#[Feel free to reblog to spread the event and establish the setting!]

[quinloki]

Birthday Request Event v2024

Alright let's start off with the primary points:

1 - You do NOT have to give to get.

2 - You do not have to get to give.

3 - Read everything, there's quite a few moving parts =D

Things You Can Do During This Event:

1 - Request a story from me (see the end of the post for the format!)

2 - You can give me a gift! (see "Gifting Quin" below!)

3 - Reblog this post to be entered into a raffle!

Details below the cut!

Raffle Prizes!

-:- 1,000 words of anything you want (within reason) - can be a one-shot, can be a demand for a specific title (make me work on that title you've been dying to read more of). Just has to be One Piece related.

-:- OC Cameo - I'll plunk your OC/self-insert into a story (that is not the Host Club AU ^^; )

-:- I'll draw something for you \o/ I'm not great, but hey, free art xD

Gifting Quin!

❤️ - Pin 5$ to my shirt - it's a local-ish birthday tradition.

❤️ - Share one of my stories and leave a comment \o/ You can do this whenever, but it really makes my day, so have at!

❤️ - Gift me a story, or some art ����🥰

Ideas (please do NOT send me saucy stuff on anon or if you're under 18):

1 - Draw a scene from any of the stories you've liked! 2 - Draw Quill - by themself, or with you and/or your OC, or a One Piece character \o/ Quill can be a boy, girl, or whatever mix tickles your fancy. Have fun =D 3 - Draw what you see when you think of "Reader" for any given story. 4 - Re-write a scene for a story =O How would you tell me that scene? 5 - Write me a one-shot using the prompts below 😇 6 - Free form a ficlet, drabble, head canon, series of bullet points with ANY anime character and either a "Reader" or Quill =3 Spread your wings beyond One Piece (Wind Breaker, YYH, FMA, MHA, Habin hotel, etc - go wild 🥰)

Feel free to ask me ANYTHING if you're unsure of something

Birthday Bash Requests \o/

Finally, the part you've all been waiting for XD

*** Anon Requests Will be SFW only ***

-:- Give me some reader vibes as applicable (gender/height vibes) -:- Give me a blorbo (or blorbos) - One Piece only please ❤️ -:- Pick something from each of the lists below and then submit your ask! (any items not specified in the ask will be my choice 😇 cause it's my birthday celebration XD )

Pick 1 Vibe: SFW SFW dark SFW Yandere Blorbo NSFW Consensual NSFW dubcon/dark NSFW Yandere Blorbo NSFW noncon Writer's Choice (please include squicks if you pick dark or dub/non con options)

Pick 1 AU: Canon Universe Mafia AU Fantasy AU Cowboy AU Government Mandated Marriage AU Soul Mates AU Modern AU Hallmark AU Mythical Creatures AU Vampire AU Coffee Shop AU A/B/O AU Monster AU (you can say what kind of monster you prefer) BDSM AU Host Club AU Grandline Metro AU (Quicksand, A Light Touch, Heart of Gold, Thrice Prophesized are set in this AU) Writer's Choice (spin that wheel!)

Pick 1 Prompt: Angst / Bad End Aphrodisiac - sex pollen, drugged food, struck by needle, devil fruit Bath/Shower/hotspring Body writing (icing, ink, blood, etc.) Caught in the Act Contractually Obligated Creature x Human Date / First date Dungeon Erotically charged fight Experienced w/virgin Forced Proximity - box, flight, cell, bondage, get-a-long shirt Friend’s hot older sibling Fuck or die Lazy morning sex Long-Term Established Relationship Only One Bed Outside Pliant When Horny Role-play Roughed Up Size Difference (I write this a lot, but I do love it.) Soft/Comfort Sugar daddy/mama The hat rule They were… coworkers/neighbors/etc. Trapped in a Room Trying Again (exes getting back together) Unresolved sexual tension Wounded Writer's Choice

***Requests will be accepted from 6/1 - 7/10 - and posted from 6/1 - 7/31***

Gifts are accepted from 6/1 until whenever \o/ Don't feel pressured to get them in by 7/20 🥰

[waffleston]

A ramble: online presence, dissociation, and hobbies.

First, an analysis of my personal online presence.

I have 18 online presences spread throughout nine social media platforms. Eight are "archival"; I don't use them but occasionally log in to see the time capsule of who I once was. Three I am too afraid to post on; mostly because I psyched myself out by setting a high bar my current artistic ability can't reach or establishing a mask that's too high effort to maintain. Five are associated with my irl name, which I have become increasingly wary about; And there's the pressure to "professionalize" them. The remaining two are this tumblr and my cohost (rip cohost).

(Addendum: This tally omits socials which I deleted along the way. Looking at you, twitter.)

Usernames are hard for me to settle on. My handles span 11 unique combinations. Three are based on my irl name, and three are based on previous names I used. Two are associated with reddit accounts I'd rather leave behind in the past, one is cringe and weirdly activates my dysphoria, and one is a potential trademark violation if you look at it close enough. The last is the username used on this site.

I understand why this has happened to an extent. I have a dissociative disorder, so having a consistent sense of self is impossible for me. I also don't experience the crisply defined self-states thing anymore. (At some point my brain revoked names and it's been harder to tell ever since.)

A way to avoid some of the aforementioned concerns which prevent me from using certain accounts is to simply rename them. I learned today that neocities permits renaming, which is pretty neat. This does introduce the issue of breaking permalinks, potentially losing a following, etc. but for the accounts I feel comfortable reforging in the fire of name changes that's not really an issue.

A major lesson learned here is that using your irl name is /not/ recommended. I just want to play around with experimental artwork and not have to worry if I'm affecting my irl reputation or job prospects. I know that the reason why I employed my name en masse was out of the euphoria of using the name I legally changed to. It does feel nice to be called the name you choose when irl it's complicated - but you don't have to set your username to it! Have whatever name you feel like going by at the moment in the bio, and let the username remain a constant.

A fascinating thing cohost taught me is that I am more likely to feel free and comfortable interacting with people if they aren't people I know irl. Eight of my social presences are known by people I know irl, which affects the sort of stuff I post to them. It feels weird to admit that, but I know it's true. I experience a massive amount of anxiety whenever I "act out of character" - which happens when: my therapist notices my collection of active me's has shifted, I fail to mask in front of friends, or I do something and then later ask myself why the heck I would have done that. Trying to hide from the anxiety leads to posting less - simply liking rather than reblogging where applicable. It doesn't help that I constantly malfunction in social situations.

All of this is to say that I need to start using throwaway names - or names that don't mean anything at all. Don't list the hobby in the username, or you'll be unable to post when your interests shift; don't use your name, or you'll be unable to post when your name changes; keep it isolated, or don't reuse names on multiple sites unless you're committed to maintaining the same mask on both.

(Addendum: The name thing is what's led to me having an uncountable number of email addresses. A nightmare to manage, but at least I don't have a single point of failure in the event of a hack?)

