specific side of the person targeted.

For Bowser’s army, she used their desire to fight and win, to the point of them forgetting their loyalty and siding with the strongest leader around instead.

For Luigi, it was the resentment he has over being overshadowed by his brother, especially since I hc the Paper Mario series as taking place after Mario and Luigi in which the Luigi bullying is at its worst. Hence why Mr. L is such a boastful asshole talking about how amazing he is, or even the fact he calls his robot his brother as he would have negative feelings associated to a possible real sibling, hence the desire to “replace” him with a robot (note that I don’t think Luigi resents Mario himself but instead resents his situation with everyone preferring his brother over him, but he doesn’t hold it against Mario himself, especially since I see Mario as the one hyping him up and defending him against criticism the most).

On that note, I could see a version of SPM in which Luigi actually remembers who he is but is still willing to fight for Count Bleck, or maybe Nastasia changed some of his memories to make him think he and Mario had a terrible fight that led Luigi to Bleck instead of the whole kidnapping wedding (I may or may not have listened to Caleb Hyles’ cover of “Other Friends” while thinking about the first encounter with Mr. L 😅)

For Peach, I hc that her and Bowser are ex-lovers who had a bad breakup, and after several years of no contact Bowser needed some land, kidnapped her as blackmail, realized he still liked her and the whole kidnapping situation started. So for the wedding, Nastasia exemplified whatever romantic feelings Peach might have left, bringing her back to a time she would’ve been more than happy to marry Bowser. This could also be why Peach was able to fight back as much, since between how long it’s been and all his horrible actions, her possible remaining feelings for Bowser would be either very minimal or buried deep down, or both, hence requiring more effort for the hypnosis to work. Granted I like to think her fighting the hypnosis is also due to her being terrified of being used again the same way she had been by the Shadow Queen.

And on a related note, since we’re talking different hypnosis, I could see Fawful’s hypnosis work by making all the soldier’s memories of Bowser get replaced with memories of Cackletta or himself depending on which game we’re talking about. Basically the memories remain the same but instead of Bowser being there it’s Cackletta/Fawful, hence the army blindly following. Though it does raise the question of some brainwashed people acting “robotic” in Bowser’s Inside Story, along with the fact that the Koopalings can forget their own father while some random Goomba remembers him in Minion’s Quest.

[cityoftheangelllls]

Soooooo the Mario movie was awesome! Definitely the best movie-going experience I've had since Spiderman No Way Home! Illumination really outdid themselves and I think that this has to be the best movie they've done, even more so than the first two Despicable Me movies and Sing! And I can tell they and Nintendo put so much effort into this and making it a giant fan to Mario fans everywhere, from the kids to those who have been there from the beginning. It wasn't perfect (I mean, what movie is, and is there really such a thing as perfection?) but it was still a lot of fun!!!!

Below is what I loved about the movie and what I felt could have been better! Just a heads-up, there ARE spoilers. Even though it has pretty much the typical storyline of most Mario games and is therefore somewhat predictable, I don't want those who haven't seen it yet to miss out on being blown away as I was about it.

*********************************************************************

The Ups:

MARIO. HE IS THE BIGGEST SWEETHEART. HE LOVES HIS BROTHER SO SO MUCH. HE WOULD FETCH A STAR FROM SPACE FOR HIS BROTHER IF HE COULD. I WOULD DIE FOR HIM AND THE LOVE HE HAS FOR HIS BABY BRO. And from the beginning, he's so determined and motivated and never gives up! And it's his brother that motivates him to do most of what he does! I also liked the little details they added to his character that we never got to see before, such as the fact that he initially hates mushrooms.

Peach was amazing! At first I thought that they girlbossed her a bit too much to the point where she was a carbon copy of Daisy, but now I see her as a kind, maternal, and feminine young woman who fights when she needs to and is just doing her job protecting her kingdom. I hate how people are bashing her characterization here, like, have they forgotten how she was in the DIC cartoons, the 1986 anime, and SUPER PRINCESS PEACH? I also like her backstory and she's so cute as a baby! Also, since I HC that she and Daisy are super close, maybe she learned a thing or two from her!

Toad was so silly and chaotic, and he stole every scene he was in!

Luigi was precious and Charlie Day was perfect for his voice, as I predicted! I can tell that he was totally channeling Tony Rosato at times. I loved so many of his moments on screen, especially when he protects his brother during the final battle!

Jack Black KILLED IT as Bowser! He made him a villain who's hilarious but intimidating and ferocious at the same time and not many people can pull that off effectively!

