#which likely happened before the claude incident

[blvcklizard]

He's so babygirl (a 26 y o mass murderer)

[discopaddock]

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW - PIERRE GASLY

PAIRING: single dad!pierre gasly x polish!fem!reader

GENRE: angst

WORD COUNT: 2380

NOTE: im back finally!! sorry for absence yall i just had a lot of school and i was on a school trip so i wasnt using phone too much. hope you like this one, x.

WARNINGS: burn, missing child, my english, google translated french

If Y/N L/N had haters, Pierre Gasly was one of them. If she had only one hater, it was him. And if she had zero haters, that meant that Pierre Gasly was dead.

Y/N had no idea why Pierre didn't like her so much. If there was something which happened and it didn't have a good outcome, he would always blame her from their whole group.

And because of his father, Claude Gasly didn't like Y/N either. He was Pierre's mini-me so of course he was acting the same as his father.

I guess it was the 2023 winter break, when Y/N, Pierre, Claude, Max, Charles, Arthur, Lorenzo, Lando, Yuki and their girlfriends were together in the Alps and the little guy got lost in the woods, but I'll tell you about it later.

“Enzo, none of them like me so why should I share a room with them?” Y/N asked, when she heard that she was going to be roommates with the Gaslys.

“Come off it-”

“I'm fucking not, for fucks sake, I don't want to share room with them, they are going to kill me and I am fucking serious at this moment” she announced, making Lorenzo, Charles and Max laugh. “I can even sleep on the couch, just not with them,” she added, but then Max said that he can share the room with Pierre and his son, but she would have to share the room with Lando.

She had never felt so thankful in her life before.

Sure, Lando was pretty disgusting, but he was better than the Gaslys, who hated her.

“Hey, hey wait! Y/N!” Verstappen yelled to her, watching as she was running upstairs with her huge suitcase.

“Hey Lando! Guess what, we're sharing a room” the girl said, after entering the bedroom, where Norris was sitting on his bed, which was the one against the window.

“Oh, okay?” He said a little confused, but he didn't mind. He was actually best friends with Y/N, so he was happy about it.

“So um yeah, bye Lando” Max announced after taking his valise and he left the room.

And then the Gaslys had arrived. Claude was an energetic boy. He was full everywhere. And as I said, he was his father's mini-me, so he looked exactly like him; the same ice-blue eyes, brunette hair, a gap between the teeth. As if you did copy paste in real life.

And Pierre liked to have matching clothes with his son, so it was even more copy paste in real life.

And again as I said, Claude was really energetic. And because of that just after taking off his winter clothes and shoes, he ran to his, Pierre's and Max's bedroom, not looking around, so he collapsed with Y/N, who was carrying a mug with a hot tea. This story for little Gasly had a happy ending, unlike L/N, who burned herself with the tea and broke her favourite mug.

“Kurwa mać” she cursed in her native language with teary eyes and a red hand. She quickly picked off parts of the mug and ran to the kitchen and put her hand into cold water. “I'll clean it up in a moment!” she announced but Colette, who saw the whole incident calmed her down, saying that she would do it for her. Fucking hell

“Do you need anything?” Augustin asked, after she entered the kitchen and saw Polishgirl, who still had her hand in the water. “Could you bring me my makeup bag? I have ointment for burns and frostbite in it” Y/N answered and Colette only smiled, nodded her head and went to the room of L/N and Norris.

“How bad does it hurt?” Lando asked, when he entered the kitchen with Y/N's makeup bag.

“Really bad? I guess” the girl answered, wiping her hand with a paper towel. “I don't have any bandages, damn it” she announced, rummaging through the makeup bag.

“Lorenzo's must-have” and with that, Lando ran to the eldest Leclerc's bedroom. “Enzo said if your hand won't stop hurting at night, he will drive you to the hospital,” Norris announced, putting the bandage on his friend's hand. The girl nodded. Her hand was hurting like hell, but she was hoping that she wouldn't have to go to the hospital.

“Fuck, I don't have any mug now” she said after a moment of realization. “I need to go to the town” she said and started walking to their room. Lando followed her, saying that he could go with her. “Be careful with your hand” the boy said, which made the girl roll her eyes. They were almost ready to go, when someone knocked on the door. “Come in!”

“Y/N, I know someone that wants to tell you something” Collette announced after walking to the bedroom. The little boy stood in front of the Polishgirl and mumbled: “Je suis désolé d'être tombé sur toi” I'm sorry I ran into you

“Je ne suis pas en colère, mais fais plus attention la prochaine fois, d'accord?” she answered, crouching, so she could look at Claude's face. I'm not mad, but be more careful next time, okay?

“Je suis désolé pour ta tasse” the boy added. I'm sorry about your mug

He actually felt sorry for that situation.

Sure, he didn't like Y/N, because of his dad, but still she was always kind and nice to him and it was his fault that all of this happened.

“Je ne suis pas en colère, ne t'inquiète pas” she said with a smile on her face and Claude hugged her. L/N had no idea what to do. After a while she hugged him back and because of that, he gripped her even tighter. I'm not angry, don't worry

Finally the boy moved away from her, so she could go with Lando.

“Bye!” the boy waved at them, so did Colette, who had a warm smile on her face.

“I don't remember if little Gasly had ever treated you like this” Norris said, when they finally sat in the girl's car.

“Same, Lando. Like I- fuck, he never liked me” Y/N announced. “Like his dad. Because they act the same but you know. I didn't even think that he would apologise to me”

“Yes, yes, same. Like he never wanted to play with you when we were hanging out, he was just mean to you like Pierre” Lando agreed with her.

“Do you know why Pierre doesn't like me so bad? Because for four years since I met him he always treated me like shit and never told me why” she asked, but her best friend didn't know.

“Since Claude was born he became really protective over him. So maybe it's because he didn't know you before C was born? Like he considered you as an enemy because he thought that you would hurt his beloved son? Like the female defends her young” Lando explained and the girl had no choice but to shrug.

“I don't want to think about them, just let me buy a new mug” Y/N said and got out of the car, so did her best friend.

They came back to the house after two hours, because they also went to the bookstore just to watch some books because they felt the vibe.

“You two were on a date or something?” Charles asked when they entered the living room.

“Who knows?” Lando moved his eyebrows in a suggestive way with a smile on his face. Y/N only shook her head, also smiling.

“Good luck on your new way of life!” Yuki yelled at them, when they were walking to the kitchen. Everyone laughed.

Well, everyone except Pierre who shook his head with a disgusted look. How old were they? 5?

“Oh, Pedro, stop being so boring,” Yuki told his best friend.

“You act like you were five,” Gasly said, which made Yuki laugh even more.

“Why are you laughing?” asked Claude, who just woke up from his nap. His English was broken but as a six year old bilingual boy it was really good.

“Because of your dad, C” Tsunoda answered, sitting the boy on his lap. “He's really jealous, you know” Yuki whispered to the little brunette boy's ear.

“Why is he jealous?” Claude asked, also whispering. “Y/N and Lando,” the Japaneseman answered quickly and quietly.

Well, yes, Pierre was jealous about Y/N and Lando. He was jealous of their relationship. In his opinion, they were together, like they were dating and did all that stuff, which people in love do and he used to do, when he was in a relationship with C's mother, Héloïse.

He was also jealous because he didn't spend as much time with Lando as they used to before the Brit-Belgianman met the Polish Girl during her Erasmus in France.

Plus, Y/N was really attractive, like she had catched a lot of women's or men's eyes, so did he. He wanted to date her actually, but he was at lost point; he fucked up at beginning of their acquaintance.

So Pierre thought that there was no other option, than just pissing her off for the rest of their lives.

On the next day, the whole group went skiing. Some of them like Lando and Arthur were snowboarding also.

It was a fun day. It was the only time when Y/N liked being in the mountains the whole year. Because she was a sea person (just like Pierre).

At twelve, they went to eat lunch. L/N was sitting with Norris, Charles and Colette at the table, while Pierre and the rest were sitting at the other one. It was only because the big table where Pierre was sitting was too small to accommodate them all.

After lunch they went for a walk in the woods. It was fun, relaxing and the trees were looking amazing covered with the white snow.

Everything seemed to be a dream until Pierre realised that he lost his son. They were at the car park, when Gasly realised it.

“No Pierre, you're staying here with Yuki, you're panicking and you won't be helpful in this condition” Lorenzo said, looking into the Frenchman's eyes.

“We should start looking for him as quickly as possible, let's go” Y/N said and ran into the woods, so did Lando, Arthur, Carla, Max, Gabby, Charles, Colette and Lorenzo.

“They'll find him, don't worry” Yuki tried to calm down his best friend, who was crying.

“I fucking lost my son, I'm a horrible father” Gasly scoffed and rested his head against the car seat.

“No, you're not! You raise him on your own, he doesn't have a mother, so you have to be both for him and you are doing it really well. And it is common that kids are lost, when they are small like C” Tsunoda handed the brunette man a tissue, so he could wipe his tears.

“Yes, but in markets not in woods!” Pierre cried out. “I'm so awful. Like fuck, I treated Y/N like shit for these four years and now she was the first person to ran into the woods to look for my son. That fucking hilarious!” he said.

“You should apologise to her” Yuki announced, which made the other man take a deep breath before he started talking again.

“It's too late”

“No, it's not! Y/N is the kindest person I've ever met. Like if you tell her the whole truth that you like her in this romantic way, she will definitely forgive you” the man announced.

“Yeah and that's the problem. I'm grumpy and she is sunshine. I won't tell her that. She doesn't like me back. She's dating Lando” Pierre said.

“You're such an idiot, they're just friends”

And while Yuki was giving Pierre a lesson about Y/N, she was running in the woods just to find the little Gasly. It was getting dark so she was worrying even more about the little boy.

“Claude!” she knew that she shouldn't scream in the woods, but what could she do? She repeated the boy's name a few times, walking deeper into the wood. “Claude!” she yelled again and she was losing her hope, but then she heard a small voice on the left. She quickly ran there and found little Gasly, who was sitting under a tree with blue lips and red hands.

“Oh, Claude” she said and picked him up from the ground. The boy only hugged her and covered his head in her neck. The girl pulled gloves from her jacket pocket and gave it to Gasly to wear them.

She was terrified of his condition.

“I want Papa,” he cried. He was hungry, terrified and frozen. “I know, you'll meet him in a moment, I promise” she announced and kissed his head. “I was chasing a squirrel and then no-one was around” he said, which broke Y/N's heart. He was only six years old and it definitely was a huge trauma for him. “You're safe now. I won't let anything happen to you” she told him. “I think I know why my papa thinks you're pretty,” Claude whispered. “I heard when he was talking about you with Yuki in our living room. I think he likes you, but he doesn't know how to tell you” he added.

Y/N was shocked.

Pierre fucking Gasly was thinking that she was pretty.

“Do you like my papa too?” the boy asked and Y/N had no idea how to answer him.

“Well, he's nice” she only stuttered and started walking faster. It was already dark and she was worried that she would get lost too.

“We're here, Claude” she announced when they were ten metres from the whole group.

Y/N was the last person to show up (as always).

“Is Papa here?” little Gasly asked, but the girl didn't answer him, because both of them were hugged by no-one other than Pierre. “Papa!” Little Gasly gasped after he recognised his father by his smell.

“Je suis tellement désolé, Claude” the man said. “Et merci, Y/N, merci beaucoup” he added. I'm so sorry, Claude. And thank you, Y/N, thank you so much.

The talk with Yuki gave him a lot to think about himself, her and how he treated her and how he wanted to treat her.

[ym-loreposting]

The Gloucester Conspiracy

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is home to many story threads that are only really explored in side content such as supports and paralogues found in it and its spin-off Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. One of these storylines has to do with the death of Raphael's parents and might reveal more about a hidden power struggle going on in the Leicester Alliance. Spoilers for both games follow.

The 'accidental' death of Raphael's parents

Raphael is a character from the Golden Deer house in Three Houses, which represents the Leicester Alliance in the east of Fódlan. Three years before the start of the game, his parents were killed by monsters according to his in-game profile. In his support line with his friend and fellow Golden Deer student Ignatz in Three Houses, more details are given about the event. Both Raphael and Ignatz's parents were merchants working in the Alliance and Raphael's parents were attacked while they were traveling for work. This happened after Ignatz's parents declined to work that job because they had other business, so they recommended Raphael's parents instead.

This all seems straightforward enough, but is complicated in the Paralogue Death Toll, which involves both Raphael and Ignatz. It is revealed at the start that merchants traveling from the lands controlled by House Gloucester of the Alliance to those of House Riegan suffer far more monster attacks than those traveling in the opposite direction. Of note is that House Riegan is the leading house of the Leicester Alliance.

The battle of the Paralogue involves saving merchants from such a monster attack. However, there are also some people mixed in with the monsters who seem to be controlling them. These are identified as Alliance Generals who speak of performing some duty and not looking forward to telling a count if they fail to kill the merchants. In the aftermath of the battle, a surviving merchant speculates that Count Gloucester is behind the attacks because he is unhappy with the merchants contributing to House Riegan's wealth.

More pressingly, it is also said that such a scheme was behind the death of Raphael's parents. At the time, they were traveling with the incumbent Duke Riegan, called Godfrey, because Count Gloucester had invited them to strike a deal about some art pieces. Raphael's parents were brought along to assess the value of the pieces in question, but all met their demise at the hands of monsters.

Vying for control of the Alliance

This is not where the story ends however, as both the Shadow Library added in Three Houses's DLC and Warriors: Three Hopes elaborate on these events. The Shadow Library is a library located in Abyss where forbidden books end up, likely those discarded by Seteth from the surface library of Garreg Mach Monastery as explained by a Monk in Chapter 4 of Three Houses:

There are numerous books in this library that you cannot find anywhere else. But once you are here, you can read them easily enough. I doubt someone would go to the trouble of stealing one. Sometimes Seteth will dispose of books that are deemed inappropriate for the monastery, but that's about it.

In the readable book Burnt Remnants of a Report, the following is written about the situation:

… son of the Alliance’s leader, Duke Oswald Riegan, has died in an accident. This follows an incident involving the previous successor, and even the Knights of Seiros suspect it was at Count Gloucester’s command, though it seems too conspicuous. There is some concern that this could spark a war. With Duke Riegan gravely ill, the situation is…

It seems the Church of Seiros also suspected something was going on, but war between Gloucester and Riegan was averted according to the Japanese version of the report due to the sickness of Duke Oswald Riegan (the father of Godfrey and grandfather of Claude von Riegan, see family tree for clarification).

The question becomes as to why Count Gloucester would orchestrate the assassination of Godfrey von Riegan, leaving House Riegan to the leadership of his elderly and ailing father Oswald. Given that Oswald dies during the timeskip in Three Houses, it is save to say that the goal was to cause a crisis of leadership in the Leicester Alliance. At the time Godfrey is killed, the existence of Claude is not yet known in the Alliance after all as he only came to Fódlan two years later. A power vacuum would have been created in Leicester without Godfrey after the death of Oswald. House Gloucester is also an important house in Leicester and Lorenz, Count Gloucester's son, often emphasizes how he wants to lead Leicester in Claude's stead in the main game. The bid may have been for House Gloucester to take control of the Alliance.

Schemers in the dark

However, the Burnt Remnants of a Report also emphasize that Count Gloucester might not be behind this conspiracy. It seems too conspicuous in the words of the report and there is implied that there might be another party at play.

Three Hopes further elaborates on this idea, first of all by giving a name and a face to Count Gloucester: Erwin Fritz Gloucester. He is shown to be a pragmatic leader who wishes to protect the people of his lands and is willing to switch sides between the Adrestian Empire and the Alliance during the war that breaks out between the three nations of Fódlan during the game. He is less focused on becoming leader of the Alliance than his son Lorenz as well.

Furthermore, Three Hopes directly gives more details on the incident wherein Raphael's parents and Godfrey von Riegan were killed in the Paralogue Unsettling Truths. In the Paralogue, Lorenz (now Count Gloucester after his father retired), Ignatz and Raphael go to confront a group of bandits wreaking havoc in Gloucester territory. It just so happens these are the same bandits who worked as mercenaries for Erwin and were responsible for the death of Godfrey. The bandits are apprehended and questioned by Lorenz, where more information is revealed.

