Here's the host's Areivid Week Day 3 submission for Alternate Universe/Crossover. Fic below the cut. I chose a Witch's Heart AU. There are no spoilers outside of a vague reference as to what an important item is and demon worldbuilding.
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Hearts are fickle entities. They love, hate, crystallize, form spaces of their own. They absorb others; their pain spills outwards, flowing like a river.
At Hope’s Peak, broken hearts tend to gather. It is a natural space for this, after all. Talent is natural, and excessive accomplishments at a young age are unnatural.
And unnatural people create unnatural places. It should not be surprising, then, that supernatural singularities are born from the pain in their hearts. From pain springs wishes, and from wishes, well…
Happiness is not guaranteed even from a granted wish. Isn’t it the process that brings joy, not the end result?
But we are not here to discuss the grand tale. A thousand loops that have ended in tragedy is actually particularly boring. That’s why even the hater demons often choose to reset their memories as well. Even if it means remembering their true nature eventually, experiencing your favorite story for the first time is temporary heaven.
Now, for a moment from a particular loop.
There weren’t a lot of things for a teenage girl to do in Hope’s Peak. This might sound strange when the tulips sing as you kiss them with water, but when that teenage girl is Arei, things made sense. When her demonic instincts weren’t screaming her pain out, she was a precocious creature. She loved to talk like the column of a gossip rag, even though no one truly paid her much mind. Arei was an expert bowler, having qualified for the Olympics by the tender age of eighteen, but had no one to play the famous group sport with. She loved sugary sweets and ate crêpes meant for two by her lonesome. Such was her life, enjoying teenage girl things without other teenage girls.
Glowing lights streaked the dimension with rainbows. Other demons were prancing to the beat of a heart. They would occasionally croak sounds like wher—eeer and wh-eyeee, indecipherable garbled moaning. When Arei poked one in the eye, it bled all over her hands. She sneered, wiped the fluid on its back, and shoved it over.
Arei waited for it to get back on its feet and fight. Sure, the ugly thing wouldn’t stand a chance, but at the Veronika’s Rose Bar, anything went. It could get in a good burn or two if it wanted, but instead it quivered on the floor for her mercy. How dull. That useless do-goodyness and lack of resistance reminded her too much of Eden. Clicking her teeth, she spun around and took one of the keys off the wall for her own private room.
In the demon dimensions, shame was rare. And it was not as if Arei faced much discomfort for her day-to-day behavior. But even so, singing karaoke by herself in one of the private rooms, she couldn’t help but think:
Damn, I really am pathetic. Alone on a Friday night and singing pop songs by myself.
At least a sprout demon with a red bud on its head seemed to be stamping its feet along to the melody of the song outside her window. Those demons rarely ever blossomed. They weren’t the hater demons. It was only natural that their love could never metamorphosize into despair so easily.
***
At midnight, her second-ever human friend strolled into the bar. He was soaking wet and smelled faintly of salt. Arei wondered what he would report, rather than what he was doing. There was only one reason you’d seek out a demon, after all.
“Hel-lo~” Arei sing-songed. In front of her was a half-nursed virgin pina colada topped with a perky cherry. She never shared David’s penchant for beer and alcoholism. Maybe it was just an adult thing to an eternal teenager; parfaits to coffee, like growing out of old shoes. “Took a little trip to seaworld?”
David shook the water out of his hair like a dog and plopped himself down a respectful two seats away from her. “Ugh. I never like it down there.”
“You don’t like it anywhere.” She snorted, and though she remembered her true nature at this point, it lacked the disdain typical to demons of her nature. “Did you get what you went there for?”
“In a sense,” David answered. He would be irritatingly cryptic if Arei didn’t know everything. He squinted. “It’s always too bright in here.”
“Of course it’d seem that way. You’re not charmed by the attractions of life.”
“As if the dimension created by a purebred could ever understand real worldliness.” That was the funny thing about an arrogant prick like David. He decried the evils of life while seeking out a wish-granting device. Of course, whether or not he knew it could only be used for lesser ignoble temptations wasn’t any of Arei’s concern.
