#xander x arei

[eyitzme]

ᶜˡᵉᵃʳ ᵈᵃᵗᵉ ; ˣᵃⁿʳᵉⁱ ⁽ᵈʳᵈᵗ⁾

Summary: Whit Young wants to set Xander Matthews up on a blind date with his friend. It sounds like fun, so Xander agrees…until he finds out on accident that Whit's friend and his blind date is Arei Nageishi. He cannot go on a date with her and now has to get his classmates to try to help him get out of this date! Word Count: 11,429 A/N: I saw a Tumblr post about reverse tropes, and one of them was about being set up for a blind date, but you know exactly who it is. I can’t find it anymore, but it inspired me to write a Xanrei one shot that was around 5,000 words. But then I got carried away and made it longer. Sorry, but the Xanrei demon is taking over. Run away, kitten, before the alpha in me comes out! The reason I got carried away was because I enjoyed writing Xander’s attempts to free himself from his blind date too much, and the more I wrote, the more I wanted to include all the DRDT characters, even though I only needed to write a little more than half of them. But they’re all just so fun to write, and their shenanigans are so entertaining… Don't blame me for this! Oh, and quick FYI: I’ve only been bowling, like, twice, and it wasn’t a “real” bowling match or anything. If I got anything about bowling wrong, please let me know!

i did what i had to do... but i guess i didn’t have to do it.

Xander Matthews wouldn’t say his life was boring. He was a student at Hope’s Peak Academy, and he went into it as the Ultimate Rebel, even though he didn’t like how his Ultimate title implied he was a bad person. His social life was great, and he had plenty of hobbies. In his opinion, his life was fine the way it was.

Whit Young, though, had his own opinions.

“You think I can get you a date?” he asked one day when they were hanging out at the coffee shop near Hope’s Peak Academy’s campus. They had just ordered inside and were now sitting at one of the table untouched on the round table, the umbrella covering them from the hot sun. The door to inside the coffee shop was open, letting the baristas shout orders to whoever was outside without leaving. The smell of coffee beans and soft classical music drifted out the doors with it.

Xander, who sitting across from him, frowned. “Why would I want a date?”

“Are you too busy for it?” he asked. “Are you not looking it right now? Do you not feel romantic attraction at all? Sorry, I keep forgetting to ask people if they want romance before I ask them something like that.”

“The answer is no for everything.”

“So, is the answer just a no? It’s fine if it is. I don’t judge.”

“Why do you want to find a date for me anything?”

“Okay, it’s not finding you a date. It’s more like... You’re the date I found.”

“What does that mean?”

“One of my friends wanted me to get them a blind date,” Whit explained. “Well, it was actually just a date, but I chose to go for a blind date. Considering who was asking me, I thought the thrill of not knowing who exactly you were going to go on a date with was needed. Anyway, since I came here as the Ultimate Matchmaker, I have to find the best person I can think of. I think you could fill that role. I know I’m technically breaking the rules since you already know each other and blind dates are setting up two people who don’t know each other, but I’m not gonna get arrested. If you could be arrested, I would’ve been locked up a long time ago.”

“I know them? Who’s your friend?” Xander asked.

He turned his palm to face him as he turned his head away. “I can’t tell you that. But if you were thinking about accepting, I’ll tell you that my friend’s a girl, in case you don’t like girls.”

“I like girls.” After thinking about it, he said, “What does this blind date have?”

“You’re actually thinking about it?” Whit grinned. “Great! So, if you agree, the date’s starting at a bowling area—she really wanted that—at around 6:00 P.M., and you’re going to stay for about one to two hours or however long you can go until you get sick of bowling with her. There’s an ice cream store nearby that doesn’t close until 10:30 P.M.—remember that, in case you somehow have enough patience to bowl with her for four and a half hours—and you can hang out until you decide to call it a night. Bowling should take up most of the evening, and the mini-ice-cream date closes it off. If you decide you want to do something after getting ice cream, go ahead, but that’s as far as I’m planning. This date is simple with everything you need to do spelled out for you, but I think that simple is best, especially for first dates, especially for first blind dates. You haven’t been on a blind date before, right?”

“I haven’t been on a date at all.”

“Neither has my friend, so maybe that can help you bond. But even if you did go on tons of blind dates, I still think blind dates should be simple and easy to do. Simplicity gives you your chance to get to know the other person and see if you’d like to spend more time with them. Complicated dates could make it frustrating to try to pay attention to the date and trying to get to know your blind date. It’s hard enough to have complicated first dates when you tend to already know the person you’re dating, but blind? I keep telling other matchmakers to go simple when they’re the ones planning the date, but some just don’t listen, and then I have to listen to stories of dates, blind or not, that went horribly wrong. Hey, am I rambling?”

“No, you’re fine.” Xander was a known rambler himself whenever he was talking about something he was passionate about. He tried not to get too into topics when that happened because he knew it annoyed some people, but he loved listening to others talk about what they liked.

Whit nodded. “Good to know. I’m done talking about the blind date anyway. What do you think?”

“It sounds like fun.”

“Do you want to do it?”

Xander’s life had never been filled with romance. He met people who were interested in romance, and he had small crushes throughout the years, but he wasn’t ever a part of a relationship. He had a lot of free time now that he was in Hope’s Peak Academy, and while he kept his focus on righting the wrongs in their world, he was fine with potentially finding a romantic partner. Besides, if the Ultimate Matchmaker was saying he thought there was someone he could possibly date, who was he to go against it?

“Sure,” he answered. “It sounds like something I’d be interested in.”

Whit smiled. “Thanks, Xander! I’ll let my friend know!”

He pulled out his phone and started to text his friend. While he did it, a barista from inside the coffee shop shouted their order. Before Xander could offer to get it, Whit left his seat to go get their order for him. He left his phone on the table, and Xander could see that it was clearly still on.

Blind dates were called “blind” because you weren’t supposed to know who you were going to meet. Xander knew that, but he also knew Whit had just been texting his friend that he agreed to the blind date. The knowledge of the latter made his body react before his brain could catch up.

Making sure Whit was still inside and not paying attention to him, Xander leaned forward to check who his friend was. Someone like Whit would make him think he saved people’s names in his contacts with jokes. For example, he would guess that he would save their classmate Hu Jing with some joke about her first name—“Hu is this?” would be his guess. It surprised him a little to see the contact name being a regular name in lower case, but he felt himself still as he read the name.

arei !! 🎳 was all it said, but it was enough.

There was no way Xander could go on a date with Arei Nageishi. Not with her, of all people. They could only get along when they were with other people. They didn’t act alike at all. They didn’t have anything alike other than being Hope’s Peak Academy students. Whit might be the Ultimate Matchmaker, but he made a mistake with this one. She was the one person he could never go on a date with.

Xander leaned himself back as Whit came back with their order. If he realized he left his phone, he didn’t seem bothered by it. He should be.

“Uhh, Whit?” He struggled to decide what he was going to say before settling on, “I actually don’t think I can do the blind date...”

Whit looked at him like he just told him he killed a puppy. “What? But you just agreed!”

“I know, but...” What could be a reasonable excuse other than I-saw-who-I-was-supposed-to-go-on-a-blind-date-with-on-your-phone-and-I-cannot-go-on-a-date-with-a-girl-who-angers-everyone-and-uses-her-looks-to-pretend-to-be-the-victim-before-immediately-going-back-to-insulting-people?

Whit used his silence to his advantage. “If you’re worried about being unsafe, don’t worry. You’re always in public areas surrounded by tons of people. She’s cool, and I know you can get along with her. You have a lot in common too. Trust me. Just relax and go with the flow. And I already told her I found her someone, so I can’t just immediately say that you cancelled.”

“It’s none of that. I just... I realized I don’t want to do a blind date.”

The blonde boy’s eyes roamed his face. He sighed and said, “I hate trying to force people to go on a date, but please, Xander, just one. It’ll last, like, four hours at most. It seems like a lot, but it isn’t. Once it’s done, it’s done. Just let me know it sucked, and we can move on.”

“You sound more desperate than before,” Xander said.

“I’ll admit, my friend can be a little scary when her emotions get the better of her. She’ll probably think I played some sort of prank on her, and then I’ll have to deal with that. And if you cancel, I’m probably going to need, like, solid proof that you genuinely had something important to do to convince her that it’s not something I made up—and to let me know that you’re not cancelling for no good reason, to be honest.” He held the coffee he ordered between his hands. “I feel like I’m asking for a favour now. That’s probably what I am doing. Please, Xander, I’ll owe you big time after this.”

Xander knew Arei. He knew how infuriating she was the moment he introduced himself to her and had to have their other classmate, Teruko Tawaki, drag him away before he could get carried away. He had no idea how she could do that, but he wanted to spend as little time as he could with Arei after that. Even though he succeeded so far, having less than 10 one-on-one conversations with her since they met, he didn’t want Whit to go through her rage. While he didn’t get along with Whit when they first met either, he knew Whit wasn’t as annoying of a person Arei was. He didn’t want to put him through discomfort.

But he still didn’t want to go on a date with Arei.

His brain quickly formulated a plan. “I’ll go on a date.”

Whit beamed. “Thank you so much, Xander! You’re a lifesaver!”

“It’s nothing. When is the date planned?”

“My friend’s free for the entirety of next week. You?”

“Same. Is Friday okay?”

“Friday works great!” Whit started texting Arei again.

Today was Sunday. Xander had until Friday to come up with some sort of reasonable, last-minute reason to cancel his date with Arei. Whit wouldn’t have to face Arei’s anger this way, and Arei wouldn’t have to be angry at all. He could do this.

. . .

On Sunday night, Xander called Teruko Tawaki in his dorm. When she answered, he immediately said, “Teruko, I need you to get hurt on Friday.”

“Huh?” was Teruko’s only reply. Her voice sounded tired. He felt bad if he woke her up, but this was important.

“I need you to get hurt on Friday,” he repeated. “Your bad luck makes you get hurt, right? Can you get hurt on Friday?”

“What?” Along with the tiredness, she sounded lost and really confused. “Why do I need to get hurt?”

“Whit set me up for a blind date,” he explained. “I accidentally found out who I’m going on a blind date with, and I need to get out of it. I need you to help me come up with a legitimate excuse, so I can cancel.”

“How does me getting hurt get you out of your date?”

“If you get hurt, you can ask me to help take care of you. Then, I can cancel because my friend is hurt.”

“Why can’t you just lie?”

“Whit will ask for proof that I’m genuinely busy. If you tell him I really am busy, it should be enough proof he needs.”

Teruko sighed. “Well, I’m not getting hurt. Sorry, Xander, but I can’t just control my bad luck like that, and I’m not risking anything because you don’t want to go on a date.”

Xander was about to reply before realizing he had been rude. He just asked his friend—his first friend since coming to Hope’s Peak Academy—to risk her life with her infamous bad luck. “Oh, God. I’m sorry, Teruko. I wasn’t trying to—”

“I know. I learned fast that you don’t think before you act.” Her tone wasn’t mean. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep how you know who your blind date is a secret.”

He smiled. “Thanks, Teruko.”

The call went silent for a moment. Then, Teruko said, “If it means anything, I think you should give Arei a chance. I know you don’t get along, but—”

Xander hung up.

. . .

On Monday, Min Jeung was with Ace Markey right outside Hope’s Peak Academy when Xander approached them. “Min, can you tutor me this Friday?”

Min had a small frown. “I thought you’re doing fine in school.”

“But I want to do better,” he said. “You know, getting higher grades does help get better jobs and get a better life after school.”

“Back off, she’s tutoring already me on Friday.” Ace put a hand on his chest and straightened himself.

