#applied materials interview questions

[foldingfittedsheets]

When I was working at the sex shop I was pulling poverty wages. I loved my job but I was on food stamps and still barely getting by. When they hired the stores first male employee and he started at my pay rate after I’d been there for three years I quit.

I was initially really nervous when I saw the post for the mattress job. It listed a pay scale that I couldn’t even conceptualize and I appeared qualified. When I got an interview I was over the moon but also petrified. Reactions to my line of work often varied but most people were very embarrassed or skeptical. I worried about how I’d address it in the actual interview.

I lived far to the north of their headquarters and drove almost two hours to get there. When I finally arrived it was in the nicest thrift store clothes I could find, but I shrank inside to see a room full of older white men in nice suits waiting to be interviewed for the same job.

Why did I bother? I was decades younger than anyone else in the room, shabbily dressed, and I suspected I was the only afab person in the entire building. I stewed in my insecurities until I was called in.

The second I met my interviewer I was instantly put at ease. The man had the energy of a therapy dog, he was abound with positive, good natured energy. He was also incredibly beautiful. I grinned back at his welcoming smile as we said our pleasantries. But still. This very beautiful polished man seemed very innocent. How would the sex shop question go?

“I see here you worked at STORE?”

“Yes,” I said hesitantly.

“And that was sales? Or you just rang people up.”

“No, it was sales. I’d help people find products, we were encouraged to upsell, there was sales spiffs, and most importantly we educated customers on products to help them find what they liked best.”

He grinned approvingly and asked, “Can you give me an example of a time you successfully upsold a customer?”

I paused, wringing my hands before I asked, “How vague would you like me to be…?”

“Not at all!” He assured me. “Go for it!”

“Well. A man came in looking for something to make his fingers vibrate so when he was touching his wife it would enhance that sensation. We had cheap $10 cockrings that I showed him first. But we had a rechargeable waterproof one made of nicer material, and after I showed him a demo he bought that one.”

“How much was that one?”

“$110”

“Wow! You had an upsell of 100% from what he came in looking for! That’s incredible!”

He was so truly genuinely stoked and not at all embarrassed that for the first time I saw a tiny glimmer of a future where I didn’t have ramen and peanut butter tiding me over between paychecks.

He asked me to wait then came back to tell me he liked me so much that he wanted to send me right into another interview, if that was okay. He didn’t want me to have to drive back later, it was terribly considerate and exciting. I beamed and told him it would be lovely.

I then had the second worst interview I’ve ever had. The worst goes to the time I applied to be a store manager for a pet food place years later. The district and store manager interviewing me passed notes and texted while I was speaking. When the district manager called to inform me I didn’t get the job I told him I’d never have accepted anyway because I’d never had such a disrespectful interview.

The new man sitting behind the desk radiated an aura of a brick wall. As someone with anxiety I’m highly keyed into the emotional states of people I’m talking to. To receive no feedback at all was my personal hell. After a perfunctory greeting he asked me with no inflection to sell him a pen.

I gathered the shreds of my courage and attempted the Herculean task he’d set me. Through my whole improvised spiel he resisted all attempts at engaging him, regarding me with a cold apathy as I touted the benefits of my fictitious pen.

Halfway through I broke into a cold sweat. My smile didn’t waver but it grew strained as I projected friendliness and warmth into the black hole of his heart. My thoughts scattered and my sales pitch grew redundant in the face of his nothingness. I finally concluded with a hard close and he simply nodded.

He glanced at my resume and commented, “You didn’t ask me to touch or hold it. Though I suppose I can understand from your previous line of work why you wouldn’t.” I shriveled and died inside knowing that I encouraged people to touch dildos all day long and had been too frazzled to offer him the pen.

He bid me a cool farewell. I made it to my car before I started sobbing. I had never been so rattled. I couldn’t understand what I’d done to make him so unfriendly or if my threadbare clothes were what had made him treat me like dirt. I drove an hour and a half to get home, weeping intermittently.

I was therefore taken by complete surprise to receive a call the next day inviting me on board for their five week training program. The first man who’d interviewed me gushed on the phone about how the second guy had loved me and that I was going to be fantastic.

I was in shock. When I showed up to training the second interviewer was charming my new classmates, beaming and laughing. He was an utterly different person. To my dismay I learned he was the trainer for my district and would be my point of contact if I made it through training.

He joked with me later that his interview facade was just a tactic to see how people held up under pressure and I filed him into a category of my deepest enmity. I never forgave him for how small he made me feel that day, but I never showed him the depths of my fury.

I aced every test and went on to be valedictorian of the eight people who had survived the rigorous training process to earn a sales position. When I got my first paycheck I bought myself new clothes, the first non-thrifted things I’d owned in years.

[glowettee]

hi there! im a fan of your page 💕

can you give me the best studying techniques?

hi angel!! @mythicalmarion tysm for asking about study techniques 🤍 i'm so excited to share my secret methods that helped me maintain perfect grades while still having a dreamy lifestyle + time for self-care!! and thank you for being a fan of my blog, it means everything to me. <3

~ ♡ my non-basic study secrets that actually work ♡ ~

(don't mind the number formatting)

the neural bridging technique this is literally my favorite discovery!! instead of traditional note-taking, i create what i call "neural bridges" between different subjects. for example, when studying both literature + history, i connect historical events with the literature written during that time. i use a special notebook divided into sections where each page has two columns - one for each subject. the connections help you understand both subjects deeper + create stronger memory patterns!!

here's how i do it:

example:

left column: historical event

right column: literary connection

middle: draw connecting lines + add small insights

bottom: write how they influenced each other

the shadow expert method this changed everything for me!! i pretend i'm going to be interviewed as an expert on the topic i'm studying. i create potential interview questions + prepare detailed answers. but here's the twist - i record myself answering these questions in three different ways:

basic explanation (like i'm talking to a friend)

detailed analysis (like i'm teaching a class)

complex discussion (like i'm at a conference)

this forces you to understand the topic from multiple angles + helps you explain concepts in different ways!!

the reverse engineering study system instead of starting with the basics, i begin with the most complex example i can find and work backwards to understand the fundamentals. for example, in calculus, i start with a complicated equation + break it down into smaller parts until i reach the basic concepts.

my process looks like:

find the hardest example in the textbook

list every concept needed to understand it

create a concept map working backwards

study each component separately

rebuild the complex example step by step

the sensory anchoring technique this is seriously game-changing!! i associate different types of information with specific sensory experiences:

theoretical concepts - study while standing

factual information - sitting at my desk

problem-solving - walking slowly

memorization - gentle swaying

review - lying down

your body literally creates muscle memory associated with different types of learning!!

the metacognition mapping strategy i created this method where i track my understanding using what i call "clarity scores":

level 1: can recognize it

level 2: can explain it simply

level 3: can teach it

level 4: can apply it to new situations

level 5: can connect it to other topics

i keep a spreadsheet tracking my clarity levels for each topic + focus my study time on moving everything to level 5!!

the information architecture method instead of linear notes, i create what i call "knowledge buildings":

foundation: basic principles

first floor: key concepts

second floor: applications

top floor: advanced ideas

roof: real-world connections

each "floor" must be solid before moving up + i review from top to bottom weekly!!

the cognitive stamina training this is my absolute secret weapon!! i use a special interval system based on brain wave patterns:

32 minutes of focused study

8 minutes of active recall

16 minutes of teaching the material to my plushies

4 minutes of complete rest

the specific timing helps maintain peak mental performance + prevents study fatigue!!

the synthesis spiral evolution this method literally transformed how i retain information:

create main concept spirals

add branch spirals for subtopics

connect related concepts with colored lines

review by tracing the spiral paths

add new connections each study session

your notes evolve into a beautiful web of knowledge that grows with your understanding!!

these methods might seem different from typical study advice, but they're based on how our brains actually process + store information!! i developed these through lots of research + personal experimentation, and they've helped me maintain perfect grades while still having time for self-care, hobbies + fun!!

sending you the biggest hug + all my good study vibes!! remember that effective studying is about working with your brain, not against it <3

p.s. if you try any of these methods, please let me know how they work for you!! i love hearing about your study journeys!!

xoxo, mindy 🤍

glowettee hotline is still open, drop your dilemmas before the next advice post 💌: https://bit.ly/glowetteehotline

[dailyrothko]

So here's the deal:

I just want to be transparent with my tumblr Rothko lovers. I applied and got fiscal sponsorship as a non-profit through Fractured Atlas.

Sadly, "Fiscal Sponsorship" is not what it sounds like, I pay them, they don't pay me. What it allows me to do is take donations and make them tax deductible and secure. I hope it's worth it.

I don't expect my poor pals on tumblr to donate, I don't think most of us have any money or we probably wouldn't be here, however, I am letting you know this because there's now a donate button on the blog.

I'm very poor and needed to do this to realize certain projects Rothko related projects. This is just a voluntary thing, i'm not going behind a paywall. Nothing is changing.

I mention this because their tacky donate button makes it look like I made a deal with the devil, but in actuality it's just for everyone's security.

I hate doing this at all but I am spread very thin. I spend a lot of time and money on this project and that's fine when i can do it, it's a labor of love. But some of it is just becoming impossible for me to maintain and so it goes.

Future projects include-

-I am writing a series of (three) articles I would like to publish about Rothko's impact in the modern world. Scholarly material on Rothko from art historians is good and I don't wish to retread old ground. However, there are some sides of the Rothko legacy I would like to cover based on my experiences, including interviews I have done with people on how they have come to the work (some of you guys), coverage of fakes and misattributions, and biographical impressions based on numerous interviews I have read with his family and friends.

-A bigger and ongoing project would be to create a website and central database that art enthusiasts can use to locate travelling Rothko exhibits and find which paintings are in which museums. Many people ask me these questions personally but if there was a place where all this information lived and someone to update it, people could look up available Rothko works in different cities they are travelling to.

We are living in a troubled world with many humanitarian concerns that should rightly take precedence over my little project, but I am trying to survive myself and lately it's pretty hard.

Thanks to all for 9 years of Rothko love.

(I realized no one can donate on the mobile app, so if you wish to, use this link below.)

[khaire-traveler]

I'm curious because someone recently made the comment that it's only fair for Lord Charon to expect money in return for his services, but this system would actually raise a lot of questions. If you're curious, some questions I thought of are featured below.

(For the record, I still believe Charon deserves recognition for what he does; it's just the coin system doesn't actually make sense when you start examining it closely.)

Please reblog! 🧡 I want to hear everyone's opinions on this.

Not every Underworld god is paid for their labors. Some aren't even given offerings anymore, their names tragically lost to time. So, why is Lord Charon specifically mentioned to require coins for his ferry? Why not Lord Haides, for entry to his domain? Or Lord Thanatos for deliverance of one's soul? Or Lord Hermes for transportation from the mortal realm to that of the dead? Why not Cerberus for letting you through The Gates (he is a sentient being, btw, for those who seem to think he's just a random three-headed dog)?

Does The Underworld have an economy? Why does it need an economy based on coins from the material plane/Earth? How does it even determine currency value?I mean, just imagine how many different people from different countries would have gone to The Underworld and paid with coins over thousands upon thousands of years.

Does payment have to be coins, or is there maybe some other form payment you can provide? Does the value of the item have to be monetary, or can it be something that meant a lot to you in life? More of a metaphorical release of the material plane, in a sense, as you trade off something that ties you to Earth and are officially transported to "The Other Side".

How do you get physical coins onto a spiritual plane?

