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#messed up a whole lot of the inking this was my first time actually doing smth other than pencil doodles traditionally mdgskjdhgd

prince-kallisto · 2 months

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Dire Crowley: The Serpent and the “gift” of the Forbidden Fruit

I’ve been seeing a lot of interesting comparisons about Crowley’s repeated mention of apple trees in his new vignette to the “forbidden fruit” from Biblical lore. I had a bit of a lightbulb moment the more I thought about it! Σ੧(❛□❛✿) My take on the idea is certainly far from perfect haha, there’s a lot of gaps in the technicalities of it all, but I do think there is a connection between Crowley, the serpent, and the Forbidden Fruit 👀

Apples have been a repeated (although subtle) motif of Crowley’s for quite some time. The courtyard at NRC is riddled with apple trees, his vacation shirt depicts them as well, and it’s been heavily implied long before his vignette that he is the one who takes care of these trees. Additionally, the ever-so ominous opening animation depicts quick flashes of a bitten apple on the ground, much like the scene in Snow White when she takes a bite of the Poisoned Apple and falls into a death-like sleep.

In Crowley’s new vignette, it first begins with him making a whole speech about how the apple trees in the courtyard thrive no matter the hardships and seasons, and how they’ve grown before he knew it- much like his students! The students are oblivious to what he actually means by this, repeatedly mocking him and messing up what fruit he’s talking about because they didn’t pay attention to his speech. But later, the vignette ends with the ominous Dire Crowley theme playing (same one as in the opening prologue), as he says “because you are all…my precious, precious apple trees.” His story begins and ends with apples! 🍎

The opening animation depicting the apple feels very symbolic- I don’t think it’s a representation of Book 5, aka the Pomefiore book at all! Neige and the themes of an apple’s temptation played a surprisingly meager role in that book, and he was given apple juice instead of an actual apple. And in the opening animation, there’s shots of a book, spilled ink, the bitten apple, the spindle, and Crowley sitting in Pomefiore’s (a replica of the Evil Queen’s) throne.

For a long time now, we have believed Crowley sitting in this throne meant his ties to the Evil Queen, like him being twisted from her crow. Which I am not discounting that idea by the way! 👀 But what if…this scene is meant to hint that Crowley is taking on the symbolic ROLE of the Evil Queen herself- and also the serpent from the Bible? The novel gives more details of his whip weaving and constricting like a snake, as if it were alive…

Because when thinking about the story of Snow White- she is an innocent maiden who is tempted by a fruit that is dyed with beauty and promise of good, while underneath it lies a creation that will harm her IF she eats it. Despite the dwarves warning Snow White to never take anything from strangers, the Evil Queen disguised in her crone form tempts her with the apple, and her biting the apple puts her in a death-like sleep. Isn’t this just a loose retelling/allusion to what happened with Eve and the serpent, and how the serpent reassured her the Forbidden Fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil wouldn’t harm her, despite God strictly forbidding her and Adam from eating it?

Side note, I’d like to mention how Crowley keeps saying how “kind,” how “magnanimous,” how “generous” he is. And in Twisted Wonderland, the Evil Queen is now called the FAIREST Queen

Apples symbolize knowledge, fertility, love, wisdom, and immortality (soon I will specifically talk about the apple symbolism in general for Crowley)! Serpents/snakes symbolize can symbolize evil, mischief, trickery, but there’s also a lot of potential positive associations in them as well. They can symbolize rebirth, wisdom, and fertility. This is post that goes more into a bit more detail about the snake imagery at NRC but the edges of the Dark Mirror and NRC logo depict the caudeceus- two serpents together that also represent negotiation/diplomacy and eloquence.

And going back to the novel description of Crowley’s binding Whip of Love, Lian mentioned that Crowley’s Whip of Love literally binds the students together in his vignette much like these threads do on the spinning wheel with the Diasomnia characters in the Book 7 trailer animation🤔 And I feel like when looking at all these images of the spinning wheel together, there is threads and thorns “weaving” and “binding,” much like Crowley’s whip of love. And in the novel, Grim also mistakes Crowley’s whip for a “string” 👀

So after ALL of this ANDJSJJD, the long story short is that I believe Crowley is the serpent, which the Evil Queen also plays a similar role of. I made a much more detailed analysis here going through every Book, but I feel like Crowley is secretly guiding the Overblots to happen. There is always a weakness each Overblotter has that Crowley manages to exploit. Even though I think Crowley’s potential end-game plans are meant for the good of everyone, there’s a lot of bad things and suffering that must be caused for even the possibility of a happy ending. In the Bible, the Serpent was said to be the most “subtle”, aka the most cunning of God’s creations, convinced Eve that the Forbidden Fruit would not kill her and Adam if they ate the fruit unlike what God claimed, and said that Eve would have the knowledge of everything.

And going back to the vignette, Crowley seems to almost lament how naive and sometimes foolish his students can be. They certainly have much to learn under him. They completely missed and disregarded his speech about the apple trees and their growth, and then the NPC students and Grim call him weak and try to taunt him- but then he comments on how they know so very little before whipping them into shape 🤣

Additionally, in that same vignette, he says that hard work and experience is what makes life so much sweeter instead of doing what just comes easy to you- apparently he even pops into Special Lessons all the time to purposefully frighten the students and get them to work harder! 🤣 And another a new voiceline also reveals he does not intervene with the student’s shenanigans because he wants them to grow as individuals and have their own autonomy. It’s as if Crowley desires his students to have freedom in every sense of the word- but not to have everything just given to them on a silver platter.

And if Crowley is indeed involved with causing the Overblots as I think he is, then it even furthers this idea. The students never actually died despite their magestone being tainted and Overblotting. They were certainly forced to realize the deeper pains and issues inside them, but they didn’t die. What Crowley is doing is not because he wants to hurt them, but for the growth they experience afterwards! Directly confronting these horrible things is what triggered a change in many, and we even get to see the core reasons at how they led to their Overblots.

What the Serpent essentially did was the same- it technically never lied, much like how Crowley is always telling half-truths. Adam and Eve discovered shame and fear, but they technically gained a lot more freedom and knowledge of everything, both good and evil, once cast out of Eden for how they disobeyed God.

What’s interesting to me is that this philosophy Crowley has directly contradicts Malleus’ philosophy when he Overblots in Book 7. Malleus practically quotes Revelation 21:4 of the Bible, saying he will create a world without pain, sorrow, and loss. Practically orchestrating everyone’s individual “Garden of Eden” in their dreams. And as we see in the peeks of Idia’s and Sebek’s dream, everything is so ideal that everything changes. As we see in Idia’s dream specifically, we presume that the “original” Ortho is alive and well, and has grown up and is attending RSA.

AND this is where Lilia becomes so fascinating in this book. Lilia’s dream is full of hardships- his life as a General, the hardships of war, the loss of Levan and Meleanor, the cruelty he received outside Briar Valley. But ALL of this was a necessary part of Lilia’s journey in adopting and raising Malleus. It was a harsh journey, but his life became so much sweeter by the end of it, where he even bursts into tears from how happy he is to have hatched Malleus. Earlier in the dream, we see him complain how he’d probably be responsible for babysitting Levan and Meleanor’s kid- but now he’s begging Malleus to hatch, saying he’ll do anything as long as Malleus can live, even sacrifice his own magic and lifespan to do so. (Credit to Otome Ayui on YouTube for the translations!)

I think it’s interesting how the events of Lilia’s dream is essentially Crowley’s philosophy. That pain and hard work is necessary to achieve one’s true potential- an idea that Malleus is not emotionally ready to comprehend yet. I wonder if Crowley will play a role in Book 7 to lure everyone out from their “Gardens of Eden” that Malleus has created? 🤔 Because now that I’m thinking about it more, the whole Garden of Eden think represents the loss of innocence and bliss in exchange for the knowledge of death and hardship- Twisted Wonderland starts with us essentially having schoolboy squabbles, and now in Book 7 we have witnessed literal war and the death of loved ones! Is it because we as the player took Crowley’s hand (or someone’s) in the opening on the game, slowly leading us down this story? 🤔

Birds are not the sort to coddle their young forever. Eventually, the fledgling gets pushed out the nest by their own parent to learn how to fly- this is Crowley’s “tough love” and the results of his forbidden fruits. Even if the fall is frightening, seemingly cruel and potentially deadly, fledglings learn how to use their own wings regardless! Crowley is giving that push to help his students fly, even if they can’t ever understand his admittedly tough yet well-meaning motives.

But if Crowley is the serpent AND the nurturer of the Forbidden Fruit, who IS the Eve, and who/what is the Forbidden Apple? 🤔 After all, the role of the serpent relates to temptation- there must be someone he has to tempt in the first place.

This is where I get stuck, in all honesty! 🤣 There is so much about Crowley that we don’t know about yet, that his odd connections to apple trees are unknown. The apple symbolism aspects are quite interesting, especially for the Levan theory, so I will hopefully cover that tomorrow 🤔 But the literal concept of what the “forbidden fruit” could be is unknown to me.

…But I would like to add that the likely reason why the Forbidden Fruit became commonly known as an apple (the original text makes no mention of an apple at all) is because of either a misunderstanding or a pun of the Latin text. “Mâlum” is the Latin noun for Apple, and “Mālum” is the Latin noun which means Evil- and is derived from the adjective “malus.”

Evil…Meleanor…Maleficent…Maleficia…Mālum…Malus…MALLEUS???

…Isn’t it interesting that in the first part of his vignette, Crowley speaks of how an adolescent apple tree suddenly grew without him realizing despite its hardships…a speech where Malleus conveniently wasn’t invited to and never got to hear how proud Crowley was for his apple tree? And in Glorious Masquerade, Crowley speaks of being the one to “nurture” Malleus into the great and powerful mage he is today. Just like the apple trees Crowley frets over so much? 🤔🍎 I suppose in “original sin” terms of the forbidden fruit, Meleanor did “bless” Malleus to be a malevolent star to humankind???

And…another new voiceline has Crowley being concerned that Yuu seems to know no fear when they ask him about the extent of his powers. Yuu being seen as an almost naive figure that Crowley is worried about…Malleus and mâlum…I’m not sure anymore 😭🤣 Because it can go both ways as well!

I feel like I went all over the place with this theory! 😭 My brain is still trying to process everything that happened with Crowley today…I hope the general idea of what I’m trying to say made sense though! 😭 Everything I said is just a loose interpretation ^_^ I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts, as I felt like I kept confusing myself trying to figure this out 🤣🤣 I @moonlightequin1 made notes on a super interesting theory of Grim and Yuu being the Forbidden Fruit!! It makes me think of the headcanon/theory that if Crowley was Levan, he “gifted” Yuu to Malleus. Like a forbidden fruit of knowledge for Malleus?

#twisted wonderland #twst #dire crowley #twst theory #twst dire crowley #twst Crowley #twst spoilers #twst jp spoilers #twst malleus draconia #kallistopost #twst Lilia

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no-name-publishing · 3 months

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Kill the Director by erikschampion

My part in a gift exchange taking place in Renegade's California satellite server. This was a lot of fun and very experimental for me. My idea was to pursue something a little grunge, a little smudged, to go along with the early 2000s Brit punk vibe that the fic gets its title from. Spray paint, screen printing, some blood, some tears, and it's to its new home. Glamour and process shots under the cut!

The yellow base is a plain linen bookcloth that's been coated with acrylic. The pink accent color is a combo of spray paint and smudges of pink Golden Fluid acrylic paint. The endbands are sewn with Gutermann polyester florescent sewing thread, and the endpages are my attempt at an italian vein marble with pink, yellow, and black paint.

Some shots of the typesetting, and a video showing the book as a whole. The fic has some exposition written in a script format, so I typeset that to reflect. And it's always fun to include text message bubbles and emails and stuff.

The graphics on the case were done with screens and waterbased screen printing ink! I went through a few iterations and even tried to set my kitchen on fire in order to get it right before settling on the screens. I'm very very pleased with the result. (The fire was from my DIY attempt at making my own gelli plate with gelatin, glycerin, and rubbing alcohol. All the instructions were telling me to be careful about how many bubbles I was stirring into the mix but I was like, it'll be fine. I'll use my heatgun or a lighter to pop whatever bubbles are there. It works with resin so it should here. Yall alcohol is flammable lmao. Why did I do that. I put my lighter up to those bubbles and lost my vision for a moment at the flash of light. I've never done something that stupid)

The freshly marbled paper hanging up to dry in my kitchen; the screen for the front of the case; my practice piece including the spine design; the case drying on my shower rod (along with some pieces of fabric for another project lol). I have fewer process pictures than I thought lol.

The graphics on the front and back were also partially designed by hand. I printed images of the characters then cut them vertically, and alternated the slices. Copied that, then did the same horizontally. Scanned that, and then did some cleaning up digitally on my computer. Here's some shots of the steps and the pieces themselves.

The third picture shows my first attempt, as I actually did this process twice. The first time I didn't feel like the first pass was pixelated enough, so I cut it again both vertically and horizontally and alternated them once more. This was a mess, and ultimately I didn't like the finished result. Round two (second image) was the final round, and what wound up using in the project instead.

Thanks for looking!

#fanbinding #fanficbookbinding #bookbinding #succession #kill the director #erikschampion #no name publishing

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inkysquelched · 2 months

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Them.

I drew my bozos and there’s nothing you can do about it. Now get ready for a long post as I talk about my headcannons for them. Feel free to ask me anything about them, I love rambling:

Agent 3: Has a major RBF, but she’s nice I promise you. She’s been enjoying her role as captain but was overwhelmed at first.

Weapon preferences: shooters, chargers

Fave Special: Splashdown

Agent 4: Just vibing honestly, she’s gotten pretty good at hacking/research over the years.

Weapon preferences: daulies, brushes

Fave Special: Boyah Bomb

Agent 8: Curses in octarian at least 5 times a day. Remarkably relaxed despite all the bs shes been through.

Weapon preferences: shooters

Fave Special: Triple Inkstrike

Neo 3: A chaotic child, will occasionally eat stuff off the floor.

Weapon preferences: tri-stringer, blasters if shes feeling spicy

Fave Special: Super Chump

Some Honorable Mentions:

3 has a major sweet tooth and she won’t apologize for it. (shes awful with spicy food tho gchfxgfz)

Neo really likes bread.

8 will eat the most criminally offensive spicy food without a reaction.

