#this would be very cozy for Akira | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

monakisu · 20 days ago

Note

i'm very sorry to bother you, but since i didn't get a chance before it was shoved in the dusty storage closet, i just wanna say that the cat & the crow is such a PHENOMENAL fic. i was literally so emotional over baby akira the entire time i was reading it. his loneliness is so acute and it is SOUL-WRENCHING. you characterize both him and goro so well. your prose just makes it too omg. it switches so well from a jovial, childhood summer to a scene that makes me sob. it's so so good. goro too is such a little shit in that i need to knit him a sweater right now. anyways yeah that's all i wanted to say gl with whatever project you're currently working on!!!

wow this is great thanks. my current project is: chapter 4.

i remember seeing this notification and smiling widely to myself but right now im feeling like a dust mite so im not very verbose HOWEVER as thanks i'll just show you a section of ch.4 i've more or less completed. i would never do this normally but i like your message a lot so know that you are Sublimely Special. enjoy!

Goro had personally shown up at Akira's doorstep twice now, but not once had he stepped foot inside. This was a tragedy, a travesty, and a tremendous oversight on Akira's part. What a horrible host he'd been! His guest would come all this way and Akira would make him loiter at the welcome mat as he held open the door just wide enough to show off the inside of his house, but not so wide to let anybody actually enter. It was like setting up a candy shop during a famine and catering only to the roly-poly rich who had more than enough to gorge themselves on, while the hungry could only paw forlornly at the window displays.

It was, in short, terrible, taunting torture.

The second Goro stepped gingerly into the clearing, prim and pretty, Akira flashed up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders—firmly, the way one stopped a bull by the horns.

"My house today," Akira ordained lowly.

Goro's eyes blew wide open. His shoulders locked up tighter than a maximum security vault. His mouth worked wordlessly for a few seconds. "O—Okay?"

It would be interesting to see how Goro contrasted with the interior decor. This was a completely normal thought.

"Is there anything we need to specifically do at your house?" Goro asked cautiously.

Akira pondered this, then decided that a normal thought ought to work well as a normal response. "I need to see how you contrast with the interior decor."

Once again, Goro went wordless.

His silence persisted all throughout the trek to Akira's house. It wasn't a terribly long trek; they needed only to stick to a straight path. The forest that housed their clearing belonged to an elevated hillside, as did Akira's cul-de-sac. The further up one ventured in the hills, the bigger and farther spaced apart the houses became. Community was most prominently condensed in the heart of Inaba, down below with Junes, the mom-and-pop shops, and cozy neighborhoods, where people couldn't go two steps without running into a familiar face. This community fractured into thin spiderweb strands high up in the hills, where residents veered more on the stand-offish, reclusive end of the spectrum, loosely linked by gossamer silk that could break off at any sudden movement. Once one made it high enough that the hills became mountains, however, community came to a full stop. Nobody lived there, save for the rare few crazy people. The crazies fell into two categories: those who had gone crazy from the isolation, or those who were simply crazy for nature.

Those sickos went on hikes... for fun.

Here on the hills, wide expanses of land could go empty for a great many steps before someone's backyard began. Once out of the forest, there was minimal shade to hide Akira and Goro from the relentless sun, motivating them to quicken their pace. Some land developer decades ago had chopped down a good chunk of the forest to make room for houses. Compared to the odyssey it took to get to Junes, they reached Akira's house in no time.

The uncharacteristic absence of complaints following behind Akira unsettled him. A chatty birdy was a healthy birdy. A quiet birdy was a... concern.

Like a candlestick succumbing to a flame, Akira's confidence had melted steadily with each silence-laden step towards his house. By the time they were standing at his doorstep, he had grown quite clammy.

"Ummm... this is my house." Which Goro already knew. "You know this."

Goro finally broke his silence. "Yes, I do?"

Hearing his voice, Akira's candlestick confidence quickly rebuilt itself, invigorating him enough to chance a glance at Goro's face. Instead of the scary blankness he'd been dreading, Goro just looked a little confused. His eyebrows were furrowed and his stare was one full of studious intent, as though Akira had presented him a new, never-before-seen puzzle to solve by the end of the day.

"Is there a reason you've dragged me here? A real one. Other than to compare me to the interior. By the way, cat, that's an extremely odd thing to say. Be more self-aware, why don't you?"

Aw, beans. Not normal at all.

"Well?" Goro crossed his arms. "Are we going in or wasting the day on your welcome mat?"

Akira looked down at his shoes, where they stood on nothing but stone.

"Figuratively speaking," clarified Goro.

Akira supposed it was high time to get a move on things. "I don't lock the door—"

"You really should."

"—but the key's usually behind the water fairy." He was referring to the never-once worked fountain statue of a pretty lady carved from stone, cradling a big blossom from which water was presumably meant to sprout. If there was a hidden button to activate the fountain mechanism, then it remained lost to all the residents of the house.

"Seriously? The first time you're inviting me into your home, and you're immediately granting me the power to swing in anytime I want? Why is this the first thing you tell me about your house?"

Goro sounded awfully judgmental for what was supposed to be a nice gesture. In a brilliant feat of rational thinking, Akira reasoned, "It's fine if it's Goro."

"And only me, alright?" stressed Goro, voice dragged down low by ominous implications. "Never extend this right to anybody else. You recall that chain of murders two years ago. Who knows what they'd do with this sort of power. Sneak into your house and slash your throat while you sleep? That's the likeliest possibility. A preventable possibility. Not even the worst thing that could happen. There are fates far more savage than a quick death. It's a foolish thing to do: handing your death wish to any random stranger who happens to look your way, then pointing them to the welcome mat. Don't tell anybody else about this key, Akira. It's enough for me to know. Got it?"

That was a huge PSA prompted by one little key. Akira patiently humored him, "Got it, Goro. Only you."

Goro seemed to like how that sounded, because his sternness was stolen away by a twitch to the corner of his mouth, which then grew and grew into a big, proud, peachy-pleased smile. "Don't you forget that, cat."

The door swung open with its customary creaaak. Akira had organized the shoes populating the mudroom in advance in jittery anticipation of Goro's visit. It was a plum thing that he'd done so; his mother's last visit seemed to require digging out every pair of shoes in her possession from the shelves and cabinets and closets, and then another requirement had been to flood the floor with mismatched shoes and gutted boxes, and then the last requirement had been to leave promptly. It only just now occurred to Akira that he'd have been awfully ashamed to show Goro something so sloppy.

"It's nice to see more of your house beyond a tiny crack when you open your door," Goro said, but where his voice would usually be brimming with bite and energy, it sounded off. Shoes still on, he stood listlessly by the entrance.

Akira took out a pair of newly purchased slippers and set it in front of Goro. Each slipper had its own smiling frog face protruding from the top, big and bulbous. Akira had seen them at Junes, thought them charming, and bought them promptly. While Goro stared incomprehensibly at the slippers, Akira swapped his sandals for his own pair.

"These are house slippers," Akira informed him, when Goro still had yet to make a move. The frogs seemed to be offending his eyes. "You can wear them if you want." It hardly mattered if he didn't; Akira had recently swept the floors, so there was no dust to kick up. He had to rely on brooms and mops instead of their handier relative, the vacuum cleaner, since it was too bulky for him to maneuver just yet.

After a few more nudges, Goro stiffly, stiltedly swapped his loafers for slippers, then had to be lured out of the mudroom with encouraging words like a spooked horse.

Akira's birdy started the house tour with immense, palpable discomfort. Disappointingly, he and the interior didn't seem to be meshing very well. He took small steps, feet feather-light, as though reluctant to even touch the floor through the pads of his slippers. Did he hate the floorboards so sorely? Maybe he thought they were dirty? Hoping to put his worries at ease, Akira assured him that he'd swept it two days ago. He could sweep it again, right now, should Goro wish for it.

"Wishing is for losers!" Goro snapped with unforeseen fury.

W-Wow. Okay.

Thankfully, expressing his anger in a new environment was enough of a foot in the door for him to finally relax. He began taking big, stomping strides forward, slippers slapping the floor, as though to physically distance himself from his unease. Akira hurried after him.

By the time he caught up, Goro had made it to the living room. He was frowning at the admittedly excessive number of lamps littering the space. It was as though every lamp in the rest of the house had been squirreled away into this single room—a lamp monopoly. That was Akira's doing. Recently, he'd discovered a fondness for lamps from the lighting section in the furniture store. After spending all day under the sun, returning to a dark and dreary house had been rather jarring. The lamps had been his choice of remedy. There were actually more lamps than there were electrical outlets.

Across the hallway, separated by big, rectangular columns that rose up into ceiling-high arches, were the sitting rooms. The Red Room waited insidiously in the corner of his eye. Akira had drawn open the thick, velveteen curtains of every window in the house early this morning, to allow sunlight to stream into what was usually a gloomy interior. In addition to Goro's natural influence, the whole house seemed that much brighter.

"Oh, it's your monster under the bed." Goro was referring to the little cat plushie slumped over on the couch. That's... one way of putting it. "There was also one on your shoe stand. Don't tell me your whole house is populated with these things."

"Alright," agreed Akira. "I won't tell you." And then he pointed at a lamp. "This is a lamp." He felt like he was doing a pretty dandy job of this tour guide thing.

Goro glowered at him sourly, then resolutely looked at anything but the lamp. In doing so, something else caught his hateful eye. "Hey, is that your landline?" He seemed to doubt the validity of this landline, because he went over specifically to the little side table by the couch so he could pick up the phone, listen to the dull beeeeep of the dial tone, and set it back down. "Fantastic. I'll make a note of this."

If Akira could, he'd have a giant question mark bobbing above his head.

"Your couch takes up too much space," was the next item on Goro's list to gripe about. Actually, Akira had yet to figure out if that phone tangent qualified as a gripe or not. Goro had been shockingly cordial with it.

Akira settled on a shrug. "There's a lot of space... to take up."

"That's regrettably true. You know what?" Here came the follow-up item on Goro's list of gripes: "Your house takes up too much space."

Akira had nothing to say to that.

"What's that thing?" Goro pointed an accusing finger at a big, table-like object cloaked in an embroidered tapestry, tucked away in a corner of the living room. It seemed he had found his next target to tear into.

"That's the piano. Nobody uses it." Akira corrected himself, "Nobody has used it."

For as long as he'd been alive, he'd never once witnessed its use. It might have been a gift, once upon a time. His mother liked to brag about the various sumptuous offerings the "background characters" had lavished her with, on the most important, most momentous, most mostest day in history: her wedding. This was in conjunction to bragging about her wedding in general. She was a woman who thrived exclusively on the memory of a single day.

Once a reflective obsidian sleeker than silk, the grand piano had now faded away into a mundane fixture of the house—another piece of decor against which to prop more decor. Oftentimes, Akira struggled to recognize it as a piano and not as a uniquely shaped table.

Goro was prompt in concocting a condemnation for it. "What a waste. Sitting there and rotting away. The keys have probably collected so much dust, mold, and dirt that they're more biohazards than instruments. You've never even bothered practicing?"

"Practicing? For what?"

"Practicing playing the piano, Akira."

"Oh." Akira nodded. That made sense. "No. I don't know how."

"Then why is it still here?" agonized Goro. "Why don't you just—sell it off already?"

Akira wrinkled his nose. Selling required socializing. "That sounds like a lot of work." And the piano wasn't hurting anybody. It seemed to have adjusted well to its new life as a table.

"Hopeless," was Goro's concocted condemnation for him, personally.

"Would Goro like to try?" Pause. "Practicing?" Pause. "Playing the piano?" No more pauses.

Goro grumbled, "You don't have to clarify what you mean so thoroughly. I'm not you." Objectively true. "And, no. What if I'm not immediately good at it? What if I fail from the get-go? I'd never live it down."

Akira suggested more than said, "Nobody's immediately good at anything...? I don't think..."

"I am," declared Goro with unshakable certainty.

Someone was missing the obvious here. "But you don't try things."

"I try the things I know I'm good at."

"But how do you know you're good at them if you've never tried them before?"

"Let's move on, Akira," Goro concluded abruptly.

They moved on.

"Why do rich people insist on depriving their homes of every conceivable color besides white?" Goro's complaints were ceaseless. "They're so obsessed with mimicking mental institutions. All this money, but they still can't buy taste!" He did finally cease, however, when they walked past the Red Room. "T...That's... new."

"If you like perfume or blood, go in there." Akira pointed helpfully. With the way Goro was staring at him, as disturbed as a cow in a meat-packing factory, Akira wagered that he probably didn't enjoy either option very much. "That room's got a lot."

Goro's disturbed cow stare was growing more complex. "Of... blood?"

Akira had learned the hard way of how ineffectual wet paper towels were when pitted against blood-stained Persian carpets. The same for vacuum cleaners. And hand soap. And dish soap. "Yeah."

"Oh." Goro didn't sound too happy. "Hey, look, there's your kitchen, cat."

"This is my kitchen," agreed Akira.

Goro examined his surroundings with the critical eye of a health inspector, gaze panning from one end of the room where the fridge sat humming and wearing its winter coat of papers, magnets, stickers, and glue, then panning all the way to the other end, where the length of the black marble island came to a sleek stop and the circular breakfast table (rarely used) came to a circular beginning. The vase of sunflowers, having been moved from the middle of the hallway to the middle of the breakfast table, was slightly wilted and missing some of its petals, but its striking yellowness meant it especially stood out from its black and white environment. Goro lingered on it for a prolonged second, a faint smile ghosting his frown, before he swept over the rest of the kitchen once more. "How excessive."