Despite her bangs covering her eyes, Min clearly had a judgmental look on her face. “Keep acting like that, and I’ll change my mind.”

“No, you won’t,” said Ace. “You’re being forced to.”

“It’s not my fault your grades are bad.”

“What’d you say? You want to fight?”

“Ace.” Xander knew that all he had to do was send one threatening glare towards him, and he wouldn’t have to deal with him.

Just as he thought, Ace panicked and quickly sputtered out words about how he had to go meet up with some friend. When he ran off, Min asked him, “Why do you want to get better grades?”

“Just a thought,” he answered. “I need proof that I’m busy on Friday. That way, I can cancel on Whit last-minute.”

“What did he do?” When he finished telling her the same thing he told Teruko with the addition of how Whit wanted proof before she could ask, she said, “It sounds like it’s your fault for agreeing to the blind date in the first place.”

“How was I supposed to know I was going to be on a blind date with Arei?”

“Repeat what you just said.”

Okay, she had a point.

“I don’t want to tutor anyone,” Min continued. “Not you and definitely not Ace. I have better things to do.”

“More studying?” Xander guessed.

“I don’t want to have this conversation again. I’ll see you around, Xander.” Min left in the opposite direction Ace went.

Xander wasn’t sure what Min meant. He wasn’t going to start any conversation! Yeah, he did frequently talk to her about the importance of having a life outside of school, but that was, like, once or twice. Or 25 times. But he wasn’t going to do that now, not when he really needed someone to help him be busy on Friday.

As he walked away, Xander realized that he didn’t tell Min to keep how he knew his blind date was Arei a secret. Ace ran off before he could tell him, so he didn’t have to worry about him. He supposed he had to rely on Min not liking to talk.

. . .

On Tuesday, Xander found Nico Hakobyan and Eden Tobisa walking through the hallways of Hope’s Peak Academy together. Xander was specifically looking for Nico, and once finding them, he said, “Nico, do you need any help at the animal shelter on Friday?”

Nico came to Hope’s Peak Academy as the Ultimate Pet Therapist. Most of their free time was spent with animals, some of it being at a local animal shelter. No one who worked at the animal shelter complained about them coming because they received special help and publicity for an Ultimate student helping often. It helped how they sometimes brought some of their classmates with them.

“We’re pretty full on volunteers and staff, so I don’t think so,” Nico answered, confusion clear in their voice. “Why are you asking?”

Xander filled them in on what happened. Nico still looked a bit confused, but Eden said, “You shouldn’t run away from Arei. She’s a nice girl once you get to know her!”

“I have tried to get to know her,” he argued. “Every time I try, we end up almost in a fight.”

Nico tugged at their black scarf. “You’ve barely talked to her since school started. You couldn’t put in that much effort.”

“Excuse me?”

Nico’s red eyes widened, and they lifted their scarf over their face.

Eden filled in their silence. “I think they’re saying that you should try to put more effort than usually, you know? It is a date after all. You have to impress her!”

“But I don’t want to go on that date.”

“It’s only for a few hours. You’ll be okay!” She flashed him a reassuring smile.

Too bad he didn’t feel reassured. “Nico, are you sure you don’t need any help on Friday? For anything?”

Nico lowered their scarf just enough to look at him. “No...”

“Eden?”

Eden shook her head. “Maybe it’s a good thing that we’re both busy. Like, maybe you’re meant to go on that date with—”

“Thanks for trying to help,” Xander interrupted. “Can you keep this whole conversation a secret?”

“Of course!” Eden said at the same time Nico said, “I’ll probably forget about this in an hour or two anyway.”

Xander said his farewell before leaving. Friday was coming up way too fast.

. . .

On Wednesday, Rose Lacroix and David Chiem were about to leave Hope’s Peak Academy’s campus when Xander came up to them. “Rose, you’re an artist, right? Are you doing something on Friday? Can you give me a painting lesson or something like that?”

Rose looked around them. “Is this because of your date with Arei?”

He froze. “How do you know that?”

“Oh, are you dating Arei?” David had his perfect smile he often used during his inspirational speeches. “Congratulations, Xander! I hope you two have the best of luck in your relationship!”

Any slight annoyance he would’ve felt if anyone other than David told him that never came to be. “W-We’re not dating...”

He blinked. “You’re not? Then, Rose, what were you talking about?”

“I heard him talking about it with Nico and Eden,” she explained. “Yesterday, I was going to my next class when I heard overheard them. Whit set him up on a blind date with Arei, and now he’s trying to get out of it. He needs proof that he’s busy on Friday, and he thinks someone saying that they suddenly needed him for something would be enough proof. I didn’t mean to listen in on it,” she added for Xander.

He smiled, but it felt weaker than he’d like. “That’s okay. Just please don’t tell Arei or Whit. Both of you.”

“We won’t tell a soul. Won’t we, Rose?” David nudged her arm with his elbow.

Rose rubbed one of her eyes. “Xander, why are you here again?”

“Xander has a date with Arei he’s trying to cancel.”

“Oh, yeah. I’m free on Friday,” Rose started, “but isn’t it mean to ditch your date with Arei?”

“Arei would feel the same way,” Xander argued. “You know how we act together.”

“Still, this is a chance to fix that,” replied David, placing a hand on his chest. “I know how your relationship with her—”

“Rose, is that a yes or a no?” Xander always loved to listen to David’s speeches, especially since he was the Ultimate Inspirational Speaker, but he couldn’t right now. Time was against him, and if he listened to David, he would probably go with what he said.

“I don’t think so...” She yawned. “I think I might just take a nap on Friday.”

“The entire Friday evening?”

She nodded. “Then, I’ll go to sleep.”

“That sounds relaxing,” said David.

He would ask what the point of taking a nap before sleeping was, but from the corner of his eye, he saw Arei. Quickly, he said, “Thanks for answering, Rose. Bye, David, bye, Rose!”

Xander left David and Rose before they could respond. He hoped Arei didn’t notice their conversation.

. . .

On Thursday, Xander had to use his final card. It was the final day before his blind date with Arei, and time was quickly running out. He had to find her.

Before classes started for the day, Xander looked around Hope’s Peak Academy. After a few minutes, he found Veronika Grebenshchikova with Arturo Giles and Levi Fontana. He had pepared himself for this moment since his failed attempt with Rose, so he approached them with the most relaxed look he could manage. When he got their attention, he asked, “Veronika, there’s a new horror movie coming out on Friday, right? I heard you talking about it.”

True to her nature as the Ultimate Horror Fanatic, Veronika’s eyes sparkled. “There is! I would go”—her eyes darkened with disappointment—“but I already spent all my money on the book series it’s based on...”

“I told her not to do it,” sighed Levi.

“Why do you try?” asked Arturo. “We all know she won’t listen.”

“Veronika,” started Xander, trying to keep his smile relaxed, “how about we go to see the movie together? I’ll pay.”

While Levi and Arturo stared at him in shock and confusion—no one should want to see a horror movie with the Ultimate Horror Fanatic—Veronika’s entire face brightened. “You will? Actually? This is one of the best things I’ve ever heard! I can tell you everything about the movie! When it started production, why it started production, why the cast was chosen... I can go into the story too! I can tell you about it now! It starts when—”

“Oh, he’s doing this because of Arei,” interrupted Arturo while rolling his eyes.

“What do you mean?” asked Levi.

“Whit set him up on a blind date on Friday, and he accidentally found out his blind date is Arei. Now, he’s trying to get out of it.”

Veronika’s face fell. “So, you don’t actually want to watch the movie...”

Xander had to ignore Veronika to talk to Arturo. “Who told you that?”

“I overheard Rose mentioning it to Ace,” answered Arturo. “David was with her and reminded her about keeping it a secret. Rose said you only told her not to tell Arei or Whit, then realized you probably meant not telling anyone. David convinced Ace to keep it a secret, but I didn’t promise anything.”

Xander sighed. “You guys can’t tell anyone else.”

“I can do that,” said Levi.

Arturo scoffed. “I can’t.”

“You said you wanted to go to see the movie with me,” mumbled Veronika.

“Veronika, I can get you Ace and maybe Min to go watch the movie with you. I’ll pay for all your tickets—and more tickets, if you get other people to come with you.” He could probably scare Ace into doing it, and a little convincing could get Min. It would do her good to spend time with her classmates on a Friday evening instead of locked up in her dorm studying. “Arturo, I can, umm...”

He couldn’t think of anything to convince him, but Veronika was happy enough to say, “I can take Arturo with me as thanks for paying for the tickets! Horror movies are always so much more fun to watch with other people!”

Arturo’s eyes widened. Everyone in their class knew how he and Ace were Veronika’s two main victims. “I didn’t agree to this...!”

“Since that’s settled...” Levi turned to him. “Xander, you should—”

Xander sighed. “If you tell me that I should give Arei a chance, please don’t. That would be my third time hearing that...”

“Isn’t that a sign that you should give in, then? It might be fun.”

“No, it won’t. Maybe if it was someone other me going on the date with her. Or the other way around. Just not us together...”

“You sound so pessimistic...” Levi offered him a small smile.

Xander tried to return it, but he had no such luck. He was about to leave when an all-too familiar voice asked, “What are you guys talking about?”

Arei appeared beside Levi. She had that smile that made him think that she was planning something. Everything suddenly felt uncomfortable.

Veronika was the one to answer. “I was telling Arturo about the movie we’re going to see on Friday with Ace and maybe Min!”

It was clear that Arturo was scowling behind his mask. “I didn’t—”

“Wow, Min? Doesn’t she only study?” Arei’s eyes seemed to scan her to see if she was telling the truth. “Horror movie, right?”

“Yes! It’s about—”

“Cool, cool, yeah, whatever.”

Veronika had a small frown at being interrupted. Meanwhile, Levi asked, “Arei, are you doing anything on Friday? I have some clothes I bought that I was trying to figure out what to do with, but now that you’re here, I realized they could work well with you.”

Her cunning smile was replaced with a neutral expression, but Xander could see how her eyes were slightly bigger than before. “Really? I am going on a blind date tomorrow, so I guess new clothes will be good.”

Levi smiled as Veronika and Arturo shared a look between them before looking at Xander. As the Ultimate Personal Stylist, there was no doubt that Levi would have fun choosing a fitting outfit for Arei. “Great. Come by my dorm after school. I’ll show them to you, and we can figure out what to have you wear. You can keep it after the date too, by the way.”

“I’ll remember that!” Arei’s gaze fell on Xander. “You know, Xander, you’re really quiet right now. Aren’t you supposed to be yelling about something?”

“I was going to leave now.” Xander didn’t like how quiet his voice was.

“Uhh, okay?” Arei’s skeptical blue eyes were the last thing Xander saw before making his escape.

. . .

On Friday morning, Xander called J Rosales. She was with Hu Jing right now, so J put it on speaker for him to be able to talk to both of them.

“J, how do you successfully fake being sick?” Xander asked.

“Why are you asking me?” she asked.

“You seem like someone who could always fake being sick.”

“Huh?” Her voice raised as she demanded, “What kind of impression do you have about me?”

Hu’s quieter and calmer voice came in to say, “J, just yesterday, you faked being sick so you didn’t have to meet people to work on a project because, as you said, they were just going to mess around while you did all the work. You did it last week and two weeks before that, too.”

“That was three times!” argued J.

“It’s still enough to prove Xander’s point,” pointed out Hu.

“Can you just tell me?” Xander asked before the conversation could get out of hand.

“I’m not helping you get out of your date with Arei,” J told him.

“You should go through with it, Xander,” added Hu. “I think you two could have fun together.”

