LOUNGES, casinos, and the like were not the usual places of interest for the doctor. Much of them were crooked places run by crooked people, and Baizhu had a public face to consider. For even the smallest of stains could ruin the finest silk; his actions would only carry pride and care, lest he thrust his reputation into jeopardy.
But Mostro Lounge was something of an exception to these notions. A cut above the rest, and a visit he could pardon on the account of business. And it was business the two establishments certainly shared, as strange as that collaboration might seem to an outsider’s eye.
Their trade was not of lavish food and drinks, but instead a common footing between the owners. Where Baizhu practiced medicine, so too did Azul excel in the art of potion making. While he would not call these crafts quite the same, they did have their similarities. Those notably being their ingredients, which the merfolk had a first-class selection of indeed.
For the two, commerce was aplenty. It was a worthwhile arrangement to foster, seeing as they each came into possession of goods the other wanted on a regular basis.
It’s why Baizhu finds himself here today—to trade, of course. Between the pads of his fingers, golden eyes observe none other than a hand-sized bundle of wild lingzhi mushrooms; a sought after component of his personal research he had been particularly eager to get his hands on.
❝ What exquisite specimens they are... Although I would expect nothing less of your keen eye, Mr. Ashengrotto. ❞
Pleased, the apothecary hums a tune while his serpentine companion offers an approving nod. Though it was common myth these mushrooms had their ties to longevity, Baizhu had a new and promising lead up his sleeve.
❝ You’ll be pleased to know I’ve prepared an appropriate sum for them... What say you to a transaction, hm? ❞
@inkalized —— plotted starter!
“ you know , i really never thought i would be this happy to walk into mostro lounge ... ”
despite how much of a smart-ass he sounded like , he really was happy to walk in . it was something familiar , the only things familiar in a brand new world . there was little to no surprise when floyd had mentioned the lounge being recreated here . it sounded way too much like azul to take advantage of a new place for the sake of his business . this dude should write a book about entrepreneurship -- just maybe leave the shady contracts part out of it .
there is a light laugh , a smile offered to his upperclassman . his arms cross a bit , head tilting slightly as he speaks up again .
“ glad to see you’re making the most of this place , azul . you making contracts again too ? oh shit -- wait we don’t have most of our magic , huh ? ”
It’s involuntary, the way he flinches when he feels a presence behind him, a familiar voice giving him the answer before he could even write it down. In truth, he had been doing the puzzle half halfheartedly. A small comfort giving the radical change he had experienced in the last few days. Riddle found himself at an unknown place, living among strangers and stripped off his magic. The thought of having to face a foreign world without his abilities worried him deeply, he felt vulnerable and lost, two feelings he very much hated experiencing.
He had tried to quell himself by doing what he does best, researching. As soon as he got dropped onto his new place, Riddle chose to walk around and tried to learn more about his situation. As far as he was aware, he wasn’t the sole person to have suddenly awoken near the chasm in similar conditions, a conclusion he reached after interrogating as many people as possible on his first few hours in the city. It was painful how little he had uncovered since then. No other methods bore fruit and he was growing frustrated with having to adapt to not using his magic.
At least this world wasn’t too drastically different from his. Little things like a crossword puzzle could help him forget his situation and have him focus on something he could actively resolve. But his head still drifted nonetheless, making him only vaguely stare at the paper in front of him without processing what was written. He had been musing about how the victims of his signature spell felt by being deprived from their magic like he was when his thoughts had been abruptly cut off.
“Azul!?”
Riddle wouldn’t usually squawk the others name like that but he had been surprised. On his short time around he had yet to have run into anyone from his own world. Seeing Azul was both a relief and a concern.
“What are you doing here?” He turns sideways on his chair to fully look at the other, considerably lowering his voice given the attention he certainly gathered on accident. He’s not sure if he meant why Azul was at the same bakery as him or in the same unknown world but either answer would only add more questions to his research.
The calmness he felt was a tad confusing, even to himself. He’d woken up in a strange place with nothing but the clothes on his back and the microphone in his pocket, so he thought he out to be perhaps a tad more worried. Maybe the reality of the situation just hadn’t sunk in yet. That was the most likely scenario, he thought.
After all, being spirited away to what seemed to be some kind of alternate world - if that’s what this was - was certainly cause for alarm. But, he’d cooperated quietly, and the car that had arrived for him had taken him to a condo. How strange. Was he meant to stay here for a long period of time?
I doubt I have enough sick days to cover this absence...
