Just thought of this one last night and it isn't as fleshed out but:

The Meal:

Kim Dokja as cupid, but he uses dreams instead of arrows bc apparently you only find out someone is attractive through dreams

The General Idea:

Yjh happens to have dreams of lee seolhwa from dokja bc dokja thinks they make a good pair but he happens to catch a glimpse of kdj as one of the bystanders in the dream and starts wanting to know more about this person who he’s never seen in real life and only shows up in his dreams

He consults lee seolhwa about it (which kdj thinks is a convo between the two that yjh is finally confessing that he dreams about her and is happy that they are getting together) but lsh says that any people we see in dreams are faces we’ve seen before kinda thing

So yjh starts thinking back to when he mightve seen this person, and this is where it can diverge a little bit

The Sides:

Yjh asks the internet/his followers on stream about this person (both a good and terrible idea). this gets the internet in a ruckus about who this person yjh is dreaming about and because he can't seem to draw kdj face by memory from his dreams, other people start coming forward saying they see someone similar, and the internet wonders about this phenomenon until one day all the question hubs, blogs, and streams of people talking about this random person is wiped clean, and no mention comes up ever again. yjh, wondering what happened, types another question onto the internet but is stopped as the words continue to, seemingly, disappear into thin air. he's persistent, though, and asks about it vocally on stream until he figures out that the chat can't hear what he's saying. trying a third time, he calls up lee seolhwa to ask and it isn't until she says she doesn't remember talking about such things with him that a weird person (hsy who else) appears behind him and tells him how the cupid came to be and how the identity of said person should never be discussed or found. With yjh use of the internet and other people, she had to scramble to do damage control and like hell she's gonna let yjh make her do all that again. So she spills that kdj was indeed a person, but after living a loveless life and eventually committing suicide at a young age, he was chosen as cupid - to bring people in love that he lacked in his life, never to understand the joy of having a partner. she likens it to a curse, saying it can't be broken, but now yjh is on a mission to make sure this cupid boi is loved. however, what happens when the matchmaker falls in love? they lose the position. so, unknowingly, yjh makes kdj fall for him and officially makes sure he isn't cupid anymore, brings him back to earth and all that (since dream realm in cupid access is kinda different ig?) and all of a sudden has to deal with the fact that a new cupid needs to be found and installed. oh no what happens next lol idk this is long enough for a side as is

Similar to previous, maybe not as convoluted, Yjh starts looking through albums of his childhood and notices how every time someone close to what this person looks like, they're in the edges of the photo and always blurry and younger than what yjh remembers seeing in his dream. It turns out kdj was a normal child before becoming cupid, and eventually yjh manages to contact kdj and find that he has no memory of being human, and that often times the camera can capture his essence as love within the world, like a rose-tinted lens. Joonghyuk, being inspired, asks if kdj would appear in all the pictures he takes to see if its true, and all of a sudden it devolves into photos of yjh and a random guy being placed all over his apartment, all flawlessly captured and beautiful and a work of art that professional photographers get jealous of. Agreeing with kdj that he wants to share this with the world, kdj 'haunts' yjh cameras to make all his photos end up very romanticized, and starts making a photoshoot business with weddings, prom nights, and all other special events. he gets known as the photographer nothing can hide from in a picture. this can go to either he gets so renowned that he picks up all sorts of hobbies, or goes professional and all, but it gets to the point that kdj starts 'cupiding' people in the photos and he starts being renowned as a matchmaker photographer too. After a while, though, because of some magic stuff and all that, kdj manifests himself in reality through all the love yjh 'captured' with his camera, and sacrifices his camera to make a body for kdj since it acted as a medium for his powers, and allowed kdj to not have to be a cupid anymore, and they live happily ever after the end. cheesy but eh

Since we had two happy ones, why not have one with more angst: Yjh refuses to sleep and tries to force himself awake if he dreams of lsh to get this cupid guy off his back. kdj takes it personally and they start fighting in the dreams. it devolves into chaos and ofc neither wants to articulate their feelings to the other ever, so they have a back and forth until kdj and yjh slowly become friends, and they use the dreams as a medium for talking all the time and developing a friendship. It goes so far that yjh, who used to have a wonderful sleep schedule, and then none at all, now sleeps all the time citing that he isn't all that busy and should just sleep. yjh slowly declines in health and consciousness so much that he actually starts slipping into a coma. its not until its too late that yjh realizes he's trapped into this dream realm with kdj forever, now that his body is too tired and used to sleeping remaining mentally in the dream realm with kdj, and its exactly how kdj planned it because he couldn't let this opportunity pass. yjh is happy that he gets to spend time with kdj now, forever, but can't help but worry about what happens to him in reality now that he's in a coma.... more open ended but definitely more angsty if thats what you like. definitely possessive kdj and reluctantly in love yjh, but take it as you want.

