#remarkably unremarkable

[inthenimtime]

the remarkable thing about me is that im almost entirely unremarkable

[queruloustea]

i suppose i should have an intro post

hello there! i'm queruloustea, something of an artist by the means of digital painting and ballpoint pen, and also arguably something of a writer (i'm known as llakesludge on ao3).

on my blog one will find large amounts of hollow knight fanart. i like it very much :) i do also have a gaggle of original projects going at the moment, too, which may pop up from time to time. my art is tagged with #queruloustea, unless i forget :)

furthermore, i feel it necessary to mention here that i like rain. a tremendous amount. it's very soothing.

and vegetable stew.

ah, anyhow, i'm very very tired and very very foggy and often very very sore. if i so happen to mysteriously vanish leaving little trace of my presence, worry not—i have likely gone to hibernate within the nearest lakebed or mossy hollow and will crawl back out when i'm rested. thankyou for understanding.

do i take commissions?

not at the moment—i've an awful lot going on as it is—but it's something i'd like to think about.

how about suggestions??

you are welcome to give suggestions if you so wish! suggestions meaning that there is no one-hundred-percent guarantee i will undertake them. as i mentioned, i'm very tired. foggy, if you will. sleepy even. nonetheless i am still happy to hear them :)

speedpaints?

not at the moment! it’s not out of the question, of course, but as of now i do not have any speedpaints, nor speedpaint recording abilities. i might put one up in the future if i begin to grow more comfortable!

hm. hmm.

don't repost/use my art without credit et-cetera et-cetera, thankyou. i greatly appreciate it :)

alrighty, that's about it! enjoy your day :)

brush knowledge dwells below the cut;

kyle's drawing box - happy hb

watercolour brush named yeah

kyle's screentones 38

other various brushes of forgotten identity

[fingertipsmp3]

Also I can’t figure out if my life genuinely does suck or I’m just having an existential crisis because my period starts in approximately 48 hours

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

I had a dream that someone named "Curtis" tried to sell a set of tiny red plastic rings to me that looked sort of like the red plastic rings I was wearing all the time but very small. They were in some kind of plastic bag, and when you removed one it would just... keep the bag.

I bought one ring, which was a bit larger and more impressive-looking than the others but smaller than the largest ones in the set (I think the smallest was somewhere around 1.5 mm across, the largest about 2.5).

[bloopsalot]

As a Unremarkable Derrick Krueger kinny (/hj) him now being the Best Pitcher in the league makes me cry

[parcai]

sucks tho bc the best parts r literally just the moms + cleveland w conrad

[crehador]

brother crab's spring 2024 first impressions: re:monster

it's fine! like it is the most solidly Just Fine show i've seen in a very long time. i can't imagine it getting much better but i'm only here for satotaku so i'll be content as long as it doesn't get much worse lol

that's... pretty much it. nothing else to say. Just Fine

[officialtokyosan]

"Impossible! How could I fail!?"

[theemporium]

Marauders x reader smut? pretty please?

thank you for requesting!🖤

.

“Oh fuck.”

“C’mon, love, that’s not a guess,” a voice mused from your left. Maybe in any other situation, the voice would have been as clear as day. Maybe in any other situation, you would have known which one of your boys had just spoken. 

But in this situation? You could barely string together a coherent sentence, let alone focus on who was talking to you.

You had known provoking your boys was never going to end well for you. You had already spent the last few pushing their buttons, add in the fact all of you had a few intense days between classes and assignments and all sorts that had been tearing you away from each other except for meal times. 

You wanted them in the most deprived, feral way you could have them which just so happened to be tied and spread across the bed, one of their school ties wrapped around your eyes as they each took their turn making you wiggle and squirm with their heads between your thighs. 

Then again, you expected nothing less when you had jokingly remarked each of them were as unremarkable as the next when it came to going down on you at dinner to Lily and Marlene. A sarcastic comment they didn’t like at all. 