Nothing could satisfy his eye, it seemed.

The second thing Goro said upon entering the kitchen was, "Why is there another cat on the windowsill?"

"We need eggs for omelettes," announced Akira abruptly. He'd realized partway through the house tour that he'd really, really like to cook something for Goro.

"Now that I think about it, you really do have those things scattered everywhere. Hoarder much?"

"Eggs."

Side-eyeing him, Goro huffed, "I'm hardly your maid," but went to retrieve the eggs from the fridge, which—Okay. Hadn't been Akira's intention in the first place, but was still awfully nice of him anyhow. Goro was ever-so thoughtful.

His thoughtfulness extended to his need to narrate his thoughts regarding the state of Akira's fridge. According to those thoughts, it was not a very good state. "Why's this great big casket so empty?! Tsk, what a waste! And what is that? It looks like it used to be a tomato, but now it's growing itself an empire of mold. Disgusting!"

"The tomato lives there," Akira tried to explain, but, in truth, failed to achieve much of an explanation at all. "Ummm. Residency."

The fridge door was closed with a shuttering, shivering SLAM! that had it shedding some of its winter coat. Magnets clattered to the floor in one go.

"Was that on purpose," asked Akira mildly.

Goro didn't deem him with an actual answer. "You need to purge that thing." I'm not going to do that. "Here. Your stupid eggs." Whoa. Egg hatred.

Akira thanked Goro genuinely and generously, because Goro was acting as though the egg retrieval had been some terribly taxing task that he'd nearly broken his back bending backwards and over completing, and thank you's ought to match the severity of the injuries incurred along the way. "Birdy's the best."

"That's right, cat," Goro preened, before he practically slammed the egg carton onto the countertop, the same way one might slam a plank of wood into someone's skull. The egg hatred went to the extremes, it seemed.

Akira stopped this hate crime at the last second, shooting his hands out to cradle the carton from its tabletop torment. "Thank you so much," he stressed.

Goro frowned. "If you want the eggs so badly, just ask for them." He handed them over with considerably greater care, in a manner that conveyed his earnest belief that Akira was more fragile than an egg. If only he'd been that gentle when he'd been slapping cartons onto counters. "Also, why are we suddenly making omelettes?"

"Aren't you hungry?"

A careless shrug. "I usually am. So what? It's nothing new."

How horrible! "Omelettes and onigiri," decided Akira.

Goro was astounded. "Stop adding more food?!"

Akira hadn't been nearly as thoughtful as Goro, and so had neglected to tell him to retrieve the rest of the ingredients with the eggs. As this was entirely his fault, Akira brought back the leftover rice from yesterday, a square frying pan, a spatula, and the seasonings by himself.

Goro didn't like that. "Hey!"

"What's wrong, Goro?"

"Why'd you bring back ten times as many items as me? That's a fundamental injustice!"

"You can hold them if you want." Akira shoved bottles of soy sauce and sesame oil into Goro's hands. Hopefully, these would keep him and his sense of justice occupied.

Goro immediately went to complain, "This is a thankless task." But the complaints ended there, so he couldn't be that mad about it.

"Thank you," Akira added, just to be sure.

Growling, Goro creaked his hostages rather dangerously. Akira didn't know bottles could creak like that.

O-Okay, back to cooking. Akira announced hurriedly, "Let's prepare the eggs."

Goro halted his creaking to squint down at the eggs. "What do you do with them? They're eggs, so you crack them, don't you?"

Cracking eggs took serious skill. "Do you know how to crack an egg?" Goro was Goro, so of course he knew how to do something as skilled as this, right?

"Of course I know how to do something as simple as that!" Right!

Delighted by Goro's Goro-ness (this was a common occurrence), Akira accidentally let loose an enthralled, "Really?"

It was taken the wrong way. "Yes," Goro hissed, steaming-hot with offense. And then, dropping his hostages, he ripped an egg out of the carton, reeled his arm back, and smashed it onto the counter.

Akira watched it splatter in the most spectacular, most gruesome manner he'd ever seen an innocent egg be massacred.

...Maybe Goro doesn't know how to crack an egg.

Goro took notice of Akira's stare and bristled, all pent-up rage and porcupine-y. "It's cracked now, isn't it?"

"It... sure is," was what Akira eventually settled on. Because it really was cracked now—cracked all over the counter and all over the floor, with bits and bobs sticking to the wall, too. The blast radius was truly admirable, all things considered. He might have admired it a touch more had it been localized in a mixing bowl, where eggs were meant to be cracked—not exploded, simply cracked—and yolk was to be mixed—not exploded, either.

And what else had cracked? The bottle of soy sauce. Goro was a wonder.

"What other ingredients do I have to conquer?" Goro asked darkly, and then Akira was hastily re-introducing him to the wondrous safety of rice.

As it turned out, not even rice could curb Goro's bloodlust.

It became obvious at a very quick, very destructive rate that, for all the years she'd been alive, Goro's mother must have been actively barring him from the kitchen and handing him only the easiest, least explosive foods to manhandle. Because Goro and cooking were clearly two intrinsically incompatible forces of nature.

"What are you nattering about?" scorned Goro, voice curved high from instinctual defense on his mother's behalf. "Of course I was allowed into the kitchen. We didn't have the luxury of sectioning the kitchen into its own massive ballroom, you know. We ate in there." Having defended her memory an adequate amount, his voice calmed down to its usual melody. "But my mother did never allow me near the stove, or any ingredients, if that's what you mean. She also stopped letting me touch knives near the end, for some reason."

Clearly, Goro's mother had been a sublimely smart woman.

"She wouldn't even let me wash the dishes." If Goro had been treating those poor dishes the same way he'd treated the fridge and the eggs, then Akira could certainly see why.

Goro slapped the onigiri he'd been shaping (more like: compacting into the world's most condensed ball of matter) onto the table. Not a plate, nor a cutting board, but the table. Thank goodness Akira had already wiped down every surface in the house that morning. Akira silently relocated it to a plate. "Now, cat, let me have another go at those eggs."

After three eggs ended up splattered on the wall and the butter stuck to the ceiling, Akira sent Goro off to the living room to watch some commercials and maybe calm down.

"NO!" Goro snarled, covered in yellow yolk and looking more than a little feral. "I can do this! I can—pulverize some eggs!"

"How about you pulverize... some... television," Akira suggested gently, then tried to tidy Goro's face with a towel and immediately gave up after three of his fingers were nearly bitten clean off.

It was a wonder how caustically, catastrophically cataclysmic Goro was when it came to cooking. Akira was suitably impressed—and doubly fearful of what he might have done had the stove been on.

Without Goro afflicting his idea of "help" onto the ingredients, Akira wrapped up the dishes with refreshing ease. Thanks to Goro, he could now appreciate what he'd been taking for granted before: the ability to cook unimpeded by threats of bodily harm and property destruction. Goro exerted a certain revolutionary effect on perspectives. He could make Akira thankful for even the most itty-bitty details of his life.

Akira surveyed the damage done to the kitchen. A teeny-tiny sigh escaped him. It looked like another wipe-down was in order.

At the very least, he tried to reassure himself, it's not as bad as letting loose a stampede of wild hogs into the house. This was a very average and comforting philosophy that had him cheering up in an instant. Thank goodness Goro was less destructive than a hog stampede—if only by a little bit. Yet another detail to be thankful for.

Following the distant rabble of pew-pew!s and sha-shing!s, Akira found Goro sulkily holed up in the living room, in front of the blitzing, blaring television. He was cleaned of yolk, slightly damp, and in the process of making a soggy, Goro-shaped imprint on the leather couch. A stray plushie was half-buried in the cushions of the couch next to him. This was, in every way, better than a hog stampede. It looked like he'd just emerged from the downstairs bathroom, which Akira recalled had a layout of dizzying red tiles that covered the walls and floors and also had zero windows. He hoped Goro had enjoyed that visual experience.

On the television, masked heroes flew across the screen. They wore all the colors of the rainbow, tip-topped with golden, feathery frou-frou. It made perfect sense; naturally, Akira's birdy liked to watch his fellow birds.

Akira came to a silent stop behind Goro's watery seat. "Would birdy like to eat at the breakfast table or the dinner table?"

Goro whipped his head around. Water droplets ricocheted like bullets. "YOU HAVE TWO TABLES?!"

Akira hesitated, unsure of what he'd done to set Goro off this time. "We don't have to eat at a table?"

It took a while, but Goro did, at least, with equal parts grand mulishness and grander reluctance, concede, "...The dinner table."

"'kay!" A happy clap! rang in the air. Having sufficiently expressed his joy, Akira peered around Goro at the television. "Oh, I like that show, too. Featherm—"

Goro's finger practically speared itself clean through the remote out of bloodthirsty vigor. That poor power button never stood a chance. The television blinked black. Akira had half-expected some of the remote's abuse to travel to the television, perhaps short-circuiting it with an electric zap! and reducing its screen to screaming neon color bars. Miraculously, everything remained relatively intact.

"Is your finger okay?" Akira cradled Goro's hand as though it might clatter apart at any moment.

"Irrelevant." Regardless of that ruthless remark, Goro allowed Akira to lightly blow on his finger. Hoo! "And I wasn't watching what you thought I was watching. That was simply a... commercial. Those trifling wastes of time. I've got no power over what cable throws at me. Before the commercial, I'd been watching a crime show. About investigating crime. With detectives and legalities."

"And crime?" Akira absentmindedly patted Goro's hand. The pat-pat's lent it structural strength.

Goro pointed his nose high up in the air. "Yes. The crime is critical." Akira hummed. "Since it was a crime show," Goro apparently thought this was necessary to expound, "as you know."

"As I know," nodded Akira, then tugged him up by the hand (although, it was really more like Akira had lightly suggested getting up with an even lighter tug, and Goro had been gracious enough to comply). "Let's get our omelettes, birdy."

Goro's noise remained sky-high 'til it was time to settle into their respective seats, after which he finally deigned to look down. Before him waited two plates, one for each of them. On each plate lay a fluffy omelette—tamagoyaki—rolled up and sliced into plump pieces, and a triangular ball of rice grilled and sauced to a golden crisp. A warm, savory aroma wafted through the air. Akira had foregone any filling for the yaki-onigiri, for two reasons: 1) despite his fondness for experimenting with the cookbook, he didn't have the ingredients on hand, because hoarding ingredients that would sooner or later spoil with nobody to eat them was a wasteful thing to do, and 2) he worried it'd be too much to eat in conjunction to the omelettes. There was a separate plate of more yaki-onigiri in the middle of the table, since it would have been a shame to let the leftover rice go unused. It was leagues more food than the amount Akira would make for himself, but leagues less than what a nuclear family on television would chow down on.

His recipe book had featured these two dishes in separate sections, but since both required a pan, Akira had figured he could combine them into one meal with minimal difficulty. Using his square pan, he'd rolled the omelettes into fluffy prisms first, sprinkled them with salt, then sizzled the seasoned onigiri second. The recipe book had advertised the eggs as such: "These eggs will be wondrously savory and so soft that you'll barely need to bite down before they're splitting apart in your mouth!"

"These onigiri... You only had to mash the rice together with the seasonings before you grilled them, didn't you?" Just from listening to Goro's tone, anybody could tell that he was feeling slighted. "With a spoon or something. It wouldn't even have required an open flame at that stage. Just mashing."

This was true. "Birdy's right."

"I could've done something as tedious as destroying grains for you, but you simply had to kick me out of the kitchen." Goro looked remarkably royal sitting in his seat, with the carved mahogany backing of the chair framing his head just so, the way the best oil paintings had the fanciest frames. He didn't look out of place at all. Akira always felt a little awkward sitting in these chairs. They dwarfed him miserably. Goro, on the other hand—oh, wait. Goro was still saying something. "Mashing's not a feat of rocket science."

This was also true. "Birdy's right again. I should've thought of that." Akira didn't sound very sorry when he said, "Sorry."

"What're you always apologizing for?" Rather than wait another tedious ten seconds for a one-word reply, Goro answered himself with a sigh. "As long as you learn from this and take it into account in the future, it's fine. Besides, I don't like sitting around while you do everything. It's unequal. You hate that, don't you? Inequivalent exchange?"

"Inequality?" parroted Akira. It had historically led to a great deal of bad things. "Sure. Hate it."

Goro puffed himself up proudly. "I'm never not right."

Akira nodded. "Birdy's right about that, too."

"See?" Puffed to the max. "When things work themselves out so effortlessly like this, you know that's how they're meant to be."

Meant to be... Akira rolled the idea around in his head, feeling it run along the grooves of his brain, its glassy surface as smooth as water, and felt it roll to a stop in a perfect marble-shaped nook. Clink. A thought occurred to him. It was a good one. Proud to have arrived at this thought but not nearly so puffy about pride as Goro had been, he voiced it aloud, "Like us."

"What?" Goro looked startled. He thought about it some more, then looked even more startled. Stupefied, really. "What?"

"Omelettes," Akira instructed him.

