#nearlybanjou

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

I saw your prompts were open earlier today and sent in one immediately (which I’ve now since forgotten b/c brain go brrr) but since then have been waiting for inspiration to strike while listening to all my liked songs on shuffle and it finally has! Bells in Santa Fe by Halsey and Marvelous (potentially right after Basco’s betrayal? Or whenever you see fit tbh). Anyway! Hope your prompts are going well! And thank you because I love your work :))))

Going fabulously so far, and better for getting this prompt, which I had far too much fun writing. And you’re very welcome, thank you for sending me prompts! 💜💜💜

Song: “Bells in Santa Fe,” Halsey (Spotify)

better lips than judas

Once he’s well out of range of Zangyack sensors or patrols, out in a less-charted corner of space, Marvelous puts the Galleon on auto-pilot with no course entered other than “don’t run into anything,” goes into his cabin, lies down on the bed on top of the covers, and doesn’t get up. Sometimes he sleeps. Sometimes he cries. Sometimes Navi flies in and drops a protein pack on his face and he eats, not tasting anything. Occasionally he drags himself over to the head to relieve himself. Mostly, though, he does nothing, just stares at the ceiling, too numb even for anger.

Eventually Navi flies in again, but instead of dropping something on him, she lands on his chest herself and says, irritably, “Protein packs aren’t designed for long-term sustenance.”

“Long-term…?”

“You’ve been in here for five days.” She shuffle-steps over and pinches his bicep with a metal claw. “You’re losing weight. You need to eat food.”

“What’s the point?”

There’s a pause, and then a ticking noise that Marvelous hasn’t heard Navi make before, and then she shrieks, shrill and painful, “AkaRed didn’t get you out of there so you could starve yourself!”

“Ow, fuck, bird—”

“Not a bird! Get out of bed!” She pinches his arm again. “Go take a shower! Eat hot food!” Angry hopping on his chest, her claws digging through the fabric into his skin every time she lands. “Get up get up get up, are you a pirate or not?” He lunges for her, and she leaps up and back into the air with a triumphant, “Hah! There you go! Get angry! You can’t catch me!”

Suddenly furious, Marvelous leaps out of bed and chases her in circles around the cabin for—two minutes, at which point he gets winded and realizes how hungry he actually is, and then, after another moment, how bad he smells. Still furious, but now also disgusted, he strips off his filthy clothes, hurls them into a corner, and stalks out into the empty hall and down to the shower.

Bathing does, unexpectedly, help. Navi drops a hairbrush on his head, so he brushes his hair, and that helps even more. By the time he’s put on clean clothes he feels halfway alive again, at least enough to throw the hairbrush back at Navi, and roaringly hungry.

He stops outside the galley door, though. “I can’t go in there.”

“What, because that was Basco’s place? If you starve, he wins! Get in get in get in! Eat! Eat!”

Swatting angrily at Navi as she darts around his head, Marvelous goes into the galley.

They’d gotten groceries right before…before Zangyack had showed up; the food supplies are excellent. He pulls together a sandwich and eats it standing in front of the sink, so quickly that he barely tastes it. The second sandwich he takes a little more time on, both making and eating, and by the time he’s finished that one, Navi’s gone back to her perch. He has a third sandwich and some juice, resolves to figure out where Basco stashed the rum, goes into the cabinets to see if he can find something sweet, and then freezes at the sight of a mostly-demolished container of cupcakes.

Right.

The cupcakes.

“What are you making?”

Basco looks up from the bowl in his hands. “Lemon frosting. It's for cupcakes, they're in the oven. To celebrate you and AkaRed finding the last of those little keys you’ve been hunting for.”

Marvelous takes a deep sniff of the air. He’d noticed something sweet baking, obviously, that’s why he’d come over here in the first place, but now, closer, he can also catch the sharp citrus bite, the smell of sugar and butter and whatever else Basco is working with. His mouth is actually watering a bit. “Smells good, when will they be ready?”

Raised eyebrow. “Mm? No, ‘thank you, Basco,’ for me?”

“Thank you for making cupcakes, Basco, when will they be ready?”

“In a bit, they’re nearly done baking but they’ll need to cool before I can frost them.” Basco lifts the mixing spoon to his mouth and licks it, the gesture accompanied by a flirtatious wink that makes Marvelous blush despite himself. “This is done, though. Would you like a taste?”

