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[moonlitwing]

Confelicity

Noun: pleasure in another’s happiness. Charlie overhears a private moment, as Husk helps Angel Dust relax after a stressful day.

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Charlie crossed the hotel’s lobby to the bar. It was late; was Angel back yet? She’d promised not to try and check on him at work again, but she liked knowing he’d returned safely.

Angel wasn’t at the bar. Neither was Husk, surprisingly. Maybe he was taking a break?

She checked the staff break room – empty – and down the hall. Husk’s room was on the ground floor. The door was slightly open, enough to see that the lights were on.

And enough to clearly hear Angel’s voice coming from inside.

“Ooooh, Husk, that feels sooo goooood …”

Charlie pivoted on the spot and went right back to her and Vaggie’s suite, with a skip in her step.

She was going to be great at respecting boundaries this time! Whether those two were dating now or friends with benefits or what, she wouldn’t breathe a word until and unless they were ready to tell people.

~

Angel Dust was melting into a puddle, face down on Husk’s bed, the cat demon straddling his hips and massaging his back. Angel had brought his third set of arms out from wherever they vanished to, so all six shoulders could be rubbed.

“I think this is the best I’ve ever felt when sober and not fucking. Were you a masseuse in life or something?”

“I was a magician,” Husk admitted. “Mostly card tricks.”

“Ah. Magic hands.” He wiggled his hips a little. “Gonna saw me in half next?”

“Pft – hahahaha!”

“I knew I could make you laugh!” Angel giggled as well. Then Husk pressed a little harder on a stubborn knot of muscle, and Angel groaned. “Oh, yeah, right there. Mmm.”

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For my long-time readers: yes I will be circling back around to my Trollhunters and Strange Magic fics eventually. 'Becoming the Mask' and 'Taking the Feisty One' are not abandoned!

[moonlitwing]

A couple of Owl House memes.

[moonlitwing]

Better Use Of Hawkmoth’s Powers

Because I refuse to believe Miraculous!verse Paris does not have online forums to this effect.

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Nine Things Hawkmoth Could've Done With His Powers Instead Of Becoming A Supervillain, Because Seriously, How Incompetent Does Someone Have To Be To Take 'The Power To Give Other People Superpowers' And End Up The Most Reviled Man In Paris, But Not The Most Famed, Wealthy, And Envied? Clearly He Needs Ideas:

Give superpowers to doctors to let them treat 'impossible' illnesses/injuries.

Give scientists superpowers so they can study inhospitable places like the deep ocean or inside volcanoes first-hand.

Suicide intervention. Someone tries to cut their wrists? Impenetrable skin. Jumping off a building? Flying powers slightly beyond their control make them float down gently. Poison? Immune. Drowning? Guess who just became amphibious.

Disaster relief, helping people escape fires or collapsed buildings and survive waiting for help to reach them.

Start a business of giving people superpowers for an hour and letting them play around in an obstacle course.

Hire himself out to creators of superhero media so they can get live reference material.

Join a theatre troupe as one of their special effects guys.

Mind reading act in a circus or carnival. (He can talk to the akumas telepathically, right? They talk back to him out loud, but it's not like he's actually in earshot. Probably.)

Get some design lessons and take the fashion world by storm with dramatic, literally magical quick-change runway shows.

[moonlitwing]

Witness

Sequel to ‘Motive Speculation’, wherein a citizen of Paris replies to Lila’s interview on the Ladyblog with skepticism. This can be read alone. I wasn’t planning on a continuation but I did get one more idea: 

It’s not like Lila got confronted by a superhero in a public park on a nice day when other people might’ve been using said park or anything ... 

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Eyewitness:

I saw Ladybug in the park just now. At first I thought there was an akuma and started looking for a hiding spot, but then she went up to these kids on a bench and started yelling at the girl for lying about being her friend. Girl had the same hair as the one in the video. Felt bad for her (more so for the boy with her), but also kinda hope it was the same person – real awkward for Ladybug if she publicly lectured someone who just looks like the person she was mad at.

Seriously? [replying to Eyewitness]:

Seems like an overreaction on Ladybug's part either way

LockNKey [replying to Seriously?]:

"Contents under pressure are liable to explode." With how secret Ladybug keeps her personal life, of course she was going to blow up at anyone claiming to know her out of the mask.

BuddyGuard [replying to Seriously?]:

Maybe it was staged to protect her friend?

Guesstimater [replying to BuddyGuard]:

And/or discourage anyone else from doing this.

Seriously? [replying to Guesstimater]:

Honestly I'd worry about it going the other way and people faking knowing her hoping she'll show up and they can meet her in person

[This thread has been frozen by the Ladyblogger]

[moonlitwing]

Infinity Is A Figure-Eight

SPOILERS FOR RISE OF THE TITANS! 

Toby and Jim have been passing the Amulet back and forth between them, time-loop after time-loop, trying to save each other. 

