Gotta Be Green, Gotta Be Mean, Gotta Be Everything More!

kabru, after trying for months to get laios' attention, finally successfully sleeps with the underemployed cashier at his local 24/7 convenience store. they pass out in laios' bed and shes sleeping like a rock bc they hooked up immediately after her twelve hour shift, but kabru wakes in the night. his stomach is growling... he hadnt eaten that day. did he eat yesterday?

he feels terrible about waking laios so he elects to just raid the kitchenette as quietly as possible in the complete darkness. he shuffles around by the dim light of his phone screen until he finds the familiar shape of cup noodles and the electric kettle on the counter.

he opens the lid as the water boils. it smells.... sweet? whatever, its probably fine. he just needs to eat something so he can try and get back to sleep. he waits impatiently as it cooks, and the sweet smell only grows more pronounced--it smells like hot cocoa. was this not cup noodles? was it like, some kind of brownie cup? he hadnt been able to see the label on it very well, so hed just assumed...

he sticks his chop sticks into the cup, and its definitely noodles. does he have covid? is his sense of smell just fucked? if he does, he supposes theres little he can do now until he can get a test in the morning, and he really should eat something either way

he takes his first bite. his nose hadnt lied--the noodles are smores flavored. he has just slept with a woman who buys smores flavored noodles. and now he has to eat them

worst of all ... its really not that bad

i headcanon that gabe and emilie would want to create a sentibaby that's a mix of their own DNA--which, why can't they do that? Dusuu's got to use some sort of genetic material

but what if they wanted to test the possible combinations of their DNA before deciding on their perfect designer baby? what if you're adrien agreste model 1.0? it's a little weird when you come into the world, fully grown, and the first thing you're asked to do is turn around slowly on the spot. there's some lady in a mask and a peacock dress, smiling as you stand there, awaiting judgement. her counterpart, standing behind her, seems uncertain. but you don't think much of that. there's no time to think much of that--not when all of a sudden you're sitting at a desk, with pages of equations written on them. problems you're meant to solve.

somehow, you know you've learned this math somewhere--even if you don't remember when or how. but they keep watching you--scrutinizing every line of your pencil. you finally dare to ask them about it--because it's weird, right? and god, if they could just leave you alone for ten minutes, you could probably finish this easily. but your examiners' lips turn down at your outburst. and you're snapped away before you even manage to look back down at the page

what if you're adrien agreste model 13.6, and everything you do elicits little whoops of joy from the peacock lady? in your several hours of existence, you've spoken five different languages and carried out a slew of endurance, agility, and cognitive tests. and most importantly--although you don't know why your examiners seem to praise you for this--you never talked back once

the peacock lady claps her hands together, and even the man behind her--who you've come to realize isn't nearly as easy to crack--can't seem to stop smiling. and you don't understand why something about that fills you with dread, but it does. it's a sort of all-consuming, impossible to shake dread. but you smile through it anyways

you don't know that once you disappear, a smaller version of you will come forth into the world. or that, years later, you'll feel that same sort of sick feeling in your gut

you're adrien agreste model 13.7, and you don't know there's anything weird about the way you came into this world. you don't realize your mother sometimes misses 6.8's dimples, or that your father often wishes they'd gone with 11.2--who would have had a real head for business

and you never do figure out why something always feels just a little bit wrong

i knew it. phoenix is a bottom.

dad issues

+

(I think they were all fundamentally affected by what they saw and just collectively decided not to share the upsetting details)

“You’ll be with me, like a handprint on my heart”

Recently added For Good from Wicked to my WrightWorth playlist and it makes me happy every time. Yeah of course they rewrote each others stories for the better by knowing each other. Man.

one of my favorite things about laios is that he does get judgemental and annoyed by his party members but he keeps it to himself to avoid (further) confrontation. it's hilarious

letter to theo by vincent van gogh

heheeheehe

Hang in there, Marcille.

Bonus Izutsumi ver:

There’s just something extremely touching about watching Izutsumi work through a wide range of emotions when she sees Marcille cry for the first time.

She’s sleeping on Marcille’s lap when it happens—something she hadn’t willingly done since her human consciousness was subdued in the Golden Country.

Izutsumi was initially very embarrassed when she remembered showing Marcille such unbridled affection when her monster (cat) side had full control in Melini. But now, shortly after, she did it again without any fuss, seemingly over this embarrassment.

But when she notices Marcille crying—not crying expressive tears over a situation with low stakes, but tears of real sorrow and loss—Izutsumi physically recoils.

She reacts with the childlike fear and panic that one feels when someone they heavily rely on and trust (like a parent or teacher) shows vulnerability, doubt, or weakness. She lashes out, trying to use words of reproach to get Marcille to stop crying. Or, in childlike terms, to try to force Marcille’s pain go away.

When that doesn’t work, we see her physically struggle as she tries to sit by and wait it out. But Izutsumi can’t do it.

Marcille’s pain causes her so much intense distress that Izutsumi immediately offers physical affection as a response—something she has not done for anyone up to this point.

When Senshi told the party about his traumatic backstory, Izutsumi did not touch him. She did support him, tried to offer words of comfort, but she did not embrace him like the others did. Maybe she didn’t know how; maybe she didn’t have a proper example on what comforting someone looked like. But she saw all three of them reach for Senshi, she saw them hold him in their arms, and anchor him as he cried.

This is the first time another party member has cried out of sadness since that moment. It’s possible that she saw how the others helped Senshi, and maybe, subconsciously, she saw that it worked. That it made him feel better.

She is clearly unused to it, and has her own rollercoaster of emotions as Marcille gratefully accepts the comfort Izutsumi is offering her. But it helps. It helps Marcille immediately, and Izutsumi knows this.

These acts of vulnerability are foreign to her, and thus make her feel uncomfortable, but she lets Marcille lean on her afterwards anyway. She wanted Marcille to be okay, wanted it so badly, that she accidentally overcame an emotional obstacle she never even knew she had.