A Break Under The Lights

bread

Give Floyd and Jade their own cupcakes. They deserve it. If jade was hungy enough to eat Azuls, imagine how hungry Floyd would be.

I don’t think Floyd is in the mood for the cupcakes though

I think azunui liked the cupcakes idk guys u tell me

all goofing aside I genuinely don't understand the urge to reimagine Taylor Allison Swift as a secretly queer icon when the pop music scene(TM) is like. literally overflowing with women who actually like women. Gaga and Kesha and Miley and Halsey are right there. Rina Sawayama and Hayley Kiyoko and Rebecca Black and Kehlani and Victoria Monét and Miya Folick if you're willing to get slightly less top 100. Janelle and Demi for them nonbinary takes on liking girls. like what are we doing here. like I'm not even saying you can't enjoy Taylor but why would you hang all your little gay hopes on her.

SSR Jade Leech - Platinum Jacket Voice Lines

When Summoned: A museum that has been standing for 100 years is a wondrous thing. My heart leaps for joy at the prospect of encountering exciting works of art!

Summon Line: What a perfect suit to wear to such a long-standing museum. Fufu... What say you, does it look good on me?

Groooovy!!: The ocean is rife with danger. Who knows what may have befallen this happy little crab afterwards...

Home: Time to celebrate their 100th Anniversary.

Home Idle 1: I often see rather strange flora in paintings that depict the Queen of Hearts. I would love to see some of those with my own eyes someday.

Home Idle 2: Every painting of the Fairest Queen depicts her flawless beauty in such a flattering light. It's no wonder that Rook-san admires her greatly.

Home Idle 3: Down in the ocean depths, the Sea Witch's favorite lipstick is very popular. The container is even shaped like a seashell... I recall gifting it to my mother once, as well.

Home Idle - Login: If any of the paintings depicting ocean tales interest you, please don't hesitate to let me know. Perhaps I can help increase your appreciation of them.

Home Idle - Groovy: Riddle-san is even knowledgeable of the tales that come from the ocean. I should follow his example and widen my own knowledge of tales from the surface.

Home Tap 1: I've been improving my own sketching skills each day, of course, so that I would be able to more accurately describe the things I encounter in the mountains.

Home Tap 2: Sebek-kun declared that he would like to test his strength against the supernaturally strong young man that was said to be a child of a god. I know could never possibly consider challenging such a person, indeed.

Home Tap 3: I could hear Ruggie-san's stomach rumbling as he stood before a painting of some apples. They were drawn so beautifully that I can certainly understand how it would invigorate his appetite!

Home Tap 4: The paintings here on the surface are very colorful and I enjoy gazing at them very much. Colors tend to fade the closer they are to the ocean floor, you see.

Home Tap 5: You think that I resemble the moray eel that served the Sea Witch? In all honesty, I also felt a sort of kinship with them too. Especially with our mismatched eye colors.

Home Tap - Groovy: The museum shop has tea blends inspired by all these great people? Thank you for that wonderful news. I must go buy some.

Duo: [JADE]: Riddle-san, is this not an opportune moment? [RIDDLE]: We seem to be on the same page for once, Jade.

Birthday Login Message: Is that supposed to be a present for me? ...Ah, no need to shirk. I will wholeheartedly accept this from you. You see, there are those who would attempt to startle me with trick boxes and the like, so... I was simply wondering what it was that you were planning on giving me. Fufu, I am looking forward to opening it.

yandere twst au !¡

heartslabyul | savanaclaw | octavinelle | scarabia | pomfiore | ignihyde | diasomnia | genshin version

⚠️tw: bullying, violence, nsfw, blackmail, yandere, noncon/dubcon, mc is depicted to be small and fragile (im not even like that but it fits with the theme), reader is gn for half then fem

