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dude-why-3 · 3 months ago

Text

Who painted the sky?

Chapter 19: Green Days Off

The one night her nightmares decided to give her some peace, Annie couldn’t sleep because of the sneezing.

Not her sneezing. She finds its source on the couch in the common room that morning.

Armin is wearing his camp shirt and his good shoes, his glasses sliding down his nose as he bends to tie his shoelaces. He’s sniffing constantly, a box of tissue by his side and a growing pile of used ones on the floor.

Annie yawns.

“Did you catch a cold?”

He looks up at her with big eyes, his lips soon forming a smile. As she goes down the last couple of stairs, she notices how red his nose is, the underside of his eyes looking more purplish than before.

“No, why?”

“You look like you caught a cold,” she shrugs. Annie grabs her own shoes from the show rack and takes the seat next to him, tactically putting them on.

“I’m fine, An–”

Another sneeze echoes through the room, cutting him off. He bends forward from the strength of it. Annie straightens her back, facing Armin, raising her eyebrow at him. He sniffles, grabbing a tissue from the tissue box and blowing his nose. He most definitely caught a cold.

Pieck’s voice interrupts his showcase. “Who’s sick?”

She passes by the two of them, making a face at Armin before giving Annie a questioning look, and drops on an armchair. She arranges her brown skirt a bit before raising her feet on the coffee table, revealing a pair of funky, mismatched socks– one is pink with a bunch of squirrels scattered around, and the other is a green Scooby Doo sock.

“No one’s sick,” Armin says, giving her a strained smile. And then he sneezes again.

Annie presses her lips together and turns to Pieck. “Armin caught a cold.”

“I did not!”

Hitch’s voice peaks in. “We’ve heard you all night, you definitely did.”

Her and Reiner come down the stairs at once, both in their orange camp shirts, and grab their own shoes. Hitch looks like she’s gotten about as much sleep as Annie has.

Armin sneezes again. “I’m telling you, I’m fine. It’s just a little sneeze.”

“You’re gonna get the kids sick.”

“I’m not, because I’m not sick,” he argues.

“Let’s see what Hannah has to say about that,” Reiner says, phone already in hand.

Despite Armin’s protests, the host is called down to the house. She finds Armin in the same miserable state as the rest of the volunteers have.

“Absolutely not,” Hannah declares, standing in the middle of the room with a thermometer in hand, her other hand on her hip.

“But I’m fine!”

Hannah sighs, shaking her head slowly. The volunteers are all scattered around the room, looking between the two.

“You have a fever, Armin.” Another sneeze echoes through the room. “You’re too sick to interact with the kids. Take the day off. Rest a bit.”

His fists tighten in his lap, his eyes narrowing. “But I can’t just lurk around all day and do nothing, I want to be useful.”

Annie presses her lips together, watching the show go down. She crosses her arms over her chest, leaning against the wall– she shouldn’t have taken his raincoat.

“Pushing yourself is not helpful,” Hannah tries to reason. “We’ll be fine without you. Annie can handle you guys’ groups on her own.” Hannah turns towards her, pinching her eyebrows together. “Right, Annie?”

“Right.”

She turns towards Armin again, smiling kindly. “See? We’ll be just fine.”

Truth is, Annie is not fine handling the group on her own. In the hideously pink room in the attic, her and the kids have been trying to come up with a little flag for their team for hours. But they couldn't come up with anything good. Their group name doesn't serve as inspiration either, as it has for the other groups- they drew ducks for the Duck Team and literal beans for The Jumpy Beans. If she were to follow the same pattern for this group, they'd end up showing with a solid blue poster, and she's pretty sure that'd get her ridiculed by her colleagues and belittled by the hosts. They need to come up with something else.

Someone clears their throat.

"So, are you and Armin, like, a thing?"

Annie freezes. She narrows her eyes, snapping her head at whoever spoke. She finds a redheaded girl staring right into her soul, eyes wide and a shit-eating grin on her face.

Annie presses her lips together and sets her pen down. "That's none of your business."

"But you kissed the other day," comes another voice. Annie arches an eyebrow at the owner of the voice, another girl with wide green eyes.

"Kissed is an understatement, they full on made out," says a boy with pitch-black hair, grinning cheekily. Annie feels her complexion burn up.

A girl with two twin braids speaks this time, leaning forward towards Annie. "Even better. So they must be together."

"Guys-"

"You could just tell us," says another, a boy with a graphic tee. "We're nosy people, we'll find out anyway."

Annie sighs. Where's Armin when she needs him?

Sitting up straight, she says, "What do I get if I tell you?"

The campers look between each other, sharing confused looks.

She leans back on her arm, feeling her lips arch up. "I mean, it's only fair that we trade. I give you what you want and you give me something back."

The kids start muttering and mumbling. Eventually, the nosy boy speaks up. "Like what?"

Annie arches an eyebrow, as if to challenge him. He swallows audibly. "What do you have to offer?"

He presses his lips together, looking back at his friends for help. The girl with the braids shrugs.

When they don't come up with anything, an idea pops into Annie's mind. "You could do everything I say for the rest of the week. No complaints, no whining. I ask and you execute."

"Like servants?"

"If that's how you want to see it."

The kids exchange looks. "That's bullcrap."

Annie smirks, picking up her pen again. "Good luck finding out then."

"We'll just ask Armin," the boy says, grinning as if he had won the upper hand.

"Well, you won't see him anytime soon, he's sick."

Their faces pale. "You're joking."

She wished she was. She wished she could trade places with him so she didn't have to deal with them.

By the looks on their faces, the kids understand that she's serious. They exchange a momentarily desperate look. She almost snorts at their antics. Do these kids just live off cheap gossip?

"Hitch will tell us then." The boy nods to herself as if he had won once again.

Annie clicks her tongue. "She's my friend, she won't bulge."

"You have friends?"

Annie rolls her eyes. "You're still talking?"

The boy bites his lips, and the group finally goes quiet. Annie shakes her head, resisting the urge to sigh and just leave.

She looks down at their empty poster, and then checks the time. They have about twenty more minutes before the activity ends and they have to go to the cafeteria for lunch, and they must present the thing in the evening. They don’t have time to spare.

“If we come up with a poster, will you tell us?”

Annie arches an eyebrow. “Will you also do everything I say for the rest of the week?”

The kids look between each other, lips pressed together, heads are slowly nodded and others are shaken. Eventually, the boy looks back at her. “Sure.”

Annie smiles to herself and lets the pen down. “Then start by making some name badges.”

They execute it so fast it takes Annie aback. Had she known it’d be so easy to get them to do stuff, she would have done it sooner. Turns out, the redheaded girl’s name is Saorise, the one with the braids is Helen, the boy with black hair is Louise and the one with the graphic tee is Luke.

“Ok, now tell us,” Saorise says, her eyes gleaming.

Annie nods towards the empty poster. “Get started on that.”

“But you said–” She raises an eyebrow. Saorise sighs. “Nothing.”

Luke elbows her. “We need to be smart about this,” he scolds her. He looks back at Annie and crosses his arms over his chest. “We’re not doing anything until you tell us something.”

Annie raises an eyebrow, staring him down. The boy stares right back. Annie averts her eyes towards the phone by her side. She doesn’t have time for this. She sighs, running a hand through her hair. Armin would have known how to deflect from this.

“Ok, fine. We’re having a summer fling. Get to work now.”

That seems to satisfy them enough, for they get started on the poster immediately. But her victory is short-lived.

“What does that mean?” Helen inquiries as she scribbles on the paper.

“It means…” Annie presses her lips together. What does that mean? “It means that we’re sort of together for the summer. No commitments, no feelings, no strings attached.”

Louise snorts. “Yeah, sure.”

Annie shoots him a glare. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You don’t kiss like people who have no feelings for each other.”

Annie feels her face warm up. She frowns– she’s making a fool of herself in front of children.

“Are you done with the poster?”

He immediately resumes to the task at hand.

It’s Saorise that speaks this time. “We’re just saying that it looks like there’s more to it.”

“He looks at you like you’re his whole world,” adds Helen.

Annie rolls her eyes, though she has to admit that her heart skips a beat.

“And that’s not how you kiss someone you have no interest in,” Saorise sings.

“Your point?”

Luke looks at her with such a blank expression it creeps her out. “You love him and he loves you and you’re both too stupid to realise it.”

Her eyes widen, his words striking a nerve.

Saorise slaps Luke’s arm. He winches. “Don’t speak to her that way!”

“Don’t hit me!”

Annie pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs. They don’t have time for this. She doesn’t have time to dwell on this. So she urges them to finish the poster instead, and they manage to come up with something decent before the kids leave for lunch.

Annie sneaks out of the cafeteria halfway through lunch, unnoticed. She strides towards the BIg House, the tips of her fingers tingling in anticipation, her heart beating faster with each step she takes. She needs to see him. If what that Luke boy told her is true, she needs to know, she needs to confront him about it. Because her side of things is pretty clear already, but she cannot allow herself to fall until she knows that it's reciprocal.

When she makes it to the house and opens the door, she finds Armin curled up on the couch, wrapped in Pieck's blanket. The puppy Sasha and Connie rescued is snuggled up next to him, and the TV is on, playing a random cartoon she's never heard of before. There's a pile of tissues on the floor, and an empty box right next to it. A book is resting upside-down on the coffee table next to an empty glass.

Armin’s face lights up when he sees her, making her heart skip a beat. Suddenly, all the courage she’s mastered leaves her.

"Hi."

She finds herself mirroring his smile. They'll be just fine, she tells herself.

She leans against the wall, looking him up and down. His nose is redder than in the morning.

"Hey. Are you any better?'

Armin hums lightly and nods, but before he manages to say anything, he bends by the middle, letting a sneeze out, his hands instinctively flying to his face. Annie presses her lips together. That's enough to answer her question.

The puppy jumps awake, looking around with wide eyes as if searching for the source of the noise, but upon not finding it, scoots closer to Armin and curls up again.

"I was starting to feel better," he laments, petting the dog's head absentmindedly.

“You’ll get better,” she tries to reassure him. Annie shuffles on her feet, biting her lip. She needs to ask him. She needs to get this off her chest, for it’s everything she’s been thinking of since this morning. But her courage wavers. She sighs before asking, “Would you like some tea?”

Armin nods, sneezing again.

With a smile, Annie slides into the kitchen. She takes a deep breath in, fills the kettle with water, and turns it on. As the water boils, she allows herself to consider the kids’ words, to believe that he does love her back. That they could do something about it, that they wouldn’t have to part ways. For a second, she allows herself to be foolish and close her eyes and envision all of it– all the kisses and cuddles and little touches. Her visiting his hometown and meeting the two people he’s talked about so much, and him coming over and meeting her father. All the little dates and laughs and the warmth of simply being near him for more than a fleeting second.

