#they put the FUN in FUNctional

[seyaryminamoto]

Scenes of a Peaceful World: Sokkla Saturdays 2024

Day Nine - Power

Rated: T

On FF.net//On AO3

Nighttime didn't always offer a spectacle as glorious as the one they would be privy to on that very special occasion: a meteor shower, witnessed from the heights of the Dragon Springs, a location unaffected by nocturnal lights that hid away the weakest stars, for the Dragon Springs stood at the peak of a grand mountain chain, distant from grand cities and settlements.

It was, thus, a place out of reach for most people, and only one peculiar human family was bound to visit it frequently.

"Alright! Snacks are here!" Sokka announced, proudly: he opened the first bag of sizzle-crisps only for the youngest children and their dragons to rush him, nearly tearing it to pieces. "Hey! Behave yourselves, you wild fiends! Azula! Azula, help!"

"You can hold them off, love! I believe in you!"

"B-but…! ACK!"

Unsurprisingly, Sokka wound up on the ground, overcome by their onslaught: Yuuna and Shun cheered as their dragons growled happily, everyone vying for the bag of snacks, as expected. Hotaru watched them with amusement, unwilling to involve herself, whether to help her father or join the younger children. Azula kept an eye on them as well, whereas Rei continued to work hard at their day's main attraction…

"I'd say he should be here helping you set up instead, but… watching him goof off that way never gets old," Azula told Rei, who laughed at her assessment.

"I've noticed. You seem a little smitten with him, I'd say," Rei teased. Azula gasped.

"Me? With that handsome, funny, strong man? Why… don't tell him that, of course. It'll go up to his head," Azula said, dramatically. Rei laughed, shaking her head as she continued working, tweaking the gears as she set every piece of her remarkable invention in place.

The telescope Rei had spent the past years crafting was finally complete: a beautiful work of engineering and science, with a polished metal finish, stylish and considerably large. By this point, she only had to calibrate the finishing touches, but by all effects, the telescope was as good as ready.

"I wonder how much we'll see tonight… the weather's clear," Rei said, excitedly. "I hope it will be amazing. I watched the meteor shower last year too, but the telescope wasn't ready…"

"You did a great job with it," Azula smiled, squeezing her daughter's shoulder. "And we're grateful that you wanted us to use it with you, too."

"Well, now… I think it's natural to want to share your biggest academic achievements with your family first," Rei grinned, peering through the scope and smiling. "Okay! It's ready now!"

"Is it?!" Sokka asked, sitting up again. Azula smiled, glancing at him.

"I thought you were moribund after being mauled to death by a little princess, a little prince, and two fearsome dragons…"

"Oh, uh, yeah. Of course I am. I'm dying…! Come save me, Azula…!" Sokka groaned dramatically, stretching his arms and legs out to further enhance his performance. The kids giggled, still devouring sizzle-crisps as though they weren't even slightly spicy, and sharing them with their dragons, too.

"I suppose I have time to spare to save him from this nefarious fate… it'll still be a few hours before the meteor shower, right?" Azula asked Rei. She nodded.

"Can I look already, though?" Hotaru asked, eagerly. Rei beamed.

"Of course! Come, come, this way… here's how you can calibrate the lenses," Rei explained, bringing her younger sibling to sit before the telescope.

The playful chaos between the kids and Sokka wouldn't dwindle easily: with Azula in such a cheerful mood, the children were perfectly content to disregard her requests that they gave their father a break and eased up on the food. Even so, Azula had a good enough card in her sleeve worth using against Shun, in particular.

"Ah, but what have they done to you, my handsome stud?" Azula said, kneeling beside Sokka. He stuck his tongue out.

"Murder. That's what they did. I'm all… murdered," he said, stiff. The kids giggled at his statement. Azula hummed.

"Well, that's a shame. Here I thought you'd get to witness the meteor shower properly with the telescope, but if that's impossible, then I must send you off the right way…!"

Shun cried out in disgust when his mother leaned in to kiss her husband, fully. Yuuna groaned once Azula's body obstructed her access to the sizzle-crisps: the mother slowly but stealthily clasped the bag and snuck it out of their reach before breaking the kiss. Her amused husband couldn't seem to stop smiling.

"Damn. I'll have to play dead more often, that was fun…"

"Oh, my! I'm so powerful I brought you back to life! That entitles me to the rest of the sizzle-crisps, then…"

"No! Mom!" Yuuna gasped, mortified while Shun gagged, still annoyed over witnessing the very brazen display of affection between his parents. Sokka, of course, was delighted and dazed, unable to stop laughing.