Donkey Kong was a bit annoying and Illumination-y but they did a good job with him here. Also HE DID THE SETH ROGEN LAUGH TWICE FACK YES

The voice cast in general was fantastic! Charlie Day, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Jack Black were literal perfection in particular, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong was lit, and Keegan Michael Key was great for Toad, as I predicted! He's a very versatile comedian and voice actor, after all! Also, Chris Pratt's Mario has grown on me in a good way. Although I vastly prefer Charles Martinet, as well as Lou Albano (who has my favorite Mario voice ever), Chris really didn't do that bad of a job! He DID TOO put effort into voicing him, and his "Wahoo!"s and cries of delight and triumph were on point! The only voice that I still feel like I have to get used to is Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach. She's a talented actress but I don't think she entirely suited Peach's soft, feminine, and maternal nature, but that's just me.

Mario and Luigi's parents are so precious! In fact, their whole family is so cute and hilarious! They remind me of my own proudly Italian (mostly) family. And Charles Martinet voicing their dad was the icing on the cake! I'm just so glad we finally got to see their family in general.

I also like how the boys' situation of still living with their parents, (presumably) not pursuing college and working blue-collar jobs while in their 20s-30s wasn't portrayed in a negative way. It's a great way of telling audiences that it's okay if you haven't gone off on your own yet in adulthood or attended college, that life isn't a sequence of steps that everyone has to follow exactly and at the same time, and that patience, hard work, and a positive attitude will lead you to great opportunities in life when you least expect them, like with what happened to the bros.

THE BROS' REUNION HUG OH MY GOD!!!!!! THE FOREHEAD TOUCH AND MARIO LIFTING LUIGI OFF THE GROUND DURING THEIR SECOND EMBRACE, I ALMOST CHOKED ON MY ICEE AND BECAME A SOBBING MESS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE THEATER MY GOD

And then them teaming up together to defeat Bowser and his forces, AS IT SHOULD BE.

I mean seriously this movie was a slap to the face of everyone who thought Mario hates his brother

Mario and Luigi getting their own little house in the Mushroom Kingdom! AND COFFEE CUPS THAT MATCH THEIR HATS!!!!

Mario and Peach's relationship thus far! I love how close they are by the end of the movie, even though they haven't developed a romance yet, and how Mario was telling her all about Brooklyn and how he'll get her a pet turtle once he gets to take her there. D'awwwwwww.

Peach completing the trainer course ALL WHILE WEARING A FULL LENGTH BALL GOWN AND HEELS. AND her admitting that she didn't master doing it until she had tried multiple, multiple times was such a great addition to character, proof that while she may be more of a girlboss here she still has more character development than Rey in the Star Wars sequels.

Peach telling Luigi that he's brave was so sweet :3 Even though they didn't really have a proper meeting scene like I hoped, I'm glad they got to at least interact a little.

Although I wish they would have used the wedding dress from Odyssey or even Paper Mario, Peach's wedding dress here is so pretty!

Donkey Kong becoming an ally of Mario and them helping each other get to the Mushroom Kingdom was super nice, although I do feel their friendship could have been built on a little more and that DK should have apologized to Mario for insulting his brother.

THE MUSIC!!!!! Brian Tyler NAILED the orchestrations of all those iconic themes! I especially got so happy when I heard the SNES Rainbow Road theme, the DK rap, and Toad's House from SMB3! I can only imagine how Koji Kondo, the man who composed so many of these melodies for chiptune almost 40 years ago and is STILL composing music for the games, is feeling now that they have these epic, sweeping orchestral renditions.

They outdid themselves with the animation and visuals as well! ESPECIALLY the visuals. They're so colorful and whimsical and just scenery p0rn all around, from the Mushroom Kingdom giving off major Alice in Wonderland vibes and Bowser's incredible floating lava castle to the Jungle Kingdom and the rainbow road! And I can't think of a single character (re)design that I didn't like! They all look so good!

The slo mo bits were SO funny. Especially "MMMMMAAAAAAAAMMMAAAAA MMMMIIIIIIIAAAAAA!" and "PPPPPRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNCCCCEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!"

Bringing back such an obscure and relatively forgotten character as Foreman Spike was awesome!

Every time that Diddy Kong was onscreen was so funny!

ALL THE EASTER EGGS, GOOD GOLLY. From the references to the SUPER SHOW OF ALL THINGS to the guy who's supposed to resemble Jumpman (Mario's first incarnation) at the beginning!

That one bit where Mario is sitting in his room playing a video game also felt really reminiscent of the beginning of The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach (1986). If Nintendo was going for that I'm so glad they acknowledged such an obscure piece of Mario media!

The Downs:

Goddammit, you SERIOUSLY had to include minions in the Illumination logo.

It honestly felt a bit rushed in places and I wish more scenes could have had more time devoted to them. Some characters, ESPECIALLY Luigi, didn't really get as much screen time as I felt they needed, and that kind of sucked.