Armin’s voice pulls her out of her thoughts.

“I looked over uni prospects today.”

She scoffs. “That’s how bored you got?”

Armin’s laugh echoes through the room. “Yeah!” He sits up on the couch, wrapping the blanket tighter around him, and shuffles around so he can face the chicken, watching Annie pour the tea. “There are so many I liked, too!” he continues, his smile broadening. “Like, Rose University has this really cool astronomy program, and–!”

A very loud bang interrupts his ranting. Annie’s head snaps to the main door, a shiver running down her throat. The puppy jumps to the floor and scatters under the couch, covering its face with its paws.

Before either of them gets the chance to fully figure out what’s going on, Sasha storms into the room, holding a weirdly shaped plastic bag in her arms.

Annie blinks slowly at her, watching her march all the way to the kitchen and setting the bag on the table with a thud. Annie scowls, scanning the bag. Humming, Sasha starts taking things out of the bag– some potatoes, some carrots, an onion, and… a whole chicken.

“I’m making soup!” explains Sasha, seeing Annie’s confused expression.

Annie stares at the chicken blankly as Sasha starts rummaging through the cupboards. The more she looks at it, the clearer it becomes that the chicken is raw.

Armin appears in the doorway, scratching his nose. He frowns at the chicken, looking up at Annie with wide eyes.

“What is all this?”

Annie presses her lips together and shrugs helplessly. Sasha sets a big pot on the stove and turns around, grinning widely at Armin.

“I’m making soup!”

Annie gestures vaguely towards the whole shebang Sasha’s set on the table. “Where did you get all that?”

“Stole it from the cook,” she sings.

Armin gulps. “You stole from the cook to make soup?”

“It’d help with your cold.”

“But you stole from the cook.”

Sasha tilts her head. “Yeah, but… I’m making soup.”

Armin blinks repeatedly. The door slams to the wall a second time, and Hitch’s voice booms through the common room.

“How’s our boooy?” she sings, dragging out the last word.

She quickly scans the room, her eyes landing on Armin, and jumps on his back, making him yelp. She examines his face briefly, scowling at his red nose. She steps back, holding him by the shoulders. “You look like shit.”

“I feel better,” he tries to argue, but his voice is hoarse.

“Sure.”

Hitch walks past Armin and into the kitchen, arching an eyebrow at the chicken.

“What’s all this?”

“I’m making soup! Helps with the cold!” beams Sasha. She takes out knives and cutting boards and sets them on the table.

Hitch whistles. “Count me in then.”

The two hurry to wash their hands, Sasha soaps her all the way to the elbow before rinsing them thoroughly. As Hitch dries her hands, Sasha holds hers up, water dripping to the floor, a cheeky smile on her face.

“Alright, everybody,” she says, barely holding back her laugh. Armin snorts, anticipating what she’s about to say. “It’s a beautiful day to save lives. Let’s have some fun!”

Hitch and Armin break into laughter as Sasha dries her hands, a satisfied grin on her lips. Annie narrows her eyes at the lot of them.

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s this iconic line from Grey’s Anatomy.”

“Oh.”

Sasha turns to her, eyes gleaming. “Have you watched it, Annie?”

Annie presses her lips together before admitting that she hasn’t, and Sasha decides that a marathon is needed.

Armin sneezes again, cutting their conversation short. He sniffles his nose.

“Guys, I think I’ll take Dexter and go to my room and sleep or something.”

Annie arches an eyebrow, turning around in unison with Hitch. “Dexter?”

Armin nods thoroughly. “The puppy.”

As if on cue, the puppy emerges from between his legs, barking loudly. He jumps up on one of the high kitchen stools, looking up at the chicken with longing eyes.

Sasha turns towards Armin, frowning deeply. "You named my puppy Dexter?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I thought it was a nice name," he shrugs

"It makes me think of Dexter the character."

"Yeah."

"But the puppy looks nothing like Dexter."

"He doesn't, but he joined me halfway through a Dexter marathon so I just called him that."

"But it's ugly."

“You had a Dexter marathon without me?” Hitch asks, looking just as indignated as Sasha.

Both Sasha and Armin ignore her.

"It's a name though," Armin argues.

Sasha’s frown deepens. "I think Connie and I should have named him though."

"But you didn't."

Sasha frowns at him, then huffs out a breath. "Ok, fine. He can be Dexter."

Armin smiles victoriously. He scoops up the puppy and turns around humming, leaving the kitchen.

Annie looks down at the teas she's made. "Do you still want your tea?"

"I forgot about it, sorry!"

"I could bring it upstairs," Annie mumbles.

She can feel Hitch's eyes burn into her side. Rolling her eyes, Annie takes one of the mugs and hurries up the stairs to catch up to Armin.

"How were the kids?" he asks, stealing a glance at her.

"They kept asking about you."

They make it to their floor and find Armin's door prompted open by a stack of books.

"And us," Annie adds, walking in and setting the tea mug on the nightstand by his bed.

Dexter jumps from Armin's arms and onto the bed. He curls up in the middle of the duvet and looks up at them with big eyes, rocking his tail left and right.

Armin turns to Annie, his cheeks dusting pink.

"They asked about us?"

Annie nods and averts her eyes, not daring to hold his gaze. "They were so nosy about it, too."

Armin grins sheepishly. "So kissing me in front of everyone got them curious."

Annie feels her face heating up. "It also got you sick," she says, as nonchalantly as she can manage.

Armin shrugs, "I think it was worth it."

Her smile grows, and she takes a step closer to him. "Was it now?"

His hand comes up, ghosting over her arm. Looking up at her, Armin smiles broadly. "I'd do it again."

Annie snorts. "You'd get sick because of me again?"

"Maybe without the sick part. But I'd kiss you again.” He smiles, the next part coming out as a whisper. “Maybe even in the rain."

Annie’s face warms even more. The questions she’s been having since the morning start popping up in her mind again, slowly taking over, threatening to spill over. Annie bites the inside of her cheek slightly, in hopes that she could swallow them back down.

Armin frowns, his fingers gripping her arm a bit tighter. “What’s wrong?”

Annie shakes her head, forcing a smile on. “Nothing.”

She leans over and kisses his cheek, frowning slightly at how warm his complexion is. Drawing back, Annie brings her hand to his forehead.

“You have a fever.”

Armin sighs, taking a step back. “I’ll be as good as new by tomorrow,” he mumbles.

Then his face grimaces, and he bends over slightly, sneezing loudly.

“You should get in bed and drink your tea,” she says, taking his arm and guiding him towards the bed.

Armin hums again, letting her tuck him in. Dexter scoots over and rests his head on Armin’s chest, whimpering lightly. Smiling, Armin pets his head, scratching between his ears. Annie smiles at the image– Armin making friends with a stray puppy. Who would have thought?

“I’ll go help with the soup, ok?” she kisses his forehead. “Try and get some rest.”

Without looking back again, Annie hurries to leave his room, her heart beating faster by the second. The kids’ words roam through her mind again.

He looks at you like you’re his whole world.

She squeezes her eyes shut. If she’s his whole world, he should think again. He doesn’t want someone like her to be his whole world.

You love him and he loves you and you’re both too stupid to realise it.

That’s nothing more than wishful thinking. Nothing more than kids being as foolish as they usually get. What does that boy know anyway?

Hitch’s voice jerks her out of her thoughts.

“Are you helping, Annie?”

She hurries to join the two in the kitchen. The water for the soup is already starting to boil on the stove. Annie ignores their shit eating grins, their stares. She grabs a cutting board and a knife and gets to chopping the vegetables. Sasha rummages through the cabinets, humming some random tune. Hitch fishes her phone out of the pocket of her shorts and leans back against the table, scrolling briefly though what she believes to be spotify. Then This Is The Life starts playing. Hitch leaves her phone on the table and starts jamming around the room, pirouetting around the table.

Sasha finally finds what she was looking for. “Aha!” she exclaims, holding a knife up.

Annie’s hand freezes mid air. She frowns at Sasha, looking from the knife in her hand to the victorious expression on her face. Even Hitch stopped her dancing momentarily, turning to look at Sasha. Beaming, the girl starts bringing down the chicken, cutting it down in pieces.

Annie pours the veggies into the boiling water, stirring the soup twice. Hitch comes up behind her and holds out her hands, bringing her along in her dance. Annie laughs, letting her roommate spin her around. Hitch lets out a laugh herself. Annie holds up her arm and spins her around much like she did earlier.

Then the song comes to a stop and Billy Joel comes up. Hitch bows to Annie, who finds herself mirroring the same movements.

As Hitch pours herself a glass of tap water, Annie climbs on one of the tall stools, reaching over the table for the tea she’s forgotten about. Sasha puts the chicken into the soup, seasons the whole ordeal, and covers the pot with a lid before turning around. She grins sheepishly at Annie, her eyes bright with curiosity.

“So, you and Armin?”

Annie rolls her eyes, but can’t help the smile forming on her lips. “It’s nothing serious.”

“It looked pretty serious to me.”

“Well–”

Hitch slams her glass on the table. Annie’s head snaps towards her. “Sorry,” her roommate mumbles. She presses her lips into a thin line and joins Annie at the table. “You still haven’t talked about it?”

Annie sighs, dropping her head into her folded arms. “I don’t know how to.”

Hitch clears her throat. “I fancy you, let’s be a thing,” she suggests, doing her best impression of Annie’s voice.

Sasha snorts. Annie looks up at her with narrowed eyes. Hitch holds up her hands as if to defend herself.

“It doesn’t need to be anything complicated, just be honest with him.”

“There’s nothing wrong with simple confessions,” agrees Sasha.

Annie groans. How did she end up having this conversation with these two of all people?

Hitch nudges her knee playfully. “You know, I think he fancies you too.” She winks at her. Annie feels her stomach turn at the gesture.

“You think?” Sasha peaks in. “He’s completely smitten!”

Annie buries her face into her arms, feeling her complexion warm up. How she wished the ground would open and swallow her whole right about now.

The door creaks open.

She soon hears Pieck’s voice. “Why’s it so hot in here?”

“We’re making soup,” explains Sasha.

“Fun.” She’s quiet for a moment, yet Annie can hear the fabric of her skirt shuffling. “Oh is this tea?”

Annie snaps her head up, just in time to see Pieck, in her orange camp shirt and long brown skirt, take her mug of tea and bring it to her lips. She grimaces. “What kind of tea is this? And why is it so cold?”

