she is as guilty as sin when writing thought provoking pieces. @throughsixeyes sits down with @antholoji ( luz ) and discusses favorite tropes to read and write, how culture shapes our prose and lots of geto appreciation.
Q: Tell us where do your ideas come from?
A: I believe that ideas can come from anywhere; everything can be inspiring if you look at it with fresh eyes. But usually my ideas come from the world of possibilities; the "What if…" question is, in my opinion, a great source of ideas, helping not only to generate new ideas, but also to provide the motivation to develop them and then write them down.
Sometimes ideas also come from everyday life or domestic moments. I often find myself going through certain experiences and they make me wonder how a particular character would react to what I'm going through.
Q: What inspired you to start writing?
A: I've been writing since I was 14. At first, I wrote fanfiction about 1D and 5SOS. Then, at school, I began to understand literature better and was lucky enough to have wonderful teachers who encouraged me to keep writing.
But I think what really inspired me was being surrounded by books and stories from a young age. I've always seen writing as a form of liberation, as a way to explore and experience certain things that I couldn't otherwise. And for as long as I can remember, I've been searching for ways to escape or find freedom, ways to discover myself through other perspectives, and I feel that's what writing is for me.
Q: What is your writing schedule?
A: I usually write at night, when I'm free from chores or responsibilities. I like to have as quiet an environment as possible, and to be honest, I'm not really a morning person.
This also allows me to think about what I want to write during the day and gives me room for new ideas or solutions to the doubts I usually have.
Q: What kind of research do you usually do for your fics?
A: I try to research everything I don't know, everything I'm ignorant about. It's important to me that there's a degree of accuracy in what I'm writing, and as a reader, I like it when the events described actually happened in real life. I don't know, if I'm quoting a section of the Criminal Code, I like that section to be real and to support and add something to the scene or the narrative.
Above all, I focus on the characters' professions, the settings, and the history or culture they come from. For me, it's a way of staying true to the story.
Q: Do you draw inspiration from other authors, be it on the Tumblr or traditional publishing authors?
A: Yes, absolutely! I draw a lot of inspiration from my favorite authors, from their storytelling style to the narrative techniques they use. When it comes to other Tumblr authors, I'm really interested in their different takes on the same character. I think it's wonderful how we discover different aspects of something that already exists and how it affects us in different ways.
Q: Which tabs are mostly open while writing?
A: I usually have one Ellipsus tab open with the document containing the entire story outline, and another tab open with a different document where I write. Next to that, I have Wordhippo open to look up synonyms. Next to that, I have Wordreference open to translate or conjugate certain words I can't remember but which I do remember in Spanish.
I also always have a tab open with things I look up whilst writing, such as certain scents or perfumes, garments or fabrics, textures, or even Pinterest to better visualize what I want to describe.
Q: How do you deal with writers block or in any case, writing insecurity?
A: I try not to dwell on it. I've found that the more I tried to find a way out of it, the more I got stuck and the less productive I became. If I don't feel like doing something that day, I don't do it.
I try to let whatever is stopping me from writing, be it a plot hole, a question or an inconsistency in the story, simmer. In my experience, it usually sorts itself out. You just have to give it time.
As for writing insecurity, it's something I'm trying to come to terms with or make friends with. For most of my life I've been an insecure person and that stopped me from doing various things I wanted to do at the time, so if I let insecurity get the better of me, I'll end up back in a dark place I've already left and don't want to return to. Not to mention that I wouldn't be able to write.
I know that not everyone is going to like what I write; there will be people who don't like the length or the style, the characters, the plot, whatever. I know I can't please everyone, no matter how much I want to. And for me, writing is something very important, so if I give in to insecurity for even a second, I wouldn't feel like writing.
Q: How much does engagement affect your creative process?
A: It motivates me, that's for sure. It's lovely to meet people who appreciate your work and effort, and it's nice to connect in that way!
It's true that it creates a certain amount of pressure, in terms of deadlines or how the story unfolds. Sometimes I feel a sense of responsibility to publish or update a fic, even though I've been lucky enough to find a community of readers who are very kind, very understanding and very respectful.
