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adultish-momma · 1 year

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Lunchtime Disagreements

Yuu and Ace get along for some very specific reasons. Unfortunately for Riddle, he is about to find out one of the things they have in common.

(Yuu on the other hand, has had a rough week. They woke up and chose violence. They will not be apologizing.)

A/N: Hi :)

Rule number 271: One must leave the table within 15 minutes of completing their lunch

"Yeah that's not going to happen."

Every Heartslabyul student around their lunch table seems to freeze, anxiously watching red rise to their housewarden's cheeks. Yuu on the other hand settles deeper into their seat, the picture of indolence. Grimm, always down for mischief, hops onto the tabletop, moving the empty Ramshackle lunch trays to the side so he can comfortably turn into a cat loaf in the smack middle of everybody. He shoots a satisfied shit-eating grin up at Riddle Rosehearts, delighting in the frustrated expression on the young man's face.

"Excuse me?"

The Ramshackle prefect finishes off their burger, and then calmly turns to give Riddle Rosehearts their full attention.

"Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm good. Thanks but no." The prefect shoots the housewarden a polite smile before sipping on their carbonated beverage. The redhead blinked, thrown off by the other student's nonchalance of the subject.

"Suggestion... you can't just... the rules-"

"Are completely asinine, let alone inefficient and inapplicable to our current situation." They take another long sip of their drink while the older boy grows steadily redder.

"ASININE?!!"

"Mm-hmm" they hummed, bobbing their head in casual acknowledgment. Calmly setting down their drink, they raised their hand so they could count off for the Heartslybul Housewarden. "One, I am not a Heartslybul student. Therefore, your word is not my law."

Ace was trying very hard to hide his snickers at Riddle's grinding teeth. (He wasn't trying at all honestly but if anybody asks he's going to stick with his story thank you very much.)

"Two, this is not the Heartslybul dorm. There is no polite societal convention that demands I attempt to follow your dorm rules in the neutral territory that is the cafeteria."

Riddle now resembles a tomato, hair blending in with the color of his face. Deuce and Cater exchange nervous glances.

"Three, my next class is alchemy, and according to the time, the Alchemy Lab won't be open for at least 30 more minutes. So instead of staying here and, oh I don't know, getting ahead on my alchemy readings, you want me to leave. And do what, exactly?"

Trey was sweating in his seat. Tentatively, he reached out to the Ramshackle prefect, hoping to make this conversation just stop. "Hey, okay, I think you made your-"

"I'm not finished" they snapped, whipping around to glare at the Vice Warden's outstretched hand. When it dropped back to Trey's side, they turned back to the dorm leader. Riddle was seething, face so red that steam was quite literally going to rise from his face if someone poured water on him. And honestly, at this point, Yuu was kinda pissed too. So when Riddle opened his mouth to take advantage of the pause in their tirade, they stood up and crowded into his space, not willing to let this go until they said their piece.

"Your precious rules are more often than not completely senseless. Name me one benefit, one productive result, one good reason why rule 271 should be followed in every scenario, regardless of circumstance, and I'll take it all back."

They paused, to give Riddle a chance to rebuke them. They didn't pause longer than a second, but let the record show they did pause.

"You can't, can you? Because there are none. There is no good reason for your out-of-pocket rule. That's because it's an insane rule created by an insane woman."

"OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!"

Students wearing rose-red armbands flinched in the courtyard, frantically searching for where their leader could be. It was a fearful response, fueled by the sheer anger they heard in his voice, but they were also curious about exactly what moron was capable of upsetting their mini tyrant so immensely. The Heartslybul students in the courtyard soon figured that since he wasn't in sight, Riddle must be tearing into someone still in the cafeteria. There was collective relief, but those students also sent up a collective prayer for the poor soul on the other side of their housewarden's unique magic.

Meanwhile, inside there's a flash where the freshman prefect was standing, bright light taking its time to dissipate from their silhouette. When it does, the cafeteria is silent, shock settling heavily in the atmosphere. Riddle, who had still been as red as his namesake, rapidly began to pale at the sight before him.