That had been hours ago, no here you were, gasping and panting and moaning as they made you come again and again and again until your brain was fuzzy and your body was on fire and you could barely remember your own name, let alone theirs. 

Two arms wrapped around your thighs, keeping you spread open as an eager tongue lapped and licked your soaking cunt. You were shaking, far too overstimulated and sensitive but the boy between your legs was eager to please, licking you like he was a starved man. 

“Take a guess, honey, and we’ll let you have a break.” 

“I-I can’t,” you whined, your lips falling open as the boy between your legs sucked your swollen clit between his lips, his hands digging into your skin as you let out a pathetic mewl. “F-Feels too good, please—” 

“Gotta guess, love,” the boy between your legs groaned, his nose playfully nudging against your inner thigh before he placed open-mouthed kisses along your skin. “Not gonna stop until then, could fucking stay here forever.”

“I—” your head lolled to the side, your cheek pressed against the pillow beneath you as you tried to string a sentence together. 

“Just gotta say a name, baby.” 

“James!” you cried out as his tongue teased your entrance, watching the way you fluttered and clenched around nothing. “I-It’s James!”

You whined when the body between your legs disappeared, your body shivering at the sudden loss of warmth as the chill of the dorm room washed over you. You heard footsteps before you felt someone leaning over you, pressing their lips against yours as they pulled the blindfold off you. 

“Good job, love,” Remus murmured against your lips as he cupped his cheek, his thumb wiping away a few stray tears. “Been so good for us.” 

“So good,” you breathed out, nodding your head. 

His eyes darkened as he smirked down at you. “It’s a shame we’re not done with you, baby, gotta make sure our good girl remembers who she belongs to, hm?”

.

[ladyofthenoodle]

one thing i really love about miraculous ladybug is that marinette’s attractiveness is a non-factor. in fics, authors often describe her as being pretty or beautiful, and certainly her character model is made to fit within modern beauty standards, but in the show, it’s almost totally unremarked upon. it’s irrelevant. we hear how attractive adrien is all the time, both from people who are interested in him and people who aren’t. but marinette? almost nothing. she’s not pretty, she’s not ugly, she’s just marinette.

when marinette’s beauty is remarked upon, it’s entirely in the context of her being romantically desirable. for example, adrien’s poem to her in dark cupid or the subtext in heart hunter.

and even then, while her love interests find her attractive, it’s made clear that is not why they’re interested in her.

marinette might be pretty. she might be average. she might be stunning. but time and time again, we are told that isn’t what matters about her. and i think that’s really cool.

[chronicowboy]

His breakup with Marisol is about as unremarkable as the rest of their relationship. There's no catastrophic muffin mess in his kitchen or divorce papers. Just a quiet I don't think this is working out, I'm sorry. Marisol hadn't even cried. She'd just nodded like she'd been waiting for it and left, didn't even need to grab anything from the house before she went and really that just reassured Eddie that this was the right choice.

So, his breakup with Marisol is unremarkable, except that it's not. It's pretty fucking remarkable when he thinks about it because it's not just that they weren't working out, not just that he really didn't care about spending time with her, not just the clench in his gut every time she touched him. No. It's pretty fucking remarkable because he realises he's in love with his best friend.

That's what pushes him over the edge, gives him the last kick he needs to actually break things off with her. Because Eddie may have sworn himself to secrecy about it the moment he realised, but he could never string someone along just because he couldn't have the real someone he wanted.

It's a fucking revelation once he has it. Not a ton of bricks, but the sun peeking out from behind the clouds on the greyest of days, bright and blinding. And the way Eddie has always thought of Buck in terms of sunshine maybe should have tipped him off sooner, but with the way Buck has been beaming over the past few weeks. Well. Eddie doesn't really think he can be blamed for only just taking his sunglasses off and daring to look directly at the light.

