Greetings from me, your pinch hitter Pere Noel! I loved the Dirk Gently books when I was a teenager, so of course I had to draw your prompt of Junpei meeting him. There really is a lot of similarity between the morphogenetic field and the fundamental interconnectedness of all things... in fact I had been thinking about the latter earlier in the very same day I got the pinch hit request, so I truly believe in it!! I think if Dirk and Junpei met they would definitely be like kindred spirits from their respective generations, and he would also inherently understand what the Funyarinpa is somehow. In any case, I had a bit of challenge as I was drawing my imagination of the character described in the books. I hope this is satisfactory, and I especially hope it's what you meant in the first place... I only watched like one episode of the 2016 TV series, but the books were my favorites! Plus, how can I resist the fact that they both wear red check on their shirt? So I had some fun designing him and I hope you like it! Happy holidays~
Ok but Near threw money at people outside the SPK building. Literal redistribution of L's wealth. Who's the ancap king now?! (Nobody, this is a joke. Have a nice day Luna!!)
This is how people talk about Minoru in the one-shot, legitimately.
how about some Niwatori/Nezumi headcanons from the path where they worked together?
OH GOODNESS
Niwatori is sort of a chameleon, she does and becomes whoever she has to so she really doesn’t have a real sense of who she is...which is why I think she’d REALLY get along with Nezumi. He’s kind of in the perfect place to recognize that aspect of her personality, since he’s in an environment where no one his age is probably that comfortable with themselves as people
That being said, Nezumi does seem like he knows who he is and what he’s capable of, for the most part. Of all the members of the Zodiac, manipulating a place next to Niwatori seems like it may be difficult, if he was the one who approached her. If she approached him, she’d probably just sees him as disposable.
Niwatori I think would actually let Nezumi take the lead in the partnership, and try to puppeteer him silent I think he’d know but go along with it. It’d be a constant battle of the minds with these two
Once Niwatori opens up about her wish, I think maybe they’d contect more. Nezumi would maybe be factual and tell her that no one is really that confident, and anyone who is is an idiot. Perhaps he’d use Boar as an example (if she was still one of the first to die and he knew about it). Maybe she should start doing things for herself instead of just acting like a mindless robot.
I think he’d talk about his classmates, and how he hates them and the way they think.
I think they’d make a good time, but it’d be all strategy and limited physical fighting. Super brain nerd squad, since neither is very physically adept compared to some of the other contestants.
I think Niwatori would die first of the two. If she opened up enough to tell him her wish I think that would make her feel vulnerable, and cause her to protect him despite her better judgement.
I think he died shortly after her, but she wasn’t alive to see it.
I imagine that they died either to Rabbit, or Horse.
These are just my personal opinions! I’d love to hear yours.
Hey there! I was thrilled to see a Carlos/Diana prompt on your list so I knew I had to do that one. But you wanted her to be a werewolf!!! I don’t think Diana would handle being a werewolf very well emotionally, so it is a good thing she has someone like Carlos to do his best to cheer her up. I got a lot of story ideas while drawing this so hopefully the same happens to you while viewing it! Happy Holidays!
Here’s you gift! I really liked you prompt about Eric pulling Mira into nerdy hobbies, so here you go!
Ao3
Dice and Other Distractions
“So the thing is,” Eric says, running his hands through his hair as he addresses the table, “I’ve been trying to find something to keep Mira occupied since she can’t go out much anymore ever since I, uh, broke her out.” His voice tapers off, wavering at the last few words. “But then I found this article about how playing games like Dungeons and Dragons can help people work out their feelings in a, a non-violent manner.” He laughs nervously. “And I remember playing some games in high school, so I think it would be fun.”
“Okay, and?” Junpei said from across the table. Officially they were all there to work on preventing the destruction that Delta had predicted, but they had gotten off topic a while ago.
“Well, right now with me, Sean, and Mira, we don’t have enough people to play a game, so I was hoping that someone else would play with us.” Eric cast his eyes around the room. Akane and her brother, who always seemed to show up at these meetings, were speaking quietly in Japanese and seemed to have missed most of what he had been saying. Carlos was looking on with the serious concentration he always had when someone else was speaking, but he had yet to say anything. The rest were looking on with varying levels of boredom. Phi had her head nestled in her folded arms and looked to to be asleep.
