#muse: kirika

[justsescape]

[Introducing the throwback drabble series: old stories brought back to tumblr!]

Ready for your swimming lesson, anon? A shame you don't have some flotation devices of your own~ <3

Kirika's texts read as loudly as her voice; you could almost hear her laughter echoing across the tiled walls. Though this indoor swimming pool was accustomed to dozens of visitors, the club leader spent her nights as a lifeguard, so private access was but a swipe of a badge away. She remotely opened the front door from her cozy security desk. Nothing but the gentle hiss of the HVAC system followed you inside.

I'm going to get into my swimsuit... and so should you, she texted. I'll meet you at the pool, cutie!

If the changing stall Kirika was about to use was anything like the one you had just used, she would be cramped and freezing cold. Surely she'd walk out wrapped in a towel and shivering from head to toe. That's exactly what you were doing, anyway. Even the surface of the pool water was so still that it's like it had been iced over. Moonlight spilled through the skylights and illuminated the room in an ethereal glow.

You spent a few moments handling the bitter air on your own before Kirika revealed herself.

"Here I come~," she called out. Her reputation had always preceded her -- as did her gigantic boobs as she rounded the corner. She'd never win a game of hide-and-seek in a forest. Her breasts would lunge out from behind the trunk of a tree.

"Hey anon, like my new swimsuit?" Kirika's thumbs slipped under the straps like she was wearing overalls. "I went up a few sizes, so I got something brand new!"

Kirika skipped the towel and went straight for the cowprint bikini. It was startlingly, unreasonably small, so much so that the outlines of her puffy nipples drew the cups taut and left a shockingly large portion of her areolae on display. Her stomach was entirely hidden behind the heft of her breasts -- and yet, for their impressive size, they didn't deviate from being nearly perfect spheres. Even beach balls would look on in jealousy at their generous proportions. And with every sauntering step she took, they ever so gently knocked into one another -- making a satisfying and rhythmic bounce that was every bit as hypnotic as a swinging pendulum.

"Sorry about the wait, anon. I took a shower before I came out here, so now I'm all squeaky clean!" Glistening droplets of water slipped down the lengths of her arms, coiled about her shapely legs, and dripped from the tips of her fingers. Some must have been on her stomach as well -- not that you could see it with her massive breasts in the way. What you could see, however, was the bottom half of her swimsuit digging into her waist. A rigorous swimming routine had granted her thighs and buttocks a thickness usually reserved for apple buckers and Olympians.

"Anyway, I brought some floats," Kirika said, taking your hand and intertwining her fingers with yours. A sudden warmth jolted up the length of your arm. With body heat like hers, she could melt ice like she melted hearts. "So why don't you just grab on to mine instead~?"

But what Kirika reached for were not floats -- at least, not in the traditional sense. She dragged your hand between her tits until you were wrist deep, forearm deep, elbow deep into her cleavage. It was comfortingly warm, yet undeniably wet; a combination of her perspiration and the shower water had taken up residence inside and rendered her skin slick to the touch.

"How do you figure, anon? Think they'll float, or are they too heavy?"

She had no interest in putting her question to the test. With you in her breasts' clutches, she forced your back against the nearest tiled wall. Dust shook from the ceiling. She was stronger than she looked.

Kirika couldn't hold her moan. The tiles on your skin were cold, cold, cold -- but her breath was hot, hot, hot. If she got any closer, she'd be swallowing you up completely. After all, her cleavage already was. Your arm all but disappeared into its depths, and now they were fully wrapping around your torso like molding clay and enveloping you from shoulder to waist. Meanwhile, her thighs surrounded one of your comparably slender legs. One little squeeze and she could snap your knee like a twig.

"You're so easy to toy with," Kirika teased, dragging two fingers gently across your jawline. A bead of water dripped from her chin like it was falling from beneath a melting icicle. Her lips were close enough to kiss. "But that's why I like you so much, anon... and that's why I'll let you do this..."

Kirika took your free hand in one of her own and guided it to her nipple. All it took was one little touch, one tiny graze, and milk began to soak through her swimsuit and trickle down her breast.

"Mmmmmmnngh... mmmOOOOoooo...~"

Kirika's moos echoed off the tile walls. The quantity of milk she was lactating was comparable to a garden hose, and soon her product slathered the floor in lazy, haphazard patterns. Puddles soaked into the grout between the tiles; some even dared to venture into the pool itself. You felt a sensation of stickiness underneath your bare feet.

The HVAC system clicked several times as it switched from heating to cooling.

"Forget the swim," Kirika breathed. She craned her neck until her mouth was right beside your ear. Her voice was as smooth as melted chocolate. "Let's drain the pool and fill it with my milk instead...~"

[aparticularbandit]

meta i want to write but probably won't:

chloe is very clearly meant to be the dark parallel to kirika (most evident when we see kirika in true noir mode), but altena is meant to be the dark parallel to mireille.

(and altena's relationship with chloe is meant as a warped sort of parallel to mireille's relationship with kirika. altena pretends to love chloe, but if her hate can save quote is correct, she never truly loved her and only used her as a means to an end. mireille, from the beginning, intentionally said she was using kirika as a means to an end and pretended to hate her, but ended up truly loving her.)

...i could be so much more specific in meta but idk if i actually want to. write that essay.

[lawain-dimensional-heroes]

So these two dorkette's got summoned--

[godtiertalk]

Happy 4/13, suckers, I've been mainlining Magical Girls and have an all new collection of psych meds. You know what time it is!

Symphogear Time!!!!

Tachibana Hibiki: Bard of Void

I knew I would have to limit Hibiki to the Void aspect since she specializes in unarmed combat. This was particularly tricky given her overwhelming association with Light, but luckily there are inversion prone classes to work with.

