#my apologies if the japanese is off... i had to use google translate

[doctorspaceman]

thinking about how Prof Abullah learned to speak Japanese...

translation below the cut

[spee-eeeeee]

“Welcome our house! My misty” Part2

(Yandere Tomas x female reader )

Part 1↓

I wrote this in Japanese and then translated it into English with Google Translate, so I've edited it but apologize if there are any mistakes! I hope you like this,,,

Warning: kidnapping , Co-dependency (like Stockholm syndrome?) ,Death of the reader, strangulation, etc. Anyway, he's a yandere

　

A few days have passed since you was kidnapped by Tomas. He still treats you like a princess. The only thing that has changed is that you are now allowed to leave your room. That being said, you can only go in and out to use the bathroom, and he doesn't look too pleased if you try to leave the room at any other time, so you have no choice but to stay in your room to avoid upsetting him.

He never raised his hand against you, and he never forced you to do anything sexual. At most it's a light kiss. Whenever he touched you, he was always gentle, as if he was handling something fragile. Maybe it was because you were afraid of making him angry that you didn't act rebelliously. If you were obedient, his doubts about you running away would gradually disappear, and you might be able to get a chance to run away.

Although he doesn't violence towards you , he loves physical contact, or rather skinship. Every time you wake up, he comes into your room, perhaps at the right time, and kisses you on the forehead or cheek. He also likes to hold your hand and hug you . Every time he does this, you try your best not to look bitter and overreact.

He usually makes breakfast before you wake up. And he watches you eat with a very happy look on his face. Every time, he asks you how the food tasted, and when you say it was delicious, he blushes a little and gets a little embarrassed. After you finish eating, he always takes the time to chat with you . Well, he's the only one having fun. You have no idea what kind of work he does. You've asked him about his work to find out the time he's away, but he always evades the question and switches to another topic. Maybe he really doesn't want to know. It seems like it'll be difficult to catch him off guard.

But if you don't take any action, you'll be stuck here forever. No matter how delicious and warm the meals he makes for you and how kind he is, he's still a kidnapper, and kidnapping someone is not what a normal person would do. You don't want to think about it, but if you were to be stuck here forever, you'd eventually go crazy.

But you just can't find a solution. You don't do self-defense or martial arts, and you don't have the brains to come up with a plan that will surprise him. Even though you know that, you keep thinking about it over and over. Even when he's right in front of me, you end up worrying about him because you keep thinking about it.

"What's wrong? Maybe you're not feeling well?"

You’re not feeling bad, and you wanted to blame him for just being with you, but you kept that to yourself self.

"No! I was just thinking about something…..."

You hastily denied it. He looked a little suspicious, but his usual smile quickly returned and he seemed relieved.

A few more days passed without any progress. Even if you thought of ways to exploit his weakness, you of course didn't have the courage to put them into action. You were afraid of retaliation if you made him angry. You've never seen him angry, but if did something to make him do that, your life might even be in danger. You can't get out of here anyway. So why not just accept him? He is very kind as long as I don't rebel against him, and except for the fact that he is a kidnapper, he is the ideal lover. If you accept him, will become his true "lover". Then, will you no longer have to worry about it any more and feel more at ease? You don't even know what you’re thinking. You thought the only one who was crazy was him, who had suddenly kidnapped you and said you’re his girlfriend, but maybe you’re going crazy too because you’ve been in this situation for too long. feel like he's gradually invading your thoughts.

The next morning, you finished my meal as usual, staring at him. He put your plate down and sat down next to you on the bed. For some reason, his cheeks were very red.

"I have a present for you."

He showed me a small box. Oh, what is this box? Then he stood up and knelt in front of me.

"My misty,,,"

He removed the lid of the small box. Inside was a

shiny silver ring. Stop! Don't say any more! Please….please…….please stop saying that!

"I want you to be by my side ,,,,,,forever."

He looks at you expectantly. Now, you must choose ...

Accept him / Reject him

▶︎Accept him

"...Okay..."

You say this with determination. Because you have no other choice.

"I'm really ……really happy……I'll never leave you alone. I swear to protect you no matter what."

He said this, hugged tightly and kissed you . Usually it was on the cheek or forehead, but this time it was on the lips. Thinking back, you had only ever thought of denying him. You had never once tried to be considerate of him. Generally speaking, being kidnapped means being tied up and left somewhere, or being beaten, not being given food, or something terrible. What's more, there is a high possibility that you might even be killed. But what about him? He is incredibly kind to you and does everything for you . Has anyone ever looked at me so much? You suddenly remember your family and friends. No one has ever looked at you so much as he has! Not even one person! As he promised, you will spend your time "happily" with him from now on. Just as he did for me, you will think of him.

▶︎Reject him

"I don't want to spend time with you! Get me out of here!"

You thought that now was the time to say it. If you miss this chance, there won't be another time.

"You really think I'll accept your invitation? I can't believe it!"

You continued to shout at him. His eyes were wide, and he was stunned. He didn't say a word.

Something was wrong. You had a really bad feeling. Now you were starting to regret yelling at him so much. You couldn't bear the way he looked at me, so you looked away, but doing that wouldn't solve anything. You took the plunge and looked at him again. He was staring at me, and you could see murky emotions lurking in the depths of his eyes. You felt his affection and sadness for me boiling up, so much so that he no longer had any trace of his original form. Maybe it was his terrifying gaze and the heavy atmosphere that seemed to cling to me, but you felt a chill run down my spine.

"What did I do wrong?"

You instinctively stood up and put some distance between us. You took a step, then two steps back. He stood up and came towards me.

"Don't reject me... don't run away from me."

As you backed away, eventually hit a wall. He had cornered me, and there was no way to escape. He grabbed your shoulders forcefully and held you down. It hurts, stop, you struggled, but you couldn't win by force. Every time you screamed at him, "I hate you! Let go!", he started to strangle me as if he didn't want to hear it anymore. You desperately tried to get oxygen and move to get out of the restraints, but it was no use. It was painful, painful! Your vision was blurring. You realized that death was near. And the last thing you saw was his face, a mess of tears and snot.

"No... no... I didn't mean it like this... sorry…….. I’m sorry…….I really didn't mean it like this..."

"I just wanted to be your only one...don’t leave me….."

The only sound that could be heard was Tomas' sobbing.

P.S. thanks for reading! Btw You can request either pictures or short novel. I don't know if I'll write or draw it though.

[bihansthot]

So, a little while ago the lovely @dearsimp requested some headcanons involving a reader from Mexico, it just so happened their birthday was a few days ago so I apologize again for being late! Hopefully these are acceptable, I’m afraid I don’t know much about Mexico, but I did some research which is partially why it took so long and I hope they are ok! I am so so sorry if anything is inaccurate I’m going off of google and a few Mexican cooking programs T_T I’m Scandinavian, so this is all new territory for me, I’m also so sorry if any of the Spanish is incorrect, I only speak English and Japanese, so I used a translator! Also I hope you are staying safe during earthquake season!

This is all fluff, no ratings, gender neutral reader a some slight kissing but nothing too steamy, I really hope these are ok! I had fun writing them! Much love to all my Latinx readers <3

Tomas:

You turn the dough out on the counter with a satisfied *plop*, you turn to your lover as he wipes some of the flour off your brow, “see, not that hard is it?” You ask as you begin to knead and work the lump of dough, trying to create something smooth and homogenous like your Abuela showed you years ago. Once satisfied with the shape you place it in an oiled bowl to rise as you turn once again to your stand mixer to create the cookie-like crust for the delicious treat.

“It smells delicious, I can’t wait to give them a try,” Tomas replies as he sneaks a little kiss on the top of your head. He sadly didn’t remember much about his own family traditions having been orphaned at such a young age, so he loved and treasured the time the two of you spent together sharing your proud Mexican culture.

You fiddle with the dough, rolling it in even balls before coating them with flattened-out sheets of the cookie-like topping.

“Is that a tortilla press?” Tomas asks commenting on your ingenious method for flattening out the pastry.

“My Abeula was a smart cookie! She always worked smarter, not harder!” You smile and make quick work of the cookie balls. You carefully drape the little cookie sheets over the dough balls and carve a fun swirling pattern into the confections, “now they just have to bake and we’ll be ready to eat them!”

“I know it would have been less work to just go to the bakery to eat them, but I’m so glad you suggested making them ourselves,” Tomas comments as he tucks the little cookie sheet in for himself and leans back to admire his somewhat clumsy, albeit perfect in your eyes, little conchas.

You steal a kiss, leaning over the counter to claim the smoke wielder’s lips, your soft velvety ones brushing lightly against his slightly chapped ones. It’s sweet and perfect in the moment, and you sigh a little as you open your mouth at the press of his tongue, he tastes warm and sweet and you can immediately tell he’s been stealing bits of the cookie dough. You don’t scold him though, instead, you lick his lips and suck softly on his tongue, eager to get more of the sweet, vanilly taste.

He reluctantly breaks the kiss as soon as the oven dings indicating it was hot enough to bake the conchas. “Guess we can finally bake these huh?”

“Y-yeah,” you reply a little flustered, anytime Tomas kissed you he immediately had that effect on you. You brush some of your hair back from your face as you put the tray of waiting pastries in the oven and set a timer. “We have about 18-25 mins, can you think of anything do to in the meantime,” you ask, giving him a suggestive smirk.

“Oh I can think of something,” he grins, his silvery eyes sparkling with a promise of things to come as he lifts you onto the kitchen counter and closes the gap between the two of you to capture your lips in a passionate dance.

Syzoth:

It’s Independence Day, something you had been looking forward to all year if for nothing else than all the delicious food available in the Zocalo. Unfortunately for your boyfriend, though he couldn’t stomach Earthrealms foods, you look over at him remorsefully as you take a big bite of your delicious Taco al Pastor. Your eyes roll back momentarily as you sink your teeth into the delicious meat and the pillowy soft tortilla, “are you sure you don’t want to at least try it Sy?”

“I’d love to sunshine, but it will give me indigestion most foul and I don’t think either of us want to bear witness to that,” Syzoth frowns as he explains his predicament.

“There must be something at one of the stalls similar enough to the food you’re used to in Outworld,” you sit there as you finish your taco mulling over the different possibilities the fiesta might have. “Why don’t we walk around the market and see, if there is anything I’ll get it for you, my treat!” You smile brightly and drag your boyfriend off towards one of the large covered markets adoring the city capital.

“Woah, woah! Slow down Sunshine, we have all day,” the Saurian laughs as he’s dragged from stall to stall with you, each one of them having what must be Earthrealm delicacies but nothing he could find palatable until you turned the corner.

“There!” You cry excitedly as you point to the mound of deep-fried grasshoppers, “chapulines!”

Syzoth cocks his head hesitantly before sniffing the pile of fried grasshoppers, they smelled delicious and had his mouth-watering, “can, can I try some? Those might just do it,” he replies as his stomach lets out an embarrassing gurgling sound.

You’re quick to order some for your lizard boyfriend and the vendor seems a little surprised you don’t want any tortillas or toppings but piles the grasshoppers in a dish for the two of you and sets it on the counter.

Awkwardly Syzoth grabs a fork and tries to spear one of the crunchy little delicacies, only to no avail, “Sunshine a little help here?” He asks still not entirely familiar with Earthrealm eating customs.

“You can use your hands Sy, it’s fine!” You reassure him as his emerald eyes sparkle with delight.

Slowly he munches on one of the grasshoppers, trying to assess if they were palatable for him.

“Well?” You ask with bated breath, so curious if you finally found something your Saurian boyfriend could enjoy.

“These are amazing!” He exclaims before shoving a handful in his mouth, chirping and crunching happily. “They’re so crispy and savory! So, similar to my natural diet!”

You clap your hands in delight as Syzoth makes quick work of his snack and you quickly order him two more portions, the vendor equal parts confused and elated at the customer’s clear enjoyment of his product.

“Viva Mexico!” Syzoth cheers happily before proceeding to stuff his mouth.

You beam at him so excited you are finally able to share something special about your heritage with the Saurian.

Kuai Liang:

“I would love to but I don’t know how xingan,” Kuai Liang laments as the two of you skirt around the brightly lit plaza.

Bands are playing festive music and lots of couples dancing merrily and you want to be part of the fun, however; your boyfriend does not know how to dance. “I can teach you, but I’m afraid I don’t know how to dance very well either, but I do remember some steps my Abuelo taught me when I was little.”

“I suppose we can try,” the pyromancer offers you a sheepish smile as you lead him towards the center of the plaza.

You try and keep to the rhythm, trying to remember what your Abuelo taught you, but it seemed as though the two of you had two left feet, tripping each other at every turn. You didn’t care though, you were just happy to be spending time together, during this local festival.

“I told you I don’t know how,” Kuai Liang seems apologetic and hangs his head in defeat as the music tempo changes to a melodic love song.

“Come on, even you can dance to this,” you reassure him as you sway your hips to the slow tempo and count out steps for him to follow. It’s clumsy yet perfect all at the same time, you rest your head against his warm shoulder, loving the comforting warmth he provides. The song ends and you are reluctant to part from the pyromancer, but it does not appear that he has any intention of letting you go as he pulls you closer, the heat radiating off his body.

His lips find yours in a slow practiced motion as you tilt your head instinctively to the side and enjoy your soft moment, forgetting you are in public, all you can focus on is the man you love.

Bi-Han:

“Uno mas!” Bi-Han calls out confidently to the barkeep indicating he indeed wanted another shot of tequila.

“Polar Bear that’s like your fifth shot shouldn’t you slow down?” You ask, your words slurred and sluggish.

“Pssshhh I can drink all night qīn!” He grins with confidence as he downs the bitter liquid as you stuff a lime into his mouth and he slams the glass down triumphantly. “Besides, I don’t need your help ordering them anymore, did you see that? Huh? I ordered it all by myself!” He laughs, clearly proud of the fact he has mastered one Spanish phrase.

You can’t help but laugh at his silly antics and grin at him, “oh yes! I’m very proud of you! Wait, wait! I have such a good idea! It’s my birthday and you said we could do whatever I wanted right?” You ask, crowding the cryomancer, the cold rolling off his flawless body doing little to combat your flushed cheeks.

“Yeah… what do you have in mind?” He asks before motioning for another shot and downing it before you can scold him.

“I want to see you in a charro suit! Please Polar Bear? You’d look sooooo good in one!” You clap your hands together excitedly, practically bouncing out of your seat at the idea.

“Where do we get one?” He asks, his speech starting to slur.

“There’s a rental store a few doors down! My parents used it for my quinceañera!” You exclaim as you hurriedly pay the tab and grab your behemoth of a boyfriend out of the bar.

“I saw the pictures from that, that dress was insane qīn, so fluffy! So many layers! You looked so cute!” He almost giggles as he recalls the details of your amazing quince dress.

“My dad picked it out, but thankfully he has good taste,” you laugh and drag him to the rental store, after a quick conversation with the shopkeeper Bi-Han finds himself mostly naked in the dressing room and you can’t help but look over every delicious inch of tanned, muscular flesh, “oh yeah, that’s my man,” you sigh contently to yourself.

After a few moments in the dressing room Bi-Han returns head to toe in his charro suit, “just call me fucking Bi-Juan! I look amazing in this!” He slurs and wobbles a bit in the tight-fitting shoes.

You can’t hold it together any longer and fall off your chair with laughter at his declaration of “Bi-Juan”, “oh my god, Polar Bear stop! That has to be racist!”

“Nah it’s call good! I’m dating a beautiful Latina, her-hermosa,” he replies with a sly smirk and a slight hiccup. “Come on qīn it’s your birthday! Why aren’t we drinking more!?” He throws the shopkeeper a wad of bills which was clearly more than the suit and shoes cost as he picks you up with ease and throws you over his shoulder. “Vamanos!”

You squeal as he handles you like you were nothing and laugh as the two of you make your way back to the bar to continue your birthday celebrations.

[marinerainbow]

I think I'm getting a little bit back into Dragon Ball. Though I'm still on my WFRR/Tooniverse kick... I'm certain you guys know what happens when interests collide XD

WFRR DRAGON BALL AU

I know this is silly, but what does it matter if it's fun? ^^ also, I'm gonna give everyone Dragon Ball-esque names. I'm not sure how well I'll do though, so if anybody has any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear!

Gume (Eddie Valient): A retired world martial arts tournament champion. After the death of his brother, Slooth, he lost his passion and resorted to alcohol to drown his sorrows, and refuses to partake in the tournament anymore, but has taken on a private investigator job. Even so, he is still a very skilled fighter, and pretty powerful for a human. A bit rusty around the edges, but he's still a formidable opponent.

Eddie's name is the first half of gumshoe. A gumshoe being another name for a private detective. Teddy's name is a misspelling of sleuth, another name for a private investigator.

Shoa (Delores): Shoa had also competed in the tournaments herself- in fact, that was how she met the brothers. However, nowadays, she's focused on trying to support Gume, and can be found in the city's bar as simultaneously the bartender and the security guard. She'll still help out Gume with some of his jobs, and can very easily hold her own in a fight. It's no wonder Gume and Shoa make an unbreakable pair.

Delores' name is a play on the second half of Gumshoe. Her and Eddia complete each other in more than one way ^^

Usagi (Roger Rabbit): A spry and cheerful acrobat who first introduced Gume to chi. He was looking to train under Gume, and his persistence managed to break through the gruff man. Usagi was actually quite surprised that Gume hadn't already harnessed his chi, but was more than happy to teach him everything his wife taught him. As such, the two slowly but surely developed a close bond and alliance.

Usagi is the Japanese word for Rabbit (according to Google Translate. I apologize for any mistranslation)

Uta the Sairen (Jessica Rabbit): Uta didn't originate from Earth. She came from a far-off planet after her home was destroyed. Her ship had landed on Usagi's property, and the two have been inseparable ever since. They fell in love sometime while she was teaching Usagi how to harness his chi, and she's taken it upon herself to protect him. Uta wasn't too sure about Gume, especially when he saw her and made some wild accusations about her purpose on Earth and why she chose to marry a human. But after seeing how protective she is of Usagi and her new home, and also having the chance to fight alongside her, Gume has had a change of heart, and would trust her with his life.

