#she went through so much getting falin back

[gloww0rms]

“You know, when you lose, you lose.

But when you win, you expect some kind of reward... and there isn't any.”

[kotoku]

may we have some platonic dunmeshi headcanons where the reader is a half elf and Marcille’s friend who she went to magic school with (up until the reader dropped out) and they’re sorta her opposite? (in a complimentary way)

think like Eda and Lilith from the the owl house (season 2)

the touden party with a half-elf! reader

content - half elf and half tall-man applied to reader / pre-storyline and current storyline / platonic headcanons / marcille and reader are childhood friends who are the complete opposite of each other

pairings - laios touden & half-elf!reader / chilchuck tims & half-elf!reader / marcille donata & half-elf!reader / senshi & half-elf!reader / izutsumi & half-elf!reader

warnings - a bit of spoilers towards the end of marcille’s part

note - i hope i did this right ! if i didn't please let me know and i can always rewrite it to your taste. ^^

word count - 1.8k

background - You were a mix of elf and tall-man attending magic school as a researcher alongside your childhood friend Marcille. The two of you were inseparable while growing up, despite your contrasting personalities. 

Eventually, Marcille introduced you to a new friend named Falin, a student attending the school. You knew that Falin was considered an outcast by the rest of the students, but you took the time to get to know her and the three of you became close friends.

With Falin disappearing, you and Marcille were very worried until you received a request from said woman. With you and Marcille making your way to the island to reunite with Falin, you had felt a bit nervous about the idea of meeting her brother and venturing into the dungeon. 

✤✤✤✤

✢  You had heard of Laios from Falin, who seemed very passionate about her brother, always referring to his hard-working and caring nature (..and weirdness…)

✢ Unlike Marcille who had been wary upon first meeting him, you were quite open and friendly to the blond tall-man, despite your quietness

✢ Laio’s is honestly a bit nervous when meeting you, hardly encountering any elves in his homeland and on the island 

✢ As time goes on though, the two of you become inseparable, always looking out for each other and protecting Falin and Marcille 

✢ Sometimes, when you two are the only ones up during the night, you’ll make conversation with the blond, listening to his monster ramblings and such

✢ Laios is grateful to have you around, appreciative of your active listening and engagement with his rambles (and for being Falin’s friend)

✢ When Falin is eaten by the red dragon, you stay back with Marcille (of course, determined to get your close friend back

✢ During the nights that are rough on Laios, you are there to silently comfort him, offering him your company and support 

✢ Laios was never bothered by your lack of words, finding your true intentions and emotions through your actions (he was super observant of you and understood most of your mannerisms)

✢ Forgot to mention this but… When Laios finds out that you're actually half-elf like Marcille, he’s pretty surprised and is interested in your background (was your mom an elf and dad a tall-man? or the other way around?) 

✤✤✤✤

✢ Chilchuck respects you in a professional sense, not really interested in you at first, only asking questions about your magic abilities and skills

✢ Honestly, I think the two of you wouldn’t get along in the beginning, not because you hate each other, but because you’re so quiet and he’s just weirded out by you 

✢ It isn’t until the two of you are drinking that he lets a little loose and inquires more about the kind of magic you use, etc…

✢ It is during this time that he gets to know about you (your background, your schooling, your interests..etc…), dropping the professionalism

✢ You don’t really get to know much about him, to your annoyance 

✢ It isn’t until during one of the party’s night watches, where you are unable to sleep and are left with Chilchuck who was on first watch, that you get to know about him (about his 3 kids, his situation with his ex-wife, etc…)

✢ It takes time for him to fully open up to you, but when he does, he just gives you crumbs of his lore (you are left to piece it all together)

✢ During this time you grow to respect each other, having the other’s back during fights and brawls

✢ Chilchuck, though he’d never admit it, would be grateful for your presence in the party, finding you the most tolerable member there 

✢ He’s hesitant to call you his friend, but just slowly accepts that fact (the same for the rest of the party)

✢ When you reveal the fact that you're a half-elf half-tall-man like Marcille, he’s taken aback but doesn’t view you any different

✢ He likes you the way you are and it’ll be hard for his feelings to budge about you, so don’t expect him to be fawning over you being 50/50 or rejecting you for being 50/50

✤✤✤✤

✢ Ahh Marcille… Your childhood friend

✢ Growing up alongside Marcille, the two of you know all about each other (likes, dislikes, goals, her obsession with The Daltian Clan…)

✢ I can picture the two of you having a self-care night, doing face masks, cleaning up your nails, playing with each other's hair, etc…

✢ People are surprised by the harmony between you and Marcille, as she is much more expressive and hot-headed and you’re more reserved and relaxed

✢ It is these differences that bring you two closer, as Marcille finds your personality enjoyable to have around (it’s like a breath of fresh air for her)

✢ The two of you have different areas of magic that you research, but attend the same magic school as Falin

✢ You have been through thick and thin with Marcille, whether it was enduring the hardships of studying, traversing the dungeon, eating monsters, and eventually rescuing Falin 

✢ Honestly, it feels nice knowing that she’s not the only half and half in.. basically the community the two of you grew up in

✢ Marcille would definitely go to you to talk about The Daltian Clan, even if you don’t even read it

✢ She’s able to confide in you her difficulties of being both an elf and tall-man, and you’re welcome to do the same with her

✢ Marcille is so grateful to have you as a friend, finding comfort in your presence during your adventures in the dungeon

✢ She’s especially grateful to have you during Falin’s disappearance, promising to protect each other as you venture deeper

✢ SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA !! You’re probably the first person that’s able to break through to Marcille during her uh, time as Dungeon Lord

✢ With your convincing and your friends’ support, you were able to help calm her down 

✢ When all is said and done, you and Marcille are ecstatic to have Falin back and celebrate by having a sleepover (to catch up on everything, yknow)

✤✤✤✤

✢ Senshi’s first impression of you is that you’re a quiet but talented fella

✢ Although he’s not a fan of magic, he does find some of the spells you cast to be quite useful and efficient (he acknowledges your dedication to researching your area of magic)

✢ He is pleased to see that you aren’t reluctant to try dungeon food, offering lessons on how to make some of them

✢ You end up being his little assistant, aside from Laios, helping him with cutting up ingredients or doing certain things

✢ Sometimes you’ll be open to Senshi teaching you how to do things without magic

✢ Of course, Senshi is very insistent that you eat and rest properly (it’s especially important since you need mana)

✢ I can see Senshi forming a bond akin to a grandpa and his grandkid, trying to protect you during fights but you end up defending him more often than not (there are times he comes in clutch though)

✢ Senshi comes to understand your quiet behavior, like Laios, he can read your emotions and intentions through your actions

✢ Senshi is your No. 1 supporter, encouraging you if you’re learning how to do something and supporting you during rough nights

✢ He’s honestly a bit confused about how you and Marcille are friends, given your differing personalities, but sees how compatible the both of you are

✢ When he finds out that you’re half-elf and half-tall-man, he..doesn’t really care, that information doesn’t change his perception of you in any way

✢ Senshi will listen to you whenever you need to rant about something, he knows that bottling up your emotions can eventually lead to outbursts so he’ll be a shoulder for you to lean on

✢ He gives great advice, sometimes you’ll consult him on night watch or when you’re helping him cook

✢ Senshi deeply respects you and is grateful to have you around, he enjoys the company a lot

✤✤✤✤

✢ Izutsumi is initially interested in you, curious if you can rid her of her beastkin side

✢ However, she becomes disinterested in you when she realizes you can’t haha…

✢ She’s confused about how you and Marcille are friends, but doesn’t think about it too much (she applies her experiences with Tade with you and Marcille)

✢ Unlike Marcille who openly dotes on Izutsumi, you’d quietly show your care by letting her have some of your food, handing Marcille some products to use on Izutsumi (you’ll be damned if you’re scratched), etc…

✢ You’d probably be the best person to deal with Izutsumi though, you’d just pinch the certain space on her neck to have her freeze (you’d have some knick knacks to stun her)

✢ If Izutsumi bit or scratched you, you’d put a cone or some mittens on her 

✢ She hates you for that but understands it hurts so she tries not to act on her feelings, grumbling about it instead

✢ Gradually, Izutsumi grows closer to you, listening to you talk about your background and research with interest

✢ She’d ask some questions about what you do, inquiring more if something piques her interest

✢ When the party is sent to the Golden Castle, she’ll become clingy to both you and Marcille, pawing at you for pets and scratches which you happily accept

✢ Sometimes she will sleep at the foot of your bedroll, curling in on herself as you sleep above her

✢ When she finds out you’re half-elf, she also doesn’t care 

✢ She’ll treat you the same regardless so you don’t need to worry about any changes

[w1shb0n3z]

Alright, so hear me out

(this is another long one. Like. Seriously. It has 2.6k words.)

*yes, I edited this like 5 mins after I posted it just to add some more, oops

Post cannon Labru where Laios tries to help Kabru regain weight

TW: ED, Body Dysmorphia, Fat-phobia, Gender Dysphoria

It turns out to he a huge body image thing. Like Kabru develops a bit of an ED after he gains his weight back and tries to stay "the perfect weight" and major body dysmorphia. But! It's very sweet because hand feeding, of course, and self-acceptance.

I imagine Kabru's blue eyes get brought up when Laios is like "oh, you don't like that about yourself? :( you're so wonderful! What else could you possibly not like! Surely not those eyes ^^" or something

Plus! I'm 98% sure that Laios gains some weight post cannon, so his wrestler build gets softer, which, yay! We love that here! But this comes with its positives and negatives. (Dont he scared by how big the negative paragraph is)

Positive: Kabru has an example of having a healthy relationship with yourself and your body

Negatives (and hold on) TW btw: at a certain point of Kabru's weight gain/ body acceptance journey, where he gets obsessed with keeping "the perfect body" and does everything in his power not to gain anymore, his own twisted view of himself spills over to Laios. He starts to view Laios as a sort of slob or careless person because he gained weight after the dungeon and gained an extra 5-ish pounds while helping Kabru gain. Because Laios can and will encourage Kabru to eat by eating with him with a smile on his face.

What if someone finds out about Kabru's purging?