3 likes to sleep in her squidform, it’s kinda weird to others. It’s honestly more worrying if she doesn’t shift forms. (hc that people usually only do that when theyre really sick…..and then theres 3)

4 listens to her music too loud.

3 and 4 bicker all the time, but it rarely gets to a point where they’re actually upset. They especially fight about how to lead on missions (this is moot bc 3 is the captain lol) because 3 prefers the “slow and steady” approach and 4 prefers to play “fast and loose”, if that makes sense. (8s just here for the ride)

The squid sisters like to say that 3 and 4 are twins and they both hate it.

3 is a runaway, Neo is an orphan. Different circumstances, same outcome. They relate to each other a lot and I think thats awesome (and sad).

Neo (and 8) will occasionally say some out of pocket shit without realizing just how messed up it really is: “what? you’ve never had to eat out of the trash before?”

3 is very emotionally numb and has a hard time expressing any care towards others, so she ends up showing it through favors/giving advice/“are you ok?”s. She’ll tell you to put on a jacket when it’s 70 degrees out lol. (this is also why she’s a mess around 8, those are feelings she has no idea how to deal with)

3 is terrified of being sick (like bedridden sick, haha sanitization go brr) and will inwardly panic the whole time.

3 has the worst alcohol tolerance behind Marie and 4. (Callie will drink 12 shots of vodka without flinching)

Octolings have a very different view on relationships than inklings do; inklings will date/marry out of love while octolings will treat it more as a transaction (not saying they can’t, love just isn’t a priority). 8 as had and infatuation for 3 for years but doesn’t act on it because she wasn’t sure if she really felt the way she did. She knows inklings hold more weight to relationships and didn’t want to risk hurting 3 if she was wrong. (the events of side order really helped her figure it out)

After the events of Splatoon 2, 4 took a back seat on being an agent. Less frontlines and more research focused. (like Marie lol) She hated this at first, but grew to like it.

3s alter ego is DJ Sango, she uses her rapping/singing to vent. 4 and 8 play dumb and pretend they don’t know about her account. (They both listen to her music tho 😶)

8 is extremely calm, you’d have to be trying to piss her off.

Inklings are like mood rings, there tentacles will change color depending on their mood (think like streaks or spots of other colors) The more intense the emotion, the deeper the color.

8 and 3 both have to clean/replace their weapon filters more often than most but for different reasons: for eight its bc shes an octoling (their ink is more abrasive) while 3 has thicker ink than normal as the last remnant of being partially sanitized.

3 isn’t actually as stinky as the squid sisters will have you believe. She one time came back from a mission smelling particularly RANKED that day, and they’ve never let her live it down.

There’s probably more but I can’t think of any rn

k bye <3

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acosmicdisappointment · 14 days

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the burn book.

𝐌𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐘𝐀 𝐋𝐔𝐍𝐀 𝐃𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐔𝐄𝐙-𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐑𝐀, 𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐆𝐄

𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭.

during the ask meme week, i had the opportunity to answer if enzo was a sentimental person and he is. he collects the little things during the duration of the relationship/situationship or whatever ship he's in. this boy keeps mementos and yet can't even put a label on things? c'mon enzo be fr.

photobooth strip. i tried editing them together okay? not really a photoshop pro but whatever. as per link, luna is and i quote a 'photo taking bitch'. so in my head, during their time together they dragged him to a photobooth to take pictures. notice how he's smiling in the 2nd pic but gets progressively bored/distracted on the 3rd and 4th photo. at this point enzo's kinda getting tired of whatever he has with luna. he's definitely becoming uninterested and this was proof of it. flower. enzo did give luna flowers before (once? twice?). it was under the guise of a sweet gesture (definitely not because he was messing around with someone the day before) somehow this one fell from the bouquet which he found it on the car floor. because he's sick in the head, he decided to keep it. gum. enzo smokes but not a lot. he does it whenever he's stressed, angry or nervous. he wanted to kiss luna for the first time but he remembered he had just smoked so he decided to chew a piece of gum before doing so. this was way before he knew luna thought smoking is very attractive. well let's just say that was the first and last time enzo chewed gum before making out with luna. bandaid. enzo loves to get in to physical fights. he'd start it most of the time and obvious win every single time. he gets into more fights way back then than now. one night, he took luna out for a drive and lo and behold there's a cut on his face. luna gives him a bandaid (maybe a kiss too?) according to link, luna would keep bandaids just in case he hurt himself somehow. receipt. according to link, luna wanted enzo to like them so bad she'd eat whatever he wanted. there was a time where enzo was craving chinese and well luna being the kind person she is kept that in mind to bring back up later when they messaged him to go out. he thought she really loved his favorite food when she actually hated it though he found that out later on. polaroid. i'd like to think that this photo was taken in the beginning where things were 'happy'. it's them together in bed doing whatever cutesy things couples do. laughing and giggling and whatever. enzo liked the way luna smiled and well wanted to immortalize the moment. ticket. i think they watched a movie of luna's choice. enzo isn't a big horror guy but he'd sit through it with his arm around luna and his hand on her thigh the whole time. the fool in reverse. he knows about luna's interest in tarot so i think he got a reading somewhere and well that was one of the cards. how he got the card i don't know. i have no knowledge about tarot cards whatsoever so interpret that in anyway you want.

𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭.

sometimes when working out or driving, isn't enough, enzo writes as a way to let out his feelings. wrote how he and luna met up til the present day. he wrote over them in frustration. the red and black ink are him going back and forth about how he feels. one minute he's upset and wants to ruin luna and drew's relationship, then the next he's relapsing and wanting her to take him back.

𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚 '𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤'?

for enzo, it started as a joke. like a book where he can look back on the people he's been with. like proof he's been with this girl and that girl. it was supposed to be a one time thing but he kind of liked it...

𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐚 '𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤'?

it started as an accident. one of the pages from his past got burnt when he was playing with his lighter. but there was something that kind of clicked in him as he watched the flames eat up the paper. when it was time to move on he'd burn part of the page as a metaphoric thing "burning bridges" or whatever. him burning luna's page is a sign that he's moving on. that he's over her...but is it really over now?

so there you have it, enzo's burn book. this has been on my mind ever since angel sent that 'freak note' pinterest photo and sam calling it a 'burn book' (shoutout to you two baddies for this!) i originally wanted to make several pages (who knows maybe i will and future wcs for enzo perhaps?) but let's be honest luna's page is the most important, am i right?

will there be a new page added to the burn book? well...we'll just have to wait and see now would we?

#➷ — enzo: the burn book #valpoinspo #am i sick for this? maybe #this was so fun to make istg #if you see mistakes no you did not #i might come back and fix this later idk

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minniesmelody · 2 years

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I saw that your requests were open and I was wondering if they still were because I have an idea for Eddie. So reader and eddie have been friends for a couple months since reader moved to Hawkins in the winter. so obviously wearing lots of layers and stuff. But come late spring/early summer it's shorts and tank top season. This leads Eddie to seeing all their tattoos and being super awestruck and just a little jealous. I think it would be kinda cute. Like two full sleeves, one whole leg, one massive rib piece, and working on a back piece. Kinda like what I got going 😊

April weather

Pairing: Eddie Munson x GN! Reader

Summary: The winters are cold in Hawkins, meaning lots of sweaters, hoodies, and sweat pants will be worn. But that also means lots of skin will not be shown, also meaning you're newly best friend has zero idea of what is inked into you're skin underneath the clothes.

Genre: Fluff

POV: First person- Y/N

Warnings: a few cuss words, tattoos? I know some people are against tattoos for their own personal reasons so i'm just gonna put it as a warning even though it's pretty much the whole plot.

A/n: i'm obsessed with this request! I've been thinking about tattoos a lot lately so this request came at the perfect moment! I have already decided that i want a handful or two of tattoos. I love that you kinda based it off yourself too, i bet you're tattoos look amazing! Thank you sm for requesting my love! Hugs and kisses - Minnie x

April, the start of spring. The perfect season for weather, not too hot, not too cold, just the weather, other than it raining most days of the week.

Ever since i moved to Hawkins in December, it's been nothing snowy and chilly. Weather that requires long sleeve shirts and heavy sweaters, clothes that cover most skin.

Speaking of Hawkins, It fucking sucks here.

Not everything sucks, but most of it does.

One of the very few things that didn't suck was i met one of my best friends here. The trailer park freak, Eddie Munson. He was one of the very few people to actually understand me in this town. Or any place i've ever lived if i'm being completely honest here. He was one year older than me, me starting school late and him failing and having to repeat his senior year twice now, him currently in his third attempt in graduating. But ever since my first day at Hawkins high, he has been there for me, and i have been there for him.

We would hang out every weekend together, sometimes we would go out and go to the drive in or something, and other times we would just stay at his beat up trailer that he shared with his uncle and watch a movie there or just do whatever in the moment we felt like doing, even if it was just sitting in each others presence, we always did something.

Which lead us here, me walking into his trailer, the first Saturday of some semi-what warmish weather.

I didn't even knock, Eddie knows when i come over so usually he keeps the door unlocked for me, easy access for me to just let myself in, the door is always open for me.

I didn't see Eddie sitting in the living room, looking over down the hallway of the trailer was the door to Eddies bedroom, slightly cracked open, like usual i started walking towards his bedroom.

"oh Eddie!" i said as I opened the door a bit more and walked inside.

His bedroom, a mess like usual, cassettes placed everywhere, and of course Eddie, sitting on his bed, dnd folder open, writing down different ideas for the next Hellfire campaign.

He went to look back me and like usually, give me a nice welcome, but this time, it's like he....froze?

He just stared at me, his face unreadable.

"Um- Eds? You alright there?" i asked

"I- uh-"

"Hello? Earth to Eddie" i said, snapping my fingers in front of his face, breaking him out of whatever planet his just went to.

"Uh yeah- sorry it's just...i never knew you had uh...tattoos"

Shit, it had totally slipped my mind that Eddie had never seen my tattoos, let alone just hear or have any knowledge that i have any in the first place.

Most of my tattoos, currently on display for eyes to see since the weather became suddenly warmer, meaning i was in a tank top and shorts, also meaning my arms and legs were free to the eye.

"oh yeah, um- surprise?" i said with a small smile.

"you got more than i do, can i have a closer look?" He asked, a look of plea and hope in his eyes.

"sure, i don't mind Eds" i said as i sat down on his bed with him, he quickly took my arm and started examining all the art work inked into my skin.

"Who did all these? they all look fucking amazing"

"lots of different tattoo artists, some i did myself, and there a few that some random people at this frat party did"

He looked back up at me and raised his left eyebrow "You did some of these yourself?"

i nodded my head "Yup, i have a tattoo gun back at my house, i usually do easy designs on myself, you know? Let the pro's do the hard ones" i said, giggling at my words, him laughing along with me.

"Maybe you can give me one some day? or get matching ones? i mean if you don't want to i totally-"

"Eddie"

"Like i don't wanna pressure you into-"

"Eds"

"Tattoos are like perm-"

"EDDIE!"

"yeah?"

"i'd love that"

I may not be a pro tattoo artist, but for Eddie, i will try my best.

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ehlnofay · 4 months

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49 - Arabella :')

49: nightfall

This had better work – Arabella is using up good vellums for this, and they’re not cheap.

She’s crouched on the hall’s smooth stone floor, half-listening to the soft crackling of the hearth and the rattling of pots and pans, all her papers spread out in unruly glory before her, half-covered with scribbled ink. The concept, she’s quite sure, is sound; it’s figuring out how to properly execute it that gives her trouble. She’s no scholar. She’d probably qualify more as a hobbyist. The things she has in mind would doubtless be a bit beyond her on a good day – trying to craft them herself is likely, logically, an exercise in futility. Arabella does not do things that are futile.

She traces her finger down the side of a page – a scribbled transcription of a description of an illusion spell that’s well beyond her grasp, broken down as best she can make it into its bare components. She doesn’t need all of it; almost the whole first half can be thrown away, and she can adapt the second half to her foundation. If she can figure out how, of course – what she can do is not a spell, so grafting one onto it is a complicated process. It’s all very finicky.

It's a problem to circumvent. Arabella loves those.

It takes her a moment to realise the sound of the fire has died down. It’s her only warning before Karliah’s voice, carried on footsteps that cannot make noise unless she tries, comes down like a thunderclap. “Arabella.”

“Karliah,” she replies brightly, twisting her head up to meet her eye. It’s a strange angle; she can see up her nose, this way. Karliah raises a brow. She only carries one bowl. Arabella asks, “You didn’t make me anything?”

“You can cook for yourself,” Karliah says. Arabella pouts. “Arabella, really? A gift from a Daedric Prince isn’t enough for you?”

(Arabella stepped onto that half moon and gained the ability to make herself unrecognisable – to wipe herself clean from the slate of others’ minds, just for a little bit. There have been times in her life when she would have killed for that ability. There are times in her life now when she’s sure it will come in handy. But why stop there? Total erasure doesn’t have to be an end in itself. It’s fresh ground for building.)

Arabella shrugs, turns back to the mess of her papers. “It’s not a gift if I paid for it,” she replies, “which I did, and will continue to do. This is my end of the bargain. I’ll use it as I see fit.”

She can positively hear Karliah’s raised eyebrow as she says, “How irreverent of you.”

She’s never really been one for reverence. Pledging herself to a deity that bestows her bounties as business transactions is not likely to change that.

Arabella shrugs again. “Besides,” she says, flippant, “It’s a fun challenge.”

“Is it.” Karliah’s trousers rustle as she shifts her weight. “You came here to test it on me, didn’t you?”

“Only partly,” Arabella admits, smiling, and waves her down.

Karliah sits. She’s wearing her lazy tunic, the one with the stitches drooping at the hem and flowers embroidered about the cuffs. Soup dribbles down the edge of the bowl as she adjusts her position. It’s green. She bends to lick it off her knuckles, which kind of spoils her stern demeanour.

“Not really, actually,” Arabella amends. “It’s not nearly ready for testing. I might need to go up north to get a refresher on some of these ideas, because spellcraft is, surprisingly, quite hard.”

Karliah sets the bowl with a clink on the stone floor. “You know, I never pegged you for an academic.”

“Oh, I’m not.’ Arabella pinches a page between finger and thumb. “I don’t have the temperament for it.” Study requires patience; patience makes Arabella feel like crawling out of her own skin. If she stays still for too long she starts spitting sparks. “That’s rather the problem, isn’t it? This would be a lot easier if I knew what I was doing.”