was torn between this and the spy x family au so i'll put this one on for now and return to the spy x family one bc that was sounds pretty straightforward (and will probably mean i get to write so much more because my brain won't be able to stop). this one was supposed to be smol, but hey, i started writing and couldn't stop so here we are. also with some angst, i know the ideas ive written so far have been pretty happy but i needed a little sadness otherwise it looks a little too happy of a situation

also, this might be for a different au, but cupid as a grown ass man who goes around unironically shooting people with arrows? i wanna write a crack and you bet your ass kdj or yjh are gonna be cupid. read a renheng fic around the same idea (couldnt find it again to finish it) but it was enough that i wanted to write something similar bc it was so funny

hope you enjoyed, is it obvious im putting more effort in writing than actual punctuation and capitalization? kinda gets tiring hitting the shift key and who needs proper formatting when you're gonna read this at max speed anyways? all i need are words and autocorrect so it comes across right (hopefully)

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pairing: Sanemi Shinazugawa x m! reader❤︎︎

c/w: M! reader, Fluff, Sanemi in denial, Maybe ooc!? 2 fruits, Sanemi being a cutie, Awkward reader, etc.

f/c = favorite color!

Fem aligned DNI!!

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Only had one thought today, and it was that Joonghyuk's second half of his name sounds so much like the 'hawk-tuah' phrase that, imagine-

Kim Dokja, to spite Yoo Joonghyuk, saves his contact as

Yoo Joong Hyuk-Tuah

and it causes all sorts of misunderstandings

Yoo Sangah thinks he finally hooked up but is kinda concerned about the contact naming and what happened between kdj and possibly a very bad one night stand

Han Sooyoung thinks he's an idiot for actually naming someone that and thinks its a really bad spammer that kdj changed the contact to because the guy was so annoying and refuses to accept that the contact is a real person

Lee Hyungsung is torn between asking what it means and asking kdj who the person is when the phone rings at six o' nine every day

Jung Heewon is torn between laughing out loud or laughing out louder because kdj is just a dumbass and the fact that he knows what hawk-tuah means is hilarious by itself

Shin Yoosung and Lee Gilyoung are at a loss for words and absoultely confused (bless their little hearts, they only know to throw shade to some Yoo guy across the street who keeps bothering their hyung)

Only Lee Jihye and Kim Namwoon have an absolute mental breakdown figuring out that their senior may or may not know modern slang, and die a little inside every time kdj uses 'kid phrases nowadays' for them after they acted all shocked that he knew what 'hawk-tuah' was

*tbf im writing this with like half of the knowledge of the origin of hawk-tuah and only had it explained from a friend in small amounts, so idk how much weight this carries and if it is proportional to actual implications. I just like the chaos possible*

The best part? yjh knows absolutely nothing about this (or he knows everything and isn't paid enough for this and fumes internally and speeds up his rate to getting an ulcer from kimcom) and is just subjected to poorly executed sex jokes and the company betting pool's shenanigans

Relish the idea pls, imagine the possibilities, and think if it actually happened. this was begging to be let out so now I share with yall too

ho boi this was a big one, so let's see if it spans a few posts (spoiler, its super long....yay)

this one is supposed to take place in a similar universe I was writing with stellaron hunters and astral express (and that'll be for another thread) but this one is solely aventio/ratiorine/golden ratio because it features both ratio's investigation abilities and the stonehearts! might be a bit outdated (lorewise....?) but it is more detailed so he we go~!