Bard was an ideal fit for someone whose goal of bringing the world together to a place of mutual understanding is so fundamentally at odds with her skill set as a combatant.

Ultimately, Hibiki is at her strongest when she is at her most passive: not fighting, but beseeching. Reaching out with an open fist to every villain and god she encounters, and in so doing insuring the total destruction of their plans.

The whole "haha she sings the song of the apocalypse because she's a bard" thing was a nice bonus!

Kazanari Tsubasa: Rogue of Blood

Ah, the lush irony of Tsubasa and blood. Despite her constant rejection of the constraints of her bloodline, there is no denying that Tsubasa has internalized the ideals of her family and pursues them with relentless fury. If Blood as an aspect represents the indelible effects that the people around us have on our lives and selves, well. Tsubasa certainly captures the complicated pain and glory of that.

However, the thing that truly makes her a rogue of blood, in my opinion, is the way she interacts with other people's family trauma. Consistently, she has the capacity to take on other people's fear of vulnerability and intimacy, cracking through their walls to allow those deeper bonds to form. Breaking in, but never stealing.

Add to that her association with Breath/Flight/Wings, and Rogue looks even more appealing for its ability to interact with an aspect to the point of its own opposite.

Yukine Chris: Prince of Life

Bang bang big gun go shooty pow boom.

I mean, there are legitimate reasons too, but this one is pretty straight forward. Chris is a very rich character, but uhhhhh. Not a super deep one.

In more serious terms, Chris is very much defined by her relationship to death. She is a killer, yes, but she doesn't want to be. The immense value she places on life, whether her own or others' suggests that she is not a Doom player, but a Life one.

Her willingness to sacrifice her own life to achieve the Biggest Bang also comes to mind. Whether she is using her life as a weapon, or using her weapons to protect lives, she's very much a Weapon of Life. And thus, a Prince of it too.

Maria Cadenzavna Eve: Seer of Hope

I feel like this is another relatively self-evident one. Maria always sees the best in people, even in her abusers. Whether it's the brain maze for the Linker recipe, or pretending to be Finé, Maria always sees the possibility for success.

Where light is the best possible turnout, hope is the impossible made manifest.

Also, her weapon is not designed for direct combat, but rather for redirection of immense amounts of energy. That screams "hopey bullshit" to me, as well as being a more passive style of combat overall.

Akatsuki Kirika: Knight of Mind

Okay, so, the underlying logic here basically comes down to "beep boop this bitch gay." Can you believe they legit named her 'eclipsed sunlight reflecting off the moon'? I love how obnoxious the names in this show are.

That in mind, why not heart? I actually waffled on this one a lot. Heart seems so obvious for the genki girl desperately in love with the moon. Right? But...

The thing is,

Tsukuyomi Shirabe: Maid of Heart

Drafty draft moon bunny boing boing

Girl has 0 impulse control. I almost said 0 chill but that's not true. If anything she has too much chill. She is so unhingedly chill about following all her most insane and self-destructive impulses. Every heart player ever does this, whether it's Dirk's beheading or Nepeta confronting Gamzee.

Bonus: Fraymotif (Light and Heart): Total Eclipse. If you're thinking this has IMMENSE deja vu, it's because I've definitely covered this before, here.

Anyway, imagine a cool fun total eclipse of the heart reference here

More personalized than Collective Effervescence, Total Eclipse is a pretty simple 1-to-1 translation of Kirika and Shirabe's various duet superpowers. I imagine it would functionally involve Kirika identifying strategic decision their enemy could make in her own and Shirabe's favour, and Shirabe forces the enemy into an emotional state conducive to making those bad choices. Like I said, it's basically 1-to-1 with how their duets function.

Kohinata Miku: Lord of Space

I have not watched Season 5, but if Miku doesn't get back her Symphogear by the end of it, I will be BURNING SOCIETY TO THE GROUND.

Anyway, as the Great Unmaker whose power was so immense that she unmade the concept of Original Sin, I think we can go ahead and give her a master title.

And when it comes to "able to destroy anything, anywhere, right down to the very concept of it" well. That's gotta be space.

Elfnein: Muse of Time.

This one was so easy that I kind of feel like it must be wrong. Too easy!

But I mean, she's literally the most passive person in the show, whose primary skill set is in giving other people enough time. That's muse of time behaviours!!

ETA: I've now watched enough of S5 to get to That Part now, and I'm more sure than ever. Even in the moment of utmost need, Elfnein's special ability is to summon previously killed allies for a cameo fight. I cannot think of anything more "too passive to live, too powerful to die."

--

These are my opinions, not declarations of fact. I am always interested in hearing your opinions in turn.

--

Bonus round: Genjuro ends up in Hibiki's sprite after being killed by SGAME. Tsubasa's cool politician dad voluntarily puts himself in Tsubasa's sprite to act as an ally to the kids. Ogawa is unkillable, Gamzee style, and this is never addressed.

[rpking99]

Muse suggestion: Kirika Akatsuki (Symphogear)

Yes to the girl who transforms by doing a pole dance

[thewolfisawake]

Who/What Inspired My Muses

So all my muses have some sort of inspiration whether that be a character or trope. Some of them are very obvious...some are not. But I thought it a little fun.

Kesil: I.kuto T.sukiyomi. Look. Look, in so many scenes, this boy is a menace. And annoyed the shit out of the rest of the cast. It was interesting.

Artemis: The 'straight man' trope. He just is living in a very chaotic world and knows it's chaotic. And yet somehow the one with the sense. Out of his entire family.