And, okay, so Eddie maybe makes it a full week before he decides his self-sworn secrecy absolutely is not a viable option when Buck walks through life now like a drop of sunshine in human form. It's after Buck leaves the Diaz house, walking out from a day of giggles and joy at the go-kart track they'd finally managed to convince Chris to be seen with them at, leaving behind a cosy heat like sun-warmed skin, that Eddie realises he cannot go another day without telling Buck that he's desperately, deeply in love with him.

And so, that's how Eddie finds himself at Buck's door on a random Sunday morning, knocking for the first time since Natalia waltzed out of the picture. Buck opens it a few moments later looking perfectly sleep-rumpled and soft and downright golden where he's backlit by the early morning sunlight pooling in the loft.

"Eddie," Buck breathes out, eyes darting up the stairs before refocusing on Eddie and what must be the most hopelessly lovesick expression painted across his face. "H-hey, what are you doing here?"

"I, um." Eddie takes a deep breath, suddenly nervous, and wipes his clammy palms on his jeans. "I wanted to talk to you about something. Now a good time?" And Buck must hear the slightly shaky steel in his voice because the surprise on his face morphs into a concern so quintessentially Buck that Eddie just wants to kiss it away.

"Y-yeah, of course, come on in." Buck holds the door open for him, and Eddie migrates to the fridge as Buck closes the door with the gentlest touch. "So, um, what's up?"

"I..." Eddie swallows against the heart in his throat, loses himself in the shining blue of Buck's eyes like an ocean he'd be more than happy to drown in. "I broke up with Marisol last week."

"Oh, Eddie." Buck slumps, and Eddie tries not to think that it looks a little like relief. "I'm so sorry, man. That sucks."

"No, no." Eddie waves him off with a laugh. "It's good. Was a long time coming actually." He shakes his head at himself. "I think I was dating her just to tick a box, you know? Realised you probably shouldn't be more excited about a phone call from your new buddy than one from your kinda long-term girlfriend. You definitely shouldn't be relieved when you see your best friend in the restaurant you're taking her to and disappointed when you realise he's just leaving."

And then, Buck blushes, ducks his head, does that little smile that could light up every house on South Bedford Street just like Eddie had been hoping for.

"Yeah." Buck looks up at him from under his lashes. "Probably not."

It bolsters Eddie. Buck's sunshine giving him that one last push he needs.

"There was something else I wanted to say," Eddie starts. And there isn't really any fear in him, knows they'll make it through this no matter what, just an overwhelming sense of peace to come. "I..." A deep breath, gathering all his love and devotion in his lungs so it's ready to pour out on his next inhale and—

A groan from upstairs has the words dying in his throat. A masculine groan. And then:

"Evan?"

"D-down here," Buck calls back.

Eddie can't take his eyes off the loft, stuck there like a car crash he can't look away from as a very shirtless Tommy Kinard appears at the top of the stairs and quickly blanches.

"Shit. Um..." He looks down at Buck in a panic.

Eddie finally manages to drag his eyes away from the very chiselled curveball that just hit him at a hundred miles per hour and finds Buck's face. Small, scared, shaken. He knows the feeling. And because he loves Buck, because of just how deeply he loves Buck, it's the easiest thing in the world to lock that love away and let his face crack into the most genuine of grins. Because if Tommy's been the thing making Buck shine like every fucking star in the sky, well Eddie will absolutely not be getting between them.

"You've been so happy," Eddie chokes out, still smiling.

"I have," Buck whispers.

"And I'm so happy for you." Eddie covers the distance between them in three long strides and pulls Buck into a hug so tight and clinging he's sure it's a confession in and of itself, but Buck only buries in deeper, taking shaky little breaths in the crook of Eddie's neck.

"Thank you," Buck murmurs into his skin. Eddie squeezes his eyes shut against the sudden rush of tears.

"Sorry you didn't get to tell me on your own terms," he murmurs back, letting Buck pull away, but lingering with a hand on his hip, on his shoulder. He should maybe be worried about what this could look like to Tommy who had basically never heard anything apart from rambles about Buck, except when he glances up the stairs, Tommy is nowhere to be seen.

