Rui gets catified ohe au still in my head I like the idea of him being a guy who imbues stuff with magic and combines magic + engineering to create some truly whimsical things while tsukasa’s thing is imbuing his food with rpg type buffs/healing for adventurers (today’s special is a stir fry that improves your running speed). Both because I like the idea and also because I think in any au they need to have a shared interest to obsess over.
I think if I did write it it would be like… chapters of tsukasa and this Fucking Cat with interludes about how rks met and grew closer
In my beautiful mind palace
> the source of magic is fragments of feelings or whatever the hell they’re called. I’ve played this game for a year I should know this. wish pieces? Whatever. Those are the source of magic and people often go on expeditions to find them, which can be dangerous because there’s classic rpg type enemies out and about. Tsukasa tenma voice I don’t go out on expeditions because my job of helping people prepare for expeditions is too important (he went into the forest once and got attacked by a big bug like the ones in the Stardew valley mines and he classifies that moment as his greatest trauma)
> rui keeps to himself because people think that he does human experiments with the crazy wish piece harnessing gear he makes (incorrect he always tests it on himself) & they are scared of his silly little robots because giving life to the artificial bad (they’re not alive he just puts his will into them and that’s what they’re programmed to follow)
> nene brings rui to the cafe after she accompanies him on some sort of expedition & she’s like the owner is kind of a pain but the food is really good. She also wants to see emu (who likes hanging around tsukasa’s restaurant in her free time and annoying him/helping him with orders and waitressing/talking to saki) but she will not admit that
> before rui meets tsukasa saki has already left to travel with Leo/need. just for a bit. but tsukasa knows she’s definitely going to go on longer and longer trips and he is being so normal about this. No emu he’s not stress baking those 50 immaculately decorated cupcakes are for customers. Even though the restaurant is closed tomorrow. Ok fine you can take a bunch of them.
> rui thinks tsukasa is an interesting critter & tsukasa thinks he’s a weird guy who won’t touch vegetables but any friend of saki’s is a friend of his (he’s really stretching his logic. Emu is a friend of saki’s -> nene is friends with emu so she is by association a friend of saki’s -> rui is friends with nene who is friends with emu so he is also included in this). Tsukasa also forgets Rui’s name after this meeting it’s not his fault he sees so many people every day.
> rui eventually comes back for more food with nene because he is a lazy ass who hates cooking and also the food is just good. It’s during the mid day close to prepare for dinner rush but emu lets them in anyways. tsukasa is throwing a fit because the wish piece fueled oven is not working.
> while tsukasa is distracted by emu bugging him and nene making fun of him rui lets himself into the kitchen because he heard the siren’s song of a fun enriching task (fixing something and helping someone)
> tsukasa finds him and is like wtf get out (concerned for rui’s safety) & rui is like I fixed your oven and also your fridge and the freezer seems like it’s about to start malfunctioning you should get that fixed. (Post enrichment clarity) oh sorry I should have asked first.
> tsukasa is very enthused by rui’s knowledge and thinks it’s super cool & offers him a week of meals on the house for fixing it & they talk about the magic system for a while before he goes home
> rui takes him up on this offer. yay free food. He also offers to fix/improve tsukasa’s kitchen whenever needed for more free food and tsukasa is like yes of course i would be forever in your debt and rui is like ok great let’s make the oven reach up to 3000 degrees (has already started fucking with him)
> they grow closer over time & rui becomes a regular who visits by himself on a near daily basis (when he’s not busy)
> specific memory section of tsukasa bringing rui food and visiting him because he hadn’t seen rui in two weeks and was concerned. Which was fair Rui was locked in on a project. He gets to see all of Rui’s whimsical inventions. “Can you at least eat one vegetable I was chased by all sorts of unpleasant beasts on the way here (normal ass bugs)”
> specific memory of them going out on the town to buy ingredients and tsukasa nudging rui into socializing with people which in the long run dispels a lot of the “scary guy who lives in a house in the woods and does scary things there” rumors
> another specific memory of rui going into tsukasa’s kitchen while tsukasa is busy closing the restaurant & seeing ramune candy and being like yum don’t mind if i do & then tsukasa finds him and is like how many did u eat… bc they were specifically made to help with rui’s insomnia and mask the taste of sleep medicines/herbs (that rui refuses to take because they are green and leafy and therefore vegetable). Tsukasa has to drag rui up to his living space above the kitchen before he passes out so he can sleep it off which brings them into a new stage of their relationship: rui crashing at Tsukasa’s place when he’s too lazy to walk back home. He starts bringing work stuff with him & tsukasa only puts up a token complaint because ever since saki left he has been a little lonely.
> overall theme of “if you feed a stray cat it will not leave.” Sorry tsukasa you fed this man & now you’re stuck with him. Also the more boring theme of coping with people leaving (tsukasa) and actually interacting with people and becoming a part of the community (rui). Rui just kinda moves in after he gets un catted.
> I think emu should be a beast tamer type of character. Maybe Mr mascot is some huge scary beast she tamed & the otoris run a merchant guild that also transports people in and out of the wilderness.
> nene makes potions with wish pieces that can give you a quicker and more specific buff/heal on the go than what tsukasa’s food does but they met through this and have bonded over sharing methods and stuff. The food buffs are longer lasting than nene’s potions. but nene has potions that will allow you to get the buff you need for any situation exactly when you need it and they’re more concentrated. Think sdv meal that increases speed vs a coffee.
> ^ tsukasa could make more specific buffs for food but 1) there are so many and he is NOT keeping the ingredients for all of that on hand all the time 2) he likes variety and trying new things so if you go to him for a buff you’ve just gotta take what’s on the day’s menu.
> rui and nene have known each other for a long time and he frequently makes stuff to help her potion making + will accompany her on expeditions to get more wish pieces. She has to lead with that because if she says she’s gathering herbs he will refuse. Yes he will help her with her personal herb garden no he does not want to touch them once they’ve left the ground because he has chosen the anti vegetable hill to die on and die on it he will.
> emu met nene when accompanying her on a more dangerous expedition & frequents nene’s shop a lot for both the potions and to see her
> emu met tsukasa because he buys rare ingredients from her and she thought he was a funny little guy and now she is seemingly hellbent on eating him out of house and home. House and restaurant? Emu you can’t have a fifth helping of soup I have other customers. Ok fine just a little. Oh you’re hungry because of a long expedition ok you can have a sixth helping too.
> meiko is there she’s a merchant of sorts
> touya works at the library. This is relevant only because tsukasa doesn’t know shit about owning a cat and needed help.
> I want to throw an in there… maybe she’s at the library when tsukasa goes there in the story. Just because.
