a mental hairball ive been spinning with @dollfacefantasy while i watch thru jjk
— divider by @saradika-graphics (here)
— a/n: takes place in a canon-divergent au where satoru is able to save suguru from heel-turning after riko amani's death, and they work together at jujustu high school. satoru is a teacher, suguru is more of a jaded administrator
Suguru finds a Special Grade curse on his day off. Actually, it was worse. This Special Grade mimicked a human woman so well, there was no telling how long it had gone undetected. Another sorcerer might have mistaken her for an exceptionally strong colleague.
His feet felt frozen to the concrete. What could he possibly do? It was the middle of the day. The sidewalk was full of pedestrians. He'd be risking countless lives if he moved now.
His heart leapt into his throat when her head turned, eyeing a young child. The little boy was idly looking around, holding his mother's hand and waiting patiently to cross the street with her. Was it going to attack a child? What a sick, disgusting—
"Excuse me, little boy," it said kindly, pointing down, "your shoe is untied." Her Japanese was somewhat stilted and childish. Did this curse originate elsewhere? How did it get here?
The little boy looked down and found the lace to his sneaker unraveled. "Oh!" He looked up and called out to his mother. "Mama, my shoe."
The woman looked down and gave a tsk. "Alright, stay still." She knelt down and re-tied her son's loose laces.
When she stood up, the little boy looked at his shoes and then up at the woman. "Thank you, miss!"
Suguru watched the curse smile—How could it be smiling?—and then speak kindly, "You're welcome."
He flinched as she shifted and reached back behind her. His fingers tightened around the cross-body strap of his bag. As her arm came back forward, Suguru prepared himself for the worst.
But, it didn't come.
She just looked like an average woman taking her phone out of her back pocket. Her fingers tapped on the smooth glass screen with ease. It was as if this was the easiest thing in the—Wait. Why would a curse have a phone? What the hell was going on here?
As the pedestrian signal sounded, the crowd crossed the street. Suguru followed the woman closely, but not so close that she'd notice him. She kept looking down at the phone in her hand and then up at the street signs. She was clearly on her way... somewhere. Suguru intended to find out exactly where that somewhere was.
They had been walking about ten minutes before they came to the mouth of a subway entrance. The woman stood off to the side and let people pass as she looked at her phone. Suguru tried to pass by to look more inconspicuous.
"You're bad at following people." Said the woman.
Suguru tried to act casual, and match her language level. "I don't know what you're talking about."
She looked annoyed. Her cursed energy flared slightly before subsiding. She grumbled. "My phone signal is weak. Can you help me get to Shibuya on the subway?"
He briefly wondered if he miscalculated the risks of doing this. "Why are you going to Shibuya?"
"I want to go to Daiso."
"Aren't you scared of me?"
"No. If you were going to hurt me, you would have done it by now."
Suguru was even more confused than he was before. Why wasn't she attacking him? Why wasn't she attacking any civilians? Curses could fly, climb buildings, run faster than a bullet train—Why was she taking the subway? He needed to figure this out. Fast.
"Sure. Let's go."
The aura of her cursed energy calmed. She walked alongside him as they descended the stairs. Suguru slid his phone out of his pocket and tried to send a text to Satoru as quickly as possible.
I am a woman of color. If you are too, you probably understand my frustration when I say it was nearly impossible to find role models in the mainstream media as a child. I don’t know about you but, that doesn’t sit well with me.
Gloria Anzaldua, "Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza"
Cherrie Moraga, "This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color"
Martha P. Cotera, "The Chicana Feminist"
Alicia Gaspar De Alba, "Making a Killing: Femicide, Free Trade, and La Frontera"
Ana Castillo, "Women Are Not Roses"
Lorna Dee Cervantes, "From the Cables of Genocide: Poems of Love and Hunger"
Sandra Cisneros, "Loose Woman"
“By all accounts I am
a danger to society.
I'm Pancha Villa.