Yes, Kabru has purged a few times while he was at his lowest. And no, Laios doesn't catch him in the act. He doesn't know until someone tells him about it. Kabru just keeps it to himself with a tinge of guilt. Someone else finds out. I can't decide who yet, but if it were:

Chilchuck - he'd be familiar with his topic because one of his daughters went through the same thing. He keeps secret as per Kabru's request but gives to Kabru straight. He tells him vomiting hat much rots your teeth and only has negative impacts in the future. With Chil being big and tall for his race's standards and him canonically watching his own weight, he talks Kabru through this whole body image thing. Maybe not in the exact way Kabru wants, but in the way he needs

Senshi - he's SO against this. He tries to father Kabru, but his own lack of understanding for why Labru feels this way gets in the way of progress. He urges Kabru to eat and tells Laios what's goin on in hopes of figuring out what all of this is about, accidentally spilling the beans and leading to conflict between Laios and Kabru

Marcille - she doesn't really get the ED thing, but she gets not liking your body (since she never fit in with her "age group" while growing up and wished she physically presented like them). She also tells Kabru that throwing up rots his teeth and says it's bad for your mana and junk. Shes very offput by this whole thing, but she tries. She doesn't tell Laios...on purpose. (Falin also finds out becuase the guilt Marcille has from telling that secret ears her alive)

Falin - my girl does NOT understand. But she's here to empathize. She ends up being huge in Kabru's healing journey. She tries to check in on bim every now and then and uses her own transformation to promote body acceptance

Izutsumi - she doesn't know what to do. She's 17 goddamn it. So when she hears Kabru throwing up she just assumes he's sick, but when she keeps hearing it she gets a little stressed about him. She goes "he's just weird" and mentions it in conversation to someone else, most likely Marcille (which probably led to Marcille finding out in the earlier paragraph)

Mickbell...somehow - is like "dude wtf" and tells Rin about it since he knows there close. He's worried, yeah, but he doesn't think its really his problem. Especially since the two fo them aren't close like that.

Kuro - he finds out and tells Rin as well, he also tells Kabru that he looks fine. He mentions it to Mickbell, yeah, but in a "Will he be okay? :(" way

Rin - devastated. She initially gives Kabru a hard talk...which makes him worse, but hey! She tried. Rin then thinks its becuase of the shame of dying many times and tries to comfort Kabru again. Doesn't work. She tries to get him to eat the things he likes. He eats them, but she can sense the guilt from Kabru. They then have a heart to heart becuase Rin can't stand to see her best friend suffer like this and assures him that he looks fine as often as he needs

Holm - he takes a simular approach as Falin but gets a little more involved. He understands it on paper, but can't image what actually having these issues is like. Yes, he also informs Rin and is the one that told her to try to speak to Kabru in a less...prickly manner about this touchy subject

Daya - She doesnt realise what Kabru was trying to achieve by puking. So she just advises him not to do so and tells Rin about the strange behavior.

How does this affect non-platonic Labru?

Easy!

Well for starters! If they were boning before, they aren't now LMAO

Partly because of Kabru's own body image being trash and his attraction to Laios (temporarily) going to shit after Laios gained some weight to encourage Kabru. Damn that internalized fat-phobia. Neither one of them seems to have a clue what's going on. Let word, seems.

Kabru knows his view of Laios just isn't the same, but he doesn't let it be known that he's aware of this.

Does he feel bad? Yeah. But he only feels bad because he doesn't feel bad. He feels as though he's a shitty boyfriend for harboring such disgust for his partner's figure

Laios catches Kabru stealing glances at himself in the mirror. Staring just a little too long. Laios deduces that Kabru's feeling a little self-conscious after some hard thought.

So, of course, he makes sure to be extra careful about his words. He'd totally be like that one meme (which I can't find) that goes: "damn girl, that ass is wide" "what??" "I didn't want to say fat and trigger your eating disorders :/"

Plus, on the not boning thing, they're busy. You got a king and his advisor, they're not gonna be cranking it up every night! They simply sleep together, in a literal sense most nights anyways, so more sleep isn't anything bad

Additionally, I don't believe Laios has a high sex drive at all. (I personally think he's on the asexual spectrum, maybe because I'm ace, but still)

Kabru won't initiate a thing at the moment, it's up to Laio's sporadic desires to get things going. (It never gets going)

What if Laios discovers Kabru's feelings towards him and the purging?

He's hurt, simply put. He can't understand why Kabru dislikes his body, Laios can't understand why his own body would be such a turn off now.

In the non-platonic vers Laios tries to become "sexy" again. ....He fails horribly and ends up making a fool out if himself. At first he's like, "well monsters do this to attract mates" right after he feels as though he needs to inprove upon himself. Then he goes "no... Kabru isnt a monster, and im not either (unfortunately)"

He pushes that silly thought aside and tries to find out *why* Kabru is turned off by his looks now. His face? No.. His hair? Just got it cut. His figure? ...but why?

Laios goes right up to Kabru and confronts him about it. Kabru being the slippery bitch that he is denies it and goes "lol wtf haha! I luv u bae and there's nothing wrong with u!! ur so sexy and hot haha..."

This, inevitably, confused the shit out of Laios and he asks for honesty. Kabrus actions aren't exactly aligning with his words, and something needs to he done.

[Okay, let's be real here. If Kabru didn't want Laios to know how he felt, Laios' ass would NOT know lmao. This is just for the bit]

Now the purging? Laios is like "dude what? :(" he doesn't understand it. Nope. Not at all. He tires to he supportive, but he really doesn't know what to do with this. It's not like there's a bulimia monster, so he has no real frame of reference.

He's all "but you look fine how you are :(" and "I like the weight on you!" or even "did you know that [this species of monster] finds fat attractive? ,:D"

He means so so well, and Karbu knows it. Laios really is just a dog of a man.

Laios also tries to get Kabru to promise to stop. We know how that went. Karbu agreeing just to do it behind Laios' back because he knows Laios won't find out. He'll cut back on it, yeah, but he has his weak moments.

Eventually, Laios makes sure to only have Kabru serve his favorite meals. That should keep him from puking it up! And Karbu stops after a while. But only because his health is on the decline.

What else?

Two words: hand. feeding.

Kabru throws up? He gets his favorite meals so he won't. Kabru keeps checking his figure? Less mirrors in the caslte and more compliments. Kabru not eating enough or skipping meals? Simple. Laios makes sure he eats.

And how? A little less of Laios sensually slipping a fork full of decedent chocolate cake past Kabru's lips and a little more than a simple "here comes the airplane"

It starts off as Laios seeing Kabru taking smaller bites and being like "oh! Let me show you how to fill your fork! ^^" and then him taking Kabru's fork, impaling a bunch of assorted foods onto said fork, then handing it back to Kabru.

Then it sort of devolved (...evolved?) Into Kabru begrudgingly letting Laios feed him like a toddler while no one else ot looking. My boy Kabru does NOT know how to say no to this autistic man properly.

Laios was like "would it help if I just fed you?" And karbu replied something like "haha! It just might!" And of course Laios did not pick up on that God level sarcasm and went "cool, Let's try it then" and Kabru, wanting to appease Laios said "cool!". Bro was punching air.

(Yes, Laios said stuff like "good job buddy!" "You're doing so well!" "Its tasty, right?" Almost every bite)

In the non-platonic world, Laios would have Karbu sit ever so close to him as he was fed, maybe even in his lap. And of course Karbu would get a peck on the cheek after every bite. And the whole process may or may not turn Laios on. Especially when they're dining on monster. Whoops.

....anything else?

This all ties in with the absurd standards that was set for Karbu and the insecurities he hides within himself.

The whole blue-eye-spawn-of-a-demon thing was already enough for him. But being raised by that moody ass elf was a whole nother thing.

Milsiril, his adoptive elf mom, raises children like she has a monopoly in daycares. She's a serial foster fr. All them damn kids. Raising them like pets becuase you want something to love and depend on you. (I love Milsiril btw)

Anyways.

Kabru was his mom's favorite since his features were unique. Im talkin big bright blue eyes contrasting with rich dark skin, in particular. Plus, he was so sociable! All of his siblings looked up to him in one way or another. He was the star child.

And, you know that thing about elves being twinks, right? When ever Milsiril would check up on Karbu's health, she would use this old elven chart depicting the "average/desirable/suggested" height, weight, and muscle tone for diffrent short-lived races at diffrent ages/stages of life.

Safe to say these charts and texts were based off of elven standards, so everyone was thought to be slimmer, lighter, and more toned than normal. Plus, they're old lol. Instead of updating her charts and buying some from the diffrent cultures and races, she keeps her old one becuase she legit just forgets to replace it and hasn't had any "major problems" while raising her kids with that information so she doesn't think to change it.

What in trying to say is!

Kabru was raised with unrealistic body goals, and when he used to deviate from those arbitrary statistics during childhood he'd be put on diets and stuff.

Also, What if Kabru was transmasc?

Especially when he was a teen, even gaining a little wait made him go nuts. He couldn't get the words "unhealthy" out of his head and started associating it with the word "fat". His mind likes to play tricks on him when he's in the mirror. Exaggerating his figure and making him panic.

So! When he was sick and tired after that weird ass dungeon trip that changed his whole world and he came back to find himself thin as a pin, he tweaked.

He logically hated it because it was unhealthy, but a part of him was satisfied. With the added stress of becoming a Kings advisor, he started to crack under the pressure, manifesting in an obsession with himself. When he started to gain weight back he was brought right back to those check ups he had with Milsiril and those 2, maybe 3 times he was put onto diets in his youth. He really feared he was getting fat and he would just stare into the mirror and feel his flesh beneath his fingertips, searching for some sort of confirmation. All he felt was a bit of a squish, a bit of a give, and that's all he needed.

It was too much for him. His body was wrecked in his eyes. He's supposed to he fit and lean and thin and perfect. How could that be perfect? He looks in the mirror in his private study, wasting the time he could've been spending planning new city infrastructure or working out the kinks in trade. But no. He's here, in his dimly lit room, looking at how imperfect he's become in his eyes. How unhealthy he is his mom's eyes. How disgusting he is in his birth mothers eyes.

He had to fix it. The wound rubs deep, dar past the dermis. And, I guess, much like other wounds that cut a chasm into the skin, you don't really feel it once it severs your nerves. You don't really notice until you see the big, gaping, bleeding, notch where you used to be.

Lol anyways

Whoo boy. He is in hell. He feels like gaining weight makes him look "softer" and more feminine. He hates it, yes. But he tries his best not to let it effect his wardrobe. This whole weight journey really rehydrated his gender dysphoria.

He's used to looking a little androgynous, but with his new weight going to his stomach, hips, and thighs, he just feels as though his silhouette is becoming more girly.

Kabru is found training and working out more. Anything to get his body more boxy again.

He spends more time making sure he looks presentable. Even waking up a little earlier to ensure he vouge cover ready. (Well, I mean, as vouge ready as perpetual business casual can be)

And how does it end?

It takes some time, but Kabru heals. He's 10 pounds heavier than when we were first introduced to him, but he doesn't mind anymore.

It was a long journey full of all sorts of denail and shame, but he got there.

He's still the Light Yagami coded perfect chivalrous boy. He always has been. And Laios loves him all the same. Platonically or not.

Laios was essential in Karbu learning to let go of those impossible ideal and unreachable standards. Laios does not give a fuck afterall, he thinks all human bodies are unintresting beautiful! That dude does not judge. Rember him talking about the orc women in one of the monster tidbit sections? He's about body acceptance and neutrality.

Kabru grew to love his body, not just tolderate it or like it because someone else does. And if it tickles you, he liked the extra pounds Laios gained in the end, too. And if you're here for non-platonic Labru, then Laios may have became a bit of a feeder and has a tiiiiny food kink. Plus, Laios is a huge fan of the squish and Kabru likes how warm Laios is.

