#its 3am so I cant be bothered to clean this up...you get the point

[merymoonbeam]

Its funny to me that when we say we want elriel and they go "sarah is the fated mates author"...and?? I KNOW. as if we say a different thing. Elriel is going to be mates? Like? Am I saying something different that she is not? Im saying she will be on brand...Elriel will be mates.

Its even more on brand bc she pulled that fake mate thing with rowan and aelin and rowans fake mate too. Rowan was almost a baby daddy...elain and lucien doesnt even wanna be in the same space. So double sarah brand thing or whatever.

If you look at it elriel is the epitome of sarah's brand.

Fake mate? Check

Still end up as mate? Check

Second loves(mor and graysen)? Check

Like what more do you want? It checks all the boxes of sarahs brand...

[localmentallyillwriter]

Roommates au !!!!!! (Normal au as well, but Sigma still works at the Casino and its implied that at one point Oda worked in the mafia :3)

Ohhh lord these one shots were actually so FUCKING FUUNN!!! I liked doing Sigma's and Oda's the most. For Dazai i only did him because i randomly thought about a hc about him randomly rearanging his whole room at 3am >_< I love Kunikida but i also feel like i had no idea what to do for him, also i REALLY wanna make just a full hc thing for Kunikidaaaa, ahhh i love him so much. I was also gonna do Atsushi, then i got tired and started sobbing lmao cause i love Atsushi so much (HE'S ACTUALLY SO PRETTY ITS UPSETTINGGGG) Soz for yappinggg >_<

GN!Reader x Dazai, GN!Reader x Kunikida, GN!Reader x Oda, GN!Reader x Sigma (Just in the sense of roommates and friendships no ships or anything like that)

Genre: Sillyyy >_< Sfw

Synopsis: Being a roommate to Dazai, Kunikida, Oda and Sigma :D

Dazai:

-An absolute ASSHOLE and MENECE to have as a roommate

-He doesn’t clean, cook, he’s barley even at the house, basically just uses his room as a dump for all his rubbish and mess. His room absolute reeks, you have to air out his room if you don’t wanna see cockroaches scurrying all around

-When he is around, he is always trying to find ways to subtly fuck with you. He’ll hide the laundry detergent, butter, blankets, a pillow, toilet paper. Just really messing with you and continuing to always act so innocent and like he’s done nothing when a confrontation comes up even though its clearly him

-Dazai has a habbit for not being able to sleep, so on a random Tuesdays at 3am you’ll hear Katy Perry and the sound of moving furniture, only to find Dazai blasting his music and rearranging furniture.

His excuse ?

-“Oh !! Goodness, was I being too loud?”

-He’d tease, knowing damn well blasting his music, furniture scraping on the ground and his shitty singing is effectively disturbing the whole apartment/house.

-Although sometimes it’s the complete opposite. Instead of Dazai trying to annoy you, he comes to you for comfort. (Only if you’ve been friends prior, and he trusts/ has known you for long enough)

-He’ll knock lightly on your door, not waiting for a response before he’s in your room, curling up on your bed, drowsily staring into space, his fingers dancing lazily across your sheets

-Its annoying, but as much as Dazai jokes around, you know that sometimes he needs to be with people, to get rid or at least nullify those gnawing moments of loneliness

-Dazai would also hog the shower, you would not be able to get a shower in the morning if Dazai was there, he could take from 3-5 hours, again, his shitty singing echoing off the walls

-You bang on the door calling for him to get out so you can at least brush your hair, but he’ll ignore you <33

-Despite everything, he’s a fine roommate, he’s funny and good company when he wants to be. He’s never boring and even when he is more watered down, he just stays quiet, and mainly just curls up around you, not wanting to speak much, or bother you.

