(This was originally an ask received through Twitter)
"Back in GloMas (on JP), I think I remember there being a lot of madness surrounding Idia being close to Yuu. I think it’s because he referred to them as ‘Yuu’ rather than ‘Yuu-shi’, but I still don’t quite get it??"
Yes! Honorifics as a whole have already discussed more in-depth here, but Idia does drop his honorific for the prefect once in Glorious Masquerade.
Quick overview for those who may not know: when you don’t use an honorific with someone (-chan / -kun / -sama / etc), this is called yobisute (呼び捨て), written with the kanji for “to call” and “to throw away,” and the word might just not exist in English. It means “to refer to someone without an honorific."
Twst uses honorifics (and yobisute) to track the evolving relationships between the characters.
Deuce, for example, has a line about how he used to yobisute his teachers (i.e. he refused to add “-sensei” to their names) in middle school. To compensate for his past rudeness, Deuce now refers to every single upperclassman by “lastname-senpai.”
There is even a cute scene during New Year’s where Deuce greets Jamil by calling him Viper-senpai, but after Jamil feeds him an egg salad sandwich he changes—just once—to Jamil-senpai.
Epel is another character whose use of honorifics is significant: Epel is under order from Vil to always use honorifics with everyone. During Book 5 we see him using “-kun” with Deuce, up until Deuce refuses to let Epel fight the bullies trying to steal their blastcycle.
Deuce says that he is the one who took Epel out of the school and so he will be taking responsibility for his actions, and we get Epel’s first “Deuce” yobisute.
Cater might be the character who weaponizes honorifics the most.
He seems to be using honorifics as an over-familiarity-buffer-zone, as he is actively trying to avoid becoming too close to those around him (re: “Cay-Cay doesn’t really do long-term friends or found family").
There is one exception to Cater’s rule of honorifics: Trey.
During Book 1 Cater refers to him as “Trey-kun” for the majority of the story, until Riddle’s overblot makes things serious enough for him to drop it and call him “Trey” (even during these scenes, however, he keeps his honorifics for others).
The novel even comments on this directly, saying, "Usually, Cater does not ever yobisute anyone. When he calls to Trey, he always adds ‘kun’ to his name. This is probably one of his skills as a good-natured person. When Cater uses Trey’s name like this, it is only when he is really serious. Only when it is important."
This is all to say that, depending upon the character, yobisute can be a huge deal. It isn’t a black-and-white rule, of course—it varies by each character and their personality.
Kalim, for example, refers to everyone with yobisute, possibly because his status back home meant that he was simply never taught to defer to anyone, and/or because he legitimately considers himself to be close, personal friends with everyone he meets.
Idia is one of those characters like Cater and Deuce for whom yobisute is a big deal. There is exactly one person he refers to without any form of honorific, and that person is Ortho. Much like how he uses his tablet to avoid talking to people face-to-face, he is possibly, intentionally keeping up an over-familiarity-wall like Cater.
The English-language adaptation has translated his honorific of “-shi” as “Mr.,” but it’s actually gender-neutral, which may be why the English-language game’s continuity is so inconsistent, and why the moment of Idia referring to the prefect without an honorific did not make it to EN: while the honorific disappears and reappears in English, he actually uses it to refer to the prefect in Book 6, and it is otherwise in 100% of all of Idia’s dialogue in the original game.
With one exception: Glorious Masquerade.
This is why JP lost its collective mind when it happened (the fan-art is delightful, like this short comic of the characters pointing at Idia and chanting "yobisute"), because it is something Idia had never done before and has never done again, and it was with the prefect.
Yobisute is usually very significant in the game, like during Book 6 where Azul, who uses the “-san” honorific with literally everyone except Jade and Floyd, uses yobisute with Riddle when he is in danger, and when Riddle uses it with Leona just before his overblot in Book 2.