. A Z U L A S H E N G R O T T O !¡

. the obsessed clingy stalker !¡

. stats

easily angered: 5/10 physical capability: 4/10 gullibility: 5/10 sexual sadism: 4/10

azul is an business man, he knows his way to get someone to fall apart and has dirt and almost everyone. and if he doesnt the moment he finds a weakness he will exploit it with all his power. considering this info, once azul finds out mc is living in ramshackle, the perfect little hang out for the monstro lounge AND is magicless. azul will definitely find a weakness, a insecurity, or even a fear and attempt to force mc into a contract.

however, when mc refuses, azul can’t believe it. he had just offered them the offer of a lifetime, money and a confortable place to stay, but they refused. they didn’t even read the fine print (which would make mc an employee of the lounge).

azul is fuming because of this and almost throws a tantrum before the twins calm him down, saying they’ll take care of it. azul had a realization, the twins will find a way to force you into the contract, either they annoy you so much you sign just to get floyd to stop seeking you out in the halls. or to get jade to stop trying to feed you random foods and drinks that he swears are not “poisonous and harmful”.

so when the twins come back empty handed after weeks, you can understand his confusion and frustration. even though he’s offered you a great deal (minus you being an employee) and the twins annoying you so much, you should be running back, wanting him to stop the torture. he expected you to give up the first time he offered, or even run to him earlier, especially since your magicless.

he doesn’t get it, anyone else except a select few would have given up by now, so why didn’t mc?! they just keep going on with that old house that is one sneeze away from falling apart. it makes his blood boil that he can’t figure them out, “perhaps they’ve already planned for all of this!” azul said to jade, but jade shook his head, saying its impossible for someone as weak as mc to think that far ahead. they were thrown into a world of magic, surely they couldn’t have seen anything coming. but they are stoic all the time around azul and the twins…

mc not talking to them and lowley avoiding azul has lead all these thoughts about them to bubble up in azuls mind. it had him second guessing his moves for the first time, re-thinking how things will play out. but azul has a revelation, mc would be a powerful ally to octavinelle and could be a powerful business partner. as long as he plays his cards right mc will be his.

and unknowingly of mc, they’ve stuck themselves in azuls brain, permanently. while they were just trying to save themselves, they ended up falling deeper in, in the process. azul had become obsessed with them, so much so that he wanted them by his side forever, to never leave and stay with him at all times.

”what a poor unfortunate soul, but fret not, l/n, let’s make a deal.”

. J A D E L E E C H !¡ . F L O Y D L E E C H !¡

. the sadist stalkers !¡

. stats

easily angered: 2/10 easily angered: 6/10 physical capability: 7/10 physical capability: 8/10 gullibilty: 1/10 gullibility: 5:10 sexual sadism: 4/10 sexual sadism: 7/10

jade is majors in strength, intelligence, and communication. he acts very gentlemanly, and masks almost everything up with a smile. considering this he. is midly shocked when azul comes into the lounge about to cry because of a little migicless mc from another world. he heard about the mc because gossip at NRC spreads quicker than wild fire. he knows about them being form another world, one without magic above everything else. so why would azul be so frustrated by a little thing like that?

it all starts to make sense when azul goes and comments on everything mc did to avoid him, saying things like “they’ve had to have known” which makes his interest in mc burn. jade like things he finds interesting and loves testing them. so you’ve been put on his radar to look out for (same with floyd). when he does get tired of azuls whining he decides it’s best to see for himself. little did he know, mc is a master of evading, whenever mc saw him they would immediately walk forward, a stoic expression on mcs face, acting as if they were so focused on something else, they weren’t thinking of the world around them. and of course he didn’t run after them, he would have looked like a fool, running after a random person in the middle of the campus. then there was mcs annoying so called “friends” who were invading personal space and always around them.

as if mc running away all the time wasn’t bad enough, they’re friends also didn’t seem to fond of jade. so they ran away to! jade was now trapped in a position either to suck it up and go to floyd, admitting he had trouble with mc, or find a time where mc would actually approach him. option one was the quickest, and time is somethign they don’t have with everyone starting to like mc. especially the animals from savanaclaw.