The bandits claim that when they still worked as mercenaries, they first had normal jobs like protecting villages. However, they one day received orders from an envoy of Erwin to threaten merchants going to Riegan territory. They balked at this idea and instead chased monsters into the path of the merchants to scare them away. This worked at first and might be what was seen in the Paralogue Death Toll. The people in that Paralogue were identified as Alliance Generals instead of mercenaries, but this might be an oversight or translation error in either Three Houses or Three Hopes (given the fact that Godfrey is also erroneously identified as Claude's grandfather instead of his uncle in Unsettling Truths).

Nonetheless, this all eventually led to the incident where Godfrey and Raphael's parents were killed. It seemed the envoy was someone from House Gloucester acting alone and by the time Erwin learned what happened according to Lorenz, the culprit had vanished. Instead Erwin punished the mercenaries and they became bandits afterwards.

The question remains as to who this culprit is. In Unsettling Truths, it is said that Erwin refuses to discuss these matters with Lorenz and instead changes the subject when it comes up. Ignatz meanwhile calls out a scheme like this one seems ill befitting of Erwin's character and motivations of protecting the reputation of the nobility.

It does however fit the modus operandi of another group in Fódlan very well, and that is that of Those Who Slither in the Dark or the Agarthans. They have the ability to shapeshift and so one of them could have easily impersonated someone from House Gloucester to orchestrate the death of Godfrey von Riegan. The Agarthans had also been sowing political turmoil in Fódlan in the years before Three Houses and Three Hopes take place, as they also had hands in the Insurrection of the Seven in the Adrestian Empire and the Tragedy of Duscur in the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus.

If Erwin was aware of the Agarthans' involvement is hard to say, as he is never seen directly commenting on these events. Three Hopes seems to clear him of most suspicion, but if he believed the death of Godfrey could benefit his people, he might have turned a blind eye, given his pragmatic attitude. And what exactly the Agarhtans were trying to gain with this whole scheme is perhaps best left for another time. Their involvement in this incident seems pretty clear either way, as the Remnants of a Burnt Report seems to cover incidents in which the Agarthans were involved as well.

[channnel]

Okay, so- My drawing of Jules is nearly done BUT my hand hurts from drawing the flowers and my eyes hurt cause I've been staring at my tab for a week and my back's a banana now.

So, since I haven't posted some actual art in this blog- Here are my random headcanons of the brothers in My Dear hatchet man. This is purely fan-made, alright? I'm bored and this headcanons have been in my mind for months.

Claude

Claude fully knows that he looks good in dark colors and will not wear any other hues even if you paid him. Even if it's summer, he will still wear dark clothes.

The type of man that will glare down a kid in public if the kid is being a little shit (Same goes to the parent).

Claude would stare at wall for long minutes before answering a call from Jules.

Will judge Jules' healthy eating diet despite having the same exact diet.

The type of guy that hates being treated differently because he's handsome but also often uses the same treatment to get what he wants.

Nobody in his workplace know who he is. Nobody knows where he lives, nobody knows if he has any family- pretty sure that most of his ex-partners doesn't even know that he got younger brothers, and so on, and so forth. They just knew that Claude is a rich, good-looking photographer with a French accent.

Believes that Alan is probably working in an organized crime, he watches the news just in case Alan's name come out... Same goes to James.

Jules

Use filters, stickers and quotes in all of his social media post.

90% of what he says are all passive-aggressive and he genuinely thinks that he helps people.

Probably has a bit of a hoarding problem.

Would judge James' DIY hobby despite also doing it.

The type that would watch a kid being a little piece of shit and would promptly tell the nearest person where their parents at and judge their parenting style. same thing goes with noisy pets in public.

Would give Claude fruit bouquet everytime they meet cause Jules know damn well that Claude can't throw it out and will be force to appreciate and eat Jules' gift so it will not rot.

Would say to others that Alan simply move away and that they haven't talked for a long time. His neighbors and friends probably believed that Jules' younger brother is simply living in a cottage with a bunch of dogs and cats. Would also say made-up stories of Alan if his neighbors asked more before promptly shutting it down.

Alan (Honestly, I don't have much headcanons on the two younger bros)

Will recite the full script of any classic horror movie in rapid succession, filled with actions and diy sound effects. If it's night time, then get ready for him to shout out every words.

Still uses Canadian terms rather than the American one.

Sometimes wonder if he looks cool using other types of weapons instead of a hatchet. Knows a lot of trickshots with his hatchet.

Doesnt like statues.

knows every domestic dogs and cats in Doomsbury, he even has his own names for them and he probably knows the pets even more in a spiritual level.

is also the type that would glare down a kid if they're being an annoying piece of shit, and immediately disappear if the kid starts crying.

In college au, I like to headcanon that not only did the boss in that AU gave him a scholarship- but also hide an unfortunate event between Alan, a hatchet, and some guy.

James

⬆️That's him everytime he argued with someone, lost a friend, or had another break up.

Believes that Alan is now living in a forest away from society, which is somewhat accurate. Often thinks about Alan a lot, and wonder if he's doing okay after the incident- doesn't hide away the fact that Alan ran away and will tell what actually happened to very, very close friends of his.

The type of guy that would deliberately trip a kid in public without the parents noticing- especially if the kid is being a little shit.

"Shit, I accidentally have way too much fun solving those problems in my exam and now my brothers are gonna expect better from me" Got immediately accused of cheating.

Saw his two older brothers years after the incident but was disappointed to see that they haven't changed, so he doesn't talk to them nor accept Jules' multiple invites. Ended up changing his number after some time, did not regret about it.

Always give himself a pep talk everytime he woke up.

Can efficiently argue with someone in fluent sign language without pause, Style all of his clothes on his own, has wrote numerous songs in his guitar, very good at Parkour, and he can juggle three crowbars.

Dixon Dallas, Good lookin.

And that's all folks.

[randomnameless]

Thoughts on these… “interesting” interpretations of the main 3H countries from a Twitter user?

“I don't get thinking that any of adrestia/faerghus/leicester are the "good" country like. the text of three houses makes perfectly clear that all three of these countries have very serious problems and one of them *is* imperialism. all three do it.”

“all of the main protagonists want to change the way their country is run! you don't need to be like "oh faerghus is the Good country" faerghus' current leadership is explicitly very bad. they committed genocide four years before the game starts. adrestia *just* annexed brigid.”

“I'm very confused as to how you can see sylvain wanting to end border aggression with sreng and dimitri & dedue wanting duscur returned to its people and be like "faerghus is a Good Country"”

Methinks someone drank a bit too much Earl Grey before writing these tweets.

For a second I had war flashbacks from that link @tomeofthoron sent me some time ago about a video where someone tried to make historical parallels between Fodlan and RL countries/states -

But thank goodness I misread lol

Maybe you cut it, but the Twitter user didn't mention Leicester lol

(maybe because it would mean giving some fucks about Almyra being a shit state, and you can't do that without creating holes in Claude's stories, that are never closed)

And it's again a situation of people using words they don't understand, whatever happened with Faerghus in the, uh, immediate years before the game isn't imperialism - Sreng attacks the border for ressources, and Duscur was framed for regicide so wrongly received "retaliation".

Adrestia tried to annex Brigid for years and treat their princess like crap - and also, because that twitter user might have, uh, forgotten it, it has a percentage of people who wants to MAGA, which is exactly what happens in game when Supreme Leader declares her war after calling the other nations "offshoots" of her Empire.

For people who apparently love earl grey, you can compare the head of a state who routinely orders invasions of an archipelago, punishes people who don't live in his state and has a "make my empire great again by unifying the world under my banner" to a state whose head was decapited by dissenting bannermen who frame other people leading to their massacre, create a quasi-civil war and are totally not backed up by the previously mentionned Empire.

Faerghus is in a state of political unrest since the death of Lambert, which led to the massacres in Duscur - and they're trying to protect their border with Sreng.

Adrestia wanted to MAGA and routinely invaded Brigid while being "politically stable", the Insurrection not having any incidence on those policies.

So, hm, between the two, I'll still pin the "most imperialist" medal on MAGA Adrestia.

But Faerghus BaD because it's developped as falling to ruin which makes everyone put their hopes on Dimitri (with the results we know) after regicide - when Adrestia wants to MAGA and MAGAs in the game thanks to Supreme Leader...

Tldr: Faerghus BaD - Dimitri BaD - Rhea BaD

[vr2]

wtf is going on in this church, my little guys brother just got turned into a dragon that we had to mercy kill as a class and he still has school tomorow!? we are not doing school today we are going to get a happy meal and watch the breakfast club in class!!!

rambling thoughts below

im having a lot of fun liastening to the supports, i rly enjoy the character writing. my main chars are claude, hilda and sylvain and recently ingrid. i am trying to recruit as many as i can but lifes hard i am a bad teacher :(

i picked the golden deer in the end just because it felt right but edelgard and dimitri are extremely charging. i really wish i could recruit them too. i am hoping for a true end with all three house leaders alive. edelgard and claude are easily the most interesting characters outright in the school roster but jeritza, jeralt, rhea and seteth seem to hold the most interest of the non-school chars. my current thoguhts: claude is possibly an usurper of house riegan. his father either exiled or killed on purpose rather than an accident. i think he's keenly aware the grand duke (his grapa) will soon be out of the picture. there's a hierarchy in the alliance and the weaker houses have already defected such as daphnel becoming galatea with ingrid's support. claude intends to exploit that, he knows a lot abt crests but for what purpose? i think he was atempting to use his crest along with the sword of the creator to fully exert his control over the alliance. house riegan is the defacto largest stakeholder but the fact that house daphnel would even defect to faerghus for the sake of money says a lot abt how tenuous the ties between alliance nobles are. ive just got to flayn being saved and learning more abt crests. crests are the most powerful object in this world as it demarks you as able to use the relic weapons. you are born with crests via rng and crests automatically make you of noble blood. it is another object of status/power in the world. but due to the rng, this means that older noble children without crests are thrown by the wayside. naturally this isn't the greatest situation for the non-crest noble kids as we can see with miklan and sylvain. the crest nobles like ingrid and marianne are used like bargaining tools to cement their families power in the world. its especially grim for the ladies bc bloodlines, ingrids story was particularly emo for me.

there's also the politics of the world. as far as i can tell, there's in-universe racism against people of duscur and there was an incident to do with the faerghus king (dimitris dad) being killed IN duscur? ill be honest this wasnt super clear to me but the npc chatter denotes that people think ill of dedue bc of duscur discriminiation.

idk or care about why felix's dad is at the monastery hes annoying. but it seems the church has the most authority within the land. which is. concerning, given rheas bloodlust. the whole church of serios is bamboozling. rhea is definitely 100% either the actual main goddess OR she is her direct descendant. i think seteth and flayn are also her descendants bc of how they look. there's also that one line where rhea for some reason trails off before calling flayn seteths sister making me think that seteth and flayn are HER descendants actually and she is their like x15 great grandmother or something. flayn is also born on the same day as one of the saints which hints at it more and more.

thinking on the opening movie (which i wish was in better quality) - i think that's miss seiros/rhea and she stole nemesis' sword and put it in a fake tomb and declared herself dead to live as a human forevermore.

i have no fucking clue who we are or who sothis is but i love this little kusogaki. shes so moe. i really truiy cant wait to see what happens. i am about to slap jeritza around i hope i can kiss him.

[the-tactician-magician]

It seems like you guys liked the last one of these I did sooo have another. The template for this one can be found here, and my rationale can be found under the cut.

First image:

They both trust each other very much, and don't get jealous because of it. :3

I said 7 years because I'm setting this when Claude reunites with Byleth in their ending card, which takes place several months after the end of VW. Throne claiming speed running tactics ftw

Byleth can be either bi or ace depending on my mood, but she still has low horny levels. Claude is ace or demi depending on my mood, and this is the hill I will die on.

Claude is mostly a nerd but gets some jock points for riding a wyvern. He also doesn't seem very goth at all IMO. But Byleth is more on the goth side (Ashen Demon anyone?), and the only things stopping her from being full jock is her love of teaching and Claude's own nerdiness.

Both would rather show their love in private, though PDA isn't entirely out of the question. Claude likes to talk, Byleth likes to do.

Claude is hesitant about starting crimes unless someone else makes the first move, but he'll certainly (and chaotically) finish them. While Byleth isn't as chaotic as Claude, she harbors less patience and might cause diplomatic incidents with uppity nobles.

"Why do you still call me Teach when we're married?" "Hey, you called me a little shit (affectionate) once, so I will hold onto my nicknaming rights."

If I had realized that I can fill in both squares, some of these items might have both squares filled in, but alas. Just pretend that I mean 'which one is more likely to do this'.

Claude's the one that confesses and proposes first, but Byleth is the one that initiates contact, kissing, and says the L word first. Interesting contrast? This is because Claude tends to be unsure of his feelings, especially when it comes to romance, but once he decides he wants to be serious, he won't hesitate to be serious. And Byleth is slightly more horny that Claude lol

Byleth would die for Claude, but she also pragmatic enough to know that it's better to survive and turn back time when needed lmao. Still hurts every time she sees Claude die though. :(

I'd like to think that they both want kids, but Claude is the one who brings it up first! Also Byleth is scared about having kids after what happened to her mom, but Claude reassures her and will be with her every step of the way.

Don't really have much else to say about the other squares because they're pretty obvious lol

Second image:

It seems Byleth can't shake her professorial attitude, even after all these years...

Happy Claude is happy, though he can be edgy if he wants to, especially if someone is threatening those he love. When he stops making jokes, watch out, cause that's when he's getting serious. Byleth, meanwhile, used to be pretty edgy, but has softened somewhat due to Claude and her duties as queen.

Claude likes puns but he's not addicted to him like Alois. Byleth isn't great at humor but when she makes a good pun, Claude is like :O :D I'm so proud of you!

Claude always stays up late. Byleth can stay up late but prefers to go to bed at a reasonable time, and then nags Claude about getting enough sleep.

Claude can be mature sometimes but his maturity pales compared to Byleth's. Though it's important to distinguish maturity and naivety, because Byleth (and Claude lol) can be hella naive too.

Both of them are good with animals! But Claude is better with big ones like wyverns and horses. When Byleth moves into the Almyran Royal Palace, she immediately fills it up with cats and dogs lol

Claude enjoys a good feast, but he likes his quiet time too. And since Byleth vastly prefers staying at home, he's happy to give up a party for her sake.

Both of them can be either spoon, though if I had to pick, Claude spoons Byleth more often due to size.

Claude doesn't want to kill bugs, so he has to get to them before Byleth does...

Claude's clothes are comfy, so Byleth steals them pretty frequently. Not that Claude minds, since she has bad fashion sense lmao

If Claude swears, he swears in Almyran so Fodlanders don't understand him (and the reverse is true lol). Byleth swears more often, but she's still pretty quiet and stoic when she swears.

At first, Claude wants Byleth's attention for teacher's pet reasons, but he didn't give up that habit when they married. In fact, since Byleth is one of the few people Claude can trust with his true self, he misses her when she isn't around. :( Byleth is decently independent, but she'll miss Claude too if he's absent.

Claude would prefer to talk things out first but he isn't above stabbing. Though nowadays, he uh leaves the stabbing to Byleth.

Both of them can cook, though Claude is better at it because he uses spices.

Both of them can drive, though Byleth has a terrible sense of direction.

Claude's room is always a mess, with books and papers strewn everywhere. Byleth hates it that she can't sit down without sitting on a book, but she can hardly complain considering her own bad habits...

[maddiwrites]

The Hybrid (Prologue)

Pairing: JJ x Reader

Summary: The Pogues rekindle their friendship with their old childhood best friend and JJ’s first crush, Y/N. Old feelings resurface for JJ and Y/N, possibly leading to a summer neither one of them could ever forget. Due to past trauma, Y/N is reluctant to let anyone into her heart, but JJ never backs down from a challenge, even if he knows it will come back to haunt him in the end.