Kunikida:

-One of the CLEANEST roommates ever

-He has rosters, lists, organisers for everything. He often tries to get you to do more, but he’ll get annoyed and say your doing it wrong, so in turn he’ll just take over, so most of the chores are done by him

-He’ll clean your room if he deems its to messy. He just cant handle mentally knowing that something is out of order. He would HATE having pets, he wouldn’t like the smell of them, or the amount of hair everywhere. Even if it was hairless, or an animal that didn’t shed, he would just become more stressed about cleaning it over and over. (Poor OCD king ╯︿╰)

-Kunikida does love having long conversations with you though, most nights you’ll be having dinner (on the couch watching TV if your lucky) and you’ll both just speak about topics that your both passionate about. He loves longer conversations rather than small talk, so delving into topics he’s interested in makes him show some rare smiles

-Kunikida’s room is nice and neat, with a lot of blue and teal accents to it. He has pale blue walls, and light blue sheets. He secretly has a plush bear hes had since he was a kid, but in the days he hides it in a safe box at the bottom of the cupboard, then sleeping with It at night (He thinks he’d being sneaky, but you know he has it, so cute >_<)

-Kunikida also knows that despite him wanting everything to be spotless, that an apartment/house needs personality, so he’ll buy fake flowers, pantings, pictures, and things to decorate the place :3 He also knows that you need your own space, so he’ll try his best not to clean your room, even if he can just tell it’s a mess.

-Theres ONE shelf that he bought you, tucked away in the corner of the living room that has all your stuff on it. It doesn’t fit the rest of the house, all colourful in front of the pale walls, and sure he dislikes it, but its not just his house. He respects you enough to not take it down :3

-Kunikida also LOVES cooking and baking sweet things, so you’ll often cook together :3 Its probably the one messy thing he likes doing, because he gets a sweet treat afterwards

-Overall Kunikida is quite good to have as a roommate. It’ll never be messy, and sure there’s a couple strict schedules, its nothing to bad. He’s a little uptight and can be boring, but the conversations and baking make up for everything

Oda:

-Oda is more of a creative person, his room reflecting that. Minimal things in it, accompanied by light blue hues and whites through out his room. There are MANY books, papers words scattered over them thrown around his bedside table, as well as pens and much more stationary.

-His room isnt necessarily messy, its really just his desk, other than that its nice :3

-He doesn’t mind If you sit in his room or borrow his books, he spends most of his time in his room anyway

-Oda does keep to himself most of the time, only coming out for food or to clean himself or his things. Although he is caring, so once a while he might check up on you, or see if you would like to get some coffee, or out of the house

-Oda is a writer, he adores it, his eyes glimmer with happiness as he finishes a piece, coming into your room (no matter the time) to inform you, he’d finished. And of course, being you, you would celebrate and read it all (You will read it all, idc >:( Oda would get very upset, don’t hurt my baby like that)

-Oda doesn’t usually cook as he loses track of time easily, so the two of you often settle for instant ramen or take out. But when he does cook, MY GOD is it delicious. He always manages to cook the meat perfectly tender and juicy and you swear he got this vegetables fresh, there so crisp and soft. The rice never to soggy, and never to undercooked. You two often joked about how if writing failed on him one day, he could just be a chef instead.

-Most of the time, he eats in his room, but if he isnt, you two will sit on the floor and just yap, or play card games :3

-You guys once had a cat, he hoped it would be like the one that would often be there at the bar he always attended, but it wasn’t. It ended up shredding both of your curtains, as well as some plans and plots he had made. You could tell he was trying to keep it together, but in the end his anger and sadness at his work being ruined had ended up in him adopting it. But he felt bad, so he wrote a while story about a cat and let you keep it. You keep that story in your bed side drawing

-Oda doesn’t open up a lot, but you can tell he’s had a long life, sure he’s only 23 but he has a wise old soul. You want to open him up and know about what he did before he settled down in this life, but he never wants to talk about it. If hes having a particularly hard day, he’ll go out to the balneny and just…stand. He stares at the sky, a cigarette dangling from his fingers as he simply just thinks

-When it gets to late you drag him back inside and give him hugs, and water to try to make him feel better, before sending him to bed, hoping he will get some actual rest, and not force himself to stay up and keep writing

-You try to tell him that writing doesn’t define his worth or his greatness, but he clearly thinks writing so dear to him, that its just such a big part of his life. He cant not be writing or thinking about writing

