#so very totally rui
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ourtalechara · 18 hours ago
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Woah another person who's cast Hamilton characters as project SEKAI characters. I love doing that.
tsundere gaaru Hercules
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before anyone says anything i swear this is satire.
update: okay fine maybe it isnt satire but i showed my friend this and she said it was the worst piece of art i’ve made so now im embarassed
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pieceofcec · 1 year ago
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Ever wonder how many fics a ship has?
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Well, wonder no more! For I have spent the last... 3-4 hours creating a chart to show how many fics a pairing has romantically and platonically!
Some things to keep in mind: fics can have multiple pairings, so the totals per character may not add up perfectly. This also means the averages aren't exact either, but they'll give you an idea of how rare a pairing is. The totals also give an idea of how popular a character is.
Only 2-character pairings are listed - I didn't want to figure out how to list every possible poly combination. I may add poly-units in the future though, but I won't include them in the averaging at all.
Also, fun fact An is the most annoying to search up because her name is within Kohane and Kanade's, so I had to use Shiraishi to search for her instead.
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yuri-is-online · 4 months ago
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Couple's (questionable) Halloween Costumes ft. Tokyo Debunker
I just got back from an event and had some thoughts idk. This is not in any particular order, just whoever came to mind first.
Towa- Bee and Beekeeper. His chibi is already a bee, he'd probably find it cute to see you dressed up like one too. Haru is the one who suggests his jumpsuit already looks a bit like a beekeeper suit, all he'd need to do is get a hat. Towa loves romance, so he'd probably be one of the only ghouls actually interested in dressing up with you 10/10.
Sho- Mario and Princess Peach, except he's the princess because he made the mistake of telling you that Leo always makes him be the girl. You really want to play this game, senpai? Fine. He'll hate every second of it but it is just the littlest bit worth it to see you squirm at how good he looks in a dress. Somewhat. He'd rather make you squirm someway else ???/10
Luca- Jedidiah and Octavius (from night at the museum). He sort of ruins it because he doesn't understand the reference and spends the night talking at length about Roman history. Which is nice if you are into that but extremely boring if not 6/10.
Kaito- Ketchup and Mustard. He also sort of ruins it; doing something this classically coupley with you makes him delirious with happiness and he has a stroke before you can make your way to the party. Salvages the night by baking Halloween themed cupcakes, you have a nice little date decorating them and no one has to see you two embarrass yourselves in public 7/10.
Haru- Cow and the Moon. He... does not have the best fashion sense if his cards are anything to go by, and hey this cow costume he got for (insert total rip off price here) will totally help him promote the back to nature tour! You dressing up as the moon was supposed to be a cute gimmick thing to play off the old nursery rhyme, he wasn't expecting you to put together such an ethereal outfit. Completely forgets about promoting the tour in favor of being cute with you all night, he's totally willing to do this again 9/10 (don't let him choose the costumes next time).
Rui- Moth and Lamp. He wants to do Gomez and Morticia, but the torture of not being able to touch you is already too much to bear as is, he isn't about to make it worse for himself. This way he can still be free to tend bar and make a bunch of cheesy "jokes" about you being the light of his life. Moths sort of fit the Obscuary theme anyway so it's a perfect costume, 10/10.
Haku- Howl and Sofie. He wants a costume that will give him an excuse to flirt with you and will make it very very clear just who you are leaving this party with. Haku probably thinks he'd look really good in Howl's outfit and you know what? He's right. Just remember to take him seriously when he offers his help removing your clothes this time, inspector 10/10.
Taiga- Ghostface. For exactly the reasons you think kitten don't even bother picking out a costume [redacted]/10.
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toomiieimagiines · 2 months ago
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Umumum, did you see the kissing hcs you did for akito and tsukasa? I would like a rui one if that's okay :3
It feels weird to request something like this
𖦹 hii! don’t feel awkward about it, i’ve been waiting for something cute like this for a while! let’s stop torturing rui for a while, and let him kiss reader!! (o^^o) sorry for hiatus, i have a bunch going on rn but i have a ton of writing qued up now! i’m just using a short one first to tease u guys! lololllll! do u guys like the new bullet points btw? i just think they're the cutest thing! also, i was thinkin of opening up some sort of commission to help with my banners! i can write you a however long fic if you just give me some pointers… or make some for me… i can credit you under every time i use them as well! LOLOLZ
♪ no warnings! (see before one shot for those warnings tho! (>人<;))
Rui Kamishiro Kissing Hc’s + more!?
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☆ For starters, he was TOTALLY freaking out before your first kiss
☆ He just wants to impress you! Is that so wrong?
☆ DEFINITELY the kind of person who accidentally keeps his eyes open… Scary…
☆ He had never kissed anyone, or even dated! He didn’t want you to think he was weird if he messed up!
☆ Held your cheek so nicely too
☆ He’s always so gentle with you… :(
☆ Was a total wall for a while, he was always really tense…
☆ He did of course lighten up after a while, but not without a fight
☆ After he realized you weren’t out to get him, he turned into a FIEND
☆ “Sweetheart, I've been doing so good, y’know? I think I deserve something…”
☆ “I really missed you today…”
☆ Kisses with him always have a bit of reluctance to them, though
☆ His signature move is the tried-and-true shifty eyes, darting his gaze from yours, down to your lips, and back up again. He just wants to make sure you look into it!
☆ After that, it's brow-furrowing, the passion exploding
☆ Spontaneous kisses are VERY possible with him, throwing himself over to you when something particularly works in his favor
☆ He enjoys kisses that come from hugging the best. Feeling you close AND getting your lips on his? Sign him up!
☆ He’s also one to tease you when you kiss
☆ When you guys are comfortable, you really should watch out!
☆ He likes to pull you back when you least expect it, and WHAM!
☆ Doesn’t just love your lips either! He’s OBSESSED with kissing the top of your head!
☆ Again with the teasing, he likes to play Romeo and kiss your hands too
☆ He likes to be kissed on the cheek a lot, especially if you wear makeup and leave a kiss mark!
☆ Parades it around like a trophy
☆ The most offended you’d ever see him is if you wipe his kiss off. NEVER wipe his kiss off. He’d never kiss you again in fear he’s an awful kisser
☆ His kisses never really get spitty. If you want constant teeth clattering or biting, he’s not the one for you…
☆ Only time anything hasty happens is when he’s really upset
☆ He loves you - a ton - so please be nice with him too..
ayyyyy!! who’s proud of lil ol’ me?? here’s a mini mini oneshot! not long at all, but i thought the idea was cute! now that i think abt it, this was more just my musing… has a kissy kiss tho, so yay! it’s REALLY OOC sry… i’m rly not all that proud of this work, but it’s embarrassing how long it’s been since i’ve posted so i decided whatever take wut i give ya!!
TW: small issues with eating (rui has autism and trouble with textures (mild ARFID), you help him by trying to make nutritious food he won’t want to spew. . lmao… his problem has NOTHING to do with body image/weight, he’s just very particular..)
Rui wants to kiss you, you want to kiss Rui, and its causing you trouble.
It's been 4 years since you've been friends, 2 days since you've been dating, and you've been staring at each other for… how long are these stupid periods? Whatever, the short story is; the teacher made a million-dollar mistake (letting you two partner up for a group project), and everybody in your class is suffering because of it.
It's a classic story, you talk like everything’s normal, brush hands, look away, sputter something out, stare at each other, and freeze when you realize the other is staring right back. People - yourselves included - have seen you two be so natural together, so the simple fact of you two being so awkward is… unsettling. Little did they know, you both are going through some of the worst identity crises known to the angst-riddled teenage mind.
Rui is scared. To expand, Rui is scared of how much he wants to kiss you. To expand further, Rui is scared of how much he wants to kiss you, because you look so nervous around each other all the time since the thing, and he knows that asking you would be awkward enough to want to dig himself a grave out of embarrassment.
He wishes you would just wear the pants and ask, as horrible as that sounds. Why should he be the man and make the first move? He’s hardly manly, he wears striped sweaters…
He finds that way of thinking farcical, he knows it’s dumb to wait for you to ask, but he can’t help it. You asked him out (kinda, it was a genuinely… unique experience), and you should be the one to initiate a first kiss. Rui had never kissed anyone before! Can’t you take one for the team? He’s sure you’ve kissed people, how could you have not?
You were thinking the same thing, of course.
I mean, you already had to make him sit through your painfully long-winded and uncoordinated confession, the least he could do is this! He's definitely kissed someone, you decide, you haven't! It isn't fair to expect you to know what to do!
To everyone else, said simply, you both look schizophrenic.
The way you two decide how to split up the work, the way you two talk to each other as if you're perfect strangers, is confusing for both of you.
“O-Oh, uh- I can- y'know- I can do the writing, I don't mind-”
Your hands graze the others while reaching for the cheap school laptop.
“Sorry!-” You both squeak in unison, pulling away as if you had burned each other. Damnit! This is so annoying! You have to speak up.
“Rui we’re- c'mon, you're still my best friend, so why’re we acting like this?-” You try to laugh, covering your face in frustration. “Be normal, we do this all the time.”
Fortunately, he loves you more than his embarrassment, so your words quickly calm him down.
You both are just so dramatic!
Later, the lunch bell saves you from the hell-sent assignment, and you meet at your usual spot for lunch. You pull two lunch boxes out of your bag, and he grows anxious.
He squints at the sun, his hand cupping his face. “It’s been warm out, even for me. Do you think so?”
Really, Rui? You want to say, small talk? Is this to get out of the real food you want to feed him? Yeah, right.
“You’ll be pretty warm when I strangle you.” You remark, handing him his. “Heard you get sweaty when you fight for air, so you better not piss me off.” You point for emphasis, forcing down your smile. He has to keep from smiling too.
“Well, now i’m feeling nauseous,” he looks away, chuckling. “I think I’ll call someone..”
“Yeah, right. Like you’d find someone else to cut you cutely-shaped vegetables.” You nudge him with your shoulder, pointing again to his lunchbox as if to say eat. Eat now, or die later.
“Maybe a toddler's mom,” He pokes his veg to the side, “or a professional lunchbox maker. Something stupid like that.”
“I bought you soda candy if you’re a good boy and finish all your vegetables.”
“Aye aye, cap’n!” He fake saluts, looking at his lunch with a new-found determination.
“You're too easy, I should be a dog trainer.” You sit, watching him inspect the offending food. He knows you're watching him, and you know he knows you're watching him. You do it because it gives him a reason to actually try, letting him know that if he doesn't eat, you won't.
“You really went with a challenge today...” He squints.
“Why’d you think I bought soda candy?”
“Ah.”
A beat, you glare at him.
“Are you just going to look at it?” You prod, he ponders.
“What's my conversation rate?”
“Two bites to one candy.”
“That seems greedy.”
“Candy-flation. Its a real issue nowadays.”
Another beat, you have to pick up the silence again.
“So whats the plan?”
“You can eat, y'know. I'd rather you not starve to death.”
“Feelings mutual, Rui.”
“Touché.”
He picks one thing up, bringing it to his lips, and you do the same. You smile cockily, knowing he gave in.
“It's good, I promise. I only cooked ‘em for a little bit, so they shouldn't be too mushy.” You speak up, a piece of chicken in your cheek. “I even put meat in it, since you complained last time that it was too “vegetable-y”.”
He nods, chewing slowly with apprehension filling his body. As he continues to chew, however, his reluctance melts away slightly. He always doubts you for nothing! Why doesn’t he trust you? This isn’t bad at all.
“Good, huh? Proud of you,” you encourage. “Rui 2, broccoli 0. Hold out your hand.” You instruct, placing a candy on his palm. “Give me some feedback. Is the sauce a Rui yay or nay?”
“Makes broccoli better, so I like it.” He nods, confirming himself. You fist pump, thrilled he enjoyed it. He sighs at the taste of the sweet gummy, “I like this better though, if you could believe it.”
“Rui liking candy? I don't!” You feign surprise, holding a hand to your chest. He pushes you away playfully.
“Whatever,” he pauses, swallowing. “Do I uh- Do I have to finish?”
“If you wanna live, then yeah.” You joke, holding up an unconvincing first. He laughs.
You two forget about your shared desire, if only for a little bit.
It ends when he walks you home.
You guys were completely normal the whole school day! You both don't know where the sudden apprehension is even coming from, and it’s just…
awkward.
Rui clears his throat, pulling on his coat with an unneeded sense of urgency. You don't know why he felt the need to get your attention, you've been sneaking glances at him for the last 15 minutes.
“So, uh-” he starts, looking away. You know he's about to try for small talk, and it's welcome. “Tsukasa got sick, can you believe it?”
Ah, you were wondering why he didn't have anything to do today.
“I feel bad for his parents, I’d hate to have to nurse ‘kasa back to health,” you snicker, and he joins in reluctantly.
“Me too.”
Another round of silence overtakes the two of you, it’s suffocating.
“So I-“
“Would you-“
You both start, then stop just as quickly. The stifling atmosphere of your shared embarrassment leaves you both speechless.
“Sorry.”
“Sorry.”
You two don’t try to start again, not until you two reach your house.
“So…” you start. Everything feels so surreal. If you would've told yourself three days ago you'd be in a relationship with your best friend, you’d have never believed yourself.
“So.” He agrees, nodding. He's feeling as messed up as you are, he hopes you know that… “I can get started on that project tomorrow-”
“C'mon, Rui!-” you exclaim, grabbing his hands. You're sick of the tension - the apprehension - you just wanted to know where he was with it. Did he not want to be in a relationship with you? “I- Can you just tell me if you wanted to stay friends? This is so awkward!”
“It's not that, truly.” He defends, squeezing your hands. He can't believe you'd think that. Can you not see how endeared you are to him? A wave of relief washes over you, though. At least that suspicion wasn't confirmed. “I just- well…” He starts, getting flustered, “I get nervous…” His voice goes quieter, and he pulls you closer.
You swallow hard, your faces closer than before. The urge comes back- the feeling of desire to not only call him your boyfriend (something that already leaves a fuzzy feeling in your stomach), but to do romantic things with him. To touch him, hold him, breathe him in- even simply kiss him. Those things are why you decided to even tell him in the first place, why you were so discontent with your previous friendship.
Rui felt the same way too. He found his heart utterly devoted to the idea of you, and not much else. He saw in himself a restless animal, listening to every word you said like it was poetry.
All of this is to say that you two were at an impasse.
“Rui,” you beg, staring into his eyes, “let's be weird! I want to do things for the first time with you! I want to-”
A hand on your cheek breaks you from your monologue; your heart tightens.
Rui looks down at you, his expression something you can’t completely describe. He stares at you back, then he goes down to your lips, then back at you.
His voice is a whisper when he breaks the silence.
“Is this okay?”
You freeze. Is what okay? Why is he looking at you like that? Your knees turn into jelly as you realize.
Oh, he wants to kiss you.
You nod feverishly, leaning in.
Your collective thoughts quiet when your lips connect, and for once you’re not worried about trivial things like tension. It’s wonderful - still very reluctant, both being terrified of disappointing the other - but still heartskippingly amazing.
His eyebrows furrow as he deepens the kiss, moving off of pure instinct. He’s glad his first kiss is with you - he wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s no teeth, no fire, just small bursts of heat. You two have never been the kind to be rough with each other, after all, and it’s shown in the way you take care of one another.
His knees lock at the feeling of total gentleness from you, basking in the way you feel. It’s a calm reminder to both of you that; yes, you love each other, and no, you’re not just friends anymore.
like all good things, though, it came to an end eventually, as you two unfortunately had to breathe. (That isn’t to mention the fact that the blistering heat - combined with the strenuous activity, and embarrassment of doing this while standing on your very seeable porch - was leading you both to an embarrassing amount of perspiration.)
He looks down at your connected hands then back up at you, his face giddy and lopsided. “I should go home before it gets too dark, huh?”
You laugh too, heart pounding at the feeling of puppy love. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
It’s not a question, it’s a promise. A promise that you WILL be at school and WILL speak to him like normal.
“‘Course,” he confirms.
He walks home just a little quicker that night, anxious to tell Nene all about it.
(the ironic thing, is that as soon as you closed your front door, you texted her too.)
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shiongenkai · 5 months ago
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Taiga, Romeo, and Gluttony
NOTE: This post contains spoilers for the entirety of the recently released Auction chapter. Read at your own risk.
So the recent chapter was everything to me. It was the shortest, but in my opinion it showed us a lot about Taiga and Romeo and their relationship to one another, and it also helped me refine a specific thought I had about Taiga and his whole deal he has going on.
To put it shortly; I think Taiga has a gluttony curse, and I think it functions as a mirror to that of Romeo's stigma, and is part of why they had a falling out, and why they can't seem to get away from each other.
