#ichihara ai

[jkdreams]

Finally time to actual doodle. :D

[jkdreams]

Associates of the Witch’s Shop

Ichihara Ai (壱原曖)- The current Dimensional Witch and a Craftsknight, among other things. A being unable to influence Fate without invitation. After relocating the Shop to Echo Town (and what a fun sequence of events that was), they currently serve as the town’s metalworker along with EXeLD as well as the one who maintains the shielding mechanism in the town. Specialises in barrier magic and enchantments, but has such a wide variety of skills that that sometimes gets lost.

EXeLD (alias Xavier Halvorson)- A former Lorelalian soldier who became Ai’s Guardian and a Craftsknight. He likes to take care of the more domestic affairs of his shared household with Ai, but is also quicker to resort to force who often has to soothe his short temper. Specialises in long range attacks and making really, really good meals.

Glunkus- a cat who loitered so often around the Shop that he got mistaken for Ai’s and who in turn mistook him for a client’s because he only came whenever that client did. A strange kitty who one day woke up and only knew two (2) things: He is Glunkus, and he is a cat. Anyone who says otherwise is a hater (according to Ai). Somehow followed when the Shop moved despite not being brought along and has been formally adopted. Specialises in being the fluffiest ball of goo and getting gold stars for trying to be a cat.

Morodashi and Marudashi- Ichihara Yuuko’s former helpers, they became Ai’s helpers when they took over the Shop. When the Shop fulfilled its purpose, instead of closing it as they originally planned, Ai moved it to Echo Town instead and changed a couple of other things as well. Moro and Maru became Sans’s helpers and spend their new days helping around Town Hall. Specialise in maintaining existing barriers, cheering, and playing silly pranks.

Mokona Modoki (Larg)- Ichihara Yuuko’s former helper, Mokona followed Ai when they moved the Shop. That said, Mokona does as Mokona will and usually only shows up at Ai and Ex’s house for dinner like a house cat. Instead Mokona has taken to exploring Mokona’s new reality and likes to slip off to new places especially if they have a hot springs (and alcohol), writing travel reviews to send back to Town. Has 108 secret skills!

Sans, Mayor of Echo Town- a former employee and client of the Shop, he founded and now runs Echo Town, named for the flower that is the town’s main export. He convinced Ai to move to Echo Town some time after his employment ended. He’s become slightly infamous for his positivity training as throwing one into it has become one of Ai’s go to threats. Specialises in bone and gravity magic as well as making you feel better about yourself.

Papyrus, Tailor of Echo Town- a former employee and client of the Shop, he went from being Ai’s errand boy to being the oddjob man for Echo Town when it was just starting. After Mint moved in and took over his last real responsibility in the caring of the Echo Flowers, Papyrus finally indulged in his hobby and became a cosplay salesman tailor. Specialises in bone and gravity magic and making quite frankly destructive cakes.

Callie (full name: Calanthea)- tangentially related to the Shop, Callie’s existence is owed to Sans and Papyrus’s last job with Ai. Ai motherhens Callie, who does her best to try and seem grown up. Specialises in Life and Protection magic although she’s still growing into it.

Belphegor D’Acedia- a “freelancer” Ai employs now and then to study timelines and Fate, a worldwalker and the human lord of a demon territory. The two of them have a hatelove relationship and oscillate between extreme understanding and extreme violence between them. That said, neither of them can truly hurt the other except through mindgames. Specialises in contract magic and adventuring places people might not want them to be.

[jkdreams]

Ambivalence

Among the many mysteries his partner held, EXeLD knew absolutely one thing for sure: that Ichihara was an absolute weirdo, from her weird name to her weird taste to her weird attitude.

One would have to be, he mused, if one were to, say, talk to an injured Summon Beast and enlist one’s friends to help bring him somewhere safe for repairs. EXeLD wondered constantly about his what ran through his soon-to-be-partner’s brain and found her behavioral patterns difficult to properly draw any conclusions on. Whatever her motivations were, though, she normally kept any attention she could off of herself, which was probably why she looked particularly stressed out that day.

He was still unsure if the constant deflection he noticed whenever someone brought up what a good person she was spoke more to her self-esteem or the standards she held of others. It might be the former- Ichihara constantly rerouted conversations away from herself and kept her feelings as carefully bottled up as she could- but Ichihara also had such strange behavioral patterns that really her motivations could be anything.

