sidetongue · 2 years ago
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I’m defs a dog person and i spend a lot of my time ensuring my dogs have full and enriched lives, and then I just vibe with my cats as if they are lil housemates. But lately I’ve been dedicating a lot of time to webinars and reading material on how to be a good cat mum and my cats are really benefiting from what I’m learning!!! I bought this tall cat tree that reaches the roof and Figgy feels safe enough to come and hang out with everybody in the living area because she can now be up high. Isn’t she cute!!
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Also bonus pic, here she is passive aggressively waiting for bed time. She is a total bed hog
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thefanficmonster · 3 years ago
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Stranger In The Crowd
Corpse Husband x Reader (Female)
Warnings: None
Genre: FLUFF, Humor, RPF (Real Person Fic)
Summary: Having recently ended the process of moving, Y/N is rightfully very tired but also very excited for the new chapter of her life. Funnily enough, this new chapter includes a newly formed long distance friendship/crush with a very special person from San Diego.
Requested by @boiled-onionrings Hi darling! Thank you so much for your wonderful request and I’m really sorry you’ve had to wait so long for it to be posted but here it finally is and I hope you enjoy the read! Love, Vy ❤
I let out a heavy sigh, relieved to finally be at home after such a long day of standing around in the Georgia heat with only a thin layer of fabric to protect my eyes and head from the scorching sun. Yeah, anyone who says that tent did well at protecting everyone under it today is nothing but a liar. I was in a short, strapless white summer dress, the fabric of which barely had any weight and consistency to provide heat of its own yet I still damn near melted. Ok, I’ll admit, some of the roasting heat probably came from the energy and force I put into singing the songs of my band’s new album ‘Starting At The End’. 
The mini concert we held in this large open field was meant as an introduction to the city of Savannah where all the band members - myself included - are actually from but we all moved to the West Coast to pursue our music career. And now that we’ve grown, and the majority of us are married, one of us is a father now as well, we’ve decided to return to our hometown. The decision was so spontaneous and was executed so quickly due to no one objecting to it that it still hasn’t me that I’m no longer in LA. The heat isn’t helping my ‘processing’ process but I’ll get to it eventually. Do I miss LA though? Not sure I do - I think I more miss the people I was closer to while I was there.
Suddenly, as if perfectly timed, my phone dings, notifying me that I’ve received a message. I don’t have to look to know it’s from - there’s only one person I actively text and his name is....
C ~ Your virtual buddy Corpse here, making sure you didn’t die of a heatstroke today. If you did indeed survive, just reply to this message, if not....don’t do anything, I guess.
I can’t help but giggle at the sight of the message. I promised Corpse I’d text him after the concert to let him know I was ok, but the even dragged out for longer than anticipated so I’m guessing he got worried.
How cute.
Me ~ Alive and well, but I do feel like a popped tire of an overloaded truck. Hope that’s a visually appealing description
Corpse and I met on the charity livestream Jacksepticeye organized and invited our band to so we could play Among Us with some of the best gamers and streamers on the internet. It was a huge honor and a ton of fun, definitely an event I’d like to repeat in the near future because I had such a good time and I know all my bandmates did too. We all got acquainted and even became official friends with the gamers that were practically our hosts, Corpse becoming the closest friends I’d earn. That livestream happened months ago and we still text just as consistently.
C ~ Oh I know EXACTLY what you mean. Anyway, as to not exhaust you further to force you into typing, how about you send me pictures to sum up your thoughts and emotions and plans for the evening
This is OUR THING trademark, mine and Corpse’s and no one can take it away from us. It’s a significant element of our friendship that enables us both to understand one another when one of us feels the way I described in my message - a popped tire or a deflated balloon. I’m usually the exhausted one - blame the many shows we do and the many meet-and-greets we organize for our lovely fans. It’s the type of exhaustion none of the band members mind at all, but we definitely need some time to recover from it.
As I go to sit down on my couch, the flower crown I’ve been wearing slips off the top of my head, falling on the floor, creating a soft noise that attracts the attention of one of my many cats - Sasha. She’s the youngest and most curious kitty in the family, always protected by the other four - Luna, Cassie, Silver and Lynn. Those four are far lazier and a lot more disinterested in comparison to Sasha who immediately runs over to see what’s fallen.
I smile to myself, taking the flower crown and undoing it to lessen it by a few stems to make it smaller, all the while being watched by the curious Sasha whose interest is rewarded in the end when I put the now adorably tiny flower crown on her head.