Note: So happy to be back with another series!!! I honestly really missed posting. Unlike Secrets of the Shore, updates will be slower because I don’t have them all written out yet. A couple things I wanted to let you know before you read. I based Y/N’s family off of Gilmore Girls. I thought they were the perfect fit for this story and the show in general and I just love their dynamic. (Including Luke who I renamed Steve for obvious reasons). Chapter 1 will explain more obviously but I wanted to give you guys a little snippet of the characters and relationships. So let me know what y'all think!

Word Count: 3.3k

Outer Banks. Paradise on Earth. It's the sort of place where you either have two jobs or two houses. Two tribes, one island. As you know, the Outer Banks is essentially divided into two groups. If we want to be blunt - it’s the rich and the poor. Figure Eight is home to the rich. Aka the Kooks. With houses bigger than necessary with extra rooms that go untouched, boats the size of homes on the Cut - the other side of the island. Most people who live on Figure Eight are your naturally raised assholes. People who don’t know the value of a dollar and take advantage of people who do most of their dirty work that lets them prance around the island with perfectly manicured fingernails. These hard workers are the Pogues. They live on the south side of the island where most Kooks wouldn’t be found dead. They serve fancy meals at the country club for shitty tips, mow lawns, and work their asses off at any other job for minimum wage. The drastic difference in lifestyles tend to cause many spats and arguments between the two communities. Especially between the teenagers who still don’t know how to control their raging emotions or know when to bite back their tongue. For the Kooks, every fight is a fight for dominance where as the Pogues fight for equality - to put the Kooks in their place. Many of these fights happen at summer parties where the two groups clash to find a good time with their friends filled with alcohol, drugs, and good music.

That’s where they find themselves tonight. The infamous Pogues. John B, JJ, Kie, Pope, and now Sarah Cameron. Although born a natural Kook, she’s earned her spot next to the adventurous teens and her boyfriend. Unlike her brother Rafe who basically is the leader of his notorious group. Topper and Kelce are his best friends who follow him blindly.

The Pogues watch them from their spot surrounding the keg. Kie purses her lips in distaste as the boys cat call for the ladies around them. Somehow most of them finding it flattering. Sarah sips on her beer to hide her embarrassment, often wondering how she and her brother grew up to be so different. Pope and John B stay mostly disinterested, only worried if they try to make a pass at an unwilling girl or fire a degrading comment at their short tempered friend. JJ Maybank is known around the island for his trouble making behavior. Usually if he gets in trouble for fights, no one ever asks who the other people were in the scuffle. Because if JJ Maybank is in the fight, he’s the one who started it, right? Wrong. In fact, JJ usually is never the one to start it. He’s good at keeping his head down and only speaking when spoken to when it comes to the Kooks - the only form of advice worth taking from his father. But his short temper is something the Kooks his age loved to take advantage of because they liked getting a rise out of him. It was like an adrenaline rush.

Luckily, tonight both groups were keeping their distance, either only talking to each other or random Tourons that have found their way to the party. This is usually JJ’s favorite part of a boneyard party. Finding his one fish in a sea of many that he can reel in just for the night and never have to worry about seeing them again.

He has his eyes set on a beautiful blonde making her way to the bonfire when all of a sudden Kie’s voice pulls him out of his trance.

“What’s she doing here?”

JJ follows her line of vision, spotting you walking down the wooden steps that lead to the beach, pulling your best friend behind you by his wrist. He first notices your smile and how it brightens up your entire face. Then of course his eyes scan down your slim but athletically toned body. You’re wearing a pair of jean shorts and a cropped white T shirt that says UNC across the chest. Who knew someone could look so good without even trying?

Well JJ did. He’s known it for a while.

“Careful. I think you’re drooling,” John B whispers in his best friend’s ear.

JJ pushes him away and mutters, “Shut up. No I’m not.”

But maybe he was.

Y/N Y/L/N is a unique resident of the island. Unlike majority of the island, she doesn’t fall in either Kook or Pogue category. She’s what everyone calls the Hybrid.

People who work hard for what they have but haven’t fallen to be Pogue status. Quite literally living in the middle in a place they call the Crest.

Your story is well versed among the gossipers of the island (which tends to be just about everybody).  And mainly that’s because of who your grandparents are.  Claude and Doris Y/L/N. Two of the riches people on the island, living in a three story house on the beach. Many people fear them, others envy them. Most feel both. Even Ward Cameron walks on egg shells around them, which is quite often, considering he works for Claude. They’re the kind of people who have never heard of Barefoot wine or Walmart. They keep their noses up and turn a blind eye to the suffering communities around them. Thirty four years ago, Doris gave birth to a daughter that couldn’t be more opposite than them. Lorelai Y/L/N was a wild child. A rule breaker. She snuck out at nights, dated boys her parents would never approve of, dabbled in breaking the law here and there. It didn’t matter how many times her parents disciplined her. She always managed to make her parents’ life a living hell. 

No one was surprised when word got passed around that Lorelai had gotten pregnant at eighteen. Although it was with another Kook, she brought shame upon her family name when she refused to get an abortion, even when her mom tried dragging her by her hair. 

Lorelai risked everything by running away from her parents’ home in the middle of a windy night. With only one suitcase, the baby daddy out of the picture, and less than a grand in her pocket, she managed to make a life for herself on the South side of the island. She worked two jobs, found an affordable apartment for cheap rent, and managed to save some money before her babies were born.

Yes, babies. As in more than one. Five months after running away from home, she gave birth to twin girls and they instantly became her entire life. With the help of her best friend Steve, who she met one month after being on her own, meeting him at his automotive shop when she very much literally rolled her junky car into the garage, she raised you and your sister on the Cut. The two of you are her greatest accomplishment. Every now and then, she mentally throws up a middle finger to everybody who doubted her, proud of who the two of you have become. 

Right before you turned ten, your mom took a business risk and opened her own Cafe. The Bikini Beans cafe, very popular amongst both Kooks and Pogues. The business did so well that she was able to move the three of you out of your shitty apartment into a beautiful one story home with three bedrooms in between the Cut and Figure Eight, aka the Crest, the summer going into your freshman year.

You actually used to be best friends with John B Routledge, JJ Maybank, and Pope Heyward. It was easier being friends with them than the girls, finding more joy in sports and rough housing than makeup and gossip. 

Doing the same summer that you moved, your mom pulled you out of Kildare County High and placed you in Outer Banks Private Academy. Aka Kook Academy. Around this time, your grandparents had also become more involved in your life, and you wondered if they had somehow bribed your mom into forcing you to transfer schools. You tried asking her during one of your many fights that started with you begging her to keep you at Kildare County High, but she quickly shut you down and told you to be grateful. That was ironic coming from the woman who ran away from the people giving her an expensive high school career. 

You had no choice but to do what your grandparents wanted and attend Kook Academy. Making friends was a lot harder there than it was in Kildare County High. You managed to make one friend in your freshman year. Andre Cortez. Due to an incident a couple years back, you built thick walls and Andre was the only one able to break them down. You were grateful for your friendship, but hanging out with him was nothing like hanging out with the Pogues. 

When you transferred schools, you lost touch with the Pogues slowly. Your life became busy with school and playing dress up for your grandparents and the boys were starting to work. Eventually all contact was cut and ever since, you’ve felt a void in your heart.

“Look,” You tell Andre. “I told you I would be your wing woman and I’m not backing down from what could possibly be the most important role in my life.”

You didn’t notice the Pogues or any of the stares around you. It’s true you’re not much of a party girl. I mean, you’ll go out here and there, have a drink or two, but you felt more comfortable at places where you weren’t surrounded by drunk and horny teenagers. 

“He’s probably not even here,” Andre says. He’s trying to look nonchalant but you notice the way his eyes dance from face to face of the people around him. 

“He told you he was going to be here, right?” You ask him with one brow raised. Andre nods. “Then, we’ll find him.”

Sarah and Kie never made any effort to talk to you at school, but to be fair, neither have you. You’ve heard mixed reviews, some people call them spoiled brats, ungrateful...some even go as far as calling them ‘The Cut Sluts.’ Of course you never take any of those things to heart. You can’t judge a book but it's cover. Plus, they’re friends with your old best friends. They can’t be that bad for John B and JJ and Pope to be hanging out with them, right?

“You think she'll come over here?” Kie asks. No one’s ever said it out loud, but her friends wonder if deep down, Kie was a little jealous of you. Because you were their first real girl friend. You were the first girl they ever let in and opened their heart too. That was a tough pill for Kie to swallow when she originally thought she was that girl. Of course the boys don’t like you any more than Kie and vice versa. But sometimes Kie wishes she could have grown up with the boys the same way you had. 

“Probably not. Unless she’s drinking,” Pope says and motions towards the keg they’re near. 

“I have an idea,” John B says and fills up a red solo cup. He hands it to JJ. “Why don’t you go offer her a cup.”

JJ snags the cup out of John B’s hand and glares at him. “Fuck off, dude.” 

“Do you guys ever see her around at school?” Pope asks the girls.

Sarah shrugs. “Not really. She doesn’t really get a long with my old group of friends.”

Kie rolls her eyes. “No one gets along with your old group of friends.”

Sarah playfully shoves Kie by the shoulder and they laugh. 

“I heard she turned down Raymond Easterling a couple weeks ago and he didn’t take it very well,” Pope says, remembering the words he heard from the kids in his class roaming the school hallways. 

Raymond goes to Kildcare County High with the Pogues. He’s known to be a trouble maker and a class clown. He works with JJ at the country club. The kid can make JJ laugh sometimes, but he wouldn’t necessarily say he likes him all that much. He can be an arrogant asshole with an ego bigger than it should be.

“She turns down everybody,” Sarah says. “Some people at my school call her ‘The Heart Sucker’ because she can pull people in with the snap of her fingers and break their heart just as quickly.”

Something stirred in the pit of JJ’s stomach.

“Hey! Where you going?” John B calls out to JJ who’s making his way deeper into the sea of people on the beach. 

“Taking advantage of a good boneyard party, my friend,” JJ calls back and slugs the rest of his beer. Looking left and right, he searches for the blonde he had eyes on earlier. Because right now, he needed a distraction. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

The party starts to die down a little after midnight. Some people leave to find another party, some are passed out in the back of their cars, and others had already found what they were looking for - someone to leave with. 

The boneyard party wasn’t as bad as you expected it to be. You had found a couple of kids from your school who were nice enough to make small talk with you while Andre left to find a guy named Devon, a Touron he’s been talking to who’s renting for the entire summer. 

Now you’re waiting for Andre to come back so the two of you can walk home. You find comfort under a slanted palm tree towards the back of the beach, scrolling through random apps on your phone to pass the time.

“Y/N?” You look up from you phone and smile when you see your former best friend inching closer to you, squinting in the dark to see if it’s really you. 

“Maybank? What are you still doing here?” You stand up and pat the sand off your hands on you thighs. 

Your heart skips a beat in your chest when you look at him. He’s beautiful. Lucious blonde hair, perfectly tanned skin, piercing blue eyes. You always knew JJ was going to grow up to be gorgeous. He was cute when he was younger. At least you always thought so. 

“I was just leaving, but I thought I saw you sitting here and wanted to make sure you were all right.” He knows it’s not like you to stay this late at a party, especially all by yourself. When he first saw you sitting there, he didn’t know if he should say something. Mostly due to nerves of seeing you again. But the other Pogues had already left and he didn’t trust anyone else at the party to be near you alone late at night. It didn’t matter if you were sober or not. 

“Aw. Was JJ Maybank worried about me?” You tease. Talking to him felt easy. As if you never stopped being friends. A few years ago, you and JJ had the best banter. Despite constantly bickering back and forth, John B always swore the two of you would get married one day. The two of you just always clicked like a natural connection. And even now, when only seeing each other every now and then for a few minutes at a time, it felt normal. You smirk when JJ rolls his eyes. “I’m kidding. Yeah, I’m okay. Just waiting for my friend to come back from his little rendezvous,” You say. 

JJ nods. “Did you have a good time? I feel like I never you see at these things.”

“Yeah. Parties aren’t really my thing. But Andre was nervous to meet this guy he’s been talking to for a little while so I came for moral support.”

“Looks like he didn’t need much of the support.”

You shrug. “It’s better that way, anyway. I don’t mind waiting for him. What about you?”

“What about me?” 

“Did you have a good time tonight? I hear your quite the ladies’ man at these things.”

“Come on, Sparky. You know better than to believe everything you hear.”

Your face lights up at the mention of your old nickname. You use to always be busting out the seams with energy. On days where the boys just wanted to chill and play video games, you would drag them to the park for a game of kick ball. Or when they wanted to sleep in after a long week, you showed up at 8 am to drag them out of bed to catch the morning waves. So one day JJ started calling you Sparky, and it stuck with the rest of your little gang. You always pretended to hate it, but secretly you loved it. 

“Oh I don’t believe everything I hear. I do, however, believe what I see. And your arm around that tall blonde in the little black dress looked quite convincing.”

You first saw JJ at the party when he was making his way to the pretty girl by the water. Your teeth involuntarily clenched and there was a twisted feeling in your stomach you couldn’t shake whenever you looked at them. 

In that instant, JJ felt grateful for the dark sky. He felt the rush of heat rise up his neck to his cheeks before he could stop it. He knew the motivation to see that girl was because of you. He just wished you never saw it. But he didn’t know why. 

“I walked her home. She wasn’t my type,” JJ plays it off. 

“I didn’t realize you had a type,” You giggle, but a small part felt relieved to hear this. “So what is it? Your type?”

Hybrids with a Pogue attitude, bright smile, beautiful eyes, and a mouth that could make any sailor turn around, JJ thought. 

“I don’t know. Haven’t figured it out yet.”

You roll your eyes playfully. “Well, when you figure it out let me know.”

“Why? So you can transform into my ideal girl?” He teases.

Now you’re the one thankful for the dark sky. “In your dreams, Maybank. But so far, I do have the perfect wing-woman track record, so if you needed help -”

“I don’t think I need any help in that department. Thank you very much.”

You throw your hands up in fake surrender. “Ooo. Touchy subject.”

JJ rolls his eyes at the same time your phone pings with a text message. You pull it out of your shorts pocket and open the text from Andre, telling you to leave without him because he’s gonna stay out late with Devon and won’t know what time he’s going to be done.

“Everything all right?” JJ says, watching you read the message.

You lock your phone and stuff it in your back pocket again. “Like I said. Perfect wing-woman track record.”

“That was Andre?” 

“Yeah. He’s most likely not coming home tonight.”

“Lucky bastard.”

“At least one of us is,” You joke. 

JJ’s grin slightly falters but you don’t catch it. You have no idea how much he wishes the two of you could be equally as lucky. Together. 

“Well, I should probably go,” You say and bend down to grab your flip flops.

“Let me walk you home,” JJ offers. 

“Oh no. It’s okay -”

“You’re cute. It’s wasn’t up for debate. I’m not letting you walk back by yourself.”

You scoff lightly. “I’ll be fine.”

“Just humor me.”

You roll your eyes and smirk but choose not to argue. In fact, you’re excited to spend more time with JJ. It’s been so long.

“Fine.”

“And here I thought you might’ve grown out of your stubborn phase by now.”

You shove him playfully by the shoulder. “Shut up!”

And just like that, it felt like old times.

[animeyanderelover]

Hello again, I had another order idea, which maybe you can do?

Imagine a scenario where the Yanderes! Black Butler (Ciel, Sebastian, Alois, Claude, Ash and another character of his choice) arrives late somewhere and sees the reader dead, but something strange happens and the day starts again and the reader returns from death? [ just like in the movie Happy Death Day ]. As if the reader had a kind of power to come back from death and remember how they died and only she and the boys remember what happened...

What will happen next? Because only they remember what happened and the day continues to start because of this mysterious assacine that continues to kill the reader.

Now that’s something entertaining. Never watched Happy Death Day before, but I needed to think of this one scene in Doctor Strange where he kept getting killed over and over again. This was so hilarious when I watched it the first time and still is.