Yuu stretched their neck, with no collar on them to impede the motion. They slouched back into their seat, reaching over to begin petting Grimm behind his ears. The creature's body is forced to relax under the careful touches, his tense posture melting back into a content cat loaf. The prefect themselves are pretty content with the way this argument turned out, although... one last nail in the coffin couldn't hurt his ego any more than they already have.

"I don't have any magic Housewarden Rosehearts. 'Off With Your Head' is useless against me where there is nothing for your spell to contain. So if you want to effectively throw a tantrum next time I'm verbally kicking your ass..." Their eyes locked onto his stormy grey eyes, a small, conspiratorial smirk tugging at the corner of their lips.

"You're gonna need to turn that collar into a muzzle."

#twisted wonderland x reader #twisted wonderland #rewrite au #twisted wonderland riddle #twst riddle #twst riddle x reader #twisted wonderland riddle x reader #next time riddle uses 'off with your head' on yuu is during his overblot #and it absolutely is a muzzle #also hi hello #i might possibly be back #haven't decided yet #Mirrors are Never to be Trusted

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little-ratsnake · 5 months

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imposter

#oc #original character #drawing #art #sagau #<- yes i did not misplace that tag it is there for a reason trust #everyone meet the main antagonist of my future sagau fic that will be released erm . eventually #yes there is a reason why they have an appearance and aren't a complete mirror of the reader #theyre also my delusional pookiebear with a god + savior complex LMAOO #im not going to tag the rest of the sagau tags bc coughs i dont want to interrupt the tag w art LMAOO #also ... ngl im not too sure about the shoes #for some reason whenever i think about him i never see his feet

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renntheace · 5 months

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Nora: neils is auburn

Fandom : but ginger...

Me, an intellectual: given people's hair tends to darken as they grow and Neil hasn't actually seen his natural hair (aside from the roots which will look differently when the rest of your hair is dyed) since he was a child - it darkened to auburn as he grew but he never noticed because... its Neil and when it grows out fully only then will he actually be able to tell

Lets be real it won't even be him that notices it'll be Andrew or Allison

#aftg #all for the game #neil josten #cmon neils so oblivious to stuff he'd never actually notice the difference in colour #also... ptsd about his dad but y'know #riko just wanted him to look like he did whne he was a kid so he wouldnt care #source: ive dyed my hair a lot and my roots look brown until they get some length then they turn more blond #source: trust me bro #and the mirror thing... forgot to add that

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5-pp-man · 2 months

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love how this couple comes in for their 30th anniversary and they seem a little annoyed w one another so immediately Seigi is like. yup. i smell a divorce coming.

#and 5 min later hes baffled that he was wrong.#never trust anything this man thinks.#also is it just me or is every relationship (platonic familial romantic etc) a mirror for us to analyse seigi and richards relationship wit #dont answer that. i know it is.#jeweler richard #the case files of jeweler richard #tedpost #tedtalks #tedreads #also dont mind me i know vol 7 just came out but im still on 3

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givehimthemedicine · 1 year

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hey what if Max has to have her head shaved for brain surgery or something and El buzzes her own head again in solidarity after her hair has yet again finally grown back to something she likes? what if El doesn't even announce she's gonna do it, Max just hears bzzz right after they've had a conversation about her hair, and puts 2 and 2 together?

"Don't. El? El. Don't you dare. I can't even see you, this doesn't help me. Seriously - it'll grow back -"

"So will mine. We will grow back together."

bzzzzz

"No! El, you don't have to do this!"

"I don't have to. I want to."

#headcanon #elmax #mine #in the hundreds of times she'd had her hair buzzed she's never actually seen it #there was no sitting in a hairdressers chair with a mirror in the lab. they probably just lined them up and did it every few weeks #and there's something cathartic about watching herself do it and for a reason she wants to #this tricks Max into being less self conscious about it #because normally she would be relentlessly self deprecating about how bad she must look #but now whatever she says kinda applies to El too so that slows her way down because she wouldn't be as mean to El as she is to herself #besides she's seen El buzzed and she looked badass. and El says she looks badass now and she has no choice but to trust her #El leaning her head against Max's and them feeling each others' prickly heads. Max cries. that's all. now you may go about your day

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lord-squiggletits · 5 months

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Man, it doesn't matter what the medium or fandom is, truly the debate that ruins fandom discussions the fastest is when people try to decide which characters "deserve" what. Especially when it comes to them deciding which characters are evil, how evil they are, and how severe their punishment should be for their evil deeds.

