Palasaki Week

Oh no, Crystal thinks, her heart sliding down into her stomach. Of course, is her next thought. Of fucking course she’d end up with a crush on the girl helping her fool the entire world into thinking she’s dating someone else.

Crystal is almost positive this is not one of the outcomes Niko had outlined when she presented her scheme to them. Niko had made a point of putting “real romance might happen” on her slides, but Crystal had just rolled her eyes at Niko’s incredibly unsubtle nudging of the idea that Charles and her might fall for each other for real.

She feels like Niko should have focused more on what the constant girl nights spent planning cute dates and brainstorming romantic gestures would do to Crystal’s fickle heart. Niko has already trained Crystal into looking at everything through heart-shaped lenses in favour of their ruse. It was bound to fucking backfire.

Niko is so, so easy to love, after all.

“Oh my gosh I have an idea!” Crystal blinks when Niko goes from intense focus on her book to skipping over to her desk. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to maximise Charles’s show next week, and I think I’ve got it.”

Crystal swallows down the sudden lump in her throat and gets up to where Niko is typing up a storm. “Yeah?” Niko’s index fingernails are purple today, glittering in contrast to the soft pink of the rest of her polish.

“He can pull you up on stage for a song or so, dedicate it to you. Everyone already thinks those songs are about you, anyway.”

Crystal thinks about watching Niko cheer her on from off-stage while Charles sings about lights in the dark and feels her heart skip. She’s so, so fucked.

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Kelpie AU - 100 words - Crystal/Niko

‘Niko, please! Stop being so nice to me, I don’t—I can’t—‘

Crystal shakes from the effort of restraining the wild creature within; she digs her toes into the sand, willing her body to obey her mind and not its animal instincts.

But of course, the kelpie wins.

She crashes to her knees at the tide line, body stretching, breaking, expanding...

Once the transformation is complete, Crystal braces herself to see the horror on Niko’s face—but it isn’t there.

‘I knew you were special. What a beautiful horse you are, Crystal.’

Horse. Not monster.

Franny Choi, from "Chatroulette," Soft Science || Niko Sasaki and Crystal Palace, Dead Boy Detectives (2024)

Rated T on Ao3

Only Palasaki in this one but includes Charles, Edwin, and Jenny in the cast. No archive warnings apply.

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Crystal couldn’t believe it, even with her psychic eyes, when she’d first seen it. She opened the door to her room, and the door across the hall opened at the same time, and when she turned around to say hello, everything had happened so quickly that she didn’t have time to realize that it was a vision. 

Lights, music, action. 

Crystal was entranced as she looked at the beautiful girl in the doorway- long black hair, black eyes, asian, wearing a colorful and bright flower shirt. But that wasn’t all that was colorful, bright, and flowery about her. She was glowing with an inviting pink light, there were stars and beautiful pictures everywhere, and somehow Crystal still managed to hone in on the little clip in her gorgeous hair. There was soft music playing, Crystal felt like. 

suffering from demon-induced amnesia in a town where nobody knows her, crystal starts working at a magic shop. it all goes pearshaped from there, between harbouring fugitives from hellhounds, her expanding psychic powers and entering a magic bond with a shapeshifter. but at least there is niko, amidst the chaos.

Niko latches onto the shop with bright eyes and eager questions. More often than not, Niko wanders through the door to have a look around just before Crystal’s lunch break, and insists on splitting a sandwich down the road to gossip about magic.

It’s like watching a baby duck discover water. Niko seems to unfold, like a flower blooming at the first sight of sun. Magic enters her life and whimsy seems to immediately burst out of her, spilling over with enthusiasm and outlandish theories. Crystal wonders if this is what Niko has always been like, only dampened by the parasites and her fear. She has the brief, terrifying thought that whoever she used to be, she never would have gotten to hang out with someone like Niko.

Crystal clings to the soft joy of her lunch dates with Niko tighter, banishing the idea that a version of her might never had something this easy and nice.

Apparently, Niko found a book that animates its own illustrations, somewhere between the whispering shelf and the weird fish paperweight in the back of the shop. Niko is currently regaling Crystal with the tales of a star-filled whale swimming in a cavern without water. On the table between them, her cup is empty and her croissant is half-eaten and long-forgotten.

Crystal adores her.

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at long last, sneak peek number three for find me when in need, and in honour of @palasakiweek starting today, have a glimpse of this world's palasaki <3

Magic - 116 words - Crystal/Niko

Eventually, Crystal admits defeat:

‘Niko, promise me you will never try to play poker with anybody else.’

‘Don’t listen to her, you were great!’

‘Hey, wanna deal us in? Winner walks free.’

‘Shut it you little freaks!’ Crystal throws a blanket over the dandelion sprites then starts to pack up.

‘Wait!’ says Niko, ‘Let me show you a magic trick.’

She is brimming with enthusiasm.

‘…Sure.’

Niko gathers the cards; she shuffles them clumsily and fans them out.

‘Prepare to be amazed…’

Crystal selects a card, then watches Niko perform a complicated routine involving stacking, flipping and counting.

‘Is…this your card?’

‘It is!’