-Although usually on days like those he will end up just passing out from sheer exhaustion or sadness

-Over all just an amazing roommate. You get free poetry and writing, a calm man and a great friend who you can connect with. He does stay to himself a bit, but he’s still just perfect, right down to his cooking :3

Sigma:

-Sigma DOES NOT know how to deal with having a roommate. He’s used to people all living in close contact with him from the Casino he manages, but all in sperate apartments, no directly in the same living quarters

-At first he would be very awkward, not knowing when to use the bathroom, or if he should go away from you, or if you needed time alone

-But over time he calms down around you and picks up a few things with how to be around you

-Much like Oda he loves creating, but more art than writing. So often theres pantings all around the small apartment. He panicked at first, thinking it would be an inconvenience and annoying to you, but as you showed appreciation he immediately became more comfortable with letting his paintings just be around the apartment.

-His room is very private to him, so he doesn’t like you going into it (He just gets uncomfortable and self conscious) It has many decorations, flowers, shells, things he finds at the casion, things people have given to him, plushies, books, blankets

-He doesn’t like to admit it but he hoards a bit

-Sigma also has the BEST shampoo and great hair care tips. You guys do self-care nights every Sunday were you gossip, do you nails, hair, skin and just eat chips, and watching k-dramas >_<

-You guys often to talk to each other a lot, but if he gets back grom the casino, he’ll give a weary hello before locking himself in his room, blocking as much as he can out as he can

-He’s an amazing baker. He loves to bake cookies and cupcakes. If its ever a birthday he is the person to call to get a good cake. He isn’t even sure where he got these skills, he was kinda just experimenting, and they turned out good as hell :3

-Although it isnt uncommon for him to break down sometimes. Coming home from work having to put up a determined, leader mask, then coming home and having to act fine in front of you takes a toll on him, so sometimes he’ll just break down at the door, crying and hyperventilating

-The best thing to do it get this man some cookies and in a big blanket !!!!

-Hes always embarrassed about whenever this happens but is glad that his roommate is considerate and isnt being rude to him because of them :3

-Overall another top tier roommate. An absolute sweetheart of a friend and a divine baker. He is exhausted constantly, so sometime early nights are in order, but gossip/skincare nights make up for it >:3 The break downs, while a bit frightening and unpredictable are easy to keep calm if he’s treated properly. Sometimes he needs to give up his control so he can take a break from stress, so you have to take care of that, but oh well, hes a good friend :3

AhaUHAUahu enjooyyyyy <333 Erm sorry for any spelling mistakes, its rlly late rn, and i should probably be eeping, I'll most likely re-edit in the morning >_<

[heir-of-the-founders]

I dont give a fuck anymore jesus christ i need yall to see this

Asdfghjkl its so hard to explain the amount of fucking hypocrisy in this video jesus.

Dont let the cleanliness fool you. Its a shithole.

The gym doesnt have an ac system but we can afford a giant (and by giant i mean ive never seen one this size before) touchscreen tv next to the auditorium and to have the 30 (that's not an exaggeration) tvs playing the fucking school news 7 times an hour every hour (they gloat about it but also gloat that we're the most watched student news in the state)(like no dip dumb dumb you play it 4800 times a damn day) and decals on the stairs and to completely revamp the auditorium.

They also cant be bothered to actually clean the fucking music wing. Theres these weird box couch things in there. Someone spilled a drink behind one. It took them a month AND being notified by other teachers bc students literally cant get a hold of janitorial at all ever. Fuck, freshman year a bird got inside and fucking died on the stairwell. Took 2 hours for the bird to be gone and 2 fucking weeks for the blood to be cleaned up. There was literally fucking blood on the windows and floor. Someone put notebook paper down so we didnt get blood on our shoes.

Oh! And when the band teacher mr swenson left he got replaced with henson and instead of giving him a new plaque they literally just taped an h over the sw with printer paper.

The head of the school board for my county literally got caught using the school credit card to go to hooters and buy alchohol but i guess nobody reported him bc that was freshman year and im a sr now and hes still head of the board.