Which means it will be interesting to see if Idia is going to continue with this yobisute-ing of the prefect outside of Glorious Masquerade! (which would be great for confirmation that it wasn't just a proof-reading error ww)
you know where to find me (and i know where to look)
bb
OH MY GOD IT'S LOVE—😭💗💖💗💖💞
not to be annoying but i do think a lot of people mischaracterize falin. shes got the most drastic canon v fanon thing going on. which i guess makes sense bc 1. we dont see much of her and 2. lot of the fan stuff are anime-onlies that have seen even less
but i think like a good 90% of the time i see falin-centric art or posts im like hrm hrm hrm thats all wrong no nope no-siree
she's just a cool chick that takes life as it comes, doesn't hold grudges even against a mother that apparently was trying to beat the magic outta her, finds her older brother the coolest person in the world, and has autism about observing life (and death, she loves the ghosts she has a connection to) and nature and taking care of things (including taking care of her brother, which is why she's even in the dungeons; she saw her scrawny mess of a brother and decided she had to fix that).
and i think my favorite part that people don't talk about is... she would have done the same for marcille or laios if it were one of them that was eaten. you could see it in her eyes:
it's what shuro misunderstands about her. it's easy to see her feminine, cute, good girl pieces and forget the rest of her. but she loves things to an ends-of-the-earth extent; the kind of caring that makes you a little insane. and that's how I think she and laios end up on the same page with their weirdness. they have different interests, but they are the same level of committed to those interests.
it's easy to love her, because she probably loves you just as much, if not more.
I want to talk about why I think this is the one of the most important Falin panels:
So, Falin is really nice, right? It's one of the first things we really learn about her. She's kind even to the monsters of the dungeon - choosing to ward the party rather than fight spirits and cause them needless harm.
In the above early flashback in chapter 11, we see Marcille fawning over Falin's kindness, calling her an angel. Namari calls her soft-hearted. We see Falin choose not to fight even when a zombie attacks - instead she resolves the confrontation with a hug. After the flashback, the first thing Senshi says is that Falin "sounds like quite the person," which Marcille strongly affirms.
At this point in the story, all we have seen of Falin are these impressions; she is a healer, an angel, a caretaker with an infinite well of kindness towards everyone she meets - both friend and foe.
And honestly, that remains most of what we have to go by to understand her. The only times we get to see Falin on the page, alive and just herself, are in the opening and closing pages of the story and in the brief period of time after she is resurrected.
Nonetheless, we do have some more details to work with. For one, there is the scene that The Panel is from - a short memory in chapter 75, when Marcille flashes back to while she's dying. In that scene, Falin prepares to teleport them all out, and says that she's sorry "if there is a person at [their] destination." And that's when we get The Panel.
If you teleport someone or something into another person, the person teleported into is likely to be, at minimum, severely injured. They could die.
We can see a lovely little horrifying example of exactly why in one of the Daydream Hour doodles:
So, hmm. That's not... that's not SUPER nice. Certainly not displaying the same "kindness to all, friend and foe included" we saw represented earlier. On a basic level, this adds some nuance to Falin's kindness. We see it break a little, when pushed to the limit. We see her chose to protect the people she loves above all else.
Which makes sense! As Laios says when the Winged Lion accuses him of similarly being motivated more by his friends' safety than everyone else in the dungeon, "...most people, aside from virtuous do-gooders, would feel the same way."
So, we can take The Panel as simply showing a moment of weakness for Falin. A time when she was pushed to her limits, and that "most people" selfish side of her shone through.
However... I think there's a little more going on with Falin than just her being an angel 99% of the time, except just that once. I love The Panel because I think it helps us understand that Falin isn't just motivated by kindness - she also has a desire to avoid seeing people in pain.
Isn't that the same thing?
No, no it very much is not.
Let's look at a short comic from the Falin section of the Adventurer's Bible, because I think it illustrates this point perfectly. The group is complaining about how much Marcille's healing hurts, and comparing it to Falin's, which "doesn't hurt a bit." Marcille retorts with the following:
Now, the punchline of this comic is that, despite Marcille's sentimental assertion that she's "thinking of [them]" by letting her healing magic hurt, they all still prefer to be healed by Falin.