Jessica's name is the Japanese word for song, and her species name is Japanese for siren. I'm thinking maybe her planet would have been home to Betty Boop, Holli Would, Red Hot Riding Hood, and other attractive toons. I'm not quite sure why their planet could have been destroyed, but I'm certain that will become a plot point in this AU.

Beebee the Monoian (Baby Herman): Another alien that came to Earth, though only because he was searching for glory. Despite his jolly sounding name and youthful appearance, Beebee is a rather temperamental and nasty old man that uses his looks to sway humans and become a famous actor among them. He even convinced Usagi for a time that he was a friend- though Uta saw through his tricks and doesn't buy his act one bit. Even so, he had grown a soft spot for Earth and Usagi, and will help out when needed.

Herman's name is just a fun misspronounciation of baby. And his species' name is the second half of Wakamono, which is Japanese for youth.

Axit, Android 07 (Benny the Cab): A robotic creation of the infamous doctor. Axit was an experiment gone wrong; meant to be a war weapon, it seemed that somehow emotions had been programmed into him. Or at least the ability to process them. It wasn't too long before Axit rebelled against his creator, and set on his own journey. He met Usagi, and the two have become great friends. Despite being a machine, Axit has grown rather friendly and boisterous, and serves the city's public transport system. Though, being a weapon of war, you don't want to get on this androids bad side.

Benny's name is a jumbled spelling of Taxi. And his android number is for 1907, when meters were first implemented in taxis.

Doctor Domo (Judge Doom): A mysterious and cruel scientist who seems to make it his life's work to take over the city. Not much is known about him, not even his colleagues- now employees after he took ownership of the company Clover Tech- know much about him... There are rumors, however, that Dume is not as human as he claims to be...

Doom's name is just a fun jumbled spelling of his own name.

Pin-Kuu, Android 47 (Smartass Weasel): One of Domo's most successful creations just so happens to not be entirely machine. He, along with his whole team, were taken as humans and experimented on. None of them remember their human lives, but have become very powerful due to their mechanical enhancements. Since he is the most 'obedient' as well as ruthless and intelligent, Android, Domo has placed him in charge of the others. Though Pin-Kuu, along with his squad, aren't too happy about following the doctors orders... And now, with all the power at their fingertips, they'll be able to take matters into their own hands soon enough.

Smartass' name is a slight misspelling of the Japanese word for pink. And his Android number is for 1947, when the events of Who Framed Roger Rabbit take place. Also, notably, the same death year for Al Capone. (Also, for those who don't know, yes, they should be called cyborgs, but for some reason, in Dragon Ball, Android 18 and 17 were always called androids. As such, the weasels will carry this tradition in this AU)

Dori, Android 20 (Greasy Weasel): Dubbed as the second in command by Pin-Kuu, Dori is a rather selfish and wicked minded android. He was surprised when, after many failed experiments, Pin-Kuu not only survived but also rose the ranks in Domo's little army, and it wasn't too long before the two became 'allies' (or rather friends, as they would call each other after being given the freedom to live as humans again). Dori also makes it clear to anybody- especially pretty women like Uta- that just because he's part machine doesn't mean that he's lost his touch.

Greasy's name is the shortened japanese word for green, midori, and his Android number is for 1920, when the alcohol prohibition ended.

Ao, Android 14 (Wheezy Weasel): The second eldest living android, Ao doesn't look all that threatening, especially since he's not so obvious with his unnatural powers as the rest of his team are. But make no mistake, Ao is just as ready to break free of the lab as much as anyone. Though he also seems to be the only one really concerned about the bombs Domo planted in their chests as a precaution. If it weren't for Ao's sage advice of laying low for now, the others probably would have gotten themselves blown up. He's proven to be an irreplaceable member of team Android in many ways.

Wheezy's android name is Japanese for blue, and his Android number is a reference to cigarettes costing between 14 to 20 cents in the 1930's.

Kiiro, Android 11 (Psycho Weasel): One of the oldest androids, next to Axit, Kiiro has seen it all. Even as a human, he was wild and unstable, pushing Domo's limits with his expertise and patience, and even prompting the doctor to build a special suit for Kiiro; one that, with a push of a button, will restrain him if needed. The agonizing experiments as well as his imprisonment have driven Kiiro to madness, and he looks forward to the day he can rip the doctor in half for everything.

Psycho's name is Japanese for yellow, and his Android number is in reference to the first public asylum being opened in 1811.

Akka, Android 48 (Stupid Weasel): Even with all of his power, Akka is... Not the sharpest tool in the shed. But somehow, he still retained his big heart despite all the experiments. He will follow his brother and friends to the ends of the Earth, and had unfortunately only humbly followed what they did (though it didn't really help that it was drilled into his brain by Domo that he was only a tool for destruction). When they had a chance to live freely again, however, it was Akka who came to a good, normal life easiest, and the first to befriend Usagi and Gume despite their part in his and his team's defeat.

Stupid's name is a slight misspelling of the Japanese word for red, and his Android number is meant to be the one right after Smartass' as they are brothers.

Bonus! My OC's

Hanni (Poppy): As Usagi's cousin, Gume expected the woman to be as goofy and energetic as he was. He never would have expected a down to earth farmer to be related to Usagi and Uta. Hanni chose to live outside the city after some incident she doesn't like to talk about, and is much happier working on her rhubarb farm. At first, she was hesitant to learn how to fight and how to use her chi. However, when the Earth and her loved ones barely survived a massive threat, Hanni sought out Uta and Shoa to train under them, not wanting to just stand on the sidelines the next time help was needed. Even if she isn't the strongest human, her patience and kind heart shine through, especially when it came to a certain group of androids.

Poppy's name is meant to be a misspelling of the Japanese word for honey (I would have used flower or poppy, but I preferred how honey sounded).

Mura, Android 62 (Shiny Weasel): One of the last androids that Domo created. He put all of his perfected experience into Mura, making her a formidable foe in battle... Though he never found a way to reprogram her attitude and fierce independence, and that was part of his downfall. Being in the same boat as the others, Mura became close with all of them, especially Dori. When Hanni saved them and gave them a chance to live life as humans again, it was actually Mura that softened up to her first.

Shiny's name is the first half of the Japanese word for purple, murasaki. And her android number is a reference to when moonshine was illegalized in 1862.

Urufī (Moony Wolf): Originally, he was a brute of a martial artist. Snarling and pushing others around and seemingly holding onto some kind of anger in his heart. It wasn't until Gume humbled him in battle, and Hanni stood up to him on her cousins behalf, did Urufī really look inside himself and change his ways. After he became calm and caring, he and Hanni actually fell in love and lived together on her farm for some time. However, the two had decided it was best to remain friends for some unknown reason, and Urufī moved back into the city. Now working as a butcher, he and Hanni still cross paths at the market, and get along quite well. And he will always come to fight when his new friends are in danger.

Moony's name is the Japanese pronunciation/word for wolfy (I hope I spelled it right. Please correct me if I didn't.)

Fokushī (Henry Foxworth): A sly and conniving con artist, Fokushī plays with peoples hearts and trust like his life depends on it. It does become very helpful slipping away from enemies, but he's not a very strong man to begin with. And he knows it. When he met Hanni and used her kindness to get what he wanted from her before leaving, he had no idea that he would become the target of her new friends- nor would exoect a meek little thing like her to become so strong.

Henry's name is the Japanese pronunciation/word for foxy

Banī (Ben Cottontail): A city boy who is actually weaker than Fokushī, Banī seems to only focus on his life rather than the whole world around him, especially after he and Hanni split up and she left the city. Being one of the many humans killed and brought back to life, however, really scared him. He has no idea how it happened or what to do with this information, but he's become much more defensive. Even if anyone on this list could fold him like a lawn chair.

Ben's name is the Japanese pronunciation/word for bunny

Rati (Terry Ratt T.): One of the few empathetic scientists thar had worked at Clover Tech. He knew that everything Domo was doing was wrong, but was powerless to stop him. When the androids were still enemies, it was actually Rati who told everyone about the bomb and gave them the device to activate it, believing this to be more of a mercy kill for the androids- though was pleasently surprised to see Hanni wanted to give them a second chance. It took a long time for them to trust him, though once Rati proved he wanted nothing to do with Domo's experiments, he's now a trusted 'repairman' for the androids, including Axit. And has even become a close friend to Mura and Ao in particular.

Terry's name is the Japanese pronunciation/word for ratty.

This AU definitely needs some polishing if I'm gonna do more with this, but I hope you guys have fun reading this! ^^

May Akir Toriyama rest in peace. He left behind an unforgettable legacy.

[indigozeal]

Game translation project delay

Earlier this year, a game translation project which I had been trying to get off the ground for a very long time was surprise-announced by another team member, with a release implied to be imminent. I'm not going to mention the name of the project in the body of this post for Woolie Madden reasons—I don't think we should have tempted the Fates then, and I don't think we should any further—but if you've happened across this page, you know what it is. I had myself mentioned that I had already translated 90% of this game's Super Famicom script, a number the team member making the announcement quoted, and one which I stand by. Yet here we are several months later, and I'm still deep in work.

In short: the translation's the holdup. I'm informed that technical reasons make using the original SFAM game for a patch prohibitively difficult. However: the version of the game I understand we have to use has expanded greatly on that original SFAM game, adding a number of events and much more text—plus a second protagonist choice with mostly unique events and dialogue—while revising some of the existing script. Translating & editing all this new material, in addition to editing the entire script, old and new, for length and inserting it line-by-line, is unavoidably taking a good amount of time. While I've been presented with a method that attempts to create a script for the game using a combination of Google Translate, what I translated for the SFAM version, and guesses from non-translating members of the team, I strongly felt that the results did not deliver in terms of quality, accuracy, fluency, or characterization, so I asked, and was promised, complete responsibility for the script side of the project.

That's the reason for the delay. I, as the translator, am the rate-determining step. That's due to a decision I made for the quality of the project—I want to deliver a good patch, one that reflects the game & characters accurately and of which everyone can be proud—and the consequences of that decision are my responsibility. Given my current work rate, I'm going to shoot to complete the translation side of this project six months from now; emergencies or unexpected developments may change this, but I think it's doable.

That's the nutshell version, and I apologize to anyone whose hopes were gotten up by the announcement earlier in the year. There really isn't a way to short-circuit the time investment required for the translation, for reasons explained at length below. If you'd like a more in-depth explanation, please proceed past the cut.

A bit of background

I've been a longtime fan of a romance-oriented Japanese game & media franchise aimed at women that founded an entire gaming genre but, except for one TV series, has never had any sort of official release outside Japan. There'd been some talk in the fandom of how nice it would be if the franchise's foundational, genre-defining game, for the Super Famicom, finally got an English patch—for historical purposes; to give the franchise a bit more recognition outside Japan; just so that the English-speaking fans could play. However: the game's script was notoriously huge, and no one wanted to climb that mountain. (The game's lovey-dovey, frilly subject material also doesn't typically appeal to the folks who fill up romhacking.)

I was exactly the type of unreasonable person equipped for this task, however. I've been involved in hobby game-translation projects for…well, decades now. I also translate professionally and have worked in game translation on projects for Square, Sega, Bandai Namco, Koei, and others, as chronicled in part on this blog. I also had one huge advantage for this game: the publisher had released a book containing almost its entire script. It took a great deal of time, but a few years ago, I finished and posted a translation of the script book.

Attracting someone to insert this script into a patch, though, proved a problem. One obstacle, I learned, was the immediate lack of a file pairing the English translations with the Japanese lines; I'd thought I'd attack this once a patch project started and I got proper script dump files, but not having a paired version of what had been translated immediately prepared was a turnoff, I guess. I therefore set to work producing one. In the meantime, I was indeed contacted by a few folks with some interest in producing a patch, but I didn't subsequently hear of any progress.

About a year ago, though, shortly after I started on that "paired" version of the script, I was contacted by a very interested and motivated individual who claimed they could use the script to produce a patch for the game. One thing, however: there were issues with the coding of the SFAM version that made producing a patch for it prohibitively difficult. (I know very little of the tech side of producing patches and am not equipped to provide an explanation, but this was not the first time I'd heard this about the SFAM game. I had persisted in translating the SFAM script in the hopes that the issue was resolvable, as the SFAM version is the historic, genre-founding title and the folks with reservations self-admittedly hadn't looked very deeply, but evidently, the problem is indeed a serious obstacle.) As a solution, this person asked if I'd be willing to work on a patch for a later, more-technically-manageable rerelease of the game on the DS. I readily agreed.

A while after, two more folks joined the project on the tech side, evidently with a solution to an issue that was frustrating progress on the DS version. They offered to produce a version of the patch for the PS1 version alongside the DS version; I agreed. (I eventually learned, however, that this would involve extra work, that of producing a second version of the script to accommodate the PS1 version's different per-line character limits.)

What exactly are you doing right now?

In brief: when agreeing to produce a version of the script for the rereleases, I didn't anticipate how much they expanded on the original game.

While the original version has a single, set protagonist, the expanded versions allow you to choose to play as her rival. The choice isn't limited to a simple swapping out of names in dialogue; each protagonist has her own unique versions of events, plus unique dialogue from the nine love interests. (Some dialogue is shared, but about two-thirds of it, I'd say, is tailored to the choice of protagonist.)

Dialogue from the love interests has been greatly expanded to flesh out characterization. For example, in the original game, if you asked one of the love interests his opinion on one of the others, he'd respond with a generic message of approval, disapproval, or indifference based on his current regard for the other man. In the remakes, however, each love interest has a unique set of approval/disapproval/indifference messages for each of the other eight suitors. In other words, where there were once three different messages, there are now twenty-four, each on average significantly longer than the originals.

There are numerous new events and activities: cafe and skygazing dates, letter-writing, cooking, finding lost objects, etc., all with unique dialogue for each protagonist and love interest, making for a base of eighteen variations. Many have additional variations based on other parameters.

Some of the dialogue that's still present in the remake has been revised from the original.

Again: what I had originally produced was a text translation of the script book to the Super Famicom version of the game. The script book was not complete—it focused on exhaustive enumerations of love interest dialogue and elided NPC dialogue—but I believe it has about 90% of the original game's text. With the remake, though, there's a lot more work to do.

My tasks are numerous. The script files I've been given generally sort dialogue by event. For each file, I have to identify the specific event they concern, then go line by line to ascertain the speaker of each line and the circumstances under which each is said from context (as this information isn't marked) as well as determine if the text is old or new. If it's old, I have to find the translation in the script-book file and match it to the source text; if it's new, I have to translate it—and also check it against a new script book for the new version, as certain changeable or user-definable proper nouns, such as protagonist names and various locations an event can take place, are for tech reasons not reliably represented in the script dump files. For all dialogue, I have to edit translations to match character and line limits, putting in line breaks and sometimes rewording text or, as a last resort, cutting it—and since the character limit per line is different for the PS1 and DS versions, I have to produce two versions. (In fairness, I don't have to, but the extra space in the DS version is useful on occasion, and dialogue boxes might look odd if I don't use real estate properly.)

It's a lot. However: it's not that different than what I do as a professional game translator (with extra steps), and I'm uniquely equipped to tackle this particular job thanks to having translated the SFAM script book and being very familiar with the characters from following the franchise for years.

I can do all this, but it takes time. That's what holding up the patch.

No, AI can't help

Not long after the announcement, one of the team members informed me that they intended to produce the patch using a method where Google Translate versions of the script files were combined with parts of my original translation and guesses from non-translating members of the team as to what lines meant. They shared an example—an attempt at an English-language version of the introductory segment of the DS game produced using this method. (I had translated the SFAM introduction, but, as with all matters, the DS version greatly expanded on the SFAM version.) I had not been informed previously about this plan.

I took a look, and I felt very strongly that the results did not live up to the standard I wanted for this franchise's English-language debut. There were numerous errors in translation, spelling, grammar, and punctuation. The English used wasn't fluent. Characters no longer had unique voices—they all sounded the same, and characterization was completely absent.

(I have to say: despite the importance of the other issues, the gutting of characterization was the biggest knife for me. The game was so successful in pioneering its genre due in great part to its attention to characterization, which I worked hard to reflect in my translation. Seeing all that work torn up in favor of an AI translation that was not only not up to the task linguistically but torched everything that made the game unique frankly hurt.)

The Google Translate script is not exactly usable.

This isn't Google Translate's fault. The script files are typically formatted to present, line by line, just one side of a conversation in all its numerous variations—either for one love interest in all possible permutations (variants depending on your affinity with him etc.), or for all love interests who can have this conversation. There's no overt signal in the file that the speaker or scenario is shifting; you have to realize who's speaking and in what circumstances from context and speaking style. Google Translate can't glean the context it needs to deliver an effective translation when dialogue is presented in this manner, and you can't infuse it with the franchise or script knowledge it needs to make the right calls about speaker/scenario/etc.

Other obstacles: The dialogue is presented line by line, so Google Translate is going to translate line by line, which leads to choppy dialogue. Characterization is frequently communicated in elements like verb endings and sentence-ending particles that Google Translate overlooks or doesn't convert well or that can be translated in multiple ways depending on context. Conversations also have a number of short lines that are also heavily context-dependent, where trying to translate them context-free via the line-by-line method leads to inane translations. There are more; any experienced translator could probably expound further on why using Google Translate in this scenario is a bad idea. You need an experienced translator with franchise knowledge to tackle this project.

I also don't expect the folks on the technical side of the team to attempt to translate—it's not their job, any more than romhacking is my job.

I would have been derelict in my duty as a translator if I let the patch go forward in this state. I didn't, and don't, feel that a Google Translate patch would deliver any value—there are programs out there that can Google Translate dialogue boxes in roms automatically, if that's what you want. This is a historic game, and I feel it deserves a patch that showcases the qualities that made it special for its English-language debut. If we delivered a patch that was incoherent and characterless, the franchise would be tainted in the English market, and the team would be nailed to the wall. From my job, being the one equipped to gauge quality in this department, I knew what public reception of a patch in this state would be, and I didn't want the rest of the team or me to suffer that. (To be selfish, a poor-quality patch would also have professional repercussions for me, as pros do watch the fan scene, and trying to pass off AI, much less AI that's not up to the task, as your own work is, rightfully, a huge black mark on your reputation.) Also, to be blunt: I didn't start this project years ago to spit AI all over this game.