It's really annoying/harmful on multiple levels. For one, morally speaking, the line between "evil, but can repent/compensate for their deeds" and "evil, cannot be redeemed, suffer and die forever" is harder to define than you think, and who has the authority to define it anyways?

But also, fictional stories (especially the better, more nuanced, more mature ones) are rarely ever about "deserving" and don't divide their characters neatly between the "good" and the "evil." Every time I see fans debate about "how evil" a Problematic Fave is, or if Fave 1 is better/worse than Fave 2, all I see is people ruining their own fun and stirring up bad blood between other fans. Why would you add this dichotomy of "deserving" to a FICTIONAL story and start real life beef with people over it? At that point you're getting more invested in your discourse over imagined good/evil binaries than you are invested in watching/reading/consuming the actual story itself.

#squiggposting #honestly it gets to the point where i try to avoid fandom discourse for new things i'm into such as bg3 #canon is crystal clear and then i walk into fanon discussions and it's like a funhouse mirror #fanon discussions and discourse get so wack they literally make me second guess shit i saw with my own eyes and ears #me playing bg3: yeah the themes of this are pretty clear i understand perfectly the emotions here are great #me looking at bg3 fandom discussions: what in the actual fuck is going on here. did we play the same game #it's also not helped by people who can't distinguish between canon and fanon #like. there's a difference bt things explicitly said by canon vs interpretations based on canon but not actually confirmed #there can be multiple different interpretations of a story. this is true and a very good thing #HOWEVER. ppl in fandom are often bad at distinguishing between canon information and their interpretation. it just adds more misinformation #if you're a veteran that actually knows the lore you end up stepping into discourse just to clarify:#no that isn't actually canon. it's based on this one thing that was said in canon but canon never actually says that.#you can INTERPRET THAT but the story never actually explicitly says it #just. what a fucking mess lmao. the best way to get accurate information on a story is to just play/watch/read it yourself #fandom cannot be trusted to 1. get lore factually correct 2. distinguish between canon facts and interpretation

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larnax · 2 months

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no therion's story doesn't only make sense if you do a solo run. i've seen this take multiple times and every time i'm completely baffled because No It Doesn't. not true. false. incorrect.

like okay this does require you to understand that the literal words a character says are not necessarily the truth, but therion's story and gameplay both make way more sense if you accept the fact that therion is not a loner and shouldn't be one.

let's start with the beginning! the FIRST scene you see of therion is him meeting darius at age 11, who he will spend the entire rest of his childhood with and implied some time into adulthood, so he has spent probably the majority of his career as a thief working in a team, which is also borne out in his gameplay, because thief is a support class.

don't argue with me i'm right. while you can run therion as a DPS, investing in attack over speed and evasion means that therion's frailty gets in the way, and he struggles to do damage on par with olberic/h'aanit/alfyn, and cyrus/tressa do way more elemental damage than he does. however, if you instead spec him for support, share SP becomes the most insane skill in the game. a speedy therion can debuff a boss into oblivion before they have a chance to do much before stealing enough SP to let olberic fire off three divine skills without needing a refill. dancer therion is worth doubling up on weapons because his speed and evasion means that he can buff allies quickly and a dancer/thief is the only combo that will regularly dodge attacks before the late game.

therion's skills primarily revolve around giving allies openings to more easily take down enemies(i mean for balancing reasons but play with me in this space) because that's the job he had when he worked with darius. he's not an especially skilled combatant on his own because he didn't need to be, his job was to pin foes down so darius could spam sweep.

