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neerons · 15 hours

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Some of Gilbert von Obsidian's best quotes

[Warning: Heavy spoilers about Gilbert's route]

"Ahaha, what is the prince of Obsidian, if not rotten?"

"I hate people."

"No matter how hard I try not to, I can't help but be gentle with her. What kind of villain am I?" (—Gilbert talking about Emma to himself)

"(...) I hope you don't accidentally end up calling me 'big bro' or anything." (—Gilbert to Leon)

"(...) You were just saying what you really think. I don't think doing that is rude. And it's true I'm someone scary."

"I like you because you're so warm, little rabbit."

"Ahaha! You're so sassy. But I like that about you."

"I want to make things awkward for you."

"You can't just focus on the best of someone while ignoring the worst of them."

"If you were a bother, I'd kill you, so don't worry." *smile intensifies*

"...I'm no match for that pure, innocent gaze of yours. You're the only one capable of pushing me around, you know."

"Depending on what you say next, I might just take your head clean off." (—Angry Gilbert to Emma)

"(...) You nearly died. ...Do you have any idea how much that chilled me to the core?"

"The only thing I can ever be for you is a villain. ...Unfortunately."

"...Thank you. I almost got murdered by some dust."

"If you keep on lying over and over about being fine, I might just... Well, you can guess, right?"

"I found it in a book in the little rabbit's room. They need to understand what happens to them if they try to interfere with what's mine... Don't they?" (—Gilbert talking about a poisoned needle targeting Emma to Roderic)

"You said it, remember? You said you wanted me to learn to love Rhodolite. To me, you are Rhodolite."

"Those born with status have the right to do whatever they like to those who are lesser than them. That's what you want to say, isn't it? (...) Hmm? What's that? You look a little distressed for some reason. But I suppose that's no surprise. You see, I have the right to tyrannize you however I please, just as you tyrannized those children who had no one to protect them. I'm imperial royalty, and you're just a third-rate aristocrat. So I'm going to have to teach you just how different our social positions are... Aren't I? (...) Aren't you lucky that we're in Rhodolite? You've narrowly escaped death. If this was Obsidian, you'd be dead for sure. After all, we have no need for disgusting nobles who defile the purity of children." (—Gilbert to a Baron of Rhodolite)

"Wait, so you're telling me you baked cookies for another man, even though I'm right here. Ouch, that hurts."

"(...) if by chance I run into your dear papa, he'll kill me." (—Gilbert talking about Akatsuki)

"Welcome to Obsidian. (...) I introduced myself as Gilbert von Obsidian, didn't I? There's only one person in this country allowed to use the Obsidian name. And that's the emperor."

"There's nothing about you or me that makes one of us intrinsically inferior or superior to the other. Humans are all basically the same. And naturally, from a societal perspective, we probably need people who can take the lead. People who are capable, and talented, who can bring others together, and build a better tomorrow. That's a healthy way to be. I'm the ruler of a country that knows deception and decay all too well, so I understand better than most. That's why my ideal, my ambition, is to conquer all the royalty that have infested this whole continent, and free the people who are under their control."

"I wrote that story based on you. (...) Akatsuki told me a lot of stories about you, and they were always stories about you showing love and affection for others. He made it sound like you believed that the true nature of people is love, and that the happiness of others was what made you the happiest. The idea of living like that was repulsive to me, but at the same time, it made me curious. I got to wondering what sort of choices you'd make, if you were in the same position I was."

"You were bullying small children to amuse yourselves. That Rhodolitian might have stopped at just punching you, but I'm not that kind. Did I make military regulations or didn't I? And do those regulations say attacking non-combattants is forbidden, or don't they?" (—Gilbert to Obsidianite soldiers)

"Then how about you call me papa?" (—Gilbert to Luke)

"...Don't go. (...) I don't know... if I can hold on... until you get back. Being on my own... is lonely..."

"...You're the only one I'll ever love."

"I'm taking your daughter." *smile intensifies* (—Gilbert to Akatsuki)

"I'm not oppressing you with my power, it's just my love for you, overflowing."

"You can't do things like this with other men... Unless you want to see dead bodies."

"You're liked by everybody. A lot of the princes helped you out today. That's because people adore you, and they naturally want to help you out. They're all beasts with strong characters, but you're important to all of them. Do you know how rare that is? That means you're charming to everyone you meet. ...Including me, of course."

"There's no way I'd ever let anyone else kill you. It has to be me."

"I can't just bare my body for free."

"I've never liked seeing you clothe your body in things that other people have put their hands all over."

"Don't force yourself to talk. I'm not so narrow-minded that I'll go around saying you're disrespectful just because you didn't thank me. You're sick; you're supposed to just drink medicine and sleep."

"Wah, boohoo. I can't believe we were on different pages this whole time. I've given you my entire heart, and yet, look at what you've done with it! (...) Waaah, I'm so heartbroken that the only thing that could bury my sadness is world domination!"

"For his sake, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear him call me 'eyepatch bastard'. Rude." (—Gilbert's thoughts about Silvio)

"Her ability to right what was wrong, purify what was once sullied... It runs at complete odds with my nature. I may have truly met my match." (—Gilbert's thoughts about Emma)

"I blinked a few times as my vision seemed to expand all at once... and the little rabbit become clearer and even more beautiful." (—Gilbert's thoughts about Emma)

"I'm never letting you go. If you run away from me, I'll conquer the whole world and follow you to the ends of the earth if that's what it takes. No wait... I just need to control your heart, so that you'll never even want to leave me." (—Gilbert's thoughts about Emma)

"We all approach life differently. Chevalier slices hearts in two. I trample on them. But, you... You respect them."

"I wanted to see you bawling your eyes out."

"You're... the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"I like the little rabbit very much, you see. So I certainly hope that bold declaration of yours doesn't end up turning into a lie." (—Gilbert to Silvio, in Silvio's route)

#gilbert von obsidian #ikeprince gilbert #ikemen prince #ikemen series #cybird ikemen #cybird #otome game #cybird otome

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apomaro-mellow · 2 days

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Hot for Teacher(s) 11

Part 10

The smell of a pup was usually a fresh, neutral scent on their own until they officially presented and it ripened with the unique scent of adolescence. It was why scenting one’s child was important. A way to mark them as your own for the whole world to know. And it was typical of parents to do this before seeing their child off somewhere, particularly school.

Shawn never really noticed before now how sometimes his classmates would smell just a little different, depending on who scented them. He wasn’t the only one with one parent but Daniel got to see his mom on weekends, and Elodie still talked to her dad. Shawn was the only one with a single parent with no contact with his other. And he wasn’t complaining. But now that he noticed, he wondered if other people noticed his single note of a scent.

No one had ever made him feel bad about it but maybe they were just being nice about his situation…

Eddie greeted his students in the morning, usually with a high five or a fist bump. “Warm up’s on your desks, make sure you have a sharpened pencil.”

Elodie got to her desk before unpacking and looked at the worksheet. “Do we get to color?”

“What do the directions say?”, Eddie asked, encouraging her to read.

“‘Color…your fa…vorite food’. Yay!”

Eddie told her good job before seeing to the other students and making sure unpacking by the cubbies went without any drama. It all seemed to be going well, so he turned his back. Of course, that was when he heard shoving and the beginnings of a wailing cry.