Samir: Z.iva and Tony from N.CIS. His background is a variation of the two meeting and falling in love. His job is a lot like a certain division of that series. As for the personality, it was actually from a novel idea of an infamous incubi's daughter that was fighting against her nature to be who she wanted to be but also dealing with her nature in order to live.

Bijou: J.oker from P.5 Pretty straight forward there. I just thought of if the phantom thief was a lady. She does have a little B.ayonetta flair in there too. Especially with butterfly motif.

Aspis: S.ora from K.ingdom H.earts. The boy makes friends everywhere he goes while running away/not thinking about the trauma he has lived through. Very sweet boy but also fighty boy.

Crowe: N.ino from A.CCA. He is actually where Crowe gets his namesake. He is a spy that ultimately gets close to certain people because of his job but stayed because he got attached. Weirdly also his FC, Lavi. Although that came over time and it's still weird.

Dominicus: R.ed from the B.lacklist. I didn't stick with the series long but I think of a person that is steps ahead and continually holds the cards. Dom is bit greener but no less of that sort of persuasion. And that it was a learned thing for him.

Tannim: The feminine healer. It was supposed to be a small subversion of giving traits that seemed to be popular with a healer, mainly the 'token girl' and just giving it to fighter that is also masculine. What I get is a cinnamon roll that just wants to help. Also keeps very questionable company but not necessarily judging them. He and Noita are both also based on my interpretation on the player character of a very cherished game of mine: Dragonfable.

Noita: The edgy loner protag. Also a subversion of just giving these traits of your run of the mill broody protagonist that just so happened to be feminine. They had evolved long since then since they do not always identify as feminine. They are also meant to be the hero whose destiny was taken. And also how that is not always maliciously. Tannim, by his nature, 'stole' Noita's destiny. And honestly? Doesn't begrudge him and in fact has allowed them to share that burden rather than it belong to one character (this is not as much featured on this blog but is a hold over of their close bond).

Kirika: She was supposed to be me proving I can make a non-angsty muse. I failed that spectacularly. I don't think having her inspired from F.atal Frame helped that.

Sullivan: He was my first go with the idea of therians for the blog. Anyone that has known me long enough has known this idea has shifted several times so he's been a bit stuck since I only recently found the idea I'm more happy with.

Sorin: Daisuke from D.NAngel. For some reason I was really stuck on the idea of this boy just wanting to be normal yet casually just coming home to a boobytrapped house. Not that this home is (his mother would have a fit) but like the dichotomy of mundane and lack of mundane side by side like his life tends to be as a child help run a family business and learning some sneaky rogue stuff too that is ALSO family business.

Altair: Y.ue from Avatar . Also going with concept of half-bloods and minor introduction to the gods.

Yukina: The concept of summoners such as Yuzuriha Nekoi from X/1999 and Shiemi from A.o no Exorcist.

Makari: The mage families in the T.ype M.oon universe. Pretty fucked stuff. He is not but like magic people be like that.

Arsene: S.oo-won from A.katsuki no Yona.

Gisilbert: The Green Knight with a little bit of J.ames B.ond

Biserka: Literally the quote "Twas beauty that killed the beast." (It's so stupid too, I don't even like the movie this came from but it sticks in my head). Her personality and the like was purposely meant to mirror Kesil's relation to @arcxnumvitae's Veritas.

Hijiri: The Divine Heir, Kuro from S.ekiro. There was an explanation about the Dragon Heritage that had me come with 'what if there was blood that was prosperous?' As in prosperity is literally around them.

Beatrix: What would Hera be like by modern standards?

Alec: I literally was looking up 'interesting powers' and found one and thought 'y'know what would make this even better? daddy issues.' Also really was stuck on some aspects of the 'southern gentleman.'

Kyri: Apollo's luck in love continues! Also, the logical conclusion for 'well if fire doesn't hurt them why not use that for their job???'

Taehyun: At the time, me and Kristen and Angie had our hands on just about all of the main 12 of the Greek pantheon in some way. Except Dionysus and I called that.

Jasper: The cool uncle most fams supposedly have? Small attempt of making Aspis' life suck less?

Belun: P.yrrha Nikos and boy would I be here all day with all the accidental things I've done by having those all together. (Achilles is accidentally everywhere with him!)

Veronika: Ngl, her power and concept literally came from a badass scene in my head that an older Artemis infiltrated, threatened and assassinated her within her own keep. Later came from having forces that oppose the Empyreans.

Yuliya: The opposite to her sister. Her power came from the shikai Ichimonji from Bleach because that's OP as hell.

Anri: D.ungeons & D.ragons & C.hild Support. Aka, being a bard's kid goes exactly how you think it does.

Rukiya: The cool aunt that every family has?

Faye: The theme of the crossroads.

Anastasiya: There had always been the betrayal that caused the divide of Betrayers and Empyreans. But I had always been vague about it. But I had decided to think logically of how that came to be. And what better of getting the drop on your enemy than having one of them help you out? That is Anastasiya.

Ashte: Eresh deserves a friend. That's it. That's literally it.

Luis: I found the history of executioners fascinating and how it tended to be an inherited sort of thing. And how they do a lot but it's such a thankless job??? And like??? They are basically physicians without the prestige why??? And of course I like vamps so--

Niamh: N.ina from S.ix of C.rows. Her backstory with Flynn should have made that very obvious.

Bayani: The concept of McGuffin creatures in fairytales such as the Ibong Adarna. Like they have thoughts and feelings too, right???

Donovan: An edgy birb. The phoenixes made so far have all been sweet and that's fine and dandy. I love them. But leave it to me to continue the angst and dark of it all. Also trope of the capable second in command like R.iza Hawkeye.