I'm sure some of this is more tightly tethered to my dissociation. I pick up and drop hobbies rapidly. At one point I tried to make a wheel listing all of my hobbies, but depression comes in and makes me unable to engage with any of them. Sensory issues (?) make it hard to interact with my music hobbies, and my inability to focus for long periods of time sends fiber arts and software development into the state of "it's not finished and I don't think I'm ever going to finish it". (I'll refrain from listing the number of private repositories on my github.)

I think I also burn out of hobbies. Like, I'm still the me that started it, but I've given up. Depression. I think it's hitting especially hard right now because I don't have classes to throw myself into. But even then, there's still something wrong with my brain; I, embarrassingly, never completed a paper in grad school. I was able to charisma-saving-throw my way around failing courses in those situations, but gosh. It just tanks my self-esteem to know that I sometimes feel like I don't deserve my degree.

Building on that, hobby-specific social accounts are subsequently abandoned. To an extent my brain rationalizes that "I need to save the account in its current state so that when the me that used it returns they can pick it back up", kind of turning social media into a hobby in that same sense of picking up and dropping. It's kind of a miracle that this tumblr account survived from 2015 to today. I think the key to its survival has been the lack of affiliation with specific hobbies, lack of affiliation with any name, and the persistence of it all. It's been able to change alongside me.

In a weird way, I still reflect on the metaphor I came up with before I got diagnosed, in the midst of some particularly challenging times. I felt like I kept regenerating, like The Doctor, forever different and unable to return to who I once was.

So maybe that's the key. Pick some usernames that are personal, yet ambiguous enough that whoever you become can still inherit it, and not feel like a fraud, or not feel like it isn't theirs to take.

Pick some sort of title. Find something that represents all of you.

[It's way harder than it sounds. If you need me, I'll be spending the next week/month/year/decade trying to figure it out.]

[firelxdykatara]

Hey zutara fam! A few of us are organizing a Zutara Big Bang, and we have an interest check (in the reblogs, tumblr doesn’t like me or my links evidently!) for any who might be interested in/want to participate as a writer, artist, or beta!

If you don’t know what a Big Bang is, the cliff’s notes version is that writers and artists come together to create fics that have gorgeous art pieces to go with them! Typically writers will say what they will be writing, and artists pick from those which stories they want to create for, but there will be a more in-depth explanation and the rules of this particular event will be outlined once we’ve established interest in the project.

It will be really fun and a great chance to get some illustrated pieces out into the fandom, so if you have any interest at all--even if you just want to help out with beta-ing or organization--please fill out the interest check and let us know! We don’t have a tumblr account for it yet, that’ll probably be set up when we follow up on the interest check and see what the response is like.

Please feel free to spread the word! @soopersara and @rideboldlyride are other mods for the event, and ride has a post here as well, but we all know tumblr doesn’t like putting things in the tags sometimes so. Figured it’d be a good idea to get another post out just in case. Maybe tumblr will be nice to me lmao

[viniter]

So you might notice I have pretty much completely stopped reblogging serious post about current events, social issues, etc. It's not because I don't care, and it's only partly because of escapism and trying to keep the tone of this blog light.

Mainly it's because I just don't believe people should get their news from social networks. You just can't trust me or most people on here to provide well researched and backed up information on current events. And that's not a judgement on people's views or intentions, it simply comes down to the fact that journalism is a highly skilled labour and I want to make sure what people who do that for me are real professionals and actually get paid for their work.

Just like you should take your medical advice from your actual doctor and not from strangers on the internet, so should you get your news from an actual journalist. Does that mean that all journalists are equally good? No, there are shitty doctors and there are shitty journalists, but at least with them it's easier to switch and find a better one. Here's my guide for setting up a news good, reliable source of news:

1) Pick a newspaper

Find a really good paper that comes out in your country. You can try and diversify, but if it's a proper general newspaper, you should be able to get by with just one. Consider actually paying for it, there's usually free options, but news isn't that expensive, if you can spare couple of bucks a month, spending it on journalism is worth it in my opinion. Here's couple of things to watch out for:

Check who owns the newspaper. While the owners might not necessarily interfere with the journalistic integrity, you can never be completely sure about that.

Check how the paper is financed. Does it require a subscription? That's actually a good thing. Is it entirely ad supported? Make sure they're clear about what's an ad, and have firm (and public) policy about their relationship with advertisers. Is it completely free, without ads, and claims to spread the truth? Big red flag! Obviously.

Check if it has (or previously had) a printed edition. While I don't really support paper print, it can kind of signal that the newspaper is established, has some tradition, and also that it has at least some clear way of financing. With that said you should probably support electronic edition instead.

Check that they have a clear Code of Ethics. This should be a publicly available and binding statement, to which the editorial office should be committed to. It can be called something else, but it should exist and you should be able to look it up. Read it!

Learn who writes it. The editorial office is made up of people, they shouldn't be anonymous. People have views and opinions, and that doesn't exempt journalists. If they claim to be 100 % impartial that's another red flag. Instead editors should be diverse, both in background and views. With that said, it's completely okay if the office on the whole is let's say left leaning, as long as it's made clear. Don't look for neutrality, that's almost always a lie.

Learn how they differentiate article types. A good newspaper makes it clear what you're reading. Is it an objective news report? Is it a subjective commentary? A press release? An external contribution? A news agency reprint? Learn how to tell them apart.

2) Pick individual journalists

Learn the full-time members of the editorial office and what are the topics they cover. Get a feel for their writing style and personal views. You're never going to read everything so pick a couple of journalists that cover topics you're interested in. Here's what a good selection might look like:

An investigative journalist. Most good newspapers will have an investigative department. This extremely important and valuable work, you should keep an eye on it.

A domestic news reporter. Even if you don't care about politics, I think it's important to at least occasionally read up on current events in your country. Find at least one domestic news reporter or, if the paper does some sort of regular condensed summary, read that.

A world news reporter. You should at least once a week read some world news; don't live in a bubble. Every good newspaper must have at least a couple people covering international events, pick at least one.

A commentator/s. While reporting facts is important, more opinionated pieces are also key part of journalism. I like to occasionally read different commentators, this is a thing where it's good to diversify (even across newspapers). The point is not to adopt their views, the point is to learn about them.

A topical reporter. Bigger newspapers have reporters that focus on particular topics. Pick the ones that write about your particular interest, be it social justice, LGBT issues, or sports or technology. This is where you make the feed engaging for you personally.

The editor-in-chief. Usually the editor-in-chief writes very occasional commentary on the most important events. Reading these is a good way to feel out where the whole office stands on certain things.

3) Pick up some local news source

Does your city, town or district have a local newspaper? Pick it up! The more local, the better. I didn't use to do this, but my city has several pretty good (and free!) local newspapers. It's quite refreshing to occasionally read about things that happen in your immediate surroundings. These are the things you also have the best chance of actually influencing. Same as above applies for local news as well, but your options will be limited. Take local journalism with a grain of salt.

4) Make a news feed

Once you found journalists you like, make a curated feed of their articles. You can download an app and set up notifications, or make an RSS feed etc., depends on what the options are and how you want to consume stuff. But try to substitute part of the time you'd spend scrolling through Tumblr, Twitter or what have you, by scrolling through the headlines instead.