Perhaps I avoid making certain plot twists that go against how the story has been developing, for fear of ending up creating something inconsistent or contradictory in itself.
Q: What are your favorite genre's to write besides romance.
A: I love poetry; I really enjoy writing it. I find it to be a very vulnerable, very human space.
As for fiction, I like drama and thrillers. I'd like to write a thriller one day, or something else full of suspense and unanswered questions.
Q: What trope is your favorite?
A: What a difficult question!
As a reader, I absolutely love the enemies-to-lovers trope when it's done well, when the characters really can't stand being in each other's presence, but the idea of not being together is even more painful. I also like fake dating, forced proximity, second-chance romance, and opposites attract.
But as a writer, I prefer the slow burn, I'm not sure if that's a trope in itself, as it can apply to all the others, but there's something very satisfying about building tension and anticipation through writing.
Q: Is there a genre/trope you'd like to see be explored more in the fandom?
A: Since JJK is a fantasy anime/manga, I'd like to read more horror-related fics, perhaps something that plays with the idea of the supernatural but without so much action.
I think it has a lot of potential, especially with characters like Sukuna or even Yuji, and exploring how humanity is affected by curses.
Q: What would you like to write more in the future? sfw/nsfw/angst/fluff?
A: I'd like to write more light-hearted, heart-warming stories, something that makes you want to read it over and over again. More fluff and less angst.
I'd also like to explore erotic or adult themes without being completely explicit, almost like a hybrid between SFW and NSFW.
Q: Do you outline your stories or not? If you do how is said process?
A: Yes, I do! First, I write down the idea I have in Spanish, and I do it as if I were explaining a film or a book to a friend. I don't worry too much about the style or the aesthetics of the writing; instead, I try to explain the idea as best I can, aiming to give it a beginning, a middle and an end.
Then, I break that idea down into smaller, more specific ideas; ideas that support the story and help develop the main idea. Ideas that might fill gaps in the plot or connect the different parts of the story.
If I need to do any research, I do it at this stage to get it out of the way and to motivate myself to write later. I usually create character profiles, trying to be as descriptive as possible. Even though the characters change throughout the story and grow or mature, they need to feel consistent.
Then I start on the first drafts. I try to break the chapters down by their objectives, and I try to meet those objectives or answer the questions that arise in that chapter or section.
I usually spend all my time reading the same thing over and over again, and from there I start editing. First I edit scenes and situations, adding or correcting certain things, and adding scenes that complement the idea of that chapter. Then I edit for grammatical errors and synonyms, because I tend to use the same words several times, and to avoid sounding repetitive, I change them.
I keep editing until I'm happy with the result! I spend more time editing and polishing the style and prose than I do writing the first drafts. It's important to me to maintain consistency, even when days have passed since I wrote the previous chapter of a fic.
Q: What is something you had wished people told you while beginning to write?
A: "Just do it, even if you get it wrong".
I've got stuck several times in the past thinking that the first few paragraphs were bad, inconsistent, poorly written, and that led me to abandon the idea or stop writing for a while, and what I didn't realize is that you can fix it later. Not everything goes right the first time, and that's completely normal and perfectly fine, because you learn from your mistakes and writing is a skill that takes time to improve.
Q: How do you improve your writing?
A: I love reading, and I enjoy trying out certain styles or techniques that I come across in other books. At school, I learned to adopt a particular author's narrative style and use it to tell a completely different story, or to take an existing story and retell it in a different way. These are two excellent exercises for improving one's writing.
Q: Do you set yourself personal deadlines?
A: Yes, but I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't stick to them LOL
Before I post, I always do a quick read-through to check for mistakes or things like that, and it happens that as I'm reading, scenes or situations start popping into my head. Obviously, I end up writing them down, and that sets me back a lot. So the deadline keeps getting pushed back again and again until I realize too much time has gone by, and I end up publishing it and telling myself I can use those new ideas for other works in progress.
Q: What do you think makes a good story?
A: It's definitely the characters. The idea might be brilliant, but if the characters feel hollow or two-dimensional, the story goes nowhere. And that's my view as a writer and a reader, but it applies to other media too, like movies or TV series.