And so it was that EXeLD had watched Ichihara for the past hour quietly try to blend into the wall as the bustling villagers around them set up for the Bonding Ceremony.

“Master,” he said flatly, walking up as she withdrew, pressing up against the stone as if she wanted to phase through it. She sent him a pathetically pleading look and shushed him.

“Don’t call me that,” she hisspered, sparing a glance to see if anyone else had noticed them. Not for the first time, EXeLD wondered how he had ever been afraid of this mousy looking human, barely up to his chest at her proudest and even smaller now that she was trying her best to shrink into herself. From the entrance of the square, Tatiana gave a smile and wave which Ichihara returned stiffly. When Tatiana looked away, she slumped with a sigh. 

“Master,” EXeLD repeated. Then at her uncomfortable gaze, he amended, “Ichihara. Don’t you also need to get ready?”

“Nope,” she said, popping the p, eyes darting around. “Nah. I’m, ah, bouncing. As soon. As possible.”

Bouncing? The mechanoid thought she meant her literal jittering bounce until he realised, mildly annoyed, that she meant to flee.

“As the whole event is for us, I’m going to have to ask you to stay,” he quipped.

She gave another glance at the entrance just as Orin walked up and relieved Tatiana from watch. He shot them an apologetic grin, but stayed right there, blocking the only way in or out of the plaza, unless she wanted to launch herself off the cliff face. Actually, she looked like she would do exactly that. EXeLD not so subtly eased his way between her and the drop. Rationally, it was a good 30 feet from the edge, but Ichihara could move fast when she wanted to. She pointedly ignored him.

“Ma- Ichihara.” She finally looked at him, anxiety knotted into her features. ExeLD knelt down to her eye level, making sure to block any easy escape. he gently laid his left hand on her shoulder in what he assumed to be a reassuring manner and prodded softly, “Ichihara, what’s the matter? Your heart rate has elevated 20% since Master Orin announced that we would be going through this.”

“Nothing-” she said a little too quickly, and then pursed her lips at his gaze. She thought a moment and then, quietly so that only he could pick it up, said, “I-I don’t wanna go through with this, Ex.”

“Is it me, Master?” he asked just as quietly. She shook her head. 

“No! It’s just- I’m not sure- I’m not ready yet.” Her eyes fell at the alter where the elder, a supposed descendant of a Summoner, would oversee their vows. “I dunno if I’m- If I can promise- I’m sorry, it’s not you!”

He believed her. The anxiety basically radiated off of her and he swore he could almost feel the tingle of nervousness in his own circuits watching her wring her hands and pretend no one could see her. Something about this whole ordeal terrified her, and between remembering the flash of anxiousness when Master Orin had first brought up this whole thing and how his Summoning went, it took EXeLD 0.000001 second to decide the best course of action to take.

“I know,” he said, simulating a sigh. “But do you trust me anyway, Master?”

“Yes.” 

If he had the muscles, EXeLD knew he’d smile at the immediate answer. He stood up at his full height and stepped a little back. “Master, I need you to do exactly as I say.”

“...Okay? Okay. What do you need?”

He would definitely be grinning if he could as he told her. Her eyes widened and she once again shot a glance to their guard, relaxing into a (relieved, so relieved) smile as he gave no indication of having heard. She nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

Then she took a deep breath. In. Out. And then she bolted.

Orin had no time to react at all as she threw herself off the cliff into the open sky, although Tatiana certainly screamed

EXeLD wasn’t far behind his not-to-be-partner, shifting his parts into Jet Form and zooming out, swooping in under Ichihara and carrying her away. She quickly grabbed the handhold Orin had modded onto him a couple weeks ago as he flew away towards the Fire Temple, the villagers clamored from the shrinking cliff. 

They might regret this later, but as he recorded her laughter into his memory, EXeLD found himself not caring too much about this particular breach in protocol.

[jkdreams]

Colored in a notebook doodle. Think it came out nice. ovo~

[jkdreams]

"My name? Master and I went through a list of surnames and decided on the one I chose. My name and alias are ill-fitting to Master's surname, after all. We originally pursued the practice so that Master would stop putting my name down as Charles Xavier." -EXeLD AKA Xavier or Exa Halvorson

[jkdreams]

[jkdreams]

Papaya and Berry- Notes and HCs

Because it’s 2 in the morning and I can’t stop thinking about this.