I break laws,
upset the natural order,
anguish the Pope and make fathers cry.
I am beyond the jaw of law.
I'm la desperada, most-wanted public enemy.
My happy picture grinning from the wall."
-Sandra Cisneros, Loose Woman
alpha!kylo ren/ben solo x omega!reader | 05 | divider by saradika
omegaverse, soulmate au (sort of)
you came to find that kylo was the perfect gentleman whenever he was with you. he doted on you, yes. but he also gave you your own space to do as you pleased—with the caveat that your security detail or general hux go with you.
your relationship with the general, however, was somewhat... awkward. you only spoke casually when you were returning or borrowing a book from his shelf or he was tutoring you in basic. even then, that was restricted to a student/teacher relationship. it was curious, how kylo entrusted you to another alpha rather than another omega or a beta. from what you had picked up around the ship, kylo and the general were like two binary stars. one was never far from the other, even if they were constantly bickering. it seemed that, under it all, kylo had an immense amount of respect and trust for the general. otherwise, why would he let you be anywhere alone with another alpha?
hux's expectations of you evolved the longer it became apparent that you were here to stay. the general expected that you would either be kylo's polar opposite—ditzy and empty-headed—or just like him—difficult and unpredictable. you were something else all together. while you were quiet, you weren't a shrinking violet. you weren't afraid to ask for things. you just didn't know who to ask or how.
when he realized that, he expected you to be calling on him for every insignificant thing like a servant. again, you surprised him. on the occasion that you asked for little things, you always asked with a please and gave him a thank you when he fulfilled your request.
you paid him the same respect and deference you did for kylo. you treated him the same as your alpha. that wasn't lost on him.
his inner wolf had to suppress the way that made him feel. you were an omega, you were kylo ren's omega. he had no business fraternizing with you. however, as an alpha, he had a need to—as kylo said—provide and protect. his isolation near the top of the First Order food chain made it difficult for him to find an omega of his own. plenty of officers had suggested he find a "trained professional" to help him deal with his urges. for him, it wasn't that easy. he needed an emotional bond. he was just old-fashioned like that, he supposed. you were just a convenient outlet for that. he didn't feel the need to be punishingly critical of your pronunciation or grammar, or to demand anything of you. something about you made him almost docile. (almost.)
it was curious.
in working with the brash sith knight, he found kylo ren brought out his most intense emotions. even worse, the intensity was what he had spent years of his life learning to suppress. he had that way about him. whether it was his sith training or just his idiosyncracies, kylo managed to find every crack in his armor. he managed to find something to grow on and spread, like moss on a damp forest floor. if anyone were to ask him, he absolutely hated it. kylo represented everything the First Order stood against: lack of control, a Maker-may-care attitude, and selfish individualism. then again, if he were being honest with himself, maybe that was why he stayed in kylo's orbit for so long. he could do everything hux craved to do, with seemingly no consequences. he managed to pull those taboo and forbidden feelings out of him in a way nobody else could. (he wasn't hard on the eyes, either.)
again, curious.
then again, hux knew it would never go farther than loose musings in his downtime.
kylo was planning your wedding. soon you would be mated, then he would sire your pups—forever bonding you. exclusively.
oh well, he thought, i'll think about that later. there were more important things on the horizon.
alpha!kylo ren/ben solo x omega!reader | 03 | divider by saradika
omegaverse, soulmate au (sort of)
a/n: i based kylo's scent on this cologne by ralph lauren.
kylo juggles getting to know you, his fated mate, with his regular duties as a knight of ren. you try to do the same, except there's nothing for you to do when he's gone. usually, you would be tending to your homestead—chickens, cattle, vegetables, a small orchard. all those things were given to the village leader when you left, to do with as he saw fit for the benefit of the village. you had to create a new routine now.
when you and kylo were alone at the end of a long, boring day, you asked him, "is there anything i can do when you're not here?" you weren't rude or bratty. you just needed something to do.
from where he sat in bed beside you, kylo gave you a look that reminded you of a curious pup. "what did you do during the day before now?" he cursed himself for not knowing. you were his mate, he should know.