“Which is altering Nocturnal’s gift,” Karliah says, patient, “so that you can make people think that they know you. Even though the point of yours is to make sure they don’t.”

She sips a spoonful of her bright green soup.

Arabella tips her head back and says, “The thing about illusion magic –”

“You’re workshopping on me during dinner?”

“Well, it’s not my dinner – abominable treatment of your guests, by the way, I can’t believe you didn’t give me anything – the thing is that it can’t take. Illusions can’t enforce an absence, they can only impose a presence. You can’t take away someone’s hearing, you can only impose a space of silence. You can’t make someone forget, you can only replace a memory. The mind doesn’t respond well to a vacuum. The rules of magic don’t allow for it. All spells can do is cover up the truth.” Karliah isn’t wearing her hood; her hair is down. It’s always startling to see, somehow; makes her whole face look different. She keeps placidly sitting her soup. Arabella taps at one of her vellums. “What I can do – it takes. Which is, I understand, magically unprecedented, but also very jarring for anyone who witnesses – like how you tried to kill me earlier, when I –”

“I thought you were a stranger in Nightingale Hall,” Karliah says, “and I wasn’t going to kill you.”

“You found it off-putting,” Arabella insists, “on some level, because the mind doesn’t like a vacuum. But when I figure this out – I could layer spells on top. Oh, yes, I’m supposed to be here – oh, yes, we’re dear friends – all that sort of thing. And it would be almost impossible to see through if I linked them right because there would be no truth to cover up! Just a vacuum! And the mind would take almost anything over a vacuum.”

Karliah looks at her, unblinking. “You’d be a menace,” she says.

Arabella smiles. “Am I not already?”

There is a space of silence, for a moment. Karliah’s spoon clanks against her bowl. Arabella can hear the water gently running in the other room, the soft creaking of the stone, the airy breath of the low-burning hearth. Nightingale Hall is very quiet, and very full of ghosts.

“So,” Karliah says, “are you just here to tell me your magic ideas and criticise my hosting, or was there something else?”

Arabella tips her head to look her in the murex-purple eye. Lightly, she says, “You never come into town.”

Karliah holds her gaze. “I’m fine here,” she says.

Arabella shrugs. “I know.”

There is a pause.

Karliah sighs. “I think we’ve got some smoked fish strung up somewhere,” she says. “I’ll get it for you.”

Arabella presses tongue to unsmiling teeth. “Thank you,” she says primly, and jabs a finger at her higgledy-piggledy stack of vellums. “This is hard work.”

Outside, beyond the rock walls of the hall, night falls. The moons rise, a dim red half-moon and a narrow crescent, to their place in the star-spattered sky.

#I had a different idea for this one first... but it was a bit too plot-relevant and I felt like doing something I didn't need to think about #so here's a quick ramble about how I imagine nocturnal's subterfuge to work (similar to the grey cowl basically)#and arabella's weird schemes to make it scarier #oc tag #arabella #the elder scrolls #tesblr #skyrim #fay writes #my writing #tes

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riyangiis · 2 months

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I LOVE FILO ZB1 CONTENT SMMMM i usually have these random thoughts in my head abt what the members would be like as filos AND BRO for me ricky is definitely englishero. specifically those kinds that are fluent in tagalog but just prefer speaking in english

actually ricky is so me what the heck.. 😬😬 HE DEF LISTENS TO HEV ABI😬😬😬 it's either he's conyo and is horrible at filipino or he's just what you described him.. this guy is a bgc boy you can't say no

I think I would still keep the chinese and american in him😂😂.. guys guys what if he's a chinese-filipino that grew up in the us and has little to no knowledge abt the philippines.. bro when he gets there he would be THE airport crush wtf.. his parents told him that he should try to go to a public school but he's concerned and worried that he might get made fun of.. A LOT. so he goes to a private school first, then goes to public once he's able to speak filipino properly and stuff but he's only gonna stay there for a year..

bro def goes like "what's the orange ball with the little egg inside?" LMAOOOO🤣🤣🤣🙏🙏⁉️⁉️ he cringes at those err what do you call them.. the genggeng boys😬 they often tell him to try and hangout with them but he just.. ignores them.. "kumaldag ka nga!!" "wtf is a kaldag??"

bro tries so hard not to show off in the days where you're able to wear civilian clothes instead of the uniform but does it anyway.. "bat may lalaking mukhang pupunta sa party.." he even ricky-fies his own uniform and makes it look richer and more classy than it was originally supposed to be.. ehh you get it

def the guy that has EVERYTHING you need for a project, he doesn't really do anything except make the art and have the supplies.. "gaga nawala ung ink ng marker!" *biglang may 7 na marker, bago pa..* the main reason why he doesn't really do anything in the project because his group mates find it hard to communicate with him since his first languages are english and chinese and when he speaks filipino, he has this weird accent..

he knows how to speak filipino naman, it's just that accent that messes everything up.. medyo insecure siya abt it so he just doesn't speak at all. he also doesn't understand kanal humor AT ALL so his classmates don't really like his type of humor.. when he found out that he actually has english-speaking classmates with aircon humor, he tried his best to befriend him but they thought he was weird or didn't want to become friends with him since they thought he was some rich spoiled kid who knows nothing but money.. heck people even used him because of his wealthy status and got hold of the fact that he likes giving gifts to people he's close with..

he's famous around the school just for his looks, nothing else. when he thought his popularity would give him an advantage to get more friends and have a good image. he caught girls trying to sneak gifts or trying to state at him, he thought that this whole thing was making him uncomfortable but he can't do anything though. that's only gonna ruin his reputation. so he didn't mind and ignored the admirers, they're not really his business anyways. he knows he's handsome, he doesn't have to show it off at all times.

he stopped trying to make friends in his school and just sticked to doing his hobbies when he was bored and continued talking to his friends from china and usa, the others just viewed him as some rich kid anyway. the teacher assigned a project that needs a partner for the class, everyone gets to pick their own partner. he looks around with people debating on who should be their partner. he just continued drawing whatever was in his mind waiting for some unfortunate person to have no choice but be partners with him (to his admirers it's very fortunate to be partners with him.. you can see them fighting on who should be his partner, ricky is just enjoying the thought of being alone with no one disturbing him.

ricky suddenly felt a gentle tap on his shoulder. he looked up to see someone, is it an admirer?

"hello? can I be your partner?"

"huh? oh, sure.."

his attention is now on you instead of the drawing of a rose, ricky was caught off guard because of how.. quick this person asked to be his partner without being shy or nervous. he looked at the group of admirers, now fuming because he already has a partner.

(medyo inaccurate ito sorry😭😭)

#riyangiis #talk2yura !#yura.writes !#zb1 #zerobaseone #zerobaseone x reader #zb1 x reader #zb1 x you #zb1 ricky #ricky zb1 #shen ricky x reader #ricky x you #ricky x reader #shen ricky #shen quanrui x reader #shen quanrui #zb1 imagines

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quartzelaii · 2 years

Text

Perfectly Aligned

CHAPTER II

— L/N Y/N, best friend to Kageyama Tobio since age 6. L/N Y/N, the object of all Tsukishima Kei's desires since age 15.

Masterlist

CHAPTER I ➛ CHAPTER II ➛ CHAPTER III

word count: 11k

"How's that poster design coming along? Good, I'm hoping?" Nakano Miyaka, the Arts Club president, hovers over the table like a bespectacled hawk. Her thick glasses almost make her eyes look comically huge with the way she surveys the club room like some sort of cliché cranky supervisor from an office sitcom.

The Arts Club room is small and dingy, probably the smallest and dingiest room in prestigious Shiratorizawa. The four walls perpetually smell of acrylic paint and marker ink from paintings and other artwork that take too long to dry. The desks and chairs are stained with various pigments, courtesy of those hard-headed club members who always forget to put down newspaper before working on their projects.

Upon enrolling in high school, you had trouble finding a new club to pledge yourself to since you've said good bye to volleyball. When you were a kid, one of your favorite way to pass the time aside from playing volleyball is messing around with whatever coloring materials you could find in your pencil case— crayons, watercolors, those small pots of poster color that smell like expired medicine. You'd take your time creating your own masterpiece. More often than not, it would actually turn out good and your Dad would display it by the fridge or frame it to hang in the living room. You enjoyed making art for him, that was until he and your mother divorced. Suddenly, it didn't make sense to continue doing art anymore.

However, on your first day of school at Shiratorizawa, you were handed a flyer for the Arts Club by Miyaka herself who was scouting new recruits at the time. Perhaps it was her overly-enthusiastic persona, or maybe it was because the prospect of making art again made you feel nostalgic— either way, it only took three minutes of convincing before you were signing up.

Miyaka instantly took a liking to you. You're an efficient and productive member of the club, adamant on creating a good first impression on your clubmates. Not long after that, Miyaka has appointed you as the club's Secretary even though you're still a first year. You accepted the honor with much eagerness.

"Just tweaking a few things and then it's ready to be printed." Came the monotonous reply of the club's vice president, currently hunched back over his laptop.

"A few things, huh?" Miyaka gives a pointed look at him then at the laptop's screen. "Seems to me like you still have a lot to tweak considering the page is still freakin' blank."

Aoki Raiden groans and leans back against his chair, pulling the strings on his hoodie so the fabric engulfs his face.

"Please get off my back, Miyaka-san. I literally can't work with you watching me all the damn time."

Miyaka yanks the hood off his head. "I gave you a week to finish the poster design, Rai. We're already behind schedule as it is."

"You do know the festival isn't until October, right? It's still the middle of August, not to mention it's summer break. Stop being such a worrywart. We have plenty of time." Raiden drawls as his fingers clack on his laptop's keyboard. From where you're sitting, you can see the interface of Twitter on the screen, the poster design's editing page has been minimized and is now completely abandoned.

"I dedicated the whole summer break to work on our booth so we don't have to worry about it once school starts." Miyaka puts her hand on her hips in an attempt to assert authority. "Us third years are gonna be super busy by September and I won't have time to supervise this club by then. You really have to be more considerate, you know."

"Ugh, fine. Give me three days and I'll send you the final design."

"No, are you kidding me? You have until tomorrow to finish that."

Raiden glares at the club president but doesn't complain any more. Reluctantly, he pulls out the editing software again and begins working, but not without complaining all the way.

Miyaka then turns to you who are currently writing on your notepad at the corner of the room, a calculator sitting on your lap. "How about our budget plan, Y/N-chan? Has it been taken care of yet?"

"Yep, I've added both what we've spent so far and the estimation of how much we'll be spending once we build the booth itself." You say, tapping your pen on the notepad. "I made a table for it, too, Miyaka-san, so there won't be any confusion. I'll give the printed copy to you tomorrow."

You rummage through your notepad, checking your various notes from the days before. "I've also checked in with Ryo-san and the other second-years earlier. They're about 50% done with the mural but they ran out of paint so they had to order more. Their expenses are already accounted for, by the way."

"See? That's what a responsible club member looks like. You should really learn a thing or two from your kouhai. Seriously, I should have fired you as vice president and appointed her instead."

Raiden can only sneer in response, both at you and Miyaka. His typing becomes more aggravated by the second.

"And what about the piece you'll be showcasing at the silent auction?" The bespectacled third-year asks you again.

"Also done but it's still drying. I used oil paint."

"Great! I'm thinking of making that our centerpiece."

"What?" Raiden almost jumps from his seat. "How about my clay sculpture of Bourgeois' Spider? You told me it's gonna be the centerpiece!"

"Well, we can't actually showcase something you haven't even started on yet, can we? Tell you what, show me the finished product and I might actually change my mind."

"I'm getting on it! Just stop pestering me about it! God!"

Miyaka says something snarky in retaliation but you don't hear it. You're busy looking at the clock mounted on the wall to hear about the bickering of your two upperclassmen. The clock reads 2:28 PM. Tobio texted you an hour ago saying that they've defeated their first opponent and were currently waiting for their next match. You're almost buzzing in your seat in worry that you won't be able to catch it.

"Miyaka-san, I was wondering if I could leave early today? I'm supposed to watch the boys volleyball at the Sendai City Gymnasium."

"Eh? But I was told Shiratorizawa isn't playing today. Something about them being too good?"

"Oh, yeah, they won the Inter High so they're already seeded in the Qualifiers." You nod. "I'm actually gonna watch Karasuno."

"Why? Is your boyfriend in there?" Miyaka wiggles her eyebrows. You know it's just a playful teasing but you can't help getting flustered. Your cheeks heat up almost immediately. You hate how you always have this reaction.

"No, just my best friend."

"Yeah, right." Miyaka rolls her eyes with a sly smirk on her lips. "Everybody knows best friend is, like, code for boyfriend"

You reiterate rather defensively that Tobio is just a friend despite Miyaka clearly not believing you. It always entertains you whenever she teases and badgers Raiden but when you're on the receiving end of it, you don't think it's amusing anymore. Only when your face is about the shade of a ripe tomato did Miyaka stop her teasing, but not without giggling about how agitated you look about the whole thing.

Eventually, she grows tired of joking around and agrees to your request.

"No fair! How come she gets to go?" Raiden whines. The way he pouts and crosses his arms like that reminds you of one of those spoiled kids who throw temper tantrums in malls. He's a few months older than you but you forget that with how childish he acts sometimes.

"For one, she's actually been very productive today and she deserves an early out."

"What, just because she's the Darling Setter of Miyagi, she's free to watch volleyball anytime?"

Miyaka cocks her head to the side. "Darling what of Miyagi?"

"Setter. It's just a nickname I got when I used to play volleyball back in middle school." You wave it off as if it's no big deal— though you'd be lying if you said you didn't feel the warm swell of pride in your chest upon hearing that nickname again after so long.

"Which is cringe and tacky, by the way." Raiden rolls his eyes, something you're now accustomed to seeing. You stick your tongue to him which he responds by sticking his tongue back to you. You don't take offense whenever Raiden eggs on you like that because you know he doesn't really mean it— it's just the way he is. To be honest, you have grown quite fond of his salty remarks, and sometimes, you even participate whenever he initiates a lighthearted squabble.

"I knew you used to play volleyball but I didn't know you were famous. Should I ask for your autograph?" Miyaka leans against your desk with an impressed look on her face.

"As much as I want to sign stuff for you, Miyaka-san, I don't think my autograph is worth anything anymore." You hope your response is buoyant enough to hide the fact this is a sore topic for you. You still haven't fully come into terms that you're not a volleyball player anymore.