Their evening continued to be joyful and boisterous, as they enjoyed their picnic dinner while they waited for the right hour to arrive for the meteor shower. After the meal, Rei ensured to teach all the children how to look through the telescope, which Yuuna naturally took to, her curiosity ever triggered by anything related to investigation and science.

"What a loud, messy, fun family," Sokka smiled, wrapping his arms around Azula, who sat on his lap. She smiled too, closing her eyes and relaxing against him. "I think we did a decent job, didn't we?"

"Hmm. Decent. I suppose that's one word to describe it," Azula said. Sokka chuckled. "Think we could've done better?"

"More like I don't want to boost our ego that much. You think I shouldn't know how handsome, smart and funny I am for that reason, after all…"

"You… how dare you listen in to conversations I was holding publicly? Shame on you, Sokka," Azula huffed, playfully. Sokka chuckled, kissing her cheek.

"I love you so much," he said, earnest. Azula's smile grew gentler upon hearing those words. "I refuse to fathom any world where I wouldn't."

"Hmm… do you, now?" Azula smirked. Sokka huffed.

"I said I did. You don't believe me?"

"I mean, I constantly marvel over the fact that, despite everything, we made it this far," Azula said, with a soft chuckle. "It didn't seem likely, at multiple instances in time. Our troubled beginnings… neither of us ever imagined we'd wind up like this."

"Well… no. But all relationships do start by being strangers," Sokka pointed out. Azula snorted.

"Strangers and enemies are entirely different concepts," she said. Sokka smiled guiltily. "I'm just saying… the world where you somehow decided not to love me might actually exist."

"Pfft. Any Sokka who meets you and chooses not to love you, or to love someone else, is an idiot. So… not me, not whatsoever. He is now deemed unworthy of being called 'Sokka', and that's that," Sokka declared, proudly. Azula laughed, shaking her head.

"Very well, then any Azula who doesn't fall for you is no better. Our alternate selves are idiots, we've made that official now," she said. Sokka snickered.

"You know… there are so many stars up there," he said. "And there's stuff like… theories of the universe, you know? Rei's told me about those before… multiple worlds like ours, where matters play out differently?"

"She's mentioned those theories before but… I can't say I follow. It feels rather arbitrary for countless possible branches of choices to create parallel worlds every time. It's like… say your sister chose between eating papaya or mango during breakfast one day, and whatever choice came from it, it results in one world where she married Aang and one world where she married… uh, I don't know, Jet, maybe."

"Jet?" Sokka repeated, with a disbelieving snort. "I'm not sure Jet's the marriage type, but fine. Let's pretend she reformed him that much, huh? All because she ate… papaya. Or mango."

"See? Doesn't that seem strange?" Azula asked, amused. "It would imply that at some point or another, I could've made an entirely stupid choice much like it, like… eating something that sat wrong with my stomach."

"Azula: nothing sits wrong with your stomach. It's made of solid steel or something. All the spices you eat prove it."

"Not true, you said that once, Toph tried to bend it to prove you wrong and she couldn't do it, which means…"

"It means it's made of a stronger metal than anything she can bend," Sokka laughed. Azula cackled, shaking her head.

"Well, then…! Say that I never became such a big fan of spices. That, as a child, my parents refused to feed me any. Which means my resistance to spices was insignificant, and then because of that, on the day we were supposed to meet for the first time, I ate sizzle-crisps and… I got diarrhea."

Sokka burst out laughing, dropping on the ground as his shoulders shook: all four of their children glanced in his direction, astounded by his reaction. Azula smiled and waved a hand dismissively at them, even if their attention flustered her slightly.

"Is Dad okay?" Hotaru asked.

"I may have broken him, but… we're just theorizing on things. Nothing more to it," Azula said, with a carefree smile.

"He's so goofy," Shun smiled, shaking his head before focusing on the telescope again.

"What's so funny?" Yuuna asked, curious.

"Diarrhea," Azula said, with a wicked grin. Yuuna smirked.

"Oh. Good."

It didn't surprise Azula that their youngest would react as she did: if someone was entirely above being disgusted by gross subjects in their family, it was her. Yuuna giggled to herself, unaware of what the actual joke was, but delighted by whatever thoughts of diarrhea that she, somehow, found amusing.

"Okay… that was a good one," Sokka chuckled, shaking his head and sitting upright to hug Azula again. "Alright, well… maybe in the diarrhea world, we got together faster because we met later, in wholly different circumstances, and… we weren't enemies at all at first!"

"Huh. Damn. Now you actually make me wish I did have it," Azula said. Sokka laughed against her neck. "Oh, well. We'll never know. But… hey. We were discussing the notion that maybe there was a world where…"

"Nope. I won't allow it," Sokka smirked. Azula rolled her eyes.

