#I wish sooo much luck for next season

[mystories2012]

Another Podium for Eisei😍😍sad that he will not jump this season. But at least he can finish COC on a high level🤩😍🥳🥳

[starhvney]

𝐒𝐔𝐁𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝟑 | 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟔: 𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄

𝐂𝐖: blackmailing? kinda, no yeah blackmailing, gene smokes, allusions to reader being paranoid

𝐀/𝐍: so sorry for the long wait on this next chapter, writers block will kill you. i edited but am posting this at 1 am so if there's any typos pls let me know so i can cry about it thanks

𝐖𝐂: 4,900 +

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 ☆ 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 | 𝐀𝐎𝟑 | 𝐅𝐈𝐂 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 | 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐒

a week passed, then another, then another. it was now officially well into autumn and you had yet to be confronted by ivy again, or bothered by any other student for that matter. 

“an off-season soccer tournament? during school?”

“yeah,” laurance grins, dressed in his soccer uniform and some beat-up sneakers as he walks alongside you and aphmau. “don’t be too sad without me in our classes.”

a playful scoff leaves your lips as you roll your eyes at him, placing a hand over your chest.

“i’m heartbroken, devastated even. however will i survive without you, laurance?”

amused snickers leave his mouth, face scrunching as he covers his face before comically recomposing himself, imitating your dramatic pose. 

“i know, please forgive me. i’ll come back for you, my darling!”

“wait, what other schools are coming?” aphmau questions, brushing past both of your bantering. “enough for you to be out the whole school day?”

he nods, fluffing his hair with his fingers and sighing.

“yeah, nahakra high and… o’khasis prep is coming.” he groans under his breath, shoulders dropping as he shakes his head in disappointment. “that game is gonna be a total shi—“

he clears his throat.

“—i mean, it’ll be… a humbling experience. they’re hard to beat anyways, but our team right now is not doing so well.”

aphmau hums thoughtfully. “well, good luck? i wish i could come watch and cheer everyone on.”

laurance suddenly perks up, taking long steps forward and turning around. there’s a pep in his step as he walks backward, grinning at the two of you. 

“during free period and athletics i think you’re allowed to come watch if your teacher lets you. you should ask.”

“oh? guess we’ll finally get to see how you became the captain your sophomore year.”

he shrugs, lips curling up smugly as he tilts his head back.

“you’ll be sooo impressed.” he gloats, tone humorous.

“uh-huh…”

his eyes focus back on you, eyes glinting in mischief. 

“if you come to watch me, i’m gonna call you out on the field to play on the team.”

“huh?” you raise an eyebrow. “no way, then your team would for sure lose.”

“nah, i bet you’re secretly a pro.”

“i’m not, but aphmau is pretty good.”

the girl looks up, shaking her head. “what? i’m okay at it, but…”

“garroth told me you totally clocked zane in the face when your families went to the park a couple weeks ago.” laurance snickers. “wish i could’ve seen that.”

“rude!” aphmau scolds lightheartedly. “i felt really bad about that!”

“oh, whatever. that little cyclops deserves it.” he rolls his eyes.

“laurance!”

☆

now that you didn’t have ivy breathing down your neck, you felt… really happy going to school. you grew closer with the volleyball team at practice every day, as well as lucinda and a few of the other girls you’d run into in your classes. you ended up seeing that meif’wa girl again too, and the little freshman was sickeningly adorable.

you also met jeffory, and while you felt for poor travis and his one-sided crush on the volleyball captain, you couldn’t blame katelyn for her choice of boyfriend. he had sat with katelyn a few times at lunch, and you’d see him coming in to help with the girls’ after-school practice as you were leaving for the day. you’d yet to find a flaw in him, unless being much too kind-hearted could be a flaw.

speaking of travis, you’d finally met his friend dante that he and aphmau had mentioned a few times. he wasn’t as elusive and mysterious as he had been when he was just a name floating in your brain, and was instead… quite the dork who was trying way too hard to be a ladies man. he was pretty funny, though, so you couldn’t even be mad at his shitty pick up lines and awful attempts at winking. 

although, despite all these new friends and feeling like a normal high school kid again, you still felt on edge. like you were only in the calm eye of the storm before getting your feet swept out from under you by the hurricane.

that hurricane really was imminent, and it came to you in the form of the tall senior you crashed into as you rushed to your next class, praying you wouldn’t be any later than you already were. the boy is much taller than you, and his lean muscles and firm frame didn’t provide a very comfortable cushion for you to run into. stumbling back with a surprised noise, you immediately go to apologize before even looking up. 

“i’m so—“ you start, stumbling on your words as your eyes land on sharp deep blue. “—um… so sorry.”

unruly black hair hangs over gene’s dark lashes as he looks down at you, eyes narrowing and canines peeking out in a cat-like grin. he looks like he had just caught your little mouse tail underneath his sharp claws, and you know that the hurricane’s winds have now swept you back up in the storm.

his tie is loose, top buttons of his uniform shirt undone, sleeves messily rolled up to his elbows. how has he not gotten dress coded for this? scratch that. maybe he did, and he just doesn’t care. 

suddenly he shifts his face from amusement to a rather sarcastic-looking pout, his performance not very convincing with the smug look still shining in his eyes. you’re sure that those upturned, almond-shaped eyes and the dark circles underneath them couldn’t appear innocent even if they tried.

“you know it’s rude to run into people like that, i could’ve gotten hurt.”

you can’t help the unimpressed pinch of your eyebrows at his words, especially as you crane your neck to look up at the boy who nearly knocked you over despite your momentum.

“i didn’t mean to.” your words are more clipped than you mean for them to be, your alarm overpowering the control over your voice.

“running in the halls is against the rules, you know.” he clicks his tongue, shaking his head as you begin to try and walk around him. “but you’d never break the rules, right?”

you pause at the strange inflection in his voice with his last sentence, his words loaded with a different motive. turning around, you see a flash of satisfaction across his face, and you feel like a rabbit just caught in a hunter’s snare. his hand reaches into his pocket, pulling out his phone.

“…what?”

long legs stride forward, his torso hunching over as he leans towards you, facing his screen around for you to see. the picture very clearly shows you on top of ivy, hair wild as you pin her down, fist pummeling into her face.

you remember now, seeing him at the end of the hall as you stood up, curiously staring at you. you didn’t remember seeing a phone in his hand, but that must’ve been why he was there.

“i gotta say, you did an impressive number on her. i swear i thought she fucked up your face a little too, but you came back the next day all badass like nothing happened.”

“what do you want?”

“woah,” he grins, holding his hands up in defense. “no need to get aggressive. i just thought you might need some persuasion. to hang out with me and my friends today.”

“…you’re blackmailing me… to be your friend.”

he snickers, sliding his finger across his phone screen to show more pictures. others clearly show ivy being in the fault. one showing her fingers yanking back on aphmau’s ponytail as you two try to walk away, another of you pulling aphmau behind you defensively, and another of her ripping her nails into your hair and face.

“i don’t know if i’d like to call it blackmailing. after all, i could bend this situation any way i want. really, it just depends on if you’d give me a chance. i promise, i’m really not as bad as i seem.”

at first you say nothing, eyebrows furrowed as you try to catch one of the many thoughts that frantically race around in your brain for a solution.

“i’m sure laurance said otherwise,” gene continues. “but we’re really not awful people. i mean, we’re not great either, but we’re cool. besides, i think you want someone like me on your team in case the mrs.ro’meave-wannabe in this picture here decides to yap about what happened.”

you stare at the screen, heart racing. not only were you at risk, but so was aphmau. had he caught her in the halls today, too?

“just give it a try, this is your choice here. why don’t you have lunch with us outside by the bleachers today so we can get to know each other? i know a secret of yours, so if we become friends i can share a secret of mine with you.”

“are you secretly normal?”

laughter bursts from his mouth, and for a moment he looks so genuinely entertained with your words that the youthfulness in his young age actually shines through his rugged appearance. you’re not sure if you maybe secretly pissed him off or if he strangely liked the attitude you were giving him, so you find yourself standing there awkwardly as he gathers himself.

“no, not really.” he begins to walk away from you while shaking his head, more chuckles leaving his throat as he slides his phone back into his pocket and makes his way down the hall. “see you at lunch.”

“…shit.”

☆

you ended up zoning out for the rest of your morning classes, your head empty despite its screams to try and find a solution to this. garroth and katelyn sent wary glances your way pretty much the whole day, but left it alone when you didn’t tell them for the third time when they asked. as the lunch bell rang, you made the excuse that you weren’t feeling the best, and was gonna see if the nurse would give you some medicine. they shrugged, giving you one last worried look before making their way to your friend group in the cafeteria.

you were pretty sure eating outside was against the school’s rules, so your heart was racing when you made your way to the doors that led to all of the athletic fields. after your stressful searching you soon find the three of them behind the bleachers near the soccer field.

gene and the angry-looking boy lounge on the ground, and the silver haired girl is perched on one of the thick beams holding the bleachers up. their attention is immediately set on you as they hear the ground crunch under your feet, all three eyes turned to where you awkwardly stand.

“there she is.” gene gets up and strides towards you, throwing an arm around your shoulder and guiding you closer to his group.

he smells like cigarettes covered by cologne and… paint? your eyes meet a can of spray paint in the other boy’s hand before trailing up to see an sk symbol freshly graffitied onto one of the thicker pillars.

on school property? guess laurance wasn’t exaggerating about them.

“since laurance so rudely interrupted our introduction to you last time, let’s reintroduce ourselves, yeah? i’m gene hyun,” he gestures to himself, deep voice almost lifting in a teasing way  before pointing at his friends. “that’s sasha morozov, and that’s zenix brandt. say hi, everyone.”

“you’re already breaking the rules, i like this new look on you.” sasha speaks up first, lips curling up in a smile that didn’t meet her eyes. “it would be nice to not be the only girl in this group.”

“can’t take the pressure, sasha?” zenix teases with a grin.

“or maybe i just can’t stand your face, zenix.”

“shut up, you love me.”

“i’m not that desperate.”

zenix scoffs. “me neither.”

“will you two quiet down? you’ll scare away our new friend here. hey, we introduced ourselves to you, so now it’s only polite for you to do the same.” gene nudges your shoulder once before letting you go.

you shortly give your name, chest brewing with an uncomfortable fog as you debate just running back inside. either way you risked your reputation, so your feet end up sticking to the ground as you swallow at the dry feeling in your throat. 

“you didn’t get anything to eat?” sasha questions, sleepy eyes pointedly looking down at your empty hands.

you look down at them as well, as if you hadn’t very purposefully walked past the cafeteria so no one knew you were off doing something you weren’t supposed to. you turn to glance back towards the school, before looking back to shrug at the girl.

“um… no, i forgot.”

dark silvery eyebrows turn up unimpressed before she plucks an apple off of her tray and tosses it to you. it catches you off guard and you clumsily catch it, fumbling and nearly dropping it down into the gravel.

“…thanks.”

she shrugs, humming a small “mhm” in return.

“…hm. you know, thinking about it, i dunno about that name.” gene suddenly says.

“right? i think we should give her a nickname instead.”

…what? your name wasn’t hard to pronounce in the slightest. before you can protest they’re already discussing the matter, tossing around name ideas they should give you like you were their new pet.

“what about dolly? since she’ll be running our errands for us like a little doll.”

“no, that’s too much. hm… she really did give a good beating on ivy despite being smaller than her, she’s got claws. how about kitty?”

“hm, a cute pet’s name, i like it.” sasha says, leg swinging off the side of where she sat.

“sasha and kitty for sk. i like it.” zenix adds, smile taunting as he looks at you.

your eyebrows pinch together, voice tight in irritation. “my name isn’t hard. i don’t need a nickname.”

gene’s eyebrow raises, challenging as he tilts his head.

“oh? sounds like the voice of someone who’s bold enough to let a picture of her fighting skills spread around.”

you scoff.

“listen. i hate to say it, kitty, but we have the upper hand here. we know it’s a bit devious, but we just want you to join us. you wouldn’t reject people wanting to be your friend, would you? especially ones that are also bad and break the rules.”

“i’m not going to—”

“no? well if that picture starts floating around who do you think will be your friend? us, or those goody two shoes friends you hang out with?”

“it’s none of their business what happened.” you snap, your brain scrambling for responses and too exhausted from the conversation to come up with any.

“then why don’t you say that to one of them?” gene hums in taunting amusement, head tilting as he looks at you through his lashes. “look behind you.”

your heart thuds and drops in your chest as you turn to see laurance, walking up to you in his soccer uniform, eyes narrowing at gene.

“is he bothering you?” he looks to you, brows furrowed.

your mouth drops open, trying to find something to say. his eyes seem to catch onto the draining of the blood from your face, his hand reaching out to grab your arm and pull you closer to his side.

“come on, you don’t need to be hanging out with—”

“no need to get so defensive, laurance. she wants to hang out with us.” gene cuts him off.

laurance freezes, eyes narrowing as he looks between you and the trio. “huh?”

gene stares at you, a toothy grin on his sharp features. 

“yeah,” you barely keep your voice steady as everyone focuses on you. “they’re not so bad once you get to know them.”

“…what?” laurance questions again, as if he thought he was hallucinating your words.

“yeah, she’s a real sweet girl. i really think i’m starting to see the error of my ways because of her.” gene takes a few steps closer. 

“really?” laurance asks, tone disbelieving.

“yeah! in fact she was just telling us to stop hanging back here and tagging up the place. i’ve never felt more moved.”

sasha and zenix nod along to his words, taking his lead as he looks to them. gene then waltzes right up to you, handing you a crumpled and folded slip of paper.

“here’s my number. text me later, i may need some help on my homework later. why don’t you go with laurance and we’ll catch you later.” he chuckles. “i can really picture our friendship blossoming.”

you give a half-hearted breath of a laugh in return, backing up with laurance. 

“okay, later.”

you feel sick. 

“are you okay?” laurance asks you once you’re out of earshot, leading you to the benches where the soccer team sits, the area pretty empty at the moment other than a few players practicing on the field.

“huh? oh yeah, i’m good.”

he stares at you, fingers tapping against the other. 

“…you sure? you know, those three are really good at acting and putting up a front. i really don’t think—”

“i know! trust me, it’s fine.”

his eyebrows furrow like he wants to say something but changes his mind, glancing back at the empty bleachers you were just behind. 