Shawn was at his desk while Mr. Munson tried to soothe Yasmin. She bumped her head against his leg like she was much younger than six, a move that would normally get an adult to scent her and assure her she wasn’t in trouble. Mr. Munson just gave her a pat on the head and reminded her that the cubbies had names and she couldn’t just put her things wherever she wanted, but also Daniel shouldn’t toss other’s belongings onto the floor.

Mr. Munson was really nice like that, giving head pats, and high fives, but he never scented any of the students. That would be weird. But would he scent Shawn? Where did they stand, now that he was dating his dad?

After school, Steve came and he rubbed Shawn’s cheeks. “You’re like my cute mochi thing. What do they call it? The white thing?”

“Cinnamoroll?”, Eddie and Shawn said in unison.

“No, the other thing. The rabbit.”

“That’s Cinnamoroll, Dad. Now please release my cheeks”, Shawn said.

That just made Steve squish them together more. “No, there’s something else. And I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be a dog anyway.” He let Shawn’s face go and looked up at Eddie. “We still on for tonight?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world”, Eddie promised.

Shawn waited until they were in the car before asking. “What’s tonight?”

Steve smiled. “He’s coming over for dinner.”

“What’re we having?”, Shawn asked, trying to look nonchalant as he played with his seatbelt.

“I was thinking cockroach legs and frog’s eyes”, Steve said, snickering at the look of disgust that he caught in the mirror. “Well what would you serve then?”

“Make your own tacos. I saw you taking out ground beef earlier.”

“You know what, that could work”, Steve agreed. Nevermind that Shawn also would’ve seen the different vegetables on the counter, as well as various sauces which could only be used for tacos. Christopher Nolan, eat your heart out.

Eddie would be spending the evening with them as it was decided that he should do so without it being a date. He and Steve knew they worked well together, now it was time to add Shawn to the mix. He would only be his teacher for a few more months after all. And then in a few years, he would probably be Steve’s. So keeping them apart for that reason was about to be null and void.

Steve had Shawn finish his homework at the table while he started cooking. Eddie arrived about half an hour later, knocking at the door. Steve sent Shawn to get it only because he was washing his hands from touching raw meat and he recognized the roar of Eddie’s van by now.

“Well, if it isn’t the man of the house”, Eddie smiled when Shawn opened the door.

“Are you here to sell cookies?”, Shawn teased.

“Hmm, no cookies, only pie”, he said, bringing one from behind his back.

Shawn shrugged. “That’ll work.”

He let Eddie in and they joined his dad in the kitchen. Eddie greeted Steve with a kiss, who smiled when he saw the dessert Eddie brought.

“You didn’t have to.”

“I didn’t. Safeway did.”

Dinner was a fun affair. Probably the only low point for Shawn was when the two of them randomly broke out into a song that he didn’t know and even danced along to it. Did they not see how embarrassing they were? The tacos were good though. Shawn liked to put a ton of cheese on his.

“Hey, you got something there”, Eddie said in the middle of eating.

“Where?”, Steve asked, trying to look at his own face.

Eddie put a swipe of sour cream on his nose. “There.”

Shawn laughed enough to shake his own taco (#3) and make half the ingredients spill out onto his plate. After eating, Shawn helped by bringing the dirty dishes to the sink and helping Steve wrap up the leftovers while Eddie got to washing. Shawn got to take his slice of pie to the living room so long as he ate at the coffee table, leaving the two adults alone.

They were shoulder to shoulder as they washed and dried. At one point, Steve put his head on Eddie’s shoulder and they paused for a moment, soaking it all in. It was only one night but this one night boded well for their future. Once the dishes were done, they joined Shawn, who had taken up the middle of the couch. Without a word, they sat on either side of him. Shawn had it on a kids’ sitcom, but honestly it didn’t matter what they were watching.

Steve and Eddie’s arms were across the back of the couch so that they could touch, leaving Eddie’s side open for Shawn to lean into. Shawn let out a yawn, full and tired. Then he bumped his forehead against Eddie’s chest. His eyes bugged out, looking at Steve for a sign, approval, something. He didn’t want to spook Shawn by using his voice though. Steve’s eyes were glistening a little as he nodded.

Slowly, Eddie brought his arm down and rubbed his wrist against Shawn’s hair and cheeks. Steve could just barely hear the coo of contentment. When they were sure he was asleep, Eddie gathered Shawn in his arms and carried him to his room, Steve leading the way.

“Wait for me in my room”, Steve whispered so that he could give Shawn a bit of privacy while dressing him down in his pjs.

Eddie waited faithfully, sitting on the edge of the bed when Steve finally came in. They spent the night sharing slow kisses, building each other up while using just their hands to finish the job. It was still a school night, after all.

From then on, Eddie took some time to scent Shawn while he was fully awake, sometimes even at school. The other students didn’t think much of it but the week after just happened to be the school-wide spelling bee. A few parents were in attendance. Steve couldn’t make it, as it was the middle of the day, but Eddie promised him pictures.

Shawn took first place, almost stumbling on the word ‘lightning’ but pushing through. The awards were given and parents congratulated their kids, getting pictures as well. Eddie kept himself available, only about half of his students’ parents showed up. Shawn showed his trophy to a friend who was standing by their dad.

He knelt down by Shawn. “You want me to get some pics for your dad, kiddo?”

“Mr. Munson’s gonna text my dad, right?”, Shawn beamed.

“That I will”, Eddie promised.

It was such a benign interaction that Eddie didn’t think a thing of it. But in that moment, the other parent caught a whiff of Shawn, who smelled too similar to Mr. Munson. And texting a parent? On its own, not strange but he’d been careful not to give out his personal number to anyone. He communicated mostly through emails. Sometimes a flyer in the kids’ folders. It was all just adding up to something fishy in his opinion…

He voiced as much to his wife when he got home and she just didn’t see it.

“Are you trying to say Shawn’s dad slept with the teacher so he could win the spelling bee?”

“I mean I’m not saying that exactly, but it seems kind of rigged, doesn’t it?”

She called their daughter down from her room. “Is your friend Shawn a good speller?”

“Yeah, he can even spell some second grade words. They ran out of first grade words to give him.”

“Well, your daddy didn’t mention that.”

“I just think we shouldn’t rule it out.” A lot of the parents knew each other, at least in passing. So it was no secret that Steve was single. Of course, most would never suspect he was dating his son’s teacher but considering the scent he was carrying…

As this was brewing on Eddie's side, from Steve's past a familiar face approached closer and closer.

Part 12 coming soon

Fun fact: that actually happened at my school's spelling bee. Two of my first graders spelled so well, they had to move on to second grade words. Don't praise me though, they came to me that smort.

Taglist

@anne-bennett-cosplayer @aol19 @lololol-1234 @gregre369 @attic-cat-blog

@hippieg1rl420 @spectrum-spectre

#apo writes #stranger things #steddie #omegaverse #a/b/o

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happydragon · 2 days

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Revenge Best Served Wet

Summary: It should be known, that an angry Omega is a scary Omega

AO3

Rating: Gen

Word Count: 719

“Whatcha doin’ there Meg?” Hunter asked as he crossed his arms and watched his twelve and a half year old sister fill up what seemed to be a water gun from the kitchen sink. That wasn’t really a strange sight seeing as Fives got her those last month when he, Echo, and Rex visited. She and Fives spent almost all weekend playing with the new toys and no one was safe from the chaos that was unleashed.