I sent them an email explaining the issues above to the relevant team member, and I asked to have full responsibility for the script side of the project. They agreed.

There was also an attempt by a team member to use AI to help with editing that didn't bear fruit. One of the non-translating team members tried to help with my workload by taking the lines I'd edited for the 38-character DS line length and trying to re-edit them for the 33-character PS1 line length with AI assistance. I was not initially informed of this difference in line lengths or the need for two scripts. I discovered it only upon accessing the group versions of the script files on the cloud drive and discovering that a number of formatting and translation errors had been introduced into files I'd previously edited, some rather basic: the Japanese verb for "to eat" had been mistaken for the one meaning "to rest," for instance. Upon inquiring, I discovered what had happened, and as a result, it was clarified that I would be handling editing for both versions and reworking the files affected to restore the translation and remove the errors produced. I appreciate the attempt to alleviate my workload, but there's by nature a hard linguistic wall involved with editing, and the attempt just created more work.

So the other team members have experimented with using AI, but it hasn't produced anything usable—honestly, it just kind of screws up everything it touches. (If I'd been aware of the attempts to use AI on the project beforehand, I would have reached out and explained why they wouldn't have worked.) I'll state right now that my vision for this patch absolutely does not, and never did, include Google Translate or other AI or LLMs: as a professional translator, I have no need to use AI to translate; it would not expedite the translation due to the particulars detailed above; and I care too much about the quality of this project to farm any part of it out to AI. I mention it because a lot of folks, particularly tech folks, have more confidence in AI than I do, having worked with it extensively for my job and knowing well its capabilities and limitations. It can be useful in certain situations, but it's not omnipotent, and it's not suited for this project.

"Hey, would it help to get an additional translator?"

Honestly, not at this point, no, for several reasons.

One, the work to be done requires a great deal of previous familiarity with the script. Remember, the script for the roms exists in a bunch of files with the lines are generally (but not always) sorted by event, where the individual speakers and the nature of the event itself have to be inferred from context or just plain recognized from experience. The lines also aren't typically organized to present a complete conversation, usually going through all the iterations of one side of the conversation character by character. A good deal of the work is recognizing context and speakers for the lines and whether they're already-translated material or entirely new or old lines that have been changed, so that existing translations can be matched or new, context-appropriate translations can be written. You really need to know your way around the script to do that. I'm equipped to do that, since I've translated the script book for the SFAM version; that's a tall ask for someone coming in cold. We tried it previously, and it didn't work. (It also helps if you have previous familiarity with the characters and how they speak, not only to identify when they're speaking, but to translate what they're saying in a character-appropriate manner. The latter isn't impossible without that familiarity—it's how games are typically translated—but it's way easier if you come in with that knowledge.)

Two, this is a character-intensive game with a huge amount of nuanced character writing to reflect in the English translation, and that calls for a certain degree of translation and just plain writing ability. Many of the devices used to communicate that nuance are easily overlooked unless you have a lot of translation experience. (I'm speaking from my own development as a translator here: you can reach a point where declarative sentences like the narration in a world guide or Ultimania are within your grasp but the nuances of conversation are just going to elude you.) Plus: even if you identify and understand the Japanese text, you still have to be able to phrase it in English fluently, in an accurate and character-appropriate manner. This whole set of skills is another ask.

Three, this is a niche title for the West whose massive script was notorious for repelling translators. "Hey, guess what! I'm working on a version that I've discovered is even more massive and interminable!" does not make the project more enticing.

Four, it's way harder to vet translators nowadays, and it would consume resources on my end I'd rather put toward getting the dang thing done. The rise of LLMs has given rise to a number of folks eager to take over translation duties on a project who have just one or two semesters of Japanese but think Google Translate can make up for the rest. (You might say, "hold on, you just mentioned that this project repels translators; why would someone like that sign up for this?", but that's kind of the thing: it'd attract those who don't know enough to know what they're getting into.) In a conversation- and context-heavy project like this, where AI is going to fall down hard, those people are going to hit a wall very quickly, which leads to difficult conversations that I'd really rather not have—but would have to have, since I'm the translator who started this whole thing, and it's my responsibility to deliver a quality product.

Furthermore, a lot of this can be difficult to communicate to the type of people who would be most enthusiastic about AI at the present moment. I love you, tech people. I love you. But I have gotten the impression over the years that some tech folks in the rom-patching scene regard translators and translations as kind of valueless and interchangeable because, you know, words are all the same, who really cares. It's already an uphill battle to convince some folks that words, the type of words you use, matter, and I'm afraid my forces are already fully engaged on one front (the script itself).

Even if the volunteer were heaven-sent, due diligence in ascertaining their divine status would take a lot of energy, and after the stumbles we've had, I just want to get this done, and just want to rely on a method I know from experience will work instead of chasing down more blind alleys.

Real-life issues! We've got real-life issues here!

I will also note, by way of explanation, that I have had a number of personal things happen that have resulted in delays on my end, which I will recite here for entertainment's sake: I got bronchitis twice in succession (I had it for a week, got better for a week, and then got it again, worse, for another week) and became as sick as I've been in my adult life. There's been an issue with a property in my family to which I've had to tend, involving lawyers extensively. I got an opportunity this year to work professionally on one of the most storied franchises in gaming, to which I had to dedicate a suitable amount of time, as well as other professional translation projects that demanded my attention. I've had to travel extensively for personal reasons, and not fun, vacation-type travel—travel that involved a good deal of work, physical and professional. I had fallout from a client who wanted me to cheat on my taxes to cover for an accounting issue on their end and submitted falsified documents to the IRS. Also, after a lifetime of avoiding, by luck or otherwise, such situations, I have had a problem with being harassed by not one but two completely unrelated individuals, one of whom became physically violent with me. (Not very successfully, but the attempt itself was disturbing.)

To paraphrase from Jurassic Park, I'm sure, dear reader, you are sorry for my problems, but they are my problems. But I recite this to communicate it's not been all Lazy Translator Fun Time over here, and at times, though my spirit has been willing to work on this translation, my schedule has been weak. Or too strong, rather. This doesn't make the delay go down any more easily, but it has been a practical concern.

---

So that's the status report. In brief: I'm asking for six months to get this done, AI-free, and I thank you for your patience (both with the delay and in reading this).

[why-its-kai]

Monthly Satellite Times update

apologies for a whole lot of nothing lately, despite having obtained 12/13 of the LaserDiscs, my project momentum kind of hit a brick wall bc depression been kicking my ass lately.

Good News Though:

-Stage 1 is nearly complete, it's fully scanned and stitched, currently working on the cleanup for page 3, which is the last one that needs cleanup. It's taking a long time bc this one was a bit tougher to extract the background from due to the sketchier artwork in the settei on the Production Preview pages and I'm very nitpicky when it comes to cleaning things up, haha. Also had to rescan and restitch this entire insert due to my scanner software having automatically sharpened all the scans, which causes issue on the cleanup process. These were my first scans done on my new pc so I had not realized that option was on by default on my software and simply forgot to check, oopsie. but yea i am about 1/3 done cleaning page 3. hopefully can have it done this week

-I managed to get to the library and try their large format scanner, which was large enough to scan the LD sleeve & obi strip I brought to try as well as whole pages of the entire Monthly Satellite Times, which means no stitching will be needed! the scanner is also much faster at 600dpi than mine is, so I'm going to try to get the rest of the inserts scanned that way to save me the stitching trouble as well as get all the LD sleeves & obi strips. the computer has a 1hr time limit for use but i was able to get everything i needed from the 1 LD in about 30 minutes so it will be multiple trips to get everything but hey it'll get me out of the house right ? haha

The Not Good News:

-I have been misattributing the Vash the Gallery artists, which I hadn't realized--the artist credits are for the artist featured in the previous volume! this was described on the Stage 1 insert (using google lens for translation) and due to my inability to read the language I had not figured this out sooner. oops. once the proper artists are figured out I will go edit the original posts featuring those detail scans. I know they have been reblogged many times already some of them and i feel bad for spreading misinfo....something i am trying to do the opposite of... I'm sorry !!!!!!

-I am still missing Stage 12 and on the lookout for a copy, preferably the LaserDisc but I'd take a tape if it has the insert included...idk just lmk if by chance you find any listings for Stage 12 !!!! i've been poking around a bit and have yet to find one..... also lmk if any listings for a complete LD Box 2 shows up, I am unhinged enough about this series to buy duplicates of 6/7 of the LDs I already have just to get 1 missing one + a cool box to match the LD Box 1 I do have, and also hopefully get the Stage 8 obi strip (which is the only obi I am missing)

And to end off, here's my entire Trigun original Japanese home media release collection at the moment, tehe (i forgot if i posted this pic already so sorry if it's repeat).

(I am planning on reselling one of my Stage 4 LDs, and any other potential duplicates I may end up with should I manage to get my hands on a LD Box 2)

[junkomc]

Cod x OC【title：Afterglow】第7章

（NSFW/18+ / MｘM / bottom oc）soap x oc/ghost x oc/price x oc/ Pierson x oc / oc x oc

​>>>１・２・３・４・５・６・７​・８・９・10・11・12・13・14・15・16 ​・17・18・19 (Part 1 scheduled to end)

※英語は母国語ではありません。主にGoogle翻訳を使っていますので、読みにくいところがあるかもしれませんが、ご容赦ください。翻訳版の後に日本語版の小説を載せています。

※English is not my native language. I mainly use Google translation, so please forgive me if there are some parts that are difficult to read.

The Japanese version of the novel is posted after the translated version.

―――――――――――――――――――――――――

Chapter 7: Bargaining ( soap ♡ jet, ghost ♡ jet) / 18+

/Ghost and Soap are getting a little closer to Jet...?

※I have no knowledge of the British Army.

That day, Jet was working in the armory, helping the weapons clerk. After all the checks and maintenance were done, they left, and Jet, who was left alone, started to clean his gun. It was a relief to be alone. Thanks to this, he had time to calmly think about the three men who were confusing him.

For now, he couldn't advance his relationship with either Soap or Price. As for Ghost, he hadn't even had a proper conversation with him since he was humiliated by his words and it made him feel awkward. Even now, if he were to get into a deep relationship with someone on the same team, it would surely hinder the mission.

I'd keep his distance from everyone.

Jet had finally come to an answer, and for the first time in a long time, he felt like the fog had cleared from his mind and his head was clear. Just as he was about to stretch and continue working, the door behind him opened and he felt someone entering. He turned around and saw Ghost standing there.

"Ghost... Lieutenant. What's the matter? Is there something you need?"

Jet was shaken by the tension of being alone in a room with an unexpected visitor, but he tried desperately to remain calm so that no one would notice.

"I'd like to talk to you for a bit. Is that okay?"

"Of course."

Ghost's expression softened slightly under his mask, but Jet's expression stiffened in contrast, not knowing what conversation they were about to have.

"...I've been thinking about the day I kissed you."

With that, Ghost sat down on a simple chair nearby.

"Honestly, I don't know myself. How I feel about you."

Jet was still listening in silence. In order to face Ghost sincerely, he just stared at him.

"The people I've kissed up until now have mostly just been one-off relationships... just to release my sexual desire. Just like you said, if I lift my mask a little and smile, both men and women will straddle me in an instant. I don't need to know their name or job, and I'm satisfied with that."

Jet was a little surprised by Ghost's unexpected confession, but it's true that his words and actions suggest that his life is far from romance, and he even felt a sense of human affinity with the fact that he had only been releasing his desires in one-off relationships.

"...But since I met you, since I kissed you, nothing I do has satisfied me."

After saying that, Ghost sighed and lightly scratched his head over his mask. Jet became impatient as Ghost went silent.

So, what should I do...? How should I respond?

Jet sighed. At first, he listened to his story with pity, but like last time, he gradually became angry and slowly approached the sitting Ghost.

"I was wondering what you were talking about... I thought you'd apologize to me first. But you weren't."

Jet's words made the Ghost look up at him in surprise.

"But it's okay now. I don't want an apology, and you're probably even more confused than I am. And just like me, you're destructively hated by the god of romance... If you continue like this, you'll never be satisfied. You're numb from all those one-night stands. You've forgotten what true love is."

Jet finished saying that and slowly straddled the sitting Ghost's lap.

"Hey Lieutenant, how did I feel at the bar that day? Did I seem like the slutty whore you always look for in one-night stands? Like this, straddling you..."

Jet leaned in so that his crotch was pressed tightly against Ghost's.

Jet grinned a little when he heard Ghost swallow. The devil inside him couldn't help but want to torment Ghost.

He told himself that this was his revenge against him.

"Now, what did you say it looked like? Tell me?"

Jet whispered, moving his face close to Ghost's ear. Ghost's hands slowly moved to Jet's waist, and his face was pressed firmly against Jet's collarbone. Ghost then replied, squeezing it out.

"... a horny bitch."

After snorting at Ghost's answer, Jet rubbed his lower body against Ghost even harder.

"Was it like this? How did it feel?"

As he said this, Jet moved his penis along Ghost's shape, teasing him even more. Jet could feel Ghost's penis getting harder and harder. At the same time, Ghost's hands went from Jet's waist to his butt, kneading both of them hard and trying to pull him closer to him.

"...Jet, please..."

"...What's wrong, Lieutenant?"

Jet brought his face closer to Ghost with a nasty smile. He kissed him through his mask and lightly bit his lip. Perhaps it was because of that, but Jet felt Ghost's penis twitching against his lower body.

"...Ah, Jet..."

When Ghost let out a sad voice, Jet whispered sweetly in his ear.

"You said this dick is always mine, right? So I can use it whenever I want, not whenever you want."

Ghost felt a chill run down his spine at Jet's words. It was the first time he'd ever felt this way.

"By the way, it's not about what I want to do to you, it's about what you want to do to me. Tell me when you know."

Jet said this and bit Ghost's ear through his mask. Feeling Ghost tremble, Jet quickly got off his lap.

Then, without looking back, he left the armory.

Jet was satisfied. Not only had he gotten revenge on Ghost, he'd also been able to warn him that he wasn't looking for a one-night stand like he was hoping for.

Little did he know that this had only made Ghost even more fired up...

From behind the closed armory door came a loud "Damn it!" but Jet paid no attention and hummed as he headed to the training room.

It was a good idea to move his body, if only to clear his mind of the ghost's sexy reaction from earlier.

Although not as excited as the ghost, he was also excited and starting to get a little hard, even though he was trying to be mean.

If I hadn't been so bold at the time, if I had had even a little alcohol, I would have gladly taken off my pants and straddled his penis.

Jet felt like he had won a risky gamble, and excitement in many ways hit him.

He thought that if he stayed here, his lower body would be in trouble, so he stopped training and hurried to the shower room. He took a shower at a low temperature to cool his heated body. Then, after feeling refreshed, he adjusted the temperature again, closed his eyes and relaxed.

"Hey, beautiful boy. You look especially sexy today. Did something good happen?"

I opened my eyes to the voice and saw Soap standing in the shower booth next to me. There was a thin, low wall between them, so they could only see each other from the shoulders up, but the shower room was so small that it felt like we were right next to each other.

"Why, out of all the booths, did you choose next to me?"

Jet looked at Soap with a smile, and his expression, which had been smiling up until then, became serious.

"Well, I like you, you know? It's normal to want to be by your side even a little bit, right?... And I saw Ghost come out after you came out of the armory earlier..."

Soap didn't finish the sentence clearly. Jet turned not only his face but also his whole body towards Soap, facing him. Seeing this, Soap also turned his body towards Jet. Separated by a thin wall, the two of them stared at each other, completely naked.

"...Soap, I just had a talk with Ghost. He suddenly came in while I was working, and came to apologize for the terrible things he said to me the other day."

That's a lie, but it's not all a lie. More than anything, Jet didn't want to tell Soap, who was looking at him with eyes like an abandoned dog with an anxious expression, that He had "ridden Ghost and teased him." Right now, Jet was filled with the desire to spoil the cute dog ​​in front of me, with both ears down and tail wagging, waiting for a hug.

"...I see. I get it."

Soap's expression changed all at once, as if he was relieved to hear Jet's story.

He really was like a dog, so cute.

A large dog younger than me, big, hairy, noisy, and obedient.

His sparkling blue eyes stared at Jet as he said, "I'm relieved."

Even though Jet wasn't drunk, he felt the Haruka inside him begin to emerge.

"Soap... I really want to kiss you right now."

Soap held his breath for a moment when Jet said that. And at that moment, Jet definitely felt a spark fly in Soap's eyes.

Before Soap can even say yes, he reaches out to Jet, places his hand on his cheek and gently pulls him closer, mouth slightly open, as he approaches him. As if to accept it, Jet opens his lips slightly to welcome Soap's tongue.

Fortunately, their shower booth is in a blind spot from the entrance, so they won't be seen right away if someone comes in. They both know this, so the kiss becomes even more passionate. Soap gently combs Jet's hair with both hands, devouring not only his lips, but also his chin and neck.

Soap occasionally bites gently, licking up Jet's saliva as it strays, trying to pull him towards him, but each time he does so, their arm hits the wall between them, making a noise.

"Hey, can I move towards you?"

Soap looked at Jet with tearful eyes, but decided that it was not a good idea. Jet was beginning to regret having casually teased the large dog.

"That's... not good..."

Jet was out of breath and moaning desperately in between kisses that continued for an eternity.

"Well then... Jet, can I cum with you here?"

Jet's eyes widened at the unexpected suggestion, but In fact, already his penis was fully erect.

His earlier interaction with Ghost had made him sensitive, and it was clear that Jet would come from just a kiss and the slightest contact.

"...Okay."

