#jp tentacle
Note
'Discount Tofu mf'?
me after I get my hands on miss clytie gogh
#maybe I will stick my jp one in second archive so she can repent. hmmmmm? should she apologize for tentacle crimes?? yes???#my asks
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when the senior citizen you ran into in a desert throws clothes at you and doesnt seem to realize youre Not A Squid
left text: "more uncomfortable than he's been in his entire life but being VERY brave abt it"
right text, top: "straining to not either meltdown or explode"
right text, bottom: "clueless"
. i doubt ive actually said anything about it but ripley's tentacles curl up when he's tense. cuttlefish's dialogue. you can connect the dots
#no main tag for this one#my art#colored sketch#csp#spl oc: ripley#but like. does anyone know if cuttlefish is like that in japanese or did noa just Do That bc i heard marie was more.. 'professional' in jp#anyways im in-between like 4 drawings. i drew this in the middle of sketching for a painting#which itself was supposed to be a warmup for a different painting which came about bc of a different finished-ish drawing#yall hear about dream bbq? that shit literally rewired my brain in less than 3 minutes (it is related to the other things in the pipeline)#anyways new categorical tag from my other blog. tag readers you get a headstart if you want to block the like. sillier drawings i guess?#doodles#honestly the floppy ears and curling tentacles have been an idea for a while but it didnt occur to me until drawing them together#that its kinda giving ram energy. idk if im gonna do very much with that imagery but i found it interesting
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an exchange for a spark
Pairing: Azul Ashengrotto x gn!reader
Synopsis: Knowing Azul, everything would come at a cost, but sometimes you get more than what you asked for in an exchange.
Tags: childhood friends, fluff, reader is a mer, mentions Azul's past, little mermaid references, bot proofread
Word count: 1.6k+
Notes: congrats to Azul fans who won the poll for our resident businessman!
Azul tsum came home in the JP server so here's some fluff for our dearest tako! this takes place before NRC and the boys are in pre-teens
Masterlist
Azul's heart skipped a beat as you neared him, your scales reflecting a stunning array of colours that reminded him of opalescent shells. Your beauty was ethereal, a sight to behold, and Azul couldn't help but feel like a mere speck in comparison. He recognised you instantly; the mermaid who never failed to light up the area, the one with the infectious smile and bright eyes that sparkled like diamonds in the demure rays of sunlight refracted into the depths of the sea.
You were the popular one in school, your every move and word fawned over by your classmates, while he was the outcast hiding in his octopus pot, fearing the bullies who would make fun of him.
An odd pair; but the two of you were close friends. He supposed it was inevitable, given how often your family frequented his mother’s restaurant, bringing the two of you together in an unexpected way.
"Hey there, Azul!" you sang out, your tail propelling yourself towards him. As you approached, you saw Azul perched on a counter, a look of surprise on his face as he looked up. His tentacles were completing multiple tasks at hand, keeping track of the inventory of his mother's restaurant, flipping through pages of an old book, and writing on multiple sheets of parchment. "Oooh, what are you reading?" you asked.
Azul smiled, pausing his tasks to focus on you. "It's a grimoire on terrestrial magic," he replied, the interest evident in his voice.
"Wow! That’s way ahead of what they’re teaching in class! Can you show me?" You asked eagerly.
His smile turned sly, and you knew instantly that there was a catch. "Of course, but it'll cost you," he said, pushing his glasses up with a flick of his hand.
You giggled, knowing that he always had something up his sleeve. "What do you want, Azul?"
Azul's eyes glinted mischievously, and you could tell he was up to something. One of his tentacles reached out and gently tilted your chin upward. "Your most prided quality, of course. How about... your voice?"
You blinked, before bursting into a fit of giggles. "Hahaha Azuzu! You and I both know you'd miss my voice too much!"
Azul's lips curved into a tender smile, exuding affection as his silver tongue wove compliments like a skilled weaver crafting an intricate tapestry. "You are right, your voice is a treasure beyond compare, and I could not bear to take it away from you," he murmured, but you could only shake your head fondly at his words. "But tell me, Angelfish, what else can you offer me?"
You paused, your mind spinning like a school of fish caught in a whirlpool. Then, a sudden flash of recollection struck you, and you reached into your satchel, fumbling around to pull out a small sack, handing it to him as your fins fluttered with exhilaration. "I almost forgot, here!" you exclaimed. "I got this for you."
As you handed it to Azul, he shifted towards you, taking the sack curiously. "What is it?" he asked, his excitement building as he examined the sack like an archaeologist uncovering a long-lost artefact.
"It's a surprise," you giggled. "Open it up and see for yourself!"
Azul's fingers trembled with anticipation as he gingerly unfurled the sack's opening, revealing a bounty of treasures within. A cascade of glimmering coins spilt forth, gleaming like the dying sun cresting over the ocean's horizon. As if holding a precious gem, he carefully plucked one of the golden coins from the pile, entranced by its lustre. Its surface glinted and shone, reflecting its metallic sheen into his aquamarine eyes. A radiant grin bloomed across his face, illuminating his features with pure delight.
"I've never seen this one before! You collected these for me?" he exclaimed, his voice full of wonder. "How thoughtful of you, Angelfish. I will add them to my collection." He looked up at you and coughed at his open display of joy, quickly returning to his businesslike demeanour. "Ahem, since you have been so kind to me, it is only fair I give you a show in return."
You couldn't help but feel a thrill of glee and curiosity. "Ooh! What is it?" you asked eagerly.
Azul's smile returned, and he leaned in closer to you. "I can show you a little trick I learned," he divulged in a hushed tone, "I can conjure fire."
"Fire?" you repeated incredulously. "But that’s… isn’t that only possible on land? They can’t… uhm... burn...? here, right?"
Azul chuckled softly, amusement gleaming in his expression. "Normally, no, fire cannot exist underwater," he explained. "But I found a way to conjure air simultaneously to feed the fire. I can make fire burn even here."
Azul raised his hand, murmuring an incantation under his breath. Suddenly, a small flame appeared in the palm of his hand, flickering and dancing like a playful fish, its warm light casting beautiful patterns on the sand below. Noticing the wonder in your eyes, a soft murmur escaped his lips. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" he whispered. "Up on land, humans use fire for illumination, cooking, and all sorts of things."
You nodded in understanding, your mind already racing with the possibilities. "It's amazing," you murmured in awe.
Azul turned to you, a look of satisfaction on his face. "I'm glad you think so, Angelfish," he smiled.
As you drew nearer to the crackling flames, you felt a jolt of awareness coursing through you, as if an invisible force were pulling you towards Azul. His warm breath, like a pleasant gust of wind, caressed your cheek, sending shivers down your spine. You gazed up to meet his eyes, so alike shimmering pools of liquid sapphire, radiating with a mesmerising allure. The reflection of the blazing fire danced in his eyes, as if mimicking the fiery passion that was stirring inside you.
For a moment, you both stood there, caught in a trance-like state, as if time itself had come to a halt. The heat emanating from the fire and Azul's body enveloped you in a cocoon of warmth, making you feel safe and protected. You could hear the rhythmic thump of his heartbeat, akin to the steady beat of the ocean waves, in perfect synchronicity with your own.
As if propelled by some unknown force, the words that had been burning inside you tumbled out of your mouth, unfiltered and raw.
"I really like you, Azul," you confessed, your voice barely above a whisper, your cheeks flushing with embarrassment. The words hung in the air, heavy with anticipation and vulnerability.
Azul's eyes widened in shock, but you caught a glimpse of hope flash across his face before he diverted his gaze to the ground. His hands ceased to hold the fire, now folded across his torso in a vulnerable stance.
"Angelfish... I... But your friends," he started, attempting to pull away from you.
Determined to make your feelings known, you interrupted him, grabbing his shoulders to gain his attention. "I don't care about my friends," you reassured. "I care about you, Azul. You're smart, and kind and sweet. I like you, no matter what anyone else thinks."
Azul's gaze softened, the worry etched into his features fading away as he drank in your words. He reached out, his fingers intertwining with yours, imbuing you with a sense of security and comfort. "My dear Angelfish," he marvelled, his voice filled with affection, "you have no idea how much that means to me."
Overcome with emotions, you leaned in, your lips colliding with Azul's in a tender, all-consuming kiss. It was a kiss of unbridled emotion, the sweetness of it threatening to intoxicate you both. It was as though the world had stilled, and all that remained was the two of you, lost in each other.
Azul wrapped his strong arms around you, enveloping you in his embrace. His tentacles curled around you like vines, pulling you deeper into his embrace. The heat of his skin and the softness of his lips were like a symphony to your senses, causing your heart to race with a mix of passion and delight-
"Azul~"
Suddenly, a voice interrupted your reverie, causing both of you to jump apart. You looked around and saw the twins, their faces beaming with grins as they called out to you. "Oh? What's happening over here?" Jade teased, his gaze alternating between you and Azul.
You felt a flush creeping up your neck as you tried to compose yourself. "Just catching up, that's all," you replied, hoping to avoid any further scrutiny.
Azul, on the other hand, was incredibly flustered. His heart raced in his chest, and his pulse quickened as if he had just been caught in the act of doing something wrong. His tentacles twitched nervously as he struggled to regain his composure, but his embarrassment was plain to see. With a forced smile, Azul tried to hide his discomfort as he greeted the eels. "Ahem, hello, Jade, Floyd," he coughed, his voice betraying a hint of strain. "We were just...uh...talking. Nothing...nothing important."
The eels snickered at his failed attempt, unconvinced by his dismissive response. "Well then, don't let us interrupt your... talking," Jade remarked with a sly wink. "Come on, Floyd, let's give them some space... for now." He added the last part with a sly twinkle in his eye, sharing a knowing look with his brother before they swam away.
As the two of you were left alone, you couldn't help but adore the deep flush of his cheeks. Unable to resist the allure of his charming blush, you cupped his jaw and pecked his cheek. Your lips brushed against his skin, leaving behind a trail of warmth and affection. When you pulled away, you were greeted with the sight that only warmed your heart further, his blush deepening like a sunset spreading across the horizon, painting the sky with a spectrum of colours.
Truly, how could anyone ever find someone as endearing as him dislikeable?
Masterlist
if you liked this post, don't forget to reblog!
#twstnexus#twisted wonderland#twisted wonderland x reader#disney twisted wonderland#twst imagines#twst wonderland#azul ashengrotto#azul ashengrotto x reader#azul x reader
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Funny when you notice it~
They used the "non-phallic" sigil of Belphegor in the JP account header XD
While in the gacha, they used the phallic looking sigil for his stand in XD
(Note, yes they had Belphegor at the back before they revealed the angel units. Whenever you get anything that is related to the angels 'like Petit El's bottle of milk' the white tentacles appears behind Belphegor's stand-in, but they changed the placement a week? later during the angel banner)
#what in “hell” is bad?#prettybusy what in “hell” is bad?#what in hell is bad#whb#whb belphegor#whb thoughts
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What are your all-time favorite outfits from Twisted Wonderland?
Hello @letterstoear, thank you for ask! I've had a lot of fun making this post, and I'm so sorry that it took forever to answer!
Every time I was certain I had my list narrowed down, I remembered another outfit I really liked. (Also, I'm a little bit biased, as you will see...haha). This time, I focused on event outfits to make it easier for myself. Maybe in the future I'll post my "reviews" on dorm uniforms or Halloween costumes.
I am always blown away by the the little details that Yana Toboso and the rest of the design team have added to each of characters' outfits, because they give some interesting insight to their personalities and backgrounds.
Without further ado, let's discuss some outfits! (Please note that there are spoilers for upcoming events from the JP server, as well as some groovy arts!)
My Favorite Twisted Wonderland Outfits
10. Floyd's Outdoor Wear (Vargas Camp)
Most of the outfits on my list are on the extravagant side. I recently bought a volume of Black Butler, where there was a note about how Yana Toboso loves to draw clothing, and it truly shows.
But in contrast to seeing our beloved characters in over-the-top costumes, it's refreshing to see them wearing casual outfits once in a while as well and see their individual, everyday styles.
I'll admit that I haven't played any of the Vargas Camp events, and have a grand total of zero (0) cards from this series. I'm not sure why; I always miss the event's runtime for some reason.
Still, I've always loved Floyd's little sling bag with the eel keychain, as well as the teal visor. The bright colors stand out and are appealing.
The whole outfit looks like something you could get from a store like Uniqlo, and sometimes it is nice to have that sort of realism in a magical game. He looks like an ordinary teenager I could find on the street. Except...if I did find Floyd on the street, I'd be running in the other direction. But that's not the main idea here.
9. Azul's Glorious Masquerade Outfit
At first, I sort of forgot that this SSR existed. When the PV for Glorious Masquerade came out, I was more focused on Malleus.
However, eventually, many people began to cosplay as GloMas Azul, and they all looked so amazing. I began to appreciate the outfit more after seeing people pose and dance in it. Azul also tends to have some of the best fanart, and fans have spared no expense when drawing him wearing this.
My favorite part of the outfit is his coat. I like the silhouette it creates with a high-waist belt, and the long coattails that resemble tentacles. The ruffles on his trousers are cute, too. I would buy a pair if I could. Unfortunately, it's hard to see these details on his in-game sprite.
As for his accessories, the pearls are so dramatic (and so very Azul). His round glasses are also cute, I hope he wears them again!
8. Idia's Suitor Suit
One look at Idia's Ghost Marriage outfit, and you can really tell that it was designed by Yana Toboso. His gloves, coat, and cravat make him look like he's in the Victorian Era. Also, doesn't he look sort of like Grelle from Black Butler?
Speaking of Grelle, Idia's outfit is meant to look more like funeral attire, between the long, black coat and the lilies pinned to his shoulder. There are also skulls hidden throughout his outfit, such as on his jacket chain and cufflinks. I was still new to TWST at the time, so I just thought that Idia liked gothic clothing. I didn't realize he was (at least in his mind) attending his own funeral!
Let's not forget his new hairstyle! This is one of Idia's first SSRs if I remember correctly, so it was exciting to see him with a ponytail.