Tw: Yandere themes, possessiveness, obsessiveness, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, delusions, paranoia, death, killing, kidnapping

Happy Death Day

Ciel Phantomhive

☕️Ciel is somewhere in between very confident that he can keep his darling safe and horrified that something might still happen to them. On the one hand he's smart, has the influence and the demon to ensure that nothing happens to you, next to the fact that he totally tries to isolate you and keep you locked up in the manor. On the other hand he knows that this won't always give him the advantage and he hates it. He doesn't take you out too much and often just sticks close to you, not letting you leave his gaze at all. If that is for some reason not possible, he usually tells one of the servants to watch over you. There might be a chance that he loses sight of you in public, on a ball or just somewhere in a big crowd.

☕Ciel would be totally in denial when seeing you dead. He already lost his family and losing another precious person isn't what was planned. He can't accept another one. So at first he might just sit down next to your corpse, shaking you and telling you to wake up, to stop scaring him like this. He just has this pathetic hope that this all is just a very cruel joke despite not feeling your heart beating anymore. And deep down he knows you're gone, but he just doesn't want to accept it. Whose fault was this? His? Yours? The servants? His mind is a mess right now, he's torn between a burning pain and aching hatred for whoever did this. Ciel would also blame himself a lot, even though he would let all his pain later on on other persons out. He feels like if he wouldn't have taken you with him, if he would have been there, had just kept a closer eye on you or just had someone sent with you, this might have been prevented from happening.

☕So you can imagine his big shock when in the next moment he suddenly is woken up by Sebastian, laying in his bed. And at first he would think that all of this is was just a nightmare, a nasty dream his brain came up with. That is at least until Sebastian remains him that you two have later on to attend the same event where you lost your life, leading to Ciel asking him which day it is, Sebastian telling him the date. The same day he just lived through. It will lead Ciel instantly to this nagging suspicion that his dream might have been more than a dream. But he doesn't want to confront you about this, if it should have been a dream he doesn't want to wake the expression of a paranoid man who believes in every nightmare he has. He would observe you and if you seem to act a bit more off, he would start dropping hints about all of this and if you give him any sort of confirming reaction, he will corner you about it.

☕It all depends on whether you knew about this ability before, meaning that you died before, or if that was just as surprising for you as for him. If you knew before, Ciel would want to know what happened in the previous incident and what you did to get out of the time loop, also wanting a detailed description about what happened this time, if you remember that face of the person who killed you. Would also be angry with you since you didn't tell him sooner. If this would be just as confusing and new for you as for Ciel, he would figure out on his own that this might happen again if you die today again, meaning that the day will keep repeating itself until the killer is stopped.

☕Ciel is no one to waste time, he does know that he has a lot of chances, but it's a low excuse to take things easier. There's after all no guarantee if this power of yours will keep working. With the person who murdered you unknown, it will get a bit more complicated. But Ciel is known to have solved tricky cases before. There are two possible ways how he will handle this. Either he will just not take you to the event where you died, keeping you in the manor and heightening the security or he will take you there to get rid of the assassin once and for all. It's the more risky way of things with you possibly getting harmed or in the worst case getting killed. But like this Ciel can make sure that this bastard/bitch won't try to come after you once and for all. He would pay attention to whatever you eat or drink, making sure it's not poisoned and will order Sebastian to watch over you and protect you under all means neccessary. He would get more and more pent-up if the day keeps repeating himself and work his ass off to just break free from this.

Sebastian Michaelis

🐈‍⬛Sebastian has very high confidence in himself that he can keep you happy, safe and loved. He only wants the best for his mate after all and whilst certainly being naturally overprotective and taking every meassurement necessary to ensure no one will find and harm them, he wouldn't worry that much like Alois or Ciel. He feels in most cases that he's superior to others since he's a demon. But different from Ciel he leaves you often alone due to having to work for Ciel and in such moments he will be more worried about you. I think that he would have on this day just a bad feeling, somehow sensing that something is wrong. That would make him more reluctant to leave you and the whole time not being with you would put him on edge.

🐈‍⬛He would most likely hurry up with all of his tasks and rush to the house he keeps you in, this feeling of dread never leaving him, instead only growing the closer he gets to the house. And his bad intuition would prove right when he saw you on the ground, dead. He knew that you were, not sensing your heartbeat or your soul anymore. And all this grief washing over him would be completely new to him, he never expected it to hurt that much. The aura radiating off from him will be one of pure rage and everyone who comes in contact with that will end up completely paralyzed. It's not everyday that he feels such an intense mix of negative emotions inside of him, it might be even his first time he ever felt like this.

🐈‍⬛So imagine his surprise when suddenly finding himself next to you in bed, sleeping safe and soundly next to him. He doesn't sleep, but he tends to often just cuddle with you in bed. So he knows that this all wasn't a dream and he doubts that he was hallucinating or everything like this. He's a demon and he just knows that somwthing just happened, having the same bad feeling inside of him like...now. He keeps track of the time, not to mention that he has a natural good feeling of the time. And knowing that the same day seems to happen again after you've died would give him pretty much all the details he has to know to imagine too well what happened. And after you've woken up and he sees your shaken up form, he knows that you remember too.

🐈‍⬛That's pretty interesting to know, that you somehow seem to always get stuck in a time loop whenever you've died. Why didn't you tell him earlier? Or is this new to you as well? He would be a bit disappointed in himself for not discovering this ability of yours sooner. And as fascinating as it is, this isn't the time to satisfy his curiosity with this. Right now he has to find out what exactly happened and who did this. And he knows that this will be uncomfortable for you, but he has to question you thoroughly. You have to tell him everything, even the most insignificant looking thing.

🐈‍⬛This place is obviously not safe anymore and so expect to be moved the same day, Sebastian, who's now a bit more paranoid, taking you with him to work so he can keep an eye on you whilst also working. And he also knows that the servants will keep you safe from harm even though he does feel jealous when seeing them interact with you. But he'd rather endure jealousy than having to see you dead once again. It's painful for a demon to lose his mate. He would most likely convince Ciel to let you stay temporarily in the manor, at least until Sebastian has tracked down and erased that vermin's existence from this world. He already failed once and certainly won't let it happen a second time. After the thread is removed, Sebastian will also take a deeper look into this ability of yours. You can’t be a normal human if you possess such an ability.

Alois Trancy

👅Alois is more on the paranoid side and hates seeing you hurt in even the slightest bit, which is why he babies you pretty badly and lets the servants do everything for you. And he absolutely throws a tantrum if you should get hurt even the slightest bit. With Alois such a scenario is less likely since he's constantly near you and Hannah is also always lurking somewhere near you to protect you, orders from her master. So it's rather hard to think of a scenario where he will leave your side at all. So this is most likely shortly after he formed an obsession with you, the time whereyou still had your freedom.

👅Alois would be honestly so devasted, similar to Ciel not wanting to accept the truth which is that you're gone. He will clinge onto your corpse, just sobbing and choking on his own tears whilst yelling in agony. His already messed up sanity would shatter now completely and it might happen that he will suddenly starts laughing whilst still crying and wailing in pain. He just loses it in this moment and is currently panning on breaking every single bone in the body of the person who took you away from him.

👅And then he suddenly wakes up, crying and bathed in sweat in his own bed, the sun barely visible on the sky yet. But he can't sleep anymore, the picture of your dead body still too visible in front of his eyes. And he honestly doesn't even care if this was a dream or not, he will order Hannah to kidnap you within the same hour and bring you to him. This just shook him to his core and he would start telling himself that this might happen really to you. If he finds out it's the same day he dreamed about, he would get even more anxious. He has to get you!

👅He would start crying when Hannah brings you unharmed and healthy in the manor, looking like a lost sheep since you were just kidnapped from her. Alois on the other hand is just glad you're alive and would just start smothering you and whimper about the terrifying dream he had. You died. But the moment he senses you going stiff, he would be a bit confused whilst you just stare at him in shock. How did he know that? At this point you might as well just tell him and as much as Alois would like to marvel over this right now, he would burst out in tears even more when finding out that this was reality and that you really just died. His poor angel.

👅He already did the first step. He kidnapped you. And now that he knows that this all really happened, he will not let you out of his eyes for even a second. He will even follow you to the toilet and demands from all the demons to guard around the manor really carefully, Hannah being ordered to always be somewhere near you. Alois might even tell her what really happened since she would definitely take this the most serious. But one thing is for sure, he will not let you suffer through all of this again, the thought of it makes him have another emotional and tearful outburst. You can expect the culprit of all of this to die a dearh beyond painful and degrading. Alois can be more monster than his servants, you know?

Claude Faustus

🕷Claude also tends to be similar to Sebastian in here. He's naturally overprotective over his little darling mate, it's just natural instinct for every demon over their mate. And he certainly enjoys taking care of you and babying you. And similar to Sebastian, he just often thinks that he will be able to protect you and take perfect care of you, certainly more than every human could ever dream off. He is a demon after all and is proud of it. And his guts would just tell him the whole day that something bad is about to happen, making him so much more snarky and short-tempered the whole day whilst working for the Trancy boy.

🕷He would at first just kind of stand there in shock, not knowing what to think, do or feel at first. I feel like different from Sebastian he wouldn’t consider the thought of failing and someone getting you that much like the crow demon would. And that is what makes him all the more upset and frustrated about this the moment it really hits him. All of a sudden he realizes that he might be a lot more stronger than many creatures, but he should by all means not underestimate them because of this. So he would start blaming himself and even lose hold of his real form in this moment, completely suffering under the current storm of emotions inside of him. Only the smallest sound of the wind could lead to him exploding.

🕷He as a demon doesn’t require sleep and would be confused when suddenly finding himself in a clean kitchen, everything quiet and peaceful, him sending your soul upstairs. And then you would have him rushing to your side instantly, having the need to just hold you to reassure himself that you’re safe and alive. But he isn’t dumb, you know? He can sense that something abnormal just happened, knowing that it’s early morning of the same day he just witnessed. That will lead him to the belief that due to the deceasing of you the day might have repeated itself. That throws a few questions in the row. Do you know about this ability of yours? How does it work? And what exactly are you? You can’t be a mere human with such an ability.

🕷Lying to him that nothing happened won’t be from any use, Claude noticing the fear radiating off from your body and instantly comforting you as good as he can. He’s sorry for not being there. He promises, it won’t happen again. The question what you really are and how your powers work will be pushed aside for now. It’s more important to murder the person who will murder you again today if Claude isn’t careful enough. Please tell him what happened. He knows it’s hard, but by now he lost a bit of his cool due to so much happening in such a short span of time.

🕷He can’t bring you into the manor like Sebastian can. He doesn’t want Alois to find out about you and this manor is filled with demons. Claude doesn’t want to risk any of them feeding on you or try to claim you as their mate. This won’t happen. But he has to move you somewhere more safe, most likely he will move you in an area near the manor so he can quickly check on you during every small break he gets. But I think if this event should repeat itself, he might even go as far as asking Sebastian for help, with grinding teeth that is. I just feel like Claude is younger than Sebastian and, meaning more inexperienced and lacks knowledge Sebastian has. And if it means keeping you safe, he is ready to hop a bit over the grudge he holds against that crow demon.

Ash Landers

▫️Given the fact that Ash would kidnap you in a heartbeat, this would have to be in a really, really early age of his obsession, maybe a day or two after he saw you for the first time ever because Ash is terribly paranoid and will make sure that you’re safe. He of course can’t be always there since he sometimes has to accompany the Queen on her duties, but he has his ways of making sure that you’re properly guarded given his paranoia. That guy is beyond afraid and terrified that something might happen to you, it throws him in a truly anxious loop and even the thought of it brings him to totally overreacting.

▫️His reaction would be without a doubt in my mind be the worst from all due to his sheer focus on keeping your purity and innocence safe. It’s scary in it’s own level. And he feels all the time when he isn’t near you like he’s about to just lose it in front of everyone, barely keeping himself together. But the moment he feels like something is wrong and it involves you, expect him to forget whatever he was doing and just abandoning everyone and everything, even the Queen. He knows he won’t get in troubles, he’s the one controlling her after all. Devastated is an underestimation, there’s actually no word that could really grasp the true impact of his emotions. Let’s just say that all the composure and calmness of his will be thrown away, him starting to scream and cry and whatever you can think off. It’s even worse than with Alois. He just feels like he failed in his whole life. What guardian angel is he when he can’t even protect you?

▫️His lunatic emotional phrase would end when he suddenly finds himself being in his room in the palace, the small noises of the birds and horses outside, early morning judging from the rising sun. He has like many other magical creatures a rather keen track on the time, he just knows it. And whilst not really getting at first what just happened there’s honestly just one thing he wants to know now. Are you still alive?! He doesn’t care about anything else and would start fanatically searching for you.

▫️Expect to be kidnapped the second he sees that you’re alive. Whatever just happened, it pushed him even further down than he already was and it left a bad trauma on him, a horrific one. The only thing he cares about now is you and your safety. And only after you’ve locked away safely and he checked you at least ten times over that you’re really fine, he would start paying a bit more attention to the fact that the day just reviewed itself. And he would afterwards just apologizing, begging for forgiveness to let this happen in the first place. He’s sorry, it won’t happen again. He would be grateful for your ability, it gave him a not deserved second chance after all and will give his worshipper tendencies a huge boost.

▫️Next to kidnapping, he wouldn’t leave you alone for the whole day and even the following days. He was just put through terror in it’s worst form and it makes him despise this city really even more. They all have to be whipped out! At the same time he would manipulate the Queen into searching for the culprit because he won’t leave your side anymore. Not even after the killer is found and killed by a furious angel. Not even then he will leave you alone, it would take him a really long time until he would even leave you alone for a short moment.

Hannah Annafellows

🟣She lost already Alois’s little brother and currently tries to help Alois in showing him what true love is. And whilst she has a healthy amount of confidence that she can keep her darling for the most part safe and protected from any potential danger, she also isn’t that careless to think that just because she is protecting you, you’re untouchable. There are certain creatures which will be a problem of they should be after you and humans shouldn’t be underestimated either, they can be cunning and sly too it they use it right. And for a huge part of the day she is busy in the manor.

🟣It’s just an intuition thing with those abnormal creatures, she just knows that something bad will happen the moment the new day starts and the closer your moment of death approaches, the more tense she will get. She just senses it and would at one point most likely tell the triplets to do her work and hurry to look after you. And when seeing you dead something inside of her will shatter. She isn’t angry right now, she’s just...totally broken and grieving in this moment, holding your dead body close to her whilst silently crying.

🟣Stunned would be the right word to describe her feelings when she suddenly finds herself suddenly in the early morning of the same day again, standing in the same room your corpse was previously in. But now there isn’t any corpse left and she can sense that you’re awake, leading to her hurrying to your bed to reassure that you’re really alive and well and not dead. She would already know what just happened before you would even get to tell her. Somehow the day repeated itself after you died and whilst Hannah doesn’t exactly knows how it happens, it gives her enough details to know what she has to do next.

🟣She would start comforting you the moment she senses that you’re shaken up from the events, being very soft since she herself was just put through a shocking experience as well. But she would also be strict, questioning you about this new knowledge she just gained. She wants to know whether you knew if this or not. If you did know she would be a bit disappointed in you for not telling you since she thought by now she had gained all your trust and would want to know the reasons to why you kept quiet about it. But if you should be just as baffled by this as she is, Hannah would start soothing you since yo just witnessed death and will have to witness it again if she doesn’t do anything.

🟣She does plan on introducing you and Alois to each other at one point, but now is not the time to do this. She would most likely snuggle you somewhere near the manor, giving you a place which she will try to make as comfy as possible in the short time she has. That gives her the advantage of keeping an eye on you when she has the chance. She would also order at least one of the triplets to keep a constant eye on you to be absolutely sure that nothing will happen to you. Timber, Thompson and Canterbury will also assist Hannah by hunting down whoever killed you already once.

[iturbide]

Also??? Chapter 9 of GW is pretty tolerable. Claude’s immediate reasoning to ally with Adrestia being that it will keep Leicester out of harm’s way feels closer to his character than further from it. Although, yes, he is now declaring war on the Kingdom to destroy the Central Church which is... hm. Very mileage may very. Also, my hottest take is that Randolph’s death was not intentional and people should give Claude a break there.

-- wait a minute Randolph's here??

(cut for more Golden Wildfire spoilers)

I was not aware of this plot point at all (heck I still don't even know what happens with the other Almyra incident) so this is all news to me! Not...entirely sure why Claude is aiming to destroy the Church forces -- was that something he agreed to help Edelgard with as part of the whole alliance thing? since they're working together for fairly understandable reasons (in the same vein as Gloucester's pro-Imperial stance)?