"I was going to tell you," Buck rushes out. "I-I just wasn't sure how."

"That's okay," Eddie says. It's okay. It's okay. "Well, I'll stop gate-crashing for the... Second time?" He raises an eyebrow, and Buck flushes a pink Eddie will never ever get to taste. "Yeah, okay. That makes sense." He remembers the pure fear on Buck's face, the indecision on Tommy's and the sudden tightening of his own chest despite his smile. "I'll leave you guys to it." He clears his throat. "Kinard, if you hurt him, they'll never find your body," he shouts up the stairs.

"Copy that, Diaz," Tommy shouts back.

"I'm really proud of you, Buck." Eddie wraps him in another hug then, a quick thing, just one last touch before Eddie seals every desire away for good.

"Thanks, Eddie." Buck walks him to the door, eyes glistening with unshed tears, and Eddie wants to hug him again. Wants so badly it hurts. But if he hugs Buck again, he doesn't think he'll ever let go. "See you at work tomorrow."

"See you at work." Eddie prays Buck is too distracted to hear the wobble in his voice.

"Wait, sorry, what did you want to talk about?"

Eddie freezes on the threshold, the stutter of his heart painful like he's back in a suit store, and he catches himself on the doorframe with a shaking hand.

"It can wait."

[ventique18]

"A sort of everyman's face, which, if encountered in the morning, would be forgotten by evening."

The way Yuya (and possibly the other Yuus) are so unremarkable to the point of accidentally being forgettable, and Malleus being so remarkable that he's purposely getting forgotten... And them finding comforting familiarity in each other despite being complete opposites in every way.

[homunculus-argument]

A fantasy book that starts with a scene of the protagonist shaving the few scarce hairs off the back of his otherwise completely bald head. He's on some sort of a mission in a land that's not his native one, as some sort of a messenger, emissary, a travelling adventurer or something of the sort, and he often pauses to reflect on how people here do things differently than they do at home.

He also describes every other male character's hair, remarking on its presence, absence or thickness by descriptions like "a boyish full head of hair" or "locks as thick as a lady's", frequently describing the appearance of men who are not bald or balding as either child-like or feminine - save for the biggest burliest Barbarian Dude who's got a long hair and long beard, who is (as far as the protagonist is concerned) as entirely covered in fur as a wild beast.

The few male characters whose hair is not described are summarized as looking like a fair and honest man - and it's only by some other native character's offhand mention or remark that we even learn that this man is bald as well. The protagonist finds this feature so unremarkable that his POV does not bother to even mention it.

Over the course of the story it turns out that back where the protagonist comes from, the genes for male pattern baldness are so predominant that being bald is almost considered a secondary sexual characteristic, and the men who haven't gone completely bald by the age of 25 shave their heads in embarrassment of the childish remnant. The protagonist is genuinely confused by the idea of this strange land where grown-ass men actually have hair on their heads like women and children do.

During the course of the whole story, there's been a running joke that nobody wants to be the one to tell the protagonist what the local name of his home region translates to, assuming he would take offense to it. Once he discovers that it literally means "Land of Bald Men" (or "the land where bald men come from") he pretty much just goes "well of course it is, it should be. If it wasn't, I'd make your pretty boy king (who is 45 and still has long hair down to his shoulders) change the name to exactly that."

[theminecraftbee]

"Doesn't count," is the first thing Jimmy says when he opens his eyes again.

YOU WILL FIND I DECIDE WHETHER OR NOT--

"Nope! Doesn't count," Jimmy says. "Fuck you--I can swear no one's watching I'm dead--fuck you, doesn't count, I wasn't first, baby!"

WHAT? NO, AS I SAID, I AM THE ONE WHO DECIDES WHETHER IT COUNTS OR NOT. AND YOU WILL FIND--

"Doesn't count! And don't try to--I'm not sad about it. I mean I am, I'd have preferred not to get obliterated by a warden, but like, as I said, fuck you, it doesn't count."

YOU'RE DEAD.