My love for this outfit also comes from my love for the story associated with it. Fans have pointed out that Idia's "arranged marriage" with Eliza parallels the myth of Hades and Persephone. The design team and Yana were so clever for this.
I don't have this card, either, but I hope to pick him up one day!
7. Ortho's Fairy Gear
The Shroud brothers are luckyーthey are probably two of the characters with the most SSRs in the game.
That being said, we all have to agree that Ortho's fairy gear is one of the most unique and avant-garde cards in the game.
I really enjoy the white and gold color scheme in this event. His color-changing wings are stunning, and the piece covering his eyes makes him look very mysterious.
I thought this card was cool when I first saw it, but then I learned that Ortho's outfit and hair can turn pink, which is even better.
Every time I see his "pointe shoes," it makes me imagine Ortho and Idia trying to learn how to dance together in Idia's room, and Idia obsessively studying ballet costumes for his younger brother.
Yet again, I don't have this card, but my best friend does! At least I can admire him from her phone...
6. Silver's Rabbit Wear
There is no way that this outfit is just an R card! When this card was first advertised in one of the JR rail train stations, the pictures showed this card with Deuce's hometown in the background instead of the standard Diasomnia R background, so I thought that this card would at least be an SR. (Although I can't complain so much, because that means it's free!)
Silver is so princely. I am convinced that he can look good in anything. I am fond of pastel colors, and the pink/blue color scheme suits him, as the TWST version of Aurora. The bows may be silly, but I find them adorable.
Compared to the other boys in this event, Silver's outfit looks a little more like a soldier's (albeit a toy soldier's or a nutcracker's), which is a cool touch.
5. Deuce's Rabbit Wear
Deuce's hometown event was truly one of my favorite events that came out in the JP sever last year. Not only were some of my most favorite characters there, but they were dressed up in the most whimsical outfits possible. (And we got to meet Deuce's motherーshe's the coolest!)
Since Deuce is the main character of this event, his outfit bears the most resemblance to the white rabbit's in most classic illustrations, complete with a bow tie, top hat, and, of course, his pocket watch. His outfit has a blue color scheme. Like Azul in GloMas, Deuce also wears round glasses in his groovy art. Overall, it looks like the sweet ouji style, although I'm not very familiar with this sub-fashion. If anyone who is reading this has studied/worn this style of fashion, please let me know!
I used to play Love Nikki and Shining Nikki (two fashion-themed gacha games), which also featured lolita dresses inspired by Alice in Wonderland characters. For this reason, Deuce's outfit in particular feels very nostalgic to me.
4. Lilia's Right General Armor
Here's another departure from the cute pastel outfits...
Sleeping Beauty was one of my favorite Disney movies as a child. I always remembered Maleficent's "goons" as short, silly little creatures wearing simple green tunics.
So how on earth did we get to Right General Lilia Vanrouge?!
Seriously, I'm just stunned by how the artists looked at the source material and created something so radically, yet wonderfully, different.
I'm curious about the green stones (jades?) on his outfit--around his waist, there are several pieces attached to tassels, and he has two strapped to his right leg. The material matches the stone used for his weapon. Maybe it represents his status in Briar Valley. If you check his (unposed) sprite, you can also see that he is wearing something around his waist that looks like folded bat wings.
Like everyone else, I'm obsessed with his long hairーit makes him look so formidable, especially with that hood. My friends and I like to joke that his ponytail makes him look like a character in a Chinese martial arts drama.
Again, the story associated with this card made me love it even more. Few books have made me cry as much as Book 7 of TWST.
3. Malleus' Glorious Masquerade Outfit
While Sleeping Beauty was my favorite movie as a young child, when I got older, I began to love The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was only natural for this outfit to be among my favorites for this reason.
There are so many details here. The feathered hat. The sheer sleeves. The golden embroidery. The split cape. It's honestly overwhelming to take in at once.
I can say that my favorite detail is his green earrings. They really bring out his eye color, and the PV made them so sparkly.
In addition, everyone I've ever seen who has cosplayed as GloMas Malleus or has drawn fanart of him has increased my appreciation of this outfit.
[Now for some very spoiler-y stuff] The fact that this event came just before the release of Chapter 7 is worth noting. Doesn't it feel a bit tragic that just before Malleus' overblot, we have a chance to see him wearing an outfit that makes him look especially like his mother, having fun and being the star at the masquerade? And what about the feathers on his shouldersーdo they hint at another side of his family? There's so much foreshadowing and mystery going on, and nothing is more suitable for the occasion than masquerade attire.
2. Kalim's New Year Attire
I've already rambled about how sentimental this outfit is to me in a previous post, but in summary: New Year is my favorite holiday, and the New Year's Sale event was the first event I "seriously" participated in. Kalim looks excessively cute and festive in his kimono, and every time I see this card, I feel nostalgic and in the holiday mood.
1. (Tied) Epel's Applepom Outfit and Riddle's Beach Outfit
I'm really sorry, Epel and Riddle are my favorite characters, and in the end, I refuse to chose between them. They're like my younger brothers! I try to collect all of their cards, so I pay attention to their outfits the most, and picking only one outfit for each character was a challenge in itself.
My favorite part of Epel's Applepom outfit is his cloak. It looks so fluffy and warm. When you set him as your home screen character, you also have the option to "swap looks" and see his outfit without the cloak--the apple embroidery on the rest of his outfit is very detailed. Many fans have mentioned that the outfits people wear in Harveston resemble traditional Scandinavian clothing, which is really cool!
The little apple slices on his cap are everything.
And I'm always happy to see characters in different hairstyles, such as Epel's little ponytail.
One of my headcanons is that you're allowed to call Epel cute, but only when he wears this specific outfit, because he takes it as a complement to his culture.
As for Riddle, we're all so used to seeing him wearing formal suits. It's so nice to see him loosening up for once. He looks so happy, now that he has the chance to see the ocean for the first time!
I also happened to be on vacation at the beach around the time this event came out, so it felt like a gift.
I have to laugh a little, because there are so many flowers on his outfit. Even Jack pointed it out in the story. But he looks so cute!
I suppose we have to discuss the elephant in the room. My friend saw it before me, so she spammed me with messages along the lines of "RIDDLE IS WEARING A CROP TOP!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!" and I naturally thought she was pranking me. But lo and behold, it's the truth. I like to headcanon that among the rest of the cast in this event, everyone has made an unspoken mutual agreement not to mention it. This Victorian child has already been through enough, and not a word must reach Mrs. Rosehearts.
Thank you once again for the ask! For anyone who read all of this, what do you think about these outfits, and which ones in the game are your favorite?
#The words “short” and “brief” are not in my vocabulary apparently#But it's alright#I just really love the work and details that the artists have put into the game#As well as the fan content! I'm so happy I joined the TWST fandom at this time#disney twisted wonderland#twst#twisted wonderland#floyd leech#azul ashengrotto#idia shroud#ortho shroud#twst silver#silver vanrouge#deuce spade#lilia vanrouge#malleus draconia#kalim al asim#epel felmier#riddle rosehearts
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Luxiem & A Trace Of Wonder
WARNING: Please remember that I am writing about Luxiem based on their characters online and not of the people behind their vtuber avatars, thank you!
EXTRA NOTES: wuwuywuwywuw did i finally start writing again??? yes . do i have a new fixation on a bl novel???also yes so now im mashing these two interests of mine together... just like how i started this blog
GENERAL
a luxiem au based on 해의 흔적 (a trace of wonder)
for the sake of this au, they are from the same jp guild - Luxiem (the guild from the original is an sk guild, so since anycolor is jp, luxiem will fall under jp.... plus en is a very broad area... bear with me LMAO)
Luxiem are considered the top JP Guild and one of the top guilds worldwide
the source material IS from a BL novel, but there will be no mentions of romance for this post
i went a little chuuni to name the abilities ok i dont think the novel had that - im just cringe like that
dear god i did not proofread this but something definitely possessed me in order to write this out instead of whatever college essay i got due soon
BRIEF ATOW UNIVERSE EXPLANATION
ok so think of it as like a modern era rpg game - the awakened class of people refers to those with supernatural abilities and dungeons are areas in the world where treasure and strong monsters spawn (sometimes these dungeons are based on parts of history as well)
the awakened class makes up about 10% of the population
those who are awakened have access to these dungeons in order to beat them within a certain time frame with Class S dungeons being the most deadly
those who are awakened also form guilds in order to enter such dungeons and have jurisdiction over ones that spawned with the guild's country - no other country is allowed to interfere with another
those who are awakened have two abilities - one main and one hidden ; the hidden ability also comes with a penalty and should be used with caution as the power may interfere with every day life outside of combat/cause hindrance when dungeon crawling
for the powerscalling in the universe, it is from Class E (lowest) to Class S (highest) ; this works for both the classification of awakened people and dungeon ranking
the main abilities that are at least mentioned here are restorers, hunters, mages and healers ; 2/4 classes are combative while the others are non-combative, but still useful when dungeon crawling
i hope my shitty explanation gets you to read the novel/manwha so that you can understand it better LMAO
MORE UNDER THE CUT
❀•°•═════ஓ๑♡๑ஓ═════•°•❀
IKE EVELAND
CLASSIFICATION: Class A Healer
MAIN ABILITY: Priest's Waterfall
ike has the ability to heal using his staff without using too much mana. however, he is restricted to water - by using other elements, he runs the risk of depleting too much mana before entering the boss' room in a dungeon.
his staff has the appearance of a large quill. no one knows the reasoning behind it as most staffs on the guild markets are stick-like
HIDDEN ABILITY: Darkness of the Deep
ike has the hidden ability to summon a powerful tentacle-like creature of nightmares. with this, ike switches classes - from non-combative to combative. however, the tentacle-like creature is sentient and moves on its own, ike has no control over what it hits. the creature is also considered to be a glass canon ; while it is powerful, it can only withstand attacks for so long and is on a time limit.
ike can only use his hidden ability when threatened ; he and mysta are the only non-combative members of the guild and this is his only way of protecting them both if no one else could not help.
PENALTY: everything he touches becomes an inky water
without mysta around, most solid objects around ike become an inky liquid that is as viscous as water if he touches it - it's strange, but definitely an inconvenience to his everyday life.
fortunately, his penalty does not harm humans
his strength lies in his durability and mana. he is also quite knowledgable of different types of potions and strengthening spells that help out with dungeon crawling
in fact, ike naturally houses the most mana within the guild followed by shu, mysta, vox and luca.
he originally came from a swedish guild overseas before his meeting with vox, who recruited ike with the promise of hatsune miku figures if he joined Luxiem (this is my attempt at humor)
ike is usually the one who gathers intel on their next dungeon - thanks to his quick reading speed and familiarity with mythos, ike predicts what would the location and boss of the dungeon with 99.99% accuracy
LUCA KANESHIRO
CLASSIFICATION: Class A Hunter
MAIN ABILITY: Heightened Strength
despite not wielding any kind of weapon, luca is proud of his brute strength - just one tap from him could reduce skyscrapers into dust clouds.
HIDDEN ABILITY: Shapeshifting
luca's hidden ability can only be activated if he has ingested a specific kind of gemstone - however with his hidden ability, he can only turn into a lion that possesses supernatural qualities for a short period of time
the lion is big btw ... just letting you know haha
PENALTY: Lion's Mane
with the penalty in place, luca essentially walks around with a huge lion's mane. he complains about how heavy it is and how the hair gets everywhere
unlike the other members, luca does not possess any magical strength - arguably he could just be a regular civilian who happens to possess superhuman strength; most of luxiem thought he was a civilian until they found out about his penalty
he also is proficient with long range weapons such as guns and arrows, but he is mainly the brawler of the group
while luca was originally scouted by vox to join, luca is actually the one who has the leadership role - the demon said that he prefers a more 'in the shadows' kind of role anyways and handed the position to luca; the guild members aren't sure if luca is actually aware of that, but they all appreciate the work and effort he gives towards the guild.
the guild luca was in has a partnership with luxiem and is currently being led by his older brother
MYSTA RIAS
CLASSIFICATION: Class A(?) Restorer
MAIN ABILITY: Restoration
after seeing a structure, mysta has the ability to 'restore' it to it's original state - for instance, if ike had turned a wardrobe into ink, mysta has the ability to restore the wardrobe's appearance and functionality before it was turned into ink.
mysta's true abilities is unknown - if anything, he has enough magical strength to bring life back
however, there are some ethical issues involving the restoration of life and is considered taboo for a restorer to interfere with the death of a living thing.
generally, mysta has the strength to restore even stadiums after an earthquake to its original form and functionality - it is possible that he may be a Class S, but no further assessment has been made yet
HIDDEN ABILITY: Medusa's Petrification.
this is the only ability mysta has that is allowed to be used on living creatures - he essentially turns things into stone rather than restoring them to its original state
the only way this ability is activated is when mysta experiences a very strong emotion such as fear or despair
he only has to look at the object or creature in front of him in order for it to turn into stone - fortunately, even with the hidden ability activated, he could still undo the process if he accidentally petrifies a guild member
PENALTY: Floating
for some odd reason, mysta's penalty is that he has no control over gravity - his body becomes weightless and therefore starts to float. he essentially becomes a balloon and many of the guild members just walk him around with a string attached to his belt so he doesn't fly off to who knows where before his penalty wanes off.
mysta was actually not part of a guild when he was scouted - in fact, he was working as an odd-jobs repair man who did small gigs in order to get by.
mysta also has the least amount of dungeon experience as he is of a non-combative class ; surprisingly enough, not many guilds seek restorers to join.
despite that, mysta is a highly sought out restorer due to his efficiency - buildings turned into rubble could be restored within a matter of seconds
he is also the only one in the guild who is responsible for the loot they earned and items each member brings into the dungeons
SHU YAMINO
CLASSIFICATION: Class S Mage
MAIN ABILITY: Summoner
as his main ability states, shu is a summoner who could gather up to Class A monsters to listen to him.
he also has the ability to call upon 'yokai'-classed monsters through the usage of shikigami ; this aspect of his ability is dependent on the amount of shikigamis he brings with him into dungeons.
