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minileena · 1 year ago

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A little story about a zookeeper learning what empathy for nonhumans is - part 1

“And this is the last stop on your route,” my trainer said as he took me into the final room in the ‘small creatures’ exhibit.

I did a quick scan of the room as I entered, noting the dark gray walls with glass tanks built into them. It was probably about twelve feet wide and thirty feet deep, and that was just the room that the guests could walk in—I counted seven exhibits total, and six were built deep into the walls, three on each side. There was one lone tank on an elevated table in the center of the room. I made mental notes of all of these little tidbits of information. It would all be important, seeing as I would be spending every day cycling through each room on my route now that I worked here.

Being a zookeeper was certainly a more interesting summer job than a cashier at McDonald’s, and I was actually pretty excited, so maybe my enthusiasm was just getting out of hand.

“This is small mammals, right?” I inquired as I inspected each tank.

“Yeah,” Jasper said, following along lazily as I took inventory. “Sorry you’re stuck with the little guys for your first assignment. They don’t let you work with any of the more interesting animals till you’ve been here a while.”

“I’m less disappointed than you think,” I hummed as I searched through the third tank for the sugar gliders. “I kinda like all these lil critters. The scorpion in the ‘creepy crawlies’ room a while back was freaking adorable.”

Jasper cocked an eyebrow at that. “Don’t think I’ve ever met someone who considers scorpions ‘cute’, but I guess this job attracts the few people who do. Either way, though, this is definitely the room where you’re gonna lose that little spark of enthusiasm I see in ya.”

I furrowed my brows and looked back at him. “Huh? Why do you say that?”

He moved forwards and tapped his finger against the glass tank in the center of the room. I immediately winced.

“Isn’t that, like, a huge no-no? Tapping on the glass?”

“Not for this one,” Jasper said with a sigh. “It annoys her, yeah, but she’s fine. Honestly, the little shit deserves it.”

“Fuck you,” a voice called from within the tank.

My eyes widened and my brows furrowed deeper as Jasper flicked the glass again. I left the sugar gliders for now to check out the central exhibit for this room. The tank was odd—it wasn’t just a cube, it had a hole in the middle, like a square donut. You could get into the hole via a gate on the side, presumably in case you wanted to see the inhabitant from the center of the donut and look around at the whole environment.

Speaking of the environment, it was a lot more sparse than the other exhibits. The ground was red stone, with the occasional rock formation peppering the terrain throughout the tank, creating hills and valleys. Aside from that, the tank was the most sparse out of any I had seen in the zoo. There were a few plastic plants here and there, but not much else. A bowl of water made to look like it was chiseled out from a rock sat on one side of the tank, set up next to an indent in the ground filled with cotton. I could only assume the latter was a bed for the 5” tall nude woman curled up within it, arms crossed over her chest and back turned to Jasper as he looked down on her.

“This is the sole inhabitant of our parvinnet exhibit,” Jasper sighed. “Although some people tend to just call ‘em ‘tinies,’ as if using an adjective as a noun makes any sense when they already HAVE a name.”

He glanced down at the parvinnet’s tank and rested an arm atop it. “This is gonna be your most important job here, rookie. All the other exhibits just require basic upkeep, tidying up and feeding the inhabitants and whatnot. For this little thing though? On top of staying on top of maintenance, you gotta keep a VERY close eye on the state of the tank. She’s smart, and she’s nearly escaped before. Check every day for ropes leading through the ceiling, holes dug in corners and covered with foliage… it’s a bit of a pain, but over time we’ve worked on preventing her from doing much. If you’re wondering why the tank looks so empty, this is why. Gotta make sure she doesn’t have any tools to escape with.”