The Entree:

Undercover Mafia Ten Stonehearts sent by the IPC (Internal Pierpoint Cartel ig? i couldn't think of one but IPPC kinda doesn't work so Pierpoint it is) to start expanding territory into a unknown town. Unbeknownst to the stonehearts, the ten head honchos of the IPC mafia and always sent on every groundbreaking mission to spread the IPC's influence, the town they've decided to lay roots into underground is very close to the Intelligensia's most renowned detective - Dr. Veritas Ratio, code name TReason (the capital T and R are very important because he wanted it as Truth and Reason, but it was too long, so it's just easier to call him that. also because i thought itd be cool to have a double meaning to his code name so)

The Ingredients:

(now here's where we're going to probably going to go into the basics of the universe, like:)

Internal Pier Point Cartel -

Their goal is to take advantage of the chaos of the underworld and bring different mafia and gang factions together, striking deals that more often than not grows their own manpower and authority, but lurks in the background of all underground deals

Wants to ‘maintain’ the underworld in Pier Point society

Is a massive pain in the Intelligentsia Branch’s ass

Their highest ranking mafia members are called ‘Stonehearts’ and are shown in promotion and position by their assigned color scheme and gem

These are the enforcers to the deals the IPC strikes. Most notable is Jade, one of the first big members of the mafia, that makes the contracts between mafias and more often than not traps different mafias into the breaking of these contracts and forcing them into working under the IPC

Stonehearts that the Intelligentsia Branch has recognized are: Opal, Jade, Topaz, Sapphire, Aventurine, Pearl, Sugilite, Obsidian, Amber, and Agate (and all of them have their own folder and case files formed over the course of years from other towns the IPC has infiltrated)

Stonehearts are a term coined by both the mafia and police/investigators. nobody knows if the police or mafia thought of it first, but after their MO's came to light it became more apparent where they got the name from

They know the most about Opal, Jade, Topaz, Sugilite, and Obsidian, with Aventurine being the newest member but quickly becoming more often seen. Each stoneheart is known to leave a small piece of their respective stone as a signature to who was behind either mass mafia shootings/killings, raids, or an assassination. Each is strategically placed in a spot unique to the stoneheart, each one showing their own specialty and personality, but they never have any prints or evidence on them, and the gems are usually clean after trying to trace them back

Jade’s is usually left in a room that the Intelligentsia tries to raid or storm, left tauntingly on an empty surface to give the clear message that she is one step ahead of them all

Obsidian’s is usually left in the middle of a bloodbath of mafia members, a spot of black left within a pool of red and very hard to find since she likes to see who goes scrounging around through the blood to find it

Opal’s is only left after very big wins are made to the mafia, either a merger, territory expansion, or another indicator of the mafia’s impending growth. The authorities have started to dread seeing opals at different scenes, and sometimes is just dropped at a desk

Topaz’s is usually left in the emptied bank vaults of different mafia’s headquarters when they try and raid or sneak an informant in undercover, and usually the start of meaning either Obsidian, Jade, or Opal’s plans will be enacted - a precursor to violence and the calm before the storm

Sugilite’s stone has been left at very few scenes, usually an assassination hitman scenario with his stone placed at the crucial point of where the killer was, and usually found a few days or even months passed the initial investigation opens because it takes a while for the authorities to figure out how the assassination had taken place and by that point it should have been gathering dust but they are always in pristine condition, as if someone comes to check if its been taken yet and dusts it off often

One time they found the sugilite stone and left it - only 24 hours passed from where they found it and had surveillance on it but they realized it was missing and later found at the desk of the chief of police, and a week after that it was found to be swapped for another fake stone. The real initial stone is presumed to be taken from the evidence storage and has sufficiently scared the crap out of all the police department since everyone scares the rookies with it and it's grown like something of a ghost story among recruits

Aventurine’s stone is a recent addition, usually found left in casino’s or winning gambles, hotels, and also very randomly. It was initially thought that it was Jade starting to be more active, but Ratio put together that the previous locations didn’t match up, and once a jade appeared once he tested the two against each other and discovered this was a different stone altogether, further terrorizing the police that another stoneheart was discovered (previously there was only nine and now that there's another there's fear that another stoneheart may join the ranks or expand, but so far none have appeared)

Each stoneheart left their own stone at an introduction event, so the police department knows of each one that has been ranked up and that there are ten, but there isn’t enough information to gather how they work into the IPC inner workings.