HIDDEN ABILITY: God's Messenger
when activated, shu has the ability to call down one of japan's seven lucky gods to battle. this is randomized and he doesn't have the ability to choose which one will come help.
luckily for him, he doesn't have to worry about the gods not responding to him; no matter the call, they will answer.
depending on who is summoned, shu takes on the form of one of the seven lucky gods and uses their abilities in combat.
essentially, shu becomes possessed by the god he has summoned but does run the risk of being permanently possessed by them even though his combat ability is on a timer
the only problem with this ability is that this can only be activated if he senses that the danger is too high ; ideally in Class S dungeons where the survival rate is essentially 0%.
PENALTY: Inability to feel pain
this penalty could be proven fatal to shu as he would be numb to all kinds of pain - from the tiniest scratch to getting his heart ripped out ; it would be too late for shu to notice if anything bad happens to him.
this penalty is activated the minute he uses his hidden ability, thus putting his own life at an even higher risk of possession and even death
similarly to mysta, shu was not a part of a guild when he was scouted, in fact, he had been staying at his family's temple as one of the priests who carried out sacred rituals to protect his town from dungeons spawning nearby.
tragically, shu is one of the few guild members to experience loss through the dungeons.
when vox found him, he was surround by the rubble of what was originally his home town - the Class A dungeon wiped the town off the map. with no where else to go, shu decided to follow vox and the rest of luxiem.
shu often helps ike with intelligence and is often in charge of dungeons that originate in japanese mythos
he was the last member to be recruited - words of a powerful sorcerer had reached vox's ears, but he didn't expect to find him in that state.
despite the tragedy, shu is thankful for having met the boys of luxiem - he's glad to call them home
VOX AKUMA
CLASSIFICATION: Class S Hunter
MAIN ABILITY: Shadow Swordsman
vox is quite proficient with the sword, combined with the demon-like energy that festers within the shadows, he becomes an unstoppable killing machine
not only can he infuse the dark energy into whatever blade he is holding, he also has the ability to create a clone who wields the sword the same way he does
HIDDEN ABILITY: Divine Judgement
he has the ability to strike a mighty light into his opponents - it is a devastating ability that clashes with his already dark main ability
it can strike through the thickest material and destroy what is wicked ; often destroying the dungeon completely and automatically clearing it in order to avoid any more casualties.
it is another ability that can only be activated during dire situations, similarly to shu's hidden ability.
PENALTY: Temporary Blindness
as the light he summons is from the almighty, it does temporarily blind vox for a little while as punishment for using god's ability for his quest to find out what causes dungeons to spawn
the first and last time vox had his penalty in place, shu was the one who helps guide him around with the usage of his shikigami - on the other hand, luca was the one to pull pranks on vox while he's blind (vox can tell it's luca because of his laugh)
vox has the most dungeon crawling experience out of all the members of luxiem and is the one who recruited all of them to join his guild - he's happy to find such like minded people he could call home.
while his physical or magical strength doesn't exceed all members of luxiem, he is the most proficient and stable in terms of combat ; he has used his hidden ability only once in his entire career as a hunter
luxiem's leader in the shadows, while he doesn't take a direct leadership role, vox usually is the one who approves of or disapproves of luca's wild antics.
ok a lot of the times, vox does approve of luca's antics because "he's just being silly your honour" - only when the situation is that dire will he take matters into his own hands.
he's usually the one calling strategy meetings before going into dungeons
#yuwrote#holy shit yuwu content is real and its just a bl novel brainrot LMAO#do you guys want ship content because i could do that too if requested lol#i need to go through my inbox... ill get to you guys soon TT#nijisanji en luxiem#luxiem imagine#luxiem drabble#luxiem x reader#luxiem#shu yamino#ike eveland#ike eveland x reader#luca kaneshiro#mysta rias#shu yamino x reader#vox akuma x reader#vox akuma#mysta rias x reader#luca kaneshiro x reader
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Here comes a new challenger...
The delta red unit was summoned to investigate a new source of psycho power on Nayshall, since lot´s of others member dissapeared mystriously, they have sended Cammy, an elite supersoldier. After defeating JP she noticed that he was covered in a mysterious green slime... She followed that path into Nayshall´s jungle finding a crater. There was plenty of people nearby, she tryed to ask some rutine questiones with no luck, they were like brainless zombies...
When she reached the heart of the jungle the zombies grabbed her and suddenly some strange tentacles emerged from the ground, immobilizing her...
A slimy eye emerged from the ground too and stared to Cammy´s face... The strange being talked to her...
" An agile body... A superhuman body in fact. But... would it work without a superhuman mind? I don´t think so... Let´s see what you hide behind that pretty face..."
The strange being put his tentacle in her ear and extracted her brain. Cammy´s eyes turned green and became another mindless zombie ready to gather more food for her new master.
"Oh... How many superhumans are in this world... Ha! Bring them all..."
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What are your thoughts on the new trailer for the Side Order DLC?
oh cod i have so many thoughts.... like so many thoughts oh my goodness my brain is overflowing with thoughts. So uh this will be under the cut so i can ramble as much as i like.
AAAAAAAAAAA SIDE ORDER NEWS WAS THE BEST POSSIBLE THING I COULD HAVE WOKEN UP TO
the music kinda reminds me of the soundtrack for ENA in some parts, and as a massive Joel G fan myself i approve. (not that the splatoon music team ever doesn't deliver perfection)
FISH. PARROT FISH. MY WHOLE LIFE OF WATCHING DOCUMENTARIES ON THE OCEAN IS HELPING ME FOR ONCE. THOSE THINGS EAT CORAL BITS. They don't eat only coral, and more often they eat the algae OFF of coral, but still. At least, that's what i think they are.
HER
OH MY GOD
DEDF1SH
THIS MEANS THERE ARE GONNA BE SO MANY MORE ANGLES OF HER WITH DIFFERENT POSES AND EXPRESSIONS AND I CAN MAKE EDITS AND ICONS AND ANYTHING I WANT EVER AND DON'T HAVE TO ONLY USE THAT SINGULAR PIECE OF ART FOR HER WHICH IS GREAT CUZ DEDF1SH IS SUCH A COOL CHARACTER AND JUST AAAAAAQWDCGVIJCHEGSASUYDCGI
She was wearing a dress this whole time??????? I thought it was just an oversized t shirt??????
Also when she introduced herself as Acht and i was lil confused as to whether she was going by a new name or that was the localization of Mizuta. But from what i've seen it seems to just be her localized name.
WHY IS SHE HERE(im not complaining but WHY) She was sanitized, she should have lost her personality. Why is she here? Why is she fine? HOW DOES SHE KNOW MARINA?? Like yeah Marina was a well known octarian soldier like i think even 8 knew of her but she didn't know of 8. So like it makes sense that Dedf!sh would know Marina, but why does Marina know Dedf1sh?? Like yeah music is an important part of both inkling and octoling society so like maybe she was also important? Or do they just know each other as friends???
THIS THING
Its so cute!!!!!!!!!! The beloved!!!!!! I adore how expressive they managed to make the face despite it being so simple!!!!!!!
Her lil crown is so adorable!!!!!!!! And the lil tentacle flappy things!!!!!!!
And 8 can ride on it!!!!
AND ITS 8???? imma be honest i was lowkey in the camp that it was gonna be a clone of 8 or smth cuz of how unwilling they were to tell us if it was 8 or not. So it was interesting to get confirmation that it was in fact her!!!! Which like !!!!! EIGHT MY BELOVED!!!!!!!
Anyway, this thing seems like its gonna be like lil buddy in that it can help out. The trailer has a small split second where it has text about powering up the splat bombs from the lil pearl bot or smth. So like yeah seems like it can help. Plus that weird tether?? Laser??? Thing...??? we saw coming out of it.
ALSO INFINITE REPLAYABILITY AND THE PALETTE THING HAVING AN INFINITY LOGO ON IT PLUS IF YOU TURN THE NUMBER 8 SIDEWAYS YOU GET INFINITY AND THE NUMBER 8 WAS THE THEME OF OCTO EXPANSION AND NOW INFINITY MIGHT BE THE THEME OF SIDE ORDEr
i'm pretty sure it had already been confirmed in a dev interview or smth but this is 100% a alternate reality for if chaos had lost and order had won. i'm not sure how i feel about that??? but y'know what its happening so i can't do much about it. plus it does mean they can kinda do whatever they what without affecting canon too much which should lead to something interesting
ok wait back to the pearl bot real quick. the japanese website for side order (after google translated so take this w a grain of salt) says that "it appears to be Hime(pearls jp name) herself inside, but for some reason she appears to be in the form of a drone" SO LIKE??? WHAT???? WHY IS SHE IN THERE. I ASSUMED SHE WAS JUST TRANSMITTING THRU IT WHILE SHE WAS SOMEWHERE ELSE. which like to be fair i was wondering why she was not there in person. but its not like she was there in person for most of octo expansion either so like????
Also if this is taking place in 8s mind (seems unliekly after this) then maybe the drone is her way of communicating to 8 thru all this??? like maybe its smth marina made???
Speaking of Marina. It seems like these two are looking for her. Which would explain the glitched out art of her in the first trailer
ALSO SPEAKING OF THE FIRST TRAILER. 8s hair was brown there but now its seems like its a washed out color. Like it can still change colors(especially near the tip) but its a rlly pale/pastel ink color usually.
OK RANDOM IDEA TIME. a lot of stuff looks digital. (the drone, the animation of 8 spawning into a level, the matrix code looking stuff etc) so like maybe this is a simulation of some kind that marina made to view into an alternate reality? like in that one interview:
She talks about finding a world of order at the end of the world. So maybe she made a device to peer into that world of order? And then her, pearl, and 8 made their way into it.
That might also explain dedfishs use of the phrase "innocent bystander who got SUCKED INTO all of this" so maybe she was nearby at the time of the device activating. But why would she have been there? and if she was there why would marina not have introduced her to pearl and 8??? maybe the device wasnt meant to be activated at that point yet. maybe it wasnt ready
so wheres marina??? she may have gotten separated from the other 2 and so now they are looking for her??? idk i am literally just rambling here. i have no clue whats going on and so many ideas.
but anyway, this all started because i was wondering how you would get to the dlc area. cuz its not like this is happening somewhere else in the world like in octo expansion. THIS IS AN ALTERNATE REALITY.
ALSO OFF TOPIC(do i even have a topic) BUT 8S TIPS OF FINGERS AND HAIR SEEM TO BE AFFECTED BY THE PAINT CHIP THINGS AND LIKE WILL WE GET THAT AS CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS AFTER
ALSO THE WHOLE IN "INKLING OR OCTOLING FORM THING??" CAN YOU ACTUALLY PLAY AS AN INKLING??? THAT WOULD BE WEIRD. 8 IS A OCTOLING. THIS IS CANON. WHY COULD U BE AN INKLING. IS THIS JUST WEIRD WORDING???? OR CAN YOU PLAY AS ANOTHER AGENT/CHARACTER AS WELL????
ok gonna have to end it here since i had to take my cat to the vet today (dw she is okay) and i am very tired and cannot think any more thoughts at all ok bye!!!!!!!
#mod shiver#mod speaks#side order#splatoon side order#<just incase ppl dont wanna see side order discussion or whtvr and have those tags blocked
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New webzine, a new trans-centric erotica publication, and a bunch of new pieces from me!
Good evening!
Sign up for these updates as emails.
So simplest things first, I set up a TikTok! I'm hoping to keep uploading clips from my comedy gigs to Instagram and TikTok respectively.
I'm on the line-up at a comedy gig tomorrow night in Athlone if you're in the West of Ireland and you'd like to come along! The gig is at The Brazen Monkey, and the show is gonna start at 8:30PM.
You can get tickets online here for €10 plus the booking fee, and tickets will be €15 on the door.
There's also a new comedy night run by Black Crow Comedy here in Galway - it's an open mic intended for women and queer and nonbinary comedians, and it's at 9pm on Wednesday the 5th July in Aras na nGael.
This event is to raise money for Galway Pride, with tickets at €3, and I'm super excited about more marginalised comics having a dedicated space here in the city.
Anyway, out this week was Issue 103 of the Shousetsu Bang*Bang!
The SBB is an online webzine centred around original queer erotic fiction, and it's been running for nearly 18 years - I was so excited to be a part of this issue with my new novella, Fallen Dust, but I absolutely recommend going through the whole of the issue and reading every story. There's over 160,000 words of queer fiction in this issue, and mine is just 14k of that!
I've also set up a new publication called Trans Erotica, which is a Medium publication centred around trans and nonbinary creators.
If you're trans or nonbinary and you write erotica or erotic fiction, absolutely check it out - the characters in the work don't have to be trans or nonbinary themselves, so long as you are!
I've written up Submission Guidelines here, and if you're new to writing on Medium and would like a guide on how to go about setting up, I've written one of those too.
Media Recs
Donut (2023, dir. Rene Gannon-O'Gara) - My friend Rene's hour-long movie, Donut, is out now! It's a great short flick, super naturalistic, meditative, and exploring the weird intimacy/extra distance of customer service late at night when not many people are around. With nonbinary characters, too!
What Really Happens to a Human Body at Titanic Depths by JP Brown - This is fucked up. But interesting.
This TikTok from hahatoys2022 - I've watched this TikTok so many times this week, it destroys me every time.
I also watched the two new Poirot movies this week, the Kenneth Branagh ones - the second one is kinda shitty, but the first one is a fun enough watch, and I'm quite excited to see the new one with Michelle Yeoh.
I rewatched The Incredibles (2004, dir. Brad Bird) for the first time since I was a kid, and its politics are majorly fucked up. Tweeted about it here.
New Works Published
New Podcast: A Stranger's Visit: The Story, Episode 4
Fantasy short. A priest of Freyr receives a strange visitation.
3.6k, rated T. MB. Originally published May 29th, 2021. A little bit of Norse godliness versus Norse priestliness. Featuring Esben. Adapted from a TweetFic.