Marvelous nods energetically. “Sure, please.”

He’s expecting to be handed the spoon, but instead—Basco puts down the mixing bowl and steps towards him, reaching out and trailing fingertips down the side of his face, leaning in as if for a kiss and saying, very softly, “Open up.”

Wide-eyed, Marvelous opens his mouth, and Basco’s thumb slides between his lips, covered in lemon frosting from where it had been gripping the side of the mixing bowl. His entire body flushes with heat as the sharp-sweet flavor coats his tongue. His knees feel weak.

“There you go,” Basco says, still in that low, intimate murmur, as Marvelous licks the frosting from his thumb. “What do you think, Marvy-chan?”

“It’s.” Marvelous feels a bit like he’s floating, and even now that the frosting’s gone Basco’s thumb is still resting on his lower lip, very lightly, hand cupping his face. “It’s delicious, I could. Eat the whole bowl just like that.”

Basco’s smiling at him, that crooked, teasing smile, the one that he can’t possibly know Marvelous thinks about sometimes in the middle of the night. “Well, we can’t have that, there wouldn’t be any left for the cupcakes. Now, what do you say?”

“Thank you, Basco.”

He’d betrayed them to the Zangyack two days later. They hadn’t even gotten to finish the cupcakes.

Marvelous stares at the last three, still in their container. His face is definitely flushed, and he feels a little shaky, which can’t possibly be from hunger given how much he just ate. Basco had always been doing that sort of thing, flirting in ways that left him dizzy while Basco apparently remained cheerfully unmoved. Sometimes, when he was feeling particularly hopeful or stupid, he’d nursed the secret hope that it was all leading up to Basco showing up naked in his bed sometime, but that only happened to heroes in pulp novels, and mostly he’d just put it down to the man being an awful tease.

Or trying to distract him, to keep him from having AkaRed’s back so consistently and make it easier to betray them.

Suddenly furious, Marvelous pulls the container from the cabinet and throws it into the trash wholesale before stalking back out into the common area. “Navi,” he grits out, using anger to push down the wave of remembered arousal, “we’re out of Ranger Keys to find, yeah?”

“You got all of ‘em!”

“Then set a course for somewhere fun. If I’m the captain now, I’m going to need a new crew.”

---

Marvelous comes out of the shower to the smell of something baking and has to stop in the hallway for a moment just to bask in the aroma before he can even bother to go get dressed. Then it hits him that if he just stands there, he won’t find out what’s going on, so he hurries to his cabin and throws on some clothes before heading for the galley, where he finds Joe at the counter with a kerchief tied around his hair, mixing something vigorously. “What are you making? I didn’t know you could cook.”

“I don’t cook much, I just bake. Making cake.”

“What’s the occasion?”

Joe shrugs. “Felt like having cake, it’s been a while. Working on the frosting right now. It’s a yellow cake, so I was thinking maybe lemon, but it tastes decent already, you want to try—you all right?” He goes still in the act of holding out a fingerful of frosting. “You’ve kind of gone pale.”

Marvelous stares at Joe’s outstretched hand for a moment, tamping down competing waves of fury and panic before he manages to get out, “I’m. Not a big fan of lemon.”

Joe’s eyebrows go up. “You’re expecting me to believe that you look like you want to bolt because you don’t like lemon?”

“It’s…it’s complicated. And stupid. And I really don’t want to talk about it right now.”

“Ok, sure.” Joe shrugs. “Vanilla ok, then?”

“Yeah. Yeah, vanilla’s fine, thank you.” Marvelous pauses and then, because Joe’s still holding his hand out, leans forward and licks the frosting from his fingertips with an eyebrow wiggle that’s probably more pathetic than suggestive with how shaken he is. “Thank you, Joe.”

Joe’s ears go slightly red under his kerchief despite how pathetic Marvelous is sure he looks. “Don’t thank me until the cake’s done.”

---

Doc's not much of a baker, all things considered--he does ok, but he doesn't enjoy it the way Joe does, he gets anxious about the precise measurements and timing required. Also, for some reason, when he bakes it always gets messy, and he's mostly such a neat cook.

When he offers Marvelous a taste of the frosting for the very fussy roll cake he's making, Marvelous only freezes for a moment. Doc's not Basco. Doc is pretty much the farthest thing from Basco currently living on the Galleon. He blushes and sputters when Marvelous decides to ignore the spoon he's holding out in favor of grabbing the hand that accidentally went in the bowl and licking it from his fingers instead.