"farming and cleaning. sometimes i would go to the market to trade."
"anything else?"
"reading, crochet, mending," you mused, "but, it was just me for a while. i had to do everything on the farm myself. i haven't had a lot of time for anything else recently."
kylo took this into consideration. he had quite a few meetings to get through in order to catch up on all he missed trying to find you. he couldn't miss them—general hux would never let him hear the end of it. but, he also couldn't leave you cooped up in your shared rooms all day with nothing to do.
"walk the ship with me," he offered, "you should know how things work here."
you hadn't expected him to say that. if you were being honest, you thought he would just toss busywork at you and keep you in his quarters all day. maybe it would be good to know how the ins-and-outs of the ship functioned. if this was going to be your new life, you figured you should try to get familiar with your surroundings.
"alright. sure."
kylo didn't smile, but something twinkled behind his eye. "good." his tone was deceptive. you agreeing accompany him through meetings and training definitely made him happy.
you nodded. you weren't exactly excited for what the next day entailed, but you were definitely curious.
later, in the night cycle, kylo used a panel on the bedside table to lower the lights and close the viewport. "you had difficulty sleeping last night." he observed.
"i did?"
"you tossed and turned all night. you didn't sleep for more than an hour or two at a time."
"oh..." you didn't even realize it. you thought maybe it was just some kind of shiplag.
"what can i do for you?" kylo asked. he got that concerned, sad look in his eye, the same one you had seen when you first met.
you tried to think for a moment. how did you usually sleep at home? you never left the lamp on, that would waste oil. you kept the windows closed, just for safety. so, that was the same. you had your blanket, which kylo was kind enough to let you sleep with. so, you had familiar smells and textures. what was missing?
in the back of your mind, you heard the sounds of the countryside. gentle wind, your ceramic chimes, the call of singing bugs, even animals calling to each other.
that was it.
"can we play... nature sounds?" you asked, not really sure how else to describe it.
he gave you a soft nod before pressing some buttons on the panel again. in the darkness of the room, you began hearing the gentle woosh of wind, rustling leaves on trees, and the occasional birdsong. it wasn't too loud, nor too quiet. it was just like you remembered. something in you felt like it was at peace now.
"is that alright?" he asked.
"it's perfect." you replied. "thank you." if it weren't so dark, you would swear he gave you a lopsided smile in return.
you got down under the covers—a surprisingly soft comforter that sat beneath your quilt from home—and got comfortable. you sighed contentedly.
then, you felt his arms wrap around you.
you still hadn't gotten used to it: the feeling of a warm broad body behind you, strong arms surrounding you, soft breaths on the back of your neck. it was almost unsettling.
almost.
the last time you shared a bed with anyone, you were a child sharing a bed with your parents. even that, you barely remembered. it was just an assemblage of vignettes and feelings. this was different, but not completely foreign. you tried to settle into the embrace. it made you feel those feelings from early childhood again—safety, care, and love.
you were overwhelmed with his scent: cedar, sage, and lavender. it blended with your memories of comfort and warmth. the last thing on your mind before you went to sleep was that this was... nice.
if you weren't careful, you might just grow to like this.
alpha!kylo ren/ben solo x omega!reader | 04 | divider by saradika
omegaverse, soulmate au (sort of)
a/n: basing reader's scent off this perfume by dolce & gabbana.
accompanying kylo to different meetings on the ship was... odd. he had dressed you in something black, to match him. you wore a black undershirt that covered your neck and wrists. over this, you wore a mahogany red gown that brushed your flat shoes as you walked. the decolletage neckline was studded with metallic details. the sleeves had fabric embellishments as well, a fabric wrapping around the bicep. the bell sleeve billowed out, gathering elegantly around your hands. he also had a covering made for your hair: a headband with a black jacquard fabric edged with matching beads, with an attached opaque fabric veil. before you walked the ship with him, he brushed your hair back and secured it under the covering. part of you found it odd. however, when you caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, suddenly it made sense.