Annie shrugs. “I think it’s mint.”

Pieck raises an eyebrow, scowling at the mug. She pops it in the microwave, staring at it through the glass. Sasha palms the stray towel hanging by the sink and takes the lid off, then stirs the soup.

The microwave starts beeping, and Pieck hurries to take the tea out. She takes another sip and hums, nodding satisfied. “Yep, it’s mint.” Pieck sits on the chair across the table from Annie, slowly sipping on the tea she’s stolen.

“Do we have any noodles?” asks Sasha, still minding her soup.

Hitch gets off her chair, saying that she remembers seeing some last week. Sure enough, she finds a whole pack in one of the drawers. They add it to their soup, the finishing touch.

But when they go to call Armin down, they find him long asleep, tucked in bed with the puppy sleeping by his side, head resting on his chest.

While he does eat his soup later that night and, admittedly, looks better in the morning, the hosts decide to give him one more day off, for he looks far from having beaten the cold.

He spends most of the day in his room with Dexter, his door prompted open by a stack of books, reading books and going through uni prospects and watching cheap movies, just trying to make the time pass faster.

He sighs deeply as he sits on the edge of the bed, abandoning the book he’s been reading on the nightstand. The puppy jumps off and starts doing rounds around his feet, rocking its tail back and forth, probably thinking that it’s finally time for a walk. Armin smiles sadly at him, reaching over to scratch behind his ears.

“I’m sorry, buddy, I don’t think we’ll do much walking these days.”

Dexter whimpers, his tail coming to a halt as if understanding the boy’s words, and lays on the floor, leaning his head on Armin’s foot. Ears leaned back, he looks up at Armin with pleading eyes. Armin sighs and scoops him up in his arms. Not only is he useless on camp, he also managed to make a puppy sad.

His eyes involuntarily travel to the other side of the room– the empty side of the room, so barred of life; the white sheets left untouched, collecting dust. His lips press together, a wave of sadness washing over him– it should have his side of the room, had everything worked out as they had planned. Had he not disappeared into thin air.

Armin still remembers how his emerald eyes sparkled with excitement when he told Mikasa and him about camp, in the dim light of his room. They had gathered in the Yeagers' basement like they did every other Friday, his room warm compared to the November brisk outside. His voice had sounded so excited when he asked them to go along this time– for the whole summer, not just Open Day this time– to have one last summer together, filled with adventures, before parting ways.

A wet something on his face pulls him out of his daydreams, making a shiver run down his spine– but he calms down when he realises it’s just Dexter licking his face. Armin shakes his head briefly and wipes his eyes, for they were getting damp. Dwelling over the past does nothing to fix it, he reminds himself.

Armin lets himself fall onto the mattress again, putting the empty side of the room out of his eyeshot. Dexter, still in his arms, starts licking his face thoroughly, wiggling his tail left and right. Armin chuckles lightly at the puppy’s sudden show of affection, and–

The door is slammed to the wall, yanking both Armin and the puppy up. When he looks up, Armin is met with a very angry Annie moving his stack of books around and closing the door just as loudly as she has opened it.

“They’re driving me crazy,” she grunts out, stomping over to the bed.

Armin finds himself staring at her– as he often does these days, sometimes less subtly than he’d wish. His eyes travel from the purple of her socks to the top of her head, taking in her appearance, her shorts barely touching the middle of her thighs, her orange camp shirt spotted blue on the collar, the bun at the back of her head loose, barely keeping her hair from falling over her shoulders and framing her face. And the scowl on her face, that he hasn’t seen in a while. Armin frowns, the sight unsettling– what has gotten her so mad?

He was so busy admiring her mere existence that he only notices how close Annie’s gotten when she speaks, and he finds her standing over him.

“Move over.” Even her voice sounds angry, scary somehow.

Armin does as he's told and rolls over to the other side of the bed, his eyes remaining on her curiously. Without any warning, Annie slums into bed next to him and rolls on her side, bringing the blanket over her face.

Armin feels his complexion warming up. But before the thought of her in his bed settles in, another, much more terrifying one takes over. Armin sits up so suddenly it makes Dexter yelp and scurry away, hiding under the other bed.

“I’ll give you the cold if you get so close!”

Her voice comes out muffled by the blanket. “If it gets me out of counselor duties for the rest of the week, I don’t mind.”

Armin narrows his eyes. “What do you mean?” He reaches for the blanket and pulls it down. Annie is already staring at him through stormy eyes, a pout resting on her lips. Armin feels his face soften up. “What’s wrong, Annie?”

“Nothing,” she mutters.

Armin’s frown deepens. There’s something bothering her, he can tell that much, something has been bothering her since yesterday, and yet she won’t tell him. Is she angry with him? Are the kids too much to handle on her own?

The girl sighs and, under the intensity of his stare, gives in. “It’s the kids,” she finally admits.

Armin feels the ground seep from under his feet.

“They’ve been teasing me all day,” she continues, rolling over on her back. “About us,” she adds, stealing a short glance at him.

Armin sighs, letting his shoulders relax. He lies down once again, then moves a stray strand of hair out of her face. “Is it that bad?”

“They’re being such assholes about it,” Annie groans. “Hitch too. And the others, but especially Hitch.”

Armin can’t help the smile forming on his lips. Annie doesn’t miss it either, for she frowns at him, her cheeks dusting pink. “What?”

“Nothing,” he says, though his voice sounds amused.

Her frown deepens. “You’re poking fun at me.”

“I’m not! I just–” he doesn’t dare look at her when he says, “I think it’s cute how worked up you are over it.”

“You think it’s cute?” Annie turns on her side, fully facing him. “I’m over here making a fool of myself in front of children and you think it’s cute?”

Armin tries to hold back a laugh but, seeing her pout, can’t. Laugher spills over against his will. Annie’s face picks up even more color. She grabs the pillow under her head and playfully hits him across the face, which only serves to intensify his laughter.

“I also haven’t slept in days, so be careful what you say,” she warns, still holding the pillow.

Armin puts his hands over hers, blocking another eventual attack. He studies her face, noting all the little changes, from how small her smile is to the deeper circles under her eyes. He brings his hand to her cheek, eliciting a little sigh from her, and caresses the dark spots with his thumb.

“You haven’t been sleeping?”

Annie shakes her head, pressing her lips together. She puts the pillow back and lies on her side, bringing the blanket over both of their shoulders.

“Do you want to take a nap then? Get some rest?”

Annie hums. She scoots closer, her breath mingling with his, but as much as he’d want to put his arms around her and just hold her, he doesn't want to give her the cold. He gives her a small smile and scoots away, and Annie seems to understand, for she returns the smile and turns on her other side.

Soon, Annie’s tiny snores indicate that she’s fast asleep. Armin closes his eyes as well, but sleep is not as kind to him, a thousand thoughts running through his mind, thoughts of the past and the future and worries of the present.

Dexter sneaks into the bed and curls up in between them, resting his head on Armin’s chest once again. Smiling, he pets the dog’s head, watching Annie’s shoulders raise and fall rhythmically. Maybe they will be okay after all.

#who painted the sky?#aruani #aruani fic #wpts

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teenandbeyond · 1 year ago

Text

Gojo x Sub. Fem Demon Reader

This resulted from a misread request lol

Want the subby Gojo version? Here.

Want more from meh? Masterlist!

☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆

🕶 Disobedience 🕶 (Jujutsu Kaisen)

Warning(s): College AU, flirty reader, smut, a lil gore, public sex, dirty talk

It's your second semester at a new college and you've already got a guy trying to impress you, not doing too good so far when he's wearing shades indoors...

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

He could feel you before you entered the room.

As you entered, he lowered his shades, like he couldn't see you clearly past them.

You were beautiful.

You immediately met his eyes, you could feel his power, too.

And when your lips lifted into a smirk, he decided.

He wanted you.

The next day, he made sure to make a point of falling into the chair next to you.

"Mm, are you here to dispose of me, curse user?"

"Not necessarily," he drew out his syllables, leaning on a palm, "I just wanted to get a better view."

"You're not going to get that from the very back of the class."

He met your gaze over his shades after turning his head your way, "I didn't mean the lesson. I'd much prefer to study you, instead. Better view than that geezer any day."

"Sacrificing your grades for me? I'm flattered," you offered a shark-like grin full of sarcasm.

"No need to worry about me. I have the best grades in this school," he smiled.

You rolled your eyes, kicking up your feet, "Of course you do."

"Miss [Name]! Put your feet down, right-"

Your professor cut himself off with a glare from you, your head tilted back, challenging him to say the rest.

All he did was clear his throat, "I'll let you off this time since this is your first day, but don't expect such leniency next time."

"Well, aren't you the rebellious one? Someone should tame that disobedience of yours," he purred out.

"I don't get tamed. It's not in my nature."

And every day after that, he finds something to brag to you about.

Trying to impress you, you supposed.

But he wasn't your type.

He was pretty, sure, but you weren't into men who weren't worth what they bragged about.

He just seemed like another egotistical pretty boy who was used to having his way in life.

And why hasn't he reported you yet? You were a demon, his type doesn't let you cruise around innocent people so easily. It's why you had to transfer quite a few times.

His answer?

"I mean, other than a few little pranks, you don't mean much harm. Just another student trying to get their degree. As long as it stays that way, you'll be fine."

He seemed to care more about getting in your pants than much else.

He even brought you your favorite drink from some cafe a few minutes away.

"How the hell do you know I like this?" you ask after an experimental sip.

"I watch."

"Creepy. And I'm a demon."

All he does is smile.

You have a strange dynamic of banter, Gojo not really getting past your wall.

"We can't go on one date, beautiful?"

"My dates include an exclusion of clothes."

"I certainly wouldn't mind that," he smiles, flashing his pearly whites.

"You haven't earned the privilege, human."

"I will..."

Things change one day when a sleazy student decides to grope you on your way out of your last class. Even after you tell him to stop.

You both end up in a hidden corner with you tugging hard on his ear, threatening him.

"Listen here, human. You have two options...You can either use this pencil and stab yourself in your poorly endowed genitals. Or I can tear off your ear for your poor listening abilities."

"You crazy bitch, you think you scare me? I've had crazier girlfriends."

"Oh, have you, now? Well, I don't like being second best to anybody. May I show you why I'm the one to fear?"

You mute him with your power, he's unable to be heard by powerless humans. And you slowly tug further and further away from his head.

He tries to struggle away, but your power holds him in place.

"You don't deserve these ears anyway, much too pretty for that attitude of yours," you grin as he begins to scream.