“you know eating outside during lunch is against the rules though, don’t you?”

you hold back a sigh. 

“…no, i didn’t know.”

laurance sighs looking at the apple still clutched in your hands. “…is that all you have for lunch?”

“oh, yeah. i forgot to… get some.”

he looks back up at you, before reaching into the soccer team’s snack box and handing you chips and a cheese stick.

“you don’t need to—”

“eat.” he raises a challenging eyebrow when you hesitate, lips curling up in appeasement when you start peeling open the cheese wrapper.

a call of your name falls from his lips, prompting you to look up into concerned eyes. 

“be careful.”

☆

as you change in the locker room out of your sweaty athletics uniform, your phone buzzes on the bench.

gene: meet me near the back of the school

you suppress a sigh, keeping your face neutral in front of your group of girl friends beside you.

you: ok

aphmau was able to catch you alone in the hallways at one point, round eyes wide with worry. apparently she had also been confronted by gene, but that guy from her werewolf class had supposedly interrupted their talk, cutting the confrontation short.

you weren’t as lucky, you groaned internally, as you swung open the back doors to the school, finding your way down the stairs and spotting gene by the fence line. he’s changed into casual clothes rather than his school uniform, you note, the dark and grungy clothes a polar difference from the neat school uniform he was forced to wear. 

“…what is it?”

“walk with me to my house.”

any anxiety you feel is overridden as you shoot a sharp glare up at him, nose wrinkling in disgust. “no. why would i do that? are you some kind of pervert?”

gene barks out a laugh, head throwing back as he holds up his arms defensively. “woah, put the claws away, kitty! it’s nothing like that. i won’t claim i’m a good guy, but i’m not a total piece of shit either. i need you to meet my mom.”

“…what.”

“i’ll explain on the walk there.” he nods at you to walk along with him, beginning to make his way down the street.

you hesitate, teeth gritting. before you realize it your feet have carried you after him, catching up to the long-legged boy.

“if you try anything i’ll beat the shit out of you. i don’t care if you’re bigger and taller, i’ll find a way.” you threaten, even if you weren’t confident in your own words. 

gene seems amused by your threat, something you’ve begun to notice as a trend. “unless you were forced to take taekwondo as a kid i’m afraid you have no chance. i can appreciate your attitude, though. having a backbone looks good on you.”

you release a quiet sigh, glancing over warily at his tall frame, noticing the bit of lean muscle that cling to him. despite being on the thinner side, you knew he was most definitely right.

“what is it you want me to do?”

he hums. “ah, right. so, my mom’s been on my ass lately about hanging out with sasha and zenix too much… saying they’re bad influences.”

he scoffs, hands tucked into the pockets of his black jacket.

“i just need you to pretend like you’re a new friend of mine, helping me out with school and otherwise being a good influence. should be easy enough for you, you don’t need to even act.”

you huff. “why choose me?”

“why not? besides you doing this for me… and the whole picture thing… you seem pretty cool. maybe i just want to be friends.”

you don’t say anything to that, instead sending him a wary glance as he barks out an amused laugh in return.

on the way the two of you make it to a gas station, where gene turns to walk towards its doors rather than continue down the sidewalk, much to your chagrin.

when your footsteps stop from behind him he turns, looking back at you with a sigh.

“listen, i don’t live in a shady part of town necessarily, but at least come inside with me.” he says, his usual teasing cadence gone as he waves you to him. 

though he wasn’t implying anything you feel a shiver run up your spine, fingers drifting to zianna’s locket as your eyes drift around at the cars passing by. you spot one, all black, parked near the side of the building.

black rims, black paint, blacked out lights, blacked out windows.

no, it’s nothing.

plenty of people have all black cars.

but…

quickly, you shuffle after gene, listening to the doorbell chime as you rush into the door after him.

he gives you a questioning look. the one time he wasn’t really trying to tease or scare you and you looked the most scared. he doesn’t question it though, instead telling you to look around while he buys what he needs.

you sigh, walking down the store aisles, eyes drifting to the different candies. turning to go to the next aisle you nearly bump into a taller man. he looked average. tanned skin and brown hair… but when you look into his eyes…

there’s a certain emptiness to the shade of brown you look into. something cruel and unforgiving—something you didn’t even see in gene’s. despite their warm color, they lacked any sense of care. it sends a cold chill starting from your cheeks and down your back, like someone had dumped ice water over your head.

“excuse me.” you mutter, shuffling past him and quickly putting yourself right next to where gene stood.

he glances at you from the corner of his eye, turning to see the man in the aisle. it’s a few seconds where he doesn’t say anything, face cold and unexpressive as he stares down the man until he leaves the store empty-handed.

the cashier, a rather unimpressed looking woman in her mid twenties glances over to you, raising a thinly plucked eyebrow.

“this your new girlfriend or something?” she glances down at your uniform, lip curling as she stares judgmentally back at gene. “...she looks a little young.”

“what? no, don’t be ridiculous,” gene scoffs. “just my little brothers friend. she’s coming home to study with him, so i’m walking her.”

the cashier deadpans at him. “yeah, okay. if you’re buying these for that lil’ girl i can’t sell em to you.”

“does it look like i’m buying these for her?” he gestures to you with one of his hands, giving an exasperated look to the cashier. “i mean she looks like she makes all a’s and never gets in trouble. c’mon.”

your eyebrows furrow. sell what to him?

the cashier looks you up and down for a moment before sighing, reaching down to the cabinets below her and pulling out a red cigarette case. your eyes widen and you look to gene, who only scoldingly stares you down from the corner of his eye.

“don’t say a thing and act natural.” is what you read from the dark blue irises challenging you to say something before he slides the money over the counter.

the cashier checks him out, narrowing her hooded green eyes at you once more with a concerned glint to them before humming. “you’re good to go. see you later.”

“thanks, donna.” gene casually replies, shoving the cigs in his pocket and ushering you out of the store.

you two walk in silence for a moment, making it a ways down the street before he reaches into the back of his jean pockets, pulling out one of the cigarettes and an old lighter. he lights one, huffing out the smoke and glancing down at you. 

“want one?”

you shake your head. he shrugs, stepping around you to walk on your other side when he sees you blink rapidly from the smoke blowing in your eyes.

“more for me.” he smirks, taking another deep inhale and looking away, slowly letting out his next breath.

“…how did you even buy those?” you ask, frowning as he flicks ash onto the concrete. 

he reaches into his pocket, pulling out his wallet and sliding out not his normal id, but instead another version that was flipped horizontally, the “under 21” warning nowhere to be seen.

“fake id.” he shrugs. “been using it since last year.”

it’s about ten more minutes before the roll of nicotine meets the end of its life. gene stops, crouching down for a second to snuff it out, before carelessly flicking it out onto the street.

“littering?” you narrow your eyes.

“what? it’ll decompose.”

“no, it won’t. not for a long time.”

“whatever.”

“littering is really lame.”

gene scoffs, rolling his eyes. “c’mon, kitty. loosen up. the world will keep spinning to see another day.”

you huff, running back to scoop up the discarded cigarette, still warm from both its flame and staying snugly between gene’s fingers. he stops to look at you, eyebrows raised and pinched, the corner of his mouth turned down in confused amusement. you walk back to him, flipping up the top of the box that still hung out of his jeans and shoving the cigarette down into the empty spot.

he raises a brow before his head tilts back in silent laughter, eyes closed.

“okay, fine, miss goody two shoes.” he laughs, before turning onto the pathway up to a dull blue house. “remember, just act like you’re a new friend of mine helping me out with my grades.”

he pulls out a key chain, unlocking the door and waving you inside. “hey mom, i have someone i want you to meet.”

the inside of the house… is not the environment that you’d expect for a guy like gene to live in. it was perfectly clean, the furniture neat and the fresh scent of lemons and lavender clinging to the air.

an older woman with a taller stature than you and lighter gray-blue hair appears from the hallway, face stern as she looks at her son.

“a new friend? if they’re anything like—” she stops her train of thought when her eyes land on you, face changing to a friendlier expression. “oh, hello sweetie. you’re… gene’s friend?”

gene huffs. “don’t sound too surprised.”

you control your breathing, already feeling guilty pulling in your chest as you prepare yourself to lie to this woman. you raise your hand to shake hers with a small smile, nodding along.

“yes ma’am. it’s nice to meet you.”

“it’s nice to meet you too! i’m maria.” her face is brightened as she grabs onto your hand, shaking it back. “oh, gene, honey. i’m surprised such a proper-looking and lovely girl wants to talk to you! she’s adorable.”

“what?” he sighs, looking much less intimidating than usual as he watches his tongue in front of his mother. “…anyways, mom, she’s been helping me with school. she makes amazing grades and never gets in trouble… right…?”

you nod.

“wow, i can’t believe you made friends outside of that little club of yours—”

“—it’s a gang—”

“—i’m so proud. do you need a ride home, sweetie? gene and i were just going to leave for dance lessons.”

“oh, that’s okay. i can walk.”

maria shakes her head. “oh, but a girl like you shouldn’t walk alone on the streets, especially with the traffic right now. we’re not necessarily in a dangerous part of town, but still.”

you freeze, before nodding. “if you don’t mind, that would be nice.”

“of course not! gene lets go.” she nods, pulling her keys out of the purse on her shoulder and walking out the front door.

you two stand there for a moment before you turn to gene with a raised eyebrow, a smirk fighting to break out on your face.

“…dance lessons?”

his nose crinkles before he bends his torso, the scent of cigarettes still fresh on his breath as he slits his eyes at you.

“don’t you dare utter a word of that to anyone, or everyone in the school will know about that picture.” he whispers, before straightening himself and pacing forward towards the door. “c’mon, sweetie, time to go home.”

©starhvney, 2024. please do not steal or repost my works as your own.

[maxanor]

Watched up until ep 9 so here are more of my abbreviated thoughts, don't want to make this ask too long but many thoughts head never empty about this show and my babygirls.

Ep 5: god what an episode, the official and final break up of my best girls. The scene where Alicent walks into the banquet in that green dress: lifechanging, actual chills, that scene is sooo good and other people don't seem to care about it as much as I do from what I saw online but like that scene is insane, I want to live inside of it; the meaning of the colours, the declaration of war, THE MUSIC (!!)

Ep 6: the shift to the older actors oooh we're here, they're both so excellent and just the tension in this episode, like that's sexual the small council scene uuhm Alicent babes look away and Rhaenyra stop touching that ball there is a touch starved lesbian across from you have some decorum (also Alicent was at her most bitchy (affectionate) this episode and I kind of lived for it)

Ep 7: THE episode. Now why did I have to see that Dae/myra sex scene?? Controversial opinion: the knife scene was more sexual than the Dae/myra sex scene, something something stabbing as a metaphor for gay sex, stabbing your homoerotic situationship after breaking up 10 years ago something something. WHERE IS DUTY WHERE IS SACRIFICE - Olivia that entire scene, yeah I was captivated (also Otto being proud, oh the toxic generational abuse continues yes tragedy)

Ep 8: Viserys losing an eye after not giving a shit Aemond lost an eye and not doing anything, oh I call that poetic justice. Rhaenicent making soft eyes at each other oh the gays are at it again, who let them out? The children continuing their fighting because of the damage their mothers already did, oh the generational conflict continues, cannot bury the hatchet when you have sown hate for years

Ep 9: no one seems to agree online from what I saw, but honestly maybe one of my favourite episodes of the season, maybe that is because I adore Alicent and this episode was all about her in my opinion. The scene between Rhaenys and Alicent, loved that, they could not have played that scene any gayer but maybe that's just me. Otto calling Alicent out about her feelings surrounding Rhaenyra, like at this point the closet is glass sweetie. "Childhood companion", the subtext is there if they ever make it maintext I will sob.

Question: I know the actors have discussed the queer subtext but have any of the writers or directors ever hinted at it as well? It can't be all coincidental right?

Anyways this got way way too long, my bad🩵 going to watch ep 10 soon, wish me luck🫡

making popcorn to answer this ask mwahahaha 🍿

ep5 – god this episode is heartbreaking, emily carey's acting is just incredible i love her so much!! this was actually the first episode i watched live and i know people were freaking out about it, but it does seem to get overlooked in light of everything that comes next

ep6 – EMMA AND OLIVIA 🫶 both their introductions are incredible and i'm forever thankful they were cast <3 the small council scene is insane 😵‍💫

ep7 – soooo true this is THEEE episode!!! although ofc every time i think of this episode i redact the dae/myra sex scene bc poor rhaenyra has been thru so much she doesnt need that as well!! also your opinion is not controversial, rhaenicent absolutely have more chemistry, both emma and olivia's performances in that scene are insane god i love them (bonus: the script from the scene)

ep8 – i loveeeee this episode sooo much, their children are so poisoned against each other but alicent and rhaenyra cannot help but want to mend their relationship like they yearn for each other so deeply they'll never be free!!!! also aemond is my best friend in this episode i love him <3

ep9 – i love this episode too!!! i don't necessarily subscribe to any "team" but the targtowers are just much more interesting than all of the team black characters (excluding rhaenyra) and i love seeing the inner-workings of the green council. also aegon's coronation scene is so incredible oh tgc the actor you are!!! and "you imbecile" being unscripted like oh that shit is insane 😵‍💫

to answer your question about the writers/directors supporting rhaenicent, yes they do! i'll put some quotes under the cut <3

"they are good friends with this potential romantic entanglement from earlier on that has always been a big thing for that, that i thought it was an essential component  of why they are such close friends. it seems like it’s a kind of unrequited love…rhaenyra has this deep longing for her best friend" – miguel sapochnik (co-showrunner involved in s1, he's not going to be involved in s2 due to some internal drama lmao)

"the underlying theme is that rhaenyra is actually in love with alicent. with milly as young rhaenyra, it was very much about seeing how she experiences this constant series of small rejections from alicent" – miguel sapochnik

"alicent is feeling very alone. so when rhaenyra enters, that’s what she wants. she wants the love in her life, and it’s a bit of a love story in a way, of these two women" – geeta patel (directed 1x08)

"[rhaenyra and alicent] are in my mind a divorced couple. they were in love as friends, and now they are apart" – geeta patel

"these two young women who were friends as girls, who grew up deeply loving each other...and then how they were forced into this situation by the pressures put on them by the aristocracy and by the patriarchy, by these ancient political constructs around them" – ryan condal (main showrunner)

"there is an element of queerness to it, whether you see it that way or as just the unbelievably passionate friendships that women have with each other at that age. i think understanding that element of it sort of informs the entire rest of their relationship...at the core of it, they knew each other as children, and they loved each other and that doesn't go away" – sara hess (executive producer/writer/lesbian)

"despite everything that happened, there is a deep connection and ultimately you can’t erase the fact that you loved and cared for someone. it can get twisted, but it cannot be deleted" – clare kilner (directed 1x04, 1x05, and 1x09)

"i saw the love and romance of these two girls, which makes it all the more tragic when they become estranged" – greg yaitanes (director of 1x02)

honestly there are more and this isnt even getting into everything emma, olivia, emily, and milly have said but 🤗 rhaenicent is canon change my mind!!!!