additionally, while i hate this decision badly, therion's percentages are fixed so that every chapter past the first has a necessary skill check that's very difficult to pass without either a glean info character and a KO NPC character(why did they do base 3% brigand leader's garb to him.), again because he's used to having someone else deal with gathering information and doing the majority of the fighting for him. he's not terrible at getting info out of people, but he's also not great at it, for example he just goes along with barham's scheme instead of finding a way to threaten or coerce him into revealing the info right away. like basically all of his plans would've failed if the guards or his informant had just said No and refused to help him as opposed to cyrus who responds to being told no by finding out that his informant's daughter died in order to manipulate them into coughing up the info he wants. therion might be capable of manipulation beyond basic impersonation or pretending to be friendly, but if he is we don't see it.

therion in general is also a very passive character if you look past his words at his actual actions. he resists for about two seconds when heathcote cuffs him before following their orders for the rest of the story even when he's uncuffed in chapter 2 when he's still not a huge fan of the ravuses. he again goes along with barham even when he's almost certain he's being fucked with. he is almost always either acting on someone else's orders or defending himself from someone else's attacks. the reason for this is best illustrated in one of the cutscenes with darius where it's made pretty clear that for the majority of their partnership, he kept therion dependent on him to make decisions, and because that started when he was relatively young it's likely that therion just doesn't have that strong of an instinct for advocating for himself or firmly saying no to people twisting his arm(he asks darius a question once and gets thrown off a cliff for it, implying he was even more obedient before that). he can say no once, but we have no idea if he would've given in to the bandits at the beginning if they hadn't responded to his initial no by attacking him, so it does actually make perfect sense that any of the stronger-willed travelers could just respond to that no by saying they weren't asking and dragging him along. he's prickly and verbally hostile, but that mostly seems like a defense mechanism because otherwise he's easier to coerce than ophilia. i get that this seems like i'm trying to infantilize therion but that's really not my intention, in fact that takes the Therion Doesn't Kill People point i made awhile back reflect less on his being a secretly good person and more being too passive to feel the need to finish the job and generally makes him more morally ambiguous because it's less clear what decisions he makes due to personal growth and what he makes due to inertia. is he a good person, or is he just too tired to be a bad person? ideally the story would actually go somewhere with that theme but it wouldn't be octopath if they didn't periodically drop the most insane writing that rewires my brain before either doing nothing with it or actively ruining it.

also, therion's story gets way stronger if he's in a party, because while cordelia and heathcote are (TREATED AS) the reason he learns to trust again, in-story they spend, what, one hour together maybe? cordy and heathcote are his bosses and the most either of them do cordelia using her empath powers to deduce that therion looks sad or heathcote telling him that he's the real asshole for being mad that he's being blackmailed. they're also canonically lying to him when they say they don't know what the dragonstones are, so even at the end of the story they don't really trust him(i wont spend too much time complaining abt them i just don't think you get to be a savior character if the town you own has a ghetto). on the other hand, if you do his story with a party the travel banters all make some attempt at showing therion slowly coming to trust and rely on them despite initial friction, and in gameplay therion acting as a support expresses the theme of him realizing that he actually can work in a team where his allies have his back and there are people he can trust. in that instance his final conversation with darius includes him talking about his companions, because to be here at all they have accepted him after seeing him at his worst and helped him despite it, and who he's been able to help in turn. if you're doing a therion solo run he's just talking about how his boss who's blackmailing him for free labor said he looked sad one time, which is a pretty weak climax if we're going to be real. i stand by saying that octopath works best when it's episodic and stories shouldn't rely on specific characters to work, but genuinely i do think therion's story's themes being expressed strongly in gameplay and the nature of rpgs with a party system are quite cool and my favorite thing about his story.

so it specifically annoys me when people are like "oh well he limply says no before letting you continue to drag him around" like it's a plot hole and not a character trait especially when therion's being a prickly asshole who is also a complete doormat is i think very interesting characterization!!!! ophilia commenting on the fact that therion has no instinct for revenge and therion says "yeah what's the point" makes me so normal.

ALSO why's therion the poster boy for "hey this character's story doesn't make sense with their gameplay" when primrose exists???? why it so contradictory a character whose story is about them learning to trust in their companions again to be in a party while a character who starts off by telling you to fuck off and leave her alone because this is her fight before heel-turning for no reason and then just continuing to be your ally with no justification is totally fine. also why is primrose a support class???? she's not a dancer she's an assassin she doesn't support anyone in her story and her character is about her singleminded and specific familial revenge. she's also a very strongwilled character so it makes no sense that she wouldn't just say no and mean it. i know the answer is that octopath doesn't like women so primrose just got slapped into a princess jasmine costume and femme fatale character before any of her story was actually developed but like oh my goddddddd. primrose girl im so sorry they put you in the nightmare hell dimension.