Why would Charon need coins from the surface world? Does he maybe just have a sick coin collection from over thousands of years of human history?

What about our ancestors who were alive before the invention of monetary coins; were they just expected to stand at the shore for 100 years for not having something that didn't exist yet?

Speaking of the last question, where do animals go? How do they get across the river Styx?

Why would the afterlife require money in order for you to enter it properly? That seems kind of fucked up and more like something a bunch of old men wrote down to declare the wealthy more important than the poor, no?

If this is really just a job for Lord Charon (who is a son of Nyx, mind you), that implies that maybe Lord Haides (or whomever oversees that) could hire others to help him. Is there more than one ferryman on the river Styx? What is their average hourly pay? How can I apply, and does anyone have any interview tips? Seems to me that it'd be based on commission.

Do you think the spirits on the riverbank get bored of waiting? What do you think they do for 100 years to pass all that time? 🤔

[legal-poppy]

monday 2.24.2025. class today was easy, felt like i actually understood the materials and how to apply them. since the only mandatory reading i had left for this week was legal pro, i got to spend most of my time outlining today! i got through about half of the current crim pro unit and the first unit of sales. if i have time tomorrow after my practice midterm i want to read for employment law but we barely go over the reading assignment in class so it's kinda pointless honestly.

total study time- 8 hours 45 minutes

3 hours in class

30 minutes reading legal pro

2 hours 45 minutes outlining crim pro

2 hours 15 minutes outlining sales

15 minutes in career services asking questions about a weird interview i had last week

[usanyan]

10th floor, ceo!sungchan x reader

! blowjob, sir kink?

you arrange your shirt nervously, your leg bouncing on the wooden floor. you really need that job. you already went through two interviews, but the company you applied is quite luxurious, and after meeting managers and the head of the human ressources, you were urged to meet the ceo. you heard he was the one actually making decisions for the workers, and he's the last wall between you and that very important job.

even though you know the famous company by name, you never heard of jung sungchan. the young owner inherited everything from his father after his passing, making a huge difference in the harsh business environment due to his age. the company never flourished this well since sungchan's new ceo position. all you could recall from the words of the managers is that he's great at making people fall for him and his traps to make his wealth grow bigger.

your appointment with sungchan is planned in less than 10 minutes. you're early, and now the time seems like it's ticking slowly enough for you to die at least twice on the chair. the corridor that's connected to sungchan's office is quiet and you could only hear your -almost- steady breathing and the faint voice of a man on the other side of the door.

your eyes travel the papers in your hands, the review letters from your past interviews, you read the positive sentences over and over again. you believe in yourself for this job. you almost jump from the chair when you hear the doorknob then the door open. your eyes meet jung sungchan's, and you immediately get what the workers you met meant when they told you the ceo makes all the heads spin.

he's much taller than you expected, an annoyingly pretty face with serious yet soft eyes, a faint smile making him look even sweeter. sungchan steps out of his office and stands in front of you. you immediately get up from the chair.

"i think we have a little interview together, right?"

"yes... sir... i'm here for the job."

"i heard about you, the managers gave me great feedbacks. you're quite a pretty thing."

the words get stuck in your throat, your eyes flutter and sungchan chuckles at your reaction. he opens the door and invites you inside, closing it safely behind you. you stand up awkwardly in the office as sungchan sits down on his luxurious chair and sighs. he shifts himself on the soft material of the chair, and point the seat in front of his desk with his head.

"sit down."

sungchan doesn't need to ask you twice. you sit down and put in front of him the review letters from the different staffs. the silence feels awkward to you, your eyes travel around the room everywhere but in front of you to avoid the ceo's gaze. sungchan is focused on you, massaging his large hands. finally the silence is broken by his voice, and you dare to look at him again. sungchan had opened his tight shirt a little and loosened his tie, and is now looking right at you with a much more serious stare.

"tell me pretty, how much do you need that job?"

you take a moment to think about what to answer. the switch of behavior of the tall man makes you grow more nervous and your face feels hot. you should tell him the truth but won't you sound too desperate?

"answer me when i ask a question."

"i really.... really need that job sir... i have been wanting to work there for so long, i really want it."

"much better when you reply like that. come stand here, pretty."

you take a deep breath and stand up. sungchan's gaze is almost burning you, you can feel it from the tip of your fingers to your chest and face, down your thighs... the ceo sits back in his chair, his legs comfortably parted.

"i think we can help each other out, hm? your pretty face helps me with my problem and i'm sure i can find a nice place for you in the company."

"...excuse me..?"

"don't do that pretty... show some interest in what your boss is asking you..."

sungchan's tone drips like honey into your ears. one of his hand rubs his thigh slowly while he rests his chin on the other one with his gaze so heavy on you. each step you take closer to him make the bulge straining his pants grow larger. sungchan scoffs at your slow moves, his hand rubbing himself over his clothes.

"you know... being such an important person is so much stress... i'm sure you can help out, right? you must do everything i say if you want to work for me, hm."

you slowly drop on your knees in front of him, your hands on his thighs and your face so close to the throbbing bulge. sungchan's smirk grow wider, his hands unbuckling his belt but not opening his pants. he trails his finger down your jaw and hold your chin with the tip of it.

"tell me pretty... want to help the boss out?"

"...yes."

sungchan's smile drops and his voice gets lower.

"yes who?"

"yes sir."

"good."

you nervously let your hands travel sungchan's thighs, earning a low sigh from him. you unbutton his pants, opening it enough to show his strained underwear, the hot bulge twitching under your fingers. you press your palm between sungchan's legs and he groans at your touch, one of his hand finding its place in your hair.

you lick your lips and finally tug on sungchan's underwear slowly, you free his hard cock that stands proudly in front of your face. you caress the veiny length experimentally, and sungchan put his hand around yours to make you hold his dick, making you pump him a little.

he holds the base of his cock with both yours and his hand, he pushes the leaking and red tip on your lips eagerly. you give a lick on the slit as more precum drips on your tongue, and sungchan finally lets go of your hand. he rests himself on his chair, fingers tangled into your hair. when you finally take him into your mouth, a low moan escapes from his throat.

"j-just like that pretty..."

encouraged by his words, you take him deeper, your tongue swirling around his length and tracing the veins. sungchan gets more noisy, breathy groans coming out of his parted lips. his closed eyes open to look at you when you bob your head and take your time on the head of his cock. more praises fall from his tongue and his fingers tug on your hair to bring you closer.

you cough around his dick. you take him away from your mouth and jerk him off, putting all your attention on his throbbing tip that seems ready to explode any minute. you push your thumb on the slit and coat the head of his cock with the sticky fluid. more impatient to find his place back into your hot mouth, sungchan push on your head until his cock hits your face. you open your lips and let him inside, his tip hitting far into your throat as sungchan tug on your hair a little more harshly.

"fuck... keep going..."

the ceo's hips buck into your mouth pushing him deeper inside. you almost gag around him and hold the base of his dick in your hand, rubbing it quickly while you drag your tongue up and down. the way sungchan's groans grow louder and heavier make you speed up, you look up to meet his half opened eyes. his chest heaves to a fast yet steady rhythm, his unbuttoned shirt showing his glistening chest.

you suck on his tip and you feel sungchan's grip on your hair tighten, his two hands holding your head in place while he pushes his hips into you face. you can feel drool dripping from your chin mixed with his cum that erupts into your throat. you move your head slowly to make sure you don't miss a single drop of his bitter fluid before letting go of his now softening dick.

you lick your lips and you feel sungchan's thumb rub on your chin gently, wiping away the spit that coats your skin. sungchan grabs your cheeks and drag you up until you're close of his face. he meets your lips in a sweet kiss, mixed with the taste of his cum. the ceo releases you from his grip and puts back his clothes, buttoning his pants and tucking his shirt back inside.

"so good to me... you did so well pretty."

you sit back on the other side of the desk and sungchan takes the papers that you dropped in front of him. he quickly go through the praises and good reviews from his workers with a smile, looking at you from behind the letters.

"i guess i have a new coworker. you did such a good job. but i expect much more from you starting from today, understood?"

"yes sir."

sungchan work that gets released before eunseok work sorry.... got inspired by the riize court and someone's request, please enjoy :3 eunseok is next, then wonbin!

[beevean]

So there was a pretty cringe interview with the author of delicious in dungeon, and out of the deluge of really insensitive questions she provided this incredible quote which I think should sit framed above the writing desk of every single creative individual in the industry

Link here for anyone interested:

I'll be honest, I only read snippets of that interview, but I was honestly disgusted at the fandom's reaction to her saying "Laios is just a normal guy" - basically to insist that if she thinks he is normal and relates to him, then she too is autistic and doesn't know it.

Bro. You don't have the authority to apply headcanons on real people, especially people you only know from interviews and their work. You are being incredibly rude. Laios is certainly quirky, to say the least, and you are allowed to snicker a little at her insistence that he's just an everyman fr fr, but don't get so entrenched in your fanon that you cross boundaries into basically saying "haha we know better than the writer herself :) in fact we know more about herself than she knows :)"

I guess this relates with the quote you put. Kui, like other mangakas, leave to their readers freedom of interpretation, but they have their own plans and ideas and they're sticking to them. Kui probably didn't mean to write an autistic character, but she's leaving to the fandom the choice to see him as such and relate to him that way - which is what she said she intended them to do!

And about Farcille, ngl, had she canonized it purely because it's the flagship of the fandom, she might have risked a Bumbleby/Whispangle situation, where the two become unseparable from each other. It's good that Marcille and Falin are allowed to be their own different people, but with a strong relationship - actually more flawed than usually conceived, although seen mostly in side material (Marcille's adherence to gender norms that Falin doesn't care about). So yeah, hers is a good approach.

[pearl-star]

The Masquerade

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62925781

Summary: In an alternate timeline where Marinette and Adrien aren't miraculous holders, they find themselves getting akumatized after Lila dumps punch onto Marinette. When it's clear that this timeline's Ladybug and Chat Noir can't defeat this akuma, Bunnyx travels to the show timeline to pull Ladybug and Chat Noir in to fight their alternate selves' akumatized forms. Along the way they find out some harsh truths, and take some lessons back with them to their own timeline.

Aka. I wanted to do a Ladybug and Chat Noir vs. their akumatized selves story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the past two months, all anyone could talk about was the Masquerade Ball. Francoise Dupont always had a school dance, and this years would mark to be their biggest one yet. All the class reps had to help the student council, so Marinette was busy. She began to appreciate the excuse though as her classmates continued to question why she didn’t hang out with Lila.

Her and Adrien were the only two who knew for sure that she was a liar. Ladybug had called her out once she discovered the interview on Alya’s blog, but Lila was able to turn it around as the heroine trying to protect her. Everyone fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. Even after Marinette tried pointing out the inconsistencies in the girl’s stories, everyone refused to believe that Lila could be lying. Lila, for her part, went as far as getting the other girl expelled before reversing it for the chance to model with Adrien.

The blond had told Marinette to just lay low and not bug Lila. Marinette did her part of the deal, but even so the class would try and guilt trip her. Lila didn’t seem satisfied that someone knew the truth about her. She couldn’t leave it alone, didn’t want Marinette to simply leave her alone. She wanted Marinette to cater to her.

The latest stunt had been trying to get Marinette to design a dress for her for the ball. Even if she really wanted to, she had all the extra work from helping with the planning for the dance. When Alya got on her case, Marinette helpfully recalled how Lila mentioned knowing a famous dress maker who’s been designing for years and how her designs are to die for. Surely since Lila was such good friends with them, they could design her dress. That had gotten everyone to back off.