when jade asked floyd to help out, he didn’t expect floyd to literally tackle mc into the wall and squeeze really tight. and on top of that, mcs stoic facade breaking and their eyes watering was the most important thing to think about. if they do have the ability to have emotions, why cover it up? jade kept the thought in the back of his mind.

floyd is a moody teen who likes seeing peoples reactions specifically people he’s interested in, which now includes “shrimpy” or mc. he wants to see them all, all the expressions and emotions they are capable of. so while jade asked mc a few questions regarding their cooperation with azul and the price they want to become an emplyee of the lounge, he noted floyd’s hands wandering all over their body. when one of his twins hands went to their thigh and gave it a slight squeeze before almost sliding up into their shorts which caused mc to let out a breathy gasp, is when he decided it was enough. telling floyd to knock it off before someone comes over. (not bc he hard)

when jade and floyd come back to azul’s office to tell him they finally got what they needed, they can tell azul has been over thinking. and as amusing as it is, they can aslo tell he has a new place in his life for mc. but the thought of mc is enticing, who can blame him? even the twins have taken a new liking to mc, but the question is, how is mc going to deal with them.

fem!reader

now azul, jade, and floyd are tasked with finding a plan that you won’t be able to tinker with. one that is simply ingenious. and your friends are the perfect targets. floyd first suggested just enslaving the school and you along with it, and azul and jade built from that, taking the exam to their advantage, azul made fake exam cards and fake answers for the dtudents to study with, the ones who didn’t make it to top 50 were toast and the ones that did weren’t free to leave leave. of course they suspected you wouldn’t fall for that, but you weren’t the target.

ace trappolla amd deuce spade, your closest friends fell for it in an instant, and didn’t tell you. just how they thought it would play out. azul felt great in his glory, no more times that you can make him second guess himself.

you couldn’t believe the smug looks on their faces when they saw you walking into azul’s office after you your friends failed. azul started by questioning how your day went, and you harshly replied with “horrible”. but it didn’t seem to make even a dent in his facade, he just chuckled and proposed an offer you couldn’t refuse. freeing your friends and you taking their place, and of course you said yes, you were just to innocent for this school if you thought they would just make you a forced emplyee.

and oh how they wished to ruin that innocence. the first day of your job was saturday, so you weren’t expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen, all you had to do is take people orders and give them said orders. pretty easy, and since it was a weekend you didn’t have any work for school to do. however what you did NOT expect floyd to be following you around, monitoring you and all your movements. so when you accidentally dropped a drink, floyd hugging you while saying, “oh~ look who messed up!” wasn’t a surprise, but floyd dragging you back to azul and setting you down on his table, while jade walked in.

. slight nsfw !¡

you frantically tried to defending yourself by explaining what had happened thinking they were mad with you, “i didn’t mean to-” but azul cut you off, holding a finger to your lips.

“as you know our supplies are limited until we can bring in more at the end of the week.” but it is the end of the week, your sweat drops as floyd stand behind you, his hands graze your thigh. “we require payments and sense you are in no position to pay in full. we must take it from you in other ways…” his evil smirk did nothing to calm you, are they gonna beat me up? you thought, as floyd’s hands gripped your thighs tightly. but your heart dropped when his hands moved toward your inner thigh, prying them open despite your protests. “hush now, it’ll feel good, i promise.”

you need a safe place to escape to. perhaps savanaclaw will work?

when kosinski wrote “i’m sure there are aspects of my personality buried within me that will surface as soon as i know i am completely loved.”

I want to talk about why I think this is the one of the most important Falin panels:

So, Falin is really nice, right? It's one of the first things we really learn about her. She's kind even to the monsters of the dungeon - choosing to ward the party rather than fight spirits and cause them needless harm.