Jet nodded, looking away, and Soap gently grabbed Jet's chin and turned it towards him.

"...I want to see you cum properly. Look at me, and let me see those jewel eyes..."

Soap's feverish gaze and low whisper were enough to heat up Jet's lower abdomen. Just the slight friction on his already erect penis caused a ringing in his ears. Seeing Soap's shoulders shaking and him moving violently, desperately trying to reach orgasm, Jet's brain was tricked into thinking that it was his hand, not his, that was rubbing him. Feeling Soap's hot breath close to him, Jet's movements became faster.

"...Soap..."

"Jet...I love you. I want you more...Soon you'll be mine..."

Breathing heavily and whispering words of love, Soap continued to stare at Jet. Rather than feeling like he was being burned to ashes, he felt a sense of security, as if he was enveloped in a vast, deep ocean. Jet was aroused by the sight of this man who was so desperate for him, and he was close to his limit.

"...Soap, I can't take it... I'm going to cum..."

"Yeah... me too, oh... you're so sexy... damn..."

At that moment, Soap's shoulders moved and he felt his breath stop for a moment. A few seconds later, Jet came as well.

After they both caught their breath, they kissed without either of them making the first move. They pulled away and kissed again, then pulled away again and kissed again. Soap tried to kiss him again, so Jet laughed and gently stopped him, saying, "It never ends."

After they had changed and were about to return to their rooms, Soap made sure that no one was around and whispered softly in Jet's ear.

"I don't care if you're an angel or a devil. My mind and body are yours now."

Below is the Japanese version

　その日、ジェットは兵器係の手伝いで武器庫で作業していた。すべてのチェックと手入れが終わると彼らは出て行き、独り残ったジェットは自分の��の手入れを始めた。一人になれるのは助かる。おかげで彼は自分を惑わす3人の男たちついて冷静に考える時間ができた。

　とりあえず今はソープともプライスとも関係を進める事はできない。ゴーストに至っては屈辱的な言葉を吐かれ、気まずくなって以来まともに会話すらしていない。今でもこのような状態なのに、同じチームの誰かと深い関係になれば、きっと任務に支障が出るだろう。

　皆と距離を取ろう。

　ひとまず自分の中で答えがまとまり、ジェットは久しぶりに心の靄が晴れて頭がスッキリした気がした。大きな伸びをして作業を進めようとしたその時、背後の扉が開き、誰かが入ってくる気配がした。振り向くとそこには、ゴーストが立っていた。

　「…ゴースト…中尉。どうしました？何か用ですか？」

　思わぬ訪問者と、部屋に2人きりという緊張感でジェットは動揺したが、それを気付かれまいと必死で平静を装った。

　「少し話がしたい。いいか？」

　「…もちろん」

　ゴーストのマスクの下の表情は少しだけ柔らかいものになったが、それとは逆に、今から何の会話をするのか全く予想がつかないジェットの表情は強張った。

　「…君とのキスを…ずっと考えていた」

　そう言うとゴーストは側にある簡易的な椅子に腰掛けた。

　「正直自分でもよくわからない。君に対する気持ちが」

　ジェットはまだ黙ったまま聞いている。ゴーストの言葉の意味がわからず、ただ彼をじっと見つめた。

　「今までのキスの相手は、ほとんどその場限りの関係で…性欲を発散する為だけのものだった。君が言った通り、マスクを少し上げて微笑めば、男も女もすぐに俺に跨る。相手の名前も仕事も知らなくていい、それで満足だった。」

　ジェットはゴーストの思わぬ告白に少し驚いたが、確かに、彼の言動を見る限りロマンスとは程遠い人生な気もするし、今までその場限りの関係で欲求を発散していた事に関しては人間味を感じて親近感すら覚えた。

　「…でも、君と出会ってから、君とキスしてからは、何をしても満たされない」

　ゴーストはそう言い終えるとため息をついてマスクの上から頭を軽く掻いた。彼が黙り込んだので、ジェットはいよいよ焦り出した。

　それで、自分にどうしろと…？どう言葉を返せばいい？？

　ジェットもため息を吐いた。最初は哀れな気持ちで彼の話を聞いていたが、前回のように徐々に腹が立ち、座っているゴーストにゆっくりと近づいた。

　「何の話かと思ったら…。まず俺に謝罪でもするのかと思っていましたよ。でも違った。」

　ジェットのその言葉にゴーストはハッとした目で彼を見上げた。

　「でも、もういい。謝罪なんて求めないし、きっとあなたは俺以上に混乱している。それに俺と同じで破滅的にロマンスの神様に嫌われている…きっとそのままじゃいつまでたっても満たされない。一夜限りの関係ばっかりで麻痺しているんだ。本当の愛を忘れてる」

　ジェットはそう言い終わるとゆっくりと座ったままのゴーストの膝の上に跨った。

　「ねぇ中尉、あの日、バーでの俺はどうでした？あなたがいつも一夜限りの相手に求めるような淫乱な娼婦のようでしたか？こんな風にあなたに跨って…」

　ジェットは自分の股間がゴーストのそれとぴったりとくっ付くように腰を寄せた。

　ゴーストが唾を飲み込む音が聞こえてジェットは少しニヤついた。自分の中の悪魔は彼を虐めたくて仕方なかった。

　これは彼への復讐だと自分に言い聞かせる。

　「ほら、何みたいって言ってた？教えて？」

　ジェットはゴーストの耳元に顔を近づけると囁いた。ゴーストの手がゆっくりとジェットの腰に添えられ、彼の顔はジェットの鎖骨の下あたりにぐっと押しつけられた。そして、ゴーストは絞り出すように答える。

　「…欲求不満の雌犬」

　ゴーストの答えにフッと鼻で笑った後、ジェットは下半身をさらに強く擦り付けた。

「それは、こんな風だった？あなたはどう感じた？」

　そう言いながら、ジェットはさらに煽るようにゴーストの形に自分のモノが沿うようにして動いた。段々と彼のペニスが硬くなってきているのがわかる。それと同時にゴーストの手がジェットの腰から尻の方に回され、その両方を強く揉むようにしながらさらに自分に引き寄せようとしていた。

　「…ジェット、頼む…」

　「…どうしました？中尉？」

　ジェットは意地悪い笑みを浮かべてゴーストに顔を近づける。そしてマスク越しに彼にキスすると唇に軽く噛み付いた。それが刺激になったのか、ジェットの下半身にゴーストのペニスがピクピクと動くのを感じた。

　「…ああ、ジェット…」

　ゴーストが切なげな声を上げたその時、ジェットは彼の耳元で甘く囁いた。

　「あなたは、このペニスがいつでも俺のものだって言ったよね？だから、私が好きな時に使う。あなたが使いたい時に使うものじゃない」

　ゴーストはジェットの言葉に背筋がゾクゾクするのを感じた。こんなのは初めてだった。

　「ところで、俺があなたをどうしたいのかでなく、あなたは俺をどうしたいの？それが分かったらまた教えてください。」

　ジェットはそう言って今度はマスク越しにゴーストの耳を齧る。ゴーストが震えるのを感じてから、ジェットは素早く彼の膝から降りた。

　そして、そのまま振り返ることなく武器庫を出て行った。

　自分に��ては上出来だと思った。これで彼に対する仕返しも出来たし、ゴーストが求めるような一夜限りの人間と自分を一緒にするなという警告もできたと思った。

　まさかそれがさらに彼を燃え上がらせているとは露知らず。

　閉めたドアの後ろから「クソっ」という大きな声が聞こえたがジェットは全く気にする事なく鼻歌混じりでトレーニングルームに向かった。

　先ほどのゴーストの色っぽい反応を頭の中から追い出すためにも、身体を動かすのは正解だった。ゴースト程ではないが、意地悪をするつもりが自分も興奮して少し硬くなりかけていたのは事実だ。あの時強気な心がなければ、もし酒を少しでも飲んでいたら、喜んでパンツを下ろして彼のペニスに跨っていただろう。危険な賭けに勝ったような気がして、色々な意味での興奮がジェットを襲った。

　このままここにいたら、自分の下半身も大変な事になると思い、トレーニングも程ほどに彼は慌ててシャワールームに向かった。熱くなった身体を冷やすように温度を低めにしてシャワーを浴びる。そして、スッキリしてから再び温度を調節し直し、両目を閉じてリラックスする。

　「やぁ、美人さん。今日は一段と色っぽく見えるけど、何かあったの？」

　その声に目を開くと、隣のシャワーブースにソープが立っていた。2人の間には区切りのような薄くて低い壁があるために、お互い肩から上しか見えないようになっているが、それでも狭いシャワールームなのですぐ隣にいるような気になる。

　「なんで、たくさんあるブースの中からわざわざ俺の隣を選ぶんだよ？」

　ジェットは笑いながらソープを見ると、今までニコニコしていた彼の表情が真剣なものになった。

　「だって、俺は君が好きなんだぜ？少しでも隣にいたいって思うのは普通だろ？…それに、さっき、武器庫から君が出てきた後に…ゴーストが出てきたのを見て…」

　ソープははっきりと最後まで言わなかった。ジェットは顔だけじゃなく体もソープの方に向けて、彼と向き合った。それを見てソープもジェットの方に身体を向けた。薄い壁一枚隔てて、2人は全裸のまま向き合った状態でじっと見つめ合う。

　「…ソープ、ゴーストとは話をしただけだ���。作業中に突然彼が入ってきて、この前俺に言った酷い事に対する謝罪をしにきたんだ」

　それは嘘だが、全部が嘘でもない。何よりも、不安げな表情で捨てられた犬のような瞳で見つめてくるソープに、”ゴーストに跨って彼を煽りまくった”なんて話をしたくなかった。今は目の前で両耳と尻尾をだらりと下げてハグを待っている可愛い犬の子を甘やかしてやりたい気持ちでいっぱいだった。

　「…そうなんだ、話しただけか」

　ソープはジェットの話を聞いて安心したのか、表情が一気に変わった。本当に犬のようで、可愛い。自分よりも年下で大きくて毛むくじゃらでうるさくて素直な大型犬。キラキラした青い目は「それならよかった」と言いながら、まだ自分をじっと見つめてくる。

　ジェットは酔ってもいないのに自分の中のハルカが表に出てくるのを感じ初めていた。

　「ソープ…今すごく、君にキスしたい」

　ジェットのその言葉にソープは一瞬息を止めた。そしてジェットはその時ソープの瞳に火花が散ったのを確かに感じた。

　ソープはイエスと返事をするより先にジェットに手を伸ばし、彼の頬に手を当て優しく引き寄せると口を薄く開いて彼に近づく。それを受け入れるようにジェットも唇を軽く開いてソープの舌を迎え入れる。幸い2人のシャワーブースは入口から死角になっている為、誰かが入ってきてもすぐに見られる事はない。2人ともそれが分かっている為、キスはさらに激しくなる。ソープは両手でジェットの髪の毛を優しくすきながら唇だけでなく、顎から首筋まで貪る。時々歯を立てながら甘噛みしては流れたジェットの唾液を舐め取り、もっと、自分の方へと引き寄せようとするたび2人の間の壁に腕がぶつかり音を立てる。

　「ねぇ、そっちにいってもいい？」

　ソープは潤んだ目でジェットを見つめるが、さすがにそれはまずいと判断した。ジェットは軽い気持ちで大型犬にちょっかいを出したことを後悔し始めていた。

　「それは…ダメだよ、さすがに…」

　永遠に続くキスの合間にジェットは息切れしながら必死に呻く。

　「…じゃあ、このまま壁越しにイッてもいい？君と一緒に…」

　まさかの提案にジェットは目を見開く、が、確かに自分のものも完全に立ち上がっていた。

　ゴーストとのさっきのやりとりのせいで敏感になっていたこともあり、確かに彼自身もキスと僅かな接触で果ててしまいそうだった。

　「…いいよ」

　ジェットが視線を逸らせながら頷くと、ソープはジェットの顎を優しく掴んで自分に向けさせた。

　「…君がイク所をちゃんと見たいんだ。俺を見てて、その宝石の瞳を俺に見せて…」

　ソープの熱っぽい視線と低音の囁きはそれだけでジェットの下腹部を熱くした。すでに立ち上がっていたペニスに軽く摩擦が加わるだけで耳元でキーンと耳鳴りがする。ソープの肩が揺れ、相手も必死に解放されようと動いているのを見て、今己を擦っているのは自分の手ではなく、彼の手だと脳が錯覚する。ソープの熱い吐息を近くに感じジェットの動きも早くなっていった。

　「…ソープ…」

　「ジェット…君が好きだよ、もっと君が欲しい…。もうすぐ君を、俺のものにするから…」

　はぁはぁと息を荒げ、愛の言葉を囁きながら、ソープは相変わらずジェットを見つめている。焼き尽くされそうというよりも、広く深い海に包まれるような安心感があった。どこまでも自分に必死なその男の姿にジェットも煽られて、限界が近かった。

　「…ソープ、もうダメ…イキそう…」

　「うん…俺��だよ、あぁ…なんてセクシーなんだ、君は…クソッ…」

　その瞬間、ソープの肩が大きく動いて息が一瞬止まるのを感じた。その数秒後、ジェットも同じように果てた。

　お互い息を���えると、どちらからともなくキスをした。一度離れて、またもう一度、さらにソープがもう一度しようとしてきたのでジェットは笑いながら「キリがない」と優しく止めた。

　着替えが済んでお互いが部屋に戻る寸前、ソープは回りに誰もいないのを確認して、そっとジェットの耳元で囁いた。

「君が天使でも悪魔でも俺は構わない。俺の心と身体はもう君のものだよ」

～to be continued～

やっとエロ小説ぽくなってきた！！！！

次はプライスの出番ですね…

[kuuroko]

Hello guys!!! I kinda forgot about Tumblr but anyways.... I didn't shift yet, I kinda didn't try it because either I forgot or Im just too tired to try, but I started to have weird dreams, they appear only sometimes when I try to shift, could be this a Shifting symptom? Propably not, but it could be the case. I remember that I had 4+ dreams, but I remember only two Becouse I wrote them in my notes. Shsh

(I'm translating the text in Google translator, bc I'm to lazy to do it myself, so I apologize for mistakes!!!)

So my first dream that I wrote down happen at 22.10.2022 so it was some time ago

in this dream, there was a "hill" that I entered some "ship" this ship represented the war in Ukraine. there were Polish soldiers who transported weapons, this ship was more like an "obstacle course", I joined the team that was transporting of this weapons (we were going the way that was next to the battlefield at the beginning of this track you had to go straight, then there was an "alarm" that had start calling when the fight will get to that point, and there was also this short white maze, and then there was some kind of route that resembled Japanese building art. well, I was transporting these weapons, until finally one time I realized how real it was, the fight got out of control, I was there at the beginning where you "handed over the weapons" to the machine that was supposed to give them to the Ukrainian soldiers. I saw how cruel reality is, I started to run trying to avoid death. Even though I had gone back and forth many times before, it didn't scare me too much, I thought of it as just a dream, but it was so real. when I got to this "white maze with alarm" The alarm rang. The Russians captured another city, strangely enough, this city was Katyn, Katyn is a Russian city, not Ukrainian, so how would the Russian army be able to conquer it if they already had it? the Russians were right next to the base from which I took the weapons, there were less and less Ukrainian soldiers, the front line was broken, I ran as fast as I could to the "attic", some guy ran with me, a typical manhwa ML - black hair, red eyes, etc. and we're in the attic and we're going to hide in some huge shelf at the very top, and this attic was huge and you could get there through the entrance on such a big rope, I don't know how I managed it, then this guy came in and it turned out that he had magic. this is where the dream completely broke, it somehow conjured everything to keep us safe, some two other guys from our team were going to the other of these "shelves", these shelves were far apart but they were connected somehow, and these shelves had everything , food, drink and was builtthe next room as a restroom, and then somehow thisguy was replacing the floor, and I magically found myself there and fell off this ship, it turned out that this ship was above the water and it was quite a distance, and I fell into this water and the second dream began where everyone was fairies, I don't really remember the dream, but remember that this guy was there and that I tried to imagine a "portal" to my dr (lucid dream method in short) but it didn't work out because I woke up

Im to lazy to search for mistakes, but this was written poorly in my native language so yk, the translation is probably wrong in some places ;(( Speaking back, my second dream happened on 26.11.2022 And here is how it went:

I don't remember the beginning, so I'll start from where I remember

My dad bought oujia board, I was the only one who refused to play it. I screamed telling them to not play it, at the end I ran out to my room because they didn't listen to me. when I ran by, all the lights were off and there were sort of "sparkles" in the kitchen. I locked myself in my room and started singing some songs to not be scared. Finally, I ran out of my room and went to my school. I found Rin my brother I think, I don't really remember if it was him tho (they played this game along with my parents and with Rin brother so yk) I asked them what happened when they were playing. Rin told me something but it don't remember it well, the only thing I remember were her words ,she said something like "it was a terrible experience, I don't want to talk about it anymore". however, she told me some information earlier but my memory is bad so I forgot about it, as I said before. Then we went down the stairs. Suddenly I started running, I don't remember why. I saw the store and my dad was probably with me at the time. then I think I yelled at him again saying that this game is stupid and he shouldn't play it. I ran into this store, but this store turned out to be a strange store and its owner is a murderer, so I ran ahead in this store and found another door, so I ran through it. I ran to a certain bridge. This bridge was also in my other dream, but I don't remember much what happened there. On this bridge there was some guy with a scooter, he said that we are in Croatia. I asked him so I asked him if he knew *name* (I don't remember that name but it was me in my other dream) And he told me that he don't know the person I'm talking about, but he told me his name and asked me my name. I told him my name, I don't remember what it was, it was my dream name not my real one. That guy said I was his sister so he took me on this scooter and like i lost control of this dream? I remember seeing what was going on there, but there were two black bars in between. I remember and felt like I was sitting there. I wanted to say something but realized that someone might actually hear me.but when we got to this house, this house was villa, it had a gym in the front yard that responded only to the voice of the owners, it worked on the voice of my "brother" and on "mine" then we entered the house but not the house but the playground next to it house and there were also other children, I remember the cat guy, I mean he wasn't a cat but he reminds me of it, he made a shelf for a cat but I ruined it...I mean I tore it off by accident holding it because it was poorly made.I also remember the one guy said "haha I have a jacket and you don't" or something like that (the jackets were at the beginning and anyone could take them) so I ran to get this jacket. There was only one last jacket left so I took it. I put it on, an then I met this cat guy . I don't know how it all ended because my aunt woke me up.