Adrien himself had approached Marinette a month before the dance, commissioning her for a tie and a matching mask. He provided all the materials and paid her in both cash and excess fabric that his father had leftover from a previous collection. Really, she would have done it for free. Even though her crush on him had mellowed out a lot, it was still there. But for now, she just considered him a good friend.

Marinette happily designed his tie and mask, glad that he was keeping it on the down low as to not wake Lila’s wrath. She was able to sneakily give it to him without anyone knowing, before finishing her own dress.

It was a beautiful light pink, floor length dress. Hot pink flower embroidery went all the way from the bottom of the dress upwards to her left shoulder. She had even designed a custom mask: a matching pink with a half flower on the outer side of her eyes. It was the longest project she ever made. Marinette had designed and begun making it back when the theme was discussed with the student council, and only was able to finish it a week before the dance.

Styling her hair back with silver clips, she spun in her mirror. The hours of cutting and sewing and hand embroidery were worth it. Besides it being her favorite thing ever made, it would be a great design that she could use in her fashion portfolio when applying to schools in the future. She had gotten some photos of it earlier in the week, and hoped to get plenty more with her friends at the dance.

With one last look in the mirror, Marinette nodded to herself and left for the school. Tonight was going to be fun.

Walking into the school, she smiled. It was a lot of work to help the student council get things set up, but Marinette was happy with the results. Paper lanterns with various designs were hung up on the ceiling. (Plastic) crystals were scattered on the ceiling as well. Tables were set up on the second level, allowing for people to eat and drink in the main courtyard area but allowing the lower level to have more space for dancing. Lights sparkled and shinned, and the hours spent before the dance string those and the paper streamers around the space was worth it for the look it made.

Looking around, she noticed most of her friends had already arrived and were standing off by the one wall. She waved to them, making her way over. Juleka and Rose had decided to match, each wearing complementary shades of purple. Even though they both showed off their usual styles — Juleka had black lace accents and Rose had pink — you could tell they were matching. As Marinette laughed with them about a joke, Mylene perked up.

“Look, Adrien’s here.”

Once everyone’s eyes were on him, that’s when she felt it. Marinette didn’t even know how to react. Her mouth was open, blinking as some liquid dripped from her head underneath her mask. Slowly looking up, she saw Lila Rossi holding a plastic cup from the second story.

“Oh no. Marinette I’m so sorry it slipped from my hands and-”

The blunette couldn’t listen to Lila’s lies. Her focus was now on her stained dress. Hours of work- No, days of work. All of it wasted. Marinette felt tears pricking at her eyes but held them back. She couldn’t cry, not when the entire school was looking at her. She needed to get out of here. But slowly the crowd seemed to form a closed circle towards her, blocking the doors to outside. The only way to move was up the steps to the locker room.

As she quickly climbed the steps and went to the left, a hand grabbed her arm.

“Marinette?”

Said girl turned to look at Alya.

“Can we please go to the bathroom?”

“We can go after you accept Lila’s apology.”

Wait… what?

Marinette merely blinked at the girl.

“Lila said sorry, and she feels bad for what she did. You need to accept her apology.”

“But-” But she meant to do it.

“Are you seriously going to hold a grudge over a dress? Come on girl, knowing how clumsy you are, you probably would have tripped and spilled punch over yourself anyways.”

Marinette didn’t know how to respond. Who was this person? There had to be some akuma. That was the only reason why Alya would not be comforting her and claiming something like this. Frustrated, sad, and angry, Marinette pulled out of Alya’s grasp.

“I don’t need to accept someone’s apology when they aren’t even sorry.”

Before Alya could object, Marinette stormed off to the bathroom.

She couldn’t believe it. How far were Lila’s claws that she could get Alya to believe that that was an accident. As she stumbled into the bathroom, she assessed the damage. Her makeup was running, both from the punch that slipped under her mask and the tears that she allowed to fall once she was out of sight. The front of her dress was the most stained, with a giant red blotch covering her top down to the middle of her skirt. Her hair was also soaked in the sticky, sugary drink.

She set her mask down on the sink before acting. Grabbing some paper towels, she soaked them in water before working to remove the punch on her dress. Or at least, she tried to. As she worked, it became clear that the red dye would not be able to be fully removed. She didn’t understand it. She had gotten some punch on her at the last dance, and that came out easily. Did Lila do something to her drink?

Giving up, Marinette just decided to work on ridding her hair of the sticky mess before sneaking out to go back home. There was no reason to stay, and she certainly didn’t want to return just to hear Alya try and lecture her. The bluenette wasn’t so distracted that she didn’t hear the door opening behind her.

“Look Alya, I am not-” She began, turning around before stopping. Instead of Alya or even Lila, it was Adrien who had walked in. “I-” Marinette backed up, only to hit the sink. She didn’t want him seeing her like this. He was never supposed to see her like this, at her lowest.

“Marinette.” The way he said her name. It was a mixture of sadness and a bit of something else she couldn’t identify.

He approached her, looking over the stains on her dress, her dripping hair, and messy face. His own face morphed, like he could feel her pain.

“Please, don’t look.” She closed her own eyes, clenching her hands and willing for him to leave.

“Marinette, I-I’m so sorry. I’ll help you get your dress dry cleaned and-”

“It’s not just about the dress.” She shouted, before opening her eyes and covering her mouth. He had seemed surprised at her outburst, but nodded for her to continue. “I am upset about it. I spent days working on it. But Alya- She didn’t even care. She told me I had to accept Lila’s apology. That was the first thing she said to me.”

Alya hadn’t even tried to see how Marinette felt before going into her “how dare you don’t worship Lila” spiel of the day. That had hurt the most.

“She acts like she cares, she acts like she’s the best of my friends that I’ve ever had, but never shows it. Even if Lila had done it on accident, accepting her apology would be the last of my concerns. Alya has just… stopped caring about my opinion. About my needs and… I’m sick of it.”

It was becoming exhausting, trying to balance her life with Alya’s demands. She had enough on her plate with school work and class rep work, she didn’t need to cater to Alya or Lila’s demands as well.

“This dance was supposed to be my one night to finally relax. I helped put so much work into all of it, and for what? A ruined dress and a night that would go down to be my worse.”

The tears were flowing again, and Adrien had slowly stepped to be right in front of her.

“I’m sorry, Marinette. I had no idea you felt this way.” He looked down, and that’s when Marinette noticed the pink rose in his hand. “I knew that Lila was lying, but told you to do nothing. I thought that she would leave you alone if you left her alone. I’m so naive.” He held out the rose, voice raising like a promise. A vow he was putting into the universe. “I’m not leaving you alone anymore. It’s you and me. You and me against the world.”

Marinette wiped her tears and grabbed onto the rose, right above where his hand still was. Even with his promise, she didn’t feel too much better. Her emotions were still high: of betrayal from her best friend, anger for Lila and everyone who believed the girl over her. Adrien wasn’t doing much better, with his own anger, sadness, and desire to help protect one of his first friends. It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, when, a black butterfly landed on the rose and it turned black.

“Princess Justice, Karma Knight, I give you the power to judge people and punish them as you set fit. All I ask for in return is Ladybug’s and Chat Noir’s miraculous. Do we have a deal?”

No. That’s what they would say. But they were pushed too far. Their emotions were wrapped up in Hawkmoth’s magic, and their judgment was clouded. They both nodded, bowing their heads as the magic overtook both of them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They couldn’t do it. Bunnyx watched in growing dismay as Ladybug and Chat Noir failed to defeat Princess Justice and Karma Knight. She looked over her burrows carefully, trying to figure out which timeline would allow them to win against this akuma. It was only in one of them, when Ladybug had desperately called for her lucky charm for it to be twin beaded charms, that Bunnyx knew who needed to be called in.

She hated having to disturb other timelines, but it seemed like this was a necessary case. Jumping into one burrow, she stopped the heroes before they could make it to the school.

“Bunnyx? What are you doing here?”

“You can’t defeat this akuma.”

The pair stayed silent, thinking that it was a strange joke from the hero. However, after a few seconds it was clear Bunnyx was serious.

“What do you mean? Do we need to pull another hero?”

“You could say that.” Bunnyx sighed, twisting her umbrella in her hand. “Although, it’s a bit more complicated than I wish it would be.”

Ladybug seemed to catch what she was saying. Bunnyx had insight to many different timelines, and was trusted to not give away more information than was needed. However, she did let some things slip. She said that she was a constant, a hero in almost every single timeline. However, other holders were often switched around. Including her and Chat. One such alternate timeline including completely different holders.

“You’re pulling a different Ladybug and Chat Noir?”

Chat immediately straightened. He knew about the alternate timelines too, after all.

“Hold on. Aren’t the other holders just kids? How are they going to defeat this akuma?”

“It was in the lucky charm. They’ll be able to beat them. Of course, to not make things so complicated it would be best to have them fight alone.”

Both heroes wanted to protest. They had both felt off when discovering that mere children were given the miraculous in another timeline. If it wouldn’t have ruined the timelines, they would have gone to help them. But to leave them to fight in their timeline? And by themselves?

“Trust me. They’ll be able to figure out how to defeat this akuma. Just stay at home and think of some excuse for the media.”

Knowing protesting further would be pointless, the two turned and headed home. Bunnyx took a deep breath and opened her burrow again, stepping into the needed timeline.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The last time Bunnyx had stopped by, it wasn’t a good thing. Marinette still remembered fighting Chat Blanc in a destroyed world, water flooding everything and seeing herself crumb into dust. So when Bunnyx jumped out of a portal during her and Chat’s patrol, she only felt dread.

“Mini bug, kitten, I need you two to come with me.”

Chat seemed curious, and immediately started walking towards the portal. Marinette was a bit more hesitant.

“What’s going on?” She asked, as Bunnyx pulled her inside.

“Well, you see there’s a lot of different timelines. A lot of variations that can change with a split second decision change.” She noticed Chat’s eyes wandering and snapped her fingers, pulling his attention to her. “There’s a timeline where you two aren’t holders.”

“Wait, so who are they?”

“I can’t give names, but they’re adults. Unfortunately they were unable to defeat an akuma. The lucky charm showed that you two were needed.”

Now Chat was excited.

“So we’re fighting with different holders?”

“Sadly not. If Hawkmoth sees two Ladybugs and two Chat Noirs, it could complicate things. A lot. The less he knows about the ability to pull in other versions of holders, the better. Besides, it’s not a smart idea to have multiples of the same miraculous active.”

Bunnyx led them over to the burrow they would be going into.

“Remember, do not answer any questions. This versions Ladybug and Chat Noir will deal with the media later. Defeat the akuma and meet me in the alley way by Tom and Sabine’s bakery. It’d be best to get you in and out without anyone seeing me. Any questions?”

Both heroes shook their heads. Bunnyx stepped out of the way, letting them walk through.

Once they got out the other side, it took a second for them to realize they were in the alley outside of the bakery. As the burrow closed, Ladybug thought of something important.

“Where is the akuma anyways?”

“Probably over there where the castle is.”

Sure enough, she turned to where Chat was pointing to see a castle that was most definitely not there before.

“That looks like where Francoise Dupont is.”

The two headed up to the rooftops to get a better look. As they approached, it was confirmed that the castle was where the school used to be. Instead of the normal tan bricks, dark gray stones laid as an outer wall, hiding and protecting the main castle. There was even a moat, with a wooden bridge that was pulled up. Give how the rest of the city seemed to be untouched, the akuma had to be inside.