One time they found an agate stone cast aside and crushed, so they don’t know if agate somehow died and this was a remembrance of sorts or someone was careless enough to step on it (taken from theories on if agate is dead or not from the trailer vids on hoyo's yt)

All the stones eventually disappear from evidence rooms after about 6 months from when the crime took place, but the ‘initiating’ stones are always left behind as a reminder to the police that the Stonehearts are still active (another good note that Ratio finds when Agate’s stone has yet to be stolen back apparently. Either that or they want to keep record of all the different stonehearts elevated in rank)

Ratio found out Aventurine was different from Jade with the presence of light and how it seemed to sparkle more, and compared it to the ‘initiation’ jade that the police have kept and found the difference from the coloring and stone lustre

I'll probably leave it as that for now, and post a reply on the general idea of how to flesh this out, and yes it does kinda include the codename stuff. take it as you may for this, but I thought if they gems are so prevalent in hsr, especially as each stoneheart casts it in their vote when deciding what to do with aventurine, why not incorporate it into their mafia dealings and personalities as well as a calling card of sorts? there's all sorts of philosophical and psychological reasons that ratio often thinks about when implying these crimes were done by people who take after gems, and i think that'd be something cool for him to ruminate about through the story.

anyways ill probably wait until tomorrow to reply and give a general premise bc i need to edit the summary i had before into a more cohesive format, so enjoy this in the meantime~

had the idea of just posting these plot ideas as little food orders because I tend to add sidenotes and really enjoy them but sometimes they're optional to a plot so they can be little side dishes to a plot and this is how I got here. We'll see how this goes. this also got super long im sorry it was supposed to be short i swear

Y'know those arcade games with the joystick and how there's different ways to hold them? Y'know that one way where you cup the ball on the joystick from underneath and kinda curl your fingers around it from the bottom and instead of jerking it around from the top you kinda curl your fingers in and it gives more precise and measured movements or something and lots of arcade regulars use it a lot?

Well, kdj is a soda boi / food server in this (maybe early 2000's? when were arcades and pin ball machines and all that super popular) somewhat retro arcade and has to always deal with gum stuck to the bottom of machines and whiny kids and all sorts of annoying people with complicated orders (hsy just makes up food things and he lowkey enjoys seeing what she'll order next just so he has an excuse to make something up and waste some time and she knows he enjoys it too)

but no client is as stuck up or obnoxious or arrogant or annoying or handsome or utterly unbearable as this black haired guy who comes to the arcade every (insert day) of the week and buys out his entire stock of game prizes. From all the games. And constantly maintains his high score on all the machines.

Pinball, combat, claw, dance, shooter, even those little gambling ones that require precise timing and a fuckton of luck.

He never fails to strike fear in all the other employees, and comes often enough that everyone else refuses to work on his specific time slot that he decides is 'terrorize the local arcade' hour (it's never an hour, kim dokja counted all the time and it went maybe 4 and a half hours on a good day) and it leaves kdj with a double pay shift for about five hours on this specific day of the week.

The best part is everyone knows they saddle this random game terror with kdj regularly, but they lowkey kinda ship it for that exact reason (uriel started the trend and made sure everyone signed a contract making sure kdj didn't get help unless it was absolutely crucial before they could enter the ginormous betting pool on when they're getting together. The manager is even in on it *namgung minyoung maybe? that'd be hilarious* and rumor has it whoever wins gets half of the arcade business alongside her mysterious heir) and kdj hates all of his coworkers for it

yjh has an absolute mean streak and has been banned from every arcade in a 10 mile radius from his house, except this one, and he has always been very suspicious of why and the reason of why it's so empty of employees every time he comes over. Through the words of his mentor, he must hone his gaming skills in other ways besides his online gaming setup, so he started frequenting arcades to get a more hands on gaming approach.

Until they all kicked him out. It's sort of extra that Mia came home the other day to a poster with his name and picture on it saying he's wanted dead or alive, but all the owners would've had to do is email his company head. It's not like he wanted to play them out of prizes. Luckily, his mentor has been able to take all the prizes he won and do something with them (he doesn't know what) but at least she's more happy that his gaming skills have gotten better.

Sides/bonus points(not really):

namgung minyoung doesn't have to be the mentor but imagine the chaos if she was

the whole reason i wanted to write this was bc the image of kdj drooling over yjh hand movements as he plays with the joystick is just too good to pass up (works both smut and fluff in that way, but also so much crack if he develops a hand kink

sys and lgy can also visit kdj and get free drinks and food or he babysits them since the arcade is close to his apartment

yjh can glare and disapprove of kdj horrible creations that he makes outside of the arcade menu and kdj just looks at him like '?'

hsy and kdj have a streak going on of who can make the most convoluted order and who can actually deliver it, so kdj has a little bit of cooking knowledge, but sometimes he chooses to not use it

I may have lied a little about one a day, because now the writing voices are speaking properly, though they don't wanna flesh out a whole lot of other ideas right now. That said, I'll probably post some smaller ones until busy times roll away, but until then I offer a brainrot idea that's been pretty consistent in sticking around. No meal and sides offered this time, it's just a buffet of options to pick and choose from if you get the general gist of the thing.