In the above early flashback in chapter 11, we see Marcille fawning over Falin's kindness, calling her an angel. Namari calls her soft-hearted. We see Falin choose not to fight even when a zombie attacks - instead she resolves the confrontation with a hug. After the flashback, the first thing Senshi says is that Falin "sounds like quite the person," which Marcille strongly affirms.

At this point in the story, all we have seen of Falin are these impressions; she is a healer, an angel, a caretaker with an infinite well of kindness towards everyone she meets - both friend and foe.

And honestly, that remains most of what we have to go by to understand her. The only times we get to see Falin on the page, alive and just herself, are in the opening and closing pages of the story and in the brief period of time after she is resurrected.

Nonetheless, we do have some more details to work with. For one, there is the scene that The Panel is from - a short memory in chapter 75, when Marcille flashes back to while she's dying. In that scene, Falin prepares to teleport them all out, and says that she's sorry "if there is a person at [their] destination." And that's when we get The Panel.

If you teleport someone or something into another person, the person teleported into is likely to be, at minimum, severely injured. They could die.

We can see a lovely little horrifying example of exactly why in one of the Daydream Hour doodles:

So, hmm. That's not... that's not SUPER nice. Certainly not displaying the same "kindness to all, friend and foe included" we saw represented earlier. On a basic level, this adds some nuance to Falin's kindness. We see it break a little, when pushed to the limit. We see her chose to protect the people she loves above all else.

Which makes sense! As Laios says when the Winged Lion accuses him of similarly being motivated more by his friends' safety than everyone else in the dungeon, "...most people, aside from virtuous do-gooders, would feel the same way."

So, we can take The Panel as simply showing a moment of weakness for Falin. A time when she was pushed to her limits, and that "most people" selfish side of her shone through.

However... I think there's a little more going on with Falin than just her being an angel 99% of the time, except just that once. I love The Panel because I think it helps us understand that Falin isn't just motivated by kindness - she also has a desire to avoid seeing people in pain.

Isn't that the same thing?

No, no it very much is not.

Let's look at a short comic from the Falin section of the Adventurer's Bible, because I think it illustrates this point perfectly. The group is complaining about how much Marcille's healing hurts, and comparing it to Falin's, which "doesn't hurt a bit." Marcille retorts with the following:

Now, the punchline of this comic is that, despite Marcille's sentimental assertion that she's "thinking of [them]" by letting her healing magic hurt, they all still prefer to be healed by Falin.

But hey, this wouldn't be the first time that Dungeon Meshi hides a very real character beat or insight in a gag, so let's think about this somewhat seriously.

If Marcille is right (and she knows a fair bit about magic, so we can assume that she has at least somewhat of a point), then what Falin is doing isn't kind. I suppose if someone specifically requested to not feel the pain, it could be kind, but that's not really what happened here. She is the one who felt badly about the others being in pain, and she is the one who decided, without telling them or giving them a choice in the matter, to take away that pain.

Both Marcille and Falin are healing the party, but Marcille is doing it in a way that accomplishes the task in the most straight forward way, without any additional interference. Falin is going out of her way to perform the healing in a way she is more comfortable with. A way that avoids pain.

Going back the The Panel, I don't think its a coincidence that the only time we see Falin (well, non-chimera Falin) willing to do something that could hurt someone is when any potential pain will be far away from her. If she got someone hurt or killed by teleporting the party to the surface? Not only would it be far out of her sight, but she'd be dead before she had to deal with any consequences of that action.

Falin is not a confrontational person. She doesn't push when Marcille won't tell her the truth about the resurrection, and she comforts Laios about her own death - both of those things happening in the only full chapter she is alive and conscious in the whole story.

We also know that she considered accepting Shuro's proposal, despite not having any special feelings towards him, and that Falin never explained to Marcille that she wanted them to share a meal together. When she brought Marcille various foods at the academy, she just accepted Marcille's confused rejection and gave up.

And lastly, we know that she is still in contact with her parents, despite the neglect and abuse she suffered at their hands. Although the way someone chooses to handle contact with abusive or bad family is a complicated topic, which I don't want to overly simplify, I do I think this fact gets at the heart of how she handles conflict.