"Stop! Stop! It's going to tear off!" he shrieked.

"That's the point."

You silently glance at the ear in your hand, then back at the screaming young man.

And you laugh. Tossing your head back, hard.

"Fascinating! Humans are very expressive."

"What's going on here?"

You blandly glance over to see Gojo moving closer, "You're not blind. I think it's blatantly obvious."

"Gojo! Gojo, help me, man! This bitch is crazy!"

"Silly human, he can't-"

"Help you? Lovely [Name] here doesn't seem like the type to do something without reason."

He could hear him? Right...his power.

"So what did you do, Kimura?"

"Nothing! All I did was flirt a little and she went nuts!"

You stab a pencil into your desired area, getting another satisfying scream out of him, "You touched me without my permission. And even after my merciful warning, you kept doing it...You were confident, too. I can only imagine how many human women it took to gain it. What do you have to say about that?"

All he could do was groan in pain.

"Well, at least now you can live alone like you deserve. Only desperate little humans would get with a sleazy man lacking an ear and a hard-on. Now, get out of my sight," your power releases him as you dismiss him with a hand.

You don't turn to look at him as he rushes to hobble away.

But before he can turn around the corner, his body freezes in place and shatters like glass.

"Foolish human. I don't let scum like you live."

"Well, well. Interesting to finally see your power in action."

You jump at the voice next to you, when did Gojo get that close?

"You didn't try to help him."

"He was weak anyway. But I told you not to harm anyone, or we'd have a problem."

"I have selective hearing," you smirked, leaning against a brick wall.

"Selective hearing, huh? Of course, you do," he hummed.

Before you could blink, he was pressed into you, arm against your throat.

"I should kill you."

"Will you?"

"Hmm," his gaze bore through you, "It'd be a shame...I like you."

"I am quite the charmer," you don't break his stare even as his thumb brushes against your cheek, red staining it when it leaves you.

"Red suits you," he muttered, looking down at the blood.

"It suits anyone."

"But I like it on you, I'm not talking about everyone else," he drags his thumb over your lips. Teasing it between them.

You tease back by accepting it inside when he meets your gaze again.

He sucks in a breath, "Damn, you're beautiful."

"I know," you kiss the pad of his finger.

"And a tease."

"So are you."

"And you need to be put in check. I can't have you killing whenever you feel like it," he glares.

"Even the strongest of your human warriors failed to do so. You're no different. All bark, no bite."

His grin is wide and dark, "I'm always happy to bite if you want me to, princess."

He was willing to prove it.

Your back was slammed against the wall, your legs tightening around his waist.

All hints of his normal nonchalance were gone and so were his shades, he couldn't let them get in the way.

As he sucked on your breast, leaving hickeys behind, he made sure to stare into your soul.

He wanted to make a point.

Especially after a statement you made.

"I don't have very high expectations for you. I've lain with many mortals and demons alike. And I've forgotten all of them, no one can sate my hunger enough to be remembered."

He lifted you higher, he gripped your thighs as he kissed down your stomach.

You thought he was a little weakling, but he lifted you with ease...

...looks can be deceiving.

You bit your lip as his breath hit your inner thigh, "Hm...do you deserve my mouth there? You've been very disobedient. Disobedience shouldn't be rewarded..."

Your breath hitched as he nipped the plush of your thigh.

"Sensitive. Have you been neglected here? No wonder your hunger hasn't been sated. They're basic."

You groan in frustration as he goes everywhere but where you want.

"You asshole."

"I'm well aware, you've called me that a few times already."

"You think you're so great just--Oh my--!"

"Ironic coming from a demon," he giggles lowly, before getting back to work.

You grip his hair tight, and you briefly think about it being painful, but he doesn't say anything to indicate it is.

All he does is groan, syllables drawn out, "Mmm...a delicacy."

You try to keep quiet, eyes squeezed shut, your pride not allowing you to give him what he wants.

But then his hit tongue hits the right spot just as he adds a couple fingers.

Your legs squeeze him closer as you moan, louder than you'd like.

You can feel him chuckle and you know his ego is boosted a little.

"D-don't get too big-headed, there's plenty of people that've made me-" he cuts you off again after sucking hard.

Your back arches against brick and you look down at him to find him already looking up at you.

He looks like...he's starved.

You look away, you've never done such a thing.

And just when you're about to reach your peak of pleasure, he pulls away.

It both relieves and infuriates you.

You didn't want to admit that this human could make you do something few have done.

But on the other hand, this asshole. How dare he deprive you?

A hand leaves your thigh as he reaches for his pants with it.

"Impatient are we?" you mock, in between breaths.

"If it tastes that good, I wanna know how it feels..." he muttered.

You watch openly as he reveals himself for you to see.

"Ego now makes sense."

"Hm."

And soon he's rubbing between your folds, watching intently.

"Are you just going to sit and watch all day?"

"You don't deserve it, so don't expect me to go easy on you."

"I can handle you just fine. Just put it in already-"

And he does, in a single motion he's as deep as he can get.

With a whimper, your nails dig into his back through his shirt.

He groans into your collarbone before sliding out just to slam back in.

"W-wait, Goj-ah!" you gasp out a strangled moan.

He slams into you again, and again, slowly.

He grins into your neck, "I've been waiting for someone like you. I can go all out and not hold back for once. Should I stop holding back on you? I did say I wouldn't..."

And you stiffened at the words, "That was holding back?"

"Wanna tap out now before it's too late, pretty girl?"

"Fuck you."

"Already doing that, but fine."

And once he sets his merciless pace, sounds won't stop slipping past your lips. None of which you're proud of.

"Shut up, you pathetic demon, whimpering like a dog on my mortal cock that you don't deserve," he growled into your ear, gripping your neck tight.

Your eyes roll back, drool escaping past your gaping mouth.

And quickly you have a shaking climax, before it can end, he's still going. It's not long before you can feel your body on the edge of approaching another.

"Look at you. Chanting my name like you worship me. Drunk on how good of a fuck it is. Weren't you talking shit not too long ago? Now you're acting like my desperate little whore."

Usually, when people talked to you like that, you'd disintegrate them...but at that moment, you forgot how to speak, only able to say the same words.

"Satoru, Satoru, Satoru...ohhh. Please, oh, please!"

He gripped your chin, roughly tugging it down, he met your eyes, "You're never gonna be able to stop thinking about me. You're gonna try, but then you'll give up, and have your hand between your legs until you accept that your destiny is to be my little toy...and come crawling back to me."

"I-I-I'm..."

"Do it."

You collapse on top of him when you do, clenching around him so much he moans with you.

He eases you back from your high, kissing your neck.

"Since you were a good little toy, you can help me finish. Not that you're worthy of it."

And the second he puts you down you're on your knees taking him.

He groans, looking down at you as he pets your head, "So eager... Did I tame you that quickly?"

Gojo knew he'd win this challenge. All that annoyance he'd pent up from you playing hard to get he put into you.

But unlike he thought, that burning desire for you didn't go away even as you went down on him.

Even when he reached his own high.

Perhaps you'd have to be his toy for a while...

#jujutsu gojo #gojo saturo #gojo x you #gojo x reader #gojo x female reader #jjk #jjk requests #jujutsu kaisen #gojo smut #jjk x reader #anime #smut #anime smut

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nanjokei · 1 year ago

Note

same anon here, incredibly interested in the history from someone who lived through it

ok!

here's my own rundown on why the vocaloid bubble burst in the mid 2010s!

almost irreversibly! (don't worry— this story has a happy ending)

if anyone is wondering, yes, you can reblog this! i only say this because this took a lot of work to write so if anyone feels compelled, yes, stroke my ego a bit, i allow such a thing. now, i might get snippy here and there, but i'm not serious at all. my sense of humor is pretty tsukkomi-ish and it shows up in how i describe things. <-disclaimer for if this post breaks containment because i know fandom types don't like my sense of humor if they're not given the context that i LOVE what i'm talking about and rib on it out of utmost adoration

as a disclaimer, i do lightly look things up to check on stuff timeline wise and its validity, but this is from my own point of view and memory and a personal retelling, so if you have a different take on it then i'm sure our viewpoints can co-exist. also, i speak about utaite from the point of view of someone who respects their existence but does not participate. so if a few facts are off... i am speaking only from the aspect of what relates to what i'm talking about. also if there are any typos i stopped being thorough with my checking and editing like 4k words in since i am not being paid to write this, it is just for fun. anyways~

so where we wanna start here is before the big bubble era. i think most people would agree that it was in full swing around mid 2012, but i'll set the date at september 23, 2011. the posting of the song kagerou daze (by the way, as a testament to how much of a boomer i am, despite being an kagepro fan from the start i find myself still using the "kagerou days" romanization by accident every time). by the way, senbonzakura, one of the biggest vocaloid songs ever for the longest time, was posted only a few days earlier. just to paint a picture. but that's not the only thing... i think what we want to look at especially is the end of the vocaloid2 era and what was going on during and before. the final vocaloid2 product, vy2, was released on april 25th, 2011. in this timeline, there are a few angles i wanna focus on. the state of the culture, its spread, utaite and producers. by the way, if i had to date when i met vocaloid, it was around 2008. right before gakupo came out, maybe.

around this time, the culture of vocaloid-ke (vocaloid family) type secondary works were falling out of fashion. 2010 and before, i feel that vocaloid had a strong image of nico nico douga especially— not that it didn't during the bubble era. but i mean the people participating. when miku came out, people viewed her as a novelty while still thinking to themselves they had stumbled across something special. there was no subculture like that before, and the closest counterpart to this was idolmaster. now, many know this is the origin of the -P suffix came from. it's a tossed around factoid now but people should know that it was certainly a phenomena back then. and a LOT of early miku adopters (like 80% were either already in the doujin music scene, the DTM (desktop music) scene, trained musicians or even some industry pros. and a lot of these people were nerdy and geeky and loved anime and games and manga so of course their first point of reference for building vocaloid's identity was idolmaster. touhou, idolmaster's next door neighbor, also had a lot of influence given many of the music people in its scene dabbled in vocaloid early on. so naturally the fans that were attracted to vocaloid were also nerds. at first there were only cryptonloids, but gakupo quickly followed (and continuing in the trend of heavy nnd association— kentaro miura (RIP), a big fan of nnd and especially idolmaster— designed and drew his art 100% pro bono out of love for the site and its culture). luka came out... i think gumi was the first shift. gumi just felt, different. i personally owe it to her being modeled after ranka lee, the iconic role of her voice provider, megumi nakajima— ranka lee was the underdog character in her source macross frontier's love triangle. so i feel like that image somewhat imprinted itself on gumi. gumi was not popular at first at all. her release came and went with not much fanfare. ironically the aspect of rivalry would come back under stuff like the miku vs gumi debate. this is probably the first real demonstration of "it doesn't matter how good the voice is, it matters who uses it and how that propagates the voice".

