#why does that always happen there isn't even any ink on the part of the quill I've been touching to write

[caricature-of-a-witch]

does anyone want to volunteer to be my pen pal so I have a good reason to use the amazing letter paper I got from @bitchlingwitchling

you benefit by getting letters in terrible handwriting on hella cool paper pretentiously written on with a feather quill and sealed as prettily as I can manage (which isn't very). ideally within Europe for money reasons but I'm at least semi serious about this and willing to pay for postage at least occasionally so like. actually do message me if you'd also be semi serious

[superprofesh]

The Five Times Colt Seavers Almost Kisses You (and the One Time He Does) — Part 6 (Final)

Pairing: Colt Seavers x reader

Description: The one time Colt Seavers kisses you — or, rather, the first time.

Rating: T

Word Count: 4.6k

Tag List: @strangedeerconnoisseur, @icantwaittoliveandlearn, @moonlightandstarshimmer, @chemococktailonthehouse, @1word (sending directly to the rest because Tumblr isn't cooperating)

Author’s Note: Well, folks, we've come to the end of this fic, and I hope it's everything you've all been waiting for. I can't express how much your kind words and amazing feedback has meant to me, and it has truly shaped this fic in more ways than you know. I'm really going to miss writing this fic, soooo........ if y'all are interested in a little epilogue, I'm up for that ;) Thank you all, and I hope you enjoy!!

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 // Part 5

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Colt can’t get out of the camera crew’s station fast enough. He’s been searching for you all morning, but Holly finally pressed a note in his hand, telling him that you asked her to pass it on to him. He instantly searches for a quiet place where he can read your note, dreading what it might say.

Yesterday shook him up, in more ways than one. Staring down the headlights of a train while Elijah Gordon pushed him to stay a few more seconds was terrifying even for him. Seeing you engage in a showdown with Gordon himself in front of the entire crew was so completely unexpected and selfless that he hasn’t been able to get it out of his mind. No one has ever stood up for him like that.

The more he’s thought it over, the more he’s realized that he’s been blind. Blind to your feelings, blind to your sincerity, blind to the fact that he’s been on the verge of his sweetest dream come true. He’s been pushing you away because he thought he wasn’t good enough for you, but after what happened yesterday, he’s starting to realize that doesn’t matter.

He keeps remembering the look in your eyes when you were in the tent together. The gentle way your fingertips stroked his hair, the soft skin of your neck against his lips, the way you held him as if he were designed to fit in your arms. If your fierceness in defending him didn’t convince him that he needed to wake up and confess his love for you, the heated look in your eyes did. His plan upon finding you has been to simply pour out his heart and see if you’re still willing to accept him after everything that’s happened.

Colt finally finds an empty bench a few stations down from the camera crew, and he unfolds your note carefully. A gentle smile crosses his lips when he sees you’ve scribbled it by hand, your artistic handwriting scrawled in green ink across a piece of office paper. The smile slowly fades, though, as he scans the contents of your letter.

Dear Colt,

I’m sorry to leave without saying goodbye, but I figured we’ve already said a lot of things that are more important than goodbyes. I want you to know that I’m not leaving because you hurt me or because I’m angry with you. I just think it’s best this way, for both of us.

I quit my job last night as Gordon’s set director. After everything that’s happened, I just can’t work for him. I’ve already had a few offers back in L.A., so I’ll be fine. I wish you the best as you finish the movie. You really are the best stuntman in the business, and I hope you stay safe.

I’ve already told you most of what I feel, so I won’t beat a dead horse any more. Still, in case I haven’t told you enough, I want you to know that the time I’ve spent with you has been the happiest I’ve had in a long time. I don’t know why you’re so dead-set on believing you’re not good enough for me. That thought has never entered my mind and never will. You’re the best person I know. When I look back on my memories of love, I will always think of you. Whatever you think you’d be holding me back from, it doesn’t matter to me half as much as you do. Please believe that.

I wish you all the best, and I hope one day our paths might cross again. Until then, thumbs up and happy landings.

Colt squeezes his eyes shut once he’s finished reading the letter, fighting the urge to crumple the piece of paper into a ball. How could you have been so stupid? his inner monologue chides him. How could you not have recognized unconditional love when it was staring you in the face?

The memory of your touch hits him like a knockout punch. Suddenly, every moment the two of you have shared comes back to him in excruciating detail. Smudging paint on each other’s faces. Walking you back to your hotel room. Flirting with you at the club. The look in your eyes when you ran to him after the train stunt. Your hands on his face, in his hair.

Setting his jaw, Colt glances at his watch. 7:42 AM. If he can figure out where you’re leaving from, he can catch you in time. There are a lot of things he needs to say before it’s too late, and now, for the first time, he’s ready to say them.

He folds the paper, tucks it into his pocket, and starts running.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

You grip your steering wheel with white-knuckled hands. The sun has already risen over the mountains in the distance, but the beauty of the landscape is the furthest thing from your mind.

You can’t believe you actually left. You’ve never quit a job before, especially one as high-profile as this one. But you just couldn’t take it. You couldn’t work for someone who would so carelessly risk the life of one of their employees. Especially when you happen to be in love with that employee.

You haven’t told anyone but Holly (and Gordon, of course), and she understood. She also promised to pass along your note to Colt.

Writing that note is the most difficult thing you’ve ever done. You wrote eight versions of it before settling on the one you passed to Holly. The most painful part was knowing that that note may be the last time you ever communicate with Colt. Saying exactly the right thing was vital, and you finally felt satisfied with the ninth version, which included a lot less poetic verse and a lot more explanations of why you were really leaving.

The airport is looming on the horizon, and a wave of emotion sweeps over you, biting at the backs of your eyes. What was the point of knowing him if this is how it has to end?

You can’t stop replaying your memories with him as you pull closer to the airport parking lot. Things started out so simple and easy between the two of you — making each other laugh, sitting together at lunch, cheering on each other’s projects — but once the tension between you started heating up, maintaining a friendship has seemed almost impossible. You thought you could handle it, but it turns out you’re not strong enough to face Colt every day if you can’t express your love for him openly.

You pull into a parking space, facing the vast grassy field that leads to the plane runway. A passenger jet soars into the air, leaving a trail of jet stream behind. You’ll be aboard one of those planes within the hour, and maybe when you get to L.A., you can leave all your sorrows behind you.

You’re still trying to muster the strength to climb out of the car and drag your suitcase to the airport, when something… odd catches your eye. On the busy street leading up to the airport entrance, a vehicle is moving too fast to be driven by a normal person. The truck rounds the corner to fly up the airport drive at top speed, and your heart constricts.

That’s Colt’s truck.

All your attention is suddenly laser-focused on that familiar GMC pickup, and before you know what you’re doing, you’ve leaped out of your car and started running as fast as you can towards the driveway. A few seconds later, Colt’s truck pulls to a stop on the side of the drive, and he jumps out without even bothering to turn the truck off.

The fifteen seconds it takes you to get halfway across the grassy field feels like an eternity, and by the time you’re halfway, Colt has already cleared the distance. He sweeps you into his arms, holding you off the ground as you try to catch your breath, completely overwhelmed by this grand gesture.

He came for me. He couldn’t let me leave without saying goodbye. It’s not over yet.

You’re content to stay like that, suspended off the ground and feeling his heartbeat pound against your chest, but Colt carefully sets you back on your feet and holds you at arm’s length. His face is a jumble of a thousand emotions, more than you’ve ever seen from him in all the time you’ve known him. He’s breathing hard from his enthusiastic sprint across the greenway, but his eyes are illuminated by his excitement at catching you in time.

“Colt—” you start, gripping his forearms as if he’s going to disappear.

He shakes his head, cutting off whatever you were about to ask. “I’ve been wrong. I’ve been so wrong.”

You raise your eyebrows in disbelief, trying to make sense of his words. “Colt, how did you find me here?” you ask.

“I got your note,” he tells you. “Holly told me how to find you.”

“Don’t you have to be on set?”

“Actually, I’m not filming anymore.”

You can’t hide your confusion. Colt isn’t working on the movie anymore? What kind of insane coincidence could this be? “What?” you squeak, gripping his arms even harder. “Please tell me you didn’t quit because I did!”

Colt shakes his head, which relieves you. “Tom quit the movie last night,” Colt explains, his eyes never leaving yours. “Called Gordon and told him he was sick of taking orders and wasn’t working for him anymore. I’d say it had something to do with you taking Gordon to task yesterday,” he adds with something that sounds a little like humor. “Tom doesn’t want something like that reflecting badly on him.”

You laugh in pure disbelief, amazed at the turn of events you could never have expected. “Well, I never thought I’d be grateful to Tom Ryder for anything,” you say honestly, and Colt laughs with you, genuine joy behind his eyes. You search his face for answers about why he has rushed to the airport to see you. You begin, “Listen, you didn’t have to come all this way just to tell me—”

“I did,” Colt says definitively. “Believe me, I did. Because what I have to say isn’t something that can be done long-distance.”

Your heart drops. This is it. After all this time, you’re about to hear the words that you know are true, the ones you’ve been waiting for, from his own lips.

“Colt…”

Colt takes a step backwards, his hands falling from your arms to hold your hands between the two of you. The look in his eyes can only be described as utter sincerity.

“I have been so wrong about selling you short,” he says softly, emotion threatening to break through his voice. “I keep putting you on this impossibly high pedestal and believing that you’re way too good for me. I thought you could never feel what I feel because I don’t see myself the way I see you. To me, you’re every wonderful thing that ever existed.”

Tears spring into your eyes at his words, so totally without guile. “Are you serious?” you whisper.

“Absolutely serious.” His eyes blaze with an intensity you haven’t seen before, and his grip on your hands grows tighter as he says, “Listen, I’ve never said this to anyone in my life, but… I love you.” Colt stops, his voice catching in his throat when he sees the tears streaming down your cheeks. “I’ve been in love with you since the first time I saw you on set painting that triple-sized stop sign.” You both laugh at the memory, relieving some of the overwhelming emotion.

He keeps going. “I’m so in love with you it actually scares me,” he finishes, “because nothing has ever meant so much to me as getting this right. I can’t keep holding it back, and you deserve to know. It’s killing me.”

“Colt…” It’s as if you’ve forgotten every word but his name.

Still, Colt presses on, trying to get three months’ worth of communication out in three minutes. “I’m not asking anything in return,” he tells you insistently. “If you still want to go, I won’t stop you. You don’t need to say or do anything, but I just had to get this out. After yesterday, with the train stunt almost going wrong, and you telling Gordon off, and then when you told me you love me and want to be with me no matter what, I don’t know… it just sort of woke me up.”

Your eyes brim with tears again, and you squeeze his hands, giving him an encouraging smile to keep going. You can feel his pulse in his hands, flying as fast as the jet planes soaring over the nearby mountains.

“I’ve been holding back because I didn’t want you to be stuck with a guy like me.” Colt can’t seem to stop the avalanche of words spilling out of his mouth, every one as sweet as honey to your ears. “I keep imagining this amazing future for you and thinking that I’m only going to hold you back and get in the way. I’m still not sure it wouldn’t be that way, but… I’m not the only one who gets to make that decision.” His voice thickens with emotion again. “No one has ever cheered me on the way you do. No one has ever supported me with everything I do, and made me feel like I actually have a chance at real love. But you’re different. You make me feel like I can do anything, and if you still want me after all we’ve been through, I’m yours.”

The look in Colt’s eyes is enough to make your knees feel weak, and you throw yourself forward to steady yourself, wrapping your arms around his neck and burying your face in his shoulder. Colt’s instant embrace is more welcome than you could have imagined.

“Of course I want you,” you whisper in his ear. “Just you, no strings attached.”

Colt holds you against him for a few moments, long enough that a plane takes off from the landing strip and zooms far enough away that it doesn’t drown out his words. Finally, carefully, he pries himself out of your arms and holds you at arm’s length, his hands on your waist. “Look, I can’t promise that it’ll be easy,” he continues in a rush. “I’m a stuntman. Life is scary and dangerous and all that.”

“I don’t care about that,” you answer honestly, beaming through your tears. “If it’s what you love doing, there’s nothing I want more than for you to do it. I can handle it.”

“It’s not just that. I’ve never… I’ve never had a serious relationship before. Everything will be new for me, and I’m going to make a ton of mistakes.”

Colt’s eyes are misty, too, and your heart is so full of joy that it feels like it will burst. You know it must be radiating from your face, because Colt starts grinning back at you, seeming to sense how much you’ve been aching to hear these words from him.

“So am I,” you insist, your hands fluttering back and forth from his face to his shoulders over and over. “Mistakes are just part of a relationship. As long as we communicate and stay committed, we’re not going to fall apart just because of a few mistakes.”

Colt nods, flexing his fingers against your waist as his smile overtakes his entire face. Still, he doesn’t lose control: he seems to be holding back until he’s finished saying everything that’s been building up over the months. You’re more than happy to let your gaze wander over his wonderful face, to bask in the fact that Colt Seavers loves you back and isn’t going to let you go.