"Do me a favor," he murmurs into Doc's palm, "and don't make this lemon-flavored, yeah?"

Doc, still red in the face, says, "I was. Uh. Well, it was going to be strawberry. You know, for Ahim. Is lemon bad?"

"I don't like it."

"I'll, I'll add that to my notes. Can...I have my hand back, please?"

---

Gai, again, loves to bake, and this time Marvelous is too late to do anything about it when he says, "Hey, I'm making lemon frosting for these cupcakes, do you want to try some?"

Joe watches carefully from his sit-up board, clearly waiting to see if Marvelous is going to get upset about this, and part of Marvelous wants to, but--it's a small part, now, dull and distant, the angry, blushing teenager buried under so many built-up layers of other feelings. Weirdly, it helps knowing that Basco's around again and can be fought directly. And it was years ago. Years, and light-years traveled, and friends and lovers found.

He says, "Sure, sounds good," and leans forward to swipe a fingerful from the bowl himself over Gai's yelp of protest, and it's sharp and sweet and the lemon just tastes like lemon.

---

Of all the places he might have expected to run into Basco alone, he would never have thought of the grocery store.

They're staring at each other, Marvelous dropping the tin of cookies he was buying for Luka into his basket while Basco stands frozen with his hand on a package of crackers, and then Marvelous reaches for his gun and Basco says, "Come on, Marvy-chan, don't be like that, we all need groceries once in a while."

“What, you don’t just make the monkey shop for you?”

“She can’t count past three, and in any case I do need to eat something besides bananas.” Basco takes a step closer, and Marvelous takes an involuntarily step back and bumps into the shelf. “You’ve still got a sweet tooth, I see. Do you still like lemon?”

Marvelous isn’t sure why he lets Basco reach out and trail fingertips down the side of his face—maybe it’s the familiarity of the gesture, or maybe it’s inertia, or maybe he’s so infuriated by the man’s mere presence that he’s just frozen. Whatever it is that lets him allow it initially, as soon as he feels Basco’s fingers on his skin it’s like he’s seventeen again and struck dumb by the fact that someone so attractive is paying attention to him at all.

“You know, sometimes I regret not keeping you.” Basco’s got that same smug, teasing look he always used to get when he made Marvelous blush, voice dropping into a familiar register of suggestive intimacy. “You’re always so cute when you turn all pink like this.” His thumb traces the seam of Marvelous’ lips, and Marvelous opens his mouth involuntarily, dizzy with proximity and the memory of lemon frosting. “I bet you would have come with me, if I’d asked the right way. Wouldn’t you, Marvy-chan?”

The pet name hits him like a punch to the midsection, and the sudden fury flushes every trace of hesitation and awkwardness from his body, and he bites.

Basco jolts backward, cursing. It’s a little disappointing to see that he’s not actually bleeding, but he’s definitely upset about it, and that’s just fine. Marvelous grins at him, broad and feral and angry, and says, “Sure, keep telling yourself that.”

[firecraker-j]

tag game: 9 favorite movies.

Tagged by: @husbandhoshi (Not directly, but she said anyone could partake.)

Being a movie guy I had to do this, this was a difficult one though.

Tagging: @helthehatter @yoshifan30 @katrinthecat @xfangheartx @nearlybanjou and @tkrx

[kabutoraiger]

requests for @flat-san, @nearlybanjou and anon + a repost of an older one for an even 4

[rikakobloomer]

ASK MEME

Tagged by @lucybeetle 

Name: Bloom

Height: 5″7 (170cm)

Favourite animal: Zebras

Dogs or Cats: Both 😌

Dream Job: Idrk I just wanna make a lot money akshdkj

When I Made This Blog: September 26, 2017 but didn’t start using it till 2018

Reason for URL: I’m a Rikako Sasaki stan and the eng title of her debut song is “A Late Bloomer”

Followers: 128

Tagging: @sakiaii  @nearlybanjou  @hawopro  @rurupedia  and anyone who wants to do this

[ryuunosenshi]

Can you suggest some friendly toku bloggers to follow please? Thank you if you answer this.

Hii~

Well, the first one that comes to mind is @himitsusentaiblog, He’s one of the kindest, most knowledgeable and supportive people I know on this site.

Here are some more ^^ not all of them are 100% toku tho but quality blogs nonetheless!