“Isn’t there something nice about such naivety though? Ah, what a shame about Eden. To think, she was human all along and I could never even physically be on her caliber. Ahhhh…”
“Arei…”
She twirled a straggling lock of David’s hair around her finger and blew on it. The tips began to burn, and he yelped. “Best not be regretting your choice to make me remember things now.” She smothered the magic flames with her fist, tugging his head towards her. “If you dare to waver on things now, I’ll kill you.”
His eyes narrowed into delectable self-loathing, and he laughed. “You’re so attractive, you know?”
The roses resting atop the colorful saturated glasses that surrounded them began to swim in circles deliriously. Stay! Stay! Stay Arei’s light blue eyelashes fluttered. “You’d be better as a hater demon. Ah, I really should kill you…”
It had been an accident. It had been ruled as an suicide. A prank gone wrong. Who would suspect anything other than a suicide when it came to poor, miserable, useless and friendless Arei? But she’d been able to come back as a human, even trick herself into believing it for several years, until David was one of many seeking the jeweled heart.
Yes, allies are good. Knowing that David’s persona had been nothing more than a facade was simply electric. He really, really, really would be better on her side… “It’s too early,” he whispered. “But you can have me after my wish is granted.”
“And not a moment too soon.” She smiled. “Well, your hint tonight is under the champagne tower.”
“You hater demons have such a yearning for destruction.”
“Of course you would think the only way through a wall is by punching a hole through it,” she teased. “Go on. Take the art apart one by one.”
David moved by his wish, climbing up to the top and taking the first glass off the tower. Some of the golden liquid trickled down his wrist towards his ankles. The red petals floating inside the glasses seemed to melt. Red and gold. Ah, could it be any more obvious?
The glasses clinked as David tore down the tower. Arei couldn’t help herself. “You met Hu in Seaworld, didn’t you?”
There was a strangled pause. “Your information system moves quick.”
“And? How does your competition look?”
“…If I need to, I’ll do what I must. For Xander’s world, I’ll bear that sin.”
“Soooo melodramatic.” She smiled. When he inevitably realizes his conclusions are wrong, and that the Witch’s Heart does not exist in Mai, but his other savior, that enmity will lead him either into pure despair or Arei’s embrace. “It’s bad to underestimate nice girls, you know? Maybe she’ll win.”
She never has. Hu has always been just like David; utterly hopeless, down to her very core. That was what made her such a good candidate to take the Witch’s Heart alongside David. No one would suspect a girl with such pure love for the world could truly curse it as well. Because, this meant she couldn’t truly possess either trait. Like David, like Arei, so self-absorbed.
And that’s why David, even in the timelines when the heart ends up in his hands, never truly wins either. His true, deepest wish is long since been out of reach at that point.
Under the final glass was a newspaper clipping. The title read:
MYSTERIOUS ILLNESS OVERTAKES SMALL TOWN. MANY BODIES UNACCOUNTED FOR
David grimaced. “Quite the bad joke.”
“Would I do that to you?”
You’ll do it to yourself. She couldn’t help but snort when David whistled in response. “Is this genuine?”
“Demons don’t go back on their word. I’ll do anything for you, Eden! How simple things were back then. But I’m still bound to that promise so long ago.”
“It hasn’t been that long.”
“Mmm, I guess it hasn’t, has it?” Compared to all that time David spent yearning and Arei spent pretending to be human… “But this hint is real.”
David made an ugly expression that fit an useless boy. “I guess there’s only one thing left to do.”
He didn’t know. How cute. “And I’ll be in class tomorrow like always. If you need my help…”
“No need. Xander and I will be seeing Mai later. I…” David silenced himself. “If it comes down to it, I will…”
It won’t be that easy. Teruko will desperately attempt to protect Mai against her half-demon nature. Really, what progenitor of hers decided to mix with a purebred demon? Demons can only curse the world. Teruko would be forever bound to her suffering of being unable to bring any net positivity to anyone. Ah, but that’s only human too, Arei supposed. What difference does it make to be human or demon?
And Xander will probably attempt to protect Mai as well. Arei wanted to collapse into a fit of giggles, but it was too early. When the irony killed David, Arei would be there to lovingly bury him once more as Teruko made her wish again.
The lights of the bar seemed to swell. A gangle of bud demons flooded the room, their bare soles squeaking against the constellation sky floor. “Look, we have guests!”