and so i arrive at the producers of the time, maybe late 2008 early to mid 2009, the newcomers. the ones that weren't necessarily otaku through and through, but more on the "teenagers who like vocaloid and/or don't have a singer to sing for them, and want to make music". i will be specific and say it is people like wowaka (RIP), deco*27 and hachi/kenshi yonezu specifically. wowaka for example had a very fresh take— his pvs deemphasized the vocaloid, but it also inspired many fan pvs because of it. i will not go into how it became ironic that he quit due to the attribution to the voice. but his moody lyrics captured a lot of hearts and his style carried a youth to it. hachi did a lot of his own artsy pvs. deco*27 was very unpolished and amateur but his music was VERY of the times. the synths, the guitar, very youthful. aside from wowaka, whose comeup immediately led to him getting signed quickly (and the guy himself just walked and i don't blame him) i think what made these guys (deco and hachi) stand out from the rest in the end is one thing: they picked up gumi. and this set them apart from the old and dusted otaku who didn't pick gumi up, or those who picked her up thinking of her only as ranka lee. mozaik role (still deco's most viewed song on nnd btw, with no sign of stopping. and he is clearly PISSED about it). matryoshka. all that kibs of noise. by the way, matryoshka's stint in the vocaloid rankings went unchallenged until it was finally killed by senbonzakura. that's a good two years of dominance!! a lot of the breakout stars or people who got more popular during 2010 used gumi, i'm talking your 40mPs, your sasakure.UKs, your buzzGs. incidentally, a lot of these people got signed... most for their vocaloid stuff. 40mP, sasakure, deco, kous and others were signed under label split-offs like U/M/A/A. wowaka and hachi... were signed for themselves. specifically, wowaka and his band hitorie, and hachi as himself kenshi yonezu.

but producers were not the only ones being signed. utaite, who had been a thing before even vocaloid was a thing, found themselves growing rapidly due to them increasingly participating in the culture as both fans and beneficiaries. personally, i split off utaites eras as "before piko and akiakane" and "after piko and akiakane". the before era included people who either started very early on when vocaloid became a thing on nnd, or started before it (participating in chorus medleys or posting utattemita videos of anison for example, like gero). it was all amateur and everyone was doing it for fun... but the record companies doth lurk around the vocaloid scene at this rate. akiakane and piko i pick specifically because they were the first utaite who were very publically signed. piko was signed under sony's ki/oon records! akiakane had two or three big albums under the subsidary of VAP, toy's factory (if you wanna have fun take a look at the list of talent they rep). piko is especially important— as he had a vocaloid made of him. this marked first big interest of corporations and large record companies to actually enter the vocaloid space— in the most direct way possible. btw, the reason piko the vocaloid is dead is because piko the person is no longer signed under sony. it's not outright confirmed, but piko the guy stopped tweeting about utatane piko the second he transferred labels. he is stuck in a weird catch 22 he probably will never be free of, though yamaha is doing some insane moves lately, i wonder if they'd ever try to buy the character out and revive him as a stunt. (they are doing many funny stunts lately. but a subject for another time.)

finally, my last point in this preamble is the interest in telling stories through vocaloid had only continued to grow. i think the two biggest early examples were the prisoner series by shujinP and the ever so infamous evillious chronicles by mothy. their explosive popularity is wholeheartedly owed to rin and len— ok this is a tangent but this is the genius of the rin and len package, that to this day was never replicated, they come together as you know and since they are male and female with no set setting, they are an easy buy and you can make a story because you can do two points of view across several songs... like literally. its paperplane vs prisoner. daughter of evil vs servant of evil. and their fans were and continue to be super passionate. it's great, we would be missing a huge chunk of what makes vocaloid subculture what it is without them. of course, shujinP's series (plural because they had several) is less known these days but it was probably the first series to get plays and novels and all that. quickly followed by EC. later came series like sasakure's doomsday series, stuck in a limbo between old and new era (most of the songs released in the old era but the novelization and such came out during the new), and a few "outsider" series like numtack05/putinP's series (the reasons this never got popular is because it was absurdist and shitpost-y and involved too much political imagery, not only that but also because putinP used a lot of copyright samples (most famously ronald mcdonald and sazae-san clips)— the freely distributed album vers omit these samples entirely and i can confirm the songs are worse for it)

so to give a summary of the above section

the tastes of fans were maturing

there was a shift in how vocaloid was perceived

the growing influence of utaite

the growing interest of big corpos in the scene

the growing interest in storytelling using vocaloid as a medium

anyway, here comes the real deal. and... it's gonna be a mess. just like the era itself was. i hope you're ready, at least.

even the very first echo of vocaloid3 felt kinda corpo-y. it wasn't, but.. looking back. it kind of felt like it. the first time we ever found out about v3 was through a leak of seeU's demo— but it was a work in progress leak, so it had the voice of her provider dahee kim singing along. people had no idea so they assumed this was the capability of the software. it was exciting! kpop was just starting to get popular, and we were getting a new vocaloid software, with korean capability!!!

anyway. we're not talking about the can of worms that was seeU.

not just because of dahee kim. but because it's not related beyond this. also the fact that korean fans were heavily and horribly mistreated by the majority japanese fandom for obvious reasons. i do not have the depths to speak on that stuff, but it says a lot that the software's first big swing ended up like that.

but i wanted to illustrate the mood of the fans going into this era. it was full of hopes and dreams. now, i don't want any wannabe know-it-alls wagging their fingers at me and checking the wikia going "b-but cullen, mew also came out!! at the same time!!" the seeU leak came out first. i remember there were fights over whether or not that demo was real. it was a cultural shift like no other. who the fuck cares about mew? literally her only legacy is one really amazing ezfg song. i will not debate anyone on this btw. i try to be objective but i'm allowed to inject a bit of my own opinion here too. you know who were also full of hopes and dreams? the companies. not your internetcos and your ahsofts, no, i'm talking publicly traded shits and record companies. look... i'm coming off harsh. i actually don't hold that much animosity, but you're gonna see why this was the first huge misstep of the era.

nice picture, right? this was the kind of optimism we started off this era on. but, i'll break down the picture for you in a way that helps illustrate a point somewhat:

your girlies from V2 like gumi (who was this era's it girl), lily, galaco (even if her shitty V2 version is contest only)

your earnest newcomers mew (look, even yamaha girlies count), cul, aoki lapis, seeU (one could argue.), IA (one could argue...)

tone rion of dear stage (who represented dempagumi inc., the group her voice provider came from, though this was a myth for years until it was proven... also it was clear they wanted to make the rest of dempagumi into vocaloids but rion flopped at the time. there was even a picture of her friends floating around. astoundingly embarrassing confidence. one billion dead vocaloids.)

akikoloid-chan of lawsons (yes, the convenience store! she is a vocaloidification of their mascot and i would argue the poster child of the modern brand private vocaloid. she was retired in uh.. 2019 i wanna say? though she was dormant for a long time anyway)

ring suzune, the aborted failure of minna no vocalo keikaku (everyone's vocalo-project)... this one involves a lot of otona no jijou AKA adult circumstances (japanese corpo's favorite excuse. you will now notice this phrase every time you hear it oooo). just unfortunate all around

yuzuki yukari of vocalomakets, i put her in a separate category because she really is a girlie of her own. a vocal born from producers being dissatisfied that their wants weren't being answered and no company was taking them up, they just went "fuck it" and produced yukari on their own. a huge outlier in this era of vanity projects and companies using the scene for their own crap.

not pictured, but i have to mention her due to her complicated position in this era, but mayu of exit tunes. exit tunes is a record label that heavily supported vocaloid and utaite during this era, signing both producers and utaite, and making compilation cds of popular vocaloid hits. and probably saw to it that due to their dominance in the area of compilation cds (and they still dominate, even if their releases are sparse these days their cds still top oricon without effort), them sneaking mayu into the tracklists would work... my thoughts on this? my position has softened a lot over the years. and i've always thought "they gave up right before she organically caught on, they should have kept pushing. so what a shame".

now you may notice i bolded a few of these and made special mention of the companies behind them. you probably already figured it out, but this era had heavy investment from parties who had only to gain from a rapidly growing niche subculture. see, unlike the other two of nnd's big three idolmaster and touhou, who are IPs where you need some kind of cooperation to officially get in on, vocaloid... is incredibly free, so laissez faire in comparison. you buy a 9,000 dollar dev kit and get to work making your mascot. it was... so easy. so free. so sweet. but real life is not so easy, or free, or sweet. you actually had to be accepted by the fans, and like i said before... the voice does not matter. what matters is who uses it, and how that propagate the voice. this is true time and time again. it is the ultimate "how many times do i have to teach you this lesson, old man?!" of the scene from a commercial standpoint. no matter how many years pass. ergo, one billion dead vocaloids. corpo vocaloids were releasing and they flopped immediately. earnest products from newcomers were dropping and struggling, though def doing better than the corpo ones (like lapis, lapis did ok). existing "in crowd" companies were vomiting out new vocals and not even promoting them. it was a disgusting era of excess and death and bile and plague and war and and and. it's astounding that it is hard carried by the art that came out of it. because if you only look at the commercial side of things, it is fucking disgusting.

now, onto the fan aspect. remember when i said this era truly kicked off when kagerou daze came out? yup. here it comes. so, anyone lived through this era remembers the cambrian explosion of original projects that did not make use of vocaloid mascots— arguably the final death knell of vocaloid-ke secondary works being the mainstream.

now, i'm planting my flag in the ground here very firmly— i do not ride the bandwagon of the people who erroneously attribute the near death of the scene to kagepro. it's just not true. personally i have a very complicated (bordering on near sort of but not quite negative, depending on how nostalgic i feel that day) relationship with the series, but to blame it is incredibly narrowminded and ignorant of the actual reasons the bubble burst, and not to mention unfair. if you find it annoying, fine. but just say you don't like the series and move on. and really, for better or for worse, mekakucity days and mekakucity records are unironically god tier vocaloid albums that will be remembered for years to come. i just have to say this because i see a lot of people blame jin for very flimsy reasons... SHUT UP!!! anyway.