"Alright, alright!" Goro looked at him witheringly. Withering look turned apprehensive, Goro picked up a fluffy omelette slice between two delicate chopsticks, inexplicably held it there for half a minute, and took what could be an insultingly small bite of his already small piece if Akira chose to feel insulted. He chewed, looking deeply pensive, then lit up with astonishment. "Oh! It's edible."

Edible.

Akira supposed expecting anything more than barebones acknowledgment from Goro was a pipe dream. The aggressive sushi acknowledgment had been more than enough to last a lifetime. Besides, this was high praise compared to the usual dialogue his cooking would win from his mother. "What is all this green rot for? I don't want this. I want that. No, I'd like this instead. No, no, back to that. It's got a peculiar odor. Why is this so small? This is far too big. Also, I'm on a diet right now. I'm not eating."

Akira couldn't be more pleased than if Goro had actually liked his food.

"I... I do actually like your food," confessed Goro in a quiet mutter, before he grew louder. "It's better than watery gruel, at least. A step above fertilizer. It's not going to land you a Michelin star any time soon, but you're getting there. Your progress is too slow. Can't you speed up? This needs more seasoning."

"You think I could earn a Michelin star?" asked Akira in his own version of a quiet mutter, except his mutter wasn't deliberate but a default setting for him. Awe colored his voice. Wings fluttered in his chest. He felt almost airborne.

Goro harrumphed, nose in the air. "Think what you want, cotton brains."

"But this is about what you think, birdy."

"Oh, so you're stuffing ideas into my head now, are you? Thinking my own thoughts for me, hmm? How presumptuous of you. How right you are. I did need the help, thinking for myself. It was getting troublesome. Being mindless—isn't that better? You would know, darling cat. You truly are too generous, too philanthropic—" And off he went, stomping down that long, winding, and well-worn trail that the rickety sign, shaped as an arrow, decreed to be "Deflecting."

Moving past all that deflecting, it became clear: Goro liked his cooking. This was new. This was big. Nobody had ever liked Akira's cooking before. In fact, up 'til now, he'd been staunchly convinced that his cooking was horrible. Subpar at best. But if Goro liked something, then that meant it was top-of-the-line. Goro only liked the best of the best.

The best must have extended to the yaki-onigiri, because Goro had stabbed his chopsticks into one and was aggressively chomping a bite out of it. So, it's not only the omelettes... The onigiri, too?

He liked them both!

Akira felt so happy, so flighty, that he had no idea what to do with himself. Left with little else to do and far too much energy to spare, he hopped down from his seat, bounced over to Goro, and flung his arms around him. It was extraordinarily warm. Sunny rays after a rainshower. Hot chocolate on a winter's day. He murmured into soft hair, "Goro. Thank you, really."

Goro immediately began choking to death.

Frightened, Akira tripped backwards into the fireplace. "Goro?!"

A cloud of soot exploded into the air. Eggs on the wall, eggs on Goro, and now soot all over the place. What a great, big mess.

It seemed a third wipe-down was in order. The stampede of wild hogs was beginning to look better and better by the second.

•••

By some miracle, the omelettes and onigiri had been mostly spared by the uproar of soot.

After washing up in the nearest bathroom, Akira set aside the few that had been misfortunate enough to gain a coat of soot, but as for the ones who had a light sprinkling on their edges, Goro refused to part with them. He insisted that it would be a grievous waste of precious food. Akira was at a loss. His birdy who was usually such a stickler for cleanliness was now clinging stubbornly to some sooty eggs?

"Come now, it's hardly a big deal." Goro's voice was pitched to be pleasantly placating, in stark contrast to his actions: hunching over and caging his plate within his arms like a jealous dragon. "Just leave them be."

Helpless, Akira could only acquiesce, "Um... If birdy likes soot that much..."

"Don't imply weird things!"

Akira scratched his head. There wasn't much to imply what wasn't already screamed aloud for all to hear. He climbed back into his seat, looking down at his own egg. It was still as untouched as it was before The Soot-ening. A gentle pleasure buzzed in his chest. The last time he'd made an omelette, it had gone dissected and uneaten. This time, his omelette was being treasured so devoutly. What wasn't there to be pleased about this turn of events?

Distantly, from beyond the breezy screen door of the patio, he could hear someone's pet musician practicing the piano, as well as the crunchy roll of a car's wheels against pavement. Wind chimes tinkled twinkly tunes. A dog was barking, as always.

"Are you going to take a bite sometime this century?" came a drawl across from him. Goro had his chin in his hand and his eyes fixed lazily on Akira.

"Huh?" queried Akira smartly.

"You've been staring at that thing for—" Stare still fixed, Goro tilted his head towards the digital clock on the wall. "—two minutes, fifteen seconds, and counting. Are you some alien species that only eats with your eyes? How novel."

It'd been two minutes already? Akira looked at Goro's plate. Empty! He hopped off his chair. "Birdy! Do you want more sooty eggs?"

"Sit down!" Goro barked, jabbing a fierce finger.

Akira sat down.

"You're not leaving this table until you finish that." Uwagh. "And quit associating me with soot!" Ugagah.

Akira went back to staring at his egg, only this time with heaps more misery slouching his shoulders. He poked his egg despondently. Imprisoned in his own house! What a fate.

Goro had his brows all twisted in vexation. "Just take a bite. Is that so hard? It's not even disgusting to eat. It's quite good, actually. I don't understand you."

That's right! Akira's birdy thought his food tasted good! And—and, last time, he'd called his sushi delicious. Goro thought Akira might earn a Michelin star one day. Michelin stars were Big Deals. Any restaurant, from food carts to big buildings, would jump over the moon from the electric joy of winning a star, and then they'd plaster news of this star all over their carts and buildings, so that any passerby might learn of this star and be lured in for star-ful food. Akira had nearly forgotten this Big Deal because of Goro's near death experience in the fireplace.

His self-esteem freshly invigorated, Akira picked up a little portion of egg and stuck it in his mouth. Akira was shocked by the presence of flavor. Usually, food was little more than bland mush to work his jaw around until he grew sore and bored of the whole charade. These omelettes had been whisked and cooked 'til they'd turned soft and fluffy; unlike tough grilled omelettes or slippery boiled eggs, biting into a roll required so little effort that the egg split in half with the ease of wind sluicing through a cloud. And it really did taste quite good—surprisingly so! A bit cold, perhaps, but that barely detracted from the taste. He even realized that he had a bit of an appetite.

It was a resoundingly fresh revolution to his life experiences up 'til now.

"How have you survived this long?" Goro asked in genuine wonder, watching Akira delicately chew his omelette, his eyes wide from revelation and looking like he'd had his mind blown to smithereens.

Akira ate his omelette, Goro ate one yaki-onigiri, and the rest was either stowed away in the refrigerator or packaged up into a big bento box for Goro to take back (he was not made aware of this bento box just yet). The mysterious, dense ball of matter that Goro had made was squirreled away for safekeeping.

The ball had come out... remarkably solid. Consuming it required copious amounts of gnawing that had his jaw aching, so Akira was forced to set it aside for later. He'd also had to nibble on it in secret, because the second Goro had seen that thing he'd raised a ruckus about throwing it into the trash where it belonged, and only turning the television on to Feathermen had distracted him enough with a new ruckus to raise that allowed Akira to sneak off with his prize. Maybe this ball, larger than his hand, would grow mushier with time. Like a grape. One could only hope it might someday reach a stage of semi-edibility.

Also squirreled away, flush against his heart, was the quiet joy of having someone finally enjoy his cooking.

Happiness was tasty.

•••

ITEMS GET!! Leftovers

★★★★★

Lots of leftover yaki-onigiri. Looks like you'll have to postpone your daily melonpan for a little while, huh?

•••

Come evening, Akira sent Goro off with the bento box of yaki-onigiri. He'd had Goro leave earlier than when they usually went their respective ways in the woods, lest Goro be forced to navigate the mountainside in the dark, which could be treacherous terrain to navigate without light. Tree roots and cliff sides and loose rocks abound and aplenty! More than one person had been reported missing, only to be found months later at the bottom of a sheer drop sprouting fungi.

The persnickety subject of hugs was still on Akira's mind while he stood outside on the doorstep, the muggy evening air simultaneously soaking and steaming his skin dry and sticky, and in front of him was Goro, inspecting the bento box with squinty suspicion. Paranoia was par for the course when it came to Goro and food. His reaction to hugs, on the other hand... Had that been considered par for the course? It had proven to be hugely consequential and catastrophic. Akira sort of feared what new catastrophic consequences might be wrought with a repeat incident.

"'kay!" Akira clapped his hands. The sudden, sharp sound seemed to sluice through what had been a lazy sunset ambience.

It also startled Goro out of his investigation of the underside of the bento box. "What? What is it?" In retrospect, to Goro, that clap really had come out of nowhere.

"You're going now."

"Huh? I am? I mean, I was already going to, but you don't have to boss me aro—"

"Bye-bye, birdy!" Instead of hugging Goro the way Akira really, really wanted to—because hugs were on his mind, and he wasn't able to stop thinking about how nice it'd felt—he settled for softly headbutting him the way cats did when overwhelmed with contentment.

"Y-You—You—" This still had the alarming effect of flustering Goro to the point of stuttering and repeating words, like a skipping CD. He'd nearly dropped the bento box, which—not really the most durable thing on the planet—would have been consequential and catastrophic. At the very least, not hugely so. But it would've cracked open and wasted food, which was certainly a consequence that was catastrophic.

Well. They had all the time in the world to work their way up to hugs, Akira supposed.

•••

ITEMS LOSE!! Leftovers

★★★★★

Welp, nevermind. Looks like melonpan's back on the everyday menu.

•••

It came in the quiet of the night: a shrill, shrieking RING-RING-RING-RING-RING—

"Wallop whatever that is!" Mona demanded.

Whatever turned out to be the landline, going off the rails with a call. Standing barefoot in the dark of the living room, yearning for the slippers he'd forgotten in his haste, and illuminated solely by weak, barely-there moonlight, Akira held the phone up to his ear. He'd missed the first time, smacking the receiver into his cheek and looking around blearily for the culprit. The second time, he just about barely lined everything up nice and proper.

What was one supposed to say in a situation like this?

"Hello?"

That seemed about right.

"Akira? Is that you?" Goro's lovely, honey voice crackled over the line, sounding a lot like how pop rocks felt on the tongue.

"Goro!" Akira exclaimed. In his shock, he nearly dropped the phone he'd exerted so much effort to line up. Cue clumsy fumbling, which undoubtedly translated into a hideous racket for Goro to endure on the other end. "I can't wallop you!"

A dragonfire sigh dominated the line. "What is it with you and walloping innocents? And what was that? Did you drop the phone?"

A million questions were running through Akira's head. He picked one at random. "Birdy, you know my number?"

"It's not like it was hard to find," scoffed Goro's voice. His scoff sounded even sharper than it did in person. The phone had him sounding tinny, flinty, and jagged. "All I had to do was pull out the phone book and look up your family's number."

"Ohhh, right." Phone books did indeed exist.

A soft silence settled over the line. Eyes having adjusted to the minimal lighting, Akira studied how his living room looked in the dark. It was fascinating how what was once so yellow and bright could now look so blue and shadowy—eerie, almost, when one looked at misleading shadows from the corners of one's eyes. He toyed with the loopty-loops of the telephone's coiled cord and shifted from foot to foot. The floorboards, previously ice-cold, had warmed up the tiniest bit.

Goro broke the silence to complain. Of course. "You sound different."

"Probably because I just woke up," Akira said innocently and not snarkily in the slightest. "In the middle of the night." Zero snark here. "It was very sudden." Absolutely snarkless.

"If you're trying to get to something, A-kira, just say it out loud. Subtleties are lost on you."

"I'm not getting at anything."

"It's probably the phone," Goro posited, clearly giving up on acknowledging Akira's snark, or lack thereof. "People always sound different over phones and in recordings. If you were to meet a beloved actor from television in-person, you'd be shocked at how much worse they might sound. How much worse they'd look, too. It's easy to mask oneself through technology. With phones, there's no face to be burdened by, so you can pretend to be anything and anyone. Then, even with TV, there are filters and edits, along with the natural blur of camera quality. Did you know—there was once an actress renowned as a great beauty when, in actuality, she had deep pits marring the face that brought her millions? Her husband had to engineer a special camera lens just to obscure her faults and fool the public. Isn't that troublesome? In all mediums, humans crave acknowledgement, but cower from true recognition."

Had Goro gone through the trouble of excavating Akira's number and rousing him awake at an utterly obscene hour just to gripe about humanity again? What an... interesting upgrade to their relationship. "Wow. That's. Great."

"Are you aware that you're always in a foul mood when you've just woken up, Akira?"

"No." Akira didn't feel very foul, just very woozy. "I don't know. Goro, why're we..." How to put this... "Why are you... um..."

"Why did I call you?" Goro saved him the toothache of fumbling his words. "I wanted to see if I could."

That sure was something. "Have you seen enough now?"

"Yes. I've determined that this is an acceptable avenue for communication. I'll call you at a better time in the future, when you're less moody."

"I'm not moody," Akira argued, a bit moodily.

"I'm hanging up now," Goro warned. "You need the sleep, I'm sure. Don't forget—you have to exchange goodbyes to conclude a call."

"Okay, then," Akira obliged. "Bye-bye, birdy."

Goro's voice was softer than dandelions. "Goodnight, cat."

The line fizzled out.