"You really sure it's okay that I leave early?" You hastily add as an attempt to steer the conversation.

The bespectacled third-year taps her chin in thought as she looks at Raiden who is brooding in the corner. "You know what? I'm actually in the mood to watch some volleyball, too. Can I go with you, Y/N?"

"Of course, you can. I never pegged you as a volleyball fan, though."

"Oh, I'm not." She chuckles as she tidies up her desk. "But my boyfriend is such a nerd for it so I figured I should try to appreciate it more."

"Oh? You have a boyfriend?." Your brows shot up in surprise at this fact.

"You don't have to look so surprised about it, but yes. We made it official two weeks ago. We're keeping it lowkey. Not many people know yet."

"Oh my god," You hear Raiden's trademark exasperated sigh before he closes his laptop with a muddled thud. "A lot of people know you're dating Tendou-san. You can't say it's lowkey if it's all over your Twitter. Also, that whole will-you-be-my-girlfriend shenaniganhe did by the congregating area? Yeah, thatwasn't as cute as you think it was. He littered so much confetti that day, it looked like a unicorn threw up all over the place. Our class had to clean that up while you and your boyfriend made out behind the gym. You thought we didn't see that, huh? Well, we did!"

"Jesus, Raiden, that's not your story to tell!" shrieks Miyaka. The sound of it has you flinching.

Miyaka and Raiden commence yet another wrangle with the former chastising the latter for exposing her love life like that. Whenever something like this happens, you always give the two of them a couple of minutes before both of them cool down and continue on normally as if nothing happened. On your first few weeks with this club, you did think that this constant spat between the president and vice president was a bit too much for your liking— but then you learned soon enough that Miyaka and Raiden have been friends since middle school, and them fighting is a common occurrence, almost always not personal. They are actually really solid friends when both of them are in a good mood.

Your two upperclassmen finally reach an impasse. You haven't been listening to their argument so you don't exactly know how they went from Miyaka getting mad at Raiden for disclosing info about her love life, to Miyaka inviting Raiden to watch volleyball with you. You were busy putting away the papers and stationaries into their respective drawers when you heard Miyaka ask if Raiden wanted to come to the Sendai Gymnasium instead of being a whiny little bitch (the exact phrase she used). The way she worded the invite was a bit unorthodox but you know well enough that she just invited him so Raiden wouldn't feel left out when the two of you leave. She really cares for him in that way.

Their friendship is weird, you think to yourself as Raiden sassily agrees to go. You didn't plan on having company at Tobio's game, but your two senpai are alright companions— there are worse people to be stuck with.

"Maybe after the game, the three of us could go for some yakiniku." Miyaka has locked the club room and is now bouncing on the balls of her feet at her suggestion.

"As long as you're paying, then it's fine by me." Raiden lags behind you and Miyaka as the three of you set off.

"If you had given me the poster design today, maybe I'd have considered treating you— but you didn't, so no yakiniku for you."

"I have money. I can pay for my own yakiniku, thank you very much."

Your phone buzzes in your pocket. Tobio's name pops up on the screen with a text that has you widening your eyes.

"Guys, the game is starting in fifteen minutes! We have to hurry!"

You clutch your bag tight as you begin to sprint towards the gates. Miyaka and Raiden follow suit staggeringly. The former is shouting for you to slow down while the latter grumbled annoyedly to himself about regretting his decision to come.

The bus ride from Shiratorizawa to the Sendai City Gymnasium was fortunately quick. Though the game has probably already started, you still drag Miyaka and Raiden into a convenience store so you can get some snacks to give to Tobio after the game. Miyaka doesn't miss this opportunity to tease you further about being head-over-heels in love with your best friend, which you tried to ignore but couldn't help getting defensive over.

After paying for your stuff, you practically yank the two of them by their shirts into the stadium.

By the time you've arrived at the stands, the whole place is already buzzing with cheers from the crowd. There aren't many supporters because it's only the preliminaries but the air is still thick with excitement and anticipation.

It takes you three seconds to locate Karasuno's black and orange uniform in the court. The first set of their game against Kakugawa has already started. The scoreboard tells you that Kakugawa is leading at 2-0, though years of playing volleyball has taught you that it's still too early to gauge the trajectory of the game.

"That's Karasuno." You tell your companions, pointing at the court in front of you.

"Uh-huh, and which one's your boyfriend?" Miyaka cranes her neck and squints her near-sighted eyes to see the players better.

"Not a boyfriend." You remind her. "He's. No. 9."

"So tall!" You hear Miyaka emit a yelp. You follow her gaze and realize she's not looking at Tobio— she's looking at the opposing team's No. 9, who is probably the tallest high schooler you've ever laid your eyes on. He could be about two-meters tall, maybe even more. For a moment, you wonder what this would mean for Karasuno— a two-meter giant like that is surely a pain to play against. You'd hate to see Tobio's team lose just because of the overwhelming advantage Kakugawa has.

"I meant the black team's No. 9." You nudge her by the shoulder and point at Tobio in the other side of the court who is currently conversing with his teammates about what to do during the next rally. During his years at Kitagawa Daichi, he used to despise communicating with his team, but now you can see that he has changed so drastically. He looks more confident now, more open. You smile at this realization.

Miyaka nods approvingly upon seeing Tobio, commenting that he's tall and cute. She even goes as far as to say that he suits you perfectly and that you look good together, which elicits a flustered squeak from you.

You remain silent after that. You follow Tobio's form as he expertly maneuvers the ball across the court. You cheer whenever Karasuno scores and gasps in dejection whenever the other team does. You don't think Tobio knows you're here yet— not once has he looked at your direction since you arrived, not that you're expecting him to look for you. You understand completely well that the only thing that has his undistracted attention during the game is the ball itself.

Raiden grumbles about you being too loud, but you beg to differ— you're just getting fired up. Little does he know that your loudest cheer is yet to come.

The first time you see Tobio and Hinata's new quick attack is when you lose your mind, screaming and applauding until both your throat and palms felt sore. It's just so thrilling to see it firsthand, especially as a former setter yourself. Normal people may see it and think it's just a flashy move, but you know how much precision and concentration a setter has to master before executing such a technique.

Your best friend really is a genius.

"Nice toss, Tobio!" You shout. You doubt he heard you among the collective astonishment of the crowd. You're so fired up that Raiden has to poke you on your ribs to bring you to reality.

After that first quick attack, your focus is now entirely on the game, occasionally turning to Miyaka whenever she has some technical questions about what's going on in the court. Even though you learned that she's dating Tendou Satori, she doesn't seem to be all that informed about volleyball yet. Raiden remains quiet as he leans against the hand rail, observing the game with a bored countenance— though there's this one instance when he groans disappointedly when Karasuno's ace botched his jump serve. You find it amusing that this Shiratorizawa student has started rooting for Karasuno as well.

You're here to support Karasuno as a whole but you still can't help being biased. You can't seem to tear your gaze away from Tobio— so much so that the other members of the team seem like faceless characters in the background. You see them all moving and you're aware of each member's efforts but you're bewitched by Tobio. You can't not look at him.

All that changed, however, when he steals the crowd's attention with a monster kill block.

For the first time that day, your focus settles on Tsukishima.

Honestly speaking, you kind of forgot he was even in the team. If it weren't for that superb kill block he did, you would have went along the entire game not acknowledging his existence. All of a sudden, though, the attention you're giving Tobio isn't undivided anymore— Tsukishima has half of it now.

"Whoa, he stopped that ball all by himself like what Satori does." You hear Miyaka observe beside you in awe.

Tsukishima doesn't seem unfazed nor thrilled after winning that mid-air battle. He maintains his cool mien even as his team surround him joyously. He goes back to position, adjusts his glasses, and prepares for the next rally as if he didn't just effectively shut down the opponent's spiker all on his own. If you were playing against him, you'd be extremely annoyed at how calm he is.

Still, despite alternating your focus on Tobio and Tsukishima, the former still has your unrelenting support. When he and Hinata ended the first set with yet another freak quick, you didn't know your scream was the loudest. Only when Miyaka laughed at you about it did you mellow down and opted for clapping your hands instead.

The second set is just as gripping as the first, maybe even more. You got to see for the first time Karasuno do a synchronous attack and whenever they do, your eyes unknowingly follow Tsukishima run up to the net and jump with the intent of spiking. The blonde is a great blocker but he's also an effective spiker with his height and ball control. You find yourself cheering and clapping whenever he scores.

Miyaka notices by the second set that your loudest applause are reserved for Tobio and Tsukishima, and sometimes the occasional gasp of astonishment for Hinata's amazing reflexes. The other Karasuno members are amazing players in their own right but you seem more ardently supporting the aforementioned two.

After Tsukishima scores with a block-out, you bring your hands to your mouth and shout a rather impressed "nice kill". By this, Miyaka taps your shoulder to get your attention, and she wastes no time asking forthrightly if you know the blonde. You respond by saying that you have met him before but choose not to elaborate further. Fortunately for you, Miyaka doesn't press any more. You can only imagine how excruciating her teasing would be if she knew the nature of how you met Tsukishima.

After Hinata scores the final point in favor of Karasuno, you and Miyaka find yourselves hugging each other in glee. You have probably rubbed off your enthusiasm on her because she asks if you'd accompany her to watch Shiratorizawa's game at the qualifiers to which you happily agree. Even Raiden who looked disinterested throughout the whole game is joining in on the applause, evidently enjoying the match more than what he expected.

"We still on for barbecue?"

"I am kinda hungry so I guess I'll go with you." Raiden shrugs. The three of you make your way down the stairs as the crowd starts dispersing.

"I'm coming, too. I'll just congratulate Tobio and give him the snacks I bought. I won't be long."

"You're hopeless." You see Raiden shake his head mockingly.

"I think it's cute." Miyaka simpers. "You don't understand these things yet because you're single since birth, Rai."

You almost remind her that you are also single since birth and Tobio is not your boyfriend, but you feel like you've reiterated that fact enough that it's getting annoyingly redundant.

"You go on ahead, Y/N. We're gonna go to the rest rooms because I'm gonna freshen up and Rai has to splash cold water to his face to wipe off that hideous scowl. Just meet us there?"

"Okay! Be back in a jiffy!" With this, you're off speed walking to the direction of the corridor where you remember players keep their baggage in. You've been in this stadium a lot when you were in middle school that you still have the whole place memorized.

It takes you two minutes to see Tobio. He's still in his uniform so you locate him right away among the other players that are coming and going. He has his back turned on you, head downcast as he adjusts his bag that is slung over his shoulder.

You tiptoe to where he is. The surrounding chatter of other boys in the vicinity makes your arrival all the more unnoticeable.

"So, that's your new quick attack, huh?"

Tobio wheels around upon hearing your voice. His default scowl is replaced by a smirk once he sees that it's you who has spoken.

"Impressed?" You can see his ego radiating off of him like an aura.

"It's alright." You shrug in faux nonchalance.

"Liar. I heard you screaming louder than everyone earlier."

You blush profusely at that. You knew you were loud (Raiden wasted no opportunity calling you out on it), but you didn't know Tobio heard you all the way down the court. His other teammates must have heard you too and thought you were crazy. The mere thought of it is enough to make you cringe in embarrassment.

"Okay, fine. It was pretty neat." You finally admit, rolling your eyes. "Congrats on getting through the preliminaries. You guys deserved it."

Tobio grins, the kind that is laced with a dangerous amount of smugness. If you didn't know him at all, you would be offended rather than pleased when he says his thanks.

"Here, I got you this." You rummage through your bag and give him a paper bag from the convenience store you went into earlier. Inside are a bottle of sports drink and three protein bars— all his favorite brand and flavor, you made sure of that.

Tobio thanks you as he rips open a protein bar with his teeth before biting into it. He demolishes the bar in two enormous bites which prompts you to berate him for eating too quickly lest he wants to choke to death. You threaten to take back the remaining two protein bars if he doesn't slow down. He argues with you with his mouth full, spewing unintelligible protests and half-chewed oats alike as he raises the paper bag out of your reach.

That scene may have been a little too loud because from behind Tobio, a mop of orange hair pops out to investigate the small commotion.

"What's happening here— Kageyama! You went to buy snacks without me?" Hinata seems to be more offended upon seeing Kageyama's stuffed face.

Tobio shakes his head and juts his thumb at your direction, trying to say without words that it's you who gave the snacks to him. Hinata blinks as he registers your presence for the first time.

"Shiratorizawa?" His gaze lingers for a second on the shirt you're wearing which is purple with the academy's emblem printed on the front— the same shirt Miyaka and Raiden are wearing today. Since it's summer break, you don't have to wear your school uniform while doing club work inside campus but every once in a while, Miyaka still orders the club to wear the purple shirt, probably only for aesthetic reasons.

"Hey, is she your girlfriend?" Hinata tiptoes so he can whisper to Tobio's ear. It's not really a whisper because you can still hear it, and probably other people in the vicinity heard it too.

"She's just a friend, dumbass." Tobio barks at the small middle blocker.

"Hi. I'm Y/N." You take it upon you to introduce yourself with a bow.

The middle blocker visibly stiffens when you speak, his entire face erupting into a shade of scarlet that has you worrying if he's okay.

"Hinata Shoyo! N-n-nice to meet you, too!" He squeaks.

"What's that I hear? Kageyama has a girlfriend?" Tobio's other teammate with the No. 2 jersey enters the scene from the benches you didn't realize he was sitting on, almost hopping to where you are to take a closer look at you. Either Hinata's voice was too loud or No. 2 just has superhuman hearing.

"She's not my girlfriend, Sugawara-san." Tobio says a-matter-of-factly.

It kind of annoys you how Tobio never shows emotion whenever he denies being your girlfriend— something he does more often than you would have realized. It's always robotic, as if he's reciting from a user manual for a build-your-own furniture. It's annoying to you because you're the exact opposite— when someone insinuates that you and Tobio are a couple, you're always reduced to a blushing mess. It's just so unfair, you think. How come he's not bothered by it at all?

"Y/N, is it? I'm Sugawara, Kageyama's senpai." He grins proudly as he puts his arm over Tobio's shoulder, making the latter stiffen uncomfortably.

"Nice to meet you." You bow to the silver-haired boy.

"Oh? You're from Shiratorizawa." He parrots the observation Hinata had earlier.

"Yes, I'm a first year student there."

"I bet you guys are bummed out that your volleyball team didn't get Kageyama-kun here." Sugawara looks smug in a way that is lighthearted.