"I'll give it another shot…"

"You will fail every time, love. I'm not going to lose against you on this one…"

"How about… a world where we were arranged to marry?"

"Say what?"

"Indeed. And because of how stubborn we are, we would have fought against the marriage, come hell or high water…"

"Uh. I see…" Sokka hummed, biting his lip. "And… say I ran away."

"Exactly!"

"And you did too."

"I… did?"

"Because you didn't know I'd run away as well, which means we bump into each other on our respective escapes. So… in this setting we don't even know what the other looked like. Which means that we ended up running from each other, but together!"

"Say what?"

"Hear me out! It'd be hilarious, because then we wouldn't realize that we were with the person we were supposed to marry, and we'd fall in love on our own terms, running from our families…! Only to end up discovering, in the end, that they'd arranged our marriage to each other and that the whole thing was a lot more agreeable than we thought at first."

"Y-you…" Azula scowled, glaring at him from the corner of her eyes. Sokka smirked giddily. "Okay, well…! How about a world where… where I got banished instead of Zuko?"

"What? You? That makes no sense…!"

"Makes enough sense if, say, my mother wasn't the way she is but… if she was much more cutthroat, you know? Maybe she… she killed my father too, and not just my grandfather. Maybe she went for both… and she was actually the big hazard to defeat. And because I knew what she did to my father, or I had strong suspicions about it, she banishes me…!"

"Well… that means you'd travel by the Water Tribe eventually," Sokka reasoned. Azula raised an eyebrow. "And you're smart, so… you wouldn't be traveling aimlessly. You'd look for allies. You'd go to the Water Tribe to find them and then we'd strike a deal to work together and overthrow your mom! There you go! We fall in love in the process, and…!"

"Goodness," Azula groaned: she couldn't stop smiling, despite herself, as Sokka beamed brightly.

"And you become Fire Lord Azula, and the world is bright and perfect after you take the throne!" he declared.

"Isn't that so smooth and easy?" Azula smiled at him. He snickered. "And you're the Fire Lady, of course."

"Of course, of course I… hey!"

"There's no reasoning with you," Azula smiled, shaking her head. "How about a world where I married someone else?"

"Pfft. Big mistake. You'd meet me and regret it in a heartbeat," Sokka smirked.

"And what if you married someone else?" Azula asked, amused.

"Same is also true, wouldn't be long before I filed for divorce and ran into the sunset with you. Easy as that," Sokka declared, smugly. Azula laughed, shaking her head.

"Alright, then… what about the most miserable possible option, then? A world… where you and I never met."

He raised his eyebrows. Azula waited eagerly for his reaction… and it didn't take long to arrive, in the form of a dismissive blown raspberry.

"Boo! That's a shitty world, is what it is. I don't want it. Bad idea, Azula. You should feel bad," he said. Azula chuckled. "Can you imagine how boring that would be? A world where we'd spend our lives knowing something's missing, but not knowing what it is, exactly?"

"A world where we'd always envy this version of ourselves, I suppose," Azula said, closing her eyes.

"Yikes. Nope. Awful. Stop giving me terrible nightmares. If I wake up in the middle of the night after a nightmare about this specific scenario, it's on you."

"Fine, fine. I'll bear the consequences," Azula chuckled. "Not that they'd be that bad, knowing you. You'd likely just… huh. Hmmm… well damn, I kind of want you to have that nightmare now, come to think of it."

"I can still wake you up for a random fuck in the middle of the night without nightmares involved, you know?" he whispered by her ear. Azula laughed and nodded, pressing her face to his neck.

"I'll appreciate it if you do. Sorry if that was a really awful scenario, though…"

"If? No 'ifs' about it, girl, that's the worst possible timeline," Sokka shook his head, certain. Azula smiled, leaning close to kiss his lips softly.

"Well, we have no idea if it ever happened… if any of those worlds we discussed are possible," she said. "So we can just… use the powers of our imagination to dismiss any such notions and cling to yours, alright? In any world, in any event…"

"Any version of us who chooses anything but this is a loser. That's my conviction," Sokka grinned. Azula chuckled, shaking her head.

"You're adorable. But… convincing, anyway," she said, glancing towards the kids. "We really did a good job. Took a broken world and set it on a new course… pretty much picked up the pieces of this mess to build our own. And because we did, we have our chaotic progeny… and a love people now write ridiculous tales about, elaborating on every little element of our relationship."

"We're just that much fun," Sokka smirked. Azula smiled and nodded.