But hey, this wouldn't be the first time that Dungeon Meshi hides a very real character beat or insight in a gag, so let's think about this somewhat seriously.
If Marcille is right (and she knows a fair bit about magic, so we can assume that she has at least somewhat of a point), then what Falin is doing isn't kind. I suppose if someone specifically requested to not feel the pain, it could be kind, but that's not really what happened here. She is the one who felt badly about the others being in pain, and she is the one who decided, without telling them or giving them a choice in the matter, to take away that pain.
Both Marcille and Falin are healing the party, but Marcille is doing it in a way that accomplishes the task in the most straight forward way, without any additional interference. Falin is going out of her way to perform the healing in a way she is more comfortable with. A way that avoids pain.
Going back the The Panel, I don't think its a coincidence that the only time we see Falin (well, non-chimera Falin) willing to do something that could hurt someone is when any potential pain will be far away from her. If she got someone hurt or killed by teleporting the party to the surface? Not only would it be far out of her sight, but she'd be dead before she had to deal with any consequences of that action.
Falin is not a confrontational person. She doesn't push when Marcille won't tell her the truth about the resurrection, and she comforts Laios about her own death - both of those things happening in the only full chapter she is alive and conscious in the whole story.
We also know that she considered accepting Shuro's proposal, despite not having any special feelings towards him, and that Falin never explained to Marcille that she wanted them to share a meal together. When she brought Marcille various foods at the academy, she just accepted Marcille's confused rejection and gave up.
And lastly, we know that she is still in contact with her parents, despite the neglect and abuse she suffered at their hands. Although the way someone chooses to handle contact with abusive or bad family is a complicated topic, which I don't want to overly simplify, I do I think this fact gets at the heart of how she handles conflict.
So many people that Falin loves have hurt her. There are understandable hurts, like Laios leaving the village, or Marcille not understanding the food. And there are bigger, far less justifiable hurts - like her parents neglecting her throughout her childhood, and sending her away to be alone at the magic academy.
It doesn't seem like Falin has ever confronted any of it directly.
And the unhealthy aspects of this kind of avoidance of pain and confrontation is one of the things that the story of Dungeon Meshi is all about. We see Laios grapple with it before he goes to kill Falin, and we see Marcille acknowledge it at the end of the story, when she tells Laios that she has come to terms with Falin's death:
Eating is a part of life. Consuming other living things is a part of life. It isn't really possible to avoid that pain - you can only hide from the truth of it. You have to be selfish everyday. You have to eat - to choose to live. To choose to take up space.
And this is something Falin embraces, too. She comes back to life, after all.
We see her choose to come back to life.
And how does she make that choice? She eats. She consumes, and then she is asked a question by the manifestation of hunger itself:
Do you want to eat more?
There is a double meaning in the Winged Lion's final words on the next page.
When I first read this, I took it as him saying: life is cruel. You will suffer. You will feel more pain.
But perhaps, especially for Falin, this also means: you are choosing a path where you must cause pain. Where you must consume. Where you must take, and must be selfish. Because eating is the special privilege of the living, and it is their burden, too. In order to stay alive, she will need to keep eating.
And she chooses that. Chooses to be selfish. It's why her resurrection scene is so important, and it's why The Panel is so important. Because Falin coming back isn't the ultimate reward for all of the party's hard work.
It's her choice. Just like it was her choice that started everything in the first place. But this time, she doesn't choose to accept causing pain for the sake of Marcille and Laios. She does it for her own sake.
Summary: Floyd gives Yu a gift. It does not go unnoticed. Word Count: 3.2k Warnings: none! :) A/N: Merry early Christmas, everyone... I present to you the longest fic I've written in the past few months and it's self-shipping nonsense. And it doesn't even take place around Christmas...💀💀 Welp. No beta, we die like men. Enjoy!
—
Like all things do, it starts with Floyd approaching Yu right before class.