As he stepped into the condo, Rosho took note of how spacious it was. The next thing he noticed was he wasn’t alone. A young man was there - he seemed to have arrived just moments before Rosho had. “Ah... pardon the intrusion,” he said. “This is condo 456, yes?”
epel coughs, desperately trying to dislodge the bit of food caught in his throat, kebab all but forgotten in his hand. once he manages to get it down the right pipe, he takes a deep breath, looking up at his upperclassman.
“um... you surprised me. sorry.” internally, he’s panicking - of all the people to come across him eating in a ... compromising manner, it just has to be the sketchy octavinelle dorm leader. he only hopes the other didn’t actually manage to catch him practically inhaling the meat, or else he’s screwed.
because if word somehow gets back to his own dorm leader, he’s definitely going to be in for it - and azul looks the type to blackmail for fun.
The math classes he had been taking had been helpful...to an extent.
Honestly, some of the problems they were going over were still too complicated for him to understand. Probably a downfall of taking classes at a university but...still! He took the easiest one they offered - he even asked to double check it really was the easiest one.
Well. Deuce supposed it was his own fault, for skipping all those classes in middle school, and a few in the years before. It was a miracle he was allowed to pass on to high school - let alone get into a prestigious one, like Night Raven.
That was exactly why he needed to use his time here to try and better himself in his studies...though, math really seemed to be the only practical thing that would transfer to his lessons back home. And with the classes still being too difficult...a tutor was suggested, and he hopped on the opportunity.
Tutors in middle school had been out of the question - his unfortunate reputation preceded him there - but now...he was much better than he had been back then, so surely he wouldn’t scare them off!
...they might have that affect on him, though.
“P...Prefect Ashengrotto...?! What are you doing here?”
@inkalized inquired ; he finds himself waking up in the middle of the night, unable to fall asleep he leaves his room in jamil's apartment and heads over to the kitchen to make himself some tea but much to his surprise he sees yuu sitting there. ❝ can't sleep? ❞ he questions and offers them some tea as well before he sits down and pets grim jr.
UNPROMPTED SLEEPOVER ( always accepting! )
Sitting on the couch was somewhat working in making them more tired! The only problem now was that they were watching videos, which was completely negating all that time that they spent trying to sleep. At least they had brought Grim Jr. onto their chest to watch the videos with them, a pillow laid out for them on the couch for later. The two of them had been so concentrated on the video that they didn’t hear any noise until a voice reached their ears.
The kitten simply mewled in response as Yuu leant their head back to look at him.
“ Can I ever? “ Now that someone else was present, they suddenly didn’t feel as comfortable lounging out like they currently were. Therefore, they properly sat up while making sure the kitten didn’t fall before placing them onto the pillow for the time being. It was likely they’d wander around if they tried to put them back to their makeshift bed for the night ... and the last thing the both of them needed was making even more mess for Jamil.
They gladly took the offer of tea with that in mind. Anything to try and get some sleep ; there was only so many slime videos one could watch before they got boring.
Although Yuu still looked as tired as ever, they now particularly looked like something was troubling them. Nighttime had always been one of those times where they found themselves thinking a lot more than they normally do and about things they wouldn’t pay any thought to had they tried thinking about them during the day. But even they couldn’t help the small smile that formed on their face upon seeing the little kitten getting some affection. It’d be good for them to have that.
There was a couple moments of silence before they eventually sighed. “ ... I’m sorry. “ If only it was simple enough to leave it at that, but it wasn’t making them feel any better. Plus, it’d be quite awkward if they left it at that as well. “ For all this. It’s because I’m an idiot, yet again. That seems to be more of a constant thing now. “ Had they always been this stupid? They couldn’t recall. While being remarked for their intelligence was funny the first couple of times, they found themselves not appreciating it as time went on.
“ I wish I could say I wasn’t an idiot, but I seem to prove that I am a lot of the time. Which is weird, because my schoolwork says otherwise, but the moment I’m doing something else? I suddenly turn into the stupidest person to ever exist. “ The fact they couldn’t remember much about their own life was taking a toll on them. If they had been an idiot in their own world, then maybe this wouldn’t be as upsetting to them. But if they had been smarter than this, that would also upset them.
... Yeah, now seemed like a good time for them to curl up in the corner of the couch. This was getting too awkward for them.
@inkalized asked: You knew this was coming but; What does your muse think of their own siblings?
Self-Reflection Meme
///Heck yeah :)
All of them are super important to him!! He’s very family oriented and grows stronger from his familial bonds. Granted the relationships aren’t 100% and there are times where he has issues with jealousy or his own stubbornness, and there are times where he may even grow frustrated with them, but he still loves them dearly.