"I don't think they're bummed out, Sugawara-san. They're the ones who rejected me." Tobio's reply has you snorting. How did he manage to say that as seriously as he did?

"And they're definitely regretting that now, no?" Sugawara gave Tobio's back a rather loud smack which is supposed to be an encouraging pat.

"Where are the rest of your team?" You ask out of curiosity. It seems like Tobio, Hinata, and Sugawara are the only Karasuno players around. The absence of a certain blonde doesn't go unnoticed by you.

"Rest room, probably, or watching the remaining games.", came Tobio's curt reply.

"I think Asahi and Daichi are getting drinks from the vending machines." Sugawara quips in, looking at his wristwatch. "Now that I think of it, I've been waiting for my soda for twenty minutes now. Where the hell are those guys?"

Suddenly, as if on cue, a boisterous and rather obnoxious laughter rings from the other side of the hallway. Karasuno's No. 5 and No. 4 are loudly joshing around with the rest of Karasuno in tow.

It's hard not to spot him among his teammates. He stands out with his towering height and striking blonde hair. Tsukishima currently has his headphones on, scrolling on his phone with his hand tucked inside his pants pocket. He has already changed out of his uniform and into a plain white shirt and black trousers.

You're having a hard time registering the fact that the two of you are gonna see each other again— not that you're entirely opposed to it. The boy has definitely earned a considerable percentage of your trust after he had walked you home last night. Maybe you could thank him again for that. You just don't know how you're gonna open up that conversation. Even thinking about how awkward it would be already has you cringing already.

You debate with yourself whether or not you should get away now. You are not necessarily avoiding Tsukishima. It's just that after the events of last night, you feel like meeting him again would be a painful kind of awkward. You'd hoped that the interaction you two had wouldn't have a sequel. You're grateful for what he did for you but you were already so embarrassed about it, and having to interact with him again would just relive that in your memory.

By the time you've made your decision to scram, the incoming group is already a few feet away. Tsukishima peels his gaze away from his phone once the group has stopped in front of Sugawara who is giddy to get his soda he's been waiting on for twenty minutes. You instinctively let Tobio's body cover your own, not wanting to let your presence known just yet. Meeting new people, especially a lot of them, is particularly overwhelming for you.

At first, Tsukishima doesn't see you as he takes his headphones off and let it hang on his neck. A tall freckled boy is currently talking to him, stealing his attention. You don't realize you've been staring at Tsukishima. It is only when he felt the ghost prickle of a pair of eyes trained on him did he look at your direction. When he meets your gaze, it is you who is the more shocked. Hazel eyes fix on yours. If he is the least bit surprised to see you, he doesn't let it show. His expression doesn't change as his gaze lingers on you for a second before turning back to the boy whom we was conversing with.

Immediately, you cower even further behind Tobio.

"I should probably go now." You say, careful not to let your presence more known than it already is.

Your voice is soft, barely above whisper. By the looks of things, it is only Kageyama, Sugawara, Hinata, and Tsukishima who know that you're there. You're hiding behind Tobio (Sugawara and Hinata are stood beside him so their figures unknowingly conceal you too). The rest of the boys are oblivious of you— you're thankful for the loud No. 4 and No. 5 duo for diverting the team's attention with a most likely exaggerated story about a heated altercation with a rival team they bumped into at the rest rooms.

"Where are you going?" It's Kageyama's voice that catches the attention of the group. You could have slipped quietly without anyone noticing if he hasn't spoken. Curse him and his megaphone voice.

You're suddenly aware of a dozen or so pairs of eyes trained on you.

"Who's this?" It is No. 4, the libero, who pops the question. He's elbowing No. 5 whose eyes look like they've seen stars once they lay on you.

"Uh, sorry... I'm L/N Y/N. It's nice to meet you all." You really should have gotten away while you had the chance

"L/N? As in L/N Hotaru's daughter?" No. 5 has his eyes widened, his finger pointing at you. "You're the Darling Setter! I knew you looked familiar!"

"Right! L/N Y/N, I remember now. You were on Volleyball Monthly!", points out Sugawara. "Your hair was so much shorter back then. I almost didn't recognize you."

A part of you wished that they didn't. You're not at all accustomed anymore to people recognizing you as the Darling Setter. All you can do is smile awkwardly as the boys seem to renew their interest on you. You can see Tobio silently laughing, amused at how you looked uncomfortable at the spotlight.

Hinata is probably the most impressed. He's practically jumping up and down in front of you, his eyes twinkling as if he is star struck.

"You're the L/N Y/N? My sister saw you on the television last year. She thought you were very pretty and wanted to be like you!"

"R-really?" You stammer out, both flattered and disbelieving.

"Yeah! Her name's Natsu. She's only 9 years old but she's already interested in volleyball, and she wants to—"

"Oi, can't you see she's uncomfortable?" Tobio butts in, glaring at Hinata's enthusiasm.

You're not really uncomfortable, per se. You're just not used to the attention anymore. Back when you were in middle school, you absolutely adored being in the center of it, not so much now that you're in high school.

"It's fine." You assure your best friend.

"I appreciate that, Hinata. Please tell Natsu I say hi." Hinata beams at your response.

No. 4 and No. 5 are nudging each other on the ribs, wordlessly working out which of them gets to talk to you first. You watch, amused, how they try to muster the courage to step forward and talk to you. They must really have no experience talking with girls, judging by how they're struggling right now.

"Don't you two try anything funny. She's Kageyama's girlfriend." Sugawara wags a finger at the two of them and they exclaim both their surprise and what could only be disappointment.

"She's not." Tobio denies as nonchalantly as ever before tipping his head back to drink from the sports drink you gave him.

"Kageyama, you lucky bastard!"

"Way to go, Kageyama!"

The two have apparently ignored his denial.

Your eyes are casted down to your shoes so you don't see the way Tsukishima raises his eyebrow a millimeter upon hearing what Sugawara said. Not only that— he narrows his eyes ever so slightly when he sees your dejected reaction at Tobio's response.

"Wait, so are you or are you not his girlfriend?" It's No. 4 who speaks this time.

Before you could open your mouth to speak, two fists smack on top of No. 4 and No.5's heads. The fists belong to whom you recognize is the team's captain.

"Nishinoya, Tanaka," He growls warningly. "Stop harassing her or else I'll have the two of you run laps on our next training."

Nishinoya and Tanaka mutter their apology with a bow and you wave them off, saying that it's really no problem. For some reason, they also turn to apologize to Tobio who just stared at them in utter confusion, biting on his protein bar without saying a word.

Some of Tobio's teammates start conversing with you, too— nothing much, just questions that are more for the sake of either being polite or genuine curiosity than anything else.

"H-hello. You've mastered the jump floater serve, right? What's the technique so it doesn't end up doing a topspin, if you don't mind me asking?" The tall boy Tsukishima was talking to earlier approaches you. You'll soon learn that his name is Yamaguchi. He still seems shy. You can very clearly see his cheeks dusted in pink and he stutters out the majority of words in his sentences, but he makes an effort to talk to you nevertheless. Ironically enough, seeing that he's more nervous than you melts away your own uneasiness.

By this time, all your nerves and apprehension about meeting Tobio's team has dissipated. It's easy to talk with them because they're nice people, treating you with respect and friendliness. You're thankful for them for not asking too many questions about your ex-Olympian father— you're proud of him but talking about him is taxing and quite repetitive sometimes.

Yamaguchi and Hinata are specifically the two who kept the conversation going. You've built a rapport with them maybe because they're first-years such as yourself. Yamaguchi is now asking you if the entrance exam to Shiratorizawa was really as hard as everyone said it was. He visibly blanched when you said that the exam gave you a headache that lasted for days. Hinata, however, is more curious about your volleyball career. When you told the orange-haired middle blocker that you're not part of any volleyball club right now, his eyes widened to the size of saucers. He voices out that it's such a waste of talent. He has a way with wording out his compliments that you feel yourself blushing pathetically. Tobio just stands beside you through it all, munching on his protein bar as he listens to you talk with his teammates and occasionally adding to the conversation if his input is needed.

It doesn't take long before you're laughing quite freely with them.

Through the whole ordeal, Tsukishima has backed away from the group unnoticed. He is currently leaning against the wall a few feet away, his headphones fit snuggly on his ears but the music is turned off. Scrolling aimlessly on his phone has lost its appeal by now and he wishes he'd brought his PSP with him to pass time.

Every couple of minutes or so, you steal a glance at Tsukishima. He's the only one from the team who hasn't said a word to you, not even a polite greeting. You were a bit anxious at the prospect of talking to him again, but now that he clearly has no plan to even spare you a minute of his time, you feel quite annoyed. The two of you are not friends, probably not even acquaintances— but still, after the events of last night, you expect him to at least not treat you like a stranger.

It's not like you want him to approach you and be all chummy. You just want him to acknowledge you, maybe with a nod of recognition or even a small wave of his hand wouldn't hurt. Heck, you even cheered for him at their game earlier. You weren't being subtle with it, too. You were screaming until your throat was raw— he definitely heard you supporting him. The only explanation is he just doesn't care and he just doesn't know how to behave like a decent human being.

Maybe you were wrong when you thought he wasn't half as bad last night. Maybe you were too lenient on your judgment when he is utterly and very clearly just a jerk.

You look away from him with a huff. If he doesn't want to be your friend (or at the very least, an acquaintance), then it's most definitely his loss and not yours.

From the corner of your eyes, you see two purple figures standing at the hall's entrance. The Shiratorizawa shirt that Miyaka and Raiden are wearing are hard to miss. Miyaka waves at you once you make eye contact with her. They must have been waiting by the rest rooms for quite some time for them to come looking for you. This is as good a cue as any to say leave.

"I really have to go, Tobio. Some club officers and I made plans to get barbecue."

"You won't come over for dinner?" He asks, his head tilted to the side. You're vaguely aware of Hinata and Sugawara suddenly whispering among themselves upon hearing that.

"No, sorry. They're already waiting for me. It'd be rude if I cancelled now." You nod at the direction of your two senpai standing a few feet away, emphasizing your point.

"Mom is expecting you for tonight. " He shrugs but you don't miss the small pout he makes. "But whatever, it's your call."

"I suppose I could swing by later if we finish at the yakiniku place early?" It came off more like a bargain than a suggestion.

"But you'd be full by then."

"I'll save room, don't worry." You cheekily respond with a light chuckle. "I guess I'll see you later?"

Tobio ends the conversation with a nod and a short "okay".

With this, you turn to the rest of the group. They're not looking at either you or Tobio but you know that they heard your conversation. They must feel like they've being privy to something intimate, which you can assure them that they're not. Hinata is biting his bottom lip, clearly stopping himself from commenting anything. Sugawara is whistling as his eyes flit to the toe cap of his shoes. Nishinoya and Tanaka are having a hard time closing their mouths as they continue to gape at Tobio. All of them a clearly still under the impression that you are his girlfriend.

"It's nice meeting you all." You say to the group and you're met with a chorus of pleasantries.

"Bye, Hinata, Yamaguchi!" You wave specifically at the two freshmen whom you've bonded with the most.

You bow at the rest before turning on your heels and walking away. You don't see the way Tsukishima's eyes follow your retreating figure.

You're at least twenty feet away when Sugawara's hand finds the crown of Tobio's head, ruffling his hair roughly. "You dog! She's definitely your girlfriend. You're inviting her over for dinner!"

"I really envy you right now, Kageyama!"

"I wish I had a girlfriend too."

"Teach us your ways!"

The pandemonium that ensues after you left could be something out of a comedy skit. They're simply refusing to believe Tobio when he says over and over, almost pleadingly, that you are just his best friend. Tobio isn't the type to raise his voice at his upperclassmen so Hinata took the brunt of his fury when the setter reached his breaking point.

You would have found it hilarious how your best friend chased Hinata around, kicking the poor boy on the shin when he finally caught up to him.

You would also definitely appreciate the way Tobio blushed uncontrollably as his teammates continued to jeer and tease, if only you had seen it.

You apologize profusely to your two upperclassmen when you finally reach them, saying that you lost track of time talking to the Karasuno players. However, they don't seem at all angry about your tardiness. In contrary, they have a glint in their eyes that tell you they're amused about something.

"For a non-girlfriend, you sure looked a lot like a girlfriend back there." Raiden says with a roll of his eyes . You didn't realize they've been watching the whole ordeal all this time.

"Huh?"

"He's right, Y/N. I mean, think about it— not only did you watch his game, you also bought him after-game snacks. Not to mention he introduced you to his teammates." Miyaka links her arm to yours as the three of you start making your way to the stadium's exit. "It's like this unspoken rule among athletes' girlfriends, and you should trust me on this because I'm an athlete's girlfriend."

You manage to let out an incredulous scoff. "You guys are being ridiculous. It's no big deal, really. I've been doing it for him since we were in middle school."

"Woof, that's rough." Raiden whistles. "So, you've been doing girlfriend duties since middle school but he hasn't asked you to be his girlfriend yet?"

"It's not that simple." You groan, both exasperatedly and bashfully.

"How is that not simple? You like him and by the looks of things, he likes you, too." It's Miyaka who speaks this time.

"He likes me?" It's really cringe and embarrassing that that's what you took away from her statement.

"It's really obvious," She says without hesitation. "I have a good eye on this kind of stuff. Trust me, he likes you."

You stay silent for a few seconds to ponder on her words. You'd be lying if you said that you haven't been fantasizing about Tobio liking you back. The idea just seems farfetched, especially since it's Tobio of all people. He has the emotional capacity of a grain of rice.

You try your best to think nothing of it. You will just end up getting hurt if you believe what they're saying. You don't want to feed yourself blind hope, especially if there's nothing to back up their claim.

"He doesn't." You mumble, feeling your heart sink. It is with a painful acceptance do you realize that you believe that sentence wholeheartedly.

Miyaka and Raiden look at each other, communicating silently. They're one of the closest friends you have in school. All those times you spent in the club room slaving away projects upon projects really strengthened your bond with them. They are probably the next people who know you best after Tobio.

"Why do you seem so sure? You haven't even confessed yet." Raiden says with a scoff.

"I'm not gonna confess because I know he'll just reject me. It'll ruin everything and I don't want that to happen. It's too risky." You're now past denying that you do like Tobio. It's actually quite refreshing for you to talk about your feelings for him this openly. You feel as if a weight has been lifted off your shoulders after years of hopeless pining.