i think one of the issues with the whole project culture that flourished during this era was simply the fact that since they were multimedia projects (whether by accident like kagepro or intentionally from the get), fans were coming from all angles, and even those who got into it through vocaloid eventually became super mega invested in them as separate IPs. which is... unfortunately an issue. so when these properties eventually spun off into manga, light novels, covers with real seiyuu, merch and ultimately some even netting anime projects... once those projects either abruptly ended (lol, lmao, this will come back later) or reached their natural conclusion, inevitably a lot of those fans either leave with it or found themselves burned out on vocaloid itself, or perhaps even think they've outgrown it.

next, utaite. now i mentioned a bit earlier about how the first batch of utaite were amateurs who didn't expect anything out of it and did it just cause, and how exit tunes signed a lot of them in this era. now, comes the time i speak about utaite "after piko and akiakane". i believe due to a generational gap and subconsciously perhaps due to the signing of a few utaite from the old guard at this point, the nu utaite of the 2010s had a sort of individuality to them... this isn't an insult, and a large part of their popularity actually came from them always collaborating and a lot of them ending up befriending each other. again, i'm an outsider, but i understand this much. but this era for utaite was the beginning of the idea that an utaite can become a superstar. in the end, very few of them did become superstars.

a lot of them naturally returned to a normal level of popularity after the bubble. there aren't a lot of your AtRs or your amatsukis and such. the smart ones became vtubers before being a vtuber was cool. to give an example: un:c and hashiyan who are arguably oldheads more than nu era became anjo and kosaka of monsterz mate. this isn't a doxx btw, this is publically available information, and un:c often credits himself as a mixer under projects he does as anjo. also, a certain duo of female utaite whose names i will not mention went on to form the super popular vtuber duo himehima. there are other early adopters like kano and god knows who else that i don't feel like mentioning. anyway, if your utaite did it after 2018 and under their own identity it is a desperate plea for attention. sorry but it's just the objective truth. tangent over... did you think i wasn't gonna shoehorn vtubers into this somehow?! anyway.

even sutopuri who got mega popular, only really formed after the vocaloid bubble burst, perhaps even as a result of it. utaite had a positive effect on the vocaloid scene and still do. but at the time, i think it was at its strongest. utaite NEEDED vocaloid, and vocaloid benefitted greatly from their continued patronage and love for it. i for one will not be caught slandering utaite and their relationship with vocaloid even if i will always prefer the vocaloid versions. the issue here comes from the fact that way too many were signed without much star factor (i'm not disparaging them, i'm just saying they did not hold their audience across the mediums), and even at that their fans splintered off into many tribes and many weren't really into vocaloid in the first place and were more into the livestreams and twitter banter. that's just how things shook out. you even have your reols and such, as reol was the face but in a sense her, gigaP and okiku were a set and gigaP left the scene to focus on commercial work with those two. too many of them got signed and splintered off into their own little fandoms before THOSE fandoms kind of died out. so this is another part where fans disappear and lose interest. you're starting to see the pattern here, right?

there's so much stuff i thought i would touch on, like how gumi was the undisputed it girl of the scene at this time, and how kagepro rose IA to prominence (all because jin wanted to buy gumi but didn't find her in the store) and how IA's people 1st place locked certain producers in their basement (like jin, yasuhiro, ishifuro etc) and... now this is a conspiracy on my part but prevented them from working on anything else, so that drew more talent away from the scene... but i realized it's tangential and belongs to other parts in this conversation. i want to reiterate here though before we go on to the biggest elephant in the room of all which would be the point of no return... there is more to the vocaloid bubble era of 2012-2015 than projects, than corpo and record company bullshit, than utaite fans. and there is more to the era before that than the top brass producers i mentioned earlier. i really... really lament how so much of early vocaloid reuploads are gone from youtube. there's a whole world just gone. so, anyway, are you ready?

the final block in this weird jenga of a story.

the producer, suzumu, and his unfortunate associates.

i will cut to the chase because it's easier to explain who was involved once i say what happened. to put it shortly... suzumu "stole" his songs. this is weird and vague and i always hated the way people used polite euphemisms to explain it because it made the situation way more confusing than it had to be— he used his producer friends as ghostwriters to compose songs for him, basically. and was very not nice about it according to one of the people involved. now i will probably adopt a somewhat sympathetic angle that people who have previously heard of this case may have not encountered before. not because i feel bad for that fuck, but because it seems like at least one of the people impacted has forgiven him, and others have moved on in less obvious ways. he's also professionally making music in the industry now. as much as i want to keep up the act of disliking him, i don't care anymore. i still dislike what he did immensely because it impacts producers i love to this day. but the man came forth about it himself and those involved forgave him. it's been almost a decade now... man!

suzumu, before getting into posting songs (who knows how many were actually his and which were ghostwritten), was a prolific lyric writer who worked with some of the trendiest vocaloid producers around. i'll cross gigaP out, since he was not involved in the incident, but almost every single person involved in this had worked with him in a lyric or story writing capacity (for 150P and komine specifically). here are the involved parties as i recall, bolded are people who he "stole" from

mafumafu, the person who spoke the most about it post suzumu's confession and the most vocal, and likely the person who was used as a ghostwriter the most (i don't recall if he actually alludes to this or not but people commonly think this). mafumafu had a series of vocaloid songs that told a story, but stopped using vocaloid after the incident for a while and songs that were going to get pvs from his first vocaloid album were not posted. he contributed a song called machigai sagashi for the vocaloid flavored moba #compass in 2015, but it seems like that song was probably in the works since before the incident for reasons i will highlight in a moment. suzumu wrote the lyrics for only one of the songs. iirc, mafumafu's song berserk is about suzumu. don't remember if this is confirmed or not. btw, the album of those songs, meikyou shisui, is really underrated and you should check it out. im not a mafu guy but that album is great

kemu, the person who is arguably closest to suzumu and the one who most publicly supported suzumu (albeit wordlessly) in later years by working with him professionally. when i mention someone forgiving suzumu, i mean him. suzumu wrote the lyrics for most of his kemu voxx songs, a famous multimedia project kemu was on the helm of along with hatsuko as the main illustrator. since kemu no longer had a lyricist, the project stalled for years until he posted a song suddenly in 2017 (with self written lyrics). it seems like the series is continuing still, but with a different direction

150P, who worked with suzumu heavily for his shuuen no shiori (bookmark of demise) project, a project that was conceived from the start to be a story. this part makes me really mad, guys!! i'll try to keep calm about it. 150P wrote over 50 songs (idk if this is an actual number but he wrote a lot. at least 40.) for the series, with suzumu writing the story and lyrics. the character designs were done by saine (who dodged a bullet all things considered.) and the art was done by komine. 150P was already doing crazy things before shuuenpro, his most popular song is still his insane 12-len classical metal chorus song lost destination. now shuuenpro caught on slower than its peers and was an underdog. i LOVE shuuenpro to this day. you know what? right when it was finally getting its first W, when the album that had seiyuu covers at come out on oricon in third place, suzumu dropped his confession. what a slap to the fucking face!! the manga of the series hastily wrapped up after that. 150P and komine disappeared and no longer did stuff ever. 150P recently appeared for a mafumafu anniversary thing so i'm glad he's still alive. but, komine...

komine, the only non-producer, an artist with the worst luck. she was slowly rising to prominence doing pv art for a lot of popular producers, and was the main artist of shuuenpro most prominently. during the initial release of the first few shuuenpro songs, she was accused of tracing, and the art of the pv of sarumane isutori game had to be done by someone else. komine stopped using social media at that point, but continued to make art for the project quietly and quite prolifically. so she was already on some kind of fraught standing even though the tracing allegations were disproven. fast forward to the suzumu blowup, komine packed up her bags and disappeared forever. if she had become disillusioned, i do not blame her. her final public contribution was the design of jeanne d'arc from #compass, the character who was paired with the mafumafu song. all subsequent artworks of jeanne were done by different artists. i suspect the reason the vocaloid version of machigai sagashi did not have a proper pv was due to komine quitting. i can only imagine what that pv looked like! if you're wondering why i mention a pv, it's cuz compass fans got mad at mafu for having a fancy pv for his self cover but not for the original. but otona no jijou, you know? and where is that energy for eve who still hasn't released a pv for mistletoe publicly and only put it on his kuso app and with 0 compass association? who let that wishy washy fuck do an anniversary song? ...im not gonna go on a compass tangent. anyway.

so... why does this matter?

it matters because people became disillusioned due to this drama. it matters because suzumu took out some very popular and prolific people from the scene during what one could argue was a transitional phase. the fans of all those people, including suzumu's... gone. if you weren't there, you may not understand the cult of personality suzumu had. he had his name on everything and was friends with all the right people. when i heard about this incident... i just closed my eyes and sighed lol. it hurt and it hit when the scene was at its weakest. and was the final blow, almost. and it impacted the way people saw and talked about vocaloid for years. miku became "owakon" for a time. people thought kizuna ai was gonna replace her as a cultural touchstone (lol, lmao, it is proven time and time again that the big three cannot die). kenshi yonezu, in all his detached glory, came down from his jeweled encrusted throne to compose a song for miku's 10th birthday that he smugly thought was the death knell of nico nico douga.... which even at the time of its release was contested by even people who were on the same miku anniversary project and, whether you wanna acknowledge it or not, is still mocked to this day by several producers. magical mirai's theme this year even does it. there is no respect for sand planet or anything kenshi yonezu stood for in that song. what an asshole move no matter how you see it. argue with the wall if you don't agree, i don't want to hear it. the scene survived because there were producers and artists and fans who still loved it. not because of some sardonic fuckoff song by a guy so detached he'd write a funeral march for a birthday.

these days, i feel like the community is incredibly conscious of what happened. there are wanton community led events that encourage not only the creation of songs, covers, art and secondary creations but also the discovery of new producers— the biggest of which being vocaloid collection, which happens three times a year and has many categories, but most importantly the top ranking (producers active for 3+ years) and the rookie ranking. i once read a japanese article that said proseka brought new fans hungry for something beyond the music presented in the game, and vocacolle and other community led events and song posting festivals supplied the works. the average age of the new vocaloid producer is— and this is my own estimate based on how many heart attacks i've been given the past 3 or 4 years— 17~19 years old. they say things like "i know of kagepro but i wasn't there"!! should i get my cane out!! who's driving me to the retirement home?!

even companies involved in the product end are more savvy these days.... (holding my tongue about a certain company of a popular synth software and its ceo because i have nothing nice to say). i think they realized that you can't clap with one hand and that appealing to the end user and fans is a necessity. honestly, i can only be excited for what comes next. we're never going back to that dark age, i can say this with utmost confidence. do i miss the past of the times before the bubble, back when vocaloid was a smidge more geeky? sure. but we can only really move forward, so why not enjoy it

#ask #anonymous #it came up to over 5k after all #idk how i clocked that.#im so scared to post this but i cant even read words anymore so if it still has typos then so be it

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witchthewriter · 2 years ago

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𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐲𝐥 𝐃𝐢𝐱𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐩𝐥𝐮𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐬/𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞

⤷ gender neutral, ambiguous race, and any size reader. Requests are open, thank you for reading!