He sighed. “Who did you guys overhear it from?”

“No one,” answered Hu. “Everyone in our class knows how you were going around and trying to find a way to be busy this evening. Well, everyone except I think Whit and Arei. Before this call, the only people you haven’t asked for help from were Charles, J, and I. The three of us were talking about it yesterday, and after realizing Arei’s blind date, which she’s been talking about her these last few days, is at the same time you’ve been asking people to do something with you, it wasn’t hard to put it together.”

Xander didn’t reply. Was he really that obvious? Now that he thought about it, he did go to basically everyone in his class, but he thought he was a little sneaky about it.

“We’re not going to help you get out of the date,” continued Hu, “but if you want help, you can ask us.”

J’s voice grew quieter, probably caused by her moving away from her phone. “What are we helping him with?”

“You know, the usual things you help people do for first dates.” Hu’s voice was quieter, probably caused by the same reason as J’s, before it returned to its previous volume. “Do you need help with anything, Xander? Do you know what you’re wearing? I know we’re not Levi, but I think we could help you pick a decent outfit.”

“Since when did we become personal stylists?” J asked.

“Since now, if he agrees to our help.”

Xander realized he couldn’t get out of this. It was Friday morning, and his date was this evening. Even if Arei was the last person he would want to go on a date with, he had to go through with it. He could always cancel without anything else to do, but he couldn’t have Whit go through Arei’s anger. With a sigh, he reluctantly said, “A little help would be nice...”

“Great!” He could hear the smile in Hu’s voice. “J, I’m turning this into a video call so we can see his outfit.”

“Hey, it’s my phone!” After some rustling, the call ended. A few seconds later, J called him again but as a video call.

Xander answered it. It wasn’t like he could go against it anymore.

. . .

Before Xander left his dorm, Whit sent him a text telling him what his “blind” date was wearing. He also gave a tip about her hair colour to make it even easier to find her, so Xander was sure Whit didn’t know about his attempts. Or, maybe he did know but was pretending not to.

After some debate from Hu and J—the latter more interested than she let on—Xander had his outfit of a black sweater over a white shirt. They agreed on easily on that as it was getting colder in the evening, but they got into a debate on whether he should wear a cross body bag for no reason other than to look nice. J thought it was pointless to wear a bag if he wasn’t going to put anything in it, and she thought fanny bags were stupid enough around the waist and didn’t need to be put across your body, but Hu told her that sometimes, fashion didn’t make sense, and she thought cross body bags were nice. In the end, J agreed only if he carried some stuff, which included his phone, his keys, and some money. He had to say that he had fun watching them debate on what clothes would work the best, but now that he had to wear it, he would rather have this outfit just to save it for another day.

When 6:00 P.M. neared, Xander went to the bowling alley. He was supposed to meet up with Arei outside the building, and he found her too fast. She was standing near the front doors on her phone with her hair down in a black shirt over a white one. Like him, she had a bag, although hers was a dark blue canteen bag. She had two belts over her denim skirt, and while he questioned why Levi would let her wear a short skirt when it was getting cold, she did look like a model for the Ultimate Personal Stylist.

She didn’t notice him. He could probably make a run for it while he still could, but then she would think her blind date ditched her. Everyone already knew he was supposed to be her blind date, and that could cause a lot more trouble than needed.

Xander took in a deep breath, steeled his nerves—why was this harder than asking Veronika to watch a horror movie with him?—and went to her.

When Arei heard him calling her name, her head turned towards him. It took her a few seconds to realize why he was here. When she did, she asked, “Why did Whit set you up with me?”

“That’s exactly what I’ve been wondering.” For the last six days, he finished in his head.

They stared at each other for a second. Then, Arei shrugged and said, “We might as well do what Whit planned. He had to spend his own money on this because I got friend discount, you know.”

“Yeah, let’s go.” Xander tried to put on a smile.

The bowling alley Whit chose was bigger on the inside than the outside. There were lots of bowling lanes, and each one seemed to have purple lights shining down on them. Meanwhile, the sitting area was lit with a dark yellow light, and each lane had two tables of four to sit at. Bowling balls of all sorts of colours waited to be used as other players played each other.

Now that he was inside, Xander was hit was an obvious realization he should’ve made when he first found out who his blind date was: Of course Arei was going to want to go to a bowling alley when she came to Hope’s Peak Academy as the Ultimate Bowler.

Arei looked immediately at home as they changed into bowling shoes. She actually looked excited to be here. The way her eyes reflected the lights of the building was fascinating, he had to admit, but he wasn’t sure why she wanted to be here. She knew she would beat whoever was her blind date. It was a lost cause to even try to compete against her.

As they headed to their lane, Xander decided it was better to not make a fool of himself and said, “I’ve never gone bowling before. How does this work?”

“You never went bowling?” Arei studied his face before having a confident smile. “Luckily for you, you have the best of the best! I’ll teach you how to bowl!”

When they arrived, the first thing Arei asked was, “How much do you weigh?”

He frowned, blinking a few times. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Because before we can bowl, we need to find you a ball that’s the right weight and size. I know you’re crazy strong and can work with any ball, but we still need to deal with your fingers. Plus, a general rule is your ball weighs 10% as much as you. So, how much do you weigh?”

“Well... I weigh 170 pounds, last time I checked.”

“Then you need a ball that’s 17 pounds.” Arei picked up one of the bowling balls waiting for them with 17 written on it, and she was about to hand it to him before saying, “Oh, you’ve probably never held a bowling ball before.”

“I haven’t,” Xander confirmed, looking away from her face. Why did he feel self-conscious about this?

“I gotta help you with this one too.” She turned the ball, so the holes were facing his fingers. “Are you a lefty or a righty?”

“Righty.”

“Put your thumb in the bottom hole and your middle and ring finger in the other two.” When he followed her instructions, she inspected it. “The holes are too big for your fingers. You need a different one.”

“Is it a problem if it’s too big?”

Her eyes flashed. “What, are you going to ignore everything I say? I’m trying to help you, but you’re just gonna do your own thing?”

This was exactly what Xander was trying to avoid. Something like this happened a lot whenever they were left to themselves. However, after almost a week of begging his classmates to do something with him today, he didn’t have the energy to argue back. “No, I won’t. I’m sorry.”

A beat of silence passed. After it, Arei kept her eyes on the ball and said quieter, “Your fingers are meant to slide into the holes smoothly. If it’s too small, you can’t even put your fingers in, and if it’s too big, you’ll have a hard time controlling the ball. Control is important in bowling, just like in other sports. So...if you want to at least be decent, you should take the time to find a good ball.”

Xander had never heard her use a voice like that before, even after being classmates for months now. He had to remind himself that he had to answer. “Okay. I’ll look for one. But, umm... Can you help?”

Arei agreed, and they tried multiple different balls. When they finally found one he could hold comfortably, she said, “Hold the ball a little to your side and put your left hand on the bottom side. Keep your thumb at 10:00 position.”

“What...?”

She sighed, but she took hold of his hands and helped put them where they were supposed to be. Her hands were softer than he thought they would be. When she was done, she said, “Remember two things. First, this is how you’re going to hold the ball when it’s your turn to play. Second, this is your ball. You can use other balls like this, but this one’s perfect. Remember how it looks like, and when it comes back, use it as often as you can. This is your lucky ball for today.”

“Is that a thing for bowlers?” Xander asked.

“It is for me.” She went to look for a ball that fitted her.

He decided to listen to her and tried to remember how the bowling ball looked. It was blue. The same shade of blue as Arei’s eyes. He could remember this.

Arei found her ball much faster than he did. Hers was a yellow ball with the number 13 written on it. “I’ll go first so I can tell you how it works.”

Xander sat on the chair closest to their bowling lane. Arei pointed to a line on the ground and said, “That’s the foul line. You know how bowlers approach this line, right?”

“I’ve seen it online before.”

“Then you already saw the standard approach. It’s where you stand with your back straight, your shoulder centred at your target, and your knees bent a little. Whatever hand has the bowling ball should be at your side. Oh, and your back tilted forward, but not a lot. Your feet should be apart, and your slide foot—opposite of your bowling hand—should be in front of the other. Am I making sense?”

“A little...” There were a lot of words and a lot of people bowling around them. It was hard to pay attention to just her.

“Are you a visual learner?”

“I am.”

“I’ll show you instead of talking. It’s too much work talking anyway. Ugh, but I still have to explain to you the terms.” Despite her words, she didn’t sound annoyed. “You get to roll the ball two times a frame—two times a turn—so if you knock all the pins down on both rolls, that’s a spare. Like this.”

Arei threw the bowling ball down the bowling lane. It hit several of the bowling pins but left a couple. She picked a new bowling ball and threw it down the bowling lane again. It hit the rest.

Xander clapped as the final bowling pins went down. His clapping was stopped when he caught her look towards him. He couldn’t read her emotions, but he remembered that she was the Ultimate Bowler. She was used to doing amazing at bowling and didn’t need him to applaud.

Arei turned her head towards the TV screen above their bowling lane. It lane now had a score for Arei: 3/ over 13. “The upper left of each frame is to record the first ball,” she explained. “The box to the left is the second ball. I don’t wanna teach scoring, especially if this is automatic, so just know that spares are marked with that slash, and a strike is marked with an X.”

“Strikes are where you hit all the bowling pins at once, right?”

“I guess you’re not totally hopeless when it comes to bowling.”

“I’m not stupid...” Xander heard light laughter coming from her, so he decided today would be an okay day to be laughed at by her for just this once. Doing anything about it required determination he didn’t have.

“It’s your turn,” she said, taking a seat at the table he was at. She rummaged through her bag.

Xander held his bowling ball the way she taught him too. When the bowling ball went out of his hands, it rolled into the gutter. He decided not to look at Arei.

When he picked up his next bowling ball—admittedly taking a longer time than Arei—he was about to go again when Arei said, “Xander, you see the dots and the black arrows? Aim the ball in the centre of them.”

He decided to take her word for it and tried aiming as she said. When this ball rolled, it hit several of the pins and knocked them over.

While more pins were being added for the next frame, he turned to Arei with a smile. “I did it!”

“I know. I saw.” She smiled. “I’m a great coach.”

“Don’t get cocky.”

“I’m not cocky if it’s a fact!” She gave him a bottle that wasn’t on the table before—something he assumed to be from her bag. “Here.”

He took it, but he still asked, “What is this?”

“Rosin. It makes your fingers and thumb a little tacky and less slippery. You always have to wipe your hands after your turn’s over. If your hands are sweaty, the ball can slip out of your hands. A handkerchief or just wiping your hands on your clothes work, but I’m a professional, so we’re going to do this professionally.”

“Do hands get slippery when you play blowing?”

“If you have sweaty hands.” Arei found the yellow ball she was using in her last frame and turned towards him. “I told you to aim on your last frame. The marks help beginner bowlers a lot. I used them when I first started, but then I realized I was already way too good for them. They’re there to help you hit the pins, but your ball can slow down or roll towards the gutters. You just have to keep adjusting your aim.

“Also, you see the bowling pin closest to us?” She pointed at the bowling pin stationed at the front. “That’s called the ‘headpin.’ The marks are there to help you aim for that and a pin next to it. If you get that, then you can knock down most of the pins and raise your chance of getting a strike. But, if you only hit the headpin, you might get a split.”

“What’s a ‘split?’” Xander asked.

“When the first ball knocks the headpin and leaves two or more pins on opposite sides. They’re the worst, and it’s hard to hit a spare with splits. It’s worse if you have a 7-10 split. They’re the two pins way in the back. I’ll show you one.”