While she still hasn’t shaken the thing off I manage to snap a pic which I send to Corpse who opens it mere seconds after it was delivered. 
C ~ Sasha’s pulling off your aesthetic better than you. Sorry, someone had to let you know
I burst out laughing for two reasons - 1.The message itself, damn it! It’s hilarious; 2. Corpse has learnt the name of each one of my cats and never mixes them up - not even Luna and Lynn who look almost identical. That amount of attention to detail is astonishing and very meaningful to me, it genuinely warms my heart and that may or may not be dramatic but it’s definitely not exaggerated.
Me ~ You think I haven’t caught on yet? 
C ~ Well, if it makes you feel any better you pull off my aesthetic better than I do
He’s referring to the e-girl look I did for one show the band had in downtown LA one night. I was drunk and looking forward to trying new things so I improvised the hell out of my outfit but I apparently looked presentable enough to leave a good impression on Corpse despite the pic I sent him being a bit blurry and being a mirror selfie in the bathroom of the very bar we were performing in. It goes without saying that the mirror was dirty too - had a bunch of writing on it which Corpse said only added to the aesthetic. Looking back on it now I kinda agree, and luckily so did the fans in the comments of that same photo when I posted it on Instagram.
Me ~ Means a lot actually. Nowhere near enough to aid the burn of having a cat pull off cottagecore better than I do, but still helps XD
As if sensing that we’re talking about her, Sasha hops on the couch, poking her head over my phone to look down at the screen.
Now this is gonna be golden.
I take a selfie with my phone in my lap, the camera capturing both me and Sasha at a rather unflattering angle which has me losing my mind laughing when I send the picture to Corpse who immediately sends back a string of cry-laughing emojis.
C ~ I can’t tell which one of you is cuter
Me ~ If that was a compliment, I gotta say I appreciate it greatly
C ~ Just telling the truth ;)
It’s times like these that the butterflies in my stomach remind me just why I’ve started catching feelings for this man despite all the distance between us and despite barely knowing him - he knows me more than I know him but I don’t mind it, oddly enough.
I’m fond of our connection and though I sometimes dream of something more, I’m also content with what we already have considering that ‘something more’ seems rather unattainable as of now.
My phone dings again, clearing the fog of thoughts and presenting me with a new message from Corpse.
C ~ Oh, by the way, look what I got....
That message is followed up by a picture of a ticket. A plane ticket to Georgia! 
While I’m still busy stomaching this and dealing with my quickly rising excitement, he sends another message.
C ~ I hope to catch a The Silver Rays concert while I’m there. Heard they had an adorable frontwoman ;)
My breath catches in my throat as a wide grin spreads across my face. The thought of having Corpse so close to me sends those aforementioned butterflies in my stomach into a raving mood and they practically explode my insides with excitement and joy like I’ve never felt it before. I can’t wrap my brain around the fact that we’re about to go from having an entire country between us, to being just some ways away - him in the audience and me on stage without a single clue of who to look for. That’s part of the excitement though, I guess, part of the guessing game that’s gonna make our meeting all the more interesting.
He’ll be a stranger in the crowd and I’ll be a performer on a stage - seemingly two people who have no relation whatsoever. But damn does it go beyond that: No one has to know how hard I’m falling for that stranger in the crowd.
Me ~ I’ve heard so too, can’t confirm it though
If this is gonna be a guessing game, I’ll flip the tables a bit - I won’t take any guesses. I’ll let the answer come to me. I’ll give the first move over to the stranger in the crowd, let’s see what he does.
C ~ I’ll check and let you know, don’t worry
Not worried whatsoever, Corpsie. I’m not worried at all.
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The Misadventures of Prince Kim - chapter 68
So close to the end of this fic now, finally, where the stakes are real and the fates of millions of people rest on the shoulders of a few teenagers... so I’m gonna ignore that for now and give you this chapter. A day in the life of Snek. Because why not.
Also on AO3 as always
Chandeliers were inherently malevolent. Imhotep the First, royal cobra to the ruling pharaoh of the Kubdel dynasty, awoke from a nightmare about those evil pieces of architecture and immediately decided that at this year’s spring dance, he wasn’t going anywhere near them, no matter what strange plans he got roped into.
In any case, going back to sleep alone in his enclosure simply wouldn’t do. He slithered up over the mini fence, made his way to the pharaoh-sized bed, and curled up around Alix’s arm.