The truly strange sight was her dressed in a gray tank top with camo pants and one his bandanas wrapped around her forehead. Her face seemed to be smeared with mud and dirt, four lines across her face as if she did it with her own fingers. Thankfully that was the only place he saw any, with the rest of her being mostly clean. In addition to the gun in her hand, she had another one strapped to her back

“I’m preparing to hunt down Crosshair,” Omega answered casually, as if you asked her what time it was.

It had been six months since Crosshair left the Empire and rejoined his family in their relatively new home. It had been a rocky start for all of them, especially Hunter and Crosshair, but like always they learned and adapted. More often than not, it felt like Cross never left. Omega definitely loved having another brother to do stuff with.

“Uh huh.” Hunter leaned against the counter as he watched her fill up two refillable bottles that could be exchanged when her water gun ran out. Fives picked out a nice set.

“Do I want to know what he did to incur your wrath?”

She leveled him with a glare that made the hairs stand on the back of his neck.

“He ate my leftovers.” With that, she ran out the backdoor to do Maker knows what. Hunter decided it would be best if he stayed out of this fight.

An hour or so later, he heard the tell-tell sign of Crosshair’s car coming into the driveway. Hunter was slightly surprised to hear his brother open the door and watch him walk into the living room completely dry. Hunter would have figured Omega would have attacked as soon as Cross got home, which made him only more terrified of what she had planned. Echo and Tech were horrible influences.

“Why are you so surprised to see me?” Crosshair asked, pulling Hunter away from the horrors.

“No reason,” he dodged, “On an unrelated note, did you eat Omega’s leftovers?”

“Depends. Were they in a to-go box?” Hunter nodded. “Then yeah. Took it with me for lunch. How’d you know?”

“I didn’t. Omega did and she’s out for revenge.”

Crosshair scoffed. Oh boy.

“What’s the worst she could do? Give me the silent treatment?”

“I promise you, it’s not what you think.”

Crosshair looked warilly at Hunter before he headed upstairs to his bedroom. Hunter was just about to settle back into watching whatever show was on when a yowl made him jump. It came from Crosshair’s room. Terrified, Hunter ran as fast as he could, only to find Crosshair tensed up at his bedroom door, a wet spot directly in the middle of his shirt. When Hunter peeked inside his brother’s room, he found none other than his sister stradling the open window, water gun aimed toward Crosshair. Her mouth was set into a viscous smirk at successfully catching her brother off guard. What truly concerned Hunter though, was that she was on the window when he never heard her come back in.

“Omega!” he exclaimed, “How did you get there?!”

“I climbed the lattice to the roof,” she shrugged. The window would already be unlocked because Crosshair liked to sometimes sit on the roof of the back porch, so it really did make the best way to sneak up on him.

“You’ll pay for that,” Crosshair spat.

“I look forward to it,” Omega grinned, “You’ll find your weapon on your bed. See you in the backyard in five.”

With that, she climbed off the wind and ran back over to the lattice. Crosshair snatched the water gun and followed her out the window. Hunter watched for a moment before shutting the window, silently telling himself to warn Tech and Wrecker away from the backyard.

Hope y'all enjoyed reading that as much as I enjoyed writing it!!! Super excited for this summer!!!

#summerofbadbatch2024 #week1 #water gun fight #it’s not what you think #the bad batch #tbb #black guardian au #tbb crosshair #tbb omega #tbb hunter #modern au #bad batch #bad batch omega #bad batch hunter #bad batch crosshair

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ariaste · 2 days

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Did you have to do a lot of nautical research for this book? What was the weirdest thing you had to learn?

Actually I did almost NO nautical research for RUNNING CLOSE TO THE WIND! This was for two reasons:

1. I grew up sailing on a boat around the Bahamas until I was 10, so a lot of the Vibes of what it's like to sail and the setting descriptions are drawn straight from personal experience! There's a line about bougainvillea bushes growing up some of the houses in Scuttle Cove, descriptions of goats wandering around and eating the scrubby grass on the hillsides, the smell of the sea, the fact that seagulls are rats of the sky -- all of that is direct experience. Also, the name of the pirate ship, The Running Sun, is taken directly from another childhood memory -- I used to hang my head over the side and look at the reflection of the sun flashing in the water and watch it "keeping up" with the boat as we were sailing, and I used to pretend that it was racing alongside us :D The running sun! (Looking at the sun's reflection was probably a bad idea and might explain why my eyes are a bit fucked up now as an adult. Don't do that, kids.)

2. The main character whose POV we're in doesn't know shit about boats (or at least likes to pretend that he doesn't -- he doesn't like to have too many things in his head, he likes it to be really clean and uncluttered in there, he's a minimalist. Head Empty No Thoughts is a lifestyle choice for him). I HAD started to research things like what the different parts of a Big Tall Ship are called, but then I realized that being in Avra's point of view meant that I could get away with calling the yardarms the "sticky-outy bits". So the only actual research I had to do was things like "how long does it take a tall ship to tack" (like 5-20 minutes depending on how good they are) and the names of all the different sails when other characters need to talk about them. (The only sail that Avra remembers the name of is the spanker, because it makes him giggle)

(RUNNING CLOSE TO THE WIND comes out in ten days on June 11th! It's a comedic fantasy novel about queer pirates stealing and trying to find a buyer for the most valuable secret in the world and fighting back against oppressive institutional powers! You can read a review of it here and the first chapter of it here, and you can preorder it here.)

#alexandra rowland #running close to the wind #books #comedy #booklr #sailing

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physalian · 1 day

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So you’ve got an idea for a story….

Once again and as always, writing is highly subjective and any writing advice that says you *must* do X or all books *must* include Y or doing Z during your writing process is *wrong* kind of misses the point of the freedom of storytelling and I’m not a fan. This is how I approach writing and one way you could consider doing the same if you’ve got all these ideas and nowhere to put them, not the way you must approach writing.

Cool? Cool.

—

We’ll start with how I write fanfic because that’s a far less intimidating market. I don’t write drabble fics and coffee shop AUs. I grew up writing fix-it fics and in-universe canon divergences. Essentially: Stop the real story right here, now what if this happened instead?

Personally, I just don’t get fulfillment from writing fanfic fluff (though I do love reading it). Even if I’m committing time and effort into something that will never make me money and that people might not even read for fun due to dead fandoms or whatever, I’m still going to use it as writing exercise and give it some substance.

That’s just me, though. I used to write stuff like character studies and deep dives, and the last fic I wrote to date was a “hey what if this villain went to the good side way sooner and it wasn’t just played as a joke on his cowardice?” and its sequel.

So I started that first fic with an idea: What if K joined the good guys earlier? How would that impact the story?

Immediately after that, I was thinking about the ending and what tentpole ideas in the canon I wanted to keep, but the meat of the story I knew I wanted to focus on K’s emotional and existential struggle of switching sides, risking becoming an enemy to both factions, after the inciting incident of his (absolutely canonical) partner’s murder, that, in canon, did not get the justice he deserved. When I wrote my post about beginnings and endings, I said that endings for me are way easier than beginnings—this is why. Before I even start writing, my ending is decided.

Basically: Yes, I’m writing a story using someone else’s fictional characters, as one does when writing fanfic. The story uses cartoon characters, but it’s about one person’s struggle with their identity in the wake of tragedy, and how they take life by the horns to make it out of the story the hero they deserve to be recognized as.