Arei rolled the ball down the bowling lane and knocked the headpin down. Other bowling pins went down with it, but two in the back on either side remained. A 7-10 split, if she did what she said earlier. When she went for her second ball, it rolled through and knocked both of them out. The sound of both pins knocking themselves over as the TV updated the score made the fact that the Ultimate Bowler was really bowling right now hit him.

“You’re really good at bowling,” Xander told her as she put rosin on her hands.

“Duh,” she responded. “I’m the Ultimate Bowler.”

“I know. But it’s still amazing to see how you can just”—his hands moved around as he paused, trying to look for the right word—“decide what you want the pins and the balls to do. It looks so easy and natural for you. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s just so interesting to watch.”

Arei’s bottle of rosin remained opened because of her hands stopping before she could close it. Her attention was on him, and once again, he couldn’t read her face. Her eyes were looking at his, and he wasn’t sure if he should look away.

It was over in a moment when she turned her head away and closed the bottle of rosin. “Whatever. It’s your turn—and don’t you dare fail me as your teacher.”

The rest of their bowling game went smoothly. Arei helped him when he needed it, and Xander got to listen to see her look comfortable with what she was doing. She gave him tips throughout the game, such as focusing on the marks and not the bowling pins, and as it went on, she was more willing to explain why he should listen, other than how the Ultimate Bowler was telling him to do it. When the game ended, it was no surprise that Arei won, but what was surprising was that going bowling with Arei was actually kind of fun. They only got into a brief argument once when first trying to find a ball, but other than that, it was just Xander learning how to bowl with Arei being more helpful than he’d ever seen.

Was this really what he was trying so hard to avoid?

After the first match, they decided to play another one where Xander would try bowling without Arei’s help. Again, Arei won with 300 points—the highest score a bowler can get, apparently—and another game started, this time Arei switching between helping him and not. Before they knew it, two hours had passed. When they noticed it, they left the bowling alley and started heading to the ice cream parlour. The one Whit chose was close enough to the bowling alley to walk, but it was still quite far. He must’ve chosen that one on purpose to get them to talk to pass the time.

Because of that, Xander decided to say, “Arei, there’s been one question on my mind since this date started.”

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Why are you wearing a skirt in this weather?” As if to help prove his point, a chilly breeze went by.

Arei looked at him like the answer was obvious. She gestured to her outfit. “Because I look nice.”

“Weren’t there any other outfits Levi had?” he continued. There was no way the Ultimate Personal Stylist wouldn’t have better clothes that fit her and the weather.

“There were,” she admitted, “but this one’s my favourite. I got to keep the outfit he gave me, so I had to pick the one I liked the best. He tried to get me to wear pants, but this goes better with the skirt, right?”

Xander tried to imagine how she would look wearing pants instead of a skirt. “I think you would look fine either way.”

“That was supposed to be you agreeing with me,” Arei said.

“I don’t even know how the pants looked.”

“It’s like this skirt but as pants.”

“I still think you’d look fine.”

“You’re supposed to call me pretty too.”

“What? I feel like this is some sort of trick...”

“It is. I’d point out how you don’t know exactly how I’d look wearing jeans and make you feel bad.”

“It’s not going to work now that you said so.”

“I know. I’m trying to be nice. You don’t have to tell me that I’m already the nicest person ever.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

Their conversation didn’t have any hint of anger or annoyance. Maybe it was the bowling, or maybe it was how it was getting late, but talking to her like this felt comfortable. Easy. Like this was how it was always meant to be. Xander wasn’t sure what to think of it, but he could get used to it.

When they arrived at the ice cream parlour arena, they found that there were quite a few costumers despite it getting late and the semi-cold weather. The white walls looked pink due to the lighting, and the floor was checkered. Small tables lined against the windows where some people were talking amongst themselves.

Xander and Arei went to look at the ice cream offered. Xander felt a bit intimidated by the number of options they had, but Arei’s eyes were immediately drawn to one of them. The side of her body pressed slightly against his as she pointed to one of the flavours. “They have cherry chip!”

“They have what?” His eyes found what she was pointing to. It looked to be cherry-flavoured ice cream with chocolate bits inside. “Is that your favourite flavour?”

“Yep. Chocolate tastes kind of bad on its own, but it tastes so much better when it’s with ice cream!”

“Why cherry?”

“Cherry’s the best flavour, even if it doesn’t have the chocolate bits. Chocolate tastes worse with other flavours.”

“That’s a...unique flavour to like,” Xander said.

“Only because it’s found, like, nowhere. If it was more popular, more people would like it. Instead, they have to stick to mint.”

“What’s wrong with mint?”

“It’s the worst thing to ever exist. It’s bad enough that it exists as food or whatever, and it was worse when it became a flavour for gum and stuff, but now you made it into ice cream too? Everything is ruined with it! It should be illegal to have mint exist!”

“That’s just stupid. Mint’s just a flavour.”

“Oh, I bet you like mint. One of those mint lovers.”

Mint was always an okay flavour to him, but right now, he said, “I do like mint.”

“I should’ve known.” Her blue eyes that were narrowed relaxed for a bit when she said, “I thought your favourite flavour was vanilla, though. You look like someone who’d like vanilla.”

Vanilla was his favourite flavour, but for now, he said, “Well, it’s not.”

“So, what, are you going to order mint chip?”

Looking at the flavours the ice cream parlour offered, Xander noticed that there was an option to just have mint with no chocolate bits in it. “I’ll order just mint.”

“Just mint?” Arei found the flavour he saw and immediately cringed. “That’s even worse! At least mint chip has the chocolate to try to distract you from the mint! Why would anyone want just mint?”

Xander had a satisfied smile watching her disgust. He never thought she would be someone who hated mint so much, but the thought of a reaction like this was the reason he chose that flavour in the first place. Now that he was seeing it, it was kind of cute.

Once they ordered their ice cream, Arei wanted to sit outside on a bench. Xander thought that was a bad idea with how exposed her legs were, but she insisted. They found themselves sitting on a bench not too far from the ice cream parlour with the ice cream they ordered. Just as Xander thought, it was getting colder, and more wind was starting to pick up. He waited for her to say something.

He even counted. 75 seconds passed before Arei finally said, “I probably should’ve worn pants...”

“You should’ve worn pants,” Xander corrected. “Do you want to eat inside the parlour?”

“But we already left. It’ll be weird if we go back inside with our orders.”

“Why do you care about being weird?”

“Because some people have reputations they have to keep up. I get that you’re the Ultimate Rebel and don’t care how people see you—”

“I care about how people see me.”

“Not enough to not be seen as a weirdo. You have the title of Ultimate Rebel. That’s, like, the definition of ‘weird.’” After a second, she added, “But I guess it could be weirder.”

Xander continued eating his mint ice cream in silence. Going strictly off of Whit’s plan, the “blind” date was coming to an end. Now that he experienced it, he wasn’t sure what he was so scared of. Looking back it his attempts, he was a little embarrassed at how desperate he was to do something—anything—to avoid this. It was all calmer than he thought it would be. If he was being honest, he wouldn’t mind going through it again.

“Xander?” Arei’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Why’d you agree to go on a blind date?”

“Whit asked me if he could set me up,” Xander answered. “After saying it was a blind date with his friend, he told me his plan for the date. It sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a shot. You were the one who asked him for a date, though. Why?”

She seemed hesitant to answer. Eventually, she said without looking at him, “We’re in a world where marriage is, like, a must. If you get married, you get bonuses single people don’t have, and everyone around you is getting into serious relationships and talking about settling down one day and stuff. Plus, some people are starting to ask, ‘When are you going to get married?’ like I’m not still in college. I know we’re all still pretty young, but it still feels weird when I haven’t even been on a date before. So, I asked Whit if he could help set me up...”

“To fit in?” She didn’t answer, but Xander assumed he was correct anyway. “Well, did you have fun?”

“It wasn’t that bad.” He assumed that was Arei for “yes.” “I thought I’d be set up with someone who doesn’t go to Hope’s Peak, so I’d get to show off my amazing bowling skills, but instead, I got set up with someone who does go to Hope’s Peak and already knows how awesome I am. That ruined my plan.”

“You still showed your skills. And yes, I knew you were great, but I didn’t realize how great until tonight.” He didn’t let himself praise her any further. He remembered the look she gave him after clapping for her.

She turned the ice cream cone around in her hands. “Yeah, but I also got stuck teaching you how to bowl.”

“You didn’t have to,” he pointed out.

“But if I didn’t, I’d get a headache watching you and decide we can’t bowl anymore. I’ve been bowling with people who never went bowling before. I know how it goes.” She sneaked a glance at him. “But you weren’t that bad for a beginner. Better than other beginner bowlers I’ve seen, at least.”

A smile came to him before he could stop it. “Thanks, Arei.”

“Yeah, whatever, don’t think about it.” Arei went back to eating her ice cream.

Xander decided to let it go and finish his ice cream. When they were both done, they were technically as far as Whit planned. He knew that he didn’t want things to be awkward now like Whit’s loose planning was the only thing keeping the date floating, so when Arei finished her ice cream, he said, “I had fun.”

“Even though you kept losing at bowling?” Arei replied. Her voice wasn’t teasing nor did it sound annoyed.

“You’re the Ultimate Bowler,” Xander said with a light chuckle. “It’s hopeless to go against you.”

A smile formed on her face. “Yeah, it is.”

“Still, it was fun. Even if you hate mint for no good reason.”

“I hate mint for lots of good reasons!” Arei glared at him as he laughed. When he was done, he noticed that the expression on her face wasn’t as angry anymore. It looked to be more shy. She looked to be more shy with how she avoided looking at him and was fiddling with her bag. Even her voice seemed shy as she said, “It was fun, though...”

Xander didn’t reply. Since when was Arei Nageishi capable of acting like that, and why did he actually kind of like it?

“Do you... You know...” She gestured around them. She didn’t finish her sentence and looked at him like it was obvious what she was trying to say. It was, but the way she didn’t want to say it because of what he thought was embarrassment was endearing.

“We can go on another date,” Xander said. “But how about we plan it instead of Whit?”

His answer made her shoulders visibly relax. “We can do that. But give me your number. I don’t think I have it.”

After they exchanged numbers, Arei said, “Xander, umm... Thanks for just, you know...coming to the date.”

“You make it sound like it’s a big deal,” Xander responded. “Did you think I wouldn’t come?”

“Kind of. You arrived late, you know.”

“What? No, I arrived on time.”

The topic change made her words flow easier. “I was on my phone when you arrived. I was checking the time. You arrived at 6:01 P.M. That’s late.”

“By one minute!”

“Still late. Next time, you better arrive on time.”

Xander had a lot of things he had to change for next time. The memories of the last few days crashed down on him, and it suddenly felt weird to be standing in front of Arei when she didn’t know about them. He appreciated his classmates’ efforts to not tell her or Whit, but he didn’t know if he could trust them enough to keep the last few days a secret for long. Someone was going to tell her sooner or later, and it was probably best if that “someone” was him. “Arei, I have a confession to make.”

“What, did you murder someone?”

“No, but... You know how Whit set us up?”

“What about it?”

“Me and Whit were at a coffee shop when he brought it up. When I agreed, he sent you a text telling you that we were going to have our blind date. We didn’t have our order, and when it was called, Whit went to get it. He left his phone on the table, and the screen was still on. I... Curiosity got the best of me, and I saw you were my blind date.”

Arei stayed silent, her face unreadable. Xander felt a little scared for what would come out of her mouth. Would she be angry? Probably. Scream? Maybe not. But there definitely wasn’t going to be a next date anymore.

After long, agonizing seconds, she asked, “Why did you still come?”