“Let’s try to find a way in. Maybe from the back.”

Keeping the element of surprise would be best. Besides, they didn’t know what they were up against.

“How about there. Through that window.”

Ladybug looked to where Chat was pointing. At the right corner of the castle was a tower. One which, upon closer inspection, had a hole where a window would be. With a nod, the two shot up, going quickly to try and avoid being spotted.

Once they landed inside, Ladybug felt on edge. It seemed already destroyed. There was a bed in the far corner with beige, ripped sheets. Over by the window was a vanity with a broken mirror. The rest of the furniture — a dresser, small table with two chairs, and a love seat — were all ripped or ruin in some way.

“What happened? Everything’s ruined.”

“Everything expect that.”

Sure enough, in the one corner was a full length mirror, untouched from any damage or dust. As Chat made to go towards it, Ladybug grabbed his tail to pull him back.

“Don’t. We have no idea what that can be.” She glanced around, happy to see the door opened. “Let’s go find the akuma.”

Walking out the door, it dawned on them what that room was for. The door, while from the inside of the room looked like a regular wooden door, had thick, metal bars from the outside. It was a prison. For someone or something was still to be determined.

Chat seemed to be more on edge once he realized that, because it was him who pulled Ladybug away from the room. There was a short hallway before they made their way down a spiraling staircase. Down, down, down, mostly in darkness save for a few torches spread sparely throughout. It was once they made it down to another hallway, that things were lit up more.

Before either could comment, a commotion was heard from the distance.

“That has to be the akuma.” Ladybug whispered, turning to Chat. He nodded, readily his baton, knowing what she wanted.

Creeping down the hall, they were able to see that they weren’t exactly at the bottom floor. Rather, they were in a looping second floor balcony of sorts, overlooking the floor below. Both ducked, seeing the akuma on the opposite side of the balcony. Or rather, the akumas.

Two figures stood proudly across the way. At the very top of a set of steps was a girl in a deep red dress holding a black rose. A tiara sat on her head, with her dark locks flowing freely behind her. Presumably a boy stood next to her. Someone with a dark silver knights amour on, a lance at their side. On their chest was some emblem. With a careful eye, you could tell it was a black rose with red dripping down. It didn’t take a genius to guess what that was supposed to represent.

The akumas weren’t the only two standing there, however. In between them, kneeling with chains wrapped around her wrists, was none other than Lila Rossi. Her dark orange dress was ripped, and her hair was a mess. Probably ruined in her struggle to get away from the akumas.

“My subjects,” the girl announced, her voice sounding familiar. “For far too long have we allowed a liar to infiltrate our ranks. She has spread promise of wealth and connections to help our kingdom prosper. But all the words she’s said, the promises of gold and diamonds are nothing more than dirt and fools gold at best. But no longer shall I stand by, trying to let you all see the truth for yourself.”

The akuma looked over the floor below, and that’s when the heroes realized they had an audience for this fight. It was all the students, each one in some fancy attire fit for a dance. A masquerade most likely, given the masks. They were turned away from them, and as such the two couldn’t see their faces, but it was clear most students were scared. All expect one girl, who was holding a cell phone.

“Are you kidding me, Marinette?” Alya said, causing both heroes to stiffen. “You got akumatized because you didn’t want to accept Lila’s apology?”

The knight at her side made to move, clearly mad about the blogger’s comment. However they stopped when the akuma put her hand up.

“No Alya, I did not get akumatized because I was petty. Or a bully. Or whatever other lies Lila decided to feed you while I cried in the bathroom. I became Princess Justice because I could not stand being at this school another second while I was hurting because I tried helping all of you see the truth. If you are so insistent on still trusting a liar when Ladybug herself called her out on her lies, then I’m afraid we may have to check your karma too.”

With a nod, the knight pulled out his lance, pointing it at Alya. Chains formed, pulling her down to the ground. Her phone fell out of her hands, breaking once it hit the stone floor.

“That’s a pity.” The knight spoke, and the feeling of familiarity struck again. “Now the liar’s trial won’t be caught on film.”

“Oh my dear Karma Knight,” Princess Justice said with a laugh. “That doesn’t matter. News will spread fast, with or without live video. The most important thing is ending the problem, right here right now.”

They needed to strike now. Go in and catch the akumas off guard, before they could hurt anyone else. But they were frozen. For similar reasons.

Ladybug couldn’t believe it. She had gotten akumatized. All because of Lila. She might have avoided becoming Princess Justice before, but did this mean that it was only a matter of time before she succumb to an akuma?

Chat felt like his stomach was full of rocks. He knew that Lila was a liar, but she was just supposed to be some liar who was trying to fit in. If she was lying to people in this timeline about Marinette being a bully, was she doing the same thing in their timeline and he just didn’t know it? The thought of Marinette having to deal with that was awful. The thought of Marinette becoming akumatized, and seeing her as an akuma, made him feel a thousand times worse. It didn’t help that he recognize the knight standing besides her.

“Now, with any subject in our kingdom, it is only fair to give each of them a trial. Even though we know your lies, it would only be justice to allow all of our subjects to see for themselves that you deserve to be punished. Karma Knight, if you would.”

He stepped behind Lila, who’s struggles had only increased.

“Marinette, I can’t believe you would pretend that I was a liar just because you are jeal-”

The Italian’s panicked rant was stopped, and silence fell over the room. The lance that Karma Knight was holding was now stabbed through Lila’s chest, poking out from the front. He held it there for a moment, before pulling it out.

Luckily there was no blood or wound. Somehow the weapon was able to pass through without actually piercing her. But that was the extent of Lila’s luck. It only took a second for her to scream. Scream and cry out in pain, pleading and begging for relief.

The truth of her lies poured out of her. About her trying to take control over the school. How she lied about anything and anyone to get the upper edge. How she decided that since Marinette knew the truth, she would get everyone to turn against her. How not even Adrien’s attempt at threatening her to get Marinette back into school could stop her. She would get him to date her, even if she had to forced him to be her boyfriend. How she hoped, even though she wouldn’t go through it on her own, that Marinette would feel so heartbroken that she would turn to other means to escape.

Next to Ladybug, Chat Noir threw up in his mouth.

“Kitty?” She whispered, not being able to offer up much comfort. Once she was back in her timeline, she needed to expose Lila once and for all. In case her Lila was just as insane as this one.

Lila’s confession slowed down, all the way to the minor things she did today, including ruining Marinette’s dress on purpose. The students below didn’t know how to react to any of it. Princess Justice watched carefully, eyes scanning them.

“Now that Lila has confessed, it’s time to decide the final punishment. With the pain you have caused both the subjects in this kingdom and in past kingdoms, it’s only fair for the forces of karma to decide your fate.”

“Chat Noir, we need to move. Now.”

As much as she didn’t want to help Lila, they needed to go. Otherwise who knows what would happened. Chat seemed to be stable enough to nod. The two inched their way around. There were two akumas, but sticking together would be best. They still didn’t know what powers Princess Justice had yet.

Karma Knight stepped forward again, this thing choosing to stand in front of Lila to deal her punishment. Right as he pulled back his lance to do it, Ladybug flung her yo-yo right at the lance. She didn’t manage to pull it out of his hands, but it was enough of a commotion to get their attention.

Karma Knight immediately went on guard, lance positioned to fight. Princess Justice, however, turned to face them with little worry on her face.

“My, I was wondering when the heroes would come. But I didn’t expect them to be like… this. What happened to you? Last time I remembered you two to be older.”

“That doesn’t matter. You need to stop this.”

“Oh, no I will not. Lila has finally confessed and will get her dues soon. Anyone who wants to speak up in her defense can, but their truth will need to be examined too.”

With that Princess Justice held out her rose, and a dark light shot from it. Before Ladybug could blink, Chat jumped in front of her. She grabbed her partner, pulling him down to the first level. Luckily the students were smart enough to move to the sides of the room.

“I’ll hear your truth, and then we’ll decide your karma. My knight, if you would.”

Upon her command, the Karma Knight charged down the stairs, taking a swing at Chat. The two heroes separated, dodging and trying to get in hits when they could. Princess Justice didn’t try to sweep in to help fight, instead watching from above.

“Are you telling me you want to save Lila? That you don’t think she should be punished?”

Chat managed to dodge another attack and try and throw out his own.

“After hearing what she said? No, I don’t really want to save her. But I can’t let her die.”

Princess Justice tensed, hands curling into fists. The thorns from the rose causing small droplets of blood to form. Karma Knight did a counter attack, this time harder.

“You’re a coward. Trying to save a monster instead of a damsel in distress.”

Ladybug manage to loop her yo-yo around the lance, holding it for long enough that Chat was able to dodge.

“It’s not about saving Lila. It’s about saving Marinette. I refuse to let Marinette be told that she hurt Lila. That, as an akuma, she had her killed. I won’t let Lila try to hold that over her head, even if she did worse as an akuma herself.”

Karma Knight seem to hesitate on attacking Chat. Princess Justice must have sensed this, because she turned her rose onto Ladybug.

“What about you?”

“I need to save you.” Ladybug said, the truth being pulled from her. “I can’t let you be controlled by Hawkmoth. You deserve better.” She was just able to hold herself back from saying ‘I deserve better.’ “Please, let me help you.”

It seemed to work. Karma Knight had stopped trying to attack them, and Princess Justice was quite. Everything seemed like it would go smoothly from there. Even Lila speaking up didn’t seem to bug the akumas.

“I’m the victim here.” She manage to spit out, still in pain. Princess Justice spared her a glance before turning her attention on the two heroes.

“I’m glad to see you both willing to help us. However you can help us more once karma is done to you.” Both heroes turned their eyes onto Karma Knight, who readied his lance. “Do not worry. Karma is a two sided coin. Yes, there is bad karma but there is also good karma. Once you join us, you can help save me as you then wish to.”

“So the ‘then what we wish to’ means that we just want to follow your orders, doesn’t it?” Chat said, getting a nod. “And here I thought that honestly would be able to save an akuma. But no, we still have to use force.”

Seeing as the fight was only going to get tougher, Ladybug decided to risk it.

“Lucky charm!”

Down dropped a thing of pocket tissues. Taking a quick scan before having to dodge, she didn’t see what she could possible use her lucky charm on. Usually she would have to combine it with several other items to make something happened. It was just a quirk of her powers that she’d come to accept: everything needed to be overly complicated to make a solution.

“If you really don’t want to save her, why fight us? I can judge from your hearts that you aren’t like everyone else. That you truly mean what you say. Why don’t you give in?”

“Because we can’t let Hawkmoth win. All that is needed for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing. Hawkmoth is taking advantage of you. He takes your pain and twists it to make you do his bidding. He doesn’t truly care.”

Ladybug risked a look at Princess Justice, hoping to get through to her. As her eyes locked onto hers, she realized something. This time her lucky charm was simple. She only had to talk.

“It doesn’t matter. Lila twisted everyone’s emotions to do her bidding. I’m used to it. I can handle Hawkmoth later.”

The butterfly mask appeared on both akumas’ faces, causing Karma Knight to be hit by a blow by Chat. Princess Justice quickly waved the mask away.

“I know that Lila caused you a lot of pain. Trust me, I can relate. And I know how tempting it is to fall into a spiral of your emotions. I do it too. But you can’t give up. There’s always another way. Don’t let Lila win.”

Princess Justice made a noise, causing Karma Knight to look at her before turning his focus onto Ladybug.