Papyrus:

-still hates puns, but is a pun master

-was a researcher of the nature of SOULs, but was more like a naturalist than anything else

-(i don’t know enough about science, but i think he’d be more interested in how they were without interference than with. i think he’d like anthropology (monsterpology?) quite a bit!)

-still sucks at cooking, but at least the kitchen’s neat

-his stuff is always neat, actually, he still likes to clean

-likes to bake more than cook, though

-still likes collecting action figures and is good at improvising stories

-doesn’t read to Sans at night; rather he makes up tales right on the spot

-went to anime nights with Undyne before she got together with Alphys

-liked Full Metal Alchemist among other series

-still has no social skills

-super pleasant to be around, but doesn’t know how to start any type of relationship, and everyone ends up being kept at arms length

-especially after the Accident, the only ones he’d talk to were Sans, Undyne, and Muffet, and Muffet only because he would hang out at her cafe for way too long and babble

-he gave up a while ago, but despite being Tired he hangs in there and helps Sans when he can, even if at first it’s just keeping house

Sans:

-dreams of being admired one day!

-he’s a superhero, and if he’s not now, then he will be!

-really likes anime, especially Shounen like One Piece and Naruto (he was so disappointed with Naruto’s ending)

-likes science and dabbles, but he hasn’t studied past high school level physics

-he really likes physics and astronomy, though

-actually an excellent cook, but his, er, technique leaves quite a mess

-what would he do without his brother? leave his socks everywhere like a goblin, that’s what

-absolutely admires and loves his brother LOUDLY (whereas Pap is incessantly if less vocally saying the same through little things)

-his absolute BESTY Alphys and him hung out a lot!

-but he absolutely also understood when she was having a down day and needed time to recharge!

-which also helped him take care of Papyrus when he started getting his down days

-had a million jobs and is super popular, but isn’t sure if anyone cares for him besides Pap and Al (did the thought even cross his mind?)

-absolutely loves puns and crams a million of them into every conversation

(-is actually the one that remembers RESETS and what their Fallen has done)

(-is a bit guilty about taking away his brother’s future because he was involved in the CORE’s failure and the erasure of Papyrus’s involvement in Hotland)

Other HCs for this Underswap Universe:

-Gaster and the Riverperson are swapped: Dings manned the ferry (and has many wise things to say but no one can understand him) and the lead scientist River has disappeared through a mysterious accident involving the CORE

-Sans still uses the shed in the back to hide things! Including things he doesn’t want to forget and things Papyrus wanted to get rid of but that Sans couldn’t yet let go of

-Papyrus used to use the doghouse/jail cell for work purposes, but nowadays he’s retooled it to help with Sans’s wishes of capturing a human

-The Annoying Dog and Temmie switched places, now the Annoying Tem and the Foxes… which are not Foxes but dogs…? Or maybe the Tobes, idk.

-Asriel and Chara switched places, with Chara becoming the soulless flower and Asriel possessing the Fallen (still working out how that happens- is Asriel still a monster?)

-Alphys still suffers from anxiety and feelings of inadequacy which she expresses through lashing out

-Undyne ran the experiments in the True Lab and falls ill trying to fix it because she was so Determined to help she started melting

(-sidenote: i imagine Undyne’s personality to be like Marinette from Miraculous Ladybug- with support and love (and her crush not entirely on her mind) she’s confident and ready to help people)

-Alphys damn near had a heart attack and started crying and on a Pacifist route it would be up to the Fallen to resolve things before it gets that bad

-Probably by getting Undyne to admit that sometimes it’s better to call for help than to struggle alone

-Sans and Toriel probably still met the same way, except he was doing Royal Guard training and was on break and started knocking on the garden door not realising the Queen was listening

OC Things:

-Ai is their boss, technically. Picked them up from an empty timeline that their Fallen would definitely not RESET.

-Sans knew that the Fallen Child would attempt to murder everyone so he took Papyrus out for a game of hide and seek (he wishes that he tried harder to convince Alphys and Undyne to play, too, but Alphys was the Royal Guard and Undyne was ever loyal and neither of them would have forgiven him for helping them and no one else escape)

-After finding nothing but dust and empty SOUL jars, the two monsters thought they’d live out their days in that emptiness until Ai and Ex passed by looking for something

-Ai and Ex couldn’t just leave them, so they (much to Ex’s chagrin) brought them along

-Ai claimed to need a groundskeeper; so they were named groundskeepers of land Ai had acquired during a different venture

-Now they manage that, except the actual parametres of the job Ai assigned them led to them founding a town. Oops. 