[celestie0]

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZS2RSBkv1/

Ellie I’m gonna cry I was never into any of this stuff until kickoff like the trajectory of my brain chemicals has just been manipulated by ur writing I’m so hyper fixated and ofc the reason I was reading fanfictions in the first place was bc I was victim to the gojo girl labotomising pandemic that came with jjk season 2 like after growing up and being out of anime and all for a good year and a half and then that happened so suddenly when I was literally reluctant and cynical in watching the season on a whim and next thing I knew I was deranged in my gojo/geto/satosugu obsession but girl if I had one wish and I’m being so fr rn like if it had a time limit and I couldn’t have a family discussion to deeply contemplate what would be the most worthwhile wish that they dictate to me, if an angel came down to me and I had like 10 minutes and I had something in my system so I don’t freak tf out and I’m feeling chill and don’t think about being selfish then you’d think I’d wish for gojo to come to life and fuck me into the earth but the logistics of that are fucked so I’m pretty decided that I’d either wish for kickoff gojo to be my bf irl or to be y/n in kickoff and be written by you <3

moral of the story now I love ur fic and version of the characters more than the actual series

I’ve used my sign off too often I hope this isn’t annoying or creepy im just going into college/uni next year and I have a lot of dreams and aspirations so ig kickoff rlly resonated with me in that way

this isn’t the fat ask that’s pending hehe I just wrote this sitting on the doorstep of my house with my shoes still on cause I just got home

imma need a good relaxed night to get that down but I’m sorry I didn’t offer my support earlier I’m glad sm people did bc even though my possessive nature makes me think I’m ur biggest fan the truth is a lot of people are as taken by you and ur work as I am, I just should of typed up something on the matter as soon as I saw ur post but I rlly wanted to put thought into it and any kind of writing is a real chore for me so I’m waiting until I have that down time

ik it’s not much to anticipate but it’s important to me lol I wanna be here for u along with the many other anons

also that TikTok was random but this Olympic lovey doveyness is making me sick while im in such a state

this was never suppose to be this long I belong in yap jail

-spinster anon or wtv

AW SPINSTER ANON!! THAT'S SO SWEET PLEASE!! OF ALL THE WISHES YOU COULD HAVE!!! (yes def look out for your family first though xd...although i can't lie and say i wouldn't at least THINK about wishing for gojo to come to life and put me in a mating press)

TO SAY YOU LOVE THEM MORE THAN THE ACTUAL SERIES CHARACTERS i'll sob stop. and aww i'm so glad kickoff is resonating w you as you start your journey to college!! that's really why i started writing it. there was so many things i wish i had done differently and also so many things i think i took for granted in college, but also so much to celebrate and find joy in! it's hard especially when you don't quite know who you are or what you want and yea i think that's kind of a theme in kickoff, and will be through to the end, but anywho i'm like being very preachy rn haha i wish you best of luck in starting college <3

and aw that's sweet bb thank you, i appreciate you. honeslty the thought enough and to know you love my works is so much support enough!! :'') i appreciate you. and yes that olympic couple was sooo cute i love the way he just picked her up how cute.

[420technoblazeit]

hiiii I like what you were saying abt the difference btwn how spn handles (or doesn't handle) sexuality with crowley and dean (so true bestie) and just wanted to complain about how absolutely steeped in shame/repression the narrative is with sex and sexuality in general. it's just infuriating that this particular facet of conformative pressure from an abusive socially-Christian upbringing is never explored in the show in the way that skewed notions of faith and duty and authority and filial responsibility are. i'm on my first full watch-through (in s11 rn and dreading losing crowley next season) so I've probably missed a lot and may be misinterpreting some of the writers' intentions, but still it's exhausting. I think the funniest way this manifested was when we're introduced to soulless!Sam and we are supposed to know something's off bc he had a no-strings hook-up with a brunette sex worker after being established as the "good" brother who prefers to take things slow and wants a relationship with his sexual partners before smangin' it. Definitely one of the shittiest was when Charlie gets split into "good" and "bad" selves, and only her "bad" self retained her sexuality. And endless agonies with dean's handling of course, but for this convo I think it's really significant that one of the few times the camera actually stays with him for a hookup is in Slice Girls--the sex they have is still pretty vanilla but from the perspective of the show it's definitely toeing the line of "deviancy" by casting dean in a physically submissive role (and!! he liked it!! and him liking it is repeatedly played for laughs and ultimately punished UGH) Like just the general narrative moral "good" in the show is sooo normative in its framing, and it sucks so much. wish we had something more full-throatedly subversive of the ists and isms inherent to the romanticization of Americana and the suburban dream, and it may not be that deep but I think unexamined puritanical shame wrt to sex in general from the writers room really kneecapped their ability to follow through with a meaningfully healing character arc for deano

no you're absolutely right! i think it's very ineteresting that dean's sense of duty is directly paralleled with the angels' whole holy mission thing because they're both abusive situations. the weird thing is that the show is still insistent on showing faith as something that is pure and good that even when you compare sam and dean, it's sam, the 'good' one, that keeps his faith

i think through a queer lens it would've been really interesting to explore the repression dean has and how that ties in to the fact that he was raised in an abusive christian household but the writers never go there because let's face it, they were homophobic so every portrayal of dean's sexuality is through a homophobic lens. on the one hand sam being less sexually active than dean is sometimes portrayed as him having more respect for women, but you're right in the fact that being less sexual is still indirectly tied to sam being the 'good brother' steeped in more christian ideals

i don't remember enough about the charlie soul splitting plot to comment on that part but if that's true then hoooooooly shit. that's like. a new level of homophobia with a character who's canonically queer

anyway i hope you have fun with season 11! best of luck, i don't remember season 12 being particularly enjoyable but i remember having a lot of fun with the character dynamics at least. o7 for crowley ty for the ask

[streets-in-paradise]

Hi! I’d just like to say congratulations on getting that new chapter out. I know how hard you must be working over the last months with these two chapters and I’m sooo happy you posted. Rn it’s exam season and I remember being this thrilled same time last year because this is my absolute favorite fan fic. Achilles and the princess are such a perfect match and I’ve been searching for that exact trope for months before finding yours. It’s so sad that they’re apart, but you’ve managed to keep the story interesting without the romance and I have to say I’m impressed. I love that we get to see Achilles’ point of view in this chapter cause I’ve been wanting to have an inside on what’s going on with him just as bad. I can seriously say that I missed that character. Although I’m really depressed that it’s probably gonna have a lonely ending for the princess because of the famous death of the love of her life. I have to say that your work has touched me deeply and honestly I just wanted to communicate with the author of the story that literally keeps me up at night. I can’t wait to read the chapter after the exams ( I must have my full attention on it obviously)!!

Keep up the amazing work!

Welcome back, dear , and thank you so so much 💕💕

It's always a pleasure to see you in my notifs and ask box. You are literally so wonderfull and your words always leave me speechless. What you describe is just so wholesome, when i started this i never imagined i was going to be the author of the fic that keeps someone up at night .

This is a dream come true and i have such strong attachement to this story that knowing this only increases my will to deliver you the best of me in each chapter. Your feedback is not only flattering, but also tranquilizing. When plot circunstancies had to separate the main pairing for a while I feared people could get bored. Knowing you are still hooked to the story despite they haven't seen each other for quite a few chapters is very very relieving :)

Also, same. I love the pairing, when i started writing i didn't imagine I was going to love them this much. They are so perfect, sometimes i reread myself for writing reasons and wonder how did i managed to write them like this. I fully fell in love with the character of Achilles through the process of writing this fic and i also missed him a lot.

This new chapter i dropped, i have been planning for months. i wanted so badly to get back at him and show more of his homeland. I craved a chance to worldbuild my own in movie universe headcanons for the myrmidons and show more of Achilles in his most mysterious version: domestic, what he does when he isn't fighting. Of course, all of this while also getting more insight of the romance plot from his perspective.

I have a few surprises planned for the next couple of following chapters and I don't want to ruin those for you, but i sincerely hope you will enjoy reading this new chapter i uploaded as much as i enjoyed writing it. And don't worry at all, take as much time as you need to get into it.

Wish you the best of luck in your exams week🍀 🤗

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here friend to wish us luck though I'm running late (it's been one of those days). I always have high hopes when Chim finally gets an episode so fingers crossed for us on this one. In other 911 news I am, like you, cautiously hopeful that the love to ABC will be good for the show. As you pointed out changing showrunners for RNM didn't result in the fix we wanted (though I will say I VERY mildly preferred Chris to CAM, if only because of THAT episode. I mean he still didn't do Malex justice but at least Jones was fun) and there is no guarentee they will do that but it's seems a lot more likely now than before. At least it's fun to see the cast unapologetically throwing shade at FOX for letting them go. Even if they don't get the budget for emergencies that they used to maybe at least they can get a budget for a creative person in charge who won't think redressing a plotline is just as good as a new one (or a musical 🙄). Anyway cheers friend, let's hope us powering through these last few episodes will be rewarded in s7 🍷🍷🍷!!!

Just finished watched and I actually had so much fun this episode! A lot of GREAT firefam fun and banter, Chim and Hen having some serious discussions and being the bestest of friends, and we even got Maddie at work and a tiny glipse of Linda and Josh! Plus Ravi being adorable. I had absolutely zero expectations for this episode but it was BLESSEDLY free from random side women, and sperm donor nonsense, and instead full of firefam goodness!

I'm cautiously optimistic about the network move (and Aisha seems very much on board sooo), and if we are really, really lucky we might get a showrunner change. If nothing else, I just want the better pacing this show used to have an interesting emergencies. Budget isn't going to do anything if your showrunner has no imagination 🤷🏻‍♀️

Next week seems like the episode with all the things I've been dreading but hopefully the finale can pull it all together and we can start looking to next season. I'm interested to see how this all shakes out!

[keikuns]

Hellooo Hân~🎅💖 I hope you had a lovely week! Only two days left before the reveal hfkdlz I’m so exited ahah I hope you will like your gift !! ❤️

Yess I am enjoying this pokemon game a lot! And now I hope a DLC will be released soon !😂 Speaking of video games, I saw you’re a fire emblem fan ! 🤭 I absolutely love fire emblem, especially three houses, what is your favorite fe game ?

I know what you mean😂 Did you see jjk new trailer for the second season btw?? 😭 my heart is aching already ahah💔

Vwjdkdkd exactly for sxf 🫠!! I’ve caught up with the lastest chapter yesterday and I was expecting and hoping for sooo much more progress hdjdkzk😂🤡 but still, I really enjoyed reading all these chapters, and now I can’t wait for the next one on sunday hehe 🤭 Who is the character you’re talking about ?(even tho I might have an idea😂)

Good luck for your finals!! And I hope you will!! Mob psycho last episode just aired yesterday, I’m so sad it ended 🥺 but it was sooo good I really love this anime a lot 🥺❤️

I never watched the ones you mentioned 😭 but I’ve wanted to start fma since a while🤭 Aaaaah I like those kind of animes as well !! My first animes were ojamajo doremi, tokyo mew mew, pokemon…those were the animes that were broadcasted on tv when I was little ! And there are also the ghibli movies (which one is your favorite if you have watched them ?🤭) But the animes that "really"made me into animanga were fairy tail and…one piece ! 😂 But it’s definitely when I created my account on tumblr that I started to discover and watch even more animes ahah 😂🥴

(btw the tumblr app literally crashed while I was trying to send you this ask hdhjd I wonder if you will receive it twice🥹🙃)

-Your animanga secret santa 💖🎅🎄

oh no I’m so sorry I’m late replying to this ask 🫠🥲 I’m traveling for the holidays so it’s been super hectic here. i hope you’re doing well though!! thank you so much for the wonderful gift Charlotte!! I love them so much 💕❤️🥹 your coloring is gorgeous ❤️🥹

i hope you’ll enjoy the pokemon dlc!! omg another fe fan!! i love love love awakening! 🥹🤭 it was my first fe game and i enjoyed it so much and it’s the one i replayed multiple times 🥹 what is your favorite fe game?

i need time to catch up to sxf soon 🫠🥲 ahhhh im so behindd. I don’t like yuri lol he’s very 🤔🤨 thank you so much for the well wishes!! i passed my finals so ive been enjoying the break <3. mob is on my ptw list 🤭😊

they’re pretty old anime looool but fma is SO SO GOOD. it was my biggest obsession for years after dbz 🥺🥹 i miss it quite a bit </3 I loved tmm too!! have you seen the reboot? it was kinda meh but nostalgic 🤭 i used to love fairy tail too!! it was so good but then it kinda went downhill lol

(I’m so sorry the app crashed for you 🥲) I hope you have a wonderful holiday Charlotte!!