kylo was trying to hide your scent as best he could.
you were grateful the ship was on the colder side. otherwise, you were sure you'd be sweating through the whole day. that would render all these measures useless.
the meetings were dry—military strategies, resource management, base operations, etc. you were bored through most of them, but you tried to be polite about it. it was hard to believe that a regime that was ravaging half the outer rim for resources could be this dull.
at one point, maker forgive, you even yawned. (you covered your mouth and tried to stay quiet, but whoever was talking just had to look right at you when you did it.)
"i'm sorry," said a lieutenant, "are we boring you?"
"no, no." you shook your head. you felt like a deer caught in a speeder's headlights. "i just—"
"you will not speak to her that way." kylo interjected. his voice rumbled from deep in his chest, almost snarling at the lieutenant.
the lieutenant shrank back, but refused to cede his argument. "i meant no disrespect, commander. i simply meant that if your... lady... is tired, then perhaps she can retire for the day?"
kylo shot him a mean look and held his gaze before turning to you. the whole of the room saw how his expression shifted from barely concealed anger to casual concern.
"what would you like to do?" he asked you.
you thought for a moment. you could ask to go back to your quarters, giving the room the impression that you were bored. you could stay, and struggle to keep your eyes open. what was the right answer?
in the quick moment of quiet, kylo threw you a life preserver. "it's alright. you can tell me." his voice was soft, almost sweet. he reached out to lay his hand over yours in a last-ditch effort to get you to speak up.
"is it alright if i get something to eat?" you asked. you tried to sidestep your real desire, to leave this very dry meeting.
kylo gave you a small smile. it surprised everyone in the room. "of course." he gestured for your security detail to come forward as you stood up. "take her to the dining room in the knight's wing."
they gave him a prompt yes, sir before walking you out of the room. they escorted you to a wing of the ship you had only seen in passing. when inside, they directed you to a row of compartments. they were like the one in the kitchenette in your rooms. they had glass tops, displaying the trays of food inside. you saw someone else—someone wearing similar armor to kylo—slide the top back and take a tray. you did the same. you weren't sure what was in any of them, so you just tried to take the one that looked the most appetizing.
you did what kylo did: peel back the thin plastic film, drop water into a small central well, then put it in the compartment mounted in the wall. when you took it out, it smelled like food. you must have done it right.
you sat down at a small table while your security detail got their own meals. what you ate looked similar to what kylo served you: a round loaf of something beige cut into slices, cubed tubers, and some kind of gravy. you liked it a little better than the one kylo gave you, but both were still good.
as you ate, you looked at the empty chair across from you. it would be nice to have him here, you thought. this place was still unfamiliar to you. at the very least, if he were there with you, it would be a little more comfortable. but, this was fine for now.
while you were gone, kylo found himself missing your unique scent. candied citrus, orange blossom, and vanilla. it was warm and bright. from the first night you shared a bed with him, he was obsessed (in a healthy, normal way). it was why he slept so close to you at night. the smell of you managed to quiet the storm raging in his subconscious. it allowed him to rest peacefully for the first time in a long time.
that was what made kylo so protective of it, of you. there would be no one on this ship who experienced the privilege of your scent. no one else deserved it. likewise, he kept his own pulse points covered. though, his hair was just short enough not to need covering. his scent was only for you.
along with your pleasant smell, he missed you.
when he entered his quarters at the end of the day—at the end of all the damned meetings—he was greeted by both.
you sat on the couch, a blanket and book in your lap.
"did you eat?" he asked, locking each mechanism on the door.
"yes. did you?"
"yes." kylo sat down on the couch beside you, placing a soft kiss on your cheek. he gestured to the book. "from hux's library?"
