#and gabriel's acting was amazingly good

[furicookiebndz]

Lucifer x !FemReader : My old friend

Hello everyone, it is my first time writing this, i hope it will be good enough, have fun! This fan art isn't mine. Full credits to the amazingly talented artist/creator.

It has been thousands of years since evil began.

Lucifer, whose pride blinded him, attempted to dethrone the creator, only to ultimately fail and be banished from Paradise.

Lilith, who refused to submit to Adam, in turn fled from this magical place, but which hides many facades.

Yet few people know that with them, a third person flew out of Paradise. And even rarer are people who know the cause, 3 to be precise.

However, behind this unusual act lie very dark secrets, seen as…

-Can you stop, Vag'? You're giving me a headache.

The young woman turned her head towards the source of this execrable voice, a spider who was visibly lying carefree on the sofa, arms behind her head, a bored expression on her face.

Refraining from answering him, she continued:

Tragic, some thought it was another rebellious woman, others a fallen angel because of a serious crime, but that wasn't logical, what's worse than to confront the creator?"

-That doesn't help all of us, the young woman noted, running her hand through her hair, frustrated.

-It would be beneficial to have her on our side, especially if she has such a significant influence on the world of the living and beyond, Charlie concluded thoughtfully.

-But she hid from the world, living as a hermit. Many think it's a myth, but given what's been happening lately, I believe it's much more present than sinners think.

Vaggie rubbed her temples, trying to come up with an idea.

-Who the hell are you talking about? I hate it when you pretend to be Sherlock and leave me like the old cookie in the back of the cupboard.

-Are you interested in what we do? retorted Vaggie sarcastically

-No, more about why you were busting my balls, joked Angel.

-You don't even have one, asshole, mumbled quietly Husk, taking a sip of his cheap booze.

-Want to check~? It is free for you kitty cat.

-Not even for a thousand balls, growled quietly Husk, who was beginning to lose his patient.

-Ouuh finally a price there is progress, Daddy, the spider sent him a kiss

Alastor, who was reading a book by the fireplace, decided to speak

-Charlie, Darling, you seem concerned about this person Let me see…

He seemed surprised for a moment, before smiling more, if possible.

-My my, what a terrible coincidence. The person you are looking for is one of the most sought after. Didn't Lucifer tell you about Lady (Y/N)?

-Um… We're not exactly talking about all that-

“Daddy issues,” Husk muttered.

Alastor continued:

-As reported in this document, she flew away shortly after your parents. She was a person living in Heaven, she was not human, but not an angel entirely though, she had two pairs of wings, although she is the appearance of a mortal, yet she had her own power, not to be underestimated. She embodied humor, justice and determination. In short, all these things that are way too boring-

-Cut it short, Alastor, Vaggie said, snapping her fingers.

-But when Lucifer challenged God, she did not follow him, not because she had to beat him, but because he knew just as well as she did that what he was doing was wrong. For the first time in her life she felt an immense disappointment in the love he had once inspired in her, and the semblance of a relationship that was perhaps tending to end disappeared with the appearance of the first demon, your father, Charlie.

However, you are aware that shortly after the creation of Lilith, she quickly became friends with your mother, and when she flew away from Paradise, and she learned the cause, she entered in a black anger, so black that Gabriel had difficulty in containing it, Until then, she had always been obedient, never contesting the decisions, which were of infallible Justice, but this departure had torn away part of her herself. She confronted the lord, she tried to rally the others to her cause, but nothing changed. Disappointed, she left that place, and no one ever saw her again.

There was a heavy silence for a moment, before Angel said:

-So…Is she still a virgin?

Vaggie rolled her eyes before Charlie had an idea:

I'm sure she's not that far away. Maybe I should ask my father to contact her again. She must care about him, at least I hope so, and if I convince her, Gabriel won't be able to object!

Vaggie refrained from adding a comment, she knew it was too good to be able to do it, but in front of her girlfriend's adorable face, she couldn't refuse anything.

______________________________________________________________

-No, Lucifer said firmly, before Charlie could even finish his idea.

-But dad-

-End of discussion, I don't want to hear anything, he turned around and mechanically squeezed the rubber duck in his hand, like an anti-stress ball.

Lucifer seemed elsewhere, deep in thought. His friend, his old friend…

.

.

.

“Luciferrrrr!” A burst of joy appeared as she walked towards him, a smile on her lips, a book in her hands.

Lucifer as usual had a lyre in his hands. He looked up at Y/N and smiled.

One discussion led to another, he shared his ideas about the mortal world, while she agreed with some and shared her opinion on others. They would sometimes just stay silent, or she would read aloud from a book, and he would then accompany her with his lyre.

Such a beautiful memory…

.

.

.

Why Lucifer?! Why did you do this?

This same friend was there with her eyes filled with tears, disappointed in him.

Lucifer looked down. One mistake, just one mistake, had caused him to lose those he considered family, and his closest friend.

He wanted to tell her that it was just a misunderstanding, that it was for the best, but the damage was already done.

He took Lilith's hand and without a word, left for their new home.

The young woman, in tears, could only watch them leave, the man she loved and her friend, without being able to do anything, because her principles prevented her. Gabriel placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and said nothing. If she knew, he couldn't imagine how she would have reacted

.

.

.

-Dad?

Lucifer seemed to come out of his thoughts and focused on a family portrait. Lilith was already gone, after their separation he only had his daughter left, and after a second of thought he sighed and said:

-I'll see what I can do…

-It's true? Oh thank you Dad, thank you thank you thank you!, cried Charlie enthusiastically.

She took him in her arms, and Lucifer said to himself that finally, if having a hug from his daughter meant having to seek the 7 rings of Hell and even the beyond, he would do it without complaining.

Now all that remained was to find it, the most complicated part…

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

Lucifer, Charlie and the hotel members thought for several days, using all their knowledge and powers to find her. If she was neither in Hell, nor in Heaven, or even in the mortal world, she must be between the latter options-

Lucifer suddenly had an idea, remembering a conversation they had shared long ago, and he cast an incantation, which opened a portal to a world- no, a unique place, so messy and blurry, and yet so… familiar, as if he were…

“In the middle of a dream,” Charlie whispered softly. The rest of the team followed her, looking around curiously. Lucifer asked himself so many questions, was it a place where souls rested between life and death? He did not know it. After all, the soul left the body for a while when it slept, that would explain the place.

-Who are you? I sense human souls, but something else…

They saw several women advancing, of great beauty, similar to fairies, but armed, ready to defend themselves, if it was not for another who stopped them by raising her hand, she advanced slowly, and Lucifer recognized her completely. right now.

-(Y/N)..Lucifer seemed upset to see her, and tried to pull himself together by talking to himself. "Ok, Ok. It's going to be okay buddy, you can do it, you can do it", When he met her gaze, he lost all his courage and hid behind Charlie.

-Dad!

-What? I-I'm just covering your back Charlie.

-At least what I thought of you is true, you're just a sissy Lucifer, Alastor sneered.

You looked at him for a moment, the man you had loved for thousands of years, it was..strange. You didn't know whether you should greet him or hit him.

-Lucifer, what is the honor of this visit worth to me? In 10,000 years you have never had the decency to come visit me.

Sarcasm. Something unusual about you, he couldn't help but admire you. Your two pairs of wings were now grey, but your eyes were still this soft (e/c) shade, but now full of resentment, and perhaps.. mockery?

-And you, you must be his daughter, mhh?

You moved closer to her and observed her suspiciously, while she was sweating profusely, and Vaggie seemed on the edge on attacking you, and to her surprise, you smiled widely and took her in your arms, with surprising strength.

-My lord you are his carbon copy, so pretty~, you squish her cheek cheeks and gush about her, while she laughs awkwardly.

Everyone was stunned by how fast the tension dissipates, and the women behind you giggle, seemingly aware by how fast your emotions tend to change. Lucifer smiles, maybe he still had a chance..

-But you seem so polite, unlike some, you cast a dark look at Lucifer, and greeted the others with a sympathetic and curious look, their offering to sit down for a while to talk.

...maybe not finally.

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

-If I understood everything, you created a hotel to rehabilitate sinners… and are trying to convince Heaven, is that right?

She nodded and Lucifer tried to add something, but you stopped him:

-I don't speak with traitors and liars, especially if they forget to send me a life message for eons.

Lucifer doesn't say anything wanting to make anything worse. He knew he was wrong, and sighed heavily.

(Y/N)-1 Lucifer-0.

-Damn, this girl is awesome, Angel whispered excitedly.

Vaggie continued:

-Lady (Y/N), you still have decent relationship with heaven.Could you try talking to some highers-up about it? Like Gabrie-

-No, this thing is no longer part of my circle of close friends, I can still try to talk about it again with Sera and Emily, but I can't do anything with the other weirdo.

Charlie felt hopeless, and she took your hands and looked at you with a miserable expression.

-I beg you, you must speak to him, my people are dying every year at the hands of the exorcists, and I-I cannot stand by and do nothing. Can you try..?

At his beaten puppy look, you widened your eyes, it was exactly-

Please don't tell them where I was, Lucifer pleaded with adorable eyes. You sighed but smiled, nodding your head.

-Well, i will. But I'm not promising anything though-

-Thank you thank you thank you, she hugged you, and you hugged her back with a smile.

Lucifer felt his heart beat faster, these two women who are precious to him have finally met, and got along better than he expected.

Now all he had to do was sort out one last problem.

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

Explanations were made. You listened patiently, and after a while you answered:

-Why Lucifer, didn't you tell me before? I-I thought I was your friend.

Lucifer held her gaze, and for the first time in millennia he took his courage in both hands and took hers:

-I didn't want to see your disappointed look, I know I made a mistake, but I only thought about doing the right thing. And I-

-You got scared?

He nodded, and you sighed:

-I don't blame you, at least not anymore.

He raised his eyes, feeling a bit of hope, and feeling Charlie's encouraging look, he continued:

-So, can we try again? I mean our relationship- Well our friendship!

He blushed slightly and you chuckled softly:

-Yes, always Lucifer.

[sohcah--toa]

three assassins/grasshopper 2015 things that needed a place to stay

OK so basically... hello Three Assassins/Grasshopper 2015 fandom!!

I am VERY VERY late to everything about this book!! I first picked it up in 2023 during the summer, fell in love and have reread it 5 times now. (also convinced 10 of my friends to read it. one of them did. love her forever. And politely asked my mother to watch it with me, which she said yes to but now never wants my movie recommendations again. You win some you lose some.... at least she liked Asagao!!!)

And if you're randomly strolling upon this post with no idea what this is, PLEASE read it or watch the movie, it is SO good if you don't mind vulgar language and sensitive/gory content.

Other than the book, a movie's been made about it (called Grasshopper グラスホッパー - made in 2015. Grasshopper was the original name for the book but for some reason it got translated into Three Assassins in English though lol!! Both are great :DDDD) and it's practically as good as the original by Mr Kotaro Isaka.

Here are some really brainrotty-strange things that just needed a place to stay regarding both versions of the story... (SPOILERS)

-> Firstly, Cicada has completely different motives (not motives for his job but like... ya know if ya know) in the movie. In Grasshopper, he has this ringing in his ears that he wants to stop, whereas in the book, he's TERRIFIED of being controlled by another person (namely Iwanishi cough cough), especially after watching the film called Oppression by Gabriel Caseau or something among the lines of that.

-- The movie doesn't actually exist hahaha I was so disappointed. Or maybe it does and I just didn't dig deep enough...? Please tell me!!

Ahem anyway...

Cicada is such an interesting character. I think he's 100% Kotaro Isaka's favourite just because he got his own manga series.

YEAH YOU HEARD ME RIGHT CICADA HAS A MANGA SERIES!!

-> It's titled "Waltz" and it's written by both Kotaro Isaka and Megumi Osuga in Maoh: Juvenile Remix. (AKA 魔王 ~JUVENILE REMIX~) It acts as a continuation of Three Assassins, I suppose. It is AMAZING the art is beautiful!!

(I literally could not find the full thing I'm sorry but there's a Reddit thread reviewing the series and it links to the website if you want to read Waltz!! the whole thing revolved around Cicada.)

Also yess he gets a "backstory" here!! We also get full reason to why Grasshopper is titled Grasshopper other than Asagao/the Pusher and Suzuki's interesting musings ;))

-> Did you know that the book the Whale/Kujira was reading is called "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky? (or Преступление и наказание, Фёдор Достоевский)

You probably knew... hahahahaa

But if you didn't, there's a little secret!! It's a wonderful story as well, quite dark although, like, if you're reading Three Assassins...

-> Onto the amazingly written characters and their kind of messed up philosophies:

-- ASAGAO (朝顔) /THE PUSHER:

He believes that humans are like grasshoppers, and they enter a swarming stage when crowded. However, unlike locusts, they can't fly away so they just get more and more aggressive..?? Very interesting, so so so cool!! I love these random things Kotaro Isaka drops in the story. Like, WOAhHH give me a second!?!?

But also somehow, the Pusher is some that seems kind. I don't know, I'd hate to be that person but when he was interacting with the family, I just kept thinking "this could actually be a wholesome family dynamic if only he wasn't the Pusher and Sumire and the kids weren't his employers..." (He has a sense of humour too, isn't that great?? He gives off massive dad energy sometimes and I could have genuinely believed that he was the dad of Kojiro and Kentaro, especially when

-- CICADA (AKA SEMI 蝉)

His thoughts are represented in an uncanny way, because he genuinely is completely unempathetic to humans. You could argue that all the other assassins are the same but like, come on!! Isaka definitely definitely upped it up a notch with Cicada...

He straight up says that "well if we could see humans breathe then it would be harder to hurt them" and compares his job to "you know, it's like when you stop too late at a red light and your car kind blocks the road and you're feeling guilty but it's not that big of a deal". (these are not the actual quotations for OBVIOUS reasons but same energy)

It's hilarious that he likes cats and dogs as well. Everything this guy says is kinda quotable (everything the Pusher says is too, that man is practically a philosopher)

Oh yeah!! And I've got to mention the movie!!

In the movie, Cicada is absolutely unhinged as well but the ending is something else completely!! He gets beat up by the Whale (and the Whale gets beat up by him too) when he goes to Fräulein's headquarters while Iwanishi (more like his ghost) just stands there. Then Cicada cuts his ear off but we don't talk about that.

That turn of event was totally unexpected... I thought the cedar grove ending was cool in the book and extremely ominous but this worked so well too, I loved the Whale and Cicada's dynamic at the end of it where they just drive off together ahaahahah!!

-- SUZUKI (鈴木)

He's just a guy. I may as well be Suzuki in another universe because he is sounds really pathetic in the book sometimes.... don't get me wrong I love him it's just very funny how he fails to do so many things and overthinks everything... I guess it's like, a "THIS COULD BE YOU" moment but not really because he definitely has his own character.

(but also we should respect his dedication for his wife.. this man was willing to GIVE IT ALL UP for her and honestly it's so impressive!!)

OH YEAH AND HE BECAME A CLOWN IN THE MOVIE HAHAHAHA RESPECT!! After all he's been through that's a pretty solid career choice. He's totally precious in the movie though, the scenes with his wife and him are so sweet...

-- THE WHALE (AKA KUJIRA 鲸)

Oooh alright, now this was difficult to place a finger on. The Whale has a really nonchalant attitude to things sometimes and his whole demeanour is just "wahaaaha?!?" because he was so unpredictable. Like, I would not have guessed that he once worked as a newspaper delivery bow and shot his employer.

(oooyayaa but I need to say that the movie kinda changed his backstory and the first person he killed was his father)

OK I MEAN that was a massive connection to the film "Oppression" that Cicada is obsessed with (not in a good way) that Kotaro Isaka just DROPPED on us all of a sudden.

So what does that mean??

He just gives off this feeling that everything is connected. Cicada mentions this a few times as well, since Iwanishi starts quoting some talking scarecrow from a book (what is the book though??!?!). I guess the fact that he compares humans/technology to insects too shows that all the assassins have similar thoughts, which are all properly explained by the Pusher or something... that's merely an interpretation though!! A rather scuffed one at that....

-- HIYOKO

She's not the most important character ever but she's the textbook definition of gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss. She's so manipulative throughout the entire story and keeps threatening Suzuki with awful stuff... well, she's good at her job, that's that...

On the other hand, it's so interesting how her white skin is emphasised in the book. It's first "porcelain white" (By Suzuki), after it's just "pale white" (by the Whale), then "white like a mannequin" (by Cicada) and finally "her skin seems to have gone past white into a shade of green" (by the Whale when we last actually see her character).

BUT THEN THE MOVIE IS A WHOLE OTHER STORY!!

She is so ghghghgh :"DDD They made her so much more brutal, like she pulls out a weapon at absolutely everything and the scene where her shirt gets splattered with blood- WHAT. That's wild. (

Also her actor is so so so pretty!!)

(look at Suzuki in this picture hahahaha nooo save him)

-- OTHER CHARACTERS

Momo: she has such nice energy in the book and her friendship with Cicada is honestly wholesome sometimes even though they are what they are!! She seems really mysterious honestly and if she ever had a solo spinoff, I would totally read that!! Under appreciated character..

(also her reference to the Bashō poem was hilaRiOus!??)