“There’s one more thing,” he says gingerly. “I… I don’t really have a lot of grand aspirations for the future. I’m a stuntman because that’s what I love doing, but there aren’t a lot of ways to move up the ladder. I’ll be doing stunts until I’m dead or until I can’t anymore, so basically, my future is just to be a working-class guy. I’ll just be an unknown stuntman.” He hesitates at the end of his speech, as if he honestly believes this could be a problem for you.

You want to laugh in sheer glee, but you hold back so Colt won’t think you’re taking his seriousness lightly. “If that bothered me,” you inform him, moving your thumbs lightly against the sides of his neck, “I would never have fallen in love with you in the first place. Colt, I’m not exactly shooting for the stars myself as a set decorator. Sure, I may have a chance to work on even bigger films, and it can always open up some new opportunities, but I’m not doing this to climb the ladder either. If we’re both working-class professionals for the rest of our lives, that’s fine with me. As long as I have you in my life, I don’t care what kind of life it is.”

Colt’s eyes finally brim over with the tears he has valiantly been holding back. His hands are trembling against your waist, and he ducks his head so you won’t see how much this confession has affected him. You pull him close to you again, resting your head just below his chin while he squeezes you tightly enough to take your breath away. This is what heaven must be like.

He’s whispering something against the top of your hair, so low you can barely hear it. “I’m so sorry.”

You shake your head. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“I do,” Colt replies, the regret in his voice obvious. “I haven’t been able to make up my mind about what to do because all this has been in the back of my head. I should have just come clean with you the first time you ever let me know how you feel.” He lifts your head with his fingers under your chin, meeting your tear-stained gaze with one of his own. “It would have saved you all this heartbreak,” he whispers.

You smile up at him, resting your hand on his cheek. “What’s love without a little heartbreak?” you tease him. “That’s how you know it’s real.”

Colt finally returns your smile, his shoulders relaxing as if he suddenly believes that this is real. “I promise I won’t break your heart again,” he says solemnly.

“I believe that.” And you do.

Colt is looking into your eyes with all the passion of the ocean in a storm, and you can feel the blush in your cheeks building just from the way he’s looking at you. You’re suddenly hyper-conscious of his hand that’s still resting under your chin, tilting your head back to look deep in your eyes. The hand that is slowly, ever so slowly, bringing your face closer to his.

Colt hesitates for a moment when your lips are just inches apart. You’ve been here so many times, so close to a kiss, and have parted every time. This time, however, you know his heart is beating for you alone, and you feel like you have all the time in the world to savor this moment.

His gaze flickers down to your lips, and his breath seems to double its pace as he considers what he’s about to do. He lifts an eyebrow at you, as if asking, Are you ready? Your smile tells him all he needs to know, and finally, finally, Colt closes the endless distance between you.

The moment your lips meet his, your heart whispers, This is what you were made to do. Colt’s kiss is everything gentle and passionate, his lips moving slowly against yours in a rhythm that is so incredibly natural. His hands find landing spots on your back when you tighten your arms around his neck, pressing yourself against him as he deepens the kiss.

Every last circuit in your brain is exploding in the sweetest way possible. Is this how it’s supposed to feel? you wonder, and Colt pulls away from your mouth at that exact moment, fixing his eyes on yours with an expression that tells you he’s wondering the same thing.

The separation only lasts a moment, though, because now that Colt has had a taste of your lips, he can’t get enough. He kisses you again, and again, and again, and again, until you’re both so out of breath you wonder if you’ll ever recover. His hands move up and down your back, clutching your body so tightly against his that you’ve started breathing in rhythm with each other. You can taste salt on his lips, and you have no idea if it’s from your tears or his.

Just when you think you’re about to drown in the sweetest possible way, Colt presses one more soft kiss against your lips, then pulls back so you can breathe. You find yourself gasping for air and aren’t surprised to see him doing the same. Your hands stay on his shoulders as they heave up and down, and he doesn’t loosen his hold on you for a second.

“Colt…” you sigh, your lips feeling like they’ve actually changed shape, “I’ve dreamed about this so many times. You have no idea.”

He inclines his head toward you, resting his cheek against yours. His beard scratches your skin in a way that sends a delightful shiver down your spine. “Me, too,” he whispers against your cheek.

“Promise me this is real.”

“It’s real,” Colt assures you, dipping his head so he can press a kiss against the skin right below your ear. “Realer than anything I’ve done in my life.”

You feel like your body is about to sail into orbit at the contact, and you grip Colt’s broad shoulders even harder as his lips move down your neck, across your throat, down to your collarbone. You know you’re making breathless sounds that betray how much he’s exciting you, but you are far past the point of caring.

With every kiss, it’s as if Colt is repeating the words he said just a few moments ago: I love you. I love you. I love you. One of his hands moves from your lower back to cradle your chin, tilting your head to the side to give him better access to your neck.

“I’ve been aching for you,” he murmurs close to your ear. “Burning for you.”

His words inspire an entirely new shiver down your spine, one that makes you stand on your toes and arch even further into his arms. All you can manage to choke out is, “I love you so much… so much…”

You slide one hand into his hair, remembering how he reacted the last time you did that. Right on cue, Colt lets out a soft sound that makes every inch of your skin erupt into goosebumps. He goes still in your arms, his mouth still on the curve where your shoulder meets your neck. You run your fingers through his hair with firm but gentle strokes, reveling in the way he seems to melt in your arms.

After a few moments of it, Colt finally straightens again, his intense gaze locked on your face. You leave one hand in his thick hair and let your other wander to his face. Using just your fingertips, you trace his forehead, his cheekbone, his nose, his lips, his jaw, everything you’ve been dying to touch. Colt’s eyes flutter closed at your touch, as if he’s about to come undone right before your eyes. Your heart leaps when he leans his head to the side, leaning in to your touch.

You choose to copy his actions, rising up to press your lips to his pulse point, right below his neck. The way Colt’s hands on your waist flex in response tells you you’ve found something he likes. You trail your way up until you’re peppering kisses behind his ear, then on his cheek, on his nose, on both his closed eyelids.

At the sensation of your kisses on his face, Colt opens his eyes and smiles at you. It’s a new smile this time, one that speaks of a new emotion he’s feeling for the first time. Peacefulness. Assurance.

Colt raises his hands to frame your face, tucking the strands of hair that he’s pulled loose back behind your ears. His voice breaks when he says softly, “I may never find the right words to tell you how I really feel about you, but I promise I’m going to take every opportunity to try.”

You rest your hands on his chest, grinning as you reply, “We’ve got the rest of our lives for you to think of the right words. I’ve heard all the ones I need to know what you mean.”

Colt’s eyes are brimming over with the love he’s been demonstrating, the adoration, the gratitude, the sheer bliss of sharing this moment with the one person he’s been waiting all his life for. “You’re everything to me…” he murmurs, lowering his lips to touch yours again. “I’ve never…” he restarts, only to interrupt himself with another kiss. “No one has ever…”

He doesn’t even try to finish the last sentence, and your lips are meeting in a gentler kiss, one that calms the fire you’ve been building for the last little eternity. His lips are so soft against yours, coaxing things from you but never demanding. Colt’s hands stroke through your hair and down your spine, holding you close against his chest protectively. You can feel every breath he takes, every movement that reveals how wrapped up he is in feeling you with him.

Another deafening jet plane roars over your heads, but neither of you take the slightest bit of notice.

Colt finally slows your kiss down, pressing his lips to the corner of your mouth and leaving one of his hands to tangle in your hair. He doesn’t pull away, just lets his lips linger on your jaw, as he asks casually, “So, Sofonisba, are you still flying out?”

“Sofonisba?” you repeat, words slowly drifting back into your brain.

“I was running out of artist nicknames,” Colt explains, a husky edge still noticeable in his voice. “Had to look that one up.”

You grin at him, though he feels it rather than sees it. “I don’t have to fly out. I don’t exactly have somewhere to be.” You snuggle closer to him, not quite ready to leave his comforting embrace. “Haven’t even gotten my ticket yet.”

Colt hums in approval at that, the sound lingering on your skin. “In that case,” he suggests softly, “what do you say to some coffee?”

“Can’t think of anything I’d like better,” you say honestly.

Colt returns your smile, pulling you forward for one last, reverent kiss to your lips. Then he wraps his arm around your shoulder, and the two of you gaze off into the distance, where another plane soars into the sky over the mountains.

You don’t know what lies ahead for you, and you know Colt doesn’t either. But you are assured of one thing now, and that is that you’ve found the man you were made to be with. All it takes is one glance up into his eyes to know that he’s confident of the same thing.

That’s more than enough for you.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Epilogue

[tired-teacher-blog]

Characters : Tattoo artist Aizawa/ Florist fem reader

Featuring : Eri/ Hizashi Yamada/ Nemuri Kayama/ Oboro Shirakumo/ Emi Fukukado

Warnings and Genre : Fluff/ Romance/ Smut and Angst in future chapters/ Multi Chaptered Story

Summary : In a desperate attempt to get closer to the tattoo artist dominating every speck of your brain, you decide to pay him a visit one evening as a client seeking his service. This encounter will prove to be the beginning of something much bigger between you two, but will this new found passion be enough to stand against the difficulties your future holds?

Notes : Loosely inspired by this/ Art below is by the wonderful @/ael-draw who gifted me this gorgeous piece.

Masterlist|Second Masterlist|Third Masterlist

Chapter Count : Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5 • Part 6 • Part 7 • Part 8 • Part 9 • Part 10 • Part 11 • Part 12

_ "Good evening Miss."

_ "Uh.. yes, yeah good evening!" did your voice just waver as you returned the man's greeting?

It did, didn't it? Why else would he let out a chuckle while his eyes are lingering on your clumsy hands struggling to lock your shop's front door?

_ "Need any help with that?" his smile slowly disappears as he notices your battle against the entrance lock.

_ "Oh no it's fine I got it! Thanks anyway, good night." and with that, you flee the scene after yet another awkward encounter with the tattoo artist whose parlor just happens to be facing your own shop.

Aizawa Shouta, the man in question, is an intriguing guy.

His ink covered arms— coming to light each time he decides to roll his sleeves or wear a t-shirt, probably hint at more hidden art behind the garment.. his long raven locks that usually sit beautifully on his broad shoulders, are flowing gracefully around his face.. the dark circles under his eyes have never been a surprise to you since his working hours start really late every evening.

However, that harsh exterior does not reflect his personality at all, you're certain of it, and even though your short exchanges have never gone beyond the polite greetings and stolen gazes, something about this man simply mesmerized you..

Who is he anyway? What is his story? Why does he only come to work late when everyone else is heading home?

These questions have been plaguing your brain ever since you met the mysterious guy a few months ago, you've always wanted to know more about him, to befriend him, to have a meaningful conversation, to stand closer to him, to touch..

_ "No! This is not it!" you slap your face with a wince of pain as you snap back to reality, you are daydreaming about the handsome man once again instead of focusing on work.

You flip through the countless search results as you struggle to make a decision, "which one should I get?" it is honestly a big deal.. a commitment.

Getting a tattoo is a matter of great importance, even more so when the person branding your skin is the same one taking over your every waking moment.

_ "I don't like any of these." you mumble irritatedly as you couldn't feel any connection to the art suggested.

Maybe it isn't a good idea after all, do you actually want to get a tattoo? Or is it just a ruse to get closer to.. to him?

You place your phone away and welcome your new costumer with a smile, "good morning Sir!"

Work comes first anyway, everything else should wait till later, it has to..

_ "Here you go! Red roses are the perfect gift, they represent love, passion, beauty, courage and respect, so I'm sure your wife will love them."

The man's eyes light up and his cheerful smile grows wider as he hears you reciting the devine meaning behind his choice, he pays for his purchase and thanks you again before walking out of your shop.

_ "A red rose?" you utter thoughtfully as your eyes study the beautiful flowers before you.

Love, passion, beauty, courage and respect.

Fitting.. although it might seem tacky to some, but if you are to have something inked into your skin, then it has to be meaningful and so, your mind is finally set, "I'll have a red rose."

You take a deep breath and look through your giant glass window at the closed tattoo parlor across the street, "I'll see you tonight, Mr Aizawa."

It is as regular as clockwork— your daily encounter with the dashing man, you are locking your shop's front door when you hear him unlocking his own, and as regular as clockwork your eyes meet and you exchange your daily greeting, except this isn't all that happened tonight, because unlike your usual habit of turning around and walking home, you are advancing towards the man who doesn't seem surprised to see you approaching.

_ "Tattoo, I mean, can I get one?" your cheeks heat up instantly while hearing yourself speak, you're being as awkward as always around him, and wish to disappear right this instant.

_ "Oh.. yeah sure, this is what I do after all," his chuckle is intoxicating, and his silky hair glides elegantly as he cocks his head to the side, "why don't you come in first?"

You have never realized it before, but now that you are standing near each other, he is towering over you, it's almost intimidating to be frank, if not for the gentle smile that seems even more dazzling from up close.

You are right, he truly is beautiful.