“Hm? Oh hey buddy, what’s up?” She opened her eyes a fraction and gave him a gentle stroke.
-. .. --. .... - -- .- .-. . he tapped.
“Aww, that sucks. It’s okay, though. I’ll always protect you. I’m going back to sleep but wake me up if you need anything, yeah?” She kissed the tip of his hood and closed her eyes again.
Much better. Hopefully now he wouldn’t have a nightmare about chandeliers again. He closed his retinas, since he did not have proper eyelids, and went back to sleep.
-
-
The morning was not much different from usual. He woke up earlier than Alix did and stayed wrapped around her arm, absorbing the warmth into his cool scales. This school place always felt so much colder than back home, making him so sleepy whenever he wasn’t stuck to Alix like glue. Luckily she did not mind. In fact, she liked it a lot. Having a venomous snake wrapped around her shoulders at every second of the day was part of her pharaoh image by now. He liked to consider himself her sidekick.
“Morning dude. You okay now?”
Ah, she had woken up. He nodded at her – of course he was always okay with her around, no matter what.
“Awesome. I guess I should probably get up now, but I can’t be bothered so I’m just gonna lie here for a while…”
She was a little like a snake herself sometimes. Remaining motionless, not having the energy to move? Yes, very snakelike. Had she learnt that from him, or was she just like that? From what he knew, all teenagers were a bit like that.
Perhaps at some point he really could ask her. Morse code was a lifesaver – he could actually properly communicate with her now! For years he had wished to be able to speak the way humans did, with so much variety, rather than just this monotonous hissing he was cursed with. There were so many things he always wanted to say to Alix and had no way to do so. But now he could, and it was the best.
And far less boring, too. Being brought up in captivity, he grew up knowing human languages, like French and English and Arabic. On the odd occasion he came across another snake, he never understood what they were saying at all. Were they even speaking? Or just hissing nonsensically? Perhaps he would never know if all queen cobras were as intelligent as him, or if he was the only one.
-
-
Breakfast was the same as always. He did not want to eat anything, since it wasn’t that time of month for him yet, and human food did not look very appealing anyway. It was funny how Alix also had a “time of month” thing that happened, though hers was definitely less pleasant, and seemed to not keep to its monthly schedule very successfully.
“Nino, are you hacking the music for tonight’s spring dance again?”
“No need to hack this time, Marinette. Mendeleiev personally asked me to oversee it this year. I guess she didn’t want a repeat of the chandelier thing from last year, huh?”
“But that was funny…”
No it was not! The snake curled up a little tighter around Alix’s shoulders, hissing instinctively. Chandeliers just still somehow gave him a bad, bad feeling…
-
-
Class was no different. As usual, Lady Caline asked questions that only Markov knew the answer to. As usual, Alix ignored everything and played hangman with Mylène on the corner of a scrap piece of paper. As usual, Nathaniel was clearly drawing instead of writing. As usual, Kim and Max were giving each other cheesy looks while thinking no one was watching.
Nothing interesting ever happened in class anyway. It was always outside class where the fun happened. Like the spring dance! What was going to happen there this year? At least it wasn’t going to be strictly formal now, thanks to the crazy events of last year. Though hopefully no falling chandeliers…
-
-
“This is the boy who gave me his pet cat! He wants to ask you about getting a pet snake!” Marinette was running up the corridor, dragging along a beaming noble by the arm.
“Hi, I’m Wayhem!” the noble said. “Your snake is so cool! Can I stroke him? Can I? Please?”
“Ask him yourself,” Alix replied.
“Ah, okay!” Wayhem looked down at the snake, still with a huge smile. “Can I stroke you?”
He nodded. The noble softly ran his fingers over the scales.
“Wow… this is so cool! Are you venomous?”
He nodded again.
“Have you ever killed anyone?”
He shook his head this time. Humans were capable of killing too! Why did they not ask each other that question? Why always snakes? From everything he had ever experienced in his life, humans on the whole seemed much crueller than snakes. Venom had nothing to do with it. After all, he still had annoyingly vivid memories of another timeline, where the guards had discovered him harmlessly residing in the palace, and sliced off his head for it…
Oh yes, he could access the other timelines too. Usually they were either very sad or very boring, sometimes both. And that one timeline where he was beheaded had been rather painful. Sure, it was quicker than dying from venom or poisoned chocolates, but it had hurt, and it had hurt even more to see his human owner having a nightmare about it and being so distraught. At least from now on Alix had promised to protect him as much as possible, which put him at ease. And she had kept that promise. She was very protective.