“Yo, Phido,” Sigma nudged her with his elbow, “you play Dungeons and Dragons, right?”
Phi whipped her head up so fast that it turned into a white blur. “Who’s playing Dungeons and Dragons.”
“Uh, I am?”Eric raised his hand awkwardly. “I need another person so that I can play with Mira and Sean.”
“What edition are you using, sixth or fifth? Or are you using a totally different system? I’m not super fond of Fate, but I really like Blades in the Dark, and I’ve played some good games of The Sprawl, and Apocalypse World is always fun.”
“I- what?” Eric shook his head. “I don’t know what half of that means. I’ve only ever played Dungeons and Dragons, and I wanted to do a campaign for Mira.”
“Oh, okay.” She bounced up and down in her seat a little. “Do you have a campaign planned out? Because I have a couple of ideas for ones that I want to run, if you don’t already have something planned out.”
Eric shrugged. “Not really. Do you want to-? I mean, you don’t have to, it just seems like you want to.”
“Yeah, I’ll be the DM!” Phi said, a little too quickly. “Sorry, it’s just that I haven’t played a game since I graduated college and started saving the world full time.”
“I think we could all use a game like this as a break,” Diana pipes in. “I mean, I’ve never played before, but it seems like it could be fun.”
“As long as Mira can play, I guess people can join in,” Eric said. “Does anyone else want to play?”
“Sorry, I think I’m too busy,” Junpei says, turning to join Akane and Aoi in their conversation.
“I can try to see if I have time,” Carlos said, running his hand sheepishly through his hair. “I played once or twice when I was younger, but my life’s been a bit hectic since then.”
“Okay, anyone else?” Phi looked around the room, but the rest seemed uninterested. “Nope? Alright. I expect character sheets on my desk by Monday.”
“What character sheet?” Diana said at the same time as Eric said “You don’t have a desk.”
“I’ll send everybody links to stuff you can use,” Phi said, gathering up her things. “I gotta start planning.” Then she scurried out of the room too quickly for anyone to follow.
“I’m the one who drove her here,” Diana said as Phi disappeared from sight. “She can’t go home without me. I have no idea where she’s going”
*
“Hmm,” Mira said, flipping through the handbook. “So playing as certain races can give you an advantage in certain other classes. Interesting.”
“Yeah,” Eric leaned into her as she read. “Some people don’t really care about those connections, since they think that it makes characters too stereotypical, but most of them make sense to me.”
“That’s stupid of them.” Mira shook her head. “It makes perfect sense for me to play an orc fighter. An orc’s strength will give me the extra power that I need in combat.”
“Oh, really?” Eric laughed. “I thought you would have chosen something pretty, like, like an elf!”
“No, that wouldn’t work for what I want to do.” She turned to look at Sean, who was filling out his sheet sprawled across the living room floor. “What about you, Sean? What kind of character are you going to play?”
“A gnome!” He turned his head and smiled. Sigma had made him a temporary head while he worked on developing ABT, and while it was more realistic than a big sphere, there was a plastic quality to the skin that made it obvious that he wasn’t human. “They’re going to be a wizard. I’m working on making a backstory now.”
Eric shifted in his seat. “Are you sure you want to play a wizard? I’ve heard that it’s sometimes hard for beginners to play magical classes.”
“I’ve already downloaded the entire spellbook, players handbook, and several other supplementary materials to my hard drive.” Sean said. “I think that as long as we stick to the rules I should be okay.”
“Oh, right,” Eric said, “I forgot that you can do that.”
“What kind of character are you playing, Eric?” Sean chirped.
“Oh, I, uh. I got so excited about you guys making your characters that I forgot to think about mine.”
He picked up the handbook and flipped through it, although he already knew most of the basics. When he was younger he would usually play a fighter, but Mira already had that covered. He should play a character that could protect her, maybe one with healing powers, that would be nice.
“I think I’ll be a paladin.” He said, resolve hardening his voice.
“And for the race?” Mira asked.
“Human,” he said, then again with more certainty. “Human.”