_ "My assistant should be here in a minute, but in the meantime I'll take care of you," he offers you a seat at the reception desk before removing his jacket and joining you, "this is a first for you am I right?"

_ "What makes you say that?" is it obvious how ordinary you are?

_ "Well, usually people call to schedule an appointment beforehand, some of them even visit my studio and bombard us with questions to make sure they can trust us with their bodies, but you.." he stops for a moment to clear his throat and shift his gaze from you, "you're something else."

Is that a little blush he's so desperately trying to conceal? No it can't be, you're delirious like usual, and being in a close proximity to him is playing with your mind.

_ "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have barged in unannounced, I'll make sure to do it properly and call for an appointment," you're on the verge of tears as you stand up and bow your head apologetically, "good night Sir."

_ "What? Hey hold on! Don't go," he's fast at intercepting you, grabbing your arm and pulling you back gently, "please don't go."

His grip remains on you, a perfect pressure applied, as if he's afraid you would disappear if he lets go, and you would have.

He's standing close, so close, closer than he did earlier, and you can feel his warm breath fanning over your skin, his beautiful smile is replaced with a little pout, his dark hair falls around his face and you almost.. almost reach out to tuck the loose strands behind his ear.

How long have you been standing there, looking into each other's eyes and saying nothing? Apparently long enough for his assistant to burst out laughing after walking in and finding you in that state.

_ "Good evening boss! Sorry for being late but you know how traffic is at this hour." her eyes move between you two, and her amused smirk hints at something that you cannot -for the life of you- understand.

You return the lively woman's greeting and take a step back, you are still going to leave anyway, despite the inexplicable desire to stay.

_ "Ms Kayama, would you mind passing my seven o'clock client to Hizashi? Also Oboro is running late as usual so would you please give him a call? Aizawa speaks to his assistant while keeping his attention on you.

_ "Sure boss, you can count on me." you cannot understand the reason of her mischievous smile, nor why she looked at you while saying that.

_ "Thank you."

Your blush is reaching your ears and a storm of emotions is fighting within you as you prepare to interject and perhaps save yourself from further embarrassment, but he is quicker to speak, "please have a seat." his voice as soft as ever while waiting for you to do so.

_ "Yes, thank you." and so you do.

He pulls out a chair for himself across from you before picking up a notbook that was already placed on the desk in front of him, "shall we begin?"

You shoot up all of a sudden as it finally hits you, "I.. I'm.." you stutter almost inaudibly, squeezing your fists so hard to stop from shaking, you aren't sure about this anymore, maybe you've made a mistake barging in like that with the pretence of getting a tattoo when all you actually want is to see him.

_ "Is everything okay?" he must've felt your uncertainty towards it since he instantly stood in front of you, his warm hands on each of your shoulders, rubbing soothing patterns while anticipating your response.

_ "I'm sorry I'm just, a little nervous." saying those words is more painful than any needles he could use on you, you feel pathetic, squeezing your eyes shut and wishing you're home alone instead of this.

Maybe you should forget about the whole thing and just leave, you've already made a fool of yourself enough for one evening, what else is there for you to do?

_ "That's fine, having second thoughts is totally normal considering that it would be your first time going through the experience, besides, there are some preparations to go through before getting to the actual thing," his eyes are gazing gently at you as he speaks, "let's take it step by step, and if you ultimately decide against it then we'll stop."

You cannot understand his behavior, he isn't laughing at you, isn't mocking you like you've expected, he isn't even showing an ounce of impatience. Who is he? Trully? And why is everything about him just.. flawless?

You nod slowly and take your seat again, a wave of goosebumps is running up your spine at the loss of his touch.

_ "Alright, so tell me, do you have a design in mind? If not I can help you choose, and it should help if you have a theme in mind." he starts right as he sits facing you.

_ "Oh no that's fine, I already know what I want," you answer quickly before pulling out your phone and showing him the single rose you settled on, "I want this.. this red rose."

He takes the device from your extended hand, studying the picture displayed before letting out a chuckle that travels right through your veins, "I like it, it's soft and pretty, just like you," he comments casually before adding, "what size are you thinking?"

_ "Huh? Umm.. I'm not sure but, I would prefer it to be small, I guess..." you're not even sure of the words leaving your mouth anymore as his previous remark sways you, soft.. pretty.

What is he doing to you? Is it perhaps a part of his job to sweet talk his clients? Yeah, that must be it, why else would he do it?

_ "It's okay we'll circle back to that later, now for the placement, where would you want it to be? This can actually help you determine the size better if you're still unsure about that." his smile never leaves him as he speaks, and for a brief moment your delusions lead you to believe that it could mean more than a friendly smile, but it doesn't, and you know it.

_ "I'm not sure about that either," you feel stupid, it is your first time walking into a tattoo studio sure, but you should've been more prepared.

He remains quiet for a bit and you're struggling to understand what he's thinking, your heart is hammering painfully in your chest as you wait silently for him to reply.

He isn't smiling anymore, infact, the look on his face has turned into one of pensiveness, his lips are sealed in a thin line and his head is tilted to the side, and it is becoming unbearable for you to sit there and wait any longer, it's humiliating.

You open your mouth to speak, to -perhaps- apologize for making his work harder than it should, for being so stupid as to make him dump his work on his colleagues so he could take care of you for the evening, you're trying to speak but don't know how to start exactly, settling for hanging your head in shame instead.

_ "Hey look up," his voice is as soft as ever, "I told you not to worry about it didn't I? Tattoos are not an easy commitment to make."

His chair squeaks as he clearly stands up, circuling the desk until he's mere centimeters from you, the subtle sweetness of his sandalwood scented cologne is tickling your nose as he leans closer.

_ "I'll tell you what, how about I make a sketch of the design tonight, and you can drop by tomorrow to have a look at it, I have what I need for now, so take the night to think more about the placement," his eyes are studying your tense frame as he adds, "and remember, you don't have to go through with it, I'll book your session for tomorrow, same time as today, but you can cancel it whenever you want."

You're overcame with a sudden urge to jump in his arms, and for the nth time that evening you are grateful for the secrecy of your own thoughts as you nod in agreement, "thank you that would be great, but, we haven't talked about the payment yet."

_ "You'll find everything you need stated on our website." he replies while handing you his business card.

You thank him again and bid him goodbye before walking out of the studio that is -unbeknown to you- getting busier and louder.

To be continued..

[haunted-plush]

Cars + Pokémon au

Doesn't change anything about the canon for the most part, the characters are humanized and just happen to have Pokémon partners that follow them around... I just decided to make this au because I like Cars and I like Pokémon, so why not mash the two together lmao

Lightning: Jolteon that he's had since he was an Eevee named Rush. Very exitable, kind of a prankster and a troublemaker, and likes to give everyone [Lightning included] a hard time, but he can be a sweet little guy for sure [when he wants to be]

Sally: a male and female Meowstic that she evolved from two Espurr. Female is named Silk and the male is named Satin, and she's had them both since she was a lawyer in Los Angeles. They help around the motel

Mater: huge Mudsdale named Carrots that is very stoic and rigid, and intimidating without even trying to be. She does have emotions on the inside, she just doesn't display them much, a big contrast to her trainer, who under exactly what she's feeling without having to try. Her favorite treat is carrots

Doc: Audino named Bee that helps out in his medical office as well as helps him out using her telekinesis to move heavier or large objects since he's disabled

Sheriff: Arcanine named Deputy, he's a very loyal partner and loves making him proud

Luigi and Guido: Sneaky mischievous little Meowth named Bambino who always tries to steal coins whenever possible, or even just trinkets left out. He gets gently smacked with a broom for stealing pretty often, but he still gets gifts of shiny objects to keep him happy. Plus he's very good at looking cute and innocent, even when he often isn't. His bed is made out of an old repurposed tire Mater built for him

Flo: Whimsicott named Pancakes that helps her out in the kitchen and will also go out and serve food, she's very well liked by everyone who comes in. There's also a Vanillite, Vanillish, and Vanilluxe that float around for atmosphere and such. They live in the freezer

Ramone: Grafaiai named Inks, very playful, extroverted and loves to cause a bit of trouble, but still takes their art very seriously. They're very proud of the designs that get made into tattoos

Red: Samurott named Admiral that's a lot more outgoing than he is, standing guard with Deputy a lot of the time and doing his best to look intimidating. He's still playful though, and does his best to help push Red along, although he loses his patience with him a bit sometimes. He's also got some spots along his body as a unique pattern detail

Lizzy: Mandi the Mandibuzz that sits on her shoulder and glares at people. Red is scared of it.

Chick: Haxorus named Tusker, he likes parading him around and using him to intimate people in public. He also has the Pix the Sylveon who he evolved from an Eevee, and he doesn't really show off as much. He secretly loves them both a lot

The King: Arorus named Blue, also has an Archeops named Screech because dinosaur and also Archeops is cool

Other Pokémon: There's a Klefki that lives in the motel, Sally takes care of it being the one who runs it but it was there before she moved in

Lots of ground types living in and around Radiator Springs, plus some rock, steel, and fire types. Lots of Silicobra, Diglett, some Sandshew and Sandslash

Over by the lake there's more grass and water types, with mostly rock types over by Wheel Well before they cleaned it up

Lightning got his lunch stolen that he was eating outside by a Talonflame once

Mater also claims to have fought against the elite four and was even offered to replace the regional champion but he declined [he also claims Lightning was there as well]

If anyone has any ideas or anything they'd like to add feel free to share them in the tags, I'd love to hear anything anyone has to contribute!!

[itsbubbleteataro]

Radio and the Reporter

Hello everyone! This is the last of my Radio and the Reporter (for now 0-0) I hope you enjoy! NOT PROOF READ

“So my darling doe, why in the world are you in hell?” Alastor asked, propping his elbows on the table, folding his long spindly fingers folding nicely so he could rest his chin on them. He cocked his head to the side, his smile ever wide and menacing. You snapped your fingers. From the same two ink pots, two little creatures spring from the ink. He watched the creatures, taking in how they never stopped bouncing to imaginary music, even as they poured tea for the two of them. 

  You keep your eyes on the deer man in front of you, “I’ll tell me if you tell me how you ended up down here as well. You’re quite the sweetheart, I'm tickled pink to see you again, but I'm worried.” You watched as he nodded his head. You sat back in your chair, sipping tea from your tea cup. “Alright. I was a reporter when we were alive, writing articles behind my fathers back under the name  ‘Roger’” You studied his expression. No hints of cracking or anything. You sighed, lowering your cup down to the table. “But you already knew that part, I'm guessing you went through my room after I passed?”

“Took me quite a while to do so, around three years give or take” Alastor sat back and crossed one leg over the other, his head tilting a full 90 degrees before straightening back up. “I honestly would not have guessed you were doing so much behind both your father’s and well, everyone’s back my dear. You were quite sneaky. How did you pull that off?” He watches you for a moment more, lingering on your face. 

“Oh that? I wore my brother's old shoes and stuffed them with enough weight to make footprints look natural. I wore his old clothes, did not speak unless I had to. But crossdressing isn't why I ended up in hell” You pull out your hand, counting on your fingers, “Let’s see, there's arson, bribery, extortion, forgery, little bit of fraud, stocking, robbery, oh and more theft” Glancing over to Alastor, watching as his eyes seem to light up with each crime listed.

“So did you ever stalk the Bayou Butcher?”

“Oh that killer? I got close” You chuckle, " but he always got away. Never got a good look, only saw his footprints, a few of his victims, but never him. I was so close to figuring out who he was before I died.” You noticed his smirk draw a little wider, enjoying himself and in turn you raised an eyebrow. “I do think I managed to narrow down what profession he was in, he was in media, just like me”

“Correct! Oh my doe is just the smartest!” He grinned as you watched in curiosity. “Would you like to know the true identity of the Bayou Butcher?”

“Oh would I ever! It's one of my biggest regrets!”

“I’ll do so only if you tell me if you were behind the theater burning down that one July”

“Deal!” You started to lean over the table, face getting closer to Alastor. “Yes I was! I had a lot of dirt on the owner of the place, and offered him a deal for me not to publish it. To prove I was serious I burned the place down!”

“Oh my devious Doe! I would love to hear the full story over tea.” Alastor chuckled and sipped his tea before also leaning closer. “Very well, I was the Bayou Butcher” You gasped as he chuckled once more. “You gave me plenty of scares when I saw just how close you were getting, I mean you had my shoe size correct! Quite amazing work, better than the fuzz who we looking for me, even more so after your death”

“Oh yeah? What happened after I died? When I woke up I was here with you ring around my neck”

“Oh you know my Doe, adding to my numbers. For the first two years I was beside myself with grief, I killed any man who spoke bad about you behind my back in an animalistic manner” His shadow showed itself, looking curious as a kitten at your little ink creatures. Alastors eyes looked lost in thought. “Then after third year I came home from hunting one such man, and figured it was time to finally look through your things. I shed my coat, hat and shoes and washed my hands of the blood before going to your room. I saw the work on your typewriter. I read it, saw in the closet, went through old articles, everything just made sense. I’d be the first to admit that it did convince me to keep my killing the same, and go back to just killing abusers. You crossed one leg over the other in curiosity, tilting your head as he went on. 