To put it horrifically, horribly long....
So what do I mean when I say Taiga is cursed? Well, exactly that. I believe he's cursed in a similar way Rui or the MC are; he has an insatiable need to eat anomalies. I believe that this grants certain side effects like the MC and Rui's curse, and that one of them is a sixth sense for anomalies and anomalous circumstances.
I want to explain this before the Romeo part, because it's the basis for my analysis and thoughts on the two of them.
To start from the very beginning; I think Taiga, during one of his missions, was cursed by something like a jikininki as punishment for his 'gluttony' — the rapid rate at which he completed missions in his first year. This left him with his insatiable need to eat anomalies, but more specifically, is the reason he doesn't seem to want to eat them.
While I'm not certain the anomaly is for certain a jikininki, especially because there's certainly other similar folk legends out there, I chose that one specifically because they are noted for their sharp teeth and for not liking the insatiable need to eat corpses.
Now, what does this mean for Taiga? I think he's stuck between being a ghoul and being a jikininki, or whatever anomaly it ends up being, and I think this has given him a sixth sense that messes with his perception of time, self, and memory. But why would it do that?
Jikininki are immortal creatures, and wish to be freed from the torment they're in for the most part. If one was cursed to be part Jikininki, it would make sense for their existence to be similarly excruciating, with a difference being a lack of full immortality.
Remember the Mortkranken chapter, with the failed mermaid flesh? How their bodies continued even as their minds didn't? Taiga has multiple lines detailing how his 'body' remembers, even if his mind doesn't. Yuri and Jiro also explain that part of the side effects of the reaction are rapid mental deterioration. If Taiga had gone through a similar deterioration, it would explain his seemingly sporadic memory loss (not total blackouts like Jiro, nor specific category based amnesia either, just like. Random shit) and the fact that he doesn't have a concrete sense of identity (showcased through his constantly shifting first-person pronoun choice in Japanese). His cells of his body are reverting to their pre-aged self, and his mind is attempting to do that too, but it's imperfect and messy.
The key to the idea of the sixth sense comes from the fact that he's specifically cursed for anomalous gluttony. I think that he can sense anomalous material or anomalies themselves, and as demonstrated from Ed, this includes some sort of future sense. While we don't know the full specifics of what a sixth sense grants, we can see him utilise it in multiple different places. It's also, in my opinion, why he was sent on the Prologue mission.
Some examples of his supposed sixth sense are how he intuitively understood the anomalous dealer's entire thing, the scenes where he knows the Like Dove will appear before it does, when he senses Romeo approaching (Romeo is carrying an anomaly: his artifact), how he understands the auction is an anomaly, when he gets the mask under unknown circumstances, when he directly knows there's no anomalies... the list honestly could go on forever.
There's one other fact that I personally believe sealed this theory for me; his association with Haku.
In the recent chapter, when the MC is thinking about who to talk to about curses, Taiga instantly knows who we're thinking of, and rejects it on the basis that '[He] can't get rid of curses unless the anomaly that did the deed's right in front of him.' and that he's a 'Simp for the rules anyway.'
... Which is interesting, since it seems like Taiga has tried to ask him about this before. But if you think of this as Haku's stigma, and imagine Taiga trying to get his curse cleansed before, it makes sense! It would also be a good reason to put Haku and Taiga together in the prologue; Taiga can track the anomaly with his sense, and Haku can cleanse whatever curse it gives so long as Taiga manages to capture it or subdue it for long enough.
(Which, side note, is so tragic for the MC...)
Okay, now that the basis of 'Taiga is cursed' is out of the way, how on earth does this relate to Romeo?
Simple. I think Taiga's curse directly mirror's Romeo's stigma, and it's what caused their rift.
Romeo's stigma, as we learn in the new chapter as well, is dependent on his attachment to the items he throws. This, thematically, works with Romeo, who is known to be greedy. Everything he does is motivated by a profit of some kind, whether that profit is social or monetary or whatever. He wants special privileges so he does special missions. He wants money so he raises fees and coerces people to gamble. He wants popularity so he dresses nicely and pampers himself. It doesn't always mean he is money grubbing and stingy (because we see he's willing to spend lavishly on grooming and decor!) but it means that he's attached to what he has. His stigma requires him to give up that attachment. It is a punishment, a sacrifice, as a result of the pact. Similar to how Luca lost his brother (and gained a protective stigma), Romeo has to lose what he feels is worth something in order to fully utilise his ability. Call it a sort of pride.
I think, on the other hand, Taiga's curse is one of envy. He has a desire to eat anomalies, yes, but the desire becomes stronger the more attached someone else is to the anomaly. He doesn't need any interest in it, really. If someone else likes it he will need to eat it.
Taiga covets Haru's Peekaboo to eat instead of the wild one that we also know is in Jabberwock. He's composed about the Like Dove (barely, but he restrains himself!) until Romeo wants it. He steals the plants from Rui's BAR, not the ones in the garden outside (both are Rui's, but his bar is arguably the more loved thing of his since it was fully his choice). He covets Mortkranken's anomalies, and becomes mildly obsessed with the immortal one as soon as it becomes a major research subject. He's also completely fine holding and handling the mask, presumably for a long time, up until Romeo sees it as valuable and worthy.
Now, this doesn't necessarily make them instantly incompatible. But when you take one of Romeo's core traits being 'Greed towards anomalies' (He wants to collect them and frequently complains that other houses are 'stealing' them from under him; he sells them; he gets missions from Hyde to get them; etc), it becomes evidently clear that Taiga's curse is directly oppositional to it.
I think it's pretty obvious by now that Taiga and Romeo have a pretty turbulent relationship now, but were extremely close in the past. Multiple characters state that it would be nice to see them on good terms again, and it's certainly worth mentioning that Romeo is one of the few people Taiga consistently remembers. They both know each other exceptionally well, too. Taiga knows how to get under Romeo's skin and Romeo knows Taiga's habits.
Going back to the idea of this curse causing their rift, if Romeo was constantly on the verge of an important capture, or even if there was just one mission that was important, and Taiga ruined it by eating the anomaly, I doubt Romeo would easily forgive and forget. I think it could very easily cause a massive rift that just kept growing with each new snack Taiga picked up.
I think a moment that gets its nuance overlooked a lot is the scene just before Taiga eats the dove. The Japanese line emphasises that Taiga is referring to HIS heart, that Romeo could shoot through HIS heart, not just a general appraisal of sharpshooting. He even points directly to his heart as he says this, and it makes Romeo hesitate. They're BOTH in pain in this scene. They're both conflicted; this is their ex-partner (which I don't mean in the romantic sense, just in the general sense) who they were very, very close with, and who is now literally at arms length with a loaded gun. Romeo could just shoot him. Romeo could put an end to all of this supposed pain. And Taiga might even let him. And wouldn't that be karma for all he's done? But he can't. He hesitates.
And you know what appears after that? The dove.
This dove that symbolises both general desire (flies over peoples' heads when they're thought about) and Romeo's desire. His desire to escape probation. His desire to make money. His desire to capture, not kill. His desire to reconcile instead of fight. His desire to shoot.
And Taiga kills it. Eats it.
I think this is the most tragic scene between the two of them. This is the crux of it; they both want to reconcile. They want to be friends, to be close, to stop the war raging between the two of them that has done nothing but hurt them both AND hurt the wellbeing of Sinostra, but they can't, because Romeo will ALWAYS desire, and Taiga will ALWAYS take that from him.
It's a cycle they can't escape. The auction chapter shows it too. Taiga is almost disappointed at Romeo's greed. He seems jaded by it, and seems proud and happy when Romeo gives it up for once. Romeo is happy too; MC goes out of her way to say that Taiga handing him the mask makes him look more peaceful than he ever has before. It is quite literally a perfect ending for the two of them and a perfect way to reconcile.
And then Taiga eats it! Again! But I think the most horrifying part of it is that he tries to warn Romeo.
The comic doesn't translate or even transcribe it, so it's so, so easy to miss, especially if you don't speak Japanese, but Taiga grunts out the words 'I', 'Eat', and 'Next' as he approaches Romeo and the mask, and it's the direct reason why Romeo is able to realise that Taiga is about to eat it before it actually happens. He basically just grunts out 'I'm gonna eat that next' as he's fighting against it! But inevitably, neither of them can stop it. The cycle continues.
As long as Romeo is greedy, and as long as Taiga is gluttonous, they will never be able to fully reconcile, no matter how much they both want it. Both of them have to change, but I want to point out that at this moment Romeo is the bigger active obstacle between the two of them. Romeo can't let things go, he holds onto everything and lets it build until it explodes in one way or another. Tiris, his stigma, is symbolic in that sense, that he has to learn to let things go, because if he lets it build too much it will explode spectacularly.
(All of the ghouls have this sort of symbolism with their stigma, so it's not just a Romeo thing, but it's definitely important to his character.)
But Romeo can't get over it yet. He can't get over his greed, he can't let go of things he can't achieve (like getting Kaito's necklace), he can't get over past betrayals (Taiga, what happened with his family, etc)... He's too stuck and stubborn, and his refusal to budge has therefore lead to Taiga's refusal to push. Taiga has stopped caring about getting on good terms because he knows it won't turn out well. He's given up and become cynical, which in turn means that IF Romeo were to change, Taiga... still probably wouldn't. They're cyclical again. Always, always missing each other. So close and yet so far.
I hope the MC can be the catalyst for this cycle to end. Or Ritsu, who is a good equalizer to the two of them. But until she learns to see her own worth in the Academy, and until Ritsu accepts that sometimes he's wrong / he doesn't always know the most out of everyone in the room, I'm afraid Romeo and Taiga will remain stuck in this loop forever...
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aayakashii · 6 months ago
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omg THANK YOU FOR THE FOOD AYA ❤️18 or 32 with haku pls 🙏🏻🙏🏻
❤️18 A kiss while laughing
❤️32 A kiss while someone watches
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Ritsu was following you, for the 4th day straight. It was a new record. Usually he would follow you around for two days and disappear for a while, probably to creep someone else out.
You had no idea what was so interesting about you that had the paralegal so hooked on noting down your every step. Maybe he thought he could get good information about your curse if he followed you around?
You didn't see the reasoning behind his actions. It's not like stalking you gathered actual scientific information about your plight – maybe if it was Yuri or Jiro, you could make some excuses and say they were observing you like a little lab rat.
But all that Ritsu managed to do was annoy you to no end.
So you sighed heavily, scratching your head in frustration, while the Haku glanced at you with a genuinely sympathetic look on his face as you two walked towards your dorm.
“How long has he been doing that?” he murmured, subtly glancing behind his shoulder and towards Ritsu, who stood some meters away from you both, overtly following your steps.
“I don't know” you rubbed your face with your hands “I think for like… 2 months? Ever since we met at Sinostra.”
Haku widened his eyes.
“2 months? Why? Is he in love with you?”
You scoffed. Haku had a penchant for making everything into a shitty romcom plot. If you didn't know Towa and him already talked to each other sometimes, you'd probably introduce them so they could bond over their obsession with romance.
“No, he just wants to record my every movement” you said, knowing all too well that Ritsu probably heard you and wasn't ashamed in the slightest “Apparently he thinks it'll help his investigations somehow…?” you trailed off, not buying his excuse at all.
Maybe he was just a creep who liked stalking people and you were his favorite target. Who knows, at this point.
Haku hummed thoughtfully.
“Sounds to me like he's in love with you and doesn't know how to express it.”
You deadpanned.
“Haku, no. He's not.”
“How can you be so sure?” he side-eyed you, with a playful smirk tugging on his lips, and you shook your head.
“He's not.”
“Hey, he wouldn't be the only one, you know?” he winked, and you thought for a moment that he had been spending too much time with Rui for his own good.
You playfully pushed his arm and he chuckled, barely moving at all. Sometimes you forgot ghouls had superhuman strength.
After a few moments of silence as you two leisurely walked, he suddenly leaned towards you, a glint in his eyes as he covered his mouth, just like a child excited to share a secret.
“You know what we can do to embarrass him so he'll stop following you?”
“What?” you asked, fully intent on playing into his game.
“Kiss.” he replied with a smug and satisfied smile, his eyes quickly darting from your eyes to your lips, making his already clear intention even clearer.
You snorted.
“Is this just an elaborate plan to kiss me?”
Haku gasped dramatically and closed his eyes, putting a hand over his chest.
“You wound me, honor student. I am just looking out for you and I have your best interest in mind.”
“Pfft! Yeah… Totally no hidden intentions at all.” you rolled your eyes.
“None at all” Haku's eyes were locked into your lips.
You stared at him.
Truth to be told, you've harbored a crush on the man beside you for a very long time. You just weren't very sure if every word he told you was truthful, or if he just flirted with the first person that gave him attention.
The thought of him openly flirting with someone the way he did with you would always cause a pang in your heart, and this only worsened once Zenji raved about how Haku was a charmer.
Part of you wanted to be special, different. You wanted to be the only one in his mind, the only one to listen to all those honeyed words. You wanted to know he had truly fallen for you before you could ever allow yourself to give in to your repressed feelings.
Another part of you just wanted to say fuck it and accept the attention he was offering without thinking too hard about it.
You decided to listen to this other part of you.
“Okay.”
Haku snapped his head towards you, eyes comically wide.
“‘Okay’?!” he asked again.
It was your turn to smirk.
“What, didn't think things through before asking to kiss me?” you raised your eyebrows at him.
The surprise weaned off quite quickly and he leaned towards you, his voice getting huskier all of a sudden.
“Not at all. I've been thinking about kissing you for long enough now.”
You felt your cheeks tingle. Haku was insufferable. You wanted to give in to him so bad and just let your feelings run wild, but the fear that it all could consume you quicker than your curse still bound you in fear.
“Then do it for once, you tease.” you huffed, cheeks puffing and brows scrunching as you tried to appear annoyed.
Haku just chuckled.
“Aye aye, captain” he murmured, holding your chin so he could tilt your head upwards.
His lips gently brushed yours before he dived into the kiss, and you could feel his smile as he nibbled and sucked on your bottom lip – it was contagious. You giggled as you wrapped your arms around his neck and ran your hands through his green hair.
The feeling of your fingers threading through his locks made him sigh and his hands circled your waist and pushed you flush against his body. Haku hummed into the kiss, delighted, hands drawing nonsensical patterns on your back as he tried to have you as close to him as possible.
Soon enough, however, you broke contact, gasping for air. Haku grunted, dissatisfied, still pursuing your lips.
“W-wait, wait.” you managed to mutter, putting your hand over his lips. Haku opened his eyes and grinned devilishly as soon as he saw your figure – face flushed, breathless, and disheveled.
“I could get used to this.” he muttered, nuzzling his nose against your cheek, still firmly holding you in his arms.
In your daze, you looked around, searching for nothing at all as you breathed deeply and tried to calm your racing heart, when you locked eyes with a figure hiding behind a tree.
Ritsu was red as a beet while he watched you, disgust and embarrassment quite clear on his face.
“I don't think he left just because we embarrassed him.” you said, licking your lips, blatantly staring at Ritsu's comically aghast expression.
“Who? Oh.” Haku said, briefly forgetting what even started the whole situation.
He smirked, side-eyeing Ritsu for a second before turning your attention back to himself. He held your chin upwards and caressed your bottom lip with his thumb before bringing his face closer to yours once again.
“Then I think we might need to kiss again and again until he gets the memo.”
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pinkaditty · 1 month ago
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Holidays with Ghouls (Sho Haizono x Reader; Tokyo Debunker)
please read:
okay. big news + life update: i got into a major car accident a little while ago. my first one ever! i am in a lot of pain so things may be slow-going for a while and ill be unable to commit as much time to writing due to the tangled mess that is dealing with modern insurance companies and recovering from my injuries. thankfully its not so bad to be hospitalized, but its bad enough to limit my activity for the time being. i am somewhat ashamed to ask, but if you like my writing, please consider donating to my cashapp: $cindyfromstarbucks! my car was 100% totaled, and im gonna need to save up for a new one, and my job doesn’t pay very much. thank you for your consideration! please enjoy, regardless! (this paragraph will be on my posts indefinitely, probably until i fully recover)
a/n: LET ME START THIS OFF BY SAYING IT’S ENTIRELY SELF-INDULGENT… i have a green thumb and i’ve been growing a small garden lately (limited space. i hate captialism.) and i just thought “hm. what if we grew fresh ingredients for sho’s food truck?” and the idea stuck and didn’t leave no matter how much i tried 2 shake it off. mc is basically written as me im not gonna hold y’all, but i kept it 2 a minimum so it could still be an ‘x reader’. 
summary: self-indulgent reader x sho. in which you do something nice for him and he struggles to return the favor. 
no cw! enjoy!
big fan of the “woman that is so wound up all the time and extremely professional and tries to keep everyone at arm’s length distance” x “guy that is only a few years younger than the woman but loves calling her by age-appropriate honorifics (i.e. noona, ojou, jiejie, madame, etc) and goes out of his way to teach her how to fucking relax every once in a while” trope and essentially if i were with sho that is how the relationship would go LMFAOOOOOOO
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You used to have a bit of a garden before becoming a student at Darkwick. A part of you often wondered if there were people tending to your garden now so you could return to it, well kept and exactly as you remember it, when you were cured of this curse and got this anomalous ring off of you. You'd never really had the idea to plant anything here; you were much too focused on missions and other incessant errands the ghouls saw fit to send you on. You didn't like it, but held your tongue regardless. If all went well, you wouldn't have to deal with this after less than a year. 