Suzuki's wife: I don't know why but she's so much less chaotic in the movie, which is hilarious to see because in the book, she's kinda portrayed as someone who has extremely strong beliefs and is quite stubborn. She's still so sweet though!! In Three Assassins (book), she and Suzuki met at a hotel "all you can eat" when she started piling food up on her plate and said "oh I'm on a 1 on 1 battle with myself". This was followed by a really cute ending scene where Suzuki booked a hotel for himself after all the events transpired and basically just did the same thing. But Grasshopper (movie), they replaced everything there and made her bake a cake(?) and Suzuki ate the time capsule at the end. Aahahhh so sweet!!

Kentaro/Kojiro/Sumire: Felt so bad for the little guys, and was so surprised when Kojiro was the one who Suzuki's wife tried to save in the movie. I guess that's what made it so well rounded, because Suzuki ended up getting closure. Kentaro was so adorable too, like grr that football scene!?!? Yeah they had to keep it, even in the movie. It was too wholesome.

Sumire, on the other hand, was a little... CREEPY. Her actor was so so good, what the math!! And in the book, she has schoolgirl energy but this really sinister side to her as well. (I mean she enjoyed seeing Suzuki panic and stuff so why wouldn't she hahaaa)

-

-

This was so much longer than I expected I'm sorry... but thank you very much if you read this war!! That's kinda crazy woaah :"DD oK these are just intrusive thoughts that needed a place to stay. I hope this post reaches some other insane people so they can tell me what they think about everything!!!!! <333

[revolutionaryfiction-is-pain]

Les Misérables London West End 2022-2023 Cast:

Jon Robyns as Jean Valjean:

I really loved Jon as JVJ, his performance was so dynamic and powerful. Probably one of the best JVJ’s in terms of acting ability - he was amazing throughout. The looks and head movements he gave towards Javert were hilarious: he was done with everything Javert was doing. When Javert entered the hospital the look was basically the definition of ‘dude! She’s dying! Not the time!’. He also had amazing vocals (not my favourite this year) but his bring him home was beautiful. The main part of his performance, like I previously said, was the acting.

David Thaxton as Javert:

Amazing Javert. His performance of Stars was just incredible. His acting performance throughout scenes was the perfect mix of intimidating and authority. His soliloquy was so well acted. He mixed speaking a singing with I adored. He also had a softness about him that ran along the sternness and it was confusingly good. His chemistry with Jon Robyns was perfect - they worked the best as a pair compared to other performances I’ve seen this year. Their fight scenes were great.

Ava Brennan as Fantine:

She had such beautiful rich low tone that maintained a youthfulness to it which was just incredible. Her acting was also really good although I think she could have explored the physicality of Fantine a bit more as some parts were very stationary with just facial expressions. But overall one of my favourite performances this year.

[does anyone know why the fantine dress has changed again???!!!!!]

Nathania Ong as Eponine:

The best vocals I’ve literally ever heard live in anything ever (and that’s saying something since I’ve heard Bradley Jaden’s Soliloquy which was mind shatteringly good). Her performance personified acting with intent. Everything she did had a purpose and it gave such a realistic refreshing dynamic performance. Her on my own was the best vocal performance of anyone this year no matter the role. My favourite thing was when she switch to a hopeful childlike tone on the word “happiness” in on my own, before switching immediately back to anger. She played such a dark Eponine who felt caught up in everything but still separate which adored so much.

Benjamin Karran as Marius (1st cover):

Beautiful low vocals, but I did think that his high notes needed some work in terms of darkening the sounds as they sometimes came across screechy. I loved his characterisation though, it was a wonderful blend of annoying and adorable which made enjolras’ frustration understandable. Overall he was a really easy to watch Marius.

Lulu-Mae Pears as Cosette:

Cosette personified. Pure and utter beauty, are the only ways to describe her performance. She had beautiful high notes with no effort or over done vibrato. Her character was so bouncy and energetic and youthful, and she made you just fall in love with cosette as a character. She had such a youthful personality without being overly innocent and was exactly how I envisioned cosette from reading the book. Probably the most enjoyable cosette I’ve seen in a long while.

Gerard Carey as Thènardier:

Pure raucous chaos throughout all his scenes. I’ve seen him multiple times performing with both casts this year and his master of the house with the new cast was just perfection: so much gusto and obnoxiousness. Just amazingly crazy character and vocals.

Josefina Gabrielle as Madame Thènardier:

She was so funny. Comedic timing was perfect and the way she played with her voice to add emphasis and accents on different phrases and words was just wonderful.

Jordan Shaw as Enjolras:

From clips I’ve seen of him, I didn’t go into the theatre expect me to like his performance; but it was probably my favourite all round performance of enjolras this year - high praise coming from some so obsessed with the character. Yes, there were times when his vocals weren’t my favourites but his voice blended so well with the ensembles and the way he acted was so clear and passionately beautiful. He had a wonderful idealistic sensitivity to him and because of that his vocal didn’t matter as they fit the character as whole so well. Would love to go and see him again!

Bart Lambert as Grantaire:

One sentence…

Depressed teletubbie got drunk and ate too much sugar…

Hilarious performance of grantaire with so much bouncy energy (I could totally see his R and Lulu-Mae’s cosette being friends). He was serious when he needed to be but when he didn’t he fully explored the light hearted side of R. There’s was a nice bond between him and Gavroche and he had a heartbreaking reaction to Gav’s death. Because I was close to the stage I could hear him whispering stuff like ‘he’s just a kid’ and ‘no no no’ while cradling gavroches body. He was also so careful when laying gav down and took so long to arrange his body with so much care. Unlike Steven Hall and Connor Jones his vocals were very sung and didn’t have as much grit to them, which I loved because it matched the playful energy he had. My only criticism is that he didn’t have the best chemistry with marius but that maybe due to Benjamin being on and having not had a chance to develop it yet.

Cameron Burt as Feuilly:

He had an absolutely wonderful performance and worked so well with Jordan Shaw as Enjolras. His vocals were also very strong: well pronounced and not over sung. I desperately need to see him on as Enjolras as he’s a cover for that role.

Overall opinion on whole cast:

The ensemble was wonderful: I do think they need a bit more time to properly gel seamlessly but overall they did work well together. It was a very level overall good performance with no one being significantly better than anyone else so it felt very complete. The stupid barricade still annoys me but I’m growing to like the new production more and more as I go to see it. I don’t think it will ever be as good as the previous one but when you have a good cast and know the show well it’s not the end of the world.

[fan-written]

Malicious Compliance Marinette

It's the trope where Marinette always stands up to the JL and they let her continue being Ladybug because she and Paris refuse to let them in. Batman usually sneaks one or more of his kids in after that.

This isn't that:

Justice League learn finally take her years old message seriously about the situation in Paris. Four years late.

All of the seasoned, adult heroes claim seniority after learning that the miraculous team is made up of only teens. Especially after they find out they have no mentor.

France welcomes more the more experienced heroes. Paris doesn't.

So they take over the safety of Paris.

And immediately place restrictions on Ladybug. And technically Chat Noir too.

I'm low on sodium though and really want some class and Adrien salt. So it's just been Marinette for a while with an incompetent partner.

Since this is pettynette she makes friends with Felix who wholely encourages her shenanigans.

So Mari has Felix and probably Luka when they're in town as her back up heroes. And only occasionally because she's afraid of another miracle queen incident. Maybe the Quantic Kids, but only if they are in London with Felix.

Anyway, the restrictions

Mari has to call the JL whenever there is an Akuma. So she does. After they've defeated it.

Marinette has to meet for training once a week. She does, but arrives at Paris time the first few times, then at US times, until they learn to specify what time zone.

One time she makes a request to Hawkmoth to only create Mr. Pigeon or Mr. Rat for three weeks straight after the JL demand she call as soon as the Akuma appears. HM agrees only because he's tired of these JL idiots interrupting his attempts for the miraculous.

She calls right before she starts attacking but the JL still show up after it's defeated. Because she's good at her job.

The JL get zero amount of sleep for a month.

At the beginning they demand she hand over the Lucky Charm when they were in the fight. She does, recharges privately, then she sits back and waits while helping civilians stay safe because they refused to let her attack. This made Paris start to hate them and love her more

Akumas take hours longer to defeat until they give up and returne it to LB. Amazingly the Lucky charm still works every time.

She is asked to share any information about the Miraculous. She says by order of the Guardian she cannot.

The Guardian orders a lot of things.

Like refusal for sharing identities.

Refusal accepting their input for handing out Miraculous'

Cookies must be available at all times.

Refusal of joining any affiliated teams without permission of the Guardian.

The Guardian is all powerful and no she will not tell them who it is.

Paris is offended that the JL and the rest of France think they can just run roughshod over their beloved hero. Some (cough Alya cough) cheer for them, but most usually ask them to leave so Ladybug can handle things the right way.

Some of the Teen Titans show up. Ladybug is Not Impressed.

She's been managing an entire city on her own for four years. What have they been doing? And they got to have mentors? What adorable children they are.

Marinette on the other hand is Done. Adrien is an absolute doormat. Somehow her class is forced together through highschool. And most of her team is out of country 80% of the time. Now she has to deal with these assholes who think they know her city better than her just because she's a few months shy of being an adult.

Then two new students join the Akuma Class and out themselves to her as hero/vigilante right away. It was the in depth questions/interrogation they asked that gave them away.

So she gives them some misleading information.

Ladybug may be 3000 years old, but she borrowed a history book from this school once!

Chat is probably really part cat and that's why he's so unreliable. Adrien may have spluttered in Chat's defence but it didn't do a good job of convincing anyone that Chat was helpful lately.

Alya and Nino try to share info about the kwami but it made them sound a little insane. Who knew there were little talking bugs who called themselves gods?

Since Marinette is still stuck as the class Pres she has to lead them around. So she does exactly what the school book says.

Bustier is pissed, but she can't actually get after Mari for anything because she will just pull out the school handbook and charter.

So she leads them around the school then gives them a map. Like she's supposed to.

She directs them to teacher when they start asking questions about how the school is run.

She acts professional and distant to them and the rest of the school.

The class only get the most basic cupcake and store bought card for birthdays. Trips are only the regular kind to museums and universities. She simply doesn't have time to do more, nor does she care.

And more pettynette because I like it, but I can't think of anything else right now!

IDK if there's any love interest, or if it's like Felinette and Felix finds Gabriel's secret lair by accident and make a plan then inform the JL after the plan is in motion kind of deal. Or maybe one of the TT gets upset at their mentor and decides to help LB instead just to piss them off.

Or maybe the JL make up for ignoring and going over her head? Maybe she does a quiet take down of HM and at that point she can finally run them out of her city.

---

Edit: I've written a little one shot called Lucky. Hopefully I'll have more to add soon!

[imthepunchlord]

If given the only option, do you think that the Canon!Butterfly or the Canon!Peafowl would be a better match for Canon!Marinette considering everything that comes with each (kwami, power, theme, etc.)?

Funnily enough, I started writing out a “Best to Least” miraculous match for Marinette for fun. Until its done as I might mull it over more before posting it, but to answer here I am initially saying that between the two (and playing off that Peafowl is tweaked that user exclusively makes a golem and won’t rely on others), Butterfly would actually be the better of the two for canon Marinette. 

Like, ultimately, whether its Marinette DC or AC, Butterfly and Peafowl are not the most ideal miraculouses for them. They can ultimately pull it off, but of the 5, there are better matches. 

But for Marinette DC, Butterfly is better than Peafowl, actually meeting aspects of her character better. Butterfly matches her connection with others, how she is willing to work with others, recognize potential, and offer others a chance to join the fight. Butterfly also leaves it open whether she’s going to be a teammate or team leader. And the tool of the Butterfly can actually allow her to join a fight if she so wishes, so she can work alongside her Champions. Her only big struggle is that her first instinct is to handle things herself or to try to before she seeks out help. Not her best match but it is incredibly doable and does have appeals of opening her up to asking for help more. 

But with Peafowl, between how more limiting the tool can be in battle, and with this type of power of creating a golem to serve you, Peafowl doesn’t need to be directly involved in any fight. It’s actually funny in canon that Mayura is the one more actively in the field but she has the lesser fit miraculous for it between the two. 

By set up, this miraculous is more of an opposite with Marinette and of the 5, she could struggle with this most. 

Its designed for distance between the user and the heat of a fight, and while Marinette can settle for a more background role and do it well, this could be more distance than she would like. Fox and Butterfly would actually allow more involvement if she would like to be more directly involved. 

This is a miraculous designed more for unpredictability. The golem ultimately acts out the desires of the user, but you can’t entirely always factor in how its going to behave or act out those desires, and while Marinette is good at making a plan through the chaos she’s in, this sets her up to potentially cause chaos.

Say, Fu is not in Paris, Gabriel arises as HM, and Marinette has the (unbroken) Peafowl, she could make a “Ladybug” to be a hero to stop HM. While this golem at the core acts out what Marinette made her to do, save the city and stop HM, that doesn’t mean that “Ladybug” will act the same as Marinette would if she was LB herself. There would be something unpredictable about this “LB” as its an entity of its own, with own thoughts, feelings, and views. It’s made to act out a core purpose and it will, but Marinette cannot factor for everything about it, especially the longer its around and active. Playing off that Marinette’s very benevolent and loving, this “Ladybug” could take more risks and prioritize saving people than addressing the akuma. Or “Ladybug” could be a “perfect” hero and while it does amazingly as a hero, there is a disconnect between “LB” and the public and its not so warm or friendly. 

And then there’s Marinette and her thinking about the factor that she is essentially making life that can think and feel and she is very likely to get very attached. It’s going to be painful if her creations are destroyed, or to play off her selflessness, her golems would equally be selfless in existence and once their purpose is met and done, they are ready to cease existing and return the piece of the fan that keeps them around. 

With this idea and set up, it’d actually be a really fascinating miraculous to write with Marinette (I’ll be adding it to the kwami swap list of ideas), but in terms of ideal matches, this is the one she’d struggle with most. Not to say she can’t pull it off at all, but it’d be a struggle. 

[halfbisexual]

Men Cause 100% of Unwanted Pregnancies

Our conversation about abortion places the burden of responsibility on women. I argue men are the root cause.

Gabrielle Blair

Sep 24, 2018·

As a mother of six and a Mormon, I have a good understanding of arguments surrounding abortion, religious and otherwise. When I hear men discussing women’s reproductive rights, I’m often left with the thought that they have zero interest in stopping abortion.

If you want to prevent abortion, you need to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Men seem unable (or unwilling) to admit that they cause 100% of them.

I realize that’s a bold statement. You’re likely thinking, “Wait. It takes two to tango!” While I fully agree with you in the case of intentional pregnancies, I argue that all unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men. All of them.

Don’t believe me?

Let’s start with this: A woman’s egg is only fertile for about two days each month. Yes, there are exceptions, because nature. But one egg which is fertile two days each month is the baseline. And those fertile eggs are produced for a limited number of years. This means, on average, women are fertile for about 24 days per year.

But men are fertile 365 days a year. In fact, if you’re a man who ejaculates multiple times a day, you could cause multiple pregnancies daily. In theory, a man could cause 1000+ unwanted pregnancies in just one year. While it’s true that sperm gets crappier as men age, it doesn’t have a fertility expiration date; men can cause unwanted pregnancies from puberty until death. So, starting with basic fertility stats and the calendar, it’s easy to see that men are the issue here.

As a society, we really don’t mind if women suffer, physically or mentally, as long as it makes things easier for men.

“But what about birth control?” you might ask. “ If a woman can manage to figure out how to get an abortion, surely she can use birth control to avoid unwanted pregnancy, right?”

Great question. Modern birth control for women is possibly the most important invention of the last century, and I’m very grateful for it. It’s also brutal. The side effects for many women include migraines, mood swings, decreased libido, depression, severe cramps, heavy bleeding, aneurysm — and that’s just a small fraction of them.

Discouragingly, a promising study on a new male contraceptive was canceled in large part due to… (wait for it)… side effects. To be clear, this list of side effects was about one-third as long as the known side effects for commonly used women’s contraception. There’s a lot to unpack in that story alone. I’ll simply point out that, as a society, we really don’t mind if women suffer, physically or mentally, as long as it makes things easier for men.

But, men, I’ve got good news. Even with the horrible side effects, women are (amazingly!) very willing to use birth control. Unfortunately, it’s harder to get than it should be, but that doesn’t keep women from trying. Birth control options for women require a doctor’s appointment — sometimes multiple doctor’s appointments — and a prescription. They’re not always free, and often not cheap. Some are actually trying to make female birth control options more expensive by allowing insurance companies to refuse to cover them. In addition, contraceptive options for women can’t be easily acquired at the last minute. In most cases, they don’t work instantly.

The pill requires consistent daily use and doesn’t leave much room for mistakes, forgetfulness, or unexpected disruptions to daily schedules. Again, the side effects can be brutal — and not just in rare cases. Despite the hassle and side effects, I’m still grateful for birth control. (Please don’t take it away.) But it’s critical to understand that women’s birth control isn’t simple or easy.

In contrast, let’s look at birth control for men — i.e., condoms. They’re readily available at all hours, inexpensive, convenient, and don’t require a prescription. They’re effective and work on demand, instantly. They don’t cause aneurysms, mood swings, or debilitating cramps. Men can keep them stocked up just in case, so they’re always prepared. They can be easily used at the last minute. I mean, condoms are magic! So much easier than birth control options for women.