“Even then I did end up getting sloppy. I lost my touch without my favorite reporter hot on my heels. One swampy evening I was burying the body on some sap’s property. The fella had dogs, they sniffed me out quickly. The owner mistook me for a deer and well, I’m here now. Rest assured such a careless mistake will not happen again.” 

Alastor studied your face as you digested the information before nodding your head slowly. 

“Now my Doe, I do believe you owe me a story about how you managed to shack up in such an old warehouse with a little stalls dotted over Cannibal town and more”

“Oh those? When I arrived I was bored out of my mind and none of the several acts of violence spoke to me, quite frankly seemed uncouth. However I did notice a distinct lack of newspapers all over, so I figured that I have experience in being a newshawk, so may as well put those skills to use. I opened a small paper company with Rosies help. I made deals when I could in exchange for not placing all the little secrets on the front page, just as I did while I was alive, and look at me now! I run a well oiled machine!” You beamed with pride. A long toothy grin met yours. 

“Say my Doe. I can think of something that would aid us both. We did have our run of our respective media forms, so why not join them in a twisted way?”

“I’m listing Al” You waved your hands, your little ink monsters jumped back into the pots of ink to give you both some quiet. The presses slowed to a halt, leaving silence. 

“Well, you are awfully good at finding out information, and I wish to punish those who are not moral as well as start up a new radio show of sorts. If we were to work together you my dear could get your paper more out to the masses and have more information at your fingertips” “Information that you want?” You pause to think. “Sure. I accept. We are not shaking or forming a contract however.”

“My doe I would never ask that of you, it seems to harsh even for me”

Smiling, you slip your ring onto your finger as did he. Reunited in hell the two of you went on to form one of the best media parings. That is, till he disappeared for seven years. 

[fatuismooches]

your recent post about reader carrying around wipes and tissues and extra pens for akademiya!dottore had me thinking — it happens far before you start dating, or even before you realize any feelings present between you two. you just notice it one day, how his hands are always stained with ink, how you keep finding the remnants of pens in the trash cans of the dorm. you think it's a cute habit, but it must be annoying to walk around staining everything with ink.

it happens again one day. he gets into a fervor and breaks a pen. you tsk and take his hands in yours, chiding softly as you wipe the ink stains. it's a strange feeling — the skin on skin contact. your hands are warm. he does not lean into the touch, but he does not pull back as well.

it happens again and again. sometimes he just breaks the pen on purpose so that you can roll your eyes, with faux annoyance and genuine affection, and wipe his hands again.

it's such an unfamiliar feeling, to be taken care of. to be the recipient of selfless — at least, he thinks it is — impulse. you don't have anything to gain doing this. you don't have anything to gain buying him pens from your own pocket when you could very well spend your mora on something else.

when you do it, it loosens his lips into a smile that's completely warm and full and utterly silly. not one of his maniacal grins or a sarcastic smirk — a real smile, conjured up from the depths of his heart.

"i can't believe it," you huff out. "you're actually smiling, or maybe you've eaten something bad. you aren't sick, are you? is the effort giving you indigestion?"

and he scoffs, exchanges cheek for cheek with you, but the smile doesn't leave him, no matter how much he wills it to.

dottore has always thought, before this, that he wasn't entirely human. he did not feel as deeply as his peers did. sometimes he did not feel at all. it didn't bother him. but then you slide your hands in his, and your fingers rub on the rough skin, smoothing the callouses, warmth seeping between the space of your skin. he thinks if he would ever know love, then it would have your shape.

genuinely don't know what overtook me i wrote this all in like ten minutes HAHA. hope you're having a lovely day <3

OH MY GOD... WHY DID YOU JUST DROP THIS MASTERPIECE ON ME SO CASUALLY??? I'm adoring EVERY part of this! Ahh,, I just love how you wrote reader's and Zandik's dynamic pre-relationship 🥺

I imagine when you first cleaned his hands, for the first few seconds he didn't know what to do. A large part of him wanted to shake you off but there was also a part that wanted you to continue, as you never touched him like this, much less so tenderly. So instead he opts for no reaction, choosing to gauge the situation and his feelings. All of it is very foreign to him... skin-to-skin contact that is soft and not harmful. The way his brain's first reaction isn't to immediately cast your hand away anymore.

And he finds out that without fail, you will somehow pull out a wipe out of nowhere to clean the mess up. How does he know? Well... he may or may not be abusing his pen-breaking habits to test you. Despite knowing every time how you'll react, he finds that for some reason, he looks forward to it every time. It's not unpredictable in any manner... yet it still excites him.

Zandik knows the store's owner knows you by face and name by now from how much you frequent the store for mere pens. Zandik knows that sometimes you leave the dorm only to buy those pens. Zandik knows that you place a ton of them in his drawers, different colors too, so he can use them whenever you're not there with him. So this is what "being cared for" is like. He hates it and yet he finds himself to love it too.

The first time you saw him smile like that, you were probably a little bit scared, confused, and enchanted at the same time. I mean, you didn't even know it was possible for him to smile like that. Considering the kind of person this sweet smile was coming from, it was a bit jarring, but it was a beautiful sight to see. And even with your little snide comment, it seems like even the madman himself, the one who values logic above frivolous things like emotions and humanity, couldn't stop his own from shining through. So when you intertwine your fingers with his own, he does not stop you, as he admits to himself he lost this time.

[generouskittentidalwave]

COMING IN TO STRANGLE THE FANDOM ONCE AGAIN, COME'RE AND SIT DOWN

WHAT ON EARTH IS UP with the fandom and not understanding friendship bonds? First Wukong and Tripitaka, and now Wukong's relationship with the main gang (not counting Mk) is being seen as Wukong desperately trying to make friends with ppl who don't want to be his friend WHICH IS FALSE ON SO MANY LEVELS THAT IT'S ACTUALLY INSULTING.

I'm THIS close to trapping you all UNDER A MOUNTAIN.

LISTEN, COME'RE COME OVER HERE FOR A MINUTE

Did Wukong make mistakes? Yes.

BUT THEY SHOWED CLEAR SIGNS THAT THE MAIN GANG SEES WUKONG AS A CLOSE FRIEND REGARDLESS.

Sandy already saw Wukong as a goof friend since the beginning, he made that one clear ever since he fully believed Wukong wouldn't just randomly steal immortal peaches.

Amnesia rules was when Pigsy and Tang had their bonding episode with Wukong, and in the end of it Pigsy said that Wukong isn't a bad mentor for Mk after all and Tang even hugged the monkey with tears in his eyes when they brought back his memories. Sure Pigsy was still distrustful, especially with Wukong talking about the rings, but his comment on Wukong's mentorship hasn't changed.

Mei and Wukong had a rough start I'll give you that, and it's easy to understand why, but people are forgetting that SHE LITERALLY TOLD HIM THAT HE IS HURTING THE ONES THAT CARE ABOUT HIM MOST. KEYWORD, "CARE ABOUT HIM MOST". Meaning they care A HELLA ALOT ABOUT HIM.

Yes do they call him out sometimes on things? yes. Does that make them any less friends with him? NO, NOT ONE BIT. Being friends doesn't exempt someone from being free from their problems and mistakes, just because you are friends doesn't mean everything gets pushed under the rug. Being friends is knowing about these problems and mistakes, but choosing to stay anyway because you know they are a good person that can slip up sometimes like everyone else, AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE GANG DOES WITH WUKONG.

Here's a funny lil teeny tiny thing that really makes this interesting is that- THEY LITERALLY WENT TOGETHER TO SAVE WUKONG FROM THE SCROLL. And do you wanna know what happened while they were IN the scroll? Together they established the fact that not only did the past gang see Wukong as a friend, with each giving him a shoulder pat of reassurance, but they also showed how they are not only part of the current current gang, but that the current gang backed up Wukong and stood by his side BECAUSE THEY ARE FRIENDS. And Wukong already has trust issues with making friends already because bro had past terrible relationships until the JTTW gang, and in that moment of reassurance from both his old friends and his new one's Wukong said "I won't let some curse bully me or my friend a second longer!" And that was the first time he really called them friends and they all worked together to stop the ink demon. The beautiful moment established the fact that they are all close friends.

And do you wanna know what sealed the deal on this? The big home run? At the end of the season 4 special, they all celebrated by having a beach party together, and do you know what they did right as Wukong showed? EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM GAVE HIM A SMILE, A GENUINE AND HAPPY SMILE.

Are they all perfect? No. Do they still have some things to work out? Yes. Are they all friends anyway? YES. Actually no, even more than that, THEY ARE *FAMILY*. Families and friendships aren't always going to be perfect, but that doesn't mean the friendship isn't there at all. The gang all sick together despite their flaws and few mistakes made not because they are forced too, but because THEY CARE ABOUT EACHOTHER AS FAMILY.

And THAT is what makes true friendship. That's how the current gang Wukong has befriended are ALL HIS BEST BUDS.

[nightfox67]

OT!Verse lore part 2 section 1 WOOOO! Roles:

So I'm having to break this part up as well to explain some things. In my multi-verse there are some things like Gods and magic. So it is a bit mythical but this section is mainly dedicated to the really important peices of the multi-verse. As always any fandoms that are mentioned here DO NOT belong to me. Only the persona's and their story.

Gods: So here the gods and we'll do each of them in this main post as well. Ebony, Virus, Phantom, Stardust (even though I don't exactly count him as a god), Narrator, Cipher and Reboot.

Ebony: God of creation and Chaos. He still uses creatio magic with paint and ink but the chaos comes from the moon magic/energy in the apple that he ate in Passive!Phantom's timeline. He's tasked with the stability of the aus and making sure everything doesn't go to shit. That also means spreading moon energy into other Aus in the multi-verse if they have to. Unlike what most people think he's more understanding of the fact that there needs to be balance of BOTH Sun and moon energy in the multi-verse.

Stardust: Now Stardust isn't nessacarily a god but they ARE very important to the multi-verse. Born from a combination of Sun and moon energy by the multi-verse itself; Stardust was made to help with the instability of the already unstable and broken multi-verse. Stardust helps to combat the overwhelming amount of moon energy in the Aus and the lack of sun energy. Now they also understand the importance of both energies in the multi-verse but sometimes struggle to remember that which doesn't really bother Ebony since they know Stardust is just a new being. They don't understand much of the concepts that the others do but they're working on it. They have arrows of pure energy that's colored like a pale yellow and lavender purple. Stardust doesn't really have a gender since they were born from the multi-verse itself. So they can appear either feminine or masculine or both.

Virus: Ah yes... God of destruction. He's tasked with destroying timelines that are far too unstable to exist in the multi-verse. He's semi-allied with Ebony and Stardust but mainly does his own thing. Trust isn't something easy to come by for the glitchy god but, he's working on it. He does know of Reboot but doesn't know how to approach him yet.

Cipher: Dream demon. Possesed by Bill in this AU he basically want to "Rewrite" the entirety of the multi-verse itself to create his own version of what it should look like to him. Obviously things don't go as planned because nobody NOT EVEN REBOOT agrees with him and Reboot is kind of an outcast (not exiled he just does his own thing like Virus but is more so anti-social hence why nobody really knows him). Anyways Cipher is the only one who's fully like "destroy the whole multi-verse and redo it."

Phantom: God of Moon energy and negativity. He wants to keep spreading the amount of moon energy throughout the multi-verse. Enemies of Virus, Stardust and Ebony. He doesn't fully grasp the concept of balance. How could he? He kinda lost that after he ate a Moon Apple. L lmao. Anyways, He is incredibly strong and can access multiple Aus if he has to but chooses not to use his full strength for reasons that go unkown... For now :).

Narrator: Not a God but like Stardust in a way, is an entity tasked with the stability of the multi-verse. Ebony trusts him with that and that only. Mainly because he has unorthodox ways of "helping" by rewriting timelines that don't exactly follow the story. He's not a villain by any means but he's more like morally grey. He sees it as an nessacary evil to keep everything stable which WORKS much to Ebony's dismay.

Reboot: .... Glitch entity. He's an Au that follow the timeline of Anti-septiceye except he's more of a "RESET" then anything. After the events that happened with his glitching and his throat cut. He found himself in the glitch sphere and with the "RESET" button. Unaware of what it may do and wanting to redo his past he hits it. While it DOES work it fucks up his code even more. Here Reboot isn't nessacarily as chaotic as he once was. He wants to start over but is massively unstable and doesn't want to cause anymore damage so he isolates himself. He helps with Virus and the others but that's about it.

Now I'm going cry over the next few hours TnT

[dogtoling]

How would neonatal care work for inklings?

(I had to google what this term means. It means urgent care for newborn babies.)