“Oh, and before you ask, yes, I do bite,” the parvinnet said cheerily. “And I fully intend to draw blood if you ever bring your hand anywhere near—“

She was cut off as Jasper slid open the glass lid and reached down, pinching the parvinnet’s ankle between his forefinger and thumb before lifting her in front of his face. Her eyes shot wide open, and from my viewpoint I could see the pitch-black colour that covered each eyeball in its entirety. I tensed at that, all my instincts telling me that what Jasper was doing was wrong, but I didn’t do anything more than stare. We’re… not supposed to handle the creatures like this.

“Forget your place again?” Jasper asked idly as the parvinnet averted her gaze, tense as she hung from his grip.

“…I’m sorry,” she whispered pitifully.

“Uh huh,” Jasper muttered as he roughly set her back down in her bed. She immediately curled back up in a ball. I couldn’t see any tears from my viewpoint, but something told me she was crying.

“She knows you’re new here,” Jasper said, looking back in my direction with a tired smile. “You don’t have to let her talk to you like this. She’s gonna try to, but you’re totally free to get her to stop. Think of it like obedience training for dogs—you gotta make sure you’re the dominant one.”

“M’not a fucking dog,” I heard the parvinnet whisper with a quiver in her voice. She flinched as Jasper flicked the glass again. She stayed silent after that.

“Anyways,” Jasper continued, “my little routine is to get in the middle of the tank through the gate, then poke around every corner to feel for holes she tried to dig in the glass. Move the little plastic plants around, check underneath the water bowl, look under the fluff of her little bed-nest thing… she hasn’t made any moves in a while, but since you’re new she’s probably gonna be a lot more proactive in finding escape routes. After checking around, food goes here and water in the bowl. Empty it out and clean it before refilling it, because sometimes she bathes in there.”

I just nodded, trying to stifle how disturbed I felt about this whole situation. Jasper moved along to the other six exhibits, telling me proper procedure for handling the inhabitants. My vigor was shaken, however, and my mental notes got a little fuzzy as my mind lingered on the woman in the tank behind me.

(A/N: this story is actually written up to part 8 in my lil google doc that you can find in my first post, I can’t be fucked to link it but it’s there somewhere)

#giant/tiny #leena-stories #this one is actually pretty sfw #no kink in here nosiree #unless you count the fact that the main character is regularly dehumanized #but like #that’s what the story is ABOUT #size k!nk

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7nuh · 18 days ago

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WAS IT 'CASUAL' WHEN...? — TWST 1ST YEARS

Headcanons on the 'casual' things you do with him that made him wish that there was something more between you.

CW 𓂃 sfw, gn!reader, reader is implied to fit in Deuce's clothes in his part, pining

CHARAS 𓂃 Ace Trappola, Deuce Spade, Jack Howl, Epel Felmier, and Sebek Zigvolt

AN 𓂃 mostly* edited now 😎👍

ACE TRAPPOLA — you slept in the same bed?

Ramshackle isn't exactly known for having the best facilities or furniture, and that is a fact Ace has to make peace with whenever he gets kicked out by Riddle. It's always a little too chilly at night and the floors still creak beneath his feet. Even with a makeover, half of the beds are broken and that stiff couch downstairs is your next best bet at getting some semblance of sleep.

You insisted you really didn't mind sharing a bed at all and Ace took you up on your offer. In his words, "if you say so then!" Just create an invisible partition down the middle and the two of you should be fine. Sure, yeah, that'll be infinitely more comfortable than the couch, and Ace absolutely agrees. He repeats the thought to himself over and over again— this is supposedly the better alternative, isn't it?

Yeah, totally. He tries to convince himself that it's really not a big deal for him to be inches away from you at night and feel your warmth spreading through the sheets. God, you'd think he's a weirdo if you woke up and caught him staring right now, but he could always twist it into a dumb joke about your sleeping face looking like an ogre. Consequently, he would have to watch your face twist in annoyance and pretend he wasn't watching every rise and fall of your chest. He would rather lose his magic entirely than admit the ugly truth and make himself vulnerable to you.