#c.paradisi #octoposting #i get that to a degree this is an interpretation #octopath never says any of this stuff explicitly enough that i for sure think thats what they were going for #but at the very least it feels like a really weirdly uncharitable reading of his character #his entire story is abt learning to trust his companions again. why would it not make sense for him to have companions #to be uncharitable right back i think its a thing that happens a lot in fandom #where characters are reduced to who they are at the very beginning of a story #and then further simplified into tropes #therions a criminal so he is an evilbadman who hates people and loves crime #which is boring. i think thats a boring direction to take his character in.#it also makes other characters more boring bc you have people infantilizing tressa or alfyn so therion can be evilbadman-er in comparison #i have so many thoughts on cordelia and heathcote though #theyre very well-written villains that do a really good job of mirroring darius and illustrating therions passivity as a character #ot just doesnt uhhhh. seem to realize that.

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quietwingsinthesky · 2 months

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there’s a progression in there, somewhere, of even going from ‘the master might kill me any day now :(‘ to ‘the master is going to kill me :) she’s not going to let someone else do it after all this time’

#i wouldn’t call it hubris exactly. more like this pretty secure surity that that’s how they’re going to die.#and to them that makes sense. they chose this. they keep choosing it after the doctor offers them a way out.#because this is. they understand this. and they feel safe in the reprieve before their death.#how do you control death? choose who kills you. the last defense of a prey animal.#something something dark mirror to clara’s ‘i am owed’ speech for even is if this ever. doesn’t work out the way they thought it would.#clara tried to threaten the doctor so that he’d reverse death for her. even would turn on the master if she tried to spare them.#i am owed better. i am owed the death you promised… i am owed the knowledge that you don’t care enough to save me… you know. something like #that.#even is. kind of. meant to mirror the doctor’s companions at the time. they are a martha who can’t leave him. they are a donna who has to #remember and never speak about everything they know. they are clara if during deep breath clara reached back and truly didn’t expect. truly #hoped. that no one would take her hand. because if they can be certain it will happen they can know never to reach again.#jesus christ. go to therapy boy. you have so many trust issues.#but that’s why they’re Like That with the master because at the end of the day. who is easier to rely on? the guy who comes in to put out #fires but only sometimes. or the guy who. really really fucking likes starting fires.#better to get burned hoping someone is coming or get burned knowing that’s what would happen. and even. chooses the latter.#AND ALL OF THIS. for me to say thats why i cant actually let the master ever kill them.#i think she needs to do something worse to even. i think she needs to abandon them.#and that will either set them free to go have healthy normal relationships or. lets be honest much more likely. completely fucking break #them. which would be fun :) for me.#dw oc

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kailings · 4 months

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Icarus's father art alert!!!!👀

I loving this character so much just from how ✨💅✨ he looks (If it wasn't for Nancy I'm pretty sure he could be). But for context, this is Icarus's father who is a fae/faefolk that Kinda meet Icarus's mother, Nancy, and dipped the next day and that the last she saw of him (Or is it??????)

But ya, hope y'all like the small lore drop + Drawing and hope y'all have a lovely day/night!

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what-do-1000-swords-look-like · 2 years

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No one:

Absolutely no one:

Me: Can we just talk about how the show purposely put Sansa as Jon's right hand in this shot? Sansa who was regent while Jon was away & prepared Winterfell/The North for the battle about to happen? Sansa who ends up becoming Queen of the North and "speaking" for the North? That this is the very first closeup we get of Jon? That they purposely don't include Arya or Bran in this shot? CAN WE????

While they had Dany on the next side of the table? And THIS is the first closeup shot of Dany shown as Sam says "being forgotten"? And they kept Jon in the shot (though not in focus)? Jon who is not only a rival to her claim (that she doesn't know about yet) but also has been ignoring her? (and of course she doesn't want to be forgotten herself nor her legacy)

And that they literally had the setup of Sansa being in the same place as Jorah for Jon?