—It’s a relatively quiet, warm morning that day as Yu heads to the alchemy lab, his freshly-washed lab coat folded and draped over one arm. He’s yet to run into any brawling students or scratched egos, or any disruptiveness in general. It’s a wonderful balm on his drained mind, and there have been no interruptions to this lovely morning yet.
Keyword: yet.
Yu is just thinking, Wow, this is really nice, when an all-too familiar voice sings out to him:
“Li’l Kooooiii~”
He looks back over his shoulder to see none other than Floyd approaching. The merman has forgone wearing his blazer entirely (both since it’s warm and because, right, doesn’t his class have Alchemy first today?) and is down to just his vest and shirt. For some reason, his arms are folded behind his back.
Yu squints at him suspiciously. “…Good morning, Floyd.”
“Mornin’,” Floyd replies happily, shoulders wiggling a little as his hands fidget behind him. “It’s nice and warm out today~ must be nice for all the little fishies.”
“Uh-huh. What do you have behind your back?”
Floyd blinks, as if he wasn’t actually expecting Yu to cut straight to the chase. “Eh? Well… Nothing… What’s up with you?” He shifts his weight from one leg to another.
“That’s… not what I…” Yu trails off. Something feels really off. “…okay, then.”
He wonders what it could be. Is it Floyd’s outfit? No, that sort of unorthodox fashion is pretty much par for the course. His posture and body language? Well, he does seem a little more nervous… but that’s probably not it. Is it?
“…Hey, Li’l Koi,” says Floyd all of a sudden, shifting his weight again. It looks a little like he’s chewing the inside of his cheek.
Yu tilts his head. “Yeah?”
“Close your eyes for a sec.”
“Uh…” There’s about two seconds in which he internally debates with himself before replying with an “okay” and closing his eyes.
With the world absent for a moment and his other senses heightened, Yu hears Floyd approach and his clothes rustle as he moves his arms. There’s a faint jingle—jewelry?—and then a little pinch through the neglected pierced hole in his ear. An… an earring, maybe?
“Done?” Yu asks when he feels like enough time has passed.
Floyd hums his affirmation with no small amount of satisfaction, so Yu takes that as a good sign and opens his eyes. The eel mer is beaming down at him, reaching out to hold Yu’s hair where he put on the presumed earring.
“Cool. Now, let’s get to class; I can’t be late as the TA, you know…” Yu frowns half-heartedly. “And there’s no need to play with my hair.”
It’s tempting to pout and complain more about it, since he was going to feel for himself what the thing was, but he supposes it’s not that big of a deal. It’s probably hidden by his hair, so no one will question it, hopefully. And then he can go back to his dorm later and check for himself in the mirror.
“Okay~” Floyd cheerfully replies, sounding even more bubbly and ecstatic than usual. He then proceeds to mess with Yu’s hair all the way to the lab, much to the TA’s exasperation.
—
People do, in fact, end up noticing.
—
1-B is the class that follows 2-D that day.
During a pause when the students have to wait for their potions to settle in the vials, Yu stands by Jack and Epel’s station. Between the two of them, their potion-making seems to be going along well and their sample is starting to resemble the textbook example, so he sees no harm in idly chatting with them.
That is, until—
“By the way…” Jack looks down at Yu. “Where’d that earring come from?”
“What earring?” It takes Yu an embarrassingly long few seconds to remember, and he reaches up to feel it. “Oh. Oh! Well—Floyd gave it to me this morning. I’d honestly forgotten I was wearing it, it feels so normal…”
Epel squints to notice it. “Wow, Jack, you noticed that? I can barely see it past his hair—...wait a minute.”
Jack seems to share the same sentiment as Epel, whatever it is, because his ears twitch straight upwards and he holds up a hand. “Back up for a second. Floyd gave it to you?”
“The temperamental, violent Floyd?” Epel adds.
Yu frowns a little. “Uhh… I don’t know any other guys named Floyd. And he was being super nice today, if a bit nervous. Is there something wrong with that?”