David looked at them with expectant curiosity. They began to shake, dancing to Veronika’s violin sonogram recording like a wave. Some grabbed the wine glasses and watered their buds. Some blossomed. Anemones, roses, daffodils, the like. Some continued drinking the Xander and Mai colored champagne. They spun and kept drinking until those flowers began to wilt from overwatering. The prime of your life is the moment when you are least aware of it. Too much of a good thing, too much of a florid-haired savior, and that happiness will kill you. After all, a bud must be full of self-hatred, shying away until it blooms.
“How sad and adorable,” Arei lamented, while gazing right at David. She grabbed two glasses and gave one to her second best friend. “Come, we mustn’t lose our opportunity!”
David’s grip grew tight around the glass. He stared into the clear liquid, his own grey eyes dirtying the beautiful golden hues. “Even if Hu and Teruko try to overcome me, for Xander’s sake, for Xander’s ideal world, I will…”
“Cheers!” Arei finally let out the first of many laughs to come, clinking her glass against David’s still one. She watched the tender column of his throat as he downed the liquid until there was nothing left. “To a beautiful partnership, to David’s beautiful friendships!”
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Below the cut is the host's day 1 submission. I chose to do the guilt/grief prompts.
approximately 2.7k words, features character death and a short description of canon typical violence.
link to ao3 if you'd like to leave a kudo or comment. concrit ok :)
David died. Ace killed him yesterday.
And Arei is just… baking cookies with Eden.
All Arei can think is: This is disturbingly mundane.
On her right, Eden is happily humming away as the dough flattens under her rolling pin. Whether it’s defending you from scary jerks like Arturo or baking some stupid fucking cake…I’ll do it. I promise.
Arei doesn’t know why, but she’s struck by an eerie sense of wrongness about all of this. It’s not anything Eden is doing; guileless and beautiful, Eden moves by acknowledging sorrow and shaking off the past. She isn’t like Arei—she doesn’t get hung up on others, doesn’t overthink it, doesn’t wonder—
If maybe she should’ve stayed with him that night. If she should’ve been more realistic, a quality that she claimed to have with gusto a mere two nights before their last meeting. If she had told him not to try, but to be good, with no exceptions.
(But what haunts her the most was the hope on his face. The faint glimmer in his eyes, that same thought—
—Maybe I’m not alone after all.)
It was the same pensive hope that Arei held before she defended Eden.
“Arei?” Eden calls, with a hint of worry in her voice. Arei turns to face her. “Are you okay? You don’t look so good. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”
Arei hears: You don’t have to do anything that doesn’t serve you.
“No, no! I mean yes, ugh—I was just lost in thought.” She’ll get powder all over her face if she tries to slap herself awake, so she just tries to send Eden a patient look. Or whatever that means.
Really, she just ends up giving Eden a weird smile, but Eden smiles back. “What were you thinking about?”
And just like that, the smile disappears. “Ah, um…” Best friends don’t lie to each other. That was one of the rules she’d read long ago. In truth, Arei doesn’t actually really give that much of a shit. She’s never had a friend before, but even she understands that friends don’t need to know everything about each other. But curiosity tugs at Arei’s heart—a longing. “I was just thinking about David and Ace. It just feels…weird, you know?”
Awful. It had felt awful, but it would make Eden suspicious if she said that. Her new friend frowns sympathetically. “It’s terrible, isn’t it? All of them were our friends, and because of this situation, they…” Eden looks like she’s about to cry from just that little bit of talking. Arei wants to snap back, Speak for yourself. Ace was your friend? Really? He wanted to murder you. But she doesn’t, of course.
Because even in the moments after Ace’s heart stopped, she hasn’t stopped thinking about David once.
“I mean, I was wondering why he went after David. He switched it up a bunch of times—first it was you, then it was me, and then it was David.” Bitterly, Arei realizes that Ace going after David was the best outcome for Arei’s changing heart—ah, she’ll never be good after all. “Was it really just an opportunistic kill once I left David alone?”
“Opportunistic kill,” Eden repeats, looking queasy like she did when she found his body. The color had long since left his face, body ice cold—Arei doesn’t want to think back to that moment. “I want to get out of here soon…”
“Me too,” Arei freely admits. She tries to shift the topic. “Say, why are we making sugarplum cookies anyway? Just for fun?”