Kidane: Okay but if there are nonhuman cops, why can't there be other criminal related jobs in the nonhuman world? Also I lowkey have always been fascinated with the history and scary detail that criminal profiling has.

Yaenako: The Enma-tei event from F.ate/Grand Order. Also I wanted a kitsune character but not necessarily a typical trouble maker and found that they can be very faithful companions and good homemakers.

Oren: Was originally a concept in collaboration with the covens with Angie. However it ended up being concept of a coven in itself that wanted surpass their traditions but not abandon their history. Oren embodies his entire coven's philosophy as a person.

Reyes: Originally I thought he was gonna be the introduction character to the Intoner specialization. But then randomly I thought to add a twist and thought of this cute little one shot I remembered reading god knows how long ago called Hakamori Majo Bianca. That is what set up his background.

Iris: Edgy changeling. As you will find, I will make an edgy anything if you give me time. But no, this was really an exploration because I thought of so many really messed up things that changelings can be used for. And while I certainly will be in trouble putting Samir through that sort of thing, there is no bar stopping me from doing it to a new character...so I thought.

Calla: Weirdly enough, I really like fear-based episodes/quests. They stick to me a lot because of what fear can do or tell about a person. While Calla is not that in-depth, she does serve as someone that has the ability to conjure and manifest fears. Her magic is most directly influenced by Phobeist, a NPC in Dragonfable.

Altyn: The female cover of 'It's Tough to Be a God.' I literally found an animatic and came to friends and said 'this is my crazy idea, does anyone want to go in with me on it?' Kristen stepped up and that's how we get Zhifeng and Altyn on their little scheme. I thought that Altyn was more like Miguel but I feel she ends up more like Tulio somehow???

Percy: Ezekiel Jones from the L.ibrarians. Probably less cocky somehow and more book smart. His background also makes this clear too.

Deianeira: I was bullied to make a sin (this is a joke, I was asked by my friends if I would like to join in the sin pantheon. Lust was the only one left). But the idea was 'does the sin necessarily have to be one person?' Belinda is based on the ingenue trope (even called so in her background). Tamiko is actually based on I.ron W.idow's Wu Zetian. Also was a chance encounter within the history of the slave trade going on in the 19th-20th centuries.

Ceilidh: I love the mundanity placed beside the incomprehensible. Or even something contradictory is the solution to something strange. So Ceilidh is the collision of that. Her being one that literally records words that fae tend to twist to their own ends. Also wanted a fae that had reason to be in the Court but not exactly in Court because that can make a difference in treatment.

Mikoto: The Night Parade of 100 Demons. I learned about the concept from Inu x Boku SS and found it interesting. And combined it with the idea of being spirited away. She is also influenced from C.hilde from G.enshin because something something 'stare at the Abyss and it stares back.' It was a joke at the time, okay?

Eiji: I actually wanted to do a character that had something to do with the takarazuka revue. And while a lot of times the 'masculine' version of the revue is usually placed as kabuki (which don't get me wrong is a lovely art), I felt like the revue chooses to go with more modern sensibilities rather than keep strict to tradition. So what is a more modern convention to the pageantry and talents required in the revue? Idols baby.

Nico: The Book of Tea. Like the conduit of his power is based off of that. As for his relations...well, I actually had played with the idea of Noita having another sibling for a long time. Considering their father is a giggolo and their mother pretty much ran away to do whatever the fuck she wants......it's really more of a surprise they haven't run into more siblings within their life.

Eriskyne: I think I proposed a random idea for court intrigue for Kristen? But their conception was inspired by Yu Suffiad from C.ritical R.ole as someone serving fae but uses their changeling nature for subterfuge. Their personality I did get inspired by J.amil V.iper from TWST. Mainly because I tried thinking what would work alongside their background. A low-key schemer works, who knew.

[wonderalmighty]

Hold oon, you have Symphogear muses too?! I love Symphogear, no kidding is like my favorite anime ever, I am totally down to have some shenanigans with your muses.

((Yep, I have Hibiki, Chris, Tsubasa, Carol, Kirika, Maria and some others, they are crossed over with Kamen Rider Gotchard but that doesn't change much in terms of canon give or take a few events so they are mostly the same and I am always for fun))

[xaracosmia]

hihi! this is maya. i’ll be dropping all my muses: ai minato from psychedelica of the black butterfly who was housed in isle ten, kirika akatsuki from symphogear in condo ten, ryne waters in cabin six, kairi from kingdom hearts in suite 009 and velvet crowe from tales of berseria in lodge five. you can contact me here with any questions. thanks!

hey maya, your drops have been processed for you. wishing you the best! o/

— mod thin mint 🦇

[peachmuses]

hey, i’m peaches. they / them. beta-user. student. mother. 32. gemini sun, gemini rising and aquarius moon. mentally ill and often paralyzed by ADHD. this is a multi-fandom blog . do not follow me if you are a minor / and please hard-block me if you decide to unfollow me. this blog will have n/s/f/t themes at times due to adult content and violence such as: losses of loved ones; suicide ideation; self-harm; war; mental / physical / and other abuses; and much much more. here’s the other important bits.  character list and rules.  my open meme tag. - send me things from here whenever you want.  a sideblog where musings are posted.  another sideblog for musings. PLEASE reblog character inspo from that blog. main knb timeline is the NKRU timeline.  unless otherwise plotted, all knb muses interact in that verse.  fandoms: kuroko no basket. naruto. boruto. tokyo revengers. ATLA, bungo stray dogs. dc comics. fandom/fandomless oc's. currently active canon muses: shuuzou nijimura, tatsuya himuro, satsuki momoi. ino yamanaka. karin uzumaki. currently active ocs: suwa kirika, handa ichika.  characters currently on hiatus: yumi. fuuka. calix. lucian. maeil. mitsuya.  associated with: ROBYN / TENACITYRETURNS ; MARS / SOCIIETIES ; POLOMA / BARRENSTARS ; IRENE / BRUMATIFL. spotify link.