Again, sorry for mistakes!!! If you don't understand something - Just ask me!!! And if you have any tips, you should tell them!!!

[babu-haitani]

Is it okay to ask for pehyan and Baji (separately) with their fem!s/o who is korean. But she shows them korean cultures like traditional outfits, foods, places, fashion, and etc

Are back from doing writing again if not then ignore this and delete it

❤️✨the amazing great Babu✨❤️

SIENAAA! I'M SO SORRRYYYY FOR BAJI'S PART!!!

I don't know korean and I had to use Google Translate! Oh my--- I'm sorry if the korean was shitty cause I kow google is shitty when it comes to translations!

Traditions (Tokyo Revengers)

Genre: Fluff, Crack

Pairings: Peh Yan, Baji x FEM! S/O

P.S Characters are all 18+

RYOHEI HAYASHI (PEH YAN)

Peh Yan can sometimes be really stupid...and no this is not a Peh Yan slander! I love him!

It's just that...All the time when you two were dating, he thought you were also Japanese...

DON'T GET HIM WRONG!! HE ISN'T RACIST!! HE JUST GENUINELY THOUGHT YOU WERE ALSO JAPANESE BECAUSE YOU LOOK LIKE ONE OF THOSE J-POP IDOLS HE ALWAYS LISTENS TO!

Bursting the doors open with your feet, you quickly made your way to your boyfriend's desk, he was staring at you wide-eyed with his brows raised.

"Y/N? What's wrong??" He asked, you gave him a huge smile as you leaned in and gave him a peck on the lips which caught him off guard, resulting in him blushing.

"Welllll~ I did groceries today and I saw this like Korean store on my way to the grocery and decided to stop by and bought ingredients to make kimchi!!" You beamed at your boyfriend.

"K-Korean store? kimchi?? Didn't know you like Korean stuff..." You looked at him confused, tilting your head to the side, you stood in front of him with your arms on both sides of your body.

"What do you mean you didn't know I like Korean stuff? I'm Korean so of course, I would like them...I basically grew up in Korea then migrated here in japan..." You explained.

Silence...

Ryohei just stared at you, waiting for you to tell him you were joking but you never did.

"Wait...YOU'RE KOREAN?!"

"uhhh yes?? WAIT DO YOU THINK I WAS JAPANESE?!?!"

"YES???"

"What makes you think that?!!?"

"UHH BECAUSE YOU LOOK JAPANESE?!!?"

"Stop being racist, peh..."

"I'm not being racists!! I really thought you were Japanese!!...."

The argument went on for like a whole couple of 10 minutes before you two decided to just let him do his work and then go home to make kimchi together. He also made sure to apologize for assuming your race because of how you look.

BONUS: "So this is how Kimchi is made? What exactly is Kimchi?" Peh asked as he lightly massaged the Chinese cabbage along with the kimchi paste that the two of you made earlier. Looking at your boyfriend, you smiled. "Kimchi can be served as a main dish or maybe as a side dish, depending on how you wanna eat it but I sometimes like to eat it with Ramyun" You explained happily, Peh just nodded his head as he continued mixing the ingredients in a large bowl. Peh ended up loving Kimchi and demanded to always have a stock of kimchi inside your fridge. <3

BAJI KEISUKE

Unlike Peh, he isn't stupid to just assume your race. So meeting him, his first instinct is to ask you where you are from.

Baji just likes to drink "RESPECT" juice, every day... <3

So basically he knows that you're Korean and I kinda see Baji as a curious cat Like he'll learn every single thing he can even if it's hard for him to comprehend!

You being Korean means! he would try his best to learn you're language! <3

You just got back home from you're a university, stripping your shoes off, you made your way to the living room but were quickly greeted by your boyfriend who was sitting down on the floor; He was wearing his glasses and had his long rave hair tied into a messy bun.

"Kei?" You called out to your boyfriend, Baji quickly shuffled to hide the papers he was once fixing. Curiosity filled your mind, more importantly; Questions filled your mind. Were its bills? Is the petshop going bankrupt??? What were those papers???

"Y/N? You're home early!" Kei yelped as he stood up to hug you but you quickly pushed him away, worry was visible in your eyes.

"What were those papers? Is everything okay? Kei you know you can always---"

"NO!! They aren't what you think it is! It's uhh..." Baji scratched the back of his neck, his cheeks were tinted in crimson red as he looked away from you. Slowly making your way to the coffee table, you snatched the paper. Baji quickly tried to snatch the paper but failed as he tripped over the cushion he was seating on earlier.

Looking at the paper you saw messily written hangul, the lines were all crooked and you didn't understand what he was trying to write.

"A-Are you trying to learn Hangul?..." You asked, Baji let out a loud groan as he snatched the paper and looked away, you saw how his ears were red; indicating that he was embarrassed.

"I wanted to go with you to Korea this coming Christmas so we can celebrate Christmas with your parents and I know that they can't understand Japanese so...I decided to take secret Korean lessons..." Baji explained you felt your heart melt as you saw your boyfriend fiddle with the paper he was holding while his back was facing you. Walking towards him, you snaked your arms around him.

"I love you so much, Kei... <3"

BONUS: Baji was now glaring at you as he snarled, you were holding a rolled newspaper. "You spelled hello in Korean wrong! Do it again!" You yelled as you crossed your arms in front of you and you squint your eyes. "I take it back! I don't want this anymore!! You remind me of my mom!!!" He yelled as he quickly stood up, rushing over to the door, grabbing his keys, and bolting out to leave. You just sighed as you let him run away, grabbing your phone. you dialed your mother's number. "사탕! 전화했어! 어떻게 지내세요?! (Sweetie! you called! how are you?!)" You're beamed through the phone, you lightly chuckled as you walked outside of your shared apartment and looked through the rails as you saw your boyfriend, fiddle with his fingers as he smoked. You smiled. "나는 좋은 엄마야...말하자면, 내가 어렸을 때 가지고 있던 글쓰기 책을 나에게 보낼 수 있습니까? (I'm good mom...say, can you send me those writing books I had back when I was a toddler?)" "뭐? 왜요? (Huh? why?)" "난...누군가를 가르치는 데 필요할 뿐이야 (I...I just need it to teach someone)" You reasoned out, your mother hummed in agreement. Still looking down at your boyfriend, he unconsciously looked up and then saw you staring at him, with wide eyes, he quickly ran off to the nearest convenience store. You definitely reminded him of his mom. <3

[barbylion]

I was wondering do you have any Thai pop song recommendations? My friend who showed me kpop like 12 years ago also showed like Perfume for jpop and a mandopop singer but for Thai music she showed me some group called Seven Days and their 2 songs Luv and จะมีสักวันเป็นของฉันมั้ย or as I call it Someday (shortened) because that's what Google translate says and I really like them, they showed up on shuffle the other day and I totally forgot about them but they're still catchy. I would be down to get more into new music if you got any songs? 😊

why do I simultaneously feel like my time has come but also massively under-qualified 😂😂

but yes! i actually have this playlist I made when I was getting heavy into T-pop last year and a lot of songs weren't easy finds on Spotify lol. But I've added to it with newer releases. And I apologize in advance for this word vomit I just did, you caught me in the special interest lol

my current (active) faves as far as groups go are Pretzelle, Siam☆Dream, 4Eve, and Proxie. (I linked their most recent songs, but they're in the playlist too!)

Pretzelle is pretty well known in South Korea because they've done a few OSTs and stuff over there.

Siam☆Dream is a Japanese-Thai group that was created to promote Japan in Thailand. So they have a very Japanese sound, even though all their Japanese girls graduated. Fanny (representative color purple) is one of Mint's old trainee friends!

I'm just getting into 4Eve so idk much about them but I love them sm, stan talent tbh. And Proxie just debuted so they just have the one song. But they debuted like a day after I was complaining about missing cute boy groups in K-pop lol. They are the only boy group I know 😂

I really loved Violet Wink's debut and it made them my #1 favorite, but they've been pretty inactive since participating in LodiX (a competition show that all the major girl groups were in). I hated the original song they performed there (Love Me, I think it's called) but their Crazy In Love cover was killer). They had a bunch of members graduate between debut and LodiX. Then my 2 faves Ultra and Shdar graduated last year (and both didn't seem very happy in the aftermath. Shdar was outright angry and it seems like they weren't being treated great) so idk about VW anymore lmao. Rather than linking their debut MV, I linked the LodiX performance because I prefer the smaller lineup's distribution but the MV is in the playlist!

Mini Heart were great, they were the first group under Mint's company when she took it over! but they dropped off the face of the Earth after their second single. So it's safe to say even companies get the acting (BL) bug and just drop/forget about their groups 😞

As far as soloists, Jannine/Ploychompoo, Milli, and Bowkylion are my girls! Very different sounds from one another, but I ❤️ them all. I linked my fave songs by them but there's a lot I'd recommend tbh and I put a few in the playlist. Jannine's in her top 40s/tik tok pop era rn, but Pak Rai Jai Rak is still that girl.

I also love Rose/Baby J, who is another old friend of Mint, but all she's given us so far is this song.

Honestly congrats if you read this far!! But thanks for asking, I'm honored ❤️❤️

[popopretty]

Storm Bringer Spoilers (9)

I finally finished the translation of the last part in the epilogue where it is explained why Verlaine was still alive and how he became after that. Verlaine and Rimbaud’s relationship is just so sad :( 

Please feel free to re-translate. Just be aware that I don’t speak English or Japanese as my native language so I may make a few mistakes here and there. Also, some meanings might be lost in indirect translation. 

...

Going back in time.

The Demonic Beast Guivre appeared in the wood. Adam blew himself up. Chuuya opened the “gate” and defeated Guivre.

Four minutes and thirty seconds after that.

The place was the site of the collapsed highway overpass. Crushed foundation materials, concrete, wires, steel frames, cylindrical forms and such were scattered and piled up like dead bodies.

On the top of that place, Verlaine was in the progress of vanishing.

He couldn’t bend the tips of his fingers. His breathing was shallow. His vision was so dark and hazy that he couldn’t even see the stars. Verlaine is nothing more than a sealed string of codes. When the singularity lifeform that acted as his main body disappeared, his heart was slowly stopping due to the life-sustaining energy being depleted.

Verlaine’s thoughts were just as shallow and slow as his breath. Even on the verge of being engulfed into the hollow of death, his heart didn’t flinch one bit, nor did it seek for anything.

So this is death, Verlaine thought in his disrupted consciousness. It is not such a big deal as I thought. No groaning in pain, no crying of regrets, no distraught with fear either. It is flat and thoroughly empty. In the first place, my life is not a life that has anything to regret at this point. It is a life that should not have been born from the beginning. I didn’t live in a way as to regret anything either.

It’s just that, I caused troubles to so many people. The French government, my assassination targets, Port Mafia, brother. In the end, I didn’t get anything, even with all of that. That only is like a stain my life’s trail, that I regret a little.

Well, whatever. As you can see, I will die soon so forgive me.

His fingers grew colder and eventually he didn’t even feel the cold anymore.

His heartbeat weakened. And after a brief spasm...

It stopped.

His heart.

A few tens of seconds passed.

Verlaine realized that he was still breathing. At the edge of his field of vision, he saw something red. He turned his eyes to that. 

A crimson red cube was passing through his chest and surrounding his heart. That thing was making his heart move.

What the hell is this? Verlaine was confused. It was not because he did not know what the crimson cube was. He was confused because that was something he knew so well.

Why is it here?

“This is the first time I saw you in such a terrible state.”

How nostalgic was that voice.

Verlaine couldn’t believe his own ears. And when the person entered his sight, he started doubting his eyes too.

“No, no...”, Verlaine spoke in a whispering voice. “This can’t be happening. You can’t possibly appear here.”

“Exactly”, the person nodded. “However, showing up in the most unlikely places, at the most unlikely times, isn’t that what a spy is?”

That was Arthur Rimbaud.

A fuzzy outer jacket. A thick scarf around his neck. A pair of earmuffs made from rabbit hair on his head. Long, black hair and somewhat gloomy eyes.

He was the person who saved Verlaine from the lab, and his partner. And the person Verlaine betrayed.

The subspace created by the crimson cube was the sign of Rimbaud’s skill. All substances inside it can be manipulated at Rimbaud’s will.

“Paul, what have you learnt in the world of spies?” Rimbaud sounded surprised as he asked.

“That if you don’t throw away your feelings, you won’t be able to complete the missions, it taught me that much. But what are missions? And what are feelings? Is that to vent out all of my hatred towards human? Or is that to get a little brother? I rushed into this without knowing clearly which one was the mission, and this is the result. If I hadn’t told brother the way to stop Guivre, I would have been able to kill off all those hateful humans.”

“Ahh... I see, you are Rimbaud’s hallucination.” Verlaine said as if he was ridiculing himself. “You are the illusion that I see on the verge of death, the death reaper my guilts are showing me. Otherwise, there is no way Rimbaud who died one year ago would appear here.”

“I’m not a hallucination, neither a reaper. I am a ghost.” Rimbaud shook his head. “I have been waiting for you, in this country.”

Verlaine stared at the other silently, as if he was trying to understand what that existence over there actually was.

“No way, there can be no ghosts.” Verlaine finally shook his head. “Not because it’s unscientific. If you were a ghost and not an illusion, you would not be saving me like this. You would definitely curse me to death.”

“Why?”

“I betrayed you, and tried to kill you.” His cold voice echoed through the night.

Rimbaud didn’t say anything, he looked back at the collapsed Verlaine with calm eyes.

“What’s with those eyes? Be mad at me more, resent me more, punch me, kick me, strangle me, Rimbaud!”, Verlaine screamed, still lying on the ground. “I shot you from the back. That’s why that explosion happened. You were caught up in it and lost your memories, then died in this foreign country not even knowing who you were. If you are a ghost, then there is only one reason that you became one. That’s your grudge towards me, isn’t that right, Rimbaud!”

“It’s the opposite.”, Rimbaud shook his head. “I waited for you because... I wanted to apologize.”

“Apologize? For what?” Verlaine frowned, not getting what he just heard.

“I wanted to help you. And I thought that I was helping.” Rimbaud leaned forward, holding his hand over Verlaine’s chest. “But what I actually gave you, was nothing more than the one-sided sympathy of a man who pretended that he understood. I can’t allow myself to just apologize. I have always been thinking about what I could give. And I finally got the answer on the verge of death. This is it.”

Under Rimbaud’s palm, the space cube grew bigger.

The thing that was at Verlaine’s chest earlier started to expand as if it wanted to shallow his whole body. Then it became huge enough to shallow both Verlaine and Rimbaud inside. That was the subspace created by Rimbaud’s skill. Inside it, Rimbaud is capable of doing anything. Except for bringing the dead back to life.

That exception seemed to be happening.

Verlaine noticed his own fingers twitching. They bent. It wasn’t an illusion. His eyes were also moving. His muddy vision gradually became clear.

“This is...”

Verlaine moved his arm. He twisted and raised his upper body up. He looked at his palm, at the back of his hand, squeezed it, then released it again. He felt his fingers being warmed up by the blood flowing in.

He tried to ask what was happening so he looked at Rimbaud who was there.

Rimbaud was not there.

He collapsed.

By Verlaine’s side.

“What is this?”, Verlaine asked in shock. “I see, you... you used your skill on yourself?”

“A method that I could use only once in life.” Rimbaud said with a faint smile on his face. “But it worked well.”

<The skill to turn humans into skills>

That was Arthur Rimbaud’s skill.

Transforming dead humans into a skilled lifeform, and using them freely inside the crimson subspace. The person who is turned will have the memories and physical capabilities of their past lives, they can even use skills. It is a skill worthy of a spy that is considered the most elite in Europe, the heresy of the heresies. 

Rimbaud used that skill on himself.

“It’s nothing to worry about. I am already dead.” Rimbaud said weakly. “What is left here is just information. But even if it is like that, I feel good. Because I could leave this to you.”

Rimbaud’s body started to glow in red. The way it glowed was familiar to Verlaine.

A redshift. (*TN: A term referring to an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy. In astronomy, it happened when an object is moving away from us. Good luck Googling.) 

“Wait!” Verlaine who realized what was going on, reached out to the collapsed Rimbaud.

“Wait, Rimbaud. Don’t disappear!”

“Because you didn’t like my birthday present.” Rimbaud laughed apologetically.

“Just take this as a birthday present instead. Happy Birthday. I am happy you were born into this life.”

After that, the subspace contracted sharply, sucked into Verlaine’s heart and disappeared.

All that remained was the debris, and Verlaine, and the cool breeze of the night.

Verlaine walked two, three steps with the stunned look on his face. He looked around then sat down on the debris.

“Ha...hahaha.” He looked down and let out a dry laugh.

“Hey Rimbaud, you waited one year for me just to do this? For something like this?”

Verlaine knew, what Rimbaud had done.

To save him, Rimbaud had turned himself into a self-contradictory typed singularity.

Rimbaud, who had turned himself into a skill, used that skill again on his own self who was born as a result of that. Then he continued to apply that skill on his new self that was born. And by repeating this progress, he created a self-contradictory typed singularity. Then he gave that singularity to Verlaine, in place of the Demonic Beast Guivre.

Verlaine tried to stand up but he didn’t have enough strength and dropped his knees on the debris. He was weak. Perhaps, the singularity that Rimbaud created did not have an infinity output like the unlimited energy that the usual self-contradictory typed singularity emits. He could no longer use his inexhaustible gravitational skill like he did before.

But Verlaine didn’t find it particularly regrettable. 

Because he was regretting the thing that he just lost that very moment more.