Uh, this is an extremely good question because unlike with humans, I really doubt the Splatoon world really has people give birth (or rather, hatch their eggs) at hospitals. LIke, 90% of the time this is probably done at home and no one even knows. The eggs are laid and they eventually just hatch, which really muddies the whole thing with birth certificates (do they HAVE any?!?!? or IDs? jellyfish literally clone themselves and I highly doubt anyone's keeping official track of that) and it muddies things with, you know, getting help if there's something wrong with the hatchling.

I think the pressure is mostly on the parent and whatever urgent care a hatchling (or the egg) might need is sought out before the inkling hatches at all. The eggs are transparent, so it's easy to see what's going inside and easy to see if something inside is going obviously badly or something abnormal is happening. There's probably clinics and hotlines for keeping track of developing eggs where you can provide pictures of the eggs to keep track of the baby's health and development, or you can take the eggs there regularly to get them looked over by an expert that can tell if something is weird. If something is weird with the egg, it might be kept around for monitoring and in some cases, the squid might be broken out of the egg prematurely to be directly monitored or operated on. In the latter case it won't be fully developed yet and wouldn't be ready to hatch, so they would need extra attention.

A lot of issues happen while the inkling is still in the egg, or immediately after hatching. In probably the most common cases, an infection or other bacterial contamination might develop inside a (damaged) egg, or a squid hatchling could hatch way too early due to damage to the egg or sometimes they just.. kind of do that for no reason. Unhatched squids can become lifeless inside the egg for one reason or another and you need to be paying attention to the eggs to notice those warning signs! There's also situations where a squid is already of size to hatch, but won't or can't for some reason, but often at that point the eggcase is thin enough to easily claw open yourself so it's an easy fix. It's always worth taking the hatchling in for a checkup right away to figure out why the complications occurred, and if there's actions that need to be done, or if it was just a coincidence and there doesn't need to be too much worrying. (Sometimes the unborn squid is just really lazy)

Generally if there's immediate problems with a hatchling, it won't take more than a day or two to notice them, and many people bring their newly hatched kids in for a checkup pretty much right away. Inklings may sometimes be born with missing limbs or extra limbs, which is something that usually isn't something you can do much about nor does it really matter in terms of overall health. However inklings might hatch with an underdeveloped ink sac or an overall poor immune system or ink system, which is usually caused by dryness of the egg and negligence on the parent's part when it comes to inking the egg regularly and keeping them moist.

So probably the most common forms of care for newly hatched inklings would be late ink therapy to help develop these traits that they didn't develop in the egg, monitoring overall underdeveloped hatchlings that hatched prematurely, the kind of stuff. But overall, just monitoring the eggs prior to them hatching if anything strange is spotted is probably the most common form, even if it is a bit premature. Prevention is the best cure in these situations, when it IS that easy to keep track of how the baby is doing before it even really exists as anything more than a little tiny squid the size of a grape.

[cipher-zoo]

@jazminetoad I put it under the cut, because it has gotten a little longer than I expected

I have to admit, this one had me stumped for a second. But then it hit me!

Beauty and the Beast AU or more precisely a Story based solely on these lyrics from Beauty and the Beast:

"There's something sweet And almost kind But he was mean and he was coarse and unrefined But now he's dear, and so unsure I wonder why I didn't see it there before"

And I know what people are going to say "dear, unsure?", Cipher, that's just out of character and to that I say... okay yeah, maybe! But come on! That man is so über confident, I am SURE that there is at least one part of his life, where he is a little shy. It must be. And I am deciding to take creative freedom and say that part of his life is experience.

Okay, now that that is out of the way, let's get this started.

For the sake of this story we would have to get Nami on the Victoria Punk - for my mental state's sake, I'm going to pretend that the recent chapter didn't happen. How exactly that happens isn't of much importance to us. Maybe there was a hot exit required on the last island and with the ninja-pirate-mink-samurai-alliance still going strong, Nami had to board Kid's ship. [It's okay though, they will meet with the Sunny as soon as possible]

Now on the Kid Pirates Ship we get a bit of a "Barbosa and Elisabeth Swan" Moment, where Kid in all his "maturity" decides, to try and scare Nami with his crew. After all, the aesthetic of the Sunny, vs the aesthetic of the Victoria are... different. However, he does not expect Nami to be as unfazed as she is. Sure, she is a little weirded out by some of their antics, but beneath it all she sees a crew that deeply cares about each other. And she can relate to that.

She also reprimands Kid and tells him, that it is foolish of him to assume that the Sunny can't get as rowdy as the Punk, just because their color scheme is different.

At this point, Kid say something along the line of: "You pretty princesses always get scared of shit like this."

Which would lead beautifully into a "You think I'm pretty?" "No-, I said you look shitty!" Situation, btw.

That kicks off a sort of "rivalry", where both Kid and Nami will try to antagonize the other [Nami is far more successful in riling Kid up, because Kid is easily riled up] and they settle quite well into that dynamic. It almost turns into some kind of game.

Now, a few days into them lying low - again, the reason for that is to be decided - Nami decides to take a peak at Kid's maps - to see if there is any information she can take from them, that she doesn't already have herself.

While doing that, she stumbles across some of his mechanical drawings. Of things, he built or wants to build etc. She also sees that quite a few of them have a some splashes of ink or lines, where they shouldn't be any.

So she decides to show Kid, how she draws on the Sunny, so that her ink won't smear - even with a rowdy crew.

Kid is, surprisingly mellow at the time, maybe even thankful for the tip - not that he would admit that - and they get talking. About how and why they spend their times drawing on their ships. Neither reveals their full backstory, but it is enough to ensure that the other understands why their work is important to them.

They get surprisingly close during their conversation and Nami realizes that Kid has a far softer side to him, something she saw glimpses of before, when he protected his crew. It is a welcome change to his usual brash behavior, and she finds it strangely endearing, when he blushes and pulls away, when they get a little too close to each other.

Nami uses this moment in his quarters to steal something of his - something not too important, just a little trinket she can keep. But something that, once noticed, he would miss.

So when a while later the Sunny and the Victoria meet up and Nami returns to her own crew, she shows Kid the trinket just a few seconds before the Sunny bursts away. Thus, starting a cat and mouse game, where every time the two crews meet, Kid and Nami will try to steal something off the other (Nami is FAR more successful, but Kid manages ones or twice) until FINALLY one of them steals a kiss!

[eldoria-radio]

FILE 12

Good evening, dear listeners. Thank you for tuning in once again to “Whispers in the Aether”. I've been hearing that our listeners are.. Staying about the same, so.. Thank you for choosing to tune in every single time. We appreciate every last one of you. 

Now then! Let's get to what we got today. And oh wow, this one is juicy. For the first time in Whispers in the Aether history, we have an official guest here! No staff… covering for… other staff! Isn't that incredible? Following our story from a few weeks ago, tonight I am here with Azelea Morningstar. For her personal comfort I was asked to not question her. So instead, we will simply give her time to talk about anything. I'm sure either way it'll be more than worth it. Thank you for joining us tonight, miss Morningstar.

‘It's my pleasure. I have to stay with all the media reaching out to me about all this, a radio station reporting on rumors and weird crime cases was still the least pushy one. Before anything else, I'd like to clarify that I can't talk about what happened those 30 years I was gone. I know, that's probably what you're most interested in, but there's simply nothing I could talk about. That time is blank… for the most part. Bits and pieces, yes, but all is more like a dream. You know something happened, but you just can't recall it. It's quite a strange sensation.'

‘I could pretend to remember something, anything, really. But I do have a little bit of dignity left in my bones. I value honesty… Which is truthfully why I never think too much of shows like this. Still, I'm here, aren't I? Perhaps because a name or two rang a bell. And perhaps because what you've talked about does sound real. Perhaps it matches with some of those thoughts you just can't quite grasp.’

‘You're interested in Camille's letter, yes? I might have a hunch… Though even if I told you, I doubt any of you could grasp what this was about. And it'd be disrespectful to talk of the dead who wish to remain unnamed. Maybe you'll find out more on your own, but that is out of my hands. Fate works in mysterious ways… But I'll do my part in keeping their secret safe. That letter, no, that death… that situation, is between Camille and the one he called a sibling. That little bundle of wonder we could only ever dream of keeping in this world forever. Part of me believes this was inevitable.’

‘In the end, even the brightest flame burns out. Some people build up their own wishes, others reach for measures they don't understand to assure theirs get granted. So let me grant one of those wishes tonight. Let me at least attempt to set her free from that web she caught herself in. I can't talk about Camille, but I can talk about Talitha.’

‘Talitha was many things. She was a bright star in the distant darkness of the sky. She was a flame trying desperately to not burn out, she was a poet, a friend… she was a lover. Oh Talitha… she loved so much, so deeply. I suppose that's why it broke her when I disappeared.’

‘I don't remember much from my time in that limbo, but I do remember a faint glimpse of her face. Her gentle smile, her oh so deep eyes, now without any of that shine they once held. I knew something had happened. And I knew it was my fault to some degree. So before I talk any further… I'm not sure if you can hear me, where you are… But I am deeply sorry, Talitha. I hope you can find the rest you deserve. I hope you can find that paradise you always dreamed of.’

‘Yes, my Talitha was a dreamer. A poet who breathed life into words as if they were delicate birds she could release into the world. I suppose it was inevitable that she would crave more than this world could give her. Talitha always said that she wanted to make an impact, to be remembered long after the ink of her pen had dried. It was as if she knew her time was limited, her soul always seeking something just out of reach. I remember the day she told me about the contract—her pact with something she could never fully name. She believed it would grant her wish, that it would cement her legacy among the stars she so often wrote about.’

‘Yet, during her lifetime, the world remained deaf to her brilliance. Her words never reached the ears she longed to touch. It was as if the universe had conspired to keep her beauty hidden. I watched her fight that silence, watched her pour herself into her poetry with such fervor that it broke my heart. We spent countless nights together, lying under the stars. There was always something unspoken between us, a connection so deep that words would fail to capture it. I loved her. I loved her in a way that transcended friendship, but fear and circumstance kept those words trapped in my throat.’

‘And then I was taken away. Torn from the life we knew, from the unspoken love that lingered in every glance we shared. I never got to tell her. We never got to admit what was so painfully obvious to our hearts. I never loved again. Now, I find myself haunted by her memory. Her words echo in my mind, a bittersweet symphony of love and loss. Talitha, my dreamer, my poet, my love… gone. I'm sorry I couldn't save her. And though no apologies will return those years we lost, let me at least attempt to grant her wish. Her legacy, the impact she so desperately sought. In my heart, she lives on, remembered in the only way that truly matters. I just wish I could have told her. And I wish that through this, through you hearing her story, she will live on. She will be remembered through her poems, her presence… And the impact she left.’

‘May you drift off to sleep, see you don't need contracts to fulfill your wishes, for I will go through death and back to make sure you have what you need. Rest now, my love… And don't worry about a thing. I'll hold you again when we reunite, as we inevitably will.’

‘...’

‘Thank you for having me.’

Yes… yes of course. Thank you for sharing. This was.. Yes I don't think there's anything I can add to this… gods I need a tissue… 

Well, uhm.. Thank you for tuning in again. This was “Whispers in the Aether”... My name is Nishantha Silverbane… today with Miss Azalea Morningstar. You're listening to Eldoria Radio. 

[maguro13-2]

The Dark Beginnings RETOLD ~ Origins of the Ink Demon Chapter 0 Pt.2 ~

*At the State of Vermont*

Jaqueline O'Lantern Dupre : Okay, Harvar. Well, here we are. Welcome to the USA, but most importantly, welcome to New England, brother.

Harvar D Eclair : That's your way of coming down here? I'm trying to get a new place somewhere in North America. Well, this is the state of New England...I mean the New England State of Vermont.

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : I'm just glad that they got pumpkin spices in the country, come on Vermont, where are my pancakes and maple syrup?

Harvar D Eclair : That's not gonna happen, until the state of Vermont hit's the autumn. So this is where the witches are at. They've occupied this regional land from the Massachusetts Government, the core of New England's Financial Business.

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : I've heard about that, besides, I'm a girl from Paris, what did you expect? New England has some kind of stuff for all.

"Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : Master Swordsman Lady"

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : Hell of a friday, but I am going to prefer my artistic style.

Harvar D Eclair : Sure, but whatever you do. Don't get into any funny ideas.

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : Roger that.

Harvar D Eclair : *walks off*

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : *in mind* Can't believe that it's been the greatest time since I was the top fencing student and master swordsman back at France. But...Since there were always about the evil forces scourging our world like this. But...I can't deny that everyone is depending on me since I would do anything for the Phantoms of Society.

*Door opening+rainfalling*

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : Hmm, I didn't expected Vermont to be that rainy, well, it is the greenest place on earth. Hmm? I wonder what did the branch of the Majo Detective Force said to task me to protect a witch from being hunted by the evil forces? Isn't what their kind is about? New England does not know about any witches since they migrated here. So...if any of this is cool, I bet Makoto and Kazuki would be happy to know it. Time to head out.