@firebirdsdaughter @stagbuster@ultramanultimo@fluttering-by@diamond-night@ultra-facts@redroseredemption@iris-14cheonsa@cutetokuboyoftheday@nopedontknow@nearlybanjou@tommyismymainranger@delightfullybritishgoldar@blue-sappir@chacerider@dot-emcee@standbymegauloader@princess-sas@rustybottlecapI apologize if I’m forgetting some atm, (it’s really early in the morning) But these are a great place to start! ^^

[andsotheuniverseended]

@nearlybanjou  damn i mention kiva once and ya’ll come crawling out to warn me lol

imma hafta get to it eventually but for now im just gonna go ahead and go the ‘enjoyable’ route

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

“Do you ever stop talking” that’s Gai focused, with the rest of the Gokaigers either a)defending him (or getting offended on his behalf) from people or monsters who are bullying him (or just being slightly rude I feel like they’re all over protective assholes) or b)finding creative ways to fondly shut him up?

9. “Do you ever stop talking?”

“--so the Zyurangers were the first team to ever go past five members, but Big One from J.A.K.Q. was the first unique sentai ever to join his team late. And for a while the Kyouryugers were the biggest sentai, but now the Kyuurangers have them beat, especially since some of the Kyouryugers are part-time. I’m kind of wondering if we’re ever going to see a team bigger than the Kyuurangers, twelve is so many--”

“Gai, my dear?”

Gai blinks. “Yes?”

Ahim pats his forearm gently with the hand not holding her needle. “I very much appreciate your company and assistance, and I don’t wish to dampen your enthusiasm at all, but this section takes a great deal of concentration. May I wait to hear the rest of this?”

“Oh! Sure, of course.” He peers down at what she’s working on, careful not to jostle the embroidery frame he’s holding steady. “Is that Warz Gill?”

“Yes, this is part of the Fall of Zangyack tapestry I’m working on. When it’s done it should go all the way around the common area.” She puts down another neat stitch in gleaming silver thread. “You chronicle Super Sentai history in your way, and I chronicle our history in mine.”

“That’s great, will you tell me more about it later? When you’re not working?”

She beams at him. “I would be happy to.”

--

The net whooshes through the air, and Luka runs out of the way just in time, skidding across the practice room floor and stopping herself against the wall with one foot. Across the room, Marvelous has taken up a defensive posture, gun in one hand, sword in the other, watching warily as Gai pulls the net back.

“See,” Gai says, spinning his trident as he scans the room, “I’m starting to think that this might be a multi-volume project, at least two parts. Because there are a lot of non-human sentai, with a lot of different stuff going on,” and he dives for Marvelous, who dodges, “and from what I’m hearing it might be getting even weirder. And then there’s that, like, recurrence thing, where there are those themes that keep cropping back up? Like how there are four different dinosaur teams now?”

“Yeah, I’d,” Marvelous dodges again, and then has to duck under a swing from Luka, “I’d noticed about there being lots of dinosaurs.”

“Right? Or there have been three different teams of ninjas, although I guess that’s kind of different, since they’ve got some lineage stuff going on there.” Gai deflects a blow from Marvelous’ sword. “They don’t just, just happen, where it’s like, surprise, more dinosaurs. I mean, it is surprise, ninjas, but that’s just how ninjas are, that’s the whole ninja thing--oof.”

The breath goes out of his lungs as Luka knocks him onto his back on the floor and sits straddling his chest, sword raised. “Do you ever stop talking?” She sounds minimally annoyed, which is, for her, nearly as good as a declaration of love. “You’ve been going for forty minutes now.”

He grins up at her. “You love listening to me talk, though.”

“I hate that you’re right.”

“You really do love listening to him talk, too,” Marvelous says, dropping his sword and gun on one of the tables in the corner, “it’s incredibly cute.”

“Says you, I’ve seen how dopey you get when you think he’s not looking.”

Marvelous sputters. “I do not get dopey.”

“Hey,” Gai says, still pinned underneath Luka, “if we’re done sparring then one or both of you should kiss me. Foolproof way to make me stop talking, I promise.”

Marvelous and Luka both blink, and Luka says, “Since when do you just ask for kisses like that?”

Gai shrugs. “We’ve been together for ten years, I feel like at this point I should be able to.”

--

“Did you know,” Gai says sleepily, “apart from the Gouraigers and Beet and Stag Buster, there haven’t been any insect-themed Sentai? I feel like there ought to be more.”