"Wow. You really are stupid."

"Rai-san!" You cry out, clearly offended.

"You have a mirror, don't you? You're fully aware that you're pretty and if you disagree with that, either you have brain damage or just really dense. You're smart, you're hella good at volleyball— you're also, like, his number one fan. Tell me, what more could he want?" Raiden taps his finger on your temple. "Think, Y/N. If he had any ideal girl, it would be you."

You're always so surprised whenever Raiden shows his supportive side, albeit the way he delivered it could have been nicer and less abrasive. He always seems so negative and snarky, but when he does say something nice, you know it's genuine. Miyaka can only nod her head vigorously in agreement.

"Aw, Rai-san!" You throw yourself at him and engulf him in an embrace. You hear him grumble in protest but he allows you to hug him nevertheless.

"Rai has never said anything nice like that to me. I'm actually really jealous" Miyaka says with a soft pout. "What he said is true, though. You're the perfect girl for Tobio and I'm sure he already knows that. You should confess and see how it goes."

"I-I don't know." You bite your bottom lip. "I need time to think about it."

"You'll have plenty of time to think about it while we eat barbecue. I'm absolutely starving. How about you two slowpokes hurry up before all the good tables are taken, yeah?" With this, Miyaka tugs you by the arm as she speed walks. You don't protest because the grumbling in your stomach tells you that you're getting quite hungry too.

Your trio reach the exit of the stadium and you're fortunate enough to catch a bus immediately. The topic of Tobio is momentarily set aside as Raiden shows you a video he took of Miyaka napping in the club room, a steady stream of drool coming out of her open mouth. Raiden even threatens that he'd send the video to Tendou, which obviously rattles Miyaka. Her face turns into a bright shade of red, demanding Raiden to delete that video or she would make sure he regretted it.

You and Raiden laugh hysterically, so much so that the other passengers on the bus give you the side-eye. Miyaka looks like she's gonna exolode with embarrassment as she tries to pry Raiden's phone from his hands.

It's moments like these that allow you to breathe without anxiety. You don't even realize that today, you have completely forgotten about the fact that you're gonna move to Tokyo soon. You're glad that you have Miyaka and Raiden to distract you from that.

Dinner with your two upperclassmen was great. You talked about various stuff, though you notice that they didn't bring up Tobio anymore— they must have sensed that you weren't comfortable talking about him so they let it be. However, Miyaka did say that if ever you need help confessing to your best friend, she'd be glad to help. You thank her for her offer but you're not quite sure if you're even gonna go about doing it. You still have to be sure about what to do next before making a move.

You didn't fill up on yakiniku despite your stomach protesting because you promised Tobio you'd still come over for dinner at his house. Miyaka and Raiden didn't hold back, though. They ordered so many meat and side dishes that you had to try your best not to look so envious.

Once the three of you are done, you take a bus home. You plan on showering first before going to Tobio's house so you don't look so haggard, at least.

You see your Mom's car in the driveway once you arrive home. She's home early, you think to yourself. She usually goes home at 8 PM or later.

Your Mom pops out of the kitchen once she hears you're back home. She's bobbing a tea bag up and down her steaming cup while her face is covered in a seaweed mask that's part of her weekly skincare routine.

"How's that yakiniku place? Is it any good?"

You texted her a few hours ago that you'd get yakiniku with your club mates so she doesn't have to wait for you at dinner.

"A bit pricey but worth it, I guess. We should go there sometime, Mom."

"How about lunch on Sunday? We could go shopping at the mall after. What do you think?"

"Sounds good." You smile. There's a voice in your head that says she's only trying to compensate for the whole moving to Tokyo thing. Quite frankly, you're still mad at her about that, but you also know she only has your best interest at heart. You try to understand her position.

"I'm gonna go shower and go to Tobio's. He invited me for dinner." You say as you make your way to your room.

"Do you really have to go? You've already eaten and you were just at his house last night." She follows you until she's leaning against your room's doorframe.

"I could still eat. Besides, I think it's a special dinner since Tobio's team got through the preliminaries. He told me his mother was expecting me. I couldn't say no, could I?"

Your mother takes a sip from her tea. "Well, as long as he invited you and you're not imposing."

You don't respond after that. You're rummaging through your closet in search for specific articles of clothing you want to be wearing tonight.

"Hey, Mom? Have you seen my beige shirt? The long-sleeved one? Oh, no, wait— I forgot I haven't washed it yet."

You hear your Mom click her tongue. "It's in the laundry room. I added everything in your hamper to the load when I washed my coats last night. If I didn't, you wouldn't have anything to wear for this week. Sometimes I wonder what you would do without me."

The relief that courses through you is overwhelming. "Thanks, Mom! You're the best!"

You practically sprint to the laundry room to retrieve your shirt. Your Mom yells after you to take all your folded laundry to your room so you wouldn't have to return for them later. You come back to your room with a basket of your now clean laundry, the smell of vanilla fabric conditioner wafting through the room.

"Who's Kei?"

You cock your head to the side in confusion. "Kei?"

"There was a handkerchief in your hamper with the name Kei embroidered on it. It should be in there somewhere." She motions to the laundry basket. "Why do you have it in the first place?"

It takes you a couple of seconds to find said handkerchief. When Tsukishima gave it to you last night, you didn't know it was embroidered with his name— you can only assume that Kei is his first name from context. You're just realizing that you didn't ask him for his first name. You just knew him as Tsukishima.

"So, who's Kei and why do you have his handkerchief?" Your Mom repeats the question.

You tell her with a shrug that it's the boy who walked you home last night. You also tell her what happened in the café but deliberately omit the part about him giving you the handkerchief because you'd been crying, replacing it with a lie that you'd spilled water on yourself instead.

You examine the handkerchief for the first time since it was given to you. You didn't get to take a good look at it last night. The word Kei is embroidered in forest green thread at the bottom right corner. You wonder how you managed to miss it.

"I thought it was Tobio-kun who walked you home?"

"No, Mom. It was this other boy. He's Tobio's teammate, actually."

"I see. It was very dark. I just thought Tobio-kun grew a lot taller since I last saw him." She muses. "So, is this Kei boy a suitor?"

You bite back an incredulous laugh. "No way."

"A special friend, then?" You don't even know what she means by that.

"Definitely not."

You see your mother shrug from where she is leaning on your doorway. "Still, seems like he likes you enough to let you keep something that expensive."

You frown, confused. "Huh?"

"That's CLASSICS the Small Luxury." She points at the square fabric you're holding. "That's, what, ¥2000 a piece, give or take? The embroidery definitely cost extra, too. He probably paid around ¥3000 for that one."

"Who would pay ¥3000 for one friggin' handkerchief?" You almost shriek in disbelief.

"It's really good quality, you know. It's probably 100% cotton, too. Back when I was in med school, these handkerchiefs were all the hype. All my girl friends had one. I didn't. I was broke and could only afford those 6-in-1 packs you could buy at convenience stores." She laughed at the memory, her hand covering her mouth ever so daintily.

Tsukishima's voice rings inside your head.

"A single slice of cake is nowhere near the value of that handkerchief."

You just thought he was either lying or exaggerating.

Your phone buzzes on your bedside table, taking your attention away from the conversation. You catch a glimpse of Tobio's consecutive texts on the notification bar.

tobio: you still coming?

tobio: mom made tiramisu for dessert

You fold the handkerchief neatly and set it inside your drawer. The brand name CLASSICS The Small Luxury is printed right below the embroidery, another detail you've missed. You're definitely gonna be returning it to Tsukishima. As much as you appreciate him letting you keep it, you can't, not when it's worth ¥3000 with his own name embroidered on it.

How you're gonna return it to him, you still have no idea. You'll have to think of ways to get in contact with him again. You could very easily ask Tobio to give Tsukishima the handkerchief the next time they see each other, but it would be quite rude and offending to the owner if you didn't return the handkerchief personally. It's the least you can do after he let you use it when you needed it last night.

You make a mental note to ask Tobio for Tsukishima's number or home address. You'll worry about it later. For now, you really must hurry up if you still want to catch dinner at the Kageyama's.

You shower and get changed. Before leaving the house, you inform your mother that you'd be home before 9 PM— you're feeling quite guilty for storming out last night and getting home late so you give yourself an early curfew tonight as compensation. Your mother is still a little worried that you're taking advantage of the Kageyamas' hospitality, but you reassure her that it's fine and Tobio's family won't call child services on her.

You leave the house after Tobio sends you another text saying that his mother asks what time you'll be arriving. There's extra spring in your steps as you take the familiar route to his house— probably because you're excited to eat Mrs. Kageyama's cooking, or perhaps it's because you're giddy at the prospect of having dinner again with the boy you have a hopeless crush on. It's probably one or the other. It also could be both.

Tobio's Mom is preparing a feast, judging by the mingling scents of various dishes wafting throughout the whole house. She went overboard this time that you kind of regret having yakiniku earlier.

You offer to help Tobio's Mom and Miwa in the kitchen but the two women just wave you off, telling you to go relax and have some refreshments that they've prepared in the living room. Tobio's Dad is sitting on the couch, watching a baseball game on the television. He's so captivated by the game, shouting at the screen whenever his favorite team scores, that you feel like it would be rude if you sat down beside him and ruined the moment.

Tobio opens and closes his mouth, thinking of how to tell his father to scoot on the sofa. Even Tobio himself is scared of his father, it seems, because he remains quiet and accepts defeat instead.

"Let's go to my room?" He says beside you once he sees that his father won't be making room in the sofa for the two of you any time soon.

You follow him up the stairs and into his room which you've been in countless times before. Unlike those other times, however, you're now feeling a bit queasy as you enter. You hate the fact that going into your best friend's room is putting non-innocent thoughts inside your head now, something that you didn't worry about a year ago.

Tobio plops down on his swivel chair as you make your way to his bed. The door is left wide open— you don't have to be told to do that, it's just courtesy and muscle memory from all the times Tobio has invited you to his room.

You unceremoniously collapse onto his bed, taking last month's issue of Shonen Jump from his bedside table with you. You don't particularly enjoy the way your stomach does a back flip when you smell a faint trace of his cologne on his bed sheets. You try to ignore it by flipping through the Jump's pages, trying to find any new manga to distract yourself with.

Tobio must have seen you so engrossed in reading that he felt like reading too. You hear the rustling of paper as he takes out an issue of Volleyball Monthly from his bookshelf. You immediately recognize it as the issue where you were featured in.

A sly smirk appears on your lips. "Turn to page 17. You'll see a very pretty girl there."

Kageyama already knows what you're talking about before he even turned to said page. "What girl? I only see a hobgoblin holding a volleyball."

"Jerk." You chuck a throw pillow at him which would have landed square on his face had he not ducked to avoid it.

There was a couple of minutes of silence disturbed only by you turning pages and Tobio playing on his Nintendo DSi— he quickly grew bored of looking at Volleyball Monthly and fished the console from his drawer. His attention span is comparable to that of a chicken, you think to yourself as you watch him play with the handheld device. Compared to when he was reading the magazine, Tobio looks a lot more entertained playing Bomberman Blitz.

"We've improved, haven't we? My team, I mean." Tobio suddenly says while his brows are furrowed in concentration at his game.

You look up from what you're reading. "Yep, it's scary how much you guys evolved. I should probably warn our volleyball team about you. I'm sure Ushijima-san would want to know what kind of techniques you have under your sleeves."

He gives you a glare that could have killed a weak-willed soul.

"I'm kidding! They'll just have to find out how much stronger you've gotten when they face you in the finals."

Tobio snorts. "We'll beat them for sure."

"You always say that but what's your plan, though? Do you have any tactics to beat Ushijima-san?" You inquire curiously.

Tobio presses pause on his Nintendo, cradling his chin in thought. "Well, none of us can beat him one-on-one so we'll have to work on our three-man block more, but aside from that, our floor defense is pretty solid. Nishinoya-san and Daichi-san could definitely receive some of his spikes, so I'm not too worried about that."

"You really don't think anyone on your team could block him?" You ask and he just shakes his head. "Don't you have faith in your middle blockers?"

He stares at you as if you've just asked a very stupid question. "Have you seen our middle blockers?"

"Hinata does good when it comes to offense but he's absolutely worthless when it comes to blocking and receiving. He's fast and jumps high but that's about all he can do.

And then there's Tsukishima"

Your attention is snatched when you hear the blonde's name. "What about him?"

"He just... doesn't try." Tobio simply says. "He has the height for it, he has good game sense too, but he gives up way too easily. If only he's pushing himself a little harder, we could strengthen our defense a lot more."

"I see."

"Don't even get me started on his rotten attitude. He's a sarcastic dick, thinking he's smarter than everyone. You would hate him too if you'd met him."

You almost tell Tobio that you have indeed met him, but judging by the way his face contorts in disgust when talking about the blonde, it won't be such a good idea.

You've seen Tsukishima play today. You're not saying that Tobio is wrong, but you definitely do not see the blonde 'giving up way too easily'. On their match against Kakugawa, Tsukishima looked focused and motivated— granted, he didn't look as enthusiastic as Tobio or Hinata, but he still seemed like he was enjoying the game. Though, you can't disagree about what Tobio said about Tsukishima being a sarcastic dick— that one was definitely correct.

But maybe, Tobio is not entirely wrong. He obviously knows Tsukishima better than you. The only instance you ever see him play is during official matches. You have no idea how he is like during practice.

"Hey, Tobio? When's your training gonna start again?"

"We have one on Saturday. Why do you ask?"

"Can I come and watch?" You try to make your shrug look as casually as it can when in reality, you're starting to get nervous about your bold request.

Tobio thinks about it for a second before nodding. "Sure."

You have no idea what your end game is when you asked to come to their practice.

You do know one thing, though— you're gonna see Tsukishima again and it's gonna be the best opportunity to give him back his handkerchief.

The Nintendo DSi narrowly misses your thigh as Tobio chucks it on the bed. A second later, the impact of his body weight hitting the mattress causes you to almost fall off. He's spread-eagled on the bed with his face turned up to the ceiling. He's so close that you can feel the warmth of his body on your own skin.

"Wanna have a go?" He jabs the Nintendo blindingly at you, his eyes still fixated upward.

You take the console out of his hand and starts a new game. It's harder than you remember it being, or maybe you just haven't played it in a while. This old Nintendo model's buttons are difficult to press, you tell yourself as the character dies yet again— not your fault but the console's. You restart only to die at the same spot.