The characters are the ones who tell the story; they're the ones who drive it forward. They're the ones we empathize with or see ourselves in.
I think it's also important, and this is a personal preference, that there's a certain emotional resonance, something that appeals to our emotions, to the human experience, to our memories. The visual aspect, whether through images or words, is an excellent way to connect with other people's emotions.
Q: Which is your favorite character and why? (can be outside the jjk story or even outside anime)
A: My favorite character in JJK is Geto, because he's the reason I started watching JJK. He's a very well-written character who is emotionally and psychologically complex; even though the JJK universe is fantasy, the issues he raises can easily be applied to real life.
Q: Do you write with music? If so, which songs get you pumped? or do you listen to ambience music or work in silence/outside noise type?
A: Yes! I usually create playlists for the things I write. I try to focus on the lyrics rather than the beat, and draw inspiration from them as well.
Q: What is the inspiration behind your theme?
A: I don't think I have a specific theme like other writers on Tumblr. I admire them for it, but I don't have the patience to do it. As long as it looks nice and appeals to my sense of style, I'm happy!
Q: Does your culture play a huge part on how you write, and if so, why?
A: I think so. I grew up with Argentine and Latin American literature and studied it for years at school, so consciously or unconsciously it's something that continues to inspire me. Two of my favorite authors are from my own country, so yes, my culture does influence my writing.
I think there is something very beautiful about Argentine literature, in the way it brings poetry or the poetic into everyday life, the narrative style of certain authors, or the use of certain themes to tell a story that is very likely to be shaped by the history and social issues.
Q: What are your honest feelings or opinions on the rise of ai in writing spaces?
A: I don't think AI belongs in creative spaces. It can be seen as a great tool, but so far it has caused more harm than good, in my opinion.
It feels very dystopian to me to allow a machine to take over the entire creative process required to create art, because the creation of art is one of the things that defines us as human beings.
I can understand why the use of AI is growing in writing spaces, because writing is a skill that causes a lot of frustration, and lately society doesn't know how to deal with frustration; everything has to be immediate, there is no room for error or even for learning.
Leaving the entire task or creative process to the AI is actually quite detrimental to the cognitive process, because it allows the machine to think for us. And given that humans have been writing for thousands of years, why let a machine do it when we are more than capable of doing so ourselves?
Q: Do you believe it to be unethical to use ai in any step of the writing process? And if so, why?
A: I don't know if it's unethical, because collective morality is becoming increasingly accepting of the use of AI. From my own moral standpoint, I believe it is dishonourable; beyond the environmental issue, it is dishonourable because writing is nothing more than the translation of an inner world into words, it is taking the abstract and making it concrete, it is bringing to life the ideas that dwell within one. It is a wholly human process, shaped by human experiences and lived realities.
Why would we give that power to a machine?
There are human solutions to all the problems that AI could solve. From editing to research, and even spell-checking. But then again, I understand that the proliferation of AI use runs deeper and is linked to the inability to cope with frustration and the constant need for instant gratification.
Q: As a starting writer you may have some wips saved, if so, which one are you the most excited to write about.
A: Yes, I do! I've got three projects that I put to a public vote to decide which one to post first. The last time I checked, the option for a Higuruma fic was in the lead, where the story centers on Higuruma being Reader's ex-husband's lawyer, but Higuruma and Reader were a couple when they were young, so there's a bit of a second-chance angle to it, meeting again as acquaintances but strangers at the same time.
Of the three options, I'm leaning more towards the Toji fic. Because I'm a firm believer that Toji isn't the crude, cruel, and poor man that the fandom created. It's a story in which Toji is a single dad who runs a car repair shop, he's a mechanic, and Reader is also a single mom; her daughter is Tsumiki, and they meet because they live in the same town. It's very much a rom-com, something like Gilmore Girls.
Q: Seeing that Geto is your favorite what is something you really want to write featuring him?
A: I like the idea of Geto being in a rock band or something music-related. It never occurred to me before, so I should explore it further! I get the feeling that this man likes British rock bands like The Cure or The Smiths.