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Toby clung to Jim's hand even after it went limp.

"No … please, Jimbo, you gotta wake up. Dr L is gonna be so upset."

"I'm sorry, Tobias." Blinky put all four hands on the Trollhunter's shoulders. "He's gone."

Behind them, AAARRRGGHH bellowed in rage and grief and started throwing things. The Khronisfere bashed into the pileup of cars and rubble Jim was trapped under.

Toby looked down at it. The screen showed him a vision of Jim biking into the canal and stopping by the rubble of Kanjigar's remains. "Come on, Tobes!" he called.

That … that hadn't been what happened. Toby had been alone that afternoon.

The image vanished. Toby finally let go of Jim's hand to pick up the sphere.

"What is this thing even for?! It's supposed to 'make things right', but all it does is – we might as well just have stolen Merlin's time map back in Camelot because it does the exact same thing!"

In sudden fury, he smashed it. It was already half-broken apart from AAARRRGGHH's attack on it; Toby just finished the job.

It would've been better if Jim had been there, when he'd found the Amulet. Jim had always seemed to have a sixth sense for what was going on, the dangers they were about to face. He would've been a way better Trollhunter than Toby.

Toby turned a frangment of green crystal in his hands. There was something about it …

"Tobias, what are you thinking?" said Blinky warily.

"Khronisfere will make right," Toby muttered. He put the crystal into his Amulet. "Only Trollhunter will know."

"Toby –" AAARRRGGHH tried to protest, reaching for him.

His mentors and father figures vanished in a burst of green light, and Toby awoke in his own bedroom. He hurried across the street and –

Jim was there, picking up the trash knocked over by the raccoons. (Or goblins, more likely.)

"We're gonna be late for school, Jimbo," he invented. Every time travel story he'd ever read flashed through his mind. He couldn't let anyone know he was from the future, or it would twist so that he couldn't predict it and keep everyone safe.

"Sorry," said Jim. "I was just busy with the lunches."

In the following months, Toby did his best to stay not-bitter, to be the best sidekick he could be.

Sometimes he slipped – bitterness at Claire seeming to try and replace him (Jim's closeness with her felt different now that Toby wasn't the one busy with Trollhunter duties), resentment when Jim tried to cut him out for his own safety ("I thought since we found it together, we'd always be in this together") – but it was mostly good. He didn't quite recover his closeness to Blinky, but he was closer than ever with AAARRRGGHH.

Then Jim went into the Darklands, alone, trying to rescue Claire's brother, and Toby was sailing uncharted waters.

He knew he had to stay in Arcadia when the trolls left, especially if Claire was leaving with Jim this time around. Somebody needed to help Aja and Krel fend off Morando. He was almost weirdly grateful when that really did end up happening again.

Steve, of all people, ended up going back in time with Claire and Jim and Douxie to Camelot is Toby's place, and Toby could only hope things went more-or-less the same there as they had when Toby, Jim, Claire and Douxie witnessed the First Battle of Killahead Bridge.

Things got predictable again once the Titans became a threat, but Toby was faced with how much he had forgotten between now and before. He forgot the illusion in the roundhouse. He'd forgotten Nomura's death. Strickler died this time, too, but that wasn't something Toby remembered once reminded, so that might have been different. He couldn't find a way for Nari to survive fighting Skrael.

Still, he got to save Jim, this time.

(Up until his realization, seconds before he died, that this meant Jim had the Amulet and the Khronisfere this time around, and was now in the same position Toby had been, of having lost his best friend …)

[moonlitwing]

Overheard in the Cafeteria

Francois-Dupont has more classes than just Mme Bustier’s. Some students from a different class comment in the background as Lila shares stories during lunchtime. 

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“Ugh, Lila Rossi’s talking again. That girl is so boring.” 

“Boring?” 

“Yeah! And it’s that insidious stealthy boring, too. Sure, she’s got all kinds of cool stories to share, but that means she keeps ending up talking about herself, and her classmates enable her and fuel the bad habit because the individual stories are so glamourous. Even if they realize they’re tired of it, nobody wants to be the one to say, ‘okay but can we talk about someone other than you for a while?’ We get it! She’s been everywhere and done everything and met everyone! But can she just for five minutes say ‘that is so cool’ when someone else talks about their plans and accomplishments, without chiming in about how she’s done something like that but better? I know she’s probably trying to participate, not brag, but it still ends up feeling like she’s constantly trying to one-up everybody.” 

“This sounds like it’s been building for a while.” 

“Yeah ... can we maybe start sitting at a table not so close to that group? I literally did not realize it bugged me this much until about halfway through my own rant.” 

“Sure.” 

“You’re the best. So, how do you think you did on the science test?” 

“Pretty good; I think I at least passed ...” 