5) Read the damn things

Actually read the articles. Yes, the whole ass thing. Headlines are to articles what trailers are to movies. You're not going to watch every movie, that's okay, but you also don't just watch trailers, that's insane. I swear, if you find good journalists you like, reading their articles can be actually enjoyable.

[luciusloversanonymous]

fanfiction recs

(last updated 12/24/2020.)

looking for fics starring or featuring The Only Character In Fire Emblem? wait no more! mostly raven/lucius, but there’s some gen fic too if that’s not your thing. :]

if you don’t see your favourites on this list, feel free to reblog/reply to this post with your own additions!

ship fic

cup runneth over by elibe - 12k. an angel!lucius lucius/raven au. I won’t spoil much, but this is one of my all-time favourites! beautifully written, unbelievably sweet. (CW: death, brief mentions of throwing up, non-explicit nsfw near the end)

“This — you — are my purpose,” Raven trips over his words. He feels nothing but the blazing heat of the flush that spreads across his skin. “Any other purpose eludes me. I — I am not a man deserving of mercy and grace and yet you have given me both wholeheartedly. You deserve better than this.”

“Then what is it that I deserve?” Lucius asks. His voice wavers and he clutches Raven’s hand like a vice.

“Love.” He answers breathlessly.

-> I’ll go ahead and cut this list in half by adding a recommendation for any of ao3 user elibe’s fic, their work is always a delight to read-- i’ll highlight the line, heat death and i need no ring by them.

namesakes by folkvangr (lusteralliance) - 1k. short and sweet, two dads naming their kids. :]

they did not have names; lucius told raven that he hoped to give them names soon. raven didn’t like referring to the children as “hey you” and “kid” all the time, so he secretly hoped to do so, too.

we'll build our house in a field of gold by elinciacrimea - 8k. fleshes out canon really nicely. Reading this fic always gives me a bit of a cozy feeling. I’ll go on to recommend a lot of this user’s work too, here’s a florina/lyn fic from them I love. (CW: mentions of suicide, and the circumstances around the fall of House Cornwell)

Several years after the events on the Dread Isle, Raven and Lucius pay a visit. Secrets are shared, love is discussed, and new futures are built.

for now by cavalry - 3k. explores a lot of the things I love about lucius’ character, plus a very soft established relationship lucius/raven. set between fe6 and fe7. (CW: In their own words, mentions of canon-typical violence (but nothing on-screen), and Lucius has a panic attack.)

Raven returns to the orphanage with gifts in tow.

Hail The Marquess! A Fire Emblem Story by SpareTimeEntertainment - 42k. Admittedly a bit of a cheat since lucius/raven is just a background ship in this one, but they’re very sweet in it. Cheesy in the best way. If you like Florina/Lyn, hijinks, and surprisingly engaging suspense and action, this feel-good story is for you. (CW: there are some brief scenes where someone is trying to coerce Lyn into getting married, but it’s resolved quickly and framed as a bad thing. also, people get drunk.)

Jubilation in Caelin! On the fourth anniversary of his ascension to the seat, the great Marquess Eliwood of Pherae is to be honoured on a night of celebrations hosted by his dear friend, the Lady Lyndis. But despite the lavish presentation for her honoured guest, Lyn's heart is torn. With her own lordship imminent and her seat of Caelin guaranteed, would-be courtiers are flocking like vultures - but the most heartfelt and unassuming one of all is Lyn's own dearly beloved Florina. Meek as ever, Florina would need a miracle - or a master plan - to win Lyn's heart. Fortunately for her, a familiar tactician just rode back into town...

Spare Time Entertainment is proud to present a romantic comedy - where the war of the heart is waged in cavalry charges of passion and phalanx formations of love, where old friends and familiar faces have just one night to enshrine a love long adored. It's a race against time (and a hell of a good time) in...

HAIL THE MARQUESS!

i want you to stay by ackermanx - 3k. a fun and heartwarming modern au. can it be considered a classic at this point...?? (also, not related to anything, but every time i read the author’s notes on this one I laugh a lot.) (CW: some discussion of religion, but it’s lighthearted.)

"Oh, is your sister leaving? A shame, I was going to talk to her about leading the choir. Although, you're still here, so I suppose that's enough."

Raven turns around at the sound of the familiar voice, making a strangled noise once he realizes just how close Lucius is. He's unable to tear his gaze away from the other male's sparkling eyes, the tiny curl of his lips as a smile spreads across his face -

Shit, Raven thinks. I do like Lucius.

By Your Side by pixelpiano - 1k. short and soft and sweet. also, trans!lucius!

Lucius and Raymond discuss the future...

gen

Soren's Fantastical Askran Adventures by fairmyrmidon - 4k. holds a special place in my heart. soren from fe9/10 and lucius becoming frends in askr!

Soren appears in Askr, intimidates the summoner, and frightens everyone except for a healer who is already experienced in dealing with foul attitudes.

A Lady's Generosity by estamir - 2k. super cute lucius/serra/matthew friendship!

Lucius is facing a rough winter at the orphanage he's opened in Araphen. Serra has other ideas

At sixteen you departed by tattedmariposa - 700. platonic lucius&priscilla, this author’s style is so captivating.

It was outside the healer's tent, in the time between afternoon and evening when the sun colored the earth warmly, where Priscilla finally gained the courage to ask.

[onsgiftexchange]

Winter OnS Gift Exchange!

That’s right, signups for the next Gift Exchange are already here!

If you don’t know what the OnS Gift Exchange is, it’s essentially a Secret Santa type thing, where you fill out a form about your basic interests and things you like and dislike in OnS fanmade content, and based on that I personally assign everyone someone to make content for, and someone to receive content from. As it is supposed to be a secret, you won’t know the person assigned to you until the posting date, though you will know the person you’re assigned to so that you can better create content for them.

Any and all ships are allowed! So, if you’re a shipper of one of the more obscure pairings, feel free to join! If it’s a super rare ship, I might have difficulty finding someone to pair with you, so please keep that in mind, but if you know other people who love that ship, encourage them to sign up as well!

The deadline to sign up for the Gift Exchange, meaning the date that signups will close, is November 30th. So, as long as you sign up at some point before then, and establish a reliable method of communication with me, you’re golden.

The deadline to have your project completed is January 31st, however, once you have your project completed, do not post it. The posting date will be February 10th, but I do have the completion deadline set far before the posting date for a reason, so please respect that and have your project completed by the 31st. 

 Late Submission Policy: Once again for the last exchange I had many people turn their projects in late or disappear off the face of the planet, so I’d like to establish an official late policy. If you turn your project in late in any way shape or form for two consecutive gift exchanges, or you turn your project in more than 5 days past the deadline, you will be ineligible to participate in future gift exchanges. Exceptions to this rule may arise of course, but I’m far more willing to be lenient with people if they communicate with me and keep me updated. If you disappear off the face of the planet with no warning however, I will not be nearly as forgiving. I understand that life events get in the way, but you guys do have 2 months to complete your projects. 

If you’re new to the Owari no Seraph Gift Exchange (i.e. if you did not participate in the Summer Gift Exchange in July or the Autumn Gift Exchange that just happened) this is the form that you need to fill out.