"Yeah well, I mean, that part counts, sure. Pretty familiar at this point, right? And--man okay now that all the, the game is wearing off, I do feel a little bad about Lizzie. I really didn't mean to kill her last session. Except I don't feel that bad. Because it doesn't count baby."

The figure standing next to Jimmy shuffles its incorporeal feet. I ADMIT I AM VERY CONFUSED RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE DEAD.

"Yep."

YOU ARE NOT ARGUING THAT.

"I mean, sort of hard to at this point, right?"

WHY DO YOU KEEP SAYING IT DOES NOT COUNT. IT DOES. I AM HERE WITH THE SCYTHE AND EVERYTHING. I HAVE DRESSED UP TRADITIONALLY. MOST OF THE TIME YOU'RE SCREAMING ABOUT HOW IT'S NOT FAIR AND YOU DON'T WANT TO DIE AND ALL OF THAT.

"Yeah, well, it doesn't count, so I'm not going to do that."

IT DOESN'T COUNT AS... DYING?

Jimmy shrugs.

THAT ISN'T--YOU KNOW THIS ISN'T HOW THIS WORKS?

Jimmy laughs, and all at once, it's bitter and exhausted and everything else he's been feeling for two years, since he stepped into a circle with Grian to start a game and stepped out again the first casualty on a battlefield. He's not sure he can name what the emotion is. He just... does.

"Doesn't count," he says.

VERY WELL. THAT DOES NOT CHANGE WHAT MY ROLE IN THIS IS, EVEN IF YOU ARE... EXTREMELY CONFUSING.

"I want to go say thanks to Lizzie. Maybe apologize for the whole accidental murder thing but mostly thank her for being bad at the game." Jimmy pauses. "Is that mean?" He pauses again. "No she'd totally do that to me in my place. So yeah. Here you go. Take me away, big man."

The incorporeal figure shuffles its feet again. I. AND THAT'S IT? THAT'S ALL YOU'RE GOING TO SAY?

"I mean, yeah," Jimmy says. "It doesn't count. I don't have anything else to say because--well, it was unremarkable, wasn't it? That's the good bit about it."

MOST PEOPLE PREFER DYING REMARKABLY.

"Most people are stupid," Jimmy says, and he grabs Death's hand, and they leave.

[grand-theft-carbohydrates]

i literally spend at least 2 hours a week just looking at various pictures of the terracotta army. utterly entranced. look at the details in the hair. you'd never see ANY of this when they're lined up in formation, but they're there.  

theres about 8000 of these guys down there, no two faces are alike. they're works of art. they're the manifestation of a cruel despot's delusions of grandeur. a talisman against the terrible inevitability of death, both pathetic and strangely pitiful. like watching a child clinging to his blanket, begging you not to turn off the light. they were a bunch of insignificant clay statues from a side chamber that was so small and unremarkable, no one bothered to write down the location. they were modelled after real people. their only purpose was to serve qin shi huang in the afterlife, so he could reign in heaven as he did on earth. now the emperor is just a ghost and his pawns are immortal. my dad and i visited them in the dead of winter, on a weekday, just so we wouldn't have to deal with tourists like us. the place had easily 500 people--not including the ones below ground. we traveled to xian via the old "green skin" diesel train. there are faster means, like highspeed rail but dad insisted i try the authentic way, the same way he would have traveled when he was my age it was also like, a quarter of the price but im sure that had nothing to do with it! back in the 80s carriages would get so packed people had to have their luggage passed in via the windows. as we chugged along, i read my book and my dad made us cup noodles. car is just a shortened version of "carriage", the word is the same but the mechanism is different. it's the same in chinese. i think if i told someone from the warring states period i could travel from the Kingdom of Qi to Qin in just four hours with my metal carriage, i'd be laughed out of town--or accused of being a spy and sentenced to 'death by carriage.' we hopped off the train at 4am and took a different "carriage." the taxi driver joked; "basically every dynasty put their capital in xian, stick a shovel anywhere and you'll turn up some national treasure or another." i wonder what it would have felt like to be a farmer digging a well and then out pops a remarkably realistic human head. statistical analysis show the soldier's faces bear a strong similarity to people living in the region today. the taxi stopped in front of a jewellery-hawking tourist trap and refused budge an inch until we went inside. did you know the terracotta soldiers were originally multi-coloured and painfully gaudy, just like the greek marbles? they were made assembly-line style. the arms and legs were made from the same workshops that made clay plumbing pipes and roof tiles. for quality control, the artisans were required to stamp their names. the workers who built these tombs were executed shortly afterwards, because only dead men can be trusted with secrets. qin shi huang's mausoleum is unlikely to be excavated in my father's lifetime, or mine, not unless i'm willing to take a BIG ONE for the team... instead of the tomb, they built some kind of qin shi huang-themed theme park next to it. not only was it tacky as hell the entrance fee was like $50. we went to the museum and i looked at bronze tools and pottery shards for three hours. look why can't we just crack the thing open i can't be the only one here whos dying from curiosity what if we all just took turns digging