"You know… I don't really care much, if those other worlds are any different. If those versions of you and me are smarter or dumber than we are," she said, turning in his arms. "I think the fact that every choice we made brought us here… it's something I can't help but treasure with everything I am. The lives we've built… I'm proud of everything that has gone into bringing us this far."

"And I know what it means for you to say that," Sokka smiled sadly, stroking her hair affectionately before kissing her lips softly. "It hasn't been the smoothest ride, but we did make it. We get to witness so many wonderful things now…"

"Indeed," Azula smiled, huddling against him. "Every day we spend together is another day where we can witness… well, I suppose I could call them the scenes of the peaceful world we built. And it's all because… we changed everything."

"We found the power to do so," Sokka nodded, hugging her tightly. "And who knows? Maybe we can transform more worlds besides our own… could be we can get Rei to put in some kind of magical power into her telescope, you know? And then we can reach into that world where we never met, and tell each other where to go and who to find…!"

"Okay, now you're talking nonsense…"

"We could, though! It'd be like reaching through the Spirit World, you know? C'mon, it's not that crazy…!"

Azula laughed, shaking her head as Sokka continued trying to convince her. His fingers nudged her, teasing her flanks, his lips peppering sneaky kisses over her cheek and neck…

She loved him so much, and that feeling only ever seemed to increase further as she processed just how much he loved her, right back. There was no denying that their love had changed their world… and as much as she had teased him, she wanted to believe that it would do so in any world, any universe where their paths crossed anew. They had endless potential, she remained certain of that… and it seemed to her that there was no better way to explore it than to do so by each other's side.

"I saw one! Rei, Rei, Hotaru, I saw one!"

Yuuna's voice startled her parents: the youngest girl was currently looking through the telescope when the first flashing meteor crossed the skies above.

"I wanna see! Me next, me next! Come on, Yuuna!" Shun exclaimed, eyes widening eagerly at the sight of the shooting stars.

"Well, I'll go after, then," Hotaru smiled, looking at Rei. "I can…?"

"Sure you can," Rei smiled. "All of you have one round each… then, the telescope's all mine!"

"Awww…"

"I have research to do, kids! It's my job…"

Azula chuckled upon hearing the siblings protest but submit to Rei's straightforward terms. Sokka nudged her gently, kissing her cheek softly anew.

"Think we're part of that group? Do we get a chance at the telescope too?"

"We'd better get over there if we want one, I fear," Azula smiled.

"We can always sneak a glance when she's taking notes, though…" Sokka snickered. Azula rolled her eyes and smiled, clasping his hand firmly.

"Come on. Let's wait for our turn," she said, pulling him to his feet.

Sokka clasped her wrist before she dragged him towards the telescope. He pulled her back towards himself, catching her in his arms. Azula raised her eyebrows… then, she smiled into the eager kiss he pressed against her lips. She didn't hesitate to return his affection, not even when she heard Hotaru's gasp, let alone Shun's groans of disgust: her hands cupped his cheeks as she pressed her brow to his.

"I'd choose you in every world, too. Any Azula who wouldn't… is certainly an Azula I'd pity," she said. Sokka smiled. "Her loss, really. There's no better husband…"

"No better wife, either," he said, kissing her softly again. "Not in this world, or any other…"

"True for you as well," Azula whispered against his lips. "We… we ought to make the most of those shooting stars. Don't people usually make wishes with those?"

"Some do," Sokka acknowledged.

"Might be the way to do it. That's how we'll fix the worlds where we never met," Azula smiled. Sokka smirked.

"Is that so? We're gonna use all the stars to wish to be together in every world possible?" he asked, snickering. "Okay, then… I really need a round at that telescope now."

Azula laughed, kissing him one last time before leading him the rest of the way to the telescope: Shun's disgusted faces faded quickly once his mother messed his hair, pulling him into a quick hug. Hotaru grinned at them, and a rather enthusiastic Sokka hoisted her with an embrace, startling her with his powerful grip. Yuuna giggled, pointing at the skies, and Rei sat behind her, stroking her messy hair affectionately, failing to tame it – for no one could ever succeed at doing so. A blanket of placid darkness spread across that blissful night, dotted with sparkles of infinite possibilities, all spread out before them… but out of so many lights, the peaceful world they'd built seemed to be the brightest one out of them all.

[cyberstarlope]

I haven't watched clh yet but I have been playing ac2 for the first time so uh. that counts right?

edit: fixed the french pronoun because apparently 2 years of it in school taught me nothing

[orcelito]

showing off the commission i got from @ruporas for my fic, In the Next Life!

i'm still so incredibly excited about this. it's been some months since the story event that caused these scars, but i wanted SO BADLY to be able to see what they'd actually Look like... & Here They Are.

ruporas rendered the scars So Well, i just cant stop Looking at them... there's a Fresh & a Healed version, which ruporas was kind enough to give me without additional charge (Thank U Again😭😭) so i get to see what it looks like at different stages.