If you did participate in either or both of my previous two Gift Exchanges, this is the form you fill out instead.

Okay that’s a lot of information, sorry about that, but I hope I covered everything? If not, please let me know.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to contact me. My askbox and DMs are always open, as well as my other methods of contact!

Twitter:OnSGiftExchange

Email: onsgiftexchange@gmail.com

Discord: OnS Gift Exchange#3574

Reblogs are greatly appreciated! Please spread the word, I want as many people to sign up as possible!

[quicksilversquared]

Lost Heart: Chapter 20

The Holiday Spirit

Magic can be a dangerous thing to play around with, particularly when that magic is tangled up in a curse. When Nathalie Sancoeur experiments with magic that she doesn’t fully understand, it sends her on a path to become Paris’ most dangerous supervillain and tips the balance between superheroes and supervillain.

But which way will the balance fall?

links in the reblog

Marinette honestly Could Not Wait until she got her free time back to herself.

She and Adrien had been meant to get together after school on Wednesday to hang out, after she finished with her visit as Ladybug with his mom and he finished up whatever he was doing, but by the time that she had finished talking with Mrs. Agreste (who wanted to take up her old mantel of Paon in the final battle, even though she was still recovering) and then visiting Master Fu with Chat Noir to update him on, well, everything, and then get a bit more training with defensive spells, it was time for dinner and Adrien wouldn't have been able to come over anyway.

It was a good thing that she wasn't having any trouble with the concepts that she was getting tested on, because she hadn't had that much time to study before it was time to go to bed so that she could get a decent amount of sleep before her next day of exams. Then it was time to get up again, go to school, push through a couple more exams and her group presentation with Adrien, run an errand for Master Fu at lunch (Duusu was still inhaling mountains of fruit, it seemed, and Mr. Agreste had sent another shipment that she then had to deliver to its actual destination, part by part, and then he had needed her to pick up a couple ingredients for another potion after that), go back to school, do one more test, remind everyone that the holiday party was the next day and please remember to sign up to bring treats if they hadn't before, and then she had to give Adrien another excuse about why she couldn't hang out after school before running off with Chat Noir to accompany Jade Turtle to the Tsurugi home.

She and Adrien had yet to talk about their accidental kiss and if it had meant anything. It hadn't been in front of anyone (at least not on purpose) to "prove" that they were actually dating, and hadn't been at all staged. Marinette was tempted to read into it, to think that maybe Adrien saw her as more than a friend after all, but it just wasn't the right time for that. The final confrontation was creeping closer and closer, and as soon as it was over, his father and Nathalie would both be taken to jail. He wouldn't have the additional surprise of getting his mom back at the same time- after all, he had known about her for a good chunk of the week now- but it was still a lot.

...she had really liked kissing Adrien. It hadn't been a long kiss, and she had still been giggly from his kissing attack, but it had been really sweet, and his nose kiss afterwards?

Adrien was too cute, he really was.

But now wasn't the time to think about that, when the two superheroes and Jade Turtle were transformed and approaching the Tsurugi house. Master Fu had called ahead and Madam Tsurugi knew they coming (and Kagami was still at school, so they didn't have to worry about her overhearing their conversation with her mother), but Ladybug still had to have her head in the game.

After all, they had a lot of questions for Madam Tsurugi. Some were about how the curse had interacted with her diminishing eyesight, of course- Jade Turtle was particularly interested in making sure that the curse hadn't kept spreading after her eyesight was entirely gone- but they also wanted to find out how she had ended up with the Miraculous in the first place, and also, well…

"Mrs. Agreste mentioned that you would have known about both the Peacock and the Butterfly being in her possession-"

"Emilie?" Madam Tsurugi sat bolt upright, clearly startled, and Ladybug frowned at Jade Turtle. Perhaps Madam Tsurugi had asked why they had come and it was a bit weird that she hadn't ever approached the superheroes to tell them about who Hawkmoth was, but there was no need for Jade Turtle to lead in with such an aggressive statement. "She's- is she awake? The last I heard, Mr. Agreste told me that she was getting worse!"

Jade Turtle smiled slightly, watching Madam Tsurugi carefully. "Yes, well, there has been an interesting turn of events lately. It might be difficult to explain everything that's happened, but in summary, Mrs. Agreste has been awakened, Mr. Agreste has surrendered to us but hasn't handed himself over publically yet, Ms. Sancoeur had been using Heart to transform with the Peacock, and now she's snatched the Butterfly and we have recovered the Peacock and removed the curse."

"Just like that, huh?" Madam Tsurugi asked, frowning. "Emilie and I tried so hard and didn't make a single dent in that curse. But I suppose we didn't have the knowledge to manage it." She sighed. "But yes, I did know that she had the Butterfly. And it didn't take a genius to figure out who had taken it."

"And you didn't tell anyone," Jade Turtle prompted. "Was there any particular reason why?"

Madam Tsurugi looked uncomfortable as she shifted in her seat. "Well, at first, I just wasn't in the country. My daughter and I have been in Japan for the past couple years, trying to get a blind fencing group established there. I didn't keep up with the news in Paris that much, because all I really cared about here was Emilie and my old fencing academy. Once we moved back to Paris, I heard enough about Hawkmoth to figure out that the Butterfly Miraculous was involved. I confronted Gabriel, but he told me about his plan to use the two main Miraculous to get a wish- a wish to change the timeline, for the curse to be removed from the Peacock before either Emilie or I used it."

"So your eyesight would not have deteriorated faster than normal," Jade Turtle filled in. "I see."

"I didn't tell anyone anything, as the akumas seemed annoying but largely harmless enough. I was a rather irritated when my own daughter was akumatized shortly after we arrived, of course, but Mr. Agreste claimed that he only got impressions of feelings when he akumatized people, not names." Madam Tsurugi sighed. "Shortly after that, I signed a contract with him. He promised to do his best not to akumatize Kagami or I, as well as ensure that his wish would remove the curse before I used it. In return, I would not tell anyone about his secret identity. I only realized after the fact that the contract was entirely for his benefit- it was not a steel-bound promise to not akumatize us, only that he would try to avoid it, and once the timeline was rewritten, the contract would vanish and I would have no memory of it. He could set the time that the curse would wear off to simply happen before Emilie took over, and I would never know the difference."

"But he had the contract to hold over your head, then," Chat Noir filled in, looking more interested now. "If you went to the police, he would get arrested, but he could get his revenge by showing the contract to the police and saying that you had known for a while and kept it secret because it would benefit you."

Madam Tsurugi nodded sharply. "Precisely. And I know exactly how publicized that would be. Our family honor would be destroyed."

Ladybug winced, thinking about what (admittedly little) she knew about Kagami and her family. Family honor was a pretty big thing, one that was Not To Be Messed With, and Mr. Agreste had taken full advantage of that to pinch off a threat at the roots.

Thank goodness Mr. Agreste hadn't been anywhere near as crafty of a supervillain as he was a businessman. They might have actually been in trouble then.