You were fond of a few ghouls, though. Some of them were a nice reprieve from the other harsher and more selfish ghouls. Haku was a great example of that, and so was Subaru, his dorm's captain. You'd grown fond on the Jabberwock ghouls, as they were always kind and polite. You didn't really mind the Obscuary ghouls, either. Even if odd, they were good natured, and never turned you away. You appreciated that Rui had a bit of a green thumb too, and would often stop by to assist him with plant care. 
The one ghoul you were the most fond of, despite his less than agreeable best friend, was Haizono, or Sho, as he insisted on being called. Sho, despite his friend Leo, was actually pretty friendly. You enjoyed the time you spent around him, whether that was collecting supplies from the diner, or training with him, or even helping him meal prep for the following day for his food truck. It was fun, spending time with Sho. You're almost angry the idea didn't dawn on you sooner.
Said idea is why you carefully sift through the dirt in your compost container, careful not to split any of the worms with your nails. The potatoes should be done growing by now. The idea had dawned on you one day when Sho mentioned not having enough potatoes to serve fries the following day. Potatoes were an easy crop. And they took three months, at most, to grow. Sure, if worse came to worst, you'd die, but growing potatoes was a good distraction and encouraged you to plan for the future, as though you wouldn't die. After a few favors from Benji and some begging towards the chancellor, you had a small garden behind the chapel. Granted, you'd just started it three months ago, so it wasn't as full as your garden back home, but it was good enough. It was hidden from the rest of campus by the surrounding trees, ensuring no one would find the garden unless they had reason to cut around the chapel, which wasn't necessary considering the path out front. Not only did it serve as your little place of respite, it allowed you to do nice things for others. You were just growing potatoes for now, but it felt like enough of a starter, at least. You’d just planted some tomato seeds that you’d hoped Sho would also find a use for. 
Once done harvesting a substantial batch of potatoes, you wrap them up in plastic bags to look like you bought them. It would save you the embarrassment of having to explain that you’d grown them yourself. 
It’s pleasantly chilly outside, the still afternoon air heavy with promises of cold weather and a white winter holiday. Dirt remained underneath your fingernails from all that harvesting, but it was a small price to pay. Your heart pounded with anticipation and exertion as you made the trek to Vagastrom, heading for the nearby food truck. As expected, you find Sho sitting on one of his supply boxes, far underdressed for the cold weather. You can’t tell if he’s resistant to it or rebelling against it, but you can tell he’s cold. His cheeks and nose are tinged red and his eyes are squinted against the cold wind. You can even tell he’s sniffling with how often he inhales. You exhale both fondly and exasperatedly. The stubbornness of these ghouls was simultaneously attractive and irritating. 
You make it no secret you’re approaching, the bag of potatoes crinkling with your upbeat steps and your own runny nose sniffling in response to the cold wind. You place the bag of potatoes beside him with a heavy ‘thud’, to which he finally looks up, appearing jolted out of his thoughts. 
“Here,” you start, taking your scarf from around your neck and tying it around his without waiting for a reaction. “You must be an idiot to sit out in the cold with just your uniform on.”
“Senpai.” He greets you with wide eyes, watching but not protesting as you tie your scarf around his neck. He appears confused at first, his lips pursing at your actions, but seems to relent as he buries his face into the scarf. You watch as he settles into it, his eyes sliding shut against the cold wind, his nose and lips finding warm solace in the comfort of your scarf. Before long, he pulls it away, revealing himself back to the chilly air with a slight wince. “...No need. Thank you, though.” He glances up at you with a smile before rising to his feet and dusting off his knees. “Whatcha got here?” He gestures to the plastic bag before picking it up, far more effortlessly than you, and inspecting it. 
“Potatoes.” Your breath puffs out in a white cloud. “They’re for your food truck. I remembered you mentioned you were running low, so… I decided to help and buy you some.” At some point, you’d shifted your attention to the ground, toeing at a rock as you realized how ridiculous that sounded. Surely Sho could handle himself. He might even find your help embarrassing, when you really think about it. 
You sneak a glance at him and are relieved to see a small smile on his face as he observes the potatoes. He huffs out a light breath, his face visibly softening. “You didn’t have to do that.” He slings the bag over his shoulder, using his other hand to ruffle your hair and return the scarf. “Come on,” he turns around, headed for the door of the food truck. “You can help me prep.”
‘That’s only helpful if you’ll have any customers in this cold,’ you think to yourself, but decide not to say aloud. Instead, you watch the slow smile on his face as he nods towards you, and continues towards the truck. Crazy, how a simple glance of his could make your heart race. Something about the warmth of his smile, the feel of his fingers carding through your hair, and the leftover scent of his cologne lingering on your scarf tugged at your heart, just a little bit. 
You briskly follow after him, throwing the scarf back over his neck. “Keep it,” you say sternly, watching as he turns to you quizzically. “Have you seen the state of yourself in this cold?” The phrase ‘I want you to have it,’ lingers on your tongue, but you decide not to voice that, instead letting a small amused smile rest on your face. You vaguely gesture to him, your gaze flicking to his red cheeks and nose. He rolls his eyes, noting your point, and keeps the scarf around his neck, opening the side door to his food truck.
“Alright, fine. I’ll wash it and return it.”
As he steps inside the food truck, even from standing behind him you feel a wave of warmth. You follow, stepping inside, feeling the sweet relief of pleasant warm air and smelling the scent of roast chicken. The environment is warm and cozy, wrapping around you like a cushy blanket or a hug from a loved one. Sho closes the door behind you and you note your scarf is still around his neck. Something clicks.
“Wait a minute. You won’t need that.” You point to his scarf, your nose crinkling in mock displeasure. He instinctively flinches away, looking at you with a raised brow. He was seemingly already protective of your scarf, even though he’d only just received it. “Hand it over.”
“That’s hardly fair.” A crooked smile forms on Sho’s face and his brow raises higher. “Why do you assume I won’t need it?”
Indignantly, you gesture to the warm space surrounding you. Sizzling meat, a warm oven, and heaters in a corner, adjusting the temperature of the truck. “Vagastrom is literally right next to here. What do you need that for?”
He doesn’t answer directly, instead tilting his head at you. “I seem to remember a certain someone insisting I keep this scarf. Are you going to go back on your word?”
You clamp your mouth shut, remembering what you’d said and did earlier. He was right, you had insisted, even if only a little. You huff out a frustrated breath, crossing your arms and furrowing your brows. He laughs at your display, pulling the scarf off of him and tossing it on a high shelf of boxes you couldn’t reach. “Like I said, I’ll wash it and return it.”
You decide to swallow this loss. You had other scarves at the chapel anyway, and if he was going to use it, at least it wasn’t going to waste. 
You look around the space again before taking off your coat and hanging it on one of the hooks on the door. “Any plans for winter break? Will you be going anywhere?” 
“Nah.” Sho shook his head, checking on the chicken in the small oven before continuing to stir fry a vegetable medley on the stove, jutting his shoulder out towards the cutting board, covered in various vegetables. You wash your hands before heading over, carefully scraping at the dirt built up under your fingernails from digging. “Unless my… brother… goes, I’m not going. He’ll beat my ass if I don’t and he does.” A look of displeasure crosses Sho’s face, and you have to hold back a laugh at the thought of Professor Hyde chastising Sho for not seeing his family over break. 
You head over to the vegetables laid out on the cutting board, and start with the garlic, peeling it out of its husk. “Sounds like a struggle.”
He scoffs, pouring soy sauce over the vegetables and tossing them before scraping them off on a nearby to-go container. “Holidays are always a struggle with pushy family.” Despite his outward scowl, amusement lights up his eyes for a moment. 
You chuckle, having finished chopping up the garlic and moving to a green bell pepper. You slice it open, its seeds spilling onto the cutting board. “Your family’s pushy?”
“Yes, too pushy sometimes.” Sho shakes his head, shooing you to the side as he grabs potholders to pull the chicken out of the oven. “My brother’s more like my parents than I am.” He carefully places the roast chicken down on a short counter. It’s golden brown, stuffed with rosemary sprigs, lemon slices, and garlic cloves. 
He places it to the side, readying the frying pain and reaching for the peppers you’d chopped, tossing them into the oil. You finish a pepper and reach for a leek next, slicing it into thick chunks. Your eyes flicker back over to the chicken momentarily, rosemary stems sticking out of it like a tail. “The rosemary stems look like a chicken tail.” You voice the thought absentmindedly, smiling to yourself. 
Out of the corner of your eye, you see Sho glance over at the chicken himself. You hear a huffed laugh as he returns his attention to the peppers, sizzling in the oil. “Yeah, it does.” He’s silent for a moment before speaking up again. “Speaking of, it was hard to find fresh rosemary this time around.”
You look up, having finished cutting the leek. A confused expression crosses your face. “Where in the world would you find fresh rosemary in the dead of winter?” You look away, reaching for a carrot, slicing it thinly.
“Rosemary’s an evergreen,” Sho states flatly, reaching for the leek and garlic you cut earlier, mixing it in with the batch of peppers on the stove and stirring them. “You can find that fresh anytime. What’s harder to find, however…” Sho trails off, leaving the stove for a split second, reaching for the bag of your potatoes he’d placed on the ground earlier. He opens the bag and pulls one out, some dirt still stuck in the indents of its skin. “...Is fresh potatoes. They’re typically harvested in the fall.” He smiles at you, before turning away to rinse it off.
Realizing you’d been caught in a lie, you turn away from him, putting all of your focus on the carrot in front of you. You hear his footsteps slowly approaching before he places a freshly washed potato right in front of you, his hand shaking with mirth. 
“Come on, MC. Don’t think I didn’t notice the dirt under your fingernails.” He chuckles before turning back to the stove, stirring the vegetables again. You drop the knife with a clatter and hide your hands behind your back, too nervous to check if you’d missed any spots. 
You sneak a glance up at him, mistakenly making eye contact with him. His eyes gleam with amusement and his smile is soft and fond. “...It can’t have been that obvious.” You decide to admit to it, realizing the heat in your cheeks probably gave it away. 
“It wasn’t.” Sho nods to you, pouring soy sauce over the stir-fried mixture and tossing it before scraping that off in a different to-go container. “I just happened to notice the dirt when you handed the scarf to me, and your potatoes smelled extra earthy.” He takes the pan off the heat, moving over to the chicken and carefully cutting out the breast. 
It’s silent for a few moments, you staring at that freshly cleaned potato and Sho slicing through the chicken, placing the breast in one to-go container and the wings in the other. Sho finally speaks up, though his voice is low. “...You didn’t have to do that, you know.” You look up again, just to find him turned away from you, his ears turning red. Silence falls again as you watch him check off the to-go containers he’s finished. You assume he’s trying to distract himself from the obvious blush on his face, but you can’t say for sure. Something about it makes you feel similar, your heart rate picking up and your face reddening more. It wasn’t due to your embarrassment anymore. “I dunno, I’m bad at thanking people. Just, well…” Sho trails off, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck, hiding his face from you. His voice lowers significantly, and contrastingly, the blush on his ears brightens more. “Thank you. I know potatoes take a while to grow. And…” He trails off again and swallows thickly. You don’t bother asking him to finish his sentence. The implications of his words grow somewhat heavy in your heart, and you wring your fingers nervously. Of course it was profound, growing potatoes for someone when you’re doomed to die, now in nine months. The thought of dedicating your time to anything that wasn’t curing your curse was odd, but this distraction had done you well nonetheless. You didn’t want Sho to feel bad about it at all. You were certain that, if anything, the gravity of being recognized by a girl doomed to die was dawning on him. 
The words spill out before you can really stop them. “Don’t worry about it, Sho. I did that because I wanted to.” Confessing this was almost as raw as confessing your feelings, and your chest tightens at that thought, but you continue despite that. “You’ve been kind to me since after our first mission. And I’ve enjoyed spending time with you, including things as mundane as meal prep!” You gesture vaguely to the setting before you, hoping to get your point across. “I just randomly had the idea, and figured it couldn’t be so bad to act on it. It’s been a good distraction anyway, and what with all that happens here, a distraction does me some good.” Silence falls once more, and Sho finally turns to look at you, face flushed. He wipes his palms on his apron and worries his lip between his teeth, his gaze flickering between you and the floor. “...So what if I used up three months to grow potatoes? The time will pass anyways.” You turn away from him, looking at the washed potato. You reach for it and pick up the knife, beginning to cut it into cube chunks. 
“...I guess you’re right.” You can hear a gentle smile in Sho’s voice, and it warms you up internally, feeling thankful he’s accepted the gift. You glance towards him, giving him a smile, and catch him staring. There’s an odd glimpse of admiration in his eyes, which makes your cheeks warm.
“Go on and finish cutting the chicken.” You wave off his stare and jerk your gaze away from him, hiding your blush and focusing on the cubed potato. 
He scoffs and turns away, picking up his knife. “Giving me orders in my own kitchen, huh?” 
You don’t respond. You don’t need to. The warmth of the heaters settles into your skin and the warmth of the previous pleasant conversation settles into your heart. You glance down at the bag of potatoes that started it all. The eyes of the potatoes seem to stare up at you knowingly.
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You’re carrying a short stack of to-go containers outside to Sho’s bike, Bonnie, your boots crunching the frosty path beneath you. Snow would surely be coming soon. You gently place the stack in the box on the back of Bonnie, careful to make sure none of them tip over. You hear more crunching footsteps and turn around to see Sho, carrying the rest of the boxes. He places them in the box as well and organizes them before securing the box with a few straps. He steps back and exhales, smiling to himself. You can’t help but smile at his pride.
“Now, to deliver these…” Sho approaches Bonnie and gets on, patting her twice affectionately. The gentle thrum of the engine comes to life in response. He looks to you and smiles, and you notice he’s wearing your scarf. “Sure you don’t want a ride back to the chapel?”
You eye the box of food already on the back of Bonnie and shake your head. You wouldn’t test fate today. Your eyes find your scarf again, sitting snugly around Sho’s neck. “Well, at least you have a use for it.” You say, resigned. Part of you wonders if you’ll ever get it back. 
Sho smiles, reaching up to touch the scarf. “Again, I’ll wash and return it.” He looks up to the sky, and you follow suit, noting the pale white blanket of clouds blocking the sun. “That said…” He starts, lowering his gaze to you again. “It is cold out. I may need this for longer than I expected.” There’s a teasing lilt to his voice and his smile turns crooked, as though suppressing a smirk. 
“...I’m not getting that back, am I?”
Sho shrugs, revving up Bonnie. “Who knows?” He smiles fondly at you one last time before speeding off, the wheels of Bonnie leaving tire tracks on the frosty path. You watch him as he leaves, his hair lifting in the wind, the tendrils of your scarf billowing behind him. You watch until he turns a corner and you can only faintly hear the rumbling of Bonnie’s engine. ‘I guess he really did have customers, even in this cold…’ You think to yourself, a faint smile growing on your face. You inhale the crisp cool air, feeling a bit cooler around your neck now that you’re missing a scarf. You idly look back up at the sky again, wondering if it really would snow today. Despite you enjoying the stillness of the winter air on Darkwick campus, the cold eventually bites at you, urging you to return to the chapel. Your footsteps crunch along the frosted path, following Bonnie’s tracks.