Doc frowns, just as sleepy. “What about Stinger?”

“Scorpions aren’t insects, they’re arachnids.”

“Right, right...”

“Although that’s a good point, he’s still kind of related to them. Also I guess insects are more of a Kamen Rider thing.” Gai stifles a yawn. “Shit, do I need to put in a chapter about Kamen Riders?”

“Guys,” Joe says, reaching to turn off the light, and then to pull up the blanket, “it’s late, go to sleep.”

“But. Joe. What if I need a chapter on Kamen Riders?”

“You might need a chapter on Kamen Riders,” Doc mumbles into his collarbone.

Joe lets out a sigh that’s half laughter. “You can figure that out in the morning. Go to sleep.”

--

“You know, you’d think people would stop making super-computers given how frequently this happens.”

Doc pauses in the middle of aiming. “Does it happens that often? Super-computers going off the rails and turning evil?”

“Oh, yeah, often enough.” Gai nods enthusiastically as he spears a heavily-pixelated trooper, which explodes in a cloud of digital confetti. “There was Messiah, you know, the Go-Busters fought him, and Kamen Rider Ex-Aid’s whole thing was evil computer stuff, and there was that Venjix guy...”

“Venjix?” Ahim cocks her head curiously. “I don’t recall him, which Super Sentai fought a being named Venjix?”

“Oh. Uh. It’s. Really complicated, actually. And I will...I’ll...explain later, I promise. It’s--you remember the Go-Ongers? And that thing where I was finding signs that the multiverse is way bigger than we originally thought? Well--no, we don’t have time, we’ll talk about it later, it’s a really long explanation.” Gai pauses, staring into space, and then absently destroys another Pixel Trooper. “Actually, it might be a whole other book.”

The kaijin commanding the Pixel Troopers shrieks in frustration. “Do you ever shut up? Blah, blah, blah, you talk nonstop, I’m shocked your colorful friends aren’t deaf by now!”

“No need to be rude,” Gai says, mildly. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

“In fact, do you mind?” Ahim glances over at the rest of the crew. “This fellow is being very unpleasant, I think perhaps it’s time we got out the Buster.”

The kaijin lets out another, somewhat more startled shriek.

“Great idea, Ahim.” Marvelous reaches for his Ranger Key as the Buster begins to materialize in their hands. “We can’t go letting people think that anyone can go telling Gai to shut up.”

“I love you all so much.”

“We know, Gai, we love you too. Now shut up and help me aim this thing.”

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

Don’t know if this is feasible, but would you do a crossover between Build and Cherry Magic? Maybe with like Kurosawa and Adachi going over to the cafe for family dinner and they meet the whole squad, not just Sento and Banjou, but Misora, Kazumin, Sawa, and maybe even Gentoku? With the prompt “Why are you staring at me”

Darling, your brain is massive.

15. “Why are you staring at me?”

“How did you find this place?” Yuichi says as they round the corner into the little alley.

“Fujisaki recommended it to me, actually.” Kiyoshi grins up at him. “Apparently she and a couple of her girlfriends like to go here sometimes. She says the coffee’s only ok really, but the pastries are really nice. Here, this is it, Cafe,” he squints at the sign, “Nas--nascita.”

The only other customers inside are a group of people who seem to be friends, clustered around a couple of tables pushed together in one corner. Not wanting to intrude, Yuichi goes to get a table in the opposite corner, and Kiyoshi heads to the counter to order.

The barista’s a middle-aged man with a pork pie hat and tinted glasses who looks like he should be playing jazz at a nightclub, not serving coffee to bored twenty-somethings. He’s cleaning a glass as Kiyoshi approaches, and he glances up, says, “Good afternoon and welcome to Nascita, I’ll be with you in just a--” and then cuts off for apparently no reason.

There’s a long, awkward silence before Kiyoshi says, “Uh, why...why are you staring at me?”

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry, you just.” The barista shakes himself. “You look a great deal like someone I--”

“Hey, do you have a problem with me or something?”

The barista looks past Kiyoshi, frowning, and Kiyoshi himself turns around and nearly runs into...

...himself. Except...different.

The other him is scowling at Yuichi, who’s looking at him wide-eyed. “No, seriously, do I have stuff on my face or something? You’ve been staring at me since you sat down, it’s making me--” He turns towards the counter, nearly runs into Kiyoshi himself, and stops dead. “Uh. Sento?”