"Of course, it might have looked better for us had I simply ignored the possible repercussions and gone forward myself," Madam Tsurugi added. "Now, I've said nothing. I sat back and allowed a supervillain to run over the city, even after I knew that the attacks were getting more dangerous. I let my fear about the repercussions of reporting Gabriel and Nathalie silence me, and now public opinion will destroy me."

"If he bothers to pull out the contract," Jade Turtle told her. She scoffed.

"The police will find it. There were multiple copies, and I don't doubt that he scanned it and has copies on his computer as well." Madam Tsurugi sighed. "He won't think to destroy them. And I suppose I deserve it. I prioritized my desires over what the city needed, and that was an action unbenefitting to a former superhero. I can only hope that my punishment will be a reprimand and nothing worse."

"We can hope." Jade Turtle glanced towards the superheroes, then back at Madam Tsurugi. "That wasn't the only question we had. We have talked some with Mrs. Agreste about what the Peacock was being used for and why and where it came from, but she still tires easily and we don't want to risk being seen near the place that she's staying while the Purple Lady is still active. So we were wondering, well… about everything."

Madam Tsurugi nodded. Her shoulders relaxed slightly- clearly she had expected more of a scolding from them. "Yes, well, it is a odd story, and I might as well start from- from the very start. As I'm sure you know, I am a champion fencer. I trained from a young age and showed good promise- and this was coming from a champion family. Soon enough, I had my life's goal- to beat my uncle's record number of championships. He was legendary, and I wanted to be, too."

Ladybug listened, attentive. She could see where this was going, honestly. Losing eyesight on its own…well, that already had to be hard. With what was starting to sound like a lifelong goal to beat a legendary relative's record, a goal that extended family members were no doubt aware of…

"I was a champion, getting sponsorships so that it could be my job and I could focus all of my energy on training. And then I started losing my peripheral vision. I had needed a fair amount of correction prior to that, but black on the edges of my vision- that was new." Madam Tsurugi sighed, her shoulders slumping ever-so-slightly before she caught and corrected herself. "I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, which is genetic and progressive, tunnel vision closing in. I was crushed, but I wasn't going to let it slow me down. Fencing helmets do obscure vision and it's not as though we're really going to get attacked from the side."

Ladybug nodded. She could remember that, from her brief brush with fencing. Having the helmet had been pretty disorienting at first, since she was used to fighting with nothing obstructing her vision, but it was easy enough to work around when she only had to deal with attacks from the front.

Madam Tsurugi continued, emotion making her voice waver ever-so-slightly. "I kept winning despite the handicap, even when I was pregnant with Kagami. I gave birth to her between championships and gave myself no recovery time. The black was creeping inwards, and so I had to fight while I could. I moved to Paris after a number of years, because my trainer in Japan was doubtful about how long I would be able to fight with reduced vision and I had heard about a different trainer in Paris, one who had won championships but who also had trained blind fencers at his school before- not competitively, or at least not competitively at the level that I was at- but I figured that he might have some ideas for me to work with my decreasing vision."

"And that was when the portals started opening?" Jade Turtle inquired. Madam Tsurugi nodded.

"Correct. Shortly after I moved to Paris, the portal first opened."

Ladybug listened intently as Madam Tsurugi detailed how she had become the Royal Peafowl, getting the Miraculous and the associated book and scrolls from a Chinese friend of the family who knew that they were magic and had protective properties but hadn't known specifics. Shortly after moving, she had met Emilie, with her talent for languages and cryptograms and other word puzzles, and they started the slow process of deciphering the book, starting with a page that- thankfully- had pictures of the creatures that they had dubbed demons. They found a spell to make people forget about both the tear in the sky and the sentimonster, which perhaps was a little unnecessary but seemed like a good idea, to reduce public panic…and then realized that using the pin seemed to be speeding up the rate of Madam Tsurugi's tunnel vision.

Like, quite a bit. Her doctor had expressed concern, but at that point…well, the Royal Peafowl had become a duty, even if she was only needed a couple times per year.

They had stumbled across the idea of feeding the pin after that, completely by accident after Mrs. Agreste had set a banana down next to the pin and had watched as it immediately vanished by chunks. They tried that for a bit, and then Madam Tsurugi decided to pass the pin on to Emilie, since she didn't have any pre-existing conditions for the curse to latch on to. Using the pin had made her a little tired at first, even though she was feeding it as often as she could, but it didn't seem like anything to worry about. Emilie had largely hidden how the Miraculous had affected her after several years of use, which was made easier by distance- Madam Tsurugi had moved back to Japan after retiring from competition. The decision to end her competitive career had come after another eye condition had sprung up, taking the center of her vision and leaving her with only a fuzzy ring of vision between the black creeping in from the outside and the black spreading out from the middle. While she could still fence, it would not have been at the same level and she had wanted to go out on a high.

A high which, unfortunately, had come one title shy of tying with her uncle's record.

"I had started teaching fencing well prior to that, thankfully," Madam Tsurugi told them. "So even though I no longer had my sponsorships as a steady source of income, I did still have a job- and yes, I am still teaching now, even though all of my sight has gone. I can demonstrate moves, and we use blind fencing as a teaching tool, even with fully-sighted fencers. Since the helmets obscure some vision, we take that to the extreme to teach our fencers how to use other factors in their environment to tell them where their opponents are and where they're likely to move."

Chat Noir blinked in surprise. "I- I've never heard of that training technique before."

"I'm not surprised. It's not a common technique. Many people, I've found, underestimate the value of using training designed for blind fencers when they themselves can see." Madam Tsurugi's smile was thin. "Their loss."

"Indeed."

"At any rate, Emilie was looking for solutions for the problem, as she did not want to continue dealing with the threat forever," Madam Tsurugi continued, picking her story back up. "The tears were getting more frequent, we could tell that much. Emilie talked to my friend who had given me the Miraculous in the first place, and between the two of them, they managed to track down the Butterfly and buy it off of someone, maybe a month or two before her last battle. The idea was for her to learn how to use the Butterfly in place of the Peacock. We had suspected that, given the pictures in the book, there was something wrong with it. But Emilie learned about how the Butterfly worked right before it got shipped to her, and, well, she had concerns about sending a person- even a person with superpowers- up against the demons. It seemed like there was a very specific set of powers she would have to give her superhero, too, for them to be able to accomplish the same thing as her sentimonsters had."

Jade Turtle hummed in confirmation. "It would be harder to get the Butterfly's powers to be as effective as the Peacock's against that particular threat. It could be done, of course, but it would be hard."

"So Emilie didn't even try using the Butterfly, to the best of my knowledge, and instead focused on finishing her translation of a spell that would fix the tear for good." Madam Tsurugi sighed. "She had told me, of course. We were excited about it. She was going to give the brooch more food than ever to try to keep it from affecting her too much. The next thing I knew, I heard that she had fallen into a coma. One power use and two spells were too much of a power draw, and the demon appearances had gotten too close together. She hadn't had enough time to recover. I figured that she would recover soon enough, since the worst of the tiredness- to my knowledge- usually vanished pretty quickly. The fact that she didn't…"

"Ah, I might know what went wrong now," Jade Turtle said, a small smile on his face. "Mr. Agreste didn't know about the food for the pin. If he had, it's possible that she would have been out for a couple days before waking up again. Or perhaps not, it's impossible to tell how much exhaustion she was hiding."