And with that core idea in mind, then I write the story around it. The story, which, outside the canon that I had to keep, I had no plan for. The settings and minutiae of the set pieces weren’t as important as what each scene did for the themes and K’s emotional reaction to them happening. I needed to give him enough alone time with the characters of the hero team to learn something from them, enough time on his own to test his new loyalties, and enough time with his old team so he can juxtapose the two and make sure he’s doing the right thing by deserting.

The last thing on my mind was what tropes I wanted to fulfill. Romantic subplots and the like just kind of happened organically and weren’t planned.

—

For Eternal Night of the Northern Sky the idea I had was this: Most vampire stories are about the drama surrounding vampires that depend on humans to survive. So what if I wrote a story where humans depended on vampires to survive, in the exact same way?

Yes, the story is about vampires and everyone can say what they will about people who write vampire fiction. But it’s really about what it means to be a monster when survival demands some brutal decisions. What does it mean to be a monster if everyone is a monster?

ENNS wasn’t planned, I just started writing and had the first draft done in 31 days and through the entire editing process, the plot didn’t change from draft 1 to draft final, save for a few scenes where I had to fix the surface level problem some characters were facing, but not the reason why they were facing it.

The plot never needed massive rewrites because every scene reflected back on the core themes of the story, and every single scene was necessary to tell it. So even when I had to change the intensity of an argument or flesh out a conversation or change the tone of something here or there, the purpose of whatever was underneath remained.

With that throughline in mind, the rest of the book fell into place around it. My core characters each have a role to answer that thematic question, and side characters around then were created to fill in the world, provide friends, relatives, romances, and the like, each with their own perspectives still on that one big question. My villains, too, all exist to answer that question. Outside of the romances, every single scene is doing at least one thing either for the plot, the protagonist, or the deuteragonist to answer that question. ENNS’ secondary themes were also written into as many scenes as I could (of which I won’t spoil here).

When you write with a theme like this in mind, it gives you these sort of bowling bumper rails to help keep you from straying off into superfluous storylines that bog down the pacing and start to feel messy.

Yes, you’re writing fanfic. But what is it really about? Now maybe it is just a coffee shop AU or 50k words of smut—you do you. Not everything has to be deep and meaningful beyond being entertaining. Themes just provide direction.

For example, I like the idea of slowburn fanfics. The idea. I will happily sit down for a fic that’s half a million words long if the characters and the slowburn are compelling enough. There might not be themes, but the story never forgets its throughline—these two characters eventually coming together.

In practice, though, I see way too many “slowburn” fics out there that are just 90% fluff. The chapters stagnate, trading development for taunting the audience with the will they/won’t they. The plot toddles off to to play around in irrelevant scenes with irrelevant characters. Things that probably wouldn’t bother me if I wasn’t already expecting the romance that was promised, the romance I have to keep waiting for when I could just go read something else that delivers it faster and clearer.

—

Even if your writing process begins with a few scattered sticky notes and a notion of what you kind of want it to be about, you don’t have to hammer out pages of prose to be productive.

If you get stuck halfway through, having your throughline helps you sit back and ask yourself this very important question: What does Character want, how do they get it, and what’s in their way?

#writing advice #writing resources #writing a book #writing tips #writing tools #starting a book #writing #writeblr #character development #writing themes #ENNS

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eueuphoriaz · 2 days

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Hange's last name

I am always amazed by how Hange never fail to greet people when she first meet them, and also introduce herself first.

Notice how she always introduce herself as "Hange Zoe"? Sometimes with or without her military position depending in the situation.

And here are also some instances in the manga where other people introduce her as "Hange Zoe" as well. (I really like how manly Moblit is, like Sannes is staring at the chest pocket and Moblit quickly yanked his hand away)

NOW

I realised that later part of the story, she only introduced herself as "Hange", or rather, she was introduced by the writers as "Hange".

The situations I found in the mange and anime are when she welcomed the Marlyean volunteers, and when Pieck initially addressed her. Hope I didnt missed out any but there are not a lot of new characters in the later part of the story.

I would thought that she would introduced herself as "Hange Zoe", just like how she had done so with Eren (excitement). But nope, she dropped her last name.

Then when Levi and Hange met with with Magath and Pieck to form the Alliance, and Levi is trying to be a badass and addressed Magath and Pieck with their full names, and Magath doing the same back to Levi Ackerman, we see the Pieck dropped Hange's last name as well, and called her "Hange San", which I think is a polite and respectful way of addressing someone

The whole sequence is so weird, with Levi and Magath sizing the other party up - then Pieck commending Hange (in a polite way). And then Hange concluding that the Alliance is necessary.

(Caution: Levihan filter is on)

I am just guessing that along the way, the author had subtly dropped her last name. There could be many other reasons why the Levihan vs Magath/ Pieck scene is depicted like this but Pieck could also just addressed her as "Hange Zoe", and it also wont change the tone and the whole atmosphere of the alliance beginning to form. Because she is still questioning how the Alliance is going to help Marley when she asked if Hange had seen the Founding Titan, so why not be a badass and just call out Hange's full name, instead of taking the indirect sarcastic route of addressing her as "Titan doc"?

"Seems like you know it all, Hange Zoe"

"Even more than Marley"

"Have you seen this Founding Titan for yourself?"

If somewhere along the timeline, after Hange became commander, and she dropped her name, there could be one possible reason why that is so....

She changed her last name to a secret one which is Ackerman.

Isn't it nice that we have a complete A to Z with Levihan.

Just a compilation from the anime. I also love how Romi Park says "Hange Zoe".

#aot #attack on titan #hange zoe #shingeki no kyojin #snk #levi ackerman #levihan #manga analysis #levihan analysis #hange analysis

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idontplaytrack · 15 hours

Note

Janis shows up drunk at Regina (or reader, depending on what you want ig) and she is just a really dumb drunk, and Regina takes care of her, pretending to be annoyed but finds her to be weirdly endearing and cuddly 🫶😭

It’s You That I’m Missing

Janis ‘Imi’ike x Regina George

Warnings: drinking, angst & fluff, coarse language

They no longer hate each other. But it still gives Regina a shock of her life that Janis shows up at her door, drunk off her ass

Regina was sat before her vanity, doing her nightly skincare routine when she heard a string of obnoxiously loud knocks come from the foyer. She contemplated ignoring it, obviously not expecting anyone to be over at her place, at this hour of the night no less. It was nearly eleven.

The same string of knocks were heard again, followed by a, “Hello?”

Regina’s ears perked up as she sat up straight, squinting. Quickly, she stood up and peeked out the window. What on earth? She hurries downstairs to let the girl in. “Oh. Good, you’re home.” She laughs, evidently drunk.

“What are you doing here, Janis? Why are you alone?”

“I’m always alone.” Janis laughs again, dryly.

Regina squints, telling her to sit down. Janis plops down on the couch. “Where’s Damian?”

“He has the flu.” Janis answered airily, finger wagging around. Regina hesitated, but sat down anyway. “And where the hell did you go?” Regina says but quickly bites the inside of her cheek. “Nowhere. I drank—” Janis inhales sharply, “At home, then I came allll the way here.”

Regina asks, “Why?”

“I…I don’t know, Gina.” Janis sighs, throwing her head back against the headrest.

‘Shit’ Regina thought, ‘That nickname. I haven’t heard that in years.’

“I know we don’t hate each other anymore, but why did you just show up here like that? The girls don’t even do that.”

Janis groans, facepalming, “I don’t know. I don’t know…why I decided to come here. I was bored— then your address was somehow the only one I remembered.”