Moving proved to be a mistake. The world smeared itself into a mess of shadows as Akira flailed atop numb feet. His head felt light as a pound of air one second, then heavy as a bundle of bricks the next second, leaving him wobbling around, top heavy and bobble-headed. It took a great deal of blinking and breathing for vision to return to him, then a great deal more for the phone to click back into its cradle, instead of clanking onto the table or the floor. After carefully reviewing his situation, Akira elected to spend the night on the couch. Even though it was cold and leathery, it was a familiar bed. Many nights had been spent snoozing in a half-asleep state on slowly warming leather, the curtains pulled back to frame the moon in whatever state of dress it had chosen for that date.

Besides, Mona was here, too.

"What did your rival want?" Mona's curious eyes reflected silvery glints of moonlight.

The leather couch creaked and squeaked with every movement Akira made as he curled up comfortably by his friend's side. "Nothing, really."

#mailbox 💌#the fact that multiple people have cried over my writing is so wild to me #what fuckass parts are making you cry??? mystifying #i hid away my fic for now so i can read it in peace. cant stand knowing people are reading my mistakes. it literally gives me heartburn.#anyways you can see how ch.4 is clearly approaching the same word count as ch.1-3 combined. fun development.

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joeys-piano · 2 months ago

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Fic Author Self-Rec

Tagged by @voxofthevoid to share 5 of my favorite fics I've written. This might be a trip down memory lane for some of you who've been here for a while, and it might be a crazy experience for the rest.

Soft tagging: @feu-eau, @thechaoscryptid, @shiguangism, @heymacareyna, @bowties-are-cool3000, and any of you!

I can't think of a more OG story that had my heart, and my soul, and my sanity stitched inside it. This was a pure character study for one of my favorite characters, Oda Sakunosuke. He's a handyman. He's a gunman. He raises orphans as an orphan himself. He knows love like a favorite meal, but is still surprised he can indulge in it. I just wanted to write a single evening from his life and write how cherished he is even if he doesn't know it.

If he could trade every summer for a bowl of this, he'd never complain again and would savor the moment.

Remember the love stories about the Suez Canal and the Evergiven? I don't write much about trending topics but this was something I wanted to get my hands on. It was refreshing and very freeing getting to bottle this up like a time capsule.

He looked at him the way every ship wanted to be looked at when they docked — for who they were, not what they bore — and that made all the difference.

The most poignant memory I have of writing this is being in Vietnam at my grandfather's house and there is a wild rooster roaming the grounds by the banana trees. And well, given the circumstances, it was a good chance for me to flex my poetry muscles and have something cozy to sink into. I love how playful the writing this. I love how it reflects what I think love is, in the same way I think it's love when I cuddle my squishes in the morning and can't bring myself to leave them in the morning.

It’s no mistake that he’s as part of you as the Middle Ages, that to hold him is like you’re slipping into a bout of familiar Englisc. Which is about as timeless as the stars when you kiss him in a language that’s never not-enough and as part of him as a promise.

It's not a love story, but it's written like one. No one dies, but someone died. There were two brothers in this story; there are two strangers aimed to kill. This is a religious-esque story with a prophet and a martyr, and at the same time this a story about misconceptions disguised as faith. I very rarely write stories that don't feature romance, if you judge based on my body on work. So this one sticks out a lot to me and really gives you the full spread of my dynamic as a writer I feel. I often think romance is what holds me back in my writing, so getting to not do that here and just writing what interested me felt good.

This could swallow, eat him alive, when he tells himself that the hardest part of being human wasn’t hate, or disgust, or the anger, or the insistence to rid another. But to love, and have the patience, and be the kindest you could be when the world — when your brother — struck the anvil of your knees.

I wrote an Akira slide reference I'm still proud of. And I get to write about food, one of my favorite joys.

Lu Guang edges them to the road. He brakes to the side, sliding westward across a storm drain and the open maw of every pothole in existence, burning rubber across the metres. Pushing his whole weight to stop the bike, he digs his right sole into the earth. And almost topples—because of physics, because of mass times acceleration, because of the pressure inside his leg—threatening to fall apart once they stop.

#joey speaks #tagged #tag game #fanfic writer #fanfic writing

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thatanimewriter · 2 years ago

Photo

HE’S SO FLUFFY, I’M GONNA DIE!

➳ request: can i please ask for akira, soma, ryo, takumi and eishi with a male s/o who dresses in really cute and "feminine" clothes and likes cute things (plushies, cozy videogames, pastel colors etc.)? thx in advance ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

➳ character/s: yukihira soma, hayama akira, kurokiba ryo, aldini takumi, tsukasa eishi

➳ warnings: swearing

➳ notes: that’s really cute ;v; femboys ftw

𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬 / 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 / 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 / 𝐰𝐢𝐩 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

── 𝐘𝐔𝐊𝐈𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐀 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐀.

he’s pretty stupid, he probably didn’t even notice for ages

i think he acknowledged your clothes for all but 2 seconds

before needing to know what you cook like

he talks to your plushies ALL THE TIME

he’ll bring one along with him when he thinks it’s being neglected

it’s not, it’s just his favourite plushie

and he’s like

“sir snuggles. be honest. does this look good or nah?”

proceeds to show sir snuggles his next dish

waits a moment and then goes

“yeah, i thought so.”

and continues cooking

he bought animal crossing, stardew valley and shit all for you baby

he wanted to spend more time with you in any way at all

and he will 100% take playing cozy games and maybe trampling your flowers as a date

── 𝐇𝐀𝐘𝐀𝐌𝐀 𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐑𝐀.

at first pretty weirded out by it because it’s way foreign to him

but he got used to it after a while

he’s not gonna shit on you for it, no way

but he’ll just look curiously from afar

a respectful stare

you have left a very significant imprint on him

he will never see pastel colours without thinking of you

and he’s like

“that’s horrible, why would someone buy that?”

and then buys it for you

because who knows when you need this pack of 40 pastel sticky notes

but you might need them eventually

if you have longer hair

hayama can do it for you???

he’s willing to learn new hairstyles to make it easier for you

── 𝐊𝐔𝐑𝐎𝐊𝐈𝐁𝐀 𝐑𝐘𝐎.

he hates you at first because you’re RUINING his intimidating aura

grumpy x sunshine dynamic for sure

he has a soft spot for you and he won’t admit it but you can tell

tsundere no. 1

will gift you new plushies but act like he hates that you have them

what a loser.

he already names these plushies before giving them to you

one of them is literally called kiba

i wonder where he got that name from-

and it’s a plushie of a doberman because he is your scary dog privileges

he’d fight bullies for you any day

he’d bash someone for tryna pick on you for wearing clothes you wanna wear

and he secretly went through your closet to check your sizes

alice drags him clothes shopping and like

he might as well buy you something as well I GUESS

── 𝐀𝐋𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐈 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐔𝐌𝐈.

also a bit taken aback by your different attire

out of everyone, he’s probably the most willing to join you-

he’s probably the most doting as well

talks to you in baby voice and squishes your cheeks

isami hates y’all

you guys are disgustingly cute

takumi moves your plushies and pretends to be a ventriloquist

pretends the plushie is giving you advice

this especially happens if you’re upset

and you got him addicted to your cozy video games

he’s been playing stardew valley with you for HOURS

you have a farm together called ‘fettuccine farm’

once, takumi wanted to try your clothes

and uhhh he found that skirts weren’t exactly his thing

but he can suck it up to have a tea party with you n your plushies

── 𝐓𝐒𝐔𝐊𝐀𝐒𝐀 𝐄𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐈.

he gives me conservative a little bit, so your clothes probably gave him a heart attack

but it’s mostly cause he doesn’t see that often enough

so the more you hang out, the easier it gets to look past it

he has more heart attacks though

of cuteness

he constantly looks at you without you knowing and just gets heart palpitations

you gave him a plushie to have when he feels lonely without you

and he keeps it on his desk in his fancy elite 10 office

hugs it when he’s feeling anxious

gives it kisses when you’re not around and you SHOULD BE

also he kinda likes to come along with you clothes shopping

because he wants to get to know you better and he feels bad for judging you at the start

unsurprisingly, the soft cozy games calm him down a lot

he chronically plays unpacking

and talks to the plushie you gave him while he organises-

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larz-barz · 1 year ago

Note

im curious but... what does milo (any AU is fine) think of the kny OCs? (some that are hashira or not, it depends)

🥸 *slamming my curious looking face on*

oml ok, this might take a while-

Mari- “She’s silly! I love her personality and she’s very fun to hang out with!” (@cloudymistedskies)

Ilona- “I was a bit intimidated by her at first but she’s really nice! We’ve gotten pretty close!” ( @tokito-dulya20)

Eva- “She’s so sweet oh my goodness I love her!” (@muitsuri)

Michio- “He’s my brother and I love him. That’s it.”

Yuna- “MAMAAA!!!” (@kimetsu-chan)

Delrosa- “I don’t know much about her but she seems sweet!” (@naramaiz)

Hiyori- “Again- don’t know much about her but she seems sweet!” (@snowmist-hashira)

Basil- “He’s so nice! I love being with him!” (@aceofstars0) (bringing in oblivious basilmilo content)

Haia- “I taught her everything she knows. She’s super sweet!” (@aceofstars0)

Aika- “AUNT AIKAA!!!” (@aika-writes)

Zeno- “Big brother 2.0. I kinda wish he was actually my brother. I think Michi agrees.” (@kimetsu-chan)

Katarina- “She seems really sweet so far!” (@muitsuri)

Akira- “She seems super sweet!” (@tinyperson00)

Kurisato- “She’s really kind!” (@muichiroslovermwah)

Sakura- “She’s pretty quiet and calm so being with her is never stressful!” (@silliestsakura)

Kiyoka- “Total sweetheart, I love her so much!” (@kiyokatokito)

Leah- “I don’t know her that well but she seems sweet!” ( @leahdulya)

Rika- “She’s really nice and I hope to get to know her better!” (@mjtheartist04)

Kazi- “Her fur in her wolf form is really cozy!” (@frosty-lycanthropy)

Legion- “You are my dad, you’re my dad! Boogie woogie woogie!” (@anime-and-toon-oc-time)

Kaito- “My little brother who loves head pats. His head is so pat-able.” (@ask-paradox-and-friends)

Hanki- “Other little brother who loves head pats! He’s so silly and I love playing with him!” (@anime-and-toon-oc-time)

Yumera- “She’s so sweet and kind! I would like to see what she looks like without the mask, I bet she’s really pretty! I understand why she wears it though so I’m not gonna force her to take it off.” (@bunskero)

Irina- “I love how bubbly she is! She’s very positive and kind! She’s also pretty loud but she tries to tone it down when I’m around and I deeply appreciate it.” (@shycroissanti)

Nayuki- “She’s pretty sweet from what I can tell!” (@frostburn-shoto)

Nayuri- “She and her sister seem pretty similar. I think she might be more blunt, I need to interact with her more!” (@frostburn-shoto)

Raine- “She’s amazing! She helped me out so much and I’m so grateful for her!” (@rainechizakuslife)

(I’m crying, I can’t think of any of the others😭)

I am so sorry if I forgot anyone! If I forgot about you please lmk so i can add you and I sincerely apologize 😭💕

#ask larz #milo’s thoughts #hehehe #demon slayer #ocs

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light-end-dragon · 1 year ago

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2023 Halloween Card Story-Cain

Here is Cain's Halloween 2023 card story, "Taken by those Hands" fully translated. yeah, i don't have anything to say to that. At least I can now add Figaro to list of North wizards who have been really Weird about Cain.

Part 1:

------------------------------

Akira: Aaaah……How warm. The water’s so invigorating…..

Akira: It’d probably feel better if I could get in all the way….

Cain: Oh, hey Master Sage. Mind if I sit next to ya?

I’d been enjoying the footbath in the village springs all night, when Cain came along to visit.

Akira: Of course, Cain! The water temperature is perfect.

Cain: Ahaha! I can tell just by lookin’ at your face. You look like a cat that found a warm spot in the sun.

Akira: D-do I really look like that? I mean, we have a place that resembles this in my world, so it is actually very cozy….

Cain: Oh, you have something like this in your world?

Akira: Yes! It’s a bit like this fountain here to heat your feet at, and nearby there would be a sort of parlor that gives massages.

Cain: You said a massage parlor; like doing the whole rubbing on your shoulders thing?

Akira: Yes, they do that too. And after that they can do something where they press on certain points on your hands and feet.

Cain: Points?

Akira: That-that’s what it seems like, yes….Um, it’s like, if you press on a certain place firmly, it actually feels nice.

Akira: Like, for example, around here….

I spread out the palm of my own hand, and with my thumb and index finger, pressed forcefully down at the base.

Akira: You press down like this with a little force, and it helps you relax.

Cain: Huh, interesting. Lemme try to copy that. Here?

Akira: Uh, no, a little higher actually..

Cain: Here, then?

Akira: Uh, well ... .Rather than trying to explain it, it might be easier to understand if it’s put into practice…

Akira: Just a moment, sorry….

Taking Cain’s hands, I try to press down on the point I’d mentioned. When I did that, he closed his eyes, as if he was searching for a sensation.

Cain: It’s hard to understand with my feet all warm, but I guess..I think it feels a little nice?

Cain: But how is pressing there supposed to feel good?

Akira: Um, I don’t really understand the details of it either….