Madam Tsurugi was frowning. "But why- why wouldn't she tell him about that? Emilie is smart, she would have known that something new like using two spells instead of one could be dangerous. And I wasn't in the city when that went down, of course, and I wasn't meant to come visit for months. I understand not telling everyone, but I had figured that Gabriel at least knew about the food! That he was trying that, at the very least!"

"Well, she's awake and well out of danger now," Jade Turtle soothed. "We were able to undo what the curse did to her, and she's recovering."

Madam Tsurugi leaned forward at that, suddenly intent. "You said- I hadn't caught it before, but you didn't just wake her up, you undid the effects of the curse? Would it be possible- I mean, I always knew that I was going to lose all of my vision and I've accepted that and have figured out how to keep teaching, but I had expected a bit more time with my vision before it went completely...and it's been several years since I've been able to see my daughter fence at all, and I've heard that she's made great progress. I know it's been years, but might it be possible to- to undo the curse's effects on me?"

Jade Turtle considered her, his expression softening. "Well, we can certainly try. But I must warn you- with the curse getting tangled up in a preexisting condition, that could make things more difficult. I don't know how it will respond to the cure. It may not help, it may return you to the vision you had before using the Peacock, it may end up where you would have been without the curse's interference, it might just fall somewhere in between." He paused for a moment, then spoke up again. "If you don't mind me asking, how far along should your blindness be, given the rate of progression prior to when you started using the Peacock Miraculous?"

Madam Tsurugi's brow furrowed as she thought, fingers tapping against her legs. "Approximately? It's hard to say, of course. Before I used the Peacock, my tunnel vision was about….so." She held up her hands, curved, to illustrate the boundaries of her vision.

Ladybug exchanged a glance with Chat Noir. Madam Tsurugi's hands were maybe a shoulder's width apart, held about the same distance out in front of her face. Thinking of fighting with that much peripheral vision gone…

It couldn't have been easy. And Madam Tsurugi had been fighting at a very competitive level even with her vision like that, and even for years past that. That was incredible.

"Now, if I remember correctly, I would be more like….so." Her hands moved closer, just wider than her face. "Or even narrower, I don't remember. And of course, it's hard to estimate when I can't, well, see, and of course that was only their best guess."

Chat Noir leaned forward, expression curious. "Was your vision like that, then, when you did your last championship? Just out of curiosity."

Madam Tsurugi managed a small smile, bringing her hands together a fraction more. "Like so, if I had to estimate, and even with the strongest correction available, what was left of my vision still wasn't clear- legally, even if I still got shapes and colors and could do without a cane in public- I was blind."

Ladybug and Chat Noir exchanged another look, and Ladybug was pretty sure that her jaw was on the floor. That- that was incredible. No matter how else she felt about Madam Tsurugi and her somewhat morally grey involvement in this whole mess, there was no denying that the woman was a serious role model, particularly when it came to not letting handicaps hold her back.

"That is quite impressive," Jade Turtle said, his smile clear in his voice. "You are quite the powerhouse to be reckoned with, that's for sure. And we'll certainly see what we can do about the curse's effects on you."

Madam Tsurugi inclined her head, the picture of steely composure. "I greatly appreciate it."

"Ladybug, Chat Noir, I thank you for your time and for accompanying an old man," Jade Turtle told them, smiling at the two superheroes. "It is much appreciated. You may take your leave now, and if you can spare the time, ma'am, I'd like to try a few spells to try to get a better picture of how the curse interacted with you."

  Adrien and Marinette practiced their presentation for Madam Mendeleev's class one last time over a warm breakfast of quiche and freshly baked bread, spread with plenty of butter. They had it down pat now, their timing absolutely perfect and no delays as they tossed the presentation back and forth between the two of them.

They made a fantastic team, they really did.

"Last day before the holidays," Adrien said cheerfully as he tucked the thumb drive with the presentation on it into his bag. "One quiz, one presentation, and a whole lot of lazing about and talking about holidays plans. Fantastic."

"It'll be fun," Marinette agreed. She carefully placed the Yule log cake box into a bag and set it near the rest of her things by the door. "You absolutely went overboard with the number of chips you're bringing, I just want you to know that."

Adrien laughed. "I didn't buy them myself, you know. My father had the Gorilla get them for me, and he just asked what kinds of chips people liked. I gave him a short list of examples, and he, uh...decided to get them all. Or almost all, at least."

Marinette grinned. That was pretty funny, actually. She knew that there was a reason why she liked the Gorilla.

It didn't take long to bundle up and carry both food and party supplies across the street and to the school. Marinette set her cake box and Adrien's bag of chip bags into the large box behind Ms. Bustier's desk, placed the receipts for the party decorations in front of Ms. Bustier's computer, as their teacher had requested, and then started setting out the supplies for making their snowflakes and other decorations on the folding table that Ms. Bustier already had set up. Adrien helped, unpacking her bags and opening packages of construction paper so that it didn't take so long to set up. The result was pretty impressive, really, with four shades of blue paper, one white, one black, and a variety pack, plus a whole slew of glitter glue and a few skeins of wintery-colored yarn.

"I'm going to get markers, colored pencils, and scissors from the art room," Marinette told Adrien. She had asked the art teacher about borrowing the supplies as soon as she and Adrien had come up with their first few ideas for the party, and he had agreed right away. "Want to stay here and make sure that the food doesn't walk away? We had problems with that a couple years ago."

"Really? That's terrible!" Adrien planted himself in his usual seat, sitting up straight. "I'll guard the room."

Marinette nodded, then dashed out of the room and down the hallway. Mr. Ross would be there by now, and he would no doubt have the supplies ready. Then she could grab them, get them set out, and then write down what was going to go on- when they were going to actually eat the food, for one, and when they had to be cleaning up the art supplies- on the whiteboard.

Chloe had never done nearly as much for their holiday parties, but for most of the years when she was class president, they were too young for her to be put in charge of planning anything. Then, for the last year of her class president run, she had her butler plan and bring in everything. It had been a very nice party, to be fair, but it felt a little too formal for a school party.

"You're doing such a good job, Marinette!" Tikki told her, popping her head out of Marinette's purse. "The party should be a lot of fun!"

"I hope so," Marinette said, thinking about all of the rushing and frantic planning that had gone into pulling the party together. "I really, really hope so."

  "Alix, Kim, stop using the glitter glue as face paint! That is not its intended use!"

The four of them exchanged amused looks as Ms. Bustier hurried up the classroom steps to try to regain order in the back of the room. The class was hard at work, most busy cutting snowflakes and making little snowmen. Ivan and Max were working together to hang up the silver garlands around the room and to zig-zag some of the yarn back and forth between the outer windows and the hallway windows so that people could hang their finished snowflakes up in the air instead of just on the windows and blackboards. Nathaniel had brought his window paints and, with both Ms. Bustier's and Mr. Damocles' permission, was painting a winter scene on the outermost window while chatting with Rose, Juleka, and Lila.