I just want to add this in here, also hecuase ive seen it before and i agree, but Laios seems like the type to give dutch ovens. He shows love like a big brother and its horrible (affectionate). This passes Karbu off SO BAD and it's hilarious. He has to sit down and have a very direct and serious talk about "getting too comfortable". And Laios would sit there the entire time like a sad dog and nod along.

Kabru and Laios also wrestle. No debate. They do it to spar, Laios does it for fun, Kabru does it to make Laios shut up. It's great!

Sorry this took so long lmao,, I legit just kept forgetting to write this

This was just word vomit. I've lost the plot somewhere along the way, I fear

[starberryfarms]

𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐨𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

tags: fluff, mini make-out (?), fem!reader

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬: 1.0𝐤

𝐚/𝐧: 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨! 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲 <3

You all walk back into one of the Orca’s houses to rest for the night. After the debacle with the Mad Mage and Dryads, you all definitely need it. Marcille has instructed Laois to practice his healing magic while she fixes Ambrosia, and you were the last of the group to be healed. You were holding off on him healing you, claiming you were “fine” and “it’s honestly not that bad.”.

Everyone went off to do their respective tasks and training, while Laios worked on trying to heal you. “Try not to kill her Laios.”Chilchuck jokes as they all exit the room. Laios chuckles nervously as he sits in front of you, the tension in the room thickens as you both look at each other. “No pressure…” You chuckled nervously as your eyes met his.

 “So, where’s your injury?” Laois asks as he looks you over. There was nothing he could physically see.

 At that your back straightens, “L-Laios, you really don’t have to do this. I can ask Marcille to do it later.” He pouts at your dismissal to his help.

“I can do it, I promise you’ll make it out alive …probably.” He jokes to try and relax you, thinking that’s why you were so adamant on him not healing you. 

“Okay…” You sighed knowing you’d regret this. 

“My uh… my injury is on my chest.” You say as you start to loosen your shirt, and look up to meet Laios’s eyes. His face flushes red as he brings his hand up to your chest, his hand trembling. You bring your hand up over his own, to firmly place it over your wound. 

Laios stares deeply into your eyes, you both say nothing for a while. His brown-gold eyes pierce into your soul.You clear your throat once you realize how long you’ve been staring at each other, “Um Laios, I think you're supposed to start now.”

 He jumps, closes his eyes and starts the incantation. As the words filled with magic traveled through his lips, you could feel it flowing through you as Laios chanted. The heat of his hand on your chest, makes your heart race the longer it rests there. You feared that the close proximity would give you away as you tried to focus on staying calm. Your eyes open, they flit down to watch his lips move as he speaks. They roam over his face taking in all his features. If you focused enough you could probably count the freckles that dust across his skin. 

“Stupid”, you think to yourself as you watch him. You’d done the one thing Chilchuck explicitly said not to do. But falling in love with Laios was like breathing, it came naturally. 

Laios opens his eyes and pulls his hand back slowly before looking over where your cut used to be. “H-how does it feel?”

He looks almost shocked by the fact that he’d actually healed you. He runs his pointer finger over the area, and a shiver runs down your spine. He looks up to meet your eyes, his hand still softly caressing over the now scar. “It feels good… a little itchy, but good.” you mutter breathlessly. 

Laios smiles as he looks up to meet your eyes, the distance between you two closes as his finger traces over your scar. “Sorry I haven’t mastered healing it up all the way.”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind Laios.” Your hand comes up to rest over his, a soft smile blossoms on your face. A smug look falls over his face at his success and pink hue dusts his cheeks. He starts talking about how proud of himself he is and his shock that he was able to heal everyone. You chuckle as you watch him brag about his victories, and how he can’t wait to show Falin how much he’s learned when they get her back. 

You try to focus as he talks, but your eyes can’t help be trail over his form as he speaks animatedly. The way his muscles flex as he flails them about recounting their run in with the Dryads. The way his lips look as he smiles while talking. 

You interrupt him before he can run off on a tangent. You grab his hands to bring his focus back towards you.

 “Thank you Laios!”, you hug him, which shocks him at first, but then his hands slowly come around your waist to hug you back. You both stay like that for a while, his hands traveling up and down your back. Your arms that are loosely around his neck tighten slightly as your hands tickle the hair at the nape of his neck. 

When you both pull away, your faces are inches away from each other. You can feel his breath tickle your nose as your eyes flit from his own down to his lips. It’s like there’s a mysterious force that brings you both closer together.

“Sweets…” Laios whispers as his lips graze against your own. You don’t know what comes over you, but you close the distance between you and him. A gasp escapes him before he relaxes into the kiss, his hands that were on your waist tighten slightly. His grip pulls you in as the kiss escalates. The feeling of his hands on your waist, stirs something in you. 

His lips were rough against your own softer ones. Your hand slides up until it’s entangled in his soft golden blonde hair. You sigh as you feel the golden tresses of hair in between your fingers. To finally be this close to him, to feel him against you was unimaginable. 

You feel his body shiver as your fingers lightly scrape against his scalp. The kiss was sloppy with inexperience, you both had no idea what you were doing, but you knew one thing.

It felt good and it felt right.

Your noses brush softly against each other as this kiss grows in intensity. 

His hand comes up and his thumb strokes your cheek as you pull apart, his face a bright red. He looks at you in disbelief at what just happened. His breaths come out in huffs as he leans his forehead down to rest against hers, “H-how-…You-.. What?”. You giggle as you catch your breath, not quite meeting his eyes. He grabs your cheeks to pull your face up so that you are looking at him. His eyes filled with a warmth you’ve only seen when he spoke about the monsters he’s encountered.. 

Maybe you aren’t so stupid after all.

[nevertheless-moving]

binged dungeon meshi anime + manga after numerous tumblr posts and leg injury. thoughts based on fandom > manga> anime ride:

[SPOILERS FOR MANGA]

senshi pantyshot fanservice much appreciated but... should really be more lingering and inexplicably glistening if its gonna match up to fanservice in other animes

no yeah TOTALLY get why toshiro just said fuck it and went home after... all that. days of no food. blase dark magic/you were too late reveal. long repressed slapfight that he probably felt equally guilty and angry about. girl he loved appeared as GIANT MONSTER and BRUTALLY killed HIS FAMILY.

girl he loved STOPPED TO PULL HER TITS OUT midway through BRUTALLY KILLING HIS FAMILY.

i'd go home too

also , Maricelle, all the love in the world, but i get why everyone was mad about the dark magic. i mean it looked bad. WE know that thistle interfered but the situation looked BAD ngl maricelle i would not want you healing me either after falin appearance.

feel like changeling maricelle should have been half half-foot/half-dwarf or something like that. would have been fun half-elf reveal to party. actually bothers me that she wasn't? the more i think about it. i mean itzumi was still cat/kobold.

incredibly belated but looking back at changeling episode...is senshi shirtless the whole time???

okay nevermind did some extensive research and i'm fairly sure he wasn't

also thinking back about senshi — he absolutely knew what he was doing with setting off the traps and pissing chilchuck off...my man was living here for decades.

kabru/laois is both more and less textually present than i would have thought based on fandom.

like on one hand they barely interact. on the other hand they barely interact and Kabru is VERY much obsessed . they have ONE (1) conversation. much hilarity has been observed about that dialogue so i digress

and there is ZERO new information between that interaction and kabru planning on putting the man on a THRONE. at some unclear point his career goal becomes having his lips at this man's ear and a dagger at his neck ???

i cannot stress this enough: he invests SO EARLY in king Laios. willing to sacrifice his life for this to be realized. goal oriented. unhinged. good for him.

you could say it's just him being practical and choosing the best option based on available information but incredibly relevant new information becomes available and Kabru is STILL locked in

i'm crying over kabru 'compressing' mithran's backstory. sure as a meta framing device fine. but in universe? BONKERS. narrative critiquing clinically depressed man's tragic backstory. Super normal move.

so much nuance and different perspectives on fantasy interracial marriages and adoptions and its SO SO GOOD.

gnawing on the walls kinda worldbuilding seriously

so thistle was a teenager when this all started. that's what i'm getting. that's... man there's a lot of layers of tragedy.

wait so if elves and half-foots look ambiguously young do tallmen look ambiguously old?? wrinkly gangly old old wrinkly fuckers??? or burning the candle at both ends terrible looking tall child???

hey i'm starting to think that the monster who controls all monsters... might not be a good guy

'Delgal' holding thistle at the end ... i'm not crying. you're crying.

impossible to say if laois won the final battle on purpose or not

genuinely no idea

11/10 no notes about that fact

[dunmeshichilchuck]

For That One Guy on Tumblr part 5

Chilchuck x !fem !halffoot reader

Your first thought on waking up was to wonder what the hell you'd drunk last night to give you such a nasty hangover. 

Your second thought was "is something...breathing on me?"

You opened your eyes and stared straight into the worried gaze of an uncomfortably close and extremely blond elf.  

She sighed with apparent relief. "Oh thank goodness! You've been sleeping for hours! I thought maybe something had gone wrong with the resurrection spell and you might not wake up, it's just such an unknown area of resurrection magic as to how long someone can be dead before they're resurrected!"

You squinted, brain churning a long for a few minutes before you caught up with the fact that you had, in fact, died and been turned into a Popsicle. "Hrghhh....yeah...yeah 'm fine. Got one hell of a headache though. Why didn't you just wake me up if it's so late?"

Marcille fidgeted with her staff. "I wanted to but -" she shot a glare at the other party members. "They wouldn't let me!"

"It's not like it would make much sense to wake someone up just to make sure they still can wake up." Chilchuck grumbled. "do you want them fully recovered or not? They'll need to rest without you poking them awake every 10 minutes." 

Laois nodded. "Yeah and if something WAS going wrong you'd be able to see it right? Falin told me if resurrection magic went wrong you'd just kinda melt!" 

"You wouldn't- it's not melting! Why would you say it like that?"

You interjected before they could get going again. "Who's Falin?" 

Chilchuck glanced over at you. "Falin's his sister." He gestured at Laois. "She's the main reason we're here. We were trying to rescue and ressurect her but something...." He glanced at Marcille briefly, an odd, almost warning look on his face. "went wrong. And now the mad mage has transformed her into something else and is controlling her." He shrugged. "If we want to get Falin back we're going to need to defeat the mad mage."

Huh, that was. Interesting. 

"What...what exactly went wrong?" You asked, unsure if you actually wanted to know the answer. 

Laois opened his mouth to say something, but Chilchuck shot him a glare and jumped in. "We don't know, she'd been dead for a long time and we had to reassemble her body." He shrugged again. "Who knows with resurrection magic? Shit just goes south sometimes." 

Well that was even more interesting. With that and what you'd heard before they realized you were conscious....there was definitely some shady magical shit going down. 

You looked at Marcille dubiously. Normally you'd think some kind of black magic, but was this prim and proper cream puff of a barely adult child really capable of crimes against god? For heavens sakes she'd been so embarrassed about the bra thing even. You couldn't picture her in combat, let alone casting some kind of banned black magic. She'd probably get too anxious and not be able to go through with it, and why would she even study that? It seemed like her field was relatively narrow if she didn't know the leaving spell.