“Are you done?” she snapped at Wayhem. The snake was thankful – it got kind of annoying when people just endlessly stroked him and did nothing else. At least tell a joke or play rock-paper-scissors or something!
“Yep! Thanks, bye!”
And Wayhem ran off without another word. Perhaps, while not being afraid of the snake, he was afraid of Pharaoh Alix herself, which seemed quite common. Not as much these days as it used to be, but it still happened on occasion. Especially with the nobles.
“I didn’t even know his name was Wayhem, he never told me,” Marinette huffed. “But I’m glad he gave me his cat. I’m sure Plagg is doing very well back home, with… my other cat.”
Other cat? They must be talking about Adrien. People were always using codenames for him, in case of spies overhearing and discovering his whereabouts. But then again, weren’t the spies gone now that Empress Chloé had cut ties with the Agreste Empire? It seemed Alix had the same thought.
“Is your ‘other cat’ ever gonna join you here?” she asked. “You know, now that things are… uh…”
“I don’t think so,” Marinette said, lowering her voice to such a quiet whisper that there was no way anyone else could overhear – not that anyone was around, anyway. “The borders are probably clear for him and everything, he wouldn’t get arrested on sight anymore, but this empire isn’t safe for travel right now anyway! And his father must be so angry, he’ll have sent spies for sure. If any of them see him, he’ll be taken away again and this time they’ll never let him escape. He’s better off staying put.”
“So it’s like house arrest all over for him, just in a different place this time? Ugh…”
“I know…” Marinette sighed. “To be honest, I might just not come back after the spring holidays. I may as well stay there with him. And if the state of this empire gets any worse, especially further towards the borders, then it won’t even be a choice – I won’t be able to come back at all. Risk of bandit attacks and all that. Royal guards aren’t invincible against angry commoners…”
She spoke some more, but the snake had ceased to listen – there was a rather tasty-looking bug crawling along the top of Marinette’s hair. He watched it, trying so very hard not to suddenly pounce. It looked so good! Bugs were always a nice snack. Unlike eating larger creatures, they didn’t take that long to digest. Neither did spiders. He had eaten a lot of those in his life.
“There’s a bug in your hair, by the way.”
“Oh!” Marinette took the bug in her hand and put it in the front pocket on her robes. “How did she get out of there?”
“Marinette… are you telling me you have a pet bug?”
“Um, sort of? She never goes away no matter what I do, so I’ve kind of accepted it. I’m thinking she might be my… what’s the word? Guardian animal? You know, like your snake.”
“Oh, right…”
The snake was suddenly very glad indeed that he hadn’t eaten the bug. Imagine killing Marinette’s guardian animal, and therefore indirectly dooming Marinette herself to an upcoming grisly fate! Maybe he should think twice before eating. He did have a bit of a problem with recklessness, much like his human counterpart.
“At this rate there’ll be no one left at school by the summer holidays,” Alix muttered.
“It’s not that I want to leave, because I don’t! I’m just so worried, and it’s so tiring being on edge all the time…”
“Fair enough. I hope you have fun back in Cheng, then. You’ll still keep in touch, right?”
“Of course I will! Cheng has an excellent postal system, and there’s a telephone – well the telecommunication lines have been down recently because of some disruption in the Bourgeois Empire, but it’ll be fixed soon I’m sure – anyway I’ll definitely stay in touch! You’re my friend.”
“Thanks. Maybe I’ll visit someday. We can team up to beat Adrien and Kim at tennis again.”
Marinette giggled. “Oh yes, that was how we first properly met each other, wasn’t it? We’ve definitely got to have that tennis match again one day. I’m looking forward to it! Oh – I have to go pack…”
She waved and ran off. The snake was now mildly horrified – it was only just sinking in that this was the last year at school, the last few months here. How many of these people would he never see again in his life? Chloé, Sabrina, Lila and Adrien were already gone, and now Marinette was leaving too. Within a few months, everyone would be gone. It would be back to a lonely life at the palace.
“I can’t believe her guardian animal is a frickin’ bug,” Alix whispered at him. Snakes could not shrug, but if he had arms, he would have shrugged at that.
-
-
The spring dance was different to the previous ones. This time, while still officially called “formal”, the atmosphere was more relaxed. Nino was at the music table playing much better tunes than the musicians had been playing last year. Snakes did not have humanlike ears either, but there were still some things they could hear, and that included good music.