I took this one from the TV series 'Leverage', a story about a five person team who commits morally right crimes to pull down people in power who abuse their authority (you can probably see where this is going). Because I have little to no experience in how a smort heist should be pulled off (i swear I'll write it when I figure out how to properly set up some suspense and mild gaslighting) so I'll stick it here and come back every now and then to expand on it.

Now, for the lengthy explanations:

If you haven't watched Leverage, (highly recommended to see btw), the main premise is a team of crime fighters made up of criminals who take down other criminals. It's literally part of their slogan in the opening. There's a mastermind who puts the jobs together, a hitter for any heavy lifting and subtle or not-so-subtle violence solving, a thief to pick up anything and everything no matter the area, a hacker for software and security infiltration, and a grifter for any social interactions, recon, or people manipulation. That's long story short, and you can probably see where this is going.

Lee Hyungsung / Jung Heewon: The hitter duo since they need to protect KDJ from getting hit or sacrificing himself as bait, and I can't decide which one I like better but they always work better together anyways. They bring in muscle and loyalty and a little snark when it matters but can always be counted on to get that last grunt knocked out or a door busted open

Yoo Sangah : Grifter, we'll switching up the romance dynamics a little bit and she’d do great in the role. In the series, the major relationship dynamics happen between the grifter/mastermind and thief/hacker duo (super cute still btw) but because we can mix things around, why not let the grifter and thief share a little skin while the hacker and mastermind grind teeth, y'know? I'll defend my answer a little more, tho, and say who's a better social manipulator than Yoo Sangah, who stuck pepper into the office coffee machine and still walked around like nobody's business, like she hadn't just sabotaged the whole office breakroom, and still says hi to everyone like normal? Girlie is a badass and had so much character development in the novel, from hardworking office worker to apocalypse scenario destroyer, that I feel she could take to the grifter role pretty well, and has probably been running people around in circles in the palm of her hand for so long being HR associated already. Besides kdj, she could probably talk circles around you like it was a regular tuesday morning the day after a failed heist and you would be none the wiser. Maybe I also just want her grifting, but if you wanna switch it up go for it, I won't complain.

Han Sooyoung: Orphaned at birth (or not, see down below), she plays the role of a thief with her awesome pick pocket skills and usual phantom-thief style-esque crimes. Yes, she may or may not have been orphaned in canon - i myself was torn between orphaning her or making her steal from the higher echelons of society with a well established family - but this is more for Leverage canon than anything, and will probably be the one thing most prone to change. The thief in Leverage dealt a lot with straightforward decisions and had trouble understanding people because she wasn't as emotionally driven, partly because of her being abandoned and traumatized as a child and then raised in larceny, but hsy character isn't quite the same so I'd probably give it a 50/50 shot and see how it goes. Hsy from a rich family would be much more her style, attending parties just to see which jewels or antiques she could pilfer, and with inattentive parents and a whole room for herself, she could steal and store just about everything. It makes more sense on how she meets kdj if she's orphaned, but having her come from a rich family also gives more implications and red tape (but a whole lot more potential) that comes with working with her in jobs.

Hacker  - Now, this role was a heavily debated topic for me, myself, and I, with the majority decision of yjh, but hear me out. In Leverage, the hacker is more of a homeboi and stays at base/hq unless he's dragged onto the field so, in this AU, it also gives us the opportunity to change how he's introduced. Case in point, if he just stays from home and hacks (and he's super good at it too), what's stopping him from working remotely and never meeting kdj's little group? That opens up a lot of fun and crazy options, like:

What if it was yma under a different name or something, and yjh is the unfortunate older brother helping his little sister pull (what she thinks is cool game moves and co op style boss raids) what are actually world-shaking crimes? Not as plausible but equally hilarious you gotta admit

What if it was Jang Hayoung tho? Like, Jang Hayoung relays everything they do in crime fighting to YJH as fellow gamers and yjh is brought into this strange group of people he knows nothing about and they all talk funny and seem sus but no, officer, they're definitely not the suspects you were trying to find who took down corporation a just the other day (if he gets found out from the authorities due to no private connection and investigators ask him about this weird chat he's in, he swears he was added to a spam chat and didn't leave through his sister's request. Afterwards he makes sure to encrypt the messages because something is going on with these guys and he's gonna find out what it is)