It should be anywhere you get your podcasts!
Libsyn / / RSS Feed / / On Spotify / / On Google / / On YouTube
Erotic Novella: Fallen Dust
14k, cis M/trans M. A young trans man fleeing an abusive home finds sanctuary at a strange temple buried in a mysterious valley.
Featuring some Eldritch tentacles and mild horror, oviposition, breeding, some DP, and just the end of the world! CW for some threats of sexual coercion and pregnancy + transphobia and threatened detransitioning.
From the Shousetsu Bang Bang / / On Medium / / On Patreon
Romance Short: Easing Into It
An exhausted psychiatrist is wooed by his new barber.
4k. M/M, rated M. A few mentions of past abuse. Adapted from a TweetFic. There is a cute dog!
On Medium / / On Patreon
Personal Essay: As a Trans Man, Why Do Doctors Always Want to Get Me Pregnant?
I'm so tired of fielding questions about my "lost" fertility
In An Injustice! on Medium / / On Patreon
Get merch on TeePublic | | Look through my Directory of Published Work | | Listen to my Podcast
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SplatoonNA:
Breaking news! SRL here with advance info about next season in the Splatoon 3 game! We'll be entering Fresh Season 2023 on March 1st, and SRL's hardworking scientists have you covered with a plethora of discoveries. Grab 8 pencils (if you have tentacles), and start taking notes!
JP + translation
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smut fic so crazy i have to document my thoughts no matter how incomprehensible. (delusion below)
that kind of love is delicious. but idk where to start... theres so much to say.. but i guess ill do it level by level like in the novel? nah, i think i will do it randomly..
but of course, what i like the most was the way the 'game' is set. where ritsuka could get one favor/help from oberon each level in the dungeon. but the condition is that he won't be by her side unless she calls for him to help her. which is seriously??? makes me insane. iirc she had a line where she said while in the 2nd or 3rd floor (i think) that "It's almost as if Oberon wants me to depend on him..." the dynamic is making me throw up from so much excitement. i also like how he made her vocal about what she wants www even if she got assaulted by tentacles or that one lewd mors (which was honestly creative lmao like jp fandom is a genius ww), the half-helplessness she feels pushed her into calling for his name (sometimes with those sighs 😉) and request for help from the 'torture' she 'suffered' from.
ALSO theres that midsummer night's dream title that changed from D to EX like that was really hot asfkjdghlk like assimilation with oberon.. later turns into being the same as him and her soul fully belonging to him as his mate. ritsuka's body is remade to be the same as him like sdkjbskjdfgjkf
i thinked what shocked me the most was the 'safe room' level. i knew something was up but as soon as i saw how ritsuka was so frantic to drink the water and fruits prepared by oberon, the end notes shocked me??? i LOVE IT so much kasjdfkjdsfgh so thats why the title gained was 'gochisousama'. apparently they were from the autumn forest itself and it reminded me that you should NOT eat what a fairy offers or else.. of course we know the consequences. but according to the end notes, its for the sake of loneliness, of hunger, of this distance from oberon that made her suddenly crave for him so much that she couldnt help but consume what he prepared..i also like how he included a bunch of sex toys dkjfdkjgjkbdjkf my face feels so hot reading it i love it so much..
during the progression of the levels, ritsuka also acquired blue markings on her back which is butterfly shape marking asfljdfgjh which meant that, of course, her body and soul is being tainted in oberon's.. (i think this solidified further when the mors came inside her ww)
but what made me laugh was the marriage contract XD he also wrote it in probably british? or what fairy language is used in morgan's kingdom www still the method to sign it was just both delicious and bizarre www
still, the way the game is set is just??? i love it too much. oberon pushed her in 'his' direction but still made sure she had room to decline and go back. but the exit was already obvious since you only have to go back and the 'dungeon' only led to the bottom which was the opposite of a way out- or rather.. she refused to think about it and resolved to meet oberon- see the real oberon instead of the illusions themself, who she wanted to see. the end, the conclusion, fulfilled by her desires which the flames were fanned by oberon when he set this up.
near the end, the lantern still gave her hope, which would have been the perfect entrance for artoria to bust oberon's ass and save ritsuka ww but this is between obeguda, with the goal of claiming ritsuka's entirety for oberon and 'returning' to that abyss where separation is nonexistent.
"I don't want to betray this light..." That lantern still burned in the end after all. But oberon's question really was a nail in the coffin ww
"If that's the case then I'll ask you," Oberon's voice quietly trembled, "Where in the world is that hope(light) of yours?"
and the words broke ritsuka??? so good.. askjfhsdjkgh the light shined the way to move forward. but 'forward' to where? if the exit and the outside world is that way, why didnt this light point the way? why did the light keep shining so brightly? why was that light burning? and the sense of resignation and defeat washed over her. she doesnt even know why she ended up in such a place the moment she was at the final floor. the feeling of despair was delicious it was so great im clawing at my chest...!!!!
she could only stutter with that feeling of despair! as she tries to find a reason for that lantern that she carried with her!!!
and its just like in the garden!!!! the garden!!!!! "It's alright, Ritsuka. That's enough. You can relax now. Whether its over or still in the middle of it, you can let go." you can finally be free. you can rest easy. so just rely on me. you've done enough!!!
there was also that "fallen star" title. i think its the best. it really does remind me of lb6's ending and his views on titania ueueue
seriously this kind of courtship... www it also reminds me of kairi's previous works which included a similar theme.. but this time three authors worked on it so thanks for the collab yomoko-san, kanonige-san and kairi-san herself
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TWST Fanfic "Her Lost Voice" Chapter 7
Hello readers!
A few things first before we dive into the very intense chapter that is Numbah 7:
First of all, I've been hearing all the buzz about Diasomnia Part 3 dropping tomorrow on the JP server. Congrats to all my fellow TWST fans who can actually read/understand Japanese lol. Speaking of our final boss dorm - my poll for the possible third Sacred Crown, decided by YOU, story is up for another three days. Tell yo friends, pass it on, and please vote.
Second of all, this chapter legitimately has a trigger warning for violence, abuse, character death and the Tweels going feral...all the fish bones lol. You have been warned.
And lastly (cuz I'm working another 10 shift tomorrow), Happy Birthday to @nuitthegoddess's OC, Aurelian Hawthorne. I hope your boyfriend makes it out of the Blot-o-Sphere and everyone can laugh about this later lol.
Chapter 7: Daughters and Sons
The evening had been fairly calm on the walk back to the tunnel hub. Azul ignored the odd looks he got for walking alongside Elise in a ‘human suit’ as she gently floated through the water next to him. Yes, it was a little more difficult to move in this form but he always felt so uncomfortable in his octopus form…which, looking at the current situation, Azul now felt a bit ridiculous feeling that way but old habits die hard!
The princess didn’t seem all that bothered by it. She was too busy fluttering her tentacles through the water, softly propelling herself through the water with a look of pride at her progress. Any time she ended up jetting ahead at a suddenly faster pace, she’d always float down to the sandy ground and wait for Azul to catch up, grinning at him the whole time like an excited child. Her enthusiasm was infectious. Azul couldn’t bear to hide his own smile.
“You’re taking to this form very well, Your Highness. Most humans would be pretty clumsy with it, barely able to figure out up from d…d-down…”
Before Azul could properly finish his words, Elise playfully swam above him and turned herself upside down, nearly making the boy walk his face right into hers. She had never gotten that good of a look at Azul’s eyes before. For one thing, he was always hiding them behind those glasses. But now that she was up close, she could see they weren’t just blue: his nervous eyes were greyish-blue, like a stormy sky. They almost had an icy sheen to them. They were more than beautiful. Azul was just as ensnared by hers.
“Your Highness,” he murmured quietly in such close proximity, “Were your eyes always that bright…?”
Elise's deep blue-black hair framed her face in fluttering waves as she slowly shook her head with a coy grin. She realized how close in proximity they were to each other one heartbeat later. That same feeling Elise felt before started to buzz in her chest as she turns herself right side up again. She felt a bit dizzy...fizzy...and a bit self-conscious. Azul cleared his throat without much success before walking ahead, "It's getting late, I better get you back to the Leech's, or Mother will have my hide."
Elise giggled to herself as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and continued to follow behind Azul. Even if she could speak, Elise was too kind to tease the poor boy any further lest the tips of his ears grow an even darker shade of pink.
Once they reached the hub, Azul stopped at the main entrance. Unfortunately, he couldn't navigate the maze of tunnels very well in his human form which irked him greatly. Elise could see the hint of frustration on the boy's face and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder before gesturing that she could make the last leg of the journey on her own. Azul felt conflicted over the notion of leaving the princess alone. The ocean in general was a dangerous place and leaving a non-native all alone could be disastrous. On the other hand...she didn't seem to need his help. In fact, any amount of help he had tried to give her since they all began just ended up in failure over and over again. Azul suddenly felt like a cold lump of lead had fallen into his gut. Elise furrowed her brow as she watched an invisible maelstrom from behind his distant gaze. Azul Ashengrotto seemed, in Elise's experience at least, to have different faces: the first and most common was his charm and suave ambition that he had at the ready in most cases when he was coming up with an idea or pursuing something and then the second, more secretive face...this one he wore right now. It would sometimes surface and then wash away as quickly as seafoam pushed onto the shore.
Azul's eyes lit back up as the princess' soft touch on his arm anchored him back into the present. His first face was suddenly thrown on and locked in place, "Ah, forgive me, Your Highness. My thoughts seemed to drift away there for a moment. You're sure you will be alright going on alone?"
Elise nodded and scribbled a quick note in the sand with one of her tentacles, 'Jade and Floyd showed me the way'
The octopus boy crossed his arms with an annoyed expression. He had messaged the twins earlier telling them that Elise would more than likely need one of them to escort her back...so where were they?!
The twins were both sitting in their home's dining hall, getting an earful from a very upset Madam Leech. Floyd leaned lazily on his hand as he poked at the food on his plate, tuning out his mama's irritated voice as much as he could while his brother sat straight up across the table, at full attention.
"Honestly, you boys! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?! No call, nothing, you just up and disappear overnight without so much as a word! I had no idea where you were-oh Floyd, eat your food, darling! You're so skinny! As much as we're paying that school, the least they could do is make sure my baby boys are eating properly! I swear you keep growing more every time I look at you-"
Floyd just groaned before shoveling food into his mouth and giving Jade a pointed look. Jade reassured their mother that both he and Floyd were always well fed on campus but that did little to stop her motherly rant. When their father's absence was finally noticed that started a whole nother wave.
"And where is your father?" she huffed, "He's always here for dinner on the dot..."
It was true that Don Leech insisted on eating his meals with his wife and sons, regardless of how busy he was, and he wouldn't leave the table until everyone else had finished eating. Tonight, however, he was a bit more preoccupied.
Don Leech hovered outside in front of the mansion with his eyes glued to the horizon. Something in the stir of the currents seemed off. It made his fins bristle to a fine point. All reports his boys had given in within the last hour up to a few minutes ago didn't raise any red flags but his instincts were still on fire for some reason. For one, his sons' friend hadn't returned yet. The Don called one of the guys that had just returned over to him.
"Head into the tunnels and make sure the young miss makes it back safe and sound. I don't want anyone under my watch coming to harm."
He left his associates to watch the front as he turned inside, knowing his wife was probably already upset with his tardiness.
-
"Cowrieeee....
...where...are..yooouuuu...."
Cowrie could hear their voices calling from around corners. She was in a part of town she knew she didn't belong in, hiding inside a tight, dark nook, her hand over her mouth to hopefully keep the burly shark mermen from hearing her. When the chase began there were only two of them. Now there were at least four. Apparently, Proteus was hiding a couple of his thugs to make the hunt more interesting. The young eel tried to keep her breathing steady and her mind clear. Panicking now would only lessen her chances of escape. She used to run espionage missions for her father and would sometimes find herself in situations like this where she had to hide or run. She escaped then, she would now. Cowrie just kept reminding herself of this over and over in the dark, listening for their voices to judge how close by they were.
"Come out, little worm. We just want to talk..." one of the voice chuckled.
They were getting closer. Damn it, DAMN IT! Stay calm. Don't move. Cowrie felt the ground beneath her hiding spot. Sand....soft sand. This she could work with but she had to be fast. The shark with a missing eye slowly swam around the corner sniffing about. His mouth spread into a big sinister smile showing off his multiple rows of sharp teeth as his nose lead him to a small opening in the side of an abandoned building.
"Hello...gotcha."
He peered inside and his smile quickly turned into a grimace when the only thing he saw was a hole in the sand that seemed to lead further into the actual building's interior. He silently signaled the others to move around the building and go inside as quietly as possible. The building was made from the remains of a sunken ship. Inside were odds and ends of random things and remnants of whatever business was there previously. The burrowed hole definitely lead inside the innermost room but when all four of the sharks lurked inside, it was completely empty. It wasn't until the entryway to the room was slammed shut did they realize it was a trap.
Cowrie quickly jammed the biggest rock she could carry into the door's bar handle to keep it from opening and swam as fast as her tail could manage straight out of the main exit, knowing it wouldn't hold them for very long. She didn't look back as she heard their snarls and the crash of metal sounded from behind her. The mermaid sped through the main street trying to find her way amongst the confused and hurried crowds. Cowrie quickly sped away as soon as she heard screams from the mermaids in the area. She could hear the sharks' one-eyed leader yelling for everyone to move out of his way and when he spotted her.
"Come here, you lil' viper!" his snarl was full of malice.
The small eel quickly darted down the side alleys, over and under fences, anything to put distance between her and her pursuers. The whole Leech territory was one huge maze to her but she couldn't stop. Her heart beat at the speed of light as her eyes never stopped searching for another exit. Escape. Escape. Cowrie's laser focus on this was the only thing keeping her nerves from overwhelming her. She knew what Proteus' sharks were capable of. She had seen it first hand...and she did not want to be their next little 'accidental' chew toy!
"Come back here, you little bitch!!"