[parkersbliss]

RIGHT??!! i was screaming while reading it 😭 dont we all wish we had that 🥹 sooo speechless omg five hargreeves,,,, the man that you are

also :( i loved chanel so much! i was so bummed when i realized the 2nd season wasnt set in kkt but it was still sooo good (if i remember it correctly) plus, the absolute it boy glen powell was???? chanel and chad were toxic for each other but the it boy gets it girl duo was so cute

i believe u can do it !! im honestly so amazed at how u can write sooo well in a little amount of time! go gracie !!!!! 🫶🏻

and 😭 i think it's just me being self-conscious but the sparrow ben in me is just soooo evident when i talk to other people :( i just sit at home and think, "omg i think i came off as mean to them" which is often true bcs a lot of my friends' first impression of me were "i thought you were mean," 😭 -✨

five hargreeves is so… 🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️

omg me too!! they are terribly toxic but iconic and I loved that for them?? like they served and I definitely liked s1 more but s2 was good!! i missed ari tho :(

thank you!!! 🫶 trust me once school starts I’ll post once every three months 😭😭

STOP I KNOW WHAT U MEAN… bc I’m the same 😭 I don’t have like good advice ,,, so I’m sorry bc it just kind of sucks like that but if you’ve made friends before despite the first impression you can do it again!! and it’s definitely scary but it is really rewarding :)

it might be easier to approach people who are also alone or I just make dumb comments under my breath and hope the kid next to me laughs… it worked a few days ago!! but best of luck I hope u meet some really cool people

[sckyie]

Hello there ^.^ may I request sfw prompt #3 with Best boi Bokuto?

prompt: "babies equal bigger family. therefore, I want a baby."

word count: < 900

genre + warnings: fluff; married couple, timeskip!japan team, pregnant!reader

pronouns used: she/her

Bokuto had always wanted kids. When he met you and made you his girlfriend, the baby fever never died down. It wasn't news that he wanted kids, he told Akaashi, Kuroo, literally anyone who asked what he wanted in the future. His answer would be to become the greatest ace in Japan and become a father. Since you two started dating, he would ask you to start a family with him.

From when you were babysitting your neighbor's kid. "Babe we should have a kid!"

When you pass by the baby aisle in the store. "Oh my god babe look! The little onesies would be so cute on our kid."

When you got engaged. "Now that you're going to be mine forever, can we have a kid now?"

To now, three years of being married. "Sooo Mamas, whatcha doing?" He smiled as he wrapped his arms around you. 

"Cooking, what did you need love?" You respond as you sturred your dinner.

"You know the empty room we have upstairs?" He points out as you two had just bought your first house together. 

"Hm?" You hummed. 

"Maybe," Bokuto plants a kiss on your neck. He lowers his voice to a whisper. "We should have a baby to fill that space."

"Ko," You dragged the syllable of his name. "Why do you want a baby so bad?"

"Do you not want kids with me, love?" He whines. He released his arms from you and sat down on the chairs by the middle island. "Our babies would be adorable."

"But you didn't answer my question," You turn around. "Why do you want a baby so bad?"

"Well, babies equal bigger family. Therefore, I want a baby," He explained. You chuckled at his logic. "Babe, I'm being serious. Give me a baby." He banged his hand on the table like a toddler.

"You're too cute bub, come help me with dinner and I'll consider it," You laughed. Bokuto was excited to hear this and quickly got up to help with dinner.

The next day while Bokuto was at practice, you met up with Akaashi at a café. "Hey Y/n-san," He says as he seated himself. "Are you going to tell me now why you wanted to meet in private?"

"Yes," You had a small gift bag and slid it to him. "Help me surprise Bokuto with that."

You watch Akaashi slowly open the bag and watched his eyes widen. "Wait this is real?" He smiled. You nod and he stands up to hug you. "How long have you known?"

"About five weeks?" You grabbed the bag, pulling out the sonograms and the pregnancy test. You examined the photos. "Just last night Bokuto asked if we could have a baby and change the empty room into a nursery."

"He's always wanted to have babies," Akaashi laughed. "Which makes me think, why were you so hesitant to have kids?"

"His career was taking off, I was waiting for us to be stable and he's happy in his career," You explained. "My due date is when he starts off-season so we'll have time with the baby."

"Well, we better get started on planning to tell," He says.

For the next week, you and Akaashi met up to plan your surprise. Bokuto was completely oblivious of your plans but still continued to talk about starting a family.

Then, the day rolled around. Today, you would meet with Bokuto and his team at Ushijima's place as a pre-season dinner. You tagged along like you did every year, just this time you were more nervous than ever. Akaashi came with Kuroo as everyone got a plus one, so you didn't have to worry about surprising him alone.

The dinner went smoothly as usual and then came the pre-game speeches. His coaches knew the plan too, making it easier for things to run. It rolled around to Bokuto last who thanked his coaches, teammates, then you. This was your chance.

You had tugged on Bokuto's sleeve just before he could finish his speech. "Hm?" He looked down at you. Akaashi had pulled out his phone to record once Bokuto started to lessen suspicions.

"There's one more person to wish you all good luck for the season," You say, reaching down for your bag. You hand him the bag and he puts down his champagne to open it. You watch as he pulls out the photos and the pregnancy test.

His eyes widen and looks down at you once again. "Babe are you serious?" He smiled. You nod and he immediately picks you up from your seat. Cheers around the room congratulated you while Bokuto hugged you. "I love you so much baby. Thank you for everything," He whispered.

"I love you too," You chuckled. "Don't hug too hard, you'll crush the baby."

"Oh sorry," He smiled. He turns to his team. "And last person to thank is my new baby, giving me motivation to be the best player and a great dad. Let's have an amazing season this year!"

The room is filled with clapping, cheering and joyous yelling. Bokuto turns to you and kneels to meet your belly. "I can't wait to meet you baby owl," He whispered, kissing your stomach.

[lizzy-of-the-valley19]

Fall From Grace, Right Into Your Arms.

Summary: An angel had fallen out of the sky, straight into his arms. Her lovely, glittering amethyst eyes met his wide, soulful, burgundy ones. She thought of how they reminded her of the sky at the blush of dawn. And at that moment, something within them sparked a brand new start on feelings they never knew existed. Oh, how she felt wonderstruck right then, marveling at how pretty his eyes were..." Or rather, this one time where Tsuyuri Kanao's 'superior motor reflexes' did not work. Set in Kimetsu Gakuen AU.

Note: This is very self-indulgent so here’s my first take on one certain sunshine lad and butterfly lass. Shoutout to @sparkleswritings​ for being so patient with me on beta-reading this work. thaaaaankkkk youuuuu so much I couldn’t have done this without your help T_T Also, thank you very much Manu of @tankanaweek2020​ for kindly giving me permission to use the prompts and motivating me to greenlit this! And I’m sooo sorry this came in verrry late and for some marginal errors! But better late than never, right?  Hope you enjoy lovelies! :D

----------

She thought this was the end.

Time flowed around her as if in slow motion yet fast, all at once. The girl was startled by a loud ‘snap!’ from a loose tree branch that she has been holding on to guarantee her safe descent from the cherry tree. And just her luck, she suddenly lost her footing and slipped. With a startled yelp, gravity took over her body as Tsuyuri Kanao felt herself slip away from her hold. For once, her fast reflexes and nimble body were rendered useless when her anxiety suddenly kicked in.

She'll have some broken bones, a few bruises, and cuts, maybe even some blood (she hopes not) all over her body. Her Kanae nee-san would be worried sick and would fuss over her nonstop. Shinobu nee-san would still do the same but she'll give her one hell of a lecture full of poisonous quips. And oh dear, Kanao does not want that. They would skin her alive, that's for sure if she had not died here first.

Had she lived a life with no regrets? Were the last sixteen years of her existence worth it? Will she meet her biological parents in heaven? What or who would she reincarnate into, she wonders. Would the words "Cause of death: A bad fall due to a misstep from a broken branch of a cherry blossom tree" be etched forever in her death certificate? She feels ashamed, this is embarrassing compared to those who died fighting disease and war!

At least those baby sparrows didn't get hurt and were placed back safe and sound , she hoped that their mother would find her nest soon. Kanao doesn't mind if she'd die knowing that she'd rescued something or someone. What a pretty sight, the last thing that she sees on Earth is this old cherry blossom tree in full bloom.

Ah, perhaps that she might become a spirit and haunt this tree to watch over her sisters and the other students at her school. Is this one of those, "When your whole life flashes before your eyes," moments that she has often heard from movies or books?

But here she was right now, her face and skin getting scratched from tree branches and her body was slowly hurtling towards the ground from a 30-foot drop. As she braces for impact, she instinctively wraps her arms closer over her chest, scrunching her eyes shut as the ground approaches nearer and nearer.

How did she get into this mess anyway?

*20 minutes earlier*

"Kanao, I'll be going home earlier today. Mom needs me to help her at the diner because you know… today's Friday and more customers are going to pour in during suppertime. Are you sure you're gonna be okay on your own?" Kanzaki Aoi queried her friend as she adjusted the straps of her bag, slightly worried at her. Club sessions were already done several minutes ago, and the two had just finished cleaning the clubroom.

Kanao shook her head, smiling a bit. "Thank you, Aoi. Besides, I'll be fine! I'll just wait for Shinobu nee-san when she's done with her club activities. I'll lock up the clubroom for today." Aoi was about to say something when a sudden chime made the pigtailed girl flinch, fishing out her phone from her skirt pocket.

"Oh dear, Mom's already calling for me! Gotta run now, bye! And tell Shinobu-sama I said congratulations on passing her exams!" She began to dash to the door, muttering about 'orders' and 'customers'.

Kanao waved at her retreating figure, slightly amused at her friend's antics.

Shortly after Aoi left, the clubroom seemed to be quieter now. The distant holler of the students from sports clubs doing their drills outside is all she can hear at that moment.

Oh… she's now all alone. She still has a bit of time on her own.

Kanae nee-san was still at the meeting with the faculty. Shinobu nee-san, meanwhile,  was still at the Biology room where she convened with the rest of her fellow Pharmaceutical Club members, no doubt testing another poisonous chemical that they had just concocted with ingredients only-God-knows-where came from.

Gathering her things, she exited the Flower Arrangement Clubroom and locked it.

‘Perhaps I'll go to the old cherry tree at the back of the school.’ she mused.It was spring, after all, and she wanted to see what it would look like when it blooms in full swing. The sun was already setting, casting the sky in a rosy hue, basking her surroundings in a warm, golden glow.

By the time she had arrived there, she felt her breath take away at the lovely sight before her. The delicate pink petals fell to the ground like snow, their scent bringing in the fragrance of the new season. The windy breeze swayed the branches slightly, dancing along the springsong. Spring was indeed her favorite season. The flowers blooming, the sweet sakura mochi that she and her sisters would always share while celebrating Hanami, and the warm weather were the few things that she loved about spring. Kanao feels her heart swell with bliss. For her, such moments like these are the ones she cherishes the most.

She also remembered, her sisters would always fawn over spring, gushing that this season was the best time to fall in love for the first time-

"Cheep! Cheep! Cheep!"

"Eh? Birds?" A loud chirping noise interrupted her train of thoughts. A few feet away from her, a fallen nest of baby sparrows laid haphazardly on the ground, no doubt being blown away by the wind. It seems that the thick carpets of grass and cherry blossom petals had somehow cushioned the nest's fall, miraculously rendering the chicks still alive and yet.. Helpless. The girl approached the nest and picked it up gently, making sure the little birds wouldn't get hurt in the process.

"Poor little things. I'll bring you guys back up to the tree, I'm sure your mother is looking for you..."

She craned her head from left to right, checking to see if anybody was around. It would be very improper of her to climb a tree if someone saw her - she'll be damned if it was Tomioka-sensei, their P.E.teacher, and school disciplinarian. The latter had the reputation of hunting rule-breakers like a crazed shark on shallow waters. And she was still dressed in her school uniform with an above-the-knee skirt. If some poor unfortunate soul would see what's under it, she'd made sure that they would never see the light of the day again.

After making sure that no one was indeed around, she slipped off her loafers and started to climb the tree while her one hand held the nest securely. Luckily the tree's trunk had a lot of bumps so it is easier for her to climb the way up. Though she did struggle a bit along the way, she reached near the canopy of the cherry tree successfully.

"There." She spotted a nearby branch dotted with buds, thick and sturdy enough, she remarked. "That'll hold them." she thought, and she pulled her body up to the said branch, sliding the nest to the branch until the twigs held them secure. Kanao smiled, feeling accomplished that she put the baby birds back where they belong.

Now that both of her hands are free, she moved to begin her way down. But suddenly her sock-clad foot took a misstep on a knobby part of the trunk and the branch that she held on to broke. Unfortunately, it was a thin, hollow branch and it broke on her tight grip. Shoot, she should've removed her socks back then to avoid her from slipping. But it was too late - losing her balance, Kanao felt her right hand getting scraped as she slipped off the branch, her body slowly hurtling to the ground the same way the cherry blossom petals fell…

*Back to the present*

No,no,no,no,no,no,no… These words were repeated on her mind like a broken record. This is it, she's going to die, this is the end. But a part of her wished that she wouldn't die yet. She wanted to see her older sisters again, to spend more time with them. With her fellow club members, Aoi, everyone…

"WATCH OUT!" She heard a voice from somewhere down below, but what happened next was not one that she was expecting.

The sudden thud of a fallen branch, the wind picking up, and a person groaning and wincing in pain-

Instead of falling onto the hard, solid, grass-covered ground, she felt two strong arms holding her back and the back of her knees. She landed on a body, a man’s to be exact, judging by the hardiness of it. She gripped his broad shoulders a bit too strongly, her body instinctively seeking an anchor to hold on to. She still scrunched her eyes shut, adrenaline pumping in her veins wildly, her breathing ragged.

"Are you alright, Miss? That was quite the fall that you had..." the words died by his throat as Kanao snapped her eyes open. This time, she felt her breath taken away for the second time that day the moment their eyes met.

Her (unexpected) savior was a young man about her age; with messy, slicked back maroon hair, a noticeable scar on his forehead, and hanafuda earrings dangling on his ears. But one feature that stood out the most is his eyes - wide, soulful burgundy ones that reminded her of the sky in the blush of dawn that seemed to shine against the sunset's golden rays. He stared at her with his lips parted, almost in disbelief that this random beautiful girl fell right into his arms.

As if on cue the wind picked up once more, sending the petals scattering on a graceful dance on the air. Her heart thumping wildly, all she can hear is her heartbeat ringing loudly in her ears. She and this handsome stranger looked at each other, her wide amethyst eyes meeting his dawn-red ones. Their faces were only centimeters apart, noses almost touching. She was rendered wonderstruck, marveling at how lovely his eyes were, his gaze was magnetic and deep as if they saw each other's souls at that moment, beckoning-

The school's last bell snapped them out of their reverie, breaking whatever spell that was cast in that ephemeral moment. The realization hit them like a ton of bricks as she just processed what happened: she crash-landed on some random guy and fortunately caught her ungraceful fall from the tree. With a yelp, she flailed off his arms and the young man grunted with an 'oof!' but still he helped her down, albeit a bit too unceremoniously.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!!! Are you okay? Are you hurt?" She flailed, oh dear spirits, she hoped that whoever caught her was alright or she has broken anything! Really, what was she thinking?!