ᴹᵃˢᵗᵉʳˡᶤˢᵗ

𝑺𝑭𝑾🌿

・He wouldn’t give a damn that you were any bigger than anyone else

・But if your body doesn’t let you do things that others can, he would accommodate that as well

・Never once was he ashamed of being with you or seen with you

・He’s very proud that you’re his significant other

・And even though you are an attractive person, it’s your heart that drew him to you.

・” That’s my girl” / “That’s my boy”

・Will and has fought ANYONE who makes fun of your weight. An insults will result in a hard punch to the face and a few more for the reminder that his significant other, and anyone who is plus size, will not be insulted in his presence. Or his groups presence. Because all of them will stand up for you.

・Being absolutely loved and adored by Daryl. You can find him gazing in your direction when you’re apart.

“Dixon, stop staring,” Carol muttered, rolling her eyes.

・Plants kisses all over your face when you’re feeling insecure. And reminds you how beautiful you are.

𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒏: ・Daryl sees himself in you. Because he doesn’t get attached too easily either. In this world, people die all the time. And your heart is so broken already, on certain days, you feel like you can’t go on.

・But Daryl knows you’re strong. He sees your strength. And he commends it.

・Your best friend would be Carol, who doesn’t let a lot of people in either.

𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒔𝒐𝒇𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆: ・ Then you make his heart melt. Your kindness makes him weak at knees. You’re like a caring figure for everyone in the group - making sure people have eaten, had water and rested properly.

・Your best friend would be Glenn, and when he died, so did apart of you. You shared in Maggie’s grief. And found it really hard to be around Negan.

𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏: ・ He loves when other people scamper around, too scared to look you in the eyes. Maybe you’re intimidating because you naturally exude that aura, or you put it on, because it’s too difficult in this world to let people see you without your walls up. Whatever the case, he loves that other people will do as you say. Sometimes he finds it amusing. But he knows you’d never make someone uncomfortable (unless they deserve it.)

・ Although he does like it when you put assholes in their place. The way they tremble ... it’s pretty entertaining.

・ I reckon Rosita would end up being your best friend.

𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒚𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏, 𝒂 𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒅𝒊𝒆: ・ Then Daryl loves that you won’t leave someone’s side, even if the odds aren’t looking too good. He loves that you aren’t easily swayed, and once someone shows themselves as worthy, you will defend that person until your last breath.

・You’d be best friends with Michonne, and your heart would absolutely break when she goes to find Rick

・He sources out clothes that will fit you, and if you’re running out of clothes to wear, he’ll learn how to sew. You’ll never have to worry about that again.

・You never feel like you’re too much, or that your weight holds you back. Because Daryl never makes you feel that way.

𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝑷𝒆𝒕 𝑵𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒀𝒐𝒖:

Sweetheart, and when you’re by yourselves ‘My Girl/My Boy’. He isn’t one for a lot of nicknames, so when there’s a large group of people, he’ll call you a shortened version of your name.

𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝑳𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒂𝒈𝒆:

Quality Time and Gift Giving. He isn’t one for a lot of words, so he shows you how he loves you through action. Whatever you give to him, may it be a rock, a shell, something you’ve made - he will cherish that. He’d either have it in his pockets, or on a chain/rope, or on his bike.

𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒆 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒈:

Dance Me To The End Of Love by the Midnite String Quartet (original song by Leonard Cohen)

𝑹𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝑻𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒔:

Tough On The Outside, Soft On The Inside (Daryl) x The Top (You)

Tragic Past x Ray of Light & Hope

You Fell First, They Fell Harder

#twd daryl #daryl dixon #daryl dixon headcanons #daryl dixon imagine #dating daryl dixon would include #the walking dead #daryl dixon the walking dead #the walking dead headcanons #daryl dixon x plus size reader #plus size reader #daryl dixon x reader

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sage-nebula · 26 days ago

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My season one collector's edition of Arcane arrived today and when I tell you how high quality and perfect everything is . . . I'm especially in love with the hex crystal dice.

The color is perfect and they are so shiny! You can't really tell from a still image, but they have a glitter substance in them so when you move them (or if you were to roll them) you can see something sparkly swirling inside. It puts the hex in hex crystal!

And the hex core one . . . man . . .

This is HEAVY. Pretty sure it would chip my floor if I dropped it. Definitely not for playing with lol. (But I don't play anyway so they're on display in my curio cabinet.)

There was also a cloth map of Piltover (including Zaun—it's just all called Piltover), but there's something on it that feels to me like it might be a spoiler for s2, so I'm not posting it here.

But there are high quality prints of Jinx's drawings (ones from her childhood and present day—you can see the skill jump!), and they are so goooood. Granted, some we've seen before, but it's nice to have thick, physical copies.

Cat Silco.

Family portrait. Here, Vi has the crown later given to Silco, and Powder was already drawing herself with dynamite, drawing someone on fire, drawing missiles and bombs. This is why the idea that Powder and Jinx are different people / personas is ridiculous; Powder is Jinx is Powder. She was always going to grow up to bomb the council building with a giant missile, no matter what.

Not sure exactly what is going on here. The bottom person might be an enforcer due to the mouth maybe? There's a dead pig and a dismembered hand. More bombs and dynamite and some early Chomper concepts. Nails, too, which if you remember she had in Mouser. (Mowser? Mowzer??) Little baby Powder had a violent imagination.

The common fanon is that Fishbones is a shark in honor of Silco, and I like that, but here we have an early Fishbones concept drawn by Powder. Granted, this still could've been from after Silco took her in and perhaps showed her the sea monsters, but it's also possible that Powder herself just always liked sharks because of the chompy teeth. And is it just me, or does that look like Piltover on fire in the background?

The first one she drew in present day (or closer to present day) is an updated Fishbones concept, schematic style. See what I mean about the skill jump, and how you can tell which were done by a child versus an older teen? I find it interesting that so much of Fishbones is pink here—did she still see Vi as a pillar of power when she drew this? I also love how she drew herself with Fishbones eyes up in the top right lmao.

Monkey bomb concepts. It may have traumatized her, but it was also the first one that ever worked, so she revisited it. There's also a doodle of a . . . hamster? . . . on there. Did she have a pet at some point?

And lastly, updated Chomper concepts. Not much to say here except I thought the "POW" at top right said something very different at first. Also she really did just get so much better at coloring and shading. I'm gonna frame these.

Anyway, I love the CE and I hope we get one for season 2 as well. Now to wait for the artbook to be delivered early next year. :3

#arcane #i'm just getting the standard edition of the artbook bc the CE was both sold out and WAY too expensive lol #but i'm so happy i got this 💜

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jinxthejubilee · 2 years ago

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Venus - We Need to Talk (Again)

Back here again, aren't we? I'm so sorry, but I just can't help myself.

Because I have just discovered that there were plans to reveal not just one, but TWO lost turtles in ROTTMNT, I will discuss the story potential both Venus and Slash could have, should this show ever come back. (Please Nickelodeon, do something right for once and give us this show back-) But I must finish Venus first, before moving on to Slash.

And for those of you who might ask about Jennika, I thought about making her own page to hold out hope that she could make it into the Rise universe, only to come to the tragic realization that it was highly unlikely that she could ever appear in the show, given that Venus and Slash are pretty infamous as characters, and that the creators said that there were 2 missing turtles and not 3. My apologies to all Jennika stans.

Anyway, I did talk about Venus already, yes, but after revisting her backstory from The Next Mutation, I've come to the conclusion that her debut story isn't all bad? Yeah, I can't believe I just said that either.

I'll give the Next Mutation writer's 15-year-old brains credit, the idea that Venus was adopted by someone else and learned ninjutsu/magic is a cool concept, if explored correctly.

Since it's been pretty well-established that Big Mama's assistant was likely going to be revealed as Venus, I have an idea as to how she got there.

Now I could be wrong, but I believe that Big Mama's assistant debuted in Season 2. Whether or not she was just hired or was hiding out until the time was right, who can say.

For those of you who don't know or simply wiped that show from your memory, Venus was raised by Master Chung I, a human martial artist who taught Venus everything he knew.

Chung I died after confronting the Dragon Lord and demanding that he release Splinter. And his last words to Venus were for her to travel to New York City.

Now if I were in charge, I would keep some similarities to this, but obviously take some creative liberties.

In my Rise version of event, Draxum's lab explodes, the boys and Splinter take off, and Venus and Slash are presumed by Draxum to have died.

Instead of Venus' father being a human, I would make him a yokai, who finds her somehow and takes her to the farthest end of the Mystic City.

This father-figure would parallel Splinter in a few ways:

He would simultaneously be responsible, yet neglectful at the same time. The guy would be very much a loner with a tragic past, so while he would take care of Venus physically, her emotionally needs are something he simply can't and would not handle.

He would never leave his home. Granted, it would be hard to do so, as he lives very, very far away from other yokai, but he just refuses to interact with anyone he doesn't have to. But not because he's lazy, it would likely be due to paranoia and his strict moral code to keep his whatever he's keeping secret, safe from everyone.

Less of a father, and more of a master. A total flip from Rise Splinter, who focused more on fatherhood than teaching his sons dangerous martial arts, this guy is "teacher first, father second."

I see him as a cat. Not sure why I went with that, but it was a cool idea I thought of while brainstorming. While Splinter is an overweight, yet agile rat, I imagine Chung I would be a skeletal, agile, and exhausted cat.

I even have a sketch I drew.

Honestly, just think of 2012 Master Splinter for a frame of reference on his personality. He's still wise and knowledgeable, but instead of kind and compassionate, he's grumpy, unwelcoming, and snappy.

Not the greatest upbringing for Venus: living in isolation and rarely going outside, only knowing and living with one person her entire life, training constantly every single day, and being told that her emotions should never interfere with her duty, but she knows that it's the best for her! Poor thing...

So how does this play into how Venus became Big Mama's assistant? Allow me to explain:

The whole reason why Venus' father isolated himself and Venus was because of an ancient prophecy. I haven't worked out all the logistics of the prophecy, but basically he needs to protect that sacred amulet he has around his neck, or the Dragon Lord will rise once more.