“In part for fun, and in part because I want Arturo and Levi to have a snack later once they’re done. Oh, but we’re going to have some too, of course!”
For Arturo and Levi. Even after Arturo held a scalpel to her throat and Levi’s heartless fixation on Ace’s motivations, without a single acknowledgement of David being Ace’s unfortunate victim, Eden still cares. Arei knows she’ll never be Eden, but it hurts to hang out with her and always have it be confirmed.
So optimistic as well. She doesn’t even know if Arturo is competent enough to save Levi. Would Arturo even care enough to save Levi?
(Funny she should think that. She hasn’t cried for David at all. He’s been ceaselessly haunting her thoughts, but she hasn’t wanted to cry at all. That stinging sensation hasn’t even made her eyes water once. It’s the truth. Funny indeed.)
“That’s nice,” Arei says, desperately keeping the edge of contempt out of her voice. “Sorry. It’s pointless to get hung up about the why. Ace had said it—he’d just wanted to escape. There’s nothing more to it.”
No more second chances. No more getting to be good. No more wailing about incompetency, impotence, being too bad to ever turn good. A pig can’t even become a butterfly. A miserable wretch like Ace could never be good because even in his last moments, he couldn’t confess how much Levi had meant to him while Levi was still able to hear it.
Levi bleeds out in her mind's eye. Ace had screamed, and then died some kind of hero. It was so fucking undeserved.
And she thinks this, but really, David had his moments of unearned good too. Hadn’t she said as much, even though he started it all with the motives and outting Nico?
It’s just what you deserve. Those words flash through her head, utterly intrusive, before she pushes them away. Which one of her sisters had put that in her head? Ugh, now she’s angry, even though she doesn’t even know who she’s angry at.
“Yes,” Eden agrees. “Wondering why is good, but I don’t think any answer Ace could give would’ve made us feel better anyway. And David… I’ll miss him. I know his secret sounds bad, but I remember how he treated us. He was always thinking about the others. He might’ve made some mistakes, but … maybe that’s just who he was in the past.”
It occurs to Arei that she never told Eden who caused her change of heart, but the words don’t come to her. David’s secret thrums in her soul. She doesn’t know how to tell Eden that his secret is true without stomping on David’s grave. Even Ace of all people hadn’t done that. Arei lets Eden leave with the cookies, feeling stupid and impotent like Ace.
***
With Nico avoiding her and that problem child Ace gone, Hu has taken to babying everyone. Somehow, this includes Arei. Maybe Hu’s just found the next victim of her emotions, of that need to be needed. It’s annoying, but Arei can’t say she doesn’t understand at least a little.
“Would you like some tea or coffee?”
Arei rolls her eyes. “Both of that shit is nasty. Just get me whatever.” Hu hands her a cup of tea immediately—of course she’d have both drinks prepared beforehand. Always gotta look perfect, that girl. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. And of course, thank you for the sugarplum cookies.” Hu takes a petite bite out of Arei’s gift, somehow looking delicate while eating something messy like that. Ever focused on perfection, that Hu. “These taste wonderful. You’ve rather changed, haven’t you?”
Arei does not miss the tactless implication of her phrasing. “Yeah yeah, you’re welcome as well. God, you’re so stiff. It’s a miracle Nico ever put up with you.”
Arei’s remorseless heart fills with glee at Hu’s flinch. “I should’ve tried to be more accommodating to Nico—and to Ace. I sincerely regret my misstep.”
She can’t help herself. “Do you know what the fuck your misstep even was?”
“Being too needy.” Of fucking course her answer was focused on herself, but Arei can’t say she wouldn’t say the same about herself with Eden. “I let myself be too absorbed in my own needs, rather than asking Nico what exactly I should do to help them.”
You were too transparent, Arei wants to say. But that moment of transparency, that moment that David promised, even as a lie to simply placate Arei, was what got him killed, because it worked on Ace. A transparent lie, as contradictory as that sounds.
Or perhaps that vulnerable expression was simply real. That would be the worst of all. “Sure, let’s go with that. Hell of an overbearing mom is what you are.”