"No, no, no, it's really alright! I'm okay!" The young man in front of her flailed his arms as he helped her up. Their eyes met again, this time a hint of crimson dusted their cheeks. The two instinctively averted their eyes, too embarrassed at the events that just happened. For her being caught by a random stranger was rather shameful and for him, he was rather flustered of the girl before him.

A few beats later, Kanao gathered herself. She slipped her loafers back on and gathered her bag from the ground. With newfound courage, she apologized to him once again. "I'm sorry! I've crash-landed on you… Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere? Did something break? I'm very, very sorry!"

To her surprise, he chuckled. "It's okay, I promise! Don't worry, I've had worse. I have a friend who loves to roughhouse with me and boy, it's like I'm fighting with a wild bear or a four-legged beast!"

"I... I see..." Kanao raised her hand but she suddenly flinched, feeling a sudden shot of pain, particularly at her right palm.

"Your palm, it's bleeding..." He noted, and she raised it. He was right - a gash was blooming on it, slightly bloodied due to the broken branch that she held on mistakenly earlier that caused her (literal) downfall. Thank goodness there were no splinters. She touched her wound gingerly, wincing at the slight pain. "Ow..."

"If you don't mind, can I tend your wound for a bit?" The red-haired lad implored. Kanao was about to refuse when he fished out a handkerchief with a forest green and black checkered design from his pocket.

"Don't worry, this one's clean! My little sister, Nezuko, made this handkerchief by herself! This should stop the bleeding in the meantime," He stepped closer to her. Then he proceeded to wrap her wounded palm gently, making sure that it's not too tight. "There we go..all done!"

"Th-thank you….” she timidly thanked him, gently prodding her newly wrapped palm.

"It's no problem at all!" He cheerily replied. She looked up to him and he gave her a radiant grin - the kind where his eyes crinkled at the corners, the dimples on his cheeks showing. Kanao felt her heart skip a beat.

'He's such a kind person… He looks adorable with that smile of his-'

Wait, what?

"By the way... what were you doing up there in the tree?" he queried with his brows raised, pointing at the canopy above them.

"Oh! I.. uh.. I was returning the baby sparrows' nest there," she said, motioning for him to follow where she pointed on a branch that's quite… high. She gulped, he wasn't kidding that she'll quite have an incident, heaven forbid. Right now, the mother sparrow was now back on the nest, feeding her chicks with the food she brought for them.

"I see! Good thing I just came by, I was just about to head to the front gate! Who knows what could've happened to you or the nest, I mean, that's quite the drop, don't you think? You should be extra careful next time!" he chided her, but with no bite. His light-hearted tone somehow reminds her of Kanae nee-san admonishing her sometimes.

"I couldn't just leave them here on the ground..." Kanao trailed off, pushing a stray strand to her ear. She looked shyly at him.

"Oh… You're very kind to animals, Miss... Ah, I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Kamado Tanjirou, a first-year student! Nice to meet you! " He bowed, albeit sloppily, and took out his hand, which made the girl in front of him giggle.

"Tsuyuri."

"Eh?"

"Tsuyuri Kanao. Second-year, member of the Flower Arrangement Club. Um..." she gathered herself, "Thank you! For.. um, catching me, I mean. And for treating my wound!" she frantically clarified, and took his extended hand.

"You're very welcome, Tsuyuri-senpai..." Tanjirou's crooked yet bright smile once again graced his features, directed at her only. Once their hands made contact that inexplicable tingly and fluttery sensation coursed through their veins once more.

It’s like earlier, the moment our eyes first met.  

They just stood there, his dawn-red eyes meeting her amethyst ones, both of their lips drawn into a soft smile. In that ephemeral moment, she felt something piercing her heart, perhaps the season was getting on to her. She must admit, this feels nice…. Is this what her sisters meant about spring?

He was the first one to relinquish his hand from her hold. For some reason, she's now missing the warmth in her hand.

"It's gonna get dark soon, we should head home, huh?" She heard him mutter. She silently agreed, now trailing beside him. Leaving one last glance at the blooming tree, they left the place together. Tanjirou was now enthusiastically talking about bread and the bakery that his family owns. As they approached the school gates, Kanao already spotted her two elder sisters there, waiting for her.

"Oh, Kanae nee-san and Shinobu nee-san's already there," she remarked.

"They're your sisters?!" Tanjirou exclaimed.

"That's right!" she quipped, giggling a bit at his bewildered expression.

"Yoo-hoo, Kanao! And oh my, Kamado-kun too!" Kanae cheerily waved at them. Shinobu greeted them with a smile too. But when she spotted Kanao's wrapped right hand, her eyebrows shot up. She looked at her little sister in question. Kanao pursed her lips guiltily, mouthing "Later."

"Well then, I'll be taking my leave now! I'll see you next Monday, Kochou-sensei! Shinobu-senpai! And..." Tanjirou paused to look at her, smiling crookedly at her again. "Tsuyuri-senpai!" With a wave, the red-haired lad trotted off.

Kanao waved at him, whispering, "Take care..."

Once Tanjirou was out of earshot, two pairs of hands immediately fell to her shoulders and she turned to see her two sisters smiling sweetly at her. Kanae's eyes were shining with excitement and joy. Shinobu, meanwhile, smiled at her graciously too, but her expression literally said, “Explain or I’ll extract from it to you forcibly”.

Oh no. Once intrigue swept over them, they would never stop.

"My oh my Kanao. Care to tell the story between you and Kamado-kun, hmm? And what's up with your wrapped hand?" Shinobu said sweetly but laced with a little apprehension.

"Ahh! Shinobu, spring has finally come for our cute little sister, I'm so proud of her~! Let's eat some sakura mochi for dessert later, we have lots to celebrate for tonight!" Kanae passionately declared while she grabbed Kanao in a one-armed hug.

"Nee-san! We have to treat her wound first!" Shinobu said exasperatedly, raising her little sister's hand for her to see.

"Oh my~! Kamado-kun did a great job patching her up, no? I'll give him some extra points in the next class for this! He deserves a reward for treating our cute little sister~!" Kanae ignored her younger sister's quips, too excited that her Kanao had finally found a friend of the opposite sex (and a potential little brother too!)

"Isn't that a bit too much, nee=san? And you, Kanao, I didn't know you're now canoodling with rule-breakers? I see that boy running into trouble with Tomioka-sensei all the time!" Shinobu quipped.

"N-no! It wasn't anything like that!" Kanao stammered, her cheeks and ears now fully red.

Kanae giggled. Then she wrapped her arms around their shoulders, with Shinobu on her left, and Kanao on her right. "Let's go home now shall we? We can tell each other's stories tonight! I'm also curious about what happened to you Kanao. Shinobu, take it a little easy for our little sister, she's now starting to bloom and broke out of her timid shell!"

The two butterfly girls sighed but smiled fondly at their elder sister nonetheless. "Yes, nee-san.."

----------------

"I'm home!"

"Welcome back, onii-chan!" Tanjirou's little siblings, Hanako and Shigeru, greeted their eldest brother, running up to him for a quick hug. The oldest Kamado sibling immediately hugged them both tightly.

"You're a little late than usual today Tanjirou-nii chan, did something happen at school?" Hanako questioned after he set them down.

"Well..." he averted his gaze, picking on his blazer until he found a stray small cherry blossom flower that somewhat got stuck in his breast pocket.  Ah, a small remnant of that 'little incident' a while ago… and her image suddenly flashed in his mind

"An angel from the sky fell right into my arms and she had the most beautiful eyes that I've ever seen..." Tanjirou unknowingly mused, holding the small flower in his fingers with a wistful smile.

Hanako and Shigeru tilted their heads at their elder brother's mysterious words. “What are you talking about nii-chan?”

Instead of answering, he just patted their heads lovingly. "Ah, nothing. Let's help mom prepare dinner, shall we?"

~End of Prompt One~

[xsecretblastsx]

2x01 Summer Kind of Wonderful

SEASON TWO HERE WE GO.

I was dying to get here, this is one of my favorite episodes in the whole show. It’s also the episode were I really turned into a Chair shipper, so there’s that too, also The Hamptons!! Honestly was not to love about this episode.

I think this is the longest recap I’ve done in a while. As usaul recap under the cut.

Thoughts I had while watching:

I’ve watched this before and yet I’m still surprised our first taste of S2 is Nate going at it

After the super promising tease on Nate and Serena on the S1 turns out... she’s covering for him while he sleeps around... 😒

Chuck being Chuck, still a womanizer, still obsessed with Blair and as always ignoring Serena’s disgusted face. Also hilarious his enormous basket with cuttlery and such.

Look Joe Goldberg!!! Or is it Dan Humphrey? This bookstore setting is making it even more confusing.

Hi Jenny! And her never ending disatisfaction with her place at whatever she’s trying.

This scene between Chuck and Serena is so underrated. Her mocking face is hilarious. Pimp all you want Chuck it’s useless. Good luck in your suicide mission indeed.

What’s a Jitney? 😆How about where Blair returns to the Hamptons with a new beau. On your face Chuck Bass! On the words of GG: ain’t karma a bitch? We know Blair Waldorf is.

“A hot lifeguard is like Kleenex: use once and then throw away, you couldn’t ask for a better rebound” so says Blair 🤔

“The only thing lamer than dating Dan Humphrey is mourning Dan Humphrey” speaking words of wisdom Blair Waldorf

Of course all the wisdom goes out the window when Chuck appears. With the most extra polo ever and the shortest shorts in the history of menswear

Not that Blair wasn’t transparent with all her talk about James but oh my god Serena’s is so bad a going along with it.

“You’re lying. Your eyes are doing that thing were they don’t match your mouth” Chuck Bass: a walking manual on Blairisms

“I bet you’ll like him as much as I do” “If by that you mean I won’t like him at all then you’re right” meanwhile Serena is trying to pretend she’s anywhere else and not there silent witness to that verball pin pong

I always wonder how Jenny and Dan end up being like that with a Dad like Rufus

So this is “Jenny admitting she was a bitch and that Eric didn’t deserve it” first season.

“A honk instead of a knock? Did someone order a townie?" Blair’sn lines this episode are hilarious

I feel bad thinking that Nate’s main contribution so far is looking really good without a shirt.

Chuck Bass: a walking encyclopedia on everything Blair Waldorf.

If only the show had given us more Chuck and Cece interactions.

I feel I should have kept a score for all the Chuck and Blair jibes to each. That pin play on Blair’s part was check mate though. Auch. I almost feel bad for Chuck. Almost

In terms of cinematography that scene were they talk about the pin is gorgeous probably my fave in the show only behind that scene in Paris in S4. The matching outfits, the colors and the scenery are sooo good. Also the acting.

Knowing her like he does it’s interesting Chuck doesn’t realize Blair only gave that pin to James to hurt him. But the fact that it works is very telling on Chuck’s insecurities and feelings.

Nate being kicked out so the husband won’t catch him wouldn’t be half as hilarious if it wasn’t for Serena’s “no effing way face”

“Damn that Motherchucker” a novel by Blair Waldorf

I love Blair’s summer dress by the way

“All I could see was that Chuck Basstard” the sequel novel, also by Blair Waldorf

What a difference a summer makes: Nate and Chuck talking about Blair. I do feel Nate’s like “thank god it ain’t me anymore”

“And unlike you I don’t lose something if I let it out of my sight” Blair strikes again, this girl is on fire.

This episode is kind of proving that I barely care for any other storyline that doesn’t have the original four. After those two side by side arguments, getting back to Dan is really annoying

I kind of love it when Rufus points out to Dan how he never stops talking and doesn’t let anyone else said anything. Is kind of boring already how he only seems to write about Serena and the UES.

Chuck’s cricket outfit reminds me of how I should enjoy the crazy outfits while they last.

Ofc Chuck’s has a PI on speed dial Eric, duh. Gotta love him though: “i know that face, that face is not your friend” sorry Nate

I’m still trying to come up with the reason why the show let the fake dating storyline between Nate and Serena be such a waste. Whyyyy????

Just in case I forget: this white party was sponsored by Vitamin Water. For real there’s product placement and then there’s this.

The constrast between Serena looking like a greek goddess next to Nate’s I didn’t bother of an outfit is making me dizzy.

Chuck’s outfit for the white party kind of deserves a post of his own. Then again is probably my fave outfit of his on the whole show.

James calling out Blair for using him, while mentioning charade feels kind of overplayed now. Anyway he’s already pointing out how Blair and Chuck are the same and that’s why they deserve each other.

“Don’t you see? We’re the same? Stop trying to fight it” “I will fight it to my last dying breath because any resemblance to you is something I would hate about myself” this whole dialogue feels like a premonition.

Serena and Nate kissing and being totally into it while paparazzi plays is the background is just one of those moments. This is the kind of content I’m here for. Only to be ruined by Dan Humphrey.

And here we are again Dan getting mad when he doesn’t have a right to, thankfully karma is a thing in the form of drinks poured all over him

And somehow is Serena the one busy cleaning that suit, useless Dan is useless

Chuck’s “I’m so screwed” face when his PI tells him Blair’s guy is actually a british Lord is priceless.

THREE WORDS EIGHT LETTERS SAY IT AND IM YOURS.

Epic scene aside they both look so good here. This episode is gift in matching outfits.

Dan, Serena and fireworks. 😪 here we go again

I loved this episod the first time I watched it and I think I love it even more so now. It’s really good, full of funny lines, great outfits and epic moments. Season two is as of now my fave season (i think this is also true for many people) and it starts with a bang. Quite literally actually with the opening scene being Nate going at it with an “older” woman, which I guess was meant to be shocking in part because we ended last season wondering if something was going to happen between Nate and Serena.