“Look out!” Chat screamed, moving to stop him.

Ladybug used her yo-yo and swung up to the second balcony, a good distance away from Princess Justice but still close enough.

“You aren’t alone. You still have people who care, don’t you? You haven’t given up, right?”

Her eyes drifted to him, whoever else was akumatized with her.

“He still believes in you. He still cares. Sometimes… sometimes you need to cut your loses and see who your real friends are.” Slowly she walked forward, towards her other self. “You aren’t alone. And you are so strong for making it this far. You don’t need to keep pretending that you’re okay, that everything is fine. You can be honest.”

Princess Justice looked down, and her fists tightened again. That’s when Ladybug noticed the blood. She stood right in front of her. Cautiously, she reached out for the rose. Princess Justice didn’t even fight it.

“You deserve to be loved. You deserve to have people who stand with you, and not be alone.”

Slowly, her eyes looked up, tears falling. In a few seconds, Princess Justice fell to her knees, sobbing. Ladybug took one last look over at Karma Knight, who had since stopped trying to fight. His eyes stayed trained on his princess. Ladybug took a deep breath, tearing the rose and freeing the butterfly. Once she purified it, she casted her miraculous cure.

The ladybugs swept around the school, freeing Alya and Lila from their chains, changing the stone to brick, and finally freeing the two teens from their akuma forms. Ladybug kept her eyes trained on her other self, even as her earrings beeped.

She was a mess. Her hair was dripping wet, makeup all messed up, and a massive red stain on her dress. Her eyes were widen and looking around, confused by what had happened.

“What… what happened? I-”

“You were akumatized. Don’t worry, Chat and I saved you.”

Ladybug reached out a hand, helping her up. She handed the rose, now back to its light pink form, to the girl.

“Marinette, I can’t believe you got akumatized to try and trick everyone into thinking that I was lying. How could you do that to me?”

All focus turned to Lila, who must have recovered from the akuma. Ladybug felt her own anger rise. But she didn’t get a chance to do anything.

“Marinette wasn’t tricking anyone. The only one lying and trying to trick others is you.”

Right where Karma Knight once stood was Adrien Agreste, his dark blue mask pulled up above his face so you could see his face and- oh he looked mad.

“A-Adrien I don’t know what lies Marinette told you to get akumatized but-”

“Save it. I saw you purposely dump that punch on her when I walked in. And I know about all of your lies. Ladybug had even called you out on lying about her yet somehow people still believe you.”

No one said anything. They could only watch as Adrien Agreste, sunshine child of Paris, went on an angry rant.

“I don’t care if your mom is actually a diplomat. I will do whatever I can to keep you away from Marinette. I won’t let you hurt my friend ever again.”

“A restraining order would be a good start.” Chat piped in, looking at Lila. “After all, I wouldn’t want someone who wished for Marinette to kill herself to be able to get by her ever again.”

The two teens were horrified, being the only ones not to have remembered what Lila confessed to.

“I can’t believe you got the heroes to turn against me too. Marinette how could you? All I wanted to do was be friends. I can’t believe you let your jealous over me modeling with Adrien get in the way of friendship. All because of your crush on him.”

Marinette looked like she wanted to run away. Ladybug reached out and held her hand, ready to help her leave via yo-yo if needed.

Adrien, for his part, turned to look at Marinette. Her eyes were wide with fear, and she clutched the rose again. He muttered something quietly, causing Chat to look at him in shock. Adrien turned his focus back onto the liar.

“Lila, I don’t care what you have to say. I can’t even trust an apology from you since I know it would be fake.” He began to walk up the steps, continuing as he went. “I promise you what I said was true. I will do whatever I have to, even if it means dealing with my father, to protect Marinette from you.” Once he was in front of the liar, he dropped his voice into a whisper. “I will ruin you. So go ahead. Try. After all, the school has cameras everywhere. With enough complaints things will be looked into. I’ll be sure of that.”

He gave a final glare to Lila, who glared back at him. Noticing the stares of the other students, she decided to fake cry and run off. Paying no mind, he walked over to Marinette.

“A-Adrien?”

“I do want to ask about… it, but now’s probably not the right time. Can I take you home? If your parents allow it, maybe we can take a walk in the park. After you clean up?”

Ladybug noticed the students slowly edging forward, clearly full of questions. Both from the two previous akumas and the different heroes. Alya reached for her phone and towards Chat, obviously choosing to focus on the heroes first, but he quickly bolted up to the top of the stairs where they were.

“How about we take you two over? It’d be quicker and…”

They both looked at each other and nodded. Quickly her and Chat picked them up and swung out of there, leaving behind the protests of some of the students. Ladybug aimed for the balcony, dropping and setting Marinette down. Chat and Adrien dropped down a few seconds after.

“Hey, um, I have some questions that if… as long as you’re okay with answering-”

“Lila confessed to all her lies. She did get someone else expelled at her old school in Italy. She’s also spying on you for your father. Besides that and her… um, feelings about… well Chat said it earlier, nothing else she said was something you didn’t know.”

“Oh. Um, well thank you for letting me know.” Adrien did look mad when she mentioned the spying, but pushed it away for now. “But I was going to ask what happened to the other Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

“Oh, well you see…” She glanced over at Chat Noir. Bunnyx told them not to say anything. Before sure could fumble out some excuse, her earrings beeped rapidly.

“Shoot.” She exclaimed, looking around. Forget coming up with an excuse. She needed to leave and recharge. Now.

“Go to another alleyway and recharge.” Chat said, practically pushing her off the balcony. “Meet me back here so we can go.”

Giving one last look back, she shot off to the closet alleyway that would be far enough from the school in case Alya or anyone tried to follow her. She made it just in time, transformation falling as she landed. Tikki was floating, but landed quickly when Marinette held out her hand. She looked exhausted.

“Sorry. I tried holding out your transformation for as long as I could, but-”

It must have been longer than five minutes since she used her lucky charm. Tikki had told her about that. In an emergency, she could forced the transformation for a few minutes longer, but it wasn’t a good idea. Not only would Tikki be more tired, but her powers would be weaker as Ladybug. Besides that, doing it repeatedly could make Marinette feel the side effects instead.

“Thank you Tikki. Here.”

She quickly got out a cookie for her kwami, waiting patiently so she could transform and meet Chat and Bunnyx. Once her kwami was ready, she transformed and swung over.

No one was waiting on the balcony, so she aimed for the alleyway where Chat was.

“They went inside. I explained that we were just one time heroes to help cover for tonight.”

That was a good explanation. Before she could say anything, a portal appeared.

“Good job you two. Come on, let’s get back to your time.”

The two heroes didn’t protest, walking into the burrow with only a quick glance up to where the two teens once stood. Bunnyx guided them across the burrow, finding their time.

“Do me a favor, you two. Don’t mention this fight to others. Even your alternate team members. It would be best to move past it since it won’t affect the rest of Paris.”

Ladybug was already planning on not saying anything. She’s been keeping Chat Blanc a secret from Chat himself for so long. She knew the importance on dealing with the burdens of alternate timelines by herself.

Bunnyx gave one last look at the two before stepping back inside. Once the blue and white light faded, an uncomfortable silence fell onto them. Too much information was discovered tonight. Both of them wanted to say something about it to someone else, but they couldn’t say it to each other. Both had the same thought, of being worried about exposing their secret identities.

“It’s too late to continue patrol.” Ladybug finally said, even though she knew Bunnyx dropped them off at the same time she grabbed them from. “I think we should both head home for the night.”

“I- Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Ladybug nodded, swinging off. She landed on her balcony and took a quick look around, before going inside and detransforming.

Tikki flew out of the earrings, landing on her pillow. She would probably still be tired until tomorrow.

“Here,” Marinette said, reaching into her bag for the last cookie. “I’ll have to grab some more cookies for you.”

“I’ll be okay for tonight, Marinette. Why don’t you get some rest? You fought a tough akuma today.”

Sleep was the last thing on Marinette's mind. Her homework was finished, for once, so she could work on designing or sketching something. But as he eyes turned towards her manikin, she noticed it. The draping of some pink fabric. It wasn’t close to being finished, but once she was done it would look an awful lot like what her alternate self was wearing.

If she hadn’t already started to figure out stitches and form, she might have redesigned it. But there’s not enough time for her to do that. Besides, she had spent too much money on all the fabric for that design. Turning her focus away, she decided that it would just be best to just get ready for bed.

The whole time she tried to push back the thoughts on the akuma she just thought, about who it was and what had happened. Once the lights were off and she was in bed… it became a lot harder to do.

No matter how hard she tried to close her eyes and force herself to sleep, her mind kept going back to her other self. Her as Princess Justice. How calm she had been as an akuma only to turn back into a sad, powerless version of herself. Her ruined dress and tear stained face.

Marinette sat up, looking over to her manikin. Would it even be worth it to make the dress? Even if she knew what Lila was going to do, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be upset. What if she tried to prevent it, only to fail in the end? Then what? No answers were coming to her. The bluenette laid back down and forced her eyes shut, trying and failing to will herself to sleep.

The next couple days, as people continued to talk about the upcoming dance, Marinette kept thinking back to her other self. How was she doing? Hopefully everything turned out fine. Marinette continued making her dress, continued helping the student council and the rest of the class reps with dance preparations, but her mind couldn’t just shake what she saw.

Two weeks before the dance, Adrien had came up to her. He quietly asked her if she could make him a tie and a mask to out with his outfit.

“I’ll pay you,” he promised. “And I can get you all the materials you need.”

She agreed, and five days before the dance was able to drop off his mask and tie in his locker. Sure enough, he did pay her. A lot more than she needed. But when she protested he refused to take it back, even going so far as to gift her fabrics. Left over from his father’s past collection, he said.

She was left the only choice to accept. ‘Besides,’ she thought as she looked over the fabrics, ‘it would give me something to do during the dance.’

She didn’t tell anyone her plans until the day of the dance.

“You’re not going?”

Marinette nodded. Tikki looked sad.

“But you worked so hard on your dress. And you were talking to Alya about asking Adrien to dance.”

“I can’t afford to go. I got akumatized in another time because Lila hurt me at the dance. Besides, even if I know she’s going to do it, why would I bother going? There’s no point in ruining a good dress.”

She would lie to her friends on Monday, or more likely Saturday when she would answer their texts, and say that she got sick after school. If she told them now Alya might try to drag her to the school, thinking she was just letting nerves get to her.

Marinette dropped down in her desk chair, pulling out her sketchbook to work on a new design. Just as Tikki opened her mouth to try and argue, there was a knock on her trap door.

“Marinette, there’s someone here for you.”

A pit formed in her stomach. Surely Alya didn’t decide to pick her up. The last thing they confirmed was that they would meet at the school, since Nino was taking her over. Maybe if she went down and complained about her stomach in front of her parents, they would make sure Alya didn’t drag her out. Once she made it down to the living room, however, she froze.

Adrien was standing there, mask pulled off to the side, a pink rose in his hands.

“Marinette, why aren’t you wearing your dress?” Her father asked, camera already in hand.

“It’s my fault. I came over earlier than I said I would.”

“I…”

“We were going to get some food before the dance. Go ahead and get dress and I’ll tell you where we can go.”

She couldn’t say no. Not when Adrien was looking at her like that. Mechanically, she turned and headed back upstairs. Tikki floated out of her hiding spot, watching as her holder got ready. As Marinette was finishing doing her hair, another knock was heard.

“Yes?”

“Can I come up?”