Han Dooyoung is also a viable option, albeit the more soft-spoken choice, but doesn't give a whole lot of room for bringing in yjh into the team position even though he is a canon hacker

Now, for my personal favorite: hacker YJH but he’s just a pro gamer with extra skills kinda thing and the crime is a side job. Like no joke, he's got his whole place on high security already with his fangirls, and he keeps a pretty stable job, and nobody would suspect THE supreme king as being a major hacker for this crazy group, right? Anyways, they helped him take down someone *cough cough, anna croft* who was annoying him and Mia, so they can't be that bad, and he just wants to make sure they're alright and everything. If he wants to meet up with them he can, but why would he? He definitely doesn't think that mastermind sounds too smart for his own good and definitely doesn't wanna see his stupid face

Kim Dokja : This one is very obvious if you've watched the series, and I can sum it up in three points: Mastermind is smart, self sacrificial, and the very heart of every operation in Leverage, and in Orv canon it fits pretty well. I'd also give the exact reason why kdj was the first one I thought of while watching leverage and got this idea, but that would most probably be spoilers. Let's just say its from the final episode of season 2 and call it good. And actually all the times before that too. The parallels are also pretty big, with both of their backstories eventually being brought to light in small bits and overlapping quite nicely, so I'll leave the similarities there and let ORV explain the rest for those who haven't watched it.

The one thing Leverage's Mastermind and kdj certainly share out in the open, though, is that they both worked under the corporate ladder and saw the corruption of the system for themselves, though Leverage protagonist was much more affected by it. And that sets everything up just about perfectly. Mastermind assembles a sort of team to purge said corruption from other corporations and help those who are suffering from people abusing their authority, and eventually becomes the heart of the family that forms this team of misfit criminals. By about season 4 of Leverage, they really do act like found family, even living together often enough, that kdj as the mastermind of this little group makes it fit nice and snug.

(also, i don't mean to pick but there is a leverage: redemption which is kinda like a leverage 2 but without the mastermind. The team shifts around, and actually changes a few people around, but it doesn't give the same energy and you can see it. Really reminds me of the *multiple* times kdj up and dipped from the group and you had a shift in power and authority and dynamic, just like what is seen in redemption. you can see the plans aren't quite executed and made like how they were in leverage with the mastermind, and they're more prone to falling apart in larger magnitude than what was at stake when compared to the times something messed up with the master mind around. In other words, when the mastermind was taken out and replacements were made, it was like removing a leg and replacing it with a prosthetic. you can do the same things, but it all feels off and you're prone to falling more. That is the core of the mastermind role and almost fits kdj to a T)

This, of course, cannot be without extra cameo appearances of Lee Seolhwa, Shin Yoosung, Lee Gilyoung, Jang Hayoung, Lee Jihye, Kim Namwoon, all the constellations, Bihyung and Biyoo as well, and can all have different roles. Information brokers that are part of KDJ’s info network thing, adopted kids that the group has to rescue, a chunni kid who has to deal with the strain his father is under being forced into overtime or excessively violent situations, anything under the sun and they can join into the plot and not have to fade away like a typical story extra, adding to this already growing family.

Jang Hayoung is a little bit of a jack-of-all-trades in this scenario specifically on what kind of role you want her to play. She's kind of a hacker-esque position with the unidentifiable wall, but could also be an online broker to the missions post-heist steals if they need money. Also a funny thought, she could act as a proxy or replacement to yjh since yjh is always holed up and won’t do reconnaissance like everyone else and they get short on hands real quick and /somebody/ has to scope out how to steal that *thing* so who else to call but the unidentifiable wall, hm?

(and if you've watched leverage, imagine that one scene where the grifter witholds her real name to prevent the mastermind from being suicidal again. Like, the whole group is in on stopping the mastermind from being suicidal and have this quick gimmick where, since nobody knows the grifter's real name, they say that they know it and can't tell mastermind until he earns it, and it stops him from being self destructive and actually works. Now, what does that remind you of from orv, hm? Coincidence? I think not.)

Anyways WOW that was a chonky boi (and I again spent too much time elaborating on this weirdly enough) and I should really stop making these as long as I have but ehhhh it's alright

I'll probably start alternating between hsr and orv for a little while, if thats okay, but I also dabble in genshin so idk....

I lied, this one is bugging my head and refused to stop so I release it to the world and let it roam free and pester yall instead. Y'all get two today.