“Because no one would help me be busy today. I went around asking everyone except Charles and Ace—I missed talking to Charles, and Ace ran away before I could ask him—to help me get proof for Whit that I have a good reason to cancel. Everyone was either busy or didn’t want to. So, I was forced to go.”

“You could’ve lied and said something came up when nothing did.”

“Everyone already knows what was happening today, though. Plus, I was worried that you would get upset and drag Whit into your emotions.”

Arei didn’t reply. He still couldn’t read her face. The seconds went by, and Xander felt more and more uncomfortable. He wanted her to say something , anything to let him know how she felt about this. The emotionless face she had made him feel too uneasy.

After what felt like an eternity, Arei said, “It was probably funny how you went around begging people to do something with you. You probably looked like a friendless loser.”

Xander would’ve tried to defend himself, but he asked, “You’re not upset?”

“I mean, I am, but now that I think about it, I probably would’ve done the same if I were you. You’re one of the last people I’d choose to go on a date with. Except I wouldn’t be a friendless loser and would actually get the job done.”

“Funny.” After a second, he asked, “So...we’re still good?”

“Obviously,” Arei answered. “I’ll text you in a few days if you want to go on another date.”

“Didn’t we just go on one?” Xander replied.

“Yeah, but I don’t know how many dates people are supposed to go on.”

“Neither do I, but isn’t this a little fast?”

“I don’t know, how fast are people usually when it comes to dating?”

Xander’s silence was his answer. Arei broke it by saying, “I’ll just ask Whit for help.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Xander agreed.

. . .

On Saturday, Xander and Whit sat at the same coffee shop they were at almost a week ago when Whit first set up the blind date. This time, they had their orders, and Whit had brought Charles Cuevas with him.

“How did your date with Arei go?” Whit asked Xander.

“Didn’t she already tell you?” asked Xander.

“She did,” admitted Whit, “but I like hearing both sides of the date. So, how did it go?”

He smiled. “It went great! Me and Arei got along better than I thought, and it was genuinely a fun time. Did she tell you how we agreed to go on another date?”

“She did!” Whit exclaimed. “I’m glad you guys enjoyed it! I was kind of scared something would happen and questioned if you two were the right pair, but I trusted my gut, and it was right!”

“You’re the Ultimate Matchmaker,” reminded Charles.

“It still feels good to know that I helped another couple!” Whit’s smile softened. “Xander, I wish you and Arei the best of luck.”

Xander’s face felt a little warmer. “We’re not an official couple or anything...”

“I’m still wishing you good luck!”

Charles sighed, his eyes meeting Xander’s. “So, was almost the entirety of last week worth it?”

“No,” he admitted. “I wouldn’t have done all that if I knew it was actually going to be fun.”

“I was told Teruko, Eden, Hu, Rose, David, and Levi said you should go. Whit too, if you include him. That’s almost half of our classmates.”

“They just said I should go, not that it was going to be fun...”

“What happened last week?” Whit looked between the two of them, leaning forward in his chair a bit.

Charles continued to look at Xander. “Do you want to explain, or should I? You never even came up to me, but I already know the whole story because everyone talked about it yesterday while you were having your date.”

“You were?” Xander asked as Whit said, “Who’s ‘everyone?’”

“I guess I’ll explain.” He finally looked over to Whit. “Xander gave Veronika money to buy tickets to go see a new horror movie. Only Arturo and Ace were meant to come, but Levi wanted to come to help them. Levi knew Min might go, so he tried to get her. She didn’t want to, but Eden was with her and tried to convince her with Levi. Min only agreed to go if Eden went with her, and when the animal shelter Nico volunteered at was closed for the day because of a pipe breaking, she invited them so they would do something with humans instead of animals. Nico didn’t feel comfortable watching a horror movie with the people already there, so they brought Rose. Rose was planning to take a nap the entire afternoon, but David said that she needed to go to help Nico, so he came to help her stay awake. David mentioned it to Hu, and Hu thought it was a great idea that so many of us were going to see a movie together that she invited herself and J. J and Veronika realized it was basically everyone in our class going, so she had J call Teruko to invite her and ask her to invite me on Veronika’s behalf, since J doesn’t have my number. Teruko called me and told me how three people seeing a movie turned into 13.”

Xander should’ve realized that 13 tickets was a suspicious number of people. His date made him ignore how weird it was that Veronika managed to get 12 other people to watch a horror movie with her when she told him how much money she needed.

“Wait, how come I wasn’t invited?” asked Whit.

“I’m getting to that. We all went to the movie theatre and got our snacks if we wanted any. Veronika realized you weren’t here, Whit, and asked if no one invited you. I told her that you were always on standby in case something went wrong in a date you set up, and Rose asked if Xander’s date with Arei actually happened. Some people were surprised that more than a couple people if any knew about the date, and it turned out that no one except Hu, J, and I realized that Xander was going around and asking everyone to do something with him so he could avoid his blind date with Arei. Until the movie started, it was just us talking about what Xander wanted to do to have proof he had a legitimate reason to cancel his date. I have to admit, that was a nice conversation, mainly because we were all making fun of Xander.”

“I’m right here...”

“I know.”

Whit’s eyebrows furrowed together. “But, wait, Xander, how did you find out Arei was your blind date?”

He rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled nervously. “When you texted Arei about how I agreed, you left your phone on the table when our order was called. Your phone was still on, and I checked to see who my blind date was before I could stop myself. I found out it was Arei, and...everything that Charles said happened after that, basically.”

“So that’s why you suddenly didn’t want to go on the blind date anymore when I got back...” Whit sighed. “I don’t know what to be sad about, me accidentally leaving my phone here and ruining the thrill of blind dates or no one inviting me to watch a movie with basically our whole class.”

“You’re always on standby on the day your client has a date you set up,” reminded Charles. “You told me that.”

“That doesn’t mean I didn’t want an invitation!”

“I knew you were going to say no, so there was no point. Besides, you should be happy you didn’t see the movie. No one except Veronika wanted to talk after watching it...” Charles shuddered and muttered something about how a psychological horror with no gore or anything a typical horror movie had shouldn’t have been the scariest thing he had ever seen.

“Next time, I guess...” Whit had a small smile at Xander. “At least one of us had fun on Friday.”

Xander smiled back.

“And you”—Whit’s face became as serious as someone like him could make it—“after saying this, I’m not going to talk to you until you give me a sincere apology for not inviting me.”

Charles frowned. “Why?”

Whit turned his body away from him, crossing his arms.

“You didn’t give him an invitation, and he’s upset,” Xander answered for him.

“He was going to say no,” argued Charles. “What was the point of wasting my time asking him?”

“Even if he was going to say no, it’s the thought that matters. Plus, everyone was taking one extra person with them. You were supposed to at least ask Whit even if he wouldn’t come.”

“I didn’t know that! I’m not going to say sorry for something I didn’t know!”

“Then I guess Whit’s giving you the silent treatment.”

Xander took his coffee and sipped it slowly. If his classmates had gotten a memory they definitely wouldn’t get rid of because of his embarrassing actions, then he supposed they weren’t that bad. He managed to get himself another date with Arei, his classmates were all closer, and the only downside was Whit being angry at Charles. Whit wasn’t the type of person to hold grudges, so he would get over it soon enough. It was just a question of if Charles would reluctantly agree to apologize before then, and Xander was interested in seeing it.

A/N: Fun Fact: Xanrei’s blind date was supposed to include laser tag in between bowling and ice cream. They were supposed to be on different teams but teaming up to get rid of all their competitors, and when it’s down to the final three, Xander accidentally pushes Arei against a wall to get rid of the other person. Arei already realized what position they were in, and Xander realizes it a second after. They look into each other’s eyes (maybe I’m just aegoaroace, but it sounds so gross when I write it like this), but eventually, Xander feels like they should probably get out of that situation, so he shoots Arei with his laser gun. Arei gets (playfully) upsets and refuses to talk to Xander until he buys her ice cream, and then the ice cream scene comes. Whit didn’t plan that, though, so you’d get a bonus scene of Xander asking why Arei would want ice cream when it was getting cold, and Arei telling him that he just didn’t understand her. The reason why laser tag wasn't included is just because I didn’t want to write it. Traces of what was supposed to happen after remain in the final scene with Whit and Charles, though, if that counts for anything. Maybe I’ll write Xanrei playing laser tag another time.

[thatseitagremlin]

gremlyn's danganronpa: despair time x limbus company au (drdt spoilers under cut up to chapter 2!!)

i LOVE making aus with a target audience of one person (1) by blendering two of my current interests together. this truly was our despair time.

everyone except mai's "sprites" are drawn based on official sprites, and they're meant to be height accurate! or, uh, a valiant attempt was made. at the very least i got to practice drawing everyone 🎉

(complete but constantly changing AU & character notes under cut: LOTS and i mean LOTS of yapping down there. spoilers up to chapter 2 and literature girl insane MV. content warning for "standard danganronpa stuff"; the hidden text in here is about the same level as drdt's hidden tumblr page quotes)

first up is a quick crash course on limbus company! that being said, i don't think i explained myself well at all, so i recommend just checking out the official website. or straight up playing it. i'm happy to answer any and all questions, though, whether here or in my limbus-centric main (@iamjustagremlin)!

and now here are the character notes. i have a Lot to say.

one more minor thing i'm 99% sure forgot to include and am too lazy to fix: the canon sinners are each assigned a color code and a cool descriptor (it doesn't even need to be an adjective. cool factor always wins), such as "oblivion yellow", "dreamy gray", and "inferno red". my brain won't let me tackle these yet, but my first attempt for xander was "courageous crimson", and my first attempt for teruko was "cursed clover".

once again, if you've made it this far: thank you for reading! and my askbox is always open for mutual brainrotting 👉 👈

(also, if you squint at the character notes for long enough, there might be even more to read... it's not much, but it's honest work. do note that it should be about as "heavy" as drdt's hidden tumblr page quotes)

[hayleymarriedjakurai]

DRDT (Jarei) Pirate AU

i made a little jarei pirate au post on twitter and got attached to the idea so i decided to expand on it a little more

Setting: The Kingdom of Rosas. With the Rosales being the royal family, of course. Rosas is a seaside kingdom with lots of ports. Deep forests surround the non coastal parts that lead to the border to the other kingdoms.

Very basic magic laws apply in this world, and wealthy people have easier access to magic, whether it be training, schools, or attuned items/weaponry. Everyone is born with some scale of magical energy, usually with a concentration on a type of magic that you can cast easier than the others (conjuration, divination, enchantment, etc.)

Most people wait for their attunement to come naturally (Age like 6-7). It sort of just happens, everyone having a different trigger. Most people that can afford it pay to get it triggered by some sort of official, they treat it like a coming of age sort of thing! Otherwise you gotta wait or just never get it. There’s some people, although rare, that don’t attune until very late. And most people don’t have a crazy amount of magic, it’s rare too be very strong or very weak.

People with access to conduits like wands or staffs can control their magic easier. It also helps people with weaker magic cast more difficult things.

Any fantasy race you can think of probably exists here.

Julia “J” Rosales - Was forced attuned at age 6, slightly above average magic with a concentration in transmutation. The only daughter of Queen Mariabella Rosales. The eldest child. She is currently about to be married off to a neighboring kingdom. Normally, someone would marry HER to marry into the Rosales family, but she is so uncooperative and “not worthy of the title of Queen” that her younger brother Ryan is going to become the heir instead. She will be married off and out of the way. Plus, establishing a connection with the other kingdom will be very important.