As a bonus, most women are totally on board with condoms. They keep us from getting STDs. They don’t lessen our pleasure during sex or prevent us from climaxing. The best part? Cleanup is so much easier — no waddling to the toilet as jizz drips down our legs.

So why would there ever be unwanted pregnancies? Why don’t men just use condoms every time they have sex? Seems so simple, right?

Oh. I remember. Men don’t love condoms. In fact, it’s very, very common for men to pressure women to have sex without a condom. It’s also not unheard of for men to remove the condom during sex without the women’s permission or knowledge. (Pro tip: That’s assault.)

Why would men want to have sex without a condom? Because, for the precious minutes when they’re penetrating their partner, not wearing a condom gives them more pleasure. So… that would mean some men are willing to risk getting a woman pregnant — which means literally risking her life, her health, her social status, her relationships, and her career — so they can experience a few minutes of slightly increased pleasure. Is this for real?

Yes. Yes, it is.

Pregnancies happen when men have an orgasm. Unwanted pregnancies happen when men orgasm irresponsibly.

Imagine a pleasure scale, with pain beginning at zero and going down into the negatives. A good back-scratch falls at 5, and an orgasm without a condom is a 10. Where would sex with a condom fall? A 7 or 8? So, it’s not that sex with a condom is not pleasurable, it’s just not as pleasurable. An 8 instead of a 10.

Let me emphasize that again: Men regularly choose to put women at massive risk in order to experience a few minutes of slightly increased pleasure.

For the truly condom-averse, men also have a non-condom, always-ready birth control option built right in: the pull-out. It doesn’t protect against STDs, it’s an easy joke, and it’s far from perfect. However, it’s 96% effective if done correctly, and 78% effective in practice (because it’s often not done correctly).

Still, many men who resist wearing condoms never learn how to pull out correctly. Apparently, it’s slightly more pleasurable to climax inside a vagina than, say, on their partner’s stomach. Once again, men are willing to risk the life, health, and well-being of women in order to experience a tiny bit more pleasure for roughly five seconds during orgasm.

Think of the choice men are making here. Honestly, I’m not as mad as I should be about this, because we’ve trained men from birth to disassociate sex and pregnancy. We’ve taught them that their pleasure is of utmost importance.

As a general rule, men get women pregnant by having an orgasm. Yes, there are exceptions — it’s possible for sperm to show up in pre-ejaculate — but in most cases, getting a woman pregnant is a pleasurable act for men. But men can get a woman pregnant without her feeling any pleasure at all. It’s even possible for a man to impregnate a woman while causing her excruciating pain, trauma, or horror.

In contrast, a woman can have nonstop orgasms with or without a partner and never once get herself pregnant. A woman’s orgasm has literally nothing to do with pregnancy or fertility — her clitoris exists simply for pleasure, not for creating new humans. No matter how many orgasms she has, they won’t make her pregnant.

Pregnancies happen when men have an orgasm. Unwanted pregnancies happen when men orgasm irresponsibly.

A woman can be the sluttiest slut in the entire world, she can love having orgasms all day and all night long, and she will never find herself with an unwanted pregnancy unless a man shows up and ejaculates irresponsibly. Though our society tends to villainize female pleasure, women’s enjoyment of sex does not equal unwanted pregnancy and abortion. Men’s enjoyment of sex and irresponsible ejaculations do.

Let’s move to the topic of responsibility. Often, men don’t know, don’t ask, and don’t think to ask if they’ve caused a pregnancy. There are often zero consequences for men who cause unwanted pregnancies.

If the woman decides to have an abortion, the man may never even know he caused an unwanted pregnancy with his irresponsible ejaculation. If the woman decides to have the baby, or put the baby up for adoption, the man may never know he caused an unwanted pregnancy with his irresponsible ejaculation either. He may never know there’s now a child walking around with 50% of his DNA.

If the woman does tell him he caused an unwanted pregnancy and that she’s having the baby, the closest thing to a consequence for him is child support. Our current child support system is a well-known joke. Only about 61 percent of required payments by men are actually made, and there are little to no repercussions for skipping out. In some states, failing to pay child support doesn’t even affect your credit.

If a man does pay child support, it doesn’t come close to what is required by a woman in the case of an unwanted pregnancy.

Let’s talk about abortion. When the topic comes up, men might think: Abortion is horrible; women should not have abortions. Never once do they consider the man who caused the unwanted pregnancy.

If you actually care about reducing or eliminating the number of abortions in our country, simply hold men accountable for their actions.

If we’re discussing abortion law — and not how to hold men accountable for irresponsible ejaculations, and the unwanted pregnancies caused by them — we’re wasting our time. Shift the conversation. Stop protesting at clinics. Stop shaming women. Stop debating whether or not to overturn abortion laws. If you actually care about reducing or eliminating the number of abortions in our country, simply hold men accountable for their actions.

What would that look like? A real and immediate consequence for men who cause an unwanted pregnancy. What kind of consequence would make sense? Should it be as harsh, painful, nauseating, scarring, expensive, risky, and life-altering…

… as forcing a woman to go through a nine-month unwanted pregnancy?

If you consider abortion to be murder, consider this thought experiment: Would you be on board with having a handful of men castrated to prevent 600,000 murders each year? If this argument sounds too provocative, could it be that many of us have a hard time wrapping our heads around a physical punishment for men? We seem to be more than fine with physical punishments for women. Perhaps we care more about policing women’s bodies, morality, and sexuality than we do about reducing or eliminating abortions.

Here’s another prevention idea: All males in the U.S. could get a vasectomy when they are ready to be sexually active. Vasectomies are very safe, highly reversible, and about as invasive as a woman getting an IUD implanted. In most cases, there’s some soreness afterwards for about 24 hours, but that’s pretty much it for side effects. (Take a moment to remember that female contraception options, used by millions of women in our country and billions across the world, have well-known side effects which can be brutal and severe — and yes, also include soreness.) If and when a man becomes a responsible adult, finds a mate, and wants to have a baby, the vasectomy can be reversed and then redone once the childbearing stage is over. Each man can bank their sperm before the vasectomy, just in case.

Don’t like my ideas? That’s fine. I’m sure there are better ideas, and I challenge you to suggest your own. My point is we need to stop focusing on women if we’re trying to get rid of abortions. Think of abortion as the “cure” for an unwanted pregnancy. To stop abortions, we need to prevent the “disease” — meaning, the unwanted pregnancy itself. And the only way to do that is by focusing on men, because irresponsible ejaculations by men cause 100% of unwanted pregnancy.

Ask yourselves: What would it take for you to value the life of your sexual partner more than your own temporary pleasure or convenience?

If you’re a man, what would it take for you to never again ejaculate irresponsibly? A loss of money, rights, or freedoms? Physical pain? Ask yourselves: What would it take for you to value the life of your sexual partner more than your own temporary pleasure or convenience?

Men mostly run our government, and men mostly make our laws. In theory, men could eliminate — or drastically reduce — abortions within months without ever touching an abortion law or even mentioning women. They’d simply need to hold men accountable for irresponsible ejaculations, and legislate accordingly.

To reduce or eliminate abortions, stop attempting to control women’s bodies and sexuality. Because unwanted pregnancies are caused by men.

[greatghuleh]

as much fun as I had watching Lucifer Season 5, after a few days sitting on it... Gawd, it is a mess. hahaha

suffers from the same issues Season 3 had. Had some really great stuff, fantastic moments but loses itself in its bloat.  I think there was too much leeway and “extra” that the season lost focus and dragged at points and lost character in order to keep storylines dragging along because they had no other plans for the stories beyond what was already presented. 

Amazingly acted with some full on great moments but sloppy sloppy sloppy.  I love this show, have a blast watching it. But this is my Season 5 rant to criticize what I have issue with so I can just vent it out of me.

TLDR: Lucifer creatives work best in focuses contained seasons. They misstep when they are given a long leash and have to fill the gaps this creates. Hopefully a shorter Season 6 will use its time better like Season 4 did.

example.  Chloe, just like in Season 3, gets lost in the drag of the storyline. Even though there’s plenty of time to explore everything more, the story loses its focus and doesn’t know what to do with having an intelligent character actually confront the issues so they dumb Chloe down for a while. They make her blind to things for a while so she stagnates or even steps out of character to a fairly extreme degree. (marriage to Pierce in S3, worried about job but not Trixie when it comes to following wherever Lucifer is going)

and I know Michael was playing on Chloe’s fears, and she admits this much. but the fucking push and focus on Lucifer saying “I love you” specifically those words when he’s shown he has so much baggage. and that you can have a loving relationship without having to say those specific words. and that he’s already admitted to loving her like a billion times just not in those exact words. I’m dying. (I get I guess Chloe needed to hear it but also she got mad at Lucifer for not being confident in her loving him but she’s doing the same thing the whole season!?)

Ella. Like... we got 16 episodes and her entire arc is “I like bad guys” (and this is somehow suddenly almost all consuming) and “I have dark thoughts.” which like... okay??? I dunno. and none of it really gets resolved to any actual degree. These problems still exist but she had a convo with God, who basically just repeated what Amenadiel told her already ??? and she sat next to a potential nice guy at a funeral?

Maze. *Sigh*  Season 3 all over again, honestly.  ALL OVER AGAIN. Its a repeat. With less of a “redemption” really.  Her resolution with Lucifer I guess happened off screen. We set up the ring stuff so much and then that resolution just kind of fizzled. Chloe and Maze never really deal with Maze fucking her around with Michael.

You’re telling me Eve was willing to live forever as Lucifer’s queen in Hell but when Maze wants her to she’s like “nah, I don’t want to live forever. it like... fucks you up look at Cain.” even tho there are plenty of other examples of immortals in this show.... having rich meaningful lives......... HELLO.   Love me some Maze/Eve but this was just so WTF to me. (what is she saying about Maze here? she’s immortal)

Chloe never actually confronted God about being a miracle. I’m soooooooooo!!!! about it.  Like, we got a scene of her telling God he’s a bad dad. then multiple more episodes of him following her and Lucifer around and we never got this conversation??!??!?!?!?!

Lucifer went back to Hell to keep the Demons from rebelling and possessing people and hurting people.  Then God says Hell doesn’t need a warden anymore. Doesn’t say how or why.  I assume he did something to control Demons from doing bad things now????? but then the finale has Demons possessing human bodies to fight Angels sooooooooooo!??!?!?!?!!?!? What’s happening here?!

Until season 6 happens and possibly changes this, the Daniel shit is just unfulfilling.  Hit me hard and made me cry. but as a character story arc WTF ????!

If Michael was assembling the Flaming Sword to fight a War, then why do they just basically have a vote at the end???? 

You’re telling me Gabriel can travel between dimensions and communicate AND bring physical things through the dimensions. but God and Goddess cannot freely travel these dimensions as well?!?! They just have to go and be stuck in one forever now?!   WHAT. 

anyway, these are some of my gripes. Loved the season for the most part. had lots of fun. Can’t get over how good Season 4 was compared to it tho. oooop

[eurhyic]

Aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship

Over the years, I have been apart of many, many fandoms. Each of those fandoms has had its flaws, and each has had its strengths. However, I feel that it is important to not only focus on the amazingly good stuff but also acknowledge the not-so-good stuff. In the Good Omens fandom, there is an overwhelming amount of good fandom stuff, but I also feel that there are some misunderstood things that we believe as a fandom. And there is no bigger misunderstanding that I’ve seen than of Aziraphale and Crowley themselves.

There have been having endless debates on twitter that are completely pointless in my opinion. I feel that these arguments start because people interpret Aziraphale, Crowley, and their relationship in completely different ways, and today, I just simply wanted to come on here and reinstate what is canon and what is sort of… changed or twisted… in fics and fandom.

Just as a disclaimer, I don’t actually care what you do. If you want to write fics with soft and insecure Crowley or Aziraphale comforting a crying Crowley after the Apocalypse, go ahead. This is the internet and I can’t stop you from creating. Hell, I would love to see some of those tropes! I simply want to remind everyone what is actually canon for my own wellbeing. Just to say quickly, I will specifically be referring to the TV adaptation of Good Omens in this analysis(?). If you don’t care to read this or you think you won’t be able to hold back from commenting something rude, you are completely free to click away right now. I am not responsible for your reactions to this post and I will not appreciate someone attacking me because I call Crowley an asshole. Don’t leave rude messages on the internet when no one is asking for them. Grow up.

Now, back to the matter at hand.

Aziraphale and Crowley both suffer so so much throughout the entire story. They overcome so much, together and on their own. However, I feel that their characters have been warped in some ways. I am simply here to reinstate in everyone’s minds that these things do exist and are canon.

What I came here to say is that people in the Good Omens fandom seem to forget that Aziraphale is a literal victim of abuse and that Crowley isn’t actually a “good person”.

I would first like to discuss the brainwashing and abuse that Aziraphale has had to go through on the regular when he associated with Heaven.

Aziraphale is led to believe that anything that he does is wrong and should be second-guessed. We are meant to understand this even in the first scene we see him. He is worried about getting reprimanded by his superiors for giving his sword to Adam and Eve, and when Crowley comes up on the wall, he teases Aziraphale, all of which fly right over his head. Aziraphale just simply cannot stop thinking about what he did, and from my interpretation, I assume that his body language and nervous responses, him stuttering and looking up and wringing his hands together, means that. But then when Crowley gives him a sarcastic compliment, not even a real one, we see Aziraphale so relieved that at least someone thinks the way he does. He is so relieved he doesn’t even pick up the ever-present sarcasm.

Later, throughout history especially, we see Aziraphale relishing in his time on earth. If we go by the scenes when Aziraphale and Crowley go to head office in around the early 2010s and we assume that Aziraphale has been going for regular check-ups unlike his Radio and Book counterparts, then we get more insight into his official relationship with Heaven.

I’m just going to say this now because I don’t wish to drag this post out. Gabriel is an abuser.

Gabriel brainwashes Aziraphale and puts him down constantly. It isn’t him just telling Aziraphale that he needs to "lose the gut", it's the canonical way that he tells Aziraphale that his ideas aren't worth anything and that he’ll fail at anything he tries (we see this when Aziraphale tries to report on the antichrist). Or telling Aziraphale just how he should feel about a situation (we see this in the deleted bookshop scene).

If Aziraphale is constantly and constantly hearing these things, it makes sense that he would be scared and insecure of anything that he would see as “stepping out of line”. He wants to be good. Aziraphale is a rule follower at his core, and the way that he is constantly put down hurts over so long.

The only way that Aziraphale is able to rebel in his own little way, is through Crowley and his spending time on earth.

The earth is something that he genuinely loves. It is a comfort to him throughout his nervousness and his situation with Heaven. And Crowley is the same. Crowley is associated with the earth to Aziraphale, and because of that, he simply cannot not love Crowley. Completely and wholeheartedly.

I have seen quite a few people saying that every time Aziraphale cut Crowley off, or “bit back” (ex. Saint James, the bandstand, and final breakup in front of the bookshop), is selfish. I think that is so far from the truth. He does all that to protect Crowley.

Aziraphale does so much for Crowley throughout their time together. While Crowley is jumping for opportunities to be with Aziraphale, Aziraphale is the one that takes a step back to see what the consequences could be (ex. the Globe).

I can assume that the main reason he does this is because he is afraid that something will happen to both himself and Crowley. Even in the Saint James and the Globe scenes, he is frantically looking around and at one point, softly utters that “…they [Hell] won’t just be angry, they’ll destroy you”.

After the Apocalypse, these habits would still be hard to break. He would hardly be in the mental state to comfort Crowley. He will still be looking around and making sure he isn’t being watched for ages. Not because a part of him thinks that Heaven is going to come for himself and Crowley, but because it has been wired into him to practice those behaviors over millennia.

Aziraphale acts like a victim of abuse, constantly overthinking every scenario and decidedly going with the one that he believes will have the least amount of repercussions.

Crowley on the other hand doesn’t.

I just want to start off by saying that Crowley is a bad person. He is a complete asshole. He is mean, and while he is meant to be likable, he is still a literal demon.

Yes, he is “just a little bit, a good person”, but the keyword is right there. “A little bit”.

Throughout the show we see Crowley doing terrible things. Now, he isn’t the type of person to think that genocide is a good idea, etc. Most demons, canonically don’t have an imagination. Crowley is the only one we know of who does, and even he admits that some of the things that the humans think up could never be thought up by a demon.

He mentions this in the book and in the first episode where he states “..the humans beat me to it”.

But besides that, I feel that so much of that fandom forget that he actually does not give a single shit about humans.

Yes, he thinks that humanity and their inventions are so fun and nifty, but I feel that so many people in the fandom forget that he isn’t nice to others and that he’s only nice to Aziraphale.

He gives people guns to kill each other in episode two, he hypnotizes Sister Mary a few minutes later, and he genuinely goes out of his way to make people’s lives harder just for funsies.

He is even mean to Aziraphale on multiple occasions. He asks Aziraphale to kill a child. And while he does so much good for Aziraphale too, stopping time for him, driving through fucking fire for him, and everything in between, he still is a nuisance to Aziraphale.

Crowley isn’t a good person, he is a demon. He is meant to be like that. He is from Hell and he knows what he’s dealing with — to an extent. Crowley has been treated terribly, but the worst we see from his ‘employers' are vague threats and raised voices, and while that could be a form of abuse, it isn’t exactly what Aziraphale has had to go through over his years with Heaven.