“Why, Rimbaud?” Verlaine looked up to the sky. “Why did you smile at the end? I betrayed you, and you died because of that, you know?”

He knew the answer. He just didn’t want to understand.

Rimbaud, the man who freed him from Faunus and gave him the freedom to live.

Rimbaud, the man who trained him and raised him into a spy, the person who got through all the dangerous missions with him.

Rimbaud, the man who shyly handed him his birthday present.

“Why did you smile?” Verlaine spoke with a trembling voice. “If you turn yourself into a skill, you are no longer human. You will be nothing more than a piece of surface information with a human’s memories and personalities. You knew that for sure. Still why did you wait for me? Why did you have to go that far for someone like me, when you didn’t even know if I would come or not?”

Verlaine finally came to his senses.

The reason why he let Chuuya know how to defeat the Demonic Beast Guivre at that time.

He hated humans. He thought that it would be okay if everyone died. Yet, he gave out the hint to destroy Guivre. That was because he didn’t think that everyone should die, equally. 

There was only one exception.

One person worthy of affirming human beings.

“Sorry, Rimbaud.” Verlaine whispered behind his clenched teeth. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t live up to your friendship. I’m sorry I didn’t thank you when I received the birthday present. I am finally grieving the fact that you are not here anymore now...”

Verlaine said so with his trembling voice, as he sat still and looked up to the sky with his eyes closed.

He remained there for a long, long time, looking at the night sky.

...

--------------------------------------------------------------

...

Time pours on everything equally.

Verlaine didn’t die. After surviving with the life he got from Rimbaud, he was confined in Port Mafia’s underground shelter. That was what Verlaine wished for. There was already no place for Verlaine in the outside world. He had lost most of his gravitational skill and the only place he could escape the long and big hands of Europe was the hideout deep underground.

Also, he had no interests in the outside world. There wasn’t anyone he wanted to kill, nor anyone he wanted to meet. Apart from Rimbaud. 

And Rimbaud was no longer there.

At first, he just sat in the basement and spent all his time reading and writing poems. When he became bored with that, he started doing what Rimbaud used to do. Training the younger generation.

He hammered his assassination skills and knowledge into the Mafia’s elites in an underground training space. Gin, Izumi Kyouka, and many more.

Those mafias under his discipline all became top-class assassins in a short period of  time.

Verlaine didn’t reveal his feelings to anyone. He never told his apprentices nor the Boss the reason why he kept desiring that crippling life underground. 

When he was not training his apprentices, he just sat on his wicker chair, waiting for something. He never told anyone what he was waiting for. If he was asked persistently, he would just say “for the storm”. No-one knew what that storm was supposed to mean.

Six years later, Verlaine now has become an indispensable central figure in the Mafia, and risen to the position of one of Mafia’s five executives.

He is still sitting on his wicker chair, waiting for his storm even today.

...

[leiawritesstories]

Speak To My Heart

Rowaelin Month, Day 15: A bad day

Word count: 3422

Warnings: language, bit of depression, fighting. In short, there is angst in this fic. Hope the ending makes up for the rest.

Linguistics and foreign languages are two of my personal passions, so please bear with the bits of language talk that I couldn’t resist including. Brief word of clarification: a lot of expressions we use in English either translate into something extremely rude or don’t make sense in other languages. Translation companies have been trying for quite some time to make sure they don’t accidentally send a client a translated instruction manual that reads “fuck your mother” instead of “for questions, contact your local energy department.” All right I’ll get off my soapbox. :)

The phrases in foreign languages, marked with *, are translated into English at the end. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rowan’s day had been shit. The second he walked through the door, he’d been bombarded with an endless slew of crash reports, malfunctioning equipment, faulty passwords, and best of all, having to rewrite half the security firewalls because one of the rash young idiots in his department couldn’t be bothered to check his work for errors before sending it to management. And management thought it was the department boss’s job to fix all of his employees’ fuckups.

He hated IT.

Even more so since being promoted to department chair. 

All he wanted to do was the fun stuff--program design and development, fixing the flaws in his own designs, and of course making those who tried to break into his company’s systems regret their pitiful existence. But Cadre Tech’s bitch of a CEO refused to let the best software engineer on her staff actually do his job. 

Most days, he could cope with the pile of useless shit she directed to his desk. Most days. Today was not one of those days. Probably because on top of all the meaningless tasks he’d had to field, he was also forced to sit through one of Maeve’s bullshit “department head strategy sessions,” where every department chair had to pretend they gave a single shit about any word coming from their CEO’s garishly red, pinched mouth. 

As if she knew anything her staff actually did. 

Thanks to the compulsory meeting, Rowan was stuck in his office at nearly ten o’clock, painstakingly combing through the final draft of the update to CT’s translation program. This program had shot the company to fame and fortune, or at least insane stock value. “A Google Translate that actually translates,” their marketing department called it, and by the gods, that stupid slogan worked. And made sense. Rowan knew the program was just as good as it claimed to be.

He’d put in the hours, alongside a team of linguists, software engineers, designers, and people fluent in at least one other language. Frequent were the sessions where the project whiteboard turned into a jumble of words in twenty or more languages, Spanish alongside Arabic next to a column of simplified Japanese characters spilling over into a row of Cyrillic lettering. Rowan himself spoke German and some Spanish, but even he was lost amid the cacophony of eighteen different people switching from language to language, trying to figure out how idiomatic expressions translated from one language to another and what words should never, ever be placed together. 

It took the team well over a year of bickering, or as they called it, friendly linguistic disagreements, to make it from loosely mapped concept to functioning program. By the time it hit the market three years ago, the software had been so well promoted that companies all over the world snapped up their chance to finally communicate properly with the client they’d offended years ago with a bad translation. 

At launch, of course, Maeve stood in front of a sea of shouting reporters brandishing microphones, smiling her serpentine smile, and proceeded to thank the creative team for all their “contributions” before taking all the credit herself. 

Said creative team went to the bar that had become their usual gathering spot that night to get drunk and shit-talk their horrible boss, not necessarily in that order. 

His favorite memory of that night was hearing the chief linguist, an outside contract with multiple advanced degrees who spoke eight separate languages besides English fluently, refer to Maeve as “quella puttana rugosa che non riusciva a convincere un cazzo a venire a dieci metri da lei se si vestiva da figa.*” The Italian speakers on the team were crying with laughter, and so was everyone else, once she translated it.

And then she downed another shot of vodka and hissed something that sounded like “sukya bliyad, no puedo mich betrinken con esta ordures.**” When everyone blinked in confusion, she sighed and relayed the sentiment in English. 

Nobody had laughed as hard as Rowan. Aelin Galathynius just had that effect on him.

She brightened his darkest days.

But she couldn’t ease the strain of today.

And it was all his fault.

~

Aelin glanced up at the clock on her wall and cursed in three different languages when she saw that it was nearly eleven. Without meaning to, she’d spent all afternoon and evening writing lesson notes on idiomatic expressions. She really couldn’t help herself once she got into the topic; it was her pet project.

And the subject of one of her dissertations. Yes, she had multiple. 

She’d worked her ass off for years to get through college, then through graduate and doctoral work while teaching at universities to offset costs, then earned a full-time teaching position at one of the top-ranked universities in the world. She got to teach linguistics, her lifetime love, and give guest lectures at other universities and at conferences, teaching people all over the world about the complexities and interrelatedness of language. Hell, she spoke ten; she’d be qualified to speak on linguistic relationships by virtue of that alone.

Gods, she was the chief linguist behind the most successful translation software ever produced. Even if the bitch who owned the rights to said software had literally threatened to sue over ownership rights if any of the people who’d poured their figurative blood and sweat and literal tears into building the program tried to claim a small piece of the credit each of them so richly deserved. 

That software and her role in its creation--even though Maeve Ond had claimed the public credit, the creative team spoke at interviews and made news features for their work in Cadre Tech’s massive success--had solidified her credentials as a professor of linguistics, had boosted her into her lecturer spot.

Last year, her university granted her tenure. 

She should have been overjoyed, and she was, but not as much as earning tenure deserved. 

Because there was nobody to share her joy.

Three years ago, in the wake of CT’s overnight jump to worldwide fame, Aelin fled a love she did not and never would deserve. 

She told herself she would never look back. But she did. Almost every day, she looked back at the life she’d shared with Rowan and tried to convince herself that she did the right thing.

Try as she might, she could never silence the whisper that echoed always in her mind. 

“You broke both of your hearts” 

Someday, she told herself, someday she would be back in Doranelle. Someday, she would have a chance to apologize. Someday, maybe she could fix the Rowan-shaped chasm that gaped wide in her heart. 

Yet here she was, sitting in a very nicely appointed hotel room in the university district of Doranelle, typing furiously away as if burying herself in notes and prep for tomorrow’s lecture could make the urge to contact Rowan disappear.

~

Three years earlier. Doranelle.

“Knock, knock.”

Rowan’s head jerked up from where it had most definitely not been slumped on his desk. “Wha--Oh. Hi, Aelin.”

“You’re falling asleep, buzzard, let’s go home.” He heard laughter in her soft voice. 

“As if you won’t just get home and start cross-checking every single one of the phrases on your ‘potential problem’ list.”

She chuckled, walking over to him. “Fine. We’re both perfectionist work whores. Doesn’t mean we don’t need sleep.”

“I know you too well to believe you’re actually going to sleep.”

“All right, you win. Come home now, I’ll make some food, and you can put me to bed.” She winked saucily at him, leaving very little doubt what putting her to bed would entail, and he was up out of his chair in seconds. 

“Hand over your computer, Fireheart,” he grinned as they walked into the small house they shared on the outskirts of the city. 

“What?”

“Your computer, love. I’m leaving both of our work bags on the shelf by the front door so we can actually catch some rest tonight.” He pressed a finger to her mouth to silence her protests. “Uh-uh, Ae, we have interviews tomorrow and I won’t let the genius behind this program’s flawless word-to-word be anything but well-rested.”

She sighed, but he saw the love in her eyes. “Here, then, my dear brilliant software engineer. Leave your notebook, too, because I know if it’s anywhere near you, you’ll be up at three in the morning scribbling blocks of gibberish and picking apart your faultless code until you go insane.”

Both of their work satisfactorily put aside, Aelin made good on her promise to cook Rowan dinner. 

And then he made very good on his promise to put her to bed. 

The next morning, they were both awake with the sunrise, content to lay curled in each other’s arms as the morning light spread across their room.

Rowan drifted back into sleep, waking for good when he caught a whiff of coffee from the kitchen’s direction. 

“Morning, you sleepy buzzard,” Aelin grinned, sipping from her mug.

Rowan dropped a kiss on her head as he reached for his mug. He took a long drink, sighing as the milky, sweetened caffeine hit his mouth. 

“I will never understand how you drink your coffee black, Fireheart.”

“Not all of us need to sweeten the hell out of coffee to drink it, Ro. Maybe if you can’t handle the real thing, you should go back to your pretty little cups of crappy cafe tea.”

“Mention my pretty little teacups again, Ae…”

She giggled. “You be quiet and drink your coffee-flavored milk, my love.  We both know you’re impossibly grumpy until you have caffeine in your veins.”

He grumbled something unintelligible as he drank his coffee.

They were nearly late to work that morning, even having planned an extra half hour to arrive, thanks to Aelin wearing what Rowan dubbed her “sexy professor suit.” She fixed the pins in her French twist in the car, making herself once again a portrait of professionalism, and slipped Rowan’s hand from her leg.

“Two hands on the wheel, Whitethorn.”

He pouted. “But I’m a safe driver and I want to hold your hand.”

“My hands are over here, love, not down by my skirt.”

When he pulled into his spot, Aelin closed her eyes and took a deep, slow breath. 

“You good, Fireheart?”

Gods, she loved hearing him call her that. “Yeah. I just…needed a moment to settle myself. To tell myself the cameras aren’t here to tear apart what I say.”

Rowan wrapped his hands around hers. “Dr. Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, the bland reporters are here to stand in awe of your expertise. Not a single word you say will come across as anything but brilliant and beautifully said.”

She squeezed his hands, her usual confidence returning. “I love you, buzzard.”

“I love you too, Fireheart. Let’s go talk about our amazing achievement.”

The day sped by in a blur of reporters, interviewers, teleprompters, practiced speeches, lights, cameras, and crew. When the last bleached-blonde anchor of the last interview of the day cut her crew’s cameras, Aelin flopped against her second-in-linguistic-command, Dr. Nehemia Ytger, the expert on ethnic African languages. 

“If I never see a news crew again, it’ll be too soon,” she sighed. “I’m beat.”

Nehemia snickered. “But we’re done talking about how proud we are that Maeve and her marvelous company have done such a grand service to the world.”

Aelin snorted softly. “Right. And now we servicepeople want to go home and take off our heels.”

“Amen to that.”

As the team filed out of the studio, Rowan made his way over to Aelin. “Holding up?”

“Not anymore,” she said, leaning casually into his side. “My heels are killing me, there’s a hairpin stabbing into my scalp, and I really, really need to pee.”

Rowan laughed, deep and husky. “Let’s get you home, then.”

“I’m stopping in the bathroom first.”

Just before she left the ladies’ room, Aelin heard voices in the break area. Familiar voices--Rowan’s, Maeve’s, and the snippy, borderline whiny tones of Remelle Frelau, who worked in the marketing department and had a hell of a boner for Rowan. 

“--looking at revenue over--” Maeve’s voice cut out, but from the gasps of the other two, the revenue was through the roof. 

“And it’s all thanks to this genius here,” drawled Remelle, who if Aelin had her guess was probably clinging onto Rowan like a platinum-blonde leech. 

“Ms. Frelau, this was the product of a team. No single person could possibly have made it happen alone.”

“Oh, call me Remelle, or even better Remy. And you’re the team leader, so you practically did create it by yourself.”

Aelin snickered to herself. Vapid bitch had no idea what she was saying. 

“That’s not how teams work, Ms. Frelau. We wouldn’t be here without Dr. Galathynius and Dr. Ytger’s language expertise, not to mention the creative genius of the engineers, graphic designers, linguists, and programmers.”

“Ms. Frelau, though her judgment is clearly biased, has a point, Mr. Whitethorn,” Mave said. “You demonstrated remarkable collaborative leadership qualities throughout this project, and I fully expect that you will continue to do so.” Maeve’s heels clicked away. Rowan’s voice followed her.

“Thank you, Ms. Ond, but I have to credit Dr. Galathynius--”

“Will you stop kissing that woman’s ass?” snorted Remelle. “Gods, she’s not worth your time or your praise; all she does is translate words into different languages and you idiots drool over that like it means anything.”

Aelin jerked like she’d been slapped. She knew Remelle was a self-centered, shallow, spiteful bitch, but she hadn’t known she would do this.

“--did more for this project than you and your useless whiteboard of catchphrases,” growled Rowan. 

“I don’t care what she ‘did for the project,’ Rowan, she’s never going to be good enough for you.”

“Thank you for caring about my welfare, Frelau, now please kindly fuck off.”

Aelin chose that moment to saunter out of the bathroom and head straight for Rowan, her face showing no hint of having heard that conversation. She did note with satisfaction Remelle’s vain attempt to march out of the room with some semblance of dignity. Too bad her heel caught on the seam of the hallway carpet and the break room’s tile flooring and she had to grab the doorframe to keep from collapsing. 

“You’re awfully quiet, Aelin.”

“Just thinking. Processing, really. It’s been a hell of a day.”

Rowan nodded. “I bet.”

“And hearing fucking Remelle rip into me for being useless…didn’t make it better.”

“Shit, you heard that?”

“Yeah. I heard that.” Her voice was hollow. 

Rowan pulled into their driveway and shut off the engine. Reaching across the console, he cupped Aelin’s face in his hands. “Aelin. You are brilliant. You are terrifyingly smart. You are a force of nature. Nothing, nothing you will ever do is useless. Don’t let that jealous bitch make you think you are less than the perfect woman.”

She smiled tentatively at him. “She…she told me before that last interview that I could never be enough for you. Because you--because of Lyria.”

Rowan raked a hand through his hair. “Ae, can we talk about this inside?”

That night, he told her about his former fiancé, Lyria. He told her about their whirlwind romance, their youthful dreams. He told her about the horrific crash that stole away Lyria’s life. A drunk trucker, a narrow pass in the mountains. He showed her the box in which he kept all the memories of that life. He cried. Aelin cried. He curled against her, let her comfort him.

“Sometimes, I wish she was still here. She’d understand everything. She always did.”

Aelin had no response. She let Rowan fall asleep, his weight shifting off her and into his bed, and looked through the box. Everything she saw served as another reminder that this was the first woman he loved, the woman who understood everything. 

She was worthy of him. 

But was Aelin?

The more she looked at Rowan and Lyria’s happiness, the more the answer solidified. 

No.

When Rowan woke up the next morning, Lyria’s box sat on Aelin’s side of the bed, a side that had not held Aelin.

He glanced out the window.

Her car was gone.

He got up and frantically paced through the house.

Everything she’d brought into his home was gone.

As was she.

~

Present day. 

Rowan opened his front door mechanically, pulled off his shoes, dropped his work backpack on its shelf, and was halfway to his bedroom before he realized he’d just opened his front door. His front door that was always locked. 

Someone was in his house.

Someone who either had a duplicate key or insanely good lockpicking skills.

Exactly one person owned a duplicate key to his house.

Aelin.

That’s impossible, she lives in Orynth, she can’t be here, he told the traitorous part of his brain that leapt with joy at seeing Aelin’s face again.

He turned around and made his way through the kitchen--nobody there--to the living room. He flicked on a lamp, casting a soft light around the room.

And nearly had a heart attack.

Aelin Galathynius sat on his couch. 

For a moment, he just gawked at her. She looked so…different. Older. Gone was the infectious smile that had captured his heart. Dark shadows smeared under her eyes, testament both to the long hours she devoted to her work and to recent sleepless nights. She was twisting a ring on her right hand, a familiar sign of her nerves. From his angle, Rowan could see a hint of dark script on her wrist. A tattoo. The Aelin he knew didn’t have tattoos.