Hu hums, letting Arei’s insult roll over her. “I regret not attempting to look after David as well—I really let myself be taken in by the fact that he never seemed to need help.”
It really is unsettling how much that earnestly reminds Arei of how happy she herself had been when Eden told Arei she’d rely on her, so she swallows down an insult. “Yeah, I guess. Though his insistence on sharing secrets probably helped push Nico over the edge.” She twirls her side braid, nervous. “Maybe David wasn’t so good after all.”
“Arei!” Hu gasps. “How could you say that?”
“I’m not gonna apologize for saying what I think. Bet he didn’t even apologize, did he?” Hu’s expression twists subtly, pushing Arei further and further down the path of truth. “Maybe that’s why Ace killed him. David tried too hard to be good, then got caught being a phony. Being a greedy good person is worse than being a bad person.”
Hu stands abruptly, causing the plates to rattle. “I think that’s enough. I’ll take my leave now. Thank you for the cookies.”
Yet again, Arei is left behind.
***
At night she dreams. She dreams of her words. Maybe the two of us can be a little less shitty. Maybe she shouldn’t have said maybe. Maybe she shouldn’t have tiered her friends, called him second place. Maybe he was like her, having never been anyone’s first choice. Maybe she should’ve been her demanding, bitchy self, and forced him to follow her and make things up to everyone.
She couldn’t have saved him from Ace either way. It’s just a thought.
***
Eventually the ghost of David settles into something cold in Arei’s chest. For a day, Arei manages to avoid thinking about him at all.
(That’s a nice smile, Eden had said. And thanks for helping me clean after lunch!)
Her attempt to move on was swiftly crushed the day after.
“Levi’s awake,” Arturo announces, looking like a drained and disheveled doll with wide eyes. “He’ll be slipping in and out of consciousness. If any of you buffoons see him attempt to get out of bed, you have my permission to kill him for being stupid.”
A clamor rises amongst Arei’s classmates. She hears Whit say something along the lines of Let’s go see him… Cece. And of course, groan. Most of them leave, but Arei stays grounded in the auditorium where she is.
So of course, she’s left alone with Nico of all people. “You’re… not going?” They ask.
“Fuck no. Have you been in the infirmary? It’s way too tiny.” She rolls her eyes. “I’ll go see him later when the crowd’s gone, I guess.”
A lie. The fewer reminders she has of Ace, the better. “Oh,” Nico responds, oh so very intelligently. “Um, well…”
“Just to let you know, if you tell me to leave I’m going to beat you up.”
“I wasn’t going to say that. It’s just… I was going to say that you took David’s death better than expected.”
“No fucking thanks to you,” Arei snaps, enjoying Nico’s delightfully guilty face. “What the fuck do you want?”
“Nothing, I promise!”
“Bullshit.” Arei doesn’t know why she’s lashing out like this. It’s not really Nico’s fault that David is dead. Nico was the one that was wronged… initially, anyway. She can’t fault Nico for having a bad opinion of him. And she knows Nico’s a killer too. It’s a bad idea to provoke them. “You’re trying to say something about me and David, aren’t you?”
“No, it’s just… your expression—“
“What?”
“When you were telling us about how you confronted David about his secret, everything about you sounded normal, but your eyes looked so sad. You were lying about what happened, weren’t you?”
“Fuck this. I’m not going to listen to you lie, or pretend you care, because nobody ever gives a shit about me anyway—“
“Arei, I wasn't—"
“Why are you acting like you aren’t happy?!” Like a rushing river, the truth starts spilling out of her. “Two of the people you hated most just got brutally killed, and you’ve got the gall to pretend you care about me? You don’t give a shit about anyone! You only care about yourself, acting like you’re so good, so pitiful, just a pretty, innocent victim of bullying, and now your bullies are dead. Now what? You want to start making things up because you happen to think I cared about David? You make me sick!”