Unfortunately, shenanigans happen and the Dragon Lord is awakened, but not at full power. Though he has just enough to kill Chung I.

Heartbroken and determined to stop the Dragon Lord, Venus travels through the Mystic City for any information on another ancient weapon that could destroy the beast once and for all.

This leads to her meeting Big Mama and learning about the Battle Nexus tournaments.

Whether Venus likes Big Mama or not, I haven't decided, but she's honestly just using her to gain battle experience and knowledge on everything going on within the Mystic City and/or the surface.

Depending on when all of this happened, she might have become Big Mama's assistant at least several months to a year prior to the boys being introduced to her in Season 2.

I picture that the big reveal of Venus being their sister would play out a bit similarly to how I discussed previously. I loved looking through everyone's ideas about Venus, and I can say without a doubt, that the amount of fanfare behind ROTTMNT and Venus overall is worth Nickelodeon bringing back this show.

Note: Well! I hope you all enjoyed this! If you read till the end, thank you very much! Please tell me what you think of my ideas, that would be very much appreciated! Until next time with my comments, concerns, and ideas about Slash, have a great day everyone! Byeee! 💗

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trulytiredhermit · 2 years ago

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Alright Mit.

So what if the reader has a job involving astronomy?

I could see Wind, already thinking of his older sibling being so cool, and now! They also have this wonderful and so cool job?!

One night i could picture the reader being so mesmerized with the night sky because there are a lot of stars, a lot of constellations--

Constellations?

They grab their bag and took out some notes, notes that has things written on it involving astronomy, and obviously constellations.

The chain will just hear the reader naming each constellation every night, Wind asked to, that's how they figured out that they knew a lot of things involving astronomy, obviously because their job is about astronomy!

*oooooo!! I likey!

But would this be with a Reader from another world or a Reader from Hyrule?

Cause like with a Reader from another world they wouldn't know the constellations at the start and would probably be researching a whole bunch about this world's constellations and astronomy. Plus, maybe the Chain would end up seeing the constellations Reader drew from their world in their journal and ask about it. Cue Reader going on an astronomy lecture about the night sky in their world. (I know the chain would find this especially cute).*

Yes, Wind is definitely the one to notice this about Reader first. Little dude's a sailor and sailed with Tetra and her pirates, using stars and constellations was a MUST. Heck, I bet Tetra had maps of the stars that Wind could've seen and looked at, now does he know all the star signs? Probably not, he just recognizes the patterns.

(Although to be honest, I'm sure this could be true about most, if not all, of the Chain. Since they would probably have had to travel by night sometimes, they most likely had to rely on the stars to help guide them. Even if they didn't have someone to point it out, they probably noticed the pattern of the same stars/pattern of stars appearing in the same general area and then disappearing in another same area. (Like the north star and all that)).

So, when he finds out that Reader does one night (Maybe he pointed out a star and excitedly regaled to Reader how he had followed it to always find his way home and Reader called the star by its proper name.) Cue Wind just going into little brother mode and asking Reader to explain EVERYTHING.

(Or it happens like you said, Reader is just jotting things down in their journal by the fire light of what they've seen so far and Wind, being ever so curious and nosey, asks Reader about what they're doing and that's when Reader explains and shows him their astronomy journal).

Of course, when one member of the Chain learns something new and exciting (what isn't exciting about Reader honestly) about Reader, the rest of the Chain have to learn about that something.

They take notice of Wind's completely enraptured face while Reader goes on explaining something about the stars and the night sky and something about constellations and they just have to know what it is.

Afterwards, the group just starts having astronomy nights where they either keep the firelight pretty low or don't have it at all, and they sit or lay in an open peaceful area just so that they can stare at the night sky and the stars with Reader. (Sky's era would be the perfect era to do this because 1 Skyloft is literally above the clouds and 2 it's pretty peaceful and Sky would know the perfect spots to lay down where no one or thing could interrupt them).

(Also, I just KNOW Wild tells Reader all about the falling stars and the star fragments in his world/era and while Reader is super excited, they are also highly confused and concerned because stars are supposed to be very, very far away suns of different galaxies. HOW ARE THEY FALLING AND APPEARING IN FRAGMENT FORM?!?!)

*Honestly this is so cute right now! I LOVE IT!!! And it can be seen either way too (yandere or non yandere)*

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hyenahunt · 9 months ago

Text

Rouge & Ruby: Eventual Affection - 1

Writer: Umeda Chitose

Season: Winter

Characters: Jun, Ibara

Proofreading: royalquintet (JP) & Skyress (ENG)

Translation: Mirei (Adam) & hyenahunt (Eve)

Jun: — I wanted to... apologise for what happened the other day.

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Jun: ( I've got nothing going on in the morning today, but I dunno when I get off work in the evening... )

( … Seems like Ibara's also got work starting only in the afternoon, but he's already left his dorm. Got that confirmed by his roommate Aoba-senpai, so I'm sure that's right.)

(In that case, that means even if there's no other staff around, Ibara's gonna be in the office working this early... )

( Which means that this morning's the only time I can have a proper face-to-face talk with him! )

( After all, we're still working separately as Adam and Eve more often than not… )

(And even when we get together as Eden, we don't have any time set aside for chatting, huh~? )

( … Well, I think we're starting to make eye contact again, but of course, it's still only during work. So it's not like we can really take our time and talk.)

Jun: ...And that's why today's gonna be the day that I — Screw that, actually I'm gonna go talk to Ibara this very second~!

I can't let this weird tension go on for a second longer!

Location: CosPro Office

Jun: 'Scuse meee…

… Hm? That's weird~ The lights are on and everything, but there's no sign of anyone around.

Heey~ Ibaraaa~?

…

C'mon, there's no way he wouldn't respond to me... right? Is he in the break room or something~?

Well, I had a look and no one's there... Why's the light on, then?

He's not the type who'd forget to turn it off, either... Maybe he just popped out for a bit?

No matter how good ES's security is, it’s pretty careless to leave a desk unattended like this...

Jun: (...Ah. There's a bag next to Ibara's desk.)

(Oh, so he really has already clocked in. That means if I just wait a lil' while, Ibara'll come back for sure —)

...Now that I'm looking at it, there's paperwork piled up all over his desk.

Here's the project proposal for Chocolat Fes, along with a diagram of the stage... And there's new song lyrics in this folder, huh...

Jun: This time around, both Adam and Eve's songs show the distinct qualities of each unit and how they're different from Eden. I like 'em a lot...

I can't wait to show 'em off on the stage of Chocolat Fes ♪

There's this one, too... Looks like it’s the storyboard for our next music video. On top of that, it's so easy to understand that I'd bet Ibara drew it out himself.

Now, this sparkly-looking artwork he's got sitting around... it's some kinda pattern for a design?

I heard something about it being related to original chocolates for Eden, if I remember correctly.

Ooh, so this is how they're gonna look....

….

(browsing through the documents)

(Huh, so Ibara's the type to scribble stuff on his papers… He's made notes left and right.)

…

Time: A while later

Ibara: … ?

(There is someone here… oh, it’s Jun this time? )

( Seems it's all the rage these days to prepare for ambushing me in the office while I'm not here. )

— What are you doing there?

Jun: Oh hey, it's you. Welcome back, Ibara.

Ibara: I'm back — wait, no. Let me ask, I was asking you what you're doing around my desk.

Are you peeping at me? Nice hobby you have there.

Jun: You can't quite call it peeping when you've left everything out in the open. Where else was I supposed to look?

But well, I did have a look at all of ‘em. I shouldn't have gone through them without asking... Sorry 'bout that.

I came to find you, but there was no sign of you anywhere in the office, so since I only had all your papers for company I figured I might as well... or something?

Ibara: Good grief, I was only gone for a moment. You have terrible timing...

It’s fortunate that I only went out to get a drink.

What would you have done if you came so early and I didn't return … or I didn't even come to work in the first place?

Jun: Well, I mean, considering how you were working even through New Year's, I found myself convinced somehow that you'd be working this early, too.~

That's why it didn't even occur to me that you wouldn't be here.

Ibara: …

Jun: C'mon, couldja not look at me like I'm suddenly talking gibberish or something?

I came here for a reason, okay?...Like I said earlier, I wanted to find you.

Ibara: I find it perplexing that you came all the way here just to “find me” when you can always see me at work.

What is it? Is there something you urgently need from me?

Jun: .... Well, I dunno if it's urgent, really... I just felt like I should actually set aside some time to talk about this face to face with you.

— I wanted to... apologise for what happened the other day.

Ibara: The other day?

Jun: Just from looking at all these papers scattered around and seeing all your detailed writing, anyone could tell that —

Actually, no, I could already tell how hard you've been working ever since you told us about Chocolat Fes.

And yet I just started throwing all my messy thoughts at you without thinking it over properly...

It probably threw you off when I disagreed... or more like, pissed you off, even. I mean, you had some guy who didn't know shit 'bout the situation shooting his mouth off at you.

And so that's why I felt like I should really apologise —

Ibara: No need.

Jun: — for all that… Huh?

What... did you just say?

Ibara: No need, I said. You don't have to apologise to me. It's all fine. There is no need for it.

Jun: Huh…?

Ibara: Before you misunderstand… I must make it clear that I'm not saying this because I find your attempts at an apology to be annoying or anything.

It is true that you had gotten on my nerves then, but it no longer bothers me at all. So, in conclusion, there is no need for you to apologise.

Jun: ?

Ibara: Do you still not understand, perhaps?

What you said to me no longer bothers me and I hold no ill feelings anymore. Also, preparation for Chocolat Fes is proceeding smoothly

But now I see that what happened that day still lingers in your mind, Jun.

Jun: ???

Ibara: Pft—fufu…

I was wondering why you kept staring at me nervously at work. So that's what was happening, hm?

Jun: W...What the helllll~!?

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#ensemble stars #enstars #enstars translation #hyenahunttl #s: rouge and ruby #jun sazanami #ibara saegusa

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teenandbeyond · 1 year ago

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hi could a request a demon fem reader x gojo where reader is just bewitchingly beautiful ( and low-key evil n v powerful ) and she joins the uni where gojo is a student of and he tries impressing her n shit n idk more things could be added but ya it has smut n it's very smexy n romantic sort of but sub!gojo :O

Gojo x Dom Fem. Demon Reader

Interesting, let's see how it goes.

Want the Dom Gojo version? Here.

Want more from meh? Masterlist!

☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆

🕶 Please Her 🕶 (Jujutsu Kaisen)

Warning(s): College AU, flirty reader, smut, dirty talk, didn't really know where to go with it