However, throughout all of this, one thing that I think mostly everyone can agree on is that Aziraphale and Crowley know these things about the other, and they’re still completely in love with each other. Their relationship is the first relationship in the world alongside Adam and Eve, and I just feel that it’s so wonderful how that is portrayed through the wonderful little love story that we have.

[quicksilversquared]

The Supervillain Rap

Adrien has imagined discovering Hawkmoth's identity dozens of times- hundreds, even. He thought that he had imagined every possible iteration of how it could happen.

But identity reveal via rap? That’s a new one.

links in the reblog

Adrien tried not to sigh as the Gorilla pulled into the garage. His friends were planning on getting together that afternoon, and once again, he wasn't going to be joining them. It was a common occurrence, really, but this time it was entirely self-imposed.

Photoshoots and too many akuma attacks had meant that Adrien had fallen really far behind on his homework and general studying, and it was pretty stressful to not be completely on top of things. So he had made the decision to not go out this time, and hopefully he would be able to get caught up and not have to stay up past midnight to get things done this time. He had had to do it every single night now for several weeks running, and, well, he was getting worn down.

That didn't mean that he liked missing the get-together, though. Especially since he had gotten permission to go out with his friends this time around, back before he got so overwhelmed and exhausted.

Adrien hopped out of the car once it had stopped, doing his best not to slam the door when he closed it. His father had complained recently about how much noise people were making in the mansion- doors slamming, doors creaking and squeaking, footsteps echoing too loud in the atrium- and Adrien had done his best ever since to not make noise. The Gorilla spent pretty much an entire day oiling and re-hanging doors so that they would be absolutely silent when they opened, not that they had been very loud in the first place. As always, Gabriel Agreste was just being overly picky and dramatic.

Carefully- so that his father wouldn't scold him for running around and making noise- Adrien headed up the stairs. The Gorilla closed the garage door- and honestly, that was the biggest improvement of all the doors, Adrien hadn't even known that it was possible for a garage door to be so absolutely silent- and followed him up. Adrien reached the top and pushed the door partway open. Then he paused.

Because instead of a completely silent mansion, or the muted conversation of a conference call, there was music.

Puzzled, Adrien glanced backwards at the Gorilla. His bodyguard looked just as confused. He placed one hand on the door, keeping it open just that little bit, and gestured for Adrien to keep quiet. Adrien nodded- he was curious about what was going on, and if he made noise, then his father would turn off the music and probably be ticked off at Adrien for not keeping Nathalie entirely up to date on what he was doing and at the Gorilla for- well, Adrien wasn't sure what, but when his father got seen doing something that he didn't want people to know about, he got super ticked off instead of just making up some excuse.

Seriously, though, what was this music? Was his father listening to different music to set to one of his runways or something? Normally- when he was doing proper runways, at Fashion Week instead of just small brand runways to feature Adrien in a low-pressure (well, lower pressure) setting- his music was entirely classical. It fit with the formality of the brand, even if it wasn't exactly what made people sit up and listen.

Maybe Nino's music had inspired his father! This sort of music and beat was something that Adrien would associate far more with his friend than his father.

"Aha! I've got it!" Mr. Agreste suddenly exclaimed, loud enough that Adrien startled. "Nathalie, how is this for the chorus- I will win, and I will rise- all of Paris, akumatized. No more secrets, no more lies. Soon their Miraculous will be mine!"

Adrien's brain screeched to a halt, abruptly more alert. Soon their Miraculous will be mine? All of Paris, akumatized? That- that didn't sound good. But- but his father couldn't be Hawkmoth, that wasn't possible. Maybe he was just doing a Miraculous-themed runway walk and there was a Hawkmoth section.

Nathalie's exasperated sigh cut through Adrien's thoughts. "Sir, are you still working on that song? I don't understand the point. I mean, sure, it's catchy, but don't you have work to do?"

"Perhaps it doesn't seem productive to you, Nathalie, but music is good for lifting spirits. It's sure to be a morale-booster." The background music stopped, cut off mid-song. "And we need it, after the bumps we've run into recently."

"A morale- sir," Nathalie sighed, sounding thoroughly exasperated. "Is a morale-booster worth the time? Or, if you disregard the time- if you consider the chances of someone overhearing you..."

"The chances, which are zero to none. I'm far too careful for that to happen. Now, how about this section-"

Adrien swallowed hard, glancing back towards the Gorilla. They exchanged a look as Mr. Agreste started rapping- rapping!- about a cane and wearing a mask and turning the city evil, and then the Gorilla nodded down the stairs.

The message was clear: we have to get out. Now.

Adrien nodded, stepping backwards carefully. He couldn't make any noise, because if they were heard, if they were seen and his father and Nathalie found out that Adrien and the Gorilla knew...

Well, it wouldn't be good, that was for sure.

"A troubled soul cries- time to akumatize! Fly my faithful servant- dark wing, rise! This rotten cat, that pesky girl-"

The door finally shut, cutting off Mr. Agreste's voice.

The Gorilla herded Adrien down the steps, steering him around the side of the house so that they wouldn't be visible from the office. Once they were in back, the Gorilla tapped on a certain brick, sticking a key into the lock that appeared after a moment. A hidden door swung open, and the Gorilla ushered him through.

"Aren't you coming?" Adrien asked when his bodyguard didn't step through after him.

The Gorilla shook his head. He held up his phone, open to a recording app. Adrien frowned, even more puzzled.

"I thought it was illegal to record people without them knowing?"

The Gorilla nodded, swiping to the side several times, then held up his phone again. Onscreen was a photo of Ladybug and Chat Noir. Adrien considered that, then perked up.

"Oh! So you can show the superheroes!" That was a good idea, actually. If he hadn't heard the song himself and someone came up to Chat Noir and announced that he had figured out who Hawkmoth was because he was singing about it, he would probably think that they were crazy. "Be careful."

The Gorilla nodded, waiting for Adrien to step out of the way before shutting the door, sealing the wall again. There was the faint click of a lock snapping back into place, and then almost-silent footsteps on the other side of the wall. Adrien listened to them fade, his heart in his throat. He knew that his bodyguard was careful and had plenty of experience with being silent and going unnoticed, and he knew where all of the security cameras were, but that didn't make it completely safe.

"Kid, he'll be fine," Plagg said, popping out of Adrien's collar. His voice was uncharacteristically serious. "Seriously. Find somewhere safe to go. Then we'll find Ladybug later."

"Yeah." Adrien sighed, shifting the strap of his bag on his shoulder and starting up the street. "So much for catching up on homework. I'm not going to get anything done now."

  The Gorilla managed to snag an amazingly clear audio recording of Mr. Agreste's entire villain song within an hour's time. Ladybug and Chat Noir listened to the recording from the privacy of a study room at the back of the Dupont library, with the Gorilla hovering anxiously over their shoulders.

"Well, you can't deny that that's a banger of a song," Ladybug commented once the recording came to an end. She looked a little thrown off, though Chat Noir could tell that she was far more rattled than she was letting on. "Seriously, why is he a fashion designer if he can just come up with songs like that out of nowhere?"

"Bug, focus," Chat Noir reminded her. "I think there's, uh, more important things to think about than Hawkmoth's song-writing skills."

"I know, I'm just...processing." Ladybug worried her lip, considering the recorder. "Okay, so, uh, we know who Hawkmoth is. And we know who he is because he decided to compose a villain song. A villain song that seems to have a fair bit of work put into composing it. Uh."

The superheroes paused. Ladybug reached out and tapped the play button again. Chat Noir snorted.

"D'you think you're going to get more clues the second time through?"

Ladybug looked slightly abashed. "No, I was just curious- do you think those laughs are his own? Because that is over the top. And I want to say that I can't picture Mr. Agreste doing that, but..."

Chat Noir and the Gorilla shrugged in unison. As stoic as Mr. Agreste acted in front of others, he could be a complete drama queen when he wanted to be.

"Okay, so, what to do next." Ladybug tapped the table once the song came to an end (again), clearly making an effort to pull herself back and be serious, despite how ridiculous the song was. And, frankly, how ridiculous the entire situation was. "Take the Miraculous back, obviously, but we'll need backup."

The Gorilla grunted, getting their attention, then raised his hand. Chat Noir blinked, then grinned.

"You're willing to help us?"

The Gorilla nodded, gesturing again. He motioned like there was a smaller figure next to him, then made a very recognizable protect gesture. Ladybug tilted her head to the side, clearly puzzled, but Chat Noir caught on right away.

"Because you want to help Adrien," Chat Noir filled in for Ladybug's benefit, and his bodyguard nodded. "It's good that he'll still have an adult to care for him."

"Yeah," Ladybug agreed. "Okay, I'm gonna go get more Miraculous. I'll be right back!"

With that, she slipped soundlessly out of the room, leaving Chat Noir alone with his bodyguard and his thoughts. Oddly enough, he didn't feel nearly as conflicted and off-kilter as he would have expected. Like, sure, his father was Hawkmoth- and Nathalie was almost 100% guaranteed to be Mayura- but at least he had the Gorilla still. Add in the fact that the Gorilla was bound to be more flexible and less restricting than Mr. Agreste when it came to Adrien (and also more caring about Adrien's emotions and friends and general well-being), and, well, there was a lot to look forward to post-Hawkmoth defeat. Maybe he would feel differently later, when his father was sitting in the police car and heading to jail, but for now all his brain could focus on was how absolutely crazy this whole situation was.

Maybe it was the lack of sleep getting to him. Honestly, this whole thing was starting to feel like some strange sort of sleep-deprived hallucination.

Most of the time, Mr. Agreste seemed like one of the most straight-laced adults ever. Nino had called him 'the definition of a stick in the mud' more than once. He seemed hyper-competent as he directed an international fashion house, making sure that details were in place and that everything would run smoothly during shows and releases. Trying to combine the image of that man with the supervillain who sent out akuma after akuma with sometimes terribly-thought-through powers, who had managed to akumatize a huge portion of Paris once and had still failed to win, who had decided that it was a good idea to hand over the box of Miraculous to an akumatized Chloe instead of hanging on to them himself or at least supervising a whole lot more closely, who had managed to out himself because he wanted to have a villain song and hadn't been careful enough to notice that Adrien and the Gorilla had returned to the house...

Well, Hawkmoth wasn't the most competent villain in the world. Not that Ladybug and Chat Noir objected to that- not at all- but it was just a funny contrast to how his civilian self operated.

Perhaps that was because universities didn't exactly have classes for Supervillain Strategy like they did for Business Management, so Mr. Agreste had been forced to learn everything on his own.

It didn't take long at all for Ladybug to return, and when she did, she wasn't on her own. A towering man in green followed her into the room, the shell hanging on his back leaving no questions to what Miraculous he held. When he stopped, a small woman stepped out behind him. Her magenta suit was tiger-striped, and Chat Noir blinked.

Well. They hadn't seen the Tiger in play before. Why Ladybug had gone for that particular one, he wasn't sure, but he trusted that it would be apparent before long.

"These are Tanker and Shadow," Ladybug explained, stepping up to join Chat Noir. "I figured that more backup would be a good thing."

"Right," Chat Noir managed. "Uh... Shadow?"

"Because tigers wait in the shadows to strike," Shadow explained. "They seem to burst out of nowhere." She grimaced. "...and I kind of came up blank when I was trying to come up with a name."

"Ah, fair enough."

"I also brought the Ox Miraculous," Ladybug said, pulling a small box out of her yo-yo and sliding it across the table to the Gorilla. "The Miraculous of strength, though I don't think anyone besides Shadow will have to activate their powers. I can give you instructions on the way over, though, just in case."

"Wait, what powers does the Tiger grant?" Chat Noir asked, trying to wrack his brain for the answer. He was pretty sure that Ladybug had mentioned powers for some of the other kwamis at some point, but he had been really tired at the time and hadn't really remembered much. "Why would she have to use her power?"

Ladybug's grin widened. "The Tiger grants the power of invisibility. And we're going to sneak into the mansion and strike before they even see us coming."

  Unsurprisingly, it was very easy to slip into the mansion with the help of both superpowers and the Gorilla's knowledge of secret entrances and areas without camera coverage. Their team of five slipped through a back delivery entrance and through the kitchens, doing their best to go unnoticed despite the presence of two very large men among them. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any household staff members around- it was the chef's day off, and the cleaning staff wouldn't come around until the next day- and so the only thing that they really needed to worry about was keeping their footsteps light and soundless.

Oxen was very good at sneaking. Tanker... well, Tanker needed some work. Thankfully, the house wasn't completely quiet at the moment.

"Once I have their Miraculous, then I'll rule the world! I will win, and I will rise. All of Paris, Akumatized! No more-"

"Sir, if I have to hear that song one more time today, I will walk out and leave you to deal with the Bernardi contract on your own," Nathalie threatened, sounding completely exasperated. "Morale-booster or no, listening to you sing the same thing over and over and over is absolutely maddening."

"My apologies, Nathalie, I wasn't even consciously trying to sing it," Mr. Agreste said. There was the sound of shuffling paper, and then he continued. "It's a little too catchy, I'll admit that. It's gotten stuck in my head now."

"I honestly cannot tell if that is a genuine problem that you're dissatisfied with, or just a way to humble-brag about how well your song turned out." Nathalie sounded fully irritated now. "You know full well that if you keep absent-mindedly singing that song, someone is going to overhear. Adrien is bound to be back from his outing with his friends at some point, and the Gorilla could very well pop in whenever."

Mr. Agreste sighed. "It is, in all honestly, actually stuck in my head and it's a problem now. I hoped that singing it a time or two more might help with that. It's what I saw recommended on the Internet. But that's a fair point. Singing it down here might be more risky than I thought. Perhaps I'll go up to the lair and try there."

"Okay, we have to stop him before he gets out of the office," Ladybug hissed. "He must have a secret entrance in there somewhere. Shadow, are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." She squared her shoulders, gripping tight to her weapon. "All right- Camouflage!"

At once, Shadow vanished, melting away into the - well, into the shadows. There was no indication of where she was at all, and Ladybug gave her several seconds before starting to creep in the direction of the office as well. The other heroes followed, pausing by the cracked-open door and waiting to hear the sound of any unnatural disturbance.

"Frankly, sir, I feel like you'd just be wasting more time," Nathalie told Mr. Agreste. There was the sound of her chair sliding back from the desk, and her taking several steps towards the center of the room and Mr. Agreste. "You've sang that song far too many times, that's why it's gotten stuck. Try finding something else to listen to. Something that won't give away your identity, or mine."

Mr. Agreste sighed. "I suppose. Would you mind reaching out to both Adrien and the Gorilla to see when we can expect them back in the house? I don't want to be listening to the radio when they come back, they'll just question it."

"Sir, if I might remind you of the existence of headphones."

Ladybug hastily pressed a hand over her mouth to muffle her giggles. Tanker's eyebrows were creeping upwards.

"This is the guy who thinks that he can rule the world?"

Gabriel Agreste gave a loud sigh of exasperation. "Very well, fine- ack!"

"Sir, whaaaaa!"

There were two dual thuds, and the superheroes leapt into action. In a moment, they bounded around the doorframe and into the office, landing in the center of the room almost soundlessly. Without even planning it, Tanker and Oxen took the lead, landing right in front of the fallen supervillains just in time for them to sit up, still groaning and rubbing their heads. When their eyes landed on the towering superheroes, they froze and turned white.

"So," Chat Noir said cheerfully, stepping out from behind Oxen and spinning his tail in a jaunty circle. "How's that morale-booster working for you?"

  With the help of the adult superheroes, their final battle wasn't really a fight at all. Tanker and Ox kept Nathalie and Mr. Agreste down while Ladybug and Chat Noir snagged the Miraculous off of Mr. Agreste and Nathalie. Then they were unceremoniously frog-marched out of the house and to the curb, where they waited for the police to show up while passerbys stared.

And to add insult to injury, both Ladybug and Tanker were absentmindedly (or perhaps not-so-absentmindedly) humming Hawkmoth's song as they waited. The result was both Mr. Agreste and Nathalie looking like they were close to exploding.

Upon second thought, the humming was probably entirely intentional. It was maybe a little petty, but considering the number of times that the two villains had interrupted their day and tried to kill them and generally been unpleasant...

Chat Noir joined in on the chorus. Oxen snorted. Shadow sighed. Ladybug ducked her head in a failed attempt to hide her grin.

"I'm not even going to ask," the first of the responding police officers said with a sigh when they pulled up. "Besides- Hawkmoth and Mayura, I'm presuming?"

"Correct," Shadow told her. She nodded towards Ladybug, who extended her hand. The Peacock and Butterfly sat in the middle of her palm, glinting in the sunlight. "And we've recovered their Miraculous."

"Fantastic! Oh, Paris will be happy to hear that there won't be any more akumas." Two more police officers came up, starting to handcuff the two former supervillains. "We'll take them off of your hands now. We'll let you know if we need anything else."

"Thanks!" Ladybug told them, smiling. The superheroes stepped back, the police took control of Mr. Agreste and Nathalie, and then they were bundled off into the back of the police cars and taken away. The superheroes watched them go, then retreated back into the house before any of the lingering bystanders could ask any questions.

"Will you need us to keep helping?" Shadow asked once they had gotten inside. "Because we can certainly stay and help, if needed. Otherwise..."

"Oh, you can get back to work," Ladybug said hastily. "I can come get the Miraculous later, I know where to find you. We'll just spend a bit of time looking for Miraculous-related stuff in the house so that nothing vanishes from under our noses."