“Everything,” the two reply in unison without missing a beat.
“Aren’t you two prejudiced? It’s just an earring,” Yu says, crossing his arms. “I still don’t know why he just gave it to me all of a sudden, but I don’t think he’s the type to scheme for the long run, so it’s probably not anything meant to kill me or something.”
Epel furrows his brows. “Well—yeah…”
“Still, that’s kind of unexpected,” Jack remarks, ears relaxing somewhat. “Keep your guard up, okay? Since you don’t know what he intended with it.” When the other two give him a look, he huffs. “I’m just saying that so you don’t end up roped into a deal of some kind! It’s not like I’m that worried about you.”
Yu smirks, knowing better, but Crewel stands up and calls out instructions for the class to continue before he can respond properly.
—
“Thank you for letting me borrow the lab,” Chrysos says politely to Crewel as he walks in, shrugging on his lab coat.
Crewel huffs in approval, looking pleased at the freshman’s punctuality and neatness. “Good, hardworking boys should be rewarded for their performance in class. Just make sure to start cleaning up ten minutes before your free period ends. Now, I have business to attend to—I’ll leave you in here with Yu, he’ll lock up when you’re done.” With a billowing flourish of his coat, he steps out.
Yu finally looks over from the ingredient shelves then, spotting Chrysos and waving to him. “Yo. What are you making?”
“Nothing much.” Chrysos makes a beeline for the higher-level ingredients, only sparing Yu a passing glance on his way by. “Azul gave me a recipe I wanted… to try…” He trails off all of a sudden and whips his head back around to look at Yu.
“Is something wrong?” Yu asks, because he doesn’t think he’s committed any serious offenses against Octavinelle recently. He’s pretty sure, at least.
Chrysos doesn’t say anything, just steps closer to the TA and narrows his eyes. He then moves to get a look at him from the side, which is when his expression morphs into one vaguely resembling horror. “Wait. Don’t tell me…”
“What is it?”
But he goes ignored.
“No wonder his earring was missing a scale,” Chrysos mumbles to himself, almost completely inaudible. His usually flat tone is full of disbelief. “I didn’t think he’d ever settle down like that, but—or he could just be playing around—”
Yu waves a hand in his face. “Uh, Twisted Wonderland to Chrysos?”
“Ah—” Chrysos blinks, caught off-guard for once with his eyes wide, but quickly schools his expression back to its normal stoicness. “Forgive me. It’s just… that earring is new, isn’t it?”
“Oh, this?” Yu asks, reaching up to feel the dangling earring in question. “Yeah. Floyd gave it to me this morning.”
That must have been the wrong thing to say, because somehow Chrysos goes even paler than he already is. “I… see.” He steps back and returns to looking for ingredients, although there is an unmistakably conflicted aura about him.
Chrysos pointedly avoids making eye contact with Yu for the rest of the period.
—
After grabbing his lunch, Yu finds his usual table and sits down, ready to just eat up and not think for a while. The cafeteria is loud, as per usual, so he almost doesn’t notice his friends until they place down their trays and slide ungracefully into the seats across from him.
Deuce nods to him. “Hey.”
“What’s up, Yu?” Ace asks with his usual grin.
Yu daps him up from across the table out of habit. “Not much,” he replies, opting to not talk about the sore subject for Ace that is Chrysos. “How did your classes go today, you two? No fights?”
“No fights,” Deuce confirms proudly. “It’s been a good day so far.”
Ace raises an eyebrow at him. “For you? Yeah, right. Anyway—” Before an argument can start, he narrows his eyes at Yu to change the subject. “I saw it on the way here, but is that an earring you’re wearing? The locket is one thing, y’know, but I didn’t take you as a jewelry kind of person.”
“You’d be surprised,” says Yu dryly. “And you’re the third person to ask me about this today, excluding Crewel giving me the bombastic side-eye. Seriously—”
He’s cut off by Deuce leaning diagonally over the table to get a look. The card soldier purses his lips. “Hey, doesn’t that look kind of familiar to you? The design, I mean.”