"mhm. we ran into each other on my way back. he said he heard that i had gotten bored during a meeting, and gave me a few things from the shelf in his office."
"it's in basic." he observed. "is it difficult for you?"
you shrugged. "not very. this one is a poetry book, so i can figure it out if i try."
kylo knew your mother tongue was of a language group native to your planet, and the dialect was native to the northern hemisphere where you lived. obviously, you knew enough basic to communicate with him and the other officers. but, he worried that you might struggle to read and write besides that. he had been so singularly focused on finding you and bringing you to his side that he didn't even consider it. idiot, he cursed himself again. but, how could he expect you to be fluent in basic in a matter of hours? he hadn't even made an effort to learn your language. maker, you had been together less than a week and he was already mucking it up.
"if you need help, tell me." kylo said gently.
you looked up from the text on the page. kylo's deep brown eyes betrayed him—he was scared. given the situation, you guessed he was scared for you. as your alpha, he likely didn't want you to struggle. as he stated when you met, he wanted to provide for and protect you. that included helping you understand your new life in every way possible.
you put your hand over his where it sat on his knee. "i will."
one of my friends in the "aw shucks, hux" server has DA:V and made a rook that looks just like hux, so naturally i was inspired to make a sort-of-angsty DND AU where armitage is a half-elf artificer
his father brendol, a high elf military officer descended from a patriar of baldur's gate, fathers him with one of the women who works in the kitchen on his expansive manor, a human named soairse
saoirse loves baby armitage sooooo much!!! she loves his ginger hair and green eyes, even his cute little ears. when he's a little baby, she carries him in a sling on her back while she works. (baby armitage loves this)
brendol and maratelle, another high elf, begrudgingly allow her to keep him given that brendol and maratelle have tried and failed to have their own children which would leave the hux estate without an heir
then, in order to ensure that any and all of his property remains within the family, he betroths a toddler armitage to the newborn daughter of another noble elven family—another half-elf.
brendol sends him to one of the finest academies in faerûn—reminding him the entire time that he better make the tuition money worth it.
armitage shows amazing prowess at design and mathematics. he can take apart a machine and put it back together again without ever looking at the blueprints. this garners him attention from his father's grand admiral, rae sloane. she takes him under her wing and gets him into specialized artificer apprenticeships, bringing him all the way to the position of chief engineer of the faerûnian military.
along the way, he internalizes brendol and maratelle's prejudice against half elves as well as their low opinion of anyone outside nobility. he overachieves in school, his apprenticeships, and in how tightly he holds to his family's noble traditions, etiquette, and values. it was beaten into him daily, how could he ever forget?
he develops a special kind of loathing for brendol because of it. it isn't just the abuse, but that brendol would keep him from shining brighter just because his son's human ancestry is "shameful" to the hux name. if armitage has a chance to take one step up, brendol pushes him back down. maratelle punishes him in a different way—she abuses his mother instead. maratelle will force her to work through any ceremonies armitage is a part of, or banishes her to the servants' housing for days without reason. he develops a certain ruthlessness, thinking that if he can just go far enough, he'll finally be able to get out from under his father.
rae sees it too. she sees how her junior officer batters his son into high achievement. she sees how she sabotages him. who is this underling to be fucking with the hard work she's put into raising armitage into the man he is? he must be dealt with. and armitage agrees. if he had control of the estate, he wouldn't have to answer to brendol or maratelle anymore. there's no limit to what he could do, not just with the money but with nobody over him waiting to get his neck under their boot.
when armitage is older, roughly in his thirties, he's on the shortlist to be appointed chief engineer of the faerûnian military and one of five top strategists for the flaming fist. rae knows that brendol has plans to sabotage him, so she gets to him first. brendol dies in a military training 'accident' about a month before the appointment. maratelle dies from a 'mysterious illness' a week after.
in the span of a fortnight, armitage inherits the title of chief engineer, strategist, and master of the hux estate. there's just one problem: he needs to be married and he is, currently, very very single.