Cowrie shrieked as she felt large claws swipe at her tail seconds before she darted through another small opening through a tall barbed fence. Shit, the gashes burned and her blood was seeping into the water, leaving no chance of her hiding from them now. Her body was growing tired but Cowrie knew she couldn't stop. She flopped for only a second back into the main road, skidding a bit against the ground with a grunt. A few onlookers swam up to her to make sure she was alright but scattered as soon as they spotted just who was chasing her. Her tired eyes looked about the area for another escape route. When she spotted the tunnel hub at the end of the next turn, she went for it as fast as she could. This could be her only chance at actually losing them for good.
A few members of the Leech muscle were seen entering tunnels right as Cowrie sped past them in a blur. She crashed into one of them, nearly knocking him over.
"What?! What the hell, kid?!" The larger eel growled until he saw the much smaller, striped eelette who was nearly out of breath and looking absolutely terrified.
"P-Please! Please help me, sir!" Cowrie felt all of her emotions begin to bubble over all at once. She was shaking like a leaf.
The older merman quickly assessed the situation as two of the sharks were barreling towards them, looking pissed and even a bit hungry. He let out a high-pitched whistle that brought two more of his cohorts over to him and ready to deal with the situation at hand.
"Get inside the tunnels, kid, go down the first left and keep left. Hide if you get lost. We'll come find you. Get movin'!"
Cowrie muttered a quick thank you and torpedoed straight into the tunnels as the sounds of an intense scuffle began right behind her. It was dark. She didn't have any glowing spots like the twins or even Luna did thanks to her mixed-breeding. It was great for hiding which is another reason why her father used her the way that he did but when she was lost in the dark? It was distressing beyond reason. Cowrie paused to take a couple of quick breaths before continuing forward. You can do this...you're alright, she told herself. She had to remain calm if she was going to make it out of this situation. Cowrie couldn't see but her sense of smell was impeccable. She sniffed the surrounding water and walls, searching for anything among the many scents left behind that might be familiar. Suddenly, there it was. To her left. It was faint but it was definitely one she knew very well.
Jade. Jade had been this way before. Cowrie listened for any sound of either the sharks or other eels that had helped her. Nothing. She quickly and quietly followed Jade's scent through the twists and turns of the giant stone maze. She would stop for only a split second to make sure she wasn't being followed before continuing. Every once in a while there would be tiny shafts of faint light drifting in through smaller holes in the walls. When the scents began to change, Cowrie suddenly clasped a hand over her mouth and clung to the wall. The light was faint but slowly passing by the opening ahead of her was the very distinct shape of a shark's dorsal fin. It slowed to a halt as its owner's voice called to her.
"Oh, little Cowrie...I know you're there. I can smell your sweet blood, little worm~"
Her heart was pounding in her ears so hard that she didn't even realize that another familiar smell was even closer to her. The shark's fin started to move as the merman started to turn around. Just before he could face the tunnel Cowrie was hiding in, a familiar black and aqua-blue tentacle wrapped around her waist and pulled her into the opening right above her. It happened so quickly that she didn't even have time to freak out. Above in a small little nook, Elise was waiting and caught the shaken eel in her arms. The princess pressed a finger to her lips to tell her friend to keep quiet. Elise could see the first and second shark floating along the stone underpasses through a couple of smaller openings around her. It was only a matter of time before they noticed two mermaids hiding above them. Cowrie kept one hand over her mouth but pointed to another passage behind Elise's head. The princess quickly squeezed her octopus body through before pulling Cowrie in after her. There were only two sharks that they could see. Hopefully, that meant that the other two were still outside or were at least chased off by the eels at the gate. Cowrie's hopes were dashed when she saw a third shadow lurking from around the corner. She knew it was the leader from his gravely, hunger-pained voice.
"Stop hiding, you little shit, you'll only make your punishment worse!"
He was blocking the closest exit forcing the girls to hide again but the other direction was a dead end. Elise could see the panic start to rise in Cowrie's eyes. She didn't know who these sharks were but obviously, her friend was in great danger...and she'd be damned if she let them have her. The princess pointed to one corner of the dead-end that seemed to be deeper than the rest. Before Cowrie could argue, she pushed the smaller mermaid into the dip and tucked her long tail around her, trying to make her as small as possible. Elise put on a brave face and mouthed the words 'trust me' to Cowrie before covering her with as much of her body as possible like a mother hen would her baby chick. Granted, Elise wasn't 100% sure this would work but what other choice did she have? Elise pressed herself and Cowrie as close to the wall as possible. The tips of her fingers and the suction cups of her tentacles felt the stone wall and slowly she felt her whole body adapt. Her skin turned a darker gray and formed the same smooth but strong texture as the wall with the same grooves and look as the stone itself. Even the ends of her hair clung and morphed into an extension of the wall until her whole body just looked like another lump of rock. From there, Elise shut her eyes and prayed that this would work.
The one-eyed leader hovered around the corner, sniffing about, followed by another. He slowly peered into the darkness with his one good eye, narrowing it in frustration. He elbowed his partner and gestured to him to get a closer look at the dead-end while he swam down another passage away from the hiding girls. Elise felt her muscles start to burn as she stayed as still as possible. Cowrie stayed curled tight and held her breath as the large shark merman swam mere inches away from them. The bulky shark nearly grazed them with his tail as he sniffed every single corner...but after several long minutes, he followed his leader down the opposite direction. The minute he was gone, Elise grabbed Cowrie and jetted away into the next tunnel with silent urgency.
Jade's scent was getting stronger, Cowrie let out a quiet breath of relief. Elise seemed to know which direction to go and was moving non-stop, pushing off of the walls if she had to. Anything to gain more speed to propel them through the tunnels. The light was getting brighter. They were so close when several things happened at once. Elise heard the voice of the eel sent by Don Leech to search for her and just when she and Cowrie made it through the final passage into open water, Cowrie let out a scream that made the princess' blood freeze. There was a smell of blood...
The scream could be heard from inside the Leechs' house and Jade's entire body felt a hot rush of adrenaline as he heard Cowrie's voice. Both he and Floyd were out of the dining hall and rushing down the main corridor faster than any land animal could muster. When they reached the front gates, Jade's vision burned hot fiery red.
Elise was surrounded by the four large shark mermen and in her arms was Cowrie, shrunken in on herself and looking filled to the brim with dread. The end of her tail was covered in gashes and a large bite mark. Her own blood leaked out into the water around her. The one-eyed shark had the same blood on his grinning mouth.
"You're lucky I didn't take a piece off, you little snake. Proteus told us not to hurt you too badly...but he didn't exactly specify the limits."
The other sharks laughed mirthlessly around the two girls. Elise kept whipping her tentacles at them to try and get them to back off but the men just laughed even harder as they dodged. One took the hit straight across his face which only made him budge ever so slightly. It felt like she was punching a brick wall. "Ooo! This one has some spunk! I like her!"
Their leader grabbed the next tentacle that tried to whack him across the face and yanked on it hard, pulling Elise to the ground, "Easy there, lass. I wouldn't want to havta take a bite outta you. Or maybe I would. Octopus is quite delicious after all." His mates bared their teeth and snarled out harsh laughter in agreement, "Although..."
He turned his attention to Cowrie and grabbed her face, forcing her mouth open as two other of the thugs grabbed Elise and dragged her away from the younger mermaid, "I hear that this one has a nice poisonous bite. And what pretty teeth. I bet they'd make a nice necklace, wouldn't they, boys-"
A loud crack rang through the water as Jade's long tail struck the brute across his bloody maw, sending him and a couple of his teeth tumbling backward. Cowrie fell to the sandy ground as Jade suddenly covered her tiny body with his in a tense arching guard. Floyd made quick work of the two holding Elise with his own tail and pulled the octopus mermaid to safety behind him. Both of the twins' eyes were bright and wild with fury, their teeth bared, claws out and ready, and deep throated growls rumbling out of them. The fourth shark was quickly struck down with a sharp bolt of lightning magic as Don Leech wasn't too far behind with his own crew. If the twins looked furious, their father looked downright murderous. Electric magic was still cracking between his fingers in prickling sparks, ready to explode at any given moment.
"Who the hell do you think you are coming into my territory and harming these girls, like some back alley trash?" His tone was laced thick with venom even though his words were steady.
He saw the injuries on the small female eel's tail and the way his son held her protectively to his chest without taking his eyes off the enemy. He didn't know who she was but seeing her trembling form cling to Jade only made his blood boil even hotter. The same deadly, wild-eyed look Floyd got whenever he was pissed grew on his father's face, tenfold.
"Normally, I'd have the decency to give you two seconds to get the fuck off of my property with your shitty lives intact...but you bastards clearly have no decency yourselves so why should I?" His soft thunder of a snarl sent cold shivers running all through Elise and Cowrie's already shaken bodies. This was the fearsome Don Leech that Cowrie had heard stories about all of her life. This was the dangerous world below that Elise barely knew and now had a front-row seat to. Jade and Floyd's snarled grimaces slowly turned to feral, sharp-toothed smiles. Their fins stood sharp on end as they knew what was coming next. Jade slowly leaned down to speak to Cowrie without breaking his gaze, loosening his hold on her shivering body.
"Cowrie...go inside with Elise, please."
Cowrie didn't argue. She quickly swam over to Elise and booked it towards the large house without batting an eyelash. Elise was out of her depth, a foreigner in this world, but she knew better than to try to stop it. It was something much bigger than her or even Cowrie. She didn't dare turn around as the sound of wet crunching and mangled shrieks reached her ears. Madam Leech was at the front double doors, watching the scene with a cold yet furious gaze on her face. She quickly ushered the girls inside before shutting the doors behind them. Her words didn't register to either of them but her voice was soft and gentle as she guided them both back to her parlor after telling a few of the staff to bring medical supplies to the room immediately.
"Don't worry, my dears. My boys will take care of those beasts. You're safe now."
She cooed and held them both close to her as Cowrie finally broke down into a loud sobbing wail. Elise just felt frozen. Completely and utterly frozen in shock.
"Everything will be alright, my pearls. There, there..."
-
Outside the mansion, Jade's ears were ringing with how angry he felt. His teeth pierced the rough shark mermen's hides as he threw them to the ground, tearing at them as if they were just paper dolls. Floyd's wild cackle could be heard close by as he continued to wrap his tail around one of their throats tighter and tighter. Jade Leech was never really one to lose his temper but all he could hear, smell, feel in that moment was a sickening replay of Cowrie's distressed scream and her blood filling the water as he held her traumatized form to him. He knew of Don Muraeni's cruel reputation since he was very young but this...it was unforgivable. Jade only came to his senses when he realized the one his father had pinned to the ground was the same one-eyed shark that had threatened to rip his beloved Cowrie's teeth out. He dropped his current target like a two-ton ragdoll, leaving his father's muscle to deal with him, and breathed heavily as he glared over at the main offender. Floyd saw the look on his twin's face and got a ruthlessly delicious feeling of glee.
"Hey, Jade..."
"Yes, Floyd?"
"That one-eyed bastard is the one that bit Cowrie-chan and threatened her, isn't he? Let's deal with him properly."
"Yes, Floyd..." Jade snarled coldly as he swam over to his father. Floyd followed suit with a wicked giggle.
"Father...let us handle this one." Don Leech looked over his shoulder at his two sons. Their faces were even more frightening now that both of them were covered in shark blood. His sons: deadly, cunning, and ready just like he taught them to be. He felt an instinctual sense of pride swell in his chest as he eased away from his prey, letting his twin boys take over. The future Don Leech quickly replaced his father's steel trap grip around the shark's neck with his own as he and Floyd bent down to smile wickedly into his one good, scared eye.
"You are the sea scum filth that hurt my Cowrie...you're either real ballsy or real stupid," Jade's voice cut like a dagger right through his serrated smile. His assertively protective tone when he spoke of the girl didn't bypass his father's ears.
"My money's on both," Floyd giggled, tail swishing back and forth as he poised himself, ready to attack at any given moment.
Jade hummed and tilted his head to the side as he pried the shark's lips apart with two fingers on his free hand, "My, my....what impressive teeth you have...don't you think, Floyd?"
Floyd's smile couldn't get any bigger, "Oh yeah...they'd make one hell of a necklace, right Jade?"
Their laughter shook the shark merman to the core. If he had even a hint of what coming onto Leech territory would mean for him today, he would have left town hours ago. Don Leech ignored his pleas for mercy as he ordered his associates to clean up the rest of the mess as if this was nothing more than a pitcher of milk that had spilled.
"Spare a few pieces, boys," he called to his sons, "Don Muraeni is going to be receiving a nice message from me personally this evening..."
-
"Just a little bit more, my darling."
Elise's mind was reeling from everything that just happened but she did her best to comfort Cowrie, petting her hair as she held her close. Cowrie's crying had ceased but she kept wincing and whimpering as Madam Leech put some form of odd medicine over the cuts all over her tail. The mother eel insisted on treating the wounds herself. She kept cooing words of encouragement to the girl as her elegant hands moved with precision and a true healer's touch.
"Almost done, sweetheart. It'll only sting for a little bit."
Once she finished, Madam Leech wrapped Cowrie's poor abused tail up in some sort of bandaging material. Elise kissed the top of her friend's head as she felt Cowrie start to relax in her arms.
"Madam, your husband wishes to speak with you in his office," a female maid had quietly entered the parlor as her mistress was finishing up, "Your sons are there as well."
The mother nodded and handed the remained medical supplies to another one of her maids before turning to Elise and Cowrie, "Elise dear, I think it would be best if you girls return to your room for now. Don't worry, I'll make sure to have my husband's men on watch all night. In the meantime, you need to rest."
The princess took the mother's gentle smile to heart and nodded. Madam Leech asked the two maids to escort the girls back to the princess' room before leaving the parlor herself.
-
"Who is she, Jade?"
His father cut right to the chase, still heated from all the commotion. Jade was still on edge himself but now for a different reason. This was definitely not the way he wanted to break the news to his father but after everything that had happened, and considering what could have happened, Jade Leech's previous doubts were put to rest once and for all.