[the-fandom-is-now-my-life]

How the iudex sleeps

Unexpectedly enough Fontaine started wondering how the great judge is productive enough to do all his work and some bizarre ideas start pooping up until the iudex himself says his 'secrets'

Read also: otters sleep holding hands and with their babies on their bellies and I found that incredibly sweet

WC: 1,3K

Cw: gn reader, you both have a baby but it isn't specified if he is biologically related or adopted

‘The chief of justice is a busy person’ is a known fact amongst the citizens of Fontaine, who see him working through many cases plus uncountable quantities of paperwork. That led to a question for some people ‘how does he get enough energy for the day’ at first the common guess was coffee but they were told off by an angry melusine.

“Huff! As if monsieur Neuville would ever drink such things! Only weird humans can drink something that bitter”

That quickly shut down that possibility and led them back to the board of ideas. About that time reporters started to notice how many people seemed interested in maximizing their energy and being awake for longer, while they aren't life changing or particularly interesting sections, some weeks are remarkably unremarkable and anything is better than nothing.

Now every week there would be a few merchants promoting tonics, pallets and pills that enhance energy, even when they would find ways to waltz around trying to mention the judge in their advertisements.

‘Lawfully energetic’

‘as fierce as a dragon’

‘enough to stand 100 trials’

Even if the last one was almost enough for the mermonia palace to get involved for using Neuvillette's name it was vague enough that it got off the hook.

Usually Furina’s crew would be able to rehearse two scenes before tea time but for some reason it was already 2 pm and they were still rehearsing the beginning of the play.

“ I'm sorry, Ms. Furina, I just can't connect two ideas together today” the female lead says as she grabs her head, sighing deeply. Furina touches her back and before she can ask about it someone shares a thought to the air.

“ Oh! Have you tried nilotpala lotus tea? It seems to stimulate the nervous system and clear up brain fog. Maybe the iudex uses that” the man who was supposed to be practicing the piano to match the scene says with a slight poison over his words.

“ Isn't brain fog rich coming from you?” Furina yaps at him “ your tempo was off the whole day” as she looks over his shoulder and rather than seeing a music sheet she finds the newest issue of steambird “what are you even reading? Focus on the piano! We have a show next week!”

She quickly grabs the paper and starts reading the small column with advertisements and tricks, huffing at the idea “stop reading those newspapers and keep rehearsing! The magic fix you are looking for is simply a good night sleeps, like the iudex you are stalking for an answer” she sighs loudly before looking at her crew.

“Is that all?”

“Simply a good night's sleep. What else were you expecting? An extract with 10 times more caffeine than a cup or liyue acupuncture?” She looks at her crew and finds some of them nodding and others seemingly disappointed “now, a break or can we start from the top?”

Unsurprising enough, very few people believed what she claimed, most likely wishing for a strange concoction that can make up for bad habits. Even then a few girls believed it to be rational enough of an answer, seemingly even one of them must have said furina knew his whole nighttime routine causing a hoard of reporters to crowd her door asking senseless questions.