*i say that like I have a following but it's just one person (hi there random person I love u <3)*

The Meal:

Phainon and Mydei meet in the library often and they start checking out books before each other to get the other’s attention (yes this is very whisper of the heart coded but in my opinion they started it with the whole 'visit my library thing' so what am I supposed to do, hm?)

Phainon ( i really wanna give him the nickname kelvin instead of kevin if he's a chemistry or science major, but I'll restrain myself) and Mydei recognize that there's a cute guy who always checks books out (Phainon prefers some occasional apocalyptic or sci-fi genres alongside his school mandated text books, while Mydei is a sucker for historical and historical fiction and refuses to elaborate on why he also sneaks in a few cookbooks into the pile too) and wants to get the others attention.

You can choose (probably Mydei with his subtle anonymous romantics but Phainon is always bold as well so who knows) who makes the first move, but they start checking out other genres of books before the other in an attempt to catch their attention. Soon, though, they start leaving sticky notes since that didn't work. It started one time (on accident, totally not on purpose)when Phainon checked a book out and accidentally left one in, but then Mydei saw and wrote a little message on it hoping that maybe Phainon would make sure to get it back. When Phainon remembered he left a sticky note in his book (or the librarian reminded him to stop putting notes in his book) he went to look for the book only to find the sticky note inside with a note and another book to check out.

They start a back and forth, learning about each other (Mydei always finds a way to reply bc hes probably the librarian assistant) and it keeps going until the end of the school year, when the final note one of them leaves is a phone number (or if it’s both of them leaving their number and a place / message saying they want to meet up) and then they hit it off from there and rediscover a lot about each other.

Sides:

Phainon keeps talking about the hot guy he always sees in the library and is always like ‘yea u can’t be as hot as him’ kinda thing and Mydei just is so confused until Phainon gives a description of the guy and Mydei is like "oh no he’s so whipped for me…..now we can tease him" so he starts insulting himself (the guy Phainon is talking about) and Phainon just starts defending the guy and it escalates to Mydei daring Phainon to go up and talk to him, saying he assumed Phainon hasn’t even spoken to the guy, and Phainon is just a mess trying to keep checking out these books when he approaches Mydei all cool and tries to talk and strike up conversation with this stoic librarian helper (or however you wanna put it).

Mydei makes Phainon check out awkward books along with what’s going to help him in his courses, and Phainon is trying not to look awkward in front of this guy checking out his books (and trying to be subtle while checking him out as well lol) and Mydei just keeps making note of what gets a reaction out of Phainon so that he can keep teasing him after he officially introduces himself beyond their little book talks.

Phainon makes Mydei check out books that he also likes so that if they ever meet they can talk about all the books together, hoping that Mydei likes them too (based on how it takes a while for him to spot the books on the shelves again even after they talk, Mydei probably does read those books. And if Phainon sees him looking around at other books to read similar to what Phainon makes him check out, he'll keep that to himself.)

Hyacine and the other chrysos heirs just watch from the sidelines and have a running chat on how the endeavor is going from both sides (since these two are practically the most eligible bachelors on campus or smthn) and castorice finds it so romantic that she keeps giving Mydei little romance novel recommendations that he reads through and sticks his note onto one of the sweetest /cringiest/ smuttiest parts that Phainon has to get stuck with seeing. One time he found a manga book and *accidentally* asked castorice for a copy of her 18+ doujins and put it inside it (idk how it works but it would work for the power of plot) and Phainon, being overeager and trusting, opened the book up in the middle of class to find the note, and now rumors are spreading that he's into yaoi which he isnt (it's a lie if people say the book was never found again, he swears it was in the library system He's below stealing from public property. Private, however, is a different story)

Thought of this as like a 'message in a bottle' kinda thing but instead of a bottle its a book, and I'm a sucker for anonymous identities and all that as well as a little cliche romance. Feel free to tweak or write what you want from this, I think I actually thought of adding different books from aeons as the authors (or other prominent hsr characters) and it made me crack up that I could title a book as being written by Zagreus and Aha and I actually liked it so much.

Anyways hope yall liked it, lemme know if you bounce more ideas off of this I'd love to see what y'all think up or write. I know hsr and the phaidei ship is blowing up rn (fanfic writers pls keep writing i love you guys mwah) and I'm a big lover of this ship too. I have a few more ideas that I may hold off on for now but enjoy this in the meantime!