Here's the thing: I agree with you 100%. Regardless of his reasons for going after the Church forces and putting that strategy together, it's impossible to predict every single variable -- as the saying goes, no strategy survives the first ten minutes of combat. I highly doubt that Claude intended for Randolph to die, because his strategies have always prioritized making sure as many people survive as possible: that loss might be tragic, but it wasn't intentional, and therefore it's unfair to say it was callous or ruthless. That would be like saying Robin using Phila and her pegasus knights to try and rescue Emmeryn in Plegia was callous simply because Aversa teleported in the Risen archers that shot them down, even though there's no possible way he could have known that would happen. Claude had no way of knowing that Catherine would be able to mow through Randolph's forces and take him out before the maneuver could be completed: he devised the best strategy he could with the information and forces available to him, but failed. That's just how combat is sometimes.

In all honesty I kind of like that he messed up. It's a great touch of humanity, making mistakes and trying to learn from them and endeavoring to do better. That's the kind of thing I like to see, and growth has always been such a fun part of Claude in Three Houses -- the way he's so guarded at first, but comes to open up as he learns to trust his friends and allies until he admits the truth of his heritage to them.

So yeah, I'm with you: Chapter 9 might have its flaws, but there's some good potential stuff in there regarding his character that I'm happy to see and run with.

[addictedtojmanga]

Shoujo manga recommendations - otome game isekai

So, after 10+ years reading shoujo manga, I’ve read over 1k titles, admittedly, a reasonable amount is one-shot (or at least a collection of), but nonetheless, over time I had to expand my interests.

Lately, I’ve started reading the otome game isekai genre, and decided it’d be nice to share the ones I thought were best.

Most of them are pretty much the same, but the best ones usually have a twist, so...

! Warning: You’ll most likely want to beat up 1 or 2 characters from each one, but worry not, so do I and the other characters

1. Fiancée's Observation Log of the Self-proclaimed Villainess

Crown prince Cecil was so brilliant that everything in life was easy to the point of boring him, then one day, his fiancée Bertia suddenly said "Prince Cecil, I am a villainess!" Claiming that this world is the same as that of an "otome game" from her past life and that she is playing the role of the "villainess" in it, she aims to play her part well and have their engagement annulled. With that goal in mind, she sets about causing turmoil in Cecil's daily life.

This one definitely takes the gold for me. Super sweet and pretty funny.

2. My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

Most people would prefer being the protagonist of a world full of adventure, be it in a game or in another world. But, unfortunately, a certain girl is not so lucky. Regaining the memories of her past life, she realizes that she was reborn in the world of Fortune Lover—one of the games she used to play. Unfortunately, the character she was reincarnated into—Katarina Claes—is the game's main antagonist, who faces utter doom in every ending. Using her extensive knowledge of the game, she takes it upon herself to escape from the chains of this accursed destiny. However, this will not be an easy feat, especially since she needs to be cautious as to not set off death flags that may speed up the impending doom she is trying to avoid. Even so, to make a change that will affect the lives of everyone around her, she strives—not as the heroine—but as the villainess.

This one takes 2nd place! It has a different result than others, and the FL is great - everyone is, to be fair.

3. Of Course I’ll Claim Palimony

"I'll annul our engagement!" My fiancé suddenly declared?! Apparently he's in love with the recently transferred count's daughter and is planning on making me the villain in order to annul the engagement. Although I have no lingering attachments about the engagement, I do have to claim a hefty consolation fee don't I?

This is sooo good. The FL is spectacular and manages to stand out - even if just a bit - from the rest of the genre.

4. I’m a Villainous Daughter, so I’m going to keep the Last Boss

Avoid the BAD END! That's the goal of the villainess in this plot-twisting story!! She has been reborn into the world of an otome game as the villainess, Irene. Using her memories of her former life, she recognizes flags indicating she's en-route to the bad end, so she makes a plan to conquer the last boss (the evil king Claude), make him her lover, and see if she can open up a new route!

Pretty funny, and the FL is bold. Also, the ML is a bishounen.

It’s one of the few mangas from this genre that has been completely translated, and since it only has 13 chapters, it’s a good way to start out.

5. The Plain & Unnoticeable Me is No More

Elaine Lana Norris, who was born at the top of the aristocratic daughter, was declared abandoned by her second fiancé at the school's founding party. Lana, who has been made a villain daughter, is driven out of her home by a strict grandfather. But there is a secret in Lana that everyone doesn't know about?

I don’t want to give out any spoilers, however, it suffices to say that she accepts her role as the villainess.

Ok, I think these 5 are my favorite, but the ones below have been selected as well, so they’re still pretty good and worth reading.

6. The Villiainess Is Adored by the Crown Prince of the Neighboring Kingdom    

Tiararose was supposed to be disengaged and exiled from the country. “This was the Otome game I had played!” She realized on the day before the story’s ending??……. Shall I wait for the judgment? But, I did not do anything too cruel……. Thinking so, the ending continues. But, during the judgement??something that was not possible in the game happened. The neighboring crown prince courted the villainous daughter Tiararose.

ML: 10/10 FL: 8/10 (too insecure for my taste)

7. Endo and Kobayashi’s Live Commentary on the Villainess

She’s always putting on that grumpy face even though she’s not actually that upset! Oh, why can’t she just be honest with herself…!??? She is a tsundere, after all? When her embarrassment levels exceed a certain limit, she will explode into anger. However, the point that she’s suppressing under the surface is that she wouldn’t mind that sort of thing if it were in a less public place.? As Endo-kun passionately reacts to the antics of Lady Liselotte, the villainess of an otome game, Kobayashi-san provides a painstaking breakdown of her tsundere behaviour. Suddenly, one person could hear their voices; Liselotte’s fiancée, Prince Siegward. That is where this story begins.

8. I’m the Villainess, but the Capture Targets are too Abnormal  

The villainess, Mystia, remembered her past life on her 10th birthday and has unwittingly turned the characters in the otome game "Kyun Kyun Love School" into yanderes! In order to avoid becoming the love rival of the "heroine" who will lead her to her downfall, she starts making every effort to break off her engagement with her "prince-like classmate"! That’s was what supposed to happen...But, because of her kind personality, her favorability increased instead!

It’s still in its beginning stages, but seems pretty solid.    

9. Though I May Be a Villainess, I'll Show You I Can Obtain Happiness!  

A collection of one shots.

Great way to start out, it has quite a few options, so if you don’t like one, give another one a try!

10.  The Villainess, Cecilia Silvie, Doesn't Want to Die, So She Decided to Cross-dress!      

I was reincarnated into the body Cecilia Silvie, the villainess of an otome game. According to the plot, what awaits me in the normal route is either a slow, painful death or an instantaneous one... Essentially, every route leads to my demise. Then I'll change my fate! And that's why I decided to become a man. However, I made a mistake during a certain event, and the story began to head down an unexpected path...?

I haven’t seen any other like this, and if you like gender bender, this one’s for you!

11.  I’ll Become a Villainess That Will Go Down in History ― The More of a Villainess I Become, the More the Prince will Dote on Me

Alicia is the eldest daughter of the noble Williams family—a bloodline that excels in dark magic. Her jet-black hair and golden eyes command a powerful presence, but her most unique features are, without a doubt, her sharp tongue and malevolent nature. By all means, she is a villainess, but also a fictional character from an otome game!

12. I’m Not a Villainess!! Just Because I Can Control Darkness Doesn’t Mean I’m a Bad Person!

The novel The Saint Beloved by the Prince is set in the land of Lacia, where spirits control the elements, each of which is overseen by a "Spirit King." On rare occasions, these Spirit Kings may bless a single human, granting them immense magical control over their respective element. The heroine, Amelia Logan, and the villainess, Claudia Leitzya, are two sides of the same coin, blessed by the Light and Dark Spirit Kings respectively. However, while Amelia is beloved, Claudia is hated and rejected due to her dark skin, ebony locks, and aptitude for dark magic. After dying in modern-day Japan, Sakura is reborn as an infant Claudia. While difficult at first, Claudia tries to adjust to this new life, all the while accompanied by the Dark Spirit King Gerald. But even this task is far from easy; people fear her at first glance, no matter how she acts toward them. Still, Claudia is set on changing her fate from the novel, proving she is a good person and breaking free from the shackles of a "villainess."

13. Rebirth of the Villainess: The Life of Letizia after the Engagement Annulment      

For some reason, the duke's daughter, Letizia, was plotting to break her engagement with the prince. Her plan succeeded and the prince, none the wiser. But shortly after the engagement was terminated... The King collapsed! In that moment, she recalled her memories of her past life as a nurse and she fully utilised her knowledge & experience as a nurse, to save the King's life. Thinking she had achieved what she wanted, she thought she could finally relax, drinking her favourite beverage and leisurely spend her time, she instead somehow keeps getting involved in incident after incident. The slow and peaceful life is now nothing but a dream!? Lazy daughter, busy seeking freedom and laziness!

14. I Won't Become a Villainess. I'm Just a "Normal" Duke's Daughter!

A Japanese person reincarnated into an otome game chock full of death flags for the villainess, Rosalind. "I'm going to live an enjoyable life in this world!" Making full use of the game knowledge to avoid death flags, for some reason events keep happening one after another?! Contracting with spirits, helping her father (the prime minister) with his work using her modern day knowledge, taking a walk with the holy beast... and on top of all that, even starting up the heroine's event...? Will Rosalind be able to smash through every unknown death flag that comes her way...?! And will she be able to be fluffy lovey-dovey with the supporting beastkin character she liked from her previous life?!

Cute. Has beasts.

15. Milady Just Wants to Relax      

She worked herself to death in her past life, but then she was reborn in another world as the villainess Ronia! As expected, her engagement is broken and she's expelled from society, but now she takes that chance to live peacefully, and even opens a cafe with the help of her fairy comrades, which is becoming unexpectedly popular with beast-kin...?

Also cute. Also has beasts.

16. I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again!            

Violette, a proud and beautiful daughter of a duke, commits a crime out of jealousy towards her half-sister. Convicted, Violet faces her own heart with sincerity in a prison cell and regrets her sin. Then time rewinds to a turning point—to her first meeting with Maryjun one year ago. Violette makes a decision. She will not make mistakes this time. Without committing a crime and bothering anyone, she will live an ordinary, plain and inconspicuous life...! However, incidents contrary to Violette's expectations occur one after another...?!

17. I Became a Villain Daughter

On her 15th birthday, Hinase Kaede, a young girl who was working as a part-timer, perished in a traffic accident. Upon her death, a self-proclaimed “God” appeared, declaring that Kaede would be brought back to life. However, Kaede’s happiness was short-lived and her soul was thrown into Erika, the villainess of an otome game! In the original game, Erika became a saint candidate alongside the heroine, committed evil deeds over the course of the candidacy, and ultimately faced condemnation. Thus, Kaede decides that she will not get close to the main characters of the game so as to avoid the bad end, but yet——?

[starshine583]

New Girl on the Block (9)

(Happy New Years everybody!!! I know that was two days ago, but still! I hope all of you are doing well, and please enjoy this new chapter! also feel free to check out the mini series connected to this called Journal Entries!)

Ch.1 / Ch.8 / Ch.10

Chapter 9: Let’s Try That Again

“Claude, I’m not sure about this..” Marinette remarked, tentatively leaning over the brunette’s shoulder.

Claude waved off her concerns as he grabbed for the various chemicals on their shared desk. “Don’t worry! There’s no way I can mess this up twice.”

Marinette frowned. “Twice?”

He nodded and pulled out a plastic bag that they’d been given to hold the chemicals. “I took this class last year too, but I only got halfway through before they transferred me for being too disruptive.”

Marinette pulled her lip between her teeth, her concerns growing by the second. “Define ‘disruptive’.”

“Oh, you know,” Claude shrugged, carelessly throwing the chemicals into the plastic bag, “You try to listen as best you can, but there are so many chemicals to look at! It’s hard to pay attention. Anyway, one spill ends up in a gas explosion, and another shaking-instead-of-stirring ends up in acid all over the beaker and the desk, and after a while, Mlle Arquette decided that I might be able to pay more attention in Chemistry next year.”

“A-A gas explosion?” Marinette squeaked. She knew Claude could be chaotic from time to time, but she had hoped that his antics in the classroom wouldn’t range anywhere beyond ‘classic class clown’. 

“Yeah, but it wasn’t toxic,” Claude insisted, “Just thick. Besides, we have this lab gear to protect us! We’re fine.”

Marinette clutched the sides of her lab coat. Sure, they had lab gear, but exactly how much could it protect them?

“Claude-”

“Alright, it’s shaking time!” Claude announced. He held up the now-sealed bag with a grin and started shaking it as hard as he could. Marinette flinched back, covering her face despite already wearing goggles. She had a bad feeling about this.

The phenol red inside the bag quickly mixed in with the Sodium Bicarbonate and Calcium Chloride, but he didn’t stop shaking until the plastic bag was almost completely red. By that time, the chemicals had merged into a deep red color, and the plastic bag had inflated to its maximum capacity.

“Hey, check it out!” Claude said, holding up the bag. “It looks like it's starting to bubble up.”

Marinette peaked between her fingers, though she still couldn’t see what he was talking about from her angle. She did, however, notice that the bag looked like it was about to explode any second.

“Um, Claude?” She began cautiously. “I think you’re supposed to let some of the air out now.”

“Oh, yeah.” He pulled the bag back down, getting ready to pull it open. “I almost forgot about that.”

Marinette gasped and stepped forward. “Wait, you need to be care-”

The bag popped open, and the poor pair weren’t able to react as fast as the chemicals inside. Everything shot up within a matter of seconds, splattering chemicals all over the desk and the students. Thankfully, it didn’t burn, but Marinette deeply lamented the fact that they were only in third period. Was she supposed to go through the rest of the day as a mess?

“Claude Herolds!”

Marinette and Claude’s gazes snapped upwards to their Chemistry teacher, Mlle Arquette. She fixed them both with an equally cross and tired glare.

“How many times do I have to tell you to open the bag slowly?” 

Claude offered a sheepish smile. “Sorry, Mlle Arquette.. Would it help if I told you that it kind of popped open on its own?”

The teacher narrowed her eyes. “No, it most certainly would not. Because that means you didn’t mix it correctly, and the amount of chemicals on your clothing suggests that you put too much into the bag!”

“...I couldn’t remember which measuring spoons to use for the chemicals..” Claude admitted, reaching up to rub his upper arm.

Mlle Arquette sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “That’s why I gave you a list of instructions. Didn’t you read them?”

Marinette and Claude both tensed. In the heat of the moment, they may or may not have forgotten that they were given specific instructions on what to do. Well, Marinette remembered. It was just that Claude seemed so sure of himself that she forgot to check the instructions. 

The teacher took their silence as an answer and shook her head. “Claude, I don’t know how to get it through your head that you need to do what you’re told. So for now, I’ll give you detention and hope the extra time has you put more value on focus.”

Marinette’s eyes widened. “D-Detention?”

She’d never gotten detention before, not at Rosemary anyway. Was it different from Dupont? Would it knock down her grades? Would she have to do extra homework on top of it?

“Not you, Marinette.” The teacher assured. “I’m letting you off with a warning since this is your first incident.”

Marinette blew out a sigh of relief, but Claude groaned.

“Awe, man! I’m gonna be in detention all by myself?”

Marinette gasped. “You want me to be in detention?”

“Oh, no!” Claude hastily amended. “No, it’s just so boring being in there by myself.”

“Maybe the lack of company will give you incentive to be more cautious during our next class session.” Mlle Arquette cut in. “Now use the sink to wash up.”

Marinette and Claude moved to the front of the classroom as told and took turns using the sink. Unfortunately, Phenol Red is not known for coming out easily. They used as much soap as possible, but their lab coats remained stained, along with their cheeks..

“Well,” Claude said as they walked back to their desk, “since our cheeks are stained anyway.. Wanna try again?”

Marinette pursed her lips. At the very least, it couldn’t get any worse, right?

“Okay, but this time I’ll mix the chemicals.”