“I forgot to properly invite you but you’re coming to my kingdom for the spring holidays, and no this is not optional,” Alix said to Kim, hiding in the corner away from where all the nobles could confront her about the iconic flower petal incident last year.
“I already know that, silly!” Kim poked her on the nose. “It’s a tradition now. I always have to hang out with you in the spring holidays. And considering they start tomorrow, you probably should have asked me sooner.”
“I’m not asking you, I’m ordering you!”
“Whatever. Hey, where’s Max? I have to go dance with him, I promised I would…” He wandered off.
“Tell Max he has to visit at least once!” Alix called after him – then quickly shut up and hid in her corner again from the nobles. The snake was relieved. He didn’t want any nobles asking him about the chandelier thing either, even if they wouldn’t understand a word he said about it.
“Alix, why are you hiding in the corner?”
“Juleka! Shh! Don’t tell anyone!”
Juleka had just walked into view, and now came over looking rather smug. “You don’t want people asking you to throw flower petals at them, do you?”
“Exactly.”
“Can’t you just scare them away? You and that awesome snake of yours?”
He straightened his neck a little – it was always nice to hear compliments from Juleka. That strange, mysterious princess really seemed to like him a lot, and not just in the superficial way that most edgy people did.
“I don’t want people to be scared of me,” Alix said. “A good pharaoh is obeyed because their citizens respect them, not fear them.”
“Glad to see you pay attention in class occasionally.”
“What? No I don’t…”
Juleka looked even more smug. “You know who else pays attention in class? Markov. And you know something about Markov? He has a crush on–”
“The hologram in my sceptre,” Alix said quickly. “I know. The hologram.”
“Hmm. The hologram indeed. Someone else too, but I guess that’s none of my business… oh, except that Master Fu told me at my oracle session that I do actually have gaydar. Proper gaydar, like, supernaturally. Well, more like I can tell when someone isn’t straight. And you know what? I look at Markov, and I don’t sense anything.”
“Are you telling me that Markov is straight?”
“I guess he must be. Though since he’s still developing his emotions and everything, maybe that’ll change.”
“Are you kidding me? So I know like one straight person at this school, and it’s a robot.”
Juleka chuckled. “Our class is an interesting mix, I have to say. I realized it when Max was asking me for love advice about his crush on Kim like almost two years ago. So you’re not their first winggirl.”
“Excuse me?!”
“Sorry, it’s true. You can ask him. And as much as Kim likes to pretend he was mine and Rose’s first wingman, he’s not. Alya was. No wait – my brother was.”
Alix and the snake seemed to have the same thought. “You have a brother?! Since when?”
“Oh sorry, did I not tell you? I guess I forgot.”
Juleka was a very mysterious person who seemed to “forget” a lot of things. No wonder no one really knew much about her at all. Like her hair… were the purple ends natural? She kept them pinned back under her hat so often that sometimes they were invisible. She really was the complete opposite to Rose, and yet those two loved each other so much. Perhaps there was some truth in the “opposite attract” saying after all.
-
-
It wasn’t until almost the end of the mandatory one-hour attendance period that the snake realized something. He felt strange, very strange – oh! It was a timeline thing! Something was happening in another timeline right now, something important. Ignoring the spring dance entirely, he disappeared into his thoughts to find out what was going on.
The exile timeline. That one where a very grumpy Alix had abdicated and gone off into exile with the snake, abandoning Adrien somewhere along the way with no further thought. But in the winter holidays she had promised to go find him again, and maybe take back her kingdom while she was at it…
There! The snake now understood what was happening. He watched the event within his mind, since it somehow seemed important – the Alix from the other timeline had just found Adrien, finally, after months of searching. And not only that, but Master Fu was there too! What was going on?
“Adrien! I finally found you! I’m sorry for leaving like that, I know you didn’t want me to, I hope these last few months haven’t been complete hell…” The timeline twin did truly sound sorry, which was strange, considering that she usually just sounded grumpy.
“Oh… it’s fine…”
For once, it was Adrien who sounded grumpy. The snake concentrated further to see that they were in some kind of dark, cold tavern, late at night, nothing but flickering candles on the walls lighting up the room, the howling of the wind outside louder than anything else. Perhaps it was still on the steppe somewhere. Wherever it was, it looked very… commoner.
“Master Fu? What are you doing here with him?!”