Akira: I only know that somehow, if you press on a spot like that, it can end up feeling nice.

Cain: Oh….

After our hands separated, Cain then tried one more time with his own.

Cain: Well, if you only have to press that hard, it doesn’t take that much effort. I can see how you’d sometimes try it out.

Cain: Only, I think I’d get used to it if I just did it to myself. When you did it, it definitely had more of a feel to it.

Akira: I get what you mean! They always say that a person having a massage done for them is way more effective.

???: Well if that’s the case, how about I help out?

Part 2:

-----------------------

Akira: Figaro!

Figaro: Well, dunno if its the same thing that our Master Sage was talking about, but I do know of a couple places where you might get such effects. Not for your hands though, only your feet.

Cain: Oh, really? So even your feet can have places that can help you relax. Hey, if it’s cool with you, you mind teaching me?

Figaro: Of course! Come on out of the spring then, and sit over here.

Cain got up, wiped off his feet, and then sat down in the rocky area nearby. I too got up and sat down next to them, wanting to watch what they were doing.

Figaro: Well, let’s get to it.

Right after saying that, Figaro takes Cain’s foot in his hands, and presses his thumb into the arch forcefully.

Akira: (Oh, it is a pressure point-like I thought!)

Figaro: You feel anything? Pain, or something nice?

Cain: Um…..it doesn’t feel like either…?

Cain: I only feel you pressing your finger there.

Figaro: Huh? But most people would be in terrible pain after I did that.

Akira: Well, maybe it wouldn’t for Cain?

Akira: I’ve heard that if you do press on a spot like that and it either hurts or feels really nice, your body isn’t in the greatest condition.

Figaro: Well, young people are a healthy bunch, aren’t they? Then let me try around here on your foot next….

Cain: Uwaah!!!

Figaro: Oh, you feel something?

Cain: Ah, I..aahhh….It’s painful, but it also feels kinda nice…?

Figaro: Ah, now I get it. That place just now-if you press on it while you’re fasting, it really hurts a ton.

Figaro: That is to say, you’re hungry right now. Am I right?

Cain: Wow, right on the spot! That’s pretty amazing you can tell that just by pressing on my foot like that.

Akira: That’s the first time I’ve heard of something like that. That’s very impressive of you, Doctor!

Figaro: Yup-yup. I’m such an excellent physician from the South, aren’t I?

Figaro: ….Heh. Hehehe……

Akira: …..Figaro. Um, why did you just turn away and start laughing so hard?

Figaro: Haha, sorry, sorry. I just made a wild guess. Not only was I somehow right, but you both so innocently believed me.

Cain: It was just a shot in the dark….?

Figaro: That right there is simply an easy place to get stiff muscles. The more a person moves around, the more likely it is to happen, so I’d think it’d have an effect even on Cain, right?

Figaro: You know, these villagers actually have something like this technique you’re talking about. Leno and I both had it done a little while ago.

Figaro: It seems a bit different than what you’re used to, but it still feels pretty nice. If you’re that curious, you should go ask them.

Akira: Oh, so it is kind of like a spa! Thank you so much for telling me about this.

Figaro: Well then. Since I took the trouble to do this, maybe I should go try it out on some of the others.

Cain: Oh-I kinda want to see what reaction they’d have. Actually, Snow and White are right on the other side here.

Figaro: Ah, um…that so? Well, I guess I’ll take the long way around then.

Akira: (Not surprised he doesn’t want to do it to his teachers….)

Figaro: Bye-bye, you two!!

Cain: Oh, see ya!

Part 3:

------------------

And after Figaro left, we then both tried pushing at that spot on the soles of our feet like he’d taught us.

Cain: Uhh…..Yeah, that didn’t end up having a nice painful feeling either. What about you, Master Sage?

Akira: Not me…I think if I do it to myself, I end up unconsciously avoiding anything that might hurt.

Cain: Then lemme try it. As a test of sorts.

Akira: Oh, would you mind? Thank you.

Cain: So, I’ll try the spot Figaro did the first time. That’s….um, here?

The pad of Cain’s thumb found the spot, and suddenly, he pushed down on it with all his might.

The instant he did, it felt like a shock of lightning went through me and unintentionally, I yelped.

Akira: Ah-!

Cain: Huh?? Oh, I’m sorry-did I do it too strong? Or maybe I hit the wrong spot?

Akira: N-no, that was it! Just…I’ve heard the more skilled a person is at pushing at these points, the more you’ll cry out from pain…

Akira: And that the more a person neglects their health, the more it will hurt when you do that. I might just be unhealthy….

Akira: (Is it my posture while I’m writing in the Sage’s Journal…or staying up all night….or all the snacks I eat between meals…..I should really pay more attention to that…..)

As I hang my head in shame from all the bad habits I’m recalling, Cain thumps me on my shoulders.

Cain: Hey, look, maybe we can make use of all this. Figaro said there was a guy who knew how to do the whole getting rid of stiffness thing; why don’t we go ask the other villagers about it?

Akira: Oh that’s a good idea. I was just thinking back on how badly I’ve been taking care of myself so, I would like to, if it’s okay…

Cain: Alright then! It’s been arranged. Then, Master Sage…

Cain, smiling as bright as the sun, held his hand out towards me.

Akira: (Oh, is he going to escort me back to the village?)

As I was wondering this, I took the hand he had offered. But. right as I did that, I felt his finger suddenly press down forcefully on my palm.

Cain: Aha! A gap in your defenses!

Akira: Oww! Cain, that hurt! Don’t play a prank on me like that…..

Cain: Ahaha, my bad, my bad. It was the quickest way I could think of to cheer you up again.

Cain: Recently there’s been inspections by His Highness Vincent, and I’ve ended up real tired from that. It’s pretty unavoidable to be in bad shape when stuff like that happens.

Cain: So instead of mopin’ about it, you should think about it like you’re rewarding your body after it’s worked so hard. So let’s go and get a massage.

After he said that, Cain gave another bright, contagious smile that soon had me grinning too.

Akira: You’re right…thinking about it like you’re rewarding yourself definitely makes it easier to relax.

Cain: That’s the spirit! Okay, I’m done foolin’ around. Master Sage, if you’ll allow me.

I take the hand he proffers, and it wraps firmly around my own.

Cain: And please, Master Sage, whenever you find yourself troubled or in pain- ask of me whatever you need, and I shall be there for you.

✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧

#mahoyaku #xar tl #cain knightley #figaro garcia #mhyktl #is it still the 5 tag limit well whatever #i almost feel like i need to tag this as More but

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thelemonsabbath · 10 months ago

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Gazing in the eyes of a beautiful monster

Miki accidentally backed herself against a tree upon seeing the wild look in Ryo's eyes as he slowly approached her. His blood-stained clothes and knife were just the icing on this terrifying sight the blond was now. She had known from their very first meeting all those years ago that he was dangerous and had always blamed herself for letting him take Akira away from her that day, and the awful change Ryo had brought out in Akira both scared and excited her. But now Miki knew more than ever that she should've fought harder to keep Akira away from Ryo, especially after having witnessed him brutally slaying that demon, all with that awful and beautiful crazed grin on his face. Despite the fact that demon had been threatening her not too long ago, she almost felt sorry for the beast in the way it had cried out in pain as Ryo relentlessly stabbed it over and over again to death. She had been saved, but for how long she couldn't help wondering. What if the crazed bloodlust she could see in Ryo's eyes would drive him to coat his knife with human blood as well?

And yet with possible upcoming danger casually strolling towards her, Miki found herself frozen in place, feeling as though she had nowhere to run or hide, not with the demons all around in the forest. Miki couldn't help but flinch when Ryo suddenly slammed his knife, deeply cutting into the tree and dragging the blade down until it was right besides her head. Before she could catch her breath, she felt the the tree trunk start to move and twist against her back, and the sounds of pained agony emanating from it made her heart jump in her chest.

Ryo curled hand around her wrist tightly, "Ms Makimura, there you are. Now, come with me. Akira would be so happy to know that you are alright." His voice was breathy and as intense as his bright and wild blue eyes, like he was still riding the high that slaying a demon or two had given him.

"Fine, I want to leave this forest as soon as possible too..." Miki replied, as she glared at Ryo, while allowing herself to be pulled close to him. She didn't have much of a choice, she had to stay with this horribly beautiful killer until she could be reunited with Akira again.

Ryo's wild eyes softened slightly as he led her away from the horrors, perhaps the high he had been overwhelmed with was starting to subside. "You know, I had always wondered what Akira saw in you, but now, having seen you in this elegant dress and smiling with him earlier, I think I understand... The whole world really does become brighter when you smile... like its being bathed in the warm rays of your beauty," he said as they were reaching the exit, his tone too smooth as velvet for her liking. And the gentle way he was handling her, it was making her forget what a monster he was. No, more like an attack dog who was now cozying up to its owner after a successful hunt, becoming harmless and affectionate, just like... Akira does...

But Miki couldn't be sure if Ryo was being sincere with this flattery or flirting of his own accord in this moment or not, or merely buttering her up for some reason, and that uncertainty made it hard for her to completely relax around him. And that horrible sense of danger that surrounded Ryo was as compelling to her as it was repulsive... "You're just saying that... Its like you are comparing me to the sun..." she said, hating the way her cheeks heated up. What the hell was wrong with her?

Ryo halted his steps and turned to Miki, smearing blood onto her chin as he cupped her face with his bloodied hand, "Oh, I can assure you I am not just giving you worthless flattery, Ms Makimura, because like the sun, if that light of yours goes out, then we are all lost..."

Miki was lost for words as she felt a chill run down her spine. Whatever he had meant by that, she deep inside knew he was right, and it had brought out both anger and fear within herself.

"So you should stay with me and Akira. I know we frighten you at times, but it's better to stay with monsters that hunt much worse monsters," Ryo stated as his hand moved up to cup her cheek, making her mirror the bloodiness on his own face.

"I-I suppose I can't disagree with that idea..." Miki swallowed, as she brought her fingers to touch his hand, dirtying herself even more with the blood Ryo had spilled earlier...

Ryo just smiled at her with satisfaction before they both heard Akira's voice call out to them as he ran over to them, leaving Miki wondering how much horror she was about to witness in the name of them protecting her...

Okay, after writing all of that, now I can explain why I made this picture XD first of all I've been playing Law of the Beast from the League of Dreamers app and I've been really enjoying it so far, it's really creepy and intense, and the characters/love interests are really interesting! And there was this one scene in ep 3 where the MC follows this hunter named Casper (he's crazy for sure and yes, a possible LI XD) to see what he was up to and needless to say it's intense confrontation

and when I saw that, I thought it would be fun to redraw this as Miki and Ryo, since one, I adore Ryo's manic expressions in the manga and the ova

and two, I do enjoy giving the ova version of Miki and Ryo a messy af relationship! XD

Btw if you like what you see and want a commission drop me a direct message on tumblr, instagram, a note on deviantart or artistree https://artistree.io/missn11

#devilman #fanart #my art #miki makimura #devilman ova #ryo asuka #ryo/miki #knife #blood #league of dreamers #digital fanart #digital art #artists on tumblr #law of the beast

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aria0fgold · 3 months ago

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This is so obvious. Mhyk. Go ahead now answer ✨️✨️✨️

HEHEHE!

Favourite Male Character

CAIN KNIGHTLEY!!! :D

Favourite Female Character

Female Version of Akira <3 I LOOOOVE Akira-chan so much <3

Least Favorite Character

I'd put Vincent here but I Slightly. Very Slightly. Warmed up to him when I read the first few chapters of ms2. So instead I'm putting Arthur's entire family tree here. I HATE HIS FAMILY SO MUCH! Whenever I think about the fact that they Abandoned a young kid in a frozen country knowing FULL WELL how hostile the environment is, my blood boils. I seethe even more at the fact that they went looking for him after Years and had the GALL TO BRING HIM BACK??? Ohhh how I hate his family so much.

Favorite Ship

CAIOWE!!! CAIOWE!!! CAIOWE!!! I LOVE CAIOWE!!! I love owecai too :3

Favorite Friendship

I love seeing moments of Owen hanging out with the westies <3 Chloe and Rustica specifically. Seeing Owen with Chloe is so sweet in a way, and seeing Owen get dragged along by Rustica is sooo funny. Owen is so weak towards westies, he has zero idea how to deal with them At All.

Favorite Quote

"Come battle, I would become your shield, and I would die for you." It's from the magazine BUT!!! That quote lives rent free in my mind so much I practically memorized it.

From the mainstory though it'd be: "It was me... I made you angry... I said thoughtless things... to the little you..."

Also I have an entire quote collection of my fave quotes from pararoid, my most favourite April Fool's event! From the event's mainstory: "Hey, little darlings, soak it up with everything you’ve got."

From Owen's SSR card story: "Then I'll just have to beat the game with a higher score. Just keep your eyes on me, Owen."

Yeah all my favourite quotes comes from my favourite character, of course it did.

Worst Character Death (if any)

I'm not the knowerrr yet... (big anvil above my head with the labels: "Horrors in ms2" and "Horrors in anni4"). I only know bits and pieces and cuz of that I am the nervouserrrr.

This made me so happy you have no idea Moment

CHAPTER 17 AND 18 FROM ANNI1 AKA MS1.5!!! I LOVE THAT MOMENT SO MUCH!!! I will never get over that moment, everything. It's Everything to me. It was the best ever! I love it, I looooooove those chapters so so much! It makes that one moment in Chapter 26 all the more better! caiowe makes me so insane.