Definitely very interesting, and potentially very dangerous. If they knew what you'd heard and what you suspected this could get very dicey for you. The best course of action would be to play dumb as a rock. 

You nodded. "Oh yeah no I know, I don't know much about magic but I know ressurrection magic is one of those things that we don't know much about, right? Cause it's so new and everything. I've heard of some weeeiiiirrrddd stuff happening in other groups. People not fully resurrecting or even getting body swapped. And who knows how the mad mage is involved in that? Hell maybe he could control ANYONE resurrected in his dungeon, but he just went after your sister for some reason." 

Lies. Blatant lies too. You weren't dumb and you'd asked as many questions as you could of the mage in your old group. You could even cast some basic healing magic if it came down to it. You'd only had one mage in the party, and you were the only one not directly involved in combat every time, so it made sense for him to teach you some quick and dirty spells in case he was incapacitated. Not that you'd ever reveal that, you knew what happened to halffoots who learned magic. Resurrection magic wasn't complicated at all. No way they weren't doing shady shit. 

Laois and Marcille chimed in with agreements that sounded just a bit too relieved, but Chilchuck just shot you an indecipherable look and then turned back and said. "alright now that that's settled we need to get packed up and head out. We've wasted too much time waiting for y/n to wake up as it is." 

You clenched your jaw and firmly reminded yourself that you were already in a precarious position, and that seemed to just be the way Chilchuck talked. 

You could put up with it. You could put up with anything if it meant getting to take down the bastard that had built this dungeon. 

Tag list, ask to tag:

@night-shadowblood-writes2

@thoughtfulbelieverstrawberry

@dunmeshimeshi

@leguink 

@gh0st-spider

@reh-llik

@sy1v30n

@qardasngan

[psiroller]

My Boy (We Don't See Each Other Much)

a third fic request from unkat has reached me for some gamer au shenanigans. cool, i thought, nice low stakes goofin off fun time au. lets put some military industrial complex in there

cw: institutionalized homophobia, vague references to USAmerican military operations in the 2000's, gamer lingo

The raid was a resounding success by their guild's lax standards. Chilchuck managed to pull a rare light armor piece he'd been looking for, finally catching him up to the modern game; he was surprised by how much damage the standard grinding mobs were doing to him now, even if his defense was always going to be lower than the tanks and fighters he partied with. Laios landed the biggest critical hit he'd ever seen; the broadsword Chilchuck nabbed for him off the Auction House was working well for him. He was clearly still riding the high, humming the victory fanfare under his breath as he took inventory and milled about with Senshi, comparing the ingredients they’d collected, trading amongst themselves. It was late, though, close to Senshi’s prep hours. Marcille was fighting against the cozy lethargy that followed a glass of wine and swiftly losing. Falin had already logged out to take a shower and head to bed, stopping by Laios’ door for a hug goodnight.

Laios went right back to the desktop after he shut the door. He pulled his headset back on and heard the familiar sound of Chilchuck’s raspy inhale and then a long, satisfied exhale.

“Chilchuck!” Laios said, too eagerly. “You’re still up?”

“No, I’m fast asleep,” Chilchuck drawled. Laios snorted and threw a rock at Chilchuck’s head. It passed through harmlessly; neither of them wanted the hassle of dedicated PVP. Maybe Laios wasn’t as keen on roleplaying as Marcille and Falin were, but the roleplaying server had been a lot kinder to him than the standard ones he usually played on.

“You were right about the sword,” Laios tittered. “I really have to start doing the math instead of just looking at bigger numbers—uh, focusing on how sharp the blade is, I mean.”

Chilchuck coughed through a laugh, leaning away from the mic so that it didn’t blow Laios’ eardrums out. “I think some of the guides are a little out of date,” Chilchuck said, relaxed enough to drop character. Marcille was still nearby, though the AFK symbol appeared under her name; the elf she played nodded off, ears drooping.  “Critical chance used to be calculated with this really convoluted system that also included timers, so there were only so many crits you could get in the span of a few minutes,” he went on. “They updated it recently so that you roll for a critical every hit.”

“Oh, thank God,” Laios said. “On a timer? How long did raids use to take?”

“Oh, upwards of four hours.” Chilchuck said casually. Laios sputtered. “I know, I know. I guess people had more free time back then… though with how people run multiple raids a night now, I guess it’s down to how committed you are.”

“So critical hit percentage is the thing I should focus on, then.”

“For your build, yeah.”

“Why does everyone recommend focusing on damage per second?”

“It’s a recent change, I think it got pushed out just before you signed up. They’ve tweaked it a lot, so people tend to get confused on how it works now, as it gets buffed and nerfed. Attack and attack speed used to be connected to the same value, so there are other ways you can focus on dealing damage instead of just right clicking the dragon and watching one of twelve timers tick down.” Chilchuck smiled and took another drag. “I think they’re trying to freshen things up a little. I like the changes.”

“Really? Everyone in the forums talks about how much they hate it.”

“If they’re old enough to be using the forums, they’re old enough to hate their favorite thing changing,” Chilchuck laughed.

“But not you,” said Laios. There was a warmth there that Chilchuck didn’t see a reason for.

“Eh.” Chilchuck’s ears burned under his headset. “Maybe a little bit. They don’t make shooters like they used to.” There was a pause. “Oh, right, you don’t like those.”

“Just the super hoo-rah military ones,” Laios breathed. “I can do Team Fortress 2. That one’s pretty fun.”

“Oh! I play that with—a friend, sometimes,” Chilchuck stammered. “Do you… I’m still kind of wired. I got a day off tomorrow. Do you—”

“Yeah!” His mic clipped. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

“Wait, you don’t have a test tomorrow or anything, do you?”

“… No.”

“I don’t like that hesitation.”

Laios huffed and puffed and logged out of Dungeon Divers with little warning, but usernames were exchanged and soon Laios’ avatar (a dragon, what else) popped up in Chilchuck’s scant friend list, nestled between Dan and May.

“I didn’t think you’d be cool enough to play TF2,” Laios teased.

“Cool people play TF2? I thought it was all screaming toddlers.”

“There are a few of those, yeah,” Laios admitted.

“I played the original game. It was a lot different. I don’t really keep up with it these days, but…”

“No worries,” Laios chirped. “I’ll take care of you.”

Chilchuck felt something zip down his spine. “I’m not that bad.”

They played three matches with the usual late night crowd, and it was a miracle if Chilchuck could stay alive for longer than a minute or two, let alone get a kill. Laios, on the other hand, clawed up every scoreboard and sat at the top. He started with Sniper; Chilchuck followed him while waiting for his respawn timer to run out, flicking between first and third person views. He watched as opponents’ heads would pop like grapes the moment they touched Laios’ reticle, faster than Chilchuck’s eyes could tell his brain to move his fingers.

“Okay, maybe I’m pretty bad,” Chilchuck admitted. “Compared to you.”

Laios missed a shot and sputtered. “I’m concentrating…!” A Spy knifed him, and Chilchuck could hear Laios whack his mouse against the table in frustration. Chilchuck laughed.

“Relax, that’s your first one this round,” he teased. “Your reflexes are crazy. Maybe I’m getting too old for twitchy games like this.”

“The mechanics have changed a lot and all the tryhards are on,” Laios conceded, breathing out the annoyance. “I’ll switch to Heavy. Wanna be my Medic? I can keep more of an eye on you.”

Chilchuck sniffed at his demotion to pocket healer, but then at least he’d be getting assist kills. “Alright, fine.”

Many assist kills were had, and all was well. It was fun to watch Laios’ brain work, bobbing and weaving and jumping around. He played like May did, hyperfocused on the movement mechanics; Chuck’s wrists weren’t any good for that anymore, so he usually hung back to support anyway.

“So why TF2 and not Call of Duty?” Chilchuck asked between matches, lighting another cigarette in search of the now-elusive nicotine buzz. “Seems like you’re really good. You could probably go pro if you wanted.”

Chuck heard a rustling against the mic. Sounded like Laios fiddling with the thing, maybe rubbing his face. He heard a scratch of stubble.

“Eh. I just—don’t like the military aesthetic very much, or something,” Laios mumbled. “I, uh. I served, and it’s a little…”

Chilchuck coughed. “You served? As in, served in the army?”

“Yeah.” There was a chuckle from the other line. “What? Is it that surprising?”

“Well, you just never…” Chuck scratched at the nape of his neck. “You never said anything that made me think… I don’t know what I thought. You didn’t seem like the type.”

“That’s because I’m not,” Laios snorted. “I was a good shot, but not a good soldier, if that makes any sense?”

Chuck wet his dry lips and leaned back in his chair. He didn’t lock into the next game, and the queue dumped them out. Laios didn’t reset it.

“So you objected? Conscientious objection? Is that what it’s called?”

“That’s what it’s called, but uh… it takes a while to get that done if you enlisted voluntarily. You have to plead your case for it. I thought about it, but I didn’t get the chance.”

Chilchuck swallowed dryly, then tapped some ash out into the ceramic tray Patty made for him many Father’s Days ago. “So you were kicked out?”

“Discharged, yeah,” Laios sighed. His chair creaked as he leaned back, too. “Other than honorable.”

Chuck winced. “What did you do?”

There was that rustling again. “I, um. If you don’t ask, I don’t have to tell you.”

“Oh, uh. Sorry, I”—Chilchuck’s eyes went wide—"ohhh.”

“Yeah.”

“Seriously? They booted you over a thing like that?”

Laios laughed weakly. “It’s in the regulations.”

“Still? When there’s, like, five wars going on?”

“Yep. I got a little pamphlet about it and everything. It’s rarer these days, and most people now get let off with an honorable, but…” Laios sighed. “My case was a whole thing. I didn’t fit in great with the rest of my platoon to begin with, and I maybe… I maybe misread some signals. You get bored out there, you know. Lonely. Got a little too close to my bunky…” Laios cleared his throat. “He let me down easy, but I guess he said something to somebody. I don’t think he’d go straight to the brass, he told me he wouldn’t, but someone must have overheard and that counts as credible evidence, so…”

Laios popped his lips with a click of his tongue. Chilchuck was frozen, ashes falling from the end of his cigarette into the crevices of his already dirty keyboard. The cigarette had almost burned down to the filter; money burning up in unsmoked nicotine. “I was probably going to leave anyway,” Laios said, to fill the silence. “I didn’t like being out there. If anything it kept me from being stupid and going AWOL. But if you talk to the VA—or my dad, heh—I  might as well have.”

Laios wheezed. Chilchuck blinked some smoke out of his eyes and stubbed out his cigarette.

“Hang on, you were on active duty and they’re hassling you at the VA over healthcare?”

“Oh yeah. Anything less than a general discharge is going to get you some hassle. I’m still on general health insurance, lowest tier. I’m not on TRICARE.”

Chilchuck pinched the pressure point between his eyebrows. “There’s gotta be a way to appeal that.”