Lichtenberg Figures. in terms of actual scarring, lightning strikes that people survive don't tend to leave permanent scars, but the lichtenberg figures that they (usually temporarily) leave behind are just So Cool... Now, what happens when you get someone who can survive an amount of electricity/lightning that would be Frankly Lethal to any normal human person?

This :]

[nikomedes]

labru this chilshi that. all i want is a post-dungeon fanfic where kabru wakes up late at night and chilchuck is in his room and gives him a shovel talk about hiring scab labor (mickbell and kuro)

[oneluckydragon]

BREAKING NEWS!!! Local idiot ghost absolutely blown away when boyfriend gives him a nickname for the first time, more info after this broadcast.

Bonus pet-name edition:

(Yeah I know it's ooc for grovyle to EVER use the term "babe" but lets go ahead and assume he's done it accidentally a few times rather than intentionally. He's deeply in love with the dumb ghostman, ok. Sometimes it just slips out.)

Dusknoir is still recovering from hearing it. And when he finally calls grovyle "love" himself on accident a few days later, he falls deathly ill for two weeks cause his body couldn't handle the aftermath and started rapidly shutting down on a molecular level.

[thefundisorderdiary]

Please like this.

Not for any reason, I just want the serotonin.

[foe-paw]

BABBLE THE SPELL THAT GETS IT DONE, BABBLE IT ON COMMAND

[image description in read more]

[Image Description: a digital drawing of three white silhouettes gathered around a black book. A multi-colored glow forms the shape of a star underneath them. At each of the five points of the star, the colorful figure of a Lord in Black stands. Pokey is in blue at the bottom left, Nibbly is in pink at the top left, Blinky in purple at the top right, Tinky in yellow at the bottom right, and Wiggly stands at the top point of the star. They loom over the white silhouettes. End Description.]

[paradimeart]

prowl has 0 idea what goes on in protoform development these days

(V.S. = vector sigma)

[youssefguedira]

V, JoeNicky & Nile

V. An abandoned or empty place.

When Joe pulls the sheet off the couch it kicks up enough dust that it makes Nile sneeze. The couch underneath is old, wooden frame rotting, fabric stained and full of holes where moths have eaten away at it. 

“Sorry,” Joe says to Nile when she finally manages to get the sneezing under control. “Didn’t realise it was that bad.” He puts his hands on his hips and looks down at the couch. Nile looks it over.

“There’s no saving that,” she says, wiping at her eyes. She can heal from falling over ten stories, but she can’t get away from allergies.

Joe frowns. “I liked that couch.”

The house is older than anywhere else they’ve brought her, and has been abandoned for long enough that it’s falling apart. But through some trick of posing as their own sons, or something, Joe and Nicky still own it, even if there’s a giant hole in the roof and all the windows are broken. Why they’d decided to come back here, Nile doesn’t know, but it’s a nice enough area, and a good distraction from, well. Everything. Growing back a leg, she’s discovered, is not fun. 

From one of the other rooms – she thinks it’s the kitchen, she’s not actually sure where Nicky had wandered to – there’s the sound of something breaking and crashing to the ground, and a muffled curse. 

Joe makes a questioning noise in the vague direction of the kitchen. A few moments later, Nicky appears in the doorway, covered in dust. “I am okay,” he says. “But I think we will need to go out to eat tonight.”

“Nothing?” 

Nicky shakes his head. “Unless you want to start a fire and go hunt some rabbits.”

Joe grins. “Just like old times, right?”

Nile shakes her head firmly, which makes Nicky smile. She loves them, but there’s no way they’re doing that. 

“We can probably clear out enough space in here,” Joe says, gesturing to the floor. “Get the sleeping bags out of the car. Probably have to start a fire anyway, but…”

Nile looks around again while Joe says something to Nicky in Arabic that makes him laugh. The house is falling apart, sure, but it’s structurally stable, and the bones are all there. It could be something. They’ve got time to make it something. 

Nicky is the one who goes for pizza in the end – he doesn’t trust Nile and Joe to order it if left to their own devices – while they try to clear out a space in the living room. Eventually, though, after Nile has another sneezing fit, Joe suggests they just take the sleeping bags outside instead, which works out a lot better. He sets about starting a fire with practiced ease while Nile sets out the sleeping bags around it. They’re far enough away from civilisation that she can’t hear cars passing by, which is kind of surreal, and the stars are brighter than she’s ever seen them. 