"You're horrible at this." Tobio snickers. You've been glued to the game for the past minute that you didn't notice that he has wiggled closer to you so he could watch you play.

You turn your head to look at him with the most hateful glare you could muster. You hope that he doesn't detect the look of yearning in your eyes because God knows there is. His dark blue eyes are just so beautiful, you could drown in them. The shape of his nose, the curve of his lips, the soft dusting of color on his cheeks— they all make him unbelievably gorgeous that it's a miracle you haven't melted on the spot considering his face is only a few inches away from yours.

You feel like you've mastered by now the look of indifference whenever he's around, and yet you wonder if Tobio would have guessed by now that you have a crush on him if only he has the perception of an average teenage boy. Surely, you're not hiding it that well. Miyaka and Raiden did say it was very obvious.

"You died again." He points out as the DSi emits the telltale sound that signals the gruesome death of the pixelated bomber.

You all but shove the device to his chest in frustration. You feel the vibration of his laughter as your hand makes contact with him as you feel your heart quicken instantaneously.

"Why do you want to watch our practice?" He asks after he has turned off the Nintendo and tossed it haphazardly somewhere on the mattress.

You shrug. "I wanna see you train."

Not exactly a lie but not the full truth either. The real reason you're going to their training is to give Tsukishima the handkerchief. Watching your crush practice volleyball is just a bonus.

"Why? Do you miss me that much when I'm not around?"

It's meant to be a joke. You're not meant to take it seriously. He's smirking in a way that tells you he's just having a laugh... but you're only human, and humans can only hide their feelings so much before some of it leaks.

"Yes, I do."

Tobio laughs.

You frown at this reaction.

"Stop it. That's gross." His shoulders shake as he tries to suppress his laughter. You blink back stupidly, both in surprise and mind-numbing hurt. No way he just said 'that's gross'.

He turns on the Nintendo again, unaware of your ragged breathing and how clammy your hands have gotten. You force out a laugh that you hope mirrors his.

For the rest of the night, none of your smiles or laughter seem to be genuine. Not even during dinner which is exquisite with all of Tobio's favorite food crammed in the too-small dining table. Not even as you say your good night to them by the front door as you prepare for your leave. Not even as you refuse Tobio when he offered to walk you home, right after his mother has chastised him into being a 'proper gentleman'.

This must be what a heartbreak feels like, you muse as you lay awake on your bed.

It hurts, and what's worse — it's because of Tobio.

I haven't updated in so long and felt guilty that's why this chapter has 11k words omg sorry not sorry

tag list: @sktvienna @thechaosoflonging @kenryug

#tsukishima x reader #kageyama x reader #tsukishima angst #kageyama angst #mutual pining #friends to lovers #tsukishima fanfic #kageyama fanfic #haikyuu x reader

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callipraxia · 8 months

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okay I’m here to thank you. Do you remember that post from like a Long Time Ago where you talked about what inks you used to plan/outline fwjb on paper? well, a few days after I heard about that, I went to the nearest store and bought the shittiest composition notebook and highlighters you’ve ever fucking seen in your life. then I forgot about it for like a very, Very long time. that's important context.

I suddenly remember it existed three days ago. I picked it up, decorated it, and colored two full pages of marker because. because well why not. The first couple pages are soaked in ink my bad. anyways—I finally decided to start actually WRITING in it, in PENCIL, because while actual writing notebooks would be a lot better than a Fucking Composition Notebook, I’m pinched. so. I did that. and guess what?!? it helped! it fucking helped! my weird ass outlines On Paper! I figured out a WHOLE Three Act Structure for do you remember hanging up the stars, AND have begun loosely sorting all of the POVs I have in the search for future reference. like?!? oh god it’s so helpful to have something I can Look At. very shitty picture attached (ignore the gagging mess of handwriting, never grew out of third grade cursive hybrid lettering, you might not even be able to read it--) (this is for the stars)

so… thank you! this was very helpful and that wasn’t your intention with the post but fuck all I Listened. you’ve got organized writing a lot more than I do, lol. will possibly take More Notes in the future…! :)

oh Wow now im getting feelings from showing off my handwriting to a public for the first time. hopefully this doesnt unlock and unbridled the terrible ordeal of being known anxiety! /lh

Ooh, cool! And your handwriting’s quite nice and very legible, so don’t be anxiety about it!

Composition books are also perfectly valid forms of writing notebook. I’m writing the first draft of Tracey’s journal in one, actually, because that’s the kind of notebook he’s writing in in-universe, and the McGucket memoir’s on a purple legal pad. The FWJB outlines and notes, meanwhile, were written mostly on loose sheets of printer paper, gathered into a folder (which proved invaluable as a supplement for my memory, which went into full leaky-faucet mode for a while halfway or so through IE cos COVID/2022 being Just The Worst Year). Most of my one-shots are written in my tiniest handwriting on bits of scrap paper, including a number of those alignment sheets the printer spits out when you plug it in. As much as I love good-quality notebooks, they aren’t always the right tool for the job…especially if you just hoard them and never deem any idea good enough to ‘waste’ them on (I’m convinced that getting the FWJB notebooks on clearance sale was directly tied psychologically to my willingness to actually use them, somehow or the other).

#writers #writing #writer problems

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chidoroki · 1 year

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182 Days of TPN - Day 38

Chapter 38: “Forest of Vows”

Letting y’all know right now, if these become rather short, you can blame TotK. I purposefully had a good week of chapters written out in advance this whole time because I knew I’d become too attached to the game (& I’m loving it so far of course, though I don’t feel like I’ve gotten very far atm). So it’s been a few days for me personally to write more, but here we are and oh boy, what a way to start by saying farewell to this absolute queen. Don’t worry, honey, I’ll fangirl about you more once September hits.

That’s because all the books the house had were transported over from the human side of the world, sweetie. I was gonna question whether or not demons even use books, but then I remember Ayshe’s father taught her how to read, so yeah, they do. Anyways, I know demons are generally larger than any human but I wonder if these huge trees make them feel small at all? Or it’s probably all so normal to them they don’t even think twice about it.

This little fantasy of Emma’s is too cute. I love that she thought of the other kids like Phil who were left behind at the house, but it hurts not seeing Norman there. Is it safe to assume Ray made all that food? Funny how Emma sorta predicted him becoming our team chef later on.

My boy, for once in your life, can you please pat her head nicely? Especially when she’s injured! Pfftt I don’t mind it really, but I liked how the anime switched it up and just had him scare her with the jar instead. Her yell was equally as good. & I know for sure I was reading an unofficial translation the first time I picked up this series because I distinctly remember Ray going “Heyoooo” instead. I dunno why it stuck with me but to this day I greet people with that a lot.

Him watching out for her once again and more importantly, HIS APOLOGY!!! Anime made his voice SO SOFT it brings me close to tears. And she just smiles and accept it all!

He is so darn grateful, look at this smile!! I know the second season messed up a whole lot, but I gotta thank them for nailing this whole scene. All voice actresses did a splendid job with these two.

HIS PROMISE!!! One of my favorite moments of whole series and no doubt one of his best, probably the pivotal moment of his character development actually.

“Ray once believed his life was cursed and that he deserved to die after spending years thinking his family were nothing but a huge burden. So for him to come around after his attempted suicide and vow to live and protect the siblings he was so close to abandoning is the perfect example of character development. Needless to say he does stay true to this promise by being completely loyal to Emma and supportive of their family throughout the entire rest of the series and I’m so proud.” - a lazy chidoroki

Ray spent most of his life sorta isolated from the others because he knew the house’s secret and didn’t want to drag anyone else down with him, so for him to come around and tell Emma that it’s better to work together with everyone to reach their goal.. it just hits so hard.

My random pen question from ch23 about whether the WM pen actually had ink or not has been answered (though Snickers pointed this out too in the tags that day so thank you for not letting my mind wonder endlessly about it).

Could you imagine just walking around with your best buddy, having the time of your lives admiring this grand forest, when suddenly they fall through the ground with no explanation. Talk about scary.

It hasn’t even been five minutes and Ray’s already proving how serious he’s keeping his promise. I love this boy and all that rage on his face. Also, Chris being totally lost about what’s happening and just having Emma drag him everywhere.

Favorite panel/moment:

Yet another head pat with Chris and his adorable trotting.

#the promised neverland #tpn manga #182daysoftpn #chidoroki used chatter

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leyswhumpdump · 1 year

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I posted 784 times in 2022

That's 784 more posts than 2021!

170 posts created (22%)

614 posts reblogged (78%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@callaeidae3

@whumpsday

@whump-side

@whumpwillow

@oddsconvert

I tagged 618 of my posts in 2022

Only 21% of my posts had no tags

#whump art - 164 posts

#whump - 143 posts

#whump writing - 94 posts

#original post - 68 posts

#the case of kindall k - 44 posts

#other people's writing - 43 posts

#whump prompts - 26 posts

#the merry whump of may - 26 posts

#reference - 23 posts

#hidden ink - 20 posts

Longest Tag: 122 characters

#making them nakey except for their cape so they have to try and cover themselves but it doesn't really cover them properly

My Top Posts in 2022:

It kind of surprises me to realise this, but restraints are chronically underused in a lot of otherwise whumpy media. Not the restraints themselves, but the process of actually tying up the whumpee. I’ve noticed a lot of scene cuts between initial capture and being restrained (or it’s over in a sentence or a few seconds), and I feel like there’s so much whumpy potential there.

Like. The symbolism and fear in restraining the whumpee’s limbs, especially if this is the first time it’s happened to them. The shift in the power dynamic, especially if the whumper has been established as physically or socially weaker than the whumpee. The sense of freedom, previously taken for granted, that flees with every extra loop of rope around the whumpee’s wrists. The resulting desperation. And while a completely-restrained whumpee is so fun to watch struggle, I personally love it when the whumpee still has a shot at escaping and can’t quite overpower their whumper before it’s too late.

Similarly, when the whumpee is first gagged. The initial terror when they realise what the whumper is planning, the desperate struggles to keep their mouth shut. The humiliation and invasiveness of having something stuffed past their teeth, the frantic attempts to spit it out before whumper can tie a knot or lock the thing around their head. Maybe they actually succeed, and have to go through the whole thing again with a spinning head or black eye.

I feel like the more it’s built up, the more they struggle or panic, the more impact it has when they’re defeated.

474 notes - Posted June 14, 2022

Whumpees being rescued by stranger caretakers is such a vibe. The fear of not knowing they’re safe. The caretaker being uncertain of what exactly Whumpee went through, or worrying they’ve made a mistake in helping the injured / feverish / terrified little mess that’s cowering or unconscious in their spare room.

And then the early recovery period. When Whumpee whispers their own name for the first time. When Caretaker tries to coax out information with food and kindness. When the seeds of doubt begin to soothe themselves until eventually they’re washed away, and Whumpee and Caretaker form an alliance if not a friendship.

Later on, Whumpee wonders how they could ever repay such kindness. The thought of someone like Caretaker helping someone like them is almost unfathomable, and once it’s actually sunk in, they break down sobbing and can’t be consoled.

Of course, once the tears have dried they are fiercely loyal to Caretaker, and will do anything in the world for this no-longer-stranger they now owe their life to.

614 notes - Posted May 19, 2022

Nearly Unconscious Whumpees

I know we love unconscious whumpees. How about nearly unconscious whumpees?

Caretaker is trying to carry Whumpee to safety but Whumpee is kind of delirious and the little consciousness they do have is absolutely fixated on one thing, e.g. the wellbeing of a fellow whumpee. Bonus points if it’s something less consequential, like fretting about the blood they’re getting on Caretaker’s clothing. Extra bonus points if their mumblings show a complete lack of understanding of the situation, such as pleading for Whumper not to hurt them or asking when Caretaker’s getting here.

Whumpee’s eyes are open and Caretaker thinks they’re more alert than they are. It’s only when Caretaker tries to get them to sit up and has to support their limp head and neck that they see their glazed expression.

Whumpee drifting in and out of consciousness without realising it, so what may seem to be a coherent conversation to them is strung out over full minutes or even hours for Caretaker.

Whumpee drifting in and out of consciousness, realising it, and panicking as much as they are mentally capable of doing at that moment. Caretaker has to soothe them and let them know it’s all right, they’re in safe hands and Caretaker won’t let anything happen to them.

Caretaker carrying Whumpee over their shoulder and having to set them down on a bed or a table. Whumpee’s limbs ragdolling as Whumpee mumbles weak apologies.

Whumpee lying in a bed and seemingly unconscious, but Caretaker knows they still have some alertness because they squeeze Caretaker’s hand really tightly.

Whumpee wishing they could pass out completely because the pain is too much for them.

And two more (reference to noncon drugging and nonsexual noncon touching):

Whumper has drugged Whumpee into a hazy state. When Whumpee gets rescued, they’re terrified Caretaker thinks they’re drunk or deliberately intoxicated.

Creepy Whumper doing something intimate like stroking Whumpee’s hair. Whumpee is either frightened but unable to pull themselves away, or not conscious enough to really be scared or know who’s touching them.

718 notes - Posted May 13, 2022

Sleeping Whumpees

Sleeping whumpees. Curled up on cold cell floors, seeking the only escape they can get. Eyes red behind their closed lids because they cried themselves to sleep. Tucked up under warm blankets. Cradled by a caretaker. Peaceful and smiling even in slumber, or screaming from night terrors. Restless from fever. Exhausted in the back of a car, their mind and body just given out. Falling asleep after fighting it for so long.

Just an adorable trope all round.

778 notes - Posted May 18, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Early Recovery / Comfort Aesthetics

Oversized clothing, especially big baggy sweaters with sleeves that fall over the hands. Great for hiding old wounds or just as something soft to hide in. Bonus points if the clothing belongs to Caretaker.

Being touch starved but overwhelmed by the thought of Caretaker actually touching them. Enveloping themselves in different textures and using a weighted blanket to ease them back into physical touch that won’t hurt. Maybe cuddling with a plushie or a pet.

Rolling into a tiny ball at perceived threats, trying to make themselves invisible. Alternatively, being a feral hissy kitten and needing to be calmed down.

Having all the knots and tangles gently brushed out of their hair <3

Having their hair stroked by Caretaker.

Having their hair washed by Caretaker.

Caretaker preparing their comfort foods.

Constantly asking Caretaker if Whumper knows where they are, and Caretaker’s heart breaking for the hundredth time as they patiently explain that Whumper won’t ever hurt them again.