His most trusted just like Jorah is for Dany? And then this shot at the end which shows a very notable space in between Jon/Sansa and Arya/Bran?

Most likely to leave space for Bran to be seen but they could have told Issac to move a little more to the left but they chose not to? And notice how the fire/flames are to Jon and Sansa's backs? While Arya and Bran have lit candles in the background? But there is one lit candle in between Jon and Sansa, showing that while darkness surrounds them (and not just literally), there is still hope between them. Not just because of the battle with the NK but also due to Dany's presence and the strain due to Jon bending the knee. That they are one, working towards the same goal, like one pack = Stark. They did this all on purpose!!!

Same as this shot right here:

(notice there is purposely three candles there; despite Viserion's death, three dragons -> Targaryen; Dany still hopes to reconcile with Jon though she has no idea why he's avoiding her & she still has hope for them together & Jon still cares about her)

So can we talk about that? CAN WE??????????

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adultish-momma · 5 months

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Ink Dandelions

Ruggie agrees to what he thinks is just a fun outing with Yuu before everyone comes back from break and vies for their attention, but as he should expect when it comes to them, things end up more complicated than he bargained for.

TW: Tattoos and getting tattoos, mention of past trauma, mention of past violence, mention of scars, mention of nightmares, mention of asphyxiation/snakebites, mention of intentional violence, possessive thoughts.

A/N: MONTHS. THIS TOOK MONTHS TO WRITE. I really really really wanted to write this concept, I really really really wanted Ruggie to have his time to shine, to show it's not just the OB boys and Housewardens who are affected by this Yuu, but COHESIVENESS man gets me everytime :'(

"Where are we going exactly? Because I remember something about donuts, and this is not the way to the donut stall."

"I know, and I will get you those donuts, but after my appointment. This place doesn't allow any food or drink, besides water, for the clients."

"So explain to me why exactly I had to be the one to come with you then? Don't you have your pet cat and that card duo to drag along on your errands? I already gotta play errand boy for Leona, what's in it for me?"

There's a way Yuu will look at people, this intense look in their eye that he's never been able to quite pin down before. They're not looking through you, it's different than the way somebody like Floyd or Riddle might look at you, like you're not even there. And Yuu's stare isn't invasive either, not intentionally at least, no Ruggie is well aware of what that looks and feels like. There are too many guys at NRC that have perfected that calculating, dissecting gaze of looking into you, of being able to find your every flaw with just a heavy look. (He sees it enough on his own Dormleader's face.)

Yuu levels him with their unique, flustering, soul-searching look right there on the street corner. They're quiet as they wait for the signal that it's safe for them to cross, seemingly giving his sarcastic question some serious thought. It makes him squirm, makes his skin itch in an unfamiliar way, makes his ears flick and his tail twitch and it's not unpleasant, particularly, but it's different and he's about to say something taunting and probably rude just to get the Prefect to stop looking at him like that and -

Suddenly they're wrapping their hand around his own, gentle but firm as they finally turn away and tug him across the intersection. He thinks they're just going to ignore his earlier jabs, and that's fine, there was nothing serious behind them in the first place. Leona hasn't come back from break yet, and Ruggie had just returned yesterday, so as long as they held true to their promise of sugary delights, the hyena really didn't have any other plans today.

"I think you're the only one in all of NRC who will actually understand why I have this appointment. And if you decide you want it too, then I'm more than happy to pay for yours." They aren't looking at him, eyeing a nondescript storefront that they are determinedly dragging him towards. But their voice is somber, serious in a way he's really only heard inside the confines of the school infirmary. It makes him reach for his elbow, fingers tracing the scar he tried very hard to hide from his family over the break.

They catch the movement, he knows they do. But instead of commenting, they push inside the shop, letting him go once he's passed the threshold so they can approach the person at the reception desk. And Ruggie is left standing there, thinking to himself that this must be what whiplash feels like, because the stark difference between slipping into a slow spiral of complicated memories and baffled bewilderment is absolutely wild.

