meriberries

Tomoyo from one of my favourite BNHA fanfics, an education in interruption by @xenosaurus!!

Of all the things Kiyoji expected his manager would be able to give him advice on, Persona summoning was not one of them.

The room he’s in is some kind of grand hall, with a ceiling that stretches up into nothingness.  The walls are made of the same old stone as the floor and broken up by huge, empty window frames.  There are remnants of colorful glass in their corners, but it’s hopelessly broken, creating the nightmare of scratching and crunching beneath Kiyoji’s feet.

He only recognizes it as a church and not a castle because of the pews, rotting wood upholstered with strangely pristine velvet.  He’s never been in one before, but he’s seen them in movies.  They never looked like this, torn apart like a bomb had gone off, and the windows never faced out into pure, unearthly blackness.

He gets halfway across the room before he notices the people sitting in the front row.

The person closer to him is a little girl with almost-white blonde hair and an immaculate blue dress.  She’s clutching an enormous, ornate book to her chest like it’s a teddy bear.  Next to her is a hunched old man with a beakish nose and a terrifying look in his eye.

They turn to him in unison.  The little girl gasps.

“You– you aren’t supposed to be here!”

The old man doesn’t seem bothered, only curious.  He tilts his head, looking at Kiyoji appraisingly.

“Hm.  How strange.  An uninvited guest,” he says, drawing out the word ‘uninvited’ in a way that makes Kiyoji uneasy.

“Who let him in?” the little girl asks, frantic.

Witchmouth has patients of every possible species, and that means the building needs to accommodate them.  The janitorial staff does a wonderful job making sure nobody gets trapped behind faulty doors or sucked into air vents.

Of course, with the patients as the top priority, the staff room has the door that’s last on the list for maintenance requests.  Jane, returning from a coffee run, struggles with the jammed handle for a while before someone opens it from the other side.

“Oh!  Jane!  There you are!”

Doctor Fred to the rescue, once again.  How he manages to have such a friendly smile with a mouthful of razors for teeth, Jane has never been able to figure out.

“The door is busted again,” Jane complains, passing the cardboard cup holder full of drinks over to her coworker.  Doctor Fred takes it gingerly so his claws don’t puncture anything.

“That door is perpetually damaged.  You should be used to it by now,” Dr. Hive says.  She’s curled the centipede half of her body around what might be a chair, checking her cell phone in one hand while the other three are caught up in the process of bringing food to her mouth.  She’s eating something that a more naive person might think was pomegranate, piece by piece.

“Next time, knock, we’ll let you in!” Doctor Fred says, unloading the drinks. “Okay, so, iced coffee with hazelnut for our dear Dr. Doe, a double caramel latte for me, and a hot chocolate with 3 shots of lymph for Dr. Hive.”

“I can’t believe it took Dunkin’ Donuts this long to start stocking blood and lymph.  It’s 2018, get it together,” Hive says, shaking her head as she accepts her drink. “See, this is what happens when you preferentially hire humans.  They’re so squeamish.”

“Hey, I’m not squeamish,” Jane protests, taking a seat at the table across from Hive.

“Yes, but you’re a doctor, dear.  The medical profession is enough to overcome all sorts of ingrained flaws.”

“You should talk to my dad, he thinks the polar opposite,” Doctor Fred says.

“You father’s idea of what constitutes a ‘flaw’ is drastically different from the rest of civilized society,” Jane says dryly.  “He calls you twice a month to ask why you haven’t possessed any of us yet.”

“Good point,” Doctor Fred says, taking a sip of his latte. “Arguing ethics with demons is a bit like trying to drown a fish.”

“Actually, I was talking to Nessie from Aquatics Intake the other day, and she said there’s been a rash of fish drownings recently,” Jane says.

“I… have no idea what that means for my metaphor,” Doctor Fred admits, frowning into his drink.

“It means you should drown your father,” Hive says flatly.  Jane inhales her coffee and immediately starts coughing.

“Holy shit, Hive,” she wheezes, when she can finally breathe again.

“I think she was joking.  You were joking, right?” Doctor Fred asks.

Hive glances down at her phone again.  “Dr. Gorelik wants me to assist on an avian skeletal graft in 45 minutes.”

Without further explanation, she uncurls from her stool, swallowing the last of her hot chocolate in one gulp.  Her mandibles twitch and click together to make sure her mouth is clean.  “I’ll see you both later.”

Doctor Fred gives Jane an uneasy glance.

Toshinori: I-I’m sorry, this must be embarrassing for you…

—teared up because a classmate said he had a nice smile (Setsu)

—made an amazon wishlist consisting solely of puffy stickers (Kurushiko)

—learned to use vocaloid to make customized birthday songs for classmates (Tabemaru & Setsu)

—voluntarily served as a pizza-reheater so classmates didn’t have to go all the way across the building for the microwave (Yaketo)

—piggybacked classmate with twisted ankle around the school for a week and a half (Gekikou)

—cried for 20 minutes because a compilation of kitten videos was too cute (Tabemaru)

—asked for strawberry milk for her 12th birthday (Norika)

Norika did!! Setsu was new to the class and somebody made him laugh and she basically said “oh! You have such a nice smile!” and he had to try not to cry.

Ships: Deadpool/Cable, Rictor/Shatterstar, Negasonic Teenage Warhead/Yukio, Peter Parker/Gwen Stacy Rating: M for explicit sexual references/humor Tags: College AU, Dungeons & Dragons, Developing Relationship, Sibling Relationships, Friendship, Comedy, The Goddamn Summers Family

Ships: Rictor/Shatterstar Rating: M for violence and non-explicit sexual content Tags: Mercenary Work, Slow Burn, PTSD

Ships: Deadpool/Cable, Rictor/Shatterstar, Negasonic Teenage Warhead/Yukio, Peter Parker/Gwen Stacy Rating: M for explicit sexual references/humor Tags: College AU, Dungeons & Dragons, Developing Relationship, Sibling Relationships, Friendship, Comedy, The Goddamn Summers Family