Master Fu was sitting at the same table as Adrien, his turtle at his side looking very odd in a fluffy turtle-size coat. “I have some important news to give him, news I would have given him at his oracle session if he had been there. It could mean the difference between life and death, so it really couldn’t wait. I set out from school to find him as soon as I could.”
“Oh… am I interrupting or something? I’m sorry, I just… I’ve been looking for Adrien for ages, and finally someone said he would be here, so…”
“Why were you looking for me?” Adrien asked, still grumpy.
“Because I shouldn’t have abandoned you in the first place! It was mean! And I miss you! And I miss everyone and everything, so I came back, and this time I’m actually gonna help. I promise.”
Adrien was silent in thought for a few seconds before answering. “Well thanks for coming back. But I don’t really know how you can help anything. I can never go home, and I hate it out here, and this thing keeps happening where I just keep breaking things when I’m in a bad mood… not on purpose! I’m not destroying things! I just lay one finger on something while having negative thoughts, and it crumbles… watch this…”
He frowned in concentration and then put his hands around the mug on the table in front of him. Within a few seconds it shattered into fine dust.
“See? I’m all messed up. The commoners are calling me a sorcerer, a bad omen, things like that. Maybe they’re right. I can never be an imperial prince again, not with dark powers like these.”
“Um… this may not be the right thing to say, but that was literally the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, so…”
Master Fu cleared his throat. “This is actually what I have come to talk about. Alix, take a seat. If you’re going to help Adrien then you may as well hear all this too.”
She sat down at the table.
“Alright. Adrien, your powers are not inherently good or bad. They are simply powers, and it is what you choose to do with them that makes all the difference. There is nothing wrong with you for having powers of destruction. It is your superpower, and you are only just beginning to discover it.”
Adrien seemed ever so slightly less grumpy now. “So these aren’t dark powers? They’re… superpowers?”
“Yes. An incredibly strong superpower too, and lethal when in the wrong hands. If you want to be able to control your power properly, the wisest course of action is for you to find your guardian animal. Unfortunately, your guardian animal is in a dangerous place right now.”
“Where? Is it going to die? Will I die too? What animal is it?”
“You must return to school and find Count Wayhem. He can give your guardian animal to you.”
“Return to school?” Adrien’s face fell. “But I’m not a royal anymore, and if my father finds out, I don’t know what he’ll do… maybe he’ll lock me up again or something, but in real prison this time…”
“It is up to you whether you return or not. But don’t forget – your superpower is extraordinary. I’m sure even locked bars wouldn’t be able to keep you, if that’s where your father would put you.”
“You’re right…” His voice had a little more resolve in it now. “If my superpower is destruction, then surely I can escape from anywhere? I suppose that means… that means my father isn’t a threat to me anymore. And – and I can return to school. Right?”
Fu shrugged. “Again, it’s your decision.”
“Yes, I should go back to school! At least to get my guardian animal, if nothing else, so then I can keep it safe. And maybe I can properly confront my father this time. Though technically speaking, I am a commoner, so I don’t know if I can ever be let back into the imperial court…”
“I have some other news too,” Fu said. “The new Empress Chloé of Bourgeois has officially cut ties with the Agreste Empire.”
“What?! Chloé’s the empress?!”
“Yes. It seems the news has not reached this remote barren area yet. But with her cutting ties, it has made your father very angry. He has lost his biggest ally, and he still wants to conquer the world that hates him so much. An emperor backed into a corner is very likely to lash out, to make irrational decisions. In a way, he is more dangerous now in this unpredictable, weakened state than he has ever been. If anyone can stop him it is you. His son. The one person who may be able to make him see reason.”
Adrien sighed – not a resigned one, but an angry, exasperated one. “He won’t see reason! He never has, no matter how much I tried. But I suppose I’ll have to go stop him somehow. Someone has to. I’ll go back to school, I’ll get my guardian animal, then I’ll set my sights on the Agreste Empire and find a way to get it back, perhaps from school itself since that seems a bit safer…”
“Good. You must be careful, though. It is a tragedy that the fate of so many people rest on the shoulders of a few teenagers. Your decisions can literally change the world. Choose wisely.”
“I… I will.” Adrien turned to Alix. “You’ll come with me, right? Back to school?”
She nodded. “Yeah, guess I will. There’s a lot of people I never properly said goodbye to. And then maybe I’ll see if I can get my own country back somehow…”
“Thank you. I’m glad you came back.”
“You’re just being polite. I know you’re still mad at me.”