“There might be. But I’ve spent about 40 hours of my life on the phone with them since I got back, and I’m not keen on spending anymore.” Laios made a blech sort of noise, disgusted, a little childish. “I hate phone calls. Besides, they gave me some money for college, so it wasn’t a complete wash.”

“Small miracles,” Chilchuck mumbled.

“Yup,” Laios breathed. He drummed his fingers on his desk, loud enough to reach the mic. Then there were a couple rhythmic bongo slaps against the table, nervous. “Ready for another game?”

Chuck looked at his watch. It was 4:32 AM.

“Sure. Night’s still young,” he said, for lack of anything comforting to say. “Play Heavy again.”

“Okay,” Laios said, and there was a smile in his voice. So that was something.

[bridgyrose]

Marcille petting both of her girlfriends (Izutsumi and Falin) and wondering how she ended up so lucky

Marcille smiled as she brought dinner in for Falin and Izutsumi, tiptoeing to the bed as she tried her best to not wake them. It wasnt an easy task especially with Izutsumi’s hearing and sense of smell. And then there was Falin… ever since she was separated from the dragon, her own sense of smell had become more sensitive along with her eyesight. But seeing the two of them stay asleep even with her not so quiet steps and the food she carried, it certainly meant they felt much safer and relaxed here. 

She sat the food down on the nightstand and gently ran her fingers through Falin’s hair and down towards the feathers on her neck, jealous of how soft her hair and feathers were. Then she moved her hand to Izutsumi’s to pet her, still surprised at how her hair transitioned to fur. It went from coarse to fine, still keeping the same softness all over. Even the bits of skin she had that werent covered with fur still felt softer than expected. 

Izutsumi moved a bit and Marcille pulled her hand away. It had only been a couple years since they started dating, but she had always questioned how she not only managed to fall in love with these two but marveled at how lucky she had been to meet them. If she had been in another class, she wouldnt have met Falin and by circumstance, Izutsumi, and yet everything had aligned just right for her to meet both of them. 

“You’re staring again, arent you?” Izutsumi asked while half asleep. “You see me every day, you should be over it by now.” 

“I’m not staring, I’m just lost in thought,” Marcille huffed as she sat down next to the bed. “Cant I watch my girlfriends sleep for a bit after dropping off food to them?” 

Izutsumi sat up and picked at her ears to clean them. “Does that mean you’re going to eat with us this time? Or are you going to go back to your studies?” 

“I still need to find a way-” 

“No you dont!” 

Marcille went quiet as she felt herself get pulled down onto the bed just before Izutsumi crawled onto her. “I cant stay here, I still need to figure out how to get a new dungeon to form and then to see if we can finally fix you and Falin-” 

“We’ve already told you there’s nothing to fix anymore,” Izutsumi interrupted her. “This is who we are and that’s that. We’ve accepted it.” 

“Yeah but-” 

“But nothing. You’ve hid yourself away for weeks and we miss you. Rest, eat, stay with us for a bit. I wont let you go until you do. Otherwise Falin will drag you back.” 

Marcille blushed a bit. It wouldnt be so bad if Falin dragged her out of her studies, she didnt mind being handled like that. But now that she thought about it, she was starting to get comfortable where she was. “Fine, I’ll rest and eat and then I’ll go to your studies.” 

Izutsumi smiled and closed her eyes. “Good, because I’m not letting you go yet.”

[buncoreclown]

Posted this to Twitter might as well post it here

Toudencest/laifali first time is completely coincidental.

They were just rough housing playing around until Laios finally got Falin pinned to the ground as they both chuckle. Of course her big brother won but she put up a good fight. He's pressed between her legs groin rubbing against hers and suddenly everything shifts.

They're both breathing heavy and Laios eyes flick to her lips and to her heaving chest. Warmth stirs in his groin familiar and heady. But it's Falin that takes it further kissing her brother and wrapping her arms around his neck. He kisses back both inexperienced but needy as Laios hands slip under her night shirt. She's so soft under his touch as she arches into it touch starved in a way she didn't understand. Her core is dripping and has a dull ache and she grinds against her brother to soothe it and they both moan.

"Laios, please," she whines knowing not what she's asking but needing to. He just nods barely pushing his pants down just enough to get his cock out and the sight makes her eyes widen as more heat waves through her. She needs it. She pushes her own pants down quickly spreading her legs before him.

They knew the basics, watched the animals mate many times always so intrigued but this was different. Laios gulped before getting closer and clumsily pushing in making them both gasp. He could barely breathe as she was so hot and tight around him and so much better than his hand had ever been. He gripped her tightly to him and she clung to him just as tight.

"Falin," he whined into her ear and her hand went into his hair petting him gently. She felt so full unbelievably so and the fullness felt strangely good. He just sat inside her for a moment trying to come down from the excitement of it all and she whispered her praise into his hair.

It doesn't last long, over much quicker than it began Laios embarrassingly filling up his little sister. He stayed inside asking how to make her feel good and playing with her clit before eventually she came too clenching around him. He finally pulled out both watching in awe as cum leaked out of her. They played with it curiously. This was something they'd definitely do again.

[rue-dixon]

I LOVE DUNMESHI TEACHER AU!!!

Had this version in my head for awhile where Senshi and Chilchuck were both long time teachers. And Marcille, Falin and Laios actually went to the high school and had them both as teachers, only to grow up and work there as teachers themselves.

Marcille became an art teacher and she's sooo excited to now be an adult and be friend with all her favorite teachers. Especially Chilchuck because her dad died in high school and he was like her comfort teacher during that time, letting her sit in his class if it got too bad for her and talk after school if she needed. He's glad she's doing well now. But tells her she's too smart to be teaching something like art lol

Izutsumi is the adopted daughter of Senshi. Chilchuck's girls all go to the school since they would be around that age if we set them all in human years. And they kinda just adopt Izutsumi into the group as a fourth sister almost. She struggles in school a lot, Chilchuck tutors her during lunch while she gets history and English after school on certain days.

Haven't thought about Laios and Falin much, but I think Laios is gonna be a gym teacher that everyone loves. He would teacher the basic class you need to graduate so almost everyone has had him at one point him and loves him. Including Chilchuck's youngest Puckpatti which kinda annoys him.

Not sure if Falin will be a teacher or just Marcille's wife that visits a lot. And everyone likes her because she's at all the events and super nice and pretty. But I also want her to have gone to the same high school, and her and Marcille dated in high school. So when Marcille comes back Senshi and Chilchuck are both surprised that they're still together and now married. But they're both (secretly on Chilchuck's part) happy for them.

Chilchuck is a math teacher, but he's in the art room a lot when he doesn't have a class because he knows if his oldest, Meijack is missing from class that's where she'll be. The three of them eat lunch in his classroom a lot, Flertom asked if she could bring her friends but he said no because he'll tutor during lunch somedays. Izutsumi's tutoring lessons while they were in there is how they became closer friends. Senshi and Chilchuck bond over that their '"little girls" aren't so little anymore.

Senshi originally was just a health teacher, which is what Marcille and Falin had him in. But he pushed the school to have a culinarily class. So now he teachers two of that a day as an elective and the rest health class. Chilchuck's second oldest Flertom took his cooking class and that's how she met Izutsumi. Senshi makes secret meals that he packs up in cute little boxes for students he knows are going through difficult times or are in difficult situations. He did this for Marcille when her dad died.

Edit: wait maybe I'll make Falin the theater teacher. Theater x art teacher is kinda cute

[monstertidbits]

hi i loved this finale very much i love falin and im so happy shes back...... also im obsessed with the choice to make laios forever unable to indulge his monster autism, and making him king. ITS SO INTERESTING i love this direction even though it sucks for laios, maybe there is something to be said about how you don't always achieve the thing you want most in life and that's okay, and the life you live is still worth a lot.... and also it's so something to me that laios is being such an adult about this, like yeah he wishes he was having fun doing his own thing and he really doesn't want to be king, but SOMEONE has to and unfortunately for him he's the absolute best candidate (((PRECISELY BECAUSE OF HOW WEIRD HIS PRIORITIES ARE))), so he'll do it, AND HE'LL DO IT WELL, he'll be the awesome, competent and kind ruler, but he'll still be kinda sad and mopey about not getting what he wanted. LIKE HE'S SUCH A GOOD KING, he brought so much good into this world, but he doesn't get particularly high and mighty about it because he doesn't really care that much about being a king. HE'S SO CHILL ABOUT IT!!!! motherfucker really ushers in a time of prosperity and peace, and he's still just sitting on his throne thinking "man.......... the monsters will NEVER hang out with me........... what is this life......." I LOVE HIM SOOOO MUUUUUUUCHHHHH i love that his whole future thjng is not getting what he wanted at all but absolutely excelling at the thing hes doing (that doesn't really do anything for him). absolute icon and my personal hero

NONNIEEE YEAHHH!!! I remember back when i first read ch60 and i was like "wait... this feels wrong", not liking the idea of laios becoming a king bc i knew it wasn't what he "really wanted". but now, after reading how he actually got to that point, it makes sense. and it's still kinda bittersweet. because we know that his interest in monsters was amplified and became all consuming bc of his struggle to connect with other people, feeling alienated everywhere he went. so not being able to interact with monsters much anymore and being a king of other humans is actually forcing him to face all those fears and struggles he was running away from all this time, and learn to define himself outside of his expertise. watching the best and worst of humanity so very closely as their ruler, and finding his own place among them. but the thing is, he always had a home to return to in the few people he loved. and that's why, through all the hardships and pain, it's still worth it. he was ready to have something taken away from him and quite literally had to give up his most defining trait. so who is he now? can he manage without the comfort of monsters?

the answer is yes. he is not alone. and it may not be the most satisfying conclusion for him but it might be what he needed most. to learn how to live in peace with his own self, with the world surrounding him. and all being said, it was pointed out time and time again: how he wasn't really planning for the future, how he didn't have any strong conviction leading him. but it all changed after he killed his sister with his own hands. i think chapter 67 was a defining moment in laios's journey for many reasons, but especially this: for once, he chose not to run away. he decided that HE will be the one to challenge his fate and bend it as he wishes. otherwise, he could've given up on resurrecting falin long ago. but he didn't, not just for the sake of his sister but those people who put their faith in them and tried their best FOR them. it's ironic, how it was precisely inside the monsters' world that he was finally able to connect with the humans he despised so much in the most genuine way. and after facing the absolute worst, he can definitely find in himself the strength to deal with anything, king or not. so like you said- the man is gonna be fine somehow. i love him so much

[sunnyrosewritesstuff]

Happy Halloween!

Treat Falin & Marcille

:3 ty! 🐾

(>’.’)>🍫 (full sized candy bar for you!)

Thank you so much! Sorry this is so late. I appreciate the ask and the candy bar! Best trick or treater ever. 😂 Since you used the (&) I figured you wanted this to remain platonic so here is your treat! Please enjoy!

Marcille bent over the plant with the strange bulbs and white petals, flipping quickly through her book to identify it. There it was! Oh, yarrow. That has many healing properties. Picking a few clusters, Marcille stuffed them in her bag and went on to the next plant. 