Saddest Moment

Everything bout mhyk is sad /lh. Anyway it's Chapter 17 and 18 again! It's cuz when I first read it, I was SO SHOCKED that something like that actually happened??? And the voice acting WAS NOT HELPING. The voice actors are sooo goood, Cain's voice actor was so good it really did sound like Cain was Dying which was so bad for my poor lil heart and Chloe's crying WAS NOT HELPING EITHER. But after finishing anni1, that's my fave moment now :3

If I was the knowerrr I feel like I'd be able to pick out a sadder moment from whatever Horrors ms2 and anni4 has for me but alas! I keep forgetting to read it orz...

Favorite Location

Gameplay wise, it's Granvelle Castle! Cuz I can happily autoplay it when I was still playing the game. But as a general location, my favourite one ever is Shylock's bar <3 I feel like being in there would be so comfy cozy, especially with Shylock's company, I'd fall asleep instantly.

#arianswer #collectorcookie #i could write a whole essay bout how much i hate arthurs family. for shame!!! shame on them!!! the first king would frown upon them!#id also put nova in there but tbh. as much as i hate that guys guts. he does his role well as being antagonist so love that for him #in a way the worst character death i know of rn is white's death. its so bad it changed the trajectory of so many lives #and ofc the one to blame for that is murr. its always murr. when in doubt blame murr

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mousyjay · 9 months ago

Text

Cafe Enchante Review

This game is one that honestly I just saw on the Nintendo eShop and it looked so cute I had to play it. I didn’t know too much going in, just the game summary and trailer. So I know the MC inherits a cafe from a relative and it’s actually a magical cafe (kind of like Coffee Talk?). But in excited to play, using this as a pallet cleanser from BUSTAFELLOWS, plus just as a cozy game since it’s cold out and I wanted something cozy to play.

I’m going to play in the recommended play order which I’m pretty sure is also the order of their main chapters are in the common route. Speaking of, I loved the common route, but it is wayyy longer than the individual ones. Which I always think it’s a bummer when common route is longer than individual ones.

Canus

Oh my! I loved Canus so freaking much! I was really excited that he was first on the list as he definitely was who I was most curious about going into the game the first time. I think the concept of a headless love interest is so unique and fun, it definitely had me questioning how his route would look or work. Then on top of that he’s such a sweetie and such and kind and good hearted character. I really can’t think of a single thing I disliked about him.

He’s definitely the warm-hearted stoic type so if you like those characters and wanted a fun and magical twist then Canus is the perfect guy for you.

I love how they changed the color of his flame to represent different emotions, and found it impressive how well they could communicate how he was feeling without a head. It was really impressive and super creative. On top of that, I loved his story and world, it was all so unique and fun. He is from the world of fairies which is so cute, and a lot is based on western fairy lore which is unique for an otome game. On top of that some aspects of this route reminded me of Sailor Moon R, which since I loved that as a kid, being reminded of that made it feel extra special.

Overall I love Canus a lot, and while I’m definitely interested in the other guys, I really wonder if they’ll be able to pass Canus as my favorite because I just love this guy so much!

Rindo

I decided to play him second because I honestly wanted to just get his route over with. I’m sure he’s a great guy but realistic age gaps weird me out way more than impossible ones. Also his “chapter” is second, and I’m basically following that original chapter order. But honestly I wasn’t very excited going into his route, and maybe that’s not fair, but he’s just the least interesting and his age gap weirds me out the most (some people like age gaps and probably would like him because of that, but personally I like it when they are either close to my age or so crazy older because they are immortal it doesn’t even matter lol).

Okay rant time. I started this review in January, but the first episode of Rindo’s route made me so upset I literally stoped playing for three months 😭. So spoilers ahead.

I really didn’t like this route. I already wasn’t a Rindo fan, and then add the main conflict for his route and I was UPSET. I had a feeling since the main route that Kuu was a nonhuman, to me that much was obvious. HOWEVER, I was not expecting Kuu to be dating Akira, and to be Rindo’s sister 😭. That reveal at the end of episode one literally made me stop playing because I was so upset. It took a lot to come back to this game after that.

But I forced myself to come back and finish Rindo’s route, and oh boy, it just kept getting worse. I think it is really cruel and unethical to keep Kuu alive. It was a totally selfish act, and while the game does address that, it still made me very upset and uncomfortable. They then parallel this with Rindo and MC, when MC forces Rindo to become nonhuman. It made me so upset. It was like “no consent the dating sim”. I’m not usually a stickler for that stuff, but it actually made me very upset. I know it’s fictional and it’s meant to be a good story, but I just hated it. It made me miserable and uncomfortable. It made me not like MC, and it really soured my view on the game. This is like if you were unconscious but had expressed not wanting a certain treatment prior, and then your significant other forces it on you knowing your against it. It’s just so messed up, and I know it’s addressed as being messed up, but I just couldn’t vibe with it. Not to mention Rindo got even uglier when he became nonhuman which is so stupid 😭. I’m just glad it’s over, and I’m sorry for being a hater, but I had to say it.

Ignis

Now see I’m excited to play Ignis’ route. He reminds me of Kyo from Fruits Basket, who I had such a big crush on growing up. So because of that I’m super excited to play his route. Plus he’s just really funny, and seems really sweet. He’s also closest to MC’s age which is nice. So because of all these things I’m really excited to play his route next. I really hope I like it more than Rindo’s 😩.

As expected I really loved Ignis’ route. He’s such a big softie, and he’s so cute. I laughed, I cried, I felt so much as I played. Now I won’t lie, this route has some disturbing and gorey parts. But I love Ignis so much, and this route was really compelling. It had so much intrigue and things that built on one another. I just really liked the story, it really had me at the edge of my seat the whole time. Also we got so much Kororo content, which I absolutely adored! I just really liked this route, so far it’s my favorite 🥹 it’s just so good I really can’t put it into words. 💕💕💕

I’m super excited for Il’s route. His appearance isn’t what I’m usually drawn to, but his character design is so unique, and similar to Canus I don’t think I’ve ever seen a character like him. Not to mention his obsession with otome games is so endearing and he’s such a cutie. So overall I have been really excited to get to play his route.

Oh my lord. This route actually destroyed me. First off, I just want to say, I love Il, like I love him so much, he’s so precious, and he deserves the world. I enjoyed this route, it was so good, but it absolutely destroyed me emotionally. I was screaming, I was crying, I was ugly sobbing, I was laughing, I was squealing. I felt so much while playing this route, which feels extra fitting since it has a focus on emotions.

I will say, the assistant thing didn’t surprise me, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. But wow. I just don’t even know what to say. I wanted to actually slap MC in the face at the climax/ending of chapter two, because honestly, how dare she?! But honestly this route was extremely good, and Il might be my favorite 😅. Don’t get me wrong I still loved Canus and Ignis, in fact Ignis is still a close second in my heart. But oml, Il’s story just really hit me, and even though I don’t usually like characters that look like him, this was truly such an exception. He’s so beautiful, and so kind, and so pure, with so much potential! I’m just upset we couldn’t see more of their lives together.

One thing that stood out to me though, was how similar Il’s route was to Shiraishi’s route in Collar X Malice. I feel like their backgrounds and stories have a lot of similarities. The difference being that they have very different personalities. But I would say their backgrounds are very similar, and they are both very pure and deserve so much better. But I am curious if anyone else noticed how similar these two are, because once I started to notice it, I just saw so many similarities between the two.

But overall, I really did love Il’s route, and I really do love him. Out of all of their routes, his makes me the most upset that this game doesn’t have a sequel/fan disk. Because I just want to see more fluff with Il and MC, to just be happy and domestic with each other. I think I deserve it after crying so much lol.

Misyr

So Misyr is last since he’s locked until you play all other routes at least once. He’s the main guy/poster boy for the game, and the prologues heavily hint about his route. Honestly, I don’t hold anything against Misyr, he has a lot of great lines and seems like a very caring guy. I love his relationship with Il in particular. But for whatever reason I just wasn’t super excited for his route. Maybe it’s because most poster boys/true routes aren’t my favorite? Or maybe it’s just because I was just drawn so much to Canus, Ignis, and Il, that I wasn’t as excited. Honestly, I’m not completely sure. But I’m going to play it, and I’m hoping I’m pleasantly surprised. However, I am now worried his route might also be depressing and dark after seeing how the others have been, and based on what we see in the main story and prologue. But I guess we’ll see, and I’ll be back once I’ve finished.

So I feel very conflicted. On one hand I do like Misyr as a character, and the overall plot was very interesting and had me constantly wondering what was going to happen. However, I really don’t tend to like “true” ending routes, and unfortunately his route did a lot of that “true” ending stuff I just don’t like. Mainly, the fact that my poor baby boy Il had to go through all that suffering AGAIN. Like oml can’t he catch a freaking break 😭. But also the ending was pretty sad, and yet it also kind of felt like a cop out? Like I just feel all over the place. I didn’t hate him, or the route, but I just couldn’t find it as enjoyable as other routes. And even though it was definitely sad and heartbreaking, it didn’t emotionally impact me as much as Il’s route. So I think unfortunately Misyr is just another victim of the poster boy and true ending syndrome. Where the writers want to tie every previous story together, and spends so much time on the plot and other characters, you don’t really have time to focus on their romance. Which personally makes their unyielding love less believable. This is definitely a personal preference thing, and so I think if you like when all endings are tied together you’d probably like it more. Also if Misyr was your #1 pick you’ll probably also like it more. But for me I just don’t think it was a great fit.

Overall

Playing this game was such a journey. As I mentioned before I started playing this in January then had to take multiple months off before finishing it in April. I thought this was just going to be a cute cozy supernatural dating sim, that has a unique cast of characters. Which to be fair, the music, sound effects, voice acting, the CGs and artwork, it was all so stunning. It was an amazing game and there are so many things I really loved about it.

However, this game can get pretty dark and depressing, which I wasn’t really expecting. I think if I knew that going into the game I could have managed my expectations more, but because I didn’t it was a huge shock and definitely took a toll on me. So I wish someone had warned me 😅.

Overall, I did really like this game. It’s probably one of my favorite switch otome games I’ve played since Collar X Malice. So I would definitely recommend it. I was kind of sad to see it doesn’t seem to have an active fandom, like I couldn’t find many fanfic or fan art of the game, which made me sad. As far as rankings go I think my favorite, in order from most to least liked would be; Il, Ignis, Canus, Mystr, then Rindo. Which honestly going into the game I thought Mystr or Ignis was going to be my favorite, so Il was definitely a pleasant surprise. But I really enjoyed all the routes, except for Rindo’s, personally.

So that’s my thoughts! I’ll be graduating this week, so if I get some free time before getting a job, I’m planning on playing Cupid’s Parasite, next since I’ve heard that’s one is like a rom-com. And I definitely want a fun light hearted game after all this crying.

#cafe enchante #otome #otome game #english otome #dating sim #cafe enchante canus #cafe enchante rindo #cafe enchante ignis #cafe enchante il #cafe enchante misyr #ignis cafe enchante #il cafe enchante #canus espada #ignis carbunculus #il faldo del rie

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singsweetmelodies · 2 years ago

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5, 42, 47 for piarles obvy bcs i wanna see you go insane 😘❤️

i haven't looked at what these numbers' relevant questions are, but i highly suspect that you are either the absolute worst or the absolute best. either way, ily so fucking much 😘😘 let's do this ;D

5. Describe their cozy night in.

HA I LOVE THAT! okay, and actually i have a really clear headcanon for this one :DD so, the thing is... they don't really have cozy nights in. oh, they try. on the rare occasions they both have time off on the same night, and they get to be in the same country too, then yes, they try. it seems so cute and romantic to have a movie night curled up on the couch together, no? except... that means they have to choose a movie. and to my mind, they would NEVER be able to agree on that, lmfao. charles, angel-faced charles, has been on record that he loves watching horror and psychological thrillers. pierre has been on record that he calls charles a psychopath for liking them. so just imagine these two idiots trying to have a movie night 🤣🤣 charles would be all "no, but this would be so interesting!" with wide eyes and a dimpled smile, and pierre would just be like "you're very cute and i love you but we're NOT watching the fucking jeffrey dahmer show on our one night together, thank you very much" and then charles is all huffy like "well i don't want to watch top gun for the five hundredth time, either" ...and then of course they have to fuck about it 😌👌

that's the core of my headcanon, actually. no matter what they try, they always end up fucking before so much as an hour has passed. like, even if they're just eating together, they probably won't even be able to finish dinner because one of them will jump the other "because you were teasing me by licking that spoon like that, charlo, you cannot blame me" or "how was i supposed to not get on my knees when you look that good cooking for me?!" and... yeah. you get the idea 😆 essentially, they just CANNOT keep their hands off each other, which means that any "cozy night in" very quickly devolves into pierre bending charles over the couch, or the counter, or any available surface, really (and very occasionally, it's charles fucking pierre, too.) they're just obsessed with each other, tbh. and who can blame them 😌