“Yeah… Yeah, you’re right,” Ace realizes, “Where’ve I seen that before…?”
The two squint and observe Yu for a few moments, creating a very awkward bubble of silence. Yu is tempted to reach over and clap in their faces. Instead, he just tries to say, “Guys—”
“It’s part of Floyd’s earring, isn’t it?” There’s a pause as Ace brings a hand to his chin. “Or Jade’s…”
“Stop fucking interrupting me,” Yu demands, reaching over and flicking Ace on the forehead. It elicits a disproportionately loud yelp. “Yeah, Floyd gave it to me. Now that I think about it, it does feel like a scale… Anyway, as I’ve said, you’re the third person to ask me about it today, and more than the third person I’ve had to explain it to, so calm down. Please.”
“He actually gave you something?” Deuce asks like he didn’t hear that last part to calm down, eyes wide. “Do you know why? Or if it’s, uh, cursed or anything?”
“He could also be trying to take advantage of you by making you owe him,” is Ace’s contribution. “If I were you, I wouldn’t wear it.”
Yu rolls his eyes. “You guys are just repeating what Jack and Epel said. I’m sure it’s fine, he was kind of nervous when he gave it to me, so I’m gonna assume it’s nothing actually harmful. If that makes sense. And, nothing has happened so far, so I’m gonna keep wearing it.”
“Yu…” Deuce looks at him with obvious concern in his eyes. “Are you really, actually sure? If you get into any trouble, you know you can call on us, right?”
“Yeah, what he said. Unless we have to actually fight Floyd…”
“Guys, seriously, it’s fine.” Seeing their faces, though, Yu hesitates. “...Fine, I’ll keep it in mind. But I’m still not taking this earring off just because you think it’s cursed or something.”
Ace snorts and starts digging into his food. “Worth a shot. I’m gonna get to say the most satisfying ‘I told you so’ of my life soon.”
Yu flicks him again. “In your dreams.”
—
The subtropical zone of the botanical garden is always unpleasantly humid. Yu rolls up his sleeves as he walks, looking around for the plants Crewel told him to collect for the next day’s classes.
It’s through pure luck alone that he manages to stop himself right before stepping on an unmistakable tail, spotting it stretched out onto the pathway from the grass. He stares down at it for a moment, two moments, and then looks over to where a nearby tree covers the grass in comfortable shade. And, of course, a certain someone is lounging in that very shade.
“Leona,” he mutters under his breath, carefully stepping over the lion’s tail. “Aren’t you supposed to be in class right now?”
The grass rustles beneath Leona as he sits up, grumbling to himself. “How’s that any of your business?”
“Because you’re here instead, leaving your tail on the path. Again.”
“You didn’t step on it, right?” Leona yawns, not even bothering to cover it with his hand. “I don’t see the problem then.”
Yu raises an eyebrow at him, before deciding that this is hardly worth his time. He turns away, about to go back to the task he came here to finish—
“Hold it. One of the eels gave you that earring, didn’t they?”
For fuck’s sake.
“No, I beat them up and took it by force,” is Yu’s sarcastic response. At Leona’s unimpressed look, he rolls his eyes. “Of course Floyd gave it to me.”
“And you’re not making a big deal of it?” Leona asks, something akin to amusement starting to seep into his voice.
Yu shakes his head. “Everyone else is. Am I supposed to?”
There’s a long pause in which Leona stares at him, grass-green eyes and slit feline pupils observing him from the shade. If looks could kill… Well, Yu wouldn’t be dead yet, but he doesn’t quite like the pressure that comes with being watched by this guy.
“You really don’t know, huh,” Leona comments finally, lips curling up into a smug smirk.
“No…?” Yu narrows his eyes at him. “Whatever happened to ‘minding one’s own business’?”
“Guess I won’t tell ya what it means, then. I’ll let that moody eel do it himself.”