“I’m not a ghost.” Her voice, weary and hollow, broke the tense silence.

Rowan crossed the room, propped an arm on the fireplace. “Why?”

“Why am I here? Why did I leave? Why did I cut you out of my life?”

“Everything.” He couldn’t keep the waver from his voice, but his eyes burned into hers.

She took a steadying breath. “I’m here to apologize, first of all. I’m here to face what I ruined and to try and start mending it. I’m here to come to terms with everything I broke when I left three years ago.”

Whatever he’d expected her to say, it certainly wasn’t that.

“I’m sorry, Rowan. I’m sorry I left like that. I was…I was scared.”

“You can’t just run away from your fears, Aelin!” He couldn’t keep the frustration from his tone. “You can’t just abandon someone when you have a bad day!”

“I’m sorry! I know I shouldn’t have left! I know I can’t run from my fears; I’ve spent the last three years trying and fucking failing to do that! But I don’t know what else to do.”

“Saying something about it would have been a good first step.” 

“I’m bad at emotions, Rowan. I tried. It wasn’t enough.”

“That’s not a good enough excuse.”

Aelin flicked a tear from her face. “I know.” Her shoulders slumped. “I’m so sorry, Rowan. I should never have left. I let some stupid comment root into my head and make me doubt myself. I made myself believe I would never be good enough for you. I left you. I loved you, and I still left you. I still love you, even though I’ve tried to suppress it. I can never make up for that. I…I just wanted to tell you how much I’ve regretted that horrible decision all these years. I want you to be happy, Rowan, I--”

“How am I supposed to be happy without a source?” He’d dropped onto the couch, close enough to touch her but still keeping his distance.

“What?”

“You didn’t just take yourself away, Aelin. You were my happiness. I’ve spent three fucking years trying to make myself believe I’m better without you in my life, and I can’t.”

She was unabashedly crying by that point. “What do you want me to do? How can I make up for abandoning you?”

“Stay.”

Her gaze locked onto his, both of their eyes pooling with tears.

“Stay with me, Fireheart.”

“But--”

“I never stopped loving you either.”

A choked sob ripped out of Aelin. Rowan couldn’t hold himself in check any longer; he reached out and tugged her gently into his arms. To his shock, she didn’t resist, burying her face into his chest as sobs shook her shoulders. When she calmed, he tilted her chin up.

“Will you stay, Aelin?”

“Yes. Even though I will never deserve your forgiveness, yes.”

~

Translations:

* = “that pinched old whore who couldn’t convince a dick to come within ten metres of her if she dressed up provocatively” (Italian)

** = loosely translated as “Fucking hell, I can’t get drunk off this garbage.” (in order, Russian (badly phonetically spelled out because Rowan POV), Spanish, German, Spanish again, French) (the Russian doesn’t directly translate, so it could mean several different variations of expletive)

~

Might there be a second part? Perhaps......

[twiceasfrustrating]

Hello ^^ I'm so excited to see that requests are open! If it's fine by you can I request Helvetica with female Reader insert who is shy to flirt in English so she flirts in other languages and then backs off immediately whenever he asks her what did she just say and makes up translation on the spot? You can also include something like her accidentally saying something in Spanish- forgetting he actually knows that language. Sorry if it's too specific, I just don't know how to put it shortly.

Rating: Teen & Up

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: F/M

Relationship: Helvetica/Reader

Fandom: Bustafellows

Characters: Helvetica Olsted, F!MC

Additional Tags: afab!MC (you/your), Fluff, flirting, google translate

Summary: You get nervous trying to flirt withHelvetica, so it always ends up coming out in the wrong language.

A/N: Anon, you have no idea how much a squealed when I saw a request for Helvetica. I love him so much. He needs more content. Also, I lost it as F!Reader but... It doesn't really come up? Gender/sex doesn't really come up in SFW fics for me a lot.

Full disclosure… I only speak English, a little Japanese, and random phrases of other languages so… This is mostly google translate. I apologize to all native speakers that read this mess. If someone would like to fix my grammar, I will do so immediately. Please save my dumb ass.

Word Count: 748

"Deine Augen schimmern wie polierter Tigerspis."

“Hm? What was that?” Helvetica looked up from his tablet at where you leaned over the table, hands pressed flat against the surface as you stared at him with the most determined look on your face.

“I said one of us needs to cook dinner.” That was such a lie that it wasn’t even funny. Your only saving grace was that was close enough to dinnertime that he likely wouldn’t question it.

“Isn’t it your night?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he seemed to think about it before setting his tablet down, “We’ll say it’s a favor and that you owe me.” And you should know that favors always had to be repaid.

“Thank you.”

He stood up from his spot on the couch, leaving everything where it was and heading into the kitchen. As soon as he was out of sight, you dropped your head into your hands and screamed silently. Why were you so awkward?

Your body didn’t even want to move from where you were, afraid to see him face-to-face again for fear he would suddenly understand what you had said earlier. It wasn’t fair for you to make him do all the work for the evening though, especially since it was supposed to be your turn to make dinner for everyone. You would have to lace up your bootstraps and get over it.

By the time you finally found the will to go join him, he was rummaging through the cupboards looking for a bottle of cooking sherry, pulling it down and opening it up to pour a generous amount into the heated pan with the meat. Steam rose the second the liquid hit the heated surface, the slightly sweet smell of alcohol filling the air around you.

You weren’t sure how it was possible that he looked so good just standing over the stove, but he did. Just looking at him was making your mouth water, "你比那瓶酒還好.”

“I have to give your comments a 13 since I don’t understand them.” It would have been lower, but he was impressed by your ability to switch between such diverse languages so easily.

“I was offering to help.” That definitely wasn’t what you said.

“In that case, would you grab the rice from the pot? It should be done by now.” And his hands were busy.

It was a simple enough ask, so you reached past him and pulled the pot of rice off of the burner. He was so dangerously close as you moved past him, the pleasant smell of his natural scent just barely tickling your nose beneath the one of meat and alcohol.

“Thank you,” was all he said as you took the rice and moved to start scooping it onto the plates.

All the while, he continued to work his magic at the stove. Watching him was like watching art in motion. Every part of him was absolutely, utterly beautiful. Especially the part that you couldn't help but glance at. He had such a great butt…

"Tienes el tipo de bollos que venderían en una panadería.”

There was the briefest moment of pause before the edges of Helvetica’s mouth curled upward and he looked back at you from where he stood over the pan, "¿Y por cuánto estarían vendiendo esos bollos?"

Your face burned hot as he replied without missing a beat. The floor seemed to collapse from underneath you as his words echoed through your head, “Oh, right. You speak Spanish…”

His hair fell to one side as he cocked his head. It was hard to tell if he was judging your forgetfulness or not, but he was certainly thinking something that made him smirk, “I do.”

“And I just said something really embarrassing in a language you understand…”

“That is also correct.”

Yep, you wished the ground would swallow you up and hold onto you until you were a fossil. Then you prayed no one would ever find your bones and you would just be swallowed deeper and deeper until you were melted into magma. Even then, that wouldn’t be enough to get you out of this situation.

He reached to turn off the stove, moving the pan to one of the cool tops before turning around fully to look at you, “I would say I’m worth at least the price of a loaf of Royal Bloomer.”

It was official: the world ending right now would be a blessing…

[cryptidmads]

i know you’ve been gone for a while, and i hope you’re doing alright. someone on twitter posted a thread of lore from a q&a from a japanese nsr stream, and i was wondering if you knew anything about it or had a translation? i can’t post the link in asks but it’s from space_toro on twitter

afternoon! i’m alive if that counts, just haven’t been having a very hot boy summer lmao

i believe this is the thread in question? i had a look through and attempted to translate through a mix of google translate and my own very minimal japanese knowledge. there may be an error or two in here (and i apologize if there is), but i think it mostly came out alright

lore under the cut!

these answers come from rie, metronomik’s business development manager who worked on the japanese localization of nsr, as well as game director wan hazmer’s wife. i can’t find a link to the stream where this took place, so hit me up if you know where it is!

DJ SUBATOMIC SUPERNOVA:

- DJ Sub is apparently a human, and he “seems to be warm” according to Rie. Another twitter user posted the question for this one, which specifically asked if he had warm hands.

- DJ Sub abandoned his professor career on his own initiative. He quit the job because he couldn’t convey what he wanted to convey, rather than being fired.

- Rie describes DJ Sub as not always on the side of “being made to do things,” meaning he’s more likely to do what he wants rather than what he’s told to do.

- Rie also says that always choosing for yourself is a strong character trait.

1010 AND NEON J

- J1 is the name of the company that develops 1010.

- Rie says that 1010/Neon J have an ass plate because “it’s sexy.”

- 1010 and Neon J were not originally designed to be parent and children.

- Neon J’s fur collar is an accessory and can be removed.

- Related to the above answer: Since Neon J is a cyborg and not a robot, he can take his clothes on and off.

- Neon J’s turtleneck is made of cotton.

These next answers are a bit out of context, as I don’t have the questions that were asked to get these answers, but I did try to guess. If anybody knows what the actual context to these is, please feel free to dm me!

- “Take off the white jacket and start a new life!”

I think that the question might have been something like “what would Neon J do if he wanted to leave his military past behind/didn’t want to be a captain anymore” or something like that. This apparently also confirms that Neon J’s jacket is removable.

- “Daim [Dziauddin] knows that everyone is drawn with no sleeves, but it’s actually long sleeves.”

I think this one might also be about Neon J’s jacket. “Neon J’s jacket is removable” is apparently canon now, but his model doesn’t really look like he’s wearing a jacket, so it’s easy to think he’s not wearing one and therefore doesn’t have any sleeves. But since Daim designed Neon J and knows about all our fanart, he’d know that J is actually wearing a full sleeved jacket and that the fans haven’t been drawing it right, but just hasn’t mentioned it yet.

TL;DR: I think this answer is Google Translate failing to say that “Daim Dziauddin knows that the fans are drawing Neon J with no sleeves when he’s actually wearing a long sleeved jacket.”

- “As for the raw part, it’s a secret.”

Pretty sure this is about Neon J and how much of his real body is left, as the first three characters from Rie’s answer translate to “raw body,” but google might have fucked up again and left “body” out of the full translation. The only thing I’m not sure about is what was asked to give us this answer…

[yuki-tsunodas]

The Player's Tribune: I will never forget the tears I shed that day

Article published 25 March 2021, originally written by Yuki Tsunoda in Japanese.

I translated the article with help from Google Translate and Naver Translator + my own interpretations of their rubbish translating, so apologies in advance for any mistakes! Anything I had trouble translating will be bolded with a (?) next to it!!

　I think that was the last time I cried in frustration, in regret.

　Four years ago, I was only 16 years old and was a student at Suzuka Circuit Racing School. It was the final selection to join Honda's Driver Development Program. If I pass, I can run in Japanese F4 the following year, but if I failed...I was thinking of quitting racing at that time.

　Now, I'm standing at the entrance of the stage called F1. Looking back, that was the turning point of my life.

　Of course, I didn't know if I would pass that year's trial because there were not only those who had already run in F4 but also some drivers who had come back from overseas.

　However, I've been racing in karts since I was four years old, and I've been doing well. That year, I was the youngest ever podium finisher in my debut race in the Japanese F4 championship, which allowed me to participate in the spot (?) race, and won the Super FJ Japan's first championship. At the selection test, there were good results until the final round of selection, and I was in a position to compete for first and second place overall. So I thought I could afford to make a big mistake in the final selection, and I was confident that I would still be in the top two in the end.

　I am a strong driver. But if you can't get results here or if you can't fascinate the judges with your running, it's already known (?). So I was prepared to give up my racing career if it didn't work. I think there were many other routes to go, such as running in other training programs or non-formal races, but I don't like it when it's not the direction I want to go. I decided to live a different life rather than to do it half-heartedly.

　However, the worst result awaited. At that time, I was very weak mentally and, of all things, it showed in the final round. Even before the race, I found myself tense and stiff. My fingertips were also stiff. I was not my usual self. I started like that, but suddenly I was flying...I had to drive through the pitlane and then rejoin the course. I felt like I was running alone, far away from the previous group. I felt sorry for myself, and I didn't even feel like running anymore. As a result, the points in that race were almost zero, and Tsunoda lost in the final round.

　I was so frustrated that tears welled up naturally on the train home. It was the first time since I started racing in earnest. I was the youngest among the participants, but I was shocked because I was confident that I wouldn't lose, and I couldn't imagine anything even if I tried to think about the future. I still remember clearly that I was so depressed that I didn't even want to see my parents on my way home from the Shinkansen.

　But there was only one faint hope. That was what the then Honda F4 coach said in an interview after the screening.

　"As a training driver for Honda, you will not be able to participate in the race next year, since the Formula 4 Honda has four cars. Maybe I can put you in one of the remaining two cars running as Suzuka Racing School."

　That was because former Formula One driver Satoru Nakajima recommended me. Mr. Nakajima was the principal of the school at that time, and at the time of the final selection, he was watching us run in the final chicane.

　I was given a penalty at the start, and I was racing without emotion, but I was running hard so that I wouldn't regret it. Through the visor, I saw Satoshi Nakajima standing in the final corner. I didn't want to show Mr. Nakajima a careless run. It was a hopeless ranking, but I thought I should not give up until the end and keep running toward the group in front of me. Then the road opened.

　In 2017, Suzuka Racing decided to enter me into F4 instead of making me a training driver. Then, I suddenly ranked 3rd overall in the annual overall ranking, and the following year in 2018, I was selected as a Honda Formula Dream Project driver, and was able to become the champion.

　It's all because I was frustrated at that final selection.

　The most unusual thing is that I think it's mental. Until I had a setback, I had a feeling that I would do well until the end without doing anything. I knew I wasn't good at starting even though I failed in the previous round, and I had time to practice before that, but I didn't. There was something sweet about overconfidence. And at that time, I was afraid of making mistakes, so I didn't know how to grow up.

　After failing the selection, I realized that I was still not perfect and that I had to be faster. I realized that it is important to make a lot of mistakes without fear of making mistakes, and to make new discoveries and grow from there. Therefore, I didn't feel impatient when I didn't get points as I wanted in the early part of the F3 and F2 seasons last year after I went abroad. Rather, there was no hesitation in the process of making a lot of mistakes first and learning a lot from them.

　Takuma Sato, a former Formula One driver, now driving in Indycar, is famous for saying, "No attack, no chance," but I think that's exactly right. If you don't try beyond the limits of any sport, you won't find the future, and if you don't try, you'll stop there. Therefore, even if there are times when I make mistakes or get no results, I don't feel strangely distressed. Even if you make a mistake, it's up to you to take it. Mistakes make me want to investigate the cause. If you think that you can overcome it, you can be faster than if you regret the mistake, and you can always face it positively.

　Now that I can race in F1, I feel grateful to my parents. I've liked to move since I was a child, and I played swimming, soccer, mountain biking, and also, not sports, but piano. Now that I think about it, I feel that my father and mother were letting me do what I was interested in. And the reason why I started driving karts was also influenced by my father. My father liked motorsports and played gym carna himself. One day, at the circuit venue I was taken to, I was allowed to drive a real cart. That was the first time. Actually, I also experienced a pocket bike at that time, but after trying two, I said, "The kart is more fun." I don't really remember at all (lol).

　But there were times I got sick of karts...

　For example, when I was about seven years old. When I was playing a game while waiting at the track, my father told me to "focus more on the race," and my game was taken away, and I felt like, "I don't like it anymore." Then my father became getting tougher and tougher on me to improve me, and he scolded me for many things. To be honest, I didn't really appreciate my father until I was 15, and there was a time when I hated him. 'This is "The Rebellion Period".' I think I was in the middle of it.

　Not only my father but also my mother was strict in terms of academic matters. I was always told to study in case I didn't succeed in motorsports. My junior high school was not a public school (?), so after the race, I would go home on the day, get ready for school, go to school, study, and take the test. To be honest, it was hard and I never liked it, but I continued to study anyway.

　At that time, I couldn't thank my parents, but now I have the opposite feelings. I think I am what I am now thanks to their harshness, scolding, and teaching me a lot of things back then. Thank you so much.

　I didn't expect to be able to get to F1 this quickly. Not only are there few Japanese drivers, but they are also those taking the shorter route compared to foreign drivers.

　When I first went to see F1 at Fuji Speedway at the age of seven, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were running. At that time, I wasn't longing for it, but I thought "I wanted to race with drivers like this someday", and those feelings are still the same. Hamilton is already a legend, and it's an honor to run with him, but when I get on the circuit, both Hamilton and Alonso are just drivers. Think of them as enemies.

　It's the same for Max Verstappen, who I think is the fastest and strongest opponent in Formula One, and Pierre Gasly, who's my teammate in Alpha Tauri. I want to know as soon as possible how well I can handle Verstappen and how well I can compete. Gasly was active in Japan's top-category, Super Formula, when I was running in Japanese F4, and I hope I can learn a lot of things from him, but I think he's also my biggest rival that I have to beat someday because we're in the same machine.

　'In the world of F1, "speed" is ultimately required.' No matter how fast you say you are, if you show off your speed, you can make an impact, and if you have speed, you can get back in front in the second half even if you were overtaken or separated from the pack in the beginning of the race. However, it is actually the most difficult to show "speed" in a situation like this. My biggest strength is speed, so in addition to that, I want to learn more of what I lack.

　Come to think of it, at an online conference held this off-season, my goal came out big like, "I'll be a Formula One champion more than seven times, the most ever tied," but that's not what I meant.

　I haven't done a single race in Formula One yet, so I can't say that (bitter smile).

　What I'm thinking about right now is to give the best performance I have in the first race, and to get as many points as possible throughout the season. Just like F2, even if you go up to F1, you will make a lot of mistakes from the beginning to the middle of the season, but I want to learn a lot by making new discoveries there. After saying such a thing at the press conference, there was a question like, "What is Tsunoda's ambition?" So I replied, "Maybe I'll win the championship seven times like Lewis Hamilton?" which became a big headline.To be exact, I really want to concentrate on everything in front of me now, and I hope that my ambition will come true as a result of that accumulated effort.