J has been miserable since birth. She had brief relief when she found out that her mother didn’t intend on her being the heir, but being told she was going to be married off was worse. She was forced to dress in the most extravagant gowns, looking like the perfect princess of the land. She was never able to do anything or go anywhere without a guard or permission from her mother. The King is not present, having left on an expedition about two years ago and has not returned. Mariabella always had more authority anyway, even before he left.

Ryan doesn’t wanna be the heir to the throne. He’s lazy and prefers to stay in his room doing various activities. He always asks for puzzles or games and then just does nothing else. J will sneak into his room so they can hang out, but it usually ends up turning into a ‘let’s talk about how ass mom is’ session.

Ryan covers for her the night she decides to leave once and for all. As sad as he is to see her go, he understands that it’s either this or her being forced to marry some random prince.

Her plan isn’t very well thought out. The ports always have pirates. Whether they’re here to trade, buy, steal, whatever- there’s always at least one pirate crew somewhere in the city. She plans to sneak onto a ship and hide below deck until they dock in another kingdom. Then she will get out and be free.

So when she leaves the castle in the dead of night with nothing but the clothes on her back and her attunement wand, she’s taken off guard when she’s caught almost immediately.

Because she climbed onto Captain Arei’s boat while they were docked and in a tavern, hid in an empty barrel, and accidentally made a crazy amount of noise when she tried to get out. Because SOMEONE put an object on the top of the barrel and she knocked it over by mistake.

So now she’s a hostage on this ship, which is now sailing out. And she’s the princess. They could hold her ransom and get a LOT of money.

Arei and her crew…

Arei Nageishi - Human. The captain herself. Ditched her own life as a miserable peasant girl and killed her sisters. Killing them actually unlocked her attunement <3. Average magic, concentration in abjuration. Ruthless captain who mainly focuses on ransacking other ships. Doesn’t really kill a lot unless they’re HUGE assholes. Loves to torture/tease captives though. Shes a decent captain and treats her crew like family, even though they bicker and insult each other a lot

Hu - Half human half nature fae. Isn’t really involved in the pirate violence, she’s moreso the caretaker of the crew during periods of rest. Plays the zither still, they do so many music nights on this ship they got so many instruments. Was born attuned bc fae blood and has a strong concentration in enchantment. She uses her instruments as a wand equivalent, and can even cast with just her voice. Her wings are similar to a butterflies, and she keeps them under her clothing because she would most certainly be killed/have them cut off to sell them somewhere in pirate world. Everyone on board knows about them.

Whit - Half elf. Attuned via ceremony at age 6. Below average magic with a concentration in illusion magic. His mother was a powerful magic user and he feels like shit having to live up to her bc he does not have her talent. Is very close to Arei, they’re besties. He’s been with her the longest out of everyone else on board. Loves egging her on when it comes to torturing captives. Loves pranking people with illusions.

Charles - Nobody really knows what he is. Nobody knows when he was attuned. He has the tiniest fucking horns on his head and a devil-like tail, but never gives a flat out answer when you ask him what he is. Thin pupils. Isn’t for the violence on board either, kind of works as the guy that focuses on the maps, the travel, and looking over the things they steal and checking for their value. Skilled in divination but cannot cast without his attuned gloves. He’s great at identifying curses or magical properties on objects. Sucks at most other magic but Whit is trying to teach him very basic illusions. Acts like he doesn’t really care about the crew + never actively participates in their shenanigans but he would literally die for them.

Veronika - Human. Attuned at age 8 after nearly accidentally killing herself. Is desperate to be bitten by any vampire-esque creature. Her dream in life is to find one and convince them to turn her. Thats why she joined the crew; so she can travel. She LOVES the life of a pirate and loves egging Whit and Arei on because they’re so entertaining! She loves bothering charles too because he’s secretive and really fun to analyze. Doesn’t have a magic concentration, so in return she uses all of them but just weaker. She uses a human bone as her attunement artifact. Don’t ask her which one, she will never stop talking.

Xander - Human. Is not attuned to magic at all. Has a deep rooted hatred for the royal crown, specifically Mariabella. He lived in a small village by the border of the kingdom, in which the entire population including his family succumbed to a terrible blight. Mariabella did nothing to aid them. He seemed to be very close to attunement on the day he became the sole survivor, but something seemed to interrupt it….

Very skilled fighter in non magical combat, spare with the others and teaches them in case they cannot use magic and need a back up. Veronika is 2nd best in hand to hand combat.

Teruko is a captain on another ship that is on a neutrality pact with Arei’s group. They just don’t rob each other when they pass each other on the water. And yes they’ve definitely all anchored and jumped on one of the boats for like a party and regretted it the next morning

Teruko’s crew consists of Eden, Nico, Rose, Ace, Levi, and later David (who is a noble pretending to be a pirate because he wants to kill Teruko but that’s another story)

[tied-ash]

With DRDT being revived and everything, it somehow corresponded to me making a family AU.

And by family AU… I obviously mean a fan child AU.

Basically, MonoTV has a new motive! To everyone’s surprise, they’ve been paired up based on personality, interest, relationship, or randomly to take care of an AI child! How is this a motive? Fake memories are given to every child, and whether they know it or not, their soul purpose is to cause drama.

Yes, I’m aware of how cringe this is. But cringe culture is dead. <3 I’m also aware that it’s probably worse that I used Gacha Life 2 to design these characters, but meh /lh

To save room, it’s under the cut!

BLAISE LACROIX - SHSL Bibliophile

The daughter of Veronika and Rose, she takes after her mama’s looks (Rose) and her mami’s personality (Veronika). She’s a general nuisance to the whole group, though she’s only often seen around her parents. …and Felicity. Oh, and those glasses don’t even have lenses in them.

Veronika is absolutely ecstatic, if not weirded out. Rose is a little concerned that she was paired with Veronika…

FELICITY FONTANA - SHSL Cosmetologist

The daughter of Arturo and Levi, Felicity takes after her father’s looks, and Levi’s muscle and apathy. Yes, she calls Arturo “father” and Levi “Levi” — she claims that it’s just easier that way. While she has Levi’s apathy and inability to truly understand human emotion, she has her Arturo’s rude nature. She’s not sure why, but Blaise has a certain attraction to her… though, it’s not really a romantic one.

Levi and her both have the understanding that they don’t know how to react. However, Felicity is having a worse time understanding why her father, Arturo, refuses to talk to her… or why her name freaks him out so much.

JUN-HEI HAKOBYAN - SHSL Zoologist

The son of Min and Nico - and nephew of Hu - he takes qualities from both of his parents. He’s awkward with practically anyone he meets, and he hates socialization. Why do you think he hangs out with animals so much?

Nico doesn’t like him. Why were they paired with Min…? Hu, on the other hand, is more than happy to take on the parent role, regardless of Jin-Hei wants her to or not.

LAILA CUEVAS - SHSL Tutor

The daughter of Whit and Charles, she takes a lot from Whit. The only things she got from Charles was his hair, skin, and height. Her personality reflects that of Whit almost completely, though she tends to say “that’s… actually insane!” Rather than “that’s wack.” However, neither know where she got her fashion sense from… or her slight interest to nicotine.

Upon finding that this was the pairing, both were flustered. They shared it in different ways, though. Charles went straight to interrogating her, asking how they are as parents and also what she knows. Whit’s first question was “so��� how’s my cooking?”

CASSIOPEIA “CASSI” CHIEM - SHSL Motivational Speaker

The daughter of David and Xander - and the niece of Ace, Cassi takes her personality from the more rambunctious of the two. She gained his determination and loudness. Despite how naive she can be at times, she always means well. Her nativity sometimes translates into obliviousness, which then powers her patience.

LEO CHIEM - SHSL Protestor

The son of David and Xander - and the nephew of Ace, Leo takes his personality from the more intelligent of the two. He’s a somewhat patient person when people actually want to listen. Otherwise, his temper is constantly dwindling. The only person who is almost incapable of causing his true anger to show is his twin sister.

David doesn’t know what to think of them… but they’re Xander’s kids too. He wants to protect them, and they want to help stop this killing game. Hu, despite not being part of the family, finds great interest in David’s kids. The children are unsure of how to approach her.

YUMI NAGEISHI - SHSL Roboticist

The daughter of Arei and Eden - and the niece of J - takes her personality from Arei and J. She’s blunt and bossy, often ridiculing others for their dumb ideas. However, if you squint hard enough, she’s only trying to keep everyone alive. If she got any other traits from Eden… it’s slight blackmail. It’s never anything serious— anything dangerous is instantly told to somebody she trusts, most likely being Kobe, Cassi, or Felicity.

Eden has made it her mission to get as close to her daughter as possible. Yumi has made it her mission to be her mother’s spokesperson, saying what she believes her mother means (“Can we maybe be nicer?” “Mom wants to say shut your trap and listen for god’s sake.”) . J… Well, she’s trying to convince herself that she isn’t turning into her own mother. It doesn’t help knowing that Yumi acts just like J.

KOBE TAWAKI - SHSL ???

The son of Teruko, no one knows who his other parent is. It has to be either Ace, Veronika, or Xander, right? But due to Kobe’s kind and patient nature, no one can be sure. Neither of his parents act like he does…

Teruko doesn’t want anyone talking to her son. At the same time, she doesn’t dare trust him. He is a motive that should never be trusted.

[ccrisntok]

requests 2: electric boogalo

(sure wonder whos hand that is...) I forgot to screenshot this request before deleting it from my inbox. I think @sunriseindigo requested their fav lil guy Min, but if it wasn't you uh. Hope whoever did request it sees this! I went kinda hard on this bc I have posted Min on this blog ONE time. and that's a crime.

forgot to screenshot this one to, but an anon suggested: Hu patching up Ace after he falls off of a horse. I feel like even if Hu and Ace don't get along, she'd try to come to his games to support him once in a while as the mom of the group! (even if Ace is her least favorite child.) In like 90 degree heat she'd pull up, with enough sunscreen and waterbottles to keep everyone in a 70 mile radius hydrated and safe from skin cancer. And she wouldn't hesitate to help Ace if he gets hurt, ofc!

...

I really fucked up with forgetting to screenshot a good amount of these. whoever needed a pic of Nico beating Ace in a fight, I delivered! The tone in which you asked wasn't too serious, so i hope a shitpost is sufficient for your needs.

(someone requested sora and yuki from sdra2 in drdt and im gonna make that its own post. so just know u were seen anon. also person who asked for more ace and eden, same thing.)

i can always draw Whace. they are my everything.

mans even singing it wrong 💀 (thanks for the request i love whace sm im glad they remind you of u and ur bf :D)

in a better world, Arei is talking to her therapist about Hopes Peak drama rn. (i love drawing arei thank you anon)

honestly this ship had never crossed my mind. i couldn't rlly think up anything too cute for it so i went silly instead kjfaljdf (thanks for the request @weightedblankettt, I LOVE THAT ONE FIC YOU WROTE WITH LIKE THE NICO AND ACE SWAP THING. i literally went "OH MY GOD???" when i saw you sent in a request fkhfla /pos)

Hello again @xmicrophonyx :)) thanks for another request

I feel like Xander would buy a skirt to wear to a protest or something and then he'd go "wait but it matches my hair..." and then wear it like just out and about sometimes. Whit would just have one I think. Just randomly bought it and wears it. And Levi literally makes clothes, so I'm sure hes made a few dresses for himself just to test techniques and such. Ik you didn't ask but I felt like explaining my choices for who I drew 🫶🏽🫶🏽

Ur so right actually. I feel like Veronika would be like "Ohhh weird morally gray old man??? ILY." and he would actively detest her. thank you anon i haven't drawn a soy-bean (syobai) in a loonggg time lmao

Ajhskjfafksaflsga gay peiple. i love them. i really do. thank you anon. gay oepeple. aughgshah. /POS

(people who follow the despair time art tag rn ^^^^^)

Thats it for now!

still doin these so send in some more requests if you feel like it fellas <333

[starlightscarsyt]

THE DOC IS DONE! The main bios of all of the cast in my DRDT x SDRA2 Talent Swap AU! Feel free to read it, and if you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask!