“What? Come on, you don’t have to lie.”

“Lie, for what?” Janis looks at her right in the eye, “You know what I don’t get? That I can’t seem to forget you calling me that fucking name in middle school for months. You knew it was wrong, and yet you did it. That is so fucked up— being a kid was no reason for you to do it.”

“Janis…I’m sorry.” Regina apologizes. She wasn’t even shocked.

“Yeah, it won’t cut it. It’ll always stick with me and it sucks because I have someone who loves me now and I love her. So damn much, but it still haunts me.”

That, shocked Regina. Regina didn’t know that Janis had been dating someone. You.

“You meant the world to me and you just became my biggest bully overnight.” Janis laughs at the end— a little thing she had when drunk. “But whatever right? Let bygones be bygones? Everybody loves you now, but yet people like me, like my girlfriend have to be so careful about where we go because some people hate people like us. “Janis, you don’t have to forgive me. But if there’s anyway I can make it up to you, please. Tell me.”

“There’s nothing you can do.” Janis answered bluntly, “I honestly don’t know why I came here…thinking things could somehow be different. But the truth is? Things will never be the same anymore. They haven’t been since the second you called me that name— along with everybody else.”

Regina was stunned into silence. She also recognised this behaviour of Janis’. How she’d avoid crying by laughing it off. “Me coming here was a mistake. I shouldn’t even be talking to you. I have y/n now.”

“Where is she?”

“That’s all you have to ask me?” Janis bites back a scoff.

“Why isn’t she taking care of you? You’re wandering the streets alone.”

“She couldn’t come over to my house. Her parents were arguing and she couldn’t leave.” Janis blinks profusely, “I should— I should probably go.”

Janis tries to stand up but Regina stops her. “No, stay here for a bit. Until you sober up.”

“Okay.” Janis pouts, snuggling up in a corner of the couch. Regina couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight, her heart melting. “Do you feel like you might throw up?”

“What?”

“Are you nauseous?” The blonde asks again.

“Ohh, yeah.” Janis realises.

“Alright, up we go.” Regina focused on getting her back on her feet and to the bathroom down the hall. They sit in silence for awhile. Until Janis threw up a bit. “My God, how much did you have to drink?”

“I…lost count.” Janis says, eyes drooping shut, “After three.” She holds up her three fingers in front of Regina’s face but she could barely hold her own head up.

‘Damn it.’ Regina sighs internally.

“I wanna sleeeeep.” Janis whines.

“Okay.” Regina helps her up and into her own bedroom. “Sleep.”

“In your bed?”

“Well, would you rather be on the floor?” Regina snarked unintentionally, catching herself too late, “What if you feel sick again and need to get up?”

“If you want me to sleep in the bed, I’ll sleep in the bed.” Janis didn’t put up too much of a fight anyway.

“Good.” Regina says flatly, “Just sleep.” Once Janis crawls under the covers, Regina does the same beside her, contemplating putting a bolster between them but Janis kept her distance and faced away already so she just allowed herself to start drifting off.

“Good night, Janis.”

“Night, Regina.” Janis murmured.

————

“Oh, God. I showed up at your door out of nowhere and you just let me sleepover?”

“Because it was late and you were drunk off your ass.” Regina reasoned, “Sit down and eat your breakfast.”

“Aw, you made me breakfast?” She teases.

“I can throw it away if you don’t want it.” Regina plays along.

“Didn’t say that.” Janis sulked and sat down at the table, “Thanks.”

What Janis told her last night wasn’t forgotten but she wasn’t going to bring it up again. Janis was now back to her usual self— she didn’t want to upset her again. All Regina could do from now on was to focus on being a better person and not hurt someone else again.

“Last night, you told me you were dating y/n. I didn’t ask, you just…told me. And if you didn’t want anyone to know—”

“Ah, it wasn’t like we were hiding it anyway. We just don’t really…do PDA.”

Regina nods, “How’s your head?”

“Feels like it could explode.” Janis jokes, shoving a forkful of pancakes into her mouth. “Take an Advil before you go. Do you want a ride?”

“Nope, thanks.”

“Do you need a ride?”

Janis glares at her, exhaling, “No. I’m gonna walk over to y/n’s after this.”

“Oh? She lives nearby?”

“Yes, she does, Regina.” Janis smirked, “I’m surprised you even knew who I was talking about.”

“I know people outside of my own circle, Janis.” Regina replies, feigning offence.

“Not that.” Janis stifles a laugh, “It’s just that she’s more of an introvert. She doesn’t really talk to that many people often. Obviously, you two haven’t talked.”

This was the most time the ex-best friends have spent together since middle school. It was bittersweet— Janis missed her best friend, someone who was hers, someone who she thought she could spend the rest of her life with. But what did little Janis know? Nothing much. Now older, she knew better than that. Some stuff’s just gotta hurt until it doesn’t anymore.

Regina misses her too, but knew after last night that she was definitely never getting that friendship back ever again. Life had to go on. But that didn’t mean that they couldn’t be on good terms now. Acquaintances.

After breakfast, Janis departs. “I’ll see you around, Janis.” Regina brings her to the foyer. “Yep.” Janis nodded, giving the girl a crooked smile, “Thanks for uh, watching out for me last night and breakfast.”

“You’re welcome.” Regina flashes her a similar smile. Regina hesitates, but Janis was engulfed in a hug eventually. After an initial shock, Janis hugs her back. “See you, Jay.”

“See you, Gina.”

With that, Regina watches the brunette leave before shutting the front door and continuing with her day. Her heart ached, but she also felt knowing that she had some sort of closure from the monstrosity of a situation back in middle school— she had a crystal clear understanding of where Janis stood regarding the situation and where she herself stood in Janis’ world. Nowhere like before, but now better than it has been for years.

🏷️ Tag list:

@ashecampos @auliisflower @cheesysoup-arlo @frogs00 @reneeswif3 @ludoesartnstuffs @pda128

💭A/N: Can’t sleep, but at least something came out of it lol😓

#auli’i cravalho #renee rapp #janis ‘imi’ike #regina george #janis ‘imi’ike x regina george #rejanis #lesbian #gxg #wlw #fluff #lgbtqia #queer fic #mean girls 2024 #mgmm fics #drabble #blurb #short fic

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unordinary-diary · 3 days

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Arlo’s Ability Potential

Arlo could actually be so fucking OP and I’m not kidding.

In my last entry, I mentioned that Arlo could do so much more with his ability: things ranging from very unlikely to happen in the story, to things that are foreshadowed enough that I genuinely think he’ll be getting a powerup soon.

I’m gonna start with the most reasonable stuff and then wander out into speculation.

First of all: Disks. Do y’all remember Lennon from episode 196-ish?

^ this fucker.

Currently, Arlo’s fighting style is to put up a strong barrier around himself, and watch his enemies hurt themselves with their own recoil damage. His only offensive technique is to put his enemy in a barrier and make it smaller. Now, this has changed in recent chapters, with him developing that softer kind of barrier that he hits people with like a shockwave, but ultimately, his offensive power isn’t very diverse.

However, Lennon up there^ uses his disks in many ways.

He throws them, they’re very sharp, he can use them to fly, and therefore attack from the air. Blyke had a LOT of trouble against this guy.

How is this relevant? Because Arlo can make these disks too.

When Sera, Leilah and Arlo are fighting Spectre agents under the dampener, Arlo conjures one of these disks as a substitute for his usual barrier.