Oxen grunted, raising a hand and then pointing towards the hidden hallway and gesturing towards Shadow and Tanker. I'll show them out the back way. Ladybug and Chat Noir nodded, and then their teammates were off.

"Would it be safe to assume, do you think, that all of the Miraculous stuff would be in the office?" Ladybug asked once their footsteps had faded away into nothing. She was already looking exhausted at the thought of spending the rest of their afternoon- no, sorry, their evening, it was definitely the evening already- combing the house for what was bound to be well-hidden

"I think the office is the best spot to start," Chat Noir agreed, muffling a sudden yawn. He had been feeling fine earlier, but now- well, all of the excitement of the day was catching up with him, and he was exhausted. All of the adrenaline from the discovery and the planning had been keeping him upright. He wasn't going to leave Ladybug to do all of the work on her own, though. "Dunno how we'll get the safes open, though, unless we detransform and have our kwamis do it."

Ladybug snapped her fingers, suddenly energized again. "Actually, if we could pull Nooroo out, he could probably tell us exactly where to look! He was with Mr. Agreste long enough, surely he knew all of his secrets. Give me a moment, I'll get him out."

Chat Noir blinked. Oh. That was a pretty obvious approach, actually.

"I hope he knows where all of the hiding places are, at least," Ladybug added as she glanced towards the windows, tucking the Peacock away and pinning the Butterfly to the front of her suit. "Otherwise, we're really going to be here all night and I'll never get my homework done."

"Oh, no kidding." Chat Noir yawned again, grimacing at the reminder of homework. If he had been behind before, that was nothing compared to now. Lost time aside, he was just too tired and strung-out to be able to do it now. His teachers would probably be ticked, unless... "Hey, d'you think that finding out that my father was Hawkmoth will be enough get me an extended deadline for my assignments?"

There was a pause. Ladybug blinked at him, and Chat Noir blinked back, puzzled at her reaction. Normally Ladybug gave him at least some sort of answer when he asked her questions, so what about this time was different? Chat Noir ran over his words in his head, trying to push past the exhaustion. He had just asked her if she thought that his teachers would give him an extension on his assignments because he had found out his father was Hawkmoth-

-his father was Hawkmoth-

Whoops.

"What?!"

[pengychan]

[Good Omens] Winging It - Matthew 16:19

Summary: Shockingly, attempting to destroy an angel without consulting God first comes with consequences. There is more than one way to fall, and a thousand more ways to inconvenience an angel and a demon who just wanted to be left in peace. Characters: Gabriel, Crowley, Aziraphale, Beelzebub, Michael, Uriel, Sandalphon Rating: T  

Prologue and all chapters are tagged as ‘winging it’ on my blog.

A/N: Someone's having second thoughts..

***

Like every demon - or angel, for that matter - Beelzebub, Prince of Hell and Lord of the Flies, did not require sleep. 

Last time they had slept had been sometime in the early 1300s, when some Italian scribbler who was very much alive had inexplicably gained access to Hell and proceeded to take a tour. He’d been found rather quickly and escorted to Beelzebub’s office while Dagon tried to find out how in Heaven had a living mortal gained access. 

They never did find out - the explanation that he ‘got lost in a forest’ was of amazingly little use - and for the entire time he was there, the mortal did nothing but ramble about his political enemies back in Florence. In rhyme, which was perplexing but hadn’t done much to make up for the sheer boredom of the entire tirade. 

In the end, Beelzebub had just fallen asleep; when they woke up again, the mortal had been thrown back up on Earth. Theoretically the decision should have been theirs, but truth be told it had been a relief and Beelzebub had been rather glad someone else had gotten that windbag out of their hair. 

The mortal had proceeded to write about his short visit to Hell but, when they got their hands on a copy of their account - all in rhyme, of course - the Lord of the Flies hadn’t been too surprised to find that the account mostly consisted of entirely made-up fantasies.

Plenty of revenge fantasies, which they could respect, but fantasies nonetheless. Beelzebub had later found out the man had claimed to have visited Heaven too, which Gabriel firmly denied during a meeting - rather annoyed by the implication he would break out in song about the holiness of Maryam for no apparent reason other than putting up a show for a mortal.

“No mortal was ever here before death,” he had said rather stiffly. “Clearly, our security is not the one that needs improvement.”

Neither of them had the foggiest idea what that ‘Purgatory’ nonsense was all about, and it was eye-wateringly boring to read, so they had just let the matter drop.

Anyway. To cut a very long story short, Beelzebub did not require sleep.

Gabriel did, on the other hand, and it hadn’t taken all that long for him to fall asleep, snoring… not loudly, but just enough to grate the nerves of anyone who didn’t happen to be a Prince of Hell with rather hellish tastes over what was a soothing sound and what was not. So in the end they had stayed exactly where they were, and elected to follow his example by falling asleep as well, not least because it meant it would allow them to put off actually thinking about what had just happened for a few more hours.

They hadn’t counted on waking up with the distinct feeling of being in the grip of a kraken because Gabriel had apparently decided to cling to them with all limbs. With a roll of their eyes, Beelzebub changed form into that of a fly to escape it and re-transformed a few feet away from the bed, eyeing in silence at the still sleeping form that occupied it.

Gabriel was laying on his side, and Beelzebub could distinctly see the ragged scars on his shoulder blades, where the wings had been cut away. Or rather, torn; Michael’s sword may have helped cut them away, yes, but they figured the last part would need to be done by hand, ripping the stumps right out of his flesh so that nothing remained. 

They could imagine the scene quite well, the dripping blood and the wet ripping sound; all quite familiar in Hell, all things they were rather indifferent to. Not that time, though. Now, the more they stared, the angrier they got. 

How dare they damage him, they thought. I ought to have enveloped Michael in Hellfire when she stepped in my throne room with that useless pitcher of holy water, they thought. 

Except that they knew that would have hurt Gabriel more than even having his wings torn out had. Despite everything, despite his old friends’ choice to carry out his sentence rather than rebelling on his behalf, Gabriel still claimed he understood their choice. 

“We don’t question God,” he had told them last time they had brought up the subject, his voice somewhat sorrowful. “I would have done the same in their place, if I was the one ordered to cast out any of them. I don’t think I would now, but I would have then.”

But when he had a chance to strike Ba’al down, so very long ago, he had not. He had tried to reach out. He had tried to keep them there.

Ba’al.

Looking silently at Gabriel’s back, which rose and fell with each breath - with each snore - Beelzebub could admit to themselves that in a corner of their mind, throughout the night before, they had feared to hear that name again. They had feared it would leave Gabriel’s lips while he gasped in the dark, holding onto them, looking up at them in the faint light coming from the streetlight outside the window. They had feared it would all turn out to be about who they had been, and could never be again.

But that name hadn’t been uttered, not even once. Gabriel was not longing for someone long gone: he knew exactly who he’d chosen to spend the night with regardless of any possible consequences. When the sickly-sweet, cloying sense of love which had almost choked them when they first remembered what had been returned, Beelzebub knew it was for them. For the Prince of Hell and Lord of the Flies, as they were, right there and then.

It was worrying. It was a relief. It was doubly worrying that it was a relief. Beelzebub, who pointed out often and gladly how Gabriel was never the sharpest knife in the drawer, began to belatedly realize they’d been hoisted by their own petard. And as soon as they did, they found themselves doing the only thing they could think of: find something else to keep themselves occupied with, anything to turn their musings away from the thing churning in their chest.

And at the moment there didn’t seem to be a lot to do other than making coffee, so they went with that. By the time they poured the hot water from the cheap electric kettle into a mug filled halfway with soluble coffee, Gabriel was beginning to stir. 

Two thoughts hit Beelzebub at the same time: the first was that they were still unclothed, which was not proper, and the second that they really didn’t much care what was proper and what was not. As they did their best to regain composure, bringing the mug to their lips, Gabriel turned on his back and then yawned, which made his face look really stupid. Beelzebub gave him an unimpressed glance over the rim of their mug. 

Then Gabriel sat up on the bed and stretched. Beelzebub's glance was... a little less unimpressed. At least for a few seconds, until the second Gabriel turned to look at them; when he did, their expression was unimpressed as ever. Clearly unbothered by that fact, he smiled. 

“Good morning,” he said.

Beezelbub scoffed. “I cannot imagine what could possibly be so good about mornings.”

“Well, last night was--” he paused, searching for a word. “Pleasant. No?”

There was the slightest, barely detectable trace of hesitation in his voice. It told Beelzebub two things, in no uncertain terms: that he certainly found it pleasant, and that being told the Lord of the Flies hadn’t would probably wound his pride… or perhaps even cut a bit deeper than that. 

And Beelzebub was not generally in the habit of lying. Looking at Gabriel now did not really bring forth any urges, regardless how annoyingly good looking he was, but the act itself had been pleasant and they saw no point in denying it. There was a great deal they were currently denying - well, delaying having to reflect upon - but the pleasure they took was not it. 

“It was,” they conceded, and the hesitation on Gabriel’s face disappeared almost instantly. “But it was last night. I asked what is so good about this morning.”

A shrug. “You made coffee,” Gabriel said, standing up. Beelzebub scoffed.

“For myself. You can make your own,” the Lord of the Flies replied, and brought the mug up to their lips - only for it to be taken away in a quick, annoyingly smooth motion. 

“Thank you.”

“I said it’s for myself.”

“I only need a couple of sips.”

“No,” Beelzebub snapped, and reached to take the mug again, only for Gabriel to lift it up above his head… and well above their reach. They glared up at him with enough intensity to melt metal. Figuratively, of course, or else Gabriel would have indeed begun melting or burst into flames, which would have been well-deserved but rather unpleasant. Instead he stood there, alive and well and with that dumb smile still on his face. Ugh, the idiot. 

Beelzebub crossed their arms. “Are you this stupidly tall with the only purpose of annoying me?”

“Well, I do appreciate the looks of my current form, but it was not my decision. You should take your complaint to God.”

“Believe me, I will once the War happens--”

“If the War happens…”

“-- And we tear down the gates to Heaven to conquer it.”

“Of course.” Gabriel chuckled and brought the steaming mug to his mouth and took a gulp - only to immediately spit it back in the mug with a hawking noise. Beelzebub made a face. 

“... Come to think of it, you can keep it.”

“Agh! Did you--how much powder-- is there any sugar…?” he choked. Beelzebub’s lips twitched. “Are you familiar, even in passing, with the expression ‘bitter as Hell’?”

“Ugh!” Gabriel made a face, putting the mug of coffee down and rubbing his lips with the back of his hand. “Is this why you didn’t stop me?”

Truth be told Beelzebub hadn’t thought for a moment he may not appreciate highly concentrated soluble coffee without any sweetener to speak of, but they immediately decided to stick with that version. It sounded quite a bit better than ‘I forgot I could have forced you to give it back with a mere fraction of the power in my left hand’s little finger’.

So in the end they said, “This ought to teach you not to cross the Lord of the Flies.”

Gabriel wrinkled his nose. “Evil,” he muttered, but his lips were curling in a smile again. Beelzebub had been called evil plenty of times - occasionally as an insult, more often as a neutral and objective descriptor and several times with well-deserved reverence - but they couldn’t remember any other time there’d been such obvious fondness attached to it.

He is an idiot, they thought, and I am twice the idiot he is for falling right in my own trap.

“You may apologize by making more coffee,” they muttered, and he did, not really bothering to cover himself in any way. Not that Beelzebub had expected him to show embarrassment over his nakedness - they hadn’t bothered to put anything on yet either, that sort of shame was entirely too human for them and they suspected they were well past that phase either way - but what made them pause was the realization that Gabriel no longer attempted to conceal the scars where his wings had been from their gaze.

***

“... And then I suggest we put together a task force to put some order in the Earth observation files. I suppose a lot of issues could have been avoided if we’d kept a closer eye on those in the past few millennia.”

Uriel nodded at Micheal’s words, writing something down. “Yes, it makes sense. I will make a list of viable names for it.”

A nod. “Good. Anything else? Sandalphon?” she called out… getting no answer. “Sandalphon.”

Michael’s tone grew just a little sharper, but it was enough to make Sandalphon recoil. He cleared his throat, looking up. “Yes, yes. I agree.”

Michael stared. “Agree to what, specifically?”

“To the-- the thing with the-- and that other-- thing, with...” Sandalphon searched for the next word for a few moments, gave up, and let out a sigh, dropping his shoulders. “My apologies. I got distracted. But I am sure I agree with whatever you just said.”

Michael let out a sigh, gathering the papers. “And what is it that had you so distracted?”

Sandalphon hesitated a moment, acutely aware of Uriel’s gaze on him. “I was thinking about Gabriel,” he began, causing Michael to lift her gaze from the sheets and look at him. 

“What of him? Is he all right?” she asked, frowning. She’d seen Gabriel a couple of weeks earlier, but as she had taken on the lion’s share of what had been Gabriel’s role on top of her own - Sandalphon wondered, not for the first time, if it was her way to make up for the fact she had been the one to cut off his wings - there had been no time for her to pay him another visit. 

“No, no, he’s fine,” Sandalphon said quickly. “Called him a couple of days ago. He was on his way back from Devon, from a visit to that Brown fellow’s brother. He asked to confirm if all dogs do indeed go to Heaven, no idea why, but I checked for him. They do, by the way. No exceptions. Cats as well - most animals, really. The only exception to the rule are geese.”

Michael’s lips curled in a smile. “That’s good to know. What’s on your mind about Gabriel, then?”

“Well…” Sandalphon looked at the pen in his hands, fidgeting with it. “You know how we… reversed that entire thing with forgetting about him? By accepting we had to remember what we didn’t want to think about, and not just what we wished to remember?”

“Of course we do,” Uriel said, and something in her tone caused Sandalphon to look up. One glance, and he instinctively knew. “... You’re wondering if it would be the same for the others.”

Sandalphon nodded. Michael frowned in confusion , gaze shifting between the two of them.

“Others? What are you two talking about?”

Uriel looked at her in the eye. “The other ones that Fell. Long ago,” she said, and Michael’s posture stiffened, her hands gripping the sheets just a little tighter. 

“... We have no reason to wish to remember them. They’re gone. What is left are enemies, and-”

“And enemies are easier to fight if you can't recall them being anything else,” Uriel finished. 

Sandalphon suspected that was not how Michael had meant her sentence to go, but she did not argue against her statement. It was true; they all knew that. Michael was silent for a few moments, and finally stood. “There’s your answer. We may remember them if we try, I suppose, the same way we did with Gabriel. But ask yourselves if you really think we should,” she said, her voice quiet, and left the meeting room without another word. 

Sandalphon let out a long breath just as Uriel turned to look at him. She seemed calm, her voice quiet when she spoke. “What do you think, then? Should we?”

Until not too long ago, Sandalphon knew, the answer would have been a resounding no. Things were easier, then. Now, he sighed. “I don’t know,” he murmured. “I really don’t know.”

***

When a look at Gabriel’s folder revealed no new sins, Beelzebub was… not precisely surprised. They were not disappointed, either, which was rather more surprising than the blank bottom half of the sheet they were currently glaring at. They scoffed and closed the folder, letting it drop on the floor by their throne.

Well, there was the answer - carnal acts with a demon did not count as a grievous sin, or any kind of sin at all. Beelzebub now felt doubly foolish for telling Gabriel there was even a risk, if anything because it gave him a chance to show off how sickeningly sappy he could get.

“I figured,” the idiot had said. “I think I’ll take the chance.”

It would have been reassuring to think he had taken the chance out of lust, succumbing to it as many humans do, but it was clear the previous evening that was not the case. They both had taken pleasure in the act, and did plan to do so again in the future, but Beelzebub doubted Gabriel lusted any more than they did. The absolute bellend was willing to risk damnation, or a significant tilt of the scale towards it, not for lust - but for them.

He wouldn’t have been willing to risk so much before. He was not, not even for Ba’al.

“We are not the beings we were then,” he had said, and he was right. Beelzebub was no longer the being that Archangel Gabriel had loved at the dawn of existence, before the War, before the Fall. They both had known that. Beelzebub hadn’t counted on the fact the utter imbecile would fall, figuratively, for the being they were now. Their plan had worked, only for them to realize they had never paused to wonder what they would do if it worked too well. 

Beelzebub groaned, pressing a hand against their eyes and leaning back their head against the throne’s headrest with a thunk. The most frustrating part was that they knew they were supposed to be very much pleased with that turn of events. Of course, something as undignified as falling in love was very much beneath a Prince of Hell and would make them a laughing stock if word came out, though very few would dare laugh to their face - but no one would need to know that sappy detail. They could very well pass it off as lust.

No one would bat an eye if Beelzebub claimed Gabriel’s soul after successfully winning it for Hell, made him a demon, and kept him by their side; the Prince of Hell took what they wanted without question, and wouldn’t be the first to keep close a mortal they were particularly proud of winning over for their cause. A former archangel, too - no one would question for a moment it was merely a matter of keeping a trophy. They’d be none the wiser; it could work out perfectly.

Except that there was a part of Beelzebub, the one that had forced them to pause the previous evening to warn Gabriel that what they were doing may count as a sin, that knew it would not. For all the chances Gabriel may be willing to take for them, up to and including eternal damnation, the Lord of the Flies knew with utmost certainty he would never be happy in Hell.