I was really hoping for Bowser to have a hard rock-style villain song, as that really suits his aesthetic and Jack Black could totally have done it! I mean he was in School of Rock for crying out loud and he's proven afterwards that he can really belt out classic rock tunes! Despite that, I'm glad he got to at least sing in the movie, and his song dedicated to Peach was hilarious.

I'm bummed that the movie wasn't really a musical as I had heard around the net so many times; only two characters sang (Bowser and Toad, even though the latter's wasn't really an actual song) and there were a bunch of pop/rock hits from the past few decades sandwiched in. They were still good songs that I like though, such as Thunderstruck, Take on Me, and Holding Out for a Hero (although I wish it could have been the original Bonnie Tyler version). I was ESPECIALLY pumped to hear Mr. Blue Sky!! But still, a lack of songs sung by characters bummed me out.

I don't like how some lines were changed (such as Bowser's "NOW WHO'S GONNA STOP ME?!?!") or cut entirely (e.g. Mario's "I'm not afraid! I'll do anything for my brother!") I'm especially bitter about the latter, since hearing that line in the final trailer made me super emotional and cutting it meant less devotion to how much Mario loves and misses his brother.

It was kind of a wasted opportunity to not see Mario and Luigi's family (and the rest of Brooklyn for that matter) bewildered over their sons bringing back a princess in a wedding gown, a little mushroom man, and an ape wearing a necktie. I bet their dad would have been wondering what someone put in his coffee, and their mom would have taken one look at Peach and been all like, "OMG IS ONE OF MY SONS GETTING MARRIED ALREADY??" It just would have been nice for them to interact a little.

The blue star/Luma was honestly so annoying and gave me an unsettling identity crisis, I just thought that was not fitting for a family friendly movie. Also, why was he/she in Bowser's dungeon in the first place?

As Donkey Kong should have apologized to Mario for fighting with him, Spike should have apologized to Mario and Luigi for doubting them. It didn't really make sense for him to just abruptly cheering for them.

Part of me kind of wishes it had taken place in the 1980s. It kind of makes sense, given that the Mario and Luigi characters formally debuted in 1983 and this is an origin story for how they came to be.

But despite all this, there were way more ups than downs, and the "downs" are just little nitpicks from me that don't take away from the movie being one hell of a ride. It was fantastic, and definitely one of the best animated movies I've seen in a while. 9/10 from me!!.

Some of my several VERY high hopes for the sequel:

YOSHI CUTENESS!!!

Also, if I have to predict a voice actor for Yoshi, it would have to be either Frank Welker or Kazumi Totaka reprising his role.

Luigi getting more screen time and also getting to share in his bro's adventures! Dude deserves way better!

Mario having second thoughts about Luigi accompanying him in dangerous situations because he's terrified of losing him again, and Luigi reminding him that "nothing will harm them as long as they're together"

PLEASE just more brotherly love!

Mario and Peach developing a romance and vowing to protect each other!

At least one callback to the "Mama Luigi" episode of the Super Mario World cartoon series. I mean, it would only seem right now that Yoshi is joining the gang, right?

Heck, I bet it's going to be chock full of references to the Super Mario World game, the Yoshi's Island games, and the Super Mario World cartoon.

DAISY AND/OR ROSALINA PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

Bowser's backstory (and possibly redemption)! It's clear to me that he's just a big softie that needs love and friendship in his life. And, since he's really their friend who likes to engage in role play just for fun according to word of mouth, I wonder how they will incorporate that into the Mario Cinematic Universe.

Some evidence that Mario and Luigi alternating between their lives in Brooklyn (probably just so that they can spend time with their family) and the Mushroom Kingdom

"I HOPE SHE MADE LOTSA SPAGHETTI!"

[fruit-salad-ship]

elaborating on the Ransei thing for the trio, some ideas (assuming this is set well before the main plot of the game):

Plum is a young noble, maybe even from one of the great Warlord families. She's from Dragnor, maybe not the scion of her family but she is definitely somewhere in the line of inheritance. Has seen battle before and lots of it, but typically stays back as a commander rather than mixing it up herself. Her Dragonair is a perfectly capable fighter, at least relatively, but it's not her perfect link; she doesn't dare admit it even to herself, but she thinks her perfect link might not even be a Dragon-type, which is a lot of shame for a Dragnoran noble. She stays with her family because she believes she has no choice in the matter, because that's what a good noble scion does.

Peach is (as in normal canon) the scion of a crime syndicate, but in this one the syndicate is based in Ignis. Her mother is a high-ranking advisor to the Ignis Warlord, not *strictly* in a position of power and never having to fight herself but very much a "power behind the throne" type. Peach has a natural affinity for Grass-types, but her perfect link is still Val, something she has mixed feelings about - she loves Val, but also that affinity for Fire-types is indelibly a link back to her family. She fled to Greenleaf and became a freelance warrior there for a while, rather than deal with her family, trying to embrace her Grass affinity with one of the old rivals of Ignis; her mother isn't really willing to let her go, but keeps thinking that eventually she'll be recruited back to Ignis by law and custom, and won't it be handy to have someone with experience fighting all sorts.