Also, a few years ago (maybe it was only last yr i dont remember) during the march for our lives thing, a girl was organizing a protest and the hicks (for the people who dont know, those are the people that like,, kin the south. They literally wear plaid button ups and tuck their shirts into their too high jeans with giant belt buckles and wear cowboy boots and have confederate flags on their trucks, its ridiculous) the hicks literally kicked her and pushed her and spit on her in the halls for so long and it was so bad that she ended up not coming to school for like two weeks. But nobody got in trouble even though we have cameras literally everywhere.

My math teacher doesnt have a math degree. Well, shes not my math teacher anymore but like. She admitted to our class that she has no idea what shes doing. She yells at kids when they correct her. I literally transferred from algebra 2 to the algebra 2/ trigonometry mixed course in the middle of the year because it was taught by a different teacher and it made more fucking sense.

My english teacher sophomore year didnt have an english degree. He had a math degree. He also taught statistics. But that course was dropped when he retired jr yr. We literally didnt even read anything the whole thing was bullshit. He also had us say ubuntu (taken from wiki- Ubuntu (Zulu pronunciation: [ùɓúntʼù]) is a Nguni Bantu term meaning "humanity." It is often translated as "I am because we are," ) every day before class. it was weird.

Also the theater heads (the special ed teacher and 2 sports coaches) would like constantly yell at the theater kids to not bring any food or drink into the theater bc of like mice and shit but would then eat a pizza and drink coffee

Oh! Speaking of mice. The STEM classroom had this weird ass ceiling where it was like a platform of tiles hanging from the real ceiling and like it wasnt over the whole thing and we had a mouse problem in the school and sometimes the mice would get up there and sometimes you could hear them crawling around in the middle of class. There were also just like. Mouse traps. All over a lot of rooms.

One of the english rooms had a window thats inside and faces under a stairwell.

Oh and all that glass? Yeah, theres more and none of its bulletproof.

The pe teacher has a record of calling students whores and telling them theyre not going anywhere in life in front of the entire class bc the student didnt bring pe clothes. Its happened to both of my sisters and also a few friends. Ive seen it happen too. Amongst other things. Also, her office connects to the girls changing room and theres a window into it? And like the window is kinda covered up but with this weird material that has holes all over it. I dunno its just really creepy.

And like i guess last year the special ed teacher (one of the theater heads) got caught cheating on her husband (the freshman spanish teacher) with the (recently) retired freshman american history teacher. Mr s (the husband) and mr b (the side hoe) had rooms across from eachother. And now mrs s lives in Florida and mr s is just. Gone.

The excel head (like the head of the gifted kids program i guess?) Broke one of the 3d printers bc she was messing with it and then blamed it on a student and got the entire excel programs 3d printer privileges revoked. They even caught it in camera and she didnt get in trouble.

Sophomore year everyone called the science teacher daddy to the point that he just left.

The school has 3 elevators (required by law) and theyre kinda fucked up but i didnt realise it until i started using them regularly. First, there is a single thing in one if the elevators that says the last time they were inspected was 2014. Theres the main building elevator, the freshman building elevator, and the okd elevator, which is the only one that goes to the 3rd floor.

The old elevator is like. Really old. Like. Its manual. And you can touch the walls of the elevator shaft when yr moving. Also like. One half of the elevator just. Isnt covered. You also need a key to operate it and they dont give the keys out to the students so you either need to talk to the nurse before hand (and she always forgets) or try to find a janitor. Which. Only way to the 3rd floor. Elevator wise anyway. Which sucked wheb i had win time (like a mandatory study hall where you sign up for different teachers every day depending on 'What I Need', hence the name) on the 3rd floor bc sometimes mandatory stuff was scheduled up there. Which. Yay.

And the freshman building elevator fuckin,, it fuckin shakes. Like. Just. Its like turbulence. Its terrifying and ive genuinely thought i was about to die a few times.

People also use the elevators to vape bc the only one you need an adult for is the old one. This is evident by the smell.