"Cowrie Cerith. Otherwise known as Cowrie Muraeni. My mate."
Floyd's eyes flicked curiously back and forth between his father and brother. The tension in their gazes alone could suffocate a blue whale. Jade stared his father down with a serious but cool gaze while Floyd could see the heat rising in his father's narrowing eyes.
"Muraeni...Muraeni?!" Don Leech's fists pounded on his desk as he practically jumped from his seat, "Of all the girls you could choose from, you pick that bastard's spawn?!"
Jade knew fighting his own father would not end well and thus tried to keep his temper in check and his words clear, "She never asked to be his child so I see no point in holding it against her, Father. Cowrie isn't of age yet but once she is, I have every intention of making her my proper mate for life. Please don't try to change my mind. It won't happen."
Floyd was waiting for his twin's head to explode with how intense their dad's glare bore into him. Before that could happen, their mother made her entrance and read the room.
"Darlings," Madam Leech's voice was velveteen and soothing, "Goodness, what is with this stifling atmosphere?"
Her husband didn't end his glaring contest with Jade as his beautiful wife swam over to him and placed a comforting hand on his back, "Your son...has just informed me that girl is a Muraeni and that she...is his intended mate." The whole time Don Leech seethed out each word his tail angrily smacked the floor. Another trait Floyd had picked up on.
His wife gasped and placed a hand to her chest as she addressed Jade with a shocked look, "Jade darling, is this true?"
Jade's eyes didn't pull away from his father's but a soft smile did adorn his face, "Yes Mother, it's true. I've already made my intentions known to Cowrie and asked her to stay with me. She agreed."
Don Leech and the twins nearly popped off their fins when a loud, delighted shriek erupted from Madam Leech. She was positively beaming.
"AT LAST! Oh, sweetheart, this is WONDERFUL news!"
Her husband looked as if he had just been slapped sideways with a jellyfish, "W-WHAT?!"
His mother immediately pulled Jade from his seat and into an excited hug, leaving him to blink in surprise as the wind was basically crushed out of him, "My sweet Jade has found a mate and such a pretty little thing! Oh, you two will have the most beautiful babies!"
"Dearest..." Don Leech groaned in exasperation as he slumped back in his chair, "I know you're excited, my love, but you can't be serious about allowing this..."
Madam Leech released Jade from her death grip of a hug and turned to her grumpy husband with a tut, "Darling, really, listen to yourself! You're acting like we're planning a funeral!"
"If Jade mates with a Muraeni, it will definitely come to that," he snarled. His wife's enthusiasm was undeterred as she swam back to his side, running her fingers along his spiked dorsal fin.
"My love," she purred sweetly, "That poor girl being a Muraeni is even more reason for her to become our Jade's lovely bride. You saw how that monster's thugs were treating the poor thing! We cannot allow her to stay in such a ghastly situation!"
Jade and Floyd just sat back and watched their mother work. Their father was one of the most powerful mob bosses on this side of the reef but their mother was a professional mastermind in her own right. Even the formidable Don Leech couldn't win against her charms and steel will. Floyd chuckled as he imagined Jade and Cowrie having the same dynamic a few years from now. Their father looked from his wife's sweet gaze to his sons' amused ones and groaned in defeat.
"I...will consider it..." he grumbled, "She can stay tonight. I'll give my final decision in the morning."
His wife placed a sweet kiss on his cheek with a satisfied grin making her sons chuckle.
-
The area outside the Leech Mansion reeked of lingering shark's blood as Don Leech's men cleaned up what was left after the fight out front. From the edge of the cavern of tunnels, Seven had seen the tail end of the skirmish. He had known that the Leech family weren't ones to mess with but seeing it first hand? His stoic face didn't show it but it turned his gut to rot. His sister had certainly picked a strong family to mate into. It was his sister that had brought him here and now he wasn't so sure he could get close to her without ending up in the same sack the sharks were now being dragged out in. He didn't doubt that Cowrie was safe for a second, it was just that now she was here on enemy turf and Proteus' thugs were thoroughly...dealt with...things were going to be far more complicated.
The front door to the mansion was up the slope a way so anyone paying attention could see anyone exiting the caves and vice versa. So when Floyd Leech swam back outside to see how the clean-up was going, Seven spotted him right away and decided to take a chance.
Seven's sudden appearance at the gate caused a stir right away as he expected. What he didn't expect was for Floyd to make him an offer. The second twin waved his father's boys off, signaling that there was no danger which confused them but they knew better than to question the more wild Leech son. Floyd casually swam over to the opened gate and looked Seven up and down with a curious grin.
"What's up, Sven? You missed the fight."
Seven narrowed his eyes in annoyance at the strange younger eel, "It's SEVEN..."
"Eh. Whatever. It's a weird name."
"Anyway," Seven huffed, "I saw the end result. Where's Cowrie? Is she alright?"
Floyd stretched like he was getting ready for a workout, "Yeah, yeah she's safe inside. Jade and I made sure to take care of the bastard that hurt her. He's over there, nice and snug," Floyd giggled eerily as he pointed to a large sack two of the other eels were dragging around the other side of the fence. Seven noticed that it'd move slightly before going still again. "He ain't gonna be swimming properly for a while. Or ever." Floyd chuckled as if he told a funny joke. Seven didn't bother asking what happened to the other sharks. He didn't want to know, honestly.
"I need to see Cowrie for myself."
Floyd's face split into a sharp grin, "Yeah. Ok. I'll let you inside to see her...on one condition. I'm still pumped from the last fight. Those sharks were big and tough to bite into but they weren't very fun..."
Seven picked up on what Floyd was asking immediately and rolled his eyes. Seriously what did Luna see in this guy? He was just as reckless and wild as his stupid younger brothers who had too much energy and were always itching for a scrap.
"You'll let me in the door as long as I go a round or two with you, is that it? ...Fine. Let's get this over with. Just keep in mind, I'm six years your senior...so don't expect me to go easy on you."
Seven's warning fell on deaf ears as Floyd practically vibrated with excitement as he jumped into position, posed, and was ready to start throwing down. The older Muraeni eel just sighed and swam into the open space, looking more bored than anything. Floyd bolted at his opponent at breakneck speed to sink his sharp teeth into his tough shoulder. Floyd's excitement quickly turned into confusion as he found himself face first in the sand before his teeth could even break the skin. Seven's thick tail uncurled itself from Floyd's arms and smacked the back of Floyd's planted head.
"Seriously? You think you can protect Luna with such amateur moves?" Seven asked dryly, "Honestly she could have done more damage and in half the time..."
Floyd didn't bother taking that bait but instead whipped his tail around to grab Seven by the throat and threw him down on the ground.
"Better," the Muraeni eel coughed.
-
Don Leech swore his family was going to be the death of him. He felt his head pound as he pinched the bridge of his nose. A roughed up Floyd and less-so Seven sat across from him in his office.
"If we get any more of you Muraeni's coming in here tonight, I'm going to have to open up a slaughterhouse..." he snarled.
"I apologize for the intrusion, sir. I just wanted to make sure my sister was safe," Seven's polite tone was unexpected but the Don's guard refused to fall, "...and I also apologize for fighting with your son. It was the only way he'd let me in."
The Don gave Floyd an exasperated look, "I admire your spirit, boy, but there is a time and a place! Get yourself cleaned up and back to your room before your mother sees you like this!"
Floyd just grumbled something about being bored as if he wasn't covered in scratches and bruises and swam out of the office. Seven was left alone with the Don and his muscle standing watch by the door. Don Leech sized the young merman up with a scrutinizing gaze, "I suppose you're here to make a bargain for your sister's return, hmm?"
Seven's expression was stoic, his tone even, and his head cool, "Actually, sir....no, that's not why I'm here. I want to ask that my sister be taken into your household indefinitely. I'm afraid her safety would be forfeited if she returns to our father's house. Especially if he finds out about her intention to become your son's mate."
Don Leech wasn't surprised so much as he was disgusted by Seven's words. This boy only confirmed his suspicions that Don Muraeni's cruelty knew held no boundaries. But for Muraeni's own son to ask this of him?
"You know about your sister's connection to Jade? And you're not opposed to it?" He watched Seven carefully, waiting for his reaction. Seven remained as poker-faced as ever.
"I am not, sir. I know our father would absolutely not feel the same, however. To be frank, Don Leech, I'd rather my sister be safe in the arms of her mate even if it means never seeing her again than for her to die at the hands of her father because of a feud that started before she was even born..."
"And what about you, boy? I sincerely doubt that your father will handle this betrayal with any mercy."
Seven knew the moment he agreed to keep his sister's happiness a secret that he was walking a dangerous line. But did he regret it? No...he couldn't say that he did.
"Let me worry about that, sir. Please just consider what I have asked of you, instead."
Don Leech took a deep breath and pondered to himself. So much for waiting until morning to decide. His heart grew heavy as he looked into Seven's serious and worn-down expression. He took stock of each scar this young man bore and could tell that he knew exactly what the costs of his actions were. Seven's resolve had been pressurized into a level of strength that rivaled cut diamonds. This Don Leech could respect at the very least.
"Very well, then. We have an understanding. And you were never here, Mr. Muraeni."
Seven rose and bowed his head to the Don, "Thank you, sir. I'd like to see my sister now before I go."
"Of course."
-
The twins were waiting outside of Elise's door. Now that they had calmed down and gotten all of their aggressions aired out, they worried that perhaps they had scared the princess to the point where she no longer felt safe in their home. This weighed on Jade as he frowned, hesitating to knock on the door right in front of his face. Floyd also felt a bit guilty but also frustrated with himself and his brother. More so Jade.
"Hey, Jade. Stop acting like you regret doing it."
Jade gave his twin a hollow chuckle, "You know I don't, Floyd...I'm just a little worried."
"Uuugh you worry too much!" Floyd growled before knocking on the door for his brother. There was a pause before they heard a click of the latch from the other side. The door slowly opened a bit before Elise's turquoise eyes blinked up at them. They widened just before she slammed the door shut, making Jade feel like his worst thoughts were confirmed right then and there. Before his ear fins could start to droop, the door suddenly opened up all the way and Elise was there with a worried look on her face and more medical items in her hands that the maids had given her for Cowrie. She grabbed Floyd's hand and dragged him inside before he could argue and waved Jade to come in as well. The princess made Floyd sit by her vanity as she started applying that same medicine Madam Leech had used before to the cuts and scratches all over Floyd's face and shoulders. He fussed and hissed about how it stung but Elise just silently scolded him with her eyes and continued her work.
Jade saw Cowrie's curled up form on Elise's bed. Her back was to him. He watched the gentle rise and fall of her breathing. Her tail was bandaged up and laying limp over the side of the bed. He quietly swam to the other side of the bed to see her sleeping face. Only then did he exhale. His relief didn't last long as a second knock came to the door, sending his protective instincts through the roof once again.
The door was opened by one of their father's bodyguards to reveal Seven waiting on the other side. It wasn't that Jade didn't trust him, per se, just that every cell in his body screamed at him to protect his injured mate from this male that could potentially try to take her away from him and right back into harm's way. Seven recognized this look in Jade's eyes and entered the room with caution, "Relax. I'm not here to take Cowrie back. I just wanted to see that she was safe."
This seemed to put Jade at ease to an extent and he relaxed his body to show that it was alright for Seven to approach his sleeping sister. Elise wasn't sure who this new eel was. Seeing her confusion, Floyd filled her in.
"This is Sen, he's one of Cowrie-chan's brothers. We fought outside."
"It's Seven and you started it, you weirdo," Seven said flatly over his shoulder as he looked down at Cowrie's sleeping form. A quiet snarl rumbled from his throat when he saw the bandages, "What the hell...they've never been this rough before."
"This has happened before?" Jade tried to hide the irritation in his voice but failed.
Seven gently sat himself on the large bed next to the small eel, softly brushing her dark bangs out of her face, "Our father...well more like his underlings...they carry out any disciplinary actions whenever any of his children or thugs get out of line. We don't get special treatment just because we're family. But I've never seen them be this rough with Cowrie before. Cowrie's never run from our home turf onto yours either. Doing so is suicide."
"So what happens now?" Floyd asked from his side of the room, wrapping his tail around Elise like a blanket.
"Cowrie stays here with you. Permenantly. She can't come home after this. Our father wouldn't just punish her. He'd kill her..."
Elise clung tightly to Floyd's tail as her body seemed to freeze over once again. Intruders were one thing but did these mafia bosses really kill their own children simply because they ended up on the wrong turf?! Jade and Floyd's faces were stone cold. They never had to fear that their father would kill them simply because they broke some rules but they also knew that these things happened a lot more in their circles than many liked to talk about. Cowrie stirred awake and looked up at Seven like she wasn't sure if she was still asleep or not, "...Sevy?"
"Yeah, it's me, Cowrie."
If she wasn't so out of it, Cowrie swore her brother had a bit of a half-grin on his face. She suddenly jumped up and threw her arms around her brother's neck, her voice shakey, "S-Sevy!"
This wasn't going to be easy, he could already feel it. He shushed gently to his baby sister, reassuring her that everything was ok. That she was ok. Then came the hard part...
"Cowrie....you're going to be staying here from now on. With Jade and with Floyd. You'll be much safer and happier here."
The young mermaid pulled away and gave her brother a distressed look. She knew what he meant and part of her loved him for what he was doing while the other didn't know how to process this at all, "B-But why?!"
Seven sighed as he pulled her tiny body close to his, "Hey, hey, come on...please don't make this any harder than it already is, Cowrie. I'm not dragging you back home just so I can watch you get ripped to shreds. You're staying here, understand?"
He had been through hell and back several times since he was barely a teen but somehow hearing his younger sister cry was the most soul-crushing experience of all. What she said next nearly broke him.
"What about Luna?! She's all alone! I can't leave her there! And what about you?!" her muffled sobbing seemed to ripple through the whole room. The twins looked frustrated and defeated. The princess looked absolutely heartbroken. Seven knew he was thinking like a madman. Just being there in that house was already the biggest risk he's ever taken. But...there was still one loose end left.