Now for his feelings towards each individual sibling! He’s got 5 of them so this’ll get quite long-
Ryouma: The idolized older brother! Takumi trusts and respects him, and generally listens to him for advice. He loves the heck out his older brother and admires his strength, but a part of him feels jealous that he can’t be like Ryouma. Being compared to Ryouma especially upsets him, even more so than he dislikes being compared to anyone else (except for Kamui, anyway) especially since it’s very unlikely to be a comparison in his favor.
Every time Takumi loses to him in sparring it’s very demoralizing for him, because it just seems to prove to him that he’ll never be as strong as Ryouma- Which he wants to be, because, aside from resenting being seen as the ‘weaker brother,’ he also just wants to be strong enough to protect Ryouma from all harm. He knows Ryouma will be king, and he’s already seen a Hoshidan king and queen meeting an untimely demise. He doesn’t want to lose more family.
Also, Takumi pretty much 100% trusts Ryouma’s judgement and his opinion means a lot to him so like,, if Ryouma were to every express disappointment in Takumi it would pretty much crush him. Making his older brother proud is a big goal of his and he just wants his older brother to be proud of him.
Hinoka: Honestly, he kinda idolizes her too. Where Ryouma is the very cool eldest brother, Hinoka is the very cool eldest sister. He admires her strength, too, and wishes to be as strong as her. However, he does feel kind of closed off from her (and at times Ryouma for similar reasons) because she was so committed to finding Kamui that he barely saw her for much of growing up. He knows it’s a terrible thing to think, but sometimes he wonders if she cares about him or if she’d rather have Kamui over him.
He’s honestly about as desperate to prove himself to Hinoka as he is to Ryouma. Wants to prove that he won’t ‘slow down’ or ‘burden’ her, that she won’t have to worry about him.
But again, he cares a ton about her, and it means a lot to him to be able to fight by her side. As Hinoka says, they’re stronger when they stick together.
Azura: There’s very mixed feelings there, for different reasons. Canon is,, a bit of a mess on their relationship, but he doesn’t seem to be very close with her despite their long time living together? As far as my timeline goes (or as much as I can figure out? the fates timeline is kind of a mess oof,) Takumi was three when Sumeragi was killed and Kamui was kidnapped. Takumi wasn’t really old enough to understand what was happening at the time, so perhaps he heard all of these “Nohrians” were behind it all, and reacted with fear upon finding out Azura is Nohrian.
However, I do like to think there are times from them on when they got along as siblings. It’s just that the whole thing with Mikoto being killed reignited old feelings of distrust and he just kind of snapped. But in the end, he does care about Azura and sees her as being his older sister too, even if they aren’t ‘blood related’ or whatever. He’s got a great deal of respect for her! Absolutely terrified of her ghost stories though.
Kamui: Again, very complex feelings, though in this case in a way that colors all of his familial relationships- The incident of King Sumeragi being murdered and Kamui being kidnapped pretty much shook the whole Hoshidan Royal Family. However, Takumi can’t really relate to his older siblings in missing Kamui because he doesn’t really remember her that well due to being very young when everything took place. So he sees them missing Kamui and while he can understand why, it causes a little bit of resentment in him because even knowing its wrong, he can’t help but feel jealousy. Even when Kamui returns, he still feels jealous despite himself because he feels like Kamui is cooler, stronger, and generally just more well like than himself.
He wants to be able to see her a sister because of how important she is to the rest of the family, but he struggles with it at first, especially because of her time in Nohr. Takumi has only grown up hearing negative things said of Nohr, so hearing that Kamui grew up in Nohr is enough to make him distrustful. This becomes even worse when said time in Nohr results in Queen Mikoto’s untimely death. Again, another instance of a Hoshidan ruling royal falling at the hand of someone from Nohr- in his perspective, anyway.
Still, he can’t help but hope that Kamui will choose Hoshido, because he wants to see her as family. It hurts him seeing his family falling apart, and he doesn’t wish to lose anyone else, even Kamui. He just has a hard time opening up to others in a healthy way.
Sakura: He’s very close with her! The two of them grew up together since they are both the youngest of families. He can relate to her in a lot of ways, from feeling insecure to not being old enough to remember as well the things that happened in their family’s past. They would play together a lot and spend a lot of time together growing up.
She’s the only one in the family that he’s older than, and he takes his being an older brother very seriously. He wishes to protect her, especially since Sakura is so shy and frightened of everything. But he also wants to support her in trying to get stronger, too. It’s kind of hypocritical in a way, that he’s so hard on his weaknesses but would never shame Sakura for the same.
He gets along with her the easiest out of all the siblings.