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Inspired by the fic Marc Being In A Gang Rights, which I found via its TV Tropes page - in Chapter 3, Nathaniel ends up calling Lila annoying since “I've never seen you have a single conversation where the topic is anything except yourself”, (and also because she was lying about being the victim of a recent kidnapping, when Nathaniel had been the actual hostage.) 

That particular bit of dialogue gave me this idea, for another fic of “reasons people besides Marinette question Lila's claims, even though they don’t have the inside information Marinette does to confirm Lila is lying and so are willing to give Lila the benefit of the doubt regarding her intentions for making said claims,” to go with my one about people reacting skeptically to Lila’s Ladyblog interview. 

#storytelling and conversation are not the same skillsets

[moonlitwing]

Motive Speculation

A snarky reaction to Lila’s first Ladyblog interview. Alya quickly deleted this comment, but every time she makes another post about Lila, something like it pops up again. 

(For anyone wondering, this was not posted by Marinette - I figure lots of people in Paris read this blog to get an idea of what the heroes are up to, and some of them ... question various things that get posted.)

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What kind of moron publicly claims to be a superhero’s best friend? A real best friend of a superhero would be someone the hero could trust to keep their mouth shut! Reply to this comment and vote for what you think is the real story: 

a) She’s never met Ladybug and is lying to impress people. 

b) Ladybug saved her once, and she read way too much into that and now really does think they’re friends. 

c) She wants akumas to come after her so she can meet Ladybug for real. 

d) They somehow are friends, this girl’s just got Super Terrible Judgement. 

e) This is a poorly-thought-out prank on the Ladyblogger, who fell for it for some reason. 

Related to all this, what’s the Ladyblogger’s motive in posting this video? 

f) She can’t be bothered to do risk-assessments on what’s a safe story to post. (See: all her attempts to work out Ladybug’s civilian identity.) 

g) She hopes Ladybug will confirm or deny the friendship as a ‘clue’ to Ladybug’s civilian identity. (Never mind Ladybug would always say ‘no’, to discourage people from pulling this stuff, and sharing this video might cost the girl that friendship if there really is one.)

h) She’s purposely setting a classmate up as akuma bait so she can get more battle footage. 

i) This is a poorly-thought-out prank on the blog viewers. 

j) The Ladyblog was created with the intention of gradually building up to a Ladybug-themed LARP for the blogger and her friends, and this is the game-canon’s first big break from reality. 

[moonlitwing]

He Was Tall

Marianne’s and Dawn’s respective first sights of the Bog King, to the tune of ‘He Was Tall’ from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. (Song did not make the movie version with Whoopi Goldberg in it, but is on the CD of a different troupe’s production.)

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Marianne

He was tall, very tall, And his eyes were clear and blue. He was broad-shouldered, thin, And his scales a greyish hue. When he strutted across the stage He was like a vengeful god, And everyone else screamed and ran And this was when things got odd. The fireworks were shooting stars; The goblins stole the elves’ guitars; And when he leaned into my space, I drove my fist into his face! Then I was pinned back down against the floor, But somehow felt stronger than before. He was tall, very tall, And his eyes were clear and blue …

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Love-Dusted Dawn

He was tall, very tall, And his eyes were clear and blue. He was slim, very slim, And his wings were narrow too. When he issued commands from his throne, He was like a thing divine, And all the goblins turned their heads, And naturally I turned mine. The chandeliers were spiked with thorns; His chin was, too; his wings were torn; His shoulders were like pinecone scales; My mind was caught by each detail; Then I was floating just above the floor, Feeling fonder than ever before … He was tall, very tall, And his eyes were clear and blue …

[moonlitwing]

For the grand Halloween finale ... 

Draal-oween Day 31: “In Costume”!

This is a joke based on a cartoon I saw as a kid, called The Weekenders. In one episode, two of the four main characters get invited to a party and are told it’s a costume party. Since it’s not around Halloween, they scramble to try and create costumes, and end up with a bunch of costume-ish elements that don’t really go together, leading to this exchange: 

“What are you gonna say when people ask what you’re supposed to be?”

“I’m supposed to be ... in costume.”

(Sadly, it turned out it was never a costume party, just a mean prank by the host to see if those two would believe it.) 

(There’s also a funny scene in a costume shop earlier in the episode, where the proprietor keeps pushing the combo, “A breastplate and a feather boa!”, because “You don’t have anything else, do you?” “... I have my dignity.”)

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Draal-oween Day 30: Robot

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Draal-oween Day 29: Tiger

(Originally Day 28 but my Queue got mixed up)

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Draal-oween Day 28: Ladybug

(Originally Day 29 but my Queue got mixed up and I didn’t realize until this had already posted)

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Draal-oween Day 27: Fairy Princess

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Draal-oween Day 26: Ballet Dancer

There was a tutu but I decided the picture looked better without it.

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Draal-oween Day 25: Dragon

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Draal-oween Day 24: Scarecrow

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Draal-oween Day 23: Demon

Since he already has horns, the costume is just a pointy tail.