‘Does he use sleep mists?’

‘What kind of fabric are his sheets?”

‘What does he eat before bed? Does he drink water?’

After being stalked everywhere from her home to the supermarket or the café she started dressing up in disguise to escape, luckily a few days after she noticed the quantity of reporters went down and only one came knocking on her door asking about the rescheduling of her play.

“ Oh, yes, we had to reschedule as there was an ‘important trial’ that had to be dealt with urgently. A representative of the palais mermonia apologized for the inconveniences but in the end the most important thing is justice!” furina says with her characteristic theatrical flare. Now looking at the reporter scribbling things on his notebook she adds a bit “the new date will be in two weeks, if someone presents the special meet and greet tickets with the old date they will still be valid”

As he finishes writing he goes off to write the article “thanks miss!”

Now standing on the doorway to the rehearsal room, Furina was expecting the usual sleepy greetings or the usual chitchatter or gossiping but, unusually enough, the whole room was silent and her whole crew was hunched over a spot, their backs facing her.

Clearing her throat she greets them first but they still don't react “ morning? Guys? Are you all okay?” she rounds them trying to get their attention until one of them catches sight of her.

“Director! Look! Monsieur Neuvillette told his secret to the newspapers!” He grabs the yellow paper and holds it to her face, a big bold font meeting her eyes.

CASE MELUSINE AND OTHER QUESTIONS WITH THE IUDEX: PAST CASES TO HIS GREATEST SECRET

‘Greatest secret?’ Furina thinks for a second ‘did he already publicly state to be the hydro dragon? Doesn't seem like it’ but she quickly smiles at her co actor “So? What is his secret?”

But all her crew look at her with a questioning glare “ what we have been wondering all this time? Who would have guessed our director was right!”

“What is that even supposed to mean?!”

Charlotte looks at the pages full questions she prepared for her so desired meeting, who knew that after so long wishing for it she would truly get a chance to interview the iudex, even if half the questions she prepared couldn't be answered for privacy or because the cases weren't closed she got enough material to fill a good pair of pages. Even then she couldn't lose this opportunity and started asking the ‘dumber’ or sillier questions

Looming over one particular line she wonders, would the judge consider it rude for her to ask that given he was giving her his important time but she simply swallows and asks

“How are you able to work through so much work?”

“My apologies?” Neuvillette furrows his brows and looks confused “I don't think I quite understand what you mean”

Charlotte breathes in deeply before elaborating “People have been wondering how you have enough energy to do all the work you are able to do”

Neuvillette stays silent for a second with his eyes closed

“It's known the iudex doesn't talk about his private life, so if you don't want to answer-”

“ It's not that” Neuvillette reassures her calmly “it wasn't a question I was expecting, that is all” he crosses his legs and details as Charlotte writes

But regardless of how many tries we have thrown to the ceiling we all were wrong, the way our judge is able to power through the day is simple actually, a comfortable bed and his beloved family. Even if he refused to expand on information about his family he did speak more about his routine.

“I'm unsure why people care so much suddenly but it's very simple, really, I always sleep with my lover in bed and keep our child on my chest” even as Charlotte choked on her own spit at a sudden juicy revelation neuvillette barely glanced over the rim of his goblet “we are also rather particular about bedding, but for now we settled on silk flower sheets made I'm liyue”

As he drinks water a small smile creeps up his lips, remembering that very morning vividly, his fingers firmly entangled with yours, almost as if he fears you would leave and meet a cold spot when he wakes up, even when you are practically hugging his side. Or your young baby peeking his head out of his father's sleeping shirt and feeling the soft beating of his heart with a pleased face.

Hm, he is sure that is why he always wakes up with enough energy to power through his duties .

Opening his eyes he finds Charlotte with small tears on her lashes and muttering ‘how sweet’.

“ So about your son…?”

“No”

“Understood”