*walking*

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : Despite my middle name as O'Lantern, Jacqueline Dupre was the name of that violinist that my family has given it to me for some reasons since I was a beautiful girl, but as part of the Phantoms of Society that is affiliated with the laws of justice, it's what being a hero is all about. I'm sure that the people of France should be getting along with them, I bet it's no biggie, that I am always a one step closer to reaching my family's dream.

*scene changes*

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : ....Hmm?

*rainfall stops+sun comes out*

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : Who is that?

*she sees a long pink-hair girl at a tree*

*piano plays*

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : So...You're the witch that the branch has been calling your name?

??? : H...Hai.

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : Well, you seemed a lonely lady. I am never alone as you are, but you seemed to be the only one that could get you out of the shadows. So please...What you decided to bring out yourself to who?

??? : I am...I am bringing myself to you. Nobody would even care for me, nobody would even fall for me. But I just wanted to be alone, but I now realized that I haven't gotten into someone before.

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : If you could never be alone, you would've fall for me, so that is why you chosed me to be the only type that you would ever like so.

??? : Umm...If you say so. Then carry me...

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : ...?

??? : Carry me to...where I can reach the sky. That is what I desired to feel free.

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : Of course, you may accepted your promise.

*Jacqueline carries the pink hair girl*

*Both Jacqueline and the girl reaches their hand to the sky*

*leaves rustling*

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : I can feel it, I have the perfect moment. So tell me, witch of this here land, how do you feel when it's love that we are falling?

??? : It feels great, I would be happy to be in love...happy to...be in love with you.

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : That's what I wished for. So I would be pleased that I would protect you and be the love of your life.

*the girl smiles*

??? : Yokatta.

Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupre : So tell me, young lady. Who are you?

??? : I am glad to hear you, that my name is...

*later at Massachusetts*

"SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS"

*birds chirping*

*the girl is shown flying on a broom*

??? : Finally, it's been only a day since I met someone in Vermont, now that I won't be alone, I bet if I could meet a person like someone, I would definitely get all the glory that is necessarily to be done. I wonder if I could meet a person like one today? I have some conclusions to where I am finding the person that I would meet today in town. But it's gotta be around here somewhere, flying on a magic broom is great for traveling.

"Kimial Diehl : Descendant of the Mother of Witchkind"

Kimial : This should be very exciting to knock Maba's door's off or my name isn't Kimial Diehl, but I prefer to go by the name Kim Diehl for short. Now where is that location?

*BEEPING*

Kimial : Eh?

Computer : We are now heading towards the Salem Bay Docking Area, please prepare for for position to landing. But just to be warn you, you are currently trespassing the training area. Please, evacuate yourself from the vicinity immediately.

Kimial : That's unusual. An enforced landing? So does that mean--

*Jalopy Engine*

Kimial : Hmm? Uh-oh. What's this? That can't be good.

*ZOOM!*

*her broom goes out of control*

Kimial : WOAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! HEEEEEEEEELP!!!

[Twinkle Circuit by Jun Senoue]

Kimial : WHAT IS GOING ON!?! HELP! I'M OUT OF CONTROL, MAYDAY! MAYDAY! CAN ANYONE HELP ME!?! YAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

*we show Ashley relaxing*

Ashley : Haaa...This is more delightful, Hmm? What is that?

Kimial : AAAAAAAAAHHH!!! ANYBODY!?! SOMEONE STOP THIS CRAZY THING!?!

Ashley : Kimial?

Kimial : A LITTLE HELP HERE!?!

Ashley : Oh crud! Watch out, You're gonna crash! I'm coming to save!

Kimial : Look out below!!!

Salem Civilian 1 : Hey! What are you doing!?!

Salem Civilian 2 : *jumpscares* Hey! Watch where you're flying that thing!

Salem Civilian 3 : YIKES!

Kimial : This is going to crazy! Time for me to jump off!

*Kimial jumps off her broom*

Kimial : Okay, broom! It's time for you to cut your act. I wanted you to be a good broom, you understand?

*Broom whimpers*

Kimial : Okay, I won't stay mad at you. But you have to be a good broom, okay. You are only used for sweeping traveling.

*Broom licks Kimial*

Kimial : Good boy. Now then, where was I...?

*Kimial is floating in the air*

Kimial : Oh yes. I forgot that I was not on my broom.

*Cartoon Whistling+falling*

Kimial : WAAAAAAAAHHH!!! I'M FALLING!!!

Ashley : Kimial! I'm coming!

Kimial : If only my Tanuki tail would work, I can still fly, can I? The only reason that witches can fly on brooms, but a tanuki can't fly that doesn't even have...Oh boy!

*looks down*

Kimial : This is gonna hurt!

Ashley : Kimial!

*Suddenly Kimial gets saved*

Kimial : Oh...That was quick. Thank you for saving my life.

Jacqueline : No problem, and you're welcome.

Kimial : Eh?

*looks at Jacqueline*

Kimial : *blushes* Eh...Ah...It's you!

Jacqueline : Remember me from Vermont?

Kimial : I've seen you before, we even met at the state that we knew!

Jacqueline : That's right. I am the girl who looks after you, you are Sarissa's caretaken girl.

Kimial : Actually she's my guardian. You know her, She's working at the force. I better get started before I'm gonna miss out.

Jacqueline : Right. *puts Kimial Down* So, you best be on your way, so be careful from now on.

Kimial : Right.

[Frequency Currency by Hideaki Kobayashi]

Ashley : That was smooth.

Jacqueline : It's just a friendly pressure.

Kimial : Yeah, sorry about that, Kimial. I guess my broom went out of control, it's kinda hard to understand the maneuvers. I just gotta learn how to control it.

Ashley : You shouldn't let yourself forcing your broom, it works automatic in the magic systems. See what my broom can do.

*snap fingers to call out Broom*

Ashley : I can do it like this.

Kimial : So it's official, I have been appointed to be an elite, a high class rookie to be a hero, this detective stuff is going to be one major pushover and I'm glad that I'll have something new today.

Ashley : Right. Hopefully you do it next time I can't do it all by myself when I am needed for to have a partner. Do you know where you can visit to the only place you ever grew up on.

Kimial : Well, I did grew up in the state right here, not in a place called... Nevada, is it?

Ashley : Seems fair to me.

Kimial : Alright then. But...I get a head start, you wanted to do things on your own. You would become a hero like me, but I am willingly starting to come to be like one. Despite my efforts on whether I wanted to be a hero, I've got some good intellects. So what's this about?

Ashley : Well, since you're ready to become a hero, let's take you to the academy. I bet those three nasty witches are the on hot stuff, since they disguised as villains or even civilians in the city of Boston.

Kimial : It could be but anyone, I bet it's those guys. The Gorgon Sisters, they wreck stuff on and cause mnimal damages.

Ashley : I have their personal criminal records. According to intel, Arachne Gorgon was one of witchkind's dangeroues renegades attempted to stage a coup d'etat to overthrow the legacy. But I highly recommend you that the Gorgon Sisters are your friendly monsters, but evil witches or we prefer them criminals that wanted to scorch the planet.

Kimial Diehl : The Gorgon Sisters were your relative's oldest enemies in the book, they've been gone in the past after they were attempting to put the end of the legacy created by the boy, the boy who goes by the name Shinra Kusakabe.

Ashley : Shinra Kusakabe...?

Jacqueline : I haven't heard about that guy's name. Who was Shinra Kusakabe anyway?

Ashley : Who is he anyway?

Kimial Diehl : He was the first hero of the Ohkuboverse, the one responsible for creating the world and story of Soul Eater, he would presume that Nevada would be the perfect place for to protect legacy, but I don't understand why does the Gorgon Sisters wanted to Shinra's reputation?

Jacqueline : Perhaps, it's because something about the relationship between him and the mother of witchkind, he had a relationship with the first witch of the Ohkuboverse. The first witch...

[Leonard's Past by Masamichi Amano]

Jacqueline : That loook. She kind looks like the mother of witchkind...

*Kimial and Inca are shown to look exactly like each other*

Jacqueline : Her own ancestral mother...

Inca : SHINRA! SHINRA, HELP ME! SHINRAAAAAAAA!!!

*Inca gets taken away by the Time Eater*

Jacqueline : !?....*responds* Ngh! Well, since you are the decesndant to a Japanese lady that looks like you, doesn't that make you half-Japanese, also when you are half German.

Kimial : What do you think I am, Asuka Langley? I'm always a girl when you are from somewhere, my mother's from germany and my father's from Japan. I was once called Kimiko back in Tokyo, but I ran back to this place only to shed my name Kimiko for Kimial Diehl. Actually, you can prefer to me as "Kim", Kim Diehl.

Jacqueline : Okay, Kim Diehl. If that's what you really want to be called, then I wouldn't mind that I would call you Kimmy, that sounds charming.

Kim : You can prefer to me anytime, Jacqueline. I'm just begging for you to be my type, if I would be a secret admirer if you know what that means, I couldn't say no to a girl, can I?

Jacqueline : Hope not. After all you are interested in me.

Kim Diehl : Good, cause...You can be my hero everyday.

Jacqueline : Yeah! But just to remember, we'll talk later after the ceremony. See ya there. *leaves*

Kim Diehl : Yeah, I'll meet you there.

Ashley : Alright, Kimial let's get to it. We don't wanna be late for the graduation ceremony. Hope I just want the comrades to congratulate on your training. They'll be happy to be with you in the force, Sarissa's waiting for you.

Kim Diehl : Mhm! Let's get going!

*Scene later changes*

[GUARDIANS BY HIDEAKI KOBAYASHI & MASAMICHI AMANO]

*Fireworks booming*

*Audience cheering uproar*

Zenigata : Honoary detectives of the world! As members of the International Criminal Police Organization, we are gathered today to welcome the force's newest member, Kimial Diehl!

*Kimial waving to the people*

Ashley : That's her all right. Looks like she's with us now.

Sarissa : You're probably right about it. It's no wonder we beings of magic would be better enough to make us heroes.

Ashley : You're guess is good as mine, Sarissa. But whatever that is, it reminds one thing about her ways of becoming a hero, That is until...What do you think of it, Sarissa?

Sarissa : I guarantee you that Mr. Wario is unmatched to see his face when she hears about this girl of being the hero she wanted to be.

Ashley : Right as you are.

Kimial : A...Arigato Gozaimasu!

*bows*

Kimial : It is honored for me to be welcoming the force, this was first time joining the peacekeeping forces to save the innocence from evils to those that are needed to save. But as long as keep my promise, I will be looking forward into this day. So that is why I have someone with to be protected and I'm not even alone.

Salem Civilian : Hold still while I take your picture!

*Camera flash*

Kimial : My, my...I've finally did it. It's been only a year since I've become a part of the force, I would be really grateful to see how much being a hero could do and would redeem my honor.

Ashley : I'll say...congratulations, you are officially a member of the Majo Detective Force.

Kimial : Correction. So...did you hear any recent news?

Ashley : Yeah, what they are?

Kimial : That old news stuff. It's about something about a massive wipe out of japan's population. Eighty-percent of it was caused by a 3-year old girl who goes by the name "Maka Albarn". Maka...Where have I heard that name before? It sounds like she was picked on by others and was the child that no one wanted.

Ashley : We'll see how that works in the end. We will be beginning our assignment since the family trio of three witches had been escaped from the coffins at the old state house.

Kimial : Of course, I know those guys. They've been wreaking havoc on the planet for centuries or years before we even met them. They've should've been dead by now.

Ashley : Not dead, but hiding in darkness. With the Phantoms of Society taking care of these messes, our people will put an end to ordeal with the heartless.

Kimial : Heartless. Those guys again, why did they come back after they were easily handed by that Keyblade wielding kid...Sora. I wonder if he could he meet Maka Albarn...She'll definitely be safer from those guys, but what does being a hero have something to do with someone greater than before? It's hardly a fact that this is only the beginning.

*gazes upon the sky*

Kimial : Hell yeah...

*wind gusting*

Kimial : It takes more than to be a hero that we must step forward closely, I am happy to be thrilled, who says there's no such thing as a Zero. I can be the one who will protect you...Maka Albarn. Hopefully that...we can finally meet each other one day.

~ Event 1 : First Day, First Love ~

[hufflepunkz]

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

A year ago, I felt compelled to read the book Heaven by Mieko Kawakami, enough that I was willing to buy a cheap reprint whose ink rubbed off when I used an eraser. I've become infatuated with Japanese literature. Turns out the simple and mundane reveal deep truths in plain sight. Heaven is about two bullied children who found comfort within each other. The main character was only referred to as "Eyes" and was bullied relentlessly for his lazy eye and he befriends Kojima, a girl in the same class bullied for her appearance and poor hygiene. The premise was simple enough, but book turned out to be more than I bargained for.

I knew the book would some sore spots, but I did not expect it to cut right through me. I wasn't bullied, but I never felt like I truly belonged among my peers growing up. I felt alienated, but what truly got me was when Eyes confronted Momose, one of his bullies.