“Wait—”
Leona lies back down, rolls over onto his side so his back is to Yu, and falls right back asleep. As if out of spite, he snores exceptionally loudly, like an unspoken middle finger.
—
After school, Yu is working on his homework in a corner of the lab—Crewel always insists that even someone in his position, a non-student at a secondary school, shouldn’t forget to study too—when the door opens. Azul and Jade peek in.
“Professor Crewel?” Azul calls out.
“Oh—” Yu sets down his pencil and stands up. “He’s not here right now, he’s getting something. Do you need something? Though, I thought neither of you have him until tomorrow…”
The two Octavinelle students turn to look at him.
As per usual, Yu and Azul lock eyes—however, rather than glance away as he normally does, Azul stares at the TA oddly for a few moments. Jade is equally silent, a hand brought up to his chin.
Yu tilts his head a bit. “Uh, guys…?”
Jade is the first to shake out of his stupor, mouth curling in a smile. “My apologies. It’s just, your earring…” He chuckles into his gloved hand, not mocking or pitying but a secret third thing.
Oh, right. Yu had almost forgotten about it once classes were dismissed and people stopped bothering him about it. Only for it to be noticed yet again, he thinks with no small amount of irritation and embarrassment. And by the two closest to Floyd, at that.
“It’s about time you two got on my case about it. So many people have asked me about it today,” Yu grumbles, sitting back down and self-consciously rubbing the singular scale attachment between his thumb and index finger. “Floyd gave it to me and didn’t elaborate.”
Azul, finally tethered to reality again, coughs into a fist. “Yes, well—that… was to be expected, he probably doesn’t feel like explaining himself yet. Though he meant no harm with that gift, I assure you.”
“Yes. Absolutely none at all,” Jade echoes, his smirk somehow growing. A little part of Yu dies inside when he notices the eel is totally getting a kick out of this situation. “In fact, I would argue it’s the complete opposite. You see, under the sea, we often give gifts to those whom we like—”
“That’s enough from you.” One of Azul’s hands not-so-subtly reaches up for Jade’s shoulder to steer him away while the other rubs at his temple. “Seriously, you and Floyd are both far too giddy about this… Anyway, thank you for your time, Yu,” he says, so politely it seems a little awkward. “If the professor isn’t here, I may as well ask him our question tomorrow. See you later.”
The two leave as abruptly as they popped in, Jade still chuckling when he walks out the door.
Just leaving me alone to process that? is all Yu can think, still reeling. Rude.
—
If any Octavinelle students have questions or concerns about the way that Yu storms into the Mostro Lounge, they know better than to voice them. Instead, they simply clear a path for him and go about their evening, quietly turning a blind eye to the way he marches right up to Floyd.
It’s answers he wants, and answers he intends to get.
“About those earrings,” Yu begins, “what did you—”
“Li’l Koi, you’re wearing your dorm uniform again!” Floyd cheers, shoving his serving trays onto some poor fool and lifting Yu up into the air by the waist. The TA, in a panic, has to grab onto Floyd’s shoulders to stabilize himself. “It looks really good with the gift I gave you, doesn’t it~?”
“Y—” There’s a moment where Yu almost tips over and he tenses up in a panic, noticing how far away he is from the ground, but he relaxes with the feeble hope that he won’t be suddenly dropped. “Yeah, I guess… The sturgeon scale does pair nicely with the patterns on my clothes… Ah, but that’s not the point.”
Floyd beams. “Uh-huh? Should I fight another merman and get you some different scales, then? Oh, but teeth would be way cooler…!”
“Uhh, not right now,” Yu answers, trying and failing to ignore the way Floyd lights up even more at not being straight-up rejected. “I, um, wanted to ask you about why you gave me the earring. It was a part of yours, right? One of the scales from when you got into that fight.”
“Yeah.” Tellingly, Floyd averts his gaze for just a moment too long. “It was ‘cause I wanted to. I just wanted to give something to ya.” The way he lamely finishes it suggests it’s definitely not the whole reason, and Floyd himself knows it.