“Maybe a little…” He hugged her. “But I really am happy that you’re here. Anyway, we should set out tomorrow morning. It’ll take a few weeks to get to school, won’t it? We have to get there before Count Wayhem leaves for summer.”
“Take care,” Fu warned. “The Bourgeois Empire has not fully adjusted to its new leader yet. It is still on the brink of a rebellion, though things are improving. It took a lot of wiles for me to get here, and it may take even more for you to get to school in one piece.”
“Thanks for telling us all this,” Adrien said. “We won’t let you down.”
“Good. I’m sure I’ll see you again someday…”
The snake snapped out of his reverie, back to the spring dance that was occurring right in front of him. Whoa… so Adrien had superpowers too? It seemed to be a common thing amongst those with a royal bloodline. Huh, maybe that was why those people had ancestors who were chosen to be royalty in the first place. And Adrien’s guardian animal was most certainly Plagg, Wayhem’s old pet cat.
“Dude, you just saw all that too, right?” Alix said to him – the real Alix, from this timeline, whose arm he was wrapped around. “You know what this means, don’t you? It means that Fu probably went to visit Adrien in this timeline too – he’s probably in Cheng telling him all this superpower stuff right now! And that means – that means – oh I gotta find Marinette!”
He was not entirely sure what any of this had to do with Marinette, but he did not question it for now. Surely Alix would explain soon.
After questioning several nobles they finally found Marinette outside the hall in the cool night air, already heading back to her dorm.
“Marinette!” Alix called, running up to her. “You can’t go back to Cheng! You have to stay here! It’s important!”
Marinette turned around, confused. “Huh? What? Why?”
“I just saw a thing in another timeline – Fu’s gone to visit Adrien and tell him he’s got superpowers, powerful enough to defeat his evil dad probably, or something like that. And so that must have happened in this timeline too. Which means Adrien is gonna leave Cheng and make his way back here! So if you go back to Cheng, you’ll miss him halfway, and then you said you might get stuck there, but he’ll be here, and oh god I’m explaining this really badly I’m sorry.”
“Um…” Marinette blinked a few times. “You’re saying that Adrien has superpowers, and is going to use them to come back to school and confront his father, so I should stay here? Or at least just go to Dupain for the holidays?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, I see. Thank you for telling me. I’d better do that, then.” She smiled. “I’ve got superpowers too, you know. Maybe I can help him.” With that, she turned and walked away.
So even Marinette had superpowers? Who didn’t at this point??? Maybe everyone secretly did.
“You know, pal,” Alix said to the snake, giving him a stroke, “I get the feeling we just changed the course of history. Do you feel that too?”
Oddly enough, he got what she meant. Something important had just happened, in all the timelines, though it was impossible to describe how or why. Something big was brewing on the horizon. Supposedly the dreaded timeline split could happen at any moment between now and the summer holidays, and it was suddenly seeming closer than ever before.
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jocdaily · 7 years ago
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INTERVIEW: IS JACK O’CONNELL OUR NEXT GREAT LEADING MAN?
Most people know the story of Jack O’Connell. The bad boy from Derby; the teenage delinquent turned Bafta-winning Hollywood actor; the go-to guy for a “troubled youth” tale; a skinhead in This Is England, a sexy, self-destructive lost boy in Skins. He dates pop stars and supermodels; he gives interviews with a hangover. As the tattoo on his biceps says, he is the definitive Jack the Lad.
But that’s not the man I interview one Thursday afternoon in Camden, north London. The guy I meet is softly spoken, calm, seemingly unflappable and with impeccable manners, a guy who gives me tips for the best Sunday roasts in Hampstead, who leans over to pick up my jacket when it falls off my chair, who offers to share his last cigarette and who orders two scones with cream and jam at the gastropub where we meet around the corner from his new home. He moved here in May from east London, where he’d lived for years. “I had my local pubs I went to,” says the 27-year-old. “I’d speak to all the old fellas in there, go for two or three pints, then lock-ins would ensue.” He’s already finding new watering holes with the same “old fellas” in NW1: “I like a pub, me. You can have a nice boogie in some pubs.”
This summer, O’Connell has risen to a whole new level of fame after starring in Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Benedict Andrews, at the Apollo Theatre. He plays Brick, a broken, alcoholic, ageing football player who is grieving the loss of his best friend and whose marriage is falling apart. O’Connell says he has enjoyed the routine of theatre and the opportunity to evolve his character, though, “I’m over halfway through and I feel I could be better. I wonder if it would be more truthful if I took the edge off, instead of belting it out,” he thinks aloud. “Because I’m really starting to feel sorry for people in the front row.”