"Coincidence is all there is. That's how the world works." That's what Momose told Eyes. This scene translated to me as a cry for purpose. Absurdism is a belief that the universe is irrational and meaningless. Humans are rational and are constantly looking for purpose; a purpose that simply isn't there. Eyes desperately tried to find reason in a detached and annoyed Momose who represents the universe's coldness to humanity. That should have been a defeating thought, but when looking at this emptiness of reason, I have found light. Nothing matters and it is the best news I have ever received.

Life to me is an extremely complicated machine with countless moving parts. Sure, you can build it up to ensure what comes your way, but is there really any guarantee? Things don't work out, bad things happen, but that doesn't always mean that people get what they deserve. We have had a dark history. The richest countries and most prosperous cities are founded on war and genocide. People all around the globe suffer for no reason and to say that a divine being or an invisible force dictates that they deserve what they get is not fair, but who said anything about fairness? The world is not fair. Life is brutal and ruthless and it does not pull any punches. You get what you get for no rhyme or reason, just the moving parts of that complicated machine and whatever lands on your hands is what you get out of life. It's bleak, but to my ears, that sounded like freedom.

If the world was truly devoid of meaning, then anything can be meaningful. If there is no purpose set to stone for all to follow, then why can't it be us, individuals, that dictate that purpose? Is there even a wrong way to live if there is no meaning after all? Bad things can happen, we can accept that, but so do good things. There is still peace and happiness to be found in this world, in each other. A particularly bad beating from his bullies caused Eyes to fall into depression, but seeing Kojima alone gave him enough to hold onto, and the thought that he may hold the same meaning to Kojima kept him going. Life is a jungle in its brutality, but we don't have to be animals. The world is unfair but we don't have to be. If there is nothing higher to be sought after in this world, then we can be everything. We are powerful and we are free. Eyes comes to this realization during an altercation with his and Kojima's bullies combined when the voices of Momose and Kojima start mixing in his head. Nihilism and hope intertwined.

The title "Heaven" came from a painting Kojima found in a museum. It depicted two lovers eating cake in a room. "Something really painful happened to them. something really sad. But know what? They made it through. That's why they can live in perfect harmony. After everything, after all the pain, they made it here. It looks like a normal room, but it's really Heaven." People are heaven, it is the people in our lives that matter, that make life worthwhile. In the belief that his lazy eye was his purpose, he hesitated getting it fixed but in the end, he went through with the surgery and was finally able to see the beauty of the world around him.

[astranite]

aaahhhh i love this chapter!!!! I both want to cry over it and hug them both.

Virgil is so scared!! The past and the present blend together so vividly, especially your description of the sheets becoming the flying machine. For him, here and now and then everything revolves around saving Scott.

He’d not spoken up on any of the occasions when Dad had been there. Each time he’d gone quiet and small and almost… faded. Metaphorically, of course. Virgil guessed he was so convinced Dad thought he was a failure he wouldn’t even say anything anymore. The colour drained from him just like the day he put on that stupid grey baldric.

THIS ENTIRE PART!!!! The idea of any Scott going sad and small is heartbreaking, and Virgil is spot on there, cutting right to the core of how Scott is hurting. The image of the colour fading aaaahhhh, cause thats what happened!!!!

The pleas to be more careful that Scott shrugged off or argued away, the quiet moodiness that could last for days, the fake laughter at a younger brother’s jokes he knew Virgil hadn’t really heard, the endless gym sessions… it all gleamed out at him now like invisible ink under a black light.

Scott realisations of the impacts of that day on Virgil hit so hard!!! Oh, Scott!!! This part in particular keeps getting to me cause in hindsight now for Scott is so obvious and of course he's going to beat himself up about it. Then the description of a little brother's terrified brown eyes, that memory and how it slams into Scott is all the emotions.

And Scott's guilt is once again tearing him apart just as he was starting to forgive himself.

Scott had been wounding his best friend over and over and over. He’d been traumatising his faithful shadow for most of their lives.

Right here. Scott believes so surely that this is all his fault, for hurting Virgil, for hurting a little brother, the worst thing he could possibly do. I really want to give Scott a hug because he's struggling too and trying his best, and he doesnt deserve all the hurt he thinks he does for being less than some mythical perfect. Then he's crying as he tries to keep it together and oh Scott!!!

Then Virgil tries to leave Scott. Or in Virgil's head he tries to follow Scott because that's what he does. They are both so desperate and hurting.

Clutching his big-little brother in more of a vice grip than a hug, he buried his face in fluffy un-styled hair. The same fluffy hair that had been little Virgil’s trademark, that he had tried to blow out of his eyes as the two of them hung on the edge of disaster. ... Scott had missed the fluffy.

Oh little Virgil's fluffy hair and oh the history behind why it now must be rock solid and unmoving as the rest of him!!!! And that Scott misses it!!!! It adds such a physical aspect to the hug, how Scott's buries his face in it, with Scott's memories and the current pain.

Aaaahhh how Scott's clinging to Virgil and begging him not to go!!! But also how Virgil is struggling and squirming away!!! Scott knows that holding onto Virgil like this when he really doesnt want the hug isnt good, but he's also so scared to let him go. He's so scared he wont get another chance, almost as if this is his turn to pull Virgil away from the edge of the roof before he falls instead. They are both in the thick of so much hurt and desperation.

When it came it came as barely a whisper: “Scotty?”

The recognition!!!! This Scott, this one is Virgil's Scott. It matters so much that it isn't a Scott who knows the perfect words to say or is completely in control or is 'doing what dad wouldve done' that Virgil recognises, but Scott who is terrified and crying and vulnerable and all he wants in the world is for his little brother to stay.

Thank you for writing and sharing this as always :) I love it. I am having all of the emotions. Just aaaahhhh!!!! And *hugs*

Resurface 23 - Recognise

Story so far… if you haven’t read the account of the original teeny earth and sky situation (ch 21&22) this won’t make as much sense.

The emotional whump train continues… but there is a hug! Well, kinda… sort of. Um. *coughs awkwardly*

In my defence these boys have a lot of mess to exorcise and everything will be much better once it’s all out in the open. I promise.

Sorry Scooter… but you had to figure it out one day…

💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙

“You saved me Virg. If you hadn’t been there…”

Virgil barely heard the words, every muscle strained to the limit and locked solid at the memory of trying to lift his bigger, heavier brother just enough so he could grab hold of the gutter. Scotty’s eyes were wide and scared in a way Virgil had never seen and his face was splattered with red.

He could almost feel the pins and needles in his ramrod straight legs, pressed hard against the mattress, bracing against the sheets which were suddenly much heavier than he was. The terror at his legs being trapped and the dread of what would happen if they suddenly weren’t trapped swirled around each other in his mind.

His arms trembled. He wasn’t strong enough. Scotty needed him to be bigger and he was too small. He was always too small and he wasn’t going to be enough…

But then suddenly he was. He was enough! He’d done it! And Scotty was there beside him and he was ok and Dad was there too and…

No! NO! Nonono Dad couldn’t find out! He’d promised so faithfully he wouldn’t tell.

He looked up at Scotty who was quiet. He’d been ever so quiet. He hadn’t approved of Virgil telling Dad those home truths but when would he ever hear a word against the man? He’d not spoken up on any of the occasions when Dad had been there. Each time he’d gone quiet and small and almost… faded. Metaphorically, of course. Virgil guessed he was so convinced Dad thought he was a failure he wouldn’t even say anything anymore. The colour drained from him just like the day he put on that stupid grey baldric.

The fury bubbled up again but he squashed it back. He needed to focus on the moment so instead he opened his mouth to beg his brother’s forgiveness for accidentally telling their greatest secret to the one person Scotty had never wanted to know it.

But Scotty was walking away. No! Please wait!

He threw the shattered remains of the flying machine off of his legs and followed his brother towards the infirmary door, dodging under his father’s outstretched arm.

💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙

“You saved me Virg. If you hadn’t been there… I’m so sorry. I should never have put you in that position. I could have killed you, killed us both… I… I was such…”

Scott tailed off as he wondered at the impact that day must have had on his nine-year old saviour. He hadn’t thought about it for years, they’d had so many near death experiences since then it barely registered but… he felt himself flush with shame as the realisation crept over him… The way Virgil sometimes reacted to those subsequent situations made a lot more sense.

The pleas to be more careful that Scott shrugged off or argued away, the quiet moodiness that could last for days, the fake laughter at a younger brother’s jokes he knew Virgil hadn’t really heard, the endless gym sessions… it all gleamed out at him now like invisible ink under a black light.

And the petrified brown eyes of his baby brother stared down over the edge as he pulled Scott back again and again and again.

Virgil himself had dropped the relentless eye contact and was instead twisting the bedsheet viciously in his hands, no doubt reliving in his own way the same experience Scott had tried to summarise in halting, insufficient words. His face was so full of fear Scott wanted nothing more than to take him in his arms and scare away the monsters.

But he wasn’t sure now that the monster wasn’t him.

All of John and Grandma’s insistence that he couldn’t blame himself for Virgil’s condition, that it wasn’t his fault he was shot down and captured and Virgil had just got sick because he loved him so much… the reassurance he was slowly beginning to let himself believe suddenly crumbled to dust.

It WAS his fault.

Virgil had been hurting for years.

Even after Scott came home.

… no.

Especially after Scott came home. And ever since.

Scott had been wounding his best friend over and over and over.

He’d been traumatising his faithful shadow for most of their lives.

The guilt was acid. It was eating away at the fibres of his muscles. He wasn’t sure his legs were really capable of supporting his weight anymore but he forced them do it anyway. He couldn’t crack now. He couldn’t cry now. He mustn’t. He was. Damn. He wiped his face impatiently. He got a steely grip of himself and focussed back on his brother.

Who suddenly looked over at the door, flung his sheets back and leapt out of bed.

Virgil’s face was twisted in such desperation there was not a cell in Scott’s body that could prevent what happened next.

He threw himself into Virgil’s path, spun as his brother evaded his reach and caught him on the second attempt. Clutching his big-little brother in more of a vice grip than a hug, he buried his face in fluffy un-styled hair. The same fluffy hair that had been little Virgil’s trademark, that he had tried to blow out of his eyes as the two of them hung on the edge of disaster. The hair Virgil had never allowed to stay fluffy again because after that day he declared he was too grown up for crazy baby hair. It wasn’t practical. It got in the way of things he had to do. The style had changed wildly over the years but was always solid, always controlled. Scott had missed the fluffy.

The crack was unstoppable and Scott’s voice emerged in a ragged sob:

“Virgie don’t go! Please? I’m so sorry!”

Virgil struggled and tried to wriggle away but Scott couldn’t make himself let go. He heard his brother take a deep breath in through his nose and braced himself for being thrown off by the much stronger man. It would be deserved. Virgil didn’t want this right now, that was clear… this hug was solely for Scott’s benefit not Virgil’s and it wasn’t ok to do that.

But he couldn’t let him go because he didn’t know when he’d get another chance to tell him… he raced to say how sorry he was for everything and how much he loved Virgil and how he couldn’t do any of it without him and “Please Virg, forgive me and come back…”

The expected push didn’t come. Virgil had frozen.

Scott stopped talking.

When it came it came as barely a whisper:

“Scotty?”

💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚

[im-captain-basch]

Shit shit shit shit shit I had a thought regarding Bendy and the Dark Revival. It's kind of a stretch and I'm sure someone else has probably already thought of this, but just in case know there are major major spoilers ahead, especially pertaining to chapter 4, its character reveals, and the ending of the game.

I apologize in advanced if this seems a little disconnected.

OK, so I'm sitting here watching SuperHorrorBro play BatDR when he gets to the part where Audrey runs into Henry. He mentioned that playing the End reel would start the cycle over again, as we all know it does, but I felt his wording is peculiar:

"Everything begins again. Completely new."

Obviously we know from checking out Joey's house at the end of BatIM that Joey had drafted up several scenarios we don't necessarily ever actually see. It's possible that these scenarios are each seperate events within different loops, meaning we get such beautiful things as the Butcher Gang having fun at Bendyland and even Sammy and Bendy going fishing, most likely on the docks of the Lost Harbor. However, we don't actually get these different scenarios, either because of the limitations of the game or because Joey hasn't been able to fully implement it into the world of the Ink Machine.

Why is this important, well, there's a specific part of these drafts that fans have long speculated about, mostly in regards to whether or not it's an alternate ending that can be triggered.

This is one of the most interesting pieces from the draft, because it presents a scenario where Bendy is able to break free of the cycle ending, or at least ends it for Henry or manages to keep the cycle they're in from ending. It also makes sense if we consider what was said earlier about Joey's drafts being different loops too. I think this was something a lot of us wanted, but we haven't gotten it. At least, we didn't until Bendy and the Dark Revival.

I've seen full walkthroughs of the game. I know how the game ends, and as a result, it's very interesting to me that this is the one of those scenarios that makes a return.

The loop Audrey is caught in is certainly different, and that can be attributed to Wilson's interference to the world of the Ink Machine, but it does still run concurrent to Henry's story. For example, Wilson's Keepers are able to capture both Henry and Sammy during their chapter 5 altercation in the Lost Harbor, which is how we end up meeting Henry in BatDR to begin with.