-Sans becomes Mayor of Echo Town like that, with Paya, Ai, and Ex as his main assistants

-in the Shop itself Sans gets along great with Moru and Maru. 

-Papyrus gets along better with Mokona for whatever reason

-Ai and Mokona call Papyrus “Pyrus”, or “Pie” for short

-which leads Ai to make a ridiculous lie to Nanami that he’s called “Papaya… Papaya Honeypie.” (makes more sense in context)

-and his brother was dubbed “Berryblue” (Mayor Berry Blue, officially) after some food related  jokes and puns.

-Ex and Sans joke that Ai was just hungry when they made that up though-

-so everyone while on work things will call the skelebros “Papaya and Berry” 

[jkdreams]

Scene: Ichihara and Ex are sitting in a makeshift shelter, consisting of rock as three walls and a roof and some wood with some space cut out of the middle as the fourth wall. The door is just some extra fabric pinned and draped over the hole. Ex is on the bed of leaves due to his injuries with basic first aid done. Ichihara is sitting on the floor the wall opposite by the door.

I: …so.

X: …

I: I’m not going away yet, for your information.

X: You have made that apparent.

I: ;; Relax. I’ll be out of your sight once you have it back. Until then…

X: …

I: …

X: …why do you pursue this matter?

I: Huh?

X: You are persistent in helping me. Do you pity me? Why are you still here?

I: Wow, how welcoming. Do you really require a reason?

X: Affirmative.

I: Ah, yes, well… you know.

X: I do not know. That is the point of this inquiry. I do not understand you at all. I attempted to shoot you.

I: You’re not the first, believe me. I’ve got such a charming personality, after all~ Although you probably shouldn’t mention that in front of Master Loki.

X: I also do not understand why you felt the need to lie. Was that required?

I: Not really, no. But wasn’t that easier to swallow! That you were defending me even when you were blinded~ But no, they’d have helped you even if they knew. I just worry, you know? Master Aera is one thing, but what happens when she tries to bring another stray Summon to the village? We’ve a rule against that, see, so she’ll definitely get in trouble, defender of the town or not. Even more so if you’ve got a bad rep. And it does seem to be a matter of when- she’s got history with this sort of thing…

X: …

I: Ah, but don’t worry! I’d stay out of your way when possible. Taking Master Aera up then wouldn’t be the WORST thing in the world, okay?

X: You are avoiding the question!

I: Ah ah ah! Calm down! If you keep heating up you might actually damage something! Please actually relax!

X: Did you pity me?! Is that why you are doing all this?!

I: That’s not it! That’s… not it at all. …

X: …I am waiting.

I: (mildly frustrated) Look, I… I just liked to talk to you. Okay, maybe I should have mentioned what I am since you can’t see and all at the moment, but it was nice. Before you attempting to murder me, I mean. I’ll bolt as soon as your eyes function again.

X: You are incredibly, aggravatingly vexing.

I: So I’ve been told. Look, I’ll shut up, too. It’ll be like I’m not even here.

X: …Abort that procedure.

I: …? W-What?

X: I am saying that your silence is not required. Talk to me. I… would appreciate your company right now.

I: Huh?!

X: I said I would appreci-

I: I-I heard! But?! What?! -distressed confused noises-

X: Are you unable to process sentences now? Calculating the probability I really did hit you in the head…

I: Uh, no, you didn’t, that’s not why- What- Just! Did I not piss you off or something? Most folk who have gotten to the point of wanting to kill kinda continue wanting to throw me off cliffs or something? I’m just. You’re so confusing.

X: I am confusing? That is highly illogical. I cannot be confusing! That is impossible! I am a rational being that communicates clearly and concisely!

I: ;; Sure you are.

X: Do not just agree with me! Actually believe what I am saying!!!

I: …;; (Master Aera, Master Loki, Sir Orin, please come soon;;) Well, since there’s nothing to be done about that-

X: Do not just give up!

I: -what do you wanna talk about…?