When Nicky gets back, two boxes balanced on one arm and a bottle of wine in the other, he looks over their makeshift camp and laughs. “Just like old times, then?” he asks.

Joe grins. “Except we have pizza.”

“And actual sleeping bags,” Nile says.

“Ah, these modern inventions could never quite match the comfort of a pile of furs,” Joe says wistfully. Nile gives him a look. She’s ninety percent sure that one’s bullshit, but she can never quite tell with him. 

Nicky sets down the pizza boxes, and jogs back to the car to grab the pack of plastic wine glasses they’d bought before they got here. 

“We should’ve bought marshmallows,” Nile says. “Could have made s’mores.”

“Well, we’ll have to go to the hardware store tomorrow anyway,” Joe points out. “And I think it’ll be a little while before we can actually sleep in there.”

“Tomorrow, then?”

“Tomorrow,” Nicky agrees.

[asleepinawell]

obsessed with this game recently

[crescentfool]

What are your ryomina headcanons? I've loved these two since I played P3 FES, and I'm so excited to get back into the fandom^^

hi!! thank you so much for the ask, welcome back to the p3 fandom, it's always a delight to see new and old ryomina fans alike! 🥺💛💙

as for headcanons, here's a "few" i that i tend to come back to a lot! my interpretations of them are influenced from both the source material and other's fanworks, so i've linked to them as i saw fit! hcs in no particular order under the cut because oops this got long (900 word bullet point list, mentions of reload content up to 1/1)

minato's hair is dyed blue (hair originally brown, you can see it in his roots!) and he has a beauty mark on under his left eye. i like mirror imagery and there's definitely a few arts i've rb'd that portray them this way :) (e.g. this one by feliichu and this one by marasschino)

as far as i'm concerned the bathhouse scene from the manga where ryoji's hair down = similar shape to minato? that is canon to me. this art from xierru is a fun depiction of hair down ryoji :D

ryoji is homeless. everyone say thank you foxmulder_whereartthou for this awesome fic it's why i have the headcanon! but like seriously. we have no idea where ryoji lives and i could believe this.

minato dying at the end of the game is sad to an outsider's POV BUT!!! ryomina gets to be together in death for the rest of their lives (this illustration from mafuwara is a gorgeous representation of them as nyx avatar + the seal)!

speaking of the seal, they are like telepathically communicating to me in the great seal together. (mymp3 had a comic wip with this. give it a looksie :D)

ryoji likes cuddling with minato because he's warm :) (something something orpheus has fire affinity, minato is warm by extension and ryoji is cold because he's death)

ryoji's camera roll is filled with pictures of minato! ryoji... loves life, to me. and i feel that photography and journaling are perfect ways of expressing gratitude and capturing the moments in life that are most important to you :3

my other favorite activity for these two is stargazing- i feel like it's something they could appreciate either in life or death (looking at the stars from the great seal...)! they do a bit of this in the fic eurydice's vow by crescentmoontea (P5R spoilers, takes place in third sem it's a very fun fic concept).

between ryoji and minato i feel like ryoji was the one who fell in love first- and it doesn't really click in place for minato that he loves ryoji until december hits (appriser reveal + ryoji transforming into thanatos). its about the realization that ryoji was with him for his whole life and that he gets him like no one else does.

ryoji is like a sad and wet puppy who is so scared minato won't like him back. he is so scared of being rejected by minato to me like. this boy straight up deflates after he does his "i know i said i wanted us to be friends, but... i actually want to be something more." / "what about you?" on 12/1 ???

AND SPEAKING of wet puppy ryoji. ryoji is like. every animal in the world to me. he's a bird. he's a cat. etc. and also ryoji knows every language in the world ever and uses it to express his love for minato. see this fic from superheroics to see what i mean.

both of them are lactose intolerant. "this isn't lactose, it's milk!" i definitely think ryoji would make himself sick eating ice cream and milk he doesn't know what lactose is. (i made a silly poll about this once and the tags were very entertaining.)

i see minato as transmasc or nonbinary depending on the day (schrodinger's headcanons babey they're simultaneously true and not true at the same time!!). either way he's not cis to me and ryoji is like. His Gender. anyway go read this fic by nail_gun for t4t ryomina :D !

ryomina are WEIRD GUYS TO ME!!! they are so strange and they understand each other better than anyone else because of the circumstances of their relationship!!! if you asked them to do the "i wonder what i taste like" meme i think they'd start biting each other (affectionate) tbh but that's just me.

after ryoji gives minato the music box in 12/31 on reload, minato listens to the music box every night in january. this boy has insomnia and also chronic illness to me (things that housing death does to you). but i think he finds comfort in the melody and memories he made with ryoji.