“Ridiculous,” they snapped at the empty room. “No one is happy in Hell. No one is meant to be. That is the point, that is… that…”

“Why rebel to the absolute authority of God to pass absolute the absolute authority of Satan?”

Gabriel’s question echoed in their mind, causing Beelzebub to scowl. What an idiotic question - what choice did they have? After God threw them in Hell for wanting a choice, they… they…

No. God cast us out, decreed we were not to return to Heaven; never that we were to stay here. 

The thought hit them like a blow, and the faint buzzing of the flies around them was silenced abruptly. It was true - how had they not seen it before? They were cast out of Heaven as humanity would later be cast out of Eden, but nothing else, despite the nonsense in the Bible about being committed to chains of gloomy darkness, whatever that was supposed to mean.

There was a universe out there they may have roamed as humanity roamed Earth, but they had not. Satan chose where to dwell, and they all had followed - the fallen angels who had rebelled to stop being followers. They had been divided up in ranks, they who had grown to resent the ranks among God’s angels, and when humanity was created they were ordered to corrupt them. They had obeyed, accepted that was to be their lot in existence until they gambled everything, again, to try and conquer the one place in all Creation they had been shut out of. 

They had made themselves into the opposite of all that God and his angels were, in all but one thing: after the Fall, after receiving new orders, they had not questioned again, either. 

“It was God’s Great Plan you were fulfilling,” Gabriel had said, and it was with utter annoyance and a fair dose of dread that Beelzebub admitted to themself that the idiot… had a point. Was Hell, all of what surrounded them now - the realm they were Prince of - anything like what they had thought their existence outside the suffocating order created by God would be? They had a far higher rank in it than they did in Heaven, but… that was the only difference. 

And if the War never happens, what then? No resolution, an eternity of corrupting mortal souls because we were told to six thousand years ago, according to a Plan we rebelled against in the first place? A Plan none of us really knows? Is that it, an eternity of this?

The questions circled in Beelzebub’s mind as many moths unable to find light, and in the stillness and silence of their throne room, there was no answer. 

Amongst the cracked certainties, however, there was one that did not waver: willing to risk his soul for them or not, disillusioned with Heaven or not and regardless of the high position Beelzebub could get him, Gabriel would be desperately miserable in Hell.

And Beelzebub, Prince of Hell and Lord of the Flies, found that was not something they would be able to handle.

***

“Well well well, look who’s in here. The supervisor.”

“The supervisor who’s been avoiding us the whole morning.”

“Clearly to avoid telling us how the evening went.”

With a chuckle, Gabriel looked up from his checklist to see Łukasz and Fabrizio standing at the door of the small room service as the supervisor’s office. Blocking the door, more accurately. “I have been busy, is all. I was avoiding no one.”

“Uh-huh. So, what’s the word?”

Gabriel’s smile widened. “It-- went quite well,” he said, and nearly dropped the clipboard when both of them released high, unholy screeches. Humans certainly did seem to express their approval in a very different way from the polite applause that was the norm in Haven.

“So, did you--”

“I will not get into details, if you don’t mind,” Gabriel cut Fabrizio off, leaning back against the seat. “But let’s say that this morning we have… parted in more amicable terms than last time.”

“Good! You owe us a pint each, then.”

“What? I cannot recall agreeing to--” Gabriel began, but they were both already gone, and he could hear their snickers as they walked back to their work stations. He rolled his eyes, still smiling, and focused on his work again. In the back of his mind there was a nagging question - did it count as a sin? Did it tip the scales? Where did his soul stand between Heaven and Hell? - but he decided that, if Beelzebub did not volunteer that information, he would not ask. 

Mortals didn’t get the luxury of always knowing which way their actions would tip the scales in the end, after all, and Gabriel felt more and more like he could handle that.

***

“You know what book you should have loaned him? The Malleus Maleficarum.”

Aziraphale - who had been trying rather hard to scrub all memory of the encounter from his brain - raised an eyebrow, took the cup of candied peanuts from the vendor and thanked her before he followed Crowley a few steps away down the sidewalk. “I believe you may be getting confused, dear. The Malleus Maleficarum is most certainly not a pornography book. Peanut?”

“I’m aware,” Crowley pointed out, and did take a candied peanut. He threw it up in the air and opened his mouth to catch it, only for it to bounce off his forehead and on the ground. Aziraphale politely pretended not to have noticed and just casually put the cup within Crowley’s reach again as they walked down the street towards the bookstore.

“Then why should I have loaned him that specific book?”

“It does contain descriptions of what to expect from carnal relations with demons.”

This time, Aziraphale eyed him with mild concern. He’d admittedly always skimmed over that part, but he recalled quite sordid details that simply could not be true… right? “Surely, all of that is nonsense,” he declared. To his relief, Crowley shrugged. 

“Of course it’s nonsense, I was blind drunk when Kramer interviewed me, he asked the weirdest questions - I had to come up with something. No one can say I’m not at my most creative when drunk. And that guy and his friend took everything so seriously, I would say it’s on him. ”

… Wait a moment. “You-- you mean to tell me, you were one of their sources to write the Malleus Maleficarum?”

“Purely by accident, I assure you - never thought it was going to be for a witch hunting manual - but yes. Would you like me to sign your copy?”

“It is a first edition. You may most certainly not sign it,” Aziraphale said over a mouthful of candied peanuts, still rather relieved to know everything in that book was, after all, nonsensical rubbish. “I suspect that had I given Gabriel that, he may have reconsidered his… plans.”

“For the sake of my sanity, I want to tell myself he did reconsider anyway.”

“So will I. Peanut?” he offered, holding out the cup again.

This time, Crowley managed to catch it in mid-air.

***

Gabriel was still trying to catch his breath when he noticed Aziraphale’s book on his nightstand.

He ought to return it, he thought distantly, only to be immediately distracted when Beelzebub settled across his back, chin pressed against the back of his shoulder. “I hope this will teach you not to steal my coffee in the future,” they said, and Gabriel let out a breathless laugh.

“If this is what happens when I take your coffee, I’ll do it more often,” he said, cheek pressed against the pillow; he was going to feel that in the morning, but didn’t mind at all. He waited for a retort, but there was only a hum, quiet breathing against his neck. “... Are you all right?”

“Of course I am.”

“Something’s on your mind.”

“There’s always something on my mind,” Beelzebub muttered, and tapped Gabriel’s head with a finger. “Unlike yours.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes, too lost in the afterglow to realize Beelzebub had dodged the question. They didn't seem to be in a talkative mood that evening. Or rather, even less of a talkative mood than usual. “I do have something on my mind.”

“Oh? And what is it?”

I need to return that book, for one.

“Well,” he said instead. “Would you join me in London this weekend?”

***

“An answering machine, really who has those anymore-- hey, Brother Francis, it’s Warlock. Guess the store is closed? I tried looking up the opening times but it’s got no website or Facebook or whatever. It’s probably the only one left in the world without those. You should get a mobile phone too. Anyway, uh, I’ve got nothing to do this Sunday, so I was thinking I could hang in London. If you and Nann-- shit, I didn’t mean to say that.” A pause. “Yeah, uh, sorry I said shit. I mean, if Crowley is there too, uh, guess it wouldn’t suck to meet up. Or something. Just a thought. Whatever. I’ll call back.”

There was a click when the answering machine finished playing the message. Aziraphale glanced over at Crowley. “Well, what does Nanny Crowley think?”

“Nanny Crowley has no objections. What does Brother Aziraphale think?”

“Brother Aziraphale thinks the boy is up for a serious talk about his language this Sunday, and that Nanny Crowley will not interfere,” Aziraphale informed him. Crowley just grinned before snatching the last candied peanut from the cup he’d left on the table.

“I’ll do my best.”

***

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.” -- Matthew 16:19

***

[Back]

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[agrestebug]

Marichat May 2020

Hey everyone! I found the BEST artwork that perfectly fits my story for this day of Marichat May so I HAD to post it! Here’s the fic, but I’ll leave a link to the artwork too!  { https://pg-arttoons.tumblr.com/post/623662454271082496/can-i-interest-anyone-in-some-angst }  @pg-arttoons you are amazingly talented!! 

Enjoy!

Day 7 - Adrien Posters

Marinette hummed happily to herself as she tied the last small knot. She smiled brightly and held up the little pink heart pillow, turning in her chair to show it to her, "It's all done Tikki!"

Tikki flew up to the pillow and smiled brightly, "Oh thank you Marinette, it looks great!"

She headed up her ladder to her bed, Tikki flying up next to her. They found a cozy spot for Tikki's new bed on the small alcove above Marinette's bed, nodding at each other in agreement that it was the perfect spot.

Marinette heard shuffling from above her and went still, looking at Tikki worriedly. They both stayed quiet, listening past the sounds of the heavy rain pounding against the roof.

The shuffling happened again and Marinette moved instantly, going up to her skylight. There is only one person ridiculous enough to be out during a storm like this, and even then, she didn't think he was THIS ridiculous. Glad to see he can still prove me wrong. She thought wryly.

She cracked the skylight and saw him sitting on all fours in the pouring rain. His eyes were closed, his face angled up towards the sky.

"Chat Noir it is nearly midnight, have you lost your mind!?" Marinette told him in exasperated concern.

He barely flinched, looking over at her slowly, "Maybe."

She glared at him before she realized what she was seeing. Something was wrong. She sighed heavily and held her hand out to him, "Come on you."

He hesitated, but then put his hand in hers, letting her pull him down into the room. "Stay put." She ordered with a stern glare. He nodded in silence, barely noticing her leave the room. His eyes were staring unfocused at the ground at his feet; his father's angry yells echoing in his mind.

His father never failed to tell him when he was disappointed in him, but this was the first time his father had ever actually raised his voice in anger at him. For something that he had no control over at that. His harsh words were like a knife through the heart, a fresh stab with every word thrown at him.

A puddle of water was starting to collect on her floor as it dripped from every part of him, his hair sopping wet and sticking to the back of his neck as more cold water trickled down his back. He barely felt it.

"I can't believe you Chat." Marinette's voice cut through his thoughts as she threw a fluffy pink towel over his head. She instantly started rubbing the towel through his hair, "Not only is it cold out, but it is raining to boot. You are completely soaked through." She carefully wiped the water from his face, shaking her head, "You are going to catch a chill, or worse catch a cold." She started wiping the water from his suit, "Are you listening to me kitty?"

He gave the slightest nod, and she huffed slightly, "Of all the ridiculous things you have ever done, this one just may top the cake." She knelt down and cleaned up the water that had collected at his feet, his voice coming out hoarsely, "Sorry."

She barely looked up at him, "It's just water, it's fine." His ears flicked as he heard a ding and Marinette popped up. Heading back out of the room, she told him without looking back, "Stay."

Again he didn't move, but she came back rather quickly, another towel in her hand. She placed the towel over his head, his body beginning to shake as the pleasant warmth seeped into him. "I knew that was going to happen." She muttered, rubbing the warm towel through his hair again as he mumbled it again sheepishly, "Sorry."

She wrapped the still warm towel over his shoulder, shaking her head, "You don't have to apologize."

He held the warm towel in place, feeling his teeth chattering. She stared at him for a minute before her eyes softened, her shoulder's slumping. The frustration in her voice is completely gone, and she asked gently, "What happened?"

He looked away from her in shame, "Nothing."

Her hand went straight to her hip, but she didn't say anything. When he stayed silent, she told him in that same gentle voice, almost like she was trying not to startle him, "Talk to me kitty."

"It's personal." He admitted shivering.

"Tell me anyways." She said concerned, "I know something must have happened. You were sitting out in the middle of a storm, in the middle of the night. Of all the places you could have gone, you came here."

"I, didn't really have anywhere else to go." He admitted quietly, avoiding her gaze. Her face fell, hearing the truth of his words and feeling them twist her heart. She wrapped her arms around him tightly without another word, her natural warmth already making him feel better.

"I'll always be here for you Kitty, whenever you need me." She pulled back just enough to look at him, "If you don't want to talk about it, I won't push you, but if you want to I'm here." She cupped the side of his face softly, "And next time, don't just sit out in the rain okay?"

He nodded, "Promise. I know it's late but, do you mind if I just, hang out here with you for a little while?"

She smiled, "All night if you need to."

He gave her a weak smile. This was why he had come here. He could always count on her to light up the dark.

His gaze traveled to her wall as she moved over to her desk, seeing dozens of clippings from magazines, all of him. Well, Adrien-him.

He tried to not so subtly change the subject, "You must really admire Gabriel Agreste's work." He moved closer to the wall, feeling a smile trying to come out before it fell. Marinette had told him herself that she admired his father's brand. That's all this was.

"Yeah." Marinette said simply, watching Chat Noir staring at the wall of Adrien posters. "I actually know him, Adrien Agreste I mean."

Chat turned to look at her, forcing a smile as his shaking finally started to subside, "Is he as fabulous in person as the magazines make him out to be? Or just a spoiled rich kid who can't do anything right?"

She glared at him, "Neither."

He was a bit taken back by her hard tone, asking truly curious, "Then how do you see him?" Maybe he could figure out why she acted so differently around him than around her other friends.

He saw a slight blush on her cheeks, "He is the sweetest guy you will ever meet. He's unbelievably kind, and incredibly smart." She started to smile, "He works so hard all the time, sometimes I can't believe all the things he does in one day. Piano lessons, learning Chinese, fencing! All of that on top of being an amazing model AND going to school. He makes straight A's!" She started smiling brighter, "He amazes me. He does all of that, and somehow, he stays standing."

She started to frown, "Everyone sees that famous part of him, and our friends see all that he does, but sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who see's how tired he really is. I know it can't be easy for him to be run ragged that way, but day in and day out, he does it with a smile. He has a big heart, and tries to see the best in people, even in the ones who don't deserve it."

He noticed her shoulder's slump and felt his throat tighten even more, feeling the sting in his eyes. He couldn't believe that THIS is how Marinette saw him. All this time, he thought she didn't like him, and she actually...SAW him.

He cleared his throat, trying to sound light, "He must mean a lot to you."

She nodded, looking over at her wall where the posters were, "I would do anything for him, anything. Even if he never returns my feelings."

Chat asked shakily, "You, love him, don't you?"

She looked back at him with a sad smile, "With every fiber of my being."

"Does he know?" He asked already knowing the answer, but Chat wouldn't. She shook her head sadly, "I've tried to tell him, for almost a year, but something always goes wrong." She fiddled with the end of her shirt, "Besides, he'll never notice someone like me. I can't even begin to measure up to him so I don't know why I ever thought he would see me as someone who could be more than a friend."

"How could you think that?" he asked instantly, seeing her eyes widen, "You are Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

She let out a short laugh, "You act like that means something."

"It means everything." He told her without missing a beat, "You are creative and talented, and are always helping people even if it means going out of your way to do it."

She smiled at him, "You're sweet Kitty, but I always knew it was a long shot. I'm lucky that he even considers me a friend, especially considering how totally inept I am around him. Constantly embarrassing myself, falling over my own feet, even getting tongue-tied to the point where I can't even tell him good morning."

So that explains it, he thought. "He can't be that intimidating can he?"

She shook her head, "He doesn't intimidate me in the way you are thinking. It's," she hesitated slightly, "the feelings he gives me. They overwhelm me, in the best way. Those feelings warm me up from the inside out, and put butterflies in my stomach. Seeing him happy, that's what makes me happy, and all I want to do is find a way to make sure that smile never leaves his face."

She smiled shyly, tears in her eyes, "That would be enough for me, just knowing that he is happy. Really, truly happy. To see his genuine smile light up his eyes everyday. I'd stay his friend forever even if it meant watching him find true happiness with someone else."

He didn't know when he had moved across the room towards her. He didn't remember feeling the tears falling from his eyes. He didn't even remember making the conscious choice to hold her tightly to his chest. But he had, they still were, and he was.

His arms tightened further, nuzzling his face into her shoulder, "He's the one who doesn't deserve someone like you princess. You are far, far too good for him."

She wrapped her arms around him, keeping her face buried in his chest without a word. He slowly loosened his grip on her, asking as he stared into her glossy eyes, "Princess, why don't you tell him all of this? Maybe, maybe this is the kind of thing someone like him needs to hear."

"I don't want to tell him." She admitted, his arms dropping from around her as she said it longingly, "I want to show him."

He frowned confused but she explained on her own, "I want to be able to walk up to him and hold his hand so that he knows he isn't alone. I want to hug him so that he knows what it feels like to be comforted when he is sad, or feel safe when he's scared. I want to be able to smile at him so that he see's how happy he makes me just by being himself. I want him to know, just by looking into my eyes, how much I really, truly love him."

He felt his heart swell ten times over. He had always had somewhat of a, refused-to-blatantly-say-it-out-loud-unless-he-was-denying-it, crush on Marinette.

But in a matter of mere minutes, she was proving just how much of those feelings he was actually pushing down.

"Of all the people in the world you could love this way, why him?" He asked, feeling breathless.

Her response came the second their eyes met, saying it like it should explain everything, "Because it's him."

There was a large crash of thunder as a bright strike of lightning illuminated her room, and that was the moment it happened. It was those three simple words from her that broke through his denial to the truth.

I'm in love with her. I'm in love with Marinette.

Thanks for reading! 

[milknette]

day 21 - circus

all i want is to fly with you, all i want is to fall with you.

tumblr month: @auyeahaugust

links: ao3 | ff.net

WHEN Nino suggests that Adrien invest in the circus, he is, understandably, hesitant.