Certainly they get an eyeful. The play opens with O’Connell sitting naked and spread-eagle under a shower and, predictably, his full-frontals have received much publicity. (“Worth coming all the way from Stoke-on-Trent for!” one woman trills in the interval the night I attend.) He says he has “got used” to the nudity and likes the “immediate intimacy” of marriage it establishes between him and his on-stage wife, Maggie, played by Sienna Miller. He describes his co-star as “wonderful. A powerhouse. She’s just solid,” adding that she started a tradition of a “company cuddle” with the cast before every show. “Every time we’re on stage, she’s energised,” he says. “Even as recently as our last performance, she’s trying new things, which is exciting for me, too.”
I wonder how he copes with his sudden sex-symbol status. I tell him George Clooney once said that the level of attention he gets is embarrassing. Does O’Connell feel the same? “I’m willing to put money on the fact that George Clooney is not embarrassed about it at all, not a chance,” he laughs (they featured together in the 2016 film Money Monster). “I play characters for a living. If they come across looking like they breathe real air, then sweet. If people want to f*** them as well, sweet — that’s another reaction altogether. But really, I don’t pay enough attention to feel anything towards it. It’s a by-product.” It may be a constructed front of modesty, but I can believe it.
His next big moment, set to air in November on Netflix, is Godless, an epic seven-part western set in the 1800s, also starring Michelle Dockery and Jeff Daniels, and written and directed by Academy Award nominee Scott Frank. O’Connell shot in New Mexico for eight months, which involved “plenty of horse-riding and proper cowboy shit”. He enjoyed the physical challenges of the role. “Don’t get me wrong, I was a bit scared on them horses from time to time,” he says. “But it helps your character if you look like a natural. It gives you a better continuity in your own head, instead of sitting in your trailer while your stuntman does all the brave shit.”
Starring in period films holds particular appeal, O’Connell says he has a genuine fascination with history and hopes one day to immerse himself back into the education that he took for granted in his younger life. Earlier this year, he went on a pilgrimage to Co Kerry, the birthplace of his late father, John, to find out more about Ireland’s history as well as his own heritage. “The idea was to visit museums and talk to historians, but I did it on a more casual scale than I’d hoped. I met people, hung out and played golf.” He’s currently trying to write a Buddy Holly biopic, but he’s still in the “research and spider diagrams” stage. “I stand by my dad’s opinion, which is that few people have gone on to make as much music, not only quality but quantity, in such a short amount of time. My dad hails him as the greatest ever. If he could,” he says, exhaling cigarette smoke. “He’s not around nowadays, bless him.”
Godless also allows O’Connell to break away from the troubled-youth stereotype. When I suggest this, I suspect he might bristle, but he seems fairly serene about it. “I get what I’m given,” he says. “Maybe a year or two ago, when I’d racked up one or two similar-sounding characters, I was more conscious of it and made more effort to avoid it. Nowadays, I just think, ‘Oh, f*** it.’ I’m very grateful to be doing what I’m doing. I’ve done way more than I ever could have hoped as a kid, and I’m glad to be free of that anxiety of what comes next, that ‘How can I justify this choice?’”
He was once quoted as saying of his younger life: “My mentality every time I left the house was that I had to have the most fun I’d ever had.” I ask whether this ambition has mellowed. “My teenage years were fast and bountiful,” he says, “but I feel fortunate to have learnt one or two things by my early twenties. I’m all right with having a bland night out now. Even if it’s a Saturday — two, three pints and a nice chinwag. It’s all about the chinwag. That’s what I’ve come to learn: everything else is just temporary. Chinwags last a lifetime.”
Despite his propensity for roasts, history and a chinwag, O’Connell is single, but in no rush to settle down (he has previously dated the singer Tulisa and, allegedly, Cara Delevingne). “I couldn’t imagine doing this job with children. Maybe there will be a quieter period when I’ve got the luxury of choice, but I don’t at the minute. So that has to take priority. Just being fair to myself and my unborns,” he laughs.
At the end of our chinwag, he gets up from the table to ask the waiter if he has something he can transport his scone leftovers in. I ask him if he’s taking the jam and cream as well. “Too f****** right I am,” he smiles. He offers to pay the bill, then shakes my hand and says it was nice to meet me. And off he goes to the theatre, with his box of scones in hand — that nice lad, Jack O’Connell.
Interview by The Times
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