He gave Cowrie a gentle kiss on the top of her head, "Don't worry about me, Cowrie. Don't worry about Luna either. I'll make sure she's ok, got it? You..." he turned and gave Jade an icy glare, "...you better give my sister the best damn life you can, you hear me you smug punk? I'll come for your head myself if you don't."
Jade just accepted the title of smug punk as a compliment and gave his future big brother-in-law his usual grin as Seven handed Cowrie off to him. Seven rose from the bed and looked to Floyd, "Walk me to the door. We need to talk."
-
Floyd hadn't said a word the entire time he and the bodyguards took Seven to the front gate. The Muraeni son was tense and silent the entire swim there but stopped as he waited for the gate to be opened.
"You're both insane. You and your brother. I don't know what the hell my sister or Luna see in you two...but as far as options go, you're their best bets. So I'll accept it."
Floyd giggled at the older eel's gruff attitude, "Ehh really really? Does that mean I can call you 'big brother'?"
"Don't push it," he growled, "You want to get Luna out, yeah? If that's the case...I need two favors to start with."
Seven jerked a thumb over to sack Don Leech's men were getting ready to be delivered, "Gimme that first off. If your dad wants to send mine a message, I'll deliver it for him. But it needs to be realistic or my old man will never buy it."
Floyd was intrigued by this plan but still a bit skeptical, especially since it involved getting his Luna back, "Sure. But how does this help us get Luna out?"
Seven crossed his arms and sighed, "Use your head. You can't just bust into the Siren's Cove and whisk her away. You'd be dead before you even got within a mile of the place. You need someone with a brain on the inside. The VIP performance is the night after tomorrow. I know Cowrie was plotting to sneak you and your brother in...and no she didn't tell me. I just know my sister. She can't do it now. So I will. But first, I gotta keep up appearances so my dad thinks I'm still loyal to him. So I need a second favor."
"What's that?"
"I need you to punch me in the face a couple more times...."
-
Elise decided to give Cowrie and Jade some time alone for the rest of the night and didn't argue when Jade took Cowrie into his room. She could understand their feelings and desire to be together after the terrifying events that happened earlier. Being all alone in her own room felt harrowing somehow. She felt like she'd go mad if she spent another second cooped up and made her way outside. Granted she had to ask for directions but eventually, the princess found her way into the large garden behind the house. It was the most colorful and brightest part of the estate: a large chunk of reef teeming with life that Madam Leech had been carefully curating since before the twins were even born. It was gorgeous and just distracting enough to help Elise feel even a tiny bit more normal. She found an open space with a flat stone structure that she propped herself upon. It was quiet...well outside her on-fire brain, it was, anyway.
Elise looked up towards the water's surface that seemed miles upon miles away with a silent sigh. She felt stuck in between two places she didn't belong in. She was a human princess that no one on the shore seemed to be looking for, in love with a mermaid prince that didn't want her, now stuck under the sea in a very beautiful and very dangerous world that both amazed and scared her, in a body that wasn't really hers. Elise looked down at her tentacles that seemed to curl and unfurl on their own like a sea anemone flowing in the currents. It was a strange place to be. How many days had it been since she had changed? How many hours has she spent in this form? Was it...unpleasant? Is that why Azul hated being in his true form so much-
Elise suddenly tensed up. Azul! She had told him that she'd let him know when she made it back ok! She huffed in frustration when she realized that really had no way to do that. Then again, should she tell him everything?? He'd probably freak out. She didn't want to worry him but either way, her phone was back on land. Along with her magic pen and other personal belongings. She bet no one bothered to look in her room either. If they had, then they'd know she was actually MISSING! The princess crossed her arms and pouted as she felt a bitter taste stew in her gut. Was she really so forgettable?
"Octi-chaaaan?...Octiiii-oh there you are!"
Floyd poked his around the coral hedges with a big smile on his poor bandaged face. He seemed to be talking to someone on his phone, "Yeah I found her, Azul, she's fine."
Speak of the devil. Maybe Elise had some sort of psychic abilities now that she was an octopus. She could hear Azul's hurried tone coming from the phone. Judging from Floyd's bored expression, the octopus boy was nagging at him.
"Ehhh? I said she was fine, geez. She punched a shark in the face earlier! It was awesome!" Floyd burst out laughing, ignoring the shocked outburst that most definitely came from Azul's side of the phone. If nothing else, it did make Elise laugh to herself. In the heat of the moment, she had completely forgotten that she, Princess Elise Coralette, had most definitely punched a shark merman in the face. Absolutely legendary.
"Yeah, yeah I'll tell her. Calm down," Floyd pulled the phone away from his ear to relay the message, "Azul wants you to wait here for him tomorrow. No leaving the grounds without him."
Elise gave the eel a playful salute in response. Floyd just grinned and continued talking to Azul, "Octi-chan says ok and that I should get off the phone so we can cuddle and make out and stuff since I've had a very stressful day. Ok byyyyye!" Azul's spastic chatter went unheard as the mischievous eel ended the call.
The princess shook her head at Floyd's devilish giggles before yanking the phone out of his hand. She opened up the messaging app to text Azul while Floyd made himself comfortable on her very spacious lap of curled-up tentacles. She played with his hair with one hand so he wouldn't start fussing about not getting any attention while texting the no doubt exasperated Mr. Ashengrotto with the other.
F: It's Elise. Floyd's just being a brat. Don't worry. And yes I am fine, I promise.
Across town, Azul rolled his eyes. Leave it to Floyd to fool around even in the most strained situations. He started typing a message back as he sat in the living room of his mother's house. His home was a fairly large one not too far from The Leviathan Club. His parents were in the next room. He could hear his mother's worried voice sound boarding off of his step-father's much calmer notes.
A: Is Cowrie alright? Mother has been very worried about her since word spread around the Square.
F: She's been injured but she's going to be alright...it's a lot but she's going to be staying here from now on. She's with Jade right now.
A: Probably for the best. I will let Mother know not to worry...or to try not to anyway. Are you sure you're alright? You weren't hurt, were you?
Floyd noticed the tiny grin on Elise's face as she read whatever it was that Azul was saying. She was really pretty when she looked happy. Floyd internally scoffed, knowing that Azul had no idea and wouldn't even if the twins sent him a framed wall-sized photo of the look Elise had on her face right now. Azul was one of his best friends in the world but good grief was he dense...on the other hand, Floyd wasn't sure if the princess was aware of her growing glow either. Eh, it seemed like too much work to butt in right now so Floyd just resigned to rest his eyes and enjoy the feeling of her delicate fingers comb through his hair. He figured if he shut his eyes, he could at least pretend it was Luna instead.
-
Cowrie felt exhausted, too exhausted to keep crying. So instead she just breathed in her mate's soothing scent as she stay nuzzled into his chest, letting his soft voice caress her in comfort as he continuously planted kisses on her hair, face, and neck.
"I'm so sorry, Cowrie..." Jade's voice sounded weirdly uneven now that it was just the two of them. It was like he had been holding himself together until the millisecond they were curled up on his bed, alone, behind the closed and locked door.
"I promised you that nothing bad would happen and yet-"
Cowrie couldn't stand it a moment longer. She had lost count of how many times he had apologized to her and how many times she reminded him that none of this was his fault. Eventually, she just let him say it for no other reason than to maybe put his heart at ease but this was too much. So she stopped him from finishing that thought with a kiss on his lips. She looked straight into his eyes when she ended the kiss, pulling barely an inch away from him.
"You saved me. You, Floy Floy, and Ellie. And we're all ok. It's just a few gashes. I'm ok. And now I'm here with you. Now we can make sure we're both safe. Always."
Jade exhaled and planted another soft kiss on her lips before pulling her back into him. Neither one of them said anything else that night. They didn't see the need. So they just fell asleep, curled into one another as the rest of the house fell into a peaceful quiet.
Across the reef, on the Muraeni turf, things were not so peaceful...
The entire house seemed to explode into a rage of confusion and anger at the 'present' that had been dropped off on the family's doorstep. Don Muraeni snarled at the commotion disturbing his late-night and burst out of his den, "What the hell is going on?!"
He glared down from the second level at the sight in the large mansion's entrance hall. His sons were circled around a batten and bruised Seven and tearing open the large sack that had arrived with him. Once it was opened they all seemed to rear back in disgust. Ventuno gnashed his sharp teeth with boiling fury, "What the fuck is this?!"
Inside was the one-eyed shark beaten to an inch of his life, barely conscious, what was left of fins torn to shreds, and without a single tooth left his broken maw. The only thing left from his partners was their dismembered tail fins. Seven sported a fresh black eye and a couple more gash on his face in addition to the scratches and bruises Floyd had already given him from their little brawl. He crawled into a sitting position and coughed, wincing from the stinging pain.
"C-Cowrie's gone..."
His younger brothers look at each other in shock but the eldest only scoffed, "Oh is that all? Eh, one less brat to look after."
He snapped his sharp fangs at his younger brothers as he shoved through them, snickering at the ones who flinched. Seven looked up into the searing stare his father was giving him. The Don barked at his thugs to clean up the mess before yelling down at Seven.
"Get up here now, boy! You have five seconds before I mount your tail on the wall!"
Seven groaned as he sluggishly pushed himself off of the floor. He felt Proteus' gaze from somewhere in the hall. He didn't know exactly where the ray was but knew that he was definitely watching every little interaction as it was happening. As soon as Seven crawled into the den, Don Muraeni found Proteus in a matter of seconds and stared him down.
"Proteus. Get to the Cove now. Put the whole place on lock down. Luna is to stay there permanently. She isn't to leave her room or take a breath out of her goddamned window unless I say so."
The door to the Don's den slammed with an echo of finality as his right hand grinned from his hiding place in the shadows.
"Yes, sir..."
Tagging: @wysteriadelights @honey-milk-depresso @1ndigowitch @evieyouknow @iscarlettappel @foxwitchaine @victoria1676 @marcepanna @feldya @aiimee9 @espada188 @zstargalaxy
#neoninky#ao3 writer#ao3 fanfic#twisted wonderland#sacred crown chronicles#twst oc x canon#her lost voice#twst oc schools#octavinelle#floyd leech#jade leech#azul ashengrotto#the cerith sisters#elise coralette#seven sevy muraeni#tw// violence#tw// murder#tw// gore#feral eels#more eel mermaids#chapter update
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Azul for the character bingo
***Standard disclaimer: These are just my personal opinions of the character(s); regardless of what I may think of them, sharing my thoughts is NOT meant to offend or to shame anyone that thinks differently.***
***CONTENT WARNING: mentions and discussion of bullying!***
This one’s going to be quite weird 😂 For those of you who may not know, Azul used to be my favorite character back when I first started Twisted Wonderland (JP) upon release. Since then, he has fallen from grace and now sits as one of my least favorite characters in the entire cast (which I know is a very controversial take; I’m well aware of Azul’s popularity both in the Japanese audience as well as in the international audience).
A huge part of the reason why I was initially drawn to Azul was because The Little Mermaid was basically the only Disney movie I had a strong connection with of the ones that the Great Seven were modeled after. I religiously watched that movie and its sequels as a kid. I collected sea creature plushies and listened to The Little Mermaid soundtracks to help lull me to sleep. I dreamed of being a mermaid when I grew up despite not being able to swim. The whole under-the-sea aesthetic enchanted me, and since the original movie didn’t characterize the eels too strongly, I of course gravitated to Azul, who is based on The Little Mermaid’s iconic villainess, Ursula. Little me had always preferred Ursula to Ariel anyway. I really adored her unique lavender skin, her seashell jewelry, her overdone makeup, and her fuller body (it was rare for me to see that kind of body type portrayed in media back then so the variety was great). It was also so cool seeing her tentacles move in the water and how they filled up the space on the screen???? Additionally, I found her to be one of the smarter and sassier Disney villains, which I really appreciated. AND THAT WHOLE THING ABOUT URSULA BEING KING TRITON’S BANISHED SISTER??????? Catch kid me slurping up lore and fan theories about that 😳
ANYWAY, THE POINT IS THAT I SIMPED FOR URSULA WHEN I WAS A LITTLE KID SO I WAS LIKE “okay I guess I’ll simp for anime Ursula now that I’m older” since I anticipated a lot of what I loved about Ursula to also be present for Azul. In the beginning, this was mostly true and I was loving every second of it. I absolutely adore it when a character uses their smarts instead of their strength to overtake their enemies and obstacles, and Azul was really serving that up in episode 3 (and later on, episode 4). He wasn’t exactly like Ursula, but the traits that Azul offered that were uniquely his happened to fall in line with what I usually enjoy, so I had no complaints. Azul was calm, cunning, and above all else, a force to be reckoned with, someone who was always way ahead of you and difficult to outsmart.
Then we got his backstory, and he completely lost me.
I’m sure that this shocks many of you, as Azul’s backstory is one that often garners him sympathy and empathy. I’m NOT saying that I’m apathetic to his situation; I actually empathize a lot with what he went through as someone who has been bullied myself and felt resentful toward those perpetuating the bullying... and I can totally understand why he’s trying so hard to invent a new, more confident identity for himself, but that doubt and insecurities still remain from his past trauma. It’s admirable how Azul didn’t let the bullying weigh him down; he instead used his negative emotions to motivate himself to study hard and get in shape. However, in the context of what Azul would later do with his intelligence and magical abilities, it leaves a foul taste in my mouth.
Truthfully, I dislike Azul’s backstory, and Azul by extension, for very VERY personal reasons. The implication is that Azul improved himself in part because he sought revenge against his bullies. He eventually does get what he wants, robbing his bullies of the traits that they were most proud of in exchange for “helping” them, and continues to run that shady business to this very day. So... what? It’s okay to be driven by spite? It’s okay to seek revenge against people who have wronged you? It’s okay to keep swindling others for personal benefit under the guise of altruism just because you were hurt in the past? I’m sorry, but I just cannot agree with any of that.