She jumped.

“Y-Yes.”

Adrien stepped in, giving her a smile and slowly closing her trap door.

“Sorry about lying earlier, but I-” He looked at her, his turn to be frozen. Marinette couldn’t help but blush from his stare. He must have realized what he was doing and shook his head. “Sorry, I- I had other plans for tonight but didn’t want you parents to question it and- okay that sounds worse than I thought it would… um…”

“What are your plans?”

“Would you want to go out? Just the two of us? Not to the dance. Um, if that’s okay with you. I know you might want to but I just-”

“I would love that.”

He seemed surprised, like he expected more of a fight.

“You would?”

“Yes. F-Friends can hang out, right?”

Something flashed across his eyes before he gave her a soft smile.

“Right. As friends.”

He held out the rose to her.

“Here, it goes with your dress.”

She accepted it, realizing that it was the same rose that the other Adrien gave to her other self. Maybe if that Adrien stood up to Lila, this one would too. She didn’t know if this meant anything to him, the rose and the time alone with her, but she wouldn’t allow her feelings to get in the way. Adrien had decided that instead of spending the night with Nino at his first school dance, he would spend it with her. Even if none of this meant anything to him, it felt like everything to her. Not because of her crush on him, but because he was being considerate for her. Maybe things would turn out okay for her after all.

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

"But yeah, there's basically no reason to ever get excited about adaptations anymore. They always vandalize the source material. And usually in the same boring ways too."

I don't fully agree only because JKR is usually involved in these and is protective of her work. Even then, she's not always the best judge of quality. *cought, Fantastic Beasts films, cough*

JKR signed off on black Hermione and black Snape and her excuse for the former, that will probably apply to the latter as well, is that "I never explicitly said she was white, so she could be black" when there are interview questions where she says the cast of the original movies are "exactly how I Imagined them to look", concept art drawn by her of her characters with white skin, and descriptions from the book she wrote describing both characters as having pale skin. She will absolutely throw her own work out to meet progressive standards. Just because she's right about one (1) issue doesn't mean she's not a far leftist in pretty much all other issues, with all that entails.

[arcane-ish]

Arcane: morals, challenges and Vi's role in season 2

This is an offshoot of a discussion with @animexam09 where I went off topic/down my own line of thinking in a way that didn't have that much to do with the original post (I think the questions in that discussion are a lot more about the Watsonian/internal way the characters perceive their situation and I want full on Doylist/meta).

I want to clarify what I mean when I say Arcane is not About morals.

To me it feels like morality is fundamentally not a topic or a theme in Arcane. I often stumble across discussions wherein people are upset about “character X did the right thing, why didn’t she get the cookie?” or “character Y did the wrong thing, why didn’t she get punished?” (often with the implication: that must mean the show thinks that Y did is good and it is promoting bad values)

I often feel like this is the wrong angle to watch the show from. Because imo Arcane is not a morality tale. And I think this mostly comes from the elements of tragedy that it has.

People are good or do good, but bad things happen to them. Because tragedy.

1.) I think structurally Arcane as a show is more interested in a concept of cause and effect. In characters and what happens to them.

This is the whole blueprint of the show. Characters do something and it starts a cascade of effects that are often unintended and vastly disproportionate.

You can still tell a moral story from that. Like “and that dear kids is why you should think about the consequences before you do something” or “now you see that you cannot control the world, but only your reaction, the correct way to deal with it is to accept change and go with the flow”.

But I think the writers weren’t interested in that. IMO it makes more sense to picture the Arcane writers as mad scientists who like pouring different reagents together to see what happens. Or who like to set up marbles to roll down a hill and bump into each other.

There is this interview with Alex Ye where he says that for season 1 they had a blueprint for every arc about how every character should have a want (ie Vander wants to protect Vi, Powder wants to prove herself, Silco wants revenge on Vander) and by the end of the arc they get what they want but in a horrifically “not how I wanted it” way. This logic applies equally to “good” and “bad” characters, violent or innocent ones. Being “good” or “doing the right thing” doesn’t protect you, because the writers think things going wrong is more dramatically interesting. They are interested in setting up characters with interesting parameters (“This is Vi, she is protective”, “this is Caitlyn, she is smart but sheltered”, “this is Silco, he thinks he would do anything to achieve independence”, “this is Powder, she’s smart, but insecure”) and seeing them challenged.

They want to see challenge, they want to see characters bouncing against problems and other characters and they want to see fireworks. (and I think that is intensely fitting if you consider the source material is a video game that specializes in trying to set up interesting duels/small scale fights and interesting mechanics, ie counterplay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRBcjsOt0_g )

(I actually wonder if this might have been what accidentally attracted some more leftist leaning people. That the fact that so blatantly unfair and disproportionate things happen to people maybe makes it feel like it’s a story that emphasizes systems over individual personal choices. And people are shocked that the show neither followed the pattern of “the positive personal choices pay off in the end” nor “we are setting up those systems and rules the world works on to criticize them and smash them” instead of “they just thought these rules and systems were a cool biotope to create crazy experiments in, to facilitate interesting looking explosions”. One of the biggest underlying topics in left versus right discourse is about systems versus individuals. Can you just pull yourself up by your bootstraps, do your choices matter or is the system stacked against you. To portray a system where individual well meaning choices don’t matter because “the system” (the writers) screws them over anyway could ring back to this fundamental conflict)

(In regards to the writers, I think it also helps there to remember that Arcane in a lot of ways is structurally a fanfiction, that those characters existed and had a feel and a look and a vibe before Arcane came about. That could contribute to this feelings of “I pick this pre-existing elements and watch them go”)

2.) The writers still have morals and values

Of course the eternal topic is that even if you didn’t set up to write a morality play, writers still inherently bring in their morals. People’s worldviews still influence what they think make an interesting or logical setup or what they think is a realistic cause and effect.

Like for example if you as a person think that acting aggressive with people with make them most likely hate you or impress them or make them fall in line. Or whether you think “Rich people are smart and resourceful” or “rich people are greedy and mean” or “rich people are dumb and lazy” is a realistic portrayal. Even “life is complex/there’s variety everywhere” or “all people think they are the heroes of their own story” are again people taking some sort of stance on the world.

So the writers values are always going to seep in and affect which “laws of the universe” they choose (even though they probably think they are just picking generally recognized, universal laws of reality or of fiction writing).

3.) The characters themselves still have morals

Various characters in the setting still have morals. But I think the writers are more interested in things like showing different moral systems and letting them clash and challenging them in different ways. By setting up characters with different character traits and feeling out with how they handle the challenge to their world views and morals.

And again, these writers are more interested in how characters deal with their own failures. That’s why almost all characters who have a moral system (and are important enough to have screen time) stumble and have to recover from their stumble.

For what it’s worth, when somebody like schnee seeks a consistent theme across all stories, I don’t think they are necessarily obsessed with a “X did the right thing, so X gets the cookie” point of view. Themes an be both intentional (like Arcane’s obsession with parallels) and unintentional (because the interests and values of the writers can bleed into the text by accident). Just because I think “these writers care about challenge and explosions” is the better consistent theme of their writing doesn’t mean you can’t gleam other themes. Or that themes can’t be derived from that (ie if you are fundamentally believe that characters being challenged is interesting then characters who handle change and challenge might be advantaged over characters who struggle with their values being tested or fall apart when that happesn).

I think the writing cares more about these moments of challenge. Silco didn’t really “win”, but he seemed like he died happy because he had reached a moment of personal realization. Ekko mostly stayed true to himself and can gleam satisfaction from that, because he seems like the kind of character who would gleam satisfaction from that. Caitlyn stumbled in her morals, but withdrew and overall seems to handle her own faltering with comparable stoicism (again comparable). Viktor mostly fucked up his big plans to improve the world, but didn’t handle it well at all, but was to some extent salvaged by the person who cares about him. IMO Arcane is more satisfying if you can get into the moments where the characters get personal satisfaction with something that fits their personality, even if it’s temporary or internal.

Challenge, Explosions and what that means for Vi

IMO finishing the series meant that they had to marry their “set up characters and watch them get challenged” with a traditional ending of some sort.

Season 2’s structure was already faltering imo because I think the writers wanted to get in a lot of challenges and moments for their faves because they knew it wouldn’t keep going. And at the same time, in act 3 they were trying to bring the big explosions. Jayce having to fight his best friend Viktor to them is a challenge and and explosion. Caitlyn and Vi finally sleeping together is an explosion. Rigid, violent Noxus fighting chaotic Zaun is an interesting explosion. Caitlyn and Mel facing down Ambessa is an explosion both physical and emotional.

Various people have pointed out that if one of Arcane’s themes is change and Vi doesn’t like or do well with change, that makes her the natural enemy of the story and might put her in a losing position.

I also wonder if on some level the writers already felt “done” with Vi. That they had already challenged her in all the ways they were interested in.

The season 1 finale was the emotional and philosophical confrontation of Vi and Jinx. Followed by the physical confrontation in Act 1 of season 2. Vi is then challenged once more to trust Jinx and lower her weapons in front of Warwick. I think for many people it feels like things fizzle out for her after that.

Which doesn’t mean that Vi isn’t still challenged (trusting Caitlyn/handing herself over to Ambessa is another challenge). And the writers might think of her sleeping with Caitlyn as the final “challenge”.

I do think that there weren’t a ton of ways for the writers to top the emotional and physical confrontations she already had with Jinx. And I don’t doubt that every Vi fan will at this moment cry out that they could think of 20 more scenarios of how Vi could have been challenged (and thusly maintained her position as the lead chararacter). And I agree.

Top of my head, there’s obviously the emotional challenges. Ie, going back to her prison time, her parents, being morally challenged by Ekko.

If they wanted a more physical challenge, it’s hard, arguably impossible to beat Jinx versus Vi. The only candidates of even coming close would have been a more visceral, physical confrontation with Caitlyn or Warwick. And we get small versions of that, but I think most people would agree that those don’t go all out. They don’t have the emotional weight they could have had and they don’t feel like they go all out like Jayce versus Viktor in 2x08 or Caitlyn versus Ambessa in 2x09.

IMO that was probably intentional. They could have gone there, but they didn’t want to, because they didn’t want these relationships to go that way or didn’t want to handle the fallout/the recovery.

Overall season 2 to me leaves me with a feeling like maybe they thought they had done the challenges for Vi they were interested in and wanted to “fan out” in the sense that other characters gets the biggest or most interesting challenges and that left Vi feeling a bit lost in the shuffle. (and I think there’s a good chance that in their head the Vi and Caitlyn sex scene felt like the final challenge/the final explosion, so to them there’s one for her in each act)

[4dbarbie-archive]

Welcome!

Just another student of 4dbarbie ♡ My main is @4dkellysworld where I share my own thoughts & notes of my journey

Ada if you ever see this, we miss you dearly!!

4dbarbie archive: All of her posts that have links will have fixed links in my reply posts 😊

4dbarbie's original masterlist (scroll through the tag)

4dbarbie's Google Drive

Original posts

Short notes

Answered asks (anon thanks)

Book excerpts (from Lester Levenson, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Neville Goddard, Erin Werley)

Quotes

Reblogged posts

Recommendations (see her Google Drive for reading material!)

Resources | Talk to AI 4dbarbie | Talk to 4dbarbie GPT

LOA posts (these were most likely deleted by 4dbarbie so I don't recommend using them as a basis for your study, I'm just keeping them up for reference)

Experience sharing (all progress is celebrated, all experience sharing is welcome for what they can teach!)