“Falin, how are you coming along?” She asked as she flipped through her book again.

She waited for an answer, asking again when she didn’t get one before finally turning towards the other mage. Marcille sighed to see her younger companion playing with a caterpillar. 

“Falin! We said we would gather ingredients for my spell today.” Marcille reminded, hands on her hips.

“I know, but…” Falin trailed off as she looked between Marcille and the caterpillar before finally setting him down. “I think I found some amaranth over this way.”

“Amaranth?” Marcille questioned as she quickly flipped through the pages. “Just what is that going to do?”

“Lots!” Falin declared as she led her towards a bright pink tentacle looking thing.

“Just what is that?” Marcille questioned, jumping back when it moved.

Falin looked at her confused. “It’s amaranth. It’s quite useful for a number of different things, but get enough of it and it will summon spirits.”

That peeked Marcille’s attention as she leaned in a little closer. “Summon spirits, you say? But I don’t see anything like this in the book.”

“But you can feel it.” Falin smiled before gently taking Marcille’s hand and placing it over the blooms.

At first, she couldn’t feel anything, but then the thrum of power raced through her like a heartbeat. Marcille smiled in amazement as Falin picked her a couple of sprigs. 

“You’re so good at this Falin!” She declared.

The other girl smiled and rocked back on her heels. “Not really, you just…overthink it. Now come on, let’s go get you some devil’s claw to go with it!”

Eventually the book went back into Marcille’s pack as she allowed Falin to lead her around the meadow, feeling the power and magic in each plant before they picked some for later. The joy radiating from Falin’s face reminded Marcille that magic was more than learning. It was heart, and she was glad she had Falin for that. 

[gddmgttsu]

Hello!

(I have a nasty habit of wanting to write only about bad things so let's talk about something else)

I've somehow read all of Dungeon Meshi within the last two days or so. Time well spent I'd say...

The first time I've even heard of Dungeon Meshi was seeing all the Twitter clips from the first episode of the anime. I thought the premise was cute so I decided to take a peek at the anime with a friend.

The first two episodes were alright but at the time it didn't quite grip me as much as I thought it would. While I loved all the characters doing their thing, it was missing something that would really hook me in you know what I mean?

=======SPOILERS I SUPPOSE======

If you haven't seen any of it yet, please go and check it out it's pretty good. I wouldn't want to ruin anything about it for the blind.

After the second episode I just put it off for a bit but a month to so later, I saw a twitter clip or maybe it was a teaser that was about Falin's resurrection. I was astonished to see not a digested corpse coming out of the dragon but a goddamn skeleton of what's left. That was what I was missing in order to get hooked so my interest was fully piqued.

So now I've gotten around to reading the whole thing and MAN was I surprised. The world is so interesting, the characters are all loveable and it gets surprisingly dark every now and then. It touches on alot of themes that I like involving death and the stains of time.

My favorite manga of all time is Berserk so the moment the manga started getting into that stuff I was fully invested.

One of scenes that really stood out to me were Marcille's nightmare and how it sets up that bit near the end. I don't really know much about elf lore and I just beat Baldur's Gate 3 so it was interesting to learn more about how an increased lifespan is just sadness for the elf in question.

Seeing Laois get touched by her nightmare and immediately starts aging and freaking Marcille out just made me go "OH NO IS THAT WHY SHE'S AFRAID" and it makes me sad to think about life without your loved ones.

Another one is Senshi's backstory with the Griffin and how he had to live a long time with that gnawing thought at the back of his head. It thoroughly explains why he's so adamant about eating a balanced meal and how living as healthy as can be is so important to him. I honestly teared up pretty bad seeing those final panels of him eating the hippogriff stew.

I suppose my only nitpicks is that we never really got to hang out with Falin enough. I would have loved to see more of the gang interact with her since from the flashbacks and what little time we do get with her, she's a sweetheart too.

There's also Itsuzumi and how I personally don't think her arc was fully done but at least she had her moment with the succubis.

These are very minor and there are even more minor ones and honestly I don't mind them very much because the story is already like a 10/10.

=========SPOILERS END=========

The volumes kept ending at cliffhangers so I couldn't stop wanting to read more and more so I ended up binging the whole thing.

I'm glad I did though because the manga went into detail a couple of things I've been thinking about recently too. It just nice to see and read thoughts about the little things that bother me right now. Even if it is through a silly manga about eating monsters.

Honestly, the manga influenced me maybe like 10-30% as to doing a bit better with how I treat myself and my health.

To close it off, I gotta say I really loved it and I'm excited to go through it again with the anime. Hopefully my friend won't mind if I drag them with me since I left them at ep2 hehehe.

TLDR: FARCILLE IS REAL DON'T LET THEM TELL YOU OTHERISE

[felixcloud6288]

Dungeon Meshi Chapter 4

What was it like to read this series as it came out? This chapter feels like Kui is trying to address complaints about Marcille's usefulness.

The chapter image implies Marcille and Falin went to the same magic school. I assume the book in the bottom-left corner is the one Marcille refers to on how to pluck Mandrakes.

Looking back on all the chapters so far, Marcille has spent much of the journey complaining about the whole "Eating monsters" thing and hasn't actually contributed anything to the journey. In fact, I'd say she's mostly been a detriment since she had to get saved from a slime and a man-eating plant.

(Granted, Chilchuck also hasn't done anything of value, but he also hasn't needed rescuing, required the party to rest, or been complaining about things.)

And Marcille is acutely aware that she's not been helpful at all. She is so desperate throughout this chapter to show that her magic and education can help everyone.

The elaborate and highly inefficient method for harvesting madrakes in Marcille's book vs the very simple way Senshi harvests them kind of is reminding me about something that was talked about recently in a databases class I'm currently taking.

The problem the professor went over was "We have n number of CPUs we could divide our data between to speed up processing. We can make a lookup table that decides which CPU should be given which datapoint based on a cross reference of two fields in each datapoint. How do we ensure we maximize our CPU usage?"

The professor showed us what they called the "PhD student solution" which involved an elaborate pattern algorithm that causes you to build your lookup table in a complex snaking pattern. And in the end, the method is better at the things the existing methods were bad at but worse at solving problems that existing methods were already great at.

Then the professor showed us the "15 years experience" solution which used very simple calculations and was a light modification of the existing methods which allowed it to keep the strengths of the existing method and managed to avoid most of the issues with the existing method. The solution was elegant, easy to follow and replicate, and it was scalable to higher values of n and higher dimensional tables.

Anyway, Marcille's book is a PhD student solution. It works, but it was made by someone who was looking for a flashy solution that would get people's attention. How many dogs died because of this person's methods? Laios's solution sounds dumb but it's likely far better than Marcille's. Maybe the solution could just be to magic up a silence field so the Mandrakes can't make any noise when they scream.

Meanwhile, Senshi has the practical 15 years experience solution.

And Marcille decides to go through an elaborate process to show the value of the elaborate method as one might expect a PhD student to do.

Whatever Marcille was going to cast in chapter 2, it was different from what she cast this chapter. The runes she speaks are different and I can't find anything that looks the same.

That heart-to-heart was nice. Marcille wants to be the reliable one who can resolve every issue they encounter. But Laios doesn't want to exhaust Marcille by making her handle every situation they encounter. Being the reliable one all the time is exhausting; it's good to be able to defer to others in situations you're not the most capable in.

I was equally as shocked as Marcille when Laios said this. And this explains so much about the things I thought were strange about the basilisk.

If the chicken is the tail, then it doesn't actually matter that it was a rooster. It doesn't actually determine the basilisk's role in reproduction.

Nice touch putting a name and face to the basilisk researcher. It makes this world a little more alive that there is a person we can tie this silly fact to rather than it just being an arbitrarily known thing.

I noticed but didn't call him out on it last chapter, but I'm going to call him out this time: Senshi refers to Marcille as "the Elf-girl". And he only started calling her by her name when it turned out the mandrake she plucked tasted better than the mandrakes plucked with Senshi's methods.

Senshi's method is definitely the most practical way to handle killing mandrakes but it turns out that it's not the best way to harvest them. Meanwhile Marcille's method is flashy and harvests better quality mandrakes, but is overall too complex to be useful and still worse in general than Senshi's method.

If monster cuisine becomes a mainstream concept, maybe one day someone will find an effective method to harvest better quality mandrakes (Silence field).

I could hear the "beeowoop" on that last panel.

back

[thesomewhatliterateaxolotl]

001 dungeon meshi or 002 susahao :3

i sense a long post so this goes under a cut

| dunmeshi |

Favorite character: I can't choose for my mental health. sorry. I love them all too much

Least Favorite character: ughgh Toshiro. next question

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): ooh...5? Okay so Farcille, Labru (it's not a must-have for me but I like it romantically or platonically), Laios x monsters, Chilchuck's messy relationship with his (ex)-wife, and lastly. Cithis x me

Character I find most attractive: goddd there are so many hot people in this manga and I'm aroace. it depends on the day but top contenders in no particular order are Kabru, Marcille, Laios, Cithis (see above), and Falin. and we can't not love Kui sensei for giving us the Senshi fanservice the world needed.

Character I would marry: I would marry no one but...objectively speaking? OF COURSE Senshi

Character I would be best friends with: Chilchuck !!

A random thought: The moment where Mithrun cries because "even vegetable scraps have their uses" made me feel like I'd been revived from the dead. dunmeshi is so good.

An unpopular opinion: hmm I don't really know?

My canon OTP: canonically no one like. "ends up together" in the super official sense and I'm happy with that! however farcille can count...i think anyways. it's not even coding it's plain as day

Non-canon OTP: like i said, any ship qualifies !

Most badass character: Senshi, because truly what is more badass than caring for the dungeon ecosystem and your friends' health and wellbeing by cooking them a balanced diet out of monsters. all with a single cooking pot too

Pairing I am not a fan of: Izutsumi x anyone. that girl doesn't want a romantic interest nor does she need one <3

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): ...no one? I'm gonna finish my reread soon but I highly doubt I'll find one that I'll think was screwed up

Favourite friendship: The whole party warmed my heart. that hug healed me. ALSO honorary mention to Mithrun and Kabru because again the feeling of being restored and learning to feel again is so real. honorary honorary mention to Izutsumi and the rest of the party because that is the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life

--

|susahao|

when or if I started shipping it: "when I fall under your intense gaze..." I very nearly pointed at the screen and went "YOU'RE BISEXUAL!!"

my thoughts: they invented sapphism actually

What makes me happy about them: I love how Haori does not fucking hesitate to keep flirting with Ryutaro upon finding out that he is in fact Susato. what a queen

What makes me sad about them: the fact that their reunion in-game occurs when Susato is coming back, rushed, on what she assumes to be a family tragedy; and what she finds instead is Haori having been through a horrifically traumatizing event in her absence. both of these girls trying their best to study and have careers in Meiji Japan. the world makes it so fucking difficult for them.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: it's not so much a specific thing done in fanfic as like, an overarching trend that people tend to fluffify them a ton. i get it they're cute and lighthearted but they're also sixteen-year-olds in a world that is unfair to them. that being said, i also don't like the idea of making them 'tragic' for the drama of it all. let them be happy, but also give them depth basically!