*
“So, does everyone have their dice?” There was some fumbling and rattling. “Character sheets?” Papers rustled. “Wizard hats?”
“You never said-”
“It was a joke Carlos.”
“Oh. Right.”
They were crowded around the kitchen table in Eric and Mira’s house, almost elbow to elbow, excluding Phi, who was seated at the head of the table and hidden behind several propped-up binders. Mira and Eric had decided to host the gathering because it was risky for Mira to be seen in public after she had been broken out of jail, but this was more people than they were used to having over at once. Sean was sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest in an armchair that they had pulled in from the living room.
“Okay.” Phi clapped her hands together. “Let’s get this party started. First, I want everyone to introduce their characters. Eric, since all of this was your idea, you can start.”
“That’s not how that works!” Eric snipped.
“Yes it is. C’mon, you’re going to have to do it eventually.”
“Fine.” He took a deep breath. “My character is a human paladin named Alexander. He fights to protect his friends, and he isn’t afraid to die for a cause.”
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Phi smirked. “Okay. Mira, your turn.”
“My character is a fighter named Mab the Bloody.” Mira shrugged. “She’s an orc and she likes to punch stuff.”
“Cool. Sean?”
“My character is named Lenny Littlefoot!” Sean smiled and gestured with his character sheet. “They’re a wizard and a gnome, and they’re really excited to go on an adventure, even though they’re afraid of monsters.”
“Oh buddy am I going to use that against you.” Before Sean could respond, Phi turned again. “Diana! Your turn!”
“Oh!” Diana jumped a bit. “I’m playing an elf druid named Iris. She, uh, she likes birds? I don’t know what else to say.”
“That’s good enough. Last but not least.” Phi took a moment to pause dramatically. “Carlos!”
“I,” Carlos said, dropping his voice until it was comically low, “am playing Throckmorton, a dwarf, a rogue, and a general good-for-nothing.”
“If you establish that as your character voice, I will make you use it for the entire campaign.” Phi laughed.
“Challenge accepted,” Carlos rumbled.
“Alright.” Phi looked around the table. “Is everyone ready?”
The group nodded, expectant.
“Excellent.” She cracked her fingers louder than was necessary. “The five of you have been called to the town of Windport….”
*
“The fire giant roars as you approach, letting out a burst of flame. He knows that you’re here, and he is not happy. What do you do?”
They had been playing for what felt like years now, although in reality it was more like months, on and off as schedule conflicts delayed games. They were supposed to be saving the world, after all.
All of their hard work had come down to this. The evil king was deposed, and all that remained was the giant that he had summoned. If they won this fight, the kingdom would be free.
“I want to charge in and attack him.” Mira’s face was set, almost bored.
“Are you sure?” Phi asked. Mira nodded. “Alright then. Normally I would make you roll for initiative, but it’s pretty clear that you’re making the first move. Are you just hitting him with your sword, or-?”
“I’m just hitting him with my sword.”
“Alright then. Roll a d20 plus your strength modifier, which is,” she flipped through some papers, “five. Go ahead.”
The die clattered on the hard wood of the table, coming to rest nearly at the center. All around the table, the players leaned in to see what it said.
“Oh jeez,” Carlos winced. Diana bit her lip
“Well,” Phi said, “that’s a one. Okay, so you charge forward, sword raised high, but the thing is that your sword is just metal, and your armor is metal, and all the coins and jewelry that you’ve picked up is metal. And metal melts. The giant takes a deep breath, and you can see waves of heat rolling off of him. He rears back-”
“Wait!” Eric holds out a hand, desperate. “I want to jump in front of her and cast Shield of Faith.”
“Okay, but just so you know, if you fail, both of you are toast, and I mean that literally.” Phi sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “That’s another d20, plus your spellcasting modifier, which is four. Go for it.”
Eric rolled the die between his palms, trying to channel any bit of luck he had into the little piece of plastic. It bounced on the table and landed in front of Mira.
“It’s a 20.” A smile pulled at the corner of Mira’s lips
Phi shook her head. “There’s no way.”
“Come over here and look if you don’t believe me, but it’s true. Eric rolled a critical hit.”