Thats all that i can think of atm bc its 3am and i might delete this later but yea fuck my school

[zuxnon]

CEO SVT | Seungkwan - Incompatible

authors note: i know everyone who knows me already KNOWS this BuuuuTTTT i wanna warn yall,,, absolutely a whole ass 0% percent proofreading went into this and since it took me so long to write it i dont know if its coherent,... does it make sense FHGSDUJKA ill find out at some point but yknow~ nshfksghk i am SORRY its also rlly short rip

summary: anyone would’ve said you were incompatible, even seungkwan himself. but he was interesting, he was real, he was sassy and entertaining, and he was drop dead gorgeous. therefore, you didn’t care what any of them had to say. you would pursue him until you got bored of doing so. that was just who you were.  

boo seungkwan hated the elevator ride down from his apartment every morning. not because he was tired, because it was six in the morning and he wanted to sleep in. not because he hated the elevator- nothing that simple. it was his luck. his horrible, damned awful luck. it was never good- for some goddamned reason every morning, that horrible downstairs neighbor took it upon herself to wake whenever he did, leave whenever he did, and confront him about his day or night, telling him she heard him up at 3am getting a glass of water and he should learn to walk quieter. he made the mistake of bringing a girl home once, when he was insanely drunk and horny, and god had he heard it from her that next morning. it wasn't as if she was silent either. it definitely wasn't as if she hadn't had her fair share of rather loud one night stands- but arguing with her was of no use and he found it a hassle to talk to her in the first place, so he rarely complained.

he tried putting earbuds in one morning, tried to block her out, but she plucked one from his ear and turned him to face her. he tried ignoring her, but no matter where he turned she would always follow, standing right in his face and talking louder so he couldn't possibly pretend she wasn't screaming in his ear. when he got home late from helping seokmin clean up the aftermath of the party, he knew he'd be getting an earful in the morning. why did she have to be such a damn light sleeper?

sure enough, he had the same thought when the elevator stopped at her floor on the way down. and sure enough, when the elevator doors opened, she was the only one waiting. her eyes were shielded by sunglasses, a mask covering her mouth and nose, a bright, sunflower colored windbreaker and black yoga pants clothing her body. the jacket was zipped all the way up and the hood was hiding her dyed red hair. she usually looked like this in the mornings, sometmes prettier, sometimes less pretty, but usually well hidden. at least, until she stepped in the elevator. as soon as she stepped foot in the elevator, she pulled the mask down. the hood was tugged off her head and the sunglasses pushed upwards to rest on her hair. her arms crossed over her chest- she looked like she was ready for a showdown.

seungkwan didn't waste time pretending, he immediately let his head roll back, dropping against the wall of the elevator and groaned in exasperation. she felt her heart beat faster, nerves and frustration rushing through her. it was his fault, anyways. why did he act so angry? why didn't he just like her in the first place?

"why were you out so late last night?" she barked, puffing her chest out and pointing her nose up as she went to stand beside him. from an outside perspective it would've looked almost comical, the way she stood as if a pole had pierced all the way up through her, contrasting the way he leaned against the wall like he wanted to sink back into it. the difference between the long, fashionable dark blue coat and dark jeans and burnt orange sweater he wore and the workout clothes she wore. the way both of them refused to look at each other, bodies facing straight ahead but they stood so close that if she swayed even slightly to the side her shoulder would brush against his arm.

"it's none of your business."

she scowled, her arms visibly tightening. "it's automatically my business when your carelessness is interrupting my sleep. if i don't sleep well, my skin doesn't glow like it should. i gain weight. i get dark circles and red eyes. i can't afford to lose sleep every time you stay out getting drunk somewhere." she grumbled, leaning slightly sideways to elbow him in the side.

he shot her a glare from the corner of his eyes, trying to squeeze himself tighter into the corner, further away from her. alas, it didn't work. thankfully, though, they were nearing the bottom floor by then.

"invest in some earplugs." he hissed, carefully maneuvering himself further away from her, closer to the doors. "then you won't hear me."

he could practically hear the wheels in her head turning, the steam coming out of her ears as she dropped her arms, both fists clenched at her sides and her lips parted in furious thought.