　What kind of scene will I see in the future? I want to improve my ability and become a race driver representing the F1 world, and I think it will be a different pressure and motivation, so the expectations of the fans may be even higher.

　That's why I want to never forget how I felt when I drove in Formula One for the first time in 2021. I want to cherish the current feelings of a rookie and continue to make mistakes to my heart's content, learn a lot from them, and enjoy them.

　I don't think I'll shed tears like I did four years ago in the final selection. I will never forget the tears I shed that day. But if I were to cry from now on, what kind of tears would I have...?

　I think it's realistic to say when I first win the championship. It's very difficult to get to Formula One, but it's going to be a tough road ahead. It's really hard to win, so if I'm going to shed tears, it's probably not "regretful tears" but "happy tears".

[milkmateartist]

HEAVENS Black Garden English Translation 【 Main Story Pt. 1】

[ --- I do not own Black Garden, HEAVENS, Utapri, or any of the characters. This is a fan translation using a combination of google translate and my own japanese knowledge --- ]

// Translated by MilkmateArtist

-------------------------------------------------

▽ = Speaking / Speaker

A deep forest covers the clear sky.

The air here is a little cooler than what's normal for the seasonal temperature.

The surroundings are quiet with only the noise of the trees and my footsteps.

▽ You

Is it really this way?

The continuing trail ahead of me looked more like an animal trail. It would be uncomfortable to even call it a road.

Anxious, I dropped my eyes down to the letter.

A letter that arrived to me even though I had no relatives.

It stated that I had the right to inherit the legacy of a person who claimed to be my paternal grandfather.

I lost my parents early and didn't know my grandfather, let alone his relatives.

Invited by the letter, I was now visiting the land mentioned there.

It was a place rich in nature called the "Heavenly Forest".

Everything I saw was shining.

▽ You

Maybe that is it over there...?

In an open area, there appeared to be a beautifully made road and an iron gate.

The gate is locked.

(A) Give up and go home

(B) Try calling out

(C) Break the lock

(A) Give up and go home

▽ You

There is no sign of anyone around, and there is no way to ask.

I have no choice but to give up ...

I went back the way I came and returned to my usual life.

BAD END

(B) Call out

▽ You

I'm sorry! Is anyone there?

I shouted out loud. Behind the gath, the path led further back, and I could see a bit of the shadow of a house.

Maybe they will notice?. However, there was no reply.

CONTINUE

(C) Break the Lock

I picked up a stone that had fallen nearby and swung it down at the key.

▽ You

Eh……?

The stone rolled off the hand without hitting the key.

My head hurt like it was burning, and my vision went red.. I had no choice but to fall into the place without power.

BAD END

CONTINUE:

Next I tried to push the gate.

▽ You

It's no use, but I'll keep trying. I wonder what I should do now.

Suddenly, a loud noise came from a nearby tree.

A person jumped from the top of said tree.

▽ You

!! !!

▽ Hugo

Who are you? What business do you have at the mansion?

I could see that he's well trained from his large body and mannerisms,

▽ Hugo

Hey, answer my question.

▽ You

…… My name is (___). I got a letter and was invited here.

I answered frantically while under the pressure from his force.

▽ Hugo

(___) ?

▽ You

Yes....

He brought his face closer, staring at me with a sharp look.

▽ Hugo

Nope! I haven't heard of you. You're pretty suspicious..

▽ You

Eh?!

▽ Virgil

Hugo, calm down. This person is a client. Moreover, they should be treated politely.

A man came running up from behind and got in between us.

▽ Virgil

I'm sorry, I seem to have surprised you.

With a concerned expression on his face, he bowed his head politely.

▽ Virgil

Hugo's job is to keep an eye on the area around the building since he's the mansions gatekeeper. Don't think too bad of him.

▽ Hugo

……Hmph.. I'm going to go look around. Take it from here.

▽ Virgil

I'm Virgil, the coachman of this building. I was supposed to pick you up, but there seems to have been a bit of a misunderstanding.

▽ Virgil

I apologize for the inconvenience, but you allow me to escort you to the mansion?

He extended his elbows as if he were dealing with a lady.

I was nervous, but followed him..

▽ Virgil

We have a short way to walk until we reach the mansion. Even someone whose familiar with the place can get lost.

▽ You

It's a very large area.

Even after walking for a while, I couldn't see the whole view of the building. I feel that the world they live in is different from my own.

▽ Virgil

Especially at night, it's pitch black, so it's dangerous. It's rumored that *things* come out around then.

▽ You

!! !!

I gasped, involuntarily making a large gesture.

▽ Virgil

Ah, that's a good reaction. You're cute, so I can't help but play around a bit. It's just a rumor!

▽ You

…… Oh, okay.

But it was true that there were dark places, that were black even in the daytime.

It's no wonder that something could lurk inside it.

▽ Virgil

Ah, we arrived!

Passing through the stone gate, there was a large mansion towering over it.

▽ Mika

Oh~ You're here~.

A child popped out from the entrance. He came down the stairs and stopped in front of me.

▽ Mika

I will guide you from here! Now go away Virgil!

When I took my arm from Virgil, he double-took as though he wanted to hug me.

▽ Virgil

Mika is pushy as always. But as many times as I say it, it doesn't matter.

He shrugged and went on, still somehow cheery in his tone.

▽ Virgil

I'll leave the rest to you. I'm going to the stables to check on the horses. I'll see you later.

▽ Mika

By the way, again ... I'm Mika! I'm working here as a messenger boy.

▽ You

Messenger ... Boy?

I tilt my head, puzzled. It's a profession I'm not too familiar with.

▽ Mika

I take letters from my master and deliver them to other peoples residences, and vice versa. Also, I'm so cute, so I'll be asked to accompany people when I go out.

The owner of this building must be a fairly high-ranking person.

▽ Mika

Leave the area to me, let alone this mansion!! I'm very on top of things, so I know everything.

He probably has a lot of opportunities at his job to come into contact with a lot of different thing.

▽ Mika

Indeed, I even know about that letter you have! My master told me that I went out to the town.

▽ Mika

I'll call Abel, so wait a bit here!

That said, Mika disappeared into the front door.

Left behind, I stopped in front of the big door at the front entrance.. Looking closely, I was amazed at the size of it. .

(A) Observe the mansion

(B) Look into the window

(C) Wait as told

(A) Observe the mansion

I walked around the mansion, drawn to the splendor of the building.

▽ You

I've never seen such a nice house. I wonder if this is also in the inheritance of the heritage ...

When I gently touched the wall, the cool sensation seemed to tell me that this was not a dream.

▽ You

Oh, I want to know soon!

I was thrilled by the glorious life that would be waiting for me.

I thought I heard a loud noise, the next moment, a shock ran to my body.

A part of the dilapidated building collapsed and fell heavily on me.

I can't breathe and I can't move one finger. I feel like I heard someone's voice in the distance, but then I couldn't hear it anymore.

BAD END

(B) Look into the window

I turned to the large window above the front door.

▽ You

!! !!

What I saw for a moment through the gap in the curtain was a devil with a terrifying appearance.

An indescribable horror struck me and I fainted.

When I woke up, I was in a small dark room.

There is no way to know how much time has passed. I was paralyzed.

I was just helpless, wrapped in darkness and waiting for the last moment.

BAD END

(C) Wait as told

I did as I was told. While waiting, I heard an energetic voice from the other side of the door.

I don't know what they were talking about, but I recognized Mika's voice.

He was probably explaining my presence.

The door opened and showed his face, smiling.

▽ Mika

He said you can come in!

I nodded and stepped inside.

▽ Abel

You've arrived, (___). . I'm Abel. The person who is entrusted with this mansion.

▽ You

Nice to meet you…….

▽ Abel

The owner of the mansion wants to extend hospitality to you. Please think of this as your home and relax.

▽ You

Thank you. Um ... may I ask you something?

▽ Abel

Oh. I'll answer to any question.

▽ You

The letter said that the owner of the museum was my grandfather, but what was he like?

▽ Abel

Is that so? I'm sorry for this. There is no way he could have written that. He is still alive.

▽ You

Oh is that so ...!

▽ Abel

He is on a trip now and away from the building. He was very concerned about whether you would respond to the letter.

▽ Mika

He was worried that you wouldn't come to see him.. Because you haven't been in contact for a long time.

▽ You

Above all, I am glad that you have done your best for me. I want to meet him in person and talk.

▽ Abel

Its best to relax until the master returns. You can use this building freely.

Feel free to use this large mansion ... What a luxury! Just thinking about it made me excited.

▽ Abel

However ...

▽ Abel

Do not enter only in the garden at night. Absolutely ...

He spoke in a soft voice up to that point, and my spine froze.

▽ Mika

……Oh... Oh yeah, That's right. I'll go call Keith. See you.

Mika looked frightened and ran to the back of the house as though to escape from something.

▽ Abel

It's dark at night and it's dangerous because the beasts come out. Of course, it's not easy to get in.

Before I knew it, things had returned to the original calm atmosphere.

▽ Keith

...... I made you wait.

▽ Abel

You're here. This is (___).

▽ Keith

...... I'm Keith. ……Nice to meet you.

I waited for his next words, but apparently this was the end of his self-introduction. He seemed to be the quiet type.

▽ You

It's nice to meet you.

▽ Abel

Keith is a servant of the master. He is also an escort and is a very reliable man.

I wondered if the sword on his waist was for escort too..?

▽ Abel

Keith, could you please guide them through the mansion? I have office duties from now on.

▽ Keith

……Yeah..

He nodded, extending a hand to me and we started walking.

▽ Keith

…… where to.. ...... Is there a place you're interested in?

(A) Somewhere to relax

(B) Somewhere fun

(C) A secret place

(A) A place to relax

▽ You

Where does everyone go to relax?

▽ Keith

……this way..

There was an open space beyond the entrance, with a large sofa.

▽ Keith

……the hall. Here ... people often talk ...

The light came in and there was a warm atmosphere. When I tried sitting on the couch I sank in, feeling how high quality it was.

▽ You

I might just wind up telling a long story now

CONTINUE

(B) A place to enjoy

▽ You

What do you enjoy doing during your breaks?

▽ Keith

...... Enjoy, huh? Not much ... entertainment around but...

Thinking about it a bit, he stepped forward. There was a quiet place in the basement.

Opening the door revealed many books. inside.

▽ Keith

Doing research ..., reading aloud ... Besides books, there are also games.

▽ You

Wow! With all of this there will never be enough time

CONTINUE

(C) A secret place

▽ You

Since this is such a huge mansion, is there a secret place? It's like a room that doesn't open.

Without thinking I curiously asked. Keith's eyes glistened.

▽ Keith

There is…….

▽ You

……!

▽ Keith

...... no such room.

▽ You

Ah, I- I figured....

I then saw at the end of the corridor that there was dim passage.

As I approached, I saw a staircase leading upwards. It was dark, and I couldn't see how long it was.

Strangely anxious, I stepped up the stairs as though they were sucking me in.

▽ You

Ah-…….

I couldn't understand what was happening.. A red stain was spreading at the soles of my feet.

▽ You

W..Why…….

Those were my last words.

BAD END

CONTINUE:

I was guided through the hall. There were various rooms, all of which were luxuriously constructed.

▽ Keith

There are still more rooms ... But I must not.. tire you out.

▽ You

Is there still more! ?? From the looks of things I think I can go on..

▽ Keith

You don't have to rush ... There is a lot of time ...

He smiled as he looked at me with my eyes rounded. Seeing that smile made me happy we were getting more acquainted.

▽ You

Hey, that sword is pretty neat. Is it for self-defense?

What I had been worried about for a long time just kind of spilled out of my mouth.

▽ Keith

This ...?

He touched the sword that hung from his waist.

▽ You

Yeah, I'm asking about what it's used for....

I swallowed words on their way out. Acutely my body froze up and I couldn't move.

Keith's eyes became sharp and sparkled with a suspicious light.

▽ Keith

………….

I thought he was going to silently take out the sword from the sheath, but in an instant he thrust it at me.

▽ Keith

It's a cursed sword that seeks the blood of a young maiden. ...... Should I try it out?

He had a cold expression holding no emotion.

▽ You

Eek ...!

▽ Keith

……just kidding.

With that said, he rotated the handle of his heavy sword and put it back in its sheath.

▽ You

Ha, haha.... That was something.

The tension released at once, and I sighed loudly.

▽ Keith

I'm sorry ... I seem to have surprised you.

Seeing his clumsy smile, I understood this was his odd way of interacting with me.

▽ Eric

Hey, Keith. Can you taste the food for me? I think I did a good job!

A young man ran up with a smile.

▽ Eric

You are...! Could it be...

He corrected his posture, astonished when he noticed me.

▽ You

I'm ( ___ ), . The person who came here after receiving a letter.

▽ Eric

( ___ ), It's a nice name. I'm Eric. Nice to meet you.

A bit shy, his cheeks went pink and he bashfully looked down.

▽ Eric

About that, ... I was cooking for you. I hope you like it.

▽ You

Thank you!

▽ Eric

Ah, it's not a big deal at all. I was a little unsure because I made a special menu that I haven't all that often.

▽ Keith

Do not worry. Eric's food is ... always delicious.

▽ Eric

Is that so? I'm happy you say that. That's not all, I'm also in charge of cooking.

▽ Eric

Have you met everyone else yet?

▽ Keith

They have not met Simon....

▽ Eric

Simon should be in the garden at this time.

▽ Keith

Eric ... It would be good if you took them ... I will continue the cooking.

▽ Eric

Really ? I still have a lot of supper preparations left.

▽ Keith

It's fine……. You're able to convey the charm of the garden better as a gardener.

▽ Eric

All right. Thank you, Keith. Well then, let's go.

▽ Eric

It's better to go to the garden from outside the building. We will use the back road, it's a detour from where we are now.

Leaving the mansion, we walked side by side on the road leading to the garden.

▽ Eric

The roses are in full bloom this time of year, so I really recommend seeing them!

He spoke with an excited gesture. . I could tell he loved the garden from the bottom of his heart.

▽ Eric

It's breathtakingly beautiful. I see them everyday but I find myself visiting. I often have tea with my friends there.

▽ You

Friends……. What kind of relationship do you have with everyone? It's nice being close.

▽ Eric

I'm a colleague, but it's like we're a family. I've lived here together since forever and we're always by one anothers side.

I was very envious of that kind of family relationship since I had no relatives.

▽ Eric

Oh, Abel ... He's my real brother. So he's actually family.

Now that I think of it, it seems their hair and eye colors are similar. But their personality and energy are completely different.

▽ Eric

We'll arrive in the garden soon.

▽ You

Um……. I heard that you shouldn't enter the garden at night. Why is that?

I tossed out the words I've been contemplating for a while after asking Abel.

▽ Eric

...... Who, did you hear from?

Eric stopped.

▽ Eric

Who ...? Hey ...?

I was grabbed by my shoulder and interrogated. The energy he was giving off made it feel like he was a different person.

▽ You

…… M-, Mr. Abel.

▽ Eric

What my brother says is absolute. Don't go against it ... absolutely.

With a serious look, I nodded deeply.

▽ Eric

Haha. I thought you would understand. Well, we arrived.

After passing through the aisle, there was a grand "paradise".

The calm garden, full of flowers, praised the beauty of the world.

▽ You

Beautiful ...

▽ Eric

Right? I'm glad you liked it. But I can't find Simon.

I looked around, but there was no sign of anyone.

▽ Eric

He should be taking a nap somewhere in the garden, so let's split up and find search.

▽ You

Okay!

We split up and started looking for Simon.

(A) Search behind the tall hedge

(B) Search in the flower field

(C) Search the boundary between the forest and the garden

(A) Search Behind the tall Hedge

▽ You

Is it behind this hedge ...?

It was a good hiding spot since it was as tall as a person and provided good shade for a nap.

I looked behind, but no one was there.

CONTINUE

(B) Search in the Flower Field

▽ You

He must be in a flower field.

It felt like If I slept surrounded by these beautiful flowers, I'd have a good dream.

Pushing my way through the flowers, only butterflies took off and there was no harvest.

CONTINUE

(C) Search the boundary between the forest and the garden

▽ You

Maybe he's further out.

The back of the vast garden was adjacent to the forest. Maybe there was a good place to take a nap in the woods, like under the shade of a tree.

I went deeper and deeper in.

( -----JUMP TO SIMONS ROUTE------)

CONTINUE:

▽ You

Where are you ...

Distracted by the surroundings, I tripped in the grass.

▽ You

Kya!

Falling forward, I landed in a bush.

▽ You

This is…….

There was a small space in the bush that allowed me to get up, and in that place there also was a young man with transparent white skin.

▽ You

Are you Simon ...?

▽ Simon

Who are you ...? Why are you here ...

He curled up as if frightened, and bore the color of hostility in his eyes.

▽ You

I'm ( ___ ), I'm sorry to have surprised you.

▽ Simon

( ___ ) ……. The Lord's relative?

Most likely being explained to in advance, Simon looked relieved.

▽ You

This is a warm and comfortable place huh. It's very relaxing.

▽ Simon

Oh……. Do you understand too? A feeling of being gently wrapped in nature .... It seems to awaken a memory of before being born.

His expression was ecstatic and his eyes were shining. I could tell that he had a pure and straight heart.

▽ Simon

Oh ... what a wonderful day. I will once again enjoy the splendor while feeling the vibrations of the earth ....

Then he gently closed his eyelids.

▽ Simon

Zzzz …….

▽ You

Simon, don't sleep!

I grabbed his shoulders and shook him but it didn't help much.

▽ You

Eric was looking for you..

▽ Simon

...... Eric was ...?

▽ Eric

I found you! So you were here huh.

Eric looked into the bushes.

Suddenly, the low roar of thunder sounds.

A black rain cloud cast a shadow over the clear blue sky.

▽ Eric

The weather is going to change, so let's go back to the mansion.

We quickly left the garden.

---------------------------------------------------

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