[kanohivolitakk]

Been thinking about this paragraph from Legacy of Evil chapter 5 a lot today.

Despite Lariska’s insistence that neither she nor the ex-Toa were responsible for the defeat, she was punished severely and Nidhiki was shunned

And just feeling so many emotions about it.

Like, both BOADH as well as Legacy of Evils version of the events make it very clear that Nidhiki was shunned by most of the other Dark Hunters due to him betraying his Toa team. Nidhiki constantly gets punished for his betrayal, either directly or indirectly. Everyone saw him as a bad person and reminded him o that. No one cared for his well-being. Both versions of the story make it brutally clear that the Dark Hunters did see Nidhiki as a traitor, as someone who was even lower than most of them. No one cared for Nidhiki when he was shipped away from Metru Nui with rest of the Dark Hunters, no one mourned for him when he transformed into his insectoid form. It’s bleak but the story does make good job by showing how insignificant Nidhiki is to the Dark Hunters through word-choices

Yet this paragraph shows us with only like six or so words that Nidhiki being  treated like trash by everyone is a lie to some extent. Because Lariska did care about Nidhiki. Unlike the rest of the Dark Hunters, she didn’t see him as a failure or a traitor. Instead, Lariska was capable in feeling sympathy towards Nidhiki and thought he wasn’t responsible for the Dark Hunters loosing the war. With the way the text uses the word insist, we can come to the conclusion that she went so far as to freaking defend him from the slander he received despite Nidhikis status as an outcast. Lariska could’ve easily not interfered, and probably would’ve been saved from the punishments she received as a result. Like, given her high rank  in the organization and her history with TSO I feel she most likely was aware of the punishments she would receive were she to defend Nidhiki. Yet she chose to do it anyway because she didn’t see Nidhiki as responsible for the wars result, consequences be damned.

This sentence, no matter how brief it is, is such a huge reason why Daggerspider is my main OTP in this series. Like, even if everyone else is against them, even if the whole world hates them and is willing to punish them, they still care for each other, and fight for death (or at the very least Lariska would, Nidhiki is a bit too self-serving bastard for that haha). God I’d die for more content of these two they are perfect and I love them so much.

[justsescape]

what if girl but milky

"You called?"

[aparticularbandit]

Thank you, Noir, for teaching me that Kuroi means Black.

[lawain-dimensional-heroes]

Everytime November ends...Kirika's Christmas song gets in my head more and more...

"DESS~"

[elliotthezubat]

Kirika: There’s a fine line between not listening and not caring. I like to think I walk that line every day of my life.

[aro-aizawa]

Locked Out - Chapter 6

A Danny Phantom / My Hero Academia Crossover, set mid season 2 and pre-canon respectively.

[Chapter 1]  |  [Chapter 5]  |  [On AO3]

"Wow. Uh. Yeah." Shinsou said as he blinked at the paper Danny had handed him. "Yeah, you might be a lost cause."

Danny groaned into the table they were sat at. "I'm so stupid!" He half yelled, getting a few looks from the others around them.

"Didn't you basically rewire my phone and practically replaced my battery without any spare parts to replace it with?" Kirika interrupted, setting down their drinks. "Kid, you may not be brain smart but what you do know, you know well." Uncharacteristically, she smirked and ruffled Danny's hair while he was still face down on the table.

"That's different, Tucker taught me that trick..." Danny groaned into the table.

Kirika gently swatted Danny's head causing the teen to complain and lift his head to whine at her. "And get your head off the table, I'm gonna have to wipe it down anyway, at least be kind to your servers or I will have failed as a guardian."

"Bold of you to assume that I don't respect servers, you're just the exception."

"Brat."

Danny grinned, and looked over at Shinsou's quiet snicker.

Kirika looked at Shinsou. "Hey, if he's a lost cause, then that's fine it's not like I'm expecting solid As or whatever. He just needs to skim by and maybe pass a high school entrance exam if he'll be sticking around that long. Homeschooling is really not gonna work out and his parents'll kill me if he doesn't go to school."

"Don't worry Kamiya-san, I'll help him out." Shinsou replied politely, to which Kirika snorted hard.

"Don't let the fancy get up fool you kid. You're calling me Kirika or I'll call you eyebags and you'll be stuck exclusively with the kiddie menu here, take your pick."

Shinsou looked at Kirika with wide eyes which made Danny almost cackle. "O-okay then, Kirika-san."

Kirika sighed dramatically. "I suppose it's good enough. Make sure he doesn't slack off." She grinned at Shinsou, messed Danny's hair up once again, then headed off to get back to work. They were luck that Kirika's boss was understanding of her plight and let Danny monopolise a table almost every weekday, they didn't need to push his limits by Kirika not working while he was here.

"Your cousin is cool." Shinsou remarked as he flipped through their textbooks to get to the right place. "Not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't that."

Danny smiled. "Yeah, she's annoying sometimes, but cool."

If she stops stealing things she'd be even cooler... Danny thought to himself, remembering their last trip to the market and seeing her pull out a variety of trinkets she'd slipped in her pockets when he wasn't looking.