Not only do we know that he can make these, we know that they are significantly easier for him to make and maintain. So, in theory, Arlo should be able to do all of the things Lennon can and more.

With him currently being able to make three regular barriers at once, how many disks could he make? And how many disks could he make while having a full barrier up? I imagine that the future holds lots of fights against large groups of people, so Arlo learning these techniques would be extremely convenient and very well-timed. Especially since being able to attack from the air is super effective against opponents who can’t fly (which is most of them let’s be real) since they usually can’t hit back.

But there’s more things that I think these disks can do.

Imagine him practicing with a ball—

Pick it up, bounce it up and down.

Add another disk, make it ping-pong.

but he could also just put the ball in a regular barrier and just... move it around. Move that sucker to a different location.

he could pick the ball up, carry it really high, then drop it.

Now imagine the ball is a person.

... yeah.

but there’s more that he could do.

say that someone is coming at him with enough strength to break his barrier

If aimed right, the opponent shouldn’t hit the third barrier head on, but rather at an angle. The angle should be enough to prevent the barrier breaking, but still cause significant recoil damage. In this particular scenario, the recoil damage will go straight to the head and neck, using all their force against them. Depending on how much force is coming at him, the third barrier could still break, but it isn’t his main line of defense at least. With practice, Arlo should be able to use disks to divert attacks, and control where his opponent aims. The only person this wouldn’t work against is probably Seraphina bc Arlo can’t react in time.

Another thing to consider is: how small can he make the disks? Could he make little shurikens? If so, would making them very small allow him to make more? Could he stand behind his full barrier, while sending out a flurry of tiny chakrams? And if so, wouldn’t that be dope as fuck? Especially against a large crowd.

And since, in theory, he should be able to fly, he should also be able to make other people fly. Imagine all of them flying on top of a disk with Blyke and Isen loudly singing I Can Show You the World. I see zero reasons why this can’t happen.

Moving away from disks, Arlo should start filling his barrier with stuff. Now, we rarely see characters weaponizing things that aren’t abilities or their bare hands, but it does happen. This is where the idea of water balloons comes in. Fill that sucker in the sink, throw it, then pop it whenever he wants to.

But it’s not just water, he could put anything in there. He could put a shit ton of glitter. He could put sewing needles, caltrops, a big rock, anything. He could probably even put a barrier over his stove, gather steam, compress that shit and make smoke bombs!

But enough with that bitch baby shit.

What about chemicals?

Make water balloons but instead of water it’s hydroflouric acid. Or fill that shit with liquid nitrogen. Make smoke bombs but instead of steam it’s mustard gas— he and his friends will be protected inside a full barrier. There is any number of chemical weapons he could use, and some gases could even be made at home by mixing the wrong cleaning materials.

But what about insects? Go to the woods, find a beehive and yoink that shit.

The main problem with the “putting things in barriers” idea is that he’d have to prepare ahead of time, and keep those barriers up and his ability active until he uses them. That means it isn’t useful unless he knows the fight is gonna happen, and has enough time to prepare before it, but not so much time that he loses energy keeping them up. It’s also not useful if he wants to be non threatening at first, because his ability will need to be active. And also, unlike other weapons, A lot of these can’t be stored. He has to use all of them before the end of the fight— especially since gases can’t be released without using them. So, not very convenient or practical most of the time, but it would be super cool and effective in certain circumstances.

The next unlikely technique for Arlo to develop is vacuums. Arlo could make a really tiny, spherical barrier. Airtight. EXPAND that sucker. Make it real big- a near vacuum inside. Then make a tiny hole in it. Depending the size, that could create some insane suction. Suction is something so versatile that it could actually be a whole ability in its own right. That’s a whole ass mid tier added to Arlo’s already dope skill set. Possibly more.

Seriously, just think about suction for a second. You could bring anything close to you— Arlo actually has an easier method of telekinesis as we’ve gone over, but still— you could probably break and bend things with enough force, divert an attack by sucking it, or your opponent’s body in a different direction, you could cause some severe damage by sucking directly on someone’s skin. (I’m trying so fucking hard not to make a sex joke oh my god)

Here’s where Arlo’s capabilities get… gruesome.

My brother suggested that he could suck someone’s brain out through their skull. I was incredulous, but with enough force and with the tiny suction hole placed on an eye or nose, he definitely could.

But there’s an easier method of killing right there: put the vacuum over someone’s head. It doesn’t have to be an intense enough vacuum to explode their head (it could be though), just enough to suffocate them. Even without killing, suffocation could be used for intimidation or to knock them out.

But if we ARE killing… Arlo could put someone’s whole body in a vacuum and have the same effect as throwing them into space. They explode, their blood boils, it’s fuckin freaky what happens when a person depressurizes.

Even without a vacuum, (or any of these, really) it’s a good thing Arlo isn’t willing to kill because there are about a million ways he easily could.

The question that inspired the whole idea of a vacuum to begin with is: could Arlo make a barrier inside of someone, then expand it? The answer? Probably yes.

This gruesome shit is the reason I imagine Arlo at his full potential to be like… a villain au. Also because having an OP villain doesn’t have the same narrative pitfalls as an OP protagonist.

What’s Arlo’s range like? Could he expand his range with practice? How far out could he shoot a disk? Could he puncture the hull of an empire class battle ship leaving thousands to drown at sea? You know, because it’s so sharp?

Seriously though, could he take down airplanes?

Making barriers bigger or smaller doesn’t seem to affect his energy at all, considering that he never has to shrink it to save energy even when it would make sense (like with the dampener— Arlo just warned that he couldn’t keep it up, then took it down and switched straight to a disk even though there was plenty room to shrink it). So if the size of it doesn’t matter, then how big could he make it? Could he make Atlantis? Pick up a city and put it underwater with a barrier as an air dome? Could he make a dome around the earth and block meteors? Could he crush the core of the earth and blow up the planet if he wanted to??

Sadly, the answer to all of those questions is “probably not”.

Arlo is already super OP, they don’t call it a god tier for nothing. But he could be so much more godlike. I know I got really crazy at the end there, but back up just a little bit and he could realistically be a god among gods with just a little creativity. Especially at the top where the images are. Most of this stuff would not be hard.

#long post #unordinary #arlo unordinary #unordinary arlo #prediction #theory #speculation #I wasn’t planning to make all those animations lol #I was only gonna make the first one #the physics aren’t perfect but I had a lot of fun with them #I was gonna separate this into two sections of speculation #one where it’s stuff that’s within reason and i want him to actually be able to do it #and one where it’s kinda crazy and he could never do that but it’s fun to think about #but the vacuum stuff was a gray area #and the chemical weapon stuff was also gray but less so #this post is truly a gradient that descends into madness #Losing all my credibility with this one lets goooo

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moodyseal · 2 months

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I was talking with a middle-aged lady at the bus stop this morning and after I complained about not knowing whether I was extroverted or introverted because of some conflicting tendencies I have she looked at me for a moment and went "You're not introverted, you're probably just shy", and I thought it was absurd at first—because HOW can be a person be shy if they're extroverted? Doesn't that go against the concept of extraversion itself?—but then I thought about it some more and actually she may be right. One trait doesn't necessarily exclude the other, and if you're the type of person who jokes about being "closed-off with strangers but a chatterbox with friends" it may be worth considering whether this tendency of yours is really a sign of introvertion or whether it's just a stress response to your fear of rejection