"why should i have to-" she was cut off by the ding of the elevator, the squeak of the doors opening and seungkwan's footsteps as he hurriedly escaped before she could explode.

-

for about half of the day, work was particularly slow. your angry manager shouting at everyone who came near as you looked through offers for your next show or movie- whatever you thought she could play best. a victim in a horror film. a low-budget rom-com missing a plot. a romance/mystery show. there was even offer for you to be in a thriller film with a warning of multiple graphic sex scenes. they were crazy if they thought you'd accept that. you hardly liked scary films anyways. your 'no' pile was stacking up, your 'yes' pile was nonexistent and your maybe pile was thin. only the mystery and a superhero movie. as much as you would love to see yourself playing a superhero, as proud as you would be, you didn't know if you could handle the strain it would put on your body. sure, you would consider it, though. there were far too many offers to go through, you were starting to get tired of it. you were sore from sitting in the uncomfortable chair in that stuffy office all day,  hungry from not eating lunch, you had three different papercuts on your hands from flipping through so many envelopes.

you were so, so close to giving up, fingers twitching with a desire to throw the whole pile and storm out. maybe you would have, had the sky-blue of the pretty letter next in your hands not caught your attention. a name that sounded vaguely familiar. boo broadcasting. (forgive me i cant name things for shit) you thumbed at the corners for a few moments, trying to think of where you'd heard it before, why it seemed more familiar than just the company. trying to find the bell the name had rung in your mind.  after a few moments, instead of giving in and ignoring the question in your mind, you decided to pull out your phone and look it up. to your surprise, your most pleasant surprise, the first face you see is that of your upstairs neighbor.

'CEO of Boo Broadcasting, Boo Seungkwan seen leaving unknown woman's apartment late at night.' it read, with a blurry, dark picture of the the boy, with his recently dyed blue hair and his trademark long, dark coats, slipping out of an apartment you didn't recognize. curiously, you decided to click it, setting the letter down in your lap as you quickly scrolled to the bottom. you didn't bother reading the article, only the comments. oftentimes, those were more accurate than the dramatic, disgusting articles written by slimy, slithering liars. she had seen too many kind people be taken down by the words they shamelessly spoke.

'the woman in the picture is his mother. she was in the pictures for his graduation.' 'that's his mom, how can you post such blatant lies? really shameless' that was all she needed to see. the comparison pictures in the first comment proved it to her. good. less competition, right?

she let her phone fall back in her lap, one hand grabbing the envelope and tearing the side open to pull the letter out and read it. a variety show with various a-list celebrities- and a special guest. the handsome ceo of the company broadcasting the show as none other than the host.

somewhat of a roleplay show, it seems, where you'll be surprised with the theme of each episode you film, pick a role from a hat and act it as well as you can. you should be filming for just over a month. it sounded perfect- like exactly something you'd enjoy working on. sounded like a perfect chance to hopefully seduce your upstairs neighbor at the same time as you worked. entertaining in more than one way. so, with a smile on your face, you brought it to your manager.

-

lots of nagging and purposeless early morning elevator rides later, your awakening at 5 in the morning had a real reason- not that you didn't consider nagging your upstairs neighbor a real reason. if you didn't, you likely wouldn't be in the elevator at 5 every morning just to talk to him.  to your surprise, he wasn't dressed up when you entered the elevator- didn't groan or bother to even look at you. he kept his eyes closed, head back as he leaned against the elevator wall. you walked over beside him in silence, stood for a few sweet seconds wordlessly before you tilted your head slightly to the side, posture slouched as your eyes trailed over to his makeup-less face. there were a few small blemishes, his skin was a tiny bit more red than you would expect, but he looked... pretty. beautiful maybe, without makeup on. you lolled your head and stared up at the ceiling instead.