He'd given up trying to stop her a little while ago, it only increased her haul afterwards out of spit. At least this way it would draw less attention to them, and sometimes Kirika would swipe something cool for him which was fine. In those cases though he tried to go back and leave the thing where she'd stolen it from if he could. She'd caught onto that fact though at some point and only stole things he couldn't easily return. It was a silent war between them that likely would never fully go away. Danny still hadn't forgiven her for being an accessory to car theft that first day together.

"But seriously, please help me or I'm going to be the laughing stock of the school and become a social pariah." Danny bemoaned his fate.

"I don't know why you're doing so bad? This is the kind of stuff that's just cementing everything we already know, unless you slept through the entire school year, I really don't understand." Shinsou remarked with a slight frown.

"I told you before, I was already an idiot back in America. Didn't help that my school got constantly disrupted by small time villain attacks, well the town in general did a lot, so my lessons were a mess. Plus, I kind of have a low work ethic if I'm not fixated on a specific goal." Danny replied, musing on how he could have probably done a whole lot better with his grades if he hadn't dropped his ambition to be an astronaut completely after the accident.

His family always had a rather high work ethic, unsurprising considering they were all overachievers most of the time, pre-Accident Danny was among the top students in his year. He'd been considering taking a few AP classes, but decided to wait until sophomore year for that, in a way it had been a good choice, it made it less embarrassing to rapidly drop grades as much as he did.

"You got a lot of villain attacks? Didn't you say your town only have a few thousand people?" Shinsou asked, looking even more confused.

Danny hoped he wasn't going overboard in trying to integrate his history into what could possibly have happened her in the Quirk Universe. He was trying to keep it as close as possible to the truth so he wouldn't trip himself up with a lie, but it was still so hard to judge what was and wasn't normal here outside of theory.

"Yeah, there wasn't really much there. I guess people just liked trying to attack our only pro hero? He wasn't all that good, which is probably why the villains kept getting away to strike later, but he always tried to help the town as much as he could. I think as a whole, the town like him? Well, the people in my school do. Not sure about the adults or whatever outside my parents, but he does the best he can. We're so far out in the middle of nowhere though that no heroes want to move there and help, and the only reason our hero hung around is because he's from there."

"Huh. Sounds like you have a lot of respect for him." Shinsou mused, almost trying to seem casual as he asked his next question. "You like heroes then?"

Danny shrugged. "I mean, they do their jobs? I find it kind of weird how ingrained they are to popular culture, but they're hard working. The flashy ones look cool, but I only ever like to read about them if they're fictional which is unfortunately a dying genre...actual flashy heroes just give me a headache honestly."

He'd unluckily been in the presence of a fight that had Present Mic involved. He'd been almost two blocks away and yet he'd still gotten a migraine from the sporadic yells. If the police hadn't sectioned off the area, he was sure that anyone in that range would have had burst eat drums, which is probably why he'd been called in.

Shinsou snorted. "Glad you have some taste. If you said that you adored the big flashy heroes, I think I would have ended this arrangement before it even began."

Danny grinned. "Nah man, you can't get rid of me. I'm stuck you like a sticker slapped on a public transportation system."

"I don't think that's a saying."

"It might be a fancy american saying where I'm from, you don't know."

"Yeah, I do know. I think the american saying is 'stuck like glue', not whatever you said."

Danny threw a fry at Shinsou, starting an unfortunate mini food fight where they tore the fries into smaller chunks and tried to hide what they were doing so they didn't get kicked out. It didn't stop Kirika from hitting the backs of their heads with her notepad when she came over and saw the carnage, watching them with a stern expression as they tidied up after themselves.

"I'm never going to move again." Danny declared to the room, barely managing to speak through the fur.

Distantly he heard the snickers of Yume, and saw the eyeroll of Shinsou but all he focused on was the deep rumbling purr of the biggest cat he'd ever seen, along with the other two cats all laid on him for some reason.

He had no idea if this was some dormant part of his powers or whatnot, due to his lack of interaction with cats post-accident (all the cats in and around Amity were mandatorily indoor cats on account of some rare wildlife that cats had pushed to the brink of extinction in the area), but shortly after he arrived at the Shinsou apartment, the cats that were being looked after practically swarmed him.

There was one cat that was a giant Norwegian Forest cat, with a thick white coat and the most striking yellow and blue eyes, that was responsible for the purring; the tiniest adult cat he'd ever seen, that was the forest cat's sister who was pure black with a sleek thin coat; and one tortoise shell cat that was a little old lady who was delicately laid across his neck, rubbing her nose through Danny's hair.

He'd already been warned in advance that the big Norwegian forest cat was incredibly friendly and would demand to be played with, but he hadn't expected him to launch from the couch and into Danny, making him slip on the wood floors without shoes on and almost hit his head as he fell. The perpetrator in question had then turned in circles trying to get comfy before turning into a loaf on Danny's stomach.

Seeing the cuddle pile for what it was, the tiny cat had sprinted over and snuggled up to Danny's side, not actively on him but he had no doubt she would have been if the forest cat wasn't almost completely covering Danny's torso. At that point, he'd thought that would be it, until the little old lady cat at a staggering seventeen years old had daintily pattered over to them and laid across Danny's neck.

Shinsou had come in from the kitchen where he'd been getting them drinks and was bemused by the whole situation. Yume was delighted, but started to worry when Danny explained that the forest cat had pushed him over.

"Are you alright, Danny?" She asked, carefully making her way over to him and hesitantly trying to feel the back of his head for bumps. "Chibi doesn't usually launch himself at people..."

Danny grinned up at her. "Yeah, don't worry. No harm done, I'll let you know if he cuts off my breathing though."

Yume grinned in reply, gently stroking the tortoiseshell under her chin, before getting up and giving Danny some space.