[sleepyshovel]

I'm a shovel who maybe sometimes writes. It/she.

The main rule here is just to be chill :3

DRDT x reader is what this blog will mostly be for the time being.

These x reader can be platonic, romantic, or in some cases suggestive, but not outright sexual or smutty.

It will mostly be headcanon lists and the like until I develop my writing more.

No guarantees that I'll fulfill any and all requests. I may write other things as well.

DRDT x reader (Specifically, Ace, Arei, Arturo, Charles, Eden, Hu, J, Min, Nico, Rose, Whit and Xander) (sorry all David/Levi/Teruko/Veronika lovers but I at the moment don't feel comfortable writing them this way... this is of course subject to change though.)

(Also the Yandere trope is a guilty pleasure of mine, feel free to request it if you'd like)

I will not under any circumstances write pedophilia or incest.

Do not sexualise me.

[divineluckfuckoff]

5 for Xander 🥹🥹🥹

Ohhhh :>

5: Accidental kiss

"AREEEEEEEEIIIII! WHIIIIIIIIIIIT!"

"RUN WHIT RUN!"

"I'M RUNNING AS FAST AS I CAN AREI!!"

Now, you may be wondering:

What the fuck is going on? Well, let's rewind.

"So, the plan is: We push Y/n and Xander to kiss." Arei said, as she drew in a notebook the little plan. Whit nodded, smiling brightly.

"They're gonna be so pissed." the blond laughed, rubbing his hands like a wicked mastermind. Arei did the same.

"But it's worth it!"

The two sneaked around, seeing Xander and you talking about something they didn't care about enough to know. Whit slowly creot behind Xander, while Arei did the same behind you.

"And then I was like "You will never catch me alive!" and jumped to another building."

"You did?! And you didn't get hurt Xander?!" you asked, worried.

"Nope! I was fine." Xander lied, completely omitting the fact that he missed the jump, hit his face on the wall and nearly died from the fall if it wasn't for a tree.

"Woah... So co- Wah!-" you got interrupted due to the fact that you felt someone push you forwards. And, to your surprise, Xander was, too. Both of your faces went red when your lips touched.

"Mission success!" Arei cheered as she high fived Whit. You pulled away, glaring at the two little devils.

"Arei... Whit..."

"OH SHIT-"

"AREEEEEEEEIIIII! WHIIIIIIIIIIIT!"

"RUN WHIT RUN!"

"I'M RUNNING AS FAST AS I CAN AREI!!"

[another-danganronpa-fan]

hear me out- DRDT heathers AU

I've been on a DRDT brainrot recently and it's sad to see the creator go on hiatus but I will respect what's best for them :) meanwhile I will cope by imagining them in a heathers AU (SPOILERS FOR BOTH HEATHERS *AND* DANGANRONPA DESPAIR TIME!) BOTH DRDT AND HEATHERS HAVE PEOPLE D*ING AND BL**D AND ALL THAT STUFF SO TRIGGER WARNING FOR THAT! Veronica: Xander

I know what you're thinking already: "But Teruko's the main character shouldn't she be Veronica in this AU" and I agree- somewhat. -But the main thing is that Teruko has more "unhinged" sprites than Xander, and Xander's personality just fits more with Veronica. They're both more...confident? Teruko is confident in her abilities too but she gives off more JD vibes. OH AND ANOTHER THING- in meant to be yours, "You were all I could **trust**...." just fits Teruko's overall theme of trust. And when JD gets shot, Teruko's bloody sprites would be perfect.

-And since David is part of the Heathers in this AU I can see Xander being like "They're solid Teflon—never bothered, never harassed,,,I would give anything to be like that"

-I feel like Veronica just fits Xander more than Teruko (even though Veronica and Teruko's voices are pretty similar) since he looks up to David like Veronica kinda looked up to the Heathers (even though she didn't really like them like Xander liked David), and both David and the Heathers end up being...well....you know...

-Xander's also a lot more emotional and impulsive than Teruko, just like how Veronica out of impulse decides to have sex with JD before Heather C "ends" her.

-"Dear diary: I believe I'm a good person, y'know, I think there's some good in everyone..." isn't something Teruko would say to be honest,, even in the prologue she says something like "there's no reason for us to trust each other in the first place"

JD: Teruko

-Continuing from before, Teruko would be JD in this AU. JD says that he doesn't bother making relationships because he is constantly moving from school to school, and has been taught that "life is war" similar to how Teruko has the mindset of "I can't trust anyone". And how she was also moving constantly due to medical debt.

-Another thing: Xander: "Does your mommy know you eat all that crap?" Teruko: "Not anymore! When my parents were there-"

-Before Xander betrays Teruko, she genuinely cared for Xander more than anyone else in the cast. Even though Teruko's not as bad as JD, post-chapter 1 she began to isolate herself since she knows she can't trust them like JD hated the bad people in the school.

-She has the unhinged sprites too come on- everything else I was gonna say is already listed in the Xander section, so...moving on!

Ram Sweeney: Ace

-Pretty self-explanatory- both "jock" characters who are kinda a-holes. I was actually contemplating having Ace as Heather Chandler but I really can't think of anyone else who'd fit Ram/Kurt. Ace's character has a lot more depth, but for this AU he's really at his worst isn't he...

Kurt Kelly: Levi

-In Beautiful, it's mentioned that Kurt Kelly's the smartest guy on the football team, and although that's honestly not too big of an achievement, he is smarter than all the other jocks. Levi's more level-headed and more sane than Ace, but he does have his bad moments. Not to mention he had a dark past too.

Martha: Eden

-This was also kinda what made me consider Teruko to be Veronica in this AU instead, as Eden consistently makes an effort to hang out with Teruko.

-Eden honestly fits Martha really well, especially when she brings sparkling cider to the party in Big Fun. It's just such an Eden thing to do, you know? They're both kind and innocent and deserved better.

-Xander probably would have gotten along with Eden...

Mrs. Fleming: Hu

-Although Mrs. Fleming is more of a hippie than Hu, I feel like she fits the most here. Hu is more "motherly", and more mature than most of the cast, and her constant pushing to defend Nico would also go with the theme of Mrs. Fleming getting the students to "feel".

Now, for the Heathers!!!

Heather Chandler: Arturo

-I don't know anymore man...I already knew David and Arei were both gonna be part of the Heathers, and I originally had Ace there, too, but I don't know who would've been Ram if he was. My first thought was Ace as HC, David as HD, and Arei as HM. My second thought was Arei as HC, but she gets her character development unlike Heather C (at least I didn't see any that I know of) Arturo belittles those he deems as "unworthy" similar to Heather Chandler, so I think he fits the best for now.

Heather Duke: David -They both have a greenish color scheme!!! (is David's hair green?? I mean...his bow tie is green), but on a more serious note, both David and Heather Duke start out very different than when they reveal another side to them.

-Heather Duke starts out as someone who is constantly bullied by Heather C, but develops into a jerk who tells Heather M to kill herself. David, on the other hand, starts out as a good person, but his true nature is revealed in the second trial. HOWEVER, it's implied that he isn't as evil as he seems. But, he still made fun of Arei and Min after their deaths. -Another point is that Veronica treats Heather Duke nicely as stated in the Heather Wiki- (Although, this might be because that the Wiki is probably based on the movie and not the musical itself). "Veronica Sawyer seems to have been closest with Heather Duke than with the other Heathers. Veronica helped Heather throw up and Heather laughed at Veronica’s jokes. Heather Duke seems to enjoy having Veronica around. They listen to Hot Probz together every time it is on. However, when Heather becomes an even bigger tyrant than Heather Chandler was, Veronica resents Heather Duke, especially for bullying Heather McNamara and takes over Heather Duke's position as leader of the school at the end of the film."

-Even if the movie is ignored here, Veronica didn't completely despise Heather D, until she becomes the mega-jerk she was. Similar to how Xander and David were pretty close and admired each other, but David turned out to be a manipulator of some kind, even if he's less evil than he's letting on. If Xander had lived to see David's persona reveal, he'd be shocked, to say the very least.

Heather McNamara: Arei

-If Arei hadn't gotten her character development at all, she'd most definitely be Heather Chandler. However, she did make the effort to change and be a better person, and ended up making amends towards Eden, who she bullied.

-Heather Duke also manipulated Heather M into attempting suicide, similar to the conversation David and Arei had in Chapter 2, episode 11, about how Arei said something along the lines of "You told me I could change", or something like that. This is a bit of a stretch, though.

Please feel free to disagree with my heathers AU in any way! I'd love to hear any other opinions you guys may have.

This has been sitting in my drafts for so long helpdfksfjl

[smudgesticksgonnasmudgingflip]

So idea:

DRDT characters hanging out with Security Breach characters-

Teruko: Gregory? (Freddy because of the teddy bear?)

Charles: ummm... Freddy?

Xander: ...Monty or Freddy? Maybe Sun?

Arei: Roxy or Chica? Maybe Monty?

David: Sun and Moon?

Veronika: Vanny, Vanessa, Chica, Roxy, Monty, Moon? Maybe the endos? (Map Bot?)

Nico: wet floor bots? Mmmmaybe Freddy???

Whit: Chica or Sun? Or Comedy Bot? Music Man(s)?

Ace: keeps getting jumpscared by Map Bot- (maybe Monty??? Or Roxy???)

Hu: Freddy? Chica? (Bc of the food line)

J: ummmm Moon? Roxy? Music Man(s)? Monty? Freddy?

Arturo: ????? Roxy?

Rose: Sun and Moon??

Levi: uhmmmmm Monty or Freddy???

Min: ummmm wet floor bots???

Eden: Chica?

If you're wondering where I'd be- I'd be with Sun and Moon because s p a c e

[eyitzme]

Writing a Xanrei one shot right now and I just remembered how short Arei is compared to Xander in the new height list lmao (first pic looks like they're holding hands!? Omg!? That was on accident but wow!)

[thatseitagremlin]

gremlyn's danganronpa: despair time x limbus company au: hell's chicken edition (in which arei is also the ultimate conflict escalator)

the number of students who canonically can cook is actually rather high, but with 17 of these bastards running around there's bound to be Multiple incidents... (more yapping under cut!)

drdt cast's canon cooking abilities notes: -) has cooked in-universe: eden (ch1e3 baking + ch2e1 breakfast), hu (ch1e5 dinner), levi (ch2e1 breakfast), nico & veronika (ch2e3 breakfast), charles (ch2e4 cucumber flowers... do they count?? but he can cook eggs by ch2e8 so i'm putting him here) -) implied that they can cook: min (ch1e3 baking; afaik eden does most of the steps but she was there for the scene and understands the processes so i'll just put her here), rose (ch1e3 baking + ch2e6 lunch: "i was apparently supposed to help cook this meal"), j (ch2e1: "...the last thing i feel like doing is cooking"), arei (ch2e1: "but i also don't want to cook. what to do...") -) stated in qnas: whit (best cook in the cast, specialty is french), david (can cook decently but is usually too lazy to), xander (has a weak sense of taste and compensates by adding in Too much flavor, so his food is inedible to everyone else) -) disaster in the kitchen: teruko (ch1e1 investigation + ch1e5 dinner uses this exact wording, but i assume this mostly pertains to her bad luck fucking up electronics since she makes her own food throughout ch2) -) unknown: ace, arturo (afaik these two's cooking ability have never been mentioned so far!), mai (we barely know anything about her. so)

i split up all 16 sinners (replacing whit with mai, since arei banned him from the competition) into four teams of 4. i initially tried randomizing it while sticking to my personal rules of "xander and arei in different teams", "arei and eden in the same team (so they can cook together once before arei's character development)", and "hu in the same team with a 'sabotager' so she doesn't win", but i eventually decided to just make the teams manually. in-universe you can see this as arei rigging the votes.

this didn't end up as chaotic as canon limbus, but i guess that's what happens when most of your cast can canonically cook, so you have to provoke them to beefing with each other...