"you were quiet last night... what got into you? didn't wake me up once."

he sent you a quick glance from the corner of his eye, but didn't  say anything in response. his eyes didn't even linger on you-  they quickly turned back to the elevator ceiling and closed, his body relaxing against the wall.

you pouted to yourself, bit your lip for a moment before turning to face him again.

"where are you going today?"

this time he completely ignored you, didnt even give you a look. that was fine, you could think of something else to attract his attention if need be. it took you a few seconds to think, a few sweet seconds that he enjoyed like nothing else that morning, but soon enough (or, rather, too soon,) you were granted with an idea. a genius idea, for more than one reason. the main being that if he said yes, you wouldn't have to wait for your manager to drive down here and get you in an hour.

"can i ride with you?" you asked, grinning to yourself in pride at your own genius. should he choose not to allow you, it would be a fault of his own. what harm did you ever do to him anyways?

"you already are," came a low, deep voiced grumble from the corner of the elevator. "you do every morning."

bouncing happily on the balls of your heels, you move over to stand in front of him and look up towards him, arms crossed over your chest casually. "no, i mean in your car. can you drive me? we're going to the same place and i can't drive." you explain, and instantly, as soon as the word 'car' slips out of your mouth his head snaps down, eyes scanning yours as if to see if you were kidding. you weren't. that didn't take him long to realize.

"what do you mean, 'we're going to the same place'?" he asked, looking surprised- maybe even afraid. of course, he had no reason to be afraid, he was the CEO of not only the company broadcasting  company, but the company which was literally producing the show. if he very well wanted to, he could absolutely get you kicked off the show. so you knew you had to be on your best behavior. the elevator bell dinged a few times, signaling that you would soon be coming to a stop in the lobby. he slipped around you to stand by the door, you turning on your heels to follow him, stand shoulder to shoulder against him, both staring at the silver doors.

"we're filming together." you state matter-of-factly, smiling in triumph as you fought to hide the smugness in your tone. of course, you knew there was a 50-50 chance that he'd tell the producers that like hell would he work with you, but still this was closer to him than you'd been before. the door slid open, and for once he waited for you to get out first. he seemed a bit sulky when you turned to glance at him, watch him walk out after you, but he followed anyways, soon stepping ahead to lead, you assumed, you to his car, as he occasionally glanced to make sure you were following.

"they didn't tell me any of the people i'd be filming with, it was supposed to be a surprise i guess so i wouldn't go into it with a bias." he shot a glare at you from the corner of his pretty brown eyes, and you smiled in return. "glad i got a warning."

it was hard to stifle the giggle pulling at your lips at his grumbled words, quite obviously not intended for you to hear but you heard anyways. he was adorable. whether he hated you or not, he was so cute, you loved talking to him. and, if it came down to it, listening to him insult you. he was funny. quirky. adorable, and rather entertaining. you liked how he spoke his mind.

"so can i ride with you, sir?" you asked, practically bouncing happily as he led you into the private parking garage, unlocked his car (clicked twice, ensuring all doors would be unlocked, you noticed) and turned to glance at you. he sighed.

"don't call me that... get in."

[animuras]

best wishes for the holidays [drabble] [start]

this ‘drabble’ got crazy out of hand and I’m not gonna finish it in time, so we’re breaking it into parts. i’ll get the first two out now, and then update as i finish.

          part i Souta doesn’t see the present for a while. Not for the usual reason, because he isn’t at his own place at all, but at Roma’s, sleeping in a nest of pillows and blankets and the scattered ashes of any dignity he might have ever had. No, he’s actually been in his own room more, trying to see if bashing his head into a different wall will make a difference.

December, December is always busy, only this year, there’s nothing to do. Nothing left to be busy but his own messed up fractured brain, and honestly, after months he’s getting tired of that. You’d think with 25 years of repressed trauma his mind could get more than a couple months of horrific waking nightmares before it started getting repetitive, but most of his life had been empty repetition, anyway. Repetition and habituation. There were only so many things left that could qualify as nightmares and Roma singing off key at 3am had most of them beat at this point.