It looked very wintery and festive. Minus, of course, Alix and Kim and their "winter warrior paint", aka glitter glue smeared across their faces. Marinette wasn't sure that Kim had thought things all the way through when he had painted the glitter glue over his eyebrows. Something told her that he was going to have a bit of a painful time getting it out again.

"My sisters would have an absolute field day with all of these supplies," Alya said as she smeared some silver glitter along the edge of her snowflake. "They love glitter glue. They've got an entire shoebox each filled with the stuff." She grimaced. "They need to be heavily supervised with they use it, though, or they'll end up with it in their hair and all over their clothes."

Nino grinned. "She's still bitter about it because the last time she was babysitting, her sisters got into the glitter glue without permission and decorated their clothes. And because she hadn't been paying attention, she got to do all of the cleaning."

Alya scowled at him. "Okay, it wasn't entirely my fault that they got into the glitter glue. Nora put it away too low, so they could actually reach it. And I had to get that article done for the Ladyblog tracking how the akuma attacks were getting more dangerous. I should have been able to do that without worrying about them. It's not like I took the glitter glue down and then ignored them."

Marinette winced in sympathy. She could only imagine how difficult it would be to get glitter glue out of clothing. She had said before that Alya's family needed a locked arts and crafts chest, like she had had when she was younger (and still kept, to lock things away when Manon came over), but apparently nothing had come of that particular suggestion.

"So d'you think that your father will be better about the holidays this year?" Nino asked Adrien, changing the subject before Alya glared a hole in her bottle of glitter glue. "I think you said something about him being a little less of a recluse lately, right? So he might actually come out and celebrate with you on his own without you running off?"

Marinette paused mid-cut, glancing over at Adrien. She knew why Mr. Agreste was coming out more- with Nathalie's heart pretty much gone, he couldn't send her out, and he wanted to get a break from her and that had the side effect of him spending more time with Adrien- but Adrien didn't know that. He had to suspect that something was up, though, considering that suddenly he wasn't seeing Nathalie at all and his mom was back under really strange conditions. Adrien's face was carefully neutral, though, giving nothing away.

"It's hard to say with him," Adrien said at last. "I'm not going to get my hopes up about anything, that's for sure. And I'll not run off this year, I just- I just had to get out of the house last year."

Marinette slid a hand over, bumping it gently against Adrien's thigh in silent support. He flashed a smile over at her, curling his fingers around her hand and giving it a light squeeze.

He would have his mom this year, she knew at least that much (and Alya and Nino did not). However, he might not have his father. It would stink for him to have his father go to jail so close to Christmas, but if Duusu recovered by then and the Purple Lady attacked, they would take her down.

It would be lovely for Paris to have their supervillain taken care of before Christmas. It would be less lovely for Adrien.

At least he would have his mom. She had to focus on that.

"Well, if you gotta get out this year- seriously, just call one of us up," Nino told him, gesturing to himself, Alya, and Marinette. Then he grinned. "Though I suppose that I don't even need to guess who you're going to go to first- what do you bet, Alya, that Adrien would go to his girlfriend first, or little old us?"

"Well, there's only one person who can give Adrien Christmas kisses, and it's not me," Alya said, grinning widely. "Or you. So I'm going to guess that he's going to go for the Dupain-Cheng place first. By the way, guys, when were you planning on telling us that you've worked your way up to kissing, hmm? Or were you going to keep that secret, too?"

Marinette could only groan.

Their last day before break went by in a rush. The single test that they had went smoothly, the presentation that she gave with Adrien went off without a single hitch. They had lunch, one more class, and then their last gym class of the semester.

She could have done without the dodgeballs. It was a relief when the clock on the wall marked the class as half over and she, Alya, and Adrien could leave to set up the table of food. Nino opted to stay and keep playing, which was probably for the better as Mr. D'Argencourt looked less than pleased about the three of them leaving.

"Party time!" Alya trilled as they walked into Ms. Bustier's room. "Oh, man, look at all of that food. I hope no one ate too much at lunch, 'cause we're gonna need people to bring their appetites."

Ms. Bustier laughed from her spot at her desk. "I've already had to shut down the proposal of an eating contest between Alix and Kim, Alya, please don't encourage it. Leftovers are fine."

"And Alya, while you're over eying up the food, can you grab the tablecloth?" Marinette called. "That and the clips. Once the tablecloth is on and secured, we can set all of the food out."

Alya nodded, diving into the box of food. She came up seconds later with the plastic tablecloth. "More snowflakes! There's a distinct lack of red and green going on this year, I noticed."

"Yeah, well, not everyone celebrates Christmas." Marinette accepted the tablecloth and started unfolding it, tossing one side to Adrien so that he could help spread it over the table. "And I tried last year to keep our party from being specific to any particular holiday, but all it took was a little bit of red and green and a picture of a Christmas tree and all of a sudden everyone was calling it a Christmas party. So I wasn't going to give an inch on that this year."

"And it worked, I think," Adrien chimed in. "Everyone is calling it a holiday party. Or a winter holiday party. Or just a winter party."

Ms. Bustier was smiling. "That's very thoughtful of you, Marinette. I know several people in our class celebrate other holidays instead, and it's nice for them to feel fully included in the class celebration."

Marinette couldn't hide her pleased smile. It had maybe taken a bit of work to ensure that all of their activities would be fully winter instead of suggesting Christmas at all, but it had been worth it. Both Nathaniel and Sabrina had seemed very happy without all of the Christmas imagery hanging over them.

"Unfortunately, I don't think everyone who brought food quite got that memo," Alya called from where she was digging in the food box. "We have Christmas tree-shaped sugar cookies."

Marinette sighed. Those, she knew without even looking, were from Rose. Still, Rose had meant well. "At least it's just the one thing."

"And gingerbread men, too."

"To be fair, I don't think those can be considered strictly Christmas unless they're frosted like Santa," Adrien pointed out. He snagged the packet of tablecloth clips from where Alya tossed them, giving the tablecloth one last tug to straighten it before starting to clip it in place. "They're regular winter holiday cookies, just like the Yule Log cake."

Marinette laughed. "I'm starting to think that your definition of 'not specific to any holiday' is more based on what your stomach wants to eat."

Adrien's exaggerated pout in response made her laugh even harder.

Slowly, the table filled up. Bags of popcorn were combined into one large bowl, bags of chips were set up, platters of cookies were uncovered and arranged, and the punch bowl was brought out and filled up. Plates and silverware- proper ones instead of paper and plastic, thanks to Chloe and her father- were stacked at one end of the table, and cups for the punch went at the other end. The Yule log cake was the last to go out, sitting proudly at the end of the table. Shaved chocolate for the bark dusted the top and sides, and smooth chocolate frosting covered the cake itself.

It looked fantastic.

"I can't wait to eat that," Adrien said, arranging the last of the discarded packaging in the now-emptied food box before coming over to stand next to Marinette. He slung a casual arm over her shoulder and Marinette leaned into his side, relishing in his heat. It was perhaps a little chilly in the building and Adrien- well, Adrien was warm. He also had a very snuggly sweater on. "All of this looks delicious. And the classroom looks great, too."