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It’s Christmas evening, and things are finally winding down for the day. You’d been to Frostheim and made snow angels with Luca and Kaito, had coffee and played chess with Tohma, and Jin, despite himself, hadn’t asked you to run any errands for him today. You’d been to Vagastrom and exchanged gifts with Alan, tolerated Leo’s selfies with you, and looked around for Sho, but hadn’t found him. You’d been to Jabberwock and fed the animals with Haru, watched a romance movie with Towa, and played a holiday-themed horror game with Ren. You’d been to Sinostra and done some gambling with Taiga while Ritsu tagged along to ensure Sinostra’s reputation wasn’t damaged further, and had a surprisingly pleasant conversation with Romeo despite him saying your large coat made you resemble a slug. You’d been to Hotarubi and had tea and holiday sweets with Haku, Subaru, Zenji, and Lyca, who was visiting Subaru. You’d been to Obscuary and had Rui’s new holiday-themed drinks with Ed, chattering time away at the bar. You’d been to Mortkranken and reluctantly exchanged gifts with Yuri, aware of the fit he’d throw if you hadn’t gotten him anything, and pleasantly exchanged gifts with Jiro, reminding him to take good care of himself. 
Finally, after a very long, exhausting, and eventful day, you were back at the chapel, counting the vines growing under your skin, glowing lavender like the flower on the back of your neck. Some small flowers broke your skin and bloomed here and there, leaving the exit wounds somewhat inflamed. Granted, you didn’t have much time left, and these vines made that clear, but this holiday had been much better than you’d expected it to be. You appreciated the effort most of the ghouls put forth to make this holiday at least somewhat enjoyable for you, especially considering it may be your last. 
You sit by the fireplace in your room, watching the snow fall from the sky through your window. You had a tiny pine tree near your bed, decorated with handmade tinsel from the three Hotarubi ghouls and some small ornaments from Jin. You wore new pajamas from Romeo, though you weren’t sure how in the world he knew your size. You had a new bracelet from Taiga, who had originally forgotten who he’d gotten it for. On your nightstand lay a dreidel from Kaito and a snow globe from Luca. The hot chocolate you sipped on was a gift from Tohma, and some wine awaited you in your fridge, a gift from the Obscuary ghouls. You had a few new ugly holiday sweaters from various ghouls, Yuri and Ren included, and some not-so-ugly ones, thanks to Haru and Towa. A thick, heavy book about the origins of the laws of Japan sat on a nearby table, a gift from Ritsu that you had no plans to read. You had lit a scented candle from Leo, which you thought was surprisingly thoughtful, and had set aside the wax melts from Alan, planning to use them after the candle ran out. The new watch from Jiro was wrapped around your wrist, displaying the increasingly late time. In all of this, you wondered where your gift from Sho was. You hadn’t been able to spot him today, and the thought made you feel a little down. You’d wanted to spend some time with him today, but guessed he was probably too busy preparing Christmas dinner for all of Vagastrom and Hotarubi that he simply hadn’t had the time. You set your hot chocolate down on top of the accursed thick book and sprawl out in your chair, turning to the window again. Regardless, this had been a surprisingly wonderful holiday. The ghouls had given you gifts and willingly spent time with you, doing various fun activities and filling you with holiday cheer. It was a nice escape from the reality of your situation, even if it was only for a little while. 
You check the vines under your skin again, resisting the urge to scratch at where a new white flower had bloomed near your elbow. You could feel that, soon after the holiday season mellowed down, it would be back to reality, and you’d have to face your own death once again. Part of you dreaded the eventual change in weather and in the length of days, knowing your predicted end was growing near. But a part of you was also resigned to it. Regardless of whether you were due to die soon or not, this had been a nice holiday. And you could stand to live in the now, just this once. 
You carefully pluck the flower from your skin, wincing at the sharp pain. You bleed for only a few moments before it clots up. At least you could stave off the growth of the curse for now. 
You hear a gentle knock at your door. Physically, you’re too exhausted to have much more fun at this point, but mentally, you could use a pick-me-up. You head down your stairs towards the door, opening it crack by crack, trying to prevent too much of the cold wind from slipping inside. You peer through the open doorway, jolting in surprise when a familiar pair of dark blue eyes meet yours. 
“Hey,” Sho starts, lifting two boxes in his hands. “Thought you could use a warm holiday dinner.”
Your heart swells and all at once, a wave of emotion hits you. Sure, you didn’t have much time left, but that didn’t stop these ghouls from caring, and that was evident in the gifts piled up in your room, the fun you’d had all throughout the day, and the ghoul now standing at your doorstep, seeking more time with you. There was a reason he was your favorite. 
You swing the door open wider, unable to hide the smile that breaks across your face all at once. “I was looking for you, you know.” You cross your arms and narrow your eyes in mock disappointment. “Where’ve you been all day?”
“Cooking.” Sho lifts a brow and shrugs, tilting his head at you. He smiles fondly at you, and you notice he’s finally dressed appropriately for the season; a hat covering most of his hair, a matching coat and gloves keeping him warm, and your scarf, tucked snugly against his neck inside his coat. Yet again, you realize you are probably never getting that scarf back. 
“That scarf is still mine.” You gesture at his scarf, and he laughs, reaching up to brush the built up snow off of it. 
“And I’m still using it.” He replies, smiling wider. “So… Gonna let me in or what? It’s cold out here.” His breath puffs into white clouds, and you notice his cheeks and nose are tinged red again thanks to the cold. You smile and step aside, letting him in. 
You close the door behind him and he shakes off the snow built up on his coat. When he looks at you, his smile holds the warmth of a thousand candles and his voice holds the joy of a thousand holiday carols. “So… got any mistletoe? If not, we can start with gifts. Either works for me.” A blush covers his face as he pushes the boxes towards you, his smile growing wider and fonder.
You figure, regardless of how much time you have left, it wouldn’t hurt to spend a holiday with your favorite ghoul.
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Bonus:
The gift, wrapped surprisingly delicately inside one of the boxes, is a knitted scarf in your favorite colors. It’s not bad, but you can tell it was done by a beginner. Holding it in your hands, a small smile grows on your face, and you sigh, totally resigned. 
By god, you are never getting that scarf back. 
“Well, thank you for your collateral replacement, but I expect that scarf back one day.”
Sho shakes his head, smiling as he chews on your shared meal, packed in the other box he was carrying. “No can do. It’s still cold and I still need a scarf.”
“I’m withholding the mistletoe, then.”
Sho huffs, rolling his eyes and continuing the meal. At his lack of a reaction, you purse your lips, thinking of another thing to withhold that might gift you a victory. Sho speaks, having swallowed his mouthful, “I can find other reasons to kiss you-”
“I’m withholding the potatoes.”
Sho looks at you in shock, dropping his forkful back onto his plate. “...I’ll think about it.”
Maybe you would get that scarf back, after all.
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a/n: it's done. finally it is done. finally! i've been writing this romance fic 4 a long while so im glad it is finally done
thank you all so much for reading!! as usual, i love likes, but especially comments, reblogs, and asks detailing how much you enjoyed my work!!! please feel free 2 fill up my inbox with whatever, i love talking 2 u all! but be warned my responses will be slow... im still recovering!
happy holidays 2 you all! i hope, whether you're surrounded by family, friends, or by yourself, that it's a wonderful and fulfilling holiday season 4 u. merry christmas 2 those who celebrate, and happy kwanzaa 2 those who celebrate that as well!! not very well versed in other winter holidays, but may they be joyous and merry!
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the-fandom-is-now-my-life · 4 months ago
Note
Hello! Could we get your opinion on which tkdb cat would make the best biscuits?
They are just silly buggers, mischief babies if you must and we love them for that
Best kitty cook pulling overtime
Kaito is a cuddly baby, whenever possible sneaking between your arms and napping enjoying your body heat. It just rarely happens because the other cats tend to monopolize your nap times. He also does it when he gets anxious or Romeo gets close to his hiding spot.
Sho kneads both his and Leo's bed each night and if you pick him up to nap and Leo isn't around he will make biscuits on your bed.
Towa is just a silly baby that loves his human and physical contact! It's totally unrelated how he brushes against your legs and tries to fuse with you when you return home smelling of other cats or spoil Ren too much.
Haku is another loving boy who waits in bed for you when it's your time to sleep and even whine if you don't follow him, after he will paw at your tummy, your lap, your chest anything he can get his paws on to keep you in bed longer 🥹🥺
Only if he feels comfortable
Jin does biscuits in your tummy when he is about to sleep and you feed him catnip, he is high and sleepy and his baby instincts take over.
Leo, two faced as always, will make biscuits in your blanket when you record him, acting all sweet and baby-like but when the video stops so does his act.
Ren paws at his pillow when the gameplays gets good.
Romeo is very picky but ends up kneading his little silk pillow in a corner after his annoyances (Ritsu and Taiga) went to sleep and needs to relieve some stress from his paws. He does accept a little massage and lotion to his paw beans.
Ritsu was separated from his mommy at an early age so when he is VERY comfortable or under anesthesia he makes biscuits as if you were his mom.
Zenji does biscuits in one specific scenario, when you have to take Jiro to the vet for the night, he sneaks into that zone of the house and kneads it before sleeping in his brother's bed. In the morning he is gone.
Yuri does it sometimes when he gets sick, draping himself in your comforter in your bed until you come check on him.
Rarely does biscuits
Thoma rarely has the time to fix his little bed and knead it before sleeping and even more rarely does he want to cuddle, when he kneads he uses too much claw and ends up hurting a bit
Luca is a somewhat cuddly cat but hardly ever does he allow himself to be so vulnerable. He is your knight and has to protect you!!
Alan used to do it on Thoma before Jin came home and he went to help him, now he fears stabbing you or the kitties with his claws so he only does it when Thoma comes to him to chat a bit.
Haru is too busy hurrying after the critters in the yard and trying to save his favorite baby from Taiga. His paws hurt a bit at the end of the day so of you massage them with lotion he will purr.
Taiga LOVES to de-stress his claws, the only reason I don't call it kneading is that whatever pillow or fabric he chose ends up torn to shreds. He still hasn't torn Pikaboo apart because Haru manages to snatch it back.
Subaru is a very skittish kitty so he rarely feels comfortable enough! The few times you see him make biscuits is in his hideout or in your bedroom with the door closed but he stops when he senses any other cat or human.
Rui dislikes physical touch so he won't ever knead you or the other cats, he rarely makes biscuits on plushies.
Lyca was raised by dogs so you wouldn't have thought he knew how to but to your surprise you once caught him making biscuits on Subaru in the sun once or twice.
Old man Ed rarely -if at all- kneads anything, preferring to sprawl himself in your lap while you fawn over him.
never one to do unnecessary things, Jiro doesn't see any point in that so he doesn't do it. IF you managed to make him do it (somehow??) he would accidentally do it too hard and stab your skin enough to bleed.
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stinkyturd · 7 months ago
Text
Fever Dreams
Rating: Mature
Pairing: Subaru Kagami/Reader
Fandom: Tokyo Debunker
Notes: Hello, Hi, Welcome! This is my Subaru fic! As of this post, there are two more chapters up on Archive of Our Own and a fourth in the making! I will try to update often here if there are a lot of you that don't use Ao3! This fic starts out with you, the MC, having mysterious explicit dreams about Subaru, and avoiding him so he doesn't find out!
This was probably the fifth day in a row that you woke up in the middle of the night with a start. And you wish you could say it was from a horrific dream like being chased by a pack of aggressive anomalies, or even materializing into a room full of people in just your underwear.
No, this was much, much, worse.
Ever since you assisted Hotarubi as their inspector, you had become quite close with the house's captain. Initially, you had only spent so much time with Subaru Kagami because you were entrusted with the task of helping mentor Lyca, Subaru's good friend. The weekly check-ins regarding Lyca's progress turned into multi weekly meetups, rather than just text exchanges. Subaru began asking you to join him for lunch, help him with missions, or even study with him. You enjoyed the company, and even began initiating interactions, as well.
But here's where the problem comes in.
The dreams that were so explicit and intense that they tampered with your inner time clock, were in fact lewd and unholy perversions that involved you and none other than Hotarubi's captain, Subaru.
You felt like a total creep. Darkwick Academy's perfect, sweet, honorable third year was being psychologically violated by some outsider that would have no business being there if it weren't for a curse. You had seriously considered avoiding Subaru altogether because the past few days whenever you held eye contact with him for too long, vivid imagery from your dreamworld would resurface in the recesses of your mind. It was almost as if your brain was trying to torture you. You even came up with a half-baked theory that this could be the work of your curse, just to avoid taking responsibility.
Even now, you had accepted Subaru's invite to eat with him for lunch at this picnic bench in the school yard, but you can't look at him in the eye. Your barely touched curry bread that you purchased from Sho's food truck sits in front of you over a bed of napkins. Avoiding looking up, you find particular interest in the granules of breadcrumbs lining the outside of the pastry.
"Lyca sent me a message about picking up more shifts at Rui's bar. He seems to be settling in very well and even making friends, thanks to you. He talks about you all the time, too," Subaru says, as he opens up his Unagi Don that he also grabbed from Sho's food truck.
Idly, you pick up rogue breadcrumbs with your index finger and thumb and crumble them. "Oh, you don't say? I'm glad I was able to help him."
Subaru's eyes follow your movements. "What about you? It hasn't been too much trouble for you to guide him, has it?"
You can feel his eyes lingering on you longer than normal. It wouldn't be long before you'd have to explain yourself. "Oh no, not at all," You reply, pulling off a piece of the pastry before plopping it into your mouth. Your next words are stifled by a mouthful of food. "Lyca's the best, it's no trouble."
If Subaru showed any visible displeasure from your barbaric table manners, you wouldn't know, because you're suddenly looking around the courtyard at nothing in particular.
"(Y/N)... maybe it's just my imagination. Forgive me and correct me if I'm wrong," Subaru starts, cautiously.
You pick the bread up while turned away from him and cram it in your mouth, allowing him to fumble over his words instead of showing verbal interest.
"I just think that maybe... just maybe you've been avoiding me? Like in general, or particularly when it comes to looking at me?" Subaru suggests, his voice raising an octave towards the latter half of his sentence.
When you turn your head to him seconds later, you're suddenly wearing a pair of very densely colored, black sunglasses. Crumbs line the outside of your mouth as you chew vigorously-- less times than you should, before swallowing. "Avoiding you? Naaawh! What makes you say that?"
"Um... well, for starters can you even see through those glasses? They look like a prop."
You could see through them, but just barely. It is probably close to the equivalent of having fifteen percent window tint on a motor vehicle. So, you saw the murky outline of Subaru, but it's a perfect amount of visibility to where you wouldn't start to get that funny feeling in your gut.
"Yeah, I can see crystal clear."
Subaru tents his eyebrows and sighs. "Okay then. How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Mmm, three," You guess.
"...I'm not holding up any."
You lift your glasses up just barely from the bottom to confirm his claim, before dropping them again. "Oh, well I was just messing with you. I was going to say zero! Good one, right? Ha, ha..."
"Did I do something to upset you?" Subaru asks, his voice woefully pitiful.
You wave your hands wildly in the air, emitting an awkward laugh. "No, no! Not at all, I just really have been not doing well with the sun lately. My family has that thing that runs in the family. Whatchyamacallit-- catracks...!"
Subaru stares at you dubiously. "I think you mean cataracts."
"Oh, yup! That's the one," You stand up abruptly in an attempt to escape but end up slamming your knee on the edge of the table. "FUCK...!" You hunch over and cradle your knee in your hand, your sunglasses toppling onto the table in the process.
"(Y/N)...!" Subaru quickly moves over to your side. "Are you alright?"
Mindlessly, you glance up and meet his gaze. The stunningly cute captain is mere inches from your face, his shallow breath tickling your nose. You don't even feel the knee pain anymore, only the heat rising up your neck at the proximity.
Without thinking, you find yourself throwing your palms forward, effectively pushing Subaru away. It wasnt hard enough to knock him on his feet or anything, but the message was clear.
It's too late to take it back. You feel a pang of remorse when you notice the hurt expression on his face. "Sorry, I didn't mean to do that," You say, fumbling for words.
Subaru folds an arm over his chest in a self-soothing manner, as he looks towards the ground. "No, I shouldn't have gotten so close to you like that. Sorry, that was probably creepy."
Creepy? If he thought that was creepy good thing he hasn't used his stigma and incidentally seen picturesque imagery of himself writhing underneath you, butt naked.
"No, it wasn't creepy. If anything, I'm the total weirdo here, for real!" You counter.
Subaru shakes his head. "Impossible, you're not any sort of weirdo."
You let out a nervous laugh. "I think you would change your mind if you could see the kind of crap I've been thinking on the last few days. I can't elaborate, but..." Clapping your hands together, you bow a bit. "I'm sorry, Subaru. I think we should hang out less. It's not you it's me, believe me."
Subaru stares at you, crestfallen. "What...?"