“Deal!”

~~~~~~

Felix blinked, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. When he went to get Marinette for their next shared class, he expected her to be the same way she was when he’d left her earlier that morning. What he found instead, however, was a couple of classmates that had both their hands and the lower halves of their faces covered in red, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to ask why.

“Hey, Felix!” Claude greeted casually, as though he and Marinette didn’t look like walking tomatoes. “You look a little surprised. Is it my new haircut?”

“Oh, you got a new haircut?” Marinette asked, genuinely curious.

The brunette nodded and reached up to touch the curled tips of his bangs. “Yeah, but I didn’t do much. They just trimmed me up.”

“I thought something looked different.” Marinette hummed. “It looks nice.”

“Why, thank you.”

“If you don’t mind my asking,” Felix finally cut in, “why, exactly, are you two covered in red?”

Claude pulled a sheepish smile, and Marinette chuckled nervously, neither of which gave Felix any clarity.

“I kind of.. made some chemicals explode again.” Claude admitted.

Felix’s eyes widened. “You what?”

“Okay, not really explode.” Claude said. “They more of splattered everywhere.”

Felix’s gaze darted to Marinette, briefly scanning over her figure for injuries. She didn’t appear to be in pain, but that didn’t necessarily mean she wasn’t. What type of chemicals did they use? Were they toxic? Was anything ingested? The red on their faces didn’t look like burn marks.

“We’re fine.” Marinette assured, noticing his concern. “Mlle Arquette had us wash off right after it happened, so the only thing that affected us was the Phenol Red.”

Felix sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Phenol Red? No wonder their skin was dyed. “And what was Mlle Arquette's reaction to this?”

“Oh, she gave me detention,” Claude said point blank, “but I don’t blame her. I know I can be a bit much.”

Felix rose a brow. “Just you?”

The two nodded.

“She let me off with a warning.” Marinette explained.

Felix hummed. That sounded like Mlle Arquette. When he had to be Claude’s partner for Chemistry last year, the teacher had been extremely understanding then too. In hindsight, he probably should have warned Marinette about Claude’s tendencies in class. “Well, at least she was reasonable enough to know you weren’t at fault.”

Claude scoffed and crossed his arms. “You weren’t even there! How do you know she didn’t give me the wrong instructions?”

“Call it a hunch.” Felix replied flatly. He pulled a handkerchief out of his vest pocket and handed it to Marinette. “Here, use this to wipe off the chemicals.”

“Oh, no thank you.” Marinette politely declined. “I already washed it off as best I could.”

“Yes, but have you tried using a cloth yet?” He asked. When she shook her head, he continued, “Then some might still be able to come off. Rosemary holds their student’s presentability in high regard. I’d recommend trying.”

Marinette held up a hand insistently. “Thanks, but I really don’t need it. The dye’s already settled by now anyway, and I don’t want it to ruin your handkerchief if I get more off.”

Felix shrugged, tucking the handkerchief back into its respective pocket. “Mother’s gotten rid of worse, but I won’t force you.”

“I could use a handkerchief.” Claude spoke up.

Felix rolled his eyes. “Find your own.”

“But you were going to let Marinette use it!” Claude remarked, a grin growing on his lips despite his accusatory tone.

“She didn’t make the mess, did she?” Felix shot back.

Claude waved a hand at the remark. “Yeah, yeah. I can see how far our friendship goes.”

Marinette giggled, drawing the boys’ attention back to the ravenette.

“As fun as this is, I need to stop by the lockers before class.” She said with a smile. “I’ll see you guys later.”

“I’ll walk with you.” Felix replied, stepping forward. “I need to switch out a few books as well.”

“As if you wouldn’t walk her anyway..” Claude muttered under his breath behind him.

Felix glanced over his shoulder at the brunette. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Marinette asked, turning back as well.

“Oh, nothing.” Claude said, averting his gaze with a slight smile. “I’m gonna head to my next class too. See you guys later!”

Felix narrowed his eyes. He’d heard what Claude said. He just didn’t understand it. Or rather, he didn’t understand the tone. Felix walking Marinette to her classes was common knowledge at that point, yet Claude stated it as though it were some sort of secret. Why? It’s not as though the others didn’t walk her to classes as well. Claude himself would fight over whether he got to drive Marinette to different locations or not.

The class bell shook him from his thoughts, along with Marinette’s light call, and Felix moved to follow behind her. As they walked, she rambled on about the full story behind her red-colored cheeks, which allowed Felix to push Claude’s strange comment to the back of his mind. There was no reason for the brunette to have a hidden meaning in his speech anyway. So there was no point in overthinking it.

~~~~~~

Ah. The Cafe de Flore. Claude’s favorite place to eat. It had the best sandwiches, delicious pastries- tough not at good as Mlle Sabine’s -and wonderful, customer service. He’d always received a welcoming smile when he visited. 

He drew in a deep breath, relishing in the smell of chocolate and dough that wafted through the air. It made his mouth water and his stomach growl with anticipation. His food should be ready any minute now, and he could hardly wait.

A giggle brought his attention to the line behind him. Marinette was shuffled in with a few of the other customers, happily chatting with Felix, who’d gotten in line with her. 

Claude narrowed his eyes at the blond, remembering their talk at the aquarium. He’d been so insistent that he had no idea what Claude was referring to, but he wasn’t fooling anyone. Felix never took the time to talk to people, never listened or sympathized or smiled the way he did with Marinette. Every action, every sentence, everything he did around her screamed that he liked her. Normally, Claude wouldn’t care, since everybody had one good friend, but Felix didn’t like anybody. Heck, they’d been with him for three years, and he still fought tooth and nail before he agreed to do anything with them. But the one time Marinette, the person he's only known for three weeks, decides to ask him to something, he agrees immediately. No fuss. No arguing. Nothing. His crush on her was so obvious that when he played dumb last weekend, Claude nearly tore his hair out in frustration. How stupid did Felix think they were?

“I’ve got a BLT for a Claude Herolds?” 

At the waitress’ call, Claude whirled around to grab his food with a ‘thank you’. He then moved back through the other customers to get to the group table, where Allegra and Allan were already seated. Marinette flashed him a smile and said ‘hey’ while he passed, but Felix merely rolled his eyes at Claude’s presence. 

Of course, that didn’t stop the blond from turning right back to Marinette, all traces of annoyance washing away in an instant.

Yeah, he definitely had a crush on her. 

“Tell me you’ve noticed.” Claude said to Allegra as he plopped down in the seat next to her. He couldn’t keep this to himself any longer, or he was going to explode like those chemicals in Chemistry class this morning. 

Allegra glanced up from her soup questioningly. “Noticed what?”

Claude scoffed. As if she didn’t already know. Allegra was twice as observant as he was. If he saw something interesting, she was bound to have already seen it at least ten minutes beforehand. 

“What else?” He replied impatiently. “Felix’s crush on Marinette.”

Allegra and Allan both gasped and shot up from the table, slapping their hands onto Claude’s mouth.

“Are you crazy?” She hissed at him. “Why would you say that out loud? What if they’d heard you?”

Claude pushed their hands away. “What does it matter? We all know.”

“Yeah, but they don’t.” Allan pointed out. “Even if they did, you can’t just say stuff like that without permission.”

Claude furrowed his eyebrows. “You expect me to believe that Felix doesn’t know about his own feelings towards Marinette?”

He could understand Marinette being oblivious. She hasn’t known Felix as long as they have, hasn’t heard the snide remarks and snaps and sarcastic comments that used to shoot from Felix’s mouth on a regular basis, hasn’t seen the constant glares they used to receive. (Emphasis on used to. They still get looks and snarky replies, but it's not nearly as venomous as it was before Marinette showed up.)

Claude didn’t blame Felix for liking Marinette- there was no doubt about her being a literal saint -but to say that Felix had no idea that he liked her was insane.

Allegra shrugged. “I wouldn’t be surprised. Felix clearly hasn’t had a crush before, and he’s extremely logical. He probably just thinks that she’s more fun to be around than we are.”

Claude tisked and crossed his arms. “He would think that, wouldn’t he?”

“To be fair, she doesn’t push his buttons as much as we do.” Allan commented.

“..Yeah, that’s true.” Claude admitted, a small smile coming to his lips. “She doesn’t push anyone’s buttons. She’s great like that.”

Allegra nodded in agreement. “Which is why we should try to figure out if she likes him too.”

Claude’s eyes widened. He.. hadn’t thought of that. How did Marinette feel about Felix? 

As if on queue, all three of them subtly turned to glance at the pair. They were at the front of the line now, helping each other pick their food. Felix held another small smile, causing Claude to grip the edge of his chair with slight scowl. Love can do strange things to a person, but after three years of friendship, one would think that Felix could be a tad nicer to them too.

Marinette smiled brightly up at the blond as she always did. She seemed to enjoy talking with him, but then again, she enjoyed talking to everyone. That could hardly be considered a sign of love or affection. The only thing that might be related to a crush was that time in the library when the two shared headphones. She got all flustered and embarrassed after getting really close to Felix, but in all honesty, Marinette tended to blush rather often. When embarrassed, when bashful, when caught off guard- It was just another quirky thing about her that they all loved.

“We wouldn’t want to force this on her.” Allan said, taking the words from Claude and Allegra’s mouths. Marinette was too kind and sweet to be put in such an uncomfortable position. 

“So how do we find out? Should we ask her?” Claude questioned, twisting back to face the table again.

“Yes, but we need to be subtle.” Allegra cautioned. “Crushes can be a sticky business, especially when someone isn’t quite aware of their feelings towards another.”

“In other words, Felix can’t know we asked,” Allan added, “and Marinette can’t know about Felix’s feelings. At least not until he knows that he has them, and we know that they’re requited.”

Claude nodded thoughtfully. “That still doesn’t tell me how we’re going to ask her.”

“Ask who what?” 

The trio jumped at the sound of Marinette’s voice, each snapping to look at her for a reaction. She couldn’t have been there long, right? How much had she heard? Where was Felix?

“Uh..” Claude gaped. “N-Nothing. I mean, we were-”

“We were going to ask my mom about a sleepover.” Allegra cut in. “Do you think you’d be up for it?”

Claude couldn’t help the smirk that curled onto his lips. Clever Allegra. Having a sleepover meant everyone would get together, but it also meant the boys and girls would be separated by the end of the evening. That would leave Marinette and Allegra alone for a good eight hours if they played their cards right. Plenty of time to ask about Marinette’s feelings towards Felix, and plenty of time to ask Felix about his feelings towards Marinette.

Clever, clever Allegra.

“Oh, a sleepover?” Marinette echoed, a spark of interest gathering in her eyes. “At your house?”

“Yeah!” Allegra smiled. “We’ve all been to your house. I want you to come to mine.”

Marinette returned her smile, but before she could respond, Felix spoke up behind her.

“You’re having another sleepover?”

Marinette flinched, just as Claude and the others had done moments prior, and Felix took a step back as a silent apology.

What a considerate thing to do, Claude thought. If only Felix were that considerate towards literally anyone else.

His bitter thoughts were pushed aside when Allegra nestled her chin in her palm, saying, “Don’t act like I have a sleepover every other day. Our last sleepover was on New Years Eve.”

“Yes, and that sleepover is exactly the reason why I won’t be attending another one.” Felix stated with a scowl. “That permanent marker didn’t come off of my face for a week.”

Claude stifled a laugh. That mustache and monocle drawing had easily been the best part of the evening.

Marinette full-on giggled at the remark and sat down in the chair between Claude and Allan, amusement and curiosity seeping through her tone as she asked, “You guys drew on his face?”

Felix’s scowl deepened- he hated being called out on embarrassing things -and his gaze shifted to the side. “While I slept. It was absolutely dreadful.” 

“Oh~ it was a joke.” Allegra cooed, waving off his bitterness. “You know you want to come.”

“Why would I?” Felix scoffed as he sat between Allegra and Allan. “The hours I’m forced to spend with you on a daily basis are torture enough.”

Claude smirked. Bold words for someone who was crushing hard on the newest member of their group.

“Because deep down in that cold, shriveled heart of yours, you know you love us.” He said, subtly wrapping an arm around Marinette’s shoulders as he said ‘us’. “Besides, we’re all going to be there. You don’t want to miss out, do you?”

Felix shot Claude daggers, but Claude only gave an innocent smile in response. He knew that he had the blond cornered. Marinette would be expecting him to go to the sleepover, the same way she’d expected him to go to the aquarium. Felix said yes to her then, and he would say yes to her now. Because he liked her.

Slowly, Felix’s gaze slid to Marinette, the spite in his eyes fading away as he glanced at her. Claude’s smile widened. He was thinking it over, contemplating whether it would be worth it to ‘suffer’ an extra night with them or not for Marinette’s sake. 

This was the moment. This was the moment where Felix’s true motives would be revealed, even though he was doing his best to hide them from everyone else, including himself.

“Fine.” The blond relented, just like Claude knew he would. “But I better not wake up with marker on my face again.”

Allan smirked. “Don’t worry, man. We promise there won’t be any markers for you this time.”

“Nope.” Claude Grinned. “Just some quality time between friends.”

Tag List:   @artbyknigit @athena452 @nickristus-dreamer @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen @arsaem @abrx2002 @neakco @pawsitivelymiraculous @too0bsessedformyowngood @nathleigh @lusicing @officiallydarkgeek @all-mights-asscheeks @tbehartoo @woe-is-me0 @raeuberprinzessin @lazuli-11 @miss-chaos27 @trippingovermyfeet @sadpotatoondrugs @ladybug-182 @jaggedheart11 @marinahrasauce @i-need-blog-ideas @thewheezingbubbledragon @crazylittlemunchkin @unabashedbookworm @moonystars14 @sunflowers-and-mooncakes @2confused-2doanything @magnificentcrapposts @moonnette @nickristus-dreamer @vixen-uchiha @casual-darkness @luxmorningstarr @jjmjjktth​ @kaithehero  @itsme1598

[butwhatifidothis]

The Flayn thing gets even worse when you realise that Solon used Flayns blood to cause the Remire incident. Remire, which is in the EMPIRE. Edelgard literally directly contributes to an entire village in HER territory being completely wiped out by a hate plauge because she lent TWSITD the Death Knight, soldiers, and intevenes and rekidnaps Flayn you run out of turns and then has the nerve to say "I would have stopped this if I had known about it" like she had nothing to do with it like bish wha

It’s just like... Imma use this ask as a catalyst to what I’m about to say cuz it’s actually something that’s been on my mind for a bit: looking into how the lords’ talk about themselves vs. their actual actions in the story.

With Dimitri and Claude, there are a lot of moments where they describe themselves in a very negative light, Dimitri as a inhuman monster and Claude as a callous schemer, but we see from their numerous actions that neither of those thing are really true. 

Even when Dimitri was at his worst during the first five chapters of AM, him constantly dehumanizing the enemy, outwardly and vocally, all the time? He wouldn’t do that if he didn’t still care for people; if he didn’t it wouldn’t matter whether or not the people he killed were monsters or not. 

In CF and AM we see Claude put himself in front of Derdriu’s citizens to protect them from an oncoming attack from the Empire and he never retreats, even when his life is in danger. Even in CF you have to spare him because he won’t leave. Sure he asks you to but he could just... you know... bounce on his own lol

These are just one example for these two but there a plenty others that show that their descriptions for themselves simply do not hold up when examined closely. Compare that to Edelgard, whose most self-deprecating thing she says about herself, personally, as a person, is that she may too be detached from others. Which... is true. Every attempt she makes to try and connect with someone her own ego gets in the way and the other person kinda just has to deal with it (her Bernadetta supports are a good example, where Bernie’s shocked reaction to Edelgard being afraid of the ocean is met with annoyance and slight scorn). She keeps saying that she is doing everything she does for the people of Fodlan but her actions bring nothing but continued strife throughout the entire continent.