See @ndjournal for more, all further journals of this in practice will be reblogged there. That blog is also taking journal submissions of non-dualism in practice so if you have something you want to share about your understanding or applied experience, feel free to do so there! But if you have questions on concepts or anything that requires a response, please send those to ND blogs that are open for asks.

My notebook

4dbarbie remix: You're dreaming from memory

4dbarbie remix: How to realise Self

4dbarbie remix: How to let go of Vanessa

4dbarbie remix: Give up and Be Free

4dbarbie interview: All about Desires

4dbarbie highlights

My notes to anons

Post replies

Updates

Memes (hehe)

What is a 4dbarbie remix post? I compiled information from various 4dbarbie's posts and answered asks, organised and pieced them together in a way that makes sense for me to help me learn and understand her teachings better and also how to apply the knowledge practically.

[prettyoddfever]

Local God doesn't fit Ryan Ross

I'm still getting a couple questions about this, so let's go through each line in the beginning of the song...

In 1998, you bought a B.C. Rich: Here's how Ryan described his actual first guitar that his dad bought as a present around 1999 (the year was generally ballparked in interviews): "I kept begging my dad for a guitar. I picked out an off-brand, a Harmony, I think, out of the Sears Christmas catalog. It came with a battery-powered amp. It was $100 for everything." That is such a far cry from a B.C. Rich.

You were a master shredder from the jump: Just no. Ryan told Ultimate Guitar that "In the beginning, probably about the first year, I just tried to do it on my own. It was really, really frustrating. So I took lessons for a little while." And the songs he was trying to play in the early years were easy. Spencer told Drum Magazine in 2007 that “blink-182 was a great band for Ryan to play to because the guitar parts were all three-chord songs. But Travis Barker’s drum parts were so far musically beyond that – it was just frustrating.”

Blew them all away with the Ritalin kids while I was shedding through my sophomore slump: None of this applies. Ryan & Spencer were basically just messing around in a garage for years. Here's Spencer reminiscing: “I set up my drum kit in my parent’s garage. Ryan would then come over and he’d bring his first little 25 watt amp with him and we’d go from there. We’d cover songs, try and write our own; it was great fun. A couple neighbors came over and complained about the noise... As long as we didn’t play too late, most people were really cool about it." Spencer talked about how they came up with original material that was "20 or 25 songs that were just horrific sounding, just horrible.” Ryan said that “they were some pretty terrible songs!" In late 2003 their band was trying to get into a small local battle of the bands, but meanwhile some of their peers like Kyle Lobeck were in solid bands that were playing actual shows (ex: Brown Eyed Deception). The Summer League wasn't in that scene.

You had so many chances to become a star, But you never really cared about that: Yeah he didn't seek fame itself, but he absolutely cared about the big chances that were presented to P!ATD because being bigger & more famous would allow the band to do what they wanted. So this one is iffy idk.

And all of this is just taking Local God at surface value without looking at the context of where it falls in the album. Viva Las Vengeance was brilliantly done in my opinion. The songs are deliberately arranged to tell a story, and Maggie symbolizes so much. It doesn't make sense to me for Local God to be about Ryan. I mentioned more in this post about how song lyrics are up for interpretation, though, so that's just my opinion.

[dancingontheblades]

When did Viktor choreograph Stammi Vicino and did he commission the music?

When it comes to Viktor’s last free programme, there are two questions that fans have been discussing since the beginning of time—err since Yuri!!! On Ice first aired: 1) the question of whether Viktor did commission the music, and 2) whether he created the programme because of his encounter with Yuuri at the Grand Prix Final of Sochi. In this post, I will examine the source material regarding these two questions and discuss possible answers in the context of storytelling and figure skating as well as their likelihoods.

1. Did Viktor commission the music for Stammi Vicino?

According to Mitsurou Kubo, the aria is a piece of music that exists in the world of YOI. It was written specifically for the anime and did not exist before like Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Lilac Fairy (Young Viktor’s SP) or Mozart’s Kleine Nachtmusik (Fujiwara Hikaru’s FS, ep. 5). However, it’s unclear whether the aria exists because Viktor wanted a special piece of music to surprise the audience it or whether it exists on his own. All we know is that Sayo Yamamoto instructed the composer of YOI, Matsushiba Taku, to compose the song in the style of an Italian opera from the 19th century, using some prepared plot for the piece—the story that is told through the lyrics. Unlike Shall We Skate, Destiny of Nights, or The Inferno, which are from movie soundtracks that indeed exist in YOI, Stammi Vicino has never explicitly been labelled as a song from an opera—neither in the anime nor in any interview.

Or in other words: The information the creators provided can be interpreted either way.

However, we have this shot of Viktor skating Stammi Vicino overlayed with Yuuri’s inner monologue:

That suggests as if Stammi Vicino is one of the pieces Viktor commissioned, doesn’t it?

Of course, it’s possible that the YOI creators used this shot because they lacked the time to animate Viktor skating to an entirely different routine. However, that would be misleading and confusing and would be discouraged from a storytelling viewpoint. Given that the creators had to condense to plot of YOI to ~50% of its initial size to fit it into 12 episodes, they had to be smart about it. Every scene and every image needed to be filled with meaning in order to convey as much of the story within the given constraints as possible, leaving no room for accidental misdirection. If conveying that Viktor had music written for his own programmes was their intention but Stammi Vicino was not one of those songs, a smart solution would have been a series of pictures showing Viktor in different costumes. To save time, they could have recycled the posters in Yuuri’s room for that purpose. The fact that they didn’t do that, suggests that Viktor had the music for Stammi Vicino written.

Combining Yuuri’s inner monologue of Viktor commissioning music for his programmes with footage of Viktor skating to such a programme is clever storytelling because it transports additional meaning through images, which is how visual media work. Being Viktor’s fan, Yuuri knows which songs Viktor commissioned because skaters love to talk about these things in interviews.

The abovementioned scene makes it seem as if Viktor has been commissioning music for his programmes for several seasons at least. While this doesn’t rule out the possibility that he occasionally picked an already existing song for whichever reason, Stammi Vicino applies to Viktor’s situation so neatly that the lyrics must have been tailored to him. The commentator’s words during Viktor’s performance furthermore suggest that this programme shows a new and personal side of him. An while this could work for a song that already exists, it is unlikely that such a song matches the vision of a perfectionist sufficiently. A genius like Viktor would rather think “Okay, that’s nice. But this verse and that verse don’t align with my idea at all. Nah, I’ll call my composer and ask them to write a song for me.”

Stammi Vicino holds unambiguous references to Plato’s Symposium, which the YOI creators have talked about repeatedly. And while this is neither an argument for or against the song already existing long before Viktor even thought about a new free programme, it seems too coincidental for a plausible narration.

Having an aria composed to surprise an audience that is becoming harder and harder to surprise sounds a lot like Viktor Nikiforov, right?

That Viktor commissioned the music for Stammi Vicino is more likely storytelling-wise and aligns better with his characterisation, than Viktor using an already existing song for such an intimate programme.

2. When did Viktor choreograph Stammi Vicino?

Viktor’s first appearance in his Stammi Vicino costume is during the medal ceremony of the Sochi GPF. As the avid figure skating fan that I am, I could let the line of argument end here. But since many fans of Yuri!!! On Ice aren’t familiar with the sport, I’m going to break down why it’s unlikely that Viktor wore the same costume for two difference performances.

Let’s assume for one moment that he indeed wore the purple costume with the golden tassels for two different performances.

While there is no rule against that, it rarely ever happens. Some skaters reuse one of their costumes from competition for a gala programme, but that a skater uses the same costume for another short or free programme is unusual. And there are some very good reasons why that is so.

Music, composition, choreography, and costume build the concept of a figure skating programme. The more perfectionist a skater is (and many of the top skaters are hardcore perfectionists), the more specific you can bet they are about the concept. Having full authority over his programmes, Viktor can be as particular about his programmes as he likes and have costumes tailored that match his vision 100%. And while costumes like Viktor’s are expensive, some figure skaters even get a new costume mid-season if it matches the concept of their programme better.

Figure skating is an expensive sport, but of all the skaters in YOI, Viktor has to worry about money the least. Not only does his clothing suggest that he’s loaded—skaters at his level often get money from doing ads or having sponsors—figure skating is state-funded in Russia, meaning that his skating federation pays for all his expenses.

But wait, what about Viktor changing his free programme to Stammi Vicino right after the Sochi GPF?

Asking that question would lead right to another question: Why would Viktor wear the same costume at the Sochi medal ceremony as he wears three months later at Worlds when the YOI creators gave Chris and JJ costumes that look different from those we seen them wear later for a shot that only lasts a few seconds?

Could it be that Viktor kept the free skating costume because he met Yuuri in Sochi?

To answer that question, we need to take a look at the parameters of the encounter that made Viktor fall for Yuuri head over heels: Being the closing event of a figure skating competition, the banquet happens on the last day when all programmes are skates, all medals have been awarded, and the gala is done. Yuuri and Viktor met there, wearing suits, not the costumes in which they competed. So if Stammi Vicino existed because of Yuuri, wearing a suit would make more sense to narrate the encounter. Unless Viktor wanted to be super abstract about it.

Some skaters change their programme mid-season because their current programme doesn’t work for some reason. Some switch back to an old programme, while others create an entirely new programme. If Viktor had indeed created Stammi Vicino because of his encounter with Yuuri, he would have needed to postpone his work on the routine until late December because his schedule leaves him one week after the GPF to prepare for Russian Nationals—just enough time to pitch the idea to his composer.

A top skater like Viktor could absolutely pull off practising a new free programme in the month between Russian Nationals and Europeans and winning with it. There are a couple of skaters who are reckless enough to do that like Stéphane Lambiel who switched his free programme right before Worlds 2005 and won. Surprising the audience with a new programme mid-season would sound like something Viktor would do—with a new costume.

However, Yuuri started practising Stammi Vicino when his disastrous skate at Nationals ended his season and not one month later (Japanese Nationals and Russian Nationals take place at the same time). And while this isn’t a completely unlikely scenario if one doesn’t take his words of starting right after Nationals literally, it still contradicts the plot and would leave Yuuri less time to produce a perfect copy while studying for his graduation.

To sum this up…

Whereas fan theories deserve to be awarded for their creativity, the likeliest explanation is always the one that aligns best with the facts. There is no valid reason for a figure skater to change their free programme mid-season and keep the costume, even more so if that skater is a notorious perfectionist like Viktor Nikiforov who loves to surprise the audience. The fact that Viktor wore the purple costume in Sochi already can be taken as proof that Stammi Vicino has been his programme all season long. If Viktor changed his programme because of Yuuri, it would have needed to be addressed within the story in some way, even as subtle as giving him a different costume.

There’s an inherent beauty in Viktor having created Stammi Vicino before he met Yuuri because it gives him an agenda beyond his love interest. Well-crafted characters exist outside of their interactions and relationships with the rest of the cast. Viktor had a life, albeit a lonely one, before Yuuri and his (secret) longing for love was an inherent part of it. Especially in a show that is limited to 12 episodes and in which every image is filled with meaning, every little detail needs to be fitted into the narration just perfectly for solid storytelling.

If you enjoyed this analysis, please consider checking out my works on AO3 (link in bio)!

[missedmilemarkers]

Hi, again! MissedMileMarkers! Been a while since I've been on Tumblr again and I must say, I truly missed seeing your work after a long while of studying for my finals and preparation for Christmas. I hope you're having a great holiday this year too, as I would love to see what adventures you'd be going on. What movies do you enjoy? And what's your absolute favorite movie, if you ever have one? If not movies, then books perhaps?