Finally, you meet his gaze, fighting back your rampant imagination. "I really love hanging out with you. In fact, you have to be my favorite Ghoul resident, and that's exactly why we have to separate for at least a little bit." Until you got your hormones under control, anyways. You didn't want to put these feelings on Subaru, nor did you have time for them. You had a curse to break, after all.
Subaru's lips press into a thin line, and he almost looks-- frustrated? "Sorry, but can you give me a better reason than that? Otherwise, I will have no choice but to think it's my fault, regardless of what you say."
You rehearsed this conversation in your head before, but you hadn't planned on him being this assertive. So, you made up some bullshit on the spot.
"Study. I need to study for the quarterly exams next week! We have been hanging out so much, I'm always tempted to call you over to waste time instead of preparing for the exams. That's all!"
Subaru's expression doesn't get any brighter at the revelation. In fact, you doubt he buys it. "Okay. So, studying together is off the table?"
"Well, yes! Because I'm terrible at multitasking. I'll be too distracted, I usually study alone," You explain clumsily. "We can hang out after exams though, I promise."
"Yes, we should." Subaru smiles, but you can tell its forced by his eyes. "Should I avoid texting you too, then?"
"No, texting is fine! Anyways, I'll see you later, okay?" You pick up your glasses and make your way back to the building for your next class. Pivoting slightly, you wave back at him. "See you!"
Subaru returns the gesture half-heartedly. "Yes, until next time."
Some days pass and much to your dismay, you were still having the obscene dreams. Out of some sort of guilty conscious, you would always wake up prematurely whenever you would realize the dream wasn't actually real. And then you would have trouble falling back asleep.
You sat at a table in Darkwick's library with a thick textbook opened in front of you. You really did need to study for next week's exams, but you could barely keep your eyes open. Not only that, but you were also having to read over the same paragraph way too many times in order to finally comprehend it when you did have your eyes fully open. This endeavor was looking to be more and more fruitless by the minute. Maybe the only cure for your exhaustion was tall cup of plain brewed blonde roast coffee.
As if your mind was read, a disposable coffee cup is placed in front of you. Your eyes dart upwards to meet your savior.
"You look like you're barely staying awake. I came by earlier to say hi, but you were sleeping on your textbook," Lucas says, shooting you a sympathetic look.
"For me...?" You ask, staring up at the sun-kissed student as if he were the reincarnation of Jesus himself.
Lucas Iaughs airily. "Yes, it's all yours. May I sit?"
You nod, grabbing the cup and taking a tentative sip of the piping hot beverage. It was strong and deliciously bitter, just what you needed. "You're seriously a life saver, Lucas."
The Frostheim student pulls out a chair next to you and settles himself in. "It was no problem. I had planned on getting pastries from the coffee stand, anyways. What are you studying?"
"Ecoregion Field Study," You bite out, miserably.
Lucas winces at that. "Ah, seems boring."
"It is," You agree. "Are you studying for exams, too?"
Lucas nods and unzips his messenger bag. He pulls out a folder, a pen, and a textbook titled 'Anomaly Cell Biology'.
"Hey! You're with (Y/N) and you didn't invite me?!" A whiney familiar voice practically screeches from behind Lucas. A blonde mop of hair comes into view as the source of the ruckus barrels towards the both of you.
"Kaito, keep it down...!" Lucas scolds in a hushed whisper. "We are in a library."
Kaito plants his own messenger bag firmly on the table and sits across from you. The blonde young man glares daggers at his housemate but obeys his request. "Well, I wouldn't be so loud, if I had been given a little heads up. You're just hogging this cutie to yourself!" Kaito turns to look at you with a wide grin, but his face immediately falters. "Woah, you look uh... tired."
"Oh? What gave that away?" You ask, sarcastically.
"Those wicked dark circles and messy hair. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought those were a black eyes," Kaito replies, a bit too honestly, in your opinion.
Lucas shoots Kaito a glare and not so subtly kicks him from underneath the table.
"YEOWCH...!" Despite being the least street-smart student in Darkwick, the blonde could take hints. "Uh, what I meant to say is wow you look super hot, (Y/N)! Like a million bucks! Plus, there's plenty of baddies with dark circles. You ever read that manga 'Death Note'?"
You let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes, I have, and you don't have to apologize. I know I look beat. I haven't been able to sleep well for a while."
Kaito rests his chin on the top of his bag and eyes you, curiously. "How come? Too many missions?"
You shake your head. "No, the missions aren't the issue."
"No one has been giving you trouble, have they?" Lucas asks, his gaze hardening.
"They better not, we will send Jin after 'em," Kaito adds.
"Nope, nope, nothing like that either. I've brought this on myself," You say twirling your coffee cup in place with your fingertips.
"The suspense is killing me, spill!" Kaito demands.
You debate if you should tell them. After all, they were your first friends at Darkwick and they probably know the most about you out of all of the students, besides Subaru. The Frostheim house in general held a special place in your heart and even their icy captain had become fond of you. Plus, if anyone could empathize on this topic, it was probably Kaito.
You take a deep breath, steadying yourself. "Okay, completely hypothetical question. If someone was having pervy dreams about a close friend that is probably-- definitely not into them like that, should it effect the friendship?"
Kaito's eyes widen. It's obvious the topic threw him through a loop. "Uhhh, depends. Does the other person know it's happening?"
"In this hypothetical, no," You reply.
Kaito shrugs. "Oh, then who cares? What they don't know won't hurt em!"
Lucas tosses Kaito a dubious look. "Well... maybe. But it seems kind of unfair to harbor those kinds of feelings for someone when it's not mutual. If even when you sleep you think romantically about them, then won't that eventually reflect in your interactions later on?"
Kaito scoffs. "Who says its romantic, maybe they're just super cute? I have had loads of dreams about people I knew, but I didn't creep on em after! Besides, you can't control dreams."
Lucas rolls his eyes. "Yeah, but I assume we are imagining a scenario with someone, unlike you, that is interested in one person exclusively. Right, (Y/N)?" The brown-haired man turns to look at you for confirmation.
You nod pensively as you consider their input. "Yeah, just one person."
Lucas eyes you warily. "Some guy friend isn't perving on you, is he? And it's not Kaito?"
"WHAT? How could it be me? I never admitted to any such dreams!" Kaito squawks indignantly.
"No," You groan, resting your cheek in the palm of your hand. "It's me. I'm the lecherous creep."
Kaito's mouth drops open, as far as it could possibly go. You can tell he tries to keep his next words as quiet as he possibly could, considering the librarian had been glaring at him from her desk since he sat down. "Who about? If it's me, the feelings mutual-- please be my girlfriend!"
Lucas looks at Kaito with an expression that could only be described as pained disappointment. "Dude..."
You shake your head, not bothered by the blonde man's predictable outburst. "No, it's not you, Kaito."
"You don't have to tell us if you don't feel comfortable," Lucas insists, considerate as ever.
"Speak for yourself! I have to know my rival, so I can learn all their weaknesses," Kaito counters. "Ahem... if you feel like revealing, that is."
"It's Subaru," You admit, readily.
Lucas blinks in surprise. "Hotarubi's Captain?"
Kaito looks a little lost, looking between the two of you. "Uh, he's the super polite guy that has the pretty face, right? Used to be an actor?"
You both nod.
"Oh, no wonder you like him," Kaito pouts, bitterly. "I can try to make myself look cute like that, if that's what you like."
Like him?
You hadn't thought about it plainly like that, but you never really had dreams of that nature before. Nor had you really liked many people throughout your lifetime. It would be fair to say you had a crush on Subaru. You'd get butterflies when he gave his most genuine smiles, and you thought about him all the time. His pretty face was so ingrained in your mind you could probably paint it without a reference. And you really admired how positive he could be, and the way he saw the best in everyone. You also loved how he responded so descriptively in text and made sure to acknowledge every little thing you'd send.
"He's a very gentle person," You say, offering some insight. "He is very cute, but I think why I may be feeling this way is a conglomeration of things. There's no point in thinking too much of it. I plan on avoiding him until this feeling passes."
"Aren't you sort of close to him?" Lucas asks, worriedly. "In that case, is that really the best way to go about it?"
"Well, there's no way he thinks the same way about me. I already hear from Taiga and Edward about how plain I am, I'm sure he thinks the same. If it's probably not mutual I may as well avoid it," You state matter-of-factly.
"That's a more pacifist attitude than I would have expected from you," Lucas remarks. "But if you really think it's fine..."
"Do you need a hug?" Kaito asks, giving you a sympathetic look.
"I wouldn't hate that," You say.
Kaito stands up and leans over the table wrapping his arms around your head in an awkward embrace. You felt some level of oxytocin production from the interaction, despite your head being craned in an unnatural direction. No one had attempted to hug you since you ended up at Darkwick, so this small amount of platonic contact was actually comforting.
You relax and exhale tiredly. "Thanks, Kaito."
"My pleasure--" Kaito starts, but abruptly cuts himself off. You feel his form separate from you.
Looking up, you see Subaru gripping the collar of Kaito's uniform. This was probably the first time that you've ever seen the gentle captain outright scowling. Haku stood behind him, his expression as surprised as yours probably was.
"H-Hey...!" Kaito protests, pulling himself away from Subaru's grip. "It was consensual, I swear!"
The Hotarubi Captain glowered menacingly at the blonde, not saying a word. Kaito held his ground for a few seconds, until his face faltered into a panicked expression.
"EEEEEEE...! I'M SORRY, DON'T HURT MEEE!!!" Kaito spins on his heel and runs for the exit.
"...We are definitely getting kicked out," Lucas remarks with a groan.
"That's the maddest I've ever seen you, Soobie. What gives?" Haku asks, his playful tone contradicting the perturbed look on his face.
Subaru doesn't acknowledge his question, instead turning his full attention to you. "I thought you said you had planned on studying for the exams without distraction."
You gawk at him, at a loss for words. This was the first time you ever saw Subaru so angry, not to mention forward. "Y-Yeah, I did! Honest."
Subaru's eyes are practically glaring at you. It's evident that he doesn't believe you right now. "Yet here you are with Frostheim."
"It's not what it looks li--"
"I'm sorry. Kaito and I kind of barged ourselves in on her study session. I didn't realize she didn't want company." Lucas pulls through with a save.
Haku throws an arm over Subaru's shoulders. "Relax. She looks exhausted, you think she was having a shin dig? What's the big deal anyways?"
Subaru begins to appear conflicted, then relaxes into a contrite expression. "I'm... sorry. I don't know what came over me. Excuse me," He bows politely, and turns to leave himself.
"H-Hey, wait...!" You call out, but he only begins walking more briskly, until he's out the door.
Haku folds his arms over his chest. "Well... that was something."
"Looks like your plan wasn't a good one, after all," Lucas remarks to you, rubbing salt in the wound.
Planting your face on your book, you groan audibly. "That was so stupid, stupid, stupid."
"Mind filling me in? I'm going to need some context if I'm going to calm him down," Haku says gently.
"Lucas, please." Your vague request comes out muffled, but still discernible.
Lucas clears his throat, picking up on what you're throwing down. "Uh, she's been having dirty dreams about your captain, so she's ignoring him, because she feels guilty...? Is that right?"
You nod as much as possible from your stiff position. "...To put it simply."
"Oh..." Haku manages, rubbing his neck awkwardly. "Is it bad enough that you can't talk to him?"
You lift your face just barely meeting Haku's gaze. "I see images of it all the time, and the dreams come every night. I think I've got a double curse. I can't even look at him without being reminded of it. I'm a filthy, filthy pervert. Seriously, put me out of my misery. Subaru is too pure to be tainted by my vile presence."
Haku snickers. "Don't you think you're being a little too hard on yourself? And to be honest, it's not really that farfetched to blame an anomaly. There are some that tamper with emotions, you know. I get being embarrassed about dirty dreams, but if they're as frequent and vivid as you say it's possible it's supernatural."
Your voice lightens at that. "F-For real? Are you sure?"
Haku nods. "Yes, in fact I'm concerned. You stay alone in that cathedral, don't you?"
"I do."
"Do you ever feel like there's another presence around? And when did these dreams start?" Haku asks.
You tent your eyebrows. "Um... I'm not sure if there's another presence around. The dreams usually end up waking me very quickly because I feel guilty. It started a week ago."
"When you're about to wake up, do you feel anything else before you're about to regain consciousness? Like something that is restrictive?"
You blink, sitting fully upright. "Hey, now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure I felt a weight on my chest. Then I forced myself up and opened my eyes. I never see anything in the room with me, obviously."
Haku furrows his eyebrows with a look of concern. "(Y/N), I'm eighty-five percent sure an anomaly is messing with you. And if it's the one I'm thinking of, it would explain a lot. You're cursed with something quite serious, so you may attract petty creatures like this because of the negative energy that comes with being marked."
Despite the seriousness of the situation, you find yourself grinning from ear to ear. "Wow, so I'm not a complete lecherous pervert."
Lucas shoots you a tired look. "You'd rather be trailed by an anomaly, than feel like a pervert? You're seriously something else."
Haku shakes his head. "I wouldn't be celebrating just yet. The anomaly I'm thinking of takes on the form of someone you harbor feelings for in your dreams, it's not just random."
Your giddy expression falls as quickly as it came. "Damn it, seriously?"
"You both are my friends, so I'm looking out for your best interest. If you don't want Subaru to become an emotional inconsolable wreck, you should just be honest with him. I've never seen him act like that before." Haku glances wistfully in the direction his captain left, before shifting his gaze back to you. "I know it's easier said than done, but running away is not the solution here."
As much as you want to object, you know he's right. Initially, when you decided to ignore him, you didn't think he would care as much as he did. "Yeah, I get it. I don't want him to resent me either." Letting out an exasperated sigh, you close your book and lean down to stuff it in your bag that's on the floor. "There's no way I can concentrate on studying right now, I'm going home."
Haku waves his hands in protest. "Wait, I don't think you should do that. At least, don't sleep there. We need to figure out what's going on. If you're alone so far away, you'll be in danger."
You zip up your bag and toss him a puzzled look. "Well, what do you suggest I do?"
"There are probably extra rooms at the Hotarubi house. You should stay until we get this sorted out," Haku insists, pulling his phone out of his pocket.
"Uh, you sure that's okay?" You ask, uncertainty laced in your voice.
Haku taps away at his phone's keyboard. "Yes, I will tell Subaru and he will understand."
"You should listen to him," Lucas adds, his expression serious. "This anomaly could be pretty dangerous."
Surrendering to the idea, you nod in agreement. "Fine, but I'm going to get some stuff from my place first."
"That's fine. I'll meet you there, okay?" Haku looks up from his screen with an encouraging smile.
"Hey, wait. You're not texting him the details of this anomaly, right?" You ask, in a panic.
Haku chuckles and shakes his head. "Don't worry, I'm being as vague as possible. I wouldn't do that. That's something you need to tell him yourself."
Exhaling in relief, you stand up with your bag. "Good. I'll get ready then I'll head to Hotarubi."
"See you later, (Y/N). Good luck with everything," Lucas says with a smile.
You wave him off, before heading for the door. "Thanks, you're the best!"
Later that evening, you find yourself wandering the halls of the Hotarubi's Shoin-zukuri* styled mansion. Haku hadn't specified exactly where he would be and you made the mistake of not texting him ahead of time, instead sending one message notifying your arrival just moments ago. The vice-captain wasn't one to be latched to his phone, so you decided to make a guess at his location. Your first arrival here, you met up with Haku, Zenji, and Subaru in the main dining hall. It had been a while since you had last been here, so you did your best to retrace your steps from that day. Just like you had remembered it was pouring rain, but thankfully you were shielded by a protruding roof.
Walking the narrow porch, you look into the garden, watching the droplets of rain fall past the beautiful purple wisteria growing along the building's surface. The scene was peaceful and serene, very fitting for the members of the Hotarubi House. Particularly Subaru, considering he used to be a Kabuki actor.
Once, you made it to the main dining area, you find the sliding door already peeled back.
"Oh my, an anomaly is following Miss (Y/N)...?!" Zenji's flamboyant voice yells. You easily spot him sitting on the floor at a tea table with Subaru and Haku across from him.
"It's just speculation, but I have good reason to believe that to be the case," Haku says.
Subaru looks down at his lap, worry etched on his delicate features. He's wearing his stylized purple and white kimono, with the right sleeve peeled off, revealing a teal undershirt. Subaru looks so pretty and poised in the getup it makes your heart skip a beat.
"Well then, it makes sense for her to stay here. She can stay in the room next to mine for the time being." As soon as the words come out of Subaru's mouth, his eyes flick to meet yours. He must have used his sixth sense to detect you ogling over him.
"(Y/N), you're here." Haku acknowledges your presence with a toothy grin.