Something I want to point out about Audrey real quick, if you're into spoilers or at least have knowledge of what happens in the game: she's a creation of Joey's through the Ink Machine, half flesh and half ink. When the ending comes and the final boss is defeated, the Ink Demon takes her and together they form a creature who looks very similar to Beast Bendy, but especially to the form we see in Joey's drafts:

My thought process here is that... in the end, we did get a "Bendy wins" scenario, just not quite in the way we expected back in 2018. It's been right under our noses since chapter 5 came out.

Audrey takes the reel, holds it in the monstrous hand of her and Bendy's combined ink form, and plays it on a projector.

Technically speaking, Bendy, though combined with Audrey, does indeed win.

They win against Wilson, and against the darker aspects of Bendy himself, who, if the last thing we see before the credits roll is any indication, may now be able to lead as normal a life as an ink creation can.

The cycle will start again, as it always does, and completely anew as Henry had said. This time, however, perhaps Bendy winning isn't the bad ending we thought it was four years ago.

(IDK man, perhaps I'm reading too far into it.)

tl;dr we probably got the Bendy wins scenario but not how we expected or wanted and it probably was never a bad ending to begin with

[draftingteacups]

Lol soni x azul the ultimate enemies to rivals to lovers trope whilE soni x deuce is friends to Lovers trope, coincidentally soni and lilia is Holy fuck just stop kidnapping them! they have families

Considering that it's gonna be Valentine's Day in two weeks and I wanna celebrate it with reaching 50 Followers (seriously, thank you guys for loving the content on here, never thought we'd get that many), I'll throw some in.

It got super long, like longer than I was ever expecting. Like holy moly, it got lonnnnng like dang I did not expect this to be long what the heck-

Big What-If Scenes Below! These are made for fun! Also, spoilers! Deuce's portion has parts of the story in it as well as a peek into the beginning of Episode 2 and there's parts of Episodes 3 and 4 mixed in there, so there will be spoilers (mostly small ones for Episodes 3 and 4, but some big ones in the Prologue and Episode 1)!

If you haven't read the story yet, be cautious!

Soni x Azul- Enemies (to Rivals) to Lovers

This trope will always follow my OCs and I will never stop loving how much it makes sense. At least this time, Azul isn't a total simp for Soni unlike that one pair of OCs alskdfjas ☠️

Azul took notice of Soni when she arrived at NRC during the Entrance Ceremony, mostly because of her mysterious creatures that would later revealed to be her Pokemon. He wondered why exactly someone was carrying such creatures until they showed their abilities at the disaster of the Entrance Ceremony and robbed him of getting good favor from the Headmaster in the form of capturing Grim. His interest was piqued and that is never a good sign for any targets of Azul.

Soni never really liked talking to strangers and she was often too busy to entertain someone. However, she's not stupid and will actively avoid people if she's dealing with too many other duties that the Headmaster throws at her as he runs away from being a responsible adult as well as Swanna's Vibechecks. When she encounters the Leech Twins during Episode 2 and manages to account for the changes in the line-up for the Magishift Tournament without getting squeezed, she's like, "Yeah no, I never want to willingly go to Octavinelle."

Enter Episode 3.

That's when the two are formally introduced to one another, and of course, it's in the damn worst way possible.

Azul tries to not only take Ramshackle Dorm, but this mofo tries to take Soni's Pokemon. Soni does not like this guy and proceeds to destroy everything that he's ever built up in Night Raven College and even before that with absolutely no mercy given to anyone involved. She smiles as he cries tears of ink and the Overblot is just Soni beating him up for all the shit he put her through as well as her not-completely-forgiven-but-not-as-angry-at Braincell Trio. In the museum, Soni does not pull punches.

Azul: "You really don't trust me, do you? Even after all the tears you put me though."

Soni with no hesitation: "Absolutely."

Azul nearly chokes at how fast she answered that question because he thought she'd be kinder, but no, she's still gonna be pissed at you for all the crap you pullled, you dummy.

In short, they both hated the other. Bonus fear of Swanna is given to everyone in Octavinelle and those poor unfortunate souls that ate in the Mostro Lounge as well as the workers.

That fear of Swanna translates well in getting the Octo Trio's assistance in Episode 4 as Azul and Soni are still pissed off at the other in different ways. Although Soni gives the Octotrio hints due to Jamil trying to always hypnotize her, but her Pokemon managed to interfere with his plans by bringing her away from him, thus commencing a whole lot of escape attempts that got her locked up in Scarabia before Swanna came and caused chaos as always.

Azul finds her intelligence and deduction on point and Soni just says that she has experience. He takes this as what happened in Episode 3, not at all knowing about her Champion status because Soni keeps it limited to a certain amount of people that she trusts and Azul is not one of those people.

Fast-forward to a very tense and straight-forward operation where both of their respective businesses could get a lot of revenue from the upcoming VDC with Soni providing delicious ingredients from her Berry farm and dairy products while Azul handled the business front of things.

It did not go well with Soni throwing hands and doing her own cafe just to spite Azul for trying to pull a fast-one on her in his contracts. In the end, they were equally matched in service, desserts and everything in between, and this is where Azul begins to appreciate her skills although he still disliked her immensely.

Azul would not realize how alike they were in seeing her dealing with all her duties with the school, the Pokemon she has that range from handling kidnappings from Lilia on the baby Pokemon to her Magicam to her farm, and her friends that keep doing dumb things. Soni still treats him at an arms-length, but she doesn't seem to glare at him anymore. Their relationship slowly gets more amicable with one another, especially if Azul is trying to ask for her assistance with Sobble. She hands him goggles and tells him that it's inevitable that tears will come out of him, but that's a normal reaction.

He doesn't notice that he's getting soft on her, but when he does, oh boy, Azul immediately just dies internally. Commence panic-pining, confused octopus noises, and just a whole lot of emotions.

Azul pulls a full-blown "I Won't Say I'm In Love" Megara moment with Jade and Floyd being the muses and telling him, "Yeah, you've been like this for a while and you're just noticing now?"

Azul tries to talk to her on a possible date, but it comes across as lending his services to Soni whenever he tries to talk to with her as he doesn't want to say it out loud because it's still pretty embarrassing to do so. It takes a long time for Soni to understand that he's trying to get a date with her.

With time and effort, they both overcome their initial hatred for one another. It takes them a while to get dating officially, but hey, they get there!

Soni x Deuce- Friends to Lovers

Deuce's first thought about Soni was that she was a girl and that she was talking to him without being afraid of him oh Seven aaahh-

Yeah, Deuce's internal thoughts about Soni were a whole lot of being extra polite to the teaching assistant who was his age with monsters around her. He didn't want to scare her as he's trying his best to change his image, but that went to pieces really quickly with the chandelier and the mines.

Soni exploded at them and Deuce was reeling from the fact that she pointed out how upset his family would be if he had died in the mines, and that really put into perspective how reckless he was being, disregarding his life like that. That's not even including the bomb of Soni being from another world entirely, but that's for later.

Deuce's thoughts continuously shift about her from the quiet fear and awe as he sees Soni bully the Headmaster for money after the mines to pity that she has to deal with Ace's antics to her somewhat childish nature during lunch when she ate a chocolate croissant and iced latte in front of them to the softness and happiness that comes from her as she handled the Pokemon Egg.

When he reveals his past to her and her words about how his actions saved the little Pokemon Egg, Deuce couldn't stop crying because of the fact that even if he saw himself as nothing more than a thug, the little Egg would think he's a hero 🥺💖

In the kitchen when the seniors asked Soni about her family and stuff, Deuce realized that Soni was similar to him in how he only had his mom and grandma around and couldn't help but relate so much more to her after that. In a lot of ways, Soni and Deuce are alike. In terms of their tempers, they handle it in different ways with Deuce using his fists and Soni using hard facts and her Pokemon if things get violent. In how they were both shunned for various different reasons, but became better people in the process.

Skipping ahead to Happiny's hatching, Deuce was a mix of tears and happiness, but he flustered hard at Soni calling him Happiny's dad because apparently, Happiny had remembered him via energy recognition during the Incubation phase, which makes him so attached to the little bun.

When Ace joked about Soni being the mom and she confirmed it, Deuce straight-up thought, "Oh no, does that mean we're a couple or something? Does that mean my mom's a grandma- oh no-"

After getting informed by Soni that it wasn't necessary to tell his mom that as it would be fairly confusing, Deuce asked her to do it anyway and his mom was confused at first but accepted it once she got more details. Deuce goes red at his mom's words about how Soni should take care of her Little Deuce.

From there, they take care of Happiny and honestly have some moments of cuteness. When Soni's testing out menu items for the cafe, she handed Ace and Deuce lunchboxes and snacks to try out for feedback.

The guys on the Track and Field team teased him for getting food from his girlfriend, he denied it, saying that Soni just needed taste testers. Ace dealt with the same thing too and they both agreed to never tell Soni because the food was delicious as always.

When Episode 2 is over, Soni continues to make food for them to try out and it becomes a thing between the three of them.

That's why when Episode 3 happened and Soni cut them off from her life to the point of ignoring them completely as though they were nothing but air, it hurt Ace and Deuce more than they were both willing to admit.

During Episode 4 when Deuce gets home to his mom with Happiny in tow, he's still reeling from Soni being as angry and furious as she was during Azul's Overblot while she maintained a more cordial stance with them than they've dealt with since they've known her. It was so indifferent and cold that it was like he was dealing with a completely different person.

Deuce is dealing with this as Happiny wonders where her mom is and gets sad that she isn't around, often peeking out the window and waiting for Soni to appear near the door. Deuce has to distract Happiny and lets his mom handle her, much to the older woman's delight.

That's why when Soni sends out a message about being held captive in Scarabia, Deuce doesn't think, he just goes and remembers to bring Happiny with him because Happiny missed Soni so much and so did he and he never realized how much until she was gone-

Ace and Deuce with Happiny in tow show up late as canon and see Soni looking tired but alive with the Octotrio and the Scarabia students partying up a storm. Happiny does little to hide her happiness and just hugs Soni. From how Soni softens at the words that Happiny says (ones that Deuce can never understand but at the same time can), Soni felt the same. After the party, the three friends and Grim take the time to explain why they did the things they did in Episode 3.

Soni: "You guys are idiots, but you decided to become my idiots." And Deuce interpreted that as her saying they were friends. With that settled, Episode 5 comes along and Deuce gets to see the more cozy aspect of Soni as she's long settled into her role of Dorm Head of Ramshackle and looks happier than he's seen her.

Deuce's thoughts linger on the small gestures that Soni does for all of them. Calling Grim a Brat Cat to making a healthy sweet drink that doesn't violate any of the conditions made by Vil to satisfy their sweet tooth to the annoyed but fond tone her voice takes whenever she says she's done with their BS but goes along with it anyways.

Basically, slow burn becomes a blossoming crush on his friend and Deuce just explodes at the idea. Ace figures it out immediately and teases the hell out of him because they share a room and never had Deuce been more annoyed in his life to have Ace as a roommate.

After trying and failing to figure out a confession, the moment that he confessed was where they were handling Happiny getting another stone for her collection and crying at the fact that she couldn't carry another one with her. Soni is swaddling Happiny in blankets of the softest material that he's ever come across, the same material that Soni made a scarf for his mother as a winter break gift.

Deuce without really thinking about it: "You'd make a good mom one day."

Soni: "Nah, I don't think that's possible. Not unless I can find someone who can deal with me and my problems."

Deuce: "You've got me." *Realizes how that sounds* "A-And you've got Ace too, even if he's an insufferable bastard at times! And Grim!"

Soni smiles at that and it's so full of fondness, so full of light and so different from what he's ever seen that Deuce's heart just goes boom from the sight. "Yeah, I'm lucky to have met you all."

Deuce feeling shier and his words coming out softer: "I'm really lucky to have met you, and... I hope that you can accept my feelings, not only as a friend but as someone who really likes you."

Soni never says it out loud, but she takes his hand in hers and holds it tightly, giving Deuce his answer. "Mm."

In the end, Soni and Deuce lean against one another with Happiny as they swaddle together in a blanket nest.

Soni and Lilia- Platonic Family Vibes

The day that Lilia met Soni, he'd been intrigued by her. I can't really go into the reason why because spoilers, but he's often popping around to give her trouble and it's in the form of handling the cute little baby Pokemon that live around Ramshackle.

She chases him, sometimes handling Happiny in one arm, sometimes handling Grim, or just chasing him with no companion by her side.

They eventually become good friends, although Lilia is still not allowed to adopt all of the babies. He does get to have some of his own, but again, spoilers.

They talk about their duties in their respective worlds and Lilia respects her for having to handle that sort of thing at a young age, but is also disheartened by the adults who saddled someone so young into those politics.

Lilia takes the time to let Soni be a teenager instead of a Champion, looking so similar to Malleus in how the weight of Malleus' crown settled on his head.

Soni lets him handle the baby Pokemon, although he's supervised by one of her other Pokemon in the process as to not steal them away from the dorm.