How much of that rant was simply self-serving? She doesn’t think too deeply about it, or rather, doesn’t think at all, moving on instinct as she socks Nico in the face. They yelp, falling back. She pounces on them, her movements the violence of years of repressed grief at the things she couldn’t have. Nico’s right. Why does she care? David never got the chance to be a real good person, and only good people are missed. That’s why Hu and Eden even feel any bit of sorrow, however artificial. If they knew what he was really like, it would just be Arei that cared again, and…
That’s…
Someone grabs Arei by the shoulders and pulls herself back. In her animalistic thrashing, she attempts to wrestle out of their grip, but they’re trying really damn hard. “Chill the fuck out,” Teruko commands. “Or we’re going to have another murder on our hands. Not that I also don’t want to beat them up for what they did to Rose, but violence won’t undo anything.”
Again, nobody cares about David. It’s rather pathetic to give up so easily, but Arei allows herself to sag in Teruko hold. All she ever does is hurt people or attempt to help people and fail pathetically.
“Arei!” Eden calls from the entrance, sounding winded. “Are you—oh my goodness, both of you...”
Now she’s really done it. Eden will never want to be her friend again, and all Arei will be left with are what-ifs. “I’ll help Nico,” Hu says, sounding firm and without sparing Arei with even a mere glance. “I know you’re not too fond of me, but I’ll just escort you to the infirmary and ask Whit to help you. After that I’ll leave you alone, I promise,” she says to them. Unsurprisingly, Nico doesn’t put up a fight.
To her surprise, Eden bends down. “Arei, are you okay?”
“Huh?”
“You’re crying,” Eden says, extremely soft, so simply. She presses a gloved hand across Arei’s cheek and it comes back wet. “Arei…”
His death is sad, that’s true. And Arei shouldn’t care that much logically. They only had two moments together.
But David’s true nature, David’s real smile, David’s fears—she’ll never be able to tell anyone else about it. That David will haunt her for the rest of her life, and she’s all alone again in a way that more friends and time will never cure.
And like that, Arei falls into her only remaining friend’s shoulder and cries.
***
“I hear you’re going on a trip to Japan with Eden.”
“Wow, the rumor mill spins fast, doesn’t it? I should know, I used to run mine at my old school. Anyway, I’m just accompanying her to see her grandparents since I’ve got nothing better to do on New Years. Maybe I’ll try my hand against Japan’s former Ultimate Bowler.”
David laughed. “Isn’t he fifty-something at this point? Go easy on him.”
“Bet you’re jealous.”
“Very,” David admitted easily. “In fact, I’m tempted to crash there on a return flight after my speech in Hong Kong…”
“Ew! Just don’t do it before New Years. I want Eden all to myself. After that… we’ll see.”
David chuckled. “Let me know if you decide to actually enter a competition there.” He smiled and winked. Maybe it was real. Maybe it was fake. “I’ll come cheer you on. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
***
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Fangan dump I’ve been playing a lot of limbus company recently however all my fanart for that has been kind of really (for lack of a better word) bad so I’m getting my brainworms out my drawing arei
My friend showed me this song a few weeks ago! (on the off chance you see this you know who you are) I’ve been thinking about it a lot since then.. I actually made the second drawing unrelated to the song but I think it fits! I think the pursuit of making someone smile is awesome. Claire Elford is pretty awesome.
To be honest I’m not a huge fan of romantic noelclaire (I preferred it platonic.. same goes for almost all witchs heart ships except charlime really) Pretty sure they’re my most drawn witch’s heart pairing since they’re easy to draw and have a lot of visual chemistry. Recently, thinking about them has made me really happy.. they’re so kind… it inspires me to be kind too.
The sin of Adam
"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned"
My ramblings about the piece! I'm not a good writer so my thoughts might not be well constructed;;
My grand theory is that Himari and Kamba are deconstructions of Adam and Eve, respectively. Adam's sin was watching Eve get deceived by the serpent and instead of protecting her, choosing to sin as well. The Takakura parents are inspired by Adam and Eve and the subway bombing was the original sin. Kamba reenacts the original sin, being deceived by Sanetoshi, as Himari pretends to ignore it.
Considering how penguindrum has so many biblical allusions and deconstructions of traditionally gendered roles (Himari and Kamba's flawed coping mechanisms are criticisms of the expectations of women and men) I feel like it's not impossible that it's something the writers considered.. But either way I found the idea fun to think about.
2087
baratheonpilled
origamiaround
pixelskylines
theartofmadeline
yousharknotpass
jbbartram-illu
jacobvanloon
ellievsbear