Anyway, I never really dabbled in photography because I think I'm not really cut out for it because of my lack of knowledge on the subject, although it doesn't hurt to try! Here are some photos I took, from my hometown. (P.S, I'm not anywhere in the US, just needed to point that out hehe)

Hey eyeofcathulu,

Its been a while since I have seen you in my feed. There are a few Tumblr's that stick out to me due to name, content etc. Your name is one of my favorites and always stands out. So lets get started on your questions shall we? I truly missed seeing your work after a long while of studying for my finals and preparation for Christmas

I really hope that you do well on your finals. Finals can be a very stressful time. Stay motivated, focused and calm, With all of that you will the day. Even if you cant do any of those things preparation will also win the day. Best of luck!

I hope you're having a great holiday this year too,

So far the holiday season has been good. Thank you so very much for the well wishes.

I would love to see what adventures you'd be going on.

The most notable adventure was the snow back in November. We got a fair amount. They were calling for much more over the days after but the storm never materialized into anything of not. I have also started working a walking video project. The start of that project has been very tough. But like any good journey it wont be easy and I know it.

What movies do you enjoy? And what's your absolute favorite movie, if you ever have one? If not movies, then books perhaps?

There are a few things here to unpack so let get to it. So for the types of movies that I absolutely enjoy. Are movies with a psychological twist. Movies like "Secret Window", "Memento" (not sure if that is the right spelling). My absolute favorite movie is "4 rooms" I like how each room is directed by a different director. The final room is my favorite. When it comes to literature the last non technical book that I read was "The stainless Steel Rat". I re-read it about 6 months ago. I sadly do not read non technical material as much as I used to.

Anyway, I never really dabbled in photography because I think I'm not really cut out for it because of my lack of knowledge on the subject, although it doesn't hurt to try! Here are some photos I took, from my hometown.

More about me specific to tech. I bring this up because it goes into one of your other questions that was just outlined.

So the reason I spend most of my time reading technical material is because I come from Tech. I am a devops / infrastructure / security engineer by trade. I also develop in a few different languages.

How I got into photography in a more professional sense is I got fired from my job. I have never even been written up before in my life let alone fired. I released a new product for a company ontime and under budget. 2 days after the successful release they fired me with 0 warning or chance to improve. They just used me for a specific purpose and then paid it forward by terminating me. I know this is truth but this event still hurts me to this day. I also might add their severance was garbage. That happened earlier this year and I have been doing this ever since. I have applied to over 10,000 jobs (that is no exaggeration) and have been on around 20 interviews. I have received 0 job offers. That part of this journey has been really hard.

Still to this day as strange as this is going to sound. "I do not view myself as a photographer". What I mean by this is probably not what one would think. I am a provider of emotion. Pictures invoke an emotion that I can never understand onto the people that see them. I can think the invoked emotion will be X however it will be Y for the person, and even if I can understand emotion Y from my perspective I can never understand EXACTLY how the person actually experiences that.

Tech v.s. Photography. In my tech career I change peoples lives. It was due to my hard work, dedication and precision that won the war. Literally thousands of people depended on only me doing my job. If I took one misstep then everyone, all their loved ones, families etc would all have been without financial security. I love working in tech. I get the same type of satisfaction as I do with tech that I do with photography but in much different ways.

"I never really dabbled in photography because I think I'm not really cut out for it because of my lack of knowledge on the subject,"

Statements like this should always be treated as an indicator to follow a potential passion.

More about my view(s)

The world is a very amazing place. The world is also very cruel that is not fair. I personally feel that no one should contribute to the evil that lurks in the shadows. All I am trying to do is bring true genuine emotion to people for whatever purpose serves them.

So you saying that you are getting through finals. Again I wish you nothing but luck. When you get to the point in your life when you enter the world please do it with nothing more then joy and happiness in your heart.

Back to the photography specific to you. I highly encourage you to do it. Just because someone does not have "training or education" sometimes all you need is passion.

A big part of life is figuring out what you don't want to do.

I highly encourage you to follow any creative path you choose. There is no time like the present to do what you might love and what other people night love.

P.S.

I really liked the pictures. You captured your home in an amazing way. I really like how you captured the sun in a very unique way.

Thank you for sharing these with the world!

~ MissedMileMarkers

[viewofagarden]

[Paraview AU] PVS-07 (Qwerty)

Full Name: Qwerty Operating System ID #: PVS-07 Gender: Fem-Nonbinary (She/Her and They/Them) Relatives: PVS-05 (Elder Sister Figure) Classification: Simulacrum Species: Sentient Computer Program Assigned Researcher: Quincy Packard Preferred Food: None (Does not eat)

Discovery

PVS-07 was discovered in the library of a high school in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after a group of students, who shall remain anonymous, encountered the entity. One afternoon in the library, the group of students attempted to download adult material onto the device. This had set off the entity, who suddenly appeared on the screen and responded with “Don't you have BETTER things to do?!” This frightened the teens, as this proved that she was, in fact, sentient. The incident was reported to library staff by the teens, who in turn, reported it to the Paraview Foundation. 

The computer PVS-07 resides in was relocated to the facility. Upon questioning by investigators, the library staff noted that her computer was the only one capable of downloading those kinds of images while connected to the school's system, and that the downloading of explicit material was not an isolated incident. 

At the end of her Icebreaker Interview, the subject requested that any and all explicit material was to be deleted off her system. This request was granted, with fervor. Dr. Packard was brought in to get rid of the images, and has now been assigned as PVS-07’s researcher henceforth.

"So. Much. PORN...! How horny WERE those students?!” - Dr. Packard

Noted Behavior and Abilities

- PVS-07’s physical hardware consists of an electric blue CRT computer monitor and its accompanying console. These are to be plugged in at all times with the exception of cases where she needs to be relocated to another area of the facility. PVS-07 is normally located in the Rec Room of the facility, but shall be brought in to Dr. Packard’s office for testing purposes.

- PVS-07, as noted in her discovery section, has a strong disdain and aversion to explicit material that’s downloaded or browsed on her system. The normally jovial and polite subject becomes noticeably frustrated upon this activity. She has also expressed annoyance toward a song about the subject from the musical Avenue Q. As such, SafeSearch and filters have been implemented. Staff or subjects that are caught doing these kinds of activities with the subject are to be properly reprimanded.

- The subject behaves similar to that of a virtual assistant, being able to interact with and manipulate the programs on the computer such as the email, calendar, to-do lists, documents, etc. 

- The subject has been shown to use emoticons displayed on her screen, and the screen of her computer, to express her emotions. 

- The subject has also been able to view and with games, music, literature, and other things downloaded onto the computer. PVS-07 has also been noted to frequently request things to be downloaded for her, likely for entertainment purposes. Dr. Packard has been seen bringing in new games from their home to download onto the subject’s system. 

- Dr. Packard has been instructed that the games and media on her system shall only be those considered “family friendly”, and to leave the more “mature” games at home. This restriction was implemented after Dr. Packard brought in their copy of Duke Nukem 3D, which, upon PVS-07 seeing the objectionable and risque content present within the game, was very displeased. This restriction shall also apply to the rest of Staff and subjects. 

- Subjects such as PVS-13 (“August”), PVS-29 (“Finn”), PVS-46 (“Zester”), are to be at least 6 feet away from PVS-07’s computer. Due to risk of short-circuiting, causing seizure-like symptoms in the subject. 

- PVS-07 has developed a close relationship with PVS-05 (“Vee”), despite not being biological related, they have come to see each other as siblings. PVS-07 especially considers PVS-05 a “kindred spirit”. 

-In the case of a blackout or emergency shutdown, the flash drive in the console shall be removed and transferred over to a laptop. The flash drive was implemented to preserve the subject’s existence in case of these events. 

-After an incident where PVS-07 became infected with a computer virus, anti-virus software has since been implemented into her system. Staff and Subjects were also given a lecture in the auditorium to teach/remind them of computer safety in order to prevent future incidents both to the subject’s computer and the rest of the computers in the facility.

[conundrumoftime]

Rhûnic

Leith McPherson, who's the dialect coach for Rings of Power, talked in an interview a while ago about Rhûnic language the show uses:

For Leith, the challenge was a welcome one. “This season, we journey to the land of Rhûn,” she says. Rhûn is largely a mystery in Tolkien’s published works, a vast expanse of Middle-earth left intentionally vague by the author. But for the series, Tolkien scholars working with the show have unearthed some of Tolkien’s unpublished notes and used them to build out the beginnings of a language for Rhûn. “Never heard before, never worked with before,” Leith says, her voice practically glowing with enthusiasm. “That was just a gift this season.”

Bear McCreary has since talked about it on his blog, and included the 'Rhûnic' lyrics he used and their English translation:

Rhûnic: Fú nimžil, nimžil-feg, aibesjar balan taugun. Dunšig Lún, ligrám lihiš bódi aišäd bil. Dyúl hez ní, feč Šigór. þabul nädo naþa-feg je. dyúl gileg anže þurfeg jai. Dyúl hez ní, feč Šigór. gorul arkädfeg go, þur če žilid-feg bil. I Raib-aišäd. English: Under moonlight, moonlight thine, Our sister carried far. Dark Magic, White wings beat in sacred shrine. Command her, thou Istar. Grant flesh to thy servant. Bring her forth with your might. Command her, thou Istar. Rise from thy throne, In thy power and splendor. The border shrine.

And in this article on Fellowship of Fans this month, someone's speculated that the language in question is 'Magol', a language Tolkien played around with in the 1930s:

I am not a specialist in Hungarian, nor indeed in any Uralic language. Nevertheless, after comparing the phonology of Hungarian with the phonology of Rhûnic (as used in The Rings of Power), I am virtually certain that Rhûnic may be identified as an extension of Mágol, Tolkien’s Hungarian-based language. However, I suspected this to be so even before I heard a word of Rhûnic, so it may be a case of confirmation bias. If not directly based on Mágol, Rhûnic may instead be an extrapolated mother, aunt, sister, or daughter language, created by applying regular sound changes. Of course, given that the material on Mágol is as yet unpublished, it is difficult to say how much of Rhûnic derives from Tolkien’s work, and how much had to be invented by linguists working for the show.

Tolkien's notes on Mágol remain unpublished, but Tolkien linguist Patrick Wynne has seen them and has previously talked about it a little:

"Tolkien's Hungarian-style language is actually called _Mágol_. In the earlier of the two texts on this language it is called _Mágo_ and more closely resembles Adunaic than Hungarian; this same text also says that 'Old Mágo' was the language of the children of Húrin. "In the later text, the language is called _Mágol_ and seems clearly modeled after Hungarian in phonology and grammatical structure, while retaining a strong Elvish influence as well -- it reminds me of something that might have been spoken by a lost tribe of Avari who had taken up residence outside Budapest for a few millennia.

A lost tribe of elves living in the east you say? Curious. Curious...

(I didn't even intend this to be yet another post about TROP Celeborn being part of the Rhûn storyline! I swear I started writing it before seeing that Patrick Wynne post!)

(also it is so very Rings of Power to do something very cool with depth and care about one of Tolkien's languages as a throwaway part of worldbuilding and then not mention it at all in favour of concentrating the publicity info on monster special effects or yet more detail about how they filmed the Big Epic Battle, despite the Big Epic Battle stuff being so much less interesting than this.)