Although I'd also like to explore the cult leader trope, like the more psychological side of it. Or the role he had to play as a carer and father figure to Mimiko and Nanako.
Q: I've seen blogs be a specific character centric, do you lean more into being that type of blog or are you open to write for other jjk character or maybe even outside that anime?
A: For now, I've only published one Higuruma fic, but I'm not ruling out writing about other characters in the future, including those from other anime.
There are some characters I wouldn't write about, such as minors, but that's because, as an adult, I don't feel comfortable writing about them. I'm not sure if I'd write about Gojo either, but that's because there's already so much content about him and he isn't one of my favorites, so I wouldn't be able to do him justice.
Q: Do you have a second favorite after Geto?
A: Because of the way it's written, Yuji. I'm dying to read Modulo, but I haven't plucked up the courage yet. I also like Megumi for his backstory and Yuta for his resilience. My favorite sorceress is Yaga, because of the dolls he creates. Who wouldn't want to crochet a panda and have it come to life? And my favorite spirit is Hanami, because I find it poetic that they were born from nature's lamentations.
But as for writing it, Higuruma, I think. His story in the canon is easy to relate to because he's human to begin with, and it's simpler, in my view, to play around with that in other AU stories.
Q: Was your favorite character always Geto? Did that liking develop gradually or was it from the get go you knew he was the one?
A: No, at first it was Yuji, then I watched JJK2, and I saw a video where they analyzed Geto as a character and antagonist, and from that moment on I started to like him more, because he isn't a villain simply for the sake of it, but there's a whole moral and emotional backstory behind it.
Q: What advice would you give new writers or people who are just starting?
A: When it comes to writing, make the most of exploring different styles and genres. Fanfiction is great for this, and it's very open to narrative experimentation. You can draw inspiration from works that aren't fanfiction perse, and look to classic literature or traditionally published works.
As for Tumblr, I'm a new writer; I've been active for just over two months, but what I've learned is that tags matter more than you might think. A well-tagged post makes all the difference. And it's not just about the number of notes, but the number of people it reaches.
I'm a bit shy when it comes to talking to other writers, but so far I've met some really lovely, inspiring people, so don't be afraid to moot other writers or readers.
hi, everyone, how are you? sorry i've been away these last few days. life's been a bit of a challenge lately, but i've promised myself to find love wherever i look, wherever i go. i've promised to be patient with myself, with my mind, but above all, with my heart.
i love writing and i won't stop doing it, but often the human perception of time makes me drift away from the things that make me happy in order to be "productive".
from writing for hours to only having time to write a paragraph a day. it fills me with regret that i haven't been able to keep my word, so i apologise if anyone was expecting the latest update of guilty as sin over the past few days and was disappointed not to find anything. i promise you i'm working on the final touches; it's the last chapter and i want it to be as perfect as possible (understanding perfect to mean something made with a great deal of love and with all my heart).
i also have the pleasure of working on the project we're creating with kigo, musubi, and on the next higuruma fic. i hope you'll give it the same love as you have for guilty as sin.
thank you so much for your patience, for your love and support.
sincerely, luz.
ANTHOLOGY 𓏲 ๋࣭ ࣪ ˖ ⭑.ᐟ
ㅤㅤ⤷ ゛this masterlist includes 18+ / nsfw works. minors, do not interact, and those sensitive to adult themes, please proceed with caution.
fushiguro toji .ᐟ ˎˊ˗
toji adores coming back home after running some errands
higuruma hiromi .ᐟ ˎˊ˗
guilty as sin? series
higuruma headcanons
higuruma headcanons pt. 2
analyzing higuruma's birth chart
all stories and events are works of fiction; please do not take them personally. any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental. characters belong to the world of jjk, created by gege akutami.
antholoji is a writing and (sort of) personal blog. it contains adult themes and nsfw content. minors, please do not interact. if you consume my content, you do so at your own risk, but please have you age stated somewhere on your blog.
i try to tag everything accordingly. i use warnings for sensitive content. please check the tags before reading!