Someone else stands up from the cluster of people in the corner and blinks at Kiyoshi several times. “Well, this is unexpected. Banjou, is that you?”

“That’s me. I thought there was only supposed to be one other me.”

“No, uh, I’m me. I’m fairly sure.” Kiyoshi laughs nervously. “Kurosawa, help.”

--

At this point Kiyoshi’s getting the worrying feeling that their new friends might all be insane, which makes it very nearly a relief when Sento, who says he’s a physicist and whose hair has been standing up at the back for most of the conversation thus far, says, “You must think we’re all insane.”

Kiyoshi suppresses a hysterical giggle. “Of course I don’t think you’re. You’re.”

“Oh, no, don’t worry, it wouldn’t be an unreasonable assumption. I mean, we aren’t, I promise there’s a scientific explanation for all of it, it’s just really lengthy and in some places kind of stupid.” Sento peers at him. “You look exactly like him, it’s amazing.”

“Actually pretty sure Banjou’s taller.” That’s the man at the far end of the tables, who speaks with a broad country accent and whose name Kiyoshi vaguely remembers being Kazumi. He keeps looking back and forth between Kiyoshi and his double--Banjou Ryuuga, who’s got red hair and a silk bomber jacket with a dragon on the back, Kiyoshi’s never met someone who looked so much like a comic book character--and sort of gesturing vaguely, as if he’s trying to figure out how tall they are exactly. “By, like, an inch or two.”

“No. He can’t be. Can he?” Sento frowns. “How tall are you, Adachi, if you don’t mind my asking? Strictly for science, of course.”

Next to Kiyoshi, Yuichi seems much more comfortable. In fact, he’s practically giving an impromptu sales pitch to Banjou and Sento’s friend Sawa, who’s a journalist, and who’s listening to him talk about Toyokawa’s new organizational tools with unfeigned interest. Next to her is the cafe owner’s daughter, Misora, who Kiyoshi feels like he recognizes from an idol video he saw Rokkaku watching the other day, although she’s dressed much more simply. She seems less interested in planners than her friend, and after a moment she turns to him and says, “If Sento keeps getting on your case just elbow him or something, he’s always like this.”

Kiyoshi feels his face go red. “No, no, it’s fine.”

“You know,” Banjou says around a mouthful of pastry, “under the circumstances I feel like this worked out pretty well.”

Kiyoshi blinks. “What did?”

“This whole double-whatsit thing. The Swedish word Sento used before.”

“Doppelganger.” Sento rolls his eyes. “And it’s German.”

“Yeah, that one. I mean, it could definitely be way worse. I mean, there’s the other actual me, the one with the same name, but apart from that you seem cool? Like, I’d rather share a face with an office worker than, I don’t know, a cannibal serial killer or something.”

“Was that...likely? I don’t think another version of me would be a cannibal serial killer...”

“Me neither, but you never know, yeah?”

“I mean,” Kiyoshi says, frowning absently into space, “I wouldn’t have expected to have the same face as someone who does shoot fighting, that’s sort of a surprise. Not a bad one, though.”

“Yeah, this isn’t so bad.” Banjou pauses, blinks, and then stands up. “I’m gonna be right back. Hey, babe, if Gentoku shows up before I’m back tell him I said why the hell is he late, I thought politics guys were supposed to be on time for stuff.”

“I’m not telling him that.” Sento leans his face up for a light, brushing kiss, and then Banjou’s off in the direction of the bathroom. “Besides,” called after his retreating back, “you know Kazumi’s going to say it anyway.”

Kiyoshi stares in his direction for a moment, looks back at Sento, and, suddenly, smiles. So we’ve got that in common.

The bell at the cafe door rings, and Kazumi lurches upright in his chair with an abrupt, bright smile and waves. “Hey, Beardy, you’re late! I thought politicians were supposed to be on time for shit!”

At Kiyoshi’s elbow, Yuichi says, weakly, “I’m sorry, Ms. Takigawa, is that the prime minister’s son?”

Kiyoshi looks up in alarm at--the prime minister’s son, who’s wearing a black leather jacket which he opens to reveal a t-shirt that reads:

I HAD TO PLAY TENNIS WITH THE BRAZILIAN AMBASSADOR’S DAUGHTER

Kazumi snorts. “Oh, poor you, you had to play tennis.”