"I'm just not sure it's a good idea long-term, Nino," he starts, a hesitant expression on his face. "Does anyone even go to circuses anymore? Father's really counting on me to expand our business venture, and I can't take any risks that would disappoint him."

Nino only shakes his head, putting a carefree arm around his best friend's shoulders, and pulling him closer. "Dude, you weren't there. I thought I'd hate it, but I was so wrong. Their performances were almost… magical."

Adrien only laughs. "Magical? I've never heard you use such… romantic words."

A playful bump on the shoulder. "Shut up, man," he only responds, an unimpressed expression on his face. "Look," Nino starts, retrieving a ticket from his pocket. "They have a show tonight. Alya couldn't go, so I have an extra ticket. I really think you should check it out."

"And if I don't?"

Nino shrugs. "It's your loss. Besides, it's just onenight. What do you have to lose?"

.

.

It's called the Miraculous Circus.

Adrien thinks it's a corny name, but ultimately decides to continue on anyway. After all, he's driven almost an hour to get there, and it is, frankly, a waste of a ticket.

(Though the ticket itself doesn't cost a lot— which doesn't do much to heighten his expectations for what he's about to see.

Why is he doing this again?)

The ticket line is unsurprisingly small. Outside of a few kids and their families, Adrien starkly feels like an outsider in his absurdly overly-formal business suit and lack of company. He's only too glad that the line moves quickly, allowing him to take a seat at the very back of the tent.

An old man, almost struggling to walk with his cane, enters.

Adrien's first instinct is to run down and help him out.

Is he the ringmaster of this whole affair?

The stranger coughs, then speaks with surprising strength, his clear voice echoing throughout the stands. "Welcome to the Miraculous Circus, everyone! We are extremely happy to have you here." He scans the audience, then smiles. (Adrien almost thinks they make eye contact, as he winks. Maybe he imagined it?) "My name is Master Fu, and I've been lucky enough to work and become a family with this amazingly talented group of performers. But that's enough with introductions."

Master Fu's eyes shine, then to Adrien's complete surprise, throws up his cane.

The curtains open as he does so, and he watches with surprise as the ringmaster moves with surprising agility and grace, to introduce the show.

"Now for something truly magical."

.

.

Magical isn't enough to describe what took place before him.

From the horse tamer who seems to transport from place-to-place in mere seconds, to the monkey-like acrobat who can contort and move his body in ways one could never imagine, to the fox-like magician who creates illusions from smoke, Adrien found himself completely enamored with the performance.

He was confident that Nino was making a big deal out of nothing.

As it turns out, Nino wasn't making enough of a big deal at all.

It's almost two hours of pure magic, when Master Fu announces their final act.

Adrien thinks he's seen it all, and that nothing could quite top what he's watched already.

As the day has proven, however, Adrien, in fact, gets many things wrong.

Which is all-too-clear when the final performer walks upon the stage, dressed in a vibrant red outfit that seems to draw everyone's attention. She also wears a mask upon her head— the same color as her clothes, with a fanciful black feather decorating the top.

It's no different from the rest of the performers, who also wear masks, but Adrien finds himself deeply wishing that she would take it off; to see her more clearly.

The woman— Ladybug, Master Fu calls her— is a trapeze artist. She carefully stands upon the edge, almost nervous, before she takes a deep breath in. Then, her expression makes a complete switch.

A confident smile upon her face, Ladybug simply takes a step forward, holds on to the ring, then let's go.

And she's flying.

With ease, Ladybug jumps and moves her body in a way that Adrien can only describe as mesmerizing. She looks almost at home in the air, as if she were born with wings— navigating through the sky with evident ease and comfort.

Adrien doesn't blink for a moment.

Scared that he'll miss something, carving every moment he sees of her in his head.

For a moment, she swings his way, and he swears that they make eye contact.

Swears that he sees the playful look in her eye, and her lips curved upward with the tiniest sliver of a smile.

She swings back just as quickly, but it's in that moment of split-second electricity Adrien becomes settled on his decision:

He's going to invest into a circus.

.

.

It's a challenge, at the very least, to convince his father that working with the circus is a good idea.

But after hours of negotiations (mostly on Adrien's part) and the promise that this is a good investment— where he'll take all responsibility should it fail or even be worth even the smallest fraction less than what he told him it'd become, Gabriel Agreste finally relents.

And it's been a long time since Adrien's been so happy about anything at all.

After speaking with Master Fu, the arrangement is set.

He's to start working with them the following day.

.

.

Adrien meets the performers the week after.

They all use their stage names in introducing themselves to him, something Master Fu had warned him of in advance— a lot of the performers had identities they'd prefer to keep secret, and this sense of anonymity was much respected within their community. Unlike in common society, asking for someone's name there is to ask for them to share their deepest parts of themselves to the other person.

Rena Rouge, Viperion, Carapace, Queen Bee…

"So, what's your name?"

After a moment of thought, he smiles. "Chat Noir."

Adrien fits right in with them.

He asks for Ladybug, and Master Fu tells him she's the most mysterious one of them all; only showing up when she's due to performance, and never any longer.

The hours seem to take forever while he's waiting for her to show up.

.

.

She arrives at the act before hers, already fully-dressed in her costume and makeup.

They only have a few minutes to talk, maybe even less so, but Adrien's determined and makes it a point to introduce himself.

"Ladybug, right?"

"Ah, you must be Master Fu's new business partner?" She says the words a little too dryly, maybe even almost unimpressed, but he decides to shake it off and push forward.

"Yes. We're working together, and I'll make sure to bring this circus to new heights—"

(He hopes Ladybug gets the pun. It's either that she does not, or that she chose to ignore it completely. With the unimpressed expression on her face, Adrien assumes it's the latter.)

She turns to him. "Look, I'm not sure why you're here, but leave us alone, okay? Miraculous is a family, and my home." Her glare turns sharp. "And I'll destroy anyone who tries to take that away from me."

Her tone indicates that she's done talking, but he, understandably, isn't.

"I think we have a misunderstanding," he tries speaking up. "I'm not trying to take the circus or anything, I just want to help it grow— to have more people experience the magic that I experienced while watching everyone here," he pauses. "You, especially."

A smile teases the edge of her lips.

"So I take it you enjoyed my performance?"

"Enjoyed wouldn't be a strong enough word to describe how it made me feel."

Ladybug leans closer to him, and he can feel himself explode into a shade of red he never thought possible.

When their lips are only centimeters apart, she smirks.

"Sorry, I'm only interested in performers." She looks down at his tuxedo and business-casual suit. "Someone more… fun."

Vaguely, Adrien registers the voice of Master Fu calling Marinette to the stage.

She smiles.

"See you around, kitty."

.

.

The next day, Adrien goes around asking different performers if they could teach him some of their tricks.

Ladybug watches from the sidelines, evidently entertained.

He's a bit cute, actually.

.

.

After a few weeks of almost choking on knives, getting bitten by a lion, and burning himself, Adrien tries out his last and final circus activity.

To both his and Ladybug's surprise (though it's more to her absolute horror), Chat Noir has an innate talent with doing trapeze work.

Master Fu announces that she start teaching him the ropes. (Chat Noir looks hopefully at his now-partner, because the ropes, haha get it because that's what we mostly work with, but is only met with a flat look.)

"Alright then. If we're doing this, then we're doing this properly, got it?"

"Yes, milady. The two of us together will make a meowvelous purrformance."

She rolls her eyes, but can't quite hide the smile on her face, either.

.

.

Chat Noir adjusts his earpiece.

"Can you hear me, bugaboo?"

"That depends, what are you going to tell me?"

"Hmm… well I guess, don't worry."

"What do you mean?"

"I won't let you fall."

"You bet you won't let me fall, we've practiced this routine enough times that…"

"Because the only time you'll fall is when you fall for me."

"..."

"Ladybug?"

"..."

"Aw, didn't your heart jump for joy when I said that?"

"You really are corny, aren't you?"

"But you love it anyway."

"Maybe I do."

"Wait, Ladybug… what did you—"

"Now let's introduce our final act! The one you've all, and even I have been anxiously waiting for…"

"I couldn't hear it properly through the headset. Ladybug, tell me what you said…"

"Get the routine down perfectly tonight, and I'll say it again. So, are you sure you're ready for this, alleycat?"

Adrien smiles.

"Pawsitive."

"... the debut performance of Ladybug and Chat Noir!"

[darisu-chan]

I think we’re missing a point here.

It’s not that Adrien and Marinette’s love destroys the world or will cause problems.

I do agree they need to move on from their crushes and that that will help them see each other in a new light and maybe learn from each other enough so that their infatuation becomes love.

However, their love wasn’t what actually caused the problem. A recklessness in using their powers for love did, but that’s attributed to the fact they are teenagers. But even beyond that, it’s not their love which has been causing problems.

It’s Gabriel’s.

Or rather, Gabriel’s obssession with bringing his wife back.

And, I get it. Losing a spouse, no matter the circumstances, hurts. Losing a parent hurts as much. And though many people might think “if there’s a possibility to bring them back, I would take it no matter what” there needs to be a line between what’s right and achieveable and what it’s just plain wrong.

Gabriel becoming Hawkmoth, terrorizing a whole city and fighting against teens, literal children, is crossing that line.

Even if Adrien wasn’t Chat Noir, it would still be wrong.

Many people say they’d do anything to protect those they love, but I think the real question must be “Should you?”

And you might think Gabriel could have been redeemed. He loves his wife that much, so he must love his son as well. But the thing is we’ve hardly seen him acting like a real parent to Adrien. Remember Adrien was isolated even when Emilie was still around. It makes you think that there’s always been a barrier between them. We don’t even know if Gabriel purposely isolated Emilie too. Some say Emilie might be as evil as Gabriel given the way Adrien’s life has been so far, but what if she was a victim just like Adrien? That movie Adrien wanted to watch seemed to have been filmed before Adrien was born. It makes me think Emilie stopped acting altogether. It could be said it was her choice to dedicate herself to being a mother. But something just isn’t right here. Maybe Gabriel, fearing Emilie might be taken from him, isolated her too. Maybe the real cause of Emilie’s condition was that she used the peacock miraculous in the same way Adrien uses his own miraculous: to be free.

Perhaps Gabriel drove Emilie to repeated uses of her miraculous to taste a bit of freedom. In doing so, she pretty much caused her own death. It might explain why Gabriel is so desperate to save her. It makes me think that it is guilt which is his main motivating factor and not love as he claims. Guilt that he caused her to feel so unhappy she resorted to using an object which made her sick. 

And it fits. Why? Because Gabriel doesn’t seem like the type of person who experiences love in a healthy way. Compare him to Tom Dupain, for example, a man who also loves his wife and his daughter. Do you think that if Sabine ever passed away Tom would become a terrorist? No. He would let her go and dedicate his life to taking care of Marinette. Would he research in his own private time how to bring her back? Possibly. But never at Marinette’s expense. Because Tom knows how to love. He would never willingly put his own daughter in danger. 

On the other hand, we’ve seen that Gabriel is doing exactly this which Tom would never do. The way he treats Adrien seems to have been pretty much the same throughout his life. Adrien has never once said that his father gave him more freedom before his mother disappeared. Or that he was a warmer person. The only difference to how his life used to be and how it is now is that his mother is gone, and Emilie seems to have been his only support. Ironically, he has more freedom now.

If Gabriel truly knew how to love, he would treat Adrien differently. And he would have gone about this whole thing much differently.

If Gabriel knew how to love, he wouldn’t have gone as far as to deliberately cause Adrien pain. 

And sure, he’s said before he’d give up his quest to protect Adrien. But how long did that last? Minutes. Literally. He wasn’t actually able to give up his powers. 

He might say he loves his son, but the fact is he doesn’t show it.

At this point, I’m not even sure he loves Emilie either. I feel he might have ideolized her or is just so obssessed with her he wants her back, no matter the cost.

And trying to justify it by saying he’s doing it for Adrien is the worst part of it all. Because if he truly wanted his son to be happy, he would actually be there for Adrien. He would spend time with him. He would get to know his son. And he wouldn’t bring pain to the people Adrien cares about (Nino, Marinette, Chloé, Kagami) for his plans.

And the same can be said about Nathalie.

She knows that what Gabriel is doing is wrong, no matter his reasoning.

She knows it’s wrong and she helps him.

She wants Gabriel to be happy, but at the expense of everyone else’s happiness and well-being, even Adrien’s. 

The two might tell themselves they’re doing this for the people they love, but they are actually being selfish.

Nathalie doesn’t feel love in a healthy way either. The way she loves Gabriel is self-destructive. She’s giving all of herself, setting aside her own morality to help him achieve his own goals. And she might think she’s being selfless, after all, if Emilie comes back to life, the two can’t be together. In choosing his happiness over her own she’s proving she loves him. But isn’t she also sacrificing herself so Gabriel has no choice but to notice her? In a twisted way, it’s the only way to gain his attention.

That’s not love.

That’s obssession too.

Adrien and Marinette’s young love isn’t what is causing any problems. They still have a lot to learn but even they love each other in more healthy ways. They have called each other out when the other person is not acting right. They have helped each other grow in and out the mask. And in fact Adrien is so different from Gabriel that he didn’t help him own willingly. Even if that would mean bringing his mother back.

The take away from this series is that obssession is not love.

Gabriel is not doing any of this for love. He’s fooling himself into thinking he is, but he’s not. He wants control, he wants power, he wants Emilie back at all costs because he doesn’t care about anyone else but himself. He doesn’t love Nathalie either. If he did, he would have never let her use the peacock miraculous, not after what happened to Emilie. He’s willing to sacrifice her too just like he’s willing to sacrifice Adrien.

And this ties amazingly well with the reason Adrien and Marinette were even chosen to defeat him.

Both showed kindness and selflessness and that is why they were given the two most powerful miraculous.

The two symbolize goodness and purity, oppossed to Gabriel’s inner darkness.

And if Gabriel, and Nathalie to some extent, symbolizes obssession, Adrien and Marinette will end up symbolizing love in its truest form. A love which is not selfish or obssessive. A love between equals. A love that allows the other to grow. 

True love.

[bellamygateoldblog]

The 100 7x01: Discussion

My general takeaway from the episode can be summarised like this: Echo is spectacular. (I might’ve said “oh my god look at her!!!!!” and “ugh she is just The Best” too many times to count).

This is long-ish because I really just wanted to consolidate my thoughts in one place. Bitch it’s me i got a lot to say!!!!!

The Good Parts

— The farmhouse setting. While it’s existence is strange and “a sore thumb” and worked to further push Sanctum being the abomination born of clumsily mixing genres and time periods in terms of construction/costuming, making everything appear disconnected and obnoxious, it was still a nice change. It made me feel warmer and more comfortable as a ‘modern’ viewer. It’s a breath of fresh air from the constant dark element: dilapidated post-apoc buildings falling from their foundation, endless woods, and equally cold-feeling labs and skeleton dungeons.

— Echo. This was a damn good episode for Echo and every second reminded me of why she’s my favourite. She’s a badass. I always love to see her falling naturally into leadership of her little ragtag groups who accept it wholeheartedly. From the “testing a theory” moment where she went ‘when Gabriel doesn’t speak >>>’, to right at the end when she killed the solider about to “eliminate” Hope (hesitation is death...oh no he can’t hear us he’s got airpods in oh my god). It was Echo that got them through the whole sequence with the anomaly, Echo who figured shit out, Echo who quickly judged the situations and formed plans to overcome the obstacles. In other words: she did THAT.

Favourite scene: Echo coming face-to-face with the projection of her own insecurities in the form of Roan and Echo 1.0, and physically overcoming them (shooting them down), along with the trauma and pain that they both represent. The perserverence and getting the job done despite the emotional torture felt like a callback to the Psychosis episode of 6x02 when she was clever enough to sedate herself to silence the voices in her head. I also think the dialogue chosen was also foreshadowing that she would become a leader by the finale (commander?) and i love to see it!

— Clarke and Madi’s conversation. Oh Clarke, you just keep reinforcing and validating my perceptions of who you are as a person over and over again lol. In all her self-importance failing to remember that Madi, in fact, had and was raised by her biological parents for half of her life (and the new knowledge that she spent six years telling her little mind tales from the book of her life whilst apparently never taking the time to learn about Madi’s or acknowledge/honour her birth parents in any way) is “yeah that’s about right” to me. Sure you could say she was still reeling from the events of six and her death-almost death-almost death again. But I’ve always had this Thing about the relationship between Clarke and Madi. And i’ve seen some of the lighthearted humourous reception that scene got from fandom, “#where do you think the child CAME from?!” which only served to remind me of my own impression that Clarke views Madi as wholely ‘hers’, as if Madi’s existence was tied to Clarke, but i might elaborate in a seperate post.

This scene was a lovely display of self-awareness I’ve rarely seen on Clarke (never even got it when she electrocuted said child two seasons ago- however that absense of apology and acknowledgement of the sheer wrongness of that action also fits very nicely with my view of her lmao, still though, a weird choice for your ‘heroine’).

— Clarke’s “feels like a different world.” Felt romantically-coded. I think Gaia/Clarke might be the most convinient relationship to transform into romance at this point. However I’m sincerely hoping this road they could go down won’t reduce Gaia to a crutch/accessory for Clarke, and that she doesn’t become merely a love interest. I’ve seen talk already of Gaia being “Clarke’s happiness” etc.. which is already confirming my worst fears. Sigh.