42. What's their favorite type of weather to enjoy together? (getting snowed in together, watching thunderstorms, etc.)

(ngl, my first thought when seeing this was "42 the answer to life the universe and everything 😍" so HA, tysm for that one, akira. ily <3333)

and as for the actual question: WELL, i'm going to give two answers for this one - the pierre version and the charles version. charles, i like to think, is the kind of person who gets cold super easily, but loves snow and wintry weather. (probably because he loves to steal pierre's jumpers and hoodies and beanies etc. etc.) wintry weather also gives him a hundred and one excuses to snuggle really close to pierre, bcs pierre always runs hot. (yes, pierre would totally make a hundred and one jokes about that, btw.) ALSO, i firmly believe that as much as charles loves stealing pierre's things, he'd also take great personal satisfaction in putting some of his own things on pierre - like a ferrari-branded scarf, or beanie, or whatever, under the guise of being a caring boyfriend and making sure pierre doesn't freeze. (pierre puts up with it because he knows charles is secretly a possessive bastard, too, and he loves it. freaks, the both of them, ngl. they're the best.)

now, pierre - i don't want to make him sound like too much of a rich fuckboy, but then again... that's what he is, isn't it xD so my headcanon is that pierre loves to take charles somewhere like ibiza or the greek islands, and spend long hours lazing on a yacht together, alternately swimming, sleeping in the sun and fucking on the deck of the boat (where someone probably won't be able to catch them, but you never know, and that's the thrill of it, of course.) and since the weather is so hot and humid, they have to spend all their time in swimming shorts and very loose (& usually unbuttoned) linen shirts, of course. (if there are even any shirts in the first place.)

so yeah 😆❄️🏖 i headcanon these two as total opposites regarding what types of weather they enjoy - but it's not as though either of them are complaining, hehe. best of both worlds, etc etc <3

47. Does either of them have a secret that could potentially ruin their relationship?

ooohhh, this is a good one 👀 and... call me a soppy romantic, and otp-obsessed, but i'm going to go for no. no, they don't.

hear me out, though! they've been friends for so long that i think they just... well, firstly, they already know almost everything about each other. but secondly, even if there was some devastating secret -- they'd be able to get through it. again, they have known each other for so long. when you've been friends forever, you can't imagine your life without that person. you would also forgive them for pretty much anything, and i think that's true for piarles. if one were so inclined, you could make that toxic, but to me it's just kind of beautiful. that security and safety net of "no matter how badly you fuck up, i'll still be there to catch you, because that's what we do for each other. we always have, and we always will." just. yeah. ❤️💙

(obligatory otp asks)

#asks & answers #obligatory otp asks #akira tag 😻 <333 #ahhhh i LOVED answering these :DD thank youuuu so much my love #i guess you are the best this time not the worst xx #ilyyyy; hehehe #and i most certainly did go insane with these lmao #hope you enjoy itttt 😘#🦑🏎️ piarles #piarles headcanons

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x1e3ju · 14 days ago

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im replaying persona as my sister sees it for the first time (yes, i am that annoying abt my fixations) and i didnt even realize there was so much nuiance with morgana’s character that went soo untouched (and lots of hypocrisies with akechi’s on the other hand lol) im not the biggest fan of morgana and his character, i dont rly like his dialogue most of the time and i dont believe his little moment that completely stripped haru of her’s was necessary or needed at all. i very much believed and still do that his character should’ve been more plot heavy instead of feeling like a character side plot since he’s like. connected to everything. and akira's fate with yaldabaoth and all that, i dont like how they handled him a lot but seeing some of his dialogue when they started handling his story more it makes me think damn i rly wish his character development wouldve been more plot heavy cuz it feels way too well with the storyline and the message of the story.

i attached some screenshots i got from playing the game (taking them was very humbling lmao) and UGH, there’s nothing more i hate than unexplored nuiances. and i rly hate it because the only reason why p5 falls so flat bc of how anime-y they tried to be, seeing the first 3 games the nuiances flowed rly well bc the games rly had that indie feel that rly tied everything together in a rly nice way, yk?

i think morgana’s rly annoying desire to be human fits so well into the plot bc it builds this sense of perfection morgana feels he needs to build, the ultimate form of a being due to society’s confused manifestions. society has built this “ideal human” that even other humans dont feel they fit, and i say this knowing well that idea myself. but morgana feels farther from it bc well, yk. and i wish they wouldve expanded more on that and it even goes well with my own headcanons lol but even morgana’s human form is like. complete stereotypes of like everything ever, knowing damn well if morgana was human he would NOT look like that but that couldve been an even bigger conversation to bring into the picture, if atlus wasnt such a horrible company like many of them are. and that idea is even brought up in p2 with eikichi and cozy and even a bit with lisa but switched around. for some reason? its weird but its things i wish this game had nuiance for as well. smaller conversations in practice but things that can be even more established in theory.

ok so thats all i rly wanted to shed some light on lol, thought it was something very note worthy. now im back to playing it with my sister lol

#rants #what a love hate relationship with morgana lol #but ik its a complete hate relationship with atlus #fuck you atlus #all my homies HATE atlus

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yakuzacanons · 1 year ago

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Hallo! First of all, thank you about headcanons, even though I found this blog just a few days ago, I already read mostly everything and they are wonderful!

And secondly: what do you think about the characters' love language? I get some ideas, but it's very interesting what you can write about it.

Thank you in advance, and have a nice day!

This is so sweet and YES love languages are very good. I'm just gonna be operating off the big 5 basic love languages: words of affirmation, gift giving, acts of service, quality time, and physical touch. I know there are probably other specific offshoots of these but I'm keeping it simple. Thanks for your patience and have a good one!

ALSO I am done with Yakuza 6 and am on Yakuza 7 so 6 related asks are officially ok. Ichiban coming soon, promise.

Kazuma Kiryu: Words of Affirmation

Kiryu isn't always the best conversationalist but he's a really good emotional support person. Great at hearing people out and even better at comforting or motivating them. In his most romantic of moments, he can be quite expressive, even if a little blunt.

Majima Goro: Quality Time

You'd think by the amount of weird and cutesy nicknames he gives everyone, especially his significant other and Kiryu, that he'd be a word of affirmation kind of guy but Majima actually just wants to spend the most amount of time possible with his boo. Spends the night as often as possible. Plus, spending quality time means he's got time to do all the other love languages and more.

Akiyama Shun: Gift Giving

Bless his silly stupid head but Akiyama is sorta no thoughts head empty. Less of a smooth talker and more just really lucky at saying the right thing. Great at planning gifts though, especially experiences like vacations, concerts, or festivals.

Saejima Taiga: Acts of Service

Out of all the boys, Saejima is the most traditionally manly man. Holding the door open, walking on the part of the sidewalk closest to the street, paying for the bill when on a nice date, etc. It's a total contrast to the brutish vibe people tend to get off of him but in reality Saejima is just REALLY nice and he figures there's no better way to say it than just showing it.

Tanimura Masayoshi: Gift Giving

In an ideal world, Tanimura would actually be a quality time type of guy but work gets in the way too much for that to be realistic. He compensates by getting you lots of gifts. Nothing too lavish but lots of small things, like your favorite snack while he was at the store because he thought of you or surprising you with a new CD by your favorite singer. For fancier gifts, they usually have lots of cultural significance than monetary value.

Ryuji Goda: Physical Touch

Even though Ryuji can afford to spoil you rotten with gifts, which he will do anyways, his love language is actually physical touch. The gifts are a nice gesture but its the physical intimacy that carries way more meaning to him personally. He won't go full PDA on you but he'll still hold your hand in public or have his arm around your shoulder. He always finds some way to gain physical closeness to you, even if it's not the most upfront or obnoxiously romantic way.

Nishikiyama Akira: Quality Time

He pretends his love language is gift giving because he wants to impress you but in reality he just wants some one-on-one time, just you and no one else. That becomes rather apparent once he realizes he doesn't have to try hard to seem cool in front of you. Secretly just a cozy little guy.

Mine Yoshitaka: Gift Giving

Total gift giver and not ashamed of it. Has a gift for everything. He's also pretty gentlemanly to acts of service sometimes end up going hand in hand with his gifts. In the bedroom though he's a words of affirmation type of guy. Probably the only one of the guys who distinctly changes his love language when having sex versus just spending time with his romantic partner.

Dojima Daigo: Words of Affirmation

Don't be mistaken, Daigo values quality time a lot but is often not available consistently to actually be with you due to how hectic his work is. Behind his somewhat quiet and hesitant demeanor is actually a man who just wants to sing you the praises you deserve and he will do his best to say so whenever he can.

Shinada Tatsuo: Physical Touch

Cuddle buddy supreme. Would smother you with hugs and kisses if he could. Loves laying his head on your shoulder or just snuggling up to you. In colder weather, he'll totally find excuses to be even closer to you, like holding your hand and putting both of your hands in his coat pocket before saying something dumb like "Now we can hold hands AND be warm!"

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aminaascericworld · 8 months ago

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Title: A Night Out

Setting: Amina and Johann's apartment. Amina is in front of the mirror, putting the finishing touches on her makeup. Johann is in the bedroom, buttoning up his black shirt and adjusting his trousers.Johann: (calling from the bedroom) "Amina, are you almost ready?"Amina: (smiling at her reflection) "Almost! Just need to put on my earrings."Johann walks into the room, looking incredibly handsome in his black button-up shirt, trousers, and leather shoes. He pauses, admiring Amina.Johann: (softly) "You look stunning."Amina: (turning to face him, blushing slightly) "Thank you, Johann. You look very handsome yourself."Johann walks over to Amina, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind and looking at their reflection in the mirror.Johann: "I'm the luckiest man in the world to have you by my side."Amina: (grinning) "And I'm the luckiest woman to have you as my fiancé."They share a tender moment, their love and strong bond evident in their eyes.Amina: "Remember how we met in the cafeteria? I was making a café latte, and you just started talking to me out of the blue."Johann: (chuckling) "I couldn't help myself. You looked so focused and adorable. I had to get to know you."Amina: "And now look at us, five years later, engaged and stronger than ever."Johann kisses the top of Amina's head.Johann: "Ready to head out and show everyone how amazing we are together?"Amina: "Absolutely. Let's go."They grab their coats and head out the door, hand in hand, ready to enjoy their night out at the bar.

Title: A Magical Night Out

Setting: Amina and Johann's apartment. They stand near the door, ready to leave.Johann: "Ready to head out and show everyone how amazing we are together?"Amina: "Absolutely. Let's go."Amina draws a circle in the air, and a magical portal appears. They step through and arrive in a hidden spot near their venue in New York.Johann: "You never cease to amaze me with your magic, Amina."Amina: (smiling) "I've been here before with Niki Blueberry and Akira Abital. "They walk into the stunning bar, filled with a sensual atmosphere perfect for their night out.Johann: "This place is incredible. Why don't you pick a private and secluded spot for us to sit, chat, and amuse ourselves?"Amina: (nodding) "Sure thing."She leads them to a cozy corner with a black leather couch, perfect for some privacy.Johann: "What would you like to drink, my love?"Amina: "I'd like a Römer Quelle mineral water, apricot flavor, in a glass with apricot syrup, a slice of lemon, a black straw, and four ice cubes. Alcohol-free, of course."Amina smiles excitedly.Amina: "And what about you, dear?"Johann: "I'll have a Scotch with ice. A classic old drink for a classic old vampire such as myself."He smiles flirtatiously at her and heads to the bar to order their drinks. After a few moments, Johann returns with their drinks in both hands and places them on the table.Amina: (sitting on the black leather couch, watching funny TikTok videos) "This place is perfect. I’m already having a great time."Johann sits beside her and gives her a quick, cheeky kiss on her lips. He then puts his hand on her thigh and squeezes it gently, showing his possessiveness.Johann: "You know, I love that you belong to me."Amina: "And I love that about you."They have casual conversations, enjoying each other's company. Amina continues watching funny videos in between their chats. Johann notices her laughing and decides to share a funny story of his own.Johann: "So, there was this one time at work when I accidentally mixed up the training schedules. The trainees ended up in a vampire etiquette class instead of combat training."Amina bursts into genuine laughter.Amina: "I can just imagine the confusion! You always have the best stories."They continue enjoying their night, basking in each other's presence and the vibrant atmosphere of the bar.

Title: A Magical Night Out part 2 Setting: A cozy corner in a stunning bar in New York. Johann and Amina are sitting on a black leather couch, enjoying their drinks.Amina: (takes a sip of her drink, then crosses her legs and turns to Johann) "How about we play a game to get to know each other better?"Johann: (smiling) "That sounds interesting. What do you have in mind?"Amina: "We take turns saying something about ourselves. This way, we can learn more about each other."Johann: "I like the idea. Let's do it."Amina looks excited but suddenly struggles to think of something to say. Johann chuckles at her visible thought process.Johann: "Alright, I'll start. I'm currently reading 'Carpe Jugulum' by Terry Pratchett."Amina: (perking up) "Oh, really? Which chapter are you on?"Johann: "Chapter 100."Amina: (laughing) "Okay, my turn. I like to sing in the shower."She laughs at herself, feeling a bit embarrassed.Amina: (thinking) "Agh, I'm so stupid. I wanted to be mysterious and aloof. Now my strategy can land in the trash with the rest of me."Johann, who can read her thoughts, takes her hand gently.Johann: "Amina, you don't need to change for me. I'll always love you just the way you are."Amina: (smiling, squeezing his hand) "Thanks, Johann. You're always so understanding."Johann: "Your turn again. What else should I know about my amazing fiancée?"Amina: "Hmm... I secretly love watching cheesy romantic comedies."Johann: (grinning) "Really? I wouldn't have guessed that. Any favorites?"Amina: "Oh, definitely 'The Proposal' with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds."Johann: "Good choice. I might have to join you next time you watch it."Amina: "I'd love that. What about you, Johann? What's something surprising about you?"Johann: "I used to write poetry when I was younger."Amina: "No way! You have to show me some of your work someday."Johann: "Maybe one day. But for now, let's just enjoy this night together."They continue chatting, laughing, and sharing more about themselves. The atmosphere is filled with love and warmth as they bask in each other's company.