“No, I believe you.” Phi took a deep breath. “So the spell radiates out from your holy symbol which, may I remind you, is a literal shield. It covers the whole part just in time to protect them from a burst of flame that sets the trees around you on fire. All of you are alive. I can’t believe that you managed to pull that off.”
“I did it!” Eric grasped Mira’s hand and grinned. “Mira, I saved you!”
“Technically you saved Mab the Bloody,” Mira smiled, “but yeah, you did. Thank you.”
“You guys know that you still have to get through the rest of the encounter, right?” Phi said.
“Yeah, but at least we got through this.” Eric squeezed Mira’s hand. “We got this far.”
I decided to make some Carlos/Eric for you!! There’s a lot of Maria in here too, and I deeply apologize for Eric’s y'all. Enjoy!!
“Carlos, that’s nuts. You’re nuts,” Eric responds to the big blond man’s sudden question. Once he realizes that it isn’t a joke anyway.
“I think it’s a great idea.” Says Carlos’ slightly tinny voice over the phone. Carlos doesn’t like to text. He thinks it’s impersonal. Eric thinks that’s a really inconvenient stance for a modern person to take- even if he finds it more endearing every day.
Endearing or not, he sighs into the receiver, and continues to stir his pasta sauce as it cooks. “You can’t honestly think it’s a good idea for me to move in with you, so soon after…” Your sister being released from the hospital, Mira’s sentencing, DCOM, “… Everything.”
“You’re right, I don’t think it’s a good idea. I think it’s a great idea. Have you been listening at all?” Eric can hear his smile through the phone. But then again, Carlos smiles almost all the time. “I’ve already talked to Maria about it. She’s all for you coming down ASAP. Her exact words were ‘we gotta bring Nebraska boy to the beach, Carlos’!”
Eric frowned a little, thinking about the beach. He could go without seeing sand for the rest of his life, but some sunshine would be nice. He looked out the tiny window in his grubby apartment kitchen and saw the blizzard still raging outside. He started his pot of water boiling.
He had been pretty much locked in the aforementioned grubby apartment since he got home from… Everything. He hadn’t been wallowing around like a sad-sack, mind you, he still smiled. But he had been doing a lot of thinking. And reading. And researching. Lots of things, law, the morphogenetic field, and psychology, as well. He had decided to take some advice Mira gave him, and to learn what made himself really smile. Lately he’d been watching a lot of owl videos.
But was he ready to go back out into the world already?
Maybe, just maybe, with some help…
“Eric, I can hear you thinking.” Carlos chuckles from his phone. “It sounds a lot like water boiling, actually.”
Eric rushes to keep the pot from boiling over.
It turns out that Eric doesn’t really own a lot of things.
He’s moving into an apartment where people already live, so he doesn’t need to bring any of his goodwill furniture. He takes his expensive ergonomic pillow that Mira laughed at him for buying- but that she ended up using half the time anyway- as well as his clothes, but that’s about it. Everything else is digital, on his laptop and phone. It all fits in one suitcase and a carry-on.
He decides the next thing he’s going to do after this move is over is get some hobbies.
Both Carlos and Maria meet him at the airport, much to his surprise.
Carlos just barrels into him with a great big bear-hug, right in the middle of LAX. He’s stunned, and he distantly hears the girl laughing, even over the din of one of the busiest airports in the world.
Eventually he is let go, and Maria comes over to introduce herself properly. She’s just like a mini-Carlos, big blue eyes, blond hair, excellent bone structure. She sticks out her hand for a handshake, gives him a huge smile, they could be twins, and says cheerfully in a husky voice that matches her brother’s as well, “Hi, finally! I’m obviously Maria. I apologize for my big dork of a brother, but you can’t imagine how excited he was to see you!”
Eric reciprocates the firm handshake, slightly self conscious- his father had always told him he had limp wrists.
And then the other shoe drops.
“You were excited?” He asks Carlos incredulously.
Carlos looks a little surprised in return. Then a smile slowly transforms his features. “Of course dude,” he says warmly, “we’re buds right? Of course I wanted to see you.”