"Well, you're gonna have to get up, your homework was terrible this week and we're starting to get closer to high school entrance exams." Shinsou remarked, kicking Danny's leg who gave him a whine in return.

"Dude I'm already a lost cause, give it up. Let me flunk out so I can waste away peacefully under this soft and warm pile of cats." Danny dramatically declared, lifting his hands to stroke Chibi and his sister.

"The little one is Aiko and the tortoiseshell is Kameko." Yume told him, staring at Danny with rather obvious jealousy. "The big one is chibi."

"Chibi, seriously?"

"Yeah, apparently he was the runt of the litter so they thought he'd be on the smaller side. Turned out he was going to be close to the largest cat of his breed in Japan." Yume shrugged.

"This guy wakes up the most out of all the cats we look after." Shinsou informed Danny, leaning down to gently pick up Kameko, to which she gave the sweetest meow to before he passed her to Yume. Yume lit up when Kameko started to purr and obviously demanded snuggles on the couch.

Shinsou then tempted Aiko away with a feather toy. He hadn't even managed to pick it up before she was shooting up and racing to attack it. With his foot, Shinsou gently pushed Chibi off Danny's chest. Chibi wailed pathetically (and dramatically) in response, staying sprawled out where he landed on the floor. Shinsou smirked at the cat, but Chibi calmed when Danny sat up and pet him a couple of times before he stood.

"Alright, I'm up. What was it that you said the other day? You can't wait to be absolutely destroyed by me in Mario Kart?" Danny smirked.

"Yeah, you're definitely remembering wrong because I said that I can't wait to absolutely destroy you in Luigi Kart. Still don't get the constant switching of Luigi and Mario's names..."

"I don't you, inside joke with my friends since we were five." Danny waved off, sitting on the couch and trying in vain to brush off the hundreds of white cat hairs that were stuck to his black t-shirt. "You going to be playing with us Yume? I'll go easy on you, I promise."

Yume grinned at him shyly. "You wouldn't mind?"

"Dude, if you didn't play it'll be more humiliating for Shinsou, at least if there's another person to race against, he can say he put up more of a fight than he did. "

Yume giggled, and Shinsou clearly had enough of Danny's jabs at him, so he waved the feather toy in Danny's direction. Aiko was on the feather as fast as lightning, but not fast enough to redirect her leap when Shinsou pulled the toy away from her, launching her straight into Danny's face with paws outstretched.

"Ah!" Danny yelled in surprise, making Shinsou snicker and Yume giggle.

"Alright, time for you to put your money where your mouth is."

It shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone that Yume did in fact utterly humiliate her brother and his friend. While she was wearing the winner's crown as Baby Peach, Shinsou (playing Waluigi) and Danny (playing Boo) had ultimately tied in dead last place below almost all the AIs, all because of how much they had been sabotaging each other rather than actually focusing on the race.

"They're so weird!" Aoki cried shrilly as she talked to her friends near the entrance to the school. "I mean, Fenton seemed cool at first, but now he's inseperable with Shinsou."

"Do you think that Shinsou brainwashed him into being his friend?" Tomue suggested idly.

"No, I bet it's because Fenton is just as freaky as he is. Did you see him use his quirk during gym class the other day? He managed to move his whole body out of the way of the ball I threw! Like, y'know his chest and stomach area? It was so weird! He seemed surprised after he did it too." Kanada chimed in, shuddering dramatically at the memory.

"Y'know, I wouldn't be surprised if they were up to something—" Aoki started, only to scream along with the others as they were suddenly pelted with snow. Some of it even seemed to fall directly under her shirt collar making her squirm and yell harder.

After a moment of dancing around, she looked up to see Shinsou laughing quietly as he looked after at them, while Fenton grinned fiendishly. She didn't hesitate to point at them and yell, "I know you both had something to do with this!"

"We're all the way over here! How would we manage to do that?" Fenton called over from the other side of the courtyard, putting his hand to his mouth as he yelled to emphasize the distance.

"You have a freaky quirk, that's how!" Kanada yelled back, while Tomue nodded and glared.

"Okay, you quirkist bigots. But you might want to get inside and warm up, it's below freezing! You'll get frostbite and that'd be such a shame."

"This isn't over Fenton!" Aoki yelled before shuffling her friends inside and over towards the heater in the entrance hall.

Danny hadn't been in arcades very much, there had only been one back in Amity, and it had been really run down, what with the increasing availability of games consoles at home. No one was going to the arcade to spend $20 on half an hour of short games when there were much better games they could play at home.

So obviously, after years of it being run down and only visited by the nerdy teenagers of Amity that consisted of maybe a dozen visitors each week, it was inevitably shut down. Of course, this being Amity, it meant that a ghost violently objected to the closing of the arcade and started to fight, pretty much ensuring that it would stay closed.

All of this to say that it was refreshing to enter the arcade where he'd meet up with Shinsou. The games were very different and much more up to date than Amity's (there had been machines from the 80s there, the newest machine had been from 91), but the sounds were almost the same.

If Danny closed his eyes, he could just imagine that he was back home. With Sam and Tucker getting way too intest during air hockey and having to scramble to find the only puck between three machines after it was launched across the arcade and clattered somewhere between the other machines.

But it still wasn't quite the same when he heard the sounds of bowling going on, which was apparently how the arcade could continue to survive if it didn't get much traffic. Good business idea, a shame that Amity hadn't figured that out, but the bowling alley was half a block away and it was also just as run down.

Figuring that Shinsou would be a while, Danny headed towards the most bright and flashy game he could see, knowing immediately that Shinsou would get exasperated in the funniest way. It was really bright, Danny found himself almost squinting as he approached it.