This is not where he thought the Ramshackle Prefect would be taking him today.

The tattoo shop is warm and cozy, surprisingly enough. Almost every inch of the waiting area up front is covered in tattoo designs. There's art in every different style known to man. From small, modern, simple designs to some massive traditional pieces he'd see back in the slums of the Sunset Savanah to everything in between from every corner of Twisted Wonderland. Ruggie is pulled back from his admiration for the art by the conversation brewing between the Prefect and the tattoo artist leading them to the back, Yuu waving at him to follow along.

"This is gonna be the last one right? I shouldn't have to see you in here again after we finish up this piece, correct?"

"Wow, okay, I see how it is, already sick of me huh?"

"Nah, of course not, you're one of my favorite customers. Some of my favorite art to walk out that door too. But considering exactly why you've enlisted my services, yeah, I want this to be the last one."

Ruggie feels like he's having an out-of-body experience. Sure, he can still feel the shop around him, too many predator instincts ingrained in his DNA to truly lose all his faculties. But as the artist and Yuu keep talking in that weirdly professionally intimate way, he feels his mouth go dry and his limbs lock up. And as Yuu takes off their overly thick turtleneck, revealing the tank underneath, it feels as if the world slows down to a syrupy crawl, like his head is dipped underwater and the only thing solid and real in this new world of his is the expanse of the Prefect's skin that he's now faced with.

Ruggie was there for Azul's Overblot. True he passed out before the fight had ended, but he dimly remembers seeing the cephalopod's tentacles wrap around Yuu's neck and squeeze. (He wakes up in cold sweats some mornings, trying to gulp down as much oxygen as possible when his nightmares decide to play around with that particularly traumatizing experience.) So there's a part of him that flinches, hard, when he sees the tentacles that are inked into the Prefect's skin. They wrap around their neck the same way the Octavinille's housewarden did, although these ones are more stylized than the real thing, purples and lilacs and oil-slick blacks creating a haunting effect on their skin. The suckers look a little more raised than the rest of the artwork, but otherwise, it's a gorgeous piece of work. Makes him less nauseous to see that than the old, awful bruising that used to decorate Yuu's collarbone.

It's the piece of artwork on their right shoulder that cause a ball of anxiety to develop in Ruggie's chest. Sure, the stark reminder of that day in Octavinille isn't exactly pleasant, and seeing the pottery-crack scar on their left shoulder always fills Ruggie with a complicated concoction of emotions, but he knows about those events, he was there for them. He'd seen the damage firsthand for both, helped them with their bandages for both occasions, shared one of those scars with them. But if they are getting tattoos as reminders of the events that left them scarred so far this year, which Ruggie is inclined to believe is the case as he watches the artist prep the area surrounding Leona's mark, then what happened to them over the winter break?

Slithering up the Prefect's right shoulderblade is the tail of a snake, burnt oranges and blood reds and coopery bronze scales climb the snake in an almost hypnotic pattern. They turn, and he can see that the head of the snake rests on the front of their shoulder, fangs poised over two holes just to the right of where their collarbone meets the shoulder. Its hood is flared, and the cobra's garnet-red eyes seem to follow you, daring people to come close lest its fangs end up embedded in them. It's an incredibly detailed and realistic piece, the snake leaving shadows along Yuu's skin and the fangs actually looking like they've... pierced... skin...

"Did you get bitten by a snake??!!"

"Yes, and?"

"What do you mean 'and?'?? When? Why? How?"

And as the Prefect settles down in the chair, they tell him.

-------

Ruggie has spent the past hour in silence, processing everything Yuu told him, watching their newest tattoo bloom to life on their skin, trying to force the nausea to leave his system. At first, he thought Yuu's near-death experience was his main cause of discomfort, and don't get him wrong, it did bother him. Incredibly so.

But the longer they sat there under the tattoo gun, the pissier he became.

It's not like this new tattoo was ugly or anything. In fact, it was gorgeous, something that would make him salivate in any other situation. It was done in the traditional Sunset Savanna style, harsh lines and bold swirls, matte black lines creating an intricate design across their left shoulder. He spent the past hour watching the cracked, jagged lines of Leona's scar disappear beneath a complicated geometric pattern. When he realizes they've replaced the mark of a lion with a massive inked lion head, something in him snarls.