"(Y/N)...!" Zenji shouts theatrically, dragging out the vowels in your name. "Oh, how I've missed you so!"
You smile at them and approach the table. "Hey, guys. Sorry if you were waiting awhile, Haku. I was gathering my things to last me the next few days."
"Not at all, you're just in time. Sit!"
Unwittingly, you opt to sit on the cushion closest to you, which happens to be on the end of the table right next to Subaru. His floral perfume fills your lungs the second your butt hits the seat. He must have gotten over the events from earlier, because he looks at you with painstakingly sweet expression. Heat trickles up your neck as your heart threatens to explode out of your chest.
"Would you like some warabi mochi?" Subaru picks up a piece from the plate in front of him, offering the jelly-like desert to you from his fingertips.
An intrusive thought comes to you to inhale that thing right off his fingers, but you think better of it. "S-Sure, ha ha..." Your hand is practically shaking as it reaches out for the mochi in his hand. Your fingertips connect for the briefest of seconds, but you manage to take it from him and toss it in your mouth.
"So, Haku tells me you've been tormented by repetitive dreams! You poor thing," Zenji coos, giving you a sympathetic look.
"Yeah, it's been interfering with my sleep," You say in between chews.
"No worries, we will get it sorted out. Exams are in a few days, too. I can try to talk to the Chancellor about getting you an extension, if you need it," Haku offers as he rests his cheek against his knuckles, focusing his attention on you.
You shake your head. "I'm prepared enough to get a decent grade. I usually try to get close to a perfect score, but if that doesn't happen, it's not the end of the world."
"If you insist." Haku takes a sip of a ceramic mug filled with what you assume is hot tea, before continuing. "I was thinking we could put a baby monitor in your room. It sounds silly, but that way we will know if something is going on in your sleep. I also prepared some Omamori* amulets and incense for your room, so tonight is peaceful. You look exhausted, so I figured we could try to bait this thing tomorrow."
"Do you think it will stop the dreams for tonight?" You ask eagerly, clenching your fists in your lap.
Haku nods. "In theory."
"What kind of dreams plague you? Perhaps I can regale you a tale to rid you of your fears!" Zenji offers, brimming with enthusiasm.
"Er... well, uh," You stutter out, not daring to look anywhere in Subaru's vicinity.
Haku quickly comes to your rescue, like the angel he is. "Hey, I'm pretty sure that kind of thing is bad luck, Zenji. If an anomaly is messing with her head, it's best not to stir up negative emotions."
"How ridiculous I am! You're absolutely correct. My apologies Miss (Y/N)!" Zenji bows his head in your direction, with his palms together.
You laugh a bit, waving your hands dismissively. "No worries, it's no big deal."
"And you probably overheard, but Subaru said you could take the room next to his. Isn't that right, Soobie?" Haku smiles in his captain's direction, but you watch his face transition into a look of concern. "You okay, buddy?"
Tentatively, you turn your head in Subaru's direction once more. The Hotarubi captain was stiff as a board, staring at his hands in a state of shock. If you weren't mistaken, his cheeks were flushed pink as well.
After a pregnant pause, Subaru slowly speaks. "Yes... I'm okay." He breaks out of his stupor and gives Haku a weak smile. "Sorry. Could you run that last thing you said by me again?"
Haku quirks a brow with a questioning look but continues anyways. "Oh, I was just telling (Y/N) about her staying in the room by yours."
"Right." Subaru turns to you, forcing a thin-lipped smile. "Yes, you will be staying by me. The room used to be for my study, but I separated it with a partition. In case the need ever arose for an extra room."
"Oh, thanks so much!" You say.
"No need to thank me. Your safety is first and foremost." Subaru suddenly gets to his feet. "In fact, if you'll excuse me, I'll go ahead and prepare it for you."
"Oh, sure..."
Haku glances at his plate of barely touched mochi. "You're not gonna finish that?"
"Oh, no that's alright, you two can split it. I'm afraid my eyes were bigger than my stomach." Subaru bows and exits the room.
Once his footsteps down the hall became imperceptible, Haku speaks up. "(Y/N)... did you touch him?"
The image of your hand making contact with his in the mochi exchange stirs in your memory. His stigma must have picked up and seen something in your memory it shouldn't have. Because of your current predicament, you expect the worse.
You close your eyes and take a deep breath. "Haku, all those talismans for my room? I don't need them. I decided, why wait for my curse? I can just let the anomaly take me out in my sleep."
Zenji places his hands on his face, his expression mortified. "Oh my! Dear (Y/N), it's far too soon to speak of death-- we are working on a cure!"
Haku clenches his teeth, his expression pained in your stead. "Well, this isn't the end of the world, but it's going to be awkward. And no, you need to keep those in your room."
You pinch the bridge of your nose, cringing inwardly. "If anything is world ending for me, it's gotta be this."
"I must be missing something," Zenji remarks, confusion etched on his pale features. "Care to elaborate on my behalf?"
Haku looks to you for approval, you just wave to signal the go ahead. The one person that wasn't supposed to find out already knows, who gives a shit at this point?
"So, the anomaly following (Y/N), I speculate to be a Lidéric*," Haku starts, eliciting a look of recognition on Zenji's face.
"Oh, yes! I know of those scheming creatures. They torment their victims with erotic dreams of a person that have affection for. They even suck blood while the victim slumbers, slowly draining the life out of them night by night!" Zenji explains.
"Right. Speaking of, have you seen any strange marks on your body, (Y/N)?"
"Actually... now that you mention it, I do remember seeing a weird bruise on my shoulder. I get bruises all the time, so I thought nothing of it." You reflect on when you noticed it a few days ago. It was in a weird spot, so if it looked like some sort of a bite mark, you wouldn't know.
Zenji scoots over to you. "May have a look?"
"Yeah, sure." Removing your jacket, you unbutton a few of the buttons on your blouse and peel the collar of your shirt back far enough for him to see it.
"That does appear to be a bite mark fitting of its nature," Zenji comments, his tone grim.
Of its nature? "What do you mean?"
"The creature appears as a very repulsive naked chicken with jagged teeth," The otherwordly student explains, returning to his seat. "They tend to prey on people closer to death, and with your curse you're an easy target."
You gulp, pulling your shirt back up. "...That sounds pretty gnarly."
"You will be okay," Haku promises with a gentle smile. "We won't let anything happen to you."
Zenji hums in agreement. "As you know, I don't sleep, so I will be on careful watch!"
Your heart swells at their willingness to help. Never would you have thought before Darkwick, people labeled as 'Ghouls' would be the most attentive and caring people to ever come in your life. When you were first cursed you didn't see it that way, but this all must be a blessing in disguise.
Soaking up the mushy feeling welling inside, you express gratitude. "I seriously love you guys."
"I love you too!" Zenji squeals, clearly giddy from the display of affection.
Haku grins, grabbing one of Subaru's abandoned mochis. "We've got your back," He reassures again, before plopping the chewy square in his mouth.
Suddenly, Zenji slaps a fist in the palm of his hand, as if he remembered something. "So your dreams, they're about..." Glancing over to the door Subaru exited from, he connects the dots. "Oh... that is quite the pickle."
"Tell me about it," You grumble, grabbing another mochi for yourself.
"Not to worry, I don't think Subaru minds as much as you think," Zenji insists.
"He is probably more embarrassed than anything," Haku agrees, washing down the mochi with another swig of tea. "His stigma is sore spot for him, so I bet you he feels guilty for having seen it in the first place."
"And I feel guilty to have embarrassed him. Now he's going to think I'm a dirty pervert," You counter.
Haku shakes his head. "No, he's pretty studious and perceptive. If he saw your dream he probably already has an idea of what's after you. That being said, the Lidéric doesn't use fantasies of just random people."
"...So he probably knows I have a crush on him."
Haku smiles sympathetically. "It's more likely than not."
You clench your teeth anxiously at the revelation. "Well, I guess that's better than being seen as a gross weirdo."
"Before you know it, it will all be back to normal. Anyways, I gotta get ready for bed. I can show you were the bathrooms are if you need to shower, too." Haku gets to his feet and takes the now empty plate from the table.
You nod. "Yeah, that'd be great, thanks."
"Good night, my dear! I'll be around if you need me," Zenji waves at you with his fingertips.
"Goodnight, Zenji."
Later that night, after you had showered and brushed your teeth, you made your way to Subaru's room. You had put on a pair of red, silk, button-up jammies and fuzzy socks. The traditional wooden floors were too cold to just to go barefoot. When you reach Subaru's door, you knock tentatively on it with your free hand that wasn't securing your bag.
A few moments later, the beige door slides open and you are greeted by Subaru's dazzling face. "Oh, (Y/N)! It's so good to see you. Come in."
Subaru steps aside, shutting the door after you. His room is pretty spacious. A massive white bed is centered in the middle of the room. It lays flat to the ground, supported by a thin wooden lining that matches the traditional aesthetic of the mansion. To the side of it there is a small black tea table with three white zaisu* style seats surrounding it. The back wall of the room is a large paper sliding door that likely leads out to the garden.
Subaru walks towards the right side of the room, where a sliding partition stood that was about a third of the walls size and opens it up. You approach, examining the quaint space. Inside is a comfy padded futon, a standing lamp, and a small dresser.
"Thanks so much, it's perfect," You say, your lips blooming into an appreciative smile. Walking inside, you set your bag down and sit crisscross on the futon.
"It's my pleasure. I'm sorry I don't have anything bigger for you, I'm afraid a few of our rooms are being remodeled. We have had some issues with the pipes."
You giggle at his fussing and shake your head. "No, I really like it. Plus, it's kinda like a sleepover since we are right next to eachother."
Subaru's face flushes at the comment and he averts his gaze. "Yes, I suppose it is."
If he hadn't just found out your big secret you would be far more inclined to tease him about seeming embarrassed. In fact, that's probably the only reason he's reacting that way, you figure.
"I wanted to say, I'm sorry about my behavior earlier. It was entirely inappropriate, I'll have to apologize to Kaito later, too," Subaru says, his eyebrows furrowed.
"Hey, seriously no worries! Kaito gets ribbed all the time for his antics, I'm sure he didn't take it to heart. Plus, I can see why you'd be annoyed at me. I've been a jerk with ignoring you."
Subaru shifts in place, idly toying with his signature purple earring. It was obvious he was choosing his next words carefully. "Um... so that was because..."
"Ugh... you saw it didn't you?" You ask, your face turning beet red.
"I'm sorry," Subaru squeaks out.
You pull your knees up to your chest and bury your face in them to avoid eye contact. "It's seriously not your fault. I'm the one whos sorry. I'm surprised you were even okay with letting me in here after that."
"Why would I not let you in here because of that? The anomaly is the only one to blame for that." Subaru's voice is sticky sweet like honey and you seriously didn't feel like you deserved his vindication. After all you wouldn't be having those dreams if he wasn't so darn cute.
"You're too nice, Subaru," You mutter, your head still buried in your knees. "Anyway, hopefully once this thing gets blasted I'll stop feeling so weird when I talk to you. I've felt super guilty this last week or so that this has been happening."
There is a pause, long enough that you almost muster the courage to lift your head up, but then he speaks again. "So, you still feel weird now? Even knowing it's all fabricated by a cryptid?"
"Yeah. Maybe you haven't realized, but you're like destiny level cute. Seeing your face combined with these images has seriously messed up my rhythm. The Lyric or whatever may be a perverted demon, but so am I."
"...It's Lidéric."
"Tomayto, tohmato," You quip back. Making a point not to look in his direction, you peel back the comforter on the futon and slip under it. You settle on your side facing the wall. "Anywho, I'll just try to get to sleep before my face gets any redder and I burn up in flames."
Subaru doesn't reply to that, but you hear him walk further into the room. You almost tilt your head up to see what he's doing, but then you hear a match light up, and seconds later the scent of burning incense fills your nostrils.
"This should help ward that thing off, at least for tonight. Also..."
Your eyes nearly pop out of your head when you feel a weight next to you on futon. Subaru leans over you and slips a Omamori talisman in your hand, then closes his bare fingers over yours with reckless abandon.
Your heart thrums wildly in your chest at the contact. You wonder if he saw more just by doing that and if he did, was that his intention? Either way you're not sure if you find this arousing, or if you're ready to shit your pants at the idea of him seeing more than he probably bargained for.
Subaru moves his hand from yours, but several moments pass and you don't feel him get up to leave. Daringly, you shift on your back, and glance up. The both of you instantaneously lock eyes and your stomach flips. His porcelain smooth skin is still flushed a delectable shade of pink and he gazes at you with half-lidded, timid eyes.
"Would you hate me if I tried something?" Subaru murmurs softly.
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.
You push out a nervous strangled laugh, your throat more dry than usual. "Try what exactly? The answer is no, anyways."
"That's good," Subaru says as he moves to hover over you, his palms caging you in.
Holy shit.
Your eyes dart subconsciously to his pretty petal pink lips. There's no way he was going to...?
Before you can even blink, his mouth is on yours. His lips are softer than you could have ever anticipated and the contact immediately leaves heat coiling tortuously in your lower half. The kiss is chaste, his lips hold your upper lip captive for brief moment before relinquishing its freedom back to you. When he pulls himself back a distance, he stares at you with a pensive expression.
A soft whine escapes your lips at the loss of contact. You're so enraptured by him you forget to be embarrassed.
"Sorry," Subaru near whispers, but he doesn't look it. "We should stop here."
You don't have the will power to argue, as your brain short circuited the moment he sat on the bed with you. You watch him lift himself up and then get to his feet. He moves to the lamp and switches it off.
"Keep that talisman with you, okay? And let me know if you need anything. Good night, (Y/N)."
"N-Night, Subaru..."
Subaru exits the room, sliding the door closed behind him.
Shoin-zukuri: Old school style of Japanese residential architecture that forms the basis of today's traditional-style Japanese house.
Omamori: Japanese talisman used to ward away spirits.
Lidéric: A demon of Hungarian origin that is a vampire-like incubus.
Zaisu: A Japanese chair with no back, or legs.
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lovely-showtimes · 1 year ago
Note
Hi erm, can you do when a reader is blunt as hell and rude too, casual smug attitude but deep down they are kind and nice? Project sekai boys btw separately
blunt . . . ♡
characters - akito, toya, tsukasa, rui.
type - hcs.
a/n - i planned on working on this yesterday, and then i experienced an Unforeseen Event and now it's today. enjoy <3
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At first, you two will definitely butt heads
Your similar personalities don't... mesh well, shall we say
It's not uncommon to see the two of you arguing over something pretty small either
But something's that's true for both of you is that you're total softies at heart
Even if you (lightly) mock Akito for his fear of dogs, you're still quick to take his hand and lead him away if you see one approaching
And if one of Akito's jabs at you cuts a little too deep, he quickly drops it and apologises
The two of you can definitely be tough on each other, but at the end of the day, you do really care about each other.
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"...You know, you remind me of someone that I know." "Eh? Really?! Who?!" "Actually, never mind..."
Toya is very indifferent to your general rudeness and smugness
You being blunt is just how you are and he's fully accepted it
Plus, it's pretty hard to be rude to him in general, considering that he usually takes things you say literally
He's also not at all surprised whenever you start being kind to him
Maybe, Toya just knew you weren't the rude, smug person you portrayed yourself as
He understands you, in a way. I think he took one look at you and he instantly knew what kind of person you were
(Bonus points if your first meeting was you doing something sweet for someone and then immediately getting embarrassed that Toya saw it.)
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Like Akito, the two of you will definitely argue, except this time it's over even more inconsequential things
You've discovered it's very easy to rile him up, and you take advantage of it to mess with him
"Oh no, Tsukasa, watch out! There's a spider on your shoulder!" "THERE'S A WHAT?! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF-! Wait, you're laughing!! You're lying, aren't you?!?!"
(You weren't actually lying, his reactions are just too funny. But he knocked it off while he was panicking, so you decide not to correct him.)
He just doesn't understand you. He thinks you're strange, which is a lot coming from him
His confusion only grows whenever you do something kind for him
Which is then immediately replaced by him getting emotional over you being kind to him
...Which involves a surprising amount of tears, you've come to realise.
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Rui just thinks you're really funny
Neither of you are sure why he's so fascinated by you, but you've both accepted it
Any attempts to rile him up usually just get turned back on you somehow, so you've just given up trying to mess with him
He's usually never fazed by any rude jabs you make at him either
In a way, you both want to study each other under a microscope
Any genuine acts of kindness from you will actually shock Rui, though
He didn't expect you to be so sweet to him, after all. But he really appreciates it <3
...He might tease you about it later, though. All in good fun, of course.
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pjsk-headcanons · 2 months ago
Note
Social media usage hc's!