So many people that Falin loves have hurt her. There are understandable hurts, like Laios leaving the village, or Marcille not understanding the food. And there are bigger, far less justifiable hurts - like her parents neglecting her throughout her childhood, and sending her away to be alone at the magic academy.

It doesn't seem like Falin has ever confronted any of it directly.

And the unhealthy aspects of this kind of avoidance of pain and confrontation is one of the things that the story of Dungeon Meshi is all about. We see Laios grapple with it before he goes to kill Falin, and we see Marcille acknowledge it at the end of the story, when she tells Laios that she has come to terms with Falin's death:

Eating is a part of life. Consuming other living things is a part of life. It isn't really possible to avoid that pain - you can only hide from the truth of it. You have to be selfish everyday. You have to eat - to choose to live. To choose to take up space.

And this is something Falin embraces, too. She comes back to life, after all.

We see her choose to come back to life.

And how does she make that choice? She eats. She consumes, and then she is asked a question by the manifestation of hunger itself:

Do you want to eat more?

There is a double meaning in the Winged Lion's final words on the next page.

When I first read this, I took it as him saying: life is cruel. You will suffer. You will feel more pain.

But perhaps, especially for Falin, this also means: you are choosing a path where you must cause pain. Where you must consume. Where you must take, and must be selfish. Because eating is the special privilege of the living, and it is their burden, too. In order to stay alive, she will need to keep eating.

And she chooses that. Chooses to be selfish. It's why her resurrection scene is so important, and it's why The Panel is so important. Because Falin coming back isn't the ultimate reward for all of the party's hard work.

It's her choice. Just like it was her choice that started everything in the first place. But this time, she doesn't choose to accept causing pain for the sake of Marcille and Laios. She does it for her own sake.

Thinking about Chilchuck recommending his daughter replace him. Thinking about Marcille's fear of outliving everyone. Thinking about Marcille staying friends with Chilchuck's family for generations and generations.

— " SO MEAN SHRIMPY ! " Suggestive / Fluff / Gender neutral reader | Another fic I'm not proud of [ Merform!Floyd }

The coldness of the water embraced your legs, as you let out a hitched breath, feeling your body cool down. It was incredibly scorching outside, your uniform was no help in the factor either, your thoughts trailed off as you felt something slightly spiky yet smooth, wrap itself around your legs. “How’s my little shrimpy, doing?”, Floyd perks up from the water, in his merform. 

Floyd lets out a small chuckle, noticing your initial shock; his thorny teeth on full display, you assume the object around your legs was his tail. It wouldn’t be the first time you’d see Floyd’s merform, his webbed hands and predatory appearance of sorts coming as no surprise to you. 

You let out a heavy sigh of annoyance as Floyd lays his head on your lap; drenching the rest of your clothing; “What do you think you’re doing?” you mumble out, too tired to cause a fuss, sadly the eel ignored you, coddling further into your embrace, snuggling into the fabric that was already damp with humid, you felt the warmth of his breath under the cloth; as he continued with his movements, trying to fit into a comfortable position. You could feel his body relax as he finally eases into your grasp.

You let out a heavy breath, you suppose you should give him the attention he so desperately, craves; you reach out towards him, tracing the heart shaped outline on his back slowly, the sink in your fingertips, caused his breath to hitch ever so slightly, as he let lose a breathy chuckle of sorts, you could feel the sharp sting of his fangs through the fabric of your clothes, ‘God those were sharp’, you thought to yourself, giving Floyd a light tap on his head, your way of telling him to stop with whatever he was planning. 

He raised his head, giving you a playful pout of sorts, “So mean shrimpy!”

© cupids-chamber, do not repost, plagiarize, translate, or adapt my work without prior permission and or confirmation.