This moment very much felt like found closure and the turning of a page. But i will say it was a very sharp turn from the three seasons of shoehorned-in mentions of Lexa, and last season’s emphasis on Clarke’s very-much intact emotional response to her memory- “it’s why you cry when you think about Lexa”- to her looking at an image of Lexa’s memory of her, reminicing but having no emotional response to it, and brushing it off while sharing a soft look with Gaia (and this is a few days since s6? I don’t know how this timeline is working but Tbh it’s not like these writers ever concerned themselves with ‘realistic time frames’ anyway lol). Yep, Jason’s seasons are individual “movies,” alright.

Other *nodding approvingly* moments

— Raven’s subtle “elevator eyes” on Clarke when she started giving her orders again. I see you, Miss Reyes, and I appreciate you.

— Raven + the foot in her mouth and the cute way she catches herself both times. I just love watching characters fail at existing LOL. She was feeling more human than stereotype or plot device this episode.

— "Mommy and Auntie O” and the implication that Hope is a child inside an aged-up body.

— This quote: “I know what it’s like to lose your family 100 years ago and yesterday at the same time.” It’s so literal but I like it a lot.

— Clarke being ‘leader’ again is, as usual, solely a matter of convinient (and familial/love) circumstances and it felt very true.

The Rest

— The Eligius Situation. So Clarke and her inner circle conquer and live in a nice home, and we’re specifically told Clarke takes the master suite (and the dog), and I was like ‘fair enough’ but then she orders prison labour. She tells them to build her a compound that they won’t actually get to be apart of, and to live in tents while they do so. They aren’t getting anything out of this (before they resist and set their own terms). This is slavery. Also, those aren’t her people to boss around, look down on, and use accordingly for her own gain (in fact they barely know her or why she’s gone from being that one unloyal woman who executed their men and got herself captured like an idiot, then couldn’t make up her mind about which side she wanted to kill- to one in the uppermost position of authority...like...they woke up yesterday) But, then again, that never stopped her.

— Too much and not enough at the same time. The pacing of the episode in general was awful. Too much happening in quick succession, no breathing room, too many factions (no, actually Raven, where is ALIE when you need her? smh). I blink, I miss an entire scene and a character is now beating someone else up. Amazingly, i was still bored 90% of the time.

— The Children of Gabriel calling themselves “The Children of Gabriel.” It was always goofy, even more so when a grown man is saying it.

— Murphy + his self loathing over Abby’s death. Did I miss the part where she was ever good to him? One of their final moments together was of her telling him he deserved to die over Clarke after she spent the entire series treating him like he was inferior and disposable. uhhhhhhhhhh.

— The picnic scene. Jackson’s sudden violent outburst was unearned (it wasn’t even set up???), and also disrespectful. Wrong place, wrong time, bro. He’s grieving? Okay. But when Abby’s daughter is sitting right in front of you, making this about you, ruining a perfectly good toast in her honour with your uncomfortable accusations loses you points you never even had to begin with. And this is a ‘me’ thing but I can’t be bothered to be sympathetic when this is about Abby Griffin.

Also, I have to say it. Eliza’s acting took me out of the scene every time I looked at Clarke. I couldn’t for the life of me work out what those expressions were supposed to be.

— Russell, his manpain, and a fury over the consiquences of his own actions  that could rival the grounders (”my brother died in your ring of fire [while he was trying to murder you all]” hmm sounds like a you problem). But the worst part is, I simply couldn’t tell where he stood or what he was feeling. He’s so one-dimensional. He’s an evil man (so much for ”grey morality”).

— Clarke + Jordan. A small point to make but all Clarke has done since Marper made her ‘Godmother’ of their son has blame him for everything bad happening lol. Marper loses a lot of my respect as time goes on for that choice. As much as I dislike Jordan’s presence in the show, still not a great pattern to have noticed.

— Raven seeking approval from Clarke (specifically) for the Prime idea was...weird and very bad. When has Raven ever cared for Clarke’s validation, especially in the last few seasons?

Was also taken aback by how Indra and Miller are both suddenly so protective of Clarke, like i can make sense of the Indra part even though it relies on me making things up that aren’t supported by what’s on screen, but Miller?

— (Bonus moment that was bad for me, but not for the same reason it was for the rest of you: the scene of Hope finding the message in her arm. When she was removing the blood-soaked bandage I freaked out because I thought she was peeling her skin off. You’re welcome for that visual.)

The Mixed/No Feelings

— Clarke’s full-dark-no-stars. How many times have they told me now she’s “the head”? LMAO. 

I have no actual formed opinion on it. Only disjointed thoughts. Like i might’ve just gone “good for her” if Clarke wasn’t the person she is, with the history she has.

I appreciate the idea, to have her spend the whole episode declaring she is, in fact, completely fine, to end it having her explode with the repressed pain.

I mean...i realise the cognition behind it, but it’s eye-roll inducing at this point. This- kicking Russell to death (giving him exactly what he wanted and set out to provoke), and burning down a palace she promised to keep intact, once again going against the group to do her own Thing that they all ultimately have the suffer the consiquences of and help clean up- is just a repeat of past patterns, and Monty’s “do better” mantra that she desperately clung to like she owned it last season is nowhere in sight.

(Also, I can’t be the only one who spotted her physically smacking that Sanctum girl as she walked onto the balcony? Not cool. Wasn’t cool when Murphy acted like a dick to one of them either this episode.)

The rushed switch did a number on me, too, like Jackson’s did. Literally five minutes before she was preaching about a peaceful life for Madi that doesn’t take revenge (I think I know what they were going for with that but it just left me feeling confused and frustrated).

Furthermore, I’ve seen talk that this was her “burning down of a symbol of oppression”, something she experienced first hand (not so unlike Blodreina and the bunker she desperately wanted to escape and deliver her people from), but there was no noble, calculated intention there. She burned the palace accidentally in her rage because she was in pain and disorientated. The moral stuff was just an after effect.

The speech was also very ‘Clarke’. Feeling entitled to and making decisions on who lives and dies right after declaring this wasn’t their kill to make. She wasn’t the only person hurt by the Primes (but we’ve also been given no reason to care about any of the other victims- the manipulated, enslaved population have been turned into a joke and a punching bag for the main characters which...isn’t great either). And the castle could’ve been used to shelter some of the “too many people” we had problems with through the episode (or used to harvest resources from). It really comes down to if i think the situation justifies the reaction and if i hold her wholely responsible...and this is the part where i reiterate that i have no intact opinion and don’t actually care to have one either ha.

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 1/4/21

Black Clover, Vol. 23 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – Given we came to the end of a very long arc last time, it makes sense that there’s a lot of goofy comedy before we start the next arc (which has a timeskip!). Fortunately, Black Clover is pretty good at being dumb and goofy in a shonen way—I’ve said before that it’s ripping off every single shonen series in the world, but it’s not doing it badly. Therefore we get a lot of silly love confessions, and priestesses who wear spiral “nerd” glasses like Mousse from Ranma 1/2. Oh yes, and Asta is not executed—for now. They still think he’s totally evil, though. Hopefully fighting a devil may help to change that opinion. This has become one of the longest-running Jump series now, and it’s easy to see why it’s still going. – Sean Gaffney

Days of Love at Seagull Villa, Vol. 1 | By Kodama Naoko | Seven Seas – Another yuri series from this author, this book starts with one of our heroines fleeing to the countryside after her boyfriend gets her best friend pregnant. She’s there to teach (and boy, her class could use some lessons in “don’t slutshame and don’t bully”), but she’s also staying with a young woman who’s raising a kid alone after her whole family was killed. The two are seeming opposites, but turn out to possibly have much in common. The yuri so far here is just a drunken kiss, but I’m sure there will be more to it. That said, the series seems content to introduce its cast and then start to simmer things to a slow boil. That’s good too. I want to learn more about this village. – Sean Gaffney

Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! Everyday Misadventures!, Vol. 1 | By FUNA and Yuki Moritaka | Seven Seas – I was expecting this to be a 4-koma sort of volume, but it isn’t. Instead it’s just goofy comedy chapters without the ongoing plot that we get in the normal series. So you get things like Reina trying to learn to cook, and Mavis getting hit on by women again, etc. The usual stereotypes apply—Pauline has large breasts, Mile is… well, Mile, Reina is hot-headed, etc. There’s also a flashback to Adele’s experiences at school, where it turns out that all the school’s “Seven Mysteries” are just her being stupidly overpowered. No one should get this who’s not a fan of the original, but those who are should be quite pleased. – Sean Gaffney

Dr. STONE, Vol. 14 | By Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi | Viz Media – Most of this volume is trying to rescue everyone from the evil village “god” and his even more evil minion, who is unfortunately more overpowered than most of our team. On the cool side, most of the rest of the group gets un-petrified after recovering their bodies from the ocean floor, thanks to the power of Taiju being really strong and really dumb. On the less-cool side, Kohaku and Ginro are now petrified, though frankly that’s a good thing in Ginro’s case, as he was bleeding to death. This is probably the biggest villain that Senku and company have had to face before, so it makes sense that he’s finally taking a very dark step (as he himself says) and bringing guns into this world. Great fun. – Sean Gaffney

Eniale & Dewiela, Vol. 1 | By Kamome Shirahama | Yen Press – I was told when I saw who the author of this series was that I should not expect it to be much like Witch Hat Atelier, and that’s an understatement if anything. Oh, the art is still amazingly gorgeous, but the content is very much designed for those who enjoy the dynamic of, say, Gabriel Dropout. An angel and a demon are best friends despite sniping at each other the entire volume. Eniale is a bit of a featherhead. Dewiela has a bit of a temper. Together, they get involved in Very Wacky Situations. How much you enjoy this will depend on how wacky you find the situations. I found it fun, but I think I would enjoy it better in a magazine chapter by chapter than in volume form. – Sean Gaffney

Hatsu*Haru, Vol. 13 | By Shizuki Fujisawa | Yen Press – This series about four couples—heavily overbalanced towards two of them—finally comes to a close by going back to its leads, as Riko’s mom is moving due to her job and… is NOT asking Riko to come with her. Yes, the final volume involves everyone trying to self-sacrifice the most, with lots of tears and angry words. Of course we know that Riko really needs to be with her mom, even if they may not have the best relationship, which of course means that she and Kai are now far from each other. Fortunately, it’s the final volume, so this can be resolved with a flash forward to college. This was a solid series, but I’ll remember it for Takaya and Ayumi more than anyone else—in fact, possibly just Ayumi. – Sean Gaffney

I Love You So Much, I Hate You | By Yuni | Yen Press – Ayako Asano and Saori Fujimura are both accomplished, successful career women working closely with each other at their company. But outside of the office they’re even closer—they’ve actually started sleeping with one another. Two women becoming romantically involved isn’t so much of an issue, but the fact that Ayako is both married to a man and is Saori’s boss poses some significant problems. I Love You So Much, I Hate You is a mature manga dealing with some mature themes. Initially, there are definite imbalances in Ayako and Saori’s relationship, each woman approaching it from a different starting point and hoping to get different things out of it. However, over the course of the volume their needs and desires begin to align. But it’s not easy for either of them for a variety of reasons; granted, a relationship that starts out as an affair is bound to be complicated. – Ash Brown

An Incurable Case of Love, Vol. 5 | By Maki Enjoji | Viz Media – Nanase and Dr. Tendo are a couple now, so, inevitably, we must introduce the rivals. This volume gives us the first one, a rich young man with a medical condition who cynically says that people only care about him because of his money. He runs into Nanase, who is, well, herself, and falls head over heels in love with her. I was impressed how the author took this old-standard josei manga trope and simply… had the leads act like adults. There are a few misunderstandings and small fights, but there’s no huge blowup or breakup, mostly as Dr. Tendo is very familiar with who Nanase is. That said, Nanase still has self-image issues, and the cliffhanger implies a stronger rival on the way. Maki Enjoji is always good. – Sean Gaffney

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 17 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – While we’re still dealing with the consequences of Miyuki and Kaguya dating, the series really has gotten very good at the tiny little jokes. Including possibly the DARKEST ‘in between chapters’ gag I’ve ever seen, where Iino talks about how she enjoys pain as it makes her “feel safe.” As for Chika, I think she has realized that the author increasingly doesn’t know what to do with her. She probably does not have a big character-building arc like the other four, so she’s essentially the goofy one that annoys people, something she is catching on to. Though the funniest chapter in this book features Karen invading the main title from her spin-off manga—still sadly not licensed—and almost getting everyone arrested. – Sean Gaffney

Practice Makes Perfect, Vol. 3 | By Ui Hanamiya | Kodansha Comics (digitial only) – This volume has our lead couple finally going all the way, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t problems. For one, the first time HURTS, and even successive attempts are nine parts pain to one part pleasure for Nohara (who, amusingly, is still trying to handle this in a “sports” way, as is Yano). There’s also the fact that Yano thinks that Nohara is going to break if he tries to be anything but super super gentle, which… also is not helping, though it leads to the volume’s best joke. Fortunately, the next volume is the last. Unfortunately, it appears that we’re going to get a “hey, the girl I love spends her days surrounded by hot guys!” chapter. Still, this Rated-R manga is still a lot more fun than I expected. – Sean Gaffney

By: Ash Brown

[fuckyeahisawthat]

Are you gonna do an analysis for aziraphale the way you did for Crowley with his defenses that he built up and how they will be maladaptive after the apocalypse? That was amazingly well done! (I'm just asking because I relate to aziraphale a lot and I want to read it and cry)

Hey anon! Sorry it took me a while to answer this; I wanted to be able to give it some thought. And while I love Aziraphale as a character, I personally don’t wildly overidentify relate to him quite as easily as Crowley, so it took some time to articulate what I wanted to say.

I think Aziraphale’s main mechanisms for surviving the way Heaven treats him are like, denial and compartmentalization. He has a really very impressive ability to sustain cognitive dissonance, and even though it’s mostly played for humor (“Get thee behind me, foul fiend! After you.”) he really goes through some spectacular mental gymnastics to not have to face the reality that the “good” side, his side, is capable of some pretty horrible shit. If something is too troubling, he’s gotten really good at just...not thinking about it.

This includes a lot of self-denial–not actually so much on the level of denying himself things he wants (food, alcohol, books, entertainment, time with Crowley) but denying his own feelings and instincts. If the archangels treat him like shit and he feels like shit, the deficit must be with him, because Heaven only acts with love, right? It’s just his problem that he can’t accept the kind of “love” Heaven has on offer. If God seems cruel or indifferent to human suffering, it’s just that he can’t possibly understand the ineffable plan.

The thing is, we know that from at least the beginning of humanity’s existence, he’s not been entirely comfortable with the things he’s ordered to do and the way Heaven behaves. He extends illicit mercy to Adam and Eve when he knows he’s not supposed to; he’s clearly uncomfortable with the flood and the crucifixion even when he’s reciting the party line, trying to justify what’s going on. He’s constantly stuffing his own emotions and questions and instincts down underneath Heaven’s talking points, because he has to. An angel is obedient above all else. An angel doesn’t question Heaven. Angels have Fallen for that.

I think that’s why we see him vacillate so much–between trying to be a good soldier and doing things on Earth that are really not part of the Heavenly agenda at all; between being delighted to see Crowley–setting up elaborate scenarios to interact with him in fact–and going out of his way to remind him that we’re different, I’m an angel and you’re a demon. 

The thing that I think is interesting about Aziraphale is that there comes a point–at least by 1967; I think the exact timeline is up to interpretation–where he knows he’s in love with Crowley. I mean, the whole subtextual conversation that’s going on in 1967, and all their present-day breakup scenes, don’t work if both characters aren’t at least somewhat self-aware of their feelings for each other. So at a certain point, he can’t deny it to himself anymore. But he still can’t act on it. He’s not ready to disobey Heaven until he’s pushed to the absolute breaking point.

But when he does break, man, he breaks hard. I mean he goes totally fucking rogue. Refusing to fight in the war, demanding to be returned to Earth, actually teleporting himself back to Earth without permission, inventing angelic possession, disappearing army humans, talking back to Gabriel, questioning the Great Plan… That is an eternity of pent-up fuck-yous just spewing forth like a fucking firehose of rebellion.

Personally, I think that once he’s made that massive cognitive break, he wouldn’t have a hard time openly acknowledging and expressing his love for Crowley. I think he’d be all up in it, tbh. Because it’s love and deep down he never really bought the idea that love could be bad, as much as he knew that’s what Heaven wanted him to think.

I think his biggest struggles after the apocalypse would be more…continuing to uncover all the subtle, pernicious ways that Heaven shaped his understanding of the world and his sense of self. Crowley has already spent thousands of years defining himself by neither Heaven nor Hell’s agendas. He’s developed his own moral compass and a self-identity that’s not really tied to either institution. Yes, he’s a demon, but I think he’s self-aware about the fact that he does plenty of undemonic things, and as long as Hell doesn’t catch him at it, he’s fine with it.

Aziraphale still has to go through that process, and I think once he starts unpacking all the ways Heaven fucked him up, he’s going to be…really angry. Like fucking furious, finally allowing himself to feel all the anger and hurt he swallowed back about all the great injustices and small wounds over the years. To the point that he’s probably a bit scared of his own anger, and somewhat ashamed, that he allowed himself to be treated in all these ways that he now realizes were bullying and horrible. I think that’s going to be his big thing to work through.