Most of them, but not all. There’s more left, even now than he’d like. He tries to pretend, like he always has, that he’s fine. After all, there’s entire other universes of anime to watch, novels to read, video games to play. Brand new gacha games, even. It’s almost enough to smear globs of white-out over the days he can hardly remember, knocked off balance by the passing smell of some specific flowers, or the wrong shade of purple hair. There are days when his sides ache, when the scar on his chest feels like its bleeding, when the kakuhou under his skin feel like they’re tearing him apart from the inside and he just lies there hoping they really will, really eat him alive after all this time, just like he’d asked so many years ago.

It’d gotten better for a bit, certainly. Even with the odd Zombie Apocalypse. But, as if on some kind of alarm, as soon as the calendar had flipped over to December, that same month is baby of a boss had marked up on the wall, the gears he’d barely managed to get turning started to spin out again.

It’s almost been a year, give or take an entirely different universe’s counting of time. A year since he’d felt that old man’s blood splash up over his gloves, since he’d felt the give of his sinew and bone under katana’s forged to defend him. A year since he’d conducted that orchestra, hallways of his childhood painted red, redecorated with corpses.  All that waiting and a year ago it really, finally started, he’d dragged the boulder to the top of the hill at last. All that was left was a few quick months of it rolling down, down, down.

And it had, hadn’t it? It had even crushed him under its weight like he wanted, in the end. What more could he have wanted. Would it have made any difference at all if he’d been able to make it through the next few scenes? Would the world have cared? It wouldn’t have mattered, really. He’d have been dead either way.

Maybe he’d have been here, either way, too, spending December in a new universe, (some computer simulation, maybe, he doesn’t even know,) not able to tell the difference between dreams and waking and memories, and too tired to bother to push them away by the middle of the month.

He lays in his bed and watches them, sometimes, the memories and nightmares, the video reel of his life with all its scratches and tears from being played like this so many times on a faulty projector. They transition seemlessly between things that really happen and things that never did, between fact and fiction, recall, imagination, dream, nightmare. If the screaming is real, really coming from outside his door or window, he wouldn’t know. He wouldn’t care.

He watches Kijima tap dance across his floor, his head cut in half, spraying blood everywhere and thinks, with annoyance, how hard all that will be to clean, hopes his roommates, wherever they are, can’t hear the thudding of that peg leg, and its only when the patchwork man phases clear through the wall that he remembers there’s no noise, no blood, not really. The wall beyond him shifts and he’s at Itori’s bar, her usual choice of music playing in the background.

The last thing I need is to get drunk, he thinks, pushing the bottle away from him. How many days has it been since he’s slept?

“How do you know you aren’t sleeping right now?” Itori lilts at him

“I don’t,” he says. “I never do these days.”

“I have to say,” Uta says from beside him, “the scientists have amazing timing, don’t they?”

Souta turns, looks at him from across the cafe table, a cup of hot black coffee in one gloved hand.

“There I was, so excited to see what Tokyo had to offer, but life is never so kind as to give us what we want.”

That’s true, he thinks, as the scene continues to play.

“I can only guess how frustrating it is to have such closely calculated plans interrupted in this kind of way.”

That’s also true.

“Killing your dad so easily… your inspiration is truly priceless.”

“So,” his own voice says, though it takes him a second to place, “They’re all dead then?”

Huh? His head buzzes, and the cafe around him shifts and he was back in that office,  then nowhere at all, then lying in a bedroom, staring at a strangely familiar white ceiling. He sits up, and looks down to see a small silver star in his hand.

Holiday presents were just as bad as birthday presents. Usually food or something consumable or trash, right? And yet here he is.

A wish, huh?

Huh?

There’s no star here at all, no poster on the wall, in fact, this room looks nothing like that. Dreams again, strangely banal dreams.

Which is when he sees the present. It’s not a star, but then dreams like to make those subtle and stupid changes. This must be why he’d put that silly one together.

He knows right away this was another plot of this hell without even looking at the strange name on the tag. He should throw it out. What reason did he have to think this... present would be any more amenable than anything else about this city.

Deja Vu, probably from the dream, nags at the back of his skull. He should just leave it be—

[ part ii ]