-) team 1: xander, ace, j, david. there was not enough common sense to counter xander's tastebuds and he learned absolutely nothing. sad! -) team 2: arei, levi, nico, eden. there was not enough hater energy to counter arei's sabotage. also arei had fun even disregarding all the sabotage she did but she won't admit that (yet) -) team 3: rose, arturo, veronika, mai. it's less "food" and more "abstract art piece" that horrifies their poor client, inflicting 10 sinking potency and 8 sinking count -) team 4: charles, min, teruko, hu. with hu's guidance they actually made a really good "family restaurant"-style chicken dish. the ones where it's a big portion for a family to share. they try to get teruko to carry the dish but min realizes and stops teruko from touching the plate. Unfortunately teruko's luck kicks in and min ends up dropping the dish anyways -) won by default: mai secretly let whit in team 3's kitchen and let him cook a backup dish just in case every team fucked up. papa bongy accepts the dish and they eventually un-distort him, making him mvp of the mission and winner by default!

[drdtfuitgumies]

the 100th situation!! yippee!

we've officially hit our 100th situation (not counting the pinned post)...!! to celebrate, i drew everyone* for one of my oddly specific, self-indulgent aus with a target audience of one (me); my drdt x digimon au!

version without any digimon

the au is mostly running on vibes (especially as we don't have concrete backstories for everyone, and a lot of interpretation has to be done), but the digimon adventure trilogy is the main inspiration!

disorganized notes: -) i'll be going to more detail in my other acc! linked here -) this takes place in an universe where hope's peak academy and the tragedy never existed. they still have their "talents" but they don't get nationwide recognition or anything. this helps and hurts some backstories -) i'm separating the story to two arcs. the first arc is where mai befriends everyone in the right half of the image and takes them adventuring in the digital world, ending in her untimely and unfortunate death. which was totally not supposed to happen, whoops :( this fractures mai's friend group and only the valiant efforts of a post-character development arei prevents them from completely cutting off contact with each other -) the second arc takes place ~3 years after, where mai's friends' unaddressed drama and hard feelings finally crop up again and two innocent bystanders (teruko and eden) are forced to take front seat and suffer the consequences. everyone left in the left side of the image isn't relevant to the plot and are background cameos at best but i didn't wanna leave them out -) its basically Character Building Playground for me and a way for me to cope about what could've been. but it also means that the most "content" i make up in my head is actually between the first and second arc, because i wanna figure out how awful everyone's coping mechanisms are and the falling outs that ensue...

summary of my unserious thought process behind each partner choice (more detailed in my other acc): -) the characters from hu to teruko specifically have partners who are relevant in the digimon adventure continuity. if you've watched tri in particular, you know exactly why i chose mai and teruko's partners ^_^ -) hu: morphomon. thank you lost evolution kizuna for introducing a butterfly child-level / rookie!! -) ace: patamon. they are both orange. interpreting patamon as a small angry dog was also really funny to me -) david: gabumon. protag assignment. gabumon wears a fur pelt to appear stronger and it's stated to experience a "180° personality shift" -) xander: agumon. protag assignment. they would be BEST friends -) j: tentomon. juxtaposition of cute pink baby form vs very cool and scary looking insects that shoot LIGHTNING. -) arei: piyomon/biyomon. no reason in particular the evolutions i picked just fit really well -) charles: palmon. plant. the idea of charles naming a plant "charles jr" was hilarious to me, and then the idea of palmon wearing matching goggles and a labcoat was very very cute -) whit: gomamon. sea ouppy... commonly characterized as a very laidback and fun-loving partner in digimon media. -) mai: tailmon/gatomon. Kity :) this specific tailmon is also meant to mirror monotv and behaves like it -) teruko: meicoomon. Kity :) sad kity who turns evil and fucked up :( -) eden: solarmon. silly machine digimon. also commonly evolves to the clock digimon -) min: wormmon. bookworm pun. also very vague allusion to ichijouji ken. Min is not plot relevant (for now) and she's actually way better off here than canon!! -) rose: lalamon. no reason in particular i just think they would be friends and lalamon's face is funny. -_- and 0o0 -) nico: loogamon. wolfy :) wolfy who bites -) veronika: porcupamon. spooky monokuma-esque bear -) levi: bemmon. ourple. also the one "unnatural" digimon pick that i thought fit him well. also, also hoping that digimon liberator gives me a shiny new bemmon evolution line that can work with him! -) arturo: jellymon. i had absolutely zero idea what to do with him because hes one of the two characters i cant get a grip on (for writing) so i just sicced Ghost Game's Jellymon on him

[acevid]

DRDT X DESPAIR DISEASE

what if the danganronpa despair time cast had the motive of despair disease? well, i’ve made diseases for everyone! (i may write a oneshot for this but to be determined..)

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Teruko Tawaki - Childish Disease. Since her childhood is..probably not the best, considering what information we have about her thus far—it causes her to act childishly and to make up for what had once lost! (And makes her an easier target.)

Xander Matthews - Lazy Disease. This disease is exactly how it sounds. This makes it so that Xander is no longer the energetic and determined person that he is, but rather someone who doesn’t put much effort into things, or sees the reason to care about others too much.

Min Jeung - Confidence Disease. This disease makes it so that Min is completely confident in her abilities and whatever she does. This makes it so that she is much less anti-social towards others, and not afraid to prove anyone wrong.

Arei Nageishi - Cowardice Disease. Because Arei has this disease, she will act meekly due to pretty much everything. Often times another student will see her shaking or on the verge of tears. She can be comforted, but many things can set her off again.

Ace Markey - Truth Disease. This strain of disease makes it so that Ace can only say the truth. While, yes, he can simply change the subject by saying random but true stuff like “It’s cold right now”, but it’s harder to fight the more he does it—and it’s especially hard whenever somebody directs a question towards him.

Levi Fontana - Empathetic Disease. This gives Levi what he’s always been lacking—empathy! And not just any old empathy. His empathy is seriously high, like off the charts. 

J Rosales - Villain Disease. While, yes, making it so that J had some ‘murder’ disease would’ve been funny, considering how she hates murder—that would’ve been too easy. And so, we’ve resorted to making her act like a really bad cartoon villain. Why? Comedy. Makes the show go up in ratings.

Rose Lacroix - Forgetfulness Disease. Pretty self explanatory, Rose simply is unable to keep long-term memories. (..Actually, change that to memories in general, as she seems to forget a lot that happened in a short time-span as well. Such as—half an hour.)

Arturo Giles - Kindness Disease. This disease makes it so that Arturo doesn’t see the ugliness in people, but rather the good qualities about them. He’s rather vocal about this too.

Hu Jing - Antagonist Disease. This causes her to act rudely to everyone, as if she is above them, and cause troubles just so that her classmates struggle. She doesn’t seem to have any want to cooperate with everyone like this.

Nico Hakobyan - Aggressive Disease. This makes it so that Nico is more easily aggravated, and will lash out more. He’s becoming Ace-core

Whit Young - Stoic Disease. This disease makes it so that Whit can no longer use the humor and carelessness that he so desperately loves. In fact, he acts the opposite of how he typically does.

Eden Tobisa - Jester Disease. This is different to Charles’ disease. While he makes jokes and acts somewhat childishly, Eden does so somewhat maliciously. Her jokes always seem to hit hard in someone’s core (and definitely not in a pleasant way). Her way of making others laugh seems to be by putting others down. On the outside, she may look the same—but there is a certain evil aura around her.

Charles Cuevas - Jokester Disease. This disease makes it so that Charles can easily find humour in situations. (He uses so many puns it is ridiculous.) It’s almost as if Whit and Charles switched personalities.

Veronika Grebenschikova - Considerate Disease. Veronika will act respectful towards others, always trying to help and never breaking any boundaries. (Think Ibuki’s disease except she actually has a personality.)

David Chiem - Naivety Disease. This disease makes it so that David believes everything that others are saying—or at least makes it easier to. Because of this trust that he’s putting into others, it’s also much easier to get the truth out of him about matters important and unimportant.

╚═════ஓ๑♡๑ஓ═════╝

[terukosnumberonefan]

Your Month Your DRDT Ship That I Like

January: Arturo x Veronika

February: Xander x David

March: Ace x Levi

April: J x Arei

May: Arei x David

June: Charles x Whit

July: Arei x Eden

August: Teruko x David

September: Whit x David

October: Veronika x J

November: Xander x Teruko

December: Teruko x Eden

I got Teruvid

[2802sen]

DRDT x Cinderella Phenomenon

oh wow new drdt au omg

In case somebody doesn't know, Cinderella Phenomenon is a visual novel where fairies and witches exist, also fairytale curses yeah. Anyway!

Fairies: Mai (the Supreme Fairy) and Whit

Witches: MonoTV and Hu (a good witch)

Average humans: Xander, J, Eden, Min, Veronika, Levi, Ace.

The cursed ones:

Teruko, "The Boy and the Wolves" curse. Her curse makes her and people around her extremely unlucky. She has a Curse Mark that grows if someone betrays her, if mark covers her entire body she will turn into a wolf-like beast with no way back. Teruko's curse can be broken if she will genuinely and mutually trust another person.

Charles, "The Water of Life" curse. He always hears voices that mock him for every weakness he has. If something will remind him of his life before he was cursed, the Curse Mark will activate and start to slowly grow. If mark covers his entire body, he will turn into a stone statue. Charles can break the curse by getting back all of his memories about the closest person he had.

David, "The Snow Queen" curse. Everything good in his eyes is evil and everything bad only becomes more visible. Though there is an exception that he can't control- someone who he sees as an ideal with no fault. If David won't accept his Exception's flaws and weaknesses as they are by the time his Curse Mark touches his heart it will turn into ice.

Arei, "Urikohime" curse. All of her negative traits double and overlap the positive ones. Slowly, as the Curse Mark grow, the negative ones are turning into completely another personality while the old one becomes a ghost, following the body for the rest of eternity. Arei can break the curse by willing and trying to change, mentally overcoming her curse.

Nico, "The Boy Who Drew Cats" curse. They are always followed by three drawn cats who voice every bad thought that Nico has and can make them feel the physical pain that they caused other people. To break the curse Nico has to commit three selfless acts, each for one cat.

Rose, "Silver Hoof" curse. She creates gems out of her own psychological pain, although she can't control it. People always use that ability of hers. To break the curse Rose has to find someone who will love her for who she is and not for her curse.

Arturo, "The Fox Sister" curse. All the pain, emotions and feelings that he caused other people are returned to him by the "Fox" Spirit that only he can see. To break the curse Arturo has to admit all of his mistakes, genuinely regret them and deserve forgivness of the closest person he had.

Just like in Cinderella Phenomenon the cursed ones have to live in Marchen (tavern and kinda hotel that can only be seen by fairies, witches and the cursed ones, average people should be led to this place by one of the three kinds above).

That's all I think! Ask box and requests are open so please-