“Yeah, but…”
Yu’s mouth feels dry; he knows what he wants to ask, sort of, but can’t bring himself to say it. Even though it’s just them around. Something he heard a while back pops into his mind—eels are cowards—and it sure shows with the way Floyd decided to go about this. If he even meant it like that.
It somehow feels like he’s the bigger coward, though—
Floyd gives Yu’s sides a gentle squeeze. “Stop thinking about it so hard,” he complains lightheartedly. “I’m gonna shower you with gifts, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
“Huh?” Heat floods Yu’s cheeks. “Wait, that won’t be necessary!”
“Too late! I’ve already made up my mind,” declares Floyd. “I wanna see you make more interesting faces like that, so be ready to accept a tooooon of gifts, ‘kay?”
“Oh—oh, okay,” Yu says quickly, as if speed will hide how flustered he is (it, in fact, does the exact opposite). Besides, receiving a lot of silly yet thoughtful gifts doesn’t exactly sound like a bad thing—
“Cool.” There’s an almost giddy energy to the way Floyd sets him down and then immediately takes his hand. Yu can actually feel him trembling a little from excitement. “I’ve got some stuff in my room I was saving up to give you, so let’s go.”
Yu blinks, and suddenly he’s being tugged along down the hall while trying to keep up with the pace of Floyd’s long legs. “Now? Wait, Floyd…!”
WAHWOSHHHAHUAIAHAJS THE TWEELS!!!! THEY’RE SO 🙏😩😩😩😩😩😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳 JADEEEEEEE AAIAYAHHAHSIIDJSDHDHSJSSS OHHMMYGNGGGODODODFJFJDJ
godddddd this is genuinely one of my favorite scenes so seeing this in manga form is making me go 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
THANK GOD YUU AND GRIM WENT FOR THE OTHER TABLE CAUSE THE GAME LOWKEY PORTRAYED IT AS ALL OF THEM BEING UNDER THE SAME DESK AHHAHHAHAHA
GOD. GOOD GOD. GOOD FUCKING LLLLLLLORD
THAT’S HIM THAT’S MY WIFE THE LOVE OF MY LIFE THE MOMENT THE ICON THE LEGEND IN HIS ELEMENT AS WE SPEAK UWUEUEEUUEUEUEUUUEUUEUEUEUEUUEUUEUUEUEUEUEUUEUEUE THE WAY I SQUEALED I LOVE YOU WHEN I SAW THIS PANEL
oh.
oh.
oh.
haha. hah. hahaha. hahahahahaha.
oh laugh at me like that azul, make me feel pathetic and stupid for you please. 😳 oh. oh…
THIS ONE IS CRAZYYYYYY
DUDE THE OCTA TRIO BEING ALL LIKE “you need to be disciplined you should be punished” LIKE. AUAAHHHSISIAOOAAHSHSJSJJDJJSJJS THAT PANEL IS SO HOT????
BUT ALSO IM WHEEZING AT EVERYONE RUNNING AND THEN AZUL USING MAGIC ON THEM LMFAOOOO THEY LOOK SO SAD
IT’S JUST FUNNY ALSO CAUSE IN GAME THEY FIGHT THEM BUT HERE THEY FLED
i love them sm never change tweels
THIS PANEL IS EVERYTHINGGGGGGGGG TO ME
FLOYD’S BLEP AND AZUL SQUEEZING FLOYD’S CHEEKS AS HE GETS INCREDIBLY PISSED OFF AT HIM IS SENDING ME TO HEAVEN
I LOVEEEEE THE WAY THEY PORTRAYED AZUL LOSING IT IN THE MANGA 😭😭😭😭😭 HE WENT CRAZY HE GRABBED FLOYD
This too is everything to me 😭 i love them, i love octavinelle, god i love this update sm
Octavinelle in cookie run???!!!! waaaa???!!! (still haven't played cookie run)
pst @lukaka-arte i used ur suggestion 👀
poll under cut
made a motivational Senshi poster to remind myself to eat lol