I realize that I may be viewing Azul’s backstory from a somewhat shallow perspective, but when I first read it, my gut reaction was to be hurt on a very personal level. Again, I’ve been in Azul’s exact situation before. I’ve even felt the same disdain toward my tormentors that Azul did, and I used the thought of revenge to fuel myself to excel academically to “prove them wrong”. That might have made me a good student, but it also made me very bitter and haughty for a period of time. I would later come to realize the error of my ways and worked even harder than I initially had to scrub away that hateful version of me and open myself up to others. To see Azul, someone very similar to me, be rewarded over and over for being truly awful makes me feel as though my own efforts to be a better person were somehow for naught. Like, that’s NOT how things work???? I look at Azul and I see what could have happened to me if I continued being resentful; I would have become someone just as bad, if not worse than, my bullies 😔 I’m NOT saying it was okay for them to have bullied Azul, but kids/teenagers are assholes and don’t realize the full extent of how their comments can hurt others in the long run; what is Azul’s excuse, especially when he is older and fully aware of the consequences of his actions?
Honestly, I probably wouldn’t be so offended by Azul’s backstory if I didn’t find myself relating to him so much... I still like seeing him engage with the other characters (particularly when he’s trying to butter them up), but as it stands, I cannot ever see Azul the same way that I initially did. He reads as someone that kid me would have looked up to as a role model, someone who could “stick it to the haters” and make all of his dreams come true at the same time, but now that I’m older I see just how detrimental that line of thinking can be.
I think that Azul works best when paired with good characters he can bounce off of (namely, contradictory characters or people who can push Azul’s buttons). This includes the twins and Jamil, who provoke Azul in their own ways. He’s forced into a vulnerable position with Jade and Floyd, who are aware of the past that he often tries to bury and could bring it up at any moment. Meanwhile, Azul dials up the charm and confidence to 11 when he’s with Jamil which 1) is fucking hilarious, especially with Jamil shutting Azul down while wearing a deadpan expression and 2) makes me think that he wants genuine companionship with someone he can relate to (even if he probably does intend on also using Jamil as an asset to his business if Jamil transfers to Octavinelle). I really feel like I’d like Azul a lot more if he just made more vested efforts to open up (but I understand that he’s not currently in a secure enough position with his identity and trust in others to actively pursue that).
#disney twisted wonderland#twisted wonderland#twst#Azul Ashengrotto#notes from the writing raven#ask game#character opinion bingo#spoilers#tw // bullying
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HoloPro Gartic Phone illustration (Hololive EN, ID, Holostars JP and EN)
fave moments:
aruran and magni sharing the same kobozilla vision
shien slowly melting
magni drawing rio in a tank
how axel draw noses
aruran wanted to draw everyone with long legs shien that ended to roberu
rio faded but axel is still dead
rio drew magni twice (fire and water magni, and sword fight with axel)
aruran crying until banana sword
aruran thinking ame would like dumpy aruran that turns out she started
axel saying hi through an explosion
and of course the tentacles
#vtuber#hololive#hololive clips#amelia watson#kureiji ollie#kobo kanaeru#anya melfissa#holostars#arurandeisu#kageyama shien#uproar!!#minase rio#holotempus#magni dezmond#axel syrios
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Holocure Character Guide: Holomyth
NOTE: This guide was written for 0.3.1656470021. The Hololive EN characters didn't change much in the 0.4 update, so it should be mostly accurate, but item recommendations in particular are probably wrong.
Each character has a basic weapon they start the game with, three unique upgradable skills, and a super attack. These interact to make (for instance) Calli and Sana play very differently, even when armed with the same weapons and items. I’ve played each of them at least a couple of times, and will do my best to explain these differences and how best to use them.
Amelia Watson
Ame is a pretty basic character—appropriate, since she’s one of the few ordinary-ish humans in Hololive (outside the early JP generations).
Her starting weapon is a pistol that can only fire left or right (in my opinion, the most annoying to aim out of any starter weapon), and two of her skills just boost damage and critical rate. Her special freezes enemies in place (while boosting her pistol’s firing rate), and her third skill lets Bubba run around, fetching XP and hurting enemies. Pretty much any loadout works on her, with the exception of loadouts that just don’t work at all.
Also, you can pet the dog.
Gawr Gura
Gura’s skills lend themselves to a specific sort of playstyle, focusing on numerous small strikes and not getting hit.
The most important, at least for building her kit around, is her Shark Bite, which has a chance to put a “bite mark” on enemies each time they’re hit, increasing damage taken and potentially healing you when they’re killed. You need weapons that hit a lot for tiny amounts of damage per hit to take full advantage of this mechanic.
Gura’s basic weapon, a fork trident, has good range and strikes multiple times when upgraded, but its narrow attack area means aim is critical (and it struggles with crowds). The Power of Atlantis creates whirlpools that trap enemies and make them more vulnerable to damage. Just be sure to attack them—you aren’t running a catch-and-release program. Her special is pretty straightforward—one big attack, then she “reflects” on her performance gets bonuses to damage and speed for a bit.
Finally, there’s Short Height, which causes enemies to sometimes miss her because they’re used to fighting taller people. After dodging this way, Gura gets half a second of invulnerability and speed boost, which is hopefully enough to get you to safety. Combine with Headphones for, at maximum level, a 57.75% chance of ignoring any attack that hits. Just don’t assume that this combo makes you invulnerable. (For more than half a second at a time, I mean.) Short Height also combines well with Sake and other items items that buff you if you haven’t been hit.
???
I don’t know where else to put this, so I’ll squeeze it in here: Gura and Ina get a semi-unique bonus with the Cutting Board weapon and derivatives. I find this interesting, because their base weapons have something in common—both are long and narrow, compared to other (non-projectile) weapons. This has its advantages, but it has big weaknesses called “sides and back”—weaknesses that the fully-upgraded cutting board solves by throwing extra cutting boards at all of those weaknesses.
Is this a coincidence, or an intentional design choice? What weapons will Ollie, Shion, and that famous necromancer have?
Anyways.
Ninomae Ina’nis
Ina’s a fun one. If you play her right, she’s jumping into the middle of enemy hordes and smashing them to pieces.
The first and most obvious piece of the puzzle is her Special Attack, which summons a bunch of tentacles before turning Ina into a damp, sticky buzzsaw. If you don’t throw yourself into a mass of enemies, it won’t do much. If you do, it can wipe out an enemy mob. The second only-less-obvious-because-it-takes-time-to-unlock piece is Ina’s Cult skill, which grants a damage bonus for having lots of targets around.
Now, jumping into a big pit of violent fans could be somewhat dangerous. Enter The Void, a skill which slows enemies as they get close. This helps mitigate that danger, by making it harder for enemies to reach you. Of course, it doesn’t help any once the enemies do reach you; you still need to avoid running into enemies, and grabbing some weapons with knockback (like max-level Spider Cooking) can hardly hurt.
The last thing you need to worry about is not dying. The Ancient Ones skill helps out with that, turning enemies into harmless ghost takodachis (which still count for the Cult skill, and heal you at maximum level). But it only does so much; you’ll want defensive items as well. Nurse Horns are good on everyone, of course, but they’re worth pointing out; the times when Ina is most vulnerable (in the middle of an enemy horde) are when she should be killing the most enemies.
Defensive items are good, especially the best defensive item in the game. What else? Ina needs some close-range weapons, but mostly to protect her from the enemies she’s jumping into. Cult’s damage bonus applies whether the enemies are two pixels from hitting you or offscreen, so she benefits from mixing short- and long-range weapons.
I haven’t really talked about Ina’s default weapon, Summon Tentacle, because it’s hard to fit into this framework I’ve been building. I’ve been talking about how Ina wants to jump into the middle of big groups of enemies, and her tentacle…has the longest range of any starting weapon except some projectiles, and while wider than Trident Thrust or Bird Feather, it’s still narrower than many other starting weapons.
As for actual advice: You can “swipe” with the tentacle by moving while it’s extended to hit more enemies. This is particularly useful when an enemy you thought you should have hit ends up in one of the tentacle’s weird curls. Advancing a starting weapon to max level ASAP is rarely bad advice (unless you’re playing Baelz), but it’s especially rewarding on Ina, whose level 7 ability is probably the coolest out of the entire cast.
Takanashi Kiara
I would rate Kiara as the best for new players to pick up. She’s pretty simple; run around, slash with your nice broad sword, and set everything on fire.
Kiara’s basic attack is pretty simple—a sword-swing that grows and grows and eventually gets set on fire. Before Calli’s rework, it was by far the easiest Holomyth starting weapon to aim, and it’s still pretty easy. Her special attack, Phoenix Fire, is also straightforward; one big explosion, and some lingering flames to protect you (or to lure enemies into).
Her skills are pretty easy to understand, too. Phoenix Shield can help defend you, but it’s only effective if you only take damage every once in a while. Trailblazer creates damaging (and eventually slowing) fire where you walk; it’s beneficial to inexperienced players, because it lets them do damage by running away. Speaking of running, Dancer provides a damage boost as long as you keep moving. (You can stop for a fraction of a second without losing the buff, but not reliably.) There’s rarely a reason not to move, so this is a pretty easy buff to maintain (unless you’re even more fumble-fingered than me).
Kiara works pretty well with any weapons or items. I personally recommend going for MiComet and Dragonfire, so you can paint the map orange with flames, but that’s more of an aesthetic concern than a tactical one.
Calliope Mori
Calli has gone through some serious changes in recent updates. She’s been buffed, partly by tweaking some skills, but mostly by changing how her scythe works on its own.
Once, the scythe was for many people the trickiest weapon to use; it covered a wide arc, but only a narrow slice along it, some distance from Calliope—and that distance only grew as you upgraded the scythe. Many people found it more difficult to aim than any other basic weapon—you didn’t need to work hard to get the angle right, but you could only attack at a fairly specific distance.
And even if you were better at keeping your distance than aiming, the dead zone meant that enemies surrounding you on multiple sides could easily trap you, unable to attack if you didn’t have some other close-range weapons to fill the gap. And even in that case, Calliope would still be in danger, because she is all about that scythe.
The Rapper boosts damage within a certain radius, which affects all weapons with a shorter range than her scythe, but also affects her scythe. Death causes some extra effects when enemies are killed with the scythe (or by Death’s explosions, which are triggered by the scythe). And her special attack, The Reaper, mostly just boosts her scythe damage.
Sure, it boosts crit damage too, but Calli isn’t very crit-focused. And it’s honestly kinda disappointing for most of the game—it’s not hard to boost your scythe to the point that it kills basically all non-boss enemies for the first twelve minutes. You’ll fall behind the curve if you grab some useful items in the early minutes, but you should catch up before you actually need to kill enemies in a single swipe. For ~60% of the game, The Reaper is a boss-killing special. And it’s quite good at that!
I should also briefly mention Workaholic. It provides a stacking damage buff whenever you kill enemies that only goes away if you stop killing them. This is a big part of why Calli’s scythe is so deadly—it’s very easy to kill some enemies and never stop long enough for the buff to go away.
So aside from buffing the scythe, what should you get? Other weapons that can benefit from The Rapper’s close-range damage buff are ideal, particularly Spider Cooking. It used to be more important, to fill in the scythe-arc’s huge dead space and help judge how close you were to enemies, but it’s still handy. Spider Cooking, BL Book, and Cutting Board help cover Calli’s back, where her scythe isn’t reaping.
She also needs defensive items. Most characters have at least one defensive skill, at least something that slows down enemies like The Void or Down Under, but Calli’s only innate defense is an overwhelming offense. Nurse Horns are an excellent choice for any character, but Calli’s sheer lethality makes them an especially good choice.
If you like living dangerously, Face Mask and Injection-Type Asacoco are also worth considering. They give huge damage buffs, in exchange for making you extremely fragile. ITA and Nurse Horns seem like they would make a potent combination—all the power of Asacoco with enough healing to practically negate the downside—but I’ve never been able to test it.
Old Calli should never take Knightly Milk; it would extend her scythe outside The Rapper’s range, which kinda defeats the purpose of the skill. However, I tested New Calli with Knightly Milk, and it looks like even a maxed-out scythe with maxed-out milk stays within level 3 Rapper’s range. Man, this guide sure had to change a lot after Calli update, huh? I hope no other characters were updated enough to completely invalidate parts of this guide…
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Next to show a BWC to the Hololive girls was Ina, she wanted all the horniest sluts of Hololive to get bleached, knowing all they'll do after taking one is talk about how amazing it was constantly on their streams. It was such a fun thought for her. Ina herself was a girl that acted innocent but was secretly one of sluttiest members of Hololive, so it was perfect to bring the biggest hung white stud Ina had ever seen to bleach: Choco, Mel, Marine, and Noel. The known sluts of Hololive all being JP members, knowing full well that once these sluts took a white cock, they would never want anything else. Ina, of course having fun with the hung white stud too, she was a proud bleached slut after all.
"Oh wow Ina, I never thought you'd be into something like this!~" "This dick is so massive, even all of our tits can't contain it..." Marine and Noel both moaned out at the same time, all four girls on their knees surrounding the hung white stud. Making sure that she chose the biggest dick she could find, Ina knew that these overconfident JP sluts were going to try to dominate him with their tits because they refused to be defeated by BWC, but as soon as they tried they discovered that all four of them combined wasn't enough to properly service such an incredibly massive dick. Even though they were some of the bustiest girls, they can't compare to a BWC, those JP sluts were learning that their bodies only belonged to the superior white dick that was ruining them. Of course, Ina isn't missing out either because while she might be flat, she still leans in and lowers her head right down so she can suck on the tip, unable to speak but her hair is lifted up by her tentacles, making it so that she could worship him like the obedient bleached slut she already is, wanting to make him feel as good as possible.
All five girls doing their best to make him cum, especially thanks to Choco's slutty nurse titfuck attack and Mel's vampire cum-gathering techniques, soon causes the hung stud to release his load. Ina pulls away because she might be addicted but she wants the other four girls to realize how white men are superior in every way, their massive tits and slutty whore faces being covered completely white with his cum. White cock is just so much better, all of these girls might've been sluts before but now they're bleached sluts for white studs only.
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