“Fuck you too, Potato, just because you can--I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize we had compa--Banjou?” The prime minister’s son blinks several times and then shakes his head. “Did Banjou dye his hair?”

“No, I’m,” Kiyoshi scratches the back of his head, “I’m Adachi, hello.”

Sento beams up at the prime minister’s son as Kiyoshi stifles a nervous giggle and Yuichi shakes himself. “They have the same face, it’s very exciting.”

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

“Do I want to know” with various members of the Ex-Aid crew walking in on Emu and Parad in exceedingly odd scenarios and positions that seem incriminating but never actually are please

18. “Do I want to know?”

“Hey, look, I’m sure we can take care of this later--”

“You know, M, this would be easier if you’d just take off your pants.”

“Parad, you know perfectly well I can’t just, just take off my pants at work.”

Poppy walks into the CR, looks across the room, and claps a hand over her mouth. “Oh, excuse me!”

Emu groans. “Poppy, it’s not what it looks like.”

“M fell and ripped his pants,” Parad says around the fan of colorful pins sticking out of his mouth. He’s kneeling on the floor in front of Emu, whose face is buried in his hands. “I was fixing it.”

“He insisted,” Emu says into his palms. “He’s been watching DIY tutorials on YouTube.”

“Oh! Well, I think that’s a great idea! I’ve always wanted to learn to sew, but I never had anything to sew, you know? It never occurred to me to work on someone else’s clothes.” Poppy taps her lower lip thoughtfully. “Maybe Hiiro has some old things that I could practice on, I should ask him later.”

“I still think we could deal with it later.” Emu’s face, or at least what’s visible of it, is bright red. “Instead of standing around like this in the middle of the CR.”

--

“Pediatrician,” Hiiro says, without looking up from the file he’s reading as he walks, “aren’t there better places to be doing that sort of thing?”

Emu’s back tenses, but he doesn’t jump, which is good given the placement of his left hand. “What sort of thing?”

“Being...intimate.” The corners of Hiiro’s mouth turn down, and his cheeks shade faintly pink. “I’m sure there are more comfortable locations than our shared workplace.”

“I think he thinks we’re kissing,“ Parad mumbles.

Emu frowns at him. “Don’t talk, it makes your face move too much. No, we’re, uh, that’s not what’s happening here, Parad decided to climb that tree over by oncology and he’s got something in his eye now, I’m trying to get it out. No, we wouldn’t--we wouldn’t be doing that here.”

“Good,” Hiiro says, steadfastly not looking up. “Keep it that way.”

--

Kiriya comes to a dead in the doorway to the supply and says, as his eyebrows rise up above his sunglasses, “Do I want to know?”

Parad blinks. “I don’t know, Lazer, do you want to know? What did you want to know? Or, uh, not want to know?”

“I don’t think I do want to know, actually. I was going to get some staples, but I think I’ll just leave you two lovebirds to it.”

Emu makes a squawking noise, somewhat muffled by the fact that he’s leaning fairly far into one of the supply closet shelves. “It’s not like that, why does everyone keep assuming that? I was getting a new notepad, I don’t know why these shelves are so deep. Parad gave me a boost.”

Kiriya nods slowly. “Which is why you’re sitting on his shoulders. You know there’s a step stool, right?”

Emu sighs. “It’s actually not tall enough.”

Another slow nod. “Right, right. Well, if you wanna pass me that stapler while you’re up there, I’ll get out of your hair.”

--

It’s a very faint noise, just a rustling, like people brushing past each other, but when Nico leans into the room there’s only Emu, reading a journal article already heavily covered in handwritten notes. “Hey, Emu, you seen Poppy anywhere? She said she’d help me study for this exam.”

Emu barely looks up from his reading. “She’s at a Ministry of Health meeting, she just texted me that it’s running a little long but she’ll be back in twenty minutes.”

“Ok, cool. Tell her I was looking for her when you see her.”

“Definitely.”

Nico leaves, and for a minute the only sound is her footsteps receding down the hall until it’s overtaken by an electric fizz as Parad flows out of Emu’s skin in a cloud of pixels and materializes sitting astride his lap. “N’s gone, right?” His arms settle on Emu’s shoulders. “Did Poppy really say she’d be back in twenty minutes?”

“She did, you saw me get that text.”

Parad grins at him. “So I guess we’ve got fifteen minutes to ourselves, then.”