“Oh, uh, of course. Yeah.” Eric replies eloquently. Was it getting hot in here? There were a lot of people…
Maria giggled behind her hand. “Come on, best buds. Let’s go get your luggage and an uber.”
The siblings live in a surprisingly nice place.
Not that he expected them to live in a bad place- he certainly wouldn’t have invited anyone but Mira to live in his cruddy apartment, but he was in love with her at the time.
Eric doesn’t have a whole lot of knowledge on the subject, but he can’t imagine a two-bedroom apartment of this size in Burbank to be inexpensive, either. He fights to not mention it, but when he had brought up the subject of rent to Carlos on the phone while discussing logistics of the move, he had been vehemently offended. More than Eric thinks he’s ever heard him. It had been a little shocking, so he didn’t want to bring money up again… just yet.
You need to buy a lot of ebooks to burn through $500,000 after all, he could definitely afford it.
Even the fold out couch that was to serve as his bed was nice. They put a really fluffy topper on it, scooted it against the wall next to one of those temporary wardrobes made out of burlap and plastic wrap- “We’ll find you a real one later,” Maria told him- and put the remaining chair and loveseat closer to the entertainment center full of what looked like gaming and sound systems. It had sounded like an insane arrangement over the phone, but Carlos said they would make it work and they had.
Eric rolled his suitcase over to his corner and sat down on the fold-out, suddenly feeling overwhelmed. “This is really happening, huh?” He said to no one in particular. His voice cracks.
The siblings looked at each other, then at Eric. “Are you okay, man?” Carlos asks softly.
Eric snaps back to attention. “Yeah, it’s just, I kinda just now realized how big a change this is for me. I’m feeling really country bumpkin right now.” He scratches his neck absentmindedly.
Carlos and Maria share a glance again, and Eric realizes they’re having a conversation he can’t hear. For some reason, it irritates him. “I would appreciate if y’all wouldn’t talk like that while I’m sitting right here.” He says, trying to sound annoyed- but to his ears, still as happy as ever. Dangit. He’d been working on that one, too.
They almost do it again, but catch themselves. “Whoops, sorry Eric-“ Maria begins, and Carlos finishes, “-we’re not used to people knowing what we’re doing when we do that.”
He guesses that makes sense. “Why don’t we all just use words until I get attuned to your wavelength or whatever?”
“Yeah, sure, it might be kind of an adjustment, though,” Carlos says, sheepishly, “we got kind of used to using it around the house.”
Maria tapped the side of her head with her forefinger. “Exercising my brain like that was a really important part of my recovery. I should probably start experimenting with tapping in a little less every day, anyway.”
Eric guesses that makes sense, too. “… Okay, thank you.” He pauses before asking, “What were you talking about anyway?”
“Oh! We were thinking about things that would make you feel more welcome.” Carlos says, and Maria nods along enthusiastically. “We came up with something we both agreed on for once, actually. Do you mind going out for dinner so soon after getting here?”
Eric blinks at him for a moment, surprised. Then he smiles. “Sure, I don’t mind.”
Maria pumps her fist in the air and shouts, “Yes! Let’s go!”
They take him to In-N-Out.
“You can’t get more California than In-N-Out.” Carlos tells him.
They order for him, and they sit at a table outside. In December. He’s amazed. Carlos sits to his right, and Maria across from him. The sun is setting by the time their food gets out, and it makes a stunning image. The sky is purple almost down to the horizon, with a bright flash of orange still lighting up bits and pieces of the world.
They take turns digging into their food and talking. Maria asks him about Nebraska and he says, “There’s nothing in Nebraska. It’s Nebraska.”
Carlos says with a grin pointed bites of his fries, “Nebraska is so boring that the heart ripper lived there in plain sight and nobody caught on.”
Maria is shocked, her mouth halfway to her straw.
Eric begins to laugh. The laugh gets bigger and bigger until his head is thrown back and he’s wiping tears from his eyes.
“Mira hated Nebraska,” he was finally able to say with a wheeze.
Soon the whole table was laughing, last bites of fries and burgers forgotten.
Carlos’ hand meets his under the table, and soon they’re palm to palm, still laughing.
The sky is fully dark now, and he can see a few small distant stars twinkling, even with the light pollution.