Ace does realize he's being embarrassingly sappy and romantic, and he's disgusted at himself for these thoughts, but he can't help it. He can't change the fact your lips look so soft and your eyelashes are so pretty. This is freaking him out so much more than it should. Does this really mean nothing to you? Do really only see him as a friend? Fine, then the two of you are just friends sharing a bed then!

It's really nothing! Ace was the one who joked about it months ago, after all. But things (and his feelings) have changed and he cannot ignore that. Back then it wouldn't have been such a big deal, but now it is and he cannot calm his heart down no matter how hard he tries.

You're right there. It's not the first time he had to share a bed with someone but it's different now because it's you. He did the math and the two of you are only 10 inches apart. Ace almost reaches for you in his weakest moment until he remembers that the two of you are supposedly just two friends sharing a bed. You're doing him a favor by sheltering him for the night, that's all.

Ace retracts his hand right away at the very last second. He might have as well taken the goddamn couch (lest either of you wake up in each other's arms).

DEUCE SPADE — he lent his clothes?

You came here with next to nothing. You had exactly one change of clothes and pocket lint for change, so Deuce, being the righteous and honorable student that he is, decided to lend you some of his clothes for the meantime. It's what a good friend would do! It's a temporary arrangement that would last only until Crowley spares enough change for you to buy another set of uniforms.

But this arrangement drags on for so long even when you have a functional closet and multiple sets of better-fitting clothes. Deuce never really noticed until recently that a third of your (albeit very limited) wardrobe actually belongs to him. But whenever you tug on his sleeves for his latest sweater, he doesn't have the heart to tell you no.

When he went home during break, his mom even noticed that certain sweaters and shirts had gone missing. "I left them at the college," he tells her as to not worry her. It's technically the truth— it's back with you in the college (and you're probably wearing them right now; the mental image is enough to fluster him all of the sudden when it never did before). He has to get them back eventually since those clothes are his. He's sure you wouldn't mind? Right?

Simply asking for them back is the difficult part for Deuce. You're there in front of him wearing one of his older shirts that fit snugly around your figure and he's at a loss for words. It's worn down and outright hideous as hell but the very first thought that comes to mind is that you look good in it.

Ah, yeah. You walk around campus on non-school days wearing his clothes 1/3rd of the time and nobody else knows that those jackets and shirts and sweaters and button-ups are all his. You make even the ugliest ones look good, or maybe it's because you're the wearer and you always looked good to him? Do his eyes need to be checked...? Deuce is tortured by these thoughts while merrily go about your day. You're laughing at something stupid that Grim said and he can't hear anything else. There's a fight in the courtyard but he can't see anything else. There's a midterm tomorrow but he can't think of anything else. You're too distracting.

When you finally do remember to return a shirt or two, Deuce tells you there's really no need to return them. He insists that they're better off with you, but you laugh and remind him that you're no longer the same pathetic charity case you were at the start of the year.

The truth is, your scent still lingers on recently returned shirts. It's the closest he'll get to being skin-to-skin with you, and Deuce is supposed to ignore that but he cannot. Or maybe he's the only one making this weird for the two of you because it doesn't seem to bother you in the slightest (and he's bothered by that).

But when Deuce looks at the recently returned shirts in his hands, he hopes he has a chance. He hopes you think of him as much as he thinks of you. He hopes the odds of him not actually liking you after all make your guts churn and set butterflies in your chest at the same time. He hopes he isn't the only one yearning for used shirts, lingering scents, and ghost touches. But at the same time, you've only ever asked these kinds of favors from him... Deuce doesn't want to assume anything, but a blush creeps upon his cheeks all the same and he continues to hope for more.

JACK HOWL — you played with his ears and tail?

Beastmen weren't a thing back in your world, so seeing them regularly made you morbidly curious about their animalistic features. Jack was easily the best candidate to satisfy your intrusive thoughts because just who else could you ask about this? Leona wasn't exactly an option and Ruggie might rope you into some scheme of his. And Jack owed you a favor, after all, so this is what you decided to ask of him.