#you can love time alone while still being an extrovert. you may not want to talk with people but still be an extrovert #it really depends on the reasons why you do that #like personally i love having me time #but i noticed that most of the time i want time alone when i'm stressed #and when i don't want to talk with people it's because i'm overthinking about them finding me annoying #at my most natural relaxed state i think i might actually be pretty sociable #exhibit a: if you give me even the slightest sign that you like me i won't shut up. ever #lonely thoughts

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emry-stars-art · 10 months

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Ok life cycle of a jelly mer is a GO. I’ll stick it under the cut in case anyone doesn’t want to see the lil development/newborn stuff

BUT before that since I know at least a few people are going to ask; yes, you can hold tiny baby medusa Neil, it can’t even sting you yet. Just a lil tingle

(Shout out to @the-tortoise-lady for the idea of baby Neil with no common sense or self awareness being very certain it both can and will eat that thing it found wading in the water near the beach (fisherman Andrew))

So normal jellyfish polyps grow into what looks like little stacked saucers or plates and when one breaks off it grows into the actual medusa we all know. So like. I’m just imagining the upper body/human part of the mer grows inside more like two cups stacked together, and there’s only one per polyp (i don’t even know if regular polyps have multiple discs break off tbh).

But according to some v quick research and not being able to find specifically Sea Nettle reproductive cycle, I am declaring their polyps the average size of Small (about an inch/3cm or something close) and their baby medusae have A LOT of growing to do :D

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runningatypufullspeed · 2 months

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WOULD YOU GUYS LIKE TO SEE MY FUGLY UGLY ASS ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE X FAHRENHEIT 451 CROSSOVER DRAWING THAT I WAS FORCED TO DO FOR SCHOOL….. ITS SO UGLY AND MONTAG IS

WHITE.

AND THE HOUNDS ARE DISGUSTING THE COLORING IS SO SHITTY AND MILDRED …. Well ok she looks alright kindof but the COLORING ….. SKETCH WAS BETTER but do you guys. Do you still want to see it…….,,,,,,

ALSO NO OFFENSE TO WHITE PEOPLE PLEASE I LOVE YOU GUYS 🫶😁👍 within reason

#like ok maybe it isn’t. THAT bad #NO NO I TAKE THAT BACK I JUST LOOKED AT IT RIGHT NOW AND THE COMPOSITION IS ALL FUCKING VOER THE PLACE #IT. IT IS. THAT BAD #IF YOU GUYS SAY YESS YOULL SEE #ok but nasty bad art aside I know some of you will be asking why white Montag is such a bad thing and #there isn’t anything wrong with it!!! it’s just that for me personally #after I did a bit more thinking I was. physically incapable of perceiving Montag as anything other than POC/nonwhite #so when I look back at my old f451 art and stare into the eyes of a pale skittish twink it just #it doesn’t click. like that isn’t MY Montag if ykwim #now trembling BROWN skittish twink. that’s a different story #AGAIN I DONT have any issues with ppl making their own versions white I just think that . for me specifically. he looked a bit funny #a little off. a bit too crackerish for my liking #where is bros melanin 😭#I’m complaining right now but if I wanted to I could just… go in and try and make the skin tone darker #I might do that depending on how tired I feel after doomscrolling #also if it matters even though I have read the book over at least 8 times now not once have I touched either of the movies.#and it will STAY THAT WAY. until I completely log my notes for the book #then I can move on to the movies 🥰#but I will admit 2018 did sort of lead me to having a change of heart w my design. just a little. just a teensy bit. kinda. sort of?#actually not really now that I think about it #I have my own reasons.#TOO MANY WHITE PEOPLE MY EYES THEY BURN AAAYHHHHH MY EYES OW OW OW OWIEEEE #my Beatty design was so white that my eyes developed stage 4 cataracts #I needed a palate cleanser that WASNT Millie… oh god my Millie design…#she was white there too. terrible #it’s okay… 💔 I’ve since learned and moved on #ARGH GUYS I DONT HATE WHITE PEOPLE I JUST THINK THAT MORE SKIN COLOR VARIATIONS WOULD E NICE

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clownsnake · 8 months

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one thing I really like about the no mercy route is the phrasing of some of the dialogue shaming you for… going out of your way to commit a tedious, inconvenient, and not even enjoyable mass murder. Specifically, what the characters call you. Because for obvious reasons, they’re not gonna say “you monster!!” But I think it also probably posed a unique writing challenge (or provided a blessing?) for Toby, especially considering the purpose of the no mercy route being so judgmental of you in the first place.

like. we all know that when certain phrases get used and re-used countless times across All of Media and also real life, it starts to lose its meaning right? So aside from the watsonian reasons for why the characters of undertale wouldn’t use ‘monster’ as a synonym for ‘needlessly cruel and evil person’, the doylist choice here is kind of fascinating to me. A little bit inspired imo

cause it just feels worse to have sans or whoever else say “you’re just a gross person, huh?” Or “you’re really a freak.” after an observation/remark of what you’ve done. and it feels like that because the characters in the game literally can’t use a certain phrase we’d normally glance over.

but it also feels like that, because their observations of you are more precise that way. Cause it directs your attention to what could be ignored through vague platitudes like “you really are a monster” or whatever; the ugly truth. To simply state the truth about your actions is what makes the route so uncomfortable. Because the truth is that you are the source of discomfort, which you can’t avoid recognizing, even for a second. You could just ditch this playthrough and start a pacifist run At Any Point In Time, but for some reason you’re dedicated to killing all your nice little cartoon friends. And that’s weird.

idk I just think its neat

#Seeing the stark truth of your own actions and being met with incredulous disgust #It’s just the seasoning on top that I think also makes this for me.#Ofc the main strength of the no mercy run is the strong arguments against any reasons you’d have to be doing this #This is just something that I think prompts deeper thinking. n might have even made some players reflect on the arguments made in the game #and go ‘yeah you know what why AM I doing this. Obligation? Curiousity? Bragging rights? …are those really worth it?’#Ut #undertale #going post #Undertale hyperfixation grabbed me by the throat but im not done with my doctor who era yet… Jesus christ #anyway that’s not the only reason I’m writing abt this #I just wanna remember and internalize this little writing quirk of undertale so I can be more conscious of phrases like this & know when to #when not to use them. depending on how much I want to make an audience rlly think abt the words being said #I think it’s neat! Teehee ^_^

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androideql · 6 months

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do u have an opinion on . yakumond re: bugs my mind is in factions, warring . edmond brave, yakumo baby. BUT yakumo farm boy. edmond city kid. yakumo destroying farm pests with his bare hands? out of habit? it's on SIGHT?? but nothing scares vice captain, right? so what if yakumond just turns my trope upside down and NEITHER of them are scared of bugs. what then. what do i do

I spent a while thinking how to reply to this ask. And. OK. Bear with me.

I honestly don't see either of them being afraid of bugs. I can see them not liking them, with Edmond being a more indiscriminate "bugs have no place in this house and should be squashed" compared to Yakumo's "will remorselessly kill pests but not harmless insects."

That being said... I kinda like the idea of Edmond having a very specific weakness to just one (1) bug and being utterly fucking embarrassed about it, and Yakumo (being the anxious baby he is) somewhat mirroring Edmond's response to it despite usually remaining very calm. They can be a disaster together. They've got that potential.