let’s be kind! please keep the environment respectful. i will not condone any form of hate speech, homophobia, transphobia, racism, zionism, misogyny, ableist, jokes about rape or pedophilia. otherwise, you will be blocked.
i like to interact! i’ll gladly read all your thoughts! my inbox is open, feel free to talk to me about anything you want, always with respect and kindness.
keep in mind that in my writing, the reader is always female. i generally try to avoid specific physical details to be as inclusive as possible for all readers. however, i will not be a people pleaser. occasionally, i may write about a specific detail if the story calls for it. i understand i can’t please everyone, and i prioritize my creative vision.
i do not give permission for my work to be translated, copy or edited in any way. do not repost my full works on any other platform. do not put my work in ai. do not steal.
all stories and events are works of fiction; please do not take them personally. any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental.
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤsincerely,
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤluz.
MUSUBI: TALES OF THE GOLDEN ERA. ₊ ˚ 𓈒 ༉‧₊˚. masterlist .ᐟ
Collection of JJK oneshots based on the Heian Era ໒ @kldgo x @antholoji ꒱
MUSUBI (結び) represents the divine, cosmic force of creation, becoming, and the invisible, energetic bonds that connect people, things, and moments in time. It is the power that brings two separate elements together to create something new.
SYNOPSIS. “The Heian Era flourishes under the grace of ink brushes and ruminations. The strokes of these flickers dragged pathways across each region of Heian-Kyō—and within these regions— of silk robes, red and blazing; burning eyes seen through the cracks of blinds—would hold lush, dainty histories of its own.”
Hi, everyone. I really hate to ask for help but my cat Zoe stopped eating and drinking a couple of days ago and started breathing very heavily. Turns out she has been diagnosed with pleural effusion. She needs emergency care and extensive testing to find out the cause (which could be CHF, cancer or FIP). Unfortunately, the cost of initial care amounts to R$3,500 (around US$700) and I've run out of funds caring for her sister with IBD in the past few months, so I could really use some help right now. Any little bit goes a long way. Please share and help us if you can.
hey guys! how are you? ₍₍⚞(˶>ᗜ<˶)⚟⁾⁾ since guilty as sin is coming to an end (i'll be updating this week 😳), i wanted to ask which of the following wips i've been working on you'd like me to post next.
i've started mapping out all the ideas, so whatever you choose will be fine!
which fic do you prefer
"deeds of desperation" with divorce attorney!higuruma and ex!reader
"like sunlight..." with single dad!toji and single mom!reader
"untouched" with priest!higuruma and nun!reader
i'm indecisive and don't know what to choose / show me the result :D
Voting ended onJun 4
i also wanted to ask if you'd prefer longer fics, maybe more than 10 chapters but with shorter chapters (under 5k words), or shorter fics, maybe fewer than 10 chapters but with longer chapters (10k+ words).
either way, thank you so much for your support and love! i love you all so much! (っ.❛ ᴗ ❛.)っ 💗 mwah
babe! 💗 thank you so so so so much for your tips, i found them very useful! honestly, i had never written before, so you have no idea how much i appreciate it! i'm going to bookmark the post 😘 and i will let you know how it goes 💋 love you
NONNIE! 💗 i'm glad they were helpful! best of luck with this new project. i'm confident you'll do well ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧ !
hi babe, do you have some writing tips? 👉🏽 👈🏽 love you 💋
hi, love, how are you? yesss, i'm happy to share the things that work for me when writing!
i tend to daydream and ruminate on ideas for a long time, so first i try to put what's in my head into words. personally, it helps me to explain the whole idea, with the beginning, middle, and end if possible, and i write it in spanish, which is my first language, as if i were explaining what happens in a movie to a friend. i don't care if it reads well, sounds poetic, or is aesthetically structured. what i need is to create as much mental space as possible. so the first thing would be to write down what you have in mind as if you were telling a friend about a movie or book.
from there, i break down the main idea into more concrete ideas. what is the main conflict? what conflicts arise from it? it might be very overwhelming at first, and you might feel like giving up (i've been there :c), but the more you break down the main idea, the easier it will be to address and develop it.