Sadly it didn’t and that’s my biggest complain for this episode because how on earth did they thought it was ok to waste all that set up, and to add insult to the injury they are like so Serena and Nate are secretly dating... but it is just like a throway line because except for that amazing kiss at the white party we never see them fakee dating and I honestly want to pull my hair out of frustration. Just imagine the possibilities that weren’t, granted fake dating is one of my favorite tropes but it could have been quite the storyline imagine: Serenate fake dates and that sparks the feelings that were pushed aside on S1 but that were always there, and now there’s nothing that can stop them to act on it, except Serena has feelings for Dan too, and she struggles because of it all the first half of S1 until eventually she picks Dan and breaks Nate’s heart, combined with all the other pressures in his life, he wants something easy and this happens to coincide with Blair’s downright spiral and that’s how Nair happens again in the second half of S2.

My point being you could add so many more moments in the Serenate saga, also give more force to the idea the show always tried to do: that Serena can’t really let go of Dan, because Nate and her are quite something and yet... and still have almost the same story on the second half which was important because it gave closure to Nair and also had both Chuck and Blair realizing a couple of things. Alas one can only dream and be happy that at least we got that kiss at the white party

So back to the episode, we learn that Nate is having and affair with a married woman, Serena misses Dan a lot and basically mourned him the whole summer meanwhile he was being an asshole in the City fooling girls he met at his intership and Jenny is working and trying to stand out in her own internship at Waldorf desings. Which reminds me Eric is such a gem of a character, he’s always have good one liners but whe’s also a nice counter balance to all the manipulation and bitchery going around him. Anyway all of these storylines are barely a tease of what’s coming, and they really take off in the next episode, so I’ll get into them then, so at the end of the episode Nate manages to keep the affair goin into the city, Jenny earns a bit of respect from her boss and Serena and Dan see each other again (thanks to Cece which is another character I wish we had see a bit more) they meet at the beach ready to see if there’s something to salvage between them. We’ll see.

The real star of this episode are Chuck and Blair. This episode belongs to them. I’ve seen comments that claim this is the season that made them epic and really take off and I quite agree, and this episode in particular sets up the stage for it, touching on a lot of the aspects that are going to be their arc for this season and even beyond. So at the end of S1 Chuck stands up Blair and she goes alone to Tuscany and he doesn’t goes after her the whole summer. Instead he spends the summer in The Hamptons being Chuck Bass, she ends up in France. We soon learn that while Chuck  enjoyed himself during the summer Blair wasn’t far off in his mind:, the minute she’s back he goes aftet her, roses in hand only to find out she came back with a new guy, and she does everything in her power to rub that fact in his face which Chuck should have expected, it obviously bothers him but truth is they both know this is just Blair trying to get back at him for abandoning her, he hurt her, she obviously doesn’t tell him but he ruined his summer and she couldn’t stop thinking about the motherchucker

Shenanigans ensue but there are bits that really stand out: first of them the heart pinn. That's a telling bit about Chuck’s feelings, when that pin make its first appearance on S1 it was the beginning of the end for Chuck, the meaning of it was what got her to accept going to Cotillion with Nate  and now she has gave it to James and Chuck buys it because I guess part of him couldn’t believe she would go as far as to use that to hurt him, that’s a low blow and she also didn’t gave it to him that week they were going out after the wedding, even though it went really well but most importantly he believes she can’t really feel that way about him because he’s just not the kind of guy someone can feel something for, but specially someone  like Blair Waldorf, who dreams of finding her prince charming and such, and to his utter horror it’s revealed that Blair’s new guy is actually a british lord. Just his luck.

He’s anything but that, therefore not for Blair. He tells her as a much later in the episode when he let’s her know that he basically stood her up because he was afraid of her getting to really know him and see he was not good enough nor someone she could be with. And this is something that’s going to be quite the struggle for him for a long time, more than once during the show he’s going to remove himself from the picture because he believes she deserves someone better who can actually make her happy, and this season this happens quite a few times.

Thing is nothing is ever that simple, and this is the other bit that really stands out for me: when James calls her out on how she just use him to make Chuck jealous she justifies herself by pointing out Chuck’s an awful person, who lies and deceives so he kinds of deserve it, and James points out the fact that well she’s sort of the same, and they deserve each other. She lashes out at Chuck because of this and blames him for her argument with James, it’s his fault she played with James, and Chuck’s point out that no one force her to do anything she did it because they’re the same, meaning they scheme and manipulate to get what they want, so she should just stop fighting this thing between them, she rejects him claiming she would hate any resamblance to him. This whole argument is honestly quite interesting, because variations of it are going to keep popping up the rest of the show, and depending on who you ship you either take literally as if  Chuck is the root of Blair worst tendencies or rather see this argument as representation of Blair struggles not with Chuck, but with herself.

Blair struggles in accepting herself, at her core she’s an insecure person, and the fact that she has a dark side that she can’t exactly change because it’s so deep roothed in her bothers her even before she and Chuck were anything, to me it bothers her not because she really wishes she was nice & good person, but rather because Serena is  nice person, who’s regarded as literal ray of sunshine at times, and Serena got two things she wanted for the longest time: positive atention from Eleanor and Nate’s interest.So that fight within herself was always there, it didn’t appear the day she started dating Chuck, is just that in the same way they brought out the best in each other, when things go bad between them the opposite sometimes happened, and even then when they blame each other for something half the time it was to share some of the hurt and to avoid dealing with their own shortcomings and mistakes. Truthfully Chuck and Blair did something for each other no one had really done for them they accept each other fully, Blair’s able to accept and love his darkness, and for Chuck there’s no darkness in Blair she’s the way she is and that’s what makes her wonderful. It was easier for them to love each other than to love themselves. 

Finally the biggest stand out of the episode is that iconic scene, the one that really puts into place the dynamic they will have for the rest of the season: Three words, eight letters are brought to the table, and they won’t move forward until the words have been said. It makes sense, because they tried this twice before, the first one came out of nowhere and it ended with Chuck getting dumped in favor of Nate, and that burned him badly, the second one Blair was the one who got hurt, and both times this pretty much happened because they aren’t able of telling each other how they feel, particularly Chuck. The first time he didn’t let her know he actually cared and wanted to be with her, the second one he didn’t tell her he was afraid, and all of this was too much too soon. So Blair wants, needs some kind of reassurance, and it makes me wonder how that week after the wedding really went, what happened? how wonderful it must have been that even though he abandoned her a that helipad she still had hope in the fact that he may love her. He doesn’t say it, and yet I still love this moment so much for  because jus by asking him to say it is in some way an admittance on her own feellings, and he fails to saythe words  but he did try, and the fact that he did try is also a form of admittance and as such  from here on no matter what happens, how much they fight and toy with each other there’s always an undercurrent of love behind their actions,and this is (borrowing a phrase from a certain popstar) the most amazing unspoken dialogue ever. 

Random bits I’ve noticed

Chuck has a bouquet of yellow roses for his intent on getting Blair back. If my memory serves right, those were his mom favorites

I’m such a sucker for the little backdrop details like the Van der Bass house having all these background pictures of the wedding

Thanks to Chuck for giving us the rank on Blair’s favorite films: Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Roman Holiday & Funny Face (even if he said Charades to prove a point)

I’ve read somewhere I think it was on twitter that Blair’s crying in the garden scene was unscripted, Leighton did because she got really caught up in the scene particularly by Ed’s acting. I’ve looked it up but so far I haven’t found anything on this.

There’s a bunch of miniature cyclists under the mirror where Cece’s doing the final touches to her hair, looks sort of weird.

that vitamin water is even on the invitation, agust 30, 2008.

[whitetigerdemoness]

Sooo.....did someone say Holloa sequel?

I give you “Shooting Star”.

Holloa Master Post. A03 link. 

The stars you see at night potentially burned out millions of years ago.  

Lila Rossi left the Dupeng Cheng bakery feeling pretty clever. Her pocket was weighted with the butterfly charm she had stolen from Marinette’s room. She patted her pocket, feeling certain she could get a good amount of cash for it from the pawn shop she prefered. Different products danced in her mind as she thought about what to buy with her dirty money. Some new boots, perhaps? The season was changing, spring right around the corner. 

Yes, she decided, a pair of stylish new boots would be the perfect treat for herself after all the awful trials she had had to endure these past few mon-

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“ Tiki I just don’t understand that girl!” Marinette huffed in frustration, dropping solidly into her desk chair. “Why in the world would she come here to try to apologize of all things, and expect me to believe her, after everything she has done!” The red kawmi sat on the desk with a thoughtful expression.

“I don’t know Marinette. Lila always seems to have another angle. Are you sure that was all she was here for?” Marinette’s eyes widened at the kwami’s observation. Taking a quick look around her room, she didn’t see anything out of place. Her booby trapped diary box was untouched, none of her clothes looked disturbed, the miracle box on her desk was-

SCREEECH CRUNCH!

“What the?!” Marinette jumped at the sound. 

“That came from outside!” Tiki gasped in alarm.

“An akuma?” The black haired girl asked.

“Only one way to find out.” Tiki replied. Marinette raced to the ladder that led to her rooftop balcony. She leaned over the railing, taking in the shouting people below.

It wasn’t an akuma attack.

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“...Wolfram Berger stands trial today for attempted vehicular manslaughter against Lila Rossi, better known to some as Volpina, three months ago. Ms. Rossi remains in a coma in an undisclosed hospital. Ladybug and Chatnoir are standing as witnesses today against Mr. Berger’s chronic harassment of Ms. Rossi as well as two of her classmates, Nathaniel Kurtzberg and Marc Anciel, who will also be testifying today-”

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Ladybug punched the brick chimney hard enough to leave an imprint of her fist. The trial earlier today had ended with the jury declaring Mr. Berger not guilty. The defense had argued that Mr. Berger had simply lost control of his car and that the fact that Lila had been the victim was merely a coincidence. Chat Noir and Paon were off the side with troubled looks of their own.

“I can’t believe that jury! Four weeks of community service? Not guilty? That awful man could have killed Lila! I might not be her biggest fan but…” Ladybug trailed off with a frustrated growl. 

“The court system is not as straightforward as tv likes to make it dear.” Paon sighed. “If Miss Rossi had actually died the verdict may have been more severe, but she is still alive if only through life support.” The peacock hero rubbed her arms, unhappy with the verdict.

“I don’t know.” Chat noir added, “Berger has a lot of followers. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them managed to sneak onto the jury. I noticed quite a few of them giving Marc and Nathaniel the stink eye, not to mention us.” 

One would think that Hawkmoth being gone for nearly six months now would weaken the Office of Akuma Affairs anti-akuma and anti-hero platforms. The lack of new material didn’t phase the group who were happy to make up new situations to blame on the heroes or skew old ones. Paon especially came under fire often due to Mayura’s past actions, being an easy target due to her public identity. People were unable or unwilling to separate her from her temporary replacement. Being Hawkmoth’s wife hardly helped either. 

“I hate to say it Ladybug, but we have bigger concerns than Mr. Berger walking free. It has been three months and we still haven't found the butterfly miraculous.” Paon gently reminded the steaming hero. Their group, which extended beyond the three on the rooftop, had searched Lila’s belongings and home extensively with no luck. Ladybug had been certain the girl had taken the miraculous having been alone in her room just a day before the jewel had been discovered missing, but it was starting to look like that may not be the case. Lila had been hit with Berger’s car as soon as she left the bakery. The girl would have had no time to hide the miraculous anywhere. Similar searches of Berger’s home and possessions had also been fruitless. The current running theory was one of the many bystanders that day had picked up the broach. The lack of new akumas suggested whomever had discovered it had not been compatible, kwami didn’t show themselves to just anyone, but it was only a matter of time before someone compatible did come along. The miraculous were magic like that, inevitably gravitating towards wielders.

Ladybug groaned. “Yeah, anti-hero sentiment is higher than it has ever been. You would think people would be happy for peace, not calling us useless because we can’t stop every mugging and petty crime.”

“Almost makes you wish Hawkmoth was back.” Chat Noir chuckled. Distantly, an explosion boomed. “uhhh…” The black cat hesitated.

“Let’s move!” Paon commanded, already racing across the rooftops.

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“Please tell me that is not an akuma. Chaton, if that is an akuma I will personally make your life miserable for the next week.” Ladybug threatened.

“If that’s an akuma, I don’t think you’ll have to work too hard to accomplish that.” Chatnoir gulped, taking in the scene. A girl in a multi colored dress was frolicing in the street below, watering people she managed to catch with a watering pail. People who came into contact with water from the pail began to sprout flowers all over their body, older victims looking to have become plants entirely.

“If that is an akuma, the akuma is likely in the watering can.” Paon commented. “She doesn’t look too dangerous.” The peacock wielder leapt to street level without further ado to confront the akuma.

“Paon wait-dammit.” Ladybug muttered. Paon had become active after Hawkmoth had already been defeated. Despite being the eldest hero, she had never actually faced an akuma before and was making a rookie mistake. Akuma were never as simple as they looked. Ladybug exchanged looks with Chatnoir. She could see he was conflicted. Instinct was telling him to leap to his mother’s side and support her. Training was reminding him that hanging back and watching was the wiser choice.

“Go to her Chat, I’ll hang back to watch for tricks.” Chatnoir nodded and joined Paon, who was trying to knock the watering can from the akuma’s hands with her knives. The akuma laughed as she batted the knives away like pesky flies.

“You showed up! Goody! Let me take care of you!” The akuma chirped, gleefully dancing closer to Paon. “Everything will be so much easier once you’re a plant! You’ll be happier!” 

“I like sunlight as much as the next cat, but I’m not too crazy about water.” Chatnoir quipped, using his baton to try and trip the akuma. The action was in vain. Even the combined efforts of Paon and Chanoir were not enough to make the akuma’s ballerina like grace falter. Further from the battle, Ladybug approached one of the flower covered victims.

“Hold on, I’ll get you out!” The man did not respond at first, his eyes glazed and listless. When Ladybug began to try and tear the vines from his body, he began to scream in pain. Shocked, the heroine recoiled. 

“HEY!” The akuma screamed. “Don’t hurt my plants you naughty bug!” The akuma darted towards Ladybug, free hand outstretched. Jumping backwards, Ladybug felt a small trill of alarm as the movement felt sluggish. Moments before the akuma could pour water on her, Chatnoir kicked her away.

“You okay Ladybug?” 

“Be careful, Chat, Paon, I think the plants are giving off some sort of sedative.” Ladybug winced, holding her head. “Harming the plants seems to also harm the host, don’t touch anyone.”