Ichika: totally a tumblr user. she's very active in the vocaloid fandom and sends memes in the leo/need groupchat. she would sent cute pictures and caption them "us <3" or some shit like that.
Saki: she definitely used tiktok, twitch and youtube a lot during her stay in the hospital. responsible for 90% of the links in the leo/need groupchat.
Honami: i dont feel like she would use much social media. maybe she made a few accounts to check the links others sent her, but otherwise she doesn't use them.
Shiho: she only uses youtube for bass and calligraphy-related stuff, as well as cute animal videos. that's mostly on tiktok tho. she would have a perfectly curated tiktok fyp.
Leo/need probably have a youtube, twitter and tiktok account, but only use them for promotion.
Minori: VERY active on tiktok. she had been posting since way before she joined mmj, but her account has only gained popularity recently. she sometimes gets haruka, airi and shizuku to feature in dance tiktok challenges with her.
Haruka: she doesn't have a public social media presence, but she does lurk a lot on her private accounts. she feels better when she can keep up with all the news. mainly twitter.
Airi: she's quite active on instagram, but doesn't use anything else often.
Shizuku: banned from all technology usage. i feel like we already know.
More More Jump have official instagram and twitter accounts, as well as youtube where they stream. mostly ran by haruka & airi, though minori likes to log in sometimes to respond to the comments (and probably shock them). they sign off each message with colorful heart emojis. very cute.
Kohane: doesn't use social media much. minori got her to record tiktoks together when they were still classmates, so now she also has a tiktok account. doesn't have a very curated feed, but does partake in scrolling sometimes.
An: watches a LOT of youtube & twitch in her free time. i dont feel like she would feel the need to use anything else tho.
Akito: that man is too committed to the grind to let social media have a hold on him. maybe a bit of youtube and a sports news twitter account, but in healthy amounts. he's too good for tiktok so he watches youtube shorts.
Toya: had no idea what a social media was for most of his life. he would be active on reddit though. an showed him twitch so now he partakes in watching some streams too.
Vivid BAD SQUAD wouldn't have an official social media presence. most of their fame outside vivid street comes from other people posting recordings of their performances.
Tsukasa: he doesn't use it at all. saki once showed him a few things, he tried it, went "you know what. i dont feel like this brings any value to my life" and stopped. we should all strive to be more like tsukasa.
Emu: solely a tiktok user. she sends wxs a lot of funny and cute tiktoks. also partakes in dance challenges sometimes, which gain her a surprising amount of popularity.
Nene: uses discord frequently for her game stuff. made her own tiktok account only to open all of the links emu sends her.
Rui: uses twitter, but realized very quickly that the constant drama isn't healthy for his mental state so now he just looks at the memes. nene makes fun of him for living in the twitter trenches.
Wonderlands x Showtime are tiktok famous. this hc mostly comes from that one tumblr art about tiktok famous wxs and ?!?!?! i absolutely agree! i hc this also was a big reason why they gained popularity so quickly. mainly ran by rui, with everyone frequently helping and giving ideas. they post a lot of skits and extra behind the scenes content.
Kanade: she doesn't seem like the person to use social media. she only has discord and her streaming services accounts, which she considers a chore to run.
Mafuyu: for obvious reasons, wasn't allowed to use social media. i don't feel like she would use it after running away from home either, since she's seen how much pain it brought to ena and mizuki. discord only.
Ena: her being very active on instagram is practically canon, as well as discord of course. i dont think she would use anything else though.
Mizuki: this girl has an account on EVERY social media platform ive mentioned. and probably a few more. she's very good with technology, and has definitely participated in at least one fandom.
Nightcord at 25:00 don't have any social media accounts, apart from streaming services of course. Partially to keep up the mysterious and anonymous image, but also no one could be bothered enough to run it.
woah how did this get this long??? im going to sleep now
- 🍔
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project-sekai-facts · 8 months ago
Note
With the kamikou fes thing, I could see them pulling a Resonant Town where Toya is the focus for the event and the stuff with Mizuki and Ena happens kinda in the background, and that then leads into Mizuki5. So like i'm imagining Mafuyu5 = Kick it up a notch, Kamikou fes2 = resotown, and Mizuki5 = whip the wimp girl. So possibly something where you could skip reading the mixed event in the middle and still get the plot, but to REALLY get the plot you have to read the mixed event
Oh that’s true actually. Come to think of it Toya doesn’t know Mizuki’s secret yet, but it’s kind of an inevitability that he will find out with them being in the same class and all, like how An found out. And Toya’s much more honest and honestly is the type of person who would just take the information and just immediately accept it, like An in some ways even if they’re totally different. He’d be a very good support imo, and could probably give Mizuki some advice on opening up to Ena, like he did with An in wimp girl.
Honestly a kamikou fes event probably could work to bridge the gap. An and Rui already know Mizuki’s secret, Toya will find out eventually, and Akito might know through rumors (he mentions knowing about rumors going around in the original Kamikou fes). Maybe you could do something like Ena maybe hearing things from Mizuki’s classmates and then the other characters helping her out 🤔
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getvalentined · 10 months ago
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Differentiating the "Black Robes"
For folks who didn't catch it on their own playthrough or (or watch-through) of FF7 Rebirth, here's a quick breakdown of the apparent nature of the people in black robes seen throughout both this game, and previously in Remake.
This differs from OG canon, where everyone in a black robe was a Sephiroth Copy, but in the FF7R timeline they appear to be broken into three "types."
SPOILERS BELOW — READ AT YOUR OWN RISK
NO NUMBER TATTOO means this is a G-type SOLDIER suffering from degradation. These people are terminally ill. Degradation sets in within five years of enhancement [see Note 1 below], and accelerates very quickly without aggressive treatment.
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Known G-type SOLDIERs: Roche, Azul, Rosso, and Shelke Rui. Population: over 100.
A ONE- OR TWO-DIGIT NUMBER TATTOO indicates S-type SOLDIERs in the throes of Reunion. These people are not terminally ill, based on dev comments confirming that S-type SOLDIERs don't degrade, but they have a cellular leash that is being constantly yanked on by Sephiroth/Jenova. Without Reunion taking place, most of them would presumably live long, fairly healthy lives. [See Note 2 below.]
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Known S-type SOLDIERs: Zack Fair, Kunsel, Luxiere, and Broden. Population: presumed fewer than 100.
A TATTOO STARTING WITH "SC" confirms these people are successful Sephiroth Copies. Failures do not receive a tattoo. They may or may not be terminally ill, contingent upon which type of SOLDIER they were prior to the procedure to make them into a Copy, and the leash on their own cellular makeup is much stricter, much more direct, and gives them a clearer concept of where to go and what to do.
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Known Sephiroth Copies: Roche (successful), Zack Fair (declared failure), and Cloud Strife (declared failure). Population: 4 subjects in total, plus 2 known failures.
Tattoos don't seem to be applied at the time of enhancement, since none of the SOLDIERs in Crisis Core have them, but it's possible that early inductees like Broden were marked when they survived the treatments; this seems likely, as Broden's tattoo is in a slightly different typeface than the tattoos of others in his "type."
I didn't include Sephiroth, Genesis or Angeal under known members of their given types, as they were never normal humans and were not enhanced using one method or the other as teens or young adults. Those who are Jenova babies from birth don't count. I also didn't include two members of DeepGround due to the fact that they canonically cannot actually be G-type SOLDIERs based on the lore of how the two of them were made and how they function in general; they may be G-type on paper, but they are not G-type for the purposes of this analysis.
Lastly, I'll admit that this breakdown may appear to be slightly inconsistent during gameplay, but this seems to be due only to the reuse of models between black robed individuals, presumably to take stress off the dev team. I'm fine with this, obviously, no crunch is good crunch. As far as I can tell it's pretty consistent in full cutscenes, though, so I'm sticking with it until the third game proves me wrong.
NOTE 1: The timeframe for degradation is based on Roche suffering from the condition prior to his becoming a Sephiroth Copy, which is visible in the fact that he has a handful of incongruously pale streaks through his hair prior to the procedure; an attempt to cure this is presumably the reason he volunteered to work with Hojo in the first place.
According to the Remake Ultimania, Roche joined SOLDIER after the Nibelheim Incident, so he's only been in the program for five years at the most; this timeframe also allows us to recognize S-type SOLDIERs, as they've been in the program for significantly longer with no known ill effects (e.g.: Kunsel has been in the program since at least 2000, but is mentioned by name and indicated to be at headquarters in Remake, showing that he's still on active duty in 0007; this wouldn't be the case if he were suffering from degradation, so he can't be a G-type.)
NOTE 2: The capacity of S-type SOLDIERs to live fairly normal lives with minimal major health issues is proven by the existence of Broden, who identifies himself as a SOLDIER but was certainly part of Project 0; he and Mildred left home as teenagers and wound up with Shinra, but Mildred doesn't know the name of the project into which he was conscripted, only that it was "top secret."
Combined with the apparent age of both characters in-game, this indicates that Broden took part in the project before SOLDIER was even SOLDIER, putting him as one of its earliest successful operatives, probably enhanced sometime between 1983 and 1985 based on the timeline provided in the First SOLDIER Battle Royale opening cutscene—hence why his number is the lowest shown on a person in a black robe in the entire game. This puts him in his forties at the youngest during the Crisis, and he functions just fine (albeit with some other issues we can assume were caused by the enhancement procedure being imperfect at the time of his enlistment) until Reunion starts to call him toward the end of 0007.
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shiraishi--kanade · 9 months ago
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Subjectively rating everyone's instrument match ups from this official art for Sekai Symphony 2024
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Without individual pictures because I'm on mobile.
Leo/need:
Ichika (electric guitar): sigh... Girl why are you like this. Unfathomable. I'll let it slide because it's Ichika. Rating: electic guitar/10.
Saki (violin): Saki does not give me violin vibes at all but I'm sure she'll kill it if she actually wanted to learn. 5/10
Honami (oboe): I'm deeply offended Honami isn't in the percussion section. 2/10
Shiho (trombone): the most non-brass player brass player known to world. I don't see how it fits her. 1/10
Overall rating: they don't get you like I do girls I'm so sorry
More More Jump:
Minori (trumpet): absolutely incredible. Yes she's a trumpet girlie. I can totally see that. 10/10
Haruka (flute): yes. Oh my god yes. She is so flute-coded she can rival only Mafuyu. 10/10
Airi (viola): very mean. Let her in the violin section. That said I can already see at least three interesting story lines connected to that. Carry on. 10/10
Shizuku (harp): need I say more? 10/10
Overall rating: they would carry the entire orchestra on their backs, 10/10
Vivid Bad Squad:
Kohane (saxophone): the mental image is hilarious and I can totally see Kohane falling in love with the sax but she gets points taken away from her because saxophone is so not a protagonist instrument. 8/10
An (double bass): ...well someone needed to be a bass player but An is not that someone. She's not even tall enough. Free her. 3/10 because at least she looks like she's having fun.
Touya (trombone): hehe funky slide go brrr. Yeah I can see that. 8/10
Akito (violin): I've told you he has violin vibes. I told you so. Absolutely perfect pick. I think Akito would be a good concertmaster as well. 10/10
Overall rating: decent picks but An was done dirty and should have been a cellist. 7/10
Wonderlands x Showtime:
Tsukasa (cymbals): my condolences to all the percussion section but also yeah that makes sense. 10/10
Nene (cello): itty bitty cellist her instrument is almost as tall as she is. I definitely see the image though. 10/10
Emu (tambourine): she will insure her part will he heard. That said I think she'd do better at the marimba or other percussion instruments. At least it's not a triangle? 7/10
Rui (viola): I did not consider that option before and now I'm considering it. I'm considering it so hard. Incredible. 9/10
Overall rating: they're thriving. 9/10
Nightcord at 25 am:
Kanade (viola): yes. Yes. I can see that. Go forth my child. Make the viola gang proud. 10/10
Mafuyu (flute): that's a flute player if I've ever seen one. 10/10
Ena (violin): oh her having the same instrument as Akito would destroy both of them and me in the process. I could write a novel about it. 10/10
Mizuki (trumpet): they're just having fun and being silly. 10/10
Overall rating: truly Sega's favourite child. 10/10
No VS rating because they have different enough personalities between units that I have no idea how to rate them! Sorry!
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hikaritakaishi · 9 months ago
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Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning [My Movie Review]
♡ ! SPOILER ALERT! ♡
This review will contain spoilers of the movie, continue reading if you already saw the movie, or just don’t mind the spoiler! Enjoy & comment something if you want to share an opinion! ♡
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After what seemed ages of waiting, Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning finally aired in Portugal, on May 16, 2024, several months after it’s national premiere in Japan, on October 27, 2023. I was worried that it wouldn't come to my country, but perhaps due to the huge acceptance of Digimon Adventure: LAST EVOLUTION KIZUNA, the distributor made the hearts of the DigiDestined from the most hidden corner of Europe warm again and brought us the sequel. Thank you remembering us once again! ♡
I really tried to keep my expectations as neutral as possible until the day I went to see the movie, which was pretty difficult, due to the fact that I was constantly being bombarded with online information about it, whether on Tumblr or Twitter, or through video recommendations on Youtube. I was so excited for the movie, that I had to control myself immensely not to go see the spoilers.
Initial considerations? I like it. In general. But let's go in parts!
This will be an analysis of what I consider to be the most important points of the movie and what caught my attention the most. A personal analysis, so don't take it too seriously if I don't talk about a certain point or a certain specific topic, I probably just missed that.
Firstly, I would like to comment on the initial dynamics of the movie.
Everything seems to happen much faster here than it did in Kizuna. Despite being two movies with practically the same time span, this one seemed to go by much faster. But it might just be me. [LAST EVOLUTION KIZUNA have 94 minutes, and The Beginning have 87 minutes total].
 We're introduced to the key plot problem pretty quickly too.
People's digital devices are glitching, and the same message is repeating itself on all of them, not just on the phones and televisions, but on computers and large digital screens in cities all around the world. And this all around the world is very important, because it not only brings us closer to what will be the future of humanity and it’s increasing contact with the Digimon and the Digital World, but it opens the path we take since 2012 [time of the movie] until to the epilogue of 02 (which the production team and Toei animation seem to insist on wanting to keep canon, despite all the script inconsistencies it can cause, or how different from the initial profile of each character it may be).
“May everyone have friends, may everyone have a partner Digimon”
It's the message. Meanwhile, we are told that a suspicious and unknown Digitama appeared in the sky of Tokyo, right above the Tokyo Tower, and it’s been there for a while. Taichi and Koushiro are showned to be trying to help resolve this issue as professionals in the field of diplomacy and technology respectively, but without major progress.
I think it's important to highlight that they are the only two characters from the first season of Adventure who appear in this movie, and even so, without any direct speech or great relevance, beyond contextualization, and later Taichi as well again for the context of “space- time”, in that frame we see in the trailer of the movie with Hikari, which we later discover is located in Hikarigaoka, where Rui also lived when he had his first contact with Ukkomon.
The focus is on the characters from 02, or at least, it should have been. But as in Digimon Adventure Tri, this focus is overshadowed by the introduction of another new character in the story: Rui Owhada [or Lui, in Japanese pronunciation].
Rui [or Lui] is a much more charismatic character than Meiko was in Digimon Adventure Tri. There is no doubt about that.
Meiko was a somewhat empty character. A static character without great charisma. The only pleasant scenes she had were driven by the other characters around her (namely Mimi).
Rui doesn't. Rui is a character on his own. With a much more aggressive personality and a much more interesting past. The only issue here is the length of the movie: This movie is too short; too short for us to get attached to this character and actually be able feel empathy for everything we are shown about him. So short, that it's difficult to develop both this new character and the others around him, which, by the way, is a shame.
I mostly went to see the movie in hopes to see more from the 02 cast, and not because, again, of a random character they created for this new script. Just like what happened in Tri.
And this is important because notice that one of the most complex and best-built characters in the Adventure universe is literally the character with the most screen time: Takeru.
Analyzing Takeru's character as a whole is extremely time-consuming, because he was in every season, and practically involved in all the main events of the plot, either by himself or through the relationships he establishes throughout the plot, which feed the character's emotional charge. Which makes him a very complex character.
There's no time for that here. There is no time to establish a relationship between Rui and the other characters, nor to establish a relationship between Rui… and the audience.
Rui's childhood is very shocking and once again, Digimon brings a very strong narrative based on a complex and deep family plot.
We had already had examples in Adventure of family issues with Takeru and Yamato, Koushiro, and in 02 with Iori and also Ken. To a certain extent, even with Miyako. But here we reach a higher level of complexity... and violence (remember that the age to see the movie is over 12 years old. I can totally understand why).