"Yeah, people really did a good job with the snowflakes." Marinette glanced around, smiling at the snowflakes hanging from the yarn strung across the classroom. They were all sorts of sizes and colors, ranging from delicate and lacy (thank you, Rose and Mylène) to large, chunky, and haphazardly smeared with glitter (a la Kim). "And Nathaniel's snow scene looks great."

"It really does," Adrien agreed."Speaking of our classmates, I think people are coming up. I hear a distant rumbling of feet."

Sure enough, there was a chattering in the hallway that was slowly getting louder. The first of their classmates started coming in, Rose wielding a bag of party games that she had no doubt hidden in her locker as she trotted in at the head of the pack. There were a lot of excited faces in the group, especially as they caught sight of the spread of food. Alix and Kim still had glitter paint smeared across their faces as they came in (and Kim was missing a chunk of one eyebrow- based on the somewhat scrubbed appearance of the glitter glue around it, she suspected that he had tried getting the glitter off and failed), and several other people had pulled on holiday sweaters. People started serving up right away, excitedly opening the bags of chips and piling their plates high. Nino bypassed the line to set up the playlist that Marinette had asked him to make, the wintery music filling the room within seconds. Rose started singing along, and it wasn't long before several other people chimed in.

Looking around, Marinette couldn't help but be pleased at how the party had come together. Everyone seemed to be having fun, the classroom looked amazing, and it - well, it was well worth the last-minute hassle of putting things together. If she took a step back, ignored everything else going on in the other side of her life, and stayed entirely in the moment, well...

It was really starting to feel like the holidays.

[mottlemoth]

SOFT SMUT SUNDAY AUTHORS!

💕 Stand up and be collected. 💕

There’s now an AO3 collection specially for your gorgeous works. If you’d like to be included, feel free to submit all previous and new Soft Smut Sunday stories to the collection. 

The collection name is softsmutsunday (no spaces) and there’s a guide in the AO3 FAQ right here. 

If you’ve not uploaded your Tumblr pieces onto AO3 yet, here’s the perfect reminder!

Q. What is Soft Smut Sunday?

Soft Smut Sunday is a regular Tumblr event featuring art, ficlets, short stories and drabbles, all on the theme of ‘soft smut’. 

Q. Who is welcome?

Everyone is welcome - all pairings are included. We started out in Mystrade, but we’re expanding to other ships too.

Q. What counts as ‘soft’?

We take ‘soft’ to mean a happy, hopeful or cosy tone, with no unresolved angst or strife. These are stories that a reader can enjoy over a sleepy cup of coffee, knowing they’ll get an enjoyably smutty read with no sharp bits or hidden ouch.

Q. Are all of the stories rated Explicit?

Not all of them. We also welcome Mature rated works, so long as the focus is on sex or physical intimacy. 

Q. Are longer works welcome?

We lean more towards shorter works that someone can read in one sitting, focused on sex and intimacy. Stories with a lot of plot, strife or scenes other than sex might not fit into Soft Smut Sunday. (We’ll be delighted to read those the rest of the week!)

Q. Does the story have to show sex?

We welcome stories that are obviously leading to sex (heavy flirting, petting, etc) and we welcome stories set in the obvious aftermath of sex. You don’t have to show the sex explicitly, so long as sex is a main part of the story.

Q. My story has some angst in it. Can I still be included?

Light angst to establish a scenario (e.g., leading to comfort sex) is very welcome, but we try to keep these stories easy on the angst. The focus should be on the intimacy and comfort, rather than on the angst that causes it.

Q. I didn’t originally write my story as part of Soft Smut Sunday, but I think it’ll fit. Can I still submit it?

Absolutely! If it’s soft, if it’s smutty and you think readers will enjoy reading it in bed on a sleepy Sunday morning, feel free to submit to the collection. 

Q. How do I get involved?

Join us every Sunday on the #softsmutsunday hashtag - no spaces.

Submit your work to the collection on AO3 (and if you’re never done it before, don’t worry - here’s the AO3 how-to).

Reblog, kudos, comment, rec and share any #softsmutsunday content you enjoy! Help us spread the word 💕

[txrnovr]

Clarification on Allegations Against Belmont

I appreciate the time you're taking out of your day to read this post regarding the false allegations against a specific member of Belmont. His name will remain anonymous throughout this post for the privacy of the band and for the sake of it getting taken out of context (again) via the internet. 

The night everyone is referring to happened sometime mid February 2016 when Belmont played at Royals in Lansing. I was the merch girl for another band on the bill at the time. The merch tables were set up so that anyone entering the stage area would see the tables before the bands. There was a guy who claimed he worked for Royals that would invite himself to my table and ask me personal questions and to go outside with him. This man's name was Joel and weighed about +250 lbs. He is a vital detail of this case. He has for some reason remained completely invisible within the rumors I’ve been told through Twitter, but the reality is, Joel kept busting through the doors of Royals and complimenting my body and my outfit that night, making me and my fellow merch girls very uncomfortable. \

The member of Belmont and I had mutual attraction for each other at the time that we had established prior to the that show. We had agreed that sometime in the future we would eventually hook up and there are still messages on Facebook that can back that up. That Royals show was the first time we had seen each other since that agreement was made. He had asked me to step outside of the skate shop to smoke. As it was February, it starting snowing, I was wearing a mini skirt and did not have proper outer wear for the weather (in my defense though, a show at Royals can get very sweaty, we are all aware that venue needs better ventilation). We made out near a chain link fence, and his hands slipped up my skirt. I told him I wasn’t feeling that way at this time and we would later pick up where we left off at a different time and different place. He apologized and backed off of me immediately. We finished smoking and went back into Royals through the front door where Joel and his buddies were near the cashier counter. That is where they pointed out to me that my lipstick was smeared by calling me derogatory names like ‘whore’ and ‘slut’. Joel took it upon himself to call out the member of Belmont, naming him a rapist.When that was said I panicked. Joel was a very muscular guy, and like I have fore-mentioned, he weighed almost twice my size. There was nothing I could do to prevent him from tearing into this band member.  The entire night after that I spent avoiding Joel, but I had to tell my fellow merch girls what was going on. Some people overheard and told the Belmont member what Joel was saying. We had another extensive apology then which I quickly accepted. After that night I received several messages from Joel stating he was suicidal and that he believed I was brought into his life to save him. Joel made me feel like I had no choice that night, to either A) get into his car with him as he had tried several times to get me to do or B) smoke with someone that I knew. Of course the events that occurred were consensual between us. There was never a question about that for me. I was startled that Joel was going around running his mouth so I stayed quiet that night for my own sake. I didn’t want to get physically hurt by him and that was the vibe I was getting then and for the rest of the time after. 

There is no case against the Belmont member. If there was, the authorities would have been notified. I cannot speak for any other women regarding this person, but in this case, he did not assault me and therefore this incident needs to be put to rest. 

Feel free to message me about this if you still have questions, I will clear anything up for you but I urge you to find out information from the source before spreading around potential lies that could endanger not only someone’s career but their entire life.

Please reblog/retweet. 

- Ashley (@txrnovr)