 “Good little bugs should HELP plants!” The akuma fumed. “Bad bugs will be pruned away by the Gardener.” The akuma attacked with a flurry of graceful kicks and wide sprays of her water. Ladybug and Chatnoir put up their shields to deflect the water, while Paon hung back and attacked from range with her knives.

“We need to pull back, one touch of that water and it’s game over!” Chatnoir said after a particularly close call.

“We need some way to prevent her from pouring water.” Ladybug added, movements slower than she would have liked. Gardener’s supply of water seemed infinite, and dodging the growing puddles around them was becoming harder.

“If only we could find someone unaffected by her powers, I could create a senti-monster. Where are all the civilians? This is a busy street…” Paon groused.

“Parisians are pretty good at getting out of spitting range of these fights by now. The police have probably set up barricades to prevent people from coming this way.” 

“It might be time for a Lucky Charm!” Cried out Ladybug, her yoyo toss taking more effort than it should have due to her lingering sluggishness. A chromatic pocket knife fell into her hands. The hilt was ladybug spotted, but the blade simmered in rainbow colors.

“Looks like it’s time to cut ties with the Gardener.” Chatnoir quipped, using his baton to catapult a nearby trash can at the Gardener. Ladybug huffed at the pun as her eyes darted around the area trying to come up with a plan. Other than the Gardener’s watering pail, nothing else stood out to her. Nothing except...Paon. Ladybug cast an eye around the plant strewn street again. A few of the plants still had twitching human limbs sticking out of them. Perhaps someone still had enough consciousness to produce a sentimonster...the Lucky Charm was never wrong. She had to trust it.

“Paon! Are you sure you can’t feel any strong desires?” The street was getting pretty flooded, the heroes had taken to jumping from cartop, to street stall top, to try and avoid the water. On one hand, it kept them dry. On the other this severely limited their maneuverability. Paon closed her eyes and concentrated.

“There is...one...but I’ll need a moment to focus!” The peacock hero threw another of her feather-knives at the akuma, only for it to clatter uselessly onto the street as the agile girl danced and twirled away.

“Right, let’s give Paon some breathing room kitty. Hit the street!”

“You got it Ladybug. Cataclysm!” Dark energy crackled across the flooded street, causing it to heave and crumble in on itself. Chunks of the asphalt shuddered as their supports eroded, falling into the sewers below. The Gardener stumbled, all of her attention diverted to staying on her feet during the mini earthquake. 

Meanwhile, Paon whispered to the blue feather in her hand before sending it on its journey with a blown kiss. The feather didn’t go as far as Ladybug thought it would, fluttering down to land on a twisted pile of flowers and thorns. An image bubbled and coalesced into reality, settling into the kneeling figure of…

“Penknight?!”

[jennibeultimate]

Personal recap 4CC 2020 - Men SP

You know how my recap works, bias is inevitable...I will comment on the last two groups in order of appearance and just mention a few from earlier that I like. And well I cannot keep fully quiet on scoring, but actually I really care less about it as it's always wack these days.

One of the skaters of the earlier group that impresses with his story and with his bright personality on the ice is Donovan Carillo. What a fun clean program, 3A there, bright smile too. 👍

Han Yan ❤️ - to have him back is a great gift this season. He feels the music. I am so glad that he returned. It feels like he is much older because he has bee here so long but he is still only 23 😳!

Roman Sadovsky 😭😭😭😭! OMG that was a disaster! He is one of the most elegant skaters and very expressive with the music and spins and steps saved him today, but that was horrible to watch. 😢😩😣 (And I really would like to say that it was totally unexpected but actually disasters do happen quite a lot for Team Canada 😅)

Yuma!!! 😍 That was awesome!!! ❤️ CLEAN! 91.61!!!

Wonderful jumps and also using the music so well. He is really growing a lot performance wise these past performances. What a great first showing at a major championship! And what a score too! Amazing! 👏👏👏👏

Good skate from Nam Nguyen! 👏 He is selling the "Blues for clook" well.

And the next clean skate by Tomoki Hiawatashi! Energetic performance. His split jump is sooo cool! Best SP he had all season! Well done! 👍👏

Seeing the other Australian guys at 4CC, it's clear why Brendan Kerry has no competition there. He is miles ahead in everything. The one that gave me a laugh with his program 😂. A bit of a fight with the jumps, but fine overall.

Kazuki Tomono unexpectedly was really good. (sorry for not believing in him 😅) CLEAN! 2 quads! Nice! Just the program is really awkward and the music is horrible to my ears (I know the concept of the modern ballet that this idea comes from) and it's interestingly choreographed, but it really doesn't do anything for me. 🙈

Keegan Messing that was "perfect" ! ❤️

Wonderful performance, great jumps, emotion, everything that you wish for in a great skate! 94.03! Nice!

Junhwan Cha was great too! Great performance! 👏👏👏Glad he could deliver under that much pressure on home ice!

And now let me just gush about the one and only Yuzuru Hanyu 👑 👑 👑 👑 👑! Perfection and world record! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ Wow Yuzu that was superb!!!! This program is a masterpiece and it remains one no matter how often you will see it! 😍

I may have been sceptical if returning to Chopin is the best choice (just in terms of scoring potential and well couldn't the PCS have been a tad higher here? That's nitpicky but still 😅). BUT if going back to old programs can light the fire🔥 in Yuzu like this, I won't say a word ever again about Yuzu's return to it. It definitely is a confidence booster and what a way to start a competition! Yuzu slayed the competition here! It's not good for luck congratulating before the event is over, but who in this competition can take this crown away here?

Jason Brown's performance was awesome too! Not my favorite SP of Jason but he really has amazing artistry and quality. (Even though I think compared to others I don't understand why he is the only one that gets Eteri girls GOEs for his triple jumps...) 😊

Boyang Jin really skated his heart out here. I am happy he could show himself so well here! 95 points is some score that he hadn't got in a while. I like the new costume a lot! And welcome back 4Lz3T! ☺️

What a quality short program that was! Wow! Well done all men!

It's a bit meh that only one skater gets eliminated in the whole 4CC competition that cannot show himself once more. I know it's no one's fault, but it just shows that 4CC really isn't having a majority of countries participating.

[chemicalmagecraft]

The Gamer Hero, Deku Chapter 28

A/N: Sorry about the wait. I made a new fanfic (btw if you like ATLA but think it needed more deadly airbending ninjas check out A Black Wind Howls) aaand then college started back up...

xoxoxo

I opened my eyes and deactivated my Quirks and skills, stepping on the perfectly generic object with one foot and jumping off a moment before it fully dissolved. "That was way smoother than it had any right to be," I muttered as I checked the time. About an hour had passed since I entered my mindscape. Huh. It felt like it was longer than that. Maybe time passes faster in the mindscape? I checked the text boxes that had popped up while I was meditating. It looked like the menus I'd tried to open when in my mindscape had opened in reality, for one... I closed them and looked at the ones that were left over.

Your WIS has increased by one! (x4)

Your DEX has increased by one!

Your CON has increased by one!

Shock Sphere (Active) LV1 EXP 1.49% MP 100

That was surprisingly good for an hour of meditation. Especially because neither of my stat boosts were set to WIS. I guess stumbling around in one's own mindscape is a great method of self-discovery. For one thing I decided I should probably stop raising All Might on such a high pedestal. Maybe I'd ask him if I could call him Yagi-sensei?

I shrugged. "I wish I could talk to the past bearers in the real world, though. They were really nice. Plus having seven seasoned heroes that I can ask for advice at any time would be really handy. Too bad I can't just invite them to my party." I thought about that for a minute. "Actually, can I do that?" I recited the party invitations and crossed my fingers. One by one they appeared in my party window and I opened up the voice chat.

"So is this how your party ability works?" Kaizen asked.

"Honestly I didn't think that would work," I said, "but I'm really glad it did."

"We're glad it worked too, kid!" Daigoro added.

I laughed. "Thanks! There are probably going to be times when I can't talk and have to use the text chat, and other times where I'll have to disband the party temporarily, but you guys don't mind keeping me company, do you?"

I heard Shimura chuckle. "I don't mind at all. And I'm sure the others don't either."

"I'd be glad to keep you company," Honenuki said.

"Better than playing another of Ichigo's stupid games," Hikiishi added.

"Hey!" Ichigo said indignantly.

"They are fun, but it does get old sometimes..." Sokolov muttered.

"Not you too!"

I laughed. This was going to be great.

xoxoxo

Bakugou Katsuki: youre real fuckin blase bout the voices in your head deku

Shigaraki Ichigo: To be fair we are actual people and we can only be voices in his head using his Quirk.

I'd decided that, because Kacchan already knew about One For All, I would tell him about the past bearers. I did it on the morning of the day that we were going back to Yuuei. He was surprised, but almost immediately shrugged and said, "You know what, this might as well fucking happen." Currently we were on the train to Yuuei.

Hikiishi Jiroku: if you think about it, we're like ghosts haunting your friend.

Bakugou Katsuki: oh like thats so much better

I saw a young girl with bright eyes staring at us out of the corner of my eye. "Mommy, it's the magic people!" she shouted to a woman next to her that I assumed was her mother.

"Don't bother them, Chi-chan," the woman said.

"Are you talking about us?" I asked the girl.

She gasped. There were stars in her eyes. Literally. "Yeah! I watched you guys on the sports festival! Your fight was awesome!"

Kacchan smirked at the girl. "You know it, kid."

She bounced on her feet. "Yeah! You guys were all like bam, pow, woosh!" The rest of the people on the train were starting to look at us. The girl pouted. "I wanna be a cool hero like you guys, but my Quirk is dumb..."

"I'm sure your Quirk is great!" I objected.

"All I can do is make my eyes glow."

"Well I mean for one thing you can probably use it to see in the dark." Kacchan said.

"That's the only way I can use it, though!"

"I wouldn't be too sure," I said. "Can you control how bright it is?"

She nodded. "It's hard, but if I try really hard I can make it as bright as a flashlight for a bit."

I put my hand on my chin. "I'd bet that even All Might would be thrown off if someone he was fighting randomly shined a flashlight in his eyes. And if you practice really hard you should be able to make them even brighter." I poked Kacchan. "Believe it or not, when his Quirk first came in all he could do was make little pops."

"Just make sure not to hurt yourself practicing," Kacchan reminded her. "Quirk strain is not fun. I mean, mine was probably a lot fu- a lot worse than yours would be because it's caused by explosions and not glowing, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be careful."

The girl nodded excitedly.

"And be careful in general," I said. "Hero work is dangerous. I suggest you learn martial arts or something like that if you really want to be a hero."

"Like you're one to fuc-" Kacchan caught himself before swearing. "Like you're one to talk, Deku."

"Fair enough. You should also try to learn some magic. It's a lot more versatile than Quirks, plus you can probably enhance your Quirk with magic." I winked. "Just be mindful of property damage."

She beamed at us. "Yeah! I will!"

Her mother smiled. "Thank you. She loves heroes."

I chuckled and rubbed the back of my head. "It's actually pretty flattering."

"Yeah, I got my first fan!" Kacchan said. He reached over to give the girl a high five. She looked really grateful, so I gave her a high five too.

"Thank you both sooo much!"

xoxoxo

"Damn, this is some heavy rain," Kacchan muttered from under his umbrella while we were walking to Yuuei.

"What bad luck, huh?" I said. I also had an umbrella, but at the same time the water was subtly avoiding me so I didn't even get slightly wet. Having so many elementals can be very convenient.

"What are you two doing, you're going to be late!" Iida shouted at us from behind. He was wearing a poncho and jogging.

"What the fuck are you doing, Glasses!?" Kacchan shouted. "This is not the fucking weather for a nice morning jog!"

"There is no wrong weather for a nice morning jog!" Iida shouted as he passed us.

We managed to catch up to him in the entrance hall. "I heard about your brother, Iida," Kacchan told him while he was putting his boots in his locker. "If you need to talk to someone about it... well you probably shouldn't talk to me, but I speak from experience when I say that Inui-sensei is very willing to help."

"Inui-sensei?" I inquired.

Kacchan grunted, blushing slightly. "Hound Dog," he muttered.

"I appreciate your words, but I don't need to talk about it," Iida said as he closed his locker door.

"Iida, it's okay to not be okay," I said. "It doesn't make you any less strong. Even All Might has his bad days."

"Thank you, Midoriya," Iida said as he started to walk away. "But I'm okay. I promise."

I frowned at his title.

I'm Not Okay (I Promise)

LV 36

Iida Tenya

"I'm gonna have to press X to doubt that one," I said after he was gone.

"Deku I know you have that whole gamer hero thing going on but that joke was so fucking terrible I think I'm legally obligated to give you a wedgie," Kacchan told me.

"Please don't."

xoxoxo

"I have a few announcements before today's business," Aizawa-sensei said, acting like normal and not at all mentioning the fact that he was wearing, with the exception of the same scarf and possibly the goggles hidden under it, an entirely new hero costume. He kept the original color scheme, but his outfit looked like it was inspired by a more close combat-oriented fantasy wizard that wouldn't look out of place in a JRPG at all, complete with a wizard hat and a collapsible bo staff holstered on his belt that Observe told me was made with an experimental design that let it more effectively channel magic. He was also clean-shaven for once, though he still had the dark bags under his eyes. It made that scar he got from the USJ incident stand out a little more.

"First," he pointed to Shinsou, who was standing awkwardly next to him, "we have a new student. Make him feel welcome or whatever. Now sit down, Shinsou. There's an empty seat behind Midoriya."

"Congratulations, Shinsou!" I told him with a smile when he sat down. "I knew you'd get in!"

"Thanks," he said, then looked at Aizawa-sensei. "Was he always wearing that weird martial artist wizard outfit?"

"No, that's new. Scarf's the same, though."

"I thought so."

"If you're all done talking," Aizawa-sensei said menacingly. "We're having a very important hero informatics lesson today." He grinned evilly. "Pay attention, because this could affect your entire hero career." A terrified murmur broke out in the classroom.

"This is not what I was hoping for my first day..." Shinsou muttered.

Kacchan, who was sitting in front of me, looked back at him. "Eh, don't worry. Aizawa-sensei's just a fucking drama queen like that. Watch, he's gonna say that this is just us picking our hero names." He pointed at Aizawa-sensei.