if you want to write something with multiple parts or chapters, give each part a goal. i find it helpful to map out the parts of a fic with situations or events to address in each part. in guilty as sin, for example, i knew the main idea, and in part 1 i wanted to address their first encounter.
for oneshots or fics that have only one part, it's helpful to divide them into "sections" (i also do this in guilty as sin because the parts are very long). each section then has a goal or a question to answer, a question you might ask yourself but that doesn't necessarily have to be explicitly stated to the readers.
that's when i start writing, tackling the goals of each part or section. the first draft is always… questionable. you'll cringe when you read it, and you'll eventually read it so many times you'll know it by heart. don't overthink it, it might be messy, unhinged, it might not cover everything you want to cover, it might have plot holes. it's the first draft, after all; perfectionism only ruins your mood for writing. write it, and write it badly. the important thing is to write.
if writing the beginning is what's holding you back, then start somewhere else. i don't always start by writing the beginning; often i begin by writing the key scene of the chapter or the scene that inspires the main idea. from there, things fall into place, or i arrange scenes or descriptions.
i like to describe what the character perceives with their physical senses and what's happening in their mind. generally, what happens in our minds is a consequence of the stimuli we perceive. so i ask myself: what is character feeling at this moment? what does x see, what does x feel through touch, what does x hear, what does x taste, what does x listen to? what does x feel in their body? how does x process this in their mind?
you can play with the senses depending on the situation. in a tense situation, you might feel certain senses heighten, like pressure in your ears or a stinging in your eyes from wanting to cry. in a more romantic situation, perhaps your sense of smell becomes more acute, your heartbeat is more noticeable, or you feel the touch of something against your skin.
use your human experience to your advantage. while the characters are fictional, we want them to evoke something in the readers, and what unites us are bodily experiences and how we process them mentally. if you were in the same situation as your character, how would you react? and how would a friend of yours react? this helps me prevent the characters from feeling flat and allows the reader to empathize with them (an excellent technique, in my opinion, for x reader fics).
don't be afraid to do research. it's logical that we aren't walking encyclopedias and we need to research a topic if necessary. personally, i see it as an investment. i don't care if i didn't write a single word that day; if i spent five hours researching something related to the plot, then it's not a "wasted day."
speaking of which, i don't believe there are "wasted days" in the writing process. don't stress about not sitting down to write or not having made any progress. this is something i'm working on, but i've realized that the more pressure i put on myself, the less i feel like writing. so don't pressure yourself, just go with the flow. there might be days when you write for four hours straight, and other days when you just think about things and go to sleep with a question you don't know how to answer.
have fun! use words to your advantage, because you are describing something that only exists inside you. also, keep a water bottle next to you lol because when you're writing you're too lazy to get up and get water.
i hope these help, nonnie! if you want more tips, ask me or send me a dm and i'll help you however i can! ily ( ˶˘ ³˘)♡
YOU HAVE A DATE ˚. ᵎᵎ with nerd!armin arlert (,,>ヮ<,,)
Words from our Hostess: Congratulations! You've been selected for our Host Club. After reading your application, we decided that your best pairing for you might be Armin Arlert. We created an scenario in a summer location of how you and him might've met
nerd!armin arlert x hopeless romantic!reader ╱ meeting the cute boy at a bookshop and spending all evening talking with him
art creds: latteoo16 on x
It’s the first time you go on vacation alone, a well deserved trip to treat yourself after a long year of working and heartbreaks. You pack your favorite dresses and your digital camera and get on a plane to the coast of Italy. It’d be a lie to say that you weren’t thinking about the cute people you might meet on this trip, you’ve always had a wandering eye, maybe being a little too flirty because it just comes natural to you.
Walking the streets of Florence after lunch, you find the perfect spot to rest a little, a tiny book shop with soft jazz music and blue painted walls. The bookshelves reached the ceiling, almost looking like the columns of the shop.
At the counter, there was a man that made you look twice. Pale skin, blue eyes and blond hair tied back on a half bun, he had glasses resting on the top of his head while he was scanning books. You couldn’t understand how a man can be that effortlessly pretty. He was wearing a flowy green t-shirt and some shorts, perfect for the summer heat.