Rui is physically abused and neglected by his mother, who leaves him out in the cold, starving when he makes a childish mistake or does something she doesn't like... when he is only four years old. His father has a very serious illness and depends on his wife to survive. Rui is then shown as a sorrowful child, lonely and without any support network. We've never had anything in the Digimon Adventure series so… raw. The aura of the movie is deeply heavy and dark.
The evolutions and battles in this movie are far from being the focus, which probably frustrated many people who went to see the movie for this more dynamic side of the anime.
It is a film with a moral content and even touches on the philosophical, about the bonds we create with others and their nature, about how we should relate to others and learn about them every day we have them in our lives.
It's about healthy communication, and how it's okay to correct the people around us, as long as it's made based with pure intentions. Because love is not omissive. Love corrects, love draws the other's attention for what really matters, in the form of love. In the form of companionship. Nothing physical or superficial is worth the price of a real bond.
The movie really grew with it’s audience. It is not, at all, a movie targeted for new fans of the franchise, or for those who know little about the Adventure series universe. It's for those who know the characters, for those who grew up with them. If you don't know the characters, you will miss details and conversations that are important to really understand the plot as a whole.
Daisuke and Ken look on Rui’s past with him. They see the arrival of Ukkomon in his life, who should’ve bring peace and comfort, but it is only the beginning of all his problems.
Let's take a break from the movie's plot to talk about the characters of 02.
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I'm going to divide them into groups, because it seems like they individually… don't have much progress or very memorable scenes, honestly. It doesn't even make sense to separate them, in my opinion, and you'll understand why.
♡ Daisuke & Iori
There is not much to talk about them here. Daisuke and Iori are the flattest characters in the movie. Iori much more than Daisuke, let's be honest. Iori barely speaks, and has very few relevant scenes.
Daisuke works at a ramen restaurant, as he always wanted, where he gathers his friends to talk about the problems they are facing right at the beginning of the movie.
His personality is practically the same, Daisuke from 02 is the same Daisuke from The Beginning, and even the same character as in Kizuna, he is just taller here and wears different clothes. He still aspires to have his own ramen business and is extremely focused on his career goals. Which was predictable, given the way he talks about his dream in 02.
Daisuke's only two relevant scenes are seconds long: the first when he convinces Rui that the bond of friendship he and his Digimon partner share is much more than something superficial; it's something that comes from the heart, and that no object makes a difference between them, namely the Digivice, (something we also expected to hear from Daisuke in 02, which justifies my opinion that in the meantime... he remains the same).
The other is a scene that had enormous potential, but is cut short by a comical moment in which Miyako pops up.
Daisuke is talking to Ken seriously about Rui, and how he and his Digimon could understand each other better if they just communicate more effectively and directly, and Ken comments that Daisuke's more serious side is very pleasant and rarely appears. However, Miyako speaks up and dismisses the subject. Sadly.
We could have had a conversation here that could tell us more about Daisuke’s presente self and way he sees life now.
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*sigh* Anyway.
Iori, again, doesn't speak much. Seems to only have intermediary interventions, and serves as a “pair” for Daisuke and Rui in the snowball fight that we see at the end of the movie. A very beautiful scene, don't get me wrong, but only if we see it from the perspective of Ken and Miyako, and Hikari and Takeru. I'll talk about that now.
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♡ Ken & Miyako
Ken and Miyako are two characters who seem to grow more together than apart within the movie's plot. Which is natural, given that we know at the end of 02 that they become in fact a couple, and that they build a family together in the future. Here we see the first steps towards their future as a couple.
As expected, nothing explicit or direct is given to us about the nature of their relationship, but we can understand that there is progress, especially by the end of the movie, before the snowball fight, when Miyako tells Ken something that seems extremely vague, but actually means something.
 “Let's do it together! "  What? I don't think they are aware yet. Ken also seemed very confused about it.
“ Keep thinking Ken, we have to find another solution. “ We also see Miyako trying to support Ken at that moment when they have to make a decision about the future of Ukkomon and the world.
Here comes what I said above: Love cannot be omissive. We cannot expect the least from those we love. If we know the potential of the person we have by our side, we have to support them. If we see that they are trying to go further, we must support their journey and be a source of advice and rest. Alone we can go faster, but with the right company we can certainly go further.
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And I think this is where the movie touches on something really important.
It is in these small moments that we see that they really want to tell the audience something beyond, but we need to have a fine power of perception.
No conversation or comment is random, everything contributes to the story. Digimon Adventure has always been made up of metaphors and subjectivities, it is necessary to know how to interpret and be attentive.
In the midst of that dilemma of whether or not to defeat Ukkomon that we talked about a moment ago in relation to Ken and Miyako, we have another moment that I consider important between Takeru and Hikari, which for those who don't know the characters, can take it as a normal conversation of two people who know each other well. Too well, even.
♡ Takeru & Hikari
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Keeping in mind their journey, and everything they went through together, is the key to understand the nature of the relationship they share now. But before that:
Much like Ken and Miyako, Takeru and Hikari do not exist separately in the plot. It's ridiculously difficult to separate them. If you talk about one, you have to talk about the other.
At the beginning we see them together in the city when the electronic devices break down, and this dynamic continues throughout the entire movie.
They practically always walk side by side, Hikari takes the front seat in Takeru's car, and even when they are talking to Rui and trying to understand what happened to him in his past, they were a nucleus apart from the others. Nothing new, really. More of the same. But it's in that conversation I spoke about earlier that we understand something that is even part of the main moral of the movie: the way they now communicate with each other now, is different.
Anyone who has followed Takeru and Hikari throughout the series knows that the main “problem” in their relationship has always been direct communication.
Exposing things to others as they are is scary. And none of them were good at doing that.
Deliberating about feelings, exposing what disturbs us, what distresses us, what we think of a certain attitude of the other person. That was always Takeru and Hikari's problem and what hindered the possible evolution of their friendship, into a real love relationship.
In Tri we discover that Hikari starts to look at Takeru differently. And we know that Takeru has concrete feelings for Hikari (Said by the actor who plays Takeru's voice) And then? It's done? Things… are much more complicated than that.
They first need to accept the situation in question (And I tell you this as someone who also developed a romantic relationship with a childhood friend. It's not easy. Trust me. It's far from easy!)
And far from being quick.
It requires a lot of deliberation mostly. Just accepting the fact that we see that person we grew up with differently, someone who has always been part of our life, and we can lose them. Just because we developed feelings. Is scary. There's a lot to lose. It's all or nothing. Especially when one side has trauma associated with romantic relationships. (remembering that Takeru's parents are divorced) it's even worse.
What seems to exist between them in The Beginning was the result of a long process. But effective, it seems to me. Whatever decision they made, it went… pretty well.
Takeru is completely against defeating Ukkomon, from the moment he realizes that this could also imply the disappearance of his Digimon partner.
He probably saw the suffering Taichi and Yamato went through when Agumon and Gabumon disappeared and the suffering he would go through if he lose Patamon... again. And he is extremely vocal and firm in what he says and what he thinks about all of that. Impulsive really.
Until Hikari intervenes. Which cuts through his catastrophic reasoning. She asks him to think, opening up a new perspective on the situation.
Here we have a conversation between them that is quite lengthy (compared to the fast action standard of the rest of the movie) in which Hikari tries her best to make Takeru use reason and not emotion in his deliberation on the situation.
Takeru who, remember, whenever “darkness” or “sacrifice” is mentioned, leaves his rationality aside, becomes blind with pain because of his past traumas.
Hikari's role here is almost the same as Miyako’s in Ken's case: calling to earth and calming Takeru, always in an understanding way, because you can see that she knows where that feeling comes from and that position initially adopted by him (and it is something which she can almost predict would happen, by the speed with which she responds) but she knows that he is better than those triggers that make him impulsively speak based on emotion and neglect reason.
It's about getting to know each other. Knowing how to talk to our person about the most difficult topics. Because it is necessary to strengthen your union. Predict reactions, and be there to calm them down, because you may even know that the person is not to blame for the feelings and traumas they carry, but believe that they are bigger than them. And expect the same from the other side.
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The way Miyako knew that Ken could find a solution, he just needed to think a little more. Hikari understood perfectly where Takeru's impulsive reaction came from, but she knew that if she appeal to his racional side he would be able to think of a better alternative to the problem, which he thought would be the end of the world.
That's why I separated this analysis into groups (although the first one isn't... substantial) and decided to analyze the characters together, because that's what this movie is about.
It's about who you are with your people, and the bond you share with them. In a world so individualized, so selfish and so distant (largely because of technology, which distances us from each other), I found it a very necessary message.
And the role of adults? With children and more painful lives?
It is to understand that children are also humans. Who also think, and feel, and understand things. Just like them. Adults tend to forget that they were once children themselves.
We already saw this topic being developed in Adventure 02, but seeing Rui as an adult, reaching to his mother in the past, and drawing her attention to the fact that she neglects her son, is something very touching. Sometimes, we just need a wake-up call, and we can change the future. Ours, and our future with others.
 The DigiDestined of 02 encouraged Rui not to give up on someone he loved, Ukkomon, because after all, he only acted the way he acted because he thought it would make Rui happier, even though he failed. Several times.
Ukkomon basically gave Rui everything he thought he needed, everything he wanted. But this is not always ideal.
He acted with his partner's happiness in mind, and this blinded him to the risks he was putting him into. He idealized their entire relationship, and everyone's relationship with him. Instead of being, real. And real things are never perfect.
Rui wanted friends? He gave him friends. He even reprogrammed his parents. They became manufactured humans. And the movie is about reality and accepting it as imperfect as it is.
Do you know what that reminded me of? That whole fantasy created by Ukkomon of “perfect world where Rui is never sad and everything is wonderful?” The fantasies in which the characters from 02 cast were trapped in at the end of the series. That world created with the characters’ deepest desires.
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Takeru wanted his family united. Iori wanted his father back and to be able to show him the Digital Word. Miyako wanted attention. Ken… wanted to redeem himself. Hikari wanted peace. It's exactly the same thing.
Think about it with me: For example, Takeru's parents could’ve stay together, they could never have divorced, but they would still have problems. They would argue, and there would be conflicts. Which doesn't mean that this wouldn't traumatize their children even more. Maybe the divorce was in fact the best option for all four of them.
Ken felt he deserved the same suffering he inflicted on others. Would that really be the answer to appease his soul?
But none of it was real.
Not even Hikari's utopia of a world constantly at peace is real. Not even the absence of siblings in Miyako's life would solve anything. Things are not black and white and really, what we want is not always what we need.
Rui just needed to talk to Ukkomon and be sincere.
Where is Mimi tho?!
I will end with a few quick notes that I think are worth highlighting: First, the music and animation in general. As expected, they are excellent.
Very well done visually, appealing scenes, and the last snowball fight scene is so simple… but so delightful.
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Life is made up of beautiful moments as well as tragic moments, light and darkness.
Did you notice that part of the movie takes place in a much dark environment, and when the main action is resolved, the movie gains light? I believe that is not just because!
Visually it can be very strong because there is blood, there is violence, there are physical wounds, it conveys the affliction in a very literal way.
Another thing that was expected to happen, but that probably wasn't even thought of properly when the Epilogue of 02 was made, was the problematic of whether or not everyone deserves, has enough morals and ethics, to have a Digimon partner.
How do you maintain peace between humans when you give them free access to machines of war and mass destruction? How do we build the world we see bz the end of 02 where everyone lives in peace even under these circumstances? Which is the the role of the government?
We'll probably need one more movie to find out.
Honestly, I hope you enjoyed this short (not... that short in fact) and sincere review. If I were to give stars, I would give the film 4/5 stars.
It could’ve been better, sure, if there was at least another half hour of animation.
But I don't complain. Despite that, I liked it. I cried, I laughed, just like I cried and laughed when I saw Digimon in my childhood, and that's everything for me. I was surprised by the message of the movie and the way they chose to visually convey it to us. Either way, I hope there's one more movie. To finally conclude the arc of all these characters, and finally, reach the epilogue of 02 (but in a dignified way please).
♡ Thank you once again Digimon ♡
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unhinged-simp · 2 days ago
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Hello~ I've been lurking for awhile but I haven't seen anyone ask...
What are your most and least favorite characters in TDB? Your favorite chapter? Idk, I want to hear your opinions! Hear you simp along with us! 💛
Spoilers for chapter 13, though I don’t go that in depth with it. Also this is so long. Also thank you for asking, I really could go more into why I love these characters, but I stopped myself.
Honestly, I like most of the characters. I do have specific favorites though. I usually just count the characters I think about the most out of others my favorites.
My all time favorite is Subaru. I just randomly started liking him before his chapter even came out. I love when he shows up because I eat up every scene he’s in, and I love when they put him in chapters that aren’t Hotarubi, especially chapter 11. He was so cute during that chapter, not like he isn’t just cute in general. He’s also very pretty too. (I still don’t have his standard SSR, sob) I feel like there’s a lot we don’t know about him, and I’m excited to see what it is. He just means a lot to me.
My second favorite varies, but I’m probably going to say it’s Rui. He was the character I picked when I first started the game. I do remember them calling him a playboy, and I was kinda worried they’d go down the pervy playboy route, but I was happy they didn’t. He is such an interesting character and I’m also excited to learn more about him. He’s another character that means a lot to me.
My third favorite also varies, but most often it’s Kaito. Originally I wasn’t really into him, I just enjoyed him because he was silly. Then chapter 9 happened, and my whole view on him changed. Of course he’s still silly, but I genuinely think he’s super cool. I hope we learn more about him and his family.
My fourth favorite is probably Romeo. Originally I didn’t like him that much due to his attitude, but he’s another one that chapter 9 made me like. I saw how pretty he was and changed my mind. At that point I just liked him because he’s pretty, but I’ve gotten to the point where I enjoy his attitude.
I have some others that I don’t really number, just characters that I like and sometimes forget.
Like Jin. I absolutely love the icy tsundere but actually kind of soft to the one they like trope that he has. Plus he’s just insanely hot, totally did enjoy it when he pinned the MC to the wall in chapter 1. This recent chapter was also amazing for all of the Jin scenes in it.
Sho is another one I really like. I mean he’s literally the whole boyfriend package. He’s kind and caring, he can cook you amazing meals, he can protect you. Like what’s there to not like about him?
Haku! I like Haku too. Like why does bro have to be so hot? While I do find him kind of suspicious, he’s also very kind to MC, and I really enjoy that. I really wished we knew more about him! Maybe Chapter 15(if it is about the Hotarubi trio). I also think it’s funny how during new years, he doesn’t ask the MC on a date, but Rui and Kaito do(my friend and I joked that they sacrificed Haku’s flirtiness to give Rui and Kaito a chance).
Oh, and I absolutely love Ren too! He’s probably number 5 in the list of characters I think about. Especially when he had the puppy ears and tail. I don’t even know why, but I’m absolutely obsessed with puppyboy Ren. Before we even saw him in the episode I wanted those ears and tail to be real so badly. He’s also incredibly relatable to me.
As for my least favorite characters, I only have one I really don't like, and that’s Ed. He just acts insanely creepy in a way I hate, especially around the MC. The way he texts I absolutely hate, and it gives me brain damage every time I see it. I just want to go, “okay grandpa, it’s time for bed.” Everytime he speaks. At least he confirmed the Kykkos thing.
I don’t really enjoy Leo’s attitude, but I don’t mind him that much, so he gets an honorable mention here.
I have a lot of favorite chapters, it’s really hard to pick just one.
I really liked chapter 12, Jabberwock was a breath of fresh air and I love all of them. Plus the anomaly for that chapter was super cool.
Chapter 9 is also another of my favorites. I liked the group of characters they picked. I love the crumbs of Jiro and Zenji lore, and I want more. The Halloween outfits were all some of my favorites. I thought the anomaly in this chapter was so cool.
Chapter 10 broke me, but I love it too. Like I felt so bad for Lyca and Rui. We got to learn more about Rui’s curse! The maid/butler aesthetic was also really fun.
I also liked chapter 13 as well. I’m glad they didn’t hide the gore at all. The twist caught me off guard. We got to learn more about Tohma which is pretty neat. Jinnnnnnnn!!!! and Kaitoooo!! Luca was also nice to have around again, I forgot how enjoyable he was. The anomalies were so cooollll, I’ve been loving the recent anomaly designs a lot.
Lastly, I like chapter 5. I know there isn’t a lot in it, but the Zenji plot twist was so amazing that I really enjoy it. Plus we get Subaruuu and Hakuu.
I hope you enjoyed reading this, it definitely made me think.
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