Things I look for in fanfic: i don't read a ton of dgs fic these days but i look for good Haori background and characterization

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Gina, Maria...and that applies to either of them lol

My happily ever after for them: marriage marriage fraud (I can't take credit for this idea, since I first heard it from Seven ofc! but it's so real to me)

[ask game]

[heroescore]

Heroes

Chapter 15 - The Lost Boy

<prev | masterlist | next>

Lyall Lapin was a very extraordinary boy — he just didn't know he was.

He never felt very extraordinary, growing up in a city with heroes, he considered himself a regular boy, his highs and lows insignificant in the big world.

His own world was small, but he didn’t mind. He had everything he needed. He had his dad, who worked three jobs to provide for them; Mrs Hopkins, who used to be their live-in nanny, but now worked from home as a seamstress, using her flexible workday to still take care of Lyall and his older brother while their father was so busy; His older brother Luke, who always made time to walk home from school with him, even when his own school and secret double life kept him so busy; and his best friend Faline, who was like a sister to him.

They went to the same private middle school together. The kind where you had to wear a uniform, and where Mandarin was a mandatory class. Lyall enrolled in the school when his father still owned his own company and he could afford the tuition. But only half a year after Lyall started, his father’s company went bankrupt.

Thankfully, the school advised for the boy to stay. They did pride themselves on the mental wellbeing of their students, so they allowed Lyall to stay until he would go on to high school. Not to mention his father had always made generous donations when he still could, and they couldn’t afford the negative publicity of mercilessly letting a student go because his father was incredibly down on his luck.

Lyall was rather unaware of it though. He only knew he would have to go to a different high school after middle school, and was rather hyped that his friend insisted to come with him, even though her father could afford the private high school.

But the school didn’t matter. He had all he needed, and he didn’t care too much for school anyway. He preferred to spend time with his friend, or play games with his brother or alone.

But today his friend was busy. She was going to see a movie with her father, and was taking a car with a private driver home.

“Are you sure you don’t want a lift home?” his friend asked through the window while doing up her seatbelt.

“No, I’m waiting for my brother,” Lyall assured her, “have a great time at the movies!”

He waved her off, before heading to the nearest subway station, where he would wait for his brother from his train home, and they’d transfer onto another train together for the last stretch.

However, as he arrived upon the platform, he found a huge crowd, murmuring annoyed as they found the train wasn’t running. Lyall pushed through the crowd a bit to check the info sign, only for it to say there were no trains running...indefinitely.

“Man…” the boy said, climbing back up to the street to get out of the crowd.

He pulled out his phone, texting his brother, letting him know he would walk home, and that he would text him again once he got home safely. He tucked his phone away so it wouldn’t be stolen, before beginning his walk home.

He’d walked the route several times with his brother, when they had run out of money for the train home. It wasn’t too bad a walk, it just took forever. Normally time would fly when he chatted with his brother, but today he was walking all by himself. Trying his best not to get distracted and go straight home. However as he walked past an alley, making sure not to take it as a shortcut because it was an infamous alley, a hand suddenly grabbed a hold of the handle of his backpack, and yanked the boy into the alley.

“AH! Let go!” Lyall cried, trying to pull free, before remembering his father always told him his backpack was never worth his life.

He slipped his arms out and ran off into the alley while someone cackled behind him. Lyall ran as fast as he could, fairly certain he could outrun his attacker, as he used to be the fastest kid on the track team, however, he soon ran into another reason why he couldn’t use the alley as a short-cut...it had been locked off halfway with a fence, to discourage it as an escape route for miscreants.

“N-no!” Lyall cried, trying to open the fence, glancing behind him and spotting a tall figure, carrying his backpack as he calmly walked towards him. The boy cursed and tried to climb the fence, ignoring the barbed wire on top, cutting his hands in his desperation to escape, especially when the figure caught up, grabbing the boy by his waist and pulling him off.

“NO! LET GO! HELP ME, SOMEBODY!” the boy cried, the gate rattling ominously while the figure wrestled the boy to the ground.

“Say nighty-night~” the man said, pulling out a plastic water gun. The boy could barely let out a sob before the man sprayed something in his face, and everything turned black…

Lyall woke up when he hit the floor, as if he’d fallen out of bed after a bad dream. A very bad dream…

“The boy, as requested~” a voice said.

The boy blinked confused as he sat up. The floor was tiled, and as he carefully looked around, it looked a bit like a hospital room, but before he got the chance to look around properly, he felt a hand on top of his head, forcing his head down.

“Sssh, it’s not tea-time yet…”

There was some rattling in the room as a tremor rolled through.

“Let go of him, Hatter,” a voice said.

Someone giggled a bit, before letting go of Lyall and stepping back. The boy carefully looked up again, finding another man standing in front of him, offering a hand to help him up.

“Come on, I don’t bite,” the man said.

Lyall hesitated for a moment, before taking the man’s hand, who then grabbed a tight hold of his wrist and yanked him to his feet.

“O-ow! That hurts!”

“Shush,” the man calmly said, pushing the boy against a table, “Sit.”

“No—”

The man rolled his eyes, grabbing the boy by his school jacket and lifting him onto the table instead, forcing him to sit on the edge.

“Settle down,” he said, “if you’re a good boy, you’ll be home in time for dinner~”

“Who are you?!” Lyall replied, leaning away from the man.

“Heh...fair enough,” the man said, “you can call me Wendigo. I believe you’ve heard about my associate Hatter before.”

“M-Mad Hatter,” Lyall said with a gasp, looking at the tall man in the corner, before Wendigo grabbed a hold of his jaw and forced him to look back at him.

“Eyes on me, kid,” he said, “tell me about your powers.”

“I-I have no powers,” Lyall said, before jumping as Wendigo slammed his fist on the table.

Another tremor rolled through the room, the lights swinging, while a pen rolled off a shelf.

“You sure you wanna lie to me, kid?” Wendigo said, “I know who your mother is, and your brother...and I know seismic activity follows you wherever you go.”

“I-I don’t know!” Lyall quickly said, “i-it only just started happening and dad told me to hide it, so I haven’t tried anything! N-not on purpose at least!”

“And that’s the truth?” Wendigo asked.

Lyall quickly nodded.

“P-please don’t be mad…”

“I’m not mad, kid,” Wendigo said, “you’re still young, it’s out of your control. Besides, there’s other ways of figuring out what makes you tick…”

He grabbed the boy’s wrist again, looking at the cut on his hand...and licking it.

“Ew!”

“Shut it,” Wendigo calmly said, smacking his lips, “hm...nothing.”

The boy shot him a confused look, but he just turned away as he let go of his arm.

“Dr Crosby!” he suddenly called.

Lyall jumped a bit, thinking he was angry after all, but he was just calling for a third man. He came through a door in the back, wearing grey scrubs, and a stethoscope hanging around his neck.

“You called, sir?” he asked.

Wendigo nudged the boy off the table and towards Crosby.

“Figure out his powers,” he said, “and be gentle.”

Crosby looked down at the terrified boy and sighed.

“You know, I escaped my old boss exactly because of this,” he said, “how old are you, ten?”

“I’m eleven and a half!” Lyall protested.

“We’re not like them,” Wendigo said, “ask some questions, do some tests. Hatter, were you followed?”

“No sir~ But the White Rabbit and his majesty are cunning.”

“We can buy you time,” Wendigo said, “Dr Crosby, take your time with the kid, but after that it’s time to get our other project started…”

“Alright,” Crosby said, “follow me, kid. It’s going to be okay.”

Lyall glanced back at Wendigo, before following Crosby through the door in the back. He held it open for the boy, holding him back by his shoulder as he closed it behind them, before letting him continue further into the room.

There was some beeping noise, coming from behind a curtain, and Lyall thought he saw some blood dripping on the floor, but Crosby pulled him away before he could take a good look. They went through another door, and it was more like a broom closet-sized office.

“Okay,” Crosby said, “you can uh...sit in my chair if you like.”

Lyall shook his head, staying right there on his feet.

“Okay, up to you,” Crosby said, “before we begin, do you have any questions?”

“...h-he said I’d be home for dinner if I was good,” Lyall quietly said.

“Well, perhaps not today’s dinner,” Crosby said, “but he doesn’t lie. You’ll be fine if you’re good… Why don’t you let me treat your hands first? That looks like some painful cuts.”

“He licked it,” Lyall said with a sniffle as he looked at his hands.

Crosby sighed, glad he wasn’t working under his previous employer with this kid, before sitting down and explaining the situation as best as he could, without freaking the kid out.

“Wendigo is just curious about powers,” he said, “he’s...a bit odd I admit, but he wants what’s best for everyone — for all supers I mean. So...just tell me what you know about yourself. And you have my word, he won’t hurt you.”

In the present day, the morning after Aiden and Slade returned home, Phil headed over to Slade’s yacht as promised. He’d had a bit of a rough night, so he stopped by a cafe to pick up some coffee to go, before taking a taxi for the last bit.

He walked the length of the dock, and quietly climbed on deck, checking if the door to the cabin was open.

“Hello?” he called, “you alive old man?”

“Come on in!” Slade replied.

Phil headed inside, finding Slade scrubbing the inside of the cabin, erasing all traces of blood that had been left behind.

“Rough night?” Phil asked.

“One of many,” Slade replied, dabbing away some sweat.

“I brought you some coffee,” Phil said, “you wanna get up on deck, get out of that bleach scent?”

“...is it that bad?”

“A mortal person would’ve suffocated, let’s go,” Phil said.

Slade sighed, putting his brush down and taking his gloves off before heading onto deck, following Phil.

“How’s Aiden?”

“Out like a light all night,” Phil said, “he felt okay enough to go to class this morning.”

“Huh...wouldn’t surprise me if he were at The Joint today.”

“I already called Ecker and warned him to lock him outside,” Phil said, drawing out a chuckle from Slade.

“Good one...but, it’s high time we talk about Amon.”

“...I’m not sure it’s my place,” Phil slowly said.

“It isn’t, but since Aiden can’t seem to tell me himself, you’re my best shot to get an idea of the situation.”

“I don’t even know all the details though,” Phil said, “why is this so important anyway?”

“I’m almost two centuries old, I’m not incapable of connecting the obvious dots,” Slade said, “the nightmares, the cutting...and yesterday I watched him turn into a completely different man. Like Cross, but...some vile counterpart.”

He sighed, forcing himself to calm down a bit.

“Seven years ago, I took on a responsibility to protect all supers in this city and her surroundings. Not just from threats like super villains, but also from themselves, or parties and organisations looking to weaponize us, or criminalise us...that’s why it’s so important I learn more about Amon.”

“Hang on a second,” Phil said, “you said he turned into him? Like Cross?”

“...yes, has that ever happened before?”