He finally notices you when you get closer to the counter without thinking of it.
“Hi,” he says, smiling kindly. “Welcome. Let me know if you need help finding anything.”
You smile back, leaning against the counter a bit. “Thanks. I’m just browsing for now. This place is adorable. Do you get a lot of tourists in here?”
He nods, pushing his glasses down from the top of his head onto his nose. “Yeah, quite a few. Especially in summer, people come in looking for souvenirs or something light to read by the pool.” He pauses, then adds with a shy little laugh, “Though I always try to convince them to take something better than just a beach read.”
You tilt your head. “Oh? Like what?”
His eyes light up a little. “Depends on what you like. If you want something atmospheric, there’s this Italian author who writes these quiet stories about old families in Tuscany. Or if you’re into history, I just got some new translations of ancient Roman stuff. Super interesting, actually. Did you know the aqueducts they built are still functioning in some places?”
You can’t help grinning. He’s clearly passionate about it. “You sound like you know your stuff. Are you studying literature or something?”
Armin rubs the back of his neck, a faint blush creeping up his cheeks. “Yeah, actually. I’m doing a program here for a few months. History and literature double major back home.”
“Cute,” you say without thinking, then laugh softly when his eyes widen. “I mean, it’s nice. Most people don’t get that excited about books anymore.”
He smiles, looking down at the counter for a moment, after that, the conversation flows easily. You tell him you’re on your first solo vacation, trying to relax after a rough year. He listens so attentively, nodding along and asking gentle questions.
“What kind of work do you do?” he asks, leaning forward on his elbows.
You explain a bit about your job, keeping it light and he seems genuinely interested. In return he tells you about some of the books he’s been reading lately, a mix of classic philosophy and modern fantasy. “I just finished this one series about explorers in a fictional world. The world-building is insane. I stayed up way too late because I couldn’t stop.”
You laugh. “Total nerd, huh?”
“Just a little,” he says with a sheepish grin. “My friends tease me about it all the time.”
Time passes without you noticing. A couple of customers come and go, but he handles them quickly and comes right back to talk with you. You end up sitting on the little stool by the counter, flipping through books he recommends while he works. He points out passages he loves, reading them out loud in his softest voice, and you find yourself hanging on every word.
Eventually the clock on the wall hits closing time. He flips the sign on the door and lets out a small sigh. “Shift’s over. I didn’t mean to keep you here so long, sorry if I talked your ear off.”
“You didn’t,” you say honestly. “I had fun.”
He hesitates, fiddling with his fingers as his cheeks go a little pink again. “Um… this might be forward, but would you… maybe want to grab a drink? There’s a nice little place just around the corner. They do really good spritz. If you’re not busy, I mean. No pressure at all.”
You smile, feeling a warm flutter in your chest at how sweetly awkward he looks asking. “I’d love that, Armin.”
His face brightens instantly. “Really? Okay, cool. Let me just lock up.”
As you step back out into the golden evening light together, he walks beside you, already starting to ask what kind of drinks you usually like. The conversation picks up right where it left off and you think this might be the best decision you’ve made all trip.
a/n: i love a meet cute omg and armin is such a sweetheart to write i love him<33 this was for my girlie @antholoji i hope you liked it
MUSUBI: TALES OF THE GOLDEN ERA. ₊ ˚ 𓈒 ༉‧₊˚. masterlist .ᐟ
Collection of JJK oneshots based on the Heian Era ໒ @kldgo x @antholoji ꒱
MUSUBI (結び) represents the divine, cosmic force of creation, becoming, and the invisible, energetic bonds that connect people, things, and moments in time. It is the power that brings two separate elements together to create something new.
SYNOPSIS. “The Heian Era flourishes under the grace of ink brushes and ruminations. The strokes of these flickers dragged pathways across each region of Heian-Kyō—and within these regions— of silk robes, red and blazing; burning eyes seen through the cracks of blinds—would hold lush, dainty histories of its own.”