in general, i think it's fun to imagine minato taking ryoji to places and show him things he's interested in! i feel that ryoji takes a lot of interest in minato's life, this isn't really a hc because in reload, minato DOES give ryoji a tour of the school (11/9) and possibly port island (11/12). but ITS CUTE OK! (tangentially related fanwork: this series of doodles from vinnigami: 1, 2, and 3)

not a hc but minato's kindness is like the backbone of their relationship and i think we would not have the ryomina we know and love today if minato wasn't such a kind soul. oh minato.... we can learn so much from you... like ryoji did!

anyway! that's all the hcs that i could think of, thank you for the ask! i had a lot of fun answering this, these two mean a lot to me 💛💙

i hope you don't mind the links to the fanart and fanfic as well, the fanwork people have made for ryomina have really made an imprint on me! if you want to see more of them, i definitely recommend looking through my tag for them because oh. i got a lot of them reblogged alright 😂 (<- SOOO NORMAL)

[puppyeared]

sketches for sleight's van, the Magicmobile ^_^

[springcatalyst]

My dearest, tell me about your conlang scripts, please❣

Yeassss thank you beloved I will now kill for you <3 Ask me to kill for you.

I truly do not know how long this is going to end up but I'm just gonna go for it.

Montaran

Montaran is fauns' native language: it is alphasyllabic (rather than alphabetic), made up of character 'blocks' that are themselves composed of syllabic components. It's based off a mix of Korean and Sanskrit (mostly Brahmi script).

⬆️ "This is an example sentence" written in Montaran. Pronounced "Bavna mōskadatōk nin."

Components are arranged in blocks of three max, with spaces between words. It's written and read top to bottom, left to right. In three-component characters (called full blocks or complete characters), the arrangement of the components tells you where the syllabic emphasis is.

Here's the same sentence but with the components split up. The first word bavna has it's emphasis on the syllable na, and you can tell by reading because it's alone, as opposed to the other two components, which share space on the top of the block. The second word, Mōskadatōk, has its emphasis on the first and fourth syllables mō and da- the ones that are alone in their vertical placement. For partial blocks, like the last word nin, you can't tell emphasis by reading it.

Montaran is an abugida, which means its alphasyllabary is made up of consonant letters and small, diacritic-like additions that determine vowel sounds. Consonants can exist alone, but vowels must be connected to a consonant.

Where vowels are connected to a consonant can vary- usually there is a standardized method, but handwriting can alter it.

Montaran doesn't use any articles or particles, is written subject-verb-object (though the verb to be is considered an implied verb and therefore not actually written or spoken in sentences which would need it in other languages). Adjectives and adverbs are placed before what they alter.

Homonic

Homonic is humans' native language. It's alphabetic, made up mostly of vowels. The consonants are just 6 'base' ones, the sound of which changes with the inclusion of diacritics. It's based off of mostly English and Japanese.

⬆️ "This is an example sentence" written in Homonic. Pronounced "Goa ja ikaruth zonosh hfow."

Likewise I had more explanation for those weird phonetics but once again I am going to joker out so what the fuck ever. The r is a tapped r though.

Consonants base form is considered the default, while the diacritics change what sound it makes. The handakuten indicates a harder sound (P to B, F to V, L to tapped R), the tilde indicates a softer sound (hard G to Y, L to R, F to a sort of harder H that's not quite an english H), and the dakuten indicates a much softer, sometimes voiceless sound (P to W, F to H, T to Th). I should say now that I wrote out the phonetics of these in a way they make sense to me, so they might seem like nonsense to you. Because I don't understand international phonetic alphabet. But I digress. Vowels are never given diacritics.

Homonic uses both articles and particles, but particles are mostly used for action and subject indication. It's written subject-object-verb: Adjectives go after the noun they alter, but adverbs go before the verb. It's written left to right.

Paitarō

Paitarō is ipotanes' native language. It's an abugida, but unlike Montaran, consonants cannot exist alone. Instead, letters in their 'default' state are assigned the inherent vowel a, and all alterations from that indicate different vowel sounds. It's based mostly on Ge'ez and Eastern Cree.

⬆️ "This is an example sentence" written in Paitarō . Pronounced "Roujih myudae ba raisakō louhayka".

Paitarō has a bunch of different versions of verbs depending on context. They have general vs current forms, constant vs transient, beginning vs ending, and some verbs have a gladly vs reluctantly form. I gave examples, but this is my third time trying to edit this and I can't be assed to write it all out again without becoming the joker.