It looked like some kind of side scroller bet em up, themed around All Might fighting random villains as he made his way through the states. He'd always found All Might's american theming just a little bit weird, because from his research he knew that the hero in question was 100% Japanese with no american upbringing, apart from a few years spent there in the beginning of his career.

That being said, if All Might had a move centred around Illinois, he would at least laugh a little.

As anticipated, when Danny heard the loud groan behind him, he grinned but didn't take his attention off the game. "Hey Shinsou, want to take over for me?"

"You little could not pay me enough to even look at that machine. I think it's turning me into a vampire."

Danny chortled, getting hit in the game before managing to recover and get back into it. A quick glance backwards to his friend showed that Shinsou was indeed facing away from it, so that the blinding light wasn't even in his periphery. That got Danny to laugh harder, and made him lose his last life.

"Aw man."

"Serves you right, c'mon let's go play something that won't blind me." Shinsou dragged him off before he could enter more money into the machine as he was just about to do.

Danny definitely appreciated being friends with Shinsou. It was...different from his friendship with Sam and Tucker. While they had their similarities, Shinsou had a bit of a sharper snark and more of a mean streak than Sam and Tucker did. It wasn't even targeted at the weak, mainly just those he thought deserved it.

Whereas Sam would stew in anger and bitterness until confronted, if Shinsou saw an opportunity to get back at those people without serious repercussions he'd usually do it without thinking.

For example, one day they had been slow to leave the classroom and were the last ones left. Shinsou had spotted Aoki's finished homework for the next day, which had fallen on the floor next to her desk. Instead of leaving it on her desk for her to find when she realised the error, he'd folded the paper up and taken it home. Aoki had to redo the homework between classes so she wouldn't get detention.

Danny didn't hold it against him in the slightest, sure it was kinda mean but the students at the school, especially in their class, were a whole lot meaner. It wasn't like Shinsou would do anything to get someone expelled or excluded, it was just little inconveniences that made him feel better about the whole situation and less hopeles.

(It was why Danny didn't hesitate to use his quirk on his classmates to help cheer up Shinsou when he needed to.)

In some of Danny's moments of extreme homesickness he imagined Shinsou and Kirika going to Amity park and showing them around. Maybe even introducing them to Sam and Tucker, and show them the Ghost Zone.

He and Kirika had been trapped in the Quirk Universe for over a month now, and Danny would like to say that he'd gotten Shinsou to break out of his shell a bit more. Though he still remained tight lipped on a few subjects, Danny was sure that he'd be able to crack him by at least the new year in a few weeks.

At least once good thing came from this whole situation being that Japan didn't really celebrate Christmas, which had been the best thing he'd heard when Kirika told him that.

"So we're getting close to high school applications, you have any idea of where you're going to go if you're still in Japan?" Shinsou asked as they sat down to play a racing game together.

Danny frowned. He didn't like the fact that applications were so close, it was almost the middle of December, and applications were late January to mid February. The idea that he was going to be here long enough to actually start a new school in April was nauseating really.

"Nope, no clue. I don't think it really matters to me, after all I don't think I'll be staying to high school graduation anyway." Danny shrugged. "What about you? I'll probably try to get into whatever school you're going to, being the new transfer student again would suck."

Shinsou faltered in his game slightly, allowing Danny to take over him, but the boy shook his head minutely. "I dunno. There are a few schools I've been looking at..."

Danny pursed his lips at that response. It was hard to figure out but it kind of sounded like when Shinsou didn't want to talk about something. Was he...worried about Danny maybe making fun of him or something?

"Dude, I can tell you have your heart set on something. I promise to take you seriously if you tell me."

Shinsou fell silent at that, and the silence between them persisted until the race ended. Danny turned to look at his friend, wondering if the boy would quickly move away and drop the conversation completely, but Shinsou was still sat there silently his hands still on the wheel.

They sat there in silence for a short while before Shinsou closed his eyes, took a deep breath as if to brace himself, then responded. "I want to go to a hero school."

"Okay? That's cool. You'd probably make a pretty good hero." Danny shrugged, and almost jumped when Shinsou's head whipped around to look at him immediately. "What?"

"You...Shinsou stared looking so baffled, Danny was almost concerned. Then suddenly his expression hardened, as he had to shove down hope. "You're lying. No one ever thinks I can be hero, if they know about my quirk."

Danny sighed and turned his body to fully face Shinsou. "Remember how I said that your quirk didn't scare me? That's still true, and it's a really powerful quirk. If you want to use it to be a hero, then good for you, you'll be able to pull it off if you work for it. Really."

Shinsou stared at him wide eyed for a long moment, processing the words, before he gave Danny a gentle and shy smile before he looked away.

"Thanks..." He said quietly before clearing his throat. "Anyways, I bet you I can beat your ass at air hockey."

Danny smirked. "You're on."

[kirika art]

[thewolfisawake]

Muses' Voice Claims

Kesil: Troy Baker

Artemis: Ryota Osaka

Samir: Nolan North (also fits that he changes voice too)

Bijou: Susan Egan

Aspis: Max Schneider

Crowe: Yuma Uchida

Noita: Jennifer Hale (Renegade Shep is literally their whole mood)

Kirika: Ryoka Yuzuki

Sullivan: Colin O'Donoghue

Sorin: Jay Baruchel

Yukina: Salli Saffioti

Biserka: Charlize Theron

Hijiri: Jaymes Young

Jasper: Will Friedle

Reyes: Zach Callison

Altyn: C.alliope Mori

Ceilidh: Aoi Koga (this is her professionally or 'serious' vs like...any other time you see her)

Eiji: Saito Soma

Eriskyne: Minami Takayama (Both are their tone)