"It's a reminder, not a claim."

"... I don't know why you think you need to explain. 'Aint got nothin' to do with me."

"It's a reminder. It's a reminder I choose, something I have control over. There's no magic in existence that can heal the scars left behind from an Overblot, these are scars I'm stuck with for the rest of my life and I had no choice in it. These are my choice. And I chose to swap the scar tissue for a lion so nobody, especially the person who hurt me could forget it."

Well, now Ruggie feels bad. A little. He gets it, probably the only person on campus who can get it, but that doesn't quell the possessive urge inside of him that's furious with the Prefect for doing... something. He's not quite sure what exactly about this whole situation that's got him so upset.

He grabs his elbow, as the artist paints glimmering gold for the lion's facial features, stuck in his own messy, complicated feelings from that messy, complicated day. Leona is one of his closest relationships, a weird mess of a balance between friend and servant, equal and lesser. Their relationship has always been about mutual benefits, symbiotic always, platonic sometimes. And Ruggie can’t even look at his arm because it reminds him that there was a moment, before Leona Overblotted, before you can write it all off as something done under magical insanity, a moment where Leona actively tried to hurt him, actively and intentionally tried to maim him. And Ruggie is still bitter about it, still brings it up occasionally to inflict some of the complicated hurt on Leona that he still feels, but Ruggie is also exhausted and tired and wants to move on.

He looks up and Yuu has him pinned with that pleasantly infuriating look again, like they can read every thought he's currently having and every thought he's ever had and every thought he could have in the future. And it makes him feel so incredibly seen, but right now while he's drowning in such an emotional internal shit show, he wants nothing more than for them to stop looking at him. He's too vulnerable like this, too on the edge, too irrationally mad.

"I think you should get a coverup tattoo."

"I think you're projecting your emotional bullshit."

....

"What would I even get, huh? No way in hell I'm getting a matching tat."

"I think you should get a Dandelion."

....

"I don’t know, I just don’t feel like you should let Leona have such a physical claim over you. Like, turn this thing that he did to you, this mark he gave you, and make it into something that’s yours. Your flower, your mark, your body, you know?"

And it's not a bad idea, not at all, but it does nothing to satisfy the feral thing that's been pacing in his chest, snarling and chomping at the bit during this whole stupid endeavor.

"Besides, we can say we've got matching flower tattoos!"

If anyone ever doubted Ruggie's predatory status, they should've seen the way he fucking locked onto the Prefect's newly revealed thigh. He was so intently taking in the vine of roses circling their left leg, a constricting band of blood red and bone white roses, vivid green leaves and night black thorns, so intent was he that he almost missed how his disquiet had quieted, calmed and placated.

Oh. Oh, that's what was bothering him.

Because he’d been watching the tattoo come to life and a part of him had died a little inside with every stroke of ink but he couldn’t figure out why. But it turns out he’d always thought of the scar as a sorta good thing, a little bit, in the very back of his head. Because Yuu had the same scar, and it tied them together. And when Yuu erased their scar (for very valid reasons he knows this) they erased the connection they shared with him. Erased their connection and replaced it with something connecting them to Leona of all people.

But instead, he can now have this with them, something they both choose to happen to them. In this cozy, tucked-away store on the far side of town, they can have this tie, and Ruggie really, really likes that idea.

#twisted wonderland x reader #Mirrors are Never to be Trusted #rewrite au #twisted wonderland #rewrite yuu #twst yuu #twisted wonderland ruggie x reader #twisted wonderland ruggie bucchi #twst ruggie x reader #twst ruggie #tw tattoos #tw past trauma #tw past violence #you can not look me in the eye and tell me Ruggie is not messed UP over what happened right before Leona's OB #and rewrite Yuu is just so accidentally an enabler to some of these darker urges of the Twst boys #“you're mad about us no longer permanently matching in our visible trauma?”#“how about you get something permanent to match me instead?”#not the healthiest solution #this is the same Yuu that is mad about their scars not being “balanced” so there's that

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