Rotation and diacritics determine the vowel sound of a letter. It's very consistent, so while it looks like there are 8 million letters, really there's just 12 that are altered slightly for different forms. A clockwise rotation 90 degrees will always result in the vowel ay, an macron will always result in the vowel i, etc.

It's written left to right, subject-verb-object, and uses no particles (but does use articles). It's also one of the harder languages to learn from an outside perspective, because many of the vowels (particularly o, oo, ou, and ō) sound similar to the untrained ear.

Arbor

Arbor is satyrs' native language. It's alphabetic, and has the largest alphabet of any language, with 42 letters (Paitarō beats it only if you consider all rotations and diacritics separate letters, which I don't). It's based mostly on Russian and Japanese.

⬆️ "This is an example sentence" written in Arbor. Pronounced "Shleya bouk dzyañen aotal voh."

It's written right to left, verb-subject-object. It doesn't use articles, but does use particles, which make up far more of the grammatical structure than of any other language. Particles indicate time, possession, location, direction, vocatives, pragmatics, formality, connectives, and conjunctions. For example, in the above sentence, the particle voh indicates certainty- what is being said is fact- not up for debate.

Formality particles are something that is mostly unique to Arbor: Homonic uses some, but they are loanwords from Arbor, and not used near as often. The only circumstance in which a satyr would not use formality particles is when speaking to children (or if the speaker is a child). Because of this, for an adult to speak without these particles is perceived as immature or patronizing or both. There are generally four 'levels' of respectful particles: familiar (for friends and family), peers (for acquaintances and strangers), respect (for superiors or elders), and higher status (for governmental or religious leaders). There are also degrading particles that are only used explicitly as insults, but are naturally not used in everyday life.

There are no true diacritics in Arbor, similar letters (like eh, ih, and uh, or v and fh) are considered distinct, not the same letter but altered).

Shotali

Shotali is nightlings' native language. It's syllabic, written calligraphically from top to bottom. It's made up of common humanoid phonemes as well as a clicking sound that is unique to their physiology. It's mostly based off of Khoisan and Vulcan.

⬆️ "This is an example sentence" written in Shotali. Pronounced "Sikosha taori niloth zhoi."

Here's the same sentence twice, one with the letters and other aspects of the sentence pointed out. The letters are designed to run into one another, where one letter ends another begins. Words are separated by a small open circle at the beginning and end to make clear the joint between the two.

It uses only two diacritics: a handakuten and a macron. In natural Shotali, they are used sparingly, but their usage has since expanded to allow for other sounds to be transcribed into Shotali. The macron traditionally changes just a few letters from an i vowel sound to an e (ri->re, ni->ne, li->le), but now can also be found to alter any letter with an i to an e, even if it was not originally allowed. The handakuten, in natural Shotali, indicates a click, made as part of the syllable alongside the voiced pronunciation, and is not actually considered a diacritic in this form. It's present only on hard consonants (k, v, d). These consonants can be written/spoken without the click and therefore without the handakuten, but only in very specific words or it is incorrect. Some words only define meaning by the presence or absence of this click- this makes things tricky for any other species trying to learn/speak Shotali.

Now, though, the handakuten is also placed as a diacritic on some other letters- not to indicate a click, but to harden the sound (Th to T, P to B, Zh to Z, J to hard G). These characters are not included in the base alphabet as they are considered adopted characters, meant to transcribe sounds from other languages- Shotali has a lot of technically allowed ways to write/speak that arent included in the 'official' alphabet.

Only d, j and th (or t with a handakuten) can exist as a consonantal sound without a vowel, considered a whole syllable by themselves in Shotali. It's written verb-object-subject, and uses no articles or particles. Adverbs and adjectives go before the noun or verb they alter.

Bonus: Chimerae's sign-morse

The chimerae, which live in the depths of the ocean and thus do not interact with any other humanoid species, converse with a form of sign language that utilizes their bioluminescent abilities. It is untranscribable, and so doesn't have a proper name. It's made up of similar signs as that of shallower merfolk: large, slow movements of the hands and caudal fin, but is additionally altered by light. Light carries meaning in: where on the body it is located, how quick the flash is, and what physical sign it accompanies.

Chimeraes have two distinct dialects of this language: a distant and close dialect, both used in conjunction with each other depending on context. Because detail gets much harder to see at distance, and the deep sea is big, the type of sign-morse used when far away from your conversation partner is different than that which is used when you are right next to each other. The former is vaguer, but more obvious, while the latter is more intricate and specific.

[superbellsubways]

red flags

[deus-ex-mona]

i miss her…

[thefundisorderdiary]

I don’t have a chronic illness.

I have a chronicle illness.

It changes as it goes.