Jack's ears twitched— did he hear you correctly? His face scrunches up in confusion because you barely knew each other for you to be asking something like this. How could you ask something so personal from him? It's in your innocently eager expression that he realizes what's going on... you just didn't know. Fine, it should mean nothing to you and thus he agrees to let you pet his tail and ears for five seconds. Maximum.

It's supposed to be a one time thing but he finds him involuntarily offering up his tail whenever you look him like that. He's not even sure how it got to this point. After all, there are romantic connotations of having your tail petted by someone else and... nevermind. Ruggie and Leona have started simultaneously teasing him over it the very moment they caught wind of this peculiar arrangement. It doesn't help that Jack's tail is particularly sensitive and reactive, but he keeps a straight face no matter how much it embarrasses him.

Jack doesn't understand why you're so fascinated by his tail and ears because there are so many others just like him. However, he supposes it's not an entirely terrible feeling, though, to have your fingers absentmindedly rake across his tail and hair as the two of you study. It's relaxing, even, but he won't tell you that. Jack will never tell you that it gives him goosebumps all over and makes him shiver whenever you play with his tail. Or that he's begun wondering what it would be like to have your hands elsewhere, or for him to touch you in similar ways in return.

He doesn't understand why he craves your company but doesn't question it either. All he knows is that your hands are so soft and gentle and that he likes the way the corner of your eyes crinkle when you smile in satisfaction. And when you hum a soft tune as the gap between the two of you closes, he wonders if he's the only one feeling this tension.

"Again?" Jack huffs. The pretext of this being a silly favor has been long forgotten. He should probably tell you soon that you shouldn't be doing this, but you just look so pleased with yourself when the two of settle down in a lesser-known corner of the library. The routine persists, the cycle continues. Hours later, the both of you have gone through multiple bags of chips, two movies on his laptop, and his tail is now comfortably curled around your abdomen as you read a book and he tends to his beloved cactus.

Again? Jack silently asks himself whenever he sees your face in a crowd. Could the two of you spend hours in a comfortable silence while the unsaid implications haunt him? He's started to ask himself— were you just playing dumb at this point or just plain stupid? Or what if you had known all along and the two of you were just dancing around it?

EPEL FELMIER — you kissed him?

Epel eventually learns to use the way others perceive him to his advantage; there's strength in appearing to be weak and striking when the iron is hot. Still, he couldn't help but wish to be seen for his talents and strength instead of his beauty at the first glance. The first assumption everyone makes of him, for god's sake, is that he's a fragile little thing from a rich family, and, quite frankly, he's sick of it.

So he's secretly delighted when none of his charms worked on you and you yank him by the ear for even attempting. A few curse words and rough shoves later, both of you are on the floor, grappling and wrestling against each other. The two of you are laughing so hard and swearing so loudly that you'll probably wake up the rest of Pomefiore at this rate, but neither of you care. It's just the two of you right now grasping at each other like your life depended on it.

It's a nice change of pace to be openly exchanging insults instead of restraining himself. He enjoys the comfortable rhythm the two of you share— from all the brawls and the bantering and the hugs and to the kisses on the cheek. Yes, kisses. They started as simple thank you's after a few favors here and there, and just one of them is enough to make a mess out of Epel for weeks. Better yet, you only seem to be showering him with more and more of your attention and he relishes in it.

Ah, things are finally working out for him! He found someone he could confide in and he's sure that there's a spark between the two of you. By the end of the year, he might have someone to bring home and brag about to his relatives—

All the momentum halts when he sees you across the hall granting the rest of your friends the same levels of affection. From all the brawls to the bantering to the hugs and the kisses, none of those were ever solely his to take delight upon. It doesn't matter that he opened up to you about all his fears and insecurities because he was never special. You were just the kind of person who got along and felt comfortable with everyone around you, but Epel hates that he has no one to blame but himself. He willingly walked your warmth but it was never his to take.