Like, let’s look at Remire like you did; she says that if she’d have known TWS would have done this she would have stopped them, but like... why would she? Genuinely asking. She admits herself that she wouldn’t be above letting her people die to further her cause, so what does it matter how they die? Especially when, practically, this is a good thing since it furthers the research for Demonic Beasts, creatures she willingly uses to help her. And she swears she’d had stopped it... but she still uses what came of it (improved Demonic Beasts). She still works with the people who did - she in fact orders them to create a pseudo relic for her to make up for the fact that neither of her Crests give her access to one and it’s built to her specifications, meaning she has at least a decent amount of sway with TWS. In all the other routes she gives the order to set her people on fire in Gronder. She chooses not to evacuate Enbarr when Claude’s army advances (specifying Claude cuz not sure if this happens in AM). She conscripts her civilians into the war, stripping them of their choice. She says she’s for meritocracy but steals credit for work she didn’t do. She tells Rhea she’ll let her surrender but moments before she tells Byleth that Rhea must be killed. She claims she allowed Garreg Mach a two week time period to evacuate its residents when she attacks but we know for a fact those two weeks were her gathering her forces. She says she wants to reveal the truth but hides the truth about the Tragedy from Dimitri and Dedue, who kidnapped Flayn from Seteth, who killed Jeralt from Byleth, who bombs Arianrhod from her army along with all the other things TWS do

With Edelgard what we hear her say about herself and what she does are completely different, like Dimitri and Claude, but unlike those two she’s far worse than how she describes herself. She’s hypocritical, a flat out liar, she genuinely gaslights constantly, she’s uncaring for her people’s safety, and that is shown time and time and time again. With Dimitri and Claude, we see that while they have moments where their initial self-descriptions are somewhat accurate (Dimitri willing to torture Randolph, Claude with Jeralt’s diary and using Cyril as a scapegoat) their overall actions portray a far better light on them. With Edelgard it’s the exact opposite

Almost like that’s intentional! Almost like the good people in the story are better than they initially appear as the grow in their stories while the bad ones are the opposite! Almost like... damn near basic storytelling! Who woulda thought.

[saneijeijei]

Thinking theory about the magic and mana of the Obelia family, or how Aeternitas stole mana from Lucas.

Very interesting…

So, after the incident at the tea ceremony, Athanasia swapped mana with Claude?

That would explain why Claude started remembering Anastaсius and Diana, and why Athanasia started remembering her past life. But if Claude destroyed with the help of black magic the feelings and memories of Anastacius after the palace coup, and of Diana after her death, then it turns out…

If Athanasia started to have a headache because of the Kiel… She erased the feelings and memories of him?…

The appearance of these memories has about the same distortion effect.

The same thing happens with the vision that Athanasia saw before the tragedy at the tea ceremony. It also has distortion.

I didn’t think much of it at first, because there were no such distortions in my memories with Diana, until it suddenly dawned on me. Claude didn’t use magic to destroy his feelings for Diana. He used this magic in relation to the newborn Athanasia.

That is, the memories where there is a distortion, not only magic was applied to erase them, but also to erase the feelings.

But from where… Athanasia from “ LP ” could she have known about black magic? She didn’t know she had any magic at all.

What about Jihye, who read “Lovely princess”? It is likely that in the novel they could describe a scene with how to use a magic spell to erase feelings and memories. Without saying a word about the consequences and the fee (again, we return to that scene with the wizard from the magic shop in the city, damn it). For the first time, Athanasia heard that black magic always had to be paid for.

I mean, she didn’t know about it at all. She did not know that Claude was suffering from having forgotten her and her mother, she did not know that he was in unbearable pain and could not sleep for several days.

What if Jihye, because of what she read, started to remember her life and used spells to erase her feelings and memories, trying to suppress them? She told herself that Jennette and Claude would be better off without her, and she believed that “ LP ” had a happy ending.

But then, in a dream, she sees her father dying in Jennette’s arms, and she begs for help, choking on her tears.

And “disappointed, I gave up”.

Is it possible that she saw this nightmare before her death in her second life and it was because of it that she turned back time?

The black magic seal is the same as Claude’s… (By the way, notice these red pieces of Lucas ’ mana)

The same magic seal was on the scroll on Anastasius ’ desk + Eternitas in the Lucas Tower.

Oh, and a book. Take a closer look at the drawings on the cover.

I won’t say that they are exactly the same, but they are somewhat similar. But that’s not what matters! And the fact that what colors are used-red and blue. There is no dark purple, which is inherent in Aeternitas. That is, it is likely that the novel “Lovely princess" is the work of Anastacius. Why? Because Lucas ’ mana is in him, but his power as the bearer of the name associated with eternity has not disappeared. That is, Obelia’s royal power + Lucas ’ mana = blue and red. But where is the mana of Anastacius himself? Remember the legend of the wizard of the Dark Tower, whom Aeternitas pretended to be for a long time? Remember the frames with the heart and the words from the book.

Note that the mana is corrupted by Aeternitas magic. The core was rotten with the dark purple hues of his magic. But the rest of the blue doesn’t shine like the magic of Athanasia or Claude. This matches the description of Anastacius’s magic.

Also, where is Anastacius scar? Where did Claude hit? No, in a completely different place.

The location of the scar corresponds to where the mana is located. THAT IS, AETERNITAS LITERALLY PULLED OUT LUCAS ’ MANA AND SHOVED IT INTO THE HALF-DEAD ANASTAСIUS

[starrymothwings]

haha so priests amirite?

Name: Bishop Sinclair Age: 19 Height: 188 cm Year: 3rd Dorm: Heartslabyul Twisted From: Claude Frollo (Hunchback of Notre Dam) Birthplace: Land of Pyroxene

- *cold, long stare*

- serious, manipulative, uptight, and upholds rules to the utmost degree. actually supported riddle when he was a tyrant, and viewed him as the ideal dorm leader. as nonsensical as some of the rules can be, bishop memorized and followed them to a T

- son of a judge and a very successful prosecutor, both of whom were very...iron-handed in their parenting while also being somewhat emotionally neglectful. he had to mature too quickly and learn to fend for himself and thus grew up putting too much faith in responsibility and the rules because that’s how he survived: as long as he followed the rules, nothing bad happened and he didn’t get interrogated by his parents. needless to say that was not a very good environment for a growing boy

-which was why he ended up getting attached to riddle and saw him as his one and only true friend because of their similarities. bishop did not take riddle mellowing out after episode one well, saw it as a sort of personal betrayal. tried to challenge him for dorm leadership, in fact--bishop lost and has been bitter about it since

- truly doesn’t want to be this person that he is and desires to be free and act on his own desires, but doesn’t actually know how to realize those feelings. he doesn’t have a friend like trey to lean on, nor does he have anyone like deuce to knock some sense into him. tries not to speak to riddle as much as possible after the incident

-soft french accent. you might catch him muttering to himself in the language too

-mayyyy be at higher risk for overblotting than other students bc of emotional issues, and mayyyy have already overblotted once before

-ok but back to him being manipulative...views himself as a sort of ‘guide’ for other students, especially problem student. big holier-than-thou attitude and goes around ‘forgiving’ students for not adhering to the rules. typically he just talks to them, though he’s not above involving magic if it comes down to it

-except talking usually works...students come back from talking to him, but they’re changed somehow. they can’t remember exactly why but they find themselves avoiding him and anxiously following rules. like they’re afraid of something but they can’t remember what it is

-and that’s all because of his unique magic, Hellfire. like with jamil and jade, it’s activated by looking him in the eyes, and it works on like a guilt system. it plagues the other person with horrible visions and hallucinations, the severity depending on how ‘guilty’ they feel, or rather when they know they’ve broken a rule. worst part is that the person affected can’t remember afterwards until it happens again

- will genuinely help you if you ask though, but you have to actually try bc he doesn’t want to waste his time. a very good tutor, thankfully

- acts like a prude, but is honestly very thirsty. catch his attention and he’ll lie awake thinking about them. thinks about them most of the day too. falls deeply and desperately in love 

- chain smoker and very good at hiding it. the one rule he’s willing to break, but only for himself

- lowkey a canonical yandere

- horseback riding club member and often sparring partner for silver and sebek

- excels in most subjects, particularly history. isn’t terrible at gym but his stamina is lacking

- DEFINITELY needs a hug and some therapy, maybe a pack of nicotine gum to help stave off that addiction too

[shiftytracts]

Stop Wanting More, part 1 of 2 (T/M/A fic)

In which season-four Jon tries to quiet his hunger for live statements by gorging himself on paper ones, and Daisy tells him what she used to do when she got shaky between hunts. Part two here.

…For almost ten thousand words (~5.1k in this half, ~4.3 in the other), beeeecause of course I did.

Content warnings:

Disordered eating (mainly of the statement variety, but mentions also the literal kind)

Nausea, and brief descriptions of prior vomiting

Brief but not-ungraphic description of Jon’s (canon) Boneturning incident—so, injury, very mild body horror

Vague discussion of Daisy’s passive suicidality (in part two)

Animal cruelty and death: Daisy talks about hunting rats for sport (in part two)

—

Jon paused the tape recorder, closed his eyes, and tried to breathe. A statement’s second-to-last page was the hardest to get down. The dull ache that had begun under his ribs twenty minutes before now stretched down far enough to converge with the one in his stiff hips. His pulse throbbed in his stomach; he could feel it swell and recede beneath his hand with every beat. Nausea boomeranged up from somewhere under his navel. He reminded himself he could stop for now, finish this later—and, as always, that thought made him feel even colder than the sludge of other people’s fear pooling in his stomach. With his free hand Jon pressed Record again, and turned to 0101702’s final page. Oh, god, there was barely anything on it. Just the rest of this paragraph and then one more. He kept his eyes on the page, didn’t stop speaking its words, but fumbled blindly for another statement with his fingers.

“Knock knock,” Daisy said as she entered. “Christ—you’re still recording?”

In a flash Jon folded his hands on the table, sat up a little straighter, tried to suck in his gut. “Er—”

“Thought you said you were gonna do one more.”

“I’m almost done.”

“You’ve got another one right there.”

“I…” he considered I’m sorry, but then she’d say For what. “I don’t know what to tell you. It is my office.”

“Yeah, and your home,” Daisy scoffed—“and mine. Sort of.”

“D—did you want…? You’re welcome, to. Sit down, or….”

She did, on the arm of his couch. “I know, Jon. That’s not what I meant.”

“Okay.” To show he’d meant his welcome, Jon pushed his chair back from his desk and turned in it to face Daisy. Hopefully she’d remember he couldn’t ask What did you mean.

“I mean, don’t pretend this is work. How many statements have you had today? You don’t think that one can wait til tomorrow?”

Seven? Or would this one be eight. Jon forced himself to exhale out the portion of gut he’d been holding back since she arrived; it hurt too much to keep sucking in anyway. “A lot. I’m just.”

“Hungry, yeah.”

“Even when I’m stuffed I’m hungry.” He snarled a laugh, and set a rueful hand over his stomach like a fig leaf.

At first he’d tried sating the hunger with garden-variety food. That didn’t help much. Way back when he’d first transferred to the Archives Jon had fallen back into the old habit of forgetting to eat—which, yeah, not great, but, it did mean he remembered well how amazing it used to feel to cram down even a stale biscuit after too many hours’ inanition. All the hidden notes he’d found in yogurt and dry toast. He even remembered tearing up once at the taste of a banana, early in 2016. Before that he’d been sure he didn’t like bananas; afterward, for a short while he’d eaten one nearly every day, hoping vainly to recapture the ecstasy of banana after 14-hour fast. No luck, of course. After a few weeks he’d concluded he still didn’t much like banana as final course of healthy lunch. He’d especially disliked peeling them: how sometimes the stems bent without breaking, and the more times you tried the warmer, softer, more flexible they got. How little strings of peel still clung to the banana after you peeled off its main body, like static when you pull off a jumper. Or like the lint it leaves behind on your shirt. And the way bananas bruise, like people do. All these vestiges of its previous life—reminders it had lived to feed itself rather than him.

Since the coma, all people food—er. That was, all food intended for human consumption—tasted like that chase after a faded spark. Cloying and mushy and… organic, reminding him too much of the garden it came from. And the way it landed in his stomach was far worse. The original banana, the one Martin had pressed on him in the Archives in April 2016, had gone down like nectar, ambrosia, manna from heaven, &c.; the ones afterward, like an unwanted dessert always does. (Cloying. Mushy. A biology lesson mildly tapping its watch.) These days, though, eating regular dinner on a stomach empty of other people’s trauma felt like trying to fill up on cake. Not like cake after fourteen hours of nothing; Jon was pretty sure his 2016 stomach would have welcomed that. But like cake at dinner time. When you’re expecting, you know. Dinner. It gave him the brief, fake-seeming energy of a sugar high, and made him sick before it made him full.

Especially when he was otherwise ailing, for some reason? After Hopworth he’d treated himself to a lie down and a sandwich. The rest had helped, but he’d squandered most of the energy it gave him on the effort to keep the sandwich down. At that moment nothing, not even the coffin, had scared him so much as the thought of what it would feel like to throw up when you had only ten ribs on one side. He hadn’t expected losing them to hurt, at least not for long—had expected the rib to flow out of his skin into Jared Hopworth’s hand like an ice cube through water, which in retrospect was stupid given the testimony of Mr. Pryor in statement 0081103, but he hadn’t had time to reread that one beforehand and at the time Jon remembered only that Hopworth didn’t break his victims’ skin when he pulled out their bones. Turned out that wasn’t much comfort: he’d still had to break the ligaments attaching Jon’s ribs to his spine and chest. It had felt like a bad dislocation (four of them, technically), only instead of the feeling of bone pressing on things it shouldn’t there was an equally violating sense of tissue wallowing in holes that shouldn’t be there. He’d had this horror that if he were sick the flesh would crumple and pop where his ribs used to be, like when you try to suck the remaining water out of a near-empty bottle.

A few months after that he’d caught cold. (A point in the still-human column, Daisy had called it.) You know the first day or two of a cold, before the encroaching mucus takes out your ability to smell or taste properly, how innocuous olfactory phenomena like cheddar and laundry soap suddenly become Bad Smells, on par with the olive bar at a posh supermarket? Well, in a similar way, this one seemed to sharpen the dichotomy in his body’s opinions of people food and monster food. His lack-of-ribs had mostly healed by then though, so either vomiting with only ten ribs on one side did not cause the anomaly he’d feared, or, if it did, it hadn’t hurt enough for him to notice it in the cacophony (pucophony?) of other sensations.

(Daisy liked to play on words, so he’d been doing it more lately. This project the Eye seemed happy to help with, though in this case the suggestion arrived in his mind at the exact same moment as a reminder that, technically, the word cacophony can apply to sensations other than sound only by synecdoche.)

And then, a few weeks ago, when the whole Archives went down with norovirus… well, it wasn’t a fun time. He’d at first mistook the lethargy, weakness, trouble concentrating for signs of hunger—the new kind of hunger. Ms. Mullen-Jones’ statement about the Divine Chains cult hadn’t seemed all that bad, when he’d first recorded it. Scarier than if he’d read its events in a novel, of course; that was just how statements worked. He experienced them more vividly than stories, though less so than the events of his own life. (Because the people they happened to thought they were real! he’d told himself when he first took this job. It’s empathy, that’s all. Nope, sorry—evil magic.) When he read a paper statement these days, though, the knowledge it wouldn’t give him nightmares never quite left him. And he’d thought he was growing desensitized to the kinds of horror most people came to the Institute to report. Coming back up, though—maybe it was the fever, but god, the visions he got on that statement’s way out, of Agape and the soft, sticky hivecorpse of Claude Vilakazi’s followers—the way it made the donut he’d shoved down that morning (in a show of team spirit, god help him) come back up tasting like rotten rice wine—it was worse than the dreams. Worse, he could have sworn, than even the first time he ever dreamt Naomi Herne’s empty graveyard.

While hanging over the bowl of the Archives’ toilet waiting to see if he’d got it all up or if there was still more to come, Jon remembered thinking again of the banana Martin had given him. A few days earlier Daisy had made him watch the video of the I don’t understand this meme and at this point I’m too afraid to ask man vore-ing a banana; Jon had confessed to her, in a conspiratorial whisper-laugh, that for him vore itself had been one such meme until that very second, when the Eye had seen fit to inform him. But when applied to a banana, the term apparently just meant eating it peel and all. In 2016 Martin had broken the banana’s stem and pulled back a section of peel before handing it to Jon, so as to brook no argument. Was it really the banana itself he’d cried over? Not the gesture of friendship, when Jon deserved it so little? The thought of someone caring for him enough that when he got hangry at them they handed him a snack. Martin had been living in the Archives then, like Jon did now. Sleeping in Document Storage—a guest in a room owned by pieces of paper. Those bananas may have been the only thing that felt like his.