“No,” Phil said, “not that I know at least...I only know what Aiden told me, and the few times he sorta came out since we met.”

“Tell me everything,” Slade said, “even if it seems insignificant.”

“W-well, I know Amon’s been bothering him since he was young,” Phil said, “making him ill and all. His parents had him tested for all the mental disorders before asking the church, and they tried exorcisms, but those only worked temporarily and as punishment Amon would like, not let him eat and such.”

“That must’ve been traumatic,” Slade said.

“Yeah but then Michael finally got the hang of possession, and he started keeping Amon at bay while Aiden...ran away from home to protect his parents. We met while we were both living on the streets. He seemed stable enough, aside from the time he tried to stab me, but he came to his senses before he could...after that I haven’t seen much of  a sign until that night I found him cutting himself.”

“But he’s never taken full control like that before?” Slade asked.

“Not that I know,” Phil said, “....what was he like?”

“It’s hard to say,” Slade said, “but I felt this pressure coming from him...the kind you feel from very strong supers. I’ve only felt it once or twice before.”

“...what does that mean?” Phil asked, “is...is Aiden in trouble?”

“No, he isn’t,” Slade said, “but I can’t guarantee I can keep the authorities at bay should he ever lose control and let Amon run amok.”

Meanwhile, Aiden just left the first lecture of that morning, feeling a bit better as the subject had been a nice distraction, and so long as he avoided mirrors and reflective surfaces, he didn’t get any warning glares from Amon either. He was rather quiet too, probably wary Brain might pick up on him, even if they were nowhere near The Joint, but one couldn’t be too careful.

“Excuse me?”

He looked up, finding a young woman with short, brown hair and a purple streak in it standing behind him. Some lady was dabbing her cheek with a makeup sponge while behind her a man was fiddling with a camera. She dismissed the makeup lady so she could step forward and shake Aiden’s hand.

“Hi, I’m Maya Keenan from NYCN! I’m doing an item on historic colleges, are you a student here?”

“Y-yeah, um…”

“Would you mind if I ask a few questions about what it’s like to study in these ancient buildings? This used to be a church, right?” Maya asked.

“Ditch her.”

“Uh...sorry, I have a lecture to get to,” Aiden lied, “my grade will drop if I don’t attend, so…”

“Ah, I understand,” Maya said, “just one thing…”

She leaned in close, whispering something into his ear.

“Mad Hatter sends his regards…”

“Act natural, you anxious piece of shit.”

Aiden gulped, while Maya put something in his hand, before thanking him and approaching another student with her crew. He headed into the library, where he’d planned to get a headstart on an essay, but now he looked at the thing Maya gave him. It was a crumpled piece of paper. He folded it open, finding a little note.

You are cordially invited to the nightly tea-party on Lady Liberty’s torch. – Mad Hatter~

“Well, well, well, looks like his master got my message…”

“It’s just the middle man again,” Aiden quietly mumbled, to which Amon bit his tongue to shut him up.

“It’s the middle man now, but if I bring something good, they’ll take me straight to their leader. What am I going to bring you wonder? Why you, of course. They’re after the old healer, and you’re a weak spot of his. Besides you know so much they might not know. I bet they would love to get their greasy little hands on you~”

“It’s not night yet,” Aiden said, getting up, “l-let me at least make up an excuse for Phil?”

“You really think I’m that stupid? I can hear your every thought. You just want him to force me down again. I’m warning you if you seek him out I will kill him.”

Aiden froze, trying to blink away tears as Amon had him effectively trapped.

“In fact, I think it’s high time you go take a lil nap. I’ve seen enough.”

Aiden considered crying for help, but he didn’t get much further than a gasp before he blacked out. It was just like with Hatter, but shortly after his hair turned black and his eyes red, they slowly returned to their normal colour.

“Power of disguise baby~” he muttered, before leaving the library, leaving his things behind.

However, it remained to be seen if Lady Liberty’s torch would still be standing by the end of the day. A lot of people didn’t notice at first, the tremor feeling like there was just a large truck driving by at first. But it grew stronger and stronger, until pavements cracked, shelves started falling over and older buildings began to crumble.

Phil and Slade didn’t quite notice anything until the tremor started causing large waves that smacked the boat against the dock, and they both quickly got to their feet and found cover on the dock, peering at the city in utter shock as they could hear people scream while they watched smoke and dust rise.

Phil gasped as he watched a bridge bob up and down, cars being thrown around and people jumping off in utter fear, while the gates of the dock were taken down as people sought refuge on the small stretch of land, away from falling buildings.

Seeing this Slade ran towards them, instructing them to stay clear of the yacht in case it would smack a piece out of the dock, he checked people for injuries, but the worst so far was a badly scraped knee.

The quake seemed to have settled now, but further in the city it still persisted. Any hero that was already in costume was working in overdrive to get as many people to safety as they could, while others raced to get into their disguise to help the efforts.

White Rabbit stole the show from his partner as he let people hide in a sinkhole as several screens in Times Square came crashing down, while King of Hearts attempted to stop people from trampling each other as he guided them towards a street that didn’t seem to be falling apart.

Mirage was teleporting all over the city to save people from elevators, bringing them straight to safe locations, while underground, Black Cat led people on a stranded train over the tracks towards the next platform, so they could get above ground and to safety.

Nobody knew what was happening, and before long, the shaking suddenly stopped, and the city had a long day ahead to assess the damage, reunite families and...to figure out a death count.

People gathered in shock around TV’s in shelters or their neighbour’s house that was mostly still standing, watching footage of the quake, the carnage it caused, scientists explaining where it could have come from, and whoever was in charge of programming trying to end on a positive note with footage of the city’s heroes all working together to get people to safety, and to prevent further damage.

An impressive aerial shot of a nearby nuclear power plant showed the structure had been protected from any damage with a giant wall of ice, while on the other side, Manhattan had been protected from a possible tsunami by another wall of ice. King of Hearts was trying to find a lost boy’s mom by stealing the microphone of a reporter. And Ranger was shown to be herding a couple zebras back towards their zoo enclosure, after they escaped via a collapsed wall.

“As far as structural damage goes, Chinatown and the Upper East side of Manhattan seem to have received the worst blows. Experts say this has to do with the soil upon which these areas were built. Luckily thanks to the efforts of New York’s many heroes, the casualties have been reduced to a minimum. So far, only thirty deaths have been confirmed, but this number may yet rise as hospitals are flooded with victims. This was Maya Keenan, New York City News. Back to you Frank.”

“Thank you, Maya. A little beacon of hope on this tragic day; King of Hearts has found little Bobby’s mom, and the two have been reunited at their local precinct…”

“Christ what a mess,” Ecker sighed.

His shop was closed, but there were a few people inside. Exhausted supers trying to regain some energy with a good coffee, watching the news for information, or trying to get into contact with relatives. It was nearly the end of the afternoon by now, and they could still hear sirens of police, ambulances and firetrucks.

Phil had tried to return home. Aiden didn’t answer his phone, which was fair after such an chaotic day, and with half the cell services down, he figured his best bet was to go home and wait for him to show up.

But he couldn’t go home.

The bridge he was supposed to cross was closed off. It hadn’t collapsed yet, but it had sustained structural damage. The subway wasn’t running either, leaving him to go back and see if Aiden might’ve made his way to The Joint instead. The door was locked, but as he tried the door handle and knocked, Ecker walked over and let him inside.

“Good, you’re alive,” he said, “come in, come in. You okay?”

“Yeah I uh...I was with Slade when it happened,” Phil said, “there’s no buildings on that dock, and the water didn’t do anything, so...d-did Aiden come through here?”

“I haven’t seen him yet,” Ecker said, “come sit down, you look like you can use a drink.”

“Maybe he did make it home, and I’m just stuck here,” Phil sighed, “I tried texting him, but nothing’s going through.”

“Cell towers are dead,” Mirage said, her head resting on the counter, “the remaining ones were overloaded, so…”

“Damn,” Phil sighed, “you okay? You look exhausted.”

“I popped two caffeine boosters to get people to safety, I can barely lift my arm to sip coffee,” Mirage whined a bit.

“Do you want a straw?” Phil suggested.

“Yes, my hero!” Mirage said.

Ecker shook his head a bit, but provided them with a straw. He could tell people were still in shock. Such a large magnitude earthquake, in their city, seemingly out of nowhere. So much damage...possibly even more deaths. He quietly made some coffee for Phil, handing it to him.

“Thanks...how could this happen?” Phil quietly said, “we never get earthquakes here.”

“That’s not true,” Ecker said, “they explained on the news. There’s a couple fault lines, and we were overdue for a decent quake apparently. I’m sure Slade might even remember the last one...where is he anyway?”

“He got into an ambulance with someone bleeding, haven’t seen him since,” Phil said.

“He’s probably mutineered a whole hospital by now,” Ecker said, “anyway, stay as long as you need. Today’s been rough on all of us…”

By nightfall, two figures stood on the torch of the Statue of Liberty. Alice was looking over the smouldering bits of the city through an ivory pair of opera glasses, while behind her, Hatter was sipping from an invisible tea cup, slurping loudly, and annoying the young woman dearly.

“Must we both wait here every night until he finally shows up?”

“He hurt my arm, I don’t want to play alone with him,” Hatter replied, “tea?”

“I’m not playing pretend with a middle aged man. You’re old enough to be my father,” Alice said, rolling her eyes and looking back over the city, “Wendigo really outdid himself on this one.”

“Hehehe it was FUN!” Hatter said, before slurping his invisible tea again.

Alice rolled her eyes, folding up the handle of the opera glasses and putting them away.

“This is going to be a long night,” she sighed, but luckily a voice behind them proved her wrong.

“I was told there’d be a party up here, but this is just...pathetic.”

Alice and Hatter turned around, just as Amon came walking around the flame of the torch, stepping into their sights.

“We have tea~” Hatter said.

“How’s your arm you crazy fuck?”

“I got a—”

“Just kidding, I don’t care,” Amon interrupted, “why did you ‘summon’ me here?”

“Our master would like to see if you’d be interested in joining our cause,” Alice said.

“Yeah, no,” Amon said, “I don’t join cliques, I lead them.”

“In that case, he would kindly request for you to stay out of his way,” Alice said.

“I don’t deal with henchmen either, darling,” Amon said, “your boss wants something from me, his ass better be up on this torch himself.”

“...I’ll relay your...suggestion to him,” Alice said, “meet us back here next week. And if we see your name in the news in the meantime...all deals will be off the table.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve a way to lay low,” Amon said, “but I get impatient fast. Don’t leave me waiting~”

“I’m sure you’ll manage,” Alice said, “let’s go, Hatter.”

“But he hasn’t signed my cast~” Hatter replied, skipping over to Amon with a sharpie, “I reserved a spot just for you~”

“Give me one good reason not to throw you over the edge right now,” Alice sighed, while Amon simply took the sharpie and drew a large dick on Hatter’s cast, before tossing it back at him.

“Get lost,” he said, “before I give you more space for signatures.”

“Men,” Alice sighed, nudging Hatter to begin walking as they took off.

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