It finally dawns upon him that you have never seen him in a romantic light and that was why you were so comfortable around him. In retrospect, the bond you two shared was more sibling-like than anything— and believe him when he says he's incredibly grateful that the two of you were that close —but it doesn't make it hurt any less to know that your affections never carried any romantic intentions after he had pinned for you for so long.

Even when he takes a step back, you're cruel in a roundabout way by continuing to be so kind and loving towards him. How was Epel supposed to make sense of your relationship after realizing he misunderstood you...?

And he also hates to admit this, but his self-confidence takes a huge blow from this. Epel genuinely thought he could be loved for who he was based on the time you spent together. It gnaws at him and eats him alive to finally know the truth, and sometimes he wishes he never found out at all.

SEBEK ZIGVOLT — you wrote him love letters?

So, Sebek asked (demanded) to be penpals...

It's all because Lilia told him it would be a good exercise of diplomacy, he insisted. As the young master's bodyguard, he will have to be as courteous as possible even in unpleasant company. He also rationalized, admittedly partly because of you, that forging bonds with magicless humans may be a worthwhile endeavor after all! It's all rather suspicious (and you suspect his real intentions have something to do with your friendship with Malleus), but Sebek has never been one to lie about his intentions. If anything, the popular opinion was that he's a little too honest and should learn a thing or two about holding back.

There's something very unconventional in sending handwritten letters in this day and age of modern technology, but also something very romantic and fantastical— much like the many fictional knights he had read about. It helps a lot that he's not directly confronted by the fact you are very much a magicless human who shouldn't be in NRC whenever he spills out his heart's contents unto multiple pages. It was a way for him to release his frustrations, celebrate his achievements, and talk about the dull, little things thats happened in his day-to-day life to someone who listened.

And listen you did. Turns out, when you're not subjected to his 1000 decibel shouting, Sebek is a rather earnest guy who worked hard and acknowledged others who also worked equally as hard no matter their disposition. To say the least, you understand why Lilia found it so entertaining to tease him.

It completely flies over his head that you had been flirting with him for months through these letters. Your everyday interactions with each other had been completely normal, so how was he supposed to notice?! It takes multiple rereads and many late-night discussions with the other Diasomnia dormers to decode and understand all the double entendres and hidden 'i love you's' in each and every letter. It was so needlessly difficult, but Lilia laughs in his face and pats him at the back for a job well-done.

"There's no way," he thinks to himself late at night and finds himself doubting Lilia's claims for once. But when Sebek steals a glance in your direction and you smile back in return, he's never felt weaker in his knees. You're absolutely and undeniably magic-less... but somehow you had casted a spell that made his chest tighten and shut him up. He hadn't even realized how much time he was spending with you and thinking about you when he wasn't.

Except nothing has changed in-person. You're acting like you hadn't meticulously hidden your affections for him in those letters, and he was starting to seriously doubt all of it. Yeah, were you event smart enough to pull off all that? As some magic-less human?

Actually... Sebek realizes that you are capable of outsmarting him after getting to know you much better through those letters. He's never been one to deny where credit it was due. Now, Sebek's just deeply ashamed that he failed to accurately assess your character before making judgements based on superficial traits. He knows better than anyone that you're witty, charming, brave, kind, beautiful, ambitious—

Oh no.

Sebek simply explodes on the spot once he realizes that he had been oblivious to his own feelings for you too. He had thoroughly examined every aspect of this conundrum except from within. Quite embarrassing from an esteemed knight of the prince of nocturnal fae to be this slow, really.

#twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #ace trappola x reader #deuce spade x reader #jack howl x reader #epel felmier x reader #sebek zigvolt x reader #ace trapola #deuce spade #jack howl #epel felmier #sebek zigvolt #i hope my favorite isn't too obvious el oh el

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