Sleepy whumpees who can’t keep their eyes open, melting against Caretaker’s shoulder or into their lap as they fall asleep.

Whumpees that cling to their comfort items even after rescue. A blanket or family photo or a teddy bear constantly in their hand.

Whumpees waking up from the first sleep they’ve had in months that isn’t full of nightmares or night terrors. Rolling over and burying themselves in the covers for a lie-in, no longer afraid of the thought of sinking back into dreams.

1,400 notes - Posted June 9, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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charascarlet · 9 months

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‌so imagine some kind of void entity, but anthropomorphic (in my brain it looked like deoxys from pokemon - but like ink-black with little white/glowing accents)

‌it sends you falling through different random scenes (think like scrolling on tiktok or something, but around you and you're not the one scrolling), and you have to choose related options in a list as fast as you can/within a time limit(?) (but there's nonsense and gibberish options so you can't just mash through, but you do that anyway because you don't know how this works yet and you're already panicking)

‌it takes your list, shakes it up and adds stuff without you knowing, now (maybe falling/moving through the same scenes again?) you have to add meaning/choose other related options to those in the list, which proves very hard when at least a third of the list is gibberish. you also have to avoid the options in the list the entity added, which are made to be believable (and you don't know it has added them)

‌of course you mess up, because how could you not? the best definition for brilliant in your list is a bowl of chips, and of course you don't remember adding your cats cuddling or a salad with carrots to the list, but you didn't even notice they were there, your brain seemed to think that these options made sense among the rest (that you chose in a rush, remember), so you ignore them.

‌i can't stress this enough, but you're in a constant rush and your brain is constantly filled with images corresponding to the scenes/words in your list, so it's really hard to think straight and you keep messing up, but the entity is just toying with you. after all, it made the original options in the list, and it reveals it added some options that you foolishly chose! you can't win, you could never win, not when you don't know the rules of the game you're playing your life on! you didn't even know how you could win! the entity starts laughing.

‌it just explodes. and you die.

and that was part of my dream last night :D

yeah. here's some added context cause the dream as a whole was hilarious. or just weird. idk.

‌so at the start(?) of the dream i'm at a ski resort (it's summer. wtf) with my friends and parents (or just my dad? i don't know) and well. the "ski resort" is more like a video game dungeon without enemies. think maybe like stone tower temple from majora's mask? but like icy. so with less empty space and puzzles and enemies in the middle, with lots of ice and snow and stairs and cold metal pipes for some reason and. you know. not upside down-able.

‌there's slides to go down that stem from the sides of the building, and stairs covered in snow inside to get to the rooms (yeah cause it's a ski resort. remember. nevermind the fact that you know. the snow and cold are inside as well as outside). think like grand staircases and rooms all around.

‌cue encounters with a bunch of my friends about 'oh wow you're here too! who else is here? been enjoying it so far?' etc etc. and a race against the clock that looks suspiciously like the goron race in majora's mask (though that might've been in another dream, idk). and also an incident with one of the metal pipes that run along the walls but whatever. that's not the focus of the dream.

‌my room is at the end of a staircase, my dad's room right next to it, at the end of a corridor on one side is a series of smaller stairs that lead to a friend's room. said friend is kind of a nerd (read: completely obsessed with videogames, but i am too so uh. pot meet kettle), dad is too, though a different flavour of nerd (tabletop games, he plays bloodbowl which is like fantasy american football with lots of violence, very fun) so we go over to his room to play videogames cause fun so why not!

‌turns out his room is an actual boss battle arena. we are already inside a videogame. his room has a boss battle that gets rerolled each time you retry (read: die and come back). first boss rolled is a queen gibdo knock-off (yes i have been playing too much totk don't judge) but like. metal and snow instead of bug and sand yk. we die. we wake up in our rooms. rush to my friend's room to see if he's ok cause yk. his room is the boss arena. we get there, boss activates, same boss gets rolled, i think we win this time? idk

‌then we decided to roll the boss a third time. for funsies. the symbol on the wall that indicates which boss is being rolled turns ink-black and shows a sparkle design. i hear my friend mutter curses ('worst fucking boss') under his breath

‌boss appears. see first part of the story for the rest of the 'boss battle'. my dad and my friend are actually here too i'm just too focused on panicking to notice them yk.

‌that explosion from the boss that kills us at the end? it looks like a time bomb from totk. i promise i'm not insane about this game.

‌also right after the explosion i promptly wake up (at 7am. I wanted to sleep in :( but oh well) to write everything down cause yeah. weird-ass dream but i wanna remember it so yeah

tl;dr: my dream last night was some kind of boss fight against an entity that looked like deoxys but in black colours and that killed me for not noticing everything :D

#my brain is very normal #also? this dream was like a one-off thing but uh. sometimes my brain creates dreams that are sequels of dreams i had when i was like 8. oop #so yeah this turned out a bit longer than i expected but hey that's what i get for trying to explain the chaos that is my brain #this took me 2hrs to make btw it's 9am for me now #scarlet rambling #scarlet original post™

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patbwaifs · 11 months

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art scraps time

ahaha oh man oh boy

i think my ipad is melting

under the cut is uh what I would call the "middle school emo" of art

while working on that one connor fan art I realized (agaIN) that I'm really weak in terms of light and shadow, at least when it's not for something strictly realistic.

I keep trying to both learn how I want to handle crosshatching while also learning how to actually depict lights and darks and it's just generally better to do one thing at a time, so I did some cross hatch experimentation and then some stylized grayscale studies. I think this week needs to be all grayscale. no color for me.

To explain my perspective: when I'm approaching this "art style gauntlet", I'm thinking about it in terms of what could I draw repeatedly, efficiently, while still looking cool.

this was the first cross hatch a whatever

I think the texture is cool, but it can take a long time to do. But it also shouldn't take too long to learn how to make it into some sort of texture map (rather, i learn how to do that once instead of manually crosshatch everything forever)

It got really dark really fast but that can be fixed.

this one? barf. I made myself work on it past the point of "ugh no" to see if it was just a case of uncanny valley syndrome and

I can't decide how I want to handle hatches and curvature.

I don't commit to it, and I run into p r o b l e m s.

this was just for fun :3

when I would do a lot of inking by hand I really liked filling in details with very very fine lines. It's just wonderful.

And time consuming. I need to find a balance if I want to use this in a visual story.

So at this point, I moved on to some gray scale stuff!!

two problems: - my endurance loses in this fight - i don't have a good grasp on what this kind of stylistic anatomy and it shows up when I try to give my drawings form.

I moved on to my juri sketch because it was still a sketch, and also more anime than realistic.

It's a struggle to balance light and dark along with smooth and harsh lines, but I think here, I just need to put more time in.

There's also layer management... I need to think about what layer I'm painting on a whole lot more, because I want/need to have the pupils and eyes on separate layers from each other, which kind of means I need the eyelashes on a layer of their own.

I'll come back to these kinds of practice either tonight or tomorrow. ngl, the smoothness in her face is messing with me. and it's not even blended that well. I'm a texture, sensory-seeking fiend.

bonus

this is a pretty old sketch of one of my oc's. It was also in my downloads but I sure don't remember putting this on my computer!

It's interesting to see what's similar and what's different between this sketch and how I'm trying to draw now.

#art #art thoughts #art journey #learning how to draw #learning how to art #fanart #dbh #connor rk800 #juri arisugawa #revolutionary girl utena #original character #digital art #illustration #the art style gauntlet #patbw's D:BH sketches #patbw's RGU sketches

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spinaroos-47 · 1 year

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Batdr is fine. When you take only the game itself into account but yeah its pretty much impossible to remove it from all the context of what went down with the studio. Buuuut Im not well versed on that and i want to talk about some stuff about the game in itself.

Batim used to be a spin some years ago, from before i even created this blog. So i kinda wanted to check it out, just out of curiosity

Gotta admit, i had a better time watching it than i thought id have. Though i literally just finished watching a playthrough a few hours ago so my opinions might change in the future, probably will be my only post of this game here

Out of the gate i have to say, i didn't really like the talking animations. Like, the gestures dont feel like gestures you do when you're talking with someone. Theyre too floaty and simmetrical. A good example of the floaty thing is in the intro where Audrey is tapping her fingers on the desk. Doesnt look super right.

The style took me a while to get used to. I was more fond of the style in the first game but it grew on me. They really expanded on the style, made it more detailed and really worked with the sepia and black in a way to give everything a lot of depth while still keeping it cartoony. Dont know how to feel about the addition of new colors.

The story was pretty interesting! I do like how they messed with the concept of the loop without outright conflicting with the canon Batim estabilished. It makes sense, its very interesting! I liked the flow of the story, but i did get a little ehhhh when it began showing that Audrey was trusting Wilson to do the right thing. Because like, the man fucking drowned you and trapped you in an inky hellscape. Even when you dont know his plans, why would you trust him? Yes, he's a familiar face but still doesnt make sense.

Joey making Audrey is something i really liked for some reason, its very interesting. Maybe because of the toh brainrot fjdndnf. Though it does contradict his line at the end of Batim where he says that Henry got a loving family and he only got a crooked empire. There was a lot of small things from the first game that they seemed to forget or just contradict, which is odd because there also was a lot that was consistent.

One thing that didn't sit well with me was how more at the end it seemed to go in a direction of showing how Joey changed for the better, but never really adressed all the workplace abuse and overall shittyness he brought onto his employees. Though what else could we expect from the kindlybeast?

For a while i was thinking they would pull the "oh the loop is better than the world Wilson has made" and while Wilson's whole dictatorship thing was very bad, i don't think the loop was good either. So i like that it was framed more as something that really couldnt be changed without being paused and put into stasis like Wilson did. Neither is good but one keeps the balance of that world, and Audrey is doing her best to make it more bearable.

Also Audrey basically managed to get Joey's wish from the first game, to bring the cartoon characters to life in a good way. But the credit scene with Gent taking the ink machine intrigues me. Because wouldn't she need it? She found another way to do that?

It suffered the same thing as Batim where some stuff was just brought up and not expanded as it kinda led you to believe. Actually it felt even more here, Batim felt more tightly packed in the story department. The father thing with Wilson felt kinda out of nowhere/underdeveloped. Like, if you dont pay much attention to it, it doesnt hurt much but it sure is weird.

Im not a really well versed guy on gameplay stuff, and i watched a playthrough instead of playing the game myself, but the problems in the first game seemed to be improved in this one. Definitely didn't get all solved some of them, but improved for sure, especially the combate.

When Audrey got the flow hability i realized they were sticking close to a formula like dishonored, with that and the way they did all the collectibles (the batteries, slugs, etc), which i think it might have been a good choice since dishonored is considered a pretty good game.

So, yeah, a fine game, though the enjoyment is tainted by the irl stuff that revolves around the game and the studio

#long post #batdr #alec talks

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the-teddy-bear-butch · 1 year

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and here I am again, being a menace in your inbox. 1, 3, 4, 6, 11, 13 for run away (crying to your soul)

Hello again! Fun fact, I fully believe this fic to be my worst fic even though it’s my most popular 🤪

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I saw a TikTok about Steve getting Vecna’d and his song being Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears For Fears > I started thinking about Vecna songs > what the fuck would Robin’s be? > oh Robin would be such a good candidate to be Vecna’d actually > looking for Robin gets Vecna’d fics and not finding many > “fine I’ll do it myself” > spontaneously writing my first fanfic fucking ever and proceeding to dive face first into the worst case of brainrot I’ve ever had to date. Hallelujah

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

Cheating again, this is technically in an unfinished chapter so sneak peek ig hehe

Nancy had revenge tattooed on her heart, black ink that sank deep into the muscle, turning it hard and blackened and cold. Her wrath was all encompassing. A bullet, chilled lead, sat heavy in her pocket, carved with one, singular name: Vecna. She would kill him for what he had done to her hometown, but especially for hurting Robin. And she would survive the encounter on ice cold rage and spite alone.

In conclusion: Nancy Wheeler shoot me please <33

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

Again dialogue is one of my weak points help omfg

“There is a suspicious number of love songs,” she teased.

Nancy hid her face in her hands.

“Robbie—“ she whined, cutting herself off. She seemed to be struggling for words.

“‘Crush On You’ by The Jets? ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’ by ABBA? ‘True Blue’ by Madonna?” she listed, wiggling her eyebrows. Nancy dissolved into a flustered mess.

“It really seems like you’re trying to say something, princess.”

She was so certain of it, Robin realized. Their shared moments over the past few days played over and over in her mind, and she came to a pair of conclusions.

She liked Nancy Wheeler. And Nancy Wheeler liked her back.

“Robbie, I’m going to kill you,” Nancy groaned, shoving the other girl away.

Robin smirked, flopping back on the bed.

“I was hoping for another k word,” she teased.

I really like writing these bitches just being soft for each other. Silly gay people. They fill me with cuteness aggression and I’m shaking them violently

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

Well for one, this is legitimately the first fic I’ve ever written. I spontaneously hopped on the fic writing train late late late July this year with this fic, and it’s still ongoing. I think it’s messy and the pacing is weird and it’s unbeta’d but it’s kind of charming like that I guess, and I like to think you can kind of see how I fell into the characters and developed my writing style as the story goes on? Idk, it has the same energy as ugly-cute animals, like pugs.

11: What do you like most about this fic?

Stop making me be nice to this flaming piece of garbage 🔫

But in all seriousness, like I said, I think you can track my development as a fic writer over the past several months, and I really enjoy the dynamic between Robin and Nancy through this whole thing. I also think my music choices are very Big Brain and Correct.

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

I have an unofficial fic playlist that I used just for writing vibes, as well as the mixtape Nancy made for Robin in one of the later chapters! Basically a lot of 80’s music and Maya Hawke with a couple other songs sprinkled in because they were favorites at the time or just the vibes were fitting. Specific shoutout to “Smalltown Boy” by Bronski Beat as Robin’s Vecna song, and “Seventeen” by Janis Ian being runner up. I did a bit of research in queer music artists of the 80’s because it was important to me that, whether or not she knew it, Robin’s Vecna song was by a queer person/band! Also special shoutouts to this playlist and this playlist, which are just favorite songs and work really well for me to write to. (I have the best music taste, actually, btw, and I don’t have an ego about it—)

#lo answers stuff #candle lion #I have a hate love relationship with this fic #and I need to update it #also you’re one of my favorite people to ge menacing the askbox so please feel free to drop by any time lmfao

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