In fact, I liked the idea enough that I have this deleted short scene from a fic that I'm working on and that I will be releasing it into the wild now. Mind you, it's a draft so it's way more functional that it is polished.

------

“Sir Edmond, why don’t you go to sleep right away? It's already very late.”

Edmond looked up from the blank paper. At the lack of a desk, a small wooden crate he'd found here in the hayloft would work just fine. Until he saw that he'd finished writing the letter, he was not going to be able to calm his nerves enough to sleep. It didn't matter that it could be done the next morning. Why leave it for later if it could be done now?

“I’ll be finished in a few more paragraphs, don't worry,” he said, dipping the pen in the inkwell. "You shouldn't stay up longer than necessary, either. Is something holding you up?"

"Ah, well..." Yakumo looked at the lamp on the crate. It would be rather difficult to sleep with it still on, and he couldn't ask it be turned off if Edmond was still writing. "It's fine. I can wait a little longer. I'll make sure the tent is properly set up."

"Haven't you already done that twice?"

There wasn't much else left to do here. Maybe he could go outside or look around the barn for things that might be useful next morning? His eyes tried to look around. It would be rather difficult to do this in the dark... Besides, he didn't want to do anything that would be too distracting. Edmond was very particular about this letter.

As Yakumo looked around from where he was sitting, he could see something scuttling up one of the sides of the crate. He frowned at the presence of the insect. People commonly referred to those as "claw traps." They had a crab claw-like pincer and a nasty habit of biting people in their sleep and hiding in boots. What if there were more around? Thankfully, he'd had the foresight to bring some repellant.

Yakumo crawled closer to the tent, where he'd left his belongings. He rummaged around his bag for the repellent and something to kill the insect with. However, Edmond was so absorbed in writing his letter that he hadn't noticed yet. It was probably better to warn him before he got bitten.

"Sir Edmond, there's a claw trap going up your desk."

At the mention of the bug Edmond haphazardly grabbed all his things and scrambled backward in panic, spilling black ink on the wooden floor, splashing some of it on his shirt.

Yakumo's heart made a jump. He dropped his bag and reacted without thinking.

Squish, crack. He immediately squashed the bug with his bare hand.

For a moment, there was silence. He stared at his hand, at Edmond, who looked way too tense over a single bug. When Yakumo realized what he had done, a shudder ran up his spine. He lifted his hand. It was wet and crunchy, and he probably just stuck the claw into his palm because it hurt. He looked at it. Yes. There it was. Like a massive splinter.

He was more worried about how Edmond hadn't taken a single breath ever since he'd killed this thing, though.

"S-Sir Edmond, is everything alright?" He asked as he shook the remains of the claw trap off his hand.

Snapping out of his panicked state, Edmond nervously cleared his throat, his cheeks burning red. He looked aside and took a deep breath with an angry expression on his face.

"Y-Yes... I... Oh, how embarrassing... I need a moment."

With a nod of acknowledgment, Yakumo rushed to wash his hands in the basin, just the get the gooey and feeling off his palm. Now he was going to have to go back into the house to change the water. He was not about to wash his face with cold insect soup when he woke up in the morning.

The act of cleaning and removing the pincer from his palm helped him calm down and think about what just happened. He turned around to look at Edmond, who examined the stained sleeve of his shirt with an air of inconvenienced embarrassment. That ink stain was not coming out, and he probably knew that.

"Umm... Do you have something in particular against these insects? I've never seen you react like that to any others before..."

For sure, they'd been toiling in the fields for most of the day, and this wasn't the first time they'd dealt with a bug problem before. Usually speaking, Edmond didn't hesitate. He looked at the offending creature with disgust and slammed the first hard thing he could find against them, making it abundantly clear that, while he didn't like them, he could handle them perfectly fine on his own. While claw traps were unpleasant, this seemed a bit excessive.

Looking tired all of a sudden, Edmond took a long breath and let out a deep sigh.

"I don't like those."

"Ah... Well, yes? It's... not hard to see that at all..." He waited for Edmond to continue, and he was about to nervously change the topic and run away to change the water when Edmond cleared his throat.

"We saw a lot of them back when I was still in training. There was one summer when they were everywhere, wherever we set camp. They barely let us sleep. I've had an... aversion to them ever since. But I can handle them on my own next time. I just need a second or two to calm down."

The last part was a quick attempt to save face, but Yakumo wouldn't have minded it at all if he had to get rid of one of these pests again. He merely hoped Edmond's panic was a little less contagious next time.

Hoping to help Edmond retain some of his dignity for now, Yakumo tried to make the atmosphere a little less stilted by subtly shifting the subject away from how Edmond felt about these insects.

"You must have stayed within the Light Territory that summer then?"

Edmond gave Yakumo a surprised look.

"How do you know that?"

"Claw traps can only really survive there. The Water and Wood territories are too humid for them."

Hold on... Yakumo's brow furrowed deeply once he realized what he'd just said.

"How did it get here, then?" Edmond asked. And he was right. They were right in the middle of the Water territory, weren't they? But Yakumo didn't really have an explanation.

"M-Maybe they're mutating...?"

"No."

Edmond snapped at the suggestion. Yakumo reflexively lowered his head in response.

"Um..."

"Don't make me even entertain that idea." He stood up, slightly agitated. "I'm going the search the hayloft in case there are more. I won't be able to sleep otherwise."

"W-We have repellent myrrh. We can burn some inside the tent. It doesn't smell bad or anything..."

His voice was barely a whisper, but the night was already silent in the village and the fields. Edmond had no problem picking up what he was saying, or the tone in which it was said.

"... I apologize. My tone was too harsh."

Yakumo had never heard Edmond talk to him like that before. There was no doubt that these bugs were a touchy subject. He chuckled nervously.

"It's... fine. Don't worry. I understand."

With his cheeks turning red once again, Edmond let out some unintelligible noise that maybe, in some corner of his mind, had been words at some point. Eventually, he gave up, huffing in frustration.

"Tha-Thank you for handling it..."

"Oh. I... could do it again if we find another one."

Not enthused by the idea of seeing more of them, but still looking somewhat relieved, Edmond's voice and face softened just a little.

"I seriously wish we didn't... But I'd be quite grateful if you could."

#the reason why i waited to answer this was to make sure I was not going to use the scene at all #turns out that yeah i don't need it #should i put this in the main tag?#new fic coming to you...#... eventually #just bug squashing for now #i couldn't think of a good name for the insect also but it's not like i have to anymore #ok so here's my thinking process:#i've known enough people in the military to make me think that Edmond probably had to put up with some shit as a new recruit or trainee #and that he probably has things that he really really doesn't like as a result #the klein kingdom probably has a bunch of natural nuisances depending on the season #but a trainee probably wouldn't be sent out in the middle of winter right away cause they don't have those survival skills yet #so if those first excursions happen in spring or summer... then bugs are a problem #and Edmond IS a noble anyway. he was probably not expecting that many bugs much less for them to be bite-y #and as for yakumo i just dont see him minding bugs as long as they don't sting #he basically grew up in a cave first and then in a farm; he's super used to them #some kid probably tried to put a spider in his shoe once to try to scare him and got a very underwhelming response for his efforts #i do think he gets nervous when he sees something venomous especially if it moves too quickly #and he probably gets easily startled by jumping spiders if he hasn't noticed them before they jump in front of him #but that's more him being a nervous mess in general and less about bugs #ok enough rambling #i can't do concise answers for shit im sorry

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