#chatgpt #happyday #lol #full recognition goes to the owners #sweet and romantic moment shared #delulu #cringe #maladaptive daydreaming

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rafor · 1 year ago

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Chapter 60 - Unlucky Portal - The Glitch

As we approached the gates, the prince came running towards us and exclaimed, “Wait! You’re not leaving already, are you? We would love to show you around the city or invite you to a special dinner with the Queen and King, who just saved our king’s life. What do you say?” I smiled and said, “That sounds lovely. I’m already here, after all.” But Akira shook her head and said, “No, thank you. We need to return to our kingdom. We’ve been away for too long.” Freya pleaded, “Please, Akira, it’s a matter of courtesy to accept the hospitality of noble hosts in foreign lands. It’s only for one day.” The prince added, “And as a token of our apology, we’ll also offer you a night’s stay in the palace. They’re the most luxurious quarters we have.” I was tempted by the offer, so we all turned to Akira, who said, “Are you sure about this? What if it’s a trap? We were almost branded as enemies, and now you’re taking their word for it?” The prince opened his mouth to apologize again, but I cut him off and said, “We weren’t at war yet, since the ultimatum hadn’t expired and we hadn’t responded to it.” She frowned and said, “Are you sure? Did you tell your stepson not to respond to it?” I nodded and said, “Yes, we did.” She sighed and said, “Alright, fine. I suppose it’s better than sleeping in the wilderness or in an ancient labyrinth.” Fyrenthos chuckled and said, “But I was there with you. I think you were quite comfortable thanks to me.” She said, “Nothing beats a real bed.” Then Freya said, “We gratefully accept your offer to stay. Thank you for your generosity.” The prince replied, “You’re very welcome.” We turned back from the gates and headed to the palace. Then we parted ways. Fyrenthos and Akira remained at the palace while Freya and I went on a tour of the city. Freya had seen it before, so it was nothing new for her except for some minor changes that she noticed along the way. For me, it was all new. I was fascinated by the theme. Even though the dragons were mostly dark as shadow dragons with light blue accents or yellow or orange in color, the theme was generally very gray and dark. It was like seeing metal everywhere, but the buildings were well insulated in case of the Crashing Thunder, which was the phenomenon that gave the kingdom its name.

It was called the Crashing Thunder, a singular storm that unleashed its fury in one deafening roar. The city had captured its power in crystals and coils hidden in every building and in secret tunnels beneath the streets. We were privileged to explore these marvels, guided by the prince himself. He never told us his name, only his title, so I had no way of addressing him personally. He was simply “Prince” to me.

Later that evening, we were invited to a royal banquet with the king and his court. The king had recovered from his nasty beating and greeted us warmly. The table was similar to the one in our own palace, but here every seat was occupied. I wondered what had become of our nobility, the ones who had vanished or fled for reasons I didn't know, if there had ever been any. Were there any left besides me, Freya, Leo, and our loyal servants?

The feast was splendid. We conversed with many interesting people, including the king himself, who sat next to us. Most of them were friendly and curious, but a few still harbored resentment and hatred towards the last noble wyvern. They were swiftly silenced by the king’s authority. After the meal, we signed a treaty of peace and friendship with their kingdom. For the next fifteen years, we agreed not to threaten or attack each other. Then we retired to our chambers, grateful for the comfort of a real bed after so many nights in a hammock.

It was a mild night at the palace. The air was warm and cozy, but Freya still wanted me to cuddle with her like we had in the past. So I obliged and shifted into an Earth Dragon, wrapping her in my protective wings. I didn’t mind being close to her, but I wished I could stay longer in my other form. Besides, the bed was too small for a dragon of my size, and I hung over the edge awkwardly. It was not very comfortable, to say the least. The next morning, I woke up with a nagging curiosity in my mind: I wanted to try the form of an Electric Dragon, but Freya warned me not to do it here. She said it would attract too much attention and cause trouble. So I reluctantly returned to my normal form. We met up with everyone else, enjoyed a hearty breakfast, and in the afternoon, after bidding farewell to our hosts, we were ready to depart. They offered us some guards to escort us back to our destination, but we declined because Akira had another idea. She suggested using another portal instead. So we left and headed for a place that only the SunFlares knew about. A portal that was hidden, intact, and functional that we activated by transforming some elementless crystals into wind crystals. This time, Freya did the enchantment for me.

As we stepped through the portal, we found ourselves in a verdant valley. I was about to exclaim, “Finally!” when a loud and unmistakable eagle’s cry escaped my mouth. Everyone turned to look at me, and I felt a surge of fear and vertigo. I glanced at my body and realized I had taken the wrong shape. I bore a striking resemblance to Solara, the fire eagle, who heard my call and swiftly flew towards us. She spread her talons and pounced on me, pinning my head to the ground with her powerful grip. Freya greeted her politely, but she ignored her and demanded, “Who is this intruder among you? Did he follow you here?” “No, no, he’s one of us. He’s just… I think he’s Nox,” Freya stammered. I tried to say, “It’s me, in the wrong form,” and attempted to shapeshift back to my normal self, but nothing happened. All I could produce were some unintelligible squawks. I couldn’t speak. Solara narrowed her eyes and asked suspiciously, “Are you sure? Since when can he do this?” Freya said, “He learned it recently. Nox, can you please return to your original form?” I tried again but failed. I tried to communicate but failed. I resorted to gestures, but all I had were wings. I shook my head from side to side to indicate no. Freya looked worried and asked, “Why not?” Akira spoke up and said gravely, “I’m afraid he might have fallen victim to a rare phenomenon of body shifting caused by the portal.” Freya gasped and said, “A what?” Akira explained, “Sometimes, very rarely, the portal can alter your appearance. It’s a probability lower than 0.1%, almost impossible but not quite.” Fyrenthos added sarcastically, “He’s very lucky indeed. He could have turned into anything worse than an eagle. A bug, for instance.” I stared at them in panic, struggling to balance and move properly. Everything felt different. My movements and my vision, which were too sharp for my comfort, everything was wrong. Freya asked, “But he should still be able to shapeshift, right? Why can’t he do it now?” Akira shrugged and said, “Maybe he likes it this way, or maybe he’s stuck with it.” I tried to say “I am stuck” and managed to make it sound somewhat clear. They understood me and looked at me with pity.

Freya devised some simple yes-or-no questions and inquired, “So you can’t shapeshift,” and I nodded. She continued, “And also, I see that you can’t talk, correct?” I nodded again, and then Solara interjected. “So, does this mean that I’m not the only one left now?” I shook my head. She was still the only one. This was just a tragic accident. She then offered, “Nox, you know that I could teach you how to talk, right?” I flapped my wings in the gesture of “I don’t know, I hope.”, I tried again to speak and uttered “Help.”, Freya glanced at Solara and Akira, then asked, “Can you help him?” Akira responded, “I don’t know. I can’t shapeshift, and I’ve never read if this is reversible. Maybe he should jump into a portal thousands of times and hope to get back to normal.” Solara was about to say something, but Freya retorted sooner “A thousand times? There must be another way. He can’t show up like that in the kingdom,”, Akira apologized. “I’m sorry, Freya, I don’t know how to help here.” Solara gave me a sweet and kind look. Then she assured me, “I’ll help you with this. Don’t worry, King Nox.” I said, “Thank you.” And finally, I felt like I could talk, so I added more “Freya, even like this, does anything change between us?” She said, “Don’t worry, we’re still together even like this. We’ll maybe fly together in the evening, and I’ll ask for your advice for any decision.” I quickly asked, “Wait, are you keeping me out of the kingdom?” She denied, “No, but I think that you’d rather enjoy doing that than living in it like this, am I right, Solara?” She agreed, saying, “Yeah, the city isn’t made for us giant eagles. It’s better if you stay with me.” I wondered, “Oh no, and how are we going to explain this to our sons and daughters?” At that moment, they made a vision connection “Hi dad, are you back?” I said, “Oh, not now, my dears, please.” Then they noticed, “Wow, you’re really high. How?” and Akira joined the vision connection “Hey kids, look through my eyes. This is the new form of your father,” and they did as instructed. They exclaimed, “Oh, but he’s like the holy sacred eagle. Dad, you look impressive.” I said, “Thank you, but this isn’t a good thing. Sorry, Juno and Luna.” While we were talking, a young light dragon was flying in our direction. Flynn had just reunited with his parents and greeted them warmly: “Welcome back, dad and mom. I’m so happy to see you.” and went for a hug, which fortunately Akira gave him, then said, “We’re happy to see you too, Flynn.” Then he asked, “Who is this new eagle? Did you bring it here?” I spoke for myself: “Thanks to your mother, who made us use a portal, I’m King Nox, now stuck in the form of a giant eagle.” The discussion didn’t last much longer, so we parted ways again. I broke the vision connection with my daughters, reassuring them that I was going to be fine and warning Zephyrion and Vesper about this.

I bid farewell to Freya, Fyrenthos, and Akira as they returned to the kingdom. I had to stay behind with Solara and master the art of flying in my new form. She was patient and supportive as she guided me through the basics. Soon enough, I was soaring through the air with her, but I felt uneasy and out of place. My wings were so large. I had lost two limbs in the process, and I wondered how I would ever adapt to this change.

“Solara,” I asked her as we flew side by side, “how am I supposed to grab things like this?” She looked at me with a smile and said, “You’ll use your beak and your claws, of course. Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it.” I shook my head and said, “But this is only temporary. I’ll find a way to get back to normal. I don’t want to be stuck like this forever.” She chuckled and said sarcastically, “If I were you, I’d embrace this opportunity. Don’t you enjoy being an eagle like me?” I sighed and said, “No offense, but I don’t. I feel limited and restricted. I’m sorry.” She didn’t seem offended and said, “It’s alright. You’ll learn to appreciate it sooner or later. Now, let’s try to land.” She pointed to a forest below us and said, “Pick a sturdy branch and land on it. I’ll follow you shortly.”

I scanned the trees and spotted a branch that looked strong enough to hold me. I angled my wings and descended toward it. I tried to grab it with my claws, but I misjudged the distance and almost slipped off. I flapped my wings frantically and managed to regain my balance. Solara landed next to me and said, “Good job. You’ve mastered landing on a branch. Now, can you move a bit closer to the tree and give me some more space?” I looked at her nervously and said, “Are you sure? I might fall off.” She said reassuringly, “Don’t worry, we’re not that high up. Even if you fall, just glide and slow down your fall.” I nodded and attempted to move along the branch. I loosened my grip with one claw and slid it sideways. Then I did the same with the other claw. It was tricky, but I managed to do it without falling.

I took my first tentative step onto the branch. She smiled and said, “Good. Now try to keep your balance while I push you off.” I protested, “Wait, I’m barely standing here,” but she ignored me and flapped her wings at me. I felt a surge of adrenaline and dodged her gusts, leaping to another branch with ease. I had just learned a new skill by accident. She followed me and resumed her assault, trying to knock me off the tree. I pushed back with my own wings, but she had the advantage of knowing how to use her size and strength. We ended up grappling with each other, chest to chest, until I lost my footing and tumbled down with her. She wrapped her wings around me and stopped our fall, then said, “Not bad. You still need more practice, but you’re a quick learner. You have a natural talent for this.” I thanked her but asked, “How is this going to help me?” She gave me a knowing look and said, “You’re not really wondering that, are you?” I thought for a moment and realized, “You’re teaching me how to survive in the wild, aren’t you?” She nodded and said, “I’m teaching you how to be like me. Nothing unusual.” I smiled and said, “Okay, that sounds good. Thank you.” She winked and nudged me with her wing, trying to make me lose balance again. I retaliated, and we resumed our playful fight. We tried to outsmart and outmaneuver each other on the branches, but she was always one step ahead of me. I managed to push her to the edge of a branch once, but then I made a wrong move and fell on top of her. My head landed next to hers on her soft wing, and she said, “Hey, be careful. Don’t hurt yourself.” Then she added, “You know what? You look really cute like this.” I blushed and said, “Don’t get any weird ideas. But thanks anyway.”

She taught me more about landing, taking off, balancing, and flying for a while, then she said, “Shall we get back to my duty?” I asked, “What duty?” She said, “Guarding the valley. Silly King.” I said, “Okay, how do we do that? We split the area?” She said, “We don’t have to split up. We can just fly high together and watch over everything from there.” She was right about that. With our enhanced vision, we could see everything from a great distance. We soared into the sky, so high that the clouds looked low beneath us. Then we glided on the wind currents. I had learned how to use them to my advantage. The updrafts saved me a lot of energy, but I didn’t feel tired anyway. These wings felt like they belonged to me. They didn’t tire me out. Flying was amazing, and we spent the whole day doing it.

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