(This was originally an ask received through Twitter)

"Back in GloMas (on JP), I think I remember there being a lot of madness surrounding Idia being close to Yuu. I think it’s because he referred to them as ‘Yuu’ rather than ‘Yuu-shi’, but I still don’t quite get it??"

Yes! Honorifics as a whole have already discussed more in-depth here, but Idia does drop his honorific for the prefect once in Glorious Masquerade.

Quick overview for those who may not know: when you don’t use an honorific with someone (-chan / -kun / -sama / etc), this is called yobisute (呼び捨て), written with the kanji for “to call” and “to throw away,” and the word might just not exist in English. It means “to refer to someone without an honorific."

Twst uses honorifics (and yobisute) to track the evolving relationships between the characters.

Deuce, for example, has a line about how he used to yobisute his teachers (i.e. he refused to add “-sensei” to their names) in middle school. To compensate for his past rudeness, Deuce now refers to every single upperclassman by “lastname-senpai.”

There is even a cute scene during New Year’s where Deuce greets Jamil by calling him Viper-senpai, but after Jamil feeds him an egg salad sandwich he changes—just once—to Jamil-senpai.

Epel is another character whose use of honorifics is significant: Epel is under order from Vil to always use honorifics with everyone. During Book 5 we see him using “-kun” with Deuce, up until Deuce refuses to let Epel fight the bullies trying to steal their blastcycle.

Deuce says that he is the one who took Epel out of the school and so he will be taking responsibility for his actions, and we get Epel’s first “Deuce” yobisute.

Cater might be the character who weaponizes honorifics the most.

He seems to be using honorifics as an over-familiarity-buffer-zone, as he is actively trying to avoid becoming too close to those around him (re: “Cay-Cay doesn’t really do long-term friends or found family").

There is one exception to Cater’s rule of honorifics: Trey.

During Book 1 Cater refers to him as “Trey-kun” for the majority of the story, until Riddle’s overblot makes things serious enough for him to drop it and call him “Trey” (even during these scenes, however, he keeps his honorifics for others).

The novel even comments on this directly, saying, "Usually, Cater does not ever yobisute anyone. When he calls to Trey, he always adds ‘kun’ to his name. This is probably one of his skills as a good-natured person. When Cater uses Trey’s name like this, it is only when he is really serious. Only when it is important."

This is all to say that, depending upon the character, yobisute can be a huge deal. It isn’t a black-and-white rule, of course—it varies by each character and their personality.

Kalim, for example, refers to everyone with yobisute, possibly because his status back home meant that he was simply never taught to defer to anyone, and/or because he legitimately considers himself to be close, personal friends with everyone he meets.

Idia is one of those characters like Cater and Deuce for whom yobisute is a big deal. There is exactly one person he refers to without any form of honorific, and that person is Ortho. Much like how he uses his tablet to avoid talking to people face-to-face, he is possibly, intentionally keeping up an over-familiarity-wall like Cater. 

The English-language adaptation has translated his honorific of “-shi” as “Mr.,” but it’s actually gender-neutral, which may be why the English-language game’s continuity is so inconsistent, and why the moment of Idia referring to the prefect without an honorific did not make it to EN: while the honorific disappears and reappears in English, he actually uses it to refer to the prefect in Book 6, and it is otherwise in 100% of all of Idia’s dialogue in the original game.

With one exception: Glorious Masquerade.

This is why JP lost its collective mind when it happened (the fan-art is delightful, like this short comic of the characters pointing at Idia and chanting "yobisute"), because it is something Idia had never done before and has never done again, and it was with the prefect.

Yobisute is usually very significant in the game, like during Book 6 where Azul, who uses the “-san” honorific with literally everyone except Jade and Floyd, uses yobisute with Riddle when he is in danger, and when Riddle uses it with Leona just before his overblot in Book 2.

Which means it will be interesting to see if Idia is going to continue with this yobisute-ing of the prefect outside of Glorious Masquerade! (which would be great for confirmation that it wasn't just a proof-reading error ww)