A Guest for Mr. Spider was about vore, technically. Not an uncommon topic in children’s literature. Some surmised that was where the fetish came from, though others maintained kinks like that were inborn, and the stories merely alerted their hosts to them for the first time. Red riding hood, three little pigs, little old lady who swallowed a fly. The Leitner touch was only the part where he drew you to his real-life lair and real-life ate you.

Looking back, that was probably the first thing he’d ever admired about Martin—how easy he’d made it look to skin a fruit. Not at the time admired, of course, but in those weeks afterward, when every banana Jon ate made him claw at the peel til his finger joints throbbed.

That stomach bug had struck the Archives with serendipitous timing, though. If he’d not found out how thin abstinence from the Hunt had made Daisy on the same day he’d barfed up a statement, Jon might not have pieced together what their combined evidence meant. Until then he’d put down his own post-coma weight loss to the fact he rarely ate more people food than a donut in twenty-four hours. Lots of avatars were scrawny, after all. Jane Prentiss, Mike Crew, Justin Gough, Annabelle Cane, John Amherst, Simon Fairchild. Jude Perry and Jared Hopworth could mold their respective fleshes however they wanted, so he didn’t count them as exceptions. True, Trevor Herbert’s bulk had struck him as odd; surely a homeless man wouldn’t waste cash on food his body no longer wanted. And what about Breekon and Hope? Did butterflies and a quartermaster’s pen and tongue sustain them? But maybe, Jon had told himself, it was like with alcohol. Maybe the avatars with more flesh on their bones had worked to develop a tolerance for (air quotes, heavy sarcasm) people food, for the sake of their physiques, or. So they could, he didn't know, eat socially? Without feeling sick, like Jon did whenever one of the others brought donuts.

Preposterously stupid, this theory seemed in retrospect. The truth was much simpler. It was like Jude Perry’d told him. She was strong and he was weak, because she fed her god with her actions, while Jon’s had had to resort to eating his flesh.

He wasn’t going back to live statements! That wasn’t an option; he knew that. He couldn’t feed his god with his actions. But he could have more paper ones. Maybe they were like the candles poor Eugene Vanderstock used to bring Agnes—the ones she’d sat over for hours. Hours and hours, inhaling the suffering that made them. They’d kept her strong enough, right? At least in body. All those people in charge of her care, all so much in her thrall—if she’d looked hungry one of them would’ve mentioned it in a statement.

During Jon’s school days, back when he was still trying to learn how to be a girl, this brief window had opened up right around age thirteen where the girls around him had enough self-consciousness to start developing eating disorders? But not enough to keep them secret. Thirteen had been this phase of, like, I’m a teenager now, see? I’ve got the teen angst now—SEE?! Where after they’d finished the day’s maths assignment, or while setting up microscope slides, one could overhear girls swapping self-harm anecdotes and tips for how best not to eat. Anne, whom he’d been almost friends with, went through two packs of chewing gum a day for a while. She would shove three or four sticks at a time in her mouth, then spit them back out into their wrappers as soon as they lost their flavor. Eventually they made her sick, and she switched to chain-sucking butterscotch discs. (Most artificial sweeteners, as the Eye now informed him, had mild laxative properties—including those used in gum.) Other acquaintances had brought comically large thermoses of coffee to school every day, and scurried to the toilet between classes. But it was another polyurious crowd that Jon kept thinking of, these days—the kids who would chug water every time they felt hungry. Trying to fill up on paper statements felt just like that.

He’d never understood that urge until now. Hunger was already a bad sensation; why would it help to add the further bad sensations of nausea and stomachache and cold? But now it made sense: feeling better was not the point. The point was to stop wanting more. He couldn’t get rid of the hunger, exactly—not in a way that mattered. Not the shards of glass in his belly, not the itch in his esophagus like a finger tapping behind his gag reflex, not the way simple motions like soaping his hands made his whole body ache. Not the sharpening of his senses to such a fine point that he jumped whenever Thérèse in the office above him shut her desk’s sticky drawer. (He hadn’t known that was what made the squeaky noise until a few weeks ago when the Eye decided he might like some office gossip. Even now he didn’t know which of the faces he sometimes passed up there belonged to Thérèse. She had no statements to make.) Nor the fog in his mind, though he tried sometimes to blame that on the Lonely. He couldn’t sate his hunger with paper statements—couldn’t make himself full, in the rosy way we usually connote that word. All warm and carefree and pleasantly sleepy. But he could cram the hole inside him with enough stale horrors that the temptation to chase down a fresh one momentarily left him.

And that was the new plan—to stuff himself with paper statements.

Tomorrow would mark two weeks since the day he’d first tried it. Brian from Artefact Storage had a statement to give him, Jon could feel—either Stranger or Spiral, it was hard to tell quite which. Something that caused paranoia. Not a great fit for that department. Good fit for a temple of the Eye, Jon supposed, remembering Tim and Michael Shelley. But Artefact Storage? God help him. He wondered if Elias had done it on purpose, hiring a paranoid man to work in a room full of objects that wanted him hurt. If so it must’ve been this one—this purpose. And on Wednesday mornings Brian manned the place all alone. Poor soul was already clinging to this job by a thread, though (so, Web…? That could cause paranoia too, as Jon well knew). Surely if Jon made him relive his trauma that would break it. Though perhaps that’d be a mercy. And but besides, two weeks ago Melanie had still lived here, and sat all morning between Jon’s office and Artefact Storage. Until she went to lunch. But by that time the woman whose laugh Jon could sometimes hear through the walls (Pooja, the Eye had since told him her name was) would have joined Brian. And it’d just be too weird, too risky, to go in and ask him about it with a third person in the room. Even if it wasn’t also evil.

So he’d read 0132210—the statement of Sierra Talbot, regarding a swimming pool whose depth changed every time she entered it—in hopes that’d make him quit thinking about the paranoid man down the hall. It didn’t, not really; paper statements didn’t take up as much of his attention as they used to. But he couldn’t get up and walk to Artefact Storage in the middle of one. When he finished and still couldn’t think of anything but Brian, he dug out another statement (this one from 1938, regarding a bad penny). Just to keep himself chained to his desk til lunch. And then a third (Liza Ho, attack of the killer seagulls). And by the end of that one he felt too heavy and cold inside to want to go anywhere but the couch. It made his stomach swell until it hurt to sit up straight, and the thought of shoving anything more inside made him feel sick—exactly like chugging water every time he felt hungry.

Basira had said maybe the Web just wanted to keep them so afraid of their own impulses they sat and did nothing so they couldn’t be puppeted. Maybe she was right. He’d never felt more like a spider, with his weak, skinny limbs and bloated stomach. Lying on the couch massaging other people’s horrors into more comfortable shapes inside him. Thank god he’d already given up tucking in his shirts, when he came back after the coma. Jon had worn the same trousers for three days in a row, now—shucked them off at the end of the day, hoping if he left them on the floor that’d convince him they were too dirty to wear again, and then slipped them back on over clean boxers in the morning. They were the only trousers he had that stayed up with the button left unfastened.

(Technically, the noun bloat refers to the feeling of weight or tightness in the abdomen. To describe a belly which has expanded beyond its typical size, one should use the word distended. Though these phenomena can occur separately, most people conflate them under the single word bloated. This trivia had seemed worthless when Beholding told him of it. But now he knew better. Every morning he woke up feeling like he’d had his whole torso replaced with the aching void of space, empty but for silver glints of pain that were the stars. And then he’d look down and find his belly still distended.)

Melanie and Basira didn’t know—at least not officially. They both seemed to have noticed how much more often lately they’d walked in on him recording, but Jon was pretty sure they suspected him less of bingeing on statements, more of pretending to record so as to avoid talking to them. He welcomed this misapprehension.

It was also possible they knew but declined to comment, since. Well, it was kind of a pathetic habit? Physically, a bit pathetic. Morally, though, such a big improvement over compelling statements by force that maybe they figured they ought to let him have it. If so he should be grateful, he reminded himself. Their pity, after all, was humiliating only in principle; Daisy’s teasing and concerned questions embarrassed him in practice.

“Enough navelgazing,” Daisy scoffed, but when Jon looked over at her he could see a smile creeping its way onto her face. “Look—finish the one you’re on, then come over here and I’ll. Tell you a story.”

“I—what?”

“Don’t know if it’ll count as a ‘statement,’” she said, with air quotes; “not much fear in it, more just.” She looked at the floor, then shrugged. “But it seems worth a try, yeah? Might make you feel better.”

“I-I, er. I really shouldn’t?” He meant in case it had a taste of human blood effect, but set his hand on his stomach again in hopes she’d think he meant he was too full.

“Yeah, you should. I want you to hear it.” Daisy shrugged again. “Think it might do you good to know.”

Jon turned back to his desk, unpaused the recording and wrapped up the statement. He’d quit bothering to record end notes on most of these—told himself he could add them in later, like he used to when he’d first taken this job. How proud 2016 Jon would have been to see how many statements the 2018 Archivist got through in a week.

He paused for a moment before standing up, to take as deep a breath as he could manage when stuffed full of paper. The end of that statement had gone down easier, since he’d had that few minutes’ break talking to Daisy, but he still didn’t love the idea of standing and walking. Especially since he knew once he got to the couch he’d be glued there by fatigue. If he didn’t pee now, he’d spend most of the night far enough into sleep to be paralyzed, but not far enough to numb his bladder. He excused himself to Daisy, promising to come right back. Then hauled himself up, with help from his cane and one arm of his chair.

Six limbs it took to maneuver this body now. Two more and he’d’ve gone full spider.

Three quarters of the way to the bathroom—that’s how long it took before the ache in his legs outpaced that in his stomach. He arrived on the toilet seat shaky and out of breath, as always. Months ago he’d given up standing to pee. When you sat you could rock back and forth, and cross your arms tight over waves of quease.

Not much came out, as was also usual lately. As far as Jon could tell, his body now required only enough water to keep his mouth from drying out while recording. Dehydration no longer made his head hurt, so, why bother. Good thing, too, he supposed—the last two weeks he hadn’t needed much non-metaphorical water inside for his body to parse that as needing to pee.

He let his trousers stay pooled around his ankles until after he’d washed and dried his hands. Then pulled up his shirt, to judge from his reflection whether they’d stay up with the fly undone. If he kept his hands in his pockets, yeah. Could you tell the difference, visually, once he put his shirt tails back down? Not for such a short distance. They wouldn’t have time to get disarranged.

It didn’t matter; Basira didn’t even glance at him on his way back, and all Institute staff who didn’t live here had gone home.

Jon opened the door to his office, said hello to Daisy but didn’t manage to look at her, and sat himself down on the other side of the couch. From the corner of his eye (or someone’s anyway) he saw her rise to her feet. “I’m gonna pee too,” she told him, picking her way toward the door; “get yourself comfortable, like you’re going to bed.”

“Where will you sit.”

“I’ll squeeze in.”

“I don’t mind leaving room for—?” Finally he made himself look up at her, in time to see her shake her head. Daisy hadn’t been strong on her feet either, since the Buried; she held herself up now with a hand on the doorjamb, elbow bent so her shoulder leant against that wrist. He regretted quibbling. “Never mind; I’ll just.”

“Really? You’re comfortable like that? You look like a sheep in clover.”

The knowledge came to him before he could ask her what that meant—complete with a nasty visual of what happens in cases acute enough to require rumenotomy. Jon swore he could feel himself swelling to accommodate this tidbit. His eye twitched in discomfort.

“Think I prefer ‘windbag,’ if it’s all the same to you.”

She made a face like that was grosser than what she had said. “You ruined my joke. I was gonna say I won’t let you have any more leaves til you look less like you might explode.”

“Sheep in clover suffocate,” Jon frowned; “they don’t explode. You must be thinking of how they cure them when—”

“Leaves. In. A. Book, Jon. That joke.”

“Oh. Yes, I see.” He made himself chuckle.

Daisy sighed and shifted on her feet. “I’ll be right back. Just lie down, alright? Like you’re going to bed.”

Jon agreed to lie down, but couldn’t decide whether to face the wall (as he would to sleep), leaving her to slide in between him and the back of the couch the way she had a few times before when she’d walked in on him catnapping, or whether he should lie on his back, where he could see her as soon as she opened the door. It was important to make sure she knew he appreciated her offer to give him a statement. Or, no—to tell him her story, he meant.

Ultimately he picked the latter course.

“You sleep like that?”

“Sometimes."

“I’ve never seen you sleep like that. You always face the wall.” Daisy crossed her arms, blew hair out of her face. “That for the tummy ache, or for me?”

“Uh….”

“Would it hurt you to face the wall.”

“No, I just.”

“Turn around, then. I’ll squeeze in,” she said again.

“I-if you’re sure.”

He rolled onto his side, gritting his teeth as the cramps in his stomach swirled in new directions. What made it slosh like that, he wondered. While he fought to regain his breath Jon watched Daisy climb up onto the back of the couch on shaking elbows and knees, then avalanche down hands- and feet-first so she fit between him and its cushions. He’d never watched her do this before—always either startled out of a doze at the sound of her thumping down next to him, or simply woken up to find her there.

“You’re just like the Admiral,” he informed her.

“True words spoken in jest,” muttered Daisy. Too quietly for him to hear what she said over the couch’s tortured creaks, but half a second after she finished speaking the words appeared before his mind, in white, all-capital letters with a black background like closed captions on the news. “That’s Georgie’s cat, right?” she said aloud.

“Yes.”

Her knee jostled the cap of his; when it made him gasp she snarled under her breath. “Sorry. Can you move your leg?”

“Yes, it’s fine, just—”

“I mean would you move your leg.”

“Oh.” He did so.

“Thanks. Ugh—you’re cold,” Daisy accused him; “where’s that blanket.” He pointed behind her to the arm of the couch where it lay folded. She shook it out, and draped it over both of them. Reached around behind him to make sure it covered his whole back. Jon tried to ignore the way his stomach lurched every time Daisy’s weight shifted against the cushions. Finally she settled next to him to catch her breath. Their foreheads touched; her stomach pressed into his, though not as tightly as the last time they’d lain like this. “Can you breathe or am I crushing you?”

“Not at all, you’re fine—in fact, if the couch cushions are chafing you too much you can—”

Daisy huffed, and scooted herself in closer to him. “That better?” She set her warm hand down right where his belly diverged from pelvis. Jon tried to keep both voice and tremor out of his exhale. Since the coffin, Daisy’s hands and feet suffered at night and after any exertion from the same excess of heat his sometimes did. So the cold inside him probably felt nice on her hand, if not to the rest of her.

(Like snuggling up to a hotel mattress, she’d described it, after the first time she joined him for a nap when he’d just had a statement. Cold, hard, covered in lumps and dents, and creaks when you roll over on it. “I’d prefer you didn’t,” he’d replied, while praying her elbow wouldn’t come any closer to the crevasse where his ribs used to be.)

“Christ you’re stuffed,” commented Daisy. For emphasis she lifted her fingers, then set them back down on his gut.

“I don’t know what you expected.”

“You won’t pop if I tell you a story?”

“Not literally,” Jon said, blinking.

“Of course not literally,” she scoffed; “you know what I mean.”

“Do I?”

“Will it make you sick. Don’t want you throwing up on me; this is Melanie’s shirt. If you ruin it she’ll hit us with her cane, and I don’t trust you to hit as hard back with yours.”

��Mine’s shorter and thicker,” he mused. “I don’t have to hit as hard.”

“Stop. Avoiding. The question.”

Jon sighed to show her he capitulated. Then thought about it. He felt cold and sick, but the idea of saying no to a statement made those feelings worse, not better. And the sharp clusters of pain in his belly were harder to sleep through than quease.

“I’ll be fine,” he decided. “It’ll help.”

“Alright. When you’re ready, ask me what I used to do when I got shaky between hunts.”

--

Read part two here.