"You'll be picking code names today," he confirmed, as if on cue. The class cheered, causing him to glare at us with his Quirk activated. His hat floated slightly before he turned it back off. "This isn't just for fun. You'll be going on a work study soon, so naturally you'll be needing a hero name to go by. Are there any questions?"

Kaminari raised his hand. "Why are you wearing a wizard outfit?"

"Are there any questions about the work study?" Aizawa-sensei glared at him.

"Is there any reason behind the work study?" Shinsou asked.

"It's meant to give you guys hands-on experience with hero work. Also, more than a few of you have already gotten a lot of draft picks from hero organizations already. Usually those offers are given to second and third years, who are more experienced, but there have been several unique circumstances for your class." He pressed a button on his remote, bringing up a list on the smartboard. "These are the offers that were extended to 1-A."

"Oh wow," I thought. My name was on the top of the board and I had almost five thousand offers!

"Congrats, Midoriya!" Shimura shouted through the party chat.

"Yeah, that's something to be proud of, I'm assuming..." Ichigo added.

"Good job, kid," Hikiishi said.

I sniffed and wiped the tears off my face... and desk... I thanked them over the text chat and looked at the rest of the board. Kacchan was below me at a little over four thousand offers. Aoyama, Todoroki, and Uraraka were next below us at around two thousand each. Iida, Tokoyami, and Kaminari had offers in the hundreds. Sero, Yaoyorozu, and even Shinsou had a few too.

"Don't worry, those of you who didn't get any offers," Aizawa said. "There are hero organizations that work with Yuuei to give students who don't have any offers work studies. And as I said, usually only second and third years get offers. So I'm sure you'll get at least a few by next semester."

"And that's what the hero names are for!" Hagakure blurted out.

Aizawa nodded. "That's right. Technically you can change your hero name at any time, but once you start getting popular chances are the public is going to call you the same name even if you change your name, unless it's accompanied by serious rebranding or something like that."

"Oh, is that what the wizard outfit is for?" Ashido asked.

Aizawa glared at her for a prolonged period of time. "No. Comment. Because having a good hero name before you even debut is so important..."

Midnight-sensei strutted through the door and stood next to Aizawa. "Yuuei strongly encourages the teachers of the hero course to organize a workshop session for their students before their work studies so they don't call themselves something dumb like, oh, I don't know... Eraserhead?"

"Fuck you, Nemuri," Aizawa muttered, causing Midnight to wink and stick her tongue out at him. He sighed and pulled a folding chair and some small dry erase boards out from behind his podium. "Midnight here is going to make sure the names we pick are all right. The annoying thing with hero names is that whatever you pick tends to end up reflecting on your hero career, so choose carefully."

"Wait, are you picking out a hero name, too?" Kaminari asked.

Aizawa grunted and started handing out the dry erase boards. "Against my better judgement I decided, for multiple reasons actually, to adopt a more public hero persona," he explained.

"WHAAAT!?" almost the entire class shouted at once.

"Yeah, yeah. 'Course, I need a new name for it, and the timing lined up so I unfortunately had the 'brilliant' idea of participating in this exercise with you guys, for solidarity or whatever." When he was done with the dry erase boards he put his folding chair next to Uraraka and sat down. "So for the next however long, just think of me like a fellow student. Plus Ultra or whatever."

I uncapped my dry erase marker and stared at the board. What kind of hero did I want to be? What kind of name did I want to have? I had a flash of inspiration, but... I sent Kacchan a message with my Quirk. I wanted his opinion on it.

He turned back to me. "Really?" he asked. I nodded. "Well I can see where you're coming from with that," he shrugged. "If ya really want to, go for it."

I wrote down my idea and waited for everyone else to be done. Kacchan looked like he was having a bit of trouble, but shooed me off when I asked if he needed help.

"And now you'll be presenting your hero names, starting with who's done!" Midnight said after more than a few of my classmates had put down their markers. Nobody said anything, but the air tensed when she said that. "Of course you have to present them!" she said with a grin. "If you can't stand proud and present your name to your own peers, how are you going to stick to it in the face of the public?"

Okay that made me a little nervous, but I shook it off. I was about to volunteer myself for the first presentation, but Aoyama and Aizawa both stood up before I could.

"I shall go first!" Aoyama glittered as Aizawa muttered, "Let's get this over with."

Aizawa sighed. "After you, kid."

"Thank you, my wonderful teacher!" He strutted up to the podium and stylishly revealed the name he wrote on his board. "'Shining Hero: I Can Not Stop Twinkling!' That means that you can't stop my sparkles!" As he said that, literal sparkles bloomed into existence around him. Honestly that was about what I was expecting from him.

"I like it, buuut maybe take out the 'I' and shorten 'Can Not' to 'Can't?'" Midnight suggested.

"Yes! That's perfect, mademoiselle!" Aoyama beamed.

"That's a good name?" Shinsou snarked under his breath.

"I don't know," I said, "I think it's kind of a nice name."

"Because you're a fucking sap," Kacchan added.

I shrugged. "Maybe a little."

Aizawa sighed. "Well, I guess that means I'm next." He walked up to the podium unenthusiastically and lifted up his board. "Magician Hero: Grimalkin," he read, blushing slightly. He'd put a cute little cat paw print on the end where a period would be.

"Ah, like the witch's familiar from Macbeth!" Yaoyorozu said.

Aizawa nodded. "Yes, exactly."

"I love it!" Midnight shouted. "Cute, but still bold!"

"Thanks," Aizawa muttered as he walked away from the podium.

"Now, do we have any more volunteers?" Midnight asked.

Kacchan got up. "I might as well get this over with too." He presented his name. "The Explosion Hero: Grenadier."

"Excellent! It's simple, striking, and goes with your hero outfit's theme!" Midnight commented.

"Thanks, teach." Kacchan said. "I figured it'd be way better than my first idea."

"What would that be?"

"King Explosion Murder."

Midnight winced. "Yeah, Grenadier's a lot better. Next!"

Shinsou nodded and got up to the podium. "I'm afraid it might be a little dark, but... Control Hero: Mindjack."

Midnight nodded with a grin. "I can see your concerns, but it's perfectly fine. Better than King Explosion Murder, at least."

"You're welcome for the example, I guess," Kacchan grumbled.

"Now, who wants to go next?" Midnight asked.

I stood up. "I'd like to," I said. I walked up to the podium, took a deep breath, and showed the class my dry erase board. "The name I decided on is the Gamer Hero: Deku."

xoxoxo

A/N: The naming session went about the same as it did in canon from that point onward, just without Midoriya, Bakugou, and the grape.

Originally I was going to make this chapter longer but then I realized that ending the chapter on the first time the name of the fic is cool.

Elemental list: Midoriya: Halitus, Dune, Rayne, Blaise, Juniper, Mifuyu, Raimon, Iggy, Sonia, and Claude Bakugou: Pyra and Leaf Tokoyami: Corvo Uraraka: Nebula and Ion Hagakure: Lucy Tsu: Bubbles Aizawa: Charlie and Cassiopeia All Might: Seth O'Scope

[kunalkarankapoor]

@priyanka_music: HAPPY BIRTHDAY🎉🎊❤️ Kunal Karan Kapoor

I still remember that day when I saw you casting in the show , 'Na Bole Tum Naa Maine Kuchh Kaha ' , and I just felt an instant connection with you . Honestly , I never felt that you are actually acting in the show but till today it seems that its going on in front of my eyes and I am too the part of it. Your dedication towards your work has inspired a lot of people like me . A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favourite actor #kunalkarankapoor ❤️😘Stay blessed, keep smiling and keep blessing our timeline. 

kunalkarankapoor: Beautiful ♥️

priyanka_music: @kunalkarankapoor ❤️😍😍 Thank you so much sir!!!!!!! It's unbelievable to see your reply . I can't express in words how happy I am . I hope you liked it and this song dedicated to you was able to put on that heart warming smile on your face . Once again a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY ❤️😘🎊🎉🎂

yan__pictures: 💝Happy birthday spiderman @kunalkarankapoor

Happy Birthday to the best and amazing in the world who has changed my life and who made my world complete. I am sooo proud to be your fan forever. Keep soaring higher and higher and the sky will be your limit.My wish for is to experience joy, hope and love all the days of your life and accomplish all the wonderful goals you have set in your life.May you continue to inspire and put smiles on the faces of those who love you. I wish pure happiness in your life.May God bless you with all the joy and happiness that your heart can contain.Love you always. Stay blessed and be happy always.  Vadlapudi Latha

Kunal Karan Kapoor, at first : Wish you a very happy birthday !!! Wish you all thé Luck, joy, love, success of thé World !!!You are an Amazing actor, an impressive photographer and a great person.It is really thé first Time that i am a big fan of an actor. Your way to play IS really awesome. You have something spécial that attract me. Your voice at first, then your eyes who speaks so much things... Once i discovered you in nbt, i get stuck on you. I wanted to see more shows of you. After watching all your shows, i wanted to know more about you, what you like etc... Then i discovered a fabulous photographer... No need to Travel, i Travel with your clicks ! They are just WOW!! I have not stop even After that... I Saw your interviews... You looks so natural and honest. Something rare in this World. Never change !Really, i admire you.Wish you thé best because you are thé best and deserve thé best ... Sim

touchwood_tales

Wish you a very Happy Birthday Kunal Karan Kapoor.I came to know about you when i was in class 6th and till now i am huge fan of yours. I know these line you might have heard 1000 times but let me tell you. You are different and unique. The intensity you have in your eyes your expressions and your presence these are like magic. Whenever i get sad or stressed even your small interview byte makes me happy. And most importantly your presence your charm helped me to overcome sadness always. Stay blessed superstar.❤️You are reason to my happiness amid of sorrow.May God bless you with all the happiness and long life with success and joy always. Lots of love kkk💕❤️💃😍  arzookha advocate

sogitha.rk: @kunalkarankapoor Happy 38❤ You'll always remain my favourite!!

kunalkarankapoor: 🙏 ❤️

Hi KUNAL ji .....BIRTHDAY DAY wishes...Ur birthday is a great day for us...WISHING U A DAY FILLED WITH HAPPINESS AND A YEAR FILLED WID JOY.... I saw u first on 13th September 2013 (NBTNMKK 1st episode in tamil) ..I really got obsessed wid ur acting...My first serial is nbtnmkk coz I'm not much interested in serials..But after nbtnmkk I started to see a lot of serials ...But I'm addicted to ur acting...Ur eyes speaks a lot ..Ur natural way of acting....Everything everything just awesome...I started loving both Kunal Karan Kapoor and Aakanksha.... My very next serial was doli armaano ki ...I really loved ishaani-shaurya bonding...The luv for ishaani and ur intrepid character was something still I adore and i wanted to be like this..And that time i felt I'd had a brother like u...Really ur eyes are so powerful that u don't need words to explain..... My mom and dad were my inspiration..I thought no one would be other than my mom and dad.....but now ur my true inspiration..my mentor..I've learnt a lot from u and still learning...I'm sure I will follow ur footsteps to achieve my dreams...keep learning from u....Ur simplicity and UR RESPECT TOWARDS UR FANS keeps increasing my Respect for u....KEEP SHINING AND SMILING bcoz u r the reason for many of our smiles...WAITING FOR UR BLOCKBUSTER MOVIES..wish u a great day..MAY EACH CANDLE U BLOW GRANT U A WISH TODAY...NO MATTER HOW OLD U BECOME U SEEM TO BE YOUNG FOREVER..LOVE U💖💗💗 Guna.1067

Today it's August 22nd and It's your Birthday 🍰🍫 sir! A very special day to all of us;I WISH YOU A VERY VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR! I Wish a lots of happiness, success and good health..I also want to congratulate you for all your tremendous work in all serials n web series.. you're such an outstanding performer!! You make us speechless with all your phenomenal work.....Thank you so much for making us smile 😊through your unique style of acting..You're such a greatest and cutest human being with such a hypnotizing smile 😊... Again , WISHING YOU A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR!KEEP ACHIEVING MORE N MORE.....KEEP ENTERTAINING THE WORLD....KEEP SMILING....😊STAY BLESSED... loads of respect n best wishes...Suchismita Mishra

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A post shared by Team Kunal K Kapoor (@anilaiam) on Aug 22, 2020 at 3:04am PDT

Through the windowpane I saw a lighting strike and in that light; I saw a lovely angel’s marvelous face. My eyes lit with sparks of fire striking against my body thinking it as a matchstick, And my heart blossomed as various blossoms. There is no language to sing his magnificence. No eyes are efficient enough to measure his beauty. Though all I said is true, he isn’t mine. O heart of mine, just let go of him. - @janani._.jaan._.vm

artistic_soul_36:...HBD to our Star😍...@kunalkarankapoorWe hope that all your wishes will come true...Have a blast this year ❤

kunalkarankapoor: ♥️🙏 

I saw you on September 19 2013 on Polimer channel for the first time. That was one day when I felt really bored and was just flipping my remote to view something nice. Suddenly I came across this serial NENJAM PESUTHE and I became elated when I saw a little girl acting too good beyond her levels. Then in the last scene of that very episode came my hero MOHAN PRASAD. He became the man for whom I desperately waited to watch. Days passed and I became more and more a KUNALIAN and I should say that the onscreen chemistry between nanhi and her Spiderman was more adorable than that between the lead pair. You are the first person who could bring a smile as well as tears in my eyes at the same time. You really swept me off my feet. I started crushing on you and loving you so much. It is you who kept me glued to the computer during my 9th standard vacation. I completed watching season 2 of the serial 175 episodes at a stretch in just 13 days only for you and in spite of getting a hell lot ofscoldings, I really enjoyed that. I am really proud to be your fan, oh my King of expressions! I was amazed (still am) by the way you never consider yourself as a celebrity and are such a down to earth actor one can ever see. I wish you a very happy, cheerful birthday and I love you so much love, Rania

Repost Kunal Karan Kapoor’s Instastory.

Kunal Karan Kapoor’s instastory.

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A post shared by kunalkarankapoorhugefan (@kunalkarankapoorhugefan) on Aug 22, 2020 at 7:03am PDT

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A post shared by Polimer Corner (@polimer_corner) on Aug 22, 2020 at 5:41am PDT