Grey isn't a Warrior himself - sure, he's got the Warrior's bond and a few Pokemon of his own, but he prefers to take on the role of doctor. Makes Potions, patches up the Pokemon of other Warriors after battle, and so on. He's no noble's son, just the child of one of many wandering Warriors, grew up in a small village on the fields. Still, he's a competent fighter when he needs to be, he's earned some respect where his name is known (although that's not too many places) for taking down unruly Pokemon for treatment and healing wounds a bonded Warrior couldn't. Has a loose affinity for Water-types, but has never really thought about it much - maybe he's got ancestors from Fontaine, maybe it's just a quirk of birth, who knows and who cares. Meets Peach after a battle where she lets herself be recruited by Terrera, wandering further north to get further from her family; the two of them eventually encounter Plum across the battlefield, idk exactly how they get together from there though.

[no-thoughts-only-soup]

So… what are the personalities of the cast in this new AU of yours? I’m just curious.

Well, I already explained Mario’s and SMG4’s personality, but there is a bunch I haven’t explored yet.

Starting with Meggy: since Mario isn’t a dumbass in this au and I still want the chaos trio…

Meggy is in part still herself, childish, competitive and prideful, but she also takes some of Bob’s traits. She’s a former Inkopolis gang member, who planned to betray her boss and take over his gang. Unfortunately, she got found out and had to flee. Meggy is the personification of be gay, do crime. Her first solution to every problem is use a gun and if that doesn’t work, use a bigger gun. Initially, all she desired was to start her own gang and get money and bitches, but instead she found Mario and friendship. Still does crime if it benefits her though. Dumbass gremlin.

(Kinda 50/50 on eventually making Four become dumbass gremlin too because then Mario doesn’t have to be)

Peach retains some of her original game personality, since like Mario she’s only partially an avatar. She’s sweet and bubbly, feminine and graceful… and also determined to get or keep what she wants no matter the cost. Peach is mostly pragmatic though, so she won’t go out of her way to hurt you or take revenge for all the time she becomes a butt monkey like V1 Peach, she can be incredibly sadistic whenever she does decide to choose violence. She’s the kind of girl who cheerfully smiles as she prepares to blow up a building, only briefly stopping when she realizes it’s tea time.

Most of the toads are either like game road or V1 toad depending on which one you come across, but the three that were with Peach when they approached the USB and became partially avatar are different. Alone, they’re pretty normal, maybe having slight differences between them. Together, they voltron together into Ultra Dumbass Toad, who takes after V1 Mario most with their idiocy and tendencies for chaos and destruction.

Luigi did not sign up for this shit, and the chaos of the world has finally driven him to say fuck it, I’m gonna do what I want. Uses his gentle and cowardly persona to manipulate others into doing what he wants, though it has a chance of backfiring on him. Often seen drinking alcohol or noping out of crew shenanigans.

And since Meggy is the violent selfish ass now, I think it’ll be hilarious if Bob is instead a very meek guy who preaches pacifism and love, which clashes with the fact he has swords for hands and comes from a family of violent warmongers. Still a pervert.

Boopkins is a short tempered Piranha who is more bark than bite. His teeth don’t even hurt that much, but he’ll never stop chomping on your arm if he’s angy. Which is always.

I haven’t seen Meta Runner yet, but I think it’d be hilarious if Tari was a parody of an edgy anime protagonist with some sort of sad backstory that everyone ignores. Massive weeb. Engineering pro who secretly loves video games and writing fanfiction. Insert blue hair and pronouns joke.

Saiko is stoic, strong and intimidating… which is because she’s too socially awkward to talk. She doesn’t even realize she’s scaring people, she’s just standing there, existing! Goes with the flow. Also a massive pervert.

I haven’t seen enough of Kaizo (missed his episodes) so feel free to suggest.

Axol is very tired and just wants to be left alone in his cave, spending his time sleeping, being on Tumblr and other social media and occasionally making art or edits. Horror fan. Often dragged out by Melony.

Melony at first starts like canon, being just a melon with a running gag that she’s always present during catastrophes, as if she’s started it. When she becomes human, she’s ecstatic, since now she has legs and hands and feet and everything! Seemingly always sugar high, Melony refuses to waste time, trying everything, preferably with friends, whether it’s doing crime, rock climbing or larping.

Honestly, some of them might be subjected to change tho, since tbh I hadn’t really thought of the rest of the crew that much lol. But I really wanted to radically change their personalities to hammer down that this is a different timeline.

Hm? Oh, SMG3? Well, let’s just say he remembers getting tortured by Smart Mario… and that he is very good at holding a grudge…