Emu rests his hands on Parad’s waist and grins back. “Yeah, I guess we do.”

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

What do you think Noel’s reaction to meeting Akira from Toqger, yet another 6th with a train.

They could start a club!

Oh, I think he’d love Akira. Honestly, I think he’d love all the ToQgers, they’re a whole train team, but Akira’s just an interesting person on top of that. And he’s very handsome.

I am also learning now that GoGo Five apparently has trains? How did I not know that there were more train sentai, holy beans.

There should be an annual race just for all the train mechas.

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

I am so impressed by your ability to put out such great content for each of these prompts! Could I request some good old OOOs content, Ankh/Eiji with number 18 (considering just how many times they ended up fighting in the water in the show) Thank you 💜

Thank you! I’m flattered! (It helps a lot that these prompts are so focused.) Anyway, absolutely you can, it is always time for OOO content and this is an underwater kiss.

Ankh has let himself age, and he is glorious. His hair is longer and threaded with white, and there are lines around his mouth, and he looks less slim and more gaunt, and it’s all unspeakably perfect. Even the fracture line is beautiful, crawling jagged and golden down the center of his face--Eiji is the only one who will ever know the full length of it, from its start in his hairline to where it disappears into the joint of his left hip.

He’s sitting on the blanket next to Hina, who’s done with her most recent bout crying but looks like she might start again any second now, and he’s watching Eiji swim and saying, “Will you please get out of the water and pay attention to me, Eiji.”

Eiji grins at him. “Why don’t you come in and join me? It’s not like you haven’t been in the water here before.”

“Not on purpose, though.” Ankh scowls. “It looks cold.”

“Oh, come on.” Hina elbows him. “It’s not like you have to go in very far, I didn’t make you that ridiculous swimsuit for nothing.”

Ankh sniffs. “I like these swimming clothes.”

“I’m glad, I worked hard on them.”

“...thank you.”

She kisses him on the cheek. “You’re very welcome. Oh, there’s Chiyoko and Shingo with the picnic basket finally, shoo, go be with Eiji so we can get everything set up.”

He makes a face at her, stands up with tremendous dignity, and walks down to the shoreline.

As soon as his foot hits the water he starts swearing. “It is cold.”

“Of course it’s cold.” Eiji comes up to meet him, still smiling. He hasn’t stopped smiling for at least three weeks, which is how long it took them to get back to Japan from wherever in the Urals they’d been at his glacial pace. “It’s the ocean.”

“I don’t remember it being this cold.”

“Well, we were both pretty distracted last time.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Eiji reaches out him. “Come on.”

Ankh takes his hand warily and walks a bit further into the water. “I suppose this isn’t completely awful.” Their other hands meet, fingers twining.

Eiji’s about to say something more, and then he meets Ankh’s gaze and realizes that it’s suddenly taken on a gleam that makes him very nervous even as it seems familiar. He has enough time to realize that it’s alarmingly reminiscent of an especially temperamental parrot he met in Cairo before Ankh drops, sweeps his legs out from under him, and dumps him in the water.

Of course, they’re still holding hands, so Ankh goes under too, and comes up spitting and making indignant noises.

“You didn’t think that one through, did you?”

Ankh glares at him. “Your hair is in your face, it’s very attractive, how dare you.”

“I like how you’re actually willing to say I’m attractive now.”

“Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Too late.” Eiji pulls him in as if for a kiss and then tips backward and ducks them both again.

Not to be deterred, Ankh kisses him anyway, both of their mouths filling with the sharp taste of brine before they surface again. He lets go of Ankh’s hands, but only to pull him closer, and the saltwater stings his lips but he can’t bring himself to care when he could focus on Ankh’s fingers in his hair.

They’re finally interrupted by a loud wolf-whistle from the shore, and Ankh groans. “I see Date’s arrived.”

“He said he’d be here--oh, and he brought Gotou, wow, I thought Gotou couldn’t come, he said he was tied up with something.” Eiji shifts so his arms are around Ankh’s waist and he can pick Ankh up out of the water completely. “Come on, let’s go eat.”

“Put me down, you idiot,” Ankh says, making no attempt to get free. “There’d better be ices, I’m owed several decades worth of backlog.”

[kabutoraiger]

@nearlybanjou said: A bi Captain Marvelous or CrossZ Magma would be amazing 💜💜💜

the ideal bfs (bi friends)